Latest / Jersey Arts Podcast / 'Christmas Carolmania' Ends Their World Premiere Tour at the Count Basie Center this Christmas

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'Christmas Carolmania' Ends Their World Premiere Tour at the Count Basie Center this Christmas · Jersey Arts Podcast

• 0:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This is Gina Marie Rodriguez, and you're listening to the Jersey Arts podcast.
• 0:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Today, we're talking about a new musical concert experience.
• 0:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Celebrating the holiday spirit like never before.
• 0:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This holiday season, Koolist Entertainment is proud to launch a world premiere tour from the creators of Koolulam, the mass global singing sensation that swept the hearts of millions to sing together worldwide.
• 0:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Producers Kathi and Alan Glist of Clist Entertainment are on the podcast today to explain what makes this show so unique and moving.
• 0:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Married for 53 years, this duo makes ideal partners both in entertainment and in life.
• 0:39
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: They are truthfully what I aspire to be one day.
• 0:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: They began their theatrical producing career with Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, The King and I, and The Rothschild.
• 0:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Following that, with their off-Broadway sensation, I Love You, You're Perfect, No Change.
• 0:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The multiple Tony Award winners are also responsible for having discovered the off-Broadway sensation Menopause the Musical, which has since run over 19 years in Las Vegas and is now the longest-running musical in Vegas history.
• 1:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Their company, Gliss Entertainment, has donated over $1 million to women's charities and most recently has raised and donated $75,000 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
• 1:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If that isn't enough to get you excited about these folks, I'm not sure what is.
• 1:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Stay tuned to learn more about the new musical sensation, Christmas Carol Mania.
• 1:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I just want to start by saying I'm so excited to talk to a paracouple like you guys.
• 1:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I know that you just mentioned you're celebrating what 53, you said 53 years of marriage?
• 1:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Summer will be 53 years.
• 1:41
  Alan Glist: I don't usually admit it, but we got married when we were 12, so it's okay.
• 1:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Exactly.
• 1:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, that's I think that's a really healthy relationship.
• 1:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So congratulations to you guys.
• 1:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm you are what I aspire to be, uh, you know, one half of a power couple.
• 1:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So fingers crossed.
• 1:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Maybe some of your luck will like rub off on me during this conversation.
• 2:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Okay, so what was I just about to ask you?
• 2:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, your your history here, right?
• 2:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like, how did you end up becoming the power couple, the producers that you are?
• 2:13
  Alan Glist: Well, we um I was born and raised in South Florida.
• 2:16
  Alan Glist: Kathi moved down when her parents, uh, when she was three years old, her parents moved to South Florida from New York.
• 2:22
  Alan Glist: But we spent a lot of time in New York over the years.
• 2:25
  Alan Glist: We had an apartment there for 40 years because I was in the apparel business for the first 30 years of my life.
• 2:31
  Alan Glist: I started my company when I was 21.
• 2:33
  Alan Glist: So I used to go to New York like every month uh for the apparel business, because that's where, you know, kind of the action was, so to speak.
• 2:41
  Alan Glist: And then we started producing in the early 90s.
• 2:44
  Alan Glist: We've been producing for over 30 years now, and there was need, obviously, to be in New York for Broadway shows that we were doing, off-Broadway shows, regional shows, and so on.
• 2:54
  Alan Glist: But we always kept an office, our main office was always in South Florida.
• 2:59
  Kathi Glist: And I kind of dragged him into the business.
• 3:01
  Kathi Glist: I was a theater kid.
• 3:03
  Kathi Glist: He had never been to the theater.
• 3:05
  Kathi Glist: In fact, funny story when we were in college together, and I was in uh Marat Sad, lovely little upbeat musical.
• 3:14
  Kathi Glist: And uh it was the first show Alan had ever seen.
• 3:18
  Kathi Glist: And I said, come see me in my show.
• 3:20
  Kathi Glist: And the pre-show experience, which takes place in an insane asylum.
• 3:25
  Kathi Glist: I was kind of in a cage in the aisles, and he comes up to me and starts talking to me and couldn't imagine why I was being so unfriendly and not responding to him, not realizing I was in character at the time.
