December 7, 2025 • 31 mins
Scott and Kate are kindred spirits when chatting about all things diners, being from Philadelphia, Philly sports, and more!
Find out the ins and outs of diner culture with Kate who spent years working for one of the most famous diners in LA.
Plus, she’s BFF’s with Rose Abdoo, aka Gypsy! Hear what other fun ways she’s connected to Gilmore Girls!
And see Kate and Jane Lynch live for their Christmas show this week!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh, I am all in again with Scott Patterson in
iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hi, Ky, how are you? Nice to meet?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
You nice to meet? You have to go on.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It's going, and you know it's going as good as
a ken for a Phillies fan like me, you know
how that goes.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I didn't know you're a Phillillies fan.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'm born in Phillies, raised all those decades of frustration.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Wait, wait, sorry, where are you from?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I was born in Philadelphia and I was raised in
South Jersey.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Fantastic. I just came from Ocean City and we were
in Finland in Tuckaho.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah. I spent many many summers in Ocean City.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Dude, that's all.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I know.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
What a season.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I love this season of the Phillies, and I what
a brutal ending to an amazing, amazing year.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, their problem was this organization. They didn't play
Weston Wilson enough or at all. They didn't get many
at bats in the playoffs. And that's a breakout star. Yeah,
that's a breakout power hitter star you know, waiting to happen,
and they didn't give him a shot. Dude, I'm sick
(01:29):
of watching guys. I'm just so sick of watching guys
strike out in the big looks. I mean, I don't
care how hard these guys are throwing. They're not throwing strikes.
Just take all these pitches. Take the pitches, bunt, slap
the ball the other way, play some small ball when
you get over yourselves. None of you were Babe Ruth,
you're not Mickey Manple, You're not Ted Williams. And get
(01:50):
on base. And that's all I have to say that.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I was at the game where Kyle forber Shober hit
four home runs the last home game I went to,
and boy, that was something I have to say. If
I get hit by a car for real, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I'm really that was it.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, But I mean, at the end of the season,
it's like you're you're playing a small market team and
all their minor U league arms are up there and
you're gonna hit four home runs off them, So what
you know. So it's like these guys, I'm sorry, if
you strike out two hundred times a year, your value
goes down. I don't get it. I don't get it right,
(02:28):
I don't get it. I don't get it how that's
acceptable where you strike out rate is thirty three percent. Well,
thirty three percent, Kate, Kate. If you and I walked
onto a set and one third of the time we
couldn't nail the scene, we couldn't get it right, we
kept dropping our lunch, we'd be gone.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Although, how many times of the audition for stuff and
didn't get it? I mean those percentages are pretty high
for me.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Okay, oh no, I agree in the beginning shore the
first couple of years, but then you learn, right. I
went on like one hundred audition hitting streak where I
was just like hitting the ball of the park, but
I wasn't scoring.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Yeah, I still don't score sometimes.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Still, Oh yeah, it's it's so hard many.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Times, many times this close close. They love you.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
But I don't know how people get jobs. It's so
hard to get a job. I don't know how people
do it.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
It is.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
That's why I kept my restaurant job through the first
season of the Office, because I was like, we have
a short season, Like, dude, it.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Was it was six hours. I was like, I'm not quitting.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I'm not starting a new job if this doesn't work out,
cover my shifts during the week and work my Sunday brunch.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
I gotta do what you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I stayed in my I had a little rent. I
had stayed in a little rent control apartment in West
Hollywood for the first three years at Gilmore. My nut
was you know, my nut monthly for everything, for rent,
for you know, gus, for food, whatever. I mean, it
was under like eight hundred bucks a month.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
That's how you do it.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
I mean, yeah, I look very yeah, like keep the
overhead load. That's part of the of the magic, you know,
that's how you do it. I think these kids that
are like living over their means and putting stuff on
credit cards and thinking one jobs gonna save me.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
No, you're screwed.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah. There are people that get their first series and
they buy a beach house in Malibu on credit.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Or people buy a big house the last year of
their series and then like oh no. And then my
whole thing is like when you're ending, you gotta batten
down the hatches. It's graduation time, Like, uh, get take
a reality pill.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You you really do?
Speaker 5 (04:47):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
No, yeah, yeah, yeah. One day you're hitting four home runs,
the next day you're striking out five times.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
You know, you gotta know you gotta gotta know when
to wet your hair like like Marsh and go.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
That guy guy, what's going on? I love him at
least such a weirdo. I love him.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
He was hitting really well that last part of the season,
wasn't he He was? He was on fire.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
He was dude. That wet hair is no joke. He
was just That's It's.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
A lot of he should he should have. At least
he should have a water deal with somebody. He should
have like Fijis it should.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Write him, even Crystal guys ourselves, come on, let's go.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Some local Philly water thing or the or the Water
and Powered Department Philadelphia should sign who the hell knows? Right,
Peate Flannery, we are welcoming you today to my podcast,
and uh, you are many things. You're an actors, singer, writer.
(05:56):
You're known as Meredith. Uh from Is that your name
on the office? Yeah, it was right, Meredith from the Office.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
No, I prefer Meredith the drunk from the office.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
You got okay, And you're touring with Jane Lynch in
a Swinging Little Christmas. She's got some great stories to
her waitressing days, her diner roots. Of course, because you
know that's what we grew up in in that part
of the country and her close Skilmore Girl's connection through
our friend rose Up. I'm thrilled to have her here
(06:30):
on Luke's Diner, the One and Only and I formerly
introducer Mss Kate Flannery. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Hold your applause,
Hold your applause. All right, So you grew up Kate?
You did? You did? You grew up in the diner
culture of the seventies and eighties and nineties, right, and
what do you remember most about that ear in Philadelphia?
(06:52):
Did you box the counter refills, the coffee refills, the
late night food? What tell us about that? Because I
grew up in that same culture. I'm from that area.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Yeah, you know, I felt like it was something as
a kid, like being in high school. You could figure
it out, you know, you could figure out how to
get like, you.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Could go it.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
It was it was like an affordable but it was
a culture.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
That's what we did.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
You know, I have to get we go for breakfast
like after practice, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Playing sports and stuff like. It was a treat. But
then it was also like your first sense of independence.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
You got to go to the diner. You know, nobody's
worried about you. You're just at the diner.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, you know, like.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
You're at Manila's, like on Lanter Avenue, what's the big
or you're on the Black Horse Pike on the way
to the shore stopping at a diner.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
He eats her Harley Dawn.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Which was like an old house that had like a
little you know, homemade I mean at the menus or
fourteen pages. You want to get chicken croquettes. Well maybe
it's as big as your face. I don't know, maybe
they're just small, but they're great. You know, get get breakfast,
Get a corn muffin, you know what I'm talking about, right,
get some jail.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
There are diners all the way down to the shore.
