This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:05] Samantha Tuozzolo: Hi everybody, welcome to Survival Jobs, a podcast in collaboration with Broadway World and the Broadway Podcast Network.

[0:11] Jason A. Coombs: We are here on such a fun special day today with two of the stars of Phantom of the Opera Masquerade, not Phantom of the Opera, guys, Masquerade. We're so happy to talk to you both.

[0:22] Samantha Tuozzolo: Like Jason said, this is our first time having two people in the studio. So a total of four of us. So wish us luck. Because sometimes we get really chaotic.

[0:32] Jason A. Coombs: Nice, nice, nice, nice. Before we jump into this interview, can you guys introduce yourself and give us like a little fun fact?

[0:40] Nik Walker: Uh I'm Nik Walker. I'm on Vivance and Gabby Penton for my ADHD and anxiety. I'm on Wellbutrin.

[0:46] Kyle Scatliffe: Hey, come on, Wellbutrin. Bing Bong, baby.

[0:52] Nik Walker: Wow. We're going there immediately.

[0:54] Kyle Scatliffe: All right. It's a podcast.

[0:55] Kyle Scatliffe: I'm Kyle Scatliffe and I am on Shitera and Lexapro. Isn't it a good day?

[1:01] Nik Walker: ADHD Central baby. Come on, baby.

[1:04] Kyle Scatliffe: Hi, JD. You know, I'm just on men's health. Uh baby vitamin.

[1:09] Nik Walker: That's perfect. That's great too. Yeah, here we go. Self-care, guys. We love to see it. We out here.

[1:17] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah. Oh yeah. So we have so much to talk about with Masquerade. Sorry, but we're just so we started the show four years ago just to talk to artists and actors.

[1:26] Samantha Tuozzolo: Is it five?

[1:26] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah. That's one number. Four or five. We don't know. Something like that. Just to start talking to artists about journeys and survival jobs and fun things. So we're so thrilled.

[1:39] Nik Walker: We're thrilled to be here, man.

[1:40] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, yeah. And before we started, I was reminiscing with Kyle because we spent uh New Year's Eve together a very long time ago.

[1:47] Kyle Scatliffe: Yes, we did.

[1:48] Nik Walker: Yes, we did. Party on way.

[1:50] Kyle Scatliffe: Party on in Boston.

[1:51] Nik Walker: Yes. Only time I've been to Boston.

[1:54] Kyle Scatliffe: 2011.

[1:55] Nik Walker: He remembered. I couldn't remember.

[1:56] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh yeah. Boston, which is coincidentally my hometown.

[1:58] Nik Walker: His hometown. Look at these connections.

[2:00] Kyle Scatliffe: Already. It's great.

[2:02] Nik Walker: Already. So on the up and not, before you vote for Broadway Stars, did you have a survival job that was very memorable or helped you along the way?

[2:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Several.

[2:03] Nik Walker: Did you?

[2:15] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh before I moved to New York, yeah.

[2:17] Nik Walker: What was it?

[2:18] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah. Oh, I worked at Barnes and Noble.

[2:20] Nik Walker: Oh, I love that.

[2:21] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, yeah. I worked at Barnes and Noble. I worked in the Starbucks inside of the Barnes and Noble.

[2:25] Nik Walker: So if you need a Starbucks drink, I know exactly how to make it home.

[2:29] Kyle Scatliffe: No, I worked at Starbucks too.

[2:30] Nik Walker: Oh I have to pause on this because Kyle's my best friend, as we were talking about.

[2:35] Kyle Scatliffe: Like when you're my best friend.

[2:37] Nik Walker: I did not know.

[2:38] Kyle Scatliffe: You didn't know? This is actually pertinent information. Why aren't you making me coffee?

[2:44] Nik Walker: Why is this now just a new thing that we do?

[2:47] Kyle Scatliffe: You guys, oh well, I mean, I've always known how to do it.

[2:50] Nik Walker: I hate this.

[2:51] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, I knew exactly how many pumps are in each drink. I knew how to make cappuccinos. I know how to make all of them, yeah.

[2:56] Nik Walker: You know how to pull the shots, like from the espresso.

[2:59] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh yeah. Can you do like a design and a latte?

[3:01] Nik Walker: No, I'm better that's the one thing we did not do.

[3:04] Kyle Scatliffe: Because we technically were still Starbucks employees.

[3:07] Nik Walker: Well, not we were Barnes and Noble employees. So like we worked in the it was a very strange situation, actually.

[3:13] Kyle Scatliffe: So it was in New Jersey. It's a Barnes and Noble that is like two, three floors, but yet inside of the Barnes and Noble, the it's like Starbucks gives away their like kind of company for a second.

[3:26] Nik Walker: Like but the Barnes and Noble employees work in the Starbucks.

[3:29] Kyle Scatliffe: Right. So it's not run by Starbucks themselves.

[3:32] Nik Walker: Okay.

[3:33] Kyle Scatliffe: But they just send you everything.

[3:34] Nik Walker: Fun.

[3:35] Kyle Scatliffe: So it was cool.

[3:36] Nik Walker: That's great.

[3:37] Kyle Scatliffe: So like I got a rental emplo rent a Starbucks employee.

[3:40] Nik Walker: Yeah, kind of.

[3:41] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, yeah. In a way. Because like I never had to deal with the like, okay, this is how you make designs of people's coffee and stuff. It was just like, no, people are here to read books. They want coffee.

[3:49] Nik Walker: Right. And they get some discounts and some frappuccinos. It was nice.

[3:52] Kyle Scatliffe: Vanilla bean, you're gonna make me a child.

[3:56] Nik Walker: The vanilla bean cappuccino was my favorite in middle school.

[3:58] Kyle Scatliffe: Ooh is the best.

[3:59] Nik Walker: That's the best one. But yeah, I had that. That was it.

[4:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah. How about you?

[4:04] Nik Walker: Oh, buddy.

[4:05] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, you had some fun ones.

[4:06] Nik Walker: I had some fun ones. Let me think. Uh so Citysports.

[4:10] Kyle Scatliffe: Citysports was when I first moved to MY uh MYC.

[4:13] Nik Walker: I was at MYU, and I w had work Citysports was like the sporting goods store that started in Boston and had a branch here.

[4:23] Kyle Scatliffe: It was actually on 34th and 5th, and it was it was terrible.

[4:27] Nik Walker: I mean, it was terrible.

[4:28] Kyle Scatliffe: And it was also it was like it was on its last leg because it was like run, like I mean, like I and all love to like anybody who's listening who worked at City Sports, but like guys, like we were doing awful things.

[4:37] Nik Walker: Um What do you mean?

[4:39] Kyle Scatliffe: Like, did I get fired for stealing? Absolutely. But you know what I mean, like that's not that's not why we're here today. You know what I mean?

[4:46] Nik Walker: And also, to be fair, I wasn't stealing, like I wasn't even doing the worst stealing. I was doing like light, like light stealing.

[4:54] Kyle Scatliffe: You know what I mean? So like like gum gum and gum in bike locks.

[4:58] Nik Walker: Oh wow.

[4:59] Kyle Scatliffe: The worst the worst people they would do it was actually kind of ingenious, and I'm but I'm about to make you know somebody steal something, so I'm so sorry, but I'm not. Uh they would put so you know how when you get a shoes from a place, they have the shoe boxes.

[5:11] Nik Walker: Yeah, right.

[5:12] Kyle Scatliffe: So what the uh not me, what other kids used to give us their name. I I can't actually can't, because one of them is one of them is actually like a big influencer now. And I got like the whole thing. But what they would do is they would so you know, you throw out the shoe boxes when people take the shoes and not the shoeboxes, and they would come back, so they would put like other shoes in those thrown-out shoe boxes, come back at like 3 a.m. grab them out of the trash.

[5:36] Nik Walker: Oh.

[5:37] Kyle Scatliffe: It was actually ingenious.

[5:39] Nik Walker: That's pretty good.

[5:40] Kyle Scatliffe: It was ingenious. I think we walked by this place, and you showed me.

[5:44] Nik Walker: Oh, yeah. He told me the whole story. We walked by it, and I was like, you did what?

[5:48] Nik Walker: I just stole gum.

[5:49] Kyle Scatliffe: I just stole gum.

[5:49] Nik Walker: Gum and like dumb a lot.

[5:51] Kyle Scatliffe: Stealing is bad, but also fuck corporate America.

[5:53] Nik Walker: Hey, now we're talking.

[5:55] Kyle Scatliffe: Now we're talking, baby.

[5:56] Nik Walker: There you go.

[5:57] Kyle Scatliffe: You're in the right room.

[5:59] Nik Walker: Um, but it's but but so there was that then uh Alice's teacup.

[6:04] Kyle Scatliffe: Alice's teacup was was one that was a really fun one.

[6:07] Nik Walker: I so I made tea.

[6:09] Kyle Scatliffe: I didn't make coffee.

[6:09] Nik Walker: Oh my god.

[6:10] Kyle Scatliffe: Did you be chai?

[6:11] Nik Walker: I did make chai.

[6:12] Kyle Scatliffe: Okay, that's getting barista.

[6:13] Nik Walker: So we have two barista, two barista babies.

[6:15] Kyle Scatliffe: Hey, Breeze the boys, the boys.

[6:20] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[6:21] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh my god, I love that.

[6:22] Nik Walker: Were you guys best friends before you were in the show together?

[6:25] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[6:25] Nik Walker: Yes.

[6:26] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[6:26] Nik Walker: Yes.

[6:26] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh my god, I love that.

[6:27] Nik Walker: Wait, how did you?

[6:28] Kyle Scatliffe: I gotta know how you meet.

[6:29] Nik Walker: We're going off script.

[6:29] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, we're going off script.

[6:30] Nik Walker: I gotta know.

[6:31] Kyle Scatliffe: A man named Lynn Manuel Miranda wrote.

[6:33] Nik Walker: Who's that?

[6:34] Kyle Scatliffe: And he made the mistake of hiring us and putting us in it together on the road at the same time.

[6:40] Nik Walker: Actually, that was Tommy, Tommy Cale and Jeffrey Seller mistake.

[6:42] Kyle Scatliffe: Tommy, good job.

[6:44] Nik Walker: Good job, Tommy.

[6:45] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh it was well, it's so funny too, because like at a certain point, like they knew what they like because so there's a there's a group of us, so it's it's uh that we call ourselves buckets.

[6:54] Nik Walker: Yes, house buckets.

[6:55] Kyle Scatliffe: House buckets, so it's me.

[6:57] Nik Walker: Don't worry about it.

[6:58] Kyle Scatliffe: Skip buckets!

[7:00] Nik Walker: I like the Z.

[7:01] Kyle Scatliffe: Me, Kyle, uh, Fergie Philippe, who's currently Beast on the Beauty and the Beast Tour.

[7:05] Nik Walker: Um Marcus Choi, who's in Happ Maybe Happy Ending, Justice Moore, who's uh on uh Road and Outsiders, Elijah Malcolm, uh, Daniel Gaiman, who's currently in Hamilton Broadway Company.

[7:17] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, um, and Conroe Brooks, who actually was who's an LA guy who just moved here.

[7:20] Nik Walker: He just moved here, yeah.

[7:21] Kyle Scatliffe: And we became like the fastest friends.

[7:25] Nik Walker: I think because we're all nerds, I think that's really what it was.

[7:28] Kyle Scatliffe: Nerd Nerd City.

[7:29] Nik Walker: It's just Nerd City.

[7:30] Kyle Scatliffe: And so, like every Marvel movie, we'd all go together, and we just it just became this crew, and um that that's still to this day is going.

[7:37] Nik Walker: But like I think, but it was so funny because I think at a certain point, like Tommy and Lack and like even Andy kind of got a sense of like, oh, Philip Tours, it's crazy.

[7:48] Kyle Scatliffe: Something's happening.

[7:50] Nik Walker: So these guys are too close.

[7:51] Kyle Scatliffe: That's so fun.

[7:52] Nik Walker: But then they brought us to Broadway together.

[7:54] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, yeah.

[7:55] Nik Walker: Which was also why, like, because I had so I had started as as the Burr understudy in Broadway.

[7:59] Kyle Scatliffe: I went out on the tour, and when they offered me Burr, it was when you were Loft Jeff and Fergie was Mo Mad and Cot and Justice was the bullet.

