Latest / Jersey Arts Podcast / 'Ben Schwartz and Friends' Tour Stops at NJPAC for First Ever Performance in New Jersey!

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'Ben Schwartz and Friends' Tour Stops at NJPAC for First Ever Performance in New Jersey! · Jersey Arts Podcast

• 0:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I focus the one that has pretty crashes for the longest time.
• 0:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So one that's quite a bit of a question.
• 0:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I remember how to ask the questions.
• 0:39
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Don't worry.
• 0:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It was very kind of a good question.
• 0:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's okay to meet your heroes.
• 0:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You may know him as John Ralphio and Facts.
• 0:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We just coming back to five supplies.
• 1:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Or maybe it's the point of stuff like that.
• 1:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And those five.
• 1:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Now, all things considered, I think I had my question.
• 1:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But as always, I'll let you be the judge.
• 1:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Stay tuned to hear my super chill chat with Ben Schwartz.
• 1:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I just wanted to start maybe on a weird note.
• 1:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm not really sure.
• 1:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I just wanted to say that I happen to think that comedians are like saving the world one day at a time, one laugh at a time, right?
• 1:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So thank you for your service.
• 1:55
  Ben Schwartz: I don't think you can say service.
• 1:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't yeah, I don't what do we call that?
• 1:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thank you for your um improvisational.
• 2:02
  Ben Schwartz: You know what's funny?
• 2:02
  Ben Schwartz: I we were just talking about it the other day.
• 2:04
  Ben Schwartz: I feel like part of the reason why, if we're really doing this right off the bat, which is hilarious, I feel like part of the reason why I'm around is to try to make people laugh and make people's days a little better.
• 2:14
  Ben Schwartz: And I feel like um I'm feeling it way more when we're going out now that people really just want to laugh.
• 2:20
  Ben Schwartz: People are, it's a lot going on right now.
• 2:22
  Ben Schwartz: Regardless who you are, what are regardless what you believe in, there's a lot going on.
• 2:26
  Ben Schwartz: And I think just people want to release pretty bad.
• 2:30
  Ben Schwartz: I can feel it when we're on tour that people just are so excited to laugh and have an experience together and look at each other and have a moment together.
• 2:37
  Ben Schwartz: And so improv seems to really be connecting with them right now, which makes me really happy.
• 2:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I'm I'm glad that it makes you happy.
• 2:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's making us happy, but I I believe everything that you're saying because I'm feeling it, so I can only imagine that other people are feeling that too.
• 2:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The world is just crazy, and it doesn't, I don't want to talk about like politics or which way you're going.
• 2:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think anybody can realize the world is a little bit weird right now.
• 3:00
  Ben Schwartz: There's a lot going on right now, everywhere.
• 3:02
  Ben Schwartz: There's uh it's like everybody's got their own personal stuff they have to deal with, and then there's so much world too that it's like um, yeah, there's just like we're all juggling so much.
• 3:11
  Ben Schwartz: I wonder what this time will be looked back upon going in the history books.
• 3:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I do wonder what it's gonna look like in the history books.
• 3:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What with the advent of social media and like everybody posting their own form of news, and how do you parse through like what's real and what's not?
• 3:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I we can't even do that now.
• 3:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We can't tell what's real and what's not.
• 3:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So that's another thing.
• 3:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I I'm I guess I wasn't sure if I should start on that note.
• 3:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I just I did want to bring it up, and I wanted to thank you because I think that comedy is often overlooked, and I think it's one of the harder things to do.
• 3:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And yeah, I just wanted to say thank you because it isn't I love that.
• 3:46
  Ben Schwartz: That's so kind of you.
• 3:47
  Ben Schwartz: I appreciate it.
• 3:48
  Ben Schwartz: Of course, you're welcome.
• 3:50
  Ben Schwartz: I don't think I should say that, but I appreciate your I appreciate the sentiment very much.
• 3:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I will accept either of those answers now.
• 3:57
  Ben Schwartz: Okay, good, good, good, good.
• 3:58
  Ben Schwartz: I haven't failed yet.
• 3:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, not yet.
• 4:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't think you're going to.
• 4:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't think you're capable of failure.
• 4:03
  Ben Schwartz: Okay, okay, okay, okay.
• 4:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're gonna be in New Jersey very soon.
• 4:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're gonna be at the NJ Pack.
• 4:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm looking forward to that.
• 4:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um, I don't live too far from there, so I'm looking forward to the show.
• 4:13
  Ben Schwartz: But I've just been in, I've been filming a movie in Jersey too.
• 4:16
  Ben Schwartz: So I've been there, I was there for a I was in Jersey City for a week, and we filmed and we filmed like four different parts of Jersey.
• 4:21
  Ben Schwartz: Um it's been lovely.
• 4:23
  Ben Schwartz: So I'm I've been in and out of Newark more in the past month than I have in my entire life.
• 4:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's actually amazing.
• 4:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But you're from the East Coast, right?
• 4:30
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, I grew up in Riverdale, um, which is like the northern tip of the Bronx, and then moved to Westchester.
• 4:36
  Ben Schwartz: So uh and then went to school in upstate New York.
• 4:38
  Ben Schwartz: So I'm a very New York kid, but um I have so many friends from New Jersey, and especially in like in um improv in our community in Upright Citizens Brigade.
• 4:48
  Ben Schwartz: There's a bunch of people from Jersey over there, uh famously so.
• 4:51
  Ben Schwartz: So um yeah, so I'm over, I've been in Jersey quite a bit.
