Jonathan C. Kaplan Meets World

00:00:20
Speaker 1: After we did our show in New Orleans, you guys left and rad show.

00:00:24
Speaker 2: By the way, my family came and met me.

00:00:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was such a fun, such a good show.

00:00:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, New Orleans. They came, brought the energy it was. It was a smaller crowd than we've had in other cities, but louder.

00:00:35
Speaker 4: Than absolutely and even more fun. Yeah.

00:00:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, such a blass.

00:00:40
Speaker 1: But then after my family came and met me, so Indie and uh my wife and then my sister in law were there and we did a swamp tour the next day.

00:00:50
Speaker 3: Was this on it?

00:00:50
Speaker 5: But we've talked about this, Was this on a fan boat? Like did you do the whole thing an airboat?

00:00:54
Speaker 3: Oh my god. I didn't know what to expect.

00:00:58
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, like like I swamps now, I think are beautiful there, maybe strangely gorgeous. I mean part of it is that the boat itself, I've never experienced something like because you're you're on the surface of the water, but you're going so fast and something about the way you're moving.

00:01:15
Speaker 6: It feels like you're flying.

00:01:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're you know, like we kept sliding like you know, you took and it was like.

00:01:22
Speaker 7: Dad, it's Louisiana drift because like, you know, it's like Tokyo drifting.

00:01:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Louisiana drift. But then, okay, so here's something I realized about myself, which is kind of absurd but true. Anytime in a landscape there's moss or lichen.

00:01:39
Speaker 6: I'm happy.

00:01:40
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:01:40
Speaker 1: And so you're going through these trees that are hanging over you and they have that like moss hanging from it that you only get in the South, you know I'm talking about, like yeah, and.

00:01:48
Speaker 3: I look up and I'm just like, I am so happy.

00:01:51
Speaker 1: And it's the same with like, if there's ever like a pathway and has like moss growing on it, on the rocks or whatever, I'm happy. So I'm just really like, you know, you start, you get older, you start figuring out your your likes and dislikes.

00:02:03
Speaker 6: Me moss and liking. And there's moss a liking.

00:02:06
Speaker 5: I think I think it's your I think it's the mosses is telling you to root yourself.

00:02:10
Speaker 3: That's what is.

00:02:11
Speaker 5: As much as you like to wander, you know, when you sit, you grow the moss. So there's something inside of you that's saying.

00:02:16
Speaker 3: Settle down a little bit.

00:02:17
Speaker 5: Yeats, plants and roots and make it nice reading.

00:02:22
Speaker 8: I like it.

00:02:23
Speaker 3: Thank you. We also got to hold a baby alligator, which.

00:02:26
Speaker 4: Was crazy, just right out of the swamp.

00:02:30
Speaker 1: No, so you know, they they have they have when we like we you know, we do little sections. We're driving around and then they stop and then like a twelve foot alligator comes up to the boat and we're feeding.

00:02:39
Speaker 3: At marshmows and it's like mellows.

00:02:42
Speaker 4: Yeah they eat marshmallows.

00:02:44
Speaker 1: Yes, well they'll lead anything, but these tour guides throw marshmallows to you know, get But the second the boat stops, the alligators know it's.

00:02:51
Speaker 6: Coming, so they come for feeding time.

00:02:53
Speaker 3: It's crazy. I learned a lot about alligators.

00:02:55
Speaker 1: That's you know, at the point of the tour, and like, you know, you have one big alligator that has a territory, and then any other alligator has to be under six feet because the second the other alligators get over six feet, the big ones will eat them and just kill them. So like one big male that dominates the territory and then all these other little alligators so the big ones and.

00:03:14
Speaker 6: They can live to be like one hundred and twenty years old.

00:03:16
Speaker 3: Why it's crazy.

00:03:18
Speaker 1: But anyway, so you know, about like two thirds of the way through the tour, the where he's giving us all the information about alligators and we're learning all this stuff, and then he reaches under his seat until like a little bucket and pulls out a one year old baby alligator, which is just the cutest little lizard, and we all get to hold it. India almost drops it, which would have been a disaster because it's like, you know, then it would be in the boat and I.

00:03:41
Speaker 3: Don't know, but it was.

00:03:42
Speaker 1: It was fine, and you just hold it by its tail and they don't have like their bite. They haven't developed like a bite reaction yet, so they don't try and bite you or anything.

00:03:50
Speaker 6: They just they're just like a little lizard. He gets a hold and they're really soft.

00:03:53
Speaker 1: The alligator's skin would be like scaly, but at that is it's like super.

00:03:57
Speaker 6: Soft, and especially underneath especially I know.

00:04:00
Speaker 1: It's just it was one of those experiences that I love where at the beginning of the tour you see this twelve foot alligator swimming to the boat and everybody is screaming and running to the other side of the boat, including Indie, who's like, you know, I'm like, it's fine, it's fine. And then by the end of the tour, you're like holding a baby alligator. You've heard all about it, and you're like, I.

00:04:18
Speaker 6: Kind of think alligators are really special and need to be.

00:04:20
Speaker 1: Saved, and like, you know, it's just that classic like right, that's the point of this kind of educational exponential thing, is like. And then of course the ride home India and I are just pitching we've come up with an alligator video game where you're a baby alligator you hatched and you have to you know, we were going through the whole life cycle of an alligator, which is pretty brutal. There's only fifteen percent of them make it past maturity.

00:04:42
Speaker 8: You know.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: It's such a rough life. Yeah, because they're just born. There's no mom or the bomb lays the eggs and then just leaves them. So once they're born, you're on your own and then you're fighting for your life.

00:04:53
Speaker 3: Sometimes the mom.

00:04:53
Speaker 1: Will eat the babies if they're hungry enough, so you got to like, yeah, it's a rough.

00:04:57
Speaker 3: So they're all Shanes.

00:05:03
Speaker 4: Baby.

00:05:06
Speaker 5: In all fairness, I would swim up to any boat anytime if everyone in the boat just started throwing the marshmallows.

00:05:12
Speaker 3: Right, well that was Andy was like, well can we eat the marshmallows?

00:05:16
Speaker 1: He was upset and they were throwing into the alligators.

00:05:19
Speaker 9: Is there any downside to giving an alligator marshmallows? It doesn't seem like it has high nutritional value, Like they don't get they just digest.

00:05:27
Speaker 1: Them well, and these things are struggling to survive, like I think, you know, keeping them fed in any capacity is probably better than hot.

00:05:34
Speaker 9: Okay, all right, wow, well that sounds like a hard pass for me, But I'm so glad you had a good time.

00:05:41
Speaker 3: You wouldn't go. You wouldn't go fan boating.

00:05:44
Speaker 4: I would. It's just I wouldn't enjoy it, probably, but I would go.

00:05:48
Speaker 2: That's the point.

00:05:48
Speaker 3: I felt the same way. I was like, what is this?

00:05:50
Speaker 1: Like you say swamp and my mind is just like I think it's Dagoba and I'm miserable.

00:05:55
Speaker 3: But then I was in it. It was beautiful. It's it's it's someone says swamp to you.

00:05:59
Speaker 5: The first place you go is the Daga bus system, Yoda's planet.

00:06:03
Speaker 3: That's really in your mind. The first place you go is the fictional planet.

00:06:05
Speaker 9: No idea what he said, I just thought that was some weird word. I had never heard.

00:06:10
Speaker 5: Daga bus not just a planet, it's actually a system. But that's okay, we'll get okay.

00:06:13
Speaker 6: I haven't spent much time in swamp.

