Scott Seidl, Director, Choreographer, Writer

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hold on a second, you were a blue man? I was. I was.

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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, downloading, following the podcast. I certainly do appreciate that. Thanks for the folks that have bought me a coffee at chewinthefatbr.com. Your support means the world to me as well as the reviews and the five star ratings. They really helped more people find the podcast. So I appreciate that because when you find the podcast, you find amazing guests like the man I have in the studio with me right now. He is an actor,

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a dancer, a choreographer, a director. I don't wanna go into his entire resume because we'll get into that here, but please welcome Scott Seidl. You just listed all the things I used to do. Oh, who are you? I'm too old to do most of those things. Look, I've been in rehearsals with you. I've seen you dance, I've seen you perform, I've seen you choreographize. I don't know what that, I don't know. I liked it, I liked it, good word. That's a good word. Thank you, it was very kind of you.

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Thank you. Thank you for being here. I know we've talked about it for a while And I'm glad that the stars aligned allow us to have a little time together and I've known you since you've come to town and you've you've been here in Augusta for going on what? It's been five years and several weeks. Yes. September 1st is always is my anniversary It's the the official start date was September 1st. I finished a gig in Atlanta the last day of August the next morning

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I drove to Augusta directly to an interview with Brad Means, like I drove into town and straight to the TV studio before anything else and taped an interview with him that first day and then headed to the gorgeous Augusta Players office at Sacred Heart Cultural Center. Yeah, yeah. So you came from Atlanta, what were you doing in Atlanta? We're gonna work this back. Sure. So what were you doing in Atlanta? It was the last gig of a very,

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a very busy, busy summer. Going back a little bit further, I had interviewed for the Augusta Players job that I'm in now for about 10 months. It had started in October of 2016. And I obviously didn't, as I just mentioned, didn't start the job until September 1st of 2017. And for lots of different reasons, it was a long process.

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And so I ended up, I had to work. So I took a lot of gigs in between and spent that summer in Montana and in Colorado and in Atlanta and in Nashville. I think I did six shows in three months. Wow. And the last one was My Fair Lady in Atlanta at the Atlanta Lyric Theater. Oh wow. And then the next day started a new life here in Augusta. Wow. Wow. So I gotta assume,

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seeing as you applied for the job, life off the road was very attractive to you. Oh, very much so. Yeah, yeah, and I still do it occasionally. I still freelance. I'm actually in October, I'm heading out on the road for a couple of weeks as the production supervisor, almost ironically, based on what we were just talking about on the national tour of My Fair Lady. Going out to help them get that show back up on its feet and out on the road. But yes, I, you know, doing that for a couple of weeks

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still kind of fun, but spending 10, 11 months on the road is not on my to-do list any longer. Yeah, yeah. I love Augusta, I love being here. I mean, the reason I came here originally was to, I was looking for a job like the Gusta player's job and my wife at the time is from Marriotta, Georgia. So put us in her backyard, put us close. There were a couple of different jobs similar to this

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very attractive because of its proximity to Marietta. And also, I tell people this all the time, I went to the final dress rehearsal as part of the interview process. I went to the final dress rehearsal of the Augusta Players production of Beauty and the Beast. And I was just blown away by it. I had friends on the national tour of that show at the time and Augusta was better. Wow. Which has become kind of my mantra lately. Augusta is better in so many different ways with so many different things. And that's really what pushed me over the edge

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rehearsal and just being so impressed with what I saw. That's amazing. Yeah, that's great. Because you've had a long history of being in theater, right? I have, I did my first professional gig at age 13 Wow. as a drummer, but for a musical at that time. And I've been fortunate to work, I've only had one job, well, two, I guess, two jobs that were not

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and entertainment and in some way or another I spent, as a 16 year old I spent a year in fast food. And then as an 18 year old spent one week, one week working at a pharmacy before a teaching gig came up and a music started teach percussion. Oh, well, nice. But yeah, ever since that, I've just been so blessed to be in this industry now and stop. Yeah. So where did you, where are you from? Where are you born and raised? I was born in Los Angeles.

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in 1962, if you do the math, that makes me 60. And my mom decided to end her marriage and took her two boys back to Kenosha, Wisconsin when I was three and a half and my brother was a newborn. And so I grew up in Kenosha. It's about an hour north of Chicago, first city over the state line in Wisconsin. And went to school there, went to high school there. That's where I got involved.

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I mean, I started music lessons in junior high as a drummer, but got involved in theater when I was in eighth grade and then booked that first gig. And then the original plan was, I was gonna go to University of Wisconsin for a couple years doing state tuition and then move back to California. And my plan was to be a high school band director in Northern California writing field drills. But when I was in my first year at Wisconsin,

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I offered a job teaching at the high school that I just graduated from months earlier that following year. So at age 19, I started teaching high school and had my little brother and an ex-girlfriend as some of my students. It was pretty trippy initially. And on the faculty were all the people that had been my teachers a year and a half, a year earlier. I didn't go to the teacher lunchroom for two years because I was the music teacher

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I had my own office, which a lot of teachers were also not happy about because who's this little snot at 19 that's got his own office. That's where I had lunch for two years just because it was just all so bizarre and surreal and never made it back to California. I stayed in Wisconsin as an educator for 13 years. Met my first wife, we started a production company, played in bands, stayed really busy, directed tons of shows. Our high school was the Roadhouse as well,

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came through there. It was the best possible education I could have ever gotten just working in that theater was amazing. And I mean, to this day, there are things that I'm sure you've heard me say in rehearsal that developed in those first few years in the early 80s when I was teaching theater. I initially got hired as the music teacher and then they let the theater teacher go and I ended up taking over that program and we hired a different music teacher.

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And it was an amazing time. I learned an incredible amount and some of those people, most of those people are still tremendous friends. And especially because when I first started, I was 19 and my students were just a year, two, three, four years younger than me. And so to this day, they're some of my closest friends. That's awesome. So in teaching, so you went from music into the theater side of things.

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When you decided, did you just decide to quit teaching? Did something else come up? I was in life happen. Kind of all of that. I was in my 11th year and things had started to change, it was a Catholic high school, Catholic, that was an arts magnet school because of the programs that we had developed and the administration changed.

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as they had been in the first decade that I was there. And so I went to give my notice. And I also, you know, it's no secret, teachers are not paid well. And this is the 80s into the early 90s. So it was even worse then. And they convinced me to stay with promises of arrays and an easier work schedule and all of these things. And after another two years or so that hadn't come to fruition. So just worked.