Now South Jersey kids and Philadelphia kids. So the Philadelphia
kids would usually go to like the inner city kids
right in South Philadelphia back in the day with solid
Italian they go to wild Wood, they go to Atlanta
(08:21):
ylk City, Right, they.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Still do they still do? They still do?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, yeah, still do. Right. And if you're from South Jersey, right,
or you're from the main Line, whatever, you would go
to Ocean City, Cape May.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Totally totally even Long Beach Islands, or Venor or Margate, Longport, right.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
You know, no, you know what I'm talking about. Ocean
City and Jay, not.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Maryland to be right and Jay. Yeah, best beaches in
the world. There's nothing to compare. I mean, you know,
got about walk, best food, best people, best salt water taffy,
best pizza, best best rides. I'll take it any any day. Yes,
(09:13):
but now, but now, so I go back. I hadn't
been back in a while. So I went back in
like twenty seventeen, and I hadn't been back in a while.
And we go to the beach. We go to Ocean City.
I start walking onto the beach, or at least the trail,
the sandy trail that leads to the beach, because we're
on the boardwalk, and we went down try to get
(09:34):
on the beach. Somebody there saying you gotta buy you
gotta buy a pass to get on the beach. Just
get the hell out of the way.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
So we just like a beach tag, I know, a
beach tag.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
We literally sat there and argued with her, like, what
are you talking about. You can't sell beach tags. This
is this is public this is public property. You can't
charge us to go on the beach, but they can,
they do, they do.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
You can go, you can go before they checked the
beat bags. You can go after.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
You know, we had like our our you know, if
we had a lot of friends like we you know,
figure out our ways going to the boardwalk, like there's
ways of getting around it. But when they start coming
in a pack to check everybody on the beach, you
could act like you're asleep.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
That used to work not so much anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
That is not not the Jersey way. I don't know
where they get this idea, but that's not the Jersey
I remember, you know, kidding me?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I know, I know. Actually in Ocean City it started
in seventy six. Yeah, it was brutal. I remember the
year it started. I don't.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I don't remember caring as much better. Yeah, in Ocean
City it did.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Can you believe that? Yeah? Brutal?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
But you know everybody's got an angle. They're like, i'bout
work it out.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah all right. Well you said you're not a huge cook,
But do you have a go to like cowboys steak
recipe something like that. What's a secret is it? Cowboys steaks?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
About?
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Tell me about it.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Well, it's about butter and beef and this amazing rub
that you can make yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Sounds dirty, but it's not.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Uh yeah, it's it's half a cup of coffee beans,
half cup pepper corns, just maybe a quarter cup sugar,
and then quarter pound, sorry, a quarter cup of kosher salt,
and you put it in a pepper grinder and then
that becomes your that's your that's your special secret weapon.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Like that's it. So you sear sear the steak.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
In butter on both sides in a pan, and then
you put it on the plate with this stuff and
just make sure the rub gets everywhere.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
And then you put in the oven and it's it's ridiculous.
It is ridiculous. You could put the crappiest piece of
meat into this system and you're going to be in heaven.
It is. It's a great little trick.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Did you learn that at Kate Manalini's.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I did not.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
My boyfriend, who's an NBC photographer, he taught me that
he cooks more than I do. We actually met on
the office and we've been together for nineteen years.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
We don't live together. We're happy. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Man I tell you that is smart.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
But I used to work at Kate Madeleine Restaurant in
Beverly Hills. That's the job that I worked there for
seven and a half years on and off because I
was in New York doing a show for a little
bit during that time, but took a leave of absence
covered my shifts and then you know, the first season
of The Office, I you know, I still kept the
job because I was I was afraid we weren't going
to get a season season two pickups, so I didn't
(12:47):
want to start a new job.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So I waited on a lot of famous people.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And even though it was kind of a fancy restaurant,
my dad always called it the Diner because we.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Had diner hours. We literally were there at five thirty
the morning breakfast ship you had just when you first
started the job, you had to work breakfast and it
was like five thirty. You know. The place works from like,
you know, like six to six to.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Like eleven, and then you worked lunch and then they
would have a dinner and late night.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
On the weekends.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
When I first started, they were there till four in
the morning, so you'd come in at eleven.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And you'd work till four in the morning, and it
got pretty shady in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
At four o'clock in the morning, there was too much
like damage, so they kind of stopped that. It kind
of became a little dangerous, you know, so it went
back to two o'clock. So yeah, but still it was
it was. But the breakfast was world class and uh,
you know, you could get a you could get diner
type stuff. You know, they had great lentil soup and
great bread and you know great, it's just like great basics.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
That's a fancy, fancy actor agent meeting place, producer actor
agent meeting place. It was like, there was that place
in Beverly Hills, Like, right, what was that little what
was that little place in Beverly Hills. Have you ever
been in that place? God name will come to me,
But it's like it's just this small little place you
(14:08):
walk into and then it opens up a little bit.
But it's like it's it's like we're all the power players.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
We well, Kate Madalini was a power player.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
That was right across from bristein Gray Academy. So every
time I remember, we'd have to be there super early
the day that they would announce the Academy Awards. Because
when they would announce nominees, we'd have to be in
at four thirty because they would announce four thirty am.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
We'd go.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
They would make the announcement, and they'd walk a block
to our restaurant and they'd all drink Bloody Mary's and
have breakfast and you know, keep.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Patting themselves on the back. It's fun, you know, it
was kind of fun. You felt like you were a
sort of part of history.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
If you worked to Oscar night, people would come in
and have their oscars on the table.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
You know, right, good tippers? Were they good tippers in general?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
You know, sure, sure, sure. So I heard through the
grape find that you're a Gilmore fan and that you
actually know a lot of the casts, including Rose app
do play Gypsy. How far back do you two go?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I think I've known Rose.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I mean I came to check out Second City in
nineteen eighty eight when my favorite aunt gave me a
ticket to check it out.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
She lived in Chicago and I just graduated.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
From from college and Rose was there, and we knew
each other a little bit in Chicago, like we liked
each other, but we weren't exactly in the same circles,
even though we were both in the second city.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
She was a little higher up.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
In the food chain there when I started there, and
I was also at the Annoyance Theater, so I was
kind of double dipping with more than one place. And
then I think, you know, maybe a few years into
the office, we started to get I started to get
really close with her because we had so much in common.
