(This is an automated transcript and may contain errors.)

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Well, welcome, Justin. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this.

Justin Collette:

You're very welcome.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

We are in your dressing room between shows, right? Right. Between shows on a Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. What is your normal routine between shows? Is it mostly just sleeping? Yeah, sleep and just sleeping. Don't do anything, but. So I'm interrupting bone broth.

Justin Collette:

I eat the bones of my enemies and then I sleep.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Is the bone broth specifically for the voice?

Justin Collette:

No, it's for taste and enjoyment.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Nice. Well, the first question, it's interesting whenever I. I googled you just to see what. What your presence is out there. Yes. The first question that kind of pops up is, how does Justin Collette do the voice? So, yeah, that's always the first question.

Justin Collette:

Everybody wants to know how to do the voice.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah. So is it something that you had to find, or was it something that came to you?

Justin Collette:

It's something that I, like, did immediately and then really enjoyed, but was like, is this sust. And then I didn't know if it was, and then it just turned out to be sustainable. And then I started trying to figure out what I was doing, but this was after I'd been on the road for, like, a year and a half, and turns out that I do. I. Technically, I'm farting with my vocal cords.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Okay.

Justin Collette:

Is what my vocal teacher has told me.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And was that something that you worked with your vocal teacher in order to hone and.

Justin Collette:

No, this is more a. Like, this was like. Like the whole world, like, understood what gravity was before Newton, like, explained you knew that, like, dropping an apple was. Is going to fall. Like, I knew that. And then my teacher's, like, explaining, like, why the apple falls, and I'm just kind of like, okay.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And over time, has it had to adjust in order to be sustainable?

Justin Collette:

No, no. I've. I figured this out on my own. I mean, I used to be in, like, I played in, like, punk bands where I would scream. Okay. I just have.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah.

Justin Collette:

I've never really. I can't remember ever losing my voice. Yeah. I just. I had this idea of what I wanted it to sound like, and I tried to figure out how to make that sound, and I did it in a way that didn't hurt.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And so which was it that came first? Were you kind of digging into the character of Beetlejuice, figuring that out, and the voice came from there, or did you find that voice and that led you into the character?

Justin Collette:

Like, I. I. My friend. So I've been doing a reading. I've been doing a reading for. I wrote a Musical about a cult. And it was so fun. We did a reading of it before the pandemic, and the cult leader had.

Justin Collette:

I, like, I kind of aped. A voice that my friend Kyle Dooley, who's an amazing sketch comedian, Second City, in a group called Picnic Face, he used to do this little character. He would, like, talk like this. And. And so when I made the cult leader, I had him talk like this. It was his voice like this, which is kind of like a whinier Beetlejuice. And I did this whole musical. We're like, he would talk like this.

Justin Collette:

Come on, you guys. And then I remember doing the reading, and my agent said, like, what are you. What do you. What is this voice? I'm like, oh, this voice that my friend Kyle did that we think is really funny and works for this. And he's like, well, you're probably gonna have to stop that if you want to sell this, because this was in, like, 2020. And he's like. I'm like, why? He goes, well, because it just. It sounds like you're trying to do Beetlejuice.

Justin Collette:

And I'm like, oh, shit. Which wasn't what I was doing. I just. We've been writing this for, like, the way before I even heard Alex do Beetlejuice. We've been working on this show. So then when I got this, I was like, well, I know I can do that voice sustainably. And can I add, like, some heft to it? She always turned it, like, up here. I'm so alone.

Justin Collette:

And then we went down to, like, here, which is, like, a little more of the Keaton, like, looseness to it.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Which is more your. Your natural voice because you're more of a baritone in. In that way.

Justin Collette:

I don't think so. Actually. I'm more like, my voice. My find my voice, like, kind of lives up here.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Oh, okay.

Justin Collette:

Like, historically, I, like. It's, like, very pingy. And I had to work to add the heft to it. I think the, like, lower range of my voice now. Well, I mean, I just did a show, so it's sitting lower than it usually is. And then I think it started becoming like this after I did Beetlejuice for three years.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And when was the first time that you actually got to see the show Beetlejuice?

Justin Collette:

Kyle. My friend Kyle and I, we were working on this cult musical, and I was doing School of Rock, and Brightman would come visit a bunch, and he and I had, like, hung out a couple times, and he was talking about this show all the time, like, how Much. He loved it and how funny it was and how Anthony King and Scott Brown were working on it. And I knew that they were really funny writers. And so he. When they were doing it in dc, I took a weekend off of School of Rock and Kyle and I went to D.C. to see the out of Town of it because we were curious. We wanted to see it out of town and then see it in.

Justin Collette:

In New York so we could figure out, like, we were curious what changes they would make because the shows from out of Town to Broadway always have changed after they see or seen by an audience.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

I heard it was like a three hour show.

Justin Collette:

It was long. It was long, yeah. And we were wondering if we could like spot what producers or audiences wanted, like, didn't respond to because our show was also like a raunchier Rocky musical. And we were like, okay, let's see if we can learn from what they're doing and avoid whatever, like, make those changes in advance so we don't have to learn the same lessons that Beetlejuice learned. So we went to like steal.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Basically. Basically. And so it was then how. How much longer after that that you were first approached or you got the call to audition for Beetlejuice? Oh, because that was 2019.