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And also, I started teaching at 19. So I hadn't really had a Catholic high school. I hadn't lived a lot of life really. I learned a tremendous amount, met a ton of people, but I'm incredibly proud of those years. And as I've said a couple of times now, it's just tremendous friends that came out of it. And to this day, Julianne, still Julianne Seidel, my first ex-wife,

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We're very close friends and we still collaborate from a distance still occasionally. But I was getting to a what if place in my life. What if I had chosen a different path and I'd gone from really focusing on music to 100% of my focus on theater. And so decided, I'd done a little summer stock in my early 20s, but just wondered what if. And so I started auditioning

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and booked a gig, booked two gigs that I had to make a choice. One of them was as an assistant stage manager with the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. And one of them was as a performer in Branson, Missouri and a musical theater review style show. And the Goodspeed gig was more prestigious because there's a long history of the shows that could develop, they're going to Broadway.

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at this point, getting into my mid 30s and they were going to pay me $100. What wait, I negotiated it up because of my age to $200 a week plus housing. And I just couldn't afford to do that. And in Branson, it was four or five times that amount of money as a performer. And I went, I'm gonna go do that. And I'm gonna kind of do my 20s, but in my 30s. And I just, I had a great time and spent the next decade

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working as an actor, singer-dancer, game show hosts, just having fun, it was awesome. And that, I mean, I feel like that was probably very much at the height of like Branson. It was, yes. Where Branson was basically Vegas East, you know, I mean, it was- Without the gambling, yes. And only three bars in town at that time. It was pretty conservative at that particular point, but yeah, it was,

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it was quite a culture shock a little bit. And the performers, because as you said, there were so many theaters, 20-some theaters in Branson at the time. And so all of the performers, we all gravitated towards each other, because most of us were not from there. But it was a great time. I did a couple musical theater reviews. I was the host of Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. I hosted another country music review. Did a saloon show, which is a great improv show.

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was brutal, so thank goodness it was so much fun. We did six shows a day, six days a week. Wow. We're doing 36 shows a week. Holy cow. Yeah, it's only, it's like 35 minutes long. But still. Yeah. Still, I mean, if you're giving 100% every one, I mean, that's 600% a day you're giving. Exactly. I mean, we laughed a lot, which is how you got through it, because it was just such a fun show. And met Nickelodeon contacts there, because Nickelodeon had put a show into that city

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time, which is one of the next gigs that I ended up as a writer-director producer for Nickelodeon shortly after that. Also booked my first national tour because of connections I made in Branson. It was just a fun time of life at that point because I wasn't really responsible for anyone other than myself at the time. So it was probably had a little too much fun during those years. I've always said of myself, if I could

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you know, when they talk about it, if you could relive a part of your life, I personally would want my 30s back because I feel like at that point, you're at least mature enough to know better on certain things, but still the body doesn't creak and ache when you get up in the morning. When you start in 40, everything starts creaking and snapping and crackling and popping and so, yeah, yeah. Just before I came over here and meet with you, was in rehearsal, we have a show called Pinocchio right now,

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our art reach production. So it's theater for young audiences. It's designed to entertain young people. And I was demonstrating something. And really all I was doing was walking and it hurts just now, so yes, I empathize with that statement. Do you have like a favorite role in that time in Branson that she's just really loved it? Maybe it was something opposite of you. Maybe it was a villainous character. Because I think of you as a very kind and compassionate person.

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That's the act, I don't know. I don't think it is, but. I hope that I am the positive example that you just mentioned. You are. I didn't play a lot of villains. My type is what I call tall, dark, and boring. Being over six foot and darker coloring, you end up in a lot of quote unquote lead roles, which are very nice, but they're not much fun really.

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that I got to play that were more enjoyable were against that type. Like I did a show called, like I mentioned Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede hosting this huge rodeo show with a thousand people in the audience every night. But I was the swing. So I got to play the host, which was good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Dixie Stampede, that forced radio sound. But I also got to play the comedian, which was so against Ty for me. And he was,

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and how did I'm trying to remember that character voice? Hi there, folks. How are you doing today? That's tumbleweed. You know, and yeah, he was so much more fun to play than the host, the host got paid better. But, and the same thing, I did some Nickelodeon shows when I was in Branson and again, played the game show host, but there was a sidekick who wore fake bifocals and had his baseball cap with the front bill flipped up and always getting into trouble.

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kind of thing, that there's so much. The sidekick, hands down, I would rather play the sidekick any day. So those would be really enjoyable. There were a couple gigs too. I hosted as a last second replacement because someone got sick. I hosted this country music show that was two hours long and I had two days notice. And so that was really fun in a different way just because of the pressure of doing it. It literally had

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ripped, taped on the back of the set. So every time I walked off stage, I was trying to remember what came next. And then what was fun because of my quirky background, like two weeks later, something happened with the drummer in that show. And so I was back at that show sitting in the drum seat with just to get a day's notice to kind of learn it. So those are the things that are fun. Like the whole experience was great. I loved all those shows. And so it's hard to pick one, but I loved that there was a tremendous amount of variety through it.

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That was great. That's really good. You said you went on to your first national tour out of that. What tour did you go on? So show called American Rhapsody. It was during the centennial celebration of the Gershwin Brothers, George and I were Gershwin. And someone saw me, Matt Davenport, Matt Davenport Productions in Nashville, Tennessee, saw me in the saloon show. And that particular tour, the auditions were invitation

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only. And I was not on the list initially, but then he saw me in the saloon show where I played Bart, the saloon owner. And so I got an invitation to do that. And to that date anyway, I had the best audition of my life. And so ended up playing the primary character in the national tour, which was amazing. I was on stage with an 18 piece live orchestra every night. Oh, wow. It was awesome.

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After the opening overture of the show, started with this, the stage went dark, and then this fanfare intro happened, and when the lights came back up, I was standing on top with a grand piano, a grand piano singing, the Gershwin song's wonderful. It was a great way to do a first national tour. It was amazing. It was out on the road for about, there were two legs, I think we did it a total of about seven months. Wow. It was awesome. That's awesome. So, so from that,

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you're out on tour, so you're trying to decide what's next maybe as you're getting there. So what happened next? I'm trying to find out how you got to a certain place. Well, what happened? You know, as you know, the entertainment industry is so much about relationships. I've been fortunate to do very few auditions in my life, which has come back to bite me a couple of times when I did have to go into

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auditions, excuse me, but from there, I did some industrials for a company called Gary Music, and that's his actual name, M-U-S-I-C-K in Nashville, Tennessee. And they had an opening for the cast of Lee Greenwood's American Portrait. So Lee Greenwood, if folks don't know, is the

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USA and he had a production show that was in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, as well as touring. And they needed someone that could do the singer-dancer gig but also had hosting skills. And so I got the call and literally did not do an audition. They had seen me in the national tour and then I did these industrials for them and I was offered the job. So spent the next year and change with Lee Greenwood primarily in Pigeon Forge.

