June 21, 2021 • 38 mins
Our guest today is the incomparable Pat McCorkle, head and founder of McCorkle Casting and a Covid survivor! As actors, we understand the frustration of the industry during the pandemic, so we were eager to hear Pat’s point of view from the other side of the table. Rather than talking about zoom fatigue, we discuss its advantages and how it creates more opportunities for people to be seen. We also talk about how scripts have evolved over the last year, her personal experience with covid, and moving forward what’s giving her hope in the industry right now. Enjoy!
MCCORKLE CASTING CREDITS:
Feature Film: Mental State, Bernard, and Huey, Senior Moment, Year by the Sea, Child of Grace, My Man Is a Loser, Ghost Town, Secret Window, Tony and Tina's Wedding, The Thomas Crown Affair, The 13th Warrior, Madeline, Die Hard with a Vengeance, School Ties, etc., Broadway: Over 50 productions; Amazing Grace, On The Town, End of the Rainbow, The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, The Glass Menagerie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, She Loves Me, Blood Brothers, A Few Good Men. Off-Broadway: Over 60 original productions; Clever Little Lies, Becoming Dr. Ruth, Tribes, Our Town, Falling, Toxic Avenger, Freud's Last Session, Almost Maine, Killer Joe, Driving Miss Daisy. Television: Twisted (ABC Family) humans for Sesame Street, Californication (Emmy nomination), Hack (CBS), The Education of Max Bickford (CBS), Chappelle's Show, Strangers with Candy, Barbershop (Comedy Central), and series for Showtime, HBO, TMC.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Caroline Amos (00:00):
Hi, I'm Carolyn Amos.
Raymond McAnally (00:01):
And I'm Raymond McAnally.
Caroline Amos (00:03):
And we are Fatigued (laughter). Pat, thank
you so much for joining us onFatigued Pod today. To get
started, do you mind giving us alittle bit of a brief
introduction about who you are?
Pat McCorkle (00:19):
Absolutely. I am Pat McCorkle, I'm the head of
McCorkle casting. I've beenaround for ever (laughs) I do
plays and TV and film. And Ilove the mix. I'm based in New
York. And I studied at Rutgersundergrad and NYU grad and then
(00:46):
worked at TCG. The company,everybody, you all know it as a
place where they do where theyhave the magazine. But when I
worked there, they cast for allthe regional theaters in the
country. There was a place togo. And, and so I got to meet
everybody in the world, andstill have a lot of those
connections. And I'm firmlyentrenched in believing that
(01:09):
regional theater is socritically important to
development in Yeah, yes, yes.
And I keep that to this day.
Plus, I'm doing the otherthings. I worked at ECG for a
while. And then I left andstarted a company with a partner
and was with him for two and ahalf years and we split and I've
been on my own for quite a whilenow. So that kind of is who I
(01:33):
am.
Caroline Amos (01:34):
Kind of is who you are. I love that. I really
love what you just said aboutregional theatre being so
important, just as a kid fromthe Midwest who couldn't afford
to go see a Broadway play ever.
I mean, that's that was thosewere my highlights in my
educational life. So yeah, thatresonates with me.
Raymond McAnally (01:53):
That's how Carolina and I met. I was doing
One Man, Two Guvnors at St.
Louis Rep. And Caroline was inthe other show.
Caroline Amos (02:03):
I was doing Midsummer. The Hermia the track.
Yeah. Which is cool, becauseThat's the regional theater that
I grew up seeing. So
Pat McCorkle (02:11):
Yeah, and I was involved. I've been involved
with it on and off forever. Wegot our old Steve wolf days.
Raymond McAnally (02:20):
Oh yeah.
Caroline Amos (02:21):
God bless Steve.
Pat McCorkle (02:22):
Our Hana Sharif days now. Yeah. It's a
wonderful, wonderful theater.
It's really very, very good.
Caroline Amos (02:31):
Really is.
Raymond McAnally (02:32):
Well, I've been excited about this.
Because, Pat, I don't know ifyou know it, but you're one of
my favorite people in theindustry. Without you, I would
not have started my career asquickly as I did. I booked my
very first Yeah, I think I gotall of my cards through you.
Really? Really? Yeah, I bookedmy first theater gig through you
(02:55):
wait Long Wharf, MidsummerNight's Dream it Long Wharf. So
it's wonderful to talk to you.
I'm sorry about thecircumstances because to fill
our audience in. We asked Pat tobe a part of our industry
series, not just because of her,her, of course, her industry
background and knowledge. Butalso because she did have COVID.
She was a COVID patient herself,just like Carolina and I. And so
(03:18):
we wanted to make sure to talkabout that, as we segue into
industry stuff as well. Remindme you had it very, very early
on in the pandemic...
Pat McCorkle (03:29):
I had it at the very beginning. You know, it's
that kind of thing that Ithought I had the flu, except it
didn't go away. And I didn'thave it as bad as other people
for sure. I had primarily thefatigue. I mean, it was like,
hmm, let me think about whetherI need to go to the bathroom or
not really, it's six feet away.
And that's a major, you know, inthat place that lasted two
(03:53):
weeks. I did have, you know, alook at some of the headaches I
had certainly the aches andpains. The funny thing I had
that is different from otherpeople was I had where everybody
says you lose your sense oftaste. And so I had very high
sense of taste. Everything wastoo salty or too sweet. And
(04:15):
during this entire period, Ihave a wonderful GP. And I
called her up and I'm saying,you know, I couldn't have COVID
because this is what's happeningto me. And she said it's
affecting your taste buds,whether it go high or low, it's
still affecting your taste buds.
So something is off. And I neverwent to the hospital. I didn't
(04:37):
need to go Luckily, and I have awonderful husband who sort of
took care of me during the wholetime. But this was at the very
beginning. This was even beforemasks. And I stayed in I stayed
in bed because the office wasclosed.
Raymond McAnally (04:51):
So this was before everything shut down?
Pat McCorkle (04:54):
It was after the shutdown, but the shutdown
didn't have masks to happen likeabout a little bit later.
Caroline Amos (04:59):
Yeah, I remember that.
Pat McCorkle (05:01):
Yeah. Because my sister's a nurse and I called
her up. I remember saying,should I be wearing a mask or
something if I'm sick, and she'snot, won't help, it won't help.
And then like, two weeks later,she sent me a box of masks that
she made. So it was at the verybeginning. The funny thing is,
Raven, you'll love this is I wasteaching my red cross class.
(05:24):
They had just come back fromLondon. And I was over the bulk
of my fatigue. And we stilldidn't have it defined. So I
would sort of pull everythingtogether and we were doing it on
zoom. As Raman knows, I justcontinued to work. If I'm not
(05:45):
working, it's because I'msleeping. That's pretty much it.
That's just the way I am.
Raymond McAnally (05:55):
For you to say, even though it sounds it
might sound to the averageperson like, Oh, she was tired
for you to admit that you werethat tired is a big, big deal,
because I know you is anabsolute Energizer Bunny kind of
person.
Pat McCorkle (06:10):
Yeah. Well, we were we were, you know, it was
scary. And obviously, thingsslow down. We were in the middle
of casting a season for atheater. I work with
contemporary American TheatreFestival in West cntf. And we
were putting together theirseason. And actually, that
(06:32):
Friday. We were about to startcallbacks. And you know, they
shut Broadway down on Thursday.
And Ed Herron Dean, who was thetheater was in the office. And
he came in and we did the Fridayauditions. And I said, Ed, go
home. Do not come back Go home.
(06:53):
We'll we'll get both what wethought we thought we could tape
with the will come in and tapenext week. And we'll do you but
you get on the train, go back toWest Virginia, go away, and
we'll send you stuff. And thenat the very end of the day, on
that Friday, I turn to my staffand I said Are you afraid to
come in? And they said yes. AndI said, Okay, and then we ask
(07:17):
people to send self tapes, thefollowing week for the
callbacks. So we we continuedoing that thinking, Oh, well,
we'll be back in a month. Andwe'll we'll put this up there.
And that's the week I got sick.
But I was home. And we just dideverything on zoom and tapes.
