December 18, 2023 • 55 mins
Isaac Mizrahi sits down with actor, model, author and entrepreneur, Brooke Shields to talk about what she does for the holidays, how she handles stage fright, the hilarious thing she did when a fan tried to take her picture and so much more. Plus, you’ll hear some fun and funny highlights from Isaac’s holiday show at Café Carlyle.
Follow Hello Isaac on @helloisaacpodcast on Instagram and TikTok, Isaac @imisaacmizrahi on Instagram and TikTok and Brooke Shields @brookeshields.
(Recorded on November 13, 2023)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Today we're doing something a little different on Hello Isaac.
We've got a special holiday episode for you. It features
my friend Brookshields, who I recently saw at Cafe Carlisle,
where you know, I've been performing for the past like
I don't know, eight years or something or nine years.
Every winter I do like a two week residency there
(00:24):
the beginning of the year, and just a few weeks
ago we did two holiday shows that were really really
fun in Cafe Carlisle. Here's a little taste.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Happy Holidays, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's the holidays.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
The holiday's here at Cafe Carlisle, Darling, the House of
Ms Rahie. Anyway, I just thought it would be really
fun to talk to Rook about her experience at Cafe
Carlisle and share a few clips from my show, my
holiday show, and discuss the holidays, discuss live performing, and
(01:11):
just get a little bit reacquainted with brook Shields. So
come on, let's get started, brook Shields. Come on, Hello,
Hi Gorge. How are you you look so pretty today?
Your skin looks good, I'm glad to say, and your
eyes look very good.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You look very clear today, Darling.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
We know each other for a minute, just about a second,
for just about a second, a few minutes, I can
I recall yeah, me, mess please please. Aside from the
fact that I've been, you know, like a big fan
of yours and watching you since you're like a little girl,
I met you for real in my studio. I think
it was like in nineteen eighty six or seven or
(01:54):
something like that. You came in with Jade Hopson Charnin.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Remember Jade, Jada was.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Like the most beautiful woman in the world and person
in the world, Like Jade is a doll. But anyway,
she worked at Vogue and she was doing a story
with you as the model, and I think they were
taking you to Japan or something with Dennis Peele and
they were using all my clothes. Yeah, that's my memory
of it.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Dennis Peele.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
I think it was it Dennis Peel, or it might
have been you know what. It was one of those
times where they brought the model, they picked a designer,
and you went and worked fourteen sixteen hour days for
the magazine.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Right right, and you sat on a plane for a
minute too. That's the other thing I can't imagine in
those days, did you even think about those kinds of bookings.
Did you even think, like, am I going to Japan?
It was either Japan or it was like Fresno or something.
It was like a trip. It was a trip with
a photographer.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
Either Japan or Fresno. That's usually the way it went.
Those are usually your choices. I mean, I worked with
Dennis Peele. Dennis feel's like the only photographer ever to
make me cry, which was very interesting. But I don't
know if we were working in Europe or if we
were working in Asia. But you know, what didn't occur
to me is that you'd have to get off the
(03:10):
plane and go.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Straight to work.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
AI didn't exactly, you know, and at that age, you
didn't worry about puffy eyes.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
You know.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Now, I hope my eyes are puffy because I look younger,
because it fills out the wrinkles. But no way I
can get right off the plane anymore and go right
to work.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's the truth.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And I guess maybe that's one reason that people only
hire like young models and i'm young actors because they
actually don't get puffy and they can work for a
very very long amount of time.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
They also don't know much better.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
I mean, I right, Also, God, I will say, though
it that was an era, and it was the era
of work ethic, which I do not see anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
No me either not.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
I mean, my daughter is really venturing into all of it,
and she's you know, with IMG, and she's working for Tommy,
he'll figure and all of this stuff. And she'll come
home and she'll say, Mom.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
I didn't like what I was wearing, or you just
took so long.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
And I'm like, honey, you don't get an opinion now,
may really cares read her?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I'm sorry, Wow, this is amazing.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
God.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
You know what, here's the thing about you, Like I
usually do a big history about the people that I interview,
but in your case, your history is our history. We
all remember, at least if you're my age, or slightly
younger than me, or even much younger than me, everybody
watched you grow up, and we know kind of exactly
what happened to you.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Right.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Well, what's weird now, too, is that I'll go do
these speaking engagements and someone will send a bio and
they read the bio and I'll finally said, finally said,
please don't read the bio. Don't read the bio. It
doesn't matter. You could say something like you all know
her for one reason or another. Start with that, I
don't feel I don't need.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
To read her. Are all Ohio?
Speaker 5 (05:02):
And because now kids are coming up to me because
of Jane the Virgin or Hannah Montana's dead mother, and
all these shows are coming back or friends now you know,
coming back. So all these things are coming back into
the zeitgeist again. And then so the kids are getting
younger and their grandparents still aren't recognizing me getting older.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, exactly, Well, darling, I want to talk a lot
about you as a live performer. But first of all,
let's talk about holidays. Let's talk about your birthday. Do
you like your birthday?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I love my birthday?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Who are you brooksh.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I love my birthday because are you crazy?
Speaker 5 (05:41):
I survived it alone. I survived another year. They didn't
get me, they didn't win. And then you hopefully get
like celebrated in some way, but you kind of have
to ask for it. By the way, there's something you
do because people have insecurities about It's funny. My friends
will have a birth and maybe it's just a dinner
(06:02):
and they'll say, you know, no presence, no presents, Right,
I do this thing that they hate. They get so
mad at me, I say, especially if it's not too
big a room. Please, can everyone just tell us one
thing that you love the best about this person? And
inevitably they end up like crying and then going I'm
so mad at you, but thank you and yeah, you
(06:24):
have to read the room. But it's a time for
people to be able to be celebrated for who they
are to the people that are personal in your life.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Well, I have to tell you, darling, I think what
you're saying works if people actually know you, you know, right,
it's like sex or something.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You have to ask for it.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
If you really really are in the mood and you
want to be celebrated that day, have to say, could
you please celebrate me?
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I mean, that's just one way of doing a birthday.
You know.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
I've now started to really not like a big party
at all and just want a great weekend with girlfriends
are you know, just my family and their best friends.
Like you know, it's gotten definitely much smaller. I mean,
I was just thinking the other day about my sixtieth
(07:12):
which is two years, a little under two years, and
I was literally thinking.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Like, in two years, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Well, yeah, I'm fifty eight, so I hate you.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I hate you. I hate you.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
How are you younger than me? I could kill you,
Brooke Shields, I could literally kill you. What are you
going to do on your sixtieth birthday?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
I was thinking about it and I thought, you know what,
I have a small group of people together and go somewhere,
or just have dinner with people that you love around
like simple.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So you like your birthday? What other holidays do you like?
What other holidays do you even think about? Do you
think about Christmas?
Speaker 5 (07:45):
I think about Christmas because again, when you have kids,
you do it all for them, and they have certain
traditions that they really like doing. But you know, whereas
when I was a kid, my mother would wait until
Christmas to get our tree because that's when all.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
The trees were cheaper.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
And I thought that was the tradition that you decorated
the tree on Christmas Eve. And meanwhile, my younger daughter
is like, Mom, we are not waiting. We are doing
it right after Thanksgiving. I was like, but then it's
going to get all.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Dry and it's a fire hazard.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
And she said, I need a Christmas tree and so
you know, that's changed over the years, but I do
love decorating our tree. This year, I think we're going
to make something like, oh, candy pecans or like I
want to do something that I can make and put
in jars. Like that's the kind of stuff that I
like doing with my with my kids in the kitchen.
(08:39):
And now we have a dog, so we have a
new puppy, so that's you know. And then we always
go away somewhere for New Year's That's been a tradition
and we don't really ever know exactly where and just
you know, it could be just out east, it could
be somewhere warm. There have been years we've gone exotic
places like af in India and Ireland. Oh that is
(09:03):
like our freest period of time because both kids aren't
in school and I like taking the family, my kids
and my husband away from anything that we know, so
that if you stay in the city, it's all about
their parties and it's all about their friends. And whereas
if we go somewhere where we've never been, we have
(09:24):
to stay together as a little unit.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
And I like to make that happen.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
And Darling, you don't have like anxiety around travel because I,
like you and my youth, I was always on a plane.
I was always going somewhere. It was always late getting somewhere.
There was always delays, and I went right off the
plane into the meetings and into the factories and into
the show or whatever. And so I developed like a
big anxiety about airports, about delays, about I don't know
(09:52):
what happens to me in airports, not so with you,
or do you fly privately or something?
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Now, God no, God no, I mean honestly, if there
was one thing that I could just do and have
it not be crazy it cost me anything, that would
be the way I would want to like that would
be in my Disney world.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yes, no, the entire world would probably answer with that question.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I never had a fear of flying, and I always
flew with my mother and we always just figured it out.
The minute I had kids, I started becoming terrified of flying.
And I realized very quickly that it was going to
hinder my job, because, especially during this past strike, all
(10:35):
I did was fly places, and I had to do
it because it was the only way that I could
make any money. It was the only way I can
of course, and it was all a hustle again, and
I just stopped letting my mind spin out of control
because I'm not with my family. I call my husband
and I say, promise me, the plane's going to be okay.
(10:56):
And I need him to say that to me because
I've become completely new and I don't even like let
go and let god.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
There's nothing to do about that.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
I have like tequila, and I try to watch a
movie and try to escape or sleep because if anything
happens while I'm asleep, least I might.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Not know about it.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Right well, darling, I mean, if something happens, they're going
to wake you up.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You're gonna wake up.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Thing is for me, the anxiety that I'm talking about
is not so much about the flight.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Then?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
It's about being in an airport and letting go of
the controls or what you think the controls you have
of your life. It's like being in a hospital or
something where you just have to let yourself, you give
yourself over. You just become nothing more than like a
seat number. And they don't want to hear about it,
like there are so many rules about the way you
(11:47):
have to behave and what you can and can't bring
and you are reduced to like a mere kind of
number or cattle being herded onto you know, whatever it is,
and that brings me such huge anxiety for however long
it can go.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
You Know, It's funny because the thing I'm mostly unnerved
about are the crazy passengers. And now there's this like
weird entitlement where like if you're in first class per
se and someone is all the way in the back,
they quickly shove their bag like over your seat, and
I'm like, that's not your section, Like take.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Your bag back to where your seat is.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Like I'm not superior, but I've got a bag too,
Believe me, I've got baggage. But but then also I
always suss out immediately if I'm alone, I suss out
people like look at people's faces, and I'll just look
at all and I'll be like, Okay, if I were
stranded with these people, where's the energy coming from the
person that I'm going to want to partner up with
(12:44):
and be friends? And so I'll kick someone with kind
eyes or watch the way they talk to the flight attendant,
and then I'll be like, Okay, I'm going to connect
with that person, like I'm going to have a real
communication with that person somehow, if God forbid, we happened
in the hospital. I was in the hospital for a
month and I broke my femur a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
And no, you are a number. You're a number.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
It's every fifteen minutes, and they're understaffed and they're exhausted.
It's nothing to do with them. And I thought to myself,
if this is it for me and my family can't
visit me.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
It was COVID.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
I was all by myself, and I thought, Okay, what
are you going to do about it?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
How are you going to make this human?