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and was the year after that because of previous relationships ended up at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando as a writer, producer, director, mostly with their live stuff. I worked a little bit on the television show of Double Dare 2000, it was in the year 2000, and did a bunch of other producer stuff for them across that summer, but in the middle of that, the gentleman that replaced me at Lee Greenwood sadly was hit by a car, like he wasn't in a car, he was walking across the street.

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And it was horrible. So I got this call to come back and could I fill in for a few weeks while they found somebody new? Which also happened when I was back in Branson with Dixie Stampede, where the host was thrown from his horse and the horse fell on him. And I had left the show six, eight months earlier and they called and asked if I could fill in that night. And I hadn't done it, it's an 88 page monologue. And I hadn't done it in like six to eight months,

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And I said, I'm happy to come in, but I cannot promise you what's gonna come out of my mouth tonight. I'll keep talking, but we'll get through it. And then that happened with Lee Greenwood too. I went and filled in. Nickelodeon was very kind to let me out for a few weeks. I can't remember. Oh, so that led to, I was already contracted when I took the Nickelodeon gig to do another national tour

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is called Birth of the Beat. And the company that co-produced that, which at the time was Columbia Artists, had an opening for someone with an eclectic skillsets, a collected skillset to work in creating product for their roster. And it was gonna be in New York and kind of moving back to the other side of the table again

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to the creative side. And at this point, I guess I'm in my late 30s maybe. And money's, you know, the older you get, the more important money becomes. Yeah. And so decided to pursue that. Plus it was a full-time job in New York City. Yeah. And so went for it. And then as I took that job, they're booking and contracting

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left the company and they said, will you do this job for six months while we find the right person for it? And it just got weird, four months into that, they said we're moving the company from New York to Charlotte, North Carolina. Do you wanna come with us? And I thought, yeah, I like this job and I like the money I'm getting paid, so sure. I moved to Charlotte and then found out that the reason they moved the company to Charlotte is because the owner was under investigation by the grand jury of New York.

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We work for embezzlement. And we represented all these artists that weren't getting paid all of a sudden. It was messy and so kind of behind the scenes, me and one of their employees were working on behalf of the artist to make sure that they were getting taken care of. So I was quote unquote laid off and needed a gig. And again, it boiled down to two things, one that was performing and one that was managing.

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I was offered a gig back in Branson in a really souped up version of Joseph, the amazing technical or dream coach, playing the oldest brother and understanding Joseph, which I thought was hilarious because I was way too old at that point to be playing Joseph. It's makeup, it's all makeup. Yeah, it's lighting, smoking mirrors. That's right, just draw on the house. Yeah. And a former high school student of mine

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on the national tour of the musical Greece, starring Frankie Avalon still as Teen Angel. And he was the front of house sound guy. He said, secretly we're about to fire the stage manager, the production stage manager. You'd be great at it. I know you need a gig, but to do it, you'd have to come out as the assistant sound engineer, secretly learn the show in the shadows. And then when they let this person go,

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literally the next day. And the money difference was exceptional, which is this theme that we can talk about later. But, and so I went and did that and spent the next three years on the road. I really, really hate the song We Go Together because it's in the show, yeah, it's in the show like four times and we used it for soundcheck. So my least favorite piece of musical theater music. And again,

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with great friends and people that I was really close to. But then, sorry, I'm trying to rush through the resume. No, no, no, it's fine. Look, your life is fascinating because all of this has happened in the span of 10, 10, 12 years. So I mean, it's a lot. You've lived a lot of life. That part of you that you said, you know, I didn't really live a whole lot of life in my 20s because I was teaching. You made up a fast ground. I did.

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I also, in my twenties, didn't drink at all. I also made up for that in my 30s. Thanks, okay. But I was, the company Phoenix Productions that produced the Grease Tour, the tour was coming to its close finally after three years and they offered me a gig as a producer on Fame the Musical in Asia. There's gonna be a tour across Korea and China.

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And that, it was a great opportunity. And so I said, yes, but I was going to have six dark months between the end of the Greece tour and taking over this thing in Asia. So a buddy of mine, I remember it vividly, I was walking across the street and we were in Myrtle Beach on tour, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I was walking across the street to go have lunch with the girl I was dating and her mom who happened to be visiting.

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and my phone rang and it was my buddy Bjorn Wentland who at the time worked for Live Nation and he said, hey, I know you're looking for a gig. We need tour accountants to go out on these rock and roll and country music tours. And I said, I know absolutely nothing about that. I said, that's easy. We'll take you, we'll fly out to Beverly Hills. We'll teach you across two weeks what you need to do and we'll send you out on the road. Okay. Sure, I got to fill five, six months, sure. Yeah.

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So I went to Beverly Hills after the Crease tour was over, did that and I have to be careful because I signed an NDA. But most of it. How long ago? Yeah, it was over a decade. What's the, what's the, you know, yeah. And the first tour I was assigned to was something called Video Games Live, which is a huge orchestra show, which was really cool. It opened at the Hollywood Bowl and closed the next day. Oh wow. They decided it was just way too expensive.

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And since then it's been retooled and I think. I was about to say, I think I've seen that show, you know, or some form of it or whatever. Yeah. It's still out there. And the people at the helm of it are really cool. But they put all this money into me, training me. So because I was about 40 then, I guess, because of my age and experience, I became the fixer accountant.

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And what that meant was if somebody was falling behind in their paperwork, because the paperwork for that gig is oppressive. It's on a nightly basis, the size of like five, a stack of paperwork that's like five encyclopedias big. It's just tremendous. And so I would get flown out to whatever tour needed help. And the woman that trained me, she was out touring with the Aerosmith tour. And so,

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I got a phone call from her asking me if I could come out and help her catch up on paperwork. Well, I get out there and find out the reason she's falling behind in her paperwork is because she's secretly dating Steven Tyler. At the time he's single, it's not like a big deal, but it's a bit of a conflict of interest because Live Nation is the promoter and Steven's obviously the artist. Right. And so I go out there and she decides

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that she's going to keep me there and essentially I'm going to do her job so that she can have fun. And so that happens and then the accountant for Aerosmith is so happy with the job that I'm doing. He says, do you wanna come work for the band? Like we'll leave live nation and come work for us directly as an assistant accountant. I thought, I know nothing about accounting

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I've got two jobs within a matter of months. Wow. And so, and it was a long-term gig. So I called Phoenix Productions because I'm supposed to head to Asia in a couple of months for them. And the two owners are about my age as well. And so we were both young, we were all young teens when Aerosmith hit in the 70s. And I said, I have this opportunity. And I remember Michael McFadden's quote to this day,

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quote unquote, he said, dude, it's Aerosmith. You gotta go do that. He said, we'll be here if you ever end up leaving. So I did that. I went and became an accountant for Aerosmith. And I'm like, I don't know, six weeks into that, maybe less, four or five weeks into that. And we're on a layoff where we're not on the road for a week. And I go to visit my buddy, Bjorn, that got me the accountant job to begin with. And I'm hanging out at his place in West Hollywood and my phone rings.

