Pen Chance, Actor, Musician, Educator

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there was more than one lobster present at the birth of baby Jesus.

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Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in. I certainly do appreciate that. This is our final episode of season three. I'm gonna take a little sabbatical, seeing as we're in the new year, and then be back hopefully in the middle of February for season four of Chewing the Fat. And I had the opportunity to get somebody in the studio, which I always love. It's a young man that I've known for, gosh, probably half of his life.

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Please welcome Pen Chance. Robb, what's up man? Yeah, I mean, I'm so glad that this actually worked out. It's a bit of a drive for you to come here on like a normal like, you know, weekday or something like that, seeing as you're up in New York. Yeah, something about 12, 13 hours, something like that. Not stopping, not a big deal. I mean, I'm sure it's worth it and all. Oh, for sure. But you were home visiting family over the holidays and I appreciate you being here, man. Taking an hour out to...

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Come talk to me, man. I'm glad to be here. It's an honor, dude. This show is my, it's my commuting soundtrack usually. So it's an honor to be asked to be on and be a part of it, dude. Oh, I appreciate that, man. I mean, well, so will you listen to your own episode? Or you? To be determined. I don't, I don't let the sound of my own voice, but I, we'll see. That's okay. And that's odd that you don't like the sound of your own voice, because some of the reasons that we.

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got connected was through theater and being on stage and singing and, you know, all of that type of stuff. So that is a little, I mean, I've been in radio television for almost 30 years or so. So I'm kind of used to my voice and I like the sound of my voice. I've got to that point, but not in a weird narcissistic way. It's not like I read affirmations to myself or something.

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your own voice, it was always just the hardest part of the gig is if you're in order to be better, you have to look at what you've done. You have to, a lot of self tapes, a lot of recording, a lot of videos. And it's just kind of always been that way for me, even when I started doing theater and my mom would always record the show, either a dress rehearsal or something. And I would, we would watch it to see like what I did.

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just see like what happened and I would hear myself, my voice. I'm like, Oh, I didn't, I didn't know why it sounded like that. But it's just kind of like a part of the job. Yeah. It's got to sound like, you know, football players watching the game or whatever. I mean, if you want to, if you want to get better, you got to see where you are so that you can keep moving. Exactly. That's, that's really cool. So Pen, you are from the Augusta area. I mean, I know I mentioned you're in New York now, but you're from Augusta. Born and raised in Augusta. I lived

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all my childhood years in Waynesboro, but my family's from the area and my family's all still here. I live in New York now, but I've kind of lived all over for the past 10, 15 years or so. I left Augusta to go to college just north of Charlotte. And after college, I've lived in.

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Charleston, I've lived in New York, I've lived on a tour bus, I've lived in hotels, just kind of all over, but now I'm in New York and it's pretty cool. Yeah, no, that's great. And I commend you for following your dream. Like I said, I've known you from the theater community and you're an excellent actor and excellent singer and the fact that you're like, yeah, this is my passion, I wanna follow that passion is so inspiring to even.

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someone as old as I am, I mean, to like, hey, I'm going to make it happen. And I mean, you definitely have the chops to do that. Was music always a part of your childhood here in your family, singing and performing? Yes and no. No one in my family was really a like entertainment or a music professional. But like going to church on a Sunday, like learning what

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Harmony is when singing hymns and whatnot was always very cool. I loved whenever a band would come through the church and I would like go see like I loved the bass guitar So I wanted to learn how to do like all of the worship band instruments And Avenue through that was theater and the theater taught me like how to sing it taught me and ultimately led to like music theory and learning how to play like instruments here and there and just

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being an overall performer. My sister and I always joke and say that our first voice lesson was, oh, what's the record called? Backstreet Boys self-titled album. We would listen to that all the time, driving back and forth between Augusta and Waynesboro, it's probably about 30 minutes now, but back then it was maybe like 45 to an hour. And we would get a few records in and we would sing along to every song and every part, whether it was harmony or melody. So we learned all about it there. So...

