And That's What You REALLY MissedStreamy Award-winning digital creator and TikTok star Chris Olsen joins Jenna and Kevin as their very own Gleek of the Week!!
Chris asks Jenna & Kevin all of his burning Glee questions, reveals what he and his high school friends would do after every new Glee episode, and which song & dance from the show he would perform for people.
Plus, he talks about making his own path as a content creator, what his therapist thinks about him posting their sessions on social media, and just how close he was to joining a national Broadway tour.
**We stand in solidarity with our union, SAG-AFTRA, during the strike. For more information, go to SAGAFTRAStrike.org.
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast.
Welcome to and that's what really miss po calss.
Today we have Kevin McHale.
And Jennashkowitz, but more importantly, we have star, superstar, world traveler, world famous Chris Olsen.
He's incredible.
He's just so nice, so nice, and oh what a joy to chat with, so open, so fun. I feel like I have like musical theater camaraderie with him. But then like he's such a big glee fantee, which is so fun.
He's an og gleek. That's right, That's right, Yeah, he's he's this week's gleek of the week. Really, I mean he's gleek of the year.
That's right.
I know that didn't rhyme.
But it's a wonderful, lovely long talk with Chris Olsen. So strapping and enjoy. Here is the week of the week.
Chris olsaid, Hi, Chris, let's begin. Where do we start?
Wait?
The fact that you and Darren recently was really funny.
I was jealous. I DMed him and I was like, excuse me, well, I bare you.
You know I have been waiting outside both your homes, just knocking on the doors waiting to be let in. And then Heather and Darren came to my rescue, so I said, okay, I'll hang out with you guys. First. They're very nice, so sEH, they are very nice. It's it was. It was such a lovely day promoting their pod. That's right, look at you.
You're really just helping out the Glee crew and the pods, which.
Is so crazy to me because as a young young child that was maybe one or two when the show came out, it really it was everything to me, but the jokes aside, it really was. I was I was trying to remember or think about all of the memories I have just as a viewer of the show, and there truly are so many. Like I remember watching Tina sing True Colors, which was your first song, right, correct, yeah, right, I know. We were my whole family was in South Carolina visiting my grandma, and all she had was this tiny little television, Like by tiny, I mean like literally maybe like nine inches, like it was small, and we we tuned into the episode and I remember you saying the song at the end, and it was such a huge deal because I was such like an I loved an underdog or someone who liked.
Yeah, you you were someone the character who got ship on sure right, yes, the underdone and.
You had you truly hadn't said like I feel like everyone had had a song at that. It's just like maybe the actress doesn't sing. I don't know, Oh she could sing. She could sing.
That's funny though.
We discovered that. And obviously Kevin, when you dance for the first time after finally, Yes, that was huge for my family as well. I went to an all boys school and I would I know, I know, I went to an all boys school. It was like a religious school as well. But I found a few people and I remember, like the first year that Glee was very big, I would go and I had Spanish. Every morning I would go into my Spanish class and this group of four of us would sit in the back and recap the episode from the night before.
Sweet.
Yes, it was like it was like a little safe space. I am surprisingly still the only one who turned out gay from all of that, but that is very surprising, I know, I know. So we just had some allies in the room.
Yeah, I guess, building community in a religious school.
Yeah, it was like you had to find your people. But I remember it was it was huge. We would listen to the songs walking in between classes, but then pause them whenever we were walking by a group that like, we couldn't be.
So funny.
Yeah, you where did you grow up?
I grew up in the DC area. I grew up in Maryland, but I went to my school was in d C. Which was which was nice. But it's definitely like half of the kids parents are politicians. So it's very like during the presidential elections, like we are debating in class and people are like, well, my dad is working for blah blah blah blah, and you're like, oh.
Terrifying, But I still have my opinions.
Right, and like, my dad doesn't believe in gay marriage, so neither do I, and it would It was just a it was a very intense environment. So we needed, you know, a special musical show to get us through all of that, to build bridges, you know, to build bridges. And if you know they were egally was tackling the real issues too, you know they were.
Right even when nobody asks for.
It, when nobody asked for it, when sometimes maybe different things were being said, maybe it was a very interesting way to go about some It's a.
Very pcy way to put it.
Yeah, definitely, How do you guys, how do you guys? I mean, you've obviously the pod speaks about the show in so many ways, but how do you guys in your day to day life if someone is bringing it up, how do you guys, you know, talk about it? Speak back to these people, whether fans or just people who have come in contact with the show, like, what is the response.
I do feel like there's been a shift in the past couple of years because I feel like during the beginning of the pandem when the show sort of became like a weird thing on TikTok and people were discovering You're like, oh, look how outdated this is. But there's now sort of this I feel like a collective understanding, like with any show it was of a time, sure, and so I do feel like that sort of preface is sort of now expected, right, Like we don't really have to talk about it in that way, right, Yeah, And I feel like that has been a shift in the past couple of years where yes, as a community, as humans, we understand that some things did not maybe age well, but at the time. Now you can sort of look back at and be like, well, it was great in this way, and it was fun and funny in this way because I think for a while I was like, yeah, we shouldn't have done that.
Right, But you all were quite young, just like reading these scripts, and it was like, you know, so many people's like really big first job that you're like most all of us, Yeah, right right, I can't I'm not going to say this line, like I just won't do that, Like that's it exactly.
Didn't even cross our minds.
