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[0:00] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and this is Intimate Personal Conversations with the industry's biggest names. Our guest is one of our few returning guests now, Wesley Taylor, who was one of the very, very first episodes that I ever put out. He was originally Episode 3, which as I bring up in the episode, came out in November 2018, right when this was just a little baby podcast. I can't believe so much has changed in five years since I've last spoken to him in a recorded way. And gosh, it was really cool because in that first episode, five years ago, he said, yeah, maybe I'll start taking myself seriously as a writer. I think I need to do that now.

And then now we're here talking about his brand new movie that he co-wrote and co-directed called Summoning Sylvia, which is just this amazingly fun horror comedy, celebrating queer culture and teaching us just to embrace everything about ourselves and who we are. It's this amazing movie that he and Alex Wyse, his writing partner on so many things now, the two of them put together. So I cannot wait to share this one with you. Make sure that you go and stream Summoning Sylvia everywhere you find your streaming films. And everybody now, please enjoy this episode with Wesley Taylor.

[1:37] Alan Seales: Here you go. One, two, three. Today's guest is a Theatre World Award winner, Chita Rivera Award winner, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominee. He made his Broadway debut in the original cast of Rock of Ages before starring opposite Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth in the original cast of Broadway's The Addams Family. Then he originated the role of Sheldon J. Plankton in SpongeBob SquarePants the musical before it was filmed for Nickelodeon as The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! He has additional credits in television and film that include The Good Wife, The Tomorrow People, and fan favorite Bobby on NBC's Smash. He's co-created and starred in three original digital series, the latest being the Emmy-nominated Indoor Boys with Alex Wyse.

He will appear in Only Murders in the Building, season three, dropping this fall. And he and Alex just made their feature film debut as writers and directors in Summoning Sylvia, a new movie that is out now for a limited theatrical release and available to stream. Wesley Taylor, oh my gosh, welcome back to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:56] Wesley Taylor: Thank you!

[2:57] Alan Seales: And I want to say welcome back and thank you because you were Episode 3 of The Theatre Podcast.

[3:03] Wesley Taylor: No way.

[3:04] Alan Seales: Yes. Do you remember? It was the episode, I don't remember when we actually recorded, but it was November 5th, 2018 that our first episode came out.

[3:14] Wesley Taylor: Whoa.

[3:15] Alan Seales: Right, right. So first off, big thank you because out of the blue, I just texted you and I'm like, I'm doing this crazy ass thing called a podcast. Do you want to be a guest? You're like, sure. I don't know anything about it because nothing had been released yet. So you were one of the first to just put yourself out there and be a guest on what could have been a horrible train wreck and maybe still is. I don't know. Jury's out on that one. But thank you for saying yes.

[3:35] Wesley Taylor: Of course. I mean, and kind of at the beginning of the podcast explosion.

[3:40] Alan Seales: Right? Right. Right. No, I'm a fan of the show and thank you for having me and for helping us promote this movie.

[3:49] Wesley Taylor: Dude, the movie Summoning Sylvia, it's so funny and like I was laughing and I was jumping, right? I'm like, I'm watching it in bed at night. The cast, it's like you've got Travis Coles, Michael Urie, Frankie Grande, Troy Iwata, Noah Ricketts, Vian Cox.

[4:06] Alan Seales: Noah J. Ricketts, is that his middle name?

[4:12] Wesley Taylor: Noah J. Ricketts, yeah. Just this theatrical love cast.

[4:16] Alan Seales: Yes.

[4:20] Wesley Taylor: But nothing about it is theater.

[4:25] Alan Seales: Nothing about this show is theater.

[4:26] Wesley Taylor: But no. There are times when it feels theatrical and it's about expression and owning your self-expression and stuff. So it does lend itself to, I think, theatrical energy.