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developed a ear for music and a love and appreciation for music, all kinds of music, whether it's jazz or pop or rock, show tunes. Yeah, just loved it all. Yeah. And I know that you were also, I guess, I didn't know that you played the other instruments, but I've definitely seen you play drums. That's probably the most

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marketable. If I were to pick up an instrument right now and say and like kind of convince someone that I can play something it'd be drums. Yeah, I can I can sort of play guitar sort of play piano. I can I can pluck out my my singing part on the piano like enough to make it as a as an actor on the piano. But I have a pretty steady musician gig right now up north of up in Connecticut on the weekends. And that's only singing and drums. But

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That's what I have most fun. Drums made me money in college, so I'm sticking with it and it's a lot of fun. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, I always tell folks, it's like I play at probably about like seven or eight instruments, but the only instrument I could say I'm proficient in would be, and proficient is way too strong a term for it, would be like singing. It's like the vocal instrument would be the one. It is an instrument though, it counts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause you have vocal chords, your chords, see?

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That's my power cord. That's it. So when you so you kind of had this pin shong pin shong for for music and you said you went to school for for music as well or did you decide to go a different route and just kind of keep that on the side? I went to school for it was for theater. But the reason I went to the school I went to was because they had a theater.

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business degree. And when I got there is when I realized it was basically a basic theater degree and a basic business degree kind of glued together as if by a kindergartener. So it was kind of messy at times. And I threw a music minor in there as well. I had every advisor telling me like, you're not going to graduate in four years. That's just too big of a workload. But I somehow did it. So I, my goal was to leave.

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college, being able to be marketable in three different fields, theater, music, and business. Really, I guess the overall goal would be to go into more of an entertainment business avenue someday. But I decided after college to kind of just see how far the performing life could take me. So I learned a lot and I applied it as best I could after after school.

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Back before we go, go past college there. Do you remember what your first role was on stage? Yes. What I count as my first one would be in Gypsy with the Augusta players directed by Richard Justice. I didn't really have a name. I was just a newsboy, but I always say I played a young Yonkers because I was the younger version of Eddie Renu. And he played the older, that's the farm boy, he played Yonkers.

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Um, so I count that that's where I met a lot of, a lot of the guest and players folks that I still cherish to this day. Um, um, some may say my first role was the lamb of the nativity scene in elementary school down in Wadesboro, but, uh, no, I didn't, not a whole lot of rehearsal for that one. The lamb. Did you, uh, did you see the, have you seen the, uh, video that or Tik TOK or whatever that came out this past holiday season of the kid?

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in the UK that was so excited for the role that he got. I don't know, I'll have to share with you. It's like, he's like, mom, you never guess what role I got, classic role. And she's like, oh, Joseph. And he's like, no, better. One of the wise men, no. And she's like, I don't know, just tell me what it is. He's like, door holder number three. I think I have said that actually. That always reminded me of,

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one of my favorite Christmas movies, Love Actually. At the very beginning where Emma Thompson's daughter is like, I'm playing lobster number two or whatever. And Emma Thompson's like, there was more than one lobster present at the birth of baby Jesus. Right, right, right. Oh yeah. It's so much fun though. But the thing is, is that's seared into his memory. I get to wear brown, you know what I mean? That that's his first big role, classic role in the Christmas play. Core memory. Yeah.

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Yeah, you know, and that could be something that unlocks him continuing to do theater and continue to be involved in that. I always say that, you know, I floated around. When you when you work in the entertainment industry and working in radio, you know, you meet people and you do these things. But when you can do something for yourself that you did, you're physically involved in and doing it, it was it was really where I found like family, you know.

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And it's different, well, it's not totally different when you're working professional and when you're working a tour or something like that, but doing community theater and being able to do these things with people you may see at your grocery store or at the bank or buying a phone or something. It's like, that is so different and so life-changing when you're able to connect with that type of stuff. And like you say, those are family members. Those are pieces of me that...

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you know, that I still stay in touch with. Yeah, I always say the most important word in describing community theater is community. Yeah. Like, cause you have a family there and you all want to be there. I will say it can be a little bit different if you're doing it professionally, especially if you've been doing it too long maybe, and like, you have to like take a step back and find, you find your why, find why you're still doing it. But finding those people that make it, make you want to go to rehearsal every day, make you want to...

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have dinner a little bit later in the evening, just so you can be at rehearsal like that. That makes it all worth it, for sure. So what route did you take? You've got your three cards in front of you, your three card Monte. Which shell did you pick to go into right after college? My first gig was theater, was performing. And it was a great contract. It was, you're gonna perform in all these big musicals and plays on a historic stage.

