This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:15] Eva: Hello everybody and welcome to this episode of My First Show.

[0:20] Eva: We're here today with an actor of both the stage, the small screen, the big screen, and he's also what I like to refer to as a comic book stud.

[0:34] Eva: Yeah, you thought I was gonna say nerd, but I said stud. And that's Dan Fogler.

[0:39] Dan Fogler: Hi.

[0:41] Dan Fogler: Hi.

[0:42] Eva: Thanks for being here.

[0:45] Eva: Am I the first to call you a comic book stud? I'm just wondering.

[0:48] Dan Fogler: Oh yeah, that was the first, yeah.

[0:51] Dan Fogler: That was great.

[0:53] Eva: It's so interesting. You know, I've known you from afar for a very long time. Um, you know, I saw you in Spelling Bee right before you won your Tony Award back in gosh, 2003, I want to say, 2005.

[1:10] Dan Fogler: 2005, yeah.

[1:11] Eva: 2005, that was it. And um, and then I watched you sort of grow from there to all these movies and all these television shows. And I recently learned about your comic book obsession. So I read Brooklyn Gladiator, and sort of the first question I had was Dystopian, Brooklyn, Warzone, New York City. How did you know this is what our future was facing? Why didn't we know this? What did you know that the rest of us didn't?

[1:45] Dan Fogler: Yeah, Jesus. I um, oh man. I when I was when I was writing it, I thought I I've had this idea for a while and um I started writing it like I guess uh around 2015 during the elections and I thought, you know, why don't I just take all the headlines from today, turn the dial up and see what that looks like, you know, 15, 20 years from now.

[2:22] Dan Fogler: And that's Brooklyn Gladiators. So I just basically took all you know the zeitgeist of what's happening now. Although I yeah, I didn't I didn't know it was gonna come to this so quickly.

[2:41] Dan Fogler: Yeah, you know, I didn't I yeah, I thought we had at least a good ten, fifteen years before it got to this craziness. I started writing the prequel to it, which is called Fish Kill, which is a story that takes place right now about a detective um in the middle of this chaos.

[3:01] Dan Fogler: Uh so yeah, it's crazy. Um I in a lot of ways the books are becoming prophetic. I read I read 1984 when I was uh when I was in high school.

[3:19] Dan Fogler: Right. Um and uh I've always been fascinated with, you know, how how can you how did they let it get to that point, you know, and then I have my own little my boxes that I like to check with uh you know, are we there yet?

[3:35] Dan Fogler: You know, and and we there's only a few boxes left to check here, folks, you know, before we're before it's you know spot on rip from the pages of 1984. There's really only one or two boxes left.

[3:50] Dan Fogler: Um and we're just teetering on that. So I guess that's what the books are about. You know I I'm a I'm a lover, not a fighter, you know I these books are my way of uh you know putting the mirror up to society and it's a they're they're cautionary tales uh unfortunately I I think they're a little they're a little too late.

[4:15] Dan Fogler: They're too cautionary.

[4:17] Eva: Too close.

[4:18] Dan Fogler: Yeah.

[4:19] Eva: When you read comic books or when you're working on them do you have a release in which you feel better after when you when you are telling these stories in this vivid graphic way?

[4:33] Dan Fogler: Oh yeah. I mean I I love comic books. I'm I'm a collector from when I from since I could read and um one of the first books I ever read was heavy metal and heavy metal the movie uh saw that a ton when I was a kid and it really influenced me in all my work and now I'm there my publisher and and um whenever I create something um and I hand it off to an artist and um and then you get it back and it's in your hands, you know and it's like this tangible thing and it like it's you know it feels like it's your baby you know it's it's you can smell the paper, and it's like you know, you feel like you you accomplished something, and yeah, it it it um you do, you feel warm and I feel warm and fuzzy inside, and and I feel like I'm making you know the 10-year-old Dan really, really happy, uh whatever, you know.