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and it's unlisted. I don't know about you, but I typically don't answer unlisted numbers, right? So I didn't answer and a voicemail pops up and I listened to it and it's Scott, Scott. This is Steven Tyler. He says, I'm gonna let my guy go and his guy is his road manager slash bodyguard and his girlfriend at the time

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who had gotten me the Aerosmith gig to begin with, recommended me as the replacements. He said, I want you to, if you're interested, call me back, here's my number. And let's talk. So I call him back and the next day I flew to Boston and spent the day with him at his house and stayed at a hotel that night. Next morning I'm flying back to West Hollywood. And by the time I got back to West Hollywood, there was a message from him offering me the gig

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and Bodyguard, which I did for like the next 22 months, something like that. And the first 18 months were amazing and he and I became great friends. And I don't know, just tons and tons, like that's a whole nother podcast. There's tons and tons of surreal moments. My favorite one very quickly is it's the first real, and there's a whole long story

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got there that literally and physically how we got there that night. But I'm standing on a rooftop of a warehouse on the lower west side of Manhattan at the premiere of this new rock band that was Stephen Tyler's son-in-law, lived Tyler's husband at the time. And it's an A-list. I'm standing, so I'm as the bodyguard typically just standing off his shoulder. And he's standing, and I'm there as well, in this circle of conversation with David Bowie,

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Vulta, Todd Rudd and Gren, lives mom, Bibi, who's married to Todd Rudd, Gren at the time, some soap opera stars, just this incredible, like surreal. What is my life? Exactly, and this is the conscious thought that I had, a profanity warning, but this is the literal conscious thought I had, I'm standing on this rooftop with Steven

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and as a drummer, I played walk this way, you know? I'm standing there and I thought, how the fuck did this happen? I am a Catholic high school teacher from Kenosha, Wisconsin. I'm standing on a rooftop in New York with David Bowie. Like it was ridiculous. And it was a great experience for 18 months. And then unfortunately, a doctor prescribed oxycontin for pain after Steven had foot surgery and prescribed oxycontin to a drug addict.

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you know, recovering drug addicts and Steven fell off the wagon and got really abusive and bipolar and there were some of the things that happened with the tour and I just, at this point I'm in my early 40s and I'm too old. Like I'm just, I'll never make that kind of money again but and there were just so many surreal stories from those couple of years, but it just wasn't, it just wasn't worth it anymore. So I decided originally I was gonna take

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a few months off to just trying to heal emotionally and physically from the abuse of the final couple of months. And my phone rang again and it was my friend Matt Davenport that I had done those tours for and he said, I need a writer director. I can't do it all myself anymore. And so moved to Nashville and worked for Matt for the next eight years, wrote well over a hundred shows. Wow.

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of choreographers and designers that I still often work with today. And again, gosh, what a great learning experience just as a writer. And everything from theme parks and cruise ships to national tours to small theater shows. And again, loved it and was really, really happy. During those years, got married again.

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and near the end of it decided the company was taking a different turn a little bit and I really missed theater. Like we weren't, I was working in entertainment and directing and writing but it wasn't necessarily, most of the stories were 24 minutes long and designed to be for an audience that missed the Shamu show so they came to see this show until they could go see Shamu, you know. Right, right.

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So my wife and I moved back to New York. I left my dad in poor production. Still, I still met Matt's a dear, dear friend and still work for him remotely occasionally as a writer. But we went back to New York and got back into the theater. And that started kind of the freelance couple of years and ended up to make money back on the road with a show called Peter Pan 360, which was awesome. And then went to move to Las Vegas to work for

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the Henson Corporation as an associate director on a show called Puppet Up. If you ever get a chance, check it out on YouTube. It's hilarious. It's at the adult puppet show. It is, yes. I saw something on, because I follow the Henson Company and I like that on the socials. And they were doing like a one night invitation only at actually the Henson compound of Puppet Up. Which is the old Charlie Chaplin lot, yeah. Oh wow. And I was like,

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I need to buy this ticket to be there because it sounds amazing. I got to watch it every night in Las Vegas. And that was the fun, like, for those that haven't seen it, if you know the TV show, whose line is it anyway, imagine that show, but with puppets. So cool. And for us, the production we were doing was based in Las Vegas. So the suggestions from the audience are coming from drunk people on vacation in Las Vegas. You can imagine the kind of suggestions you get. Right, right.

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And it was supposed to run for three years and it ran for about five months. Wow. So, again, unemployed and decided at that point, one of us, my wife at the time, much younger than me and a singer-dancer actor, choreographer, actually Chesting, she actually worked here in Augusta with us still occasionally. One of us needed to have a full-time grown-up job.

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not that performing is not grown up, but just so we knew on a monthly basis, this is the income. And so, and because of where I was in life, it made more sense for me to be the one to do that. And so we started looking, I started looking for something similar to this job here in Augusta. And that brings us back to where we started this conversation. That's awesome. I mean, that's so amazing. And again, the amount of life you squeezed in to those 15,

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18 years, I mean, that's just amazing. And it's one of those things that if you tell people that, they're like, there's no way that you did all that. There's no way that you did all that. But I get the same type of reaction a lot. I've done a lot of stuff. Yes, you have. And people are like, there's no way you've done a lot of that. Really cool stuff. I have though. Yeah, it's, I think that's amazing. And now that you're here and you're five years in, five years in a month or so, in Augusta, you say you love this town. I believe you love this town.

38:41
What is going on with you right now? I know it's production after production after production. You keep your fingers in productions in other places and help your friends, but for Augusta, what is it about this town and this talent that's here?

39:05
This relates, one of the things I skipped over on the resume is when I was back in Kenosha as an educator, I was also the minister at my church. And so it was a Catholic church, as was the high school that I taught at. The reason I stopped it was because I started questioning my faith and I thought at least how Catholicism practiced the faith.

39:35
I shouldn't be leading these kids if I'm not believing what it is I'm supposed to be teaching. But the concept of helping people and teaching is really important to me in my life in general. And then also between making the decision, as we kind of talked about at the beginning to come to Augusta and actually coming here, there was a lot of freelance stuff that happened in there as well, including one of the gigs that I have consistently gone to even while I've been here

40:05
the Big Fork Montan at the Big Fork Summer Playhouse. But what, excuse me, what I love about Augusta is being here at a time, and maybe this has been going on long before I got here, I don't know, but being here at a time when I think Augusta is trying to figure out what it is again, and that's exciting, I think.