Were Yeah, we were in the time, right, We're in the capsule of the time, and it didn't really phase us in some ways. And then obviously it was a personal dig or personal.
That's all we cared about.
More.
We didn't really care about the macro Yeah, you know, progressive movement that we were sort of shuttling in.
Right, was it? Like, I mean I know that the show went on for a while, but within those like especially season one, were you walking in like being like this is so much fun, I'm so excited about all of this. Yeah, Like, what was there a moment that it became slightly stressful? Yes?
Yes, lots, yeah, yeah, It was absolutely fun, especially when you're filming something in the public hasn't seen it yet, right, right, And because this was, like you said, most of our first experiences doing this, we had built like a really it felt like a safe space with the crew, the cast, everyone in production. It felt like a really beautiful community because you are making this really joyous and absurd thing and so everyone sort of bought into that. Yeah, and you're just going there performing these songs for your crew members, the camera people, the sound people, and we were having the time of our lives. Like we're getting paid to go act like clowns and paid morning we'd ever been paid before.
Yeah, Like we were on a massive.
Budget, you know, film in Hollywood or a TV show in Hollywood. We were all really broke. But yeah, there was a turning point when the show started to hit, the songs started to hit the charts, people started to get really famous, Like it all hit at once, and then you couldn't turn your head without seeing us somewhere, right, And I think, you know, it's like Hollywood, they build you up and then they wait to like pull you back down.
My god.
Yeah, and we had, you know, we had now we had fans who were writing in and you know, voicing their opinion on these characters and on these storylines. So we're all very affected by the external forces that are making the show what it is in so many ways. And so yeah, and then the the stress of like writing the show is just the three of them writing the show for the first two seasons or three seas, four episodes.
Yeah, and.
Then like to add the music in, which had never been done before. It was so we were so exhausted and you don't know how to say no. You can't speak up for yourself or you'll just get weird.
And I think that was on every level too, where opportunities and I think you can probably relate to this, Chris, like your life the past couple of years, where all of a sudden, all these opportunities are throwing themselves at you. And I feel like for us when we hadn't none of us had worked that much prior to this, like how do you say no? And so all of a sudden launching this position. And I think that goes to the directors, the writers, the creators, and the cast, like we just yes, yes to everything. If we have any time, we have to do this because who knows how long this is going to last. Who knows who's gonna care about us in six months? So and I think that happens on the show level too, where people care. Oh, people are saying this thing, Maybe we'll write that into the show and send us everywhere to perform everywhere and do it that sort of thing.
Right, But not about us, more about you.
I just I'm truly such a fan, so I just want to I have all of the questions for you guys too. But yeah, I mean off of what you were saying as well. I still definitely struggle with saying no to so many things because even though I guess I've been on like on social media and doing the stuff that I've been doing for like three and a half years now, it's still but like that in the grand scheme of life, if still you have no idea how much longer that's going to be after that, you know, Like though, I always say yes to things because I'm like, ride the wave while you can, and keep it going while you can, to the point of even if I am literally barely fitting things in, I'm going to make it work somehow, because yes, there's going to be a lot of stress, and yes, it might be at the expense of like exhaustion, but sometimes it feels really good to get those things done. And then you reach a point where you're like, Okay, now I really need to try to take a break, but sleep sleep. But then I struggle with giving my like literally structuring a break for myself and then being in the break and not knowing how to relax.
Yeah, do you feel guilty? Yes, like I sometimes I would get where like if I say no to something like riddled with guilt of like oh yes, either the experience or financially or if you have a couple of days to yourself, like well I could be I know all the things it took turning down to have this time.
Right, No, one hundred percent. I like I went on a really long vacation for the month of June and the like within the first few weeks of the vacation every day that I was on that vacation, and what's what's I guess kind of different of my work versus like if I were on a show, is I can do it all myself. If I want to create something, I can just do it right here and it's on my phone. So every day on that vacation. I kept thinking, like, I need to earn this day of vacation somehow, so I better like make a good video or I better do this. And then it was like, no, the whole point of this was that I have worked a lot, so I have earned the vacation, so I rest a little bit. But I just kept thinking, no, I need to earn it. And then there's the whole thing of you know, I've I've worked many other jobs as well, so I'm like, it's not why are you telling yourself you need a break from like make a video for a day or something like that. That's the easiest thing you could ever do. And then so you just it's this cont cycle of now that I'm doing the thing that I really love, it doesn't mean it's not still work. But I hear the past version of myself that's like, it isn't work. What are you talking about? Get up, do the thing, create something.
It's not that hard.
Yeah, I mean, but you created the work within it. Like if it started out as something that was fun and that you love doing, and now it is work because you have responsibilities to I'm sure brands and whatever whoever is paying you to do the thing sometimes outside of like what you're doing yourself, and that is scary when you're completely in control of doing whatever you want on yourself because there's nobody to put it off on.
Yes, that's the other thing, like if I you know, like with with a show like Lee, you have the you're like, yeah, the writers that was.
We can't. Our schedule says we can't do this because we're contractually bound to be here, right, so we can't go do those things.
