Randy Brenner: From child performer to successful Director & Actor (And raising awareness & funds for AIDS through innovative theater productions)!

RANDY BRENNER

In this engaging conversation, Randy Brenner shares his journey from a child performer in Philadelphia to a successful actor and director in theater and television. He discusses the challenges and joys of performing, his coming out experience, and his efforts to raise awareness and funds for AIDS through innovative theater productions. The conversation also touches on his marriage to his husband Jonathan, life in Palm Springs, and the importance of pursuing creative passions at any age.

BIO:
Mr. Brenner’s most recent directing credit, was the highly critical acclaimed Mr. Parker at Dezart Performs, nominated for 8 Desert Star Awards, including Best director, and won Best Drama Professional 2024! Previously, he was nominated for a DTL Award for his direction of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gynecologic Oncology Unit At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Of New York City for Dezart last season. Mr. Brenner directed a very successful staged reading of Beverly Hills Hotel Peace Talks, which will have a full production and be part of the 2024-2025 season at CVRep. premiering May 20th. He has been nominated and won multiple Awards including the New York Outer Critics’ Circle, Drama-Logue, Robbie, Phoebe, Scenie, Desert Theatre League, GLAAD, and raves from the New York Times for his off-Broadway production of The Only Worse Thing You Could Have Told Me… starring Dan Butler and, later, Greg Louganis. He has directed over 50 musicals and plays including White Christmas, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown (with an all-star Broadway cast), Fiddler…, South Pacific, Nine, Stephen Schwartz’s Snapshots (Directed/Created with Stephen Schwartz), Autumn Canticle, Man of La Mancha, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and the first gay version of Marry Me A Little sanctioned by Mr. Sondheim himself. Previously, Mr. Brenner served as director and dramaturg for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts’ GROW Program, leading a class he developed in collaboration with Steven Schwartz and Stormy Sacks, where young adults wrote and presented new musical works. Randy would like to thank his husband Jonathan, and their fur-child Clarence for their love and support. Randy is a proud member of SDC.  

 As an actor, Mr. Brenner was last seen on stage to rave reviews as Nostradamus in 5 Star Theatricals production of “Something Rotten” at Thousand Oaks Performing Arts  Center. Previously lead roles: Ballroom (CVREP), Aladdin (Disney’s California Adventure), Beauty and the Beast (Disney Imagineering), City of Angeles (Reprise!), Follies, How to Succeed, L’il Abner (MTW), Empire, Burlesque (The Broad), Toby in Sweeney Todd (SJCLO), Guys and Dolls (La Mirada), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shine, Tintypes (Virginia Museum Theatre). Broadway/Off- Broadway; Found a Peanut, The Front, Man of La Mancha, New Faces of ’52 (Revival), Joley (Pre Broadway). Touring; Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man, Tintypes.TV/Film; “911: Lonestar”, “Glow”, “Seinfeld”, “My Name is Earl”, “SpongeBob”, “Evil Dead 2”, “Geppetto”. Randy is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association.

Contract Randy via Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/randy.brenner.9

Photo: Copyright Wilkinson/2024

Opening and closing music courtesy the very talented Zakhar Valaha via Pixabay.

To contact Wilkinson- email him at BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com

Transcript

Wilkinson (00:00.046)
Greetings, Wilkinson here. Today my guest is Randy Brenner. Where did we meet? We met through Jonathan, your Through Jonathan, yeah, absolutely. So Jonathan is an actor and now he's a teacher. Wonderful teacher, yeah. We were just talking 12 years ago, I photographed him for, he was on the cover of one of my books and that was fun. But then Randy came into the scene. I think you were probably dating right about the time I did the book. I think you had just started. Probably, it was like 12 years ago. Yeah, I think all of that happened.

But anyway, say hi to my people. Hi, everyone. How are you? Hi, people. Good to have you here. So let's see, where do we want to... Let's see, you're... Tell me all the things you've done. Then we'll spin off of that. I started out as a kid performer in Philadelphia and did a lot of television and clubs. That was still a time when there were, and not a vaudeville circuit, but there were a bunch of clubs that had variety acts. As a kid, you As a kid, yeah. I opened for Chubby Checker.