I always feel like she had good taste. I always
feel like she liked the things I liked. And she
(15:58):
also like she agreed with me with the people that
were douchebags. So I like that about her. Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Not everybody agrees about the douchebags, you know. So I
love that guy. I'm like, do you okay? Great?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I got turned up. Did you ever visit the set?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I did not.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
No, never came by.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
No.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I knew alex Forstein too.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
I used to do shows with her at ACME, this
crazy Saturday night show, and then she did I had
a comedy act called the Lampshades that I did for years,
and she did our show at the Aspen Comedy Festival
for a couple of characters, and so I knew Jackson.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Okay, well, so yeah, I know a few people.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
And of course, like I had met Melissa a few
times at auditions. I used to see her, which she
mopped up the floor with all of us all the time. Anyway,
even back then, and then Jay Lynch was on the
show and I met Kelly Bishop. I cornered her at
an airport lounge in Newark.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
I'm sure she loved that.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Tell us how special Melissa is because we were not
prepared for her characters and her performance at the ground
leaks when we went to see her as the cast
year I think it was the first season. Yeah, and
then she came out and she did like she had
four skits that she did that she wrote. I mean,
(17:19):
we were, we were actually we needed to leave because
our sides hurt so much from laughing.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
She is so fearless, right.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Oh my god, she understands how to control an audience,
like she just keeps going.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
She's amazing, She's amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Eh, yeah, we were, we were blown away. That ain't
no accident. That career, that's not an accident. That's that's
just skill and talent and hard work, reparation.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
And right, absolutely, and I knew Lauren Graham a little
bit because we had a mutual friend in Sam Pancake.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I think Sam did your Netflix. He was on work
during the netflik, Yeah, which.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Of course Rose up due did two parts in the
Netflix era Gypsy, of course, as she did in the original,
and then she was Birdie, the Kelly Bishop's maid. Spoke
a language that no one else knew but Rose.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
All right, Well, let's talk about that Luke's Diner. Yeah,
since you grew up around diners, I grew up around diners,
remember Ponzios and Cherry Hill. Did you ever go to
I passed it?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I don't think I ever.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I just passed the Penrose Diner last week on like
South so right by the stadiums.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
And I used to go to Aramo Diner sometimes because
I worked at a dinner theater my senior year of
high school.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Right, do you think that kind of place still exists today?
These kinds of diners? Are they going?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
It does? It does? But they're really they're really falling
by the wayside.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
They're just going to But you know what I love
about Luke's Diner is that Luke could be in a
bad mood and everybody knew it, but but they still
came back. And that is so Philly South Jersey. That's
so My dad under bar in Germantown and he served
food a little bit, although most of the guys would
have a chicken dinner, which just spent a couple of
hard boiled eggs because they wanted to keep drinking because
(19:14):
the food took up too much space, if you know.
It was like an old band bar for sure. Great place,
so great place, and my dad took you know what
I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
You know, you remember how people used to be. You
moved to California, and everybody's like they're doing yoga, they've
got the therapists, they're doing meditation, and they're balanced, they're
happy all the time. There's like this big emphasis on
being happy all the time in public appearance. That's not
the way it used to be.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
No, But also it's unrealistic because you all know it's bullshit.
I mean, that is the outside and you know what,
we're always compared. That's a problem about moving to la
You always compare your inside.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
So the people's outsides. In Philly, it's like everything's on.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
The table, everything, everything, everything. People ask me, how did
you create that? Character. I said, he's a South early
South Jersey guys.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Totally, totally, you know. My my brother owned a bar
for a while.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
My dad sold his bar because my brother worked for
my dad, and then they switched places.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
My dad ended up working for my brother the last
fifteen years he waited he was behind the bar.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Stopped working in eighty seven. Crazy still, I loved to
be one hundred amazing, like totally with it. But my
brother would have like, my brother was a rougher personality,
so he needed my dad because my dad was like
my dad was just really even killed, like a really
sweet guy, funny, smart, and he knew he understood.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
People better than my brother did.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
But yeah, so he was definitely like the you know,
my dad was sort of like the I don't know
he was. He was like the fabric softener and the
and the rint cycle of the bar. But I remember, like,
you know, my dad would have little subtle jokes like,
you know, but my brother was like if some friend, somebody,
some customer and he was talking to a woman or
(20:55):
it was a guy or a woman, if they were
talking to somebody that they shouldn't date. He had a
red band dad in his back pocket.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And he would start wiping the bar right in front.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
And that was the red flag, like you know what
I'm talking about. So you know, you felt like people
were looking out for you.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Right, exactly Seriously.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
There was a woman that used to drink at my
dad's bar.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Was one woman and you know, she'd be drinking with
the fellows, just drinking, you know, and she caught the bus.
And I'm telling you, for years my dad would walk
over to the you know, make sure she didn't miss
a bus because if she, if she had a lot
to drink, she wasn't moving too fast.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
So people looked out for.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Oh yeah, that's what that's what I miss about that place,
you know. You know right, you don't know friends, Your
friends had your back, like man, I.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Mean, they made bitch about you, but they'll do it
to your face.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Not just behind your back. You know what I mean,
you know where you stand. I'm all for that. I'll
do that. It's all you all. Everything's great until it's not.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
That's right, all right. So you and Jane Lynch right,
because she was on the show too, she had aid
yes yes. And the thing I remember about Jane Lynch
she was playing in she was running the nursing station
station when when Richard had his heart attack earlier, like
(22:19):
I think it was season one or Seeing too. The
thing I remember about Jane Lynch and Jane Lynch wasn't
Jane Lynch yet, but she was Jane Lynch right, yes.
And the thing that that struck me about her was
she took over her scene. She was like in command
of her scene. And at times at times I thought,
(22:41):
I said, who's this girl think she is? She's a guess.
But but that's what you do. You come in, you
own your stuff, you you you, you have your opinion,
you talk to the director. This a because she obviously
knew what she was doing, right she could. She's gonna
clam up and have somebody tell her to go stand
(23:02):
over there and say that line goes stand over there. No,
she's got instinct, she's got the skills of talent, everything.
She's gonna she's gonna run the show. And she did.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
And you know, the very first time I ever went
to Second City, Jane Lynch was understudying for Bonnie Hunt.
And what was weird was that it was Bonnie Hunt's
wedding day, so Bonnie came back in her wedding dress
to do the improv part of the end of the show,
and Jane was like, oh, you know, but it's just
it's crazy, like I'll never forget it.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
But I remember that's why I knew that Jane was
on stage.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
We talked about it later and figured out like, oh
my gosh, you were understated for her the night I
was there. It's the very first time I was ever
in the audience there and and had, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
The bug to work there and luckily got to.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
But I like, I remember about a year and a
half later, I became Jane's understudy and just watched it
like the way that she would work, you know, there
there are very few like she has a tremendous sense
of purpose. She understands who she is at all times.
