Latest / All About The Joy / From Kindergarten Laughs to Netflix Credits: Jack Seavor McDonald on Improv, Ethics, and Set Life

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From Kindergarten Laughs to Netflix Credits: Jack Seavor McDonald on Improv, Ethics, and Set Life · All About The Joy

• 0:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, we're recording.
• 0:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Jack, it's so nice to meet you.
• 0:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm so glad you're here on the show.
• 0:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Yay!
• 0:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Amazing.
• 0:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:08
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And it's wonderful to meet you too, Carmen.
• 0:10
  Carmen Lezeth: I know.
• 0:10
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm so excited.
• 0:11
  Carmen Lezeth: So Jack Siever McDonald is an actor and a comedian.
• 0:15
  Carmen Lezeth: And I have to say, you may not know this, but like I I have love for performers.
• 0:20
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, I live in Los Angeles too.
• 0:22
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, I just um I think we need to have more people on the show that are creatives.
• 0:28
  Carmen Lezeth: And so thank you for being, I think you're our first.
• 0:31
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Really?
• 0:32
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Wow.
• 0:32
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 0:33
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, we we have a neglected group of guests that come on the show.
• 0:36
  Carmen Lezeth: But um I remember when your PR person reached out to me, I was like, yes, immediately.
• 0:41
  Carmen Lezeth: And then we had to like, because we we have a schedule we keep.
• 0:45
  Carmen Lezeth: And so I was so glad that when we had a cancellation, I was like, could you possibly come in earlier?
• 0:51
  Carmen Lezeth: So thank you for doing this.
• 0:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I appreciate it.
• 0:53
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So yeah, absolutely.
• 0:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No problem.
• 0:56
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I mean, life happens to us all, you know.
• 1:00
  Carmen Lezeth: No, no, no.
• 1:00
  Carmen Lezeth: So, okay, so for people who don't know, uh, you're gonna find out everything you need to know about Jack.
• 1:06
  Carmen Lezeth: So you're a loss.
• 1:07
  Carmen Lezeth: So of course I'm reading because I just grabbed a whole bunch of stuff off of all of your well, you know, I'm I'm I'm not gonna pretend I know everything about you, but I know a lot.
• 1:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, you're a Los Angeles-based actor and comedian.
• 1:18
  Carmen Lezeth: You're known for Never Have I Ever.
• 1:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Is that on that's on Netflix, right?
• 1:22
  Jack Seavor McDonald: That's right.
• 1:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, Ted, I've seen.
• 1:25
  Carmen Lezeth: So, and that's the the TV series that is um uh narrated.
• 1:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Is it narrated?
• 1:30
  Carmen Lezeth: No, no, he's Ted is what's his Seth McFarland, right?
• 1:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Is the voice.
• 1:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, so I've seen that and the movie.
• 1:38
  Carmen Lezeth: You've been on Modern Family, you've been on Young Sheldon, you've been on Stubbs, you've been on so many shows.
• 1:43
  Carmen Lezeth: You've also been in a lot of commercials, right?
• 1:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I've seen quite a few of them, I think.
• 1:47
  Carmen Lezeth: I've seen at least two.
• 1:49
  Carmen Lezeth: You've been on two national commercials.
• 1:52
  Carmen Lezeth: You started performing when you were a kid.
• 1:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Can you tell me when you knew that you wanted to be an actor?
• 1:59
  Carmen Lezeth: I know that you're a lot of your influences, you talk a lot about your grandmother.
• 2:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Is is that who Grammy is, your grandmother?
• 2:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh-huh.
• 2:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah.
• 2:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Can you talk a little bit about that, your beginnings?
• 2:10
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yes, absolutely.
• 2:11
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um, so I I have memories of being in kindergarten and really enjoying making my crush laugh by dancing goofy and falling down doing Pratt falls, but I really didn't consider acting to be a viable career until like sixth grade.
• 2:34
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I heard that acting was a real job.
• 2:38
  Carmen Lezeth: And I that was my first year that I you grew up in California, so you also grew up with the idea that acting was not a real job.
• 2:47
  Carmen Lezeth: That's a prevalent thing here.
• 2:50
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh I mean, yeah, even uh so I grew up about an hour away from Los Angeles, and even that close to the the whole biz, you you still grow up hearing that's a very competitive business.
• 3:05
  Jack Seavor McDonald: You should really do something else as a backup plan.
• 3:08
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's so interesting to hear, Jack, because that's how I grew up on the East Coast.
• 3:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, you know, anything to do with performing was that's not a real job.
• 3:15
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm sorry, that was fascinating to hear that from someone who grew up here.
• 3:19
  Carmen Lezeth: So go ahead, I'm sorry.
• 3:20
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No, you're fine.
• 3:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:22
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And so in sixth grade, I auditioned for a community theater uh show, Alice in Wonderland Jr.
• 3:31
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And when I auditioned for something where nobody knew me or like nobody knew my mom, and they cast me in the musical as the Mad Hatter.
• 3:42
  Jack Seavor McDonald: That was a really big confidence boost for me.
• 3:47
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It was a Valverde School of Performing Arts in Rancho Cucamonga.
• 3:52
  Jack Seavor McDonald: They still do classes if anyone around that area is listening.
• 3:57
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Interested in stepping into your shoes.
• 3:59
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh, sure, yeah.
• 4:00
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It's uh a really wonderful community and really fantastic teachers there.
• 4:07
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh I basically from about sixth or seventh grade through my first year of college, I was still doing shows with them.
• 4:15
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And yeah, every summer and spring they do a musical, uh junior show for 18 and under, and then bigger show with adults in the summer.
• 4:27
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah.
• 4:28
  Carmen Lezeth: How did comedy become part because there's acting and there's comedy, and people like to confuse that it's oh, it's the same thing.
• 4:34
  Carmen Lezeth: No.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 4:36
  Carmen Lezeth: So how did you realize?
• 4:38
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, you you talked about uh making your crush laugh, and that's when you knew, but then you went into kind of more dramatic acting with the school, right?
• 4:48
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um at first, but it was definitely my I I I just grew up in a funny family, really.
• 4:57
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So I've always been inclined to want to make people laugh because that's how I was shown that adults are from my mom and my dad.
• 5:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, you and I grew up very differently, but at least I I'm very lucky.
• 5:13
  Carmen Lezeth: That's awesome.
• 5:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, who are some of your influences?
• 5:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Do you have favorite comedians?