And you know, all that kind ofstuff. So we continue to work
(07:38):
along the way and trying to geteverybody didn't everybody
didn't know what they were goingto do.
Raymond McAnally (07:50):
In your career path. Have you? Have you ever
had something disrupt productionand, and casting on a scale like
this?
Pat McCorkle (08:00):
Oh, no, no. I mean we had 911. You know, and I, a
that time, I was working onbig studio feature that wa
supposed to shoot in Panama. Anthen it wasn't going to shoot i
Panama, right. But the biggesproblem we had was we didn'
(08:21):
know there were a couple actorthat we wanted to get fro
Europe. And they were on the yoknow, no fly. So we had to kin
of noodle around with thcasting on it. And flying was
little trickier. But Buhonestly, that just took
(08:42):
couple weeks. Yeah. And then anthen the other issue after tha
with casting was waimmigration. I remember a funn
the funniest story on that onwas, I was doing a wonderfu
television show for CBS callethe education of Max Pickfor
starring Richard Dreyfuss. Anwe had worked out a deal. We'
(09:08):
been working six months on itto get Peter O'Toole, to be i
it. And it was the firsAmerican television series i
ever going to be in. And it wagoing to NYU at that time, an
the show actually shot on thWagner college campus. And Pete
was actually in New Yorvisiting his son and we ha
(09:29):
worked this all out. And thiwas after 911. It was like i
2002 or so. And that week, thweek before we needed to shoo
the Bush administration to comout with a whole new immigratio
thing. And nobody knew what iwas. And so we ultimately had t
(09:50):
fly Peter O'Toole to Bermuda anthen bring him back into th
country on a work visa. But wweren't sure he was going to b
in the country. would be allowein the country. Whoa. And th
joke was our joke. It workeout, it worked out fine. We go
him in at the last minute. Likwe got him in Sunday, we shot o
(10:11):
Monday. But the joke was that hhad Lawrence of Arabia on hi
resume, and they weren't surthat they were the 91
Commission was a flat image, ohmy God, we're, my productio
manager was having a hearattack, and it was just no on
knew. But that that kind othing, you just, you had time t
(10:33):
work that stuff out. And wwould just be able to work i
out the problem. Now, iaddition to all the COVI
restrictions, is literallgetting the information so w
can continue our work. In othewords, everybody's working fro
home. And, and I've been able tget hold of agents and, and yo
(10:53):
know, other people, actors anstuff, but it takes longe
because it's going to go to thoffice or it's going to go, yo
email them or something, iisn't like you could pick up th
phone, and so and so get here ian hour to audition. Everythin
takes time. And it's still it'still it's better now, becaus
some of the agents are back itheir office. But you know, an
(11:16):
and the other big thing in thais the rules are differen
everywhere, whether you're iNew York, and you're trying t
call California. And I talked tsomebody ICM, a very, very goo
friend who was an agent thereAnd he said, I hadn't been i
the office in a year. You knowI've just, we work from home. S
it just takes that kind of timeAnd you you're trying to explai
(11:37):
to your your producers and youdirectors that it isn't like i
used to be it isn't that fastThat I think zoom is great Yeah
Caroline Amos (11:50):
Hang on, though.
Tell us more about that. We'veheard very few advocates for
zoom, I think everybody's a bitfatigued by it. Tell us why?
Pat McCorkle (11:57):
You know, we are all fatigued, right? There'
no question. Literally, this imy sixth zoom call today. We
are fatigued by but the advantges from an from an actor's poin
of view is that they can be hom. I mean, we did auditions the o
her day, and one of the girls wain the Virgin Islands, another
(12:18):
and she we did a chemistry reaon zoom, which isn't perfect.
But we did a chemistry with herand a guy who was in North Carol
na. And we were able to watcit now, we wouldn't have been
ble to do that live. Anso sometimes you you can do t
at. And you can also pull peple from all over the country.
ven some of the regional theter actors who are wonder
(12:41):
ul, absolutely wonderful.
my thinking is, maybe we're gnna have a zoom on the first ro
nd. And then if you get called bck, we need you in person. I t
ink that will open it up andlso for regional theaters is is
ood because the artistic direcors can stay at home, do what
ver they have attend the sesson, then go and do whatever
hey have to do, then just comin for the callbacks as oppose
(13:02):
to spending a week in New Yorkith the hotels and all the res
of it. So I think there's thngs that are going to come ou
of it. Not all of its perfct. Musical auditions are
ery difficult. So that's a wole nother thing. Yeah. But it
oes give you access to all kindof different peo
Raymond McAnally (13:24):
Yeah, it does.
I think you and I were talkingthe other day that I've actually
really enjoyed my zoom producersessions, callbacks and things
like that, because it feels itfeels enough like the room, you
know, and you're gettingadjustments, and you're getting
that kind of feedback andsupport and, and everything. The
the thing that I've noticed thatneeds that we all need to figure
(13:48):
out myself included, is I know Ican probably name right off the
top of my head about at least adozen bookings that I have
walked into the room and wonthem over with the helo and and
confirmed it with the audition.
(14:08):
And then left knowing that I wasat least going to get a
callback, or I was going to bookit. Right. And I haven't quite
figured out as an actor, how tofind that in a self tape, or how
to, you know, get if you're notgoing to get the zoom thing and
you're just putting yourself oncamera. You know how to present
(14:28):
yourself in the best possibleway.
Pat McCorkle (14:31):
And because you're also such a great comedian and
clown and such, it's real hardto tell the physicality.
Raymond McAnally (14:42):
That is a problem. That's been a big thing
for me, not only because of theweight loss in the last year or
so, but it is really hard unlessyou see me next to somebody to
see my size. Yeah, you know, andso it's been really interesting,
Mike, what do I need to do acardboard cutout of the average
adult male (la
Pat McCorkle (15:03):
So true. We were doing a, I was doing callbacks
for this, this off Broadwaymusical. And we had two
contenders. And I said to theproducers, it's really important
to understand the size of thepeople and the chemistry, we
would you couldn't begin totell. And one actor for the Li
for that we're auditioning twoactors for the lead. One was
(15:25):
five, eight, and the other wassix, three. And the two girls
that we were auditioning for theother lead one was five, seven,
and one was 540. And so you cantry to imagine that, but
obviously, that's great amountof distance. And, and no one in
the room except me thought toask the heights on these people,
(15:47):
because you're just going fromthese headshots, basically,
people. The other thing thatI've noticed a lot, and is the
difference in the writing. I'mworking on one film right now,
there's three people in it.
Caroline Amos (16:06):
Oh, you want to minimize that contact tracing
Pat McCorkle (16:11):
people to two locations wants to. So we have
we've had a change in creativestaff. So because we should have
been done by now. But it's onlythree people. And then there's
another film that I just got,and it's basically three people,
(16:32):
but it starts at a big party,and then which probably will
have maybe 12 people in it forlike two or three days. And then
it's three people. So people arefinding different ways of
writing. People see thingsartistically differently now.
Caroline Amos (16:50):
Well, it's following the same pattern, the
way the plays have been reducingtheir castes, reducing their
runtimes, etc. So that's alsothat's really interesting. But
the fact that they've both doneit for for vastly different
reasons, right? Yeah.
Pat McCorkle (17:06):
Now there are a lot of a lot of the theaters are
doing 234 person shows, youknow, what have you. That's why
a crossing, which I think has 18or 19 in it. We're doing it in
September, though. Hmm. So and Ithink they might even do it
outdoors. Yeah, some of theBarrington stages got a, they
(17:29):
got hold, they were able to geta parking lot in a huge tent. So
there's still a play, playoutside.
Caroline Amos (17:38):
That is so exciting. I actually kind of
love the way that everybody'shad to pivot. Within this. I
worked at the I was a companymember at the great river
Shakespeare Festival for aboutfive years. And they had been
talking, they were alwaystalking about maybe next year's
the year, we're gonna figure outhow to get us outside. No, maybe
the next year, maybe the nextyear. And look, this has been
(17:59):
they've been handed kind of atremendous gift, that they
finally get an opportunity toput everything outside. And I I
love I mean, if there's ifanybody's going to be creative
in this industry, in anyindustry, it's going to be the
artists. And I think that it'sso exciting to see what what is
what's new, what's going to comeof this, how is this going to
(18:21):
influence the next 10 years oftheater of film, especially if
you can take it and and look onthe bright side and turn all
these lemons into some sugary,sugary lemonade.
