October 5, 2022 • 26 mins
Steven catches Cindy up with all the drama surrounding the school musical before rattling off all the celebrities who slighted him back when he was trying to cut his teeth in New York City. Then he brings in Broadway producer and personal friend to some of Broadway’s elite Matt Farley (Jake Cornell,) for an over the top interview.
Chris Burns is an actor, writer and podcaster who also co-hosts the podcasts We Have the Receipts and Middle Children. Find him at fatcarriebradshaw.com or on instagram.com/fatcarriebradshaw.
Madeline Grey Defreece is an actress and voice actor you can find at instagram.com/madelinegdefreece. Jake Cornell is a comedian and actor you can find at instagram.com/jakewcornell.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello, and welcome to an all new episode of Saved
by the Belmore. It's me your host, Mr Stephen Belmore. Gosh,
I'm so happy to be here. And of course I'm
back with my gal pal, my best friend, my producer,
my cousin. That's friend. Hi, it's me Cindy. Well, I
(00:34):
was going to get to it, Cindy, so let's not.
Let's not jump guns here, okay, of course, sorry, Steve. Regardless, Cindy,
what is new with you? Well, as you know last week,
I finally returned to the dating scene. But remember my
date did have a klonopin. It is accidental drowning in
some New England clam chowder. Yeah it was. Wait, wasn't
(00:57):
New England. I thought it was a Manhattan chowder. No, no, no, no, no,
it was. It was definitely New England. And see, that's
that's why it's dangerous. It's hard to come back after
being submerged in such thick chowder. But he's out of
the woods, he's out of the coma, Cindy. That is
so great. You know, I love chowder, so I put
(01:18):
myself and my life on the line all of the time.
But I'm just I'm so excited for you. So does
this mean that you're going to keep dating? Well, actually,
unfortunately no, Yeah, he um woke up and almost instantly
told me he wasn't looking for anything serious. Oh yeah,
and he was married as well. Oh, Cindy, that's that's
(01:41):
a shame. Yeah, but for time, we really do need
to move on to stuff I didn't know, right, No,
that's right. I didn't think you'd actually have anything to
catch us up on, Um. But there's plenty of fish
in the see, you just got to cast a wider net. Okay,
so let's get started on me, all right. Absolutely, So,
as you know, production on Rent has come to a
(02:03):
halt because I refused to allow all of the students
to audition. And yes, that is solely based on the
fact that their parents have slighted me. If they've slighted me,
then they're not welcome. If they haven't, they can get
an audition. Well did that affect a lot of the
kids about fifty percent? Yeah, But still, I don't need
(02:25):
that toxic energy surrounding me when I'm trying to pull
literally pull performances out of these dry sponges their parents
called children. And I mean, you know how it is.
I okay, so that's on Halts. I'll let you know
what goes on with that. I'll let everybody know. They'll
probably be a go fund me. I'll drop the link
(02:46):
when it's out. Um. I do have some good news
and some bad news, Cindy. The good news is, after
four different failed change dot org petitions, I was able
to add stage make up to my syllabus. Wow, congratulation,
Thank you so much, Cindy. It was so great. But
the bad news is, after an unfortunate accident with Julius
(03:11):
Smith's eyeball and a pencil eyeliner, I've had to remove
it and re add History of Theater, which I teach
by showing a bootleg taping of the fan of the opera.
What happened with Julia's I I have no idea. I
picked it up, I rented it off, I put it
in a zip blog bag and stuck it in her
pocket when they were taking her out on the stretcher.
(03:31):
But I haven't had time to follow up. Her last
name is long to look up in the system. So, Steven,
that sounds very serious. I mean, the paperwork, did you
at least I didn't do any paperwork that's not I'm
a creative person. Her eye felt it popped out. Oh
my goodness. Well the thing was, I said, you're doing great,
(03:53):
and I gave her a little a little smack on
the back, okay, and then she was holding the eyeliner.
Oh so it was your fault. Well that was the
first and then someone else bumped into her front and
hit her hand, so it was kind of like a
double Dutch situation. You know, this reminds me I should
reach out to legal. Oh yeah, please reach out to
(04:14):
our on staff legal team to make sure that it's
okay that we we tell that story. But again, not
my fault. She should have known how to use a
gel eyeliner. I mean, she's fourteen years old. Grow up.
