Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Rage Ledbetter chats about his performance with Dixon Stage Left

Transcript

Talk Line: Rage Ledbetter chats about his performance with Dixon Stage Left · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, Sock Valley. You're here with us on the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Waking Crew FM ninety five one and AM fourteen sixty
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: w I XN. It's eight sixteen on your Wednesday, July
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: first morning, and you know what that means. It's time
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: for talk line. And I'm joined for the first time
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in the booth by my good friend, my new friend
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and fellow actor Rage Ledbetter. Rage. How are you?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm good, Brandon, I'm good. How are you this morning?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I'm wonderful. It's air conditioned in the booth. I get
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to play music and talk to interesting people like yourself.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: So it's it's like we were saying before we got
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: on air, it's a cool gig.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I really like the place, great aesthetic and
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: you seem like a natural.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you man. I can talk. What can
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I say? Ask anybody in my family and friends around me.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I can talk, So I guess it makes me a
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: natural fit for anything with that. But yeah, so we
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: recently did the readers theater for Dixon Stage Left Everybody's
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Favorite Mother. Yes you know, I already know, but I
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: gotta have you talking, man. How was your experience with that?
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I had a great time I began with Dixon stage
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: left last summer with a reader's theater of Grandmother's Shiv,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and that went well. I wasn't too familiar with it.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: For anyone that doesn't know, a reader's theater is a
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: lot like presenting an old radio show where you have
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: an audience and you sit up and you memorize your
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: parts in the script, but you read from the script.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: You do rehearsals for delivery, make sure you hit all
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: the right notes, so to speak. And maybe because I
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: was so focused on that, it was enjoyable. It was interesting.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: But this time with everybody's favorite Mother's the cast, the crew,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: everything chilled, terrific chemistry. I really really enjoyed it. And
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: even though it's a dramaedy, there's comedic moments, but she
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: can be very serious. We had so much fun, ladies
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: and gentlemen. I mean we were laughing nightly.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we really were. And I mean you nailed it
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: with the dramedy. I mean it did have a strong
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: message in very serious undertones. But yeah, this just with
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the cast that we had in the way everybody Jelden
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: was able to have so much fun. It was it
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: was laughing and enjoying it nightly getting to bring out
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I think the best of each other and all of it.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: And the audience was very responsive. Yeah, you know, I
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: really appreciated that. And afterwards Friday night was really good.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: It was really successful. Saturday night slightly bigger crowd, even
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: more successful. Afterwards, people were asking us for autographs. Yeah,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: people were visibly crying over some of the content, and
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: we got to fine tune a few things, especially as
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: far as comedy ad libs.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we all got good ad libs. I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: think everybody had a moment where they where they were
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: ad living here there, whether it was intentional or I know,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I had a moment where I was like, oh, man,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I miss that. How do I bring it back around?
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: And it worked and it's like, yeah, that's right. You
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: don't know, but we knew. Yeah.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: It was kind of like Friday night was the dress
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: rehearsal and Saturday was the final performance. That was great
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and Karen did a fantastic job. Karen Kaufman directing and Ashland.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: That was the more interesting thing. I met Ashland last
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: year and she's behind the scenes, and I mean she's
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: really focused.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And very dedicated, very detailed yep, and.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: This time, the one night that Karen wasn't there and
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Ashland had to be the director, she really showed. She
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: had great chops. I have never seen her laugh so
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: much in the time that I've known her since last year,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: so she really enjoyed it. I wish her well in
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the future. I told her, Hey, your debut, when you
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: direct something, call me. I want to be there. I
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: want to be a part of that one.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I am one hundred percent there with you. I
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: only got to meet her. This was my first time
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: meeting her, but yeah, seeing the passion and the drive
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that she had for it, and the way that she
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: was just able to bring everybody together, and yeah, it
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: was so much fun. She was she was like rolling
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in her seat while still taking notes, still being on timing.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: And you know, as you and I said, we really
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: could have made a either a one time I don't know,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: show special or production itself in the making of everybody's
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: favorite mothers.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that would have been just as entertaining, because oh, yeah,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: I wish you could have been there, folks.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I really wish you could at I do so
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and you know I probably should. We I'll give a
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: little breakdown, so Everybody's Favorite Mother is really about the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: mother who started P flag. And I'm going to get
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the acronyms wrong, but anybody who's listening probably knows what
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: P flag is and her son Mordy Mann for uh.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And so you played my best friend Mike and yeah,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: so I'll just leave it at That's how P flag
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: got started, but very non traditional way we were. We
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: were jumping back and forth through time. You had sound
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: effects going, pre recorded speeches, you know. Obama made an appearance,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: and a lot of special characters made an appearance. One
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: got brought to lie. Yeah you didn't think I was
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: gonna let this go, did you. Nobody has rage brought
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Marge Simpson to life. And if you could rage, you
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: could say anything. But if you could bring March to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: life for the listeners.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Hello Marty, it's a pleasure to be here today. Homer
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: would love it. Do you have anything from Grand Funk Railroad?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Maybe we're an American band? We do? Oh, he'd love it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I love you. Marg, Oh my god, it's the Okay.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: If March Simpson has an iconic I mean what barts
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: is eat my shorts and eat my shorts? Man Marche?