Speaker 5 (13:27):
So I started asking the different nurses, men and women
that came in. I would file their name in my
brain in a picture, and I would ask them something
about them, and then oh, you'd hear, oh, my nephew
had a birthday party virtually, and oh my sisters said
a baby. And then the next time i'd see them,
I'd say, hey, how was the virtual birthday?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
You know, was he happy? Did he have fun?
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Or how's your sister doing with the baby. And the
minute you ask them a personal question, you all of
a sudden become personal to them.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
And it's weird, how.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
My experience went from like real depression and fear to
at least human.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
God, this is an amazing story. That's a fabulous thing
for the listeners to here. You take this thing and
make it personal, could I tell you? Like when I'm
on a plane, like the other day, we were flying
back from Chicago. Oh God, oh hair airport. Is there
anything worse? And I love Chicago so much? And of
course we get on the plane, everything's going off on time,
(14:26):
and then they're like, oh, we just have a little
tiny thing with the smoke detector right twenty minutes later,
forty minutes later, an hour later, they go, Okay, everybody
off the fucking plane. We're gonna have to And it's like,
what So I'm sitting in the lounge and there's this
really cute guy, okay, and like that's what I do.
Like I go, m you know, I'm about to kill myself,
(14:46):
you know, trying to control my breathing, and when I
noticed somebody cute and that's what ends up saving me.
How crazy and sick is that?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Well, you know what you do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Because God, exactly, I.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
Didn't say one of the people I'd picked to be
stranded with wasn't a hot guy. I mean, it doesn't
have to be a cute old lady. It can be
a hot guy. I told this through the other day though.
There was a woman across the way and I was
sitting with someone. I don't know where I was going,
and the woman takes her camera and she starts taking
pictures of me from across the way. So normally I
(15:20):
would just lean back and be like, ignore, get earphones on,
don't you know whatever. No, a couple of kills in.
I have to say, excuse me, excuse me, I said,
you know what the crazy thing is?
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I said, if you had just asked, I would have.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Said yes, I said, but the fact that you think
I can't see you, oh, is is what unnerves me.
And I can't explain it. So I just have to
say that to you. Well, the minute I say it,
I feel bad. The minute I say it, I'm like,
oh my god, Oh my god. And she's like, no,
we know it. We just didn't want to bother you,
and I wanted to go like really, well, I would
(15:55):
have been easier, but they're afraid of getting turned down, right,
So then I'm like, now I feel guilty. The whole time, right,
So now I go up and I go to the
bathroom and I'm like, of course, do you want to
meet in the galleon? We could just take a quick
selfie together.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Do you want to do that? And she goes no.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
I was like, so you're sure, because I mean, I
really don't mind I'm doing with you, and she's like no, no, no, no, no,
that's okay, that's okay.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
There's just totally embarrassed. I can't let it go. I
cannot let it go.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
And of course.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
I'm desperate for her to take a picture with me.
And then finally everybody's getting up to get off the plane.
I'm like, why don't we just meet on the runway
thing on? And she goes no, no, no, I'm begging
her to take a picture with me.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Wow, It's like, you can't win. What is wrong with you?
Speaker 5 (16:39):
But I felt so proud of myself for standing up
for myself in a nice way.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
But then it, yeah, backfire, absolutely backfire.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I'll tell you what. From now on, the answer is
just no. You don't have to say hey, look if
you ask it, if you just go like can I
take a picture? No, because if you give them backstory,
just like it's worse. It just you get yourself deeper
and deeper into it. Is everybody reading Barbara this book
(17:16):
Barbara streis, Oh my god, Right, does anybody know where
they are in the It's so long, it's just thousands
and thousands of pages.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Right, I don't know where I am in this book.
But I love Barbara. I love talking about Barbara.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
But anyway, the reason I bring up Barbara is because
I can remember like reams of Noel Coward and reams
of Colporter, but not when I write the lyrics.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And I used to feel guilty about reading the lyrics.
But then I went to see Barbara. It was the
Barkley Center, and she did like twenty five songs and.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Like so much Potter.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Frankly, it was a little long, you know, like the book.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Editing is not Barbara's strong suit.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
She was there all night and I thought to myself,
you see, that's why she makes the big books, because
there's no music stand.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
She's not reading anything, right, And then my husband, Arnold,
who's gay, right, he nudges me and he points to.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
The back of the room. Every word is projected from
missus Kusa. If you look that.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Way, projection she looks up all right, projection. I'm not
kidding everywhere in the room. You'd think she'd learn the
words to people by now. Right, And now back to
my interview with Brookshields, Darling, I have to tell you, like,
when you started talking about birthdays earlier, I started to
think about, like not just the anxiety that I have
(18:34):
her on my birthdays, but the anxieties that I have
around holidays in general. Because here's the thing. I hate
the summer months. So like Onmurial Day, you know, I
start going, Okay, how many days to Labor Day till
I can actually you know, rite. But then on Labor Day,
I go, uh oh, Now it's fall, and soon it's
(18:57):
going to be Halloween, and then it's going to be
thanks and then before you know it, it's going to
be Christmas, right, and you're going to be freaking out
that spring is nigh, you know what I mean. So
do you ever feel any kind of crazy crazy and
the inner recesses of your brain?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Do you ever think of like the passage of time
or something.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
I'm always keeping that at bay, like always, especially because
now I feel like I'm really starting to live my
own life. That now I'm thinking, oh my god, what
do I've left? How much time do I have left?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
I what can I do? I don't want to miss
anything about my kids.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
I'm like, maybe guys should get married now and just
have babies now, and then I will live at extreme
that go, mom, that's weird. I'm like, go to college,
A'll raise the baby. I'm you know, obviously don't mean that,
but there's something something about it.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
So I did this when I was on Broadway.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
Like the last three shows I did, I had worked
myself up into such a frenzy. My superstition was insane.
I have to do this and line it up this,
and I was getting like completely OCD, and I, okay,
you cannot live like this. The next show I did,
I purposely changed the routine every day and I purposely
(20:08):
didn't do things, and the world didn't fall apart and
I didn't fuck up on stage.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
So it's like, if I'm not.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
God, you're smart.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
But if I'm not careful, I'm a Gemini. I can
wind myself up into such a frenzy that if I
you know, it's why I don't smoke pot, because if
I have a moment, I try to win over pot.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I try. I try to beat it.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You try.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
I try to win.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Right and somehow Tequila, I don't know what it is
like you're right about to.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Kids, it's the only non it's the only non depressive
because I guess because it's pure agave.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
I don't really know, but maybe me.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Maybe because there's no sugar, it's ol Agave's God. I
love how we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It. Is that we're chemists or something. Yeah, Like, I know, Darling.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Can we talk about the holidays for just a second longer?
I want to know where you stand on cards. Do
you say, do you make cards? Do you like cards?
Speaker 5 (21:02):
Okay, there's a part of me that likes to see
my friend's families, you know, in a Christmas card. But
then I'm like, oh, I got so many of the
friends families. Then you start getting friends people that you
don't even remember their children, and then you're like, oh God,
and then I'm thinking of paper and trees and the environment,
(21:23):
and then I got all nutty, and then you know,
I don't send cards. I have cards with presents that
I give that I buy and wrap and give. I
used to, I mean, the list of gifts that I
gave people everybody's assistant, everybody's second assistant, every person I
worked with, every agent and lawyer and Dana, oh god.
(21:45):
And I don't do that anymore. We now get cards
from JDRF, which is juvenile diabetes. My older daughter was
diagnosed when she was fourteen, and you know, she gives
herself insulin multiple times a day, and it really changed
her life. And she wouldn't let me ever talk about it.
(22:08):
And now I can finally talk about it because she's twenty.
And now I just I do that thing where I
legitimately take all of whatever it was that I wull
am spending that year, and I.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Give it to Oh, that's so great, and it just
and then.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
People appreciate it. They know it's something it's not a waste,
it's not something they're not going to use. It's not
a regift. It's you know, there's a simplicity to it.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And that's a lot of time.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
That's in and of itself, a pretty big endeavor. But
I feel good about it on multiple levels. But I
don't like cards.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
I don't get cards.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It makes you feel good when you do something like that,
you know, speaking of regifting, let's segue into the Carlisle,
and to you as a performer, because you know, I'm
about to do a couple of nights at the Carlisle and.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
I love how you can just do it, like to me, well,
it was such a endeavor.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Well, I oh, it's not that I can just do it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
It's that I've been working with these people for like,
you know, thirty years, and we've been doing gigs, and
we've been doing nightclub gigs, and we've been doing shows
in theaters, you know, everywhere, and it's just you know,
we're putting this show together the holidays, and we're going
to be regifting because I do that on stage.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I regift.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
This is just some stuff that I've collected over the
years and I love doing this.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Here's the thing. You get stuff, right. You have to
take a bag when you leave an event, right, and
you know.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
Those people who take like six bags and you're like,
what the fuck are you going to do with all
of that expired moisturized okay, and they're putting it all
up in their gentle No, no, no, it's junk.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
It's junk, okay, junk, No, it's not.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
Actually, there are some.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Quite cute things.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
Does anybody does anybody use DVDs anymore?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
You want a DVD, I'm just gonna leave it.
Speaker 6 (23:59):
Little miss Sunshine, Wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Do you okay?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Well, maybe pass it over to that lady. Please give
it to her.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Wait a minute, who wants some leg warm?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Leg warm?
Speaker 6 (24:14):
These could be very like with the right. Look, here's something.
It's probably not very fresh.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's a Hilton chocolate and how old you say? But
it consider on a shelf. It's a very good looking.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It's a fun piece.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
I mean your I'm gonna leave it. Just take everything
I know except oh cute?
Speaker 6 (24:33):
What about a little eyeglass case from zeitelnd Optics Zitland Optics,
which is no longer in business, Darling, This could fetch.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
A good like two dollars and fifty cents on ebed.
You're raising your head.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Oh I'm going yeah, No, no, you're getting it raise.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Too late.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
You're getting are so you know what, Happy holidays, Happy
damn holidays.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
So let's talk about you at the Carlisle because i'd
made address for you. That was so beautiful. Well that's right,
but wait a second. So I came to see the show.
It was so good, right, And here's the thing, about
your show. I felt like it was more about like
a workshop or something like you were a good time. No,
(25:19):
it's a really good I felt like something that should
be in a theater, you know, like it was great
in the club. And by the way, when I did
my one person show off Broadway in two thousand, it
started with me doing a lot of performing in clubs
and gathering stuff, gathering material.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Right, so tell me about the show. How did it
come about?
Speaker 5 (25:37):
Well, so Tommy Toons manager was in charge of booking
the first half of the season or something like that.
I didn't know it was temporary that he was taking
his job. I think it's temporary. But anyway, so he
called me and said I talked to Tommy. Tommy said,
you have to do a show, and I said, oh god, no,
(25:57):
that's not what I do. I did it it finds
and I was so nervous, and so, you know, I
don't get up and sing songs like the people I
always compare myself to, which is ridiculous, like it'll.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Be like Chenna with and you know, Nick Mey or
something like that, and you're like, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 5 (26:14):
You know? So you set yourself up like that emotionally,
but he said, I've seen you on broad I've seen
you in Wonderful Town, I've seen you in everything you've done.
