February 3, 2025 • 43 mins
Welcome to Episode 14 of the Actor's Guide to the End of the World!
Good news- Rían got hit with one of the worst storms in Ireland’s history and lived to tell about it. Quentin Tarantino is sounding off at Sundance about the state of film and how watching theater compares to film right now. Is he right? What does it say about the future of film? Is it going extinct? E-Kan and Rían will dig into it from the actor's perspective and talk about their own experiences on stage (or lack thereof), and why they wish they acted on stage more. Also the value of working in theater vs film and tv as an actor. Is it true theater should be the foundation of most actors?
Also, the guys talk about the Stay In LA petition that is growing momentum and what you need to do to help support the cause (link below), as well as a great editorial by actor PJ Byrne on the importance of keeping productions in LA.
They go down memory lane and talk about their first jobs - Rían touring through Europe, E-Kan shooting a film while living on the beaches of Santa Barbara for a film - and why they would never do it again. Also what are the demands for the modern day actor right now? They discuss why it helps to have the mindset and dedication of a professional athlete and how that will change your career and help you deal with the grind. Also discussed - what are the biggest actor pet peeves and what we wish non-actors would understand about our profession. Why "everyone's a critic". And the power of saying "no."
They also bring up the famous actor who said the difference between theater and film is like the difference between making love and masturbation. They disagreed- what do you think? In the pod, E-Kan mistakenly attributed it to Meryl Streep, but it was Susan Sarandon. Listen to the end and you'll hear the Viktor Frankl quote that got them going down the rabbit hole. This is a good one, folks!
New episodes every Monday! All shows are on YouTube and Substack as well! Let us know what you think. Email us at actorsguidepodcast@gmail.com. Follow us on all social media @actorsguidepodcast
Stay In LA Petition - https://www.stayinla.org/
PJ Bryne editorial - https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/la-bigger-tax-incentive-program-rebuild-fires-1236282891/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRknmmDcF20
Susan Sarandon interview- https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/susan-sarandon
VIktor Frankl - A Man's Search for Meaning- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning
Hidden Gems: About Time (2013)
Free Paddle Tennis (Venice, CA)
Theatr App (resold theater tickets)
Time stamps:
(00:00) Intro
(05:17) Stay In LA Petition to help recovery from the wildfires
(08:12) Tarantino on theater vs film
(11:32) What makes theater special
(14:02) Is theater out of touch? And the future of entertainment
(16:52) Rían toured around with a show around Europe
(17:17) E-Kan's first job living on the beach of Santa Barbara
(19:17) The demands of the modern actor now in 2025
(23:17) Why everyone's a critic when it comes to acting and people just don't understand
(30:17) Their first times on stage
(33:47) Why theater is the purist medium for actors
(35:37) Theater is making love, film is masturbation
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I was so new to LA, I didn't
(00:02):
know how far Santa Barbara was.
And when I was driving to the audition, I
realized I was driving an hour.
I booked that movie.
We lived on the beach of Santa Barbara in
tents and they paid us
in food and cigarettes.
Wow. And I didn't smoke.
So they paid us in food and cigarettes
and I didn't even smoke.
So prison. Hey, guys, welcome to The
Actors Guide to the End of the World.
(00:23):
I'm E-Kan Soong.
This is where we talk about acting in
Hollywood and what people understand.
And this is Rían Sheehy Kelly.
How are you doing?
What's up, buddy?
We got another episode for you wherever
you find your podcast.
We're on YouTube.
We're also on sub stack and on all social
media at Actors Guide podcast.
So on the show for
today, we got the stay in L.A.
(00:45):
petition, 15000 strong focused on getting
production back up and running in L.A.
after the fires.
We have Quentin Tarantino has comments
coming out of Sundance this week
about the state of film,
comparing it to theater.
And we also talk about our
experiences in theater versus film
and why we wish we
did theater more often.
(01:05):
Also, some of the challenges in being an
actor, some of the
things that surround it,
some of the work you have
to do that people never see
that actors have to do
just to stay in the game.
And today's show is brought to you by
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(01:25):
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So we were just talking about the storm.
The storm hit Ireland and and you guys
you guys made it out.
We did. Well, we just didn't go anywhere.
Yeah, it was good. Of course.
What am I talking about?
It was good. It wasn't good.
(01:46):
It was short.
The storm itself lasted about a night and
into the next days,
but less than 24 hours.
I think like the extreme
wind warning was like 2 a.m.
to sort of eleven twelve.
But our power was gone all day.
And then a lot of people, hundreds of
thousands of people lost power.
But some people still don't have power
(02:06):
back in a lot of notes.
There was gusts up to like,
I think was it a hundred and.
Was it 180 kilometers an
hour gusts recorded in Galway,
which is the most that's
ever been recorded here.
So it's pretty extreme.
Because the East Coast,
what's happening on the East Coast?
We actually did get
gusty winds yesterday.
Me and I mean, this sounds so tame.
(02:26):
Me and my dad were actually going out to
play tennis yesterday.
And it literally
started gusting up winds.
They were like, oh, yeah, we probably
shouldn't play today.
That was literally the
extreme of our of our weather.
So it was rough. Sorry.
Sorry, man. Sorry to hear that.
Not much to report on here in Jersey.
I know just a slight disruption to
recreational tennis.
(02:47):
Exactly. Crazy. Your dad still plays
tennis. Fair play to him.
Dude, it's it's really impressive.
He doesn't play pickleball.
No, it's full on tennis.
Swears off pickleball because he's afraid
it's going to hurt his tennis game.
Oh, OK. It's pretty serious.
But yes, yeah, he's very serious.
I've only played street puddle in Venice.
(03:08):
So in Venice, down in Venice speech,
there's a street puddle courts,
which are like short tennis courts.
And you use a paddle tennis racket and a
regular tennis ball.
It sounds like pedal
tennis is literally pickleball,
but just with a tennis ball.
Yeah, yeah, more or less.
Yeah, I think it's a similar.
(03:28):
I think it's a similar.
Racket, I don't know.
I didn't even realize that was a thing.
Yeah. So here's how
seriously they take it down there.
The courts are free, right?
You just walk on, you
have to book or anything.
So there's free courts down in Venice.
There's a little hidden gem for anybody
who's oh, I love this Venice area.
This is what I always do.
I always come up with
something cool at the beginning.
Oh, shit, there's my.
(03:49):
Yeah, that's it.
You just have to get there early.
It's basically about getting getting a
time on them or getting space on them
when there's no one
when they're not too busy.
Weekends very hard to get
a spot, but they only allow
pickleball players on I think it's two
days a week between like 11 and 1 p.m.
There's very certain times that they will
allow pickleball players to play.
(04:11):
Now, I think they could
probably play at other times,
but if a paddle tennis player comes in,
I think they can ask them to leave and
they and they are obliged to leave.
So they get priority.
They get paddle tennis players get
priority over pickleball players.
So that's the rivalry
we're talking about, dude.
I love that.
I mean, to be honest, panel tennis is
(04:32):
more tennis than than pickleball.
But I kind of like that.
Pickleball gets at the bottom of bottom
of the priority list.
I kind of like. Oh, yeah.
Certainly on the Venice Beach.
They don't like that. They
don't like the pickleball.
The stay in L.A. petition.
We shared this a couple
of times over the week.
Yeah.
There's a brand new petition.
(04:52):
Fifteen thousand strong
as of the last posting.
It's probably more now.
This is a petition focused
on getting productions in L.A.
specifically coming back from the fires
and recovering from the fires.
So even more of a focus getting
productions on here in L.A.
And it's a grassroots coalition.
(05:15):
They're proposing uncapping the tax
incentive for productions in L.A.
So we talked about Newsom was pushing a
very large cap late last year.
That would already be competitive with
Atlanta and the rest of the country.
They're proposing uncapping the tax
incentive for three years
as a result from the
(05:35):
relief efforts from the fires.
It's calling on studios and
streamers to pledge at least 10,
10 percent more production in L.A. over
the next three years.
So this is huge.
This was gaining steam. I
saw it popping up. I signed it.
We shared it on our social media at least
a couple of times now.
It grew very quickly in a
week. It's 15000 people,
(05:58):
including Keanu Reeves.
But on a Reeves just
just signed the list.
And you know how much we love Keanu
Reeves at the podcast.
So or more
specifically, I love Keanu Reeves.
We have follow him around the city of New
York whenever you can.
Yeah. Yeah. We have LeVar Burton.
Keanu Reeves and LeVar Burton.
I mean, how can you really top that?
(06:19):
Alison Brie, Jordy LeForge from Star Trek
for any other nerds out there
like myself who grew up
in the next generation.
Yeah, that's that's
how I know LeVar Burton.
That's awesome.
I was actually wondering
if you knew LeVar Burton.
Oh, yeah, I know him from the next
generation because I
used to love Star Trek.
All right. Happy now.
See, I'm not the only geek.
(06:41):
So LeVar Burton also
of Reading Rainbow Fame.
So that's a huge deal.
We're going to put the link in the
description and
hopefully you guys can sign in
and we get some steam.
Yeah. And also I
posted a link on the actress
go podcast Instagram page to an article
in Variety magazine by
(07:02):
an actor that I had the
pleasure of working with.
He's a lovely fellow and a brilliant
actor called PJ Byrne.
He wrote about bringing
production back to L.A.
and tax incentives and everything else.
So we'll post a link to that article,
too, because it's excellent.
Love that. Yeah, that was a
great that was a great one.
Next up, we have some comments.
(07:24):
Just came out of Sundance.
Tarantino is making the rounds.
He actually doesn't have a film in
Sundance this year, I believe.
