Summary
In this conversation, Ryan Duncan discusses his experiences with video conferencing platforms during the pandemic and reflects on personal growth. He shares the impact of COVID-19 on health and well-being and the effects it had on the entertainment industry. Ryan also talks about the transition to self-tape auditions and his journey from early interest in acting to Broadway. He emphasizes the importance of authenticity in auditions and offers advice for early career actors. In this part of the conversation, Ryan Duncan and James Larson discuss various themes related to navigating the entertainment industry and building a successful career. They emphasize the importance of building a tribe and being creative, creating content, and being thoughtful in the process. They also discuss the need for confidence and being unique in auditions, as well as the importance of networking and making connections. They touch on the sacrifices and challenges of the industry, as well as the need to maintain perspective and support others. Finally, they discuss the balance between artistic fulfillment and financial stability. This conversation explores the power and importance of theater in society. It highlights the role of regional theaters as essential businesses that bring communities together. The economic impact of the arts is discussed, emphasizing that the arts generate significant revenue for cities. The conversation also delves into the need for diversity and representation in theater, as well as the challenges of portraying history authentically. The importance of balancing authenticity and fitting into traditional molds is explored, along with the challenges faced by theaters in the current climate. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the power of manifestation and faith in the industry, as well as the reach and impact of theater on individuals.
Takeaways
Video conferencing platforms like Zoom and StreamYard became popular during the pandemic for remote performances and meetings.
The pandemic provided an opportunity for personal growth and reflection on priorities and purpose.
COVID-19 had a significant impact on health and well-being, leading to changes in behavior and heightened awareness of mortality.
Self-tape auditions became more prevalent during the pandemic, requiring actors to adapt their auditioning process.
Early career actors can benefit from joining theater companies, taking classes, and building a network of connections. Build a tribe and surround yourself with like-minded individuals who can support and collaborate with you.
Be creative and proactive in creating content and showcasing your talent.
Brand yourself strategically and be confident in your unique abilities.
Stand out in auditions by being bold and bringing your own creative ideas.
Network and make connections in the industry, but also focus on building genuine relationships.
Deal with rejection and professional jealousy by maintaining perspective and supporting others.
Balance the sacrifices and challenges of the industry with your artistic fulfillment and personal well-being. Theater has the power to transport people to a fantasy world and provide a communal experience that is invaluable.
Regional theaters are essential businesses that bring communities together and contribute significantly to the economy.
The arts generate substantial revenue for cities and should not be undervalued or seen as expendable.
Theater plays a crucial role in representing diverse narratives and challenging societal norms.
Balancing authenticity and fitting into traditional molds can be a challenge for actors, but it is important to stay true to oneself.
Theater has the ability to heal, inspire, and impact individuals in profound ways.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Discussion of Video Conferencing Platforms
03:00 Impact of the Pandemic and Reflections on Personal Growth
06:06 The Effects of COVID-19 on Health and Well-being
11:32 Transition to Self-Tape Auditions
24:29 Approach to Auditions and the Importance of Authenticity
32:12 Advice for Early Career Actors
33:55 Navigating the Industry and Building a Tribe
36:07 Creating Content and Being Thoughtful
39:16 Strategizing and Branding Yourself
41:33 Confidence and Being Unique
43:09 Boldness and Standing Out in Auditions
47:48 Using Props and Creativity in Auditions
50:06 Networking and Making Connections
53:15 Dealing with Rejection and Professional Jealousy
58:36 Sacrifices and Perspective
01:01:46 Supporting and Encouraging Others
01:06:09 Balancing Artistic Fulfillment and Financial Stability
01:08:12 Finding Your Tribe and Staying Connected to Your Artistic Spark
01:08:52 The Power of Theater
01:09:24 The Importance of Regional Theaters
01:10:33 The Economic Impact of the Arts
01:11:01 The Role of the Arts in Society
01:12:27 The Complexity of Portraying History
01:13:28 The Need for Diversity and Representation
01:14:19 Balancing Authenticity and Fitting In
01:15:07 The Challenges Faced by Theaters
01:16:02 Pushing Boundaries and Appealing to Audiences
01:17:18 The Disparity Between TV/Film and Live Arts
01:18:41 Calibrating Performances for Different Mediums
01:19:09 Understanding the Tone and Concept of a Show
01:20:08 The Power of Manifestation and Faith
01:22:06 Accepting the Unpredictability of the Industry
01:23:15 Being Happy for Others’ Success
01:24:09 Trusting the Universe and Embracing Opportunities
01:25:06 The Reach and Impact of Theater
01:26:05 The Importance of Instruments in Theater
01:31:31 The Excitement of What’s Next
01:33:43 The Healing Power of Theater
01:35:08 The Joy of Learning and Playing Instruments
01:36:17 The Impact of Theater on Individuals
Ryan Duncan (00:01.59)
Now I don’t remember. I mean, I’ve obviously been on StreamYard because during the bulk, the big part of the pandemic, we were all trying to figure out how to perform together, read and stuff. And everyone’s like, StreamYard, there’s no lag. But there was, because I tried Zoom. That’s when I kind of discovered Zoom. People had been using Zoom, but I was supposed to do a song with Linedy Genao.
James Larson (00:03.035)
like StreamYard.
James Larson (00:17.286)
Right.
James Larson (00:21.317)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (00:28.214)
from a show we did and we were trying to sing together on Zoom and we were like, this isn’t, how do we do this? And then they were like, I think we have to figure out a way to, that’s the first group that I knew that figured out like, okay, you lay your separate tracks down and we’ll put them together and yackity blah blah. But there was Zoom, StreamYard, Cisco, there’s Cisco web meetings, there’s like Google Meet and then there’s one called pants or jeans, blue jeans, blue jeans.
James Larson (00:55.317)
jeans.
Ryan Duncan (00:56.539)
I attended a wedding over at Lou Jeans, whatever that is.
James Larson (01:01.867)
Sorry, but do you mind if I run to the restroom real quick? Cool, I’ll be right back.
Ryan Duncan (01:04.065)
No, go for it.
You’re like speaking of blue jeans.
James Larson (02:29.905)
They always say drink more water, you know, and then you do…
Ryan Duncan (02:33.911)
I was like, wait, this is a mistake.
James Larson (02:37.337)
Oh my, I got this giant, like, it’s not a Stanley mug apparently, or the Stanley, whatever they’re doing now, like Stanley, the Stanley Cup? No, the Stanley, do you know about that?
Ryan Duncan (02:49.756)
No, I saw that feature. There was a new Stanley mug, and then everyone was going nuts over that. And then I just heard that they might recall it because of lead problems. Who’s surprised? Yeah.
James Larson (03:00.121)
Wow. All the influencers are going to be lead poisoned.
Ryan Duncan (03:04.19)
Yeah, if not already. Good grief.
James Larson (03:05.873)
We’re gonna have to start over on all the influencers. Awesome. Well, welcome everyone to the Actorszilla podcast. I am so excited to have on Ryan Duncan. He is an amazing actor. Yes, hello Ryan, how’s it going? I’m just gonna read your, you have a great bio that I’m gonna just read.
Ryan Duncan (03:25.248)
Good. How are you?
James Larson (03:32.013)
It’s Ryan is a professional union actor and writer working and living in New York City. He’s worked in theater on Broadway, off Broadway and off Broadway. He’s been seen in film and TV as well as commercials and voiceovers. He’s directed and produced in the DC area in New York City and has co-written and created various comedy projects, a few short plays and a full length holiday musical. And that’s just scratching the surface, I’m sure.
Um, what? It’s all surface, right? How’s it going, man? How you been?
Ryan Duncan (04:02.015)
tells.
It’s all surface. Good. How have I been? I’ve been I’ve been well, you know, it’s the last few years are like this, you know, like up and down. Lots of ebbing and flowing in peaks and valleys. And so I imagine I’m not alone in that.
James Larson (04:24.677)
Yeah.
James Larson (04:28.802)
What have been some of the peaks and some of the valleys for you?
Ryan Duncan (04:33.026)
Gosh, and you know, it’s interesting. It’s funny because everything I think relates now to the pandemic, right? At least in recent years. So I was getting to be pretty busy all the way through 2019 and then 2020.
you know, there’s a show I’d been working on called Distant Thunder for years. I’d been on the ground level of it. My friend Sean Taylor Corbett wrote the first kind of contemporary Native American musical based on his father’s tribal ancestry. And he went to the res in Montana and wrote this thing. And we were like, after all these workshops and everything, we were premiering at the Lyric Theater of Oklahoma. And so that was a high point. We were like, here we are. And then like…
Two and a half weeks in, this was February into March, we were cut off. So I went to Florida for several months. And you know what’s funny is awful, I mean, I knew people that passed away from COVID, I know people that died of other things during that time. It was a lot of loss and there was a lot of fear and angst. But it was a strange time because it put everyone at it on an even playing field.
So there was a moment where I think we all exhaled and were like, how hard have we been hustling? What have we been doing? What do we want to do? What do we not want to do? You know, so it was an awful time, but somehow like
there were good things in it. There were lots of things learned, lots of conversations had. And so coming out of that, I got super busy again. But I think some of the peaks aren’t just professional, they’re like personal. They’re like what we’re learning about ourselves as we get older and we figure out who we are and what we wanna do. And so the projects are certainly good, but I think some of the realizing who’s our chosen family and…
Ryan Duncan (06:33.586)
and figuring out more about who we are and what our purpose is, is really important. I hope that answered your question.
James Larson (06:41.017)
That’s beautiful. Yeah, that was that was a beautiful answer. Couldn’t have said it better myself. That’s I’m curious about the projects you were involved in. But I love the personal aspect of that because when else in history, at least that we’ve been alive, like that, that the whole world was kind of on pause, you know, at the same time.