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And it was a resident acting job. So it was pretty, I was pretty lucky in that I didn't have to finish one show and then immediately find something else. Like I knew I had my next, at least six or seven shows lined up. Oh wow. The funny thing about that contract though, was it, when you're auditioning for it, when you're trying to get the job, they bill it as this big performance job. Then in the fine print, it's a...

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you will have to teach some theater classes on the side. My experience was that was a bigger part of the job, was the teaching, mainly for me because I had never done that before. And I was always pretty vocal about teaching terrifies me. Like even I was air quotes, dance captain for a show here one time. And it was a horrific experience on my part, just because I, it just, the idea of teaching someone else was always very daunting. You're not.

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you're not teaching from a script, you're saying things as yourself, it's kind of vulnerable. So the idea of teaching was always very intimidating to me. And that ended up being the bigger part of this job because I had been performing on stage pretty consistently for almost 15 years by this point. And so...

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doing something different. Like I was fine on stage. I could be in front of hundreds, thousands and be fine. But the being myself in front of maybe eight, like kindergartners or first graders, like I was just like, what now? But I learned so much about that from that contract. And it ended up influencing a lot of the other work I did. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for theater for young audiences. We have the art reach here in Augusta that was always very passionate about.

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like performing for school kids and just inspiring that younger generation like we were just talking about, like creating those core memories. And that kind of like ignited the spark there. So a lot of the work I've taken since then has been entertainment geared towards families or geared towards younger audiences, or if there was a good amount of teaching on the side of it. I had a job where I was technically

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legally a substitute teacher in the state of New York, because there was just so much teaching involved with it. And I just I loved it so much. And I never thought I would do that. So that's that's a plug for how theater can open up so many avenues, even the ones you don't expect. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think that's, that's one of those things when you are when you're in theater and you're, you know, it's, you know, acting is about reacting. And

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you get thrown this piece of like, hey, here's this other thing that you need to do and you need to do it well. You're like, you're gonna step up to the plate or you're gonna say, nevermind. And you're gonna turn around and go home. And I think most of us that enjoy the process, you're gonna step up, you're gonna make the best of it that you absolutely can and bring yourself to it. So that's really amazing. You mentioned living on a...

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living on a tour bus, living out of hotels and stuff. What tour were you on? So I worked for the Paw Patrol. What? Yes. I- V, like capital T, V, Paw Patrol. The Paw Patrol, the live show. And it was one of the more fun experiences I've ever had. Cause I've toured before, I love the idea of touring, but most of the touring I had done to that point had been like-

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in a van with a bunch of smelly boys and transporting our instruments around from this bar to that bar. So doing that show was incredible because, you got to play like some pretty historic venues and these are just really big arenas. And you're performing two cities a week. If you had to sit down, like we just one city a week, you got to explore that side of the world that I

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probably normally would never go to. And so learned so much about this country and it was just amazing. It wasn't always easy. Like I had to be away from home a lot. That was probably my first, being on tour, that was my first major holiday away from family. So things like that were kind of tricky. But back to that idea of community, like we were a tour of about...

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45, 50 people. And that's including, that's like the cast, that's the admin team, that's our retail that toured with us and our crew. So we all were a family. I'll never forget, one of my favorite thanksgivings in a recent memory was in Canada. Where they don't really have Thanksgiving up there. So we're calling the hotel and saying, hey, can we want to reserve this ballroom suite thing for Thanksgiving? And they're like, what?

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What is that? Yeah, but I think they have their own version of Thanksgiving, but it happens a lot earlier. But having your family on the road makes it a lot easier. Yeah. Are you allowed to say which in Disneyese, which who you were friends with on the tour? It's funny you say Disneyese because it's kind of not, I wouldn't say as strict, but it's kind of the same. So I will say I was friends with Mayor Humdinger. So I was.

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not with the Paw Patrol at all. I was against the Paw Patrol, but it was more fun. It had to be more fun. Cause I was, I had to put on a pretty cool costume. I was in a bit of a pod and I had to put on a handlebar mustache every day and big old top hat. And the best part was my stage time was pretty cool. Our show, I think we clocked it at about.

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an hour, 15 minutes, not including intermission. And I was on stage for 17 minutes of that. Most of that though was by myself. So I am on stage like, cause it'll be a thing where the heroes would come on, they say, we're gonna go do this thing. And they run off stage and then I come on like, here's what I'm gonna do to mess them up. And then I run off stage and everyone's booing and throwing popcorn at me. And I was about to say, yeah, you get to be the bad guy. I mean, knowing you, that is absolutely...

