This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Hey everybody.

[0:19] Joey Fatone: Oh, we are back again.

[0:20] Patrick Oliver Jones: We did it.

[0:21] Joey Fatone: Back again.

[0:22] Patrick Oliver Jones: Today is the final episode of the season.

[0:26] Joey Fatone: And it's a big one.

[0:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[0:28] Joey Fatone: Oh, oh, yeah.

[0:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh, it's just super big.

[0:30] Joey Fatone: And we have, I think, our biggest guest so far.

[0:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: I love it.

[0:34] Joey Fatone: Yeah, I mean.

[0:37] Patrick Oliver Jones: Just so you guys understand what's happening.

[0:39] Joey Fatone: Uh, we've done this before, but you're hearing it again.

[0:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh, we got Patrick calling in from his remote location of New York City, and my central location of East Haddam, Connecticut, uh, where I am working right this second.

[0:54] Joey Fatone: So you're gonna hear, um, uh unfortunately some sound and whatnot coming in over the phone.

[1:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: But it's not just Patrick and I today hosting the show.

[1:06] Joey Fatone: No, no.

[1:06] Patrick Oliver Jones: We have a third, uh, co-host to host this, our final episode of the season.

[1:12] Joey Fatone: Patrick, please introduce us.

[1:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Mr. Joey Fatone is with us.

[1:15] Joey Fatone: Oh, excuse me, Julian Patrick.

[1:20] Patrick Oliver Jones: Hello.

[1:24] Joey Fatone: That's right.

[1:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: I don't know, I don't know if it's a big celebrity.

[1:27] Joey Fatone: I think they lied to you.

[1:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: But it's okay.

[1:30] Joey Fatone: It's all right.

[1:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: It's just me.

[1:31] Joey Fatone: It's just little old me.

[1:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: Hey, you know, for our little podcast, you're a pretty big deal.

[1:36] Joey Fatone: So we're excited to have you.

[1:38] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, we're excited to have you.

[1:40] Joey Fatone: Well, thank you for having me.

[1:40] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay.

[1:41] Joey Fatone: I mean, you know, we could we back Patrick.

[1:43] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, yeah, you and I, we did so now I was trying to think exactly when it was.

[1:48] Joey Fatone: If I remember correctly, it was two thousand three, is that when that was?

[1:54] Patrick Oliver Jones: I think so.

[1:55] Joey Fatone: It sounds about right.

[1:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: So, uh, 18 years ago and I met doing a little show called Grease. I think you've heard of that.

[1:57] Joey Fatone: I've heard of that.

[1:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: We were, uh, we had like a little, a little, uh, a union show in Orlando, Florida, and, uh, my old drama teacher wanted to do this and I remember she kept telling me too, she's like, well, I want you to play Danny. I look at, I'm like, I'm not Danny.

[1:57] Joey Fatone: Like, but you should be Danny. I'm like, no, I'm not a Danny. But you know what? You want me to be Danny? I'll be Danny.

[2:29] Joey Fatone: I love it. What role did you originally want to play with Swat Free?

[2:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: So then I know we had auditions and stuff like that and you were there.

[2:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: I would have rather played Kanicki or somebody else and anybody other than Danny.

[2:40] Joey Fatone: Needless to say, friendships came out of the actual productions.

[2:43] Patrick Oliver Jones: And I am so that I want to throw in, uh, Joey, you and I have actually met before as well and this is a surprise we we've not spoken about this before but, uh, you did you did a promotion for Bank of America's Keep the Change and then like, uh, Toys for Tots, uh, yeah, that was, uh, Times Square in New York City.

[3:05] Joey Fatone: Yeah, I was one of the contestants and, uh, you gave me a scarf which I still have and we went and we did, uh, in Toys R Us, we did the, uh, like shop a shopping spree for kids, uh, with a bunch of marines.

[3:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: That was fun.

[3:05] Joey Fatone: Yeah, it was an awesome day, but, uh, we met during that and I, you asked a bunch of trivia questions on that little stage and that couch made of nickels.

[3:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right, right.

[3:05] Joey Fatone: And, uh, I didn't know the answer to any of them but I waited just a half second and the entire crowd in Times Square was happy to yell out the answer so that I always got the answers right.

[3:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: I remember actually sitting on that couch how cold it was because it was literally made of, I don't think it was like made of pennies or dimes.

[3:05] Joey Fatone: Right, yeah, it was made of change for sure and, uh, it's crazy.

[3:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, and it was winter, it was cold out.

[3:05] Joey Fatone: Yeah, it was cold out. That's so crazy you remember. I mean, I remember it too and it's just crazy that you happen to be a part of it. That's awesome.

[4:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, it ended up being a really long day and I was so poor at the time, so, so very poor that going on this shopping spree in Toys R Us and then we all got like a $50 like Visa gift card, right? Spending our game gift card.

[4:27] Joey Fatone: That $50 made a giant impact on my financial life at the time so the kids got a little something. $50 in 2000 is going a long way.

[4:39] Patrick Oliver Jones: That's right, 2003.

[4:40] Joey Fatone: Yeah, that's right.

[4:41] Patrick Oliver Jones: Um, okay, so, uh, uh, Patrick, why don't we get into just why we're never ever going to make it in this industry?

[4:40] Joey Fatone: Yeah, I think it's very appropriate that the choice baton is here for the segments because, because why I'll never make it, I'm pretty much only a musical theater performer and in this day and age, as Joey certainly knows, you gotta do a little bit of everything.

[5:13] Joey Fatone: You gotta try to be next.

[5:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, exactly. You gotta try.

[5:17] Joey Fatone: But, but I actually heard from a casting director.

[5:20] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh, I took a class with this casting director and she cast both plays and musicals and she told our class point blank, if you have musicals on your resume, if that's what you do, don't come in for our plays, we won't cast you.

[5:36] Joey Fatone: I was like, Really?

[5:38] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[5:39] Joey Fatone: And now don't you have like a specific resume now?

[5:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: Do you have a specific resume for musicals or another resume for plays?

[5:46] Joey Fatone: Oh, oh, oh, absolutely.

[5:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: I have my play resume, which just focuses on those acting roles, and then I have my musical testimony, which has everything.

[5:54] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[5:54] Patrick Oliver Jones: So anytime I go in for her, it's like, oh no, I do plays. I'm a serious actor.

[6:02] Joey Fatone: That's really interesting.

[6:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: I never thought about it.

[6:06] Joey Fatone: You know, I know with like film, uh, uh, like auditioning for commercials or film and television versus say theater, there's, you'd want to have two separate resumes for that, so you highlight the film and television you've been in or the theater you've been in.

[6:19] Patrick Oliver Jones: But the idea that you would need to also then separate it out further and highlight the plays versus the musicals, that's I'd never heard of that.

[6:27] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[6:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, you want to hear something funny.

[6:29] Joey Fatone: Just it's funny the way you said it because I was the same way, but on the flip side, meaning I was doing musical theater, obviously just in high school.

[6:37] Patrick Oliver Jones: But I remember that they were always saying that, you know, we're n I'm never gonna really make it into like the artist or music industry because I did musicals.

[6:47] Joey Fatone: That's the funny part about it.

[6:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: And look what happened.

[6:50] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[6:51] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, isn't it so crazy how they pigeonhole us?

[6:53] Joey Fatone: It's like they, there's no way an actor can do all things.

[6:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: You know what? And that's the beauty part about actors, and that's the whole thing about it.

[7:01] Joey Fatone: You're acting.

[7:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: So if you're gonna act it, fake it till you make it in certain aspects.

[7:05] Joey Fatone: I mean, if you're not a dramatic actor, try.

[7:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: Pretend.

[7:09] Joey Fatone: That's what acting's all about.

[7:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[7:11] Joey Fatone: Isn't it not?

[7:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: I know.

[7:15] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[7:15] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, it's one of those things where it's very interesting how they do lock you into something and all of a sudden you're characterized as that.

[7:22] Joey Fatone: You know, a lot of comedians have a hard time switching over to the dramatic side.

[7:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: You know, and there's a few people that do definitely pull it off.

[7:28] Joey Fatone: I mean, obviously one was Robin Williams, who was brilliant.

[7:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: He was able to do both.

[7:33] Joey Fatone: He was able to take it and be very serious, it would be very funny.

[7:35] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, yeah.