00:06:15
Speaker 1: I've never spent any time in swamps the Everglades in Florida or any of that kind of stuff.

00:06:19
Speaker 3: No, so this was it, Like, yeah, and this is about the first part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. That's all swamp.

00:06:25
Speaker 4: I like that.

00:06:26
Speaker 3: That's's a fictional ride supposed to tame thing. Yes, exactly.

00:06:33
Speaker 1: My reference points are not real, so having a real reference point isn't nice.

00:06:38
Speaker 3: That's the point of traveling, right, Yeah, yeah, you know, they're cool.

00:06:40
Speaker 5: I did that in the Everglades, and you kind of start you do the same thing, and you learn about all the nature and and about the animals around you, and it's the same thing. We're looking at the alligators and all that stuff, and then you end at a restaurant that serves gator and frog legs and all that kind of stuff, and you eat a basket of it and you're like, you're kind of sad is doing it, But at the same time, it's like this all taste like chicken.

00:07:02
Speaker 1: Well, we got a lot of conversation about sustainable farming of alligators, which is done, and they have a fifteen percent of bible rate. They return them to the wild. They raise them, and then they return fifteen percent of them to the wild. And they have proven that if they are raised in captivity and they are then released to the wild, they survive perfectly fine in the wild. So they're actually raising them at the same rate that they're actually surviving in the wild. So you know, they're released at six feet and they never they never for leather and for food.

00:07:29
Speaker 3: They don't ever kill them after they're six feet long, so they.

00:07:32
Speaker 1: Know it's the same. It's sustainably done. It's really interesting to cool.

00:07:36
Speaker 9: Yeah, I hear swamp and I think spiders, which is the main reason why I wouldn't want to go. And I just know if there are spiders, hot wet areas like just seem like screaming.

00:07:46
Speaker 5: So jungle doesn't work. See, I think jungle's more spider. I think swamp is more snake.

00:07:51
Speaker 9: Yeah, okay, all right, that you saved me. That sounds better. I'm not really that scared of snakes.

00:07:55
Speaker 6: Okay, there you go.

00:07:56
Speaker 4: I'm in Welcome to Pod Meets World, I'm Daniel.

00:07:58
Speaker 3: Fishl, I'm Right or Strong, and I'm Wilfredoe.

00:08:12
Speaker 9: So a few months back, when we listed off members of the elite Boy Meets World Three Timers Club, a group composed of actors who appeared on the show three times but played three different characters, the guys immediately thought of Willie Garson, Hillary Tuck, and possibly Phil Leads. Then we inducted Katie Johnson aka fish Girl, to the club. But then we remembered this week's guest. During our season two recaps in the absence of one Stuart Minkus, we noticed that producers appeared to want to keep some nerds around, and they did that with one actor. Whether he was named Herbert Simon or Alvin, this kid was every dork and he played it well and for good reason. Ironically, he may have been the most accomplished child actor we cast at that point in the show, arguably ever, at just twelve years old, he took Broadway by storm in the musical Falsettos as the original Jason, a role that would make him one of the youngest Tony Award nominees ever. He'd return to Broadway a few years later in the Diary of Anne Frank as the original Peter Van Dnn opposite Natalie Portman. Then would find himself joining the national tour of The Graduate, taking over for one Rider Strong and playing the role of Benjamin for nine months and three Missus Robinson's did I mention he studied drama at Stanford and Yale and is a member of Mensa, And yet for some reason, this theatrical wonder kind joined Our Little Friday Night Show for four season two episodes as three characters back to School, the Uninvited, I Am Not a Crook and on the air. He'd also appear on Babylon five, Brotherly Love, The Blacklist, and Lawn Order SVU. Where get this he played three friend characters.

00:10:01
Speaker 2: That's a New York tradition.

00:10:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was, of course.

00:10:08
Speaker 9: We are proud to welcome to Pod meets World. Someone it took over one year to track down. It's Jonathan C.

00:10:15
Speaker 4: Kaplan.

00:10:16
Speaker 3: I always get Mensa and Menudo, which is probably why I'm.

00:10:21
Speaker 9: I think it's way easier to be in Menudo.

00:10:31
Speaker 1: The high level of sophistication on our podcast, Welcome.

00:10:37
Speaker 3: To see Man, Welcome than you.

00:10:40
Speaker 9: We are so thrilled that you are here, and we probably look slightly obsessed because we truly hunted you down. You saw our message over a year after we had originally sent it, right.

00:10:54
Speaker 2: That's right, because I checked Facebook Messenger almost never, So that's a healthy way to be here.

00:11:00
Speaker 9: We tried other means it just thankfully the Facebook messenger finally made it.

00:11:06
Speaker 3: How old are we were?

00:11:06
Speaker 5: It's like you didn't You didn't see our I am like, get this.

00:11:17
Speaker 9: Well during our season two rewatch, we were so happy to see you so frequently. Did you know that you had played three different characters in one season.

00:11:26
Speaker 2: There's a good question throughout the season. My name's kept changing, right, like Alvin Simon and I didn't quite have a Theodore, but I was yeah, but the full set, but it was I didn't realize that going into it, but it was a nice surprise. Every time I'd show up and have like a new character name, I'd be like, oh, this is fun, but essentially the same character, right essentially?

00:11:52
Speaker 8: Yeah? Right?

00:11:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:11:54
Speaker 9: So in your intro, we went over your truly remarkable resume as a child actor, and we wondered how you felt being around true professionals on Broadway and then coming to work with us, did you notice a difference at all.

00:12:12
Speaker 2: Well, I have to say that, like there are there are pluses in both categories, right, Okay, So the Broadway performers are it's very much like a machine, right you you are. I think other actors have talked about this recently when they when they do eight shows a week, it's like they do nothing else outside of those eight shows, because it takes your everything, right, And then we got onto the set for Boy Meant's World, and I was like, oh, this is fun. It was not that Broadway isn't fun, but it's it's a lot of work, right. Youre constantly like concerned about your instrument and like keeping everything healthy. And meanwhile I get to set, you know, with you guys, and it's like, oh, this is actually like there's a fun element to this. It's like it's just as exciting as being in front of a live studio audience. It's also incredibly fun at the same time. Like we're doing you know, schooling together, we're doing the takes together. And each scene that we did, particularly the one where I was hit by the each of the doors was you know, one of the highlights of my career. I never thought i'd say that, but because it was so.

00:13:14
Speaker 9: Fun, right, Yeah, you know, writer went on for years still to this day. If given a good opportunity, Writer will do the door and a doorsmack it doors.

00:13:23
Speaker 3: I love it.

00:13:24
Speaker 4: It's one of his favorite things ever.

00:13:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great party trick.

00:13:28
Speaker 3: It is.

00:13:29
Speaker 9: So do you remember auditioning for Boy Meets World? Were you familiar with the show at all?

00:13:34
Speaker 2: So? I was familiar with the show. I knew what it was. I knew, I knew about it, you know, I knew. I knew you're going to ask about the audition. And it's so funny. I heard you guys talking about this earlier, and it's so true. The things that we remember from from that time period makes zero sense. Like I can tell you about the car ride to the audition. I can tell you about what happened. I remember, like going and talking to the security guard beforehand, like while getting onto the set, and it was like I remember, I remember those kinds of experiences, But I couldn't tell you.

00:14:04
Speaker 1: Were you coming from New York or like, so, were you moved? Were you already living in LA Like how did that happen?

