The Dance Studio Podcast
The Dance Studio Podcast
Tony Award-Winner Greg Jbara
Join Sally as she talks with Tony Award-Winner Greg Jbara. Raised in Westland, Michigan, Greg's journey of passion and perseverance is a testament to his tenacity and talent. From his first school plays to founding the Impact Jazz Dance Company during his time at the University of Michigan, we'll hear his unique perspectives on the significance of dance in theatre, especially for musical theatre actors.
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Original music and audio production provided by Jarrett Nicolay at Mixtape Studios. www.mynewmixtape.com
Welcome to the second season of the Dance Studio podcast. This podcast is for dancers, teachers, dance moms and especially dance studio owners. In the first season, we covered topics like scoliosis, eating disorders and point shoe readiness, along with several episodes on different dance career paths and awesome dance programs for you and your dance students. In the second season, you can count on hearing from Tony Award winners, american Ballet Theater teachers, competition judges and so much more. The Dance Studio podcast fans are loving the information this podcast provides. Take it from season one guest, jennifer Miletto.
Speaker 2:My name is Jen Miletto and I am a former student of Sally's, now dancing professionally at Disney. As well as teaching dance as a college professor, sally has been my mentor through my entire dance career. What I love about her and her podcast is that she is not only willing to be completely open about everything that she has learned in her career, but she is also so curious about what others have learned in their unique experience, and she wants to share all of it with her listeners. There is a reason why I have stuck with Sally all of these years she is committed to advocating for the success of the dance community. If you are a studio owner, teacher, dancer or aspiring to be any of those things, do not miss this podcast.
Speaker 1:Welcome Dance Studio owners. Today, our very special guest is Tony Award winner Greg Jabara. Welcome, greg Sally.
Speaker 3:We're still not in the same place, but how long ago was it? It was the 70s right.
Speaker 1:It was the 70s and I was going to say you've not only won a Tony Award for your part in Billy Elliot, but you've also appeared on Broadway in Serious Money, born yesterday, dan Yankees, victor, victoria, dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and you played the part of Billy Flynn in Chicago. But personally I think your greatest role of all time might have been playing my father and Mary Poppins in Pamela School of Dance Recital. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 3:Hands down. That is still the bar that never gets met my entire career. You're absolutely right, Sally. Now I'm going to weep just quietly for a moment.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was the 70s and that was a big role for me. It was a very exciting year. I was about 10, and I got to play Jane in Mary Poppins, and your brother played my brother, michael, and you played my father. But first, why don't you talk to us about where you grew up and how you got interested in the theater?
Speaker 3:Sure, wayne Westland School District. So I was born in Westland Michigan and for Native Michiganders we all know that it was a city named after a shopping mall, which is fact, because it was Nankin Township and then Hudson's department store built a mall and then they decided to name the area surrounding the mall, which was called Westland Mall, because they built satellites from downtown Detroit, northland, eastland, southland and Westland Mall. I'm from the town that was named after a shopping mall, which I think is really a perfect metaphor for the lives that we've lived as children, growing up in suburban Detroit but went to the Wayne Westland Schools. At a time I was a little older than you let's see how much older I would have been five or six years older than you seven, yes, five or six years older if I was born in 61. And the Wayne Westland Schools. It was a time when, now that I'm a parent myself, I understand it's really just paid babysitting, but we boomers benefited from the community, the society, going yeah, we'll pay for great public schools because then you're going to keep our kids there and busy, hopefully and productively, and out of prison, while we all have our jobs. Because everybody worked except some of the moms, actually a lot of the moms with prolific size families or even small families. You know the moms were the homemakers, dads were working and the kids, hopefully, were not in jail Because you still hadn't finished high school when you left Michigan.
Speaker 3:But when I was at Wayne Memorial High School we had a 68-member men's chorus. There were 68 guys and most of them were jocks. They were in choir in a men's chorus, not to mention the concert choir and the vocal ensemble and then we did musicals and plays and we had marching band and jazz ensemble and concert orchestra and symphony orchestra. There was just everything. We had a TV broadcast station with a full studio and we had a radio station. All at our high school and junior high. There were so many opportunities, from performing arts to student government.
Speaker 3:I just grew up in a place and I was raised Catholic. So as an altar boy in third starting in third grade I was up in front of people cold-reading scripture that had names that were like 12 syllables long and doing that five times a week because the adults were never getting up to do the 530 mass or 630 mass every weekday morning before I went to school. So there was great opportunity, because now I'm a recovering Catholic. But I'm forever indebted because it was my religious upbringing that really got me into public speaking and being in front of people.
Speaker 3:And then I went to public schools where they said here, here are all these things, what do you like to do, what do you have talent in? Please pursue it. But the real important pivot here is that in ninth grade there was a some mutual. The junior highs all did some event and there was these girls from Adams Junior High, linda Goodrich, along with Sandy Pope back in Carol Law and a slew of others, but Linda Goodrich was. That was the first time I laid my eyes on her and I had a mad crush.
Speaker 1:You're not alone.
Speaker 3:Yes, she. I think she was already a student at Pamela Dunworth's School of Dance in an outer drive, right, was it on an outer drive? Yes, yes, but it wasn't till I was in high school. Nothing romantically ever happened, but it was clear that I would follow her like a puppy dog. We did tons of plays and musicals together, but there was a time when she came to me and a fellow way night, carmen Yurech.
Speaker 3:She was a year older than me and she asked us if we wanted to come and be Adagio ballet partners for their dance company, because they needed guys and I'm thinking wait, I get to be your dance partner in a sweaty, hot dance studio with mirrors the entire wall, and I get to pick you up and set you on my shoulder and dip you in a fish and I'm thinking, yes, sign me up. And then it actually turned out. Maybe that first recital there were a couple of girls who were bigger than Linda and I might have been other than Patrick Lynch, who is, you know, basketball player, but he also danced. You remember Patrick right? Who now do you know? Yeah, I do know that they're married. Yeah, pat and Pat are married.
Speaker 1:I know yes.
Speaker 3:That's crazy.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 3:But but I was partnered with, you know, taller women. So for a while I was longingly picking up bigger girls and looking across the studio at Linda, dreaming of the day I get to be her partner. And I think I ultimately did, because we were the Mary Poppins family at one recital. What year was that?
Speaker 1:I don't know exactly the year, but I was 78, maybe 70.
Speaker 3:Oh, so it could have been my senior year, after I'd already been doing it for a year. Yeah, so I had to wait a year before I could finally be Linda Goodrich's dance partner. That's how we met and that was my performing arts life up until then. I did, I did everything, everything Band, I was marching band president. I was in every show. I was in all the choirs. I was a very happy performer.
Speaker 1:It just sounds like, first of all, your school was extremely arts forward, and it sounds like not only you weren't an outlier, a lot of boys were doing all of the same things that you were doing and enjoying it, yeah it was cool. Which is kind of strange for the 70s right.
Speaker 3:It is, it really is.
Speaker 1:Because that wasn't what was going on in not too far away, in Dearborn. In our schools we didn't have the same atmosphere. So did you dance before you were in ninth grade?