Pat McCorkle (18:32):
Oh, I hope so. I mean, that's why I'm counting
on. I just feel a little badlyfor this. Well, in a way, I feel
badly for the studentsgraduating now starting agents
and managers aren't necessarilylooking for new talent, even
though I think there's anenormous energy towards finding
(18:53):
new talent for all of this, allthe Netflix and Amazon Prime,
and all these wonderful newseries with all this great new
young talent, you know, but itis harder to get an agent. The
one thing is a lot of them havecome up with very clever ways of
doing their showcases now wherethey're filming them. And I
actually think more people arewatching them. Because you know,
(19:16):
you had to leave your office andgo to the theater and see them
at the end of the day and you'reexhausted or you have to stop
your work and go now it's onfilm. And so you can, you know,
break down service and actorsconnection and stuff. I don't
know what they're doing in LA,but in New York, that's what
they're doing. And you can youknow, say oh, I'm doing a
musical. Let me you know, windthis up and go through the the
(19:39):
musicals now I know I'm doing astraight play and I need I need
this. Yeah. It's a great way tofind to find
Raymond McAnally (19:47):
that I think there has to be a residual
benefit that especially ifthey're able to keep the content
up. So it can be referred tolonger. I mean, that was one of
the whole reasons I starteddaily fiber That whole comedy
content pursuit was because Iwas tired of creating characters
for stage roles. And you know,it's a finite moment. And if it
(20:12):
was regional, nobody was gonnasee it in New York or LA. And so
I started turning that stuffinto original content. And it
absolutely paid dividends. So Ithink that is a positive in the
fact that we can all we weretalking about this, in our last
interview, that I'm now able tosupport and see the productions
(20:36):
of theaters that I love aroundthe country. I'm very interested
in that model continuing in someway, because I learned the hard
way, when I, when we shot sizematters, my one man show to put
it on Amazon. One of theproblems I ran into the whole
reason we got to that point withit was because I needed I was
(20:59):
being asked for footage of theshow. And I could not get it
released to me to save my life,even though I was the playwright
and the writer. And yeah, Imean, the writer and the actor,
and and all of it. And so whatstarted out is just trying to
film the thing. So I could useit to promote the show turned
into this one man show specialthat got made and wishing then
(21:24):
that was 2016, when we filmedthat 15 or 16. Wishing then
that, that the contracts thatequity was up with the times.
And we could, you know, we couldhave footage of shows people are
doing amazing work and regionaland, and more people should be
able to see it.
Pat McCorkle (21:45):
And there's been I've done a lot of what I did
theatrically last year on zoom,were readings, a lot of
Caroline Amos (21:52):
so much work. So much new work.
Pat McCorkle (21:55):
There was so much new work and so much fun. The
only thing that's an issue isthat you really need to define
those filmmakers who can shootthat stuff. Yeah, so it looks
good. But what I've heard interms of the showcases, what I
heard from some of the collegesI've worked with, is they're
hoping next year to do it live.
And on tape,
Caroline Amos (22:18):
when you do the way that you described that I
was almost jealous for my ownshowcase experience, because
ours wasn't really attended byanybody back in 2010. And so
like if there was an opportunitythat like, you know, if there
were specific agents or castingdirectors I liked, I would love
the opportunity to be like, Hi,I would love to get on your
radar, this is some work that Ijust did no showcase, have a
(22:38):
nice day. And it's it's a it's ayou can view it in your own
leisure. I love that. And,
Pat McCorkle (22:44):
and likewise, what I'm getting, and it makes me a
little bit crazy. But I have allthe directors if especially if
they're not here, something's ifthey can't see an actor, they'll
send me footage. And I'm like,Well, if you're in New York,
there are not a lot of comedyshot in New York, almost
everybody's gonna send you theirlaw and order. And that might
(23:09):
not tell you that they can dobroad comedy. Right? And I don't
have there's nothing here toshoot. And they say, Well, how
am I supposed to tell? And sothe only way I can have someone
do it is audition, but I youknow, if you have something
that's for real, it's it's fine.
And a lot of there still are alot of theater directors who
(23:31):
say, Well, you know, I don'twatch much television and I'm
going well, you're missing alot. Yeah, that's too bad.
Because maybe you're thinkingabout what was done in the 70s.
That's not what's being donenow. There's some sensational
sensational work being donethere, especially in the last
(23:51):
year because the movie theatersweren't available.
Raymond McAnally (23:57):
So one thing I wanted to, to ask you about
because I believe when we talkedin December initially about
doing an interview that you hadmentioned one more symptom, and
and that was the the hazinessthe brain fog. Yes. Yeah. And
you had said that that
Pat McCorkle (24:16):
lasted quite a while it did. It did. And I
don't think I have it now. I'msure I don't have it now. But I
do get fatigued earlier, and I'mnot sure if that's zoom fatigue,
or leftover from COVID. But myhusband and myself and the dog,
go to bed at 10 o'clock. That'sthe line in the sand. And I kept
(24:41):
thinking, but I we used to go tothe theater every night. How
does that work? But we reallyneed our eight hours. But it was
it was COVID brain it was justat times my brain didn't
function anymore at all.
Caroline Amos (24:54):
How did you combat that when it came to
doing your work?
Pat McCorkle (24:58):
I would just have to stop that. Say I can't do any
more it's or my staff is sofantastic. I would just say, I
can't think of that that thisis. Yeah. Did I tell you about
my other symptom? But no manypeople talk about this. The
hair?
Raymond McAnally (25:18):
Oh, you did back then you please.
Pat McCorkle (25:21):
So, as you know, I have very thick hair. And
everything, everything is fine.
And about three months after Ihad the COVID I started when I
bit combing my hair, I'd seemore and more hair in my brush.
And I'm going this is kind ofweird. And it went on for about
two weeks. And I went to myhairdresser who was fantastic.
(25:45):
And he does mostly act as hedoes Kathleen Turner and Judy IV
and all those people would go tohim. And he said, what happens?
It's from the COVID. And whenyou got the COVID it affected
the hair follicles and the hairis breaking now then three
months later comes out. He's abunch of follicles are alright,
(26:07):
so it's going to come back. AndI've talked to my hair colorist.
And she said the same thing. Andso I had and I and I looked it
up and there it is there thatpeople. A lot of people lost
hair. Yeah, I did. Did you lose?
Caroline Amos (26:27):
Yeah, a ton. I remember when I had my and I
laid in bed for multiple dayswithout being able to get up.
And when I did finally get up,there was an absurd amount of
hair on this pillow. It's scary.
It's It's really scary. I mean,that on top of the rest of the
symptoms. I mean, it was Ialmost was sort of like, is this
what it feels like to havecancer?
Pat McCorkle (26:48):
Well, I know. And they they said to me, Well, it's
either the COVID or it's stress.
And I said, Well, I'm stressedbecause my hair is falling out.
I can't do anything about that,because it's stressing me. But
let's just see. And so I startedtaking a vitamin and stuff and
my hair is back. I have as youcan tell I have good Yeah, you
look great. Yeah, full hair. Andit's longer now than when
(27:11):
probably when Raymond lastthought. It's I've just let it
grow. But and I have no problem.
The hair isn't falling out. Ican brush it is no problem. It's
normal. But I didn't read aboutthat until until it started
happening. And I looked it up onthe internet. And they went
Yeah, it is. And I've heard acouple doctors on TV talk about
(27:32):
it, but it isn't people reallydon't talk about it much. Yeah,
um, but yeah, so it was like itwas caused. I mean, it was, I
didn't have bald patches, but hewas clearly you run a comb
through it, and it was full ofhair.