Yes, it's I mean, and I can I do. It's not one hundred percent myself. I obviously have a lovely group of people behind me who are who support all of these things that I do. But yeah, it is. It's it all happens essentially like in my apartment or whenever I'm home. And I think that that is another just like weird part about it that I've tried that when I talk to friends who are on shows, there's that slight like disconnect not between us, but between someone who's on a show versus someone who's doing social media. Is like people are just seeing me on their phone, so it feels like I'm like one of their friends. I'm told which which I completely appreciate, and that's what I love about it. But there's when when someone's on a show, there's so much more structure to it, and there's even more structure of how people are receiving you, and they're receiving you as a character unless it's a reality show. But if it's a reality show, there's receiving you in one hour increments once a week, and they can't they're not going to change that unless all the producers are changing it. So it's it's just a it's and it's a relatively new job, so we're all just figuring it out as we go. But it is quite the anomaly that I think will continue to grow and evolve in the ways that all of these things do.
Yeah, I can't imagine.
I'm curious, like because it's so I mean, you're choosing to give people so much of you, right, like personal you, especially for you like an avocate of mental health, and then like posting your therapy session.
Sure, so cool.
I would never do that because I'm not brave enough. But like it's so great and they're they're awesome, but like what, well, first, I want to know what your therapist thinks about this, and like how you got her to like say yes. But then also like do you feel like sometimes there's too much you're giving, like you know, because you're choosing what to show people, and then they feel like sometimes perhaps they deserve it all.
Yeah, no, way totally. That is a consistent like push and pull, because it honestly depends on the day of how much I'm willing to share or not willing to share. But with the therapy videos I had recorded, like therapy back before any of these videos happened, like before I posted any of them, because I do think it can be it's kind of like a form of journaling in a way you can like you you are able to reprocess everything that you said and processed in a new way afterwards, especially if it's like I have therapy two weeks later, or if there's been a break in therapy, I'm able to kind of remember what was happening in that moment. But the video came as an idea, like during one of them, after I'd had kind of like a funny session. And I think there's a lot of people who think therapy is consistently deep. You're always crying, and it's always something that is like near trauma, and I'm like, it is. There are probably some people who really have to process a lot, and that's a beautiful journey for them. But I've been in therapy since I was like twelve, so it's been like eleven. I'm not twenty three, I'm twenty five. It's been like.
Matth is hard.
Yeah, it's been like thirteen years of all of that. Wow, Yeah, that's correct. So there are sessions that are just like this funny thing happened to me, and let's process that, or like here's here's a very lighthearted thing. And I still get deep in most of my sessions, but I felt like there was a way to show the world some of these funny moments. And I don't do it every week. There are moments that my therapy sessions are very personal and I don't share those. And also, my therapy is an hour long and those videos are about a minute long, so it's really only these shots snapshots of them. But I felt like it could be nice to share something and to destigmatize the frightening part of therapy that I think people can be scared of. But I started on the app just sharing absolutely everything, and I was like, in a relationship at the time, and I thought, it's so fun to just share, and the fact that people are loving it makes me love it. And they're loving like our love.
Positive reinforcement, right, like, oh my god, let me why not keep doing this?
And you truly just it. I think with everyone in the field, all of my friends, we're also doing this. It's always just a learning experience until you get to your limit. So I reached a point, reached a point in the relationship where we weren't very happy, but we were still trying to share these happy moments because wanted the positive reinforcement, and that caused such a strain on like me personally, but also the relationship. And then even after that, like into me being single, trying to figure out how much I want to share and if someone says I would rather you not share that story, making sure that I'm respecting that as well, and like I am in a new relationship for the first time after that last relationship and now knowing I'm not going to be sharing it in the way that I once did, I think is just very It's very comforting to me and to the other person who I mean, he's been very gracious and being like, I'm following your lead, like whatever you want to do, but just knowing that now after going through the learning experience of for I'm going to keep that part of myself private, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to share other things that are a part of my life. And of course I think it's just it's always just some like personal gauge with yourself, because sometimes you can feel like you want to share the craziest story of your life, and then other times you're like, I'm going to keep it surfaced today and just do something like that, which I think. I mean, I'm curious to hear your guys perspective too, after like being on a show and you're playing a character, but then people are suddenly so interested in your personal lives as well, Like what is that like to how did you decide in those moments of like what you wanted to share, especially when like people then wanted to know the interpersonal relationships of you and other cast members, and it's like, how do we keep the integrity of the show without Now I'm rambling, but you guys get you understand what I'm saying.
You were talking about how people really feel like you because you're in the palm of their hands all the time. It even felt like for us, I think anybody who's on a TV show that is on once a week or now streaming whatever, we already felt like people thought they knew us because we were in their homes every single week, twenty two hours a year sort of thing. Yes, but yours as a whole. I can't even like we met each other last summer, yes, and Ken in France.
It was just a casual.
I was telling Jenna, like, I felt like I knew you and you just have the most normal conversation.
Yeah.
Like I was like, oh, we talked like old trends. But I think that happened and I've made a lot of great friends off of social media because I do think either algorithmically or things you're into, you connect to the people who have a lot of shared interests naturally. And so I was like, well, that was just one I'm just one person. I can't imagine the amount of people you interact with on a day to day basis or who feel like I did, like, yeah, I can talk to him, right, Because I do think there is a level for people. I guess that were in our position where they know they don't know you. Yes, you are playing a character.
So there are a.
Couple layers to get through of disconnect right between are the real us and the people there may be a fan of yeah, but then there's even.
