This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Justin Clarke: In the spirit of reconciliation, the Theatre Thoughts Podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.

[0:09] Justin Clarke: We pay our respects to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all traditional custodians of the land on which our episodes are recorded.

[0:21] Emily McKnight: They had extra awards, you know. Sometimes they have, you know, the Road Award for I think it was the Technical Directors Award.

[0:28] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[0:29] Emily McKnight: And things like that. So kind of specialty awards. And then they gave a little speech, and then they went, Emily McKnight, an actor survives. And I went, what? I wasn't even listening. I didn't even hear the speech. Actually, I keep meaning to like check it online because I haven't heard it. Um, so I won microphones.

[0:47] Justin Clarke: Awesome.

[0:48] Emily McKnight: So I'm gonna have pro microphones for season three, everybody. Um, I won microphones and, uh, like mixer board thing.

[0:56] Justin Clarke: Right.

[0:56] Emily McKnight: And um, and stands and a trophy. When's the last time you got a trophy? That was a trophy. Very exciting.

[1:07] Justin Clarke: You're listening to the Theatre Thoughts Podcast. If you're a new listener, welcome to the podcast. If you're one of our valued returning listeners, welcome back to a new episode.

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[1:58] Justin Clarke: Welcome everyone.

[2:02] Emily McKnight: Hi.

[2:05] Justin Clarke: We are here for another episode of Theatre Thoughts Podcast. I'm very, very excited to chat with a fellow podcaster today. I met this performer recently at KXD after seeing her perform in A Christmas Carol, which was great.

[2:18] Justin Clarke: So we have a Sydney-based actor, musician, and children's entertainer who studied at the Actor Centre of Australia, appearing regularly in Jay's Jungle on 7-2, as well as writing for the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra Kids' Prom Concerts. She's toured with Poetry In Action, traveling to schools across Australia, New Zealand, as well as Hong Kong. She writes and performs her own children's songs as well under the name Emily Who. So please welcome Emily McKnight.

[2:45] Emily McKnight: Hello! Thank you. Thanks for having me. Hello, everybody. Oh, I'm very excited. Because as you said earlier, I'm very I love having other podcasters on who are also actors. So we could like talk and it kind of meshes both worlds, which is great. Straight away when I got here, I was like, what do you do? Wow, how do you do this? Whoa, why do this? Cool. Swap notes. It's awesome.

[3:04] Justin Clarke: So your podcast, An Actor Survives. Um, where did that come from? Let's start with that. Because I feel like that's like I've listened to it in research. I listened to the John Bell episode because I love Shakespeare and I love John Bell. Big stan of him. And you obviously got to work with him on A Christmas Carol, which I loved. I loved it.

[3:22] Emily McKnight: Yeah, it was awesome to get to work with him. Uh, well, the podcast came about from my brain, in that I was I'd finished drama school and I was doing all the things. I was reading all the acting books and going to class and filming self-tapes and learning Shakespearean monologues and trying, trying, trying. I want to be an actor, I want to be an actor, and just kind of getting nowhere.

[3:49] Emily McKnight: Yeah. Getting nowhere maybe isn't the right terminology. Maybe I was I was I wasn't getting anywhere professionally. Right, gotcha, yeah. Or where I wanted to be, like I wanted to do a main stage theatrical production. Um, I went to watch a Q&A with Sarah Snook. Yes. Um, which everybody knows her now from her fame in Succession, um, but she's also done heaps of theatre stuff, and she was talking about her career and how she was really lucky to go from job to job, and I was sitting there and she was she is so inspirational, but I was sitting there going, Oh, did you also kind of worry? Did you also just have another job, a muggle job, I call it?

[4:24] Emily McKnight: A muggle job, I love it. Did you how like how did you how do I get to be where you are, kind of thing? And was it that easy? Did you just jump from thing to thing? And so I actually asked her, at the risk of kind of sounding rude, I said I said something to the effect of, oh, you've talked a lot about luck. Do you have any advice for people that are that are that are trying that maybe haven't fallen into that luck?

[4:50] Emily McKnight: Yeah, and or did you ever find it hard? Yeah, I kind of just wanted someone famous to go, it's really hard. And not just not just, oh, you'll get rejected, but like just sometimes you don't get auditions. No, you don't. Sometimes you most of the time we don't get auditions. But sometimes you like, you know, it's it's hard anyway. That got me thinking that I really want to know more from other actors about how they how they do it.