Caroline Amos (27:46):
I'd run my fingers through and I'd be like,
Pat McCorkle (27:49):
oh my god. Yeah, I started running my fingers
through my hair. And I'm like,What is this? What is this is
like corn silk. You know, likewhen you're asking corn and you
suddenly have all that silk onyour hands? You won't have that
was what was happening in myhair. Oh, wow. But they said it
would come back. And it did.
Raymond McAnally (28:07):
And it was some sort of vitamin deficiency.
Pat McCorkle (28:12):
No, they said is because whatever the COVID did
hurt the hair at that point inthe follicle and it took 90 days
for that follicle, the bottom ofthat follicle to reach the top
to get out. As long as thefollicle isn't damaged, your
hair will come back. And it did.
Caroline Amos (28:30):
It's almost like having your body being haunted
by a ghost.
Pat McCorkle (28:35):
it's twofold. It's one the disease which is what it
is and so, so horrible to it'swhat the pandemic has done to
our mental state in our lives, Imean, different, two different
issues. And I know my husbandand I ever I don't know why I
thought this and it was the wisething to do. I think right from
(28:57):
the get go when the pandemicstarted, I said, we're going to
have a very organized life. Andwe have a regimentation, which
is very similar to what we hadbefore the pandemic. In other
words, you know, we get up theright time in the morning, we
get dressed for work, eventhough it's only going to the
bedroom or the dining room, butwe get up for work, we have
(29:19):
lunch, we have dinner, we do itall in order, the weekends, we
have our plan for our cleaning,because I lost obviously lost my
cleaning lady and you know, allthose kinds of things in the
pandemic. Um, so we have veryorganized schedule life and we
still keep it that way. And Ithink that has helped us
immensely in terms of organizingit. We are like we were lucky,
(29:42):
my husband, I were lucky enoughto have a business that we could
structure this I don't know whatan actor does. It just boggles
my mind and let you startwriting or you start producing
your own stuff, but waiting forsomething to happen and not
being there. Hi,
Caroline Amos (30:00):
I will say just actor's perspective, I actually
kind of love the fact that I'mable to do a ton of my voiceover
work and stuff from home. And italso means that I am, I'm away
free or to give a lot more of mytime and energy to my upcoming
auditions. I love that I'm notspending six, seven hours a
night, exhausting myself in arestaurant right now. Like, I
(30:23):
can just continue to freelance.
And, you know, when I'm at home,I can rest I can recharge, and
I'm not working or acting from aplace of complete exhaustion. So
in a weird way, I've actuallykind of I've loved the fact that
I've had all this. It's notexactly downtime, but like
hometime has been really, it'sbeen really valuable. And I've
enjoyed it.
Raymond McAnally (30:45):
I was the least productive I've ever been.
And that's
Caroline Amos (30:49):
a no you weren't though, because you've been do I
feel like every single day,you're like, Carolyn, I got this
new play. We're going to dothat. We're going to talk about
this new play. Carolyn, we'regoing to start a podcast, we're
going to do this, we're gonna dothat. We're going to show that
to you every single day that Ihave known you.
Raymond McAnally (31:03):
Yeah, but I'm not finishing in the mall. So
that's that's a big difference.
But
Caroline Amos (31:07):
it might be because you have I don't know so
many irons in the fire.
Raymond McAnally (31:12):
Well, it from me actually productive as lack
of productive Miss whatever isthe wrong way to put it. Because
I do feel like I've beenproductive and learning other
lessons. Right? So I realized,much like I connected to the way
you put your COVID brain story,Pat, that that there that when
(31:32):
you were done, you were done.
You just had to admit it. I hada lot of that. And it was if it
wasn't COVID related, fatiguerelated, it was actually some
sort of mental health, like Icannot focus, I need to move on
to I've been learning a veryhealthy mix of one that hits to
get up and do somethingphysical, to I've for the past.
Gosh, I guess going back to whenI was in high school, I started
(31:59):
to become the steward of all ofour family documents and family
photos. That's good. Yeah, yeah.
And I have loved these, I mean,20 boxes of this stuff all over
the country as I've moved. And Ibrought the last bit home from
Tennessee A few years ago, andit's just been sitting in our
storage. And so I've beenscanning at all, and I just
(32:22):
dropped off a whole bunch of itto family members in Tennessee
on our on our road trip. And itfeels so good to get that off my
plate. Now that's not going topay my bills, that's not going
to pay my mortgage. I you know,I don't even know if the family
members that gave it to care.
But for me, it feels good. And Iand it was just some stuff i i
think i personally had to learnand get off my plate. You know,
Pat McCorkle (32:45):
it's funny, you said that because my sister has
done that. My sister has donethat she was she's the family
historian, there's always afamily historian. Yes, my sister
was a family historian. And thenthe other day, my nephew, who's
a beekeeper in Maine, it's longand involved. But he needs to
(33:05):
also become now the family andhe went back on my my Mars, our
side of the family, my brotheron our side of the family, he
went back to like 1000 home whathe went way back, way, way back.
I mean, he did all this stuff inin the States, but he went back
(33:27):
to Scotland, where McCorkle wasa and did this whole thing about
the history on when they changethe name, how the chain that he
was at, you know, changeanglicised or whatever you call
it, and went way, way back. Andit was really weird. My sister
just said, so I guess he's nowgoing to be the family
historian. It's really crazy.
But that but you're right.
(33:50):
That's the time that you you caninvestigate some of this stuff.
I've been telling my students,like, catch up on older films
that people refer to and andI'll make some suggestions about
something I've seen. And thenthey'll watch it. And the next
week we talk about it, and theolder films, and then how does
that reflect in the new films?
And so I've been I've beentrying to use that material with
(34:12):
them as well. That's great.
Caroline Amos (34:17):
We're already kind of on this topic. But we
always love to round out thepodcast on a on a hopeful and
positive note. And it's I loveto ask the question, what is
giving you hope right now andwhat's keeping you going? Well,
Pat McCorkle (34:31):
it's exciting that we're starting to come back. And
I and I'm really excited aboutthe new writing and we've talked
about the pandemic and we talkedabout you know, all the things
with regards to that but thediversity issue is fantastic.
And what that's bringing forwardand the new stories that are
(34:55):
being told that need to be told.
I find all that very Very, veryexciting. Um, and so I'm just
looking forward to whatever kindof new material we can find it
in a new way. I, I don't, I'mnot discouraged by it, but it's
going to be different. It's justwe have to know that it's that
it has to be different,fortunately, and the world is
(35:18):
going to be a different place.
Yeah. And that's, that's okay,too. I'm, you know, I I'm and I
can't wait to start travelingagain.
To my husband, I going to theGalapagos for Christmas. Oh,
gratulations.
That's a blast. Well, we weresupposed to go last summer. And
(35:41):
we couldn't. So now we've put itoff until Christmas, because we
hear that's the best time to go.
Raymond McAnally (35:48):
This is just because you want the best
Christmas card ever with a is ona turtle.
Pat McCorkle (35:53):
I know. You might be it might be. No, we just
decided. We decided a coupleyears ago to see the world and
we have found it. Fantastic. Andwe and just so exciting and has
nothing to do with showbusiness.
It has to do with the world. Andwe just have really, really
gotten into it. And we just keepplanning what we want to do. And
(36:16):
I want to see the Galapagosbefore the turtles disappear.
Oh, you know, save a few whileyou're at it. Exactly. Well, you
know, the thing of it is you canjust be a better artist, too, by
getting to see these people andgetting to know them. And
they're, they're fantastic. Butthe whole point of life and
stuff. It's just so muchenriched by knowing these
(36:38):
people. And I like to bring thatto my work of choosing scripts
choosing cas, and just givingsome different kind of point of
view on it. And you really needto, to, to embrace that. We're
lucky enough. Now the we're notgoing to see as many on the
Galapagos, I realized that it'slimited. And I my husband has
(37:01):
learned to scuba dive. I'm notscuba diving, but he's and he'll
get to see a lot more than Iwill. But I think it's just
exciting, and I feel veryoptimistic about all that stuff.
Hey, this
Unknown (37:19):
is Caroline Raymond, thank you so much for listening
to fatigued from patients toparamedics,
Raymond McAnally (37:25):
long haulers to lessons learned. Sure, it's
the same virus but these arevery different stories.
