Interview with playwright and producer of The Christmas Present

Thank you. I'm here with my co-host, Gabe Romero. Thanks for coming in tonight, Gabe. Good to be here. Yeah. Oh, I'm barely hearing you, but I'm going to crank this here. Thanks for tuning in. We're coming live from downtown Los Angeles at worldfamousskidrowstudios.com. Fresh off our 8 million listener audience at our guest spot at Spice Radio on Sirius XM 103. Thank you, Barry Funkhauser, for that opportunity. And Jessica Hall for having me on as a guest on her show. We are joined tonight by Guy Pico and Erin Parks. Hello. Erin Parks and Guy Pico are producer and writer of The Christmas Present. Critically acclaimed, hopefully successful. I don't know, have you been filling houses last year? How did it go? I know the run's coming up in December at the Sacred Fools Theater Company on Heliotrope here in LA. And how'd it go last year? What do you expect this year? Yeah, it went really, really well last year. Well enough so that they asked us to come back and do it again. So it's the same cast as last year. And it really, really built. We were selling out towards the end. We had the feature story in the LA Weekly. We had The Times come out. And so, yeah, everything's been going well. So we're hoping that we're going to have bigger houses this year. They've given us a few more performances. And so, yeah, we're very excited. We're a big bunch. You're running, what, four weeks? Well, no, we're only running in December, but we've got 12 shows. Okay. Because it's a Christmas show. Right. So it's a really small window, really. How do you get the press for LA Weekly, LA Times? Is that Sacred Fools drawing in because of their history here? Or is that? Yeah, the Sacred Fools have got like a press person. It's going to be more difficult this year because LA Times, LA Weekly came last year. So they're... They won't come again. They might rerun the reviews from last year. They did a few weeks ago. Oh, right. Yeah, I saw the notice and it was announcing the coming back here. Right, right, right, right. What a... Dude, to be able to do theater in LA, is it hard? It's hard to get people to watch any TV, let alone come out of their homes, out of the hills. Yeah, it is. I mean, there's an awful lot of kind of 99-seat black box theater. I think we're sacred. The reason Sacred Fools differs is that it is like a theater company that has its kind of its own identity beyond the show that happens to be running there at the moment. So it has got its own audience and has a kind of a real following. So we're kind of delighted to be doing it there. It kind of fits in with their... Is Troy Blendell some sort of a simulacrum of you yourself having written the piece? No, not really. I mean, well... People... People were joking about that after we cast them. They've had lifetime movie casting. Yeah. They kind of look similar. If you've ever hired a prostitute for Christmas, call 1-800-893-9562. We're taking calls live. The subject of the play, and this is based on me having not seen it. Right. Read the reviews, the write-ups, and your advertisements for it. Will you get what you want for Christmas? A gentleman rents a hotel room for Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. He hires a lady of the... He's a lady of the evening to accompany him. Yes. It's a story of... I like to think of it as a kind of... As an update of Christmas Carol, in that it's about a grumpy man who's expecting to have a lousy Christmas. He tries to cheer himself up by hiring a prostitute. It isn't the prostitute he was hoping for. And they kind of clash. Don't you hate when that happens? This wasn't the picture. Dude, LA Express is just lying to me now. Apparently, LA Express makes the prostitutes... The prostitutes actually go to the counter and show their picture that's going to be printed with them, so they know that's actually the girl that's going to be in the ad, or the tranny, or whatever, or the masseuse. I learned this years ago for no apparent reason. Right. Right. Well, I was selling myself at a Hollywood Highland, but... By the way, real quick, while we talk about it, if you're interested in seeing the show, you can go to sacredfools.org. You can give them a call, 310-281-8337. Again, that's 310-281-8337. sacredfools.org. There's been a lot of talk about how expensive theater can be when it has high overhead guest performers. People are paying $67 to $120 for a night in theater. This is $15 tickets. Yep. And if you actually come and work the show or run the light board, they might let you see it for free. Oh, yeah. All shows are 8 p.m. We have Tuesdays and Wednesdays, December 4th and 5th. Tuesday through Thursday, December 11th through 13th. And then a great week, Tuesday through Saturday, December 18th. And then a great week, December 18th through 22nd. And Sunday shows are on the 16th and the 23rd, all 8 p.m. No kid matinee for this show? Is there anything... Because I saw... What was it? Jason Patrick, Mercedome. It was the AIDS piece where it's the Future Society and they... What was it called? Oh, I wish I remember the name of this piece. I saw it on Santa Monica Boulevard years ago. It was a little two-person piece. And... Tickets were crazy. And there was... It was... She goes under Mercedome live in front of me eight rows away. I saw her go under the sheet of Jason Patrick and give him a hummer. Right. And that movement under the sheet... He didn't really give her a hummer. You were not seeing anything. No, she did, man. Her in her bra and panties is fucking awesome. Biggest crush on Mercedome. She's a method actor. Yeah, she is. She is. My biological clock is ticking. Well, we actually did. We actually did have a friend bring kind of an inappropriately aged... Child to the show because they were... They needed... They wanted to see it. Yeah. And they were... And it was outside of London because we've done this a few times in the UK. And there was a couple of moments where they just plugged her ears and closed her eyes. She was sitting there and probably a lot went over her head. But it's definitely not a kid's show. It's not a kid's show. It's strange because here it's different from in the UK. In the UK, there isn't any theatre censorship. Censorship. You can only say may not be suitable for children or contains adult content. But you can't say 18s only. I wasn't aware of anything like... I've never seen anything like that here in LA. Not a single show or anything I've ever seen anything that said like for adults only or kids. I think just generally people don't think the kids are... Is there a formalized... Unless it's a kid's show or Bob Barker's Marinettes or... It doesn't seem like a family activity here unless it's specifically a family-friendly show. I was part of the Trudeau Theatre Company. And since it was clowns and the bard meets three stooges and trampolines and Nirvana music. And it was very contemporary trying to tell these old tales but in a very accessible way. We had kids. Right. And we tried to be... It goes over your head. We weren't graphic and anything. But oh, it was just as loaded as Shakespeare. Did