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Is that.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: And the killer was that nobody expected that. No, during rehearsals,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: when I busted that out, it all lost your minds.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: What made it even better that everybody here unfortunately you
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: missed there is what There's a video of it out
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: there somewhere. We'll have to find out. But Rage made
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: a special Marche hat that I kid you not look great,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: had the like little blue balls for hair like doming
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: up above you, and it was just perfect.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: As soon as I'd bring it out from behind the curtain,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: so to speak, and I'd go to put it on
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: my head, You'd see the audience just start cracking up.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Just lost it. Yeah, they absolutely lost it.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: That was That was hilarious. It was great to see
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: the audience so responsive.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: That's it really was. Yeah. Now, I know you know
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: from just from this conversation or a little bit that
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: it sounds like you're open to doing more. This wasn't
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: your last one, right because I want to do something
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: with you again, and I'm just going to I'm going
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: to be unfair here, honestly, Rage, and I'm going to
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: pressure you a little bit. You were approached about doing
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: something that I want to do and that I really
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: want to see you do. Are you going to try
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: out for Rocky Horror Picture Show?
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I have no plans to do.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: So he stands by his convictions.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: But I have friends that are totally pressuring me.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: This man in some fishnet stockings and a dance number
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: could kill Frankfurter.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: People will gouge out the rise, I tell you seeing
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: me walk around and oh my gosh.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I tell my wife the same thing about people's ears.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: With me trying I'm learning the banjo. I've only been
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: since December and I've not had a lot of time
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: between things, so I am still very terrible. And she's like,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I'll bring it to the store and so in between
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: dry spells, like I'll you know, I'll break out my
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: banjo on and you know, start playing a little bit,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, you should still play when people
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: going like we want people in here, honey, not out
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: like phoning to lose money. There's easier ways of doing it.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: But no, that you would be hilarious. Man.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you go in, maybe I'll go in.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I'll go in.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to go in or something.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be great. Now, Uh, you know, I
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: got to hear a little bit of the story. And
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I think anybody who's started at the com the start
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: of this conversation today is going to ask the same
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: as I got to hear a little bit about the
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: origin of your name. Rage is not a stage name, folks.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Rage is your actual name, birth certificate and all right,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: which is so cool and then ledbetter what an awesome
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, if anybody wanted you to have a stage name,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that was a perfect way to go. But very cool story.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Do you mind sharing?
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: No, no, no. My f was an activist once he
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: got out of the Marine Corps in the sixties. He
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: was a drill instructor. Who else would name their kid Rage,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: but he had become an activist and he was in
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: correspondence with the Black Panthers. He wanted a name that
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: summed up the decade totally assassinations, riots, demonstrations, Vietnam, but
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: also being in correspondence with the Black Panthers. Eldridge Cleaver
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: was running it at one point, and activist Angela Davis's
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: nickname for Eldridge was Popa Rage. And my dad just
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: zeroed in on that that's the name, that's the name,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: and he told my mother that's the name. And when
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: my mother asked, what if it's a girl. My dad
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: just matter of factly said, he won't be.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Well. I mean, he wasn't wrong, No.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: He was. He was making a statement he didn't want
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the world to forget, which I don't think they would have.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: But so I have a non verb emotion for a
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: first name. My middle name African. He named me Rage
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: ken YadA Ledbetter ken YadA after Yomo Kanyada, who liberated
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Kenya from British rule in the fifties, and Ledbetter is
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: total hillbilly.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: So I love it, man, it is so cool. That
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: is so cool. Your parents sound like awesome people.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: They were, They definitely were. My love for all media
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: came from my mother. She was a tomboy and she
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: shared her passions with me, whether it be music, especially movies.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Her and I are the type that we'll be watching
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: something it's like I know that guy, you know what
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: they were, and so and so this person efforts have
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: you ever seen it? You know? Just yeah, we get
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: together and it's like a couple of geese just honking honking,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: you know, we just really love it. And as far
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: as comic books and science fiction, she was a girl.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: She my mother had original Tales from the Crypt comics,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: but my grandmother said that's not ladylike and got rid
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: of them. But my gran my mother used to read
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Tales in the Crypt and.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: That was one of my favorite shows. When I found
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: out it was a comic book, that was she, yeah,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I've got that much more respect for that's super cool.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: And as far as the readers play, couldn't have done