Caroline Amos (37:31):
If you have a question or a story you'd like
us to address on an episode,please email us at fatigued
podcast@gmail.com. That's fitigpu ed podcast@gmail.com.
Raymond McAnally (37:42):
And don't forget to check us out on
Facebook, Instagram, Twitterclubhouse, right clubhouse What
is that?
Caroline Amos (37:49):
I don't even know But whatever it is, we're here
to offer genuine conversation sowe can humanize the issues
surrounding COVID and thepandemic. These stories deserve
the space to be remembered andwe relish the opportunity for
connection in this isolatedtime.
Raymond McAnally (38:02):
Perhaps you will to
Caroline Amos (38:03):
stay positive test negative and thanks for
listening. Bye
Hi, I'm Carolyn Amos.
Raymond McAnally (00:01):
And I'm Raymond McAnally.
Caroline Amos (00:03):
And we are Fatigued (laughter). Pat, thank
you so much for joining us onFatigued Pod today. To get
started, do you mind giving us alittle bit of a brief
introduction about who you are?
Pat McCorkle (00:19):
Absolutely. I am Pat McCorkle, I'm the head of
McCorkle casting. I've beenaround for ever (laughs) I do
plays and TV and film. And Ilove the mix. I'm based in New
York. And I studied at Rutgersundergrad and NYU grad and then
(00:46):
worked at TCG. The company,everybody, you all know it as a
place where they do where theyhave the magazine. But when I
worked there, they cast for allthe regional theaters in the
country. There was a place togo. And, and so I got to meet
everybody in the world, andstill have a lot of those
connections. And I'm firmlyentrenched in believing that
(01:09):
regional theater is socritically important to
development in Yeah, yes, yes.
And I keep that to this day.
Plus, I'm doing the otherthings. I worked at ECG for a
while. And then I left andstarted a company with a partner
and was with him for two and ahalf years and we split and I've
been on my own for quite a whilenow. So that kind of is who I
(01:33):
am.
Caroline Amos (01:34):
Kind of is who you are. I love that. I really
love what you just said aboutregional theatre being so
important, just as a kid fromthe Midwest who couldn't afford
to go see a Broadway play ever.
I mean, that's that was thosewere my highlights in my
educational life. So yeah, thatresonates with me.
Raymond McAnally (01:53):
That's how Carolina and I met. I was doing
One Man, Two Guvnors at St.
Louis Rep. And Caroline was inthe other show.
Caroline Amos (02:03):
I was doing Midsummer. The Hermia the track.
Yeah. Which is cool, becauseThat's the regional theater that
I grew up seeing. So
Pat McCorkle (02:11):
Yeah, and I was involved. I've been involved
with it on and off forever. Wegot our old Steve wolf days.
Raymond McAnally (02:20):
Oh yeah.
Caroline Amos (02:21):
God bless Steve.
Pat McCorkle (02:22):
Our Hana Sharif days now. Yeah. It's a
wonderful, wonderful theater.
It's really very, very good.
Caroline Amos (02:31):
Really is.
Raymond McAnally (02:32):
Well, I've been excited about this.
Because, Pat, I don't know ifyou know it, but you're one of
my favorite people in theindustry. Without you, I would
not have started my career asquickly as I did. I booked my
very first Yeah, I think I gotall of my cards through you.
Really? Really? Yeah, I bookedmy first theater gig through you
(02:55):
wait Long Wharf, MidsummerNight's Dream it Long Wharf. So
it's wonderful to talk to you.
I'm sorry about thecircumstances because to fill
our audience in. We asked Pat tobe a part of our industry
series, not just because of her,her, of course, her industry
background and knowledge. Butalso because she did have COVID.
She was a COVID patient herself,just like Carolina and I. And so
(03:18):
we wanted to make sure to talkabout that, as we segue into
industry stuff as well. Remindme you had it very, very early
on in the pandemic...
Pat McCorkle (03:29):
I had it at the very beginning. You know, it's
that kind of thing that Ithought I had the flu, except it
didn't go away. And I didn'thave it as bad as other people
for sure. I had primarily thefatigue. I mean, it was like,
hmm, let me think about whetherI need to go to the bathroom or
not really, it's six feet away.
And that's a major, you know, inthat place that lasted two
(03:53):
weeks. I did have, you know, alook at some of the headaches I
had certainly the aches andpains. The funny thing I had
that is different from otherpeople was I had where everybody
says you lose your sense oftaste. And so I had very high
sense of taste. Everything wastoo salty or too sweet. And
(04:15):
during this entire period, Ihave a wonderful GP. And I
called her up and I'm saying,you know, I couldn't have COVID
because this is what's happeningto me. And she said it's
affecting your taste buds,whether it go high or low, it's
still affecting your taste buds.
So something is off. And I neverwent to the hospital. I didn't
(04:37):
need to go Luckily, and I have awonderful husband who sort of
took care of me during the wholetime. But this was at the very
beginning. This was even beforemasks. And I stayed in I stayed
in bed because the office wasclosed.
Raymond McAnally (04:51):
So this was before everything shut down?
Pat McCorkle (04:54):
It was after the shutdown, but the shutdown
didn't have masks to happen likeabout a little bit later.
Caroline Amos (04:59):
Yeah, I remember that.
Pat McCorkle (05:01):
Yeah. Because my sister's a nurse and I called
her up. I remember saying,should I be wearing a mask or
something if I'm sick, and she'snot, won't help, it won't help.
And then like, two weeks later,she sent me a box of masks that
she made. So it was at the verybeginning. The funny thing is,
Raven, you'll love this is I wasteaching my red cross class.
(05:24):
They had just come back fromLondon. And I was over the bulk
of my fatigue. And we stilldidn't have it defined. So I
would sort of pull everythingtogether and we were doing it on
zoom. As Raman knows, I justcontinued to work. If I'm not
(05:45):
working, it's because I'msleeping. That's pretty much it.
That's just the way I am.
Raymond McAnally (05:55):
For you to say, even though it sounds it
might sound to the averageperson like, Oh, she was tired
for you to admit that you werethat tired is a big, big deal,
because I know you is anabsolute Energizer Bunny kind of
person.
Pat McCorkle (06:10):
Yeah. Well, we were we were, you know, it was
scary. And obviously, thingsslow down. We were in the middle
of casting a season for atheater. I work with
contemporary American TheatreFestival in West cntf. And we
were putting together theirseason. And actually, that
(06:32):
Friday. We were about to startcallbacks. And you know, they
shut Broadway down on Thursday.
And Ed Herron Dean, who was thetheater was in the office. And
he came in and we did the Fridayauditions. And I said, Ed, go
home. Do not come back Go home.
(06:53):
We'll we'll get both what wethought we thought we could tape
with the will come in and tapenext week. And we'll do you but
you get on the train, go back toWest Virginia, go away, and
we'll send you stuff. And thenat the very end of the day, on
that Friday, I turn to my staffand I said Are you afraid to
come in? And they said yes. AndI said, Okay, and then we ask
(07:17):
people to send self tapes, thefollowing week for the
callbacks. So we we continuedoing that thinking, Oh, well,
we'll be back in a month. Andwe'll we'll put this up there.
And that's the week I got sick.
But I was home. And we just dideverything on zoom and tapes.
And you know, all that kind ofstuff. So we continue to work
(07:38):
along the way and trying to geteverybody didn't everybody
didn't know what they were goingto do.
Raymond McAnally (07:50):
In your career path. Have you? Have you ever
had something disrupt productionand, and casting on a scale like
this?