you have to do much rewrite when you brought it? Because it started in the UK, correct? It started in the UK, yeah. It's been done four times. It's been done four times in the UK. And this is the second time we've done it here. Now, oddly enough, I thought about Americanizing it. And then I thought, well, no. I'll just kind of change what needs to be changed if there's something that's difficult to understand. But the truth of it is that once you do it here, it magically becomes an Englishy piece. And that's kind of its shtick. Do you know what I mean? Is there a difference between the public's... assessment of prostitution in London than there is in Los Angeles? Is there a different thing culturally or socially? Is it acceptable or not? Is it... I think... I mean, I know you have the tradition here of the kind of the tart with the heart. I think we have it more over there. Oh, sweet. I don't know if that's the right way to start with the heart. You know, like from Oliver, you've got Nancy from Oliver. And you've got Mary Magdalene. Hello. How'd it go? No, it's absolutely... It's the heart of the culture. I just never heard it put that way. You know, hook her with the heart of gold, I've heard. And, you know... British have a mastery of the English language, having invented it. I know, right? Yeah. Where are you from, Guy? Are you from London? I'm kind of southern mush now. We kind of moved around a lot. I was actually born in the north of England, but we moved to the south when I was three. And I kind of... South Coast towns. Margate, which is a seaside resort, was kind of where I... Grew up as a child. The last ten years before I moved here, I lived in Brighton, which is another seaside town. And I had 20 years in London. So, yeah, it's a southern mush. Did you study and go to school to become a writer or just start writing? I kind of just started writing. I was an actor. And I think like a lot of actors, you kind of think... I'm not doing the parts I want to do. Oh, I'll write. I'll write. And then I kind of realized that what's even better than writing a part for you to do is writing a part for somebody else to do. Because then you can just watch it. You know? Yeah, but you did play. You did play the lead. I did play the lead in The Christmas Present the first two times it was done. Yes. Yes. But I much prefer watching Troy do it. Is that the dramaturg version? Yeah. And you mentioned... There is something really exciting. Go to Samuel French and pick it up and it'll say original run. There you go. Yeah. Well, as a writer and director myself and an actor, like I agree with Guy. I think there is something really exciting in putting together a work and watching someone else. Because you can only see so much from your own perspective. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And particularly if you write something and then you act in it, you're only going to bring to it what you see in it. Whereas if you get another really good actor, they're going to bring things to it that you hadn't thought of. Exactly. Exactly. And however clever you are, you're not going to be as clever as you, plus him, which is kind of what you get. It's that... Aaron, I want to give you equal time too, but I've got to ask this. Yeah, go for it. I've worked with author playwrights that were in their own shows before. And one of them said that they separated from the author brain. And when they approached it as an actor, they made different choices, asked questions about the material. How did you approach it as an actor? Yes, that is what happened because there was enough time. I think if you were kind of developing it in rehearsal, it might be really difficult to do. But I think if you write it to a deadline and then you start rehearsing it three or four months later, you can get that. You started rehearsals for the December 4th run. Oh, gosh, yeah. Yes. How long did you guys re-rehearse? Same cast? Same cast, yeah. We're in that weird phase now, which is a long weekend at the worst possible time. And it's the gap between the rehearsal room and the stage. So we've had a really good week in the rehearsal room. And the next time we see them, it's going to be on stage. And it will all be about sound and lights and where's my dressing gown. That means robe. Erin, you guys had done this in London. How did you come to the work? How did you find this show? Had you and Guy been collaborating before? Well, we met when I was living in England. We were both in Brighton and we met. And I was over there on a student visa. We had a kind of a long distance relationship for a few years. And then I moved back to England. And then we got married. So I kind of came to this piece as a producer originally. It had been done before, before I was involved with Mr. Picco. And so then we, because it's always gotten bigger. That's the great thing about this piece is it's always really well received. And it tends to pick up bigger audiences year and year. And the theaters are getting bigger every year. So when I got involved, we got money from the Arts Council, which is amazing public funding in the UK. And we toured it around. And so I saw it twice, two years in a row, little tours. And then I was like, okay, now I'm going to do it. So I did one of the parts after having seen a couple of other actresses give it a try. I was like, now it's my turn to do it the way I want to do it. So I was actually in it. He was actually in it, but we've never been in it together. Were you? Were you acting in it while you were producing it? Yeah. Ooh, that's tough. Yeah. I've never heard of that. Yeah. I mean, it's- You've never heard of someone acting and producing at the same time? No. It's a headache. No, because I think being a producer is enough fucking hats as a loan. I couldn't imagine being in the piece. And how do you do that? How do you open the house and fucking step backstage? Well, because I'd done it a couple, I'd produced it a couple of times before. So that was the easy part. It was now, it was now just like, now I'm going to do the actual, you know, the actual thing. I'm going to play this character. Like that was just a little extra bonus step that I got to do that was like, you know, just kind of rounding it out. And I really, really loved the performers that we had at the time and they wanted to do it again the next year. So I took the opportunity as producer to cast myself. It's always your prerogative. I know. It was great. And so- Are you still married? Yeah. Still married. Just checking. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. Been married four years. adjust for the times or the setting um you know i think my role as writer is pretty done i mean there's a couple of kind of topical references in it which which can change we decided not to this year just kind of do the ones that we did last year i won't spoil it but there is a mention of britney spears britney spears or lindsay lohan she had to come out for a few years if you had to britney spears or lindsay lowe oh god they're both really rough aaron if you had to britney spears or lindsay you didn't even have to ask she was considering i think britney spears because i've warmed to her a bit on the x-factor he'd make a better prostitute he's thicker yeah okay that's what snoop dogg said thicker like stupid because that's what they say in england like stupider or more girth oh like more girth oh more growth because yeah oh thicker right thick in the head yeah that's what you can say lindsay lohan looks like she'd steal your wallet you're from texas where did you see you grew up in texas i grew up in i was born in ohio but i grew up in texas so i was there pretty much all my life until i you know moved to england after i graduated from college how'd you wind up in l.a um well when i moved back to america um to america my dad had moved from texas to arizona and i was like i don't know what the heck i'm doing i'm just gonna move to arizona and check out tucson which is absolutely gorgeous but then i also realized that l.a is like a day's drive and when you're in texas nothing is a day's drive like you can take three days you can get to new orleans you can get to new orleans in about seven hours from houston but going west you can't get anywhere so i was like oh my god i can get to l.a in a day so i just came out here and um that's what brought me out here originally years ago and then i moved back to england and that's when we got married and so i was i was over there for a while and i got really really cold and i was like hey let's let's let's go to america where it's warm and the sun always shines in l.a and he was like okay here we go once again real quick if you have any questions for for aaron or guy give us a call 800-893-9562 at skid row studios 800-893-9562 that would be so exciting if somebody did call in and if you're listening on the podcast on itunes and you try to call in now and it's like five in the morning we're not there dude somebody's gonna pick up the phone but no right now we're live 800-893-9562 uh huge thanks for you guys coming down uh especially during this run-up it's just a week away or so from opening yeah well i say it's a bit of an enforced hiatus because of thanksgiving weekend so uh no it's delightful to come down and be able to get out of the room and just talk about it yeah and um you know it is it's it's a really interesting piece because it works on a lot of levels people i wanted to ask you this yes yes they did read the la weekly review which kind of spoils a bit it does yeah and uh i didn't mind that i'm into spoilers having like read a bunch of scripts for movies don't say anything because i want to see the show but i do want to ask this when it comes to los angeles and um let's say that some people might have delusions they might have a way of they think that things are going and they might have a way that things are really are and they don't quite see that difference and there might be someone who's going to be like oh i'm not going to be like me because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default because by default How's it going? Doing all right. How's it going? Good. How was your Thanksgiving? It was pretty fat. Pretty fat. What'd you do with it? You spend family, friends? What'd you do? You fuck? What'd you do on Thanksgiving? I did a little bit of with the on the . That sounds amazing. I can't. The transcription people are going to have a problem with this and we hire them out for like 23 cents an hour. Where are you calling from? Where's the 512? That's not LA unless it's an overlay. Oh yeah, that's Austin, Texas. Texas. Do you know Aaron Parks? Pardon me? Do you know Aaron Parks, our producer here tonight for the- No, I don't know her. I've actually seen the play though. I wanted to comment. I was curious. This was actually for Guy though. Yes. Go ahead. Yes. Guy, you guys ever thought about turning that into a short film? And I'll let you guys just answer. I'll hang up now. Thanks for taking the call. Thank you very much. What? Are you kidding me? He hangs up? Hangs up. Do we- Do we call him? Call him. Call him. Call him back. He's taking the answer off the air. It's okay. He can still listen. What was his name? Joey? Joey Barcelona. Joey, call back. What are you doing? Why are you hanging up? He's going to answer. We talked. This is called conversation, not fucking I spit one off. It's okay. Let's- We don't have an iron dome here, Guy. Well, no, that's a very good idea. And it actually wouldn't be that short a film if you just filmed it. No, it's easier. Gabe, would you produce it? I'll direct it. Aaron, would you also produce it? I would produce the shit out of it. Would you be in it again? Would you rather have Troy? I would much rather have Troy. Really? Yeah. If you could recast Troy and the studio said, by the way, we're going to give you like 20 million to shoot it, but Troy's got to go, who would you cast? Jude Law? What would you do? Jude Law, no. No. Con Farrell? No. I'd probably say Martin Freeman, maybe. Okay. Really? Or, yeah, Steve Coogan, maybe. Oh, I love Steve Coogan because every time his name gets searched more, mine does. I don't really- Yeah. Martin Freeman's really been- Or would you say, no, fucking Troy's the man. I stand on my line. Fuck you and your Hollywood money. I'm standing with my man. I would stand by my man. Yeah. Yeah. Would you really, if they wrote you a fucking blank check, would you really? Because, come on, we're here- No. I would say Martin Freeman, Troy who? Yeah. Yeah. Troy, have a great show next week. Wow. That was a great question too. We've talked briefly. Could it be filmed? Do you think that one room, one story, two, three people would do it? I think so. I'm trying to think of a film that actually does that exact same thing. It's about a drug deal that goes wrong. It was a play. Well, there's one that come to mind. Tape, yeah. I don't want to, I don't know if you've ever read or seen the stage play or the film, the P.S. Your cat is dead. No, I haven't. I haven't. It was Sal Mineo, wasn't it? The guy, New Year's Eve. Yes. Instead of Christmas, New Year's Eve. And he's just down and this and broke up and it's awful. And a guy breaks into his house and ties him up. But he flips the tables and ties up the robber and anally rapes him. But that's a different story. There's and then the whole thing, P.S. Your cat is dead. Dealing with mom issues and people and it was very, for some reason when I was reading, the synopsis, the reviews of Christmas present, I went, that's kind of the model of P.S. Your cat is dead in terms of two, three people. Very tight, very tight relationship on them. And also it had to deal with expectations and what knocks on your door. Yes. It was very interesting. Well, and this show really does, it really does have when you guys talked about it being a, it's not really an updated Christmas Carol, but it has those similar themes. Similar to like, it's a wonderful. It's a wonderful life. Really Christmas can be a really, really lonely time there. I think there's more suicides around the holidays than any other time of year. And so it is about somebody that's trying to reach out and make a connection. And sometimes that's the only thing that people can