This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:02] Drew Gasparini: Hi there, it's everyone's favorite name brand Allergy Medicine, Drew Gasparini here with another episode of Now We're Talking, the podcast that won't shut up during your kids' recital.

[0:13] Drew Gasparini: F your kid. Today our guest is someone I go back a long time with. He's a kind soul who always has me laughing when I see him. You know him for his work on stage in shows like Triassic Parq, Lysistrata Jones, Wicked, and the Deaf West's production of Spring Awakening. Hell, you might know him for his work on screen in shows like The Bold and the Beautiful, or the Emmy Award nominated series that he co-created, The Indoor Boys. He's an actor, a writer, a Tony nominated producer, and a good friend of mine. I'm thrilled he's here. Everyone, now we're talking with Alex Wyse.

[0:46] Drew Gasparini: I would like to start by saying, I feel like you're just one of those, you're one of those rare people that kind of no matter what the circumstance or the situation, but when I see you, I'm always kind of uplifted and have a marvelous time.

[1:03] Alex Wyse: That's so kind, because um there's so many casting directors who have disagreed. And it's just so nice to hear some positive feedback and from someone in the industry.

[1:16] Drew Gasparini: It's a very good idea. In the industry, and listen, I'm on the other side of the table. You're always welcome. Come on in anytime. I would like I think I think everybody should start referring to you as the Jewish space laser of musical theater.

[1:31] Alex Wyse: You know, I do feel like I am a hot button congressional issue. And um, and I do feel um like I have a laser focus and and uh and a and a Jewish look.

[1:50] Drew Gasparini: Uh Alex, how you been, man? I haven't I haven't like talked to you in in well over a year, it seems.

[1:56] Alex Wyse: Oh no! When did I last see you?

[1:58] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, about a year ago. Over a year ago.

[1:59] Alex Wyse: Was it?

[2:00] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, you sang at the I Could Use a Drink re-release concert at 54 Below, and I think that's the last time I saw you.

[2:07] Alex Wyse: That was one of the most amazing nights.

[2:09] Drew Gasparini: Oh, thanks. I had fun. I'm just happy that you were able to do it. That's that's my joy is just getting to hang and watch you do your thing.

[2:17] Alex Wyse: And like by able to do it, you mean like it could still hit the notes vaguely.

[2:21] Drew Gasparini: But boy, could you? Like, holy shit. I think you got one of those voices, man. You have that, you have like um, I don't know. It's a powerhouse. People can hear you in the rafters. You just got this like voice that carries and carries and carries.

[2:35] Drew Gasparini: Uh, Alex, so this this podcast really is about a whole lot of nothing. I mean, like, it really is, it was kind of my 2020 excuse to uh make time with my showbiz friends. And what better way to do that than start a podcast, I feel like. And uh I consider you one of my showbiz friends, and we've sat and we've had meals together and we've done collaborative things together, but there's a whole lot I don't know about you, and I'd like to start with like all of that.

[3:04] Alex Wyse: I was born on a Misty Tuesday.

[3:07] Drew Gasparini: It was it was Misty.

[3:08] Alex Wyse: That no, I saw that on Wikipedia. It was a Misty Tuesday, which is such a great porn star name.

[3:09] Drew Gasparini: Misty Tuesday.

[3:15] Alex Wyse: That's really nice. Wow, or good, or good drag name, you know.

[3:18] Drew Gasparini: Great drag name, absolutely. Welcome to the stage, Misty Tuesday.

[3:24] Alex Wyse: Wearing train conductor guitar. Um, what was what was I like? Well, first off, I'm really excited you started a uh podcast because you have a really good announcer voice.

[3:38] Drew Gasparini: No, yeah.

[3:40] Alex Wyse: So I think it's a really good move for you.

[3:42] Drew Gasparini: It's a lateral move. I'm not gonna lie, it's a lateral move, but I think it's a really good move.

[3:49] Alex Wyse: You're killing me.

[3:51] Drew Gasparini: It's the forward resonance. I place everything right up here in the mask, baby. That's where it lives. Now we're talking.

[3:58] Alex Wyse: Yeah, that's it. Absolutely working. Um, all right. Well, this is the part right now I have to start talking about myself.

[4:03] Alex Wyse: No, you have to start talking.

[4:05] Drew Gasparini: No, I don't want to. This is where I start sweating, and I'm like, no, anything but me. Um let me stall more with more jokes.

[4:13] Alex Wyse: Okay. Um, let's see. Uh okay. So I was born in uh Cleveland, Ohio.

[4:19] Alex Wyse: Um, which was very lovely and suburban and fine.

[4:24] Drew Gasparini: Uh-huh.

[4:25] Alex Wyse: That's that's that's when you drive into Cleveland, that's the big sign. It's it's fine.

[4:30] Drew Gasparini: It's fine.

[4:31] Alex Wyse: You know what's funny? Looking back on it, I'm so thankful that I'm from Cleveland because I think it's such a great town that's full of so much theater and art and culture, and it was very liberal. I mean, compared to so many other places in the world. When I was a kid though, I didn't have the perspective, and the only thing that I wanted was to go to New York City. You know, but looking back, I can be really appreciative of all that I had in Cleveland and all the opportunities that were.

[4:54] Drew Gasparini: What was it about like what was it about New York City though? Because I'm also, you know, I might be from the Bay Area, but a suburb for sure, and my idea of New York City was so romanticized.

[5:04] Alex Wyse: That's a word?

[5:05] Drew Gasparini: That's that's a word.

[5:06] Alex Wyse: Yeah, okay.

[5:07] Drew Gasparini: Oh, yeah. By like, by like Seinfeld or or friends. I was like, I am either gonna be one of these coffee drinking yuppies or one of these really complainy New Yorkers, and I'm happy with either.

[5:20] Alex Wyse: And that was kind of my perception of New York. What made you be like, ah, New York's gotta be the place? Was it strictly theater that wanted that made you see the appeal of this big bright buzzy city?

[5:30] Alex Wyse: Yeah, I mean, it was well, first off, I'd like to say that between um complainer and yuppie coffee drink, you're kind of both. Like you really you you won both of those quite well, right?

[5:39] Drew Gasparini: This is all by design.

[5:41] Alex Wyse: It's all by design, exactly. Yeah, and for me, New York was just all theater in Broadway, and that was just magic to me.

[5:47] Drew Gasparini: When I was theater was like you were super young when you started loving it.

[5:51] Alex Wyse: Yeah, I mean, I was I I saw my first Broadway show when I was a little little little kid.

[5:59] Alex Wyse: And I so I had a grandmother who lived in New York, who was the coolest person in the whole wide world. She um she lived in New York City on 71st and Fifth Avenue, and she was like a chic fur hat wearing, like pierce, screaming at cab drivers, and she was just I love this woman.