You not only can handle it, this is something that
you can do when you will be happy. And now
he hardly knows me. So I said, yeah, I need
to think about it. And then I thought, okay, it
(26:36):
happened to have been right before the strike. But I
thought to myself going forward in my career, what don't
I have in my back pocket in some way of performing?
Because I speak all over the country and it's always
about depression, and it's always about life, and it's always
for mental health, and it's beautiful, but by the same token,
(27:00):
And wouldn't it be great if I had something else
that satisfied me as a performer that I then could
do and have it not be if I don't get
a movie, or if I don't get that series, or
if that's not happening. What's a way that I can
stay creative? And so I said, Okay, I'm going to
look at this show like a tryout, and I'm going
(27:21):
to pretend I want to do it like on Broadway
one day. And so we looked at it as less
of a cabaret because truth be told, yes I can sing,
but you want to hear me tell stories and original
songs and songs.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
That are not familiar.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Otherwise you get somebody like Sutton Foster to belt it
out beautifully and it's fabulous and you're like, oh my god.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
Vocally, that was amazing. That's not what I do. But
I it was really hard for.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Me to find a place of comfort, and I had
to cancel Indianapolis. I had two shows in Indianapolis, but
prior to the Carlisle, to try these things out in
front of an audience, that's when I had a seizure
and I had to cancel Indianapolis. And I now have
to remake up Indianapolis, and I've reworked the show because
(28:15):
I've said, when I get to this song, it makes
me panic. I've got to pick a different song.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
You got to pick a different so they have to
be comfortable. Yeah, okay, one go on.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
No, Just that I realize if I'm going to do
this again, I have to be able to do it sick.
I have to be able to do it yes and
not panic and say, oh my god, they think I
suck because I don't sound like so and so and
get that off my mind?
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Can I tell you something?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
A few times in those fittings when you walked in,
I was like, she's going to learn such a lesson
about being in a room and sitting on an audience's lap,
Like that is what you're doing as a cabaret performer.
You're sitting on their fucking laps and you're going, Hi, cutie,
how are you tonight? You know, it's like that's what
you're doing, and then you know it graduates to bigger
and bigger and bigger rooms when you're just in a
room with an audience, but that is what you are doing.
(29:01):
You are delighting them. It's not like somebody's writing something
for you and you're performing that that material.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
And what I saw you do in that room was
so amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And I don't know if you were like faking it
till you made it or something, or if you were
actually there, because it was pretty early on in the run,
but you seem to be like sitting in it and
letting them like really feel you and touch you, and
you made them laugh. You're hysterical, okay, And you're a beautiful,
beautiful musician, a really beautiful musician. I mean that, and
(29:33):
your ensemble is great, and the material was great. Did
you have any fun?
Speaker 5 (29:37):
I started to after the first week, right, I then
started to because I didn't want to miss out on
the experience. But what happened to me, which I don't
know if I mentioned this to you, But so I
am fine on Broadway.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Give me a thousand seat house.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
You I mean, I'm fine, Oh my god, but take.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
A wig off me. Have me be just.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
I realize I don't thrive and crave attention like that.
Like I know some performers that just oh, they come
alive when they get out there. And it took a
lot for me. And I'm not like, oh, thou dost
protest too much? You know, you know you really have
an ego.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
That's what this is.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Like, Oh, you're just Brooke.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
How can you allow Brook to be not a fake character?
Because it's not a fake.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
It's a fake. It's totally me. But how do I
not feel I don't know.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
I just I'm like, I can't wait to get out
there and get applause. I almost want to tell them
they don't have to applaud it. Okay, it's okay, it's okay,
I don't need apply like it's such a It's a
weird psychological thing that started when I was a little girl,
I'm sure, with my mother. And whenever I started getting
a little nutty in my head, like I think I
saw somebody, and there wouldn't even be them, they would
(30:58):
morph into some showrunner director that I wanted to impress.
All of a sudden, i'd go up on my lyrics
or something. I just stayed as much in the song
as I possibly could, and that's when I started to say, oh, okay.
And then when I was able to be self deprecating,
and it came out of real funny moments, like the
(31:20):
time I howked up something and I was like, oh, eBay,
now you can't really repeat it. I tried to repeat it.
It didn't really land the same way the next night.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
But oh god, that is funny. You really are all
that darling. You really are such a funny woman. It's
the best. I love it. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
You were in Chicago the show. You were in a
million shows. But I was in Chicago last year exactly
this time, and you know, it was my first Broadway show.
I had never been on Broadway, before I'd been like
off Broadway shows, I did sell and I have to
tell you, Darling, it was the opposite, like we have
opposite realities in that, you know, I suffer from stage
(32:04):
frighten no matter what, like when I'm at the Carlisle
that when I'm at the Cabaret in Indianapolis or wherever
it is, any stage, any theater, you know, I get
very very scared, very very very scared. But there was
something so ominous about being in a Broadway show for me,
just the word Broadway, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Like I don't know what it was. You were great,
and you know, I tried to be great.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I worked really, really hard, and I worked too hard,
I think. And when I saw your show at the Carlisle,
I thought, wow, she gave us something that we weren't expecting,
which was this incredible not just appearance, but you really
like wrote something.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Did you write that? Who did you write that?
Speaker 5 (32:46):
I wrote that with Nate Patton, who was director. I
said to my musical director, I was like, who do
you think gets our sensibility? Like because he and I,
my pianos, my MD, he and I have this a
very similar sense of humor. And so I then we
need to have somebody that has our sense of humor
because it can't be in that traditional world and we
(33:07):
have to tell real stories. And then, by the grace
of God, I mean, or grace of something, Matt Scalar
and Amanda Green right heard about it. She was aware
of me and seeing me in Wonderful Town, so she
knew what my type of potter was. And they said,
we would love to write an original song for your show.
(33:27):
And that's where that so good. Yeah, it's weird. Fame
is weird. And that's where because I said, you know,
I have to make fun of myself in a way
that allows people to go, oh my god, that's pretty
fucked up.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
But it's funny, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I have to say watching it because I watched Pretty Baby.
I watched the documentary really the first week it was out,
I was on it, you know, And while I was
watching the show at the Carlisle that that was called
previously owned by by Brookshields, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
And when I was watching that, I thought, these.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Are the hilarious outtakes from the documentary, Like these are
the moments in her life who were actually inside her
brain and we are going, oh, I guess she did
think it was pretty weird whatever it was with Elizabeth
Taylor or Michael Jackson or whatever those experiences were that
you recounted, you know, and that's what made me think
it would be such a good Broadway or off Broadway whatever.
(34:23):
It is like a show where if you wrote it,
you know, I mean, it's there, the show is there,
thank you. So tell me about how you learned how
to perform on stage.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
First of all, where did you learn to sing?
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Well?
Speaker 5 (34:44):
What's crazy about that is? I mean I auditioned form
my first Broadway show. I auditioned for Tommy Toon and
Annie Ranking, and I was supposed to just be dancing
bought with the dance Captain and in walks.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Annie.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
Well, I went the bathroom, I threw up, I came
back and I thought, okay, this is it.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
You've either got the guts or you don't, and this
is a dream come true.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
And she ended up doing the Hot Honey, the d
choreography with me will.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
No, no, no, Yeah, that's great. It's burned in our memories.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
Try to think about looking in a huge mirror and
seeing her, her right behind you, trying to and matching
the hands. But not wanting to think about it too much.
And you know, I was like, so that was my
first foray. And when I went into Grease, actually I
just started watching the best person in each category, the
(35:46):
best dancer, the best singer, the person whose voice I
could could identify with. I took lessons and lessons and
lessons and lessons, but seven Broadway shows later, I never
knew what my own sound was. And I thought, you
know what, if I do this show, I'm not going
to sing Broadway tunes that I've had to just learn vocally,
(36:07):
where to put them, how to do it. There's nothing
natural that comes out in my voice. I can technically
do those things, but it's not mine. And I said,
I've got to pick songs. At least seventy five percent
of the songs have to be something that I would
sing alone and feel good about. And the less recognizable
they are, the better, because you're not going to compare
(36:29):
me to somebody else because you've imprinted on how you
want that song to sound. So I'm constantly taking singing
lessons and vocally.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
That's amazing, That's that's so fabulous to know. Does that
ease your stage fright? Like when you know, Okay, look,
I've warmed up. I probably can get through blah blah
blah blah.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Does it ease you, Yeah, it eases me because I
know that I've at least put myself in a position
to be the best that I can be at the moment,
because if I didn't, I would beat myself up because
something would go wrong, and then I would say, well,
it's because you didn't warm up, or you drunk to
michequilla last night, or you didn't get enough sleep or ba,
(37:10):
and I would make myself crazy. So I put myself
at least in that position. The thing that I'm hoping
still is we switched out a Dolly Parton's song, we
put into other songs basically, and we cut some stuff,
and I'm really happy because what we're put in is
when I hear my voice in it, well not even
(37:32):
just hear it, when I feel it. It is that
is where my voice sits, and it is a much raspier,
deeper kind of twangy at times. It's where I'm the
most comfortable, and I've just never sung there, you know.
So I'm constantly trying to find the only way I
can make this a bigger show is if I really
(37:54):
hook into what my own sound is.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
M right.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Was there a failure you had on stage? Was there
something funny that happened to you on stage that you
learned from.
Speaker 5 (38:06):
One of my little stickies fell out of my dress
onto the table in front of me, and I.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Amplification. Amplification covers a right then.
Speaker 5 (38:22):
So it was like I thought on my feet, I
was like, do you have a sharpie, I'll sign it.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So you use these things.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
I used those things. I mean, you know, to me
in a very weird way, Opening night was a failure.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
And I know that's almost insulting to me.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
It always is.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
People like it.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It's just it's never a good show.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
I could not get out of my way. And I
know I sound better, and.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
I know I know if I were to see it,
I probably wouldn't think it was as bad. But I
looked out and it was as if I was having
hallucinations that what famous people were out there, people that
weren't even there. And I talked myself into why I
wasn't supposed to be there, how I suck and it
took me like I had to pull myself, and at
(39:07):
one point I looked back my musical director, and he
bore his eyes into me, like, get your fucking shit together.
You know you are better than this, and you are
getting in your way and your throat is closing because
you're so nervous, right, And he was like, I was like,
and then I just started breathing. I took a little time,
and I tried to re regroup and resettle. But you know,
(39:30):
everything is about failing in one way or another, because
I don't want to let myself do that to myself anymore.
So I now need to find ways to not let
myself sabotage myself.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Well, I mean a few things, Darling, just so you know, Okay,
I'm not sure what went on with your opening night,
but my opening nights are never so good, you know.
And then I like to tape one of the shows
just so I know what happened in the room, so
I actually have jokes and blah blah, and I write
all this new material for every single time I appear
(40:03):
at the Carlisle's like my residence of the carl And
then I take it on the road and I do
shows across the country with the same material in the
same songs, and we rehearsed like for months and months
with the music and everything, and then opening night comes
and the audience is just they're more reserved on opening night.