[7:36] Joey Fatone: Which, which is, uh, now, obviously we're all not Robin Williams or Nathan Lane or any of these big-time names.

[7:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: But at the same time, that skill set of being able to be a musical character or a dramatic character or a silly zany character, this should all be within our tool chest of acting ability.

[7:56] Joey Fatone: Correct.

[7:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: And you know what? Who's to say?

[7:59] Joey Fatone: I'm sure there's a lot of Nathan Lane and Robin Williams out there that just haven't been discovered yet.

[8:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: Hello.

[8:04] Joey Fatone: I mean, here we are.

[8:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: Here's three of us right here.

[8:07] Joey Fatone: That's right.

[8:07] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[8:08] Joey Fatone: I mean, hello, we're funny, we can sing, we're talented, we could be serious.

[8:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[8:14] Joey Fatone: Uh, uh, I try to be serious.

[8:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: It doesn't work very well for me.

[8:18] Joey Fatone: I personally can do everything.

[8:22] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh, and see no limitations in my own abilities.

[8:25] Joey Fatone: So, uh, I don't really connect with that in any way, shape or form.

[8:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'm just, uh, to hear that going into an audition, someone would make that strong of a choice about because your resume says this, I won't even consider you, uh, seems silly on the case.

[8:44] Joey Fatone: That's not, yeah, it's not even, it's not even even given a fair trade, a fair chance.

[8:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: At least hear me out.

[8:49] Joey Fatone: That's what I always say about people like, you know, when I did stuff with *NSYNC and it kinda handed to me, seriously was I wanted it to be Broadway.

[8:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: And they literally like, oh, oh well, what show and what part you want to do?

[8:59] Joey Fatone: I said, well how do you know if I'm right for the part if you don't audition me?

[9:03] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[9:03] Joey Fatone: And they just kinda looked at me like, hey, you're right.

[9:06] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'm like, you're gonna hire me?

[9:08] Joey Fatone: What if I suck?

[9:09] Patrick Oliver Jones: You know?

[9:10] Joey Fatone: You're just getting my name out there.

[9:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: That's fine and all, but what if I can't deliver?

[9:14] Joey Fatone: So it's been interesting like when I very, like the very first time speaking of when I did Rent on Broadway.

[9:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: I remember a lot of people in the cast 'cause I signed up to do six months.

[9:22] Joey Fatone: And they were all like, he ain't gonna last six months.

[9:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: He ain't gonna be six months.

[9:26] Joey Fatone: I never missed the show.

[9:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[9:28] Joey Fatone: I never missed a show.

[9:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: Seven, seven, you know, what are you doing, you know, eight shows a week, whatever it is.

[9:33] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[9:34] Patrick Oliver Jones: Never miss the show.

[9:35] Joey Fatone: So which was crazy and people even said like, oh, we thought you were gonna cop out or vocally mad 'cause a lot of people that are artists when they do go into Broadway, they don't realize how demanding and ridiculously tiresome these shows are.

[9:35] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, I mean it's a rock show.

[9:52] Joey Fatone: You're like sort of belting your lungs out for, you know, two and a half hours.

[10:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: It's a rock operetta.

[10:01] Joey Fatone: I mean, it's not good, it's non-stop.

[10:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, that's an intense thing to have to do to your voice eight shows a week for two and a half hours.

[10:10] Joey Fatone: Yeah, live every day.

[10:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: And people, and I guess certain people don't understand that.

[10:13] Joey Fatone: Like I said, like certain artists, they've jumped in before and then all of a sudden they pull back a little bit to do like, you know, five shows a week and they'll do like three months.

[10:22] Patrick Oliver Jones: Like stop being a vagina.

[10:23] Joey Fatone: Why don't you do all of them?

[10:24] Patrick Oliver Jones: Come on now.

[10:25] Joey Fatone: Do you do a, I've never done a year which is, I will say that.

[10:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: I've never done a full year, which I'm sure is absolutely grueling, and I'm sure Patrick, you have.

[10:35] Joey Fatone: But, uh, I mean for me, I know what it takes in the sense of like willing to do something like that.

[10:39] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'd love to do, you know, as far as if there was a new Broadway show or something out there to be able to create or be out there with to do, which would be fun.

[10:46] Joey Fatone: It's an intense process.

[10:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'm working on a show we that we do eight shows a week right now, and, uh, my part is very minimal.

[10:54] Joey Fatone: But I w I'm sort of working and living in this tiny hamlet of East Haddam, and these the dancers and singers in this show, they go through this like grueling process every day just to prepare for a show and then to like take care of their bodies after every show in order to get through it.

[11:15] Joey Fatone: Uh, it's a very, very intense process.

[11:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh, 'cause they're, yeah, the athletes.

[11:20] Joey Fatone: They're athletes both vocally and physically.

[11:23] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, what is that average life ex, I don't even know as far as far as I got on Broadway as far as dancing is concerned.

[11:28] Joey Fatone: Like how long is that, that usually lasts?

[11:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: I mean, there's some of them that are your lifetime doing it forever.

[11:34] Joey Fatone: They just, they just gotta adjust, you know.

[11:36] Patrick Oliver Jones: There are things that break down and you can't, you can't quite do what you did before.

[11:41] Joey Fatone: Right.

[11:41] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[11:42] Joey Fatone: But I can't imagine doing the, the a hundred and ten percent version of what your body's capable of lasts much longer than a few years.

[11:51] Patrick Oliver Jones: There's probably a prime window of where you're at your best, and then, you know, it starts to break down a little bit.

[12:01] Joey Fatone: I mean, I know there are some folks at this show doing it at a really high level in their, uh, mid and late thirties.

[12:07] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh, so, you know, right, it lasts, it does last a little while at least.

[12:11] Joey Fatone: Yeah, because I think you still see there's still some people out there in the 30s, maybe.

[12:15] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[12:16] Joey Fatone: Yeah, but not, not everyone is like a Chita Rivera.

[12:20] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, I mean, she, she's like 70, I think.

[12:23] Joey Fatone: And she's still looking in it and doing her thing.

[12:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: Still kicking it too.

[12:26] Joey Fatone: Uh, those high kicks.

[12:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, that, that's just it though.

[12:30] Joey Fatone: It takes a certain type of person.

[12:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[12:32] Joey Fatone: To have that mentality to do these those, those vigorous things and, and, and to constantly crank it out.

[12:39] Patrick Oliver Jones: Not just just do the show eight shows a week.

[12:41] Joey Fatone: Most people are also going to auditions again.

[12:43] Patrick Oliver Jones: You know, just like you, I'm just showing you the same thing with you, Patrick.

[12:46] Joey Fatone: People don't realize that, yeah, even though you're doing a show, but guess what?

[12:49] Patrick Oliver Jones: It might be, it might be a tour and you're done in the next month, and now you've got to find another job.

[12:53] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[12:54] Patrick Oliver Jones: You're still on tour, and you have to try to find auditions to do that.

[12:56] Joey Fatone: Uh, I'm in this job right now, and, uh, just, uh, I'm drive back and forth to the city.

[12:56] Joey Fatone: It's about two hours, two to four hours away, depending on traffic.

[13:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: And, uh, was there Monday and Tuesday, and over Monday and Tuesday went to ten auditions in those two days because I need to find the job after the one that I'm in right now.

[13:16] Joey Fatone: Gosh, can't they just lost.

[13:19] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay, you can't all shows just run for a year and then we're employed.

[13:24] Joey Fatone: Right, yeah, at least, at least and give me more money than I need.

[13:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh, so I want to get into why I'll never make it, which is, uh, so we've talked on this show from the first episode, and every guest that we've had on has had some version of the grass is always greener.

[13:45] Joey Fatone: The goalpost always moves.

[13:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: So no matter what you get, there's always a next thing that you don't yet have.

[13:52] Joey Fatone: So you can have this goal ahead of you that just seems impossible, but somehow you get there and you're still unsatisfied because all you've done is open up enough avenues to see just how much further you could go.

[14:06] Joey Fatone: Um so the reason I'll never make it right this second is because my mother and my family in southern Missouri can't see me. Um meaning all I hear is like, hey, so what are you in now? What have I seen you in? And here I am, a working actor in New York, like paying my rent via my craft, which is in our industry a big deal. But because I have not been like a leading character in a sitcom that they can go to and show to their friends and family, they're pretty sure that I'm just destitute living out of a car that I'm borrowing because I can't afford a car of my own and not eating. That there's no in between. It's either I have to be this person that they and all of their peers know, or I'm not making it and I won't make it.

