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[0:30] Will Champion: Hey, welcome back to ALE. And Well Met!.

[0:37] Maddie Murphy: Nat 20. Yes, Maddie. Maddie's back. Maddie, would you like to give us an official you're back on the podcast full intro song?

[0:47] Will Champion: We are bad, but up, but up, but I'm trying to genre bend a little bit.

[0:56] Maddie Murphy: But again, it was the shortest slow jam ever.

[1:01] Will Champion: Give him a clip. Leave him wanting more. Absolutely. Well, Maddie Murphy has made themselves then Will Champion is also here.

[1:08] Maddie Murphy: Hi. Well, I know, I know. Oh, there is straight on getting today.

[1:15] Will Champion: Thank you. Like the like the sidekick villain in a Guy Ritchie movie.

[1:20] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, exactly. I was thinking a little animated frog in a pork pie hat.

[1:25] Will Champion: I mean, sure. Why hasn't Guy Ritchie made an animated movie yet?

[1:29] Maddie Murphy: See now, that's what we need. Like a like a forest slash jungle heist film.

[1:35] Will Champion: Yes, it's you know, have you played the role playing game Honey Heist?

[1:39] Maddie Murphy: Yes, I have. So it's like that. But just like high, high octane diesel Guy Ritchie film.

[1:45] Will Champion: It happens to be animated. I mean, adore that. That would be so good.

[1:49] Maddie Murphy: Also, Maddie, you need to play Honey Heist. You play bears that are trying to steal honey.

[1:53] Will Champion: It's gone. I already liked the name. And I was like, honey pot.

[1:57] Maddie Murphy: This was a game I think made for you, Maddie, whoever they knew you before you knew you and made this game for you.

[2:03] Will Champion: I'm certain I, you know what, I'll look into it and I'm sure the creators are my parents.

[2:08] Maddie Murphy: And they've just been waiting for me to discover my legacy.

[2:11] Will Champion: This really I mean, everything you said, I went, yes, this ticks a box that I have.

[2:16] Maddie Murphy: It's so rules like two and silly and fun. OK, all right.

[2:20] Will Champion: Well, that gives us something to play. We haven't played that on the podcast yet.

[2:23] Maddie Murphy: When we get our actual play wing up and truly running, we'll get on some Honey Heist and some more goblin errands.

[2:31] Will Champion: That's my next task is because I feel like it's time for it to happen.

[2:37] Maddie Murphy: The watershed is the moment has passed. I got to learn Daggerheart.

[2:41] Will Champion: And I've been already craving running something on tour because we do have a lot of downtime.

[2:48] Maddie Murphy: And we've got a lot of downtime. You and I have been threatening to start a podcast.

[2:52] Will Champion: Cassidy and I were threatening to start lots of side podcasts that are not official.

[2:57] Maddie Murphy: I love that you keep saying threatening, not offering, not thinking through you are actively.

[3:03] Will Champion: It is a consequence that others must deal with.

[3:07] Maddie Murphy: Absolutely. In the year of our Lord, 2025, starting a podcast is a threat.

[3:10] Will Champion: You have to just be like, you know what? You know how fucking long I could talk about King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard forever.

[3:18] Maddie Murphy: Especially that especially is like, don't make me I swear to God, I'll start a Beatles podcast.

[3:24] Will Champion: The world does not need one. There's a Beatles called Fuck It, another Beatles podcast.

[3:28] Maddie Murphy: And like that's how many there are. But God damn it. I'll start one, too. It's a threat.

[3:35] Alex: Hey, friends, it's Alex here during the edit. Just want to say I'm sorry that I sound like I'm talking to you from underneath a overpass.

[3:43] Alex: Technical difficulties, man. Things recorded weird and through my webcam and not my microphone. So that's where we're at. But I love you and I'll sound good again next week. Enjoy the show. But we're not here for actual play.

[3:58] Will Champion: We're here to hang out and chat about like what D.C. was like.

[4:03] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, I've got a bunch of good questions, too, from our discord that we can answer.

[4:08] Will Champion: But before we jump into that, like, how are you all feeling after what I have begun to call tour prologue?

[4:16] Maddie Murphy: That's a great way to put it. Yeah. Yes. Tour beta has been going insanely good.

[4:22] Will Champion: I'm very appreciative. You know, y'all taking you get so used to the New York run 15 months up to eight shows a week. You're on the train all the time. You just get into the grind taking two months off and then jumping back into shows.

[4:36] Maddie Murphy: I was winded. It was so exciting. But I'm like, oh, I got to build this muscle back up.

[4:42] Will Champion: So it was awesome to kick things off in Kentucky and then go to D.C. and kind of have that rolling into it.

[4:48] Maddie Murphy: But man, D.C., I mean, the little nerd heart of mine of who just remembers seeing a show in Chicago and falling in love with what theater could be and then realizing you're on stage at Kennedy Center was very it makes me emotional.

[5:08] Will Champion: It was just really like one of those moments you remember where you go, I have to take stock of how far I've come, of how much this how far this show has come.

[5:18] Maddie Murphy: Yeah. And we're here in one of the most iconic art stages in the country.

[5:26] Will Champion: Yeah. So that I think is something I still have not processed. And also just D.C.'s cool.

[5:34] Maddie Murphy: I haven't spent a lot of time there. So getting the flavor of it and meeting the audience was we were so welcomed.

[5:42] Will Champion: And everyone was so down to clown to the extent that we needed to make a new prop on set because the naming conventions.