[5:35] Dan Fogler: I because these um I'm doing now acting, making comic books, like basically acting is is I'm getting paid for what I used to do when I used to play outside with my friends, you know.

[5:48] Dan Fogler: Like it's like this this is the same fucking. So I'm I I'm living I'm sorry, am I allowed to curse?

[5:55] Eva: You are fucking allowed to curse.

[5:57] Dan Fogler: Uh so I'm just doing what uh I did when I was a kid, and I I used to make comic books with my brother as a kid, and um, and now I'm I'm I'm doing the same thing with the same publisher that influenced me. It's it's that's a dream come true.

[6:13] Eva: That is amazing. Truly, truly. And you know, it's funny because this is a show about theater, and it's you know, our our love of theater, our missing of theater, but but it's really about our beginnings and what inspired us to become who we are.

[6:27] Eva: And when I think about you as a theater artist, and I think about Spelling Bee, I actually feel as though the process of creating that show probably actually has a similar process to how you have created more characters for film and television, as well as how you've created your comic book career, because it's all about like taking inspiration from something and developing it really internally, right?

[6:57] Dan Fogler: Oh, absolutely, yeah.

[7:08] Dan Fogler: That was yeah, it's amazing how it all stems out of for me. If I have to trace it back to the very beginning, where does everything come from for me? It's probably playing um Dungeons and Dragons and the Marvel, specifically the Marvel game.

[7:27] Dan Fogler: Marvel game was my favorite. It was basically the Marvel version of Dungeons and Dragons. And I would play this role-playing game with my friends, um, and my older brother, and you know, you can be I I was actually, I would I would play, you know, the regular characters, you know, but then they it encouraged you to make your own characters and create your own characters and draw your own characters, and you would create their backstories, and you you know, you'd give them superpowers and you'd and and it it really inspired you, inspired me to that just spun off into that's acting.

[8:03] Dan Fogler: You're creating characters, you're creating backstory, you know, you're it's the same thing. You're you're imbuing these these characters with um life, and then okay, then you're drawing them, so I'm drawing them, and that's that's comic books.

[8:18] Dan Fogler: That's that that's spun off the comic that spun off into storyboarding.

[8:21] Dan Fogler: So that's filmmaking too. It all comes out of that. And and then uh, you know, the role playing and all that, that's improv.

[8:28] Dan Fogler: That's improv. You know, it's like it's all it's it's it all comes out of that.

[8:32] Dan Fogler: So um, yeah, like so happy I stayed up late past my bedtime doing these things.

[8:40] Dan Fogler: Um taking those skills into acting, um creating characters from scratch where we did Spelling Bee, that was at a necessity, you know.

[8:56] Dan Fogler: We we everybody was a struggling actor, and everyone was trying to, you know, trying to land an agent. Like I got I I graduated from Boston University.

[9:07] Dan Fogler: I came came home to New York and with a backstage magazine under my freaking arm. I I you know I did the consortium, I did the showcase, I went on um, I think I I think I got some bites from like commercial agents.

[9:25] Dan Fogler: So I went on these, you know, meetings with commercial agents and the whole catch 22 at all, uh catch 22 of it all, and sitting there and just being like, Where are I? I've never done a commercial, but I'm here to work, and you know, I'm I definitely have a lot of time on my hand.

[9:42] Dan Fogler: You know, and they would be like, Well, so but if you haven't done any commercials, you don't have no experience, and so it's like, wait a minute, but I watch commercials, I've seen it like that.

[9:52] Dan Fogler: You know, it's like God, I have so many failed um interviews uh that never went anywhere. So I was like, God damn it, I have to somehow get work without an agent.

[10:08] Dan Fogler: Um, and uh so I did stand-up comedy, and that's how I finally got noticed with the manager.

[10:17] Dan Fogler: Um, and then uh and they told me to get into improv. So I did, I went to Upright Citizens Brigade, and then I started um and Sarah Salzburg, who I went to to college with, uh, who was also doing Upright Citizens Brigade.