00:14:10
Speaker 2: Okay? So, I have a roundabout history. So I started in Northern California. And I was going to say this to the end, but I do have to tell you that my most heartbreaking loss as an actor came at the ripe ol day age of nine, when I was living in Northern California, and I just happened to audition for Le Miz. Oh no, And I don't know if you're aware of this, but the other person who actually ended up booking it is on this call right now.

00:14:40
Speaker 4: Oh, you auditioned for Gavroche.

00:14:45
Speaker 8: Time.

00:14:45
Speaker 2: I am positive we saw each other writing. Yeah, we must have auditioned in the same room. We must have seen each other and other auditions then. Oh but it was like I was like your name and I was like, no way, it's the same writer Stromp And so it was like it was so cool, Like the the idea of like the opportunity to like work with you again would be like fantastic. So that's amazing.

00:15:05
Speaker 1: Okay, So but that's funny because then Aaron Metchick, who also ended up a guest starring on our show. He auditioned that same day in San Francisco, so like three of us, Oh my god, that's so crazy.

00:15:18
Speaker 3: That's so crazy, yo.

00:15:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was great, Like it was literally not like I think that it was. It was the least competitive I've ever been, But it was like started in northern California, moved to New York, did Falsettos and a bunch of off Broadway shows in New York, then moved back to California to go to high school. And while like junior high and high school, and then while I was out there, I was doing The boy Mets World.

00:15:45
Speaker 1: So did you move to New York to pursue a theater career like your family?

00:15:49
Speaker 5: Yes?

00:15:50
Speaker 2: Wow, kind of like we moved for a summer to see what would happen. Because I had done like twenty two shows in the Bay Area, like in two years, just like one college production after another, just like back to back Shakespeare musicals. I did the opera, the San Francisco Opera at twelve. I was literally nine.

00:16:09
Speaker 5: Oh man, you did reverse pilot season. You went to New York to see what was going to happen.

00:16:16
Speaker 2: It's exactly such a thing to do, exactly. I was following the theater like tailwa, so I was. I went to New York to try it out there, and I booked Rags, which is the off railway version of what they were hoping to bring to Broadway again. That was performed at the American Jewish Theater, which then became the Opera Citizens Brigade Theater, which is built underneath a supermarket, so during all the quiet moments, you can hear the carts being pushed. Oh, what's on special that day? Happens like just after the intro, but yeah it. So I went to New York to do that and then got Rags. And after Rags, was called in by the Weislers to audition Foot Pauls. And the audition for Falsettos was like a two month process. Oh my god, just memorize a different song for every audition, and then by the time we got to the rehearsal, we knew the whole score.

00:17:11
Speaker 1: Oh geez, you were such a pro. When you showed up on our set, we cannot believe.

00:17:19
Speaker 7: Wait, but had you been on Nickelodeon, like let's I can't believe. And we had no idea, Like I still had no idea until we got the notes for today.

00:17:29
Speaker 3: We were like Tony Tony nominated what before he was on Boy beats World, Like, wow, is this big? And now you're Yeah, I cannot believe.

00:17:37
Speaker 1: The level of professionalism that you were walking under our set. We must have just seemed like the craziest group.

00:17:42
Speaker 5: Can We also, though, very briefly, talk about how great the casting director was for Ley Miss up North.

00:17:49
Speaker 3: I mean, everybody auditioned for that became it was it was an open casting call, dude.

00:17:54
Speaker 1: So it was literally just every kid who was doing theater at that age, just like we lined up. I got there like five in the morning and it was just a line of kids.

00:18:03
Speaker 2: But yeah, think about what was in the water, like that much kind of of northern California at that time. Oh man, I look at the other actors who I knew from that that period, you know, and some of them are still in the business, but like they're all incredibly accomplished, you know. It's it's fascinating.

00:18:19
Speaker 9: I mean, you had way more in common with Bill Daniels any of us.

00:18:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like on her set too, it was just Quinn a little bit different.

00:18:34
Speaker 9: But wow, okay, I do I do want to talk about the Tony a little bit. You were nominated for a Tony at twelve years old, and we talk a lot about our experience being on TV and our teens, But what was it like being a part of such such a successful Broadway show at such a young age? What is the atmosphere of being there?

00:18:52
Speaker 2: Like, well, it's it's really like the theater community as a whole is incredibly welcoming, right, So I just rely went to a Sardi signing for Chip sign where he got his picture up on the Sardi's wall, and it was just like everyone from his career came to celebrate him as part of this like grand you know, gesture, and it was amazing to see like the extent of his career, how many shows he had been in, and like the actors who came to this thing were amazing. But that's really what the artistic community was like for the theater anyway. They're incredibly welcoming. It's this big you know, everyone knows each other and is excited for other people's success. Like some of the actors who were there had to leave, you know, at six thirty because they had a curtain at seven and they were walking across the street to the theater and it was just like it's what you did, you know, And the Tonys were an exciting thing because I don't think they do this anymore. I'm not really sure. But when we did it then it was obviously a live recording and we were performing after the you know, awards were announced, performing live a number from Falsetto's, and they would announce where the Tonys were being seen and by how many millions of people in every country after they would announce it, so it was like today in the United States, seventy two million people are watching the Tonies.

00:20:15
Speaker 9: Wow.

00:20:15
Speaker 2: Oh you can feel like the pressure and the nerves like start to get to your stomach as they're announcing these things, and you're like, okay, all right, I've done this, done this on hundred times. You should be able to be able to do it now. Sure.

00:20:41
Speaker 4: How did your parents deal with all of this?

00:20:45
Speaker 2: Good questions? So one of them was always working on the opposite coast. So my dad at the time was going to Stanford to business school, and my mom was a corporate lawyer before, and so she took time off to take us to New York and like follow where in New York. Uh, and my dad stayed in California started a business there.

00:21:11
Speaker 8: Uh.

00:21:11
Speaker 2: And then my when I got old enough, I had to take over my own career. My mom then stayed in California and my dad started a business in Alaska. So it was like they're constantly working like all over the place. It was a it was a constant game of taghow And were they into theater?

00:21:27
Speaker 3: Is that where it came from?

00:21:28
Speaker 2: Like they got you? And yeah, they were both the community theater. And I remember my first role was in a community theater production of All the Way Home, which is I don't know if anyone knows it, but it's a very sad show about the depression. Uh, And I played a five year old child with no lines. My whole role was to run on stage, play with the main kid, hug my grandmother, and run off again. And being that I was five years old, I had a smile on my face the entire time. That sounds fun, I like playing. So I ran on stage, huge smile and all the old ladies thought it was adorable. So a lot of pinches on the cheek after.

00:22:11
Speaker 5: That, of course, And that's what coming you said, You said us, did you have a brothers and sisters that were doing this with you?

00:22:18
Speaker 2: Or yes, yes, my sister she essentially become a very successful psychologist at Stanford, and she is now like she she did nor in Northern California. She did Tale of Two Cities. She's like on the on the cover of the publication for the San Francisco Weekly or whatever. She's like being held as the child who is hit and title Tale two Cities.

00:22:41
Speaker 9: Wow, Oh my gosh, Okay, I want to go back to Boy Meets World now for just a little bit. So your first episode is back to School, which was a bit of a reset for us on the podcast. We had going from season one into season two, we had what we called dropshock big time. So your playing a nerd named Herbert. Do you remember anything about that week?