[4:34] Alan Seales: Well, I want to dive. Okay. Let's dive straight into that because between 2018 and now, 2023, yeah, you've done quite a bit. And it was interesting because I went back and listened to our first episode and you were like, yeah, I think I'm going to do this writing thing and I've started to take myself seriously and you know, I'm just doing—

[4:53] Wesley Taylor: Is that how I sounded?

[4:54] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. It's basically, that's my way.

[4:56] Wesley Taylor: Very serious.

[4:57] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just totally going to take myself. But now like five years, which is, I don't think all that long in this industry. Like look back at 2018 when like SpongeBob had just closed and Indoor Boys was starting to pick up steam. And like, where did Summoning Sylvia come from? Were you already writing this at that time? We had a whole pandemic in the middle. Like where do you want to start with this?

[5:26] Wesley Taylor: Sure. So at the end of season three of Indoor Boys, Alex and I wanted to sort of put that world on pause and graduate into feature length things, whether that be a play or a film or series or whatnot. We wanted to like start writing longer content rather than the bite-sized 10-minute episodes. And so we started writing a screenplay. And then when the pandemic hit, it was sort of a blessing in disguise because we were able to put our acting careers, which were on hold, on the back burner. Usually the writing was on the back burner. So suddenly during the pandemic, Alex and I are getting on Zoom every day for five hours and writing. And it's a time of complete creative output. We were able to be very productive, which was our silver lining of the pandemic.

And we churned out like three full-length scripts by the end of our time away from New York City or I was away from New York. He was in the Upper West Side the whole time. But yeah, we worked on Zoom every day and we had a movie that got a production company and we were sort of in the process of attaching talent to secure financing. And we were getting really frustrated with how long development takes and how long it was taking to attach high-profile talent to get the money we needed. And so in the meantime, we were like, well, why don't we just write another like sort of indie script a la Indoor Boys that we can make for maybe 100K and like under the radar cast or something. Let's just do our own thing so we're not just sitting here and twiddling our thumbs.

So we did and we did a first draft reading on Zoom and invited a certain investor. And then after that, we were off to the races because we won over the investor and then it was easier to raise the rest of the money. And then the train had left the station. So we were suddenly in pre-production for that film. And that sort of jumped in line ahead of the other film. So yeah, that's how and the budget got bigger and the ambitions got bigger. And here we are.

[7:50] Alan Seales: Well, like if I didn't know that it was and I don't know if this is going to come out offensive. I don't know. There's different tiers of budgets, right? If I did not know that it was like just a ground up like, what am I saying? Grassroots kind of effort. I would think like this came out of a big studio because it was just done so well. Everything looks 150 million percent professional. And again, the cast gels incredibly. Travis Coles doesn't have any Broadway credits that I could find.

[8:29] Wesley Taylor: Yeah, he's the one that isn't from, I guess, the theater world that we knew of. He really came from LA.

[8:32] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. He's really funny. He's really funny. But I want to dive into the story of Summoning Sylvia though, because it's a comedy and there's the horror aspect to it. It makes you jump. But it also makes you think. And there is, like you said, it's about owning your story. And it's just, I guess, a really subtle way of giving a giant nod to the queer community and owning who you are and being okay with that these days, which is something we really, really need. And I mean, did you and Alex sort of tackle this story with this intention in mind? Or did it come out of like, what's the pitch? How do you guys even pitch to each other?

[9:16] Wesley Taylor: Well, first of all, Indoor Boys that we worked on for three years together, and we were the leads of that and we were writing it and directing it. Indoor Boys was something that was really self-confronting for us sometimes, because we would be editing and we would be de-S-ifying sibilant S's, which was a very interesting confrontation of self-loathing or the internalized homophobia that we carry with us because of society. And it was a very conscious choice to call our movie Summoning Sylvia, because we didn't want to shy away from that sibilant S. We want to own it. And that's what the movie is about, is owning it, owning yourself and your expression and your truth and the way you relate. It's really queer friendship.

