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The Muppets Take Scripthattan - The Musicians · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:01
  Earlier this year, audiences both in person and virtual bore
• 0:05
  witness to two incredible events.
• 0:07
  The Muppet Scripts and The Scripted Muppet Caper
• 0:09
  star-studded live readings of The Muppet Movie and The Great
• 0:12
  Muppet Caper Scripts. On Friday, October 24th, they'll
• 0:15
  be doing it again with The Muppets Take Script Hatton, this
• 0:19
  time in New York City. To celebrate this event and to
• 0:22
  encourage you to buy tickets to the live stream, we'll be
• 0:25
  chatting with some of the stars of the show in this special
• 0:28
  podcast miniseries brought to you by toughpigs.com.
• 0:31
  I am your host, Joe Hennis. Joining me is the producer and
• 0:36
  director of the show and an old friend of Tough Pigs, it's Matt
• 0:38
  Wilkie. Hello, Matt.
• 0:40
  Hello, Joe. You're back.
• 0:42
  You never left. I I just sit here and wait until
• 0:46
  you tell me what to say and who we're recording with.
• 0:48
  That's sad. Yeah.
• 0:49
  That's, like, really sad. Yeah.
• 0:52
  Today's podcast will not be sad. It will be all about music
• 0:56
  because what's a Muppet movie without great music?
• 0:59
  It's Muppets from space. But our guests tonight, here we
• 1:03
  go on bass. It's Brett Morris.
• 1:06
  Hello, Brett. Hey, good to be here.
• 1:08
  On the drums, we've got Dana Wickens.
• 1:11
  Hello, Dana, and I'm lead banjo, Lucas Ross.
• 1:16
  Hey, I got promoted. Yes, Lead Banjo.
• 1:20
  Yeah. Who's the other?
• 1:21
  That's unofficial. That's unofficial.
• 1:24
  Lucas who is who would the second banjo?
• 1:26
  Be you. You were just rhythm banjo
• 1:28
  before. That's good.
• 1:31
  Second chair banjo, everybody, thank you so much for being
• 1:35
  here. I'm so excited to talk about the
• 1:36
  music with you all. And it's true, like the music
• 1:39
  for these Muppet movies is so important and like what a gift
• 1:43
  that you get to bring live music to these script readings.
• 1:46
  Like that's such a, a, an important element and I think
• 1:50
  important for these these events.
• 1:52
  So thanks for doing it. Thanks for being here to talk
• 1:54
  about it. Yeah, it's so fun to do.
• 1:57
  So let's let's talk about how you guys got involved.
• 2:01
  I'm it's just the review. I'm just gonna throw that
• 2:03
  question up in the air and see who answers it.
• 2:05
  But how did you guys get involved with these script
• 2:06
  readings? I can jump in and say, well, OK,
• 2:11
  sweet Matt, send us an e-mail text.
• 2:15
  I don't remember. I think it was an e-mail, you
• 2:19
  know, reaching out. So.
• 2:21
  So Brett and myself. And then also for the first one,
• 2:26
  Jess McKenna and Zach Reno and Scott Pasarella.
• 2:30
  The five of us make up off book the improvised musical former
• 2:37
  podcasts Now live show, though we do still put the live show
• 2:42
  recordings on the podcast feed. And, you know, we've been
• 2:47
  playing together for such a long time, obviously doing like,
• 2:50
  improvised musically things. And yeah, Matt reached out and
• 2:55
  was like, hey, do you want to play music for the Muppet Movie
• 3:00
  script reading thing? And I was like, oh, 100%.
• 3:04
  And you know, we kind of have like this like mind melt thing
• 3:08
  where, you know, I can kind of like me and Brad and Scott kind
• 3:12
  of all, I don't know at this point we have true ESP
• 3:15
  musically. So getting to do something that
• 3:18
  was like, you know, compose music, but also get to getting
• 3:22
  to have fun with it too, you know, was just an exciting
• 3:26
  opportunity as we were like, yay, yes.
• 3:29
  A lot of what we do on off book feels like Muppet coded.
• 3:33
  Oh yeah, not thinking back in hindsight so.
• 3:36
  Explain what that means when you say Muppet coded, what does that
• 3:39
  mean to? You well, I mean like literally
• 3:42
  in some cases a lot of singing animals that they they end up
• 3:46
  playing, you know, character wise, Zach and Jess.
• 3:50
  And the musical style is obviously like comes primarily
• 3:55
  from musical theater, but you know, fun genre, you know, we,
• 4:00
  we toss in different genres all the time and we just get silly
• 4:05
  together. And I feel like that we all grew
• 4:07
  up kind of around the in the same era where that was just
• 4:11
  like our comedic influences in a lot of ways.
• 4:14
  Like, I didn't, I didn't necessarily come into this like
• 4:19
  I, we all grew up with The Muppets, but I hadn't actually
• 4:22
  seen all the movies. I just, I realized like coming
• 4:25
  into this that I, I just like, know The Muppets, but I hadn't
• 4:29
  actually just sat down and watched all the movies.
• 4:32
  Like front to back focused. Yeah.
• 4:35
  I feel like as a kid they were just like part of life.
• 4:38
  But I didn't, I didn't really have like a focused memory of
• 4:42
  like this movie and then this movie and then this movie.
• 4:45
  It just felt like they were just on TV all the time, you know?
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  For these 3 script readings, the two you've done and the one that
• 4:52
  you have not yet performed, had you seen those movies before or
• 4:56
  are you kind of watching them in full for the first time before
• 5:00
  working on them? Dana had seen them.
• 5:03
  I had not. I realized, yeah.
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  And I feel like I've seen parts and yeah, I don't know, there's
• 5:10
  there. And like, I know a lot of the
• 5:13
  songs or some of the, the, the highlight songs, but yeah, I had
• 5:17
  not watched the movies just front to back.
• 5:20
  And I've been really enjoying doing my homework.
• 5:23
  Yeah, I mean, I part of me always wants to say to people
• 5:25
  when I hear things like that, like you haven't seen the Muppet
• 5:27
  movie, but like it actually is a gift that you get to watch it
• 5:32
  for the first time. You remember what that was like.
• 5:35
  I could think that's kind of awful.
• 5:37
  I wish I could have that. It's kind of fun because it
• 5:40
  takes, it's almost like a controlled experiment where it's
• 5:44
  like I, I can tell you safely that it's not my like childhood
• 5:48
  memories, no nostalgia. These are really good.
• 5:52
  Like they really hold up. The jokes are like so funny and
• 5:56
  like from a adult rider perspective, like they're just
• 6:00
  so they're, they're just objectively good.
• 6:03
  You know, I love that especially I really, really love the first
• 6:06
  one. And then I, I think Manhattan is
• 6:09
  my, it's up there with the first one, I think.
• 6:13
  Yeah, yeah. I actually, I think I, I can't
• 6:16
  remember if I ever saw the first one.
• 6:19
  I would say yes, like there was, they were like re watching and I
• 6:24
  was like, OK, this does feel like it was in my, you know, I
• 6:27
  don't know, like back of my, my file cabinet in my brain
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  nostalgia wise. But like 1000% Muppets take
• 6:35
  Manhattan was like my absolute fave.
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  And then of course, Christmas Carol, which is like, of course,
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  but like, I think the I, I grew up, you know, again, like my, my
• 6:45
  parents were so great about, you know, again, comedically,
• 6:49
  Muppets and Sesame Street and comedy and musicals and going to
• 6:53
  Broadway shows, like all the time.
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  And, you know, it was all kind of melding together.
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  So Muppets take Manhattan. It's just like kind of a mix of
• 7:02
  all of like my favorite like types of things.
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  So we just like re watched it to prep for this.
• 7:09
  And then also like, you know, for just to get ready for the
• 7:11
  music and all the things. And I was just like, oh, I like
• 7:15
  that scene. Like I don't like it was like
• 7:17
  just, oh, I felt so good. And it definitely like it hit.
• 7:20
  It hit. It still hits.
• 7:23
  That movie does hit Lucas. How did you get involved with
• 7:28
  these script readings? I got a text, I think, from Dave
• 7:33
  Holtein Junior, a great artist, a great friend of the Muppet
• 7:38
  fandom, especially Tough Pigs. And he, I think he told me he's
• 7:43
  like, is it OK if I give your contact to Matt?
• 7:47
  And I said no. And I'm still mad at him.
• 7:52
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 7:55
  So that's it pretty much. No, It was whenever I got this
• 8:00
  very nice text, I think, or an e-mail from Matt asking tell me
• 8:04
  kind of what it was and everything.
• 8:05
  And I saw the the stars that were already attached to it from
• 8:12
  you guys and Paul F Tompkins and Nina and everybody else.
• 8:17
  And I was like, Are you sure you want me part of this?
• 8:19
  Do you know who I am? You can't afford me.
• 8:26
  No, I was like, yeah. I mean, I was really honored to
• 8:29
  be part of it. I've got to do a few actual like
• 8:32
  some Muppet projects and. Oh, have you?
• 8:36
  Maybe I. Don't know?
• 8:38
  Your desk tells us otherwise. Yeah, I've got problems, but I
• 8:48
  getting to do that, especially that first you mentioned the
• 8:49
  first movie getting to do that. It was really cool to break
• 8:52
  down. You were talking about Brett,
• 8:54
  that the these movies hold up. You didn't weren't basing it on
• 8:58
  nostalgia, getting to witness the reading of those scripts,
• 9:01
  just the words. And yeah, it's such a solid,
• 9:05
  fast-paced, funny script. We always knew it was.
• 9:09
  And yeah, I'm a Muppet kid. I was born right in the middle
• 9:11
  of all the the heyday of Sesame Street, when the Muppet Show was
• 9:14
  like worldwide huge. I think The Muppets Take
• 9:17
  Manhattan was the first movie I saw in theaters.
• 9:19
  I was 2 and I remember it very much traumatized by Miss Piggy
• 9:24
  getting mugged in the park. Dark.
• 9:28
  Kermit. Yeah, hit by the the cab.
• 9:31
  I was like. That kind of got me.
