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[0:03] Joshua Turchin: Hello and welcome to The Early Night Show live from the Broadway Makers Marketplace here in Turnstyle Underground in the heart of New York City.

[0:14] Joshua Turchin: My name is Joshua Turchin, and we're so excited to have you all here.

[0:30] Joshua Turchin: But it's just a bunch of dogs. Like, look at this. Um, it's absolutely adorable, and they have so many incredible stickers, dolls, uh, signed posters, signed playbills, anything you could think of, they sell here.

[0:44] Joshua Turchin: Broadway edition, of course. Now, um, quickly before we get started, I just want to say thank you guys for being here throughout the quarantine throughout the pandemic, because this is one of the first times we've ever tried it like this.

[0:59] Joshua Turchin: This is a brand new format for us. We've never had really a live audience before, and then also filming it and posting that online. So we're really excited to be doing that.

[1:09] Joshua Turchin: I'm also really excited because I'm gonna be releasing a brand new song on April 2nd called "Does It Make You Feel Better." I wrote it with the incredible Victoria Shaw.

[1:18] Joshua Turchin: Um, I'm so honored that I was able to work with her on the song. Um, it's really about sticking up for yourself and asking that big old question, because we all have bullies in life.

[1:31] Joshua Turchin: Um, just asking them doesn't make you feel better. Uh, this is a little snippet of the song, and you can hear the rest of it when it drops on April 2nd.

[1:31] Joshua Turchin: Doesn't make you feel better knowing that someone else feels so bad that's so sad.

[2:12] Joshua Turchin: I think it must be exhausting carrying all that hate inside.

[2:21] Joshua Turchin: Can you tell me why when you make somebody cry doesn't make you feel better?

[2:21] Joshua Turchin: Doesn't make you feel better. And you can hear the rest of that when it drops on April 2nd. I'm really excited.

[2:53] Joshua Turchin: Um, I was here at the Broadway Makers Marketplace the other day, and I was, you know, performing on the piano, and I realized something.

[3:10] Joshua Turchin: Les Mis is only made up of six chords, only six chords, and those six chords are heard throughout the music industry in various songs.

[3:20] Joshua Turchin: For example, we're all in this together.

[3:31] Joshua Turchin: Once you know who we are, we're all stars, and we'll see that.

[3:36] Joshua Turchin: I dreamed a dream of life gone by. It's the same thing.

[3:49] Joshua Turchin: But then you listen to this, it's also this.

[3:54] Joshua Turchin: Everywhere you go, everywhere there's a heart, there's a heart handle.

[4:00] Joshua Turchin: It's literally those three songs, um, which I find also really interesting because again, Les Mis was made in the eighties, so I'm wondering if Les Mis took a bit or "Full House" took a bit from Les Mis.

[4:15] Joshua Turchin: It is entirely possible that that could have happened.

[4:19] Joshua Turchin: Uh, now, um, here's one of my favorite songs to play here at the Broadway Makers Marketplace.

[4:24] Joshua Turchin: Um, it's a song about hope, resilience, and best of all, it's a Disney song.

[4:29] Joshua Turchin: Um, I first learned it in the middle of quarantine when what we really needed was to stay strong, stay resilient, and maintain hope.

[4:43] Joshua Turchin: Um, this is "Go the Distance" from Hercules. It was written by um David Zippel and Alan Menken. I hope you all like it.

[5:09] ♪ Musical number: "Go the Distance" — performed by Joshua Turchin ♪

[6:59] Joshua Turchin: Thank you! We have a great show for you all, and we have one of our first guests, the incredible Max Bartos!

[6:59] Joshua Turchin: Like I present you "Phantom" except in style. It's an eighties ballad, it's an eighties, I said common open, it's him, the Phantom of the Opera.

[8:49] Joshua Turchin: Sing for me, my angel of music.

[8:51] Joshua Turchin: It's him, the Phantom of the Opera.

[8:56] Joshua Turchin: Sing.

[8:59] Joshua Turchin: Wait then.

[9:01] Joshua Turchin: And then the sing for me is a saxophone solo, so it goes.

[9:07] Joshua Turchin: Play for me, my angel of music.

[9:21] Joshua Turchin: Sing for me.

[9:28] Joshua Turchin: Wait, sha la la. No.

[9:32] Joshua Turchin: You can add, okay, quick, quick thing. You can add sha la la onto anything and play everything very slowly, and it sounds like an eighties ballad. For example.

[9:42] Joshua Turchin: What were, what's your favorite show?

[9:50] Max Bartos: Little Shop.

[9:51] Joshua Turchin: Okay.

[9:52] Max Bartos: Seymour.

[9:53] Joshua Turchin: Listen, listen, with "Suddenly, Seymour."

[9:55] Joshua Turchin: It's like, and then you have the drums in the background.

[10:09] Joshua Turchin: Boom, but boom, boom, but day in the Seymour.

[10:27] Joshua Turchin: You don't need no makeup.

[10:30] Joshua Turchin: You don't need no makeup.

[10:33] Joshua Turchin: Don't have to pretend.

[10:39] Joshua Turchin: Suddenly, Seymour.

