This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:10] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the round table with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:15] Robert Bannon: Well, hey cats and kittens, welcome to another round table with me, Robert Bannon here on the Broadway Podcast Network. You know, I stand in solidarity with the Screen Actors Guild because I am a member of the Screen Actors Guild because I got my card by working on a show that's on Saturday nights at 11:30. You can guess which one it is. Yes, Studio 8H is where my home was. For the best part-time job in TV, I used to say, uh, for three or four years, 20-something episodes, and I got to work alongside some of the best casting crew in the business. Let me tell you how it happened. So I got an email, and I thought it was spam because it said we'd like you for a Saturday show. And I said, this is not real.

So I googled the person and I found out that they were a casting director at this particular show. And I got to be a white supremacist. Woo! Uh, as my first time being on the show. That episode and that skit in particular was featured on Vanity Fair and was very popular online. And then I got to do 23 other episodes working with tons of people, everything from actual SAG residual work to background work to playing fake violin to playing fake bass to being a White House press corps member to dressing up like Revolutionary War army soldiers with Harry Styles. It has been a great honor and joy and part of my career. So I hold the Saturday shows at night that are live, very special and near dear to my heart.

So when I got the chance to speak to Alex Moffat, I was excited to speak to my friend from the Saturday nights over at 8H. The Cottage is only out until the 29th. It is an all-star cast. We've had Laura Bell Bundy do this show. Eric McCormick, Dana Steingold, everyone there is just a superstar. It's directed by Jason Alexander, and you can get tickets at www.thecottageonbroadway.com. It's at the Helen Hayes. It's a perfect fun night matinee. It's only until the 29th. So grab your tickets. It isn't fun. Oh, Lily Cooper? We love Lily Cooper. And she plays Alex's wife. Well, I can't give too much away because it will give too much away, and it's a laugh a minute. So take a peek at me and Alex, and I answer the long, long, long thought question. Is Steve Bannon my uncle? Find out the answer. Coming up right now on the round table on the Broadway Podcast Network.

[2:42] Robert Bannon: One of my favorite things this season was getting to come down to the cottage and check out what an all-star ensemble cast. If you're listening to us on the Broadway Podcast Network or watching us on the YouTube channel, I'm so excited to have out. He's been a Trump. He's been a Biden. He's been a guy who just bought a boat. And now he he's on the Broadway. Alex Moffat, welcome to the show.

[3:03] Alex Moffat: Hey! Yeah, baby. Hi! It's so good to see you.

[3:06] Robert Bannon: Likewise. I had streamers.

[3:11] Alex Moffat: Yeah. You're you're a party in a bag.

[3:13] Robert Bannon: I'm a party in a bag. That's what they say. And you are in between shows here with me.

[3:21] Alex Moffat: Because they force you.

[3:23] Robert Bannon: No, I'm basically.

[3:26] Alex Moffat: No, I'm I'm in my little my little dressing room at the Hayes, where our only decoration is the streamers that Dana Steingold and Lily Cooper put up for Nahal Joshi's birthday.

[3:38] Robert Bannon: Nice.

[3:39] Alex Moffat: That's all we have for decorations, except for a blanket that covers our couch.

[3:44] Robert Bannon: Go ahead, sir.

[3:45] Alex Moffat: Well, you have an amazing cast. You have an amazingly fun show. My God. From Eric to Laura to Lily to everyone on stage. Top to bottom to a person, we are stacked and jacked.

[4:00] Robert Bannon: Stacked and jacked. So what is it like to be able to? You've done this run. You have to you have to the end of the month. So everybody run and get your tickets. Go to the cottage. Don't walk. Run to that website.

[4:14] Alex Moffat: Is that how it works?

[4:16] Robert Bannon: I think so. You put your credit card number and boom, there's Alex Moffat in your face. So hey, what is it like to do the same character eight shows a week as opposed to improv as opposed to stand-up, like where you get to play with this one character, this one circumstance every single night?

