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The Muppet Script - A Star-Studded Livestream Benefit · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

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Hello Muppet fans, and welcome to this special podcast
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interview brought to you by toughpigs.com.
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On Sunday, February 9th, a benefit will be held to raise
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money in support of California wildfire relief.
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That benefit is The Muppet Script, a star-studded script
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reading of The Muppet Movie. The event will be staged in
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front of a sold out audience, but it will also be available to
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live stream. To tell us more about this show
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is The Muppet Scripts producer and director and an old friend
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of Tough Pigs, Matt Wilkie. Hello, Matt.
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So happy to be back. Yeah, back is right.
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It's been a while since we've done anything together.
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It has. It has I you know, life got away
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from me for a little bit, but I'll never stop loving Muppets
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and I'll never stop loving tough pigs.
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I'm so glad to hear it, but we, we have a lot to talk about
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because this is a big deal, this Muppet Movie script reading that
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you're putting together. It is.
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It is, yeah. So tell me first, how did this
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whole thing come about for you? Great.
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Yeah. So this is an idea that I've had
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for a long time. I always felt that as much as we
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all think about The Muppets, we often think about the
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characters. We think about the felt and the
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fleece in the foam and and there's colorful creatures that
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that we all love to watch. But I'm, you know, I'm a writer
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by trade. And I feel as though the
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sometimes the script itself gets a little lost in the shuffle, in
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the, in the spectacle of it all. So I, I wanted to do something
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like this for a while to highlight the script that Jerry
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Jewell and Jack Burns wrote, but it was always just kind of in
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the back of my head. So to pull back the curtain, as
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we're probably aware, this year, 2025 saw a a big spread of
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wildfires that started in, in California.
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I was fortunate enough that my home itself wasn't affected, but
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many of my friends and friends of friends, their neighborhoods,
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their favorite businesses and, and their lives were really
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offended by these wildfires. And so luckily in the past, I
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think 2 days I've seen that they are all 100% contained.
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So we're very fortunate for that.
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But it is going to still be a long road of recovery for Los
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Angeles. Right now.
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There's a lot of rebuilding that has to get done.
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And I really wanted to do something to give back to a
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community that I've been a part of for a long time and
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absolutely love. So the idea of doing this as the
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benefit was really appealing to me and, and I thought it was
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time to to pull the trigger on this fun idea.
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I found a wonderful organization called Give Directly.
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They support specifically low income families and they are
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doing their own fundraising for the wildfire relief.
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And so I talked to them and I basically said, hey, we have
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this idea, I'm putting this thing together, you don't have
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to do anything, We just want to do it and give you guys some
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aid. And they were fantastic.
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They loved the idea itself. They loved that we were doing
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something to help them and here it is.
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So it's something that after pitching it, came together very
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quickly from the time that I talked to the theater, the
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Dynasty typewriter in Los Angeles, till the day that we
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actually do the show, it's about 3 1/2 weeks.
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So we put this whole thing together in an incredibly fast
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amount of time. But we've been very fortunate to
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have cast and crew and partners on this who really rose to the
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occasion and said, yes, let's do something to help.
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And it's, it's, it's been an amazing experience.
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I mean, it's kind of the story of the Muppet Movie, right?
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But like, you're just, let's just put this whole thing
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together. Let's get a bunch of people
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together. We don't have a plan.
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We're just going to show up in California and put on a show.
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You know, it kind of is. It kind of is.
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And it's, it's truly, it's truly something that I'm approaching
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as the spirit of if The Muppets were running it.
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It's it's that kind of spirit. We have many cast members who
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are from different productions that all feel like The Muppets
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to be. So we have the cast and crew
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from some productions of Dropout TV and they are basically wholly
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owned by themselves. Their CEO Sam Rice is somebody
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who took the college Humor format and when they were losing
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their funding, said I want to take it.
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I want to, I want to own it and I want to have all of my friends
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help me produce it. And that's what they've been
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doing for very successfully for years now.
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We also have a lot of cast members from the thrilling
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Adventure Hour, which is my favorite podcast.
