Latest / Next Act with Jeff Ornstein / Tom McElroy - Actor, Chicago Freelance

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Tom McElroy - Actor, Chicago Freelance · Next Act with Jeff Ornstein

• 0:01
  Jeff Ornstein: Hi everyone and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
• 0:05
  Jeff Ornstein: I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness.
• 0:10
  Jeff Ornstein: Those building on past successes in some of the curious and inventive and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those, and stepping into moments that could define their legacy.
• 0:21
  Jeff Ornstein: We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead.
• 0:26
  Jeff Ornstein: So the best is yet to come.
• 0:28
  Jeff Ornstein: Tom is a Chicago-based actor whose career spans theater, television, and film, including roles in Prison Break, Chicago Fire, and The Dark Night.
• 0:38
  Jeff Ornstein: A graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a lifelong performer, Tom blends his faith, creativity, and storytelling skills to bring characters to life, whether on stage, on screen, or behind the microphone.
• 0:51
  Jeff Ornstein: And welcome, Tom.
• 0:52
  Jeff Ornstein: We're delighted to have you here.
• 0:54
  Jeff Ornstein: Well, I'm excited to be here.
• 0:55
  Jeff Ornstein: Thanks for inviting me.
• 0:56
  Jeff Ornstein: It's a pleasure.
• 0:58
  Jeff Ornstein: So I'm particularly excited about when we have a guest like you because this is called Next Act, and I'm someone who's juggling, you know, creating a new career while still maintaining my old one.
• 1:09
  Jeff Ornstein: And it seems as though your history is not dissimilar in that you had a whole pre-life, and then you had a whole very impressive post-life.
• 1:19
  Jeff Ornstein: So I want to talk about a little bit about your origins, and then we'll get into all the good stuff that you're doing currently.
• 1:24
  Tom McElroy: Okay.
• 1:24
  Tom McElroy: Post-life, I'm not dead yet, just so you know.
• 1:27
  Tom McElroy: Yeah.
• 1:29
  Jeff Ornstein: Post post-pre-life.
• 1:30
  Jeff Ornstein: So in my notes, I was given that you grew up in a home where theater and acting was discouraged, yet it also notes that you were a magician, you were in school plays, you were in church plays.
• 1:45
  Jeff Ornstein: So how did those two things resonate with one another?
• 1:49
  Tom McElroy: Yeah, that's kind of a misnomer because it wasn't like the theater arts, it wasn't like acting or storytelling or that sort of thing that was discouraged.
• 1:58
  Tom McElroy: Obviously, it was kind of encouraged.
• 2:00
  Tom McElroy: My cousins and I were constantly doing little plays for the family, you know, three little pigs and whatever.
• 2:06
  Tom McElroy: And so that was there.
• 2:08
  Tom McElroy: And you, you know, you had school, you had church, you had various venues, and that's really the issue.
• 2:15
  Tom McElroy: It was like the legit theater venue.
• 2:19
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 2:20
  Tom McElroy: You didn't go there.
• 2:22
  Tom McElroy: The cinema, you didn't go there.
• 2:24
  Tom McElroy: I mean, why do you think they call it the cinema?
• 2:27
  Tom McElroy: Ah, interesting.
• 2:29
  Tom McElroy: That's actually from a recording artist named Larry Norman.
• 2:33
  Tom McElroy: I'm so dull, dog.
• 2:35
  Tom McElroy: It's unbelievable.
• 2:36
  Tom McElroy: He came up with that thing, but it kind of mirrors my dad's uh kind of view on things.
• 2:41
  Tom McElroy: But anyway, so it wasn't that the skills and so on were discouraged.
• 2:46
  Tom McElroy: It was just those two venues.
• 2:47
  Tom McElroy: I get it.
• 2:48
  Tom McElroy: Dad watched a lot of TV all the time.
• 2:50
  Tom McElroy: We watched a lot of TV.
• 2:52
  Jeff Ornstein: Okay.