[8:07] Nik Walker: So we all ended up there together, just like laughing.

[8:09] Kyle Scatliffe: Just laughing.

[8:10] Nik Walker: Just looking at them like, are you sure you want to do this?

[8:12] Kyle Scatliffe: This is what you want.

[8:14] Nik Walker: Because you know what we did on the road.

[8:16] Kyle Scatliffe: That's amazing.

[8:17] Nik Walker: But like it's okay, the friendship shines on stage.

[8:19] Kyle Scatliffe: It's great, it's gonna be great.

[8:21] Nik Walker: I love that, and how cool that you guys are now phantoms together.

[8:26] Kyle Scatliffe: Not together, but together.

[8:28] Nik Walker: Sometimes together.

[8:29] Kyle Scatliffe: Sometimes together.

[8:30] Nik Walker: Nick likes to sneak up on me during the show.

[8:33] Kyle Scatliffe: I saw ya on Hamilton because Crystal's our friend.

[8:36] Nik Walker: Oh, that's KJB.

[8:38] Kyle Scatliffe: She took me in and gave me a ticket because I couldn't afford a ticket.

[8:41] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[8:41] Kyle Scatliffe: And you guys were the ones I saw.

[8:43] Nik Walker: Oh, she's her voice was stunning on that.

[8:46] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh my god, that's cool, man.

[8:47] Nik Walker: She was telling me that.

[8:48] Kyle Scatliffe: Coach.

[8:48] Nik Walker: Shout out to Coach.

[8:51] Kyle Scatliffe: Coach Crystal.

[8:52] Kyle Scatliffe: Okay.

[8:53] Nik Walker: Season two opener, okay.

[8:53] Nik Walker: So take us back to when you guys first discovered that you wanted to perform, and what was that?

[8:59] Kyle Scatliffe: Do you remember like the moment you were like, oh, I I can do this, and like I'm gonna do it?

[9:03] Nik Walker: Uh my moment was really uh so it wasn't it was funny.

[9:08] Kyle Scatliffe: The moment wasn't my own, it was my teacher's moment of looking at me and going, Are you sure you don't want to try this?

[9:15] Nik Walker: Um I was in high school in 10th grade.

[9:18] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh I was in ninth grade, well, and then all of a sudden I was in acting class, I was doing art class, and my acting teacher was basically like, You're kind of good at this.

[9:30] Nik Walker: Would you like to try it?

[9:32] Kyle Scatliffe: And at that point in my life, I was like playing basketball and stuff, and I was like, I don't, I don't really I just took the elective to take the elective.

[9:38] Nik Walker: Retroy Bolton?

[9:40] Kyle Scatliffe: That's honestly that's what I say to people jokingly.

[9:42] Nik Walker: I'm like, my life is kinda like high school musical.

[9:45] Kyle Scatliffe: That's really um.

[9:47] Nik Walker: So I was playing basketball, and then she proposed it to me, and um I kind of fell out of love with basketball that same year.

[9:54] Kyle Scatliffe: Um, not not watching it or like playing it, it's just the day to day of it.

[9:59] Nik Walker: I was like, I don't know if this is for me.

[10:00] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, and then uh all of a sudden I changed all my electives, everything.

[10:03] Nik Walker: I was in choir, select choir.

[10:05] Kyle Scatliffe: Like I went full force.

[10:07] Nik Walker: Um, and she was right.

[10:09] Kyle Scatliffe: So I I did what we do a play to musical every year, and then my last year there, we did uh guys and dolls, and I was nicely nicely in guys and dolls, and that was the show that really made me go, like, yeah, this is fine.

[10:22] Nik Walker: Yeah, like I'm having a lot of fun, and I'm and there's a psychology aspect to it too that uh I took in that I was like, Oh, I could be like 400 different jobs.

[10:33] Kyle Scatliffe: Like I'm always studying new jobs, new people, new everything, and like, and this is before I had it.

[10:39] Nik Walker: I knew I had ADHD, which is great because all of a sudden you find out, like, oh, I just kept my life exciting all the time.

[10:46] Kyle Scatliffe: Um, and so that that aspect of it came in.

[10:49] Nik Walker: Like, my dad came to see the show, he cried, and I was just like, Oh my god, never seen that.

[10:53] Kyle Scatliffe: So then it was like moments like that where I was like, Oh, this feels like a total um like a total uh all the way around of what I want in life.

[11:04] Nik Walker: Yeah, everything, everything I wanted.

[11:06] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, it kind of just fell into place.

[11:08] Nik Walker: Shout out to that teacher, yeah, yes.

[11:09] Kyle Scatliffe: Thank you, Donna Bielkin.

[11:10] Nik Walker: Thank you.

[11:11] Kyle Scatliffe: You're the best.

[11:12] Nik Walker: Every time I see her, every time she comes to the show, she's like, you know, you know that I've done this to you, right?

[11:17] Kyle Scatliffe: And I'm like, Thank you every time.

[11:19] Nik Walker: Yeah, so very sweet.

[11:21] Kyle Scatliffe: We need teachers like her.

[11:22] Nik Walker: Oh, yes.

[11:22] Kyle Scatliffe: Yes, yeah, big time.

[11:24] Nik Walker: Mine is actually not dissimilar in in the sense that it has to do with ADHD and teachers.

[11:29] Kyle Scatliffe: Mine originally, some I when I first got diagnosed as a kid, my mom had heard that stories like theater film would focus me.

[11:39] Nik Walker: Right.

[11:39] Kyle Scatliffe: So I because I mean, being blunt, like I tried, I think she tried me on Riddle, and it did not work for me.

[11:44] Nik Walker: And so she was looking for like something.

[11:46] Kyle Scatliffe: And so storytelling in general became a hyper focus, right?

[11:50] Nik Walker: So it was it wasn't just theater, it was also books.

[11:53] Kyle Scatliffe: It was anybody, it was film, it was anybody who was telling story.

[11:58] Nik Walker: Yeah, I just I I would I would see movies over and over and over and over and over.

[12:01] Kyle Scatliffe: Like I remember watching Robin Hood Men and Tights over and over and over and over and over and over.

[12:07] Nik Walker: A plus movie.

[12:08] Kyle Scatliffe: Like, oh yeah, it's an amazing movie, just dissecting everything.

[12:11] Nik Walker: Um so that was kind of the start of it.

[12:14] Kyle Scatliffe: And then there were I'd I there I I'm gonna name three teachers who really like kept pushing me.

[12:20] Nik Walker: So uh when I was in uh when I was hi in high school, 16 years old, I went to the Northwestern Cherubs program.

[12:28] Kyle Scatliffe: I got kicked out on legit some some racist stuff, which we can talk about.

[12:33] Nik Walker: I I've talked about it before, it's fine.

[12:35] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh because that the lady who did that was no longer no longer works there.

[12:38] Nik Walker: Bye.

[12:38] Kyle Scatliffe: Bye reparations, Alicia.

[12:40] Nik Walker: Bye, Felicia.

[12:41] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh but I got but but I was sent back home, and one of my high school teachers ran a theater company in Boston called Company One.

[12:49] Nik Walker: And they they were they knew that I was home, and they were like, hey, do you want to like write a play for us?

[12:55] Kyle Scatliffe: Right to write a play.

[12:57] Nik Walker: And because they knew that I I did I was writing poetry at the time, and so there was another kid, Tori Bullock, who was writing spoken word, and we got together with a couple other poets and we wrote this play, and then we ended up doing it on their main stage uh season a couple years later.

[13:11] Kyle Scatliffe: So that was like the first time.

[13:12] Nik Walker: So Mark Vanderzee was that teacher, and he sent me on that path.

[13:16] Kyle Scatliffe: Then when I got to college in NYU, there was a guy named Louis Sheeter who ran the classical studio at NYU.

[13:22] Nik Walker: That was I I would say like his his voice is the voice that I still hear in my head.

[13:26] Kyle Scatliffe: His that and and his method of approaching acting specifically was the thing that was like, oh, I like this, because for him, he was very he was coming kind of from the Meisner tradition, but more from a tradition of like it's A, the work is never done, B, this is a craft that requires other people.

[13:46] Nik Walker: It requires you to come into a scene and make your scene partner look better than you.

[13:50] Kyle Scatliffe: And so and that idea of like, oh, this is a thing where I can literally toss a ball at someone, see how they toss it back, and like you can get so good at it that you're just doing this.

[14:01] Nik Walker: I just thought that was just frickin' magical.

[14:04] Kyle Scatliffe: So Louis Sheeter was that.

[14:05] Nik Walker: And and Kent Gash was also that.

[14:07] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh, he's also at MYU.

[14:09] Nik Walker: He was I would say if if anyone was the gateway into musicals, because I I really wasn't doing musicals up until I'd say really like Kent was like my oh I I could possibly do this as like a living uh was Kent Gash because he he threw me in the who's Tommy and that was one of the first musicals I ever did and I was like oh yeah well this is this is interesting I just it's interesting um you know so that so and he's I mean he's just an amazing also the first black teacher I ever had so he was like those three I would say first was in college the first was in college wow that crazy that's mind blowing just makes me appreciate where I'm from I've always had been forcing it to black teachers and black principals.

[14:50] Nik Walker: Oh yeah shout out Bridgeport Connecticut yeah yes enough about me to talk about your previous role before we jump to Masquerade you guys have been in some serious serious shows for a Hamilton Color Purple Le Miz Motown am I forgetting something big Spam a lot spam a lot do you can you both share maybe one of your favorite um onstage moments maybe character besides masquerade outside of masquerade oh favorite on stage I'll go I'll go uh my my my favorite on stage moments tend to be when I get to do this with my friends so like any time me him and Fergie were on stage in Hamilton was great.

[15:37] Nik Walker: Spam a lot was really great because they didn't know that we were all friends before they hired us. I remember back when we were at the Kennedy Center, RIP. It was literally too soon. Let's get it back. Let's say a prayer. I remember getting a press release that was announcing James and Brightman and McClure and Critzer for the show. And I was like, oh man, I'm gonna be front row for that. I literally remember texting them. And then Brightman was like, wait, why aren't you in this? And I was like, I have menassed. I don't think any of them reached out. I just think it was a random ass. I think like the next day they were like, yeah, do you want to do Spam a Lot at the Kennedy Center? I was like, sure, but again, it was one of those things that was like, yeah, I'm just gonna be playing with my friends.

And that ended up being the next year of my life, just playing with my friends. So I think those are my favorite memories. But I will say, just in general, as an actor, being on a Matt Damon set, that is 100% because Matt Damon's my hometown hero. That was a very cool emotional day, emotional time, emotional weeks. For me, I'd say Color Purple is such a big one for me just because that show, man, that show, I've never seen an audience reaction like that before. It's one of those shows like, okay, I grew up a Christian, but I'm not going to church every Sunday. I'm not that kind of person. My mom still hates it to this day, I'm so sorry. But it is one of those things where the older you get, especially when it comes to religion, you can see too much almost throughout your entire existence of life, and you question whether or not people really believe in this thing.

No matter what religion it is, all religions are really based in love. So watching an audience of people recognize that, especially when there were people who weren't religious, people who were, people who may have been before and then left, there was just something about that show that expressed love in a way that made people realize, oh, this is why people like religion. We've had a lot of people say that to us, like, oh, now I get it. To me, I think that is kind of one of the crowning achievements of my career. It's just that moment of we can show people that love is more important. No matter how someone uses a religion to their own benefit, which is what has always bothered me about it. I get a little like, I'm like, but that was one of those moments where I was just like, this is outrageous. And yes, I think John Doyle every day for that one. That one was so nuts.

[18:47] Kyle Scatliffe: Can I also shout out one moment? I got to see this dude in To Kill a Mockingbird. It was so wonderful because, you know, Hamilton is just such an iconic big loud beast. The work in Hamilton is very nuanced, very specific, very hard, but it's a musical, right? It flows on Lynn's music as it should, and Andy's choreography as it should. If you saw that production of To Kill a Mockingbird, the scene that really featured Kyle is just him sitting still and just using words. It was one of those first times I got to see a person who's like family to me do something that's just magnificent. Because Color Purple is, like you said, it's church, it's bringing people in, but you brought them in just with your words, man. I was just so proud of you. I'll never forget that watching that. That was so... that's how I felt when I saw him in Ain't Too Proud. I was losing my mind.