[5:15] Emily McKnight: Yeah. How does everybody wake up in the morning and be an actor? Yeah. Does everybody get up and do their warm-ups? How do they feel when they are confronted by non-actor people at family birthday parties and they're asked about their acting? When's your next job? What are you doing next? Yeah, I had a family friend ask say to me once when I'd done a couple of indie productions. Yeah, she was like, Oh, you've been so successful in your acting career. Are you quitting your other work? And I I got like zero dollars from those and I was like, No, no, it was very fun, but I didn't get any money.

[5:49] Emily McKnight: I feel like that's what people sometimes say with me about the podcast, which I like really appreciate. They go like, Oh, your podcast is going great, guns. Yeah. And I'm like, Yeah, it is. And and they say it like it's like this ultra like amazing podcast, which I you know would love. It is an ultra-amazing podcast. Um, and I love doing it, but then it's like they insinuate that you know, this should be your full-time job. It's like, uh make a lot of money off it.

[6:14] Emily McKnight: Yeah, I've I've thought about giving mine up because it it takes so much work and it's hard and so much work, you know, but I love it, so every time I do one, I feel so excited, and also when I hear from people that listen, it's exciting. But um, yeah, so then I thought maybe I'll write a book and I'll interview people, other actors, and I'll write down their responses. And maybe at that point I think I'd done one TV show, one theatre production, right? Like semi-professional, one um ad. I'd kind of felt like I'd done one of everything or been on sets of all different kinds.

[6:50] Emily McKnight: Yeah. Um, and so I went, maybe I'll write a book about that, and then integrate it with talking to other actors about their experiences in those fields. Right, gotcha, yeah. And then I went, wait a minute, everyone listens to podcasts. They're big now. Maybe I'll do maybe I'll maybe I'll make a podcast. Yeah, so then I just wrote a list of people that I'd want to talk to and contacted them. And the first one I contacted was Kate Mulvany.

[7:17] Justin Clarke: Okay.

[7:17] Emily McKnight: Um, because I had met and worked with her years ago. Yeah. And then I said, Hi, I'm thinking of doing this podcast. Here are the questions that I've written down. What do you think? And she was like, Yeah, great. But if you want to do it, it has to be this weekend because I'm in America and I'm about to start filming. Um, and so it has to be on Zoom as well. So I literally had two days.

[7:38] Emily McKnight: Right to get it to get going to that happening. I didn't have a real microphone when I did hers. Um, I didn't have really any knowledge at all. I just went, okay, I'll just talk to her and press record on Zoom and just see what happens. I didn't have anything.

[7:52] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[7:53] Emily McKnight: Um, so then after recording that, I went, oh my gosh, I love this. I want to do this more. I want to talk to as many different people as possible. Ask them the same questions but get totally different answers, which is what happens. Um and it's great. And I love talking to different actors and learning about how they do things and feeling that sense of community. It's gone from just me going like, how does everyone do it? It's so hard. Yeah. To feeling like, yeah, creating and being part of an amazing community of people, both in my guests that come on, but also in the people I've heard. I've made friends from people writing to me on Instagram saying I really like your podcast.

[8:34] Justin Clarke: Oh wow.

[8:34] Emily McKnight: It's yeah, it's awesome. It's so great. Do you think it helps as well because you are an actor and you're like you're you know, you're in the in the business, so to speak?

[8:43] Emily McKnight: Yeah, I think so. And I think I I think so absolutely. I mean, I try not to go on too much about myself. Um in the interviews.

[8:53] Justin Clarke: What do you want about yourself?

[8:54] Emily McKnight: Now today, everybody, this is me. No, um, but I I do I do kind of try and find that balance. Um but yeah, definitely getting to talk to other actors and also different actors doing different things. Yeah. So my final episode of season two, I talk to an actor whose main focus is in the horror genre.

[9:17] Emily McKnight: And all of her acting has been there. I don't. Oh no, I never watched any of her films. It's really funny. So um, so you know, so there's that, and then I'll talk to somebody who just does Shakespeare, and then I'll talk to somebody who's you know maybe hasn't done any professional work yet, or has just done ads, or you know, such a variety of people that are doing stuff all the time or that fell into STC straight after drama school, or people that have never had an agent or whatever.

