Latest / Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com / The Muppets Take Scripthattan - Paul F. Tompkins & Marc Evan Jackson

Transcript

The Muppets Take Scripthattan - Paul F. Tompkins & Marc Evan Jackson · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:01
  Earlier this year, audiences both in person and virtual bore
• 0:05
  witness to two incredible events.
• 0:07
  The Muppet Scripts and The Scripted Muppet Caper
• 0:10
  star-studded live readings of The Muppet Movie and The Great
• 0:12
  Muppet Caper Scripts. On Friday, October 24th, they'll
• 0:15
  be doing it again with The Muppets Take Script Hatton, this
• 0:19
  time in New York City. To celebrate this event and to
• 0:22
  encourage you to buy tickets to the live stream, we'll be
• 0:25
  chatting with some of the stars of the show in this special
• 0:27
  podcast miniseries brought to you by toughpigs.com.
• 0:31
  I am your host, Joe Hennis. Joining me is the producer and
• 0:35
  director of the show and an old friend of Tough Pigs, it's Matt
• 0:37
  Wilkie. Hello, Matt.
• 0:39
  Yo, hi, everybody. Great to be back.
• 0:41
  Thanks for coming back. Always good to hear your voice.
• 0:45
  And we have two incredible guests in this podcast.
• 0:48
  First up, he is an actor and comedian who you've seen on Mr.
• 0:52
  Show, Bojack Horseman, Star Trek, Lower Decks, dozens of
• 0:57
  memorable TV appearances, voice rolls and podcasts in The
• 1:00
  Muppets. Take Scrutatton, He is Fozzie
• 1:03
  Bear. It is Paul F Tompkins.
• 1:06
  Hello, Paul. Hello waka.
• 1:09
  Waka. Also waka.
• 1:11
  Wow, all three Wakas. Yeah, that's good.
• 1:14
  That's. A special.
• 1:15
  Occasion Wow. Honored.
• 1:17
  Next up, you have seen him on Brooklyn 99, The Good Place, The
• 1:21
  Thrilling Adventure Hour, and I believe he's our first podcast
• 1:25
  guest who's appeared in a King Kong movie in the Muppet Sake
• 1:29
  script. Hatton.
• 1:29
  He is Kermit the Frog. It's Mark.
• 1:33
  Evan Jackson. Hello, Mark.
• 1:35
  Hello everyone, so good to be with you.
• 1:38
  What a joy to have your soothing tones here on this podcast.
• 1:41
  I could listen to you talk all day long.
• 1:44
  I'm not soothing. Was that Matt?
• 1:49
  Matt, was that you who just. Said that that was Matt.
• 1:51
  That's. Me So first of all, Mark, I have
• 1:54
  to tell you, I, I was a dedicated listener to the Good
• 1:58
  Place podcast and, and the Brooklyn 99 podcast that you
• 2:01
  did. And I here on this channel on
• 2:05
  Tough Pigs. I hosted 2 podcasts that were
• 2:07
  really similar. 1 was covering the Fraggle Rock series podcast
• 2:11
  called Fraggle Talk. And the other one was for The
• 2:15
  Muppets Mayhem. We called that Muppets Mayhem
• 2:16
  backstage pass same thing where we were like bringing in the
• 2:19
  cast and the crew and, and talking to them and going over
• 2:21
  the episode the same time. I stole it all from you.
• 2:24
  I stole the entire format and you were such an inspiration for
• 2:28
  that show. So I I really want to thank you
• 2:30
  for allowing me to to steal that, even though you had no
• 2:33
  idea I did it. I had no idea that you did it.
• 2:36
  And also I did not create that element of a good place to
• 2:39
  podcast that was pitched And I I'm so grateful for it because
• 2:45
  it was an education for me learning, you know, I mean, as
• 2:48
  an actor, you work on set, but you're the last one to arrive
• 2:50
  and you're the first one to leave.
• 2:52
  And so there are plenty of departments that I had no, you
• 2:55
  know, interface with that. I, you know, I mean, we see the
• 2:58
  costumer from time to time. We see hair and makeup and
• 3:01
  stuff, but like, we don't deeply get into like locations and grip
• 3:05
  and you know, that stuff. And so it was really fascinating
• 3:07
  to to get to, you know, have an hour 54 times or whatever to sit
• 3:13
  down and, and learn about all these, you know, very cool
• 3:17
  elements, each one critical to the process.
• 3:20
  Yeah, super educational and just fun.
• 3:24
  And also, you came into it not just as a cast member, but as a
• 3:28
  fan of those shows, which was really important to me of just
• 3:32
  like hearing how a fan would talk about these things without
• 3:35
  getting too much into the weeds or not enough into the weeds.
• 3:37
  Like it was a really good balance.
• 3:38
  You did a great job with those podcasts.
• 3:40
  I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
• 3:42
  And Paul, you are playing Fozzie Bear in this script.
• 3:48
  Now, Fozzie is notorious for being like a bad comedian, and
• 3:53
  you of course, are absolutely hysterical.
• 3:55
  I'm not even going to make a joke about it.
• 3:56
  You're just a really funny human being.
• 3:58
  What is the secret to being funny at not being funny?
• 4:04
  I think it's that you have to, you have to believe that you are
• 4:10
  the absolute funniest. The, the, the I'm the opposite
• 4:13
  of Fuzzy Bear. Fuzzy Bear thinks he's very good
• 4:16
  and he is not. I hope people think that I'm
• 4:20
  good, but I have my own opinions about my comedy for sure.
• 4:26
  So Ellie, have you, have you done stand up?
• 4:28
  Like I know you do a lot of improv, but like, have you done
• 4:30
  like straight stand up like Fozzie does?
• 4:34
  Me personally, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yes.
• 4:36
  I started in stand up. I started in like right out of
• 4:40
  high school, I started doing open mics in Philly and then
• 4:43
  moved here in 1994 to Los Angeles in 1994.
• 4:47
  And stand up's always been a part of my life and took a took
• 4:51
  a bit of a break from it. Now after I say it's always been
• 4:55
  a part of my life, except for a couple years when I got into
• 4:58
  improv and started learning improv, I didn't really do stand
• 5:04
  up for, I want to say like almost five years.
• 5:06
  And now I'm getting back into it via my, I do, I host a variety
• 5:11
  show every other month here in Los Angeles.
• 5:13
  And so I do a monologue as part of that.
• 5:15
  That was traditionally where I would first do my material.
• 5:20
  My new material was at these variety shows and then
• 5:22
  eventually like put it, put those monologues all together
• 5:26
  and and work on a set on an hour long set from there.
• 5:29
  And how often do you bring like a rubber chicken or some kind of
• 5:32
  prop on stage with you? Not as often as you would think.
• 5:36
  I mean, on stage I bring one to every venue.
• 5:39
  Of course. Yeah, naturally.
• 5:40
  Doesn't necessarily get least one.
• 5:42
  I, I know, I know. Backstage we have a whole trunk
• 5:44
  usually. It's the rubber chicken is such
• 5:47
  a strange thing to me because it's something that we have all
• 5:51
  accepted is that's like a bad comedy.
• 5:54
  Like you bring a rubber chicken out.
• 5:56
  When did that ever happen? I don't know the history of
• 5:59
  this. I have absolutely no idea.
• 6:01
  That's a good question though. It must have been born like
• 6:05
  vaudeville, obviously, but it was.
• 6:06
  By the time we came along, it was so baked in that cartoons
• 6:09
  were making fun of it. Yeah, absolutely right.
• 6:11
  What is the joke that you're telling?
• 6:14
  Right, with a rubber chicken in your hand.
• 6:16
  Just holding it up and like, what do you think, gang?
