This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:14] Robert Bannon: Well, welcome to the round table, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to us. You know this guy right here. I'm telling you, we are traveling all around the world with one of our most famous favorite games in the entire universe, and you're coming to Detroit to the legendary Fisher Theater. So if you've ever played the— I think RJ, it's cards. Is it a video game? I'm a different kind of nerd, RJ. I'm a musical theater nerd. Help me. Don't judge, you're judging already, RJ.

[0:39] RJ Christian: No, you know, no judgment. No judgment. No, it's tabletop. You roll dice, you talk to people. It's just like theater, but with little squares of plastic.

[0:47] Robert Bannon: I love it. I love it. RJ, you're in New York right now. You're an actor. And have you played Dungeons and Dragons before you were on the tour?

[0:59] RJ Christian: If I'm being so real, um before we started in New York, I had maybe played two sessions of Dungeons and Dragons. Like I was—there are some people who've been playing for like 10, 15 years in our company, and I had only just started playing. Um, and now since I've played hours and hours and hours and hours of it. So like they— that kind of sold me on it. It's a great game.

[1:26] Robert Bannon: And look, so you're telling me, even if I don't know the game, even if I've never played the game, even if I'm not familiar, am I gonna be entertained? I should buy a ticket and head on down.

[1:35] RJ Christian: You gotta—uh, we have boiled down this game into its most beautiful essence, which is we are having fun and telling a story together, and sometimes we don't decide what happens. Sometimes the roll of a 20-sided die decides what happens, and we have to honor it. And that is what you need to understand to enjoy this show. And if you understand more, great. If you understand less, we're still doing awesome comedy for two and a half hours. Do not stress it.

[2:05] Robert Bannon: So anybody, if you love the game, if you've never seen the game, if you love theater, if you love to laugh, if you love Dungeons and Dragons, this is for you. It's for everyone. How many people—how many people are on the road? Tell us about the cast that you get to work with.

[2:19] RJ Christian: Yes, we are a company of nine actors who all swap between five different roles. What makes the show really special is that there are no principal or understudy actors in our company. So one day I'll be playing—I'll be in Team Might, some days I'll be in Team Magic, I'll be in Team Mischief, sometimes I'll be backstage covering the show, some days I'll be behind the bar as the tavern keeper role. And so all of us swap in and out. So any night you could get any combination of five out of the nine of us. And so that means every show is a little bit different because there are different people behind the wheel, which means you gotta come back and see it multiple times.

[3:01] Robert Bannon: Wait, you have a two and a half hour show, and how many lines do you know? How many parts do you cover?

[3:06] RJ Christian: Uh, I do four roles out of the five, which is—it's very interesting. Um, is that we don't—I mean, it's improv, so I don't have to memorize lines. It's more like some that I have to be prepared to be like, you know, a grandma one day and like, you know, a little goblin the next day, and just it's more about preparing physicalities than memorizing lines, which is—that's its own thing.

[3:35] Robert Bannon: So you come—it's an improv show, so there's scenarios, there's ideas, but you don't know what you're gonna see every single night. How do you come up with the ideas? What's—how do you describe what it is?

[3:45] RJ Christian: So when we go backstage, right? Um, we have one moment to sort of plant a seed for the beginning of the show. And sometimes it'll be, you know, based off of something that happened to one of us that day. You know, it could be like, oh, I saw this like funny meme about, you know, about someone whose house burned down because they burned their pizza rolls, and the show starts with pizza rolls, or it could just be like, oh, I was reading, you know, Game of Thrones today, like let's do something Game of Thrones. Like it is—the seed is both so different and also so unimportant, right? It can be anything, it doesn't have to be something grand, but like one single thing can change the entire course of a two and a half hour show.

[4:33] Robert Bannon: This makes it even more exciting. So is your background theater or is it improv? Did you study improv?

[4:37] RJ Christian: My background—you up there, RJ. They just threw you up there and said, "Go get 'em, Tiger."

[4:44] RJ Christian: So my background is actually in music. I have a bachelor's of vocal performance. Um, so I am—I'm a musical theater guy, and I did not have any improv experience before I did the show. Um, I auditioned and, uh, on a whim, I—ironically, my roommate was, uh, someone who played a whole bunch of Dungeons and Dragons and a whole bunch of improv. He had a whole bunch of improv experience, and I was like, "Man, you should audition for this." And he was like, "No, I'm about to get dental surgery, so I'll be healing during the rehearsal process. I can't go. You should go instead and see what happens." And now nearly two years later, here we are.