00:23:06
Speaker 2: I remember a lot of the physical stuff, right, It was like there was the doors and the being hit by the various doors. I also remember, and I know you guys were like totally joking about about the professionalism, but I like, as soon as I got onto set, I was like, Oh, it's it's a whole different ballgame here, Like this is completely different from like anything else that I'd ever done. Because you guys had such great chemistry. It was like all I had to do was just kind of show up and do my thing, and you guys were like fireworks all the time, because mostly most of the time it takes like, you know, a month of rehearsals for actress to get together to find that chemistry make that work on stage. But by the time I got there, you guys were like, on it done.

00:23:50
Speaker 9: We also had for season two was still David Trainer. I was going to say, I wonder if Jeff McCracken, we were so yeah, so David trainor was was still our director. Then you're back just four episodes later for The Uninvited. Again you're playing a nerd, but now you're named Simon and you're connecting with Sean about being left out from a party. Do you remember how that episode happened. You didn't have to audition again, did you.

00:24:16
Speaker 2: No, No, they would just call me back. And I remember that Boyman's World was one of the ones that was relatively short notice. So I was essentially like, like on the Wednesday of like the week before, they were like, so you're gonna come in, You're gonna do another another episode, Like okay, okay, again, this is like early on in TV, so I was like, I guess this is how it works.

00:24:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's so interesting to think about because Michael Jacobs was such a theater guy and theater fan, and he must have just been so impressed with you that.

00:24:49
Speaker 3: He was like, let's get him on here, let's let's bring him back, let's get get it, and you like must have been on hit. But it's so funny, be Causina.

00:24:55
Speaker 1: We never knew that, like, it never occurred to us, but I'm sure he was like, get that kid.

00:25:00
Speaker 9: Well, I'm sure Michael saw his resume. So the first time he auditioned, Michael probably saw your resume and was just.

00:25:06
Speaker 4: Like, whoa, this is amazing.

00:25:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, we have to start keeping a list of all the incredible things we were completely and totally oblivious to as kids, so many things, because it's just it would be miles long at this point, unbelievable. Do you remember Michael did he Did he talk to you about theater at all.

00:25:24
Speaker 2: Or do Yeah? Yeah, we did have conversations about theater, and he asked about like specific people. He'd be like, so, how is you know Michael doing or something like that. Wow, Michael, But again it's you know, a conversation from thirty years ago. I remember, I remember the dressing room, but I can't remember, you know, exactly what we talked about.

00:25:42
Speaker 4: You know, right, I don't remember the dressing room.

00:25:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, I kind of do for season two, but this is so I'm not sure we asked this, and we probably should then because you're right, you never know what sticks in your brain, what doesn't stick in your brain, what goes. What's your strongest memory from being on the set of Boy mel Okay?

00:26:00
Speaker 2: So I remember, uh, I remember the bullies, remember shoes that we had on our episodes. They were like, again, he's had a very successful career since but like the larger bully like he's he has been, you know, so great to see his career like and where it's gone. But he walked onto that set and was like, Oh, that's You've got this this part down. It is like the question is to like what you're doing. And he revised that role over and over again on the episode, and I was like, Oh, it's it's almost like watching you know, somebody like step into a shoe that's made for them, right, It's like it's just it just happens. It just works. And I remember like coming on to set, particularly with Boy Meets World and it just kept happening, like the people would would match their role so incredibly well and you didn't have to think.

00:26:50
Speaker 9: About it right and that Yeah, I mean the casting was incredible. That was Ethan's first job, in his first episode of his first job ever. First day, Yeah, was was there and we all felt the same way.

00:27:05
Speaker 3: It's like, oh, these guys are good, right, yeah, to.

00:27:08
Speaker 5: The point where my dad thought I was gonna be written off the show because they were so good.

00:27:12
Speaker 4: These are the guys, these are the guys.

00:27:16
Speaker 2: Happening.

00:27:18
Speaker 9: So at this point, as we've mentioned, you had already been nominated for a Tony, but TV was newer to you. So was it cool then to see yourself on TV? Did you watch the episodes when they aired initially?

00:27:31
Speaker 2: Yes? I did because I thought it was, you know, kind of fun to do. And you get like a little group together and you watch together and you're like, that was cool.

00:27:40
Speaker 7: Uh.

00:27:41
Speaker 2: And you know, I've heard you guys talk about this before on the podcast, but you see these things and you're like, oh, man, I wish I could redo that take. Like there's certain moments and again it's not the entire thing, but you're like, you see a moment you're like, oh, miss that one. Right, it's so so there. There is that that keep talking about the big mouth character of like the regret master, right, and but it's you have this this thing that comes in and you're like, oh, man, I really I shouldn't watch myself anymore. So I actually I've stopped watching or listening to myself, and it's it's healthier that way. Think.

00:28:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, writer discovered that as a team as well.

00:28:21
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, stop watching. I only watched a little bit of the first season.

00:28:25
Speaker 2: I was like, no, exactly right.

00:28:27
Speaker 5: I watch everything I've been in, and in my head I put myself and stuff I wasn't in.

00:28:32
Speaker 3: That's good God, it was incredible Star Wars. This is damn.

00:28:38
Speaker 2: Thank you.

00:28:40
Speaker 5: But speaking of that, because of the way I am with television and my memory of TV, which episodes of s VU did you do? Were you old school SVU? Were you Olivia Benson's now the captain of the squad s VU? Where did you.

00:28:53
Speaker 3: Fall in in this this category?

00:28:55
Speaker 2: So again talking about great casting directors, right, So Jonathan Strauss is the casting rec means cast directed prayers for you and he's great, Like I had a class with him very early on in kind of my time in New York, and we just kind of kept in touch, right, and every once in a while a random part would show off and he'd be like, Jonathan, come on, come on in for this. And I'd auditioned for something and I was like, there's no way I'm going to get this. This is like a you know, a husband's who's taking care of his pregnant wife and we're going to the hospital to take care of somebody else. And I auditioned for it and it goes really well, and I have no idea what character, like I am personally right, but he clearly sees something different. It's just great casting. And I've been SVU from the early days to the mid days, not so much in the later days, but like.

00:29:41
Speaker 3: Who are you in the early ones? Which episode did you?

00:29:43
Speaker 9: I need to know the specific episode.

00:29:46
Speaker 3: I want to know what it is.

00:29:47
Speaker 2: So there was one where I was playing like a paralegal and we were talking about like a possibly corrupt judge and we were talking about the ins and outs of like the our day to day and Benson was talking to me about some detail and I had a response that they did this like double pan with two cameras on either side to like not catch each other like one continuous take that we had to do. Okay. And and the thing I love and can't stand about TV is that everyone talks about this.

00:30:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, everyone, especially on copy.

00:30:19
Speaker 2: So if you're standing in a big room and have like wait for someone's cue to like pick up your line, you're like, I have no idea I'm supposed to be.

00:30:26
Speaker 3: You didn't watch yourself on the episode? Did you know?

00:30:29
Speaker 2: I didn't.

00:30:29
Speaker 8: I was going to say, you still have not told me what episode it is? You don't know what episode.

00:30:40
Speaker 3: I wish these people would project. We're some good old theater training. These TV actors don't know so much fun. I'm gonna have to google Google now. Okay.

00:30:53
Speaker 9: So then towards the end of season two, you come back, this time in a much bigger role, now as Alva running against Corey in the school election.

00:31:02
Speaker 4: For I am not a crook, and.

00:31:04
Speaker 9: This felt more like a role your talent deserved. Finally, do you remember this week at all? And and do you have any memories from that week?

00:31:13
Speaker 2: I do. I do remember like playing Alvin because Alvin was where it felt more like an actual.

00:31:21
Speaker 3: Characters.