Really? I opened for Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells. wasn't just Patti LaBelle at the time. And I was doing what was then called record pantomime, but now it's called lip-seeking. So I have lip-seeking. Wait, so how old when you were doing that? I was in the clubs when I was seven, eight years old, eight, nine, 10. Seriously. Seriously, I know. And... Drinking at that time? Big offer, but I always said no. Good boy. Thank you. And then so I did a lot of television commercials, voiceovers.

and knew that's what I always wanted to do and continued to do that and then branched off into theater and then later on today also still acting but also directing a lot too. So when did you watch from Philly to where? Because you're not in Philly today. No, I went from Philly to New York when I graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia. I moved to New York and then was in New York for a little over 10 years and then moved out to Los Angeles and then two years ago moved here to Palm Springs.

Yeah. So the three places which are no four point four places, what's your favorite?

Wilkinson (02:05.614)
That's a good question. They're so different, probably for different reasons. They are. I will always love New York. It's just, one of the hardest cities to live in, but also one of the greatest cities in the world. And- Because of the cost or what? To live in, no. It's just, it's the people, it's so many people crammed into such a small space. So they're either the worst people in the world or literally the greatest people in the world that will, you know, sell you the shirt off their back. You know, they'll give you the shirt off your back. And just-

Theatrically, it was just difficult because there's so many people there. I went from Philadelphia being like a kid sort of celebrity to moving to New York and thinking they're going to give me everything and having to be on auditions and being number 752 in line to go into audition. All of that was eye-opening to me. made it. You made up that number. There wasn't... No, no, no. That's a real number. There were some mornings I would get there and you'd have to sign up.

two or three hours in advance for an audition, and you would be number 762, and you would literally just be waiting all day until they called your number and you got in to do eight to 16 bars or less sometimes. You'd go, they'll four bars please, we're running out of time. You're like, yeah, yeah. But I did manage to do well in New York and did a lot of stuff and then just got tired of the hustle and bustle and I thought, let me move to Los Angeles and see what that's like.

So you were what, late 20s, early 30s when you moved to LA? Yeah. I was in my late 20s, I believe. Yeah. What did you do in LA? I started, I first went there to see if I could get a commercial agent, then I would say, hey, and I did. I got one within a week. And then started doing television and theater, oddly enough. There was a lot of theater in Los Angeles that I didn't expect that there would be. Which one paid better? television. Are you kidding me? That was what I'd guess, but I wanted to hear it.

I know, definitely television. So that paid better. What was your favorite? Theater. Theater will always be my number one love. It's that just the immediacy of it and the audience and the journey that you go through from beginning to end. It's just the best. really is. Although I love TV too. The outcome of that is great. You're just in somebody else's hands once it's filmed. It's up to what it's going to look like. It's not up to you. And so on the stage, it's more, it's on your shoulders. Absolutely.

Wilkinson (04:30.67)
Absolutely, and I just love it. you the pressure of that? Yeah. Yeah. Do you any nightmare stories from theater? This one is actually in a Or funny anyway. No, it's in a book called Disaster Opening Nights that was written years ago. I was at the Muni, which is in St. Louis or St. Louis, and it's a giant outdoor theater with something like 25, 30,000 people. And even the stage is so huge and there are

literally like six giant oak trees that are growing out of the stage and the stage was built around them because they couldn't cut them down. And I was doing a musical version of Sleeping Beauty and I was playing the evil troll. It was actually a really funny, wonderful part. And I had no language. I had to make up my own language. Anyway, there was a scene where I was inside a carriage and there were three small horses like Shetland ponies.

And what was supposed to happen is Sleeping Beauty's on stage, and the ponies trot out on stage. I open the door to the carriage. I grabbed her, and I pull her in the carriage, close the door, and the horses run off into the wings. These are real horses. Real horses. I see problems here. We had never tried it, and it was opening night. And I got in the carriage, and when the trainer of the horses gave them a little pat,

Instead of just trotting out, they went full speed. And this is a giant stage. So as they're running, the whole carriage flips and turns over on its side. So now the door for me to get out is on the floor. And I'm being scraped across the stage. I can't get out. I don't know what to do. Finally, the horse just stopped. I had to kick the roof of the carriage out.