But a couple of his interview bits,
I believe it was with
with Elvis Mitchell.
He has a Sundance space where he
interviews a lot of people
and Tarantino has been making the rounds.
There's a video that just got popped up
(07:45):
and it's getting some traction.
And he's talking about the value of
theater versus films.
He basically said, what's
the point of a film these days?
He didn't use those words, but it's we're
still trying to figure that out.
You might have a nice splashy release in
a theater for four weeks.
And then it gets shelved
(08:06):
onto Disney or Netflix.
And it's in with the other millions of
titles that are streaming.
And so basically he was
kind of lamenting this idea
of what the film theater
experience is compared to plays,
compared to watching theater.
It's hard to compete because as a when
(08:27):
you're watching a play,
you can't escape
anywhere. You're stuck there.
They own you or they
own your attention for,
you know, an hour and a
half, maybe even longer.
You don't have your
phone out, no distractions,
and you're going to be watched and their
their intention is to
captivate and while you.
This is not that novel, like great
(08:48):
writers have talked about this before,
saying that when they write a film,
they're writing something
that holds your attention, captivates
you, that it demands you
not only to not put down
your phone for two hours,
but it demands all of your attention and
actually might get
you out to the theater,
pay for parking, pay for popcorn and make
(09:10):
a day out of it, make a night out of it.
And so he brings up a really good point.
How many films these days are demanding
us to run out to the theater?
Yeah, I think I
absolutely agree with him on that.
Now, I'm not looking at it from the same
perspective as him necessarily
because he's talking about it from, you
know, the movies that he's he's making.
(09:32):
He said the last good
year for movies was 2019,
and he was already unhappy with how
things were going there.
But absolutely like I love going to the
cinema for so many reasons.
One, because my
concentration levels are so shit like me.
Like the cinema is is one way that I'm
guaranteed to watch the movie
that I'm that I want to see because I'm
(09:53):
just there in the theater.
So it is it is frustrating.
And we talked a bit about it before.
And about sort of studios
pulling the rug on on directors
and promising them a theatrical release
and then releasing it
to streaming instead.
(10:14):
You know, there's something really
special about going to the theater,
about going to the cinema.
As far as theater goes,
there's nothing like it.
And I'm guilty because I haven't gone to
as much theater as I would like to have
or probably should be going to in the
last number of years.
Now, I have a bit more recently like I
went to I talked about it here.
Like I went to a play here.
(10:35):
I'm going to see a
play on Saturday night.
I had forgotten
because it had been a while.
And also living in L.A., you're not as
inclined to go to theater.
It's not as it's not as
ingrained into the culture there
as it is in other cities like New York,
like Dublin, like, you know, London,
like all of these other cities, theaters
more common Chicago to
(10:56):
great theaters in Chicago.
So I had gotten a bit
complacent in L.A., I must say.
I think I went to one
play in recent memory in L.A.
in the last two years, maybe.
But it's it's it's incredible.
When you go, you remember how special it
is like that performance,
a particular chemistry of that
(11:16):
performance will never be seen again.
It was only seen by that
audience on that night in real time.
You know, there's no video of it.
You can't watch it back.
You can't, you know, pause it.
And I don't know, there's something
electric about it affects.
I think it affects
you in a different way.
Certainly affects me in a different way
than watching a movie
(11:37):
or especially watching
a movie on TV or on my.
I mean, sometimes I'll watch movies on my
phone, which is a
dreadful way to do that,
but it's just to kind
of make myself watch them
because I've gotten so used to a phone
and that's that's not
how I don't enjoy that.
You know what I mean?
I'm not. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, I think that's and I think
that's the push and pull
that we have to deal with.
(11:57):
This is the landscape of entertainment.
It's not the fact that Tarantino is
lamenting of the good old days.
He's this is also his his passion.
This is his industry.
It's not too dissimilar from you and you
and I being like, hey,
we love acting.
We hope to be able to do it
(12:17):
for the next 10, 15, 20 years.
What is that going to
look like? We don't know.
This is where the society is going.
It's getting harder and
harder to get butts in the seats.
I'm I'm starting to wonder who the
audience is for these things.
We talk a lot about theater and you've
been able to see great theater in Dublin.
You mentioned this a
(12:38):
couple of episodes ago.
Obviously, we know we can imagine L.A. is
not exactly New York.
When I go to the theater in New York, I'm
fighting to get in, get tickets
that are sold out.
Movie stars, legit movie stars.
I mean, Keanu Reeves is a lot.
Of course, he just top of mind.
Keanu Reeves is
literally doing a Broadway play.
Kieran Colkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr
(13:00):
are literally about to do.
Glenn, Gary, Glenn, Glenn, my buddy, my
pal, John Piritello is in that.
Are you serious? Yeah.
Oh, my God. I would I can't wait.
If I can, I'm going to
try and go see him in it.
Yeah, dude, let me know because I'm going
to I'm going to try
to be over there, too.
Yeah. So this is this is my point.
(13:21):
Broadway is big box office movie stars.
This is the limit. That's
how much money there is.
People are sold out
houses are paying 150
plus dollars a ticket.
So who's their audience?
It's mostly rich,
(13:43):
older, mostly white people.
So what what I'm
worried about is is theater is
is pricing people out
where it's not as accessible.
Good theater.
I'm worried about who the movie theater
is for in the future.
I agree with you on
who is the audience for
theater, and it is expensive.
(14:04):
And that does price people out.
I think it's incumbent on people then to
to sort of make their own stuff.
This is what I saw with the play that I
went to recently in Dublin.
That was a play kind of for everybody and
designed, you know, to to for everybody
to get people into the theater, the play
I'm going to on Saturday night.
(14:26):
Tickets are 22 euro.
It's not we're not talking 50, 75, 100.
So there is that theater there.
The problem I hear from a lot of actors
or the reason that they don't do more
theater is because it just doesn't pay
well and it doesn't suit them as much.
I personally love the
process of TV and film.
I just I get such a
(14:46):
buzz out of all of it.
But I also love doing theater and I've
I've been the same way.
I haven't pursued theater in the last
however, many years in the same way
because it just doesn't
pay as well, you know.
And it's not that I
don't enjoy it. I really do.
But it's a different kind of a it's a
(15:06):
different type of a discipline
it takes to do theater.
It's a different experience, I find being
on stage with an audience live.
But and as much as I love TV and film and
I really, really do,
I have to admit that some of my best jobs
ever have been theater.
You know, I toured I got to tour Europe
(15:27):
early on in my career with with a theater
company, an Irish theater company
and go to like Germany,
Switzerland, Denmark, Austria.
I did this amazing tour and with a small
cast of, you know, three of us
in the four of us in the cast and the
director was also in the cast.
And he had arranged
this tour year after year.
So it was just so, you know, we sort of
(15:49):
jumped on board and got on this tour.
And it was just so special and I didn't
even appreciate it at the time, you know,
because you're getting to see all of
Europe, you're working.
I was young, I was in my
early or mid 20s, maybe.
And I just I didn't even
understand how special that was.
And it was just wow.
It was a blast, you know.
(16:09):
I do. How did you afford
traveling around for three months?
I'm assuming they were
paying your board and all that.
Oh, it was paid. It was
pretty. It was pretty well paid.
I think at the time it was like 500 a
week, which was which was good.
At the time was good wages.
All of our
accommodation obviously was covered.
I mean, I think we had per
diems and everything else.
But so I actually made it was it was it
(16:31):
was not bad for a 24 year old.
Did just know, you know,
a couple years in acting.
No, absolutely.
It's not so much that
the money is too low.
It's it's not as feasible, practical
necessarily to do that.
Now, when you're not 24 years old.
Yeah, it depends on the job, I think, and
(16:52):
it depends on where it is.
I did the first
experience that I really had.
I was fresh out, had no experience, no
acting, literally didn't know anything.
I was so new to L.A.
I didn't know how far Santa Barbara was.
And when I was driving to the audition, I
realized I was driving an hour
and I had no idea how far I
(17:14):
didn't know I do where I was.
I booked that movie, met amazing friends
who all graduated from
fancy NYU film schools.
They paid us.
We lived on the beach
of Santa Barbara in tents
and they paid us some
food and cigarettes.
Wow. And I didn't smoke.
So they paid us some food to cigarettes
and I didn't even smoke.
(17:34):
So my point is prison.
Yeah, I was working at Urban Outfitters
and I took off two months to live on the
beaches of Santa Barbara.
OK, enjoy.
We had so much fun.
You have to do that when you're 24.
But I would never do that again as much
as I had these lifelong
friends that are, first of all,
(17:54):
really successful actors.
That movie never got finally
edited, never got released.
But this is that we still joke around
about editing that film.
Yeah. But that's my point where it was
about the experiences, about the people.
It was about being in your 20s again.
And that's that's one of
those jobs that it's a no brainer.
Yes, when you're 24.
(18:15):
Absolutely. And I think that especially
for younger actors and
when you're starting out,
like take anything, you know what I mean?
Take get any experience you can.
I did a bunch of student
films like here in Ireland.
I did them in Chicago.
But you're dead, right?
When you have rent and bills to think
about and I don't have a
family to to to support.
(18:37):
Exactly. That's another consideration.
So this is the time to
really go out, get out there.
Absolutely. And I do hear people talk
about how people who come from a lot of
money have a leg up in
this in this industry,
because they can afford to you know, they
can maybe they maybe have support while
they're looking for work.
And that makes a big difference when
(18:58):
you're working, you know,
40, 50 hours a week at a
bar job or, you know, a service industry
job or whatever it is.
And you're tired from that.