• 3:40
  Kathi Glist: So that led to uh me dragging him into this business that I always loved.
• 3:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that's amazing because I was gonna ask, how do you go from apparel to theater?
• 3:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But there it is.
• 3:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: There's the connection I was looking for.
• 3:52
  Alan Glist: Well, it was really quite simple.
• 3:54
  Alan Glist: We were at Kathy used to make me these big wonderful surprise parties every year.
• 3:58
  Alan Glist: And we were asked for charity purposes if we would produce a show based on how amazing these big parties were with entertainment and so on.
• 4:07
  Alan Glist: So we agreed to do it as long as they let us do it like real theater.
• 4:12
  Alan Glist: Even though we were novices, we wanted to hire a real director, a real choreographer, a real music director, and do it in a real theater, not a high school gym or a high school theater, you know.
• 4:23
  Alan Glist: So we did, and we were really good at it.
• 4:25
  Alan Glist: It was community theater the first three years, but we raised close to a half a million dollars for charity.
• 4:31
  Alan Glist: And there was a Broadway producer in the audience one night with his mother, who lived in South Florida, and he said, I'd like to meet the producers.
• 4:39
  Alan Glist: This is amazing.
• 4:40
  Alan Glist: And uh we met him and we got involved with one of his productions at the time.
• 4:44
  Alan Glist: We realized he didn't know what he was doing, and we kind of broke out on our own.
• 4:48
  Alan Glist: And then we uh we started producing from there and had a fun career for the past 30 years.
• 4:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that so much.
• 4:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I guess it's important that we talk about the world premiere.
• 4:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's that's what we're promoting here.
• 5:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So talk to me about the birth of this new project.
• 5:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Where did it come from?
• 5:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: How did you end up collaborating with?
• 5:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And help me pronounce this.
• 5:08
  Kathi Glist: Is it Kululam or Yeah?
• 5:10
  Kathi Glist: So people came to us, actually, the founders and creators of Kululam, we were recommended to them when they said they would like to break into the United States with this project.
• 5:22
  Kathi Glist: And they had Vegas in mind, and we're based in Las Vegas now.
• 5:27
  Kathi Glist: So we've had Metapa Musical there for almost 21 years, longest running musical in Las Vegas history.
• 5:35
  Kathi Glist: We're very proud of that.
• 5:37
  Kathi Glist: And so one at a time, uh, one of the partners flew over to the US to Las Vegas to meet with us.
• 5:45
  Kathi Glist: We heard about it, we saw their videos, and you know, I don't want to say we're the end of our career, but we've been producing for 35 years and said, maybe it's time to just slow down a little bit and spend more time with the grandkids and not retire, but kick back a little bit.
• 6:06
  Kathi Glist: And then this project came our way, and Gina, it just simply spoke to us and really to our hearts and soul, because we're at a time, not just in the United States, I think in the world and in the universe, where people are focusing on what divides us rather than what brings us together.
• 6:28
  Kathi Glist: And Kululam originally started as a social initiative in a land where any people are anything but together.
• 6:38
  Kathi Glist: It started in Israel, and one of their first events was a thousand Christians, a thousand Muslims, and a thousand Jews.
• 6:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh my god, that's amazing.
• 6:49
  Kathi Glist: Amazing, all singing together in three-part harmony, first in their own language, then everybody in English.
• 6:56
  Kathi Glist: And by the time the event was over, they were standing not only next to an uh stranger, but actually to someone who would have been perceived as an enemy.
• 7:09
  Kathi Glist: And by the end, they were focusing on their harmony that they had just created together through song, through music.
• 7:17
  Kathi Glist: And we looked at each other and we said, We owe it to the world.
• 7:21
  Kathi Glist: We we have to do this, and so here we are.
• 7:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's such a beautiful story.
• 7:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 7:28
  Kathi Glist: Thank you, thank you.
• 7:30
  Kathi Glist: And um it wasn't a big decision, you know, whereas in the past, sometimes I had to convince Alan, it was something that we both really, you know, dug deep and we said, we will do the work for this because just maybe we can help change the world one kululam at a time.