00:31:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it had some I had some like conflict and there was some some actual scenes happening, and you know, rather than just being kind of the slapstick comedy, it was like, Okay, I get to work with these actors. And I remember really relishing in that because it was like, oh, okay, I've gotten to have some fun up until now. Now let's kind of dig in.

00:31:42
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, finally you had you had something to do. So when we recapped the episode, Will shared kind of a dropped a bombshell on me with something he remembered that I absolutely did not remember, which was that during the live studio audience taping, I kept in that part where I kind of jump up to filibuster a speech, I had a bit of a breakdown and I left stage crying, and I was wondering if you remember any of that.

00:32:11
Speaker 2: I do remember something about like I remember seeing like some commotion happening, but I do remember you breaking down. But I do remember you like leaving. Yeah, okay, I don't don't remember the breakdown though.

00:32:22
Speaker 4: Oh that's okay, that's all right. Listen, we all have.

00:32:27
Speaker 9: We all have things happened anyway. Almost if you walk down, it doesn't affect you. Everyone knows that if the trauma is so severe, you block it out.

00:32:42
Speaker 2: I woke up today, so everything's yeah, right.

00:32:44
Speaker 5: Just don't approach Dan y'all from her left side or make any sudden movements, and you're fine, no trauma at all.

00:32:51
Speaker 4: Do you ever get recognized for Boy Meets World.

00:32:57
Speaker 2: Only because the not because of anything else I have? I have to say, So, what I've been doing a lot recently is I've been working at a high school. I'm directing their theater productions, and it's been a real lovely shift to like being able to introduce a lot of students to the things that I love about theater. And I have to say that I've kind of been blindsided when somebody comes up to me is like I saw you as Alvin yesterday, and I'm like, oh, okay, all right, I'm still out there. Right, It's it is still out there. And I love when that happens because it's like the kids. I realized that, like all these episodes were filmed before the kids were even born. Yes, crazy right, yes, yes, but like it's really nice to see that it still has a reach, see that like that these episodes are still making their way into the the viewing, you know, population of like, what what are the high schoolers right now? Yeah? Yeah, oh yeah not ski vide Ohio. That's all I have to say about that.

00:34:04
Speaker 9: Yeah, it is still my favorite thing that happens when very young people recognize me and I will think, how is it possible that they know about Boy Meets World? But then they'll come up to me and they'll say, excuse me, are you the mom from Girl Meets World. It's like a right, a full solid you don't even know about Boy Meets World, or if you do, it's only because your parent walked in while you were watching Girl Meets World and said, you know, the one you should be watching is this one, and then directed them back to Boy Meets World.

00:34:41
Speaker 3: Yes, it's still happening.

00:34:42
Speaker 1: I feel like everybody I meet now, if they've watched Girl Met World, they've gone back to Boy Meets World, Like I feel like it's been enough time. Like when it was on the air, I can see that, But now I feel like everyone knows the.

00:34:51
Speaker 4: Association, right, Not not.

00:34:54
Speaker 3: Sure people that just are girl fans.

00:34:56
Speaker 9: Yes, I get people that know me specifically because they've only watched Girl Meets World.

00:35:02
Speaker 4: And they know that I'm the mom on that show.

00:35:04
Speaker 9: And even then it's like it's it's I actually love it because they're very aware that, like I'm not the star of the show. It feels like, yeah, you were on that that show. I love that show. I love those kids, and you were there. It's great.

00:35:18
Speaker 5: By the way, just for the record, you were on in two thousand and six episode called Gone Going for.

00:35:22
Speaker 3: SBU that is that is the one that is the takeaway I can still get the residual checks, the names them all. Yeah, that five cents fifteen.

00:35:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is based on the Natalie Holloway case, so they you know, because everything, of course is ripped from the headlines.

00:35:38
Speaker 2: Oh right, that was That was the one where I was taking care of my pregnant wife to the hospital and she comes in it is yeah.

00:35:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, the one I think we're taking your pregnant life. That's witness.

00:35:46
Speaker 2: That's witness.

00:35:47
Speaker 5: That's right, that's Witness because that's the one where they have to find nartily to come back.

00:35:51
Speaker 3: To Can you quote lines from it?

00:35:52
Speaker 7: Will?

00:35:52
Speaker 3: Can you do you want to? So?

00:35:55
Speaker 5: So she gets cut in the hands during Witness and she ends up getting MRSA and he says well, how bad is it? And she goes if she has family, you have to call them now, and she ends up dying like ten seconds later, gone, which which seemed you want me to do this sadness.

00:36:12
Speaker 4: I don't understand this is true.

00:36:15
Speaker 3: I think in TV. I think in TV.

00:36:21
Speaker 2: Day like as your day happens, does it like start to come out in like final script or like how does that? How does that work?

00:36:26
Speaker 3: It is? It's I don't.

00:36:28
Speaker 5: I God love my wife. I don't know how she does it? Sometimes because I do. I think in TV, I can literally when I looked up all three of your episodes, I am now in my head watching all three of your episodes.

00:36:38
Speaker 1: I mean literally, and so is that because you watched them over and over like you have watched it.

00:36:42
Speaker 5: I haven't watched SVU in years, but once I see something that I've seen more than once, then it just pops into my head again.

00:36:48
Speaker 3: So yeah, so gone is?

00:36:50
Speaker 5: I mean I can see the powder blue shirt that you're wearing and the green jacket that you have over your shirt when you come in with your wife.

00:36:56
Speaker 3: Okay, only you could.

00:36:57
Speaker 6: Harness this to some.

00:37:00
Speaker 3: Like program where we needed answers.

00:37:03
Speaker 7: We should get me will for now on the line, we need to know what episode you What was the line?

00:37:10
Speaker 5: Yeah, he comes in because she's hitting on she the wife thinks he's hitting on her on him, honestly.

00:37:18
Speaker 4: If he doesn't get it out, we have to deal with it later.

00:37:23
Speaker 3: And then.

00:37:24
Speaker 5: And Witness was also important because it was it was the Da, the woman who plays a DA.

00:37:28
Speaker 3: It was her final episode for a while.

00:37:30
Speaker 5: She comes and she actually disappears for a while and then comes back.

00:37:33
Speaker 4: Anything else will.

00:37:36
Speaker 2: I think?

00:37:36
Speaker 3: I'm good?

00:37:37
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, I'm good for now.

00:37:39
Speaker 5: I'm We won't get into Beautiful Frame, which was your third episode, but there you go.

00:37:43
Speaker 3: Okay, So I'm good, I'm all right.

00:37:56
Speaker 4: Okay.

00:37:57
Speaker 9: So taking it back to some of your characters from Boy Meets World, were you going out for a lot of nerd roles back then?

00:38:04
Speaker 2: Yes, So, you know, because because this is how you're kind of people see that you're successful in one role like pigeonholed. I want to say that, let's make it a term, right. They see that you're successful in one role and they're like, oh, okay, let's let's keep him going on that treadmill. So essentially I came out for a lot of nerd roles and continue to play kind of nerdy characters in a lot of the different shows that I did.

00:38:31
Speaker 5: Were you a nerd? Because as a nerd, I'm curious were you? I mean did you like fantasy and comic books.

00:38:37
Speaker 8: And D and D?

00:38:37
Speaker 3: And was this year?

00:38:38
Speaker 2: Yes a thousand percent? And I I mean the production that I just directed at the high school was She Kills Monsters, which is all about D and D. So you know, it's like it is I that is my wheelhouse. I love it. And I guess I'm a nerd. I mean, I am a member of MENSAH great like, yeah, it's true. I don't know, it's nerd used to have that kind of like negative connotation, but it's really become part of the pop culture now cool.