[10:36] Dan Fogler: Um, um and uh Liz Feldman, who is uh the writer for Dead to Me Now, um her sister, Rebecca Feldman, um who was the creator of the Spelling Bee Show, uh, who I used to I used to watch uh Rebecca in high school and the high school shows, you know, she's like the reason I went to that specific high school.

[11:01] Dan Fogler: It's crazy how it all it's all connected.

[11:04] Dan Fogler: So Rebecca says, hey, um, we need some improvisers. We're putting a show together.

[11:10] Dan Fogler: So it was, you know, you go from doing stand-up, I go from uh to um, you know, we're doing Shakespeare and Mammoth and like black box theaters, and then the progression, the next progression is basically, well, shit, that's not working right.

[11:25] Dan Fogler: We gotta make parts for ourselves. We have to make parts that are perfectly catered for our skills, you know, because you if you sit around uh, you know, to wait for a part to come to you, you're screwed.

[11:39] Eva: Yeah.

[11:39] Dan Fogler: So we so that's what the Spelling Bee was, and a lot of shows, like that never went anywhere, um, that were totally improvised, brilliant shows that played on off, off, off, off, off off Broadway, and then disappeared.

[11:54] Dan Fogler: But for some reason, this the planets were aligned for Spelling Bee. Because Spelling Bees, I think were part of the zeitgeist, like they became like a thing, you know.

[12:05] Dan Fogler: Yeah, it was like an event, you know, um, like a sporting event somehow.

[12:10] Eva: Right.

[12:11] Dan Fogler: And then uh and like thank God, Sarah Spa Salzburg, who was Schwartz and Grubinier, um her thank God her second job was the nanny.

[12:27] Dan Fogler: Um Wendy Wasserstein, who's best friends with uh Bill Finn and fucking James Lepine.

[12:37] Dan Fogler: So it's like, what?

[12:38] Eva: Yeah.

[12:39] Dan Fogler: Like, okay, thank God.

[12:42] Dan Fogler: Right. Thank God for that. Because otherwise we would have just done that show and no one would have seen it.

[12:47] Dan Fogler: But because um, you know, Sarah was Wendy's nanny, Wendy came to see us and we made her laugh.

[12:57] Dan Fogler: And uh so yeah, those characters were all made from scratch.

[13:02] Dan Fogler: Um so I brought in what my I brought in a character that was very much like me um at the height of my ADHD with like with the dial turned up, like I couldn't sit still and and it that that character was it kind of morphed into what I guess Coney Bear, you know, with a Jesse Tyler Ferguson character would one day become.

[13:29] Dan Fogler: But um then the other character I brought in was mist Mr. Barfay, which is the other spectrum, a combination of me and my brother, um, who both had allergies growing up, like I like my nose was constantly stuffed growing up and um and I used to um I wasn't I was not the best student, so I also always um would be on the uh the school bus and it would hit me like, oh my god, I haven't done my homework, and I would just get, you know, I would just get nauseous, and that I would become, oh my god, I'm Mr.

[14:12] Dan Fogler: Um, it's Barfay. But um, yeah, so and then it was also a combination of my brother who was like a straight A student. Um, and I was like, oh, that's an interesting character. He's like this kid who's like a super nerd drowning in his own, you know, mucus. And he fucking, and he can't, uh, everywhere else, he goes, he's bullied, except for the spelling bee, where he can, where he could, you know, be the bully, you know, but he's the bully with the heart of gold. And so that's where, uh, that's where Mr. Barfay came from. And then that was my ticket, man. That was my ticket. Yeah, that was, that was crazy. You won the Tony, and from there things took off.

[15:00] Eva: What was the first show you saw ever?

[15:03] Dan Fogler: Oh wow. Um, the first show on Broadway, you mean?

[15:08] Eva: Any, any theater show that you saw that meant something to you that you then said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this.

