This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to the Theatre Podcast. Intimate personal conversations with theatre's biggest names. I am Alan Seales.

[0:11] Jillian Hockman: I am Jillian Hockman. And this episode is with Alison Burns and Lulu Picart, who are actors, singers, teachers, what else? Composers. Composers, dancers, and most recently added to their resume, podcasters. So they have their own podcast. They're still acting, still performing, but they have their own podcast called 10KDollarDay, which they had me on back in October, I think it was October something.

[0:43] Alan Seales: October 17th, I think, was when episode 43.

[0:48] Jillian Hockman: October 2018.

[0:50] Alan Seales: Yes, October 2018. We actually will put out the episode that I was on on their podcast on this feed as a bonus episode. So just subscribe here to the Theatre Podcast. And in a couple days from when this episode drops, you'll have that episode closely behind it. Jillian, what did you think about that episode?

[1:08] Jillian Hockman: Well, that happened. And that's all I have to say about that.

[1:15] Alan Seales: Yeah. They are as much comedians as they are pretty much anything else. And it's quite a bit different from the standard guests that we've had on this podcast. But you just have to listen to it. It's great.

[1:25] Jillian Hockman: It is. There was some wine.

[1:27] Alan Seales: There was a little bit of wine. That seems to be the thing. I don't think Alison can record at all without having some sort of wine in her hand.

[1:40] Jillian Hockman: And Lulu is pretty good at the mixed drinks from what I hear as well. But anyway, enjoy this episode with Alison Burns and Lulu Picart of 10KDollarDay Podcast. And please always follow us, Theatre Underscore Podcast, on Instagram and Twitter, Facebook.com slash Official Theatre Podcast. And as always, you can email us feedback at the theatrepodcast.com. We've been receiving some very good feedback lately. So keep it coming. We love hearing from you. So keep going. We want to hear it. Be sure to rate and review too. Those count, those help. So we look at them and we really appreciate it. Sweet. Enjoy the episode. Here you go. One, two, three.

[2:33] Alan Seales: Welcome to the Theatre Podcast. Intimate personal conversations with theatre's biggest talents. I'm your host, Alan Seales. You guys are laughing at me already.

[2:42] Lulu Picart: No, because there was no prep. You just started. I said, will you tell us when you start? And you said, yes, I have an intro. And then in the middle of that conversation, you said, welcome to the Theatre Podcast.

[2:54] Alison Burns: We just caught off guard.

[2:56] Alan Seales: I paused for editing.

[2:58] Lulu Picart: Oh, well, cool. Could you have paused for like friendship, maybe? Like giving us like a head nod or like a thumbs up? You know, it's cool. It's cool. Now we're in.

[3:09] Alan Seales: So both of you, actresses, singers, teachers, writers, Alison Burns, you're also a choreographer, Lulu Picart. You are a composer. Both of you are rounded out as podcast hosts, which now the most recently you've started your $10K a day podcast, which we will get into. But I know you through your New York theatre background, New York theatre days. This is the first time I've interviewed two people and I'm not sure who to look at.

[3:42] Lulu Picart: Oh, I'll take your right eye.

[3:44] Alan Seales: Oh, I wish you guys could see what's happening right now.

[3:47] Lulu Picart: You can move your eyes independently of each other.

[3:49] Alan Seales: Yeah, it's kind of creepy.

[3:51] Lulu Picart: Yeah, don't do that again.

[3:52] Alan Seales: And my four year old, next to fire eating, which is on my resume, my four year old can cross his eyes and it freaks my wife out.

[4:06] Lulu Picart: That's crazy.

[4:07] Alison Burns: Do you tell them they're going to get stuck like that?

[4:09] Alan Seales: Get stuck like that?

[4:11] Alison Burns: No, because I like, I encourage it. I actually think it's funny.

[4:18] Alan Seales: So, okay, let's talk about stuff. Which one of you wants to start first?

[4:23] Lulu Picart: Lulu.

[4:24] Alan Seales: Okay, Lulu. It was much harder actually finding your backstory online.

[4:30] Lulu Picart: I was born to royalty in the kingdom of Tonga.

[4:35] Alan Seales: Where you invented whales to swim with.

[4:37] Lulu Picart: I did. I said, I want beluga whales. I want the great white whales.

[4:42] Alan Seales: I've run out of whales.

[4:44] Lulu Picart: Killer whales.

[4:45] Alan Seales: I think that's all we know.

[4:48] Lulu Picart: That's enough whales.

[4:50] Alan Seales: What kind of kid were you?

[4:56] Lulu Picart: That's a really great question. I was a kid who played piano a lot because my dad was in the Air Force. So we moved tons and tons. And the first thing that they would do every time we moved to a new place was find a piano teacher. So I think that was their touchstone of normalcy for us. So I was a kid who did that a lot. And I read a lot. And my family was very close. So we were as all-American as you can be. Road trips every summer. Road trips to see all the relatives. And everybody in my family plays a musical instrument. So that's the type of kid I was.

[5:31] Alan Seales: And then what led to the Broadway side of things, the theater side?

[5:36] Lulu Picart: Well, that was a long circuitous journey. This is like a five-hour podcast, right?

[5:40] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah. This is a mini-series.

[5:42] Lulu Picart: This is like cereal. I have 13 hours left on this tape.

[5:46] Alan Seales: Oh, good. Great.

[5:47] Lulu Picart: On this SD card.

[5:49] Alan Seales: Yeah. You okay there?

[5:53] Lulu Picart: Funny bone?

[5:53] Alan Seales: Hurt my elbow.

[5:54] Lulu Picart: All right. So I was in choir and band, of course, when I was in high school. P.S. It was super cool. So everyone just calmed down. And then I went to college. And I was a political science major. But I was a music scholarship student. So I had to perform in the musical ensembles. But I didn't have to be a major. So I did my political science major. Great. And then I got this job in the Foreign Service.

[6:25] Alan Seales: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Job in the what?

[6:30] Lulu Picart: The Foreign Service.

[6:31] Alan Seales: What is that? Well, tell me about this.

[6:33] Lulu Picart: Okay, well, so there's this exam. So here's a lot about my personality. I was at school in political science. And they said, there's this exam, the Foreign Service exam. And you guys should take it as practice for when you try to pass it later in your life.

[6:54] Alan Seales: How old were you when you took it?

[6:56] Lulu Picart: I was 20. I mean, I was a senior in high school. So 21.

[7:00] Alan Seales: Wait, a senior in high school?

[7:01] Lulu Picart: Or college.

[7:02] Alan Seales: College.

[7:02] Lulu Picart: 22-year-old.

[7:03] Alan Seales: So you failed many times.

[7:05] Lulu Picart: Yeah, I failed and then passed the Foreign Service exam. It was really weird. And so it kind of sounded like a challenge, I think, on purpose. So I took the exam, which is basically a bunch of political science essay questions and multiple choice questions. And if you pass the multiple choice question, they grade the essay. If you pass the essay, you go to DC.

[7:29] Alan Seales: You go to DC to do an eight-hour oral exam where they give you a fake dossier of a country and a problem to solve. And you get in a group of four, and you make a plan, a prescription for that problem. And there are moderators in the corners of the room that watch you problem-solve and grade you on your problem-solving. They say who's taking the lead, who's not taking the lead, who is confrontational, who's not, all that kind of stuff. And then there's some other little tests, but it's an eight-hour test. So I passed that.

[8:05] Alan Seales: And then I realized that I kind of had to keep going because everybody was really excited at school that I had passed this. They put on the website, which was a big deal because back then websites were very difficult to update. And so it was a big deal, and I had to move to DC and go start all the paperwork and the training, get the security clearance. And then what had happened is 9-11 had just happened.

[8:38] Lulu Picart: So DC was different than it was when I took the test.

[8:44] Alan Seales: Does that make sense?

[8:45] Lulu Picart: And I moved to DC, and it was very different in DC. There was a strange mood in the air, and it was uncomfortable. And most of the people that I was with or who were about to enter the program with me were very, they had a mission. They had a mission, and they had a calling, and they had a purpose. And I was like, I think it's dangerous. So I realized that it probably wasn't the right job for me because I think if you're going to go into a dangerous situation, you should feel called to go into that dangerous situation.

[9:20] Alan Seales: And at that point, I went to grad school instead, got my MBA in leadership studies, which actually helps me a lot. That's a good skill set to have, I think.

[9:35] Lulu Picart: And then while I was waiting to get a real job, my parents had moved to Orlando. So I kind of went home to them while I was applying for real jobs. And for some extra money, I auditioned at Walt Disney World because all of my extra jobs had been performing and retail, but mostly performing. So I was like, I need some extra jobs. I guess I'll go see if I can sing at Disney World.

[10:02] Alan Seales: And they took me in. Disney World did. And I was there for 10 years. I did so many different shows there. I mean, so many different skill sets while I was at Disney World. It was like grad school.

[10:14] Alison Burns: What did you get? Were you a face character?

[10:17] Lulu Picart: No, I first learned the luau as a host. Then I learned Comedy Warehouse, which was at Pleasure Island. It was a seven-day improvisational comedy troupe. I sang with the Voices of Liberty, which is an eight-part a cappella group, I think. I hosted things. I did street comedy. I did trunk comedy. I opened Finding Nemo, the musical. I judged American Idol, the experience. I was a storyteller. I sang with the orchestra. So I did a lot of stuff, a lot of varied stuff. That's why, to me, that was my grad school. And that's where I got my Equity card.

[10:57] Alan Seales: Nice. Oh, yeah, because Finding Nemo was an Equity show, right? Or still is.

[11:01] Lulu Picart: All the actors and singers at Walt Disney World are Equity.

[11:05] Alan Seales: I didn't know that.

[11:06] Lulu Picart: Oh, good. Good for them.

[11:08] Alan Seales: And then you met Alison, who also had a beginning.

[11:15] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[11:16] Alan Seales: She did have a beginning. You know, what's funny is that our beginnings are, well, the very beginnings are similar. And then it really deviates from there. But I, too, was a military brat. My dad was in the Air Force.

[11:25] Alison Burns: So are we moving on to me? I just kind of jumped.

[11:29] Alan Seales: Do I need to nod? I felt like there was a segue.

[11:32] Lulu Picart: We were like a segueing.

[11:33] Alison Burns: Okay. Thumbs up. I was giving you—

[11:35] Lulu Picart: Go on, eyes.

[11:37] Alison Burns: So yeah, military brat. And my parents were performers as well. They met in a band. My mom played piano. My dad played guitar and played the trumpet. And I have been singing since I can remember. We have cassette tapes of me harmonizing to my dad at the age of four. So I've just been always musical. And it was mostly in church. I was the church singer.

[12:02] Alan Seales: We moved every few years.

[12:03] Alison Burns: So that was my in was the choir. I would join the choir, and I would audition for the solo, and I would get it. And then I'd make friends because people were like, oh my gosh, you're so good. And I was like, thank you. So that was my way in. I mean, it just was.

[12:19] Alan Seales: But I did not do anything remotely political or MBA-ish. At 17, I lived in Arkansas. Graduated high school from Shorewood, Arkansas. Very little school. And I auditioned for AMDA in New York and made it. And I moved here in 2000. And I went to school and loved it. Loved New York City. Got into it. Started auditioning. And then I graduated in 2001.

[12:54] Alison Burns: And then in October and by December, I had booked the national tour of Rent.

[12:59] Alan Seales: The first non-ec national tour.

[13:01] Alison Burns: I think I saw that in Raleigh.