And, you know, a lot of the times the gay character is the outsider in the worlds that they are in. And in our story, the straight guy is the outsider, which we find really interesting. The movie is largely about assumptions, you know, the assumptions we make about each other and how dangerous that can be. So I think, you know, also with everything going on right now in the conversation surrounding drag and owning it, I think we're really proud of what you kind of walk away with talking about with this movie.

[10:53] Alan Seales: Well, don't go see a drag show. It will turn you straight. No?

[10:58] Wesley Taylor: Yeah. It's really, it's really dangerous and violent for children.

[11:01] Alan Seales: Right. So stupid. I feel like you and Alex, and maybe you and your friend group, your close friends, have conversations on a different plane, on a different level than your average, like, my friends are like, what show should we see? Or what should we have for lunch? And you and Alex text each other and you're like, how should we change the world today?

[11:21] Wesley Taylor: No. We also ask, what are we having for lunch? So just, you know, but no, thank you. I mean, we, it's important to us that our movie has a little bit of social commentary. You know, Get Out was a big inspiration for us. And we're like, what is that? What is the gay version of that? You know, and obviously, we want to continue to tell stories about gay characters that are not about illness and death and persecution and coming out. We've seen enough of that. And it's important to see that. But it's also important to see gay characters thrive.

[12:03] Alan Seales: Yeah. That was a big thing for this movie is making sure that our characters thrived. It was interesting to me that Michael Urie, sorry, not Michael Urie, I love Michael Urie, in your movie, Michael Urie, Brandon Uranowitz, when I was interviewing him for Burn This, and he was like, this is the first time in my career, he's been doing this for decades, right? He said, this is the first time in my career I've played an openly gay character where being gay was not part of the plot. I said, that just was like, as a hetero white cis man, right? I'm, that stuff doesn't occur to me as often as it should.

[12:40] Wesley Taylor: Of course.

[12:41] Alan Seales: And that moment right there made me realize that start noticing all of these characters and all of these shows. And it's a trope. It's a fricking trope that I'm tired of. I really am. I'm really tired of like, oh, there's a gay character. He's got to be the silly one. He's going to show up and drink. That's what they always do. That's just, that's ridiculous. And so to have a story, I love these, these stories like Summoning Sylvia that like the underlying through line.

[13:09] Wesley Taylor: Yeah. The through line is in this movie that you and Alex.

[13:13] Wesley Taylor: Brilliantly written. I can't say enough good things about it. It's friendship and it's bonding and it doesn't matter if you're gay or straight and the outsider, I don't want to give away spoilers, the outsider at the end is wrapped into all of this and it's just phenomenal the way that you two have written this and brought it to the screen in a way where it doesn't hit you over the head with it but you walk away maybe unconsciously, possibly unconsciously, saying like, oh yeah, that's normal and because it is.

[13:42] Alan Seales: Yeah, I really appreciate you saying all of that and something that's been exciting for us is that we have done some test screenings of this movie with different demographics and we largely feel like it's very received, it's received very well by straight people which is, I'm like a little nervous about the gay community just because you know in our canon a lot of the gay horror that you've seen is thirsty, it's fleshy, it's shower scenes, it's slitting throats, it's pulp. And that's not what this movie is for the most part. It's more verbal wordplay than visual feast in terms of flesh, I guess. But I don't know, I hope it resonates in the way that we intended but we have to sort of let go now and let whatever happens, happens.

[14:41] Wesley Taylor: I think it's great and where can we stream it now?

[14:45] Alan Seales: Right, so April 7th you can purchase, rent this film on demand wherever you can find it on demand so that means Amazon Prime and Vudu and all those places you go to rent.

[14:58] Wesley Taylor: God, everybody needs to see it. It's just so good. Actually, well, maybe I won't go on into something else because I want to keep talking about Frankie Grande. I mean, who doesn't, right? I love Frankie, obsessed.

[15:11] Alan Seales: Were you part of the casting process or did you like kind of leave that over to your casting director?