• 6:19
  Is this anything? You've seen real chickens,
• 6:22
  right? Can we spin this off into a
• 6:23
  movie? So Mark, you're, you've got so
• 6:30
  much on your plate with Kermit the frog.
• 6:32
  I mean, he's he, he's such a simple but complex character.
• 6:38
  Can you tell me anything about like, how, how do you find that
• 6:41
  character? How do you get into it?
• 6:44
  I think Paul and Matt will agree that I found it about halfway
• 6:48
  through the first reading. Like literally on stage, like
• 6:52
  you're like you're the. The yeah, yeah yeah, Drake.
• 6:54
  And you're like, I got it now at.
• 6:56
  At the voice anyway, because I I wasn't it was funny not long
• 7:02
  before we did the first script, the the Muppet movie, Matt was
• 7:07
  like, oh, don't do a Kermit impression and I don't think I
• 7:11
  was planning on doing a Kermit impression.
• 7:14
  But when he said it distinctly it was like, well, what am I
• 7:17
  going to do it can't just be me and it took a long time it took
• 7:25
  legitimately on the stage at dynasty typewriter about halfway
• 7:28
  through the 1st show. But I sort of found that with
• 7:31
  without an impression in mind, putting things in my higher
• 7:35
  register and just being sort of like legitimately optimistic
• 7:38
  about stuff, you know, kind of gets you a little bit into a a
• 7:41
  world of Jim Henson, you know, like it.
• 7:45
  And then there are definitely, you know, certain phrases and
• 7:48
  things in in each of these scripts so far where it's like,
• 7:50
  oh, put a little sauce on that. Put a little Kermit Defrog into,
• 7:54
  you know, into it. Yeah, I was.
• 7:57
  No, no, no, me, I was When when I talked to Matt about it, I was
• 8:05
  relieved to hear that he he wasn't looking for impressions.
• 8:09
  And because it's like, can you do that for the length of a
• 8:14
  movie? And what was really fun about it
• 8:18
  was realizing, oh, I we know these characters.
• 8:24
  We know what they're all about. You know, Kermit is the is the
• 8:27
  audience surrogate of all The Muppets.
• 8:30
  He's the only person who is acknowledging like this is you
• 8:34
  people are a problem. You're all crazy.
• 8:37
  I'm trying to make this happen and you're not helping me, you
• 8:41
  know, and for Fozzie, it it's it's the same kind of thing of
• 8:45
  like I know who this guy is. He he's really like, he just
• 8:48
  wants to be funny. He wants it all to to he wants
• 8:53
  people to like him. You know, he's thinking it's
• 8:57
  always gonna go great, and then is immediately confronted with
• 9:01
  the fact that, oh, that didn't people didn't like that as much
• 9:03
  as I thought they were gonna like that.
• 9:04
  And making them the human versions of that, of those
• 9:11
  characters was was really fun. You know, it was fun to kind of
• 9:15
  embody them if they were people, you know.
• 9:18
  I'm glad to hear you say that. Like, part of the key to Fozzie
• 9:23
  Bear is he wants people to like him.
• 9:25
  Like, that really is. Everything about his personality
• 9:28
  is like he's just desperate to be liked or loved or laughed at
• 9:32
  and does not get it. And I think we can all relate to
• 9:36
  that on some level. Hopefully not as desperately as
• 9:38
  Fozzie Bear, but we can all relate to that.
• 9:41
  Except maybe Kermit the Frog. Kermit doesn't really feel that
• 9:43
  way. Of all The Muppets, I don't
• 9:45
  know, right? Am I making, Am I making this up
• 9:48
  that it feels right that he doesn't care what people think
• 9:51
  of him, he just wants to put on a good show?
• 9:53
  But I, but that, that I think is, you know, I, I realized that
• 9:57
  I haven't seen Muppets take Manhattan.
• 9:59
  So I pressed play on it a couple of hours ago and I'm only, you
• 10:02
  know, 2/3 through that drive though to put on a a show boy,
• 10:08
  just relax like like he that's what is the spur for all of
• 10:12
  these troubles. You know, like all of these
• 10:14
  things have, you know, these, these Rd. trips and these
• 10:17
  overseas flights and all this stuff.
• 10:19
  It's, you know, all all of these quests that.
• 10:22
  So I think it matters to him whether, you know, at least
• 10:24
  Peggy's happy and how she feels about him.
• 10:28
  That's true. That's true.
• 10:29
  And yeah, and like, like you said, all these, the road trips
• 10:32
  going to England's, getting the Broadway show up, that's I think
• 10:35
  that's kind of what we all want from a producer that like, I
• 10:38
  don't want to worry about the stuff.
• 10:39
  You're the guy who's going to make sure whatever happens,
• 10:42
  happens, right, Matt? Nice, nice Segway Joe beautiful.
• 10:49
  Yes, that is absolutely true. It is.
• 10:51
  It is a it's the reason why the shows work so well, in my
• 10:58
  opinion, is that I have been fortunate enough to find people
• 11:02
  who think like Mark and Paul do, who look at these characters,
• 11:06
  who try to strip them down. They're very smart about comedy.
• 11:09
  They know what's funny and what works, and it comes from a very
• 11:13
  human place. And it's funny to be doing it as
• 11:16
  a Muppet, as this wild character.
• 11:18
  But they are, you know, deep down humans in this really
• 11:22
  unique way, though their personality types line up with
• 11:26
  them and not in every way. So to wrangle all of that, you
• 11:32
  need people who understand that or who at least open to hearing
• 11:37
  me talk about it for 20 minutes before we go on stage about how
• 11:41
  it's not about impressions. It never was it.
• 11:44
  It is about embodiments. And I feel like we've really got
• 11:47
  a really solid cast that does that.
• 11:49
  And so the spectacle that we Add all those things that we
• 11:52
  sprinkle on top of it by having a live band, playing music, by
• 11:55
  having props on stage, by having once in a while one puppet shows
• 12:00
  up. So it's just like this kind of
• 12:03
  wild experience. That's what really makes these
• 12:07
  Muppity and really, really fun for me puppets.
• 12:10
  One couple of notable exceptions to the impression thing.
• 12:14
  Nina W as as Miss Piggy is extraordinary.
• 12:20
  And David Dusmelkian as Gonzo was hilarious.
• 12:25
  Touching all of it, Yeah. Absolutely.
• 12:29
  That's a good segue to talk about Nina a little bit because
• 12:31
  we've had her on this podcast and she's phenomenal.
• 12:34
  But tell me a little bit, Mark about your connection to Nina as
• 12:38
  a performer, but also the that that how that connection kind of
• 12:42
  spreads to Kermit and Piggy in your performances of them?
• 12:45
  I'm just hopeful that moving forward, Nina begins to commit a
• 12:49
  little like. You know, every time I'm
• 12:54
  backstage saying the same thing, like.
• 12:56
  Put something into it, like people are paying fees for
• 12:59
  charity. No, from the second I met Nina,
• 13:02
  it was like this is going to be a ball like a it's a bar razor
• 13:08
  too, like that. You know, the performance, the
• 13:12
  costuming, but the singing like it's, you know, Nina elevates
• 13:18
  everything about this show. You know, there were costumes.
• 13:22
  She'd disappear for a minute and come back in like an even bigger
• 13:25
  dress. And you're like the backstage
• 13:28
  isn't that big. Where where was that?
• 13:30
  Where did where did you have that?
• 13:33
  But no, so much fun And and it's not like it's it's such an
• 13:40
  earnest performance. I think what you were saying
• 13:41
  about about Paul with Fozzie, like it matters to Nina to be
• 13:46
  Miss Piggy. Not an impression, not a send
• 13:49
  up, not playing it any bigger, but like it's, it is an ode,
• 13:55
  like it's a it's an absolute tribute to the original and and
• 14:00
  it's the commitment and the the, you know, the degree to which
• 14:05
  she throws herself into it is stunning and it's awfully fun to
• 14:09
  be 1 foot away from I. Have absolutely no doubts.