[4:34] Alex Moffat: Very glad you asked, Robert. Um it's a new challenge for me. I've never done eight shows a week. Uh, but it's a blast. I mean, again, it a lot of that comes back to like the fact that we have such an amazing cast. Everybody is so sort of keyed in in the moment. Uh, they have such an amazing read on their character, and so everybody really is like kind of just in the moment, every all the time, every show. There's not a moment where we're like just checked out and being like, well, uh, I'm just doing Clark now again, and uh just saying the words. So part of it is just like I as maybe cliché or over um you know, overset as it is like this sort of magic of live theater is what kind of helps keep it alive because every audience is a little bit different, so maybe some shows, you know, Clark's a little bit dumber than in others, or a little bit quicker to anger or something, or you know, more annoying to his um, you know, future wife, who I won't spoil who that is, but uh sort of I get to all I will say is like Lily Cooper and I really kind of get to be like almost like a comedy duo, and uh, you know, we we have a good time and I we play off each other.

So some nights if she's super just like you know, the vibe is like Clark, you're a fucking idiot, then I'm playing off of that. So it's always a little bit different. So some of it is like not to get too in the weeds, but some of it is just like really minute things as opposed to like, yeah, if I'm doing an improv show, that's literally different every time, or like something on uh the telly, which I say because I'm British. Um, you know, that's also its own beast, but I'm loving this live theater thing, Robert. I gotta tell you.

[6:20] Alex Moffat: I loved being there. We had a blast. I brought me and my my best friend Mike came down to the theater every day. When I said I was gonna talk to you, he said, you gotta talk to him about the physical comedy, you gotta talk to him about that split, those legs, that whole that whole bit that you do. Where do you how do you is it all it is it all impulses? You play around in rehearsal. Do you go home and look in the mirror and say, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. What happens?

[6:45] Alex Moffat: I would love to say I go home and do it in the mirror. I mean, don't get me wrong. I I spend plenty of time looking in the mirror, like dancing around and doing faces, always have, as I'm sure you do. Anybody who's like an actor and you know, performer probably has spent way more hours looking in the mirror and like cracking themselves up than they'd like to admit. Uh, but in this case, like with that move where I go into the window box and then whoop, uh, that kind of came that kind of buyout that came about in a rehearsal, and we had, you know, in our rehearsal space, we had like a you know, like a replica, which I'm sure is just uh what they always do, but I'm new here to Broadway. So replica of the stage, and then like replica of that window box. And I actually come to think of it, I think that move I discovered during tech on the actual stage. So that was just sort of a gift from Paul Tate DePoo the Third, our fantastic um set designer.

[7:45] Alex Moffat: It the set is amazing. I when I talked to Laura Bell Bundy, I told Laura Bell Bundy, how do you memorize these? You guys are fast. Yeah, and in some cases, I don't have them fully memorized. So, you know, you know, I like to keep everybody on their toes by having them think, well, what's he gonna forget? This performance. No cue cards up there. I keep begging for them, and even with two weeks to go, they say, No, you have to, you really should know these words by now.

[8:16] Robert Bannon: What was it like in the rehearsal space with your director? I mean, you we talk about comedic actor and and and and someone who knows. You talk about comedic actor. Jason Alexander directed this piece. What was that? I mean, he's a comedy legend.

[8:31] Alex Moffat: Sitcom royalty. Top three for me. And in fact, it was George Costanza was there on the night that I became a father. Uh, and I'll not leave it so vague, I'll explain what I mean. Basically, my wife and I during COVID were she had never watched Seinfeld, so we were might making our way through it. We made a child during that time. Uh, and then the night that you know, basically we were we were just starting the final season, and my wife said, uh, do you think we're gonna finish uh Seinfeld before the baby arrives? Because she was still three and a half weeks away from her due date. And I said, Oh, of course, there's like 25 episodes. We'll we'll do it because there wasn't much else going on in the world, so we were watching a lot of Seinfeld, and then about 10 minutes later, into the first episode of season nine, I think it is, um, she goes, Oh shit, and she stood up and her her water broke, like in a movie, like it geflooshed out of her, and uh she we she was like, It's go time, and I was like, Oh my god.