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It's my favorite live show. And they're also this group of
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lovable misfits that all kind of came together for this really
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weird idea that when podcasts were basically just started,
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they're having their 20th anniversary.
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So they've been doing it for 20 years, which is before podcasts
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were really a big, big thing. And they, you know, banded
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together and, and figured it out.
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And there's so many Muppet like things in the process of this
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that it's it has almost been like living The Muppet Movie.
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We so you're, you're talking about some of these cast
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members. So we got to talk about a few
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more of them because you got some big names for this thing.
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We did. We did.
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How did you do that? Well, I've spent the last 11
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years working at Disney and for six and a half of those years I
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was at Marvel Studios. And through there I made some
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really nice connections. And one of the the biggest
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connections that I had through that is I worked in a movie
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called Ant Man and the Wasp Quantomania.
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And David Desmauschin was one of the cast members of that movie.
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And so David and I got to know each other and we've been
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talking a little bit back and forth about like once I left
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Marvel, what I was going to do next and, and what I might do.
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And, and when I came to him with this idea, he fell in love with
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it as immediately on board David is he won't mind me saying this
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because I know him well. He's a weirdo.
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He's an ultimate weirdo. And when I came to him and I
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said, I want you to play gonzo, he was over the moon.
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He was so excited. He's he's he's been practicing
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his singing voice and has been a fantastic person to bring
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outboard. One of the very first people I
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actually reached out to completely blind.
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I I didn't know them before. This was near West and I of
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course knew that Nina was a big Muppet fan.
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And I had the idea that Miss Piggy to me is the ultimate drag
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queen. She is somebody played by a man,
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but presenting as a femme is somebody who is a diva in all
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the best ways and is hilarious. And I really, really, really
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wanted Nina W to play Miss Piggy.
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And so I didn't know. I just reached out to her reps
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and one night sitting next to my wife as I'm just scrolling
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through Instagram, I started getting these alerts and it said
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Nina W like your photo? Nina W like your photo.
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Nina West has started following you.
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Nina W just sent you Adm so I watched in real time her slide
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into my DMS. Nina W is in your back at your
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back door knocking. She is knocking hard and she
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said. I can't believe this is such a
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fun idea. It's such a great response to
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these tragedies that we've been through.
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And it's an honor that you're even asking me to do this.
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And for her to say it was an honor for me to ask was like,
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no, no, no. It's an honor that you're saying
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yes, that you're even considering this at this moment.
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And so she's been a great partner.
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Yeah. I mean, so I, I told you this
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earlier, but so my wife and I discovered RuPaul's Drag Race
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like in August. And since then we've watched
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every season of the main show and all, all the seasons of All
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Stars. And we watched like the
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celebrity ones and like, it's just, it's getting out of
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control. And literally we've watched like
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hundreds of hours of this show since just in the last few
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months. And obviously, like we love Nina
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W, like we we totally fell in love with her.
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And of all the drag Queens to be on that show, like she is
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definitely like a top tier to not only play this role.
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But I mean, as proven, because it's happened, it's just to work
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with The Muppets because, you know, she did some stuff with
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them at D23 and she was in a Pride video with Kermit the Frog
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and like, yeah, obviously, like, she's already in the fold.
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Just let her play Miss Piggy. Why not?
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Absolutely. She's she's she's fantastic.
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She has been embracing this role.
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We've we've been talking costume ideas and and reveals and just
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amazing things. I'm a I'm a huge drag Race fan
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myself. My wife and I also watch it a
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lot. We actually last year we went to
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New York City specifically to see Jinx Monsoon in Chicago and
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it was a fantastic time. Jinx killed it.
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And there's there's so many great, great people on that show
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that I mean, I don't need to introduce to the world.
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They're they're out there already.
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But to show to show this different side of Nina, I think
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people are going to be really excited to see it all.
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Right. So let's plant this seed.
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Let's let's plant like another Muppet movie script reading with
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only drag Queens. Oh my gosh.
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Which just the entire. All right, that's another
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podcast we're going to cast. Oh my.
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And that's going to be, gosh, already I'm like, all right, I'm
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calling up Jujube. I'm calling up Ginger Minge.