Like I feel like sometimes I'm more of an ensemble
player where I'm like, what do you need me to do? Okay,
because let's let's face it, like on the Office I did.
(24:05):
I did not get a lot of lines, and there
were some episodes where I didn't speak at all, but
I was in every episode, so I had to be
completely realized as a as a character, as a person,
and also as a good scene partner. So even if
you're not talking, you got to like give somebody back
like whatever your reaction is, your attention that makes sense,
that keeps it real so that they can keep doing
(24:26):
what they're doing, because you know, Steve Crole did all
they have been lifting on our show in my opinion.
But you know, I always felt like when I when
I did get the talk, it was always worth the
way because I had some really fun memorable moments.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
A lot of stuff got cut season two and I was.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Like, oh God, am I going to get fired because
I replaced somebody for the pilot. So you know, whenever
I mean, I auditioned for the pilot for another part,
didn't get that for the part of jam.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Michael Scott's boss. So when I when I did get hired,
I was like, oh no, this is weird to replace
somebody like that.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
But you know, I but I feel like there's some
people that take up more space automatically, and I feel
like and it's a it's a great thing.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
It's a gift.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Did she filled that room?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
She It was like you didn't notice anybody else because she,
like the general was there nice? Right? No, because there's
no question there's no question right now.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, Jane and I've been touring together for about ten years.
We did a Christmas album together and it did really well.
It was like literally number eight in the Billboard Top ten.
And we so we so we get to do like
a lot of performing arts centers. We've played the Kennedy Center,
We've played the Carlisle and it's just great. We usually
go out for about three weeks into like late November
till then right before Christmas in December, and then we
(25:44):
also have a new non Christmas show. We've been doing
different variations of it. This is a new version called
The Trouble with Angels. We're gonna do that in Texas
in February and at Steppenwolf in.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Chicago and March.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Oh wow, we got a punch.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Big dates coming up for that.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
The store we're gonna be literally from uh, from the
East coast, Midwest. And then we like we're doing Palm Springs,
where we're having done all in a while, so we're
doing so Rito's and Uh.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
And then we're just kidding and then we're doing the
broad Theater in Santa Monica. So it's fun.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
It's like a concert, but there's a lot of comedy.
We we sing with this great jazz band that Tony Greer.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Quick Ina Monica. What are the dates?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
We'll be down December seven, seventeenth.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
When are you doing to Ritos at sixteenth?
Speaker 4 (26:33):
And then we'll be in Palm Springs on the fifteenth.
We moved, We moved, Scott. We just keep moving.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
We don't take a break.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Yeah, I was saying like our show was like the
It's like the rat Pack, but with a couple of broads.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
So there's a lot of comedy in between the songs.
It's not a hostage situation, you know. Jane kind of
leans into her kind.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Of she sort of leans into Sieu Sylvaster, and I
sort of lean into Meredith. She's sort of like the
nun knocking me on the knuckles, and I'm sort of
like the sheep dog knock and everything over.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
We have a great time and it's fun. It's fun.
It's sort of like we call it like an anti
cabaret act.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Because sometimes, you know what I mean, there's a lot
of people that take themselves very seriously and that in
that medium.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
So YouTube been performing together for a while now, right,
how long? How long far do you go back.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yeah, well, it's consistently for ten years. We used to
sing it benefits for singing and benefit this Sunday Kelleyen
Jazz Club. But yeah, we we and we sang together
in Chicago. There were a number of things we used
to do together. Yeah, so it was it was fun.
We've always had a good time. We've always we always
like to see it.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
That is great.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Jane likes to say, yours go to sion h praise.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
All right, one last question, because we're running out of
time and you have please Kate come back, love to
come back.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
I would love to. Let's not wait till the Phillies
take them.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
No, No, that might be you know, we might be
you know, doing it from the well. Anyway, if you
were to come in to Luke's Diner, Kate, okay, let's press.
If you were to come in, what would you order?
Where would you sit?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I would want to.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Order eggs and scrapple, But Star's Hollow probably doesn't serve scrapple,
so I won't do that with Rye toast.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
By the way, do you remember Habersets sausage and scrapple?
Your worse?
Speaker 3 (28:23):
I literally just had some this past week, my.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
First, my first gig ever. I was five years old,
and my dad handled no, my dad's friend handled that account,
what handled the Haberset Sausage and Scrapple account. So one Saturday, I.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Just sent Habersets Scrapple to a friend of mine because
I found it online where you could ship it.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
So so my dad takes us over to his house
on a Saturday that we're talking nineteen sixty three, and
my sister and I did the voice over to the
lines that we had to read into the microphone. That
was my first job. Yes, my sister and I were
the voice of Haberset Sausage and Scrapple for I don't
(29:06):
know if it was a whole campaign or what. It
was just a one offul commercial, but that that was.
We did our radio debut in nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's amazing. Gilmore Girls, Skill More Girls, scrappleed, You're the
Boys of Scrapple.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
We parted like it was nineteen six fifty eight. Actually
after that, I.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Have to tell you, I love Luke. I love I always.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
I always loved the on again, off again thing with
you and Lauren and I just I just felt like
you really embodied, Like I just the storytelling on the
show was It's so easy to get back into these
days because I got to turn off the news. So
I feel like I've tuned into girlmore again and it's
like an old friend.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So so thank you old friends.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Oh, thank you work. Seriously, I appreciate that. It was.
It was you know, when you get those great lines,
all you have to do is sort of like not
screw it up and don't up into the furniture, right,
you know, we get to say all those great lines
in those great situations. What are a gift?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Every single day? Every single day you gotta work.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
So well, it's such a smart show. Oh my god,
it is. That's so much, pretty proud.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Of it is. All right, you're coming back right, all right,
you kind of come back day Flannery. Check her out.
She's on tour with Jane Lynch a Swinging Little Christmas
again this year. She's going to be locally Santa Monica
and Sorito's, but she's going all over the place and you.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Can buy her.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
You can get her album on iTunes, Swing a Little
Christmas on iTunes or time you can buy the CD,
give it to your grandmother.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
I don't know anybody.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Check that out to the perfect Christmas gift. All right,
Thanks everybody, best fans on the planet. Keep those cards
and letters coming. Appreciate you. We'll see it. Holidays made here.
I'm gonna be there every day from December eighteenth to
December twenty fourth, and then again Christmas because I need
a break, and then twenty sixth of December through January fourth.
