This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Steven Ferezy: Take one.

[0:01] Dana Craig: Knuck knock!

[0:04] Steven Ferezy: We're Steven and Dana!

[0:05] Dana Craig: We can't believe you thought it looking like that.

[0:10] Steven Ferezy: We're so glad you're listening to.

[0:12] Dana Craig: We would never listen to, but I don't even want to listen to it to edit it.

[0:12] Steven Ferezy: I don't even want to wake up in the morning.

[0:18] Dana Craig: Steven and Dana In the room.

[0:22] Steven Ferezy: Do it and then get first black window.

[0:35] Dana Craig: And we're off to the races.

[0:36] Steven Ferezy: Yes.

[0:37] Dana Craig: It's so weird.

[0:38] Steven Ferezy: We usually know the person a little bit.

[0:41] Dana Craig: You might be our first absolute stranger.

[0:44] Steven Ferezy: Wow.

[0:44] Dana Craig: Is that true?

[0:46] Steven Ferezy: Absolute stranger who we had to go through their manager.

[0:50] Dana Craig: Is that right?

[0:51] Steven Ferezy: Yeah.

[0:51] Dana Craig: It's a milestone episode for us.

[0:54] Steven Ferezy: Milestone!

[0:55] Dana Craig: Even a stranger's house that's really weird.

[1:00] Steven Ferezy: Today is National Wine Day.

[1:02] Dana Craig: Is it?

[1:03] Steven Ferezy: Yes!

[1:03] Dana Craig: Diane Keaton told me so on Instagram.

[1:07] Steven Ferezy: She wouldn't.

[1:07] Dana Craig: And we happen to be, as you know, listeners. We are sponsored by Babe Rosé.

[1:10] Steven Ferezy: So these are little Babe Rosé cans.

[1:15] Dana Craig: Get into it.

[1:16] Steven Ferezy: Cheers, Steven.

[1:18] Dana Craig: Cheers.

[1:19] Steven Ferezy: Our guest had a migraine this morning, so she's gonna watch us.

[1:22] Dana Craig: She's gonna watch you, Jake.

[1:26] Steven Ferezy: We did bring her a box of her own for the fugues.

[1:29] Dana Craig: And a tote.

[1:30] Steven Ferezy: Yes, and a tote.

[1:31] Dana Craig: Super cute.

[1:32] Steven Ferezy: Oh, so crowded.

[1:34] Dana Craig: Welcome, Brittney.

[1:36] Brittney Johnson: I'm so excited to meet you.

[1:37] Dana Craig: I'm so excited to be here in my house to be met.

[1:42] Brittney Johnson: To have not had to leave the house.

[1:44] Dana Craig: It was wonderful.

[1:45] Brittney Johnson: It is wonderful.

[1:47] Dana Craig: We like to come to our peeps to make the most out of our sitting on your phone conversation.

[1:53] Brittney Johnson: Hi, Elliot.

[1:54] Dana Craig: Elliot's here too.

[1:56] Brittney Johnson: He's a gorgeous, handsome man.

[1:58] Dana Craig: Thank you.

[1:59] Brittney Johnson: He knows.

[2:01] Dana Craig: He's a ginger, and he knows how cute he is.

[2:04] Brittney Johnson: He's so nosy.

[2:06] Brittney Johnson: So I have one named Norman, named after Norma Desmond of Sunset Boulevard.

[2:12] Dana Craig: Ah, I know who will. I will show you this photo.

[2:15] Brittney Johnson: The day I brought him home.

[2:17] Brittney Johnson: Uh, where are my favorites here?

[2:20] Brittney Johnson: He goes and he jumps on the toilet, and he gives me that.

[2:26] Brittney Johnson: Which is just a dude, so I named him Norman.

[2:33] Brittney Johnson: He's a queen.

[2:35] Dana Craig: But that's He's beautiful.

[2:37] Brittney Johnson: He is.

[2:37] Dana Craig: Is he a ginger too?

[2:39] Brittney Johnson: No, he's grey.

[2:41] Brittney Johnson: He's just a lot of shades of gray.

[2:44] Dana Craig: But I mean that's without that side-by-side of fucking what's her face?

[2:51] Brittney Johnson: Gloria Swanson.

[2:52] Dana Craig: Yes.

[2:53] Brittney Johnson: I can never think of her name because all I have is Norma Desmond in my head.

[2:57] Dana Craig: I can't think of her name and not say the word broth in my head at the end of it because of Swanson Bra.

[3:03] Brittney Johnson: Which isn't even that great. It's just everywhere.

[3:06] Dana Craig: Well, you picked quite a time to jump right in.

[3:10] Brittney Johnson: I did.

[3:10] Brittney Johnson: Um, I mean, that's a great question.

[3:12] Brittney Johnson: Not only did you jump into a long run, uh, you jumped into kind of a milestone year for the biggest mega blockbuster musical there is currently and maybe probably will ever since be, yeah.

[3:29] Dana Craig: Um he will outlive all of us, probably.

[3:33] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[3:33] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[3:35] Brittney Johnson: It's the Seinfeld of Broadway shows.

[3:37] Dana Craig: Because you can't replicate that.

[3:40] Brittney Johnson: Many will try.

[3:41] Dana Craig: And how is that different than jumping into something else?

[3:46] Brittney Johnson: Or like coming to Broadway with Motown for like the second time around.

[3:51] Brittney Johnson: Hmm.

[3:52] Brittney Johnson: Or is it you did your research?

[3:54] Brittney Johnson: Well, um Motown was my debut.

[4:00] Brittney Johnson: So jumping in just jumping into that in general, I think was different than jumping into anything else.

[4:09] Brittney Johnson: Just because it was my debut.

[4:10] Brittney Johnson: I was a swing.

[4:11] Brittney Johnson: I covered eight tracks.

[4:13] Dana Craig: No, you didn't.

[4:14] Brittney Johnson: Not in that show you didn't.

[4:15] Brittney Johnson: I did.

[4:16] Brittney Johnson: I did.

[4:16] Dana Craig: Seven.

[4:17] Brittney Johnson: Oh, just one.

[4:20] Brittney Johnson: I could I I just remember I would come home after every day I would come home.

[4:26] Brittney Johnson: I would push everything aside, and I would practice all of the dances that I learned that day.

[4:31] Brittney Johnson: Because I I don't consider myself a dancer.

[4:33] Brittney Johnson: I'm I'm a strong mover and imitator of movement.

[4:37] Brittney Johnson: So that's what I am.

[4:39] Dana Craig: An imitator of movement.

[4:41] Brittney Johnson: That's the title of this episode.

[4:46] Brittney Johnson: So when I got hired as a swing, I was like, they think I can do this, so I must be able to do it.

[4:55] Brittney Johnson: So every day I would come home and I would like do all the movements and I'd watch myself in the TV for my mirror, and I'd be like, okay, am I doing it? Am I because the next day I'm learning a new track.

[5:05] Brittney Johnson: And it's hard enough to learn one track, but then to learn seven plus the lead.

[5:10] Brittney Johnson: Like, I mean, that was a crazy experience.

[5:14] Dana Craig: Is retaining easy for you or harder than most?

[5:19] Brittney Johnson: Like I I feel like that kind of job is I think kind of need to be.

[5:24] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[5:24] Brittney Johnson: I don't I'd never done anything like that before, so I didn't know I didn't know how it was gonna go honestly.

[5:31] Brittney Johnson: I guess like I guess I'm a fast retainer.

[5:33] Brittney Johnson: But you I also had little like cheat sheets.

[5:36] Brittney Johnson: I had little you know booklets that I carried with me anytime I was on for a new track.

[5:40] Brittney Johnson: Um but swing brain is real.

[5:43] Brittney Johnson: It's like you either you can do it or you just it's nice though.

[5:48] Brittney Johnson: It's a nice challenge.

[5:50] Brittney Johnson: Cause you you get to you never really know what you're gonna be doing that day.

[5:55] Brittney Johnson: So you get to just use your brain in a different way than doing the same thing every day.

[6:00] Dana Craig: Whenever I think about you know the idea of being a swing I've never been a swing I would probably not be great at it.

[6:00] Dana Craig: I would probably not be great.

[6:09] Brittney Johnson: I'm sure I would make it happen if it were my actual job.

[6:12] Dana Craig: I was told to do it, you'd make it work.

[6:15] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[6:15] Dana Craig: Um but in a way it would be easier for me to like cover all the principles than cover a bunch of ensemble tracks that are doing the same dance you just have to remember you know go to two instead of eight.

[6:30] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[6:31] Brittney Johnson: And in that way How can I remember all of that while I'm doing it.

[6:34] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[6:35] Brittney Johnson: Is always my biggest fear.

[6:36] Brittney Johnson: Because the movement's the same if I'm doing something completely different I'm not gonna confuse the two.

[6:40] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm.

[6:41] Brittney Johnson: For me it was like my brain kind of works in pictures already so it it worked out.

[6:45] Brittney Johnson: Cause it just is like if the if the line is in the shape of a triangle then you just figure out first of all where the hole is because sometimes you just maybe you're a beat behind everyone else because you had to wait to see where the hole was and then you fill it.

[7:00] Brittney Johnson: So but it really is just thinking more about shapes and the entire picture as opposed to the really nuanced specifics, which I feel like as an understudy you have to be a little bit more.

[7:00] Dana Craig: Yeah like that's a good Broadway hack.

[7:15] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[7:15] Brittney Johnson: Oh yeah my Broadway hack number one.

[7:18] Brittney Johnson: Think how you fit in the picture instead of how your hair follicles look.

[7:23] Dana Craig: Right.

[7:24] Brittney Johnson: But also that can make you crazy.

[7:26] Dana Craig: I can imagine.

[7:27] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[7:28] Brittney Johnson: You you know the choreography because no matter where you're standing, you're doing the same stuff.

[7:33] Dana Craig: Right.

[7:34] Brittney Johnson: Presumably.

[7:34] Brittney Johnson: Just in a different spot.

[7:36] Brittney Johnson: So just if that's all you have to keep track of.

[7:38] Dana Craig: Exactly.

[7:39] Brittney Johnson: Exactly.

[7:41] Brittney Johnson: Exactly.

[7:42] Dana Craig: I wanna start from the beginning.

[7:45] Brittney Johnson: No, I want to know where you went to school, uh what you did, where you're from.

[7:52] Brittney Johnson: Where do you come from?

[7:53] Brittney Johnson: Where do you go?

[7:54] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, and how long you've been here, like all of those things.

[7:57] Brittney Johnson: Okay.

[7:58] Brittney Johnson: Um so I came to New York in 2008.

[8:03] Dana Craig: Same.

[8:03] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[8:05] Brittney Johnson: Um for uh for college I went to NYU.

[8:11] Dana Craig: Okay.

[8:11] Brittney Johnson: Uh heard of it.

[8:13] Brittney Johnson: Went to the Tish School of the Arts.

[8:16] Dana Craig: Um back when Cap 21 was still a part of it.

[8:19] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[8:20] Brittney Johnson: That's where I went.

[8:21] Dana Craig: Um and even though we weren't supposed to, I started auditioning right away.

[8:28] Brittney Johnson: Breaking news.

[8:29] Brittney Johnson: I broke the rules.

[8:30] Dana Craig: Uh I'm not a rule breaker, and I didn't know.

[8:33] Brittney Johnson: That's why it didn't mean during theater in college.

[8:35] Dana Craig: Because I'm not a rule breaker either, and I didn't want to be here and not do it.

[8:41] Brittney Johnson: It would have great you.

[8:42] Brittney Johnson: Well and that's the whole I was like, that's half the reason I came to NYU.

[8:46] Brittney Johnson: I didn't I'm going to school anywhere.

[8:47] Dana Craig: Right.

[8:48] Brittney Johnson: I was like, well, I'm gonna be in New York and that's where all the action is, and like, you know, you can start early and you can like see the things and you know.

[8:54] Dana Craig: Right.

[8:55] Brittney Johnson: It's New York.

[8:56] Brittney Johnson: And I I grew up in in DC, like Maryland, DC.

[9:00] Brittney Johnson: So, you know, it's the city, but it's not the city.

[9:04] Brittney Johnson: So I just wanted I was like if I'm gonna do this for a career, I might as well just come.

[9:09] Brittney Johnson: So I went to NYU.

[9:11] Dana Craig: Get it.

[9:11] Brittney Johnson: And I was really lucky to pretty much right after graduation, I went on tour with Les Miz.

[9:19] Brittney Johnson: And I did that for yeah I don't know, something like that.

[9:26] Dana Craig: The time I were you s were you swing on that?

[9:30] Brittney Johnson: I was an understudy.

[9:31] Brittney Johnson: I understudied Eponine on the tour.

[9:34] Brittney Johnson: And then we went to Toronto for the pre Broadway and I also I understood Epany again there.

[9:42] Brittney Johnson: And then I didn't make it to Broadway.

[9:45] Brittney Johnson: That's fine I'm not bitter.

[9:46] Dana Craig: Um don't cry for her Argentina I was I was really upset.

[9:54] Brittney Johnson: I was like okay well we're gonna go to Broadway and like maybe I'll go and I well I was like sure I was crushed of course I was really crushed I thought that was gonna be like my way into Broadway a year and a half with Les Miz.

[10:09] Brittney Johnson: It's a lot it's a lot of singing it's a lot oh my gosh you work so hard in that show.

[10:14] Dana Craig: Yeah in the ensemble like when you go on for the lead you're like Yeah thank God yeah it's a breeze Dying is easy dying is easy understudying is except in layers that I think that was probably one of my favorite scenes to do though.

