September 24, 2025 • 19 mins
Listen to Lisa Ann Walter talk about the upcoming season of Abbot Elementary, The Parent Trap, and her upcoming stand-up shows in Batavia, IL!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay from one of three FIVEFM is Bella and I
have the lovely Lisa Ann Walters here.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Doing great? How are you my dear?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Oh my gosh, I am so excited to have like
you speaking with you. You're one of my favorite people.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I started watching you when I was just a little
girl on the Parent Trap and I fell in love
with you, and now I watched you when Avid.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
As an adult.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
How wild is that I've had two great characters in
a lifetime. I was consider myself lucky to have one,
and now here I am.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I know you're quite iconic.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
That's what the kids say. You know, all the young
people are out there on the Internet saying I'm iconic.
My death isn't go to the award shows are iconic.
And my twins who are twenty five, are like, they
don't call me iconic. They barely call me at all.
But when they do, it's to tell me that they
need better seat cushions for their dorm chairs. Oh my gosh,
(00:58):
I get no love you.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, I'll give you all the love.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So I'm a big Abbot fan, as I was saying,
And I know that season five is just around the corner.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Can you tell me how being a part.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Of Abbot Elementary School or Abbot Elementary I can talk,
has changed your career?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, I mean change my life. I think that those
of us, and I say that the seniors on the show,
myself and Cheryl and mister Johnson played by Stamford Davis,
we all have been lucky enough to be around in
this business for a lot of years. And you know,
I stayed working throughout. There were some years when I
(01:39):
was doing radio in here in the LA area on
k IF. I am six forty because my kids were
in high school and I had to drop them off
and pick them up from school or you know, young
men go terribly wrong. So I've done all the jobs
there are to do. I created an unscripted series like
Dance Your Ass Off and was the head judge. There
(02:02):
were years where I couldn't go out of town to
go do movies, and there were years where I wasn't
booking those jobs. So we have all had that roller
coaster of side gigs and creative hustle and just making
that paper. However, we can to pay the bills because
it's really expensive to live in LA and then to
(02:23):
come into a hit show at this point in our life.
You know, people ask me, like, you know, is that
what's that like? And I'm like, it beats the alternative.
Imagine you had the hit show early and then later
and you're like nothing. I mean yeah, I like to
say that I've gone from being a cautionary tale to
an inspiration.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You are.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I've loved the new like transcendent of your career.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
It's just been amazing to watch, especially since, like I've
said earlier that I've been watching you since I was
a kid, and.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I loved you. That was my favorite movie ever, was
The Parent Trap and.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
That I just spent a bunch last night is going
to visit my best Elaine Hendricks is doing Dancing with
the Stars. And I was over at the studio and
there were kids there and the parents brought them up
and said, I just showed my daughter The Parent Trap
last week. And so every generation that we meet, there's
a whole new group of people that loved the movie,
because I think it's, like many Nancy Meyers movies, is timeless.
(03:22):
So we're just really lucky that it continues and that
people get to also see me as Melissa, which is
a much different type of role.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
It's totally different. So since I am very nosy and
I'm very excited for next season, what can I expect?
Any spoilers you can give out for the next season, i'brabit.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, I mean specifics I'll get in trouble. But one
will know is that we were we went to Philly
and we shot. I think it's the only the second
show in history that shot during a live sporting event.
The other one was Larry Sanders and not Larry Sanders.
I'm sorry, Larry David. It's okay.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I understood what you were saying.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Thank you, my brain one sideways, I speak your language.
But beyond that, like beyond how incredible that whole week
of shooting was, and being in what I consider my
second home, Philadelphia, and like all the people that are
just excited to see us and reach out and are
so warm and treat me like family and all the
way that that's wonderful. Besides that show, we're out in
(04:28):
the world. Uh. Tyler James Williams, who plays Gregory, says
that we're in. We're outside. He's like, we're outside at
them when we're outside, and it's true, like nutty stuff happens.
But we have never had this many outside of our
school and and and literally outside scenes and episodes ever
(04:54):
in the in five seasons. It's crazy we are. I
said the other day that it feels like it's February already,
Like it feels like it's the end of the season
and we're just getting started. So it's a really big year.
