Fighting to Innovate: Our First Hybrid Class Week, Why Feedback Is Gold, and Asking for Help When You’re Scared

I'd like to hear myself during the music. Hello! Hello? Turn on my microphone! I want to hear myself during the music. This is the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast where we discuss the connection between life and acting. Yeah, good afternoon, everybody! I've been saying good morning for a long time. Good morning to Matt! Welcome back to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. Hey! No, I thought that we would get a little more.

We've got to get these sound effects under control. The sound effects are under control. I just wanted one specifically, the air horn, which is on a different panel. What I'm saying is the panels need to be consistent. I did that this morning. You did for mornings with Matt. I did. But you did it for the podcast. I did, too. I did it for the podcast. All of the buttons are taken.

Fight. Fight. I did it for the… I mean, the… What are the buttons? Let's talk about the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast buttons. Let's see about the buttons. All right, you got the podcast intro. You got the laugh effects. You got the cheers. You got the sad trombone. You got the rim shot. You got the teen podcast intro. You got the trombone. Let's get rid of the teen podcast.

Hello. You got the kids podcast. Hello. Let's get rid of the kids and the teens and put them on their own. They should have their own little tracks. They should have their own thing. We don't do those enough for them to have their own channel. Dude, they need to have… Well, we don't do them enough to have them take up two spots on the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast.

You heard it here. Joey thinks kids and teens don't matter. Wow. You guys think kids and teens don't matter. No, I think they should have their own panel. All right, I'm cutting the podcast. We're going to restart. No, I'm just kidding. We never cut the podcast. It's a bad idea. We never cut the podcast except for like three times. We have really like… What, did you guys double shot that thing?

What is going on? Shea, who talked about the espresso maker and like not making the choice to change it, is over here going… I was swirling it. She's like, I'll just wait until these guys are done and then we'll actually talk for a minute. Very good. That was good timing, Joey. I have the sound effects under control. No, you don't. No, I do. No, you don't. No, you don't.

What we need to do is do them the right way. We have to do them the right way. I did them the right way. You didn't do them the right way. I did do them. No, you didn't. All right, gentlemen. They're not done the right way. You know what, Joey? I'll do it myself then. I'll just do them myself. Okay, fine. The sound effects are going to be so much better.

So much better. Muted. Ouch. Ouch. We really should start this thing over. This is pretty bad. It's not bad. It's just bad because you're fighting and you won't admit you didn't do it right. That's all. No, I spent a lot of time on that this morning. That's fine. I didn't say you didn't. You said, oh, your work is terrible. You did not do that. I did not say that.

He straight up said your work is terrible. Rewind it and listen to it again. I did not say that. No, but that's what you're saying. No, that's what you're hearing. Joey, that's from my butt. That's from my butt. That's from my butt. I can't take any critique. You know. That's from my butt. That's what you're saying. That's what you're implying. You might as well take that woman all the way across the town for a bowl of sheep dip.

Because here's the deal. If Matt actually said like, hey, your work is terrible, you would be a sad little puppy. No. And Shea would have said something. Oh, 100%. She wouldn't have been swirling the whole time. I 100% would have said something. Because no. All right. So this is a studio podcast. So we should talk studio. Yeah. I agree. And acting and whatnot. What crazy great energy that was last night.

Oh, my God. Shea, you missed it. It was unbelievable. And I'm not going to say it was so good because you weren't there. Yeah, we want to say that that was the case for sure. That's a relief. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. It definitely wasn't that. No, it was so much so that Matt texted me at 958. And he goes, Shea. I know. That's so inappropriate. But I did it anyway.

No. He texted me. And he was like, Shea, I hope you're having the most amazing night. But you got to watch back to class. It was such a great. It was such a great class. Yeah. It was just funny because it was two minutes before class was supposed to be over. And he thought to text me because it was that great. Yeah. And because you're so important to me.

Yeah. Really. Wow. And you're always here. So the fact that you weren't here. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Shea would have loved this. To the point where Shea got a note on her desk that was. I did. I got a note on my desk from a couple of the interns and just saying they missed me. And it was so sad because I was getting ready to go to bed.

And I got that text message. And I was so bummed. You were bummed by my text message? I was bummed because I wasn't there. Oh. Like, I really had FOMO. And I was like, man, that sucks. And like, I was spending my night doing something extremely important to me. But it was also, this is extremely important to me. And it was just a bummer. Like, I was like, oh, man.