[5:24] Robert Bannon: I think you owe him 10%. I think he was your agent.

[5:30] RJ Christian: Yeah, yeah, he needs it.

[5:33] Robert Bannon: Oh well, you booked it. You booked it because your energy is off the chart, your acting ability. And if you can do—do you sing? Do you give a little improv moment? Do you ever get up there and do a little Wayne Brady impression?

[5:43] RJ Christian: Oh, I do. There's one character, um, who is a bard who like carries around a lute or a guitar, and so when I'm playing him, I'm singing. And sometimes it sounds like an opera guy, sometimes it sounds like Michael Bolton. Like, it really just depends on how I'm feeling that night. But I do some singing.

[6:01] Robert Bannon: I'm kind of obsessed with this whole idea. Look, I—like I said, I don't know anything about it, but I know the Fisher is legendary. I know it's gonna be this weekend. I know people need to get a ticket. I know that it's where musical theater shows like Hello Dolly and Dream Girls got their pre-Broadway tryout. I mean, there's history on that stage, and now RJ is gonna be there with the dragons and the dungeons and the people and come dressed up, and it's Halloween weekend and have a moment and celebration and go to dinner and get you—there's free parking there, RJ. They don't have that in New York.

[6:27] RJ Christian: No, they do not.

[6:28] Robert Bannon: We fend for ourselves.

[6:31] RJ Christian: It's horrid.

[6:31] Robert Bannon: So that means you have to come. You have to come and come to both shows and enjoy it while we're there. Two shows, two chances to check this whole thing out. So, what do people say to you when they meet you at the stage door? The people who love it, the people who don't know it. What's the feedback like?

[6:48] RJ Christian: It is so many times I get this reaction that I—I still—I don't know if I have, um, digested into my being of these kids, you know, they'll be like from 10 to like 15, and they'll just be like, "I've been looking for a space like this for a long time." And the Twenty-Sided Tavern has become a space where I can be a nerd, I can come dressed up in cosplay, and people don't make fun of me, they compliment me, and I'm—I can be cool and I can, uh, be a part of a community. And that I think—the first day of the tour, we were in—we started our tour in Kentucky, and it was so gorgeous. I said to our, like, um, our director, "I understand what this tour is all about now. I understand why we're going around the country because there are some people in these corners that don't have anything like this, and this is the best thing that's gonna come through their town, and we for one evening can give them a place that they can call home and hopefully they leave that theater and have a whole bunch of new friends." It's really everything. Community is so important, and that is what's important. So people who—if you have kids or people who really enjoy this, this is something that they need to go.

[8:04] RJ Christian: You'll be around people that may have similar interests that enjoy comedy, enjoy Dungeons and Dragons, enjoys gaming, enjoying all of the things. We need a spot for them to feel comfortable, and this is the place where everyone's welcome. And I mean, on a practical level, there's some people who are like, I've always wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, but I haven't had I couldn't find anyone who could who would play with me. I can't play it by myself. And it's like maybe the people who are sitting beside you are gonna be your next party members. Like those this is every nerd in the Detroit area. Go ask that person standing behind you, you're gonna have some friends. RJ, do you wanna come over and play it with me?

I don't know how to play. I got you. It's so easy, I promise. No, I think you don't have time because you're literally on the road. I think you're here for a day. Oh, yeah. Well, so maybe not, actually. Um, but I'll be there in spirit, you know. Have you been to Detroit? I have never been to Detroit. Not a moment in my life. Do I have to bring you a Coney dog and a Faygo soda? I mean, those are Detroit staples. Am I gonna have to come down to the show and bring you a little Detroit care package? Some Better Made potato chips? Listen, I would not be opposed. I would not be opposed.

[9:18] RJ Christian: What is it like for you to as an actor to be able to be on the road on a bus with the cast or a van or flying, whatever you all do? It must be a dream to really be able to see America and do these shows for audiences every single night. I am, I mean, so I'm so under-traveled. So every single city, except for we just did Greensboro, North Carolina, and I'm from North Carolina, so I've been there. But besides that, every city is a city I've never been to. Um, and so it has been like I had never been to Chicago before. I had never been to Whitewater, Wisconsin. I had never been to Boston or Philly. Like, I'd been to DC for an inauguration, but I was a kid and I didn't remember it. So like, this is all so brand new and so awesome.

And we this cast has been through the fire together, and so we are locked in, and I trust these people with my life and with not making me go crazy on tour. Um, and I think it really takes a special group of people to go through all that the buses, airport security, going in and out of hotels and not want to pull each other's hair out.