So until I get to that place where my mother can see me on television week after week, I will have never made it. She wants to be the proud mama who shows off her boy. Well, it's her labor too. Her literal labor, 36 plus years ago. And the effort that she put into and that she continues to put into what her son is in this industry and working at it. And I don't have in her hometown my white picket fence and three car garage. So she can't show that off. So it's gotta be what she knows of our industry, which is what she sees on TV.

[15:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right. You know what? It's a very interesting thing too that you say that because even for me, you know, I have made it in some capacity in one way, but yet I'm still not there in other ways that I would love to achieve and I will. And you know what? I probably might not ever make it in that sense. It was like, it sounds funny that even though I went to the top of the line as far as within *NSYNC, there's only one place to go which is down. If you're at the height of your game, where else you gonna go? You can't go up anymore. That's it. So you're bound to go down at some point. So I mean it's always interesting because it's, you know, in our industry it's always that wave. You know, I mean yeah, I've sold millions of records. I've done tours in stadiums. I've done all this stuff with the group but if I try to go out on my own by myself, I can't do that.

[16:44] Joey Fatone: Right. I haven't been able to achieve something like that and that might be something that I may never be able to get a chance to do just due to the fact that I had that one chance and I did it and there might be other things in store for me that I know that I'd love to achieve but probably being on a stage again in a stadium for me is probably not gonna happen again. You know, right? Yeah, it's just one of those things. It's just the reality of it. You know, Joey Fatone, the stadium tour, I think that could be something. It could be interesting. I don't know what that would be but it would be something I'd bring my scarf and scream from whatever row I could afford to be. I appreciate it. Whatever it may be, I might just do cartwheels on the stage and that'd be the end. I might just applaud and then that's it.

[17:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: Honestly, you're still doing cartwheels? Like, good for you.

[17:34] Joey Fatone: I'd again, ticket sellable question though as you see the height within and now you're broadening out to the other areas and acting and different things. Do you feel pressure or do you feel like, okay, I've done that in the past, now on to other things that I'll really?

[17:50] Joey Fatone: Yeah, when I first, after actually believe it or not, after *NSYNC, I was just like, what do I do now? Kind of thing. And I was always like, okay, what I always wanted to do, and that's when I did Rent on Broadway, as you're right. And there was always something of going to the next level, but it was always that I don't want to fail. I mean, it's like anything else. Like you said, you know, the world is on your shoulders in a sense and people are watching you because you were at the top of your game in your industry and what you were doing and now you're by yourself as a single person in the sense of, you know, not being in the group and now I have to kind of prove to people in a sense that hey, I belong here. You know, it's not just a flash in the pan kind of thing. And it was tough at first, but now I'm in a position in my life where I get to pick and choose things and not have to worry about what other people will say about it.

[18:44] Joey Fatone: I mean, I did, it's just the funniest thing, like simple things, little things that I've done before where one time I did a commercial for a friend of mine for fireworks. I didn't even get paid. I did it just because it was a good friend of mine, he owns a company, I did a commercial. People are like, oh man, look at Joey Fatone. That's sad. That's what's sad about it. Oh well, you know, sad about it, yeah. He’s like, he's struggling, he needs, he's doing a firework commercial. I think people don't even realize or even know or understand where it's coming from or what's happening here. You know? They don't really get it.

[19:19] Patrick Oliver Jones: And now people will say, oh look, he's doing a podcast.

[19:22] Joey Fatone: Oh, I'm sorry. Exactly. It's like no. It's like these are things that I want to do because I know that they're fun, they're exciting and they're just things that are different. And why not? People always do that. Like a lot of celebrities don't do something completely off the cuff or sideways or something different. But in reality, I think all along artists should be doing that. You know, for a while, for years, it was just people were doing just films. You know, you only had a film actor. They never crossed over to TV. Oh, TV, I don't know TV shows. Look how many celebrities and people that have been like high profile actors are now doing a lot of sitcoms and stuff like that or TV shows like NCIS. You have Chris, what's his face doing the NCIS with LL Cool J.

[20:07] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[20:08] Joey Fatone: Yeah. Giant stars. Any of those size.

[20:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[20:10] Joey Fatone: Well, and that's another one. LL Cool J. There’s Ice Cube. I mean, these people who are like rappers, not just musicians, but they're a rapper. But they have a certain like hardcore street cred and now they're doing, you know, one hour dramas on television.

[20:26] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[20:27] Joey Fatone: No, you have Ice Cube doing, you know, all the comedian stuff on twenty-one, you know, twenty-one Jump Street and stuff like that.

[20:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[20:33] Joey Fatone: It's really amazing how the industry has definitely changed in that aspect and what that does. It's pretty interesting because it's almost like it's like a give and take now 'cause some people say, oh, you know, it's weird. Like I said, just like anything as you know and I think people really don't know like the process or what goes on. Like for instance, you know, I was doing stuff where they had a lot of celebrities doing a lot of hosting gigs for a good chunk of time. Where it was constantly celebrated celebrities. Now a lot of it's like YouTube people doing stuff that are hosting now stuff because of their personalities and they're big stars now. They have 'cause they have millions of followers in these YouTube channels. I don't know who they are.

[21:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: But if you're some of them.

[21:10] Joey Fatone: Some of them, exactly, yeah, but some of them have millions of fans, but they don't do anything.

[21:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: That's the sad part.

[21:17] Joey Fatone: That's the sad part. Some of them do. Don't get me wrong. Don't get it twisted. Where there are definitely some people out there that do things that are entertaining, that are funny. Yeah, they're witty. But if some of the little K is this girl that talks and she curses, she's like, I'm a real woman, I have a car, I don't even know enough to drive. I got money, she does all these stacks of money. I think it's a world star or something. It's bad.

[21:46] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well look, this is it. It's just great. I know I got off the tracks.

[21:54] Joey Fatone: No worries. I do want to switch it up a little bit because there's definitely lots of grass is greener and why I'll never make it to this industry and what we're doing, but there's also a reason that we are still here. The reason that I am still plugging away at this thing is something that happened to me over these two days of ten auditions was I was asked to sing a song that is operatic in style and at the very top end of my range. And I got sent aside to learn the song. It was actually a few songs to come into this audition to do. And I, you know, I've listened to a few different performances of it and really worked on it. And right before I went in, I decided I'm gonna rent a space and warm up my voice because if you're an opera singer, you've really gotta like go through the whole thing to be able to get these notes out.

Right? So I did it. Rented a space, warmed up my voice, went to the audition, and by God, when I sang those songs, the notes that came out of me were as good as I have ever performed those notes. It's right, it's not an everyday thing for me.

[23:30] Joey Fatone: So, uh, I got a callback and I can't, I had to come back on yesterday, on Tuesday, to perform the pieces. Well, actually, I thought it was just a movement call. I was gonna have to do a little dancing. I show up there and they say, okay, yeah, you're gonna do a little coaching session, you're gonna have to sing this again. Now I've not warmed up because I think it's just a movement call. I go in to the coaching, and of course the notes sound like they normally do for me, which is just me, it's all, it sounds like it's all coming from the butt clench that I have at that moment. Right? Everything, the sound sounds exactly like it could be coming from there. And the vocal coach was very kind, he's also the music director of this piece, he was very kind and was like, don't worry about the high end.

We know you have the high end, we heard that yesterday. I just want to warm up some of the tones and fix some of the vowel sounds so that they sound like what we want it to sound like for the show. And you're gonna go in and you're gonna sing these pieces again for a different set of the creatives. So we did that. That was like a 20 minute session, which was also very generous of them. I sang those songs, and by God, that little 20 minute vocal warm-up and then that body warm-up, those notes came out again.

[24:46] Joey Fatone: Um and I've surprised myself with it. So the why I'm still here, what's happened is as I've grown a little bit older, I've gained two things. One, I've learned to use my body, my voice, in the way that it can best serve me and serve whatever piece that I'm working on, and those incremental changes in my ability, just that constant sort of steady improvement and seeing the fruits of that labor, that's number one. And number two is my confidence level. So between that, that just that little bit of extra confidence and that little bit of extra competence, that to me is a real reason to stay in. And that feels great. There's something to be said. There's something to be said with, you know, getting better with age, better with experience, and it's something that I think, again, no matter what job or profession we're at.