And then I had to just waff off with Sleeping Beauty. was, it air-funny. But did the people, the audience think that... They loved it. I'm sure they did, because it's incredibly dramatic. So they loved it. How did they do that? I know exactly, but I was like scared to death. That had to be a huge stage. It was a giant, no, giant stage, literally. When The Prince came out on horseback, it was literally him on horseback with five other people on horseback. It was pretty amazing.

Wilkinson (06:51.214)
So that was opening night. That was opening night. Was there horses the second? yeah, but they were well behaved. I used to talk to them every night and go, listen, don't run across the stage, be good, hit your mark. So they had to put the roof back on the carriage? they did. Yeah, they had to rebuild the whole thing. In one day? In one day. Wow. Yeah, that's theater for you. what was your gut, what was one of your gusts? That was, it was the worst and the best problem. Yeah. What else? I've had some amazing.

theater experiences in acting and directing. There's some shows that I love that I've done. There's a show called Tin Types, which probably most people don't know about, but it was very popular in the mid-'80s. Tin Types, as in the old type of photography? Yes. It was The Awakening of America through the eyes of a Jewish immigrant, a Charlie Chaplin-type character, which I played. And then Anna Held from the Zichrofalis, Theodore Roosevelt.

and then a woman representing the whole slave part of history and Emma Goldman. And the whole world of The Turn of the Century is played out through about 150 songs in different ways and letters that were actually written to show you the beginning of The Turn of the Century. It's an amazingly brilliant

How many were you singing? I mean, there were not some of them were not full songs. Some of them they were done. I mean, we never stopped singing in the show. And you just keep going for two hours. And it's an amazing show. And if it's done, it's really exciting. And I've done a couple of years ago, I did something rotten at Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center, which was a dream role of mine to do to play Nostradamus. I did a show off Broadway for many years with the great Earthic Hit.

Well, was the show that made her a star. She became a star on the show. Because she was with you? Yes. She was in a musical called New Phases in 1952. And there were a lot of famous people. They weren't famous at the time, but they became famous. And this was a revival that was done in New York in 82. And she came back to recreate her role. And it was an amazing experience. she was an amazing woman.

Wilkinson (09:09.408)
Yeah. So she was one of your favorites that you worked with? yeah. Absolutely. Who else? Who else have I worked with? Of course, now I'm drawing a blank. Of course. But no, that's me if I try to act. Yeah, I know. I'm I'm totally a blank. Yeah. Yeah. I've done some TV shows working with, I was on Coach as a recurring, those guys were great. And just a bunch of people like him. I'll think of them as. So on stage, have you had moments where you just went blank? Has that ever happened? You know what? It only happened once.

And it was in, I was doing a tour of Music Man with Barry Williams from the Brady Bunch. who still owes me $350, by the way. Really? Yeah. So very if you're listening. Yeah, if you're listening. I still want my money even though it was like 25 years ago. That's exactly right. That's about $12,000. And he really has to pay on it. But for some reason in that train sequence at the beginning of Music Man, I just like completely, that's such a metered

And if one person forgets a line, the whole thing is... And I just... Because everybody's relying on you. Yes, that's right. So I just forgot for some reason, and that was a problem. maybe occasionally, but I'm pretty good about not forgetting my lines. I did an acting class, I don't know, a year or two ago. Yeah. And I would have everything memorized. Right. And I would get up there, and it would go all like... no! It just wasn't working. my God. So I'm more behind the scenes.

wait, I do have a story for you. just remembered. For six years, I did Aladdin at California Adventure in Disneyland, which I don't know if you know the show, but it was an amazing show. was like a 15 minute Broadway spectacular in a 3,000 seat theater. They spent millions on it. My costume alone was worth like $42,000.