They just are at least in that room. And that
was the night they had to tape. It's like, well,
it's going to be shitty, but at least we'll know
(40:25):
what material right. And then after opening night, like everyone
who works for you, who you trust, who would usually
say to you, like, hey, we're in trouble, you know,
they would say to me, you know what, it was
pretty good, Like I don't know what you you're feeling
and you're thinking, and you're flying outside of yourself and
looking at yourself in such a horrifying, critical, horrible way.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
But I wish I could have taped your opening night
because you would have seen, Hey, you know what, even
my feeling that it wasn't so good, it was a
pretty damn good show. The audience got their moneys. No,
I mean, you would know that if I showed you right,
because you're a seasoned professional and I know that you're overly,
overly critical by the way you were talking earlier about
the work ethic, but also our generation or whatever, within
(41:12):
ten years or whatever, we were taught to like really
overly overly criticize ourselves.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Well, we're also.
Speaker 5 (41:18):
Taught to overly prepare, you know, and I think that
that's the really important thing. I mean, my opening night
was sponsored by this wonderful wine company, burdenhand Out of Australia, but.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
They took up the whole room.
Speaker 5 (41:33):
So what happened was it was technically the friendliest room
you could imagine, right, and which.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Made it even worse because.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
I like, they know me a certain way, they know
that I have the talent, right, so their expectation is
so high. I'm like, I'd rather have low expectation.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
And then rise the puppet. It's so sick. I'm not
saying it's sounds great.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Crazy, I know, I understand, though, I understand how we
just get in our own ways.
Speaker 5 (42:01):
And then there were movie stars in the in the audience,
there were movie stars, and I was like, oh god,
movie stars and some one coming in Laura turn and
you know, you know, it was just such a funny thing,
and I.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Was like, you deserve to be here, You deserve to
be here. Yes, there are movies stars.
Speaker 5 (42:18):
And then I looked over it Naomi Watson, she was
just like beaming, like she was just so sweet and
I was just like, oh my god, I think you're
so talented.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
In my mind, I'm like, it was just too much.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
And she loves you, Naomi Watts.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
I mean, she was there because she wanted to see
you and because she loves you. You know, she wasn't
there to like automatically hate everything about you through it,
you know, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 5 (42:44):
And the mistake that we made too is we did
NAPA one night, which I think I told you about,
and I said to you, I was like, it's never
going to be as bad as this, not because the
crowd wasn't great and it was beautiful, it was outdoors,
and I don't know what you're thinking. I couldn't hear myself,
I couldn't hear the audience. I couldn't hear one laugh,
(43:05):
They couldn't hear each other, And I was like, what
this is death?
Speaker 4 (43:09):
What am I doing?
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Wow, Darling.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
One other thing I do on this podcast I talk
about obituaries because I'm kind of obsessed with them. Is
there an obituary that you would like in this world?
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Like? Is there a headline?
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Is there some kind of description of you and what
you were supposed to be about in your life.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
What do you think it would say? What would you
like it to.
Speaker 5 (43:38):
Say, Well, you know, career wise, I think it would
be she never gave up. You know, longevity is a
word that I love. But I fought so hard to
have healthy relationships and be the kind of mother that
you know, I know we fail as mothers too, but
(44:00):
there is something about who I am with a being
a mom that is so deeply who I am because
I've been around for so long. I mean, we've been around, right,
and and I don't ever give up. And I think
that watching the documentary, what it gave to me in
a different way, and that would be on my you know, headstone.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
She had talent, but weary here it is, and she
had talent because.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
That's been what's kept me alive over the years if
you really think about it. But growing up, I just
had to be pretty and behave and no one thought
to nurture talent. And it was as if I in
spite of all of that, I forged and discovered talent
and and found I was funny, and found I could dance,
(44:52):
and found I could be on Broadway and you know,
sing and dance and act well enough and found where
my strengths were. I mean, listen, Louis Mau wasn't going
to cast a kid we didn't see had some kind
of talent. That's too risky, you know. But I never
owned that because I was told it, and I would
say I need better material when I got older, and
(45:13):
they'd say, no, no, we have you.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Wow, Jesus man.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
And you were the one to nurture that on yourself.
You recognized it and you did.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
It, girl, You did it. That's what's so great.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
Thank you. I'm still doing it all right.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
So what do you want to promote on this podcast?
Is to something?
Speaker 5 (45:30):
Well, now I can actually, which is the craziest thing.
I did a Netflix movie with Benjamin Bratt and it's
called Mother of the Bride and we shot it in pouquette.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
For Benjamin Brat, Oh Darling, give him my phone.
Speaker 5 (45:45):
Please listen if you're ever in an airport, Beline belind
for that.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
And his wife is so beautiful. It's not there.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
It's just not like I have to google it the
minute I get off. You have to.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
It's like she defies.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
It's so sweet and so funny, and I was bouncing
around you know, like a Golden Retriever puppy, and she's
just so reserved and beautiful and lovely, and she was like, wow,
you're you're fun You're funny, and I was like, you know,
but anyway, so Netflix, I guess.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
And when does it drop? What does it drop?
Speaker 4 (46:26):
I don't know now because I just I have to
do a dr this week.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Got it so soon soon we're looking for it probably.
Speaker 5 (46:32):
I don't know how these things. It's not a Christmas movie,
so I don't know. I don't know how we're doing
anything anymore. You know, I just now know I can
talk about it.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
I'm writing a book.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
I look for it. What is it? A book about you?
Speaker 5 (46:44):
It's not autobiographical in its entirety, but it is about
this era in a woman's life. And I started this
company and it's it's for women over forty who you know,
it's a very beautiful, fraught, fabulous free time that there's
(47:04):
so much ahead of us, but we're we're overlooked once
we hit forty.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
And it's so funny how you have to keep saying that,
you know, It's like you don't have to say that
when you're twenty that it's a beautiful fraud.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Fuh bah.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
You don't have to say any of that. Just people
assume that that's what it is. But you do have
to say that, especially as a woman, you know. But
that's a whole other podcast. Yeah, that's a whole other podcast.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
You have to say.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Maybe we'll do it on your podcast. We're going to
do your podcast perfect. Well.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I adore you, Brooke, You're the greatest. I mean it,
it was a great thank you for sache.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
I love talking to you and thank you for just
being so positive and fun.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
And I don't know I like you as my.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Friend, no, you no, you know, you know you.
Speaker 5 (47:45):
Hey, listen, have a fabulous holiday and try not to
destroy your psyche.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
You too, darling, hang in there, hang in there. I
love you. I love you too soon soon.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Brook Shields and I have so much in common, right,
I mean, she started in the fashion business. I started
in the fashion business. You know, she was modeling when
she was really young. But also we're both trying to
kind of live in show business in a happy kind
of way. And in her case, you know, she'd been
a big, big movie star forever, you know, and since
(48:24):
she's a baby, since she's twelve years old or something,
and then you know she's a big Broadway star as well.
She's been in something like seven or eight huge Broadway productions.
And what I loved so much about talking to brook
Shields is that you know, she goes through exactly the
same things as I go through before I appear in
(48:47):
front of an audience. You know, she was talking about
this almost debilitating self criticism and stage fright that she
feels in her life, and I sort of can't believe it,
only because I think about her in ways the way
I think about say Elizabeth Taylor, who was discovered in
her early early years as someone who was ravishingly beautiful
(49:09):
and intensely intensely photogenic, right like you couldn't take a
bad picture of Brookshields, And so I just think, someone
that beautiful, how could they not be incredibly incredibly confident.
And she's been through so much incredible stuff and adversity
and huge triumphs, and she still is grappling with this
(49:32):
nearly debilitating stage fright and self doubt. And I find
that to be so humanizing.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
That was what I took away from this whole thing.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I don't know why it filled me with confidence myself,
and it filled me with an even greater love for
this person who I already love. Anyway, thank you so
much for listening. It truly means the world to me.
And just as a little thank you, I hope you
enjoy this holiday gift I'm sending out to you Holidays.
Speaker 6 (50:04):
Some words poetic aren't sympathetic. Too colder and wintry climbs.
We need a number of better rhymes about that chimes
for festive times.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
When it's on.
Speaker 6 (50:14):
Order to change cold porter, I will cautiously raise the bar.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
I've cast dis versions.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
And wrote some versions of words.
Speaker 6 (50:21):
That should show you how great you are. You're the top.
You're an air mail letter. You're the top. You're an
ugly sweater. You're the twinkling nights on the wintry nights
of your You're alit skyscraper. You're wrapping paper a liquor store. Hello,
(50:42):
You're a dream. You're a healthy pap smear. You're the team.
You are Santa's reindeer. I'm a boring tome, an inmate poem.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
A flop, but if baby on the.
Speaker 6 (50:56):
Mottom, You're the top, You're the top. You're a Glasston pheasant.
You're the top.
Speaker 2 (51:08):
You're a New Year's.
Speaker 6 (51:09):
Present of coyotes called You're the freshly fallen snow.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
You're a lean beef jerky, a vegan turkey.
Speaker 6 (51:16):
Your missiletoe a display.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Done in bright red lacquer.
Speaker 3 (51:24):
You're ballet. You're that huge nutcracker, an.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Easter hair to early there top.
Speaker 6 (51:32):
But if Baby on the bottom, you're the top taken.
Speaker 7 (51:37):
Ticket, You're the top.
Speaker 3 (51:59):
You're in organ player. You're the top.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
You're the Whoville mayor.
Speaker 6 (52:06):
You're the breeding card or the very hard to please.
You're a tame of wacamot, a green bean casserole. You're
Christmas trees. You're the blush from the store of Sephora.
You're the flush from a gold Manora. I'm a backfat roll,
(52:26):
a hateful troll, a flap. But if Baby, I'm the bottom,
you're the top.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
You're the top. You're the Barbie remake. You're the top.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
You're a nutty fruitcake.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
You're a fireplace screen on my TV screen in bed.
You are Santa's.
Speaker 6 (52:48):
Fluffer, a stocking suffer, your gingerbread, you.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
Know what I mean. You are screwed in his disenchantments.
Speaker 6 (52:57):
You are huge, baby, you're on the Ten Commandments of the.
Speaker 3 (53:02):
Shoes that pin come a terrible cringe of flop. What
if Babyhay the bad.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
Darlings.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor and
tell someone, Tell a friend, tell your mother, tell your cousin,
tell everyone you know.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
Okay, and be sure to rate the show. I love
rating stuff.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
Go on and rate and review the show on Apple
Podcasts so more people can hear about it. It makes
such a gigantic difference and like it takes a second,
So go on and do it. And if you want
more fun content videos and posts of all kinds, follow
the show on Instagram and TikTok at Hello Isaac podcast
(54:05):
And by the way, check me out on Instagram and
TikTok at. I Am Isaac Msrahi. This is Isaac Misrahi.
Thank you, I love you and I never thought I'd
say this, but goodbye Isaac. Hello Isaac is produced by
Imagine Audio, Awfully Nice and I AM Entertainment for iHeartMedia.
