#74 Eric Petersen Has Layers

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Looking to sound like you know what's going on in the world, pop culture, social strategy, comedy and other funny stuff. Well join the club and settle in for the Jeff Dwoskin show. It's not the podcast we deserve. But the podcast we all need with your host, Jeff Dwoskin.

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All right, Pete, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody, to Episode 74 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for another effin amazing episode. That's right. I said fn, because my guest today is Eric Petersen star of amcs. Kevin Can f himself Kevin himself. Eric Petersen is here. Can you believe it? That's right. So I'm giving you an F alert. We're going to be saying the real word little later on. So either get the earmuffs on or put the headphones on if you're at work because we're going to be calling the show out by name later. Fair warning spoiler. Eric Petersen is amazing. He hung with me We talked all about his career. He started in Broadway he was dewy on school rock. He was Shrek and Shrek the Musical on Broadway and the touring company. We talked about how he literally transformed into Shrek an amazing story. We talk about his sitcom experience on modern family. He was on the episode of Big Bang Theory when Sheldon and Amy kiss for the first time he had a huge role on that episode. So cool, great story. We talked about his work on the sitcom Kirstie on TV Land and of course we wrap it all up with Kevin Can F*** himself. The big hit show right now on AMC with Annie Murphy. So many great stories coming up in just a few minutes.

I do want to take a second to thank everyone who likes and subscribes and follows the show on their favorite podcast app here's a few suggestions for you Goodpods Apple podcast Google's IHeart Radio wherever you so desire. I'm everywhere. Can you believe it? I'm everywhere. I know it's spooky when you listen to an episode I'd love to hear from you. tweet at me at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter or reply to one of my posts on Instagram at Jeff Dwoskin show love to hear from you. I'll respond for sure also if you want head on over to Jeff is funny calm at home of all episodes and there's a link to crossing the streams which is my live show that I do every Wednesday 9:30pm Eastern Time. Here's an exciting thing we're now streaming processing the streams live on fireside app as well as right we're live on fireside that way if you're listening on fireside, you can actually come on to the stage and talk to us about the show that we're discussing. So that's a new thing that we're testing out so definitely come check that out.

also exciting news I have to say I'm going to be at the Motor City Comic Con October 15 and 16th on the 16th which is a Saturday I'm actually I am running two panels for the Motor City Comic Con one with Patrick Rana from The Sandlot and David Yost from the Power Rangers. So if you're in the Detroit area, definitely check me out at the Motor City Comic Con.

Who could be calling me Hello?

3:00

Oh hello Jeff.

3:01

Oh, hello, it's Shrek.

3:02

I'm calling because word the street is Eric Petersen is on your show.

3:07

Yes, I guess words getting around huh?

3:09

He spent a lot of time impersonating me. I got all the fairytale creatures looking for him.

Oh, we're all gonna come find you. I don't know what it's going to take but you want her to leave. Watch out Eric oil Vale going to help to us. The three of us are going to find him we'll find you Eric and then maybe we'll make your dinner. No, we won't make him dinner. We

are trying to hunt him down. Oh, he offered the money he was for snack. Yeah, we're coming for you.

And even I Lord far quad we're fine my way along with this rival to make sure that we do not allow Eric Petersen to get away with this yet again.

I need you to send him a message. Tell him he can't hide from me.

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I don't think he's hiding from you, Shrek.

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And I will join the fray as well. For what is an adventure without pools and boots. I will coming for you Eric. We will find you we will track you down to the ends of the earth. If I am not as good as my soul then scale.

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I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding.

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I've got credit card bills. I can't pay 300 million gumdrop buttons for gingy is a wreck. gumdrop boy 20 kilos of pixie dust that's a lot of pixie dust and dragon be gone. Do you know how this made donkey feel? very insensitive? I mean that's my baby. That's my dragon dragon because

you're talking about getting rid of half my kids. man that's just me. I don't understand why I do that. Shrek wouldn't do that.

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I'm sure you didn't mean anything donkey. He

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charged up like 100 bazillion dollars in my name and then skipped town.

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100 bazillion,

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Fiona kicked me out. So now I'm living in a swamp.

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You always lived in a swamp. That's not the

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point. The point is, you tell that Eric Petersen that I'm looking for him. Goodbye.

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This Sounds like a huge misunderstanding, but I'll have to bring it up with Eric later after the interview. But in the meantime, it's time for the social media tip. This is one of my favorite parts of the show where I get to share a little bit of my social media knowledge with you a little something I picked up on the street, the 411 so that we can all raise our social game together. This week's tip is on tips on Twitter as a lot of tease but yes, it's true Twitter rolled out tipping to every profile. So if you go to your mobile profile has to be mobile, because apparently people don't tip on desktop. It's just the way it is. I can't explain it. But if you go to your profile on mobile, and click Edit Profile under your birthday, it'll say tips and I'll say off and if you click on it, you can turn it on you can set up Venmo you can have people send you Bitcoin. It's great. So now you can get tipped for tweeting amazing tweets. Step one, tweet amazing tweets. Step two, reap the rewards baby. That's right, set it up can't hurt. No one ever uses it. They don't use it. If they do great, you get a buck, whatever. It's fun, enjoy it. And that's the social media tip.

Oh, I do want to take a quick second to thank everyone who supports the sponsors week after week when you support the sponsors you're supporting live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show and that means the world to us this week's sponsor the glazed hole where the doughnuts are always fresh and delicious. Yum. Skip the supermarket and head over to the glazed hole where you'll get lost in there over 500 varieties of doughnuts, you haven't had a doughnut until you've had a glazed doughnut. I show podcast he'll buy a dozen for only 5.99 or one dozen doughnut holes for 299 just use the offer code Jeffisfunny. A dozen holes for 2.99 they're practically giving them away. glaze the whole sprinkle the holes get them cream filled however you like your holes, you get them fresh and yummy and perfect with a frosty beverage or a cup of their fresh hot coffee. stopped by the glaze. Hold today and treat yourself to a glazed whole donut. All right, sounds delicious. I'm kind of hungry right now.

So I think I'm going to go grab something to eat. And it also seems like the perfect time to now share my interview with Eric Petersen with you enjoy. Alright everyone I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest star of stage and TV Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show.

Eric Petersen How are you sir?

7:29

Hey Jeff, how you doing man? Thanks for having me.

7:31

Oh, it's so great to have you it's exciting time right? Yeah, it is huge show Kevin can do that. Yeah brown the sad is it Kevin can fuck himself or just Kevin can ask himself Are you guys go in and out,

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we try to lean into the Kevin can fuck himself as much as we can. If we're ever on like live television, obviously, we say Kevin Can f himself. But whenever possible, we're sort of encouraged and we have all sort of agreed to lean into the Kevin can fuck himself.