[13:04] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, probably. This was like 2001 to 2003.

[13:11] Alison Burns: Was Constantine in that one?

[13:13] Alan Seales: No, he was the last.

[13:15] Alison Burns: Oh, maybe he was after us.

[13:17] Alan Seales: That was the one I saw.

[13:18] Alison Burns: OK, no, he wasn't. We had Kevin Spencer and Crystal Washington, Bridget Caddy. It was fun. I was 19 when I started that tour, which is insane. I mean, we went to Vegas, you guys, and I couldn't gamble.

[13:36] Alison Burns: My friend was like, don't even press the buttons because if you win, it's null and void. You can't do it. So it was great. And it was also crazy. I had a fake ID.

[13:48] Alan Seales: I don't encourage that.

[13:50] Alison Burns: I don't encourage it. Don't tell people that. It's done now. I'm so much older.

[13:55] Alan Seales: Your daughter will listen to this podcast.

[13:57] Alison Burns: That's what I'm saying. She knows. They don't even do that anymore, do they? You need to know that in the course of this friendship, I am 100% more concerned about being a good role model for her kids.

[14:09] Lulu Picart: Well, I'm just real with them. She knows.

[14:11] Alison Burns: She knows.

[14:14] Alan Seales: Anyway, so I did the tour and I had this thought process at 19, 20 that like, oh, I just did a tour of Rent when I get back to New York. It's going to be smooth sailing. I'm going to walk into the rooms and be like, oh, my first gig I booked.

[14:34] Alison Burns: So, here we go. What's next, Broadway, right? And I didn't book anything for a year. So, I worked at Victoria's Secret. I worked at a tanning salon. I worked, I mean, you name it. It was crazy. I couldn't book anything. And then I ended up auditioning for Busch Gardens.

[14:56] Lulu Picart: Tampa.

[14:58] Alison Burns: In Williamsburg. I worked there.

[15:00] Lulu Picart: No way.

[15:01] Alison Burns: Oh, yeah. Secrets of Castle O'Sullivan.

[15:02] Lulu Picart: Secrets of Castle O'Sullivan.

[15:03] Alison Burns: Oh, my God. Yeah. Okay. So, I did it. I moved to Williamsburg. I did, I don't know, some jukebox show. We sang like Beyoncé and all these different things. I did that. And while I was there, I got super sick. Like crazy allergies, crazy sick. I ended up getting nodes, you guys, on my cords.

[15:24] Lulu Picart: Where else would you get them?

[15:26] Alison Burns: You know, it's just for the people out there. Maybe this is your first time listening to the theater podcast. You know, you hear the word nodes. You don't know what that is. So, I'm letting you know that it's nodes. Yeah. So, I ended up, at the time I was dating this guy who lived in New York, who was from Tampa.

[15:49] Lulu Picart: Just American Jukebox. Wasn't that the name?

[15:51] Alison Burns: It was American Jukebox. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We had like rip away costumes.

[15:58] Lulu Picart: Oh, yeah.

[15:59] Alison Burns: It doesn't matter if you're black or white. And then you rip it off. Yeah. So, yeah. So, I got nodes. They were like, oh, you have to go on vocal rest for like a month.

[16:06] Lulu Picart: Can we pause?

[16:07] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[16:08] Lulu Picart: Was this a black costume that you ripped off to become a white costume?

[16:10] Alison Burns: No, it was black and white. It doesn't matter if you're black or white. It was both black and white. Then you ripped it off and we became crazy in love. Got me looking so crazy right now. Beyoncé.

[16:22] Lulu Picart: Oh, okay.

[16:23] Alison Burns: So, it became that. It's a jukebox. It was like through the years. It's an American jukebox.

[16:27] Lulu Picart: Yeah, American jukebox.

[16:28] Alison Burns: It's clearly an American jukebox.

[16:29] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[16:30] Alison Burns: Yeah. Anyway, where was I?

[16:39] Lulu Picart: You moving to Tampa.

[16:40] Alison Burns: Yeah. Tampa. Dated a guy.

[16:42] Lulu Picart: Yeah. He worked here. He like managed restaurants.

[16:45] Alison Burns: Here in New York?

[16:46] Lulu Picart: Yeah. And then he was from Tampa. I went back to Tampa during that month to like take a vocal break. And I got pregnant. So, stayed there. And he proposed when I was like nine months pregnant. He used a fry box from Burger King.

[17:07] Lulu Picart: Wow.

[17:08] Alison Burns: Wait, what?

[17:09] Lulu Picart: Super romantic.

[17:10] Alison Burns: You never told me that.

[17:11] Lulu Picart: Really?

[17:12] Alison Burns: That's hilarious.

[17:13] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[17:14] Alison Burns: You'd think he'd use an onion ring box.

[17:15] Lulu Picart: See? I know. I was literally, you know, I was sitting on the couch like nine months pregnant. He brought Burger King. He had like the TV tray. And I literally was eating all the fries. And he had, I guess, taken them out and put in the ring box in the back. So, I go to grab, you know, some of the last fries and my hand hit something. And I was like, what's this? And I pull it out and I see the box. And again, I look at him and go, what's this? And he got down on one knee and he was like, so, I feel like we should get married. And I was like, all right, cool.

[17:54] Lulu Picart: No.

[17:55] Alison Burns: That lasted. Wait. You know, it was a moment. And a year later, it was not a moment anymore. It was done. But I had a very beautiful child who is now almost 14.

[18:05] Lulu Picart: Yeah, I love her.

[18:06] Alison Burns: And she's awesome.

[18:07] Lulu Picart: I've never met her, but she's amazing.

[18:09] Alison Burns: Yeah. She's great.

[18:10] Lulu Picart: Super great kid.

[18:15] Alison Burns: Yeah, she's like the best kid. Like, I'm waiting. You know that moment where you're like, this kid has never caused me problems ever. Like, there's got to be something. Like, something's about to happen. Like, she's about to go into high school. I'm like, what? What is it? Because she's so good. It's weird. Yeah.

[18:33] Lulu Picart: I worry about my kids that way, too.

[18:36] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[18:37] Lulu Picart: I mean, like, I'm riding the Q train home from the trolls experience this afternoon. And like, my two and a half year old is sitting on my lap, making squishy faces because it's the funniest thing ever for me. And I'm literally in the middle of this moment. And this is not good because I need to be more present. But I'm in the moment thinking like, at what point are you going to not want to sleep with me in my armpit? He wants to sleep in my armpit every night.

[19:05] Alison Burns: That's great.

[19:06] Lulu Picart: He's going to go away. At what point? Like, when's the first, I hate you, going to come? And like, what are you going to be? I'm like, thinking all these little thoughts in the back of my mind while I'm sitting here counting to five and grabbing his face with the claw I make with the five.

[19:20] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[19:21] Lulu Picart: Right? So anyway.

[19:22] Alison Burns: No, it's so good that you can grasp onto those moments, though, because that will make you not be like, oh, God, I'm so cramped because you're in my bed. Like, no, that's gonna go away. Do you know what I mean? So like, that's how I am because I have a four-year-old now, and like, when she wants to sleep with me, I'm like, yes, anytime. Because I know almost 14-year-old, like, she grabs her phone, she goes in her room, she puts herself to sleep. You know what I mean? She's amazing. But there's very little lovey touchy, like, there's a hug and a kiss every now and then, but it's just different. So yeah.

[19:51] Lulu Picart: Anyway.

[19:52] Alison Burns: So theater.

[19:53] Lulu Picart: Disenchanted.

[19:54] Alison Burns: Oh, yes.

[19:55] Lulu Picart: Oh, yes.

[19:56] Alison Burns: So Disenchanted is an off-Broadway show that opened 2012, right?

[20:00] Lulu Picart: No, no, no. It was later than that.

[20:03] Alison Burns: I think like 15.

[20:04] Lulu Picart: I think like 2015, maybe.

[20:06] Alison Burns: 2014. I think it was November of 2014.

[20:09] Lulu Picart: I have 2012 in my notes.

[20:11] Alison Burns: Well, that may be possible. So the difference of our experiences in Disenchanted is that I was in it from the beginning at the Orlando Fringe Festival. And then we did three or four out of towns before we brought it to New York. But I think New York was 2015.

[20:28] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[20:29] Alison Burns: Is that right?

[20:30] Lulu Picart: It was because Hannah was born in 2014. And it was fall of 2014 into spring of 2015.

[20:35] Alison Burns: So what is Disenchanted? For those who don't know.

[20:38] Lulu Picart: Oh, yes.

[20:39] Alison Burns: I mean, you started with them.

[20:41] Lulu Picart: Okay, here we go. Disenchanted is an all-female show that takes the classic princess stereotypes that you would see and challenges them. And they use the Disney princesses as kind of the touchstone for that because it's a very recognizable icon. Everyone knows the story. Everyone knows, you know, all of the tropes that happen with each princess is just super recognizable. So it takes those princesses and uses them to kind of challenge the way that they're presented in the movies and give them perhaps a more historical backstory for the princesses that actually lived in real life, like Pocahontas and Mulan and...

[21:23] Alison Burns: Badropdor?

[21:24] Lulu Picart: No. She was a story, right?

[21:26] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[21:27] Lulu Picart: Jasmine?

[21:28] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[21:29] Lulu Picart: Yeah. And who were you in the show?

[21:31] Alison Burns: I played Mulan and Badropdor, which was Jasmine, and Pocahontas. I played the brown ones.

[21:42] Lulu Picart: Any brown was me.

[21:46] Alison Burns: Except for Tiana.

[21:49] Lulu Picart: The princess who kissed the frog.

[21:50] Alison Burns: Yes. Yes. I did not play her.

[21:52] Lulu Picart: Right.

[21:55] Alison Burns: And you got a Lortel nomination.

[21:57] Lulu Picart: Yes!

[21:58] Alison Burns: I did. Featured actress. It was a super, super surprise. It wasn't even on my radar. I didn't really know award season. You know, I was really new to town. I didn't know that was like a, like, I didn't know the season was a thing. And I didn't know that committees came. I kind of didn't even really know that Off-Broadway had its own set of stuff. And I remember getting off the train and getting a text from my friend Jason Wetzel. And all it said was, are you effing kidding me? And that's all it said. And I was like, I don't even know.

[22:34] Lulu Picart: What did I do to deserve that?

[22:35] Alison Burns: Yeah, I don't even know what that means. I said, what happened? And he texted me the article with my name in it. And I was like, oh, that's cool. I need a dress. Like, I didn't know, you know, like, what's happening? Yeah, that was fun. It was a lot of fun, too. It was the year that Hamilton was at the Public.

[22:54] Lulu Picart: Ooh.

[22:55] Alison Burns: So, spoiler alert, Hamilton won everything.

[22:57] Lulu Picart: Everything.

[22:58] Alison Burns: Which was fine. I mean, it was great, because now everyone's like, oh, did you win? And I go, no, Renee Elise Goldberry won for Hamilton. And it was beautiful. I mean, I wanted to see Hamilton so badly at that point, because I hadn't seen it yet. And just, they were such a hot show. The whole cast was there. They hadn't hit Broadway yet. It's only really about Hamilton. And it was like, it was like their first up and up. I think it was the first award show of the season. So, it was just like, oh, something's happening. There is momentum happening in New York City. It was cool.

[23:29] Alan Seales: And Allison. So, that's when the two of you met, right?

[23:32] Lulu Picart: Oh, no.

[23:33] Alan Seales: Or did you know each other before that?

[23:34] Lulu Picart: Oh, Alan.