[6:20] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, like a real, like you'd find her um in in like the in the uh libretto of company, you know.

[6:27] Alex Wyse: Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, she was really that kind of, you know. She probably like, you know, I think she even might have like known Elaine Stritch, just casually.

[6:36] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, yeah, you know.

[6:37] Alex Wyse: No big deal, she casually knew Elaine.

[6:40] Drew Gasparini: Right, yeah.

[6:40] Alex Wyse: She actually was friends. So my grandmother was a writer, and she was yeah, and she she worked a little bit in theater, she did a lot in advertising. She wrote a lot of like slogans for advertising that are still used today.

[6:54] Alex Wyse: Um, and she was just like the she wrote like um my grandma wrote um with a name like Smuckers, it has to be good. And she and she she made up the name Bed Bath and Beyond.

[7:07] Drew Gasparini: No, she did not.

[7:08] Alex Wyse: Yeah, she did.

[7:09] Drew Gasparini: And oh my god, that sounds like completely made up factual stuff, but this is real, real factual stuff.

[7:15] Alex Wyse: That's real. That's my grandmother Lois Wise.

[7:17] Drew Gasparini: Um, Love is wise. God, I was gonna ask for the name.

[7:20] Alex Wyse: Yeah, Lois, alright. We love it.

[7:21] Alex Wyse: Yeah, she she was so cool, but she was such a um, she was so steeped in culture and she loved theater, and she and you know, my parents really loved theater too, so they were always taking me to the touring shows that would come uh downtown to the the touring houses in Cleveland, and then once a uh once a year we go to New York, and my grandma would take me to a bunch of shows.

[7:43] Alex Wyse: Yeah, so as a little kid, I was seeing a secret garden when I was like little at a little.

[7:49] Drew Gasparini: And oh, what a good one to see at such a young age.

[7:53] Alex Wyse: And you know, the stuff for kids, like I saw Beauty and the Beast, and I saw Phantom, and I saw, and so I was just totally obsessed with it and thought it was the most magical thing in the world. And so for me, New York was always the goal.

[8:06] Alex Wyse: And my grandmother always said to me, she was quite a wordsmith, um, evidently, you know, and she would always say to me, She said, Alex, Cleveland is a from place, and New York is a to place.

[8:18] Drew Gasparini: I love this woman so much.

[8:21] Alex Wyse: She was everything you have said of this woman, I am completely obsessed with.

[8:26] Alex Wyse: Yeah, she was a from place, God bless her.

[8:30] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, she was amazing. She was amazing. I mean, she also she wrote like 60 books, you know.

[8:34] Alex Wyse: She was really cool. So she was. This is your dad's, this is your dad's mom.

[8:39] Alex Wyse: That's right. That's my it was my dad's mom, yeah.

[8:41] Drew Gasparini: Amazing.

[8:42] Alex Wyse: Um, she died when I was in college. Um, but I had a great relationship with her all through my childhood and teenage years and the beginning of my adulthood. And she uh really showed me what New York was, and she was the one who um uh helped amplify that dream for me.

[9:01] Alex Wyse: And uh and then my my parents are really awesome too because they were so um uh generous about um allowing me to audition for shows and being the ones who would drive me to rehearsals and letting me do I mean, granted, you know, they're Jewish, so they were deeply afraid for me at all times.

[9:18] Drew Gasparini: Of course, you know.

[9:21] Alex Wyse: Um deeply afraid, I love that.

[9:25] Alex Wyse: Yeah, you know, as as only Jewish parents could be, you know.

[9:28] Drew Gasparini: Sure, sure.

[9:29] Alex Wyse: You know, they were they there was love and support and just deep fear.

[9:33] Alex Wyse: But coded in, yeah, immense violent fear for their child, sure.

[9:37] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, yeah, violent love and violent fear.

[9:39] Alex Wyse: So, yeah, New York was always the dream. And I actually, you know, never a lot of my career has also been in like television, and I never thought, I never thought that TV was an option for me.

[9:52] Drew Gasparini: Because I that's a different conversation.

[9:55] Alex Wyse: No, it's all part of the same conversation because I actually have this written down. There is something about you, and and the way you have navigated your journey through theater and then transitioned into the screen and TV kind of world and producing world and writing world, you're like a Ron Howard of our generation, just in terms of how you manage to have a finger in one of these pies within show business at all times, and it doesn't look like your relevancy will ever, ever falter.

[10:24] Drew Gasparini: You're always gonna have something going on in a way that attracts a good number of people at all times. You have something so fucking likable about you, it's the Ron Howard complex. I really think that.

[10:36] Alex Wyse: When you, you know, I when I uh first visited New York, I was like 19 or 20, and the first show I saw was the last, maybe it had two weeks left of its run, was Beauty and the Beast. And I wish I wish to fuck. I saw it when I was a kid. These actors were so tired. They were so they were so done.

[10:56] Drew Gasparini: I read this is a very true story.

[10:58] Alex Wyse: It was a matinee. I was bewildered at how small uh the theaters were because you know, touring houses in some of the world, in some of the country are like gigantic. So when you're used to like seeing something in a touring production, you're used to this like 3,000 seat theater some of the time. And Broadway, a lot of people don't realize if they haven't been, these theaters are a little uh more intimate, it feels like you're a little squished in, very New York, you're very elbow to elbow with people.

[11:23] Drew Gasparini: So it was a slightly more uncomfortable than I wanted it to be.

[11:26] Alex Wyse: And then the Maurice, whoever was playing Maurice in this production. Crazy old Maurice goes, There was a beast.

[11:34] Drew Gasparini: Oh that's not the line.

[11:35] Alex Wyse: He said that. He said that. He fucking upped his line and then out loud said, Wait, that's not the line.

[11:43] Drew Gasparini: Oh my god.

[11:45] Alex Wyse: And that's when I was like, if it's this easy, I'm just gonna go into writing Broadway shows.

[11:51] Drew Gasparini: Wait, I have to tell a quick story that Piggy's story you've just told. Yes, when I was so I I was very obsessed with flop musicals all through my childhood because I'm really very dorky. I love theater history, and I want to know all about Gantry, which ran for one performance and so on. You know what I mean?

[12:08] Alex Wyse: Um, and so I convinced my parents uh when I was a kid, I we were they were like, We're going to New York, what do you want to see? I was like, okay, well, obviously, we're gonna see, you know, the crucible both Liam Neeson and the Laura Liddy, and obviously we're going to see and you know, a few other options that I had. And then I said, but we're going to see the Dance of the Vampires.

[12:27] Drew Gasparini: And they're like, Oh, what's Dance of the Vampires?