[5:50] Maddie Murphy: Oh, yeah. Good God. And that will be coming with us.

[5:53] Will Champion: Anybody who's listening to this now and has not yet seen the tour iteration of the show, be prepared for at some point to witness a sign.

[6:02] Maddie Murphy: We have a question on set. We have a question from the discord that is very simply, who is Bartholomew? Why is Bartholomew? How is Bartholomew? So and that's we'll get there.

[6:12] Will Champion: Yeah, we can. I don't know. I mean, we can answer it now if we want.

[6:17] Maddie Murphy: But yeah, dude, I'll tell you what. I like D.C. as well.

[6:22] Will Champion: But if somebody wants to make a whole bunch of money, open a good bar in Foggy Bottom that's open past 11 p.m.

[6:31] Maddie Murphy: I'll come. It's just dying.

[6:35] Will Champion: Foggy Bottom is adorable, but there is nothing there but cute row houses.

[6:41] Maddie Murphy: It was very cute. Well, also us degenerates who would get out of work at 10:30.

[6:46] Will Champion: That was it, too. I'm just like, ah, other people at this point are already asleep.

[6:50] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, everybody's going to bed. To tend to their children.

[6:54] Will Champion: And I'm just like, I terrorize the neighborhood.

[6:57] Maddie Murphy: Get up in the morning and continue ruining the country.

[7:01] Will Champion: Take that. Take that, Washington, D.C. Oh, wow.

[7:04] Maddie Murphy: You zinged him good, Murray. You really got him. Change is going to happen now.

[7:08] Will Champion: Honestly, to that point, though, I remember we were all very, I think, rightfully trepidatious about starting this whole tour off at the Kennedy Center, which was the locus of so much contention and problematic action from the current administration.

[7:24] Maddie Murphy: But the one of the biggest things that stuck out to me during our time, that was the fact that the audiences were so ready to not only come to the Kennedy Center to see something different, but to feel like there were people in the Kennedy Center who were in their corner.

[7:43] Will Champion: The space could not be taken over by malicious intent and by a bad administration of our administration.

[7:51] Maddie Murphy: Our intention as the 27th Tavern was to liberate it in some way.

[7:57] Will Champion: And again, sort of remind everybody that they can't kill the arts and they can't kill.

[8:03] Maddie Murphy: Yeah. Nine hundred people screaming be gay, do crime.

[8:06] Will Champion: Yes. Like it was pretty great. Yeah, I think.

[8:09] Maddie Murphy: And it's also a great reminder that I mean, to put it in just shortly, like there are nerds everywhere.

[8:15] Will Champion: And whatever sort of a political social movement is happening at the time, people live where they live.

[8:22] Maddie Murphy: It is not dominated by one specific ideology or need.

[8:25] Will Champion: And so to get to come to these places where it may seem as if arts or censorship in a way that we don't agree with is happening, it doesn't mean that there is not an audience who is hungry for it.

[8:39] Maddie Murphy: And in fact, it felt great to find people and go right now. I don't feel that I have a lot of access in the town I live in, in the place where I've made my home for one reason or another.

[8:50] Will Champion: This is where I live and this is where I've invested my life.

[8:53] Maddie Murphy: And the privilege of being like, hey, we're here. We're like you coming out is super powerful.

[9:01] Will Champion: And so I'm really grateful that we got to make and find community there and we're welcomed as well.

[9:07] Maddie Murphy: It was so, I mean, they all felt like so thankful that we were there.

[9:11] Will Champion: It was wonderful. Like everybody that we met and talked to.

[9:14] Maddie Murphy: And I'll be damaged if like we didn't have a whole lot of people just come down from New York like a bunch of times to see the show.

[9:22] Will Champion: Like huge shout outs to all the people that were like, I'm going to go.

[9:27] Maddie Murphy: I won't throw them fully under the bus because they're shy.

[9:30] Will Champion: But we had one person who just was like in the disco was like, I had a long week. Fuck it. I'm coming back. We'll see you guys tonight.

[9:36] Maddie Murphy: And I just got on a bus on a Saturday, came down, saw the show, got on a bus and went back home.

[9:41] Will Champion: Yeah, crazy. It's so humbling.

[9:44] Maddie Murphy: It's so cool. Also, now it's that reminder of tour life because I know I grew up in the Midwest.

[9:49] Will Champion: And if there's a concert you want to go to, you're like, oh, sweet. It's only a three hour drive. Let's do it.

[9:54] Maddie Murphy: And so people are like, we came in from Maryland. We came from Delaware. You know, we drove four hours. We're so excited. And you're like, that is your whole day.

[10:03] Will Champion: And again, just humbling and cool to be like, all right, let's go.

[10:07] Maddie Murphy: Yeah. Right. We had the people from Kentucky, the people that live 20 minutes away from where we're in Kentucky, missed it.

[10:13] Will Champion: And then they drove up to Washington.

[10:15] Maddie Murphy: It was amazing.

[10:17] Will Champion: Yeah, it's just really cool.

[10:19] Maddie Murphy: Like, I also want to give you guys and the cast credit because I think that the new energy from the audience is absolutely like a transfusion of new blood into the show.

[10:29] Will Champion: But also talking about you were saying, Maddie, having to sort of flex that muscle again as somebody on stage with you guys.