[23:35] Alison Burns: Yes.

[23:36] Lulu Picart: Here we go.

[23:37] Alison Burns: I thought you met in Disenchanted.

[23:38] Lulu Picart: Oh, no. Just wait. Go ahead. So, after all of my relationship drama, I stayed in Tampa and I ended up working in the regional theater a lot there. So, I got my equity card doing a show called Rent, again, 10 years later, in the same role, Maureen. And this one was cast as my Joanne.

[24:00] Lulu Picart: Come on.

[24:01] Alison Burns: Yeah. So, we played Maureen and Joanne.

[24:04] Lulu Picart: We did.

[24:05] Alison Burns: At American Stage and Rent in the park. So, their park shows are amazing. I mean, it's thousands of people. It's outdoors. They do it every year. It's amazing. So, we met then and it was like, we were just literally inseparable. And what was crazy was right after that, we booked three shows in a row, all together.

[24:24] Lulu Picart: Oh, yeah.

[24:25] Alison Burns: For a whole two years, we did everything together. Almost every show I did happened to be with Allison. Different producers, different types of shows, everything.

[24:32] Lulu Picart: Yeah. Like, Man of La Mancha.

[24:35] Alison Burns: We did Man of La Mancha.

[24:36] Lulu Picart: We did Man of La Mancha.

[24:37] Alison Burns: We did a tour with David Friedman, Listen to My Heart. We did Rocky Horror.

[24:40] Lulu Picart: Rocky Horror. Like, it just kept happening.

[24:42] Alison Burns: Mm-hmm. So, I don't know. This crazy friendship formed. And then, we stayed in... We were, I mean, best friends almost instantly. And then, we stayed in touch when she would go travel and then I had kind of formed my life in Florida. And when Disenchanted came to Tampa to do their...

[25:01] Lulu Picart: We did a 17-week out of town there.

[25:03] Alison Burns: She was like, You have to audition. You have to audition for this. You would be so great. So, I went in. And at the time, I was like six weeks pregnant with my now four-year-old. So, I auditioned. I got the callback. And at the callback, I told them, I said, Listen, by the end of this contract, I'm going to be real pregnant. So, just letting you know that. And not... But a few days later, the director himself called and was like, Listen, we want to cast you in this so bad, but we cannot figure out how to make this work because you're going to be pregnant and the Little Mermaid character is drunk. It just wouldn't work. They even said they tried to... Oh, can we spin it off as white trash and have her belly out? They tried all these things. It didn't work. But he basically was like, If we ever... If this does go to Broadway, you have to come back. Whatever. So, I was bummed, but I totally understood. I mean, I was having a baby.

[25:56] Lulu Picart: So, the show went great. And then I had Hannah and May. And by June, she was not but a few months old. I got an email from them that said, Hey, we're doing a Broadway run. Can you fly to New York and come to the callback for the producers? And I was like, Yes. So, I flew up to New York and I did the callback. And a few weeks later, a producer called me and was like, You're in it. And I called her immediately. And I was like, We're going to New York together. And I left my family for like a year. My six-month-old. And yeah, so we came to New York and we had a blast for those times. And that's where our podcast idea happened. Because we lived in Brooklyn together. Way in Brooklyn. And by way, I mean like, a couple stops from Coney Island.

[26:44] Lulu Picart: Bay Ridge.

[26:45] Alison Burns: Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Way out there. So, you know, sometimes late at night, it would take you two hours on that train. Because sometimes it would skip your stop. You have to go to the end and then transfer and come back. It was insane. So, we were also not wealthy.

[27:01] Lulu Picart: No.

[27:02] Alison Burns: So, we would often share food. We were on the lowest tier off-Broadway contract. And I encourage everyone to Google that immediately. And then see how that's possible. Because saying the number out loud is like an actor's walk of shame.

[27:16] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[27:17] Alison Burns: You have to find that information on your own. What it was in 2015. Because it has since gone up.

[27:21] Lulu Picart: I know.

[27:22] Alison Burns: Yeah. 2015. Yeah. So, we'd play this game where we would say, what would you do right now if you had $10,000? And that became very fun for us. This fantasy world of how we would spend our money.

[27:34] Lulu Picart: Mm-hmm.

[27:35] Alison Burns: Often revolved around hotels and food.

[27:37] Lulu Picart: Oh, yeah.

[27:38] Alison Burns: Massages.

[27:39] Lulu Picart: Always.

[27:40] Alison Burns: Facials.

[27:41] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[27:42] Alison Burns: Semi-permanent makeup.

[27:43] Lulu Picart: Not yet.

[27:44] Alison Burns: No?

[27:45] Lulu Picart: That wasn't a thing yet.

[27:47] Alison Burns: I don't know about that.

[27:49] Lulu Picart: Semi-permanent makeup?

[27:50] Alison Burns: No, I just don't know about that subject.

[27:52] Lulu Picart: Oh.

[27:53] Alison Burns: You don't know?

[27:54] Lulu Picart: If you were like, Alan, when did eyebrow tattooing start?

[27:56] Alison Burns: Oh, right.

[27:57] Lulu Picart: I don't know.

[27:58] Alison Burns: I mean, I don't know the answer to that either.

[28:00] Lulu Picart: No, I know. I'm jealous.

[28:01] Alison Burns: Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, that's it. And then we did Disenchanted and now we started our podcast and...

[28:09] Lulu Picart: And here we are.

[28:10] Alison Burns: And here we are.

[28:11] Lulu Picart: At your podcast.

[28:12] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[28:13] Lulu Picart: Yes.

[28:14] Alison Burns: $10K a day.

[28:15] Lulu Picart: Yes.

[28:16] Alison Burns: $10,000 a day. I have to say, the impetus for me pulling the trigger on this podcast, my own, was being a guest on yours.

[28:25] Lulu Picart: Oh, really?

[28:26] Alison Burns: Yes.

[28:27] Lulu Picart: Yes.

[28:28] Alison Burns: That is really cool.

[28:29] Lulu Picart: Tell us more.

[28:30] Alison Burns: Episode 43.

[28:31] Lulu Picart: Yes.

[28:32] Alison Burns: I spilled my water all over the episode.

[28:35] Lulu Picart: I know.

[28:36] Alison Burns: You sure did.

[28:37] Lulu Picart: Yeah, you sure did.

[28:38] Alison Burns: Just in your intros right now, two of you found out things about each other that you didn't know.

[28:41] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[28:42] Alison Burns: I did not know that her ex-husband used a French fry box to propose to her.

[28:48] Lulu Picart: I still don't think I want that information.

[28:50] Alison Burns: I don't know how it makes me feel about her, but it was a different time.

[28:56] Lulu Picart: I was like 22.

[28:57] Alison Burns: Yeah, okay.

[28:58] Lulu Picart: We've all made those choices.

[28:59] Alison Burns: Have we?

[29:00] Lulu Picart: I mean, come on, 22-year-olds out there.

[29:09] Alan Seales: Would you have said yes? And please email that to 10KDollarDay at gmail.com because I want to make sure I see every single response to that one. But you have to think about, you know what, this is an important. Let's move on. It was a long time ago. But it made you who you are. That's the thing. I can talk about bad choices. People always ask me, not always, rarely am I ever asked this. But when someone says, do you have any regrets? I say, no, there are choices I would have done differently knowing what I know now. But I can't say that I would be where I am now without the bad choices that I made.

[30:06] Lulu Picart: Yeah, sure.

[30:06] Alan Seales: And I'm happy where I am. And obviously things are going relatively okay.

[30:13] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[30:15] Alan Seales: I have my health. I have my kids. I have my wife. I have my nice recording equipment.

[30:19] Lulu Picart: You have fancy recording equipment.

[30:20] Alan Seales: Fancy recording equipment.

[30:21] Lulu Picart: Yeah, it's really nice.

[30:22] Alan Seales: Yay, B&H. But yeah, I don't have regrets.

[30:26] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[30:27] Alan Seales: Do you have regrets, Lulu?

[30:29] Lulu Picart: I mean, I am an anxiety-ridden individual. So I have regrets about what I just ate for dinner. Yes. But if you're asking in the general sense of life, I know intellectually that I'm supposed to say it's all made me a better person. But I would love to be just as healthy and not have gone through some of that stuff. Why did I have to be tested and trialed by fire? I don't know. Anyway.

[30:58] Alan Seales: Like what?

[30:59] Lulu Picart: I don't even know. I don't have an answer to that. I think I just have general malaise. Like, I don't have a specific thing. I'll get back to you. I'll tell you. I just literally can't think of it.

[31:17] Alan Seales: If something pops in, feel free to interrupt me anytime and tell me about your bad choices.

[31:21] Lulu Picart: I know. But now I'm just going to think about it for the rest of the time.

[31:23] Alan Seales: There's nothing you can just be like, oh, bad choice. Here we go. Career. Boys. Girls.

[31:31] Lulu Picart: Selling your Zoom H4.

[31:31] Alan Seales: I can't help it, baby.

[31:34] Lulu Picart: Selling my what?

[31:35] Alan Seales: Selling your Zoom H4.

[31:36] Lulu Picart: Well, yes. No. If I could have done anything differently...

[31:45] Alan Seales: Is this true?

[31:47] Lulu Picart: If I could have done anything differently, it would have been...

[31:51] Alan Seales: Yeah, I don't have it.

[31:57] Lulu Picart: I thought I was going to use the improv trick of just starting the sentence and opening and hoping it would finish itself.

[32:04] Alan Seales: That apparently does not happen with self-actualization. It only happens with improv.

[32:09] Lulu Picart: So that's your lesson for the day. I regret starting that sentence.

[32:13] Alan Seales: But it was funny that you kind of dangled in front of us.

[32:18] Lulu Picart: My heart kind of stopped for a minute because I was like, we're about to have a real moment.

[32:22] Lulu Picart: Oh, you know what? Oh, I got it. You know what I regret? There are gigs that I regret taking.

[32:27] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[32:27] Lulu Picart: There are gigs that I regret taking. There are gigs that I regret... I don't know how to explain it, but I am very quick. I think one of the flaws in my personality is that I'm very quick to feel taken advantage of. We've talked about... Well, Allison and I have talked about this in life. So I spent a large portion of my time in my 20s, I would say, doing stuff for free for people to either start my career or because I knew that this foundation or something didn't have any money and I ended up getting a little burned out and it negatively affected me because I thought I was being generous. But after a while, that cycle turned to, oh, now I'm just the girl that you know will do it for free. I'm the girl that will show up and play your benefit for free.

And I have... Of course they asked and I have no animosity towards asking for people to donate their time. I just think I did it too much in a short period of time and then ended up not having an income and having no time. And I wish that I had learned to say no earlier to things like that.

[33:45] Alan Seales: That's a good lesson. That's good. Yeah, so not a regret. And actually it probably... Again, it brought you to where you are.

[33:50] Lulu Picart: No, absolutely. And again, it's hard because when I say no, I feel like I'm the type of person that's like, well, but I do have three extra hours between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. So I could technically do it. So that's just who I am. And so then I feel very selfish saying no to people who ask for stuff like that.

[34:19] Alan Seales: And both of you are here in New York together, which is unusual. You film, you record over the interwebs, but you're here because...

[34:28] Lulu Picart: And we'll talk about this as if it already happened, because this is the magic of...

[34:31] Alan Seales: I know. I know. It was great. Wasn't it the best?

[34:34] Lulu Picart: It was. Podcast Time Travel. Allison, you came up to New York because you were on a SiriusXM show.