• 14:15
  Yeah. So the two of you, this is not
• 14:18
  the first podcast you've done together, am I?
• 14:20
  Right, that's very true. You guys have worked on a ton of
• 14:23
  stuff together you. Are familiar.
• 14:25
  I. Was looking at your.
• 14:27
  Like your Wikipedia pages and your IMDb pages before getting
• 14:30
  on here. And like there's so much
• 14:31
  overlap, like the Venn diagram of things that you you 2 have
• 14:34
  worked on together. So for being Kermit and Fozzie
• 14:38
  like best buds, does that come across on stage in the same way?
• 14:42
  Oh, I think, Oh, I think, yeah. I mean, you know, I, I love
• 14:47
  playing with Mark and, and, you know, to, to be able to do this
• 14:52
  very specific thing together is really fun.
• 14:55
  It's not something I ever would have imagined happening.
• 14:59
  I would not have come up with this idea on my own.
• 15:01
  And so to have this, you know, Matt come along and, and suggest
• 15:05
  this. And, you know, when I knew Mark
• 15:08
  was in, I was so excited. And yeah.
• 15:11
  And it was really the first time we did it.
• 15:13
  It was such a ball. It was so silly and fun.
• 15:17
  And, you know, yeah. Like the thing that's Mark
• 15:22
  that's really magical about this business is when you do get
• 15:25
  opportunities that you never would have even come up with on
• 15:31
  your own, you're just presented with this, with this fun thing
• 15:36
  to do, and you get to do it. It's, you know, and with your
• 15:38
  friends, it's like, what more could you ask for?
• 15:41
  It's pretty great. Yeah.
• 15:42
  The Paul and I met initially 20 years ago through a show called
• 15:47
  The Thrilling Adventure Hour. Why?
• 15:48
  Would you say that out loud? Why would you?
• 15:50
  I'm sorry, 20th anniversary, I don't.
• 15:53
  Like to hand the number. If it if it makes you feel any
• 15:55
  better, tough pigs is about to turn 25 and like, I don't know
• 15:59
  how to deal with it. Wow, Tough pigs started in 2001.
• 16:02
  Congratulations. Thank you.
• 16:04
  But like we're it's like we outlast.
• 16:06
  We keep saying we outlasted Twitter.
• 16:08
  We started before Twitter. Twitter's gone.
• 16:10
  We're still here. How did that happen?
• 16:12
  Sorry. Continue please.
• 16:13
  Just that The Thrilling Adventure Hour is a show that
• 16:18
  since its inception, we've sort of referred to as The Muppet
• 16:20
  Show. Because it is.
• 16:23
  The writing is phenomenal. Ben Acker and Ben Blacker have
• 16:26
  written it from day one, their real names.
• 16:29
  It is a, you know, a live staged production in the style of old
• 16:34
  time radio. So it feels a lot like The
• 16:35
  Muppet Show, but it is, it is egregiously under rehearsed and
• 16:40
  has been from the very beginning.
• 16:41
  So it feels like The Muppet Show and you're, you know, somebody
• 16:44
  will be backstage, you know, having a cocktail or whatever
• 16:46
  and they're like, you know, you're on in about four lines,
• 16:49
  right. And so, you know, poor Ben
• 16:52
  Blacker especially has been wrangling us like in the wings
• 16:55
  like The Muppet Show. I mean, it, it's a lot of very
• 16:58
  talented people. It's also super fun for us.
• 17:01
  Our scripts are in our hands and there is no blocking per SE.
• 17:03
  So aside from the occasional song, we don't rehearse very
• 17:06
  much, never really have. And so it's it's fly by the sea
• 17:10
  of your pants, which is thrilling, but also dicey.
• 17:13
  And so this show feels the very same to that.
• 17:17
  And to your credit, Matt, you have created a group around, you
• 17:21
  know, people like Paul and me from the Filing Adventure Hour.
• 17:24
  I feel like, you know, the entire cast is on board.
• 17:29
  They don't know what's about to happen.
• 17:31
  They know, you know, they got the script.
• 17:33
  They know when they're going to go take a mic.
• 17:34
  Is it the right mic? Who cares?
• 17:36
  Doesn't matter. It's so loose.
• 17:38
  It's so fun. And I feel like, you know, the,
• 17:43
  the maybe you can talk a little bit about some of the other
• 17:45
  people that you brought in because they are like of a
• 17:49
  piece. Like it feels like a family
• 17:50
  already. It feels like a traveling band.
• 17:52
  Absolutely, absolutely. I remember I was talking to How
• 17:56
  and gags How Loveland and Mark Gagliardi, as you guys know, but
• 17:59
  as some listeners might not, they are our Statler and Waldorf
• 18:04
  in our Muppet readings and they are stalwarts of Thrilling
• 18:08
  Adventure Hour. I myself, I moved to LA about 15
• 18:12
  years ago and one of the first live shows that I saw was
• 18:15
  Thrilling Adventure Hour because of how many friends I had that
• 18:17
  recommended it. They said you're new in town,
• 18:20
  you want to see something really cool, really unique.
• 18:22
  This is where to go. And I fell in love instantly.
• 18:25
  And a huge part of why is because, like you said, it feels
• 18:28
  like a Muppet show. It's always felt that way to me.
• 18:30
  And so when I was developing this idea, that was the first,
• 18:35
  well, I went to and my bucket was full in two days because
• 18:40
  everyone that I reached out to, even if we hadn't spoken before,
• 18:44
  got it. And they got on board with it
• 18:46
  and they understood what I was doing and there was no better
• 18:50
  base to start off with. I truly believe that that the
• 18:54
  people that are in this show and that aren't Thrilling adventure
• 18:57
  are some of the best performers anywhere in the world.
• 19:00
  And I. Have to to to give Matt even
• 19:03
  more credit that first reading of the Muppet script like down
• 19:10
  to the smallest one line performer.
• 19:14
  It was the most amazing collection of performers on
• 19:17
  stage. You had, you know, the thrilling
• 19:19
  people. You had people from drop out,
• 19:21
  people from Smosh, like people from all over the place.
• 19:24
  I like I knew I was so excited because there were there were a
• 19:26
  lot of people that I was fans of from seeing them on other things
• 19:30
  and meeting them for the first time.
• 19:32
  And it was really exciting. It was really to see like
• 19:36
  somebody step up to do, you know, see Ruha Taslimi step up
• 19:41
  and do loose lose Zealand or to do the one line that Twiggy has
• 19:47
  in the in the Muppet movie, you know, was it was just it was so
• 19:51
  much fun. It was so much fun to just watch
• 19:54
  people go up there and see what they were going to do.
• 19:57
  Absolutely. And and it was something that I
• 20:00
  just, I knew it would happen. Like I I couldn't explain it,
• 20:04
  but I just knew that with this group of people.
• 20:07
  With, I mean, same like just like with Thrilling Adventure, I
• 20:09
  feel like drop out is a great platform that's full of Muppets
• 20:13
  and Muppet adjacent people living human Muppets.
• 20:16
  And so so to also reach out to them and to have somebody of
• 20:19
  them on board. Going back to what Hal was
• 20:23
  saying, he was telling you that at the first read and you guys
• 20:26
  can correct me if I'm wrong, if this is how it felt for you as
• 20:29
  well. But he said that for him,
• 20:30
  sitting down in the theater waiting for people to come in,
• 20:33
  like Thrilling Adventure Hour, people sat together, drop out,
• 20:36
  people sat together, some other people sat here.
• 20:39
  And then by the time we were ready to go, everybody had
• 20:43
  mingled together and everybody was all just like one big group.