7:58

That's amazing. I love how and I don't maybe it's an AMC thing now that Thanksgiving and started with Breaking Bad. But the beginning of the show is always different now. slightly different.

8:09

Yeah. For those, those people who have watched Kevin can fuck himself are one of my favorite parts is our title sequence is a little different every single time and actually, they're very thoughtfully put together. Each one sort of is giving you clues as to like what the episode is about or an important moment in the episode. And they also sort of mess with how much we hear the laugh track the sort of spooky laugh track in the intro, which is cool and is always sort of informing the audience that the left track is important in for good and bad reasons, I would say,

8:42

right, and I want to talk all about Kevin can fuck himself, because it's so amazing. But I want to I want to kind of go take a step back and work our way towards that. As I was digging into your career, you've got an amazing background. I will say I wasn't aware and then of your immense Broadway background, which is incredible. And so I was I was learning about that. And then something kind of hit me. Like Okay, you were in School of Rock. You play Dewey Dewey in school rock. And then I thought to myself, wait a minute, my kids were in New York, they saw School of Rock, so I run and I grab the playbill. Yes, I have not. But here's the here's the good news and the bad news. The good news is I have a playbill that says Eric, and I read to you. Yeah, it's a it's a great you see a matinee. But it was a two week period where Ellen Brightman returned. Oh, yes. And that's that's when my kids saw it. So well. I have the prince proof that you were there

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that I was in the show. Yeah, you know, it was great. Alex came back in because Alex had originated the part and then I took over for him and I did the show for a year. The reason I was out in that time, was I had a vocal hemorrhage. I like blew out my voice from doing the show. The show is extremely vocally challenging because not only We are all the songs you know rock song so you're already stretching yourself in a you know a rock tender place that's already going to be working the vocal cords quite a bit. But also every scene in that show you're like God kids we got we got we're gonna get we got to be there for the battle of the bands and so you're just like shredding your voice all day long. So it was, it was a very scary moment for me actually when it happened, because I had felt in completely perfect vocal health. Like I was not feeling tired, didn't feel sick, everything was feeling good. It was just a regular show. It was in the first iMac and remember, like it was yesterday was the first act, there's a scene where, but halfway through the first act, do we comes into the teachers lounge and he sees one of the other teachers and he says, Well, that's my brother from another mother and he gets a little like Han, you know, high five. And when I went to sing that, and it was like a little acapella moment, when I went to say what's up when I went for that, ah, literally nothing came out of my voice. I didn't feel a pop, I didn't it didn't hurt. It just was I went to sing it. And it was like dust, there was just no foundation of the vocal cords. And I was like, okay, that's weird, but again, didn't hurt or anything like that. It just was like, oddly, no sound was made. So I was like, well, it's a mother. And I just kind of moved on. And I was like, odd. And then I got to I think shortly after that is a song called sticking to the man, which is a very intense rock song to sing. As I was singing that I noticed like a two or three note range near the top of my vocal range that like just, I could feel the like foundation ability quickly dwindling, like I was able to hit those notes, but it was getting harder. They were not coming out as strong. So I was kind of freaking out. I called my voice coach at intermission. And I was like, told her exactly what was happening and what I felt. And she said, Stop talking right now call out for the rest of the show, and go to the doctor first thing in the morning, and I was like, Okay, and so I did and they were like yeah, you had a vocal hemorrhage, which is essentially a broken blood vessel on your vocal cords. Luckily, mine was not terrible. And it was only on one vocal cord. Sometimes people have full blown both cords just explode. I mean not they don't actually explode. But you know, the blood vessels will break on both. So it was just one but the recommendation from the doctors was you need to go on. I think it was like three or four weeks total vocal rest. So no talking no whispering, literally no foundation at all. So I did that. And in school rock was great to sort of give me the time off to do that. Because here's the other thing is that up to that point, other than maybe one of the Dewey's everyone that had played do we had had a vocal hemorrhage, because it would this part was just so demanding. And a lot of them Alex, I believe he had one as well. He had kind of rushed back and found that it was hard and so they were trying to like give me the time to actually heal so that it wouldn't happen again. And thank God it didn't but it was it was a scary moment. But that was probably the couple of weeks that I was out of the show when when your family came to see it. Man, that

13:05

must have been scary, right? Scary

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cuz I think what's what was most scary again, it didn't hurt. I was just nervous, you know, when I wasn't nervous that I would never sing again. But I was nervous. What if my voice changes? Like what if when it heals, somehow the tonality? Or the quality of my voice is different? And will that be as good? And will I like it? And will I have to adjust to that. And it also does give you sort of a moment. I feel like in life and especially as performers were like go go, go, go go. It was a moment that like forced me to step back, have some stillness, have some quiet and really reflect on like, this is what I do. And in a way I think I had never taken myself incredibly seriously as like an artist or anything like that. But this was a moment that I kind of was like yeah, I am like I am an artist and I have tools that I have to keep sharp. And if those tools don't work, ie my voice, I have no way to do what I do and that's this is the only thing I do. It did arise some existential questions in my mind for those a couple of weeks but it was scary but I think God healed and everything went went back to normal.

14:14

Oh, thank goodness for that. Because you do have an amazing voice that was I don't wanna say that surprised me but like the Kevin character doesn't scream. This guy's got a killer voice Sure.

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This is not Broadway guy. Yeah,

14:25

I saw the youth sing stick it to the man. I think it was the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I yeah, so that must have been a variety to do that. It was every everyone wants to be in a parade right?

14:36

Yeah. It was great. You know, when we did that it was for the the CBS is so when you watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Broadway performances are usually at the beginning of the Macy's Day Parade, but they on CBS does a sort of alternate coverage. And so you can see a few shows if you switch back and forth between the channels and ours was for the CBS coverage. And it was crazy though I mean that song is really hard to sing. I remember we filmed they they make it seem as if you're filming it, that it's happening right on Thanksgiving, but it's not we actually filmed a couple days beforehand. And don't tell anybody. We were recording it and I was you know, they have cameras and so they can do all the dolly shots and everything. And I told him I was like, first of all, we were recording it at maybe 6am. like super, super early. And then on top of that, they were like, Alright, we're gonna do you know, a bunch of takes and I was like, just you know, I can sing this song probably about five times. If we get to like a sixth seventh eighth time of me singing the song. It's not gonna sound as good like it. This is a really hard song to sing once a day, let alone multiple, multiple times a day. So I thought it did turn out pretty well. But there definitely were some a few notes in there that I was like, oh, man, they definitely used one of the later takes of that particular little sequence when we had done the song, you know, like the eighth or ninth time and I was like, Please don't make me sing this song anymore. It's so high.

