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[0:20] Elliott Mattox: This is Equity One, Broadway's Happy Hour. Pour yourself a drink. Enjoy us as we chat about life, theater, and everything in between. I'm Elliott Mattox.

[0:31] Caleb Dicke: And I'm Caleb Dicke. Join us for your Equity One.

[0:38] Elliott Mattox: Hi Khai! Welcome to this week's episode of Equity One. You guys, we have our special guest here. We're very excited. Teal Wicks is here, everyone.

[0:49] Teal Wicks: Oh hi, hi, hi, hi. Hi, hi, hi.

[0:51] Caleb Dicke: We're also having a whiskey ginger with our favorite red-haired actress.

[0:56] Teal Wicks: Thank you.

[0:57] Caleb Dicke: I was so weird.

[1:00] Teal Wicks: I love it. I love a whiskey.

[1:02] Caleb Dicke: Oh my gosh, so do we. In small doses, it's medicinal.

[1:06] Teal Wicks: It really is. A good hot toddy.

[1:08] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:09] Teal Wicks: Can change a life.

[1:10] Caleb Dicke: Yep, it really can.

[1:12] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[1:12] Caleb Dicke: And I'm, of course, in the home stretch of Whole 30. So I'm having a seltzer with like some strawberries.

[1:20] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[1:21] Caleb Dicke: Yeah. Like a little mocktail here.

[1:23] Teal Wicks: How much, how far into it? How much do you have left?

[1:25] Caleb Dicke: I end on Thursday.

[1:27] Teal Wicks: Oh yeah, okay.

[1:28] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, so I'm almost there. Um, it's been very light, you know, very relaxed Whole 30 this time. I've let myself cheat, but I haven't really had alcohol. That was the reason I did it.

[1:38] Teal Wicks: That's good.

[1:39] Caleb Dicke: This time around. So, yeah. I'm happy to be having my little seltzer and strawberry.

[1:44] Teal Wicks: Yeah, yeah.

[1:48] Caleb Dicke: I know. Going for this rainy day.

[1:50] Teal Wicks: I know. It's been an awful rainy day. Last night I didn't even want to go out because I was on the couch and I was like, no, it's too much rain. I didn't know this was supposed to rain yesterday. I guess I missed it, and uh, problematic.

[2:04] Caleb Dicke: That's alright. You know it's happening today.

[2:06] Teal Wicks: Yeah, no, no. It's happening all day. I need a bigger umbrella because my little one doesn't cover my book bag, so then everything gets really wet.

[2:13] Caleb Dicke: And then do you hold it at like a tilt behind you?

[2:15] Teal Wicks: That's what I try to do.

[2:16] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, and then you get it still drips though.

[2:18] Teal Wicks: It still drips.

[2:19] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, but it covers it. It's really difficult. There's really, I mean, umbrellas in the city. It's impossible.

[2:26] Teal Wicks: It's impossible because walking down the streets and getting like I've gotten nailed in the face with umbrella prongs and just crazy. And then you, you know, you're trying to take it down, you get shaken, and you still get wet no matter what.

[2:39] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[2:40] Teal Wicks: I literally, my pants, I somehow got like muddy street muck on the front of my pants.

[2:45] Caleb Dicke: Well, mine's just bleach stains, I think. I just have little bleach stains on mine.

[2:49] Teal Wicks: Got it. But this is definitely so. No, it's like you can't, you can't like avoid it in the rain, and then it like you get the like um on my pants, and then you can't like wear your jeans again.

[2:59] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, yeah. Or you have to wash them.

[3:00] Teal Wicks: You have to take care of them because they have like the weird, like, you know, almost deodorant looking lines.

[3:05] Caleb Dicke: Yes, exactly.

[3:06] Teal Wicks: Oh.

[3:07] Caleb Dicke: So annoying.

[3:07] Teal Wicks: Totally with you. Totally with you.

[3:09] Caleb Dicke: Oh my god, life's so hard.

[3:11] Teal Wicks: It is ours. It really is. I don't have an in-unit laundry, like I gotta go somewhere and go wash these jeans.

[3:17] Caleb Dicke: Oh yeah. Aren't you supposed to wash jeans in your bathtub?

[3:20] Teal Wicks: Well, you're bred that were Levi's. Yeah, you're like not really supposed to wash jeans that much at all. Like they're meant to like almost never be washed.

[3:25] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, and they say like if they're what if they're like really stinky, you put them in the freezer.

[3:31] Teal Wicks: Yes, I heard that, yeah. So interesting. But like, who in New York has like room to like put jeans in the freezer? It's like I have like I went, I it's like I just went to Trader Joe's. Like I don't have room.

[3:42] Caleb Dicke: But you cook. There are people that live in the city that don't cook.

[3:45] Teal Wicks: And they're factories routine.

[3:46] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, and they're yeah, their kitchen is alternative storage for who knows what.

[3:51] Teal Wicks: For their dirty liquor bottle, a whole bunch of ice.

[3:54] Caleb Dicke: Yes. Totally.

[3:55] Teal Wicks: Totally like uh totally like a bottle of like people totally like would have sped, like have the bottle of sped catches on there.

[4:06] Caleb Dicke: Oh, yeah. And then like a bag of broccoli. You know what I mean?

[4:10] Teal Wicks: Never you never plan to use peas.

[4:12] Caleb Dicke: Peas totally, just for their just for their folks. You always have to have a bag of peas or corn or something for the outreach.

[4:21] Teal Wicks: No, I just have like two full ice packs. Like like the like the intense that you like strap on. I like the ones where you can like you have the ice and you can put in the microwave, and it's like that's what I have.

[4:34] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[4:35] Teal Wicks: I don't have a microwave.

[4:36] Caleb Dicke: Okay.

[4:38] Teal Wicks: Okay, okay. This is like this is a big topic.

[4:41] Caleb Dicke: Because microwaves are horrible.

[4:42] Teal Wicks: Well, I don't have one just because my boyfriend and I we had one forever, and then we moved four years ago, we moved to a new apartment, and our microwave was the one that we'd had forever, and it was huge. And our apartment is nicer now, but the kitchen area is smaller, so we're like, we should maybe get a smaller microwave and figure out where it's like.

[5:02] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[5:02] Teal Wicks: And you just never.

[5:03] Caleb Dicke: And then we just never got one. And now, and I kinda I'm happy without it. I mean, when I cook things, if I reheat something, I have to either reheat it in the oven or on the stove top.

[5:13] Teal Wicks: So it's still definitely a little bit more work, and I can't like reheat a cup of coffee.

[5:17] Caleb Dicke: Right.

[5:17] Teal Wicks: Yeah. But I'll just it just means I have to do dishes more.

[5:21] Caleb Dicke: Yes.

[5:22] Teal Wicks: But I just I don't know, I feel better. And popcorn, I mean, I love stove top popcorn.

[5:27] Caleb Dicke: Oh, you buy pre-pop.

[5:28] Teal Wicks: See, I haven't gotten into the stove top pre-corn.

[5:31] Caleb Dicke: I don't teach you buying recipe. How do you make it hot?

[5:34] Teal Wicks: You don't eat it.

[5:36] Caleb Dicke: I love warm popcorn.

[5:39] Teal Wicks: I do too, but it never stays warm long enough.

[5:41] Caleb Dicke: So what's interesting.

[5:43] Teal Wicks: But the those first few bites are so they're so good.

[5:46] Caleb Dicke: See, that makes movie movie.

[5:51] Teal Wicks: Well, I can be here for that. And what do you put on? What kind of flavor do you buy? Do you get like the sea salt?

[5:55] Caleb Dicke: I usually just do like, yeah, sea salt and pepper, maybe.

[6:00] Teal Wicks: Yeah. Black pepper.

[6:01] Caleb Dicke: Yeah. I don't need a sweet one. I don't need the sort of thing.

[6:04] Teal Wicks: As much as I love the cheesy ones.

[6:05] Caleb Dicke: I so good. I don't like the cheesy ones. I like kettle corn.

[6:09] Teal Wicks: Okay.

[6:09] Caleb Dicke: And I hate the caramel ones. I can eat like one and then that's it. Because then I get stuck in my teeth.

[6:14] Teal Wicks: That's true. Yeah.

[6:15] Caleb Dicke: But it just takes me back to like the ever the holiday. And then now that gourmet popcorn is like all the rage that you can actually get it and order it. But back in the day when I was young, that was such a special thing. And then those tins became our waste bins.

[6:30] Teal Wicks: Exactly.

[6:31] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[6:32] Teal Wicks: You know, I I until you on the love of the caramel. And there'd always be one that was like no really one. It was like the basic one.

[6:38] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[6:40] Teal Wicks: It's like some of them were really ugly.

[6:42] Caleb Dicke: Yeah. What's the red popcorn? Have you ever seen like the red popcorn?

[6:46] Teal Wicks: Oh, it's like the candy apple.

[6:48] Caleb Dicke: Oh, yeah.

[6:48] Teal Wicks: Oh.

[6:49] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, a lot of them are too like too much. I'm not, I don't also don't understand the candy apple.

[6:55] Teal Wicks: You don't get any apple in the bite, you just get hard sugar stuck in your teeth.

[7:01] Caleb Dicke: It's tough. And you can't like lick it either, because it's like I don't I don't get it. The only thing I get them is like aesthetically, they're very beautiful.

[7:08] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[7:09] Caleb Dicke: You know what I mean? They look like the idea of the thing. They look gorgeous. Like you just watch Snow White, you're like seven, you're at the county fair, you're like, it's the apples.

[7:18] Teal Wicks: And then you're like, I'm gonna eat it, and something crazy's gonna happen.

[7:21] Caleb Dicke: Yeah. You just want to like pass out just to be like dramatic. I think like if I were your mom's like get up off the floor.

[7:28] Teal Wicks: I think like maybe like if you were like having a party and you like bought a few and then like, you know, like slice them into like pieces, like maybe like that would be like a fun little party like treat is to have like slices of like candied apples.

[7:40] Caleb Dicke: Oh, I love caramel and apples. My mom wouldn't have the former like a yeah, a Granny Smith.

[7:45] Teal Wicks: Is that a small small?

[7:47] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, the green one, yeah. Because you need the tart.

[7:49] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[7:49] Caleb Dicke: That's super sweet.

[7:50] Teal Wicks: Yes. But this is, but this is like the caramel. It's not like the stuff that gets hard. It's not like the thing.

[7:57] Caleb Dicke: Like the but they're the most beautiful because they're like red glossy apples. Like they look insane.

[8:03] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[8:04] Caleb Dicke: And then they break your teeth.

[8:05] Teal Wicks: So cool.

[8:06] Caleb Dicke: So cool. Dentists love that.

[8:10] Teal Wicks: You know if suddenly fix your teeth. Those along with like the jawbreakers.

[8:14] Caleb Dicke: Oh, I love jawbreakers though. Do you guys I remember when I was I think I was junior high with like the giant jawbreakers were all the rage and people would get one.

[8:23] Teal Wicks: They were white and they're like speckled almost.

[8:25] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, yeah.

[8:25] Teal Wicks: And they'd carry you'd carry it around for like a week in a bag and just disgusting.

[8:30] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, because there were the layers and you'd and it was like a competition to see what's going on.

[8:38] Teal Wicks: The fact that you like you put it in your mouth and then put it in like a bag to carry around and then put it back in your mouth, like the amount of bacteria.

[8:46] Caleb Dicke: Girl, you know, none of us.

[8:48] Teal Wicks: No, I'm just not. And then your tongue starts to get raw because you're just like slicking a sugary ball.

[8:54] Caleb Dicke: Too many hot tamales and you're just with the sour stuff with like ruin in your mouth.

[8:59] Teal Wicks: Yeah. It was weird, and do you know like the bubble tape?

[9:02] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[9:02] Teal Wicks: We would like eat like a foot of that, and then like I was stupid and I was like, I'm hungry. I should just eat crackers while I'm eating this.

[9:08] Caleb Dicke: And then just like mix the two.

[9:11] Teal Wicks: I don't know why.

[9:12] Caleb Dicke: That's so gross.

[9:13] Teal Wicks: It's so stupid. I don't know why I did it.

[9:15] Caleb Dicke: No, I think I get it. There's something interesting about having some gum and then adding some crunch crunch to the gum.

[9:24] Teal Wicks: But like not sweet.

[9:26] Caleb Dicke: Not sweet crunch.

[9:27] Teal Wicks: No.

[9:28] Caleb Dicke: No. Just a bland, like salty.

[9:30] Teal Wicks: No. Just a buttery townhouse.

[9:33] Caleb Dicke: Townhouse crackers.

[9:35] Teal Wicks: That's even more so because it's like buttery Townhouse crackers, Townhouse, like the um the red, like the oval ones with like the like um scallops on this. And there's holes on them top. Oh they live in a maybe I probably don't know. They live in a tree. The elves do, and that's what they do. Townhouse, Tollhouse. I'm I'm silly with you. Tollhouse is the brand. It's like overall house.