Speaker 3:I didn't study dance outside of the. You know choreography we do for the musical for that year, so whatever that was. But I never studied privately until Linda Goodrich, the siren, came calling from you know come do ballet.
Speaker 1:And how did your parents feel about you doing dance? Oh, they loved it. They loved everything.
Speaker 3:Oh they loved it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you know I didn't embarrass myself, yeah, and they were.
Speaker 3:It was very different and for that kind of training, even though I wasn't taking the classes, you know, really it was weightlifting with chicks, that's what it really was for guys.
Speaker 3:But for those of us who understood creating a line and being able to walk in tempo, because we really were just forklifts with legs who went around and picked the girls up and they needed to be picked up, but it was invaluable because it did give me a certain confidence and I got to observe and you know the girls sort of took pity on me and said, yeah, here we'll teach you a grand jetet and you know, and there'd be giggles and but there were, there was opportunity to sort of be exposed to it.
Speaker 3:So that later on, when I went to Michigan and went to Juilliard and the dance classes were coming up, there was a certain comfort and ability and familiarity and a knowledge that I had really thanks to the time spent. But, boy, if I had known what the benefits were, although it didn't really inhibit me because the classes were available later on in my training, but you know, if I could have taken tap class when I was there, or gymnastics? You know, Pamela don't, but but then again, you know, we were from a very poor, you know very middle class family where those classes weren't cheap.
Speaker 3:They were expensive, yeah, and luckily we who were recruited got to do it for free.
Speaker 1:You know, always do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all we had to pay for was our costumes.
Speaker 1:you know actually the boys probably would have gotten the free lessons.
Speaker 3:You think, you think so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do, I mean. I can't speak for Pam. But right, because we always need them, yeah, but anyway thank goodness. So how did you start this impact dance company?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. So I'm at Michigan. So I say to my folks well, this is clearly my calling, I want to be an actor. And they went uh, no, you can be. How about? A communications major? And you can minor in physics, which you're excelling at in high school, and you know you can do theater on the side, because we don't want you coming back home and living in our house when you're, when you get your college degree. So I was like, yeah, okay, and the great thing about going to University of Michigan in an Arbor is they had the University Activities Center, which was a student run organization outside of the university that provided all kinds of performing arts and other opportunities for non-departmental passion. So if you weren't a dance manager at Michigan, you could still take dance classes through UAC, uac and they did the soft show, which was the sophomore uh, directed run, designed, cast, all sophomores a musical in the fall. Well, that's what I did, because I wasn't a theater major so I couldn't do the department productions and I worked at a TV station and learned in valuable experience being a floor manager and operating TV cameras and writing copy and operating Chiron boxes. You know the do graphics. Michigan had a phenomenal public service station there, invaluable.
Speaker 3:But I was in this musical of sweet charity that, important to know, starred Beth Holmes. That's her professional name. Now Beth Holmes has retired but is like one of the most prominent casting directors in Los Angeles. She starred as charity Hope Valentine in that production. Douglas Sills he was Tony nominated for his role as the Scarlet Pimpernel. He was Vittorio Vidal. It was directed by Oliver Goldstich who, if you Google him, he's a huge prolific TV producer, writer, creator. And then the choreographers for that production, who are also sophomores, were Sue Addison, michelle Melkersen. We did the show Great success. Was that the Lydia Mendelson? So much fun.
Speaker 3:Then Sue Addison and Michelle Melkersen come to me and go hey, we want to start a dance company. We wondered if you'd be our guy, because we need a guy. And I went yeah, I know how to be a guy. Linda Goodrich recruited me to be a guy in a dance company years ago. I'll do that. I'll be like lift. Yeah, but we want to. You know you're really going to because you're a really good dancer, because we did all that Fawciesque stuff from sweet charity. They're going. You know he's a guy. And so the three of us co-founded Impact Jazz Dance. It was called Impact Jazz Dance Company and we were housed in the ballroom at the Student Union. That's where we did back then our concerts and did our classes. You know that was something we kept going the entire time we were there. But I ended up leaving midway of my third year at Michigan but it was still ongoing with the two of them and other people because the company had grown.
Speaker 3:And then maybe five, seven years ago, sue Addison she and her husband co-founded the Waldorf Charter School that our kids went to. We're at a soup plantation, which is like this buffet style cafeteria food that kids love because they can go at the soft serve ice cream machine without the parents knowing and just eat tons of you know tooth rotting sugar. But we were there and I saw another actor who I knew and we're talking at a table with his family and then I hear from the cross room is that Greg Jabara? And it was Sue Addison, who I hadn't seen since we were doing this dance company and she goes you should really come. We were starting a Waldorf school and it was right.
Speaker 3:When I had taken dirty, rotten scoundrels, I was about to go back to New York with my whole family because my kids hadn't started grade school yet. Long story short, our kids, when we came back, when dirty, rotten scoundrels was over, we came back to our house and our kids got into the lottery and got into that Waldorf school and that's where they really thrived. And there again, dance. Sue Addison, my family benefited exponentially. You can't even count the value of that. So that's how impact jazz happened and I think I sent you some paperwork that it was in, you know, one of the publications that it's still happening today. They've changed it to just impact dance. They took impact jazz dance out of it.
Speaker 1:You were the founder.
Speaker 3:But yeah, although more indirectly, but with Linda Goodrich, who now, we must boast, is stepping back in to fill the void of their director of the Musical Theater Program. But she had retired as a professor of dance at the Musical Theater Program at Michigan. But Linda and I were a member of the pilot program. She and about seven other actors were this pilot program that was spearheaded by Connie Barron and Beverly Renalde under Dean Boylan back in the school and he goes. We need a musical theater program here, Connie, here Beverly, round up some kids, show me that we can do it. And Connie knew Linda. I don't know how Linda reached out to me. Once again, we need a guy and you know, the University of Michigan Musical Theater Training Program now is one of the premier places to go if you want to be trained outside of New York City as a musical theater actor.
Speaker 1:So it was small when you went there and Linda went there at the same time with you.
Speaker 3:We started it it didn't even exist. Wow, it took about three or four years because they were going to start out my third year and I had audition, even though I was part of the founding group and. But I auditioned and they accepted me, but I had to take like another two years of classes that were just music department oriented and there was no guarantee that this thing was going to work Right. And then I got accepted to Juilliard. That was a whole other journey. You know mentors saying you need to go to a better program that's established and you could stay here and take a risk or go to something if they'll take you.
Speaker 3:So that's how I ended up leaving. I never got to see it come to fruition. But it wasn't till Brent Wagner it wasn't really till he came in as the artistic director, which was about four years after we started it that it really really, really took off. But yeah, I like to claim I was. I gave a little bit of blood and love to helping that program, but it really was. It was Dean Boylan, the dean of the School of Music, and then Connie Barron and Beverly Rinaldi and then Linda Goodrich, who I still have a crush on.
Speaker 3:And then she ended up being the director of and then, yes, then she goes because she and I I left, she got a job doing the national tour of sugar babies and then ultimately came back and they took her in as a professor and that was the smartest thing they could have done, because she nurtured some of the most important young Broadway stars who were products of that program. She's yeah, she was a gift to them and me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:A gift to me. I didn't say I was a gift. Thank God for Linda Goodrich.