It's a lot going on at Abbing. I am beyond excitle.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I am I'm buckled at me and my husband. That
is our comfort show we watch in the evening. So
I'm very excited. So as I was like old enough
to be married, I know I've been. I've been married
for a long time. Isn't that crazy? Yes, I was
nineteen and I'm twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Oh you know what happens. Though, I had babies when
I was twenty three, like nobody was having kids that
early from my general so you know, my son's the
old man.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You know, sometimes you get lucky, Like I said, I
found my husband I was very young. But so I
am a huge fan of your character Chessie from the
paras and MISCHUMENTI. Of course, who are you more like
in real life? Do you think which character.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
That's a good question. It's a it's a real combo.
I think. I mean, I'm very Jessie. Melissa doesn't have kids,
and I've gotten enough of my kids. As I said,
I've had started having kids young and like found out
it was something I was good at and kept doing it.
So let you go. You know, I have four kids
because my huja's a clown car and I self identify
(06:26):
as a mother, Like that's something that I feel like
I am, Like it was really weird for me to
play a character that didn't have kids. But then I
think back and I'm like, Jessie didn't have kids, Like
she thought of those girls as hers, but they weren't hers.
She's just maternal but without being a physical mother, right,
(06:48):
So I think that I'm feisty like Melissa, like I
do have conspiracy theories, not weird like her. But she's
Sicilian and I am, and we have a very uh
we have a very superstitious nature, a very suspicious nature.
(07:09):
Like we don't if you ever meet a Sicilian because
they think Italians are all happy, go lucky, but not
Sicilians because they were invaded by everybody in the known
world since like you know, the dawn of time. So
they're very suspicious. That's why they have cos and nostru
like if it existed, right, that's why they are it
closed up people that only trust their family because they
(07:30):
don't trust anything outside of their people. So if you
ever meet a Sicilian that's like, how's this gonna how's
this gonna f me? Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I am Sicilian.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I'm a quarter Sicilian and I am a quarter New Polican,
so I get it as the same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I know, they're just a toss of a rock away.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So I know you're getting back into stand up and
I'm really, really really excited, and I know you got
some shows coming up on the third and fourth in Bia.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
So the shows are sold out already, so get get
your tickets now.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Oh my gosh, it's amazing. So what inspired you to
go back to do stand up?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Well, I've done it on and off over the years
while you know, been doing the other stuff. It's what
brought me to the party, you know in Hollywood, was
my stand up act, and then they offered me TV
shows based on the character that was created my act,
which was then my my ex husband who was my
(08:35):
manager at a time, called it the housewife from hell.
It was really just a truth teller, and I my
persona on stage was just talking about like trying to
maintain a marriage and have kids and work and doing
the plate spinning act of all of it, which is
what then led to my TV shows, which were a
version of that. And I, uh, I forgot what The
(09:00):
question was, Why did I segue away from it so far?
What did you ask me?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
That's okay, I asked you what inspired to go back
to your stand up?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Oh? Oh so yeah. So the stand up act was
always a I think of stand up as funny complaining,
and the act was always based on whatever I was
doing with my life at that time, you know, whatever
I was experiencing and telling the truth about it. And
it turns out when you get on stage you can
tell the truth about what's happening with you. Other people
(09:31):
relate to it, even if they're not experiencing it, they
get it. And that's how my favorite part of being
on stage is that communication. Sometimes you're doing a plane,
it's not an actual dialogue directly to the people, it's
just playing a character, but it speaks to people, and
it's always what I wanted to do with performing was
to make people feel. And my favorite thing to make
(09:54):
them feel was joy, and I think it's why God
put me on the planet. I love Yeah, So I love.
The most immediate version of that is stand up. I
love doing an Abbot because I know people are out
there enjoying it. I know what's funny about the show.
We love the people respond to it and they get
the funny and are laughing at home and after rewind
(10:15):
it because they're missing jokes and watch it again. Love
that when you're doing stand up, two things happen. First
of all, you can get an immediate response. I'm looking
right at you. We're having an exchange. Even if they're
not talking, we're having an exchange. Right. The show is
different with every audience, and that's the second thing. Never
(10:35):
get the same show. So the people that have come
out in Chicago Land to see me before, it's a
whole new Well, first of all, we shot that hour,
so there might be a little bit of crossover, but
there's nine songs. There's a whole new act that happens now,
and each show is different from the one before. You
might get one show at eight o'clock and then at
(10:57):
ten o'clock, a whole nother vibe comes on and I
think of things that I didn't think of in the
first show, and I say them, and they're funny and
wonderful about people at Live stand Up because we can
all watch specials of the comics that we love and
have a great time sitting in our living room. But
when you hear a live show, you know when it's
immediately that it's happening, because it's in the moment. You know, somebody,
(11:21):
a waitress spills a drink or a person you know
burps really loud, and we all hear it. And then
it's up to me to make something funny happen around that,
you know what I'm saying, Always something different, new, And
I really encourage people, not necessarily even me, like you
don't have to come see me, Go see live stand up.