(54:28):
The series is hosted by Me Isaac Msrahi. Hello Isaac
is produced by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers are Jesse
Burton and John Assanti. It is executive produced by Ron Howard,
Brian Grazer, Carara Welker, and Nathan Klokey at Imagine, Audio
production management from Katie Hodges, sound design and mixing by
(54:50):
Cedric Wilson. Original music composed by Ben Wilson. A special
thanks to Neil Phelps and Sarah Katanak and I AM
Entertainment
Speaker 4 (55:03):
Yeah,
Today we're doing something a little different on Hello Isaac.
We've got a special holiday episode for you. It features
my friend Brookshields, who I recently saw at Cafe Carlisle,
where you know, I've been performing for the past like
I don't know, eight years or something or nine years.
Every winter I do like a two week residency there
(00:24):
the beginning of the year, and just a few weeks
ago we did two holiday shows that were really really
fun in Cafe Carlisle. Here's a little taste.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Happy Holidays, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's the holidays.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
The holiday's here at Cafe Carlisle, Darling, the House of
Ms Rahie. Anyway, I just thought it would be really
fun to talk to Rook about her experience at Cafe
Carlisle and share a few clips from my show, my
holiday show, and discuss the holidays, discuss live performing, and
(01:11):
just get a little bit reacquainted with brook Shields. So
come on, let's get started, brook Shields. Come on, Hello,
Hi Gorge. How are you you look so pretty today?
Your skin looks good, I'm glad to say, and your
eyes look very good.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You look very clear today, Darling.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
We know each other for a minute, just about a second,
for just about a second, a few minutes, I can
I recall yeah, me, mess please please. Aside from the
fact that I've been, you know, like a big fan
of yours and watching you since you're like a little girl,
I met you for real in my studio. I think
it was like in nineteen eighty six or seven or
(01:54):
something like that. You came in with Jade Hopson Charnin.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Remember Jade, Jada was.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Like the most beautiful woman in the world and person
in the world, Like Jade is a doll. But anyway,
she worked at Vogue and she was doing a story
with you as the model, and I think they were
taking you to Japan or something with Dennis Peele and
they were using all my clothes. Yeah, that's my memory
of it.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Dennis Peele.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
I think it was it Dennis Peel, or it might
have been you know what. It was one of those
times where they brought the model, they picked a designer,
and you went and worked fourteen sixteen hour days for
the magazine.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Right right, and you sat on a plane for a
minute too. That's the other thing I can't imagine in
those days, did you even think about those kinds of bookings.
Did you even think, like, am I going to Japan?
It was either Japan or it was like Fresno or something.
It was like a trip. It was a trip with
a photographer.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
Either Japan or Fresno. That's usually the way it went.
Those are usually your choices. I mean, I worked with
Dennis Peele. Dennis feel's like the only photographer ever to
make me cry, which was very interesting. But I don't
know if we were working in Europe or if we
were working in Asia. But you know, what didn't occur
to me is that you'd have to get off the
(03:10):
plane and go.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Straight to work.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
AI didn't exactly, you know, and at that age, you
didn't worry about puffy eyes.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
You know.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Now, I hope my eyes are puffy because I look younger,
because it fills out the wrinkles. But no way I
can get right off the plane anymore and go right
to work.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's the truth.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And I guess maybe that's one reason that people only
hire like young models and i'm young actors because they
actually don't get puffy and they can work for a
very very long amount of time.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
They also don't know much better.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
I mean, I right, Also, God, I will say, though
it that was an era, and it was the era
of work ethic, which I do not see anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
No me either not.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
I mean, my daughter is really venturing into all of it,
and she's you know, with IMG, and she's working for Tommy,
he'll figure and all of this stuff. And she'll come
home and she'll say, Mom.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
I didn't like what I was wearing, or you just
took so long.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
And I'm like, honey, you don't get an opinion now,
may really cares read her?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I'm sorry, Wow, this is amazing.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
God.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
You know what, here's the thing about you, Like I
usually do a big history about the people that I interview,
but in your case, your history is our history. We
all remember, at least if you're my age, or slightly
younger than me, or even much younger than me, everybody
watched you grow up, and we know kind of exactly
what happened to you.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Right.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Well, what's weird now, too, is that I'll go do
these speaking engagements and someone will send a bio and
they read the bio and I'll finally said, finally said,
please don't read the bio. Don't read the bio. It
doesn't matter. You could say something like you all know
her for one reason or another. Start with that, I
don't feel I don't need.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
To read her. Are all Ohio?
Speaker 5 (05:02):
And because now kids are coming up to me because
of Jane the Virgin or Hannah Montana's dead mother, and
all these shows are coming back or friends now you know,
coming back. So all these things are coming back into
the zeitgeist again. And then so the kids are getting
younger and their grandparents still aren't recognizing me getting older.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, exactly, Well, darling, I want to talk a lot
about you as a live performer. But first of all,
let's talk about holidays. Let's talk about your birthday. Do
you like your birthday?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I love my birthday?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Who are you brooksh.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I love my birthday because are you crazy?
Speaker 5 (05:41):
I survived it alone. I survived another year. They didn't
get me, they didn't win. And then you hopefully get
like celebrated in some way, but you kind of have
to ask for it. By the way, there's something you
do because people have insecurities about It's funny. My friends
will have a birth and maybe it's just a dinner
(06:02):
and they'll say, you know, no presence, no presents, Right,
I do this thing that they hate. They get so
mad at me, I say, especially if it's not too
big a room. Please, can everyone just tell us one
thing that you love the best about this person? And
inevitably they end up like crying and then going I'm
so mad at you, but thank you and yeah, you
(06:24):
have to read the room. But it's a time for
people to be able to be celebrated for who they
are to the people that are personal in your life.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Well, I have to tell you, darling, I think what
you're saying works if people actually know you, you know, right,
it's like sex or something.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You have to ask for it.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
If you really really are in the mood and you
want to be celebrated that day, have to say, could
you please celebrate me?
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I mean, that's just one way of doing a birthday.
You know.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
I've now started to really not like a big party
at all and just want a great weekend with girlfriends
are you know, just my family and their best friends.
Like you know, it's gotten definitely much smaller. I mean,
I was just thinking the other day about my sixtieth
(07:12):
which is two years, a little under two years, and
I was literally thinking.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Like, in two years, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Well, yeah, I'm fifty eight, so I hate you.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I hate you. I hate you.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
How are you younger than me? I could kill you,
Brooke Shields, I could literally kill you. What are you
going to do on your sixtieth birthday?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
I was thinking about it and I thought, you know what,
I have a small group of people together and go somewhere,
or just have dinner with people that you love around
like simple.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So you like your birthday? What other holidays do you like?
What other holidays do you even think about? Do you
think about Christmas?
Speaker 5 (07:45):
I think about Christmas because again, when you have kids,
you do it all for them, and they have certain
traditions that they really like doing. But you know, whereas
when I was a kid, my mother would wait until
Christmas to get our tree because that's when all.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
The trees were cheaper.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
And I thought that was the tradition that you decorated
the tree on Christmas Eve. And meanwhile, my younger daughter
is like, Mom, we are not waiting. We are doing
it right after Thanksgiving. I was like, but then it's
going to get all.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Dry and it's a fire hazard.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
And she said, I need a Christmas tree and so
you know, that's changed over the years, but I do
love decorating our tree. This year, I think we're going
to make something like, oh, candy pecans or like I
want to do something that I can make and put
in jars. Like that's the kind of stuff that I
like doing with my with my kids in the kitchen.
(08:39):
And now we have a dog, so we have a
new puppy, so that's you know. And then we always
go away somewhere for New Year's That's been a tradition
and we don't really ever know exactly where and just
you know, it could be just out east, it could
be somewhere warm. There have been years we've gone exotic
places like af in India and Ireland. Oh that is
(09:03):
like our freest period of time because both kids aren't
in school and I like taking the family, my kids
and my husband away from anything that we know, so
that if you stay in the city, it's all about
their parties and it's all about their friends. And whereas
if we go somewhere where we've never been, we have
(09:24):
to stay together as a little unit.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
And I like to make that happen.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
And Darling, you don't have like anxiety around travel because I,
like you and my youth, I was always on a plane.
I was always going somewhere. It was always late getting somewhere.
There was always delays, and I went right off the
plane into the meetings and into the factories and into
the show or whatever. And so I developed like a
big anxiety about airports, about delays, about I don't know
(09:52):
what happens to me in airports, not so with you,
or do you fly privately or something?
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Now, God no, God no, I mean honestly, if there
was one thing that I could just do and have
it not be crazy it cost me anything, that would
be the way I would want to like that would
be in my Disney world.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yes, no, the entire world would probably answer with that question.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I never had a fear of flying, and I always
flew with my mother and we always just figured it out.
The minute I had kids, I started becoming terrified of flying.
And I realized very quickly that it was going to
hinder my job, because, especially during this past strike, all
(10:35):
I did was fly places, and I had to do
it because it was the only way that I could
make any money. It was the only way I can
of course, and it was all a hustle again, and
I just stopped letting my mind spin out of control
because I'm not with my family. I call my husband
and I say, promise me, the plane's going to be okay.
(10:56):
And I need him to say that to me because
I've become completely new and I don't even like let
go and let god.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
There's nothing to do about that.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
I have like tequila, and I try to watch a
movie and try to escape or sleep because if anything
happens while I'm asleep, least I might.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Not know about it.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Right well, darling, I mean, if something happens, they're going
to wake you up.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You're gonna wake up.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Thing is for me, the anxiety that I'm talking about
is not so much about the flight.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Then?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
It's about being in an airport and letting go of
the controls or what you think the controls you have
of your life. It's like being in a hospital or
something where you just have to let yourself, you give
yourself over. You just become nothing more than like a
seat number. And they don't want to hear about it,
like there are so many rules about the way you
(11:47):
have to behave and what you can and can't bring
and you are reduced to like a mere kind of
number or cattle being herded onto you know, whatever it is,
and that brings me such huge anxiety for however long
it can go.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
You Know, It's funny because the thing I'm mostly unnerved
about are the crazy passengers. And now there's this like
weird entitlement where like if you're in first class per
se and someone is all the way in the back,
they quickly shove their bag like over your seat, and
I'm like, that's not your section, Like take.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Your bag back to where your seat is.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Like I'm not superior, but I've got a bag too,
Believe me, I've got baggage. But but then also I
always suss out immediately if I'm alone, I suss out
people like look at people's faces, and I'll just look
at all and I'll be like, Okay, if I were
stranded with these people, where's the energy coming from the
person that I'm going to want to partner up with
(12:44):
and be friends? And so I'll kick someone with kind
eyes or watch the way they talk to the flight attendant,
and then I'll be like, Okay, I'm going to connect
with that person, like I'm going to have a real
communication with that person somehow, if God forbid, we happened
in the hospital. I was in the hospital for a
month and I broke my femur a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
And no, you are a number. You're a number.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
It's every fifteen minutes, and they're understaffed and they're exhausted.
It's nothing to do with them. And I thought to myself,
if this is it for me and my family can't
visit me.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
It was COVID.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
I was all by myself, and I thought, Okay, what
are you going to do about it?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
How are you going to make this human?
Speaker 5 (13:27):
So I started asking the different nurses, men and women
that came in. I would file their name in my
brain in a picture, and I would ask them something
about them, and then oh, you'd hear, oh, my nephew
had a birthday party virtually, and oh my sisters said
a baby. And then the next time i'd see them,
I'd say, hey, how was the virtual birthday?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
You know, was he happy? Did he have fun?