[10:34] Brittney Johnson: Little Fall of Rain or just the Little Fall of Rain, I think.

[10:38] Brittney Johnson: Because it's such a beautiful song and it's like the orchestrations are so beautiful and you could always hear people in the audience like sniffling and crying.

[10:48] Dana Craig: Well, just like this quiet moment you get to have in the middle of a musical.

[10:52] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[10:53] Brittney Johnson: Also they want to cry.

[10:55] Dana Craig: They totally Here's the thing.

[10:56] Brittney Johnson: Like if you buy a ticket to Les Miz, you're like, this is the moment where I get to have my feelings in public.

[11:03] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[11:04] Brittney Johnson: With others.

[11:04] Brittney Johnson: And it's alright.

[11:05] Brittney Johnson: It's alright.

[11:06] Brittney Johnson: But then also like as an actor, it makes you feel it makes you feel so good that you touch someone enough that they are openly crying in public.

[11:15] Brittney Johnson: So I always liked that.

[11:20] Dana Craig: Sure.

[11:20] Brittney Johnson: Just like some sort of tangible result.

[11:23] Dana Craig: Right.

[11:24] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[11:25] Brittney Johnson: I mean, yeah.

[11:27] Brittney Johnson: So after after Les Miz, I came back to New York.

[11:34] Brittney Johnson: I got this apartment.

[11:37] Dana Craig: And Which is fierce.

[11:39] Brittney Johnson: This is the most open, loving living room.

[11:42] Dana Craig: Truly like this is our job.

[11:44] Brittney Johnson: This is our 42nd living room we've been in.

[11:46] Dana Craig: And it's gorgeous.

[11:48] Brittney Johnson: Thank you.

[11:48] Brittney Johnson: It's really nice.

[11:49] Dana Craig: I love it.

[11:52] Brittney Johnson: And I like the open floor plan, but I like that like your space is separated.

[11:57] Dana Craig: Thank you.

[11:57] Brittney Johnson: But that this is just flat and open.

[12:04] Brittney Johnson: It used to have this big island.

[12:06] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm.

[12:07] Brittney Johnson: And I knocked that down.

[12:08] Brittney Johnson: I couldn't do it.

[12:09] Brittney Johnson: I was like, no.

[12:11] Dana Craig: Interesting.

[12:12] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[12:12] Dana Craig: Normally I'd say keep the island always, but in an apartment you'd rather have to be able to do it.

[12:16] Brittney Johnson: And especially in in a place that's so small, it's like you have to make use of this space.

[12:21] Brittney Johnson: If you're rolling out every night, you need clearly I am sitting right next to me.

[12:26] Brittney Johnson: I see it.

[12:26] Brittney Johnson: Ma I'm leaning on this foam roller.

[12:29] Brittney Johnson: It's nice.

[12:30] Brittney Johnson: You can't be knocking your head.

[12:32] Dana Craig: You made the right decision.

[12:33] Brittney Johnson: I like to.

[12:34] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[12:35] Brittney Johnson: If you had a couple hundred other square feet to play with somewhere.

[12:39] Dana Craig: Absolutely keep the opposite.

[12:43] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, and we have little stools and you just sit and have your little breakfast.

[12:47] Brittney Johnson: But now I've got tables.

[12:49] Brittney Johnson: No, he's not allowed on the on the surfaces.

[12:52] Brittney Johnson: He knows.

[12:55] Brittney Johnson: We've been through it.

[13:00] Dana Craig: Isn't that right?

[13:01] Brittney Johnson: So like Les Miz didn't happen.

[13:03] Dana Craig: Okay, late.

[13:04] Brittney Johnson: Then Motown did happen.

[13:05] Brittney Johnson: Well, before Motown happened, Mamma Mia happened in Vegas.

[13:10] Brittney Johnson: Here we go again.

[13:11] Dana Craig: Here we go again and again and I had so much fun.

[13:16] Brittney Johnson: I'm so glad to hear that.

[13:18] Dana Craig: I love Mamma Mia.

[13:20] Brittney Johnson: Everyone I know that did Mamma Mia specifically in Vegas had the best time.

[13:25] Brittney Johnson: It's a blast.

[13:26] Brittney Johnson: First of all, Vegas Yeah, if you have something to do in Vegas.

[13:32] Brittney Johnson: It's quite a town.

[13:34] Brittney Johnson: And it's like it's I mean, it's like New York with Times Square.

[13:36] Brittney Johnson: It's like it's when tourists think about New York, maybe they think about Times Square and they don't think about all of everything else.

[13:45] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[13:46] Brittney Johnson: There's a ninth Avenue and a twelfth.

[13:49] Dana Craig: Well, how many trips did you take to New York before you left Times Square?

[13:53] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[13:53] Brittney Johnson: Or like how many times has anyone been to the I probably came to New York twice and never left Midtown.

[14:00] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[14:01] Brittney Johnson: And so it's like that with Vegas.

[14:02] Brittney Johnson: People think about Vegas and all they think about is the strip.

[14:12] Brittney Johnson: And like the nature, the like you don't think about it. Like you like the like canyons and like the like it's so beautiful. I had a blast. We weren't there for nearly long enough. Um but luckily after Mona, I booked Motown, so it was okay.

[14:35] Dana Craig: Did you book the tour that ended up coming to Broadway or did they recast for the New York company?

[14:42] Brittney Johnson: I was in the first Motown. Oh god, I'm sorry. Oh yeah. I joined Motown maybe five or six months before we closed. So it was at I joined. I had one week of rehearsal. Short and sweet. Really short really short and sweet. But like I had made it to Broadway and it was like my first month of rehearsal. I brought my dad. To see Motown. Yes. I I I should have looked at my playbill to see if it was one year in it. But my dad loves Motown. So when they came I brought my parents loved it.

[15:10] Steven Ferezy: Oh to the tour.

[15:11] Brittney Johnson: No.

[15:12] Dana Craig: Broadway.

[15:13] Brittney Johnson: Oh, okay. Right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, but it was my my first week. I the very the one day I decided not to watch the show that night. I was like, I'm gonna go home and just take a breather. I get home and I have a text from my friend that's like, Are you going to London? I was like, what are you talking about? And then my dad sends me a text and he's like, Hey, so you're going to London? And I was like, I have no idea what's happening. And he sends me the link to the playboy article that says we're closing. And I was like, but it's just oh can I just come here? No.

[15:50] Brittney Johnson: No, that's how I found me in hindsight. In hindsight, it's funny. It was awful. Here I am at the first at the end of my first week on Broadway and we're closing. It's hard. It's hard like just getting there and then it's just Thankfully I did have five months. Yes, it was. You got you got to dip your toe. Right. And I got You got that credit, girl. Right. And I played all of my roles.

[16:17] Dana Craig: You played all eight of them?

[16:19] Brittney Johnson: I did. Good girl. And Good girl. It was like I mean, it was an incredible experience. I met some amazing people who I am just so grateful that they were like my first broadband show. They just kinda like showed me the ropes and I love that. It was it was a gr it was a great first show.

[16:39] Steven Ferezy: And you got to do like a big iconic opera musical as a tour Miz.

[16:45] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. And then you did a jukebox musical. Like your you showed your range within you know, a couple years. Right? Which is really nice. It was cool. It was definitely nice not to have to die every day. Just what fun music you say. And saying really, really stupid high. That was nice.

[17:05] Dana Craig: Okay. So after Checkmark.

[17:08] Brittney Johnson: Check mark. I did Motown. While Motown was still going on, I actually booked Les Miz on Broadway. So I like double duty on my way out of the case.

[17:21] Steven Ferezy: It was your way, but it was just not the way.

[17:23] Brittney Johnson: It was just a little detour. You know, a little detour back to Lanez. You had to go to Vegas first and you had to make your DP first. Who doesn't? Who doesn't need to go to the next one?

[17:31] Dana Craig: Two wasn't supposed to be in Lay Ms.

[17:34] Brittney Johnson: No. Apparently not. I'm Queen. So I'm like I went back to Lai Miz. Actually in the track that I originated in uh Toronto. Except for they added a Fontaine cover. So then I was I was covering Ephine and Fontaine.

[17:49] Dana Craig: That's the dream. I mean you get all the best songs no matter w what Right.

[17:54] Brittney Johnson: So I I did that for like a month and then I played Epine for a month. Which was epic.

[18:04] Dana Craig: Epic meme.

[18:06] Brittney Johnson: Epic meme. You're excused again. If that can happen twice in an episode. I'm using my executive power. Whatever. That was really good though. Epicneme?

[18:17] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[18:18] Brittney Johnson: Well done, Elliot.

[18:19] Dana Craig: Thanks.

[18:20] Brittney Johnson: So did Elliot.

[18:22] Dana Craig: For sure.

[18:22] Brittney Johnson: Well, yeah. He's like your press agent.

[18:26] Dana Craig: Just like I'm drawn to people named Ellie.

[18:31] Brittney Johnson: Yes, you are.

[18:32] Dana Craig: Yes, you are.

[18:34] Brittney Johnson: It's just like at the bottom of the refrige. Just chill. Listening for any kind of a comment.

[18:39] Dana Craig: He's like, just in case anything goes wrong, I'll be here.

[18:42] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, you keep an eye. You keep an eye out.

[18:45] Dana Craig: Oh, he's slow blinking.

[18:47] Brittney Johnson: That means he really likes you.

[18:48] Dana Craig: I think I read that on the internet.

[18:50] Brittney Johnson: That's a slow blink?

[18:51] Dana Craig: Yeah, when they like slow blink at you, it means they love you.

[18:55] Brittney Johnson: I must really love a lot of people after about 3 p.m. Put me on an airplane. I like everybody.

[19:05] Dana Craig: We are legit. Excused.

[19:09] Brittney Johnson: Okay. Um where were we? Lame is on Broadway.

[19:12] Dana Craig: Right.

[19:13] Brittney Johnson: Lame is Epicnine.

[19:14] Dana Craig: You are Epicnine for a week.

[19:16] Brittney Johnson: I'm epic for a month.

[19:18] Dana Craig: For a month. Yeah.

[19:18] Brittney Johnson: Which was awesome. Epicine and my dream. And I still understudy Fonteen while playing Ephany. They're asking so much of you. And you're in the show every night. You're not hired as a swing. You're in the ensemble every night.

[19:30] Dana Craig: Right. So for the first month I'm in the ensemble. And then for the second month, I was played Epine. I hope this story ends with a split track where you were both Fonteen and Eponine and just did the finale by yourself.

[19:40] Brittney Johnson: It doesn't end in that, but it does end in me playing them both on the same day. I came to work. Broadway, you need to get your app together. A lot of people who need jobs. You know, I came to work like ready to like beat Eponine, because it's my job. And my stage manager comes in and he goes, so you wanna do Fontine today.

[20:09] Dana Craig: Now's a good time to do the sound dine familiar. Do the cat scratch boogie.

[20:13] Brittney Johnson: That's a sound time familiar with it. That's pretty much that was pretty much my reaction because I've never gone on before. You just started scratching. I was like in my dressing and like getting ready, you know. And he's like so Fontine today. And I was like, okay, yeah. Matinee or evening. Matinee. So I've matineed Fonteen, and then I eveninged Eponine.

[20:41] Dana Craig: It's a cool day.

[20:44] Brittney Johnson: You're my new hero. I don't know how to process that. I can barely like do my laundry in a timely fashion. I sort of know how to process that because they are such specific roles. That's true. They're so with no crossover until the end. Until the end. And it's not like you're like thing one and then thing two. Right. And it's not so much a book musical. Right. Well, it's also. You know that music. You know what Epine seems and what Fontaine sings. Right. And it's like I think Swing Brain was really helpful for me there too, because I know that Eponine is on the left side of Beljain and Fantine's on the right.

[21:26] Dana Craig: The only time they ever cross paths.

[21:29] Brittney Johnson: Also, Fontaine is in like 20 minutes of that show. So like you come on a little bit. Until Patty LePone fucked it up for everyone.

[21:37] Dana Craig: Why did she volunteer?

[21:39] Brittney Johnson: Wait, tell me that. I don't know that. What's happening? Oh. Fontine has to come back on the barricade as just a regular old, you know. Patty LePone originated Fonteen in London. She was so I knew that. I mean, for a while it was fun. She would go get a drink because she had two hours off. Yeah. You just get to. In the middle of the show. So she'd run across the street and grab a beer. She'd take a nap in her dressing room. And then you come back when you're dead and everybody. And you come back to the finale and you get like a really good bow and you bounce.

[22:10] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. She fell asleep and she wakes up to her queue and she's not dressed. So she starts like singing in the stairs. She's like putting her mic on and her wig and her costume while she runs upstairs to try and go die. And there's just this like ghost voice, because her mic's on, and nobody's on stage. It's just Carl Wilkinson dying by himself. Oh god. I did not know that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

[22:38] Brittney Johnson: So then she said, I need something to do. Can I can I be in the barricades? And I bet she regretted it from the moment she said. I don't think she did it too much longer from the moment she said it. But um everyone else did. It's just such a random thing to go do. Like, well, it's just hard because you're She needed an activity, so she didn't fall asleep. Sh sh yeah, she's gonna miss her cue again, so she had to put her put me to work. I mean it it does make sense. Although you can get a lot of work done in playing planting.

[23:11] Dana Craig: I made a lot of like hats. A lot of crosswords. Yeah. And Eppa needs a whore in the beginning, isn't she?

