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Tonys Talk: David Yazbek, Robert Horn & Scott Ellis Reveal How They Updated TOOTSIE for 2019
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Oct 31, 2022
It's been almost four decades since Dorothy Michaels first won the hearts of audiences in movie theatres. A lot has changed since 1982, and David Yazbek, Robert Horn and Scott Ellis, the creators of the 11-time Tony nominated Tootsie, had a lot of work to do in reinventing the iconic character for the modern era. They rose to the occasion.
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Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge. I'm sitting in the Tony Awards suite at the Sofitel
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NYC, which is the official hotel of the 2019 Tony Awards, and I'm sitting with the masterminds
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behind the hilarious new musical Tootsie, director Scott Ellis, book writer Robert Horn
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and composer-lyricist David Yazbek. This is such a glorious musical
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It is such a feel-good musical where you just go to the theater and have the time of your life, laugh, and have a wonderful time
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Which show is this we're talking about? Tootsie. Let's talk about just collaborating
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I mean, as I'm sitting here watching the three of you, you're like the three students, and I mean that in the best way
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So let me just say this. Yeah. What you're seeing here, this is three years
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Three and a half. Three and a half years, we have done nothing but laugh
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Even when it was not great, we still laughed. We just, we just, that's all we did
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And there's always one person of the three that would roll their eyes. That would be me
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And it always, there would be someone who would cross the line. That would be this one, you know, and one in the middle here
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So the truth is what you're seeing is exactly what we've been experiencing for three and a half years
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which hopefully was part of what you see on this stage. Yeah
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It's a perfect collaboration. Tell me what it's been like with all series just of working together
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Anybody take it? I mean, I came on. They can talk about it. I came on board
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I was the last person on board with these two. And I've said this before, but I went and said I had a breakfast with them
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And I walked away, and I said these two really seemed like they'd be fun to work with
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And that's really how it started. I didn't know Robert at all. I knew Yaz back
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and yes. Are we still talking about Tootsie? Pa, pa, pa, pa
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And this is what I'm talking about. This is it. So this is always one
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So that's really how it was. I think all three of us after that meeting
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felt like, okay, this is, I think this would be, listen, new musicals, they're really hard
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They're really hard. So you better do it with a group of people that you really like and respect
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and feel like that you can have a good time with. And that's how it felt from day one, really from day one
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Robert, for you. Well, you know, David and I met. Scott Sanders, our producer, and Carol Feynman, called and asked if I would meet with David
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And I think both David and I were a little nervous about the title when we were first approached by it
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Scott hadn't joined us yet. But David and I met, and truly it was kismet the minute we met. initially
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go ahead go ahead go ahead and then and then I'm going to try to be serious
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Kismet is also a musical it was almost it was more than Kismet it was almost it was almost carousel
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and then and then and then we I think initially we talked a lot about
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what we knew we didn't want to do and that led to what we do want to do but really the humor
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our humor just from the minute we got together it was like
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we knew that we knew where the humor of the show would live because it very much was our humor
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And then we worked, and when Scott came in, David and I took about a year to just talk about what the show was going to be
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And then when Scott came in, we had to throw all of that out because then Scott came in, and then it took it to the next place
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and we started really looking at it. A lot of what we had done, Scott agreed with, and a lot of it he didn't
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And then it became a trio, and that's sort of the show that you see now
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really started at that point. There were very few times that we ever
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there were very few times that we ever sort of, it wasn't like arguing, it wasn't arguing and stuff
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and we would disagree with things, but I think that's what good collaboration is
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and you, it's a, please, my list at home. It would be, you know, back and forth
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and we'd try this, but I do think we all said, we were always saying, well, let's just try it
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Let's just see. We don't know for 100%, but let's – yeah, we can try. And I think that gave us all the freedom to sort of say, okay, here we go
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No, and inevitably the audience tells you, you know, it's a comedy
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You're either getting laughs. You're either getting the right kind of, you know, rapt attention or you're not
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And that's the ultimate, you know. You try to get everything as good as you can and then see what they tell you
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The joy for me also was, and I'll talk about both of the gentlemen on either side of me, is with David, many of our work sessions would start with David saying this