15:54

That's really funny. Oh, in speaking of which of the pre taping thing that you mentioned, we used to take our kids to Disney World, early December the first week of December and they do the parade. Right? It was pre its pre Christmas. So it's not crazy in that first week. It's like a dead week. It's great way to go. But this Saturday that we would always arrived. They were finishing filming for the Christmas show that's live on Christmas. I love that. That's great. That's pretty funny. Let's go back even further. How does Eric from parallel stream Illinois? Yeah, grow up to be grew up. I have one of the best Boston accents around. Thank you. I got to say my buddy. I told him I said I'm talking to Eric. I'm talking to Kevin himself. And he says, tell him tell Eric that I'm from Boston. And that is one of the best accents I've ever heard. It's spot on.

16:46

That's amazing. That's like the best compliment you could give me because a I love accents in general. I do a lot of them. I never done a Boston one before this show. So it was I was nervous to do it. Because a it is a an accent that can be done poorly. And people talk about bad Boston accents more than other bad accents. I feel I sort of said to my wife, I was like, I just don't want to end up on a YouTube supercut of bad Boston accents, which I saw plenty of when I was searching, you know, YouTube videos for how to do the Boston accent. So if your friend is is a legit Bostonian and said that it was good, that makes me feel very good. I always imagined that the accent the way that I was both the accent and the character of Kevin and we will I will answer your question I apologize is I always imagine him as a combination of Ralph kramden and Peter Griffin from family guy. And so I feel like the accent is definitely born out of those two things. You know, the thing about Ralph kramden is he sort of had a musicality, you know, one of these days Alice Springs and Boomer, right. He had a lot of up and down with his voice, which I tried to keep in the role of Kevin, and then obviously this sort of just thick Seth MacFarlane Boston accent from Peter Griffin This is what I was going for for for that part of it. But yes, but to your question How to some a kid from Carol stream Illinois. Get there? Basically. Yeah, I'm from Carol stream, which is a suburb of Chicago. It's about 30 minutes directly west of the city. I grew up doing. I started doing theater in high school, kind of fell into it because I was always class clown. I was a goofball. I was always making people laugh, but I didn't necessarily think of being an actor as my profession, or that's what I was going to do. But I fell into doing theater and loved it and was like, Oh, these are, these are my people. This is my this is my tribe, and eventually went to school at a school called Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, little liberal arts school, had a great time there, study theater there. And I graduated with the plan of moving out to Los Angeles to try to do TV and film. But I was going to do a summer in Michigan, your Michigan? Yes, indeed. And I went to go work at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan, Southwest Michigan and gustas between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. It's the oldest continually running residents summer stock theater in the country. Went to do that summer there thinking that I would just do that summer and move to LA. I met a girl there that summer, right after school and we started dating and I thought she was pretty great. And at the end of the summer, I asked her what she was doing after the summer was over and she said she was moving to New York. And I was like, That's crazy. I'm moving to New York as well and I totally changed my plan and followed her to New York and it was a good call because she's now my wife and we have two beautiful kids so it was it was the right call to make

19:34

It's amazing. I feel like I need to ask you to say yes sorry guys. I got to see about a girl in a Boston accent.

19:40

Yeah, sorry guys. I gotta go see about a girl. That's exactly that's literally exactly what happened. We moved to New York and we lived there in New York for you know about eight years and both were acting at the time and doing you know, regional theater and off off off Broadway and children's musical theater and stuff like that. And then eventually My sort of Broadway career started to happen. My first Broadway show was Shrek the Musical. And I was in the Broadway company and then ended up playing the role of Shrek on the tour. And that ended up the tour ended in Los Angeles. And so we ended up moving to LA and then started doing more TV stuff from there.

20:17

Talk to me about starring as Shrek and kind of stepping into like a such a well known character like when they they make these movies into plays. And you know, so I did see clips so you picked you did use the Scottish accent Mm hmm. You are the accent King?

20:33

Yeah, you know, it's funny I've done I've done quite a few and you know, as I think about it, played Shrek, which was obviously a famous movie, I did School of Rock, which was a famous movie, I've played buddy, the elf and elf the musical, which was famous for Will Ferrell. So I have quite a few times, sort of stepped into roles that are iconic, or you know, legendary from the audience's point of view of what their past history with a part is, or property, you know, show and what I've always found the thing to do and how I approached Shrek and school rock and elf is you have to give an audience like kind of bench posts of things that they know from the movie or whatever that they're familiar with, that they can sort of latch on to. And you know, whether that be the Scottish accent or the you know, being super grumpy, or saying some of the lines that might be from the movie that are classic lines, you just say him exactly how they were set in the movie, because some actors say like, No, I want to make it my own and put my own spin on it, which there is plenty of time in a production to do that. But what an audience wants is to have an experience that makes them feel joyful and happy. And so when they go to see something like Shrek, they want to you know, they want to hear gingy say like not my gumdrop buttons like they want to hear it just how it was said in the movie. They don't want to hear differently because that's not what they came to see. And so I you know, I've always been a proponent of like, the audience is the king and we are trying to make them happy or make them feel or challenge them. But like, we do this for them, not for us. If we do a good job as performers, it fills us up but we should be doing the job for them is my opinion some people feel the exact opposite. But that's for me, I'm all about give it to the audience, give them what they want. So in regards to playing the sort of iconic characters that have been done before, that's what I try to do I try to give them benchmarks of like hey, this is something you recognize this is something you recognize but then in between, I can put my own spin on it.

22:32

That's really cool. And I got to say I googled a I don't remember what it was caused. It was a behind the scenes track and it was you getting put into the makeup which for those listening who have never seen Shrek the Musical or want to Google this right after I'll put a link to it. You literally became Shrek. I mean it's crazy. Yeah, like they put a little green blush on your cheeks and go at it. I mean you were friggin an ogre.

23:00

So the costume and makeup for Shrek the the makeup took two hours to put on every show. And that show I did you know eight shows a week when we had to show days on the matinee days. I would only put it on in the morning and then after the show was over, I would stay at the theater in the Shrek head, I would take off the fat suit and then I would eat dinner in basically a robe and a Shrek head and then we will put the costume back on for the second show. But I was doing that essentially five times a week, two hours and makeup it was an hour to get out of the makeup. I wore a fat suit that weighed about 45 pounds. I had boots that had three inches of lift on them. I had big rubber gloves. So once I was encased in everything, the only part of my skin anywhere on my body that was touching the air was my eyelids and my upper lip. every other part of my body and face were completely covered by either costume or latex. And so it was extremely hot. I lost about 40 pounds in the first like two months of doing the show. And I was eating like large deep dish pizzas every night by myself after the show I was pounding so many calories and the weight was just like falling off me because the costume was just so incredibly hot, but it was awesome. And once I was in it, you know it was it was hard not to really feel like Shrek and sort of just found all around the backstage and like I go and pick kids up and stuff. It was great. I loved loved loved playing track. It was a highlight of my career for sure.