[23:18] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[23:20] Dana Craig: Everybody's a whore. Everybody does something.

[23:23] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. Everybody's a whore. Featuring Brittney Jones.

[23:28] Dana Craig: At 54 below.

[23:30] Brittney Johnson: Yes. There you go. I do want to talk about all your um extracurricular activities as well.

[23:37] Dana Craig: Oh, meaning, like, you've got a gr great pop voice, you like, you know, I've been researching, like John Legend, Ariana Grande.

[23:45] Brittney Johnson: Oh yeah. Those are. You know, you you like you do your extra corrects.

[23:50] Dana Craig: Love it.

[23:50] Brittney Johnson: Love it. I thought you were talking about my knitting.

[23:53] Dana Craig: Oh, we can also talk about that.

[23:55] Brittney Johnson: Yep. That qualifies and your paintings, Louise.

[23:59] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm. Yep. Those are Bob Ross's, which we are sitting beneath. The trees, the trees are nailing it. The mountains need help, but the trees, yeah.

[24:03] Brittney Johnson: The trees are nailing it. The mountains. Well, I tried to do one of those pictures that is like I put them next to each other to paint them as one photo. And then I split them up. And I was like, oh, because the wall's green, it's gonna look like it's the whole forest. The mountains are endearing. I guess but the rest is legit.

[24:33] Dana Craig: And the rest is sellable.

[24:34] Brittney Johnson: Okay. I'll take your word for it. You said legit and then you said sellable, and in my head you said the rest is celibate.

[24:42] Dana Craig: That also works.

[24:44] Brittney Johnson: The mountains are definitely celibate. Yeah. But the trees and the the trees in the river are the trees, honey. They're going on dates. Yep. Yep. It's actually quite nice. I like it. You're nailing it.

[25:00] Brittney Johnson: Thank you. You can't do shit like that. I'm j I just picked um cross stitch back up again. I haven't done that since I was a kid in the back seat.

[25:16] Dana Craig: Um we have a couple of segments that we do with all of our guests that will sprinkle in. One of which is a rapid fire question.

[25:23] Brittney Johnson: Oh god I'm so bad at the same time let's do it.

[25:28] Dana Craig: So is everyone else and I'm trying there's one question that she hates but I think if I can figure out the right way to word it is a really funny question so you'll help me as I ask it to you.

[25:39] Brittney Johnson: Tell me what would have helped to be clearer.

[25:42] Dana Craig: Okay. Alright. My heart just started being really funny Oh my god don't worry about it.

[25:46] Brittney Johnson: Okay. The hard part's over what was your last frivolous purchase?

[25:52] Dana Craig: This table.

[25:53] Brittney Johnson: What was the last first thing you did?

[25:57] Dana Craig: What was the last way?

[26:00] Brittney Johnson: We're never gonna get a better answer than that.

[26:03] Dana Craig: You win our podcast.

[26:05] Brittney Johnson: Hot dogs or hamburgers?

[26:07] Dana Craig: Hamburgers.

[26:07] Brittney Johnson: Sparkling or flat?

[26:08] Dana Craig: Sparkling.

[26:09] Brittney Johnson: Ooh that's interesting.

[26:11] Dana Craig: But I think I was thinking sparkling like glitter.

[26:14] Brittney Johnson: Oh that's why.

[26:17] Dana Craig: Like a sparkling or flat paint?

[26:19] Brittney Johnson: Right. Ooh, I was thinking water, but interesting.

[26:22] Dana Craig: If it's water, it's flat. But if it's things that sparkle, I think for first one.

[26:27] Brittney Johnson: Um, what are your best four bars of gypsy?

[26:32] Dana Craig: Mom's gonna mom is gonna What you didn't see, listeners, was that she gripped both sides of her chair before she started.

[26:43] Brittney Johnson: And gave us a shoulder bug.

[26:46] Dana Craig: Mama's gonna let go.

[26:49] Brittney Johnson: Dig it.

[26:50] Dana Craig: Uh memorable on stage mishap.

[26:54] Brittney Johnson: Oh god. Well, it's my most embarrassing stage story. Do you have time for it? Not until tomorrow morning. I have to go to work.

[27:04] Brittney Johnson: The year was now. Picture it. Oh, America. So we're in San Francisco. Lame is. It's my first time on as Epinine. I'm pretty short. So when you you know when you're in understudy, sometimes you have to wear other people's clothes. So I had to wear the Eponine coat, but the death coat with the long train. That was not made for me and my being five inches shorter than the other person. So it's Bows, and we all go down together. We bow as a company. Eponine wraps that thing around her arm, the coat around her arm so that she doesn't trip on it. We all bow together, and then we run off stage to give Valjean a solo bow. We've bowed. I run, turn around to run off, and somehow I'm on the ground. I have tripped over the coat, one of the tables now. I'm flat on the ground.

[28:10] Brittney Johnson: During curtain call. During curtain call. On stage alone with Balzon. Because it's his soul bow now. Everyone else has run off into the wings. And they're clapping. Everybody's crap. I'm on the crap. I look back and I see him, and he sees me, and he's like.

[28:29] Brittney Johnson: So I try to get up. I get more wrapped up in so you're like at a big thing of toilet paper. So I fall down again. And somehow, somehow in my brain, I think the best option is to army crawl to the wings. So he's on stage in his soul bow and Epine is army crawling into the wings. And I look up and I see Javier. And he's just laughing at me. Nobody's helping! No one's helping. He's just laughing at me until I almost get there. And then he like runs on and like waves to the audience and drags me off stage. And then you still have to run back on to bow again. What I would have given to be in that audience. I was just hysterically laughing for the rest of the bows and I army crawled. You gave me a few.

Because I was I ended up doing it. We're like, are you okay? I'm right. Do you want me to sign this? Where was the San Francisco? San Francisco, if you're listening. Uh we need another meme in the Brittney Johnson gifts. If you have a couple of things. If you filmed that curtain call, please send it to in the roompod at gmail.com. What were film what were cell phone cameras like in 2012? Were they good? Oh there were iPhones. No, they weren't that. Then I'm sure it's on the good enough. Certainly. Good enough to see me army crawl for sure. Oh, it sounded prolonged. So I'm sure someone just fumbled through the thing. I think it was in slow motion. Like in my memory of it I'm watching myself like in a dream.

Oh god I can't believe I did I couldn't think of anything else to do. I just army crawled. Oh fight or flight sister. Yeah. It was like I gotta get I gotta get I gotta get off the stage. Like I already died once in this show. I will not die again.

[30:31] Dana Craig: What are you currently obsessed with?

[30:39] Brittney Johnson: Hmm like I need what am I currently obsessed with bacon bacon I have been a pescatarian for a really long time and then this past almost two months I been keto because I'd like try it out and see you know and all I wanted was bacon. I would go a place I would smell it and I'd be like I need that so I had some bacon and I am currently obsessed with can't stop can't stop won't stop. Nope. You shouldn't I actually I probably will go pescatarian again plus bacon just compromise. Yeah. Elliot get away from there. I have that everything but the bagel seasoning from Trader Joe's, which is just all the stuff on an everything bagel. And I put some of that on bacon over the weekend before I cooked it. And then I cooked it. And it was like a bagel of bacon without a bread. Oh my god. Have you been to bar bacon?

[31:48] Dana Craig: How dare you ask him such a question?

[31:50] Brittney Johnson: Oh my god. I haven't. I'm going on a friend date on Thursday. And the first time the three of us went out together, it was to bar bacon. And I'm secretly hoping that they're like, hey, you wanna go to bar bacon again? Yes, I do. The answer is yes. Why don't you bring that to the table for them?

[32:07] Dana Craig: I can't I text them right now.

[32:08] Brittney Johnson: Don't do it. Absolutely. Hey great, you guys bar bacon? Well hold. Um what was your high school mascot?

[32:13] Dana Craig: What?

[32:13] Brittney Johnson: High school mascot, what was it?

[32:18] Dana Craig: Fighting Quakers.

[32:20] Brittney Johnson: Fears. If you had to change your first name, what would you choose?

[32:27] Dana Craig: I wanted to be named Samantha when I was growing up.

[32:30] Brittney Johnson: Because of the American Girl Dog?

[32:32] Dana Craig: No. Because my teacher read this book about this girl named Samantha. And she had hair like me, and she looked like me, and it was the first time I'd ever seen myself represented in anything. And I wanted to be Samantha. And I also thought it would be really cool to have Sam as a nickname. Because I was kind of a tomboy, and I was like, then they could call me Sam. Which rhymes with ham, which is also a cousin of bacon. I really liked that.

[33:01] Brittney Johnson: I liked that. She gets it. Cousin of bacon. That should be the name of the podcast. Speaking of cousin of bacon. What's your drag name?

[33:15] Dana Craig: Oh wait, it's like the the first pet and your first pet and the first street that you lived on.

[33:22] Brittney Johnson: Or just a drug name you've thought of and like. Um, well, if we're going from the first, it's Butch Madison.

[33:32] Dana Craig: Good night. Cincinnati, good night. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage.

[33:41] Brittney Johnson: But who would you love to work with?

[33:51] Dana Craig: Oh my god, so many people. Um I in the broad way, I'd really like to work with Audra, obviously. Um I'd like to. I really want Steven Schwartz to write me a musical. If you're listening, Steven. Else he does to the screen. I'd really love to just work with and maybe Pocahontas. It's written already. Let's do Pocahontas. I'll do it. Done. Uh yeah. So those two. But I also wanna in my music well, you guys see I made myself a little studio. Cause I am trying to be better about what are you doing?

[34:44] Brittney Johnson: He's just got an itch to scratch. Or something. My friend, um, Liz calls that meth mode when her cats just start going a little bit more.

[34:54] Dana Craig: Oh, I'm shocked.

[34:55] Brittney Johnson: We call it uh manic mode. Cause he it's probably gonna start soon. And he was just gonna start zipping.

[35:02] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[35:03] Brittney Johnson: Um but yeah, so I I write music as well. And I'm trying to be better about it because I've never really let anybody hear my stuff, or like I've never 'cause it's like it's really vulnerable to let people hear things that came completely from you. But this year I want to make it a point to do a concert and at least sing a couple of my songs. Rip the band aid off.

[35:30] Dana Craig: We'll be there.

[35:31] Brittney Johnson: Awesome. We're coming in. So you have two people at least.

[35:36] Dana Craig: Probably only.

[35:38] Brittney Johnson: Nope, just two. We will step.

[35:44] Dana Craig: Oh, that'd be fun.

[35:46] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. I don't like to talk.

[35:48] Dana Craig: Oh.

[35:49] Brittney Johnson: Because it makes me nervous.

[35:51] Dana Craig: Okay. Sing all the songs. We'll just like a sassy opening number for you.

[35:55] Brittney Johnson: And then like Bring the real talent on.

[35:58] Dana Craig: Give you reasons to banter.

[36:01] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. Yeah, it'll be great. Because I'm so bad. I'm so bad. Introducing Butch Madison.

[36:07] Dana Craig: Yeah. I like this plan. No, but what's your favorite book or who's your favorite author?

[36:15] Brittney Johnson: Hmm. I have a couple favorite books. I I uh I love the Iliad.

[36:27] Dana Craig: Advanced.

[36:28] Brittney Johnson: Uh-huh. I'm right now I'm reading, um, right now I'm reading Slaughterhouse 5. I don't know why it would be important for me to show you because this is a podcast and not a video. I'm reading Slaughterhouse 5 right now. Which I'm enjoying. And I think one of my favorite books that I've read to date is Night Circus.

[36:50] Dana Craig: I'm not sure. I think I've seen the cover.

[36:54] Brittney Johnson: It's so good. Yeah. It's really good for Who wrote it?

[36:59] Dana Craig: Nicole's or something.

[37:02] Brittney Johnson: I know it's the worst question to ask ever. It's a great book though. It's like it's really good for people that have really vivid imaginations because there's so much in there to imagine. This is the question she hates. Okay. Ultimately trying to ask.

[37:17] Dana Craig: Okay. Is what is the most non conventional thing you would eat for dessert if you had no food in your house?

[37:30] Brittney Johnson: For dessert? Yeah. You don't have chocolate. You don't have eggs. You can't make a cake. You can't make brownies. You can't make the most basic sugar cookie. You have very few edible things things in your house. It's Hurricane Sandy. But you need something sweet. There's no getting anything seamless. It's three o'clock in the morning. You're not getting anything delivered. You need something sweet, you will not be able to sleep without it. What do I have? This is where the question does get muddy.

[38:00] Dana Craig: I hear you.

[38:01] Brittney Johnson: You are right. Bless you. I can't answer that. Well, if it's my house. There's sugar. There's some kind of fruit situation. There's always a frozen fruit in there. And there's usually heavy cream. So we're making whipped cream. And we're throwing in some mangoes. Some whatever you have. Uh whatever's there. And if there's sugar, we'll put a little sugar in there. If not, we'll just put lots of mangoes in home.

[38:38] Dana Craig: Yeah, so your answer is gonna be fruit. You always have a fruit.

[38:41] Brittney Johnson: There's always a fruit somewhere in your home.

[38:44] Dana Craig: Yeah. And you would and now bacon, which I could probably cook up some bacon.

[38:49] Brittney Johnson: Sweet. Literally. I'll eat bacon for dessert. I'll take fruit.

[38:54] Dana Craig: I'll take fruit.

[38:56] Brittney Johnson: Fruit. It's less about the combination of things you would use to make dessert, other than the like, well, this is sweet enough.