• 4:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's amazing.
• 4:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Are you allowed to say what you were filming in Jersey?
• 4:58
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, it was a movie called I think I am, right?
• 5:01
  Ben Schwartz: The movie called Bad Day with Cameron Diaz.
• 5:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Okay, awesome.
• 5:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean it's on IMDB, but I don't know what people tell you if you love so many things are filming in Jersey now.
• 5:10
  Ben Schwartz: The tax incentive is so beautiful and gorgeous.
• 5:12
  Ben Schwartz: I have I have gotten scripts, like maybe four things filming in Jersey.
• 5:16
  Ben Schwartz: And even in the production office, there's like seven different things, and there's so many things filming right now there.
• 5:21
  Ben Schwartz: It's kind of wonderful.
• 5:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's beyond wonderful.
• 5:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We're all very excited about it, very proud.
• 5:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: People are finally realizing Jersey is kind of awesome.
• 5:30
  Ben Schwartz: I love it.
• 5:31
  Ben Schwartz: I love it.
• 5:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 5:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I would love to talk to you just about improvisation in general, because not that I'm here to promote myself, I'm not, but I I am an actor, but the one thing that terrifies me more than anything else is improv.
• 5:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I my question for you is after having done it all these years, do you get nervous?
• 5:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Do you still get nervous before you go on stage or have you moved past that?
• 5:57
  Ben Schwartz: I don't really get nervous anymore.
• 5:58
  Ben Schwartz: There's specific things that make me nervous.
• 6:00
  Ben Schwartz: Like if someone enormous is in the like if someone told me Steven Spielberg was in the audience, I'd be like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:06
  Ben Schwartz: Or like, you know, Bill Murray was coming to a show, or like, or somebody, you know, like somebody huge in the comedy world.
• 6:11
  Ben Schwartz: Um, but usually what happens when I'm uh anxious or nervous, you're right, it doesn't really happen much anymore because we've done so many shows and Steven Spielberg just hasn't showed up yet.
• 6:21
  Ben Schwartz: But usually what happens is loss.
• 6:23
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, yes.
• 6:24
  Ben Schwartz: But usually what happens is once I get my first laugh, I'm fine and I'm back to normal.
• 6:28
  Ben Schwartz: I just gotta make sure, like, okay, does this audience get what we're doing?
• 6:31
  Ben Schwartz: There's a little different thing with improv where it's like people, a lot of, you know, we're playing these houses that are like 3,600, or we play Radio City, which was 6,000.
• 6:39
  Ben Schwartz: And so it's the what we do usually is for 90 people, that's what the theater at UCB was in New York for when I was coming up.
• 6:46
  Ben Schwartz: Uh 90 to 120, I think it was.
• 6:49
  Ben Schwartz: So a lot of times we're introducing this art form to people for the first time.
• 6:54
  Ben Schwartz: And so it's just it that's another thing that makes me so happy.
• 6:58
  Ben Schwartz: We're spreading what this could be, and you know, like inspiring other people, kids and adults, to try to do this and showing them that it doesn't have to be in a little theater.
• 7:06
  Ben Schwartz: You can do these big, big theaters.
• 7:07
  Ben Schwartz: Um, so um, but for in terms of um nerves, once I get that first laugh, I'm pretty good, and after a while, you just you know, you get excited.
• 7:15
  Ben Schwartz: I got I got to play the Chicago Theater, which is so fun for the sixth time, or you it you know, all these, or we played Sydney Opera House.
• 7:21
  Ben Schwartz: I was probably nervous before Sydney Opera House because it was such a big it was such an important venue, and it was introducing improv to so many people, and I wanted I wanted to us to kill.
• 7:32
  Ben Schwartz: Do you know what I mean?
• 7:33
  Ben Schwartz: I just wanted us to be so good that when we left, it was undeniable that people would be like, Whoa, I saw these guys at the Sydney Opera House, and that they've never done long form improv on that stage before, and they did it and it worked, and it was awesome.
• 7:45
  Ben Schwartz: So I think that's the last time I was nervous, but probably this tour that was that was probably it.
• 7:50
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah.
• 7:50
  Ben Schwartz: You just do it's like a muscle.
• 7:52
  Ben Schwartz: I've done it so long 23 years now that I've done it so long that you know you kind of like I got my 10,000 hours plus another 10,000 hours in.
• 8:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I guess that makes sense.
• 8:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't exercise enough to understand how muscles can accommodate, I guess.
• 8:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Can you actually talk me through like what is long form improv?
• 8:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like, what's the difference between long form and short pro short form?
• 8:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, I speak English sometimes.
• 8:16
  Ben Schwartz: Absolutely.
• 8:17
  Ben Schwartz: It would be my honor.
• 8:18
  Ben Schwartz: I started off in college doing short form improv, which usually is little games, quick little games.
• 8:23
  Ben Schwartz: And you know, a lot of people are there's a lot of people are very funny at it, and uh oftentimes you could play the same type of things in those games to get laughs.
• 8:30
  Ben Schwartz: It'd be like the A-Z game where like every sentence has to start with A and then B then C, or like head in the bucket game, where like someone can't hear a scene and then comes up out of the bucket and does this like, but it's usually like little quick things, which is beautiful and funny way, and whose lines it anyway does it the best.
• 8:45
  Ben Schwartz: They're so good at it, you know what I mean.
• 8:47
  Ben Schwartz: And um, there's aspects of it in Freestyle Love Supreme, which is an incredible musical improv group that Lynn Manuel put together with Tommy Cale and Chris Jackson and and uh Shockwave and all those people.
