Interview: Patrick Hinds Chats Having a Laura Osnes 'Do Over' at Theater People Live Show
By: Matt Tamanini Jan. 09, 2015
As BroadwayWorld previously reported, the extremely popular Theater People Podcast will host its first ever live show this Sunday, January 11th, at 5:30pm at Fontana's in Manhattan. The special episode will feature two-time Tony nominee Laura Osnes and a special performance from KINKY BOOTS' Ellyn Marie Marsh. To reserve your tickets, click here.
Recently, I spoke with my friend Patrick Hinds, the host of the Theater People Podcast, about this exciting event. While I will be 1,000 miles away from NYC on Sunday night, if I was anywhere near Manhattan, there is no other place that I would be. If you love theatre conversation between people who are as kind as they are talented, and as intelligent as they are funny, you can't miss Patrick and Laura chat.
Also, have you ever heard Ellyn Marsh sing? She is incredible. After you read this interview and buy your tickets to the live show, watch her Lin-Manuel Miranda inspired version of "Meadowlark" here.
BWW: Congrats on the live show! This is a pretty big deal; how did this all come about?
Hinds: Thanks! A few months back, Jeremy Wein from the NYC Podfest reached out and asked if we'd be interested in taking part in the festival. It's three days of live shows, all of which are based in New York City. In previous years, it was mostly a festival for comedy podcasts, but Jeremy said they wanted to branch out into other areas for this year's festival. We were honored that he thought of us. We'd been wanting to do a live show, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make that happen.
And you are bringing back one of your first guests, Laura Osnes, for the occasion. We've talked before about how nervous you were to interview her the first time. Are you excited to have another chance to talk to her?
Laura is definitely one of our most beloved guests and I'm so excited to have a "do over" with her. It's not that I think the first interview was bad, actually it's still one of my favorites, but I was so excited to meet her, and so excited about what having her as a guest would mean for our show in terms of the cred we'd gain from it. The day of the interview, all that excitement turned to nerves and actual panic. I can laugh about it now, but despite the hours and hours of research and prep I'd done for the interview, I was convinced I was going to blow it somehow and embarrass myself in front of this huge star. She was so lovely and generous and just as fabulous as I'd hoped, but I didn't enjoy that interview at all because I was so scared. I'd like to think I'm more seasoned and more confident now. I'm sure I'll still be a nervous wreck, I mean this is Laura Osnes, but I think I'll be better prepared to handle it this time. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again. She is the nicest person on planet Earth. And she's really funny. My goal for the interview is to make her laugh. If that happens, we can all pack it up and go home knowing it was a success.
I have no doubt that you will be successful. Laura isn't the only former guest you are bring back. Your good friend Ellyn Marie Marsh from KINKY BOOTS is also going to be a part of the show as well! How did you two become friends?
Ellyn and I met in college. I always say that we weren't friends the first year, but, the truth is that our freshman year I was at the same time obsessed with, and intimidated by, her and, she had no idea I existed.
We had a mutual friend and sometime in our sophomore year we just clicked and have been really really close ever since. It has been a one of the greatest pleasures of my adult life watching Ellyn's Broadway dreams come true. I mean she's so ridiculously talented, a total go-getter/pavement pounder, it was always going to happen.
She just sold out 54 Below with her show "Inappropriate" and it was so good that they've asked her to come back and do it again January 31st. I was sitting one table over from her mom, so it was like we were watching it together. You'd be hard pressed to have been able to figure out which one of us was more proud. I'm so excited to have her do a bit from "Inappropriate" for our live show. It's giving nothing away to say that it's hilarious; I keep telling her that her show was the funniest thing I've seen since TROOP BEVERLY HILLS.
I don't even know how to respond to that, so I'm going to move on in another direction. Your podcast is almost a year old; now that you almost have a year under your belt, how would you grade your efforts?
It's crazy that January 13th, just two days after our live show, is the one-year anniversary of our first episode going live. Creating and producing this podcast with Vonia (Arslanian) and Mike (Jensen) has been the greatest, and hardest, creative endeavor I've ever taken on. It was such a tremendous learning curve. We had no idea how to record a show and even less of an idea about how to get a finished product up on the internet. We were total novices, and our first few episodes sound like it. But as people started to find us and cheer us on via social media, we got better.
One of my favorite things about doing the show is engaging with listeners via Facebook and Twitter. There is so much enthusiasm for the theater out there, and we love that we've found a way to bring these theater artists to people in a creative way. It's a lot of work to do this show and keep it fresh, but it's worth it to get to meet and chat with these amazing theater artists and to see how their stories inspire our listeners.
I am one of those devoted social media followers; and thank you for always retweeting my compliments of the episodes. It makes my notifications blow up every time! Looking back on your first year of doing this, what have you been the most surprised by?
There have been a few. The first is technical and boring; making a podcast sound good is really hard and requires about 70 pounds of equipment, which needs to be lugged to and from each interview.
In terms of the guests, I think the most surprising thing is how humble and grateful each of them have been. That may sound cheesy, but it's true; I'm consistently shocked by it. Here I am sitting across the table from some of the biggest theater stars of our time, some of the greatest acting, dancing, singing talent in the world, and without fail, I can't get over how truly grateful they are to get to do what they love.
Lastly, Andy Karl is incredibly handsome and sweet. That's not a surpirise though, I just wanted to say it. Hi Andy Karl! Can't wait to share your episode!
Just a few days away from the Live Show, what are you most looking forward to from the experience?
Hmmmm, I really want to try to do a selfie sort of thing like Ellen did at the Oscars. We'll see if that works. I'm looking forward to doing the show in front of an audience and trying to make them laugh. Normally Vonia and Mike take pains to make me sound less dumb through the editing process. I won't have that luxury live, so I'll have to be on my toes.
I'm excited to share a stage with Laura Osnes, I'm excited about the handful of signed CDs we're giving away, I'm excited that I'll get to meet a bunch of our listeners. I'm really excited about all of it. And I'm excited for it to be over so I can stop worrying about it.
This is a can't miss event, so make sure to get your tickets NOW. If you need to catch up on the Theater People Podcast, you can find all of their previous episodes (including the first one with Laura Osnes) at www.theaterppl.com. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram, and "Like" it on Facebook. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and get the each new episode a day early.
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