Justin Collette:

No, 2018. 2018. I think that it was in D.C. that I saw it and then I. It probably was like, wow, three. It was three years later, I was doing Rock of Ages in Houston, Texas, at. With Tuts. And it was the first show that I'd done it.

Justin Collette:

First show back actually in the middle of the pandemic. We were still wearing masks to rehearse and stuff. It was. It was very, very. It was an intense process. And the only place that we were all. We were like kind of quarantined together, which was great. I loved everybody in that cast.

Justin Collette:

They're so fun. I still love a bunch of those people. And keep in touch. It was like the seven week thing that we all just were so excited to do. And it. I was at the pool, I remember getting the email saying that they wanted me to go in for Beetlejuice. So they didn't know whether or not Alex at that point was going back to Broadway or whether there's gonna be tour or what it. What it was gonna be just for Broadway and for tour, Beetlejuice.

Justin Collette:

And they're like, do you. Are you interested? And I had already done a role that Alex had done and I wasn't super keen on replacing him. They asked me to go in. They asked me, actually asked me to go in for Beetlejuice. Actually, I forgot about this. The first time they asked me to go in was when I went to Broadway, but it was to be the standby they wanted, if I wanted to be a standby, and I said no. So I didn't go in at all for it then. But I got it this time and I just knew exactly how I wanted to do it.

Justin Collette:

And I knew that I could do, I felt like I could do a good job or at least something that I was really proud of. I knew how to make this thing work. And I'd been working on this character with the cult musical at this point, with my friend Kyle for two or three, actually had three or four years at that point. And I was like, I don't, I have this, like, sensibility that I've developed to this character that I think easily kind of transfers to Beetlejuice. And I think the jokes in the script are really funny and I get how to deliver them. I just got the, I, I feel like I understood the tone or I, I was inspired by the tone to do something that I liked is, I think, the way to say that. And so I said I would do it. And so I, I auditioned and it was a long process.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah, yeah. How many callbacks and what, what was that? Did you have to dance audio?

Justin Collette:

I did, I sent in a self tape and then I did like, an audition and that didn't go well. And so I didn't hear back for like.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Why do you think it didn't go well?

Justin Collette:

I don't know. I think I, I, I remember one of the, one of the pieces of feedback I got was that I was too scary.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

You're a bit too demonic.

Justin Collette:

And then I didn't hear back for months. I didn't hear back for like five months. Uh, and I, I didn't think it was gonna happen. I, I, I, I'd moved on. And then in, like, April, they called and asked me if I would go in again and, and like, go see the show and, and this time both audition and do a workshop with with some of the creative team before I met with Alex Timbers, which was so crazy. That whole process was nuts. I, during my audition the first time, I mean, I knew Alex Timbers and I admired his work so much. And during my audition for Beetlejuice with Alex, the fire alarm went off in the middle of my scene that I was doing with the Maitlands.

Justin Collette:

And I thought for sure, because he was like, yeah, we're filming this and there's an iPad. We're filming this for the producers to watch. And so just so you know that's happening, and. All right, great. And so we were doing the scene, and then the fire alarm went off in the building. And I was looking around and did.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

You actually have to evacuate?

Justin Collette:

So? No, like, but the fire alarm was going off, and they're like, wait to see what to do. And it's like. And I was in the middle of the scene, and the reader was stuck on the line. Adam's line in the scene where she goes, what are you just leaving? What are you just leaving? And then I was looking at Alex, and I was looking at the table, and I was looking at the reader, and nobody was saying anything, so I just looked at the reader. I don't fucking know. I don't know. Is the building gonna burn? Is the building gonna burn? I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do, Adam.

Justin Collette:

Um, and then I just kind of finished the scene and wrapped it up. And I was waiting. Then the. Finally, we waited. The fire alarm, they're like, this is over. False alarm. And it turned off. And then I looked at Alex expecting him again.

Justin Collette:

He. He said, no, no, he said nothing to me in this audition. And I was expecting to be like, okay, let's just take that again. And he went, okay, next. And I was like, what? That's what we're going to use. And then I took it, and then I left. And I just did every scene once. And I remember going to a pub around the corner and just be like, are these people wasting my time? Are you screwing around with me? What is happening? I was.

Justin Collette:

I was like. I, like, could not figure out what was happening.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Because you didn't. You thought that it bombed, that you weren't gonna get it.

Justin Collette:

I mean, I don't know.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

I thought you didn't know what they.

Justin Collette:

Thought if they let you play through a fire alarm. I mean, my thought was like, well, it's because they don't care about this take, and no one's ever gonna see it. So, yeah, I was on, like, yeah, tenter hooks, trying to figure out whether I was gonna get this or not. Then, yeah, then I got it.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And so when it comes to a show like this, I mean, your name is the title of the musical. You're the leader, not only of the show, but of this cast. How does that factor into you as an actor, but then also just you as a person kind of leading us in this cast?