More curiosity, right because they do spend you know, every Thursday. They were in their living room and their pajamas with their you know, cat and their ice cream and like watching us, feeling like they know us. And then they see you on the street and they call you Tina and already and they're like, oh my god, you can walk. And so there's this like exciting mystery about it. We were on the show when Twitter. We were in the recording studio when we learned about Twitter, and so we all signed up, and so we were pre Instagram. Like I remember my first Instagram. I think I was shooting a snack and I posted like the lunch the lunch tray. Wow, And so you're like, what is this thing?
And these filters. I remember being like pach and I guess I'll take a picture of the table.
Salmon, right right. But I think because of that and they don't know who you are exactly, social media was a way in for them to learn about you, and in some ways it felt like a gift. In some ways it felt like a complete flaw on the system, because the gift is like, I can share what I want with you, I can connect with my fans, I can learn more about them and who's who's watching and who's listening and who's a fan of me personally. But then then, like what I was asking you, it feels like sometimes they feel like they they deserve it all, Like there's no boundary whatsoever when we are choosing what to share and what not to. Like, my husband is not he's not an actor. He is you know, you know, affiliation with the entertainment industry. He doesn't like social media. He doesn't go on it, so I'm nervous post him and he wants approval and he wants to see things before they go up because that's not his thing. This is in his world right, And then we chose to not post my daughter's face for safety reasons. I just said, I'm not I'm not doing that, And so there is this like push and pull. But because of the mystery, it's like people want to know more and they want more because they don't know you exactly. They don't they know the character.
Yeah, I will say, like it is very I do feel like there's people feel extremely comfortable coming up to me in public, which is great, and I think, I mean that's can be a lovely time. Obviously, there are sometimes when I'm like having a day and I'm like okay, all right, where like I gotta I gotta like bring it up. And it's it's because it's almost like I have to play a character of myself in some ways, because when I'm making videos, I have a lot of energy. Those are my like I'm I'm ready, I'm performing in this video. You know, Like there's many most of the time I'm lower energy than I am in the videos, and I think tons of people really understand that. But there are moments, there are definitely moments when people feel very comfortable and it can get to a place of it's that parasocial relationship that's talked about a lot these days, where someone is sharing something that like I wasn't ready to take on for them, but I you know, but I'm also gonna do my best to hold the space because I'm not going to make someone feel bad for sharing that something like really affected them in a good or bad way, but like those same people sometimes will tell me a story about like because if I'm friends with a musician, they'll be like, oh, I saw that person, but I was too scared to go up to them, or I saw that actor, but I was too scared to go up to them. I don't think people are really too scared to come up to me because they feel like they know me. But if they saw and I am not comparing myself in like fame level standing of these people, but if they saw like a Tom Cruise or like a Meryl Streep out there, they're not going to run up because it's like, oh that is not like they don't even have social media. You know that there are characters to them and these people love them, but they don't know how they speak or talk or like kind of go about things in their daily life. So I feel like there's a little bit more of a barrier, which I think is is that there's no like wrong way to go about it, and I would love to I think maybe have that barrier at some point, but also I still very much enjoy the way that I have gone about it as well. Yeah, I think it's just now with the social media becoming such a thing. Those walls have been stripped down a lot because people are sharing so much about their everyday.
Lives, right, and it takes a special type of personality, I think, to have that perspective that you have where I think you could throw people really terribly, but also you know, to recognize like, oh, this is with success, this has happened. Sure, I mean, and sometimes you're gonna have bad days. I'm not gonna be in the mood, but right, you know.
I have to remind myself that though most days, like there are days or if if I start feeling uncomfortable because I can like feel someone taking pictures in public or something like that, which is like yes, people should ask people to take a photo. Or if I'm walking through somewhere and I feel whispers and people talking about me, it's like I literally have to remind myself like, no one is trying to no one is out to get you. Like that too, Yeah, like they're excited. These people are excited. But I think it probably goes back to if I want to like therapize it, it goes back to like childhood and maybe me like walking through the halls and feeling like I hear bullies talking about me. I'm like, any whispers about me must be bad. But now we have to like reframe those somehow.
Yeah.
Yeah, if you figure out how can you just think it's just constant reminders? Yeah, it's true.
It's so true. You went to Bosting in servatory.
Oh I did, I did it. Yes, I am a musical theater student. I am a theater kid. As a singer, I do occasionally sing yes on social media as well.
But you singing bathtubs, it's one of my favorite videos. You guys sound great. I also have to know how many times you guys, how many times you guys tried that one, because you looked I know that feeling when you get it at the end and you're so excited.
I knew that's great.
It's definitely a lot. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're singing, we're it's you got to get it perfect, you know.
Like that.
So yeah, but I've been I've been a theater kid for like my whole life, a big of it, like I have. I half live in New York, so every time I'm there, I'm seeing shows. Often. I went to a boarding school. I was gonna say, you saw Alex now I sure did. Oh, I sure did. And have you guys seen Alex yet? Yes? Oh my god, it's like stupid independently owned. It's just it's just insane. And to be able to do that eight times a week and.
Also be like I can't and then comes out to the stage and then does that exact thing. No, are you's a boarding Yeah? I interrupted you.
No, no, no, But I saw Alex but yes, I went to boarding school for musical theater as well. Speaking of Alex, I was also a fan of the Glee Project back in the day, like Lee was. I, Oh, I had just made for you, I had merch. I went to the tour, Yeah I did. Did you go to the DC show? I I think so. Yeah, that was a fun one. I didn't know what tone.