40:35
cybers coming to town, I've been hearing that for, it was one of the selling points actually, when the board of directors was trying to convince me to take the job, and that there's a lot of, I think, good growth on the horizon. And so it's exciting to be here. I know that's also true of the Gusta Players as an organization. We are on the cusp of some exceptionally exciting things that I unfortunately can't talk about

41:05
publicly yet, but just some tremendous things. And so that is just really attractive and makes me happy to be a part of that. And then also, when I arrived, and I think you know this, when I arrived, Dirk and Paula Meyer, Dirk is the music director of the Augusta Symphony, arrived like two weeks after I did. And Russell Joe Brown came back to Augusta within a couple months. And Roy Lewis,

41:35
became the artistic director of the Augusta Junior Players just before I got here, and Jeannie Butler became the office administrator just a couple months before I got here. And so there was this influx of different energy. And at least what I'm told is pre that year or those years, there are amazing arts organizations in this community, but they,

42:05
tended to hold things very, very close. Yes. And wanted to make sure that they protected their organizations. And there was something to be said for that. But most of us that have come to town in the past five years don't think that way. And we, like I'm dear friends with Dirk Meyer and with Chris Bailey at Le Chat, and obviously with Roy and Jeannie.

42:35
of other artists that I may not be as close with, but I love going like later today, I'm gonna go see a show in Aiken after you and I chat. You know, I want us all to succeed. And it feels like Augusta is the right size with the right group of people to do something really cool as a community, as an arts community. It's gonna take time. I think we're all trying to figure out

43:05
to get the city itself on board with that mindset. But we as organizations I think have taken a great step in that direction. Now we just gotta figure out how to get the culture, meaning mindset of our home city on board with all of that as well. But I had opportunities in bigger markets, but I don't know that I could have had the same kind of impact.

43:35
that sounds a little egotistic to be a part of something that is going to have the same kind of impact that I think we are going to be able to do. And that's just, I don't know, it's really fulfilling. I feel going back to what I was saying is being a minister, like being to make a difference in a positive way is really important to me. I'm never gonna be rich. I left that behind when I left Arrowsmith. But there's a great story.

44:05
about my final Christmas bonus, but that's for some other time. But you're right, I had to throw a microphone down. Just, we were sitting in West, no, in, yeah, in West Hollywood, there's this great rock and roll hotel in West Hollywood that's literally buried in a neighborhood that you would never know is there, but we had a butler, and I had confided, he was so supportive of me in a really hard time, and I had confided in him that I was not gonna renew my contract, I had made my decision

44:35
leave the organization. He said to me, I just heard what they're going to give you for a Christmas bonus, wait until after the first of the year. And that became the down payment for my house in Nashville. But anyway, you know, just making a difference is important to me. And so... And I think, and I really think you have because I was here prior to you and the arts groups here

45:05
They were, they were very, and as a performer, I'm like looking at these other groups, like why don't we, when we need dancers, why don't we approach the ballet? Why don't we approach the symphony when we need people in the pit? Why don't we, you know, they're artists as well, why can't we all play in the same sandbox? Right, I love that phrase. But, just that was verboten, you just know. Usually you leave these, these are those groups, where our group, that's it, we'll figure it out.

45:35
You know, but I love that now it is it's becoming more of an arts community and you can reach out to, you know, a master, you know, prop maker set bill like Chris Bailey to get some help with stuff. You know, you can you can reach out to these other groups to get help to come together with things. And I think that that enriches each organization so much more, you know, you can become

46:05
arts when you open yourself up to that stuff. And I think you're very integral in that. I remember one of the, of course, two years or the blip, it's gone, but I remember seeing. I love that you called it the blip. Yeah. One of the playbills where we're actually promoting shows at Fort Gordon and Le Chatinoir and these other arts groups and Aiken.

46:35
the Augusta Players Playbill, that would never have been something prior to that because all of these groups are so siloed. And, but that's what it is. It's giving to each other because that's what this art form is. It's not about, you know, everybody talks about getting the post show blues. You know, you've worked together so tightly with these people and you've created this amazing performance. And then, you know,

47:05
the show closes, it's like, well, what do I do now with my Monday nights? What do I do? You know, but when you've got a family, a greater family outside of just your show family that still has that type of camaraderie and still has that type of support, to me, it lessens those post-show blues because now you have another group that you can go talk to, you have another group of friends, or you can, you know, when you get together, you can all commiserate around the same, you know, lighting problems.

47:35
you know, you know, tech week in the first day is lighting and having to stand there and wait for them to focus lights or whatever, you know, you all have that common experience that you can share. Yeah, I'm, you know, I'm thrilled with the groups that are around here, the creative entities. And we're really not in, we all do such different things. Like even the theater companies, you know, we don't do what Fort Gordon does, we don't do what Lyshad does.

48:05
but also not because they do a mix of plays and musicals. And we're also, you know, 35, 40, 45 minutes away from each other. And the cliche is true, you know, rising tide raises all boats, you know, there's no reason we can't all be successful and enjoy each other's success and support it. I'm thrilled to see good things happening with all of the organizations around town. And, you know, the blip that you just mentioned

48:35
really hard and I'm really happy to see that as far as I can tell anyway we've all survived it and in some instances even excelled through it. Yeah absolutely. So do you have a bucket list show that you would like to put on here? I did we did it. It was ragtime. Okay. Yeah that show and... Talk about bringing groups together. Yeah. That was a great instance of that.

49:05
Thank you. I forget things that are on my resume sometimes. I was in New York as a blue man in blue man group when Ragtime opened on Broadway. You just kind of glanced over that, hold on a second. You were a blue man? I was for a very short while. It was not a good fit. It was mutually decided. And blue man group is an amazing organization with an incredible show.

49:35
slash series of shows now all over the world. But the style of acting and kind of the culture and I are not a good fit with each other. And we'll just leave it at that because I don't want to speak ill. It's an amazing realization and was a lot of fun and again, incredibly educational. I feel like everything I've ever done, I've learned so much from. And that is definitely no exception. But yeah, that was in,

50:05
Lee Greenwood, so that would have been in 98, 1998. I spent six months in blue face. Yes, wow. And I'm trying to imagine this now. Cobalt blue to be specific. Wow. Is the actual color. But I mean, that plays into your percussion background too. Exactly. So I mean, you had the skill set, you know, you're like a Swiss army knife. It's amazing. I can't even remember where I was going with that. We were talking about the reg time. Yeah, reg time. So yeah.