• 20:47
  And I often say to my wife, I'm like, Hey, I get to go see my
• 20:50
  Muppets today. I get to, I get to, I get to see
• 20:53
  my Muppets. And that's so exciting.
• 20:55
  And, and just everybody just brings their A game.
• 20:59
  Absolutely. Ruha cracks me up every time I I
• 21:03
  make sure that I have fish that she can throw into the audience
• 21:07
  every time. And I'll tell you this, even if
• 21:12
  a movie doesn't have Lulu and in the script, I will make sure
• 21:17
  that I have a spot for. For a while.
• 21:20
  Well, this one has a great New Zealand scene where you'll have
• 21:23
  lots of opportunity to throw fish into the audience.
• 21:25
  So yeah, yeah. Was there a point, Matt, where
• 21:29
  you'd consider doing something like just making this a
• 21:31
  thrilling Adventure Hour presents and just kind of
• 21:34
  letting letting them cast it and you produce it?
• 21:38
  You know, to be selfish, No, because this this was an idea
• 21:43
  that I had for for a while. I've I've told this story before
• 21:47
  on this podcast, but I'm good friends with Patrick Cotner, who
• 21:50
  does the Star Wars reads. And so after seeing one, or I
• 21:54
  think after the first one, he and I had lunch.
• 21:56
  We were chatting and I was like, do you think like a Muppet
• 22:00
  version? Like you and I, we both love The
• 22:02
  Muppets. Like do you think of it?
• 22:03
  And Patrick's like, yeah, definitely.
• 22:04
  And I was like, do you want to do together?
• 22:05
  And he said, I am way too busy for that.
• 22:08
  And so, so it was really something that I that I took and
• 22:12
  that I coddled and I was, I was a little precious about.
• 22:16
  And so for me, having so much of that, as much as I love Acker
• 22:20
  and Blacker, it really felt like something that came from from my
• 22:23
  heart. And I wanted to be a little
• 22:24
  precious about it. That being said, I, I know Acker
• 22:28
  and Blacker, we've spoken a few times over the years.
• 22:30
  And if we did something together, yeah, absolutely.
• 22:34
  I'd do something with them in a heartbeat.
• 22:36
  All right, when you, when you get to follow that bird, you'll,
• 22:38
  you'll start looping them in. Maybe you know.
• 22:41
  So, Paul, what is it for you about?
• 22:47
  Like you're playing Fozzie Bear? You were Mr. Peanut Butter.
• 22:50
  You were the doctor. I can't remember your bird
• 22:54
  character, Giggly MO, Miggly MO on Lower Decks.
• 22:57
  What is it about you playing these these all these
• 22:59
  anthropomorphic animals? I mean, once it happens for the
• 23:03
  first time, it won't stop happening.
• 23:06
  And you know, it's, it's a ball. It's it's really like voice over
• 23:17
  is something that kind of, you know, fell into my lap with
• 23:22
  Bojack Horseman. And since then I've done a lot
• 23:24
  of it. And again, like not a thing that
• 23:27
  I ever really saw happening or tried to make happen.
• 23:31
  And I, I'm very fortunate to have been in that world because
• 23:36
  it used to be a, a very closed circle.
• 23:40
  Like the voice over world was. There was a handful of people
• 23:43
  that did all of the voices. And then when they started like
• 23:48
  stunt casting movies and stuff like that with famous voices,
• 23:52
  which is like, I, I still don't understand why.
• 23:54
  I don't think I'm making any, any difference.
• 23:57
  It's kids like, you know, I don't, I don't know the kids
• 24:01
  necessarily have an understanding of who a lot of
• 24:03
  these people. Are I'm sure it's just so that
• 24:05
  like like, well, now you can get, you know, like Aquafina to
• 24:09
  post about it on her Instagram. And stuff of.
• 24:13
  Course. Got all that Free Press?
• 24:14
  Sure. Sure, but yeah, I'm, I'm glad
• 24:17
  that I was able to squeak in there and and get to do some
• 24:20
  stuff. And that it continues is, is a
• 24:22
  really is really nice and lovely thing.
• 24:25
  And the fact that it's reaching, that it is reaching kids, that
• 24:30
  really makes me happy because I was a comedy kid, you know, and
• 24:34
  The Muppets were a huge comedy influence on me.
• 24:37
  It's like it's easy to forget the stuff that when you're
• 24:40
  little, you know, that had an impact on you.
• 24:43
  I said River Butcher is a comedian and a really good
• 24:46
  friend of mine. I remember in an in an in an
• 24:49
  interview, somebody asked him about influences and he said
• 24:52
  Sesame Street. And I was like, of course, like,
• 24:56
  of course Sesame Street. Of course, but I wouldn't.
• 24:58
  Yeah, exactly. One of the first things you ever
• 25:01
  see, and it's like one of the things you like about it is that
• 25:04
  it's hilarious, you know? And I was like, wow, that's so
• 25:07
  true. That really is true.
• 25:10
  So yeah, to for me to to get to do anything that not only adults
• 25:15
  enjoy, but that also weird little comedy kids like too, is
• 25:20
  that's everything. Sesame Street Boy, oh boy, I
• 25:23
  would not. Ever.
• 25:25
  But you think about like Bert and Ernie, I felt.
• 25:28
  Guilty when I read that in that. Interview Bert and Ernie are
• 25:32
  maybe one of the greatest comedy duos of all time, you know, and
• 25:35
  and that's going under like Jim Henson and Frank Oz, in my
• 25:37
  opinion, are the greatest comedy duo of all time.
• 25:39
  And like going down to Bert and Ernie and you think of any Bert
• 25:42
  and Ernie moment from when you were a kid from those old days
• 25:44
  and they are his still to adults.
• 25:47
  Forget the educational nonsense like there's.
• 25:50
  You know what it's it's very funny, though, to revisit Bert
• 25:52
  and Ernie as an adult and how much Ernie is a real problem.
• 25:57
  And you, you sympathize with Bert.
• 26:01
  Bert's trying to live his life and this guy is a lunatic and
• 26:05
  he's practicing the trumpet when it's bedtime and all that stuff.
• 26:09
  Like Bert I, I really judged him so harshly when I was a child.
• 26:14
  My, my, I remember as a kid, my mom actually hated Ernie because
• 26:18
  of how much she like Bert. She really did.
• 26:22
  She was, she was like, I don't like that Ernie.
• 26:23
  He's he's only. The kind of his jib.
• 26:26
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 26:28
  No, it's totally true. Yeah, you're right.
• 26:30
  The older we get, especially because, like, I do feel like
• 26:32
  I'm aging into a Bert, you know, I like my collections, like a
• 26:36
  good book. And when I was a kid, we all
• 26:38
  thought we were the Ernie. When we were a kid, we all were,
• 26:40
  you know, we like. We all were.
• 26:42
  Kids are Ernies. Yeah, Kids are Ernies.
• 26:44
  Yeah. Matt, you made a face.
• 26:45
  Were you not an Ernie when you were a kid?
• 26:47
  Oh no. I was an Ernie I.
• 26:48
  Don't know if I'm like I had a feeling.
• 26:49
  What we did not realize thinking about that now.
• 26:51
  What we did not realize as children is that Bert and Ernie
• 26:54
  were trying to teach us. This is how you make your
• 26:57
  parents feel. Yeah.
• 27:00
  Bert is you are. What you are doing in your life
• 27:04
  is you're making your mom and dad into Bert.
• 27:06
  That's right. Yeah.
• 27:08
  Just stop eating crackers in bed.
• 27:10
  It's not that hard. Common logic.
• 27:13
  So. Well, this is this is also a
• 27:15
  good opportunity to talk a little bit about.