Like, dang. Like, I wish, you know, I would have liked to be with the team during that too. So, here's what it felt like. It legit felt like an absolute television show. That's so cool. Yeah. No joke with a studio audience. And I mean, it was weird. Like, you couldn't do anything without a huge roar of applause and like laughter. And none of it was solicited. I mean, it was just like rowdy.

Dude, like, I was able to do. And appropriate somehow. A hundred, somehow, yeah. Joey had me on the live edit. And so, like, literally, I just, usually you go to the audience shot every once in a while. My hand was just on the audience shot at all times. And I just kept pulling over. I know. I was like, I'm here too, Brian. Yeah. And I was like, well.

We can get a better shot than that, probably. The instructor is not the important part. Yeah, that's true. But in this case, he's so right. Like, Shea, I made up this exercise because of how good the audience was. That's so cool. I called it Caesar. Yeah. Caesar? So, basically, yeah. So, like, I was having them do who, what, where. And I was making them, everybody get really creative with their who, what, where's to set up the scenes.

And then I was like, like, the audience was so great that I was like, all right, I'm going to make up this exercise we've never done before. It's going to go like this. If you're not creative enough with your who, what, where, I'll thumbs you down and you don't get to do the scene. But if you're creative enough, you get to use your who, what, where and go into the scene.

Oh, that's fun. Right? It was so fun. But at first, I was like, and here's how we're going to do it. I'm going to be Caesar. So, I put my thumb out like this. And then, like, the crowd would start, like, giving me feedback. And then I'd turn my thumb up and everyone would go, rawr! But then I just let everybody do it so that it lost its luster.

But it was still cool. But it was so cool. And honestly, like, everyone deserved it, too. Like, the scenes were just, I mean, the suggestions were really, really good. But, yeah, it was fun. Well, and, you know, this week, I don't want to blow the surprise if I don't want to steal your thunder. But transitioning into this week was our very first week ever, ever, ever, ever, having virtual and in-studio students.

Yeah! And I just wanted to get everybody's, like, personal experiences on, as a staff and as coaches and as people. Well, can we share Lila's experience first? Yeah. And maybe Elizabeth? Yeah. Because then I think it would be, it's a good contrast to my experience. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, I got an email from one of our students who signed up. She was referred to us. So, Lila first, then Elizabeth, right?

I mean… Well, I was already on the Elizabeth story. I mean, like, why are you asking me? If you want to cut Shea off, just cut her off. Like, don't make me do it. I'm not getting in the middle of this. No way. No way, Brian. I didn't know if you had a vision for the order. No, no. Don't look at me. Don't look at me. Go ahead, Shea.

If you want to cut Shea off, cut her off. It's all good. No, no. At this point, I just feel… It's fine. There's a Lila and there's an Elizabeth. They both gave us feedback. They did. Really, either order is fine. I just happened to say Lila, but… I feel like you should go… Stay up here because I'm in trouble. Yeah. Well, no. Because when Shea talks, Brian talks.

Yeah. Ha ha. Yeah, that's the laugh. That's exactly what it's talking about. Okay, so we have the student who signed up. Let's have Lila go first for sure. Ha ha. There it is. Ha ha. Yep, that's it. That's the J. All right, go, Shea. For real. All right, go. Let's go. Okay, so we had a student sign up and I can't remember. I feel like she… Yeah, May, April.

April. This is Elizabeth, right? And Elizabeth was on the mornings with Matt show. And by the way, she's like an uber successful young actress, has a huge TikTok following now and she just got into that game and I think she's got a big Instagram following too. I mean, she's kind of a… Oh, she was a YouTuber. That's how she started. She was like, you know, an up and coming YouTuber and now she's added TikTok to her.

Yeah. But anyway, very successful before she found us. She was referred to us by her agent and which we get a lot of because our agents here are so beautiful. A lot of people recommend us. They really do. A lot of people do and it's wonderful. So she comes in and she comes in for her first studio experience and I wasn't here last night to watch it, but she emailed us this morning and just gave this unbelievable glowing review about the studio and about Arizona in general and finding such a wonderful place.

I'll read a little part of it. I found myself in a weird place last week about my acting, feeling insecure about my skills and what was the next step. After this class, I know what it is and that's all to you guys. I have never, ever been so hungry, so inspired to chase after my acting dream until now. I've been searching for that push and it came from you guys.