• 9:33
  That kind of got me too. But really it was Miss Piggy's
• 9:35
  purse thing. I really had a thing for Miss
• 9:37
  Piggy. I was very much in love with
• 9:39
  her. And then?
• 9:40
  You're like how dare, how dare someone do this?
• 9:43
  Yeah, yeah, right. She was awesome.
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  And then, like, I remember all that so vividly.
• 9:49
  And I know I was probably a wreck and that my parents, it
• 9:51
  was probably like, you got to like, stop, you know, shut up,
• 9:54
  you know? But I remember the guys going
• 9:57
  through her purse and he's pulling out like things and do
• 9:58
  the gag where it's like. A.
• 10:00
  Saw comes out of the purse and I, you know, as a child, those
• 10:05
  things are so funny now, but I remember I still have a very
• 10:08
  like visceral image of, of those things thinking like, how did
• 10:13
  she had a okay, she had a saw in her.
• 10:16
  Like I just remember processing all these things and I think
• 10:19
  that's the best thing about these shows and the Muppet Show
• 10:22
  and everything was like, they never dumbed it down.
• 10:25
  It was such a funny, silly stuff, but it had this
• 10:28
  sophistication in a way of bringing you up to the level of
• 10:32
  something. And I, it's really fun to be
• 10:34
  part of these things live and to hear people laugh live.
• 10:38
  There's so many more jokes. You know, there's jokes there,
• 10:40
  but you don't know how many jokes are really there until you
• 10:42
  get to witness it in this way. This is really unique.
• 10:45
  So thanks for having me. I'm glad that Dave gave you my
• 10:49
  number, Matt. Then I want, then I want to tell
• 10:53
  you that the truth, which is that I just snuck it out of his
• 10:56
  phone. That's even a bigger honor.
• 10:59
  I thought you were going to say that like I was The the real
• 11:02
  secret is you're fired. You're not doing that.
• 11:04
  You should probably. Give Dave's phone back one of
• 11:06
  these days. One of these days I will no, but
• 11:09
  I, I, I just want to say that this is a dream, dream group to
• 11:14
  work with and having done it now we're we're on 1/3 time and it's
• 11:19
  just been amazing. I mean, I mean, like Brett and
• 11:22
  Dana were saying the the two of them and and Jess and Zach and
• 11:27
  the first one and Scott and both of the other ones, they're so
• 11:30
  mind melted. It's absolutely correct.
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  Like everything feels like they know what each one is going to
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  do. Being at practice and hearing
• 11:37
  Brett about to give a suggestion and Scott's like that's the same
• 11:41
  thing I was going to say. Like it's it's beautiful the way
• 11:43
  they work together. And Lucas is an amazing guy who
• 11:48
  just like fits in perfectly with everyone.
• 11:51
  He just knows how to add his secret sauce every time.
• 11:57
  And it's just, it's wonderful to, to to be able to, to think
• 12:01
  these are people from very different parts of my life and,
• 12:04
  and that I've had connections with in different ways.
• 12:06
  And now to see them all together.
• 12:08
  That's the absolute best part of the show, is finding all these
• 12:11
  people, making them, making them work together, and then seeing
• 12:15
  how much fun they have. And I'll say something nice
• 12:18
  about me. Yeah, you got it now.
• 12:20
  Yeah, they'll. Do that so each of you not only
• 12:26
  plays a musical instrument on this on the show, you're also
• 12:29
  playing some of the characters. So Dana, you're playing.
• 12:34
  Why don't you tell the people who you play on these these
• 12:36
  scripties? I have the honor of playing
• 12:39
  Animal. Incredible, incredible that you
• 12:43
  get to do that. Actually, like truly, I think I
• 12:46
  like didn't even fully clock it. Like I think when we first like
• 12:51
  when Matt reached out, he's like, OK, like, hey, going to do
• 12:53
  The Muppets da, da, da, da. OK, yeah, you're going to do,
• 12:56
  you're going to be Animal and like, you know, you're going to
• 12:57
  be this. And I was like, OK, yes.
• 13:00
  And then like getting to actually like really lean into
• 13:04
  it and sort of, I don't know, it's funny, like for the movie
• 13:09
  or I mean, for the first, the first script reading, I was
• 13:13
  like, what am I going to wear? How am I going to like, I don't
• 13:16
  know, embody this? And it just kind of organically
• 13:20
  like came out of me. I feel like animals just been.
• 13:23
  She found her calling for. Sure.
• 13:26
  I was going to say I thought you trained your whole life for it.
• 13:28
  It was. So it's a.
• 13:29
  Matter. It definitely feels like I, it
• 13:34
  just felt so good to, to just like to just do it, let it out.
• 13:39
  I love just being a nut in general.
• 13:44
  And, you know, have done like improv comedy stuff in the past
• 13:48
  And, and this just again, it's like another one of those things
• 13:51
  where it's like kind of checking every box of things I like to
• 13:56
  like take in and then also like what I like to do, you know,
• 13:59
  like both like watching and doing.
• 14:02
  So it was just so fun to lean into it and just be crazy and
• 14:08
  have crazy hair and scream and then also just play drums the
• 14:13
  whole time. It's like a it's the dream job.
• 14:16
  So the the real question is, if Matt prepared you properly, did
• 14:22
  you get the list of five words that make up animals character?
• 14:30
  OK, I did not receive an official list, but I've now.
• 14:35
  Oh, yeah. Lucas, do you have?
• 14:37
  No, no, no. I was going to say like, I think
• 14:39
  now, like, again, doing this is now like round three.
• 14:45
  If I had to, if I had to like, lock it in.
• 14:48
  It's like, like woman, a lot of screaming woman.
• 14:54
  Yep. Oh God, now I'm like on the
• 14:57
  spot. What else?
• 14:58
  Would there, it's OK, you're not going to get all five of these.
• 15:01
  Is this the list that Frank Oz described?
• 15:03
  That's what I'm referring to, yes.
• 15:05
  Oh, he was. Talking about like how deep some
• 15:08
  of his characters are, like how what back story he had for for
• 15:12
  Miss Piggy and then like the structure of another character
• 15:15
  like Bert or Grover. But then Animal came down to
• 15:20
  five things. 5 words. Yep.
• 15:23
  OK, what? Are the simple words one of
• 15:25
  them? You're very close.
• 15:26
  So woman. Woman relates to sex.
• 15:29
  That's one of the words. OK.
• 15:32
  These are things, by the way, that like is this for Frank.
• 15:34
  This is not to like ever, say, in a Muppet Movie.
• 15:37
  Is this like a hierarchy of needs kind of thing?
• 15:40
  Like, yeah, although I don't know if there's a real order to
• 15:42
  them. OK?
• 15:43
  Like they're all just the five at the top.
• 15:45
  And so I'm thinking sex like food.
• 15:48
  That's two. Yeah, that's three of them.
• 15:50
  You got it. Oh.
• 15:51
  Good. OK, Yeah.
• 15:51
  What else do you need? The other two are the.
• 15:54
  Are the hardest ones oxygen? Yeah, Aos sleep.
• 16:00
  Sleep is the force sleep. Yeah, yeah.
• 16:02
  Which doesn't come up very often.
• 16:04
  Rare. The last one, Do we know what
• 16:07
  the last one is? Do you guys remember?
• 16:09
  Oh, it's, it's a, it's like one of those reverse mortgage
• 16:13
  opportunities. Yeah, that's why I brought you
• 16:15
  all here today. Derivative.
• 16:18
  The last word is pain. Oh wow, love that.
• 16:23
  OK, he eats glass, man. Hell yeah, that's what.
• 16:26
  Frank says. They describe animal as like
• 16:29
  nobody knows where he goes after they do the show.
• 16:31
  He just like shows up for the show and then he disappears
• 16:36
  whenever they don't have him chained up.
• 16:37
  But like, isn't that kind of true for, like, half of The
• 16:39
  Muppets? Like, no one knows where Crazy
• 16:42
  Harry goes. No one knows where Lou Zealand
• 16:44
  goes. Yeah, we don't know anything
• 16:45
  about them. Kicked out of SeaWorld.
• 16:49
  That's. True.
• 16:51
  Hey, the good thing about Dana is that also she's you're such a
• 16:55
  great drummer. Too you.
• 16:57
  Absolutely. Don't miss all the musicians and
• 16:59
  Brett. You guys are so good.
• 17:01
  And I just want to say I got to watch the masters at work and it
• 17:05
  made it so easy for me. I felt like I don't.
• 17:08
  I don't think I improved. I hopefully didn't distract, but
• 17:11
  everybody. And.
• 17:13
  Scott Scott was playing every cue Jeff Yorks.
• 17:17
  You know another great Muppet work guy did.
• 17:21
  He's one of the producers and writers of Muppets Mayhem.
• 17:24
  Bubba Sayhem. Yeah, huge Muppet.
• 17:26
  Fan. He came to the first screening,
• 17:29
  I think the Muppet Movie one that we did, and he came up
• 17:31
  afterwards. He was like, you guys.
• 17:32
  That band hit every cue in the soundtrack.
• 17:35
  It was like I was watching it in my mind.
• 17:37
  Every little piece. I mean, because there's a lot
• 17:39
  more music than just the there's.
• 17:41
  The so much music, yeah. And I got a credit Scott for.
• 17:45
  Absolutely. The lion's share of that because
• 17:47
  Scott's an amazing bandleader and he, he's got this like
• 17:52
  beautiful mind of all the, you know, chord structures and, and
• 17:56
  everything involved. Like it's really challenging
• 17:58
  music. It's very advanced stuff and.
• 18:00
  He's like playing the melodica while he's playing the piano,
• 18:03
  and he's like doing stuff. Yeah, he really, like, put the
• 18:06
  work into preparing it as like a score for all the action and
• 18:11
  stuff. And I feel like we got, you
• 18:15
  know, we we have the privilege of being able to be, or at least
• 18:19
  speaking for myself, like I can be more like window dressing on.
• 18:23
  I know how to follow Scott's lead and like, take lead when
• 18:27
  there's a guitar forward song. Yeah, I know you mentioned I
• 18:31
  play the bass, but I double on guitar too.