[12:29] Alex Wyse: And I was like, it is the show that will define the rest of my life. I mean, how you know telling that was.

[12:36] Drew Gasparini: But I was so um so dead set on seeing this, and my parents trust me. They're like, okay, great. So they said, okay to see Dance of the Vampires. Um, cut to the end of the story real quick. They were furious with me.

[12:44] Alex Wyse: But um while we were while we were watching the show, which I was loving every single second of, I remember there was a part where the vampires were dancing in the aisles, the ensemble of vampires, and there was one girl in the ensemble who uh probably knew um the woman she was sitting in the audience, whom she was dancing in front of, and I was sitting right by, and she leaned over to some girl who was sitting right by me, and she goes, I'm so tired.

[13:13] Alex Wyse: And I I remember so so it's interesting about this story for me, is I remember and that moment I was like, oh my god, they're people, they're people who are like doing a job.

[13:30] Alex Wyse: Like, this was the opposite for me of what of what it was for you. It was a completely magical moment where I got to see behind the curtain.

[13:37] Alex Wyse: Yeah, and and I was like, they're people, and I'm people, and I could be tired one day too, you know.

[13:44] Drew Gasparini: Oh my god, the dream was always to become tired.

[13:47] Alex Wyse: That's always been the dream, and boy, did I achieve it because I am exhausted.

[13:55] Drew Gasparini: Oh my god, I love that. That woman, I'm so tired.

[14:00] Alex Wyse: So tired. I am obsessed with that story. And it was totally magical. It was so magical. I was it was I was in heaven when that happened. Oh my god. And uh, and I couldn't believe it. Um, you know, it was a good thing that that experience was mixed in also with like one of the best things I ever saw, which was the crucible of Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, which was like the best acting I'd ever seen. Okay. Oh my god. Going back to your question though, um I was so my my dad um always uh he works uh and worked in advertising because it was the family business and he was working there for a long time and he was in charge of a lot of um uh commercials and stuff, and he would deal with children. There's a point to this, and he would deal with like kids.

Yeah, he would deal with kids on the commercials, and I think seeing that he was pretty dead set on me not moving to New York and being a child actor. Um I was what did he see in specific though? I mean, like, honest to god, how bad this is in Ohio. No, because he was also um in New York a little bit, and you know, my um his parents' advertising business was located in Cleveland and New York, and and so there was a lot of uh stuff like that happening. But um, but my parents were pretty sure that they did not want me to go be a child actor on the Broadway. Though I begged them. I was just begging, it's all I wanted. It was the dream. Yeah. Um yeah, and you know, looking back, I have I'm of two minds about it.

One is what a missed opportunity. I had the prettiest little soprano voice of all time. And I totally could have booked Beauty and the Beast. Um Yeah. Um and and the second thing is I'm thankful that I didn't do that because I got to be ruined as an adult instead of as a child. True that. And you are definitely ruined now. I could see you, I could see you starting like to smoke cigarettes by the time you're 11 if you went into child acting. I would have. I would have. Yeah. I I not because it was the cool thing to do, but because you're so exhausted. I would have been exhausted. And we would have been between shows, you know. I would have been at the time ordering in Kodama, you know, rest in peace, Kodama.

And I just would have needed my cigarette break on the balcony with the musicians. The image of this is so great. Bitching about union stuff with the musicians. I love it. Of course, I'm like, 802 lets you do what? Okay. That is amazing. Holy crap. So that being said, I was never um a child actor in New York, but I was doing a lot of shows as a kid. So there's like a lot of local professional theater, a sort of, you know, like not quite big regional theaters, but you played Oliver at one point, I'm guessing. Yes, I was an Oliver four times as a child. Of course. Absolutely. And in fact, I got cast a fifth time, and my mother said no. She was like, you cannot do this again. She turned it down for you.

Yeah. She said, You can't do it. I was like, mother, they're offering me Oliver. She said, You've played it. You've played it, and you'd have to miss some school. I was like, it's just a week. But oh my gosh. Always a battle. Um, but I did a ton of theater as a kid. I did a lot of and uh with a lot of people who ended up going to New York and who are a part of the business now, like one of your uh close friends, Andrew Kober. He was the Mr. Bumble to my Oliver. Do you know? I I I swear to God, I had no idea about that, and I love that so much. He is, he's still Mr. Bumble. That's just such a bumble. Oh my gosh. You know what? I'm such, you know, despite my my wry nature, I'm such an Oliver. I mean, I look so hungry.

So it all worked. You know what I love about like community theater with kids is exactly that. When you see like a 14-year-old girl playing Widow Peru or something like that. And I remember playing, uh, I was double cast with Matt Doyle as Billy Bigelow, and they didn't water down the script of Carousel at all. And there's a line, because he's a horrible guy. He's just a horrible man. He says, shut your mouth or I'll slap you upside the jaw. I was 14 saying this to like a 12-year-old girl. How insane is that shit. Oh god. I bet you were really good though. And I and I like that. Um, and I like that, you know, kids, you know, we all we I did this too because I played some adults. I drew, you know, I drew uh the the listener can't see what I'm doing.

There, I'm I drew the wrinkles. You know the way that you know the way the 24-year-old adults have deep, deep wrinkles and brown pencil on their faces, you know, and every and every other tooth blacked out, you know the way adults look. You look like a jack-o'-lantern with a meth addiction. It's like so insane. My temple's grayed. Yeah, you get that toothbrush with white paint on it, and you start brushing it up in your sideburns. That's right. It's like you're not fooling anyone, 11-year-old Alex. You know, we know you're 11. Um every community theater production of Annie, the guy who was playing FDR was always the youngest, youngest guy in the cast, always. Every production I ever saw of that, I thought that was so funny to me.

Well said. I'm so glad we just we just had this gigantic laugh about this. That makes me laugh so hard. It's pretty funny. All right, keep going. So we were talking about how uh community theater was a big part of your life. You did all of it four almost five times. Yeah, you know, I also will say Andrew Kober was the baker to my Jack. God love him. God, I love that. Oh, I had I really had no idea that you guys had such a uh a theater upbringing together. We really did, and we were in the Cleveland cabaret troupe together. And I think there are probably other shows we were in together, but I I don't remember all of them. But those are the two that stand out in my mind that I did with Andrew.

So when did you and Andrew have this horrible falling out? Well, well uh well. I've always loved Andrew. He's amazing. And not to love, absolutely. Right? And he was one of like the cool older kids that I looked up to, and um, and uh we uh I rem I have memories of going to uh when the cabaret troupe would go to um iHop at four in the morning together, and Andrew would be driving me, and I was like this little ninth grader, and you know that's it. That's so cool. Yes. And you know, some other guys too, who I was a part of Cleveland Theater with. Ben Fankhauser is one, Max Chernen is another. Wow. Yeah, we're all from the same general area, and we're all doing it. You and Andrew have done wonders, but those other two, I don't know.