[25:49] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, no, a hundred percent. You're always learning, you're always learning.

[25:52] Joey Fatone: It never ends. It's always interesting when you see those younger kids, you're like, and sometimes it's, you know, I mean, I'm sure you've been to auditions where you come in, you stand there, and you look like you do not belong in that jam.

[26:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, yeah.

[26:05] Joey Fatone: You know what? You put your head up high and you go, you know what? I want to nail this freaking audition.

[26:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[26:10] Joey Fatone: And I did it one time. I did it, it was for what's the Green Day show.

[26:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: American Idiot.

[26:18] Joey Fatone: American Idiot. Yeah. I walked in this audition. I was the only one with dark hair. Everybody else was blonde. Right. I remember even Dustin, what's his name? Derek Hough was auditioning too and a bunch of people had guitars and stuff and I was like, are you kidding me? I'm like thinking to myself, look at my old ass trying to audition with all these young kids and I'm like, what does it make me do? So I went on audition and the funny part about it was that they like, oh man, that was really good. You know, they were actually pleasantly surprised.

[26:50] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[26:51] Joey Fatone: But obviously I did not belong in that area at all. I was like, I did not, you know what? You hold your head up high and you gotta do it. That's, and I think that's what it's funny because I think like a lot of times when you do audition, it's almost like you're, you basically are putting your tail between your legs and just giving it out there. It's like literally just basically taking your clothes off, standing there naked and giving it all you got. You have no choice but to show them what you got, not by being naked, but you know what I mean? Show them what you got, make it just whatever it is and go for it.

[27:20] Joey Fatone: Unless it helps. Sometimes it may help. Well, well, yeah, and this is something that we certainly get in our profession. You know that you're only as good as your last job. You're only as good as the last role that you did. And so for someone like you, Joey, with your various different levels of success and other things, does that even count more or whenever you go, you're like, you know, screw it. This is me and this is what I do and like it or not or do you feel that it's both? I think sometimes a lot of times I will just go in to say, hey screw it, you know what? I'm just gonna go in. I'm just gonna give it my best, even sometimes when I'm like, you know, sometimes it happens when you're not prepared on it.

[27:59] Joey Fatone: When you're not prepared it's really interesting too because most of the times you'll study for something and you'll do it, you'll do it and you'll nail it and you do a good job, but you're like, eh. And then there's times where you do these things where you're like, I wasn't prepared for it. And you say, you know what, screw it, I'm just gonna have fun. And then you end up getting the job or you end up making an impression on the casting people to be like, you know what, we'll keep you in mind. Yeah. You know, and you may have not done great on this audition, but what you did and your personality and and you know what you did is great. But then also on top of that, what people don't know is sometimes they're looking for a specific person.

It might be a specific height or a specific weight or a specific. Sometimes it's very specific for them. And then sometimes people don't know what the hell they're looking for. It's really it's really hard to to really for me is like uh I try to go in as much as I can prepared, but then there are times like I said that I've gotten calls where they're like, All right, well I need you to do it tomorrow. And you're like, Okay, but I'm working right now. It's all right, learn the size. And you're like, Oh my god, what am I doing? And you have to learn two songs. Oh my god, what am I doing? Yeah. You know, or even you know, even even myself I get discouraged. People that don't know this. I actually was gonna audition for a show where I knew vocally there's one note that was way too high.

And I tried to hit it and I tried to hit it and I tried to hit it. I was gonna audition, but I actually turned it down. I s I didn't do it because I I was afraid that I wasn't gonna hit the note and I and there's no and sometimes there's no any any other alternative to go down. Right. You know what I'm saying? You can change it up vocally, but in the range of what the song is and how it builds up, you can't change it. You have to go for it. And I could not hit that note and I was like, you know what? I don't want to make an ass out of myself. So I was like, I'm just gonna t I'm gonna turn this one down for right now. And and sometimes you have to do that. Sometimes there are shows and certain times of auditions where you're like, you know what, this I can't do it, it.

It's not for me. I'm gonna I'm gonna end up faking it and hurting myself later on vocally if I try to get this job and try to hit these notes. Right. Yeah. And besides just being a note, sometimes it's just the character itself. It's like, Yeah, I c I could be that crazy as any character, but is but that's not really my wheelhouse. That's not really what I do best, and I'll just be kind of faking it, which is this is fine. But I know that's just not me. That that doesn't live inside.

[30:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, for some people it doesn't, you're right. For some people they just literally are like, hey this is what it is. Or like even actors, a lot of actors sometimes they'll just do the comedian stuff and they won't do the horror. They won't do the seriousness because that's just not their real cause.

[30:26] Joey Fatone: Yeah, exactly. Which is always interesting because it's like I you know it's like you always want to try to do the best you can. But you know, know your limitations. That's the other thing too. Some people like oh yeah I could do that and you look at them you're like no you can't you're like no I can it's like all right we'll try it and see what happens. You know Yeah.

[30:44] Joey Fatone: Well well I mean that kind of brings me to the uh to why I'm still here and for me well back in the day this was back whenever I was living in Orlando I I worked at Disney World and I played the part of Gaston in the uh in the production of of Being the Beast. And I did that role full time. I I I subbed in and out and and was uh you know uh on call for for several years but for a three year stretch I was doing that full time and one of the wonderful things is that you get a lot of repeat guests obviously that come back to Disney World and one particular guest i i she absolutely loved Gaston. She was she she would come I I would say at least once a month or so and she would sit in the front row and she would would uh would do all the the blocking with me.

Like like she would do all the muscle poses, she would sing the song with me. I I mean I couldn't hear her but but I could see her mouthing it and this girl. She was this girl, she had Down syndrome, but she absolutely lit up every time I came on stage with Gaston and she just loved everything about that. And I was awesome. I finally I finally decided to we're we're able to do these meet and greets. And so most of the time it's people requesting to meet Belle or to meet Gaston or to have pictures taken. But this time I had the ushers go out and I requested a meet and greet with her because she just kept coming back again and loved it. And she sh she came she came backstage. She was so so excited and and to feel that energy to see the impact that we have as performers on people like that that get so excited and are just so energetic and happy to to watch to watch their favorite character come to life.

It it was it's definitely I mean the the the top, the pinnacle, the best moment that I ever had of working at Disney was to meet her face to face, have my pictures taken with her, talk to her one on one because that I d I I know that that made her day and it certainly made my my whole week to uh to meet her and that was that was a that was a really special time.

[33:02] Joey Fatone: I think that's that's that's I honestly that's that's one of the reasons why I still stay in the business as well, is because you're right, it's true. I mean I I did I did character for Disney. I back in the day I was I was there as well. By the way, you were a fantastic guest on you many many times.

[33:17] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[33:18] Joey Fatone: My kids love her and everything. Many times. But it's it's it is. We we I think I think it's a combination of everything. I think it's for the love of the art that we love to do this, and this is why I'm in it. I love always challenging myself to do different things and and obviously fun things and and I'm in a p I'm in a position in my career where I get to pick and choose things, which is nice. And uh I think when I literally first ever did stuff and to see the excitement on kids' faces and see the the wonder and the whole excitement of it and the whole imaginary idea of it, you know, especially when I was working at Disney. It's awesome. I mean it's it's a great feeling. And it's amazing to relive that again now that I have children and to go to the theme parks and see all that stuff.

And I know what goes on, I know what's happening, you know, I know but it's also like, oh my god, look, it's it's Minnie Mouse, it's Mickey, and you get all excited all over again. And I think that's what's what's I think we never left our imaginative kind of childlike self. Uh and I think that's what I think there's a child in every actor or every artist in that sense, because that's what I think makes your creativity and that's what makes you grow even more is becoming outside and becoming fearless. And I think that's what a lot of kids do, and that's why a lot of kids achieve what they do or they just have no fear. And as you get older you start to doubt yourself or you start to think, oh, well, you know, maybe I'm not good enough for that, or you know, that person's way more talented than I am.