Ryan Duncan (07:06.238)
And it was a weird pause because our mortality was right here, right? We thought, I think like, oh my gosh, there’s something that if you catch it, you die. It felt a little like all those zombie apocalypse films, like The Walking Dead. I always loved that show. I’m probably one of the only people that finished it. I watched all of it. I finished it, I finished it. I saw it.
James Larson (07:27.962)
You finished it? Wow. We found the one viewer that finished the…
Ryan Duncan (07:30.714)
I’m like that one viewer. But I was like, who knew it was an instructional video, right? Like, all of a sudden I’m like, I would watch that show and go, come on, what a miracle it is that people are surviving this. Why would we kill each other? Why is there such desperation? There’s fewer people. There’s less competition. But then the pandemic hit and we watched people get very political and all this stuff. And I was like, oh, yeah, no, people would absolutely rent each other’s houses. And.
James Larson (07:36.936)
Right.
James Larson (07:57.537)
And they went to Costco and got all the toilet paper for themselves for years.
Ryan Duncan (08:01.994)
Took everything. I remember the day in Oklahoma where there was stuff in a store and then the next day we went shopping because we weren’t sure if we’d be stuck in Oklahoma City or not. And there was someone, they were pulling carts from people who had like.
James Larson (08:04.347)
You saw Hugh.
James Larson (08:12.634)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (08:17.53)
17 dozen eggs, like you can only get three, and there was no more toilet paper, all that stuff. And then I go to Florida where people thought it was funny that it was happening and these kids are getting arrested for licking produce and licking ice cream and putting it back. And I’m like, what’s going on? So the last thing I cared about was like a show. All of a sudden I was like, are we gonna survive this?
James Larson (08:36.117)
Yeah. I think one of my posts, my first posts when it blew up was, a lady sneezed near me in the grocery store. It’s been nice knowing you all. Like, that’s how it felt. Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (08:49.419)
That’s how it felt. And I, prior to going to Oklahoma to work on the show, I had a neighbor downstairs who was a virologist, who he studied viruses and he had moved back to France already because he had gotten his green card and two weeks later was like, I’ve got to move.
I think I don’t have much of a future in this country the way things are going. And he went back to France and he was on the front lines of working on COVID. And I wrote him or called him on WhatsApp and I was like, hey, can you, I’ve seen this thing on TV. Can you tell me more about it? I’m supposed to go do a show. I’m an actor. I’m gonna go do a show in Oklahoma. Should I do any, should I do it? Should I, what should I do? And he’s like, here’s what’s going to happen. And at the time he laid out exactly what,
we knew to happen at the time. And then months, for months, things were coming out on the news that were revelations. And I was like, but I knew this. He told me this in February. And so also another aspect of it was like, as an actor, you’re like, how is this gonna affect me in the future? If I get it and survive it, what is it gonna do to my body and my voice and my face and whatever? So we were like,
James Larson (09:58.983)
Right.
James Larson (10:06.085)
I don’t know if you know anyone. I have some friends that do have long COVID, like they still deal with it, which is crazy. I mean, I hope that they figure it out what it is and how to fix it.
Ryan Duncan (10:17.335)
It’s hard because a friend of mine, her pulmonologist told her recently, if you’ve ever gotten COVID, doesn’t matter to what extent, mild or severe, your body has changed. And I don’t know if it’s because of getting a little older, but in the last year, like I got COVID twice, it was super mild.
and I was Mr. COVID compliance officer, masking all the time, vaccine. And it was very mild. And I feel like my body is different. I feel like I’m more sensitive to things. I’ve always been in tune with my body, but now it’s almost like my sinuses, I feel different, my teeth, my, something is different. And I would just wonder, is that the effect of COVID? I don’t know.
James Larson (11:03.917)
Yeah, it might be. Kind of to transition a little bit into the industry talk. I mean, obviously things went to self tapes a lot. The real world, every other industry was going on Zoom and remote work became big. And I think there’s a ton of benefits to that.
like this, everyone’s used to being on a call, you know, and you can work with people around the world more easily, like everyone got used to it kind of, but I’m kind of curious about your thoughts on, you know, the self-tapes in the acting industry have kind of replaced a lot of the pre-screens and stuff, and I’m not sure if you do a lot of self-tapes these days, but I’m curious of what your experience is.
Ryan Duncan (11:32.566)
Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (11:53.174)
I do some. Okay, so what’s interesting is when I was in Florida, they let us go and they said, it looks like New York is blown up. It’s awful, so is there anywhere safer to send you? And I said, my partner’s in Fort Myers, Florida in a bit of a rural suburb. I can go there. So I went there and there was a show, it’s funny, the first thing I did.
was not a, it was a self tape, but not for an audition because there was nothing happening. I played this character in a show on Broadway, like in act two of this show called Getting the Band Back Together, where I, did you see it? No. It was this lounge singer kind of guy named Nick Styler. And when we did it out of town, there was no song. I played the part for like.
James Larson (12:29.697)
I didn’t get to see it. No.
Ryan Duncan (12:39.55)
in this one scene, I played multiple parts. And then in 2014, they wanted to present the show to try to get it onto Broadway, so they were presenting it to the theater owners. And they were all there, and they wrote this song for this random lounge singer character I played for like a hot minute. And they didn’t finish it, they wrote part of it, and then Mark Allen, the composer, was like, and Doug Katsaros was orchestrating it, they were like, I don’t know what to do with this. This is getting to the video, I promise. He said, I don’t know what to do with this, and I said, can I take it home?
and I brought it home, I wrote the rest of it. I finished the song and I came in and I said, here’s what I’m gonna do. You know that Muppet that smashes his face on the keyboard and says, I’ll never get it right, or I’ll never be, whatever that is. I’ll never get it right, I’ll never do it. I’ll never be ready. I said, I’m gonna smash my face on the keyboard, I’m gonna go through this monologue, I’m gonna sing this and all this stuff and just kind of follow me and pull out the music here and put it back in here. And we did it just for fun. And the theater owners were like.
who are normally very stone-faced were kind of like that. That has to be in the show. And I was like, you can cut it. I actually said that too.
the producer Ken Davenport, I was like, you can cut this, no one knows the character. And he’s like, no, they loved it. So that character, I did it word for word on Broadway, what I wrote here on my couch with, and Mark Allen’s music, and then what I wrote. And then people were like, you should do a spin-off or whatever and do your own show. And I played with the idea and then I kind of was like, I don’t know, that always sounds good, but to get people in the seats, to see something more than once. So during the…
during like, it was really March, April, I think I got to Florida mid March 19th, something like that. A week later, my partner has the whole setup, keyboard, everything, reproduced the look of my little set pieces from Broadway.
Ryan Duncan (14:29.342)
And I did the song, I wrote to the composer, I’m like, do you mind if I do a version? He goes, no, do what you want. And Ken was like, do what you want. So I did two versions of it. One, I rewrote the lyrics entirely. And so I was like, oh, I’ve got a lot of equipment. We can set up lighting and he was doing a lot of it. I was like, this is great. And then…
We started to do self-tapes because there was some casting director that was like, we’re bored so send in do one of these scenes. And I got to enjoy it and I am not the actor that’s like, I love auditions. Never been that person.
I think I audition well, but if I don’t have to audition, I don’t want to. Like, it’s just a lot. It’s a lot to do, a lot to pressure perform. And then I got back to the city, like September of 2020, August, September, something like that, because my commercial agency was like, we need you to come back, but you have to be here for two weeks because of COVID to make sure you don’t have it in order to even be submitted. And I bought the backdrop. I had a green screen. I, some of the equipment I had a little bit because of, I worked for Only Make
this nonprofit in the city where we do interactive and therapeutic theater for kids in hospitals. So we were doing that, that went digital. So from Florida, I had to film what we would normally do in a hospital site or a specialized school. I had to film it. So I was kind of like, I’m getting the hang of this. This is kind of cool. But now I’m a filmmaker-ish, you know? So I bought all the equipment and started doing it at home and I enjoyed it, but I’ll tell you, sometimes now it’s like…
Okay, the sun’s going down. Now I have to put up a lighting box and okay, now I can’t get the angle right. And now I have to do a full body. And now the backdrop is like, there’s so much, like the setup is an hour and a half. And then your copy is like, to the right, sir. You’re like, set.
James Larson (16:17.915)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (16:25.91)
iMovie keeps updating. So I used to be a whiz on iMovie and now I’m like, oh, it’s cutting off my head. Oh, how do I add a wash? Oh, God, and then you’re air dropping it to your laptop, and then sending it to the casting or to your agents who are sending it to casting and a lot of the self tapes are over your weekend or holiday. That was happening.
James Larson (16:45.629)
That’s true, yeah. That’s so funny because it does take so long, like the setup and everything, and it’s kind of like the one-man bands, like the musician, it’s like the actor version is the one-man self-tape.
Ryan Duncan (17:00.522)
Yeah, we’re busking in our own apartments.
James Larson (17:05.858)
Um.
I’m curious about your journey from, you know, what got you interested in acting and performing and then, you know, all the way to Broadway.
Ryan Duncan (17:15.33)
you.
Ryan Duncan (17:20.114)
Yeah, wow. It all started. You know what started it? ET, the extraterrestrial. That’s, that’s the earliest I remember I lived in Berlin, I was in the middle, my family’s in the military, I was a military child, we’re in a military family. And we had one movie theater we lived in, in Berlin, and ET came out. And I
James Larson (17:24.073)
One sentence, one sentence please. I’m just kidding.
James Larson (17:30.198)
Perfect.
Ryan Duncan (17:48.946)
I don’t know what, I knew that a kid down the street had a birthday and his mom got a bootleg of it and we tried to play it and it was all like fuzzy and we couldn’t really see it but I was like, what is this, what is this? I started to get obsessed and I saw it in the theater two or three times and I remember feeling like, while all the kids around me were like, I want an alien, I wanna meet an alien, I was like, how are they, who are these kids and how are they telling a story? I didn’t, I couldn’t put the words together but I was like.