[15:15] Dan Fogler: Uh, I think the very first theater show that I ever saw was a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof that my brother was in, that Rebecca Feldman was also in. And um, it was at Poly Prep, and I, and it was before I was going there, my brother was going there, and I remember watching the show, and the show was good, and the kids, the kids were pretty talented. There was a moment in it where, um, it was the last show, and there was a senior in the show who was a bit of a practical joker, and um, it's the one of the guys, the one of the policemen that come in with the verdict that everyone has to leave, you know, and it's supposed to be this very sad moment, you know.

[16:03] Eva: Oh, you have to leave Russia, right?

[16:05] Dan Fogler: Yes, exactly. So the policeman comes in and he undoes this scroll and he shows everybody the verdict, and everyone's supposed to start crying, you know. But instead they start gyrating with laughter. Everyone on stage is now giggling their asses off, and everyone in the audience starts tittering, you know. And me, who I'm like, I now I start perking up. I'm like, what's going on? Why's happening? Why aren't they, what this is supposed to be sad? But now everyone's laughing. And it turns out, and everyone now at the end of the whole end of the show, they're supposed to be sad, and everyone is now stifling laughter. So then my brother, we're driving home at the end of the night, and we turned to him and we were like, What was that on stage?

What was going on? And my brother was like, Oh my god, you know, Ricky or whatever the freaking guy's name. It was the last show, so he decided that he wrote, he wrote on the scroll with a big, a big picture of a, it was like a big picture of a penis with like a giant, giant balls, and it said, it said, Hey everybody, hop off my balls. And it had a, and it had a guy who was just jumping off of the balls, like woo, and he shows this to everybody. And I was like, Oh my god, that's fucking funny. I was like, I like that. I like, I like how dangerous it is, you know. And, and those are the always the moments, the live theater that I, I always, I always love, those moments where anything could, things go wrong, and then you have to, and though, and those are the moments that the audience loves the best because they're like, Oh my god, this is, this is special. This doesn't happen every night, you know.

[17:44] Eva: I thought you were gonna say a fart, but a scroll of balls is way more genius.

[17:51] Dan Fogler: Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's, everyone can you imagine that like, yeah. Everyone's expecting this like just horrible, horrible verdict. This is just a big old picture of a penis. I mean, so like one of the things we talk about a lot on the show is how our first shows that we saw, first shows that we were in, how those are direct lines to what we became eventually one day. And I just think it's so funny that you who got discovered for your genius improv creation of Mr. Barfay actually at your actual first show, I don't know if you've realized this before today, was Fiddler with a total improv penis joke that made it memorable.

[18:39] Dan Fogler: Yeah, it's crazy. I always loved those, like the first show I was ever in, um, it was a similar thing. I was in, I was in Bye Bye Birdie and I played, I was the only kid in the show. I was, I was in sixth grade, I played Randolph McAfee, and every other, everybody else in the show was a high school kid. And, uh, so that was, that was an interesting experience. Um, my first, I don't know if you've seen the show, but um, oh yeah, I was Mrs. Peterson.

[19:08] Eva: Oh yeah.

[19:12] Dan Fogler: She was very Jewish when I played her.

[19:14] Eva: Oh funny.

[19:15] Dan Fogler: Um, so the first, my first entrance as Randolph is I, it's, uh, it's like breakfast or something, and for some reason I'm bringing my dad seven up for breakfast, you know. And um, and it's my first show, and it's the first night, and I'm standing off stage and I'm holding the bottle at seven up, and I hear my cue, and my legs don't move. My, my legs are frozen. I'm, I'm my, and I'm, and I start shaking, and I'm like, oh my god, I'm having stage fright. I can't, and I hear the audience, you know, out there. I was like, oh my god, there's a lot of people out there. So I'll now I'm like shaking, right? And I'm like, oh my god, I can't move, I can't get out here. And then I'm like, oh my god, I'm gonna, I, this is crazy.