[34:39] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[34:42] Lulu Picart: And what did you do?

[34:46] Alison Burns: We were guests on John Fuglesang's Tell Me Everything show on SiriusXM Insight on Election Day. And you guys, it went so well. I mean, it was basically the best thing we've ever done.

[34:55] Lulu Picart: I was so well spoken.

[34:56] Alison Burns: I said nothing stupid. I let none of my anxieties out.

[35:01] Lulu Picart: Yeah. None of it made front page news.

[35:03] Alison Burns: No, we were just funny and classy and pretty and so easy to talk to.

[35:09] Lulu Picart: Yeah. He was so nice.

[35:11] Alison Burns: He was so nice. Oh, he just texted me.

[35:13] Lulu Picart: Oh, weird. Oh, let's take a selfie.

[35:15] Alison Burns: Okay. Send it to John.

[35:16] Lulu Picart: Hey, John.

[35:17] Alison Burns: Hey, John. He's so cool.

[35:23] Alan Seales: I really enjoyed listening to it as well.

[35:27] Alison Burns: Well, I'm happy. You've released over 45 episodes.

[35:36] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[35:38] Alison Burns: And then you do one a week.

[35:39] Lulu Picart: Yeah, we do one a week.

[35:40] Alison Burns: Almost a full year. You started January 1st, right?

[35:42] Lulu Picart: Close to. I think maybe the second week of January, maybe. And I have to say, so here's the thing. We're doing the hustle, right? She's doing the hustle in Florida and I'm doing the hustle here in New York. And we wanted to create something on our own terms because a lot of being an actor is going in for other people's projects, which is great, you know, sometimes. And we both had this feeling that we wanted to create something on our own.

[36:12] Alison Burns: We batted around some ideas like, what is that? Do we want to do cabarets? Do we want to do... We have a teaching company, a coaching company together. So, you know, are we going to do workshops? Like, we just felt that we needed to create something on our own terms that we had full creative control over. And we ended up thinking, oh, you know, that game we used to play on the subway, let's do a podcast. So, we record the first episode. My microphone's not even plugged in. We had no idea what we were doing. And we literally finished recording and we pressed stop. And then I was like, how do we put that on the internet?

[36:49] Lulu Picart: No clue. I was like, I'll Google it.

[36:53] Alison Burns: I was like, how do you put a podcast on the internet? Question mark.

[36:57] Lulu Picart: Because you do. You do Google things with full...

[37:02] Alison Burns: Literal full sentences.

[37:06] Lulu Picart: Correct. Yes.

[37:07] Alison Burns: I am a keyword person. She is. And this is very much our personalities because I basically live my life scanning for nouns. Do you know what I mean? Like, that's all I do. And she is like, but did you read the rest of the sentence? And I'm like, no, I don't know. It just said, be in Brooklyn. I don't know what time. Tell me. So, yeah, she puts everything in and we figured it out. We got it on the internet somehow. And baby step, baby step, baby step, baby step. We decided to do a live show at the Triad on 72nd a month ago, two months ago, something like that. And out of complete serendipity, someone ended up coming to a show out of a fluke. She happened to be in the theater before a house opened. And then was like, I'll come see your show. Turns out she was a comedy booker. And so we went out to drinks that night with her. And she said, you guys are comedians. And we said, oh, no, no, no. We're friends. We just talk about imaginary travel.

[38:10] Lulu Picart: Yeah. There's no thought process. There's no prep.

[38:18] Alison Burns: I mean, there's research, but there's no scripting. And so she goes, no, no, no, you are comedians. And I think you should apply to festivals. And I think that you should tour your live show. And I think that you should start being guests on comedy shows. And we were like, okay, cool. Thanks for the drinks. And before you know it, she booked us on SiriusXM. And we were kind of like, this isn't a real thing. And then we got the one sheet. And I was like, oh, we're like, oh, we have like our names at the desk. Yeah, it was big time.

[38:52] Lulu Picart: Yeah. Wow.

[38:53] Alison Burns: Yeah. When you get the PDF and the email, it's big news.

[38:56] Lulu Picart: It's real. It's real. And so the most amazing thing about this podcast is A, it gives me time with my best friend, because she's here on a work trip. So we get to take vacations together, but also that it has led itself to define itself its own way. And we're kind of letting it do it. We're figuring out where the momentum is. We're figuring out what direction we're going in. And I think we're pretty good about keeping open to that.

[39:27] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[39:28] Alison Burns: Seeing what the universe is telling us about it.

[39:30] Lulu Picart: Yeah. Yeah. And we love that some people listen to it because of the comedy aspect of it, which, again, we never really set out to be a comedy podcast. But because-

[39:40] Alison Burns: You're just funny people.

[39:41] Lulu Picart: Well, and because we're not really going to these places. And I am not a world traveler. I mean, I've only lived in the US in a couple states. I just ventured over the water to go to Hawaii. That's as far as I've been.

[39:57] Alison Burns: I just realized, if your listeners have not listened to our podcast, they have no idea what it's about.

[40:02] Lulu Picart: Well, I was getting to that.

[40:04] Alison Burns: Oh, Alison.

[40:07] Lulu Picart: So I am not a world traveler at all. But we do this research. We each pick a place each week, and we don't know what each other has picked. And we have to do the real research. We find the hotels. We find the restaurants and the excursions and the craziest, unique things to do in these places. And we try to spend $10,000 in one day. Now, I mean, I barely make $10,000 in a year. So it's out there for us.

[40:36] Alison Burns: And I don't know how to pronounce stuff. I've never tried caviar. I mean, I have now. But there's things that I don't know anything about. So that's where the comedy came in, because we'd realize, we'd talk about things, and we wouldn't know exactly what it was, but we thought we knew. But we are 100% sure when we prep that we know what we're talking about. I really think I've Googled everything I need to Google. And we spent the first six months thinking we were a travel podcast. And then after a while, I was like, this is not useful information for anyone planning a vacation. I mean, but that's what I mean. Some people do. I feel like if you had $10,000, that would be a great way to spend it.

[41:18] Lulu Picart: If I had $10,000, I would have someone that would plan the trip for me.

[41:23] Alison Burns: Right. But how I bought a donkey. Like people with $10,000 can buy donkeys. Maybe they didn't realize they could buy a donkey.

[41:33] Lulu Picart: And I let them know you can buy a donkey in Aruba.

[41:37] Alison Burns: Yeah, that's true.

[41:37] Lulu Picart: And name it.

[41:39] Alison Burns: What's his name?

[41:40] Lulu Picart: Kodak.

[41:41] Alison Burns: He's got big teeth.

[41:42] Alan Seales: What I really love about the podcast, and I was listening to it, you know, since you asked me to be on it, I was listening to it to prep. And both of you tell such great stories. You make up this whole story. You're like, I get up in the morning and I'm parched.

[42:04] Lulu Picart: Oh, you mean like what the day is?

[42:06] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. Like, I put my feet on the floor and feel the rug because I'm in this wonderful hotel that's five stars. And I shuffle over to my clear glass shower.

[42:19] Lulu Picart: Always a shower door with the TV built in. But you know, what's funny is there have been people that listen to it and actually forget that it's not real. I've had people text me and be like, oh my God, how amazing was the Philippines? And I'm like, no, no, no, that wasn't real.

[42:36] Alan Seales: Because they forget because, you know, we try to recreate it as if like, hey, if you were to go here and spend this money in one day, this is what it is.

[42:44] Lulu Picart: Yeah, you use so many adjectives. You describe your experience as if it actually happened. And you just happen to name drop a bunch of brands along the way to make the experience that much rounder. And it's incredible. I really love how you do it.

[43:01] Alison Burns: I'm so glad. I've never really broken it down like that. I think that I think it's really lucky that we've got the formula of telling each other the story as opposed to telling an audience the story. Because me wanting to describe it to Allison is like, no, Allison, are you listening to me? It is a glass shower door because I hate curtains. You know, I hate curtains because it touches you. Like, you know, when you're taking a shower in a hotel and the draft comes in and the curtain touches you and you just immediately think of every naked person that's ever been in that shower. No, well, you're welcome. Now you know, I will. Yep. No, thank you for that. You're welcome. Little magnets on the bottom don't help. Oh, those are no, they don't work because

[43:44] Alison Burns: A bathtub isn't made of metal like that. It's a ceramic.

[43:47] Lulu Picart: I think there's metal underneath the... You know what?

[43:51] Alison Burns: You know what? I don't know.

[43:55] Lulu Picart: I was about to say something with so much conviction, and I realized I knew nothing about bathtubs.

[44:04] Alison Burns: Tell me more.

[44:05] Lulu Picart: Right?

[44:07] Alison Burns: Yes. Now I'm picturing all the drafts that I have in my hotel room, which is also creepy.

[44:12] Lulu Picart: You're welcome.

[44:13] Alison Burns: Do you remember when the curved shower rods became a thing?

[44:18] Lulu Picart: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[44:19] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[44:19] Lulu Picart: Everybody had to have them.

[44:21] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[44:21] Lulu Picart: And now it's been so many years that they're all starting to sag a little bit.

[44:23] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[44:24] Lulu Picart: They're all coming out of the walls.

[44:25] Alison Burns: Look, four extra inches in the shower is a lot.

[44:29] Lulu Picart: That's a lot.

[44:30] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[44:31] Lulu Picart: Keeps the draft from putting the crazy hotel shower curtain on you.

[44:34] Alison Burns: I'm a tall guy with broad shoulders.

[44:37] Lulu Picart: I appreciate the elbow room.

[44:38] Alison Burns: That's what I'm saying.

[44:39] Lulu Picart: Yeah. Yeah.

[44:40] Alison Burns: So you've been doing it for a long time, almost a year.

[44:43] Lulu Picart: And you end up, I mean, just by the nature of having conversations, you become more and more comfortable with doing it in public or, I guess, to an audience.

[44:53] Alison Burns: Do you find it's helped either of you in any sort of therapeutic way to talk about problems, to communicate better with each other or communicate better with others?

[45:05] Lulu Picart: I will say this, and Allison may hate me, but I have seen so much interesting changes in Allison in the year we've been doing it.

[45:11] Alison Burns: A, I did not know when we started the podcast how little she actually had traveled.

[45:21] Lulu Picart: I knew she was an Air Force brat and she had toured. So I was kind of like...

[45:26] Alison Burns: Plus, we were guest entertainers on a cruise ship that went all the way to like Jamaica.

[45:30] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[45:31] Alison Burns: So for a day.

[45:34] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[45:34] Alison Burns: For a day.

[45:35] Lulu Picart: Like a three-day cruise.

[45:37] Alison Burns: No.

[45:37] Lulu Picart: No, it was like seven.

[45:38] Alison Burns: First of all, it was a seven-day cruise and we performed on the first day.

[45:41] Lulu Picart: For 45 minutes.

[45:42] Alison Burns: And that's all we had to do.

[45:44] Lulu Picart: That was it?

[45:44] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[45:45] Lulu Picart: Yes.

[45:45] Alison Burns: We got the whole cruise for free.

[45:47] Lulu Picart: That's so nice.

[45:48] Alison Burns: But we couldn't afford to do anything else on the cruise.

[45:50] Lulu Picart: So we would like... Remember, we would go to like the spa, but we couldn't afford to get any of the treatments.

[45:55] Alison Burns: We would just like sit there.

[45:56] Lulu Picart: We would come and we would do like facials in my cabin.

[45:59] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[45:59] Lulu Picart: So she would come to my cabin and we would do masks and paint our nails and pretend that we had gone to the spa.