• 5:18
  Carmen Lezeth: Let's start with comedians first because I'm always curious.
• 5:21
  Carmen Lezeth: I may not know them, so but go ahead.
• 5:24
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No worries, that is totally fine.
• 5:26
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I love Tim Robinson.
• 5:28
  Carmen Lezeth: You know Tim Robinson?
• 5:29
  Jack Seavor McDonald: He's recently had a pretty big not shift, but like he has a sketch show on Netflix called I Think You Should Leave, and he just got a new show on HBO called The Chair Company.
• 5:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, I'll have to check them out.
• 5:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Who else?
• 5:44
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, uh I I love his comedy.
• 5:47
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Dimitri Martin.
• 5:49
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I love him.
• 5:50
  Carmen Lezeth: I feel so old right now.
• 5:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know who this is.
• 5:53
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No, it's fine.
• 5:54
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It's totally fine.
• 5:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: He actually doesn't really do a lot of uh stand-up anymore.
• 6:00
  Jack Seavor McDonald: He was back from like 2010s, I think, and he did a lot of sort of prop comedy drawing in front of crowds.
• 6:09
  Carmen Lezeth: What kind of comedian are you?
• 6:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Do you do a lot of stand-up or are you more like Steve Martin?
• 6:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Do you know who Steve Martin is?
• 6:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Because I'm going to be so embarrassed if you don't.
• 6:18
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No, I definitely do.
• 6:19
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I think I would definitely say Steve Martin is an influence and Jim Carrey.
• 6:25
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I watched a lot of Jim Carrey growing up.
• 6:28
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So I would say that more physical and sort of goofball energy is more my thing.
• 6:34
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I like to do uh improv more than that.
• 6:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, right.
• 6:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I read about that.
• 6:39
  Carmen Lezeth: You have your own improv group too, right?
• 6:42
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, we're called Heat Wave, and it's me and two other comedians, and we perform all over Southern California.
• 6:50
  Carmen Lezeth: That's so great.
• 6:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Now, do you prefer am I going too fast with too many questions?
• 6:53
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm so sorry.
• 6:54
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I don't know.
• 6:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I don't think so.
• 6:56
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Am I answering in a Oh my god, you are.
• 6:59
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm totally loving this.
• 7:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Like you're not going to be able to leave for like you know three hours.
• 7:02
  Carmen Lezeth: We're gonna have a whole conversation.
• 7:04
  Carmen Lezeth: But let me ask you this.
• 7:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, do you prefer, this might not be a fair question, dramatic acting or comedic acting?
• 7:14
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I value dramatic acting for its challenge, its own personal challenge, but my heart is definitely connected more to comedy.
• 7:27
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Okay because it was just comedy was just such a huge important part of my childhood growing up.
• 7:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: If you're sad, you get hurt.
• 7:38
  Jack Seavor McDonald: The automatic thing is to try and make someone laugh and makes them feel better.
• 7:45
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And I that always stuck out to me is that people are happy when they're laughing.
• 7:51
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Why wouldn't I want to make as many people laugh as I could?
• 7:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Let me just see this.
• 7:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh, you're married to Joe, you have a dog named Willie.
• 7:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm like just letting everyone know the stuff you can read about.
• 8:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, and I love how the description is cattle dog, chihuahua, miner, and I'm like mutt.
• 8:06
  Carmen Lezeth: That is a mutt, like, which I believe we all are, which are the best kinds of people and dogs, right?
• 8:13
  Carmen Lezeth: So totally.
• 8:14
  Carmen Lezeth: You are known for your warmth and humility and grounded presence, despite working in high-profile productions.
• 8:21
  Carmen Lezeth: What do you love about being on set?
• 8:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Can you share with people who don't know anything about acting, have never been because that's our audience.
• 8:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Our audience, some of the people on our show have been on set because they're from Los Angeles or New York, but our audience really is not the Hollywood crowd.
• 8:38
  Carmen Lezeth: So what is it like to be on set for you?
• 8:42
  Jack Seavor McDonald: When I'm on set, I really love to well, when you're in a studio, they have all these fake walls that they've built to try and make your setting look as realistic as possible.
• 8:57
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And one of my favorite things is to go around looking at the set to see what is real, what's uh uh just for looks like um the old Looney Tunes cartoons.
• 9:11
  Jack Seavor McDonald: You could always tell what was about to be like touched in the background because it was a different color or something.
• 9:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh was it oh go ahead, I'm sorry.
• 9:21
  Carmen Lezeth: I agree.
• 9:22
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No, no worries.
• 9:23
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh so I just to round out that answer, I would say I I love getting to look at the set decoration and uh admire the work that all the other crew puts into uh a project like that.
• 9:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't think people understand, um, especially people who are not part of the Hollywood crowd, that people that build the sets, construction workers, electricians, there's just there's so many people involved in the crew.
• 9:51
  Carmen Lezeth: And like I was thinking about the modern family set, you know, that must have been interesting because it's actually a house, right?
• 9:57
  Carmen Lezeth: There are certain houses that you go into.
• 10:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, or are you on a stage crew all the time?
• 10:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Were you at one of the stages when you were doing Modern Family, for example?
• 10:07
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh for Modern Family, I remember that we were on a sound stage for one of the scenes.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Uh-huh.
• 10:16
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um, but uh a lot of the time, even if you're in a house, they just have that section of the house built.
• 10:27
  Carmen Lezeth: So right, just the living room or something or whatever it is.
• 10:31
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Mm-hmm.
• 10:31
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And and for instance, in the Modern Family one, there's a scene where I'm in a bedroom, uh, Manny's bedroom at his computer, and you're like, oh, okay, he like lives on the second floor of the uh of his house.
• 10:45
  Jack Seavor McDonald: They don't need to do that, but they do build an entire first floor to just give that same feeling that there's a second story and you're in a room that is only imagining the rest of the house space.
• 11:03
  Carmen Lezeth: And isn't that I mean, that's kind of the beautiful part about being an actor is you do you really do have to use your imagination because what people don't understand is that while you're doing your lines, there's a mic overhead hanging, there's people with lighting, there's people with cameras all around you.
• 11:20
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not just you and Manny in a room, it's you and like, I don't know, 45, 50 other people, right?
• 11:27
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I mean Yeah, yeah, easily.
• 11:29
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And all the there's dozens of different things that need to go correctly on a set for uh a scene to be or that angle of a scene to be deemed correctly filmed, or like, oh, that's what we wanted.