You're trying to pay your rent and bills.
You're also trying to audition this for
anybody who doesn't know.
This is an expensive career to be in just
with all the things that surround it.
I mean, you have classes, you've
headshots, you have membership of all
(19:19):
these casting websites,
which is another issue that
we might be able to dig into.
Sometimes I think if somebody had to do.
Multiple job interviews every week, you
know, and then get a job for two days and
then they had to go back to
doing those job interviews.
Like we don't get paid for auditions, you
know, like if you spend a lot of your
(19:40):
time and energy just
trying to acquire work.
So acquire skills.
Absolutely, because you have to be good.
A great point. We're a business.
And if we're going to look at ourselves
as a business, we
think about the investment.
The investment early on in our careers is
time, a lot of time.
A good amount of all of our money, we're
(20:01):
paying rent and we're also
paying for headshots and all.
And we're getting very little in return.
But as a business, what can we do to
procure more business?
It's social media, branding, knowing
headshots and knowing how to cast
yourself and also making sure
you're good and getting skills.
We have to do all of that.
(20:22):
And unless you're a trust fund kid,
you're losing money for the first five
years of your career.
And that's normal.
Absolutely. I was watching an Instagram
story from a good pile of
mine who's a brilliant actor.
You know him as well, Mikio Sullivan.
And Mikio is a guy who I've always
admired in the way that he
approaches life in general.
(20:43):
But the way he approaches acting has
always been with such a
curious kind of a mind.
How can he do this better?
How can he learn this skill?
And he was talking about how actors are
athletes basically and
how you put in all this.
You know, it's it's it's there's it's
there's a lot of risk involved in this.
You know, you have to
put in a ton of work.
(21:04):
There's not a lot of job
prospects in this industry.
And talking about trust fund kids, you
know, I can't afford
to be resentful at that.
I mean, good for them.
Like, what a what a blessing that they
have the money to be able to do.
So I can't it doesn't serve me to to be
resentful at anybody
for their circumstances.
(21:25):
Athlete thing because we talked a little
bit about this when we were talking about
the Oscar nominations and award shows.
But back to this athlete thing, Leslie
Kahn also brings up this metaphor a lot.
And I think it's really important.
You and I both grew up playing sports and
it's very something that that helps a lot
of people understand.
The work is intense, requires a lot and
(21:51):
you can't buy your way into it.
It's like someone can
have some advantages.
A lot of people can have advantages.
Someone could have a four, four, four,
four, four second forty time or someone
could be six foot five.
There were a lot of built in advantages.
And I think you you always had a great
mindset and attitude where it's not our
job to be resentful.
It's our job to be in control of what we
(22:13):
can control and work our butts off.
And, you know, being a great actor and
being able to do the work and having the
mindset of staying in the game,
that's going to be really intense work,
regardless of how much money you have.
And I one person wins an Oscar and only
one team wins the Super Bowl.
I know that actors feel a lot of pressure
from outside of them, because it's one of
those jobs that everybody
(22:35):
kind of has an opinion on.
You know what I mean? Like people, if you
say you're an actor,
someone go, what have I seen you?
You know what I mean? It doesn't
translate the other way.
If someone goes, I'm an accountant, you
wouldn't go like, what numbers do you use
that I would know or whatever it is, you
know, whatever the equivalent is.
But this is so this is so good.
I feel like in society because of social
(22:58):
media, because we're getting in touch
with so much information immediately,
I feel like ultimately with the Internet,
everyone is suddenly
becoming an expert on everything.
Like when we talked about Bill Burr and
the fires and he was saying like suddenly
everyone's a fire expert, I
completely agree with you.
We get the shit out of the stick because
(23:19):
our job is not only to do something
difficult when you have five lights and
and twenty five camera crews,
twenty five cameramen and crew members in
front of you and you're having an
intimate scene with one other person.
We're trying to do something very weird
and odd, but make it look easy.
A lot of people look at what film and TV
(23:39):
and what actors do and they joke around
and they have so much fun and they think
it's easy that anybody can do that.
I always had a magnifying glass on us
because the few people that make it get a
way too much money, way too much fame.
And this is the job that we get into.
But I watch a lot of NFL.
(24:02):
I'm an Eagles fan. Go, Birds.
I watch a lot of football stuff and I
feel like sports and
athletes to go back to the metaphor.
How many how many people watching at home
who can't jump over a piece of paper are
screaming and yelling?
What's the matter with you?
How do you miss that ball?
How would you not catch that?
Yes. So I see the parallels, but it's
(24:22):
funny how this is what we're asking for.
We're asking to get the ball and we're
asking for the spotlight.
But, you know, I'm asking for sympathy.
But I mean, this is the
reality of the situation.
No, you're dead right. And it's also
something that people I don't know how
many people I couldn't tell you how many
people over the years have said to me.
I think I'd be good at that.
I think I'd be a good actor.
And you're like, OK, based on what?
(24:43):
Or even the other one is, are you still
trying trying to be an actor?
That wouldn't you
subscribe me fucking crazy.
Are you still trying to be an actor?
And it doesn't help when you're like
working, you know, two other jobs and and
you're struggling with
your own self esteem.
So you're.
This is this is actually really great
because we did we it made me think of
(25:05):
something that we talked only briefly
about last episode, but
it is nice to dig into it.
The differences is art.
And this is kind of like why we love it
and why we get into it.
The beauty of art and beauty of film and
TV and acting is it is really subjective.
Like for people not in the industry,
(25:26):
they're trying to grasp onto something
that they know that they don't really
understand, but also
it's really subjective.
Meaning what is
trying to become an actor?
They don't know.
And so I think going back to the whole
athlete metaphor, it's really helpful
because I put in this many hours of
(25:49):
practice and rehearsal on my skills every
week or at least try to and try to make
it practical in real world versus.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Basically, I went to the beach.
I read a couple of scripts.
I posted a couple things on the Internet
and yeah, like like I mean, that actually
(26:10):
brings up a really interesting point.
What does an actor do when they're quote
unquote trying to become an actor?
I think it's actually kind of even that's
really subjective to about this.
Most of life is a meritocracy.
You work hard in school.
You get good grades.
You maybe go to a good college.
You maybe get a good job.
And I think I knew that that stuff was
(26:31):
unfulfilling to me, but also I wanted to
challenge and see if I could deal with
this crazy life as an
actor where you may make it.
You may work your butt off or you may
make you work your butt off
and you may never make it.
Never get any success.
And are you OK with that?
Can your ego handle that?
And are you going to become a better
(26:51):
person and more fulfilled
person after afterwards?
Yeah, and it's an interesting term,
making it because that's very
subjective in and of itself.
What does making it
in quotes mean to you?
Or like there's a lot of actors, I think
sort of there's a misconception that if
you don't if you don't know who an actor
is, they're not working
or they haven't made it.
Where there are actors out there who work
nonstop, particularly in
(27:13):
TV or just flat out working.
But you've never also commercials.
So commercials like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's so many areas in this industry
where people just make a living.
And but I wanted to dig
into this a little bit.
Because for me, because I didn't grow up
early on with the theater experience, it
(27:34):
was I graduated with in math and econ.
And at the end, and of course, you know,
for the for the new for people just
tuning in, my name's Econ and
I actually was an econ major.
I did a couple of plays.
We did a couple of shows in college.
It was basically like comedy sketches.
We wrote, directed all of as much as I
(27:54):
got a buzz off of that.
I so much get more of a buzz on a film
and TV set and also
personally creating my own projects.
I'd rather edit for 15 hours rather than
being a working a theater show.
Three, four nights a week.
A lot of people, it's
(28:15):
one versus the other.
But you actually sound
like you love both of them.
So I do.
I do. And they are.
You're right. They are very different.
So the first thing I ever did was a short
film when I was in college.
And I loved I've always
been fascinated by films.
So my granddad, my mom's dad,
(28:37):
was a journalist, but he also worked for
the Irish tourist board.
And he was involved in bringing film
investment to Ireland.
So he actually did the deal to bring he
would scout locations
and he would try and attract particularly
American film
companies to film in Ireland.
So he actually the film, the movie Ryan's
Daughter, which was shot in Ireland,
(29:01):
he was the one who actually
got the location for that movie, which
was Dunquinn in Kerry,
County Kerry, where my grandmother lived
for a long time before he started.
So I was aware of film, the idea of film.
I used to make things with a camcorder
when I was very young, you know,
sort of 10, 11, 12.
And I loved the idea of
(29:21):
putting film together.
So I was always fascinated with film.
Like I said, I would do stop motion
animations stuff with a friend of mine.
And he he became he's a
really talented animator.
So I had this idea of making
I loved the process of film.
So I was kind of fascinated by that.
First thing I ever did acting wise,
really did two lines in a play in school
in high school, which I made a balls of
(29:42):
my two lines, one line.
I remember what it was.
I remember the line and I fucked it up.
Oh, you actually you
actually screwed it up.
I screwed it up. We
had a there was a play.
Fifteen minute Hamlet.
I got the smallest part imaginable.
I think was the ghost.
You know what I mean?
A ghost that like says something.
And my line was, look where sadly the
(30:03):
poor wretch comes reading or something.
Or yeah, look for sadly the
poor wretch comes reading.
But I had to kind of run across the stage
and say that instead.
I said, look where sadly the poor wretch
comes running because I was running.
That's how bad.
OK, you were 15 years old, right?
What were you?
Probably 16.
If no, could be I could have been 15.
(30:24):
Actually, that's true.
And I don't know if you if I ever told
you this, I understudied a play
for the first time in L.A.
Oh, it was actually during the pandemic.
An old friend, he's a
very successful playwright.