[9:42] Emily McKnight: So it's just for me it's quite calming because I go, okay, there's not like I'm not doing anything wrong, and I can just keep trying and doing the things and actually just existing and calling myself an actor is okay, even if I'm not doing anything.

[9:58] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[9:59] Emily McKnight: Um, I mean, you've spoken to such a variety as well. I've I went through and I picked a couple. So you had like Jay LaGuyer, yes who's great, Deborah Ann, Monica Sayers, Simon Ward, John Bell, like there's such a variety there to kind of choose from.

[10:12] Emily McKnight: Yeah, and that has been great because then honestly, I ask the same questions pretty much, and they all answer totally differently, depending on their experience. And um at the end of each episode, I get them to give their top five survival tips of how to survive in the industry.

[10:28] Emily McKnight: And everyone has different tips.

[10:30] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[10:30] Emily McKnight: And so then listeners can take what they want, not you know, um, pick and choose what they want. I do remember when I was younger, I tried to make it in the biz, you know, and I did a lot of TV commercials. My claim to fame is that I auditioned for December Boys with Daniel Radcliffe.

[10:41] Justin Clarke: Wow.

[10:45] Emily McKnight: And I was apparently, I don't know how true this is, they said I was the second choice for like the lead character. Um, you know that it was a young ginger boy with glasses, and then years later, probably 2018, I went to I was in England and Daniel was playing uh Rosa Crantzer Gildenstone.

[11:04] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[11:04] Emily McKnight: It came out afterwards, he did a like little meet and greet, and I said, Oh Daniel, I auditioned to be in December boys with you. And he was like, Oh wow, really, that would have been awesome. And I was like, Yeah, it could have been a film to go. It was oh, I would have loved that.

[11:15] Justin Clarke: Oh, that's nice. Thanks, Dan.

[11:17] Emily McKnight: Yeah, it was really funny. You should get him on the podcast.

[11:19] Justin Clarke: I should, I can imagine that'd be great.

[11:21] Emily McKnight: But I do remember one of the toughest auditions I did as a kid was um it's probably just for a Pizza Hut commercial. But we were sitting in um the foyer just waiting, and the agents came out and they looked around and were like, Okay, do your next, and so on. And I was in there for probably about half an hour when my appointment was half an hour ago. And then eventually they kind of just looked at me and went, Alright, come in. And uh they just went, Okay, name, cool, awesome bye. And so it's just like oh well that was a waste of time.

[11:48] Justin Clarke: It's so hard, and that's the thing, it's so hard, and every actor has those stories of being rejected. And you know, you just said about oh you were the second one, and my reaction is wow, that's so cool. But at the time it would have been devastating.

[12:01] Emily McKnight: Yeah, because you're like, that could have been me. I remember seeing all the boys who got chosen on TV with Daniel Radcliffe, and I was like, could've been me. Yeah, so it is it's just really uh challenging, and for different people for different reasons, and so it's kind of yeah, create some kind of solidarity to talk about it and to realize that you're not alone in that and everybody has those stories.

[12:22] Justin Clarke: Yeah, exactly. Well, with your theatre history, uh, where did that start from?

[12:27] Emily McKnight: I should say for you. Um it started there's sort of two answers. One is that I grew up going to watch Bell Shakespeare. Um my uh grandmother used to take me to Bell Shakespeare plays pretty much all the time. Another answer is uh I saw also the Bell Shakespeare players came to my school and I saw them and I was like I want to do that one day.

[12:49] Justin Clarke: So when I did poetry in action I was like this is my dream job. I literally remember going I want to be an actor that goes into schools and here I am doing it. Um and then in terms of actually acting myself started um in Epping I mean oh you know I did school productions and things.

[13:06] Emily McKnight: Okay yeah uh but the first kind of main plays that I did were as part of a community theatre company called uh the Theatre on Chester.

[13:17] Justin Clarke: Okay.

[13:17] Emily McKnight: In Epping which is an amateur community theatre company.

[13:20] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[13:21] Emily McKnight: Um and so I sort of did stuff with them in late ish high school but it was funny because I got into I went to Newtown Performing Arts High School.

[13:29] Justin Clarke: Oh okay yeah.

[13:29] Emily McKnight: And I got in on flute so I was a music student.