24:26

And one of the funniest little tidbits from that video I watched it you was you were telling a story about bumping into a friend that you've worked with for forever on the show. Oh, he had no idea who you were because he'd never seen you out of makeup.

24:39

Yeah, it was this guy named Jason who he had joined the show just after we opened and so he was not in the rehearsal room with us. So he had joined at once you know the show was up and running. And because I was getting to the theater two hours before the show and then leaving an hour after most actors get theater half before the show, and we've pretty much right after, so he never saw me not in Shrek in the Shrek makeup. And so then I ended up bumping into him at a party or something. And it was we'd been working together for about two months. And I, you know, I was like, hey, Jason, what's up? I mean, we had all kinds of inside jokes and shooting the shit and very, you know, friendly guys. And he was like, I'm sorry, who are you? And I was like, it's Eric. And he's like, Oh my god, he has his eye and I never seen you not in Shrek. I just only assumed that that's what you looked like. So that was a funny moment.

25:32

To her big green ogre,

25:33

a big green ogre.

25:34

It's so funny. Yeah, I wish Are you gonna head back to Broadway ever? We love going to New York and Broadway shows and we're one of those people that hangs out after in stock. So people like I've met Ben Vereen. Jeff Skoll Blum? Who is Lieutenant Dan Daxter. Gary Sinise. Gary Sinise. I'm just I'm trying to rattle off without pre thinking. Yeah, like, oh, Matthew Broderick. Yes. Like, yeah, so like, we're big. We're big fans. And hey, I love that fans.

26:01

I love that I'm sure that I will go back to Broadway at some point. I don't have any plans right now. And part of that a the the Kevin show is happening. So that's, you know, sort of filling my schedule. But also, I have so many friends who live in New York and are Broadway working actors who have not worked over the last two years with the pandemic and have really honestly struggled. I've had a lot of sort of survivor's guilt about the fact that over the pandemic, I was able to shoot a TV show and you know, my family is healthy. And so I've it's been, you know, in regards to that kind of stuff, it's not been too terrible for us. So I didn't, I didn't want to like tell my agents like, Hey, give me a six month gig in some Broadway show. Because I was like, you know, let's, let's let my friends who are in New York, let's let everybody get back to work for a little bit. But eventually, I'm sure that I will go back to New York to do something because I mean that I came up in the theater, it's, it's my first love, it's definitely something that I love to do and that I'm known for and associated with. And so when the the next write Broadway opportunity comes along, I will definitely jump at it for sure.

27:01

I can imagine there's a certain thrill to doing it. I know, like with the sitcom type of stuff, there's an there's an audience, but you're also doing it over and over again. And so the reactions can be different because I've seen things. Yeah, I imagine doing the play, though, in the rush of just those reactions, and knowing when someone's gonna react us, it must be amazing. There's no

27:22

substitute for a live theatrical experience. There is something about also the fact that just the storytelling happens in a linear fashion, you know, you're starting at the beginning and ending at the ending. Whereas you know, in TV and film, it can be so mismatched and jumbled around and stuff. So there's something about like being an actor and stepping out and starting to tell a story. And then it finishes and you can feel the audience's reaction whether they enjoyed it or not. And it feels like we did something where sometimes TV can just feel so like, Hey, we're doing the scene. I think it's funny. We'll see how it works in the final edit when they put it all together. So yeah, I love especially doing comedies and musicals that just you can feel an electricity and an energy in a room in a big Broadway musical that just is unlike anything else. It feels electric and it feels like it's happening in this moment for these 1000 people that are in this theater and it can feel so magical and yeah, I love Broadway. Love it. Love it. Love it.

28:19

As we now move to LA and the story. I do want to just kind of mention just so everyone can look it up and Google it. You sing on on the Today Show. Uh, Kathie Lee Gifford songs when I was I was surprised what a good writer she was. I see. Yeah, and it really shows off your voice. I mean, you had a really nice voice you were singing for a 13 year old boy with Tourette syndrome. Yeah, it was great. It was just I thought it was like it's a it's hard to watch that and then kind of reconcile it with your Kevin character. Sure.

28:44

Yeah. Well, I would I would say that, you know, it's funny, I most of the parts that I have played in my career have been good guys. Good, you know, good, lovable guys, which is why playing Kevin is really fun for me to sort of like play against that. And also, I think, you know, without tooting my own horn too much I think that I have a face that is sort of like affable and like, oh, that guy seems like you'd be a nice guy, you know, and so that's why I think the stuff that I have to do and say as Kevin McRoberts on Kevin can find himself is that much more upsetting to people because I don't think that I look like a just a real fucking asshole who's just like a real jerk. I think I look like guys. He's a nice guy. But then saying those terrible things to Eddie Murphy is, you know, is what makes the character of Kevin so interesting. But yeah, the thing that I did for Kathie Lee Gifford was, it was great, you know, she, there was like a whole series that she did of writing songs for kids who were either sick or written in letters about issues they were going through, and then she would write a song, they bring in like a Broadway personality to sing. And it was super great. And that kid was super nice, and the song was good. It was funny because that song, you know, singing just as myself sometimes can almost be hard because as somebody who does a lot of musical theater, I'm all Always filtering pretty much everything through a character's lens and to sing a song just like hey, just sing it as your natural voice at times can be intimidating for an actor if you don't have a lot of experience with it because it's like well no but what is the character think? And it's like no, you You are the character you just sing it in your natural voice, no accents, no funny tricks or gimmicks or anything so but no, I had a great time. And that was a good song.

30:22

That's what I wanted to mention it it was it was just there was something about it something special about that performance. I wanted to make sure people looked for it. Thank you. And you're right. Did you have kind of a I can get away with anything kind of face. Which is a great thing to have. Yeah. You mentioned it's fun playing an asshole version of yourself. And recently I had on the show, john Glaser who was Yeah, in the new Patty episode. Yes, yeah, Kevin can fuck himself. And we talked I was talking to him about something similar because like on john Glaser loves gear, he plays an asshole version of himself. And it was an interesting thing is like, yeah, you know, I am really good at it. It's great.

30:59

Right? Cuz he's a super sweet guy as well. So it was Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah,

31:03

there's we're talking about like, you're so low key, john. It was fun. He's from Michigan to I don't really know him, but I met him. Sure. Yeah, I can't deal with their mutual friends. It's always a hoot. When you like know someone and they show up on you know, especially like, show up on your show, and have such a big part of it was really, really cool. Yeah, that must have been fine.