[10:37] Maddie Murphy: I didn't feel that I felt like these tour shows, particularly as we hit D.C., have suddenly jumped back into the level of quality that we were at the end of the like polishing and honing period in New York before the fatigue of the long run set in.

[10:51] Will Champion: It feels like we are operating at the top of our game right out the gate.

[10:55] Maddie Murphy: Everybody is ready to rumble and no one is, at least for me, it feels no one is overly hungry to do things.

[11:02] Will Champion: Everybody's just ready to play again.

[11:05] Maddie Murphy: And that's the like it's been lovely to both be in and to watch some of these shows.

[11:12] Will Champion: And this is, as you say, the prologue. There's only up to go from here.

[11:16] Maddie Murphy: And then we have our guest stars coming in, which is another infusion of energy.

[11:20] Will Champion: And it's just like it's so cool to see, know that that's coming up and be like our friends are coming back and they are going to continue to change and shape the show.

[11:31] Maddie Murphy: I will say that. Yeah, I think everybody came back so ready.

[11:37] Will Champion: Everybody missed the show. So it's not just a matter of like, oh, it's another contract starting.

[11:43] Maddie Murphy: And everybody came in with new ideas. But also I'm what's so thrilling about this tour is now we've all transitioned to an ensemble.

[11:51] Will Champion: So before people had more designated roles or titles in the cast.

[11:56] Maddie Murphy: And instead now it's no everybody plays multiple roles. Everybody is an ensemble member.

[12:01] Will Champion: You see switch them ups all the time. Nobody is strictly in one track.

[12:05] Maddie Murphy: And what that means is you just get more variety, more energy, more excitement.

[12:11] Will Champion: Nobody can has plateaued in anything because they are challenged to always be doing new stuff.

[12:17] Maddie Murphy: I didn't play any characters. I played one character twice.

[12:21] Will Champion: And like I still haven't played a bunch of characters, but I haven't gotten anywhere close to all the characters that I can play like in.

[12:28] Maddie Murphy: You're so right. Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah.

[12:31] Will Champion: I will also say I am so delighted in New York. I thought was only played by a couple of us actors.

[12:36] Maddie Murphy: Ethel is now open like there is all the characters are pretty much all fair game.

[12:44] Will Champion: So now you get to like unlock that bingo card.

[13:25] Will Champion: To see me do everything I can possibly do on this stage.

[13:56] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, that's official on the record now, and I'm even gonna amp it up and I'm gonna say two liters of soda as well.

[14:03] Will Champion: Oh.

[14:04] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, it's a party where you get one pizza, maybe two slices.

[14:10] Will Champion: You can get as much as our baby. Holy shit. We're gonna splurge.

[14:15] Madelyn Murphy: We're gonna do a family meal from Domino's, baby. Yeah, also Domino's if you're listening, give us a sponsorship.

[14:21] Will Champion: Yes.

[14:23] Madelyn Murphy: It'll be so good.

[14:25] Will Champion: God, the Noid will be there. It'll high-five you because you...

[14:30] Madelyn Murphy: Way too many TST.

[14:33] Will Champion: That was a deep cut. That was awesome these days they brought it. Somebody's gonna do it.

[14:39] Madelyn Murphy: I mean, I'm gonna do it. You've thrown down the gauntlet and we've promised...

[14:43] Will Champion: Endless pizza and I can't wait to see and we've promised a finite...

[14:48] Madelyn Murphy: But a very large degree of...

[14:55] Will Champion: There it is. There it is. Mm-hmm. Somewhere in between.

[14:57] Madelyn Murphy: CeCe's buffet and...

[14:57] Will Champion: Infinity.

[15:00] Madelyn Murphy: My God, no, no, no, not between and...

[15:04] Will Champion: Infinity. The limit doesn't exist. So we'll have to say, but big finite, we'll say.

[15:09] Madelyn Murphy: Finite. Do we wanna do some of those Discord questions?

[15:13] Will Champion: Yeah.

[15:15] Madelyn Murphy: I think that's fair. Let's start with Bartholomew. Bartholomew. This is from Vesper. Who is Bartholomew? Why is Bartholomew? How is Bartholomew?

[15:23] Will Champion: I think I started... I don't know. We don't know what the deal is. We do not understand it. My theory is that it is... Bartholomew is one of the twelve apostles that no one talks about.

[15:39] Madelyn Murphy: So like he didn't doubt and he didn't start a church and he didn't... he's got no big stories, but he was there.

[15:45] Will Champion: So like I think it's a name that is in people's heads and it's sort of high fantasy and it's safe to say out loud like you've... it's a word that you've heard in the world.

[15:57] Madelyn Murphy: But for whatever reason, I'd say that one in about four shows, if not more often, the damn bartender and/or the wizard get named Bartholomew.

[16:11] Will Champion: Yeah, and we just like we got to a point where like we can't do this anymore and like it's a funnier bit now for us to just be like...

[16:18] Madelyn Murphy: No.

[16:24] Will Champion: Okay, we simply cannot know because there's nothing that we can't do anything with it. We've like there's no jokes to be made with it and it's just like it happens and a very real thing happens where it's... it's maybe we can get through it because we're pros, but you can see everybody in the super like half a second going...

[16:43] Madelyn Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[16:45] Will Champion: Adding a backside to the sign that says Balthazar on it for the exact same...

[16:50] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, it's also fun because maybe it's a DC thing, right? We're still learning like regional little quirks.

[16:55] Will Champion: But yes, I think one week in all the shows that I did, four of the shows had a character named Bartholomew.