• 8:56
  Ben Schwartz: So um they theirs is insanely impressive.
• 9:00
  Ben Schwartz: Uh but there's also uh something called long form improv, which is what we do.
• 9:04
  Ben Schwartz: It was a form developed by Dell Close in Chicago, and then the way that I learned it is that uh the UCB4, which is Amy Polar, uh Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Matt Besser, had a group in um Chicago after learning from Dell.
• 9:17
  Ben Schwartz: They brought it to New York and they started teaching people in New York, and then I was the generation after that that got taught by one or two of them, but then mostly the people they taught.
• 9:25
  Ben Schwartz: What it is at the beginning of our show is I ask an audience member, or I ask all the audience members, um, I want to know this is what we're gonna do in New Jersey.
• 9:33
  Ben Schwartz: This is the prompt for this year, is I want to know about the most exciting day or night of your life.
• 9:37
  Ben Schwartz: Tell me about the most exciting day or night, and people raise their hands, and then we'll pick somebody, we'll talk to them about that thing, and then we'll hear their whole story, then everybody puts their hands down, nobody talks, and then we almost do like a play for like the first half is 45 minutes, then we take a break, then we come back and we do a whole nother show for you, and then if we do it right, things in the second show should be connecting with the first show and should feel like a whole piece, but all the scenes run into each other and the characters keep coming back, and we're almost making like a series of scenes, almost like a play for you, but like a comedic, uh comedic series of scenes that all intertwine.
• 10:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 10:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, I've seen I personally have seen some of your clips online.
• 10:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I haven't been to one of your shows uh cool yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
• 10:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like I said, you're gonna be at the pack.
• 10:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I was kind of relieved to hear you say that people raise their hands and you call on them, because like we just discussed, I get very nervous.
• 10:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So my fear is like, you know, when you're in class.
• 10:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Never.
• 10:35
  Ben Schwartz: I told I'm the same way.
• 10:36
  Ben Schwartz: I'm the same way.
• 10:37
  Ben Schwartz: If I'm in a crowd, I don't I don't want anybody, I want to be, I want to escape into the crowd.
• 10:41
  Ben Schwartz: Uh so you also have to remember, you know what's funny though?
• 10:44
  Ben Schwartz: Sometimes people hear the first story, and then the second story, those people that were too nervous to raise their hand but might have had a cool story, they see that we're on their side, we're not making fun of them, we're there to like support them, and they get a whole show based off their story.
• 10:56
  Ben Schwartz: Then for the second half, we almost always get better stories because all of a sudden more people raising their hands.
• 11:01
  Ben Schwartz: They see they're not nervous anymore, they're comfortable with what's going on stage, they get a vibe, you know what I mean.
• 11:06
  Ben Schwartz: Uh, but this is my it's crazy.
• 11:07
  Ben Schwartz: I've lived I lived in New York for you know the majority of my life, and I've never played New Jersey.
• 11:12
  Ben Schwartz: This is the first time because we always just play the beacon in New York, or I did Carnegie Hall and I did Town Hall and I did Radio City, and I've never done New Jersey.
• 11:21
  Ben Schwartz: So this is my first ever New Jersey show.
• 11:22
  Ben Schwartz: So I'm hoping that Jersey represents.
• 11:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah.
• 11:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh my gosh.
• 11:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So this is your first time at NJ Pack.
• 11:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I I mean, have you attended as a patron before?
• 11:31
  Ben Schwartz: No, I mean, I'm talking about the whole state of New Jersey.
• 11:34
  Ben Schwartz: I've never done a show anywhere in the whole state of New Jersey.
• 11:36
  Ben Schwartz: So this is the first time ever.
• 11:38
  Ben Schwartz: I know, which is crazy.
• 11:39
  Ben Schwartz: We're right across the street from you guys.
• 11:40
  Ben Schwartz: We're at where it starts.
• 11:41
  Ben Schwartz: We're hoping that the people, you know, I'm I'm hoping that people love it enough there that we get to keep coming back.
• 11:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I'm like I said, I will be there.
• 11:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I am looking forward to it.
• 11:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I am so fascinated by people who are able to improv because my brain just does not work that quickly.
• 11:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And trust me, I've tried.
• 11:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I've been in acting classes and they're like, you can do it.
• 12:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, no, I cannot.
• 12:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like, I promise you, I just I freeze up entirely.
• 12:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I I know the game, I know yes, and you always say yes, but my impulse is always to say no because I just want to shut it down.
• 12:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm like, get me off the stage, please, please let me.
• 12:16
  Ben Schwartz: But you love, but you love acting.
• 12:17
  Ben Schwartz: But you wish if you had lines, you would love it.
• 12:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I yeah, I love lines.
• 12:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love being able to rehearse it.
• 12:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love lines.
• 12:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like, well, that's gonna be an interesting um clip if we take that out by itself.
• 12:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I love wrote memorization because uh that soothes my anxiety because I'm like, okay, I know where this is going, I know what's coming, but you don't know what's coming with improv, and that terrifies me beyond words.
• 12:43
  Ben Schwartz: So I talked to a couple very, very uh wonderfully successful singers or musicians who who play like the same venues we play, like Chicago Theater or like the Beacon or Radio City, and they said, like, the idea that you go on that stage in front of all those people and have no idea what's gonna happen is all of their worst nightmares.
• 13:04
  Ben Schwartz: Literally all of them were like, why would you do that to me?
