Broadway and Puppetry with Stephanie D'Abruzzo: Exploring Avenue Q, Voice Acting, Sesame Street, and Donkey Hodie

Get ready for an engaging journey into the world of theater and puppetry as we sit down with the multifaceted talent, Stephanie D'Abruzzo. Ever wondered what it's like to perform on Broadway in Avenue Q and the impact of the Tony Awards on a production? Stephanie shares her unique insights, drawing on her experiences. She candidly discusses the shift from puppet-focused to actor-focused performances.

Our conversation with Stephanie isn't just confined to Broadway. We also uncover her experiences with voice acting in beloved children's shows like Scooby-Doo Adventures, Sesame Street, and Winnie the Pooh. She even provides a sneak-peek into her recent experience on the second season of Donkey Hodie. 

Finally, we dive into the wonderful world of puppeteering, discussing Stephanie's experiences working with renowned puppeteers and the amusing practicalities of puppeteering Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet (LOL). Lighten your day with a lighthearted candy trivia game and join in our lively debate over the supremacy of Heinz Ketchup. 

With Stephanie D'Abruzzo as our guest, you're in for a roller-coaster ride of hearty laughs, wisdom, and a whole lot of puppeteer fun. So, sit back, relax, and immerse yourself in the fascinating world of theater and puppetry!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Yo, what's up everybody?
How's it going?
Welcome to the Bad Chestpodcast.
I am your host, Katie215.
Well, that means a cutout short.
I don't know what happenedthere.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Anyway hi.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is the second episode of the Bad Chest podcast
.
Tonight we have one of myfavorite people on the planet.
She is amazingly talented.
I first saw her on Broadway andAvenue Q long before we ever
had the opportunity to worktogether.
She just has done amazingthings in voiceover work, in

(00:44):
puppetry, in acting, I meaneverything.
Listen, she's got a sizzle reelthat she said she did 10 years
ago.
I think it's hysterical.
I'm going to let this do theexplaining for you if you don't
know who you are, or if youdon't know who she is, and we're
going to roll in now.
This is great.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'm so all alone so long, fellas, mary had a little
lamb All aboard.
The Holiday Train show at theNew York Botanical Garden, new
Nivea, my Silhouette withBioslum Complex.
Touch and be touched.
Have an alfresco lunch andcheck out the delightful shop.
Come for an afternoon in sunnyItaly Tonight at 9 pm.
6 pm.

(02:08):
It's a pen that erases.
The 80s are gonna rock.
I'm here with the neighborhoodwatch.
Dr Cox, you gotta help mebecause I really am distressed,
can't you?
Find another option, won't you?

Speaker 1 (02:26):
run another test If you want some kind of favor
really any kind of favor?
Please just get me peace andquiet from this God-forsaken
past.
Shut your cake hole, mary Beth,or I swear to God I'll shut it
soon.
Monsters, happy monsters.
Monsters, happy monsters,monsters, happy monsters.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Any thoughts.
That scares the f*** out of me.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Ladies and gentlemen, stephanie De Bruyne, how are ya
?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Hi Caitlin.
Wow yeah, I edited that all bymy little self.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Did ya.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
I did, I did and I am .
I'm actually that's.
That's my deep, dark side of me.
To begin a real about myselflosing the Tony.
I was very proud of that.
You know, I love that song.
It was a great way to use thesong.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
I just want to preface this for all the viewers
.
When I asked her to do thepodcast, her response was well,
I don't want to do podcasts allthat much anymore because
everyone asks the same questionsand I'm taking a break, and so
I promised her this so itwouldn't be like any other
podcast she's done.
So I'm gonna have to ask aquestion that I don't know if

(03:50):
you've been asked this before,but if we go back to 2004,
Avenue Q at the Tony's,obviously you lost to Adina
Menza we saw that there butAvenue Q won Best Musical that
year.
Yeah, as the 20 years have goneby since then 19 years, I mean
Wicked has was I mean, it'sstill huge today as it was then.

(04:14):
Yeah, do you feel like yourobbed the Tony?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
I just want to know you know it's funny, back then
when we won, I heard a lot oflike there was a lot of David
and Goliath comparison, becausewe were a little show with a
smaller budget and a smallertheater and they were this big,
fancy show.
And there were people who werelike, yeah, you know, david beat
Goliath and I never thought ofit as a competition.

(04:39):
I mean, we only stayed openbecause we had, let's just say,
with a lot of people came toAvenue Q who lost the Wicked
lottery, so you know whocouldn't get into Wicked.
So we were grateful.
You know, a good, a goodBroadway season raises all boats
.
So there was no animosity, nocompetition as far as the cast

(04:59):
was concerned.
But we were hearing a lot ofyeah, you beat, you beat the big
show.
And years later now peoplefreaking hate that we beat
Wicked.
Who's this little, nothingpuppet show beating our beloved
Wicked?
Like I don't have anything todo with it.
I never even saw the Tony untilI went to see a show at the

(05:24):
Vineyard.
It's not like the Stanley Cup.
I didn't get to hold it, itdidn't get to keep it overnight.
It doesn't come with a blankcheck or even a cookie.
You know, it's great, but andit was great for us, I suppose
because it helped us run alittle longer.
I don't think Wicked was goingto have any problems running.

(05:48):
You know, I think sometimes aTony can help a show run, but
I've also seen shows win Tony'sand close.
A good an award doesn't makegood work better, and it does,
and lack of it doesn't make goodwork worse.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
That makes sense.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
But yeah, yeah, there are people who legitimately
hate, hate, hate it now and I'msorry.
That's all I can say is I'msorry so obviously you have a
new queue.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
It's not even off Broadway anymore, correct?

Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean it's no, it closed it New World stages.
It transferred to New Worldstages I think at the end of
2009 and it closed in 2019.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
So I saw, obviously, the original cast and then I saw
a couple of other times throughthe years and I mean I think
what you guys did that wasdifferent.
And then I swear we're gettingoff this talk so it's not like
any other podcast, but I feellike what was different about
the original cast and then allfuture cast is the original cast

(06:57):
were a lot of really skilledpuppeteers and you guys were
used to working with puppets andyou were used to working around
people in puppets and you putthe puppets out front, right,
like you were not trying toshine over the puppets where I
feel like in later casts, thelike the it was like a
competition.
Like you were paying lessattention to the puppet and more
attention to the actors andactresses playing the roles,

(07:21):
which I feel like took away fromwhat the show was supposed to
be.
And you didn't have that withthe original and I'm not saying
everybody you know there were.
There were some greatpuppeteers that stuck with that
show for a long time.
Yeah, just the general feel ofthe show I think changed when
they kind of went from that.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
That's interesting that you say that and that you
had that perspective.
You know that world and maybeyou might have been more attuned
to it than the average theatergoer you might have.
I think you have a little moresavvy, knowing, knowing the
puppeteers and knowing thatworld.
But that's kind of you to saywe always, you know, whether

(08:04):
it's Avenue Q or Sesame orwhatever we do, it's character
first and we were justsupporting the character.
So, and also, to be perfectlyhonest, just physically having
the character a little forwardrather than doing this is better
.
You know, I would, I would tuckin on scenes where I didn't

(08:25):
have a lot to do, but you can'tperform like this because it's
just the ergonomics.
And I will hear from collegestudents doing the show who you
know are expected to do thiswith two weeks of training,
who've never puppeteered before.
Three weeks of training, maybea month, and again they're all

(08:46):
they'll want to do this becausethey think that they have to put
their face next to thecharacter.
And and I get it, you know, Iget it.
But it's a culture and I thinkthat the puppeteers who
originated the show, we just itwasn't that we were trying to
hide ourselves, it's just ourculture is character first and

(09:08):
you have to believe because youhave to work so hard to get
people to believe, that thisinanimate object on your hand is
the character and that me, I amsupporting this character.
So that's very kind of you tonotice that.
I don't know that many otherpeople did.
But you know, look, I don'tthink it hurt the run, so I

(09:33):
can't.
I'm not a good judge of that.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
I mean you are right, I do.
I do have a little bit of.
I mean, I've been on SesameStreet now, I think, close to 20
years.
When did you start on Sesame?
How long have you been onSesame?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
93 93 was my first yeah, so it's 30, 30 years for
me.
My first day on the, I did ahome video in June of 93 and my
first day on the set wasNovember 93.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
It was the first year they were a Kaufman was it.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
The intimidating thing about Sesame Street is
I've been on the show.
It was.
It's less than 20 years, right,because I did not know anybody
from Sesame when I went toAvenue Q, and so it's getting
close to 20 years, right.
But even at 20 years you stillfeel like you're the new person
when you walk in there.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
I still feel like I'm the new person I really do, and
it's weird because people, youknow, we have all these new
puppeteers who've come in andthey're looking at me like I'm
the elder statesman and I'm not.
I don't feel like I'm in thatposition.
I certainly don't, you know.
I know that I'm older than FranBrill was when I met her.
I think now I'm older thanFrank Oz was when I met him.

(10:47):
It's very sobering.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Frank Oz is an interesting guy.
I feel like there are peoplethat you either love him or you
hate him.
You either have had the bestexperience in the world with him
or you've had the work I the he.
Obviously he doesn't.
I mean, I don't think he comesto Sesame at all anymore, but in
the in the beginning he camearound like once a year.
I feel like he would dosomething and he was always the

(11:14):
most pleasant man to me.
He even signed something frommy brother once.
He signed a Yoda figure which Ieverybody said don't, don't do
that.
I was like, listen, my, mybrother is the biggest Star Wars
fan in the world and I didn'tcare enough about the job at
that point to where I was likeyou know what, I'm just going to
do it and everyone's like, oh,he doesn't really sign, he was

(11:35):
just so pleasant about it.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Well, the one thing that I learned about Frank and
that I learned from Frank wasthat he'll sign it if it's to
someone and if it meanssomething to someone.
He has so many autograph houndswho were just asking for his
autograph to sell on eBay.
And the one thing that Ilearned from him before I did
Avenue Q, just by example is hejust said look, I'll, I'll sign

(12:00):
something, but I want to sign itto someone.
And that's what I started to do.
I mean, you know, obviously I'dsign playbills at the door but
they're all rumbled up.
But I would occasionally get inthe mail these really cryptic
letters just asking forautographs, not to anyone, or
saying, oh, this is for myfriend, but I don't know how to

(12:23):
spell his name, so just writeyour name and you just know
they're going to sell it.
Jokes on them.
My autograph doesn't sell, butthat's beside the point.
I knew that our cast, we wouldsell signed posters for Broadway
Cares, equity Fights Aids.
So I knew that our signatureswere valuable to raise money for

(12:44):
really worthy causes, for theActors Fund or for Phyllis
Newman Women's Health Initiative.
And I and I learned like, yeah,I'll, I'll send you a, I'll
send you a photo but I'll signit to someone.
And so when people would pullthat, oh, sign it to my friend.
I don't remember how to spelltheir name.
I would say to Victor's friend,who doesn't remember how your

(13:08):
name is spelled sorry, and Ilearned that from Frank.
There was a.
There was a time my husband,craig Schemin, was doing an
interview with Frank for theMuseum of the Moving Image and
Frank came over to you know sortof assist with the video
compilations that Craig wasputting together and we have a

(13:29):
lot of pop culture stuff in ourapartment and he just happened
to notice some Star Wars stuffand he just picked up something
and just signed it.
We had Craig has this old vinylYoda got out of Sharpie and
signed it and like, okay.
So I think it depends on howhe's approached.
And if he's being approachedwith the respect and love as you

(13:55):
were, you know, in the kindness, in doing something for your
brother, who's a true fan, andhaving it be from a personal
place, I think that heunderstands that.
But if someone's just trying toexploit him, and that's a
different story.
I mean, no one likes to beexploited.
Lesson for the day, if youlearn one thing today no one

(14:17):
likes to be exploited Boom.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
You know, ironically, the guest I had on last week, I
jokingly call her Mark Hamill'sbest friend.
So we had a whole conversationabout Mark Hamill this week, the
second episode.
Now we're having a wholeconversation about Frank Oz.
This is not a Star Wars podcast, but I mean by all accounts
Mark Hamill.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Mark Hamill's the nicest person, and so Mark
worked with him briefly on aDisney Channel interstitial and
he had lovely experiences withMark.
And then I remember we wereworking on the Wobblest World of
Dr Seuss in 1997 in New Yorkand that was when the special
editions were coming out.
So a bunch of the crew we gottogether on a Saturday we were

(15:01):
in line at the Ziegfeld Theater.
I guess it was for Return ofthe Jedi, so this would have
been 1998.
And I don't know if youremember the Saturday Night Live
where they did an episode thatMark Hamill appeared in and it
was.
They were QVC was selling StarWars merchandise and then they

(15:21):
had Mark Hamill for sale.
So that was happening laterthat night.
This guy passes by the line,right, just passes by the line.
We're all wearing, like JimHenson, company jackets too, by
the way.
Passes by the line, sees ourgroup looks us.
This is the line for Jedi keepswalking.
We realize it's Mark Hamill.
It was just by that pointhalfway down the block.