You are truly a blessing and I'm so glad that I'm a part of this huge family. And my response to her was a thank you on behalf of the Dearing team and I said to her, which I actually said to another student's mom this week who gave us, who emailed us after her first class. She was super nervous and just said how great it was. And I emailed them both back with, you know, these words confirm, um, that we're on the right path and that we're doing the right thing and that we're making a difference.

And this is the reason why we do it. Yeah. And it's so nice of you. And I always say this because I think it's so important that, that people take time out of their day to let us know that we're doing something good, good and bad, you know, and you're right. Like, cause we really do want the feedback, but you're right. Like I, I feel like this happens with me a few times where, where I want feedback, both positive and negative.

And sometimes I don't get any of the positive. I think people just think like, oh, well he knows. And you're right. Like, I don't know. Yeah. So, so when I hear something like this, I mean, it does, it means the world. Yeah. Cause I'm like, oh, like all of, all of our work is reaching somebody. And if it's reaching, you know, I, my, my thought is always if, if one person feels this way, then probably a lot of people feel that way and they weren't willing to say it.

And that goes both ways. Both ways. Yeah. So if you, you know how this goes, if we get one little critique on something, I am going to freak out about that one little critique because I'm so grateful for it. But I assume if one person feels this way, there's, there's a slew of other people that feel that way. So that, that means we have to really pay attention to it.

Yeah. And that's, that's something that's been ingrained in us and taught here at the studio. Cause I think it's always funny when we, when we say goodbye to a student. So if a student is leaving, um, they're moving away, whatever it may be, they're moving on to a different chapter of their lives. We always say, Hey, what could we have done better? Did you enjoy your time here?

So I'm so glad. Cause they always say, you know, we love the studio, blah, blah, blah. And it's so kind. And then we follow up with what, what feedback do you have for us? And it puts them in this kind of funny spot because I think people wonder like, do they really want to know? Yeah. Like, do, do, am I really allowed to tell them? And we've had several conversations with people where they've said, Hey, I was feeling this way about this.

And then I think it's just, that's kind of what sets us apart is that we take it and we grow from it and we learn from it. And then we say, thank you for it. And a lot of the times I find myself in the position with, if somebody gives us feedback and they say, Hey, I'm not trying to be rude or whatever it may be. And I always say, if you didn't tell us, we wouldn't know.

And, and, and my opinion is, and then I'm offended that you, that you didn't tell us. Right. And, and I mean, here's the thing, not everyone's gonna, and I get that it's uncomfortable or whatever, but especially if I know somebody, I'm like, man, tell me like, you're not doing me any favors by holding that back. Right. And so, and, and that's why even if somebody is rude, you know me, Shea, like I take it as a, okay, cool.

Maybe they shouldn't have been rude, but they're giving us gold right now. Yep. They're giving us the information we need to get better. Sure. Let's do something about that thing. All right, Brian, I think he's, he's sitting there just being good boy. He is being a good boy. It feels like he needs to be pet, Shea. Just give him a little encouragement. Okay. No, I was just going to.

All right, go ahead and read yours now, Brian. I'll find it. Yep. Yep. You didn't have it ready? This whole time you were trying to cut off Shea? I was just listening. He's like, wait, wait, wait, Shea shouldn't talk, but I, I'm not ready to talk. You put an order and I didn't know if your order had a specific, yeah, it was a dumb, it was a dumb thought.

It was real dumb. Brian, you are so into details today. It was super dumb. It was super dumb. Joey, you're quiet over there. I'll just call it out. Yeah, I haven't really talked since the beginning, but I'm, I'm eager to talk again. Hopefully. All right, we'll get to you. We'll get to you. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Do we want, I mean, Joey can read it if we, if we want him to talk.

No, no, no. It's good, Brian. You already anticipated just a moment. No, you just gave him like a pity. Like, well, if we want Joey to talk, he can read it. Here's the thing. If Joey wants to talk, he can just read it. Because I'm never going to talk any other way. No more offering, I'm making a bunch of dumb thoughts today, dumb thoughts, but at least I'm saying it out loud.

At least I'm saying it out loud. Okay. So give, give a little, do you want to give a little backstory on them? So that, so the listeners know what we're talking about. He's just a little busy trying to find the quote. No, I got it. It's here. So Joanne came for Matt's personal development workshop originally, and she had never been in our studio before. And they live in Tucson.

Yeah, they have, they had an amazing experience or she did. And then, um, after that, then her daughter has dance and other things going on. So they drive all the way from Tucson for classes, uh, just to be in our space because she just same connection, same energy that we're trying to create. They feel it. And so after all of us going online and doing some of that, we started doing private lessons online and now they're starting to do their class online with this new format we've created.