(11:43):
It's a good time and you will never get that
show again.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well you convinced me. I think I'm going to be
in Batavia. Yeah you are. I think you know you
were saying like you love the relatability, And I think
that's why a lot of people love you is because
you are very relatable.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
You were very relatable even in.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Your characters and how you play them, and that's something
that people stick with and they and they and they
follow you.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
You have following for that. They sense authenticity and they
know when someone is acting at them and when someone
is genuinely who they are. And I think people get
that with me. You you're getting what you thinks you're
gonna get.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And that's with Italians in general. What you what our
face value?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And it's not bad, It's not bad. Okay, I've got
two more questions.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I don't want to take up too much of your time,
but I've got one more Parent Trap question and then
I got a fun question for you.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So great.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
When you were filming The Parent Trap, did you have
any idea how much of a success that was going
to be because it was an instant classic essentially.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well, you know, at that time, Dennis Quaid was like
a big star. He was a big, like heart throb star,
and so I figured, like Lindsay was new, she was
new to the business, but she was amazing and we
all saw that that that the you know that her
portrayal was great. And Nancy Myers Charles Shier had quite
(13:09):
the success run under their belt with Like Father, The
Bride movies and you know other things they were doing
so and I loved all of their movies that they
had done up to that date, so there was a
pedigree to it. Plus it's Disney. You know. My TV
show was with Disney. Like I my first movie, which
was Eddie with Whoopy Goldberg, was Disney. I've been a
Disney girl pretty much my whole career, with little segues
(13:32):
here and there. But yeah, Disney ABC is the through
line for me. And so with all of that, I
knew it had a shot. But that being said, you
never know. You never know is the chemistry going to
work between the beautiful, wonderful Natasha rest in peace and
Dennis Quaid. Are people going to embrace that story, which,
(13:54):
granted a little messed up, very fun story, probably separate
twin kids and have them never know about each other.
I don't know if we get away with that now, right,
I don't know. You know, it was a but the
empowerment that it gives to kids that they actually could
affect a change like that, that they could make something
(14:16):
happen because they saw something wrong and they didn't want
the father to end up with a gold digger. Who
if you listen to my best friendy Lane is she
she was just living her life and those brats ruined
everything and they're the villains, and like, is the victim
she is? Yeah, So I think I think that there
(14:38):
were earmarks that it would be, you know, a hit movie.
But did I think it was gonna last? The fame,
the people stopping me, you know, still at Dancing with
the Stars, people losing their minds when they see Laine
and I together with no makeup on a target or wherever. No,
I didn't know it was going to last like that,
(15:00):
Like we had no idea.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, It's it's wild to think how that movie had
such a lasting impression on so many people's childhoods, like myself,
Like I truly my my aunt she had one VHS
and it was The Parent Trap, and so every time
I went over to my aunt's house, that was the
movie I turned on.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And that's so cute. I love that and we love
hearing that. And I feel like I am so incredibly
lucky that people their idea of me, their memory of me,
is something that makes them feel so safe and so warm.
And you know, when I when I need people like
at the show and I see them afterwards or on
(15:42):
the street and they they always want to hug because
it was I mean, I know what it's from. It's
can I hug her? I mean everybody wants an embrace
like that from someone who you make them feel like
they surround you with their love and now they're safe
and we all I want that, Yeah, but I can't.
(16:02):
I guess I could hug myself, but I just I
think it's an incredible blessing for me as an actor
and as a human being that I get to be
meaningful like that to people.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
They always say, never meet your heroes. Well, if your
hero is Lisa an Walters, please meet her. She is amazing.
