- 4 months ago
Three of the cast of one of the most beloved TV shows of all-time, The Love Boat are together again in a new Off-Broadway show called 'Lady Patriot.' Fred Grandy (Gopher) and Jill Whelan (Vicki), star in the show, written and directed by Ted Lange (Isaac.) Based on a true story, "Lady Patriot" reveals an intimate look into the prejudices and patriotism of three ladies who lived during the Civil War: Varina Davis, Elizabeth Van Lew, and Mary Bowser. "Lady Patriot" combines Lange's signature comedy and drama as it peels away traditional stereotypes prevalent in the south during the Confederacy. This is a limited time 12 performance run at Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street) in NYC, September 6 - 20. The official opening night is September 9. The ensemble also features Josie DiVincenzo, Gordon Goodman, Chrystee Pharris, Derek Powell and Count Stovall. Tickets are $70 at TheatreRow.org
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00:00Hi, I'm Fred Grandy. And I'm Jill Whelan. And I'm Ted Lange. And you are watching Life Minute TV.
00:08Hi guys, I'm here with three of the cast of one of the most beloved shows of all time.
00:13Certainly one of my favorites, The Love Boat. Fred Grandy, Jill Whelan, and Ted Lange are here.
00:20They're starring in a new off-Broadway show here in town, written and directed by Ted called Lady Patriot.
00:26So good to have you with us. Thanks so much for joining us.
00:29Nice to be had.
00:31So tell us about Lady Patriot.
00:32It's a Civil War story. It's a play I wrote a couple of years ago.
00:37And it's a true story about a young black slave girl named Mary Bowser.
00:44And there was a woman named Elizabeth Van Loo, who Jill Whelan is playing.
00:50And Elizabeth Van Loo puts this slave girl into Jeff Davis's White House.
00:57She sends her to Philadelphia to get her educated.
01:00Right.
01:01She puts her in the house and she's a spy.
01:03So this play examines her patriotism as a spy.
01:09It examines Elizabeth Van Loo's patriotism as a Southern lady who did not want to secede from the Union.
01:17And it examines the patriotism of Jeff Davis's wife, Verena Davis, who was the first lady of the Confederacy.
01:26And so it's a kind of a triangulation of the point of view of who is a patriot, really.
01:35And what about Fred's character?
01:36I play Mary Bowser.
01:39No.
01:41He's playing the only northerner in the piece.
01:43Well, everybody in this play has a historical precedent except for my character, who is a journalist who writes for the New York Tribune,
01:52which was the most prominent newspaper in the country at that point, Horace Greeley's paper.
01:56And, of course, very anti-slavery and secession.
02:00The guy I play is essentially coming in in the second act to interview prominent people.
02:05And he also works with Elizabeth Van Loo in terms of taking confidential information that Mary Bowser has pilfered from the Jefferson Davis household.
02:16And then he turns it over to the Union.
02:17Although he's not based on a real character, when I was researching the history in the play,
02:22I found there were two reporters for the Herald Tribune, both of whom not only covered the war, but were caught and imprisoned in Confederate prisons.
02:33And so I kind of based who I was on those two guys.
02:37It's entertaining, but at the same time, it's informative.
02:41And you'll find out things you never knew about the Civil War.
02:45And that was on purpose because I dug up information.
02:50I call myself a footnote historian.
02:53And what I do is I go through books based on the time period.
02:58And I try to find things that people don't know about or might be surprised about and then work them into the play.
03:05I think it's interesting, too, that you kind of all, you do a lot of this period piece history.
03:10And you all kind of have a little bit of, you know, political, especially you, background.
03:15Tell us about that.
03:16Jill, you do, too.
03:18And I find that interesting.
03:18We never discuss politics.
03:21No, we discuss politics and then we went, what?
03:24Yes.
03:25Then we decided not to discuss politics.
03:26Then we said, okay, we'll leave that alone.
03:28The reality is he is as far to the left as I am to the right.
03:32And she just wobbles back and forth.
03:34That is not true.
03:35Anyway, no, I think what we share is a commonality in that we are all passionate people and we are passionate about our beliefs and we're passionate about, you know, our morals and we're passionate Americans.
03:53So I think that thread runs through all of us.
03:56But the difference is we have an immense respect for each other.
04:01That trumps everything.
04:03Trumps?
04:03You had to say it.
04:04I did.
04:05You had to say it.
04:06Oh, God, I'm so sorry.