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Yeah, counterintuitive to who you are. But I mean, I feel the same way. Like when you get an opportunity to play somebody that's kind of different than what you, in our life is so much fun. Because you can take it to that further extreme than you would normally go. That's so cool. So how long were you on tour? I was on tour with them for about two and a half, almost three years. Wow. And it was a good time.

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It's an exercise in acting that I had never experienced before. The closest I got was the shows I would do in my first contract where we're running in the same theater for about a month was the longest we would run a show. And when you're doing the same show over and over and over again, it's an exercise in, okay, am I getting tired of this or what do I need to do to keep it fresh?

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That was also one of my jobs on the tour. I was the vocal captain, because I had that musical training behind me where it was my job, I reported kind of directly to Nickelodeon where I was my job to maintain the vocal integrity of the show. It was a fairly, I wouldn't say it was easy job, but I didn't have like an entire orchestra to manage or things like that, because there were songs we had to sing, but all our music was canned and whatnot.

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every month or so they would schedule a swing out for me. And my swing, who was my roommate, he would go on for me and I would be able to watch the show and take some notes and say, hey, things are going great. Let's just, let's tune this back up to make sure it's still fresh. Because even though this is the 300th show this season, this is that child right there on the front row, this is their first time. And probably their only time seeing it. So like they...

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They mean, hopefully they'll come back. This will inspire their parents to bring them back to more live theater things, but you never know. It could be like a one-off thing, like, okay, we went to see this and you want them to remember that. You want them to have a great time. And just maintaining that energy, maintaining that physical and vocal integrity to do your job and do it well consistently. Yeah, I think that's something I've never thought about doing community theater. You know, here we have...

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You know, Augusta players usually do like three to four shows and that's it. That would make me so angry as a kid. My mom tells me a story of, yeah, my mom told me a story of how my first show ever, uh, we were at the Imperial. I said, wait, we only, we're only doing this three times. What? And I wanted to do it forever. Yeah. Yeah. And I think as a, you know, as an actor too, you're like, just getting into it. You know, that first weekend you're like, I'm just getting into, you know, luckily we have theaters like, um,

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I've done stuff with Fort Gordon Dinner Theater where usually that's like three weekends, you know, so maybe you get nine shows out of it. Same thing with like Le Chat. You may get two weekends or three weekends of a show. So you may get nine or so, um, chances at it, um, for being able to, you know, again, maybe you, you felt something or you decide, you know, made a decision like, Hey, this, you know, this joke landed or this, you know, when I did this delivery, this delivery really, you know,

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did something, let me fall more into that. So it always felt like, man, we worked for 12 weeks to do this and it's done in three shows and that's it. In a way that can be kind of useful though, because what would end up happening instead is you only have three chances. Yeah, that's true. So you leave it all out there. And I think that was part of the beauty of the training with the players as well is we would rehearse in.

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random church number five or something like that. And we rehearsed in a very cold warehouse some days and then we would have maybe not even seven full days, maybe like just six or five or six days in the space. You're in your costume, you're in the set and it's only going to last for five or six days. So you experience all that you've been rehearsing for in like in the moment. And that can be kind of powerful too because you're no holds barred, you're leaving it all out there. Yeah, that's true.

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That's true. So when you wrapped up with the Paw Patrol, where did you end up next after that? Well, that's always a very interesting story because it wasn't my decision to wrap up Paw Patrol. This crazy thing happened in March of 2020. A global pandemic is that old chestnut. It made the decision for me, which was it was kind of funny. Like I

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I was, I had been doing this for so long and I was gearing up towards a break of some kind. Don't know what that break was going to hold, whether it was gonna be for six months or a year or what, but I had said in January of 2020, I think when this contract ends in July, I think I'm gonna try something different. My...

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my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, I actually met her on the tour and she had since left the tour. So I was thinking maybe I'll go to New York and be with her and I'll get like a little job and we'll have like the summer together or something like that. And I don't know, we'll just see what happens. But then, yeah, we were all shut down. So that was a dark time, a very interesting time. But.

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My company that produced the show, maybe two weeks after I joined back in 2017, 2018, were purchased by Cirque du Soleil. So by the time the pandemic rolled around, we were beginning to finally see those financial benefits of that purchase. So I had it good. I was able to go home, they were able to take care of me for the rest of my contract. And even then some after, which I...