Pat McCorkle (08:00):
Oh, no, no. I mean we had 911. You know, and I, a
that time, I was working onbig studio feature that wa
supposed to shoot in Panama. Anthen it wasn't going to shoot i
Panama, right. But the biggesproblem we had was we didn'
(08:21):
know there were a couple actorthat we wanted to get fro
Europe. And they were on the yoknow, no fly. So we had to kin
of noodle around with thcasting on it. And flying was
little trickier. But Buhonestly, that just took
(08:42):
couple weeks. Yeah. And then anthen the other issue after tha
with casting was waimmigration. I remember a funn
the funniest story on that onwas, I was doing a wonderfu
television show for CBS callethe education of Max Pickfor
starring Richard Dreyfuss. Anwe had worked out a deal. We'
(09:08):
been working six months on itto get Peter O'Toole, to be i
it. And it was the firsAmerican television series i
ever going to be in. And it wagoing to NYU at that time, an
the show actually shot on thWagner college campus. And Pete
was actually in New Yorvisiting his son and we ha
(09:29):
worked this all out. And thiwas after 911. It was like i
2002 or so. And that week, thweek before we needed to shoo
the Bush administration to comout with a whole new immigratio
thing. And nobody knew what iwas. And so we ultimately had t
(09:50):
fly Peter O'Toole to Bermuda anthen bring him back into th
country on a work visa. But wweren't sure he was going to b
in the country. would be allowein the country. Whoa. And th
joke was our joke. It workeout, it worked out fine. We go
him in at the last minute. Likwe got him in Sunday, we shot o
(10:11):
Monday. But the joke was that hhad Lawrence of Arabia on hi
resume, and they weren't surthat they were the 91
Commission was a flat image, ohmy God, we're, my productio
manager was having a hearattack, and it was just no on
knew. But that that kind othing, you just, you had time t
(10:33):
work that stuff out. And wwould just be able to work i
out the problem. Now, iaddition to all the COVI
restrictions, is literallgetting the information so w
can continue our work. In othewords, everybody's working fro
home. And, and I've been able tget hold of agents and, and yo
(10:53):
know, other people, actors anstuff, but it takes longe
because it's going to go to thoffice or it's going to go, yo
email them or something, iisn't like you could pick up th
phone, and so and so get here ian hour to audition. Everythin
takes time. And it's still it'still it's better now, becaus
some of the agents are back itheir office. But you know, an
(11:16):
and the other big thing in thais the rules are differen
everywhere, whether you're iNew York, and you're trying t
call California. And I talked tsomebody ICM, a very, very goo
friend who was an agent thereAnd he said, I hadn't been i
the office in a year. You knowI've just, we work from home. S
it just takes that kind of timeAnd you you're trying to explai
(11:37):
to your your producers and youdirectors that it isn't like i
used to be it isn't that fastThat I think zoom is great Yeah
Caroline Amos (11:50):
Hang on, though.
Tell us more about that. We'veheard very few advocates for
zoom, I think everybody's a bitfatigued by it. Tell us why?
Pat McCorkle (11:57):
You know, we are all fatigued, right? There'
no question. Literally, this imy sixth zoom call today. We
are fatigued by but the advantges from an from an actor's poin
of view is that they can be hom. I mean, we did auditions the o
her day, and one of the girls wain the Virgin Islands, another
(12:18):
and she we did a chemistry reaon zoom, which isn't perfect.
But we did a chemistry with herand a guy who was in North Carol
na. And we were able to watcit now, we wouldn't have been
ble to do that live. Anso sometimes you you can do t
at. And you can also pull peple from all over the country.
ven some of the regional theter actors who are wonder
(12:41):
ul, absolutely wonderful.
my thinking is, maybe we're gnna have a zoom on the first ro
nd. And then if you get called bck, we need you in person. I t
ink that will open it up andlso for regional theaters is is
ood because the artistic direcors can stay at home, do what
ver they have attend the sesson, then go and do whatever
hey have to do, then just comin for the callbacks as oppose
(13:02):
to spending a week in New Yorkith the hotels and all the res
of it. So I think there's thngs that are going to come ou
of it. Not all of its perfct. Musical auditions are
ery difficult. So that's a wole nother thing. Yeah. But it
oes give you access to all kindof different peo
Raymond McAnally (13:24):
Yeah, it does.
I think you and I were talkingthe other day that I've actually
really enjoyed my zoom producersessions, callbacks and things
like that, because it feels itfeels enough like the room, you
know, and you're gettingadjustments, and you're getting
that kind of feedback andsupport and, and everything. The
the thing that I've noticed thatneeds that we all need to figure
(13:48):
out myself included, is I know Ican probably name right off the
top of my head about at least adozen bookings that I have
walked into the room and wonthem over with the helo and and
confirmed it with the audition.
(14:08):
And then left knowing that I wasat least going to get a
callback, or I was going to bookit. Right. And I haven't quite
figured out as an actor, how tofind that in a self tape, or how
to, you know, get if you're notgoing to get the zoom thing and
you're just putting yourself oncamera. You know how to present
(14:28):
yourself in the best possibleway.
Pat McCorkle (14:31):
And because you're also such a great comedian and
clown and such, it's real hardto tell the physicality.
Raymond McAnally (14:42):
That is a problem. That's been a big thing
for me, not only because of theweight loss in the last year or
so, but it is really hard unlessyou see me next to somebody to
see my size. Yeah, you know, andso it's been really interesting,
Mike, what do I need to do acardboard cutout of the average
adult male (la
Pat McCorkle (15:03):
So true. We were doing a, I was doing callbacks
for this, this off Broadwaymusical. And we had two
contenders. And I said to theproducers, it's really important
to understand the size of thepeople and the chemistry, we
would you couldn't begin totell. And one actor for the Li
for that we're auditioning twoactors for the lead. One was
(15:25):
five, eight, and the other wassix, three. And the two girls
that we were auditioning for theother lead one was five, seven,
and one was 540. And so you cantry to imagine that, but
obviously, that's great amountof distance. And, and no one in
the room except me thought toask the heights on these people,
(15:47):
because you're just going fromthese headshots, basically,
people. The other thing thatI've noticed a lot, and is the
difference in the writing. I'mworking on one film right now,
there's three people in it.
Caroline Amos (16:06):
Oh, you want to minimize that contact tracing
Pat McCorkle (16:11):
people to two locations wants to. So we have
we've had a change in creativestaff. So because we should have
been done by now. But it's onlythree people. And then there's
another film that I just got,and it's basically three people,
(16:32):
but it starts at a big party,and then which probably will
have maybe 12 people in it forlike two or three days. And then
it's three people. So people arefinding different ways of
writing. People see thingsartistically differently now.
Caroline Amos (16:50):
Well, it's following the same pattern, the
way the plays have been reducingtheir castes, reducing their
runtimes, etc. So that's alsothat's really interesting. But
the fact that they've both doneit for for vastly different
reasons, right? Yeah.
Pat McCorkle (17:06):
Now there are a lot of a lot of the theaters are
doing 234 person shows, youknow, what have you. That's why
a crossing, which I think has 18or 19 in it. We're doing it in
September, though. Hmm. So and Ithink they might even do it
outdoors. Yeah, some of theBarrington stages got a, they
(17:29):
got hold, they were able to geta parking lot in a huge tent. So
there's still a play, playoutside.
Caroline Amos (17:38):
That is so exciting. I actually kind of
love the way that everybody'shad to pivot. Within this. I
worked at the I was a companymember at the great river
Shakespeare Festival for aboutfive years. And they had been
talking, they were alwaystalking about maybe next year's
the year, we're gonna figure outhow to get us outside. No, maybe
the next year, maybe the nextyear. And look, this has been
(17:59):
they've been handed kind of atremendous gift, that they
finally get an opportunity toput everything outside. And I I
love I mean, if there's ifanybody's going to be creative
in this industry, in anyindustry, it's going to be the
artists. And I think that it'sso exciting to see what what is
what's new, what's going to comeof this, how is this going to
(18:21):
influence the next 10 years oftheater of film, especially if
you can take it and and look onthe bright side and turn all
these lemons into some sugary,sugary lemonade.