[20:01] Nik Walker: Yeah, dang it. I was sitting in the audience. There was a moment, and I always remember this. I don't even remember what happened right before it, but there was a moment where everyone in the audience was cheering and you were just standing there breathing and just taking it in.

[20:21] Kyle Scatliffe: I was probably... it's probably what becomes of the brokenhearted.

[20:24] Nik Walker: Yes, and just... I was like, this... I can curse on you, right? This motherfucker is a star. It was really like... it was so funny because we've both been in projects that have been big. You don't always get to be the front-facing person of the show. Especially growing up, we've all done cool things and we've been front-facing, we've been supporting, we've been an ensemble, we've done everything. But there are those moments where you get to recognize that in your friends.

[20:55] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, yeah. That last Ain't Too Proud was crazy. It was the craziest thing. Number one, how beautiful. Like that love fest. And I think it's so important to acknowledge that. Keep the people around you who support you and cheer you on in this industry. It's not all cutthroat and it's my job or that's my part or whatever. There's a lot of chatter around that. Moments like this are so beautiful. This is why everybody does it, for the love, for the passion, you know. The podcast, if you call it Survival Jobs, that is how I've survived. The only way to survive is friends.

[21:36] Nik Walker: Yeah, I mean, big time. Because you need people to be able to talk to about stuff, especially in this business. This business is hard. It's hard. You can't really survive on your own. And also at the same time, the longer you do this, and the longer you're even in the Broadway stratosphere, the less mean people you run into because they don't like working with... correct. They don't like working with people like that. So anybody listening, don't be a dick.

[22:04] Kyle Scatliffe: Don't be a dick.

[22:09] Nik Walker: That's what we'll name this episode: Don't be a dick. Seriously, it is paramount for you to be someone that people like to work with.

[22:17] Samantha Tuozzolo: Let's talk about Masquerade.

[22:21] Nik Walker: Alright, let's get into it. I was telling Nick in the elevator, I kept looking at my friend when I saw it the first time, and I said, "This is the best night of my life." And I mean it. She texted me right after, I was like, I love it so much. Every part of it, every transfer, every person. It's just so stellar. Phantom is such an iconic role. Did you guys know what a big honor it was to be stepping into this role? How did it feel for you when you were first stepping into this story?

[22:54] Kyle Scatliffe: I feel like you knew.

[22:55] Nik Walker: Oh yeah, I was gonna say other answers are gonna be different on this one. Yeah, no, I knew. I was one of those kids that grew up with Le Miz, I grew up with Andrew Lloyd Webber, I grew up with Phantom. In high school, that's the kind of stuff they gave us to be like, this is what Broadway is, right? Phantom of the Opera was one of those ones where I was like, okay, I know my voice part and my stature and all of those things lend itself to this. It behooves me to know it because I know I'm probably gonna do it one day in some capacity, and or I at least hope to. This has been kind of like a return, it feels like a bit of a return to form in a way. The kind of stuff I'm used to doing is like Les Miz kind of stuff, that 1980s power musical.

This show has felt kind of like, oh yeah, this is such a strange thing to say, but throughout your career, you have moments that are up and down and up and down, and you're kind of like, okay, yeah, I belong here, I don't belong here. You have a constant back and forth. This show has felt kind of like going back to 2014 a little bit, like my first Broadway show, getting to kind of write the wrongs of the past a little bit, because I had vocal injuries during Les Miz too, so that was wild. Now I just get to blast my voice in a building on 57th Street all the time and be like, see, it works.

[24:29] Kyle Scatliffe: That's awesome.

[24:29] Nik Walker: But yeah, this show and that part has always been on my radar.

[24:36] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh fuck.

[24:37] Nik Walker: Oh yeah, definitely. So for context, I'm not trying to be like, yo, fuck Phantom, I love this show, especially now with Diane's vision. For context, at the time, Kyle, I think you got your offer for this that summer.

[24:40] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, my audition was on my birthday, and then the callback was like September-ish, and then I got you and I had the job then. I think we were texting about it.

[25:11] Nik Walker: Oh no, no, you did it in the group chat. I was like, I'm a Phantom. I was like, I'm a Phantom, this is lit. But then it was like coming in the group chat and yeah, you dropped a Phantom emoji.

[25:11] Kyle Scatliffe: I was dropping GIFs.

[25:11] Nik Walker: Oh yeah, you can't see now, but it was so... what was I think where my brain was at that moment was that we had like this... my focus has largely been writing for the past two years. Me and Alex Brightman are over at Warner Brothers and Amazon with our cartoon, and right around this time was when we had first gotten our showrunner attached or something. I forget, it was some monumental thing that had happened, but I was like, I was not thinking about theater. I was like, great, I'm writing for TV now, bye. But that's gonna get money. For me, writing is what I like. I want to create. I just love creating. Acting, it's not that I don't love it, I love it so deeply, but I'm getting to a place where I'm just sick of telling other people's stories.

I just don't have a lot of the bandwidth that I had for it when I was younger. Now, Kyle booked this, and I was like, that sounds amazing. Then a work session came in for me with Diane, and I was like, okay, I'll try. I'll go in. The gift of this show for me has been specifically, like we talked about coming up the elevator, I never saw the Broadway show, never saw the movie. I'm coming in doing the show solely based off of what the words I'm reading are, what the music I'm hearing is, and what Diane is telling me. The gift that Diane Paulus has given me, and I do not mean this with any hyperbole, the openness for all six of us to find this character for ourselves has been one of the most joyous acting experiences of my life.

It's an iconic role, and yet she has provided a structure and a buffer for it to be like, yes, but I don't want you to do Broadway, I want you to do you. The version that I'm doing, would I ever get hired for the Majestic? Absolutely freaking not. No way, not doing this version. But I love it. Some say like that's what's great about it. If my hang-up was like, oh god, I'm getting sick of filling other people's shoes, she gave me my own shoes. She literally bespoke tailored them for me. That is, I think, the gift of Masquerade for me, is a space where it's like, for the first time, I'm doing exactly what I do in the way that I do it, and in the way that I see of approaching a character. I'm just so thankful that she has, again, I mean this genius, and I don't say that lightly, found a way for six versions of the show to exist at the same time. I cannot tell you as somebody who's had to fill in and slot into other people's creations how much this means to me. That's what Masquerade is to me, I think, is like I just get to be myself.

[28:31] Kyle Scatliffe: It was so fun watching him in rehearsal, be like, so can I do this? Because she was like, yeah, we can explore it, honestly, why not? We were all like, oh, she's going, okay. When we go up to the roof, I was like, can I just stand on the railing? She was like, well... and I remember our Jeff was like, yes. He was like, wait, does this mean we all stand on the railing? No, Nick's crazy. Nick's gonna do that. None of you have to do that. But it was just that flexibility to be like, yeah, this thing, when you have a piece, I think about Hamilton. When you have a piece that's so well written, it can hold space for as many different interpretations as you want. Now, commerce and capitalism will sometimes demand that we don't do that, right?

Because if you're coming to see a show that you saw on Disney Plus, then you want to see the version you saw on Disney Plus, we understand that, right? However, when you have a piece that is driven by the artist's mind and is unafraid to be like, oh yeah, let's try. If it's not successful, I'll tell you. That is... I will literally follow that one to the end of the earth.

[29:39] Nik Walker: Oh, yeah. That's the best, that's the best kind of stuff, man. It's like being unleashed. You get unleashed by your director, and when that happens, your imagination goes wild. And then you're just like, all right, cool, I could try this, I could try this. And the thing that's great about it is like she'll come back to the show, she'll watch it. Yeah, and like, we are all trying stuff so much to the point that if we were to go to watch other people's pulses, we see things that are completely different.

[30:04] Nik Walker: And we're like, whoa, I might try that tomorrow. Like, like, it's really fun. We're feeling from each other constantly. Everywhere. Constantly. Did you get to watch the other pulses? Not really, because we overlap, right? We would have to call out. Yeah. Like, but like, but or on special, on like there was there was a special campaign, you know, when Hugh was leaving.

[30:22] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[30:22] Nik Walker: Um, we found ways because Hugh, you know, Hugh Panero is phantom. Like phantom of the opera. He literally is. He is. Like, actually. Wears it so lightly and so so humbly, but is just a fount of information and of like wisdom about what this thing was when they first created it.

[30:42] Kyle Scatliffe: And it was, and I I'm so happy I got to see his pulse because I saw I literally sobbed from beginning to end. I didn't again, I'm coming at it from like a very cinematic, like and and psychological place of like, great, this guy is literally grooming this child. So, like, trauma be damned. Like, he he's not, he doesn't have to be a great person. Do you mean I don't I don't I don't need to try to make you like him because he he's doing terrible things.

[31:09] Nik Walker: I didn't, I didn't understand why people ship this man until I saw Hugh. I was like, oh. Because the because yes, he's doing these terrible things, but the way the music fills every pore of Hugh's body is like of course of course I'm swept away with you. Like, you are music, you literally are music embodied.

[31:30] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, and it was just freaking powerful. He's one of those. Literally, like crying. I forgot we were where I was. I just got so lost in your story, Telling. I was like, are we doing a podcast? Where the fuck am I?

[31:32] Nik Walker: He's one of those people where like you never see someone love a character more than him.

[31:45] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh my god. Like it was interesting to watch him in the rehearsal because you he was constantly having to be asked to change his interpretation of a character he knows better than probably anybody.

[31:58] Nik Walker: Anybody.

[31:59] Kyle Scatliffe: And he always tried. He always tried.

[32:01] Nik Walker: Oh, he was he was very gracious. And like, but you would just see like a moment where like Diane would be like, okay, we're gonna try this. And he would you could just see the emotion pouring out of his skin.

[32:10] Kyle Scatliffe: He's just like, but wait, hold on. Let me just get this. And he would just talk about like where it's like where his love and where that moment is like does this moment work because this is what we were taught and this is how it is.

[32:22] Nik Walker: Right.

[32:22] Kyle Scatliffe: Um, but but it's it was so he loves this character like loves it. It's almost like he was a man who loves dogs, and it's like this character almost is like a puppy he found on the street and took in and like took care of for years.

[32:37] Nik Walker: For years, yeah. He is such a good guardian of this character.

[32:41] Kyle Scatliffe: And it was it's it's so that's that's what's wonderful. It's like you have Hugh, and then you have Kyle who's like literally like a sonic boom of sound.

[32:48] Nik Walker: Like it's you can hear Kyle's you know that that note that we hit music of the night that be you can literally hear it two floors up.

[32:56] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, really?

[32:57] Nik Walker: When you hit it, like that's that's how I that's how that's how even two floors up. That's how I know to come up.

[33:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh my god, that's crazy.

[33:04] Nik Walker: There's Kyle.

[33:05] Kyle Scatliffe: So I now's my time to go up.

[33:07] Nik Walker: Like it's it's just crazy. And then you have you know, for from our OG cast, you had Jeff Crady, who's just spectacular, and Clay, who's like all the freaking phantom girlies love.

[33:16] Kyle Scatliffe: Like he's just a heart throb.

[33:18] Nik Walker: And Telly, who's so sensual and so like just just soft and like and like deep in his like love of the music.

[33:24] Kyle Scatliffe: Like, it really is just six different shows.

[33:27] Nik Walker: And it's I love I love that. And again, look at this, like the support, you know. It's not like oh I'm the phantom. It's like we are the phantom.

[33:35] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh yeah.

[33:36] Nik Walker: Like how cool.

[33:37] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh God, I fucking love Masquerade.

[33:40] Nik Walker: Guys, if you're listening, get a ticket.

[33:43] Kyle Scatliffe: I mean, you gotta get six tickets of sound alive. Like, come on back. See it six times, man.

[33:48] Nik Walker: Especially on new boys, yeah.

[33:49] Kyle Scatliffe: They're crazy.

[33:49] Nik Walker: Yeah, real good.

[33:50] Kyle Scatliffe: No, seriously, they're there's it's so spectacular.

[33:53] Nik Walker: Like it's the level of work. And I also think, again, back to the point, like I think Diane unleashed, like, she allowed for this level of work.