Speaker 1:Agree. How about talking about Juilliard and your mentors?
Speaker 3:So it was Connie Barron. By my second year I changed my major to theater. My parents hung their head in shame but you know, I got a job. I was a cook at Mountain Jacks on Jackson Road and I worked in the cafeteria at West Quad and I did a non-union children's theater tour. And then I dropped out after the first semester of my third year, knowing I was going to audition at the Juilliard School. Now I knew that I had to go away. I had to go someplace because everybody at Michigan sing. You need to go to a better program and I went. Okay.
Speaker 3:So the Michigan Mafia, connie Barron, who's a few years older, one of her dear friends, sharon Jensen, was the president of the League of Professional Theater Training Schools, which back then was Juilliard and my U Yale SMU University of Washington ACT. There was like Cincinnati North Carolina School of the Arts. There were, like there was this consortium of colleges that had conservatory-like actor training programs and they were. It was just acting. They weren't musical theater programs. Well, juilliard wasn't. So what Sharon Jensen taught me over the phone was explained to me and I realized is if I'm going to leave Michigan and where I'm at, yeah, I need to go to New York. I need to go to New York City because if I get into a school there, when you're in performances, the industry is there and they're going to get to see all the different roles you're going to play and they're going to have a real good sense of who you are and what you can do as an artist. Where, if I graduate from the University of Michigan program, I still have to now start all over when I get to New York because they're not coming to Ann Arbor to see my work. A production photo isn't going to sell me to an agent, so I'm going to have to hit the pavement again, although a lot of the programs now do showcases for their graduating classes in New York City and Los Angeles, which is a vital and important thing to do, but it used to only be for the schools that were in New York. Bottom line was my last two years of repertory were, you know, seen by everybody and I had an agent.
Speaker 3:Before I started my fourth year, pbs did a special about the Juilliard School celebrating its 80 years and I was chosen as one of the actors to represent the acting program. So I got to do two contrasting scenes live on PBS and the next day William Morris, triad and J Michael Blumen Associates all reached out, said we want to meet Greg Jabara. And I met with them all and I chose to go with J Michael Blumen Associates because they had a huge commercial department and I still had a year of school to finish and I wanted to finish. My parents were afraid I would never finish anything and I really wanted to finish and get my degree because my parents also said you want a high school ring or you want a college ring. And I went oh, I'm going to graduate college. I needed a college ring that my parents owed me. They were going to pay for it. That was the brass ring that I was looking at, but it was also while I was a student. I could do, I could audition for commercials and maybe they could be snuck in between class or I could only miss a day.
Speaker 3:But I wasn't going to take a job, which I was offered in my third year. I read per cast for Simon and Cumin Casting while they were doing Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway and as a reader for them. And Neil Simon and Manny Asenberg said will you do the national tour? We want to hire you to go play Waikowsky in the national tour, and I went. Thank you, that's great, but no, I have a year of school to finish. Call me when I'm done, but don't fire me as your reader, because I really like the money for this too.
Speaker 3:So there were opportunities, but I really wanted to finish, and it was a great opportunity because I ended up with an agent before I was even done. So, when Juliard had its showcase at the end of the year for my class, I wasn't sweating bullets like the majority of them were. It was such a privilege and a luxury to know I'm okay. I had already booked. Actually, my first on-camera job was a TV commercial for the Detroit Free Press. Of all coincidences, they were casting and shooting at New York. I auditioned, they hired me not knowing that I was a Michigan Wow. So I thought this is another omen.
Speaker 1:Our studio uses Akeda software and we absolutely love it. If you want to take control of everything, from employees to parents, costume ordering to registration, try Akeda today. If you don't love it, they won't charge you a thing.
Speaker 3:Go to akadasoftwarecom, aka softwarecom, to inquire about your free trial today, and then I auditioned for the Juliard school and the only weekend that I was free from my financial obligations was the weekend they were auditioning in San Francisco and I flew myself out there and that's where I auditioned and the fact that I was there and not auditioning in Chicago or in New York, which were closer, that made an impression on them that they went, that I was really ambitious, hungry. This is something I wanted.
Speaker 1:This is exactly what I want to know. Where did you get your drive at such a young age?
Speaker 3:It was because all growing up, everything I tried to do, everybody went yeah, this is where you belong, Come on in. Yeah, this is for you, this is your thing. So I had nothing but positive reinforcement, especially in the performing arts and in music and in singing, my entire childhood. So there was a really firm foundation of confidence and belief, not because I had a dream or I aspired, but because I've been doing it forever, even though it's in school. I did summer civic theater. It was like I ate, slept and breathed it my entire life and that's where I belonged and it's where I was happiest and it's where the world went. Yeah, you got this thing and you should be doing this. So that's where it came from. It wasn't because I'm watching TV and I'm going oh, that looks like fun, I'd love to do that. It's because I was publicly performing, publicly speaking, singing, dancing.
Speaker 1:And you got good feedback.
Speaker 3:And it was always positive and I belong there. My folks gave me the genes for being a performer. Thankfully, even though that roadblock at college was really just, we didn't know anybody who made a living in the performing arts. They were terrified for me. I wasn't, I knew it, I knew.
Speaker 1:You knew you were going to be fine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I knew that's where I belonged and it was going to come together because everything had worked for me up until then. But my parents are just thinking big picture. But every step I took, that went oh see, look, see, this is good, I'm going to be okay. Look, I'm out of other jobs but I'm doing the thing I love. I mean all's off the dole. I mean they cut off the money the moment I changed my major, but I was fine.
Speaker 1:So what age was it that you saw a career? What age was it when you went? Maybe I could actually make a living doing the thing that's so fun for me.
Speaker 3:Well, I knew that people made a living doing it and I knew that there was a place for me at every level that I was in so far and I'd always moved to a bigger pond and become a bigger fish and then moved to a bigger pond and every new step. It was probably when I got accepted into Juilliard that I knew okay, and my parents too went. Oh, because they picked 26 students from my class out of about over 1200 who had auditioned. So, you know, and those are the people that really get themselves there by then you're going. Oh, this isn't just a pipe dream, I'm not just kidding myself, you know and the school wants talent coming out of that program. They're not going to waste their time either. So that was a big turning point, you know. That was validation, much more profound than anything, than just the applause and the girls that I got to kiss, you know, in grade school.
Speaker 1:So all right, let's jump right to the Tony. What does it feel like to win a Tony award, and what does that do for your career?
Speaker 3:It does everything that you hope it would do. So we were. The family was here, we weren't going to strike right then, but all the work had run away from California. So there was very little work in Los Angeles and I'm living here with two kids and a mortgage and car payments and there's no money coming in and my wife and I are lying awake at sleep at night, going I'm going to have to take a FedEx job or a cook job just so we can pay our bills. And then Dirty, rotten Scoundrels came along and they wooed me.