• 2:52
  Jeff Ornstein: While you were growing up and honing your skills on the on the as the magician, pulling rabbits out of hat and doing skits and church plays.
• 3:00
  Jeff Ornstein: It then took you to the Moody Bible Institute, where you graduated with a Bible and theology degree.
• 3:06
  Jeff Ornstein: Yes, indeed.
• 3:06
  Jeff Ornstein: And was it immediately after that that you became a pastor for youth?
• 3:10
  Tom McElroy: Yes.
• 3:11
  Tom McElroy: Went right into ministry, did did a summer of missions work in southeastern Ohio, and then came back to actually the area I grew up in and was actually the youth pastor at the church I grew up in as a kid.
• 3:22
  Jeff Ornstein: Well, that's something also we have in common because I actually, well, I'll use the term Sunday school because that's what we called it growing up.
• 3:27
  Jeff Ornstein: But I went to Sunday school three times a week until I went to college.
• 3:31
  Jeff Ornstein: Wow.
• 3:31
  Jeff Ornstein: So I I lived at the temple.
• 3:33
  Jeff Ornstein: I mean, that was my world of special life and the things that they taught you and the values and the systems that they installed in you.
• 3:40
  Jeff Ornstein: So I think we have a little common ground there too.
• 3:43
  Jeff Ornstein: I have to say I was able to get onto your IMDB site and see some of your performances.
• 3:47
  Jeff Ornstein: I was fell bound.
• 3:49
  Jeff Ornstein: I really loved it.
• 3:50
  Jeff Ornstein: And you've definitely nailed some of these characters, you know, with a very in a great intensity.
• 3:56
  Jeff Ornstein: So congratulations on that.
• 3:57
  Jeff Ornstein: Thank you.
• 3:58
  Jeff Ornstein: But you had an earlier life also that was corporate, and then I was giving notes that you had some personal setbacks.
• 4:04
  Jeff Ornstein: Did that like say, okay, these doors are closed, now I've got to find something new, or was there an epiphany moment where you said, I'm tired of this and I wanna I wanna be a performer?
• 4:14
  Jeff Ornstein: How did that happen?
• 4:16
  Tom McElroy: Yeah, part of it was a closed door.
• 4:18
  Tom McElroy: I had a spiritual crumbling at the end of my youth pastor years.
• 4:23
  Tom McElroy: And so that really kind of eliminated the option to continue being a youth pastor.
• 4:28
  Tom McElroy: I understand.
• 4:29
  Tom McElroy: And uh so I went into, I eventually I did construction, I went into the corporate world.
• 4:34
  Tom McElroy: During that period of time, just before the crumbling, I was actually in the passion play in Zion, and I was backstage one night.
• 4:45
  Tom McElroy: This was before there was any spiritual crumbling, but just uh we were about to go on for the pilot scene, and I'm standing there, and you've got the big black curtains there and the wings and the lights above, and there was a fog machine kind of going on, and the camaraderie of us backstage, getting you know, it's like like not everybody is like totally in character before they step out.
• 5:09
  Tom McElroy: Some of us don't do that, we're not in method, so to speak, so we kind of will, you know, crack a joke or something before we go out and then we're quite serious.
• 5:17
  Tom McElroy: But there was just this moment, kind of a holy moment, where I just went, wow, Lord, this I would love to do this all the time.
• 5:27
  Tom McElroy: So that was there.
• 5:28
  Tom McElroy: And so then, oddly, Lord, I have this spiritual washout.
• 5:35
  Tom McElroy: And yeah, it took, you know, but God is faithful and he he he didn't ever leave me, even though maybe I walked away from him for a little bit.
• 5:42
  Tom McElroy: He he just guided me back towards what I think he had for me all along.
• 5:48
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 5:48
  Jeff Ornstein: You know, it's interesting.
• 5:49
  Jeff Ornstein: I had another guest recently who was in animation, very accomplished, and he spoke about the theater and plays.