But you know what? There might be something out there for you. It might not be specifically that part, but there might be something else out there for you that you don't know about or you haven't tapped in yet. That may that can make you, you know, there's some people that just do dinner theater all their lives and they love it. Or they may just be on a uh a Disney, you know, on a cruise ship in general and they love it, and that is that is that that's them and that's what makes them happy. You know, there's always those levels and goals, you know, and I think for me, the reason why I stay into this th this the this industry and this business is is because of of of everybody else and how how uh uh and it sounds I'm not trying to sound dirty, but get off on when you're performing.

It's that that that adrenaline, it's that hide, that excitement. And people always ask me what is it like when you're when you're touring and when you were touring and you're in front of, you know, fifty or sixty thousand people a night. You just you you it's more like of you don't think about it in a sense, but you're in awe by the whole thing because you're like, Wow. Remember the first time we did one of the stadium tours, we sit out there and I was like, all these people are out here to see us in one state, one city, all these people from the one area to come and hang out. Usually that's like a sporting event. You know what I mean? That's like going to a Super Bowl. That's like going to a World Series game.

No, you're going to a Finn Fig concert, which is interesting because they see that many people because they just love an outlet. They love the music, they get into it. We're you know, we were never afraid to take chances and poke fun of ourselves and make fun of things and have fun with it. I think that's what makes it exciting for me. I think that's the one of the things why I stay into it.

[36:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, and uh just to to bridge those two things together too, the this is a fundamental condition of humanity that as we get older we get more serious. We we have responsibilities. We have we have children that need to be fed and clothed. We have mortgages that need to be paid, we have bosses that that need to be placated, and we lose that sense of childlike wonder. We lose that sense of mirth. And so what we as performers, I mean, obviously the the the scale and the the number of people that you all were able uh and are still able to reach uh with in sync specifically, uh but with with the brand that is Joey Fatone even now, what that the the thing that you're able to provide to humanity is that bringing back just a little bit of that mirth and that that um i i I think what what Patrick said about this woman who would come to see Gaston you know that there's something about folks with with Down syndrome that that I love which is their ability to express that joy and that love without second guessing themselves right they are able they are able to feel and and and have that emotion fully and completely without worrying about what the person on their left or right think about what they're going through.

[37:42] Joey Fatone: They don't care yeah and it's completely uninhibited. And I think that when you when you turn the lights off on the audience in in a stadium or uh a small theater and you provide them with that ability to have that emotion, to take them on that emotional journey, whether it's through a song that means something really valuable to them. I I know I my sister is an enormous in sync fan. The the impact that that music has had on her and her life at times when she was going through some tremendous struggle is huge. It's huge what that does for her and what it does for for millions of people that that on the small scale of one woman in the front row or fifty thousand screaming fans, uh like that's what it is. It's literally what our purpose is is to provide that an emotional release and emotion a a a way to tap into what we are as base level humans without all of the facade that we build up around it.

[38:55] Joey Fatone: Right.

[38:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah it's an interesting way to look at it because what we do we we we pretend we act on stage but yet it's in such a way and it's with these characters that resonate with an audience in a very real and tangible way that even though we're acting and pretending it it produces a very real and palatable emotion and response from those who watch it.

[39:18] Joey Fatone: Yeah it's amazing.

[39:20] Patrick Oliver Jones: So I um I have a I have a little thing that is bugging me and I'm wondering if it is just me I am constantly constantly distracted by Facebook, Instagram, uh the New York Times or any other uh so much so that I have I have books I want to read, I have projects that I need to work on. I have I you know I'm I'm stuck in this uh this small town uh working on the show right now I have instruments here that I'm uh that I'd like to learn how to play uh that I happen to have brought with me to learn how to play but there's another article that I need to read and my phone is telling me that I need to read it right now in order to get through the day. I I w I c I ha I can't there's too much stimulation for me to get anything done. Is that just me?

[40:30] Joey Fatone: No, it's not just you. It's a it is definitely an overload of stuff. Um and it's hard. It's tough because it's just it is it's just it's just it is sucked, it sucked me in. I mean, I'm always on my phone, I constantly am always on my phone. Um is it sometimes a source of outlet to get some news? Yeah. Uh is it fun to watch other people and you kind of do and that's the funny part. It takes the communication away from people. It's always funny when people are like, oh, you haven't talked to me in a while. I'm like, yeah, that's because I saw what you did on Facebook. I saw that you went to dinner, I saw that you ate, I saw that you went to the bathroom, I saw that you went, I mean, I saw everything you did. I don't even have to talk to you. I know exactly what you did, dude. Usually it was, hey man, you call the phone. What did you do today? Well, I did this. I don't even have to do that anymore.

[41:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[41:13] Joey Fatone: And I think it it it has desensitized certain things in life. Now, don't get me wrong, again, like I said, it's a great form of communication. Uh, when you want to promote something to get something out there, it is instant, it is right there, it is out there. Uh sometimes it's out there and you don't want it to be out there, and you try to delete it, and guess what? It's still out there. Uh but it's it's amazing. Yeah, it's really amazing how it has been, and but people really get into it, meaning like they get so sucked in that they're just in their own little world, and and that's it. And it's like there's so much more out there that people don't realize. The millennials and stuff like that, there's so much more out there for you other than just being on Facebook and social media.

[41:51] Joey Fatone: There's so much to do. There's so much more to do in your immediate vicinity that you could be doing other than just having the same interaction a million times a minute with this Facebook and this Instagram, because it's just a repetitive, it's not bad necessarily, it's just way too much.

[42:12] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[42:13] Joey Fatone: Right. And it really zaps the time. Like, you know, how many times do you get on Facebook and all of a sudden it's an hour later and like, what have I been doing? And then you look at the clock and you're like, oh my gosh, it's like two hours later. What the heck did I just waste two hours of looking at Facebook?

[42:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[42:30] Joey Fatone: I was at this class with a director, a friend of mine, and she was mentioning how she doesn't watch TV. She'll have a show here and there that she watches maybe three hours a week of television, but otherwise she's busy doing her life. And part of me is going, I don't know if I could do that. But then the other part of me is going, yes, you need to do that. You need to work on those things you want to do or prepare for that next audition, 'cause there's always something more quote unquote productive that I could do. But you know, sometimes we just want to escape. So I get it. But I also just want to escape into a book or, you know, I like I want to escape in a way that isn't just this cycle. There are other ways to escape that.

[43:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[43:25] Joey Fatone: With your downtime, I'm on Facebook. I mean, the beauty part about it is when I am home, a lot of times I'm with my kids, so I'm always dancing around and obviously traveling and stuff. And then when I get home, I try to see as much of my kids as I can because, you know, I'm always working and providing. So it's always a little bit of a struggle sometimes, but again, like I said, it's now a little bit better where I am flexible to where I can pick and choose what I'm doing, where I'm going, and also I'm not gone for four or five months. You know, I'm not on tour anymore like that.

[43:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[43:59] Joey Fatone: So I love it to where I'm able to do, you know, a couple of shows or host something and then come back home and be able to be good and be comfortable to where I can take a month off, you know, or I can take a two-month time off and then get back into work.

[44:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[44:11] Joey Fatone: I mean, that's the nice thing about the career that I've been dealing with and stuff like that. It's been a grind, but it's not a really big grind. I did the grind for, you know, over ten, eleven years. So now this grind's a little, it's a different kind of grind, I guess I would say.

[44:24] Patrick Oliver Jones: You know, Joey, I'm surprised just how similar our lives are. Mine is a forced two-month break because I didn't find a job to fill that gap, but it's very, very similar in that like I'll do a job and then I'll have a good month and two months that I just take up and really spend time with my family.

[44:42] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[44:43] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right. So with that, this is something that I guess the nine-to-five world doesn't really understand about us acting folk, is that we do little short stints of jobs or we bounce around from this to that to this to that, so our days are never the same, our weeks are never the same. And do you find that now that you're a bit more free to, you know, you're not just in *NSYNC, you are doing so many different other things and hosting shows and doing this and that and getting to do theater work, do you find that this kind of schedule is better for you where you can kind of bounce around and do a lot of things?

[45:19] Joey Fatone: Yes and no. I mean, you think about it just like anything, you still have to go out and get those jobs. So sometimes it's a hit and miss. Or sometimes people are calling you up, but they're, you know, nowadays people are not calling and knocking on your door anymore unless you are like an A-lister. If you're not like that type of person, like I'm not an A-lister, I have to go out of my jobs if I want to. Or they're very cute. There's some times that I've gotten calls a hundred percent where they've come in and we just do easy to deal with it if they can choose what I want to do or not. And I do like this kind of, I do what I don't. Like I said, financially I don't just due to the fact that I'm again I have to look out for these jobs.