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I know we can't do this, but, and usually we would always do it
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And with Scott, his mantra was always, let's try it. Let's try it
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So I was working with two collaborators where anything was game and where nothing bad was on the table
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The bed was on the table. But initially, the willingness to try anything
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Because we really had to explore the show and the subject matter and the story in new ways
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And we knew we could not lock ourselves to anything that existed before
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And in fact, the opposite, which is we all knew that we needed to do our show
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and then bring back into it what may or may not work. And so just for me, I'll talk for me, to have a collaboration where you are so free to bring up, to try anything or do anything and have these incredible collaborators that not only will agree to that, but take it to a level that you didn't even anticipate when the idea was on the table
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So that was pretty great. And I think that really is probably the core of any good comedy is risk
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And the risk has to start at that stage of it. And did a lot of things work
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Yes, a lot of things did work. Did a lot of things fail? Yes, a lot of things did fail
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And for comedy, you have to be willing to do that. And actually, we all felt safe enough in a room to say, let's look at it and try it
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And there were many times in previews and we were like, oh, God, we got to get that thing out of that
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That doesn't work. But there were many times that it worked. And I will say for every single reading that we did, and we did a lot of them, and that's thanks to Carol and Scott
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we would go in there and we always felt we took a couple steps forward
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We rarely went way backwards. By taking steps forward were there other things that were like
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okay, well, this doesn't work now. But there was a very nice momentum for us
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And sometimes it would be five steps, just one, but there would be movement forward
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And we always went, okay, we have a lot to do. But we did feel, and I think that was a really great positive thing for us to keep moving
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We knew that we were moving forward with it on a good point. Yeah. David, we talked before we got started here about tone. The tone of Tootsie, everything about your musical is perfect. And it all starts with the tone. You said you worked on that for a long time
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Robert and I got together, and I'm going to drop a name from several years ago
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I had a lunch with Mike Nichols, and I asked him, what do you think is the first thing to deal with And he said not surprisingly tone And that proven out over and over again so um in sitting down to adapt uh sort of an iconic show like this or but really in in sitting down
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with any collaborators to uh do any kind of show you really have to feel like you're in the same
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space in terms of tone and that's why that was was so important for me as a composer and a lyricist
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It's ultra important. We can figure out what the comic tone of it is
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But it's sort of hard to intellectually figure out what the musical tone of something is
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It's one thing if it's set in a certain country or something. So those discussions are absolutely vital
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And then when it's time to say, okay, we've got something here
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someone like Scott Ellis, who's basically a professional tone meister, comes in. We can
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say, here's what we think. What do you think? And hopefully we'll all be on the same page and
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we'll come up with something cohesive. And when you say perfect, that's a word I don't like to use
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but except about my buttocks, which I think are shaped perfectly and move very nicely
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but when you say perfect when you say perfect I would say cohesive
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I mean like that's that's what you want in a show a show that feels like
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oh everybody worked on this together that includes a cast that kind of just
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I think another job of the director is imparting the tone to this large large group of people
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it's not just the cast it's also the designers it's also the people who
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just work backstage and do your hair understanding what the tone is
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and I think everybody except there's that one guy Marvin I don't trust Marvin
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I never trusted him but everybody else understands the tone of the show and every night comes together
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under that umbrella of tone and I remember I was talking to Marvin
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and he there's no Marvin no Marvin everyone Go. No, I was going to say, and you might be coming up with this question, but David just mentioned, you know, the cast
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I mean, that's a phenomenal group of actors and people who are inherently funny and understand comedy
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And we were so fortunate because we were able to work with them and sort of hone in and bring the strengths out of what we had
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And we were able to truly collaborate with them. and you have two people who are incredible about that
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and who understand you're going to only be as good as the person who you're working with
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and so let's get to their strengths and let them guide us a little bit
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And it was a very long journey of listening to it and actors