Fun question for you, Lisa. Sure, both Italians. So as
you know, we loved Italians. We love to talk about
how we're Italian. That's our favorite thing. Favorite, our food,
our food. So speaking of our people and our food,
(16:36):
I've got to kiss Mary kill for you, Okay, Sunday
dinner h urn Cheni or Canoli?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I know, I think, Yeah, I tried, and I.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Just went two years ago to Sicily, so I had
the best on Cheni and Cannoli in the world. Yeah,
that being said, kiss Canoli, marry Sunday dinner kill Aduncini.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I'm shocked.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Sunday dinner is my thing I have. I have it
when my kids are around and everybody's here. It is
every week, and I my daughter's here, shall help me.
But I like to cook, and I like the family
at the table, and I like to stay here. You know.
The first time I started having dinner with somebody outside
(17:33):
of like my family, like when my ex husband and
his family they're Jewish, and they came to the house
and I worked for two weeks to make this dinner.
A lot later on the Christmas Dinner episode, I work
weeks and we were still I was like right out
of college. So I'm sitting there making handmade canoli's with
the metal rod. Oh yeah, stuffing them myself, like I
(17:55):
killed myself. They sat down at the table, they ate
the dinner. The mom gets up starts to clear the
wa Wow, wow, where are you going?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
You haven't had any coffee?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
No?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I was like, I I just sat down fifteen minutes ago,
like be Italian for two minutes. Yeah, I'm gonna sit
at the table for like an hour until you're hungry again,
and I bring the food out again.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Like yeah, we go on a walk.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, come back.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Fruit there's a bold with fruit some nuts on it.
You have that, then you web dessert like got enjoy life. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
My husband's family, he's Jewish and so he didn't understand
like the feats of the seven fishes. So that was
a big thing. I was like, okay, first we start
with this like we do scompy and then we move
on like the linguini and the clams, and it's like, okay,
well that's it right.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I'm like, no, now we take a walk. This is
just getting started, babe, Like you'll figure it out.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
You'll figure it out the whole day. The whole day
it was actually fried smelts.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, and stretches of pants.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
That's one hundred necessity. You gotta have the pants where
we used to call that wopping out in my house.
You'd open up the top button, maybe lay down on
the floor exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Let it breathe, let it air out. Oh, Lisa, you've
been a joy. Thank you so much for hanging out
with us. And next time you're in Chicago, which is
coming up, I expect to see you.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Come on out, baby, come on, we have a good time.
It's a great club too.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Thank you so much,
Okay from one of three FIVEFM is Bella and I
have the lovely Lisa Ann Walters here.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Doing great? How are you my dear?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Oh my gosh, I am so excited to have like
you speaking with you. You're one of my favorite people.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I started watching you when I was just a little
girl on the Parent Trap and I fell in love
with you, and now I watched you when Avid.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
As an adult.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
How wild is that I've had two great characters in
a lifetime. I was consider myself lucky to have one,
and now here I am.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I know you're quite iconic.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
That's what the kids say. You know, all the young
people are out there on the Internet saying I'm iconic.
My death isn't go to the award shows are iconic.
And my twins who are twenty five, are like, they
don't call me iconic. They barely call me at all.
But when they do, it's to tell me that they
need better seat cushions for their dorm chairs. Oh my gosh,
(00:58):
I get no love you.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, I'll give you all the love.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So I'm a big Abbot fan, as I was saying,
And I know that season five is just around the corner.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Can you tell me how being a part.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Of Abbot Elementary School or Abbot Elementary I can talk,
has changed your career?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, I mean change my life. I think that those
of us, and I say that the seniors on the show,
myself and Cheryl and mister Johnson played by Stamford Davis,
we all have been lucky enough to be around in
this business for a lot of years. And you know,
I stayed working throughout. There were some years when I
(01:39):
was doing radio in here in the LA area on
k IF. I am six forty because my kids were
in high school and I had to drop them off
and pick them up from school or you know, young
men go terribly wrong. So I've done all the jobs
there are to do. I created an unscripted series like
Dance Your Ass Off and was the head judge. There
(02:02):
were years where I couldn't go out of town to
go do movies, and there were years where I wasn't
booking those jobs. So we have all had that roller
coaster of side gigs and creative hustle and just making
that paper. However, we can to pay the bills because
it's really expensive to live in LA and then to
(02:23):
come into a hit show at this point in our life.
You know, people ask me, like, you know, is that
what's that like? And I'm like, it beats the alternative.