[10:04] Teal Wicks: No, I think but I think townhouse might be right.

[10:06] Caleb Dicke: Wait, the keeper elves.

[10:07] Teal Wicks: The keeper, yeah.

[10:07] Caleb Dicke: Townhouse.

[10:09] Teal Wicks: I'm gonna search townhouse crackers.

[10:11] Caleb Dicke: Okay, they say fascinating conversation.

[10:11] Teal Wicks: Townhouse!

[10:15] Caleb Dicke: Alright, okay.

[10:15] Teal Wicks: Yeah, that's it, that's it, yeah.

[10:17] Caleb Dicke: Okay, yeah.

[10:17] Teal Wicks: What's toll house though?

[10:19] Caleb Dicke: I don't know.

[10:19] Teal Wicks: It's chocolate.

[10:21] Caleb Dicke: Oh, right. I thought it was like a what's like a Bernstein bears situation for a second.

[10:25] Teal Wicks: The Bernstein Bears.

[10:27] Caleb Dicke: Oh, right, but they're the Bernstein.

[10:27] Teal Wicks: The Bernstein.

[10:27] Caleb Dicke: Bernstein.

[10:32] Teal Wicks: Oh good lord.

[10:32] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[10:35] Teal Wicks: But didn't they change the spelling? Wasn't it something?

[10:38] Caleb Dicke: No, that's the Mandela effect?

[10:40] Teal Wicks: Is that we everyone remembers it as like the Bernstein Bears.

[10:40] Caleb Dicke: Right.

[10:45] Teal Wicks: But they're actually the Bernstein Bears. And like there's no like proof that was ever Bernstein.

[10:45] Caleb Dicke: Right.

[10:52] Teal Wicks: But it just everyone else is convinced that it was Bernstein.

[10:55] Caleb Dicke: You know what I mean? Like everyone's convinced that it's this memory.

[10:58] Teal Wicks: Yeah, exactly.

[10:59] Caleb Dicke: When that's the case.

[11:02] Teal Wicks: I I'm I'm there. I'm there. We all know what we're talking about. Like they're still getting like the credit.

[11:09] Caleb Dicke: I guess.

[11:10] Teal Wicks: It is funny though. It is interesting.

[11:12] Caleb Dicke: Oh yeah, it's definitely interesting. I feel like I've had friends on the Theater for Young like adults tour of the Bernstein Bears.

[11:21] Teal Wicks: What's that?

[11:21] Caleb Dicke: What's the like the theater works?

[11:24] Teal Wicks: Theater works, yes, yeah, yeah, yes, yeah. When I was like coming out of college and people we were all, you know, pursuing that was how so many people got their cards to this day.

[11:35] Teal Wicks: I don't think they do it anymore.

[11:36] Caleb Dicke: I don't think you can get your card anymore from them.

[11:38] Teal Wicks: It's yeah, they've done it's definitely different. It's like an ASM contract.

[11:41] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, it's like actors slash ASM, no real.

[11:45] Teal Wicks: You have multiple jobs.

[11:46] Caleb Dicke: The venue and the That's kind of amazing.

[11:49] Teal Wicks: Like that's a whole nother multi-educational.

[11:55] Caleb Dicke: I don't understand it either. Especially when like I mean it's there's not even really enough stage management jobs.

[12:00] Teal Wicks: I know for equity stage managers.

[12:00] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[12:04] Teal Wicks: Does make there be enough jobs for everyone?

[12:07] Caleb Dicke: And specialized.

[12:09] Teal Wicks: Because it's so that's very different work.

[12:11] Caleb Dicke: Oh my god, yeah. I mean, that's kind of cool. Also, if you know you get tired of being on the stage and you still want to have be in the theater world, you could you or have the now the experience to like pop into the stage management world.

[12:26] Teal Wicks: Which I know definitely go into props. I love making props, I love touching props, I have a prop problem.

[12:33] Caleb Dicke: Like a problem.

[12:35] Teal Wicks: You know, like the first day I'll be like, please don't touch the props. And I'm like and I'm like juggling like three.

[12:44] Caleb Dicke: Wait, but I just oh plum.

[12:48] Teal Wicks: Prop of love props. Give me a prop and I will make a three-act play out of it on stage left.

[12:55] Caleb Dicke: Oh, yeah.

[12:57] Teal Wicks: Dude, a props are an I mean, it is the best tool for an actor. If you don't know what you're doing, just get something in your hand.

[13:05] Caleb Dicke: All I have to do is figure out this spoon.

[13:08] Teal Wicks: Yeah. Amazing. And all of a sudden you're a brilliant brilliant person.

[13:14] Caleb Dicke: Actor. I understand. I'm like, what are you doing? You're like, oh my god. There was a whole scene going on, and all I could watch was you and that spoon.

[13:24] Teal Wicks: You're like, thank you. And then they're like, and then they're like, but it's blank focus so like stand with your back.

[13:32] Caleb Dicke: Like just stay there.

[13:34] Teal Wicks: And then it like, hello, darkness smile. My old friend.

[13:40] Caleb Dicke: Oh my god.

[13:40] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[13:44] Elliott Mattox: Oh my gosh. Well, this is not to be a great start. But we wanna we'll start the interview. We like just start our interviews is to have our guests tell our audience a little bit about their background growing up.

[13:58] Teal Wicks: Okay, what got them interested in theater as a young person.

[14:00] Caleb Dicke: Got it and kind of um, well go from there and I'll just link it to Snap Path.

[14:05] Elliott Mattox: All right.

[14:06] Teal Wicks: Micropath. I was born in Sacramento, California. Sunny day in September.

[14:12] Caleb Dicke: Isn't it always sunny in Sacramento?

[14:14] Teal Wicks: No, it is not. It rains. It can also be very foggy because we're in sort of a valley and there's coastal mountains and then the Sierra Nevadas, and we have Sacramento. There's two rivers. There's a Sacramento River and the American River. And I grew up um along Sacramento River on the farm side with a bunch of farmland all around me. I grew up on 10 acres, but we didn't actually farm the land. I just, you know, as just we boarded out the land, so I had a lot of like livestock animals around me, but I didn't actually have to take care of them.

[14:35] Caleb Dicke: That's the best.

[14:48] Teal Wicks: Kind of. Were you ever in 4-H or FFA?

[14:51] Caleb Dicke: No, I wasn't. I grew up with horses, but I was never that comfortable around horses.

[14:56] Teal Wicks: Horses are scary. We had horses on our farm for a winter, and like the most terrifying thing is cleaning out their hooves.

[15:03] Caleb Dicke: Oh no.

[15:04] Teal Wicks: It's terrifying. I was scared just to feed them a carrot. I was like, oh my god, don't take my thumb, don't take my thumb, don't take my carrot. They're giant, but they're smart and they're so strong.

[15:14] Caleb Dicke: They're gorgeous.

[15:15] Teal Wicks: They can be very temperamental, you know, exactly. They're very aware of what you are doing and what your energy is, and so they're willing to be nice and like have their interactions, but also like don't mess with them. This is never walk behind a horse.

[15:28] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[15:30] Teal Wicks: I think I don't know if I was actually kicked by a horse. That sounds so funny. I don't know. But I have a, because I was in Girl Scouts growing up, and we did a few things with horses, especially just in the where we were. Like Sacramento's like it's an agricultural land. But I remember that we were doing horseback riding, and it's I don't know if it's something that I put in my mind.

[15:53] Caleb Dicke: If it's a Mandela effect.

[15:54] Teal Wicks: Yeah, yeah. Or if it actually happened, but they would always say, "Don't walk behind the horses, don't walk behind the horses. They might kick you." But I swear I walked by a horse, in my mind, I did that, did the thing I wasn't supposed to do, and kind of got kicked by a horse. Not bad enough that anything happened, but enough to remember it. And also I didn't tell anybody because I was so ashamed that I did the big no-no. And that is very much me as a child. I was like, I just did something bad, but did I actually do something bad or did I imagine? Oh yeah, but I'm not gonna tell anybody because I'm a good girl, and I'm just gonna sit here and think about it for the next like 20 years. But I swear I have that Irish Catholic guilt.

[16:35] Caleb Dicke: But I don't know, maybe it's just born into it.

[16:36] Teal Wicks: Yeah, we're Irish Catholic too.

[16:38] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[16:39] Teal Wicks: I don't know. Sorry, sorry, sorry, people.

[16:43] Caleb Dicke: It does happen.

[16:44] Teal Wicks: It happens. So you were a Girl Scout and...

[16:45] Caleb Dicke: Oh yeah, it was sad.

[16:49] Teal Wicks: Oh my god, thanks. And you were so guilty.

[16:51] Caleb Dicke: No, that's what this is. Feeling so guilty. Um, my family, they always, there was always a lot of music in my family and sort of just arts. My grandmother on my dad's side, she played the piano. She was a choir teacher when she was younger, and so we always growing up, you know, would always sit by grandma on the piano and she would play, and as soon as I sort of started singing, and people were like, oh, you actually sound kind of nice. You can carry a tune. She'd have me sing stuff, and so we just had lots of music, and my parents loved local art. And Sacramento has a really nice, just local art scene across the board. Has a good theater scene, has lots of local music, and then like, you know, just and uh visual arts and all that sort of stuff. They really embrace it. So there's always tons of local arts festivals. And my parents loved going to those.

[17:40] Caleb Dicke: Cool.

[17:41] Teal Wicks: So they would take me like to the jazz festival or the whatever there'd be everything and we'd go to the local theater and we go to the touring productions and I loved the ballet Sacramento ballet. I wanted to be a ballerina first because I took ballet when I was little and I remember my teacher was like, oh you have the legs and the feet to be a wonderful ballerina and I was like yeah I'm gonna be a ballerina and then something about school and schedule changed so I couldn't really take ballet as much as I wanted and then I started playing soccer and then soccer sort of took over but we still always went to theater and I just loved loved loved loved the theater. I just loved I loved the live orchestra I loved watching the actors and the dancers on stage and was just obsessed with it.

[18:29] Caleb Dicke: Totally. Yeah, what was like your jam when you were younger? Like when I was younger, well obsessed um well Annie I watched the movie Annie a million times.

[18:40] Teal Wicks: The like the 70s one with Carol Burnett.

[18:43] Caleb Dicke: Yes.

[18:43] Teal Wicks: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my god, Anne Reinking and Carol Burnett and Tim Curry and Bernard. But the thing is even at that age I was obsessed with Mrs. Hannigan. Like I wanted to be Mrs. Hannigan. I mean I wanted to be Annie but I also wanted to be her legend like I still that's still like my dream role.

[19:03] Caleb Dicke: Oh just a...

[19:03] Teal Wicks: And I never knew what she was pouring into the tub. I was like is it bubbles or is it booze? What is it? So the things that you like fixate on when you're young and you're like I don't understand what that is. Because you're like, I have a bathtub, but I have bubbles. Should I be doing this? But like she's drinking it and like, but should I? I don't think that tastes good.

[19:24] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[19:24] Teal Wicks: No, it's interesting, like what we like see as kids that we don't get that like you if you revisit as adult, you're like, oh my god.

[19:31] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[19:31] Teal Wicks: Bath in the world.

[19:34] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[19:35] Teal Wicks: Yeah. So funny. So yeah, Annie, obsessed with Annie, would sing "Tomorrow" everywhere. I loved Mary Poppins.

[19:39] Caleb Dicke: Sure.

[19:39] Teal Wicks: Loved Mary Poppins.

[19:44] Caleb Dicke: I'd never have seen it all the way through.

[19:46] Teal Wicks: Really?

[19:47] Caleb Dicke: What?

[19:47] Teal Wicks: Never. It gets weird, you know, and then like I get...

[19:51] Caleb Dicke: What do you mean it gets weird?

[19:52] Teal Wicks: It is weird.

[19:54] Caleb Dicke: She flies in on an umbrella.

[19:56] Teal Wicks: It's kind of like across the universe, like when you're down for like the first part of it, and then like it gets weird, and you're like, I don't think you can compare those two.

[20:02] Caleb Dicke: Really?

[20:03] Teal Wicks: I'm not comparing this to you. I think it's like, I've never finished it because I'm just like the laughter.

[20:08] Caleb Dicke: I mean, it definitely does get like once they get into the bank and all that sort of stuff.

[20:12] Teal Wicks: It goes dark.

[20:13] Caleb Dicke: It gets really dark and creepy.

[20:15] Teal Wicks: But it's magic. It's so good. I've seen the end, I've seen the beginning, I just don't like the middle.

[20:20] Caleb Dicke: Okay.

[20:21] Teal Wicks: Yeah. Onward.

[20:21] Caleb Dicke: Fair enough.

[20:22] Teal Wicks: I loved, I loved it. So loved, loved, love. Yeah. And then I think actually I say this, and I think one of the first shows that I saw that I was obsessed with was Peter Pan. The I also loved the Mary Martin live action Peter Pan.