Um, and then some like the stage hand behind me is like, get out there, and like kicks me off stage, and like, and I suddenly I'm on stage, you know, like boonk, you know, and the audience sees, the audience notices, oh okay, this guy's having an issue here. And I'm, and it's funny, you know. So people are already like tetering, like, what's going on with this guy? And I'm just like trying to catch my bearings, and I'm like, okay, just one foot in front of the other, and I can't stop like looking into the audience, like such an amateur move. I'm like looking in the audience for my parents, you know. And then I go like, I go to like hand my dad the soda, and he's all pissed off. He's like, give me the soda, you know, give me that seven up already.

So I hand him the seven up and he opens it and it's, it squirts all over the place. It's, it's all, it goes all over the place because I was shaking, you know. And now everyone's cracking up, and he's genuinely angry, you know, where he's supposed to be acting angry. He now he's genuinely angry. And now I'm, and I'm just sitting there mesmerized by the waves of laughter coming off of the audience. And I'm just like, whoa, what is that for? I'm like, what is it? Is that for me? Is that for the soda? Like, what is going on? And I was like, I, this is amazing. This is, it was another one of those moments where something kinda went wrong and it forced everybody to be in the moment. And um, that's when I was hooked. I was like, God damn it, I love this.

[21:31] Eva: And you were wearing a David Crockett hat. Is that, is that how this Ryan Eccassive was costumed?

[21:39] Dan Fogler: Yeah, what was I wearing? I don't even remember.

[21:42] Eva: Yeah, but I, I don't, I don't remember a Davy Crockett hat.

[21:45] Dan Fogler: I remember, yeah. That could be why, that could be why they were laughing.

[21:49] Eva: You know, exactly. I, I, but then I did like, uh, from then I was hooked, and then um, and then I did the Fantasticks right after that.

[21:59] Dan Fogler: And I was, uh, I was Mortimer in the Fantasticks. I remember that. I remember that.

[22:03] Eva: I love that.

[22:05] Dan Fogler: I love that, uh, role. That was crazy. I, that would, that role, yes, I didn't have to do anything.

[22:12] Eva: You just looked at me.

[22:13] Dan Fogler: I looked, I looked, I looked crazy. I had a big, you know, Native American, like braided wig. I, I, I looked, I looked very funny. Um, they allowed seventh graders to do a show that has a song called Rape in it in your school.

[22:28] Eva: Yeah, can you believe that?

[22:29] Dan Fogler: Wow. Yeah, The Fantasticks. That ran for 40 years.

[22:34] Eva: Yeah.

[22:34] Dan Fogler: Yeah, that, that song was like insane.

[22:37] Eva: The rape song is, yeah.

[22:39] Dan Fogler: Such a pretty rape. That those are literally the lines.

[22:43] Eva: Oh yeah.

[22:44] Dan Fogler: Like, um, it's like, uh, the, the idea. What the hell's his name? El Gaio or something.

[22:51] Eva: Yeah, yeah.

[22:52] Dan Fogler: Um, he comes in, he's basically the devil, and he's like, uh, he's selling them the idea that they're going to come in and steal this woman.

[23:04] Eva: Uh, steal the girl, right?

[23:05] Dan Fogler: Yeah. Yeah, what a fucking weird show, man. All the, when was that written? That was written in like the 50s.

[23:09] Eva: 40s, yeah.

[23:11] Dan Fogler: Something like that.

[23:13] Eva: Yeah.

[23:15] Dan Fogler: Yeah, they were, they did that show. I was, uh, fuck that was, um, what year was that? I was, uh, the early 90s still.

[23:26] Eva: They don't do that show anymore in high school.

[23:29] Dan Fogler: No, no, no, no. Let's, let's fast forward to future. What, so we did a couple shows in middle school and then high school. What was your first professional show?

[23:43] Dan Fogler: Yeah, I just did nonstop shows in, in high school and then um, went to college and then the f my first professional show where I got like my, my card, like my equity card or something.

[23:55] Eva: Where you got paid.

[23:57] Dan Fogler: What, and it could be anything, it could have been non-equity, it could have been your first crew job, just the first professional gig.