[13:33] Justin Clarke: Right.

[13:33] Emily McKnight: And that was sort of my main thing but I had a teacher who basically said you could be good at drama. Do you want to try it?

[13:39] Justin Clarke: Right.

[13:42] Emily McKnight: And then I did and I loved it and I was in all the drama companies and stuff at school and that's great. Finished school and went what do I do? Do I go to the con? Do I go to an acting school? And then I went, oh it's all too overwhelming I'm just gonna go do arts an arts degree.

[13:54] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[13:55] Emily McKnight: And so that's what I did before drama school.

[13:56] Justin Clarke: Yeah yeah yeah because I needed time to figure it out.

[13:59] Emily McKnight: Yeah you generally do don't you?

[14:00] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[14:01] Emily McKnight: I think I kind of did the opposite, whereas like I was like full on like I'm gonna be a movie star. And then uh I went to theat uh like a I went to uh Willongong performing arts um degree and uh and then by the end of it I went, Oh, I'm not gonna get any money out of this straight away, so I'm gonna go add on another degree and like use that for my my muggle job.

[14:21] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[14:22] Emily McKnight: Um whereas for me, all through Macquarie Uni, I was just in all of the theatrical productions and some of the musicals and good musical. And then I was doing flute, learning flute, and then I'd started flute teaching, and so then my brain was like, okay, I know I'm getting this other degree, but also all of my energy is being spent on drama and music still. Like I need to pursue something.

[14:43] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[14:46] Emily McKnight: So yeah.

[14:47] Justin Clarke: That's awesome. And so then you you just did your professional debut last year, is that right?

[14:52] Emily McKnight: Yes. Uh as a theatre actor, yes. I had done a little few TV things before that, but um I was in a Christmas carol at Ensemble Theatre at the end of the year.

[15:05] Justin Clarke: Running a small business? Are you promoting a new show or running a theatre space? Maybe you're looking for an area to reach potential new clients. Why not advertise with us on the Theatre Thoughts Podcast? We have a range of packages and prices for you to butch your ad right here on the podcast. For more information, contact us at theatre thoughts team at outlook.com or by heading to our website, Theatre Thoughts AUS dot online.

[15:31] Emily McKnight: So where did Emily Who come from then?

[15:34] Justin Clarke: Oh, so Emily Who this is quite biggly, sorry.

[15:39] Emily McKnight: That's okay. Like, I'm not used to being a guest, so why I'm like wow, I'm rambling.

[15:44] Justin Clarke: Okay.

[15:45] Emily McKnight: Emily Who came about because my first ever professional acting job was on a television show called Jay's Jungle.

[15:54] Justin Clarke: Oh yeah with Jay LaGaya.

[15:56] Emily McKnight: So that's where I met him. I mean, that was wild because I finished drama school and I was like, I just want to do Shakespeare. One day I'm gonna be Shakespeare at the Globe, and that is what I want to do. I hate to be one of these people, but not long after drama school finished, I got into a TV show.

[16:10] Justin Clarke: Sorry.

[16:10] Emily McKnight: Jay's Jungle. I got into this TV show, and it was a children's TV show with Jay, who basically was so kind. He took me under his wing and taught me lots because he'd had many years on play school.

[16:21] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[16:22] Emily McKnight: And then after that finished, so I did two seasons of that. And after that finished, I went, gee, I love doing kids stuff. And I think I might be good at it. I wonder if I can do more of it alongside my Shakespeare Dreams.

[16:37] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[16:38] Emily McKnight: And just see what that is. And almost at the same time, it was really spooky. I got this phone call from a teacher that I'd worked with at ACA actually, um, whose partner had worked with the Wiggles and Justin Clarke and other such.

[16:54] Justin Clarke: Right.

[16:54] Emily McKnight: And he had said to her, gee, I kind of wanted work with another children's performer at some point and produce some more music.

[17:01] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[17:01] Emily McKnight: And then she was like, gee, I'm sure I saw one of my ex-students as doing a children's show.

[17:06] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[17:07] Emily McKnight: And put it all together, and so basically got us to have a meeting, and that's with Robin Gist and uh and with Peter Bailey. And that was kind of how Emily they just said to me, Oh yeah, we kind of want to write a children's album.

[17:19] Justin Clarke: Right.