Oh, my God, it comes full circle.
I know him from the movie on a movie on
the beach in Santa Barbara.
So we did the movie on
(30:45):
the beach in Santa Barbara.
He was one of them.
And to this day, we're still trading
cigarettes with everybody.
Exactly.
He calls me up after the blue.
He's like, hey, you
know, we're doing a play.
I know that you're
not a real theater guy.
We need an understudy.
This is just covid protection.
It doesn't pay that much.
(31:07):
It's literally peanuts.
You're probably not ever
going to need to go up,
but we just need a covid backup.
Literally, the theater was
five minutes away from me.
I told him I'm sold.
And I have no idea what
they've never done a play
for those couple of weeks of rehearsals.
I was the only understudy
that was there trying to be like,
(31:29):
what the heck is going on?
Meeting all the actors.
I was watching all the rehearsals.
There was a moment where.
Possibly I might go on.
So they needed to do
an understudy rehearsal.
They needed to do an understudy rehearsal
because also some of the understudies
were going to go on to.
This was my big moment to act.
(31:49):
They're like, who is this dude who's just
watching the rehearsals?
And we're finally going to see him act
after three, three weeks.
He could shit the bed, right?
On stage for the rehearsal
and the lead actor goes to me,
which is Channing goes, oh, so have you
done a lot of theater?
I go, dude, I've never
been on a stage before.
We do the handful of scenes.
(32:11):
I give it a whirl.
Production manager comes up to me
afterwards, he goes, econ.
That was fantastic.
You put so much work
into it and it shows.
And I'm like, I did not need to go on.
But my point is, is that was the only
bite of a theater experience.
(32:33):
And I would have loved to be
hanging out with, you know,
goofing off with those people three
nights a week and, you know,
going out to the bars after work.
That's great. That was it.
You should do a play.
You should do a play.
I'm actually not against
it. I'm not against it.
I will say in film, and
this occurred to me as well,
you have to let go of a lot more in film,
(32:55):
I think, because, you know,
and there's a lot of power in theater
because you're on stage or with another
actor, you know, you can you can
hopefully be as prepared as possible
and then see what happens.
And there's a certain amount of letting
go in that because, you know,
have to you have to be listening and
present and the audience will contribute
or whatever. But in film,
there's so many people involved.
(33:16):
You're a small part of this
process and you have no control
and no say over how it turns out, how
it's edited, what takes they use.
So there is a lot
more letting go in film.
And theater is a lot of trust.
A lot of trust. Yeah, totally. Yeah.
And that's kind of that's one of the
things I do love about it.
It's such a collaborative effort and you
(33:37):
really don't know how
it's going to turn out.
And you're always hopeful
it's going to be amazing.
And you're always hopeful that, you know,
your performance comes across OK.
Or, you know, it's it's very hard.
You can't really be self-aware while
you're doing it, even
though it is very technical.
It's a real dance between all of these
(33:57):
skills you've learned over the years
and all of the technical side is letting
go of that in the moment
and trying to not be aware, self-aware of
your performance as it's happening.
But also knowing that like you can't move
your head this much and you can't,
you know, there are certain things you
can't you're
restricted by the by the camera,
by the frame and sound and
(34:19):
everything else and blocking.
And so it's a very technical thing, but I
kind of love that side of it, too.
This is why all the great actors,
obviously, they're biased.
Denzel Washington, Jeff Daniels,
obviously, they're hardcore.
They're saying get on stage, get on
stage, get on stage.
But this is another great point that we
should probably get that across.
The theater is the probably the only
place where an actor has power.
(34:40):
Because the way that they say it is film
is a director's medium, which is fair.
And it's so different now where we can
almost say it's a
director's editor's medium.
Right. Because obviously it's mostly
digital and you're
creating the final cut.
They say TV is a writer's
medium. Makes sense, right?
(35:01):
Because the TV director, I mean, you're
basically doing the 20th episode of 350
episodes and then
theater is the actor's medium.
So I think that's if there's no bigger
plug than doing theater
for actors, it's that.
It's probably the last time where actors
it's probably the the the one medium
where actors have the most power is on
(35:21):
the tip of my tongue.
When you're like
describing the difference.
I want to say this is Meryl Streep.
Meryl Streep has the most iconic quote
about the difference
between theater and film.
She said theater is sex and
then film is masturbation.
I don't know about that.
Oh, really? Oh, I I get that.
(35:44):
The experience of acting in theater
versus acting in film.
I call I 100 percent get that as much as
I respect and love film.
The difference is is when does the
audience participate in it?
In a play, the audience is participating
literally in real time
in the same moment, in the same room.
And then for film and TV, it's a year and
(36:08):
a half later when it
comes out on Netflix.
And so obviously she's joking about it.
I mean, I still love film and, you know,
you're still intimately active
with the camera, but I
just think it's really funny.
It's it's the other thing about this
career that I love is that
there's so much variation.
Like, I don't know what I'm going to be
doing from job to job,
(36:29):
week to week, day to day often.
And I love that there anything can come.
This is what I love emails now, because
anything can come in the.
It's usually like
auditions come through email.
So anything can come that way.
And like, you don't know what's next.
And I get so excited when my email
notification goes up,
because it could be anything.
(36:49):
And I love the fact that I get to do film
and TV and, you know,
and theater as well.
And I when I moved to Chicago,
I just set myself up to do film and TV
because it's kind of
what I had more of an interest in.
So I set my life up that way.
So, you know, I was bartending at night.
I was keeping my days free
(37:10):
to audition for film and TV.
And maybe I missed out on a lot of
theater by doing that.
I just want to highlight that
when we say yes to something,
we are saying no to something.
Those are the challenges.
You know, a lot of actors,
they delay having a family.
They delay settling settling
down because they know, hey,
this is where my focus is.
And we ultimately have to
say to know the certain things.
(37:31):
And we just want to live our lives in a
way where we're not second guessing
or having regrets afterwards.
So I love this quote is from Victor
Frankl, who wrote
Man's Search for Meaning.
Live life as if it's the second time and
you screwed it up the first.
And so we think about this.
OK, yeah. So that's
actually a paraphrase.
His was much more kind of
(37:53):
like poetic and eloquent.
I remember this piece.
Hugh Jackman was doing an
interview on Tim Ferriss
and he quoted this, but
he paraphrased it that way.
Trying to get my head around.
OK, go on. You tell me
what it what it means.
And what's what's your
interpretation of it?
You had the freedom to live in the now.
And you have the free.
It's almost like freedom and permission.
(38:14):
Yeah, I have the freedom and permission.
Oh, this is really blowing your mind.
The fact that we have is I have to I want
to I want to understand this.
I want to understand it.
So I thought that you
actually already heard this before.
But but no, I didn't.
It's it's it's almost
like back to the future.
It's almost like that freedom where it's
like I can do something now.
And I'm living in this beautiful life
(38:36):
where I can recorrect
from mistakes that I made the first time.
Yeah, just imagine getting
a second shot at something.
Let's say you have you're shooting a free
throw to win the game.
What happens if you got a second shot?
It's kind of exciting, right?
What happens if you get
another crack at the apple?
Would you do anything differently?
Would you ask that girl out?
Would you, you know, quit your job and go
(38:57):
do that theater job?
I mean, who knows? OK.
So here's here's a live as if you were
living already for the second time.
And if you had and as if you had acted
the first time as wrongly
as you are about to act now.
Exactly. It's confusing that way, right?
Actually, that actually we might have to
bring that back for another episode
because Hugh Jackman was
kind of going off on this.
(39:21):
And and he was talking a
lot about and Tim Ferriss,
and he had a lot of
really brilliant mindset things
that he talked about that
was very similar to this.
So we might bring this back.
But yeah, that's that's
a really famous quote.
Um, the way you got a second
shot, enjoy it and don't leave.
(39:43):
Don't hold anything back.
You know what? I love that.
Someone has likened this
to the movie About Time.
Have you seen that movie?
I actually haven't.
It is a stunning. It's a brilliant movie.
Donald Gleason is in it and Bill Nye.
And it's basically
about the concept of time.
(40:05):
I won't ruin the movie,
but it's a brilliant movie.
We're going to pin
this for the next time.
But either way, that movie could also be
a hidden gem for you.
Absolutely. That's two hidden gems.
Yeah. Speaking of,
let's get to hidden gems.
Let's get to hidden gems.
Hidden gems flying out of me today, guys,
based on words that have come out of my
mouth already in this episode.
(40:26):
Hidden gem number one, Paddle Tennis
Courts in Venice Beach, California.
If you have never played, get down there.
They're free. You're better
off getting them on a weekday
because there are less people around.
But there's Paddle Tennis Courts.
You can get a pick up a
paddle racket for relatively cheap.
And a tennis ball.
And go down there and just
have a wild time for yourself
(40:47):
smashing that ball over that small net
and in that small court.
Beautiful. The second one
is the movie About Time.
If anybody hasn't seen
it, I'd highly recommend it.
It's an excellent movie
from a good few years ago now
with a young Donald
Gleason and Bill Nye is in it.
And Rachel McAdams is in it.
And as is Margot Robbie.
(41:08):
So all. Oh, it's got
a great cause to cast.
So About Time and Paddle Tennis in Venice
Beach, California for free.
Not pickleball, guys. All right.
Your fancy whistling pickleball.
A lot of cities are complaining.
Pickleball is too loud with the wiggle
ball just smacking back and forth.
This is kind of like a twack sound of it.
(41:30):
Oh, yeah. Oh, it's a horrible
sound. It's a horrible sound.
Anyway, so my my hidden gem.