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I have so many people that I'm like, yes, these are Muppets in
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real life. Absolutely.
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I'm picturing Bob the Drag Queen as Fozzie Bear.
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I can see that. Of course, let's do it of.
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Course, why not? So let's talk about our friends.
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By which I mean friend of all Muppet fans, Bobby Moynihan.
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When I saw his name on the list, the first thing I thought was,
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oh, he's obviously playing gonzo because he's just such a huge
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gonzo fan, but he's not. Tell me who he's playing.
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He is not. He is playing Doc Hopper in in a
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little bit of a, a subversion of expectations, I'm sure.
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I just think that there's something there.
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It's a, it's a very meaty role in this film.
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And Bobby can be very intimidating in a very fun way
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when he's doing it right. And so I had that vision and I I
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think it's a great fit. And especially since we are
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partnering Govop with a fan and friend of Tough Pigs, Griffin
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Newman playing Max such good. Such a good pairing, God.
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Exactly. Oh my gosh, they're going to.
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They're going to kill it better. I can't wait.
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Yeah, I, I never wanted a remake of the Muppet movie for so many
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reasons, but like to see the two of them on screen chasing after
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Kermit and Fozzie. I oh, man.
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Like, I'm, I'm upset that we won't actually see like them in
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the costume on the side of the road.
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You know what I mean? I do.
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I do know what you mean. I'm, I would never dream of this
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being a, a, you know, reproduction of the movie
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itself. It's it's it is, it is its own
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thing. But if it were, yeah, you can't
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get much better casting than those two for those roles.
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It's true. Maybe, maybe the next Muppet
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movie, they'll get Bobby Moynihan to play the villain and
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he'll get a little little wink, wink to Doc Copper in there.
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Let's let's hope so. Maybe if if this is if this is a
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springboard for that I would I'd be over the moon.
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Well, yeah, what would you be a fan if Disney was like, hey, we
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were like what you did? So we're going to make a Muppet
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movie. And thanks to you, Matt, it's
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all you. I.
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Mean, I guess I'd be flattered. I do like like stories where if
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you track it, the story back far enough and I play like the
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tiniest little role and I'm like, look, if it wasn't for me,
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that never would have happened. It's very true.
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It's very true. Well, I was.
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So important, no more important than me is another person who
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I'm a huge fan of is Paul F Tompkins, and he's playing
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Fozzie Bear. Is that right?
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He is playing Fozzie Bear and he has been so excited.
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My, my favorite thing so far is that when I reached out to his
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reps and we were talking, they said he's interested, but he has
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a question. And his question is, are you
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looking for an passion of Fozzie Bear for the whole night?
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Or is this more a little open to interpretation?
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And I hadn't said it, but that was my exact thought was I don't
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want impressions. Actually not looking
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specifically for impressions. There are plenty of people that
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can do a Fozzie Bear impression and it would be great.
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But Paul is somebody who is so smart about comedy.
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He's so thoughtful about what works and ways to in the flight.
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He's a genius at improvs and the he can make these little micro
12:55
adjustments that make the characters really sing.
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And so I said to him, no, I'm not looking for oppressions.
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I want to see how Paula Hopkins would play Fozzie Bear.
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And that's what we're going to get.
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And I love it. So good, what a cool guy.
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I hope he brings a pork pie hat and and a necktie.
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That's all I I said. I said to a lot.
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Yeah, I said to a lot of people, I was like, I was like, I'm not
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going to tell you what to wear. I want you to like as, as you're
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figuring out your voice and your, your interpretation of the
13:26
character playing. The same goes for costume, what
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you think somebody like this would wear.
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And boy, I'm I'm excited to see it.
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Another good friend of ours who's going to be in the show
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didn't expect you to cast Kermit's banjo, but you did.
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Our buddy Lucas Ross is going to make the make his way to
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California. What a great guy.
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He just says yes to everything. He does and he, you know, we, we
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had to work a little bit to make it work.
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And I do want to give a really special shout out to the
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American Banjo Museum. They helped us out a lot with
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getting him to to come out here and to join the show.