Justin Collette:

I led a lot of theater projects in my life. I remember I just did a. I was on this improv team when I was in high school in the 10th grade, and everybody else was in the 12th grade. And then when they graduated, like, I was in charge. And our teacher who was running the improv club was like, I'm not doing this anymore. And so I started teaching, like, my peers, and I started an improv. I just have been in, like, a. Like, a teacher position artistically with peers of mine kind of my whole career.

Justin Collette:

And so it's a position that I have had to navigate a lot of confusing aspects of it. Like, are we friends? Am I. Like, how can I give you feedback so we can still be friends after this? How am I? Like, how. Like, how to act? And so I feel like a lot of my career building up to this point has, like, helped me navigate those kinds of things. I'll also say that I think that, I mean, I've run theater companies. I've run, like, small, independent companies. My college. I, like, had to.

Justin Collette:

You had to do every job in the. In the theater, like, in a play. Like, I've done lighting design for a show. I've done sound design for a show. I've directed a show. Like, you had to do everything in my program, which I think everybody should do, so you understand other people's jobs. And, like, I have produce. I don't even know how many shows.

Justin Collette:

Like, I've produced dozens and dozens and dozens of improv shows and sketch shows. And so I also know, like, how important it is that people show up to your show and, like, navigate, like, the artistic integrity of your show versus putting, like, asses in seats or, like. Like, so I, like, I haven't been in just one track my whole time, and I think that gives me a lot of empathy for everybody in kind of every department. Then I hope that that helps and makes me good at what I do in the building. But I think your job is to, like, you know, not start.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah.

Justin Collette:

As much as you possibly can, and then diffuse and then diffuse when you can. And. And also, like, you know, sometimes just stuff happens. Like, there are some situations that are just like, yeah, this is bad, and this is. Like, this just is bad, and this is. It could be good. Like, you know what I mean? Like, there are things sometimes in life that, like, there is no clear answer to, and you're just like, let's sit in this fart for. And then learning to identify those situations, too, where, like, sometimes there isn't a solution to some problems that happen in our lives.

Justin Collette:

Yeah.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

I remember one Time when we were. This is when we were still on the road and we had gotten the announcement that the show was going to Broadway.

Justin Collette:

Yes.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

But we didn't know if we were going to Broadway as a cast. And I remember you kind of took the bull by the horn and said, look, guys, you know, and you kind of had a meeting with all of us, and it's like, we don't know what's going to happen, but here's. But, you know, you kind of took the reins. You kind of took that leadership and said, guys, this is us. We're together as a cast. Whoever is going to go. I mean, I just remember you kind of taking that leadership, and that meant a lot to me to be like, you're right, because, like, none of us know if we're sticking with the show, if we're leaving, if we're going on. So it was.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

It was a good moment because they were just so silent about the whole. The whole process.

Justin Collette:

Yeah, I think that, like, I think people. I mean, I've been lucky enough to do some cool things. Like, I. And I think people get. It's easy in this industry to get wrapped up in, like, titles or, like, awards or, like, benchmarks that you have. Like, I need to get on Broadway. I need to get, like, this.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

It.

Justin Collette:

The. The. The, like, squirrel brain of, like, what is next for me, I think robs a lot of people of present joy. And our show was always doing so well on the road, and people loved watching us perform. And I have just done enough to know that, like, man, like, in Atlanta, when you're doing nine shows at the Fox for almost 5,000 people, and you're sold out, like, you're selling out, like, zero visibility seats. They opened up, like, 150 seats where you couldn't see the stage, and they sold. And, like, you might not get to do that ever again. Like, that might not be forever.

Justin Collette:

And I thought that was a way I could positively contribute, I hope, to the. The vibe on the road is like, this is the goal. This is the dream. Who gives a shit about Broadway or about, like, your, like, a cast recording or, like, another job or film or tell? Like, right now, you are in a hit, you're in a hit, you're a part of a hit show with a bunch of great people, and you get to travel the country. And at a time where, like, you know, we were working during the actors strike, during the writer strike. Like, we were, at one point, my agents and managers, like, you're our only, like, working actor. Like, and they have huge rosters, like, with very famous people on them. And I, like, I.

Justin Collette:

We were at one point the only working actors in America, which is an insane thing. And. And we had job security and we not. And beyond that, we had the privilege of doing this show every night for people that were dying to see it. And I just think keeping that in mind is it's really hard to appreciate anything in the present. I think appreciation often is like, a thing done in, like, reflection. And I think it's with the show specifically, and especially, like, I. I tried to be as present as I could as often as I could.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Well, let's go back to your actual Broadway debut. This is School of Rock. Yes. And you'd mentioned that this is also Alex Brightman, who was the lead in that. But you started out in the ensemble, correct?

Justin Collette:

Kind of, yeah. Like, I mean, I was hired as a Dewey understudy, and Alex had never done. So he didn't want to have a standby out of the gate. But he. Dewey was an insane role and he never was. No one can do eight shows a week as Dewey. It's not possible. And so from the start, there were always understudies going on every week for him, but there wasn't a specific alternate role, like, assigned.