50:35
The big time was on Broadway at the time. I had just opened with, and I was fortunate to see the original Broadway cast and just got to the intermission of that show and couldn't move. I was so overwhelmed by what I had just witnessed in the theater that I was just literally stunned where I couldn't move. And then remembered that I had preordered my drinks and intermission, so I had to run and go get that. But it was,

51:05
It was just such an incredible experience and I've wanted, as a creative, wanted to direct that show ever since. But as you know, it's mammoth. It's not something that you can just do on a shoestring and you need the right company of actors at the right time with the right organization producing it. And so for the opening of the 75th anniversary of the Gusta Players, it felt like the right time, the right event and the right culture. And I'm so glad we decided

51:35
with it rather than close because we were scheduled to close with Cinderella and that's when COVID hit. So had we scheduled it on the back end, it would have never happened. Yeah, yeah. So that's the big bucket list show for me and I'm so thrilled we got to do it. So check Mark on that. Yes, big time, yeah. There are things sitting in folders on the desktop of my computer as a writer that I really want to get done and get produced with that summer just before I came here where I said there were six things

52:05
I did across those three months. One of them was the first workshop of a show that I wrote and co-wrote the music for with one of my collaborators, a Nashville Steve Kummer, who's an amazing writer, orchestrator, arranger. And so that's exciting. We're looking for the right time where we're both free again to do the kind of final definitive version of that. So that's on the bucket list, but there's another show that I'm working on with another collaborator as a writer at the moment. And then there are just a handful of ideas

52:35
to be developed, which I'm really excited about, but there's just not enough hours in the day. Yeah, yeah. Outside of all of this work, is there something else that you are into, passionate about? Do you play golf? Do you do anything? You go for runs? Do you basket weaving? I don't know. I used to, as recently as a year ago,

53:05
taking care of myself and working out, getting to the gym, lifting weights, is something that I actually enjoyed. I don't like running, I do it because I need to keep my cardio ability at a pretty high level to do what I do and the way I like to do it. Because again, you've been in the room with me as a director, I don't like sitting in a chair, I like to be on my feet when I'm working that way and I just have to stay healthy to do that.

53:35
And I guess a lot of folks don't know this. In the middle of last season, I ended up having to have open heart surgery. And they actually wanted me to do it six weeks earlier, and I convinced them to wait until after we were working on Elf, the musical right at the time. And so Elf closed on a Sunday, and I got cut open on the Tuesday after that.

54:05
So that has kind of slowed all of that down. My stamina isn't quite where it's been and I haven't gotten back to the gym the way I would like to. So that's the big thing for me. Writing is kind of that outlet for me because you can write anytime, anywhere at any hour if I have an idea at four a.m. I actually wrote probably the best show that I wrote from at Davenport was an idea that I had at three o'clock in the morning

54:35
and got up and walked to my dining room table and spent the next five hours writing a show and went to the boss later that morning and said, hey, let's do this. And we did and it ran for five years including on tour for a couple years. And so writing is definitely that for me because you can do it anywhere. Can you share the name of that show? That show was, it was a show called Tap. It was a tap dance show. And then later tap the show on tour. And it played for

55:05
three years at Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania in its 30 minute version. And then we expanded it to 90 minutes plus an intermission and it spent two years on the road touring. That's so cool. Had merchandise and all that fun stuff. That's so cool. Yeah, I was really, really proud of that show. And those dancers in that show and singers as well again are some of my closest friends to this day because there are a handful of them that did all five years

55:35
the run of the show. So we spent a lot of time together. That's awesome. Yeah. So what's bringing you joy then right now, Scott? It's been a tough year. A little over a year ago, my mom passed away and had a two-year battle with a lot of mental health issues. She had had a massive stroke

56:05
covered from it. And my brother carried, my brother who is one of, if not my best friend, carried the brunt of that because of his proximity. She was in Arizona. He lives in California. Easier for him to get there. And then, you know, five, six months after that, open heart surgery for me. And then just a few weeks ago, my father passed away. And for most of my life, my father and his two sons have been estranged.

56:35
but he made a real effort the past handful of years to reconnect. So that's been really tough. We've just, as a little tiny family, have gone through a lot. I tend to not always make the best relationship choices and decisions, and so I've made some mistakes there, which have made things difficult.

57:05
Honestly, I've said this a lot in rehearsal.

57:10
Most of the joy that I've had, if you can't be with your family in moments of trial where you are tested emotionally and mentally or life is throwing you difficulties, if you can't be with your family, the best people to be with are theater people because they are compassionate and empathetic. You have to be in order to do what we do as theater folks. And so, you know,

57:40
past away I was in Big Fork with the cast of Jersey Boys and they were so incredibly supportive. As I went through heart surgery I was with the cast of Elf and the cast of something rotten on the back end as I was recovering and Cinderella again later in the spring and even right now with the Music Man which we're rehearsing right at the moment because I'm still not 100% you know. It's just they're just the best people to be with so and I've said this in rehearsal many times the best part of my day is often

58:10
and going into rehearsal. It's really, really wonderful. And I've been fortunate in terms of relationships to be with folks who are amazingly supportive, more so than I deserve typically. So that would, if forced to give an answer, it would be being in rehearsal. That's the most joy for me right at the moment. Also, I mean, I'm definitely 100% a workaholic.

58:40
And the excitement that I see on the horizon for the Augusta players as an organization is really thrilling and that that drives me that gets me turned on big time

58:55
Scott, this is the second segment of the show. This is where we talk a little bit more about mental health. I believe that everybody goes through those kind of down days, whether it be diagnosed anxiety or depression, or it's just a day you just feel the weight of the world and you don't want to get out of bed. And I think everybody goes through that. So the more we talk about it, the more we can feel together in this and not alone, because I think that's the thief of joy, is that lie that you're alone in this.

59:25
and the more we can talk about it, the more people can realize that they are not alone. So for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay? I don't know that I keep it at bay. I think I don't think about it much. And so as you ask the question, I have to really think about what the definition of darkness is for me.

59:55
It's a lot of imposter syndrome. As we've discussed, I've been so blessed to do fun, crazy, cool things, but I always feel like I'm lying when I'm in those situations and somehow faking it to get through it. And so I worry a lot about letting people down

01:00:25
because I feel like I'm faking it. You know, even, I've been directing musicals. I mean, I started working as a drummer, but I think I directed my first show in 1978. And it's obviously 2022, that's a lot of years, but I still feel like I'm faking it

01:00:55
I really know what I'm doing sometimes. There are other moments too where I see work or even some women I've done and feel like, well, I guess I do know what I'm doing. But that weighs on me a great deal and I guess I combat that by doing more homework and working harder and doing more research. But I also don't know that that is answering your question as much.

01:01:25
official. But that is something that weighs on me a great deal. I'm doing a side gig right at the moment as the production supervisor for the national tour of My Fair Lady and part of my job is to help train the management team that's going out on that show. And interestingly, the production stage manager wrote me last night and said, quote unquote, I often feel like I have imposter syndrome and I went, I got you girl, I know exactly what you're

01:01:55
So we had a nice conversation to help her get through that. And maybe sometimes I need to take my own advice. I grew up without a father. I was raised by my mom and my brother, and I should say we're raised by my mom and my grandmother. And there are some great pluses to that. I feel like how my brother Paul and I interact with women

01:02:25
that I'm really proud of for the most part because we were raised by two women and then also my aunt was there quite a bit. But the reason for my mom leaving my dad, I don't know how much is hereditary or experience, but my brother and I definitely have some traits of our father who as I just mentioned recently passed away that are not necessarily good ones.