00:39:13
Speaker 3: You know, can we talk a little bit about MENSA.

00:39:18
Speaker 4: It is the first rule that you're not supposed to talk about.

00:39:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, club or I don't know how it is?

00:39:24
Speaker 5: Well, how do you can anyone join if you hit us?

00:39:27
Speaker 3: Is it about IQ? Do you have to test to get in?

00:39:31
Speaker 2: So you test? You test? You take an IQ test and I took it very young, so the you know, qualifications were very different. But but the the you take it. You take a test to get in and if you if your IQ is at a certain level, then you can become a member of MENSA by paying the annual dues and you can go to the annual meetings.

00:39:52
Speaker 8: Uh.

00:39:52
Speaker 2: They have this like big get together in like one place where you have everything from like astrophysics workshops to like chalk but making. You know, it's like it's completely bizarre, but it's like your imagine like MENSA members to do. It's all in one place, right, Wow, So just to show that, like, actually this is kind of fun and cool.

00:40:11
Speaker 4: So wow, Will's gonna Can you apply online? Can you take the test online?

00:40:16
Speaker 3: I wouldn't know how to get to the website. I'd already be I'd.

00:40:19
Speaker 4: Already fail because you're an old man smile.

00:40:23
Speaker 3: I would never would never be able to get into MENSA. But what can I ask? What's the number you need to get in?

00:40:29
Speaker 2: So I believe when I when I first tested, I think it was needed to be like above one thirty and I was like marginally over So uh yeah, but I bet you could do it. Will, I'm sure. I'm sure that I will see you at the chocolate making.

00:40:44
Speaker 9: Is there an SV remembering category TV category, like.

00:40:50
Speaker 5: He's Alvin Einstein. If that's what they say to me, I mean, come on.

00:40:53
Speaker 1: Will if you just like watched videos, like seriously, if you watched lectures about subjects.

00:40:58
Speaker 3: You would be able to test on any subject.

00:41:01
Speaker 5: It would depend what it was. It would depend because numbers. My brain doesn't hone numbers. I truly do have a calculating my brain numbers.

00:41:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I q is.

00:41:09
Speaker 1: I remember trying to take like an IQ test, and it's like a really interesting set of reasoning. It's like it's it's a logic reasoning, Like it's hard to take one.

00:41:17
Speaker 9: In college, I was a psychology major, so I also had to take one.

00:41:22
Speaker 4: Yes, I don't know that they're super accurate accurate.

00:41:26
Speaker 2: It's again I think that it depends on what you know, states you're in when you go to take it. Yeah, there's a lot of factors at play. Yes, I don't. I don't claim to be smarter than anyone else. I think we do.

00:41:39
Speaker 4: We claim that for you, Yes, you.

00:41:42
Speaker 2: Smarter than checks in the mail, But again, I think that really depends on like just finding your group, right, because what what MENSA feels like is like the nerdy parts of Reddit right, So it's like it's like build me a PC, but I want to see the people version.

00:42:00
Speaker 5: All right, cool, Okay, interesting, I'm going to crash the next MENSA meeting.

00:42:04
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna be that guy. They're going they'll know the second.

00:42:07
Speaker 9: I walk in, Like then they're gonna have astrophysics, chocolate making and tv TV category with will producer.

00:42:14
Speaker 3: Yes, TV TU.

00:42:15
Speaker 2: Like tell me an episode.

00:42:17
Speaker 3: I don't know exactly now that I'll do all day.

00:42:21
Speaker 9: So I want to talk to you a little bit about because you worked opposite another child prodigy in Natalie Portman, who was sixteen when she made her Broadway debut in the Diary of Anne Frank with You. What was that experience?

00:42:32
Speaker 2: Like that was great? Natalie is a real gem. She is incredibly focused, one of the most focused actors that I've ever worked with. I mean, you could tell I was seventeen. She was sixteen at the time, and like tenfold what I would you know bring to a production like laser focused on these kinds of things. She was like testing, preparing for the college exams. She was taking like Japanese I think at the time as well, and all of this in addition to playing like and Frank on Broadway. Unbelievable focus for Natalie also incredibly kind and generous, like for the high Holy Days the she would mite me over to her house and would celebrate together, and it was really really nice. But such an incredible actress, Like I really can't say enough about her.

00:43:29
Speaker 3: Wow, how long were you doing the show?

00:43:32
Speaker 2: So I did Falsettos for a little under a year and then and Frank for about a nine months.

00:43:39
Speaker 3: Wow, so much worse.

00:43:41
Speaker 2: And I have to say that, like all of my understudies, this is this is a fascinating thing. All minor studies for the big things that I've done are now huge superstars. And I think that I should just start renting out space. So you really want to be a big superstar, please be.

00:43:55
Speaker 4: My understudy your understudies.

00:43:58
Speaker 2: So, my my under study for Falsettos was Andrew Leads, who's like a big, a big superstar in the TV world. Now. My uno study Fan Frank was Eddie K. Thomas, Oh my gosh. And and my my under study for the Graduate, which is the tour I did after college, was Nate Qudry, who's like's brother and like a success doing a bunch of shows, right now. But it's like all these people made it into like like series regulars, like just after they finished with me, and I think that I had something to do with it.

00:44:28
Speaker 4: It's a group effort.

00:44:30
Speaker 9: Since the stage is such a sophisticated and adult form of entertainment.

00:44:35
Speaker 4: Was it easy to still be a kid?

00:44:38
Speaker 2: Great question, that's a great question. So that was part of the reason why I kept coming back to California to like try to go to school, right. I kept wanting to be normal, right. I wanted to say like, Okay, I really enjoy this, but it takes a lot. Like this, it's a big time commitment. You know, you disappear for three months when you're doing a film, and you come back, everyone else is already moved on, right, They're already their lives have already gone, and you're like, I was in you know, Ontario for three months, and yeah, uh, it's a lot. So I kept trying to come back to be like a normal kid again. But after a few months, like the bug starts to get you again, and then you find yourself like, all right, well i'll do your audiobook. Okay, fine, maybe I'll do this this one role on this thing, all right, Fine, I'm back in a whole hog.

00:45:20
Speaker 8: You know.

00:45:20
Speaker 2: It's like there's no stopping it.

00:45:23
Speaker 8: It is.

00:45:23
Speaker 2: It is a bug that I want to constantly, like you know, have go away, but I but it keeps coming back, and I don't. I don't mind. Yeah, I love that fact, like that's part of what you know. Directing is for me now, It's like I get to introduce the joy to like the younger.

00:45:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard it put like you know that to tell young actors. If you can do anything else, do something else. But if you can't not act, you're an actor, you know what I mean.

00:45:53
Speaker 3: It's like, you can't you can't avoid it.

00:45:54
Speaker 1: If if it's just gonna always be a part of then you just have to start working your life around it.

00:45:59
Speaker 3: In some capacy.

00:46:01
Speaker 2: I can see that you're reading a lot. So that's that's really good. The books behind the shows.

00:46:07
Speaker 4: The writer is officially said he's done with acting.

00:46:11
Speaker 3: We yeah, he loves directing. I mean, I love working with actors. I just yeah, don't want to.