Justin Collette:

But if you were hired as one of the Dewey understudies, you were going on. I mean, I found this out years later, but, like, about what their plans were for me. But yes, initially I signed a four month, like, ensemble contract, but the plan was to move me into. To the Dewey Finn role, like, into the alternate. So they created the alternate because the show was going out on tour and they had. I don't know if this is true, but I think somebody told me that the role had to exist on Broadway for it to go out on to something like that. Like, it had to exist there for legally it to be fine on tour.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Right? Because, yeah, the structure of contracts, whatever's on Broadway, that's what they take on the road, something like that.

Justin Collette:

And they knew they needed an alternate for the road because they didn't want to do it. So anyway, whatever. So I technically was the first Dewey alternate. They created the role of Dewey alternate for me, like, six weeks in to my contract, but my contract while I was in the ensemble, like, I went on for Dewey at least three times a week from the first week that I was there. And then Eric Peterson, who was playing Dewey at the time, is still a really good friend of mine, had, like, vacation scheduled. And they're like, okay, let's see if he can do five. Let's see. Like, they were, like, testing me to see how many I could do.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And how. How did that. I mean, obviously this was your Broadway debut, so. But your debut, I think, was in the ensemble track first, before you went in for doing.

Justin Collette:

Yeah, like my day. So I had to put in for. I had to put in for Dewey Friday afternoon. Friday night, I did my ensemble track. No put in no anything. Which was, like, so mind numbing. It was just, like, so disassociative. And also, like, I had not seen many musicals.

Justin Collette:

Like, I don't think I. I think I'd maybe five musicals before. Like, I had. I didn't know what. I didn't know what the numbers were for on the stage. Like, I really didn't. So I. Yeah, I did the show and I was just like, don't screw this up.

Justin Collette:

This is important. But I didn't understand the gravity of it. I didn't understand any. Anything from this world at all.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And so was Broadway even, like a dream?

Justin Collette:

No, back.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Back when.

Justin Collette:

No, no, no, no. It was such an unattainable idea. I'm like an East Coast Canadian. I would like to get a green card to come be a theater actor in America. It was like, no. And there was no. There was no musical theater program is where I was from. There were no, Like, I had no exposure to it.

Justin Collette:

My life is like pre Internet. So there wasn't, like, unless I went to the library and tried to find, like, there was just no. No access. No one inspired me to do this. No one really, like, pushing for me to do this.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And so when School of Rock came along, it must have been like, it.

Justin Collette:

Was a Slumdog Millionaire situation. I had a teaching degree, a literal. I have a Bachelor of education. I played in a rock band. I could sing rock and roll music. I could do comedy. And they just needed somebody who could do all of those things. And, you know, musical theater school does not teach you how to rock.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rock and roll band is not one.

Justin Collette:

Of the classes play electric guitar solos. The first time I met Andrew Lloyd Webber, I auditioned for him and I played a guitar solo. And he looked, ooh, you can really play.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And what did you play for that audition?

Justin Collette:

The solo from Teacher's Pet.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Okay.

Justin Collette:

And then I accompanied myself. The song I auditioned with to book. It was Best of youf by the Foo Fighters, which was so funny. Cause I remember being in the waiting room and like, every single person was, can anybody. Everybody's somebody to love. Every single person saying, somebody to love. Every single person saying, somebody love. And I went.

Justin Collette:

I was like, I got another confession to make. And they were like, it's like, what's happening? What is this? So, yeah, I got. My agent got, like, a flyer to, like, just like, hey, like, on open call. But they. But she managed to upgrade my open call because the open call was like a. A rock song of your choice and a monologue of your choice. But she. She's just such a great agent.

Justin Collette:

Carly Baxter, she used to, like, artistic produce the Second City in Toronto and then became an agent, and she just was so a bulldog. And she got me, like, the side. She got me, like, the actual Broadway, like, audition package for it. And so I learned all of that, and. And I remember just thinking when I was reading it, I'm like, if I can't book this, like, it's because it's.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

One of those rules where it's like, I can do this, I can do that. Yeah.

Justin Collette:

Yeah. I. I was like, I don't know who they're gonna find. Like, how are they gonna find someone to. They have to. He has to play the guitar, and he has to sing Is Jack okay? And I did. I told myself, like, if I don't. If I don't book this, I should probably consider something else, because there's not gonna be something more perfect for me to do.

Justin Collette:

And so I went in on a Friday to audition, and it was for Mary Sugarman from Tara Rubin and David Return, who's the associate director. And then they told me in the room, they're like, okay, you have a call back. Tell your agent you have a call back and come see us tomorrow. And I was like, oh, my God. This has never happened before. So I left, and I was, like, shaking. And then the next day, I went back and they. I did my audition, and a person that I'd known was sitting in the waiting room with me, and they'd come in to do an audition as well, and they were after me.

Justin Collette:

So I went in. I auditioned, and then Mary said to me, like, something I'll never forget. She said, okay, go stand out in the hall. We have to figure out what we're gonna do with you. And I was like, what the. Yeah. What is that meaning?

Patrick Oliver Jones:

What does that mean?

Justin Collette:

So I went out in the hallway, and I went to see my friend who was there, and he'd left. And I found out, like, a year later that he listened to me audition, and then he said, there's no fucking way I'm Getting this. And he went home.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Wow.