04:06But see, here's the thing.
04:07I taught her to say it.
04:08We can talk.
04:09We can talk to each other.
04:12And like the good old days where, you know, people used to talk to you and say, okay, well, I respectfully disagree.
04:19Or, yes, I respectfully disagree.
04:20People don't respectfully disagree anymore.
04:22No, man.
04:23They come to blows almost immediately.
04:25But that's what's so interesting about it because this is very reminiscent about the time of the play, which is when politicians back during the seceding of the union, their lives were being threatened.
04:39Today, people are being threatened with being primaried.
04:41And I think some of them's lives are being threatened as well.
04:44But it's very similar.
04:46It's like, you know, it's a very cyclical thing.
04:48Human nature is what it is.
04:50So if you come see the play, you will see so many parallels to kind of where we are today, which is really interesting.
04:59Yeah.
04:59It really is.
05:00My hairs are sticking up.
05:01Yeah.
05:01How is he as a director?
05:03Oh.
05:05Impossible.
05:06He is an actor's director for obvious reasons.
05:09But the thing about Ted that I love so much is he doesn't lead with ego as a director.
05:15You know, he's got his ideas and things when he's writing, putting things on a page.
05:18And I think especially when you are the writer as well, you have so much ownership that when it comes to watching other people try to interpret what you're doing,
05:27I think it's probably really hard to give that baby up to a group of people and let them figure out what to do with it in their own interpretations.
05:37But he's so good at that.
05:39And he makes it a very safe place for people to be able to, as I call it, the Easter egg hunt during rehearsals, to explore and define little moments and little things.
05:50And it's a wonderful free space to be when we work with him.
05:55I trust them also.
05:56See, this is the thing.
05:58Because I used to direct them on Love Bo and stuff like that, I trust them implicitly.
06:04So, like, Fred comes at me and says, I have to talk to you about the script.
06:07Now, usually when an actor says that to the director, the guy goes, oh, man, oh, no.
06:13But he has good ideas.
06:16And so it layered the story so that we discovered new things.
06:22Because Jill found some stuff and she called me up.
06:24Hey, what do you think of this?
06:25Great idea.
06:26You know, so I'm going to take credit for it.
06:31They did the work.
06:32Yeah, they did the work.
06:33One of the interesting things about this trio is it's not uncommon for people who have worked together on a television show to get together periodically.
06:42It's almost unprecedented for people like us to work constantly together.
06:48This is the third show that Ted and I have.
06:51Actually, I take that back.
06:53It's the fourth show.
06:53But he's directed three of them.
06:55And we brought Jill in when we did I'm Not Rappaport in Michigan.
06:58We had not seen her act since she was 11.
07:01And that's something of a risk, you know, because as I'm sure you've seen, not all kid actors grow up to be successful adult actors.
07:09As a matter of fact, the exception is the rule.
07:13So we brought her into the show.
07:14She was absolutely marvelous.
07:16And they played father, daughter.
07:19Yeah.
07:20And they were wonderful together.
07:22Yeah.
07:22I mean, it was it was a total change from her and Gavin McLeod because she had he had a father who was too good to be true.
07:31And then she had a father who was too true to be good.
07:33But that ensemble is alive and well and recurs constantly.
07:41I can't think of another cast that does that.
07:44Now, this is a limited time.
07:4612th performance run September 6th to the 20th.
07:49So hurry and get your tickets at TheaterRoad.org.
07:53Now I'm going to pitch our podcast.
07:55All right.
07:56OK.
07:56We're going to do that.
07:57Go ahead.
07:57We are going to be doing a podcast, which Princess Cruises will sponsor and is actually produced by my son, who is second generation loveboat.
08:05And we're going to essentially find a lot of the old people that have done the show and interview them and find catch up with them and talk about some of the.
08:15Their experience.
08:16Some of the experiences backstage and below decks, if you please.
08:20Below the waterline.
08:21No, I mean, but that's another example of the three of us kind of cooperating and collaborating together.
08:26That's fantastic.
08:27And it is beautiful.
08:28You have such a chemistry.
08:30Well, the other problem is nobody else will work with us.
08:32So there is that.
08:35Well, we just get along really well.
08:37I mean, I don't know of another show that lived in such tight quarters as we did when we would take cruises together.
08:44So you better figure out a way to get along.
08:47And we just it's been a family.
08:49We were so lucky.
08:51Yeah, we are a family.