[46:04] Alison Burns: And then just like sit on the chair.

[46:05] Lulu Picart: And then just like sit on the chairs in the spa later.

[46:09] Alison Burns: That's fun.

[46:10] Lulu Picart: That's so cute.

[46:10] Alison Burns: I know.

[46:11] Lulu Picart: It's weird.

[46:11] Alison Burns: It's weird because that's actually a kind of a luxury thing.

[46:16] Lulu Picart: Like we're on this luxury cruise ship and we're doing it.

[46:18] Alison Burns: But yeah.

[46:20] Lulu Picart: So I think directly because of the podcast, and if I'm wrong, you can correct me.

[46:27] Alison Burns: You booked a trip to Hawaii because we've been dreaming of traveling and we've been talking about all these places.

[46:32] Lulu Picart: And I think that for the first time, Allison was like, I can actually go to these places that seemed relatively out of my existence before.

[46:45] Alison Burns: And then she made a plan and she went.

[46:47] Lulu Picart: And I was so excited when she told me on the podcast that she had booked it.

[46:52] Alison Burns: I had to hold it in.

[46:54] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[46:54] Alison Burns: She was like, hey, I have a happy.

[46:55] Lulu Picart: Because we end every podcast with something small that makes you happy.

[46:59] Alison Burns: Well, this was big, but something small.

[47:00] Lulu Picart: She goes, well, I have my happy.

[47:02] Alison Burns: She goes, I got my tax return.

[47:04] Lulu Picart: I booked a flight to Hawaii and I could not believe it.

[47:07] Alison Burns: I was so excited about it.

[47:09] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[47:09] Alison Burns: So I think that your possibilities are getting wider.

[47:15] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[47:16] Alison Burns: And it definitely, the podcast sparked a passion in me that I didn't know I had, which was not even just the travel aspect, but realizing that the world is so much bigger than me.

[47:28] Lulu Picart: And seeing all of these different places around the world and the different cultures and the different experiences.

[47:36] Alison Burns: I want to do it all.

[47:38] Lulu Picart: Every episode, I would love at some point to hit the freaking lottery and go back to episode one and do each day.

[47:44] Alison Burns: That would be a dream.

[47:49] Lulu Picart: Just because it's so amazing how big this world is.

[47:53] Alison Burns: And I'm such a small little part of it.

[47:56] Lulu Picart: So I definitely booked the Hawaii trip because of that.

[47:58] Alison Burns: I would have never done it.

[47:59] Lulu Picart: I would have spent it all.

[48:00] Alison Burns: It made me realize you have one life.

[48:04] Lulu Picart: I've never traveled outside of the US.

[48:07] Alison Burns: I'm in Canada.

[48:07] Lulu Picart: That's it.

[48:09] Alison Burns: And I was like, I could either spend this tax return to pay all of my bills ahead of time or go on a lifetime, once-in-a-lifetime trip to Hawaii.

[48:19] Lulu Picart: Just do it.

[48:20] Alison Burns: So I did.

[48:21] Lulu Picart: And it was amazing.

[48:22] Alison Burns: Amazing.

[48:23] Lulu Picart: Mm-hmm.

[48:24] Alison Burns: Well, plus, you've been a mom.

[48:28] Lulu Picart: Right.

[48:28] Alison Burns: Since you were a kid.

[48:29] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[48:30] Alison Burns: So suddenly, we're in this process of spending... It takes about four to five hours to prep one 10K day, right?

[48:38] Lulu Picart: And so you're in the process of putting a significant amount of time every week, which makes it a habit of just thinking of what you would do by yourself if you had some money to spend.

[48:48] Alison Burns: And that's a really...

[48:50] Lulu Picart: It's what it says about traveling without my kids.

[48:51] Alison Burns: See?

[48:52] Lulu Picart: It's a really...

[48:53] Alison Burns: That's what this is.

[48:53] Lulu Picart: It's just you.

[48:54] Alison Burns: Like, every once in a while, we'll pretend like we bring someone along, but it's just you.

[48:58] Lulu Picart: It's really liberating.

[49:00] Alison Burns: No, no, no.

[49:00] Lulu Picart: But that's exactly what I'm saying.

[49:01] Alison Burns: It's just kind of like, if I were alone on this trip, and I didn't have to compromise anything that I wanted to do, regardless of how much you love the person you're compromising with, right?

[49:13] Lulu Picart: What would I do?

[49:15] Alison Burns: Well, I want to go to museums.

[49:16] Lulu Picart: No one ever wants to go to museums with me.

[49:18] Alison Burns: Great.

[49:18] Lulu Picart: You know what? I'm going to the museum.

[49:20] Alison Burns: And there's something liberating and lovely and freeing about that.

[49:24] Lulu Picart: And I'm a single woman in New York.

[49:26] Alison Burns: Like, if I want to go to a museum, I can.

[49:29] Lulu Picart: Allison doesn't always have that luxury because she's been spending so much of her time thinking about other people.

[49:34] Alison Burns: So I'm super happy that my bestie thinks about herself and only herself for five hours a week.

[49:41] Lulu Picart: I'm 100% on board with that.

[49:44] Alison Burns: That's so nice.

[49:45] Lulu Picart: Allison's tearing up.

[49:47] Alison Burns: I know, right?

[49:48] Lulu Picart: The only downside of that, though, is the fact that because we spend five plus hours a week, or more if we're prepping more days, on spending an exorbitant amount of money, I do start to have a warped sense of money to where I will see something and be like, that's only $100.

[50:06] Alison Burns: That's nothing.

[50:10] Lulu Picart: Or you know what I mean?

[50:12] Alison Burns: Like, I start to view money differently because I'm trying so hard to spend it in an imaginary world.

[50:16] Lulu Picart: I'm trying to spend $1,000 plus on a dinner.

[50:22] Alison Burns: So then when I get my bill at dinner and it's like $50, I'm like, cheap.

[50:27] Lulu Picart: Like, so cheap, you know?

[50:29] Alison Burns: Well, that's New York.

[50:29] Lulu Picart: $50 is cheap.

[50:30] Alison Burns: Well, yeah.

[50:31] Lulu Picart: That's true.

[50:32] Alison Burns: So it is in that way, the habit becomes a little bit of like, oh, wait, keep yourself in check.

[50:36] Lulu Picart: You don't have $10K, you know?

[50:38] Alison Burns: We took a trip this year to Nashville together.

[50:41] Lulu Picart: It was the first time that we've gone on vacation together, and it's the first time that she's gone on vacation without her children or her husband.

[50:49] Alison Burns: And so that was a big step for us, too.

[50:53] Lulu Picart: Like, we got to go to a city we didn't really, really know and explore and plan days.

[50:59] Alison Burns: And it's great.

[51:01] Lulu Picart: Yeah, it was amazing.

[51:02] Alison Burns: I mean, not everybody, but even I, I go, why don't I go on vacation?

[51:06] Lulu Picart: You know, why don't I do it?

[51:08] Alison Burns: Why did I buy $150 of sheet masks?

[51:15] Lulu Picart: Yeah, to sit in your apartment.

[51:16] Alison Burns: To sit in my apartment and make my face look better.

[51:19] Lulu Picart: When I could maybe take a long weekend with a friend and make my smile look better.

[51:23] Alison Burns: Do you know what I mean?

[51:24] Lulu Picart: Like, just get your priorities straight.

[51:26] Alison Burns: That was poetic.

[51:28] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[51:28] Alison Burns: It wasn't that poetic.

[51:29] Lulu Picart: I mean, it was.

[51:30] Alison Burns: I almost pulled out of it halfway through that sentence.

[51:36] Lulu Picart: You committed.

[51:39] Alison Burns: I think you verbalize visually.

[51:41] Lulu Picart: Do you know what I mean?

[51:42] Alison Burns: I verbalize visually.

[51:44] Lulu Picart: I think that just was an example of that.

[51:48] Alison Burns: She had to think of that.

[51:49] Lulu Picart: I verbalize.

[51:50] Alison Burns: No, I don't know what you mean.

[51:52] Lulu Picart: When I am trying to think of what I'm in my head.

[51:58] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[51:58] Lulu Picart: I shouldn't be in my head, but I'm in my head.

[52:01] Alison Burns: I picture my sentences and they, like what you did earlier.

[52:05] Lulu Picart: You picture actual words?

[52:06] Alison Burns: Yes.

[52:06] Lulu Picart: Okay.

[52:07] Alison Burns: And that's when I'm trying to figure out what somebody has said.

[52:09] Lulu Picart: If I didn't hear them all the way, I'm like, the words are spinning in my head like a Rolodex.

[52:15] Alison Burns: It could be this word, this word, this word, this word.

[52:17] Lulu Picart: Oh, no, that's not.

[52:18] Alison Burns: No.

[52:18] Lulu Picart: You know what? Remember when I said I'm a noun person?

[52:21] Alison Burns: I'm very much like, what's the main noun?

[52:23] Lulu Picart: What's the main verb?

[52:24] Alison Burns: What's the subject of the sentence?

[52:26] Lulu Picart: I don't care about the predicate.

[52:27] Alison Burns: So when people say a sentence that I just need to parse out a little bit, I can see the words, like what you're talking about.

[52:36] Lulu Picart: But it's literally like the noun becomes bold and then the verb becomes bold.

[52:42] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[52:43] Lulu Picart: So if you gave me this big, complex sentence about this boy, Johnny, who jumped over a stile and then he had a bucket of water and the water was cold and the thing.

[52:50] Alison Burns: I'd be like, okay, I don't care about the bucket.

[52:53] Lulu Picart: Johnny jumped stile.

[52:54] Alison Burns: Got it.

[52:56] Lulu Picart: Huh.

[52:56] Alison Burns: I don't need the details.

[52:57] Lulu Picart: I can picture that.

[52:58] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[52:59] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[52:59] Alison Burns: Okay.

[53:00] Lulu Picart: Yeah, yeah.

[53:03] Alison Burns: Two people's minds are blown and everyone else on this podcast is like, what is she talking about?

[53:08] Lulu Picart: This one person in Alaska is like, yes.

[53:10] Alison Burns: Who's just like diagramming sentences in the glaciers.

[53:13] Lulu Picart: Just so happy he's found his soulmate.

[53:15] Alison Burns: How does your mind work?

[53:16] Lulu Picart: Oh, I just had to remind myself what a noun was.

[53:20] Alison Burns: I'm like noun, person, place, thing, adjective, descriptive.

[53:23] Lulu Picart: Like I have to remind myself.

[53:26] Alison Burns: I mean, I do not have an MBA, right?

[53:30] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[53:30] Alison Burns: Grammar's big in the MBA program.

[53:32] Lulu Picart: Yeah, you don't know how to speak good until you get your MBA.

[53:35] Alison Burns: You can't speak well until you get that MBA.

[53:37] Lulu Picart: You don't know what to do in those meetings.

[53:38] Alison Burns: Is that an Arkansas joke?

[53:39] Lulu Picart: I don't know.

[53:40] Alison Burns: What?

[53:43] Lulu Picart: No, I don't know how my brain works.

[53:48] Alison Burns: I'm just a free spirit.

[53:50] Lulu Picart: I just say whatever.

[53:52] Alison Burns: I don't think a lot before I speak, I think, right?

[53:55] Lulu Picart: That is true.

[53:55] Alison Burns: Yeah, I just kind of say it.

[53:57] Lulu Picart: She's the most chill, go with the flow, whatever person.

[54:03] Alison Burns: And I am not.