[34:02] Kyle Scatliffe: She'll she she's taking actors who like are used to the Broadway space and being like, great, your audience is gonna be right here. So you actually just put it in your eyes, like just treat it like a camera, and and watching them when they do that is like you get some beautiful things.

[34:15] Nik Walker: Yeah, gorgeous things.

[34:17] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[34:17] Nik Walker: Wow.

[34:17] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, man. If that doesn't make you want to go, guys, I don't know what will.

[34:21] Nik Walker: You become part of the show.

[34:23] Kyle Scatliffe: You do, you do.

[34:24] Nik Walker: So immersive that first moment of like being around 60 people, it's beautiful.

[34:30] Kyle Scatliffe: It's just like you're even like uh we enter, we have an entrance, it's really cool, and then like all of a sudden there's this moment where we're like really in people's faces for the first time, and you just see everyone's face just go.

[34:44] Nik Walker: Yeah, like they just they they just almost like deer in headlights, they just can't believe what they're looking at.

[34:50] Kyle Scatliffe: They cannot believe it.

[34:51] Nik Walker: And it's like I cherish seeing that look every day.

[34:54] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh it happens every time.

[34:56] Nik Walker: Well, and especially because right the difference between our show and the Broadway show, right? Our show is phantom from the phantom's perspective.

[35:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Right.

[35:03] Nik Walker: So there is a I think even if it wasn't immersive, there's just an accountability that the audience now has because you're in a memory, you're in our mind, right?

[35:12] Kyle Scatliffe: Right.

[35:13] Nik Walker: So I think like I love I love that first moment because it's the first time that it's like I can make it very clear. Like I can see you.

[35:20] Kyle Scatliffe: No, I can see and I can touch you.

[35:22] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[35:22] Kyle Scatliffe: And I will be here.

[35:24] Nik Walker: Like, and and that is a I think that is the f like it's it's different because I think they a lot of people assume like, oh, it's just gonna be this thing that the phantom will be this thing that we watch.

[35:32] Kyle Scatliffe: But it's like, no, no, no. Like, I'm going to grab you.

[35:34] Nik Walker: No, I'm gonna move you.

[35:35] Kyle Scatliffe: I'm gonna move you.

[35:37] Nik Walker: Like, we're gonna have a time.

[35:37] Kyle Scatliffe: I should have here and there.

[35:40] Nik Walker: I make a point.

[35:41] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, I like moving.

[35:42] Nik Walker: Yeah, yeah, I like my movies.

[35:44] Kyle Scatliffe: Or I just go face to face.

[35:45] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[35:46] Kyle Scatliffe: My favorite.

[35:46] Nik Walker: Oh, I'm sorry. I know we got more questions.

[35:47] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh sorry.

[35:48] Nik Walker: We love that. But my f do you ever on the when you when you're in the this is kind of this is a little spoiler. So the spoiler alert, you know, for the next 10 seconds. When you're in the fly tower, yes, and you come across and they go to all I ask of you.

[35:59] Kyle Scatliffe: Yes.

[36:00] Nik Walker: And there's and everybody's lined up there, and you have to like sneak through this to that spotlight.

[36:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, yeah.

[36:04] Nik Walker: Do you ever like go face to face as you're as you're sneaking through people? Or do you like give them a on that little like walkway?

[36:10] Kyle Scatliffe: Like on that walkway, yeah.

[36:11] Nik Walker: Oh yeah.

[36:11] Kyle Scatliffe: You go face.

[36:12] Nik Walker: That's my favorite thing.

[36:13] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh yeah.

[36:14] Nik Walker: Because there's a couple moments up there. Like the when I first move somebody, yeah, I stare them deep in the face when I move them, and then they're kind of like, what's going on?

[36:15] Kyle Scatliffe: What's going on?

[36:22] Nik Walker: And then I just turn away from them. Look at Christine, and they and then you I always hear them chuckle because you could feel the danger.

[36:27] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh yeah.

[36:28] Nik Walker: Come out of them.

[36:29] Kyle Scatliffe: Well, because society dictates that when a large man is moving through a crowd, you move.

[36:29] Nik Walker: You move.

[36:34] Kyle Scatliffe: But like in that space, the space that we're talking about, there's nowhere to move.

[36:37] Nik Walker: No.

[36:38] Kyle Scatliffe: So I have to close.

[36:39] Nik Walker: I will get like body to body with you, right?

[36:42] Kyle Scatliffe: Just nose to nose and just pass by.

[36:44] Nik Walker: And it's my favorite thing.

[36:46] Kyle Scatliffe: It's the best.

[36:46] Nik Walker: Oh, it's so cool.

[36:47] Kyle Scatliffe: I love it.

[36:48] Nik Walker: It's so cool.

[36:49] Kyle Scatliffe: I love masquerades.

[36:50] Nik Walker: It's so good. We could talk about masquerade for like two hours.

[36:54] Kyle Scatliffe: I know.

[36:54] Nik Walker: One day. Alex, can we extend the time in the studio?

[36:57] Kyle Scatliffe: It looks like it looks like they're having their meeting in there, so I think we're chilling.

[37:01] Nik Walker: Yeah. So we are speaking during Black History Month.

[37:04] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[37:05] Nik Walker: You are clearly black artists betraying a role that hysteric historically has not always, you know, been that diverse as what we're seeing. What does it mean to you both to occupy this space this during this time in such a visible way?

[37:18] Kyle Scatliffe: It means a lot. I mean, it was actually kind of wild. We we bumped into uh Norm Lewis when we were out eating right.

[37:25] Nik Walker: Oh, Barcelona was at Barston Charlie, yeah.

[37:27] Kyle Scatliffe: We were bumped. He came out of the bathroom and we were like, hey Norman. Like, hey, guess what? It's like what? We're both phantoms.

[37:34] Nik Walker: And he was just so excited. And it's just like Norm was actually the uh phantom I saw. That was the first time I saw the show. It's when I went to see Norm do it. Because it was one of those parts where I was you're either the person that breaks through or you're waiting for someone to break through so that people can realize it can be done.

[37:51] Kyle Scatliffe: So then you can then do it.

[37:53] Nik Walker: So um watching him do it, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. We can do it. Y'all see. You see?

[38:01] Kyle Scatliffe: Um, so that I I feel like it's kind of torch passing, is what we constantly doing.

[38:06] Nik Walker: Um so that yeah, that's for doing this that this part, especially this part, um, during this month.

[38:15] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[38:15] Nik Walker: Um, and then like uh Nick here had the the all black pulse.

[38:19] Kyle Scatliffe: All black pulse, which was really that was very that was very cool.

[38:21] Nik Walker: First time in in history.

[38:23] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, first time in history.

[38:24] Nik Walker: It's black Christine, black row, black phantom.

[38:26] Kyle Scatliffe: That was very cool.

[38:27] Nik Walker: And it was uh really cool.

[38:28] Kyle Scatliffe: That was really cool.

[38:29] Nik Walker: So it's like there's a lot of uh firsts.

[38:32] Kyle Scatliffe: There's a lot of firsts and a lot of uh hopeful first for the future for other people after you also get to do it.

[38:39] Nik Walker: I also think there's something I I'm on a I'm on a one I think it's sometimes it's a one-man mission, but I know I'm not the only one. I'm on a I'm on a mission to advocate for complexity in black characters.

[38:51] Kyle Scatliffe: I think oftentimes that's what I get mad at is that we are relegated to be one thing.

[38:56] Nik Walker: Yep.

[38:57] Kyle Scatliffe: And this is an extraordinarily complex character.

[39:01] Nik Walker: I I'm in in writing we talk about simple plot, complex character. The plot of the show is simple. It's a it's a love triangle set in an opera house. It's a it's a it's a gothic romance, but these characters are very complicated, right?

[39:12] Kyle Scatliffe: Beautifully so.

[39:13] Nik Walker: And that's what I love is is challenging the perception of what this thing can be.

[39:20] Kyle Scatliffe: I love the idea that like you come out of this, like especially I mean not ruining how our show ends, but like it's it's it's an ambiguous ending, and it's meant to be in a lot of ways.

[39:31] Nik Walker: Um but I I just love the idea that that you get to watch this very broken man do these very dastardly things.

[39:38] Kyle Scatliffe: I think I think that's there's there's nothing more human than brokenness.

[39:43] Nik Walker: Yep.

[39:43] Kyle Scatliffe: It's my favorite character.

[39:44] Nik Walker: It's my favorite, it's my favorite characters to play.

[39:46] Kyle Scatliffe: So I just love I love that you get to see people with our skin tone exist as that because we don't often get to do that.

[39:53] Nik Walker: Right.

[39:54] Kyle Scatliffe: We often have to be kind of magically whole.

[39:57] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[39:58] Kyle Scatliffe: And I and I always resent that.

[39:59] Nik Walker: So this is such a lovely moment to to not.

[40:01] Kyle Scatliffe: And the thing is, is that I and I don't, you know, this is my own opinion of it, but I honestly think in shows like this when a character is a black person, it adds a certain amount of complexity to it that people just don't think about.

[40:14] Nik Walker: Right.

[40:14] Kyle Scatliffe: Like they're just sometimes it adds something different.

[40:17] Nik Walker: Um sometimes it makes them see all the other characters differently, too.

[40:22] Kyle Scatliffe: Um I mean I'm gonna go on a tangent just for a second.

[40:26] Nik Walker: So um I did uh Oklahoma years ago, uh in Seattle at Fifth Avenue Theater, and I was a Judd Fry that was black, and then everyone else was white, and then when people came to see the show, they were confused about the show.

[40:43] Kyle Scatliffe: They they were all watching it and they were going, Have you guys changed anything?

[40:48] Nik Walker: And like literally like all of Seattle was like, Did you guys change the script? Did you change we were like, no, Judd is just the black person.

[40:55] Kyle Scatliffe: That's it.

[40:56] Nik Walker: And and they came out of it with a such a different idea and they felt bad for me.

[41:02] Kyle Scatliffe: And then all of a sudden they were like, Wait, Curly's asking him to hang himself. This is messed up.

[41:06] Nik Walker: I'm like, Did you never notice that?

[41:07] Kyle Scatliffe: Right, right.

[41:08] Nik Walker: It's like they it adds a layer of of complexity to someone, uh a layer of like care that that kind of disappears sometimes because they see the same thing over and over again.

[41:20] Kyle Scatliffe: So it allows them to um find it funny, but then all of a sudden you change one element of it and it goes back to the original standard the show was set at.

[41:28] Nik Walker: And all and all of a sudden they're like, Oh my god, why is why is Curly such a a douche?

[41:34] Kyle Scatliffe: And I'm like, Oh, did you guys I'm like I'm almost confused that people are don't notice that but it is that kind of thing, like even with this show, it's like sometimes I think people see Raul and they're like, Why would you pick him?

[41:44] Nik Walker: It's so it's well this is so we both have Nick Edwards as our main Raul who's terrific.

[41:50] Kyle Scatliffe: But I I've had I don't I was gonna ask you about this.

[41:53] Nik Walker: Yeah, I we we truly haven't talked about this.

[41:55] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[41:55] Nik Walker: So Alex Ross has been in for our wool.

[41:57] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[41:58] Nik Walker: And it is it and Alex Brought, I mean, he is so talented.

[42:02] Kyle Scatliffe: Both he's awesome.

[42:03] Nik Walker: Both of these are talented.

[42:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[42:03] Nik Walker: But like, as somebody who grew up as a token in Boston, uh, it's like literally, it actually made the job so much easier for me.

[42:11] Kyle Scatliffe: Because I'm like, that's literally that was literally my experience growing up.

[42:14] Nik Walker: It's true.

[42:15] Kyle Scatliffe: Watching these like pretty white boys come in and take everything.

[42:19] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[42:20] Kyle Scatliffe: And it was like, so it actually, like, again, Alex Ross as a person, wonderful person.

[42:24] Nik Walker: Wonderful.

[42:25] Kyle Scatliffe: And like his role is very charming.

[42:27] Nik Walker: But for me, it like, as soon as I saw him kiss Killian, I was like, Yep.

[42:31] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, we're angry.

[42:34] Nik Walker: It would just, again, I just love, I love that that's not even a thing that the audience needs to be in on.

[42:38] Kyle Scatliffe: No.

[42:39] Nik Walker: But like that's just for me.

[42:40] Kyle Scatliffe: I just love that.