• 13:07
  Ben Schwartz: What a we like we must have some idea.
• 13:09
  Ben Schwartz: And they're like, no, no, we have literally no idea.
• 13:12
  Ben Schwartz: We know that we've done a billion shows, so we know we're gonna give a good show, but we have no idea what's gonna happen in the show.
• 13:17
  Ben Schwartz: And it it got my friends so anxious, those singers being like, that would be that would be crazy.
• 13:24
  Ben Schwartz: That would be insane.
• 13:25
  Ben Schwartz: Um, but you kind of can't think about it, you know what I mean?
• 13:27
  Ben Schwartz: Just we just kind of go up there and do our thing like little little dummies.
• 13:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I mean, I guess it helps it, you know, it's Ben Schwartz and friends, so you're comfortable with the people that you're performing with and you've you've been doing it for a while.
• 13:39
  Ben Schwartz: That's right.
• 13:39
  Ben Schwartz: I have like a list of 10 people, and uh most of those people I've been performing with for 20 years or 10, 15 years.
• 13:46
  Ben Schwartz: So I'm only bringing the people that I think are the best improvisers, and also I kind of pick them like teams where it's like uh almost like a basketball team where like there's a point guard or there's like someone who's really good at characters, really good straight man, you know what I mean?
• 13:58
  Ben Schwartz: Like if you're in a scene with this person, um they're really brain forward and really good at like, you know, if I'm the crazy person in the scene, they can be the straight person at the scene making it make sense.
• 14:07
  Ben Schwartz: And so I kind of try to build it, and I also try to show represent as much representation as I can.
• 14:12
  Ben Schwartz: The goal is to get someone in the LGBT LGBTQ community, uh, someone who is not white, uh, a woman, and then myself on stage.
• 14:21
  Ben Schwartz: So if someone's in the audience that wants to do this, they can kind of see a version or a piece of something that isn't uh as white as a lot of the comedy stuff looks.
• 14:30
  Ben Schwartz: Um, so they can see that you know we we're all kind of doing it.
• 14:33
  Ben Schwartz: I forget who I'm bringing to that show, but I think I think we hit all the yeah, we hit we hit all those things for the show coming up.
• 14:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's awesome.
• 14:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, uh it's really thoughtful, actually, that you consider that.
• 14:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So thank you.
• 14:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, I you know, I present white, right?
• 14:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I am a a Latina, so I kind of fall in two worlds, which is always weird for me, but I get really excited when I see, you know, like J-Lo was huge for me when I was younger.
• 14:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Of course.
• 14:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You can be a Latina and you can do this too.
• 15:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's awesome.
• 15:03
  Ben Schwartz: But representative when Selena came out, huge, enormous, enormous.
• 15:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, that's still one of my favorite movies.
• 15:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I can't watch the ending, but I love that movie.
• 15:13
  Ben Schwartz: You don't know how it ends, that would be crazy.
• 15:15
  Ben Schwartz: Like, but no, I never got to the end.
• 15:17
  Ben Schwartz: I never got to the end.
• 15:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh gosh, I just forgot what I was gonna say, though.
• 15:20
  Ben Schwartz: You said you uh you that means a lot to you, the idea of representation, even though you don't sometimes you may not people may not think that you are a Latina.
• 15:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thank you for bringing me back.
• 15:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And that's how we know you improv, you pay attention.
• 15:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I the website and and what I'm allowed to hear from NJ Pack, I guess, is that you have surprise guests.
• 15:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I don't know if you're we're like a week out.
• 15:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know if you're allowed to say who you're bringing with you yet.
• 15:43
  Ben Schwartz: I know I never I never do.
• 15:45
  Ben Schwartz: I always love the idea that nobody knows who's gonna come on stage until you come to my show and I introduce them on stage.
• 15:50
  Ben Schwartz: So for no show have I ever announced anybody.
• 15:52
  Ben Schwartz: Oh, okay.
• 15:53
  Ben Schwartz: Um, but it's but it is like it it is, you know, it's from my group of you're not everybody's been on TV, everybody's awesome.
• 16:01
  Ben Schwartz: You know, I I never really bring any duds.
• 16:03
  Ben Schwartz: It's all like everybody's so excited that improv is performing in such a large format that I I'm very fortunate.
• 16:09
  Ben Schwartz: I get my pick of anybody who, you know, everybody can't wait to jump on stage and go to New Jersey, so it's exciting.
• 16:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 16:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm I mean, because this is a Jersey podcast, I want to ask you a little bit about New Jersey since you grew up, you know, right across the river.
• 16:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Sure.
• 16:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So do you have any favorite Jersey haunts, or or did you really just kind of stick to New York?
• 16:28
  Ben Schwartz: Man, you know what's so funny?
• 16:29
  Ben Schwartz: I've uh was it Marlborough or Cherry Hill?
• 16:31
  Ben Schwartz: I forget where I was at I had a we had a couple friends that lived there.
• 16:34
  Ben Schwartz: One friend had a pool.
• 16:35
  Ben Schwartz: I didn't know anybody had a pool my entire life, but someone in Jersey had a pool.
• 16:38
  Ben Schwartz: So um um, but we had a couple family friends.
• 16:41
  Ben Schwartz: The Greenbergs lived over there, and we went over there all the time to visit them, and we'd always find different spots to eat along the way from Westchester to New Jersey, like we find fun spots in Jersey or there.
• 16:51
  Ben Schwartz: But it wasn't we didn't really go to Jersey all that much, um, unless we were visiting our family friends.