[20:34] Caleb Dicke: I loved that.

[20:40] Teal Wicks: I would watch that all the time. Love that better than the Disney Peter Pan.

[20:44] Caleb Dicke: Uh-huh.

[20:45] Teal Wicks: Um, and I saw when Kathy Rigby was doing Peter Pan came through and was like, they're flying and there's pirates and things. Oh my god.

[20:53] Caleb Dicke: I saw Kathy Rigby do it in maybe like 2012.

[20:57] Teal Wicks: I think just recently. That tour that happened recently, like back in the day. She was still like and flying around. Incredible.

[21:03] Caleb Dicke: That's amazing.

[21:04] Teal Wicks: We did when I did the Jekyll and Hyde revival, we did the tour before we came to Broadway for like a few years.

[21:09] Caleb Dicke: Oh, we're gonna talk about the art.

[21:12] Teal Wicks: Our tech was at La Mirada, which is owned, which is McCoy Rigby, so it's Kathy Rigby and Tom McCoy.

[21:20] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[21:20] Teal Wicks: So they were our producers and our, you know, like co-producers and did our whole thing. And so Kathy was around and I was like, oh my god, like you were literally in the first one of the first like Broadway shows that I saw that I just was obsessed with. And we went to their, they had a big party at their house, and their house is literally like a mini Neverland. They've got it's just, it's there's all these like nooks and crannies and very green and lush and like a pool with a and it was it was real fun.

[21:52] Caleb Dicke: That's it.

[21:53] Teal Wicks: Oh my god. And she was talking about how they were gonna go. I think she was still gonna go out on tour.

[22:01] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, no, she was on it.

[22:03] Teal Wicks: Yeah, that was two thousand oh, I don't know when that was two thousand twelve. I would say between two thousand ten and fourteen, it's somewhere in those four years.

[22:10] Caleb Dicke: We saw that our software, I think.

[22:13] Teal Wicks: Okay. I think that was 2012, 2011, around that yeah, around that time.

[22:18] Caleb Dicke: So those are yeah.

[22:21] Teal Wicks: That's all right, where am I? Do I need to be put back on track on something?

[22:25] Caleb Dicke: High school, like yeah, like so like yeah, go back to when did you kind of like decide that this was kind of the path you want to talk to in the arts.

[22:32] Teal Wicks: Well, I always really loved it, and I my parents and everybody was very supportive, and you know, I was singing all the time and everybody was like, oh, you actually sound good, and I took ballet like when I was little, parents put me in ballet and gymnastics, because you know, you've got to put your kids in something to keep them busy.

[22:50] Caleb Dicke: Right, right.

[22:51] Teal Wicks: And I loved ballet, so dance was sort of where I started, which is funny because now I'm not a dancer at all. Wish I was I love dance so much. I wish I could really dance.

[23:01] Caleb Dicke: I know.

[23:02] Teal Wicks: I tried to take ballet class again and I was like, F this. My heads were not meant to open like this. And I've never been very flexible. Like when I was a child, sure. But even in college, when I was taking dance class, the most class I had taken since I was, you know, an infant. I could never really kick my face. Splits were not happening for me. I just my hips and legs aren't meant to do that.

[23:27] Caleb Dicke: You know, I don't split either.

[23:29] Teal Wicks: That's not everyone's trap.

[23:30] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[23:30] Teal Wicks: Not everyone should have to do splits. And honestly, I've learned like there are people that can do splits that aren't it doesn't mean that they're the dancers.

[23:39] Caleb Dicke: What?

[23:39] Teal Wicks: It doesn't mean there's a situation. Yeah, it doesn't mean that they're dancers. It just means they literally, their body is counted away that their legs just do that. It's like, oh my god. If I had only known, because I have like I have like weird stuff. Like I have like a weird tear in my hip and things like that. I'm pretty sure that's from trying to do things that my body physically literally couldn't. So but I have to do this. It's like a cheap mark. I have to be able to just like go, I have to be like Sutton Foster. I need to pick my face and just do the splits out of nowhere. How else will I have a career?

[24:11] Caleb Dicke: Exactly.

[24:12] Teal Wicks: And cry on cue. I'm literally never gonna do anything.

[24:18] Caleb Dicke: Um yeah, so wow, I that was a tangent. Um, it's all it's all it's all on the same.

[24:24] Teal Wicks: Yeah, um, so I just I always I liked theater, I think when I was twelve was my first time I auditioned for a community theater thing. We had the in Sacramento, there's something it's still going on called The Best of Broadway, which was just everybody you would have you would have to audition. And it's just a review, a musical review of everything and anything that's Broadway. And I started in the kind of children's slash, I could do sort of the young adult.

[24:55] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[24:56] Teal Wicks: Um, you know, and you you get your own costumes, and but it was just so it was the first time that I was in like we would I would go to school and then rehearsals were in the evening or on the weekend and have to show up. And I remember I missed rehearsal once because who knows what, and that was the first time I was like, oh, you can't miss rehearsal, you have to be there. Okay, right. This is what this is.

[25:17] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[25:18] Teal Wicks: Um getting like the Ben Nye stage makeup kit. That's what you have to do. The bruise packet that has like the forecast. I know. And you're just like, what am I supposed to do with this red and this blue and this? Yeah, none of these are and none of these are like actual colors I would put on my face to be pretty. I don't get it. But so that was that was the beginning of that, and then I really loved it. And then when it came time to do college, I wanted to be I wanted to try drama. I wanted to try to be a drama major, but I also didn't know if I was gonna be very good at it, so I was like, I'm gonna go to a liberal arts school so I can at least have the option to do something else if I suck, if I'm not good.

Um so I went to UC Irvine down in Southern California. And it was sort I think it was there. It was there that I really got into my jam, like found my groove. And it took me a little bit because I was so excited for college. I knew I wanted to go to college just to do the college experience.

[26:23] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, sure.

[26:24] Teal Wicks: It's a fun time. I knew I wanted to live away from home, I wanted to just I wanted to be in the dorms, I wanted the whole experience. And so it took took me about a it took me about two years to really kind of focus on the whole getting in a real good education and actually learning things to take with me into my adult life. I did a lot of...

[26:44] Caleb Dicke: Were you in a sorority or anything?

[26:48] Teal Wicks: I actually was in a sorority.

[26:48] Teal Wicks: I know. Kappa Alpha Theta. It's so funny because I never thought I would be in a sorority but my freshman roommate that we were just randomly paired up with she's still one of my best friends we like clicked right off the bat and she knew she wanted to be in a sorority and so she dragged me along to the sorority stuff. But also when I got UCI because it's kind of a commuter school when I got there all of the fun stuff because I wasn't because I love the drama people but the I was still trying to be like a cool kid. And all of the fun things were in the Greeks. And like any like any social gathering and I was like I don't have any friends around like I know this one girl who I'm living with that thank God like we clicked.

Thank God we're like woo love each other so much. And so all the fun things were in the Greek system. So it kind of just turned out and then my boyfriend who I've been with since college we've been together for like a decade and a half he was in the Greek system.

[26:52] Caleb Dicke: What sorority?

[27:50] Teal Wicks: But neither of us would say that we were like sorority fraternity people necessarily it was small and I was in Greek and he wasn't. But it was like a good like everyone knew each other on campus. So like even if you weren't in Greek, you were still kind of like going to Greek events because of the case. And they weren't necessarily like exclusive. Yeah right I mean, there was like exclusive like mixtures and stuff like that, but like but the big events were like hosted by, but you could really a lot of them you could go. It took me a while to really get into the drama drama swing of things. Like I had friends that were in the drama department, but it took me a while to be like cool and hang out with all of them and go to like the drama parties.

No, go to my like Greek, go to like the trap. And then they're like, oh, but eventually I found my way. Eventually I was like, oh that's a good thing. As everyone's nervous. Wait, hold on. Everyone like that. Yeah. And then I was like, oh, maybe I should get a minor. I tried to get a business minor, but I didn't even finish that. I mean, I took I took my time. Yeah. But I think that's what college is for. It's very important, yeah. And I needed that. Like some people, some people know like those kids who are 18 and know themselves so well that they could come to New York. I wanted, I had an NYU application and I was gonna fill it out because I was like, oh, because I knew I wanted to get to New York.

I knew Broadway I wanted to be on Broadway. But the I didn't even fill out the application because it just freaked me out. I was like, I can't go that far. I don't even know. Um those years of your life are like so formative. So like I can't imagine, I cannot imagine like being on Broadway at 18. And like what and like having like those like years of my life like be informed by like a Broadway schedule or a broad lifestyle. Like that to I that to me is like I'm s I'm so glad that didn't happen for that. Absolutely. I had no I there I would crash and burn. I would have crashed and burned so much. You wouldn't know how to function on the frequency for so long. Uh I no way. Uh-uh uh. You need those four years to like figure out who you are.

Exactly. Like, do you like peanut butter or do you like jelly? Like something as simple as that. You gotta figure it out. Do you like boys or girls? That's another thing you gotta figure out before you have to like figure out what the subway system is. And also like fr and like how you act like in social settings and friendships and what what like real friends are and what they are and and being and how especially in the arts world and the theater world, so much of a social business. Yes. But finding the line of business and and you know, personal relationships and all of that, and what because those lines get blurred so easily, but being able to balance that and handle it and still be professional business like while still being fun and having being very social with these people.

I needed those like those formative years in a safe space in like an educational environment. Yes. And because you also have like we all have like things to learn about how to work and how to be a human and an adult, and you know, if I were learning I had some lessons to learn as a you know, 20 20 year old, like thinking I'm like da-da-da-da or whatever. I have a lot to learn, and I was able to learn those in a safe place with you know teachers saying like yeah, this is something that that is a reality, and da da da totally brilliant, brilliant broadcasting. Just da da da da. But it's true, like I I also needed the other classes. I needed to also have a world that was not just theater. Yeah.

And I feel like I've carried that through my life, and it's it keeps me sane and keeps me balanced because I think you need to be very balanced and to be yeah, to be an honest actor performer to inhabit all these different people. And you know, having not to say that having to take statistics and biology class did that, but it did force me to be in a class and also made me realize that I'm not as interested in that stuff as I am interested in these other things. Sure, yeah. But still having to like struggle and push through and do the work in something that I did not necessarily love, but I still had to succeed in that in some extent. Yes. Um I was at the groin studio casting seminar on Friday and I worked for them.

I used to work for them. And uh Lindsay Levine was like, You live in New York, like go out and do something and be like a human and have other interests than just leader because it's gonna make you well rounded and like when you bring that into the room, when they say, Hi, how are you? you wanna be able to be like conversational and not just be like good. Like and great things. Yeah, like yeah, exactly. Like kinda like well, it also teaches you to like to listen and like and take in other people because I feel like in in the theater world it can get kind of like um, you know, hi how are you? Well, I just finished up this and like that's not like telling someone actually how you are, that's like telling them like your resume.

Exactly. So it's like you know that you give a fuck about it. I feel like we really don't even want to go and but sometimes that's the that's as far as you want to go with people and that's totally fine. But like, you know, you have to learn how to like differentiate that and be like if you're talking with someone that you actually care about and want to talk to them, like you know, being able to like differentiate and like have different life experiences to talk about. Yeah. Um, instead of just like telling them how your latest contract was. Exactly. Or how like this audition was like, Oh yeah, I saw so and so there, and I mean, wasn't that so weird that's like not how the leader was like Yeah.

Well it's sometimes pretty great. They're so great. They're so great but like I get it I'm right with you I know very interesting that's why it is nice my having like my fellow we've been together again forever and he's he's in the corporate world so he he's had a a glimpse into my world forever and ever but and he sometimes participates sometimes he doesn't because it's sometimes too much for him but it is very interesting because he will definitely kind of keep things in check for me or at least give me perspective and I'm like oh right that's not that important yeah yeah okay right got it don't sweat the little things yeah don't sweat the little things and honestly like we're all just people's just going about our days just trying to get through exactly this little spinning ball that is with this little trashy called an I think a little trashy yeah okay so after college where did your like path lead you oh new y'all um one of the other great things about my school is we had a New York program right that was one of the reasons why I wanted I didn't even I didn't even know that Irvine existed sorry Irvine but I didn't know I was like oh wait it's near Disneyland it's also near Newport Beach this is weird um but my dad we were doing the tour of colleges he was like we should stop here because I also had an aunt and cousins who lived nearby there so he was like you know we all have family close by and which is awesome because they were I love them.

Uh but when I met with the counselor and all that sort of stuff, they have this New York program where they would come to New York for four or five weeks in the spring and basically just do an intensive found apartments um through people who either alumni or just connections would do master classes and uh yeah, so I did that twice. I did that my sophomore year and my senior year, and I loved it, and it was such a great introduction to New York. And you had to go on auditions, you had to go on a few auditions, you had to take class at steps or BD B D Cm. And that was back when I thought I was a dancer, so I was like, Yes, and now I can't go. Now I'm like, I'm so embarrassed. I'm gonna have to be in like beginner beginner jazz.