[24:05] Dan Fogler: Okay. I did, um, okay, yeah. I did a show called, uh, Joe Fearless, um, which is written by, that was at the Atlantic Theater Company, and it was, um, written by Liz Ticillo, who was a, went on to be a writer for Sex in the City, and she, and that's another thing, sh Liz Ticillo. I went to high school with Corinne Tacillo, her sister, and Liz saw me in high school plays, and that's how she cast me.

[24:38] Eva: Isn't that famous sisters and famous nannies is the story of your life?

[24:42] Dan Fogler: Yeah. Thank God. Thank God. Depended on the kindness of strangers. They, uh, and my friends, they, they, um, yeah, she saw me in a play. I think she saw me in like Into the Woods or something, and then um, then she cast me in Joe Fearless, and uh, so that's how I got my equity card. I was a singing dancing referee. It was a, it was basketball, it was choreographed basketball on stage. What a crazy show.

[25:14] Dan Fogler: Uh, and then the other like real, real gig I got was this was kind of crazy. I got the, um, Scooby-Doo live stage tour.

[25:26] Eva: Oh that's cool playing.

[25:30] Dan Fogler: Yeah, it was, uh, it was like a kid's show, and um, it was, it was crazy because you, you played these, I played these amazing venues that we went all over the country. Um, I played about five different characters in the show, which was like right up my alley. I love that stuff. I got to be the bad guy, so I got to, you know, have the mask pulled off at the end, and then, and I got to say, and I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for these mangy kids.

[25:59] Eva: Yeah, exactly.

[26:02] Dan Fogler: And, uh, these kids of music.

[26:09] Eva: I think it's meddling, but I like mangy better.

[26:12] Dan Fogler: I think you're right. It is meddling.

[26:14] Eva: Um, so yeah, so I got to do that, and, and that was crazy because um, I was doing it with a buddy too. He was like from college, he was shaggy, and so that was fun, man. Uh, but it was like, it wasn't really theater, it was more like trying to speak your lines around screaming. You know, like this kids were always just like Scooby Screaming, Scooby, you know.

[26:42] Dan Fogler: Um, trying to talk now.

[26:46] Eva: Um, did you wear a big head when you had to play characters?

[26:51] Dan Fogler: Did I wear a big head?

[26:53] Eva: Yeah, I wore a, uh, I mean it was my head. I had a, and they put a, like a, they put a bald, a bald cap on me with like crazy, um, I guess it was like poofy doc brown hair on the sides. And then, uh, but then I was also, you know, I got to, I had to be like a ghoul, so I had, yeah, they put like a big ghost mask on me with crazy ghost hands.

[27:18] Dan Fogler: What else? And oh, I was like, uh, I was like a chef. I come out at one point and I start, um, I'm dressed as a chef with like a big crazy mustache with this big pile of food, and, um, and I just start singing about the food. Uh, I can't remember the song. It was just, it was something like a fair tortellini, I love it. You're tall. Like I'm just like very, very silly. And I, and uh, what else? I, and then like Shaggy and Scoob like chase me off. Hey, he's got food, you know. Oh, and that was the other thing. You had to be able to do Shaggy and Scooby's voice because sometimes Shaggy and Scooby were making a quick change. Right. So whoever was closest to the microphone off stage had to run and just be like, Zoy's I'm almost there, Scooby, you know, and like fell in.

Uh, so that was, I liked that job. I got to do a lot of different things, you know. Um, Rookie! Uh, and, and I learned on that gig that you really have to maintain your weight because, um, I, uh, we went, we went to like, we've traveled all over the place, and by the time I got to New Orleans, it was like I never, it's like I found fried food and beignets. I was like, what are these? You know? And then suddenly I was just like, I gained like just like probably gained 30 pounds just in New Orleans, and they were like, Dan, none of the costumes fit you anymore. And, uh, it's like, oh shit. Uh, yeah. So that was a, that was a good one. And we don't have a wardrobe hand because this is a very cheap tour, so wait. We're gonna have to tape two of these ghoul costumes to you now.