[39:02] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[39:03] Brittney Johnson: Fruit. Yeah. We didn't have a lot of sweets in the house. And like the cereal that we had was like Cheerios.

[39:10] Dana Craig: Honey nut.

[39:11] Brittney Johnson: I would nope. No Sue Craig. So my little touch of sweetness was literally toothpaste.

[39:21] Dana Craig: What?

[39:21] Brittney Johnson: Mine are those. I would go upstairs and just kind of like Okay, I'm done.

[39:28] Dana Craig: Toothpaste?

[39:29] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. It makes me really sick. Or I would just suck on graham crackers.

[39:39] Dana Craig: I would suck on them.

[39:40] Brittney Johnson: Why? Just to make them soggy.

[39:43] Dana Craig: I'd eat them.

[39:45] Brittney Johnson: Dana's. She's garbage. Soggy their bad.

[39:50] Dana Craig: I don't shout a full days. Well, you know, when I was a kid, I used to we used to go to old country buffet. I don't even know if that's a thing. Well, I'm just there. Great. So, you know, it's a buffet. So I would always have mac and cheese.

[40:06] Brittney Johnson: First thing on my plate. Done.

[40:07] Dana Craig: I'd put a little ham in it, because I ate ham back then. A little ham in my mac and cheese. Uh I was always forced to have something green. So I'm raised terribly. Once my grandma was like, you need something green on your plate. So I went to the buffet and the jello was lying that week. So I had to have some grandma plate. So I got carrots, and I only picked the ones that had the parsley pieces on them. And so that was my greens. And so I was like, that's green. And I liked carrots. So I did that. And then for dessert, every time without fail, I would get a bowl of the little ice cream swirl, vanilla, and a separate bowl of just rainbow sprinkles.

[40:52] Brittney Johnson: Because I would have to dip it each time.

[40:55] Dana Craig: Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Because you can never have any ice cream that doesn't have sprinklers.

[40:59] Brittney Johnson: No, no, no. And often I would finish the ice cream before I would finish the sprinkles. And so I would just dump them in my mouth. And I had a retainer. And so I would just like form it into a sprinkle mass on the top of my retainer.

[41:17] Brittney Johnson: Oh my god.

[41:18] Dana Craig: I was suck on it all the way home.

[41:22] Brittney Johnson: A sprinkle mass. And they never I don't think they ever knew. Because they just, it was like a little hidden candy tree for me. Compartment.

[41:30] Dana Craig: Yep.

[41:30] Brittney Johnson: On the roof of my mouth. Ew.

[41:32] Dana Craig: I know it's so nasty.

[41:35] Brittney Johnson: So that's what I would do.

[41:37] Dana Craig: It's no worse than toothpaste.

[41:39] Brittney Johnson: It's not worse than it's a big thing. I'm sitting over here judging away.

[41:47] Dana Craig: Like, this was the last time you were flipped over some casket.

[41:51] Brittney Johnson: Never. Captain New. We're almost there. Can you cook?

[41:58] Brittney Johnson: Yes.

[41:59] Dana Craig: Me too. Maggie Smith or Judy Dench.

[42:04] Brittney Johnson: Um.

[42:06] Dana Craig: Wait, ask me again because it's supposed to be fast. Maggie Smith or Judy Dench.

[42:10] Brittney Johnson: Judy.

[42:11] Dana Craig: Last subway line that you wrote.

[42:14] Brittney Johnson: The D.

[42:16] Dana Craig: Um what's your sign?

[42:17] Brittney Johnson: Capricorn Um, what is a performance that inspired you as a kid.

[42:23] Brittney Johnson: Hmm. It's an interesting one.

[42:38] Brittney Johnson: Probably I didn't see a lot of theater as a kid.

[42:43] Brittney Johnson: We weren't like a big theater family. My mom loved The Sound of Music. It was the first musical I ever saw. I mean, we watched it so much. Like she loved it. And I think hearing Julie Andrews sing, it was so transformative. Like she just you can close your eyes and know the journey that she's taking. And I think as an actor, as a singer, as a you know, a voiceover artist, it's like it's so it's such a special thing to be able to you guys know you're on a you do a podcast. Like it's so interesting to be able to have people visualize something just through your voice. And she is one like there aren't a lot of people, I think, that do it as well.

[43:47] Brittney Johnson: And I also grew up, um, like when I started taking like formal voice lessons, I started singing classically first. That was the first music that I ever sang. Um so singing music from The Sound of Music was like always my go to.

[44:09] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[44:09] Brittney Johnson: I love that story. That's that's the perfect answer.

[44:13] Dana Craig: Oh good. The last question on the rapid rapid fire segment.

[44:18] Brittney Johnson: I've really sucked at the rapid part. I'm sorry.

[44:20] Dana Craig: Well no your stories were perfect and needed every second that they got. Um if you only knew the last question for you what is this feeling so sudden and new inigestion same and so concludes the rapid fire segment.

[44:45] Brittney Johnson: That's the first word that popped into my head what is that what's that mean about me?

[44:49] Dana Craig: I don't know I am just so glad that you didn't finish with more lyrics.

[44:53] Brittney Johnson: Oh yeah.

[44:54] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[44:55] Brittney Johnson: That's always my favorite because that one changes for the guest so that it's specific.

[44:59] Brittney Johnson: I'm always nervous that they're you're gonna be like I've heard that but what's it from or just give me more lyrics which is great you know your lines Broadway Miss Broadway.

[45:23] Brittney Johnson: You're Fantine you're Eponine I'm Eponine and then it's Sunday and I'm back tomorrow.

[45:29] Dana Craig: Great.

[45:29] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[45:30] Brittney Johnson: And then that closes.

[45:31] Dana Craig: No, then I left.

[45:33] Brittney Johnson: You left.

[45:34] Brittney Johnson: I left to go do Beautiful.

[45:38] Brittney Johnson: I double duty out of Lynn is a good thing.

[45:40] Dana Craig: You love a double duty.

[45:42] Brittney Johnson: You've had no downtime.

[45:44] Dana Craig: Well not not so far. They'll it's coming, don't worry.

[45:47] Brittney Johnson: Um book your trips to Cancun.

[45:51] Brittney Johnson: So I did Beautiful. I was Little Eva. I sang the locomotion every day.

[45:57] Dana Craig: Come on.

[45:58] Brittney Johnson: It was awesome.

[45:59] Dana Craig: Um I still haven't seen that.

[46:02] Brittney Johnson: You should go it's just like a feel-good time.

[46:06] Dana Craig: And I love Carol King. I don't know what my problem is.

[46:08] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[46:10] Brittney Johnson: It's the same reason I haven't seen Come From Away.

[46:12] Dana Craig: There's zero reason.

[46:12] Brittney Johnson: There's zero reason.

[46:13] Dana Craig: It just hasn't.

[46:14] Brittney Johnson: I haven't seen it.

[46:15] Dana Craig: Let's go, Queen.

[46:16] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[46:17] Brittney Johnson: Um.

[46:18] Brittney Johnson: So I love to go do Dreamgirls in LA and Tokyo.

[46:24] Brittney Johnson: Which was amazing.

[46:28] Dana Craig: Have I aired?

[46:29] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[46:29] Dana Craig: Agreed.

[46:31] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[46:32] Brittney Johnson: I want to go back.

[46:32] Dana Craig: We're only there.

[46:35] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[46:36] Brittney Johnson: I am.

[46:36] Brittney Johnson: Everyone I know who has been obsessed with Tokyo.

[46:39] Brittney Johnson: I need to go back when I'm not working there because the schedule was just so difficult that I didn't get to really explore too much.

[46:48] Brittney Johnson: It's so beautiful.

[46:50] Brittney Johnson: I mean, the culture I mean, I need to go back so that first of all I need to go to Tokyo Disney.

[46:55] Dana Craig: I didn't get to go.

[46:56] Brittney Johnson: Are you a Disney queen?

[46:59] Brittney Johnson: I'm a Disney princess in training to be a queen.

[47:04] Dana Craig: Great.

[47:05] Brittney Johnson: Dancer.

[47:06] Dana Craig: Kind of the same.

[47:07] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[47:07] Brittney Johnson: I'm actually going on Sunday.

[47:10] Brittney Johnson: To Disney World.

[47:10] Dana Craig: Yes.

[47:11] Brittney Johnson: Just got back.

[47:12] Brittney Johnson: Two weeks ago.

[47:13] Dana Craig: What?

[47:13] Brittney Johnson: First trip.

[47:14] Dana Craig: First time?

[47:15] Brittney Johnson: First time.

[47:16] Dana Craig: Did you love it so much?

[47:21] Brittney Johnson: First of all, it was insane.

[47:25] Brittney Johnson: It was insane.

[47:26] Brittney Johnson: And I haven't talked about it on the podcast yet.

[47:28] Brittney Johnson: Because we've had like fancy guest after fancy guests, and we're so careful about like wasting their time with our.

[47:33] Dana Craig: So what have you been doing?

[47:36] Brittney Johnson: It was beyond so from California.

[47:41] Brittney Johnson: Very familiar with the Disneyland.

[47:42] Dana Craig: Okay.

[47:43] Brittney Johnson: I've never been to Disneyland.

[47:44] Dana Craig: Disneyland is nailing it.

[47:46] Brittney Johnson: It's so 1960s California to me.

[47:49] Dana Craig: Cool.

[47:49] Brittney Johnson: Even to this day.

[47:53] Dana Craig: Cool.

[47:53] Brittney Johnson: Dig it.

[47:54] Brittney Johnson: I dig it.

[47:55] Brittney Johnson: Um, and I thought Disney World was a copy paste job of Disneyland plus Epcot.

[48:01] Dana Craig: Ugh, there's no Epcot at Disneyland?

[48:04] Brittney Johnson: No, there's a California Adventure.

[48:05] Dana Craig: Oh, right, right, right, right, right, right.

[48:07] Brittney Johnson: So three months ago when I learned that there are not one but two other parks, one of which that has safaris and animals all day.

[48:18] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm.

[48:19] Brittney Johnson: You know, we decided we're gonna go, we're gonna do it right.

[48:22] Brittney Johnson: Uh we had friends come through, uh, who I don't want to shout out because then they'll get harassed for discounts.

[48:27] Brittney Johnson: But um came Nicky and Minnie.

[48:29] Dana Craig: Yeah, Mickey and Minnie, wink.

[48:32] Brittney Johnson: Um came through with like some fierce parkopper tickets and some fierce 40% off hotel experience.

[48:40] Dana Craig: That's what we're doing too.

[48:41] Brittney Johnson: One of my friends works in the couple of the yacht club.

[48:45] Dana Craig: Oh, never stayed on the back.

[48:46] Brittney Johnson: That's our next one.

[48:48] Brittney Johnson: The yacht club.

[48:49] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, we didn't stay there this time, we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside for like the Tiana bayou experience.

[48:59] Dana Craig: Superb.

[48:59] Brittney Johnson: But we already said next time we're gonna stay at the yacht club, and we're gonna have the boardwalk right there, and we're gonna be able to walk over to Epcot.

[49:05] Dana Craig: Right, because it's so close, because we only have two days.

[49:07] Brittney Johnson: Sure.

[49:08] Brittney Johnson: We have, I mean, we have a rare two days off.

[49:10] Brittney Johnson: We never ever have two days off in a row.

[49:12] Brittney Johnson: So actually a couple people from where are going to Disney.

[49:16] Dana Craig: Because all going together is it coincidental and you're like, I'll see you there.

[49:19] Brittney Johnson: Well, they were going first and then they were like, you should come to Disney.

[49:23] Brittney Johnson: And I was like, ha, that's funny.

[49:24] Brittney Johnson: I'm gonna plan a trip to Disney in like a month.

[49:27] Brittney Johnson: And then I was like, wait, but maybe I could, because I have a friend that works there.

[49:35] Brittney Johnson: And so all of the awesome discounts.

[49:39] Brittney Johnson: You start doing the math.

[49:40] Brittney Johnson: Even just getting like schlepped into the park for free makes such a difference.

[49:44] Dana Craig: I know.

[49:44] Brittney Johnson: And we haven't been like five years.

[49:47] Brittney Johnson: So I'm ready.

[49:50] Brittney Johnson: We're not doing Universal this time.

[49:51] Dana Craig: Usually we do like a double kind of sitch.

[49:54] Brittney Johnson: We never left the property.

[49:56] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[49:56] Brittney Johnson: I'm so excited!

[49:58] Brittney Johnson: Biggest Disney World Pack.

[49:59] Dana Craig: Are you ready?

[50:00] Brittney Johnson: Instead of taking I know the buses are free, but when the parks let out, like everyone is trying to get on their bus back to their resort.

[50:08] Brittney Johnson: We took lifts everywhere for four dollars.

[50:13] Dana Craig: Within the within the property that you can get a lift.

[50:17] Brittney Johnson: Oh yeah.

[50:17] Brittney Johnson: And you don't have to use the minivan service, which is like a whole kind of white glove.

[50:22] Brittney Johnson: The car has like red with the white dots.

[50:24] Dana Craig: It's so cute.

[50:25] Brittney Johnson: But you can just get a normal person lift, and it's like four bucks from your hotel parking lot to the gates.

[50:32] Dana Craig: Yep, that's what we'll be doing.

[50:34] Brittney Johnson: Thank you.

[50:34] Brittney Johnson: So when at 8 p.m. when the park closes and 50,000 people are trying to get on your bus.

[50:41] Brittney Johnson: Oh my goodness.