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: it without her, because she claims, I've been reading since
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: I was three, whatever I could get my hands on,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: so there was always something on the coffee table for.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Me to read.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: And I just had the appetite for funnies in the newspapers, magazines, articles,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: things like that, and she said it was Mad Magazine
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: for me. I wasn't getting all the jokes, but you know,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: she didn't care. She's like, if you're gonna read it,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna get it for you.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Mad Magazine was my first introduction into my love for
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: comedy and all forms of anything that could be possibly funny.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: It was the first time I discovered that I liked drawing,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and it was the first type of things that I
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: liked drawing. And of course you are no stranger when
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: it comes to drawing. In comics Rage gave You gave
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: all of us actually a very special comic at the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: end of what was it, the Thursday's dress rehearsal, And
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I've got that over in my studio. You and me
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: are going to take a picture with that, since I
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: didn't bring it here for the video to show with everybody.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: I'm like ninety eight percent prepared today, which is a
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: really good one for me since my wife usually does
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: most of our preparing. But tell folks about this comic.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: You are just it's just more and more when I
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: unraveled the mystery of Rage and just the cool I
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: love hearing about people's lives. Tell folks about this.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Well, I come from a family artist. On my dad's side.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Everybody was drawing. I was drawing since I could hold
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a crayon, you know. And eventually along the way, yeah,
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: mom's love of comics became my love of comics. And
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I met a guy in high school that was Rich Perez.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: We were Peanut, Butter and Jelly right off the bat,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: and we used to make comics in high school that
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: made fun of our classmates and some would get angry.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: But eventually, over time people were begging us to put
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: them in these areas. Years later, you know, life happens.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: We're going off doing our own things, and an opportunity arose.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: We had both tried to get into the comics industry,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: as you know, a dreamer late teens, early twenties type
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: thing in the comic book industry was booming in the
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: early nineties, and finally Rich came to the conclusion, you know,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I have stories I want to tell, will self publish,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: and so we started Tego Comics in two thousand and nine.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: And in fact, one of our first venues was right
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: down the road, at which Holl tell us that the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: one next to all.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: The up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: They had a flashback of Horror's Weekend that weekend if
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: you were living out here, that's when Bruce Campbell from
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: the Evil Dead movies.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I remember when he came out here. Yeah. Army of
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Darkness was the first movie ever seen him. Love that
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and then I got introduced to the Evil Dead films
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: after that. But Army of Darkness was the first one.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: A naturally funny guy. We met him at the hotel,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: and Kelly Rich's wife, she even we got a picture
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: of her. We dressed her up in zombie makeup, giving
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: issue number one to Descended the Dead, our flagship title
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: about zombies. She gave that to Bruce gamb We got
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: a picture of that, and then we went out to
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the drive in the Dixon drive in because that was
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: part two. We sold off the rest of our wares
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: and Bruce commanded a stage they had built and the
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: guy is just slaying us. I mean, just like I said,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: naturally funny, and they played horror movies and horror movie
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: trailers all night. That was a great experience, and the
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: next thing, you know, we had a following, and the
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: company lasted about fifteen years and we disbanded it in
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. We had several titles and when all
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: over the US met all kinds of people, it was great.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: The fans very supportive. It was wonderful. So that was
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: where my public speaking came in. Rich preferred did I
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: do the talking, okay, Q and a's or various things.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Not that he wasn't above it, you know, he would
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: do that too, but yeah, so I got very comfortable
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: speaking in front of crowds.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So okay, yeah, well, I mean clearly obvious. You did
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: such a fantastic job at the play and again I
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: got I want to hear all the different impersonations you
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: could do after Marge. I'm like, what couldn't what couldn't
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: he do? It's so cool? Oh my god, we're out
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: of time, they see. I don't get enough time once
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: we get into into zones like this, unfortunately. But I
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: loved meeting you, Rage. I've got your numbers saved in
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: my phone. I consider you a friend absolutely, and I'm
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: going to let me know what you do sign up
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: for next. I want to do something with you, okay,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: but until auditions are past, I'm going to continue insisting
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: in pressuring Rage lace up the fishnet stockings and do
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: rocky horror. Oh my god, the world would be a
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: miss Rage. Thank you so much for coming on the
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: show Man.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: It was a thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I love it.