• 16:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um that makes sense.
• 16:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, if you're in New York, that's pretty cool.
• 17:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So why why come to Jersey?
• 17:02
  Ben Schwartz: But I will say I love Jersey City.
• 17:04
  Ben Schwartz: I was in Jersey City for a week and a half for this movie.
• 17:07
  Ben Schwartz: I thought it was awesome.
• 17:08
  Ben Schwartz: I went to a pizza place called Raza, that was awesome.
• 17:10
  Ben Schwartz: I went like uh there was there was like great food stuff, it felt beautiful.
• 17:15
  Ben Schwartz: Able to walk at night, you're able to get in the city and back if you want to.
• 17:18
  Ben Schwartz: I totally get the um appeal.
• 17:20
  Ben Schwartz: And I have a feeling that all of us in this industry are gonna be spending a lot of time in Jersey in the next few years because that incentive I think you guys have locked down for a bunch of years coming up, so it's gonna be very exciting.
• 17:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 17:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm looking forward to it.
• 17:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, we've got Netflix coming here, we've got a bunch of stuff.
• 17:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's crazy right now.
• 17:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: There's it's booming.
• 17:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The industry is booming in New Jersey.
• 17:40
  Ben Schwartz: It is, it's New Jersey.
• 17:41
  Ben Schwartz: Everything is New Jersey.
• 17:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes, everything's coming up Jersey.
• 17:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think I heard something recently.
• 17:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Maybe you were on you were on a podcast, maybe it was off menu, um, where you might have.
• 17:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I think you said that you do fancy restaurants every time you go on tour now.
• 17:56
  Ben Schwartz: I do.
• 17:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So do you have one lined up for Newark or for in Jersey?
• 18:01
  Ben Schwartz: No, because a lot of the places close by the time we're leaving, and we leave I leave at like eight in the morning the next night.
• 18:06
  Ben Schwartz: So we're going back our hotels in New York, so we gotta go back to New York.
• 18:09
  Ben Schwartz: Um, there weren't a ton of uh hotel choices near this venue.
• 18:13
  Ben Schwartz: Um not as many as I thought there would be.
• 18:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, that's kind of disappointing.
• 18:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Darn.
• 18:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm I'm sorry.
• 18:19
  Ben Schwartz: Um we're do you have a do you have a spot?
• 18:21
  Ben Schwartz: What's a good what's a good Jersey spot where around uh uh NJ Pack?
• 18:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What a great question that I don't have an answer to.
• 18:31
  Ben Schwartz: What's your favorite Jersey restaurant?
• 18:33
  Ben Schwartz: That's a great question, and it's on your podcast.
• 18:35
  Ben Schwartz: We cannot disappoint.
• 18:37
  Ben Schwartz: I want to know the next time I'm in Jersey, which is now often, what is what is the restaurant I have to eat at?
• 18:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Do you know what's happening right now?
• 18:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This feels like an improv test to me.
• 18:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So my brain and my body are shut up.
• 18:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This isn't even an improv test.
• 18:50
  Ben Schwartz: I'm just asking you a real question.
• 18:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I know.
• 18:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's what's crazy about it.
• 18:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um, what is my favorite restaurant?
• 18:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't leave the house much, Ben.
• 19:00
  Ben Schwartz: Um, where would you go?
• 19:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's so such a good question.
• 19:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You just asked me.
• 19:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm I'm honestly embarrassed that I'm not prepared for this question because I did just ask you and I'm totally unprepared.
• 19:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This is why I'd be terrible at improv.
• 19:20
  Ben Schwartz: I guess I'm gonna see if they sometimes um uh uh one of my friends gives me places to look at restaurant-wise.
• 19:27
  Ben Schwartz: Okay, ready?
• 19:28
  Ben Schwartz: These are the ones they said for Jersey.
• 19:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Okay.
• 19:31
  Ben Schwartz: Casa de Paco.
• 19:32
  Ben Schwartz: Oh no, I guess, or don Don Pepe.
• 19:34
  Ben Schwartz: They gave me two Spanish places and a Portuguese seafood place.
• 19:38
  Ben Schwartz: I think those are the ones that's from the venue.
• 19:40
  Ben Schwartz: That's like 10 minutes from the venue.
• 19:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: To be fair, that makes sense because Newark is gonna be really big on the Portuguese and the uh Brazilian and Spanish food.
• 19:48
  Ben Schwartz: So that doesn't make sense.
• 19:49
  Ben Schwartz: Love it all.
• 19:50
  Ben Schwartz: I mean, if you heard that podcast, you know how much I love eating food.
• 19:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So well, what's crazy is so do I, but like I said, right now I'm completely you can't think of one restaurant, Gina.
• 20:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I honestly I what's coming to mind is Cheesecake Factory, which is terrible because that is a shit.
• 20:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm not gonna talk about Cheesecake Factory.
• 20:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, there's a there's a place by me um that I like, but uh that's in Rawway.
• 20:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Uh it's called Lucianos, and it's uh a small Italian restaurant.
• 20:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um, so we'll we'll start with them, but I'm gonna think of more.
• 20:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You know, hopefully by the end of this podcast, I will have thought of more.
• 20:26
  Ben Schwartz: Lucianos.
• 20:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Because dear lord, yes, it's called Lucianos, and it's on a train line, so we're not far from it.
• 20:31
  Ben Schwartz: There you go.
• 20:32
  Ben Schwartz: If we were leaving out of Newark, we would have we would have stayed there, but we're leaving out of I think a different airport.