Speaker 3:In addition to the idea of uplifting my entire family and coming to New York for two years with this is you're going to originate a role and you know Dam Yankees, victor Victoria, chicago it already opened with it. I followed Jimmy Norton, so I wasn't going to get any recognition there, award wise, because award recognition is a business ticket. It puts a spotlight on you and it makes people want you just because you got it right, even the nomination. So the opportunity had never really come. Victor Victoria, my role was for a musical. I think I only sang a G at the end of the show. So there are variables when the shows and development songs go away, blah, blah blah. So it ended up being a role that was great for me financially and I got to meet important people in the film industry because Julie Andrews was. So the people that came to see her then saw me and it was great. But the Tony Award or award recognition Dirty Rotten Scoundrels said come out, you're going to originate a role and it was a really great possibility. But the reality was, and as brilliant as I was in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, there were other actors supporting actors and other musicals who just eclipsed the demands of my role and you can't give a nomination to everybody who did great work. There's only five spots and there were five or seven guys who deserved a nomination ahead of me because of what they had to do was much more amazing than what was required for me.
Speaker 3:So when Billy Elliot came along, it was and it was. There was a strike that we had just come through in Los Angeles. The show had already been running on the West End and the role of the dad was nominated for an Olivier Award. It had already run for a year in Australia and the role of the dad was nominated for a Helpman Award. So I'm now being business savvy because you can make promises and hopes and aspirations. But when shows are in development and try out out of town, you don't know how your character is going to end up and I'm not some big prima donna star who can control how you're going to change my character. That's. I didn't have that luxury. So what was great about the common sense choice to go after this job was it's already proven itself worthy of that kind of attention in all the other markets before it was coming to Broadway. So it was a smart thing for me to do.
Speaker 3:The only problem was the casting director didn't think I was right for the role and didn't want to see me. And my agents had thrown every other actor who could possibly be right for dad at them and none of them caught fire. So I never went in because the casting office wasn't interested in me, because the last thing they saw me do was playing a French inspector in dirty, rotten scoundrels and they just didn't see past that skinny, arrogant, you know, upper class Frenchman. So my agents said would you consider? And I'm in LA. They said, would you consider coming into an audition?
Speaker 3:And normally if I audition for a Broadway show, the way it works is the producers of that show. They fly me out that night, the next morning I audition, and that afternoon they put me up at a hotel in Times Square. I audition in the morning, meet with everybody and then they put me on a plane and fly me home and it's all paid for by the show. That's been since I left and it's kind of nice and it's happened maybe a half a dozen times. Well, I said, oh, so they're gonna, they're interested. They were like, well, actually, no, they don't think you're right, but they haven't liked anybody else we've thrown. So we're wondering if you consider it. So I have to come out on my own dime and I put myself up and blah, blah, blah. But I'm looking at the financial traits that were in here in LA and I did the research on the show and for me it was worth the couple hundred bucks it was going to cost. And my brother Mike, who you know well, who played your brother Michael, and Mary Poppins said, yeah, come, stay with us up in Westchester. So I again proved to the people of the show that I wanted it. I wasn't just there because it was convenient, it was like.
Speaker 3:My interest and it was also a crazy coincidence was if you'd seen the movie of Billy Elliot, the film that the actor who plays the dad is actually Scottish and he wasn't the best dialectician so he was really doing a Scottish accent in the movie, not a really good Geordie accent, which is where easington is. It's a Geordie accent. So it's like if you're from some other country, you don't know the difference between Brooklyn and New York, or I should say Boston and Brooklyn. You're not going to really know the difference. Right, it's a, that's an, or Chicago. So you know American actors don't necessarily know that he's doing just a lousy Geordie, mostly Scottish accent. So they're all coming into audition and the creative team, they're all losing their minds because we know that's and we're going, but we're sounding like. We sound like the guy in the movie. They're going, yeah, but he's not. That was Scottish. We want a Geordie accent.
Speaker 3:So you had to spend a session with the dialect coach on the show before they were going to spend any time in the callback session, which my agent who are great enough they told that they cajole the casting director to get me into the final callbacks. I wasn't going to do a pre screen with anybody. Get me in the room with with Stephen Daldry and Julian Weber, because there, clearly, the casting director didn't think I was right and I don't want it to go through any dissenters. So I'm having my session with William Connaker and I don't know where I got it, but I have an ear for dialects and I worked with him and he went yeah, great. So he literally had to sign off. If William didn't say, yeah, this guy can do the dialect, they weren't going to waste my time. And this was four hours before my scheduled session, and if he had said no, I would have been going home. So not only did he know that I could do it, he goes here's some other things you need to know going in and I went oh, this is great, he has confidence in me, he thinks I might be great for this project. So then, while I was waiting for my session with William it's hours before my audition Daldry, who I'd never met before Stephen Daldry, you know, academy nominated director, the most amazing human being, genius, talent comes walking in.
Speaker 3:Now what I do, and I've always done since the internet, is you get a breakdown and says you're going to go audition for this show and hear all the people involved writers, creative, everybody. You can go online and I look up every single name and I find a picture of that person, even if I don't know them, and I look up their history to find out if there's any connective tissue. Now internet movie database actually does that for you. Imdb Pro I can go and say, have I ever worked with this person? And it'll say yes, no, or you have this person in common, which is great for business. But before IMDB, I would go and look up everybody's name and face and then on my audition sheet I put their picture and their name and whatever information I might have. Because when you walk into the room which is the only opportunity you're going to get to make your impression when they'd say, hi, I'm somebody, I go I would already know who they are.
Speaker 3:And not that it was. It's a subtle thing. Jerry Lewis taught me this when he came into Damiengis his first day at rehearsal he introduced himself to every single person and asked their name. And the second day he came to rehearsal, he addressed every single person by their first name and it knocked everybody out. We went, holy crap, and it made everyone feel so important and subtle as that is, I went. That's something I'm going to do in everything I ever do and it's been an invaluable tool and kindness and appropriate respect to instead of calling somebody big guy know their name and because it means something.
Speaker 3:So Steven Daugherty comes down the hall and I'm still long haired, unshaven, not in my audition outfit. We said hello, shared nice things. He appreciated the fact that I flew myself out for this and I said, yeah, I'm really looking forward, I'll see you in a couple hours. And then he went and took go do phone calls. And then I went away to my favorite barber in Times Square because I hadn't been I've been away for over a year and a half and cut all my hair off number four clipper and put change into an outfit that looked a lot like what the dad wore in the movie leather coat, work boots, jeans, work shirt. And that's how I walked into the audition. And even for Steven he saw, just a matter of minutes, a completely different look. Right, and suddenly I've got my Jordy accent. So that was how I got the gig.
Speaker 3:And after the first several hour session he goes. So how long are you in town? And I said as long as it takes. And he went okay, you'll be hearing from us, you know, the next 24 hours. So then I left, stayed with my brother, got a call by the end of the next day. They wanted me to come back in when it did another work session, which was just with Steven and Julian, the assistant director.