• 18:34
  Like as a bass playing bass, I guess I'm more in the in the
• 18:40
  core of the of the song. But like guitar wise, sometimes
• 18:43
  it's you're more of, you know, on the outskirts of the song in
• 18:48
  a way. Like, you're kind of finding a
• 18:50
  way to fit in, which is a fun challenge in itself, especially
• 18:54
  for this style of music. It's not always, like guitar
• 19:00
  forward. So it's almost like more
• 19:02
  challenging in that way. But Lucas, like, I mean, I mean,
• 19:04
  the banjo really just makes it Muppet sounding, you know, like
• 19:08
  when you came in and all of the stuff comes in, comes together
• 19:13
  on basically the night of the show.
• 19:16
  Yeah. Because we have very few
• 19:20
  rehearsals. Like you're not listening.
• 19:21
  You're not listening to me on the FaceTime call you.
• 19:24
  Don't. Yeah, yeah.
• 19:25
  We literally rehearse with Lucas over FaceTime.
• 19:29
  Yeah. So you just hear, like, banjo
• 19:31
  coming in and out of yeah. Probably like like 1/2 a second
• 19:35
  later. Than everything else.
• 19:37
  But he's following along closely and he knows exactly what he's
• 19:40
  doing and it just makes it such a relief.
• 19:43
  And like, so somehow it's kind of, it always feels a little bit
• 19:47
  miraculous that it does come together.
• 19:50
  It actually, it's really funny, like thinking about the process
• 19:55
  because again, it's like, if there's so many moving parts in
• 19:57
  terms of like all of the people, you're never going to get like
• 20:01
  everyone, everyone together on, you know, in a space to like to
• 20:07
  rehearse it. You know, it's just, it's just
• 20:09
  there's again, there's so many, so many people, so schedules all
• 20:11
  over the place. It would be probably like a
• 20:13
  nightmare to try to, you know, get everybody in the same room
• 20:16
  ahead of time. And you know, and for us, like
• 20:20
  for the first one, you mean rehearsed one time before the IT
• 20:24
  was. Once, yeah, and.
• 20:26
  Then a lot of those rehearsals are really, you are just there
• 20:30
  to sort of support some of the actors, like going through their
• 20:33
  their parts 'cause it feels like, you know, they're at the
• 20:36
  front of the stage. So it, there's not a lot of time
• 20:39
  for us as a band to really get into the nitty gritty and go
• 20:43
  through the whole thing. And we kind of do a couple
• 20:46
  passes and then we trust each other to go home and, and like
• 20:51
  show up on that night and, you know, hopefully.
• 20:55
  It just reminded me, like just watching, you know, Muppets take
• 20:59
  Manhattan, like them, you know, putting the show together, like
• 21:02
  the show's tonight. I like literally thought I'm
• 21:04
  like, that's us. That's us.
• 21:07
  There's nothing more Muppet Y than like.
• 21:11
  Yeah, it's like ragtag. Working against a deadline, no
• 21:14
  preparation. You know you're gonna do a bad
• 21:16
  job. And yet the show must go on.
• 21:20
  And, and it's like, I truly think we're just very lucky
• 21:23
  that, you know, everyone is just just so talented and so like
• 21:28
  100% on board and like just the energy like right before the
• 21:34
  show is so electric. And everyone's like, again, it's
• 21:38
  very like family reunion feeling or like meeting people and
• 21:41
  hugging and getting really excited.
• 21:43
  And then just somehow I think all that energy just like comes
• 21:46
  together and we just like knock it out.
• 21:48
  And I think that from an audience perspective, and I
• 21:51
  always say this because people were like, you must have
• 21:53
  rehearsed for days, you know, like whatever.
• 21:56
  I was like, ha, ha. Like it was one time.
• 21:58
  Like people just didn't, couldn't comprehend that it was.
• 22:01
  And it's, and I just truly think that it's like everyone's, you
• 22:06
  know, talent and energy coming together and we're all helping
• 22:09
  each other and supporting each other.
• 22:11
  And, and just like, again, it's like, go out there and have some
• 22:14
  fun. Like we're not putting too much
• 22:17
  pressure, which I almost think makes it like the best show it
• 22:21
  could possibly be. I think if it was like.
• 22:23
  If it's too polished, it's not Muppity.
• 22:26
  Right. Yeah, that's not.
• 22:26
  What we expect. If we were like, we gotta like,
• 22:30
  you know, it's like it just wouldn't have the same, I don't
• 22:32
  know, the same, the same vibe. It's so fun.
• 22:35
  I'm just like, I'm so excited for the next one.
• 22:38
  Did that I keep on. I find myself, especially on
• 22:41
  that first, the first one we did, having that feeling the
• 22:43
  whole time, but also being like people paid, you know, to to be
• 22:47
  here. So I can't look too surprised.
• 22:49
  But I kept going to look at the band be like, whoa.
• 22:52
  That was like, I was surprised because I'm constantly surprised
• 22:54
  the whole time. And then you're hearing the
• 22:56
  script for the first time And I Matt, I almost passed out two
• 23:00
  times the first show because I was standing with a heavy banjo
• 23:04
  the whole time. But that's not the big deal.
• 23:06
  I just forgot to breathe. I was so indicted and and
• 23:10
  between Bobby Moynahan and Paul Tompkins, I started laughing so
• 23:16
  hard I started to lose vision and I leaned over and Scott had
• 23:19
  to prop me up for some. Like.
• 23:22
  Sorry, I just forgot to forgot to breathe.
• 23:25
  I've never had to have before. But it was just it was just
• 23:28
  unbelievable. But it goes.
• 23:29
  All this goes to Matt putting together a really good team and
• 23:33
  yes, where where people can feel comfortable and safe enough to,
• 23:37
  to take the chance and just kind of go for it.
• 23:40
  And that's when really good art comes out of it.
• 23:42
  And we're doing a tribute to art that's already been created.
• 23:44
  But but it's really a it's really an honor to get to be a
• 23:48
  little footnote and telling the the story like that.
• 23:51
  So thanks Matt for for doing it. Thank you, Matt.
• 23:54
  Thank. You guys for for doing it.
• 23:56
  I'm I'm just the facilitator. I'm just the one who goes out
• 24:01
  and who can, who can find these people and know that they're
• 24:06
  they're they're muppity in their own way.
• 24:09
  I always just look for the muppity as people casting is is
• 24:12
  so much fun and and building the band and figuring everything out
• 24:16
  and yeah, it's been it's been terrific.
• 24:20
  I I also want to give a shout out to Scott, who just,
• 24:23
  absolutely. I never asked him to do the
• 24:26
  incidental music. That was the biggest thing for
• 24:29
  me was, yeah, we had like 3 weeks to put together this first
• 24:32
  show and I never went in and I said, can you do fill in music?
• 24:36
  Can you do under score? Yeah, we were just gonna do the
• 24:38
  big main. Songs, yeah, cuz I wanted it to
• 24:41
  be easiest for everybody to learn to quickly do thing.
• 24:43
  And he was like, I want to go for it and he went for it.
• 24:48
  And you kind of have to have it. You need that bouncing, that
• 24:51
  refrain from moving right along to to play along to it.
• 24:54
  But one thing about him I do want to mention, like there is
• 24:58
  something I didn't really, I think I just noticed it in a
• 25:00
  recent viewing of the Muppet Movie.
• 25:03
  And it's when Piggy and Kermit are on their date and Steve
• 25:06
  Martin is the waiter. It's my one of my favorite
• 25:08
  scenes. The music is playing a reprise
• 25:12
  of Never Before when they're there.
• 25:15
  OK, you guys are. Is it reprise or reprise?
• 25:17
  I said reprise. I'm always too afraid to say it
• 25:20
  out loud. Reprise.
• 25:21
  I just let people take. It, I think it's a reprise when
• 25:24
  you talk about it like a, like a, like a noun, but you reprise
• 25:28
  something like it's a bird. There's a noun bird thing.
• 25:31
  Doesn't that sound like I know the?
• 25:32
  Answer for sure. I always so.
• 25:34
  Confident. I always say repeat, say.
• 25:37
  Oh. That's how I was.
• 25:40
  I grew up saying it that. Way you guys are the real
• 25:43
  musicians. Yeah, it's funny with Scott
• 25:47
  because he's having worked with him for so long, like he's, he
• 25:53
  comes from a world where he's often just been the solo
• 25:56
  accompanist, you know, for, for improv and stuff.
• 25:59
  So he's he's developed a lot of tools and stuff for himself to
• 26:05
  remember things. He was like switching between,
• 26:07
  well, that's what I was going to say during that date scene and I
• 26:09
  didn't really notice this until I watched the movie.
• 26:12
  The songs playing in the background and then whenever
• 26:14
  Steve interrupts them and is like starts talking, the music
• 26:19
  continues but it shifts in sound to sound like it's being played
• 26:23
  by honky tonk piano. Yes, yes.
• 26:27
  And and I didn't really realize that until Scott did it.
• 26:30
  Yeah. In real time, he even switched
• 26:33
  it over right in the middle of the thing.
• 26:35
  And I just was like, and that's like what Jeffrey was talking
• 26:37
  about. I was like, you like matched the
• 26:39
  tone and the feel of that. And that's when I really, I
• 26:42
  didn't have respect for Scott before then.
• 26:45
  And then I had some he had to earn.
• 26:48
  It a little bit. He got a little bit I thought
• 26:51
  was amazing and it made me love that even more.
• 26:54
  It made me love that they did it in the movie too.
• 26:56
  That's such a nice touch for them to do and it shows the
• 26:58
  genius of it. But he noticed that and made it
• 27:01
  work and I just love it. That's one of the hardest things
• 27:05
  about there are people in the audience and people on stage and
• 27:09
  people watching at home definitely who are so like
• 27:12
  beyond intimately familiar with these movies that if if they if
• 27:17
  you guys had played the wrong music cue like it would have
• 27:19
  been fine. It's live music, but we would
• 27:22
  have noticed, whether with conscious or unconscious.
• 27:26
  Yeah, no, I think it's I, I love that.