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I can't say for a lot of actors when that happened, a lot of people were without a home, without a job, didn't know what to do. And it was just so hard seeing your entire industry just like sucked away like overnight. But a lot of lessons to be learned in that. But I like to frame it now saying I am currently currently like living my dream.

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And my dream now is different than the dream I had when I like five years ago or 10 years ago or even 20 years ago. Because towards the end of like before COVID before we even knew COVID was a thing, I was thinking, you know what I want to do? I want to wake up in the morning. I want to go work for a little while and then I want to go home to my wife. I want to go home, have a dog. I want to make dinner. I want to like talk about our days and have a glass of wine and watch.

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watch some TV, maybe play some video games. And then I just want to do it all again the next day. I want to do that for a while. And I'm doing that. That's awesome. And I have to count my blessings because this is what I wanted for a while. It happened in a way that I didn't intend on it happening, but it's what I wanted for a while and I'm doing it now. I'm not done performing, but I'm enjoying where I'm at right now. That's great.

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So as you're enjoying what you're doing now, what is bringing you joy?

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just being able to live that dream. Like I said, in the pandemic, I got married and we're just having a great time building our life together. We have a dog now and that, it brings joy most days. More days than others, but I mean, she's a one-year-old mixed puppy. So it's a labor of love there. But- And you in like Manhattan proper? We are in Manhattan. We're probably the northernmost borough of Manhattan.

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So like even trying to get to work is still a pretty heavy commute. But there's a lot going on up there. It's expensive living up there. So we, we don't get out as much as we want to, but I mean, we're, we're, uh, doing what we can. Yeah. But, uh, I still gig out on the sides. I have a, uh, uh, when I'm not doing my day job, I have a job with a church up in Stanford, Connecticut. Um, I'm a music scholar there. I, uh, help lead music.

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And that also leads just to, not just to singing, but also playing some drums and collaborating with other musicians there. The music director there, he has his doctorate in harpsichord. So he's just one of the smartest guys I've ever worked with in my entire life. And he's also super kind too. So it's a great avenue to get some of that creative expression out. And one of my good buddies is a musician up there and we'll...

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will play in a studio here and there. And so I still have been able to find that creative outlet because like theater was a job for so long, but music has always made me happy. Whether I'm playing in a church setting or playing with a band, being in a van with a bunch of smelly boys, I don't know. Music was always fun and it was always bringing me joy. So it was important to me, like in coming out of the dark times that was...

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COVID and being an actor, like how am I going to, how am I going to live this dream but still flex those creative muscles a little bit? And so being able to do that is really, really special.

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All right, this is the second segment of the show where we talk more about your mental health journey. You know, I'm a firm believer that depression, one of its worst tools it has against you, it wants to tell you that you're alone. But the more that we can have these conversations, the more you realize you're not alone, that you're not the only one that has these thoughts or feels this way. It makes that burden a little bit lighter. So for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay?

28:42
Hmm, that is such a interesting question that I've been pondering. Like I, I'll start by saying I'm no pillar of authority when it comes to mental health champions. But like, like you said, it's important to have those conversations mainly because I feel like my, my mental health journey is so young. I don't think it's even been 10 years that I've been struggling with it, but it's been a daily struggle. Like I was very busy in college and I, I remember sort of

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foolishly, looking back on it foolishly wearing it as as a badge of honor that I didn't really have to get any help for myself in college. So a lot of my peers and colleagues did. I was never like, pointing a finger haha, I'm better than he was never like that. But I remember saying, hey, I was very busy. I wasn't supposed to graduate on time. And I did it. And I never had to get help. I'm kind of proud of that.

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Rob, I think it was seven days after graduation that I had my first ever panic attack. And I'll never forget that moment because I don't know what brought it on. I was on vacation, I was at the beach, I was with my family, I was relaxed, but this like fire ignited right in my chest. And then it's like there was a circle of gasoline around it. And if it tipped in one direction, the whole thing just like took over and it lasted like four days. And every now and then that will happen.

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And so that's when I started my career. I had just graduated. I wasn't in collegiate theater, music, whatever anymore. I was beginning my career. So for the first part of this career, I was fighting for a job and also fighting with myself. And I was doing it alone, because it was something that you didn't really feel like talking about. I would confide in some people, but it was just like, ultimately I'm doing it by myself.