So come on out there, get you to against WB
(30:57):
Studio Tours dot com and we will see you in
Stars Hollow on the Warner Brothers lot.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe, do.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Hey everybody, and don't forget. Follow us on Instagram at
I Am All In podcast and email us at Gilmore
at iHeartRadio dot com.
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh, I am all in again with Scott Patterson in
iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hi, Ky, how are you? Nice to meet?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
You nice to meet? You have to go on.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It's going, and you know it's going as good as
a ken for a Phillies fan like me, you know
how that goes.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I didn't know you're a Phillillies fan.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'm born in Phillies, raised all those decades of frustration.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Wait, wait, sorry, where are you from?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I was born in Philadelphia and I was raised in
South Jersey.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Fantastic. I just came from Ocean City and we were
in Finland in Tuckaho.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah. I spent many many summers in Ocean City.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Dude, that's all.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I know.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
What a season.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I love this season of the Phillies, and I what
a brutal ending to an amazing, amazing year.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, their problem was this organization. They didn't play
Weston Wilson enough or at all. They didn't get many
at bats in the playoffs. And that's a breakout star. Yeah,
that's a breakout power hitter star you know, waiting to happen,
and they didn't give him a shot. Dude, I'm sick
(01:29):
of watching guys. I'm just so sick of watching guys
strike out in the big looks. I mean, I don't
care how hard these guys are throwing. They're not throwing strikes.
Just take all these pitches. Take the pitches, bunt, slap
the ball the other way, play some small ball when
you get over yourselves. None of you were Babe Ruth,
you're not Mickey Manple, You're not Ted Williams. And get
(01:50):
on base. And that's all I have to say that.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I was at the game where Kyle forber Shober hit
four home runs the last home game I went to,
and boy, that was something I have to say. If
I get hit by a car for real, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I'm really that was it.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, But I mean, at the end of the season,
it's like you're you're playing a small market team and
all their minor U league arms are up there and
you're gonna hit four home runs off them, So what
you know. So it's like these guys, I'm sorry, if
you strike out two hundred times a year, your value
goes down. I don't get it. I don't get it right,
(02:28):
I don't get it. I don't get it how that's
acceptable where you strike out rate is thirty three percent. Well,
thirty three percent, Kate, Kate. If you and I walked
onto a set and one third of the time we
couldn't nail the scene, we couldn't get it right, we
kept dropping our lunch, we'd be gone.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Although, how many times of the audition for stuff and
didn't get it? I mean those percentages are pretty high
for me.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Okay, oh no, I agree in the beginning shore the
first couple of years, but then you learn, right. I
went on like one hundred audition hitting streak where I
was just like hitting the ball of the park, but
I wasn't scoring.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Yeah, I still don't score sometimes.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Still, Oh yeah, it's it's so hard many.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Times, many times this close close. They love you.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
But I don't know how people get jobs. It's so
hard to get a job. I don't know how people
do it.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
It is.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
That's why I kept my restaurant job through the first
season of the Office, because I was like, we have
a short season, Like, dude, it.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Was it was six hours. I was like, I'm not quitting.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I'm not starting a new job if this doesn't work out,
cover my shifts during the week and work my Sunday brunch.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
I gotta do what you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I stayed in my I had a little rent. I
had stayed in a little rent control apartment in West
Hollywood for the first three years at Gilmore. My nut
was you know, my nut monthly for everything, for rent,
for you know, gus, for food, whatever. I mean, it
was under like eight hundred bucks a month.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
That's how you do it.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
I mean, yeah, I look very yeah, like keep the
overhead load. That's part of the of the magic, you know,
that's how you do it. I think these kids that
are like living over their means and putting stuff on
credit cards and thinking one jobs gonna save me.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
No, you're screwed.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah. There are people that get their first series and
they buy a beach house in Malibu on credit.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Or people buy a big house the last year of
their series and then like oh no. And then my
whole thing is like when you're ending, you gotta batten
down the hatches. It's graduation time, Like, uh, get take
a reality pill.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You you really do?
Speaker 5 (04:47):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
No, yeah, yeah, yeah. One day you're hitting four home runs,
the next day you're striking out five times.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
You know, you gotta know you gotta gotta know when
to wet your hair like like Marsh and go.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
That guy guy, what's going on? I love him at
least such a weirdo. I love him.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
He was hitting really well that last part of the season,
wasn't he He was? He was on fire.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
He was dude. That wet hair is no joke. He
was just That's It's.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
A lot of he should he should have. At least
he should have a water deal with somebody. He should
have like Fijis it should.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Write him, even Crystal guys ourselves, come on, let's go.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Some local Philly water thing or the or the Water
and Powered Department Philadelphia should sign who the hell knows? Right,
Peate Flannery, we are welcoming you today to my podcast,
and uh, you are many things. You're an actors, singer, writer.
(05:56):
You're known as Meredith. Uh from Is that your name
on the office? Yeah, it was right, Meredith from the Office.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
No, I prefer Meredith the drunk from the office.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
You got okay, And you're touring with Jane Lynch in
a Swinging Little Christmas. She's got some great stories to
her waitressing days, her diner roots. Of course, because you
know that's what we grew up in in that part
of the country and her close Skilmore Girl's connection through
our friend rose Up. I'm thrilled to have her here
(06:30):
on Luke's Diner, the One and Only and I formerly
introducer Mss Kate Flannery. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Hold your applause,
Hold your applause. All right, So you grew up Kate?
You did? You did? You grew up in the diner
culture of the seventies and eighties and nineties, right, and
what do you remember most about that ear in Philadelphia?
(06:52):
Did you box the counter refills, the coffee refills, the
late night food? What tell us about that? Because I
grew up in that same culture. I'm from that area.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Yeah, you know, I felt like it was something as
a kid, like being in high school. You could figure
it out, you know, you could figure out how to
get like, you.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Could go it.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
It was it was like an affordable but it was
a culture.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
That's what we did.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
You know, I have to get we go for breakfast
like after practice, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Playing sports and stuff like. It was a treat. But
then it was also like your first sense of independence.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
You got to go to the diner. You know, nobody's
worried about you. You're just at the diner.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, you know, like.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
You're at Manila's, like on Lanter Avenue, what's the big
or you're on the Black Horse Pike on the way
to the shore stopping at a diner.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
He eats her Harley Dawn.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Which was like an old house that had like a
little you know, homemade I mean at the menus or
fourteen pages. You want to get chicken croquettes. Well maybe
it's as big as your face. I don't know, maybe
they're just small, but they're great. You know, get get breakfast,
Get a corn muffin, you know what I'm talking about, right,
get some jail.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
There are diners all the way down to the shore.