Justin Collette:

Wow. So I was like, I must be doing really good. And then they invited me back in, and Mary was like, okay, can you be in New York City on Monday? And I was broke or just like living literally paycheck to paycheck. And I'm like, I can't. Like, will they pay for me to go to New York? And Mary was like, I'll pay. How much do you need? Like, well, 500 bucks to it. And I was like, yeah, I can probably make it work for 500 bucks. So she gave me $500.

Justin Collette:

Wow. And my girlfriend at the time. Or was it wife at the time? Whatever. She took the children. Her boss, she had the day off work. A Monday and Tuesday after work. So we're going to New York City. So we drove on Sunday.

Justin Collette:

And then on Monday I had a workshop with. I thought it was an audition, but I was the last Dewey to go on. There was like a call sheet. I like, got to. What's that studio with that? The Fantastics used to be at that little thing across from the Winter Garden.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Oh, Snapple. Snapple center, whatever that building is.

Justin Collette:

And like, Hamilton was rehearsing upstairs. And I was like. I was like, I know, Hamilton's a big deal. And then I. We were. I was sitting in the room right beneath that, and I went in and There was like 50 names on the sign in sheet. And I was like, there's no.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

What.

Justin Collette:

What am I doing here? But I was last and I went in. And it wasn't an audition. It was like a 45 minute workshop with the music director and with Rtura. And at the end, he's like, okay, we're gonna give you a ticket to go see the show tonight. Don't do anything that Eric does. Eric's show is. Is great. It's Eric's.

Justin Collette:

But like, don't. This isn't for you to go. We're not telling you to go see this to copy him. We don't need to mimic it. This isn't like a message. Just, we want you to see the show. And so then I went and saw it and.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Because at this point you hadn't seen it.

Justin Collette:

No, No, I hadn't.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Right. You just had the sides.

Justin Collette:

Yeah. So I had a single ticket. And then my partner also got a ticket. And then at intermission, because we were sitting next to each other, away from each other, came. We met at the back of the theater and didn't say a word for like. And then both looked at each other and we Were like, I think you can do this. I think I can do this. And I was.

Justin Collette:

There was at that moment that I was like, oh, this is. This might be really happening. And so I went home, I rehearsed. I was like, I better. Like, I better really try. I better really do this. And so, yeah, I went in the next day, and I didn't meet Andrew Lloyd Webber that day, but I did meet Lawrence CONNOR in, like, 40 people from really useful group. This is the biggest audition room I've ever been in.

Justin Collette:

There were, I swear to God, 30 to 40 people in there. They were. All them. All them were in, like, suits or these, like, beautiful dresses. And they wore me before going in. They're like, okay. Just so you know, Lawrence doesn't laugh. Like, Lawrence will not laugh at anything that you do.

Justin Collette:

And I was like, okay. And so I went in and, like, seconds into my first scene, like, 20 seconds, and he stops me. He goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not. He goes, you're not getting it. You're not getting it. And I was like, my heart, like, dropped. And I was like, okay.

Justin Collette:

I was like. I'm like, well, then. Just because I have an improv background, I was like, well, then, what do you want me to do? And then he. I never had. I don't remember what he said because I was blacking out, obviously, a lot of it. But he. Whatever he said to me, I remember being like, oh, he's such a good director. Lawrence is one of the.

Justin Collette:

One of the best directors I've ever worked with. He was such a great mind for, like, the big picture of the show. I remember once I got the job, he would tell me that, like, if you do this joke 30 minutes into the show, you're gonna lose this. Two minutes of comedy in act two. And he was right. He just could see the whole arc of the show.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah.

Justin Collette:

And explain it to you. It was. He's so brilliant. Anyway, he gave me a note, and I just understood exactly what he said. And then I. I did it. And he started, like, crying, laughing, like I was destroying him. And then I left feeling really good.

Justin Collette:

And then I called my agent. I was like, I, I. I don't. I don't know. Like, I think I booked this. And then two months, they said that I was in, like, the mix. And then two months later, we got a phone call. I was on vacation with my brothers in Cuba, and my agent emailed me.

Justin Collette:

She goes, call me as soon as you get back. And I'm like, I just called her from Cuba. And she's like, you have to move to New York City in two weeks.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Sam.

Justin Collette:

I got like a P2, which is like a circus performer's visa, which meant I could only work for them. And so once I got here, though, then I was like, I. Also, on my drive back from auditioning for School of Rock, there was a Netflix show that I had auditioned for that I really wanted because one of my best friends and like, co collaborators, Mark Little, had booked this cartoon called Cupcake and Dino, and I wanted it so bad, and I didn't get it. And they were already. I actually, I had gone in and I had voiced a, like, one episode, like a one off character. This is for season one of the show. So I'd gone and I did book, like, a one off character on the show. And so I went in and recorded that.

Justin Collette:

And then on my drive home, my agent called me and was like, okay, another thing, Netflix and Disney have let go of the actor who's playing Cupcake. Like, they just saw the animatics and they. They decided that it wasn't working with him, and so they fired him. They want you to go in and read again for Cupcake. And so I went in and that audition was an hour long, and I was up against a really good friend of mine named Ned, who, when I went into audition for it, I was like, okay, I know what I'll do this time. I'll do an impression of Ned. And then I get to the waiting room, it's like you and one other guy. And I go, and it's Ned.