[17:04] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, it's just freaking constant.

[17:05] Will Champion: And so now we have a sign on stage that has Bartholomew with the Ghostbusters no over it.

[17:11] Madelyn Murphy: You look back for our notebooks from the past year of shows in New York. I guarantee you it's at least twice a week. It's so...

[17:18] Will Champion: Bartholomew's. And like we just really want... I think this is a... since we're talking about like naming NPCs and like reaching out to the audience and people, especially the people who listen to this or like repeat viewers, like get weird. Like we get a lot of like Dan's and Steve's and like that's fun for a minute.

[17:38] Madelyn Murphy: But like the more specific and out there and weirder you are, the wilder the show gets.

[17:44] Will Champion: Conducted. Do you guys have a favorite NPC name is what I'm gonna remember?

[17:48] Madelyn Murphy: I had someone... I looked at somebody one night and was like, please give me... I want the weirdest name you can think of for this wizard and she went, gotta be Jessica Rabbit.

[17:58] Will Champion: And it was just a weird show because Jessica Rabbit was the wizard and I did an impression. That was a thing, but I was there, can vouch. Yeah, I had pink hair the whole time, like it was great. It was just a whole different weird energy.

[18:12] Will Champion: Well, not... I mean, I think we can deal with anything and we love anything new and hyper creative. I am NOT going to shit on names like...

[18:22] Madelyn Murphy: Wall or anything just because I remember where...

[18:26] Will Champion: We do get a lot of like Dan's and Steve's, very generic white guy names, but I think one of my favorite most recent is somebody named the buried wizard in the giant monologue that our wizard does to be like, ah, the great havoc is coming.

[18:41] Madelyn Murphy: The buried wizard was named Jennifer and what I loved about that is that person said Jennifer with their whole chest and then it turned out that Stomp jumped in with his Jennifer Coolidge impression and then it became canonically that Jennifer Coolidge was this great source of evil.

[18:58] Will Champion: And so I think too, it's just like... it's just anything that we don't normally get and in the lexicon of names that exist and names people can create, that's the only reason we're like our Bartholomew in there. There's also no famous Bartholomew's, right?

[19:11] Madelyn Murphy: We can start doing... I can just be like if you say Jennifer, I can be like, ah, yes, she loves to Hewitt or whatever. There are Jennifer's, but there are famous Bob's, there are famous Steve's, Steve Blue's Clues. We can do it all day. But like there isn't a... like there's nothing to reference with Bartholomew. It's just there.

[19:28] Will Champion: I mean, you've got Bart Simpson and that's it.

[19:34] Madelyn Murphy: Yep, that's literally... I think I'd say I've said it a million times I think on this podcast before. I wasn't even in this show. I was watching this show from a millionth row in New York. It was the buried wizard got named redacted. I'm talking... I watched Diego fall to his knees on stage in praise and that is a rarity, that level of like...

[19:55] Will Champion: I don't want to call it complexity in a naming convention there, but it definitely... it's outside the box.

[20:06] Madelyn Murphy: And it opened... the speech was the wildest lore drop I've ever seen because they were doing bits with like sound cues to beep out things. It became like a whole information censoring mode. It was just genius and the more wild outside-the-box takes we get, it's the same as true for nouns and adjectives. One of the last bosses we fought in DC for the BBG was the noun itself was Henry the unattractive leper.

[20:29] Will Champion: Genius.

[20:30] Madelyn Murphy: Mm-hmm. We did... Stomp was DMing then and tried to use the leper's skin to grapple, flinging limbs at you and whatnot. So it's so beautiful.

[20:40] Will Champion: This is interesting. It's from track 187. What's something that just does not work in this show despite many tries? Like have hard lessons been learned and I...

[21:03] Madelyn Murphy: I'm not sure that we found anything. I think it would only... it would boil down to which we really don't do, but it's negating the fun. So I think the only times that the show could quote-unquote fail, it really kind of can't fail, but the only time is if we have elements that really stutter the story to a close.

[21:26] Will Champion: And an example that has never happened, but it's like actively in a scene, one of your scene partners is throwing something out there and you just negate it, right? And you're like, no, I don't want to do that. It's like the, hey, we're at the castle, then you go, no, we're not, we're at a Walmart, dad.

[21:46] Madelyn Murphy: And then otherwise, I think the only other thing that would make the show go at a pace that would feel unsatisfying is if we didn't follow the fun, which is just a principle again of like follow where the audience wants to go and what is intriguing to them and trying to push them down a narrative path. You're like, today I want to explore, I want to explain what it means to be...

[22:10] Will Champion: Right, like if you're trying to force our own message and we're not negating the gifts and the contributions that the audience is bringing to us, that is when momentum would not sustain it and that's when we're not doing our job of listening to what story we're making together.

[22:27] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, that's that would be us forgetting the point of the entire show.

[22:32] Will Champion: Yeah, right. So I was like, I think that's really the only way because even mistakes are gifts. All the goofy things that are thrown at us are gifts and the only way we could fail is if we just refuse those gifts in whatever way that we...

[22:47] Madelyn Murphy: Soft it or because we just weren't paying attention. I will say that there are some chaos chart things that we have thought would be a good idea and then they roll them and then we're like, yeah, all right, that wasn't... I got the lag spike one the other night and I was just like...

[23:03] Will Champion: It just immediately... we're like it was just me responding to things five seconds after they happened and it was immediately like, no, no, that's too much.

