(high energy rock music)
♪ Magical mornings and afternoon delights ♪
♪ Far out friends and fantabuliscious nights ♪
♪ Come on and sit Side by Side by Susan Blackwell ♪
♪ Sit your fat ass down ♪
♪ And get Side by Side by Susan Blackwell ♪
- Hey everybody, it's me Susan Blackwell,
and today I'm "Side by Side" my favorite Broadway
craftivist from "Jagged Little Pill."
Look everybody, it's Elizabeth Stanley!
- Hi everybody!
- El Stans, tell our friends at home where we are.
- We're at La Mano Pottery on 26th Street.
- Which brings us to our newest segment,
"Why Have You Brought Me Here?!"
- Good question.
Well, you asked me to choose a place
that was happy and meaningful to me.
- Significant.
- [Elizabeth] And here we are!
- And why is this place significant to you?
- Oh see, like, you're just instinctively
doing what I think you're supposed to do.
Confession, it has been a couple years
since I've been able to take class,
so I'm a little rusty
on the skills. - But you have taken
classes here?
- But I have in my downtime as,
you know, actors, we have downtime.
- Sometimes.
- I was-- - You'll throw a pot.
- I was like, "I want something creative
"that's not being an actress."
- Yes.
True confessions, I watch people
throwing pots on Instagram - You're doing a great job.
- For pleasure, to relax.
- It's so pleasurable. - This is what I watch but
I've never done it before. - How does it feel doing it?
Does it feel as pleasurable
doing it yourself? - It feels great.
- Do you feel pleasured?
- (laughs) Settle down.
(high energy rock music)
Pause your wheels, we're gonna play a little game
called 30-Second Life Story. - [Elizabeth] Okay.
- I'm gonna put 30 seconds on the clock,
you're gonna tell me your whole life story,
don't leave out the awesome parts.
- Oh, wow. - Starting now.
- Okay, I was born to Jan and Chris in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
I have a-- - Jan Stans?
- Yeah, Jan Stans!
I have an older brother named Matt,
and then we moved to Denison, Iowa,
and then my younger brother John came along,
who my older brother and I quickly named Butt Nuts,
his nickname, a very important detail, exciting part.
And then-- - Butt Nut Stans (laughs).
- And then I on a swim team, I loved swimming
at that point in time, and always--
- 10 seconds.
- Always doing crafting.
And then we moved to Camp Point, Illinois,
and then I went to school at Indiana University.
- [Susan] Five seconds!
- And now I moved to New York City,
and I just got engaged, and I'm here
with Susan Blackwell doing pottery.
- Well done.
I feel like the major takeaway from that is Butt Nut Stans.
Super bonus, tell me the name of that autobiography.
- "Sister of Butt Nut," yeah.
(high energy rock music)
- What the what? - What the what
is it like to star in "Jagged Little Pill" on Broadway?
- It's pretty fun, it's pretty fun.
It's fun to sing on a stage and have
the music be cranked really loud.
But I also like Diablo Cody wrote us
this amazing, hilarious script,
so it's like the best of all, all my dreams.
- This shit's out of control.
Oh, it's out of control! - Oh my God.
You're doing great, you're doing great.
You're doing great. - Do you have any
tips, tricks, tips, tricks?
- Maybe stop the wheel for just a sec.
(hands clapping)
- What the what instruments do you play?
- Oh, well the piano is the one
that I've actually like, studied the most
and would say, like, "I really play this instrument."
So I played the oboe.
(Susan laughs) I'm not really gonna
say I play it anymore.
I played it when I was younger.
- [Susan] Okay. - I played it recently
in a show and I was like, "That's it.
"We're not doing this anymore.
"That's too hard."
- You retired the oboe?
- It's been retired.
But so, I play the oboe,
and then I really wanted to be drum major,
'cause obviously that's a very cool thing to be.
But I had to be in the marching band first,
so I was like, "Well what instrument
"do you need, since I can't play oboe."
- [Susan] Oh my God. - And she's like, "Tuba,
"'cause no one else wants-- - Yes, I was gonna say tuba!
Please say tuba! - "no one else wants to carry
"that in the parades," right?
- Do you got any pictures of that?
You and the tuba?
- I'm sure someone does.
- Let's take a look.
- Oh!
(baudy tuba music)
(hands clapping)
- [Elizabeth] I love it! - You were the valedictorian
of your high school class? - Oh my God, where'd you find
all of this jazz? - What the what Egbert?
- Look, I made a plate!
See, see, it just turned into a plate. (laughs)
- I know, it'll surprise you like that.
- Let's just call it like it is.
Like, I went to a tiny high school,
there were like 70 some people in my
graduating class. - Uh, same, I went to a tiny
high school, there were 87 people.
I wasn't the valedictorian, let us just say.
- Well, that's just 'cause I was like a nerd who--
- Were you studious?
- I was so studious.
- So you were playing the tuba and studying?
- That's right.
Why didn't I have a boyfriend?
(hands clapping)
- I've really made something abstract.
- It's gorgeous.
- I've made, look at this.
This was a beautiful, clean thing
before we started. - I love the the jagged edge
the most, it's really like,
- That jagged little edge. - I think it's your
signature, I think.
- Look how nearly clean yours is,
you've made a dinner plate. - Yeah, I just like,
clean it all off.
- I've made nothing but a mess.
(high energy rock music)
Before becoming a Broadway star, you were a cater waiter.