00:46:18
Speaker 2: And you know I do. I do readings every once in a while now to kind of get the bug again. And it's a different experience that I have with it now. Like as a director and as an older actor now not older but I mean middle age actor. Now it's it's it's a different feeling than it was when you know, we were younger, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just kind of a it's what it is, what it is. But I do have to say one of my favorite things to do show wise, I used to do this show called Gravid Water and it was an actor and an improviser that we get together and the actor would memorize all the lines of one character of a two person scene, and the improviser had never heard the scene before. So I worked. I worked with some of the biggest names in like you know TV right now, like Tom Middle Bitch to work with uh work, Shareo, Terry. I mean, like a bunch of different like I work at Chevy Chase once. But again it's like they were the improvisers. I was doing all the lines of one character and you have to justify it, right.

00:47:20
Speaker 3: So you have to keep returning to the lines.

00:47:22
Speaker 2: Is the idea.

00:47:24
Speaker 3: I want to see that.

00:47:25
Speaker 2: That's so it's it's such a great show. So after COVID it kind of shut down. But like I'm they're hoping to get it back on the ground again. So but that is like, because it's immediate, you have to have everything has to be there, and then, right, nothing's going to be the same after it. Right.

00:47:39
Speaker 5: What's your when you look back on on especially your stage career, is there a show that stands out for you as your favorite?

00:47:47
Speaker 2: Question? Yeah? I mean I love the story of Falsettos. That was a really beautiful story to tell over and over again, especially you know, Happy Pride by the way, it was a story that needed to be told, and I'm really glad it was told when it was. I have to say that, like all of the proessions that I've done have been worthwhile in some way, right, And it's really hard for me to pick a favorite because I was in a different place personally for like each one. I really loved doing Shakespeare. We toured that around the country with the acting company and played in theaters that had not seen a stage play before, let alone Shakespeare. So it was like we were performing in these like really really small, you know, like ninety nine seat houses that were like transformed from barn. We had to like restage the entire thing based on like the parameters of like what we have for entrances and exits and like that was really fun. But you know, like gravid water, like I talked about, is immediately it's then and there. So they all have value. And I would also say like the directing, like as you as you know writer, it becomes you value that just as much.

00:49:03
Speaker 9: Yeah, and you and writers share experience as Benjamin in the touring company of the Graduate. What was that like then when you guys crossed paths. Did you have a lot of interaction at that time?

00:49:15
Speaker 2: We didn't know. So again they were like we were, we were shipping in the night, so we completely like missed each other as we were exchanging roles there.

00:49:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you also you never did it with Jerry Hall, did you?

00:49:28
Speaker 2: Just after Jerry left, so there was a whole new cast.

00:49:30
Speaker 3: Basically, so you were Nate Corgie went along and the rest of the cast went with you.

00:49:34
Speaker 1: But me, Yeah, me and Jerry. So you were rehearsing in LA while we were finishing up our leg right.

00:49:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly, audition in New York, rehearsed in LA and then came back to me.

00:49:43
Speaker 9: Wow.

00:49:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:49:44
Speaker 9: Jonathan worked with Lorraine Brocco, Linda Gray and Kelly McGillis as the Missus Robinson's and writer.

00:49:50
Speaker 4: You worked with.

00:49:51
Speaker 1: Jerry Hall, Jerry Hall, and that was it, right, Yeah, because then then I went back and did it again. Did you know that, Jonathan, I went and did it in Australia's seven years later it was, and did it with Jerry again.

00:50:02
Speaker 3: It was it was crazy.

00:50:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool. Yeah.

00:50:06
Speaker 4: Is being in a touring company even harder work?

00:50:11
Speaker 2: Is it harder work? Yes? And no, it's because you don't have your like family or you know, support network around all the time. With the acting company, they had these signs that were made right like with arrows pointing like to the dressing room or like to the stage right without which we would be completely lost, like some of us would still be backstage right now. But because like when you're going on a touring company, you're there for like a few weeks, you know some now they're doing like split weeks, and so like you're there for a couple of days and then you go on to the next theater and they set up overnight and you come to the show for a weekend and they pick up and you're you know, out on the road again. On Monday.

00:50:49
Speaker 1: The graduate was so much work too, because as Benjamin, we had one scene that we weren't in the rest of the time, We're on stage the entire You're carrying the entire show, and I just remember like being exhausted, like it was. It was like running a marathon every night. And then didn't Wasn't there a night where you hit your head and Nate had to go on halfway through the show? Yeah, well I remember because Nate hadn't ever, he never got to go on for me. Uh and and then he was that first I think that was the first time he went on.

00:51:19
Speaker 3: He took over for you. Yes, what it was halfway through a show. She had to simulate sex and rider.

00:51:26
Speaker 2: But like, so the bed it was a single bed, right, a single bed made up sheets like like sewn on on the corner. Was this was a bedside table, right, And there's a scene when we flopped back and we're like, oh, we're reacting like something that you know, our dad has said, uhh. And the table is connected to the side of the bed, so like there's no movement in it. And so one night I just was off just a slight bit, and so I flapped back at like on the corner of the bedside table in my head so hard. That was like allowed badang right, And I don't remember this writer, but like that set was the whitest set I've ever worked on.

00:52:05
Speaker 3: It's all white. It's literally cream colored, like loo every windows.

00:52:10
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:52:10
Speaker 2: I spent the rest of the and I'm wearing like a white shirt with like khaki pants and and I'm I'm like, oh man, my head hurts. And I come back to my hands full of blood. Right, so I'm like to finish the scene, and so I'm like holding my head like you know, trying to like stop the blood is I'm like backing up toward the exit and and like sure enough, it's coming like down my neck all over my all my things. People are like, I think somebody actually got really worried about my safety. In the front row. One was like, I'm a doctor, is he okay? And coming back to me now? So this was a yell and and uh we went to yell hospital intermission while Nate got into my clean version of my clothes and then finished the rest of the show.

00:52:52
Speaker 4: Oh my god, what did you end up eating? Stitches?

00:52:56
Speaker 2: Staples? I got staples, Oh.

00:53:00
Speaker 3: Connecticut we do staples and.

00:53:04
Speaker 1: Hacktic because you never have a break, like you there's not a moment, there's not a scene where you are off stage and that entire play.

00:53:11
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that's so hectic.

00:53:12
Speaker 2: Oh my yeah.

00:53:14
Speaker 9: Well, as you mentioned, you are now teaching and directing for kids, sometimes in the age group of when you were running around Broadway being nominated for awards. What is the best piece of advice you try to pass on to the kids you work with?

00:53:31
Speaker 2: So the best piece of advice that I try to pass on to the kids is, well, there's a lot, but it really comes down to kind of the fundamentals.

00:53:42
Speaker 8: Of like.

00:53:44
Speaker 2: What it is that we do? Right? Like, well, like I'm going to ask everyone in this room, like, like, what does acting mean to you? Right? What is it? What is acting?

00:53:53
Speaker 1: That's a really tough question at this point. I you know, I've had so many different answers. But to me, it's it's it's embodying a story. It's it's it's it's taking all of your humanity, your body, your voice, your artistic expressive capacities and telling a story that was already written before you. Like you're not, I mean, imbrobbing is like creating a story. But like I think acting just the purest form is that you're embodying a story in some commit Yeah.

00:54:24
Speaker 4: O character, I'll take what he said.

00:54:27
Speaker 2: Do you think, well any difference.

00:54:29
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well I came to a pretty.

00:54:34
Speaker 5: I don't I wouldn't say horrible realization, but a realization that I'm not an actor. And I came to that realization a while ago because I think acting is about the craft, like writer was talking about and kind of internalizing the story and embodying the character, and I never did that. I care only about the reaction of the audience and making sure the audience has a good time.

00:54:55
Speaker 3: So I realized I was an entertainer more than I was an actor.