I want to do what they’re doing. Like I want to play with them in this movie, but I don’t know how to make a movie, but I think I want to make movies. I wanted to be in film because of ET. And so we moved back to the States. We were in like Kansas for a year and I was listening to a lot of music. I was singing a lot in my bedroom, hiding, hiding that I could sing. I had a little Annie Oliver kind of kid voice and I hid it. And then we were going to move to the DC area. And my mom goes,
Ryan, your middle school has a drama club. You should audition because you love DT and you wanna do the movies. I’m like, but it’s not a movie. And she’s like, yeah, but you have to start somewhere. And I was like, terribly shy. Auditioned in middle school and did the plays because theater was more accessible. I mean, I wasn’t the kid who was like, take me to California. I watched those stories of people whose parents brought them out there. My family wasn’t.
going to be quite like they weren’t like that. They were supportive of me being artistic and in sports. I was doing sports as well, but we weren’t going to move or take me to a move. My mom wasn’t a stage mom like that, but I got into theater and did it in high school. And then in college, my degree is in foreign language. So I would apply to colleges as a singer actor or something. And then I knew I was going to switch my major anyway to international studies.
But while I was in college, I started doing industrial films and local dinner theater circuit in the DC area, and then got into the equity theaters. And then I graduated and I studied in Spain and everything, and I was like, I think I wanna pursue this. And I was doing a show and my best friend, Tracy Toms, was in the show with me.
Ryan Duncan (20:06.31)
And she had said something about going to Juilliard, but I think I was like, I don’t want you to leave, so I don’t want to think about it. And then I came in one day and I was like, I was working in an elementary school during the day as an ESL teacher and then a guidance counselor, and then doing the show Hair at Night with Tracy. And I was like, I think I’m gonna move to New York. She goes, great, you’ll live with me and my cousin Tara, because Tara was gonna come up and go to school for social work. So we moved here many years ago, that was like 1997. She started Juilliard.
And our dreams were like, I wanna do a reading. I wanna do a non-equity tour of Joseph because our friends were doing it. And I did go on drama trips. I was in a very, I had a very strong speech and drama program in high school, and we came up on drama trips and we saw like, my junior year we saw, Les Mis and Phantom. Then my senior year we voted to see Les Mis again and see City of Angels. And I was like, I need to do that.
But then you don’t know if you’re good enough. You’re like, I don’t know if I can, can I do that? Because I was in choir and I did shows in high school, but I did them the last two years because I didn’t know if I could, if I was good enough to do them, I could hear the choir through the wall or go see the show. And I was like, I don’t know if I’m good enough. And then when I, this was a big lesson too. I got into the choir.
my senior year of high school. And the choir director was like, I wish I had you all four years, what were you doing? And I said, because I’d done the show the year before, the shows, I said, I was just afraid. I didn’t know if I was good enough. You know, I let that hold me back. So I didn’t go to a pipeline school at all for any, for performance, but I went to, I would take classes up here and go to, Michael Howard Studios and conservatory and stuff to like train, but I was like, I don’t.
James Larson (21:39.706)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (21:54.258)
I don’t know if I want to go to like, I, this is, I don’t know how to say this. I thought like, well, if you’re good, you’ll work. I didn’t know there was a machine all around it. I didn’t know how the machine worked at that school that you’re training. Sometimes it’s a meal ticket for some people. It’s not guaranteed, but I was like, I remember at one point going, man, if I want to get on law and order, I need an MFA to say three lines on law and order. I applied for grad school in 2004.
And because I was ready to go, I was like, I don’t know what to do. I did a non-equity tour. I did that. And I did some off, off Broadway and some short films and stuff. And I was like, and I wasn’t booking regional stuff, but I could book off Broadway and off Broadway, which was very strange because most people want to be in the city, but they were booking, but I just wanted, I was like, I want to work at Pittsburgh CLO. I barely had auditions for them. I didn’t.
James Larson (22:42.147)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (22:48.614)
It was just, but I could book an off Broadway show. It was very strange. And I applied for grad schools. I was on hold for like Old Globe, UCSD, I had callbacks at NYU. Then they all let me off the hook toward the summer. And I was like, do I move to LA? What is that like? I was watching Tracy and her classmates graduate and get in for film and TV. And I wanted to do Broadway. I wanted, since high school, I was like, that’s my dream.
I’ve got to do a Broadway show. Part of me was like, do Second City, but no, I need to do Broadway. So that year, I was let off the hook. I went to the beach, to the Outer Banks with some friends. My parents were there as well. And got a phone call to come in for this show, Alter Boys. And I was like, I know what this is, because two years ago I went in for two very young casting directors, and I had a great time and never heard anything.
And I was like, whatever, I’m not booking it. I have a Broadway, I don’t have a Broadway credit. Came back to the city on a Sunday. I think I went in on a Monday. I remember giving out candy to, I didn’t, I, I danced, I sang, I improvised in Spanish, and I booked it the next morning for the Nymph, the musical theater festival. And they said, and Ken Davenport called me Tuesday morning, I was in bed and he’s like, we wish, again, we wish we had you for the last two years. And I didn’t say anything that I had been in before.
I just was like, he goes, and you know, we have producers in place to take it maybe off Broadway, but we’re gonna start with this nymph. And that kind of put me on the map a little, a little bit. But that was, I was here seven years before I booked that show, and that felt like a Broadway show to me.
James Larson (24:29.777)
Wow. So what was going into your audition process? What is your preparation? What, you can do it for that audition specifically or just kind of curious? Because obviously you can, you know how to audition. And it’s, I find that it’s not exactly the same skill as doing a show. I mean, it’s a separate skill in its own way.
So I’m curious about your perspective on that.
Ryan Duncan (25:02.534)
Yeah, oof. So I remember when I would audition with monologues. I just thought this recently for some reason. Like two days ago, I don’t know why, oh, I was cleaning, I cleaned the hell out of my apartment. And there’s an old monologue book I have over here that Jack Poggi wrote. And Jack was actually my monologue, he gave me monologues for my grad school auditions. And I remember, I’d done them in school, but.
I just, they felt so false and fake and I never, I felt like I couldn’t get a grasp. Now I look back and I’m like, I, it’s age and experience, because of performing, I feel like I know how to do monologues. But at the time I remember dreading them because it just seemed like such a false, you’re looking above their heads and you’re performing to a wall and sometimes you end up just performing to a wall instead of seeing what you need to see and going there. I was always scared.
by auditions, I think I auditioned well because the adrenaline kicked in and I got in there. I would, my prep, I think has always kind of been, I live with the material for at least 20 to 30 minutes a day leading up to an audition. Like I have an audition, I have an actually an in-person audition on Monday while I’m of course doing, I’ve started reading on Sunday. So of course I have an audition at the same time. And I’ll live with the material, I’ll do a rough,
like the first night, probably an hour, and then I live with it for 20 or 30 minutes each day because I find new things and I figure out, here’s what I wanna do. I used to have a mindset in my 20s and even early 30s of, let me give them what they want. What do they want? I have to fit a mold, I have to fit, I have to fit, I have to fit. And then I stopped doing that at some point and I was like, I think I need to create. This is what I think the role should be. This has to come from me. I can’t.
be someone else. And I think I tried to do that when I first moved here. I was like, I think we’re also told that, you know, always appeal to what they want, but you don’t know what they want. You assume you know what they want. But when you start making it about your, like, it’s me, I’m gonna do it the way I think it should be done. And the way I think it fits in the show. And you can absolutely direct me in a different way. But I did it from an insecure place before. I think when I was younger, it was like.
Ryan Duncan (27:28.95)
Did you feel it was scary auditioning?
James Larson (27:32.173)
Yeah, but I kind of came to the same conclusion you did, which is like, I always say like, have a reason to do it for yourself. Like maybe something you wanna work on technically in this audition or something that you wanna share about yourself or just, yeah, make a decision about the character or about how you’re doing it that fulfills you and not.
tries to fulfill whatever they’re, and also I’ve learned that sometimes they don’t even know what they want.
Ryan Duncan (28:01.95)
Right. That’s a big part of it too, especially when you start going in for commercials. Things like that or commercial world is like you could go in and give your tour de force performance and they’re like, we need a redhead. Like it just doesn’t matter. We’re going female. We’re going another gender. It’s just, it’s about sales and a boardroom deciding on what they need, how they need to sell a product. The other stuff like theater, auditioning for theater, there were a lot of actors that
that would be like, I love auditions, it’s my chance to perform. And that’s what I’m hearing from like, I hear you. And I heard coaches say that, like, it’s your chance to act. I’m like, it is your chance. It is your chance to do something. But it wasn’t fun until I said, oh, I have these sides or this song. And I’m like, oh, here’s what I think it should be. I’ll just go in and make them cry or laugh or whatever. It’ll just be fun.
Like you said, getting back to yourself. When I would, but it was too nerve wracking to go in and pretend. I loved auditioning because it was such good training or I just wanted to, it’s my opportunity. Cause I was like, I can act in my living room. I, we all do. We all like create on our own, but I think I, and I started to take more risks. And I found that I was being safe in front of casting because I felt like.
James Larson (29:10.842)
All right.
Ryan Duncan (29:23.97)
Part of it felt like don’t scare them. But when you get in front of the directors and the writers, you can be artistic. They’re looking for collaborators. Casting is going through a roster of people and they’re seeing weird crap happen in front of them. And they’re also like, they didn’t create the show. They’re just trying to help the creatives cast it. And so I felt like…
James Larson (29:30.021)
Hmm.
Ryan Duncan (29:46.578)
It was a different feel in front of a casting director alone. That’s why I didn’t really care for pre-screens. Cause I’m like, I know you don’t know me, but you want to see what I can do. But I think this is what the show is. And if you think that’s what the show is too, we’re golden. But if you don’t, if you’re on a different page than me and the creatives, this isn’t going to go well. And I think that would freak me out. But once you’re in front of like Mary Zimmerman, I was like, oh, I’m going to just do what I think this should be. Cause like you said, she’s also going.