• 27:29
  Like, I mean, again, Scott just has that instinct where it's,
• 27:32
  it's it all kind of comes together where it's like comedy
• 27:36
  improv, but then also again, knowing like musical tropes.
• 27:40
  And I feel like that's very much a musical trope.
• 27:42
  Like in classic, you know, Broadway musicals is to to tone
• 27:47
  match, especially for like musical comedies.
• 27:49
  Like if there's, you know, some sort of again, like a caper or
• 27:52
  something and 1 character is on stage left doing like, and then
• 27:57
  it kind of like, you know, you're shifting focus the other
• 27:59
  side and the music changes to kind of like, you know, embody
• 28:03
  that. I feel like that's a true
• 28:05
  musical trope that I love to watch.
• 28:08
  And then I think like Scott, like I said, like all this tool
• 28:11
  kit that he has of like, you know, again, for doing off book
• 28:14
  or whatever, if, you know, we're doing a scene where Jess is on
• 28:17
  one side and Zach's on the other and then there's there's tone
• 28:21
  shifts. It's like we, he does it.
• 28:24
  It's something that I kind of feel like I, I have like
• 28:27
  instinctually just from like being like a Broadway nerd where
• 28:30
  it's like I just always listen to music like that.
• 28:33
  So then I'm like, but no, it's, it's such a, it's such a fun
• 28:37
  thing that he is able to do. And, and like I said, it just,
• 28:40
  it just like makes the whole thing more authentic and
• 28:43
  everyone, it's just like, again, magic trick.
• 28:45
  It's magic trick situations across the board.
• 28:48
  It's nuts. But yeah, he's got an ear for
• 28:50
  like he hears that stuff in the, in the films in a, in a way
• 28:55
  that's really cool. Like he just picks up on those
• 28:57
  little, those little nuances that you hear.
• 28:59
  But it's funny like like trying to, I'm used to following along
• 29:05
  with him all improvised. So it's kind of ironic cause
• 29:09
  like we've never as a band really rehearsed together
• 29:12
  before. We always we're so you our our
• 29:15
  act really is just like showing up the night of because we're
• 29:19
  we're improvising every song so there's.
• 29:22
  Nothing. You're not allowed to rehearse.
• 29:23
  Yeah, yeah. So it's fun to do like a, a
• 29:27
  slightly more crafted like planned out thing together.
• 29:32
  And then it's fun to see Scott like, 'cause he's like, you
• 29:37
  know, his brain is like firing off like with musicality, but
• 29:41
  like to follow his charts is is a fun challenge, 'cause like
• 29:45
  he's like written all these things in the margins that I can
• 29:47
  tell is like Scott language for himself.
• 29:50
  But I'm like trying to follow along, like, OK, yeah, I think I
• 29:54
  got, I think I know what he's saying here, you know, and then
• 29:58
  incredible. I'm just hoping to.
• 30:01
  Yeah. What you were saying like the
• 30:02
  the big Muppet heads hearing every nuance.
• 30:06
  That's that scares me as someone hasn't seen the movies before.
• 30:10
  So I'm just glad that we've we've fooled you and to think of
• 30:14
  we we're not making any mistakes.
• 30:16
  I. Mean so far.
• 30:18
  We'll see what happens when we. End.
• 30:19
  There's still time. Yeah, Brett, I want to go back
• 30:23
  to some of the the the characters that you guys are
• 30:26
  playing. You have played a couple of
• 30:28
  different characters in these script readings so far.
• 30:30
  Who have you played? In the first one, I was Zoot,
• 30:35
  who is the, he's actually the sax player, right?
• 30:40
  But I was playing guitar. So that's a, that's an
• 30:43
  interesting, I imagine for Matt having to work that out, like to
• 30:47
  map the characters onto what instruments we're actually
• 30:49
  playing and what lines we actually might be taking.
• 30:53
  That's a funny thing too, 'cause I was thinking when he asked us
• 30:56
  to be the band, like just to be the literal band, you know, like
• 31:00
  I'm like, oh great, I'm going to play guitar.
• 31:02
  And then to realize like, Oh no, we're, we are the Muppet band
• 31:06
  there. We like, we are also characters.
• 31:09
  There's lines and stuff. It was, it's like a whole nother
• 31:11
  layer of fun to it. The first one I was Zoot and
• 31:16
  then the second one, I guess it made more sense for me to be
• 31:19
  Floyd Pepper. And that's what I'm going to be
• 31:22
  in the Manhattan one too, right? Yes, yeah, yes, yeah.
• 31:26
  But it's a slight mix of things, you know, we're always, you
• 31:29
  know, we'll we'll see where the lines go and somewhere who's
• 31:35
  playing what on each song. But yeah, I'm Floyd.
• 31:39
  Both of them are great. I love the band members so much.
• 31:41
  They like, from my own growing up in just like bands and, and,
• 31:48
  you know, my dad had a band, like a very dad band, yeah,
• 31:52
  growing up. But I feel like the archetypes
• 31:54
  of those band members really speak to me.
• 31:57
  Those like old hippies basically, who are, you know,
• 32:02
  just like in a fog. Half the time if they're not
• 32:04
  playing music they just crack me up.
• 32:07
  The genius of the Electric Mayhem as characters is that
• 32:11
  like, we will always have like, old burnout musicians because
• 32:15
  they're like, they don't have to be mobbed.
• 32:17
  I love it. Like, we still have them.
• 32:18
  Maybe they aren't the same as they would have been in 1976,
• 32:21
  but like, there's. Yeah.
• 32:23
  There's so I love seeing it. Just the 70s versions of those
• 32:27
  archetypes is so fun. Totally.
• 32:29
  And yeah, some things just never change.
• 32:32
  But like the old sort of jazz, Burnout is a great character
• 32:35
  type. And you guys could sing as these
• 32:37
  characters, right? Like you're you're.
• 32:39
  Actually, a little bit a little. Bit yeah, it feels like we're
• 32:43
  doing it is funny. Like I, I think the last one I
• 32:47
  had like a very conscious thought where it was like it
• 32:50
  felt like like running a marathon.
• 32:52
  Like in the sense of like, OK, so like in the last one there
• 32:55
  was like, oh, madman made me like a big cardboard cut out to
• 33:00
  kind of mimic animal breaking through in like the sort of what
• 33:04
  is it? Like the instead of the lion,
• 33:06
  he's like in the center and breaks through and then starts
• 33:08
  eating the great, the like the title screen.
• 33:12
  So then it was like, OK, I'm holding this cardboard, I'm
• 33:15
  munching it through. I'm chucking the cardboard to
• 33:17
  the side, I'm sitting down, I'm playing the intro song.
• 33:20
  Then maybe there's parts where I'm singing along with playing
• 33:23
  drums. Then I'm also sometimes reading
• 33:26
  lines while still trying to keep like the under score going.
• 33:30
  And then even, you know, there's also just like technically
• 33:34
  speaking, like staging that could happen where I think in
• 33:38
  the first one I made just like a like an artistic choice to like
• 33:42
  leave my kit and run up to the front and be in the front and in
• 33:46
  like, you know, be more, you know, front of the stage to do
• 33:51
  the bit because it felt like it needed a, a visual of me being
• 33:55
  up there. But it's, it's, it's like you're
• 33:58
  sprinting around doing all the things that it just makes it so
• 34:02
  fun. But we are, we are, we are
• 34:03
  wearing many hats, which is great.
• 34:07
  I like that very marathon vibe. I mean, I guess it helps that
• 34:12
  like, I mean, I know the the mayhem, you know, they, they
• 34:14
  take center stage for can you picture that in the Muppet
• 34:16
  Movie? But like, I'm looking at a list
• 34:18
  of all the songs here and at least music wise there wasn't
• 34:23
  like you've got a couple of lines in Happiness Hotel and but
• 34:26
  Doctor Teeth is singing in nightlife or in the next movie
• 34:32
  he's gonna be seeing. Can't take no for an answer.
• 34:34
  So I guess you're not singing that much, but you do have like,
• 34:38
  fun things to do. Like, and you got to be the
• 34:40
  giant animal head at the end of the Muppet Movie as well, right?
• 34:43
  Yes, I think I just stood up and screamed.
• 34:47
  I think most of the time I was in the back just just trying to
• 34:51
  make myself as like loud or big as as possible from the back.
• 34:58
  Yeah, it was. It was pretty.
• 35:00
  It was pretty funny. I always have burned in my mind
• 35:04
  my perspective of because we're all crammed on the stage
• 35:06
  together and I'm about to fall off the front.
• 35:08
  But looking back and seeing you drumming and trying to shoot
• 35:12
  your voice up to a microphone saying.
• 35:15
  Renoir. Yeah, I was just truly screaming
• 35:20
  at the top of my lungs. I think also 'cause like I had
• 35:23
  one overhead mic, but I don't know, you know, like I was just
• 35:26
  screaming, basically screaming as loud as possible, which is
• 35:29
  not really a problem for me, 'cause I'm kind of loud all the
• 35:32
  time. Organa, naturally.
• 35:35
  It's good casting. Yeah, Lucas, you have also
• 35:39
  played a couple of different characters in these things.
• 35:43
  Yes, I was Alf. Yeah, my first.
• 35:46
  One, I had no lines and then I was, and then I was Delta Burke
• 35:52
  in the second one. It's my favorite part.
• 35:54
  I had a whole lot of lines. I had a whole lot of lines, but
• 35:57
  I was at the wrong place. I was performing at a whole
• 35:59
  different. No, the first one I I didn't
• 36:03
  know I was going to get to read at all.
• 36:06
  And I got to read Kermit's Echo whenever he's having a
• 36:09
  conversation with himself. And it was really sweet to do
• 36:15
  that. And it was really nerve wracking
• 36:17
  too, because I was like, I didn't know what kind of voice.
• 36:19
  I wasn't looking to try to do an imitation necessarily.
• 36:22
  But there's there's a wave kind of talking in Kermit's patter
• 36:25
  that sounds like him, even though it's not exactly the
• 36:29
  everybody thinks they can do a Kermit imitation.
