[music]
--Hey y'all this
is Desi Oakley I star in the national tour of Waitress and this is episode 4
of Pie A la Road. In this episode I answered a lot of questions from some
fans that I reached out to on Instagram and I also took you backstage. You're
gonna see some quick changes of me, sort of doing some really fast
moments on stage. Our stage manager Rachel actually took you backstage and
showed you some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and then
you're also gonna meet the crew of Waitress on tour, and you're gonna see
their jobs, and the importance of what they do to make this show happen on the
Road
--Hey y'all we're in Greenville Greenville, South Carolina where this
accent works on stage and off. --Hi!
--Hi! --Didn't see you there.
--Okay so what is it like to be on the road with
the national tour of Waitress as newlyweds because you've recently got married,
share a little bit about that.
And what it's like being on the road.
--five minute call umm we got married September 9th of last
year 2017 --Saturday night
--Two days later,
I went to rehearsal in New York for Waitress the first day of rehearsal, and
Mark just joined the cast recently in the
--Five, six weeks ago, --Yeah so we're we're
still like getting used to it
--Yeah what what's something that that people would
you know like to know sort of about your daily routine or about kind of what it's
like either that if the two of you guys bring a certain comfort to each other or
just you know anything like that?
--We do -- I'll ask you a question how is your routine
changed with me on the road
--That's good --Because you had
you had six months of having a routine
--Yeah we were apart
for six months we're a part a lot when I do shows on the road or Mark does a
show on the road. And so we were kind of used to that rhythm, and then suddenly
we're like together and not just together, but like living together and
and doing tour life together so I am a work together so we're
doing everything together which is both amazing but also like takes a
little bit of getting used to. Because like as Desi you could probably
test you have your you have a rhythm to get through to our life to make you feel
like you're versions of home and who you call and obviously we would talk a lot
every day, but you like do rhythm of the gym and where you go to eat and how you
wake up and what time you get to this show. And we have to get to the show at
different times sometimes, so we're doing every one for two now we're making meals
for two, which is both wonderful because you have your support there and someone
who's like your rock at all times, but you're also doing everything for two. So
it's like it's a little it takes a little bit of shifting. You know
occasionally we get in a tiff or two but nothing that we can't handle.
--Yeah I love your honesty --What's it like being on stage with her?
--Oh it's a blast. I mean I get it's fun being in the ensemble because
I get to sing backup with her song
which is really fun. I get to come out and dance with her at a moment.
I also have a lot of fun during the wedding because she's marrying Jeremy
who plays Ogie and so I have fun every night saying things to them
--Yeah teasing us -- Teasing them
--Oh good --Wishing them the best in their marriage
--Oh yes of course. I love
it from from offstage husband to onstage husband
a little advice --Good luck, guys!
--I
do keep my wedding band, not my engagement ring,
but I keep I have always kept my wedding
band on on my left hand, so it's always with me in the show. It's a little secret
I hope I don't get in trouble.
--Thank you guys so much for sharing a
little slice of your life
--Thanks Desi!
-- Thanks for asking -- Of course
congratulations on your marriage and we are wishing you the best of success with
continued tour
--Thank you! --Mwah!
--Hey y'all. I am here with the one and only Bryan Fenkart, who plays Dr. Pomatter
and I figured we would sum up a lot of the questions that were asked about
mishaps on stage because I'm pretty sure like 48 of you asked what is something
crazy that has happened on stage. And we have experienced some that have been
really crazy in moments where you wouldn't really expect, you know. A lot of people we're
asking like there has it been flour everywhere like have you dropped pies.
Well kind of, but in our scenes other things have happened I thought maybe we
could talk about
--Yeah there were a few. So one time, it was one time when I went
to shut the door to stop her from leaving after the kiss
and and I slammed it just a bit too hard
--This is your 5-minute call this is five
minutes
--Five minutes. So I when I shut the door a little bit too hard, the Diploma fell off
the wall shattered
--His diploma it's like you know it's very authentic here
in the Waitress tour. Dr. Pomatter's diploma on the wall. It comes crashing down and
the whole audience reacts. So, Brian, this is unbelievable improv, the
thing falls off the wall the whole audience response because it just fell
you know like how everybody yeah Brian looks at me does it break and he
goes I only had one of those!