Imagine you had the hit show early and then later
and you're like nothing. I mean yeah, I like to
say that I've gone from being a cautionary tale to
an inspiration.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You are.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I've loved the new like transcendent of your career.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
It's just been amazing to watch, especially since, like I've
said earlier that I've been watching you since I was
a kid, and.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I loved you. That was my favorite movie ever, was
The Parent Trap and.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
That I just spent a bunch last night is going
to visit my best Elaine Hendricks is doing Dancing with
the Stars. And I was over at the studio and
there were kids there and the parents brought them up
and said, I just showed my daughter The Parent Trap
last week. And so every generation that we meet, there's
a whole new group of people that loved the movie,
because I think it's, like many Nancy Meyers movies, is timeless.
(03:22):
So we're just really lucky that it continues and that
people get to also see me as Melissa, which is
a much different type of role.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
It's totally different. So since I am very nosy and
I'm very excited for next season, what can I expect?
Any spoilers you can give out for the next season, i'brabit.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, I mean specifics I'll get in trouble. But one
will know is that we were we went to Philly
and we shot. I think it's the only the second
show in history that shot during a live sporting event.
The other one was Larry Sanders and not Larry Sanders.
I'm sorry, Larry David. It's okay.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I understood what you were saying.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Thank you, my brain one sideways, I speak your language.
But beyond that, like beyond how incredible that whole week
of shooting was, and being in what I consider my
second home, Philadelphia, and like all the people that are
just excited to see us and reach out and are
so warm and treat me like family and all the
way that that's wonderful. Besides that show, we're out in
(04:28):
the world. Uh. Tyler James Williams, who plays Gregory, says
that we're in. We're outside. He's like, we're outside at
them when we're outside, and it's true, like nutty stuff happens.
But we have never had this many outside of our
school and and and literally outside scenes and episodes ever
(04:54):
in the in five seasons. It's crazy we are. I
said the other day that it feels like it's February already,
Like it feels like it's the end of the season
and we're just getting started. So it's a really big year.
It's a lot going on at Abbing. I am beyond excitle.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I am I'm buckled at me and my husband. That
is our comfort show we watch in the evening. So
I'm very excited. So as I was like old enough
to be married, I know I've been. I've been married
for a long time. Isn't that crazy? Yes, I was
nineteen and I'm twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Oh you know what happens. Though, I had babies when
I was twenty three, like nobody was having kids that
early from my general so you know, my son's the
old man.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You know, sometimes you get lucky, Like I said, I
found my husband I was very young. But so I
am a huge fan of your character Chessie from the
paras and MISCHUMENTI. Of course, who are you more like
in real life? Do you think which character.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
That's a good question. It's a it's a real combo.
I think. I mean, I'm very Jessie. Melissa doesn't have kids,
and I've gotten enough of my kids. As I said,
I've had started having kids young and like found out
it was something I was good at and kept doing it.
So let you go. You know, I have four kids
because my huja's a clown car and I self identify
(06:26):
as a mother, Like that's something that I feel like
I am, Like it was really weird for me to
play a character that didn't have kids. But then I
think back and I'm like, Jessie didn't have kids, Like
she thought of those girls as hers, but they weren't hers.
She's just maternal but without being a physical mother, right,
(06:48):
So I think that I'm feisty like Melissa, like I
do have conspiracy theories, not weird like her. But she's
Sicilian and I am, and we have a very uh
we have a very superstitious nature, a very suspicious nature.
(07:09):
Like we don't if you ever meet a Sicilian because
they think Italians are all happy, go lucky, but not
Sicilians because they were invaded by everybody in the known
world since like you know, the dawn of time. So
they're very suspicious. That's why they have cos and nostru
like if it existed, right, that's why they are it
closed up people that only trust their family because they
(07:30):
don't trust anything outside of their people. So if you
ever meet a Sicilian that's like, how's this gonna how's
this gonna f me? Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I am Sicilian.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I'm a quarter Sicilian and I am a quarter New Polican,
so I get it as the same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I know, they're just a toss of a rock away.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So I know you're getting back into stand up and
I'm really, really really excited, and I know you got
some shows coming up on the third and fourth in Bia.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
So the shows are sold out already, so get get
your tickets now.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Oh my gosh, it's amazing. So what inspired you to
go back to do stand up?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Well, I've done it on and off over the years
while you know, been doing the other stuff. It's what
brought me to the party, you know in Hollywood, was
my stand up act, and then they offered me TV
shows based on the character that was created my act,
which was then my my ex husband who was my
(08:35):
manager at a time, called it the housewife from hell.