Justin Collette:

And Ned goes in. He does the better Ned than I do. So I went in and I just, like, created again that character. And I. The. The way that Cupcake turned out like this, like, that was the first choice I made. And then I auditioned for an hour, and they made me do, like, every conceivable cartoon voice I could do. And I was just like, I didn't book it.

Justin Collette:

I didn't get it. And then I got it.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

The same thing happened to me. Voiceover is so. It's such a different audition because I. I went in. This was for a Bud Light commercial. And so at first they wanted a, like, coach, you know, that, that, that inspiring coach voiceover over the. The video. And so.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And so I was giving that. I was gravitas. And I was a bit more like, come on, men, we can. And, and. And then they went like, okay, okay, we're going to change this. And they had, like, a tinkling piano under me to kind of give me that. And then they said, all right, now just deliver it as if you're, like, talking to one person rather than the group. And so, you know, doing all these different things.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

I did that read for. For that, where it's more like, you know, now I'm just going to talk like this with that.

Justin Collette:

Yeah.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And then that was the one that they ended up using. However, I found out watching espn and it came on, and that's how I found out. Oh, I think that's me. I booked it and then I called my agent, and they had to call them and be like. Like, yes, you did book this. So they played it before they even let my agent know I booked it.

Justin Collette:

They just use your audition?

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah, yeah, they just use the audition.

Justin Collette:

Isn't that crazy? No one knows what they want. They just want to like it. Yeah, no one knows exactly what they want. They just want to like it. I think that's true. Exactly. Yeah. And so I had.

Justin Collette:

I. I was the lead on a Netflix show, and there was, like, a billboard in Times Square for it, and I was also the lead on this Broadway show. All of a sudden, like, within, like, you know, this is in, like, four months, this whole thing happened. And so I took pictures of all the billboards and I applied for a green card, and I had to do that all myself. But that was a stressful process. Immigration in this country is. Is very. Is very.

Justin Collette:

Is stressful. It's expensive, it's time consuming, it's invasive, and it's. There's a lot of hoops here to jump through. But we were. I, you know, we really wanted to stay.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And so when it came to School of Rock, obviously Broadway debut, you hadn't really, like, done or looked forward to a Broadway that wasn't on your radar. When did it sink into you? Like, okay, okay, I've reached another level. Or did it ever feel like this is now something bigger than I imagined?

Justin Collette:

I don't. I don't know. I. There were a couple of musicals that I'd gone out for after that. I thought I was really good for that. I think I just kind of miss. I came really close with doing. Actually.

Justin Collette:

I went in really early on for Stereophonic. I really liked it, but I think the role that I think I would have been better for was already cast. So I read for another one, but I was like, oh, I really want to do this guy. But it was already done. And then I went in for Almost Famous, and I made it to the last two for that. And then. And I Think the guy that got that had been like the guy who had done the workshop of it and he was busy and then became available. Like, I think I was like really close to doing that too, but then kind of nothing.

Justin Collette:

And so I, I just wasn't really sure if like that was like a fluke and I, I wasn't really like supposed to be here. Blended Rock of Age also was really hard for me to, to know because my co star in School of Rock was, you know, 13, 10 year olds. So it wasn't really like I, like there were adults in School of Rock and I liked being in the adult like male ensemble dressing room was. So it was a great. I had the most fun being in that dressing room to be like among artists like that. But they were all further along in their careers. Like the people who got cast in that largely, I think were like people who had like already done a bunch of stuff on Broadway and were really accomplished. And so I was like, I don't really know how to identify with anybody there either.

Justin Collette:

And I think I was the youngest for a while.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And is that a cultural difference between like, you know, the performing you had done in Canada versus the performing that you were now doing on Broadway? Did you feel a difference there just in different countries?

Justin Collette:

Well, I think it's more, it's more possible here. Like in Canada, the jobs for like a working stage actor, like it's not like a real. As much as it isn't like a really viable career path in this place. It is much less. So there, there really aren't any. Like we were in Toronto with this show for seven weeks at a Canadian theater and you know, they really just bring in touring companies and don't really hire their own or produce their own works like that. That, that often it's not, it's not a zero, but it's not like, not a lot of people get to do this. So I think it was my biggest shock was that like I talked to all the guys and I'm like, okay, so what are you guys like writing? What are you, what shows are you producing? Like, how are you like, what are you working on? They're all like, we're actors, we're working on acting.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

I'm working on this show.

Justin Collette:

You can just like, you can just act here. You don't have to like set up your own show and produce your own stuff and learn how to write and collaborate with like, you don't have to like build like a company from scratch every time you have an idea and they're like, no, we act.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

I was like, all right, so when you came here. So then during School of Rock, did you kind of give into that? Be like, I can just focus on this?

Justin Collette:

Or were you still writing a music? Okay, right.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

You were, you were still doing the thing.

Justin Collette:

Yeah, no, I, I, and I still, like, hustle and make my own stuff and.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah, because even when we were in Toronto, you were. Your sketch stuff.

Justin Collette:

I did an improv show every week.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

You were still doing the improv stuff there.

Justin Collette:

Oh, that was such a.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

So you would do a show and then go and do the, do the improv and, and I, I got to see one of them. And you, you were with, what was it, two other three others?