• 20:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, okay, that makes sense.
• 20:40
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, I mean, right now Oh, Newark, by the way, cleaner that I mean way better than when I was a kid.
• 20:45
  Ben Schwartz: It's so much nicer now.
• 20:46
  Ben Schwartz: I was like, when I was a kid, I feel like it wasn't nearly as beautiful as it is now.
• 20:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, we're talking about Newark the city, not the airport.
• 20:53
  Ben Schwartz: No, the airport.
• 20:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, we are talking about the airport.
• 20:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Okay, yeah.
• 20:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, I think they've done a nicer job with it because they didn't they just like do a reno recently?
• 21:01
  Ben Schwartz: They must have but it looks a lot nicer now.
• 21:04
  Ben Schwartz: I came in the United two different times and everything was really nice.
• 21:07
  Ben Schwartz: I was like, this is beautiful.
• 21:08
  Ben Schwartz: Same with LaGuardia.
• 21:10
  Ben Schwartz: LaGuardia is gorgeous now, also.
• 21:11
  Ben Schwartz: What's happening?
• 21:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, now the problem is just like the delays and I know.
• 21:16
  Ben Schwartz: I know.
• 21:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I wanted to talk to you about something else that you mentioned in another interview, and I'm just borrowing from other people at this point.
• 21:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Right.
• 21:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I feel like there is a stigma when it comes to comedians who want to branch out and perform dramatic roles.
• 21:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I know you talked about when you saw Robin Williams do it and Jim Carrey do it, and the impact that that had on you.
• 21:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So what what are your thoughts on that bias?
• 21:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Why do you think people feel that we need to be boxed into, oh, well, you can only do the one thing.
• 21:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're you're the guy who makes me laugh.
• 21:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's that's all you're allowed to do.
• 21:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, yeah.
• 21:54
  Ben Schwartz: That's interesting.
• 21:54
  Ben Schwartz: I think sometimes when you do a character, like when I did um, I was on Parks and Rec and I did this character named John Ralphio.
• 22:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, that's my favorite, by the way, I have to say.
• 22:02
  Ben Schwartz: Oh, God, the best like my one of my favorite experiences of my life and helped me in my whole career.
• 22:07
  Ben Schwartz: But after that role, because that role became popular, a lot of the roles that people wanted me to play were that over and over again.
• 22:12
  Ben Schwartz: You know what I mean?
• 22:13
  Ben Schwartz: And you have to kind of break the cycle by being like, oh, I can do this too, or I could do this.
• 22:17
  Ben Schwartz: Um, but I think with comedy, sometimes people I think what you started with, like comedy is very hard.
• 22:24
  Ben Schwartz: I think it's you know, it's kind of after a while it becomes math to someone who does comedy, you kind of like feel it in your bones a little bit.
• 22:30
  Ben Schwartz: But I think sometimes when people see someone being goofy or something like that, they don't think that maybe they can get to an emotional place to hit dramatic beats.
• 22:37
  Ben Schwartz: Um, and so that's why it was so important for me to like see Truman Show or to see like you know, any any Goodwill Hunting or any uh Robin Williams movie.
• 22:46
  Ben Schwartz: It just showed me and felt confident that you know, like, oh, I should try that and give that a shot too.
• 22:50
  Ben Schwartz: And the times that I've been able to try it, it's been so wonderful.
• 22:54
  Ben Schwartz: And um, it never makes me want to be like, I'm never like, I don't want to do comedy anymore.
• 22:58
  Ben Schwartz: Comedy's so fun.
• 23:00
  Ben Schwartz: And also on a set, comedy's so much more fun than a dramatic dramatic.
• 23:03
  Ben Schwartz: Oh my god, yeah.
• 23:04
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, when you're trying to make people laugh.
• 23:06
  Ben Schwartz: And but I love the idea that that opened up for me and made me feel like, oh, you know what?
• 23:09
  Ben Schwartz: I can do this too.
• 23:10
  Ben Schwartz: I don't have to be just this thing.
• 23:12
  Ben Schwartz: And I think the more you watch, I mean like Brian Cranson started on Malcolm in the Middle, I mean that's that's the start there, but he got pretty big off that, and then he was one of the most explosive dramatic actors of of all time.
• 23:24
  Ben Schwartz: But it always gets me excited when I see a comedian uh do a dramatic role and crush it.
• 23:28
  Ben Schwartz: It always makes me happy.
• 23:29
  Ben Schwartz: It just shows people that we can do kind of we can do kind of everything.
• 23:32
  Ben Schwartz: And also, uh, it also makes me happy when I see a dramatic person get into uh comedy and crush.
• 23:37
  Ben Schwartz: I was like, oh my god, I didn't know they could do that.
• 23:39
  Ben Schwartz: It's that makes me so happy.
• 23:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um, react to when I saw De Niro.
• 23:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: De Niro flipped into comedy when he did like Meet the Pairs.
• 23:47
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:48
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, and also the Lombard Billy Crystal Analyze This.
• 23:50
  Ben Schwartz: That one crushed me.
• 23:51
  Ben Schwartz: I loved him in that.
• 23:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, same, same.
• 23:54
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:55
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah, loved him.
• 23:56
  Ben Schwartz: I did a movie De Niro wasn't in New Jersey, I think it was in Connecticut.
• 23:59
  Ben Schwartz: My third movie I ever did.
• 24:01
  Ben Schwartz: It was it was like that.