(15:44):
No one's going to catch him,and it was just such a cool
thing that he could tease thefans in that very cool way.
You know, you mentioned that yousaid it as a doll.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
You mentioned.
You did the Wobblest World ofDr Seuss.
You voiced Velma once inScooby-Doo with Scooby-Doo
Adventures.
You did Pooh Sesame Street.
I mean, I feel like you've doneevery legendary child's or.
You know what I'm saying.

(16:18):
Right?
Why can't I talk today?
Wow, live really stinks in apodcast.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
It's okay.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
It's a fandom of childhood right Dr Seuss, Sesame
Street, Winnie the Pooh.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
There you are, there's plenty I haven't done,
but I guess I've.
You know it's funny that theScooby thing was a one-off.
We were hoping it was going tobe a series and it turned into a
straight to DVD movie but wehad so much fun on it.
It's interesting we shot that10 years ago and that's somehow
that's become canon in theScooby world and that's

(16:52):
fascinating to me that thisthing that we all had a really
good time doing is taken soseriously by the Scooby fans.
I'm very glad that it seemslike.
I mean, I'm sure that there arepeople who don't like it, but
the people that I've talked to,or the ones who have reached out
to me anyway, have enjoyed it.

(17:12):
Seuss was an interestingadventure, very different from
season to season.
Book of Pooh I only did thevoice of Cassie.
I didn't do the puppetry.
That's a long story as to why.
Yeah, I did a little bit onBear in the Big Blue House, not
much.
So yeah, there are.

(17:35):
It was fascinating.
Is that now a lot of stuff thatI did in the late 90s, early
2000s?
There are people who are intheir early 20s who remember
this from when they were littleand it just sort of hits you oh,
yeah, I know how math works,but yeah, it's hard to deal with

(17:56):
.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
You mentioned the room that you were in is.
You built it pre-pandemic, youused it for voiceover work and
now you use it for a lot of yourzooming stuff, which is great.
And you mentioned Donkey Hoodie.
Yeah, I mean that's.
How's that going?
Is it still active, right?

Speaker 2 (18:15):
We just wrapped season two of Donkey Hoodie.
There are five episodes ofseason two that aired on PBS
Kids last month.
There will be more episodes in2024.
I'm really happy because seasonone it was a very long

(18:36):
production and we started inlate 2019.
We were shooting January,february, march of 2020.
Obviously, shut down for COVIDand then the show.
You know my characters.
I play Duck Duck and Harrietprimarily.
Those characters aren't inevery episode, so there were a

(18:57):
bunch of episodes that I wasn'tin.
Between the travel restrictionsthat I think have been very
quickly forgotten by so manypeople, I was reminding people
remember when you had toquarantine for 14 days If you
landed on a plane.
You know, if you took a planeand you went to a different city
, some places you had toquarantine for two weeks, some

(19:19):
seven days.
Between the travel restrictionsand then my health concerns and
then helpsters, I wasn't able toget out very much for most of
the continuing first season ofDonkey.
I did a handful of episodes.
So season two I was there forevery single one.
Even if I wasn't in it, I wasassisting or doubling a

(19:42):
character.
So I'm so happy and I get toplay a lot of other little
surprise characters that arecoming up, but Duck Duck is
officially my favorite character, my favorite public character
that I've ever played of alltime.
I could play her until I die.
I love her, I love the peoplethere.

(20:02):
We shoot it in Chicago at WTTW.
Just so everybody knows, it'son the public television
contract of SAG-GAFTA, which isnot affected by the strike, as
well as the public televisioncontract on Writers Guild.
So again, we were lucky we werenot affected by the current
strike action.
But yeah, I'm really happyworking on that show for all the

(20:28):
reasons.
We have an amazing group ofpeople.
Thank you for asking that.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Well, it's also got to be a cool show too, because
you are a native of Pittsburghand that's a friend of Roger's
production.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
You've done your own work, yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Right, and Mr Rogers is from Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Oh yeah.
And so when they told me that Iwould also be playing Harriet
Elizabeth Cow, which is areimagined Harriet Elizabeth Cow
, I remember the original MrRogers neighborhood Harriet.
She was a school marm, she hadthe little bonnet, she was very
soft spoken.
She was actually voiced andperformed by a man named Bob
Trough who also played Bob Dog,and he appeared on it and Bob

(21:07):
Trough appeared as himself.
And so when they werereimagining this character and
she's got this hot pink hair andshe's an artist and in
preschool television nowadaysthey don't like to hear dialects
on television.
But I said, look, in honor ofFred, and you got to have some

(21:29):
Pittsburgh, because if youlisten back to those old shows
you can hear a little Pittsburghin Fred, but you definitely
hear it in Chef Brocket.
I mean, there's a whole episodeevery time.
They're baking and we're makingdonuts today, fred.
Today we're making snow pudding, fred.
So I wanted to give Harriet abit of what we call a yinzer

(21:50):
accent.
So Harriet's talking like thisand go over there and going to
teach an art class, and they letme do it, which is great,
because I love bringing somePittsburgh into her and into the
show.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
You mentioned the yinzer dialect.
Pittsburgh is interestingbecause it definitely has its
own language that is so farremoved from everything else in
Pennsylvania, even weird wordslike when you go to a store and
you're pushing your littleshopping cart.
What do you call it inPittsburgh?

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Well, some people call it a trolley.
I don't.
But some people call it, we callit a shopping cart, but I don't
know.
Yeah, but it depends.
I had a music teacher who wouldsay Warsh instead of Wash.
I didn't grow up saying Warsh.
There is some.
It's interesting, it's veryvariable.

(22:49):
Some people are thicker thanothers, but some people you know
the little nozzle to turn onthe hose in the backyard,
calling it a spigot, which isdifferent from your faucet.
Some people would call theindoor sink faucet a spigot.
Not all.
Some would.
It's, you know there's not allPittsburghers have the same

(23:13):
yinzer.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
How do you feel about permane brothers?