Justin Collette:

It depends on what one you saw. There would have been two or three other guys.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah, yeah. And, and this is whenever you were in Toronto and this is a group that you had, correct?

Justin Collette:

No, we never performed. All the four of us together. One of the guys was Kyle D, the guy I was telling you about, who wrote the cult musical with me. And then Chris Wilson was in there. He's on a Canadian sket. Hours 22 minutes. He's so funny. He's amazing.

Justin Collette:

I'm sure you've seen his videos shared. They go viral a lot. And my friend Connor Bradbury, who was on main stage at Second City, who also would go do a Second City main stage show and then cab to the theater. And the four of us had never played together before, but oh my gosh, it was so fun. I really, I love to go do those shows again.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And so that is really your basis of performing, of being on stage, is doing these sketches, these improv. That's really your foundation. Yeah, that.

Justin Collette:

But also I was in a band when I was like 14, 15, and we got signed to, like, a small record label and we would tour. So I would say that, like, my first thing that I, that like, people who have watched me grow up, like, they would say that I was like a musician first. Like, I was a frontman in a band and that was really serious. Like, I, I, I. We weren't talking to Universal at one point about, about doing stuff. We were supposed to go on the Warp tour and like, it was, we were like a, yeah, we were a very serious band. Like, a lot of my time was spent doing that, and so I had a lot of stage time doing that and a lot of stage time doing improv. The two things about being in a band and being an improviser is you just get reps on the stage if you're a stage actor, you have to.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Wait for a production until they cast you.

Justin Collette:

Yeah. The best thing I think any theater school does for you or musical theater school, the training, whatever. But like, most people, that's where they do all of their shows. It's where you get, like your. It's where you get actual time in front of people.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah. I mean, because, yeah, you.

Justin Collette:

You have.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

There is the training, and there's certainly the things you have to have kind of in the safe space of kind of figuring out and making mistakes. But ultimately, the audience is going to tell you what works and what doesn't.

Justin Collette:

That's what this whole deal is. There's the safe space is it should be a theater. It should be, like, it should be. It's you performing for other people and you figuring out where lines are. And there's no way to learn lines without doing reps in front of a live audience. There's just no way for you to figure it out. You can't guess that's what stand up is. Right.

Justin Collette:

Stand up is like, guessing and then refining. Right. Seeing what works and seeing what doesn't.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Right. Crossing that joke out.

Justin Collette:

Yeah. Moving to the next step. How do I tighten it up? How do I tighten up? What does audience like? What is audience like? What is audience like? And then. So I just spent years getting to know audience.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

But with that, obviously, every audience of every night is going to be different. How do you find that balance between, okay, well, 70% of the time I get the slap, but then this audience really didn't get it. Like, how do you figure that out?

Justin Collette:

I have spent so much time in front of audience in my life, from music to improv, and I think something about those two things is like. Like, really works in musical theater. Like, understanding when audience is, like, moved and understanding when audience is going to laugh and understanding when audience is uncomfortable and understanding. So, like, audience to me is like. Is like old friend. Like, I. I can feel. I just feel like you feel with somebody who you've known for a long time, like, how are they? How are we all feeling right now? And I will adjust every single performance that I have to accommodate audience.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Like. Like whenever in Beetlejuice, you have these moments of which you can kind of go off and you've kind of come up with your own improv. Sometimes you do your jokes, sometimes you may not. You're kind of feeling the audience out.

Justin Collette:

It's just audience.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah.

Justin Collette:

Yeah. It has everything to do with them.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah. That's. Yeah. That's so interesting, because as OTHO I certainly try to listen to certain things and like, okay, whenever I do this physical bit or with my voice and how is the audience responding to it? But then there'll be that one night where crickets nothing. And you just have to be like, no, I think it's just the audience.

Justin Collette:

But I think that there is, there is. Like, if I was you, if I were you in that situation, I would probably do the same thing. But Beetlejuice talks to the audience, so my relationship with them is different than any other characters. And I think that, like, I'm, I try to be very careful to not make it too intimate because I don't want to shortchange any other actor in the show. Once the audience feels like they can talk to me, like, directly, then, like, it undercuts the legitimacy of everybody else in the performance. And so I try to not get too close to them. But I also, like, the show is like, both raunchy and deals with death. Like, it's like, it's a tightrope act to make sure that, like, the audience feels safe.

Justin Collette:

Like, in a weird way, I think Beetlejuice's job is to actually is to make the audience feel safe and then Lydia's is to make them feel. And it's like, in like a really fucked up way. I think he's making a safe space for the audience to experience grief.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And how much freedom, as you were rehearsing it, especially for the tour, how much freedom did they give you? I mean, obviously they had known what Alex could do and they kind of knew boundaries or parameters. Did they give you kind of a box to play in?

Justin Collette:

They tried. Some of them did some of them Timbers was like, you go, just like, go. He's like, play like, see what works, see what doesn't work, you know, and he's always been an advocate for that with this show and my show specifically. And I'm just so grateful for that because it really is like being a quarterback as opposed to being an actor in this thing. Like, I think there is like, some game day plays that, like, they do trust me to like, call and I, I, I think I get a lot of them right. And we've gotten to the point now in our relationship where, like, if I get one wrong, I'm not like, reprimanded because I think we all kind of want the same thing. And that's, you know, show do good, audience feel safe and entertained. But yeah, no, at the start, I remember having, like, when I was just getting to know Anthony and Scott, I remember A Christmas going out.