[50:42] Brittney Johnson: Gonna lift and slate, and then you'll be able to play the car.

[50:45] Dana Craig: And you go and you're home.

[50:46] Brittney Johnson: I'm excited.

[50:47] Dana Craig: And didn't you have the VIP pass to like hop the lines as well?

[50:53] Brittney Johnson: Everyone has that VIP pass.

[50:55] Brittney Johnson: It's called the Fast Pass.

[50:56] Dana Craig: What do you mean everyone has that?

[50:57] Brittney Johnson: It's everyone's hopping?

[50:59] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[51:00] Brittney Johnson: Oh.

[51:03] Brittney Johnson: There are limited number of fast passes per hour.

[51:06] Brittney Johnson: So if you're staying on the property you have 60 days, if you're not, you have 30 days to like make your fast pass reservations in advance.

[51:15] Dana Craig: No, you don't.

[51:16] Brittney Johnson: Swiy.

[51:17] Brittney Johnson: Not if you're staying on the property, you don't.

[51:20] Dana Craig: Oh.

[51:20] Brittney Johnson: Did you not get a magic band in the mail?

[51:23] Dana Craig: No.

[51:23] Brittney Johnson: You better call your hotel.

[51:25] Brittney Johnson: But we also are not paying for our tickets to get into the park.

[51:28] Dana Craig: Neither do I.

[51:29] Brittney Johnson: We're getting walked in.

[51:30] Dana Craig: But you're staying on the property.

[51:32] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[51:33] Brittney Johnson: So you call your hotel.

[51:34] Brittney Johnson: Maybe they'll have it at check-in, but they should have like sent you in the mail a magic band, or maybe you have to complete it in your oh.

[51:41] Dana Craig: We'll talk.

[51:42] Brittney Johnson: We'll talk.

[51:42] Brittney Johnson: We'll make sure you're ready.

[51:45] Brittney Johnson: I got a decal for my magic band.

[51:47] Brittney Johnson: It was glittery, and I had a glittery fanny pack.

[51:49] Dana Craig: Gotta get a fanny pack.

[51:51] Brittney Johnson: Required.

[51:52] Brittney Johnson: I'm so excited.

[51:55] Brittney Johnson: My kids have mini ears.

[51:57] Dana Craig: I never got them.

[51:58] Brittney Johnson: I'm gonna make it a They have rose gold ones.

[52:01] Brittney Johnson: Sequins.

[52:04] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm.

[52:05] Brittney Johnson: One more week.

[52:06] Brittney Johnson: Just one.

[52:06] Dana Craig: Oh, I'm so excited for you!

[52:09] Brittney Johnson: And going as an adult is the next level.

[52:12] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[52:13] Brittney Johnson: You gotta do it as an adult.

[52:15] Brittney Johnson: It really is the happiest.

[52:16] Brittney Johnson: I don't know how I ever had fun as a kid.

[52:20] Dana Craig: Well, I can see how you could have fun as a kid.

[52:24] Brittney Johnson: Thank you.

[52:26] Brittney Johnson: Do you hear those bubbles, Steven?

[52:28] Steven Ferezy: Oh, I hear them.

[52:29] Brittney Johnson: How sweet it is.

[52:32] Brittney Johnson: So gross.

[52:34] Brittney Johnson: From the makers of White Girl Rosé and Babe Rosé comes the hilariously delicious Pink Party Rosé with bubbles.

[52:41] Brittney Johnson: The misfits over at Swish Beverages, which includes Instagram comedian The Fat Jew, have made us all lose our shit over their newest rosé.

[52:52] Brittney Johnson: Pink Party Rosé is sponsoring In the Room with Steven and Dana because, well, if there's not a two drink minimum, are you really in a room?

[53:00] Brittney Johnson: With notes of honeydew and cantaloupe. This very pink blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel is actually pretty good.

[53:07] Steven Ferezy: It is what I'm drinking all summer.

[53:09] Brittney Johnson: It is a sparkling rosé, gives you all of those bubbles, and is so refreshing for an outdoor summer treat.

[53:16] Steven Ferezy: Is it what I'm drinking right now, Brittney?

[53:18] Brittney Johnson: Why?

[53:19] Steven Ferezy: I can tell by its pink hue that it is.

[53:21] Brittney Johnson: This bottle does not have a face for podcasting.

[53:24] Brittney Johnson: It has a face for Instagram.

[53:26] Brittney Johnson: So buy it, drink it, pose your face off with it, lip sync for your life with it, and tag it at We Brought Mine.

[53:35] Steven Ferezy: That was like Rosé Bapet.

[53:37] Brittney Johnson: I don't think it's asking too much.

[53:39] Brittney Johnson: It's a very reasonable price point.

[53:41] Brittney Johnson: It is delicious.

[53:43] Brittney Johnson: It's a very large bottle.

[53:44] Brittney Johnson: I feel like it's bigger than most rosé bottles.

[53:47] Steven Ferezy: Oh, interesting.

[53:48] Brittney Johnson: It is a girthy bottom.

[53:49] Steven Ferezy: Yeah, I said it.

[53:50] Brittney Johnson: There's some quality literature on the label.

[53:53] Brittney Johnson: They know their audience, and they are appealing to you every step of the way.

[53:58] Dana Craig: Steven, when do you drink rosé?

[54:00] Steven Ferezy: All the time.

[54:01] Dana Craig: I think you're supposed to say all day.

[54:04] Steven Ferezy: Ask me again.

[54:05] Dana Craig: Steven, when do you drink rosé?

[54:07] Steven Ferezy: All day.

[54:08] Dana Craig: Make every gathering a soiree.

[54:11] Brittney Johnson: With Pink Party Rosé.

[54:12] Steven Ferezy: Cheers.

[54:13] Dana Craig: Cheers.

[54:11] Brittney Johnson: Pink party.

[54:17] Dana Craig: Party.

[54:17] Brittney Johnson: Pink party!

[54:19] Dana Craig: With bubbles.

[54:20] Brittney Johnson: A vec bouble.

[54:22] Dana Craig: It's a pink party, baby.

[54:24] Brittney Johnson: I drink rosé all day, bitch.

[54:27] Dana Craig: Rosé all day.

[54:29] Brittney Johnson: Rosé then play.

[54:31] Dana Craig: Rosé and then I play.

[54:33] Brittney Johnson: Hey!

[54:33] Dana Craig: Bring me my rosé.

[54:36] Brittney Johnson: Rosé all chicken crying in the background.

[54:40] Dana Craig: Pink party.

[54:42] Brittney Johnson: I wasn't guy until I had a slip of Rosé, and then everything changed.

[54:46] Dana Craig: Drunken?

[54:47] Brittney Johnson: Drink.

[54:48] Dana Craig: Drunk?

[54:49] Brittney Johnson: Oh, Rosé.

[54:54] Brittney Johnson: Oh, my fried chicken is ready.

[54:56] Dana Craig: Hold on.

[54:56] Brittney Johnson: You're never gonna make it in this town with a voice like that.

[55:00] Dana Craig: Might as well drink a bunny.

[55:11] Brittney Johnson: Where are we in our back into our stream of consciousness?

[55:15] Dana Craig: Yes, our journey.

[55:16] Brittney Johnson: Right, Beautiful the Carol King musical.

[55:18] Dana Craig: Right.

[55:19] Brittney Johnson: And then Dreamgirls.

[55:20] Dana Craig: And Dreamgirls.

[55:21] Brittney Johnson: And then Tokyo.

[55:23] Brittney Johnson: And then I came back.

[55:25] Brittney Johnson: I came back.

[55:27] Brittney Johnson: And I don't remember how much time passed before Sunset.

[55:33] Brittney Johnson: Directed by former guest of this podcast, Lonnie Grimes.

[55:36] Dana Craig: Isn't he amazing?

[55:37] Brittney Johnson: Don't you love him?

[55:38] Brittney Johnson: He's the best.

[55:39] Brittney Johnson: He's my boyfriend.

[55:40] Brittney Johnson: I love him so much.

[55:41] Brittney Johnson: He's like, he's just so genuine.

[55:44] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[55:44] Brittney Johnson: It's like none of it's fake.

[55:46] Brittney Johnson: No, none of it.

[55:47] Brittney Johnson: And it's all rooted in his love for himself.

[55:50] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[55:51] Brittney Johnson: He just he's wonderful.

[55:53] Brittney Johnson: So I did Sunset Boulevard.

[55:56] Brittney Johnson: I was there.

[55:58] Brittney Johnson: Preview, first preview.

[55:59] Dana Craig: Oh.

[56:00] Brittney Johnson: Invited dress.

[56:01] Dana Craig: Invited dress.

[56:02] Brittney Johnson: Yes.

[56:03] Brittney Johnson: Yep.

[56:04] Brittney Johnson: I was an on-stage swing for that.

[56:08] Brittney Johnson: So I was on stage overnight, but I also covered like four or five people.

[56:15] Brittney Johnson: Something like that.

[56:16] Brittney Johnson: Casual.

[56:17] Brittney Johnson: Just casually.

[56:18] Brittney Johnson: Just it was fine.

[56:19] Brittney Johnson: There were a lot of stairs in that show.

[56:21] Brittney Johnson: I remember climbing a lot of stairs every day.

[56:24] Brittney Johnson: It's fine.

[56:24] Brittney Johnson: I got a nice little coordinate set you guys have.

[56:28] Brittney Johnson: It just could be the orchestra was also on stage.

[56:30] Brittney Johnson: Mary Dorman Fanoo.

[56:33] Brittney Johnson: She played your cello.

[56:34] Dana Craig: Oh.

[56:35] Brittney Johnson: I know you're talking about.

[56:37] Brittney Johnson: Hello shout out.

[56:38] Brittney Johnson: Gorgeous blonde, 45 feet tall.

[56:40] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[56:41] Brittney Johnson: I mean that orchestra.

[56:44] Brittney Johnson: It was worth it just for the orchestra.

[56:47] Brittney Johnson: It was fun to it was fun to get to know the orchestra too.

[56:50] Brittney Johnson: Because I feel like in a lot of shows, we're so separated and you never really see them.

[56:56] Brittney Johnson: They don't have to get there at half hour.

[56:57] Dana Craig: Which still surprises me because the theater is such a small building.

[57:00] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[57:01] Dana Craig: But you just don't see them.

[57:02] Brittney Johnson: There's so many people that you don't see.

[57:05] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm.

[57:05] Brittney Johnson: They're literally underneath the stage sometimes.

[57:08] Dana Craig: Even sometimes like the crew.

[57:10] Brittney Johnson: Sometimes I'll see people in the building and I'm like, where have you been?

[57:14] Dana Craig: Because I always enter stage left or something and they work on stage right.

[57:17] Brittney Johnson: You know, it's like you just don't really realize. But I mean it takes a lot of people to put on a musical, and if one person is not there, you can't do it.

[57:26] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[57:26] Brittney Johnson: Talk about Glenn Close.

[57:28] Dana Craig: For four hours.

[57:30] Brittney Johnson: Go.

[57:31] Dana Craig: Um, she's gonna win the Oscar.

[57:33] Brittney Johnson: We're so excited. She's brilliant and funny and kind and charming, and pretty much everything you want Glenn Close to be when you think about, oh, if I'm at Glenn Close, I'd want her to be XYZ way.

[57:45] Dana Craig: She is that.

[57:46] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[57:47] Dana Craig: Is she like a kind of like a little bit of a weirdo?

[57:50] Brittney Johnson: Like a, like in a funny way?

[57:52] Dana Craig: A little bit.

[57:53] Brittney Johnson: She's Glenn Close.

[57:54] Dana Craig: And I don't mean, and I don't mean we like kooky.

[57:56] Brittney Johnson: Like her Instagrams are like, oh, your tribe.

[57:59] Dana Craig: Like you are, she's like, she's kind of quiet.

[58:04] Brittney Johnson: Is she sometimes?

[58:06] Dana Craig: Like she, but also, I mean, she was leading a show that was like all her.

[58:12] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[58:13] Brittney Johnson: And she has this little dog Pip. I mean, he is so cute and well behaved and loves her so much, and he just would come, he was around the theater all the time.

[58:23] Dana Craig: Good.

[58:23] Brittney Johnson: So like we got to know Pip.

[58:26] Dana Craig: I think every show, not unlike a bodega, should have like a theater cat or dog just running around.

[58:33] Brittney Johnson: Just is always there.

[58:35] Dana Craig: Uh, Sunset Boulevard.

[58:36] Brittney Johnson: That's another show I just love.

[58:38] Dana Craig: I would love to sing it.

[58:40] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[58:42] Brittney Johnson: I love that music.

[58:44] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[58:44] Brittney Johnson: And I'm not, I don't not like Andrew Lloyd Webber, but I'm not like a deep Weber person.

[58:50] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[58:51] Brittney Johnson: That score really stands out to me.

[58:53] Brittney Johnson: It's really thorough and thought through and thought out and I mean there are show stopping numbers that people come to see.

[59:03] Dana Craig: Yeah, you know, it's, yeah.

[59:05] Brittney Johnson: So after Sunset Boulevard, I didn't work for a year.

[59:09] Dana Craig: It was my first—what was that year like?

[59:13] Brittney Johnson: So restful. I was so, I didn't realize how tired I was.

[59:18] Dana Craig: Sure.

[59:18] Brittney Johnson: I was tired. It was nice to just kinda, it was a little bit stressful.

[59:24] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[59:24] Brittney Johnson: Were you freaking out the whole year?