• 36:31
  And I wasn't looking to do that. But but then it was kind of wild
• 36:35
  for Mark. Mark to be looking at me and I'm
• 36:39
  reading back and some lady in the audience was like, and you
• 36:43
  can you can hear in the video and it like almost threw me
• 36:46
  because I was like wanting to watch.
• 36:48
  I just want to watch it too. And I was like, oh, I have to
• 36:49
  keep reading. Did you ever consider doing an
• 36:53
  impression of Mark Evan Jackson for that moment of like doing
• 36:57
  his very like Mark Evan Jackson? I can't, I can't do impressions.
• 37:00
  But like, you know, his, his very serious way of speaking.
• 37:03
  He had this way where he was almost.
• 37:06
  Yeah. Well, I mean, you saw it.
• 37:07
  He was like kind of embodying Kermit, even though he wasn't
• 37:09
  doing like, he just has this gentle approach and his, his,
• 37:16
  you know, genuine eyes and and stuff, just the way he's
• 37:19
  looking. And a couple times it sounded
• 37:20
  like he was almost talking like him, even though he wasn't.
• 37:23
  I mean, he knew he wasn't. But it's like, man, that sounded
• 37:25
  just like Kermit. And I tried to not do that.
• 37:29
  And also I thought a lot about how Jim spoke and the pattern
• 37:31
  and how he he talked because that's pretty much him.
• 37:34
  So that was really cool. I got to do it the first one and
• 37:36
  then and then in Muppet Caper, I got a a surprise.
• 37:40
  I got to be the news man whenever everybody's talking
• 37:43
  about Kermit going on a date with Lady Holiday.
• 37:46
  Oh, that was great. That was a fun.
• 37:47
  Surprise. It's fun in these things to see
• 37:52
  all the comedians and actors like a lot of them I've I've
• 37:55
  worked with in the past or work with a lot like like Bobby
• 37:58
  Moynihan. I, I work with all the time in
• 38:01
  podcasting and, and like a lot of them to see how special it
• 38:07
  was for them personally to like, play some, some of these
• 38:10
  Muppets. Like you'd, you realize, like,
• 38:13
  oh, The Muppets like are they're almost the most starstruck about
• 38:17
  the idea of this Muppet. They grew up with like more than
• 38:21
  like human celebrities. You know, they've done it all in
• 38:25
  their careers, but they're like, I've always wanted to play Gonzo
• 38:28
  or. Yeah, David Dasmal Chin was like
• 38:31
  he. Was passionate.
• 38:32
  About it, yeah, it was like I could just tell.
• 38:34
  It was like absolute heart soul role for him, which is like.
• 38:40
  Bobby, Bobby also has like a gonzo, you know, like he he just
• 38:44
  loves gonzo. Yeah.
• 38:46
  Yeah. He's he's kind of a fan.
• 38:48
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 38:49
  You're like just a little bit really extremely well known as a
• 38:51
  huge Muppet. Yeah, I really feel like it's
• 38:54
  like to your point of just like Marked, you know, playing Kermit
• 38:57
  and embodying him. Like, I think that's the other
• 38:59
  thing. The fun thing too is, you know,
• 39:01
  for the first one, we didn't know like, you know, we like
• 39:04
  we've worked with, you know, people that were on stage
• 39:06
  playing, playing the characters. But it was just exciting to see
• 39:09
  like how they were going to do it.
• 39:10
  Because again, it's like, are they going to come in doing like
• 39:13
  a one to one, just like 100% impression, or are they going to
• 39:17
  just kind of like do their version of it, which is just
• 39:21
  really fun. And I think that I think that
• 39:23
  everyone's version, whether it was like spot on, like sounding
• 39:27
  exactly like, you know, whoever they were playing or doing like
• 39:31
  just just embodying the soul of, of the Muppet that they were
• 39:34
  playing. It's just like it, it's just
• 39:36
  very genuine and exciting to see it.
• 39:38
  I'm, I'm so excited about Muppets take Manhattan to just
• 39:41
  like, again, how is everyone going to come on stage and like,
• 39:44
  what are they going to do with it?
• 39:45
  And that's just like, that's just so exciting to see.
• 39:48
  Like we're all equally as excited even just on stage
• 39:51
  watching it just as much as the audience is gonna be as they're
• 39:54
  as they're watching it too. So that's exciting, yeah.
• 39:58
  Lucas, are you? Are you gonna be playing a role
• 39:59
  in the Bubba Sig Manhattan? It's repeating.
• 40:02
  That is up to Matt and I guess here live on the show, I'm gonna
• 40:07
  find out if I'm playing Alf or Delta Birkin.
• 40:10
  This one. They're both options.
• 40:12
  They're both on the table. It's actually gonna be Chuck
• 40:15
  Woolery this time around. Wow.
• 40:18
  Thank you. Wasn't that kind of turfy?
• 40:22
  I don't know if we should be doing that.
• 40:24
  Like he was a little. He's got a history, yeah.
• 40:28
  Yeah. Oh no.
• 40:30
  Am I going to get cancelled? Yeah, yeah.
• 40:34
  That's. Yeah, actually, no.
• 40:36
  It'll be David Ruprec from Supermarket Sweep instead.
• 40:39
  Oh, that's better. There you go.
• 40:40
  OK, Yeah, OK. Say.
• 40:43
  I can't. I can't believe you knew the
• 40:45
  name of the guy who hosted supermarkets.
• 40:46
  I. Love supermarkets?
• 40:47
  I mean, I do too, I just. Started on another podcast.
• 40:50
  I will go for an hour on supermarkets.
• 40:52
  I'm not kidding. I'll just look for openings in
• 40:55
  the script and shout random stuff.
• 40:58
  Yeah, I think that will like I'm.
• 40:59
  Going to be doing that from the audience.
• 41:02
  I I think people are going to love it.
• 41:05
  Are you coming? Are you going to be there, Joe?
• 41:07
  That's the plan, yeah. I'm going to be there.
• 41:09
  I'm. Going to have to try.
• 41:11
  We're going to do it in in Manhattan.
• 41:13
  We're going to do it there when? You're not.
• 41:15
  You're doing it in Brooklyn. Brooklyn, it's close.
• 41:17
  Don't say. Don't say that.
• 41:19
  We're actually doing it in New York, NY, in Vegas.
• 41:22
  I don't know if you heard it's a little easier.
• 41:26
  Yeah, everyone's on it. I'm, I'm from Oklahoma, so it's
• 41:30
  all just the same thing. It's.
• 41:32
  Just all city slickers to you, yeah.
• 41:34
  Yeah, we're doing it on the casino.
• 41:36
  Floor Oklahoma City, New York It's pretty much the exact same.
• 41:40
  Yeah, whenever I think of New York, I think of Oklahoma City.
• 41:44
  Thank you. Thank.
• 41:45
  You the Broadway of the Mid Midwest.
• 41:50
  It's just mid. No, it's just mid.
• 41:52
  A mid. A Broadway of the Mid.
• 41:55
  So. So not that you've already got
• 41:58
  these two movies under your belts.
• 42:01
  I'm curious from the Muppet movie in the great Muppet Caper,
• 42:03
  if there were any songs from those movies that you were got
• 42:07
  to learn for for these script readings that like really stood
• 42:10
  out to you as like either it was so much fun to get to play
• 42:13
  specifically that song or or to to.
• 42:16
  I guess I'm thinking like like fun or meaningful to you to get
• 42:22
  to play these songs. I think I think for the first
• 42:29
  one, Electric Mayhem, anything, I'm like very pumped on.
• 42:36
  I mean that's like just the like funk rock kind of just grooving
• 42:42
  with everybody. All those songs were so so fun
• 42:46
  and just. Like, I don't know, Yeah.
• 42:47
  So can you picture that from the Muppet Movie was probably like.
• 42:49
  A good goddess. I love you for sure.
• 42:52
  Yes. Yeah, any of those, when they go
• 42:55
  into just, you know, rock'n'roll jam or whatever, and I get to
• 42:59
  like, solo, that's always fun for me.
• 43:03
  You can just like let loose for a bit.
• 43:05
  I like that your answer is. I like any song where I get to
• 43:07
  have the spotlight. It's.
• 43:10
  More like where I I, I know what I'm about to play.
• 43:17
  I'm in my wheelhouse. No, but I I really enjoyed doing
• 43:20
  Moving Right along. Like I've always just loved that
• 43:23
  song and the rhythm of it and like the it's so fun to just get
• 43:28
  locked in on that song and I found the parts just really fun
• 43:32
  to play. Did you play bass on that one
• 43:34
  'cause I think that song has such a fun bass line.
• 43:37
  I think I switched off in but but I I definitely ended up on
• 43:41
  guitar there. Cool.
• 43:43
  Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I kind of like, I think I
• 43:45
  arranged sort of my own guitar part for it that may or may not
• 43:49
  be there and the original one that just kind of added to the
• 43:52
  feel. You're not allowed to improve on
• 43:54
  the original. That's really important to me.
• 43:56
  No, I think it needed a couple things.
• 43:57
  I gave some. I said no, no I don't.
• 43:59
  Like this? I don't like this at all, no.
• 44:03
  I do think it's very organic or or special to be able to
• 44:06
  Speaking of soloing, to be able to solo and scream at the same.
• 44:12
  Time. Oh my God, yeah, just.
• 44:13
  Screaming as just being like and then and then soloing is.
• 44:18
  What's the one? What's the I?
• 44:19
  I'm bad at remembering the titles of the songs.
• 44:21
  The, the love, the love song in the first one.
• 44:26
  Never before, never before. That's such a beautiful song
• 44:28
  that I, I really enjoyed. I felt like we we got an
• 44:32
  arrangement together that just felt like really nice.
• 44:36
  Some of those piggy songs, so hard to get right, like I've
• 44:40
  heard people cover them, you know, Never Before, Never Again.
• 44:43
  And then Muppet Keeper, you know, the first time it happens.
• 44:49
  And Miss Piggy's Fantasy, like these songs that are like these
• 44:51
  big ballads, but they're supposed to be so over the top.