Speaker 3:And what I always say is they already knew that I could do the character. They already knew that I could do the work. Now they wanted to find out who I was as a human being, because what that job was was being the patriarch of a show that has 24 children in it. And this job is not going to be about you and your ego. This show is about understanding. We need to protect and nurture and support these kids because they are the heart of this show. And are you that person? And having two sons who were at the time a year and a half and maybe you know, four and a half five, steven even offered to put my kids in the ensemble and I, before I'd gotten hired, but he goes well, we could put your kids to the show. And I went no, no, no, thank you. I wouldn't do that to any child. But it took several months of waiting and then ultimately got hired.
Speaker 3:But I had to turn the job down because the British producers weren't going to pay for the cost of relocating me to New York. London producers are used to having everybody live in London. So if you're a London stage actor, film actor, tv actor, everybody lives in London or they have a house in the country but they all have a place in London. Here it's LA and New York. And if you're an LA actor and you want to work in New York, jody Rottens, countels, everybody relocated and paid for the expenses to move my whole family so I could do that job. London producers said no, we don't do that and I went oh okay, well, I can't do the job and literally had to turn it down after haggling and working out, kings and me taking his biggest sacrifice on the show but knowing it was going to be a success because and it already proven itself in other markets you know I didn't, I didn't actually make any money. You know my salary till.
Speaker 3:Well, after the show was open you go in just making enough money to cover your expenses in New York and cover your expenses paying your bills back in LA. You know for the house and you know that kind of thing and without knowing it's going to take off and that's kind of the rule, which is kind of the issue with the strike that's going on with TV and film right now. It's the same thing. Actors take a huge risk investing themselves in a show early on, but when it starts making money for everybody who produces it down the road, the actors need to get their share. And that's the normal on Broadway. Everybody goes in, go and all right, we'll all do it for nothing. But when it starts catching fire, everybody starts incrementally making a little bit more money and that's the right thing to do and that's what it was.
Speaker 3:And so the Tony Awards are coming up and they happen at Radio City Music Hall and the producers of the event the theater wing are considering not because the red carpet happens on a very narrow sidewalk on 50th Street adjacent to the Radio City and it's a real traffic disruptor and it really is difficult to keep safe and they were considering not having a plus one on the red carpet when you're coming in for all the TV and all the step and repeat photo stuff and all that, and it's like plus one means that your spouse gets to go with you, you know, because they're going to be with you at the event. But what do you mean? They can't walk through the red carpet with me and if you're a single person, you bring your mom, or you bring your sibling or or your lover, or you bring your agent. Someone gets to share that experience with you, and they were considering making it no plus one. We just want the people that are nominated just for logistics, and we all went well, then we won't be doing a red carpet, let's just go right to the ceremony. And we literally all put our foot down and they went all right, here we go.
Speaker 3:But thinking that my wife might not be able to, we wouldn't do a red carpet I thought to myself if I win, I'm going to take her with me, I'm going to bring her up on stage, because no one really got to chance to see who my wife is.
Speaker 3:Who's the really the other half of why I was able to do this, the success story and you can Google my speech on YouTube, I won't reiterate it, but it really was celebrating the fact that I couldn't have done what I did if my wife wasn't hadn't spent the last year primarily alone raising our children in LA while I was in New York chasing this opportunity.
Speaker 3:So the great thing was when it happened that night that I was able to take her hand, unbeknownst to her, take her with me up on stage and she went with me through the whole gauntlet, I mean the whole press thing and our show. Billy Elliot performed their number right after like 20 minutes, 30 minutes after my category was announced. So I went right into a dressing room and got changed and prepped for our performance and my wife got treated like royalty. They brought her a chair and food and they brought a monitor for her to watch the broadcast and back stage. And then she went with me when we went up to the rainbow room for the press gauntlet and the best part about it was she never had to defer to me to talk about what that night was like, because she was with me every step of the way and it was a shared experience, because it wasn't shared earned experience.
Speaker 1:So she's not an actress.
Speaker 3:She's still a union dues paying member of SAG after yes. She was in a drunken stupor in a bar in New York City.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it turns out we had she. Actually, it was while I was doing Victor Victoria. She had worked on a film and the director of that film was actually going to direct the broadcast that we did for Japanese public television. So he had to go see the show for like a week and Julie went with him to see Victor Victoria. So she had seen the show, even though on the night that we met, when she'd come into the bar with a handful of the New York Rangers hockey team, she didn't remember me and she didn't. But she said, oh, I saw that show. And then I lured her in with tickets to see Nathan Lane in. Funny Thing Happened on the Way of the Forum and she was already like half one foot over the state line because she was going to move to LA. So a little free dinner, a little free theater from someone who seemed pretty safe, you know, sounded good to her. And then the rest is history.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:DC Metro Region and offering in person and online services, body Dynamics aims to support the whole performer. Learn more about their services, including physical therapy, dance, fitness, nutrition, counseling, backstage triage and more, at BodyDynamicsInccom. That's BodyDynamicsInccom. Or find them at BodyDynamicsInc on Facebook and Instagram. See how Body Dynamics can help you dance better, faster, stronger together. How important do you think dance is to theater?
Speaker 3:Ballet is important if you're going to be a football player, because it teaches your body things about poison, familiarity and grace that will benefit being an athlete. Dance does the same thing for an actor, whether you're going to be a dancer or not. When you learn how to move, when you understand how things work, when you become focused on just trying to create a line, then you suddenly become aware of habitual movement that maybe you want to get rid of or use as a tool for a characterization. So dance, it's an important tool for any performer, whether it's front and center of what you do or it just informs something else. That might be your particular focus. But as a musical theater actor because I auditioned for musicals in those auditions you have to dance and it ends up being something that they go. Oh, he can move.
Speaker 3:And at Juilliard we had a modern dance teacher. We had Anna Sokolo, who was like the queen of modern dance. She was one of our teachers for a movement class. Mary Jane Brown was our tap teacher. So even though Juilliard wasn't a musical theater training program, they trained classical stage actors. They understand you need movement and so all of it was a part of our training over the four years and I was giddy because I knew that you know that the tap classes would benefit me ridiculously and some of those photos I don't know if you saw them that I sent you, there's a leap, there's a drummer, a percussionist doing beats and we're running across the room and leaping and running, and leaping and running.
Speaker 3:And I was like, yeah, look, there's, there's a little form right there, because I can remember when they finally got that program at Michigan together and I had to audition, I had to do a dance audition. My entire dance routine was on the floor. I never did one single leap. I wasn't about to show them the giraffe trying to, you know, spread his legs and cover some ground. I was always on the floor. So my greatest pride is that the photographer captured a moment in that movement class where I was actually leaping, you know, like a gazelle, but, yeah, dance, vital to my success as an actor on all levels.
Speaker 1:So what advice would you give somebody right now who's maybe 18, a dancer wanting to get on Broadway? What should they be doing?
Speaker 3:Well, this is really important advice, and let me just explain why. Because when Damien Keyes was trying out at the Old Globe Theater, one of the New York papers wrote a little blip, you know, an anticipation show coming to New York. And they boasted and the show boasts Broadway's top male dancers. And they listed Scott Wise, who won a Tony Award, for Jerome Robbins, broadway, michael Bress, corey English, joey Peasey, gregory Jabara my name was listed and I'm not a dancer, but in writing and I know I've got it framed somewhere it's somewhere in a box in that garage but it was like never, ever again in my life will you ever see dancer Gregory Jabara Like it doesn't even say that on my resume.