00:55:00
Speaker 5: Because that's all I had to do, if I had to, if I have to flop down and knock my head against something like you did to get the reaction from the audience, and that's what I'm gonna do.

00:55:08
Speaker 3: You bleed, I'll bleed.

00:55:11
Speaker 5: So yeah, So I realized that I didn't have the kind of you know, the emotionality, intensity and the connection within myself to be an actor, whereas I'll go out and do what I have to do to get the reaction.

00:55:21
Speaker 3: From the audience. So I always classified myself more as an entertainer.

00:55:25
Speaker 2: Which is I think that's totally valid, and I think that there's there's a place for both, right, Right, I always tell my students acting fundamentally is living truthfully in given circumstances. Right, two separate things, right, So, the given circumstances are what you are given in a script. It's the who, what, when, where, why, and how it's done by the by the screenwriter, the playwright, whatever you happen to be doing. Right, But there's a second part to it. It's incredibly important that it's the most fundamental thing for the child professional actors that I work with, and that's to live truthfully. We all have to bring so much more of our selves, our own experiences into the things that we do, into that intentionality, because that that is what makes an incredibly fascinating audition. Right when you see someone and you're like, I have no idea what they've just done, but it's completely changed my view of this script. Right, that's that because it's because they brought themselves. There's something in every actor that they have. There's so much more power in the experiences that they've had that I really try to stress to my students to like find and I break it down for them and we go through like the beats and you know, the fundamentals. But finding more of yourself in these characters is fundamental. That's great.

00:56:38
Speaker 4: I love it.

00:56:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do too.

00:56:40
Speaker 5: You know what I'm gonna ask next, don't you write, Danielle? What's the thing that I have to know about every person.

00:56:44
Speaker 2: That we talked to?

00:56:45
Speaker 4: Where he grew up?

00:56:46
Speaker 3: Where are you now? I have a location thing?

00:56:49
Speaker 2: Are you?

00:56:50
Speaker 3: Do you have a pick?

00:56:51
Speaker 4: Can you send him a pin?

00:56:52
Speaker 3: Are you in New York or la?

00:56:53
Speaker 2: Right, I'm in New York.

00:56:54
Speaker 3: I'man you are okay?

00:56:55
Speaker 2: So it is afternoon.

00:56:57
Speaker 4: If you think that's going to be enough, you're wrong.

00:57:00
Speaker 3: Exactly a New York art.

00:57:01
Speaker 2: I'm happy to talk about this. No, I haven't been getting suspicious packages anymore so, but no, I live in Croton on Hudson's It's about forty five minutes to an hour north of the city, and it's in northern Westchester, so right on the kind of the border beautiful trails here. The whole reason we moved up was because I really liked trail running, and it's equally dangerous and you know exciting.

00:57:28
Speaker 3: So I like it too.

00:57:29
Speaker 5: I'm a big failed trail running as well. That's a tough one to say, yeah, because it is.

00:57:34
Speaker 2: It's the thing I like about it is like no one cares about your time. Like any time you say I've done a fifty k and you know, on a trail, they're like, wow, that's awesome. How long did you know? It's like like fifty k, that's amazing.

00:57:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's cool.

00:57:48
Speaker 9: So looking back now, thirty years since your episodes on Boy Meets World, what advice would you like to give young Jonathan c kaplan if you had it, if you you had the time machine and you could go back, what would you tell yourself?

00:58:03
Speaker 2: Okay, uh, it doesn't get better. As a next fan, no, no it doesn't. I mean I wasn't paying attention then.

00:58:20
Speaker 3: You know, I was like exactly.

00:58:23
Speaker 2: But but as a young Jonathan professional actor, I say, like, doesn't get better. For the Mets, I'd say to really like enjoy the ride. So it's so hard to do as a kid because like you're doing the things that you're kind of signed but also excited about, but it's all you know, you're kind of like a goldfish you know, in these kinds of situations where it's like you're really excited about that, and all of a sudden it's done. You're like, Wow, you're really excited about the next thing. Every every project, it becomes like a new toy.

00:58:50
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:58:51
Speaker 2: And so you know, talking about the episodes of like Wyman's World or Brotherly Love or you know, Platypus Man, like all the Random show existed in the nineties. Yeah, you know, I think about the experiences I had with people more than I do about the roles. Yeah, so I'd say like to hold onto those as much as I could.

00:59:13
Speaker 9: So great, Shonathan, Thank you so much for spending your time with us this morning. It was you were truly one of the most fascinating guests we've we've had. We so enjoyed our time with you. Uh and so thank you so much for coming here and sharing with us.

00:59:27
Speaker 2: Absolutely, guys will great, Thank you too.

00:59:29
Speaker 4: By Wow. Absolutely everything about him is interesting.

00:59:34
Speaker 5: It really Yeah, makes me feel bad about myself some of these guests we've been having on lately, Danielle, can we have a stinker once in a while, please?

00:59:41
Speaker 3: So interesting. You have not believed his resume before boy meets world like and that we have we didn't know anything about it.

00:59:50
Speaker 1: Doing this recap, we were like, oh remember that kid, and we're like, oh, yeah, he was around a bunch, and then he comes back like he was around a lot. And then now to realize, like, oh he was such a pro Like he was, he must have just been like what is happening?

01:00:03
Speaker 9: I can't even imagine what our set must have felt like to him. I can in Shining. He seems to be the type of person who wouldn't want to make it sound negative, So I'm going to do what he would do and just frame it as a positive. Truly, how fun must it have been to be a twelve year old who has normally been in very high pressure, high stress controlled giving it your all eight performances a week around with a bunch of adults who are also taking themselves very seriously and their roles very seriously, to then come on to our set that felt like playtime with a group of young kids who who thoroughly enjoyed each other and found fun everywhere. And for your scripts to be how can we make this more fun? How can we find more funny? And for him to be a character who's getting laughs and how do we how do we like? What a great feeling that must have been and a change of pace, So.

01:01:00
Speaker 4: So cool.

01:01:00
Speaker 9: I'm so glad he he was willing to come and talk with us, just like he was willing to come and be a part of our little show a little.

01:01:07
Speaker 5: Was willing to come and be Yeah, you're coming from to Tony Awards to on a set where we're probably like, hey, catch this twizzler in your mouth.

01:01:13
Speaker 3: Like I mean, watch will catch throw a grape?

01:01:18
Speaker 2: It's like, it's what we're doing.

01:01:20
Speaker 1: It's so interesting that, like, you know, if you're on TV or if you do movies, it's so easy to find out somebody's resume, but when you do theater, it's gone. Like the fact that he's done like fifty productions of all this stuff, we like, we can't find that information nowhere. I guess there's like a there's a Broadway database for like Broadway shows, but like off Broadway shows, like little little underground theater projects. Like he's working all the time and you never hear about it. It's just you know, if you're not there that night.

01:01:49
Speaker 3: So cool.

01:01:51
Speaker 9: Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode of pod Meets World as always. You can follow us on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails pod Meets World Show at email dot com, and we have merch.

01:02:03
Speaker 5: In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups, the police who investigate crimes and the district attorneys to prosecute the offenders.

01:02:12
Speaker 3: These are their merch.

01:02:16
Speaker 4: Pod Meetsworldshow dot com writer send us out.

01:02:20
Speaker 3: We love you all, pod dismissed.

01:02:23
Speaker 1: Podmeets World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder Strong Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tarasubasch producer, Mattie Moore engineer and Boy Meets World Superman Easton Out. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Podmets World Show, or email us at Podmeats World Show at gmail dot com.