Spent a fortune on It was just an amazing And you took that as a souvenir, I hope. No, are you kidding? I would love to, but they wouldn't let me. I played the Sultan. I played Jasmine's father. really? Yeah. And you know, when you do that, you do three, four shows a day, sometimes five shows a day. And after a few years, it becomes rote. mean, you're just going into here and you're in that You flip the switch. But if something distracts you, like an audience member screams or something happens on stage,

Wilkinson (11:30.048)
It can just offset you. And I was with Jasmine and Jafar's on stage and I have this speech I have to give and I literally could not remember one word. And I'm staring at the Jasmine, my friend Cassie, and I'm looking at her and she's been doing this show longer than me and she starts to feed me lines like, Jasmine, you have to, and I was like, what? Did she say Jasmine?

Yeah, and I'm like, I can't hear you. And literally this went on where he went, say a line, and then I repeated the line, and then I went literally out loud and went, I literally cannot hear you. I have no idea what I have to say. And the audience is laughing. It was crazy. It was just crazy. So yeah, that was a nightmare. So that was not your last show? No, it wasn't. I came on stage and the director said,

I just wanted to make sure you didn't have a stroke, right? I said, no, I just went up and couldn't find where I was. That's gotta happen to everybody. It does. It does. Of course it does. Yeah. So let's see. What years were you in New York? 76 through 86. OK. So the AIDS thing was just starting and Yeah, it was. So before we went into that, I know you did some stuff in LA. Yeah. What's your coming out story?

My coming out story is I didn't even come out to my friends very much. I came out to my friends before I came out to my family. And everyone was fine. They were like, yeah, we knew. It's not a surprise. Your friends. Yeah, my friends. My family, I was dating a guy named John. And I was seeing him for a while. And every time I would talk to my mom and dad, who were still in Philadelphia and I was in LA, I would talk about John and John and I did this and John and I went to dinner and John and I went to this and then John and I did this. And finally, my mom said to me on the phone, says,

Wait a who is this John guy? I said, he's a very good friend. We're really getting along and doing stuff. And she paused and she said, can I ask you something? I said, yes. And she said, are you gay? And now I have to preface by saying I had a girlfriend in high school and dated some other girls today. And I said, would it matter to you what the answer is? She goes, no. I said, then yes, I'm gay. And my mouth went closed. thank god.

Wilkinson (13:51.362)
We were so worried that you're not seeing anybody. We know you used to have girlfriends and we're so worried you didn't have anything funny in your life and all. And she yells, Joe, that's my dad. I Joe, I wouldn't have had to wait. Mom, wait, hold the phone. I said, why don't you tell dad and then have him call me? She said, OK. So hung up. Phone rings like two minutes later. He goes, hi. I said, hi. He said, mom told me. I said, yeah. I said, are you OK? He goes, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Absolutely.

He said, you know, we're surprised. We didn't have any inclination. They really didn't have a clue? Had none. Like the theater and all that stuff? No, it wasn't anything that they thought about. So you didn't want to barbie when you were No, but I do remember barring my mom's like long skirt. Like it was like an underskirt thing. a, I don't know what you call this thing, but in those days, like in the 60s, you wear a skirt under it, like a thing under a skirt. I remember. a slip?

like a slip, but it was more like crinoline, like frilly, would make the dress puff out. I remember putting that on and memorizing and lip syncing to Chita Rivera's big number in Bye Bye Birdie and doing that in front of the mirror. And they thought, I'm Justin Chobis' but people didn't. I was like maybe five or six years old or something, no clue. And then my dad said, are you happy? And I said, yeah, I'm very happy. So that's all, we love you. It's not a problem.

long as you're happy, that's all we care about. Will we get to meet John?" I said, yes, you will. So... do you have siblings? No, I was an only child, and I'm an only child. So they didn't go, we won't have grandchildren? That didn't come It did come up with my mom at one point, and I said, that's true, that's not gonna happen, although who knows, maybe I'll meet someone who will adopt or something like that, because I love kids. And she was like, yeah, that's the only... If I could say I have a regret, that's the one regret, is that the grandchildren thing. I said, yeah.