Speaker 2 (23:18):
You know it's funny because I grew up in the suburbs
and we didn't really drivedowntown a whole lot, so I
didn't get to experience permanebrothers the way other people
did.
I mean driving parking in thestrip district.
My mother was not going todrive to the strip district just
to get a sandwich with frenchfries on it.
So the fact that it's now achain and well known for it, I

(23:41):
don't know.
That's not what I go back toPittsburgh for.
There's a family owned candycompany called Saris Candies in
Cannonsburg PA.
We sold their candy bars andthespians and you've probably I
don't know if you've been therewhen I've brought in the
chocolate covered pretzels fromthere at Sesame.
I'm not sure.
No.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
I don't think so.
You might not have.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Sometimes I'll put them on the craft service table
or have them in the Muppet Room.
It is the best milk chocolateyou will ever have.
In fact, they will not ship itif it's over 72 degrees because
there is no wax in it, there areno preservatives.
It's this family candy companyand if you go to the place in
Cannes and they sell iteverywhere in, if you go to the
Pittsburgh airport, like, theyhave this great big kiosk but

(24:24):
they'll also sell it at thegrocery stores and the drug
stores.
So it's pretty ubiquitous, butit's very family, very old
school Pittsburgh, and so I lovesharing that with people and
bringing in candy from myhometown or going back and like

(24:47):
the cookie tables.
I was a big thing growing up inan Italian family and having
the cookie tables at a wedding.
Or there's something calledLady Locks.
It's a cookie called Lady, ladyLock and it's like a cream horn
of varying sizes.
I can't really describe it anyother way.
It does not exist in New Yorkas far as I know.

(25:10):
It's a very Pittsburgh thing.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Pittsburgh is an interesting city too, because it
really is a hotbed oftelevision that nobody realizes.
So Fred Rogers is fromPittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
I have a living dad there.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
NEP, which is the largest live events and
broadcast services company inthe world, is based in.
Well, actually it's actually inHarmer, but its mailing address
is Pittsburgh.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, it's based in.
It owns so many buildings.
It builds all of its trucks atthe University of Pittsburgh
Applied Research Center.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
I had no idea.
I should have known that.
Take away my Pittsburgh card.
I mean again, I only spent thefirst 17 years of my life there.
I don't get back there as oftenas I'd like to yeah, only the
first 17 years.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
It's nothing.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Well, at least I was there during the heyday, I was
there during the City ofChampions, I was there when it
was named Most Livable City.
I got a couple of Pittsburghsomeplace, special shirts that I
like to wear on the set ofDonkey.
I like to show that littlePittsburgh pride.
But the other nice thing aboutshooting it in Chicago I went to
Northwestern in Chicago and soI we stay, you know, not far

(26:24):
from campus when I'm in town,and so that's a big part of my
life too.
So these major parts of my lifeglommed together on this show
is I don't know, it's just it'sa really nice thing to have it
be so personal.
For me, chicago's a great towntoo.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
We've never talked about this show before, but you
have a passion in your eyes, asyou're talking about this show,
that I've never seen as we, andwe've talked about a lot of your
work.
I really I love your stuff.
I think you are immenselytalented.
When I came up with the idea ofdoing the podcast, you were one
of the people that I reallywanted to have on, just because,

(27:07):
I mean, really, as I said, myfirst experience of you was
definitely Avenue Q, and I willalways remember you have a song
at Avenue Q that I have tobelieve has made more people cry
than any other song in modernBroadway.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
And it just was the-.
Sorry, I made you cry.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
No, it was just.
It happened to me twice in mylife with that song.
Yeah, it's just, and you knowwhat's interesting about that
song.
Not that I want to go likeother podcast-y with you, is it?
I mean that ends kind of acttwo of that play, if I recall
correctly, right, so I mean itends act one.

(27:48):
It ends act one, yeah, yeah, actone which, sorry, and that it's
not an ensemble song at all andit's kind of like a downer
which you don't typically get ina musical Right, and it was,
you know, kind of a bold choiceand you carried it so well and
it is.
It is a I can't be the onlyperson that's ever said that

(28:10):
that song really hits hardsometimes.
Well, and that's always.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
I'm very honored to hear that I didn't write it.
I can't take full responsibilityfor that, bobby, and Jeff
deserve the credit for that, andJason and Jeff would he deserve
the credit for how they placedit.
You know that that we had thesongs, a lot of the songs,

(28:35):
before the shape of the showreally gelled.
The show went through so manyiterations in its development
and so songs were placed allover the place, and so the fact
that Fine Fine Line wound upending act one.
We didn't know that was goingto be the case.
So that you know I had nothingto do with that.

(28:57):
I I was really lucky to get toperform it at all, let alone
originate it, and I know myversion is not everybody's
favorite version.
I I recognize that CertainlyI've heard it tangentially it's
my favorite.
But well, thank you.
I appreciate that, and you knowI've sung it out of character,

(29:22):
not as Kate in other venues, andI feel I feel that it's a
little different for me.
I enjoy doing it out ofcharacter.
I enjoy doing it in character.
It's a.
It's one of the things thatI've been doing for a long time.
It's wonderful when you'reasked to sing a song that you
genuinely enjoy performing.

(29:42):
It's a tricky song but it's.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Is that your favorite song from from?

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Avenue Q To sing.
Oh, my favorite song fromAvenue Q I really like I wish I
could go.
I think the song I wish I couldgo back to college is the song
that always hits me.
That's the truest to me.
Fine Fine Line is my favoritefor other reasons, but if you
were to look at the whole showand what I really identified

(30:13):
with more than anything else atthe time I was singing it, I
thought of my college friends.
Every night I sang.
I wish I could go back tocollege.
Where I came from and the yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
For me, the song that that strikes me the most is the
internet's for porn.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
but Ha, that is a lot of people's favorite.
That is the favorite of a lotof people.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
I didn't say that was my favorite.
I just said, that's the song Ican relate to the most.
The internet's for porn, andyou are not alone.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
No, no, you are not alone, and you?
Are not the first person to saythat.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Wasn't.
Isn't that the point of thesong?

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah, that's okay, but that's what's wonderful
about the show.
Is, you know, that personalconnection that people have?