[17:19] Emily McKnight: We'd like you to be the face of it, but as you're a musician, if you want to be part of writing the songs, and I went, yeah, let's do it all together.

[17:26] Justin Clarke: That's amazing.

[17:26] Emily McKnight: And so it's the three of us kind of write the songs, and um, and we've got four albums now.

[17:33] Justin Clarke: What?

[17:34] Emily McKnight: Which is a bit of a big thing.

[17:35] Justin Clarke: That's amazing.

[17:35] Emily McKnight: Yeah. Wow, congratulations.

[17:37] Emily McKnight: I've only just started doing live shows because pandemic.

[17:40] Justin Clarke: Yeah, I mean, it sort of started at the beginning of COVID.

[17:43] Emily McKnight: Okay.

[17:43] Justin Clarke: Um the best ideas did, didn't they?

[17:46] Emily McKnight: Yeah. Well, I was actually supposed to my first main performance was supposed to be in Bologna.

[17:50] Justin Clarke: Oh no.

[17:51] Emily McKnight: In Italy.

[17:52] Justin Clarke: Oh.

[17:52] Emily McKnight: And so I was on my way there. And you know how Italy closed first.

[17:56] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[17:56] Emily McKnight: Yeah. So I did not do that.

[17:58] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[17:59] Emily McKnight: So now I kind of juggle working on being an actor, the podcast, and Emily Who along with my muggle job.

[18:07] Justin Clarke: Wow.

[18:07] Emily McKnight: Some people ask me, they always go, I don't know how you do it. And it's just the same sort of thing.

[18:10] Justin Clarke: I was about to say the same thing. I don't know how you do it.

[18:13] Emily McKnight: It's busy.

[18:15] Justin Clarke: I'm a big juggling job, isn't it?

[18:16] Emily McKnight: I'm learning a lot about not getting burnt out all the time at the moment. Um especially because during the play when I did Christmas Carol, for some reason I thought that I could do that and do Emily perform Emily Who performances on my days off and still teach 30 kids a week flute and run a band program, which I don't do those things anymore.

[18:37] Justin Clarke: Right.

[18:37] Emily McKnight: But so I got very burnt out by the end of it.

[18:40] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[18:40] Emily McKnight: Um so it was a good lesson in okay, when I'm in a show and I'm doing eight shows a week, which includes all of that vocal and physical energy, maybe I have to pull back on some of the other stuff.

[18:51] Justin Clarke: You kind of just go like um well you know, which which what do you sacrifice?

[18:56] Emily McKnight: Yeah, and I tend to be a person that I feel every moment of every day and love that and have a lot of energy and then I crash. So I'm trying to learn how to not do that at the moment.

[19:06] Justin Clarke: Yeah, it's it's a skill, and I I'd love to hear this on like one of your episodes somebody talk about burnout because it is a massive thing, especially if you're uh if you are like trying to you know make something for yourself because I know like I have my my day job, which you know takes up a lot of my time, but then I come and do this, and then like this afternoon I'm going to review Choir boys at Riverside, and then next week I've got a show like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

[19:31] Emily McKnight: So it's like it's a lot, and then you gotta ride up and do the extra stuff.

[19:35] Justin Clarke: So it is a lot to kind of build something that is your own.

[19:38] Emily McKnight: Um I guess it's difficult.

[19:41] Justin Clarke: It is difficult, and then also you know, I'm I'm in a kind of interestingly, I'm in a time at the moment. It's why I love the podcast, because I can constantly refer to advice I've been given. But I'm in not a slump. I just finished a play two months ago, that's not that long, but it does feel a bit strange at the moment. Because right now I don't have any auditions lined up.

[19:58] Emily McKnight: Right.

[19:58] Justin Clarke: I don't have any other plays. And you know, you do. I did my first professional production.

[20:06] Emily McKnight: Yes, it was all great.

[20:08] Justin Clarke: Oh, Emily, this is gonna lead to so much more, and maybe it will, and it's not to say that it won't, but it's so interesting being in that world.

[20:15] Emily McKnight: I actually dropped down some of my muggle job, so I'm doing less of that now, but it means I have more space, and that includes more space to stress about what's gonna happen next.

[20:24] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[20:25] Emily McKnight: So I'm not getting as burnt out right at this moment, but I'm also more stressed about yeah, what the future is.