No. Um but it was really fun, and I met some great casting directors, and I remember my first time my sophomore years, I auditioned for rent. I think it was like the n the tour of national tour of the Not Aqua, and I made it at least to me, I made it to almost to the end. Yeah, and it was just such a crazy thing. Like I'm here. I like had to do the movement call, there's all the scenes, like all this sort of stuff, and it was so exciting. Totally. Yeah, and so when I graduated, I knew I wanted to come to New York, and my friend, my best friend, she wanted to move to New York too, and she was already sort of working in TV a little bit in the production side of television. And then my boyfriend was he didn't know what he wanted to do, and I said, I you should see if you want to come with me, come with me and we can see it.

Yeah, and clearly we have because we've been here now twelve years. Cool. So it's been yeah, and we've lived together. I mean, we've been together ever since but all three of us lived together the first year, and then she moved out and found a but now she but she met her husband. I think she met him within our first year here. And they're married and have a kid and they're great. Yeah, cool. Um, yeah, we all like couch surfed for almost a month before we found our apartment. Yeah, that's you didn't know. It was it was real interesting. I was lucky that I had some family friends who lived here who had an extra bedroom because their son was in college. Oh no. So we could stay there, and they and they set me up with my first job, which I was an usher at the Little Schubert Theater.

Yes. Uh-huh. I know. And it's so funny. That literally that and the show that was there was Captain Louie, which is a was a Stephen Schwartz musical, like a kid's musical. I'm pretty sure there's some actors in it that are now like super fancy. And the the house manager had a theater company called Godlight Theater Company, and this Godlight Theater Company, they take a lot of these interesting novels and make stage adaptations. So they had done Brave New World, they had done I think Clockwork Orange. Yeah. Um, and they were gonna do Fahrenheit 451, and he asked me if I would he was like, You're an actor, right? I was like, yeah, I am. And he's like, Do you want to come and like just read through like we're gonna do some like casual read throughs?

And two of the other ushers there were in the theater company, so they were gonna do it. So I was like, Yeah! Yeah, totally. And so we did so that led to they did a production of it at 5090's fifty nights theaters in like their one of their very small. This was like off off off, probably considered. But they're still doing great stuff in here. Yeah, they do, and they have so many different spaces, and it's such a cool spot, and it was really cool. And it was my first play in New York, and a director came to see the show because he was somehow friends with somebody else in the cast. And he afterwards asked me if I would come in audition for um a production of Pippin at Good Speed Opera House.

Okay. And I was like, Yes, of course. Oh my god, yes. But it was and so I did that and I actually and I ended up getting the gig and that led me to getting my equity card. That was my first professional. That's a pretty fancy first gig. It was amazing. And then we did a tour afterwards. Like they very cool. Because they were trying that was when they were like Steven was very interested in bringing Pippin back. And I mean our version our version had circus themes and all that sort of stuff and I think kind of set the tone and they really wanted, at least they told us at one point that our version they were interested in having the transfer, but obviously not like that didn't happen. But but from that, like I got my agents and and like knew Steven now and like Steven Aremus was the arranger for it.

And it was just it was such a cool, wonderful, amazing experience, and like it was the best. And that obviously with the like the people you met and that experience probably led into your time with Wicked. Yeah. It did, I think it did. Cause I I mean that was all s that happened a while later, but that got me my agents. My agents were like, oh, and I was playing Catherine, which isn't like the most vocally demanding role, but like I know I did my really good stuff with it. And we also did some aerial silk work, and so I got to learn Ariel Sylvia's for that. I think, but I don't know the timeline. I mean, probably a year later or a year and a half later, I did something else, something else, and then I was back at Good Speed doing seventeen seventy six.

I love Good Speed so much. It's it's it's such a lovely thing. One of the most legendary theater houses the history of there is so amazing. It's so cool. It's a bill it's a great village bubble. And I was there, I mean Pippin was during was earlier in their season, so we were basically there doing summer during summer. So it felt literally felt like summer camp. Yeah. And I loved it. Now now like the contracts are long, so I have to be very careful with what because you're like, oh back then I was like, three months of employment. Amazing. I love it. And now I'm like, three months. In con okay, that's like it's a lot to be away, but not so stupid. But to be close, but not close enough. Yeah, uh huh, yeah.

Um but anyway, so I was doing 1776 at Good Speed. And I was playing Martha, so I literally had one scene in a song, the easiest getting your girl. I I remember I got somehow there was something happening with the matinee times and I got the matinees confused and I got a call from our our company manager being like uh just you're not here and we're just worried because the show started and I was like, I thought this started it, da-da-da-da. But I didn't come in until act two, so it didn't really matter.

[41:43] Teal Wicks: So I made it in time.

[41:44] Caleb Dicke: Right.

[41:44] Teal Wicks: I was going on a walk, my mom was visiting, and we were going on like a leisurely stroll through like the hills.

[41:49] Caleb Dicke: We were like, yeah.

[41:53] Teal Wicks: We were just like strolling on the hill in East Howard. Um so I was doing 1776, and I remember that's when I started going I was going in for Wicked. That was my first time auditioning. I think the first time I ever went in for Wicked, I was going in for Nessa Rose, maybe like in Chicago for the Chicago Company or something like that. And then they brought me up. There were two alphabet tracks opening up. There was a standby in LA and a cover, the alphabet on stage cover for the tour. And that was I was going in for that and like literally doing the crazy driving back and forth, having hitch rides with people, or like catch the train to New York and then go back in time to Connecticut for the show, and like going having like six rounds of like callbacks for crazy. Making it happen.

[42:43] Caleb Dicke: You're like, I gotta go, like I gotta be.

[42:52] Teal Wicks: Well, the ballet was paying off. Kind of. I mean, I got the alphabet standby, so I didn't have to do the dance eventually. So maybe they were like, oh, she's not good. She can sing, so we'll just give her the standby. She's gonna stink it up on stage doing a dance.

[43:09] Caleb Dicke: No, no, not. I don't think that's all they were saying.

[43:12] Teal Wicks: I know. But anyway, so that so that happened, and I had to leave 1776, I think two weeks early before they closed because I had to move to LA to be the standby.

[43:21] Caleb Dicke: Oh wow.

[43:22] Teal Wicks: And it was it was amazing because the LA company, it was Eden Espinoza and Megan Hilty were doing it. Casey Levy was Eden's standby, so Casey was taking over for Eden, and I was gonna then be Casey's standby, and Megan was staying around for a while, a little bit longer. So I Wicked started in LA, which was California, so I mean LA has never been my home. LA is still a little strange, but it was still just it was just being in California and like having a car and knowing what to do and knowing how to get around and and figuring out all that sort of stuff and having such amazing Carol Kane was the morable at that time. Johnson was the legend wizard.

[44:08] Caleb Dicke: Oh my god. Was it kind of like this Hamilton feel of like you guys are the shit show? Like not shit show like crazy, but like it's like you guys are the top show right then.

[44:17] Teal Wicks: Kind of. I don't know, because I didn't I really didn't know any better.

[44:20] Caleb Dicke: Oh really?

[44:21] Teal Wicks: I because in LA there wasn't really anything else going on, but they had already been the show had already been running for about a year. But it just was a hot ticket. It was still a really hot ticket. And it was the sit-down company in LA. So like they had already toured, it was awesome. I figured out so many so much stuff during that. Like I could like that was back when I was like, yeah, I was I realized now I was like, damn, I could sing that stuff in my sleep and just run amok and do all that stuff. And now I'm like, oh god, that's a lot, that's a lot of work.

[44:52] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[44:53] Teal Wicks: That's an eye singing. And I would take like all the weird alternate options. Also, because like I was watching, I was learning the show by watching Eden.

[45:02] Caleb Dicke: Oh, wow.

[45:03] Teal Wicks: And she's I like and Casey's amazing, but like Eden also, she had done it for she'd already she had been in the company for a while. Like, so she was literally at the point where she was like, This is my role, this is how I do it.

[45:17] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, and that's where that's where a lot of those alternatives initially came from.

[45:21] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[45:21] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[45:22] Teal Wicks: Exactly. Like, you know, trying to do something like that. It's like Shoshana and Ian, like those girls kind of made some of those things iconic. I don't want to leave anybody out because everybody's amazing.

[45:33] Caleb Dicke: Well, no, obviously.

[45:35] Teal Wicks: Yeah. But like I YouTube's, you know, as everybody now does. I YouTube because I saw Wicked, I saw Wicked when I was in college, and I saw Idina do it. It was Idina Menzel and Jennifer Laura Thompson.

[45:48] Caleb Dicke: Mm-hmm.

[45:48] Teal Wicks: And the guy who was Fiero was uh he was one of those, I don't remember. He was from a boy band. That's all I remember.

[45:54] Caleb Dicke: Did you ever do it with Adam Lambert?

[45:57] Teal Wicks: I did it with Adam.

[45:59] Caleb Dicke: Okay, cool.

[46:00] Teal Wicks: Yeah, he was he was in LA when I was doing it. And we did when I because I eventually took over the role because Casey took over and then I took over for Casey. And yeah, Adam and I did it many times and that was back before he was the American man.

[46:15] Caleb Dicke: Exactly boy, oh my god.

[46:18] Teal Wicks: Yeah. He can fucking sing.

[46:20] Caleb Dicke: He can't fucking sing, but good lord.

[46:22] Teal Wicks: I know. That was fun. It was a very, very good time.

[46:25] Caleb Dicke: It probably like amazing time. You're like living in LA for like an amount. You didn't know when you were going to close, right? Or like when you're

[46:30] Teal Wicks: Yeah. Well I had I mean I was there for I think 10 months. I was there for just under a year. And then they were because they knew the show was going to close and they wanted to bring Eden and Megan back for the closing. But when I was there they they were going to open a San Francisco company and they asked me to open the San Francisco company which was kind of amazing because San Francisco is so much closer to home.

[46:53] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[46:53] Teal Wicks: And I love San Francisco and I've always wanted to live in San Francisco. It's my favorite it's my favorite city. It's also RuPaul's favorite city.

[47:02] Caleb Dicke: Is it?

[47:02] Teal Wicks: Yeah. RuPaul it's amazing. It's beautiful. It's also like the weather's kind of weird but if it was beautiful every day every single person would live there and it's just it's it has so much going on. And we're so close to so many pretty parks and the coast and that's just that's my yeah jam. Like that's where I grew up. So I was so excited to do that.

[47:24] Caleb Dicke: What has it been what what has it been like? Because I know a lot of people like with Wicked, like once you're kind of like part of that family, it it kind of a lot of times becomes the gift that keeps on giving, you know. A lot of times it's like, you know, you go and do a standby here and then you become you open up and here, and then if there's you know, a time where they need someone and someone's available, they'll bring back in people that

[47:46] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[47:47] Caleb Dicke: So what is what is that how's that been for me?

[47:49] Teal Wicks: Been for you. Because I know I know people's experiences with Wicked are all different. It's all over the place.

[47:53] Teal Wicks: I went through a lot. I also I it clearly was the hardest thing I've ever done, the most demanding role that's you know, had ever it was the first time I really was had to figure out how to do this, how to carry a show and how to sing that sort of stuff and run around like a maniac and every scene she's more or less like yelling at people. So you're just like everything is so heightened the whole time. And you are kind of segregated from all the rest of the cast. So it's it's very it's interesting. When I was in San Francisco, I was having vocal issues because I just I started we had rehearsals in New York in January and I like got sick during rehearsals and it was a two-week rehearsal process 'cause it was everybody everybody in the company had done it before. So I basically flew to San Francisco sick and didn't really know how to deal with it because I had never not been able to perform.

[48:48] Caleb Dicke: Perform yeah, and to push through the sickness and all that sort of stuff.

[48:51] Teal Wicks: So I it was very it was and I was on vocal rest and whenever I was not doing the show, so I became very isolated. And even though I was in a city that I loved and I had friends and family so close by, thank God I did because they were willing to like I had a cousin my cousin literally was living down the street from me and on my cause I was only I was doing six shows a week for the beginning of it and I would on nights off I would go down to her apartment and sit in silence we'd watch like heroes. It was like really a date night, but she knew that I couldn't talk and I was on vocal rest and it was fine. If I had spent all that time just sitting alone and home that wasn't mine.

[49:33] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[49:33] Teal Wicks: So but I did kind of go through I did go through emotional weird stuff and my boyfriend and I had already been on the West Coast for almost a year away from my boyfriend, and then I was back in New York for like two months maybe before I was back on the West Coast again for a year. So we were going through stuff, and like, what are we doing? What is usual? So it was a lot. I went through a lot emotionally, physically, mentally. But it also now I just I understand myself so much more. I know what my limits are. I also know what I want and I don't want in work.

[50:09] Caleb Dicke: Sure.