[42:40] Nik Walker: No, no, same thing for me.

[42:42] Kyle Scatliffe: Me and Alex have been eaten in that last year.

[42:44] Nik Walker: Oh, dude, he goes in.

[42:45] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, he goes in.

[42:45] Nik Walker: He goes in.

[42:47] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, yeah.

[42:48] Nik Walker: It's great.

[42:48] Kyle Scatliffe: But it does.

[42:50] Nik Walker: It just adds something.

[42:51] Kyle Scatliffe: It just, even if it isn't for the audience, it's it adds something for us.

[42:55] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[42:56] Kyle Scatliffe: You know, our our music director was just even saying to us yesterday, he's like, I'm trying to find things to give you that cause you to feel that this show can constantly be alive for you.

[43:05] Nik Walker: Like over a long period of time, what notes can I give you to do that?

[43:09] Kyle Scatliffe: And like the fact that, you know, it switches like that.

[43:12] Nik Walker: And we have different roles and different interpretations and different people to see, and what does that pull out of us?

[43:12] Kyle Scatliffe: What does that pull out of them?

[43:19] Nik Walker: It it is uh, yeah, it's a treasure.

[43:21] Kyle Scatliffe: It's a treasure to have a show like this.

[43:23] Nik Walker: Oh man, you guys are going in, and I am so happy.

[43:23] Kyle Scatliffe: I am so happy going deep into Masquerade and these feelings.

[43:30] Nik Walker: It's amazing.

[43:31] Kyle Scatliffe: So thank you.

[43:32] Nik Walker: Um we touched on this a little bit. You guys, you know, gave us a little bit of this already, but what have you learned the most by playing this role? And do you think it's shaping your next creative journey differently?

[43:48] Kyle Scatliffe: Good question.

[43:50] Nik Walker: I I got one if you want to.

[43:52] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, go ahead.

[43:52] Nik Walker: Uh this role is a testament to pacing.

[43:56] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, yeah.

[43:56] Nik Walker: You actually, and it and so you have to. I had I so Des the the great Des Mack Enoff, um, who you know directed Jersey Boys, directed Jesus Chris Superstar, directed all these amazing things.

[44:07] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh, he gave he gave me my my big breakout in in in the theater industry out of La Jolla.

[44:13] Nik Walker: And he I remember there's one moment where we got we got into a bivoutiff because he come he came, he set the show.

[44:19] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh it was me, Paul Nolan, Kamiko Glenn.

[44:22] Nik Walker: We were out there doing this wonderful, amazing like rock op called Yoshimi Bells Pink Robots. He set the show, and then two weeks later you came back, and like any young actors, we were like embellishing, we were doing crazy things.

[44:32] Kyle Scatliffe: And he was and he was like so mad, but he pulled me aside and he said to me, and I'll never forget it, he said, You don't trust that you just standing on stage is enough. You just you just existing is enough.

[44:45] Nik Walker: And the thing about the show is it's Phantom of the Opera with added scenes over six floors, two and a half hours. So that is going to be very hard. And there are moments when you're gonna want to give so much, whether it's vocally, emotionally, physically, whatever, that you actually cannot, because you have eight shows that week and a five-show weekend.

[45:07] Kyle Scatliffe: So it it it becomes this thing of I think it is just a t the thing that I I have I'm very proud of and and have learned through this process is like what it really means to pace and what it really means to like maybe reserve physically or vocally, but still be present emotionally and mentally, right? And and so so you're not missing any any of my show, but like I'm also being very it's like it's like what I imagine driving a race car to be. Like you have to you shifting gears as you're going around the track because you know that you can't hit that turn at that speed. It's the same thing here. So I I I Burr taught me that, and this has certainly taught me that. Pacing. Pacing is everything.

[45:47] Jason A. Coombs: Okay, F1. Come through. Come on. Hey, come on, F1. Um, let's see, what would I say? Uh repeat the question again. My brain is lapsing. Uh what have you learned the most from playing this role? And do you think it's gonna change the way you move forward in your creative journey?

[46:03] Kyle Scatliffe: I would say that this is actually kind of a funny thing, because Nick and I we had a conversation about this once where he asked me, what kind of characters would you want to play that you don't get to play number of the most of the time, and I was like stoic ones. And that was a that was my answer. And this is like the first time in a long time I played someone who's stoic. And it like in my head, I think of him as stoic. But um, but it allows me to um because I'm such a large person, right? Um that rule of you don't have to do much applies to me more than it does to most people. Right because of my stature and my height. Um and it is five, six, six five, yeah. And it has taken a a long time, it's taken a long time to like really take that in and be like, I don't really have to do much.

And I would say that this is the first time I did a show where I realized I really didn't have to do much. Like I were really the and it was also because of the character him himself. It's like there's such a mysteriousness to this character that the more you try to do, you actually mess it up. Right. In a way, it's like it it the audience wants to not they want to feel like they don't know what you're gonna do. So a lot of the times doing nothing is helpful.

[47:25] Nik Walker: Yeah. Um so it's one of those characters where um it it is kind of especially even when it comes to like the realm of like auditioning for television and stuff like that. There's a there's a certain amount of keeping something alive, even though you're you're not doing anything, but you are doing something. Um and so this this is one of those characters where I I feel like I learned that in spades in this one.

[47:49] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, because their stature alone is is it's enough. And then a lot of the times, if I ever got a job on TV, a lot of the times it was like I didn't think my audition was that great. They were like, No, you just looked right, you sounded right, and your height works too, so good.

[48:03] Nik Walker: Oh, yeah. And that's it. Like that.

[48:04] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, sometimes just be like that, you know.

[48:07] Nik Walker: And and I think a lot of the time that's what's hard to learn as theater actors going to TV and back and forth. It's like that that big feeling of like, no, it's just you.

[48:16] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, right. It's like just get on get on screen and talk as yourself in this as this character goes. But I I'm I'm of the of the opinion that what you do on film actually like I I hate that preconception that like you can't do film acting on stage. You actually totally can should like you totally can. It it might not read to the audience, but it will read to your scene partners, right? And and and I I again stillness is just such a friend, like, especially in the show, because like my final layer, I I'm doing like I I like God bless my knees. Like I'm I'm doing crazy stuff in final layer. I'm literally box jumping in final layer. It's like you know, but i I'm the only reason I'm able to justify that is because of the stillness for previous.

[48:59] Kyle Scatliffe: Exactly. That is the thing. You've pulled the tension now, so now I can now that it's really all gloves are off, I can release it. And and so it's just again, it's just choosing your moments. It's like you gotta really be really specific about everything you do. Because like that's the fun thing about this show is like throughout the whole show, you're like for about 80%, 90% of the show, you're like, all right, pace yourself, pace yourself. All right, we're chilling, stillness, we're doing this, we're doing this, and all of a sudden you get to the ending, and it's just like everything just explodes. And it's just um it's yeah, it's really fun to finally let loose.

[49:31] Nik Walker: Ooh, it's funny. Yeah, I got a chance to see his final air like two weeks ago, and I was like, this man is in people's faces.

[49:38] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, I'm literally I was like, damn!

[49:41] Nik Walker: I'm literally grab it's it's it's rage.

[49:44] Kyle Scatliffe: It's a lot of rage, dude.

[49:45] Nik Walker: It's great.

[49:46] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, love it so much.

[49:50] Jason A. Coombs: Well, we're almost towards the end of our conversation. So you got like two or three more questions, and we're gonna play really quick fun games.

[49:55] Kyle Scatliffe: Okay.

[49:56] Nik Walker: Actually, can't wait for the game.

[49:57] Kyle Scatliffe: I know, it's gonna be really good.

[49:58] Nik Walker: I'm actually so excited.

[49:59] Jason A. Coombs: But I do want to pivot because we've touched on it briefly a couple times. There's just so much craziness in our world right now, so much injustice, everything feels wobbly to say the least.

[50:09] Kyle Scatliffe: Wobbly is a good word, Jason.

[50:11] Nik Walker: Yeah, so someone else show me that.

[50:13] Kyle Scatliffe: I was like, that's a good that's a good way to put it.

[50:15] Jason A. Coombs: Um but so many people are come to the theater for joy, right? For laughter for an experience to get away from the madness, right? So when you're feeling that weight too, which I'm sure you both are, what helps you stay centered and continue to showing up to do your job so well and keeps you staying healthy, mind healthy, body healthy, like what keeps you going basically.

[50:34] Kyle Scatliffe: I meditate daily, yeah.

[50:36] Kyle Scatliffe: Daily.

[50:37] Kyle Scatliffe: I meditated on the way here.

[50:38] Nik Walker: Oh, good.

[50:39] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I use the app Headspace, and I anyway.

[50:42] Kyle Scatliffe: It just depends on yeah, it's so good.

[50:44] Kyle Scatliffe: It's just like it depends on what I need for that day. Sometimes it's headspace managing anxiety. Sometimes it's uh finding focus. Uh today was silencing the inner critic, which was very nice.

[50:55] Nik Walker: Um is the paid version?

[50:57] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, yeah.

[50:58] Nik Walker: Yeah, it's great, yeah, it's honestly inner critic.

[51:01] Kyle Scatliffe: I think I'm feeling zen today.

[51:03] Nik Walker: I love that.

[51:04] Kyle Scatliffe: So it's it's it's that kind of stuff. Like I I hold on to my friends. I hold on to my family. I have uh a wife and a kid. He's six months old. His name's River.

[51:12] Nik Walker: Congrats.

[51:14] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah thank you.

[51:15] Nik Walker: Thank you.

[51:15] Kyle Scatliffe: Shout out to River.

[51:17] Nik Walker: Shout out River. You hear this, you'll hear this one day.

[51:19] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[51:20] Nik Walker: That's right.

[51:20] Kyle Scatliffe: But it is one of those things where I I used to be one of those people that my mind was expanded so globally that the anxiety was crushing. Like you know like I re I I do read the news every day.

[51:35] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah it's like I night I the problem is that what will happen is that you can get into a fervor where you can't even live your own life because the because the shaking of the rattling of this like like dome is is so distracting.

[51:55] Nik Walker: So like now I've had to pace myself where I'm like okay can I read the news today? Can I take this in? Alright maybe I can maybe I can't and and I give myself breaks and stuff like that. But really um it's really a lot of a lot of a lot of meditation a lot of um information a lot of talking to friends about things.

[52:15] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah just just keeping yourself abreast of what's happening.

[52:18] Nik Walker: Yeah and you know just try not to lose your mind.

[52:21] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah because it's hard number one it's it's hard out here I I'll I'll join I'll join you on the on the meditation I'll I'll also add journaling, I'll also add therapy.

[52:33] Nik Walker: Um I but also there's a I I think it's a James Baldwin quote.

[52:37] Kyle Scatliffe: If it's not, I'm gonna be misquoting it, so I'm so sorry.

[52:40] Nik Walker: You're forgiven.

[52:40] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh I appreciate you very much.

[52:42] Nik Walker: Uh basically says paraphrasing, um, you think you're the first to experience this type of pain, and then you read.

[52:50] Kyle Scatliffe: I read. I read, I read voraciously, and and there are people who who know that I have there's a bunch of uh we call the the Hamill, we call them the Hammelcast peeps.

[52:59] Nik Walker: Uh shout out Diana Seaman and and Dorothy Dobson and all these amazing, there's a there's a cadre of these amazing people who all met listening to the Hamelcast, which was the Hamilton podcast.

[53:09] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, um Jillian, right?

[53:10] Nik Walker: Jillian Pensaval.

[53:12] Kyle Scatliffe: I love her.

[53:13] Nik Walker: Oh yeah.

[53:13] Kyle Scatliffe: And but but they've been very sweet, like they've literally come to see me in everything I've ever done, everything I've ever done since Hamilton.

[53:21] Nik Walker: Like Bull they flew out to Bull Durham, they've they flew out to to Regency Girls in San Diego.

[53:25] Kyle Scatliffe: Wow.

[53:26] Nik Walker: And they sent they send me a kin cake every year.

[53:27] Kyle Scatliffe: But Dorf uh Diana actually sends me books.

[53:30] Nik Walker: She sends me amazing books by black authors that she did she's just like reading, and like, oh, I think Nick would like this.

[53:35] Kyle Scatliffe: And she sent me one called Out There Screaming, which is this black horror anthology I was telling you.