• 11:47
  Jack Seavor McDonald: You need the lights to be correct, you need the makeup and the hair, and then the camera has to move the exact correct way every time.
• 11:56
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I think you're right, people don't really realize how much of a a dance every sort of scene that you film is.
• 12:06
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's not one time.
• 12:07
  Carmen Lezeth: So do you remember how many times you had to film?
• 12:10
  Carmen Lezeth: And and it's not because an actor does something wrong, but you have to film a certain scene, like how many times would you say you do a few takes or something?
• 12:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um, I mean, it it when everyone is on their game, so to speak, it can probably be three to four takes if that's everyone working at their best.
• 12:34
  Jack Seavor McDonald: But anything could happen, I would say the worst I've ever gone to is probably like 15 to 20 takes of something complicated.
• 12:45
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh, that's hard.
• 12:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, that's really hard.
• 12:47
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's because, just so I can explain to our audience if you don't mind, and you can correct me if I'm wrong because it's been a long time since I've been active on a set.
• 12:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I've been running budgets for sex, but um they will film you straight on doing your lines, and then they will turn around.
• 13:05
  Carmen Lezeth: So that'll be one take of filming, and then they'll turn around and put the camera behind you and take your scene partner from the opposite side, they'll film that.
• 13:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Then they'll turn around and do angles.
• 13:17
  Carmen Lezeth: But again, it's like if everyone's on point, and that doesn't mean just the actors, it's the lighting, the sound.
• 13:22
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I remember doing the scene, and this was theater, and you know, we were like just trying to do the previews or whatever, and um I thought we had nailed it, you know, like we they were filming it for to do kind of these little like uh ads or whatever, and that never really happens in theater, but they were filming it, and I thought we nailed it, and the sound hadn't been like no one had sound and any packs or anything.
• 13:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Like it was such a stupid thing, but it was a small community theater thing, so it really is about everything on set.
• 13:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, are you energized when you're on set or on on stage?
• 13:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, do you you do comedic?
• 14:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, you know what?
• 14:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Maybe I'm confusing.
• 14:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Do you do stand-up?
• 14:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I thought you did stand-up as well.
• 14:07
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I uh uh I'm definitely interested in stand-up.
• 14:11
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I've done it once.
• 14:12
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I did an open mic in 2020 February, and then I haven't been back to it, but it does interest me.
• 14:22
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I uh I struggle when it comes to sitting down and getting my thoughts out on paper, which is why I love improv so much.
• 14:30
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It's just it's out there.
• 14:32
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, I was just gonna ask you.
• 14:34
  Carmen Lezeth: That's why I'm I'm kind of uh interrupting again.
• 14:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just so excited to talk to you.
• 14:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, can you explain what the difference is between improv and like stand-up comedy?
• 14:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Because that's a mistake I just made in asking, right?
• 14:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I am like, oh, he does stand-up comedy because you talked about improv.
• 14:50
  Carmen Lezeth: So can you explain what the differences are and what it means to say you do improv with two of your comedic friends?
• 14:57
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yes, absolutely.
• 14:59
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So uh stand-up is typically a one-person performance that they have written ahead of time and practiced multiple times, uh, including in front of an audience, and each of those shows is going to be very similar to each other.
• 15:17
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Whereas with improv, you do not write anything down beforehand, and you are doing it with multiple people.
• 15:25
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It's not just you, you're working as a team, and you can just get a suggestion of any word from the audience, and then you just do scenes uh made up by you and your friends right there on the spot, and hopefully it's funny.
• 15:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I think that would be so much scarier than like writing it all out, having it memorized, but I think like the hard part with that is like being funny after you writing something would also scare me to death because I wouldn't be able to be funny after writing something.
• 15:54
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 15:55
  Carmen Lezeth: So I think what you do is even scarier.
• 15:58
  Carmen Lezeth: So you go on stage with your friends, you ask the audience, like, can you just give me kind of a what happens behind the scene thing?
• 16:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Absolutely.
• 16:07
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So the way that our team works, Heat Wave, we go out and we say, Hey everybody, we're Heat Wave.
• 16:14
  Jack Seavor McDonald: All we need to get started is one word suggestion.
• 16:18
  Jack Seavor McDonald: What is something that makes you sweat?
• 16:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And then the audience will just say something that makes them sweat, and then that's our one word.
• 16:29
  Jack Seavor McDonald: We all repeat it, and then we go into whatever scene starts to happen.
• 16:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Is that right?
• 16:38
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Like uh That's right, just any kind of comedic scene, and anyone can start it.
• 16:44
  Jack Seavor McDonald: You just start miming something.
• 16:47
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I don't even know what that was.
• 16:49
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Maybe a uh violin.
• 16:51
  Carmen Lezeth: What is that?
• 16:52
  Carmen Lezeth: Like something makes you sweat.
• 16:54
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:56
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I don't know.
• 16:56
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I don't know.
• 16:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, I love it.
• 16:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, you just taught me something.
• 17:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I made an assumption and uh you just taught me something which is kind of embarrassing since I've been working in Hollywood forever.
• 17:07
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh oh no, no.
• 17:08
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I I think no matter your your no matter a person's age or like where you come from, you're never done learning.
• 17:15
  Jack Seavor McDonald: You you always have the capability to learn.
• 17:19
  Carmen Lezeth: And I I know nothing about uh I'm I'm not uh a comedy person that I love comedy.
• 17:26
  Carmen Lezeth: I love, but I I think it's a whole different kind of performance.
• 17:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I think it's a whole different type of um ability and skill set.
• 17:35
  Carmen Lezeth: And um, you know, people would always tell me that I'm kind of funny, but I'm not funny.
• 17:41
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just funny because I whatever, I can talk to people and make them laugh, but not on purpose and not as a thing.
• 17:49
  Carmen Lezeth: It's accidental, you know.
• 17:51
  Carmen Lezeth: So when you were talking about when you were younger and you noticed you like to make people laugh, why?
• 17:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I know you noticed it, but sometimes comedians are um tend to have these tragic, painful you don't seem to be that, but I'm I'm just and if it's too much to talk about, we don't have to talk about it.
• 18:12
  Carmen Lezeth: But I'm just curious of do you have that kind of uh thing too, you know, all this tragedy, and so that's why you're able to be a comedian.
• 18:22
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um luckily I'm I don't really come from much trauma uh myself.
• 18:29
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I'd say God bless you.
• 18:31
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh it's pretty I I've had a pretty privileged life that the extent of it at the time was just I'm fat and I don't want them to make fun of me.