So anyway, now I'm stuck teaching the goddamn history of theater, Sandy,
it may as well be a politics class. I just
can't seem to care about it. But you know what
(04:36):
I do care about inspiring people, and that's why I
have come up with a new segment, stories of cutting
my teeth. As many of you know, sometimes artists, and
I use that term broadly, I have to take jobs
they otherwise would not to support themselves in pursuing their
(05:00):
whatever it may be. And this is the story of
the thirteen years I spent cutting my teeth after my
parents cut me off while auditioning for Broadway shows and
getting callbacks for Broadway shows. You remember the callback? Yes, yes,
the callback. There was the callback for the one plus
others and waiting tables at New York's most exclusive restaurants
(05:24):
in diners. It's a special segment because not only are
Cindy and I best friends, roommates, cousins, we worked together
in several different restaurants in New York City, the Big
Apple as locals call it, And that's where Cindy met
her husband, her ex husband, Yeah, who I actually hooked
(05:45):
up with first at a server holiday party, and anyway,
he wasn't gay. It was a confusing time for him,
but he did meet Cindy soon after, and then he
did leave Cindy not too soon after that and is
now dating an unnamed real wife of New York who
I do still hope to meet some day. Yeah, about that,
(06:06):
I'm not comfortable asking him to introduce you to at
least not yet. Well time heals all wounds, Cindy. Okay,
you'll get there. But now let's get into celebrities who
have wronged me. Okay, so you remember when Morgan Freeman
came in. Oh, yes, everyone loves Morgan Freeman. He's an
(06:27):
actor from Bruce Almighty. He's most well known, Godly got
so good. I thought he was so good. He ordered
a tomato soup. I brought it out to him and
he was a total diva. He was very upset. He
asked to speak to a manager. It just really confused
(06:48):
me how this iconic actor could be so upset over
a simple confusion. Well, actually I remember that day. Wasn't
the bowl of tomato soup? Didn't you bring up a
bowl of salsa instead? We were out of the tomato soup? Gotcha.
But but then there was a part where we started
screaming lines from shash Redemption at him, which I don't
(07:08):
think he liked. Well that's because he couldn't handle it.
God forbid, somebody's a better actor, you know. You know
I did not consider that it was upsetting, So needless
to say, I won't be starring in the shosh Anc
Redemption too. Uh that that was a joke since thank you?
(07:28):
Um remember Diane Keaton, Diane Keaton comes in. Everyone just
loves Diane Keaton because she can scream in every movie
she's in. I scream everywhere I go. I don't get
the big deal on that, and she's not even that great.
She wouldn't even let me try on her hat. Do
you remember that? I do remember that, but I remember
more specifically, more importantly, that that wasn't Diane Keaton. Actually,
(07:53):
well that makes it even worse because she's not even original.
There's another woman walking around just like her, exactly. And
if it was just a regular lady, then wouldn't she
be honored to let you wear her hat? You would think,
you would think Cindy. But speaking of women who don't
know when they're being honored, Sarah Michelle Geller, you remember her.
She kept saying she wasn't Sarah Michelle Geller. I knew
(08:15):
she was Sarah Michelle Geller. We got into an argument.
It was over a plot point in Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
which there's just a lot that goes on that didn't
make sense to me. God for a bid I questioned something,
Sorry that I'm not a sheep, but you know, you
actually did have a point in that argument, So I
stand by it. I stand by it, thank you. Uh.
(08:36):
And then finally, Danny de Vito, when this is actually
more of a Cindy story than mine, because we were
closing the restaurant and I was in the back. I
was head server. I was counting the money, uh, screaming
at all the other servers for drinking, you know, just
really doing what I loved at the time. And then
(08:57):
when I come out of the back, Cindy is in
the clothes restaurant, slow dancing with none other than than
Matilda's Danny de Vito. Yes, yes, yeah, he was picking
up his take out, and you know, one thing led
to another, and he gave me a phone number. I remember,
(09:17):
you were so excited. Yes, I was so pissed. It
did turn out. I called the next day. It turned
out that it was fake. It was a fake phone number,
so that was that makes sense. He's married, actually to
the mom in Matilda, the actual mom. I knew they
were married. Yeah, you know that's not what he told me. Um. Yeah, no,
(09:40):
I remember saying like he's married, and you were like,
who has time for that? You know, we all do
desperate things. I had sex with your husband, for God's sakes,
it was just a makeout. It was a makeout, and
it was before you were dating. Just the makeout though, right, Yeah, totally,
totally okay because sometimes you know, yeah, I never know
(10:01):
with you. Yeah my ex husband. Yeah yeah, he's nice,
good kisser. So Cindy, it's time to move on to
(10:24):
our very special guests, and I'm so excited to have him.
Very exciting. Not only is he a Broadway producer bumping
elbows with some of the hottest celebrities to ever grace
the red carpet, he's gay, and he's an uncle to
one of my absolute favorite students who became one of
(10:46):
my absolute favorite students um when I found out this information,
Jenna I think her name is Jennifer Jenna Vieve, It's
something like that. She she quickly became my favorite student.
When I was on Instagram, as I always do, perusing
the student's Instagram accounts and fake Instagram accounts which they
have now, and I saw her in a photo with
(11:08):
none other than the star of the Dear of Enhance
and Film, Ben platt Way, and I said, what holiday, Hubie, whatdy?
I was flabbergasted, and so I do some click click
click gang next thing I know. I realized her uncle.
He has a gay face. I could tell. And after
convincing her to introduce us via some good old fashioned
(11:31):
B and B blackmail and bribes, blackmail and bribes, please
welcome Broadway producer Matt Farley. Hi, Matt. Do we call
you Matt? Or do we call you? Um, Matthew? I
don't what's the stage name? I'm not really a performer,
(11:54):
you know, so I guess Matt's probably Matt's fine. Go
with Matt. Oh, let me clarifying. What does a producer do?
You know? Um? My role is a lot about allocating
funds to get the productions able to actually do their run.