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But once we got those actors that we all agreed with, that opened up another whole chapter for us
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And I think we were all surprised how far it took us to the next step with that
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I think. Yeah, but I got to hand that to you like 90 percent because that's another thing a director
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does is comes in with this sort of feeling of people you've seen before or in your head
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people like other people. And then, you know, because Scott came in, you know, and we started
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casting and he really clearly had ideas about these people, which proved to be pretty spot on
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especially people like Santino this guy comes in and he's absolutely perfect
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in every way for this part that Scott Ellis came in with that concept
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and also pushed that concept hard at the beginning and to add to that
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Scott, I don't know how I won't speak for all directors but there was an early
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mandate with Scott to David and I which is talk to the actors
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normally you sort of know your lane and everything goes through the director
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and it did with Scott, but Scott would always say, I'd ask him something, he said, go talk to Lily, go talk to Sarah, go talk to Julie
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talk to Santino. He wanted us to have a relationship, an open relationship where any conversation was possible
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with the actors, and we really did build these characters in the show on these actors
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and listen to their input. I always say, we can give birth to something
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but they bring it to life. And you can't do that all the time
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You can always talk to actors, but you've got to have smart people who understand comedy
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And that was the key. I feel like, and we discussed this too. I remember when we were casting, we were saying like even every ensemble player, every understudy, every swing has to get, has to understand how smart comedy works
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Because otherwise, it's just a battle to get them into it. I think you can shape comedy a little bit
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I do. I think and we do, the three of us. But man, if you don't have people who truly understand that, you can't teach that
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There has to be something DNA understanding of comedy. And as we always say, comedy is hard
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And it has to be truthful and real. And if you have that to begin with, then you can shape a little bit
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But if you don't have that, I think you're dead in the water. And these people had it
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And let me just add one thing because what Scott said is important. which is we knew that the language of the show was going to be comedy from the beginning
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But we also knew that the comedy, no matter how funny it was
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lyrically or in book or in staging, none of that would matter
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if you didn't take care about the characters, were not invested in the story, if the stakes were not high
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and if there wasn't pathos. So much has to be at risk all the time
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Great comedy is grounded in truth. And that was something that we all from the beginning knew
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we could go as broad as we wanted. We could go as big as we wanted with the humor
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as long as it kept as it was grounded and came from character and story
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And that was a big part of his journey. People always say when they walk
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out of the show, oh, that was the funniest show I've seen in years and that was great
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And they talk about the jokes and that's great. And it is
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funny. But all of that comes from a sense of reality. Robert does not, Robert
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can write some funny jokes. And we've had discussions as far as you don't need that joke
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I know it's funny, but you don't need it. But what makes it really
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work is that it's always character driven. He's not writing just a joke
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for the sake of a joke. It's a joke that's working because of the character
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Same with David's stuff. It's not just funny, great lyrics. It's lyrics that are
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funny because it's connected with this particular character. and I would say that also
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the thing that not everyone gets is and that really to me the key of
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intelligent comedy is the line between comedy and drama it's so fine
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and a friend of mine who worked at Second City was telling me about this
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exercise they used to do called comedy drama and you would just be acting as though you were in a comedy
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as though you were in a comedy and then someone would yell out drama and then you had to act it like you were in a drama and the difference is just razor thin I found that very interesting That must be a great way to learn about what comedy is
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Who was the last character you worked on in this? Because this movie is an older movie from 37 years ago
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How you updated this is absolutely brilliant, and you set that from the very, very beginning
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Oh, yeah, go ahead. We all said the same thing immediately. It was the character of Julie
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It was that character that we... And that's the last song I wrote. And that's the last song
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That was our trickiest... That was the trickiest thing to find. They were all..