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And it wasn't until I had had a good handle on it for a while. And then the COVID shutdown happened and live entertainment just was not a thing. And it put things into perspective. Like I'm dealing with like my job is gone, my livelihood's gone, who knows for how long.

31:01
I'm home with my parents because I didn't have a home for myself. So the company just sent me back here. And it was, it was wonderful. Like I was able, I had a roof over my head and a lot of people in my industry didn't and I'm being here during those early days of COVID and my sister, my hero, she's a nurse and she's going out every day on the front lines of this thing. And as proud as I am of her, like there's a little voice in the back of my head, like, so what the hell are you doing? Like what?

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what are you doing to make a difference? And so I was just struggling with that for a minute. What ended up helping me was something I had all along and I wasn't utilizing it. It was a circle of people to remind you that you're not alone. A circle, and that circle can be as big or as small, it can be multiple circles, but being able to realize, like have these conversations.

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It is so important, especially being like, being men, Southern men, like we're always taught, like if you're feeling weird, just like stifle it down, push it down, don't tell anyone about it. Put it in a little box. Yep, and then you die. And that like, there's that. But being able to have that circle of people is huge. My wife is my rock in that. My boys, my five best friends who I met in college, they're that for me, my family. You have that circle.

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and just remind yourself that you have a purpose. Like, I actually had a doctor here in town while I was living in town who made me cry. I was like getting, I don't know, my ear cleaned out or something. And he asked me what I do. And I said, well, I'm currently just working in town, but I was an actor. And he stopped and he just like looked me in the eye. I didn't really say a whole lot, but he just looked at me and said, thank you for what you do. It is so important. And it may not feel like it right now, but...

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the stories you tell and the way you make people feel, the art you express, that's what keeps people living, keeps people moving. And then he went back, so here's your ears, really dirty, but like, it was just like, in that moment, he was supposed to- The oracle spoke. Right? He was supposed to say that one thing, and I was like, okay, I'm feeling good. So that moment was really special.

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But having that circle, having those people to confide in is huge. Yeah. I don't know. We didn't mention it in the last segment, but you're, the family you grew up in and the, uh, occupation they have, they own a funeral home.

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And so I got to feel like that when you're, because I know you, you helped your family out. You do, you did the things that you're supposed to do. Seeing grief that often has got to be an odd thing to do, especially as a young man. Because I feel like you, as, you know, kind of as an actor, you have to put aside your own feelings to get the job done. You know, you, you could,

34:14
watch someone perform something and it brings you to tears. But if you're the one performing it, you can't break down because you have to be the conduit. Exactly. I know that's gotta be odd, especially now you're starting to feel more things and stuff like that. Did you ever think about that at the time? Well, I mean, watching my dad, who is the epitome of professional,

34:42
and he's also just the nicest man in the world. Like watching him do what he does with such grace, like he was put on this world to do what he's doing. So it's always been very inspiring for that. It, yeah, like there are times where we're not there to grieve with a family. We're there to like, we're there to help them through that moment. But it never gets easier, especially when it's your own grief. I've...

35:12
I buried family members during that time. I assisted with the service for our good friend Richard during that time. And it doesn't get easier, but again, having those people to support you and just understanding that everyone's going through this, everyone's going through something, it's instrumental and it's very, very important for that. In...

35:42
Where you are now, you're in New York, you're away from family, you're circle. Is it, are they there close by, or is it more of like phone contacts, Zoom meetings, things like that, or is it, you got a little of both. Obviously you're there with your wife. Right, yeah. Wife and the dog, they're the huge, they're the.

36:09
They're my family. I have a circle there, like one of my best friends when I grew up, it's been my wedding. He was actually my roommate for my first ever job post grad. So he saw me going through a lot of those difficult times. He lives in New York, so I get to see him often. My wife's best friends have become some of my best friends. But yeah, the circles, they don't always have to be there in person. I mean, my phone is blowing up like.

36:33
every day and it's my five best friends. We're in all corners of the country right now, but we know that we're there for each other. If someone's going through a tough time with their family or career or stuff like that, like we have each other. So it's a healthy mixture of both in person and over the phone and Facebook, Instagram, sharing memes or sharing stories, things like that.

37:03
I can tell you like just being here this week with my family has been huge. I have not been to Augusta in about two and a half years. Maybe not two and a half, but two years. It's a long time. And just being here, just going around seeing all the old haunts and seeing the way the place has grown up, it just makes me so happy and it's filling my soul. And so checking in with my family in person has been wonderful. I've loved that so much.