[23:10] Madelyn Murphy: I think the only other thing is it's less like a hard and fast rule.

[23:25] Will Champion: Calzone big boy. Come here.

[23:31] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, for anyone... this has to be anyone who doesn't know, William Champion has a son and that son is a big fat baby cat named Calzone, who's the best boy in the world. I've hung out with Calzone and I've pledged my fealty to him as well.

[23:47] Will Champion: He's a big baby and he's so upset that I'm not paying him any attention or not...

[23:53] Madelyn Murphy: What I was gonna say is that just things that we find ourselves like realizing mid-show and it's less at moment mistaken intent and more like we had an idea, we acted on the idea and realized it was sort of like, oh, whoops, just optics things.

[24:09] Will Champion: Yeah.

[24:11] Madelyn Murphy: Realizing that things sound fun in our heads, we all get up to act them out and when you get into the tableau of whatever it is you're doing, you go, mmm, that's... something's got to change right now because this isn't gonna work. But beyond that, it like, you know, I don't think the show would be as successful as it is if there weren't things... well, how do I want to phrase this?

[24:29] Will Champion: If it wasn't full of things that we can turn and twist and make work, you know? I rarely feel like we have been stonewalled hard by something to the point where the show grinds to a halt. In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen that beyond the things that we set out of the being able just like, hey, these things in these kind of topics just don't play on stage or pretty much on any well-meaning improv stage, so they won't be making their way into the show.

[24:55] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, as you said, oh wait, Mr. Champion does Calzone couldn't curve. He literally just got the zoomie spookies and leapt off the bed like a fucking F-22 Raptor.

[25:05] Will Champion: I see it. Yeah, I think, and again, this is super rare. Sometimes we've gotten some suggestions or some things where people were well-intentioned or they think it's funny and, you know, like I think one case somebody said something pretty misogynistic.

[25:21] Madelyn Murphy: But the best is then all of us on stage, especially the DM and the TK at the time could just go, hey, no. People can get actively roasted in real time lovingly, but it also really helps to set the tone to be like, hey, if you are thinking about shouting out something disparaging about women or the word dildo again, know that nobody really wants this right now.

[25:34] Will Champion: In front of the whole Kennedy Center, man. Yeah, or you'll be called out in a funny way, be like cool, and now we've set...

[25:50] Madelyn Murphy: Of the techs at Kentucky, and I was like, it's like the spirit of Sam Bay are washed over me and I went, I've got to play a Russian cat, Russian cat. And then playing Cartier for the first time on our last matinee, I was obsessed and it only made me want to try new things with her and do other things. I think, and this is crazy coming from the amount of bullshit I've been able to pull during final combat, but arguably the most fulfilled and satisfied I've ever felt with a boss kill came from Cartier this past week. It was awesome. That was radical, juicy. It was awesome. It was media also will became a cat. Seeing this tall, tall man suddenly just embody calzone possessed him. And watching him maintain this little kitty cat for two and a half hours was a sheer delight.

I was so glad I was on the bench that day. Great day. My new characters that have been unlocked for me are Svezda and Leighton on team magic, which has been super fun for me. And I somehow made it where I'm very excited to keep playing around, especially with Leighton, I'm figuring out my take on him, but I've somehow made him the most physically demanding character because I insist on moving like a Komodo dragon. And I forget that moving like a Komodo dragon is basically doing push ups while sprawling. So, so awesome. And I love it, baby. So yeah, it's been really cool to unlock that and legs moved to team mischief, by the way. So that's also like a fun little tweak in how everybody's playing legs because it makes a difference what cohort they're in.

[28:07] Will Champion: Amazing. I mean, man, I mean, so far, mine's Ethel is the only like new one that I've gotten to play around with a whole bunch and she's fun. That Moomoo is surprisingly warm. But it's just like, no, but you've got so much like movement in there and like running around and like, Oh, God, it's just, it's a blast. I don't know. I put on that wig and was again, like possessed and it was just like, I put it on and I hadn't thought that much about it. And I put the wig on and went, I want to gamble. And like that was that's where I was at. And I was like, all right, that's a crazy old gambling. No. So much fun. Just such a good time. Let's see. Then we do we do have some like who's everybody's favorite character to perform and what that character's favorite tavern drink be from Kibi.

Thanks for that question. And then we got we did get some other like what NPC name caught you all the most off guard. I think we've answered that from unless you've got a better answer. But this is fun from nobody. Is there anything that feels or is different about touring that you weren't expecting? And anything unexpectedly the same or similar? Hmm. That is a fabulous question. I can go first. I think for me, it's the amount of downtime. I like really didn't I thought we would have a bunch of downtime during the day. I was like, okay. But it's a lot like when you're just like in a I don't have a house to take care of. Right? I don't have chores to do that. Like that's not part of my life when we're on the road now.

And there are some so it's like I can I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna work out and I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna cook and I'm trying to do lots of that like maintain things and then like create content or writer all of that but like I don't have I don't have my like life errands to do. It's very strange and I find myself actually missing them a lot like I've got up this morning and watered all my plants and was like, Oh, my baby is taking care of my plants and hanging out. I mean, that's been the really the thing that I was expecting but not to I wasn't expecting it to be quite as big of a deal was like, missing my home. And I have made I have managed to like really move into these hotel rooms and like set up.

[30:40] Madelyn Murphy: Oh, I'm a hotel person. So this is very exciting for me. Mr. Champion. What about you?

