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[0:00] Robert Bannon: Brought to you by The Roundtable, The Roundtable Podcast Network, and iHeartSpotify.

[0:30] Robert Bannon: And as somebody who's obsessed with interior design, he has been tickled and fancied by our next guest. Millions of people have followed him. Billions of people have watched him. He is the Broadway bathroom. I want to know so, I have so many questions for Daniel Coffman. He is here and he's with us and he's not in front. I almost did this in front of the mirror. I almost was going to do it, Daniel. I mean, it might have been a good choice. It would have been a strong choice, for sure. But you have a very clean bathroom, Mira. I have my own bathroom and I'm not as clean. Well, it doesn't get used all that often. I will say it's kind of become like the studio. It's not even really like a bathroom anymore. It is yours. Where are you from?

[1:13] Daniel Coffman: Originally, I'm from Iowa, but don't hold it against me. I escaped and I live in Los Angeles.

[1:22] Robert Bannon: And you moved to Los Angeles. Was your intention to be an actor, movie star?

[1:28] Daniel Coffman: Oh, yeah. I know. I saw this like 25 years ago. I thought I'm going to get in the bathroom one day and just become a sensation. I knew that was a lifelong dream.

[1:39] Daniel Coffman: Yeah. It's like really keen manifesting. No, I was a musical theater major in college and a theater kid all through high school. And then I came out to L.A. and got my ass handed to me like a handful of times in auditions. And I was like, this is really hard. I'm just going to dance because I can do that well. And I got a job as a ballroom instructor. And then I had a couple of kids. And then my whole life went like left. And I got back on track a couple of years later. But it wasn't with performance. It was a home staging business with my, at the time, partner. And I've been riding that way for about a decade. And the mirror kind of just like found me. It was in the house that we bought. And I originally thought, oh, my God, I've got to renovate this bathroom like first.

And then I just now I can never renovate it. Now it's like basically pays for the house. I mean, I need it in the Smithsonian. I need it in the viral Hall of Fame. It needs to be in a museum somewhere, this bathroom.

[2:47] Robert Bannon: Okay, I have so many questions. So you move to be in all of that. We won't be personal yet. I will ask you this question. Do you lip sync often? Or was this a whim?

[3:00] Daniel Coffman: You know, what is so weird is before, I missed the musically TikTok trend a little bit. I was like a little bit too old for it. But I was doing it organically. I would send friends, like my core group of friends, lip syncing videos of me all the time. Why? I don't know. They're really cringy, actually, because now sometimes they'll send them back to me like, do you remember that you did this? And I'm like, I know. Why did I do that? I have always loved. Why am I even divulging this right now? It sounds so lame. But I've always loved watching videos of lip syncing, like even from performing for your parents with the camcorder. Just making a dance lip syncing has been a great thrill for me for a long time. But it's such a skill and a talent. I mean, look, drag queens are incredible at it.

[4:01] Daniel Coffman: Yeah, there was a little bout of drag in my college years. And I really thought, oh, I've found it. That art form is so elaborate. And you're either in it or you're not really in it. And I just couldn't. I don't really like nightlife that much. So that was a really strong barrier for me. But I love everything about the lip syncing, the performance, the dance. So yeah, I've often thought that the mirror thing is kind of like my very watered down version of drag, you know, without any drag. But it's really funny. It's really clever, because you have to be really quick to do it. Because you're lip syncing, you're moving the mirror. The best part is, of course, well, for me, I think is when the mirror becomes characters. And you know, you're a choir, you're characters. It takes a lot of do you how many takes does it take on average to get it right?

[5:04] Daniel Coffman: You know, when I was first, like doing these, and they were kind of taking off, I was just doing popular songs. And it was really kind of more about like the dance and empathizing beats. But now that it's morphed into more like theatrical, and I know how to edit different characters and without even having to manipulate the mirror. Sometimes those ideas, they'll haunt me for months. And I can't like quite figure it out. But there is no rehearsal, like I'm never in there working it out. It's all it's just all constantly percolating in the background, making me lose sleep and also probably making me very inefficient at anything else I'm doing.

[5:34] Robert Bannon: I totally get I don't know if I get teased by my friends that like if I go to a movie, or a Broadway show, or go to, I look at it in the lens of my show, like I want to book that person, I want to get that person on my show to music or go see theater, or there's a new thing and you're like, I need to get in front of the mirror. Like you have a different view of art because you're trying to find the next song.

[6:01] Daniel Coffman: Yeah, totally. I mean, I think every time like a new, like a viral song that comes across my feed, and I'm like, Oh my god, this is gonna be so good. I can I can already see it or something, you know, that's very nostalgic for my past just kind of like resurfaces. And I'm like, why haven't I thought of this yet? Like, this is gonna be amazing. Those are very easy to come by. What was the question? Do you do you just keep on the hunt?

[6:28] Daniel Coffman: Like you're on the hunt for the next?