• 7:48
  Kathi Glist: And so we've done some healings and we've done some corporate, we've done interfaith where we're bringing people from different faiths instead of misunderstanding each other.
• 8:01
  Kathi Glist: They are in when singing together and working together to create this harmony, it totally brings them together.
• 8:10
  Kathi Glist: And then we said to our partners, might not know much about Christmas, but it's very big in the United States.
• 8:17
  Kathi Glist: Let's do a Christmas show.
• 8:18
  Kathi Glist: And that's how Carol Mania was born, or Christmas Carol Mania.
• 8:23
  Alan Glist: If I may, I just want to read you something that I saw on the internet today that blew my mind in light of what we're doing.
• 8:29
  Alan Glist: Ours is all about singing in harmony, singing in melody, just singing together and raising the vibration in the room.
• 8:37
  Alan Glist: So I found this thing on the internet today.
• 8:39
  Alan Glist: It said, Why singing?
• 8:40
  Alan Glist: A few science-backed benefits.
• 8:43
  Alan Glist: Number one, singing increases oxytocin, reducing stress and supporting connection.
• 8:49
  Alan Glist: Number two, group singing synchronizes breathing and heart rhythms, creating collective calm.
• 8:55
  Alan Glist: Number three, singing stimulates the bogus nerve, supporting nervous system regulation.
• 9:00
  Alan Glist: And number four, regular singing can boost immunity and positively impact mood and anxiety.
• 9:07
  Alan Glist: In short, singing is healing.
• 9:10
  Alan Glist: So we've used the expression singing is believing, but now I found this today.
• 9:14
  Alan Glist: I sent it to my whole team telling them that singing is healing.
• 9:18
  Alan Glist: And I read, you know, I sent them this.
• 9:20
  Alan Glist: I was blown away when I read it.
• 9:22
  Alan Glist: I know we're so on the right track with what we're doing.
• 9:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm I'm impressed.
• 9:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, I think what you're doing and what you're telling me is so moving about the mission behind this, but also that I mean, it feels like it could be a mass therapy session almost.
• 9:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like we're going, we're we're healing together.
• 9:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I want to ask you for people who are maybe not so musically inclined, like myself, how how are you teaching people to sing in three-part harmonies or in two-part harmonies, or however um each show works?
• 9:55
  Alan Glist: How here's the beauty of it.
• 9:58
  Alan Glist: And and we had to be convinced.
• 9:59
  Alan Glist: I wasn't so sure it could work either.
• 10:01
  Alan Glist: So we wanted to see a couple of Kululums before we produced it or bought the rights for North America.
• 10:08
  Alan Glist: When you put 400, 600, 1,000, 2,000 people together, I don't care how good or bad their voices are.
• 10:16
  Alan Glist: For some reason, it sounds amazing.
• 10:19
  Alan Glist: And what we do, it's a very high-tech show.
• 10:22
  Alan Glist: There's a lot of video content in it, which is amazing.
• 10:26
  Alan Glist: Plus, we put lyrics up on the screen, almost like the old bouncing ball, like follow the bouncing ball.
• 10:32
  Alan Glist: And we support them with their own voices.
• 10:35
  Alan Glist: Like we'll record some things, and then we have eight surround speakers that go around the room and we'll play it back with them than we when we do it a second or a third time.
• 10:45
  Alan Glist: So you're hearing yourself and your own voice, but hundreds of people around you, and it sounds amazing.
• 10:53
  Alan Glist: And we do it either as melody only or two-part harmony, or as Kathy said, some songs we do in three-part harmony, and people are amazed, like they're really proud of themselves.
• 11:03
  Alan Glist: They cheer like, wow, what an accomplishment.
• 11:06
  Alan Glist: We sound great.
• 11:08
  Kathi Glist: I mean, I am not a singer, Gina.
• 11:10
  Kathi Glist: And I sing at the top of my lungs, suddenly believing that I am a singer, you know?
• 11:15
  Kathi Glist: And singing is believing, like Alan said, the more you sing, the more you feel it, and you feel it deep in your soul, and people are singing next to you, and there's a camaraderie.
• 11:26
  Kathi Glist: There's actually something called collective effervescence.