Who are they? Yeah. But I but anyway, the point is I was doing a lot of stuff and really thrilled about it and working really hard and always taking it very, very seriously. And I I went to college for acting at Boston University. Yeah. Oh wow, okay. I think I knew that, but may have forgotten. Boston University, excellent. Uh-huh. Yeah, and I went there and it that was a um, you know, though um conservatory is full of abusive teachers, as so many people can attest to. Um, at the same time, there are really good things. Like I did a lot of writing in college, which I was doing anyway as a kid. Um, but I started doing it really seriously when I got to college, and I was like, oh, this is a thing for me.

This is something I love. This is another way to express that very same impulse that makes me want to act. Absolutely, absolutely. Can we can we just talk about you as a writer real quick? Because your brain, I mean, like people are probably listening at this point, and they can hear that you're a writer, just based on on how fast you can take an idea and jump off of it. You're a great improviser in that way, but I think that that is part of the writer's brain, and and just the way you told that story about that woman saying, I'm so tired. That kills me. Uh when did you because I remember sitting down with you, maybe we were at Westway Diner, is that what it's called? On 9th Ave, I think you said.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you were telling me about something you were writing and you were filming, and I was like so excited for you. But I was also kind of thinking, like, why haven't you been doing that? But you have been writing for like a long time. A long time, and I I didn't um I didn't put a lot of things out there. Um it's it's um it's a later in life. It's a real um sun, it's and now that I'm in my sunset years, um I feel I I feel a little more ready to put myself out there as a writer. I did a lot in college. I was just writing songs. Um you were a great songwriter, and I don't think anybody knows that about you. I mean, people uh it's not widely known that you're an amazing songwriter and a musical theater writer.

You really, really are. I've heard lots of your stuff, and it's fucking tremendous. Thank you, thank you. Um, but uh uh I had a musical when I first got to New York, one of the very first things I did. Uh you know, I started off, I got some acting jobs and things were going nicely. And then I also got a musical that I wrote in the New York Musical Theater Festival. Yes, yes, yes. It was a wonderful experience where um I lost $30,000 and got pans in the New York Times. I was waiting for it. Yeah, it wasn't. Everybody wants their experience. That's precisely it. Lose money in record time, and then have somebody much older than you not understand your art. That is and that that was my dream, really, is to have someone older than me um uh yeah, tell me that I was garbage.

Um don't worry, it's happened so many times. My dream just keeps coming true. So but I I had this like really horrifying experience in Nymph where um the show that ended up going up was not what I it was not what was in my head. It totally got away from me, and I did not have the experience or the maturity to deal with that. Um financially, emotionally, artistically, uh I couldn't be the kind of leader that I can be now to say, no, my idea is this, and this is what should happen. Instead, I was just like, okay, I'll check I'll do whatever you want, I'll do whatever you want, and it just became something else. Um I've been there many times myself. I totally understand that. Yeah. Yeah, and it's it's really hard when you're um young and you're trying so hard to make sure everybody likes the thing that you're writing, and then and it turns out that nobody likes it because it isn't yours anymore.

It's it's so far away from your. And you're listening to people like they have one more credit on their resume. So you go, well, they must know one more thing than I do. I'm gonna listen to them. And then it's not necessarily in the right hands. Been down that path. You end up just throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I guess. A hundred percent. Yeah, or it's so so I had this experience, and then um I was very, to be honest, quite traumatized from it. So much so that I um I didn't put anything else out there as a writer for about seven years. Yeah, this was the moment I was like, where's it been? Yeah. Yeah, and I I was writing privately. I was um I took that show that was a nymph and I rewrote it about four or five times and did some private readings to try to make it better, and I definitely took some big steps with it, though it still has um those how do you say it, those vestiges of the um old idea that doesn't quite fully work.

And so um eventually I I started some other things that didn't quite see the light of day. Um, it wasn't until I started working with Wes Taylor that he finally gave me the uh confidence to put my stuff out there, and because I was working with him and because it was a team effort and it wasn't all writing or or dying on my shoulders, uh succeeding or dying on my shoulders. I it it was a shared thing. I felt like I could summon the bravery, and Wes helped me do it to put myself out there. So we started this show Indoor Boys, which now you know we've done three seasons, and my mom adorably continues to call it the inside boys, so I I often go there's the lie. I I correct her every time, but I think it's adorable. You know when moms are like, oh, I like Brittany Aguilera. They're like so close, but it's not it's not the right thing.

[26:30] Drew Gasparini: Don't you just love Alex Wyse? Well, let me tell you how you can love him even more by following him and supporting him. Go find Alex Wyse on Instagram and Twitter and keep up with what he has going on. He is one of my favorite artistic humans. Please keep up with everything he does. And let me just say this about his Twitter account: he is so magnificently funny that it makes up for all the mountain of garbage that Twitter usually has. So go check it out for yourself. Also, go see for yourself his amazing performance and writing on The Indoor Boys. Seasons one through three are available at indoorboys.tv. You don't want to miss it. Now more with Alex Wyse.

[27:09] Drew Gasparini: Can I ask about Wes Taylor? When, how did that come about? What were you guys working on that led to The Indoor Boys?

[27:16] Alex Wyse: I'm sure you guys were friends through the business and, yeah, I knew him just socially a little bit, and we had hung out once or twice over, you know, for some time in the past decade. But then I moved to Los Angeles because I got cast in a very creative role on The Bold and the Beautiful, in which I got to flex all my creativity instead with deep sarcasm. But no, it's a really cool job, and I got to be a part of a really interesting world. That part is true, and work with some nice people. And so I was there doing The Bold and the Beautiful, and Wes was there; he was doing some various television jobs and had moved out there for other reasons.

[27:58] Drew Gasparini: And so I think maybe it was on Instagram I saw that he was and and when you're a New Yorker, kind of plopped in LA, you you search for your like-minded people.

[28:09] Alex Wyse: So I think we texted, like, oh, you're here, I'm here. We should meet up.

[28:11] Drew Gasparini: We should meet up.

[28:12] Alex Wyse: Absolutely.

[28:13] Drew Gasparini: Yeah.

[28:14] Alex Wyse: So we did. And after we hung out a couple of times, it was Wes who said to me, we should really write something together.

[28:20] Drew Gasparini: To which I said, no, no, no, no.

[28:20] Alex Wyse: No, no, no.

[28:26] Drew Gasparini: Why turn it down?