[10:32] RJ Christian: It must be incredible to do this show in front of a thousand people and hear that laughter and hear that the applause and and people going crazy and there's nothing better as an actor to feel that energy. It is electric. Um, especially when there's a moment that clicks in, maybe about 20 minutes into the show at the latest, where the audience realize, oh, they love it when we interact. They love it. And so there'll be chants, you know, like people will start chanting at us to do stuff, you know, people will be shouting out from the balconies at a point where they're like, oh, this isn't, oh, this isn't Wicked, you know. This isn't, you know, this isn't Mamma Mia. They want me to participate.

Um, which is I think when that happens and that shift happens, you know, that is when we are in prime time Twenty-Sided Tavern energy. Because it's like we say at the beginning of the show, the fourth wall has been shattered. And so when that moment happens, now we're sitting at a table with them, and now we're playing a game together, and now we're in the show.

[11:44] RJ Christian: So you're gonna be an interactive, it's gonna be a part of it. So even if you've never seen it, or even if people are uh the parents are like, I don't know what I'm doing. Your date doesn't know what they're they I've never heard of this before. You're gonna be sucked in. RJ's gonna suck you in and make you want to be a part of this show, and by the end of it, you may be buying some merch and posting about your next game tournament. I don't I gotta learn, RJ. I gotta learn. Listen, it's not just something to expect. The core of this show is that the audience decides what happens. There are throughout the show, there are moments where we let them vote on what we're gonna do. So, like, the core DNA of the show does not work without the audience.

And so, like, we're gonna we're not gonna hurt you. Even if you don't know anything, it's even better. We get, you know, we ask like a mom who brought their kid there, what should we name the bartender? And she'll say, like, Rupert, and it's great. And everyone is so excited because yeah, his name is Rupert, and he's gonna act like a Rupert, and that's gonna change the whole story. Because you didn't want to name him like, you know, Gilgamesh the second, you know, you went with what you knew and you made it unique. So that we it does not matter. We love every person in that theater. Every single night's a different show.

[12:59] RJ Christian: So go see both. Go see one, definitely go see one. And it's BroadwayandDetroit.com right now. All the information and links are below us. And then you for you, what's what is this journey? But where are you originally? Are you originally from New York? Uh I'm born and raised in North Carolina. I'm uh North Carolina, I moved to New York when I was uh 18 for college. Um and then I lived in New York after that. I've been in New York for about eight years at this point. Um so I've it I really went from like being a country mouse to a city boy and sort of skipped everything in between, ironically. Um, so there's so many cities that aren't New York that I'm like, well, this is cool too, huh? Is it oh, not every city, you know, the pizza rats are really our own thing, and not every city has pizza rats.

[13:50] RJ Christian: It's very down 8th Avenue. If you've ever been eighth Avenue, you gotta take a selfie with a pizza rat in New York City. I mean, that's a rite of passage. I've never seen a rat with pizza in Detroit. Not yet. Have you all seen a rat with pizza in Detroit? In New York City, they have rats with pizza. You ever play Dungeons and Dragons? We see, we got fans, RJ. Hey, I wonder if the difference is the rats or the pizza. Detroit style pizza is very thick and it's not easily carried by a rat. Mmm, so maybe the rats gotta bulk up so they can carry the Detroit. They need some steroid taking rats to carry Detroit pizza through the city. And away we go. Now we're in it. Kudos to you, RJ. Thank you for rolling with me.

As I'm literally, we're in school. It is lunchtime. We are here. We are making this work, and we're getting everyone to come out this weekend, this weekend, everybody, right at the Fisher Theater here in Detroit. Or see the website below to see all the dates that are coming on the future because he's coming across the entire RJ's gonna take over him and his steroid pizza eating rats and his cast of Dungeons and Dragons.

[15:02] RJ Christian: Are they really dragons? Oh, they're they're dragons. Like Game of Thrones dragons? Well, you know, legally I can't say yes, but potentially. Game of Thrones people who love the show would love this show. And in fact, yes, they would. Because we sometimes got a dragon. Sometimes we got mothers and dragons. Maybe mothers of dragons. Not a mother dragon, a dragon mother. Dragon Lover. Dragon Mother Lover. Dragon Mother Lover. Under the cover. Undercover and the uh See, and again, and that's the show. And away we go. Go see it. Thank you for hanging out with us. Congratulations. We're so excited for you to be here in the D. Of course. Excited for it.