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Or how's your sister doing with the baby. And the
minute you ask them a personal question, you all of
a sudden become personal to them.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
And it's weird, how.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
My experience went from like real depression and fear to
at least human.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
God, this is an amazing story. That's a fabulous thing
for the listeners to here. You take this thing and
make it personal, could I tell you? Like when I'm
on a plane, like the other day, we were flying
back from Chicago. Oh God, oh hair airport. Is there
anything worse? And I love Chicago so much? And of
course we get on the plane, everything's going off on time,
(14:26):
and then they're like, oh, we just have a little
tiny thing with the smoke detector right twenty minutes later,
forty minutes later, an hour later, they go, Okay, everybody
off the fucking plane. We're gonna have to And it's like,
what So I'm sitting in the lounge and there's this
really cute guy, okay, and like that's what I do.
Like I go, m you know, I'm about to kill myself,
(14:46):
you know, trying to control my breathing, and when I
noticed somebody cute and that's what ends up saving me.
How crazy and sick is that?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Well, you know what you do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Because God, exactly, I.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
Didn't say one of the people I'd picked to be
stranded with wasn't a hot guy. I mean, it doesn't
have to be a cute old lady. It can be
a hot guy. I told this through the other day though.
There was a woman across the way and I was
sitting with someone. I don't know where I was going,
and the woman takes her camera and she starts taking
pictures of me from across the way. So normally I
(15:20):
would just lean back and be like, ignore, get earphones on,
don't you know whatever. No, a couple of kills in.
I have to say, excuse me, excuse me, I said,
you know what the crazy thing is?
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I said, if you had just asked, I would have.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Said yes, I said, but the fact that you think
I can't see you, oh, is is what unnerves me.
And I can't explain it. So I just have to
say that to you. Well, the minute I say it,
I feel bad. The minute I say it, I'm like,
oh my god, Oh my god. And she's like, no,
we know it. We just didn't want to bother you,
and I wanted to go like really, well, I would
(15:55):
have been easier, but they're afraid of getting turned down, right,
So then I'm like, now I feel guilty. The whole time, right,
So now I go up and I go to the
bathroom and I'm like, of course, do you want to
meet in the galleon? We could just take a quick
selfie together.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Do you want to do that? And she goes no.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
I was like, so you're sure, because I mean, I
really don't mind I'm doing with you, and she's like no, no, no, no, no,
that's okay, that's okay.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
There's just totally embarrassed. I can't let it go. I
cannot let it go.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
And of course.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
I'm desperate for her to take a picture with me.
And then finally everybody's getting up to get off the plane.
I'm like, why don't we just meet on the runway
thing on? And she goes no, no, no, I'm begging
her to take a picture with me.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Wow, It's like, you can't win. What is wrong with you?
Speaker 5 (16:39):
But I felt so proud of myself for standing up
for myself in a nice way.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
But then it, yeah, backfire, absolutely backfire.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I'll tell you what. From now on, the answer is
just no. You don't have to say hey, look if
you ask it, if you just go like can I
take a picture? No, because if you give them backstory,
just like it's worse. It just you get yourself deeper
and deeper into it. Is everybody reading Barbara this book
(17:16):
Barbara streis, Oh my god, Right, does anybody know where
they are in the It's so long, it's just thousands
and thousands of pages.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Right, I don't know where I am in this book.
But I love Barbara. I love talking about Barbara.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
But anyway, the reason I bring up Barbara is because
I can remember like reams of Noel Coward and reams
of Colporter, but not when I write the lyrics.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And I used to feel guilty about reading the lyrics.
But then I went to see Barbara. It was the
Barkley Center, and she did like twenty five songs and.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Like so much Potter.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Frankly, it was a little long, you know, like the book.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Editing is not Barbara's strong suit.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
She was there all night and I thought to myself,
you see, that's why she makes the big books, because
there's no music stand.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
She's not reading anything, right, And then my husband, Arnold,
who's gay, right, he nudges me and he points to.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
The back of the room. Every word is projected from
missus Kusa. If you look that.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Way, projection she looks up all right, projection. I'm not
kidding everywhere in the room. You'd think she'd learn the
words to people by now. Right, And now back to
my interview with Brookshields, Darling, I have to tell you, like,
when you started talking about birthdays earlier, I started to
think about, like not just the anxiety that I have
(18:34):
her on my birthdays, but the anxieties that I have
around holidays in general. Because here's the thing. I hate
the summer months. So like Onmurial Day, you know, I
start going, Okay, how many days to Labor Day till
I can actually you know, rite. But then on Labor Day,
I go, uh oh, Now it's fall, and soon it's
(18:57):
going to be Halloween, and then it's going to be
thanks and then before you know it, it's going to
be Christmas, right, and you're going to be freaking out
that spring is nigh, you know what I mean. So
do you ever feel any kind of crazy crazy and
the inner recesses of your brain?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Do you ever think of like the passage of time
or something.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
I'm always keeping that at bay, like always, especially because
now I feel like I'm really starting to live my
own life. That now I'm thinking, oh my god, what
do I've left? How much time do I have left?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
I what can I do? I don't want to miss
anything about my kids.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
I'm like, maybe guys should get married now and just
have babies now, and then I will live at extreme
that go, mom, that's weird. I'm like, go to college,
A'll raise the baby. I'm you know, obviously don't mean that,
but there's something something about it.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
So I did this when I was on Broadway.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
Like the last three shows I did, I had worked
myself up into such a frenzy. My superstition was insane.
I have to do this and line it up this,
and I was getting like completely OCD, and I, okay,
you cannot live like this. The next show I did,
I purposely changed the routine every day and I purposely
(20:08):
didn't do things, and the world didn't fall apart and
I didn't fuck up on stage.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
So it's like, if I'm not.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
God, you're smart.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
But if I'm not careful, I'm a Gemini. I can
wind myself up into such a frenzy that if I
you know, it's why I don't smoke pot, because if
I have a moment, I try to win over pot.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I try. I try to beat it.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You try.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
I try to win.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Right and somehow Tequila, I don't know what it is
like you're right about to.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Kids, it's the only non it's the only non depressive
because I guess because it's pure agave.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
I don't really know, but maybe me.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Maybe because there's no sugar, it's ol Agave's God. I
love how we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It. Is that we're chemists or something. Yeah, Like, I know, Darling.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Can we talk about the holidays for just a second longer?
I want to know where you stand on cards. Do
you say, do you make cards? Do you like cards?
Speaker 5 (21:02):
Okay, there's a part of me that likes to see
my friend's families, you know, in a Christmas card. But
then I'm like, oh, I got so many of the
friends families. Then you start getting friends people that you
don't even remember their children, and then you're like, oh God,
and then I'm thinking of paper and trees and the environment,
(21:23):
and then I got all nutty, and then you know,
I don't send cards. I have cards with presents that
I give that I buy and wrap and give. I
used to, I mean, the list of gifts that I
gave people everybody's assistant, everybody's second assistant, every person I
worked with, every agent and lawyer and Dana, oh god.
(21:45):
And I don't do that anymore. We now get cards
from JDRF, which is juvenile diabetes. My older daughter was
diagnosed when she was fourteen, and you know, she gives
herself insulin multiple times a day, and it really changed
her life. And she wouldn't let me ever talk about it.
(22:08):
And now I can finally talk about it because she's twenty.
And now I just I do that thing where I
legitimately take all of whatever it was that I wull
am spending that year, and I.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Give it to Oh, that's so great, and it just
and then.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
People appreciate it. They know it's something it's not a waste,
it's not something they're not going to use. It's not
a regift. It's you know, there's a simplicity to it.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And that's a lot of time.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
That's in and of itself, a pretty big endeavor. But
I feel good about it on multiple levels. But I
don't like cards.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
I don't get cards.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It makes you feel good when you do something like that,
you know, speaking of regifting, let's segue into the Carlisle,
and to you as a performer, because you know, I'm
about to do a couple of nights at the Carlisle and.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
I love how you can just do it, like to me, well,
it was such a endeavor.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Well, I oh, it's not that I can just do it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
It's that I've been working with these people for like,
you know, thirty years, and we've been doing gigs, and
we've been doing nightclub gigs, and we've been doing shows
in theaters, you know, everywhere, and it's just you know,
we're putting this show together the holidays, and we're going
to be regifting because I do that on stage.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I regift.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
This is just some stuff that I've collected over the
years and I love doing this.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Here's the thing. You get stuff, right. You have to
take a bag when you leave an event, right, and
you know.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
Those people who take like six bags and you're like,
what the fuck are you going to do with all
of that expired moisturized okay, and they're putting it all
up in their gentle No, no, no, it's junk.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
It's junk, okay, junk, No, it's not.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
Actually, there are some.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Quite cute things.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
Does anybody does anybody use DVDs anymore?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
You want a DVD, I'm just gonna leave it.
Speaker 6 (23:59):
Little miss Sunshine, Wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Do you okay?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Well, maybe pass it over to that lady. Please give
it to her.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Wait a minute, who wants some leg warm?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Leg warm?
Speaker 6 (24:14):
These could be very like with the right. Look, here's something.
It's probably not very fresh.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's a Hilton chocolate and how old you say? But
it consider on a shelf. It's a very good looking.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It's a fun piece.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
I mean your I'm gonna leave it. Just take everything
I know except oh cute?
Speaker 6 (24:33):
What about a little eyeglass case from zeitelnd Optics Zitland Optics,
which is no longer in business, Darling, This could fetch.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
A good like two dollars and fifty cents on ebed.
You're raising your head.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Oh I'm going yeah, No, no, you're getting it raise.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Too late.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
You're getting are so you know what, Happy holidays, Happy
damn holidays.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
So let's talk about you at the Carlisle because i'd
made address for you. That was so beautiful. Well that's right,
but wait a second. So I came to see the show.
It was so good, right, And here's the thing, about
your show. I felt like it was more about like
a workshop or something like you were a good time. No,
(25:19):
it's a really good I felt like something that should
be in a theater, you know, like it was great
in the club. And by the way, when I did
my one person show off Broadway in two thousand, it
started with me doing a lot of performing in clubs
and gathering stuff, gathering material.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Right, so tell me about the show. How did it
come about?
Speaker 5 (25:37):
Well, so Tommy Toons manager was in charge of booking
the first half of the season or something like that.
I didn't know it was temporary that he was taking
his job. I think it's temporary. But anyway, so he
called me and said I talked to Tommy. Tommy said,
you have to do a show, and I said, oh god, no,
(25:57):
that's not what I do. I did it it finds
and I was so nervous, and so, you know, I
don't get up and sing songs like the people I
always compare myself to, which is ridiculous, like it'll.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Be like Chenna with and you know, Nick Mey or
something like that, and you're like, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 5 (26:14):
You know? So you set yourself up like that emotionally,
but he said, I've seen you on broad I've seen
you in Wonderful Town, I've seen you in everything you've done.
You not only can handle it, this is something that
you can do when you will be happy. And now
he hardly knows me. So I said, yeah, I need
to think about it. And then I thought, okay, it
(26:36):
happened to have been right before the strike. But I
thought to myself going forward in my career, what don't
I have in my back pocket in some way of performing?