31:23

Yeah, he was great. He, that episode was super fun. It was fun, too. Cuz I don't think if I remember correctly, that he had much experience doing multi cam, which is a totally different shooting style and the way to do it than any other type of TV. And a lot of you know, there's lots of super hilarious people. But if you've never done multi cam as an art form, it is different, especially if you don't have or if you aren't thinking of it this way, it is much similar, much more similar to doing a play because you'd have to wait for a laugh. And then sometimes it doesn't come and how do you cover that moment? And you know, do you want to just reshoot it. And so if there's a rhythm to multi cam, that just sounds different. And so I remember him having a moment when we were shooting that they kept saying they're like, Hey, you gotta wait for this laugh. You're getting a laugh on this one line, just make sure you wait for it. And he was like, oh, okay, great. And so then the next time that we did the take, nobody laughed. And he was like, Okay, great. And it was it just was one of those takes that, you know, something happened that the audience couldn't hear whatever. But we all laughed, because they just told him like, john, you gotta wait for the laugh year. And then, of course, as soon as they say that it sort of jinx it to not happen. That's so

32:33

funny. That concept of multi cam versus is like just a lay person who watches. Sure. It's

32:40

like, what's the difference? Yeah, it

32:41

was like a newer concept that I've been learning. I remember, there was an episode of scrubs, which was a sitcom. Yep. But they did an episode where they went full sitcom. Sure, you know? Yeah. And, and the whole tone of the show, like how you perceive the show. And the way it works is completely Yeah, yeah. It's just it's interesting to me, so so you and Kevin can have himself you're going back and forth on right on multi cam, which is a sitcom with you? Yep. Eddie Murphy in the drama side, which is Yeah. Yeah, so that's more like a movie.

33:13

Yeah. And I mean, the best way to describe it to people is, I mean, the pure logistics of it are in multi cam, there are multiple cameras, right? You're doing it much more in a performative way. There's the fourth wall, as we call it, which would be the wall that the audience is like looking through, is gone. So there's like a missing wall. It's as if that's the proscenium of a stage. You usually have three cameras one on the right one on the left, one in the middle, and then one that kind of is roaming. And then you have a boom sort of coming in from the top and everything is done in longer takes, you usually do the whole scene, and it has usually a laugh track, it's more brightly lit. The shows that are multi camera going to basically be any sitcom pre 1990, or 95. You know, like so you're talking Seinfeld cheers on the family, I Love Lucy, anything like that. Those are multi cam sitcoms. And then single cam, a single cam sitcom would be like the office or 30, rock or Parks and Rec, which are going to feel more cinematic they're shot with a single camera. Sometimes there's a second camera but essentially one cameras point of view, you're having to shoot twice as long because you have to get everybody's coverage. So you're shooting over the shoulder of one actor. And then you have to go to the behind the shoulder of the other actor so you can get that point of view. So it takes a lot longer. There's more close ups, there's usually no laugh track. It's usually lit in a different way depending on the mood of the scene, and it has a much more cinematic more film like feel and so our show and Kevin can fuck himself. We go back and forth. And the idea is anytime that Annie our lead, Allison is the character played by the brilliant Eddie Murphy anytime she is with me her husband, Kevin, I live in this sitcom world and so then we're we shoot everything multicam and then as soon as I leave the room or she leaves room without me it snaps into single camera and the more drastic, drab kind of reality grim reality of her life. All

35:08

right, cool. Excellent. Let's talk about your multi cam experience leading up to Kevin can fucking Sure. So we watched Modern Family. You're you had an episode of my family. I

35:19

think that was my first gig in LA after I moved to LA. Oh, really? That's my first gig. It was it was very good. I felt very lucky. Jeff Greenberg who cast that show is a big theater fan. And so he had seen me in Shrek because as I said, the tour of Shrek ended in Los Angeles at the pantages theatre for like six weeks. And it was a great sort of like jumping off point for me because a lot of casting directors in town were able to see me on stage doing a big musical, but at least get a sense of who I was. And then once I moved here and started auditioning, they had some sort of frame of reference. But yeah, I had a great time on modern family. It was like one day work, but it was great because Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who was on the show, obviously, I knew him sort of peripherally because he had done this show called the 25th annual Putnam County spelling bee, which was a Broadway musical and I did the first national tour of that show. And so the Broadway company had sort of seen us do a rehearsal and I'd met him a few times through that kind of stuff. So when I came onto set, even though I just had one little scene and it was with him, he was really kind and you know, introduced me to everybody is his friend from New York. And it was a great experience on that show, because it's a classic for sure.

36:27

Yeah. Tree salesman, you see. Christmas tree. He was he was an interesting scene. That's like overanalyze, but it was like, the audience's in on you. Yeah, so when Ariel Alex Dunphy thinks you're making this gay reference to Jesse about point because you point to this tree? Yeah. The audience knows. No, you overheard them and you were actually getting them exactly what you want to help them out. Yeah. It was almost like it was like you start to cringe a little bit because Oh, god, it's it was a good lesson and don't take everything quite so seriously. Yeah, totally. And then you had an excellent guest starring role in Big Bang Theory.

37:03

Yeah, I was big one. I did Big Bang Theory. And I was on a very pivotal episode of Big Bang Theory, because it was for those fans of the show that are listening. It was the episode when Sheldon and Amy finally kissed it was the Valentine's Day episode on the train. And it's funny because they as characters had been like dating for I think three seasons, but it never actually kissed because Sheldon is just has a lot of anxiety about a lot of things. And they had like held hands. And that was a big deal, but they never actually kissed. So fans were really wanting that was like, you know, when Ross and Rachel finally kissed on friends, sure. And so I remember when we filmed the scene, and they finally kissed they'd like a real passionate kiss at the end of the scene, the audience, the live studio audience went so crazy, because here's the thing. Also, that was the like, fourth or fifth season of that show. So at that point in the show, the people that are at the live tapings, are usually mostly super fans. You know, when you have like a new sitcom, you just get whoever is walking down the street in Los Angeles, he give out free tickets. So people say hey, you want to come see a live taping of a TV show in Hollywood and people come to him right. But once a show has been on the air for a while and is super successful, most of those tickets go to people that are huge fans. So they've they're following the characters, they know what they're looking at and everything. And so when they finally kissed the audience was so nuts that they couldn't use the take, like it was so insane the way they were like ripping the seats out, they were like, oh, they're finally guessing they were going nuts at a time. So they were like, we're gonna do it again, everybody, and we want you to be excited, but just chill out a little bit like you can't scream for so long, because we won't be able to use it. But I had a great time on that show. Working with Jim Parsons was great because he's just a master tactician in regards to comedy, which is how I think of comedy as well. Just very mathematical. I like to break stuff down in comedy bits and figure out why they work and why or why they don't. And so it was great working with him. The whole the writing, the directing the props, people, the PA is everybody had this real sense on that show of like this kind of forward energy that was like we're making a great show. We are the number one show on TV tonight, right now. And everything that we do needs to be the best. Every joke has to be the best. Every prop has to be the best. Every light has to be the best. And so there was a real sense of everybody like with that focus, laser focus. And so being a part of that even just for the week of filming that was so cool and really kind of inspiring. I think

39:33

it was a funny character. You You got to really bond really well with Jim Parsons, Sheldon character. Making train noises Yeah, that was a master of accents. And that's me. Yeah. I get it right on your resume. accents, trains, trains. So cool. So is it fair to say that your first big sitcom break then was with Kirsty?