• 5:56
  Jeff Ornstein: He said, you know, I've never been much into theater, anything in plays, and you know, that participation putting up production.
• 6:02
  Jeff Ornstein: And while he was saying that, it was bringing me back to exactly where you just were, in between the curtains, backstage, and the lights are on, and you're seeing your compatriots, you know, sideways, and you're getting your juices going, and then you get on stage and you do your thing.
• 6:15
  Jeff Ornstein: And you know, you have that bug or you don't have that bug.
• 6:19
  Jeff Ornstein: Absolutely.
• 6:20
  Jeff Ornstein: Right?
• 6:21
  Tom McElroy: So it grabs you.
• 6:23
  Tom McElroy: Yeah.
• 6:23
  Tom McElroy: About that bug, you know, the first show I was in in Chicago, we were at a bar after the performance, and I'm talking with this guy, and I'm new.
• 6:32
  Tom McElroy: I'm just totally new, and I'm just like, give me a leg up, talk, talk to me about this.
• 6:36
  Tom McElroy: And he he looks, and this was a very successful theater company.
• 6:40
  Tom McElroy: They'd come out of school, got equity awards.
• 6:43
  Tom McElroy: A lot of them decided they were gonna go out uh west and conquer Hollywood because they were just they were on fire.
• 6:50
  Tom McElroy: And I'm like, so tell me, you know, give me a what you know how's it and he goes, I wouldn't wish this business.
• 6:56
  Tom McElroy: I'm my worst enemy.
• 6:57
  Tom McElroy: I came out of school, I booked this and this and this and this, made $125,000 my first year out of school.
• 7:04
  Tom McElroy: It's been five years, I've not made a single dime since.
• 7:08
  Tom McElroy: Wow.
• 7:08
  Jeff Ornstein: But not for the face that wasn't stopping him.
• 7:11
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 7:12
  Jeff Ornstein: So to that back, when you're a youth pastor, you were doing theater with the the young people, and that kind of never left you because you've got this really impressive mentoring thing going on that pops up repeatedly.
• 7:28
  Jeff Ornstein: So describe that, that you're doing you do the mentoring and you're also doing the performing.
• 7:33
  Jeff Ornstein: Is there is there something that you know says I I'm giving back to younger people everything I'm learning daily along the way?
• 7:41
  Tom McElroy: Well, sure.
• 7:41
  Tom McElroy: And I've used not that particular line, but I have said to young people who are like, okay, I want to do this.
• 7:48
  Tom McElroy: Okay.
• 7:49
  Tom McElroy: First of all, you gotta ask yourself, is there anything else in life that you could do and really enjoy doing it?
• 7:54
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 7:55
  Tom McElroy: Be okay with that, really enjoy doing it.
• 7:57
  Tom McElroy: Probably you might want to consider that because this is a brutal business.
• 8:02
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 8:02
  Jeff Ornstein: No gas.
• 8:03
  Tom McElroy: But if you can't let it go, if it is just I gotta do this, then then go for it.
• 8:09
  Jeff Ornstein: Then you you you enjoy the $150,000 of bookings in a year and you suffer through the five-year of hard-boiled eggs and tomatoes.
• 8:17
  Jeff Ornstein: Absolutely.
• 8:18
  Jeff Ornstein: Absolutely.
• 8:19
  Jeff Ornstein: Yes.
• 8:19
  Jeff Ornstein: So you've also, in addition to the big name productions that you've been in, you've also worked with some pretty big names.
• 8:26
  Jeff Ornstein: So what's it like, you know, for someone like me who's just getting into it, what's it like when you walk into a room and there is some hugely famous performer or someone you've seen perform, you know, since you were a little kid on TV or in the at film.
• 8:42
  Jeff Ornstein: Were you starstruck?
• 8:43
  Jeff Ornstein: Or do you just sort of roll with the punches, or were you cool, or were you a little goo-goo?