• 27:16
  You were talking about the your influences or The Muppets
• 27:19
  influencing young, young comedians and writers and the
• 27:24
  The Muppets must have been a large influence to you.
• 27:27
  I just have AI just have to assume anyone who's of a certain
• 27:30
  age who's in the comedy world was raised on Muppet stuff.
• 27:34
  So aside from like Sesame Street when you were Sesame Street age,
• 27:37
  like, were you big Muppet fans when you were kids?
• 27:40
  Oh, man, I, I remember when The Muppet Show was a new show and I
• 27:44
  was a kid and I was ecstatic because I did love Sesame Street
• 27:49
  and the idea that there's gonna be a whole show of this where I
• 27:54
  don't have to learn anything. It was very exciting.
• 27:58
  I can just enjoy this on its own.
• 28:00
  I don't have to be getting anything out of it.
• 28:02
  Great. I loved it as well.
• 28:05
  I in my mind it was on Sunday nights.
• 28:08
  Is that true? Well, it was syndicated, so it
• 28:10
  was different. Markets I feel like it was
• 28:13
  something that I you know, it was a a treat before the end of
• 28:16
  the weekend and school came back into a play kind of thing where
• 28:20
  I grew up in Buffalo, NY and I don't I don't think I would have
• 28:26
  realized the degree to which it was a part of my life, but I
• 28:28
  must have loved it so much that I was given either for my
• 28:33
  birthday or Christmas, Fisher Price puppets of Kermit and
• 28:37
  Fozzie that I played with a ton I.
• 28:41
  Had them too. Did you really?
• 28:43
  Yeah. I think fascinating.
• 28:44
  I'm gonna zoom my camera up, I think if you can see right
• 28:48
  there, there's the fozzie, There's, there's one of the
• 28:50
  Kermits there on that set. Yeah.
• 28:52
  Yeah. Amazing.
• 28:52
  Everyone had them. Yeah.
• 28:55
  They're beautiful pieces. And.
• 28:57
  I love at least love those. Yeah.
• 28:59
  Still are really well made. I'll tell you, I mean, I think a
• 29:02
  lot of people have seen this podcast, might know this story,
• 29:04
  but I'll tell it to you guys anyway.
• 29:05
  Is so when they were making those Fisher Price Kermits back
• 29:08
  in the day, the Fisher Price was like really struggling to figure
• 29:11
  out like, how are we going to get like the right kind of
• 29:14
  fleece, the right color, the right texture?
• 29:16
  And they just, they were trying a bunch of different things and
• 29:18
  it just wasn't, they weren't finding it.
• 29:19
  So they went to the Henson Company and they said, can you
• 29:21
  give us any tips on what to look for?
• 29:22
  And Henson said, we'll just order from the same place we do.
• 29:25
  And so those Fisher Price Kermits are made of the same
• 29:28
  fleece that they made the Kermit puppet out of.
• 29:31
  That's really cool, yeah. So if you want to know what
• 29:33
  Kermit feels like that would that's it.
• 29:37
  Get one of those. Maybe you don't, I don't know.
• 29:39
  I was, I was going to say if like if you want to know what
• 29:41
  Kermit tastes like, but those are old toys.
• 29:42
  Don't put your tongue on those. I have a question, is it about
• 29:46
  watching? Licking up toys, that was a bad,
• 29:48
  that was a weird segue. Yeah, go ahead.
• 29:51
  Do you are? Are there any stats on on
• 29:55
  running tallies? On how many Kermit's there been,
• 29:58
  how many Miss Piggies they've been?
• 29:59
  I'm thinking about it because I just watched the scene in
• 30:00
  Muppets Take Manhattan when Joan Rivers puts makeup on on Miss
• 30:05
  Piggy. And it's like there were
• 30:07
  multiples because, you know, like you, Joan Rivers even kind
• 30:11
  of cracks up a little bit when she put on the eyebrows.
• 30:14
  Like, it feels like she's being candid and saying, I think I
• 30:17
  went overboard. Feels like that's to Frank Oz,
• 30:20
  not to Miss Piggy. Great question.
• 30:22
  And here's the thing, I don't I don't know if there's stat
• 30:24
  there. There might be and I would love
• 30:25
  to investigate this of like how many there are.
• 30:28
  And there often are, you know, just like like any prop of for a
• 30:32
  movie, like you got your hero, you got like, you know,
• 30:33
  especially with like someone like Kermit where you got to
• 30:35
  have them in different costumes. You know, it's easier just to
• 30:38
  have multiple than have to dress and redress him for that one in
• 30:42
  particular for for Joan Rivers and Miss Piggy, like they had
• 30:45
  rehearsed it and there is a point of no return like that is
• 30:49
  1 take. Where they get there isn't
• 30:51
  really. I didn't catch that.
• 30:52
  OK. Yeah, they don't do that one
• 30:53
  multiple times. And, you know, so Frank Oz, not
• 30:55
  only is he playing Miss Piggy, he's also directing the scene,
• 30:57
  directing. And he the story he tells is
• 31:01
  like they're rehearsing it and they're just not getting to that
• 31:03
  point. And he knows, like, you really
• 31:05
  just have to, you have to get there.
• 31:06
  You have to earn it. And so he told someone, you
• 31:10
  know, they're they're right by the they're they're doing
• 31:12
  filming it at Bergdorf Goodman. And so they're right across the
• 31:15
  street from the Plaza Hotel. And he tells someone go over to
• 31:17
  the Plaza Hotel, go to the bar, get us a couple of gin and
• 31:20
  tonics. And so they bring back a couple
• 31:22
  of gin and tonics. He and Joan Rivers have a nice
• 31:24
  time and they're having a real nice time as filming, filming
• 31:29
  that scene and it comes across. It does.
• 31:31
  It really does. It is.
• 31:32
  It's playful, but it feels dangerous.
• 31:34
  Like, yes, you know, it's like you get one take at this.
• 31:37
  Yeah, yeah. And I often wonder that whenever
• 31:39
  I see something like, I think about a lot with Muppets getting
• 31:42
  wet and like, some Muppets you can get wet.
• 31:44
  Kermit, you could probably ring him out.
• 31:45
  He's fine. Big Bird, not so much.
• 31:48
  You know, and I would hear stories about like, they're at
• 31:52
  the end of the season, like they they know they're not filming
• 31:54
  anything anytime soon. Maybe even there's another Big
• 31:57
  Bird in the works or different pieces of the Big Bird.
• 31:59
  And they go, this is our chance. We're throwing Big Bird in the
• 32:01
  pond. Yeah.
• 32:06
  You know, my, my, my wife when she was little, loved Big Bird
• 32:11
  and a mutual friend of ours of of Mark and my Jamie Bressler,
• 32:19
  who works with the Muppet. My friend as well, actually,
• 32:22
  yeah. Absolutely.
• 32:23
  Yeah, She, the last time I saw her in, in New York, she gave me
• 32:32
  a couple big bird feathers that fell off of big bird that I was
• 32:36
  able to give to my wife. And it was very, I was so
• 32:40
  touched by it. I I like, you know, it's, it's,
• 32:44
  it's, it feels sacred. You know what I mean?
• 32:46
  Like to be, to be holding this, this piece of this iconic
• 32:52
  creature from your own, from your own mythology, you know,
• 32:56
  and not just the mythology of the world and to give it to her.
• 33:00
  And she was, she was ecstatic. You know, that is incredibly
• 33:04
  cool. It's proof that they're real.
• 33:07
  And you don't get that with any other kids TV show.
• 33:10
  You don't get that with a lot of what you see.
• 33:12
  And I have, I have a big Bird feather that I I hold dear
• 33:15
  because I wrote a YouTube video that starred Carol Spinney and
• 33:19
  Big Bird. I don't know if you've seen Big
• 33:20
  Birdman. It was a parody the Michael
• 33:21
  Keaton movie Birdman. And you know what?