So it's a lot of you know, contributing funds, myself,
finding other people to contribute funds so that, you know,
putting up a Broadway shows. It's so expensive, so it's
(12:17):
a lot of it's kind of the boring business side,
you will, of these really fun special pieces. No such
thing as a boring side. I've put on quite a
few shows myself. I have a one man show of
the Crucible where I play all of the roles. Um,
it's John Proctor is not involved. He was cut from
the script. Uh, so I get what you're saying, and
(12:39):
that leads me to my follow up question, how well
do you know Ben Platt? Oh? Um, you know, we
just uh that was it was Gentleman's birthday. Isn't she
the best? Isn't she just the best? So sweet? God?
I love her so much. Same and yeah, you know,
it was Gentleman's birthday last year. She was obsessed with
(13:01):
the show, and so I just I sent a few
emails to some people I've worked with on a few
shows in the past, just to see if they could
get her backstage after the show, just to say hi.
And so we both met Ben that night, and he
was super nice to gentle En. It was really lovely. Yeah,
oh my god. And did anything progress there with you
and Ben in terms of what friendship? You know how
(13:24):
gays are? Oh yeah, I guess so, you know, not really.
He you know, had just done a big show and
I was really grateful that he came out to meet
my niece. So I said thank you so much. And
then you know, I think he just went on his
way too. You know, they can't talk to him if
the rest of their voice, so you know, okay, well
we'll talk about that off the air, sorry to disappoint. Yeah,
(13:48):
me too. What did you think of Dear Evan Hanson
the movie, which is I believe based on the musical.
Isn't that right, Cindy. I believe it's a loose adaptation. Yeah, no,
it's pretty. Uh, it's pretty pound for pound the same story.
I saw it. I had a great time. Yeah it is.
It's pound for pound, I said that. Yeah. Well, see,
(14:10):
I thought Dear Evan Hanson was like a diary type novel. Yeah,
so this is all very interesting and brand new to me.
Cindy thought it was the sequel to Dear John, so
she was expecting something else. Yeah, yeah, that's so funny. No,
it's not. Nicholas Sparks is not involved at all. Actually,
(14:31):
it's an interesting story. You know. Some people think it's
a little problematic. But I had a great time. I
thought it was nice, you know. Okay, So follow up
question to that is, do you think I could play
the role of Dear Evan Hanson. Um, it's time to
stand on the huh, Cindy. Look at the lyrics before
I put them in the put them in the church
(14:52):
before in turn the key I used to the key
I used to slam on the brakes. I used to slam.
I used, I used to slim, used to slam on
the break. Sorry, we should have rehearsed. Um no, I
I rehearsed Cindy's you know, overcorrecting. Absolutely absolutely, yes, I
(15:15):
think we actually need to go up an octave on
that one. We will have an arrangement ready for the
next episode. Well, yeah, I mean there's you know, there's
sort of two different conversations. Is you know, are you
able to sing the part, which you know a lot
of people can do. It's I mean it's a it's
a hard it's a vocally challenging part, but also you know,
for some people, not for me. Yeah. And then there's
also like, are you someone who could play a fifteen
(15:36):
year old in a convincing way? Well, you tell me.
I mean I've been playing fifteen since I was ten,
you know, yeah, wow, that's awesome. Yeah, Like I said,
I really I really worked on mostly the fundraising side
of things. Who am I to give any casting advice?
You know totally? Yeah, Well yeah, we'll talk about it.
(15:57):
It's so modest. Um, so speaking, how much money do
you make? Excuse me, how much money do you make
in a year for our listeners. Uh huh, I mean
the money I raised for the productions that can range.
It kind of depends on the budget of the show
we're working. Well, I mean for like you personally, how
I think what Steve has asked is how much do
(16:18):
you take home annually before taxes net? Um? You know,
I'm not gonna lie. I'm a pretty fortunate guy. Nothing crazy,
but you know, I've been fortunate to make a living
doing this. And you know I have a nice little
house out on Long Island that I go to in
the summer. Five figures, six figures seven, seven figures. It's
(16:41):
one of those Yeah, yeah, you know we're all out
here trying. Oh he's rich, he's rich. Okay, did I
hear that you had a house on Long Island? Yes,
I live on Long Island. I've never been. I hear.
It's beautiful. Uh well, let's move on from numbers. Yeah.
Have you ever met at Dina Menzel? I've seen her live,
(17:04):
but we've never met. You know, she was in Wicked.
You know that she was in That was the show
I saw her and yes, I yes, it's a great show.
It's still on. You should go check it out. Well,
it's gonna be a movie and Ariana Grande is playing Glinda.
How do you feel about that? I know a lot
of people are upset. I mean I played Alphaba many times,
(17:26):
so many times. I was thrilled about Arianna because I
was like, I would love to play across her. Cynthia
Arriva is a good choice. Um, different styles, but yeah, yeah,
So how do you feel about miss Grande? You know,
I have seen her. I took gentlemen to see her
at the Barclay Center when she came, and she was
so her vote. I mean, her vocal skills are really unbelievable.
(17:49):
So I'm excited to see what she does with the role. Um,
there's such a variety of ways you can kind of
sing those parts. I think it'll be really exciting to
see how they do that in that movie. So I
think it's gonna be great. You know, I gotta say,
I'm kind of e is to hear you've played Alphabet
multiple times. That's really why quite a few times. Yes,
I've I've painted Nobe Moms the Wicked. We painted him
green head to toe. I do every year. You know,
(18:12):
it really only requires the face, hands and neck. But
Steve is just so committed. It's really clear you two
are very committed to the arts. It's um, well, Steve
really just inspires me. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I do best.