[10:41] Joshua Turchin: And then you get a shot of them running to like go onto a picnic ground.

[10:45] Joshua Turchin: It's here to provide you.

[10:48] Joshua Turchin: It's them running with their family on a swing set.

[10:51] Joshua Turchin: Sweet understanding.

[10:54] Joshua Turchin: Now they're trying to set up the swing set, but it breaks.

[11:02] Joshua Turchin: Sha la la la.

[11:05] Joshua Turchin: It works with every song.

[11:07] Joshua Turchin: Oh, here's another one.

[11:08] Joshua Turchin: Um, I'm actually thinking of doing this one as a TikTok, ready.

[11:12] Joshua Turchin: Um, the gates and seize the day.

[11:24] Joshua Turchin: Don't be afraid and don't delay.

[11:29] Joshua Turchin: Nothing can break us.

[11:32] Joshua Turchin: No one can make us give our eyes away.

[11:38] Joshua Turchin: Oh no, rise in season.

[11:46] Joshua Turchin: Sha la la.

[11:49] Joshua Turchin: Presenting Max Bartos!

[11:52] Max Bartos: Hello.

[11:52] Max Bartos: Hi.

[11:54] Joshua Turchin: So Max, I'm so happy to have you here at the marketplace today.

[11:57] Max Bartos: Yes, thank literally thank you so much for having me.

[11:59] Joshua Turchin: Hey, so what is your favorite thing in the marketplace?

[12:03] Max Bartos: Um, you're not allowed to say the phantom mask, because I know you're gonna say the phantom mask.

[12:07] Max Bartos: It's gonna, I, you know, I, it's gonna be something with Phantom, I feel honestly.

[12:12] Max Bartos: I know this is gonna be like the eye roll answer, but honestly, just the atmosphere.

[12:16] Joshua Turchin: No, I mean you're right. It is one of the most incredible places here in New York City, in my opinion, at least.

[12:22] Max Bartos: And hopefully in your street.

[12:23] Audrey Bennett: Oh my gosh, yes.

[12:24] Max Bartos: Um, they have literally everything you can literally ever imagine. Uh they have stickers, they have Broadway themed dolls, they have the perfect fit merch.

[12:34] Joshua Turchin: Yes.

[12:35] Max Bartos: Listen to his musical. It's very good. Uh um, it's on everywhere. You can listen to my music on every major music platform.

[12:41] Joshua Turchin: But let's talk about your music though.

[12:43] Max Bartos: Oh, yeah. Because you have a band, right?

[12:44] Joshua Turchin: I do, yes.

[12:45] Max Bartos: What is your band called?

[12:46] Joshua Turchin: We're called My Ex-Girlfriend's Ex-Boyfriend.

[12:49] Max Bartos: Oh.

[12:49] Joshua Turchin: Yeah, it's a long name, but I love it.

[12:52] Max Bartos: And uh it gets that reaction every single time we say it. It's great.

[12:56] Joshua Turchin: Uh do you guys like play your own music? Do you do covers?

[12:58] Max Bartos: Like what yeah, we um so we we're we're an original music band, we write all of our songs. Um I mean, we're just a group of friends, it's just like playing music together, and it's just incredible that you know we've decided to like make it a thing, and you know, we're recording our debut album right now, which is really cool.

[13:17] Joshua Turchin: Um, it's really fun.

[13:19] Max Bartos: I'm the lead singer and rhythm guitarist. Um, so it's amazing. And you know, my Bailey and Sean are just like the coolest dudes in the world, and I'm just so lucky to be in a group with them.

[13:30] Joshua Turchin: So, but yeah, we've been playing a lot of gigs, and you know, it's been fun. I think Eyeliner is like permanently stained on my eyes now from all the shows we're playing, but no, it's a really, really great time.

[13:42] Joshua Turchin: Okay, that that is really, really cool. And then like where can we listen to your band's music uh when it comes out?

[13:49] Max Bartos: Yes, much like uh Josh, uh all major music platforms, Spotify, Apple, everywhere. Um we actually have a couple stuff out right now. It's just like demos that we did and then put it on Spotify.

[14:02] Joshua Turchin: Um, but we have our EP called Pilot, which has our song Bail Me Out and Blood and Water on it.

[14:09] Joshua Turchin: What is your favorite song you've written?

[14:11] Max Bartos: Do you're get yeah, uh I wrote a song called Fancy.

[14:16] Max Bartos: And it's basically talking about how much I feel like the Phantom of the Opera at moments.

[14:23] Max Bartos: Yeah, um, Body Dysmorphy is super fun to have. So, you know, feeling ugly and stuff, and then just putting that all into music and you know, channeling it um all there.

[14:34] Max Bartos: And um, yeah, I wrote that song, and there's a c for any Phantom fans out there, um, there's some fun Easter eggs that I put in there.

[14:41] Max Bartos: Um we we actually just recorded our our like new version of it. It's oh it's so cool.

[14:50] Joshua Turchin: I need to listen to that.

[14:51] Joshua Turchin: And then on top of your band, you have a production company.