[54:08] Lulu Picart: I have to have my bedroom a certain way.

[54:10] Alison Burns: I have to make my bed before I sleep in it.

[54:12] Lulu Picart: I have to have this and I have that.

[54:14] Alison Burns: Yes, I don't do it in the morning.

[54:15] Lulu Picart: I know, whatever.

[54:16] Alison Burns: But I can't sleep unless it's made.

[54:18] Lulu Picart: So I have to make it right before I sleep.

[54:21] Alison Burns: And I'm sleeping on a couch with no pillowcase.

[54:24] Lulu Picart: She's like, do you have a bathtub?

[54:26] Alison Burns: She doesn't care.

[54:27] Lulu Picart: As long as it's metal.

[54:30] Alison Burns: Glass door, glass door.

[54:31] Lulu Picart: Yeah, I don't know.

[54:32] Alison Burns: Yeah, I'm pretty easygoing.

[54:34] Lulu Picart: You're very easygoing.

[54:36] Alison Burns: So I just kind of...

[54:37] Lulu Picart: I'm definitely not the smartest person in the bunch as far as book smart.

[54:42] Alison Burns: I have a lot of common sense in life because I've been through a lot.

[54:46] Lulu Picart: You're super street smart.

[54:47] Alison Burns: Very street smart.

[54:48] Lulu Picart: You can break into any door.

[54:50] Alison Burns: I can.

[54:51] Lulu Picart: I'm always ready for everything.

[54:54] Alison Burns: For any apocalypse of any type.

[54:56] Lulu Picart: Any bad scenario, any good scenario.

[54:58] Alison Burns: I'm constantly ready.

[54:59] Lulu Picart: Nothing overwhelms me in that aspect.

[55:02] Alison Burns: I'm always ready for something to happen.

[55:05] Lulu Picart: She's always like, what's your escape plan?

[55:12] Alison Burns: And I'm like, you.

[55:13] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[55:14] Alison Burns: I don't have to think about it.

[55:15] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[55:17] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[55:19] Lulu Picart: Yeah, street smart.

[55:21] Alison Burns: I get that.

[55:21] Lulu Picart: I get that.

[55:23] Alison Burns: Yeah, I'm like, I got a little bit of both.

[55:26] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[55:29] Alison Burns: So gosh, we've been chatting almost an hour here.

[55:31] Lulu Picart: Oh no, really?

[55:33] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[55:33] Lulu Picart: So I actually want to end.

[55:35] Alison Burns: I have my own closing standards.

[55:37] Lulu Picart: Oh.

[55:37] Alison Burns: But before we get to those, I want to actually do a happy.

[55:41] Lulu Picart: I was hoping you were going to do a happy.

[55:43] Alison Burns: Can we talk about the happy's real fast?

[55:44] Lulu Picart: Yeah, yeah.

[55:46] Alison Burns: Okay, so peeps, here's the deal.

[55:49] Lulu Picart: We do this thing at the end of our podcast where we talk about what makes us happy that day.

[55:55] Alison Burns: And it used to be that week, right?

[55:56] Lulu Picart: It used to be like, what's your happy this week?

[55:58] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[55:58] Lulu Picart: And as kind of a practice, like a mindfulness practice, we decided we're going to start putting this on our Instagram story, our $10K a day Instagram story as a, you know, now find one every day.

[56:11] Alison Burns: Yeah, like a hashtag, what's your happy?

[56:13] Lulu Picart: Whatever.

[56:13] Alison Burns: And we have people sending us, like, what's your happy's?

[56:16] Lulu Picart: And we repost them.

[56:18] Alison Burns: And it's great because everyone has something little.

[56:21] Lulu Picart: You know, I saw Golden Retriever and it wanted to talk to me.

[56:24] Alison Burns: Happy.

[56:25] Lulu Picart: Like, I don't need you to have won an Oscar.

[56:27] Alison Burns: There's a young girl in high school who sends us, like, her band videos.

[56:30] Lulu Picart: Like, she's playing different instruments.

[56:32] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[56:32] Lulu Picart: Adorable.

[56:33] Alison Burns: And when she, like, gets a run, correct?

[56:35] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[56:35] Alison Burns: She takes a video and sends it to us.

[56:38] Lulu Picart: Oh, that's great.

[56:39] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[56:39] Lulu Picart: I know.

[56:40] Alison Burns: It makes me so happy.

[56:42] Lulu Picart: So, what's your happy?

[56:44] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[56:44] Lulu Picart: My happy today was the moment on the train coming back with my two and a half year old.

[56:51] Alison Burns: The face grabby.

[56:52] Lulu Picart: Because he was just giggling.

[56:53] Alison Burns: He gets in these modes where he just giggles and giggles.

[56:55] Lulu Picart: And I could tell, like, the hardened, like, you know, shell of a New Yorker that doesn't want to be on a crowded train.

[57:01] Alison Burns: All the people in my immediate vicinity, I was watching them out of the corner of my eye, too.

[57:08] Lulu Picart: And all of them were watching him and, like, smiling when he would giggle and whatnot.

[57:12] Alison Burns: So, it was like, I was enjoying the moment of bringing a little bit of joy to their lives and while enjoying it myself.

[57:18] Lulu Picart: And, you know, just one of them New York moments.

[57:21] Alison Burns: I love that.

[57:23] Lulu Picart: What are your happy's, though?

[57:25] Alison Burns: Well, my happy actually happened last night.

[57:29] Lulu Picart: We went and saw a show, Christina Bianco's CD release party.

[57:34] Alison Burns: And I had the best experience because she brought a fan up on stage to sing a duet with her.

[57:41] Lulu Picart: I was picturing, like, a plug-in fan.

[57:44] Alison Burns: No, no, no. Like, a person.

[57:45] Lulu Picart: Like, a person from California.

[57:49] Alison Burns: This girl is, like, a huge fan.

[57:51] Lulu Picart: She, like, joined her GoFundMe and signed up to, like, sing a duet with her.

[57:56] Alison Burns: This girl is not a performer.

[57:58] Lulu Picart: She's just a fan.

[57:59] Alison Burns: And she got her two minutes of fame.

[58:02] Lulu Picart: And it was the most moving thing.

[58:05] Alison Burns: This girl's day-life experience was made.

[58:08] Lulu Picart: Like, she's going to post about this.

[58:09] Alison Burns: I felt so happy for her.

[58:11] Lulu Picart: I was, like, tearing up.

[58:13] Alison Burns: And they sang, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart...

[58:16] Lulu Picart: What?

[58:16] Alison Burns: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes...

[58:18] Lulu Picart: Her dream is coming true! And just so happy, and it made me so happy to watch her 'cause you are just living your life like through her. 'Cause I could feel like... It was two minutes of Christina's life. And she gave those two minutes to this woman who flew from California to sing on the... Or what stage? The Birdland stage. Like... I've never sang on the Birdland stage. She got her moment. Like, that made her night. Regardless if she couldn't hit the note. Who cares? Like, it was beautiful. She actually sounded really good.

[59:00] Alison Burns: She did. She actually sounded great. They harmonized.

[59:04] Lulu Picart: Yeah, she held the melody the whole time and Christina was a third above her. It was great. It was beautiful. It made me so happy. And I immediately was like, how can we do this? How can we... I want to do it. We did meet Ellen Seals on episode 43. We should do a treat. That was my dream.

[59:20] Alison Burns: Well, actually... Hold on. Your 10k day, you actually are making come true.

[59:24] Lulu Picart: That is true. Because you prepped a 10k day for us. You did it. You prepped the whole day and then booked passage.

[59:30] Alison Burns: Booked passage? On the Queen Elizabeth? What am I talking about? On the Titanic? What's happening? And then you booked tickets to go there and actually take that vacation.

[59:39] Lulu Picart: So, I rest my case. That's huge.

[59:42] Alison Burns: So, for those listening, I spent 7 of the 10,000 on, like, a MacBook Pro and a drone and things I won't actually take.

[59:48] Lulu Picart: Oh, right.

[59:49] Alison Burns: Ellen's not actually taking a $10,000 day vacation. It's actually very inexpensive.

[59:53] Lulu Picart: I was surprised.

[59:54] Alison Burns: Yeah. In fact, you had to add the MacBook Pro to get to 10,000.

[59:58] Lulu Picart: Yes.

[59:59] Alison Burns: So, for context, it is swimming with the whales in Tonga. It was my 10k day.

[1:00:05] Lulu Picart: Oh, I can't wait for those pictures. Episode 43 of 10k dollar day podcast.

[1:00:09] Alison Burns: Yeah. So, then my closing standards.

[1:00:11] Lulu Picart: Allison, we'll start with you.

[1:00:12] Alison Burns: I didn't get to do a happy.

[1:00:14] Lulu Picart: Oh, yeah. Lulu, you're happy. I'm sorry.

[1:00:16] Alison Burns: I'm very happy to be included. And scene.

[1:00:20] Lulu Picart: Mine is a real New York theater happy.

[1:00:23] Alison Burns: Why?

[1:00:24] Lulu Picart: So, I feel like I'm on brand for you right now. Okay. Today, I, okay, ignore everything I said about feeling taken advantage of benefits because today I did work a benefit. Today, I music directed a benefit that was honoring Bayork Lee, who I have always known as this force of nature, who was in the original cast of Chorus Line and teaches it all over the country and all this kind of stuff. I had no idea of her extensive pedigree. She was five years old, I think, when she was first on Broadway. She was in the original cast of The King and I.

[1:01:02] Alison Burns: Oh.

[1:01:03] Lulu Picart: Isn't that cool? And she told these really great stories about how on opening night of A Chorus Line, Michael Bennett came to her in the green room and said, I'm giving you this show. You will now go and teach this around the world. I'm giving it to you. You know, have fun. Just really beautiful things. And I was watching her and I'm Filipino American, which is not actually something that I think about all the time, even in auditions or even in looking for roles. It's just not my first identifier that I think of. And so to see this woman who kind of trailblazed her way as an Asian American actor and who started a theater just for Asian American acting and who has had a career since whatever year she started, probably the 50s, maybe, King and I, I would say, constantly being booked, constantly being a director, constantly choreographing, constantly working and being really revered in her field. It was a really great perspective because I forget that it wasn't always that we could audition for everything.

[1:02:04] Alison Burns: You know, because we're kind of in this different world right now where I can walk into an audition and say, have you thought about a woman? And they go, oh, we haven't thought about a woman. I go, great, cool. So let me do this. Have you thought about a brown person? And they go, oh, we didn't think about that. Great, cool. Let me audition for that. That is new. Even when I first moved to New York, that was not a thing. So being in a room with someone who fought that fight was really, it had a really big effect on me this afternoon.

[1:02:29] Lulu Picart: That's very good, Heppy.

[1:02:30] Alison Burns: Yeah, it was cool.

[1:02:31] Lulu Picart: Yeah, I agree. It was a really great moment for me to sit there, listen to the history. And she's so loved. She's a loving woman. And she's gracious and she's kind. So just to kind of watch her just be so honored by all of these people. And a bunch of people just got up spontaneously to speak who weren't even supposed to speak. And they were like, she's great. I love her. It was a really lovely day.

[1:02:57] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[1:02:58] Lulu Picart: That's beautiful. So then my closing standard questions, then very simply, Allison, we'll start with you then. What motivates you?

[1:03:06] Alison Burns: Oh, you have a moment to think.

[1:03:09] Lulu Picart: I do.