Care to comment Elizabeth Stanley?
- Yeah, I worked for Yippeee, with three E's,
in a polyester tuxedo that I never washed.
Just be careful when you're getting a,
you know, a spanakopita from someone.
- You know what holds smells?
Polyester tuxedos.
- I just couldn't be bothered.
- You never just wanted to give it a dunk?
- Well, it was like, I didn't want
to pay for it to be dry cleaned, because like,
it was like, expensive. - [Susan] It's expensive!
- And I was like--
- [Susan] You're a cater waiter.
- I was like, "I don't care about this outfit."
(hand clapping)
- You had your home feng shuied for love.
- Oh my God.
Care to comment Elizabeth Stanley?
- (laughs) Yes.
- Did you bring in a professional feng shui-er?
I don't know what you would-- - Yes, yes,
my therapist, I was like talking about this,
and she's like, "I actually have a friend who does that
"and her name's Kate MacKinnon."
Not like the...
- Yeah, that would be amazing.
- That would be amazing.
- Yes.
- Baguas are the different sections of your home.
- Sure.
- Each Bagua has a different, like, energy.
So one of them is love and relationships.
My apartment was missing that entire section.
- You had no Bagua?
- My Bagua was in someone else's apartment.
- Was Kate (laughs).
- Know what I'm sayin'?
There are corrections you can do.
- [Susan] I see.
- And so-- - So you don't have to start
like, swinging a sledgehammer into that wall?
- No. - No, no, no.
- You just like, hang a mirror.
Get a crystal.
(Susan and Elizabeth laugh)
- Nix a cactus?
- Oh my God, the cactus.
Yes, you have been doing really good research.
So I had a lot of plants, but I have a lot
of succulents, and a lot of cacti,
cactus. - [Susan] Sure.
- They were always in the love corner
of literally every single room,
'cause that's where like, that was like the sunniest spot.
- Yeah. - And she was like,
"You need to not have like, a spiky,
"pokey desert plant in that corner."
- Penis plant.
- "You can have a plant, but maybe it should
"be like, a lush, dark green, overgrowing,
"like, heart-shaped leaves-- - What did you do with
your cactuses?
- I gifted them to other people.
- You took this seriously.
- Yep. - But,
joke's on everybody, 'cause it worked.
(funky electric guitar music)
In the Singing Hoosiers, I was all like,
(Elizabeth sings high note)
When I played the Mother Abbess
in "The Sound of Music" in Summer Stock, I was all like,
- Old age makeup.
- In "Cry-Baby," I was all like,
- Hey guys, what's up?
I have a baton.
- In "Million-Dollar Quartet," I was all like,
- I'm trying to be sexy in a dark wig.
- In "The Bridges of Madison County," I was all like,
(Elizabeth sings)
That's what I'm talkin' about.
In "Jagged Little Pill," I'm all like,
- Mom town.
- When I'm at home with my fiancé
Charlie Murphy I'm all like,
- Fart jokes.
(twanging electronic music)
- What is the, like, craziest,
or weirdest, or funniest thing
you have ever seen in a theater,
in the house, back stage, outside of a theater?
- In the current show, in "Jagged Little Pill,"
anytime there is something that is like,
highly dramatic on stage,
there's usually shenanigans happening in the wings.
- Just to like, like, so you go home
and you can feel a little lighter and looser?
- Yeah, so like, I have a really intense scene
where I'm really angry
and I like, hit my son. - [Susan] Yes, yes.
- And as soon as I come off stage after that,
I'm just like...
(Susan laughs) And I do like, this like,
really ridiculous dance in the wings,
- [Susan] Yes!
- With all the stage hands, and my dresser is like,
waiting for me, and she's like, "Hey!"
Just to like, help-- - [Susan] Shake it off.
- Yeah.
- How does it go again?
- You know, just really like, shakey shakes.
- Like a lot of that?
- Uh-huh.
- That's so smart.
- Feels good right now even, right?
- You're smart
like a valedictorian. - 'Cause this is traumatic.
Oh my God.
(high energy rock music)
- I've got your nose.
- Okay.
- And you can have it back,
but first you have to sing me a song,
any song that you choose.
♪ Time and again I longed for adventure ♪
♪ Something to make my heart beat the faster ♪
♪ What did I long for, I never really knew. ♪
♪ Finding your love, I found my adventure, ♪
♪ Touching your hand, my heart beats the faster, ♪
♪ All that I want in all of this world is you. ♪
- Keep singing.
This has been another ♪ You are ♪
- Amazing episode of "Side by Side
by Susan Blackwell" ♪ The breathless touch ♪
♪ Of the springtime ♪ - with my beautiful friend
Elizabeth Stanley. ♪ That makes the lonely ♪
♪ Winters ♪ - Go see her
in "Jagged Little Pill,"
you will not regret it. ♪ You long-- ♪
Come see me.
♪ You are, should I stop? ♪
- No, keep going forever. (Elizabeth laughs)
You can have it back.
- Oh, thanks.
(hands clapping)
(high energy rock music)
(Susan laughs) When I started dating Charlie,
I kept saying like, "Oh, you remind
"me of my brother so much, like,
"you're very funny, and you're tall, and you're whatever."
And he was like, "This is kinda awkward."
And so then when we're like, you know,
making out for the first time,
I was like, "This is just like my brother."
And he was like, "That was the moment I knew
"that I liked you 'cause you were funny and weird."