Speaker 3:It says actor who sings and moves without embarrassing himself. But it's vital as a dancer. If you're going to come to musical theater from a dance background, you're going to need singing ability and you're going to need acting ability. So if you want to be a successful dancer, you should be taking singing classes and you should be taking acting classes, even if you end up just being a featured dancer who never, really ever, has to sing, because there are Broadway shows who have a couple of featured dancers who all they do is like the dream ballet or something that doesn't require them having the chops that the rest of the singing ensemble has. But, like dance, benefited me as an actor, it will only benefit you as a dancer, and especially if you want to get into performing musical theater being a triple threat if you really, if that's something you're aspiring to, those are things that need to be a part of your routine in terms of making yourself more marketable and more appealing so that people will hire you. And the other thing is harkening back to that second session I had with the Billy Elliot creative.
Speaker 3:They're going to hire people who are comfortable in their own skin, people who don't have a desperation about them, people who aren't carrying a lot of emotional baggage. There are a lot of like big superstars who just like shot into superstardom and they're very difficult to deal with. And when people are casting shows, especially shows that they hope to have a very long run, they want to put a community together of people who aren't toxic and who are happy and who know how to take care of themselves. And that means you don't have to be you know everything's great. It means have a strong support group.
Speaker 3:Or, if you don't have the luxury of a family that nurtures what you want to aspire to do. Make sure you have friends who support you and remind you how important you are, because that confidence coming into an audition is as important as the ability, because there are going to be 30 people who can do the job and do it well. They want the person who they want to hang out with for the next however many days or months or years that this job may be. That's what it really comes down to. So you need all the talent that's a given and then, ideally, you're a person that's likable and people want to be around, because that's even more important.
Speaker 1:I think that's so important. I'm so glad you said that, because people get rehired. They have a good reputation. They have a bad reputation, doesn't matter how talented they are. Nobody's going to want them around, right?
Speaker 3:And I've seen it happen. I've worked with people who were let go from a job that I was on, but the two examples remain nameless because they both were stupid, talented people but they had to get off their high horse. And I was on two different shows consecutively where people were really talented. People were let go or were told look, either this has to happen or you're done. And it was the wake up call they needed and that is actually what the creative team did. They went. No, we could let this person just crash and burn. But, man, they have such great potential and we know they can help themselves. We're going to have to give them a bruise and hopefully they'll rise above. And both individuals did, and our ridiculous gifts to the Broadway stage and television to this day.
Speaker 1:So how do you take care of yourself? That's a grueling schedule, right the Broadway shows, oh yeah. So how do you manage to stay fresh for each performance and how do you take care of your health during a long run?
Speaker 3:The dancers are on an athletic level like an Olympian, the discipline that is their life. The dancers on a Broadway show. So I can't. I can't say I know that. But I know that when I'm on a Broadway show Billy Elliot was not at all vocally demanding I did a lot of screaming. I had to learn how to yell without hurting my voice but I was actually able to slack off in Billy Elliot.
Speaker 3:But dirty, rotten scoundrels. Damienkes, you can't go out at night, you can't go out. And carousan, you can't go out drinking, having late, you know midnight dinners, which is really the Broadway life. That's when everything happens. You have to go. I can't do that because it takes a toll on your ability to do your job and that's the wake up call for me.
Speaker 3:I actually ended up injuring myself during Billy Elliot, but it was actually because I was playing softball that day in the Broadway show league and pulled something. Oh boy, I hope the insurance companies don't hear that. But you can't take for granted that you're invincible, because when you really realize and appreciate that this is your livelihood, you go. Oh, I need. These are steps I need to take to protect myself and it takes discipline, but dancers kind of have it. I don't think all ballerinas are cigarette smokers. Like they were. I just couldn't believe it, like literally we'd all break from class and they'd all head to the elevator and down and out to the smoking area. The ballerinas and I'm going, yeah, okay. But you know there are individuals who come from very lively, you know they like to play hard, but when they get into the rigors of a Broadway show it kind of shows you what you must do and what you need. And those that don't sadly end up getting replaced, you know, because they end up being too injured or they can't do the job or they start showing up late. And that's why we have understudies and that's why there's a list of minimally 10 people that every casting director knows, for every show that's happening right now, that if someone doesn't appreciate the job they have, there are at least 10 other people that are ready to come in and show that they're grateful to have that gig. When you have that job you develop a gratitude and it really is. And that's part of the beauty of the Broadway community, I think, is that everyone that works there knows how lucky they are and they cherish it and they enjoy every single aspect. The discipline thing. You know, in the rehearsals, in the culture of the show, for someone who's new, they're probably going to come in more prepared in terms of what it will take to stay in shape and be able to do your job. Then we'll be needed.
Speaker 3:In my younger days it was, you know, the Sunday matinee would finish and then you would just be stupid for the next 24 hours and then you had all of Monday and Tuesday day to recover and then you started doing shows again on Tuesday night and you were a saint and then you finished on Sunday and then you played really hard. I had to give that up. As you know, as you get older, the harsh reality was I gained so much weight after my Broadway life. It started coming on during Billy Elliot. I started gaining weight.
Speaker 3:I actually gained weight for the role but then kept gaining weight because I was going out every night because I didn't have to really take care of my voice. You know I didn't have to sound pretty. Then I went to my TV gig and I just got fat because you know, doing television you can work with a hangover. And the reality was I had it. You can and have. I'm not proud to admit. So yeah, and then I just had to go oh, you can't do this. And it wasn't embarrassing behavior, but it was just like I was getting fat. I got fat, I was clinically obese, and it was just like, oh, I can't play that hard, I have to take care of myself. I'm not 28 anymore, you know. So yeah, you learn.
Speaker 1:Name some people that you were just overly impressed to be able to work with. That blew you away.
Speaker 3:We talked about Jerry Lewis right, that skill that he has about making people feel important. He was a gift to come in. He replaced Victor Garber as the devil in Damienkes, and Charlotte Dambois came in for BB Neworth and that was our new cast, and that was pretty dreamy. Jerry Lewis was the most generous, kind, candid but lovely, loving individual. He was amazing. He also gifted me a moment that I never thought possible.
Speaker 3:We're doing Damienkes, but I'm in rehearsals now for Victoria, which I'm going to leave Damienkes to go do, and Jerry comes to me one day and goes will you bring me with you to rehearsal so I can go say hi to Blake and Julie, blake Edwards and Julie Andrews and I'm thinking you're Jerry Lewis, you don't need me to bring you to rehearsal, you can just walk into 890 Studios and the world will stop for you. But he was so kind in empowering me with this purpose and so I went. Yeah, I would love to, he goes. So what would David be? Good, I go tomorrow 10 o'clock, but he goes, he goes, well, I'll come by my car and pick you up and we'll go. And I was like, okay, I don't have to ride the subway, I'm riding in Jerry's car. This will be a blast.