If I don't get that job, I don't make that money. Where when I was with a group or within *NSYNC or even doing Broadway, you're guaranteed, all right, you're gonna work for six months. This is what you're getting. So then I know specifically, I do this. Right now where my career is at, it's all over the place. 'Cause I'll do one-offs and one job's here and there. So that's why it's always, it's always interesting and stuff like that. So it's not that easy. But like I said, it's hard because I like the freedom of being able to pick and choose and not have to be on tour all the time. But then again, on top of it, financially when you're secured and locked in for a couple of months, you know where you're getting your money, you know what you're making and you're good. Sometimes you don't have that option.

[46:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: And do you feel that the hosting stuff that you do a lot of now, whether it's one-off or like a regular show like Rewrapped or other things, do you feel that you've kind of found a new calling for yourself?

[46:46] Joey Fatone: I think I have. You know, people when I did Dancing with the Stars, people saw me in a different light and saw my personality. So they're like, all right, well let's take a crack at him hosting and I guess people didn't realize I was gonna be pretty okay, pretty good I guess for what I do. And people were excited about it, so I just started doing a lot more hosting than anything else now. And it's just around food. So obviously you are a lover of food.

[47:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: I know that it's one of my favorite things.

[47:12] Joey Fatone: Could you tell? You know what? It's weird how I get caught up in that realm. That was a weird story because I was at the Kentucky Derby and I remember I've hung out with Guy Fieri a lot of times. A guy was like, hey, I got this show coming up, it's called Guy versus Rail. It's a cooking show with celebrities. He was, I want you to be on it. I love, I think it'd be great. I know that you cook a little bit. You'd be the perfect fit. So honestly when I did that, after that it branched off to a whole bunch of other cooking shows. I did Chopped, I hosted, you know, Rewrapped. I hosted a bunch of different things. So it was pretty crazy how I was able to parlay that into something else, and now I opened up a place called Fat Ones, which is the hot dog truck. I have a trailer called Fat Ones where I sell hot dogs and funny nights.

[47:52] Patrick Oliver Jones: I still have yet to try it. I feel I've yet to try it. I gotta try it. Wait, is it, is this a hot dog stand in Florida?

[48:00] Joey Fatone: Yeah, yeah, I don't, I know I because I haven't actually tried it yet. I haven't been able to like spread the word.

[48:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, I don't know anything about it. I would like to.

[48:11] Joey Fatone: You have to come and check it out.

[48:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: You're that bag, I mean our Chick-fil-A, that's what I'm doing.

[48:16] Joey Fatone: I was about to say, are you eating up? No, I'm me, I'm about to eat Chick-fil-A.

[48:22] Patrick Oliver Jones: It's not Sunday.

[48:23] Joey Fatone: Yeah, that's right. You gotta get words Sunday.

[48:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: So as far as like this hosting, you know, 'cause we always think about, well what's in the next year, what's in the next five years, you know, supposedly we try to keep an eye toward the future. Do you see this hosting as being kind of your longevity from here? Or is there another avenue that say, you know what? If I can do this, that's what I want?

[48:46] Joey Fatone: You know what? It's where everything kind of sticks. We like to just throw things on the wall and see what happens. That's kind of what we, what I've been doing as far as anything as far as coming over and being creative and going, oh, well, you know what, I'd love to do something like that and then just do it. See what happens.

[49:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: What have you found to be the, I guess of what you've done since then, what has meant the most to you?

[49:09] Joey Fatone: I think every, yeah, there's a lot of things I always wanted when I had a chance to do. But I've finally figured out what I want to do as far as like the hot dog thing. I always wanted to do some sort of food thing, and now I've been doing that. You know, just little things here and there, and nothing crazy. I'm not trying to blow it out of the water and make it like a Whataburger or something like that. What I hope to one day, yes. But I'm not trying to do that. What I'm just trying to see is where my niche is and where other things can work and fit and maybe hopefully even help out, you know, my family in the long run, like my kids, you know, obviously, maybe have some sort of company that is still bringing money in that when I pass, they can take over the company or something like that.

[49:43] Patrick Oliver Jones: I would be remiss. I feel like, Joey, you know a little bit about this hot dog stand, and I and our listeners do not. I really, I said this briefly a second ago, but I really like hot dogs, and I would like to know just a little bit more about what it is.

[50:01] Joey Fatone: This is a stand that's out of a truck that's only open one day a week and it's in Florida, it's in Orlando. We do festivals right now. We had one in the Florida mall for about a year. We had an actual kiosk. But the mall was just too absolutely ridiculously expensive. And we were breaking even every time. So we had to sell a lot of hot dogs. But we built a truck and we've been doing festivals now in Orlando right now, locally, and we have like just different hot dogs. I mean, obviously we didn't reinvent the freaking hot dogs, but we have great flavors and combinations, but we also have things called Brooklyn Bites, is what we call them. We have like a meatball slider. We also have like an Italian egg roll that has meat and cheese and sauce in it.

We also have a Reuben and a Cuban where the, with the Cuban, we actually press the hot dog and we put the mustard and the pickle and all that kind of stuff and all the fixings that you would normally put in a Cuban sandwich. But we press it and make it almost like a little pinky. We also have a sloppy joey, which is, you know, like a chili cheese dog. We've done, we've had a thing we called mac and cheese, which was called a Mac Daddy, which had mac and cheese in front of the hot dog. So we come up with different combinations and stuff like that, which has been a lot of fun today and this should, this is like a gourmet, like Food Network would love this kind of hot dog stand kind of deal.

[51:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, I would find it at festivals then, like throughout the Orlando area, is that right?

[51:19] Joey Fatone: Yep, in Orlando you would definitely see that, I'm sure, a hundred percent. And we're just, you know, touching the iceberg. We're really like legitimately starting this out. Hopefully it will get bigger and bigger, but of course.

[51:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: And how much of it have you put your hands on? Like, okay, let's try this hot dog, but this, or do you have people?

[51:27] Joey Fatone: Everything that comes, we had a few people, but the thing is, is I've done this. I didn't just slap my name on it. I basically built it from the ground up. I mean, me and my manager Joe came up with the concept, we're partners in it. And we came up with the idea of the concept. We did the whole tastings for everything and we tried the different tastings as far as what toppings we want to put on it. I've tried everything. Anything and everything you possibly imagine, I tried.

[52:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: I love it.

[52:01] Joey Fatone: Well, yeah, well the mac and cheese is definitely the one. If that, I hope that wasn't just a limited time. I hope that's amazing.

[52:05] Joey Fatone: It was, but we're gonna probably bring it back. We've had it a few times, but depending on what we do for the truck because we want to change it up a bit every time for them so then when people come to the same festival, we change it up a little bit every now and then, just we add one or take one menu away or sometimes we run out. You know, we actually sell a bunch of them that we run out of like the meatball slider, so we're like sorry, don't got it. Come back tomorrow.

[52:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: Then yeah, because I think the Orlando Fringe is about to take place or it'll happen this summer, so I'm sure that'll be...

[52:27] Joey Fatone: It is right now, yeah, it's starting to, I think this week.

[52:36] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that'll be a way for people to taste the hot dog.

[52:41] Joey Fatone: I should be able to get out there.

[52:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: Heck yeah. The Orlando Fringe is like a theater festival in the Orlando area, yeah.

[52:48] Joey Fatone: It's actually the longest running fringe festival in the country. It's the longest continuously running fringe festival in the US. Longer than New Orleans, Orlando's has been continuous and so I think that's its distinguishing characteristic that it's been continuous for however many decades now.

[53:09] Patrick Oliver Jones: When I lived in Orlando, I was able to take part in two of those fringe festivals. So that's how I know so much about it. And then attending over the years whenever I lived there. So it was a lot of fun.

[53:21] Joey Fatone: Did you ever do anything with the fringe or take part in that?

[53:21] Joey Fatone: I've never, I always wanted to. My sister's actually in it this year. She did it last year too if I'm not mistaken.

[53:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: What has she done? What's her show?