[1:03:10] Alison Burns: What motivates me? I think for me, it's passion. As far as like, if I'm passionate about something, I'm going to do it. Yeah, regardless of what that means. Like, I'm a super go-getter. Like if something's, if I don't feel strongly about something, then I know that's not my path and I immediately change it. So like, I am passion-driven and in very different ways. I'm passionate about my kids and I'm passionate about my family and my friends and these projects that we have. My coaching business, teaching children, inspiring. So I think for me, it's a heart thing. Does that make sense? If I feel strongly about something, that's the direction I'm going to go. And the second that that doesn't feel right, it is not a problem for me to change that direction immediately.

[1:04:03] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[1:04:04] Alison Burns: What is that? You fall in love easily and it's hard to fall out of love or the reverse?

[1:04:09] Lulu Picart: I don't know.

[1:04:10] Alison Burns: I've been married three times, so.

[1:04:12] Lulu Picart: I mean, she says she's like, we'll change direction. But we all heard the Fry Box story, right?

[1:04:16] Alison Burns: No, I know. But that was like, I was on the direction. And then the second that I was like, oh, no, not this direction. Then I went the other direction. And then I did that direction. And then I was like, oh, that's really not the direction. And so then I went the next direction. And I'm like, all right, cool. This is a good direction.

[1:04:35] Lulu Picart: Good.

[1:04:36] Alison Burns: Yeah. Cool. We're going.

[1:04:38] Lulu Picart: Yeah, right. What motivates you?

[1:04:41] Lulu Picart: I like stories. And I think that's why I was a political science major. I like figuring out why people think things. I like figuring out the path to get. So this kind of is everything. It's being an actor, political science, my master's in leadership. It's all kind of the same thing. It's like how to get people to what motivates people, what makes them happy or sad, what their triggers are. Why their relationships are like this. And if you replace that with countries, that's political science. So I really love to pick stories apart like that. It's my favorite thing. I mean, I love text. And I love words. And I love the specificity of words. And I love the difference between a sheaf of grass and a blade of grass. Do you know what I mean? I just like really, really love to get specific. No? Yes? No? Yes, thanks. I got one nod around the table and I will take it.

[1:06:25] Alison Burns: Yeah, so I really like stories. I like telling stories. I like the process as an actor of figuring out the story for myself, figuring out that point of view. And then trying to make sure that an audience, it's very clear to an audience what that point of view is, unless I'm trying to obscure it. Right. But the process of honing down exactly what that point of view is and the process of honing down what actions and inflections portray that is fascinating to me and will always be fascinating.

[1:07:07] Lulu Picart: That's really interesting. You're a very multidimensional individual.

[1:07:11] Alison Burns: I have so many dimensions.

[1:07:12] Lulu Picart: I'm basically Doctor Who in a person.

[1:07:15] Alison Burns: Doctor Who is a person?

[1:07:18] Lulu Picart: Ooh.

[1:07:20] Alison Burns: Wait.

[1:07:21] Lulu Picart: Well.

[1:07:22] Alison Burns: Hold on. No. First, you can't say that because Doctor Who is not from Earth.

[1:07:26] Lulu Picart: Right. And then B. Gallifrey has people. Gallifrey has Gallifreyans. But people is a generic term for humans?

[1:07:35] Alison Burns: I think so. That's a definition situation. This is a semantics problem.

[1:07:40] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[1:07:41] Alison Burns: I. I. Beings. OK. As I'm. Can I ask an off topic question?

[1:07:48] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[1:07:49] Alison Burns: No explanation. Favorite doctor.

[1:07:53] Lulu Picart: No explanation. I haven't seen this season yet.

[1:07:56] Alison Burns: Neither have I.

[1:08:00] Lulu Picart: David Tennant.

[1:08:02] Alison Burns: Are we still friends?

[1:08:04] Lulu Picart: Matt Smith.

[1:08:05] Alison Burns: I like Matt Smith.

[1:08:07] Lulu Picart: I like Matt Smith, but. Yeah, I like Matt Smith.

[1:08:11] Alison Burns: And I'm going to throw you a real wild card. Allison does not watch Doctor Who.

[1:08:15] Lulu Picart: This is not interesting.

[1:08:16] Alison Burns: I'm a favorite doctor.

[1:08:17] Lulu Picart: You do?

[1:08:18] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[1:08:19] Lulu Picart: Who?

[1:08:20] Alison Burns: Doctor McDreamy.

[1:08:21] Lulu Picart: OK. Fair.

[1:08:23] Alison Burns: Thank you. That's a person.

[1:08:25] Lulu Picart: Yes.

[1:08:26] Alison Burns: Yeah, he is. Not a Gallifreyan.

[1:08:28] Lulu Picart: Nope.

[1:08:29] Alison Burns: All right. Back on topic.

[1:08:30] Lulu Picart: Why? What were you expecting? I mean, you've listened to our podcast. It will be like 30 minutes into an episode. I'm like, are they going to do a 10K day?

[1:08:37] Alison Burns: Maybe. Yeah, maybe. Who knows? But I'm still listening because it's still interesting.

[1:08:41] Lulu Picart: Alan, we'll start with you. What advice would you give to your younger self and the younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[1:08:43] Alison Burns: OK. Can you give me a general age?

[1:08:46] Lulu Picart: No.

[1:08:47] Alison Burns: Oh, God. No.

[1:08:49] Lulu Picart: No.

[1:08:50] Alison Burns: No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

[1:09:03] Lulu Picart: Oh, gosh. OK. Wait, just on your path?

[1:09:06] Alison Burns: Well, somebody who wanted to. They want to do what I do?

[1:09:09] Lulu Picart: Yes.

[1:09:10] Alison Burns: Do you know how hard this is, people? No, I'm just kidding. I mean, it is. The implication of the question is musical theater.

[1:09:14] Alison Burns: Musical theater. In general. Musical theater. Theater. The name of the podcast. What, what, what, what, what, why am I sweating? Think of the nouns. Think of the nouns and the adjectives. I'm literally trying to remember that. What advice do I have? Is that what you said? What advice would you give to your younger self and the younger people listening now starting out down a similar path? No. No. No. No. No. No. No. What advice would you give to your younger self or others? Me. Me. Yes. But what advice would you give to your younger self? To me? Yes. But I have advice for people who aren't me. If you were a doctor who and you could go back and talk to yourself. Yeah. Give yourself different advice.

Aye aye aye, OK. If I could go back to myself, well, kind of off the regrets thing, I would say, reserve a little more time for yourself and take care of yourself and, and give yourself self-care and make sure you're not, make sure you're not burned out. And if you are feeling burned out, just tell someone and say, this is more work than I thought it was going to be. Can we come to a compromise? Can we do something? Because I spent so much time trying to please everyone and be a cool team player, you know? And I think that that is a good trait of my personality, but also like, I'm so Hufflepuff. It's unbelievable. You know what I mean? Like, I'm always like, oh, I'll be at the back of the tour group because I don't want to be aggressive. And now I can't hear the person. Like, it's always just so many things.

[1:10:41] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[1:10:43] Alison Burns: So I think, I think that's probably the biggest thing. Start taking care of yourself way earlier than you thought you would need to. And I would also say, moisturize your hands. That's a, that's a real thing. Look, never give up an opportunity to moisturize your hands, people. I have naturally oily skin.

[1:11:03] Lulu Picart: I do too.

[1:11:04] Alison Burns: We've all seen those people who look real tight, neck up. I'm just saying, moisturize your hands.

[1:11:11] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[1:11:12] Alison Burns: Thank you. You're welcome. That's a good one. My advice, I think for, you know, the theater kids who want to do this.

[1:11:22] Lulu Picart: Or younger you.

[1:11:23] Alison Burns: Or younger me. Well, yeah, especially younger me. Would be to realize kind of who you are as a performer and be okay with that. I found myself very early on trying to be, or trying to be like the other people that I thought were making it. Like the big, you know, I was like, oh, I need to be able to belt this high. And I need to be able to fit into this box that I thought everybody else that was, that were getting booked was in.

[1:11:52] Lulu Picart: Which is why I think I got nodes.

[1:11:54] Alison Burns: Do you know what I mean? I was like pushing myself to this limit that that's not who I am. And it became very clear to me that I had very different skill sets, but they were also valuable. So I think kind of finding where you fit and then honing those talents, making them the best you can be, and then being okay with that. And then going out for those roles and realizing that it might not be the role that you envisioned for yourself, but being very truthful with who you are and the skills that you've been given. I think that would be what, you know, I would tell myself early on.

[1:12:28] Lulu Picart: I would also tell myself back in my 20s that, this is going to sound, I'm trying to figure out how to like phrase this really perfectly. But as someone who in my 20s always booked character roles, it's really hard sometimes when you, when all of your show life is the secondary character, because you start to feel like.

[1:12:53] Lulu Picart: We're going to be talking about the 10KDollarDay Comedy Podcast.

[1:13:23] Alison Burns: Not putting so much importance on that would have been really helpful in my 20s. And then realizing too that the people that you're auditioning for are literally one, two, three people in the world of opinions. So to not take that to heart. Because if you bring three other people in, those opinions change. So it's important to know who you are and the skill set that you have. And walk in, do your best, and walk out, and have a great day.

[1:14:25] Lulu Picart: If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what show would you see?

[1:14:34] Alison Burns: Oh my. Oh no. Oh. See, here's the thing about me too, though. As not worldly as I am, I live in Florida. I never saw a Broadway show until I moved to New York at 19 and I saw Beauty and the Beast for the first time. So I also haven't seen a lot. It makes me very sad. I do most of my watching on YouTube. So I feel like I can't. I know some of my favorite music out there, but as far as a show, I think Beautiful is one of the most beautiful shows I've ever seen. I think I could watch that a gazillion times. I love that show. I love that show. It has everything. Do you know what I mean? It has everything. So I think that might be one for me. Except people that look like me, so I can't audition for that show.

[1:15:39] Lulu Picart: But time is changing, Lou.

[1:15:40] Alison Burns: That's right. You could walk in. Not enough to play a historic show with real characters in the 60s. I do love plot, so I don't think I can be in that show. I don't think I have one because as soon as you said that, I only let myself think of things with improv bits in it because I knew I'd get bored.

[1:16:02] Lulu Picart: Well, that's fine. And I was like, well, what show would that be that had improv bits in it? Because I need something to change from day to day if I'm going to watch it. I say that, but I watch movies a lot over and over and over. So I don't have one.

[1:16:18] Alison Burns: You have to.

[1:16:19] Lulu Picart: What?

[1:16:20] Alison Burns: You have to have one.

[1:16:21] Lulu Picart: Has anyone said I don't have one?

[1:16:22] Alison Burns: No.

[1:16:23] Lulu Picart: This is a new podcast.

[1:16:24] Alison Burns: Maybe I'm breaking the mold.

[1:16:26] Lulu Picart: Maybe I'm opening it up for not – I mean, I had a reason why I didn't have one. I wasn't just like, don't have one. I was like, oh, because.

[1:16:33] Alison Burns: Then we'll go with Oh, Hello.

[1:16:36] Lulu Picart: I didn't see it. I didn't even see the one on Netflix yet, but I love John Mulaney, so I will. Please stop looking at me like that.

[1:16:41] Alison Burns: Nicole and John Mulaney, they improv a lot in that thing. I'll say this. Here's a show that I haven't seen yet, but it fits my criteria. Also don't know the name, but I can describe it. It's in Chicago. Everyone, if you know the name of this or the name of the two brilliant comedians, please email me at 10kdollardayatgmail.com. It's two improvisational actors. I don't remember their names, but I think that their names are the name of the show. They're in Chicago, and they start every show by sitting across from each other at a table, and then the show starts. It's different every single night.