[59:26] Dana Craig: Were you like—

[59:28] Brittney Johnson: I wasn't.

[59:28] Brittney Johnson: I think around like month seven I started getting pretty bored.

[59:33] Brittney Johnson: So it was a lot of like exploring the other things that I liked, and I got to do some concerts and that sort of thing.

[59:39] Dana Craig: Which helped to break it up some.

[59:41] Brittney Johnson: But oh, I have a question.

[59:44] Dana Craig: Did you—'cause I know you probably could have just not worked.

[59:48] Brittney Johnson: Did you for the year?

[59:52] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[59:53] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, I didn't know where.

[59:55] Dana Craig: Whoa.

[59:56] Brittney Johnson: I did like little gigs.

[59:58] Dana Craig: That's amazing.

[59:59] Brittney Johnson: And I was here a lot.

[1:00:03] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:00:04] Dana Craig: I know people who come off from cruises and just don't work.

[1:00:09] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:00:09] Brittney Johnson: For a year until the next cruise.

[1:00:12] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:00:13] Brittney Johnson: Like, whoa.

[1:00:14] Brittney Johnson: I never got—cats that do the same thing.

[1:00:16] Dana Craig: Whoa, that must be amazing.

[1:00:18] Brittney Johnson: Like I have other like side businesses.

[1:00:21] Brittney Johnson: I actually flipped a house while I was on—

[1:00:24] Dana Craig: Really?

[1:00:25] Brittney Johnson: Excuse me?

[1:00:26] Dana Craig: Why are you saying that under your breath?

[1:00:26] Brittney Johnson: That's amazing.

[1:00:27] Dana Craig: Jeff Lewis?

[1:00:28] Brittney Johnson: Is that illegal? What, what's happening?

[1:00:30] Dana Craig: Does equity know?

[1:00:34] Brittney Johnson: Should you not be doing that?

[1:00:35] Brittney Johnson: I flipped a house, um, out on Long Island.

[1:00:40] Brittney Johnson: It was really fun.

[1:00:41] Brittney Johnson: And when you say you flipped—

[1:00:45] Dana Craig: So, and it was said so casually.

[1:00:47] Brittney Johnson: Did you walk through and you were like, okay, get rid of this, we're gonna knock down this wall, put in new cabinets here? Like did you—

[1:00:52] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, really?

[1:00:54] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:00:54] Brittney Johnson: Except fun fact, it's nothing like HGTV.

[1:00:57] Brittney Johnson: They would totally lie to you.

[1:00:58] Brittney Johnson: There's a big—

[1:01:01] Dana Craig: Of course they did.

[1:01:01] Brittney Johnson: There is, it's so much work and we ended up doing a lot of the work ourselves too.

[1:01:07] Brittney Johnson: I like, I learned—actually, I—this used to be a closet.

[1:01:11] Brittney Johnson: It was a closet.

[1:01:12] Brittney Johnson: Oh, I built two walls there, and I cut holes in the wall and put—I wanted a little studio office.

[1:01:23] Dana Craig: So like I—

[1:01:23] Brittney Johnson: So I was like, you would have judged me so hard last night trying to hang a shelf.

[1:01:34] Dana Craig: I heard the story.

[1:01:36] Brittney Johnson: I love it.

[1:01:37] Brittney Johnson: I love working with my hands and building things.

[1:01:39] Brittney Johnson: That's like my—

[1:01:39] Dana Craig: Wait, well my—did you grow up that way? Where'd that come from?

[1:01:44] Brittney Johnson: My, well my grandpa was like a kind of jack of all trades.

[1:01:49] Brittney Johnson: Like he like was a plumber and electrician, and he like did all the things.

[1:01:53] Brittney Johnson: So I like to watch him work and do stuff, but I don't remember helping that much but I don't know where that came from.

[1:02:03] Dana Craig: It makes sense too, like the numbers part of it, the measuring and the math of it all is no sweat to you.

[1:02:09] Brittney Johnson: You can look at it.

[1:02:10] Brittney Johnson: I love that.

[1:02:11] Brittney Johnson: That's the most fun part.

[1:02:12] Brittney Johnson: And the design, I like, I'm not great with interior design, but I'm great with spatial design.

[1:02:19] Brittney Johnson: I can be like that wall makes no sense. Let's take it down and put it here and do like I can do that.

[1:02:26] Dana Craig: We both had big transformative spaces.

[1:02:32] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, last year.

[1:02:34] Brittney Johnson: We lived separately, but we were both like, we're gonna repaint everything, we're gonna get new shit here.

[1:02:39] Dana Craig: There were probably three or four months where we didn't see each other's apartment.

[1:02:43] Brittney Johnson: We saw each other twice a day.

[1:02:46] Brittney Johnson: Never in an apartment.

[1:02:47] Dana Craig: And then there was kind of this like not grand reveal of each house.

[1:02:53] Brittney Johnson: Oh.

[1:02:54] Brittney Johnson: We lived kind of in a shithole for a lot longer than we had to do.

[1:02:57] Dana Craig: It was so fun.

[1:02:59] Brittney Johnson: I think we both get why you would flip a house.

[1:03:01] Dana Craig: Like that's—

[1:03:03] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:03:03] Brittney Johnson: I always say if I had like A, the time, B the money to do it right.

[1:03:07] Brittney Johnson: I think I'm big on doing things right.

[1:03:10] Brittney Johnson: I can see why things cost more money, and if I, Steven Ferezy, tried to cut corners, A I'm gonna cut the wrong corners.

[1:03:18] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:03:22] Brittney Johnson: And it's, I'm gonna spend more money trying to fix it.

[1:03:26] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:03:27] Brittney Johnson: But yeah, if I have the time and somewhere else to be while it's happening so that I don't feel like I'm living in chaos.

[1:03:34] Brittney Johnson: Uh, yeah, the idea of building something from the ground up exactly how I want.

[1:03:40] Dana Craig: Huge turn on to me.

[1:03:41] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:03:42] Brittney Johnson: It was a great experience.

[1:03:44] Brittney Johnson: I learned so much just about like my what I'm capable of, and I learned some new carpentry skills.

[1:03:44] Dana Craig: How did they find you?

[1:03:53] Brittney Johnson: Did you know them and they knew that you loved to do this?

[1:03:56] Brittney Johnson: No, I found the house.

[1:04:01] Brittney Johnson: It was like an abandoned, like foreclosure, and we like went and saw it, and I was like, this could be a little bit more.

[1:04:07] Dana Craig: Oh, I just assume that somebody hired you to like flip their house.

[1:04:10] Brittney Johnson: We're starting the podcast over.

[1:04:12] Dana Craig: We're starting now.

[1:04:13] Brittney Johnson: Flipping houses.

[1:04:16] Dana Craig: Flipping out.

[1:04:18] Brittney Johnson: Flipping out on Broadway.

[1:04:20] Dana Craig: Go.

[1:04:21] Brittney Johnson: Wow.

[1:04:22] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, that's so we like found it and like flipped it.

[1:04:29] Dana Craig: So that is nice.

[1:04:30] Brittney Johnson: You like that you didn't have the pressure of somebody being in it.

[1:04:32] Brittney Johnson: You could take your time and you're not living there.

[1:04:35] Brittney Johnson: No, we weren't living there.

[1:04:37] Brittney Johnson: We did it in like three months.

[1:04:41] Dana Craig: You're saying like you do all of this yourself.

[1:04:43] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:04:44] Brittney Johnson: You don't just like have a conceptual idea and then hire someone to like go lay the floor.

[1:04:49] Brittney Johnson: No.

[1:04:50] Brittney Johnson: You are—well in that house we definitely hired a contractor.

[1:04:54] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[1:04:54] Brittney Johnson: Um, but we helped.

[1:04:56] Brittney Johnson: So like we were like the workers.

[1:04:58] Brittney Johnson: So I learned so much.

[1:04:59] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:04:59] Brittney Johnson: And thank God because he ended up being awful, and we had to let him go and finish the rest of it.

[1:05:05] Dana Craig: So he was excused.

[1:05:08] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:05:09] Brittney Johnson: He was excused.

[1:05:10] Brittney Johnson: My god.

[1:05:11] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:05:11] Brittney Johnson: But I learned so much.

[1:05:13] Dana Craig: That's incredible.

[1:05:15] Brittney Johnson: Like I can retile.

[1:05:17] Brittney Johnson: I can like do the kitchen tiles.

[1:05:19] Brittney Johnson: I can't put in cabinets because it's really hard.

[1:05:21] Dana Craig: I'm so excited.

[1:05:22] Brittney Johnson: Oh my god.

[1:05:22] Brittney Johnson: It was her flipping out.

[1:05:24] Brittney Johnson: Business called Wickard.

[1:05:27] Dana Craig: No one more snacker.

[1:05:30] Brittney Johnson: But for the people at my job do call me, what do they call Broadway's builder Brittney or something like that?

[1:05:39] Dana Craig: I love an alliteration of that.

[1:05:41] Brittney Johnson: I do too.

[1:05:41] Brittney Johnson: It's my favorite product of these.

[1:05:55] Dana Craig: So he let me.

[1:05:56] Brittney Johnson: I'm obsessed with you.

[1:05:57] Dana Craig: Oh yeah, you can, you can do your own apartment stuff.

[1:06:00] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, yeah.

[1:06:03] Brittney Johnson: And now I have a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little like cut out studio nuclei moment.

[1:06:08] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:06:08] Brittney Johnson: If so, I was building an island, I'd take you.

[1:06:11] Dana Craig: Thank you.

[1:06:13] Brittney Johnson: You have something to offer.

[1:06:14] Dana Craig: If you were building it a villain.

[1:06:17] Brittney Johnson: Or the five people you'd bring to a deserted island.

[1:06:22] Dana Craig: From Broadway's Wicked.

[1:06:24] Brittney Johnson: Hear me out.

[1:06:28] Brittney Johnson: Josh Layman from Broadway's The Prom.

[1:06:32] Dana Craig: Hear me out.

[1:06:35] Brittney Johnson: Here's Lonnie Price from Everything.

[1:06:38] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:06:40] Brittney Johnson: Keep going.

[1:06:41] Brittney Johnson: Um.

[1:06:42] Dana Craig: You get two more.

[1:06:46] Brittney Johnson: I can't have two people from The Prom.

[1:06:48] Brittney Johnson: I was gonna say Beth Leavel.

[1:06:51] Dana Craig: You could have two people from The Prom.

[1:06:53] Brittney Johnson: Oh yeah.

[1:06:54] Brittney Johnson: A Broadway Island.

[1:06:56] Dana Craig: Is that your fire festival?

[1:06:58] Brittney Johnson: It is!

[1:06:59] Brittney Johnson: It is my Broadway Fire Festival.

[1:07:01] Brittney Johnson: Just Bonnie Milligan and Josh Layman belting at each other on an island all day.

[1:07:07] Dana Craig: Yep.

[1:07:08] Brittney Johnson: Well there's a 54 Below show I want to go see.

[1:07:10] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:07:11] Dana Craig: Alright, so you're done flipping houses.

[1:07:14] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[1:07:14] Brittney Johnson: She'll be out there, she'll make the riffraff.

[1:07:16] Brittney Johnson: That's really kind of what I did during that year.

[1:07:18] Brittney Johnson: I flipped a house, I did some concerts, and I rested.

[1:07:24] Dana Craig: Yeah, you recharged.

[1:07:26] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:07:27] Brittney Johnson: I thought about—

[1:07:30] Brittney Johnson: I mean, I just would—I wanted to like, it was nice to see what else there was.

[1:07:34] Brittney Johnson: I got my real estate license.

[1:07:36] Brittney Johnson: I just did lots of things.

[1:07:38] Dana Craig: Very cool.

[1:07:39] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:07:40] Brittney Johnson: I do a lot of like random things.

[1:07:42] Brittney Johnson: I feel like that's what I'm a quadruple threat.

[1:07:47] Dana Craig: Add the real estate license in there.

[1:07:49] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:07:50] Brittney Johnson: I don't know.

[1:07:50] Brittney Johnson: Add that to the, um, movement impressionist.

[1:07:54] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm.

[1:07:54] Brittney Johnson: When so after this, the year, and then you booked Wicked.

[1:07:59] Brittney Johnson: And then I booked it.

[1:08:01] Brittney Johnson: It was one of those like, I mean.

[1:08:05] Dana Craig: You'd been in for them before, I assume.

[1:08:07] Brittney Johnson: No.

[1:08:07] Brittney Johnson: Never.

[1:08:08] Brittney Johnson: Like, it had, I mean, it had always been my dream.

[1:08:12] Brittney Johnson: Like, I, it's like I got out of the car.

[1:08:17] Brittney Johnson: First day at NYU, and I was like, I'm gonna be in Wicked.

[1:08:21] Dana Craig: And then you set your intention.

[1:08:23] Brittney Johnson: I set my intention.

[1:08:25] Brittney Johnson: It took a decade, so that's totally mine in for them.

[1:08:25] Brittney Johnson: I'm shocked it was my first time in, and I thought that my way into Wicked was gonna be via alphabet even though I wanted it to be for Glinda. I just didn't think that it was possible. So, and I literally, I could probably pull up emails from my agent from like six years ago of me emailing him like, so I want to be in Wicked and I want to play Glinda, let's figure out a way to make that happen.

[1:08:57] Brittney Johnson: And then every time I would see that they were auditioning, I'd be like, can I get an appointment? Can I try to give me an appointment? I was like, I'm perfect for that. I totally, I just didn't think I would ever get to, but I always hoped to be able to, and I was like, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna be the first Black Glinda, and it was 2010, and I said it to my agent, and now it's 2000.