[20:32] Justin Clarke: So finding that balance to be able to be in the in-between times and trust that it's an in-between time and that something else will come.

[20:39] Emily McKnight: It's so cool.

[20:40] Justin Clarke: It's it's like it because it kind of replicates exactly what your podcast is about.

[20:44] Emily McKnight: Yeah.

[20:44] Justin Clarke: You know, which is good ammo for you.

[20:46] Emily McKnight: I think it's I know.

[20:47] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[20:47] Emily McKnight: I'm like, I can't complain about this. I literally talk about it all the time with my guests.

[20:51] Justin Clarke: Well, speaking of your podcast, um who I was the thing.

[20:55] Emily McKnight: Oh, you who are you um it's a bit of a tough question.

[20:57] Justin Clarke: All right. Um, I was gonna ask who are your favourite guests that you've had on.

[21:00] Emily McKnight: Yes.

[21:01] Justin Clarke: I feel like picking and choosing is a bit tough because you've had like so many great people on. So instead I'll ask who would be your dream guest to have on.

[21:09] Emily McKnight: Ah, yes. Also a challenging question. Um, the thing about the podcast for me is it's not about Emily interviews famous people. I'm saying that. Famous people if you're listening. But um, but what I really want it to be is a mixture of people with a mixture of experiences. So yeah, getting the kind of bigger names is good because it also boosts the listenership and things like that. Um, but it's also interesting. Like getting like, you know, Cate Blanchett. Imagine talking to her. She's an Australian actor. You know, I'd love, so there's one, Cate Blanchett would be a definitely a dream guest.

[21:47] Justin Clarke: Oh yeah.

[21:48] Emily McKnight: Um, oh look, there's heaps. I have a note in my phone, and every time I hear of an Australian actor I haven't heard of, or see them in a film or something, I'll write it down. Or yeah, um, Hugh Jackman, that'd be good.

[21:59] Justin Clarke: Yeah, Hugh if you're listening.

[22:00] Emily McKnight: Yeah. Um, yeah, you know, so some of those bigger names, but it's really important to me that I get people that maybe don't have a name or maybe I haven't heard of or other people haven't heard of, or even I've had some friends on there that maybe haven't had as much work. I mean, I have to be very careful about how I ask.

[22:19] Justin Clarke: Yeah, yeah.

[22:22] Emily McKnight: You know, I don't want to say to my friends, hey, you haven't done anything. Can you kind of talk about that on my podcast? Um, because I want it to be real actors having real experiences.

[22:31] Justin Clarke: Yeah, I don't want to offend anybody.

[22:32] Emily McKnight: Yeah, and because I've had people say, friends say to me, Oh no, I can't be on your podcast till I've got a CV. And I'm like, no, but the point isn't to have one.

[22:39] Justin Clarke: No, I know.

[22:40] Emily McKnight: And I deliberately don't do an intro, and I've been criticized for this, but I don't do an intro like to my guests like you did for me. I don't go, oh, this person has done this, this, this, and this, and you might know them from blah. Because I don't want it to be that. I want it to just be two actors sitting and chatting.

[22:54] Justin Clarke: Yeah, exactly. And I feel like that's what's because I've spoken to a lot of different podcasters in the last two years, and everyone's got their own angle of what they want to do, you know, and I find that really fascinating. Um just you gotta have it as like kind of representative of yourself and what you want out of it.

[23:11] Emily McKnight: Yeah, and like yes, we all know John Bell created John um created Bell Shakespeare Company. That's awesome and amazing and wonderful.

[23:20] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[23:20] Emily McKnight: But what happens if I just sit and talk to him and say, you know, how do you deal with rejection? You know, like that.

[23:26] Justin Clarke: Yeah, I think that's what I loved about that episode was just hearing all the other stuff that I don't know about him.

[23:32] Emily McKnight: Yeah, you know, and I feel uh that the Bell Shakespeare part was actually a really small portion of that episode because you were focusing on him as a human being, him as an actor. Like what did he actually do? And I think I was able to do that more because I'd been working with him, and he was just so delightful to work with.

[23:51] Justin Clarke: Um, and yeah, it was just really lovely. Uh, and was happy to to do that and was happy to sit and have a chat, and I felt kind of um a privilege in a way that he would be happy to chat so openly.