Sorry about that, But you told her you were really gonna like my dog, right? You can have so much they did. Yeah, so it was a very easy story. There was a bat mitzvah that I had to go back to Philly to, and my mom said, I'm not gonna tell anyone about that. And I said, no, I don't wanna hide anything. I want you to say something, because if you don't, if they ask me, I will. She was like,

Wilkinson (16:10.454)
Okay, well wait, let me think of what to do. And all of she called and said, I told everyone's fine. Nobody cares. I'm like, okay, good, thank you. All right, great. So how many people were everyone? we're talking like my family, my cousins and aunts and uncles. So we're talking like 50, 60 people that were going to be at the bat mitzvah. So everybody knew. I hope she didn't call them individually. Good Lord. No, it probably was, tell us so and so. They'll tell everybody. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Wow.

So earlier, of course we chat before these for a few minutes. So earlier you said when you were in LA you did something to help the whole AIDS situation. What was that about? Yes, it was pretty bad in Los Angeles. The people that were suffering when this first happened. All the big cities. All the big cities. And there were small hospices around to take care of all the people who were sick or dying of AIDS. And they were desperately needing money to be able to just even

go from day to day, survive. And a friend of mine named Robert Tan and another friend named Craig Smith, we had an idea to start a theater company in which we would take well-known musicals. And the first one we had was West Side Story, see if we could get the rights to it. And not do a drag show or anything like that, but do a gay story, but using the idea of what the original story is and then changing lyrics.

to the songs and moving the songs around so it made sense with our story. So with West Side Story, we came up with an idea of a straight group, which was called the Jocks, and a gay group, which was called the Sheiks, and the rivalry between them. And the only way we could get the rights for this was to actually get in touch with the original people who were still alive. So Leonard Bernstein was still alive, Steven Sondheim.

and we had to send them a portion of the script that we wrote and some new lyrics. And Sullenheim loved it and said, have permission, I'll talk to Lenny. And we got permission from him to do it. And we were... So we didn't have a theater. We rented a... Details, details. I know. We rented Plummer Parks Auditorium, which is in the heart of West Hollywood. Okay. We had a... Everyone was doing everything for free. Everything.

Wilkinson (18:33.176)
We had a PR guy who was really well known. He said, I'll do all the PR for this. We'll get the word out. We had to literally build everything from scratch in this auditorium and turn it into a theater. And we thought we were in good shape and we thought it was moving and funny because we didn't want to shy away from the storyline of the love story. So we wanted to keep that intact, but nowhere in any of the ones that we did, ever talk about AIDS because we thought we need...

everyone who's coming to see this, to give themselves a break and not have to hear about this all the time. And so was amazing. The first one we did, the first night we did, because we were supposed to just do one night. We did all that for one thing. For one night to raise money for this local, for the AIDS Hospice Foundation in Los Angeles, the first one, I believe. And we saw a lot of people with AIDS, sick with...

nurses and wheelchairs and IVs come in. was about a 250 seat. Wow. And at intermission, this is 30 years later and I still get choked up talking about this. I'm tearing up right now. It was amazing to see all the people who came in wheelchairs and hooked up to IVs up and walking and excited and talking and just like you saw so much life come back into them.

And we knew then that we had to keep doing this. And what happened was we had one more performance. had one night we were given permission to do an afternoon performance the next day because we were sold out. We had to turn away a whole bunch of people. I showed up at Plummer Park and there was some event going on because there was a line like wrapped three times around the park. And I thought, no, we're not going to have anybody in the audience today. And I go up and I see it's all

big industry people, actors, producers, directors. And I'm like, what are you here for? They're like, we're here for your show. Word got out last night and it hit the gay community and we're all here. And so there were people like producers going, I need to get in. How can I get in? I'd say $500, I'll get you a ticket. They're like done because we needed to raise money for the AIDS Hospice Foundation. You're a salesman too. Yeah, I know.

Wilkinson (20:55.99)
And so it really caught on and then... Wait, stop for a Did you get permission to do the show for one night only? For one night only, we called the organization. We told them what was going on and they said, we'll allow you two more performances. This is at the venue? At the venue. And also we had a call, we did, we had a call the whoever licensed the thing. We got someone, a producer to call and we got an extension for two performances. So we did three performances.