Speaker 1 (31:02):
They say, historically speaking, porn is
what pushes mediums right, LikeSure Printing presses got bigger
with porn, you know film Cable,yeah, like cable TV Like the
internet.
You know it's an interesting.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Absolutely.
Ha ha, ha ha, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Not that I wanted to talk to you.
Ha ha ha.
How do we go from Don Quixoteto?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Well, Avenue Q is the , you know, tangent to all
inappropriate conversations canall just spin out from that.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Is.
You know, I don't think youcould do it today, I don't think
Avenue Q could be done today.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
No.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Or a premiere today.
I mean, you could do it today,obviously, because it was
written 20 years ago, but Idon't think you could premiere
it today.
It didn't age well.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
It just didn't age.
Well, it's a better way to sayit.
Do you know what I mean?
I think that there arerepresentations and that there
like, for example, we did SethRudetsky's Stars in the House a
few weeks ago to raise money inthe wake of the Maui wildfires
so sorry, maui wildfires, I canspeak and we did a sing-through,

(32:18):
and every time someone startstalking about everyone's a
little bit racist.
Now, especially in the last fiveyears or so, my feeling is that
if that song were to be writtentoday, the intention behind it
is really more everyone's alittle implicitly biased, rather
than the words racist.

(32:39):
Because you have you know, I'veheard people say you have a
black character.
You know being accused of beingracist.
That brings up a lot ofsensitivity issues with you know
what is racism.
And now I have also said in thepast what's interesting about

(32:59):
that song is that nowhere is itwritten in the pantheon of
musical theater that allcharacters need to be perfect
and that all charactersconstantly need to set the fine
example.
So the fact that thesecharacters are flawed and
probably a little obtuse andmaybe singing something, that's

(33:20):
a little, I mean, we wasinappropriate at the time.
It's more inappropriate now.
The hope is that you don'tlaugh because it's inappropriate
.
The hope is that it makes you.
If it's something that makes youthink, if it's a song that
makes you think, well, why arethese characters singing that?
Why are they so obtuse?
That's something to take withyou after the show and hopefully

(33:42):
that doesn't stop you cold, ormaybe it does, I don't know.
But certainly theater issupposed to make you think.
And when old musicals get sortof revamped along the way when
they did my Fair Lady and theychanged some things, when they
did Carousel, they changed somethings Musicals are really a

(34:05):
representation of their time,for better, for worse, for right
or wrong.
And it's one of the reasons whywhen TCM shows a Warner
Brothers film that has blackfacein it, they have a really
excellent featurette that talksabout the history of blackface
in cinema, the history ofblackface in vaudeville, the

(34:25):
stain and shame of that choiceto show it.
But they choose to not cut it.
They're showing it in contextbecause if you cut it you don't
want to forget that it existedand we cannot fix the future
unless we learn from themistakes of our past.
So when other people doproductions of Avenue Q and they

(34:49):
say, oh well, we should cutthis or we should trim this.
Well, avenue Q is a periodpiece.
Now it just is.
It's 20 years old.
It's representing a time beforethere was awareness that maybe
we should have had.
So that's my two cents about it.
I know that other people willdisagree with many things.

(35:10):
I'm not saying I'm 100% right.
I'm not saying I'm 100% wrong.
It's a conversation, and iftheater can't start
conversations, then why are wedoing theater?

Speaker 1 (35:22):
And you're not wrong.
There are lots of musicals thatare period pieces.
Anything goes, I feel like, isa great period piece, and I
think there's a lot in thatmusical that would be
questionable today but when youlook at it through the lens of
With all the misogyny and yeah.
But through the lens ofsomething that was written.
You know what?

(35:42):
I believe they started writingthat 10 years before it came out
, so I mean it was written ahundred years ago at this point
and it's a great musical.
It's one of my top fivefavorite musicals.
Anything goes, I love that.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think you, if you take a show in
context, if you take a show inthe spirit in which it was
written and think, okay, well,yeah, yikes, that's wrong, but
you can't whitewash that stuff,you can't just sponge it away.
It was part of it.

(36:15):
Now, something that's going tobe extremely harmful or evoke
violence is an entirelydifferent story.
Something that's going toromanticize that.
But again, everything is goingto be subjective and really

(36:36):
theaters have a choice with whatthey decide to put on.
And if you like some of thesongs from anything goes, but
feel like the book istroublesome, hey, do a review.
I don't know, I don't know.
It's an interestingconversation and I think that

(37:00):
it'll be.
I would be more interested inseeing if anybody wanted to
revisit the Avenue Q charactersto see what would be happening
with them now, rather than doinga revival.
That's just me, but who thehell cares what?
I think it's not my decision.

(37:23):
I have no power over it.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
I would also like to point out that my favorite, my
other favorite song from AvenueQ is one that wasn't in the
United States, it was with theTime, which was Nikki and the
Fanthorpe.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
I was not fan of that song.
No, I love that song.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
I just wanted to throw that out there.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
They wanted to know.
Well, they tried to put that inwhen we were developing the
show off Broadway and really.
Yeah, and I think they tried toput it in Vegas.
I'm trying to remember whetherthey successfully put it in
Vegas or whether they didn't putit in Vegas.
I just wasn't a fan of it, butthat's just me.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Wait, you don't, you don't, you don't like banter
humor.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
You don't like banter humor?
It wasn't that.
It was that it was unnecessary.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Fair.
So, look, one of the thingsthat we like to do on this show
is open up to Chaff for somequestions.
I've also had some questionssubmitted before and I've
explained to you the rulesbeforehand, but I'm going to
explain them to all of theviewers and listeners.
We have on the screen A D20.
It is a 20-sided die.
We can roll it at random andyou can see numbers pop up.

(38:36):
We are going to set the magicnumber today at 11, for no
reason at all.
If, when you ask the question,we will roll the dice.
If it is an 11 or higher, it isfor a knowledge check.
Stephanie can answer thequestion.
She knows the answer.
If it is under an 11, she doesnot know the answer to a

(38:56):
question and has to then make itup because she still wants to
answer your question.
She doesn't want to leave youhanging.
She wants to answer this.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
So making a lot of assumptions that I know answers
to questions, so I'm a littlenervous about this.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Well, I mean, I'm going to be honest with you.
I don't even know what thequestions are going to be,
because it's chat, so we'regoing to go.
There is a question thatsomebody submitted to me on
direct message for some reason,which I thought was hysterical,
and I need to ask this question,talking about Avenue Q If a
puppet only has four fingers,how, in fact, do they give

(39:32):
somebody the middle finger?
And we're going to roll the D20and see if you can answer.
And it is a one, it is anatural one.
You don't know how they cangive the middle finger, but go
ahead.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
So you're saying how can they give a middle finger if
they only have four fingers?
So what they do is they takehalf of one finger and half of
another finger and they sort ofpeel the non-halfs off and to
create the illusion of a middlefinger.
Or they take the two middlefingers and put them together to

(40:16):
create the illusion of onemiddle finger when in actuality
it's two very close together.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
It's almost believable.
It's almost believable, youknow, jackson Got a little too
yucky with the splitting themiddle finger.
No, it's fine.
Look, it's great.
Jackson wants to know if it'sfun of being an actress.
Jackson, do you mean on stageor on TV?
We wanna let's qualify this alittle bit.
We're gonna roll the diceanyway and see if she can
actually answer.