08:52Yeah, we are a family.
08:53Still to this day.
08:54Yeah.
08:55Do you still keep in touch with you?
08:57Constantly.
08:57Constantly.
08:58All of us.
08:58All of us.
08:59We loved each other.
09:00We just did a play.
09:00The three of us did a play in Dexter.
09:02The one that Fred was referring to, I'm Not Rapaport.
09:04We did a play in Michigan.
09:06And Lauren Tweese, who played Julie McCoy, flew out and stayed with us.
09:10She lives in Seattle.
09:11Yeah.
09:11She came to see us in Michigan.
09:12Yeah.
09:12I have another play that I had written about George Washington, another historical play.
09:19And it had Bernie Coppell in it.
09:21So, yeah, we are united.
09:25Yeah, it's kind of a traveling repertory company now.
09:28It's evolved from just being, you know, the cast of a hit show.
09:33It's fantastic.
09:35Go for it.
09:36Get a haircut.
09:42What do you think it was about that show that was so, is so iconic?
09:50Did you know at the time, as you were doing it, how special it was going to be?
09:54Not right at first.
09:55There were three attempts at Love Boat, two of which failed miserably.
10:00The first one, none of us were in.
10:02The first pilot.
10:03I don't think I knew that.
10:04They threw out the actors and kept the boat.
10:08Yeah.
10:08That's what I like to say.
10:09And then in the second one, Ted and Bernie and I were in it.
10:12But it still didn't go because they had a different captain.
10:14They had a different cruise director.
10:16Yeah.
10:16And then Aaron came in as the co-executive producer with this fellow, Douglas Kramer, who had really conceived the show.
10:25And once that happened, I think there was a lock.
10:29Because at the time, ABC was known as Aaron's Broadcasting Company.
10:34And Fred Silverman, who was the president of the network, and Aaron ran very tight.
10:38And so we shot a third pilot, and we were picked up almost immediately after that.
10:45Well, they didn't want it.
10:48They told Doug Kramer, we don't want this.
10:51And then Aaron made a phone call.
10:53Yeah.
10:54So they did it really as a favorite Aaron Spelling.
10:56Spelling, yes.
10:57Because he was such a prolific producer for them and had all of these hits like, you know, Charlie's Angels.
11:03Charlie's Angels, Rookies.
11:04Starsky and Hutch and Rookies.
11:05Mod Squad.
11:07And so they said, we really have to do this for Aaron.
11:10And then, of course, the show almost instantaneously climbed to the top of the ratings.
11:16Yeah.
11:16It was top five.
11:16And the critics were stunned.
11:18Yeah.
11:19Top five.
11:19And horrified.
11:21Yeah.
11:23Yeah.
11:24Awesome.
11:24And we stayed up there for like five years.
11:26We were always in the top five.
11:29And so he did have the Midas touch because he, for whatever reason, he had an eye that he saw the talent and put us together.
11:40He knew what the public wanted to see.
11:42Yeah.
11:42He really did have a talent for that.
11:44And we had chemistry and he saw the chemistry that we had.
11:50And that was amazing.
11:52That was amazing that he could do that.
11:55My crew.
11:57For some bizarre reason, they seem to admire you.
12:01The only guy that really believed in the show from the outset was Gavin McCloud.
12:05The rest of us had to be convinced because we'd all done flops.
12:08We had, I remember, this was before the cruise industry changed.
12:16So it used to be elderly people on a boat with their last hurrah.
12:23And so Fred, I remember Fred and I having a conversation going, nobody's going to buy this.
12:28Because we looked at the reality of the situation.
12:32But our show brought in young people, beautiful people, single people, and that started to reflect itself in reality.
12:43So our show kind of changed the perception of what taking a cruise was all about.
12:51The reason that show survives and the reason it was a hit is because it made you feel good.
12:57And there is not much television, if any, that does that now.
13:01And it sustains.
13:03It creates a kind of communal family atmosphere that people remember well into adulthood.
13:11You know, they remember watching the show with their grandparents.
13:14Or they remember watching the show with their girlfriend or something like that.
13:17Well, you know what I think is if you turn on the TV and you see just a scene, it's hard to turn away.
13:26You watch the rest of the episode.
13:28You can't help it.
13:29I think the through line that we get from everybody when they come and we do reunion cruises, we're doing one in November with Princess Cruises, is they all say the same thing.
13:39This was the show that I could watch with my parents or my grandparents.