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You would think that Michael Dorothy would be... And it certainly had its challenges
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But it was not... It was Julie because... Listen, we agreed, the three of us
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that we had no interest in putting the movie on the stage. And by the way, when I got it, they had not done that
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It wasn't like I said, oh my God, throw it out. It was just we veered more into character-driven stuff
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and caring about those characters. And then we believed if you did care about their journey
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you wouldn't even be thinking of the movie, which I think we did. But the character of Julie was the trickiest
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because in the film, that's really not a character. She drinks a little bit
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she was stunningly beautiful and the camera did a lot of work
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I'm not taking anything away from what she did but it was we had to find something active
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strong and believable within this story that we were telling and that
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I think that was our biggest challenge and that's the thing we worked for
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solid three years on that and a lot of that came together when
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Lily Cooper came in and auditioned because she She showed us, we knew we wanted this character to have a core strength
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And we knew that we wanted that character to be a mirror of Michael in many ways
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And that he had to fall in love with her, and the audience had to fall in love with her
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so they understood why he fell in love with her, and was willing to sacrifice and ultimately give up everything he thought he wanted for something he never expected
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So she's got a lot of heavy lifting to do in this show, which is she has to be strong, she has to be vulnerable
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she has to be funny, and we have to fall in love with her. And we knew we had to bring all those elements together
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And I will say, and we've talked about this before, one of the things that was important about this character
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was in the movie that the character of Julie found her empowerment through Michael dressed as Dorothy
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We knew from the beginning, and we all three had a big discussion about this, that we knew we needed Michael to find his story
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through spending this time with a strong woman, that his lessons and everything that he learns in this
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had to come from his experience of being with her and not the other way around
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So then it was about how do you find an actress that can give you all those things, and Lily came in
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She was halfway through singing the song that David wrote, and we all looked at each other, and it was done
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It was done. And she brings a tremendous vulnerability and strength to that role
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Well, I was just going to say the word we kept looking for when we couldn't find the actor for that part, we kept the word that kept coming up was gravitas
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Now, it's a weird word for a comedy, but it's kind of like, no, there's got to be the sense that this character is planted on the earth
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And that's what Lily comes in with. She's a young person with a confidence
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you know yeah Scott just said an old soul I mean she comes off
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as someone with a lot going on internally and that's what I was looking for
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I mean and and this goes back to what we talked about before
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there were two characters Lily being one but everybody else in the show
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was cast at a reading so we never actually had auditions we would have a reading
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and Scott along with Jim Carnahan our casting director would say Scott would say
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I worked with somebody let me just bring them in I think they might be good He never said, this is the person, this is..
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And he was always right. And everybody was cast. And when we found Lily, she fit so perfectly into this family
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I liked... You get the feeling when you watch this cast that it's like watching the Carol Burnett show in its heyday
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It is these clowns, these brilliant clowns that work so well together. When you have Reg Rogers and Julie Halston and Michael McGraw and Santino Fontana and Sarah Stiles and Andy Groteluchin
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And there was one missing element, and then Lily came in and fit that family perfectly
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And then I love what you did with the John Bellman character. Yeah
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Because that's sort of based on the George Gaines character from the movie. And I said, what a brilliant way to bring this forward
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Yeah. That was smart. Yeah, right? That was this guy. Really? Well, it came from conversations we had, which was this, which was we had made this decision
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that that character would have easily been a trope and we did not want that to be