(40:46):
Oh, and you can.
You can give an honest answer.
Just go ahead and answer both,and which do you prefer?
Do you prefer acting on stage,do you prefer puppeteering or do
you prefer voiceover work, like?
Which are they fun doing themall, and which do you prefer?

Speaker 2 (41:02):
There's a lot there.
So as far as whether I preferstage or TV, it depends on if
I'm sick or not, because it ismuch easier to perform sick when
you're doing TV because you canalways loop it and you don't
have to project your voice andthe stress of live theater.

(41:26):
Staying healthy is the hardestpart of doing live theater.
That is the hardest part and Iwas not always successful at
staying healthy.
As far as whether I preferpuppetry, face acting or
voiceover look, I'm just a giantcan ham.
I love performing in any way,shape or form and sometimes the

(41:53):
nice thing about being able todo all of those things is you
get the best of all worlds.
As a puppet character, I get toexplore a really wide range of
characters.
When you're doing those widerange of characters as a
voiceover artist, it's mucheasier on your back and knees
and arms and shoulders becauseyou don't have to be in those

(42:15):
awkward positions to puppeteer.
When we were doing helpsters,you know you're Sesame Street,
you're performing, butespecially on helpsters because
we were on location a lot.
As a puppeteer you areliterally in the mud on the
ground with the ants crawlingall over you, but when it's cold

(42:36):
you get to be in your coat andyour hat and your scarf, and the
actor on camera is wearingsomething very skimpy and is
usually uncomfortable and has tokeep their makeup all nice.
So there are times when it'sgood to be one the other or the
other.
There are pros and cons to allof, but hey, that's the show

(43:01):
business.
You know what I've I love, youknow yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
What I find fascinating about Sesame Street
and when you have guests onSesame Street, have you noticed
that the and I mean seasonedactors and actresses and
politicians and musicians noneof them interact with the
puppeteer.
They make eye contact with thepuppets and they are having

(43:27):
full-on conversations with thepuppets, completely forgetting
that you have a hand in a dolland are talking to them.
They don't even know you existin those moments.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, that means we're doing our job right.
It's just, that's the gig, man,that's the gig.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
And I've been guilty of it too.
You know, leslie puts Abby on,and I have literally had a
conversation with Abby Kidaviand I'm like, yeah, that's not
even real.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
That's so when I was exploring the notion of wanting
to be a muppet performer, when Iwas in college and I built my
crappy little I'm not a builderI built crappy looking puppets
just so I could learn how to doit and I would take the puppets
into this.
You know, we had sweets in our,you had your room and then you

(44:25):
had a common area right which wecalled sweets and you take it
out and you start playing aroundwith the character to these,
you know, jaded college students, right Especially.
This is early 90s height ofironic.
You know, I don't care and theywould look at the puppet.

(44:48):
And that's when I knew I wasdoing something right, that they
were no longer looking at me.
These friends of mine, thesepeople I knew, believed in the
puppet.
In fact, one of the firstpuppets that I made well, not
the one of the first, but anearly one that was popular was a
duck named Norman.
His name was Norm, he was aduck, he talked like this he was

(45:11):
, you know, he had one wing andfriends of mine asked to use
Norm in their student films likethat puppet Me.
They weren't puppet shows.
One was like a Love Connectiongame show where he was one of
the contestants.
The other was again a lovething, where he was breaking up

(45:31):
with a human woman.
That was the biggest complimentin the world that people were
asking for this character intheir projects.
That had nothing to do withpuppets at all, but they thought
the character was that strong,which again.
I was just starting out.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
We have another question about who your favorite
puppeteer to work with is.
And Ken?
Do you have an answer to?
Oh, it's a natural 20, youdefinitely know that answer.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
That's hard see, because here's the thing you
need to know about me.
I don't have a single favorite,anything I'm not.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
I'm not your favorite .
Wait a second Ice cream flavor.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
No, no, no, no, no.
Like food, ice cream, flavor,show, book, movie.
There's no such thing as a okay, yes.
And when I said Duck Duck is myall time favorite, there's like
a bunch clustered at the top.
She is at the top of that list,but someone says chocolate or

(46:36):
vanilla, I'm like, why not both?
So, such as it is, with thepeople that the puppeteers that
I work with, I have a differentrelationship with every single
puppeteer that I work with, andthat's the beauty of it is that
every performer brings out adifferent side of me, cause they

(47:02):
they just evoke a differentcolor.
And there are people that I'veworked with for a really long
time, like Matt Vogel and EricJacobson.
We came up around the same time.
We all graduated in high schoolin 1989.
I came in 93, or it came in 94,matt came in 95.
So I know I have a specialrelationship with them just

(47:25):
because I, you know, I came upwith them.
But I think about all the peopleon on helpsters I think about.
I think about people like youknow, I didn't get to work with
him much, but I think aboutpeople like Jerry Nelson, right,
and when I work with Jerry hebrought out a side of me.

(47:46):
He made me feel confident to beable to work with him or with.
I was working with Carol.
Sometimes I'd forget that itwas Carol, because I was working
with my heroes, big Bird andOscar.
Do you know what I mean?
When I work with people likeJen Barnhart, she brings out a
side of me.
That's very different.

(48:07):
When I work with Marty Robinson, he brings out.
And when I assist them too,it's very different too, because
sometimes I'm working oppositethem and sometimes I'm doing
their right hand or doing theirfeet, and you have a shorthand.
When I work with Ryan Dylan, wehave a very specific way of

(48:31):
working with each other.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Can I interrupt?

Speaker 2 (48:35):
you for one second.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
I just want to explain something to people
watching or listening that youmay not really realize as you
watch a lot of these puppets onTV.
In a lot of situations thereare two people working the
puppets.
So when she mentioned thatsometimes she's a right hand.
The puppeteers literally arepractically laying on top of

(48:56):
each other working a puppettogether, watching Sesame Street
, watching them shoot SesameStreet, for example, if there is
a scene where there's three orfour puppets in the scene at the
same time, it is a gaggle ofpuppeteers on the floor just
huddled around each other.
And it's amazing that you allhave the spatial awareness to

(49:22):
work that closely with eachother and not interfere with
what each other are doing notjust the puppets overhead, but
just your bodies themselves onthat floor.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Yeah, but also just the personalities.
Tim LaGasse and I have workedtogether for so long.
We did Ubi together, we didSeuss together and when we were
doing Helpsters together, it'sjust like he's my brother and we
sort of share a silly brainsometimes and the things that we
would bring out in each other.
We would just be in sync witheach other.

