Vinnie Penn Reunites With CT's Candace Bushnell

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ms. Bushnell. Hello, how are you? It's Vinnie Penn.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hi, Vinny Hell. Are you very good?

Speaker 1 (00:06):
I'm doing all right. Candice Bushell. You know what we
spoke once before. I interviewed you for Lipstick Jungle. It
was my old show, It's my Top forty show, and
you were on your way to I believe RJ Julia
you were doing a book book signing. You surely recall
the RJ. Julia at the very least.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, legend absolutely. I'm trying to think when
did that book come out? It came out, and I
want to say.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Two thousand and four or five round there.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Two thousand and five, yeah, two thousand and five.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Ye, yes, great book. You know I'm the I don't
know if I'm a one off. I don't know how
many times you've come across this before, but I'm the
guy who read, like all of your books, I read
Sex in the City of the Book. I know where
the series has deviated from the books, like I.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Know the spots that's great.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
I mean, do you run into that a lot as
far as men are concerned. I mean I was rooting.
I remember vividly rooting for the relationship of carrying mister
big when I decided I get this guy that's in
the book again too. That's before because I don't know you.
You've said in interviews before, and you'll surely say it.

(01:21):
I would imagine your one woman show, which gets here
to Connecticut where you were born and raised, right Glastonbury.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yes, yes, I'm so excited. Yes, Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
You'll be at stage one, which is a great room.
It's Candace Bushnell true tales of sex, success and sex
and the city. Will you navigate that stuff, like, all right,
here's where it was in the book, or here's where
it was in my real life, and here's where it
was because I remember once you cracked me up in
an interview You're like, I don't know anything about any Russian.
I don't know where that came from. Because that was fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Hey, that is part of the show.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I play a little game real or not real. I
love it because there are things that happened in the
show that happened in my real life, but they're better
or worse. So some of those things have to do
with guys to carry dated. Yeah, I didn't marry a
ballet dancer. I remember off the Russians.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Was a ballet dan true, yeah, true, he was not
a likable character though he was never likable.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
No, but I don't think he was really meant to be,
really meant to be a contrast to mister big and
you know, like a fantasy, fantasy kind of guy, you know,
the big artist.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Was it also a way for you to take a
pot shot at who you actually married by making the ballet,
by making brush Nikov unlikable. Well, no, you had you
had no hand in the series by that point, right.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
No, I wasn't involved. My show is true Tales of Sex,
Success and Sex and the City. It's pretty much exactly that.
And it's the origin story of Sex and the City.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
How I created Sex and the City, how hard I
work to get there, why I invented Carry Bradshaw, and
what happened to me afterwards. So it's a great girls
night out And it's also you know, touches on my
story too, my life story. No, how I first came

(03:32):
to New York.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Have you run into when you do the you know
true or not true? Like do some people are so
invested in these people are so invested in these characters.
You know, myself included I've got favorites that when you say, well,
now they're that character. If you told that audience there
was no Steve, you might get some people walking out.

(03:55):
People love Steve.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes, yes, they they do love Steve. And I think
that's why when they did the spinoff show and test
like that, you know, people get very upset because they
felt like Miranda wasn't cheating Steam.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Well yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
It's fantastic that people are so invested in those characters.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, and something I know early on those were legitimate
dates and some of them were you know, were really
uh comical.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
There was a real mister big I did not have
an aiden my life, no kidding, okay, but yeah, but
it's sort of you know that the show certainly mirrored

(04:56):
my life in a lot of ways, and the book sure,
first couple of seasons, yeah, and then you know it
goes off on its own direction, which is actually fantastic.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Now do they have to contact to Does HBO have
to contact a Candice Bush?

Speaker 2 (05:12):
No?