[24:03] Emily McKnight: And in fact, I feel that about all the guests. They just are willing to be open, and I've had um a few guests kind of reveal things that maybe they wouldn't normally talk about or um in a kind of more serious media situation, but because it is that just like let's talk about how we survive, yeah.

[24:22] Justin Clarke: They go, Oh, well, actually, yeah, here's how I did it. So yeah, fascinating. I love it.

[24:26] Emily McKnight: Well, I think it's incredible, and you've had a lot of success as well. What was the awards? I can't remember the awards. You were at the awards probably last year, you got nominated, and then you presented on a panel.

[24:35] Emily McKnight: Yes.

[24:35] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[24:36] Emily McKnight: So um this was crazy. I came across this thing called Sydney WebFest. It's really great. People listening, please um check it out. If you make short films or web series or podcasts or things like that, what it does is it basically celebrates that online world.

[24:54] Justin Clarke: Right.

[24:55] Emily McKnight: Okay. And so you can um put things in to be part of the festival. So I had a children's web series that I'd made in lockdown as part of the children's section.

[25:05] Justin Clarke: Right.

[25:06] Emily McKnight: And then I put the podcast into it. And I didn't win the best podcast um award but what happened was uh they asked me to speak on a panel because I had a children's thing and a podcast thing and they were kind of like what who are you?

[25:19] Justin Clarke: Oh okay what where what do you where do you fit?

[25:22] Emily McKnight: And I went hello I'm general creative. And so I went to talk on this panel about being creative and trying different mediums and things like that.

[25:33] Justin Clarke: And that was in the morning and then I had a two show day for Christmas Carol. Love it.

[25:37] Emily McKnight: What I mean about being busy um so I did the the panel in the morning then two shows and then during the second show was when the awards night the announcements were on.

[25:49] Justin Clarke: But they were live streaming it.

[25:50] Emily McKnight: So I had it on my phone in the dressing room and it was very nice all my cast members were very vested also. And then so I was listening to it and then the podcast bit came on and I didn't win and I went oh well that's fine you know getting ready and then I I still had it on just playing in the background and then I heard them do a little speech about wanting to um give extra they had extra awards you know, sometimes they have you know this the Road award for I think it was the Technical Directors award, yeah, and things like that.

[26:22] Justin Clarke: So kind of specialty awards.

[26:24] Emily McKnight: And then they gave a little speech, and then they went, Emily McKnight, an actor survives. And I went what? What?

[26:31] Justin Clarke: I wasn't even listening.

[26:32] Emily McKnight: I didn't even hear the speech. Actually, I keep meaning to like check it online because I hadn't heard it. Um so I won microphones.

[26:39] Justin Clarke: Awesome.

[26:40] Emily McKnight: So I'm gonna have pro microphones for season three, everybody.

[26:44] Justin Clarke: Um I won microphones and uh like mixer board thing.

[26:48] Emily McKnight: Right.

[26:49] Justin Clarke: And um and stands and a trophy.

[26:51] Emily McKnight: That's so cool. When's the last time you got a trophy?

[26:54] Justin Clarke: That was a good trophy. Very exciting.

[26:55] Emily McKnight: Yeah. Um, yes, so that was wonderful. And so unexpected and cool.

[27:01] Justin Clarke: Yeah, yeah. I think if I'm thinking of the right mixer, I think I I bought that one um at home. It's very, very good.

[27:07] Emily McKnight: You have a lot of fun with it. I already I've had one lesson on how to use it.

[27:11] Justin Clarke: Um that's the other thing about starting the podcast for me. I hadn't I have no technical know-how.

[27:15] Emily McKnight: I've yeah, you learn everything off YouTube, trust me. I like did so much, and I just lucky, luckily have a tech guy at work who loves like his audio engineering stuff.

[27:24] Justin Clarke: So he was like, You've got to buy this, you gotta buy this, you gotta buy this.

[27:26] Emily McKnight: I was like, Okay, okay, yeah.

[27:27] Justin Clarke: Yeah, yeah, and I'm the same. I got a lot of advice from friends, which was really helpful.

[27:32] Emily McKnight: But um, yes, I've learned a lot, and now I have professional things.

[27:36] Justin Clarke: Wow, congratulations. Well, did you want to do our one minute theatre thoughts?

[27:40] Emily McKnight: Oh, yeah, we're there already.

