Backstage Bite with Katie Lynch: George Salazar Chills Out with Mochi!

This episode of Backstage Byte is brought to you by the In The Raw family of sweeteners

Woohoo! You guys, we have a very special guest today! George Salazar

And we're chill! I'm just Michael, who you don't know

Michael flying solo! Michael in the bathroom by himself I'm so excited to be here

You know, I'm a fan of you and this whole series and baking and making things

So this is an afternoon very well spent. Who was your high school persona

I was a great student. I was a troublemaker, though. Really? So I really enjoyed getting away with things

So there were a couple of close calls. What'd you do? Every day

During Spanish class, I would go, Senor Quezada, can I use the bathroom, please

And instead of going to the bathroom, I would go to my guidance counselor's office, and we would sit and eat those little chocolates

There's like a Jack Daniel's sweet liqueur inside of it. We would just sit and just gossip

And at the end of the year, he confronted me about what he believed to be Crohn's disease

Because every day at the same time was in the bathroom for 20 minutes

But I also love that your misdeed involved you going to hang out

A teacher. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. But what I need to know, really, how much do you know about cooking and baking

One of my favorite activities is to watch Bon Appetit YouTube videos before bed

It's worth it because I figured out which type of mozzarella cheese works best on pizza

Does it not make you hungry? Oh, I'm binge eating like bowls of Lucky Charms or Fruity Pebbles while I'm doing it

And then I wake up with a stomachache because I'm lactose intolerant. That's a whole other story. YouTube suggested a video called cutting the original jiggly cake

So I clicked it. It's this huge cake. As you're slicing it, the whole cake just goes like..

I think that is ultimately our dance move for the day. Okay, do you want to know what you're making today

I want to know what we're making today. Perfect for the summer to chill out a little

Be more chill. Mochi! We're making mochi? They're from Japan. Mochi is from Japan I am not from Japan Nor am I But I am half Filipino and you a quarter Vietnamese I a quarter Vietnamese So this actually oh my god this is so exciting I know I love mochi And these are stuffed with mango sorbet

And they're going to look like little pills. Oh, little pill mochis

Oh my god. All right, let's do it. I'm so excited. We need our ice cream super cold

So I need you to scoop and put into your little mini cupcake

pan, half a scoop. Get out. C-c-c-come on. C-c-c-come on. Come on

Drop, drop. Do your neighbors think you're crazy? Yeah, absolutely. What is your favorite part of play rehearsal

Oh, man. My favorite part is failing. I really enjoy the part of rehearsal

when I come in really excited to make this choice that I thought about on the train ride there

And then I make it, and then everyone's just like, No. Done

What is your, you can do it. What was your favorite rehearsal game

Zip, zap, zop. Ah, big booty. I hated the, I hated the games

So, we're going to start baking our mochi dough. You need three-fourths cups of sweet rice flour

Beautiful. Now, you need to add two tablespoons of sugar in the raw

You are going to add two tablespoons of monk fruit in the raw

It's like a healthy sweetener, but it doesn't have a bad aftertaste. And this will all bind and give us a mochi that we're interested in. Ah

George, it's my favorite part of the show because it's time to mix these ingredients together

And it's time to mix this! Good God. Mix this together now

Hey, I think I can do the show tonight. I just tried to mix bell. Yeah

Now she sounded good. Now you are going to add three-fourths cups of water

Don't overthink it when you're not in the theater or in rehearsal. What do you do to be more chill? Retail therapy. Really

Yeah, yeah, yeah, every time a package comes it's like a little present from the North Pole

Now this is how you literally cook the dough for mochi when you don't have a ton of time

We're gonna start off by putting it in the microwave for a minute covered in plastic wrap

But you're basically steaming your dough right now. You notice when he got nervous he got quiet

That was your first round in the microwave and I need you to mix it up with a spatula It is thickening Almost becoming a little ribbon Cover it back up and you going to do another minute in the microwave This one going to blow your mind I don know Wait you don know the pill