• 11:30
  Kathi Glist: And the University of Buffalo, through the Templeton Foundation, got a grant and brought in Kululam to do two events, and they studied how people felt before they walked in the door, during the concert, when they left, and they studied them for a year after the event.
• 11:50
  Kathi Glist: And the results are profound.
• 11:53
  Kathi Glist: Uh it's mind-boggling to see how it does raise the vibration and all the things that Alan read you from that uh email that he read.
• 12:05
  Kathi Glist: It is truly healing and and it raises the vibration in the room, similar to what you might feel when you're praying in a synagogue or a church, or at a sporting event, or coming together with a group of friends and cheering for something in common together.
• 12:25
  Kathi Glist: It's this collective vibe that just truly raises the vibration and the sound and the feeling in the room.
• 12:33
  Kathi Glist: It's a little bit of a miracle, I would say.
• 12:36
  Alan Glist: But on a more simple level, just think about this.
• 12:38
  Alan Glist: No matter who you ask, everybody either sings in the shower or they sing in their car when they're alone, or maybe even with their kids.
• 12:46
  Alan Glist: And they think they sound great because they're singing with the radio, or in the shower they're not.
• 12:52
  Alan Glist: But imagine when you're sitting with 500 or 1,000 or 2,000 people and all the voices are raised.
• 12:58
  Alan Glist: And don't forget, we have a live band on stage.
• 13:00
  Alan Glist: We have a six-piece band with horns and violins and keyboard and drums.
• 13:06
  Alan Glist: So you're supported by this great live music.
• 13:10
  Alan Glist: It can't do anything but sound great.
• 13:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This sounds like such a stunning experience.
• 13:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And we always say that theater is communal, right?
• 13:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But this feels like communal to the nth degree.
• 13:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I'm sad that I'm going to be missing it because it sounds amazing next year.
• 13:25
  Alan Glist: We are too.
• 13:26
  Alan Glist: But you know, the other thing, Gina, what's so unique about it is we chose to do Christmas because everybody knows Christmas carols.
• 13:33
  Alan Glist: So what we did is we picked like eight or nine of the most famous Christmas carols, and we teach them in two and three-part harmony, and we all sing together.
• 13:43
  Alan Glist: And then we have a character in the show that we call the Comic Relief.
• 13:47
  Alan Glist: So he plays Santa, Mrs.
• 13:49
  Alan Glist: Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and the Elf.
• 13:55
  Alan Glist: He opens the show as the Elf, like from the movie The Elf.
• 13:59
  Kathi Glist: Will Farrell.
• 14:02
  Alan Glist: And he he comes on and off as these five characters throughout the show.
• 14:06
  Alan Glist: Then we bring the audience up on stage by participation and very immersive with the ugly sweater contest.
• 14:13
  Alan Glist: So we get 20, 30 people on stage.
• 14:15
  Alan Glist: We give gifts to everybody, but the audience votes on the ugly sweater, you know, the ugliest sweater in the sweater contest.
• 14:22
  Alan Glist: And then we do a name that tune of Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs.
• 14:27
  Alan Glist: So it's fun for everybody.
• 14:29
  Alan Glist: We've had kids from four years old up to people 85, 90 years old.
• 14:34
  Alan Glist: And I I watched the videos back.
• 14:36
  Alan Glist: We did a four-camera shoot in Fort Lauderdale for the first show.
• 14:40
  Alan Glist: And people are going crazy.
• 14:41
  Alan Glist: It's like a rock concert.
• 14:43
  Alan Glist: They're on their feet most of the time.
• 14:45
  Alan Glist: They're dancing, they're singing.
• 14:46
  Alan Glist: Kids are on people's on their parents' shoulders.
• 14:49
  Alan Glist: It's really fun and exciting.
• 14:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It sounds like it.
• 14:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, it sounds like, oh, I don't even know how to explain what I'm envisioning in my head right now.
• 14:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I want to say the word circus, but that feels wrong.
• 15:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Just that kind of pomp and circumstance of like, oh my gosh, this is the coolest thing I've ever experienced.
• 15:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I'm trying to picture it from like the a child's eye, you know, how cool that must be to be part of something that is so much bigger than oneself.