No, I don't know if I can't remember that one.
Kevin's impressibly good at remembering the tour in particular, like the shows and the cities and what the show.
I don't know what one city, I can't remember the show. I don't remember the show. And no offense to Philadelphia, I have no memory.
Oh yeah, I remember Phill Yeah. The tour was pretty life changing as well. I just remember, like Stan, I mean, the entire thing was just like my whole childhood live and then. But I do remember specifically like when Amber singing ain't no way, oh my god, it was. I just I hadn't had a spiritual experience like that before, and I had it. I had it nice, we had it every night. It was.
You made a TikTok about how Glee was setting unrealistic expectations of like talent in high school, and I have to say I'd never really thought about it from the people, the perspective of people walking down the hallway and then hearing someone like Amber singing.
I mean all of you guys though, and with like a full band as well, Like it was the arrangements just magically coming together. Obviously it was a TV show elevated reality. But if that happened in any school, it would be national news every day, no one. I mean, it just would be absolute insanity because in most schools you have like one or two people who are like a star and they're but even then they're singing with a piano and bad acoustics, Like it's not Gregs. Yeah, that little rectangle classroom, y'all had had the best acoustics in the world. Somehow it was.
I mean there was real budget.
Zero budget, and the shows that you got, I mean, like Rocky Horror was so insane.
Can't afford to get a bus for already to get to Nationals, but we can build an entire set with two stories with an elevator.
I will say though I did go.
I went to a Catholic high school on Long Island, but it was performing arts and people went to the Catholic school even though they weren't like because of the musical theater program. So we had like people coming out of there. We have Rockets coming out of there. We've got multiple Broadway people coming out of there that I feel like my school was the closest to Glee that.
You were going to get probably and you were on Broadway as a child, right, Yeah.
So I did The King and I when I was nine, and then I was like, I'm gonna make it and do it, do this as an adult. And then I Bookspring Awakening, so I got to do that with the original Broadway cast for a while, and then and then I got to do Waitress after Glee. So I've gotten to do like a show within every decade.
Did you enjoy like a comparative Broadway versus a TV show. I know they're so different, Yeah.
I know, but it was a dream to be able to sing and perform on TV.
That was like because I went to mary Mount Manhattan, like college, I did a BA in theater minor musical theater, and like for me, I was going to be on Broadway for the rest of my life.
That was my goal.
I was going to be some foster and that was it.
But I think to be able to do both was amazing because TV has the money and the schedule and like the the you know, the refutation, yes, and Broadway like you can always go back for a few months and do it right, and so because it's so grueling and then we're going to get Kevin to do it at some point. But it's so grueling and it's so strange and different and the yes you must and the instant gratification that you get from an audience and energy, like I picked that over TV any day.
Sure, But I totally understand that, like when you get a degree in theater, you're not getting it to be like and no, I'm gonna make bank like and now I'm ready, like love it. Yeah, you do it because you love it because the end goal for most of us is like get on Broadway and make the Broadway minimum, which is very hard to live on in New York. Like it's possible. Yeah, it's like, it's not like we're going to I mean, I think when you're little and you have that dream, you're like, I'm going to be a star, I'm gonna be famous all of this stuff. But then when you find out the reality, you're like, Okay, as long as I can somehow work professionally, I will be happy.
And yes, it's so true.
I was ready to, like, I mean, there was a point even with Broadway too. There the amount of competition that you have of to even get in the door is so insane, and I think there there have been so many times I've been so ready to just give up on entertainment in general because it is such a hard door to get through. And if social media hadn't happened in the way that it did for me, I think I probably it probably would have been a very different life because it is so easy to get that just kicked out of you if you're not given the opportunity. And that's the tough thing about acting in theater and all of that stuff is someone has to give you permission to do what you want, whereas with so many other things, obviously you're getting hired. But like you can work your way up in a corporate ladder, right, you can work your way up doing anything Broadway. You could be taking classes, you could be doing all of the stuff, and you just might not get hired because you don't know the right person or you don't know all of that stuff. And I think it's just such an interesting industry that like mainstream isn't really clued in on, but the entertainment we all know how insane it is for someone to just like make their debut or to be like backs left, like the stage left in the back, but they're like doing the thing. I mean, it's it's yeah yeah.
And then you have like the lifers who like go into Lion King and Aladdin and stay forever. They're like, I'm on my tenth here, and you're like, girl, get it.
People have been in Chicago for like twenty years.
Oh yeah, they're gonna die on that stage now.
Yeah right, I'm curious, Like because you went to a conservatory. They're so intense, so intense, and then like was the goal Broadway? Like was the goal to be famous? Like what was the goal for you? And then to become so huge on social media? What was that like pivot for you to go like, okay, this is my life now.
It was really strange. I think yes, initially the goal was like be on Broadway or it really was just be able to maybe make a living as a performer in some way. I was also while I was there, I was like training to be a group fitness trainer because I was like, that's going to be my job as a fallback job. Yeah, I was like I got to do something too. I mean, there are so many people who like work in and obviously are this food industry or like fitness or something like that. So I was like, Okay, I'll try doing that. But it was halfway through my junior year that the pandemic happened, and so I was then we were pivoting to online musical theater classes. So I was in a room like smaller than this one I'm in right now, like with a chair, trying to do ballet like the chair was my bar, or like doing a monologue like and I mean it's like, I guess it's kind of like a self tape but like singing a song but to like all of my classmates on Zoom, and it's just, oh, it is not It felt all of my creativity in school had left me. I was like, Okay, this feels horrible. It just feels like work and not not work that I'm like interested in doing right now, especially like doing a scene with someone through zoom.