[14:54] Max Bartos: That I do, yeah. Bartest Theatrical group. We actually just um we actually just uh I forget what the exact title is. I think it's Associate Produced, but we just um associate produced to the um the new Assassin's Cast album that just came out with um uh off Broadway.

[15:08] Joshua Turchin: Yeah, that is amazing, yeah.

[15:10] Max Bartos: It was so cool.

[15:11] Max Bartos: Yeah, they let me listen in to like the um the listening uh to the actual like recording session, and it was like I was nerding out.

[15:17] Max Bartos: I was like, that's Stephen Pasqual's voice, oh my god. Like, it was so cool.

[15:21] Joshua Turchin: That sounds like an incredible experience.

[15:24] Max Bartos: Yeah.

[15:24] Joshua Turchin: Uh what has your production company like produced so far?

[15:27] Max Bartos: So we've done a lot, a lot of stuff. Um like on my end, um, I have done in 2019, we licensed uh Edges by Pascal Paul through uh MTI and we did that for two sold-out crowds.

[15:43] Max Bartos: It was amazing. Um and then because of COVID, um, I was like, I want to still be creating art even in this downtime of you know awfulness.

[15:54] Max Bartos: But um so I actually organized two completely COVID safe concerts where I remember we we bought like bulk like lawn flags from Amazon and like we put flags in like six feet apart on the ground and this was like after the vaccine was out and everything so like you had to be vaccinated to go you had to have masks on and everything but we we did two of them um one was in person one was online and one was for um uh donations for the NAACP legal defense fund and we raised over a thousand dollars in one night for that and then the other one that we did was um it it was called 2020 hindsight and it was like the song you you sing the song that got you through 2020 and um we we raised a lot of money for this um group called Avidum which is um mental health advocacy in teenagers which was amazing and then most recently we licensed American Idiot um where I directed choreographed uh music directed uh set design set built lighting design I played Johnny which was really cool.

[15:54] Joshua Turchin: What was the set like? We're getting exclusive pictures.

[15:54] Max Bartos: It was the cool it was the most amazing experience of my entire life and um it you know lur it taught me so much about I mean it's clearly the so the subway station agrees with me yeah um but it taught me so much about you know what it is about the acting process and the um and just about all facets of theater but this was um a picture that was taken of me doing Boulevard of Broken Dreams which was really cool um my friend um Mio Rossi took that photo and it was amazing.

[17:34] Max Bartos: Um but yeah, that's kind of what I've been up to, just doing production company and stuff.

[17:45] Max Bartos: Um Yeah, and uh, you know, just gotta keep creating stuff and you know.

[17:52] Joshua Turchin: And of course, you know, Sing Street uh was 2020, made my Broadway debut in that, which was incredible.

[17:52] Joshua Turchin: Um where where can we like follow you on all of your musical adventures?

[17:57] Max Bartos: My musical adventures. I that is gonna be the name of my autobiography, so thank you for that. Max Bartos' fabulous music adventures.

[18:02] Max Bartos: Um my Instagram, uh, it's my name, at Max underscore Bartos.

[18:07] Max Bartos: Um I you see, I'm like a grandfather on social media. I have no clue what's happening.

[18:11] Max Bartos: So like I didn't know TikTok was a thing until like a year ago.

[18:15] Joshua Turchin: My heart.

[18:16] Max Bartos: I didn't know TikTok was a thing until like a year ago.

[18:18] Joshua Turchin: So I don't have a TikTok, but my band does.

[18:20] Max Bartos: And we just hit, I think like 13,000 followers, which is crazy.

[18:24] Max Bartos: So uh it's official MXGFXBF, my ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.

[18:30] Joshua Turchin: Um so head up and follow us over there.

[18:32] Max Bartos: Uh I'm on Twitter too. I post some really funny stuff.

[18:35] Joshua Turchin: Um yeah.

[18:36] Max Bartos: You're good.

[18:37] Joshua Turchin: I'm so sorry.

[18:38] Max Bartos: No, I'm literally the same way.

[18:39] Joshua Turchin: Like when I have voice lessons with my voice teacher, I'm constantly yawning.

[18:42] Joshua Turchin: And I'm like, I'm so sorry. It is not anything bad.

[18:45] Max Bartos: It's literally just yawning.

[18:47] Joshua Turchin: So it's I'm I'm I'm in the same boat as you.

[18:50] Max Bartos: But yeah, that's where you can find me.

[18:52] Joshua Turchin: Yay.

[18:52] Joshua Turchin: So what song would you like to sing for us today and why?

[18:55] Max Bartos: I think I may be able to guess.

[18:58] Joshua Turchin: Okay, wait, hold on. Does uh does this have something to do with it?

[19:02] Max Bartos: I've never seen this before in my life. What is this?

[19:04] Joshua Turchin: I don't know what this show this is.

[19:05] Max Bartos: Yes, I'll be singing music of the night from uh Phantom of the Opera, which is oh it's definitely The Mask is coming off.

[19:14] Joshua Turchin: Yes.

[19:14] Max Bartos: Oh yes.

[19:16] Max Bartos: But yeah, it's um the Phantom is just my favorite thing of all time.