You know, there's people who inspire and there's people who
get inspired. So have you ever dated anybody famous? Not? Really? No? No,
(18:37):
you know, I know I work kind of close to
all these big exciting things, but you know, kind of
have a boring, normal personal life, just like anyone else
with a boring, normal job, you know, totally. Yeah. So
are you dating anybody not famous? Um? Yeah, yeah I have.
So you're dating? Yeah, I've been seeing someone. Is this
(18:58):
a creative question? Um? Is it serious? If you want
to answer that, that would be great. Is it serious? Uh?
You know he might listen to this, and I'm sure
he will. Everybody does. Uh huh. I would say, you know,
we're having fun. It's it's early, but I'm having a
great time. I love that he's being shy. Yeah. I
(19:20):
love that you're being shy, very uncomfortable. Well that's you know,
when you're out of your comfort zone, you're growing. Oh
so that's something to keep in mind. You know, if
you feel like I want to crawl up in a
ball and I want to die. That's when you're at
your best. And that's how I teach your little Genevieve
(19:42):
Jenna Jenna Lynn. Is it that's how that's the approach
you go with? Yes? Oh yes, listen, Matt. I'm sure
that we will meet over Martini's and who knows what soon. Um, so,
thank you so much, and I will snapchat you. Um sure,
(20:02):
I don't think I have that, but you you can
just email email me the snapchat user name and we'll yeah, well,
we'll make the connection. Okay. Cool, I'm gonna Cindy can
send you a guide on how to download the app
to your phone. Yeah. I'm definitely going to be making
some phone calls. So that's great, fantastic, okay, cool, okay, cool,
thanks so much, Thank you so much. Bye bye Matt, Bye, Wow,
(20:33):
CYNDI I think that went so well. I think there
was some spark there. I don't know. I'm feeling. I'm
I have goose bumps right now. I'm covered in goose bumps.
I'm tangling. I feel so alive. But you know what,
I'm happy I feel this way because it's time for
our final segment. My favorite Belmore's chore, which I just
(20:57):
love to do because I give pat with my guidance,
with my advice, you know. And it's not always easy
to completely make myself open and vulnerable person, but I
do my best and that's why I'm here. So, Cindy,
who are we helping here today? Well, today's question comes
(21:21):
from a listener who asks, dear Mr Belmore, You've always
talked so deeply about your illustrious musical career, but when
I search on Google for your name, nothing comes up.
Care to explain? Um? Well, and Cindy, remind me to
talk to you about the choosing of the questions I
(21:42):
could have. Want I picked a different question? Um well,
it's fine because it's an easy answer. I can go
back into the inbox. No, no, no, it's it's it's
an easy answer. That was the only one we got
this week. I think that's what happens, Cindy. It's an
easy answer. Of course. I used to go by my
stage name, which you can find out if you subscribe
(22:04):
to my Patreon, which is coming soon. So you will
subscribe to my patreon. It's a hundred dollars a month.
It's going to come with uh, three bonus episodes, my
head shots from over the years, a personalized autographed photo
of me that you can print out and hang. It's
(22:26):
totally worth it, and it will be here in time
for the next major gift giving holiday. Okay, so let's
move on to the next question, Cindy, because I feel
like that listener had a bit of a tone and
I can't say that I was thrilled about that. Uh sure,
um let me Uh, okay, you're checking the spam folder.
(22:50):
Here we go. There is one from someone named best.
No not, absolutely not. Go to a different question next. Okay, Um, Cindy,
this is why you're supposed to prepare beforehand. You said
you went through the folders and that you had a
good question. I got, you know, I thought that that
(23:12):
first one was was really good. Um oh my god. Okay, Okay,
here's what it says, dear Mr Belmore. I am a
current student of yours and was obviously surprised when I
heard you had a public access radio show. I was
even more surprised when I heard you talking about my
parents inevitable divorce. My parents have been happily married for
(23:36):
you know what, Cindy, I'm gonna call a self care here.
I'm going to choose not to listen to the rest
of this hater's question, and instead we'll remind all of
my listeners to remove any toxic energy from their lives
because life it's too short. I agree, But you know
that might be a great thing to handle off the air. Yeah, well,
(24:00):
speaking of things to handle off the air, I like
fall transparency with my listeners, and I think that you
and I are going to have to have a little
discussion because the job performance it's slacking. I feel like
ever since you had to pick up that night job
at Right Aid, you're just there's Right Aid. And then
I'm also working at Blazing Saddles on the weekends too.
(24:24):
It's just well, that's I told you working at a
cowboy themed gay bar in midtown of Manhattan wasn't going
to help your self esteem. Well, you know, I heard
from a lot of folks that the tips are really good,
but I'm just not quite seeing well, I think the
tips are good for gay men. Cindy, you know that
(24:44):
that checks out? That checks out? Does that make sense? God,
we'll talk about it later. We'll talk about it later.
But I told you anywhere but Blazing saddles, and I
thought you said nowhere but blazing sad. That was when
I was talking about where I wanted to go for dinner.
Regards listen on that note. That's all the time that
(25:06):
we have for today. Today is the final day of
my juice cleans, and I need a lone time every
thirty minutes or I will just absolutely lose my mind.