Speaker 3:So we walk into 890 Studios and I knew we needed to come. You know, probably half hour early before we're going to start, when all the dancers are warming up and we're just having coffee and catching up, and I walk in the room you know this is a rehearsal room that has Julie Andrews, blake Edwards, tony Roberts you know it was a big heavy header crowd and then all the amazing cast in the show. But I walk in with Jerry Lewis and it's like who, and it was like that's right. I just came in with an icon and Blake and Julie and Jerry go Blake, julie, there's this big hug fest. And then they just sat down and all of us just came around and sat on the floor while they caught up because they hadn't seen each other in person in quite a long time. Apparently, and I'm thinking that's my pal Jerry. I brought Jerry in here to hang out with you know, julie and Blake.
Speaker 3:That was a magic moment that he gifted me. The other amazing thing first day of rehearsal, you know you all, everybody comes in and all the designers, everybody's there. They're going to show you how the set's going to work and everybody talks about and they show you everything. Everybody ooze and awes and we don't really work. Maybe we'll sing through some songs, but it's really just everybody kind of meet and greet. Well, julie's there in a Oxford shirt, semi-opaque, with a floral bra on, and it's very clear that it's not completely opaque and she's looking. This is Julie Andrews. She's looking like smoking hot and this is what this is 1995. How old was she? She was probably 50, 60 and stunning. And I'm thinking I'm going to hell.
Speaker 3:I'm excited to see Maria Von Trapp and she's a nun and she's smoking hot. That was. That was like the first impression. Tom Selig and I met doing the film in and out, and at the end of that movie we're wrapping days. He made a point of saying to me you're hilarious, he goes, you're very talented, you're funny. I have a production company. We'll work together one day. And in this industry and I've been in it since 1985, at the end of every job everybody goes man, this was a blast, we'll do this again. You know all the people. You know producers, directors, everybody will do this again. It's like, yeah, great, but you know, out of sight, out of mind, and it's not blown smoke when they enjoy you. That's how they say. I'd love to find something else to do. My late brother, who was a TV producer until Tom Selig, was the most prolific employer. He would hire me to do all the announcer work on every TV show he produced. Tom Selig said this to me and I'm leaving the last day of work on. All right, I'm validated. Magnum PI just said he would work with me again. I don't know how that'll ever work, but you know I'm feeling validated.
Speaker 3:He's doing a new sitcom with Ed Asner and David Krumholz and Penelope and Miller and Ed Asner. I did Born Yesterday on Broadway. It's a sitcom, so the first day you do a table read. They did a table read with a guest star. He didn't work that. That evening they brought in five other actors.
Speaker 3:Selig is a producer on this. He was in the room. It's the first time I'd seen him since we had worked on In and Out a couple of years, maybe two years ago. It was like a big hey, man, I haven't seen you. Great, I did this audition, made a big choice, it was perfect. He goes. Okay, greg's a guy we're done Moving on, so he hires me to do this guest role on this series. That never went past six episodes. Then another single camera comedy. My agents now knew at this point if Tom Selig's doing anything, get Greg in on it, because Tom likes to work with Greg. Well, they did. It was called Touch Mama Call. We only shot the pilot, but Tom hired me again for that. So I win the Tony Award.
Speaker 3:I'm in New York, I'm riding a high. I just got offered to play Rob Pattinson's dad in Remember Me the movie. It was like a straight offer because I was a Tony Award winner. It was like the first time that had ever happened for a movie. And then Blue Blood, just coming to New York starring Tom Selig, and I'm thinking, oh, I'll get my agents on that, at the very least I'll get a guest starring role on an episode.
Speaker 3:And I went in three times in the pre-limb auditions for that first season. Tom was never in the room but I went in three times. Nothing Never got hired and I didn't stink it up. I mean they were really well-prepared, good auditions, solid, great. I mean good enough. They kept bringing me back Three times. Nothing Never got hired.
Speaker 3:I thought, oh, honeymoon's over, no more Tom Selig. Well, toward the end of the first season, my agent calls and says Tom Selig wants you for this character. It's got a two-episode arc. He wants you, but the producers are asking if you'd be willing to come in and read for them tomorrow. And I went. I will jump through hoops. I have no ego at all. The key to getting a job I learned I have learned is that you got to be in the room and let those people meet you. So they go. Oh, and we like him, besides being able to be, do the job. So I went. I would do that in a heartbeat. I can't do it tomorrow.
Speaker 3:Tomorrow we're putting, we're doing a put in rehearsal for a brand new Billy in Billy Elliot. It's this child's Broadway debut and the only rehearsal I'm going to have with him, with orchestra, is tomorrow, and I must be there for that child. I cannot not be there. So any other day I'll do it, but I can't be there. And I also had a cold.
Speaker 3:So I was little doesn't sound like perfectly clear. But that wasn't an excuse. The real reason was I have an obligation to my current job. Give me another day, I'll come the next day, then my agent's gone. Oh, all right.
Speaker 3:So that I went, felt absolutely good about my choice, went and did the put in rehearsal for the kid and before we started the second show, got a call from the agent and said all right, they're just going to give you the role. And then I went. God, I love Tom Selleck, that guy's the best. Because the bottom line was Tom obviously went, I want Greg to do it, and they and they at all went. Once I was on set and met them all they went. We all knew you, we've all seen Billy Elliot, we love it, blah, blah, blah. But they wanted to meet me because they didn't know me and I would have done it.
Speaker 3:But the other hook on that is on. That is Tom's wife Jilly. She was the original white cat in cats on the West End. Jilly has loved me since in and out, because she knew I came from musical theater and she comes from musical theater and she was interested in playing Mrs Wilkinson in the Broadway run of Billy Elliot and it didn't come to fruition for whatever reason. But she was completely dialed into what was going on in my world and, knowing Tom though he's a tremendous loyal professional friend you know she had her finger on the pulse of what was going on in the Tonys more than he did, and I know that she really is the guardian angel who said what about Greg for that role, the DCPI, it's it's time to bring him in. I always tell people she was as important because she likes me, tom loves her. I'm golden.
Speaker 1:This episode is brought to you by Mix Tape Studios, a full service recording studio online at mynewmixtapecom, a one-stop shop for all your recital and competition music editing needs. So if you were starting today, what would you do differently than you did when you were actually starting? What mistakes did you make that you would not repeat?
Speaker 3:now? Oh, not a single one. I mean, I'm really happy that I have a. I have a great career, you know, I'm able to have a family and be a working actor and I never suffered once there were, in my early days. There were people who loved and cared about me, who weren't necessarily in the business, who would say you should be a bigger star by now. I'm angry that it's not happening for you.
Speaker 3:And I always knew, because of my life, the trajectory. There was always something for me, always, and it wasn't like I had to hope or dream. I would apply myself, I would go after things and the right things would come to me at the right time, and I've always believed that. And so I wouldn't change a thing. I was even married to Rebecca Luecker. The beautiful, late Rebecca Luecker was no longer with us and that marriage was not the best choice for us. And we went through, you know, a really rough time, but that led to me meeting my wife and having the life I have. So there's been a lot of hardship, but I wouldn't change anything. And the thing I would emphasize is I always went after stuff, like I didn't wait for stuff to come to me. If I saw something, I went how can I get there? Because you got to play to win, like the lottery. You know, if you don't get your hat in the ring then you're not going to be considered. So don't sit back. I never sat back.