We've been talking about theater and
we've been talking about
trying to make them affordable.
I'm amazed that of all the
times I've been talking about
trying to get cheap theater tickets, I
haven't I haven't discovered this app.
A friend told me about it. A friend in
New York, Andrew O'Shanek.
(41:51):
Love, lovely fella. Yep.
Good old, good old Andrew from class.
Oh, man. The theater app.
T H E A T R.
No E for some reason, because it's second
hand theater tickets.
It's like StubHub, but for theater.
I know. Good God. How
did I not know this before?
I'm literally getting buzzes for last
(42:12):
minute tickets that
are discounted and cheap.
These people are selling the tickets that
are trying to get rid of.
It's the most brilliant thing.
I haven't even knew it was a
thing until Andrew told me.
I was like, how did I
not know this before?
Anyway, that's our course.
You would know that.
Of course, Broadway actor
Andrew O'Shanek would know that.
Exactly. Broadway Broadway's finest.
Absolutely.
(42:33):
So that is our hidden gems, folks.
And there we have it. Another great
episode. Thanks, Ryan.
Hope you enjoy it.
Leave us a comment.
Hit us up on social media at Actors Guide
podcast, and we'll see you next week.
Absolutely. Looking
forward to it. See you.
I was so new to LA, I didn't
(00:02):
know how far Santa Barbara was.
And when I was driving to the audition, I
realized I was driving an hour.
I booked that movie.
We lived on the beach of Santa Barbara in
tents and they paid us
in food and cigarettes.
Wow. And I didn't smoke.
So they paid us in food and cigarettes
and I didn't even smoke.
So prison. Hey, guys, welcome to The
Actors Guide to the End of the World.
(00:23):
I'm E-Kan Soong.
This is where we talk about acting in
Hollywood and what people understand.
And this is Rían Sheehy Kelly.
How are you doing?
What's up, buddy?
We got another episode for you wherever
you find your podcast.
We're on YouTube.
We're also on sub stack and on all social
media at Actors Guide podcast.
So on the show for
today, we got the stay in L.A.
(00:45):
petition, 15000 strong focused on getting
production back up and running in L.A.
after the fires.
We have Quentin Tarantino has comments
coming out of Sundance this week
about the state of film,
comparing it to theater.
And we also talk about our
experiences in theater versus film
and why we wish we
did theater more often.
(01:05):
Also, some of the challenges in being an
actor, some of the
things that surround it,
some of the work you have
to do that people never see
that actors have to do
just to stay in the game.
And today's show is brought to you by
tired of looking up
at your romantic lead.
Need a step letter or
kiss your romantic costar?
Tired of just being Danny DeVito and
twins and not Arnold
Schwarzenegger and twins?
(01:25):
Give yourself a boost with Hollywood
Heels in so you're
going to go from Tom Cruise
to Terry Crews now in Crocs.
So we were just talking about the storm.
The storm hit Ireland and and you guys
you guys made it out.
We did. Well, we just didn't go anywhere.
Yeah, it was good. Of course.
What am I talking about?
It was good. It wasn't good.
(01:46):
It was short.
The storm itself lasted about a night and
into the next days,
but less than 24 hours.
I think like the extreme
wind warning was like 2 a.m.
to sort of eleven twelve.
But our power was gone all day.
And then a lot of people, hundreds of
thousands of people lost power.
But some people still don't have power
(02:06):
back in a lot of notes.
There was gusts up to like,
I think was it a hundred and.
Was it 180 kilometers an
hour gusts recorded in Galway,
which is the most that's
ever been recorded here.
So it's pretty extreme.
Because the East Coast,
what's happening on the East Coast?
We actually did get
gusty winds yesterday.
Me and I mean, this sounds so tame.
(02:26):
Me and my dad were actually going out to
play tennis yesterday.
And it literally
started gusting up winds.
They were like, oh, yeah, we probably
shouldn't play today.
That was literally the
extreme of our of our weather.
So it was rough. Sorry.
Sorry, man. Sorry to hear that.
Not much to report on here in Jersey.
I know just a slight disruption to
recreational tennis.
(02:47):
Exactly. Crazy. Your dad still plays
tennis. Fair play to him.
Dude, it's it's really impressive.
He doesn't play pickleball.
No, it's full on tennis.
Swears off pickleball because he's afraid
it's going to hurt his tennis game.
Oh, OK. It's pretty serious.
But yes, yeah, he's very serious.
I've only played street puddle in Venice.
(03:08):
So in Venice, down in Venice speech,
there's a street puddle courts,
which are like short tennis courts.
And you use a paddle tennis racket and a
regular tennis ball.
It sounds like pedal
tennis is literally pickleball,
but just with a tennis ball.
Yeah, yeah, more or less.
Yeah, I think it's a similar.
(03:28):
I think it's a similar.
Racket, I don't know.
I didn't even realize that was a thing.
Yeah. So here's how
seriously they take it down there.
The courts are free, right?
You just walk on, you
have to book or anything.
So there's free courts down in Venice.
There's a little hidden gem for anybody
who's oh, I love this Venice area.
This is what I always do.
I always come up with
something cool at the beginning.
Oh, shit, there's my.
(03:49):
Yeah, that's it.
You just have to get there early.
It's basically about getting getting a
time on them or getting space on them
when there's no one
when they're not too busy.
Weekends very hard to get
a spot, but they only allow
pickleball players on I think it's two
days a week between like 11 and 1 p.m.
There's very certain times that they will
allow pickleball players to play.
(04:11):
Now, I think they could
probably play at other times,
but if a paddle tennis player comes in,
I think they can ask them to leave and
they and they are obliged to leave.
So they get priority.
They get paddle tennis players get
priority over pickleball players.
So that's the rivalry
we're talking about, dude.
I love that.
I mean, to be honest, panel tennis is
(04:32):
more tennis than than pickleball.
But I kind of like that.
Pickleball gets at the bottom of bottom
of the priority list.
I kind of like. Oh, yeah.
Certainly on the Venice Beach.
They don't like that. They
don't like the pickleball.
The stay in L.A. petition.
We shared this a couple
of times over the week.
Yeah.
There's a brand new petition.
(04:52):
Fifteen thousand strong
as of the last posting.
It's probably more now.
This is a petition focused
on getting productions in L.A.
specifically coming back from the fires
and recovering from the fires.
So even more of a focus getting
productions on here in L.A.
And it's a grassroots coalition.
(05:15):
They're proposing uncapping the tax
incentive for productions in L.A.
So we talked about Newsom was pushing a
very large cap late last year.
That would already be competitive with
Atlanta and the rest of the country.
They're proposing uncapping the tax
incentive for three years
as a result from the
(05:35):
relief efforts from the fires.
It's calling on studios and
streamers to pledge at least 10,
10 percent more production in L.A. over
the next three years.
So this is huge.
This was gaining steam. I
saw it popping up. I signed it.
We shared it on our social media at least
a couple of times now.
It grew very quickly in a
week. It's 15000 people,
(05:58):
including Keanu Reeves.
But on a Reeves just
just signed the list.
And you know how much we love Keanu
Reeves at the podcast.
So or more
specifically, I love Keanu Reeves.
We have follow him around the city of New
York whenever you can.
Yeah. Yeah. We have LeVar Burton.
Keanu Reeves and LeVar Burton.
I mean, how can you really top that?
(06:19):
Alison Brie, Jordy LeForge from Star Trek
for any other nerds out there
like myself who grew up
in the next generation.
Yeah, that's that's
how I know LeVar Burton.
That's awesome.
I was actually wondering
if you knew LeVar Burton.
Oh, yeah, I know him from the next
generation because I
used to love Star Trek.
All right. Happy now.
See, I'm not the only geek.
(06:41):
So LeVar Burton also
of Reading Rainbow Fame.
So that's a huge deal.
We're going to put the link in the
description and
hopefully you guys can sign in
and we get some steam.
Yeah. And also I
posted a link on the actress
go podcast Instagram page to an article
in Variety magazine by
(07:02):
an actor that I had the
pleasure of working with.
He's a lovely fellow and a brilliant
actor called PJ Byrne.
He wrote about bringing
production back to L.A.
and tax incentives and everything else.
So we'll post a link to that article,
too, because it's excellent.
Love that. Yeah, that was a
great that was a great one.
Next up, we have some comments.
(07:24):
Just came out of Sundance.
Tarantino is making the rounds.
He actually doesn't have a film in
Sundance this year, I believe.
But a couple of his interview bits,
I believe it was with
with Elvis Mitchell.
He has a Sundance space where he
interviews a lot of people
and Tarantino has been making the rounds.
There's a video that just got popped up
(07:45):
and it's getting some traction.
And he's talking about the value of
theater versus films.
He basically said, what's
the point of a film these days?
He didn't use those words, but it's we're
still trying to figure that out.
You might have a nice splashy release in
a theater for four weeks.
And then it gets shelved
(08:06):
onto Disney or Netflix.
And it's in with the other millions of
titles that are streaming.
And so basically he was
kind of lamenting this idea
of what the film theater
experience is compared to plays,
compared to watching theater.
It's hard to compete because as a when
(08:27):
you're watching a play,
you can't escape
anywhere. You're stuck there.
They own you or they
own your attention for,
you know, an hour and a
half, maybe even longer.
You don't have your
phone out, no distractions,
and you're going to be watched and their
their intention is to
captivate and while you.
This is not that novel, like great
(08:48):
writers have talked about this before,
saying that when they write a film,
they're writing something
that holds your attention, captivates
you, that it demands you
not only to not put down
your phone for two hours,
but it demands all of your attention and
actually might get
you out to the theater,
pay for parking, pay for popcorn and make
(09:10):
a day out of it, make a night out of it.