--And then the whole audience erupts in. You're
you some of this stuff he's so quick and so witty. One time with the talk
about
--Oh yeah one time my prescription pad, when I threw up in the
air and fluttered into the lap of the front room and I couldn't reach it,
so I said could you call that in?
Cause I didn't know what else to do
I couldn't touch it, so
--You're not gonna dive into the audience
ask for it back so obviously they're gonna call it in
--And the flour on the floor, like Desi was talking about. There's this one time when she
slipped so bad that she just sort of took a head
--Totally bit it
It was after the kiss, so I come back in you forgot your and kiss him
and I run towards the door, and just full like full, I was on my rear end
--There were cartoon sound effects in my head, it was bad it was
it was dramatic
--It's amazing and so I think somebody asked like how we cope in
moments like that you know like what do you guys do? And it's amazing because I
feel like it's just you know we're just humans up here we're every it's all live
theater. We're all you know we're not robots. And and um so much can happen and
so it all it does is it kind of like gives us more humanity. It's a really
it's a good thing
--And after like 200 whatever shows, it's kind of fun because it's like a change of pace
oh that's new --As long as no one's hurt
--Absolutely --THer'es that.
--I'm glad you didn't die during that. --No, I hopefully played it off.
--Here are some incredibly important people to the Waitress tour and I'm
going to ask them who they are and what they do with the show. Hello, who are you
and what do you do with the show?
--I'm Max I do the front light --Okay so what does that
mean? --It means I follow people around with spotlights
--So you are at like the
spotlight, so you're the at the back all the way the back, and you shine the light
on people onstage.
--Yeah --Your job is incredibly important. Do you
like what you do?" --Yeah I love it. It's fun.
--Yeah it's very cool
Okay and who are you and what do you do?
--Hi I'm Eric Briggs and I'm the head electrician for the tour
--Okay and what does that mean?
--I'm in charge of the the Electrics Department. I do the movement light
focused load ins, advance the show.
--Cool so what is a load in like for you?
--For me personally, it's pretty nice. It's not as hectic as it could be. My
assistants are very very good at their job, so they take care of me very well.
--Okay
--But we, I'm in charge of power for all the department. So I look up the the
road gear to the local power supply and make all that stuff work before we get
going we first get going in the mornings.
--Very cool, very cool thank you and hello sir who are you and what you do?
--Andrew, head props for the tour --And what does that mean?
--Basically in charge for all
the small knick-knack-y things that go everywhere on this set
--So everything from what we you know touch in our
scenes to everything backstage. Do you
keep track of where they go?
--Where they go, where they come from, where they end
up at. You know I'm actually gonna place everything to start and then hopefully
find them at the end. In charge of all the food making sure everything's fresh
--Yeah, what's that like because there's a lot of food elements in this show?
---Lots of food, lots of chances for things to spoil and go bad so we're constantly shopping and lot
of cleaning involved with that too. --Tell some people like what you know we
don't actually use butter instead we use....
--We use orange juice, we use salt instead of
sugar. A lot of things to keep insects down, mostly, just to make it less sticky and
less germy.
--Very good! Awesome. Thank you guys. You guys Rock.
--Okay what's your name? -- Seth Larkin
--And what do you do for Waitress on tour? -- I'm
the head carpenter on the tour okay so what does that mean?
--I advance all the shows. I
manage the process of fitting our show into the venues across the country
--And that's it's
crazy job like that's --It's mostly a lot of phone calls and emails
--Yeah and so some
stages that are already here are different sizes than other... --Next week
we're playing the National where the stage itself is smaller than our deck.
--What do you do then? --Cuss and struggle
but we're gonna make it work because the
show's going up to a Tuesday night
anyhow so we gotta make it happen.
--It's amazing. So you're kind of the mastermind behind all of that? You make
it happen --That would be a bold statement but
--Well you you are -- I rely on a very good team
of people
--Right right and and then you work with that team
of people in order for this our deck to literally be the exact same for the
actors that are on stage? --Yep.
--Amazing. Well we appreciate all that you do. -- Thank you
very much. It's always a pleasure.
--
--Hi, Broadway.com This is a challenge before I enter after the wedding.