Speaker 1 (05:12):
One, They're like, hey, look we came up with this
idea and just like that and everybody's game. They don't
have to, right, Yeah, No, that's got to be hard
for you though as a writer, you know, and I've
had a few failed books come out, but you know,
you create these characters and do you watch and I
mean there's ownership there. It's like, oh, that's not where

(05:33):
I would want so and so to be or do
or say, I'm so not like that.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
No, I'm actually the opposite of that person. I don't
know who that person is who you're talking about, but
that's that's not me. I'm thrilled with the show. And
you know, I'm very lucky because the show's great and
people love it. And you know, I've had more than

(05:59):
one TV show, and you know, I'm still working in TV.
I hope to have another TV show some point in
the future, although TV's gotten very hard right now, I know.
But you know, I've had three TV shows, Sex and
the City, Lipstick Jungle, the Carry Diaries. Even before Sex

(06:23):
and the City, I had my own TV show on VH.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
One, and I don't recall that. What was that?

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Eleven books and you know, it's just you just you
just keep moving, keep creating new new topics, new book,
new series. So that's that's what I keep doing. I
just keep creating.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah, and when was the latest book, Is there one
coming out right around the corner? When when was the
most recent book.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
The most recent book was called Is There Still Sex
in the City. Yeah, that came out actually before the pandemic,
which now seems so long ago. But then so that
came out in two thousand, I guess twenty and nineteen.
And then in two thousand and twenty twenty one, I

(07:18):
started doing this one woman show mind and I actually
did this first off Broadway, which was amazing because that
was something that I never expected what happened in my
life that I would have my own one woman show
off Broadway, which was very exciting, and I've actually taken

(07:40):
it all over the world. Last year I was in
the UK and Italy, I've bench South Africa, and in
twenty twenty five, I'm going to go to the UK again,
but I'm going to also Frog and Oslo and Uric

(08:01):
and Copenhagen and all kinds of what looks like fabulously
interesting places and maybe even Dubai, which is very exciting,
I mean interesting speaks doing that. This one woman's show
is really it's really been, you know, a great and

(08:23):
interesting new chapter in my life. So that's that's really
what I'm working on now.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, I mean, and it speaks to the global obviously,
the phenomena of the show that you could go to
places like that and you know there's that interest. It's extraordinary.
But that's not a place you saw yourself probably ever
on a stage delivering monologues. You've got a comfort level

(08:48):
of it. It couldn't have been easy to come by.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Actually it was really You know, people always ask, oh,
you get really nervous or no, because if I did,
I wouldn't do it, because why do something that makes
you uncomfortable? I age, there's no reason for it. But
I know I'm very, very comfortable on stage and I

(09:11):
love doing it. I love interacting with the audience. And
it's such a great girl's night out. Women have a
we have a fantastic time.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Well, I'm coming with my daughter.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Oh great as old is your daughter?

Speaker 1 (09:26):
She's twenty one and I introduced Yeah, and I'll tell
you that was an experience. It was during the pandemic,
just coming out of the pandemic. She decided to binge
all of Sex in the City, which I kind of
never stopped watching. Some episodes were really interesting for a
grown ass man to watch. With his then maybe eighteen

(09:49):
nineteen year old daughter. You know, Samantha was a challenging
character to get through some episodes with, but laugh out
loud stuff.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, you know, when it came out ont like because
I hadn't watched it for a while, and before when
I was watching it was on eyes actually cut out
some of the racier stuff.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Poorly too, and I was like, oh my.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
God, these women are having so much sex.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
All the time.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, yeah, I've forgotten how much sex they were having.
And also it's just it's so funny. It's just so well.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Done and so funny and hilarious. Now, my daughter adores
Carrie for all the reasons women have for all of
these years, but do you know who she's actually very
partial to? And this is I don't mean this in
the way it's going to come off. This is not counting,
and just like that, although we've been watching that, we

(10:47):
love it, you know, but they're in such a decidedly
different place. But the original sit down watch it version.
She loved Carrie's relationship with Miranda. She's like Miranda's the
legit tells it like it is best friend. She she
found her to be Carrie's best friend over Samantha. It
was very interesting to watch, you know, right she did.