• 8:49
  Tom McElroy: Oh yeah.
• 8:49
  Tom McElroy: You know, I mean, I mean, like probably the first time being in the presence of a of a well-known personality was uh Tommy Jones, and it was Natural Born Killers.
• 9:00
  Tom McElroy: And I was a prisoner in the scene, and it's the end where he's climbing up and and then he falls back into the crowd.
• 9:07
  Tom McElroy: And so we're there, you know, and we're ready to catch him.
• 9:10
  Tom McElroy: I happen to be standing next to the stunt guys that that were part of the scene that were going to catch him, and he fell and his head landed right here.
• 9:18
  Tom McElroy: I was cheek to cheek with him.
• 9:20
  Tom McElroy: And I'm like, oh, hi.
• 9:25
  Tom McElroy: It did not make it, it did not make it to the print, which which it was kind of sad.
• 9:30
  Tom McElroy: It's just kind of a bigger shot.
• 9:32
  Tom McElroy: But um, yeah, so that was, you know, and it and it was it was it was exciting, and you know, sure.
• 9:37
  Tom McElroy: Get your juices flowing.
• 9:38
  Tom McElroy: Yeah, it was it was like wonderful.
• 9:40
  Tom McElroy: Christopher Nolan, I have a very tiny part in the dark night.
• 9:44
  Tom McElroy: I was in a show with some kids uh when the DVD came out, and they had me actually sign their DVDs because they were just awestruck that I was in the dark night.
• 9:54
  Tom McElroy: How cool is that, right?
• 9:56
  Tom McElroy: Yeah.
• 9:56
  Tom McElroy: You've arrived.
• 9:57
  Tom McElroy: I was man too.
• 9:58
  Tom McElroy: That was my name, man too.
• 10:00
  Tom McElroy: So so I blew the judge up.
• 10:03
  Tom McElroy: But the guy Jim, the other actor and I that were in it, we spent our day going, giving each other a high five.
• 10:08
  Tom McElroy: We're in Batman.
• 10:09
  Tom McElroy: You know, I mean, there's juice like that.
• 10:10
  Tom McElroy: Very cool.
• 10:12
  Tom McElroy: Cindy Williams, I'm like, oh, and there was kissing in this.
• 10:17
  Tom McElroy: There was like a beginning of a make out scene that was gonna get interrupted in the script.
• 10:22
  Tom McElroy: So I'm like, okay, you know, I'm not usually very, you know, like when I talked with Christopher Nolan, you know, it was just like talking with you.
• 10:30
  Tom McElroy: But I'm a little like, I'm gonna have to kiss her, and I, you know, don't know how she'll feel about me.
• 10:35
  Tom McElroy: And so and uh I walked in, and I shouldn't say she walked in.
• 10:40
  Tom McElroy: I was there before she was, it was a first day of rehearsal.
• 10:43
  Tom McElroy: She walks in, she drops her bags, she looks around, she goes, Where's my husband?
• 10:47
  Tom McElroy: And she runs up to me and she grabs my face and she plants a big one right on my lips, and she goes, We are gonna have such fun.
• 10:56
  Tom McElroy: And I thought that was brilliant.
• 10:59
  Tom McElroy: Great way to break the ice brilliant, yes.
• 11:02
  Tom McElroy: It was just, and we actually became fast friends during that production.
• 11:07
  Tom McElroy: We did it again actually in Florida later on.
• 11:10
  Tom McElroy: That was a truly wonderful experience, and she she was a she was a lot of fun.
• 11:14
  Jeff Ornstein: It's it is really brilliant because it's like, of course, you were there, she's the known star.
• 11:18
  Jeff Ornstein: Who wouldn't be nervous?
• 11:19
  Jeff Ornstein: I'm gonna kiss a stranger to me, even though it's a famous stranger, and just like cut even worse as a famous stranger.
• 11:26
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 11:27
  Jeff Ornstein: So all right.