[19:21] Max Bartos: Yeah, I I I literally have a Phantom of the Opera tattoo. It's like my um, you know, it's but I I went back to Pennsylvania after um Broadway shut down, and I um, you know, I I just moved back to New York a couple months ago, and like Phantom has always been kind of this like comfort blanket for me, and I have been seeing it a lot lately because you know it's super crazy times and stuff, so but yeah, you know, and the Phantom is like my dream role of all dream roles.

[19:48] Joshua Turchin: Like I I I was like, I need to play that role so that you would be so good as the Phantom.

[19:53] Max Bartos: Thank you. I mean, I like I said, I empathize a lot with with the character, so I I would love to I would like it's gotten to the point, Josh, where I'll see the show and I'll just start bawling during the final layer to the point that like people next to me are like, are you okay? And I'm like, no.

[20:04] Joshua Turchin: No, now that does uh that does raise a question.

[20:09] Joshua Turchin: Um how do you feel about Love Never Dies?

[20:12] Max Bartos: Till I Hear You Sing is a great song.

[20:14] Max Bartos: Till I Hear You Sing is a great song.

[20:17] Max Bartos: It's a great song.

[20:18] Max Bartos: And that is where I will leave it.

[20:21] Joshua Turchin: I it um yeah, it's a show.

[20:24] Max Bartos: It is a sh it is a musical.

[20:27] Joshua Turchin: Yes.

[20:28] Max Bartos: Yeah, and also a quick thing before we get into your song.

[20:31] Joshua Turchin: You've I you've probably noticed that in literally every Angelo Weber show, there's this one rock number.

[20:38] Max Bartos: Yeah, just out of nowhere.

[20:40] Joshua Turchin: Yeah.

[20:40] Max Bartos: Like Phantom the Opera has

[20:45] Joshua Turchin: Yeah.

[20:45] Max Bartos: And like this eight, it's like these eighties rock ballads, and then Love Never Dies has what's the beauty underneath.

[20:52] Joshua Turchin: Uh Joseph.

[20:53] Max Bartos: What does that have?

[20:54] Joshua Turchin: Joseph has every like they have like multiple rock numbers.

[20:58] Max Bartos: School of Rock is the entire show.

[20:59] Joshua Turchin: School of Rock.

[21:00] Max Bartos: Well, no, no, no. School of Rock has one classical number.

[21:02] Joshua Turchin: Yeah, they yeah, they inverted that.

[21:04] Max Bartos: They inverted it.

[21:05] Joshua Turchin: I think what else?

[21:06] Max Bartos: Oh, imagine just in Sunset Boulevard, like It's almost as if we never said good Bahenset is one random hard rock number.

[21:20] Joshua Turchin: Like thrash metal.

[21:21] Max Bartos: Glenn Close would never.

[21:21] Joshua Turchin: Glenn Close would absolutely sing bullets.

[21:32] Max Bartos: What's the song?

[21:32] Joshua Turchin: Um wait.

[21:35] Max Bartos: Wait.

[21:35] Joshua Turchin: I'm ready for my close up.

[21:37] Max Bartos: And then it's just like bells like metallica level stuff going on.

[21:44] Joshua Turchin: Yeah, and then um, yeah, that does give me an idea for something we can quickly do.

[21:49] Max Bartos: Yes.

[21:49] Joshua Turchin: Do I I think we need to also do another revival of Sunset Boulevard but make it all punk rock?

[21:54] Max Bartos: That would be incredible.

[21:55] Joshua Turchin: Uh do you want to play a quick game?

[21:57] Max Bartos: Yeah.

[21:57] Joshua Turchin: Do you want to do a style swap?

[21:59] Max Bartos: Yes.

[22:00] Joshua Turchin: Okay, so um, Audrey, you're welcome to come up here too.

[22:04] Max Bartos: Come on up.

[22:05] Joshua Turchin: Uh so a style swap. You all have to yell out musical styles, and we all have to kind of uh adjust it.

[22:13] Max Bartos: Audrey, your mic.

[22:14] Joshua Turchin: Oh yeah, your mic.

[22:15] Max Bartos: She's going.

[22:16] Joshua Turchin: Wait.

[22:19] Max Bartos: She got the mic.

[22:22] Joshua Turchin: Yay!

[22:23] Max Bartos: Okay, so what song do you want to do as a style swap?

[22:27] Audrey Bennett: Uh I'm really indecisive, so somebody, somebody pick for me.

[22:31] Joshua Turchin: Do we have um yell out a shit?

[22:35] Max Bartos: We can do just yell at a random show.

[22:37] Joshua Turchin: Uh um, be more chill.

[22:39] Max Bartos: Oh my gosh, I love it.

[22:39] Joshua Turchin: Michael in the bathroom.

[22:40] Max Bartos: Oh yes!

[22:42] Joshua Turchin: Okay, so do we do we each take turns?

[22:44] Max Bartos: I think we each do a sort of thing.

[22:45] Joshua Turchin: Right, so we'll we'll each get like eight bars.

[22:48] Max Bartos: Cool.

[22:49] Joshua Turchin: Okay. Alright, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

[22:52] Max Bartos: Yep, we're perfect. Eight bars.