• 33:24
  I never did see that, but I remember when that happened.
• 33:26
  Yeah, I wrote that and I remember we're, we're filming it
• 33:29
  and there's a there's a part where we go outside just like in
• 33:31
  Birdman and we're we're going down the street and I'm like
• 33:36
  way, way in behind. You can't see me.
• 33:37
  I'm on, I'm on camera or anything like that.
• 33:39
  But the wind blows and a feather pops off a big bird and it's
• 33:42
  going down the sidewalk and I chased it and like knowing like
• 33:46
  I can get a big bird feather somewhere else.
• 33:48
  Like I'm here. But that one.
• 33:50
  Yeah, right. Exactly.
• 33:52
  Or yeah, well, whatever. And then and I'm thinking like,
• 33:54
  but that one, I saw it come off a big bird and it came off today
• 33:58
  on this thing that I have the privilege to work on and that is
• 34:01
  now framed on a on a bookshelf right now.
• 34:04
  That's. Really cool.
• 34:06
  Yeah, really beautiful. Mark.
• 34:09
  Which Muppets do you think would make it into the Good Place, and
• 34:14
  which ones would make it into the Bad Place?
• 34:18
  I mean, cards on the table mostly.
• 34:20
  Bad place, Yeah. Yeah.
• 34:22
  I feel like, you know, there's not a world in which animal
• 34:26
  makes it to the good place. Sorry, buddy.
• 34:28
  Yeah, him. You know, screaming woman and
• 34:33
  chasing people. That cinches it, right?
• 34:36
  Right. Forget about that.
• 34:37
  That first scene in the Muppet Sig Manhattan, He's chasing that
• 34:41
  poor lady out of the theater and it's like, that's it, man.
• 34:44
  Do whatever you want to do for the rest of your life because
• 34:46
  you know where you're going. It was a different time.
• 34:49
  It was a different time. Boys will be anyway, I feel
• 34:54
  like, I feel like Kermit's a real good candidate for the Good
• 34:59
  Place. I feel like, you know, Miss
• 35:01
  Piggy's probably got some some accounting to do.
• 35:06
  Beaker. Good place all day.
• 35:09
  Yeah, right. What's his name?
• 35:13
  Scooter. He feels like a good place, you
• 35:17
  know, candidate as well. I think that he's lived a good
• 35:20
  life. Fozzie's probably the Jason
• 35:23
  Mendoza of it all. You know, he's not the the
• 35:28
  brightest bulb. But yeah, I feel like the, you
• 35:33
  know, Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.
• 35:35
  I feel like sorry there are going to be some butthole
• 35:39
  spiders. What?
• 35:40
  What did he do? What did Doctor Teeth do to get
• 35:43
  the? No, he's done something.
• 35:45
  Something. You know, they've all done
• 35:47
  something. Just too many nights on the
• 35:49
  road. That's true.
• 35:50
  Anything could have happened on tour.
• 35:53
  Yeah. So schedules allowing, I just
• 35:57
  assume, Matt, that you're going to end up doing up at Christmas
• 35:59
  carols. So if so, and if you're
• 36:02
  available, are you both in for Christmas Carol script reading?
• 36:07
  I would love to do it at some point.
• 36:08
  Yeah, for sure. Who would you cast as your dream
• 36:13
  Scrooge for that show? Wow.
• 36:18
  I mean, living or dead, I don't even remember.
• 36:20
  Give me one. I don't even remember who it
• 36:22
  was. But like I I had forgotten.
• 36:26
  Like what a good foil Charles Grodin is to a Muppet.
• 36:30
  I'm sure. Oh.
• 36:31
  My gosh, the. Best.
• 36:33
  I mean, have you seen The Muppets at Walt Disney World?
• 36:37
  It's a wonderful special. It it, I genuinely don't know
• 36:39
  why it's not on Disney Plus. And it's, it's one of the last
• 36:43
  things that Jim Henson worked on.
• 36:44
  And it's obviously it's a promotional special for Walt
• 36:48
  Disney World, but it is just The Muppets messing around.
• 36:50
  And they brought Charles Grodin back as the foil for that one.
• 36:53
  So if you want more Charles Grodin and Muppets, that's a
• 36:56
  great. Watch Is that the only way you
• 36:58
  can see this? Go to Disney World.
• 37:00
  No, it's not a Disney World. It was, it was the only way to
• 37:03
  watch it is, is illegitimately. You got to find it on YouTube or
• 37:06
  something because it's torn. It's yeah, it's because it's,
• 37:11
  it's obviously Disney World and The Muppets and there's some
• 37:13
  Indiana Jones stuff in there and a little bit of Star Wars stuff
• 37:16
  in there. At the time, 19891990, like they
• 37:19
  didn't own any of those things. And now Disney owns it all.
• 37:21
  There's nothing stopping them for them.
• 37:26
  You really love to see those scrappy underdogs making, you
• 37:29
  know? I love when a corporations
• 37:30
  dreams come true. It's true.
• 37:32
  Good decision after good decision.
• 37:34
  Yep, Yep. But and yet those good decisions
• 37:37
  did not lead to anyone legitimately getting to watch
• 37:39
  them up in the Walt Disney World.
• 37:40
  We have to go behind their backs to see Charles Broden.
• 37:44
  I I'm going to pitch JK Simmons as a as a.
• 37:49
  Oh, like like a like a whiplash JK Simmons.
• 37:53
  That's what I mean. Yeah.
• 37:54
  Let him have it. He's a he, I I was just in
• 37:56
  Detroit with him for a, a fundraising thing and we saw a
• 38:00
  couple of Tigers games together and he's just a delightful human
• 38:04
  being. But he plays toughies really
• 38:06
  well. Oh yeah.
• 38:08
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You should give him an Oscar.
• 38:11
  I got a sort of left field idea. Steve Buscemi.
• 38:16
  Say, say more about that. Why Steve Buscemi?
• 38:19
  I just just picturing picturing him, I guess.
• 38:24
  I'm picturing him talking to the actual muffins.
• 38:26
  Yeah, it's really. Making me want to have.
• 38:28
  What I think about? It.
• 38:29
  Yeah, yeah. But you know, for a for a live
• 38:33
  action read like you know, I I who knows the part better than
• 38:39
  Patrick Stewart, you know, sure who can do all the roles because
• 38:44
  he did a one man screw. One, he doesn't need The
• 38:46
  Muppets. He didn't, yeah.
• 38:49
  But The Muppets need him. Can you imagine doing?
• 38:51
  A Muppet Christmas Carol reading and it's just Patrick Stewart.
• 38:55
  Like doing not just the roles, but all of The Muppets, Yes.
• 38:59
  You know what? I could imagine it.
• 39:00
  I would Patrick Stewart's Miss Piggy is something I would
• 39:02
  intend for. Well, he does.
• 39:06
  He does a lot of Shakespeare, but I don't know if he does any
• 39:08
  Bacon. So.
• 39:09
  Oh. Matt, you got to go.
• 39:12
  That's not bad. I got to give it.
• 39:17
  Up. Got to give it up.
• 39:18
  So you're both obviously huge improv people.
• 39:22
  Mark, I know you do a lot of work with you have to remind me
• 39:25
  the names. I didn't write it on the
• 39:25
  Detroit's Improv. The Detroit Creativity Project.
• 39:29
  Yeah. Thank you.
• 39:31
  Yeah. We're a, we're a nonprofit
• 39:33
  that's been around for 12 or 13 years now.