do. You know, you just think I'll just, I need, I need some company. I'm going to have to hire, hire a prostitute. But so it gets really dark and it kind of explores those ideas. But it's funny. It's really kind of, you know, it's kind of British, very dry, sarcastic humor. Like if you like that style of comedy, a lot of people really, really love the writing in the show, but ultimately it's Christmasy, just like it's a wonderful life and you cry and the angel gets his wings and God bless us everyone. And tiny Tim doesn't die. It's like that sort of feeling at the end. So it really does. It goes really dark, but ultimately it's a nice Christmasy night out. You know, if you want to do something. It goes dark. If you want to do something with friends. If you want to do something with friends and like have a, you know, it's like, it's basically like a Christmas night out. That's not going to make you puke. You know what I mean? But I also have to say to people, cause I know that probably most listeners aren't regular live theater goers. And I have to admit, we get our entertainment subscribing to iTunes and listen to this or YouTube two minute clips or yeah, we watch our 43 minutes of network TV with 17 minutes of commercials. But live theater is the root of it all. And anytime you're on a set or doing anything, it always goes back to those kinds of disciplines. Who who's spent time on the boards and who has done this. And we know which of the 23 Shakespeare tome we're doing at the time. How do you get Aaron? How do you get people to come to theater? And how do you, I mean, obviously a compelling story, something that resonates with people, but still to get them out. This goes back to your question. Skid Row, Skid Row, Skid Row. Oh, Skid Row. Skid Row. Skid Row Studios.com. Skid Row Studios.com. We had, um, we actually have the show booked in a few different theaters in the UK that were really great theaters that have their own audiences. They have people that do season tickets, they, you know, they have their own machine behind it. It's a little bit different here in LA. It's a little bit more grassroots. Like I mentioned, the theater company has, it's, it's, it's kind of a base audience. It's not as stable as some of the, of the bigger theaters that we've done the show in, but, um, it's, you know, it's a lot about, um, Facebook and getting people to talk about it because, because a lot of people did see it last year. I guess Joey Barcelona saw it last year. Um, so it's about getting people that saw it last year to, to try to come back. He loved it so much he wants a movie out of it. I know, I know. But you know, this, this show is really good because it works for seasoned theater goers because it's, the writing's very good. The acting is very good and it's very, um, it's, it's got some twists and turns and then for somebody who isn't used to it. Yeah. Who isn't used to theater, it's not, it's, it's not hyper realistic. So you don't thinking like, oh God, am I supposed to be like. There is theatricality. There is theatricality in it. So it, it, it takes you on a ride. Like sometimes, you know, movies that are really theatrical, it, it, it messes with you. It actually messes with the audience. Did you know when you were writing it that each laugh cue was going to be a laugh cue or, did, cause I've seen actually writers be there as they rehearse and go, or seen shows and rewrite. Yeah. Did you, did you expect the laughs you got or those from the moment? I would, I would say I, my expectation of laughs is about 80% right, but the ones that you don't get are made up for by ones you didn't expect. And doing it here, you, there's things that always killed in the UK that don't register here. And then there's things here that never got a laugh in the UK that people, so it's just, it, it, it. I noticed that last year there was so many differences of where the laughs were, but there's a lot of laughs. So. Well, and I think, I think, um, something that you talked about, Keith, you talked about like the seasoned theater goer, you know, but here in Los Angeles, there aren't really that many of them. And I think the kind of thing that might draw someone out to see the Christmas present who isn't normally a theater goer is that it is unique. It plays on themes we're used to. It plays on things we already understand, but it's, it's, it's not like necessarily necessarily anything else that we've seen. Plus hookers. And there's hookers. And there's hookers. And there's hookers. And the girl. One of the hit shows, uh, in LA, uh, the reviewer went and behind them was a woman on oxygen and throughout the show, and she, they went, this is, she's younger than the average theater goer in LA. And they were the ones paying 120 a ticket, you know, 350 a night for a couple or something for theater. Well, I think the other way you get, you get audiences in the seats is you put a cute girl in a, in a little Santa outfit on, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the Santa outfit on the flyer. Which, you know. Is she the dream or is she the reality? Oh yeah. I think the girl in the show is actually prettier than the girl in the flyer. I think. Um. It's false advertising right there. But um, no, it's good false advertising. But um, but one of the things that um, that, that I think is hopefully going to help um, show is there was a huge huge hit over the summer at sacred fools called stone face which was a show about buster keaton that french stewart from third robbery son was i heard about that and we basically sold off for three months straight and so a lot of people came to sacred fools and you know we're talking about this this more rarefied theater audience right isn't going to drive into east hollywood and go to this 99 seat theater well they did for for this for this show they were all hollywood they were i love it they were all there well and and it's true because it's true because in in a lot of other cities you know whether it's new york whether it's chicago whether it's you know austin your your theater community is just that it's it's a community there's there's a centralized area and sure you'll have other theaters and in other areas was like waving yeah yeah yeah no i was saying no that's exactly right but here in los angeles it's not necessarily that way there's no community no you've got it's it's and bag and plea and i learned something too doing a three-person play you don't get a big opening night audience it's really hard do stalag's third 17 or whatever do something big do something do anything goes do something with 18 main characters because they're all going to bring their friends their family to opening night heaven knows kind of spurs it on but there's a kind of rolling ball aaron i have to ask you produced other shows guy other you guys done other shows than the christmas present anything you're working on together or yeah yeah guy go ahead now i i wrote um a one-woman show for aaron called um bonnie and brighton which has been done in brighton and edinburgh not by autobiographical or anything like that yeah it is yeah kind of it is um yeah and i've