39:55

Yeah, definitely. That was so I did this show called Kirsty that was on TV Land. With Kirstie Alley, Michael Richards, Rhea Perlman and myself were the cast the premise of the show was Kirstie Alley was like a big Broadway diva who had given up her kid for adoption so she could have a career I was her sort of schlubby son who comes back into her life as you know a grown man but looking to reconnect with his mom. And you know, I'm very just ho hum you know, middle America like Hey, are you my mom, and she lives this big fancy, you know, Broadway penthouse kind of life lifestyle. And it was super fun and you know, getting to work with Kirsty and Michael and Rhea was such an education in multi cam, and, you know, they're obviously from chairs and Seinfeld, their experience is the top of the top, you know, I mean, they are truly legends of the art form. So it was awesome. And each week we had amazing guest stars. We only did 12 episodes, and I think in those 12 episodes, we had our guests our list was like Jason Alexander, john travolta, Kristin Chenoweth George Wendt, Chris, Kathy Griffin. Cloris Leachman. It was like every week we had just like legends coming in. It was it was really cool. And so I loved doing that show. I loved working with those people, they really included me a lot, which was cool, because it was my first big gig. And there was definitely when we would do press for the show. A lot of times people would be like, Oh, we got to talk to Christie and Michael and Rhea, and they should because they're legends. But I was I was a series regular on the show as well. And they always took every opportunity to make sure and Eric bring Eric into you're going to be a part of this too, which I thought was really classy and cool them to do for me. So yeah, I had a great time doing that show.

41:35

That's awesome. Yeah, I rewatched the first two episodes. Yeah. And it's Yeah, I mean, you you're just as much in that as any of them. Yeah, it's it's, it's your show. Yeah. It was a funny sitcom. I mean, Kirstie Alley is a great sitcom actress. Yeah. It was fine. Rhea Perlman. She was a little tone down from Yeah, her cheers character. Yeah. Why do you think it only lasted? Because you did. You had an amazing I mean, they were talking about Luke who's talking reunion Seinfeld where you're here is reunions? Right? So it was like it was like a non stop. Oh, I didn't want to ask Kristen janowitz. That must have been a big deal for you. Right, Brian? It

42:07

was great. Yeah, it was funny because I had never worked with Kristen before. But we had so many mutual friends because of just being theater people. And we had actually the same agent. She had this her whole first like 20 years of her career was the same agent that I had. So we had lots to bond over. And we we really had a great time. I remember you know, she was she was definitely Kristen Chenoweth at that point when she was guests are on our show. But I felt like she even had a little sense of like, we're the theatre kids, let's just hang out together, while the big Hollywood actors, you know, do whatever they got to do. But it was great working with her. I think the reason that the show didn't go frankly, was TV Land kind of was changing. They were tacking. They were like, changing course. Because up to that point, TV Land had this sort of brand of hot and Cleveland and the x's and Cedric the Entertainer had a show. And so they kind of were doing these, like multicam sitcoms with multicam sitcom actors that you knew and loved, and just putting them in new shows together. And that was their brand. And that's what they were doing. And we sort of joined in on that. And then the year after that, they decided to go more single camera, they started doing a show called younger, they had a show about teachers and so they just changed their brand. They're sort of like look of their what their channel was going to be. So we were sort of a sad, unfortunate unfortunate casualty of that. Because I think our you know, our numbers were actually pretty good people that were watching it really enjoyed it and loved it. It was just that as a network, they were sort of changing what their vibe was going to be.

43:34

Okay, I can I can. That's unfortunate, but at least you got Yeah, an entire season with these. Yeah,

43:40

it was for me, it was great. Because not only did I get great experience and doing the art form that I love the best of multicam sitcoms, but also I mean, like even just like the publicity of it, you know, I was like on billboards and buses, and there was a side of a building on Sunset Boulevard that was like 11 storeys high that was like my face and like, so it was like a real moment as an actor that you sort of dream of when you're little of like, Look, my made it, you know, and so it felt very, like i'd reached the mountaintop of what I was trying to do. Obviously, there's still many things that I want to accomplish, but it was definitely a major career sort of benchmark of like, I've reached a certain level that felt very cool.

44:19

Very cool. And that's that was how we met. I posted a picture and you tagged it. Yes, yes. And then we connected. Yeah, thank you. I don't want to not mention Madagascar. You're you're in the animated series, which is pretty cool. You had an Emmy nomination for that. Yeah.

44:37

It was so cool. It was so unexpected. Honestly, the way that I found out so I was doing the show I've been doing the show called Madagascar a little wild, which I've loved doing. It's a sequel to the Madagascar films. So there was the obviously very successful DreamWorks films with like Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer. The movies obviously were super successful and fun and great, and so This show Madagascar a little wild is a prequel. So it's all those four animals, but when they're kids, and so they're voiced by kid actors, and it's when they're living in the Central Park Zoo, and I play ant need a pigeon from Long Island who flies in each day and basically says, like, Hey, kids, there's a fire truck over on Fifth Avenue, and we got to go check it out. And then we go over and look at the fire truck. And then one of the kids get sad about something and I say to my kid, you can sit, gotta be yourself, your friends love you for who you are, you're gonna be fine. And then everybody sings a song, and we're happy. So it's a great family show. Great for kids. And I love the character, Vandy. It's been super fun to do. And we've been making we've been recording the show for the last three years, two or three years. And it's my, I think this is kind of shocking. It's my first voiceover job. I've been auditioning for voiceovers for years, but it's a hard a hard industry to crack into. But I finally got this show been having the best time with it. And my friend called Senator Ted he tagged me in a Facebook post saying you just got nominated for an Emmy and this was you know, a couple months back and I was like, Oh, he must have got hacked. I was like, why why would he post that on my no I know concept that like Emmy nominations were coming out or anything like that. So I texted him, I said, Hey, dude, you just like posted something on my Facebook. What? What was that? He's like, dude, you got nominated for an Emmy? And I was like, for what? What are you talking about? He's like for Madagascar? I was like, Oh, the show got nominated for an Emmy. He's like no, you got nominated for an Emmy for performing in Madagascar and I was like, Are you fucking kidding me? And then I went checked and sure enough there I was on the list next to like Mark Hamill and Patrick Warburton and that was like this is amazing. It was such a truly exciting recognition or something that I love and I love animation I've always loved it I've loved working on this show and so to be recognized for it in that way was so unexpected and really just made me feel so so happy and proud.

