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[0:03] Patrick Oliver Jones: Last week you heard from Conor Tague, one of the stars from the Broadway musical How to Dance in Ohio.

[0:10] Conor Tague: He shared his experiences in that history-making production as well as the struggles he faced early on as an actor.

[0:16] Conor Tague: Well, now I'm back to talk more about my Broadway debut by answering the final five questions in this bonus episode of Why I'll Never Make It.

[0:41] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right, well, let's get into these final five questions. And so, number one, what do you remember most about your first professional show?

[0:51] Conor Tague: Well, what I remember most about my first professional show, which was How to Dance in Ohio, by the way, it was like, okay, this is happening. I'm making my Broadway debut.

[1:03] Conor Tague: And a lot of people are gonna see this. But most of the time I was thinking, I finally made it. We all made it. This is something that we've worked hard for, and it has a meaning.

[1:18] Conor Tague: We made it.

[1:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: Was there ever any doubt? Did you ever feel like, you know, can I do this? What was there ever any of that?

[1:28] Conor Tague: Yeah, no, I had I did have some doubts, like years prior, but I never gave up.

[1:40] Conor Tague: I worked as hard as I could through high school, through college, and then with Epic. Then eventually, you know, once the Broadway stuff came in, I'm like, this is it.

[1:54] Conor Tague: No going back now. Time to move forward. Whether it's hard or not, it's all for the fun.

[2:05] Conor Tague: Hard fun.

[2:06] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[2:07] Conor Tague: Yeah. Hard work, but enjoy it.

[2:09] Conor Tague: You gotta enjoy it.

[2:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[2:10] Conor Tague: Hard work, but it's fun hard work. That's what Alex Brightman said.

[2:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: So number two. Now, how would you say the industry has changed most? How would you say you've seen it progress over the years?

[2:26] Conor Tague: Yeah, no, it was a totally different experience, like from watching the show on Broadway to actually performing on the Broadway stage.

[2:37] Conor Tague: It's such a weird but also satisfying transition because you're watching these performers and you see how amazing they are, but then once you fill in those shoes, you get that feeling of just really putting yourself out there.

[2:58] Conor Tague: And then once you go out in the stage door to sign playbills and all that stuff, you just feel the love and appreciation for the people who came.

[3:16] Conor Tague: I mean, I still get my playbills signed because I'm seeing shows now. But when I was signing playbills and just hearing everyone say, I enjoyed the show so much, I feel so seen.

[3:31] Conor Tague: It's just an amazing feeling because I shared that feeling with them, and I'm still sharing that feeling, but you know, getting to do that like as a performer, it's a really nice shift.

[3:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: I bet.

[3:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: Number three, what does success or making it mean to you?

[3:53] Conor Tague: Well, making it basically just looking back at all the previous things you've done and knowing that you've worked really hard to get to where you need to be.

[4:04] Conor Tague: And while it was also a struggle, just know that it was also really worth it.

[4:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: It sounds like having confidence, a persistence about just to keep going.

[4:17] Conor Tague: Exactly. Just keep going, you know, and don't look back.

[4:22] Conor Tague: I mean, you can look back, but you know, don't like look back to where you think you failed.

[4:30] Conor Tague: No, look back at the accomplishments you've achieved and then move forward to the accomplishments that you will achieve.

[4:41] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, number four, describe a personal lesson that has taken you a while to learn, or one that you are still working on to this day.

[4:51] Conor Tague: Still auditions.

[4:54] Conor Tague: Yeah, there's a lot I still am learning about auditioning. And you know, I'm currently looking through audition calls through Actors Equity's website.

[5:09] Conor Tague: So even though you're just finished with a show, that doesn't mean you should stop.

[5:15] Conor Tague: You need to keep looking for more things to do and be seen.

[5:21] Conor Tague: Cause if you don't, if you don't put yourself out there, people are gonna forget who you are, and you don't want that.

[5:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: It's so interesting to hear you say that because you're still very young in your career, so you have many years to go, many years ahead of you, but you've already achieved a Broadway show, you've already done your Law and Order primetime television, and yet you're still saying auditioning is tough.

[5:51] Conor Tague: And so, I mean, everybody auditions, even if they're not on Broadway anymore.

[5:56] Conor Tague: In fact, there's actually a few Broadway colleagues of mine, they're still auditioning for things, even auditioning in between shows.

[6:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: So there's also that balance.

[6:08] Conor Tague: For sure.

[6:09] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah. All right. Well, here we are. Number five.

[6:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: What is the most useful advice that you have received and how have you applied it to your own life?

[6:18] Conor Tague: Yeah, this useful advice. Actually, I wasn't the only one that got this advice.

[6:23] Conor Tague: Me and a few others from Ohio got the same advice, but it's something that I'm not gonna forget.

[6:30] Conor Tague: So we were recording for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and it was basically, you know, the song we were doing, you know, the mashup and all that.

[6:43] Conor Tague: And we were about to go on, and Spamalot was just exiting, and the last person that we saw before we started recording was James Monroe Iglehart, who plays King Arthur.

[7:01] Conor Tague: He is such a kind human being. I love him so much, and the advice that he gave us was to just enjoy every minute of it.

[7:12] Conor Tague: You guys are going to Broadway. Enjoy every single minute of it because it is something that you're never gonna forget.

[7:19] Conor Tague: That also counts for the parade.

[7:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[7:22] Conor Tague: So yeah, our show, Spamalot, Back to the Future, and Juliet.

[7:29] Conor Tague: We performed on the parade, the Thanksgiving Day Parade. And you know, before that actual event, James Monroe Iglehart, Tony Award winner, is the one who gave us that advice to just enjoy everything.

[7:42] Conor Tague: And so we did.

[7:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, and that's James.

[7:46] Conor Tague: Right.

[7:46] Conor Tague: And that's something that believe me, I'm still learning is that that idea of being present with every moment, you know, not worrying about the past regrets, not trying to worry about the future or what's coming up, but just really enjoying that moment you're in.

[8:15] Patrick Oliver Jones: Great, great. Conor, this has been an absolute joy to talk to you. So glad you got to be on the podcast and join me today.

[8:21] Conor Tague: No, thank you for having me.

[8:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: Thank you so much for joining Why I'll Never Make It. And don't forget, you can become a subscriber and get bonus conversations by going to whyillnevermakeit.com and click subscribe or just look for the link in the show notes.

[8:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Be sure to join me next time as we talk more about why I'll never make it.