[29:11] Dan Fogler: Um, it's dream time on the show where I ask you to dream a little. If you could be in any show anywhere at any time, what would it be?

[29:26] Dan Fogler: Whoa, you mean like if I can, you can go back in time, you can fast forward time, you can create the show out of your favorite stars, um, from yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Dream time.

[29:47] Dan Fogler: That's a good question. Well, okay, the first thing that comes to mind, so I would quantum leap into Nathan Lane's body during Guys and Dolls in '96 with Faith Prince, that that run.

[30:06] Eva: Oh yeah, I know it well.

[30:08] Dan Fogler: Yeah. You would Scott Bacula yourself.

[30:13] Dan Fogler: Two. I think it was the Schubert Theater. Tony Winning Revival. Either that one or I would jump into, uh, Chip Zine's Spody.

[30:25] Eva: Into the Woods, The Baker?

[30:27] Dan Fogler: Yeah. That's a great, another great production.

[30:30] Eva: Yeah.

[30:30] Dan Fogler: Oh, these are good. These are very good. Um, an excellent casting, Dan, because I think you would, you would kill it as Nathan Detroit and The Baker.

[30:46] Dan Fogler: You, you and Chip have a different way.

[30:51] Dan Fogler: Yeah. But, um, but no, that's really special. That's great. That's great. Do you think, is there a return to the stage in your future? Do you, do you wish for it?

[31:01] Dan Fogler: I'd like to, you know, if they'll have me. Um, yeah. I, I, I, I would love to. There's a lot of, there's a lot of stuff I'd, I'd like to do. I've, I've written a play, um, about my family. I mean, I guess that's the, and I, and I'd, I, I don't know if I'd be in it, but if I was in it, I guess that would be the closest thing that would be to getting back on stage.

[31:31] Eva: Right, right what you know.

[31:33] Dan Fogler: Yeah. That's what they say. Um, that's nice. I, um, I actually did a little, did a little recon on you. Um, your associate director from Spelling Bee is an old friend of mine, Darren Katz.

[31:48] Dan Fogler: Oh yeah.

[31:49] Eva: And I just was asking for any memory that he had of you, and he told me that you made this very cool and beautiful comic book for opening night about the show's path to Broadway. It was really sweet and really funny.

[32:07] Dan Fogler: Oh my god.

[32:08] Eva: The illustrations were amazing, and you gave it out to everybody. And do you remember that? And can you believe that the path from that to now is not only filled with fortune and fame in acting, but also in comic books?

[32:25] Dan Fogler: Yeah, that is so funny. Oh my god. I, that what a blast from the past. I totally forgot about that. Yeah, I wanted to make a little special thing for everybody.

[32:35] Dan Fogler: Wow. Yeah. I wish I still did he, did he still have it or?

[32:37] Eva: I think so.

[32:42] Dan Fogler: Yeah. Wow, that's cool, man. I guess you don't. You didn't keep one for yourself.

[32:45] Dan Fogler: Um, no, I don't think I did. I just think I made, made them for everybody. And I made them like by scratch, you know, it's like, uh, each one was, I think each one was like its own specific thing.

[33:00] Dan Fogler: Um, there is a surprise section of the show that we don't tell our guests about. Um, you're gonna be fine. Uh, it's a lightning round.

[33:09] Eva: Oh god.

[33:10] Dan Fogler: And we put 30 seconds on the clock, and I list off names of famous musicals. Famous, you know, from the canon, and you list the emotional theme that you think that musical is about. No rhymes. Nothing. There's no, no fear. I just like to see how we are matched and where your head is at as I list these titles.

[33:38] Dan Fogler: So we're gonna put 30 seconds on the clock.

[33:40] Eva: Oh my god.

[33:42] Dan Fogler: That's it. 30 seconds. I feel like I'll be able, I'll be able to answer one. We'll see how many we can get. Maybe we'll stretch to 40. No one's really watching.