But we will be back next week with all new drama,
all new advice, and the same old are you kidding me?
(25:27):
Just do it? Do it? If you want to do it,
please sing it. I want to hear it. No you
you do it, and I'll do the dang. I'll do
the dang. Okay, you're not doing it. You gave me
a countdown. Okay, that's it. We're cut, Cut, Cut Dan
Hello, and welcome to an all new episode of Saved
by the Belmore. It's me your host, Mr Stephen Belmore. Gosh,
I'm so happy to be here. And of course I'm
back with my gal pal, my best friend, my producer,
my cousin. That's friend. Hi, it's me Cindy. Well, I
(00:34):
was going to get to it, Cindy, so let's not.
Let's not jump guns here, okay, of course, sorry, Steve. Regardless, Cindy,
what is new with you? Well, as you know last week,
I finally returned to the dating scene. But remember my
date did have a klonopin. It is accidental drowning in
some New England clam chowder. Yeah it was. Wait, wasn't
(00:57):
New England. I thought it was a Manhattan chowder. No, no, no, no, no,
it was. It was definitely New England. And see, that's
that's why it's dangerous. It's hard to come back after
being submerged in such thick chowder. But he's out of
the woods, he's out of the coma, Cindy. That is
so great. You know, I love chowder, so I put
(01:18):
myself and my life on the line all of the time.
But I'm just I'm so excited for you. So does
this mean that you're going to keep dating? Well, actually,
unfortunately no, Yeah, he um woke up and almost instantly
told me he wasn't looking for anything serious. Oh yeah,
and he was married as well. Oh, Cindy, that's that's
(01:41):
a shame. Yeah, but for time, we really do need
to move on to stuff I didn't know, right, No,
that's right. I didn't think you'd actually have anything to
catch us up on, Um. But there's plenty of fish
in the see, you just got to cast a wider net. Okay,
so let's get started on me, all right. Absolutely, So,
as you know, production on Rent has come to a
(02:03):
halt because I refused to allow all of the students
to audition. And yes, that is solely based on the
fact that their parents have slighted me. If they've slighted me,
then they're not welcome. If they haven't, they can get
an audition. Well did that affect a lot of the
kids about fifty percent? Yeah, But still, I don't need
(02:25):
that toxic energy surrounding me when I'm trying to pull
literally pull performances out of these dry sponges their parents
called children. And I mean, you know how it is.
I okay, so that's on Halts. I'll let you know
what goes on with that. I'll let everybody know. They'll
probably be a go fund me. I'll drop the link
(02:46):
when it's out. Um. I do have some good news
and some bad news, Cindy. The good news is, after
four different failed change dot org petitions, I was able
to add stage make up to my syllabus. Wow, congratulation,
Thank you so much, Cindy. It was so great. But
the bad news is, after an unfortunate accident with Julius
(03:11):
Smith's eyeball and a pencil eyeliner, I've had to remove
it and re add History of Theater, which I teach
by showing a bootleg taping of the fan of the opera.
What happened with Julia's I I have no idea. I
picked it up, I rented it off, I put it
in a zip blog bag and stuck it in her
pocket when they were taking her out on the stretcher.
(03:31):
But I haven't had time to follow up. Her last
name is long to look up in the system. So, Steven,
that sounds very serious. I mean, the paperwork, did you
at least I didn't do any paperwork that's not I'm
a creative person. Her eye felt it popped out. Oh
my goodness. Well the thing was, I said, you're doing great,
(03:53):
and I gave her a little a little smack on
the back, okay, and then she was holding the eyeliner.
Oh so it was your fault. Well that was the
first and then someone else bumped into her front and
hit her hand, so it was kind of like a
double Dutch situation. You know, this reminds me I should
reach out to legal. Oh yeah, please reach out to
(04:14):
our on staff legal team to make sure that it's
okay that we we tell that story. But again, not
my fault. She should have known how to use a
gel eyeliner. I mean, she's fourteen years old. Grow up.
So anyway, now I'm stuck teaching the goddamn history of theater, Sandy,
it may as well be a politics class. I just
can't seem to care about it. But you know what
(04:36):
I do care about inspiring people, and that's why I
have come up with a new segment, stories of cutting
my teeth. As many of you know, sometimes artists, and
I use that term broadly, I have to take jobs
they otherwise would not to support themselves in pursuing their
(05:00):
whatever it may be. And this is the story of
the thirteen years I spent cutting my teeth after my
parents cut me off while auditioning for Broadway shows and
getting callbacks for Broadway shows. You remember the callback? Yes, yes,
the callback. There was the callback for the one plus
others and waiting tables at New York's most exclusive restaurants
(05:24):
in diners. It's a special segment because not only are
Cindy and I best friends, roommates, cousins, we worked together
in several different restaurants in New York City, the Big
Apple as locals call it, And that's where Cindy met
her husband, her ex husband, Yeah, who I actually hooked
(05:45):
up with first at a server holiday party, and anyway,
he wasn't gay. It was a confusing time for him,
but he did meet Cindy soon after, and then he
did leave Cindy not too soon after that and is
now dating an unnamed real wife of New York who
I do still hope to meet some day. Yeah, about that,
(06:06):
I'm not comfortable asking him to introduce you to at
least not yet. Well time heals all wounds, Cindy. Okay,
you'll get there. But now let's get into celebrities who
have wronged me. Okay, so you remember when Morgan Freeman
came in. Oh, yes, everyone loves Morgan Freeman. He's an
(06:27):
actor from Bruce Almighty. He's most well known, Godly got
so good. I thought he was so good. He ordered
a tomato soup. I brought it out to him and
he was a total diva. He was very upset. He
asked to speak to a manager. It just really confused
(06:48):
me how this iconic actor could be so upset over
a simple confusion. Well, actually I remember that day. Wasn't
the bowl of tomato soup? Didn't you bring up a
bowl of salsa instead? We were out of the tomato soup? Gotcha.