[30:45] Will Champion: Ah, come back to me. I'm still formulating.

[30:48] Madelyn Murphy: Okay. Yeah, I guess I guess it's so early in the process. Right?

[30:52] Will Champion: That's true. I will preface. I have wanted to tour since Twenty Sided Tavern was a thing. And they were just and it was, you know, a gleam in the eye of David Carpenter, right of like, just the idea that of getting to I owe it was always my dream with acting to not only do it full time a that felt like such a huge mountain to climb. But then to be like an acting makes me travel because I have a bit of wanderlust and I have that bug. So the idea of getting to go city to city and see the entire see the country and it's my job to be there was such a dream. So I think the excitement of that, seeing that finally come to fruition and and you know, I'm a maximalist. So just figuring out how to pack my bags and fit the eight caftans I'll never wear but feel the need my emotional support caftans.

I think something else that I'm really loving as we discover is again in the transition to all of us becoming an ensemble. There is a different balance and a different flow to the scheduling every week. I think every actor in the cast averages about four or five shows a week on stage. And then everybody does their time as about two shows a week will be there as the swing. So they're at the theater, but they're listening and watching the show as opposed to being on stage. And I think that sort of evenness of flow has been really refreshing and nice, especially in terms of energy. And with your using your time. And I think to just this kind of like, everyone has come in so fresh with new ideas and has unlocked so many new elements of the show, that the excitement is insane.

Like, we never plateaued in New York, but we definitely had like thoroughly explored boundaries of what we can do. And now it's like, it's that was now there's a whole new deep end of the pool to explore where the boundaries have expanded even more. So and I'm like, Oh, let's test those. Yeah.

[32:55] Madelyn Murphy: Well, you got anything?

[32:57] Will Champion: I think the comment of like, it's still we're still in the early days is what with me because I, the last time I did a tour like this, it was long, but not nearly as long as our tour. So I'm still in the stage of like, Oh, yeah, I'm comfy with these things, right? Like, I feel comfortable getting back into hotel living. And I'm a person who is not averse to time spent in solitude. So like being able to like wander around the city and find the local comic shop on my own. I took myself to Nando's one day, like, these are things that I like, I'm very comfy with. I while I am most, I think I'll find an answer to this question in this next Chicago stay, because we're sitting down in one hotel room for seven weeks. That is it that is like functionally your test running moving to a place.

[34:07] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, that's a residency we could get you could collect a mail. Yeah, exactly. Believe me. So okay, talk about downtime. Speak for yourself not having chores. I spent hours a day tweaking my commander decks and magic the gathering. My boxes are coming in today. Well, my all my all my boxes. This is my tour tonight is I'm going to sit down and get all my all my magic.

[34:27] Will Champion: What you can't see right here is on my dresser in this room that I'm recording in there are stacks, five different stacks of different land cards, probably about 200 lands a piece, and another a new commander deck that I'm now building. Maddie is turning inside out right now.

[34:40] Madelyn Murphy: This is Yeah, I'm so sorry. You've been subjected to this now.

[34:42] Will Champion: No, no apologies. This is my favorite. I do not play magic the gathering, but I love being around passionate nerds. And I love hearing just seeing these two goblins on my screen. Their shoulders hit their ears in terms of speaking about something they love. So I'm always here for it. I don't play MTG. I have yet people I have played William Champion. So I know the rules I have played and I went lovely. Here's what I prefer. Put my ass in a book and an Afghan blanket in the room. I will tune in as I see fit to pipe in and then I will quietly read so I like being in the room. You just don't need.

[35:04] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Besides I can't I also can't afford this hobby. Because if I went full MTG, it would be I would need an entirely new suitcase for my color coded, coordinated, themed decks.

[35:18] Will Champion: So this is exactly what was leading me here. It's talking about shipping said receiving mail at a hotel. I because magically gathering is dummy expensive. I have taken to the art of proxying which is where you go online and you find your own art that you want to use and you create your own magic card. And then you send it to this little printing service that knows how to do this. And you get a little tangled cardboard box in the mail full of perfectly edited and cut custom magic cards for an nth of the price of what it would be to get those cards on purpose from from wizards. Love you wizards. But like, come on. Well, first of all, talk to us about getting 20 sides have an official magic cards and then I'll get back in and up. Yes. I've just for this new commander deck, I've just finished up proxying some cards that I am not mailing to this house here in New York, but I'm mailing to the hotel.

[36:08] Madelyn Murphy: There we go. I again, I'm from Chicago. So having seven weeks home is going to be bonkers for me. But I was about to say I was like, if you want to send it to my mom's house, Jody, Jody's got a whole house in the suburbs. That'll be the my my proxy recipient for all the weird stuff that I buy.

[36:27] Will Champion: Your mom's got my magic cards.

[36:29] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, dog. Oh, Jody Murphy. She's coming to opening night. Everybody should get ready.

[36:35] Will Champion: Amazing. All right, here we go. This is real relevant and straightforward from panic 18. What was it like playing to a much bigger house? Freaking loud. I'll tell you that much wild. The fact that, you know, we get the house count and be told like, Oh, yeah, it's a smaller house today. It's like 600 people's 600 people. It's like 200 people more than the max at the stage 42 was. I mean, it was insane. It was insane.

[37:00] Madelyn Murphy: I'm sorry. Well, could you introduce us to that mouse that that mouse that came out of your mouth?