How do I want this? How do I want to shape this? Maybe that’s it. You know?
James Larson (30:18.681)
Right. So do you approach that differently now? Like with experience? Like if you go in for just a casting director, do you approach it differently or is it the same what you said?
Ryan Duncan (30:36.134)
I think, I’ll say this too, I think what helps after a while with confidence or anything like that is the credits and work you’ve already done, puts you in a different mindset. I can say that before I did Alter Boys, there were a few auditions, people I auditioned for who were like, yeah, thanks. It went from…
Okay, what are you gonna do? Yeah, thanks to, thank you for making time to come in. And I remember being struck by that, like, oh, because this other group made a decision to cast me in something that’s a hit, now it’s up to my clout. That’s what it felt like. Like all of a sudden, my reaction in the room was different. So I think experience and credits give you a confidence that is very hard to have when you’re just starting out.
So now in front of a casting director, some of them we know each other now, or they’ve seen me and stuff, or we’ve been in circles together. So I feel a little more confident. They know me, some of them know me enough to do, to be more creative and not worry about, and they can also direct you if they feel like, no, the director told me that it’s gotta be this way. But, but still.
A lot of the auditions I think I go in for now, someone on the creative staff is also there, so they’re working in tandem, as opposed to a casting director who’s like, oh my God, I have to see 200 people I’ve never met, and hope they’re right for this project. So I’m a little more relaxed about it now.
James Larson (32:12.821)
What is your advice to like, I don’t know if newer, early career actors, do you have any advice for them on if they just moved to the city and they need to get known by casting?
Ryan Duncan (32:26.366)
So I feel like I have a lot of things. There’s a class that I created that I was supposed to teach in Florida right now that I’m gonna do as a workshop. Some of it will incorporate, it’s mostly about building characters, creating characters. There’s an element of it that is this subject. And I will say that I always felt that, I’ve learned that nothing is fair, but anything is possible. So when you’re starting out in the city, what I did was because I didn’t have…
family members connected in the business. I didn’t come from a school that where I had a community of like, we’re all from this school and we can lean on each other. I joined an off-off Broadway or indie theater company so that we could do, we did one acts, we did lots of readings. I took classes, I got to…
I did, for me, the casting director, the one-on-one and TVI things, for me didn’t work. I had people say, I’m gonna call you or start to freelance with me and I’d never hear from them again. And other actors were like, I booked three guest stars or I’m signed with blah blah. I had such a, I feel tumultuous time.
fielding that kind of getting in front of casting. There are casting directors, I’ve been here 15 years and had never met. There was one in particular, I was been here 15 years and finally met this casting director who texted. So like, I was like, oh, how do I do this? But I think now it’s different because people are getting.
offers and getting represented off of TikTok and Instagram and stuff like that. That was not the case when I moved here. You had to go to places and I think it’s a good idea to meet casting just to get on the radar and meet somebody, meet a casting director. They have thousands of people they’re trying to like and so therefore they kind of have to put you in type boxes, right? And if you’re there’s intersectionality, it’s hard and you may think one thing about yourself, you go to one audition and they have a completely different concept of who you are.
Ryan Duncan (34:24.95)
And you’re like, that’s not what I do. Or you have that one day, it was always funny to be like, just go in anyway, don’t apologize, go in. It doesn’t matter if you’re sick, they still will see you. And it’s like, but then you leave an impression. And if you’re sick and you don’t do as well, their impression is, uh, that they couldn’t really.
James Larson (34:25.083)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (34:42.678)
You know, there’s a lot to around it, but I say get it in a group of people. We would, I would get with groups and we would write stuff. We would do readings in our apartments. We would workshop little things. We would try to film little things in a studio. We would try to get little off-off-Broadway plays done. Like get with people and be creative. That’s my biggest advice. Start being creative. If you’re a writer, write something. And get with like-
James Larson (35:09.649)
Build your tribe.
Ryan Duncan (35:11.498)
Yeah, build a tribe, especially if you don’t have one when you come here. I felt very much like I had to forge my own way because it was also like your type, sexuality, my ethnicity, everything seemed to be so confusing for, and I didn’t understand why things were so, it was hard to keep appealing to people and keep trying to tell them who you are.
James Larson (35:13.434)
Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (35:38.974)
right? And what you are and all that kind of stuff. And then I went to LA and they were like, oh, you have to brand yourself. I’m like, as what? Well, is either this or this or this. And I found it so limiting because I’m like, I’m an actor. And they, it seemed like versatility was treasured. But at the same time, it was like, no, they, if you’re too versatile, they don’t know what to, where to put you either. So find a tribe, start being creative.
I see people get it and they put cabarets on with their friends. But you have to be, there’s a lot of content now. Like there was a point, remember, when it was like, everyone do a web series, do a short film, do an indie pilot, and then a bunch of us did all that and won awards for it. And then you’re like, now there’s so much. So, and be thoughtful about it. Don’t just be like…
James Larson (36:11.323)
Right.
James Larson (36:22.703)
Yeah.
James Larson (36:25.883)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (36:31.942)
I was drunk and put out a song on my Instagram and you’re like, no, cause people see it, people will see it and they’ll form an impression. You know, I feel weird about, I don’t post any self-tapes. I’m not mad at people who do it. I just feel like, well, sometimes there might be a breach of like a material, but it’s also like.
Some people are great. I saw a friend self tape recently and I was like, oh my God, you should book this show and I feel bad about my self tape. But I was like, it forms an impression. And I’m not sure, you know, I don’t think casting is time either to, they do. I met with my commercial agent yesterday.
and there was a guy’s brochure on her desk. I said, I love this guy, follow him on Instagram. She goes, I did too, I followed him on TikTok and Instagram. And during the pandemic, I reached out to him to represent him, because he was so funny. So things can happen, but I think the thought that casting directors can sit for hours and hours and go through online stuff is…
Ryan Duncan (37:42.463)
It’s tough. Some people hit it with a viral video and some people don’t. But…
James Larson (37:47.557)
It’s such an opportunity, but at the same time, like you said, it’s also an opportunity in the negative sense that you wanna put out good stuff and you want to make sure that you’re, yeah, like you’re putting out quality content.
Ryan Duncan (38:02.078)
Yeah, and some people are shaping a narrative about themselves that I don’t think they mean to. People I love too. I’ve seen multiple, during the pandemic especially, there were a lot of like clothing optional videos happening and things and I was like, I guess everyone’s reaching out because they’re so isolated to be like, I’m still here. I’m still affable. I’m still whatever. And I’m like, but you’re shaping.
a perception of yourself that someone might read that, oh, I thought you were more of an actor, but it seems like you’re more of a model or you only do this. That’s just my opinion. Like we’re boxed in a lot and we can sometimes do that to ourselves if we’re not careful.
James Larson (38:33.486)
Right.
James Larson (38:49.901)
Yeah, I think making sure you’re comfortable with, it’s just like, you know, my agents, they give you a list of like, what are you comfortable with? Are you comfortable with partial nudity on stage or full nudity or whatever? It’s like, I think it’s important to like strategize and not just, strategize on what image you’re trying to portray in social media.
And like, I mean, it can be very powerful. Like, you know, your friend or this person got an agent possibly, or a meeting with an agent from their work, but.
Ryan Duncan (39:25.97)
Yeah, and I’ll actually answer better the question you originally asked, which was, what would my advice be to someone coming in the business, coming into the city? I think there is a confidence that reads in the room that almost has to be earned and it’s hard. I’ve been a reader a bunch of times and I love it because you hear so much stuff that it’s mind-blowing.
James Larson (39:46.586)
Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (39:49.722)
First of all, sometimes you feel better about your auditions. You’re like, oh my god I put so much pressure on myself and I left going Did I say this word wrong or should I hit this note better? And they’re like no that person who did the reading has already booked it or this person’s cousin is coming in or they have To go this direction. There are so many reasons why you don’t get a job But I there was one audition in particular I was a reader for and there were some really talented young people new to the city Who came in terrified?
apologetic, should I stand here? I’m sorry, I’m sorry, do you want me to sing this? I’m sorry, I’m sorry. And the staff worried about them. They came across, it read amateurish to the staff. And then there were some seasoned people with several Broadway credits who came in who were lovely, but not as, didn’t hit it as, not as good at the, some of the material as the younger people, but they had a confidence that said,
you don’t have to worry about me, I’m gonna come in as a collaborator and an artist. But they had the credits and the experience to have that confidence. And my dad, who is not remotely in the industry or an artist, said to me once years ago, and at first I scoffed at it, and now I’m like, no, I think I do this. He said, well, look at it, I know it’s the arts, and I don’t know much about that, but think of it as like…
You know, they have a job opening and you’re the best candidate for the job. So you walk in going, I’m the best person to fill this spot. At first I was like, this is artistic. It’s not like that. And then I realized, no, there’s confidence behind that. Hey, there’s a, you’re casting a Millie Dill Mountain, your regional production of Millie, and I’m the person for the job. And I’m the one you need. So I’m just gonna come in and you need me. And I need you.
You know, we need each other. And so that mindset helped me free myself from this, like what else can I do to appease them or please them and give you a confidence. There’s only one you. I know we get told this a lot. No one, there’s only one you. And when you start to allow yourself to like come through the material, it’s much better because casting directors will tell you.
Ryan Duncan (41:56.062)
I met a casting director the other day who was auditioning for a one-line role in Sex and the City and he said, 49 women came in and read the line the same way and the 50th put a question mark at the end. And they were like, oh my gosh, Revelation. He said, everyone’s, if you just assume, now some of them that might have been their instinct, but if you bring yourself to it, it’s within the…
reasoning within what the story is, you’re going to be unique and that should give you the confidence to be like, I may not have those notes or that look or that body, but I’ve got this. And so I think you might need this for your show. With respect, not being rude, not saying that, but just like, here’s what I think you could use in your show. Let’s see if we can collaborate.