Now South Jersey kids and Philadelphia kids. So the Philadelphia
kids would usually go to like the inner city kids
right in South Philadelphia back in the day with solid
Italian they go to wild Wood, they go to Atlanta
(08:21):
ylk City, Right, they.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Still do they still do? They still do?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, yeah, still do. Right. And if you're from South Jersey, right,
or you're from the main Line, whatever, you would go
to Ocean City, Cape May.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Totally totally even Long Beach Islands, or Venor or Margate, Longport, right.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
You know, no, you know what I'm talking about. Ocean
City and Jay, not.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Maryland to be right and Jay. Yeah, best beaches in
the world. There's nothing to compare. I mean, you know,
got about walk, best food, best people, best salt water taffy,
best pizza, best best rides. I'll take it any any day. Yes,
(09:13):
but now, but now, so I go back. I hadn't
been back in a while. So I went back in
like twenty seventeen, and I hadn't been back in a while.
And we go to the beach. We go to Ocean City.
I start walking onto the beach, or at least the trail,
the sandy trail that leads to the beach, because we're
on the boardwalk, and we went down try to get
(09:34):
on the beach. Somebody there saying you gotta buy you
gotta buy a pass to get on the beach. Just
get the hell out of the way.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
So we just like a beach tag, I know, a
beach tag.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
We literally sat there and argued with her, like, what
are you talking about. You can't sell beach tags. This
is this is public this is public property. You can't
charge us to go on the beach, but they can,
they do, they do.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
You can go, you can go before they checked the
beat bags. You can go after.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
You know, we had like our our you know, if
we had a lot of friends like we you know,
figure out our ways going to the boardwalk, like there's
ways of getting around it. But when they start coming
in a pack to check everybody on the beach, you
could act like you're asleep.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
That used to work not so much anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
That is not not the Jersey way. I don't know
where they get this idea, but that's not the Jersey
I remember, you know, kidding me?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I know, I know. Actually in Ocean City it started
in seventy six. Yeah, it was brutal. I remember the
year it started. I don't.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I don't remember caring as much better. Yeah, in Ocean
City it did.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Can you believe that? Yeah? Brutal?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
But you know everybody's got an angle. They're like, i'bout
work it out.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah all right. Well you said you're not a huge cook,
But do you have a go to like cowboys steak
recipe something like that. What's a secret is it? Cowboys steaks?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
About?
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Tell me about it.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Well, it's about butter and beef and this amazing rub
that you can make yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Sounds dirty, but it's not.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Uh yeah, it's it's half a cup of coffee beans,
half cup pepper corns, just maybe a quarter cup sugar,
and then quarter pound, sorry, a quarter cup of kosher salt,
and you put it in a pepper grinder and then
that becomes your that's your that's your special secret weapon.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Like that's it. So you sear sear the steak.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
In butter on both sides in a pan, and then
you put it on the plate with this stuff and
just make sure the rub gets everywhere.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
And then you put in the oven and it's it's ridiculous.
It is ridiculous. You could put the crappiest piece of
meat into this system and you're going to be in heaven.
It is. It's a great little trick.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Did you learn that at Kate Manalini's.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I did not.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
My boyfriend, who's an NBC photographer, he taught me that
he cooks more than I do. We actually met on
the office and we've been together for nineteen years.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
We don't live together. We're happy. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Man I tell you that is smart.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
But I used to work at Kate Madeleine Restaurant in
Beverly Hills. That's the job that I worked there for
seven and a half years on and off because I
was in New York doing a show for a little
bit during that time, but took a leave of absence
covered my shifts and then you know, the first season
of The Office, I you know, I still kept the
job because I was I was afraid we weren't going
to get a season season two pickups, so I didn't
(12:47):
want to start a new job.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So I waited on a lot of famous people.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And even though it was kind of a fancy restaurant,
my dad always called it the Diner because we.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Had diner hours. We literally were there at five thirty
the morning breakfast ship you had just when you first
started the job, you had to work breakfast and it
was like five thirty. You know. The place works from like,
you know, like six to six to.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Like eleven, and then you worked lunch and then they
would have a dinner and late night.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
On the weekends.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
When I first started, they were there till four in
the morning, so you'd come in at eleven.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And you'd work till four in the morning, and it
got pretty shady in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
At four o'clock in the morning, there was too much
like damage, so they kind of stopped that. It kind
of became a little dangerous, you know, so it went
back to two o'clock. So yeah, but still it was
it was. But the breakfast was world class and uh,
you know, you could get a you could get diner
type stuff. You know, they had great lentil soup and
great bread and you know great, it's just like great basics.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
That's a fancy, fancy actor agent meeting place, producer actor
agent meeting place. It was like, there was that place
in Beverly Hills, Like, right, what was that little what
was that little place in Beverly Hills. Have you ever
been in that place? God name will come to me,
But it's like it's just this small little place you
(14:08):
walk into and then it opens up a little bit.
But it's like it's it's like we're all the power players.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
We well, Kate Madalini was a power player.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
That was right across from bristein Gray Academy. So every
time I remember, we'd have to be there super early
the day that they would announce the Academy Awards. Because
when they would announce nominees, we'd have to be in
at four thirty because they would announce four thirty am.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
We'd go.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
They would make the announcement, and they'd walk a block
to our restaurant and they'd all drink Bloody Mary's and
have breakfast and you know, keep.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Patting themselves on the back. It's fun, you know, it
was kind of fun. You felt like you were a
sort of part of history.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
If you worked to Oscar night, people would come in
and have their oscars on the table.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
You know, right, good tippers? Were they good tippers in general?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
You know, sure, sure, sure. So I heard through the
grape find that you're a Gilmore fan and that you
actually know a lot of the casts, including Rose app
do play Gypsy. How far back do you two go?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I think I've known Rose.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I mean I came to check out Second City in
nineteen eighty eight when my favorite aunt gave me a
ticket to check it out.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
She lived in Chicago and I just graduated.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
From from college and Rose was there, and we knew
each other a little bit in Chicago, like we liked
each other, but we weren't exactly in the same circles,
even though we were both in the second city.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
She was a little higher up.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
In the food chain there when I started there, and
I was also at the Annoyance Theater, so I was
kind of double dipping with more than one place. And
then I think, you know, maybe a few years into
the office, we started to get I started to get
really close with her because we had so much in common.