[15:16] Wesley Taylor: Yeah, no, we definitely had a casting director, Steven Tyler O'Connor, who's great but we were very much, very much involved in the casting process, very important to us. And there's different, I guess, Frankie is the most extreme of just being outside of the box, right?

[15:38] Alan Seales: And the witchiest of them all.

[15:41] Wesley Taylor: The witchiest, yes, that's a good way to say it. And did you have him in mind when you were writing this? Do you have anybody in mind when you're writing these characters?

[15:47] Wesley Taylor: We wrote it for Frankie.

[15:49] Alan Seales: Did you really?

[15:51] Wesley Taylor: Yeah. So Frankie had done a small character in our digital series, Indoor Boys, and he was someone who we didn't know very well. I knew a little bit because he closed Rock of Ages in the role that I originated. And so there was a special connection there and we bonded over that. But Alex and I were living in LA and starting this digital show and we wrote this character and we took a risk. I didn't really know his work. And Frankie not only was incredible in that role, but he just blew us away with his, I don't know, his kindness, his generosity, his collaboration, his humility. And we sort of fell in love with him over the span of three seasons of that web series. And so then when we are writing the script, we specifically wrote a role for him because we were so enamored and he jumped at it.

[16:50] Alan Seales: Yeah, he's perfect for it. I mean, everybody was perfect for it. I can't imagine anybody else in those roles.

[16:54] Wesley Taylor: Yeah, no. That was the only one that we were like, that's Frankie's part. There were other roles that we had faces in our head, but we were flexible.

[17:05] Alan Seales: After these messages, we'll be right back.

[17:09] Alan Seales: All right, welcome back. Did Michael Urie ever have a scene with anybody else? Because even the final scene, I don't want to give away too many spoilers, the final scene, he could have been cut in without anybody else on set.

[17:22] Wesley Taylor: I cannot confirm or deny.

[17:24] Alan Seales: Poor guy.

[17:25] Wesley Taylor: Michael is very busy. He's a very fancy, busy guy. So we shot him out quickly. Yes.

[17:33] Alan Seales: Oh, amazing. And speaking of fancy, amazing people, do you have Meryl Streep on speed dial now?

[17:40] Wesley Taylor: I wish. I wish. Yesterday when I posted that video of us dancing to A Chorus Line, of us dancing to A Chorus Line together.

[17:51] Alan Seales: From Only Murders in the Building backstage, yes.

[17:54] Wesley Taylor: Yes, yes. So before I posted that, I needed her consent, obviously. And so what's even better than the video is the 10 minutes I spent in her dressing room asking for permission and then us chatting. I mean, that's the part that I'm still going over in my head. Every moment with Meryl on set is mostly, probably innocuous to her. And she forgets about it as soon as she leaves me. But I'm replaying it over and over in my head. It's just a dream. A dream.

[18:24] Alan Seales: I love the theatrical crossover with Only Murders. I mean, again, Marty Short and Selena Gomez and everybody. Like, Ali Strokes.

[18:35] Wesley Taylor: Steve Martin.

[18:39] Alan Seales: Don't forget Steve Martin.

[18:40] Wesley Taylor: Steve Martin, that guy. Steve Martin, yes. Everybody in general has such a theatrical background. And Nathan Lane, of course. Did you get to work with Nathan again?

[18:50] Wesley Taylor: I didn't. No, because Nathan is in seasons one and two. He's not in season three. And so I wasn't able to hang out with good old Uncle Nathan.

[19:02] Alan Seales: Oh, poor guy. Well, being on set, though, I feel like it's got to be such a different experience. Or is it a different experience when you're on set with a bunch of actors who have professional Broadway, professional theater experience versus people who have only done TV and films? I feel like it's sort of a different mindset.