James Larson (42:43.361)
Yeah, I think, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had just a lot of luck just being bold in auditions, like, and the boldness is coming from, I guess in a way, I mean, especially as I get older, it’s like, I don’t care as much in a way, like, I don’t care if I booked the job as much. It’s like, what can I get out of this today? How can I have fun? Or how can I?
in a way being selfish with the material, if that makes sense, like in a good way, like kind of like what you’re saying.
Ryan Duncan (43:17.688)
Yes. In the last 10 or 15 years, again, because of some things I’ve done, I feel like I’m gonna be bold in the room because if I got this part, I would bring these things to it. So you can direct me otherwise, you can tell me to be broader or more subtle. But just what you’re saying, I love it. I have a story. You know, J. Lane Marcos?
Jaylay Marcos is a good friend of mine. She’s been in like nine Broadway shows. She was in Get the Band Back Together. She does a one woman show called What I Did for a Job. And it’s all the bold, wild things she does to get work. Now she has a breath of work behind her where she can have the confidence to know that they’re not gonna be freaked out by what she does. She’s not just like new to the city and freaking people out. She is.
James Larson (43:43.025)
I don’t.
Ryan Duncan (44:08.594)
She’s accessing herself and she is funny. She’s one of the funniest people I know. And one day on the subject of being bold, she called me and said, Ryan, I need your, can you help me with an audition? This was after we had done getting the band back together. And I said, sure, do you want me to meet you somewhere to read with you or practice? She goes, no, I need you to meet me in a studio. I have a puppet for you. And I was like, what, what? She goes, no, you’re in the audition with me. Just, I’ll explain it when you get here.
I showed up with extra things she might have needed. Because we both had these tubs of random props. I showed up. Our friend Louise Villabon showed up as well. And she goes, she had done a chorus line on Broadway. She’s done a chorus line with Bayer Klee. She knows all of those people. And she said, they’re calling me in for Connie Wong, as usual, but they’re also calling me in for the girl who sings Tits and Ass. For, oh my God, is it, not Judy.
Oh my god, I’m blanking, this is awful. Ah, I know this character. Anyway, she sings tits and ass, right? She goes, they never call me in for that part, but they wanna see me for it. She goes, so here’s a puppet, and I had a puppet that was Connie Wong puppet, but looked and looked like Bayerklee, and Luis dressed as Sheila. And she said, they’ve given me this scene and these sides, so I’m gonna sing tits and ass, and then during that intro, you all are gonna come in the room.
and we’re gonna do the lines from the scene. And we were like, what? So I dressed in like puppeteer gray and black with the puppet, he’s in like partial drag, Luis. We get to the door and she goes, just listen to see what’s going on first. Now there’s another auditioner staring at us like what is happening? She goes in, she does Connie Wong first and they’re like, do the TNA girl. She goes to the accompanist, she goes.
I’m keeping, they had cut the scene from the sides and she goes, I’m keeping the scene in, so keep vamping. And the accompanist was like, what? She goes, I have a Connie and a Sheila in the hallway. And he was like, okay. So she does the scene, you know, she gets to the part with the scene and Louise comes in and is like,
Ryan Duncan (46:22.042)
starts doing the lines, well I would want, or whatever the lines are now I’m blanking, like, I would just want, you should have gotten two that looked alike, or whatever, the insulting kind of Sheila, and I came in with it by her Lee puppet, and I was like, I just want one of yours, and she goes, you can, and she, we did the whole scene, and then we kind of berate out, and as I went out, I saw the entire team. She finished the scene.
And she’s like, no one does this for a chorus line because it’s set. We know what we’re supposed to do. No one has done something like this. We run out, we start changing. And then the assistant casting director comes out of the room and goes, that’s how you audition. And then a accompanist comes out and was like, holy crap, what just happened? And she booked it. She got to do it. And then me and Luis went to see her off Broadway. And then we met the creatives and they were like, you’re the ones who came in with the puppet. She was like, I needed to do something bold and different.
and they only gave me the song. And I wanted to show the attitude of the character in the scene as well. And so sometimes you can use the environment around you. I don’t think you should bring in tons of crazy stuff, but like use the things around you, think creatively. I’ve rewritten stuff that ended up in the show.
James Larson (47:25.307)
Right.
James Larson (47:36.)
For poor Yorick, you can bring in someone that acts dead, and it’s just their skull. I’m just trying to think of other ways to use puppets, I guess. No, but that’s amazing.
Ryan Duncan (47:43.611)
Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (47:48.51)
or pull out a tiny prop, don’t go overboard, but something unique that you’re like, this would be funny, because you also, if your mind is, I need to impress them. I know that’s the easy part of your mind, but your mind could also be like, what would be funny in this show for a paying audience to see and laugh at? Because that’s what they’re doing the show for.
James Larson (47:54.727)
Right.
James Larson (48:06.361)
Right, right, that’s true. And then I also think about, like you said, when people do, when 100 people do the same thing, they’re looking at you in that realm. They’re seeing you, and they’re also seeing a lot of other people. So how can I be different, and how can I stand out, and also, and do it in a way that’s bold, you know? Like you said, that’s amazing.
Ryan Duncan (48:30.758)
Exactly. And you know, work, we always say work begets work. I’ve been on catering gigs where I met a person who helped me do mailings back in the day. I’ve done weird jobs where the person was a headshot photographer and we got to become friends. But I’ll say that
I booked my first Broadway show because I did Alter Boys and Josh Prince saw me in Alter Boys and liked me and then I was called in for a reading he was directing and he cast me in the reading. In that reading I met my friend Kristy McIntosh and then we were in a sketch group together but he then called me in for Shrek because he’s like, I think you’d be great for Donkey. Go with me on this. And so…
That’s how Shrek happened. It didn’t happen through the regular, it was because someone on the inside called me in and made sure that they had me in for it. The second Broadway show I did, I didn’t even audition for. Now at this point in my life, there are several shows I’ve gone to production with I never auditioned for, because the writer, the producer, someone on the staff took me with it because they’re like, we like what you’re doing with the role or you’ve created this role. And so we collaborate, we create this together, you know?
James Larson (49:24.934)
Wow.
Ryan Duncan (49:38.194)
And so things start to lead to other things.
James Larson (49:41.901)
Is there, you know, there’s a lot of stuff out there about you got to network in the industry and you got to do this and that. And my thing is, and I’m curious what you think, is just showing up and doing good work and getting in the rooms with people. Do you think that’s the best networking or do you have something on top of that? Like, obviously doing a performance.
Ryan Duncan (50:06.67)
Um, I think… I-
For me, I feel like showing up and doing good work and being kind and decent to everyone. Be kind to the people you don’t think you need anything from. I don’t care if it’s the person bringing you coffee, the doorman, anybody. I don’t care if people talk. I’ve been in chairs where I’ve heard people that I know get torn apart because they were rude or mean and now here they are and I’m on a set of a commercial and their name’s being spoken. That has happened. I have friends who are great at networking.
For me, like I said, the one-on-one and the TVIs and all those casting director things, most of them didn’t get me work somehow. For me, sometimes the conversation you have in the room that has nothing to do with acting, or you’re at an event and you meet somebody who’s in the industry and you talk about, for me, I could be talking about my dog, ghosts, international issues.
family stuff, it gives it, there’s a connection there. Because I think industry people are used to someone pitching, giving them an elevator pitch all the time, and I think we’ve all been guilty of that. I am amazed by people who send the postcards and get, like, they’ll go to, what was that one in the film center building? That wasn’t one-on-one, it wasn’t TV, it was Actress Connection. And they’re like, I’ve been in for three pilots. And I’m like, that person liked me, I don’t.
James Larson (51:32.537)
Actors Connection, yeah.
Ryan Duncan (51:38.954)
You know, it just seems to be a different, we’re operating on different levels. And some people fit a type, that’s I think what we don’t understand. You’re like, why am I not getting seen? Well, this person, this person fits a lot of the things they’re casting, fits six of their projects. You’re too unique. You’ve got to find the thing that’s yours. I’ve realized that some of my projects, I have a longer time between them. It took me a while, my partner and I talked about it. He booked like,
James Larson (51:52.73)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (52:07.678)
regional theater all the time. And I was like, I couldn’t, I barely got in, I would have a callback for one place, but I could book off Broadway. And Broadway, he’s like, but that’s what I wanted to do. And I was like, I know, but it was hard, I think, to plug me into a show because the template was like, whoever did the original production. And they wanna plug you in so you can do it regionally so that an audience around the country know what to expect. And I maybe felt like, maybe I’m a little different. I’m a little off type, but I can create a role.
And so I’m grateful that by default the time I spent upset that I couldn’t, you know, be in the four millionth production of Evita somewhere. I’m like, no, I’m okay. I want to originate a role in this other show. I want to create something from the ground up. That’s where I think I’m best utilized. And I keep saying this mantra, the light in me sees the light in you, the light in me seeks the light in you. And that means there’s someone out there with a project.
or I have a project and we need to work together, let’s find each other through the ether. Kind of like X-Men when Patrick Stewart puts on that helmet. Like not everyone sees you, not everyone gets you, but like someone out there is on your wavelength. And a simple conversation in a bar or running into someone randomly can forge a relationship.
James Larson (53:06.705)
Hmm.
James Larson (53:15.078)
Right.
James Larson (53:27.917)
Right, I love that way of thinking, because it’s, one, it’s true. It’s like, you know, back-to-back auditions are kind of interesting, because in one room, you can be, you can have a great time, and the energy’s flowing, and you guys are getting along, and the next is like completely different. I mean, it’s a, you know, it’s a subjective industry at the end of the day. Like, it’s, you know, it’s about who gets you, and who you get. I’m kind of curious about, sorry.
Ryan Duncan (53:54.358)
and pull down ourselves. Sorry, go ahead.