46:54

That is so cool. That is really good. It's a fun way to have found out too

46:57

yeah yeah, it's like cuz I feel like you hear whenever you hear like you know for the Oscar nominations or whatever, somebody will be like, Oh, I was asleep and my my friend called me and I forgot that the nominations were coming out which I never believe I'm always like no bullshit you knew you were in this big movie you knew you were gonna get nominated for an Oscar and you were waiting to see if it would happen that's what I always assumed and I think that some of it is bullshit but I swear to you for my situation I truly was completely caught unaware so it was it was very exciting.

47:27

That is awesome. So Alright, so on the flip side of that coin is loving children show having confined himself I have to say one of the great things about this show is Eddie Murphy What I mean by that is I mean you're great I bought I mean by that is a lot of times when somebody comes off a hot show you can't get the other character out of your head and it kind of makes it hard to watch the new show it tempers it Yeah. Hani Murphy's portrayal in this show. I don't think of her as the shits Creek character for a second it never takes me out of it and no point Oh am I like is she kept out to go who Kevin Rudd never never it's like it's a huge you know it's it's incredible it is because like and not to knock michael richards but like in Kirstie there's a little Kramer in that character right? Absolutely. Absolutely. You kind of think that kind of stuff and so but on this I remember the whole time thing and like sometimes I would turn my wife and like I still can't get over the fact that this is the same person

48:26

Yeah, and you know it's also crazy about any story is she is a brilliant actress she really is thinks it's pretty well documented now but some people may not know before she got shits Creek she had really contemplated never acting again because she was sort of at a low in her career. She hadn't had many jobs. She has this sort of famous story of like walking out into the Pacific Ocean with like $10 in her bank account and being like, I'm done acting I'm not I'm releasing that dream into the ocean. I'm done with this. And then the next day she got her audition for shits Creek and her life change. She is so brilliant as an actress and her approach to this character of Alison McRoberts has been truly something so cool to witness especially watching her navigate the two worlds of doing the multicam sitcom and she's playing that part of the sitcom wife in the multicam stuff exactly how it should be. But then to completely release it and see the truth of it in all the single camera stuff. It's a masterclass in enacting and so we were all like so happy that she is the lead of our show because not only does she didn't do a great job and make you know audience members excited by it and want to see more but as a person she's super sweet she's just so professional and so nice and so kind and she's super Canadian in that way. You know, she just is very like present with you. She says please and thank you and look see in the eye and you know, she's just she's great. I can't say enough good things about her.

49:56

It must be a fun show. What was the pitch? How did How did you get convinced What drew you to a when Valerie Armstrong kind of came to us that we want to do this? It's it's a kind of looking at the sitcom through new eyes. Yeah. And kind of mixing these two genres together, which you did brilliantly. By the way, my friend and I, we, we have a show, we talk about TV shows. Every week. We're like, more brilliant every week.

50:19

Thank you so much. That's so great. Yeah, you know, I, when it got sent to me, for my agents and managers, I, I saw the title first. And I was like, wow, okay, what is this show? And it was to play Kevin. So I was like, I'm so curious. And I read it. And I was like, Okay, I think I get what this is, this makes total sense. And the sitcom stuff was written well, like a good good sitcom that would be on the air. And I was like, Okay, I think this is cool. And so I went in for my first audition and met with Valerie and Valerie Armstrong, our Creator, brilliant creator, and, and Craig, our showrunner. And at the time, Lynn who Lynn Shelton, who sadly passed away was our was going to direct the show, I'm sorry. And so she was in our, all the casting sessions, and had been scouting for the pilot and everything when she passed away, which was very sad. But in that meeting, you know, we were talking about what the show was, and what the tone of the show was. And, you know, I mentioned to them not only that I loved multicam sitcom, and I had a lot of experience with multicam sitcom. But you know, and I also mentioned that I had literally just finished teaching a class, I teach it at a few colleges around la occasionally. And I just finished doing a semester on multicam acting, and I was telling them that I taught this class and they're like, this is brilliant. You like get it like, you know, what, what we're talking about what we're trying to emulate and show and I was like, Yes, I know that world super well, I'm super, super comfortable there. And I just wanted to make sure that they were making a show that wasn't necessarily like a full takedown of multi cam and saying, like, we should never make multicam sitcoms again, but was and as soon as I said that Valerie jumped in. She was like, No, I love multi cam. I'm a huge fan of it, I don't want to destroy it, I just want to like shake it on its head and shake out the bad stuff. And I was like to be a part of that I'm all in. Because I do do a lot of multicam which at times to be totally honest, in Hollywood can be viewed a little bit like, oh, you're doing the schlocky broad stuff. And like it's not serious acting, you know. And so, but I take a little offense to that, because I think that is an art form in and of itself. And so I have a lot of pride in it. And I liked that they were like, we're gonna make a show that is going to be a sitcom, but also have something to say. So to get to do like the thing that I love that's in my wheelhouse, but also be a part of a cool show that had a real point of view. And that would start conversations and really make people think about society and life and TV in general. I was like, I felt so excited to be a part of it. And when you know, when I ended up getting cast, I was really overjoyed and really, really, really excited about

52:51

it. Yeah, I love it. So it makes you rethink sitcoms and how the wives have been treated. Yeah, and it's so it's so brilliant when they go and they becomes so dark. I mean it's it's the colors change, like everything changes. And it's so it's so incredible to watch. It really is it's it's it's

53:10

very, it's very jarring every time I found you know, even watching it after filming it all the way up through the eighth episode of the first season, every time we cut back to a different form, whether it's cutting back into multi camera cutting into the single cam, it's jarring in a good way. It just doesn't let you get comfortable. It wants you to sort of feel that like Oh, geez, there's always another side to what we're looking at this sets

53:35

I think I think everyone probably see something different in the set. I see on the family. Yeah, the big ones. Yeah, like read that really does that for me. Sure. Yeah, that makes me think and the

53:45

couch I feel like it's just like a bad flower print. You know, that's kind of roseanne ish. Yeah. A lot of people have pointed out either on the family, Everybody Loves Raymond, a lot of people think it looks like that. And I think that's a credit to our designers who really were trying to honor those shows of the past they they wanted it to feel familiar in that way. Yeah. And another cool part about the set is that nothing changes when we film the multi cam to the single cam, like the proportions of everything stay the same other than we bring in the fourth wall and a ceiling. But other than that, it really it's the same room. It's just shot and lit differently. And so it feels drastically different between the two. The two forms.

54:27

It's incredible how it's like obviously you're watching a completely different show somebody will do somebody will do like a godfather kite with a string all the sitcom. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

54:38

I can't wait to do that. That'd

54:39

be good. Like Kevin can fuck himself saga. Love it. So is it true that the whole the use of the name Kevin and all that is is based on the slide of Kevin James? Yeah, a condemnation of that show. Okay.