But but then there was a part where we started
screaming lines from shash Redemption at him, which I don't
(07:08):
think he liked. Well that's because he couldn't handle it.
God forbid, somebody's a better actor, you know. You know
I did not consider that it was upsetting, So needless
to say, I won't be starring in the shosh Anc
Redemption too. Uh that that was a joke since thank you?
(07:28):
Um remember Diane Keaton, Diane Keaton comes in. Everyone just
loves Diane Keaton because she can scream in every movie
she's in. I scream everywhere I go. I don't get
the big deal on that, and she's not even that great.
She wouldn't even let me try on her hat. Do
you remember that? I do remember that, but I remember
more specifically, more importantly, that that wasn't Diane Keaton. Actually,
(07:53):
well that makes it even worse because she's not even original.
There's another woman walking around just like her, exactly. And
if it was just a regular lady, then wouldn't she
be honored to let you wear her hat? You would think,
you would think Cindy. But speaking of women who don't
know when they're being honored, Sarah Michelle Geller, you remember her.
She kept saying she wasn't Sarah Michelle Geller. I knew
(08:15):
she was Sarah Michelle Geller. We got into an argument.
It was over a plot point in Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
which there's just a lot that goes on that didn't
make sense to me. God for a bid I questioned something,
Sorry that I'm not a sheep, but you know, you
actually did have a point in that argument, So I
stand by it. I stand by it, thank you. Uh.
(08:36):
And then finally, Danny de Vito, when this is actually
more of a Cindy story than mine, because we were
closing the restaurant and I was in the back. I
was head server. I was counting the money, uh, screaming
at all the other servers for drinking, you know, just
really doing what I loved at the time. And then
(08:57):
when I come out of the back, Cindy is in
the clothes restaurant, slow dancing with none other than than
Matilda's Danny de Vito. Yes, yes, yeah, he was picking
up his take out, and you know, one thing led
to another, and he gave me a phone number. I remember,
(09:17):
you were so excited. Yes, I was so pissed. It
did turn out. I called the next day. It turned
out that it was fake. It was a fake phone number,
so that was that makes sense. He's married, actually to
the mom in Matilda, the actual mom. I knew they
were married. Yeah, you know that's not what he told me. Um. Yeah, no,
(09:40):
I remember saying like he's married, and you were like,
who has time for that? You know, we all do
desperate things. I had sex with your husband, for God's sakes,
it was just a makeout. It was a makeout, and
it was before you were dating. Just the makeout though, right, Yeah, totally,
totally okay because sometimes you know, yeah, I never know
(10:01):
with you. Yeah my ex husband. Yeah yeah, he's nice,
good kisser. So Cindy, it's time to move on to
(10:24):
our very special guests, and I'm so excited to have him.
Very exciting. Not only is he a Broadway producer bumping
elbows with some of the hottest celebrities to ever grace
the red carpet, he's gay, and he's an uncle to
one of my absolute favorite students who became one of
(10:46):
my absolute favorite students um when I found out this information,
Jenna I think her name is Jennifer Jenna Vieve, It's
something like that. She she quickly became my favorite student.
When I was on Instagram, as I always do, perusing
the student's Instagram accounts and fake Instagram accounts which they
have now, and I saw her in a photo with
(11:08):
none other than the star of the Dear of Enhance
and Film, Ben platt Way, and I said, what holiday, Hubie, whatdy?
I was flabbergasted, and so I do some click click
click gang next thing I know. I realized her uncle.
He has a gay face. I could tell. And after
convincing her to introduce us via some good old fashioned
(11:31):
B and B blackmail and bribes, blackmail and bribes, please
welcome Broadway producer Matt Farley. Hi, Matt. Do we call
you Matt? Or do we call you? Um, Matthew? I
don't what's the stage name? I'm not really a performer,
(11:54):
you know, so I guess Matt's probably Matt's fine. Go
with Matt. Oh, let me clarifying. What does a producer do?
You know? Um? My role is a lot about allocating
funds to get the productions able to actually do their run.
So it's a lot of you know, contributing funds, myself,
finding other people to contribute funds so that, you know,
putting up a Broadway shows. It's so expensive, so it's
(12:17):
a lot of it's kind of the boring business side,
you will, of these really fun special pieces. No such
thing as a boring side. I've put on quite a
few shows myself. I have a one man show of
the Crucible where I play all of the roles. Um,
it's John Proctor is not involved. He was cut from
the script. Uh, so I get what you're saying, and
(12:39):
that leads me to my follow up question, how well
do you know Ben Platt? Oh? Um, you know, we
just uh that was it was Gentleman's birthday. Isn't she
the best? Isn't she just the best? So sweet? God?