13:43And we would all be riveted for different reasons, but it reminds me, as Fred was talking about, it reminds me of family because that's what it was.
13:52And I think at the time, you know, it started in 77 and it was just after a recession.
13:57Not everybody had gas lines, gas lines and all of that stuff.
14:01And Jimmy Carter and he was president at the time and nobody could afford really to travel.
14:07And this was a form of armchair travel.
14:10We addressed the fantasies of, I think, a lot of people in this country of going to these foreign places, Egypt and China and Greece and Spain and France.
14:21And I think that for a lot of people, this was an opportunity to fantasize about things that are wonderful and know that at least by the end of the show, everything was going to be wrapped up in a bow and it would be a happy ending.
14:32You didn't have to think too much.
14:34It was just fun.
14:35And you got to see all of these old iconic celebrities.
14:39And she's talking about the civilian response.
14:41These were people sitting at home and watching the show.
14:42But we've learned just as we've started this podcast, there were a lot of people that we knew in the business.
14:48For example, Jimmy Walker, who became a huge star on Good Times.
14:51He loved to do our show because he always felt more comfortable in our ensemble than he did in his own.
14:57There's always, almost always, a lot of tension on shows that are trying to become hits and actors, whether they will admit it or not, are competing with one another.
15:06And you have to because sometimes you get cut from the team.
15:09Well, and it depends, see, I remember we had a couple of people that came in like this on our show, you know, and then we would say, hey, we're doing comedy, you know, relax.
15:23Part of that came from Gavin McLeod.
15:27Gavin was absolutely wonderful.
15:29And he taught Fred and I particularly because we weren't exactly.
15:34We were uppity.
15:34Yeah, we were.
15:35We were both uppity.
15:37Yeah, yeah.
15:37I learned it from him, but I was uppity.
15:40But he taught us the thing of being a gracious host because that's what he was.
15:47And he'd been in show business longer than us.
15:49And him and Bernie came to us, sat me and Fred down and said, hey, this is how this works.
15:54You know, welcome the people.
15:57Show them we're craft services.
15:58This is our home.
16:00We're welcoming people to your home.
16:00They're coming into your house.
16:02And it also came from above.
16:03I mean, we did an interview with with Juliet Mills, who holds the record for the most guest shots on Love Boat.
16:08And at one point, Aaron Spelling did a wonderful thing, unlimited generosity.
16:16He flew her father, John Mills, and her sister, Haley Mills, to Beverly Hills at Christmastime so they could all do a love boat together.
16:25He didn't have to do that, but he volunteered to do that.
16:29So when that word gets out in Hollywood and people say, wow, you want to talk about a safe space, you ought to do that show.
16:36Now, the other side of that is there was a certain amount of perhaps Hollywood snobbism and contempt about our show perhaps not being quite as hip and as popular with the critics as, say, a MASH or a Hill Street Blues or some of the ones that usually wound up winning all the Emmys.
16:57But we were the popular hit.
16:58And we became a very popular hit with the players in Hollywood as well because when they came on our show, they knew it was a safe space, they were going to have fun, and the world was going to watch it.
17:10And every so often, they'd get a cruise.
17:12Who were some of your favorites?
17:14There were so many.
17:15Oh, my gosh.
17:16There were over 1,000 guest stars, so it's so hard to pick.
17:21There was that kind of feeling of regenerating yourself on this show.
17:26And it happened a lot.
17:29Don Amici, you may not know his career, but he was a huge star in the late 40s and then just kind of disappeared.
17:35Then he wound up doing our show, and then he got Trading Places and Cocoon, and he wins an Oscar.
17:42Mary Martin, Helen Hayes.
17:44Howard Keel went to Dallas after doing our show.
17:47Right.
17:48Lonnie Anderson went to WKRP.
17:51So Tom Hanks played your friend.
17:54Lonnie Anderson did our show before she was even a guest star.
17:57Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:58I mean, she was just in the back of the crawl at the end of the show.
18:01And then she came on as a star.
18:03Yeah.
18:04No, no, no.
18:04Later.
18:05Aaron was like the Quentin Tarantino.
18:07He was.
18:08Yeah, yes.
18:09Yeah, yeah.
18:09Yeah, fun.
18:10Amazing.
18:11I'm Captain Stubing, and this is my daughter, Vicki.
18:14Hi, how do you do?
18:15How do you do?
18:15And you were so young.