co-written a lot of stuff in in in the uk um but here interestingly because it's an englishy thing we were trying to kind of make contact with what is laughingly known as the British community in LA. There's no such thing as the British community in LA. There's a little Armenia. There are. A quarter of a million stray Brits. There's more Brits in LA than there are in Brighton. Yeah. I have a friend who's a British expatriate, and she says apparently there's a brunch. Like once, have you heard of it? We have been to the brunch a couple of times, mainly as a flyering opportunity. Yeah, we were like, should we go again? I just feel bad going once a year when we're like flogging a show. We've been to the English to come together for a brunch. Yeah. It's really nice. It's an English breakfast too, so there's beans and mushrooms and tomatoes. It's like a different style of breakfast. So it's at Sisioni's, is that it? It's like a really ritzy little place in West Hollywood that we never would go to otherwise, but they've got a good deal for... Yeah, no. There's a very good Facebook group called Brits in LA, which does do a lot of stuff to try and bring people together. But yeah, it isn't really a community. But I think everybody who's come here from the UK, I didn't come here to eat roast beef and play soccer. Do you know what I mean? That would be a really foolish thing to do. Right. Move to Hollywood to eat roast beef and play soccer. What did you come here to do? You mean football? You want to make movies? You want to make movies? You want to make plays? You just keep writing books, not the great American novel? As a writer, there's a lot of avenues for your expression. I think, I mean, I've written for TV in the UK, and I'd kind of love to do that here. I'm kind of of the opinion that writing for TV is the way forward. I think TV is actually making the sort of work that grown-ups enjoy watching now. Oftentimes, the writer becomes the showrunner, and creates the arc over seasons, and sells this to the studio itself, and says, here's how we're going to carry on the show and make it work. Would you consider creating a show and being a showrunner? I mean, that would be the dream, yeah. But I think it's interesting now that people like Tina Fey, who obviously has a hit TV show and will develop more hit TV shows, it's not like, oh, I'm going to do a movie and leave TV behind. No, no, she can do a movie. Well, and I... I think there's also a safety in... I mean, granted, it's a mitigated safety, as there is in all things in this industry, but it's, you're going to work, you know, six days a week, five, six days a week, you know, eight to 12 hours a day, but you're doing it for 22 weeks. You're doing it for 30 weeks to produce 22 episodes. That's the sweet spot. You know, yeah, whereas you've got, you know, and if you're lucky, you're picked up for a second season, a third season, you get five, six seasons, you know... Now, features too. What's your palette? Is it, you know, 90 minutes of a story, the theater, which could... Theater is always translated very well into film. Noise is off. Yeah. I don't know about always. I mean, I think it takes a certain degree of execution. Yeah. Really? Yeah, not always. And I think TV and theater share a reliance on dialogue, which maybe cinema doesn't so much. No, cinema does have a time to take for visuals. Yeah. Sound and stuff comes more. You have more of a focus too. You're not split and focus every 12 minutes with commercials. Yeah. Theater. Oh, I have a rank. My ranking of pure entertainment versus commercialism goes, okay, the first thing is commercials. It's the most brash 30 second. It's just pure about the commodity. The next is your half hour sitcom. 23 minutes out of the half an hour. It's seven minutes of commercials. You know, okay, we got a little more story going on. Then you got the hour dramas, the movies of the week made for TV. Then features. Features still have commercialism and product placement and all this kind of branding and stuff. And then you get to theater. And theater seems to have the least amount of corporate influence, branding, you know, names and labels. It's about the pure experience, the art, the relationships, the story telling that is the root of all drama. Yes. Where do you, if you had room and board taken care of, what would you work in? I think theater and television. Oh, no, you have to choose one guy. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. Because back in the playoffs, 90. Back in the corner. TV can be live. A lot of TV is live in front of a studio audience. It's related. I have the same performance anxieties in front of a live audience as I do in theater or sitcoms with the live theater audience. I was choked up. I had about six live shows or whatever. Vernon Shirley, Morgan Mindy. Oh, my God, amazing. Yeah. Growing Pains, Silver Spoons, Just the Ten of Us. Silver Spoons. Yeah. Yeah, we had Jeremy Miller in on our last show. I was so in love with him. It was great. No, I'm kidding. And that always made me nervous because I was used to commercials or TV or movies of the week or series. And then getting from live audience, I was scared to shit. Really? But that TV and theater, I think, are connected. Yeah. In a weird way. And also, attention span theater, we're competing with Gundam style. We're competing with music videos, three minutes. We're competing with memes that are 20 seconds. Yeah. An image with a, you know, I can have cheeseburgers and a cat. And the awareness of a meme or of an idea happens like you're doing a Christmas show. December 1st, you're done. You wrap it up, right? Yeah. In terms of theme or whatever, is this something that can run year round? Or do you think you nail on the Christmas holiday? I think, I mean, that's why it's kind of slow to build and it's like why it does move a little bit bigger each year. It's because, no, we can't do it from January to November. We cannot do it. It only makes sense in December. Yeah. No, absolutely. Real quick, I do want to mention again, if you're listening and you want to go see the Christmas present, visit www.sacredfloor.com. That's sacredfools.org. Or give them a call at 310-281-8387. 310-281-8387. It's running pretty much from the 4th through the 23rd, a couple days off, Tuesdays through Wednesday, the first week, Tuesday through Thursday, the second week, Tuesday through Saturday, the third week, and then Sundays on the 16th and 23rd. Yeah, and Sacred Fools Theater is around Vermont in Melrose. It's kind of a quirky little neighborhood. There's a really great bar around the corner called The Faculty that does nice food. They do like cheese, platters and meat, platters and wine. And so you have a couple of restaurants around as well. So it's a really nice, you know, fun. Sounds perfect. It's a really fun night out. For an 8 o'clock show and then a drink after or late dinner. And we do, at the show, we're doing mince pies and mulled wine, which is, you know, very traditional Englishy Christmassy things. So as producer, I am also head baker and baking mince pies. And we hope that it gets cold because it's really nice to have. Mulled wine is like a warm spiced red wine that's so delicious and warming. So, yeah, how hot was it today? Oh, yeah, it got so warm today. I don't even know. It was like, I want to say it was in the 70s, you know, or 80s. 82. 