(11:10):
She just found her to be the go to friend
and she has all these she's very invested too. Hopefully
we'll meet Thursday night at stage one because she's like, well,
you know, it's so great to pass on to her,
but she's just invested in all of these women and
all of the outcomes. But Miranda is who she gravitated

(11:31):
to as just that's a friend. She identified her as, like,
that's a real friend.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Oh, that's that's fantastic. Well, Miranda. There certainly is a
there's a big, big fan base for Miranda, absolutely, and
you know, in fact, all of the characters. But you know,
that's the beauty of the show. Everyone has their favorite characters.
People have the characters that they identify with the most.

(11:59):
Women have their Mister Biggs, and they have their Aiden's
and and maybe even you Steve.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Steve, well, Steve I always kind of because he always
like Miranda. Everybody does the Steve impression. Miranda. I'm cute.
I'm cute. What can I do? I'm cute? You know
who I was a big fan of though, was Samantha's boyfriend,
my man Smith. I was a huge and I want
him to pop up on the show again. I know
you have nothing to do with that stuff, but was

(12:31):
it Smith? Jared? That was my man, and I want
to see him pop up. Well, it shocks you, doesn't
it to be spoken speaking with a grown man who
is as down with Sex and the City. I mean,
I'm heterosexual and I know the show inside out.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
That's fantastic. You probably know it better than I do.
You've probably watched it.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
More than I'm gonna have a lot of questions. I mean,
you don't want a Q and A with me on
Thursday night because I've probably stump Candice personnel. And you
made it back to Connecticut, too, didn't you. For I
saw that you you moved back to like Roxbury for
a little while.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yes, yes, I absolutely loved it there.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, beautiful town.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
It's a beautiful town area, Roxbury, Washington. And then I
moved back to the Hampton So I'm in the Hamptons
in the city. Yeah, so I go back and forth.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Well yeah, yeah, well it was. And that was always
an interesting thing too. When the Connecticut references would be made,
they got made even more so on the The Carry Diaries,
on that short lived series, which I just thought was
a really good series.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yes, yes, I love that. It was like it was
the cutest show ever and it was so much fun
shooting that. Of course they had the you know, they
had the Castlebury train station. Yeah, and you know they
built all kinds of of things for the for the show.

(14:11):
That just really tickled me. But yes, his carries from Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah. And my daughter even pounced on that too. She's like,
wait a minute, and Sex and the City. She says
her father was never in her life, but in the
Carrie Diaries, the father's a huge character. So you must
get a lot of that. My daughter will have questions
for you too, Ken Justice Bush, No come Thursday night.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Okay, Well, I don't actually do a Q and A.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Well, what the hell is this? I thought, they're all right,
that's probably best.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
It's a play. Really is a one woman show. It's
not a monologue. It's an actual play with a set,
and you know, there happens to just be one person
in it, which is me. But it has a visual
and I play a game with the audience. But there

(15:03):
is not there. There is not a Q and a A. All right,
if you buy a meet and greet. You will get
to meet me afterward, and asked a couple of questions.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, I would love to. I would love to after
all these years, especially from Lipstick Jungle, you know, interviewing
you for that at r J Juliet to now big fan.
Great room for a one woman show too, very intimate
space too, like we're going to be right up in
it there. I don't know how familiar with stage one
you are, with the room you're going to be in.
It's very intimate room.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Well that sounds fantastic. You know. I've done this show
in places like the Palladium in London, which is twenty
five hundred people, so that's a lot of people. And
I've also done it at the Carlisle which holds eighty
five people.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yeah, so I've done it in all kinds of venues
and really looking forward to coming and doing it on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, Thursday.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
It's a great night out.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
So yeah, yeah, you got it at least for right now,
girls' night out. It's also well, it was a good
says a wonderful father daughter night out. I probably the
only father daughter attending this thing across the You never know, though,
it's a great show. I was happy to introduce my
daughter to a proud introduce her to it. You were

(16:33):
a writer that really inspired me when I was trying
to get my first book out there, your style, and
I continue to be a fan. So I'm looking forward
to Thursday night. And thanks for taking the time to
come on this morning.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Oh thank you, and I can't wait to see you
on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
All right, can just take care