[1:09:29] Brittney Johnson: So they changed at the top, you can like, you plus a whole bunch of other people pushing.

[1:09:37] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, and I mean for everything, I mean just to like, first of all, because Wicked's been out for so long and because there are so many talented people in this industry, just being able to audition for Wicked regardless is like a miracle and a dream just to be able to audition for Wicked, period.

[1:09:46] Brittney Johnson: That was nine years ago, and you still hadn't—

[1:09:49] Dana Craig: Yeah, what you know what?

[1:10:00] Brittney Johnson: Like any, like Phantom, any of them.

[1:10:03] Dana Craig: For those roles.

[1:10:05] Brittney Johnson: For those roles.

[1:10:07] Brittney Johnson: Or even just to like get in the room to audition for those shows.

[1:10:11] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:10:11] Brittney Johnson: Because it's like those are the ones that made you want to be on Broadway.

[1:10:15] Brittney Johnson: I still haven't sung for Wicked.

[1:10:17] Brittney Johnson: I've done the dance call, but my body can't do it anymore.

[1:10:20] Brittney Johnson: So I'm hard on that reason.

[1:10:22] Brittney Johnson: They will not sing me.

[1:10:25] Brittney Johnson: It's just, there's so many people.

[1:10:28] Brittney Johnson: And they're like just, when I first got the audition, I was like, oh my god, I'm auditioning for Wicked?

[1:10:39] Brittney Johnson: I was like, I just was so excited just to, before I even saw that it was for Glinda, I was just excited to be able to audition for Wicked.

[1:10:48] Brittney Johnson: So I mean, yeah.

[1:10:53] Dana Craig: So, your audition probably went well.

[1:10:57] Brittney Johnson: It went well, and so I was waiting to hear. I went back like two days later for another audition and then I went to go see Wicked that night.

[1:11:12] Brittney Johnson: I hadn't seen it on Broadway. I saw it back in two thousand five or something in the C at the Kennedy Center. Um and I'd never seen it on Broadway so I was like I should go try to see if I can do it. So I went to the lottery and I made friends with somebody in line and we were like let's just both put down two tickets just in case either one of us wins. And he won, so it was awesome so I got to see it because I never won anything so I was like sorry about you. Like hopefully you'll win. So I got to see it and literally we're just sitting there waiting for it to start, and I get a call from my agent that they need to see me the next day for a dance call. And I was like, well, that's awesome, because I'm here in the audience, so I'll watch.

Pay attention. Right. I'll pay attention and try to figure it out. Meanwhile, I just was so mesmerized. I was like, how first of all, how are they moving their bodies like that? I can't do that. It was like sometimes I even sometimes I'm like off stage and I just look at them and I'm like, how are you doing that with your body on a rake? On one leg. They're so they're brilliant. And like my track is a singer-dancer track. So I do have to dance. I have to do almost everything like the dancers do, except for the really like technical stuff. The big dance break and like partnering work. No, I partner. I get lifted and flipped and I'm eight months in now, and I'm just now at the point where I don't laugh every time I get picked up.

I just I never didn't I'd never partnered before. So in rehearsals, every time I get picked up, I fucking giggle. I still do sometimes. It's just such a weird feeling to like be up in the air and you're like doing weird things with your legs, and it's just like every time I get picked up. Yeah, I mean, if you really break down theater to a very basic level and what we have to do. Yeah. It's really funny. Yeah. And then you like run off stage to change your clothes, and then you run back on a different ten thousand dollar outfit to do something else. To wear for another twelve minutes. Yeah. Some of my costumes I think are the most expensive in the show. They're so beautiful. That's something in that show.

Like it. So technically you understudy Glinda. And that's and that's it. Easiest job ever. Good. One track. One track to cover. Oh. Dreams. How much notice did you have when you knew you were gonna go in? Thankfully I had a week. You had a full week. I had a week's notice. I was actually on vacation. Not gone. Who's the Glinda right now? Katie Rose Clark. Okay, and then the alpha is just as well. So I had I had a week because it was Katie's vacation. So they gave me two of those, two of those days. Which was so nice. It was so nice to have a little bit of notice, have a little chance to like gather your people. Right. You know, um to tell everybody to like tell everybody and you know, we're not allowed to like post on social media and stuff when we um when we're going on.

So I basically like wrote up a text and copy pasted it to like everybody that I knew. And then he was like, feel free to just copy paste that and share it with everybody. So I was getting messages from random people I'd never met, like, hey, I hear what you're going on next week. Is this true? And I was like, Yeah. Huh. Who's this? How's you coming? And like, like Todger Call sent me a message, and I was like, first of all, how do you know I exist? So no. First sec first of all that. Second of all I'm sorry, guys. Like, because you just sent me a message out of the blue. You had never met him before? I'd never met him. I'd never That's hilarious. And I just like saw it in my inbox and I was like, huh.

And he was like, so I heard. I was like, first of all, who'd you hear from? But it made it way it's made its way around, so I'm really grateful that it that happened. Did it hit you immediately that you would be the first person of color in an English speaking production of Wicked? Yes. Yes. But it hit me so long ago. So it was like, I mean when I I was gonna say when you got booked as the understudy, you know at some point this will happen. And then at some point this will be the well I guess the only reason that wasn't necessarily obvious to me was because you're on stage in the show. You're not the standby, you're not the cover. You're not the swing. Right. For any of that. Right. For any you're the understudy.

And as an onstage understudy, wouldn't it even be less likely for you to go on unless like the cover was on vacation also? Yeah. You know, that's that logistics seems to kind of they really were so wonderful about giving me those days and like they didn't have to do that. And they were it was it was really wonderful of them. Um yeah, when I just when I booked it, I was like, oh my goodness. Just booking it made history. Just in general. Yeah. So I was like, okay, well, you did it. You like, you know, check mark. Bust down that door, lay down some carpet for whoever's next. Flip that house. Yeah, I mean that really honestly that has been my whole intention, if you will. Setting my intention. It's just I want other people to be able to do it too.

So if that means being the first and going through all of the hardships that it takes to be the first anything. Just talking about that on the way here too. Yeah. I certainly don't come from a family of first. I was not the first to graduate college. I was not the first to anything but move to New York and like maybe come out of a closet in my family. Um I never think about a thank you. I never think about approaching anything as I'm gonna be the first person to do this. And if I am, it's a joke. Like I'm gonna be in the Guinness Book of Records eating the most pizza in ten minutes. Set me up for success. Um The responsibility doesn't feel like there. Yeah, there's no weight on my shoulders to do anything for the first time.

And I I just for something that big, first quote unquote, hashtag black Glenda. To come down and that's huge. Yeah. A show that's been running for fifteen years. Yeah. That's huge. It was epic. I mean, it just I think the first the first rehearsal that I had that I went up in the bubble, I wept. Like I somebody took a video of it because I got fucked up. And I just was like crying and they were like, are you shy to successfully? They were like, are you afraid of hearts? No, just really I've just never seen this view before. Just I was like weeping. And like it made I'm like tearing out just thinking about it. And but everybody else was like, wow, like it was just nice to I guess for them to see somebody had that moment because it it's really easy to get, especially when you're in a show for so long, to just kind of get like, yeah, okay, well it's my job and yeah, it's like it's work.

But it is still a living. It's still work and there are still days that times you don't want to go to work and sometimes your co-workers suck and sometimes sometimes you are the coworker that sucks. Yeah and like it I mean it's it's a job. So to have that moment and for it to feel like magic. It was special for me to, you know, five Broadway shows in to still have magic happen. But it was special for everybody else there too. Yeah, they have a company that is so excited for you can tell in that video of your curtain call that everyone on that everyone in that building. Yeah. That was so exciting. I mean, I know your shit blew up that day. I mean, included like we have a weird like Instagram message two mos with a podcast.

We made you our story, we're like, this is so exciting! It was crazy. It was like I still sometimes like have to put my phone down when I'm on Instagram because it's like I don't know how to interact with it anymore because it's like I got like twenty thousand followers in two days like Turn off notifications I literally was like I was like uh like I didn't The whole world That's a lot was on your side world like I'm getting messages from people in Brazil and like people that are like I and I have read every single message I've read every single one. I couldn't respond to all of them obviously, but like I made it a point to read every single message that came in because I just it was inspiring to me to know that they were inspired.

Cause like this I feel like this whole moment, this whole like I do hope that there comes a day and there comes a time, and I'm sure it will come very soon, that it's not black Glenda anymore or Asian Glenda or whatever it is next, that it's just Glinda. And you just get to play it. Mm-hmm. And in in everything, I mean there there hasn't been a black Christine yet in Phantom. Right. But like maybe it'll just be Christine. Yeah. And we won't have to put categories around things. It's I mean the epic. There was a black phantom in nineteen ninety. Yeah. Or can there be a black Christine in two thousand nineteen? Right. And I just I just think, yes, there has to be a first. And I'm so honored to have been that first.

Because now it can become more mainstream. Yeah, now it's not hard. Now it's not something that can't happen. Now it's not something that people are gonna be upset if it happens. Right, or it's it sh I just shouldn't be shocking anymore. Yeah. Like it's ripped off. Yeah. And that's what I want. That's what I mean by like busting down the door and laying down the carpet. It's like I yeah, I did it for myself because I wanted to play it. So bad. But that moment and this what it has meant for other people was so much more than just me. Like it's just not a good idea. And those are people old enough to have Instagram. I mean, there are so many people who didn't add you, who didn't say anything, but they thought it and they read it and they were happy, and there's kids that don't have Instagram and are messaging you.

Like it is so much wider than what you are like just seeing, and I know you know that. But just as a an outsider, um, it was easier to And that's really what it's about. It's like it it's for everyone else. And like I'm like, I'll be your avatar. Like happy to do it. And you are such like ha meeting you, your head on your shoulder's honey. And you're wrapping your arms around that, and like I don't worry about you at all. You have such a great And it's perspective on the whole thing. With Wicked specifically, it's so interesting 'cause the other leading lady is green. Yeah. Is green. So when we've had black alphabets, she's still green. Mm-hmm. So whatever race she is underneath that, uh I I don't know how to say this sensitively.

I don't want to say it's obsolete. It matters. But because she is green, she transforms into Alpha Ba. I mean Julia Murney was just on our podcast and it was like the second you are green, first of all, even though you're green you never feel more beautiful because you're getting your makeup done every day. Yeah. But that's right, shit is become not yourself. Mm-hmm. There is a different exp it's a different experience. Thing. Yes. Like it's a different I mean I walk through the world black, I've never walked through the world green. I'm sure it'd be a very different experience than the one I've you know I've experienced. So it's I'm frequently green during the day I just showed for the first time in four days. Thank you. But yeah it becomes is my point at all clear. Yes, absolutely. It just becomes a d it's a different Glinda is outwardly also the person. There's no hiding behind the green.

[1:25:17] Brittney Johnson: The green is not hiding anything from the audience.

[1:25:20] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:25:21] Brittney Johnson: Here we are.

[1:25:22] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:25:22] Brittney Johnson: And for that show to have not done that yet, first of all, I don't think we think about it that way.

[1:25:28] Dana Craig: Yeah, and nor should we.

[1:25:28] Brittney Johnson: I mean it's the thing the time that it took I think is irrelevant. It's just like it it's wonderful that it has happened.

[1:25:39] Dana Craig: Absolutely.

[1:25:44] Brittney Johnson: Absolutely. First of all, Wicked one hundred percent will outlive us. So like yikes. Fifteen years is like a blimp on the radar of the life that Wicked will have. So it's fine.

[1:26:01] Dana Craig: And Wicked like sets the standard, I feel like, for so many things.

[1:26:06] Brittney Johnson: It's like Wicked is mainstream. People like like Hamilton is now.

[1:26:12] Dana Craig: Absolutely.

[1:26:13] Brittney Johnson: People quote Wicked. People like the water. Where what I did for love was number one on the billboard charts for a while. Wicked absolutely makes Broadway not that weird thing or that secondary thing or that award show that's in June as opposed to all the other ones that are in February.

[1:26:35] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:26:36] Brittney Johnson: Um Wicked absolutely brought that back to the table in a way that was missing for a long time. And the fact that the two original stars of that have gone on to do very mainstream things since helps.

[1:26:53] Dana Craig: How was um did you do anything with the fifteen year the television very wicked Halloween?

[1:27:00] Brittney Johnson: We did. Um we did one short day. Great So we we recorded that. That's right. That was a cool day. Um we recorded and then we all went to the bar across the street to watch it all together.

[1:27:12] Dana Craig: Oh so that was really special.

[1:27:15] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:27:16] Dana Craig: Oh fun.

[1:27:18] Brittney Johnson: Other than that, I feel like we've had little like fifteenth anniversary things here and there. There's certainly a lot of, you know, news stuff and you know, Broadway World has their own like Wicked Fifteen celebration.

[1:27:32] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:27:33] Brittney Johnson: Stuff that I'm sure is happening around you and happening within the building for these other Absolutely It's so cool to be a part of a show that has been running for this long. It's like I remember when it came out.

[1:27:51] Dana Craig: Yeah, what was your first favorite song from Wicked?

[1:28:00] Brittney Johnson: Loathing.

[1:28:01] Dana Craig: Me too.

[1:28:02] Brittney Johnson: Unadulterated?

[1:28:04] Dana Craig: Unadulterated.

[1:28:06] Brittney Johnson: Me too. Yeah.