Speaker 1:How to get the nerve to go for things.
Speaker 3:I'm not basing my confidence on you know, whim and dream.
Speaker 3:Like we spoke before, people always confirmed that I had talent and gave me opportunity to learn that for myself and to enjoy it, and that's been my whole life. You know, I've been doing this since third grade and if you ask my family, I mean I was frosty the snowman in the Christmas concert in first grade and I didn't even sing, I just had to walk around with tissue paper on my head and I was terrified, I'll plainly admit. But you know, I've been seeking the spotlight my entire life and, and and gratefully, I had the tools to be successful in doing it. And then, once I became a physics minor at Michigan, I realized everybody was doing in their heads, in those, you know, courses that took me hours to study, to do. And I'm realizing I want to be a scientist, but man, I don't have that gift. But I do as a performer, because everybody keeps going oh yeah, we want you to play the role, come do it. So seeing where my forte is and staying on it and challenging it, that's what I've always done.
Speaker 1:That's great. I'm so glad you found something so early that you enjoyed so much and got such great feedback for exactly.
Speaker 3:So. We have two sons. Our youngest son is in college a baseball player, doesn't really know what he wants to major in, doesn't know if he wants to pursue baseball professionally. His older brother knew in 11th grade he wanted to be a pilot and he got into Embry Riddle and he graduated top of his class with honors as a commercial multi-engine pilot and in 11th grade knew that's going to be my thing and he was in one of the best performing art schools and has more talent than I do at his age, than I had at his age. But he went.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, I don't like the people, I don't like the competition, I don't like the unjustified, unmitigated ego. Because my son grew up backstage on Broadway and he knew the people who really do this for a living, the humble, hardworking. You know the ethic that is the working people of Broadway. And he was like going, you kids have no idea and you don't deserve it. You're all horrible human beings with this entitlement. And he goes. I don't want to be in that, I don't like it, I don't want to go this journey. I don't want to do it. I want to be a pilot and that makes me happy and he's great at it. And, to echo what you were saying, as a parent I'm going. Oh, my wife and I go.
Speaker 3:Thank God, our oldest child found something that makes him want to get up in the morning and that he's successful at and that validates him. And we keep telling our younger son just know, your older brother's an anomaly, your parents, both of us. Really, it was two years of college before we said this is what we're going to do. You know, even though I had a passion, you know, until everything falls into place and says yeah, yeah, no, you're right, you're right, this is where you belong. You know it's hard to really put your foot down until then, but we keep reminding our youngest keep pursuing something, but don't. You don't have to have the answers yet. No, you don't have to know, you don't have to know.
Speaker 1:But I think what you're saying is so good that you just kept going where you were enjoying it most Right, the path of least resistance. Almost just let yourself be happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, even though, even though everybody else said, no, we want you to have an academic degree. It's like I would love to make you happy, but this makes me happy. Makes me happy. I see a lot of people who just aren't talented, who are in New York and, you know, really want to be actors and I still try and find the most discreet ways of sharing. You know, at some point you got to go, you know paying the bills, and think, well, it's nice to be able to have the things I want, you know, and oh, this other career isn't so bad and it's not telling me no all the time. And you know it's hard to watch people who really want it. I'm also I realize I'm part of a very privileged group of Actors Equity Union members who get to make a living as an actor. It's a very small percentage it's less than 10% who make a living, who make enough money to be able to pay their insurance. I'm very lucky, but I was also very ambitious.
Speaker 1:It seems like you were ambitious even as a child, in a positive way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my parents always said, sure, try that. Even when I tried the football team and I created my mother, she didn't tell me to have to. Have broke my hand preseason practice and I was out. Then she went. Oh, I'm so happy she goes. I didn't want you playing football and she goes. I knew it was important for you to be with all your pals playing football at Marshall Junior High, but I'm so glad you're not, because I just didn't want to see you get hurt.
Speaker 1:So you had really supportive parents too, didn't you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I really did. That's so nice, yeah, and I still do, my mom's still with us.
Speaker 1:Are you just happy to be an actor for the rest of your life, or do you have plans to do something different or teach other people how to act?
Speaker 3:Once I fell in love and started a family, the acting thing becomes the opportunity to do that. The acting becomes the job. So what I'm grateful is that I have two sons who are finding their way and I have a wife who loves me and I finally get her back, because the reality was raising two boys. I was third in line, although she was raising me too, because it took a lot of work to get me to grow up. But with this strike it's a little brutal because there is hope that if this gets resolved I still have a job to go back to. But it also could all blow up. If this goes too long, I could be back to the ranks of the unemployed and I'm close to retirement. I could. When you unions why they're important. I'm vested in three different unions actors, equity, screen actors, guild and AFTERA in terms of health insurance and that sort of thing and pension. So I won't have to worry financially. I know I'll be able to pay the bills and live modestly as we've done.
Speaker 3:Like it's really interesting to strike how there's no income and you're like going oh, we can't just go out to dinner or the kid can't just go to Costco and buy $200 worth of red meat because he is a furnace and he has to put on 30 pounds at six foot seven as a baseball player.
Speaker 3:It's like all those things. Suddenly you're starting to go, oh oh, oh, oh, here's reality. So it's like the strike is brutal, but the film which will not be mentioned, even though for the first time ever because of the strike, it's unusual Plus had to sign a non disclosure agreement when I did that film. So between that and I wasn't, I had to wait till it came out, and then now, with the strike, I can't talk about it. It's the strangest thing to not be toot my own heart. And but I still do reap the benefits because I'm not on social media talking about this wonderful job but because it is so successful, I'm still getting all the beautiful validating feedback from people who are going to see the film, which will remain nameless because you know, amongst strike, so where can people follow you on social media?
Speaker 3:Short story, ignore my professional profile on Facebook because it was hijacked by people in Vietnam and I have no control over it and I think either they or Facebook throws it. But I can't find out because Metta let go of all their life support people on Facebook and there's no way to get it resolved. And it's been since April. So don't bother going there, although you can scroll through for historical stuff, but I think they stopped using it for propaganda. It's amazing that it got hijacked. But go there for like looking for the last couple of years if you want to see anything. It's but Gregory Jabaracom, wwwgregoryjabaracom, and I'm investing more energy there than I am on Facebook because I can't do anything on social media and I can't toot my own horn. But you can go there to find out what's going on and why I'm wearing a Whitmore Lake T-shirt. Whitmore Lake Tavern.
Speaker 1:All right, I will do that. Thank you so much for giving us this great interview, greg. It's such an honor to have you on this show.
Speaker 3:Oh it's. Thank you, sally. It's a. It's great to be reconnected with you after so many years.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to see you in DC. We're going to have a fun dinner.
Speaker 3:We must. I love DC.
Speaker 1:And it's only a train ride from New York.
Speaker 3:We'll have fun and we'll regret it. It'll be great.
Speaker 1:Okay, that sounds even more fun. Thank you, greg, thank you so much. Thanks for listening and don't forget. Please rate and review this show and share it with a friend.