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Lucas is an amazing guy. I mean, I'm, you know him, he's
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full of joy and love and he loves these characters and he
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loves getting to, to perform and, and his, his official title
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is Banjo advisor to Kermit the frog.
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I found out. So that's, that's the, the
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phrase that we used. And I'm sure people can read
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between the lines, wink, wink, what that means.
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And he's, he's been fantastic. He's I've, I've already pitched
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him a couple of wild ideas that he's immediately been on board
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with and he's somebody that I'm so excited is joining.
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It gives us just that little bit of legitimacy that I was looking
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forward to say that we have the real it's, it's a real rainbow
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connection to have. He's just an advisor.
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I don't buy it. So you have done a bit of acting
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in your life. Many people may have seen you in
15:02
She Hulk Attorney at Law as yourself.
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I see it's true. Yes.
15:08
So legally speaking, no, but, but yes, so, so I, I was
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fortunate. So when I started at Marvel, I
15:18
was the receptionist there and I got to meet everybody in the
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studio. I got to talk to folks and I got
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to let them know about my creative side and my desire to
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eventually be on the creative side, which is where where I did
15:30
end up eventually. But when I started there, I was
15:34
front desk every morning. I was saying hi to people and
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the She Hulk writers team were all really good friends of mine
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by the end of their, their writers room.
15:45
And they, I, I found this out later in the original script for
15:50
the finale of She Hulk, there's a scene where she breaks the 4th
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wall and she enters The Muppets or excuse me, Marvel Studios.
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Oh. That'll be something.
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Oh my gosh, right? It's not easy being green.
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So she enters Marvel Studios and in the script they had written
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and she sees that Wilky, the receptionist who says to her,
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all these things they had written me in and legal very
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quickly said you cannot write it into the show like that.
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It has to be just the receptionist.
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But sometimes things work out and sometimes when you're when
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you know the writers and the producers of the show and you go
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to them and you say, I would love to audition to play myself,
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they say what a wild, fun idea that would be.
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And they liked my audition and I got to play a quote Matt Wilkie
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type. You were advisor to Matt Wilkie.
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Is what you were exactly, exactly I was.
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I was often in the corner just talking to myself.
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So. So now that you have this acting
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bug, are you going to be in the show as well?
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So I am going to be just doing a couple of things.
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I'll be doing kind of like a hosting for the night and then
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filling in here and there for certain things.
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But we do have some very, very talented people who will be even
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our, even down to our script reader are going to be doing
17:14
like stage direction reading our fantastic performers from the
17:18
UCB community, people who are going to take the pros of the
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script. And even the pros as written by
17:28
Jerry Jewell and Jack Burns is hilarious.
17:30
The descriptions of how they're travelling down the road is just
17:35
beautifully and funnily written. And so we'll have that.
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And yeah, so, so I I'm going to pop up when needed, but this is
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really a, a labor of love that I'm producing mostly from behind
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the scenes and showcasing these wonderful, wonderful performers.
17:53
Have there been any more well known people who've joined the
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roster since the original announcements of the cast?
18:04
I'm trying to think right now, of course, it's always subject
18:08
to change, but right now who we have on the Dynasty Typewriter
18:11
website is pretty much the people that we've had since the
18:16
beginning there. I'm trying to think if we added
18:18
anybody that hasn't been announced.
18:22
I will say that we have not yet announced our Kermit.
18:24
I know a lot of people are are curious to see who we've cast in
18:27
that role. It could.
18:29
Be anyone, it could be me, it could be it.
18:31
Could someone listening to this podcast?
18:33
Yeah, yeah, I I was, this is a complete joke, but I was joking
18:37
to my wife last night and I said, what if I just like,
18:40
pulled a Jeopardy on them? And as the producer, I'm like,
18:44
actually I'm going to play Kermit, but that is not the good
18:49
have, yeah. Don't, I mean don't do that, but
18:51
you could. It's I, I will not do that, Sir.
18:55
No, we, we have, we are in talks with some really exciting things
19:00
that might happen with that. And so I can't announce it yet.
19:04
Maybe before this airs, if we, if we get it, we can insert it
19:08
right here. But I, I, I don't know yet.
19:11
So it'll be somebody really special.