James Larson (53:57.997)
Oh no, I was gonna ask about, because another thing that you kind of touched on a little bit was a little bit of professional jealousy with like, you know, maybe your partner could book regional and you wanted to book regional gigs, but you were booking off Broadway and you know what I mean? There’s a whole, and I’ve met people that have amazing careers on Broadway and TV film, but.
Ryan Duncan (54:15.647)
Yeah.
James Larson (54:22.021)
and they’re at an amazing level. And then they talk about someone that they, oh man, I wish I had their career. I’m like, what? You have an amazing career.
Ryan Duncan (54:31.668)
Wherever you go, there you are. I mean, I learned something amazing from-
James Larson (54:34.021)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (54:39.394)
I’ll say this, it’s adjacent to what we’re talking about. I’ve known Anthony Rapp for a long time. I love Anthony. I went to see his one man show, without you when it was in the nymph. And I remember looking around the room and seeing all these young Anthony Rapps, like these like 20 somethings who were like, you know that they all wanted to do or had been in Rent already and played his part. And I was like, how many of them here want his career? And I thought this before the show. And then the show started. And what I didn’t know about him was that he lost his mom to cancer right after opening, soon after opening Rent on Broadway.
and that the preview period and even his opening night, she had to sit in a certain place so that she could be taken out in case something happened. And I remember being like, who would switch places with him now? You don’t know what anyone’s life is like. And I have friends in Hollywood who are like, I think of them as wildly successful. And they’re kind of like, I’m seen as one thing.
I’m only going in for this, the best friend, or they only see, I’m getting TV gigs or movie gigs, but I’m only seen as the wife with no lines or very few lines supporting the leading guy, or I’m the best friend who doesn’t get to do, you know, you’re always trying to get something else. And there are people on Broadway, you’ve done a bunch of Broadway shows who were like, I’m in a Broadway shows, but I’m constantly understudying.
And then I’ve, or I’ve originated a role in the workshop, in the reading, and then that person, a Tony nominee gets that part now, or some other person that they need to have, or a TV star. So again, wherever you go, there you are. And I feel like we leave auditions all the time going, like second guessing ourselves. And when I was a reader for West Side Story with Arthur Lawrence, the one before this last one, there were people, there was a guy who came into audition, he was…
in his 20s, he sang his face off. He had a gorgeous voice, good actor, didn’t get a callback because at the time he was too old because he was like 24 because Arthur Lawrence had seen Spring Awakening and Arthur kind of was like that’s the energy I want this teen angst sex thing, you know, but he wrote such a sophisticated show it’s hard for
Ryan Duncan (56:50.47)
18, 19, 14 year old to do it. So this guy was phenomenal and left and didn’t get a call back. And Arthur Lawrence turned and said, best voice I’ve heard.
the whole week, best voice of the day. This was toward the end of the day. And I remember thinking, I wish you’d said that in front of that guy, because he’s gonna leave, not get a phone call for an audition, a call back and not, and wonder what he did wrong and should I get a coaching again? And I saw that dude on the street on 9th Avenue. I was with friends, he was with friends, I said, I’m sorry, I have to stop you. I was your reader, and I know if you’re ready, he goes, yeah, for West Side Story. I said, you need to know that Arthur Lawrence said you were the best voice of the day. And he’s like,
What? And I said, he said, I didn’t get a call back. I said, yes, because even at your young age, you’re too old right now. He said, well, the casting director called me in for something else. I said, great, because Arthur Lawrence loved you. Everyone in that room loved you. And I’m an actor and I know what it’s like to leave the room and think what happened. You could have done nothing else. And I did that to two or three people. I was like, you have to know how good you were.
You’re not going to be told this. You might ask for feedback from your agent who calls them. And then they’re like, but I was like, we, if we knew the light that was surrounding us sometimes, and we thought we had no light, we would, we would have light all the time. We would be confident all the time if we knew, Hey, I’ve got something special, but I didn’t know because.
I left in the or they were looking down or you performed to the, you know, you can coach somebody in an audition and say, but in this case, for this person, you might sing to the top of their head. I not watch your acting at all. We’ve all been there, you know.
James Larson (58:36.285)
That’s amazing. I’m so, wow, that’s so cool you did that. I wish we heard more of that. I wish people would say that in the room, or would, because we needed to hear that, you know? And…
Ryan Duncan (58:50.562)
There’s a girl I’m waiting to find who I went to a showcase with an old agent’s assistant who’s no longer with my agency. And there were two musical theater programs and two play, straight theater programs. And what a lot of programs have to do is pair up with bigger programs like Juilliard Yale NYU in order to get the people to see them because there’s an assumption about what kind of an actor or performer you are based on the school you went to. But the school is a casting like anything else. Like when you’re up for a grad school…
You’re up for the one slot sometimes in eight. But there’s perception around it. And there was a girl who performed, from my memory, she performed in three scenes because someone got sick and she had to perform a third scene and she was brilliant. Like everyone in that room was like, who is this chick? Oh my God, she’s amazing. She is amazing, she’s hilarious, she’s making us cry. And that was the feeling from the room. And at the end,
I was milling about, just kind of staying out of the way of casting an agent and all these people, and I was pulled over and said, as an actor, what do you think? And I said, that girl, the dark haired girl, she’s like the next Megan Mullally. She’s incredible, blah, and she can also do drama. She’s all the, and they, I said, so what hap, and they all went, oh my, and then they all talked about how great she was. And I said, so what happens now? Do you all fight over her? And I remember the small group kind of.
got cold and dissipated a little. And then they were picking out the musical theater people that they were going to call in. Not anyone from the play programs. And I remember, and this is my memory, and this is just a small group of them. And I was like, later I said to him, what happened? This girl, he goes, well, I think we all don’t know what to do with her. And I said, she just showed you. This was her showcase and she did three scenes because someone else got sick, I believe.
I’m waiting to find this girl to be like, you were the star of the day and I hope she didn’t quit. I hope she’s an actress. Maybe she’s on TV and I don’t know where she is because there’s so much on TV. But I was like, she probably, she didn’t get any phone calls probably because she went to the wrong school or didn’t do music. I don’t know, but I remember being crestfallen for her. And I was like, I’ve got to find this girl. And I know I’ll see her. I’ll run into her. This was years ago. I’ll find her somewhere and be like, you have to know how wonderful you are.
Ryan Duncan (01:01:09.386)
And there were circumstances that were so stupid. And it just hurt my heart for her, because I was like, she was great. She’s a star.
James Larson (01:01:16.737)
So in a way, I mean, it’s, what do we do? I mean, how do we deal with this rejection? Like when it’s like, when you, and you put your, what? Edibles? That’s true, that’s true. But when you’re done with those, no. When you’re super high, what do you do then? Yeah, it’s, this industry is, it’s so tough. It’s so rough, you know, it’s.
Ryan Duncan (01:01:24.856)
All right.
Edibles and fart videos.
Ryan Duncan (01:01:35.242)
Yeah. Right, no.
Ryan Duncan (01:01:46.23)
We still feel it. I’ll run into people, I’ll run into an actor who’s, and I’m like, oh my God, you got a X, Y, or Z nomination. Oh my God. And they’re like, thanks. I just had, but I haven’t worked in six months, or I didn’t get called for, or they have a personal issue. And then all of that doesn’t matter when someone’s sick that you love, or you’re diagnosed with something. And that’s another thing like.
James Larson (01:01:46.317)
You work on your… Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (01:02:11.762)
Some of us have sacrificed weddings and time with friends and family, hoping and waiting for an audition or sitting around or staying in town. And it’s cost us. And I mean, surely the way to get an audition is to leave town, like to get a ticket. You can’t refund. I tried to trick the universe once I bought a bus ticket to DC thinking like, I’m going to get an audition and visit my family anyway. And the universe was like, that was easy. No. 29 hour bus ticket on the China bus.
You’re not getting an audition. Not happening.
James Larson (01:02:41.701)
You’re not getting any. I remember one of my acting teachers in school was like, he’s like, oh, you know the industry, right? Like the day you book a broad, the day you open a Broadway show, like yeah, your mom’s going to pass away and you’re gonna be evicted. And like, I mean, like life will happen regardless and you can’t plan on it like.
I don’t know, what is your, cause a lot of people do make huge sacrifices for this industry, you know, like flying, I have a friend that flies from LA all the time to audition. And to me, that’s a, I mean, that’s not a small trip. That’s, I don’t know, I just, people make all kinds of sacrifices.
Ryan Duncan (01:03:19.562)
Yeah, how many actors couldn’t make their rent or their payments because they had on their own dime flown somewhere? I mean, now you can hopefully do some stuff over Zoom, but I know film and TV, from what I hear, a lot of it’s not gonna come back in person unless it’s really an important chemistry read or a callback, but it’s gonna be a lot on camera. And…
So that will be helpful for people who don’t need to fly, you know, but, but yeah, a lot of sacrifices have been made. Um, people who, you know, missed births and deaths and stuff. I left a show.
I left Titanic because I was supposed to do this show, Joy, as well, but I wanted to see my grandmother. I was like, I don’t know why I need to see her. I would hate to be like, I’m just sticking to it with this extension another few weeks and then she passes. And she died in December when I couldn’t see her, but I saw her in October. So we have to live our lives, but you have to also know it’s gonna be there. There’s always gonna be a show. There’s always gonna be something going on, but.
But recently I’ll say this, I don’t want to sound doom and gloom, but part of me is like, look, there’s another pandemic coming in the next few years. It’ll be a respiratory virus. It’ll be a super flu. True story from the virologist. At that point, we’re going to be like, I hope I survive and my people I love survive. And we’re well, you know, there’s we have we’re watching climate change. We’re watching a lot of world events happen that are awful.
There’s a point where it’s gonna be a little more survival mode, not apocalyptic, but a little more like, I don’t know if this is as important, like, I want to book a Broadway show, but I also want my, I don’t want my apartment building to be waterfront. I want our electricity to work, the storms are getting… There are a lot of things that put it in perspective, right? But we’re creative types and we need to stay…
Ryan Duncan (01:05:13.73)
We need to be creative and there are hopefully other outlets we can find. I think John Lithgow said, when you’re not working, write a poem, write a song, paint a painting, be creative. We can always do that to fill our soul, but there are a lot of sacrifices we’re making for sometimes someone else’s bottom line. And not your own.