01:02:55
And they're different for both of us, for he and I. And I spent a lot of time...

01:03:10
in relationships.

01:03:13
that how I handle them, I'm not necessarily always proud of. And I'm not talking like, if I am in a relationship with someone, when I am present with someone, I wanna treat them incredibly well. So I'm not talking about, like I'm not abusive by any means. But I just have not always been necessarily proud of my choices. And so I wrestle with that.

01:03:43
And in the years from my second marriage on, especially, I'm very proud of how the progress that I've made there and how committed I've been to the people that I've been with. But that was not always the case. And so that weighs on me a lot. You know, I mentioned earlier that I was a Catholic minister and one of the reasons I left was because of

01:04:13
a question of faith and whether I had it or not. And in those moments when I feel strong in my beliefs, I'm like, you are going to hell, Scott, for some of the things that you've done or other choices you've made. And I don't believe that to be true, but that thought crosses my mind. I'm kind of rambling a little bit and answering that question as I just kind of explore my own psyche. That's okay, that's okay. Because it's interesting when you talk about having

01:04:43
imposter syndrome. I think everybody has that, especially in this type of industry where you're in some sort of entertainment or something like that. But I mean, even when you're, we're talking about the question of faith, that can be a type of imposter syndrome. I mean, really, am I the right person to be telling these people this particular thing? You know, and...

01:05:12
The other end of imposter syndrome is an inflated ego that I think is also not healthy. It's this weird thing, and especially in entertainment, you have to have a certain amount of ego to be able to get out there and perform and do what you need to do to pour yourself into this role or direct people or whatever. But yet, while you're doing it, there's that voice in the back of your head going,

01:05:42
here, you don't deserve to be doing the things you're doing. You don't deserve to be, you know, saying these lines, no, no, everyone's laughing at you or whatever, you know, and being able to

01:05:57
combat that in a healthy way is hard. It's very hard. And I think that's where like talking to people, having that family, especially in the theater family, you know, for that support that, you know, we're often very honest with each other in those rehearsals and in those, you know, times that we're together and when you mess up, someone lets you know, you mess up.

01:06:27
But when you do great, they let you know you do great as well. And you have to be able to take that in that they're being honest with you. They have, there's no reason that they would lie to you about something like that. And to be able to take it in and accept yourself enough that, okay, if they're saying this, it must be true. How can I let that be like, you know, a SAV to help this, help me through this imposter syndrome that I'm going through right now?

01:06:57
I agree. Yeah, theater is a great, theater is great therapy. And theater people are great therapists. Yeah, I would agree with you. Another thing that just struck me too, and I've talked about it with a handful of folks recently, I often wonder whether I should get tested to see if I'm on the spectrum. Augusta players have this great program called Camp on a Land for Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder. And so I think about that,

01:07:27
that life challenge that lots of folks have to deal with because I am so obsessed with numbers and mostly time. And so this might relate a little to your question. Time, I literally freak out about it. If I'm going to be late, it will affect me physically. I will, my heart will start racing. I'll start having a panic attack. And we don't need that.

01:07:57
I actually have my heart's in really great shape right now. I've got some great new parts in there that have like a 15 year warranty on them. So I'm fine for at least a decade. But that's a really big deal in my life to the point where it has negatively affected some relationships and it just, I mean, romantic relationships like business relationships and those are the things

01:08:27
those types of things. Time, I get stuck at a red light and I have to count in my head just to distract myself from the red lights because I will start to freak out about this is taking too long and I'm going to be late and I'm wasting time and as a result I'm wasting somebody's other time, someone else's time because I'm expected somewhere. Again, using rehearsals are a mutual example that we've shared together. I'm in rehearsal and I've called somebody.

01:08:57
don't really use them very much during that rehearsal, I panic about that. I feel so bad about having wasted their time. I often think I should probably get, see if this has a diagnosis because of how it affects me physically. But in general, after my first divorce,

01:09:27
We agreed to separately, it was kind of our, we did a do-it-yourself divorce and we were a supportive of each other and we're still friends to this day, but part of our agreement was that we would both seek therapy for some of the things that had been a challenge and that there are a person I went to who said, you don't need to come back, you're fine. I feel like that's bad advice. There's a therapist. Well, this is after like six sessions or something like that.

01:09:57
It wasn't the first day, but I'm oversimplifying it a touch, but essentially, there isn't a lot that gets me down, but I'm also, like I said, a workaholic, and so I don't leave a lot of space, which may be the issue. Who knows? Which is not necessarily a bad thing. I will say that. I've said it several times. Being able to focus on something else can keep you out of it.

01:10:27
of dark places, you know, whether it's to the extreme of being a workaholic. But that also depends on how badly that darkness and that weight may be coming for you and you just need to pour yourself into something else. So I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to have focus on something different. You know, you talk about the red light, you've got to focus on just counting as opposed to the perception of how long this...

01:10:57
light is staying red. I mean, those are ways that you're helping to keep yourself accountable to yourself in a positive way. I feel like that's in a positive way. I hope so. I've spent a long time even back to my teaching years about trying to keep a positive attitude about most things. One of the, do you say mantra or mantra? Which do you say? I say mantra usually. Yeah.

01:11:27
One of my mantras in those years and still to this day is that whatever situation you're in, you might as well make the best of it because the alternative is not very attractive, even though most times most people choose the alternative or quite often anyway. And so I try to do that to figure out a way to take a moment and make it positive. Baring levels of success, but at least there's an attempt made there.

01:11:57
to try and do that. And I think that ties into, you know, as I get older, I am much more, when you talk about time, I'm much more cognizant of time and that it is a non-renewable resource. Time spent is spent in you. There's nothing you can do to get any more of it. So why not do something positive for you, for someone else in the time that you have while you're in it? Because we don't know when that last moment

01:12:27
So make the most of it while you can. You know, I think that's a decent way to live life. I wanna go back through this conversation and transcribe you've had so many great quotes Rob, during our conversation, so many great little nuggets that should be on T-shirts. Ha ha ha. I'm gonna go back to the beginning of this video. I'm gonna go back to the beginning of this video. I'm gonna go back to the beginning of this video. I'm gonna go back to the beginning of this video. I'm gonna go back to the beginning of this video.

01:12:49
All right, Scott, 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. It's a great theme song. Well, I'm just workshopping some things. I know some folks, we should lay that down. Yeah. I'm not even kidding. Just get a baseline in there as drum track, something like that. The Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by me for Travis Brown. It's available in any of your app stores. It was created for podcasters.