So this is my finale dress, giving away lots of Secrets here that's
the big one. Not really pregnant lol and
this is the dress that goes over it.
I apply a little bit more lipstick because why not?
Old Joe says that I have lipstick on my face in a scene before this and I take a
napkin to it so it's all smudgy and gross.
--Germ line is my cue. So that is the quick change!
--And just like that another
dressing room. Here we are in DC. This is the National Theater. It's apparently
haunted by a couple of ghosts. We are... and all these people have signed this wall
so I'll sign it too.
--This is just too good. I was literally sitting
here having a conversation with them and I just had to include you guys because
this is so rich so we were talking about the mishaps on stage. Okay. And so what
were you gonna say Jer?
--What were you going to say?
--So take it from a little man, my head is placed
right here. As you see, there are several hairs that sometimes make it out of a bun
--Because she uses her real hair --Yeah she uses her real and so I will take a breath,
and several of these will go to the back of my throat while we're dancing and I
will just be like [gags]
And I will do that. --Can you do it? Can you do it what you
did tonight? --What was
Oohs into take it from an old man.
--
--It was like
oooh,
[coughs]
ooooh.
As the hair hits the back of my throat and I have to literall go
--Yeah, it's sick
--And I know when it's happened because I can hear it.
And he just stops, so professionally stops singing for a second.
I know that she notices when she stopped singing cause she's laughing so hard.
-- Any any other missteps that
happen on stage that you love?
We drop a lot of stuff
--We drop --Flour
--Break stuff, stuff falls, or we pickup stuff that falls.
--My favorite is like the vanilla that
-- Always --Wait wait
But in my scene with Earl, so just there's a vanilla in the house.
--There's always vanilla right before.
there's always vanilla before I say hello good morning hello.
Always vanilla right where I need to stand a
and sometimes I hide it with my foot
sometimes I grab it real
quickly and put it in my apron
I mean like at least ten times
--The vanilla is a little
--The vanilla is a sneaky, sneaky little guys.
--She wants to be in all the scenes
--Everyone loves an extract.
--Okay so another question that had been asked a lot when I was giving you guys the opportunity to
give some feedback was vocal health, questions about global health, and how we
take care of our instruments and our voices because we are professional
singers. We sing the show eight times a week. We travel on our days off mostly,
and we sound check my opens a new city every Tuesday. So I was just gonna talk
about things that I do as a performer and as kind of like a pro athlete for
the voice. I mean that's what we all are really. I drink I try to drink over a
hundred ounces of water a day, which sounds crazy, but if you think
about it, the doctor would prescribe eight glasses a day, which is 64 ounces.
That's an average person. They say we need eight glasses of water. That's 64
ounces water. So if you can up that, as a professional singer, you would think
and especially hydrating quality stage and off my try to drink 100. It just sounds
crazy, but it really is when I try to drink every day. Also, we travel with a
humidifier and also an air purifier. It's kind of like setting up our scene like
to be so that be there we're breathing consistent and humid. The voice
doesn't like dry air. It likes really kind of wet humid air, even though it's
kind of yucky for walking around, you get sweaty, but it's actually really nice. So
we've actually played it really a few like really humid places that have been
amazing as opposed to Denver which was maybe one of the most dryer places I've ever been. We loved
our Denver audiences, but I'm just I'm just saying, it was maybe like 10% humid in
Denver. But yeah, so, taking care of the voice that way resting as much as
possible and yeah really saving the best voice use for the show, those are kind of
my my tricks.
--Thank you guys so much for tuning in again. This is Pie a la Road and
I am Desi Oakley. This is the National tour of Waitress and we are so grateful
for you watching. Honestly this wouldn't exist unless you guys tuned in, and you
devoted this time to watch this. So it means the world. Stay tuned. In the next
couple of episodes, I'm going to be featuring a very special guest. A very
special guest is going to be making an appearance on Pie a la Road.
So you are not gonna want to miss this. Stay tuned. It's gonna be great.
Look forward to more episodes of meaning more of the cast hearing their two
truths and a pie, and seeing more slices of our life here on the national tour of
Waitress. Thanks again. Take care
Thanks for watching!
you know it's good sometimes one body's more than he