And then the following year we did... wait, how much money did you raise? We raised something like, I think it was five or six hundred thousand dollars. Really? Yeah. And now what we had to do was there are some people that we needed generators for lights, that we needed lights. So there were costs. Some people had to be paid back. Most people when they knew about it would say, it's okay, don't worry about it. You don't have to pay us back. Great.

The following year we did, I we did Gypsy, I think it was the following year, West Hollywood Gypsy. And it always followed the same, like, no, we did Fiddler and the Roof, that's right. Really? Yeah, and Fiddler and the West Hollywood Roof. And in fact, I had to, I did a Broadway show called Jolie about Al Jolson, Larry Kurt, if you know, is, and he was the original company anyway.

who's original Tony in West Side Story. Really? On Broadway, yeah. through various shows and the show that I did, I met Sheldon Harnick who wrote Fiddler. And I had to call him to ask for the rights. And he said, Stephen Sondma already called me. It's a done deal. You've got it. We were like, OK. We did Fiddler and we had Lily Tomlin heard about us and came to see the show. And she said, if you would like me to host next year, I would love to do that.

So she hosted, and she actually hosted every year we did it four years in a row. The last one we did, we did Gypsy and we had Angela Lansbury and Lily Tomlin host the opening night. because opening nights were expensive tickets. The following year we did Oliver called Oliver Twisted. So were all of these each year, were they all to raise money? absolutely. All to raise money for AIDS Hospice Foundation. And the following year, the guy who wrote our version of Oliver

Wilkinson (23:20.072)
And Ian Prazier, he was a writer on Buzzing Buddies, with the show that starred Tom Hanks where he got his start. so he said, I'm going to call Tom and see if he'll host our evening. And he did. And so we had Tom Hanks and Lily Tonlin again. And so it became a really well-known thing. People Magazine covered it. New York Times had a thing on it. It had to stop.

just simply because the laws and rules for nonprofit changed. And as I said, we used to have to pay some people back, and we had to take the money off of the ticket money to pay them back. And then whatever was left went to the organizations, which was still several hundred thousand dollars. Unfortunately, it changed where every dime you spent of the ticket had to go to the organization you were raising the money for. And so, yeah. so- That makes no sense. It doesn't.

And so then, yes, and then we had to raise money to put on the shows. And the shows cost like 80 to $100,000. And so we just couldn't raise it. We just weren't able to raise enough money because they always were short runs. Like we ended up doing two weekends and people didn't want to invest a lot of money into something that was so short. So we had to end them. Unfortunately. Could you, different thing, and of course I've done business, could you not split the ticket some way? Like you're...

because I don't mean that things were so much that was too much evidence, so much is something I think it's probably changed, but at that time, which was in the early 80s. Right, that sucks. Yeah, we were going to do Guys and Dolls was Guys and Dolls. And we just couldn't do it. had to stop. We just couldn't raise enough money. We raising like half of what we needed. wasn't able Did you get feedback on it ending? people were mortified. mean, everybody's looking forward to this every year.

It's so funny we would do shows that you could rent a video on and, a video, that's how long ago it was. And all of the video stores would be sold out of whatever we were doing because the guys wanted to see the parody that we were doing on that particular show. Yeah, it was great. It was an amazing, rewarding, incredible experience. Sounds like it. Yeah. Very nice. It's always good to hear people doing

Wilkinson (25:44.558)
things that are good. Yeah. in today's climate. Exactly. I agree. And then that actually opened up for me a whole avenue for, because I was directing those. I didn't mention that, but I was directing all of those and also co-writing some of it. And for me, it opened up my whole world of getting into gay theater. Because once people saw that, they were like, we have a play or we have a musical. And, you know, let's give it to him and see if he'll do it. So it opened up a whole world for me that I didn't think would have existed if I didn't end up doing that. Cool. Yeah.