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But there was an interesting dynamic at play that we wanted to have which is to create a character
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who sees his self-worth basically through the vanity that life has presented to him
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That his aesthetic is really what he is worth. At the same time, you've got Michael impersonating
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creating this character as being the consummate actor he is not realizing that
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when he puts on that dress and the heels he is going to be judged by a very different aesthetic
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by the world than he ever imagined as a man. So the reason this young, good-looking guy
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who you would think would fall for the young, good-looking girl, falls for the woman that isn't the traditional beauty
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is because she brings to him something he never had, which is the idea that he's worth more than what the world has told him
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My favorite line that you've written for him, and there's a lot of funny ones
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is when I was a kid, I never fit in, except with the popular kids
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Everyone has their hole in their soul. you know that sums him up
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I think so that truly that's sort of where that character came from and we knew
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that we wanted to give that character in the movie and he was
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fantastic in the movie but the character lived in just one dimension
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and we knew we needed to that all the characters of this piece had to have fuller arcs
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than what might have been in the original concept of the movie Santino Fontana I mean your whole cast
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absolutely brilliant And was that tough to like, do you have conversations with Santino about taking this on, this role
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I had been lucky enough because I knew who he was. He had asked me to go up to New York stage and film the summer before I got involved
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And to do, he was rewriting a musical, The Grease Pain. And I went up and spent two weeks with him up there
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And I just fell in love with him. I just thought, here's a really smart actor who will challenge me and anybody else who has ideas
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And ultimately, he's just a great actor with a phenomenal voice, mind you
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But I never thought of him that way. I just thought. So when I, it was an instinct of just, I felt unbelievably strong about it
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So I told the guys at the very beginning. And I told Scott, I said, listen, if you want a name, i.e. a movie star, TV
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I just said I'm not interested. I just said it too tricky to try to make this work And we knew we had to We had work And I said I literally said I only do it for this guy and and and it proved right because I knew he was able to he was going to be able to find that line what David said
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beautifully of that comedy and drama drama and both of them but also he would
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be able to make Dorothy real and for me that it could Dorothy you had to fall in
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love with Dorothy. You had to understand Dorothy. Hasbeck has said this many times. There is a
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leading lady up there, and it's Dorothy. But you had to believe that, and my gut was that
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that was him. And by the way, we don't give him credit enough, I don't think, because when we
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look back, he always asked questions. He always challenged us. He was always saying, this is not
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right or can we do this I mean he really I think in a lot of I mean he really challenged us in such
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great ways to for us to keep going back and asking the questions and making sure it was clear
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so because your cast is the best of the best everybody's on the same page just giving it a
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million percent they're a great group yeah I as I said I was lucky that I worked with a lot of them
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or I saw someone, see, but also, yeah, we went in as a collaborative team
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and then they all came in with such a great place, but then we were able to move it forward
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because we were open enough to collaborate with them. It's really what it was
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We collaborated with them, and that was really important. We never shut the door on anybody
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Yeah, but you don't, you know, you also, you don't not collaborate with people who are coughing up such funny stuff
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You know, we're writing for them, we're directing them, but there they are during rehearsals having a great time
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And those are gifts that keep coming, you know, whether it's a gift of an actual physical joke or whether it's the gift of us being able to watch them and say, oh, I have an idea for him or her
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I watch there's a lyric in the show I think the funniest line
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anything in the show is a line that John Bellman sings and I remember
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he had another line and it kind of wasn't, it was fine, it was okay