Pat McCorkle (18:32):
Oh, I hope so. I mean, that's why I'm counting
on. I just feel a little badlyfor this. Well, in a way, I feel
badly for the studentsgraduating now starting agents
and managers aren't necessarilylooking for new talent, even
though I think there's anenormous energy towards finding
(18:53):
new talent for all of this, allthe Netflix and Amazon Prime,
and all these wonderful newseries with all this great new
young talent, you know, but itis harder to get an agent. The
one thing is a lot of them havecome up with very clever ways of
doing their showcases now wherethey're filming them. And I
actually think more people arewatching them. Because you know,
(19:16):
you had to leave your office andgo to the theater and see them
at the end of the day and you'reexhausted or you have to stop
your work and go now it's onfilm. And so you can, you know,
break down service and actorsconnection and stuff. I don't
know what they're doing in LA,but in New York, that's what
they're doing. And you can youknow, say oh, I'm doing a
musical. Let me you know, windthis up and go through the the
(19:39):
musicals now I know I'm doing astraight play and I need I need
this. Yeah. It's a great way tofind to find
Raymond McAnally (19:47):
that I think there has to be a residual
benefit that especially ifthey're able to keep the content
up. So it can be referred tolonger. I mean, that was one of
the whole reasons I starteddaily fiber That whole comedy
content pursuit was because Iwas tired of creating characters
for stage roles. And you know,it's a finite moment. And if it
(20:12):
was regional, nobody was gonnasee it in New York or LA. And so
I started turning that stuffinto original content. And it
absolutely paid dividends. So Ithink that is a positive in the
fact that we can all we weretalking about this, in our last
interview, that I'm now able tosupport and see the productions
(20:36):
of theaters that I love aroundthe country. I'm very interested
in that model continuing in someway, because I learned the hard
way, when I, when we shot sizematters, my one man show to put
it on Amazon. One of theproblems I ran into the whole
reason we got to that point withit was because I needed I was
(20:59):
being asked for footage of theshow. And I could not get it
released to me to save my life,even though I was the playwright
and the writer. And yeah, Imean, the writer and the actor,
and and all of it. And so whatstarted out is just trying to
film the thing. So I could useit to promote the show turned
into this one man show specialthat got made and wishing then
(21:24):
that was 2016, when we filmedthat 15 or 16. Wishing then
that, that the contracts thatequity was up with the times.
And we could, you know, we couldhave footage of shows people are
doing amazing work and regionaland, and more people should be
able to see it.
Pat McCorkle (21:45):
And there's been I've done a lot of what I did
theatrically last year on zoom,were readings, a lot of
Caroline Amos (21:52):
so much work. So much new work.
Pat McCorkle (21:55):
There was so much new work and so much fun. The
only thing that's an issue isthat you really need to define
those filmmakers who can shootthat stuff. Yeah, so it looks
good. But what I've heard interms of the showcases, what I
heard from some of the collegesI've worked with, is they're
hoping next year to do it live.
And on tape,
Caroline Amos (22:18):
when you do the way that you described that I
was almost jealous for my ownshowcase experience, because
ours wasn't really attended byanybody back in 2010. And so
like if there was an opportunitythat like, you know, if there
were specific agents or castingdirectors I liked, I would love
the opportunity to be like, Hi,I would love to get on your
radar, this is some work that Ijust did no showcase, have a
(22:38):
nice day. And it's it's a it's ayou can view it in your own
leisure. I love that. And,
Pat McCorkle (22:44):
and likewise, what I'm getting, and it makes me a
little bit crazy. But I have allthe directors if especially if
they're not here, something's ifthey can't see an actor, they'll
send me footage. And I'm like,Well, if you're in New York,
there are not a lot of comedyshot in New York, almost
everybody's gonna send you theirlaw and order. And that might
(23:09):
not tell you that they can dobroad comedy. Right? And I don't
have there's nothing here toshoot. And they say, Well, how
am I supposed to tell? And sothe only way I can have someone
do it is audition, but I youknow, if you have something
that's for real, it's it's fine.
And a lot of there still are alot of theater directors who
(23:31):
say, Well, you know, I don'twatch much television and I'm
going well, you're missing alot. Yeah, that's too bad.
Because maybe you're thinkingabout what was done in the 70s.
That's not what's being donenow. There's some sensational
sensational work being donethere, especially in the last
(23:51):
year because the movie theatersweren't available.
Raymond McAnally (23:57):
So one thing I wanted to, to ask you about
because I believe when we talkedin December initially about
doing an interview that you hadmentioned one more symptom, and
and that was the the hazinessthe brain fog. Yes. Yeah. And
you had said that that
Pat McCorkle (24:16):
lasted quite a while it did. It did. And I
don't think I have it now. I'msure I don't have it now. But I
do get fatigued earlier, and I'mnot sure if that's zoom fatigue,
or leftover from COVID. But myhusband and myself and the dog,
go to bed at 10 o'clock. That'sthe line in the sand. And I kept
(24:41):
thinking, but I we used to go tothe theater every night. How
does that work? But we reallyneed our eight hours. But it was
it was COVID brain it was justat times my brain didn't
function anymore at all.
Caroline Amos (24:54):
How did you combat that when it came to
doing your work?
Pat McCorkle (24:58):
I would just have to stop that. Say I can't do any
more it's or my staff is sofantastic. I would just say, I
can't think of that that thisis. Yeah. Did I tell you about
my other symptom? But no manypeople talk about this. The
hair?
Raymond McAnally (25:18):
Oh, you did back then you please.
Pat McCorkle (25:21):
So, as you know, I have very thick hair. And
everything, everything is fine.
And about three months after Ihad the COVID I started when I
bit combing my hair, I'd seemore and more hair in my brush.
And I'm going this is kind ofweird. And it went on for about
two weeks. And I went to myhairdresser who was fantastic.
(25:45):
And he does mostly act as hedoes Kathleen Turner and Judy IV
and all those people would go tohim. And he said, what happens?
It's from the COVID. And whenyou got the COVID it affected
the hair follicles and the hairis breaking now then three
months later comes out. He's abunch of follicles are alright,
(26:07):
so it's going to come back. AndI've talked to my hair colorist.
And she said the same thing. Andso I had and I and I looked it
up and there it is there thatpeople. A lot of people lost
hair. Yeah, I did. Did you lose?
Caroline Amos (26:27):
Yeah, a ton. I remember when I had my and I
laid in bed for multiple dayswithout being able to get up.
And when I did finally get up,there was an absurd amount of
hair on this pillow. It's scary.
It's It's really scary. I mean,that on top of the rest of the
symptoms. I mean, it was Ialmost was sort of like, is this
what it feels like to havecancer?
Pat McCorkle (26:48):
Well, I know. And they they said to me, Well, it's
either the COVID or it's stress.
And I said, Well, I'm stressedbecause my hair is falling out.
I can't do anything about that,because it's stressing me. But
let's just see. And so I startedtaking a vitamin and stuff and
my hair is back. I have as youcan tell I have good Yeah, you
look great. Yeah, full hair. Andit's longer now than when
(27:11):
probably when Raymond lastthought. It's I've just let it
grow. But and I have no problem.
The hair isn't falling out. Ican brush it is no problem. It's
normal. But I didn't read aboutthat until until it started
happening. And I looked it up onthe internet. And they went
Yeah, it is. And I've heard acouple doctors on TV talk about
(27:32):
it, but it isn't people reallydon't talk about it much. Yeah,
um, but yeah, so it was like itwas caused. I mean, it was, I
didn't have bald patches, but hewas clearly you run a comb
through it, and it was full ofhair.
Caroline Amos (27:46):
I'd run my fingers through and I'd be like,
Pat McCorkle (27:49):
oh my god. Yeah, I started running my fingers
through my hair. And I'm like,What is this? What is this is
like corn silk. You know, likewhen you're asking corn and you
suddenly have all that silk onyour hands? You won't have that
was what was happening in myhair. Oh, wow. But they said it
would come back. And it did.
Raymond McAnally (28:07):
And it was some sort of vitamin deficiency.
Pat McCorkle (28:12):
No, they said is because whatever the COVID did
hurt the hair at that point inthe follicle and it took 90 days
for that follicle, the bottom ofthat follicle to reach the top
to get out. As long as thefollicle isn't damaged, your
hair will come back. And it did.
Caroline Amos (28:30):
It's almost like having your body being haunted
by a ghost.