So your husband is Jonathan, you mentioned earlier. Yeah. Where'd guys meet? We met at a New Year's Day party that I used to go to for years, and it really was an opportunity to just see people you haven't seen in a year. Right. And so, and usually there was nobody new, it was just the same people. So was that New Year's 2012 or? Yes, yeah, I believe so 11 or 13, somewhere in there. Yeah, it was either 11 or 12. Okay, all right. And I was dating someone at the time, but he wasn't at the party, and Johnny was there.

with someone and we were introduced and we just started talking about American Horror Story. And then we clicked, we exchanged numbers and then went on a date and... And dumped the other guy. And we dumped our other prospective people. And yeah, and that was it. And there was a moment I was, I think this is the show, because Johnny always corrects me on this. I was directing, no, I was directing a musical called The Fix.

in Long Beach, a really risque, high-end political thriller. It was a really wonderful musical, and he was auditioning for that. And we had been dating, and he came in and sang Marry Me a Little from Marry Me a Little. And I gave him a note. said, okay, do it again. And this time, when you're seeing this, I want you to literally see the person you're love with standing in front of you.

I wanted to see that person from head to toe. And when you do, you can start singing. And so he did, and he got three words out, and he just started sobbing. And I was like, OK, are you OK? He was like, yes. And I said, can you go on? was like, And I gave him a hug, and he left. my choreographer and my musical director and all said, what was that? I said,

Wilkinson (28:10.594)
Did he make it through the song or no? No, he couldn't, not really. He couldn't do it. No, and I said, we're dating. He said, and I said, I don't know if that has anything to do with And it did. I found out later that when I said, think of the person you're in love with, he said, it was you. And I just couldn't get through this all. It was such a realization that it moved me so much. He said, I was sobbing all the way home. And I said, that's, and then surely thereafter, that was it.

I was married life as a gay man today. It's great and it's hard. think has nothing to do being gay. think that marriage in general is work. It really is. But it is so rewarding and moving and fun and learning, huge learning process. You're taking two people and having them live together and that's hard in any situation. Especially in your set your ways and around. Exactly.

And in my lifetime, because I am much older than he is, I never thought I would get married. It wasn't like any concept like Like a global leader. No, not at all. He, on the other hand, because he was younger, knew that was a possibility. And his brother and his sisters were all married, so that was like a thing. I wasn't even thinking about that. So when it was possible to do that, that was like a big thing in my life, because I just never thought that would ever happen. So next time on My Dates Boat.

So when you got married, was it legal to actually get married? Yes, it was. It actually was. And I wanted, I was like in my head, I thought, we'll have a little, we'll go to City Hall, we'll get married, we'll have a little party. And go for the weekend. Yeah, and he was like, no, fuck, can I say fucking no fucking wedding. He said, my sisters and brother had big weddings. I want a big wedding. I was like, no. So we did, we had a really, not a huge wedding, but a big wedding, we got married on the Queen Mary.

Really? Yeah. we had about... That's in Long Beach, right? That's in Long Beach. Gorgeous ship. Everything about it was beautiful. And oddly enough, that's the boat that brought my dad back from World War II. Really? To the United States. Yeah. Wow. So yeah, we had a beautiful big wedding with That were your parents around at that time? No. And that's the one sad thing for me is that my parents never got to meet him. And they would have loved him. Right. They would have absolutely loved him. He's lovable. Yeah, he is.

Wilkinson (30:32.984)
My parents were always very open and welcoming to anybody I was with at the time, very loving and embraced them and all of that, yeah. But your sibling? No, wait, you don't have any siblings? Wait, but you mentioned sisters. His sisters. His sisters had big weddings. So were they? Brother had them. Did they come to it? yeah, his whole family came. cool. Yeah, yeah. You're along with them, okay? Yeah, yeah, they're great. They're great. Wow. So what brought you guys to Palm Springs?

Being tired of living in Los Angeles, the traffic has become ridiculous there. And I realized since COVID, what I do as far as acting and as far as directing, it's all now you can do on video and self-tapes and remote and all of that. So there wasn't any reason not to be somewhere else. You could literally be anywhere and still audition. So we used to come up here. you send you reel to somebody and do that.

Yeah, yeah, that's what you do. And we used to, we had a friend here, Sal Mastretto, who has since unfortunately passed away, and Pieta Locassita with his husband, Jeffrey, who's still here. And we would get away for the weekend. We would say, could we come up and get you? So we were always coming here on our actual honeymoon after the wedding. We came here for the weekend. Our official honeymoon was a year later in London, but we just were like, we really, Palm Springs a lot.