• 44:55
  And like Frank Oz found a way to balance it really well.
• 45:00
  And I've heard people try to do it sincerely.
• 45:01
  I've heard people try to do it like in a funny way.
• 45:04
  And it's like you got to, you got to walk that line and like,
• 45:06
  it's so hard. And just doing Rainbow
• 45:09
  Connection, of course, just like with Lucas on banjo and just
• 45:14
  like it's so iconic that like feeling that song come out of
• 45:20
  yourselves like as a band is really cool feeling.
• 45:23
  Rainbow Connection is like, so like a core memory for me cuz
• 45:27
  when I was at camp, but as like a little little kid, like maybe
• 45:31
  like, I don't know, like four or five or something.
• 45:34
  We did do Rainbow connection for some sort of, you know, camp, a
• 45:38
  talent show, whatever. But I remember making band, I
• 45:42
  remember making banjos out of paper plates and then there was
• 45:46
  like rubber bands on it and then like a cardboard, you know, and,
• 45:51
  and we, it was a there he goes. He's he's got.
• 45:55
  Lucas has just. Jumped out of the scene.
• 45:57
  To get something. Oh my God, we we did it all on a
• 46:01
  rock. Yeah, look at that.
• 46:02
  He's we made because he's holding up a paper plate banjo.
• 46:05
  That's so funny that you say that because I don't want to
• 46:08
  interrupt your story. No, that's the story.
• 46:11
  It's just like a row of kids singing Rainbow Connection with
• 46:14
  our with our our paper plate banjos.
• 46:18
  So for years I've done, I do a kids show that travels around
• 46:22
  called Banjo Farm where I, I go out to like libraries and inner
• 46:26
  City Schools and stuff and do like a little 45 minute show
• 46:32
  with my own little puppets and I do songs and I played the banjo.
• 46:36
  And the whole idea is like trying to, we're going to the
• 46:39
  banjo farm. It's the magical land where all
• 46:42
  the banjos grow out of the ground and triangles grow on
• 46:45
  trees. It's a silly thing.
• 46:46
  It's kind of like Pee Wee's Playhouse and Mr. Rogers and
• 46:49
  some weird like Steve Martin 70s stand up routine, but for kids
• 46:55
  more the jokes are for the adults.
• 46:56
  But and then there's this I'm getting, I'm finding pieces of
• 46:59
  junk from this puppet keeps giving me like a paper plate and
• 47:02
  rubber bands and a stick. And at the end of it, we make a
• 47:05
  paper banjo and then all the kids get to build a banjo.
• 47:07
  And so we do that same thing. And so I've done that for years
• 47:11
  now and a few years back. And this is really weird and
• 47:14
  kind of a full circle thing for me of like, and I guess I can
• 47:16
  talk about some of it because Matt Vogel has talked about it
• 47:19
  on on podcast before. But I got to play Rainbow
• 47:22
  connection with an orchestra with the Oklahoma Philharmonic.
• 47:26
  And but before the before my show with them, we had a craft
• 47:32
  table for like 400 to 1000 kids could come and they could all
• 47:35
  make paper banjos with the rubber bands on them.
• 47:39
  And so at the end of the concert of me trying to like join the
• 47:43
  band and we do dueling banjos, me versus the orchestra and all
• 47:47
  this silly stuff, we do one more song.
• 47:49
  And then I was like, I'd like to play the first song I ever heard
• 47:52
  on the banjo. It's by my favorite banjo
• 47:53
  player. And he's it's a little bit maybe
• 47:57
  politically incorrect, but he's very short and he's naked and
• 48:00
  green. He's.
• 48:01
  The Frog. Willie Nelson.
• 48:03
  Handheld amphibian and so but I was like, if you have a banjo,
• 48:08
  get it out and like hundreds of these kids are all like playing
• 48:12
  banjos at the Oklahoma Civic Center and the rubber bands are
• 48:15
  just boom boom shooting all over the.
• 48:17
  Room. And it was so moving and I was
• 48:21
  like trying to hold deal that my mom was there and she's just
• 48:23
  crying. And I was like, I got to like
• 48:24
  try to sing. That recording of that is what
• 48:27
  Matt Vogel heard and led me to, to get a few to get to do some
• 48:30
  projects and stuff. So it's one of those weird cool
• 48:33
  circle things. I digress.
• 48:34
  I'm sorry, but, but I called Heather Henson, Jim's youngest
• 48:40
  child who's a friend, after that concert.
• 48:42
  And I said, hey, I just want to let you know, I text her.
• 48:44
  I said, I want to let you know your your dad's legacy is alive
• 48:49
  and well. I got to watch a huge auditorium
• 48:53
  full of kids and parents singing Rainbow Connection and playing
• 48:56
  paper banjos. And the rubber bands were flying
• 48:58
  all over. And Heather said, that's great.
• 49:00
  Are the paper plates biodegradable?
• 49:04
  And I said, yes, they are. She goes.
• 49:06
  Good. Great, she thought.
• 49:08
  It was, she thought it was great too, but she was concerned and
• 49:10
  that's important. And so they are.
• 49:12
  We know what you play with this. I get it.
• 49:14
  Yep, sorry, this is very important.
• 49:17
  Sorry. So Lucas need to go up on that.
• 49:19
  But Lucas connects a little bit of a little bit of rainbow
• 49:21
  connection on that paper banjo for us, yeah.
• 49:23
  Let's go. I don't.
• 49:24
  Know it's gonna say Lucas now only plays banjos made of
• 49:28
  compost. Yeah, right.
• 49:30
  Due to Heather, I didn't know if you guys even had time for a
• 49:34
  little banjo, but if you got time for a little banjo, I got
• 49:36
  1. I'm not going to see a little
• 49:37
  banjo. Oh God.
• 49:39
  This doesn't work on sitting at class.
• 49:41
  Lucas Lucas is not a. Small.
• 49:43
  For the viewers, for the viewers listening at home, I just, I
• 49:48
  just fabricated the world's tiniest banjo.
• 49:52
  It is a tiny banjo. It's how was it like 2 inches?
• 49:55
  The tiny banjo I. Don't know.
• 49:56
  I was going to say our our Muppet that is not exactly a
• 50:02
  Muppet, but basically like an animatronic is actively trying
• 50:06
  to come on the show as we speak right now.
• 50:07
  It's a very visual show. If Brett, if Brett.
• 50:10
  So for the listeners at up for the listeners at home, where is
• 50:13
  she? Hold on, for the listeners at
• 50:15
  home are Tortoise Pauline who is 90 lbs.
• 50:19
  Tortoise on the deck. Oh, I see her.
• 50:22
  Oh my goodness, you have a. Tortoise.
• 50:24
  Yes, actually, she's going to come into the house, Brett,
• 50:26
  because the screen's open. Wait, watch me struggle to lift
• 50:30
  her. Yeah, you can really get a good
• 50:32
  visual of this. Keep it all in.
• 50:34
  People listening to this aren't going to believe us.
• 50:37
  Like we're like, what's that behind you, A dinosaur?
• 50:39
  OK, so she's coming in. She has made her way in your.
• 50:43
  She's coming into the house. House.
• 50:45
  Wait. Hold on.
• 50:46
  Hold on. She has made her way into about
• 50:49
  every podcast I do Do you? See her right now?
• 50:52
  There she is. Is she actually your pet like?
• 50:54
  Yes, yours. Yes.
• 50:56
  She wandered into a neighbor's yard when Brett was on tour with
• 51:03
  Comedy Bang Bang. I was here and the neighbor was
• 51:08
  like, hey, did anybody there? She is.
• 51:10
  Did anybody lose their tortoise? And we were like we don't think
• 51:14
  we know anybody with a tortoise blah blah blah and we kept her
• 51:20
  and try to find her true owners and no one claimed her.
• 51:23
  So she truly is part of the family now.
• 51:26
  So anyway I. Mean.
• 51:29
  OK, this is very muppety. There is an animal in your home
• 51:33
  that that you have adopted into your found family.
• 51:37
  Yes. And you make art together.
• 51:40
  I don't know. She's been on a bunch of
• 51:42
  podcasts. Like she's got a big personality
• 51:44
  for sure. I'm just.
• 51:44
  Trying to wrap my head around the fact that somebody's like,
• 51:46
  hey, there's a turtle in my backyard.
• 51:49
  Is it somebody's pet? And the assumption is to hold on
• 51:52
  to it because. So I mean, I, I respect that and
• 51:57
  I think it's great. But like, my parents are
• 51:59
  beekeepers and we would grow up in a farm town.
• 52:02
  And if a cow gets out, you know, other people would call up and
• 52:05
  say, Hey, Carl, your cows out, which sounds like a weird
• 52:09
  euphemism for something else. And my but we we get calls from
• 52:13
  people being like, hey, I was out in the flower bed and I saw
• 52:15
  some bees on some flowers. Are you guys missing any bees?
• 52:18
  Like we just assume assuming it, but we were keepers.
• 52:23
  We had them on small leashes. So it wasn't I think that's
• 52:26
  great. I love the turtle.
• 52:27
  What's the What's the turtle's name?
• 52:28
  Oh yeah, her name is Pauline, and her godfather is Paul of
• 52:34
  Tompkins. So she's named Paul helped name
• 52:37
  her. He helped.
• 52:38
  Love it. Yeah, she's a big turtle and
• 52:41
  tortoise fan. I wish we knew that when we
• 52:45
  interviewed him on this podcast. I could have had all all my
• 52:47
  tortoise questions. Call him back.
• 52:50
  Got to. Call him right now.
• 52:51
  Yeah, yeah, she's she's great. We're we're lucky to have her.
• 52:55
  You're gonna bring and you're gonna bring her to the show.
• 52:58
  She is coming, Yeah. She.
• 53:00
  Is her own. That's their carry on.
• 53:01
  They just pop up in the shell, right?
• 53:03
  All the current Yeah, exactly. You need her.
• 53:05
  When you're playing the drums and you do a little something on
• 53:07
  the shell, right? Yeah, I think like truly it's it
• 53:10
  sounds like bongos when I play in true.