[22:54] Joshua Turchin: Now, uh, we're gonna start off with normal.

[23:01] Max Bartos: We need a style.

[23:02] Joshua Turchin: Some yellow style.

[23:05] Max Bartos: What?

[23:06] Joshua Turchin: Polka.

[23:07] Max Bartos: Okay, um bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.

[23:10] Joshua Turchin: Okay, here we go.

[23:12] Max Bartos: Hanging in the bathroom at the biggest party of the ball.

[23:17] Max Bartos: I can stay right here or disappear, and nobody'd even notice that all.

[23:22] Joshua Turchin: We're we're going weird out on this.

[23:26] Max Bartos: On the corner.

[23:27] Joshua Turchin: Dun dun dun dun dun down dun dun dun dun dun wait.

[23:31] Max Bartos: It's like a Jacob Collier version.

[23:33] Joshua Turchin: Yep.

[23:35] Joshua Turchin: Wouldn't it be another style?

[23:37] Max Bartos: What?

[23:38] Joshua Turchin: Okay.

[23:39] Max Bartos: Uh Max, do you want to take this one?

[23:41] Max Bartos: Sure.

[23:44] Max Bartos: I'm a creeper in a bathroom.

[23:49] Max Bartos: Cause my buddy kinda left me alone.

[23:53] Max Bartos: But I'd rather think we extend awkwardly.

[24:03] Joshua Turchin: I don't know how to do that.

[24:05] Max Bartos: Style.

[24:06] Joshua Turchin: Um, Billy Eyelish, okay, right?

[24:08] Max Bartos: Alright, yeah.

[24:10] Joshua Turchin: Right.

[24:12] Max Bartos: Wait, wait, what's your style go?

[24:14] Max Bartos: It's like you have to use like strings.

[24:17] Max Bartos: It's like she has like whispering over all of her side.

[24:21] Joshua Turchin: Yeah.

[24:22] Max Bartos: Oh yeah.

[24:22] Joshua Turchin: So we oh done.

[24:23] Max Bartos: Okay, we got to.

[24:41] Max Bartos: I don't even know if the brand. There's no other half thing.

[24:49] Audrey Bennett: Musical broad classic Broadway?

[24:52] Max Bartos: No music hall.

[24:53] Audrey Bennett: What?

[24:54] Max Bartos: Either call?

[24:55] Audrey Bennett: Music hall?

[24:56] Max Bartos: Musical.

[24:57] Audrey Bennett: Music hall?

[24:58] Max Bartos: Yeah, music hall.

[25:00] Joshua Turchin: Oh, music hall.

[25:01] Max Bartos: Oh, music hall.

[25:03] Joshua Turchin: How are we gonna do oh so I guess Rock X?

[25:06] Max Bartos: Classical?

[25:07] Joshua Turchin: Sure.

[25:14] Max Bartos: Now I just Michael in the bathroom.

[25:19] Max Bartos: Michael in the bathroom at a party.

[25:22] Max Bartos: Kickline young, it's been I'm just Michael in the bathroom.

[25:22] Max Bartos: Michael in the bathroom at a party.

[25:30] Max Bartos: No, you can't come in.

[25:33] Max Bartos: Frozen.

[25:34] Max Bartos: I'm waiting it out till it's time to leave.

[25:37] Max Bartos: And picking out a crowd as they softly.

[25:40] Max Bartos: Oh I'm just Michael, you don't know.

[25:43] Max Bartos: Michael flying solo.

[25:45] Max Bartos: Michael in the bathroom by my side.

[25:51] Max Bartos: Do it choir style.

[25:58] Max Bartos: Wait no, do I know I need an organ for this?

[26:06] Max Bartos: I am hiding by his out there.

[26:10] Max Bartos: Just ignore you other history.

[26:15] Max Bartos: You have to get those fourths.

[26:16] Audrey Bennett: Oh yeah.

[26:17] Max Bartos: We need new style.

[26:18] Audrey Bennett: We need a new stuff.

[26:19] Max Bartos: I've never done before.

[26:21] Audrey Bennett: Wait, what?

[26:21] Max Bartos: Patty Lapone?

[26:23] Audrey Bennett: Ladies who lunch style, like company.

[26:27] Max Bartos: It's on time.

[26:29] Max Bartos: I just need to repeat this chord like 15 times.

[26:35] Max Bartos: I'll get replaced with a new colder version of me.

[26:39] Max Bartos: And you're a drunk girl.

[26:40] Audrey Bennett: Stick along to Whitney through the door.

[26:42] Max Bartos: I wanna dance with somebody.

[26:47] Max Bartos: There's no one to make fun of drunk girls anymore.

[26:50] Max Bartos: We need a style.

[26:51] Max Bartos: No, um just Michael in the bathroom.

[26:59] Max Bartos: Michael in the bathroom at a party.

[27:03] Max Bartos: She's at a party.

[27:05] Max Bartos: Is her satisfied Michael in the bathroom.

[27:11] Max Bartos: Michael in the desert man at a party.

[27:15] Max Bartos: I'm too young to help out with this one.

[27:19] Max Bartos: We need a new one.