19:14
Yeah. Great, that's a good tease.
19:17
Either way, that's a good tease. Hands like look and if you don't
19:19
announce it, then the only way that people can find out is to
19:23
to get in on this live stream and then to see it for yourself.
19:26
Absolutely. Oh my God, that would be that
19:28
would be kind of fun if I just didn't announce it at all and we
19:32
just waited until the night of. Not a bad idea.
19:35
Mystery Kermit Yeah. Was there anyone that you feel
19:40
comfortable saying that you reached out to that said no?
19:45
Oh gosh, I'll, I'll tell you off Mike.
19:52
I, I really there were there were a couple of people that I
19:55
asked to be in this show that technically speaking, I'm still
19:58
out to them right now. So it could not happen.
20:02
There are some people who very, very graciously declined because
20:06
they had it's, it's the time right now where a lot of people
20:09
in Los Angeles. Are trying to do what they can
20:13
for the community. And so there are a lot of things
20:15
happening right now that are benefits for people.
20:19
So there were there were a couple who I did reach out to
20:21
who were already doing a different benefit at the same
20:23
time and who weren't able to join, but I think it'd be polite
20:30
of me not to say. That's fair.
20:33
I wonder if they're the same people that we've reached out to
20:35
in the past that are like, right now, I think, I think.
20:38
There'll be some overlap. I think there'll be some
20:40
overlap. I bet you're right.
20:41
OK, well, we'll we'll compare notes.
20:43
So we you, you talked a bit about about this script, the
20:47
Jerry Jewel, Jerry Jewel Jack Burns script.
20:51
So are it sounds like you're using the original script?
20:56
Are you making any changes to it So like fit the movie?
20:59
I'm sure there's like slight differences between the shooting
21:02
script and the final script. Yeah, there are slight
21:04
differences. At first I thought I was just
21:07
going to do the original script as is.
21:09
There is a version of the script that's floating around.
21:11
It's missing some pages. It is very different than the
21:16
shooting draft because it's probably like a draft or two
21:19
before they actually went to shoot.
21:22
But that was the the the template, the Bible for what we
21:26
did. I took that.
21:28
I merged the missing scenes and the missing chins or, or
21:31
character lines that got changed from the final film and put
21:34
those in. And then there is very little
21:39
just kind of reworking to make it feel like the end.
21:43
I will say that to me, the most important reason why I went to
21:49
the movie as well is because in this draft that's floating
21:52
around, Kermit's motivation is a little bit different.
21:56
Kermit at the beginning of the film hears that he can become
22:00
rich and famous and that's kind of his driving force through
22:04
that version of the script. But something that they not kind
22:09
of held on to when they went to film is the real reason Kermit
22:14
wants to do it is to make millions of people happy.
22:17
And that to me is the essence of Kermit.
22:19
And so I couldn't really circle that square and say that his his
22:26
motivation needed to be millions of people happy.
22:29
And so that's that's why we have kind of a merging of those
22:33
versions. That that thing that's wise.
22:37
I mean, he could have said, I, you know, he wanted to do this
22:40
to make millions of people happy.
22:42
And if I happen to get rich and famous along the way, well, I
22:45
guess I'll just be rich. I'm not going to turn down the
22:48
rich and famous part. And it is the rich and famous
22:51
contract that signed. So, so you know, it's still,
22:54
it's still a little bit about money, but just like what we're
22:57
doing where it's, you know, our purses are being donated to give
23:01
directly. It's it really is about the joy
23:06
right now. It's, it's been, it's been a
23:09
very rough month for a lot of people for a lot of different
23:11
reasons. And I feel like this is such a
23:15
pure good hearted story. And I think it's coming at a
23:20
time where a lot of people can use a little bit of comfort and
23:23
joy right now. So happy, happy that we're
23:25
getting to do it. Yeah.
23:27
And also, you know, I think that just to your point, charity and
23:33
these kinds of important tasks that we were doing to kind of
23:38
help make the world slightly better, they tend to come across
23:40
as a little boring and, or a little cold because it's so
23:44
important. And so I, I think it's nice to
23:45
remind people of like, no, it doesn't have to be boring.