It was really just a truth teller, and I my
persona on stage was just talking about like trying to
maintain a marriage and have kids and work and doing
the plate spinning act of all of it, which is
what then led to my TV shows, which were a
version of that. And I, uh, I forgot what The
(09:00):
question was, Why did I segue away from it so far?
What did you ask me?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
That's okay, I asked you what inspired to go back
to your stand up?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Oh? Oh so yeah. So the stand up act was
always a I think of stand up as funny complaining,
and the act was always based on whatever I was
doing with my life at that time, you know, whatever
I was experiencing and telling the truth about it. And
it turns out when you get on stage you can
tell the truth about what's happening with you. Other people
(09:31):
relate to it, even if they're not experiencing it, they
get it. And that's how my favorite part of being
on stage is that communication. Sometimes you're doing a plane,
it's not an actual dialogue directly to the people, it's
just playing a character, but it speaks to people, and
it's always what I wanted to do with performing was
to make people feel. And my favorite thing to make
(09:54):
them feel was joy, and I think it's why God
put me on the planet. I love Yeah, So I love.
The most immediate version of that is stand up. I
love doing an Abbot because I know people are out
there enjoying it. I know what's funny about the show.
We love the people respond to it and they get
the funny and are laughing at home and after rewind
(10:15):
it because they're missing jokes and watch it again. Love
that when you're doing stand up, two things happen. First
of all, you can get an immediate response. I'm looking
right at you. We're having an exchange. Even if they're
not talking, we're having an exchange. Right. The show is
different with every audience, and that's the second thing. Never
(10:35):
get the same show. So the people that have come
out in Chicago Land to see me before, it's a
whole new Well, first of all, we shot that hour,
so there might be a little bit of crossover, but
there's nine songs. There's a whole new act that happens now,
and each show is different from the one before. You
might get one show at eight o'clock and then at
(10:57):
ten o'clock, a whole nother vibe comes on and I
think of things that I didn't think of in the
first show, and I say them, and they're funny and
wonderful about people at Live stand Up because we can
all watch specials of the comics that we love and
have a great time sitting in our living room. But
when you hear a live show, you know when it's
immediately that it's happening, because it's in the moment. You know, somebody,
(11:21):
a waitress spills a drink or a person you know
burps really loud, and we all hear it. And then
it's up to me to make something funny happen around that,
you know what I'm saying, Always something different, new, And
I really encourage people, not necessarily even me, like you
don't have to come see me, Go see live stand up.
(11:43):
It's a good time and you will never get that
show again.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well you convinced me. I think I'm going to be
in Batavia. Yeah you are. I think you know you
were saying like you love the relatability, And I think
that's why a lot of people love you is because
you are very relatable.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
You were very relatable even in.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Your characters and how you play them, and that's something
that people stick with and they and they and they
follow you.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
You have following for that. They sense authenticity and they
know when someone is acting at them and when someone
is genuinely who they are. And I think people get
that with me. You you're getting what you thinks you're
gonna get.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And that's with Italians in general. What you what our
face value?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And it's not bad, It's not bad. Okay, I've got
two more questions.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I don't want to take up too much of your time,
but I've got one more Parent Trap question and then
I got a fun question for you.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So great.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
When you were filming The Parent Trap, did you have
any idea how much of a success that was going
to be because it was an instant classic essentially.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well, you know, at that time, Dennis Quaid was like
a big star. He was a big, like heart throb star,
and so I figured, like Lindsay was new, she was
new to the business, but she was amazing and we
all saw that that that the you know that her
portrayal was great. And Nancy Myers Charles Shier had quite
(13:09):
the success run under their belt with Like Father, The
Bride movies and you know other things they were doing
so and I loved all of their movies that they
had done up to that date, so there was a
pedigree to it. Plus it's Disney. You know. My TV
show was with Disney. Like I my first movie, which
was Eddie with Whoopy Goldberg, was Disney. I've been a
Disney girl pretty much my whole career, with little segues
(13:32):
here and there. But yeah, Disney ABC is the through
line for me. And so with all of that, I
knew it had a shot. But that being said, you
never know. You never know is the chemistry going to
work between the beautiful, wonderful Natasha rest in peace and
Dennis Quaid. Are people going to embrace that story, which,
(13:54):
granted a little messed up, very fun story, probably separate
twin kids and have them never know about each other.