[28:27] Alex Wyse: So first of all, how how often does that question come up? When you like click with someone and you're like, wow, we have a funny rapport. This could be a fun collaborative effort here. And then it just never sees the light of day. The idea never gets past the computer screen, or the meeting to write something in the first place never happens. It's a lot of talk.

[28:44] Drew Gasparini: So you guys are already defying odds by sitting down and going, let's actually do this and write something.

[28:50] Alex Wyse: I think that in itself is fucking amazing.

[28:53] Drew Gasparini: I agree because I had felt before in my before times that uh there's like, you know, um post-Wes and and pre-Wes.

[29:03] Alex Wyse: Um but like Wes really uh in in uh P Oh, no, they're both P. Pre-W.

[29:11] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, okay.

[29:12] Alex Wyse: So yeah. Um, but before I I think I'd let a lot of moments pass me by, or I had um uh worked on them privately, but then said no one ever needs to see this. By the same token, though, I might not have been ready to oh, look at listening now. You hear that was my doorbell, and I'm not gonna answer it.

[29:29] Drew Gasparini: You're allowed. We can take a minute for you to answer the door.

[29:32] Alex Wyse: Is it Amazon? Is it something that needs to come in?

[29:34] Drew Gasparini: I'm not expecting anything other than disturbances.

[29:37] Alex Wyse: Um, but uh I I I forget what I was saying, other than uh we we and Wesley.

[29:49] Drew Gasparini: And how you how he got you going.

[29:51] Alex Wyse: Yeah, he just we we start we gave it a shot. I remember we made the first episode of Indoor Boys.

[29:56] Drew Gasparini: It wasn't even called Indoor Boys yet.

[29:58] Alex Wyse: That's when it was called Inside Boys.

[30:00] Drew Gasparini: That was Inside Boys, you know, back when you're you know it was your mom's idea we were trying to bring to light.

[30:05] Alex Wyse: Yeah, I know she pitched it.

[30:07] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, and uh it really just became Indoor Boys by circumstance because we were like, well, we have one location, what if we never leave?

[30:15] Alex Wyse: That's pretty much what happened.

[30:17] Drew Gasparini: I mean, but like how funny, like the way you're talking about this so casually, and then you can look at the list of awards you've been nominated for and won, including Emmy Awards. Is it like did you ever did you ever see this happening? Like something that starts as casually as this might have.

[30:32] Alex Wyse: I I never in my wildest dreams would I see a collaboration with one of my friends going this way and going this well and being this well received. You have an army of people that clung on to this, man. It's so fucking rad to see.

[30:45] Drew Gasparini: Thanks. I mean, uh the really the best part of it is um, you know, I I this might sound like BS, but the part of being a writer that I really like is is the not selfish part. Like the part that I love is the part where you get to be a proud parent.

[31:01] Alex Wyse: Um I love the part where I get to where other people get to feel creative because I built a stage that they get to step onto. That's the part that that thrills me. And the idea that because I'm writing this, this means we get to work with this person. If I write for this person, we can bring them on board and then we can all have an experience together.

[31:11] Drew Gasparini: That's the part that really excites me and makes me want to write new things and helps me create new characters as I think about well, who do I want to work with? Okay, what if I write a role for, for instance, in Indoor Boys? What if we write stuff for Carolie Carmelo and VN Cox?

[31:36] Alex Wyse: Two actresses I'm obsessed with who are incredible, and we reached out and said, You want to do this? Because we want you to do this. And we wrote roles for the two of them.

[31:46] Drew Gasparini: It's like everything you say is not surprising, but the most amazing.

[31:52] Alex Wyse: I I just I just see this as something that you were born to do. Listen to the story you just told and the people you were raised from. And like, I know it's kind of weird, but the fact that you have an advertising bloodline, basically, uh on your on your dad's side, I'm sure that is part of where the apple falls in terms of your writing brain. Do you think that's what it is?

[32:14] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, I mean, I do. I feel very inspired by um I still think about a lot of things that my grandma used to say to me about writing.

[32:23] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[32:23] Drew Gasparini: Uh she always used to say, writing is rewriting. Writing is just rewriting, which you know is is a common thing to be said, but the first time I heard it was from my grandma, and I really um think about that a lot.

[32:35] Alex Wyse: Um that gives me the bravery to write a really crappy first draft, and then it's about the work ethic that you have and the passion that you have to adjust and adjust and adjust and trim and cut and add a word and and rearrange, and that's what turns it into something inspired.

[32:51] Drew Gasparini: Um but all you have to do is just the way I think about writing is I'm just gonna close my eyes, open up a blank document, and write something that is terrible. This is the worst thing ever, and I'm just gonna get from the top of the page to the bottom and make the worst thing ever.

[33:06] Alex Wyse: But then there's some kind of spark in here, there's some little thing in here that I have to save. There's that one line that's so beautiful that I need to make the other lines around it match what's happening there, or justify the presence of that line.

[33:23] Drew Gasparini: Do you know what I mean?

[33:24] Alex Wyse: I 100% know what you mean.

[33:25] Drew Gasparini: Yes.

[33:26] Alex Wyse: I I th I think you and I have a very similar approach, and basically a mission statement when it comes to being a writer and the stresses that come with it, but uh some of the some of those stresses are a lot of the most beautiful aspects of being a writer because of what the outcome is.

[33:41] Drew Gasparini: When you're throwing spaghetti at the wall, and once it starts crusting and peeling off the wall, and you see what's left, and you're like it spells out, you're a genius, Drew.

[33:50] Alex Wyse: You're like, I did it somehow! I don't know how, but I fucking did it.

[33:54] Drew Gasparini: And you the way you uh talk about writing, you remind me a lot of somebody you and I both know quite well. Alex Brightman has the same exact step forward when it comes to how he writes.

[34:07] Alex Wyse: And he and I definitely collaborate on a number of things, but when he's off doing his thing, boy, I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that solo adventure because well, maybe not all of it, but some of it.

[34:18] Drew Gasparini: Uh for reasons I won't discuss here.

[34:20] Alex Wyse: But I I I think I think you guys have the same exact approach of I'm gonna allow myself to write something awful, and then see the beauty in there so that I can refine and refine and refine until this, you know, chunk of coal becomes a diamond or whatever, some cliche is insert cliche here.

[34:37] Drew Gasparini: I think it's I think it's fucking wonderful.

[34:39] Alex Wyse: A lot of people uh like we just talked about indoor boys for a minute, and I want to go back to what you've done on Broadway because what you've done on Broadway, this again is like this Ron Howard idea is you can be this writer, creator, uh actor on screen, and then you see you on Broadway, and you are the funniest, most heartfelt, most uh endearing human being when it comes to like the human experience and seeing it live.