[53:32] Joey Fatone: She's in one of the shows I think it's called Corsets and Cuties or something like that. She's done it before. But it's, yeah, it's, I don't know the show yet and even my sister says, you know, it's certain things like come to this show but not the other show. I'm like why? She goes, well I do something topless. I'm like yeah, I do not want to go to that. You're wearing the corsets when you're wearing the corsets if I go to that one.

[53:54] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yes, please, yes please.

[53:56] Joey Fatone: I don't definitely don't invite my family to anything that I do that involves nudity.

[54:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: So yeah, well I worked in Vegas for a year and yes the girl...

[54:01] Joey Fatone: Oh, I've seen that video.

[54:11] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yes, yes, and so I am not necessarily top, well, there was this one scene where all I'm wearing is a studded thong and a cake.

[54:11] Joey Fatone: And a cake.

[54:23] Patrick Oliver Jones: And so you got to come and see it, didn't you, Joey?

[54:26] Joey Fatone: Oh my goodness. I have seen it. I have seen it.

[54:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yes, I have. It's, I was just confused. It's a great show. A lot of talented people. But it's very random. Like certain things are just like, it's like they're just songs. It's just that they're just songs and they're reviews. So it's just randomly all of a sudden one minute they're talking about the Titanic, the Titanic crashes and all of a sudden they're singing about America and we love the beautiful red, white, and blue.

[54:50] Joey Fatone: So I was confused.

[54:52] Patrick Oliver Jones: And then all of a sudden it's going to Samson and Delilah.

[54:55] Joey Fatone: Exactly.

[54:55] Patrick Oliver Jones: All over the place.

[54:56] Joey Fatone: It's all over the place.

[54:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, just like a random.

[55:00] Joey Fatone: That was one of the longest running shows out in Vegas as well.

[55:04] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, yeah, it went on for thirty years, I think. It was a long time.

[55:08] Joey Fatone: You hosted a Price is Right show that's there at Bally's.

[55:15] Patrick Oliver Jones: Correct.

[55:15] Joey Fatone: At that right at that theater. So we performed on two different theater stages now. I'm sure probably more others as well, but the major ones is that one and being in Orlando. Would that ever parlay into you taking over for Drew Carey being a sub host or something like that?

[55:31] Joey Fatone: Gosh, I wish. When is this contract up? He found himself a sweet job that I don't think he's leaving until he dies.

[55:41] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right, exactly.

[55:42] Joey Fatone: Yeah, no, he won't. He will not. But that's the other one too. I'm waiting for Pat Sajak to find out when he's throwing in the towel.

[55:47] Joey Fatone: Oh yeah.

[55:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: There you go.

[55:50] Joey Fatone: So he's deep in his seventies now, right?

[55:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: He's not done yet, but it's getting close.

[55:57] Joey Fatone: Yeah, that would be seventy that is.

[56:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: Is he?

[56:02] Joey Fatone: Uh, I don't know. I'm gonna look right.

[56:06] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'm gonna, as you say that, I'm gonna look right now.

[56:09] Joey Fatone: No, I'm doing it right now as well. I have to know how old he is.

[56:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: It even says like when you type Pat Sajak age.

[56:17] Joey Fatone: Of course it does.

[56:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Because he looks like he's like forty.

[56:20] Joey Fatone: Um, no, no. Well, he was born in forty-six.

[56:24] Patrick Oliver Jones: He's close to the seventy.

[56:26] Joey Fatone: He's my dad's age.

[56:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: He's my dad's age.

[56:28] Joey Fatone: Okay.

[56:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[56:29] Joey Fatone: Seventy-two.

[56:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: So there you go.

[56:30] Joey Fatone: Forty, see my dad was born in nineteen forty-six. So yeah, he's got seventy-two.

[56:35] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[56:36] Joey Fatone: All right. So he's not deep into his seventies.

[56:38] Patrick Oliver Jones: So I was off. I'm just glad we went through this effort because I said no, no, I'm glad we did too.

[56:44] Joey Fatone: Because I had no idea that he was, uh, but yeah, but I mean he's been doing Wheel of Fortune for thirty, forty years. So I mean that's been, I don't know if you've seen it recently, but they have changed that show up.

[56:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: I was, uh, it was on a television where I was somewhere a couple of days ago, and there's all kinds of new like stuff that they're doing as part of that game.

[57:06] Joey Fatone: It blew my mind. I thought it was just the same for all forty years, and it is not.

[57:12] Patrick Oliver Jones: No, no, no.

[57:12] Joey Fatone: Right. They've updated it and you know, she doesn't turn it anymore, she just touches it and types it.

[57:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: They used to, the thing used to turn around, used to be able to pick to certain things for a certain amount of money back in the day. Do you remember that?

[57:24] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[57:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: And he's like, well, I like the TV for four hundred and thirty dollars, or like, yeah, they don't have that anymore.

[57:31] Joey Fatone: Just give it to you.

[57:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: There you go.

[57:32] Joey Fatone: Yeah. So is there like a, is there a show currently running, or maybe one that you've had in your own mind that's like, this is the show I would love to host?

[57:41] Patrick Oliver Jones: Um, I don't know. I would say it's like one of those, like a Price is Right or Wheel of Fortune. That would be like the ultimate gig because you don't even see Pat Sajak anymore. You don't even see Drew Carey anymore. They get their job, they do what they do, and they get the hell out.

[57:56] Joey Fatone: They spend time with their family. They go on vacations. They work, they bust their ass for about four or five months. They do like three or four shows a day, bang them out a Monday through Friday, and you're done.

[58:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: Done.

[58:09] Joey Fatone: Yeah, and that's the job I want and it's on every day. All of there's so much money in those shows because only one person gets paid.

[58:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Only one performer. I mean there's, yeah, they have the girls and then I guess there's guy models too now turning, you know, helping with the games and stuff. But it's just the one host and none of the guests get paid and like that's all the money can just go to the one guy.

[58:34] Joey Fatone: That's it. I mean they get the prizes and stuff but sometimes people don't even really win that big so it's, that's what's so great about game shows.

[58:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, and a lot of the prizes are, they're given by whatever, you know, key as well. They donated and stuff like that to a car as an ad basically sponsoring.

[58:53] Joey Fatone: Yeah.

[58:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: Getting back, I would be remiss if I did not bring this up because recently in the last day or two, Google had a slight change of the *NSYNC lineup. Someone did a search and discovered that instead of Mr. Joey Fatone being in *NSYNC, actually the fifth member of *NSYNC was Shaquille O'Neal.

[59:16] Joey Fatone: Shaquille O'Neal, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was, that was hilarious.

[59:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: Google decided to screw this. What happened? You know the story?

[59:25] Joey Fatone: I don't even know the story. I just happened to look it up and some woman from NBC Sports was doing a Google search. I guess she was looking at different things and somehow went down the rabbit hole of Shaquille O'Neal and on a Google page it showed all five members of *NSYNC and the one conspicuously left out was you and in your place was Shaquille O'Neal.

[59:47] Joey Fatone: Yeah, what the heck is that all about? Which is great because now people are talking about me again.

[59:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: And then, and this time because you were left out, they're talking about you.

[59:57] Joey Fatone: Yeah. I'm always left out. I mean even when I got the star on the Walk of Fame, you know, Ellen made fun of me and then dropped me on the floor when I did Ellen.

[1:00:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: Uh, right.

[1:00:06] Joey Fatone: Which was interesting. And then, uh, I then it parlayed to being out of *NSYNC and Shaquille O'Neal being it, so it's like, okay. I say keep saying my name.

[1:00:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: I say you keep saying my name, guess what? I'm still in the limelight, I don't care. People are like, oh my God, you know what I'm talking about you, how dare they do that. I'm like, that's funny.

[1:00:24] Joey Fatone: No, it's a little bit. Would you ever do something that is like that far, like an Ellen type of hosting? Like have a show that is your own that's a format where, um, it's sort of a lot more open format where you're bringing on guests and doing that sort of thing?

[1:00:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: I definitely would be. I mean again, like you said for me, it's like I love throwing stuff on the wall and seeing what it thinks. You know, and I think that's what's so great about it. I love doing that. To be able to have fun and do stuff like that and be successful with it, it's awesome. I love to do something like that, you know, whether it be hosting or game show or even hosting a talk show and having celebrities on it and stuff like that. It's just fascinating and it's exciting to get into that kind of stuff.