[53:38] Nik Walker: Oh yes, yes, I want to read that.

[53:40] Kyle Scatliffe: Black horror.

[53:40] Nik Walker: It's by Jordan Peel curated black horror anthology short stories.

[53:44] Kyle Scatliffe: It's so three kings by Jesus Alley.

[53:51] Nik Walker: Uh Sinners better win.

[53:52] Kyle Scatliffe: Anyway, anyway.

[53:53] Nik Walker: Come on.

[53:54] Kyle Scatliffe: But but it's just, yeah, reading, reading, reading. I I I any time that the world because you just realize, like, oh yeah, this is we've been here before, and we've survived this before. And and and I think that has been such a lovely bit of empathy to be like, because I think I think the trick of right now is that so much of of our apps, so much of our lives are built to make us feel like we are the one and only people living a story.

[54:18] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[54:18] Kyle Scatliffe: And that there's nobody else, and that all that matters is us our and our experience. And it's like, but but there are myriad experiences and people who have done it before. Like it's just just go back and read and remember. And so I I just reading, reading everything you get your hands on.

[54:35] Nik Walker: Love that.

[54:36] Jason A. Coombs: I always tell people when they listen to get your notebooks out, some take some notes. I hope you did. Because that was I mean, I I keep forgetting I'm supposed to be asking questions. I'm just getting lost.

[54:44] Kyle Scatliffe: You guys should really have your own podcast.

[54:48] Nik Walker: Hey, Nikki did great.

[54:51] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh yeah, you do.

[54:52] Nik Walker: I did.

[54:53] Kyle Scatliffe: I had I had on Broad Broadway Podcast now.

[54:56] Nik Walker: We had Little Justice.

[54:57] Kyle Scatliffe: Which or no, yeah, yeah.

[54:58] Nik Walker: Little Justice is a movie podcast, and then me and Sasha had the Chaos Twins on Broadway World.

[55:02] Kyle Scatliffe: Shout out.

[55:02] Nik Walker: Yeah, man, Satya Hutchins.

[55:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Shout out, shout out.

[55:04] Nik Walker: Yeah, yeah.

[55:05] Jason A. Coombs: I want to bring it back to survival jobs for one second. So we have a lot of listeners who are aspiring artists, whatever that means to them, who might be feeling stuck in a survival job and they're hitting, you know, dead end. So what's your advice to somebody who might be feeling stuck in their day-to-day survival job, wanting that artistic life?

[55:28] Kyle Scatliffe: This is gonna sound uh make it yourself.

[55:31] Nik Walker: Yeah, I just honestly that's honestly.

[55:34] Kyle Scatliffe: I don't I am not a person who can make it myself all the time, but I I underst like this man right here, it's hard to be making it yourself.

[55:42] Nik Walker: But it's hard it is not like when you do it.

[55:45] Kyle Scatliffe: It is, but the thing is is that what happens a lot of the time is yeah, I had a teacher tell me this once. She basically was like, You are going to have a hard time being in a new musical because you are very specific. You're gonna do a lot of old stuff all the time, but new musical, really gonna be difficult. And she's not been wrong. Like Hamilton's the newest musical I've ever done. I've never been in an original cast of a new musical. I've done all revivals, basically. Um, so it but it becomes one of those things where it's like, okay, so she says someone is either gonna have to make something that that part is yours, or you're gonna have to make it yourself.

[56:25] Nik Walker: And a lot of the time, what happens is that the people who are um not even the casting people, but the producers are the ones hiring people, but they only have an idea of what they can have an idea of. They've grown up in their own worlds and their own lives, and they have ideas of what uh theater is and isn't, um, and what you can be in theater, what you can't be in theater, uh, as individuals, and a lot of the time they people won't see what you can be until you've shown them what you can be, and a lot of times that happens when something you made yourself, um, because uh a lot it's hard to step into some other characters sometimes because sometimes characters are just not built for you, or um, there's not someone taking a chance to change the character in the way where it's built for you.

[57:11] Kyle Scatliffe: But a lot of the times when you make it yourself, people see it, you know, they see it, and then they go, Oh, that's what you can do.

[57:20] Nik Walker: Yeah, it all and it's and it's I mean, Susan Sherman told me this once. Uh we were doing um a workshop, and she I said, Why do we have everything in this room? We have doors, we have beams, we have like there's so many props in here, and she goes, 'Because they don't have an imagination, I have to show it to them.

[57:37] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, and I said, Oh, and I was like, She's not, but she wasn't wrong, though.

[57:45] Nik Walker: It's like it's like they might have an imagination, but to imagine someone doing something that you you haven't seen yet, is really hard for people to do sometimes until they've seen it.

[57:56] Kyle Scatliffe: So a lot of times I'd say, make it yourself. Because when you make it yourself, they'll see it and they'll be like, oh, okay.

[58:03] Nik Walker: And even because the Kyle, that's brilliant points that he brings up. And and but even on the tip that's not even about them, right? The them, the capital T then.

[58:13] Kyle Scatliffe: Right.

[58:13] Nik Walker: Like what I love about creating my own work is that I walk people when you're looking at breaking into the industry and what that means. I want I'm looking for my big break, which is like admittedly, one when you get that first job that's like at a commercial theater level, it's a wonderful feeling. Like I'm not saying it's not. But the the very term breaking into the industry denotes that like it's not a relationship that you did not provide a service that they are now paying for. It it denotes that like there is a glass ceiling that like only the best of the best get in there. And it's like, first of all, when you get in here, you realize, and this is no shade to anyone, it's not the best of the best. It's it's truly not. It's it's just a bunch of people who who got who were in the right place, right time, maybe had the right resource to be in the right place, right time. Like it it is so much about strategy.

[59:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Yes.

[59:03] Nik Walker: Not it's talent is is over here, right?

[59:07] Kyle Scatliffe: So what I love about creating your work is just like like it's I can't I'm gonna I I'm not trying trying not to get myself in trouble. I kind of have a I have a little bit of a fuck you attitude when I walk into an audition room.

[59:19] Nik Walker: Yeah, and that's not because I don't appre I'm not gonna work hard for the people in front of me, but it's like it it's kind of like because it's like I'm gonna tell my story either way. Right, you can pay me to do it or not. I'll find a way.

[59:30] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, right.

[59:30] Nik Walker: And and that's again, I think that also, like, let's let's be real. I'm I'm a man, I'm six foot two, I'm black. There's not a lot of us.

[59:37] Kyle Scatliffe: Right.

[59:38] Nik Walker: Like so, so like there there are things that allow me that confidence other than just creating my own work. However, I think that walking in with a confidence of like, oh yeah, they don't dictate my artistry. I'm an artist either way.

[59:49] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[59:52] Nik Walker: Like that, that I I it has been so freeing to not feel like this I owe this industry something. Or that this industry has done me the biggest boon.

[1:00:00] Nik Walker: It's like, no, I was gonna do this either way.

[1:00:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[1:00:03] Nik Walker: Y'all are just, I, we have a contract between us, so I'm here to fulfill that contract to the best of my ability.

[1:00:08] Kyle Scatliffe: Right.

[1:00:09] Nik Walker: And on the last thing I'll say to that is then like when you are creating momentum is currency, and there's nothing just in terms of a commerce strategy, there is nothing more interesting to people than somebody who's like, I'm good, I got my own stuff going on.

[1:00:26] Kyle Scatliffe: True that.

[1:00:26] Nik Walker: People like, it's just, I cannot tell you how many jobs I've gotten where you can care. It's so like, oh, Nick's got some, like what Nick's doing something else. And like, yeah, I got a rehearsal, I gotta, I gotta, I got a meeting.

[1:00:39] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, sorry, I'm out.

[1:00:40] Nik Walker: Like you don't need them, I don't need you.

[1:00:42] Kyle Scatliffe: I don't need you.

[1:00:43] Nik Walker: It's crazy. Like I don't, I don't need, and I, not, and it not even saying financially, 'cause like fine, you know, like yeah, please pay my bills.

[1:00:49] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[1:00:49] Nik Walker: But like I don't need you for my happiness.

[1:00:52] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, I don't need you for my joy.

[1:00:54] Nik Walker: My joy comes from what I make. This is me coming in to do a business transaction.

[1:01:00] Kyle Scatliffe: So, you know, it, yeah, the, again, the last, it's, it's, Chris Jackson said to me, and I said it on another podcast when I was with JMI, but like this business ain't your daddy.

[1:01:10] Kyle Scatliffe: Nope.

[1:01:10] Nik Walker: And we gotta stop treating it like our, it's, it's not our parent. It's not, it's, it's a business.

[1:01:15] Kyle Scatliffe: And so we show up for it, we show up to do the business.

[1:01:15] Nik Walker: Yeah, we have our love and passion that we protect.

[1:01:20] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[1:01:21] Nik Walker: That's why.

[1:01:21] Kyle Scatliffe: Love that.

[1:01:22] Nik Walker: Because daddy ain't your business.

[1:01:24] Kyle Scatliffe: Daddy ain't just business.

[1:01:25] Nik Walker: Daddy ain't busy.

[1:01:25] Kyle Scatliffe: He's not.

[1:01:26] Nik Walker: It can't be. Because the moment, the moment it is, you are like, so it's going to be.

[1:01:33] Kyle Scatliffe: And I say that it's, it's broken.

[1:01:34] Nik Walker: No, yeah, it was the same. Many times I've been there, I've had the feeling of it, and then like there hits a point where you're like, okay, why do I keep doing this?

[1:01:42] Kyle Scatliffe: Why do I love this?

[1:01:44] Nik Walker: Is it about this? Is it about this? Is it about this? Like I used to be one of those people that like, I think we still differ on this.

[1:01:50] Kyle Scatliffe: But like I used to be one of those people like I grew up watching the Tony Awards.

[1:01:53] Nik Walker: Oh, yeah.

[1:01:54] Kyle Scatliffe: I've never watched them.

[1:01:55] Nik Walker: You never watched this?

[1:01:56] Kyle Scatliffe: I've never watched it.

[1:01:57] Nik Walker: Even the one that I would like, I think I've been on two.

[1:01:59] Kyle Scatliffe: I've never watched it.

[1:02:00] Nik Walker: I think I've been on two.

[1:02:03] Kyle Scatliffe: That's why I draw them.

[1:02:04] Nik Walker: Yeah, I've been on it twice too.

[1:02:05] Kyle Scatliffe: And I'm like, I watched them all.

[1:02:06] Nik Walker: I could watch people win awards, and like rewards became this thing where I'm like, oh my god, like look at this.

[1:02:06] Kyle Scatliffe: Like, look at this moment.

[1:02:11] Nik Walker: It's like a culmination of the longer, the longer you do the job, the more you're like, and you're like, there's gotta be something else you love about it to keep doing it.

[1:02:23] Kyle Scatliffe: Right.

[1:02:23] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[1:02:24] Kyle Scatliffe: Like, you know, it's, it's not everyone's going to win a Tony.

[1:02:27] Nik Walker: Not everyone's gonna be nominated for Tony.

[1:02:29] Kyle Scatliffe: But those, that doesn't mean that those are the most important people in the industry all the time.

[1:02:33] Nik Walker: Like, you know, it becomes a kind of, you have to really figure out for yourself what drives you in the industry, not, you know, how does the industry help me?

[1:02:45] Kyle Scatliffe: Yes, it becomes that.

[1:02:46] Nik Walker: Or when will I be enough for the industry?

[1:02:48] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, you never gotta be enough for enough.

[1:02:50] Nik Walker: Yeah, I mean, you think about people who become like the most famous people in the world and then lost everything too.

[1:02:55] Kyle Scatliffe: Right.

[1:02:55] Nik Walker: It's just like the industry just threw them out the same way that they, and they came in beautifully, and then they just like discard.

[1:03:01] Kyle Scatliffe: Sorry, new person.

[1:03:02] Nik Walker: It's like you have to always remember that it, the business does come first over everything else.

[1:03:07] Kyle Scatliffe: It's business show, not show business.

[1:03:09] Nik Walker: Business show.

[1:03:10] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, thank you guys so much.

[1:03:13] Nik Walker: Like, I keep saying it, I'm, I have no idea where I am. This is amazing.

[1:03:18] Kyle Scatliffe: You've given us so much wisdom and such a deep dive into Masquerade.