37:33
But I know that if when I go back to New York, like I have my family there, I know they're just a phone call away. My technology is wonderful. I know I can FaceTime, I can call them and it'll be amazing just as well.

37:52
All right, this is the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five. The Fast Five. It's time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five. Sorry, I'm still working on a theme song there. I'm still workshopping some stuff. That's perfect. I think that's the perfect theme song. Get the patent on that. That's golden. Fast Five is powered by Poddex, an app created by my friend Travis Brown. If you go to chewingthefatbr.com slash poddex, it will take you to where you can...

38:20
download the app yourself on your Google Play or your app store. It's made for podcasters, but a great icebreaker question. So if you ever need that, just check it out. Pod decks. All right. So the way this works, five random questions, no wrong answers. Just kind of the first thing comes to the top of your head. You cool with that? Let's go. Let's do it. All right. Here we go. Legendary Fast Five. That's right. That's right. Question number one.

38:48
What did your 15-year-old self imagine you'd be doing right now?

38:54
I think when I was 15, I still wanted to be like a zoo veterinarian a little bit. Like I never envisioned following acting as a or performing in general as a career. I, yeah, one of my first like my first ever job I want to be was a paleontologist. Thanks to Jurassic Park. But then I went to a couple zoos and I wanted to be like a veterinarian. I want to learn all about that. I credit Steve Irwin for that. So I think I wanted to do something like that.

39:24
probably like working for Zoo Atlanta in some capacity. I loved going, that was my favorite zoo as a kid, working with the elephants and just being kind to exotic animals, like that was always a good, a big passion point for mine, for me. That's awesome. That is so cool. I mean, hopefully your 15 year old self is still proud of what you have become, not being the zoo veterinarian. But I mean. I think so. Like I was saying, like dreams change and that's all part of it. The goalpost move.

39:54
That's life. Once you meet a goal post, you gotta keep moving it, you know? Yeah, that's awesome. Alright, question number two.

40:03
What's the last thing you've done that you were really proud of?

40:09
Hmm. That I was really proud of. I mean, it could have been a cake you made at Christmas, or anything that you were just super proud of. I think the work that my wife and I have done with our dog is huge. Like just being able to train her, and she's still a puppy, so she has a long way to come. But we kind of always agreed that before we begin our own family, we're gonna have, we need to get a dog so we can learn about that. And...

40:38
I grew up with dogs, but I also grew up in a house with my mom and my sister and my dad. And it was a, it was a family like, uh, labor there. So this is my first puppy, like just, just mine. And I still had my wife and just the, the work we've done together and the things we've discovered about puppy training, but also each other in this journey has been incredible. We're coming up on one year of our little Lilibet being home with us. And it's been.

41:08
a wild ride, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm really proud of what we've done there. What kind of puppy is Lilibet? A lot. I think on paper she is a 30% Chihuahua and the rest is kind of like a staffy pity mix. So she's dramatic. But she's small, very long, but very hyper. She's only a little over a year old now. So.

41:35
I always tell people who meet her for the first time, she's going to be an idiot for the first 10 minutes, but then she's going to be the sweetest thing you've ever met. I think the only thing my dad is angry about or upset about that, me being home, is that I didn't bring Lily with me because he loves her so much. That's awesome. Hey, question number three.

41:57
I'm gonna assume you like movie musicals. I do. You do. I do, yes. Okay, so what is your favorite movie musical? Not stage musical, but movie musical. Hmm, movie musical.

42:13
I suppose it could have been on stage, became a movie, or was a movie on stage. It's hard to have, yeah, like I always feel, this is the burden of actors. You go into everything with a very critical eye, and I can't watch anything without thinking how this was made or how this was done. The last one that I really, really, really enjoyed, I think was the Into the Woods adaptation. I did enjoy that a lot. I love Into the Woods in general. But I think my favorite,

42:42
movie musical, Chicago. I think the way they executed that from the stage to the screen was perfect. And the casting I thought was wonderful. And it's been out for a while now, but I just thoroughly enjoyed it. And I'll still put on that movie musical soundtrack over the original. That might be a little taboo to say, but I do enjoy that movie musical a lot.

43:12
when you're talking about the soundtrack, did you see the movie before you saw the Broadway or West End or whatever? Yes, I only saw the Broadway production recently, actually. It was February or March of last year, and my wife and I went to go see a jinx monsoon of RuPaul's Drag Race as Mama. And it was a great production.