01:13:19
Icebreakers, there are physical decks as well, which are great if you ever have to, you know, go to a board meeting and you want to lighten the mood. Ask some crazy icebreaker questions. As a matter of fact, if you go to chewinthefatbjr.com, slash poddecks, and use the promo code CHEW, you get 10% off your physical decks. But we are going to use the app today. No wrong answers. Just the first thing that comes to the top of your head. You ready? I am ready. Here we go. Question number one.

01:13:49
Thank you.

01:13:52
Would you rather have your toilet overflow every time you flush it or your refrigerator smell like rotting fish every time you open it? I'm going to choose the toilet. Yeah. Yeah. Riding fish and I do not. Fish and I in general don't get along. Okay. I get violin allele every time I eat fish. Yeah. Yeah. Except for sushi. How weird is that? That is odd. Yeah. That is odd. Maybe it's a higher grade of fish maybe because it has to be a higher grade for sushi.

01:14:22
also slathered in wasabi. Awesome. I mean, chief, you've just killed your taste buds. So you don't even realize that it's fish. But I'll go with the toilet. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I feel like you could clean that up a little better. I mean, there's probably like not enough airs cause you don't want the smell of rotting fish and like, you know, apple blossoms or something like that from spraying something. That's a good one. All right. Question number two.

01:14:47
Sweet or salty? Oh man. It's a classic question. Yeah, salty. I'm gonna go with salty, but honestly, not only because I have to. I want both of them. I want both of those things, but I'll choose salty. Okay. You know, I, as this question in a previous episode, and it was like, you know, I think one of my favorite snacks is both. It's the Chicago Mix popcorn, where you've got the cheddar cheese, and then you've got the caramel corn. I haven't had lunch yet. Oh, sorry. Sorry.

01:15:17
Well, you can have something salty for lunch, apparently. Question number three.

01:15:26
If someone made a movie about your life, who would play you? And I always put it two parts. Who would you want to play you? And then who would actually probably get the job? I don't know that I have anyone that I would want to put through that. So I don't know that I have someone that I want to play me. Oh gosh, his name just went out of my head. He was in, Kyle McLaughlin. It's Kyle McLaughlin, who I was fortunate to meet and run into.

01:15:56
I'm choosing Kyle McLaughlin because especially in our 30s, our late 20s and 30s, we were doppelgangers. And I was at a, when I was still teaching, I was at a theater festival with my students and went in and he was one of the guest speakers. And we ended up in the same pizza place at the same time for on a lunch break and sitting at the tables next to each other and both kind of did a double take with each other and introduced ourselves. That's awesome. So I would go with Kyle. Very good, very good.

01:16:26
Alright, and question number three, four. That's number four. That's it. Four.

01:16:33
All right, so we know you direct musicals. Do you like movie musicals? I do. Okay, if so, what is your favorite one? Favorite movie musical. It's not really a movie musical, but the pro shot of Hamilton is pretty exceptional. I think Baz Lerman's Chicago is really exceptionally well done. I would go with that off the top.

01:17:03
my head. I'm a fan of Baz Luhrmann's stuff. You know, in general, have you seen this Elvis, the Elvis movie? I have not yet. Great movie. Great movie. I personally think as much as I love Tom Hanks and he can do everything. Personally think they should have gotten somebody else to play Colonel Tom Parker. I would have gone with a, obviously no one asked me, but I would have gone with a rude. I know, right? Come on. I mean, I would have gone with maybe a John Goodman. Ah, yeah. Or something like that.

01:17:33
instead of putting Tom Hanks in a fat suit. I think there's a, we've reached a point in the world where there are great actors of all builds and you don't necessarily have to put people in fat suits. That's, as a fat guy saying that, that also would have been fine playing Colonel Tom Parker if you'd asked me, but again, they did not. I think probably my fair lady is one of my favorite. It would,

01:18:03
movie musicals, Rex Harrison is just iconic in that role. And I think every, and I don't know, maybe you're people that were on the tour, how much they leaned into a Rex Harrison type character or not, but I feel like it is, I feel like if you don't have some of that, even in a stage production of it, you can miss something in that show. That's just my two cents. I agree, and especially in this day and age,

01:18:33
has aged well, the stage show has not. It's a tough show to do in an era of me too because it's just packed with misogyny. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I can definitely see that. I can definitely see that. All right, and question number five. What's the best stage show you've ever seen?

01:18:56
Do you have any like pre-show routines or superstitions? Not superstitions and they're different for different things. There's an anecdote that goes with it, but I tend to always wear a green shirt at final dress rehearsal and that goes back to a gig I did when I was 16. I got hired to be the onstage drummer in the production of Cabaret. Little Catholic high school boy shows up for his first rehearsal and they say,

01:19:26
I didn't know that I had to be in drag when I got hired to do the gig. And I walk into my costume, my costume has a bustier that I have to wear. So it was opening night of that show and I happened to be wearing a green shirt that night and came back after the opening night to change in my street clothes and go home. And the shirt was gone. It had gotten mixed up with the laundry and disappeared forever. I never got the shirt. The show was a hit and got extended for 10 weeks.

01:19:56
or something like that. And so ever since that night, I always wear a green shirt for dress rehearsal for the success of that show. And that's hundreds upon hundreds of shows since then. Do you then get rid of the green shirt? I know. Just like make it disappear, throw it in trash or something? I run a nonprofit, I don't get paid enough to do that. I just didn't know. I mean, I didn't know how far the actual superstition went. So as an actor, there's different routines that I do just to warm up my mouth and face and things like that.

01:20:26
But that's the only thing that's kind of quasi superstitious. Okay. Well, Scott, that's our fast five. And that is the show. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for letting me just hang out and talk with you. It's been too long. No, yeah, this was awesome. If folks want to keep up with you, what's the best way that they can do that? Social media, my Facebook page, Instagram page. It's my name, Scott Seidl. But to be honest, you can also follow the Augusta players. And it's pretty much the same content because I'm a workaholic and that's what I like to talk about. I haven't.

01:20:56
of a website, but it's horrifically out of date, which is scottseidl.com. But if you want to see production photos from things I did before I got to August, I really have not updated it in five years. But there's some fun stuff there as well. But really social media is probably the best way. Awesome, awesome. Well, I'll make sure to put those links in the show notes again, Scott. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for what you're doing for this community and through the players. And thank you for your friendship as well. I can't thank you enough.

01:21:26
that. Yeah, and I apologize. We need to have breakfast again soon. Absolutely. We'll do that. We'll do that. And if you would like to support this podcast, I'd appreciate it if you buy me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com. But until next time, I look forward to when we have a chance to sit a spell and chew the fat.