[19:23] Wesley Taylor: Yeah, you know what? It's not too far away from how it felt being on Smash. You know, like being on the set of Smash, there were tons of Broadway talent and veterans littered across that series. But, you know, I was young and I was like, I don't know, it was it was overwhelming. It was such a huge budget show, Streamworks, Spielberg, you know, this is a different experience in the same way that like being on Broadway in my early 20s was a certain experience. But then coming back to the boards when I was 30 in Spongebob was a was a richer experience because I knew more and I had experienced more life and I knew how special that was to come back to Broadway. So same thing with being on the set that's just littered with Broadway legends.

It's just, you know, what I have to do is disassociate because if I think too hard about what's happening, I'll freak out, you know, I will lose my cool, you know, and you got to keep your cool when you're on set with these people. You can't be a super fan, which, you know, I am a super fan of Uncle Marty Short. He told me to call him Uncle Marty. So don't be mad. Uncle Marty is his name.

[20:51] Alan Seales: But no, just some comedy uncles.

[20:54] Wesley Taylor: I cannot imagine what it was like on set. And of course, Selina too. She's just phenomenal. And God, that is an envious moment to be on a show like that, where it's the theatrical prowess of all the cast with the talent, the acting talent in general on a show that is just so good, right? It's the third season for a reason, but you mentioned Spongebob too. And remember now your ex-computer wife now is a Oscar nominee.

[21:28] Wesley Taylor: Oscar nominee.

[21:30] Alan Seales: Stephanie Hsu from Spongebob.

[21:32] Wesley Taylor: That's right.

[21:33] Alan Seales: I cannot believe that. And again, five years ago, episode three, when we were talking, you're like, yeah, I think I'm gonna do this writing thing. And I think I'll do this. And then five years later now, you're doing all these amazing things. Five years later, your ex-wife has an Oscar nomination. You're working with Meryl Streep. Everything's going around. Did you foresee this five years ago?

[22:02] Wesley Taylor: Well, first of all, I just want to say I'm so excited and happy and proud of Stephanie Hsu. She deserves the world. And I'm so, so thrilled for what's happening for her. But second, to your point about five years later, whatever you said, I like the perspective that you give, which is that like, oh my God, it was just yesterday that you were... Because to me, it feels like forever. As the creative, I've been working on this movie for three years. And that's the longest I've ever worked on one project without sharing that project. So now it's finally ready to see the world and our baby's being born. We got to let it go. We got to let her go off to college. We got to let her see the world. And it's such a strange feeling after working on something so... It's such a solitary experience.

Me and Alex have been in dark editing rooms for years. And so the fact that you're like, oh my God, it's happening so quick to me. I'm like, oh my God, it's been so long. And the nature of development in general. I mean, we have two other films that we're trying to get made now. And one of them we started writing in 2019. And here we are in 2023, and the film is still not made. But that's what happens. It takes a long time. Same with Broadway. Takes years and years and years if you really believe in something for it to finally cross that finish line.

[23:42] Alan Seales: Absolutely. Yeah. Some of the greatest shows, I mean, just I think about The Journey of the Prom, right? Still one of my favorite shows on Broadway that took 10 years from inception to getting on the Broadway stage. SpongeBob also took 10 years.

[23:53] Wesley Taylor: Oh, right. Right, right.

[23:57] Alan Seales: Yeah. Which is odd to me because it's something, I guess something that is owned by a big network, I thought would have more of an oomph behind it. Because you have something like Frozen, the Broadway musical, which was fast-tracked and made it, I think, in two. I don't know about that. I feel like it was more than two years that they were workshopping, like untitled. Because the movie came out...

[24:21] Wesley Taylor: You're probably right. You probably know more than I do here. But that's crazy if that's true. Because with SpongeBob, yeah, there was a big Nickelodeon behind it. But they don't want to rush it. They want to make sure it's done right. And so, they're going to take their time really throwing all the paint at the wall to see what it wants to be.

[24:44] Alan Seales: Do you miss Plankton?