And so Lila was afraid of, and my password made it go away. Lila was afraid of it at first. And so this is the text that I got from her, her mom, which I thought was just super cool. Uh, cause we hear a lot about people wanting to walk in when they walk in the door the first time they're afraid. Right. Well, the same thing would go with like trying something different than your usual.

So Lila's used to coming in and now more people are coming back in. And so she said she had so much fun in improv yesterday. She was very worried about what it would be like online instead of in person. Thank you so much for leading such a great experience for her, which it was just, it felt so good because it was like as a team, we work super hard to try and make that amazing for both parties.

And do something we've never done. Right. So we've done something we've never done a lot in the last three months. Yeah, a ton. And it's, and so this was, I was going to come back to the idea of, uh, is my lighting terrible, Joey? Yeah, you're lighting. I keep moving my camera. I was like, where did his backlight go? Yeah. Why is it a fire extinguisher? We can move the camera.

Let's, let's move the camera back. I'll, I'll move it. I'm just. No, I got it. I got it. Why don't you talk? I was, I was frustrated because I wanted to look at them, but then when I look at them, it's weird. And everybody else can just like have, have a view of me fixing the camera. Actually, Shea, would you live edit for me for a while?

I would love to live edit. Thank you. All right. So what was I talking about before my lighting got terrible? That we have done a lot of things that we didn't know. A ton. Yeah, right. So, so in particular, we, we did the, uh, we started virtual and virtual only, and that was so hard and the setup was over there and we had a bazillion chords everywhere.

Like we do still, but, but we like everywhere. We were trying to figure out stuff, you know, and, and it was like down to like one chord and then we plug it in. It's like, Oh my gosh, it actually works crazy. And so we did that. Now we're, we're going into this, the, this last week has been, we want to combine virtual with in-person. We've never done that, that I know of.

Nobody's ever done that. So we're, we're like literally inventing something again, a new genre. And so going back to like what it was our experience this week, for me, it was crazy stressful. Yeah. Every, every class, nobody knows this, but like, and, and this is a testament to you, Joey. Um, I trust you. And we were down to the wire on every class. We were down to the last like five minutes on it.

And I know it drove Shea nuts. Cause she'd walk in and be like, guys, you have six minutes till people are in here. And it was usually like 16. I was in the Shea camp. I was in Shea's camp. Brian had to be the face. And I was the one who was running back and forth like you guys. And, and Matt would be like, give us, give us 10 minutes.

And it, and, and somehow you guys would like, and, and to your credit too, like Brian had all the, everybody, the kids, teens, adults, whoever was always like active, ready, you know, connecting with them, finding a way to make the lobby the coolest place. It was so cool. But for real, like that, that became a part of the experience, you know, so, so now they know cause we're talking about it, but, but they wouldn't have known that it was on purpose or it wasn't on purpose that they were out there, you know, because you, you turn lemons into lemonade and in here every day this week, we've bettered the process.

We've simplified. We, if, if there's a way to make two chords into one, we did that and we started over and started over and change the lighting and, and we're still going to keep doing that. But now it's at a place where it's, it's set a little bit and it feels good, you know, it feels really good, but it was so stressful for me. So it's like, I guess the point is to get that feedback from people this week means even more at this time because, because they don't know the turmoil we're going through and what is our turmoil?

Like what is our pain? Our pain is that we are putting so much effort into them having a good experience and our hearts would essentially be broken if they didn't have a good experience. So to know that they did, it just, it means the world. It means, like you said, Shea, all the work is worth it. Yeah. And let me go back and just say like, it was, it was fine the first time, but that's the whole thing is we're you, specifically you as a leader are not okay with that.

Right. And so like, it worked, it worked, like everything worked, it was, it was good, but it's like, it wasn't everything we want it to be for, for everyone to have the kind of experience we call Dearing. Well, and, and you have to be so careful what you say around here. Cause you know, it's your fault, right, Brian? Yeah. Like we, I, I said, I, here's what happened, Shea.

I don't know. You didn't even hear this story. We were, we were here in the morning and I, and I said to Brian, I said, I said, look at how cool the stage looks. It looks so cool. And he, and he, he, he, he, in his normal Brian fashion didn't respond to my positivity and didn't, didn't, didn't segue or anything. He, he just goes, uh, I just feel like it's a little small.