18:16You must have learned a lot from these guys.
18:18So much from these guys.
18:20I mean, honestly, that is where I've learned any kind of comedic timing, any kind of discipline
18:26in our industry.
18:28Everything I know, I learned from these guys.
18:32And you guys both directed a couple of them, too, right?
18:34I didn't direct it.
18:35I wrote a bunch of them.
18:36Oh, you wrote?
18:36Okay.
18:36But he directed it.
18:37Well, you know what happened is we were doing the show, and I was kind of getting short-shrifted
18:44in the love stories.
18:45Kind of getting short-shrifted.
18:47No.
18:48Please, sir, can I have some more?
18:51And so Fred and Bernie went to the producers and says, hey, we have an idea for a storyline
18:59for Ted.
19:01And they went, thank God.
19:02Yeah, you write it.
19:03Go ahead.
19:04Yeah.
19:04And write it.
19:05Leave us alone.
19:06Go write it.
19:06Yeah.
19:07And so they wrote a story for me.
19:10You look nice.
19:13I bet you say that to all the girls, you smooth-talking devil, you.
19:17I really wanted to direct.
19:20And I had gone to the American Film Institute to study film directing.
19:25I kept going.
19:25Every year, I would go first year, second year, third year, fourth year.
19:30I'd say, can I direct an episode?
19:33No, no, no, no, no.
19:34And eventually, it came around to the point where we renegotiated the contract.
19:41And I said, I want to direct.
19:42And I said, I want to direct.
19:44And I was very fortunate because they supported me.
19:48The cast, the cast, tweeze, everybody supported me.
19:52And they knew I wanted to direct.
19:55And they saw some of the other directors.
19:57And they said, man, let's at least get Ted in there.
20:01Be kind.
20:01Come on.
20:02You know?
20:02That kicked off my directing career.
20:05And you've directed so many things.
20:07Tell us about them.
20:08Yeah.
20:08Well, you know what?
20:09I got drunk with Lee Majors in Hong Kong.
20:12My other favorite.
20:13Yeah.
20:14And he says, hey, we were kind of smashed.
20:18And he said, hey, you direct, don't you?
20:21I go, yeah, I direct.
20:22He said, well, why don't you direct me on Fall Guy?
20:25So that also kicked it off.
20:27But I started doing a lot of different TV shows like Mike Hammer and Fall Guy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
20:35Moesha.
20:36Moesha.
20:37That's right.
20:38That was, yes.
20:39That's right.
20:41Okay.
20:42What's your favorite way to travel?
20:44First class.
20:46Absolutely.
20:47Hey, first class.
20:49What's something you never travel without?
20:52I always have to travel with a book.
20:54I never travel without creating an opportunity where I have no plan.
21:01Because I think as much as I plan a trip out and that's a wonderful thing to do and it's important,
21:07I think following your no's in a place that you don't really know creates so much opportunity to discover things that you never even knew you were going to find.
21:21Always leave your option open to discover something that was not originally in your agenda.
21:26Excellent.
21:27I always travel with more underwear than I need.
21:32I'm serious.
21:33Man, you never know what's going to happen, what kind of emergency is going to be there.
21:38You listened to your mother.
21:39Yes, I did.
21:40Clean underwear.
21:41Clean underwear.
21:42That's right.
21:42That's it.
21:43And what's your favorite cocktail?
21:45White Russian, which he always gives me grief about.
21:48He eats them before dinner.
21:49He drinks those things before dinner.
21:50I love them.
21:51He's like a milkshake.
21:52Is he actually a good bartender?
21:54Oh, he's a certified bartender.
21:56Yeah, you really did.
21:57No, he went to bartender school.
21:58Yeah, yeah.
21:59Before you did the Love Boat?
22:01No.
22:02In the middle of it.
22:03If you watch the first year of Love Boat, you can tell I knew nothing about mixing a drink
22:08because every drink was in a blender and had an umbrella.
22:12So then I went to bartending school and I learned how to free pour.
22:17I learned how to cut lemons and limes and all of that.
22:19They gave me a diploma as Isaac Washington and they gave me a diploma as Ted Lange.
22:25They said, well, you're an actor.
22:26If the gig doesn't pan out, you can always use this.
22:31All right, Isaac, you've given a lot of advice on the show.
22:34What's the best advice you've ever gotten?
22:36I talked to Gene Kelly.
22:39Gene Kelly, in case you don't know, he was a big...