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and David was sitting there watching watching, watching and he said this was literally
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wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute wait a minute, scratched down on a piece of paper
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handed it to John Bellman he did it, it was what got one of the biggest
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laughs in rehearsal and to this day gets one of the biggest laughs in the show, I won't give it away
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what it is but it'll be very clear. I think I know what it is now yeah. But
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that's what's great about great collaboration you can sit somewhere and hear something and say no we're gonna change this and you make it better. It
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would be ridiculous if we shut our ears and didn't... But you know the people who do
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Yes and there are people who do and that was not our room. Yeah. That was just not our
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room. It was it was a constant listening and changing and trying and it it I
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I always say with actors, and I've said it many times, I love actors, but you have to take an environment in a rehearsal room, A, that it's joyful
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I don't care if you're doing the hardest drama ever. You've still got to be joyful. And you've got to be able to feel safe to fail
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You have to. Actors have to feel like they can try anything and not feel judged
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And we as collaborators have to feel safe to be able to also do that
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And no, not everything is going to work. But if you can create that atmosphere in a room, then things can move forward and hopefully find something that works
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I love the score. I love all your scores. But I love this is such a character-driven score
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You're very wise, Richie. That's why I love you. No, but seriously, did you come up with a musical tone for everybody
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I mean, all these different characters you wrote. They all have these beautiful, incredible character songs that tell their whole journey
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Well, I think the style, it's eclectic. It's an eclectic score. Hopefully you can tell it's one composer
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It reminds me a little of The Full Monty in terms of, you know, I sort of let character, comedy, and story suggest what the genre
26:48
or what the song should be. So sometimes, you know, if you have someone like Sarah Stiles
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playing just a neurotic nutcase who's got way too much energy, you know
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So it's pretty clear you're going to want a Patterson. And then everything just fell into place
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It was like, oh, fast mambo. Why? I don't know. It's easy and it's stupid
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And then over that kind of like fun cha-cha thing, she is just singing about how her mind is exploding
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because she has to go on an audition. So that's how it came
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The music kind of bubbled up through character, comedy, and story. And then sometimes you work into the lyrics from the music
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Sometimes it's the other way around. Besides the one character you were talking about
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what was the easiest song for you to write? What came the quickest? Oh, I think probably, in a way, that song
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It wasn't easy to write, but it was quick. Once the music was in place and it just sounded right
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then I can do my favorite kind of lyric writing, which is basically pacing around my studio
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and listening to the groove and then just start sort of singing
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And then soon, hopefully, there's a pattern that feels right. And there's certain places where repetition happens
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And before you know it, you've got a song. And then you do what we do, which is we work the hell out of it
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until you feel like it's really perfect, which usually happens the day before or the day that you lock the show
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Sure. Yeah. if you could sum up finally the best part of the experience
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of working on Tootsie I'm sitting with you three here and I can see the love you have
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you're like three brothers you're like the three stooges I mean you can see the collaboration you had
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and the love in that room and everything else if you could sum up the best part what is it for each of you
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with working on Tootsie it's well it's this interview Richie right now
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thank you you live in the moment that's what you do I live in the moment I forgot everything else
28:51
that happened I feel like what's the next show No, no. I mean, the best part of it is really like the peak moments for me aren't like, oh, we opened, you know, or oh, look who's in the audience
29:06
You know, the peak moment is we're sitting at a table and someone says something really funny, whether it's either one of these guys or me or whatever
29:15
Like those are the nice moments. It's like, oh, here are some people I really like hanging out with
29:20
And then every time that happens, it just makes you think like, oh, my God, I'm so lucky because I'm making a living working with these people
29:30