[50:09] Teal Wicks: And thankfully they asked me to do Alphaba on Broadway, and that was my Broadway debut.

[50:15] Caleb Dicke: Which is so cool.

[50:16] Teal Wicks: Yeah. Which is insane. And also so like how lucky for me that I had done a role for almost two years, had been through all the all the phases of like loving it and being a rock star and then being so sick and barely able like I had some shows I had where I couldn't finish the show. I had shows where I was making some of the most disgusting sounds you have ever heard, and thankfully nobody has left that on YouTube. Not even recognition, like literally trying to sing stuff, and it was just like literally sounding like a dying book.

[50:51] Caleb Dicke: It's hard, yeah.

[50:52] Teal Wicks: It's hard. Thankfully, none of that is on the internet. I bless you, fans and Broadway clubs that have like not made that exist forever. But being but I had a year off because when I finished San Francisco, I was very insecure with the show and with me as a performer, and I did a show in between that was very artistically fulfilling and wonderful. It's actually funny. Steven Schwartz was a producer on this show that I did. We were doing it in Boston at ART. So like Steven Schwartz, he's been like this interesting, like constant in my life.

[51:29] Caleb Dicke: So I'm waiting for like him to come back for it to come back.

[51:38] Teal Wicks: Um but it was he was a producer, and while I was doing the show, which was so artistically fulfilling and such a weird show, and is literally one of the best things, one of still one of my favorite things I've done. It was called Blue Flower. They they ask they I got the call to come to Broadway, and I was in such a healthy space, or like mentally, yeah, emotionally, that I was like, yes, yes. And when I came to Broadway, it was such an amazing company. Like that theater's wonderful, and I'm sure everybody that's there is still wonderful, but something was very special, at least for me, that cast and company that was there, to step on a Broadway stage for my first time performing in a role that I knew the inside and out of so well, and literally was like, Oh, I know what the fuck I'm doing.

[52:20] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, yeah.

[52:21] Teal Wicks: Like I can do this, and I have made this my own, and no like insecurity of like, are they gonna laugh? Are they gonna clause? Are they gonna like this? I was like, I don't care. I know what I'm doing.

[52:32] Caleb Dicke: Right.

[52:32] Teal Wicks: So that was incredible.

[52:34] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[52:35] Teal Wicks: But I also, because I had had such a long journey with Wicked when I finished the Broadway company, I was not anxious to go back to Wicked for a very, very long time. And I'm still at that point where now years have gone by and I'm kind of like, I missed that paycheck. I missed it. And I also now miss because I've done a lot of other roles, and I was like, I do kind of miss carrying a show. I miss that having that much drama. I don't miss having to sing all that sort of stuff. Vocally, I'm like, oh god.

[53:04] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[53:04] Teal Wicks: I could do it, but do I want to do it?

[53:06] Caleb Dicke: Exactly.

[53:07] Teal Wicks: But I've been asked a few times to like step into other companies, and they were at times where I really couldn't do it, either because of conflicts or just I wasn't in the right place.

[53:19] Caleb Dicke: So yeah.

[53:20] Teal Wicks: It definitely is the gift that keeps on giving because people know me because of the show.

[53:24] Caleb Dicke: Sure.

[53:25] Teal Wicks: And I've made a stamp on it. Like I know that I've properly claimed my take on Elphaba and people recognize that.

[53:32] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[53:32] Teal Wicks: Um and it's given me a fan base that I never would have had otherwise. And so that's my Wicked life chapter.

[53:39] Caleb Dicke: It is like an interesting machine that like we've talked to several people about the show. It's just everyone has a different aspect of it and a different story. It's really cool.

[53:47] Teal Wicks: Absolutely.

[53:48] Caleb Dicke: See everything. And it's it in time and distance, also like it's a show that depending on what you're doing in it, you have such a different take on it. And when you're done with it, you're like, okay, I'm done. Oh, I'm gonna go do something completely different.

[54:03] Teal Wicks: Uh-huh.

[54:03] Caleb Dicke: And then, or some people are like, I can't wait to get back into it. I want to do it because I know it and I understand it, and I know it's successful and I know what to expect.

[54:11] Teal Wicks: Now I'm now I'm ready just to be moral.

[54:14] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, in time.

[54:16] Teal Wicks: I can't wait. We're gonna jump ahead a little bit.

[54:19] Caleb Dicke: But jump to like 2012, 13.

[54:25] Teal Wicks: Oklahoma City.

[54:26] Caleb Dicke: Uh You're on the end of the hideous.

[54:31] Teal Wicks: We're in the audience, like 10th row orchestra. It was absolutely our junior year because at intermission we got a cocktail.

[54:40] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[54:40] Teal Wicks: Ooh, yes. Holy moment. There was an orange. We got the orange.

[54:44] Caleb Dicke: It was a whiskey.

[54:45] Teal Wicks: Yes, they were themed. I think they were, but they were all like potion.

[54:49] Caleb Dicke: Like they weren't actually themed, like they were just like spooky drinking.

[54:53] Teal Wicks: Like, you know what I mean? Like you're like, okay.

[54:56] Caleb Dicke: Or I think they were actually called like the Jekyll and Hyde.

[54:58] Teal Wicks: So I think like the Jekyll was like the the cream sickle, like nice, like buttoned up, and then the Hyde was something, I don't know, I can't remember.

[55:06] Caleb Dicke: But we have like the It was one of our favorite memories of like you and Constantine just like singing right like so close in each other's faces, and we were both like it's just like one of our favorite memories of the city.

[55:25] Teal Wicks: Were we too close? Was it weird?

[55:26] Caleb Dicke: No, it wasn't weird.

[55:27] Teal Wicks: It was just like the most high energy, yeah.

[55:31] Caleb Dicke: And like the voices together in that show were like, it was like such like a like a rock.

[55:37] Teal Wicks: You and it was just like it was a rock concert.

[55:39] Caleb Dicke: It was.

[55:40] Teal Wicks: And that was yeah, that was musically, they're like, we're gonna make this. That's what Frank. He was like, what? This show has been done so much. But he's got to be background too. I mean, he's a pop writer. Yeah, yeah. And he was like, I have this, I have this like RB Diva, I have this like rock god, and then I have Teal. But that was me. I that was we had a lot of discussions. He was like, you're he's like, you can do all this stuff, and you're here with these people that have very specific vocals. So like you just have to find your version of the body. I felt like you grounded the show though. You were like, you pulled it back. Because I was like, it's still musical theater. Yeah, yeah. We're still trying to tell a story here.

So I can't just be like, which I don't even know how to do. It was we did love that. We loved so many moments of it. Like what is this? This was like this was like Deborah, like most like saying saying the word bird flies or something. Yeah. And like literally doing like uh it was just like so glorious. Like just a j the j it was so heightened and like dramatic and like such a concert like feel like it was so fun. Like we really did have like such a blast seeing that show. What was it like doing that? Like 'cause I think that was a time when a lot of shows were doing the kind of like tour circ like national tour circuit that landed on Broadway. It was you know, it was very interesting. It was actually it was a lot of fun.

Touring is tricky because it's hard being away from home for so long. But I love traveling and I love being in new places and I love having to go out and like discover a new town. And because Emma is a pretty easy role, like I wasn't I wasn't Deborah and I wasn't Constantine, so I didn't have to arrive in a city and go straight to pressure and do all this crazy stuff. Like I could go out and enjoy, and we had a really fun company. It was such a funny mix of people. It was like a quintessential Frank Wildhorn show. It was like most of the girls were like young and like hot and fun. Um and then there were like like the middle-aged like rocker guys who who did musical theater, but they also all were in bands on the side.

So like they were like they played on the show. Yeah. And then there were like a bunch of like wonderful like older like queens that were just get that were fabulous. And so it was such a funny mix, and we all got along so well and had such funny dynamics. And we it was a lot of fun. I remember it being a lot of fun. I don't know if anybody else I don't there was always some drama, but I'm also very, as I said, I like everybody, I get a lot of shit, people like me, I stay out of the drama. It's just a smidge out of a nicer. The nice thing about having a company that has like a lot of different vibes is that like if there's drama happening in one kind of circle, you can just hop on over to another side.

Exactly. You know. I know, like when the girls were doing something, because they're all like you know, on when everybody is in a small dressing room from place to place, we were in some weird places. Like we were at some really fun places, but I remember like when we were in Detroit, there was a heating problem in this old theater, so some of the dressing rooms were like they were either freezing or like ungodly hot. And just sweating the makeup off, you know. So I just be like, I'm gonna go hang out with these guys over here. It was a lot of fun. And and it was interesting because I had a lot of freedom to do whatever I wanted to do in the towns. Like I would show up to some of the fancy things and then not.

And I was like, Yeah. It's a fun show. But we just had to read it out because it is one of our first times when like you like that's so funny. Like it sounds so like you came into like our knowledge or life at that point. And so then when Cole was like doing this ballot of little Joe with like Teal Wicks, I literally fell out of my chair and I was like, Oh, yeah, Ellie had like on the floor, like thinking I'm like, Cole is pretty much it's so yeah, but you know, like you know, like with those friends that you've had for a long time, like you have your own like set of like references. Yes, and like that was one of our like favorite references in our like lives. Yeah, you say a rock show, you know what I mean?

Teal Wicks, and just like fun belting and like you know, if we go to the. Did we kiss them at the end of the song? Yeah, we kiss, yeah. And if we go to a show and like we're like, we've like had maybe too many cocktails, or like the cocktails are too like a little stiffer than usual. Like that's also a reference point. We were like, oh my god, remember it's a bit of Jekyll and Hyde when we were given like a full bottle of vodka and a cup, and it just like and we were just like, I guess. And they were like, And then we were like this, you need this. Like we were having so much fun. Like then his eyes happened, and we were like, yes, it was. I know, because it is that song is amazing. Yeah, and then like to sing it.

Yeah, they're all hits. I'm just like gonna keep jumping as we go. Like, yeah. Then I was I went and saw Finding Neverland, and I came in late, so I like sat down, and then I didn't get to look at the program or anything, and then you came on. There was like a hubbub of people, and then you appear out of nowhere in this gorgeous white gown, just walking down center, and it was like, and you're like, you're like belting this craze something. I was like again, like that's true. That no longer exists in the show. It doesn't? I don't think it changed a lot for the tour. But yeah, I know that's I know exactly what we literally are like walking on, and then it's like you appear like out of the way.

Just there's a lot, yeah. Just there, and this like everyone's crazy black and gray, and then you're in white. Yeah, I'm in white. It's technically it was like like almost a gray dress, but I know. With my I had I literally marry Barry and finding Neverland, I said I'm basically the closest thing to getting in drag. Because I would I had her because they really wanted like the Gibson girl like super shapely shape. Yeah. So I had I had I don't have a lot going on in the bosom area, so I had major padding there. And then I literally had hip pads, like hip and butt pads to give me bigger hips. So I had this like super hourglass shape. So it was and then that with just the makeup and the wig, and I was like, I'm getting in drag.

Yeah, it's gonna be. I mean, I'm literally changing my shape completely for this character, which was I don't know, it was fun. I don't really know, it just kind of happened when I came into the show. They're sort of like, this is kind of our concept, and I never thought to say why is that necessary. I kind of embraced it. It was a cool concept of a show. Like it was a very interesting creative team, interesting design. What was that like? Because a lot of your experience previous to then, like, was like, you know, coming into a role that had already been kind of set in a way, or you know, doing a revival of a role. What was it like to kind of like originate in that way? Well, it was hard. It was tricky because my character I think they were really trying to figure out what the character is and why she's there and how to make her work.

And I think they still are because I know she's been cut down a lot for the tour of it. So it's hard to be the mean person. Yeah, yeah. And I was just I was like, well, okay, I'm just kind of the closest thing to a villain in this. But also, they did when they did it at ART, because I went in for Finding Neverland before ART. I never went in for the Sylvia part, which was the part I always wanted, but Laura Michelle Kelly, I've been attached with it. Yeah. Like, duh. I mean, I love that girl. And she's she's literally magic. Like the scarf. I mean, she just she is, she's just this magical little butterfly creature. And that character, like, she just made that character so wonderful. And tangent.

I saw her in Lord of the Rings, the musical. Oh my god. I saw some video of that. She was insane. She was like flying in the rafters like a fucking elfin. Singing like the goddess that she is. That cast recording is so good. And um that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I believe it. I saw watched a little video because I saw her, I saw her do Mary Poppins on Broadway because one of my friends who I didn't my who um Nick Dramard, who was I knew Nick very well. Yeah, he was my Fiero in San Francisco. Yeah. And he was join he was going to be Bert on Broadway for a little bit because he was about to go do the tour. So I was like, I have to see you, especially because it's Mary Poppins.