I love her so much. Same and yeah, you know,
it was Gentleman's birthday last year. She was obsessed with
(13:01):
the show, and so I just I sent a few
emails to some people I've worked with on a few
shows in the past, just to see if they could
get her backstage after the show, just to say hi.
And so we both met Ben that night, and he
was super nice to gentle En. It was really lovely. Yeah,
oh my god. And did anything progress there with you
and Ben in terms of what friendship? You know how
(13:24):
gays are? Oh yeah, I guess so, you know, not really.
He you know, had just done a big show and
I was really grateful that he came out to meet
my niece. So I said thank you so much. And
then you know, I think he just went on his
way too. You know, they can't talk to him if
the rest of their voice, so you know, okay, well
we'll talk about that off the air, sorry to disappoint. Yeah,
(13:48):
me too. What did you think of Dear Evan Hanson
the movie, which is I believe based on the musical.
Isn't that right, Cindy. I believe it's a loose adaptation. Yeah, no,
it's pretty. Uh, it's pretty pound for pound the same story.
I saw it. I had a great time. Yeah it is.
It's pound for pound, I said that. Yeah. Well, see,
(14:10):
I thought Dear Evan Hanson was like a diary type novel. Yeah,
so this is all very interesting and brand new to me.
Cindy thought it was the sequel to Dear John, so
she was expecting something else. Yeah, yeah, that's so funny. No,
it's not. Nicholas Sparks is not involved at all. Actually,
(14:31):
it's an interesting story. You know. Some people think it's
a little problematic. But I had a great time. I
thought it was nice, you know. Okay, So follow up
question to that is, do you think I could play
the role of Dear Evan Hanson. Um, it's time to
stand on the huh, Cindy. Look at the lyrics before
I put them in the put them in the church
(14:52):
before in turn the key I used to the key
I used to slam on the brakes. I used to slam.
I used, I used to slim, used to slam on
the break. Sorry, we should have rehearsed. Um no, I
I rehearsed Cindy's you know, overcorrecting. Absolutely absolutely, yes, I
(15:15):
think we actually need to go up an octave on
that one. We will have an arrangement ready for the
next episode. Well, yeah, I mean there's you know, there's
sort of two different conversations. Is you know, are you
able to sing the part, which you know a lot
of people can do. It's I mean it's a it's
a hard it's a vocally challenging part, but also you know,
for some people, not for me. Yeah. And then there's
also like, are you someone who could play a fifteen
(15:36):
year old in a convincing way? Well, you tell me.
I mean I've been playing fifteen since I was ten,
you know, yeah, wow, that's awesome. Yeah, Like I said,
I really I really worked on mostly the fundraising side
of things. Who am I to give any casting advice?
You know totally? Yeah, Well yeah, we'll talk about it.
(15:57):
It's so modest. Um, so speaking, how much money do
you make? Excuse me, how much money do you make
in a year for our listeners. Uh huh, I mean
the money I raised for the productions that can range.
It kind of depends on the budget of the show
we're working. Well, I mean for like you personally, how
I think what Steve has asked is how much do
(16:18):
you take home annually before taxes net? Um? You know,
I'm not gonna lie. I'm a pretty fortunate guy. Nothing crazy,
but you know, I've been fortunate to make a living
doing this. And you know I have a nice little
house out on Long Island that I go to in
the summer. Five figures, six figures seven, seven figures. It's
(16:41):
one of those Yeah, yeah, you know we're all out
here trying. Oh he's rich, he's rich. Okay, did I
hear that you had a house on Long Island? Yes,
I live on Long Island. I've never been. I hear.
It's beautiful. Uh well, let's move on from numbers. Yeah.
Have you ever met at Dina Menzel? I've seen her live,
(17:04):
but we've never met. You know, she was in Wicked.
You know that she was in That was the show
I saw her and yes, I yes, it's a great show.
It's still on. You should go check it out. Well,
it's gonna be a movie and Ariana Grande is playing Glinda.
How do you feel about that? I know a lot
of people are upset. I mean I played Alphaba many times,
(17:26):
so many times. I was thrilled about Arianna because I
was like, I would love to play across her. Cynthia
Arriva is a good choice. Um, different styles, but yeah, yeah,
So how do you feel about miss Grande? You know,
I have seen her. I took gentlemen to see her
at the Barclay Center when she came, and she was
so her vote. I mean, her vocal skills are really unbelievable.
(17:49):
So I'm excited to see what she does with the role. Um,
there's such a variety of ways you can kind of
sing those parts. I think it'll be really exciting to
see how they do that in that movie. So I
think it's gonna be great. You know, I gotta say,
I'm kind of e is to hear you've played Alphabet
multiple times. That's really why quite a few times. Yes,
I've I've painted Nobe Moms the Wicked. We painted him
green head to toe. I do every year. You know,
(18:12):
it really only requires the face, hands and neck. But
Steve is just so committed. It's really clear you two
are very committed to the arts. It's um, well, Steve
really just inspires me. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I do best.
You know, there's people who inspire and there's people who
get inspired. So have you ever dated anybody famous? Not? Really? No? No,
(18:37):
you know, I know I work kind of close to
all these big exciting things, but you know, kind of
have a boring, normal personal life, just like anyone else
with a boring, normal job, you know, totally. Yeah. So
are you dating anybody not famous? Um? Yeah, yeah I have.