[27:20] Max Bartos: I was just channeling some friend Michael.

[27:22] Audrey Bennett: What country.

[27:23] Max Bartos: Country.

[27:24] Audrey Bennett: Okay.

[27:24] Max Bartos: Oh.

[27:25] Max Bartos: I wait as long as I need to feel my face is fry, or I'll just blame it on weed or something in my eye.

[27:31] Max Bartos: Oh, I'm just Michael.

[27:32] Max Bartos: You don't know Michael Flying so long.

[27:34] Max Bartos: Michael in the bathroom by himself.

[27:37] Max Bartos: Hey Mike.

[27:39] Max Bartos: How are you doing?

[27:40] Max Bartos: Ah, I'm sad.

[27:42] Max Bartos: You gotta hop in your pickup truck in your blue jeans.

[27:45] Max Bartos: No.

[27:46] Max Bartos: Did you feed the horses yet?

[27:48] Max Bartos: Unfortunately, no.

[27:50] Max Bartos: I've been at a party.

[27:51] Max Bartos: Oh Maggie, they're dead.

[27:52] Max Bartos: They're dead!

[27:53] Max Bartos: The horses are dead!

[27:54] Max Bartos: You killed my horses!

[27:57] Max Bartos: Time to pick up We need a new style after that.

[28:07] Max Bartos: And Lloyd Weber.

[28:13] Max Bartos: Knock, knock, knock, knock.

[28:15] Max Bartos: They're gonna start to shout soon.

[28:16] Max Bartos: Knock, knock, knock, knock.

[28:18] Max Bartos: Oh yeah, I'll be out soon.

[28:19] Max Bartos: Knock, knock, knock, knock!

[28:20] Max Bartos: It's such you left me here.

[28:22] Max Bartos: No!

[28:22] Max Bartos: Knock knock knock!

[28:32] Max Bartos: There's a water in my face.

[28:34] Max Bartos: I am in a better place.

[28:39] Max Bartos: I can't I can't hear knocking anymore.

[28:45] Joshua Turchin: Perfect segue.

[28:46] Joshua Turchin: Perfect segue.

[28:47] Max Bartos: The country one is still killing.

[28:49] Joshua Turchin: Okay, yeah.

[28:49] Joshua Turchin: Well, we have to go back to country now.

[28:52] Max Bartos: Okay, let's let's go to the bathroom.

[28:54] Max Bartos: The the bat let's go to the bathroom.

[28:55] Joshua Turchin: All right, everyone, let's go to the bathroom.

[28:59] Joshua Turchin: Let's go to the ending of Michael in the bathroom.

[29:02] Joshua Turchin: And country, I guess.

[29:04] Max Bartos: Wait, wait.

[29:06] Max Bartos: Yeah, but yeah.

[29:06] Max Bartos: Wait.

[29:07] Max Bartos: There's there's no denying just Michael in the bathroom.

[29:15] Max Bartos: Marco, have you heard about what happened yet?

[29:17] Max Bartos: Michael bathroom in the party.

[29:19] Audrey Bennett: No.

[29:20] Max Bartos: There's no sad or sat than Michael in the bathroom at a party.

[29:28] Max Bartos: This is a heinous night.

[29:31] Max Bartos: I wish I stayed at home in bed.

[29:33] Max Bartos: He didn't store bought corn or wish no mistake.

[29:40] Max Bartos: I mean just Michael who's a loner, so he must be a stoner.

[29:46] Max Bartos: No, no, no, no.

[29:47] Max Bartos: Oh ride to PT tractor.

[29:50] Max Bartos: God's a raptor.

[29:57] Max Bartos: Michael in the bathroom by himself.

[30:05] Max Bartos: He's male from the c no Michael no see.

[30:12] Max Bartos: And all you know about him is his name.

[30:16] Max Bartos: And the fact that he's a farmer too.

[30:23] Max Bartos: This is making the cut of the episode.

[30:25] Max Bartos: This is better.

[30:26] Max Bartos: If you cut this, I'll be so mad at you.

[30:28] Max Bartos: I know.

[30:29] Max Bartos: I I I have to keep it now, I guess.

[30:30] Max Bartos: After the farmer stops.

[30:32] Max Bartos: We're gonna get canceled by the country community.

[30:35] Max Bartos: No, okay.

[30:36] Max Bartos: If it makes it any better, I'm from Kentucky, so like don't cancel us.

[30:39] Joshua Turchin: Okay, we're good.

[30:40] Max Bartos: Yeah, I can't say anything about that.

[30:41] Max Bartos: I'm from Florida.

[30:42] Max Bartos: I live across the street from an Amish farm back in Pennsylvania.

[30:45] Max Bartos: So and I'm from Florida.

[30:48] Max Bartos: I um I I should have made a I should have made a gator joke.

[30:48] Max Bartos: A gator joke.

[30:52] Max Bartos: A gator joke.

[30:53] Max Bartos: Gator jokes.

[30:57] Joshua Turchin: Sorry, I'm so sorry, there you go.

[31:01] Joshua Turchin: Okay, thank you so much, Audrey, for coming back to do this fun game with us.