• 11:29
  Jeff Ornstein: So uh a question that they had that I was looking forward to asking might have answered, though.
• 11:33
  Jeff Ornstein: What was the most unexpected or humorous thing that's ever happened to you on stage or on set?
• 11:37
  Jeff Ornstein: That one might qualify.
• 11:39
  Tom McElroy: There have been so many.
• 11:40
  Tom McElroy: One time the set didn't work properly, the bed came off the rack, it was being pulled out by cable, and it and the the pin for the bed that was supposed to be in the cable that was supposed to help it turn the corner, it just cut through the entire stage.
• 11:54
  Tom McElroy: My son happened to be in the audience that night.
• 11:56
  Tom McElroy: He said it looked like a buzzsaw was just going straight across the stage, all these wood chips were flying.
• 12:01
  Tom McElroy: But my my favorite time with Cindy was during rehearsal, and we'd gotten to the place where you're actually now going to kiss.
• 12:07
  Tom McElroy: You know, at the beginning of rehearsal, he was walking through, getting blocking, all that.
• 12:10
  Tom McElroy: Now we're now we're starting to kind of run it a little bit, get it really moving.
• 12:14
  Tom McElroy: And I get on the couch with her and I'm starting to kiss her.
• 12:18
  Tom McElroy: And, you know, it's supposed to be like, bam, the door opens and we break, and you know, but we're just making out.
• 12:25
  Tom McElroy: I mean, James is not coming in the room.
• 12:30
  Tom McElroy: So so this goes on for a couple of beats, and finally Cindy pushes me and when she goes, get in here, James, before he gets me pregnant.
• 12:40
  Jeff Ornstein: That's crazy.
• 12:41
  Jeff Ornstein: So the only great sense of humor she has, sounds like fun.
• 12:46
  Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:47
  Jeff Ornstein: We we really had a good time.
• 12:49
  Jeff Ornstein: So do you find outside of your Romeo roles that are you getting do you get typecast?
• 12:57
  Jeff Ornstein: I mean, I've talked to a lot of actors about this, you know, like you don't deny typecast, it's part of the reality of things.
• 13:04
  Jeff Ornstein: I noticed some tough guys in your in your in your roles.
• 13:08
  Jeff Ornstein: I mean, are are you often typecast?
• 13:10
  Jeff Ornstein: Or do you feel like when you're getting calls, the roles are, yeah, here I'm going down that path again?
• 13:15
  Jeff Ornstein: And di does it bother you?
• 13:17
  Jeff Ornstein: Do you welcome it?
• 13:17
  Jeff Ornstein: Is did you find it complimentary?
• 13:19
  Tom McElroy: Yeah, I don't know.
• 13:20
  Tom McElroy: I I guess I feel like i uh I've been fortunate to but I mean, like you said, the Romeo roles.
• 13:25
  Tom McElroy: I never imagined I would be playing leading male man roles, but I have a couple of times, a handful of times.
• 13:33
  Tom McElroy: And also the comical, crazy weirdo guys.
• 13:36
  Tom McElroy: And the I've it it it's really been more of a variety for me.
• 13:40
  Tom McElroy: Excellent.
• 13:40
  Tom McElroy: I wouldn't say that I feel like I have been typecast.
• 13:43
  Tom McElroy: I've been typecast kind of in people's minds, like in my agent's mind.
• 13:48
  Tom McElroy: I can remember auditioning for uh, you know what?
• 13:52
  Tom McElroy: I don't remember what I auditioned for because I must not have booked it, so I don't remember.
• 13:56
  Tom McElroy: But it was a mean, murderous kind of guy.
• 14:00
  Tom McElroy: And I finished the audition, and which agent was it?
• 14:04
  Tom McElroy: I can't remember now.
• 14:05
  Tom McElroy: She looks at me and she goes, Oh, Tom, I don't like to see you like that.
• 14:08
  Tom McElroy: That's not you.
• 14:08
  Tom McElroy: That's so you embodied the character.