[9:39] Alex Moffat: So I paused Seinfeld, and then we had a child. So I told Jason that, and I think he was very honored to be a part of our baby's life in that way. And congratulations on Kramer, George, Jerry, congrats to me on them for having them be, you know, do laying my daughter.

[10:05] Robert Bannon: Thank you. Newman was not a choice of a name for your daughter.

[10:09] Alex Moffat: Oh, uh oh, oh, you were guessing what our daughter's, yeah. No, her name, yes. It is Elaine Bennis Newman, uh Tim Watley, David Buddy Moffitt. It's not a good joke if I have to explain it. You know, that's so there actually was it just went right over my tired little head.

[10:31] Robert Bannon: I hear you. Chicago, you're from Chicago.

[10:35] Alex Moffat: Uh yeah. Good point. And thank you. Crack research here. So you're in Chicago, and what was the moment when you was it a teacher? Was it a family member? When did someone say, like, Alex, you're funny? Or have you just been trying to convince them of that ever since?

[10:49] Alex Moffat: I've always had a chip on my shoulder. You know, it's the second city. We all have a chip on our shoulder, just always trying to convince people we're something more than we are. So, uh, but let's see. I mean, I don't that's a good question. I had a lot of great teachers. Honestly, I was more I was sort of like a you know the the like goof with my pals in high school type, uh, like getting trouble in class, getting kicked out of class a lot, that kind of thing. And then I wasn't even I went to a tiny little high school, and even there I was by no means any kind of like stud of the theater department. Couldn't be further from the truth. Like my senior year, uh, we did Peter Pan, and I think I played Pirate Number Seven or something.

Uh and so no, it did it's not like I started off uh with any kind of really bright future in the arts. Uh I didn't really start doing improv and all that until after college. And then um I did have some really, really, really sweet, lovely improv teachers in Chicago who I adore who um kind of told me to keep at it. So, uh there were some there's a little some guideposts along the way of people who kept, you know, would pat me on the back and say, hey, you might have something here. Keep going, take the next level of improv. We'll take your money, and you're not so bad at this. That's showbiz.

[12:09] Robert Bannon: That's showbiz. And right, you gotta take the crumbs where you can. But you know, starting out, take them, gobble them up, and they can sustain you for months.

[12:19] Alex Moffat: Months. Well, I know we're in the middle of the SAG strike and you're on Broadway, so it's great to be working it and doing all that stuff.

[12:25] Robert Bannon: Most people see your face and they know you from an evening, the weekend on a Saturday night. And I had told you at Broadway Barks that that's where I got my start in being one of the extra background, you know, background to the set people and doing 20, 23 episodes. That place generositano on the PA. Calling everybody. Can we get background? The sweetest voice in show business ever, ever. Then Chris will yell at you. But I when you're when you're here just Kelly, my God. It is the um, I don't know what is the most amazing group of of cat of crew cast and crew. They make magic. And um when you go to Broadway, another casting crew that makes magic. How does one thing doing improv, doing live television, and now doing live theater, is it all very similar? Are there different tools that you pull out of the toolbox?

[13:21] Alex Moffat: Hmm. Well, that's a good question. I do think that there is something kind of similar to it. To uh, you know, there's a strong similarity between the two with the live element. I mean, I don't think you find a lot of live TV shows on the tele anymore. So, you know, I that's kind of a I don't want to say one of a kind thing because you know, you could be the host of Good Morning America or something, and then you're doing live TV. So there's plenty of, but like the nature of it, the like scripted and comedy and all that jazz. Uh it is a one of a kind institution. So um, yeah, there's plenty of overlap. Uh, but like you said in the beginning of this interview, just sort of like the uh that's always different, week to week to week to week.