82 degrees. By the way, for anyone who is, not in Los Angeles and is dealing with snow and sleet and the bitter cold of winter, that sucks. Move to Los Angeles. Why work here in LA? You know, we don't have enough people here. It's not clogging up the arteries of the freeways. You say it all the time. Every time the stress, the traffic, the curating, the, oh my God, what's my index with the studios? And then I look outside and I look at the blue sky and I'm like, oh yeah, that's right. That's why I'm here. San Diego's next. Do you guys have, do you guys have another show idea for after this closes? Are you looking at producing something else in, you know, January, February? Well, yeah, Guy's got a few other things that he's written. You know, it's just a matter with us as we've, we've found a really supportive community within Sacred Fools. They do about five or six shows a year. And so for the past two years, we've done this show. So, you know, we need to sort of pitch to them and their artistic committee decides what shows, they want to do and how they kind of create a season. But I know Guy's got a show called The Secret Life of a Joke that we've pitched, which is very, very good as well. Yes, which is about a stand-up comic and his mentally ill girlfriend. You've met them. That's awesome. I know them. I used to work with them, but he quit. Yeah, I know. I know exactly what you're talking about. That's great. It's, no, the idea is, is this a sort of a messed up Seinfeld in that you see his act. Right. And in his act, he talks about his life. And then you see his life. And you realize the life he's talking about isn't actually the life he's living. And it ain't funny. And it ain't funny. Mm. Yeah. And that's a really interesting piece. A lot of Guy's stuff really kind of challenges the audience, like the Christmas present does, and it's kind of, you know, twists and turns. But this is really good because you're laughing. You think it's funny. And then when you actually see what's happening, you realize it isn't funny. And, you know, comics do that a lot. They pull from their real life. And, you know, people, their parents and partners and kids are sort of sacrificed for the sake of their act. And you don't really know, God, is it really like that? And so this kind of goes behind, you know, the scenes to show where that punchline actually came from. And it can get pretty dark and twisted. That's Guy's specialty. Mm. Dark and twisted. Is there, is that truth? Is that imagination? Is that, uh. Yeah. Yeah. In writing, you can always say, oh, this actor, oh, no. In this story, he's an architect. Yeah. Oh, this guy that's having this problem with the girl. No, actually, it was a problem with another guy. Do you cloak and mask? Is it based on a nugget of truth? And that's, and it's quick. It's to the quick. Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of my kind of lead characters struggle with their thoughts. And it's not because they're not. It's not because they don't have enough of them. It's because they have too many of them. And so, yeah, I have an element of that, certainly. But yeah, it's, it's illuminating corners of people that aren't often illuminated. That's great theater. I mean, that's showing people in their dark moments. Yeah. In their, in that quickening, in that time of. Yeah. Huge change internally. Yeah. Turmoil and conflict. And that's what people go to. That's drama. And that brings people together. Because then everybody realizes, hey, we're all messed up, hey? Yeah. I think, do you think that the truth goes down better with the laugh? Or do you make them cry? Oh, I think so. Because, you know, life as, the first time we did The Christmas Present, the lead actor didn't quite believe me when I said, no, it's a comedy. It's never not a comedy. It's always a comedy. And, and it was only by kind of rehearsing it and then doing it in front of an audience. I don't see his name on this flyer. He's Troy Blendell. Oh, no. Troy? Yes. Troy's still. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he believed you finally. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He did. Did he finally believe you when he stood up in front of an audience and they laughed? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Aaron, do you think that they, who's directing the show, by the way? He is. I am. You are. Are you hands off or are you pretty in the, you micromanage? I am the least hands off director. Oh, you are? Yeah. Opposite of me. You should see him direct my one woman show. He's really good at it. Like, he's basically really good at doing the one woman show himself. He's like, I'm American. Look at me go. He has an American accent and everything. Oh, what does that sound like? What is your, what is your American sound like? Do your best American accent. My American accent is appalling. Go on. Get off of my pizza. That's all he says. That's all he can say. That's what you guys say. It's weird, but Aaron, I have to say that. Texas meets Brighton is very LA. Is it? You seem LA. I thought you were born and raised in Southern California. Oh my God, really? Yeah. Oh my God. What are you doing here? That's so weird. Just take the quagga over to like the 101. Totally validate. Like Lancashire. Okay. And my place is in Studio City. No, I mean, my accent was really weird for a while because I grew up in Texas, but it never ever sounded like Texas because my parents are from the East Coast. And then I lived in England and I was really, my accent was so weird. Yeah. You know, like everyone used to like make fun of Madonna when she lived there. That was kind of like what I sounded like. Did you already know the language? Did you have to learn it before you went over there? Well, it's a little bit, you know, from Texas, from Texas, there's a lot, there's a big learning curve. I mean, there was the ugly American overseas or no? I mean, you know, I was trying really hard and I think people gave me a lot of credit for my effort and I would make so many stupid mistakes all the time and everyone just thought it was hilarious. And people just thought like it was. It was, I was kind of fulfilling a lot of stereotypes that they found entertaining because I was loud and I was always saying the wrong thing and you know, and I, yeah, so I mean it was, I think I was entertaining. I had a good entertainment value for a lot of people just being like the, the random American that's, you know, in the mix. I don't know, guy, do you have anything you do? You were there. Do you guys like it in LA? You saw me at least. Are you here to stay or are you here in LA to stay or is this a stopping point? Do you want to go back? Do you want to go back to London? Do you want to? We're going back for a visit quite soon. No, I think it's a very kind of difficult political question because I think the answer is I would love to be able to afford to retire here. I kind of think my backup plan is, uh, move to France, move to France or move back to England. Uh, you know, I, cause it, it just seems like people have to spend an awful lot of money. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. So how is the world going by default because by default is by default is by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by default by The emergency room. No. No, no, no. You can do clinical care or critical care. There's a great doctor on Sunset. Just look up critical care on Google. What it is, you pay cash. There's no insurance. And you go, I got this. Can you help me with this? And they go, yeah, 300 bucks. But in England, you go, I've got this. You don't pay all the time. You pay when you need it. Yeah. And they're available 24-7. But in England, you say, I need open heart surgery. And they're like, it's free. Right. That's pretty nice. It's not like, oh, it's, yeah. So that's, you know, that's. Yes, but you don't have crank anchors. Yeah, we don't. They have Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey is being brass. I wanted to ask about that because I recently became addicted. Have you any thoughts? Oh, man. Downton Abbey is fantastic. But I think it has a kind of what is perceived as a British classiness. Wait. But I think it has American production. Which show? Downton Abbey. Oh, Downton Abbey. Yes. Well, I wanted to ask because, and this could be a complete American, you know, idea and complete misunderstanding of what exists there. But given the size of UK television, it's a relatively small town kind of thing. Is there a lot of, because Julian Fellows, who's the writer and the executive producer, there's a lot of talk about him. Have you worked with him on anything or do you? I haven't, no. Okay. Well, I only ask because you said you'd written on British television. I saw it on IMDb and I was like, holy shit. Yeah, right. On IMDb, that's cool. I was mistakenly wrote Eddie by Woody, Whoopi Goldberg, because my original birth name was Keith Mitchell. And Keith Mitchell, a baseball player, helped write Eddie. Right. But her as a sports manager or whatever. And so I ran with it on IMDb under Keith Coogan, all of a sudden writer, Eddie. I was like, I'm not going to discount that for a while. No, the thing, I've written episodes of a couple of kind of shows in the UK. One of them was a woman's prison drama called Bad Girls, which Julian Fellows would be terrible at. But do you know that that's a great exploitation movie? We really should have a women in prison exploitation movie. Can you give me 90 pages on that? Yeah. There was that show, there was that movie in the 80s, Reform School Girls. Yeah. With the girl Charlie, like the head. And there was Oz. The head lesbian crew, like gang leader. There was Oz here, wasn't there? Yeah. Which was a co-ed prison. A lot of lesbians in that. Yeah. Yeah. Reform School Girls. I was going to say something clever and insightful. Oh, here we go. Why British can make really good TV, like Downton Abbey, but struggle making big movies, Yeah. The thing that I think is so important to have in a British movie, and I think that's a big basis with Downton Abbey, British life is lived indoors and sitting down. And that makes for great television, but really shit cinema. Well, yeah, no, if you think about it, you've got Downton Abbey, you've got Doctor Who, like the list goes on and on for television. Yeah. But the biggest films that have come out of Britain are Full Monty, Monty Python, Harry Potter. Oh, yeah, Harry Potter. Yeah. But it's... Oh, the King's Speech. The King's Speech. Which is really like the big screen version of Thurston Adams. Apparently, one of the locations was used in gay porn. And they tied in the wallpaper in the broken down place where he sat and did the therapy with him. They said, oh, no, here's a screenshot from gay porn. And this is an often used location for many movies, actually. All right. And it was great. I was like, how cool is that? It was like... But no, King's Speech was remarkable. No, I'm sorry. Adam Burrow to Kubrick. Yeah. Just like theater, I think that Americans should respect British cinema. Well, and there is no shortage of British actors in American films. No. Because the... Say what you will, but the Brits know their acting. I watch House, and to this day, I forget he's fucking not American. And he got his start in comedy. Oh, no. I used to watch Blackadder. There's Blackadder. There's a bit of Fry and Laurie. There's... They started together in college, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. You know, they were in a four-man comedy troupe. And the other one is Andrew Lincoln from Walking Dead, who's British, who's in Love Actually, the movie Love Actually. Good accent. Yeah. Wow. Wouldn't know it. Yeah. No, so I think, you know, a lot of British talent does well here. I mean, a lot of directors as well, like Christopher Nolan. Mm-hmm. And they just... They just become absorbed, and you kind of forget that they're British. Yeah. Like... Oh, shouldn't do that. No, in the play Stone Face, which happened in the summer, I played Charlie Chaplin, who is somebody who has just got absorbed into American culture, and people conveniently forget that he was British. That's what I'm saying. Or they never knew. Or they never knew. It brings full circle to me, Keith Coogan, being Becky Coogan's grandson, and having his career taken off from... That's amazing. Charlie Chaplin's the kid. I saw Robert Downey Jr. and Chaplin. I also love the film. I think Chaplin's amazing. Yeah. And love that they used clips of my grandfather. It's like, oh, all warm and fuzzy on that. But... One more time real quick, though, I do want to mention that... Hug it. Yeah. Yeah. You got to do it at least three times. That's the rule. Three times. Three times. The Christmas present at Sacred Fools, visit sacredfools.org, or call them at 310-310-310. 310-281-8337. That's 310-281-8337. Go see it. It'll be a great show. Can I say the quotes that we have? These are some quotes from some reviews that I'm going to try to do with a good radio voice. Get close. Eat the mic. Eat it. Spell-binding, hilarious, but deeply dark and meaningful work. That's from the Brighton Magazine. From the LA Times review. Those who like their Christmases on the rocks... With bitters, we'll feel right at home. That's from the LA Times. And from the LA Weekly. We got to go. We had a really, really long, long featured review that was so intense and academic, and Stephen Lee Morris really liked it, and he just dug into it and wrote this huge thing. And we couldn't pull anything from it because it was all too... But go from LA Weekly is one of the things. They're like, go, don't go. Oh, yeah. You're like, go. You got to go see this show. Okay. Guy. Let me ask you, because this happens a lot. You get a lot of academic review of your work. Did you read it and go, yeah, that's what I was going for? Did you read it and go, what the fuck did this guy see? I don't know. What show was he watching? Pretty much that, really. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of a compliment that they dove into the themes of the play. They weren't necessarily... Guy's getting all sketchy when we talk about reviews. That was funny. His eyes started turning around. But, you know, if... If the acting was bad, if the writing was bad, if the directing was bad, then you expect the reviewer to say, well, this person, you know, was okay. Maybe this person, you know, they were kind of reviewing the show. And similar with the LA Times, they dove into the themes of the show as if they were writing, like, a dissertation. Because it's such a complicated story that they were really just kind of absorbed by the themes and by what's the play really about? What is the purpose of telling the story? And I think that's a compliment to your writing. Sort of, yeah. And I think as well, because it's a play that they obviously don't know, then it's very difficult for people to actually separate the play from the production. And it's just, I saw this and it was about this. That's the thing. If you have really smooth production, they're only focusing on those things you were thinking about looking at a blank piece of paper. Yeah. But, you know, despite the sound design, or Strongest was third lead. Yeah. Like, what a star. But the leads were awful. You know, this is something they are talking about. In LA, I think it's pretty relevant on your expectations, what you think is going on, what's really going on. The illusion, the illusions of grandeur that we have as artists, the self-importance we put on our own work, that's the wrong place to be in when you're creating the work. After the fact, yeah, you can always like, and more in film, because film, you've done it. Nine months later, it comes out. Theater is very present. Every night after the show, they come backstage, or they hang out at the bar, or they want to meet people, or ask you questions. How has been immediate, visceral audience member reactions to you guys after the show? What have you seen? No, it's always very heartwarming, really. Without spoiling. A play about a hiring process. Yeah, yeah, no, it is. No, I think when it's tricky, tricky is at the interval, because at the interval, That means a lot. Yeah. It's intermission. There's a bit of a condom. Intermission means if I don't like this fucking show, I ain't coming back. Oh, they always come back. I don't care if you're a friend, family, high school alumni. If the show sucks, and I'm not sitting there in the second act, you got my notes. Yeah, right. No, it's a really great intermission point, and the audience is always like, like freaking out while they're drinking their mulled wine. Everybody always comes back. It's a really, really great act break. Yeah, what's the act break? I don't want to read. Okay, come on. But it's a good act break. Can't tell you. I love that. Yeah, it's like the audience gushes in the lights down. Theater is this thing where you actually turn off all your devices. Yeah, that's right. Power your phone down. You drive to a location where other people are actually sitting down watching the same thing. It's like a movie. It's live. But the actors can hear you if you're talking. Yeah, and they can if you're laughing or clapping. That immediate thing is different than film and TV, because you do it, and then months later, you watch it. Maybe you sneak into an audience, and you watch it on the film, and they laugh at the moment you thought. And that was months ago. But theater, it's like the timing. They adjust this, do that. They're not hearing this. And the difference between British audience and Israeli audience is what they're picking up on. And you're never finished. You're never finished with a theater performance. You might not keep a tally, but say you like to have 50 moments within the evening, go nicely forward. I'm not going to do that for you. Guy. You'll never get all 50. In a run of a show, if you have a minute of true, unbelievable, that moment where you're like, oh my God, this is perfect. We captured everything. In a run of 20 shows, and you get one minute out of that run, I think that's what it's for. I mean, and it happens every night. We try to do more. We try to do more in one minute. That's what kills me, is the living, breathing amoeba of the audiences. You're like... Like, this sang last night, and they're just not. Crickets on the next night. It's weird. Well, and to return to Johnny Barcelona's question and kind of wrap it up. It was Joey. Joey. I'm sorry. Joey Barcelona. Sorry, Joey. In looking at making it into a film, that puts you in the company of things like A Streetcar Named Desire that was a run on Broadway, took the same cast, and put it together on film. Do you feel like... Do you feel like immortalizing it in that way is the next step for you for this show? Or... I think it could be perennial, like a Christmas story. I think it's something that could run every year at Christmas, be something that keeps... Because it's something that people don't talk about. That's what we wanted to. They say that almost 50% of men in US has hired a prostitute by the time they're 18. Their father usually does it. Oh, I'm gonna get you late. Right. And nobody talks about it. Yeah. Yeah. And this, it's like the opening... Well, and that's also a huge, huge difference between theater and movies. And same with standup comics. And like Vaudeville, you can do your act over and over and over and over and over. Once it's on film, once it's a movie, a million people can see it and you can't tour it anymore. It's not the same really. So that's something that it's like, it would be awesome if we could get a film of it. I think that there's definitely an audience for it, but it also just means that it's out there and there is never going to be a moment, like if it were to magically become like a hit movie, wouldn't be able to have people sit in the audience and be surprised and not know what's gonna happen. And that's a special thing that would be sad to lose. But if it was a hit movie and we made millions of dollars, I would sacrifice that. I suppose that the nearest equivalent is Sleuth. Do you know Sleuth? Yeah. I think that's a great example of a play and a film because that has a wonderful trick in the theater, which is the program lists three actors, but there are only two actors that you see because one of the actors come, one of the characters comes back pretending to be another character. You're spoiling your own show. No, no, no, no, no. We have 30 seconds left. So thank you for listening, everyone, all of the audience. Thanks for calling in, Joey. Appreciate that. The Christmas present. At the same time. At the Sacred Fools. At the Sacred Fools Theater Company. It's on Heliotrope. For tickets, call 310-281-8337. Or visit sacredfools.org. Thank you for... Oh yeah, what's the website? sacredfools.org. sacredfools.org for tickets. The greatest Christmas show. Anyone who's hired a prostitute, please go see it. Thank you for calling in, Joey. Thanks for listening. Have a good night. Have a good night. And by the by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by We'll see you next time.