• 24:03
  Ben Schwartz: It was so exciting, so exciting.
• 24:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I can imagine.
• 24:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, that's that's like a dream for most actors, you know.
• 24:10
  Ben Schwartz: Crazy.
• 24:11
  Ben Schwartz: I was such a kid.
• 24:12
  Ben Schwartz: It was him, Kate Beckinsale, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell was in it, I think.
• 24:17
  Ben Schwartz: It was like so many hugely famous people, and I was like, huh, I couldn't believe it.
• 24:22
  Ben Schwartz: At the table read, I was like, I couldn't believe it.
• 24:24
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah.
• 24:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We'll talk about anxiety.
• 24:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: How how how does that feel when you're like the new guy at a table with these giants?
• 24:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like, how do you overcome that?
• 24:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Same thing.
• 24:34
  Ben Schwartz: I same thing.
• 24:34
  Ben Schwartz: I'm terrified up until I get that first laugh, and then people look at me like, oh, he knows what he's doing.
• 24:40
  Ben Schwartz: Then I'm then I feel comfortable.
• 24:42
  Ben Schwartz: But you're right, it's it's it's always gonna be scary when you see like your hero or somebody like that.
• 24:47
  Ben Schwartz: Or I did a movie Billy Crystal, Long Island, Billy Crystal, and um, you know, before meeting him, I was like, Man, I really want to do well.
• 24:53
  Ben Schwartz: I love him.
• 24:54
  Ben Schwartz: I love his comedy, I love his acting.
• 24:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um Standing Up, Falling Down, is that yeah, that was that.
• 25:00
  Ben Schwartz: That was that, uh, which was super fun to make.
• 25:02
  Ben Schwartz: But um, yeah, I think it's very much that like you get so nervous, and then when they're and then when you start to show what you can do, you you start to you know get your competence, gets back.
• 25:11
  Ben Schwartz: And you're like, all right, I'm here because they thought I was good enough to do this.
• 25:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, exactly.
• 25:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, that's a really good point.
• 25:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like, you were cast, you got the role, there was a reason that you got the role.
• 25:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Right.
• 25:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Something you know important to remind.
• 25:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I guess we all need to remind ourselves of that sometimes.
• 25:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like, did you get the job?
• 25:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Great, that means you can do it.
• 25:28
  Ben Schwartz: So right, right, right, right, right.
• 25:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that's great.
• 25:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I I have to say that you have been lovely, but I'm a I'm a huge fan of yours, so I was you know nervous to to go into this, but you've you've put me at ease, and I do appreciate it.
• 25:41
  Ben Schwartz: You don't seem nervous at all.
• 25:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, thank god I am a good actor.
• 25:45
  Ben Schwartz: You don't seem nervous at all.
• 25:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I'm I'm glad, but I am because I mean Parks and Wreck was one of my favorite shows.
• 25:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It still is.
• 25:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's I use comedy as medicine, and that's that's why I wanted to start by saying, like, I think what you do is really important because I do suffer from anxiety.
• 26:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So shows like that or or movies that are very funny and that I have like grown up with are very important to me.
• 26:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So if sometimes if I'm having a panic attack, I will have to put on Parks and Rec or I will put on, you know, while you were sleeping is a big one for me too.
• 26:17
  Ben Schwartz: But I I literally use it as while you were sleeping, the dramatic film.
• 26:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh no, we're talking about Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman, the rom com from the 90s.
• 26:25
  Ben Schwartz: Oh, rom-com, okay.
• 26:26
  Ben Schwartz: Jesus, okay.
• 26:26
  Ben Schwartz: I'm thinking about the Robert Zemeckis movie.
• 26:28
  Ben Schwartz: What was that called?
• 26:28
  Ben Schwartz: I'll figure that out later on.
• 26:29
  Ben Schwartz: That's not true.
• 26:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, no, that's not that one.
• 26:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, I can't do drama.
• 26:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's crazy, Ben.
• 26:34
  Ben Schwartz: I have I have those things too.
• 26:35
  Ben Schwartz: I have like it used to be for me that I had I watched a Simpsons episode every night when I went to sleep.
• 26:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah.
• 26:40
  Ben Schwartz: Um, but yeah, you know what's so funny?
• 26:42
  Ben Schwartz: I was just talking to my therapist about I don't remember who it was, maybe my therapist.
• 26:48
  Ben Schwartz: But he was like, I was like, man, I find myself so drawn to movies and stuff from when I was a kid, like um toys or video games, or like I'll I'll find myself re-watching films.
• 26:59
  Ben Schwartz: Like I just re- I just watched Clueless again on the plane yesterday, as opposed to going, yeah, so instead of going to like and the music and the things make my I have such a visceral reaction because I think it just connects me to a time when I was younger and there was no responsibility, you know what I mean?
• 27:15
  Ben Schwartz: And there wasn't the idea of having to make money and having to take care of uh friends and family, and you know what I mean?
• 27:20
  Ben Schwartz: And I think uh it just you know, that time in your life is so free and new, and da-da-da-da.
• 27:25
  Ben Schwartz: I think sometimes, and maybe you're having that with parks too, is is just connecting with that version of yourself that was a little bit younger and just makes you happy or something like that.
• 27:32
  Ben Schwartz: I think I've seen the movie Back to the Future 150,000 times.
• 27:36
  Ben Schwartz: Yeah.
• 27:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I mean that's a great one too.
• 27:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think I this might be like you know, pop psychology from Instagram or something, but I think I saw that the reason that anxious people tend to re-watch things over and over is because it sues their nervous system because they know what's going to happen.