Oh God.
So I downloaded TikTok halfway through, because not halfway through in April, so like a month after the world kind of shut down, and was like, let me just see what's going on on here, and.
There's nothing else to do.
There was nothing else to do. And then I found it was a way I could be creative and have a little bit of creative outlet. And then I like summer happened and I kept making videos over the summer, and at the very end of the summer, right before the start of my senior year, I started gaining a following and I was like, Okay, maybe there's something here that I can do to finish out school. It's probably not gonna it's not gonna last forever, but we'll see what we do, and then it just kept kind of growing in different ways and I kept finding new ways to have fun and be creative on there. And so that also, I think like reinvigorated my love for performing arts, and it made me realize that I could do it, because I think there I had, I was so close to giving up on all of it because auditioning I had just done, I think a month before the pandemic. I had just taken a megabus at twelve am from Boston to New York for the Hairspray Tour open call dark, yeah, very dark. I was in line in front of Pearl Studios at four am. My audition ended up happening at three pm, so I had been there for eleven hours and then had to immediately get on a train back to Boston to do rehearsal for the Drowsy Chaperone that night, where I was in the ensemble. So it was it was it's like you grind it, Yeah, it's grind. There's like grind. No, there's almost no gratification from it until like the very end. It is such delayed gratification, which I think is really wonderful to work work for for a lot of things in your life, but there was like near no gratification. Ended up making it pretty far in those hairspray rounds and then everything shut down and the Hairspray Tour didn't even They did end up emailing me like two years ago being like, would you still be interested? And I was like, I don't know if I can do that.
I'm crawling back to me. I'm actually busy.
Oh I'm so busy right now. But wow, there I had. I was. I was very close to giving up on all of it. And I think getting a platform and getting that positive reinforcement, especially on videos where I started singing, or videos where I was like talking about, you know, my past and performing, made me realize like, yeah, that's definitely something I want to do and want to experience at some point in my life. And it feels closer than it was when I was just in school doing nothing, sure, because but it can be hard when you're in a conservatory or in a program where there are so many talented people and there aren't just so talented people in your program. There are talented people around the whole world. Yeah, and there's almost always someone who can do what you're doing. Do a little bit better or a lot better, And it's so easy to talk yourself out of it, right you're like, oh, well, there are three million people here that are way better than me.
Why am I even doing this?
Right exactly? And that doesn't mean that, you know, for people who are listening, that doesn't mean that that means you give up, because if they're doing it better, you can do it differently, or you can offer a completely different perspective on it.
But find your own way in like you're like, now you said, it feels closer, like you are founding a different way to approach.
It right right, Like it's you know, it can be hard for all of us who are not connected in the industry already from like birth, And I know it can be a little discouraging when there are so many people who you see, especially with social media. So many of these people who are successful on social media are so young, and I can't imagine and being like a sixteen year old or like even younger and seeing someone else my age making millions of dollars moving to LA and being like that is what my life should be like, because it's not. And I'm honestly so glad that my life wasn't like that at sixteen, and that most of the stuff happened at twenty two, which is still young. But I think just having that's a big difference of all of that. How old were you both when the show started twenty three?
I was twenty three, twenty or twenty, yeah, twenty and twenty three. Rispolfer was eighteen nineteen, eighteen, yeah, eighteen.
I mean, yeah, that's all of those ages are so young to be like thrust into that.
Yeah.
I do think like because it was an ensemble, we were all young, there was a lot of shared experience and like protectiveness, So I do think, yeah, we had that that benefit of relying on each other and that shared like, oh, we're all going through this together, right, And we had.
A boss again like you said, like we had you know, the studio to answer to. There were executives and you know, producers who were all there to kind of guide the way for you versus like, you know, people like you who are hitting it like overnight, gaining this huge following and then going.
Like would I do with this?
Because now you're running like a business. Yeah, like you're running your brand, which is like you weren't taught how.
To do that. No, And it's a learning literally.
Going to school for you know, performing arts three and a half years ago and then yes, all of a sudden and no one.
I mean it's impossible to like learn the business of any of these things without being in it. Like I mean, even when you make mistakes, because you're learning as you go, right, like down to the mundane things about like doing your taxes as like a performer is like am I going to go to jail because I'm not doing any of this like correct? But yeah, I like running the brand of me, running my coffee brand, flight fuel, Like there are so many even just the business of like figuring out how I'm going to next like create the next video or work with the next person that I want to work with. I think, Yeah, it's a lot of figuring it out myself. Being able to ask for help, I think is a really important thing, and but giving myself so much grace along the way that like if I'm not doing something perfect or if I could improve on something, just knowing that like that is okay that I didn't do it right the first time. Neither of my parents are in the industry, like a lot of my friends, my age aren't doing the exact same thing that I'm doing. So I'm really like just taking it day by day and learning along the way, but allowing myself to give give grace when it's not the perfect thing.
Well, you're doing damn good, So thank you. Okay, So let's let's just talk about Glee for a second, because I want to know about your some of like your favorites, like, tell me about so much.
Well you For example, you said you go to the gym and listen to Glee songs.