[6:30] Daniel Coffman: Yes, yes, I guess. So thank you. So I'm just kind of like, always ears open, I think, or how many times can I reinvent this? Because that's a really the big thrill for me is like, I think it's done every time I have a really good one. And then I'm like, Oh, no, you know, like a couple weeks ago by I think I've lost it. It's I don't have any fresh ideas anymore. And then something will hit, you know, and just like on a random Tuesday in a car ride, get an idea. Topically, your your new videos, your tribute videos to Dali and to they're so good, and they make us smile and laugh. And I think that they're really beautiful ways to pay tribute. But this really kicked off Devil Wears Prada 2, or Sister Act, or like they went cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs crazy. What's it feel like when it starts to go viral in that way? Is it scary? Is it exciting?

[7:23] Daniel Coffman: Yeah, yeah. So I my first viral reel was not actually like a Broadway when it was Gasolina in it. And very quickly, it hit like 100 million plus views on Instagram. And I was like, I've never seen content do this before. And I had no idea really. And then there were a couple like television opportunities that came from that. And here's that here's really the weird thing that I'm learning about social media. And I'm going to try to stay on topic here. But if you know, like what you want to do, and you hit like a viral moment, you're set. But if you don't really know, like what you want to do, and you have a viral moment, it's almost like not having the viral moment at all, because there's like very little you can kind of do with it.

So yeah, I was riding this like crazy wave, but also just kind of like watching it like everybody else, like, not really, not really seen, you know, like a massive change in my pay right away, or my lifestyle, or, you know, there were some really cool partnerships that came my way. But not not so many that I was like, I'm quitting everything. This is it. Like I've got it. And then I kept thinking, I've got to get away from the mirror. Like I have to do these other things. And there's more to me than this. And I have some really invested followers that are like, love that content too. But when you are used to seeing and when you are measuring everything against Reels that are sometimes hitting like 2 million views in the first day of posting, it can kind of like warp everything.

And so the other part to me that I feel really proud of, that I'm trying to like nourish and get to a place where other people are also obsessed with the idea. It's, it's, it's like such a drag when that is like only mildly successful.

[9:27] Robert Bannon: Successful, sorry.

[9:28] Robert Bannon: No, that's so funny, because we've had a lot of people on who have gone viral, and I've talked and become friends with people who have been on the show, and then they've, you know, kept in touch. And sometimes it's really hard to top like you become enough, I do too, you become like obsessed with the numbers, you know, this wasn't as yeah, want to get more, I should do whatever. It's, it's so how do you give yourself a boundary? Do you, are you incessantly checking? Do you have rules about how you check?

[9:55] Daniel Coffman: You know what I am, my toxic checking is the shares, like if I can like, click through my shares, and it's like a flipbook. And it lasts for like a minute of me, you know, hyper tapping and I'm like, Okay, no, I'm still relevant. It's cool. Or that stupid professional dashboard gives me my, you know, so many millions per 30 days. And that can be a crazy number or not crazy number. And that can really mess with my head. But I like to think of a view kind of the way I would have thought about a ticket sale. And even at like 4000 views, or even 700 likes, or even at 100 likes, that's a lot of people to share your art with. And I have to stay gracious for the opportunity. Like that is really the only thing that levels me out is I am I invested nothing into the it literally landed in my life.

It's a outdated bathroom mirror. I happen to be a kid and only child that, you know, was also a musical person that loves to lip sync. And we just collided. Do you know what I mean? And now I am getting opportunities because of because of it.

[11:09] Robert Bannon: Yes, so many fun upper I just saw you in on television in Australia. I mean, around the world reach so many more people than you could reach just in the LA area with this and people you know what moves me about a Daniel is I'm sure you get messages and there are people.

[11:21] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

[11:51] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

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[13:41] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

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[14:41] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

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[15:41] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

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[16:41] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

[17:01] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

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[17:41] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

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[19:41] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

[20:01] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

[20:51] Daniel Coffman: Brings “Bathroom Broadway” to the Roundtable!

[21:41] Robert Bannon: We all start with 14.

[21:43] Robert Bannon: Fourteen.

[21:46] Robert Bannon: Your joy. I'm so excited for you. I can't wait to see the many, many chapters of this and I hope you just keep on singing. We're so excited. If you want to know about the live music, follow him. If you want to know the updates on what's going to happen, follow him. Stick around. Stay tuned because you're only starting. We're here for the whole ride.

[22:04] Daniel Coffman: Awesome. Thanks, Robert.

[22:06] Robert Bannon: Thank you, Daniel. I'm going to go practice my lip-synching.

[22:12] Daniel Coffman: Thanks so much for having me.

[22:13] Robert Bannon: And staging my house and clean my bathroom mirror. You've really given me a to-do list now that I'm thinking about it.

[22:19] Daniel Coffman: Yeah, you do have a lot to get done.

[22:22] Robert Bannon: It's okay. I gotta go. Thank you so much for being here. We love you here. Thank you, Daniel.

[22:41] Daniel Coffman: Bye.