[1:03:22] Nik Walker: And I'll say it again, I fucking love Masquerade by So see Masquerade.

[1:03:29] Kyle Scatliffe: Like Jason said, he's come up with a really fun game for us.

[1:03:32] Nik Walker: Oh, to end this fun interview. Go ahead, Jay.

[1:03:36] Jason A. Coombs: You want to break it down?

[1:03:37] Nik Walker: Yeah, so we're basically gonna, basically gonna pick.

[1:03:39] Jason A. Coombs: Can I speak?

[1:03:40] Nik Walker: Yes, you can.

[1:03:40] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah, we're basically gonna play a game called Mast Identity.

[1:03:44] Nik Walker: Okay.

[1:03:45] Jason A. Coombs: And it's basically taboo, but with musical theater characters.

[1:03:48] Nik Walker: So we're gonna, we're gonna, I don't know the game taboo.

[1:03:51] Kyle Scatliffe: What?

[1:03:52] Nik Walker: Oh, you don't?

[1:03:52] Kyle Scatliffe: This is gonna be exciting.

[1:03:53] Nik Walker: No.

[1:03:54] Kyle Scatliffe: Well, but I read the instructions.

[1:03:56] Nik Walker: Okay, good.

[1:03:57] Jason A. Coombs: This is exciting.

[1:03:59] Nik Walker: So yeah.

[1:04:00] Jason A. Coombs: So basically, we're gonna, you guys can pick one of us to be on your team. We're gonna compete against each other.

[1:04:05] Nik Walker: Okay.

[1:04:05] Jason A. Coombs: And then we're gonna read, we're gonna have a character in mind, and we're gonna just describe that character without saying the show they're from.

[1:04:12] Nik Walker: So if we were gonna do like Glinda, we would say, she's blonde, she loves pink, she's popular.

[1:04:18] Kyle Scatliffe: And then you have to be like Glenda.

[1:04:19] Nik Walker: Okay.

[1:04:20] Jason A. Coombs: And how many you can get in 30 seconds? We'll see who gets the most, and we'll be the winner.

[1:04:25] Nik Walker: Can you keep some Barbrianna?

[1:04:26] Jason A. Coombs: Please.

[1:04:28] Kyle Scatliffe: Will I will be the handicap because I do not know any musicals that I haven't been in.

[1:04:35] Nik Walker: Yeah, yeah, we're just gonna be.

[1:04:38] Jason A. Coombs: So I'm just gonna say that right now.

[1:04:42] Kyle Scatliffe: Just letting you know, but I'll try my best.

[1:04:46] Nik Walker: It's so funny though. Like sometimes you'll be like, I'll mention a show, and he goes, I don't know what that is.

[1:04:50] Kyle Scatliffe: What do you mean?

[1:04:51] Nik Walker: You know, you know?

[1:04:51] Kyle Scatliffe: No, I think you'll get these. These are good.

[1:04:53] Nik Walker: Okay.

[1:04:53] Jason A. Coombs: Let's try it.

[1:04:54] Nik Walker: Let's try.

[1:04:54] Jason A. Coombs: Let's try so.

[1:04:55] Nik Walker: Who's on whose team?

[1:04:56] Jason A. Coombs: I guess I'm going to go.

[1:04:57] Nik Walker: Yeah, you can, I did it so shady though.

[1:05:00] Jason A. Coombs: You guys can be together.

[1:05:02] Nik Walker: We got this.

[1:05:02] Kyle Scatliffe: We got it.

[1:05:03] Jason A. Coombs: Alright.

[1:05:04] Nik Walker: So should we go first?

[1:05:05] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah, you guys can go first.

[1:05:07] Nik Walker: Okay.

[1:05:07] Jason A. Coombs: Okay.

[1:05:08] Nik Walker: Brianna, go tell us when.

[1:05:09] Jason A. Coombs: Are you keeping time as well?

[1:05:12] Nik Walker: Is that okay?

[1:05:13] Jason A. Coombs: Do you mind?

[1:05:13] Nik Walker: Brianna, you're the best.

[1:05:14] Jason A. Coombs: 30 seconds.

[1:05:15] Nik Walker: Sorry to just get it.

[1:05:15] Kyle Scatliffe: Brown Sanchez, everybody.

[1:05:17] Nik Walker: Shout out to Owen M.

[1:05:18] Kyle Scatliffe: We love it.

[1:05:18] Nik Walker: Shout out to Owen M.

[1:05:20] Kyle Scatliffe: Killing him.

[1:05:22] Nik Walker: This is fun.

[1:05:23] Jason A. Coombs: Okay.

[1:05:23] Nik Walker: Let's try.

[1:05:24] Jason A. Coombs: Yep.

[1:05:24] Nik Walker: Yep.

[1:05:26] Jason A. Coombs: Okay.

[1:05:27] Nik Walker: Cynthia Erivo played her recently with Ariana Grande.

[1:05:30] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, Alpha Book?

[1:05:31] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[1:05:31] Jason A. Coombs: Good job, her.

[1:05:32] Nik Walker: Okay.

[1:05:32] Jason A. Coombs: You guys were in this show, and he was your arch nemesis.

[1:05:36] Kyle Scatliffe: Hamilton.

[1:05:37] Nik Walker: Yes.

[1:05:37] Jason A. Coombs: Okay.

[1:05:38] Nik Walker: Kyle was in this show with, and Hugh Jackman played this character.

[1:05:45] Kyle Scatliffe: Oklahoma.

[1:05:46] Nik Walker: No.

[1:05:46] Jason A. Coombs: It's a French Revolution.

[1:05:48] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, uh, the name is.

[1:05:50] Nik Walker: Oh, Hugh Jackman.

[1:05:51] Kyle Scatliffe: Jean Valjean.

[1:05:52] Nik Walker: Yep, yep, yep.

[1:05:53] Jason A. Coombs: Okay.

[1:05:54] Nik Walker: The demon.

[1:05:55] Jason A. Coombs: No, I can't say that, right?

[1:05:57] Kyle Scatliffe: Wow.

[1:05:57] Nik Walker: Wow.

[1:06:01] Jason A. Coombs: So that's our point.

[1:06:02] Nik Walker: I'm just gonna skip.

[1:06:05] Jason A. Coombs: The demon barber of Fleet Street.

[1:06:06] Nik Walker: We tried, we tried.

[1:06:09] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh god.

[1:06:09] Nik Walker: We'll see.

[1:06:10] Jason A. Coombs: Alright.

[1:06:11] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[1:06:12] Jason A. Coombs: This guy broke his arm and then he made up a whole line.

[1:06:15] Nik Walker: Good.

[1:06:15] Jason A. Coombs: In this show, you can ask this guy to give you three wishes.

[1:06:19] Nik Walker: Uh, he's big and blue.

[1:06:21] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh, yeah.

[1:06:23] Nik Walker: Um, ooh, this is way, way down.

[1:06:25] Jason A. Coombs: Uh, the lead in way down.

[1:06:29] Nik Walker: Dun dunna.

[1:06:31] Jason A. Coombs: Um, they just announced a new cast.

[1:06:33] Nik Walker: Jordan Tyson's gonna be in it as well.

[1:06:35] Jason A. Coombs: Oh god.

[1:06:36] Nik Walker: Okay, we're still in the past.

[1:06:38] Jason A. Coombs: Can we skip?

[1:06:39] Nik Walker: Okay, we're skipping.

[1:06:39] Jason A. Coombs: So in this, this character says, wait, what was that one?

[1:06:45] Nik Walker: Oh, I've not seen Hades.

[1:06:47] Jason A. Coombs: The only reason I know that is.

[1:06:51] Nik Walker: I've not seen it yet.

[1:06:54] Jason A. Coombs: Um, I'm so sorry.

[1:06:55] Nik Walker: Actually, more round?

[1:06:56] Jason A. Coombs: Is that fast?

[1:06:58] Nik Walker: Yes.

[1:06:58] Jason A. Coombs: Sure.

[1:06:59] Nik Walker: Yes.

[1:07:00] Jason A. Coombs: Do you guys have to go?

[1:07:00] Nik Walker: No, no.

[1:07:01] Jason A. Coombs: What time is it?

[1:07:02] Nik Walker: 12:16.

[1:07:03] Jason A. Coombs: Oh, yeah.

[1:07:03] Nik Walker: Oh, you're good.

[1:07:05] Jason A. Coombs: So far.

[1:07:06] Nik Walker: I would love to continue to play this game because now I'm tight that we were about to do that.

[1:07:09] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah, I'm sorry.

[1:07:10] Nik Walker: So is it 3-2?

[1:07:11] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah.

[1:07:12] Nik Walker: That's crazy.

[1:07:14] Jason A. Coombs: Yes.

[1:07:16] Nik Walker: Shout out Josh Collie.

[1:07:18] Jason A. Coombs: Okay.

[1:07:18] Nik Walker: So this is a city in the United States, and it's the 1920s, and uh Chicago.

[1:07:24] Kyle Scatliffe: Yes.

[1:07:25] Nik Walker: And who was the lead?

[1:07:25] Jason A. Coombs: The blonde?

[1:07:27] Kyle Scatliffe: Roxy Hart?

[1:07:28] Nik Walker: Yes.

[1:07:28] Jason A. Coombs: Okay, this is you in your show currently.

[1:07:31] Kyle Scatliffe: Phantom.

[1:07:31] Nik Walker: Yes.

[1:07:33] Jason A. Coombs: These are a religious people.

[1:07:35] Kyle Scatliffe: Book of Mormon.

[1:07:36] Nik Walker: Yep.

[1:07:36] Jason A. Coombs: And who is the name of the, which one?

[1:07:38] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh, uh, Andrew Rannells or Josh Gad.

[1:07:41] Nik Walker: I don't know which one is this.

[1:07:42] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh, Elder Price?

[1:07:43] Nik Walker: Yes.

[1:07:44] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah.

[1:07:45] Nik Walker: Okay.

[1:07:45] Jason A. Coombs: So this is, um, she bakes.

[1:07:48] Nik Walker: Damn, really?

[1:07:49] Jason A. Coombs: That's so quick.

[1:07:50] Nik Walker: Okay.

[1:07:50] Jason A. Coombs: 30 seconds is fast.

[1:07:51] Nik Walker: I'll take it.

[1:07:53] Jason A. Coombs: Alright.

[1:07:53] Nik Walker: We're locking in.

[1:07:54] Jason A. Coombs: We're locking.

[1:07:55] Nik Walker: I'm ready.

[1:07:57] Jason A. Coombs: She bakes pies and then eventually puts the pies.

[1:07:59] Nik Walker: Oh, Jenna.

[1:08:00] Jason A. Coombs: No, no, she bakes pies and then they put people in them.

[1:08:02] Nik Walker: Oh, oh, sorry.

[1:08:03] Jason A. Coombs: Um, Mrs. Lovett.

[1:08:03] Nik Walker: Um, and in, oh, uh, Germany and he says, Vilcom.

[1:08:08] Jason A. Coombs: Is that, oh, uh, the, the, oh my god, what'd they call him?

[1:08:11] Nik Walker: Yeah, um, like the person.

[1:08:13] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah, but the person who like does the show, who's like the head person in the show.

[1:08:17] Nik Walker: Oh god, I'm in shock I've never won't feel calm and cap and new Velcro.

[1:08:22] Jason A. Coombs: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:08:23] Nik Walker: Great.

[1:08:23] Jason A. Coombs: Um, but we're skipping.

[1:08:24] Nik Walker: Okay, uh, Nick played this in a show you guys were in together.

[1:08:27] Jason A. Coombs: He understudied it first in Broadway.

[1:08:29] Nik Walker: Yes.

[1:08:30] Jason A. Coombs: Time?

[1:08:31] Nik Walker: Jesus.

[1:08:32] Jason A. Coombs: I'm sorry.

[1:08:32] Nik Walker: Actually in shock.

[1:08:33] Kyle Scatliffe: I, the MC!

[1:08:36] Nik Walker: Now I have to tell you, I have never watched the entirety of Cabaret.

[1:08:40] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh Jesus.

[1:08:42] Nik Walker: So I've gotten two shows that I've not actually didn't know things.

[1:08:46] Kyle Scatliffe: I'm like, I have not seen it.

