hello i'm joey and yes welcome to the
midday show here on icrt also welcome to
our video portion on youtube today we
have a very exciting show to bring to
you and this is one that's been around
for
the last couple of decades they're
called stump and they're about to visit
taiwan very soon today we have a very
fortunate opportunity to speak with
three members of stump uh as you can see
in the picture so smack in the middle we
have sarah golding hello hi everyone and
to the left we have andrew patrick hello
my right your left we have dominic chat
what's up uh the most veteran performer
at stump is andrew is that correct yeah
how long has it been uh i've been doing
the show since 2002 so 20 years you
don't look a day over 20. thanks man
[Laughter]
so what's it like to be with stump
through the evolution of your
performances i mean to be honest with
you it's just been it's it's one of the
reason i've done it so long is because
it's a pretty refreshing show we change
it all the time there's a lot of improv
involved um and just being able to
travel and do what i love to do it's
just you know
can't match it do you have organic
conversations with say the artistic
director about in what direction you
would like each show or each face of the
show to go in do you guys have that
conversation i mean we we definitely the
creators of the show
we'll come we'll go down to like um the
kind of
headquarters um and workshop new
routines and stuff and i guess you get a
little bit of of you know kind of trying
to discover new things and whatever um
but they they have you know the main
control but the good thing about the
show is that there's a lot of improv in
it so we bring a piece of ourselves to
everything and what's your background if
you're bringing a piece of yourself
what's your background uh well i've been
i've been a musician since i was
i want to say
well i started like singing and acting
when i was like five or six and i
started playing drums when i was 10.
yeah and um yeah i went to i went to
music school didn't really like it i
left and
i was playing in bands and fix computers
and then i auditioned for stomp and i
got it and that was it just never turned
back really so you actually got into a
little bit of tech before you got on to
stump yeah because i was kind of like oh
you know it's
life as a professional musician is
really tough you know obviously so you
know unless you get a nice a nice gig so
i was kind of working on like you know
playing in bands and like trying to get
gigs like that but i needed like some
foundation to make some decent money
yeah that's tough yeah and then i just
my dreams came true so to speak life is
a constant battle between the realistic
perspective or realistic side of having
to make enough cash to feed yourself and
your artistic dream right but for sarah
at least i think looking at your
cv you've been in performing arts ever
since the get-go is that right yeah wow
i love that you've been looking at my cv
i got it all right here yeah nothing
escapes our eyes
yeah i guess i've been um i'm i'm the
i'm one of the kind of newest members of
the of stump at the moment
and
but i've been kind of dancing since i
was a teenager really
um and then trained in professionally
like contemporary dance so stomp was my
first is my first gig involving kind of
playing any kind of musical
ness
and it's been amazing i feel like i've
just learned in the past six years i've
been with stomp i've learned so much and
it's been a huge challenge but it's been
um
yeah it's like it's such a pleasure to
be learning
new stuff every day even after being in
it for six years every day i'm like
discovering something new about the show
and about rhythm um discovering new
tricks from these guys constantly um
yeah it's really such a pleasure to be
in the company so these two andrew and
dominic they're your big bros basically
yes
uh for those of you who are watching
this our viewers if you couldn't tell
from the accent um andrew is american
correct yes okay and sarah you're from
the uk yes yeah did you apply for stump
from the uk how did this happen um they
just put out an open call for in that's
where everyone right they've always just
been out on open call yeah and then you
kind of turn up to the theater you queue
around the block like you see on tv
queue around the block for hours you go
in you do like a little a little half
hour session as a group and then um they
kind of pick a few people and then you
go through like rounds of recalls so
it's really like how you imagine kind of
like auditions happen on the tv it
happens like that wow so it's like uk
idol accepts you know it's a performing
troupe that everybody wants to get into
exactly yeah exactly that's crazy okay
uh what about dominic where are you from
well as you can tell from my accent
probably i'm from germany
yeah yeah that was your question
i like that it's very efficient answer
that is very german of you actually
so you've been with stomp since 2015 is
that right that's right yeah so i was
one generation before sarah was when i
joined okay what's it like to have
different generations of performers it's
a good thing for the show to have people
from all those generations some have a
lot of experience others have a lot of
energy because they're fresh
um so we can all learn from each other
as well i don't want to break uh
andrew's heart by saying this
but when sarah for example first came
into stump did she go oh my gosh i was
watching you perform when i was a kid
when i first joined the show i was like
oh my gosh this is the guy from all the
youtube videos
and even sometimes when i'm on stage
with him i look at him and i'm like this
is the guy from the youtube videos
when you go on tour and this is the case
for a lot of performing arts groups uh
troops going around the world hundreds
of shows especially something like stump
um i'm sure it's very regimented i'm
sure physically and mentally you have to