Pat McCorkle (28:35):
it's twofold. It's one the disease which is what it
is and so, so horrible to it'swhat the pandemic has done to
our mental state in our lives, Imean, different, two different
issues. And I know my husbandand I ever I don't know why I
thought this and it was the wisething to do. I think right from
(28:57):
the get go when the pandemicstarted, I said, we're going to
have a very organized life. Andwe have a regimentation, which
is very similar to what we hadbefore the pandemic. In other
words, you know, we get up theright time in the morning, we
get dressed for work, eventhough it's only going to the
bedroom or the dining room, butwe get up for work, we have
(29:19):
lunch, we have dinner, we do itall in order, the weekends, we
have our plan for our cleaning,because I lost obviously lost my
cleaning lady and you know, allthose kinds of things in the
pandemic. Um, so we have veryorganized schedule life and we
still keep it that way. And Ithink that has helped us
immensely in terms of organizingit. We are like we were lucky,
(29:42):
my husband, I were lucky enoughto have a business that we could
structure this I don't know whatan actor does. It just boggles
my mind and let you startwriting or you start producing
your own stuff, but waiting forsomething to happen and not
being there. Hi,
Caroline Amos (30:00):
I will say just actor's perspective, I actually
kind of love the fact that I'mable to do a ton of my voiceover
work and stuff from home. And italso means that I am, I'm away
free or to give a lot more of mytime and energy to my upcoming
auditions. I love that I'm notspending six, seven hours a
night, exhausting myself in arestaurant right now. Like, I
(30:23):
can just continue to freelance.
And, you know, when I'm at home,I can rest I can recharge, and
I'm not working or acting from aplace of complete exhaustion. So
in a weird way, I've actuallykind of I've loved the fact that
I've had all this. It's notexactly downtime, but like
hometime has been really, it'sbeen really valuable. And I've
enjoyed it.
Raymond McAnally (30:45):
I was the least productive I've ever been.
And that's
Caroline Amos (30:49):
a no you weren't though, because you've been do I
feel like every single day,you're like, Carolyn, I got this
new play. We're going to dothat. We're going to talk about
this new play. Carolyn, we'regoing to start a podcast, we're
going to do this, we're gonna dothat. We're going to show that
to you every single day that Ihave known you.
Raymond McAnally (31:03):
Yeah, but I'm not finishing in the mall. So
that's that's a big difference.
But
Caroline Amos (31:07):
it might be because you have I don't know so
many irons in the fire.
Raymond McAnally (31:12):
Well, it from me actually productive as lack
of productive Miss whatever isthe wrong way to put it. Because
I do feel like I've beenproductive and learning other
lessons. Right? So I realized,much like I connected to the way
you put your COVID brain story,Pat, that that there that when
(31:32):
you were done, you were done.
You just had to admit it. I hada lot of that. And it was if it
wasn't COVID related, fatiguerelated, it was actually some
sort of mental health, like Icannot focus, I need to move on
to I've been learning a veryhealthy mix of one that hits to
get up and do somethingphysical, to I've for the past.
Gosh, I guess going back to whenI was in high school, I started
(31:59):
to become the steward of all ofour family documents and family
photos. That's good. Yeah, yeah.
And I have loved these, I mean,20 boxes of this stuff all over
the country as I've moved. And Ibrought the last bit home from
Tennessee A few years ago, andit's just been sitting in our
storage. And so I've beenscanning at all, and I just
(32:22):
dropped off a whole bunch of itto family members in Tennessee
on our on our road trip. And itfeels so good to get that off my
plate. Now that's not going topay my bills, that's not going
to pay my mortgage. I you know,I don't even know if the family
members that gave it to care.
But for me, it feels good. And Iand it was just some stuff i i
think i personally had to learnand get off my plate. You know,
Pat McCorkle (32:45):
it's funny, you said that because my sister has
done that. My sister has donethat she was she's the family
historian, there's always afamily historian. Yes, my sister
was a family historian. And thenthe other day, my nephew, who's
a beekeeper in Maine, it's longand involved. But he needs to
(33:05):
also become now the family andhe went back on my my Mars, our
side of the family, my brotheron our side of the family, he
went back to like 1000 home whathe went way back, way, way back.
I mean, he did all this stuff inin the States, but he went back
(33:27):
to Scotland, where McCorkle wasa and did this whole thing about
the history on when they changethe name, how the chain that he
was at, you know, changeanglicised or whatever you call
it, and went way, way back. Andit was really weird. My sister
just said, so I guess he's nowgoing to be the family
historian. It's really crazy.
But that but you're right.
(33:50):
That's the time that you you caninvestigate some of this stuff.
I've been telling my students,like, catch up on older films
that people refer to and andI'll make some suggestions about
something I've seen. And thenthey'll watch it. And the next
week we talk about it, and theolder films, and then how does
that reflect in the new films?
And so I've been I've beentrying to use that material with
(34:12):
them as well. That's great.
Caroline Amos (34:17):
We're already kind of on this topic. But we
always love to round out thepodcast on a on a hopeful and
positive note. And it's I loveto ask the question, what is
giving you hope right now andwhat's keeping you going? Well,
Pat McCorkle (34:31):
it's exciting that we're starting to come back. And
I and I'm really excited aboutthe new writing and we've talked
about the pandemic and we talkedabout you know, all the things
with regards to that but thediversity issue is fantastic.
And what that's bringing forwardand the new stories that are
(34:55):
being told that need to be told.
I find all that very Very, veryexciting. Um, and so I'm just
looking forward to whatever kindof new material we can find it
in a new way. I, I don't, I'mnot discouraged by it, but it's
going to be different. It's justwe have to know that it's that
it has to be different,fortunately, and the world is
(35:18):
going to be a different place.
Yeah. And that's, that's okay,too. I'm, you know, I I'm and I
can't wait to start travelingagain.
To my husband, I going to theGalapagos for Christmas. Oh,
gratulations.
That's a blast. Well, we weresupposed to go last summer. And
(35:41):
we couldn't. So now we've put itoff until Christmas, because we
hear that's the best time to go.
Raymond McAnally (35:48):
This is just because you want the best
Christmas card ever with a is ona turtle.
Pat McCorkle (35:53):
I know. You might be it might be. No, we just
decided. We decided a coupleyears ago to see the world and
we have found it. Fantastic. Andwe and just so exciting and has
nothing to do with showbusiness.
It has to do with the world. Andwe just have really, really
gotten into it. And we just keepplanning what we want to do. And
(36:16):
I want to see the Galapagosbefore the turtles disappear.
Oh, you know, save a few whileyou're at it. Exactly. Well, you
know, the thing of it is you canjust be a better artist, too, by
getting to see these people andgetting to know them. And
they're, they're fantastic. Butthe whole point of life and
stuff. It's just so muchenriched by knowing these
(36:38):
people. And I like to bring thatto my work of choosing scripts
choosing cas, and just givingsome different kind of point of
view on it. And you really needto, to, to embrace that. We're
lucky enough. Now the we're notgoing to see as many on the
Galapagos, I realized that it'slimited. And I my husband has
(37:01):
learned to scuba dive. I'm notscuba diving, but he's and he'll
get to see a lot more than Iwill. But I think it's just
exciting, and I feel veryoptimistic about all that stuff.
Hey, this
Unknown (37:19):
is Caroline Raymond, thank you so much for listening
to fatigued from patients toparamedics,
Raymond McAnally (37:25):
long haulers to lessons learned. Sure, it's
the same virus but these arevery different stories.
Caroline Amos (37:31):
If you have a question or a story you'd like
us to address on an episode,please email us at fatigued
podcast@gmail.com. That's fitigpu ed podcast@gmail.com.
Raymond McAnally (37:42):
And don't forget to check us out on
Facebook, Instagram, Twitterclubhouse, right clubhouse What
is that?
Caroline Amos (37:49):
I don't even know But whatever it is, we're here
to offer genuine conversation sowe can humanize the issues
surrounding COVID and thepandemic. These stories deserve
the space to be remembered andwe relish the opportunity for
connection in this isolatedtime.
Raymond McAnally (38:02):
Perhaps you will to
Caroline Amos (38:03):
stay positive test negative and thanks for
listening. Bye
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