• 15:19
  Kathi Glist: And what I love about it is that it is truly a family show.
• 15:23
  Kathi Glist: You know, sometimes parents or grandparents take the kids to a show that they have to suffer through or smile seeing it through the eyes of the children.
• 15:32
  Kathi Glist: But our writer, Ivan Manchell, who wrote for The Nanny and many other, he's he's a comic writer, and he said, there's gonna be some comedy here where you might think is like not quite right for the kids, but it's gonna go above their heads, and the parents are gonna get it, and grandparents are gonna laugh at the jokes, and so it's going to bring them in too.
• 15:55
  Kathi Glist: And I do love what I'm seeing is three to in some cases, four generations all having the best time and like communicating together and experiencing it together.
• 16:06
  Kathi Glist: Somehow we don't have enough of that anymore.
• 16:09
  Kathi Glist: So I I love that.
• 16:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think we need more multi-generational experiences.
• 16:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We definitely don't have enough of it.
• 16:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And like you were saying before, I think the world is kind of at a point where we're focusing on division and not togetherness, but that extends to just our families, right?
• 16:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The generations among one family can feel so distant from one another.
• 16:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So experiences like this are so important.
• 16:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And the holidays are a really great excuse to get people together for a multi-generational event.
• 16:40
  Kathi Glist: And better than around the dinner table.
• 16:42
  Kathi Glist: You're singing together, you're playing games together, you're we do some interactive like body percussion and movement, and the whole audience is on their feet and just watching back, actually, because we usually sit in the back of the room like proud parents, but watching the videos head-on and watching the expression on the parents or grandparents' faces as they were experiencing this with the younger generations, I it it really can warm and melt the heart.
• 17:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Sounds like a beautiful experience, and I would love to see that too.
• 17:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I I do want to circle back for a second because you you brought up your writer before, and I wanted to talk about your director, Jeff Calhoun as well, who's you know very experienced himself.
• 17:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But can you talk to me a little bit about the experience of what it was like bringing this to life with your writer and your director and and the whole team?
• 17:39
  Alan Glist: Yeah, it was fabulous.
• 17:40
  Alan Glist: We got together with our partners, we brought them over uh to Las Vegas, we got them a home there, they're living there, and we've been working on this for over a year with them.
• 17:49
  Alan Glist: And then we brought Jeff and Mike, uh sorry, Jeff and Ivan into the picture.
• 17:54
  Alan Glist: And uh it's been a joy.
• 17:56
  Alan Glist: Really, it's so interesting because they come from a theatrical Broadway background, as do we, and we're very open.
• 18:05
  Alan Glist: So when we found this originally, we fell in love with the concept.
• 18:09
  Alan Glist: It was new and different, and something we really wanted to sink our teeth into because we felt the world needed it.
• 18:15
  Alan Glist: And Jeff and Ivan bought right in.
• 18:18
  Alan Glist: But what I loved is Jeff wasn't sure.
• 18:20
  Alan Glist: Like he kept saying, you know, coming from the theater world and my Broadway background, I'm not sure people are gonna stand during the show, and I'm not sure people are gonna really sing out together and so on.
• 18:32
  Alan Glist: And it was really cute.
• 18:33
  Alan Glist: I loved it.
• 18:34
  Alan Glist: We were sitting with Jeff in the back of the house at the very first show, and you really don't know, no matter how much you rehearse, and no matter how much you bring in friends and family for a dress rehearsal to get a feeling.
• 18:46
  Alan Glist: The star of the show is really the audience because they're the ones that you want to give it back.
• 18:51
  Alan Glist: We want to hear them singing.
• 18:52
  Alan Glist: So the star of the audience didn't show up until opening night.
• 18:56
  Alan Glist: And we sat in the back with Jeff and he looked over and he said, This is unbelievable.
• 19:01
  Alan Glist: He said, Not only does it work, you're right, it's working.
• 19:04
  Alan Glist: I love this, but he said, this could be a standard, and I believe it will in every theater in America over the next four or five years, where just like the Nutcracker, it'll be back every single year, refreshed and maybe a little updated and so on.