Your turn. Swag. Well, this is a big deal for you. This is your Broadway debut
29:37
I mean, I run into this man. It's my second. All right. But it is
29:41
And I'll say. It is my first real one. Hold on one second
29:47
Your Broadway re-bird. Hold on one second. You know, it's sort of, it is that, and it is what David said, it is
29:53
Because I sort of, as David has, as both these gentlemen do, live between the two worlds
29:59
of Hollywood and theater and there's a there is a sense of community and
30:07
collaboration in just by nature of the art form and that is that to me was the
30:13
was the best part is that I and I say this and I it is not a joke that I've
30:18
made brethren for life I mean it that the relationships because you spent so
30:24
many it's not just in television within four to six months whatever you did it's
30:28
It's basically Donna. And there's this, it's a year that we still
30:32
the show's frozen, the show's over, and I speak to these guys three times a day
30:37
There is such a love for the show, a love for each other
30:41
and the experience of creating art and creating comedy with people who support you
30:49
And that is a gift. And you take that, that's what you take with you most
30:53
when you leave a production like this or an experience like this
30:59
I mean, let's just repeat of everything. Absolutely. And I think you also appreciate it
31:04
the longer you're in the business and you go, it doesn't always happen
31:09
And believe me, we disagree. But that's part of a good collaboration
31:14
We have arguments as far as what we feel and this thing, and that's great
31:19
But there's never any time you think, I don't want to be in a room with these two ever
31:24
It was just like, I'll fight for something. David will fight for something. Robert will fight for something
31:29
And those were the... So that a really great safe feeling to collaborate with And that what it is Yeah I think we really I will say in Chicago there one moment
31:42
and I think it affected all three of us, and I think we've talked about it so many times
31:47
which was if the show was going to work, we were all so focused on Dorothy, the first moment, Dorothy
31:55
That was the big thing. And it was like, we won't have a show if you don't buy into that
32:01
And I remember two times. I remember the first time that he did that fast change in rehearsals
32:07
and he came out through the doors. And I think all of us were like, wow, this might work
32:12
I think this might work. This is good. And the first preview
32:16
And that, to me, was the best part, because that was a collaboration that all of us had been on for such a long time
32:22
And I remember sitting at the first preview before she came on for her audition
32:26
and Dorothy, and watching her come in and going, are they going to buy it? And I sat there and went, they just bought it
32:33
And that was such a high because I thought, we have a lot of work to do, but that part is taken care of
32:39
And that felt great because that was a collaboration that we had from the beginning leading into that
32:47
And I think that was a really special moment. And it felt special for, speaking for myself
32:52
I think it was special for all of us because it was like
32:55
we did that. And now we can. And I remember early on, on our early first meetings
33:04
and just sitting there we sat there with the team and said how are we gonna do this How can we do this How are we going to do this We taking something that sort of is iconic
33:20
and we're not going to give them that, but we're going to give them that. It was so daunting, and we knew there were so many decisions to make
33:28
and we didn't know. And there is a certain level of relief, and it's gratifying, without being cliche
33:37
but it is humbling in a sense to say somehow we figured it out
33:43
and the audiences, when there's an agreement from the audiences that you did that
33:48
there's pride. I think we all have a lot of pride in this show
33:55
Except, well, you don't, but yes. No, I don't even remember what show we're talking about
34:00
but no, I mean that sense of pride is the sense of having worked hard
34:05
crafting something and knowing that it really works. I feel like what we've done is something
34:13
that in my mind is just so solid. It's just like, man, did we work on the masonry of it and
34:20
putting the mortar down correctly and laying each brick and, you know
34:26
very satisfying in the long term. And I hope, you know, going back to see it in six months
34:31
you know I that's I mean I'll see it more than just in six months I'll see it
34:34
you know every few weeks but you know as it goes on wow this is something solid
34:40
that I gonna be hearing hopefully from people who say we did it in high school and it was like so much fun yeah because during the last few weeks I love to walk through the Broadway district and I love to stand in front of a theater
34:54
when audiences are coming out. And I did it the other night at Tootsie
34:58
and I watched everybody full house pile out of that theater. You gave them so much joy
35:05
Well, they say, thank you. And people say, we get asked this question all the time
35:10
It's like, what do you hope an audience leaves with? And the first thing I always say is I hope they leave with $180 worth of merchandise because that's the joke
35:19
But then I say the truth, which is I want the audience to leave as though they've just been to the gym or been to the doctor
35:26
Like I want them to leave feeling really healthy because that's what I think is happening
35:30
When you laugh really hard and genuinely, not that weird kind of laugh like I'm supposed to laugh, then it clears everything out of your lungs and your blood has been pumping
35:40
that's the feeling that that's why I started writing comedy you know right out of college
35:46
it was like that's what I was going for yeah right I think if not we're definitely not
35:52
you know we're not best of times or at least for me so when you get into a house with that many
35:58
people and they just let go sure and say we're gonna forget about all that for a second and
36:03
we're just gonna go with this that's that's a pretty great great feeling yeah that's a really
36:07
And that's what your whole audience was feeling, walking out of the theater the other night, humming and smiling and laughing and giggling, having had the best time
36:14
Nothing better. Nothing better. Well, I thank all three of you for sitting with me today
36:18
Hey, Richie! Hey, Richie! Hey, Richie! Hey, what are we talking about? Some Broadway
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