And so he brings up a really good point.
How many films these days are demanding
us to run out to the theater?
Yeah, I think I
absolutely agree with him on that.
Now, I'm not looking at it from the same
perspective as him necessarily
because he's talking about it from, you
know, the movies that he's he's making.
(09:32):
He said the last good
year for movies was 2019,
and he was already unhappy with how
things were going there.
But absolutely like I love going to the
cinema for so many reasons.
One, because my
concentration levels are so shit like me.
Like the cinema is is one way that I'm
guaranteed to watch the movie
that I'm that I want to see because I'm
(09:53):
just there in the theater.
So it is it is frustrating.
And we talked a bit about it before.
And about sort of studios
pulling the rug on on directors
and promising them a theatrical release
and then releasing it
to streaming instead.
(10:14):
You know, there's something really
special about going to the theater,
about going to the cinema.
As far as theater goes,
there's nothing like it.
And I'm guilty because I haven't gone to
as much theater as I would like to have
or probably should be going to in the
last number of years.
Now, I have a bit more recently like I
went to I talked about it here.
Like I went to a play here.
(10:35):
I'm going to see a
play on Saturday night.
I had forgotten
because it had been a while.
And also living in L.A., you're not as
inclined to go to theater.
It's not as it's not as
ingrained into the culture there
as it is in other cities like New York,
like Dublin, like, you know, London,
like all of these other cities, theaters
more common Chicago to
(10:56):
great theaters in Chicago.
So I had gotten a bit
complacent in L.A., I must say.
I think I went to one
play in recent memory in L.A.
in the last two years, maybe.
But it's it's it's incredible.
When you go, you remember how special it
is like that performance,
a particular chemistry of that
(11:16):
performance will never be seen again.
It was only seen by that
audience on that night in real time.
You know, there's no video of it.
You can't watch it back.
You can't, you know, pause it.
And I don't know, there's something
electric about it affects.
I think it affects
you in a different way.
Certainly affects me in a different way
than watching a movie
(11:37):
or especially watching
a movie on TV or on my.
I mean, sometimes I'll watch movies on my
phone, which is a
dreadful way to do that,
but it's just to kind
of make myself watch them
because I've gotten so used to a phone
and that's that's not
how I don't enjoy that.
You know what I mean?
I'm not. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, I think that's and I think
that's the push and pull
that we have to deal with.
(11:57):
This is the landscape of entertainment.
It's not the fact that Tarantino is
lamenting of the good old days.
He's this is also his his passion.
This is his industry.
It's not too dissimilar from you and you
and I being like, hey,
we love acting.
We hope to be able to do it
(12:17):
for the next 10, 15, 20 years.
What is that going to
look like? We don't know.
This is where the society is going.
It's getting harder and
harder to get butts in the seats.
I'm I'm starting to wonder who the
audience is for these things.
We talk a lot about theater and you've
been able to see great theater in Dublin.
You mentioned this a
(12:38):
couple of episodes ago.
Obviously, we know we can imagine L.A. is
not exactly New York.
When I go to the theater in New York, I'm
fighting to get in, get tickets
that are sold out.
Movie stars, legit movie stars.
I mean, Keanu Reeves is a lot.
Of course, he just top of mind.
Keanu Reeves is
literally doing a Broadway play.
Kieran Colkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr
(13:00):
are literally about to do.
Glenn, Gary, Glenn, Glenn, my buddy, my
pal, John Piritello is in that.
Are you serious? Yeah.
Oh, my God. I would I can't wait.
If I can, I'm going to
try and go see him in it.
Yeah, dude, let me know because I'm going
to I'm going to try
to be over there, too.
Yeah. So this is this is my point.
(13:21):
Broadway is big box office movie stars.
This is the limit. That's
how much money there is.
People are sold out
houses are paying 150
plus dollars a ticket.
So who's their audience?
It's mostly rich,
(13:43):
older, mostly white people.
So what what I'm
worried about is is theater is
is pricing people out
where it's not as accessible.
Good theater.
I'm worried about who the movie theater
is for in the future.
I agree with you on
who is the audience for
theater, and it is expensive.
(14:04):
And that does price people out.
I think it's incumbent on people then to
to sort of make their own stuff.
This is what I saw with the play that I
went to recently in Dublin.
That was a play kind of for everybody and
designed, you know, to to for everybody
to get people into the theater, the play
I'm going to on Saturday night.
(14:26):
Tickets are 22 euro.
It's not we're not talking 50, 75, 100.
So there is that theater there.
The problem I hear from a lot of actors
or the reason that they don't do more
theater is because it just doesn't pay
well and it doesn't suit them as much.
I personally love the
process of TV and film.
I just I get such a
(14:46):
buzz out of all of it.
But I also love doing theater and I've
I've been the same way.
I haven't pursued theater in the last
however, many years in the same way
because it just doesn't
pay as well, you know.
And it's not that I
don't enjoy it. I really do.
But it's a different kind of a it's a
(15:06):
different type of a discipline
it takes to do theater.
It's a different experience, I find being
on stage with an audience live.
But and as much as I love TV and film and
I really, really do,
I have to admit that some of my best jobs
ever have been theater.
You know, I toured I got to tour Europe
(15:27):
early on in my career with with a theater
company, an Irish theater company
and go to like Germany,
Switzerland, Denmark, Austria.
I did this amazing tour and with a small
cast of, you know, three of us
in the four of us in the cast and the
director was also in the cast.
And he had arranged
this tour year after year.
So it was just so, you know, we sort of
(15:49):
jumped on board and got on this tour.
And it was just so special and I didn't
even appreciate it at the time, you know,
because you're getting to see all of
Europe, you're working.
I was young, I was in my
early or mid 20s, maybe.
And I just I didn't even
understand how special that was.
And it was just wow.
It was a blast, you know.
(16:09):
I do. How did you afford
traveling around for three months?
I'm assuming they were
paying your board and all that.
Oh, it was paid. It was
pretty. It was pretty well paid.
I think at the time it was like 500 a
week, which was which was good.
At the time was good wages.
All of our
accommodation obviously was covered.
I mean, I think we had per
diems and everything else.
But so I actually made it was it was it
(16:31):
was not bad for a 24 year old.
Did just know, you know,
a couple years in acting.
No, absolutely.
It's not so much that
the money is too low.
It's it's not as feasible, practical
necessarily to do that.
Now, when you're not 24 years old.
Yeah, it depends on the job, I think, and
(16:52):
it depends on where it is.
I did the first
experience that I really had.
I was fresh out, had no experience, no
acting, literally didn't know anything.
I was so new to L.A.
I didn't know how far Santa Barbara was.
And when I was driving to the audition, I
realized I was driving an hour
and I had no idea how far I
(17:14):
didn't know I do where I was.
I booked that movie, met amazing friends
who all graduated from
fancy NYU film schools.
They paid us.
We lived on the beach
of Santa Barbara in tents
and they paid us some
food and cigarettes.
Wow. And I didn't smoke.
So they paid us some food to cigarettes
and I didn't even smoke.
(17:34):
So my point is prison.
Yeah, I was working at Urban Outfitters
and I took off two months to live on the
beaches of Santa Barbara.
OK, enjoy.
We had so much fun.
You have to do that when you're 24.
But I would never do that again as much
as I had these lifelong
friends that are, first of all,
(17:54):
really successful actors.
That movie never got finally
edited, never got released.
But this is that we still joke around
about editing that film.
Yeah. But that's my point where it was
about the experiences, about the people.
It was about being in your 20s again.
And that's that's one of
those jobs that it's a no brainer.
Yes, when you're 24.
(18:15):
Absolutely. And I think that especially
for younger actors and
when you're starting out,
like take anything, you know what I mean?
Take get any experience you can.
I did a bunch of student
films like here in Ireland.
I did them in Chicago.
But you're dead, right?
When you have rent and bills to think
about and I don't have a
family to to to support.
(18:37):
Exactly. That's another consideration.
So this is the time to
really go out, get out there.
Absolutely. And I do hear people talk
about how people who come from a lot of
money have a leg up in
this in this industry,
because they can afford to you know, they
can maybe they maybe have support while
they're looking for work.
And that makes a big difference when
(18:58):
you're working, you know,
40, 50 hours a week at a
bar job or, you know, a service industry
job or whatever it is.
And you're tired from that.
You're trying to pay your rent and bills.
You're also trying to audition this for
anybody who doesn't know.
This is an expensive career to be in just
with all the things that surround it.
I mean, you have classes, you've
headshots, you have membership of all
(19:19):
these casting websites,
which is another issue that
we might be able to dig into.
Sometimes I think if somebody had to do.
Multiple job interviews every week, you
know, and then get a job for two days and
then they had to go back to
doing those job interviews.
Like we don't get paid for auditions, you
know, like if you spend a lot of your
(19:40):
time and energy just
trying to acquire work.
So acquire skills.
Absolutely, because you have to be good.
A great point. We're a business.
And if we're going to look at ourselves
as a business, we
think about the investment.
The investment early on in our careers is
time, a lot of time.
A good amount of all of our money, we're
(20:01):
paying rent and we're also
paying for headshots and all.
And we're getting very little in return.
But as a business, what can we do to
procure more business?
It's social media, branding, knowing
headshots and knowing how to cast
yourself and also making sure
you're good and getting skills.
We have to do all of that.
(20:22):
And unless you're a trust fund kid,
you're losing money for the first five
years of your career.
And that's normal.
Absolutely. I was watching an Instagram
story from a good pile of
mine who's a brilliant actor.