[37:05] Will Champion: It's calzone was chasing a mouse around the house. I don't know what happened. Okay, sorry. spoke right into the like literally chasing across the bed spoke into the mic to say his piece about all the insiders backed away.

[37:15] Madelyn Murphy: I appreciate that's one busy mouse and credit. Thank you for stopping in. And that mouse's name is Bartholomew.

[37:23] Will Champion: And there it is.

[37:24] Madelyn Murphy: And there it is. Um, I would say I think something that I've noticed very early on is we had amazing houses in New York. But I felt like you know, New York, some people were coming in where they're like, I'm seeing the show because it is off Broadway. And there was a ticket. I don't know much about it. Or there was just like, there wasn't automatic buy in to most shows you had to put in the work to ease the audience in to get them on board with the gimmicks and the energy and the pace. And so far, I found like that sort of preamble is really not necessary. The nerves are ready, dude, they show up ready. And they're ready to, they're ready to participate in exactly the way that we normally have to like massage into some folks.

And so that's been cool. It's the automatic buy in. So then there's that and then it's concentrated by hundreds of more people than we're used to having at the same time. Yeah, it's really cool. But I think I think it was that just initial energy. What I found and feel free to disagree with me, it is loud. And it's so exciting. Once we hit like the 600 person mark, which still is crazy to talk about the difference between 600 people and 1000 people in the house. To me, it feels kind of the same because again, we have that buy in. So you're just this wave of energy. And I think that's cool.

[39:15] Madelyn Murphy: All I ever thought maybe me projecting my hopes and dreams onto it because we will do this in the sphere but like that level of people just being ready to jump out of there and like everybody's got on a t-shirt, everybody's rolling in a Dungeons and Dragons t-shirt or like the casual closet cosplay that's going on, everybody just like a real casual corset and a blouse like easy red fairy garb. I think there's more of that than sort of people wandering in to see what's up in New York. Dude in the front row who is in like a nice two-piece black suit but with a full metal shoulder guard and plate helmet right in the front row the other day. Rad! Oh, people with greaves gauntlets, I'm here for it!

Yeah, and just lots of, and then, but also like hundreds of people just rolling in there. I've seen yes, they're naturals, so many yes, they're both natural t-shirts with the 220s where your boobs go and it's so funny. I actually, I also want to give credence to somebody who, their character they came dressed as their personal D&D character and they painted themselves head to toe green. And so I want to give credit to Golden Heart is the name of the character that they gave me. So Golden Heart, if you're listening, we're thinking about you every day, you crushed it! Yeah, it just, but like that energy feels, you can feel it walking in like that everybody is vibrating on a different level than, okay, yeah, we'll go to a show and people are excited in New York and people were pumped and people showed up in cosplay.

It was great, but there's something about just the sheer numbers of it. Also, they chant more, the chanting is awesome. And like when the room shifts somebody or decides that they like somebody, like that's it, you're not winning, man! Like that's it! Yeah, Peach is the apprentice. We had to like reverse engineer a show. We're just like, they like this person too much. Yeah, it's great!

[41:27] Will Champion: I mean, you know, it's been fun and wild and I'm looking forward to, boy, we have a 2000 seat house I think out there waiting for us somewhere and man, that'll be wild. We have one from Sad Cypress, which is what changes have there been made to the show for the touring version and how are those feeling at this point to everyone? Which is I think probably our last question here and a good one because we have made some slices and some dices to the show. I think anybody who comes to see the show, first of all, the opening of the roster is a crazy one and will continue to affect the show and like cascade in ways that I don't think even we are prepared for because you have, you know, legs can now play with Dustin, which was not a possibility.

Right? But to me, the real treat has been the time-saving measures that have been applied to the show. Anybody who comes to see it will notice that the onboarding section is significantly truncated and what used to be a pipe dream was to have onboarding completed in 15 minutes. Now it's getting completed in like 12 minutes, 12 to 13, yeah, regularly. And it buys us like at least five good minutes of scene work throughout the rest of the show. And we've been coming in under or right at two hours and 30 the entire run in DC and we've gotten to play more on the back end. We've also like, you'll notice that like we're doing a lot less of the shots are gone. We just don't do shots on stage anymore.

And like there was like half a tick when I was like sad and then we did one play without them and I was like, don't miss them, don't miss them at all. And like we get hats and we do that, but like stopping everything to take a moment and make a toast and stuff was fun, but also in a show with eight credits, that's eight minutes of show, yeah, that like is gone or at least four minutes.

[43:18] Madelyn Murphy: Speaking of Chris, it just, and I'm not going to blow the surprise because again for us out there, there is now a new additional show element if somebody gets a certain amount of crits in the show, something very special happens. This is again is a super rarity because it's not often somebody rolls that many crits, but there's new little elements. I also really want to give credit and so we were at Stage 42, we worked with an amazing group of people. The production crew was there every day working their asses off and they were phenomenal. But we had to say, you know, naturally when we moved away from Stage 42, that was the end of our ability to work with that crew on the road. The production crew travels with us and it's been so nice to forge relationships with all these new people.

But also like we have new teammates. We have somebody who is so rad who strictly works on props and so and so is constantly focused. Shout out to Gina and who came in and was immediately like, what is something that was missing from your New York set that I can do to encourage more prop work? And our new wardrobe guy Donny who immediately realized that I wrecked all of my pants and has reinforced all of my pants and he got Will a new pair of pants and Will immediately destroyed six minutes later. Will destroyed them, literally ripped them that night and now we got a third new pair and I feel like a new person. But you know, we have Carly and Cello and I know I'm just throwing names out there, but I really want to give so much credit to like this new McKenna.