I will, so I think, so do you have right? Well? And I think you maybe it responded to my story last year about because Glee cast was my number five for in my Spotify wrapped of Artists. I was like, what are you doing? But it really depends on it depends on my like mood. I brought up Rocky Corps because I do listen to the Rocky ho or Hma. What is the title of that album? Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, so that is the one I listened to the live album often. Total Eclipse of the Heart is one of my favorites. It's just oh the Christmas albums, Oh my God, like I and I really did. I'm a cliche and I'll own it. Like I learned so many classics and so much music from the show Glee, Like there were so many songs that I did not know, so many Journey songs specifically I did not know before like tuning into the show. But I love that obviously the Britney Spears songs. I remember, I would do a I would just perform a dance to Toxic the Glee version for like my friends at any time. I think that's how most people you.
Were popular, is what you're saying.
What sure? Yeah, yeah, I think like most people work for you. It didn't. I in retrospect, I think maybe people were making maybe making a little fun of me during that, But I I think I that's probably how most people found out I was gay. Also Bad Romance the Glee version, and Naya Rivera does a growl like I mean she at anytime she's saying, it's just absolutely incredible. But it is River Deep, Mountain High. I mean I just like, yeah, it's it's almost like all of the all of the memories fled back. There are so many.
Yeah, but okay, okay, okay.
You asked like a specific question, and did I.
Give you Jim your Jim Glee playlist my gym? Do you have like a playlist for Glee for the gym?
There there's not a specific playlist because I will go through the als and I know there are certain ones that I really like. The music Volume four, Volume three obviously has a lot of those ones that I was hitting on the power of Madonna. Yeah, it does a lot for me.
You're in there.
Deep, this is I'm no, no, no, no, it is.
It's love that in twenty twenty two, Glee cast was number five on his Spotify and it's.
It's it's funny because like I don't pop, they're bops and I don't really realize I'm listening to it as much as I am, but I sure am.
Yeah.
I think it's always fun for us because we don't know we have songs that we're fans of right amongst the Glee songs, and like hearing about experiences people going to the tour or what songs they like are really interesting because we can't have that perspective, of course, what people actually like out there in the wild.
Yes, I mean the Proud Mary also was one that you guys are all in wheelchairs during that number.
Yeah, I recently saw this article, by the way, that someone had been an article of like the eleven worst number.
No, do you see crowd? Mary was in that.
Well, it wasn't about this, they said the version was good. It was the context of us all being wheelchairs.
Sure.
Sure, But of all the things that that Glee did, I think that's the least offensive because we were we were rallying around already for support versus a billion other things we're doing. Speaking of that unhinged storylines, like, were there any of your favorite or your your least favorite?
Like unhinged storylines?
Oh, I mean this isn't This wasn't one of my least favorites. But I do remember almost crying when the moment happened when Mercedes has an eating disorder and starts seeing people as food in the cafeteria and then Quinn has a conversation with her about what it was like eating for two. I remember playing it back for my mother because I thought it was so impactful. Yeah, I was like, mom, this is beautiful.
The show's changing lives.
It was like, Quinn is I mean, this is like, oh gods, God bless.
It was a really good scene, though, I have to say it was beautiful.
I mean, there were a lot of moments in the show that even if the storyline was a little questionable, like they were hitting an overall positive message, you could.
See where they were coming from.
I could totally see where they were going. But I remember, yeah, during that like specific scene, like Amber is sitting in the nurse's office and Quinn is like when you're eating for two it's and I was just like, that is my little teenage life was changed. And I also just met Diana for the first time, also in France, and I am obsessed with her in so many ways.
She just she's like rainbows.
She was also like so unbelievably she's just like her. Her vibrations are so I guess you would call that vibes, but she's just You're You're immediately like chill, You're calm. I'm like, oh my god, like I need your aura around it always.
But she'll just like break down into like a dance in the middle of like anywhere, and You're like, yeah.
I'm obsessed, and I'm obsessed with that.
Yeah.
So that was definitely a storyline that I felt stuck with you.
I felt my favorite seems to shoot.
We like getting in those costumes, like stop laughing. It was really one of our favorites, right, Like it will go down in history.
I also just the whole production of Glease. I think it was impactful. It will always always hit for me.
That one's farther in my memory, but we're going to get there at some point.
Yeah, for sure, for sure, I think because I wasn't in it. Again, don't have really any recollection. Yeah, if I wasn't immediately involved, the memory is not good.
Oh yeah. And just the entire scene of like vocal adrenaline doing Bohemian rhap City during the birth, I think is maybe one of the best shot scenes in television history.
Agreed.
I it's so absurd that it worked somehow.
Oh my, I mean, like Quinn's screaming and while it's all it's just like the musicality of giving birth, while also the performance is happening at the same time. No, no, no, no, no, Like it's oh my god. Yeah, I was changed.
They don't make TV like that anymore, do they.
They don't. They never did before. Right, that was the only time it ever happened.
If there was a reboot of Glee and you were on it. What would you want to sing?
Oh, go queshtym, it's big.
Oh my gosh, I personally hate getting this question, so good luck.
Yeah, that is that is really tough.
Like what okay, so Tina, I give you an example, Tina, we decided would be doing like Lavender Haze or Mastermind.
Oh oh yeah.
So you can pick a tailor.
It would it would definitely be a too. I don't feel I would be too scared to do a Beyonce one. I feel like I could just never do it. Justice.