[33:51] Dan Fogler: I always needed extra time on tests as a kid. No one's watching the clock. We're gonna do what we can. All right.

[33:59] Dan Fogler: A Chorus Line.

[34:02] Eva: Oh, what is it about? Or what's the emotional theme there?

[34:06] Dan Fogler: Is that, um, yeah, that no matter what, you have to keep trying and never, ever, ever give up.

[34:19] Dan Fogler: Oliver.

[34:20] Eva: Avoid um strangers.

[34:25] Dan Fogler: Sweeney Todd.

[34:27] Eva: Always ask for the recipe.

[34:29] Dan Fogler: Funny Girl.

[34:30] Eva: Make sure that you get Streisand.

[34:33] Dan Fogler: Vita.

[34:34] Eva: Don't get political.

[34:36] Dan Fogler: Annie.

[34:37] Eva: If you got talent, you don't need money.

[34:42] Dan Fogler: You did great. You did great, truly. Truly. These, these are, everyone has their own take, and these are very Dan Fogler, I must say.

[34:53] Dan Fogler: These are a Dan Fogler take.

[34:56] Eva: Um wow. You, you are as, as known, because I've watched you plenty. You are incredibly funny and incredibly charming. Um, I think you had said before we began that you were back at work on set right now. I think we're all a little jealous. Can you tell us about where you are and what you're doing?

[35:18] Dan Fogler: Oh yeah, I'm, I'm in the UK.

[35:21] Dan Fogler: I'm jealous of me. I'm in the UK now with my family. Um, and we, and I just, you know, got, just started working. Like we got one week, um, in the can, as they say.

[35:41] Dan Fogler: Uh, and it's, uh, you know, it's like every, every time I always equate even before all this, you know, precarious, um, craziness with the virus. Uh, I was like, each one of these, each one of these, uh, journeys, each one of these shows, these films, whatever, it's like a, it's like a ship's journey. You know, it's like you shine on and you hopefully the captain is, you know, good and, and hopefully the, the, you know, the crew is, is gets along and you know, hopefully the, the ship is seaworthy and, and you, you, you know, you, you can come out, you can, you can go out into the sea and, and maybe it's, uh, maybe it's an easy ride, you know, and maybe you bring back gold, and or maybe it's treacherous and everyone's screwed and you don't finish, you know, you never know what the hell is gonna happen.

[36:33] Dan Fogler: Um, now it's even crazier. Now it's just like one day down. It's like now it's just like we're, we're trying to get to the North Pole one more inch through the ice. You know, it's like we're taking it day by day, and so it, it even more so feels like, um, even, I don't know, it's more romantic, it's more exciting, it's like all for one and, uh, one for all. We're gonna get through this, you know, and, um, so it in that regard it's, it's exciting, uh, and it's also, it's strange, it's very Kubricky, you know, uh, yeah, it's very, it's very surreal right now, but we're, we're getting through it. I mean, that's what we do. We adapt, we get through it. I think we got something good already.

[37:27] Eva: Amazing, amen to that.

[37:29] Dan Fogler: Thank you, Dan.

[37:31] Dan Fogler: Yeah.

[37:36] Dan Fogler: Rabbi, we've waited all our lives for the Messiah. Wouldn't now be a good time for him to come.

[37:45] Eva: We'll have to. My First Show is produced by Josh Altman, MEP, Dory Berenstein, and Alan Seals, and is part of the Broadway Podcast Network.

[37:53] Eva: This episode was edited by Derek Gunther. Special thanks to Leslie Papa and Whitney Holden Gore at Vibacity Media Group.

[38:02] Eva: For more info about the podcast, visit bpn.fm backslash my first show. Follow me on Instagram at Eva R. Price.

[38:10] ♪ Musical number: "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" — performed by Eva R. Price ♪

[39:10] ♪ Musical number ♪

[40:35] It's just a place. Our forefathers have been forced out of many, many places at a moment's notice. Maybe that's why we always wear our hats.