• 53:14
  Like that's that's how it would be if it was like in a if she
• 53:16
  was in a movie, I would that animal would play on her shell
• 53:19
  and it would sound more. Bongos.
• 53:21
  Maybe, maybe we should do the The Flintstones as a script to
• 53:24
  read and then we can do that. It's true.
• 53:28
  We'd have to do in our. The movie The or you just want
• 53:30
  to do episodes of the TV show. The movie John Goodman.
• 53:34
  John Goodman movie, right? Yeah.
• 53:35
  No. No, that was an original thing.
• 53:37
  Prequel. The prequel.
• 53:39
  Rock better the. Prequel we gotta do because.
• 53:42
  I think the Great Kazoo is in the prequel.
• 53:44
  So, you know, that's, I feel like that's important to the
• 53:45
  Canon, right? I don't we talking about.
• 53:49
  So before we go everyone, I, I just, I want to tease them up
• 53:54
  and take Scriptpad one more time.
• 53:56
  What songs are each of you so very, very excited to to get to
• 54:01
  play in this one? This is, I mean, there's so many
• 54:07
  that like, I'm just like, especially when you just
• 54:09
  rewatch. I was like, Oh my God, that one.
• 54:11
  Oh my God, that one. Trying to think we like, took
• 54:15
  some notes. What's the?
• 54:17
  I mean the the opening is just very lovely.
• 54:20
  Yeah, together again. Together again.
• 54:22
  Is like such a classic. What's the there's a there's a
• 54:25
  real sort of barn burner again. Like I think that Floyd might be
• 54:30
  singing or that Doctor Teeth might be singing.
• 54:32
  So he sings. Doctor Teeth sings.
• 54:34
  Can't take no for an answer. Can't take no for an answer.
• 54:36
  I think that be that's. Going to be.
• 54:38
  A pop man. I'm wrapping my head around some
• 54:39
  of the music still, but I'm really excited for this one.
• 54:42
  The music reminds me more of the first film.
• 54:46
  Like I felt like Caper was. The music's just been so good
• 54:50
  throughout the whole thing, but I felt like Caper was very felt
• 54:54
  almost more like show tunes Y to me.
• 54:57
  Like there's a lot of, and it's very complicated in that way.
• 55:00
  Yeah, Keeper is a throwback to like old.
• 55:03
  Hollywood. Like there's a yeah, it's like a
• 55:04
  lot of old Hollywood. Sounds, there's big lush
• 55:10
  arrangements and huge modulations everywhere And, and
• 55:14
  like it, it was very sophisticated music, but it all
• 55:18
  felt kind of like that genre. And this feels a little like the
• 55:22
  first one where it feels like a really fun mix of of genres and
• 55:27
  arrangements and like really strong memorable songs that that
• 55:32
  feel like I can sink my teeth into it.
• 55:34
  Yeah. As a player, I'm like just self.
• 55:38
  This is just. The whole score in general,
• 55:40
  because I'm such a Broadway nerd and fan.
• 55:45
  I'm it's it's like, again, like splitting the difference of so
• 55:51
  many just like true like Broadway classic Y kind of songs
• 55:56
  that just like feel like I'm like, oh, I just like, can't
• 55:58
  wait to play it. And then also some rock and
• 56:00
  other things. Anything that I can kind of like
• 56:02
  really jam out on, I'm going to be so excited about.
• 56:05
  And yeah, like the great Muppet caper.
• 56:08
  Yeah, it's very much old Hollywood, which is like very
• 56:10
  glamorous and a lot of like splashy, you know, sort of like
• 56:15
  at least for the drums, you know, like symbols and kind of
• 56:19
  moving the rhythm forward. You know, ballroom kind of
• 56:23
  again, And I'm just like picturing put a lot of
• 56:25
  descriptors in there and this for Muppets Take Manhattan.
• 56:31
  There's so many. I feel like the the songs, like
• 56:36
  the genre changes per scene, you know, based on the emotion,
• 56:41
  which of course is like, I mean, that's stating the obvious, but
• 56:45
  but it's like, I don't know, I feel like there's a lot of fun
• 56:47
  shifts in it. There was one one song we I was
• 56:50
  commenting. On and I was like, oh, that's
• 56:51
  gonna be that's gonna be interesting to tackle was I
• 56:55
  think it was where piggies on the on the roller skates.
• 56:59
  Oh yeah, you're chasing the thief.
• 57:01
  Like, oh, just like. Like if you really listen to the
• 57:04
  music behind there. It's wild.
• 57:06
  There's some, yeah, crazy shifts, fold meter changes.
• 57:11
  It's like, it's like up there. Yeah, yeah.
• 57:14
  Pretty sure it kind of rocks out.
• 57:15
  Like tune, tune, tune, tune, tune.
• 57:17
  Tune we've been recording this. Should we just release?
• 57:20
  This quick. Quick, use it.
• 57:22
  We're doing. All beatbox versions of.
• 57:24
  It we are going to do beatbox. We've been like, yeah.
• 57:27
  Stretching, stretching my cheeks.
• 57:29
  We are all now in the Polyphonic Spree and.
• 57:32
  We yeah, yeah, we're getting matching.
• 57:35
  Robes. I love it.
• 57:37
  Yeah, I'm. Excited for the for the the
• 57:40
  flashback. To I'm always going to love you
• 57:42
  when they're babies. That's a great song.
• 57:44
  Good like. It's a really good song.
• 57:47
  Sort of. Duopy.
• 57:49
  Or whatever, Yeah. I like screamed that that.
• 57:52
  Like that unlocked like the most like core memories for me.
• 57:57
  But actually I have a question for you guys as like true Muppet
• 58:01
  aficionados like knowing all the things, is this the first time
• 58:06
  we see Muppet Babies? Did this come OK, so this show,
• 58:10
  this is the introduction of the Muppet Babies.
• 58:12
  That's. I believe it was while while
• 58:14
  they were developing like the this segment and these puppets
• 58:18
  and they were like, this could be actually really marketable.
• 58:22
  Maybe we should make a little another little TV show about
• 58:24
  this, Which is also why, like when you watch it in the movie,
• 58:27
  there's no baby animal, there's no Skeeter, there's, you know,
• 58:30
  no nanny or whatever. So like, like they obviously had
• 58:32
  to expand it for the TV show, but this is this is the birth of
• 58:35
  the babies. OK, That's what I had a feeling
• 58:38
  just seeing. The the like you know the fade
• 58:41
  out and then the fade in to to piggies like eyes, her eyeballs
• 58:46
  in it like her like like truly muppet baby piggy eyeballs is
• 58:52
  like that's my that is what I like to see.
• 58:56
  I need to see a weird a giant eyeball.
• 59:00
  Now here's here's a question for you to think about while you're.
• 59:02
  Playing this song OK Does the entirety of the series Muppet
• 59:07
  Babies take place while Miss Piggy is asleep in the Handsome?
• 59:12
  Think about that. Like.
• 59:14
  Yes, I also was. I was curious.
• 59:18
  About like, does the does the origin story just change with
• 59:23
  every new Muppet thing 'cause like in the first movie you see
• 59:27
  Kermit and Piggy like see each other for the first time.
• 59:31
  They're not babies. Don't forget, don't forget.
• 59:34
  In the Muppet Movie, when they're they're getting together
• 59:36
  in the movie theater to watch the Muppet Movie and it says,
• 59:41
  well, it's approximately. How it happened?
• 59:44
  You know, so that's not that's not a documentary that they're
• 59:47
  telling the story here. OK, now that I would like to
• 59:50
  take this to. Another.
• 59:51
  Level too. Going back to the dream sequence
• 59:54
  meaning Muppet Babies, the series was all just a dream much
• 59:58
  like another show Newhart, yes Now if you look at Newhart in
• 1:00:04
  1986 an episode of Newhart aired which Newhart's closure in the
• 1:00:09
  early 90s famously ended with him waking up from his other
• 1:00:13
  show so Newhart was all a show within a show right wakes up in
• 1:00:17
  bed next to Suzanne pichette and.
• 1:00:19
  Says Oh yeah, I just had a crazy.
• 1:00:21
  Dream And then that was the way they ended it on.
• 1:00:24
  In season 5, episode 3, there's an episode of Newhart where
• 1:00:30
  Dick, played by Bob Newhart, decides to go off and be a
• 1:00:35
  cowboy. He kind of has a midlife crisis
• 1:00:37
  and it's called Dick the Kid and he's depressed because he gets
• 1:00:41
  there and finds out nobody's roughing it.
• 1:00:42
  They're like driving around in trucks.
• 1:00:45
  There's no cow or cows. There's no there's no horses.
• 1:00:48
  And they're talking about movie night.
• 1:00:50
  They're all going and they're fighting over what movie to
• 1:00:52
  watch. The movie that the the tough guy
• 1:00:56
  wants to watch is Muppets Take Manhattan on and there's a great
• 1:01:02
  scene. Where he says.
• 1:01:05
  We're watching Muppets Take Manhattan again, and Dick stands
• 1:01:08
  up to him. He's like, no, the guys are
• 1:01:10
  tired of watching Muppets take Manhattan.
• 1:01:13
  And he's like, you got a problem with Muppets Take Manhattan?
• 1:01:16
  And he says, no, not as a film, it's a cinematic masterpiece,
• 1:01:21
  but these guys would like to watch something different.
• 1:01:23
  So anyway, that was also in a dream.
• 1:01:28
  Wow. And they stole the idea for the.
• 1:01:30
  Season series finale of new artists.
• 1:01:32
  So what's real guys? I need like a.
• 1:01:35
  True inception. Yep, like just through line to
• 1:01:39
  figure out like where we get Oh my God, that's intense.
• 1:01:43
  We could do a whole podcast about Muppet.
• 1:01:46
  Continuity. What takes place where, what's
• 1:01:49
  real. You're already inviting me on
• 1:01:50
  this podcast, Joe. Yes.
• 1:01:52
  Yes, but for totally different reasons.
• 1:01:55
  And now this podcast is about new heart.
• 1:01:57
  And then we just that this is actually just all our dream.
• 1:02:02
  Oh, my God, You are being in someone else's dream right now.