• 14:12
  Tom McElroy: So it's it was like, okay, well, I'll take the compliment, and I'm sorry that I scared you.
• 14:16
  Tom McElroy: And I'm glad you think I'm a nice guy, in spite of the meanness.
• 14:21
  Jeff Ornstein: Yeah.
• 14:22
  Jeff Ornstein: Now that being said, since you know, because uh and just for clarity, I didn't see typecasting when I saw your different roles, you know, on your site.
• 14:30
  Jeff Ornstein: I I mean I saw the character, which is great.
• 14:33
  Jeff Ornstein: You know, the the embodied the character, and you you go away and the character comes back and envelops you, and that was terrific.
• 14:40
  Jeff Ornstein: But it's just a question I do like to ask.
• 14:42
  Jeff Ornstein: With that in mind, I understand that you would love to play Joe Keller and All My Sons.
• 14:47
  Jeff Ornstein: So I did a little background research, and boy, that's a complex individual who, you know, really represents bad things, you know, while on the surface represents good things.
• 15:01
  Jeff Ornstein: What is it about that character that just says, Oh, before I go, I gotta get this one under my belt.
• 15:08
  Tom McElroy: Yeah.
• 15:09
  Tom McElroy: I've I've got it under my belt twice.
• 15:11
  Tom McElroy: Oh, excuse me.
• 15:13
  Tom McElroy: I didn't get that in my notes.
• 15:14
  Tom McElroy: Yeah, that's that's okay.
• 15:15
  Tom McElroy: I I but I played him in my 30s.
• 15:18
  Tom McElroy: Oh, and he he's like in his 60s, yeah.
• 15:21
  Tom McElroy: And he's in his 60s.
• 15:22
  Tom McElroy: Yeah.
• 15:23
  Tom McElroy: So now that I'm of age, I wanna play him again.
• 15:27
  Tom McElroy: But yeah, the character, the whole show.
• 15:29
  Tom McElroy: That was the first legit theater I ever really really went to see.
• 15:34
  Tom McElroy: Mm-hmm.
• 15:34
  Tom McElroy: Roger Mueller, good friend of mine, played Joe in Body Politics performance of it in Chicago back in the day.
• 15:41
  Tom McElroy: And I mean, I'd never read it, I didn't know anything about it.
• 15:44
  Tom McElroy: I'm total newbie, and I sit there and I watch this and it just blew me away.
• 15:49
  Tom McElroy: What a powerful piece.
• 15:50
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 15:51
  Tom McElroy: It just deals with the whole human the rationalizations that we do.
• 15:56
  Tom McElroy: It highlights a passage of scripture that I think is so important, and that is from Proverbs, it says it's a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.
• 16:07
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 16:08
  Tom McElroy: And it's such a powerful piece that highlights that and the rationalizations that we go through.
• 16:13
  Tom McElroy: And and I mean, people we people think, I think I'm doing the right thing.
• 16:17
  Tom McElroy: I think I'm really a good guy, I think, but it's not.
• 16:21
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 16:22
  Tom McElroy: And we need another guide.
• 16:23
  Tom McElroy: Now it comes clear at the end, but there's absolutely no hope for Joe in that.
• 16:28
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 16:28
  Tom McElroy: Because his way of dealing with that now getting faced with the fact that he's a fraud is to off himself.
• 16:36
  Tom McElroy: Sorry, spoiler alert for people, but it's you know been out forever.
• 16:39
  Tom McElroy: Off stage no less.
• 16:41
  Tom McElroy: Off stage no less, yes.
• 16:43
  Tom McElroy: And thankfully so, probably.
• 16:44
  Tom McElroy: But it yeah, it just is such a powerful piece, and there is an answer, there is a savior, there is a redemption available.
• 16:51
  Tom McElroy: So you know, what a great conversation piece.
• 16:54
  Tom McElroy: What a what a powerful piece to begin to to to work into us, you know, story is so powerful in getting us to face ourselves, which is the power of storytelling, theater, film, you know, television, that whole venue, that whole business that we're in.