[35:07] Drew Gasparini: I saw you a long time ago. This is around the time we were getting real chummy, I think, was when you were doing Triassic Park, and nobody remembers that goddamn show, and it is to this day one of the greatest theatrical experiences.

[35:20] Alex Wyse: If you're listening now, if you've made it this far in the interview, for the love of God, go check out the Triassic Park soundtrack.

[35:26] Drew Gasparini: I believe it still exists somewhere out in the ether.

[35:28] Alex Wyse: I think it's it's on Spotify in iTunes and stuff.

[35:31] Drew Gasparini: It is so tell me how proud you are of that because I loved watching that.

[35:37] Alex Wyse: That was one of the best experiences I've ever had as an actor. Ever.

[35:43] Drew Gasparini: It was it was remarkable.

[35:44] Alex Wyse: So for anyone who doesn't know, Triassic Park was uh essentially Jurassic Park from the perspective of the dinosaurs.

[35:51] Drew Gasparini: Yes.

[35:51] Alex Wyse: So we all we all play. So I played a Velociraptor, and uh, and in the um in the canon of Jurassic Park, all the uh dinosaurs are bred to be female.

[36:04] Drew Gasparini: So we were all female dinosaurs.

[36:07] Alex Wyse: Um and uh and it was a beautiful creative, silly experience.

[36:13] Drew Gasparini: So funny.

[36:14] Alex Wyse: So and the the writer and director Marshall Paylet, who is still someone I'm working with and still someone I'm I'm close to.

[36:21] Drew Gasparini: Very smart guy, yeah.

[36:22] Alex Wyse: Very smart.

[36:24] Drew Gasparini: He really taught me a lot at that time about um, you know, it's one thing to uh uh like perform the timing of a joke.

[36:36] Alex Wyse: Um, but it's another thing to really build the truth of the moment beneath that timing.

[36:44] Drew Gasparini: And I think those two things together that Marshall so beautifully helped us create in the rehearsal room made for this like thrilling experience on stage where I was so engaged in my body and my voice, but we were doing something so dumb.

[37:02] Alex Wyse: It was so it was so dumb, but it was so full hearted.

[37:08] Drew Gasparini: Yeah.

[37:08] Alex Wyse: No, nobody, nobody was giving it, nobody was giving it a half performance at any point. People knew how dumb it was just by the concept in itself.

[37:18] Drew Gasparini: But boy, when you see that shit live, you are the audience is right there with you, not with just the dumbness of it all, but the hilarity and the heart of it all.

[37:26] Alex Wyse: I'm telling you, you guys gave earnest performances as these dinosaurs.

[37:30] Drew Gasparini: How fucking insane is that to say out loud?

[37:33] Alex Wyse: Right. We were we were really feeling it as I was searching for like, oh gosh, I sort of forget now. I was searching for like who, you know, what's the true story of who are my parents?

[37:44] Drew Gasparini: Yeah.

[37:45] Alex Wyse: Yeah, that's what a lot of friends learned about. You know, I took I took my brother there to see it.

[37:50] Drew Gasparini: He was visiting New York.

[37:51] Alex Wyse: I as part of his bachelor party.

[37:54] Drew Gasparini: No way.

[37:55] Alex Wyse: Yeah, yeah.

[37:56] Drew Gasparini: Who does that?

[37:57] Alex Wyse: Who says, let's see a musical for your bachelor party?

[37:59] Drew Gasparini: But that one, it made sense.

[38:01] Alex Wyse: It wasn't like audience interactive and like something vegasy and dumb.

[38:05] Drew Gasparini: It was like a real musical you sit and you listen to.

[38:08] Alex Wyse: I thought it was a joy, it was a lot of fun.

[38:10] Drew Gasparini: Uh so, but uh theater-wise, you do Lysistrata Jones.

[38:15] Alex Wyse: Did you think that was gonna be the big one?

[38:18] Drew Gasparini: I well, it was certainly the biggest one at that moment because that one, yeah.

[38:24] Alex Wyse: I couldn't, I don't think I could even stop and think about like, will this be a success? Will it not be? Because it was like getting shot out of a cannon.

[38:32] Drew Gasparini: Yeah.

[38:32] Alex Wyse: It was the way that went from off Broadway to Broadway was like a big like, holy shit, look at this thing go.

[38:36] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, and it was really fast.

[38:39] Alex Wyse: And it was first it was my off-Broadway debut, and then I spin around and it's my Broadway debut, and I'm just like, oh my god, oh my god, this is happening.

[38:39] Drew Gasparini: This is happening.

[38:48] Alex Wyse: And then they're like, You're closed.

[38:51] Drew Gasparini: You're we hate you.

[38:53] Alex Wyse: You're closed.

[38:54] Drew Gasparini: You're paraphrasing, of course.

[38:56] Alex Wyse: Yes.

[38:56] Drew Gasparini: You're closed.

[38:58] Alex Wyse: Go home.

[38:59] Drew Gasparini: Go home, you idiot.

[39:03] Alex Wyse: That's what it was uh a crazy thing to experience.

[39:08] Drew Gasparini: Um, and and I learned quite a lot about getting back up after you've been knocked down.

[39:15] Alex Wyse: That was you are uh a prime example of that because you've had not to say you've been knocked down so many times, it's a scalp.

[39:23] Drew Gasparini: But I mean, like that's I mean, that comes that's part of the occupational hazard of getting into show businesses. You get you get dinged up.

[39:28] Alex Wyse: You you think you're doing something amazing, and then no one agrees with you that it's amazing, and uh you can't say, but look at the work, you can't do that.

[39:38] Drew Gasparini: You can't try to convince everybody else, so you do get dinged up, but something that you were a part of on stage, and I know I'm just kind of resume hopping right now, and I'm just touching on these things because people can Google you for Christ's sake, and I'm more interested in your upbringing and and the woman saying I'm so tired, and and things, and your grandmother Lois and all that kind of stuff.

[39:57] Alex Wyse: Uh, but you did the revival, and I want to talk about this a little bit. The revival of Spring Awakening, which I thought was so interesting because you and I are virtually the same age, I believe.

[40:12] Drew Gasparini: And that that show was on Broadway the original cast when we were of the age to be in the original cast.

[40:21] Alex Wyse: Yeah, that's that's true.

[40:23] Drew Gasparini: And then it's revived. Everyone's like, This is coming back to Broadway.

[40:26] Alex Wyse: I thought it was just here a minute ago.

[40:28] Drew Gasparini: It's this brand new look at it because Michael is amazing.

[40:32] Alex Wyse: And uh I I was like, oh my God, and Alex Wyse and Andy Mientes are is in this and you guys look fucking younger than you did when you were in your goddamn twenties.

[40:43] Drew Gasparini: I don't understand you.

[40:45] Alex Wyse: Listen, foundation can go a long way.