• 19:19
  Alan Glist: But this is something that the world needs, and I see this becoming a Christmas classic.
• 19:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I look forward to that.
• 19:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I hope that does happen.
• 19:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 19:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It sounds beyond amazing.
• 19:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I this is I'm I'm venturing off a little bit because I want to ask you about producing as a whole.
• 19:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: When you are producing, can you tell me what is the most rewarding aspect of being a producer?
• 19:44
  Kathi Glist: You know, for me, it's similar to what Alan just described.
• 19:49
  Kathi Glist: When you see something on a page, or you somebody gives you a concept, or someone has an idea, or someone has written something.
• 19:59
  Kathi Glist: It's just an idea and it's on a page.
• 20:02
  Kathi Glist: And then helping to be almost like the parents guiding the way and bringing the team together to bring it to life.
• 20:12
  Kathi Glist: So page to stage can be scary, frustrating.
• 20:17
  Kathi Glist: Sometimes it's an unknown world.
• 20:20
  Kathi Glist: I think entertainment is tough as a whole right now in this economy, et cetera.
• 20:27
  Kathi Glist: The discretionary dollar is tighter.
• 20:31
  Kathi Glist: So you don't know how you're going to do as far as the piece coming to light.
• 20:37
  Kathi Glist: That's the first thing creatively.
• 20:39
  Kathi Glist: And then can you sell tickets to it?
• 20:42
  Kathi Glist: And frankly, we laugh amongst ourselves and say, this started with smoke and mirrors and relationships.
• 20:50
  Kathi Glist: We didn't really have a show when Alan started talking to the Basie Theater.
• 20:55
  Kathi Glist: You know, a lot of these venues around the country know us because of Menopause Musical playing over the last 20 years.
• 21:02
  Alan Glist: Yeah, we've played the Basie many times, so we have a good relationship there.
• 21:06
  Kathi Glist: Exactly.
• 21:06
  Kathi Glist: So they were going on trust and we're just getting gathering our marketing materials as we go.
• 21:13
  Kathi Glist: We didn't have a cast.
• 21:15
  Kathi Glist: We we couldn't do a photo shoot or have B-roll or materials.
• 21:19
  Kathi Glist: Now we do, and we're very uh grateful and satisfied to say we feel we have proof of concept now because we've seen the audience reaction.
• 21:30
  Kathi Glist: To me, a sign is when they're not rushing out the door at the last number to be the first of their car or valet, and they stick around in the lobby because they want to talk about it and they don't want the feeling to end.
• 21:44
  Kathi Glist: So we're getting that with this, and we really love it.
• 21:47
  Alan Glist: For me, the thrill of being a producer is very simple.
• 21:50
  Alan Glist: It's everything Kathy said, obviously, from a business standpoint, but it's the thrill of walking into the theater, watching the people pile in, sitting down, having a full house, not knowing how they're going to react the very first time you produce it, and then seeing them on their feet dancing and singing and hugging each other, the family.
• 22:11
  Alan Glist: And then when we throw big inflatable Christmas balls decorations out in the audience and they're bouncing around and they're throwing them and singing at the top of their lungs and laughing.
• 22:21
  Alan Glist: That to me is the thrill of producing, is when all of your hard work, months and months and months of creation and work, and 50 people, 100 people in and on the team, and you can sit there proudly watching the audience get what you put together.
• 22:38
  Alan Glist: That to me is the ultimate thrill of a producer.
• 22:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 22:42
  Alan Glist: Or for a producer.
• 22:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I was hoping you guys would say that because I think there's there's a lot to be said for being a helper.
• 22:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I'm stealing from Mr.
• 22:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Rogers right now because I think he was the one who said, always look for the helpers.
• 22:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I think that I mean, maybe there's an idea that producers are capitalists or like, you know, they're business people, right?
• 23:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But really at the heart of it, what you're doing is giving life to someone else's idea or to your idea.
• 23:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're bringing new life into the world, whether that's artistic life or not.
• 23:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that's really important.
• 23:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And also, like you were saying, Ellen, that you get to see the reaction of the people who are now experiencing that.
• 23:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You've given something to the world, something that will last.
• 23:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I I adore that.
