[MUSIC]
--Hey everybody! It's me Susan Blackwell and today I'm side by side my number one
no exaggeration favorite Broadway Funyun of all time,
From My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center Theater, Norbert Leo Butz!
--Hi, Sus --Borbert
Nuts, tell our friends at home where we are and what we're doing today
-- We're in my
dressing room at Lincoln Center Theatre and we're between shows. I have two of
them today.
--[indiscernable]
--And we're having a little dinner --A little pre-show
dinner. Just something light.
--What did you get? Can I try yours? --This is a tuna
avocado grain ball
--Oh good so I'll have tuna and then there was a lot of onion
on my sandwich, so it's gonna be great when sing into Lauren Ambrose's face
--Just doom breath. I'll give
you 30 seconds, tell me that story, starting now.
--Born in St. Louis Missouri, big Catholic family, seventh of eleven kids, sang in
choir, did the high school theater thing, was arrested a few times, made my way to
graduate school and acting school, and yeah I got arrested a few more times, had
a couple of marriages and here we are. --You have 10 seconds left dude
--Oh, and, and
I I won two Tony Awards along the way and got arrested again between those two
I've been arrested so many times
--Times up! That's a lot of Tony Awards and a lot
of arrests. Super bonus, what's the name of that autobiography?
--Um, I Tried.
[music]
--What the what is it like to be in the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady at
Lincoln Center Theatre?
--It's it's really really amazing. No, I mean
seriously. No BS. It's it's really incredible. It's it really is a magical space.
--Fancy pantsy --People like use the word epic but it like
it really is
--What the what is your
childhood leach story?
--Oh my god. How did you know about this?
--I'm digging. I don't know.
--[laughs] Yeah, man, I
spent a lot of time in the country my dad had this big sort of dilapidated
farm in the middle of nowhere Missouri. And there were all kinds of creek beds
and I was kind of a river rat. And we would were wading in the water.
There were leeches in the water and I picked up my foot and this massive leech was
stuck to my bottom toe.
--Enjoy your green bowl! --And so— yeah eat up don't stop!—and I
was like Ah! I gotta take off. Our house for miles was like two and a half hours
from this two and a half miles from this creek bed. So, I'm in the car and my dad's
driving home cuz the only way you can get a leech off your foot is like salt
--Salt like a slug --Exactly well I'm sitting there
holding my 8 years old and then the
leech starts to squirt out baby leeches and then they all start to suck my toes.
--No!
--So, by the time we get home all my toes are covered in black leeches
Well the mama, the host, was here
and the babies all started squirting out --And I'm watching them be born and then
go straight to the to town feeding
--Number one, the miracle of life, number
two oh my god that's gross. -- I forgot that in my 30 second autobiography I should
never forget that. --So glad to hear it now!
--A seminal moment in anyone's life.
--The first song I remember singing when I was little was...
--When I grow up I want to
be happy and do things that I like to do like making noise and fishes and
making friends like you
Or, My Boy Bill, remember My Boy Bill?
--Yes! --A doll, a doll! William wants a doll!
Don't be a sissy --Some of these people watching this
right now. They're like you guys are old! --I know!
--My first audition song
was... -- I was in RENT and I sang Mama told
me, yes she told me, I'd meet girls like
you.
And I played my guitar I did Cheap Trick
--The [bleep] ear worm I can't get
out of my head from My Fair Lady is...
--Poor, Professor Higgins
[music]
--This production of My Fair Lady is so fancy:
Lauren Ambrose, Dame Diana Rigg, Bart Sher. So fancy and they all look delicious. My
question for you is which one would you eat? --Out of those people?
--Yeah which one
would you eat? --Harry Hadden Paton though.
--You could eat him! --He's you know I'm like
98.7 percent straight, but he's a cupcake. He really is. He's like he's like a super
suave, hilarious, charming
--Just like he looks on my TV box he's
like that? -- He's pretty, he's pretty great.
--Okay this is where you record my outgoing voicemail message, and I'd also
like you to incorporate a passage from this book: Surgeries of the Anus, Rectum
and Colon. One of your favorites and mine! --I'm gonna go with surgery of the anus
rectum and colon.
Can we get two cameras, getting a close-up of that.
--Go for it...
--Hi, this is Susan Blackwell's answering service. -- What year is it 1973?
--Hi, this is this is Susan
Blackwell's pager and no that's wrong too. --Hi this is Susan Blackwell and you can
leave a message. And here's a thought for the day: Foreign bodies may rarely be
introduced into the rectum through the anus and the literature contains records
of a most remarkable series of objects that have thus found their way into the
bowel. These include bottles of different sizes and shapes, electric light bulbs,
door handles, various forms of --Beep!
Great.
--There's somebody who does an
impression of you. I don't know if you're aware of it.
--Don't we get to be happy
Kathy? At some point down the line, don't we get to relax?
Kathy!
--He was so nervous that you would be angry.
--I thought that was very loving.
--Well my idea is that we should prank him. Sp you're gonna do Matt doing you, but
you're really pissed about it
--Yeah Matt Doyle. Hey this is Norbert Leo Butz
is Mr. Don't we get to be happy, Kathy?
Just want to thank you for that f***ing bogus
imitation you did of me, bitch! At least somebody's doing an imitation of me! Yeah,
man, I don't know what to say but I don't know what I ever did to you to kind of
get that treatment from you. Haters, I hate them! --We love you, bye!
Wow, you're really pissed!
--No I wasn't. I don't I wasn't pissed! You told me to
do that!
--This is the big questions lightning round. You have five seconds to
answer each of these questions before we have to move on to the next question.
--Ready? -- Yeah
--God or no God? -- God, 100 percent
--What happens when we die?
--Well I guess that depends on how many people you slept
with
--Do aliens exist?
--They do in this room.
--Are ghosts real? --Yes.
--What's your
purpose in life?
--That I get my hair dyed like you. --Cake or
pie? --Pie
--Wrong, cake! --No.
--What's wrong with you people?
--Pie.
--Wrong
--[music]
--Guess what time it is?
--It's time for Susan's fantasy jukebox I
have your nose and you can have a back, but first you have to sing me a song.
Any song of your choosing. Shh don't fuss little baby don't fuss. You just sing me
a song.
--Trouble, trouble, trouble. Trouble's been dogging me since the day I
was born. I've been saved by a woman. I've been saved by a woman
She won't let me go. She
won't let me go. I was listening to Ray LaMontagne on my Pandora. He's so good
isn't he? You shut up and listen to me when I say to you, "I love all the
episodes of Side by Side by Susan Blackwell. And I love all my guests
but I love no guest more than you.
--Aww --This has been another amazing episode of
side by side by Susan Blackwell with Borbert Nuts. You go see him in My
Fair Lady at Lincoln Center Theater.
[MUSIC]
--Years later I'm on the national tour of Cabaret, and I'm sitting around with a
bunch of people after the show. We're telling horrible audition stories.
We're telling horrible audition stories, and I'm like I went on to this show called
Side Show. And I'm telling you no one has ever bombed this bad at an audition
before. And they're like Norbert come on. It couldn't have been that bad. And
our dance captain, who was the dance captain, --Was like
--Who was in the room. She
was like, I was there and we joked about that audition for four years, everyone
that was involved in that show. --Bully! Kiss my Tony Awards, son!
--[laughs]