I love Mary Poppins. I hadn't seen it yet because I Mary Poppins is very special to me, and I was like sure. But I actually really loved it. I didn't know. And I'm so and Laura Michelle was Mary E. Poppins at the moment, and I was like, who is this magical creature? So good. And we went out for drinks afterwards, and I met her very briefly there, and she just did her now that I know her. I'm like, oh, she was like, oh hello, your next friend. And she's just like, oh, I love you so much. I was like, we just met. I don't know if you're sure. And I'm like, oh I get it. But and I remember I watched a video of her doing it during The Lord of the Rings, and just I mean gorgeous. Laura Michelle Kelly, give me all your guess.

Teach me how to play my girl. Did she play like one of the elves? She played um. Oh, the one woman that loves Aragon. Is that his name? No, no, no. She played the, I think in the movies, the Kate Blanchett character. Or it might have been a completely different character. She played like the like blonde. The blonde, oh yeah, just like goddess. Okay, yeah. She was flying and seeing them was beautiful. Like, and that stuff was like really gorgeous, like Celtic folk soprano. It was like, ugh. And her voice is just perfect. Because she has this magical, like, sh it's just a flawless mix from like this kind of like you you're like, are you belting? And now you're just like in this glorious soprano, and then it seamlessly comes back down, and it's just it's I have such I would literally during Finding Neverland, just sit backstage.

Because I during Finding Neverland, I because I had a lot of breaks in act one. And at one point I used to go upstairs, and then I would come back downstairs for my like last big thing before the very end. And then there was one show right after we opened, I almost missed my cue because I was upstairs and I was running down the stairs so fast I twisted my ankle. Like severely twist my ankle that I was out of the show for like the next like whatever days. He did Charlie at the lot, and I when I would go stairs. When I would visit him up in the dressing room, I'll be like, how many more stairs do you have to go up? And they're padded, and I was running down in this like dress with a train and in heels and in hips and my mouth is out of whack.

And I literally took a step and like heard a pop and stumbled out on stage, made it on stage literally right before the curtain opened to reveal me and that scene. And the scene that I was supposed to that was running down for, and I just my ankle I could barely even stand on it. And I Oh my god. Anyways, and I didn't my ankle still is like more s my ankle is still messed up. It just it's a different size than my other one. It's just bigger. So I was like, okay, that happens. But because of that, no, I stopped going upstairs. Sure. Unless I had like a legit costume change, I just stayed downstairs. So I would spend so much time off stage watching, listening, Laura, seeing all that matters. It was just beautiful.

And then that last scene gorgeous. And everyone on stage, like it was pretty, yeah. It was it would make me cry. I think it's one of the most whatever you feel about that show, those last 10 minutes from as soon as they get into the nursery and start doing the play, that until the glitter volcano, volcano, tornado. Yeah. I think is just is gorgeous. Yeah, it really is. Smart, it is stunning, it is simple, simple, but yet so magical. And it is like that's what the show is. And I wish more of that was in the rest of the show, but that's okay. Yeah. The show still is, I still really, really like the show. But it was very interesting. So back to like the point, like Gina DeWall started that character, and I didn't see it, so I but I know, but I know that she's very funny, and she's a very smart actress, and she's wonderful.

So she did a lot of I think the work. Sadly, and then I then I show up and I'm just like, okay, I'll just try to figure this out. Yeah. So I was taking like they figured out, I think, a lot of stuff with the character, and I think the character got cut down a lot during her time there, which I know must have been freaking really frustrating because some of that happened with me during the Broadway stuff, and I was like, this character is not that clearly written already. So, like we're trying to really try to figure her out. And I think the biggest thing for me, I was like, she's just just she's the villain. Like, she's gonna be the bitchiest character character that you've played. Just embrace that and just get into that, and just know I think it's just me because of who I am that but I brought something that made it kind of balance out, and also I was like, just embrace it.

Yeah, there's villains for a reason. Like, there are people that like you want to hate and you love them for that, so just embrace that. So it was interesting, but it was very hard. Because there was a time where that opening number they were they were trying to figure out a lot and kept rewriting it and rewriting it. At one point, they completely cut it, and we did a preview performance without the opening number at all. And that was the only other time that I sang, other than so I was like, and they rewrote the number, and um like Elliot gave me this cool little vocal line, which is now like I mean it's a split second, but it's now the one thing that people are like, Yes, and when you sing that exactly and then that was cut, and I was like, I don't know what I'm doing.

[1:09:32] Teal Wicks: Nobody cares.

[1:09:34] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, that was interesting.

[1:09:35] Teal Wicks: That was interesting for my ego to be like is what it's like. It's very difficult when you're when you have to kind of like put that stuff aside. Because I take things very personally. I have my biggest thing I have to work on is not is like if something happens, it's not necessarily about me as the person or my performance, it's just literally the big picture, the big picture.

[1:09:54] Elliott Mattox: Yeah, and it could be just in the writing, they were just like, we don't really know what this is, so we just have to move this around because we wrote it in a weird way, and that's not your fault, it's our fault. But that was such a big lesson, being like, you know what, don't take it personally. It is about the big picture, and you might be a tiny little cog in this massive machine, but like you're still there and you're part of it, and just try to go with the flow, and that's tricky.

[1:10:17] Teal Wicks: It is tricky to find that balance. With Shuffle Along, there's I saw the invited dress, and there were characters that completely like actors didn't have a job because they cut them. And you're like, for the betterment of the show, like we just don't we don't need your character anymore.

[1:10:34] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, okay.

[1:10:34] Teal Wicks: It's tricky to wrap your head around like you were hired to play this role. Hopefully, you know, if casting everything's right, you are the best version of this role ever. And if that's still if that character still doesn't work in the show, you're like, then you gave them a gift for being like, no, we just messed up. We just we created something that really is unnecessary and is just baggage.

[1:10:56] Elliott Mattox: Yeah.

[1:10:57] Teal Wicks: And thankfully you came up and made it work as best as you can, and then But now we know.

[1:11:03] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:11:03] Teal Wicks: Because like if you have somebody who's not so great, and you'll be like, well, maybe if we decide our so-and-so, it'll like they'll make it work. But I guess it's hard, like Broadway shouldn't be the final ending for a show. Even though it should be like it's hard to be like, yes, we have like time to like rewrite something or like make it better. It's hard if that's like the frozenness of a show.

[1:11:24] Elliott Mattox: I think they should think about them whenever they do a revival.

[1:11:27] Teal Wicks: I love revivals because that's my world. It's like that golden age.

[1:11:30] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:11:30] Teal Wicks: But like, why are we bringing My Fair Lady back? Are we gonna think about them? Are we gonna think about like the Me Too movement? Are we thinking about women's roles? Or like why are we? How about with Carousel? Carousel is one of my favorite shows. I love characters.

[1:11:43] Elliott Mattox: Yeah, like why is it is.

[1:11:47] Teal Wicks: Yeah, but why?

[1:11:48] Elliott Mattox: Yeah.

[1:11:48] Teal Wicks: And with like a little bit of mixed racial casting, but not that much, considering the two most ethnic diverse characters are like the bad guys.

[1:11:59] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:12:00] Teal Wicks: So that's an interesting dynamic too. Is you know, I are what's the what's the point of having like the abuser as like a black man? But I'm I am like, yes, diverse. I mean even though even though I mean that I have less things I can go in for, but I'm embrace it.

[1:12:16] Elliott Mattox: Yeah.

[1:12:17] Teal Wicks: I'm excited. I'm very excited to see what Lindsay Mend does.

[1:12:21] Caleb Dicke: Yes.

[1:12:21] Teal Wicks: Yeah. Because I think she's gonna be. That's an important, like, I know it sounds bad, but like it's a side role that you can still really like flourish in like Audra, like you could take the Tony for.

[1:12:30] Elliott Mattox: Oh my gosh.

[1:12:31] Teal Wicks: Carrie is, I don't know, somebody said, I think she was like, she's like, anybody who wants to play Julie is crazy. Carrie is the role you play. Because Carrie gets some of the better songs and gets all the laughs and gets the endearing things, and Julie, you You're just like, why go on? You're so stupid and leave that.

[1:12:47] Elliott Mattox: And I played Julie, and I and I love Carousel, and that made me fall like I think Carousel is one of the best musicals, and it's gorgeous. And it deals with abuse, and it is it is interesting and it is tricky and it's hard, and I know people are like, how do you justify it? And I was like, there are that's the thing.

[1:13:01] Teal Wicks: How do you?

[1:13:02] Elliott Mattox: Yeah, because there are people who there are women and men and children, and uh people who deal with abuse on a daily basis, and that's a part of their life, and they find a way to justify it, and they find a way to live through it, and and that doesn't mean that they're stupid or or weak. I mean, maybe they are, maybe they're just who knows what it's like. It doesn't mean their story isn't worth telling.

[1:13:24] Teal Wicks: And like her in this time, because it also is a period piece, like she she justifies it in a way because the love is so strong, and as Billy says, he's like, I hit her once. People are like, well, once is too many times, and yes, it is, but also, he was a you know, a volatile man that didn't know how to deal with these things, and they're such a complicated, beautiful relationship, but yet still playing Julie.

[1:13:47] Elliott Mattox: I remember at the end of the show, I was more emotionally devastated than I'd ever been because she doesn't get very much closure.

[1:13:56] Teal Wicks: No.

[1:13:56] Elliott Mattox: She basically like you just end as a raw nerve.

[1:14:00] Teal Wicks: And he like, anyway, it's just it's it's a lot. It's very, it's very difficult, but it's it's still beautiful.

[1:14:07] Elliott Mattox: I feel like such a beautiful score.

[1:14:09] Teal Wicks: It's such like a beautiful version of scene and song mixed together. That prologue.

[1:14:14] Elliott Mattox: That prologue and the ballet.

[1:14:18] Teal Wicks: Uh-huh.

[1:14:18] Elliott Mattox: Ugh.

[1:14:19] Teal Wicks: Anyway, I know it's so good.

[1:14:21] Caleb Dicke: Very excited to see it.

[1:14:24] Teal Wicks: Um, we talked about Wicked.

[1:14:26] Caleb Dicke: Uh-huh.

[1:14:27] Teal Wicks: Which, of course, this week became the seventh longest running show in Howie history. Go look at it. So, in honor of them and in honor of you being our guest this week, it's time for a special Wicked edition of Merch Madness.

[1:14:40] Caleb Dicke: Oh!

[1:14:49] Teal Wicks: So, for this week, I of course have multiple pieces of merchandise from Wicked, but not as many as you'd think. I only have the two. Um, I have my of course my Wicked shirt. This is from when I saw Wicked, the original cast in 2000, 2004, 2005. Um, so this is like they probably have much cool they know I know they have much cooler merchandise now.

[1:15:10] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, but that shirt still exists.

[1:15:11] Teal Wicks: That's the iconic shirt.

[1:15:12] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:15:12] Teal Wicks: This is the original black t-shirt with the wicked with the witch on the eye.

[1:15:17] Caleb Dicke: Yep.

[1:15:18] Teal Wicks: Um it's that cool font.

[1:15:20] Caleb Dicke: The cool font, which is cracking now because I've had it for so long.

[1:15:24] Teal Wicks: For some reason, when I was young, I always bought mediums. You know, even though in the middle.

[1:15:29] Caleb Dicke: So tiny.

[1:15:30] Teal Wicks: Like I've never been, I've always been short and like I've literally never worn a medium really, but I've seen I have a medium. It is it has like shrunk over the years to like fit me better.

[1:15:45] Caleb Dicke: Take it to the tailor.

[1:15:46] Teal Wicks: And then on the back under the neck, it says by gravity. Um which is also cracked and their space. It's funny that it's like so close to the top of the neck.

[1:15:58] Caleb Dicke: So they're like, if you have hair, you can cover it if you don't like it.

[1:16:00] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[1:16:01] Caleb Dicke: No, but I don't.

[1:16:02] Teal Wicks: So I wear it loud and proud. Uh this is a great shirt, obviously, amazing memories. I've talked about it on the podcast before, but Wicked, like I saw it when I couldn't get a ticket and Laura Bell Bundy like snuck me in the stage store and up the stairs, and I sat behind the last row of the balcony and like watched it.

[1:16:19] Caleb Dicke: I have a wicked story about seeing it, but I'm gonna wait.

[1:16:23] Teal Wicks: And so this is so this brings me back to uh to that time in my life.

[1:16:26] Caleb Dicke: I think I have a I had a version of that shirt.

[1:16:29] Teal Wicks: But you have a lot of merchandise probably.

[1:16:30] Caleb Dicke: I do.

[1:16:31] Teal Wicks: I don't know.

[1:16:32] Caleb Dicke: I think all of them.

[1:16:33] Teal Wicks: Um the most recent merchandise. And uh I'm not even gonna I'm not even going to uh keep our audience waiting. This is the winner of this week's madness.

[1:16:44] Caleb Dicke: I vote those over.

[1:16:46] Teal Wicks: I'm so these are my wicked socks.

[1:16:51] Caleb Dicke: So I got these when I saw the national tour in Oklahoma City when I was uh with six senior in college. That's the only other time I've seen Do you remember?