I don't know if we get away with that now, right,
I don't know. You know, it was a but the
empowerment that it gives to kids that they actually could
affect a change like that, that they could make something
(14:16):
happen because they saw something wrong and they didn't want
the father to end up with a gold digger. Who
if you listen to my best friendy Lane is she
she was just living her life and those brats ruined
everything and they're the villains, and like, is the victim
she is? Yeah, So I think I think that there
(14:38):
were earmarks that it would be, you know, a hit movie.
But did I think it was gonna last? The fame,
the people stopping me, you know, still at Dancing with
the Stars, people losing their minds when they see Laine
and I together with no makeup on a target or wherever. No,
I didn't know it was going to last like that,
(15:00):
Like we had no idea.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, It's it's wild to think how that movie had
such a lasting impression on so many people's childhoods, like myself,
Like I truly my my aunt she had one VHS
and it was The Parent Trap, and so every time
I went over to my aunt's house, that was the
movie I turned on.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And that's so cute. I love that and we love
hearing that. And I feel like I am so incredibly
lucky that people their idea of me, their memory of me,
is something that makes them feel so safe and so warm.
And you know, when I when I need people like
at the show and I see them afterwards or on
(15:42):
the street and they they always want to hug because
it was I mean, I know what it's from. It's
can I hug her? I mean everybody wants an embrace
like that from someone who you make them feel like
they surround you with their love and now they're safe
and we all I want that, Yeah, but I can't.
(16:02):
I guess I could hug myself, but I just I
think it's an incredible blessing for me as an actor
and as a human being that I get to be
meaningful like that to people.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
They always say, never meet your heroes. Well, if your
hero is Lisa an Walters, please meet her. She is amazing.
Fun question for you, Lisa. Sure, both Italians. So as
you know, we loved Italians. We love to talk about
how we're Italian. That's our favorite thing. Favorite, our food,
our food. So speaking of our people and our food,
(16:36):
I've got to kiss Mary kill for you, Okay, Sunday
dinner h urn Cheni or Canoli?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I know, I think, Yeah, I tried, and I.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Just went two years ago to Sicily, so I had
the best on Cheni and Cannoli in the world. Yeah,
that being said, kiss Canoli, marry Sunday dinner kill Aduncini.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I'm shocked.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Sunday dinner is my thing I have. I have it
when my kids are around and everybody's here. It is
every week, and I my daughter's here, shall help me.
But I like to cook, and I like the family
at the table, and I like to stay here. You know.
The first time I started having dinner with somebody outside
(17:33):
of like my family, like when my ex husband and
his family they're Jewish, and they came to the house
and I worked for two weeks to make this dinner.
A lot later on the Christmas Dinner episode, I work
weeks and we were still I was like right out
of college. So I'm sitting there making handmade canoli's with
the metal rod. Oh yeah, stuffing them myself, like I
(17:55):
killed myself. They sat down at the table, they ate
the dinner. The mom gets up starts to clear the
wa Wow, wow, where are you going?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
You haven't had any coffee?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
No?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I was like, I I just sat down fifteen minutes ago,
like be Italian for two minutes. Yeah, I'm gonna sit
at the table for like an hour until you're hungry again,
and I bring the food out again.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Like yeah, we go on a walk.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, come back.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Fruit there's a bold with fruit some nuts on it.
You have that, then you web dessert like got enjoy life. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
My husband's family, he's Jewish and so he didn't understand
like the feats of the seven fishes. So that was
a big thing. I was like, okay, first we start
with this like we do scompy and then we move
on like the linguini and the clams, and it's like, okay,
well that's it right.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I'm like, no, now we take a walk. This is
just getting started, babe, Like you'll figure it out.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
You'll figure it out the whole day. The whole day
it was actually fried smelts.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, and stretches of pants.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
That's one hundred necessity. You gotta have the pants where
we used to call that wopping out in my house.
You'd open up the top button, maybe lay down on
the floor exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Let it breathe, let it air out. Oh, Lisa, you've
been a joy. Thank you so much for hanging out
with us. And next time you're in Chicago, which is
coming up, I expect to see you.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Come on out, baby, come on, we have a good time.
It's a great club too.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Thank you so much,
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