• 18:42
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And so if I can make them laugh, then I can control how they're reacting to me, and I don't have to feel bad about how I look because well, I made them laugh.
• 18:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my okay, but the way you just said that was so amazing.
• 18:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Like your confidence in saying that.
• 19:02
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Thanks.
• 19:03
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah.
• 19:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Wow, I love that.
• 19:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I was wait a minute, I totally had like a moment, and I was like, did he just what?
• 19:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Secure.
• 19:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Because some people would say you were doing, I mean, you you just admitted it straight out, but you were also doing it as a protective thing, but also as kind of a help to them.
• 19:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Mm-hmm.
• 19:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, I thought, or you know, I generally think that okay, if I I'm not always thinking about this in such an analytical way, but I think that it is oh, I'm usually looking for the most amount of happiness in every interaction because I just don't, you know, I'm a little weird.
• 19:47
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I don't like people upset with me.
• 19:49
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um I don't think that's weird.
• 19:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that's human I think that's human nature.
• 19:54
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I know, I'm just joshing around.
• 19:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh, okay, okay.
• 19:56
  Carmen Lezeth: I I think it's human nature.
• 19:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And and I think what's different about what you're saying is that you know yourself well enough, which I think is also an attribute to being a good performer, a good actor, a good I was a dancer as a kid, that's why I always say performer.
• 20:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Um I think if you know yourself well enough, it's a different kind of confidence that most people don't have.
• 20:19
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Right.
• 20:19
  Jack Seavor McDonald: That's have that.
• 20:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh yeah, I I've always been very lucky that I I knew since such a young age that I wanted to be an actor, and I that was one of the things that I heard often was like, wow, that's so surprising that you know what you want to do.
• 20:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah.
• 20:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And um, so I I do consider myself lucky to have uh been through that so early.
• 20:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 20:44
  Carmen Lezeth: What's coming up for you in the future?
• 20:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, you know, like I'm wondering why you want to do a podcast with me.
• 20:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I look it, this is all about the joy, and I was grateful to have you reach out.
• 20:56
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just curious, what's on the horizon for you?
• 21:00
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Well, coming up is sort of sort of a nebulous thing with the way that the industry looks right now.
• 21:09
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Everything is so slow and uncertain.
• 21:13
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh, all that I know for sure is that I I just finished a movie called Or Else.
• 21:20
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And um, did I miss that?
• 21:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Tell us a little bit about Or Else and when it might be coming out.
• 21:25
  Carmen Lezeth: No, you just finished filming it, right?
• 21:28
  Carmen Lezeth: You just finished filming it.
• 21:29
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh-huh.
• 21:30
  Jack Seavor McDonald: A few months ago we we finished, and I think I just heard that they were done editing as well.
• 21:37
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So Or Else is a horror comedy written and directed by Diana Hopper from the Goliath series on HBO.
• 21:48
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Okay.
• 21:48
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And it's about this woman in freshman year of college, and uh people start to pass away around her, and it's intrigue and mystery, who done it.
• 22:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Who's done it, okay?
• 22:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And then it sort of all spirals around this main character to a climactic showdown.
• 22:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so I I know I kind of skipped it.
• 22:16
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't do horror.
• 22:18
  Carmen Lezeth: So if if you've ever watched our show, which I'm sure you'll watch in the future, um, uh, Cynthia and Rick love horror.
• 22:25
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm a one man out or whatever.
• 22:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Like so, I kinda I I even even if I don't intend to, I you know, I was like horror skip.
• 22:33
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 22:34
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So I grew up the same exact way.
• 22:37
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I would not touch a horror movie with a 10-yard stick.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:41
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um, and weirdly, what made the switch for me is I started my sister, who I have a five years older than me sister, and uh she was showing me the saw movies, which those aren't even really horror.
• 22:59
  Carmen Lezeth: I won't even watch them, but you just said saw.
• 23:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just yeah, I don't want to do gore.
• 23:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't I'm really goody two shoes, don't want to watch anything that has horrible ending.
• 23:09
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Color.
• 23:09
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I understand.
• 23:11
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And uh my my sister started showing me the special features for the Saw movies, and it helped me so much to see how it was done to and it's all fake.
• 23:24
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Right.
• 23:25
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And even though I knew that on a conscious level, but seeing how they did it specifically was very relieving to me.
• 23:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, I can understand that.
• 23:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I guess, like as you're saying, like I went skydiving because I was afraid of heights, and it really did help me, but I will not be watching.
• 23:42
  Carmen Lezeth: I I'll just trust you on that.
• 23:43
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 23:44
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Like Yeah, no, and I will definitely just trust you on the skydiving.
• 23:50
  Carmen Lezeth: No, you have to go skydiving at some point in your life.
• 23:52
  Carmen Lezeth: You gotta do it.
• 23:53
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my gosh.
• 23:54
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Wow.
• 23:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Well, this is just too you will never watch one of my favorite horror movies, and I will never go skydiving.
• 24:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, I well wait, what's one of your favorite horror films?
• 24:04
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh, I really love the Friday the 13th series.
• 24:07
  Carmen Lezeth: No, yeah, I'm sorry, love.
• 24:09
  Carmen Lezeth: It's it's nice to meet you and everything, but okay, you won't go skydiving.
• 24:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I won't watch any Friday.
• 24:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, we're good, we're good.
• 24:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I was thinking maybe I would find a way.
• 24:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Like I did go see Sinners recently, and I was like this the whole time.
• 24:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, I did not see it, but I wanted, you know, because it was such a cultural event.
• 24:25
  Carmen Lezeth: I was like, but yeah, and still I wish I hadn't seen it.
• 24:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I thought it was amazing, but I, yeah, it was too much for me.
• 24:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 24:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Gotcha.
• 24:32
  Carmen Lezeth: But I want to get back to you talking about AI and talking about how the industry is changing because that was an interesting thread.
• 24:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 24:41
  Carmen Lezeth: What is your feelings on it?
• 24:43
  Carmen Lezeth: And again, where where do you see yourself going, or what are you doing, if anything, at all?
• 24:50
  Jack Seavor McDonald: There the disturbing trend of leadership in production companies wanting to focus on AI usage is shame.
• 25:01
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I really believe that there's no future for AI in a creative industry.
• 25:08
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I really think that our own not artificial intelligences are good enough for a creative career like this.
• 25:22
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Now, I'm not saying no AI ever, because I do think that there are scientific uh pluses to using it, you know, computing formulas that we as humans don't have time to do.