So you're dating? Yeah, I've been seeing someone. Is this
(18:58):
a creative question? Um? Is it serious? If you want
to answer that, that would be great. Is it serious? Uh?
You know he might listen to this, and I'm sure
he will. Everybody does. Uh huh. I would say, you know,
we're having fun. It's it's early, but I'm having a
great time. I love that he's being shy. Yeah. I
(19:20):
love that you're being shy, very uncomfortable. Well that's you know,
when you're out of your comfort zone, you're growing. Oh
so that's something to keep in mind. You know, if
you feel like I want to crawl up in a
ball and I want to die. That's when you're at
your best. And that's how I teach your little Genevieve
(19:42):
Jenna Jenna Lynn. Is it that's how that's the approach
you go with? Yes? Oh yes, listen, Matt. I'm sure
that we will meet over Martini's and who knows what soon. Um, so,
thank you so much, and I will snapchat you. Um sure,
(20:02):
I don't think I have that, but you you can
just email email me the snapchat user name and we'll yeah, well,
we'll make the connection. Okay. Cool, I'm gonna Cindy can
send you a guide on how to download the app
to your phone. Yeah. I'm definitely going to be making
some phone calls. So that's great, fantastic, okay, cool, okay, cool,
thanks so much, Thank you so much. Bye bye Matt, Bye, Wow,
(20:33):
CYNDI I think that went so well. I think there
was some spark there. I don't know. I'm feeling. I'm
I have goose bumps right now. I'm covered in goose bumps.
I'm tangling. I feel so alive. But you know what,
I'm happy I feel this way because it's time for
our final segment. My favorite Belmore's chore, which I just
(20:57):
love to do because I give pat with my guidance,
with my advice, you know. And it's not always easy
to completely make myself open and vulnerable person, but I
do my best and that's why I'm here. So, Cindy,
who are we helping here today? Well, today's question comes
(21:21):
from a listener who asks, dear Mr Belmore, You've always
talked so deeply about your illustrious musical career, but when
I search on Google for your name, nothing comes up.
Care to explain? Um? Well, and Cindy, remind me to
talk to you about the choosing of the questions I
(21:42):
could have. Want I picked a different question? Um well,
it's fine because it's an easy answer. I can go
back into the inbox. No, no, no, it's it's it's
an easy answer. That was the only one we got
this week. I think that's what happens, Cindy. It's an
easy answer. Of course. I used to go by my
stage name, which you can find out if you subscribe
(22:04):
to my Patreon, which is coming soon. So you will
subscribe to my patreon. It's a hundred dollars a month.
It's going to come with uh, three bonus episodes, my
head shots from over the years, a personalized autographed photo
of me that you can print out and hang. It's
(22:26):
totally worth it, and it will be here in time
for the next major gift giving holiday. Okay, so let's
move on to the next question, Cindy, because I feel
like that listener had a bit of a tone and
I can't say that I was thrilled about that. Uh sure,
um let me Uh, okay, you're checking the spam folder.
(22:50):
Here we go. There is one from someone named best.
No not, absolutely not. Go to a different question next. Okay, Um, Cindy,
this is why you're supposed to prepare beforehand. You said
you went through the folders and that you had a
good question. I got, you know, I thought that that
(23:12):
first one was was really good. Um oh my god. Okay, Okay,
here's what it says, dear Mr Belmore. I am a
current student of yours and was obviously surprised when I
heard you had a public access radio show. I was
even more surprised when I heard you talking about my
parents inevitable divorce. My parents have been happily married for
(23:36):
you know what, Cindy, I'm gonna call a self care here.
I'm going to choose not to listen to the rest
of this hater's question, and instead we'll remind all of
my listeners to remove any toxic energy from their lives
because life it's too short. I agree, But you know
that might be a great thing to handle off the air. Yeah, well,
(24:00):
speaking of things to handle off the air, I like
fall transparency with my listeners, and I think that you
and I are going to have to have a little
discussion because the job performance it's slacking. I feel like
ever since you had to pick up that night job
at Right Aid, you're just there's Right Aid. And then
I'm also working at Blazing Saddles on the weekends too.
(24:24):
It's just well, that's I told you working at a
cowboy themed gay bar in midtown of Manhattan wasn't going
to help your self esteem. Well, you know, I heard
from a lot of folks that the tips are really good,
but I'm just not quite seeing well, I think the
tips are good for gay men. Cindy, you know that
(24:44):
that checks out? That checks out? Does that make sense? God,
we'll talk about it later. We'll talk about it later.
But I told you anywhere but Blazing saddles, and I
thought you said nowhere but blazing sad. That was when
I was talking about where I wanted to go for dinner.
Regards listen on that note. That's all the time that
(25:06):
we have for today. Today is the final day of
my juice cleans, and I need a lone time every
thirty minutes or I will just absolutely lose my mind.
But we will be back next week with all new drama,
all new advice, and the same old are you kidding me?
(25:27):
Just do it? Do it? If you want to do it,
please sing it. I want to hear it. No you
you do it, and I'll do the dang. I'll do
the dang. Okay, you're not doing it. You gave me
a countdown. Okay, that's it. We're cut, Cut, Cut Dan
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