You know him as well, Mikio Sullivan.
And Mikio is a guy who I've always
admired in the way that he
approaches life in general.
(20:43):
But the way he approaches acting has
always been with such a
curious kind of a mind.
How can he do this better?
How can he learn this skill?
And he was talking about how actors are
athletes basically and
how you put in all this.
You know, it's it's it's there's it's
there's a lot of risk involved in this.
You know, you have to
put in a ton of work.
(21:04):
There's not a lot of job
prospects in this industry.
And talking about trust fund kids, you
know, I can't afford
to be resentful at that.
I mean, good for them.
Like, what a what a blessing that they
have the money to be able to do.
So I can't it doesn't serve me to to be
resentful at anybody
for their circumstances.
(21:25):
Athlete thing because we talked a little
bit about this when we were talking about
the Oscar nominations and award shows.
But back to this athlete thing, Leslie
Kahn also brings up this metaphor a lot.
And I think it's really important.
You and I both grew up playing sports and
it's very something that that helps a lot
of people understand.
The work is intense, requires a lot and
(21:51):
you can't buy your way into it.
It's like someone can
have some advantages.
A lot of people can have advantages.
Someone could have a four, four, four,
four, four second forty time or someone
could be six foot five.
There were a lot of built in advantages.
And I think you you always had a great
mindset and attitude where it's not our
job to be resentful.
It's our job to be in control of what we
(22:13):
can control and work our butts off.
And, you know, being a great actor and
being able to do the work and having the
mindset of staying in the game,
that's going to be really intense work,
regardless of how much money you have.
And I one person wins an Oscar and only
one team wins the Super Bowl.
I know that actors feel a lot of pressure
from outside of them, because it's one of
those jobs that everybody
(22:35):
kind of has an opinion on.
You know what I mean? Like people, if you
say you're an actor,
someone go, what have I seen you?
You know what I mean? It doesn't
translate the other way.
If someone goes, I'm an accountant, you
wouldn't go like, what numbers do you use
that I would know or whatever it is, you
know, whatever the equivalent is.
But this is so this is so good.
I feel like in society because of social
(22:58):
media, because we're getting in touch
with so much information immediately,
I feel like ultimately with the Internet,
everyone is suddenly
becoming an expert on everything.
Like when we talked about Bill Burr and
the fires and he was saying like suddenly
everyone's a fire expert, I
completely agree with you.
We get the shit out of the stick because
(23:19):
our job is not only to do something
difficult when you have five lights and
and twenty five camera crews,
twenty five cameramen and crew members in
front of you and you're having an
intimate scene with one other person.
We're trying to do something very weird
and odd, but make it look easy.
A lot of people look at what film and TV
(23:39):
and what actors do and they joke around
and they have so much fun and they think
it's easy that anybody can do that.
I always had a magnifying glass on us
because the few people that make it get a
way too much money, way too much fame.
And this is the job that we get into.
But I watch a lot of NFL.
(24:02):
I'm an Eagles fan. Go, Birds.
I watch a lot of football stuff and I
feel like sports and
athletes to go back to the metaphor.
How many how many people watching at home
who can't jump over a piece of paper are
screaming and yelling?
What's the matter with you?
How do you miss that ball?
How would you not catch that?
Yes. So I see the parallels, but it's
(24:22):
funny how this is what we're asking for.
We're asking to get the ball and we're
asking for the spotlight.
But, you know, I'm asking for sympathy.
But I mean, this is the
reality of the situation.
No, you're dead right. And it's also
something that people I don't know how
many people I couldn't tell you how many
people over the years have said to me.
I think I'd be good at that.
I think I'd be a good actor.
And you're like, OK, based on what?
(24:43):
Or even the other one is, are you still
trying trying to be an actor?
That wouldn't you
subscribe me fucking crazy.
Are you still trying to be an actor?
And it doesn't help when you're like
working, you know, two other jobs and and
you're struggling with
your own self esteem.
So you're.
This is this is actually really great
because we did we it made me think of
(25:05):
something that we talked only briefly
about last episode, but
it is nice to dig into it.
The differences is art.
And this is kind of like why we love it
and why we get into it.
The beauty of art and beauty of film and
TV and acting is it is really subjective.
Like for people not in the industry,
(25:26):
they're trying to grasp onto something
that they know that they don't really
understand, but also
it's really subjective.
Meaning what is
trying to become an actor?
They don't know.
And so I think going back to the whole
athlete metaphor, it's really helpful
because I put in this many hours of
(25:49):
practice and rehearsal on my skills every
week or at least try to and try to make
it practical in real world versus.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Basically, I went to the beach.
I read a couple of scripts.
I posted a couple things on the Internet
and yeah, like like I mean, that actually
(26:10):
brings up a really interesting point.
What does an actor do when they're quote
unquote trying to become an actor?
I think it's actually kind of even that's
really subjective to about this.
Most of life is a meritocracy.
You work hard in school.
You get good grades.
You maybe go to a good college.
You maybe get a good job.
And I think I knew that that stuff was
(26:31):
unfulfilling to me, but also I wanted to
challenge and see if I could deal with
this crazy life as an
actor where you may make it.
You may work your butt off or you may
make you work your butt off
and you may never make it.
Never get any success.
And are you OK with that?
Can your ego handle that?
And are you going to become a better
(26:51):
person and more fulfilled
person after afterwards?
Yeah, and it's an interesting term,
making it because that's very
subjective in and of itself.
What does making it
in quotes mean to you?
Or like there's a lot of actors, I think
sort of there's a misconception that if
you don't if you don't know who an actor
is, they're not working
or they haven't made it.
Where there are actors out there who work
nonstop, particularly in
(27:13):
TV or just flat out working.
But you've never also commercials.
So commercials like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's so many areas in this industry
where people just make a living.
And but I wanted to dig
into this a little bit.
Because for me, because I didn't grow up
early on with the theater experience, it
(27:34):
was I graduated with in math and econ.
And at the end, and of course, you know,
for the for the new for people just
tuning in, my name's Econ and
I actually was an econ major.
I did a couple of plays.
We did a couple of shows in college.
It was basically like comedy sketches.
We wrote, directed all of as much as I
(27:54):
got a buzz off of that.
I so much get more of a buzz on a film
and TV set and also
personally creating my own projects.
I'd rather edit for 15 hours rather than
being a working a theater show.
Three, four nights a week.
A lot of people, it's
(28:15):
one versus the other.
But you actually sound
like you love both of them.
So I do.
I do. And they are.
You're right. They are very different.
So the first thing I ever did was a short
film when I was in college.
And I loved I've always
been fascinated by films.
So my granddad, my mom's dad,
(28:37):
was a journalist, but he also worked for
the Irish tourist board.
And he was involved in bringing film
investment to Ireland.
So he actually did the deal to bring he
would scout locations
and he would try and attract particularly
American film
companies to film in Ireland.
So he actually the film, the movie Ryan's
Daughter, which was shot in Ireland,
(29:01):
he was the one who actually
got the location for that movie, which
was Dunquinn in Kerry,
County Kerry, where my grandmother lived
for a long time before he started.
So I was aware of film, the idea of film.
I used to make things with a camcorder
when I was very young, you know,
sort of 10, 11, 12.
And I loved the idea of
(29:21):
putting film together.
So I was always fascinated with film.
Like I said, I would do stop motion
animations stuff with a friend of mine.
And he he became he's a
really talented animator.
So I had this idea of making
I loved the process of film.
So I was kind of fascinated by that.
First thing I ever did acting wise,
really did two lines in a play in school
in high school, which I made a balls of
(29:42):
my two lines, one line.
I remember what it was.
I remember the line and I fucked it up.
Oh, you actually you
actually screwed it up.
I screwed it up. We
had a there was a play.
Fifteen minute Hamlet.
I got the smallest part imaginable.
I think was the ghost.
You know what I mean?
A ghost that like says something.
And my line was, look where sadly the
(30:03):
poor wretch comes reading or something.
Or yeah, look for sadly the
poor wretch comes reading.
But I had to kind of run across the stage
and say that instead.
I said, look where sadly the poor wretch
comes running because I was running.
That's how bad.
OK, you were 15 years old, right?
What were you?
Probably 16.
If no, could be I could have been 15.
(30:24):
Actually, that's true.
And I don't know if you if I ever told
you this, I understudied a play
for the first time in L.A.
Oh, it was actually during the pandemic.
An old friend, he's a
very successful playwright.
Oh, my God, it comes full circle.
I know him from the movie on a movie on
the beach in Santa Barbara.
So we did the movie on
(30:45):
the beach in Santa Barbara.
He was one of them.
And to this day, we're still trading
cigarettes with everybody.
Exactly.
He calls me up after the blue.
He's like, hey, you
know, we're doing a play.
I know that you're
not a real theater guy.
We need an understudy.
This is just covid protection.
It doesn't pay that much.
(31:07):
It's literally peanuts.
You're probably not ever
going to need to go up,
but we just need a covid backup.
Literally, the theater was
five minutes away from me.
I told him I'm sold.
And I have no idea what
they've never done a play
for those couple of weeks of rehearsals.
I was the only understudy
that was there trying to be like,
(31:29):
what the heck is going on?
Meeting all the actors.
I was watching all the rehearsals.
There was a moment where.
Possibly I might go on.
So they needed to do
an understudy rehearsal.
They needed to do an understudy rehearsal
because also some of the understudies
were going to go on to.
This was my big moment to act.
(31:49):
They're like, who is this dude who's just
watching the rehearsals?
And we're finally going to see him act
after three, three weeks.
He could shit the bed, right?