23:47
It doesn't have to be cold. It could be fun.
23:48
It could be filled with Muppets and drag Queens and comedians.
23:52
You know, absolutely it could be.
23:53
There's no, there's no reason not.
23:55
And these are, these are people. We have, many of the people in
23:59
our cast are trans people. Many of the people in our cast
24:02
are queer full. Many of the people in this cast
24:05
are people who are, you know, struggling right now for their
24:09
rights and their rights for just being born as who they are.
24:15
And there's a lot of found family in these communities.
24:18
And The Muppets is one of the best found family communities I
24:22
can think of. I just think it's just a, a
24:24
great combination of those types of things and and a wonderful,
24:29
wonderful thing. Yeah.
24:31
And so actually that goes back to, to a question that I, I had
24:34
skipped over on my list here because you, you kind of talked
24:38
about it, but maybe we could talk about it some more.
24:40
Just this idea that you could have chosen anything, but you
24:43
could have done a script reading of Back to the Future or the
24:47
like the 80s Howard the Duck movie or probably not Star Wars
24:51
because I think Patrick Cotner has the.
24:53
Right has his thumb on that one hard and and yeah.
24:57
Pretty hard. He's a very, very good friend of
25:00
mine. He he gave me some advice on
25:02
this project as well. But yeah, I wouldn't touch Star
25:05
Wars. Right.
25:07
So why the Muppet Movie? I mean, I know it's like we're
25:10
fans so that that's always going to be the first thing that you
25:13
and people like you and I think about.
25:14
But but why? For something like this to to
25:17
support like this kind of charity?
25:20
Is The Muppet movie The perfect script reading?
25:22
It it really it it truly, it's the perfect script reading, I
25:26
think. It is a story about
25:29
perseverance. It's a story about overcoming
25:32
the odds. It's a story about truly finding
25:38
what motivates you in life and what purpose you want to get out
25:42
of life. And it inspires you to keep
25:46
going in the face of so many people telling you it's not
25:50
going to happen, it's not going to work.
25:51
You should just give up and go back to your home in the swamp
25:54
and forget about what your silly little dreams are.
25:59
But I think that art is important and I think that art
26:04
matters. And I think that this is a work
26:06
of art that I want people to really look at a little bit
26:10
closer and to say, yeah, I, I love singing Rainbow Connection
26:15
in the shower, but what does it mean?
26:17
And what is it? What does it motivate me to do
26:21
when I think about the words that Kermit singing and I I
26:25
truly think that it's a story that is timeless and is
26:31
something that so many people can relate to.
26:33
Every single person that I've asked to do this show that is
26:39
has come aboard as I said yes has told me how much they love
26:42
The Muppets, how much it's an honor to get these characters,
26:47
even if it's just like one line and you you sit on stage for the
26:51
rest of the show. They they're like, I'll do it.
26:53
I'll do anything because this is such a joyful, wonderful, loving
26:59
movie. And it's, it's just, it's the
27:02
perfect combination of of material and talent and I'm so
27:08
excited. I'm so glad to hear that.
27:12
Slightly off topic. So you were one of our our the
27:17
the core writers over here on tough pigs from like I looked it
27:20
up. I think it's you were here for
27:21
like 2011 to 2021 ish and this is your first really big Muppet
27:28
fan project since then. Does this mean that you're
27:31
coming back to the fold, you're gonna start making Muppet
27:33
content again? I don't say necessarily for us,
27:36
it's up to you. You're you're a free agent.
27:39
I am, which is it's, it's a wonderful thing right now.
27:41
I am, I have left our studios. It was a a tough thing.
27:47
We went through a lot of layoffs passed in my industry and I was
27:51
affected by them. And so I really took time this
27:56
past year to think about who I am, what kind of producer I want
28:02
to be, what kind of projects I've done that I've loved, what
28:06
kind of things I've done that I want to do again or never do
28:10
again. And so right now, yeah, free
28:14
agent is the word. I'm, I'm, I'm looking for the
28:17
things that sparked joy in me and that I want to bring out.