(49:55):
We didn't.
I was never in a, but thenthere was this awful pilot that
I did that I will not mentionthe name of where I was doing
both of his hands and, again,just in total sync with each
other.
I knew exactly what he wantedme to do and he knew he trusted
me enough to know that I wouldknow what he wanted me to do.

(50:16):
I love being in situations likethat.
I was in a situation with DavidRudman where I was doing this
silly little pig and he wasdoing Cookie Monster and we were
just doing this little bitwhere we had to hold up
something that was heavy and wesort of were kind of coming up
with this very fast who's onfirst?
Like you got it, I got it.

(50:36):
No, you got it, I got it, Idon't got it.
You got it, I don't got it.
You know, I don't rememberexactly how it went Just
cracking each other up andfiguring out how to make that
work.
We do this all the time and withevery single puppeteer it's a
different.
They all bring out something, adifferent wonderful side of me.

(50:58):
So I know that it seems like acop out to say I don't have a
favorite, but there aredefinitely.
Every single person who I'vecrossed paths with, who have
been lucky to cross paths with,brings out something always

(51:19):
surprising.
Oh my gosh.
And the people on Donkey,that's a whole different.
Franky Cordero and Haley, andjust it's just.
I'm a very, very lucky personto work with so many talented
people.
That's all I can say.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
What is the hardest puppet?
That you work and hold on.
We got to roll.
Oh, you don't know the answerto this.
You rolled a six for theknowledge.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Check the hardest puppet I ever worked.
That would be the time that Ipuppeteered Wonder Woman's
Invisible Jet.
Now I know that it seems likethat would be an easy puppet to
perform, because what's there?
You'd be surprised how heavysomething invisible can be.

(52:00):
That's all I have to say aboutthat.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
So before you came on , I asked you if you had any
nerd fandoms, because we do alittle trivia on this show too,
where we give a prize tosomebody in chat.
We randomly pick somebody.
Right now we gotC-canic-canicol.
Okay, it's going to win a prizebased on your answers to trivia

(52:26):
.
Okay and Sorry, canicol, I wasscared.
You said you were good with 80smusic.
You said you were good withsome game shows, maybe some Star
Trek.
But you also said you couldtalk candy all day long.
Yes, and I said how many guestsare we going to have?

(52:50):
That's going to say, I want todo candy trivia.
So I have made this triviamyself.
This is my own personally madetrivia of candy.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
I want candy.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
And you can see it on your screen right?
I just want to make sure youcan see the trivia in the book.
Okay, here we go.
Here comes the first question.
In 1995, M&M's replaced whatcolor?
With blue Tan.
It is tan Ganbanopragan.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Dude, I remember tan.
What temperature does chocolatemelt?

Speaker 1 (53:31):
I can give you a slight hint, if you want.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
You know it's funny, just based on the Saras thing,
I'm guessing 72 degreesFahrenheit, but I could be wrong
.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
You know you're off, you're off.
I would like to point I wasgoing to my.
The hint I was going to giveyou with thinking of M&M's was
they say you know, the chocolatemelts in your mouth, not your
hand Right.
It is, it is really close tothe human temperature really
close.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Okay, yeah, so you want to venture another guess.
No so 95.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
92.
92 degrees.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Now I actually knew that in advance.
I've done some candy making inmy day and you know if you, if
you heat chocolate too much, itburns.
So you got to pay attention toit.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
I do know that, or it seizes and yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
What was the occupation of the inventor of
cotton candy?

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Oh, my goodness, I'm guessing probably some sort of I
want to say like a toy makermaybe.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Dentist.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
It was called candy floss.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
It was called candy floss.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
That makes total sense.
I wasn't even thinking that ifI could, I can't make the trivia
easy.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
If I make the trivia easy.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
I know, I just feel bad for our poor contestant.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
True or false?
White chocolate is not actuallychocolate.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
True, it is not actually chocolate.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
It contains no cocoa.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
No cocoa, so that's right.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
What's the chocolate?
Butter was advertised for itspower to give wartime volunteers
an endurance capacity of twohours during World War Two.
There was a brand, but also aspecific classification, so I'll
take either one.
I was trying to think what Imean.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
they were given Hershey bars to the, to the
soldiers.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
So it wouldn't have been a Hershey Was it, would it
have been a Hershey barChocolate crisp bars like Kit
Kat oh, kit Kat was the brandthey claimed would give you a
two hour endurance boost.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Wow.
I wonder if that was wow andthat was for the American
soldiers.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Wow, okay, maybe I don't know my candy Shoot.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
The symphony bar was first introduced in 1998 by
Witch Candy.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Company Hershey.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Hershey, hershey.
See, some of them are easy.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
What do the M's and?

Speaker 1 (55:46):
M&M's stand for.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Mars and um oh shoot.
I thought I knew this Is Marsone of them.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
Mars is one of them.
Mars is the first M, yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Mars and oh I suck, I should know this.
I probably know this deep down.
I'm so sorry.
I give up.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Mars and Murray Murray.
Is it Murray Murray, shoot,shoot.
Finish the brand slogan.
There is no wrong way to eat a.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
Cadbury.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Reese's.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Reese's concerted.
I thought it was Cadbury.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Which candy first seen in a movie became a bona
fide brand.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Which candy first seen in a movie?
First seen in a movie.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
First seen in a movie .

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Wouldn't it have been Reese's pieces, would it?

Speaker 1 (56:48):
It would not be Reese's pieces.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
What candy first seen in a movie.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
If you don't get the answer, you are going to kick
yourself really hard when theanswer is.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
I'm sure I am.
I'm sure I am Because I'm sureit's something that's really
really obvious.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
Very obvious.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Oh, first seen in a movie.
Became a bona fide brand.
Became a bona fide candy brand.
Or became a brand.
Oh, this is going to kill me.
Wouldn't have been threemusketeers, it would have been

(57:29):
oh shoot, I give up.
I'm sorry, I'm just notthinking.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
I'm not even going to say the answer, as I put it on
screen.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Oh, oh.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
The Wonka brand.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
That was the first.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
Yep, there were no Wonka candies until the movie
and now nerds and stoppers andWonka bars.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Right, right.
But okay, I guess I wasconfused by the question, the
way the question was phrased.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
I'm sorry, yes.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
I remember when Toys R Us used to sell the Wonka bars
with the Grand Packer.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Yeah, I haven't seen them in years.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
Wonka bars were actually a good candy bar.
You know, was it chocolate barwith the Grand Packer bits?