• 17:10
  Tom McElroy: It's it's it's dealing with the human condition, the human soul.
• 17:14
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 17:14
  Tom McElroy: And what's what is the world view?
• 17:17
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 17:17
  Tom McElroy: What is true?
• 17:19
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 17:19
  Tom McElroy: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:20
  Jeff Ornstein: So uh and I just love that show.
• 17:22
  Jeff Ornstein: With the Joe Keller that you played at 30, would he we see him as the Joe Keller you'd play today, or anything you'd approach differently, or were you solid with the way you did it initially?
• 17:32
  Tom McElroy: I would sure love to find that out.
• 17:34
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 17:34
  Tom McElroy: I would sure love to get on stage with a bunch of people because yeah, early on I I started in theater not knowing anything.
• 17:42
  Tom McElroy: I didn't go to school for theater, obviously.
• 17:44
  Tom McElroy: And I'm sitting there, and this girl, she she has this probably eight, twelve, fifteen page document with her.
• 17:53
  Tom McElroy: It's her backstory on her character.
• 17:56
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 17:56
  Tom McElroy: She wrote a backstory on her character.
• 18:00
  Tom McElroy: I taught her to do that in theater school, and she did it.
• 18:04
  Tom McElroy: And I sat there and my heart went to my feet, and I thought, oh dear lord, what have I gotten myself into?
• 18:09
  Tom McElroy: I don't know how to do that stuff.
• 18:10
  Tom McElroy: That's insane.
• 18:11
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 18:12
  Tom McElroy: And I lived under that for years, just feeling, you know, I don't know how people are still booking me because I still can't write, you know.
• 18:19
  Tom McElroy: I mean, I'm just like, I don't know, I don't know if I know.
• 18:21
  Tom McElroy: And then I watch Actors Studio interviewing Harrison Ford, and the guy asks him, How do you put that together?
• 18:30
  Tom McElroy: What kind of prep do you do?
• 18:31
  Tom McElroy: And he said, And he goes, you know, yeah, I memorize memorize a bit script, and then uh, you know, when I get on set, the costume, the props, the other actors, and you just kind of dive in and it all informs itself.
• 18:46
  Tom McElroy: And I went, Oh my harris.
• 18:49
  Tom McElroy: Oh thank you.
• 18:51
  Tom McElroy: Thank you.
• 18:52
  Tom McElroy: That's what I do.
• 18:53
  Tom McElroy: I thought I was doing it wrong.
• 18:54
  Jeff Ornstein: You know, well, you're obviously not doing it wrong because you're doing it too often.
• 18:58
  Jeff Ornstein: Yeah.
• 19:01
  Jeff Ornstein: So have you reclaimed part of your faith, or is that just something that you've put behind you now and it's it's something you respect as you're part of your past, but it's not part of your current life, or definitely part of my current life.
• 19:13
  Tom McElroy: It is.
• 19:13
  Tom McElroy: Oh, oh, yeah.
• 19:15
  Tom McElroy: And and I I though though I my spiritual crumbling involved, I don't know that I like this part of Christianity.
• 19:24
  Tom McElroy: Maybe, maybe the Bible doesn't really say this.
• 19:28
  Tom McElroy: Maybe there's another kind of Christianity that's a little more, I can do whatever I want to do.
• 19:34
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 19:34
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 19:35
  Tom McElroy: And and the Lord was faithful to me through that whole time.
• 19:38
  Tom McElroy: I I'm I never lost my faith in the sense of God doesn't exist.
• 19:42
  Tom McElroy: Right.
• 19:43
  Tom McElroy: Christianity is a croc, a crap, and that kind of thing.
• 19:47
  Tom McElroy: But I I just walked away from really being an intimate relationship with the living God.
• 19:52
  Tom McElroy: And I'm I'm now he he done, he never let go of me.