I don't know it. Michael is the only person who doesn't get squipped in the show

Yeah, I never heard of that. Wow. Oh, wow. Mm-hmm. It's mochi now

That's good. It's almost there. So now you have another 30 seconds in the microwave and you are cold in. What

Now it's hot, so you've got to be careful. Isn't that incredible? I need you to just coat your surface with corn flour

Perfect. Drop your dough. As this cools down, I've heard a lot

we're here because of our fans. Can you elaborate on that? When we did the show in 2015, the show kind of died

The good people like Ghostlight Records wanted to immortalize it forever in a cast album

People listened to it, they fell in love with it, and then they were very vocal about wanting to meet the characters in person

I love, love, love doing the stage door because for so long, the people who love our show were just here

When we get to do the show every night, I get to go out of the stage door and meet them

Not everyone has the ability and chance to come see the show in New York. Yeah

If you could say anything to those fans right now, what would you say? Oh my God. First of all, thanks for watching our Mochi Madness video

And secondly, thank you. You've quite literally breathed a second life into our show

And I've gotten to play a character that I love very much, who's taught me how to be a better person, a better friend and a better listener and a more compassionate and understanding human

I've been, you know, so positively affected by this show and we owe it to the people who are watching this

about you is going to be so alive. You will be one chef. I think it's chilled out enough

I need you to take some of your cornstarch and top it. You're obviously known for Michael

in the bathroom. A song about your life, it would be called George in the what

George in the bed. I love sleep. I do like George in the bed

The song, the church in the bed. Now, you are going to cut 12 lunchy pills

Halloween is clearly a big part of the show What was your favorite Halloween costume I was in college and I was Samara the girl from The Ring Samara like supposed to go on a date but was stood up eating a pint of ice cream

That's amazing. What I need you to do is brush these off, put your little scoop of mango in the middle

fold in half and tuck under. Wrap them in aluminum foil. Got it

Yeah, burn fast. Put your mochi in the freezer to really firm up for like minimum 30 minutes

While they're in the freezer, we're going to play a super fun game I like to call Quickfire Questions

Sauna or steam room? Sauna. Lucky number? Seven. High five or fist bump

High five. How do you take your bagel? Cream cheese. Aisle or window? Aisle

Belting or head voice? Head belting. Ten minutes later, twenty minutes early? Ten minutes early

First Broadway show you ever saw? Brooklyn the musical. High school mascot? Panthers

Roller coaster or water slide? Roller coaster. What do you order at Chipotle? Bowl

Sink or swim? Swim. What side of the bed do you sleep on? Left. Favorite animal

Dog. Mac or PC? Mac. Pool or hot tub? Pool. Wash dishes or cook dinner

Wash dishes. Favorite subject in school? Bio. Woo! Get these little baby emojis

They're so cute like you. Be more cheers. Oh, they're so good when they're frozen

That'll look good. You know what's great? Towards the end there, it starts to melt a little more

Mm-hmm. And then a dough becomes more of what I like. Are you now going to incorporate..

The jiggly cake dance? I might try to put it in tonight

In fact, I'm going to do it. I'm so happy right now. I know a lot of us know this, but how do we follow you

At George Salazar. And new on YouTube. YouTube.com slash George Salazar YT

It's been a really cool little venture. How do I follow Be More Chill? On Twitter at Be More Chill

and on Instagram at BeMoreChillMusical. And you can follow us at BackstageBite. BackstageBite

I really enjoy your company. I enjoy yours. Thank you for having me on

Oh my God, thank you so much. You have to go see George Salazar as Michael in Be More Chill

Come, come, come. We close August 11th. At the Lyceum Theater. Do it

See you next time. On Backstage Bite. Woo-hoo. Shut up. This is ridiculous

Hey! Thanks for watching Backstage Bite! Brought to you by my favorite family of sweeteners, In The Raw

For more information, visit intheraw.com