[31:29] Max Bartos: Imagination Scythe and fleet us up and the senses abandon their defense slowly gently night unfurls its splendor Crasp it sense it remults and tender turn your face away from the garish light of day turn your thoughts away from cold unfeeling light and listen to the music of the night close your eyes and surrender to your darkest streets per thoughts of the life you knew before close your eyes let your spirit start to so and you'll live as you've never lived before slowly gently music shall caress you hear it feel it secretly possess you open up your mind let your fantasies unwind in this darkness which you know you cannot find the darkness of the music of the night Let your mind start a journey through a straight new leave all thoughts of the life you knew before Let your soul take you where you long to be then can you belong to me floating falling sweet intoxication touch me, trust me, savor each sensation, let the dream begin, let your dark aside give in to the power of the music that I write the power of the music of the night church and ladies and gentlemen can make my soul take flight.

[35:03] Joshua Turchin: Help me make the music of the I'm really excited today because we're about to bring up the incredible Stephanie Epstein, who is the president of the Ukulele Kids Club, to tell us more about the initiative and also about the cabaret, which is happening on April 7th at 7 p.m.

[35:38] Joshua Turchin: Hi, Stephanie.

[35:40] Stephanie Epstein: Hey Joshua!

[35:41] Stephanie Epstein: Hey, I'm so happy to have you on the early night show today.

[35:45] Stephanie Epstein: Thank you so much for having me back.

[35:46] Stephanie Epstein: It's been a long time.

[35:47] Joshua Turchin: I know.

[35:48] Joshua Turchin: Last time we like really talked, was that in that was in 2020, right?

[35:53] Stephanie Epstein: In like the middle of the pandemic.

[35:55] Joshua Turchin: I think so.

[35:57] Joshua Turchin: I still find it crazy that it's been that long since the pandemic started.

[36:03] Stephanie Epstein: I know.

[36:04] Stephanie Epstein: I know it.

[36:06] Joshua Turchin: And by this year, it COVID would have been around by about three years.

[36:12] Stephanie Epstein: COVID will exist.

[36:15] Stephanie Epstein: It's just part of our lives now.

[36:17] Joshua Turchin: Yeah, but I mean, I really enjoy how we're able to do this sort of live virtual hybrid thing for the early night show, which is really cool.

[36:26] Stephanie Epstein: And then in addition to that, well, I guess COVID did have some sort of a silver lining because I was able to meet you and be become a part of Ukulele Kids Club.

[36:36] Joshua Turchin: I know that's been the really the yeah, the weird silver lining of it all is how much now we rely on technology, which you know isn't always a great thing, but at the same time, like you said, we've gotten to connect with people from so many people from all over the place, especially, you know, I'm in South Florida. Our this our CEO of the UKC is in Mexico, most of our Broadway friends are up in New York City so it's you know that's been that's been a really cool nice little nice little thing that's come out of it.

[37:08] Stephanie Epstein: Yeah, and with the Ukulele Kids Club, so um, we'll talk about the Ukulele Kids Club cabaret in a bit, but with the Ukulele Kids Club, it is one of the most incredible organizations I know. Um, how did you like sort of become involved with that? So I became involved with it, um, maybe less than a year after it was founded. So I had started my music therapy program here at my hospital, and I had heard about the UKC from some other music therapists that I knew.

[37:39] Stephanie Epstein: So I got in touch with Corey Bergman, who is the founder and was the CEO at the time, and I introduced myself and said, "Hey, you know, I have this new program starting. Um, I'd love to be able to see if I could get on the list for ukulele." And at that point, he was living down here in South Florida. So he was like, "Yeah, that'd be great. You know what? I'll just come hand deliver them myself."

[37:58] Stephanie Epstein: So he came down to the hospital and saw, you know, where we worked and what we were doing, and we just kind of clicked from there. And um, I kind of became his first, kind of the unofficial music therapy advisor, um, because he was still just learning about music therapy and what it was and what it looked like and how music therapists utilize the ukulele in our sessions with our patients.

[38:24] Stephanie Epstein: And so it kind of went from being an unofficial thing to an actual official thing, and um, and now here we are, six and a half, almost seven years later, and I'm now the president of the Ukulele Kids Club. So um, I helped do a lot of outreach, I helped do a lot of media, um, and really kind of connect the organization to the music therapists.

[38:46] Joshua Turchin: Wow, that is so cool. And you're a music therapist, and how do your patients sort of react to the ukuleles?

[38:56] Stephanie Epstein: It's really incredible to see. Um, I was just working with a patient this morning. She's 14 years old and has cystic fibrosis, so she's been in and out of the hospital pretty much her entire life. And she had started learning how to play the ukulele last time she was here about nine months ago.

[39:12] Stephanie Epstein: And so she came back and was excited to continue learning. And we actually, her mom decided that she wanted to learn too. So her and her mom started learning together, which gave them this just really beautiful bonding experience, um, you know, in a way they hadn't really been able to connect before, which was really cool.