• 23:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that producing is it's underrated because people don't always understand what goes into it.
• 23:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: They just see the final product and don't realize that people had to make this happen.
• 23:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: There were people behind the scenes making this happen.
• 23:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I wanted to highlight what you do, and I'm grateful that you're doing it and that you're bringing something that appears, you know, without having seen it, it it just appears to be so joyous having seen just your promo reels and listening to you talk about it and how excited you are.
• 23:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I I love this, and I want to say thank you for doing all that you're doing and all that you've been doing for many years.
• 24:05
  Alan Glist: It's our pleasure.
• 24:06
  Alan Glist: And I just want to say one other thing about producing.
• 24:09
  Alan Glist: I love that you brought it up, and I'm so happy you did because there's not a month that goes by where somebody doesn't say, what does a producer do?
• 24:16
  Alan Glist: You know?
• 24:16
  Alan Glist: And I remember when I was a kid, and I didn't know the difference between a director or a producer, you know.
• 24:22
  Alan Glist: And I said, a producer does everything.
• 24:24
  Alan Glist: It's like starting a business from scratch.
• 24:26
  Alan Glist: You hire all the right people, hopefully, and then you put this creative idea together.
• 24:32
  Alan Glist: But Kathy and I are such hands-on producers that opening night I was blowing up because the compressor broke, I was blowing up these gigantic inflatable balls.
• 24:42
  Alan Glist: Kathy was handing out Santa hats to all the kids as they walked in.
• 24:46
  Alan Glist: You know, we love what we do.
• 24:48
  Alan Glist: We're not chasing the dollar.
• 24:50
  Alan Glist: If we're successful and the show is successful and we make money, we're thrilled.
• 24:54
  Alan Glist: But it's particularly now with this Carolania and the whole Kululum concept.
• 25:00
  Alan Glist: We truly believe we can change the world one show at a time.
• 25:03
  Kathi Glist: It sounds like you're doing just that.
• 25:05
  Alan Glist: Thank you.
• 25:06
  Kathi Glist: Thank you.
• 25:06
  Kathi Glist: I love when the audience, well, not I don't love when they walk in with the weight of the world on their shoulders, but you can almost see it and feel it.
• 25:15
  Kathi Glist: There's almost like a film and a they they walk in carrying, you know, their burdens.
• 25:22
  Kathi Glist: And if we can help them feel better in that 90 minutes or whatever it is, and they they wait, walk out feeling better than when they walked in, that's the greatest satisfaction for me personally, and I think for us.
• 25:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 25:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, to to see that relief in real time must be it must be really moving.
• 25:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It is.
• 25:46
  Alan Glist: It is truly.
• 25:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're doing important work.
• 25:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So thank you.
• 25:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thank you.
• 25:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So we shouldn't retire yet.
• 25:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, not yet.
• 25:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Plus, I'm just, you know, breaking into producing theater, so I'm gonna have to ask you guys questions.
• 25:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So anytime.
• 26:00
  Alan Glist: We're always available.
• 26:00
  Alan Glist: Call us anytime, you know, email, whatever.
• 26:03
  Alan Glist: We're around.
• 26:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I appreciate that.
• 26:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I've been I produce film largely, that's where I work.
• 26:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um, but I I have some friends who are more theatrical performers than they are film performers.
• 26:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I I started with a one-man show and I'm working with a couple of friends putting that together.
• 26:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So yeah, it's exciting.
• 26:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's fun, but it is like you were saying, you do everything, right?
• 26:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's a little bit of everything, and half the time you don't really know what you're going to need to do until the moment arises and you go, Oh, all right, I guess I'm stepping in.
• 26:35
  Alan Glist: Exactly right.
• 26:36
  Alan Glist: That's exactly what happens.
• 26:38
  Alan Glist: I remember one of our off-Broadway shows, I don't even remember what it was, but we had partners on the show.
• 26:44
  Alan Glist: And the night before we noticed that parts of the set hadn't been painted and we couldn't get the painters back.
• 26:51
  Alan Glist: And I remember at midnight, the night before the show opened, our partners and us were on the stage painting the set.
• 26:57
  Alan Glist: You know, it you do what you gotta do if you want something successful, and you never know.