[40:48] Drew Gasparini: Uh-huh yeah those stage lights and those balcony seats they're forgiving.

[40:55] Alex Wyse: I couldn't believe it though. I was like amazed at how good you guys fucking age.

[40:59] Drew Gasparini: It's it's mind blow maybe it's because I age like a rotting squash.

[41:05] Alex Wyse: I don't know about that.

[41:06] Drew Gasparini: I think you look like an adult man.

[41:08] Alex Wyse: And what I and I am because I've been blushing out my teeth and I've been painting the brown on my face.

[41:15] Drew Gasparini: It's the only way anyone's gonna know you're an adult.

[41:18] Alex Wyse: Exactly I'm an adult man they can tell by the lines.

[41:21] Drew Gasparini: Right I I um yeah to steal from you know the great John Mulaney I just look like an elderly child.

[41:27] Alex Wyse: Um you know it's like are you okay old child?

[41:31] Drew Gasparini: Um yeah that's a that's a great Mulaney joke but I I feel similarly.

[41:35] Alex Wyse: Uh yeah you know that Spring Awakening experience for me is another another example of um of sort of being uh well the my experience leading up to Spring Awakening yeah um I left New York because I had my Lysistrata Jones experience I toured with Wicked I did I did other things and I felt I felt like upon coming back to New York, especially after Wicked, I felt like I can't get a break.

[42:05] Alex Wyse: No one will see me for things. I just feel like I can't do anything. And at that point, um, LA started on very unexpectedly opening its doors to me. It just was just kind of like an accident that I yeah ended up starting. I started to get TV shows, and so I was like, okay, I guess I mean I'll never be on Broadway again, so I'm just gonna go to LA. And I thought that's the only way. I have to do something, and I really needed to sort of reinvent myself because I felt very stuck, and I felt like it felt like people had made up their minds about me and what I can do and what I can't do in terms of New York. And I couldn't get people to see past their um their perception, their decided perception.

So I went to LA and I was following this path of getting some TV work, which was really cool and unexpected, and then uh Spring Awakening happened, and it happened. I mean I got cast in that show because I was friends with Andy and Michael, and they sent me a text message and they said wanna be in Spring Awakening, and I was like, Well, okay. I was like, I guess I mean, you know, I guess. Yeah, I mean, I'll see if I'm free that week. Yeah, yeah. But I just I had no there's nothing on my radar that was like this is gonna be the next moment. It was just like, oh, okay, I guess you're doing a thing. Um what a moment it turned into. I mean, like the I mean it was a life changer. It's a good thing. Spring Awakening fans are rabid in the first place, but this particular Deaf West's production was like was the stage door absolutely fucking crazy for you guys.

[43:49] Alex Wyse: Yeah, it was. It was. Yeah. I loved it. I uh it was amazing. And you know, sometimes challenging in that way. But the real point of the story for me is how uh I don't know, just how unexpected it was, and that by giving up on the dream of Broadway, I found my way back there. Um because I I was just, you know, uh you know what it was? It was I I went to this dance call for a show. That's my first mistake. Is I went to a dance call for a show, and and I did so badly and I was so mortified dancing in front of you know the whole cast of newsies that I I went home and that day I booked a plane ticket to LA and I was like, I'm gone, I'm gone, I can't do it anymore. I'm gone, I'm not coming back. And then a series of things happened that brought me back to New York in a very unexpected way. So You hear that kids? If you give up on your dreams, they might come true.

[44:44] Drew Gasparini: You have to give up, yeah.

[44:45] Alex Wyse: You have to give up. You have to you gotta give up. The sincerity in your voice. You have to give up. You have to give up. Telling white kids. Um I really think though that um the stuff that I have planned for my the the stuff that I had planned for my life, I thought, well, by this age I'll do this, or I will be in this show, or whatever it is. This is the year I get my series regular. It never happens that way. But the thing the thing that does happen is usually the thing, I mean, it's not always across the board, and this might be a little like spiritual BS stuff, but now let's hear it. I love spiritual BS. But it does seem like the stuff that happens is more the stuff we need and the stuff that we versus the stuff we want.

[45:34] Drew Gasparini: Yeah.

[45:35] Alex Wyse: You know, what I wanted more than anything was to be in the ensemble of Tuck Everlasting. And I just and I just couldn't dance it. I you know, I just couldn't dance it.

[45:49] Drew Gasparini: How dare you?

[45:51] Alex Wyse: That's what I wanted. I was so damn sure. Um The ensemble of Tuck Everlasting. That's what I wanted. And it's, I mean, no disrespect to any of the people who did that. No, I love the score. It's great. It's great. Yeah, but that's like that that audition was mortifying and it set me over the edge. Mortifying. God. And I just failed so hard. But then I ended up getting more of what I needed, which was which was a really transformative theater experience and being introduced to many of my people who are still some of my closest friends today by doing Spring Awakening. That's what I need.

[46:30] Drew Gasparini: Absolutely. That's a great jumping off point, actually. I have uh a segment I like to do from time to time called Very Dumb Questions with Drew.

[46:38] Alex Wyse: Good.

[46:39] Drew Gasparini: And this is not so dumb of a question, it's actually a great question. Catherine Gallagher was on this podcast on your birthday, actually. And we both said happy birthday, Alex, when she was here. I want to play a game where I ask just random questions. The first one being, can you please name three of your favorite things about Catherine Gallagher?

[47:01] Alex Wyse: Yes. Great.

[47:02] Drew Gasparini: Great.

[47:07] Alex Wyse: Three of my favorite things. About Catherine Gallagher, yes. Um, she is so creative in terms of uh just always, you know, everything she feels goes into a song with such ease.

[47:23] Drew Gasparini: Yes.

[47:24] Alex Wyse: Yeah, her creativity feels very easy.

[47:26] Drew Gasparini: Yes.

[47:27] Alex Wyse: Like she sits back with it almost.

[47:29] Drew Gasparini: Yeah.

[47:30] Alex Wyse: How dare her? While I'm ripping my hair out, she lays back and another great song comes out. It's just it's unfair for for me to see that. I got like three strands left up here.

[47:41] Drew Gasparini: But you look great. I mean, the bone structure doesn't lie.

[47:44] Alex Wyse: Oh my god. It's true. Okay, and the more about Catherine. Um I love that she is uh, and I don't mean like uh intelligence because I think she's smart, but she's like a moron, you know, in the best way. Like she just laughs like a buffoon and she's like uh just uh like uh like just a fool. The most delightful fool that I can do. I love it. Uh she's a delightful fool. That's a perfect number too. Give me that third one, baby.

[48:15] Alex Wyse: She she's incapable of sending a text without egregious spelling errors.