28:21
And for this to be my first like big project as an independent
28:25
producer is I think for me, and so many people have told me this
28:29
for me, just the perfect thing to do.
28:31
Just the perfect thing where I am going back to my my all time
28:36
lifelong love of Muppets, comedy in general, music and just so
28:42
many wonderful things. I haven't even talked about the
28:44
music yet. Oh my gosh, we have music.
28:47
You're going. To have music of this thing.
28:49
We're going to have music. We're going to have live music.
28:52
I know we talked Lucas Ross, which is great, but we have a
28:54
full band that's going to be on stage.
28:57
We have the band members from off book, the improvised
29:00
musical. I've been friends with Jess
29:02
McKenna and Zach Reno and Dana Wickens and Scott and Brett and
29:07
everybody for for a long time. Jess and I have often said that
29:12
we wanted to work together on something.
29:13
And so when I reached out to her about this, we, we decided like
29:18
if we could have off book play Electric Mayhem, it would just
29:23
fit perfectly. And Dana Wickens is going to
29:26
blow you away when he comes out as animal.
29:29
She is going to absolutely kill it and you're going to, you're
29:33
going to be, your socks will be rocked off.
29:37
So it's, it's just this, this kind of combination, me pulling
29:40
together so many people that I love, so many people that I
29:44
admire and I've wanted to work with or have worked with and
29:49
bringing them into something so magical and wonderful.
29:53
And it's just like a great way to reintroduce myself to the
29:56
world a little bit. And as a Muppet fan, yeah, I'd,
30:02
I'd love to do more Muppet Y things.
30:03
I don't know exactly what that'll be yet.
30:05
I'm not, I'm not announcing that we're going to do the scripted
30:09
Muppet caper, but it is something that I'm thinking
30:11
about and we'll. See if that that was going to be
30:14
my my next question. Are you are you just going to go
30:16
in order? If, if we do it, we're going to,
30:20
yeah, we're going to go in order.
30:21
We're going to have the scripted Muppet caper would be the next
30:24
one, yeah. Amazing.
30:27
Well, that's fantastic. I think this is going to be a
30:29
great show. I'm I'm so excited to see the
30:31
live stream. I'm I'm so sorry that I live on
30:33
the wrong side of the country to be able to be there in person.
30:36
But but the fact that you guys are making this available to
30:38
everybody is it's also like very much in the vein of of The
30:42
Muppets like this is. Absolutely, Absolutely.
30:45
Yeah. Dynasty Typewriter is a
30:46
fantastic theatre. They're they're my favorite live
30:48
stage theatre in Los Angeles. I, I actually have tickets
30:52
tomorrow night to see the George Lucas talk show there, which is
30:55
one of my favorite things in the world to watch and.
30:58
Shout out to our friend Patrick Cotner who works on that show he
31:01
produced. That show yes, he does and
31:04
Griffin Duman plays Wato in that show as well Yes he does.
31:08
We've got a lot of great connections there.
31:10
So the dynasty type writer is they're very great with their
31:15
live stream as well. They're they're kind of playing
31:18
around with the format a lot of times they're trying to figure
31:20
out what we can do that kind of infuses video plus live stage
31:25
plus anything else that we do that night.
31:28
So they're really, they've really embraced it and have
31:33
found really interesting ways to to do it.
31:38
I specifically went to that first.
31:42
Like I said, they were immediately on board and they
31:44
said, great, we've got this date available.
31:45
Can you do it in this amount of time?
31:47
And I said I will make that work because I want to go to you
31:49
guys. And I absolutely wanted to make
31:53
sure that we had a theatre that was going to do a live stream
31:56
because it's, it's a wonderful theatre.
31:59
But you know, like every place it has its capacity and hold out
32:03
the in person tickets. I don't want to brag, but we
32:06
sold them out in under 6 hours. It was incredibly.
32:09
It's. Very crazy how quickly we sold
32:13
out and to the point where I was like, oh, I didn't get my wife a
32:17
ticket yet. Hold on.
32:19
I got to make sure Gracie kept it.
32:20
And so so we we made sure that we have the live stream.