• 1:02:06
  Yeah. Oh my God, my mind is blown.
• 1:02:09
  Are we real? Am I real?
• 1:02:12
  I don't feel so good, you guys. OK, let's get off this.
• 1:02:16
  Topic and get. To Matt, can you please tell us
• 1:02:21
  how people can TuneIn to the live stream of the Muppet Stick
• 1:02:25
  script Hatton Absolutely. So our show is happening on
• 1:02:28
  Friday. October 24th live at the bell
• 1:02:31
  House in Brooklyn, NY city in person.
• 1:02:34
  Tickets are sold out, but we do still have our live stream and I
• 1:02:37
  just want to give a special shout out to live stream viewers
• 1:02:40
  because they're they're the heart and blood.
• 1:02:42
  They're the people that are watching from all over the
• 1:02:44
  world, chatting it up in the in the chat when the shows are
• 1:02:49
  happening, having a great time. So the live stream you can find
• 1:02:53
  at veeps.com VEEPS. You can just search for Muppets
• 1:02:58
  takes for patent. Honestly, if you search the word
• 1:03:00
  Muppets and think well, come up. So if you check it out there, we
• 1:03:06
  will also have you can cut this out because the end of that
• 1:03:11
  sentence didn't make sense, right?
• 1:03:13
  Keep it in leaving it. In and and there the proceeds to
• 1:03:20
  these these readings yes tell us where the where the money's
• 1:03:23
  going yes so for this every show we.
• 1:03:27
  Do we donate to charity? Because I think it's really
• 1:03:29
  important to take it back, and it's a great way to do it while
• 1:03:32
  also having fun. So proceeds from this show will
• 1:03:35
  be going to Broadway Cares, Slash Equity, Fights, AIDS.
• 1:03:40
  Yeah, we have. We have a lot of fans in the
• 1:03:41
  cast. It's a great, great
• 1:03:44
  organization. They've been super great to work
• 1:03:46
  with as well, letting us know about all the ways that our show
• 1:03:50
  is going to help so many people. It's really, really great,
• 1:03:54
  wonderful, important work you're doing here.
• 1:03:57
  So Brett and Dana, can you both please tell us if there's
• 1:04:01
  anything you're working on or any social media you'd like
• 1:04:04
  people to follow you at, anything you want to promote?
• 1:04:07
  You go, Brett, you go. Sure, you can find me on.
• 1:04:12
  Instagram. At Brett Morris Internet and I,
• 1:04:16
  I work on tons of podcasts so you can find me on CBB World.
• 1:04:22
  I do The Who me with the Batman with Bobby Moynihan on there.
• 1:04:28
  I do Hey Randy, I do the neighborhood listen with Paula
• 1:04:31
  Tompkins and Nicole Parker and produce a whole, you know, slew
• 1:04:37
  of shows on that network. Also do who charted with Howard
• 1:04:41
  Kramer, improper humans with Matt Besser, lots of podcasts
• 1:04:46
  and you can check out destroy all neighbors.
• 1:04:50
  I composed the score to that or you know, Co wrote it, which is
• 1:04:54
  a fun movie. It was a shutter original.
• 1:04:57
  It's like a splatter comedy. They call it tons of gory,
• 1:05:01
  practical effects, lots of puppet.
• 1:05:04
  There's puppet. Yeah, there's.
• 1:05:06
  Yeah. It's like different.
• 1:05:07
  Nature. Than Muppets, but it is funny.
• 1:05:10
  And it, you know, it's all campy kind of.
• 1:05:12
  That's good. I didn't know.
• 1:05:13
  I got to check that now that we're back in.
• 1:05:15
  October, my wife and I do a something horror related every
• 1:05:18
  night. Oh, yeah, Yeah, that's a fun
• 1:05:21
  one. Yeah.
• 1:05:22
  Alice Winter is in it. Jonah Ray.
• 1:05:24
  And it's a wild soundtrack too. It's all like prog rock based,
• 1:05:28
  so it's crazy. Get to stretch out on that one
• 1:05:32
  and you can check out my album with Man Man too.
• 1:05:35
  Man Man. Yeah, Former band.
• 1:05:36
  Yeah, great. Yes, yeah, let's.
• 1:05:39
  See, you can find me at Dana Wickens on Instagram or TikTok,
• 1:05:46
  wherever you're hanging digitally.
• 1:05:50
  Yeah. I mean, there's still, you know,
• 1:05:53
  performing with with off book when we have fun live shows.
• 1:05:56
  We just had or we did a live show in San Diego during Comic
• 1:06:00
  Con, a weekend that's now out on, you know, Apple Podcasts or
• 1:06:05
  wherever you find your podcasts. And yeah, do some fun shows with
• 1:06:11
  Every Place I Cry, which is an improvised emo band.
• 1:06:16
  Brett is also involved in that. That's a lot of fun.
• 1:06:19
  So much fun. And yeah, that's basically like
• 1:06:22
  the the place you can find me. Great.
• 1:06:25
  Yeah, those are those are some fun things.
• 1:06:27
  Y'all are so busy. Yeah, a lot of stuff.
• 1:06:31
  Lucas, how about you? Where can people find you on the
• 1:06:34
  Internet? Or is there anything that you
• 1:06:35
  want to put my house? You guys just come over, bring a
• 1:06:37
  deck of. Cards.
• 1:06:39
  Yeah, I'm coming. I'm coming over.
• 1:06:42
  Lucas Ross. On Instagram and all the other
• 1:06:47
  things. I think that's it.
• 1:06:49
  And I work with the American banjo museum.
• 1:06:52
  That's where I'm I'm I'm live from right here.
• 1:06:55
  And it's kind of cool because we, since our, since our last
• 1:06:59
  script reading, have a new exhibit here called pop goes the
• 1:07:02
  banjo. It's all about pop culture and
• 1:07:05
  how the banjos like connected with television and film and of
• 1:07:08
  course music and and Kermit is the center attraction.
• 1:07:11
  When we have a Kermit on display holding a banjo that he used in
• 1:07:16
  promotion of the very first Muppet movie, it's been very
• 1:07:19
  cool. Disney archives was very kind to
• 1:07:23
  help us out with that and you know, drove Kermit out here in a
• 1:07:26
  limo first class and so we have that on display.
• 1:07:29
  So it's kind of cool. And I got to say, Matt, it's
• 1:07:31
  been cool because since the first script reading, I've had
• 1:07:36
  people travel quite a distance, some from, I don't know, all the
• 1:07:40
  way down to Texas to, to, to come to our museum because they
• 1:07:44
  heard about it through your script reading.
• 1:07:48
  You were so kind. So I love that, that I've been
• 1:07:51
  able to bring the museum out. And that's why I do with the
• 1:07:54
  museum when I'm not doing other performance stuff is I'm a
• 1:07:57
  outreach and promotion coordinator.
• 1:08:00
  And so it's a pretty cool thing to get to go and represent an
• 1:08:04
  instrument with. I'm one of the most beloved
• 1:08:07
  banjo players in the world, but for such good important causes.
• 1:08:10
  And so thanks for putting us on the map a little bit.
• 1:08:12
  We've had multiple people come in that either watch the live
• 1:08:15
  stream or heard about us because of because of your your events.
• 1:08:21
  So thanks for that. So that's where I'm at.
• 1:08:23
  I'm in Oklahoma City. If you want to take the chance
• 1:08:25
  and come hang out when I'm here, just come out and see me.
• 1:08:29
  I can't wait to get out for the banjo.
• 1:08:31
  Yeah, you better come. I don't want to.
• 1:08:33
  That's family trip. Family trip are.
• 1:08:36
  We all doing it. Are we doing it?
• 1:08:38
  We all gonna meet up in Oklahoma.
• 1:08:39
  City, we should get in a van and do it so.
• 1:08:42
  Like for anybody that comes in. Town when they do like Galaxy
• 1:08:45
  cons or the, you know the traveling conventions.
• 1:08:48
  Thomas Linden was in town a couple of months back and walked
• 1:08:52
  in the other day and it was right after one of the script
• 1:08:54
  readings because he was like, hey, you did the script and like
• 1:08:57
  he knew about the script reading.
• 1:09:00
  And so just a little, you know, might want to put a bug in his
• 1:09:03
  ear if you need him for for something.
• 1:09:05
  But he plays the banjo he plays a 10 or 4 string banjo on Rio
• 1:09:09
  911 and other things he does sometimes.
• 1:09:11
  And so he was so blown away with the museum he sent us his banjo.
• 1:09:15
  So we have a display here. This is kind of exclusive.
• 1:09:17
  We haven't promoted, but we've got a we've got his banjo
• 1:09:21
  mounted on a mannequin wearing a Lieutenant Dangle uniform,
• 1:09:26
  official mustache and glasses. From him that he sent from his
• 1:09:28
  own. Collection.
• 1:09:29
  So it's not your typical museum that's all this.
• 1:09:32
  And by the way, Tom Lennon, he's in Destroy All.
• 1:09:35
  Neighbors. Oh yeah, my goodness.
• 1:09:38
  Amazing, right? I.
• 1:09:38
  Was just realizing how much. Stuff.
• 1:09:40
  I listened to of yours. I didn't even.
• 1:09:42
  I thought I knew, but I didn't even know what I Oh yeah, you
• 1:09:45
  know, that's me. Very nice.
• 1:09:48
  Lots of different hats he. Has so many.
• 1:09:50
  Hats. Yo, everyone's wearing so many.
• 1:09:53
  Hats, everyone's so busy. Everyone's playing banjos.
• 1:09:57
  I can't keep up with all you, you people, but I'm so excited
• 1:10:00
  to see you in the Muppet Stick script hat and coming up soon.
• 1:10:04
  I hope everyone else who's listening to this is also
• 1:10:06
  excited to see you and to hear all the lovely music that you're
• 1:10:09
  going to be playing for us. So thanks for taking part and
• 1:10:12
  thanks for being here for the podcast, and we'll see you all
• 1:10:15
  on the live stream real soon. Yay.
• 1:10:18
  Thanks everyone. Yeah, man.