And I was like, I was like, I was trying to get you to like, look at how cool it was, like not focus on the negative, right? Yeah. I do that thing. And so he, you know, either way, like he could have given the feedback better differently, but I couldn't get it out of my head and I'm going, okay. So then I experienced it for myself. I got on there and like played around with it a little bit.

And then I'm like, Oh, well, and you know what? It feels a little small if there's a way. And I'm not saying there is, maybe there isn't fine. Then we make the best out of what we have. But if there's a way to scratch out an extra inch on this stage, we're going to do it. Well, I gave that to you too. I, when you guys first set this up, I came and sat down in the chair and I was like, Ooh, this is congested, you know?

And then it was fixed the next day. Yeah. And I wanted to speak on that because Matt is like, there's times, sometimes, sometimes, um, Matt has a tendency to go over time on things. Right. And we all make fun of each other because we go over time during classes and we all apologize for it afterwards. But it's just because we have so much passion for the students and what we're teaching.

But Matt, like there's, so, so for instance, this week, Matt gave me a to-do list for him. Okay. So he gave me a to-do list and, and I know that Matt wants the reminders. I know that. I want to be nagged. Yeah. He wants to be nagged. So, so in a nice way, you know, every day, Hey, what'd you get done today? Hey, we got, I need you to do this stuff today because it's also on me.

It's also my responsibility to keep him accountable. How do I respond to you? So, um, no, I haven't done that and I'm going to do it right. Then you, then he would set a time for himself. But I would say thank you though too. Oh yeah. Yeah. I always say, yeah, cause I'm legit grateful, like legit grateful for it. So I didn't feel bad about doing it.

And then what was so funny was yesterday he said, he said, Shea, I'm going to, I'm going to stop what I'm doing at 2 PM and I'm going to put the work in on the list. And I said, okay, cool. Obviously life happened, things happened. And then I, I find him on his, on his butt in here messing with cords. Right. And I'm like, and in my head, I jokingly thought in my head, I was like, okay, there is other stuff that has to be done.

Like we, we have to get this stuff done and you have to make that a poor priority as well. And, but then I know in my head, like, how could I possibly not judge is not the right word, but how could I possibly like get annoyed with somebody who's trying to make another part of our business better? Like there's, there's not. And I know he's going to get the list done.

And my, my why, cause it's annoying for me. I don't like doing cords. Like I don't know that anybody likes being on their hands and knees, like winding through dusty cords and whatever. But I wanted, I wanted one of those emails and I didn't want the email. I just wanted that somebody had that experience. Right. So if I'd, I never knew known about it, fine, but that's what I'm going for.

Yep. You know, I wanted the experience to be amazing. Yeah. And that was, that's the why. And so it turns out my other list, like it didn't, to me, didn't take priority over this is this week, even though I wanted it to. And then now, now it's done by the way, but, um, but I, and I guarantee you that, that even after the email, it's still going to be the same thing.

We'll be on our hands and knees all weekend trying to figure out something we can do to make this space better. A hundred percent. Well, we did, we did buy a new speaker system this morning, which I agonized over, but you know why? The experience again has nothing to do with us or something we want. There was a little buzz and we want the online students, the virtual students to sound good to the in-person students.

Like we want to make the virtual students look better to the in-person students. Like that's, that's my why there. I didn't really think about like podcast vibe over here, but I cannot see Matt. It's tough, right? I can't see you either. Yeah. That's why I was like moving camera and trying to figure out a way to make that work. And that's probably why, like after the terrible way we started the podcast, we were like, Joe's a little quiet over there, you know, that totally makes sense.

And, and back to, by the way, I just want everyone to know this. I, when I walked in, I was like, Joey, is this, isn't this a little weird? Like, shouldn't somebody move over to this table? And he was like, no, I liked the three. And I was like, okay. But just so everyone knows, I didn't set it up like this. You didn't pick his own island.

I was like, is that about me? As a matter of fact, the first thing we said was like. I walked into the room and I said, I'm not sitting there. Hey, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was to make, I was like, I'm not sitting there. I straight up like a brat took my seat at the middle of the table. I was like, this is where I'm sitting and everybody else can make their seat.

Well, then I go, I go, Matt, like, how's it, how's it feel over there? He goes, honestly, pretty lonely. A little sad. Pretty lonely. Yes. A little sad. A little sad. And you know what? Going back to what Joey said about this weekend. We'll fix it. It's our first podcast since we've had the new setup. Yeah. It's our first podcast in like. In a while. It's the first podcast in a while.