When you have to, I wanted to keep enjoying this. And I went through like a midlife crisis. I had a dog during that time. Last year I had a birthday and I was like going through stuff and I was like, I need to keep enjoying this. What do I wanna do and not wanna do? Now, because of COVID and stuff, there’s a lot of, everyone covers five roles and you’re thrown on in the matinee for one and thrown on the evening and we’ll throw you on a book. And there’s a lot of stuff happening that where economics meets.
health meets the arts and it’s
James Larson (01:06:09.777)
You think it’s like people are being taken advantage of because of the situation or that it’s genuine?
Ryan Duncan (01:06:13.802)
Yeah. And now with AI in the picture, it’s, um, there’s a lot of stuff to sift through people who, it’s hard to get to a place in your career where you feel like you’re getting a good paycheck or a good quote or you’re, or you’re able to call the shots. And then you realize they’re like, you’re too expensive now or no, you’re, there is your track understudies for, for people. And for me, that’s a lot of anxiety and there are people who love to do that. But, um, it’s, uh,
It’s interesting too because we need to be thoughtful about, like I said before, what we’re putting out there and how we’re representing ourselves in the room and how we’re connecting with people. And like I’m always saying to people, stay creative. Like part of my character building class is about like, what do you bring to the table? How can you be a collaborator? You play a person, not a people.
you know, you’re finding the individual in a part, you’re doing all these things that are going to enrich, like go in the room and say, like, I’m gonna give love. Because when you think about it, like that song from Macor’s line, you know, what I did for love, that’s the feeling on stage that I think we, that we cherish, that like,
oh my gosh, I’m living in this world and pretending, but also I have this audience that’s giving me love and I’m giving them love. And we’re all in a, even a film, we’re all in a situation together. And so I had to shift my focus to more stuff like that instead of like, I have to do this show because I need to.
I have to go in for the show to show off, or I have to do this, or I have to do that. But we’ve got to pay for our lives too. But there are so many other factors that are pulling on us. So it’s not easy. Again, finding your tribe.
James Larson (01:08:12.005)
It’s such a balance because obviously you have to live, you have to make enough to live, but you also need that artistic spark because what I kind of try and tap into is like, why did I wanna do this in the first place? Like, why am I in this for so long? And it’s because of that, because you felt, because being on stage or being in a project like…
there’s such an energy to it and you feel connected to other people and I think it probably makes us feel more alive, you know? And that’s why I go to see shows too. It’s like I wanna feel more alive. I wanna experience life and feel the energy no matter what kind of show it is. That’s how ET.
Ryan Duncan (01:08:42.86)
Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (01:08:52.842)
That’s how ET made me feel. When I saw ET, I was like, oh my God, I feel like I’m lost in a fantasy world. And that’s what I…
how do I make other, how do I give the gift that to other people? When 9-11 happened, they were giving those $20 equity tickets. And I remember seeing a show that was not well received. It was not, it wasn’t a great show on Broadway, but I was in a room with all these people having a communal experience, losing the outside world for about two hours. And there was a real beauty to it. It was it was.
It was invaluable. And I started to see that during the pandemic, our regional theaters around the country and around the world are, they need to, they’re essential businesses. They can be shelters, they can be learning annexes, they can be places for entertainment, places where your tribe comes together. And I think that, I hated the language surrounding like, well, the first thing we can cut is the arts. I’m like, everyone’s at home watching Netflix.
every one of you is watching streaming and then you’re crapping on it. Like everyone cannot wait to watch live performance. We need to see, I need to see jazz. I need to see a band. I need to see, you know, this is what feeds our soul and our society has made us try to feed something other than our humanity, our soul. Feed your bank account. We’re passive consumers. And so I’d like to see us focus again on like.
James Larson (01:09:53.799)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (01:10:20.19)
making that regional theater the essential business that everyone… At the Lyric of Oklahoma is a little street with all these restaurants who won’t do well unless people are going to the theater and then the store next door does well, the museum down the street.
James Larson (01:10:33.857)
I don’t know what the, I mean, the economics are that the arts make more money for the country than they cost, you know? Like, it makes sense. Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (01:10:42.506)
The arts brings more money to the city than anything else, including sports. And when we were bouncing back and they wanted to meet with the leaders of the city, they didn’t meet with the Broadway League. They met with Madison Square Garden and all these Yankees and all this stuff. And people were like, what brings in more money to the city than anything else? The Broadway, Radio City, all that.
James Larson (01:10:47.249)
Right.
James Larson (01:11:01.733)
Yeah, and it’s true throughout the world and the country too though. I mean, like I’ve worked at Bucks County Playhouse a lot and it’s central to downtown, to a small town. And that’s true for so many communities. It’s like all these other businesses are, you know, they feed into each other in a positive loop, you know what I mean? So it’s sad that the arts aren’t valued as much. And I…
I hope not to get political, but I hope we keep our funding for the NEA.
Ryan Duncan (01:11:33.406)
I do too. I also think that personally, I think there’s the patriarchy at play here because I think men run a lot of things and I think for them, the arts is feminizing. And so that’s a suspicion I have that like, they don’t think to include the arts because what’s really important is sports and finance. And I think we get pushed because it’s not seen as, in a way, masculine enough in men or…
James Larson (01:11:44.133)
Really?
Ryan Duncan (01:12:00.618)
running a lot of making a lot of those decisions. That’s a theory I have. I think that’s not to get political, but I think that’s also why some people are led to being independent or voting for a certain party because it seems to be the more masculine thing to do. It seems to be one of them is, it’s about how people feel about themselves. And I think masculinity is fragile as we’re seeing. I think, and…
James Larson (01:12:03.281)
Huh. Yeah.
James Larson (01:12:19.665)
Hmm, right.
James Larson (01:12:23.977)
Very.
Ryan Duncan (01:12:27.53)
I don’t know, I think it takes a village. And every show’s important because there are narratives that we’re getting to see, representation and diversity. I think the pendulum is doing this, so I think people are also ticking boxes. But I think like, let’s have these conversations and let’s talk about what is our, one big thing for me is like, what is our, we want people to learn history and know that there was disparity. We did a difference between equity and equality.
We want to frame all these things, but we also do a lot of shows, revivals that were written during Jim Crow, and like, but we want it to be diverse, but then we don’t want to whitewash history, and what is our responsibility to history and to showing that? And also as an actor who wants to play the subordinate all the time, you know, who wants to leave when the sun goes down? You know, there’s a lot we have to kind of figure out. There’s a nostalgia that comes with people not being included.
And so we’re trying to sift through like, who are we as individuals and what are we trying to, what stories are we trying to tell and how can we provide a mosaic of reality as opposed to like fearfully like, we’re just gonna do this right now because we’re trying to make up for all these years. I’m like.
We can do this together. We really can. I know I’m masking a few things here, you know. But it’s like, there’s a lot that needs to be. And as actors, we’ve had to fit in so many boxes that we, you know, actors have fudged their height and their hair color. We’re always trying to be like, what is the part? You know, and then we’re being told be yourself. I’m like, if you’re the part.
James Larson (01:14:15.003)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (01:14:19.946)
but you’re also going into play a part. And sometimes they don’t get who you are. I just went in and it was myself. I’m like, yeah, but you freaked them out. So there’s a balance of like, what are we doing? Portraying and also letting you in on who we are.
James Larson (01:14:29.633)
You freak them out. Yeah.
James Larson (01:14:39.101)
I think it’s never been more, I mean, I’m hopeful for the future of the theater, even though, I mean, so many theaters are closed. I don’t know if you heard about North Carolina theater, but they, yeah, they filed for bankruptcy and that’s really sad. But it’s not just them. I mean, it’s huge theaters, I think, like have been in danger of going under or, I mean, I’m sure that’s a pandemic related thing. I
Ryan Duncan (01:14:51.371)
Yeah, I just heard that.
James Larson (01:15:07.245)
I worked at Walnut Street Theater a few months ago and they were, I don’t know the financial if they’re in trouble, but I know their subscriber base was basically cut in half or something from the pandemic, which is terrible. And it’s, I hope that it’ll rebound. I thought it would rebound right when it came back, but I think that a lot of patrons like
People have told me that they used to go and it used to be like a habit for them. And then pandemic obviously broke that. So I don’t know how we get people back in the seats. I mean, I hope that we can do it though.
Ryan Duncan (01:15:42.898)
Yeah, it feels too like some theaters got a lot of money from the National Endowment of the Arts, and then they put a lot of money into the facility, and some salary sometimes, and then they started to do two and three and four person shows, and it was like maybe we need to restructure that funding too.
James Larson (01:15:52.422)
Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (01:16:02.846)
It’s tricky because they’re always trying to figure out what their audiences want. And I know friends that run theaters who are like, we try to be like Avenue Q is risky. Like they’re trying to do outside the box, but audiences are like, I don’t know what that show is. They get a little finicky. And so they’re trying to push the boundaries and trying to show more diversity, but they’re also appealing to an audience base that’s used to.
certain thing, right? Like also like America, a lot of our tourists, America likes Big Macs and Coca-Cola, so you have to in a smart interesting way kind of impress upon audiences to like other things, to try Brussels sprouts, you know?
James Larson (01:16:49.133)
Right. I mean, yeah, obviously every theater is different, but, you know, sometimes they’ll have like one experimental kind of play in a sea of like well-known titles that people will love, you know, and some, and obviously more like liberal cities, they’re going to have more experimental stuff and because people will support that more. But it’s kind of funny because it’s so different for TV film where it’s like experimental stuff happens all the time there. Like.
Ryan Duncan (01:17:03.232)
Okay, yeah.