[48:21] Drew Gasparini: Oh boy.

[48:24] Alex Wyse: I don't know why that that's so endearing to me. I have this But what it is, it's like a series of like letters and numbers and exclamation points, and it's up to you to decipher it. But it's just it's just like she takes a just a handful of letters and throws them at a screen. It's a violent scrabble game, a very just an angry game of scrabble. Or she's typing in wingdings, and maybe it's like hieroglyphics and shit like that.

[48:51] Drew Gasparini: She's often typing in wingdings.

[48:53] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[48:53] Drew Gasparini: That should be a text feature if that's not already one. Uh also. I'd like to add that the internet thinks that Catherine and I are in a committed relationship.

[49:07] Alex Wyse: No way, really?

[49:13] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, no, we are. Uh naming her Eddie.

[49:17] Alex Wyse: Wow.

[49:17] Drew Gasparini: No, very, very woke of you. Uh and how far along are you?

[49:22] Alex Wyse: Uh about uh 13 months.

[49:24] Drew Gasparini: 13 months. Okay, so any minute now.

[49:26] Alex Wyse: Uh I ask questions any day. I ask questions about Catherine Gallagher because I've made it no secret here that I have a a relentless crush on her that I am just I'm I'm very out loud about. I tell it right to her face, I can't even help it. I think she is the coolest person. For whatever reason, I think she is the coolest person. Uh I have a couple more random questions for you before I say thank you for your time and kick you off this uh this podcast. Um what is something you will never do? Mine is get a belly button ring. What's yours?

[49:58] Alex Wyse: I'll never get on a boat. I have a very I have a very strict no boat rule for my life.

[50:04] Drew Gasparini: I like that. I like that.

[50:05] Alex Wyse: I can't handle the idea that people think cruises are fun because you're just trapped in the middle of the fucking sea.

[50:12] Drew Gasparini: That's correct.

[50:13] Alex Wyse: Um, and with the worst kind of person. Um when I was a kid, my family went on uh four uh four holiday seasons in a row, we went on four cruises. And by the end of that um tumultuous period of my life in which I would sit in the cabin and just read novels waiting for the cruise to be over. My whole family really made a decision that we would never get on a cruise again. And I to this day maintain that I will not step on a boat because every time someone runs into an ex on a TV show, they're on a boat, and you can't get off the boat. You're just stuck with them, and that is oh no, that's no fun.

[50:58] Drew Gasparini: That's no fun.

[50:59] Alex Wyse: No boats.

[51:00] Drew Gasparini: No boats.

[51:01] Alex Wyse: No boats. Okay, that's good. That's something he won't do. Uh, two more questions for you. Alex, do you think R. L. Stein enjoys scaring children? Or do you think he likes writing scary stories? There is a difference. What do you think his his his goal is here?

[51:22] Alex Wyse: I imagine RL Stein desperately doesn't want to scare children. But as he writes, he cries and whispers to himself, I have to tell this story. He can't help it. He's so upset that he has to tell you. He so desperately wants to spread cheer, but his pen bleeds.

[51:50] Drew Gasparini: I love that so much. That is 10,000 times better than any answer I could have anticipated. I love that. Did you know that his son was the sound guy for Beetlejuice?

[52:03] Alex Wyse: No way, really?

[52:04] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, yeah. I think that's so random and somewhat so fitting. Uh okay. Last question for you, Alex Wise. This is called uh this this game is called Who Would Make a Better Grilled Cheese Pop Star Edition.

[52:17] Alex Wyse: Okay.

[52:17] Drew Gasparini: Who do you think would make a better grilled cheese sandwich out of these three pop stars? Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift, or Harry Styles.

[52:29] Alex Wyse: Wow, that's really hard. I know. This is this is probably the hardest question. And I really have to dig deep into my psyche and and my traumas to uncover to uncover the truth of it.

[52:40] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, yeah.

[52:41] Alex Wyse: Digging your traumas. Yeah, let me just dig into my traumas. Um I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with Harry Styles because I feel like he would buy like a really fancy cheese to uh to make it into the most like, you know, to what am I trying to say? That his grilled cheese is a little different, you know?

[53:08] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[53:10] Alex Wyse: He'd probably do something really artisanal, a little fig jam or something. You know what I mean?

[53:16] Drew Gasparini: Yeah, I can see something going on.

[53:17] Alex Wyse: I don't know that Dua Lipa has ever had a grilled cheese. I'm still Yeah, I I don't know enough about Dualipa, and I feel like Taylor Swift, hers would be like reliable, American cheese, it'd be fine. But I just see Harry Styles with the fig.

[53:29] Drew Gasparini: Can I ask you a question? Is this really the best note to end on?

[53:32] Alex Wyse: I feel like this is it, and that's it, everybody. Thank you so much.

[53:41] Drew Gasparini: Oh my god. Oh here's the note we will end on. Thank you, first of all, for playing these are dumb questions with Drew. I don't know what the name of the segment is. Uh but I do I do want to say, uh, because we've been going almost an hour here. I don't want to take up more of your time today, Alex. I thank you for giving me so much of your time today. But I want to stand by my claim here that you are basically this Ron Howard-esque, Uber likable, oh overly talented, uh nonstop, committed to the work, committed to the process kind of guy, and those are my favorite kinds of guys in this industry. And Lord knows there's not enough of them. I really have always loved our time together and and when you and I get to hang out, you whether whether it's collaborative or it's just chatting like this or bumping into you somewhere.

I just think you're the loveliest guy in the entire world. And I think that Lois Wise, who had such an impact on you, would be rather proud of what she didn't get to see you do after college because it is bewildering and and like I said, not surprising at all, but always amazing. And I love you very much, my friend.

[54:48] Alex Wyse: Wow, thanks. Thank you, Drew. I I I love you too. And thanks for having me on here. This is really fun.

[54:54] Drew Gasparini: I really did have a great time talking with Alex Wyse. Hey, welcome to the outro, the end of the episode. You made it. This is where I give an over caffeinated thank you. Thanks to all you guys for listening. I'm gonna say that one more time. I'm sure before this outro is done. Let me just say that now we're talking is a proud member of the Broadway Podcast Network. Have you gotten the app yet? Go get the app. You can find out more about me and this podcast at bpn.fm slash now we're talking. I'm on Instagram and Twitter and TikTok at Drew Gasparini, so check me out there and stay tuned for what else I got going on. A special thanks to my man, Alex Wyse. I've known him for years, and it just is one of the greatest things to watch him flourish.

I loved chatting with you, my man. Come back anytime. And thank you, all you listeners, for being super sexy and tuning in. Hey, make sure to subscribe and rate this podcast wherever you stream your podcast. And keep tuning in. We'll see you next week.