[27:42] Justin Clarke: So we'll do our one minute theatre thoughts. I love it. Um, and basically I'll put the timer on for one minute and you just basically see how many we can get out.

[27:49] Emily McKnight: Okay.

[27:49] Justin Clarke: Okay, you ready?

[27:50] Emily McKnight: Yes.

[27:51] Justin Clarke: All right, here we go. What is your karaoke song?

[28:03] Emily McKnight: Um, I'm one of those annoying people that knows all the words to most Disney songs.

[28:07] Justin Clarke: Yeah.

[28:07] Emily McKnight: So probably anything Disney, if with a big group of people though, Bohemian Rhapsody.

[28:11] Justin Clarke: Oh, always good. Um, what role haven't you played yet that you'd still like to?

[28:16] Emily McKnight: I would really like to play Helena in a Midsummer Night's Dream. And also, even though I'm not the calibre of singer, my kind of semi-dream role is um Jenna from Waitress.

[28:27] Justin Clarke: Oh um, who inspired you as a young performer?

[28:32] Emily McKnight: Probably Kate Mulvany.

[28:34] Justin Clarke: Love it. Who inspires you now?

[28:36] Emily McKnight: My friends that are working to be actors and watching them put in the work, find agents, do the auditions, all of that. I'm always so inspired.

[28:44] Justin Clarke: Um, which production would you most want to see come to Australia?

[28:48] Emily McKnight: Waitress.

[28:49] Justin Clarke: Love it. Great show.

[28:50] Emily McKnight: And that's it.

[28:51] Justin Clarke: One minute.

[28:52] Emily McKnight: Phew.

[28:52] Justin Clarke: Well done.

[28:53] Emily McKnight: Yeah, that was one minute.

[28:54] Justin Clarke: Yeah, one minute. It always is.

[28:56] Emily McKnight: I did it exactly in one minute.

[28:59] Justin Clarke: You'll tend to find if anyone's listening to like my podcast back to back, like you will generally find that's not one minute. One minute is a metaphor.

[29:06] Emily McKnight: Yeah.

[29:09] Justin Clarke: Uh no, I generally kind of do the one minute one. But Waitress is great. I saw it uh in the UK, and while it didn't resonate with me and like me as a person, I could still appreciate like why people resonate and flock to it. Like it is a very beautiful production.

[29:24] Emily McKnight: Yeah, I really like musicals. I have singing, I have singing lessons, and I'm trying to get better at singing. That's not my dream to be a musical theatre star, but I just yeah, I really love Sara Bareilles and Waitress and Elphaba.

[29:39] Justin Clarke: Oh my god, I'd love to play Elphaba too.

[29:41] Emily McKnight: I did not have the reins, but still. Uh, I'm really interested to see who they get as Elphaba before the return this year.

[29:47] Justin Clarke: It won't be me.

[29:48] Emily McKnight: You never know.

[29:49] Justin Clarke: Never say never.

[29:51] Emily McKnight: If they change all the keys of all the songs, then yes, it will be me.

[29:55] Justin Clarke: Excellent. Well, Emily, thank you so much for coming on. So uh do you want to plug An Actor Survives?

[30:01] Emily McKnight: Um where people can get it. We've been doing that for half an hour, it feels like. Um, thank you. Yes. Uh yes, uh, if you're an actor or a human that is creative or wants to know about actors doing things, uh, please check out An Actor Survives.

[30:16] Justin Clarke: Um, it's wherever you get your podcasts.

[30:19] Emily McKnight: Um, there's 40 episodes out already, season one and season two, and I'm just starting to work on season three. And if you have anybody or know anybody in your life under five, please check out Emily Who.

[30:24] Justin Clarke: Emily Who.

[30:31] Emily McKnight: I love it.

[30:31] Justin Clarke: Excellent. Thank you so much.

[30:32] Emily McKnight: It's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you.

[30:36] Justin Clarke: Thank you for having me.

[30:44] Justin Clarke: Thanks so much to Emily McKnight for joining us as our guest on this week's episode. This episode was produced by Echidna Audio. Follow them on Instagram at Echidna Audio for all their audio services. Once again, if you enjoyed our podcast, leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts and head to the link in this episode's description for our Instagram account, TikTok, YouTube, and Patreon. My name's Justin Clarke, and I'll see you next time here on the Theatre Thoughts Podcast.