[39:30] Stephanie Epstein: And you know, the ukulele is so user-friendly and so success-oriented. You know, we can teach patients how to play in, you know, as little as 20 minutes, half hour with just using one finger adapted chords, and then all of a sudden they're playing these songs that they hear on the radio, and you know, they're not thinking about, you know, if they're in pain, if they're nauseous, any of their symptoms, you know, what's going on that they are here in a hospital, um, which is a very abnormal environment.

[39:59] Stephanie Epstein: Um, it really kind of just helps normalize everything and allows them to just um be who they are, which is a kid or a teenager and not just a patient in a hospital.

[40:10] Joshua Turchin: Right. And I really love how Ukulele Kids Club is bringing people together through the power of music. I find that is something that is so unique to the UKC. Um, and I would love for some of our viewers and listeners to get involved with it.

[40:26] Stephanie Epstein: Um, what would be the best way that they can help out the UKC?

[40:30] Stephanie Epstein: So you can go right onto the website, theukc.org, and you can, um, you can, you know, type in a message right on the website or on any of our social media platforms on Instagram or on Facebook, just send us a message. You can also email outreach at theukc.org, um, or you can just shoot me an email, it's just Stephanie at theukc.org, and we can get you connected and hooked in in whatever way you want to be involved.

[41:00] Joshua Turchin: Yay! Now something really cool that I know is coming up on April 7th at 7 p.m. is the UKC cabaret.

[41:08] Stephanie Epstein: Yes, we're so excited for our second annual UKC Broadway cabaret. We were hoping that we'd be able to do it in person this year, um, but you know, the world being as it is, it will be virtual again this year, which, um, you know, as much as we would love to be in person, at least this way also, you know, people, lots and lots of different people can tune in and see as well.

[41:08] Stephanie Epstein: And we're hoping to be able to bring it live, um, maybe in the fall or next year. So who are some of the people appearing at the cabaret? So we have an absolutely incredible lineup this year, and they're almost, I think we only have one returning performer from last year, so they are all new people.

[41:08] Stephanie Epstein: So we have Nick Walker from Hamilton and 82 Proud, um, Jerusalem Cavaro is back. She was with us last year and she's back this year. Tally Sashions from Company. He's one of the swings in Company.

[42:04] Stephanie Epstein: So he's done a number of different roles and he's performed next to and with Miss Patti LuPone, which is, I know, right?

[42:14] Joshua Turchin: Yeah.

[42:15] Stephanie Epstein: I know. I'm dying to get up to New York and see the revival of Company. Um, we have a couple other members from Hamilton. We have Stephanie J. Park, Chris Rice Thompson, uh, Clarice Thompson, Cherry Torres, uh, Chris Medlin, Tyler Conroy, and oh, also another amazing performer, Mr. Joshua Turchin.

[42:38] Joshua Turchin: Well, thank you. How can we all watch the UKC cabaret?

[42:43] Stephanie Epstein: So all over our social media, um, you know, the last couple weeks and then leading up to our links for tickets. Um, or you can just go onto the ukc.org slash Broadway and you can get tickets. It's a pay what you can donation. All of the money, of course, is going to providing the gift of music for life for our incredible patients all across the country and all around the world.

[42:57] Stephanie Epstein: Um, so not only will you get to watch this incredible cabaret hosted by the amazing Abby Arros, you will also get to see um, one of another one of our UKC ambassadors, Miss Celine. So she was a patient of mine a number of years ago. Um, she will be performing as well and she is absolutely amazing. She is now on to college, um, and has continued to utilize the ukulele in her life for her own wellness and healing.

[42:57] Stephanie Epstein: And in addition to that, we will be raffling off an incredible one-of-a-kind custom Wicked painted ukulele. If you guys have not seen it yet, go on to the UKC's social media and take a look at this ukulele because it is insane.

[43:58] Joshua Turchin: If you are a fan of Wicked, you need this.

[44:01] Stephanie Epstein: So not only is it a custom painting, but it is signed by the entire current Broadway cast, including Lindsay Heather Pierce and Brittany Johnson, our, of course, our two witches.

[44:18] Joshua Turchin: I need to see that ukulele now.

[44:21] Stephanie Epstein: I got a picture of it last night. It's amazing.

[44:29] Joshua Turchin: And what song would you like to sing today and why?

[44:34] Stephanie Epstein: So in honor of our beautiful incredible ukulele, I will be, we will be doing a ukulele arrangement of "Defying Gravity." What else?

[44:45] Joshua Turchin: Cool, whenever you're ready.

[44:49] ♪ Musical number: "Defying Gravity" — performed by Stephanie Epstein ♪

[48:16] Joshua Turchin: Thank you all so, so much for coming here today to watch us at the Broadway Makers Marketplace here in the heart of New York City. A huge thank you to our amazing guests. Please make sure to follow them on all major social media platforms. You can follow me at Joshua Turchin on all major social media platforms as well.

[48:32] Joshua Turchin: Uh, make sure to look out for the UKC cabaret on April 7th at 7 p.m. And also make sure to listen to my new song, "Doesn't Make You Feel Better," when it releases on April 2nd. Uh, huge thank you to our in-studio audience, and I can't wait to see you all soon.

[48:55] Joshua Turchin: I have often dreamed of a far-off place.