• 25:37
  Jack Seavor McDonald: But when it comes to the actual industry, I can't think of a single job on a set that would just out flat out be better done by a computer.
• 25:53
  Carmen Lezeth: So I just had Joel Lava, who's a DJ director.
• 25:56
  Carmen Lezeth: He was on our last episode.
• 25:57
  Carmen Lezeth: I'll send you the link so you can check it out.
• 25:59
  Carmen Lezeth: But he was kind of talking about how even as a director, and he films a lot of commercials, a lot of shorts, you know, he's been we we've known each other for a long time, and uh, and he's talking about how Hollywood's dying because of AI.
• 26:11
  Carmen Lezeth: And he knows AI, like he so it's just interesting to hear so many different people in the industry talking about AI.
• 26:18
  Carmen Lezeth: And I agree with I love AI, not as a creative entity, but as kind of like an assistant, you know.
• 26:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Like I like the, you know, I can ask it any question and it'll get me some information.
• 26:30
  Carmen Lezeth: But as far as it, you know, taking over the creative realm of things, I'm I'm afraid.
• 26:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Um and Joel makes this point in the interview.
• 26:41
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, we keep saying things like that AI people aren't gonna believe it, whatever, but you know, we all believed kind of the Star Wars puppets from the original movie or ET, or we believed it even though it was, you know, made or whatever.
• 26:54
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's like it's a scary time for our industry, you know.
• 26:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Are you nervous at all?
• 26:59
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Or no, I I think like any new technology, there's just a fear of the unknown and where it will go.
• 27:10
  Jack Seavor McDonald: But I I don't think that it's realistic to say that it could ever wholly replace people in an industry.
• 27:20
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I think there's gonna be plenty of people who believe, like, wow, technology is amazing, and I'd love to see what AI can do.
• 27:29
  Jack Seavor McDonald: But I couldn't ever imagine people just saying, that's it, no more people-made projects.
• 27:39
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, I I said that to him too.
• 27:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I said, I think he kept saying Hollywood's dying.
• 27:42
  Carmen Lezeth: I said Hollywood's changing.
• 27:44
  Carmen Lezeth: And um, I I think you and I are on kind of the more level-headed, he's gonna be mad at me if he watches it.
• 27:50
  Carmen Lezeth: It's level-headed, or maybe we're just optimistic about it.
• 27:53
  Carmen Lezeth: I think we're gonna find our place.
• 27:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I also think I don't care how great AI is in duplicating a film, there's never going to be the ability to have someone on stage doing an improv show or a comedian or theater.
• 28:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I think what it's actually gonna do is drive people back to seeing live performances or doing things like this, you know what I mean?
• 28:17
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm glad that you're optimistic about the future of Hollywood.
• 28:22
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, I mean, uh to his point about it dying, uh, well, that you know, when something dies, then something else is born and can take its place.
• 28:35
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It's okay.
• 28:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: If it has to die, then there will be a brand new way of making movies ready to take its place.
• 28:43
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So I it's almost like we're both right.
• 28:46
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It is changing, it could be dying.
• 28:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I'm just gonna say he's wrong and you're right, because I'm gonna go with that.
• 28:51
  Carmen Lezeth: He's my friend.
• 28:52
  Carmen Lezeth: We can fight, we can fight on the side of it.
• 28:54
  unknown: Okay.
• 28:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I love that you're agreeing with me.
• 28:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Stay on this side of it, Jack.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay.
• 29:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, all right, I I have some rapid fire questions next.
• 29:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I love it.
• 29:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Um let me just see if I got all my other questions out the way.
• 29:11
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh, you know, I I'm sorry, really quick.
• 29:13
  Carmen Lezeth: No, of course.
• 29:14
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Way back when we were talking about my uh inspiration for comedy and talked about having a family funny, uh funny family, but we were specifically mentioning Grammy, my grandma on my mom's side.
• 29:28
  Jack Seavor McDonald: She was like my first friend in life, and we would spend so much time together, and we just got each other's humor so much that I I would get in trouble for sitting next to her on car rides because I'd laugh so hard, I'd wet my pants.
• 29:50
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So she she and I had a really strong bond, and I think a lot of my f physical humor and sort.
• 29:59
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Of little silly voices or a lot from her.
• 30:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I asked disrespectfully, and if it's wrong, I'll cut it out.
• 30:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Has she passed on or is she still around?
• 30:11
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh, no worries.
• 30:12
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I don't think that's disrespectful.
• 30:13
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh, she's passed on as of 2022, I believe.
• 30:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, recent.
• 30:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, Jack, I'm sorry.
• 30:23
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, it's it it hurts, but she is not hurting anymore.
• 30:30
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So I'm happy for her.
• 30:31
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's she lives on through you because I saw that in every single thing I was looking up about you.
• 30:38
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's kind of the beautiful thing about it is she's, you know, I'm I'm not gonna uh try to coax it or whatever.
• 30:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I just think the way in which we honor people says a lot more about who they are than we realize, even when we say something about them, you know.
• 30:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, so I love that.
• 30:55
  Carmen Lezeth: And she was a huge influence in you doing the work that you do now, which is just beautiful.
• 31:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm so excited.
• 31:03
  Carmen Lezeth: All right, so now we're gonna do a couple of rapid fire.
• 31:06
  Carmen Lezeth: You don't have to be rapid about it, though, if you wanna.
• 31:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 31:09
  Carmen Lezeth: So, all right.
• 31:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Tell me the name of a role you would drop everything for to play.
• 31:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I would drop everything to play a uh the the first sort of uh comparison I think of is Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.
• 31:33
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I'm thinking of goofy main character that's out to well, he was just out to get his bike, but like someone save the town or um Oh, that's awesome.
• 31:43
  Carmen Lezeth: I wouldn't have guessed that at all.
• 31:45
  Carmen Lezeth: That's good.
• 31:45
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh yeah.
• 31:47
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, I'd love to do like a goofy, an earnest, um, scared, stupid, uh uh any of those type of any of those types of roles.
• 31:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh goofy main character that yeah, is has got a heart of gold.
• 32:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I love it.
• 32:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 32:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that's kind of who you are, though, too.
• 32:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I think what people don't understand about actors is they can always find, they have to find a piece of themselves in the character they're playing.
• 32:11
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's so interesting who you chose because I don't know you at all, but I feel like I'm a I have good intuition.
• 32:17
  Carmen Lezeth: That's why that relates to you.