[1:01:06] Joey Fatone: There is a grind to it obviously like anything, but I think it's something that I definitely can off. There's no doubt about it. It's just a matter of coming up with an idea and maybe doing something a little bit different than everybody else has. And I think James Corden and Jimmy Fallon have definitely been doing that as far as making it more entertaining. And I think that's what Johnny Carson did back in the day as well. You know, there was a lot of fun little sketches and fun things that they were doing.

[1:01:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: So it's interesting to be able to, they're bringing that back down. That's something I know that I would probably do as well. You know, you want to do more fun stuff with the celebrity guests and not make it so let's sit down and just talk. You know, they have to think of the eggs and throwing water and all these different games, which is fun.

[1:01:46] Joey Fatone: Yeah, and I think, uh, James Corden is a great one to bring up because, uh, he maybe wasn't as famous in the US, but he was a giant star in England and in Europe. Uh, yeah, came over here and did a couple of shows on Broadway and sort of almost instantly transitioned into this late night host.

[1:02:07] Patrick Oliver Jones: Whereas, you know, your average, how the heck did that happen? You know, it's like usually your hosts are like stand-up comedians. They're people that come up with their own material, they're writers of shows. They're, you know, like, uh, Jimmy Fallon was a writer as well as a performer on Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien as a writer. Um, and there's a lot of stand-ups that then sort of transition into hosting those shows. But James Corden really did, like he didn't do stand-up. He had all of these shows and Broadway shows and stuff that he was a part of, and there was improv. There was a lot of improv involved in what he did, but that sort of transitioned into this hosting of this show. I mean that's definitely a route that you, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like it's a route that would resonate with what it is that you're doing.

[1:02:53] Joey Fatone: Yeah, no, no, yeah, I saw a recent episode of, uh, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

[1:03:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh, yeah.

[1:03:04] Joey Fatone: Yeah, I love doing that. That's so much fun being able to get in there and do that. And I guess not many people knew I did or do or have done stuff like that. But the funniest part was, believe it or not, I was talking to my older daughter, uh, Brianna, who's obviously seventeen now, which is crazy. You know, it was only about a year ago since she was sixteen. Um, and she was talking to me about like acting and this and that and how, you know, if I had to kiss a guy since I'm not homosexual or anything like that, would I do it, this, that, and I'm like, yeah, it's for the art. It's what you're doing. I'm not taking myself as being me. But the funny part is when I had this whole conversation with her on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, we had to do the whole spaghetti thing where we had a kiss.

He kind of basically, I was like, hey, just met this dude. I've never met this guy in his life, but guess what? I'm kissing him on the lips. And you just gotta go for it. That's the whole thing of taking yourself out of that and embracing what you have to do on stage and it's always that yes factor when you're doing improv. You never say no. It's always yes, so you gotta go with it.

[1:04:03] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right, right. Because it's servicing the story or whatever it's scenario that you've come up with, you just roll it.

[1:04:12] Joey Fatone: I think that's beautiful life advice. Uh, just, uh, just gotta roll with it.

[1:04:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah. And a good friend of yours, Wayne Brady, uh, is a part of Whose Line Is It Anyway? How long have you two known each other?

[1:04:24] Joey Fatone: Uh, I've known him, believe it or not. I met him when I was in eighth grade. I moved to Orlando, Florida from New York City in about, in ninety. Um, I was in eighth grade middle school, place called Walker Middle School and I wanted, there was, I, in my cat to school in New York City, there was never a choir or drama or any of that kind of stuff. So there was actually a teacher that had a drama class after school that did all this stuff and did like little plays and we did all this other kind of thing. So I was like, you know what? I don't want to be a part of that. I always want to do something. So I became involved in it. And the crazy thing about it was, is there was a high school production, uh, I can't remember the rate, it was called Rainbows or Colors or something.

I can't remember exactly what it was. And there was a person that was represented in each color, whatever. So there was a play that the high school was doing that they were coming to Walker Middle School to do this play. And sh, they asked the drama kids that were the drama students obviously to kind of learn and help set up with them and kind of shadow them and just watch them and do stuff. That is the first time I ever met Wayne Brady. Wayne was actually a ninth grader, I think, or sophomore, something like that. I can't remember what it was. Actually, he might have been a senior. Actually, he might have been because he was like a few years older than me. He might have been a senior. And he came to do this play, and that's when I first, very first time I ever met Wayne.

And I was like, oh, you know, I'd love to be an actor, this and that. And then when I moved to high school, he graduated and then started working at Universal in Orlando. After he left to go to LA to work at Universal, I went into Universal and started working, uh, over at Universal with the same people he was working with. So it's like we knew each other, uh, after it wasn't even during high school, but we knew each other after high school. And it was through all mutual friends because we all went to the same high school. So it was really interesting to meet him before I was even in high school there for Dr. Phillips. Then I became there, hung out, met him again, and then kept running into him every time I started doing shows and doing different things.

So when I did obviously Beetlejuice show in Orlando, he was doing in LA. When I came out and did it and went to LA, or actually I was actually in New York and I did Broadway, I did Rent. He always wanted to do Rent, never got a chance, but he actually did Rent at the Hollywood Bowl when they did this special where they did, you know, sometimes I'll do a production where they have people come up and they do like two or three week rehearsal and then they do it for one week. Then I did a show called The Singing Bee, and he did a show called Don't Forget the Lyrics. So we kept bouncing back and forth to each other. So it's really funny how it happens to, we're jobs.

[1:06:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, different jobs for different things.

[1:06:50] Joey Fatone: And it obviously, of course, circled all the way around and finally we always kept talking about me doing Whose Line and finally had the opportunity, uh, and I got a chance to do it, which is great.

[1:06:59] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, so basically you and he have just been going back and forth and copying each other in your career.

[1:07:06] Joey Fatone: Yes, pretty much.

[1:07:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, pretty much.

[1:07:09] Joey Fatone: Oh well, you know what? If you ever want to c, if you ever want to host a gig, you know you can certainly come back to the podcast. I think you found the home here, that's for sure.

[1:07:15] Joey Fatone: Well, I appreciate it. It's, it's, it's, the podcasts are always great because you just get to talk and you just, and you never know where the stories are going to take you or where it's going to take you to what you find out about it. You know, that's what's so cool about it. That's what I love about it. That's why, of course, when you said for me, hey Joey, you want to do this? I'm like, Patrick, of course, not a problem.

[1:07:36] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, thank you so much. This has been a joy to not only catch up with you because you and I haven't spoken in quite a bit. So it's been great to contact with you, but I'm so appreciative that you and I got a chance to talk to you.

[1:07:48] Joey Fatone: Yeah man, no, and it's always good just like these kind of things though too. I love it that how, you know, even though we may not meet up or see each other, we're always contacting each other one way, shape or form or at least how you do it, what's going on, where have you been, you've been, you know, we've always kept in contact with each other, you know, and that kind of friendship was away. So I know that, you know, I'll be calling your ass probably the next day, dude, is there any jobs out there for me, any opening cattle calls, let me know.

[1:08:19] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, we'll bring you in.

[1:08:20] Joey Fatone: We'll bring you in.

[1:08:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[1:08:22] Joey Fatone: I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

[1:08:24] Patrick Oliver Jones: Joey, this has been a real pleasure. Thank you so much for this and for our being here to co-host our final episode of our season. And thanks to everybody who has taken a second from their day to listen to us drone on for an hour or so.

[1:08:42] Joey Fatone: Yeah, you've talked at this for the last five or six months, and it's been quite a journey.

[1:08:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: So thank you to my fellow co-host, and of course thank you Dewey.

[1:08:53] Joey Fatone: Yeah, thanks.

[1:08:55] Patrick Oliver Jones: Thank you, Dewey, and thank you, Patrick, for having a great, and hopefully to do it again to stuff.

[1:09:00] Joey Fatone: Bye guys.

[1:09:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: The Why I'll Never Make It podcast is hosted by Dewey Cadell and Patrick Oliver Jones and produced by Dylan Adams. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Stitcher, where you can leave us amazing reviews, of course. You can also connect with us on Facebook and Instagram at Why I'll Never Make It or via email at while never make it at gmail.com. Lastly, we now have a website, why I'll never make it dot com.

[1:09:29] Joey Fatone: You know, Dewey, it certainly sounds like we're making it.

[1:09:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: Not making it, I'll never make it.