[1:28:08] Dana Craig: That song is the reason I bought the album.

[1:28:10] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:28:12] Dana Craig: Why is that?

[1:28:13] Brittney Johnson: I think it just sets them up so well. It's just so well written. Like, it's just it's great. It's also an earworm. It's hard to kind of like get that out of your head once you start thinking about it. Like now it's a good thing. And it's that counterpoint. When the uh the ensemble is singing their stuff and they're doing theirs on top of it. It's so good.

[1:28:33] Dana Craig: And it you it's so clear.

[1:28:36] Brittney Johnson: Mm-hmm. It's so clear. And Defying Gravity is so great. The Wizard and I I love even more.

[1:28:41] Dana Craig: Oh yeah.

[1:28:42] Brittney Johnson: The Wizard and I, I think I sang I sang Defying Gravity and my senior like concert thing I did. We had to do in high school, we had all the seniors had to do a senior project, that's what it was. And I decided to do a concert. And so I sang Defying Gravity. And what else did I sing?

[1:29:07] Dana Craig: Probably don't write on my parade, I'm sure.

[1:29:10] Brittney Johnson: Another air five for you. I'm sure I sing that. And then I sang like some pop tunes. Yeah.

[1:29:13] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:29:13] Brittney Johnson: And then I sang a song I wrote for my mom.

[1:29:20] Dana Craig: Oh.

[1:29:20] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. Your mom's so cute.

[1:29:23] Dana Craig: She's also in that video.

[1:29:24] Brittney Johnson: Yeah. Backstage. And yeah. She's so happy. Seeing you come down in that bubble and she's crying.

[1:29:29] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:29:30] Brittney Johnson: Oh yeah.

[1:29:31] Dana Craig: Yeah. My favorite part of that whole video, if I may, um, it's like it's right after it's somebody's filming.

[1:29:40] Brittney Johnson: Oh yes.

[1:29:40] Dana Craig: And you hear someone in the background. They go, This is her dressing room, not a party.

[1:29:47] Brittney Johnson: You're like, bye, I'm going outstage now.

[1:29:52] Dana Craig: He's like, rewind that. Someone just said I was like, wait, true.

[1:29:57] Brittney Johnson: It's probably a stage manager. I mean, they gotta keep the piece.

[1:29:59] Dana Craig: Probably or wardrobe, like trying to get your dress back.

[1:30:03] Brittney Johnson: Probably. Oh god. I haven't heard I'm gonna have to go back and listen.

[1:30:08] Dana Craig: It's just so good because somebody there is just trying to do a job.

[1:30:13] Brittney Johnson: Or is just trying to like get past you. And they were so great for letting these like stay over like because usually the show is done out of costume, out of here.

[1:30:21] Dana Craig: Oh yeah.

[1:30:22] Brittney Johnson: Out of your m because everybody has to go home. No, over time. And they like everyone was so great, and they were like, no, absolutely, just stay in, take your pictures, do your like they like That's so and Toddrick was there, like literally backstage. He's so nice. Everybody was so nice.

[1:30:38] Dana Craig: I saw a meme of myself.

[1:30:39] Brittney Johnson: Ooh.

[1:30:41] Dana Craig: That was weird.

[1:30:42] Brittney Johnson: You've been memeed.

[1:30:42] Dana Craig: I've been memeed.

[1:30:43] Brittney Johnson: Or no, a Madame Memeable.

[1:30:46] Dana Craig: GIF.

[1:30:47] Brittney Johnson: GIF.

[1:30:48] Dana Craig: I say give.

[1:30:49] Brittney Johnson: GIF.

[1:30:49] Dana Craig: GIF is peanut butter.

[1:30:51] Brittney Johnson: Right.

[1:30:52] Dana Craig: So a gif.

[1:30:53] Brittney Johnson: I saw a gif of myself of a video that I did not even know existed. And it's me like holding a water bottle, going, I hope it's just your blanket reply to every text message that's comes in.

[1:31:08] Dana Craig: I don't know how to save them. Uh Brittney, can you do a podcast on Monday at 7 30?

[1:31:16] Brittney Johnson: Yes. I'll be home in 2020.

[1:31:21] Brittney Johnson: I walked into a dressing room and I saw someone I didn't know was there. And I was like, and it is on the internet forever.

[1:31:30] Dana Craig: Girl, it's just begun.

[1:31:34] Brittney Johnson: It's crazy.

[1:31:35] Dana Craig: Well, we are terribly excited for you.

[1:31:38] Brittney Johnson: Thank you.

[1:31:38] Dana Craig: That's so huge.

[1:31:40] Brittney Johnson: I'm excited. My roommate says hi.

[1:31:42] Dana Craig: You don't know him? He's a huge fan.

[1:31:48] Brittney Johnson: Hi.

[1:31:57] Dana Craig: Another thing we like to ask people. There are seven very well-known dwarves in history.

[1:32:01] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:32:01] Dana Craig: If you were the eighth dwarf, what would your name be?

[1:32:05] Brittney Johnson: I'm the eighth dwarf. And Dopey and Sleepy are taken. Then I'd probably have to be like sunny or like bubbly.

[1:32:24] Dana Craig: With a hint of of sleeping.

[1:32:27] Brittney Johnson: Of true hub. Yeah, like sun like sun, like s like sun sleep.

[1:32:32] Dana Craig: Hammock dwarf?

[1:32:35] Brittney Johnson: Hammock dwarf.

[1:32:37] Dana Craig: Oh my.

[1:32:38] Brittney Johnson: We've had a bubbly?

[1:32:39] Dana Craig: I think so.

[1:32:41] Brittney Johnson: I don't know, maybe I've already interviewed bubbly people.

[1:32:45] Dana Craig: Maybe he interviews like tired obligated.

[1:32:50] Brittney Johnson: Elizabeth Ashley.

[1:32:51] Dana Craig: Elizabeth Ashley.

[1:32:53] Brittney Johnson: Not obligated.

[1:32:56] Dana Craig: Contractionally obligated folks.

[1:33:00] Brittney Johnson: People who owe us favors. This is our what 42nd episode?

[1:33:04] Dana Craig: We people have owed us 42 favors.

[1:33:07] Brittney Johnson: That's pretty great. That means you guys are very giving if people have owed you that much.

[1:33:14] Dana Craig: That's right.

[1:33:16] Brittney Johnson: That's right. Get into it.

[1:33:18] Dana Craig: You know, you're right.

[1:33:19] Brittney Johnson: You're right.

[1:33:20] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:33:21] Brittney Johnson: We give way too much.

[1:33:23] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:33:24] Brittney Johnson: We do.

[1:33:25] Dana Craig: And then you collect.

[1:33:26] Brittney Johnson: But that makes me not feel bad.

[1:33:26] Dana Craig: And then we collect.

[1:33:31] Brittney Johnson: But enough about me. Let's talk about you.

[1:33:33] Dana Craig: What do you think of me?

[1:33:35] Brittney Johnson: We have one more question.

[1:33:36] Dana Craig: Yes.

[1:33:38] Brittney Johnson: What was your first impression of each of us?

[1:33:46] Dana Craig: It was 13 hours ago when we walked through the store. I don't remember a time before. I didn't know you guys.

[1:33:53] Brittney Johnson: Um Wait, that's the biggest compliment I've ever got.

[1:33:58] Dana Craig: Or the polar opposite, but I think she meant it as a way.

[1:34:01] Brittney Johnson: I meant it as a good way.

[1:34:02] Dana Craig: Yeah, I think that was fine.

[1:34:04] Brittney Johnson: Either we were I feel like we're just gonna be forever.

[1:34:12] Dana Craig: Wait, I feel like we're just I feel like we're at camp. And we just We're staying up late with a cocoa.

[1:34:20] Brittney Johnson: Yes.

[1:34:21] Dana Craig: Looking at the windows.

[1:34:23] Brittney Johnson: Yes.

[1:34:24] Dana Craig: Go to bed by midnight, kid.

[1:34:27] Brittney Johnson: We're in the lodge.

[1:34:29] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:34:30] Brittney Johnson: Yeah.

[1:34:30] Dana Craig: This is we're not this is your time.

[1:34:34] Brittney Johnson: Okay, my first impression. Uh I saw you first.

[1:34:38] Dana Craig: And She pointed at me.

[1:34:40] Brittney Johnson: Oh, sorry. This is a podcast.

[1:34:44] Dana Craig: I thought, wow, he has really great hair.

[1:34:49] Brittney Johnson: So that was my first impression until I saw this one.

[1:34:54] Dana Craig: And then you saw like a hair was like.

[1:35:07] Brittney Johnson: It's a great color. It's just it's got everything happening.

[1:35:12] Dana Craig: My eyes puffy because I'm allergic to cats.

[1:35:15] Brittney Johnson: Oh god, are you?

[1:35:17] Dana Craig: I have one big eye now.

[1:35:19] Brittney Johnson: Um I'm so sorry.

[1:35:23] Dana Craig: No, I'm so fine. But I did pet him and then I did this.

[1:35:27] Brittney Johnson: Oh it's my own fault.

[1:35:28] Dana Craig: I'm sorry, though. Um, first impressions are really important. And I think that you made a great first impression on the world as like someone who maybe hadn't heard of you yet until you're a huge splash.

[1:35:43] Brittney Johnson: Yeah, this is really weird.

[1:35:48] Dana Craig: So bring it.

[1:35:49] Brittney Johnson: Thank you.

[1:35:50] Dana Craig: Yeah. Thanks for coming to my house.

[1:35:52] Brittney Johnson: Thank you for having some crazy strangers.

[1:35:56] Dana Craig: It was a $10 Uber.

[1:35:59] Brittney Johnson: To your house.

[1:36:01] Dana Craig: And for opening the door when like the person at the desk downstairs like didn't call up or anything. They just were like, oh, like hey, huge smile. Oh, that's upstairs on the second floor. He's the best.

[1:36:12] Brittney Johnson: Should I text her and be like, break your door, but we nobody buzzed us up, so we don't wanna ask for IDs.

[1:36:18] Dana Craig: He's so nice. And he knows me. So he's like, if you knew my name and you knew who you were coming to see, he's like, they're they're good people.

[1:36:26] Brittney Johnson: Okay, good.

[1:36:28] Dana Craig: Um where A So this is gonna drop two weeks from tomorrow.

[1:36:33] Brittney Johnson: Okay.

[1:36:34] Dana Craig: Um, so do you have anything to plug? Do you have where can people find you on the internet?

[1:36:38] Brittney Johnson: You can find me on Instagram at Sunny Brittany. Also on Twitter at the same name.

[1:36:46] Dana Craig: Perfect.

[1:36:47] Brittney Johnson: You know what? Twitter didn't blow up like Instagram did.

[1:36:50] Dana Craig: We gotta talk to Twitter.

[1:36:51] Brittney Johnson: I believe that because I think at least how I use my social media. Everything goes through Instagram because it's the only platform that I can send everywhere else.

[1:37:02] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:37:02] Brittney Johnson: So I am tweeting without actively tweeting. Unless I have a bad experience at the post office. Then I'm writing a tweet. Then all hell breaks loose and we all hear about it.

[1:37:13] Dana Craig: I like to tweet now.

[1:37:16] Brittney Johnson: I like to tweet now because I don't have to put a picture up because I am regularly not photo ready. But I like to say things.

[1:37:28] Dana Craig: So Twitter's good for that.

[1:37:30] Brittney Johnson: Sure. But nobody cares about my Twitter. I'm funny sometimes.

[1:37:37] Dana Craig: If I'm not already following you, I will make sure to do it.

[1:37:40] Brittney Johnson: You should start a new one called Butch Madison.

[1:37:43] Dana Craig: I will say all there.

[1:37:46] Brittney Johnson: I could say all the things that I think, but I really shouldn't say.

[1:37:50] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:37:51] Brittney Johnson: I'm obsessed with that.

[1:37:53] Dana Craig: So this concludes our fairy tale evening review. This has been a dream.

[1:37:58] Brittney Johnson: Thank you so much.

[1:38:01] Dana Craig: Actual dream for being like the first total stranger guest. And like I had so much being sold up. I don't feel like a you's you strangers anymore.

[1:38:11] Brittney Johnson: I know.

[1:38:12] Dana Craig: Forty-two episodes.

[1:38:14] Brittney Johnson: Alright, well, um on that note.

[1:38:17] Dana Craig: Bye.

[1:38:18] Brittney Johnson: Bye.

[1:38:19] Dana Craig: Bye.

[1:38:28] Steven Ferezy: In the Room with Steven and Dana is produced by Steven Ferezy.

[1:38:32] Dana Craig: And Dana Craig.

[1:38:33] Steven Ferezy: Special thanks to Joel Wagoner for tinkling the ivories on our theme song. Hit him up at Joel Wagoner.com.

[1:38:40] Dana Craig: We apologize, and you're welcome. We'd also like to thank Jesse Wiener, W I E-N-E-R, for our jazzy original music sprinkled throughout each episode. You can find him at jessewiener.com.

[1:38:54] Steven Ferezy: Last but certainly not least, we'd like to thank Kevin Thomas Garcia for taking all of our ridiculous photos. You can find him online at KTGNYC.com.

[1:39:06] Dana Craig: We are all over the internet on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at In the Room Pod. Follow us, like us, share us, pamp us out. And don't forget to subscribe to In the Room Podcast. We everywhere so subscribe.

[1:39:20] Steven Ferezy: And thank you so much for listening.

[1:39:22] Dana Craig: Thank you so much.