• 27:02
  Alan Glist: So you put your heart and soul into it and hope for the best.
• 27:05
  Kathi Glist: And roll up your sleeves.
• 27:06
  Kathi Glist: Exactly.
• 27:07
  Kathi Glist: If you want something done right, you got to do it yourself.
• 27:10
  Alan Glist: Absolutely.
• 27:10
  Alan Glist: Sadly true.
• 27:12
  Kathi Glist: And truthfully, there's no people like theater people.
• 27:15
  Kathi Glist: And I think that the lifelong relationships that we have formed over the years, you know, you you you can't put um you can't put a price tag on something like that or a paycheck on something like that.
• 27:31
  Kathi Glist: And and we are still in touch with many of the people that we worked with in our very first Broadway show.
• 27:38
  Kathi Glist: And over the years, uh, we've met many a menopausal woman, we've had many casts, and we we become family.
• 27:47
  Kathi Glist: And uh, you know, that's the most rewarding as well, the relationships you form.
• 27:53
  Alan Glist: And as you know, since you're producing, there's something about, like people say, the magic of live theater, live entertainment.
• 28:00
  Alan Glist: It's like, I don't think I've ever gone to what I would call a great, great dress rehearsal.
• 28:06
  Alan Glist: There's always something not right.
• 28:08
  Alan Glist: And I remember we did a show years ago, and I went to the final dress, and I said to Kathy, I'm not coming tomorrow night.
• 28:15
  Alan Glist: She said, What does that mean?
• 28:16
  Alan Glist: I said, This show is a disaster.
• 28:18
  Alan Glist: It's just not coming together.
• 28:20
  Alan Glist: We're not ready.
• 28:21
  Alan Glist: I said, I'm not coming tomorrow night.
• 28:23
  Alan Glist: Anyway, to make a long story short, I came and it was the magic of theater.
• 28:28
  Alan Glist: The show was spectacular.
• 28:30
  Alan Glist: Everybody hit their cues, the band sounded great, the audience went crazy, huge standing ovation.
• 28:36
  Alan Glist: So to me, you know, when I was much younger and we were starting out, I used to be a nervous wreck all the time.
• 28:42
  Alan Glist: I'm not nervous anymore.
• 28:44
  Alan Glist: I don't worry about it.
• 28:45
  Alan Glist: I just trust it.
• 28:47
  Alan Glist: And we've been very lucky that every show has come together opening night, no matter what the final dress looks like.
• 28:54
  Alan Glist: It's what I call the magic of live theater.
• 28:56
  Alan Glist: It's it's thrilling.
• 28:58
  Alan Glist: It could, it could take your guts out sometimes, but it's thrilling and so exciting.
• 29:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's been a while since I've actually done theater myself, but I had this theory when I was in high school and I was doing theater there that the worse the dress, the better the show.
• 29:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I have not tested it in a long time, but I feel like it was true for a while.
• 29:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It is true.
• 29:18
  Alan Glist: It seems to be true, sadly.
• 29:19
  Alan Glist: You know, I wish it wasn't that way because you know horrifying when you see the horrifying dress.
• 29:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah.
• 29:25
  Alan Glist: Absolutely horrifying, but luckily it seems to come together, and that's the magic.
• 29:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that so much.
• 29:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I love you guys.
• 29:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're such a great couple, and I love all that you're doing.
• 29:35
  Alan Glist: Thank you.
• 29:36
  Kathi Glist: We will meet you in the near future, I hope.
• 29:39
  Alan Glist: Happy holidays, all the best.
• 29:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It will be a happy holiday indeed if you check out Christmas Carol Mania, which ends its world premiere tour at the Count Basie in Redbank on December 23rd at 7.30 p.m.
• 29:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For tickets and more information, be sure to visit TheBasie.org.
• 29:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe, and tell your friends.
• 30:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story, and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at jerseyarts.com.
• 30:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986.
• 30:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
• 30:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez.
• 30:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez.
• 30:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And my thanks, of course, to my favorite power couple, Kathi and Alan Glist, for speaking with me today.
• 30:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 30:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thanks for listening and happy holidays.