• 39:36
  And we teach improv free of charge in the in Detroit middle
• 39:38
  and high schools and have expanded into community centers
• 39:41
  and things as well. And it's something that was born
• 39:44
  of, you know, just a bunch of us from Detroit, Keegan Michael Key
• 39:48
  and Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson and Mary Beth Monroe
• 39:51
  and Jamie Moyer years ago saying, hey, we should get back
• 39:54
  to the city of Detroit. That gave us all our start.
• 39:56
  What should we be doing? And almost embarrassingly
• 39:59
  quickly, it was like, well, improv is what made all of our
• 40:01
  lives better. Like, not only as a skill set,
• 40:04
  you know, as a career path, but. It's just such a confidence
• 40:08
  building, friend making, empathy, driving, fear erasing
• 40:12
  life skill that that everybody should do, whether they have any
• 40:15
  hope of, of being an actor or a comedian.
• 40:18
  Like it's good for everybody. So much so that we've, you know,
• 40:21
  taught it to like the Police Department and to, you know,
• 40:25
  businesses and things like it's, it's just a really wonderful
• 40:28
  thing. But yeah, the Detroit Creativity
• 40:31
  Project is something about which I'm very proud.
• 40:33
  Sure, for sure. Yeah.
• 40:34
  And it's a it's a great cause. And you're absolutely right.
• 40:36
  I mean, it's, it's such a great skill just to have for
• 40:40
  everything you do in life. So with all the improv of the
• 40:44
  two of you do, and you're getting into a script reading
• 40:49
  performance where there doesn't seem like there's much room for
• 40:52
  improv because you're literally reading the the stuff that's on
• 40:54
  the page. Where does the improv come
• 40:56
  through in something like this? Muppet script reading.
• 41:01
  It really is the interpretation of the lines and the delivery.
• 41:05
  And you know, because not only do you are we not doing
• 41:09
  impressions, you also don't want to do, you don't want to just do
• 41:13
  the exact same cadence. You know, you want to you want
• 41:16
  to make it something a little bit new and something your own.
• 41:19
  And also you're you're transforming it from this
• 41:21
  creature to now a human being standing there on the stage.
• 41:25
  And so how would I say this without the aid of being, you
• 41:30
  know, a wild looking creature that does not exist?
• 41:32
  And also, you know, trying to all all I ever want to do is
• 41:38
  break mark. That's all I ever want to do.
• 41:41
  So trying to come up with some line reading that he just
• 41:44
  absolutely does not expect is my only goal.
• 41:51
  Have you tried bringing a rubber chicken with you?
• 41:55
  And, and I know that that's what he's going to do.
• 41:58
  I know that's what he's thinking about.
• 42:00
  And the anticipation is almost worse than death itself.
• 42:04
  And it, of course, because Paul's very good at what he
• 42:06
  does. It comes in the most unexpected
• 42:09
  places. And it's like, you like, you
• 42:15
  know, I'm about to sing this song right now.
• 42:18
  Like, yeah, it's it. We've had, you know, years and
• 42:22
  years. 20 of them, the thrilling adventure hour of that dynamic.
• 42:27
  And so when Matt was like, would you like to play Kermit?
• 42:32
  I was like, oh, I don't know, like that's big shoes.
• 42:35
  And then he was like, Paul's playing fast.
• 42:37
  And he was like, OK, yeah, I'll do it.
• 42:41
  The the weird things that we sign up for just so we can hang
• 42:43
  out with our friends. 100% yeah. The I will say that because
• 42:47
  these things are are loose and whatever, I think that there's
• 42:51
  room for improvisation because, you know, mistakes happen, lines
• 42:55
  get missed or whatever and, and there's that sort of thing.
• 42:57
  It also seems it feels as though it's mandatory that Bobby
• 43:01
  Moynihan make at least one line filthy somehow at.
• 43:05
  Least one. It seems, it seems that he likes
• 43:07
  to, you know, pick his battles there as well.
• 43:10
  But also the audience reaction because it is a live show in
• 43:13
  front of a, a, a live audience. There are just things that are
• 43:17
  unexpected. There was in the, in the script
• 43:20
  for the great Muppet caper that we just did.
• 43:22
  I'm forgetting the exact exchange, but there's a there
• 43:25
  are like four or five lines in a row that Kermit has that are
• 43:27
  pretty tough on Miss Piggy. And the audience was not in and.
• 43:32
  And they're like, oh, like we thought Mark Evan Jackson was a
• 43:35
  nice person. Like.
• 43:36
  And I I truly like. I don't mug very much, but I
• 43:39
  like showed them the like, I turned the script and I was
• 43:42
  like, I'm reading. What's like, you've saw the
• 43:45
  movie. Yeah.
• 43:46
  Like Jim Henson. It's been produced.
• 43:48
  It's Canon. This.
• 43:49
  Has got to be the scene where they're they're arguing in front
• 43:51
  of the the ponds, right Yeah. Try to try to play one of your
• 43:55
  emotions right. That kind of thing.
• 43:56
  Yeah. One of the.
• 43:57
  Things that I really love about script Reads is because people
• 44:01
  have different approaches to them and like some people like
• 44:05
  Bobby likes to throw in extra lines and stuff like that.
• 44:09
  Like he reads what's on the page, but then he also like
• 44:12
  throws in some ad libs and everything.
• 44:14
  I the thing I really love to do is read everything verbatim, but
• 44:21
  just how am I going to read it? So I have not added anything.
• 44:25
  I am just trying to take the lines on the page, make them my
• 44:29
  own, make them funny without changing anything.
• 44:32
  And I like the challenge of that, you know, it's really fun.
• 44:36
  Yeah, and I respect that too, because for a lot of fans, this
• 44:39
  is like religious Canon. Like you don't mess with it.
• 44:43
  You know, there's a way that it was done.
• 44:45
  And then that's what we've been worshipping for our entire adult
• 44:49
  lives it. Also, I think depends on what
• 44:51
  character you're playing. Because somebody like when Bobby
• 44:53
  was doing Doc Hopper, it's like, yeah, you could, you could throw
• 44:57
  it a liner here or there, you know what I mean?
• 44:59
  But because you don't, you're not, he's not as beloved to you
• 45:05
  as, you know, the the rest of The Muppets are.
• 45:07
  He was, it was a live action character and all that.
• 45:09
  And so it's like, yeah, why not have fun?
• 45:12
  And for some of the other characters, it's like, no, I
• 45:15
  really want to hear this line the way it was.
• 45:18
  Written, you know. And you kind of sense that you
• 45:20
  kind of know when that's happening, when it's like, no, I
• 45:23
  got to do this one the way it says because.
• 45:26
  It's important. People want to hear it that way.
• 45:28
  They want to hear that line, yeah.
• 45:30
  Bobby added an R, an additional R to the word frog, frog, frog
• 45:36
  and And it was funny every single time.
• 45:39
  Yeah, it was funny every single time it was.
• 45:44
  Last question for you guys, do you have a Muppet dream project
• 45:49
  that you would love to work on someday?
• 45:50
  Like a like a blank check to do something with The Muppets?
• 45:54
  What would it? Be.
• 45:55
  I don't know that I do, but I will say that, you know, Matt
• 45:59
  inviting us to come do these has opened my eyes to like my
• 46:04
  goodness, what wonderful intellectual property and you
• 46:08
  know, what an interesting world for to explore and the fact that
• 46:13
  you know, it's it's still around and and that sort of thing.
• 46:16
  I'm going to think about that, though, be about what a dream
• 46:19
  project would be, because it's multi generational.
• 46:23
  It's for Quadrant, like it's, it's awfully fun and to to
• 46:27
  revisit these movies in preparation for these live shows
• 46:30
  for these stage readings, You know, you think like, boy, they
• 46:36
  put these guys on bicycles a lot.