[24:46] Wesley Taylor: Oh, of course. That was such a pure, magical experience. I loved the character and I loved the show and I loved the cast and the director. And it was a really special time in my life.

[24:58] Alan Seales: It was. And something else that we had talked about previously was, you came out of high school and college. You were doing Shakespeare and immediately went into Rock of Ages. Because Shakespeare lends itself to rock. And then Addams Family. But then you had hit after hit after hit. I think you had three in a row. And then depression because it all of a sudden just went away.

[25:27] Wesley Taylor: Yeah. I wasn't prepared for that.

[25:28] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[25:28] Wesley Taylor: Yeah. And I think what you just alluded to a little while ago is when you came back to SpongeBob, that was post, I guess, growing up a little bit. Because you told me originally, you're like, that was a lesson I had to learn. And so, this is the reason why I brought up the five years between then and now is because it had basically been five years between the hits and then when we were talking then. And so, now it's about the same amount of time. So, now it sounds like because you've been working the entire time and you've been writing and taking yourself seriously as a writer, which you said you were just starting to do back then, that maybe you didn't have the down in the middle between the last time we did an episode and now?

[26:14] Wesley Taylor: I mean, I've been writing since I was younger. But like you said, it was hard for me to take myself seriously until A, I got paid for it. And that was like,

[26:57] Wesley Taylor: Started collaborating on Indoor Boys and finding our voice together as writers, it was like a marriage. It was like finally finding my other half in terms of creativity and sharing the same voice. And it led to an accountability that was sort of unparalleled in my life of, you know, not having to only self-motivate but having someone else, you know, pick up that slack if you wake up and you're not feeling like you're firing off all your cylinders and you're not totally the best writer that day, they're going to pick up your slack and then you're going to pick up their slack the next day. Or, you know, having your certain strengths that complement each other's weaknesses, but then like through time, they kind of meld together and like you picked up a lot of his strengths and he picked up a lot of yours.

And being able to share a screen on Zoom and write jokes in front of each other's face and fail and still know that the other person isn't going to run away because there's a trust that has built over the span of a handful of years where now I know that Alex knows I'm not my worst joke. So I can fail freely in front of him and still have confidence that this is, you know, he's not going anywhere and vice versa. So it's a really powerful thing. I think that's a really powerful motto is I'm not as bad as my worst joke.

[28:21] Alan Seales: Right.

[28:22] Wesley Taylor: Because I would be really bad if I lived by that.

[28:26] Alan Seales: I mean, we all would. So yeah.

[28:28] Wesley Taylor: I mean, I'm a walking dad joke anyway.

[28:31] Alan Seales: Sure. Well, I love a dad joke. You're welcome with me. You're safe with me.

[28:37] Wesley Taylor: My kids love it too. They always love that.

[28:39] Alan Seales: There you go.

[28:40] Wesley Taylor: Yeah, that's so cool. Have you ever thought about going back to Billy Green?

[28:46] Wesley Taylor: I mean, sure. Sure. There was a time when I started developing a half hour when I was living in LA centered around Billy Green. But then we started Indoor Boys and I just sort of let that die. I love Billy Green. So if you don't know what Billy Green is, it was a little limited... What was it? It was YouTube, right?

[29:03] Alan Seales: Yeah, YouTube. Early, early.

[29:05] Wesley Taylor: Early YouTube where you were just like the epitome of the worst auditioner ever. Everything you do wrong in an audition, Billy Green did wrong.

[29:12] Alan Seales: That's right.

[29:13] Wesley Taylor: And I just annoyed everyone in his path. It's that YouTube series is just every cameo is a Broadway star. And, you know, like they're all... I don't know. I mean, that was the beginning of me getting in a long contract on Broadway and being like, okay, I've done the same show for a month now. What's next? You know, I'm stuck in this thing. And it's such a, you know, I realize how lucky it is to be stuck in a hit. But creatively, I started getting stifled. You know, I started feeling like, how can I keep myself inspired and interested and curious? And so, you know, making backstage content with the Rock of Ages kids was like the beginning of that bug, that scratch I needed to itch. And then I couldn't stop.