Whereas this is, you know, we're trying to find uh a little bit something different every show, but certainly, yeah, getting to perform live is the best. Playing off an audience, the most fun in the world. So that's kind of all you gotta do is just play it, do your thing and have fun with the audience.

[14:25] Robert Bannon: Absolutely. I had friends at the matinee today. They went to Carmines. It was a group of ladies. They ladies who lunched, they went to Carmines, they had their little chicken parm moment, and then they came over to the cottage. God bless them. I hope they had the best afternoon this month.

[14:40] Alex Moffat: Uh Robert, are you is it true that you are uh Steve Bannon's nephew?

[14:51] Robert Bannon: My favorite thing about being through the years before COVID over at Studio 8H was that when Steve Bannon appeared on the show as a demon in a rim recurring.

[15:07] Alex Moffat: Yeah.

[15:08] Robert Bannon: We s I got to see the resemblance next to them right there, you know.

[15:12] Alex Moffat: Oh yeah, yeah. The familial there's there's definitely a a Bannon quality.

[15:18] Robert Bannon: Yes, and you know, I love to take screenshots of CNN when it says Bannon indicted, Bannon going, you know, like that's it's good for me. Um I want everybody that's out there to go to the cottage, go to the cottage on the box. You have two weeks to get your little self over to the Helen Hayes, get yourself open your snacks before it starts, because it's gonna be one big show.

[15:41] Alex Moffat: Sure, don't be cracking your little cracker jack box open. Shut your cell phone.

[15:47] Robert Bannon: Yeah. Have you had cell phone moments?

[15:52] Alex Moffat: Oh my god. In most shows, we have at least one or two. Uh and every now and again we will like ad lib something about it, but sometimes it's like, well, just let it go and let's keep moving. We heard it. Everybody heard it, but we live in the the it's 2023. People are gonna leave their phone on. It happens, you know, whatever. But a few times uh there have been a few times where it's so loud and so egregious that we've had to say something, and that it's actually made for some pretty funny moments. Not to say that anybody should intentionally, you know, like set an alarm to go off in the middle of act two or something, just to be like, uh, what are they gonna ad lib. Um but yeah, it it happens, whatever. It's live theater, phones go off.

[16:41] Robert Bannon: You have two weeks, so get your tickets. If you want to go again, see it a second time, take a shot every time they pull a cigarette from somewhere on the set.

[16:48] Alex Moffat: Yeah, baby. The cottage, the drinking game. And get your parm at Carmines.

[16:54] Robert Bannon: See? Done. You're such a pleasure. I was so excited to talk to you. People are so excited. We're ready for scri stages and screens and all of the fun stuff that you have coming your way. We appreciate it. You've made us laugh for a long time.

[17:07] Alex Moffat: Thank you. That is so kind. I really appreciate that. Thank you for having me on this, Robert.

[17:10] Robert Bannon: My pleasure. Well, there you have it. No relation to Uncle Steve, and uh, but plenty of connections and relations over there to the show The Cottage. I'm so grateful to have Alex and my friends at BBB Way set this up and get us to have a fun little afternoon moment together. You know, every Thursday at 7 p.m. 8 Central 5 Pacific. I don't know how time zones work. You know how they work. You can watch us and watch these shows live with uh YouTube and you can see me tell my week in review and my plugs and my Jersey news and all my mess. You can go over and subscribe to the YouTube channel as a whole added bonus to this. Plus, we have interviews every single day this week, so make sure you are subscribing, downloading, liking, commenting, following, sharing, whatever you do on your social media.

You can follow me on at Robert M. Bannon or at the Roundtable with Robert Bannon. Follow BPN for all the amazing other shows that they have on and join us over at YouTube. I hope you support art. I hope you watch a great play or musical and support live arts, cabaret, concerts, whatever you love. Make sure you give your money, time, and effort to the artists who make it all possible. That's it for me. The best is yet to come. Thank you for joining me for another adventure, and I hope to see you again real soon. God bless you. Thanks for being here.