• 19:56
  Tom McElroy: No, no, no, no.
• 19:57
  Tom McElroy: Everywhere you go.
• 19:58
  Tom McElroy: He said, You're mine.
• 20:00
  Tom McElroy: Now get your nose back in my word, right?
• 20:03
  Tom McElroy: Spend time with me every day.
• 20:05
  Tom McElroy: Walk in my ways, not in your own ways.
• 20:09
  Tom McElroy: Because you saw how that worked, didn't you?
• 20:12
  Tom McElroy: Yeah, Lord, I'm sorry.
• 20:15
  Tom McElroy: It didn't work very well.
• 20:16
  Tom McElroy: I'm I it really didn't.
• 20:17
  Tom McElroy: Are you still in Chicago?
• 20:19
  Tom McElroy: I am sort of.
• 20:20
  Tom McElroy: I am in Chicago the way most people in Illinois say they're from Chicago.
• 20:24
  Tom McElroy: Uh-huh.
• 20:25
  Tom McElroy: I live in the suburbs nearby.
• 20:27
  Tom McElroy: Okay.
• 20:27
  Tom McElroy: I was in Chicago for 20.
• 20:28
  Tom McElroy: Sandusky.
• 20:30
  Tom McElroy: Sandusky, yeah.
• 20:31
  Tom McElroy: I had friends that lived in Chicago, but they were they were in Sandusky and I didn't know for 20 years.
• 20:35
  Tom McElroy: Yes, that's it.
• 20:36
  Tom McElroy: No, Beach Park is really actually the it's just north of Chicago, about 50 miles.
• 20:41
  Tom McElroy: But we lived in the city proper for 20 years, just until three years ago when we moved back up here to my uncle's old house.
• 20:49
  Tom McElroy: He died at 101 and ended up buying the place and living here.
• 20:53
  Tom McElroy: Yeah.
• 20:53
  Jeff Ornstein: Well, because I only asked because Chicago is a really rich theater town.
• 20:58
  Jeff Ornstein: Yes.
• 20:59
  Jeff Ornstein: A lot of people think, oh, New York, LA, New York, LA, or London, but Chicago I happen to know, I mean, it's just crawling with talent and um performance skills.
• 21:09
  Jeff Ornstein: So it's a great place to be.
• 21:11
  Tom McElroy: Yeah.
• 21:11
  Tom McElroy: Two hundred and fifty theaters in town at any given time.
• 21:15
  Jeff Ornstein: Isn't that great?
• 21:15
  Jeff Ornstein: Is it affordable or did it go like New York and become a little bit of a very expensive evening out?
• 21:22
  Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, it's expensive.
• 21:23
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 21:24
  Tom McElroy: Theater's always been expensive compared to the movies, especially.
• 21:27
  Jeff Ornstein: Good God, Tom.
• 21:28
  Jeff Ornstein: We are way over our time limit.
• 21:30
  Jeff Ornstein: Not kinda, sorta.
• 21:31
  Jeff Ornstein: So I have to say, you know, we uh we're able to meet s people from so many different walks of life, and how did people get to where they've gotten?
• 21:40
  Jeff Ornstein: And you've got a really unique story, you know, certainly not the typical, like you said, I had to study theater, went to things, I was a nanny, and I ran.
• 21:48
  Jeff Ornstein: I mean, you have a a really great story that was a big turnaround, a big epiphany, and and a big chance to be serving the community in one way and then say, you know.
• 21:59
  Jeff Ornstein: I'm thinking maybe put myself a little bit first here, and I'm going to serve the community in a different way.
• 22:04
  Jeff Ornstein: So I'm very impressed with that.
• 22:06
  Jeff Ornstein: Oh, thank you.
• 22:07
  Jeff Ornstein: Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
• 22:10
  Jeff Ornstein: Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.nexttackpodcast.com.
• 22:18
  Jeff Ornstein: Keep chasing your next act.
• 22:20
  Jeff Ornstein: The best is yet to come.