And so we decided to just see what was what in our dream house and that was it. You're in what town? We're in Indio. Indio. People when you're first here are like, you're so far away. 28 minutes away. And it would take two hours to go four blocks in Los Angeles. that was nothing to When I was in the Northwest, so Seattle, and then I lived in Edmonds. yeah. Which is like 10 miles. Right, yeah. But whenever I would say that where I was to my friends, it would be like,

No, that's near the Canadian border. Which is like an hour and a half away. Right. New. People are so odd about traveling, but so for me, this is nothing to drive 28 minutes thing to Palm Springs, it's fine. So what are you going do now in the desert? I've been still auditioning a lot remotely. Couple jobs, they had a couple TV jobs.

Wilkinson (32:51.182)
But you're in directing. I've been directing a lot. Yes. So I directed this a theater here called Desartre Performs. I did two directed two shows there. Okay. I'm directing a show at the big repertory theater company here called CV rep. have something coming up. Yes, it's coming up in May. What is that going to be? It's called Beverly Hills Peace Talks. I hope I got that right because I sometimes forget exactly what the title is. It's we did a workshop of it and say

really interesting play about when Funny Girl was going to be released, there was a photograph of Barbra Streisand and Umar Sharif that was out in the public to publicize the film. Israel and Egypt banned the film from opening and also revoked, was going to revoke Umar Sharif's citizenship. And Israeli was going to come down hard on Streisand because of her hugging

and Arab. And so this is a true story where they had two representatives from each nation come to the Beverly Hills Hotel with the CEO of, I think it's Warner Brothers. The studio. The studio. And his PR person to have these two people talk this out so they could release Funny Girl without any problems. And that's what the play is about. And it's very funny and also

very interesting and moving to when you just get people in the room, how different that is than what nations are projected to think. so it's wonderful. I can't wait to jump into it and do it again. So that's going to a resolution? You'll have to come see it, won't you? Well, the film was. I know. The film came out, so I guess so. yeah, yeah. very interesting. They should take that and maybe use it as a blueprint.

Wouldn't that would be a good idea, I know. Really? Yeah, exactly. Wow. And then I've been doing these musical reviews called Razzle Dazzle Heat here, and it's been busy. It's been great. The pump series called The Thunder? exactly. Upstairs? Upstairs. What nights? My dates are, yeah, I think they're Friday nights. I know they may have changed it. My dates are coming up like next month and the month after or so, unless I'm not exactly sure what they are. Okay. They can look it up? Yes, absolutely. So when we reach this point,

Wilkinson (35:15.798)
I was asked by Yes, what have you learned in your life? What do you live by? What are some of the things you go by? Be kind. I think it's really important to be kind to everyone and to have an open mind and an open heart. feel like also please just pursue your creative juices and whatever you want to do, just give it a shot and be happy. Be kind to animals. I'm a big animal person.

And another podcast I'll tell you when I used to, I volunteered at the Los Angeles Zoo for four years and worked with orangutans and greats there, hands on. That's why you like Jonathan. I'm kidding, Jonathan. know you're gonna look little... Yeah, I'll smack him when we get off of this, But yeah, I think all of that, think that. Cool. Yeah. And I'll add a footnote to your, creative, do it at any age. Absolutely, yes.

It's funny. Here I am an old guy and I'm starting my podcast two years ago. People say to me, so you moved to Palm Springs as you retired. I'm like, I will never retire until I literally physically cannot do it anymore. I can direct, I can act, I can do voiceovers, I could do anything at any age. Retiring and being bored and dying later is not a good idea. that's worst. No, that's a terrible idea. No, I will never stop because it gives me too much joy and too much pleasure. Yeah.

Randy, thank you for coming in. Thank you. I wanted Jonathan one day, but you beat him. So I could give him a word and he'll... I'll put in a good word for Jonathan, come in here and do your own. Yeah, he will. He will. I'll be Anyway, thank you for coming in. thank you. It was an absolute joy. Thank you. Thank you.