• 32:20
  Carmen Lezeth: They have a hard goal too.
• 32:22
  Carmen Lezeth: But don't mess it up and get arrested as something tomorrow for something bad.
• 32:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 32:27
  Jack Seavor McDonald: All right, all right.
• 32:27
  Jack Seavor McDonald: But I I'll say Carmen said.
• 32:29
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I know.
• 32:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Carmen said, right.
• 32:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, okay, funniest moment on set.
• 32:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh funniest moment on set, uh there was on Never Have I Ever, I was swimming for an episode that I was in, and that there was this other actor, Pete Gardner, that was playing the coach.
• 32:53
  Jack Seavor McDonald: He's a really big improv comedic actor as well.
• 32:58
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And when you're a speaking line on a set, the people who in the crew who are sort of in charge of you, knowing where you are, letting you know when you're up next, it can feel like a very sort of pampered existence, the way that they oh, do you need anything to drink?
• 33:19
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Like, are you okay?
• 33:20
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And I was expressing to Pete that it was kind of it kind of made me a little uncomfortable because I wasn't used to that, and I just I hadn't had this kind of uh speaking role where they were so on hand and foot.
• 33:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And he said, like, oh well, you know, don't worry, that's kind of their job, that that's all they're there to do is make sure you're okay and you can do your job.
• 33:44
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And then I was like, okay, I don't know, I might ask them maybe not to do it.
• 33:50
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Cut to, I'm in the pool, and I start to get a cramp in my foot, and I swim over to the edge, and the swimming instructor says, Give me your foot, give me your foot, and starts to massage it, and someone, the set health person is giving me a drink of water with electrolytes in it, and then Pete walks by as I've got one foot out of the water drinking a delicious propel, and he just shakes his head at me, like, yeah, you really don't like the pampering, huh?
• 34:25
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I actually love that.
• 34:28
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, it was very funny for me.
• 34:32
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I was like, oh man, he caught me good.
• 34:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, and just so that people who don't know, the reason why actors, and this is where I we spend a lot of money.
• 34:40
  Carmen Lezeth: So from the money side, from the insurance side, from all the other business end of the reason why we take care of all actors on set is for a lot of reasons.
• 34:49
  Carmen Lezeth: It isn't just to make sure that you're okay and fine to that you can deliver your lines, although that is a big one.
• 34:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Like if you're comfortable and all you have to worry about is not the lighting or what your shirt looks like or if your makeup's on right, you don't have to worry about any of that.
• 35:02
  Carmen Lezeth: All you have to worry about is your line and doing your work, the work that you were hired to do.
• 35:06
  Carmen Lezeth: But the other of it is also insurance.
• 35:08
  Carmen Lezeth: And you said you were in a pool, you know what I mean?
• 35:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, so we have to have everyone in place to make sure nothing happens that is wrong.
• 35:15
  Carmen Lezeth: And you having a cramp and having somebody like the doctor on set to be there to make sure they must that's so important, insurance-wise, too, you know.
• 35:24
  Carmen Lezeth: So I I think there's this idea about Hollywood that everybody's pampered all the time.
• 35:29
  Carmen Lezeth: So I wanted to give the other perspective.
• 35:31
  Carmen Lezeth: There's a reason why we do that, you know.
• 35:34
  Jack Seavor McDonald: So oh, yeah.
• 35:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No, I think it's so good to point out that they they're not doing this because you're a big star or no, that's no, that can be it too.
• 35:45
  Carmen Lezeth: We want to take care of you to make sure you deliver your line.
• 35:48
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm not, do not do that.
• 35:50
  Carmen Lezeth: You were you were the actor on set, that was your scene, you were waiting.
• 35:55
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm not taking away from that, too.
• 35:57
  Carmen Lezeth: That is why we're doing it.
• 35:58
  Carmen Lezeth: We're delivering lines.
• 36:00
  Carmen Lezeth: You're you're just as important as any other person on set.
• 36:03
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's um on Ron Howard sets, what I loved about there was it didn't matter who you were.
• 36:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, didn't you were everybody, whether it was the crew or background actors or Ron Howard, everybody knows him as Opie from you know, whatever that show was back in the day.
• 36:21
  Carmen Lezeth: But also he's one of the greatest uh directors around.
• 36:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Um his his film sets, his the work environment.
• 36:30
  Carmen Lezeth: I was on Parenthood and I worked for a couple other uh film sets, but he that that that whole environment is just all about positivity and joy and happiness, and doesn't matter what they're filming, you know.
• 36:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, but I've been on sets, I'm sure, and I just as the financial person, I'm sure you've been on sets that you would never want to walk on again.
• 36:51
  Carmen Lezeth: And we won't discuss those.
• 36:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No, we don't need to, but yes, I I sure have.
• 36:57
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah.
• 36:59
  Carmen Lezeth: But but you would do it again because you get paid.
• 37:01
  Carmen Lezeth: So you might do it again, you know what I mean, if you get paid.
• 37:04
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Sure, sure.
• 37:05
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And depending on the the part, like there's so many different uh milestones that actors can have, like, oh, I finally did a death scene, or right, oh, I finally got to do acting in a pool, or things like that.
• 37:19
  Jack Seavor McDonald: That's um so fun.
• 37:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah.
• 37:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 37:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Favorite curse word.
• 37:26
  Jack Seavor McDonald: You know, in an Australian way, I find the C word pretty fun.
• 37:34
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Okay.
• 37:35
  Carmen Lezeth: See you next Tuesday.
• 37:36
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what it is?
• 37:37
  Carmen Lezeth: See you next Tuesday.
• 37:38
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yes.
• 37:39
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yes, yes.
• 37:40
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I would never use that as a derogatory misogynist term, but as a hey friend.
• 37:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Got you.
• 37:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Got you.
• 37:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Understood.
• 37:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Understood.
• 37:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 37:52
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Even here, I I won't I don't even want to actually say it, but uh I think it's funny in certain contexts.
• 37:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I love the way you said it, and that's why I said see you next Tuesday, because I would have bleeped it out, but it would I would have done something underneath to make sure people knew.
• 38:05
  Carmen Lezeth: So I appreciate you being so kind on the set.
• 38:08
  Carmen Lezeth: But on the set.
• 38:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my god, I feel like we're already on set.
• 38:11
  Carmen Lezeth: So crazy.
• 38:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 38:13
  Carmen Lezeth: All right.
• 38:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, is there work as an actor or comedian that you wouldn't do?