Justin Collette:

I was having brunch, and I left the brunch to go and sit in my car in the freezing cold. And I had a zoom with. I think it was Katie Davis, our stage manager, Alan Scott, and Anthony. And there were, like, four jokes I'd put in the show. And I, like, went to a bat for all four of them and then just had this, like, big, really awesome discussion with these brilliant guys about why the jokes were there. Why, why, why? We, like, why are you doing this? I'm like, here's why I'm doing this.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And.

Justin Collette:

We kept three of the four. And then the one that they were.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Yeah, yeah. What was the one they had?

Justin Collette:

I was like. When they explained it to me, I was like, like, oh, you're right.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Can you tell that joke or can you remember what. What the. Where it came in the show?

Justin Collette:

I'm trying to remember, I'm sure. But I remember just conceding it immediately because they made. I. I just. I remember more that, like, the argument was so compelling for why I shouldn't.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Be doing that, that you immediately were like, that.

Justin Collette:

I was like, yeah, yeah. I think it was when I would do the first. I'm pretty sure this. When I do the initial. This guy knows what I'm talking about. When I start that joke, I would do it. Like, I was disgusted by that person. And they were like, that is so unlikable or whatever it was.

Justin Collette:

It just, like. It's, like, sets the wrong tone. It's like. It's like, why on earth would you, like, risk that and do that? I think that was it. Or at least at one point, that was a conversation that I had with them, and I was like, all right, it makes sense.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

So as the show moved from touring to now Broadway, have you felt a difference in doing Beetlejuice? Is it basically the same and you're just continuing to play? Like, what. What is that dynamic?

Justin Collette:

A New York audience is like, an extremely difficult audience compared to any of the ones on tour. Because on tour, you go to a town and I would learn that town's sensibility, and then I could do pretty well in that town. Like, I would. That was one of the more surprising things. Things, excuse me, about being on the road is I always thought that, like, Friday night was the same in every city across the country. I thought Tuesday night crowds would be Tuesday night crowds, Friday night crowds be Friday night crowds. Matt's would be Matt's matinees, not guys named Matt. But what I found, and I was shocked by, is that every city in America has their own sense of humor.

Justin Collette:

Jokes that wouldn't work on Tuesday, would not work on Saturday, and vice versa. Even in, like, Ohio, like, from Columbus to Cleveland, like, they would. Like, the cities have their own sense of humor and lines. Like, the culture of every city is so specific. And so I would learn that I think I would get the hang of it by month, seven or eight of the tour by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. I'd be like, like, okay, let's hit these a little harder. Let's soften these. Let's speed through here.

Justin Collette:

Let's linger here. Like, I could figure out those four things by Thursday. New York makes no sense because tourists, right?

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And they're all different and from all.

Justin Collette:

Different all over the world. Like, some don't speak English and will come see our show. And, like, the show is a. A fast paced, wordy comedy. And so, like, that part is hard because you're, like, playing a. A broad grief comedy to people from, like, last night. There were, like, a bunch of people from Prague that I met after the show that were here. And, you know, I remember when I would do School of Rock that I.

Justin Collette:

We'd get, like, tour buses of people from, like, Seoul who didn't understand a word of the show, who afterwards were so upset I wasn't Jack Black. And it's like, you can't. Can't play to that. You can't. You can't anticipate that. And so I'm like, every show in New York is like a new battle, which has been really fun, like, really, really interesting. And, like, you know, I mean, you've been in these, like our Halloween show.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Oh, my gosh.

Justin Collette:

Like the shows where, like, all of our Beetlejuice, like, fans come out. Out is just like, you know, just like drinking butter. It's like, it's so rich and so crazy and so fun. And then there are, like, shows where I'm like, I don't know why this isn't working, and I can't tell why this isn't working. And then at the end of the show, they'll, like, go nuts. It'll be a big standing. Like, they'll be like, I loved it. I'm like, I don't know why you liked it.

Justin Collette:

So what I think New York has done for me, the shift, I think, has been a really healthy one and good one, is my focus has been less on what is the sensibility of this audience, how do I tap into it to tailor the show for them. And it's become way more what do I like about this show? Yeah. After three years, how do I want to play Beetlejuice and not think about the audience as much?

Patrick Oliver Jones:

And it sounds like it's a shift of, instead of, of reaching out to the audience, it's like bringing them in.

Justin Collette:

Yeah.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Bringing them to you.

Justin Collette:

Yeah. Become more letting them watch me do this unless let me take care of you. And that's, it's a, that's a big shift and it's like liberating. It's scarier. It's such a different way of even playing the character that I've done before. So but I can feel like that's another, it's giving him more dynamics which is always good.

Patrick Oliver Jones:

Well, this has been a joy to actually sit down with you and kind of dig into this and find out more about you and your process. So thank you for sharing these stories.

Justin Collette:

Of course. Thank you for having me.