But it's our first podcast since this setup, right? Yeah. Yeah. Therefore, we haven't lit for this podcast yet. We haven't, we haven't set up microphones. So this is the first time doing it. We failed epically. Yeah. We'll, we'll get better. Yeah. Right, Joey? I don't know if you know what I'm talking about, but I, I assume that you do. I just can't see you. A hundred percent.

I know. Hey, how you doing? It's good to see you, Joey. Also, I mean, the sound effects, by the way, they're fixed already. I did it on the podcast. Oh, Joey was holding on to the sound effects. Good, good, good. Next time, we just don't have to fight about it. It's great. No, we shouldn't have fought about it. I should not have been. I was just very, very bummed that, uh, I was, I was very bummed that, uh.

I know. And we're working on that with you. We're working on that with you. Yeah. Because there's no reason to be bummed. That's the thing. There isn't a reason. If we can get better, we should just be like, yay. Yay. What were you bummed about? Yay. I was bummed because. He was bummed that he didn't have it perfect. I worked so hard on it. Like, he wanted to be perfect.

He worked so hard on it, and yeah. Yeah, I spent like an hour on it this morning, and I hadn't checked in with him before. So then when we got on the podcast and had to talk about it, I was like, would I put in a lot of work? Yeah, I can understand that. Yeah. But it's not, it's not his fault. It's a hundred percent on me.

It was just, I should have checked in. Hey man, welcome to the podcast. We're so happy to have you. Oh, thanks. That was a hilarious angle when you're like sad too, because it's upwards, it's just like, we have that sound, don't we? Where's the sad trombone? Sad trombone's on there? I wish we all had access to the sound, by the way, because I would love to be sound effects.

Oh, you would not want to give me sound effects. Holy moly. Shea would find really weird sound effects, I feel like. She'd find like weird. We're not going to talk about the ones Shea would find. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. No, my favorite. You do some weird sound effect at least once a day, we all know that. She does. You know what, all I want is like a big woo.

Like woo. Woo. Woo. You know? We got a bell. Or like a Kylie Gilbride. I was going to say Kylie Gilbride. Yeah, like if we had a Kylie. Cody does it too though. No, Dakota goes, yeah buddy, yeah buddy. But it's the same exact volume. It's very funny. We should grab a couple students that have those just like very unique sounds and record them and make them buttons.

Yeah, that's a really, really good idea. And you could be like a button of the month or something. That'd be kind of fun. All right, that's it. That's it. I'm declaring it right now. All right, if you listen to this podcast, when you listen to this podcast, you can apply to be the button of the month. Yes, and you guys are going to reach out to Joey.

I want to, hold on, can I talk about Joey's face? Go back to your face, Joey. Would you like to point at my face again? Yeah, right there. Your face. Because that was a really cool shot. Right there. Okay, cool. Your face. That was a cool shot. Okay, so Joey, okay, this is full of life. It's the same angle coming up, but he was so sad before.

It's just amazing what that does to you when you put life and like excitement and energy in your eyes. I was just so sad. I know. And now I'm not sad anymore. Good. Because I fixed it and we're good. All right. All right. And then you're going to come over here and you're going to be like, that's all right. I'm very curious what's on there. I can't wait to critique it.

I cannot wait to critique that soundboard. It is, we got now a podcast intro, laugh effects, cheers, sad trombone, rim shot, bell. We got to stop saying that. I know. I said, stop saying that. Stop saying that. Nothing. We're not going to repeat it. Let's move on. That's like the da-da-cha. I know. No, we know what it is. We know what it is. Da-da-da-da-da-da. Boom. Okay. We know what it is.

Listen, you don't have to make it weird. That is weird. No, we're not making it weird. Nobody's making it weird. That's programmed into the roadcast. Gotcha. Gotcha. It is programmed into the roadcast. Amazing. Go, da-da-da-da-da-da. Hey, where's that sound effect? All right. All right. We took that off a while ago. What? Yeah. Why would you ever take that off the board? Why would you take, oh, we got to critique this whole board.

All right. Now the whole board is redoing. No. Let's start the board over from the beginning. That one didn't need to be on there. All right. What else were we talking about, Jay? Jay got no doubts. Do we have more to talk about today? Basically. We did not, did we? No, we wanted to talk about. We did not. I mean, if you're hesitating this much, we must not have had anything to talk about.