• 38:20
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um, I I'm not really interested in playing any racists.
• 38:28
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I know that that is a real thing that should be shown so that people know that it exists, but I don't I'm just not interested in playing a part that has to be derogatory or racist.
• 38:47
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I don't I don't like that.
• 38:49
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Of course, nobody likes it, but I I would say that is a type of role that I would rather not okay.
• 38:55
  Carmen Lezeth: But if Steven Spielberg came to you and said, I'm doing a movie and I see you as the perfect person to play this character and he is a racist.
• 39:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Your answer to Steven Spielberg.
• 39:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, wait, let me let me set this up for you.
• 39:13
  Carmen Lezeth: If Steven Spielberg, like I will not do nudity, okay?
• 39:17
  Carmen Lezeth: True ever.
• 39:18
  Carmen Lezeth: As a as a performer, I was like, I will never do nudity.
• 39:20
  Carmen Lezeth: And then somebody said, if Steven Spielberg, like Okay, so now answer the question.
• 39:28
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I'd say, look, Steven, does uh does this racist get a comeuppance for it?
• 39:34
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Because that is important to me.
• 39:35
  Jack Seavor McDonald: If if I'm gonna portray a character that is duplicitous, then I need them to be punished.
• 39:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so as your newfound manager, okay, like I am telling you right now, if Steven Spielberg came and told you that you are going to play a racist in his upcoming movie, you're gonna do it.
• 39:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Because you know that he would get his comeuppants.
• 39:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Because that's the kind of film director he is.
• 39:59
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Okay, well then, well then great.
• 40:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just telling you, you would.
• 40:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I would make you do it.
• 40:04
  Jack Seavor McDonald: No, sure, sure.
• 40:05
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I get it, I get it.
• 40:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh but no no no.
• 40:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, yeah, right, right, right.
• 40:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh I'm 20%, so I don't know about your manager, but I won't be 20%, right?
• 40:15
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm just kidding.
• 40:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, wait, I'm I I don't want to negate what you said.
• 40:18
  Carmen Lezeth: I get it though.
• 40:19
  Carmen Lezeth: It's kind of like I would do because I had to change my idea, right?
• 40:23
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not gonna do nudity for gratuitous sake.
• 40:26
  Carmen Lezeth: But there's a difference between art and there's a different, you're right.
• 40:31
  Carmen Lezeth: There's art and then there's just gratuitous bullshittery.
• 40:33
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's where the line is drawn.
• 40:35
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that's what you're saying about racism or any other ism that we could probably throw on the table.
• 40:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know.
• 40:40
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, no, I think that's absolutely fair.
• 40:43
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh uh Oh, uh I I would really I I don't ever want to uh portray or ableism is uh what another one that I would not like to be portraying a certain um birth uh um illness or or what have you, facial difference.
• 41:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: If I don't have that facial difference.
• 41:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 41:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, it's such a like people don't understand how hard it is to because there's the part when you're starting to be a performer, you'll take anything, especially if you have no money coming in or you don't have that kind of financial support somewhere else, you'll take anything.
• 41:25
  Carmen Lezeth: And I saw so many of my friends end up regretting some of the roles that they took, you know.
• 41:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, but but then you have standards, and I'm glad that you are in a position where you can kind of decide not to take certain things.
• 41:37
  Carmen Lezeth: That's a great place to be.
• 41:39
  Jack Seavor McDonald: That's absolutely I I love that you brought that up.
• 41:42
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It it is weirdly unfair that the earlier you are in the uh career, the less options you have.
• 41:51
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:52
  Carmen Lezeth: They're fine though.
• 41:54
  Carmen Lezeth: So um let's see, what's a sound you hate?
• 42:00
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh, a sound I hate.
• 42:02
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh oh, the the classic iPhone alarm sound will just get my hackles up immediately because I had it as my oh that's okay.
• 42:16
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I had it as my alarm for so long that if I just hear it while I'm awake, my brain just gets confused and upset.
• 42:26
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Like, I'm already awake.
• 42:28
  Carmen Lezeth: That's so funny.
• 42:29
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't even know what that sound is because I'm not an iPhone user, so I trust your judgment.
• 42:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, no argument for me there.
• 42:34
  Carmen Lezeth: It just kind of goes like uh oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
• 42:40
  Carmen Lezeth: That would drive me.
• 42:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Why would that be their normal sound?
• 42:42
  Carmen Lezeth: But okay.
• 42:43
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah.
• 42:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, what's your favorite food on set?
• 42:48
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh gosh.
• 42:49
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh you know, I I really if I'm going for fuel, I love a trail mix.
• 42:56
  Jack Seavor McDonald: But if if I'm just going for a little snicky snack, uh I would say probably like a cookie or or some chips.
• 43:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 43:09
  Carmen Lezeth: It's just fun, snacky stuff.
• 43:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Craft services doesn't get enough love.
• 43:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just saying, craft services on sets do not get enough love.
• 43:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Sometimes they're horrible depending on what you're on, but most times if you're on a real set, craft services are amazing.
• 43:24
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Can can I tell you my theory on craft services that no matter what set you go on, there will always be at least coffee and bananas.
• 43:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes! That's true.
• 43:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Why is that?
• 43:42
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I feel like the bananas they're like easy to carry around and carry around.
• 43:47
  Jack Seavor McDonald: They they have they're not they don't have the trash involved, and then just people everywhere always want coffee.
• 43:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Coffee, always, always nice.
• 43:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 43:57
  Carmen Lezeth: If you weren't an actor, what would you be doing?
• 44:00
  Carmen Lezeth: And you cannot say gas attendant thingamajiggy that you did back in the day.
• 44:05
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Well, good, because I I would never go back.
• 44:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Um you you'll have to tell people that you were you had to work a shift at like 11 p.m.
• 44:15
  Carmen Lezeth: to seven in the morning or something.
• 44:17
  Carmen Lezeth: You were working as a gas station attendant.
• 44:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh where were you?
• 44:21
  Carmen Lezeth: You were in school or something?
• 44:23
  Jack Seavor McDonald: That's right.
• 44:24
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, I was in uh Fullerton going to Cal State Fullerton for theater, and I needed a job bad, so I I went and did a graveyard shift at a gas station nearby.
• 44:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And uh I would not recommend graveyard shifts.
• 44:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Right, but I read that um so many people came and would get gas and hang out with you for a bit every once in a while, right?
• 44:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Like your teachers and your friends would come just to hang out with you and some of your improv buddies, right?