22:42Singing in the ring.
22:43Yeah, he's singing in the ring.
22:44He is kind of a big deal.
22:46And he said, cash your check as soon as you get it.
22:50That's a good one.
22:51Yeah.
22:51He was on the show, too.
22:53Yes.
22:53You know, he was in Hong Kong with us.
22:55Yeah, that's where I got the advice.
22:56He was on the show.
22:57They told us, they said, Gene Kelly is kind of a grumpy guy.
23:01Don't talk to him.
23:02Leave him alone.
23:03And he and I were in Hong Kong and we're sitting on a minibus waiting to go to the set.
23:10And I said, I don't care if he is a grumpy guy.
23:14I'm going to go and talk to this guy.
23:15So I went and talked.
23:17I sat down in front of him and I said, can I ask you a question?
23:21And he was reading a magazine.
23:22Can I ask you a question?
23:23And Gene Kelly was like this.
23:26You want to ask me a question?
23:28And I go, yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:30And so I don't know.
23:31I guess he saw my enthusiasm or whatever.
23:34He said, what's the question?
23:36I said, what was it like dancing with the Nicholas Brothers?
23:40And I don't think he ever got that question.
23:44He always got a singing in the rain question.
23:47And for those of you that don't know, the Nicholas Brothers were two black tap dancers
23:51that were in stormy weather and they danced with Gene Kelly.
23:56And so he gave me a wonderful story about dancing with them.
24:01And so we go, we leave and we go shoot our scene.
24:04And then after the scene, he says, hey, can I buy you a drink back at the hotel?
24:08You know, that's when he started giving me show business advice.
24:12We're sitting, drinking and having fun.
24:14Yeah.
24:14That's amazing.
24:15Yeah.
24:15So cash your check right away.
24:17Cash your check as soon as you get it because you never know.
24:20What about you, Fred?
24:21Your character gave a lot of advice on the show.
24:24What's the best advice you've ever?
24:25It was only bad advice.
24:27What's the best advice you've ever gotten and that you would want to give out?
24:31Trust in the Lord and not in your own understanding.
24:35Love advice.
24:35My husband and me, we can just sit together on the couch and hold hands.
24:41It doesn't matter whether we're in a restaurant.
24:43It doesn't matter whether we're at home sitting on the couch.
24:45Just that time when we can be together, that's everything.
24:50If you're comfortable in the silence, that usually spells a successful relationship.
24:56You know what I like to do is I tell my wife I love her when...
25:02You've had a white Russian.
25:03No, well, yeah, that is true.
25:07But I tell her when it's not an obvious moment.
25:14Yes.
25:15When she does something little, it doesn't have to be a good thing.
25:19Like she'll bake a potato and I'll say, hey, man, I love this.
25:23I love you.
25:26You know, and she goes, but I just baked your potato.
25:28I know.
25:29She unpacks his underwear after a trip.
25:32All his underwears.
25:35But no, I think you should tell the person you're married to when they least expect it.
25:42Tell them that you love them.
25:44Fred, you've led a very interesting life.
25:47Lost both of your parents at a very young age.
25:49You went to Harvard.
25:51I did.
25:51And you've been a politician in the Republican Party.
25:55What came first and how did you end up acting?
25:58I'm not sure what actually moved me into acting, except when I applied to law school, my law boards were lower than my bowling score.
26:07So that was an indication I might not want to move in that direction.
26:12I started out in improvisational theater, first in Boston and then down here in New York off Broadway with people like Jane Curtin and Paul Krappel and people like that.
26:22James Woods, too, right?
26:23Well, James Woods and I did a two-character play together, but that wasn't an improv.
26:28But my love for live theater, I think, grew out more of the town meetings I used to do in Iowa when I was a politician.
26:37And I would go into these little towns, you know, four or five hundred people, and a hundred of them would show up at my town meeting and want to know what was going on in Washington.
26:45And I, you know, I felt a tremendous compunction to tell them as honestly as I could what was going on and why I was doing what I was doing.
26:54They often didn't like it at all.
26:56But that was live theater.
27:00And I found much later on when I decided to get back into acting after my political career and my radio career and a couple of other things, that that's what drove me back into the craft, was getting in front of people, usually without a net, and performing.
27:15That's fantastic.
27:17Thank you so much, guys.
27:19Oh, thank you.
27:20Good luck with it.
27:22To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes and all streaming podcast platforms.
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