Isn't it great when Joey's got the sound effects? Jay's not having anything. She's going to take a minute to take a drink of her water. I'll do the same. One of the things that we were going to, no, Brian, it's weird when you take drinks of water. All right. Everybody, everybody. It's better that he's in a cup now instead of a straw. Here we go. Brian, drink it from a straw.

There's nothing worse. Everybody take a drink of water and we'll compare Brian's to everybody else's, the real world. All right. Here we go. It's so funny. I don't have fingers. All right. I'm just going to throw it. No, you're right. You're right. So you like have to be very. Yeah, but you kind of set yourself up for failure with that cup. You're also a little sheepish. Yeah, right.

You're a little sheepish about it too. And you always have a massive, massive container. Do you know how many times I spilled on myself? Yeah, but you're like this. You're like. And it's slow. It's cautious. Very cautious. Like it's like a, it's like a, it's like a kid with a cup for the first time. If I come out too fast, like it's going to get all over me.

Yeah. Just try it. No control over this. Try it once for the podcast. Yeah, try it once fast. Let's see what happens. Like honestly. Just like chill. Like don't think about it. Just relax and move it in. Let's voice it over. Okay. Hey, but you have to lick it first. Why do you lick it? I'm still kidding. You're like. All right. You get one more shot. Here we go.

You don't have to lead with the tongue. Just, just, just let it hit the lips. Here we go. Here we go. Hey. Hey. That was a not awkward drink, Brian. That's the best sip you've ever taken. I think it's the tongue. We figured it out. It's the, it's the. I have a long tongue. Yeah. But it doesn't mean you have to like use it. Brian, it's too much tongue, Brian.

Oh, so great being on with you guys today. Yes, it is great. It's great. So do we have more to talk about Shea or we don't? Still waiting on that. We don't have anything? Is that what it is? I'm not sure that we did. Will you let me talk? Let me take a look here. I'm assuming you don't have anything. It's right here next time. I'm guessing we're going to end it right here.

Is that it? It's really not. So if we want to end it, we can, but there is something else that we can talk about. What do you have? Why don't you bring it up and we'll decide if we want to talk about it. And last night, I was having just like negative thoughts right before class. I was just having a moment. And I was giving you the worst pep talk ever.

Your pep talk was the worst out of all of them. But that's because you were having a bad day. So you were having a hard time finding it. Also, I mean, I had seven seconds. So that didn't help. Well, come on. It's like game clock. You got to hit it. Like, was it? No, it was 15 seconds, by the way. And I was like, or was it seven?

No. It was seven. You said you have seven seconds. Oh, seven. You're right. Seven. Then I started talking. You threw a shot clock on it? Down to four. That's awesome. Yeah, well, he waited. He waited four and a half seconds to say anything. I was trying to gather my thoughts. Well, that counts. The silence counts. I thought it was more of like a joke. No, like students were coming in, and I was in charge of greeting them.

Shea was on her little retreat. She was on her hiatus. Yeah. She was on her high shadus. He's really good at those. I am. It just comes to my head, honestly. Yeah, and when they don't hit, you should just be honest about it. When they don't hit, they don't hit. But truthfully, most of them hit. Brian, don't rat me out. Yeah, I'm not against. You freaking threw me under the bus.

I'm not anti-shat at all. I actually don't know, so that's why I was out of here. You just freaking the bus came in. I think it's bad for the mic, but I didn't want to say. Of course it's bad for the mic, but I wasn't resting the entire 12 pounds of my head on there. Yeah. So I actually want to just talk about what I did, because anybody can do this.

And it's funny, because I got two not great pep talks. I called my dad, and I was like, Dad, I don't normally come to you for this kind of thing, but I'm in a bad headspace. I'm like, all right, cool. Thanks, Dad. Catch you later. Got to go. And he's like, call me after class, and then I'll talk to you then. I'm like, Dad, I needed it before class.

I'll call you, but I don't need the pep talk after I've taught the class. All right. But did you call him? I did, actually. Oh, good. Yeah, that's awesome. And we had a great talk. And then he took credit. He's like, how was class? I was like, best class ever. And he's like, well, you're welcome. He did, but he was kidding. Oh, my God. He was kidding.

I was like, yeah, Dad, your inspirational speech was unbelievable. It was the number one inspirational speech. And then I also reached out to Joey. And I was like, dude, I'm in a bad headspace. I know how to help your day. You can help me. You get seven seconds to go. Because really, when you help other people, you feel better. Yeah. A hundred percent. That's truth. But Joey, you know, he used four seconds of silence.