Because I speak all over the country and it's always
about depression, and it's always about life, and it's always
for mental health, and it's beautiful, but by the same token,
(27:00):
And wouldn't it be great if I had something else
that satisfied me as a performer that I then could
do and have it not be if I don't get
a movie, or if I don't get that series, or
if that's not happening. What's a way that I can
stay creative? And so I said, Okay, I'm going to
look at this show like a tryout, and I'm going
(27:21):
to pretend I want to do it like on Broadway
one day. And so we looked at it as less
of a cabaret because truth be told, yes I can sing,
but you want to hear me tell stories and original
songs and songs.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
That are not familiar.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Otherwise you get somebody like Sutton Foster to belt it
out beautifully and it's fabulous and you're like, oh my god.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
Vocally, that was amazing. That's not what I do. But
I it was really hard for.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Me to find a place of comfort, and I had
to cancel Indianapolis. I had two shows in Indianapolis, but
prior to the Carlisle, to try these things out in
front of an audience, that's when I had a seizure
and I had to cancel Indianapolis. And I now have
to remake up Indianapolis, and I've reworked the show because
(28:15):
I've said, when I get to this song, it makes
me panic. I've got to pick a different song.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
You got to pick a different so they have to
be comfortable. Yeah, okay, one go on.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
No, Just that I realize if I'm going to do
this again, I have to be able to do it sick.
I have to be able to do it yes and
not panic and say, oh my god, they think I
suck because I don't sound like so and so and
get that off my mind?
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Can I tell you something?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
A few times in those fittings when you walked in,
I was like, she's going to learn such a lesson
about being in a room and sitting on an audience's lap,
Like that is what you're doing as a cabaret performer.
You're sitting on their fucking laps and you're going, Hi, cutie,
how are you tonight? You know, it's like that's what
you're doing, and then you know it graduates to bigger
and bigger and bigger rooms when you're just in a
room with an audience, but that is what you are doing.
(29:01):
You are delighting them. It's not like somebody's writing something
for you and you're performing that that material.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
And what I saw you do in that room was
so amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And I don't know if you were like faking it
till you made it or something, or if you were
actually there, because it was pretty early on in the run,
but you seem to be like sitting in it and
letting them like really feel you and touch you, and
you made them laugh. You're hysterical, okay, And you're a beautiful,
beautiful musician, a really beautiful musician. I mean that, and
(29:33):
your ensemble is great, and the material was great. Did
you have any fun?
Speaker 5 (29:37):
I started to after the first week, right, I then
started to because I didn't want to miss out on
the experience. But what happened to me, which I don't
know if I mentioned this to you, But so I
am fine on Broadway.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Give me a thousand seat house.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
You I mean, I'm fine, Oh my god, but take.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
A wig off me. Have me be just.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
I realize I don't thrive and crave attention like that.
Like I know some performers that just oh, they come
alive when they get out there. And it took a
lot for me. And I'm not like, oh, thou dost
protest too much? You know, you know you really have
an ego.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
That's what this is.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Like, Oh, you're just Brooke.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
How can you allow Brook to be not a fake character?
Because it's not a fake.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
It's a fake. It's totally me. But how do I
not feel I don't know.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
I just I'm like, I can't wait to get out
there and get applause. I almost want to tell them
they don't have to applaud it. Okay, it's okay, it's okay,
I don't need apply like it's such a It's a
weird psychological thing that started when I was a little girl,
I'm sure, with my mother. And whenever I started getting
a little nutty in my head, like I think I
saw somebody, and there wouldn't even be them, they would
(30:58):
morph into some showrunner director that I wanted to impress.
All of a sudden, i'd go up on my lyrics
or something. I just stayed as much in the song
as I possibly could, and that's when I started to say, oh, okay.
And then when I was able to be self deprecating,
and it came out of real funny moments, like the
(31:20):
time I howked up something and I was like, oh, eBay,
now you can't really repeat it. I tried to repeat it.
It didn't really land the same way the next night.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
But oh god, that is funny. You really are all
that darling. You really are such a funny woman. It's
the best. I love it. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
You were in Chicago the show. You were in a
million shows. But I was in Chicago last year exactly
this time, and you know, it was my first Broadway show.
I had never been on Broadway, before I'd been like
off Broadway shows, I did sell and I have to
tell you, Darling, it was the opposite, like we have
opposite realities in that, you know, I suffer from stage
(32:04):
frighten no matter what, like when I'm at the Carlisle
that when I'm at the Cabaret in Indianapolis or wherever
it is, any stage, any theater, you know, I get
very very scared, very very very scared. But there was
something so ominous about being in a Broadway show for me,
just the word Broadway, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Like I don't know what it was. You were great,
and you know, I tried to be great.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I worked really, really hard, and I worked too hard,
I think. And when I saw your show at the Carlisle,
I thought, wow, she gave us something that we weren't expecting,
which was this incredible not just appearance, but you really
like wrote something.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Did you write that? Who did you write that?
Speaker 5 (32:46):
I wrote that with Nate Patton, who was director. I
said to my musical director, I was like, who do
you think gets our sensibility? Like because he and I,
my pianos, my MD, he and I have this a
very similar sense of humor. And so I then we
need to have somebody that has our sense of humor
because it can't be in that traditional world and we
(33:07):
have to tell real stories. And then, by the grace
of God, I mean, or grace of something, Matt Scalar
and Amanda Green right heard about it. She was aware
of me and seeing me in Wonderful Town, so she
knew what my type of potter was. And they said,
we would love to write an original song for your show.
(33:27):
And that's where that so good. Yeah, it's weird. Fame
is weird. And that's where because I said, you know,
I have to make fun of myself in a way
that allows people to go, oh my god, that's pretty
fucked up.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
But it's funny, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I have to say watching it because I watched Pretty Baby.
I watched the documentary really the first week it was out,
I was on it, you know, And while I was
watching the show at the Carlisle that that was called
previously owned by by Brookshields, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
And when I was watching that, I thought, these.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Are the hilarious outtakes from the documentary, Like these are
the moments in her life who were actually inside her
brain and we are going, oh, I guess she did
think it was pretty weird whatever it was with Elizabeth
Taylor or Michael Jackson or whatever those experiences were that
you recounted, you know, and that's what made me think
it would be such a good Broadway or off Broadway whatever.
(34:23):
It is like a show where if you wrote it,
you know, I mean, it's there, the show is there,
thank you. So tell me about how you learned how
to perform on stage.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
First of all, where did you learn to sing?
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Well?
Speaker 5 (34:44):
What's crazy about that is? I mean I auditioned form
my first Broadway show. I auditioned for Tommy Toon and
Annie Ranking, and I was supposed to just be dancing
bought with the dance Captain and in walks.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Annie.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
Well, I went the bathroom, I threw up, I came
back and I thought, okay, this is it.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
You've either got the guts or you don't, and this
is a dream come true.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
And she ended up doing the Hot Honey, the d
choreography with me will.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
No, no, no, Yeah, that's great. It's burned in our memories.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
Try to think about looking in a huge mirror and
seeing her, her right behind you, trying to and matching
the hands. But not wanting to think about it too much.
And you know, I was like, so that was my
first foray. And when I went into Grease, actually I
just started watching the best person in each category, the
(35:46):
best dancer, the best singer, the person whose voice I
could could identify with. I took lessons and lessons and
lessons and lessons, but seven Broadway shows later, I never
knew what my own sound was. And I thought, you
know what, if I do this show, I'm not going
to sing Broadway tunes that I've had to just learn vocally,
(36:07):
where to put them, how to do it. There's nothing
natural that comes out in my voice. I can technically
do those things, but it's not mine. And I said,
I've got to pick songs. At least seventy five percent
of the songs have to be something that I would
sing alone and feel good about. And the less recognizable
they are, the better, because you're not going to compare
(36:29):
me to somebody else because you've imprinted on how you
want that song to sound. So I'm constantly taking singing
lessons and vocally.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
That's amazing, That's that's so fabulous to know. Does that
ease your stage fright? Like when you know, Okay, look,
I've warmed up. I probably can get through blah blah
blah blah.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Does it ease you, Yeah, it eases me because I
know that I've at least put myself in a position
to be the best that I can be at the moment,
because if I didn't, I would beat myself up because
something would go wrong, and then I would say, well,
it's because you didn't warm up, or you drunk to
michequilla last night, or you didn't get enough sleep or ba,
(37:10):
and I would make myself crazy. So I put myself
at least in that position. The thing that I'm hoping
still is we switched out a Dolly Parton's song, we
put into other songs basically, and we cut some stuff,
and I'm really happy because what we're put in is
when I hear my voice in it, well not even
(37:32):
just hear it, when I feel it. It is that
is where my voice sits, and it is a much raspier,
deeper kind of twangy at times. It's where I'm the
most comfortable, and I've just never sung there, you know.
So I'm constantly trying to find the only way I
can make this a bigger show is if I really
(37:54):
hook into what my own sound is.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
M right.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Was there a failure you had on stage? Was there
something funny that happened to you on stage that you
learned from.
Speaker 5 (38:06):
One of my little stickies fell out of my dress
onto the table in front of me, and I.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Amplification. Amplification covers a right then.
Speaker 5 (38:22):
So it was like I thought on my feet, I
was like, do you have a sharpie, I'll sign it.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So you use these things.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
I used those things. I mean, you know, to me
in a very weird way, Opening night was a failure.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
And I know that's almost insulting to me.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
It always is.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
People like it.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It's just it's never a good show.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
I could not get out of my way. And I
know I sound better, and.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
I know I know if I were to see it,
I probably wouldn't think it was as bad. But I
looked out and it was as if I was having
hallucinations that what famous people were out there, people that
weren't even there. And I talked myself into why I
wasn't supposed to be there, how I suck and it
took me like I had to pull myself, and at
(39:07):
one point I looked back my musical director, and he
bore his eyes into me, like, get your fucking shit together.
You know you are better than this, and you are
getting in your way and your throat is closing because
you're so nervous, right, And he was like, I was like,
and then I just started breathing. I took a little time,
and I tried to re regroup and resettle. But you know,
(39:30):
everything is about failing in one way or another, because
I don't want to let myself do that to myself anymore.
So I now need to find ways to not let
myself sabotage myself.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Well, I mean a few things, Darling, just so you know, Okay,
I'm not sure what went on with your opening night,
but my opening nights are never so good, you know.
And then I like to tape one of the shows
just so I know what happened in the room, so
I actually have jokes and blah blah, and I write
all this new material for every single time I appear
(40:03):
at the Carlisle's like my residence of the carl And
then I take it on the road and I do
shows across the country with the same material in the
same songs, and we rehearsed like for months and months
with the music and everything, and then opening night comes
and the audience is just they're more reserved on opening night.