And then I was making, you know, sort of narrative web series. And learning how to hold a camera and learning how to like, you know, edit and create a through line. And, you know, failing a lot, but learning a lot. And Billy Green turned into It Could Be Worse. And It Could Be Worse turned into Indoor Boys. And Indoor Boys turned into Now We're Making Movies. So, yeah. Learning publicly, too. Learning and putting it all up there. It Could Be Worse, that was the first thing that you sold, right? That was that turning point when you're like, yeah, I can do this for real. I can write for real.

[31:01] Wesley Taylor: Yeah, we got it up on Hulu for a two-year contract. And that was really exciting.

[31:05] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. Gosh, how do you even start with that? Like, if you were going to say, all right, aspiring young writers out there who have a great story. I mean, it seems like it's all about who you know. It seems like it's all about where you are at the right time from the outside. So, where do you even get the meeting where you're like, I'm going to pitch this to Hulu?

[31:24] Wesley Taylor: Hmm. Basically, I feel like I was a little lucky because I was on Broadway when I started doing this stuff. And so, there was a fan base who were attuned to the content. They were waiting for content that had to do with the cast of the show that they loved. And then that content became sillier and more specific. And so, they started becoming fans of the content. And then you create a larger audience online. But really, I did wear a producer hat in my early 20s and have the cognizance to be like, well, I won't get any eyeballs on this unless I have someone fancy in it, you know, which is, you know, it's not cheap, but it's like something that I identified early on that in order for traffic to come, I need them to be interested.

And so, you know, a lot of young people are like, let the work speak for itself. Well, sure. But you also need to get them there first. So, I would be calling in a lot of fancy favors with people I was working with, and creating this fan base that was growing. And then just continually asking favors. You know, the thing about established, famous people working for you on a very small scale is give them something enticing to do, like give them a fun person to play with that they want to work with or give them, I don't know, like there are ways that you can strategically acquire what you need to acquire, if that doesn't sound completely gross.

[33:09] Alan Seales: Slightly.

[33:10] Wesley Taylor: A little bit.

[33:11] Alan Seales: That actually reminded me of your character in Rolling Calls.

[33:15] Wesley Taylor: Yeah, that's right.

[33:17] Wesley Taylor: At the end of the day, just a dirty producer who's just cheating every, no, no, no. I don't know. It's about developing relationships and friendships and paying it forward too. That's something, whenever anyone asks me to do their podcast, interview, web series, sketch comedy, whatever, I most of the time say yes if I can, if I'm available. Because I'm constantly asking people to do things for me. That's the same thing with feedback on scripts. I am always needing people to give me criticism, and that's not fun for people to do, is to sit down for two hours and focus on your work. No one cares about your baby more than you do, and you have to convince people to care, to help, to give feedback. Because of that, whenever someone sends me a script, I really try, within the week, to carve out a couple hours to give them good feedback.

[34:22] Alan Seales: Just quick, I mentioned Rolling Calls. Everyone go check out Rolling Calls, also here on the Broadway Podcast Network. Rolling Calls is a radio comedy that you star in, and it's just great.

[34:30] Wesley Taylor: Very funny.

[34:31] Alan Seales: Very funny.

[34:32] Wesley Taylor: It's a very funny show. I enjoyed doing that a lot.

[34:35] Alan Seales: Yeah, that was great.

[34:37] Alan Seales: Commercial break. And now we're back. All right, so three closing questions.

[34:46] Wesley Taylor: Yes.

[34:47] Alan Seales: Remember, I don't know if you remember your previous answers. I wrote them down, so we're going to be able to-

[34:50] Wesley Taylor: Oh my God.

[34:51] Alan Seales: To compare and contrast, but I'll ask you the same questions and see how they changed. So the first one, now, what motivates you?