prepare yourself for show after shows
sometimes it's consecutive shows daily
and you might need an understudy to take
in to jump in you know so on that front
you know what's it like to tour around
the world as members of stump yeah to be
honest like i think in the light of
covert at the moment it's it's become a
lot more like we need to make sure that
under that our swing roles are prepared
like fully prepared because you know at
any point we can be taken out we've been
lucky so far we've not we've had some
sicknesses but we've not had any covered
so um
we've done a lot of rehearsals recently
for our swing roles i think prior to
this time
it's um we've kind of taken for granted
the fact that we play more than one role
in the show because it's just been like
okay this night i'm being like this
world this night i'm being this role so
we kind of do a lot of rehearsals
outside of the actual performance itself
to make sure us are that um like our
second role is constantly up to scratch
um and that if we need to jump into any
role we can
and i don't know if that answers your
question i kind of like we'll hold on a
little bit maybe it's a family effort
right essentially you guys all do it
together and like andrew said from the
very get-go that's it's very improv uh
sometimes it's very organic so i'm sure
that means you guys all need to
at least know of the each role everyone
else is doing during every performance
is that correct yeah i mean yes it's
you're very in tune with what people are
doing and we because we kind of there's
there's 12 of us on tour but there's
eight of us in the show yeah so every
evening there's four people that are
that are off um and the reason why we
know of the roles is so we can give
people nights off
so
you kind of get to know how this person
does that role and how this person does
that role um from you know
all the switching around that we do the
rehearsals we do because some of the
stuff we do is quite dangerous as well
so like you gotta we do lots of combat
and stuff and someone might do it
differently than the other person you
might throw something to someone a
little bit differently so you kind of
get to know oh that person throws a
little bit high sometimes that throws
person throws low that person throws
slow that person you know what i mean
just like things like that it's like um
so yeah you do get to know everybody's
sort of vibe that also has to do with
the physique of everyone as well right
so you got to get used to for example if
someone is taller they might swing
higher yeah someone said there you go i
figure yeah dominic how tall are you
yeah
um like close to two meters oh my gosh
and sarah is i'm guessing slightly
shorter than you i'm so close to two
meters i don't know if you could
close to one medium it's on the legs
yeah
um yeah no i'm i'm i'm pretty sure i'm
like two i don't know five foot two five
for two um
next to these guys i'm kind of like a
bit like you know down here bouncing
around yeah waving at people
um
but yeah and i think as well like just
sat down from what andy was saying that
like
everyone plays
within the show there's all the
characters have kind of like um
personalities as well
where everyone can play the personality
how they feel
is authentic for them so i think that's
another thing that keeps it super
exciting for us and super fresh is like
understanding how each person plays that
role in terms of their own personality
so
what they bring to it on that specific
day as well they might not do the same
thing in today's show that they did in
yesterday's show so for us it's really
like keeps us on our tires in terms of
how we play with like the acting side of
things as well which is super cool so
you will figure this out during
rehearsal and of course from being
with each other for so long that there
is some sort of
chemistry there that you just kind of
know now stump in chinese by the way is
called potonglanti we don't know i don't
know if you guys know but trans loosely
translated into english it means junk
right so
from the perspective of the performers
does that encapsulate what this show is
about and how so who wants to take this
one junk obviously um this stuff that we
play
we use as instruments because like one
of the basic ideas of stump is that
anything you get your hands on could be
a musical instrument because pretty much
everything makes some sort of sound and
you can move with it and you can create
some sort of comedy with it
and yeah that's one of the basic
concepts and in the show we use
all kinds of stuff from brooms
match boxes bin lids bins
tires tractor tires like all kinds of
the whole set looks like a massive
garbage
garbage what you call this uh
yeah and i think that's one of the main
reasons why your dedicated fans
for so long have loved you is uh just
the the concept that honestly music
could be from anything in your life and
that's what makes a great show hopefully
everyone gets off their seats uh in the
end and you know for those of you
watching this before the show please
remember to do that you know be a
descending ovation or get with the music
i think that's what you guys want to see
the most right yeah and and to be honest
if the audience is a bit feel it seems a
bit reserved a lot of times that means
that they're really paying attention and
they're really into it which is really
important to us too so yeah and
it's all you don't really know until the
end you know when when people feel
comfortable they can like really give
their applause and stand up and you know
what i mean so and i'm sure we we're
talking about the very very end too
because you guys probably have some
encore planned and i'm sure that's also
a big part of the performance so can't
uh wait to see you guys and uh here in
taiwan um absolutely kicking butts here
in this part of asia and sarah hopefully
you can make it but today we have sarah
golding uh andrew patrick and dominique
shad thank you so much for joining us