54:53

Yeah, I think and it's for anybody who's unaware, at least when it was originally written by that The when she wrote it, it was because of two things. But one of them being Kevin James had this show called Kevin Can Wait, that was his sort of follow up to King of Queens and was on CBS and between the first and second season, Erin Hayes who played his wife on the show, they've decided to kill her off, which is bad. But what sort of got Kevin James into more hot water was his response. He was being interviewed about it by I think the New York Times and he said, they said, why'd you kill off the wife character? And he said, we were just like, running out of storylines. So we killed her off, and then they never really liked the characters never addressed it. The kids never were like, Where's mommy? You're, I'm sad. Mommy's dead or you know, like they just glossed over it with such disrespect of that character that it pissed a lot of people off, one of them being Valerie Armstrong, our writer, and she decided, you know, her initial pitch was like, I want to see a CBS sitcom where the doofus husband is being himself but as soon as the wife leaves the room, we go to single camera and it's super dark and we see her reality and it's like yeah, that's exactly that's exactly what the show is. So while it was originally sort of the jumping off point was that moment with Kevin James it doesn't continue to be about that that I think was just sort of the initial impetus to it but yeah, so it's not something like we're constantly trying to go after Kevin James at this point. I think that was more just the jumping off point.

56:24

Right right. I mean, it was it was the inspiration Yes, yeah.

Yes, the creative inspiration. Yeah, so I know I know that season two there's a season two so we got picked us very excited Season Two I'm not going to ask you because I'm sure you couldn't tell him right so we won't go down that five minute route. I love this idea. But I'm excited to see where it does go there's a lot of different ways it can so it's good to see that for everything anyone that needs to catch up there's eight episodes it's on AMC plus maybe AMC as well

56:53

as on AMC plus it's if you have AMC, you can watch it you know through your on demand of that it is now available on Amazon Prime in like England and Australia and I think India or something like that. I'm not sure if it's on Amazon Prime in America yet I'm not sure but yeah, you can get it through AMC plusses AMC is new app that allows you sort of their streaming service go check it out. It's eight episodes. They're each about 45 minutes long. They really blow nicely together. It's a good binge. If you're looking for a you know, Saturday afternoon, something to watch. The one thing that I'll say is that it is jarring at the beginning. But if you push through like one right at some shows, you really need like five episodes to get accustomed to it. I think by the end of the first episode, you'll get the feeling of what we're doing and and it'll hopefully hook in for the full run.

57:43

Yeah, definitely, definitely check it out. If you haven't, it's definitely the most unique show which you don't see these days. It's everything is a reboot or a rehash. This is an actual unique concept that I'm sure at some point someone's going to imitate this. Yo get in on the ground floor. Watch if you haven't given him fuck himself. Eric, I can't thank you enough for hanging out with me. This was so fun. Thank you. Thanks, Jeff. This

58:07

was great. Great talking with you.

58:09

How can people keep up with you on the social medias?

58:11

They can follow me my Instagram is at Eric Pete er ic PT. My Instagram. I'm on Twitter. I don't do Twitter as much but I'm Eric Petersen 44 on Twitter and also you can follow my fashion Instagram tote a little sidebar but I love clothes and dressing and I love it's called at the portly gentleman on Instagram the portly gentleman all one word, where I sort of post stuff about fashion and cool suits and stuff like that, that I like.

58:42

That's awesome. I'll put links to all that in the show notes. And some your Broadway highlights. Thank you. I'm proud of myself for not accidentally calling you Kevin at any point during the interview. Right? This is good. The Good job, Jeff. Good job. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. It was a lot of fun.

58:56

Awesome, Jeff. This is great. Thanks.

58:58

Oh, wait, oh, wait, Eric. Ah, he's gone. I totally forgot to tell him Shrek was looking for him. I'm sure it'll be fine. But in the meantime, all of you guys feel free to warn him at his Twitter, his Twitter account or on Facebook. Also, please check out Kevin can fuck himself on AMC. You can stream all the episodes now. It's really, really great. I promise. I was a huge fan right from the beginning. I loved every second of it. It's a really, really unique show. I'll put links to everything in the show notes add to some of the performances that I mentioned during the interview with Eric, etc, etc. So I'm excited for you to experience all of that.

In the meantime, here we are coming to the end of Episode 74. Can you believe it? We're almost at the end of another episode. And that can only mean one thing. That's right. It's time for another trending hashtag but in the world of hashtag round up. Although hashtag round up on twitter at hashtag Roundup, download the free hashtag roundup app on Google Play or iTunes. And get notified every time a hashtag game starts play along and one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune a way to imagine being at a dinner saying Hello Do you know my tweet was on live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show everyone I'll be like, let me pick up the bill. This is a time to celebrate. So you're probably all wondering what's this week's hashtag? This week's hashtag is a hat tip to Eric Petersen's fine work in Shrek and Shrek the Musical and the fact that Shrek is looking for him #FakeFairyTaleFacts is the hashtag from hash fake facts a weekly game on hashtag are round up. This is a fun game where you get to literally make up anything fake about the topic. What do you know about fairy tales? Nothing Well, that's okay because this is hashtag fake fairy tale facts. Here's some examples for inspiration and then head to Twitter and tweet your own. Here we go. #FakeFairyTaleFacts. Humpty Dumpty was pushed off the wall for trying to start an uprising. Goldilocks had four failed marriages over her issue it nothing ever being quite right to the three little pigs spot their houses from IKEA and just assembled them poorly. Ah, the truth has come out Pinocchio was known to lie on purpose. Hmm these really are it's amazing hashtag fake fairy tale facts. The seven doors were really Snow White's kiddos. She was looking for a prince to be her baby step daddy Cinderella prefers to be called Cindy Old Mother Hubbard was only like 38 none of the princes turned out to be all that charming. The old woman who lives in a shoe is actually Canadian and she didn't even know what to do about all those kids. Cinderella is mad at Rianna for never returning her Allah Allah Allah Prince Charming was a lousy kisser. Remember, legally we cannot be held accountable for these #FakeFairyTaleFacts. The Princess and the Pea was originally a potty training book, Red Riding Hood lost her street cred when it was discovered she lived in the Hamptons turns out Sleeping Beauty suffered from severe narcolepsy hoodoo. Goldilocks is about investment strategies to hot get out to cold no good. Just take what's just right and our final fake fairy tale facts tweet Rapunzel was urged to cut her iconic locks at the recommendation of the Royal chiropractor. Oh, all right. Those are some amazing #FakeFairyTaleFacts tweets, tweet your own. I'll look for it on the Twitter

I can't believe we're at the end of another episode. I want to thank my friend Casey Ryan plot for his amazing celebrity voices. I want to thank my special guest Eric Petersen for sharing all his amazing stories with us. And of course I want to thank all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me. I'll see you next time.

1:02:47

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

1:03:03

I can assure you we will not let this injustice then we will ride and we will find you or I am no booze and moves which I

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