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Yeah, and it was a good chocolate too.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
I don't know who made it for them, it was good.
Which candy is said to havedefined an American generation,
an.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
American generation Sour Patch Kids.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Hershey's.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Oh, who said it?

Speaker 1 (58:28):
You know, I don't know, that was literally in five
of the candy trivia's that Ilooked up and I didn't look up
where that answer came from.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
That makes sense.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
But okay, listen, we are going to give you an
opportunity, a second chance.
Trivia you said you knowcommercials of the 80s.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Don't leave home without it.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
American Express.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
It is American Express.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
American Express.
Where's the beef?
Wendy's.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
I say this one all the time the choice of a new
generation, pepsi, is the choiceof a new generation.
It's not nice to fool MotherNature.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
That would be Imperial Margarine.
No, no, Wait, wait, wait.
Oh chiffon it was Margarine.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
It's okay, hey, mikey , he likes it.
Life cereal how do you spell?

Speaker 2 (59:31):
relief.
R-o-l-a-i-d-s Rolies, you'resoaking in it.
Palm olive.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Palm olive.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
The San Francisco treat Rice ding, ding.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
oh, rony, I'm falling and I can't get up.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Oh, the life alert bracelets.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
It is life alert.
I don't want to grow up.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
I'm a Toys R Us kid.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
There's a million toys at Toys R Us that I can
play with, so same.
We had a fun second chance.
I knew you would get those.
Yes, good.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Phew.
Yeah, you know, it's some ofthose little tricky things about
the candy history that I getstuck on.
I get stuck on because you know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
I thought most of the questions were pretty easy Once
you thought about it, once yousaw the answer.
The Kit Kat one and I think theHershey's one were the two hard
ones.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
But man, the candy floss.
I should have realized, ofcourse.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
Candy floss.
I feel like I've disappointedyou, Caitlin.
No, how disappointed me.
How could you possiblydisappoint me?
You came on the show.
You know how many people arehere you are, the second guest,
which is just great to me.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Well, that's nice, but I just feel like, uh hope I
haven't ruined it for everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
No, listen.
The next week's guest issomebody else I'm really excited
about.
It is the first guest that Ihave no personal connection to
at all.
Her name is Sarah Priebus.
She was the host of somethingcalled and I don't know if you
remember this or not HQ Trivia.
Do you remember HQ Trivia?

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Vaguely.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
I know my husband knows it, it was an app on the
phone that, for like a two yearperiod, was.
There were just a bunch ofdocumentaries made.
I think HBO did a documentaryabout HQ Trivia.
She was the host of HQ Triviaand then went on to do an
infomercial for the shiny heiny,which was a brush that cleans
your butthole.
And I know you're saying how doyou go from HQ to that?

(01:01:39):
That shiny heiny infomercial isso legendary that Alan
dedicated an entire month of hershow to the shiny heiny and
then her on the show kind ofposed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
I missed the shiny heiny entirely.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
It's one of those things that, when the show is
over, go YouTube shiny heiny andyou will not be disappointed.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
I'm sure I won't.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
But look, I really appreciate you coming on.
What's that?

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
I want to get, to get shiny, heiny lady.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
It's more of the HQ stuff, more than the shiny heiny
.
For that period of time theyhad a million dollar games where
everybody at home could playand the winners split a million
dollar prize.
It was for a few years it waseverywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
Yeah, you're right, it was everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
What happened.
Well, the documentary said that, but she was.
There were two hosts, I thinkone host was Scott Rogowski and
she was the female host of theshow and she got left out of the
documentary.
What?
Which is crazy, because Iremember more often than not,

(01:03:03):
when I remember playing the game, she had hosted it and when
they did the documentary she gotleft out, and I am very
interested to talk to her aboutthat Because she was a very
integral part of that show.
But anyway, really I appreciateyou coming on.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Thank, you Do, you want to hit us?

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
with any yinzer yinzer snis with before we go.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
I don't know.
You could just talk all thedang damn time.
I ain't paying no $10 for noCoca Cola at the baseball
stadium Watching the stillersplay.
I can't go down through rivers.
First of all, got to pay forparking.
Got to pay through the nose forparking.

(01:03:46):
I'm going to do that.
I'm just going to watch it on Kto K or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Then we're going to go pick up some meat and pork.
I have one more question thatI'm not going to roll the dice,
for.
This is a personal question.
Since you're from Pittsburgh,how do you feel about Hunt's
Ketchup?

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
No Heinz, only Heinz, Only Heinz.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Only.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Heinz, why, why, why, why have anything else?
There's just no reason.
There's no reason.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Why do Pittsburgh people get so bent out of shape
over ketchup?

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
I don't know that it's just Pittsburgh people, but
I think that we have hometownpride in Heinz, but Heinz truly
is a superior product.
Just ask Don Draper.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Right there.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
A whole Mad Men episode.
I mean, come on the Heinzcampaign.
It is a quality, it is a highquality ketchup product.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
Is Heinz ketchup your favorite Heinz product?

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
Probably.
Yeah, yeah, I can't see.
Yeah, yeah, I've not big intothe 57 sauce, although you know,
to be perfectly honest, I can'tthink of the last time I
actually tried it.
No, it's definitely my favorite.
Well, sure.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
I don't want to take any more of your time.
I promised you an hour.
We went an hour and six we wentan hour and six Ending on
ketchup.
Well, I mean, we were going toend before ketchup, but you
brought out the Yinsers and Iwas immediately reminded of all
the Pittsburgh people I know andtheir obsessions with Heinz
ketchup and I was just like Ihad to bring it up.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
But I don't know.
I feel like even if I didn'tgrow up in Pittsburgh, I can
appreciate the thickness and theflavor and the delightfulness
of Heinz.
Ketchup and Hunz is just to mewatery, thin, not as flavorful.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
I forgot to tell you this podcast, brought to you by
Hunz Ketchup it's America'sfinest ketchup.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
I'm sure that many fine people work hard to make.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
Hunz ketchup.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
However, this is just personal preference.
As I said before, what the helldo I know and who the hell
cares what I think?

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
Thanks so much, then.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
Oh boy.