• 27:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So there's no jump scares, there's no oh, is it gonna be okay?
• 27:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, so yeah, a lot of that for me, like I know that everyone ends up, you know, happy and safe on parks and rec.
• 28:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So it's okay and I can watch that show.
• 28:04
  Ben Schwartz: Nothing there's no twists and turns.
• 28:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Exactly.
• 28:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: There's gonna be an episode where Leslie cries and you know her and Ben don't get together, but it's it will end up okay eventually.
• 28:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And that's the thing that kind of like switches something off in my brain and says, if it's okay for them, maybe it'll be okay for me, right?
• 28:22
  Ben Schwartz: Love it, love it.
• 28:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But anyway, I don't want to take up any more of your time.
• 28:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You really have been lovely.
• 28:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If I think of any more restaurants, though, I'll send it to your people.
• 28:29
  Ben Schwartz: Yes, please.
• 28:30
  Ben Schwartz: It's kind of embarrassing.
• 28:31
  Ben Schwartz: You couldn't think of one restaurant in all of New Jersey.
• 28:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, it's fully embarrassing.
• 28:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I did give you Lucianos, though.
• 28:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So Lucianos, we're gonna count that one.
• 28:39
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I told you I was gonna have improv.
• 28:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I told you I just shut down.
• 28:42
  Ben Schwartz: That's not improv.
• 28:42
  Ben Schwartz: I just asked you a question about what your favorite restaurant is.
• 28:45
  Ben Schwartz: That's like if two people were hanging out like friends and being like, hey man, what do you like?
• 28:49
  Ben Schwartz: What restaurants do you like in New Jersey?
• 28:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But remember how I was nervous to talk to you?
• 28:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Remember that part about it.
• 28:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:54
  Ben Schwartz: You're right, you're right, you're right.
• 28:55
  Ben Schwartz: It was too it was too much.
• 28:57
  Ben Schwartz: I gave you I gave you too too hard of a question.
• 29:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, as a fan, yes, you can't you can't ask me questions because now I'm like, oh my god, what's gonna impress him?
• 29:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know.
• 29:05
  Ben Schwartz: What's your favorite movie?
• 29:06
  Ben Schwartz: Is it while you were sleeping?
• 29:07
  Ben Schwartz: Oh, 1000%, yes, while you were sleeping.
• 29:09
  Ben Schwartz: You've never is that when Sandra Bullock one of them loses their memory or forgets?
• 29:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, it's that she has a crush on a guy that she's never met and he falls into a coma and she kind of gets adopted by his family due to a case of mistaken identity as being his fiance.
• 29:25
  Ben Schwartz: Sounds great.
• 29:25
  Ben Schwartz: Sounds great.
• 29:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It really is.
• 29:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's like such a weird premise, but no, I can't wait.
• 29:30
  Ben Schwartz: I feel I must have seen it.
• 29:31
  Ben Schwartz: I must have seen it.
• 29:31
  Ben Schwartz: I went on a Sandra Bullock uh like movie sweep like two years ago where I was just like watching every it's I think it started with speed and then missed congeniality, and then I was like, I guess I'm just gonna watch all these uh and then just watch.
• 29:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Have you seen practical magic?
• 29:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Because I feel like it's practical magic season still.
• 29:45
  Ben Schwartz: Great.
• 29:46
  Ben Schwartz: I mean, we're we just missed practical magic season.
• 29:48
  Ben Schwartz: It just ended practical magical season.
• 29:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It goes through fall, it goes through fall.
• 29:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's my girl, and we can watch her through fall.
• 29:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 29:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, thank you so much.
• 29:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I really, really, really do appreciate it.
• 29:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thank you.
• 29:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm so excited.
• 30:00
  Ben Schwartz: You're gonna come to the show.
• 30:00
  Ben Schwartz: I hope you I hope you enjoy it.
• 30:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I'm gonna go.
• 30:07
  Ben Schwartz: Jersey doesn't sell like New York for some reason.
• 30:09
  Ben Schwartz: So I gotta I gotta show these Jersey folks what we do.
• 30:11
  Ben Schwartz: So they get excited and they come again.
• 30:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Exactly.
• 30:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So rejectedjokes.com andor njpack uh.org.
• 30:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, and we'll see you there.
• 30:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah.
• 30:20
  Ben Schwartz: I can't wait.
• 30:20
  Ben Schwartz: I can't wait to see what a jersey crowd's like.
• 30:22
  Ben Schwartz: I've heard only amazing things.
• 30:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We're pretty great.
• 30:24
  Ben Schwartz: I hear you're pretty great.
• 30:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think we are, but I'm biased.
• 30:27
  Ben Schwartz: I can't wait.
• 30:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: All right, Jersey.
• 30:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Let's show up and show out.
• 30:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Ben Schwartz and friends will be at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on Saturday, November 22nd at 7 p.m.
• 30:39
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And it's up to us to show them what a Jersey crowd is like.
• 30:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Come prepared with your best story about the most exciting day or night of your life.
• 30:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For tickets and more information, be sure to visit njpac.org or Ben's website, rejectedjokes.com.
• 30:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe, and tell your friends.
• 30:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story, and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at jerseyarts.com.
• 31:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The JerseyArts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986.
• 31:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
• 31:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez.
• 31:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez.
• 31:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And my thanks, of course, to the very gracious Ben Schwartz for speaking with me today.
• 31:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 31:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thanks for listening.