I always feel like she had good taste. I always
feel like she liked the things I liked. And she
(15:58):
also like she agreed with me with the people that
were douchebags. So I like that about her. Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Not everybody agrees about the douchebags, you know. So I
love that guy. I'm like, do you okay? Great?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I got turned up. Did you ever visit the set?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I did not.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
No, never came by.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
No.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I knew alex Forstein too.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
I used to do shows with her at ACME, this
crazy Saturday night show, and then she did I had
a comedy act called the Lampshades that I did for years,
and she did our show at the Aspen Comedy Festival
for a couple of characters, and so I knew Jackson.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Okay, well, so yeah, I know a few people.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
And of course, like I had met Melissa a few
times at auditions. I used to see her, which she
mopped up the floor with all of us all the time. Anyway,
even back then, and then Jay Lynch was on the
show and I met Kelly Bishop. I cornered her at
an airport lounge in Newark.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
I'm sure she loved that.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Tell us how special Melissa is because we were not
prepared for her characters and her performance at the ground
leaks when we went to see her as the cast
year I think it was the first season. Yeah, and
then she came out and she did like she had
four skits that she did that she wrote. I mean,
(17:19):
we were, we were actually we needed to leave because
our sides hurt so much from laughing.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
She is so fearless, right.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Oh my god, she understands how to control an audience,
like she just keeps going.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
She's amazing, She's amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Eh, yeah, we were, we were blown away. That ain't
no accident. That career, that's not an accident. That's that's
just skill and talent and hard work, reparation.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
And right, absolutely, and I knew Lauren Graham a little
bit because we had a mutual friend in Sam Pancake.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I think Sam did your Netflix. He was on work
during the netflik, Yeah, which.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Of course Rose up due did two parts in the
Netflix era Gypsy, of course, as she did in the original,
and then she was Birdie, the Kelly Bishop's maid. Spoke
a language that no one else knew but Rose.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
All right, Well, let's talk about that Luke's Diner. Yeah,
since you grew up around diners, I grew up around diners,
remember Ponzios and Cherry Hill. Did you ever go to
I passed it?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I don't think I ever.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I just passed the Penrose Diner last week on like
South so right by the stadiums.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
And I used to go to Aramo Diner sometimes because
I worked at a dinner theater my senior year of
high school.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Right, do you think that kind of place still exists today?
These kinds of diners? Are they going?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
It does? It does? But they're really they're really falling
by the wayside.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
They're just going to But you know what I love
about Luke's Diner is that Luke could be in a
bad mood and everybody knew it, but but they still
came back. And that is so Philly South Jersey. That's
so My dad under bar in Germantown and he served
food a little bit, although most of the guys would
have a chicken dinner, which just spent a couple of
hard boiled eggs because they wanted to keep drinking because
(19:14):
the food took up too much space, if you know.
It was like an old band bar for sure. Great place,
so great place, and my dad took you know what
I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
You know, you remember how people used to be. You
moved to California, and everybody's like they're doing yoga, they've
got the therapists, they're doing meditation, and they're balanced, they're
happy all the time. There's like this big emphasis on
being happy all the time in public appearance. That's not
the way it used to be.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
No, But also it's unrealistic because you all know it's bullshit.
I mean, that is the outside and you know what,
we're always compared. That's a problem about moving to la
You always compare your inside.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
So the people's outsides. In Philly, it's like everything's on.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
The table, everything, everything, everything. People ask me, how did
you create that? Character. I said, he's a South early
South Jersey guys.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Totally, totally, you know. My my brother owned a bar
for a while.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
My dad sold his bar because my brother worked for
my dad, and then they switched places.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
My dad ended up working for my brother the last
fifteen years he waited he was behind the bar.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Stopped working in eighty seven. Crazy still, I loved to
be one hundred amazing, like totally with it. But my
brother would have like, my brother was a rougher personality,
so he needed my dad because my dad was like
my dad was just really even killed, like a really
sweet guy, funny, smart, and he knew he understood.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
People better than my brother did.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
But yeah, so he was definitely like the you know,
my dad was sort of like the I don't know
he was. He was like the fabric softener and the
and the rint cycle of the bar. But I remember, like,
you know, my dad would have little subtle jokes like,
you know, but my brother was like if some friend, somebody,
some customer and he was talking to a woman or
(20:55):
it was a guy or a woman, if they were
talking to somebody that they shouldn't date. He had a
red band dad in his back pocket.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And he would start wiping the bar right in front.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
And that was the red flag, like you know what
I'm talking about. So you know, you felt like people
were looking out for you.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Right, exactly Seriously.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
There was a woman that used to drink at my
dad's bar.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Was one woman and you know, she'd be drinking with
the fellows, just drinking, you know, and she caught the bus.
And I'm telling you, for years my dad would walk
over to the you know, make sure she didn't miss
a bus because if she, if she had a lot
to drink, she wasn't moving too fast.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
So people looked out for.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Oh yeah, that's what that's what I miss about that place,
you know. You know right, you don't know friends, Your
friends had your back, like man, I.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Mean, they made bitch about you, but they'll do it
to your face.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Not just behind your back. You know what I mean,
you know where you stand. I'm all for that. I'll
do that. It's all you all. Everything's great until it's not.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
That's right, all right. So you and Jane Lynch right,
because she was on the show too, she had aid
yes yes. And the thing I remember about Jane Lynch
she was playing in she was running the nursing station
station when when Richard had his heart attack earlier, like
(22:19):
I think it was season one or Seeing too. The
thing I remember about Jane Lynch and Jane Lynch wasn't
Jane Lynch yet, but she was Jane Lynch right, yes.
And the thing that that struck me about her was
she took over her scene. She was like in command
of her scene. And at times at times I thought,
(22:41):
I said, who's this girl think she is? She's a guess.
But but that's what you do. You come in, you
own your stuff, you you you, you have your opinion,
you talk to the director. This a because she obviously
knew what she was doing, right she could. She's gonna
clam up and have somebody tell her to go stand
(23:02):
over there and say that line goes stand over there. No,
she's got instinct, she's got the skills of talent, everything.
She's gonna she's gonna run the show. And she did.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
And you know, the very first time I ever went
to Second City, Jane Lynch was understudying for Bonnie Hunt.
And what was weird was that it was Bonnie Hunt's
wedding day, so Bonnie came back in her wedding dress
to do the improv part of the end of the show,
and Jane was like, oh, you know, but it's just
it's crazy, like I'll never forget it.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
But I remember that's why I knew that Jane was
on stage.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
We talked about it later and figured out like, oh
my gosh, you were understated for her the night I
was there. It's the very first time I was ever
in the audience there and and had, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
The bug to work there and luckily got to.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
But I like, I remember about a year and a
half later, I became Jane's understudy and just watched it
like the way that she would work, you know, there
there are very few like she has a tremendous sense
of purpose. She understands who she is at all times.