[35:01] Wesley Taylor: What motivates me? I mean, at the end of the day, the same thing motivates me as when I was a child, which is like laughter, which is like, I'm not going to pretend that I don't get drunk off the sound of someone laughing at a joke I wrote. It's just the best feeling in the world.

[35:23] Alan Seales: Yeah, you said that. You already said that in episode three and other great works of art that motivate you, watching other people's great works.

[35:28] Wesley Taylor: Oh, sure. Well, that was a more pure answer, actually.

[35:31] Alan Seales: More artistic answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The other artists. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[35:35] Alan Seales: All right. So the next question. Now, what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[35:44] Wesley Taylor: Hmm. Try not to get the job in the audition, like focusing on booking the job is not what you should focus on in your audition. It should be the opportunity to show off, seize the opportunity to act because you won't be doing it very much when you first come to the city. You'll be more of a professional auditioner and you will be auditioning a lot. And it's hard not to try to play casting director. And like, what is it that they want exactly? And how can I check off everything that they want? It's impossible. And it's just much more productive to treat those auditions as an opportunity to show off your talent and to act and to make fans of whoever is behind the table instead of booking that specific job. Yeah, I think that is a very valuable thing that I could have used more as a kid, as a young person. It was actually Michael Urie who the answer to this question, he said, be the person that you that others want to work with the next time.

[37:00] Alan Seales: Hmm.

[37:01] Wesley Taylor: And that's great. Your answer just reminded me of that, too. Yeah. So it's not about getting that role. It's about showing that you have talent. And then so many people have had callbacks after an audition for a different role because they can see that you're not right for that role. But because you're nice and they want to work with you, they'll give you something else or they'll write you something. Or, you know, a year later, they're doing another show and you're right for that certain character. That's happened like more times than you would think.

[37:29] Alan Seales: Yeah. So the first time I asked you this question, you said, stop taking yourself so seriously. Don't quit piano and save money.

[37:37] Wesley Taylor: Oh, again, all three great, great things that I should, I should have done.

[37:48] Alan Seales: Amazing. I don't disagree with those. Yes. Also, also good advice. Okay. So the last question, if you could only see one show for the rest of your life, you can see it as many times as you want. What would you see?

[38:06] Wesley Taylor: Oh, wow. Huh. Okay. Well, I think Cabaret is a masterpiece and I will always enjoy that no matter what. But I just, there's so many shows. That's such a, I wouldn't, that would be sad to only see that one forever.

[38:17] Alan Seales: Well, you did say Cabaret the first time.

[38:19] Wesley Taylor: I did?

[38:20] Alan Seales: Yeah. There you go.

[38:21] Wesley Taylor: There you go. There you go. That's the same. That's absolutely the same. All right. So everyone, please go see Summoning Sylvia. Find it online, wherever you rent your movies. And how else can we find you on the social medias these days?

[38:34] Wesley Taylor: I am back on Instagram, SirWestTayTay. Demand respect on Instagram. Sir, give me the respect I deserve.

[38:42] Alan Seales: And not that guy, WestTayTay. SirWestTayTay, you're not on TikTok? I thought I saw you on TikTok.

[38:49] Wesley Taylor: No, no, no. Good for you. Good for you. It's going to get banned anyway.

[38:53] Alan Seales: There you go. Maybe. Who knows?

[38:55] Wesley Taylor: Leave it to the kids.

[38:57] Alan Seales: All right. Yeah. I don't know what I'm doing. I am on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and TikTok. So you can connect with me. Leave a rating and a review wherever you're listening now. Music you're hearing now is from Jukebox the Ghost. Conversation was from Wesley Taylor. Thanks, Wes. This has been fun.

[39:21] Wesley Taylor: Thanks, Alan. And then we got to do it again in less than five years from now, because when you win all of your Oscars for all of your things, we'll have you back.

[39:26] Wesley Taylor: Yes. Yes. You heard it here first.