That's how I feel, too, even though I would want to do that, but I couldn't touch it.
Right right, Like maybe like I would do some poppy moment like blank Space or entirety of Harry Styles last time. Yeah, I could also like I would probably do like a one direction song. I would want to do a group number though, because I feel like my favorite things to watch were You're Guys's group numbers because they were just so so yeah right right, Like, let me do something like that where it's like a heartwarming moment. But I would also just want to, like I don't know, serve and do something really fierce, like like wearing the costumes that you guys did during Bad Romance, like give me something like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was an intense.
We met the fan, by the way, I like a really big fan recently who bought like a ton of auction items from the show and he.
Was like, I have your bubble costume and he has my polish. Oh my god, I think his name is Steve.
The bubble costume. I mean that was like one of the best as well, Like it was what a costume to wear.
It was a lot, but it was great.
Yeah. At the end of the day, you guys were I mean I would assume so you guys were singing all of your backing vocals as well. No, no, no, okay.
We would do the occasional background if you were doing a lead vocal. So if you go to the recording studio and you know, like Bad Romance, I went and record it, and then like they would have me do backgrounds on the court, like they would kind of push to the top. But no, like somebody to love, none of our background vocals.
Also, none of us are.
We had an amazing team that Tim Davis, who was like our music extraordinary. He would go and he would do sessions with his like set background of vocalists and they were unbelievable.
And the singers so yeah, they could learn it, they could hear it once. They would teach them all these crazy harmonies and just do it where if we were doing it, and we did sometimes more for a season, we did do more backgrounds, but then with the schedule there was not time because we went to the studio and record a full song in like forty five minutes the leads.
Yeah. I mean you guys must have been in the studio like almost daily for some of these things. Yeah.
Yeah, but became such a sort of a conveyor belt situation where you were the hop in do your thing, yeah wow, and you had those studio singers also each of us have each of them played us. Yeah, so then they would do our demo vocals. So then we also learned each other's voices in that way, so then we could go in and lay down our leads quicker because one week if we had time learned it beforehand. But also they usually sing it in a style that our voices.
Yeah. So would there be times here going into the studio like not really knowing the song and you're like, well, I've got to turn this out right now? Oh yeah? Wow? Yeah?
There as played again, played again, played again.
Which ruins us for any if you're doing music post gally, Like my expectation now is so I'm like, okay, a full song.
I'm singing this all the way through.
Right, We're doing word by word please.
There was one song that we didn't get approved, like the artist didn't approve it, and we fully recorded the whole thing and it's great, but it it was a different producer than our normal producers. He's like, do you want to sing the whole thing like all the way through once? And I was like, just like, unheard of what's great? Love the way you lie that.
All the way through? Yes?
Oh some of it.
Some of it approved because take a Bow is an episode two or something.
So we think eminem or just the actual version of it. I think they had final approval heard or like no, thank you. But it ended up being that was shake it out, not check it out, shake wa check it out or check it off?
Chake it out?
Oh okay, yeah yeah, so it ended.
Up being working out because I love that song.
But yeah, that happened very It wasn't very often that like things didn't get put in, Kevin, did you have any numbers that, like you recorded that didn't make it end like I did?
Tell him didn't make it in?
I did one I did, And I'm actually going to text Adam after this to ask if they have it because I wanted to hear it. It was a mashup. It was I think it was Lady Gaga an Usher, I think it was. It was like pure pop orgasm. Oh pause, DJ got us fall in love again, and I think just dance.
I remember that. Okay, Yes, I.
Need to find it. I've talked about it before, but I really need to find it. Somebody has to have it somewhere that.
We're done on that show. We're also just next level like someone like you, someone like I mean, that's that's number one, right, It's just incredible. You know.
What I do love is talking to people now so many years removed and what songs are sort of like living in the world still of what everybody universally understands if like rumor has it, someone like you, somebody like you.
Someone like you, someone like you, someone like you.
We all loved it, we knew it was great, but I feel like now we all understand how good it really is, right, because I think we were turning out songs every week, that it was this onslaught of new music all the time, right, and now like the cream has risen to the.
Top of which songs were like Run, Joey Run, Oh my gosh.
People love it, I will say, like the Gleeks fandom like loves it for some culty reason and I don't.
I don't get it. Kevin gets it more than I do.
But I just think it's camp. It's camp. It is camp.
At the end of it is like I feel like it is the perfect example of what Glee is.
No, that's not right, because it's insane insane, but it's more insane than normal Glee. Like there's a better.
Is there a better version? I don't know. I think I'm.
Going to be honest. I never listened to the original version of that song, and or do you need to? I haven't heard it the Glee version of it. Only ever heard that. Yeah, I mean walking on Sunshine and Halo Too is pretty insane. That's kind of just a wild number that happens.
Absolutely crazy. Yeah, fun but fun.
Chris, you have been overly generous with your time with this, I.
Know we're not going to keep you on this.
This is so much the fastest hour of my life. Yeah, I can't believe. Thank you so much, Thank you talking about everything. Yes, I could go on. We'll have to do this again.
Thank you, Chris. It was so nice having you much sitting.
Out and so we can rub it in Heather endurance faces.
Oh yeah, we gotta do we gotta throw it back that way. Great, you're the best.
Thanks Chris.
Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at end that's what you really miss pod and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. See you next time.