[1:17:26] Alison Burns: Oh, that's cool. It's 100% improvised.

[1:17:30] Lulu Picart: Hold on. Wait, Ashley, when is it? Ashley in the booth? Yeah, yeah. TJ and Dave?

[1:17:35] Alison Burns: TJ and Dave. That's it. TJ and Dave.

[1:17:38] Lulu Picart: Huh. All right. It says brilliant and heartbreaking. Well, one day it might be funny, though, and one day it might be heartbreaking.

[1:17:47] Alison Burns: Okay. That is, come on. Look, you start an entire run of a show with zero...

[1:17:52] Lulu Picart: You're so defensive right now.

[1:17:54] Alison Burns: No, no, no, no. This is excitement. It sounds a little aggressive, but this is excitement. I mean...

[1:18:01] Lulu Picart: You've never seen it, though.

[1:18:03] Alison Burns: Yeah, okay. But look, I know their reputation. I know they're very good, and I know... Allison, imagine this, because we're both improv people, right?

[1:18:11] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[1:18:12] Alison Burns: So no planning at all, but you know that you're going to start by sitting across from each other at the table. So it's $10K day. And then an hour and a half later, you have a show. That is everything I love in theater.

[1:18:29] Lulu Picart: Who starts?

[1:18:30] Alison Burns: Exactly. They don't have a plan. There's literally no plan.

[1:18:34] Lulu Picart: So they just stare at each other?

[1:18:36] Alison Burns: Until someone gives an offer.

[1:18:39] Lulu Picart: Huh. One of them.

[1:18:41] Alison Burns: You want to try it?

[1:18:42] Lulu Picart: Okay.

[1:18:43] Alison Burns: Okay, here we go. I'm witnessing the birth of a brand new show.

[1:18:49] Lulu Picart: Fry Box, huh? Things happen.

[1:18:54] Alison Burns: That's it. I thought that was pretty good.

[1:19:00] Lulu Picart: We're going to try this tonight.

[1:19:02] Alison Burns: Just by ourselves?

[1:19:04] Lulu Picart: In my apartment?

[1:19:05] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[1:19:06] Lulu Picart: Oh, okay. All right, well, let's wrap this episode.

[1:19:08] Alison Burns: Are you sure? You don't want us to just do more existentialist?

[1:19:11] Lulu Picart: How many syllables did I put in that word now?

[1:19:14] Alison Burns: Existentialist?

[1:19:15] Lulu Picart: Existentialist. We'll use it as...

[1:19:17] Alison Burns: Choreographer. Extra content.

[1:19:19] Lulu Picart: Okay, great. Yes.

[1:19:21] Alison Burns: He's like, I've never cut before, but now I'm going to be trimming this out.

[1:19:24] Lulu Picart: Oh, can we tell people about our Patreon page?

[1:19:26] Alison Burns: Well, yeah, that's the end now, is plugging your show and plugging Patreon. You do it.

[1:19:30] Lulu Picart: All right. Yeah, so you know $10K a day. We've talked about it a lot. We also are super excited. We just partnered with Patreon. Patreon is a website where creators can go and reach out to people like you to become members and sponsors of what they're creating. So for us, it's this podcast. And we're looking for people to join our hashtag team 10K. And by giving as little as $2 a month, you can get really cool things. We can send you postcards. We can have you actually mention where we're going to go on the podcast. You can get an obsession gift box from us.

[1:20:08] Alison Burns: What's an obsession? For those who don't know.

[1:20:10] Lulu Picart: Every week we do...

[1:20:13] Alison Burns: Scatting.

[1:20:17] Lulu Picart: Yeah, that's scatting. You need to scat.

[1:20:20] Alison Burns: Oh, do it.

[1:20:21] Lulu Picart: Bow. That sounded like...

[1:20:23] Alison Burns: You know what that was? Like a jingle.

[1:20:25] Lulu Picart: No, no, no. You know those Yamaha keyboards that have the scat patch on it? And then like, you know what I'm talking about? And when you press it, it's like... That's what that is. It's like so bad. Do you know what I'm talking about? Lulu can actually scat.

[1:20:39] Alison Burns: No, I can't. I don't have a lesson. I can even teach scatting. It's one of the things that I do.

[1:20:44] Lulu Picart: Yeah.

[1:20:45] Alison Burns: It's easy. I mean, it's not easy, easy, but it can be easy. I'm not going to just scat like randomly. But if you become a Patreon, one of the extra content patrons...

[1:20:56] Lulu Picart: Join Patreon and become a patron. One of the extra content things is Lulu sends you a scatting voice mail for your phone.

[1:21:09] Alison Burns: Here's my hint for anybody. I want a Lulu scat ringtone.

[1:21:12] Lulu Picart: Yeah. Anybody who wants to like, is like, oh, I can't scat. That's brilliant. If you're a singer and you can't scat, just think of yourself as one of the instruments in the band. Listen to old music and listen to the instrumental solos. And then sing along with them. Learn them. Sing along with them. Don't stress out about your syllables. Have fun. There's no wrong answers in scatting. You should try it.

[1:21:37] Alison Burns: Well, there are some really wrong answers, but there's like no wrong answers. Just try it.

[1:21:40] Lulu Picart: Yeah, do it. Ba-ba-ba-bow.

[1:21:42] Alison Burns: Yeah. That's not bad. Ba-ba-ba-ba-bow. Bala-bala-bow. How's that? You like that? Ba-ba-ba-bow. Bala-bala-bow. Yeah. So, yes, we have a Patreon page. www.patreon.com slash $10K a day. We would love if you'd join our team so we can keep creating amazing content. And also, we want to do more live shows. And that is kind of where we're asking for help from our audience to help us do that. We want to travel the country. We want to do live shows. We want to meet our fans face-to-face.

[1:22:11] Alison Burns: Yeah.

[1:22:13] Lulu Picart: Okay. Oh, I was supposed to add more.

[1:22:15] Alison Burns: Yes.

[1:22:16] Lulu Picart: I didn't.

[1:22:17] Alison Burns: Okay.

[1:22:18] Lulu Picart: Yes, you dropped the offer.

[1:22:19] Alison Burns: I sure did. I mean, I feel like I covered it.

[1:22:21] Lulu Picart: I do feel like you covered it, actually. I thought you did a really good job.

[1:22:23] Alison Burns: You know what? I appreciate you for just being like, yes. I thought you did a great job.

[1:22:27] Lulu Picart: Alan thought.

[1:22:29] Alison Burns: Alan thought it was lacking, but I had 100% faith in you.

[1:22:32] Lulu Picart: I appreciate you.

[1:22:33] Alison Burns: You're welcome. And how do they connect with you on socials?

[1:22:36] Lulu Picart: Look, you guys, we're on everything. We're on Twitter, at $10K a day. We're on Facebook, $10K a day. Join our Bay page, B-A-E, because we are. Yep. Yep. And then we're on Instagram. And we would love for you guys to join our What's Your Happy campaign on our Instastory. So add us on Instagram, $10K a day. Check out the Instastory, and then add us and tag us in it so we can see it. And then we'll repost it, and then all these people will be happy. And you would be surprised what it will do for your day of making yourself find something that makes you happy, even if it is absolutely so small. All the lights were green on the way to work. That was my happy. You know what? I went to McDonald's, and they gave me extra fries by accident.

Great. That's your happy. You know, something super small, because guess what? They happen all the time. And you just aren't looking for them. And I promise you, I promise everyone could actually probably find five to ten in their day. You're just not looking for them. You make a better, happier person.

[1:23:42] Alison Burns: Oh, we also have a YouTube channel.

[1:23:44] Lulu Picart: Oh, yeah!

[1:23:45] Alison Burns: YouTube channel, $10K a day. $10K a day, and we release a live episode every month where you get to see us actually do the podcast in front of your eyes. One take, too.

[1:23:55] Lulu Picart: One take.

[1:23:56] Alison Burns: That's scary.

[1:23:58] Lulu Picart: It's scary.

[1:24:00] Alison Burns: One take. Awesome. An hour.

[1:24:03] Lulu Picart: Yeah. It's like that improv show. See? We already did it.

[1:24:09] Alison Burns: You can find more of me at theater underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter or on facebook.com slash official theater podcast. Of course, listen and subscribe. The theater podcast dot com. Everywhere you get your podcast. Please give an honest review. I read them. And, of course, a big thank you to Jukebox the Ghost for the music you are hearing playing underneath us right now. Alison, Lulu, thank you so much for being here.

[1:24:43] Alison Burns: Thank you.

[1:24:44] Lulu Picart: This has been a pleasure. We had so much fun. And I love this new podcast of yours, and I cannot wait to listen to every single episode.

[1:24:52] Alison Burns: Me, too.

[1:24:55] Lulu Picart: Thanks for supporting us on Sirius. We could feel you, your energy as we were on it.

[1:25:00] Alison Burns: So it was great.

[1:25:01] Lulu Picart: What if something crazy is going to cut it out?

[1:25:08] Alison Burns: What if something happened? Like, what if they cancel it? And like, we didn't know. Like, what if there was no power at Sirius that day? And they were like, hey, we're going to cancel. And then we have this podcast. We're like, it was great. It's funny. Funny. We'll just step over it. It'll be my voice. It'll be. It was bad. I mean, it was canceled. We were in the nothing.

[1:25:30] Lulu Picart: Yeah. Are we done? Did you have something to plug?

[1:25:33] Alison Burns: No. When are we done? I took my headphones off, but I don't think I was supposed to.

[1:25:36] Lulu Picart: I was going to ask you to scat. I actually want to, like, hear some real scatting.

[1:25:39] Alison Burns: It's hard to do without context of, I mean, without chord changes underneath you. It just kind of sounds.

[1:25:43] Lulu Picart: Do you just want me to do?

[1:25:46] Alison Burns: I'll change the chord.

[1:25:47] Lulu Picart: To what?

[1:25:48] Alison Burns: To whatever I want.

[1:25:50] Lulu Picart: That doesn't help me.

[1:25:52] Alison Burns: Oh.

[1:25:54] Lulu Picart: A.

[1:25:55] Alison Burns: Oh, my gosh. Wait.

[1:25:59] Lulu Picart: How about.

[1:26:01] Alison Burns: I can just do. Let's fall in love. If you say goodbye to me. In the still of the night.

[1:26:09] Lulu Picart: I don't know what your context is for these notes that you're giving me.

[1:26:17] Alison Burns: In the still.

[1:26:19] Lulu Picart: I think you guys are in two different keys.

[1:26:23] Alison Burns: We're harmonizing.

[1:26:25] Lulu Picart: This is even better than basic scatting. I don't know what's happening.

[1:26:29] Alison Burns: Okay. I'm just going to do it. I got rhythm. I think.

[1:26:34] Lulu Picart: Do you know I got rhythm?

[1:26:35] Alison Burns: Can you just sing it?

[1:26:38] Lulu Picart: I got both the lyrics.

[1:26:39] Alison Burns: You don't need lyrics. You can just do it on a do.

[1:26:44] Lulu Picart: I'm going to come in on the second chorus. You just keep going.

[1:26:47] Alison Burns: Okay.

[1:26:58] Lulu Picart: Play it on.

[1:27:14] Alison Burns: Change.

[1:27:22] Lulu Picart: We're out.

[1:27:24] Alison Burns: Deep breath, make the world a little colorful.