So I got about three seconds worth of, you're going to be a good class. Something like that. Hey, I said we were going to make history. And this is history. And it was going to be a bomb class. That's right. You did say that. That is a good speech for four seconds. You're right. The other thing I did was I called my wife. Same thing. I was looking for encouragement.

And I was going to ask my wife to pray for me. She didn't answer the phone, but my son did. And Jack was, like, doing something on the phone. He shouldn't have been on the phone, probably. But he's like, hello. No, no, no, no. I'll argue. He should have been on the phone. Spirit. Spirit, man. Well, it turns out. You need to hear from Jack. It turns out.

Because I was like, hey, is mom there? And he's like, well, she's putting Finn to sleep. Kind of like, can I take a message? Yeah. Which is funny. And I was like, all right. Well, just, I guess just, you know, tell her to call me. And he was like, well, what did you want? And I was like, well, I was going to have her pray for me.

And so if you want to just tell her that. And he's like, for what? And then I told him, I was like, well, you know, I've just got a lot going on. He's like, like what? And I'm like, I didn't want to tell him the details. So I'm like, you know, just dad's got a lot in his heart. And he's like, he's like, okay. And, and then, uh, and then, and then he says, he's like, well, would it help if I came in?

He was going to come into the studio and like go to work. That's my kid. Like unbelievable. So I was like, oh no, bud, cause I'm teaching. It doesn't really make sense. And then he goes, oh good. Cause I'm playing a game on the phone. But he was willing to put the game down anyway, long story short, which is a big deal. He doesn't get to play on the phone.

Right. So long story short, it's like seven or like eight Oh five. So class has already started. And I see that, or no, it was like right about to start, but you were talking to somebody or whatever the class. So I, I saw that Leeann tried to call him. I'm like, nope, can't answer that. And, um, but, but I, I assumed that she saw the missed call.

Well, it turns out my son took care of it, prayed, asked my wife to pray. They were big time on the prayer train. I ended class with a text message that said, Hey, we were praying for you, blah, blah, blah. And I responded like, wow, must've worked. Yeah. Cause literally, I mean this in my estimation in the, in the over decade I've been teaching now, it was the absolute best first day of an improv class I've ever taught.

Maybe the best improv class ever. And I'm not talking about my teaching. I'm talking about just the full experience from beginning to end. The, the energy was just off the chain. Cause I've taught better classes. And it's not cause Shea was, was not there. But anyway, so, so, so what the lesson, I'm sorry. So the lesson there was, I assume we're all going to be fearful. You know, I assume I'm going to be fearful.

I don't think I'm going to be like, you know, not fearful. So what do you do? You bring it up, you talk to people, you don't try to hide it. Don't try to bottle it up, but straight up, like go to people and admit it and say, Hey, anything you can do for me. And at the end of the day, the best thing, the number one thing is to turn it up to God and get, release it and say, Hey, this is true.

There's nothing I can do about it. Um, please step in and help me cause I'm not strong enough. Brian likes to say, uh, take it to, take it to the big JC JC. I literally never said that. I never said, take it to the big JC. Never. Brian, Brian, one of Brian's favorite things to say is take it to the big JC. Never. I think you have said that before.

Never have I said it in that way. I feel like, I feel like you've used the JC analogy at times. I've said take it to JC, but I've never said like, take it to the big JC. It's time to take it to the big JC. And you like slowed it down. Welcome everybody to the big JC. Oh man. That's great. It was an awesome week. You guys happy to be here with you guys.

Happy to be alive. Feel the joy, buddy. Feel the joy, buddy. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in. This is the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. We're doing podcasts on the occasion, apparently. Usually every week, but we'll see what happens. We got to stop having me talk. We don't have an outro for the podcast. We don't have an outro? You said there was an outro. No.

What? In the beginning of this, you said I got an intro. I got the outro. I did not. I don't remember there. I did not say that. No, he didn't say there was an outro. I never said that. You know what? There's an outro for us. All right. Shea, will you do the outro? No, no, no. Shea, do like a fun voice. Here we go. The outro for the podcast is having you in the background.

We've always said that. But let's Shea do an outro. The outro. Here it is. Ready? Go. Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. We hope you enjoyed and we hope that you listen and watch every single episode. Don't forget to smash that subscribe button and hit that like button. Have a Dearing Day. Smash it. No. No. Don't you dare. Have a Dearing Day, man.

Hey. Have a Dearing Day, everyone. That was great.