32:26
It is going to be broadcast live on the night of, but you don't
32:32
even need to watch it live if you're in another part of the
32:34
world. If it's somewhere where it's
32:36
going to be very late for you, You can watch it anytime for up
32:40
to two weeks after the show plays live So and and you can
32:46
rewatch it too. So it's great.
32:48
So really, really want to encourage people who miss out of
32:50
the live in person tickets to get their live stream tickets.
32:55
You can get them from the same website from
32:56
dynastytypewriter.com. And I believe it's only like 15
33:00
bucks right for the for the live.
33:01
Stream it's 15 bucks and yeah you can watch it as many times
33:04
as you want. It's it's cheaper than AMC right
33:06
now, so. Yeah, like that You.
33:09
This is a steal. I'm not going to lie.
33:11
I think you're undervaluing this.
33:14
For what? For what we're doing, you are
33:17
getting so much value, yes. Absolutely, and for a good
33:21
'cause. That's the most important thing.
33:23
Yes. Yes.
33:24
I cannot, I cannot say that enough.
33:26
I am not. I am not making money off of
33:28
this. And I'm so, so happy that I'm
33:31
not. I'm so happy that we've we've
33:33
gotten such great response from people who want to support
33:38
survivors of the wildfires. Yeah.
33:41
And you know, if you feel like you're underpaying for this live
33:43
stream ticket, you could just donate more money.
33:46
Nothing stopping. You absolutely, hey, if you're
33:48
listening to this and for some reason you don't even love The
33:50
Muppets, please consider going to give directly.com and finding
33:55
their, they have a specific fundraiser for the wildfires
33:58
that you can donate to. Please do that because it's like
34:02
I said, it's a wonderful organization.
34:03
They're helping low income families directly.
34:06
Their goal is to raise 3000 to $4000 per family and we really
34:13
want to to help them out with that goal.
34:16
Great. And Speaking of dot coms, where
34:19
can people go to get tickets for this live stream?
34:22
Yeah, yeah. So if you just go to
34:24
dynastytypewriter.com, there is a full page there for all of
34:28
their upcoming shows. You can buy your tickets there.
34:31
It goes through. I think it's a cycle squad up,
34:34
but that's a little more convoluted.
34:35
So if you just go to dynastytypewriter.com, you'll
34:37
find their tickets there. Great.
34:40
Well, Matt, thank you so much for being here and for telling
34:42
us all about the show. I'm so excited for it.
34:44
I think it's going to be a blast.
34:46
Thank you. Thank you so much and thank.
34:48
You for putting it together, because you know, this really is
34:50
important work. And, you know, I'm glad that
34:51
it's someone who really cares both about, you know, this
34:56
charity that you're supporting and The Muppets, because we
35:01
don't want to see either of those get screwed up.
35:04
Not at all. I have, I have great love and
35:07
respect for both of those things.
35:09
And it's, you know, it's the perfect chocolate in the peanut
35:13
butter combo. It's just wonderful that it's
35:16
happening. It's wonderful that people are
35:18
doing it and people are excited to see it.
35:20
And I I can't wait for the 9th to put it on.
35:25
One last thing for you, Matt. Where, if anywhere, can people
35:31
find your work on the Internet? Oh, great question.
35:34
So I do have a very, very, very bare bones website that you can
35:39
go to itswikipedia.com. That's WILKIEI know you kind of
35:47
love it. Yeah, yes.
35:51
And, and you can check me out there and, and find my socials
35:55
and, and anything upcoming that we'll have.
35:58
Fantastic. And for Tough Pigs, you can find
36:00
us@toughpigs.com. You can find us at Tough Pigs on
36:03
all social media networks except for that one that we are getting
36:06
off. We're not going to talk about
36:07
it. And you can also support us on
36:10
Patreon or you could buy T-shirts and other
36:13
merchandise@tpublic.com and just do a search for Tough Pigs.
36:17
Thanks again, Matt, for being here.
36:19
I'm so excited for the show. I think everyone listening to
36:21
this is going to be excited as well.
36:23
And make sure you head over to the Dynasty Typewriter website
36:26
to get your live stream tickets. Thank you so much Joe Thank you
36:30
so much Cup Pig. So good to see you guys again.