Let's get them all, you guys! Everybody, we're so pumped that you're all here and we're so lucky to have you. But we have a whole team that is devoted to the show, Sky Baby, that's every show and devoted to like coming in and being like, where are there improvements to be made from their jump? And they're just like, it's so awesome. They keep walking up with ideas, right? Like Sky just came out and was like, hey, just so you know, if you ever are trying to like pull the audience yelling wise, I'm running a decibel meter back here. I can tell you who yelled the loudest if you just ask me and I'll say it over a god mic. Is that cool? And we're like, hell yeah, that's cool! That's radical! I didn't know we had a decibel meter like at our disposal before, so let's go! I want Sky on the god mic so bad. Sky is so sassy, it's perfect!

[45:52] Will Champion: Also credit to Gina. Gina's the one who came up with the Bartholomew anti-sign because she, which is also, she like clocked what was happening in the show and clocked something that we could use and proactively was like, here you go. She was like, why does that happen all the time? And we were like, I don't know, we don't make a sign that says no. And she was like, done! And the next night we just add one. Oh God, we have so many more props, y'all too! There's so much more props and dumb that pool noodles! So much! Jasmine had with us, Jasmine Stomp and I went to the Museum of American History at one point while we were there and at the gift shop, I'm like reading some book about women in Marvel that they have on the shelves and I got a tap on my shoulder and I turn around and I see Jasmine's feet and I, she says, look!

I look at her hands assuming that she's holding something. Oh no, no, no! I look further up and she's got this ridiculous costume like astronaut helmet over her head, the cheesiest grin on her face and basically goes, I'm gonna get this for the show! She cross-references this with Gina and now we have a new prop added to the show and a new precedent set for all the places that we go! Yeah, and the openness to changing the structure of the items that are on the set and like this now completely symbiotic and what's the word I'm looking for? An ever-growing relationship between us and the production crew is delightful. I often see some of them like literally sitting right in the wings on stage right, listening to and watching the show in real time and reacting to it. So it's, the whole show has become an evolving process of everybody raising the bar each and every night.

[48:11] Madelyn Murphy: If you just started whipping dice back at Maddie, if you want to know like something that's truly wild is that like Maddie whips a die off stage and then it just comes flying back. She about hit me the other day! Like I just chucked the die off stage and it just came right back and the audience loved it! Gina's got a great arm and I love it! Gina truly is like, you chuck your dice, I'm gonna find them! And you wait! So it's just a fun thing to have me purposely not trying to hide my dice but just to be like, all right, Gina, tip for tat, here we go, good luck!

[48:46] Will Champion: Oh man, well this has been a lovely chat. It's been a lovely prologue. It's been a great, it's so nice to be back on the road. We've got a little breathing space here and then we rip Chicago up in Chicago! Yeah, it'll be great! Lord baby! And y'all, we're just, the reception that we've gotten, thank you so much for sticking by our side. We're so excited and I'm so excited for all y'all to hear and see all of these changes that is the culmination of about 20 people who are just doing great shit. So man, thank you so much for helping inspire and spur us forward in this! It rolls, it rolls! I was there was another, it just didn't get brought up, it's probably an answer to a bunch of these questions.

The fact that we 100, all of us on the road too is very cool. Like there has been no need for us to like be like, all right, we got to learn a new person or whatever and the crew has been that and it's been great and wonderful and unbelievably smooth. But the fact that like we just all like cracked our knuckles and went back at it was what a gift!

[49:57] Madelyn Murphy: And we're, yes, to echo everything Maddie just said, thank you, thank you, thank you for caring about this goofy thing that we do so much! It is amazing! Well, we get to go on the road because we, people are willing to see it and support the show, so thank you!

[50:35] Will Champion: Truly, goddamn, we're so stoked to show you what we come up with! Oh, we're even weirder! It is getting weirder and weirder! We do sometimes have to be like, hey, hey, this may be too crunchy, are we getting too weird?

[50:52] Madelyn Murphy: I do not know the meaning of the phrase!

[50:54] Will Champion: Yeah, I know, right? It's a blood magic champion!

[50:57] Madelyn Murphy: I do love Will's DM debut! We just, we just shotgunned aliens right at him! We were like, uh-oh! Right out the gate, there was no downtime!

[51:12] Will Champion: Yep, don't you, don't you, don't you do that! You were the glee in his eyes when he got to incorporate a lipids into the show! Come on!

[51:19] Madelyn Murphy: Hey, that was an honest to God noun that somebody gave me! In fact, the real joy of that, like you came out with aliens and not two nights ago when I was home in New York, Emily and I had happened to watch the first Men in Black movie, so we came out strong with the Men in Black cloaks for that first combat and I feel ascendant! So beautiful!

[51:40] Will Champion: All right, friends, well we'll see you all, Chicago! We're coming for you! And then all the other places we're coming for you too! Man, Boston, get ready! Philly, get ready! Greensburg, get ready! This whole, like the rest of the Chicago run and then the rest of our sort of East Coast jam here is going to be a hell of a lot of fun, so we're real, real pumped! Thank you, Calzone! Calzone's also jacked up about it and I'm ready! We'll see you guys all soon! Until then!