[1:08:49] Nik Walker: Wait, but you know what the thing is? I know about shows that I also can be in.

[1:08:53] Kyle Scatliffe: Gotcha.

[1:08:54] Nik Walker: So Cabaret, I'm like, well, I'll never do this.

[1:08:57] Kyle Scatliffe: That's the reason.

[1:08:58] Nik Walker: Yeah, and that's why even like Pony's time, I'm like, I don't know if I'll ever be in this.

[1:09:02] Kyle Scatliffe: I've never seen it.

[1:09:03] Nik Walker: Whatever.

[1:09:04] Kyle Scatliffe: You're great.

[1:09:04] Nik Walker: You killed it.

[1:09:05] Kyle Scatliffe: That is funny.

[1:09:07] Nik Walker: Four, six.

[1:09:08] Jason A. Coombs: Alright, that's one more.

[1:09:10] Nik Walker: One last one.

[1:09:10] Jason A. Coombs: One last one.

[1:09:11] Nik Walker: I still think that's a good one.

[1:09:11] Kyle Scatliffe: Kyle, pull ahead.

[1:09:12] Nik Walker: Pull ahead, Kyle.

[1:09:13] Kyle Scatliffe: Come on.

[1:09:13] Nik Walker: Yeah, we got it.

[1:09:14] Jason A. Coombs: I still think we're doing a really good job.

[1:09:16] Nik Walker: You are.

[1:09:17] Kyle Scatliffe: I like fear that my clues aren't good enough, and I'm so sorry.

[1:09:20] Nik Walker: They're great clues.

[1:09:21] Kyle Scatliffe: It's hard.

[1:09:21] Nik Walker: It's a hard game.

[1:09:22] Kyle Scatliffe: I just couldn't remember the words M and C.

[1:09:24] Nik Walker: I know.

[1:09:24] Kyle Scatliffe: I was gonna kind of say it's a letter, but then I couldn't find the words.

[1:09:27] Nik Walker: And I knew we would get burr, so I had to skip.

[1:09:30] Jason A. Coombs: Okay, go ahead.

[1:09:30] Nik Walker: Go ahead.

[1:09:32] Jason A. Coombs: Oh, okay.

[1:09:33] Nik Walker: So this is another show that you were in, and uh Crystal played her sister.

[1:09:38] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, uh Eliza, uh Angela Angelica.

[1:09:41] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[1:09:41] Jason A. Coombs: Okay, uh Lynn Manuel played this character in a Latin musical.

[1:09:45] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh Usnabi?

[1:09:47] Nik Walker: Yes.

[1:09:48] Jason A. Coombs: Okay.

[1:09:48] Nik Walker: Um, Jennifer Hudson played the lead role.

[1:09:50] Jason A. Coombs: She won an Oscar.

[1:09:51] Nik Walker: Effie?

[1:09:52] Jason A. Coombs: Yes.

[1:09:53] Nik Walker: Okay, Kyle was in this show, and Jennifer Hudson also was in this show.

[1:09:57] Jason A. Coombs: Uh Color Purple, and what, what whose character?

[1:10:00] Nik Walker: Um, Jennifer Hudson's character, I believe.

[1:10:02] Jason A. Coombs: Uh, she played, um, don't get it.

[1:10:05] Nik Walker: Yeah!

[1:10:06] Jason A. Coombs: Dang!

[1:10:07] Nik Walker: Should Gabriel She gave.

[1:10:10] Jason A. Coombs: That's the point of her back to back.

[1:10:11] Nik Walker: I'm saying what do you mean?

[1:10:13] Jason A. Coombs: Okay, okay, you have how many now?

[1:10:15] Nik Walker: Seven?

[1:10:16] Jason A. Coombs: Eight?

[1:10:17] Nik Walker: Oh, we're nine.

[1:10:17] Jason A. Coombs: They have nine.

[1:10:18] Nik Walker: We're coming.

[1:10:19] Jason A. Coombs: Catch up.

[1:10:20] Nik Walker: Catch up.

[1:10:23] Jason A. Coombs: This show is about something you put for your hair products.

[1:10:26] Nik Walker: And the part is, but the part is the lead girl.

[1:10:29] Jason A. Coombs: And Mursa Jaron Winnaker played.

[1:10:31] Nik Walker: Yes, okay, great.

[1:10:33] Jason A. Coombs: I'm skipping.

[1:10:34] Nik Walker: In a show playing right now on Broadway at Lincoln Center, the lead man.

[1:10:39] Jason A. Coombs: Oh, Colehouse Walker Jr.

[1:10:41] Nik Walker: Okay, great.

[1:10:41] Jason A. Coombs: And also in a show at Lincoln Center, uh the lead woman.

[1:10:44] Nik Walker: Mother.

[1:10:45] Jason A. Coombs: Oh, and in the show that Jonathan Larson wrote.

[1:10:48] Nik Walker: And then it was.

[1:10:48] Jason A. Coombs: Yes, and then the guy who collected the rent.

[1:10:52] Nik Walker: Oh, but yes.

[1:10:56] Jason A. Coombs: That was great.

[1:10:59] Nik Walker: Yeah, I got four that time, right?

[1:11:00] Jason A. Coombs: So it was eight, nine.

[1:11:02] Nik Walker: Damn.

[1:11:02] Jason A. Coombs: Soundclaws.

[1:11:04] Nik Walker: I locked in.

[1:11:04] Jason A. Coombs: I was like, lock it, lock it, lock it.

[1:11:06] Nik Walker: What was the one you skipped?

[1:11:08] Jason A. Coombs: I skipped two that I knew I wasn't gonna.

[1:11:10] Nik Walker: I skipped Pippin for the leading player, and I skipped Timon on Once on this Island because I, I wasn't gonna.

[1:11:15] Jason A. Coombs: Thank you for skipping.

[1:11:17] Nik Walker: I didn't think you would.

[1:11:18] Jason A. Coombs: Timon and I might have gotten the rest, the other one.

[1:11:20] Nik Walker: Leading player.

[1:11:22] Jason A. Coombs: I'd be like, I don't know.

[1:11:23] Nik Walker: I made the single single.

[1:11:27] Jason A. Coombs: And then we had Mimi Marquez and Mama Rose, which we would have gotten.

[1:11:30] Nik Walker: Oh, Mimi, yeah.

[1:11:31] Jason A. Coombs: Good old.

[1:11:32] Nik Walker: Good job, Jason and Nick.

[1:11:33] Jason A. Coombs: Congratulations on winning the game.

[1:11:36] Nik Walker: We did it.

[1:11:36] Jason A. Coombs: Everyone's a winner.

[1:11:37] Nik Walker: Come on, everyone's a winner.

[1:11:39] Jason A. Coombs: Before we end this amazing episode, please let our listeners know where they can follow you on social media and keep up with all of the things.

[1:11:45] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh, I am Sir Blacklot on Instagram.

[1:11:49] Nik Walker: Yes, yes, that really is my name.

[1:11:50] Kyle Scatliffe: I love that.

[1:11:51] Nik Walker: It's a joke name I got from when I was a younger man and I kept it with me.

[1:11:55] Kyle Scatliffe: I even named my company that.

[1:11:56] Nik Walker: So it's Mr. Black Light.

[1:11:58] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, that's, that's escort.

[1:11:59] Nik Walker: Yeah, my S Corp is called Sir Black Lot Incorporated.

[1:12:03] Kyle Scatliffe: Which makes me laugh because every time someone has to actually write it down, I look at them like just like, yeah, writing.

[1:12:09] Nik Walker: Come on.

[1:12:10] Kyle Scatliffe: Chaos.

[1:12:10] Nik Walker: My S Corp is all Tarantino characters.

[1:12:13] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, is it?

[1:12:13] Nik Walker: It's Warren Kidd O Vega.

[1:12:15] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh, that's fantastic.

[1:12:17] Nik Walker: It's absolutely ridiculous.

[1:12:18] Kyle Scatliffe: Uh, I'm at Nikki Walks on the Instagram and the threads.

[1:12:24] Nik Walker: Uh, yeah, and you can, you know, just come see Masquerade or go see Masquerade and what these are raiders.

[1:12:30] Kyle Scatliffe: I don't think they can tell.

[1:12:33] Nik Walker: Are you allowed?

[1:12:33] Kyle Scatliffe: Well, here's the, I mean, are we allowed to say that?

[1:12:36] Nik Walker: Here's what people know.

[1:12:40] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, people tend to.

[1:12:42] Nik Walker: If you, if you go, here's what I'll say. If you go on the Reddits, they have a full printout.

[1:12:47] Kyle Scatliffe: There we have some amazing fans who have literally, like they, they knew the building's layout within a week.

[1:12:53] Nik Walker: Oh, yeah, within a week.

[1:12:54] Kyle Scatliffe: So, uh, you know, shout out to Flagbridge, set out all the old, the amazing people.

[1:12:58] Nik Walker: Like any of like if you go masquerade Reddit, you'll find the time pulse.

[1:13:04] Kyle Scatliffe: Our time pulse, the pulses.

[1:13:05] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[1:13:05] Kyle Scatliffe: But I think you should go see it six times, honestly.

[1:13:07] Nik Walker: You should.

[1:13:08] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah.

[1:13:08] Nik Walker: I can't wait to see it again.

[1:13:09] Kyle Scatliffe: I'm trying.

[1:13:10] Nik Walker: Immersive theater is something I, again, I think it has its own, you know, preconceived notions that people bring with it.

[1:13:17] Kyle Scatliffe: But like this show in particular is just, even if you're not a phantom fan, even if you're just like looking to see just how the hell did they pull that off.

[1:13:26] Nik Walker: I'm still, I still can't understand.

[1:13:29] Kyle Scatliffe: There's a lot of really, a lot of really good.

[1:13:32] Nik Walker: I also, I can't understand how we're at the bar, but it's also the phantom county.

[1:13:36] Kyle Scatliffe: It just, sorry, shout out to our crew twice.

[1:13:40] Nik Walker: Our crew is killing.

[1:13:41] Kyle Scatliffe: And to our designers.

[1:13:42] Nik Walker: Go see Masquerade.

[1:13:47] Kyle Scatliffe: I didn't even know.

[1:13:48] Nik Walker: Here's the secret.

[1:13:49] Kyle Scatliffe: Yeah, you guys, that's, this is an incentive.

[1:13:51] Nik Walker: You get a free glass champagne.

[1:13:52] Kyle Scatliffe: Did not know that.

[1:13:54] Nik Walker: I had no idea that you, that they were handing out like shots.

[1:13:56] Kyle Scatliffe: And I, when I first did it, I was like, the shot is kind of funky, but I took it.

[1:14:01] Nik Walker: Listen, man, that's that carnival.

[1:14:02] Kyle Scatliffe: You know what I mean?

[1:14:03] Nik Walker: That carnival is a good one.

[1:14:04] Kyle Scatliffe: And I think they, and then I think I ate popcorn.

[1:14:06] Nik Walker: Yeah.

[1:14:06] Kyle Scatliffe: I spit it out because I thought I, I did, I'm sorry.

[1:14:09] Nik Walker: No, no.

[1:14:10] Kyle Scatliffe: I think I spit the popcorn out because I was very confused.

[1:14:13] Nik Walker: I thought it was liquid and I was like, what if I got a, I got a cloak to go outside?

[1:14:19] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh yeah, yeah.

[1:14:21] Nik Walker: You get a little shawl.

[1:14:24] Kyle Scatliffe: Go see Masquerade, people. Masquerade.

[1:14:26] Nik Walker: If you don't follow us yet, follow us at Survival Jobs Pod on Instagram and TikTok.

[1:14:30] Kyle Scatliffe: Follow my boy Jason at Jason A. Coombs and me at Sammy Tutts.

[1:14:34] Nik Walker: You guys, this was so fun.

[1:14:35] Kyle Scatliffe: I know that.

[1:14:36] Nik Walker: Thank you for having me.

[1:14:37] Kyle Scatliffe: Oh my god, thank you for being here when you have to go be the Phantom tonight.

[1:14:43] Nik Walker: Yeah, we do.

[1:14:47] Kyle Scatliffe: Bye everybody.

[1:14:48] Nik Walker: Oh my god, I'm stuck.

[1:14:49] Kyle Scatliffe: Guys, that was fun.