• 46:37
  Like that can't be easy, right? Shouldn't you know, some of the
• 46:41
  things you're like, oh, that's a gigantic cheat that they're
• 46:43
  doing there. But then it's like, but I'll
• 46:45
  forgive it because they were on bikes 10 minutes ago, like 8 of
• 46:49
  them were on bicycles. Like how do you do that?
• 46:51
  Yeah, so breaking away would be yours.
• 46:53
  I It would be breaking away. Breaking away.
• 46:57
  My goodness, I've not thought of it.
• 46:59
  Play. The Paul Dooley role, Everyone
• 47:00
  else's Muppets My. Goodness.
• 47:03
  I got I got to work on a show with Henson puppets and
• 47:10
  puppeteers called No, you shut up it.
• 47:12
  Was a no. You shut up.
• 47:16
  You can't say that on a podcast, man.
• 47:17
  That that had, we don't want people to shut up, feel that had
• 47:20
  the feel of someone who knew this show was going to come up.
• 47:23
  I've been waiting for 12 years, Paul.
• 47:27
  And that was such a that was such a marvelous thing to to see
• 47:33
  these people do this thing, like make these puppets come to life
• 47:39
  to where you would swear you saw expressions on their faces.
• 47:44
  You would you would swear you saw light in their eyes.
• 47:46
  You know, it. It's really a magical thing.
• 47:49
  But I've never met an actual capital M Muppet.
• 47:54
  I've I've never encountered 1. And I would, I would do
• 47:57
  absolutely anything. I would.
• 47:58
  I would love for that to happen. I'll I'll.
• 48:01
  I mean, I can't imagine what it would be, but that would be such
• 48:04
  a such a wild thing. I can't even imagine.
• 48:09
  Yeah. Well, there's a They're working
• 48:11
  on a new Muppet Show now, so anything's.
• 48:13
  Possible, I heard. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 48:14
  So, So what you're saying to me, Paul, is your Muppet dream
• 48:17
  project is no, you showed up Season 2, is that it?
• 48:21
  More than one season. I mean season 3 just because it
• 48:25
  was short. Lived.
• 48:26
  What kind of handsome fan am I that I don't even know how many
• 48:28
  episodes of that show there were?
• 48:30
  I think, I think we. Did we do?
• 48:31
  4. Seasons.
• 48:32
  I think we were Four Seasons of that show.
• 48:34
  Yeah. Oh my.
• 48:35
  God, it was a topical, you know, news parody program with
• 48:39
  puppets. And we were cancelled just
• 48:46
  before the 2016 election. Wow, what a time it.
• 48:50
  Was a great time to take a political show off Good God.
• 48:53
  Paul, what was the show called? It was called.
• 48:56
  No, you shut up. Matt No.
• 48:58
  You shut up. Yeah, here's a little bit of
• 49:02
  trivia. I think I was at some of the
• 49:06
  very earliest performances of the Henson Puppets puppet up.
• 49:11
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because early in my career,
• 49:14
  before things got moving, I stage managed like crazy here in
• 49:18
  town at the HBO, Warner Brothers Television Workspace and then
• 49:21
  the Comedy Central stage. But then I would do I I stage
• 49:25
  managed at the Aspen Comedy Festival, which later became the
• 49:28
  Las Vegas Comedy Festival. And in Aspen, in the basement of
• 49:33
  the Jerome Hotel or the, I guess the Saint Regis, they did a full
• 49:37
  run during the Comedy Festival of Puppet Up with Patrick
• 49:40
  Bristow and, and all the folks, Brian Henson was there.
• 49:43
  And to see the, the workings, you know, how they tool up with
• 49:47
  the headbands and the mics and the monitors and the, and one
• 49:51
  arm raised over the, the other like they're, you know, it's a,
• 49:55
  it's an absolute physical endeavor to, to be a puppeteer.
• 49:59
  And it was, it was fascinating to, you know, get to know them a
• 50:02
  little bit. And then, of course, there's
• 50:03
  something in very Bobby Moynihan way.
• 50:06
  There's something very gratifying about seeing puppets
• 50:10
  be filthy. Yeah.
• 50:12
  For. Sure, Matt Wilkie, can you
• 50:16
  please remind our good listeners how they can tune into The
• 50:21
  Muppets? Take script Hatton.
• 50:23
  Excellent. Yes.
• 50:25
  So yes, Muppets take script. Hatton is on Friday, October
• 50:28
  24th. We're going to be producing it
• 50:31
  live from the Bell House in Brooklyn.
• 50:33
  Tickets are sold out, so we are pushing our live stream tickets,
• 50:38
  which are great. We have partnered up.
• 50:40
  It's a really interesting partnership that we've done for
• 50:42
  this. So we're filming it live at the
• 50:45
  Bell House. The crew from the Dynasty
• 50:47
  typewriter where we normally perform in LA is coming out to
• 50:51
  film it. Oh, wow.
• 50:52
  And then we're going to live stream it through a company
• 50:55
  called Veeps. So veeps.com is where you can
• 50:58
  get your live stream tickets. Just look for Muppets.
• 51:01
  You can just type in. Muppets will come up.
• 51:02
  You don't need to do Skiptatten. And yeah, and it's, it's, it's a
• 51:06
  great website. They have.
• 51:09
  It's a really cool centralized hub for live comedy and live
• 51:12
  music. They have a lot of concerts on
• 51:13
  there. I do recommend if you're
• 51:16
  checking out our page, you might want to get the subscription
• 51:19
  because it's $15 for the show, but it's $20.00 for a
• 51:21
  subscription. And then you can see everything
• 51:24
  they have and they have some really cool stuff.
• 51:26
  I just watched the, they did like a live version of the
• 51:30
  Garden State soundtrack and they have that up on there.
• 51:33
  So it like like Zach Braff and Natalie Portman appeared and
• 51:36
  they played like the whole soundtrack with all the real
• 51:38
  bands live. It was really cool.
• 51:39
  Oh, that's cool. Wow, Mark Evan Jackson, is there
• 51:44
  anything that you want to promote or any social media
• 51:47
  you'd like people to follow you at?
• 51:49
  I would love for people to check out the Detroit Creativity
• 51:51
  Project at dcpimprov.org or Detroit creativityproject.org.
• 51:56
  We're doing good work. It is.
• 51:58
  It's never been the goal to create the next generation of
• 52:01
  comedians and actors necessarily, but to create the
• 52:02
  next generation of fearless iterators and problem solvers
• 52:07
  and good communicators. So please check us out Detroit
• 52:10
  creativityproject.org. And Paul, is there anything that
• 52:14
  you'd like to promote or any social media you'd like to tell
• 52:16
  people about? Yeah, just real quick hosting
• 52:19
  tip, I would always put the person who's doing a charitable
• 52:23
  organization last because it. Are you telling me that you
• 52:28
  don't have a charitable organization that you work with
• 52:30
  Paul? I I sure don't.
• 52:32
  And and never. Will.
• 52:35
  And I. Never will.
• 52:36
  Learning a lot about that today, Paul only take.
• 52:41
  As I mentioned, I have a variety show and it's called Variotopia.
• 52:46
  We're going, we're finishing up our tour next month or in
• 52:51
  October, depending on when this goes out to people.
• 52:55
  And you can go to variotopia.com to get all the tickets.
• 52:59
  We we also live stream the show from our home base here in Los
• 53:03
  Angeles. The next one is in December, but
• 53:07
  yeah, go to varietopia.com, get all the tickets.
• 53:09
  It's a really fun time. Wonderful.
• 53:12
  Well, Mark, Evan Jackson, Paula Tompkins, and even you, Matt
• 53:15
  Wilkie, thank you all so much for being here.
• 53:17
  Can't wait for the show and I think everyone's going to have a
• 53:19
  really great time with it. No, you shut up.
• 53:22
  Fine.