I recorded this episode for longer than is reasonable before realizing I didn’t have the right microphone selected.

So here we go again.

First of all, I will say this.

I have recorded several jingles in the past couple days songs.

One for a new podcast coming from Jason Snell.

One for a new version of the Sorkin in the theme song because every season when we switch to a new thing we’re watching, you got to update the theme song.

And man, I wouldn’t hate it if my whole career was writing jingles.

I really enjoy it.

I think I’m good at it.

I think my son is more musically talented than I am, but I am really good at short songs.

And I really like doing that.

Speaking of short songs.

So it is tech rehearsal week.

We added costumes on Monday night for the play.

And, you know, we’re changing in between every scene.

And there’s six scenes.

And they want those changes to be as quick as possible.

It’s just the two of us.

We have to change.

We have to get older.

We have to have new outfits, whatever, new looks.

And so typically when this play is done, you’ll hear a song from the era that we’re entering or that we just ended.

Like, hey, this was, you know, a scene about war.

So now in the case of this production, you’re going to hear, war.

Good God, y’all.

Right?

So, but still, the changing is going too slowly.

So we’ve been asked to speed it up.

And we have no help.

It’s like, well, there’s only so much I can do.

I can prepare my change as much as possible, but there’s only so fast that it can be done.

I’m already doing, like, all kinds of layering and stuff.

Like, hey, I’ll put these pajama pants on underneath the suit so that I can be in the pajamas quicker.

But I start the show in underwear only.

I also wear my own boxers under my character’s boxers.

And they were like, hey, we can see your boxers under the character boxers.

Can you wear smaller underwear?

And I’m like, that is an offensive question.

That’s not what I said.

And, you know, I play piano a couple times in the show, and I mime piano once in the show.

And we finally started really practicing that.

And Ernest yesterday went pretty well.

The miming piano didn’t go well because they didn’t play the song, so it was just me miming nothing.

But the two things I have to play went pretty well yesterday.

So that’s good.

I appreciate it.

And the downside is these rehearsals go late.

But that’s how it’s going.

Like, I’d rather stay there and get it right than be embarrassed when the show opens on Saturday.

The Sunday show is just about sold out.

The Saturday show still has maybe 15% of its tickets left.

And then the next weekend and final weekend of the show, with its four shows over three days, has – it’s probably about 65% to 70% sold.

So I’d love to see that get a little bit more sold.

And it’s not like ego.

It’s not like, ooh, I need the most people possible to see it.

It’s that the energy and vibe is better when you’re on stage when the audience is full.

So I want the audience to be full.

And no matter what, none of the audiences will be, like, shameful.

But getting them even fuller will be better.

So hopefully that happens.

And, yeah, so a lot of change.

So yesterday we were rehearsing, and there’s one of two scenes where I start in underwear and then get dressed.

In this case, I start in underwear and a T-shirt because I’m older now.

So, I don’t know, less comfortable being topless at that moment.

I don’t know.

And during the scene, I’m supposed to get dressed.

And I notice they have not set my clothes, meaning I cannot get dressed.

I have to do the scene just in the underwear and T-shirt.

And I’m wondering if the director is going to stop the scene or not.

And I quickly sense he is not going to stop the scene.

He’s going to see what do we do.

And it was tricky.

I made some comment, you know, Doris, I didn’t pack the right outfit for today.

So I’m just hanging out in my underwear doing the scene, whatever.

And at one point, I’m supposed to offer to help her get some stuff from outside.

And so I’m like, do you want help?

I could throw something on, I guess.

And that got a big laugh from people who were very aware that I was supposed to have clothes on and didn’t.

But I appreciated, actually, that the director kind of just let us fly.

And, you know, we got a little lost in that scene, too, because of confusion about the fact that I couldn’t wear things and thus couldn’t say some of the things I was supposed to say.

But we covered all the plot points.

We got through sections.

We jumped back to one point.

I was proud of us, I guess is my point, because live theater, man, anything can happen.

And I think it was the right move to just make us suffer through it.

But I would really like to run that act slash scene correctly today.

So that’s one of the goals.

We’ve also been called to rehearsal extra early tonight so we can just run lines.

Lines weren’t really a problem, but, you know, a handful were dropped.

And the director’s like, some of my favorite lines were dropped.

So let’s just run the whole thing at double speed without blocking so we can make sure all the lines are locked in.

I wouldn’t always like doing that, but I don’t mind doing it in this case because it’s a lot of lines.

It’s a lot of lines.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

If you are local and hearing this and you haven’t bought tickets for Same Time Next Year, you are a monster.

Go do it.

Goodbye.

Lex.