[1:16:59] Teal Wicks: Um yes, it was Gen Genola.

[1:17:03] Caleb Dicke: Jen.

[1:17:03] Teal Wicks: Yeah, she's done it.

[1:17:04] Caleb Dicke: Jenny Janula, yeah.

[1:17:05] Teal Wicks: Right, and she's amazing. I love her take on it. It's so cool.

[1:17:07] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:17:08] Teal Wicks: Um, and then um, who was the girl who was also in Chaplin?

[1:17:12] Caleb Dicke: Um, she's no.

[1:17:15] Teal Wicks: Um the other white Potishan.

[1:17:18] Caleb Dicke: Yes.

[1:17:18] Teal Wicks: No.

[1:17:19] Caleb Dicke: Yes.

[1:17:19] Teal Wicks: Haley Potishan was in Chaplin, and I know she played Glinda on tour.

[1:17:23] Caleb Dicke: Yes.

[1:17:23] Teal Wicks: And I'm pretty sure she did it with Jenny.

[1:17:25] Caleb Dicke: Absolutely who I saw because I loved it, and she was amazing.

[1:17:31] Teal Wicks: It was one of the first times that I thought it was Glinda the Musical. You know what I mean?

[1:17:34] Caleb Dicke: Like, I think it's usually Alphabet the musical, but that night.

[1:17:38] Teal Wicks: No, I know what you mean. It was Glinda the musical. She was serving up every bubbliness I never needed, and then also like bringing me into the depths of the city.

[1:17:45] Caleb Dicke: Those two girls, I know they're like really good.

[1:17:47] Teal Wicks: I know. It was really, really great. It was very emotional.

[1:17:50] Caleb Dicke: It's really good.

[1:17:52] Teal Wicks: Oh yay. I got these wicked socks. They are hilarious. It's uh Glinda on the left. It's the iconic logo, the whispering witches.

[1:18:01] Caleb Dicke: Um they are green and black and purple socks.

[1:18:04] Teal Wicks: And then um they have Wicked, the logo on the uh on the bottom of the feet, and they are just so fucking cute.

[1:18:11] Caleb Dicke: Those are awesome.

[1:18:12] Teal Wicks: I might need those.

[1:18:14] Caleb Dicke: Like if I was to I have some like wicked sweatpants that I still wear, but like wicked.

[1:18:19] Teal Wicks: If there's a piece of I know like there's a piece of like wicked, wicked merch that I would wear, those socks.

[1:18:25] Caleb Dicke: They're so fun.

[1:18:27] Teal Wicks: They are by far the winner of this week's Merch Madness.

[1:18:30] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:18:31] Teal Wicks: Like five A's.

[1:18:32] Caleb Dicke: Oh, five A's out of it.

[1:18:33] Teal Wicks: Five A's a minute.

[1:18:35] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:18:37] Teal Wicks: Right.

[1:18:38] Caleb Dicke: Oh, I love that.

[1:18:40] Teal Wicks: So that's this week's wicked edition of Merch Madness.

[1:18:45] Caleb Dicke: It's so wicked.

[1:18:46] Teal Wicks: Okay, first time.

[1:18:48] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:18:49] Teal Wicks: When I the first time I saw Wicked, I was okay. This is my little tangent. I was in college. I remember Wicked come out, and my dad and I were doing this amazing trip to um to Europe, and we had a layover in New York, and my whole point of the layover now was like we will see Wicked.

[1:18:54] Caleb Dicke: We will see Wicked.

[1:19:11] Teal Wicks: And I think we were in New York for like three days.

[1:19:13] Caleb Dicke: Wow, that's a layover.

[1:19:14] Teal Wicks: Yeah. That was it was a legit lay. But when you're coming from California, you know, you're like, that's half of the trip.

[1:19:21] Caleb Dicke: So we couldn't get Wicked tickets.

[1:19:24] Teal Wicks: We were trying for the lottery, and we tried it twice. I remember there was some show that we got like scalped matinee tickets for. But then we went to try the lottery, and we had already done a lottery and didn't win. And then we were back in the lottery, and both of our names got picked.

[1:19:39] Caleb Dicke: And I remember like my name got picked, and I was like, yes!

[1:19:43] Teal Wicks: And then my dad's thing got picked, and he was so like, I don't need them! Somebody else!

[1:19:49] Caleb Dicke: And we were so excited. Like we were just thought it was the coolest.

[1:19:52] Teal Wicks: And then we had to try to find somebody who we were gonna buy the scalp tickets for whatever the show was that we were gonna see.

[1:19:59] Caleb Dicke: And we sold them.

[1:20:00] Teal Wicks: And yeah, and then I remember sitting, you know, front, front freaking row of Wicked, just being like, what's happening? As soon as that stupid dragon starts moving and the whole thing, and I'm just like crying.

[1:20:10] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, it's ridiculous.

[1:20:12] Teal Wicks: So good.

[1:20:12] Caleb Dicke: I know.

[1:20:13] Teal Wicks: There's no lottery for the um Thoroughly Modern Millie concert, but I wish there was.

[1:20:17] Caleb Dicke: Of course there's not.

[1:20:18] Teal Wicks: It's a I mean I know, but yeah, I know.

[1:20:22] Caleb Dicke: Like the way you like to get it.

[1:20:23] Teal Wicks: You saw Thoroughly Modern Millie?

[1:20:25] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, I think it was when this is me saying my age, but I'm pretty sure when that first New York program trip that I did in college, Thoroughly Modern Millie was happening.

[1:20:34] Teal Wicks: We saw it there.

[1:20:34] Caleb Dicke: That was a little bit more.

[1:20:35] Teal Wicks: I didn't think Kate Baldwin was in it.

[1:20:36] Caleb Dicke: Like in the ensemble.

[1:20:38] Teal Wicks: Really?

[1:20:38] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:20:39] Teal Wicks: The blame is when I saw it.

[1:20:44] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:20:44] Teal Wicks: Oh.

[1:20:45] Caleb Dicke: That's a funny cover.

[1:20:46] Teal Wicks: Like it though.

[1:20:48] Caleb Dicke: Is it so?

[1:20:49] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[1:20:49] Caleb Dicke: Especially like vocally, yes.

[1:20:51] Teal Wicks: That original Epineen sound.

[1:20:55] Caleb Dicke: Was like very kind of like what Sutton especially was doing at that time.

[1:21:05] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[1:21:06] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:21:08] Teal Wicks: Keep up with games and lotteries.

[1:21:09] Caleb Dicke: Ooh.

[1:21:11] Teal Wicks: We're gonna do a fast, quick questions. Just rapid fire. Tell me what tell me like whatever comes around. We don't there's no time limit, so don't feel stressed.

[1:21:17] Caleb Dicke: We'll get off on a tangent in this game.

[1:21:18] Teal Wicks: It's gonna be a good one. But I like I like the what do you call that? Where you wait, isn't there a term for when you just say whatever comes right off?

[1:21:26] Caleb Dicke: Like we're pre-association, yeah.

[1:21:29] Teal Wicks: Tweeting?

[1:21:30] Caleb Dicke: Yes.

[1:21:31] Teal Wicks: Halo!

[1:21:33] Caleb Dicke: It's got the okay.

[1:21:36] Teal Wicks: Okay.

[1:21:37] Caleb Dicke: Name three famous redheads.

[1:21:39] Teal Wicks: Three famous redheads. Lucille Ball.

[1:21:43] Caleb Dicke: I literally was like Kate Baldwin because you just said her name.

[1:21:47] Teal Wicks: We'll take it, we'll take it.

[1:21:49] Caleb Dicke: And uh, oh god, what?

[1:21:51] Teal Wicks: Shirley McLean.

[1:21:52] Caleb Dicke: Okay, cool.

[1:21:53] Teal Wicks: Your hair's not as red as it usually is, though, is it?

[1:21:56] Teal Wicks: It's lightened up. Because I'm I'm I'm a fake redhead. I'm naturally a blonde.

[1:22:00] Caleb Dicke: Really?

[1:22:00] Teal Wicks: Yeah, sorry.

[1:22:01] Caleb Dicke: Well, it comes truth comes out.

[1:22:02] Teal Wicks: It's kind of devastating.

[1:22:04] Caleb Dicke: But I have a lot of okay.

[1:22:05] Teal Wicks: Here's the thing. My mom has tons of siblings, and they are the full gamut of Irish hair coloring. So we have like super red to blonde. My mom was just blonder, and I I colored my hair and the red stuck around.

[1:22:19] Caleb Dicke: Because I was always blonde, but when I sort of enhanced my hair to an auburn color, the red stayed more than anything else, so then I embraced it.

[1:22:26] Teal Wicks: So I'm sorry, I shattered dreams.

[1:22:29] Caleb Dicke: No.

[1:22:29] Teal Wicks: No dreams shattered here.

[1:22:31] Caleb Dicke: But that's why she's lighter, because I was like, do I want to be a blonde again?

[1:22:35] Teal Wicks: So I'm somewhere in between.

[1:22:36] Caleb Dicke: That's what hair color's for.

[1:22:37] Teal Wicks: Exactly.

[1:22:38] Caleb Dicke: Oh, I'm always like, let's color my hair. Let's cut it this way. It'll grow back.

[1:22:41] Teal Wicks: Yeah, exactly.

[1:22:43] Caleb Dicke: Most used emoji.

[1:22:45] Teal Wicks: Oh, oh yeah. I'm obsessed with the emoji with the star eyes right now.

[1:22:49] Caleb Dicke: Oh, sure. Great one.

[1:22:51] Teal Wicks: Yes, yeah.

[1:22:52] Caleb Dicke: Okay. We already talked about this a little bit, but what was your first survival job? Now tell us a little bit of a story about it.

[1:22:57] Teal Wicks: Oh, oh. Well, did you have like two? My first survival job, I well, okay. I worked a little bit in high school, and my first one, I was working. This is okay. I was working in a warehouse in a sports rack equipment warehouse. Basically, like cars, you know, you put on like sports racks for your bikes or your ski.

[1:23:22] Teal Wicks: Because we're in Sacramento. People go kayaking, they go in the mountains, go skiing, snowboarding, they like go bicycling. There's like all it's huge. Everybody puts on some sort of rack to carry some sort of sports equipment. So I was working for a company that did that, and I had to like put stickers and like add a few like nuts and bolts to like the finishing parts of the things before we put them in. Responsibility. Yeah, and I had I learned and they never let me other than the time that they were teaching me, but learned how to drive a forklift.

[1:23:50] Teal Wicks: Oh, yeah. In case you might have to do this, I was like 16, so I was like, I got my license. I can drive. And I learned how to drive a warehouse. That's kind of a cool skill.

[1:24:00] Teal Wicks: It's really random. It's hard to just use your heel and your toe to lift it and tilt it. Yeah. We have a buff cat on the farm, and I'm always just like, oh, yeah. It's true, but it was interesting because growing up on a farm, we had a tractor at one point, and my dad tried to teach me how to use a tractor, and I'm not, I never learned how to like stick shift drive. So the tractor has like all of these, like the stick that does all the stuff. I'm much better with my foot pushing things.

[1:24:26] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:24:27] Teal Wicks: That point from Belly, right?

[1:24:28] Caleb Dicke: Yeah!

[1:24:32] Teal Wicks: Okay. Three personal items you'd like to bring on trips.

[1:24:36] Teal Wicks: Oh, um. Some sort of coffee thing, either a mini French press or now my like espresso stovetop thing. Um I have a little photo album book that has a bunch of random pictures in it from just life. Most of it's from like college on. It's like a weird collection. So I'll bring that and sometimes I'll sort through it and change photos out. Um, and sometimes I'll just take it as is. And then um uh uh little I now am taking like little crystals.

[1:25:15] Teal Wicks: I love crystals. Yeah. I have different versions. Like I have some, I have like some rocks, like Himalayan rock salt little crystals that kind of just live in my toiletries bag. Yes. And then I have some uh quartz crystals that I vary like yeah the quartz, I think has a bit of a protective thing to it. That's why I choose to travel with it.

[1:25:40] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, totally.

[1:25:41] Teal Wicks: Like I literally have a little bag that I try that I put in almost all my purses that has the butt. It has a um uh a quartz crystal, one of those quartz that it's shaped into a skull because when I was doing Jekyll and Hyde for opening night gifts, I bought everybody these quartz skulls.

[1:25:58] Teal Wicks: Oh so and I had a few left over, so I kept them, and so now I just carry one with me. So I feel like a badass and also like Zen.

[1:26:07] Caleb Dicke: I love that.

[1:26:09] Teal Wicks: What would your winter Olympic sport be?

[1:26:12] Teal Wicks: Oh my god. I would be I would be border cross. Snowboarding border cross.

[1:26:18] Caleb Dicke: Okay.