On stage for the rehearsal
and the lead actor goes to me,
which is Channing goes, oh, so have you
done a lot of theater?
I go, dude, I've never
been on a stage before.
We do the handful of scenes.
(32:11):
I give it a whirl.
Production manager comes up to me
afterwards, he goes, econ.
That was fantastic.
You put so much work
into it and it shows.
And I'm like, I did not need to go on.
But my point is, is that was the only
bite of a theater experience.
(32:33):
And I would have loved to be
hanging out with, you know,
goofing off with those people three
nights a week and, you know,
going out to the bars after work.
That's great. That was it.
You should do a play.
You should do a play.
I'm actually not against
it. I'm not against it.
I will say in film, and
this occurred to me as well,
you have to let go of a lot more in film,
(32:55):
I think, because, you know,
and there's a lot of power in theater
because you're on stage or with another
actor, you know, you can you can
hopefully be as prepared as possible
and then see what happens.
And there's a certain amount of letting
go in that because, you know,
have to you have to be listening and
present and the audience will contribute
or whatever. But in film,
there's so many people involved.
(33:16):
You're a small part of this
process and you have no control
and no say over how it turns out, how
it's edited, what takes they use.
So there is a lot
more letting go in film.
And theater is a lot of trust.
A lot of trust. Yeah, totally. Yeah.
And that's kind of that's one of the
things I do love about it.
It's such a collaborative effort and you
(33:37):
really don't know how
it's going to turn out.
And you're always hopeful
it's going to be amazing.
And you're always hopeful that, you know,
your performance comes across OK.
Or, you know, it's it's very hard.
You can't really be self-aware while
you're doing it, even
though it is very technical.
It's a real dance between all of these
(33:57):
skills you've learned over the years
and all of the technical side is letting
go of that in the moment
and trying to not be aware, self-aware of
your performance as it's happening.
But also knowing that like you can't move
your head this much and you can't,
you know, there are certain things you
can't you're
restricted by the by the camera,
by the frame and sound and
(34:19):
everything else and blocking.
And so it's a very technical thing, but I
kind of love that side of it, too.
This is why all the great actors,
obviously, they're biased.
Denzel Washington, Jeff Daniels,
obviously, they're hardcore.
They're saying get on stage, get on
stage, get on stage.
But this is another great point that we
should probably get that across.
The theater is the probably the only
place where an actor has power.
(34:40):
Because the way that they say it is film
is a director's medium, which is fair.
And it's so different now where we can
almost say it's a
director's editor's medium.
Right. Because obviously it's mostly
digital and you're
creating the final cut.
They say TV is a writer's
medium. Makes sense, right?
(35:01):
Because the TV director, I mean, you're
basically doing the 20th episode of 350
episodes and then
theater is the actor's medium.
So I think that's if there's no bigger
plug than doing theater
for actors, it's that.
It's probably the last time where actors
it's probably the the the one medium
where actors have the most power is on
(35:21):
the tip of my tongue.
When you're like
describing the difference.
I want to say this is Meryl Streep.
Meryl Streep has the most iconic quote
about the difference
between theater and film.
She said theater is sex and
then film is masturbation.
I don't know about that.
Oh, really? Oh, I I get that.
(35:44):
The experience of acting in theater
versus acting in film.
I call I 100 percent get that as much as
I respect and love film.
The difference is is when does the
audience participate in it?
In a play, the audience is participating
literally in real time
in the same moment, in the same room.
And then for film and TV, it's a year and
(36:08):
a half later when it
comes out on Netflix.
And so obviously she's joking about it.
I mean, I still love film and, you know,
you're still intimately active
with the camera, but I
just think it's really funny.
It's it's the other thing about this
career that I love is that
there's so much variation.
Like, I don't know what I'm going to be
doing from job to job,
(36:29):
week to week, day to day often.
And I love that there anything can come.
This is what I love emails now, because
anything can come in the.
It's usually like
auditions come through email.
So anything can come that way.
And like, you don't know what's next.
And I get so excited when my email
notification goes up,
because it could be anything.
(36:49):
And I love the fact that I get to do film
and TV and, you know,
and theater as well.
And I when I moved to Chicago,
I just set myself up to do film and TV
because it's kind of
what I had more of an interest in.
So I set my life up that way.
So, you know, I was bartending at night.
I was keeping my days free
(37:10):
to audition for film and TV.
And maybe I missed out on a lot of
theater by doing that.
I just want to highlight that
when we say yes to something,
we are saying no to something.
Those are the challenges.
You know, a lot of actors,
they delay having a family.
They delay settling settling
down because they know, hey,
this is where my focus is.
And we ultimately have to
say to know the certain things.
(37:31):
And we just want to live our lives in a
way where we're not second guessing
or having regrets afterwards.
So I love this quote is from Victor
Frankl, who wrote
Man's Search for Meaning.
Live life as if it's the second time and
you screwed it up the first.
And so we think about this.
OK, yeah. So that's
actually a paraphrase.
His was much more kind of
(37:53):
like poetic and eloquent.
I remember this piece.
Hugh Jackman was doing an
interview on Tim Ferriss
and he quoted this, but
he paraphrased it that way.
Trying to get my head around.
OK, go on. You tell me
what it what it means.
And what's what's your
interpretation of it?
You had the freedom to live in the now.
And you have the free.
It's almost like freedom and permission.
(38:14):
Yeah, I have the freedom and permission.
Oh, this is really blowing your mind.
The fact that we have is I have to I want
to I want to understand this.
I want to understand it.
So I thought that you
actually already heard this before.
But but no, I didn't.
It's it's it's almost
like back to the future.
It's almost like that freedom where it's
like I can do something now.
And I'm living in this beautiful life
(38:36):
where I can recorrect
from mistakes that I made the first time.
Yeah, just imagine getting
a second shot at something.
Let's say you have you're shooting a free
throw to win the game.
What happens if you got a second shot?
It's kind of exciting, right?
What happens if you get
another crack at the apple?
Would you do anything differently?
Would you ask that girl out?
Would you, you know, quit your job and go
(38:57):
do that theater job?
I mean, who knows? OK.
So here's here's a live as if you were
living already for the second time.
And if you had and as if you had acted
the first time as wrongly
as you are about to act now.
Exactly. It's confusing that way, right?
Actually, that actually we might have to
bring that back for another episode
because Hugh Jackman was
kind of going off on this.
(39:21):
And and he was talking a
lot about and Tim Ferriss,
and he had a lot of
really brilliant mindset things
that he talked about that
was very similar to this.
So we might bring this back.
But yeah, that's that's
a really famous quote.
Um, the way you got a second
shot, enjoy it and don't leave.
(39:43):
Don't hold anything back.
You know what? I love that.
Someone has likened this
to the movie About Time.
Have you seen that movie?
I actually haven't.
It is a stunning. It's a brilliant movie.
Donald Gleason is in it and Bill Nye.
And it's basically
about the concept of time.
(40:05):
I won't ruin the movie,
but it's a brilliant movie.
We're going to pin
this for the next time.
But either way, that movie could also be
a hidden gem for you.
Absolutely. That's two hidden gems.
Yeah. Speaking of,
let's get to hidden gems.
Let's get to hidden gems.
Hidden gems flying out of me today, guys,
based on words that have come out of my
mouth already in this episode.
(40:26):
Hidden gem number one, Paddle Tennis
Courts in Venice Beach, California.
If you have never played, get down there.
They're free. You're better
off getting them on a weekday
because there are less people around.
But there's Paddle Tennis Courts.
You can get a pick up a
paddle racket for relatively cheap.
And a tennis ball.
And go down there and just
have a wild time for yourself
(40:47):
smashing that ball over that small net
and in that small court.
Beautiful. The second one
is the movie About Time.
If anybody hasn't seen
it, I'd highly recommend it.
It's an excellent movie
from a good few years ago now
with a young Donald
Gleason and Bill Nye is in it.
And Rachel McAdams is in it.
And as is Margot Robbie.
(41:08):
So all. Oh, it's got
a great cause to cast.
So About Time and Paddle Tennis in Venice
Beach, California for free.
Not pickleball, guys. All right.
Your fancy whistling pickleball.
A lot of cities are complaining.
Pickleball is too loud with the wiggle
ball just smacking back and forth.
This is kind of like a twack sound of it.
(41:30):
Oh, yeah. Oh, it's a horrible
sound. It's a horrible sound.
Anyway, so my my hidden gem.
We've been talking about theater and
we've been talking about
trying to make them affordable.
I'm amazed that of all the
times I've been talking about
trying to get cheap theater tickets, I
haven't I haven't discovered this app.
A friend told me about it. A friend in
New York, Andrew O'Shanek.
(41:51):
Love, lovely fella. Yep.
Good old, good old Andrew from class.
Oh, man. The theater app.
T H E A T R.
No E for some reason, because it's second
hand theater tickets.
It's like StubHub, but for theater.
I know. Good God. How
did I not know this before?
I'm literally getting buzzes for last
(42:12):
minute tickets that
are discounted and cheap.
These people are selling the tickets that
are trying to get rid of.
It's the most brilliant thing.
I haven't even knew it was a
thing until Andrew told me.
I was like, how did I
not know this before?
Anyway, that's our course.
You would know that.
Of course, Broadway actor
Andrew O'Shanek would know that.
Exactly. Broadway Broadway's finest.
Absolutely.
(42:33):
So that is our hidden gems, folks.
And there we have it. Another great
episode. Thanks, Ryan.
Hope you enjoy it.
Leave us a comment.
Hit us up on social media at Actors Guide
podcast, and we'll see you next week.
Absolutely. Looking
forward to it. See you.
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