• 44:53
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yes, that's right.
• 44:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I uh my friend Casey Bowen created these posters uh that he put up around our theater department that were photoshopped pictures of me, and it said Graveyard Jack will be working at this gas station.
• 45:14
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Come visit him.
• 45:15
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And uh and then people did.
• 45:18
  Carmen Lezeth: That's kind of nice.
• 45:19
  Carmen Lezeth: That's that's good friendships, man.
• 45:20
  Carmen Lezeth: That's really cool.
• 45:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I love it.
• 45:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: It really is.
• 45:22
  Jack Seavor McDonald: There's really sweet community at the Cal State Fullerton Theater Department, and yeah, they'd take pictures and post them on their Facebook page.
• 45:31
  Carmen Lezeth: That is the coolest thing.
• 45:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so if you weren't an actor and a comedian, what would you be doing?
• 45:41
  Jack Seavor McDonald: You know, I think I could be a food critic.
• 45:45
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh.
• 45:46
  Jack Seavor McDonald: That was that was another one of my dreams as a young'un before actor.
• 45:52
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I was like, maybe I could be a food tester.
• 45:55
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Okay.
• 45:56
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And then my dad was like, that's called a critic.
• 45:58
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And so, yeah, I think I could be a good food critic.
• 46:01
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I've got that's kind of cool.
• 46:03
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I I mean I I love food.
• 46:06
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh and then just exactly, exactly.
• 46:10
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And then just there there are some times where me and my spouse Joe are are trying things together, and I'm like, oh, do you taste the cinnamon in there?
• 46:19
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And Joe will be like, no, this I don't taste that at all.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Not at all.
• 46:24
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, and I'm like, oh, that's weird.
• 46:26
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Why am I picking up on something else?
• 46:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Because you're very sensitive to it.
• 46:30
  Carmen Lezeth: That's good, yeah, because you love it.
• 46:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 46:32
  Carmen Lezeth: Window seat or aisle?
• 46:36
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Hmm.
• 46:37
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Well, if it's an airplane, then I would say window seat because it it was in 2018.
• 46:46
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I was on a trip to Ireland for my sister's wedding.
• 46:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, nice.
• 46:51
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh-huh.
• 46:52
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh my brother-in-law is a pilot, so they were going somewhere neither of them had been before to get married.
• 47:00
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um that's nice.
• 47:02
  Carmen Lezeth: That's nice.
• 47:03
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Very cool.
• 47:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 47:04
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And I had a aisle seat on that flight, and I had taken a melatonin to help just sleep through the 12-hour flight.
• 47:13
  Jack Seavor McDonald: But then about half an hour later, the drink cart comes out and rams right into my knee.
• 47:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, okay.
• 47:21
  Jack Seavor McDonald: And wakes me up, and I'm like, I'll never want an aisle seat.
• 47:25
  Carmen Lezeth: I'll never want that again.
• 47:25
  Carmen Lezeth: All right, that's a good enough reason.
• 47:27
  Carmen Lezeth: I I tend to like the aisle seat, not window seat.
• 47:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh.
• 47:30
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't like people walking over me when they have to go to the bathroom and stuff.
• 47:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I just don't like, you know.
• 47:35
  Carmen Lezeth: So, of course, my preference, I'm sure, is yours, would be to be in first class and not be bothered at all.
• 47:41
  Carmen Lezeth: But just another dream.
• 47:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 47:43
  Carmen Lezeth: All right.
• 47:44
  Carmen Lezeth: So here is my take on the actor's studio question.
• 47:47
  Carmen Lezeth: This is the last question for you.
• 47:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 47:49
  Carmen Lezeth: If there is a hell and you found yourself at the fire-embossed gates, what would you say to the clerk of damnation guarding them?
• 48:00
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Oh my gosh.
• 48:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Everyone wants to do the pearly gates of heaven.
• 48:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm saying, what if you find yourself in hell?
• 48:08
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah, if I found myself in hell, I would probably say, was it just one thing, or did I do a bunch of bad things?
• 48:17
  Jack Seavor McDonald: I'd want to know exactly what got me there.
• 48:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 48:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Was it just one thing or a bunch of things?
• 48:25
  Carmen Lezeth: That's awesome.
• 48:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my God, thank you so much for being on the show.
• 48:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, I want to tell people how they can find you.
• 48:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Of course, I'll be putting it down at the bottom.
• 48:33
  Carmen Lezeth: I know I could find your IG.
• 48:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Your Instagram is JackSeber, right?
• 48:38
  Carmen Lezeth: At Jack Siever, and that's S-E-A-V-O-R.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Correct.
• 48:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh, so that's your Instagram.
• 48:45
  Carmen Lezeth: But did did you have another place people could find you at?
• 48:48
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Um, you can also find me on TikTok.
• 48:52
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh it's fantastic.
• 48:53
  Jack Seavor McDonald: The similar uh username at Jack Siever8.
• 48:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so there's an eight at the end of it.
• 49:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 49:01
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Yeah.
• 49:01
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Uh for TikTok.
• 49:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 49:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Thank you so much.
• 49:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Will you come back?
• 49:06
  Carmen Lezeth: You have to come back.
• 49:07
  Carmen Lezeth: We'll have to talk about something else.
• 49:09
  Carmen Lezeth: We'll talk about acting and performing, but you'll have to come back.
• 49:12
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm gonna make you say it on camera.
• 49:14
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Absolutely.
• 49:15
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Carmen, I would love to be back to talk all things acting and performing art, whatever.
• 49:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So much fun.
• 49:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Do you do you have anything else coming up soon that you want people to be aware of?
• 49:25
  Jack Seavor McDonald: Maybe uh can people come and see you with your improv group or there are no standing performance dates that uh like I do all the time, but my Instagram will always have updates.
• 49:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Perfect answer.
• 49:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Yep.
• 49:41
  Carmen Lezeth: And so we can always figure out how to find you, see you, and just be in your presence.
• 49:46
  Carmen Lezeth: It was a pleasure to meet you.
• 49:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Thank you so much.
• 49:49
  Carmen Lezeth: And everyone, uh, please go visit him, follow him on Instagram and on TikTok.
• 49:54
  Carmen Lezeth: And um, yeah, remember at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy.
• 49:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Thank you, everyone.
• 49:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Bye.
• 50:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks.
• 50:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by, All About the Joy.
• 50:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Be better and stay beautiful, folks.
• 50:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Have a sweet day.