[1:26:18] Teal Wicks: It's badass. I love snowboarding. I grew up going to Lake Tahoe all the time. I grew when I was very little, my parents put me on skis because they were both badass skiers. And I won when I was little, I wanted to be a ski I wanted to be an Olympic skier.

[1:26:33] Caleb Dicke: Oh wow.

[1:26:34] Teal Wicks: Until I discovered snowboarding, because that's where all the cool kids were, and that's where all the cute boys were. All the skater boys were now snowboarders. I'm not great in a park, but I love going really fast on a mountain.

[1:26:45] Caleb Dicke: Wow.

[1:26:46] Teal Wicks: So I would be border cross.

[1:26:47] Caleb Dicke: Cool.

[1:26:49] Teal Wicks: Best restaurant food slash food vendor in New York City. Or like place where you want to go for like burger Chinese. It could even be today. Just today what where you would go if you could have.

[1:27:01] Teal Wicks: Uh I I this always makes me anxious because I'm like, there's so many places I want to go.

[1:27:09] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:27:10] Teal Wicks: Um, I really like because I love coffee. The coffee project down, it's kind of um it's mm it's like just mini, just a little bit south of St. Mark's. I don't know exactly where it is. Down there and over.

[1:27:26] Teal Wicks: Yeah, down there, but not like super far east, but it's it's not far off of whatever that Broadway, but it's like just a little east, a little bit south of St. Mark's. But it's um I just remember that that I really like coffee and they do like coffee tastings and they had even though it's really cold outside they have they had a uh summer drink that was like my dream coffee summer drink that was like soda it was like soda water and coffee and a little cream and it literally tasted like I don't know it was just like coffee like coffee delectable magic it felt like cream soda.

[1:27:39] Caleb Dicke: Yeah exactly like coffee cream soda.

[1:27:39] Teal Wicks: Yeah um that and then I don't know some sort of uh ramen noodle what do I really like uh always like heart soul warming yes yes and salty and then your salt sodium then your fingers swell up a thousand times and then they're like you can't take my rings off right bath bomb facial scrub or body lotion oh ooh lotion what kind we're from oh mm I'm uh kind of just like in a vino I put I literally put it on every day when I get out of the shower so I need something that is bulky and like it's cheapish.

[1:28:47] Teal Wicks: Yeah and a vino's the closest I know it's not like I'm trying to be super green super like non-biochemicals and all that sort of stuff Navino's almost there but the ones that are completely clean are too expensive to slather on my body every single day.

[1:29:04] Caleb Dicke: Yeah favorite Sacramento California establishment like hometown like establishment the train museum in old sack okay that's cool.

[1:29:17] Teal Wicks: It's awesome um uh female or male role you want to take on.

[1:29:23] Teal Wicks: Ooh, yes um uh Blanche Dubois, streetcar.

[1:29:28] Caleb Dicke: Sure.

[1:29:28] Teal Wicks: And Sweeney Todd.

[1:29:30] Caleb Dicke: Okay.

[1:29:30] Teal Wicks: Sweeney and Sweeney Todd. I want to be sweet.

[1:29:32] Caleb Dicke: Have you talked to like the off-Broadway production of going in?

[1:29:37] Teal Wicks: No.

[1:29:37] Teal Wicks: Could you imagine? But like I would love to be. I don't even have to be like a lady sweet. I could be like a pretend man. I don't even know. I want to be able to get it. I just love Sweeney.

[1:29:46] Teal Wicks: I have always wanted to play Mrs. Lovett in drag and then fully in the final scene, like reveal.

[1:29:53] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:29:53] Teal Wicks: That I've been in drag the whole time.

[1:29:55] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, you know what I mean?

[1:29:56] Teal Wicks: Yeah. I would love that. Do you need to be able to do that?

[1:29:59] Teal Wicks: I'd be twice the wife she was, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, and I think that would just be like an extra added layer of craziness.

[1:30:06] Caleb Dicke: Oh, you've never talked to me about that.

[1:30:08] Teal Wicks: I love that.

[1:30:09] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:30:09] Teal Wicks: Don't steal my idea. I'm gonna copyright it.

[1:30:11] Teal Wicks: Or also, could I just as a third, I want to play every single character in the wild party.

[1:30:18] Caleb Dicke: Sure.

[1:30:18] Teal Wicks: Wild party's great.

[1:30:19] Caleb Dicke: Which wild party?

[1:30:20] Teal Wicks: I'm partial to Lippa's.

[1:30:22] Caleb Dicke: I also like Lucusa's.

[1:30:25] Teal Wicks: Sure.

[1:30:25] Teal Wicks: I like them both. They're very different and embrace the characters in very different colors.

[1:30:29] Teal Wicks: Welcome to my party.

[1:30:35] Teal Wicks: Oh, yeah. Did you hear about their um Jason Sherwood? Is that his name? He's a designer. And they did a wild party like room where it was like different rooms, immersive.

[1:30:44] Caleb Dicke: Cool.

[1:30:44] Teal Wicks: Did you hear about that?

[1:30:46] Caleb Dicke: No.

[1:30:46] Teal Wicks: It was like an apartment. Like you started somewhere and then you moved inside the apartment.

[1:30:50] Caleb Dicke: That would've been cool.

[1:30:51] Teal Wicks: You started a cabaret and then moved into like a.

[1:30:53] Teal Wicks: Because it's all that's like, I'm sure somebody's done it, but somebody should do it for real, and then I can be in it.

[1:31:00] Teal Wicks: Um, but like like a super immersive wild party. Because that is, they're like the speakeasy, and everybody just like passes out on the floor at one point, and you're like through the whole night, and just the stuff, and there's yeah, like the little nooks and crannies when things are happening.

[1:31:14] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, like there's a rooms in the bathroom and the kitchen, and like you're sitting there and you just get to And all these different characters because that's what they're doing.

[1:31:20] Teal Wicks: Like making them like a brown stone, and it's kinda like it's like sleep no more.

[1:31:20] Caleb Dicke: Like sleep no more but condense.

[1:31:27] Teal Wicks: Yeah. Uh huh.

[1:31:28] Teal Wicks: And like the people can't wander around as much.

[1:31:30] Caleb Dicke: They have to like stay alone.

[1:31:33] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[1:31:33] Teal Wicks: Yeah. But they also have to participate more.

[1:31:35] Teal Wicks: Like you have to give them like a drink.

[1:31:38] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:31:38] Teal Wicks: They have to dance with the people.

[1:31:41] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, that would be fun.

[1:31:42] Teal Wicks: The people's Valentine's Day plans.

[1:31:46] Teal Wicks: Oh, um, probably nothing. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day anymore.

[1:31:52] Caleb Dicke: Alright.

[1:31:52] Teal Wicks: I don't know. We'll probably if I don't have anything going on in the evening, we'll probably make a dinner and watch something on Netflix.

[1:31:59] Teal Wicks: Um Best Alpha Ms.

[1:32:02] Teal Wicks: Hap.

[1:32:02] Caleb Dicke: Oh god.

[1:32:03] Teal Wicks: So many.

[1:32:05] Caleb Dicke: Um I have to just pick my best one.

[1:32:08] Teal Wicks: Um I don't uh Okay, one of my first times on S Alphaba in LA when I was I think I was still standby.

[1:32:19] Teal Wicks: Um Derek Williams was our Fiero. He's like a tall, dreamy, like dark glass of water, like he's now I think he's he's in Book of Mormon right now here. But anyways, okay.

[1:32:31] Teal Wicks: Uh so the whole after popular Alpha comes out and is practicing her toss toss, toss toss, and like the is like, what are you doing? And she's like, what?

[1:32:41] Teal Wicks: So because I was new and super eager, and everybody was the you know, associate directors were like, come on and you're really trying to toss toss.

[1:32:50] Teal Wicks: I tried to toss toss so much that I literally tossed my feet out from underneath me and landed straight on my butt.

[1:32:57] Teal Wicks: And he walked up to me and saw it and just started laughing, and then I just looked at him and was like, What? It was literally on my ass on the stage, and he couldn't even talk.

[1:33:07] Teal Wicks: It was we were basically just laughing at each other until Dillman comes on and is like, Students! Students!

[1:33:14] Teal Wicks: And he's he's just cracking up. That's kind of I felt very good that I like really held it together, and I still said my line.

[1:33:22] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:33:22] Teal Wicks: And he was just laughing, and I was just like, Stop it! Stop laughing at me. You're a jerk.

[1:33:28] Teal Wicks: Because that's what Alphabet's inner dialogue is. But I was so eager. So eager.

[1:33:34] Teal Wicks: Like, who's the first one? Who's the big toss to fall on the floor? And get their feet literally get out from yeah, who toss tosses their buttons.

[1:33:42] Caleb Dicke: I'm just that sort of actor.

[1:33:43] Teal Wicks: Yeah, which is like a thousand percent.

[1:33:46] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:33:46] Teal Wicks: Okay. Last one.

[1:33:48] Teal Wicks: Advice you pass on to young girls when you go into acting.

[1:33:53] Teal Wicks: God, don't. It's kind of heavy, but that's fair.

[1:33:57] Teal Wicks: No, go go for it. Uh god, I don't know. Or or um, this might make it like a little more specific and easier.

[1:34:05] Teal Wicks: Like, what is advice you would give to yourself?

[1:34:08] Teal Wicks: Oh, yeah. Um, it's basically reiterating all the words I've been giving like, you are enough. Everything that you bring is exactly what you need to bring. You don't need to question it.

[1:34:19] Teal Wicks: But also the um the biggest thing, I think one of the biggest things I learned about actually being on stage is the power of being still.

[1:34:28] Teal Wicks: Just the stillness on stage, and that in itself is accepting the fact that you are enough. Like that you don't need to do anything extra, that you can just stand there and be you, and that is brilliant.

[1:34:41] Teal Wicks: And so, yeah, there's that. I think that.

[1:34:44] Teal Wicks: Which is hard. It takes a long time to learn that. And I still sometimes have to figure that out. But it's a good thing.

[1:34:50] Teal Wicks: Just standing there and being still, because it's very you're very vulnerable. You're very exposed.

[1:34:56] Teal Wicks: Because you can't just like distract with anything, but it's also very powerful.

[1:35:01] Caleb Dicke: Yeah.

[1:35:01] Teal Wicks: So, yeah.

[1:35:02] Caleb Dicke: Yeah, on stage and in life, I think.

[1:35:05] Teal Wicks: Yeah.

[1:35:05] Caleb Dicke: That's true.

[1:35:05] Teal Wicks: Yeah, it is true.

[1:35:07] Caleb Dicke: On that.

[1:35:08] Teal Wicks: On that.

[1:35:09] Teal Wicks: Teal things for happy.

[1:35:12] Caleb Dicke: Yes, really.

[1:35:13] Teal Wicks: This is a delight. Thank you so much for being on our podcast.

[1:35:17] Caleb Dicke: Uh where can people stay tuned to your your great adventures?

[1:35:21] Teal Wicks: Oh god, I don't know. I'm very I'm not very good at the whole keeping it. I don't know. I mean, I'm on Facebook, so I try.

[1:35:29] Caleb Dicke: Do you want people to follow you on Facebook?

[1:35:30] Teal Wicks: You can follow me on Facebook. You can follow me on I'm also on Instagram.

[1:35:36] Teal Wicks: But my name is Green Winged Tea. But if you look up Teal Wicks, you should come up with it.

[1:35:43] Caleb Dicke: Okay.

[1:35:43] Teal Wicks: That's because Teal I'm named after the green winged ducks.

[1:35:46] Caleb Dicke: Or there's Dallas named Teal.

[1:35:48] Teal Wicks: There's Teal Ducks.

[1:35:49] Caleb Dicke: Oh.

[1:35:49] Teal Wicks: Oh, interesting.

[1:35:50] Teal Wicks: Yeah. And there it is. That's that's where that came from.

[1:35:54] Teal Wicks: That was me trying to be like subtle and secretive.

[1:35:57] Caleb Dicke: Sure.

[1:35:57] Teal Wicks: When I first joined the Instagram world. Because I didn't know how I felt about it. And then it just sort of now I'm just like, oh, everybody knows me as that.

[1:36:05] Caleb Dicke: And yeah.

[1:36:07] Teal Wicks: You can follow the podcast at Equity One Podcast on Facebook and Instagram.

[1:36:11] Teal Wicks: And on Twitter at equity one underscore.

[1:36:14] Caleb Dicke: Oh yeah, where can we find you at?

[1:36:15] Elliott Mattox: Uh you can find me at Elliott Mattox on everything.

[1:36:18] Caleb Dicke: And you can find me at Caleb Dicke on everything.

[1:36:21] Teal Wicks: Alright.

[1:36:21] Caleb Dicke: Until next time everyone.

[1:36:25] Teal Wicks: Cheers.

[1:36:25] Caleb Dicke: Oh, that was a good thing.

[1:36:26] Teal Wicks: We have a good line.

[1:36:33] Teal Wicks: Give me your heart.