They just are at least in that room. And that
was the night they had to tape. It's like, well,
it's going to be shitty, but at least we'll know
(40:25):
what material right. And then after opening night, like everyone
who works for you, who you trust, who would usually
say to you, like, hey, we're in trouble, you know,
they would say to me, you know what, it was
pretty good, Like I don't know what you you're feeling
and you're thinking, and you're flying outside of yourself and
looking at yourself in such a horrifying, critical, horrible way.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
But I wish I could have taped your opening night
because you would have seen, Hey, you know what, even
my feeling that it wasn't so good, it was a
pretty damn good show. The audience got their moneys. No,
I mean, you would know that if I showed you right,
because you're a seasoned professional and I know that you're overly,
overly critical by the way you were talking earlier about
the work ethic, but also our generation or whatever, within
(41:12):
ten years or whatever, we were taught to like really
overly overly criticize ourselves.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Well, we're also.
Speaker 5 (41:18):
Taught to overly prepare, you know, and I think that
that's the really important thing. I mean, my opening night
was sponsored by this wonderful wine company, burdenhand Out of Australia, but.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
They took up the whole room.
Speaker 5 (41:33):
So what happened was it was technically the friendliest room
you could imagine, right, and which.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Made it even worse because.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
I like, they know me a certain way, they know
that I have the talent, right, so their expectation is
so high. I'm like, I'd rather have low expectation.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
And then rise the puppet. It's so sick. I'm not
saying it's sounds great.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Crazy, I know, I understand, though, I understand how we
just get in our own ways.
Speaker 5 (42:01):
And then there were movie stars in the in the audience,
there were movie stars, and I was like, oh god,
movie stars and some one coming in Laura turn and
you know, you know, it was just such a funny thing,
and I.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Was like, you deserve to be here, You deserve to
be here. Yes, there are movies stars.
Speaker 5 (42:18):
And then I looked over it Naomi Watson, she was
just like beaming, like she was just so sweet and
I was just like, oh my god, I think you're
so talented.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
In my mind, I'm like, it was just too much.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
And she loves you, Naomi Watts.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
I mean, she was there because she wanted to see
you and because she loves you. You know, she wasn't
there to like automatically hate everything about you through it,
you know, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 5 (42:44):
And the mistake that we made too is we did
NAPA one night, which I think I told you about,
and I said to you, I was like, it's never
going to be as bad as this, not because the
crowd wasn't great and it was beautiful, it was outdoors,
and I don't know what you're thinking. I couldn't hear myself,
I couldn't hear the audience. I couldn't hear one laugh,
(43:05):
They couldn't hear each other, And I was like, what
this is death?
Speaker 4 (43:09):
What am I doing?
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Wow, Darling.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
One other thing I do on this podcast I talk
about obituaries because I'm kind of obsessed with them. Is
there an obituary that you would like in this world?
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Like? Is there a headline?
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Is there some kind of description of you and what
you were supposed to be about in your life.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
What do you think it would say? What would you
like it to.
Speaker 5 (43:38):
Say, Well, you know, career wise, I think it would
be she never gave up. You know, longevity is a
word that I love. But I fought so hard to
have healthy relationships and be the kind of mother that
you know, I know we fail as mothers too, but
(44:00):
there is something about who I am with a being
a mom that is so deeply who I am because
I've been around for so long. I mean, we've been around, right,
and and I don't ever give up. And I think
that watching the documentary, what it gave to me in
a different way, and that would be on my you know, headstone.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
She had talent, but weary here it is, and she
had talent because.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
That's been what's kept me alive over the years if
you really think about it. But growing up, I just
had to be pretty and behave and no one thought
to nurture talent. And it was as if I in
spite of all of that, I forged and discovered talent
and and found I was funny, and found I could dance,
(44:52):
and found I could be on Broadway and you know,
sing and dance and act well enough and found where
my strengths were. I mean, listen, Louis Mau wasn't going
to cast a kid we didn't see had some kind
of talent. That's too risky, you know. But I never
owned that because I was told it, and I would
say I need better material when I got older, and
(45:13):
they'd say, no, no, we have you.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Wow, Jesus man.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
And you were the one to nurture that on yourself.
You recognized it and you did.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
It, girl, You did it. That's what's so great.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
Thank you. I'm still doing it all right.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
So what do you want to promote on this podcast?
Is to something?
Speaker 5 (45:30):
Well, now I can actually, which is the craziest thing.
I did a Netflix movie with Benjamin Bratt and it's
called Mother of the Bride and we shot it in pouquette.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
For Benjamin Brat, Oh Darling, give him my phone.
Speaker 5 (45:45):
Please listen if you're ever in an airport, Beline belind
for that.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
And his wife is so beautiful. It's not there.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
It's just not like I have to google it the
minute I get off. You have to.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
It's like she defies.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
It's so sweet and so funny, and I was bouncing
around you know, like a Golden Retriever puppy, and she's
just so reserved and beautiful and lovely, and she was like, wow,
you're you're fun You're funny, and I was like, you know,
but anyway, so Netflix, I guess.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
And when does it drop? What does it drop?
Speaker 4 (46:26):
I don't know now because I just I have to
do a dr this week.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Got it so soon soon we're looking for it probably.
Speaker 5 (46:32):
I don't know how these things. It's not a Christmas movie,
so I don't know. I don't know how we're doing
anything anymore. You know, I just now know I can
talk about it.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
I'm writing a book.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
I look for it. What is it? A book about you?
Speaker 5 (46:44):
It's not autobiographical in its entirety, but it is about
this era in a woman's life. And I started this
company and it's it's for women over forty who you know,
it's a very beautiful, fraught, fabulous free time that there's
(47:04):
so much ahead of us, but we're we're overlooked once
we hit forty.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
And it's so funny how you have to keep saying that,
you know, It's like you don't have to say that
when you're twenty that it's a beautiful fraud.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Fuh bah.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
You don't have to say any of that. Just people
assume that that's what it is. But you do have
to say that, especially as a woman, you know. But
that's a whole other podcast. Yeah, that's a whole other podcast.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
You have to say.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Maybe we'll do it on your podcast. We're going to
do your podcast perfect. Well.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I adore you, Brooke, You're the greatest. I mean it,
it was a great thank you for sache.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
I love talking to you and thank you for just
being so positive and fun.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
And I don't know I like you as my.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Friend, no, you no, you know, you know you.
Speaker 5 (47:45):
Hey, listen, have a fabulous holiday and try not to
destroy your psyche.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
You too, darling, hang in there, hang in there. I
love you. I love you too soon soon.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Brook Shields and I have so much in common, right,
I mean, she started in the fashion business. I started
in the fashion business. You know, she was modeling when
she was really young. But also we're both trying to
kind of live in show business in a happy kind
of way. And in her case, you know, she'd been
a big, big movie star forever, you know, and since
(48:24):
she's a baby, since she's twelve years old or something,
and then you know she's a big Broadway star as well.
She's been in something like seven or eight huge Broadway productions.
And what I loved so much about talking to brook
Shields is that you know, she goes through exactly the
same things as I go through before I appear in
(48:47):
front of an audience. You know, she was talking about
this almost debilitating self criticism and stage fright that she
feels in her life, and I sort of can't believe it,
only because I think about her in ways the way
I think about say Elizabeth Taylor, who was discovered in
her early early years as someone who was ravishingly beautiful
(49:09):
and intensely intensely photogenic, right like you couldn't take a
bad picture of Brookshields, And so I just think, someone
that beautiful, how could they not be incredibly incredibly confident.
And she's been through so much incredible stuff and adversity
and huge triumphs, and she still is grappling with this
(49:32):
nearly debilitating stage fright and self doubt. And I find
that to be so humanizing.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
That was what I took away from this whole thing.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I don't know why it filled me with confidence myself,
and it filled me with an even greater love for
this person who I already love. Anyway, thank you so
much for listening. It truly means the world to me.
And just as a little thank you, I hope you
enjoy this holiday gift I'm sending out to you Holidays.
Speaker 6 (50:04):
Some words poetic aren't sympathetic. Too colder and wintry climbs.
We need a number of better rhymes about that chimes
for festive times.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
When it's on.
Speaker 6 (50:14):
Order to change cold porter, I will cautiously raise the bar.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
I've cast dis versions.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
And wrote some versions of words.
Speaker 6 (50:21):
That should show you how great you are. You're the top.
You're an air mail letter. You're the top. You're an
ugly sweater. You're the twinkling nights on the wintry nights
of your You're alit skyscraper. You're wrapping paper a liquor store. Hello,
(50:42):
You're a dream. You're a healthy pap smear. You're the team.
You are Santa's reindeer. I'm a boring tome, an inmate poem.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
A flop, but if baby on the.
Speaker 6 (50:56):
Mottom, You're the top, You're the top. You're a Glasston pheasant.
You're the top.
Speaker 2 (51:08):
You're a New Year's.
Speaker 6 (51:09):
Present of coyotes called You're the freshly fallen snow.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
You're a lean beef jerky, a vegan turkey.
Speaker 6 (51:16):
Your missiletoe a display.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Done in bright red lacquer.
Speaker 3 (51:24):
You're ballet. You're that huge nutcracker, an.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Easter hair to early there top.
Speaker 6 (51:32):
But if Baby on the bottom, you're the top taken.
Speaker 7 (51:37):
Ticket, You're the top.
Speaker 3 (51:59):
You're in organ player. You're the top.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
You're the Whoville mayor.
Speaker 6 (52:06):
You're the breeding card or the very hard to please.
You're a tame of wacamot, a green bean casserole. You're
Christmas trees. You're the blush from the store of Sephora.
You're the flush from a gold Manora. I'm a backfat roll,
(52:26):
a hateful troll, a flap. But if Baby, I'm the bottom,
you're the top.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
You're the top. You're the Barbie remake. You're the top.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
You're a nutty fruitcake.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
You're a fireplace screen on my TV screen in bed.
You are Santa's.
Speaker 6 (52:48):
Fluffer, a stocking suffer, your gingerbread, you.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
Know what I mean. You are screwed in his disenchantments.
Speaker 6 (52:57):
You are huge, baby, you're on the Ten Commandments of the.
Speaker 3 (53:02):
Shoes that pin come a terrible cringe of flop. What
if Babyhay the bad.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
Darlings.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor and
tell someone, Tell a friend, tell your mother, tell your cousin,
tell everyone you know.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
Okay, and be sure to rate the show. I love
rating stuff.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
Go on and rate and review the show on Apple
Podcasts so more people can hear about it. It makes
such a gigantic difference and like it takes a second,
So go on and do it. And if you want
more fun content videos and posts of all kinds, follow
the show on Instagram and TikTok at Hello Isaac podcast
(54:05):
And by the way, check me out on Instagram and
TikTok at. I Am Isaac Msrahi. This is Isaac Misrahi.
Thank you, I love you and I never thought I'd
say this, but goodbye Isaac. Hello Isaac is produced by
Imagine Audio, Awfully Nice and I AM Entertainment for iHeartMedia.
(54:28):
The series is hosted by Me Isaac Msrahi. Hello Isaac
is produced by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers are Jesse
Burton and John Assanti. It is executive produced by Ron Howard,
Brian Grazer, Carara Welker, and Nathan Klokey at Imagine, Audio
production management from Katie Hodges, sound design and mixing by
(54:50):
Cedric Wilson. Original music composed by Ben Wilson. A special
thanks to Neil Phelps and Sarah Katanak and I AM
Entertainment
Speaker 4 (55:03):
Yeah,
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