Like I feel like sometimes I'm more of an ensemble
player where I'm like, what do you need me to do? Okay,
because let's let's face it, like on the Office I did.
(24:05):
I did not get a lot of lines, and there
were some episodes where I didn't speak at all, but
I was in every episode, so I had to be
completely realized as a as a character, as a person,
and also as a good scene partner. So even if
you're not talking, you got to like give somebody back
like whatever your reaction is, your attention that makes sense,
that keeps it real so that they can keep doing
(24:26):
what they're doing, because you know, Steve Crole did all
they have been lifting on our show in my opinion.
But you know, I always felt like when I when
I did get the talk, it was always worth the
way because I had some really fun memorable moments.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
A lot of stuff got cut season two and I was.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Like, oh God, am I going to get fired because
I replaced somebody for the pilot. So you know, whenever
I mean, I auditioned for the pilot for another part,
didn't get that for the part of jam.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Michael Scott's boss. So when I when I did get hired,
I was like, oh no, this is weird to replace
somebody like that.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
But you know, I but I feel like there's some
people that take up more space automatically, and I feel
like and it's a it's a great thing.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
It's a gift.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Did she filled that room?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
She It was like you didn't notice anybody else because she,
like the general was there nice? Right? No, because there's
no question there's no question right now.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, Jane and I've been touring together for about ten years.
We did a Christmas album together and it did really well.
It was like literally number eight in the Billboard Top ten.
And we so we so we get to do like
a lot of performing arts centers. We've played the Kennedy Center,
We've played the Carlisle and it's just great. We usually
go out for about three weeks into like late November
till then right before Christmas in December, and then we
(25:44):
also have a new non Christmas show. We've been doing
different variations of it. This is a new version called
The Trouble with Angels. We're gonna do that in Texas
in February and at Steppenwolf in.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Chicago and March.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Oh wow, we got a punch.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Big dates coming up for that.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
The store we're gonna be literally from uh, from the
East coast, Midwest. And then we like we're doing Palm Springs,
where we're having done all in a while, so we're
doing so Rito's and Uh.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
And then we're just kidding and then we're doing the
broad Theater in Santa Monica. So it's fun.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
It's like a concert, but there's a lot of comedy.
We we sing with this great jazz band that Tony Greer.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Quick Ina Monica. What are the dates?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
We'll be down December seven, seventeenth.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
When are you doing to Ritos at sixteenth?
Speaker 4 (26:33):
And then we'll be in Palm Springs on the fifteenth.
We moved, We moved, Scott. We just keep moving.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
We don't take a break.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Yeah, I was saying like our show was like the
It's like the rat Pack, but with a couple of broads.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
So there's a lot of comedy in between the songs.
It's not a hostage situation, you know. Jane kind of
leans into her kind.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Of she sort of leans into Sieu Sylvaster, and I
sort of lean into Meredith. She's sort of like the
nun knocking me on the knuckles, and I'm sort of
like the sheep dog knock and everything over.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
We have a great time and it's fun. It's fun.
It's sort of like we call it like an anti
cabaret act.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Because sometimes, you know what I mean, there's a lot
of people that take themselves very seriously and that in
that medium.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
So YouTube been performing together for a while now, right,
how long? How long far do you go back.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yeah, well, it's consistently for ten years. We used to
sing it benefits for singing and benefit this Sunday Kelleyen
Jazz Club. But yeah, we we and we sang together
in Chicago. There were a number of things we used
to do together. Yeah, so it was it was fun.
We've always had a good time. We've always we always
like to see it.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
That is great.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Jane likes to say, yours go to sion h praise.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
All right, one last question, because we're running out of
time and you have please Kate come back, love to
come back.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
I would love to. Let's not wait till the Phillies
take them.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
No, No, that might be you know, we might be
you know, doing it from the well. Anyway, if you
were to come in to Luke's Diner, Kate, okay, let's press.
If you were to come in, what would you order?
Where would you sit?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I would want to.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Order eggs and scrapple, But Star's Hollow probably doesn't serve scrapple,
so I won't do that with Rye toast.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
By the way, do you remember Habersets sausage and scrapple?
Your worse?
Speaker 3 (28:23):
I literally just had some this past week, my.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
First, my first gig ever. I was five years old,
and my dad handled no, my dad's friend handled that account,
what handled the Haberset Sausage and Scrapple account. So one Saturday, I.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Just sent Habersets Scrapple to a friend of mine because
I found it online where you could ship it.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
So so my dad takes us over to his house
on a Saturday that we're talking nineteen sixty three, and
my sister and I did the voice over to the
lines that we had to read into the microphone. That
was my first job. Yes, my sister and I were
the voice of Haberset Sausage and Scrapple for I don't
(29:06):
know if it was a whole campaign or what. It
was just a one offul commercial, but that that was.
We did our radio debut in nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's amazing. Gilmore Girls, Skill More Girls, scrappleed, You're the
Boys of Scrapple.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
We parted like it was nineteen six fifty eight. Actually
after that, I.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Have to tell you, I love Luke. I love I always.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
I always loved the on again, off again thing with
you and Lauren and I just I just felt like
you really embodied, Like I just the storytelling on the
show was It's so easy to get back into these
days because I got to turn off the news. So
I feel like I've tuned into girlmore again and it's
like an old friend.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So so thank you old friends.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Oh, thank you work. Seriously, I appreciate that. It was.
It was you know, when you get those great lines,
all you have to do is sort of like not
screw it up and don't up into the furniture, right,
you know, we get to say all those great lines
in those great situations. What are a gift?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Every single day? Every single day you gotta work.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
So well, it's such a smart show. Oh my god,
it is. That's so much, pretty proud.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Of it is. All right, you're coming back right, all right,
you kind of come back day Flannery. Check her out.
She's on tour with Jane Lynch a Swinging Little Christmas
again this year. She's going to be locally Santa Monica
and Sorito's, but she's going all over the place and you.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Can buy her.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
You can get her album on iTunes, Swing a Little
Christmas on iTunes or time you can buy the CD,
give it to your grandmother.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
I don't know anybody.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Check that out to the perfect Christmas gift. All right,
Thanks everybody, best fans on the planet. Keep those cards
and letters coming. Appreciate you. We'll see it. Holidays made here.
I'm gonna be there every day from December eighteenth to
December twenty fourth, and then again Christmas because I need
a break, and then twenty sixth of December through January fourth.
So come on out there, get you to against WB
(30:57):
Studio Tours dot com and we will see you in
Stars Hollow on the Warner Brothers lot.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe, do.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Hey everybody, and don't forget. Follow us on Instagram at
I Am All In podcast and email us at Gilmore
at iHeartRadio dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.