43:36
But I had heard the music before I saw the movie. So I had heard the original Broadway cast and West End cast and things like that. But I just loved watching it on film. It was just so much fun. I think there's something like when you see whatever that first version of it, you see or you hear, I think that's the one, when you love it, that's the one you love. Even though the other ones are great, you're like, like you said, you always come back to the movie soundtrack instead of the Broadway soundtrack. I'm that way with...

44:05
the Phantom of the Opera as well. I had never seen or heard it until the movie came out. Oh wow. And I was really a fan of it. And then I heard the original Broadway cast and opinions might have changed, but still I enjoy that movie a lot. Wow, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that one. But I also saw one of Michael Crawford's last performances. Oh, okay, yeah. So it's kind of like, oh. Right. You know.

44:32
But that was the soundtrack I heard first. I heard his soundtrack first. So yeah. It wasn't until I heard Michael Crawford sing Phantom that I realized how flawed Gerard Butler's was. He still, it was a different take on it. Different take. Yeah. But then I heard Michael Crawford, and I'm like, wow. OK. That's Phantom right there. All right. Question number four. Yeah.

45:01
Burger or hot dog?

45:04
Oh man, I'm going to, time of the year. I'm going to say it's time of the year because one of my all time favorite things to do ever is to go to a baseball game in the summer, have a hot dog, have a cold drink. But sometimes like yesterday, I was at lunch with my dad and we had the choice of burger or hot dog and we got the burger and it was the best thing ever. But yeah, being in New York especially, I live not too very far from Yankee Stadium.

45:33
So I will just go grab a cheap seat, get myself a hot dog, get myself a cold drink, and it's just one of my favorite things ever. Yeah, and I mean, if you're in New York, there's a hot dog vendor on almost every corner. Every single one. Anyway, you can get you a Subrets. Yep. Or something on a corner. So yeah, I do agree that it does depend on kind of like time of year or location. I don't know that I've ever gone to a baseball game and eaten a hamburger. It just doesn't seem.

46:03
Now, if you're having a cookout, you're going to make burgers and you might play some ball in the backyard or something, but yeah, that's interesting. Never even thought about it that way. All right, and question number five.

46:19
you can choose anyone in the world to become friends with. Who would you choose?

46:28
I was just thinking about this the other day, there was someone who I just wanna be friends with.

46:37
I'm going to say Gene Wilder. I loved a lot of his movies growing up. Young Frankenstein is probably my all-time favorite movie to this day. And I just think he was just kind of fascinating. So I'd want to learn more about his process and just hang out and talk. I think that'd be kind of cool. I could definitely see that.

47:07
talk about the first time and the first impression, there's never another Willy Wonka. I don't care how many adaptations, how many different versions, younger, older, later, whatever, he is Willy Wonka. Agreed. You know, but have you read his biography? I have not. The biography, Kiss Me Like a Stranger? I have not. Yeah, it's pretty fascinating. You should definitely check that out if you haven't. Definitely.

47:34
Awesome. Well, that is our Fast Five and that's the show, Pen. Thank you so much for being here, man. Thank you, Robb. Like I said, it's an honor to be asked to be here, honor to talk to you. We've been good friends for a while, so I've appreciated this time. Absolutely. If folks want to keep up with you in your personal journey and what you've got going on in your work and family, whatever the next thing may be, what's the easiest way they can do that? I'm probably most accessible on Instagram. I like to...

48:04
I was one of the first couple thousand, first 10,000 users on Instagram. So I claimed my handle early on. So it is my name all together, Penchance on Instagram. And yeah, I tend to post there pretty regularly. So right now it's a lot of dog content. So that's fine. But eventually there will be some work updates there. And

48:27
Also a lot of sports story sharing, but a lot of my passions I tend to try and share with my friends just to connect and see how we can relate, how we can connect on something cool.

48:40
So awesome. I'll make sure to put in the links to that in the show notes. Uh, again, thank you so much for being here. I wish you nothing but success in all of your endeavors and in your life and your family. I love you so much And thank you so much for being here. Thanks, Robb And if you would like to support this podcast, I would appreciate it if you bought me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com Again, this is the last episode of season three. It'll take a little time off But i'm looking forward to having a chance to sit a spell and chew the fat with you again come February.