James Larson (01:17:18.493)
crazy shows are happening in a great way. Like it’s amazing. I just wish they would support the live arts more.
Ryan Duncan (01:17:25.238)
Yeah, and that’s a whole other ball of wax when you ever talk about auditioning and things like that. If you’re auditioning for network TV versus this is gonna be on Hulu or Netflix or something where you can be a little outside the box and creative versus when you watch sitcoms, there’s a, when you watch movies sometimes, there’s a formula. There’s a formula that works. Like how a lot of musicals are like, the first number has to, you have to do a whole song about where you are.
Wisconsin, we’re living in Wisconsin. There’s a certain thing. It’s great, every show. Like I’ve been in every show I’ve done, I feel like most musicals are like, here’s where we are. And you’re like, you get it, you gotta set the time and place. But because the audience, there’s like a formula and I think we can start to kind of play with that a little bit and be more creative. But as an actor, you’re trying to fit in, fit in, but also.
James Larson (01:17:56.665)
What show is that? That sounds amazing.
James Larson (01:18:03.449)
No, yeah.
Ryan Duncan (01:18:20.69)
show that you’re creative and unique. But I can do what you want, but it can also be that.
James Larson (01:18:24.141)
Right. And it’s like knowing what you’re going in for. Obviously, if you’re going in for network TV, like versus film versus theater versus a play versus a musical, like it’s important to know what medium you’re in, I guess. Do you have any advice on that?
Ryan Duncan (01:18:41.898)
Well, like I was saying, I think if you’re going in for like a network show, you look at the network shows and look at, look, if you look at between seven and ten o’clock at night, there’s a lot of a lot of firefighters and hospitals and cop shows. And I start to notice a pattern like the men. There’s a lot. There’s always two or three guys that talk like this on the show. There’s like a hyper masculinity to some of it. And there’s like there’s there was a body type for.
There still is for some shows, like for women. It’s like interesting, like how, I always thought it was funny how Law and Order, and I understand it now, how in Law and Order, a cop would come to someone’s door and knock, and the person would answer the door, yes. And the police officer’s like, are you so-and-so? Yes, I’m busy, what do you want? Well, I need to ask you some questions about so-and-so. Oh, Brad, well, he deserves whatever he gets. No, I’m busy now, and you need a warrant to come in.
First of all, no one talks to cops like that usually, usually. A cop comes to your house like, oh God, what? I’m sorry, yes, come in. Could you want coffee? Or the cop has shown up at your place of work. But there’s a formula. They have to make you believe any one of those people could be the villain, could have done it. So when you find out at the end of this episode, it was the uncle. Oh, all these other people were innocent. They have to set it up a certain way for the narrative. So you have to know reading the script like…
James Larson (01:19:57.381)
Right.
James Larson (01:20:06.318)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (01:20:08.99)
I can’t behave like I’m not a suspicious person. I have to give the, yes, no, I’m not lying. I was there at eight o’clock. Sorry, I can’t help you anymore. There’s like a way, you know, my best friend did it at one of these cop shows and said there was a way to look at her partner to let the camera know she doesn’t believe what they’re saying. She was like, well, you said you were there at six o’clock and you were at your mother’s house.
You look at your partner like, this is bullshit. This is crap. But there’s something to it. Whereas I think if you’re going in for a new Netflix show or a Hulu, you can be a little more unique and look at the people on those shows. Different, unique, interesting. It’s hard because we often get sides and we’re like, I don’t know the tone of this. I don’t know what we’re doing. I don’t know the version of this show we’re doing. It could be a show like West Side Story. I was called back.
for the last West Side Story revival, for Glad Hand. You know, the person that comes out of the dance is like, all right, the boy’s in one circle, the girl’s another. And it was me, an older white gentleman, I say older, because he probably read upper 50s, early 60s, he’s gonna hear this and be like, oh, I’m 42. And then Pippa Pirtri, who got it, a woman who got the part. But I felt it there, I was like, she’s up for this role, it’s gonna be her. Because why? There are only mostly male principals.
And you’re not gonna cast Doc as a woman because it’s a woman. This should be, this is probably gonna be her and she’s wonderful and she’s done a bunch of stuff. But in my head I’m like, this is what Ivo von Hove showed. So what kind of, it’s still set in the 50s and so I dressed a certain way, but I’m like, I didn’t do the gray and the blue and the black, but I was like, I don’t know what concept. I don’t know how draw here. So you’re always like, I don’t know what.
James Larson (01:22:03.353)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (01:22:06.903)
I’ll just do what I do and got the callback.
James Larson (01:22:08.773)
Or, right, or if it’s a brand new show that you don’t have any context for, maybe you know the writers, like for a TV show or series, it’s, how do you figure that out? You know, you do the best you can, I guess, calibrating your performance and bringing what you can to it, I guess.
Ryan Duncan (01:22:27.434)
Because even if they direct you, you could interpret that differently too. And not, you know, but I’ve also seen things that I didn’t book and I’ve seen the person that booked it and I was like, that, we’re very different. I got worked up over that. You’re, and you, they have every right to cast who they want. You’re very different. I didn’t know. And I can’t be that person. And sometimes…
James Larson (01:22:31.395)
Yeah.
James Larson (01:22:49.509)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (01:22:53.078)
We’ve all benefited from the stars aligning and it’s our moment. And sometimes we’re the catalyst for other people’s moment. And I’ll say that, like, I’ve gotten upset a couple times about things because I watched someone else reap the benefits of something that I wanted or thought would happen for me. And then I had to go, I had to check myself and be like, you’re…
You’ve set the ball up and volleyed for them, and they played it, and it’s their moment, and you don’t know what else is going on in their life, and they have every right to live their dream and pursue their dream. You can’t have everything. And if you had some part in having them get featured and get something, then that’s wonderful as well. That’ll come back around, I believe. I’m very spiritual about this, too. So there are moments it’s like, you have to be happy for the people around you, too. And also know that
I’ve heard this too, as people start booking around you, you’re like, oh, I might be next. Like there’s something happening in the universe, you know, because it really is when you least suspect it. I’m telling you, the minute you’re like, I quit, let me, I’m going to sell my apartment or I’m going to buy knock, knock. Here comes the business. Hi, I’m going to do a Broadway show for three years. Like that happens.
Like how many actors, Uzo Aduba, were like, I was done. I was ready to go. Orange is the New Black calling. Like, it’s just, it’s almost in a way like you have to get your, a good friend of mine, Lindsay Brett Carruthers, who is a career coach, wrote, I loved her email she was sending and one of them talked about the difference between hope and faith. When we hope for, hope is wonderful. When we hope for something, what we put between us and that thing is fear and doubt.
James Larson (01:24:09.317)
Yeah.
Ryan Duncan (01:24:39.278)
I hope I as an actor book this show. But am I the right person? Am I sure I’m going to get it? Will I get an audition? Will I have the audition? Will they call me? But I hope I don’t know, but they want someone. Oh no, it’s not going to be me. Oh no, I’m going to get. Oh my voice. You know, whatever. You put doubt between it. Faith is just going, I’ve aligned. I know what I want. I’ve done the work. I don’t need to remind God or the universe of what I want.
I need to just allow it to happen. I know it’s going to happen. And that was an eye-opener for me. My friend Alex said that she goes, we’ve focused and aligned with our careers for long enough. We can let it come from left field. We don’t need to sit here and remind the universe. And I’m like, you are so right. And literally out of nowhere, when you start to put your, and I’ve watched stuff manifest. I have spoken things into existence that were shocking to me. Because I was just like, I want that to happen and let it go.
You put in the order from Amazon, it’s gonna come in. It may not be today, it may mess up and be lost, it’ll come to you. Like Tyler Perry says, God’s like a GPS, put it in, take it. Not gonna tell you all the things in between. And so thinking that way was much more healthy for me to survive mentally, just to be like, yo, I’m not gonna be, I shouldn’t be worried about the email I’m gonna get. It’s gonna be what aligns with what I want. And at this age, it should.
James Larson (01:25:43.185)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (01:26:05.398)
You know, someone misinterprets me or still doesn’t get me. I’ve been called in for things where I was like, ooh, gosh, all these years in that casting director still doesn’t really, they don’t know who I am. And it feels bad, but I’m like, we’re at a place where we could go to coffee and I’ll tell you my entire, I’ll tell you my ancestry. We’re not supposed to ask, but I love that conversation. Or look me up online and get to know. You’ll get a hint on some things like.
Connections just like but I can’t sit and get upset anymore and we do we fall we fall off the bench, right? You get upset where we’re like no like you’ve put out there what you want. You’ve put out there It’s it’s already if the universe is already conspiring don’t fill it with doubt and I need to take my own advice on that as well Just know
James Larson (01:26:41.667)
Yeah.
James Larson (01:26:58.449)
It’s a daily choice, you know, it’s a daily thing just to choose to see that the universe is conspiring for you, like things are happening for you. And I’ve had, I’ve come to that too, where it’s putting it out there and trusting that the things that are happening are for your benefit. And if you are someone else’s catalyst, like
Ryan Duncan (01:27:08.161)
Mm-hmm.
James Larson (01:27:24.421)
That’s true now, but you know, next week, maybe someone else is your catalyst, you know.
Ryan Duncan (01:27:30.374)
A friend just helped me the other day. He was like, you want to teach this class on creating character? Do you have a lookbook? Do you have a deck? And I’m like, no, he made me one. And then my friend in Florida was like, I want you to teach at FIU. All of a sudden, things started to fall into place. And what you just said was my friend Lindsay said, she goes, try to say, why is this happening for me instead of why is this happening to me? And I…
Sorry, I know we’re a little over, but I, there’s a, I’ll briefly share that when I was applying for colleges, my SAT scores sucked. To this day, I mean, I’m, I shudder to even tell anyone what my score was, but I was in AP biology. I worked at a veterinary hospital, AP, AP foreign language. Sucked, sucked, sucked.
It denied me a bunch of universities. I got into a university in their performance group as a freshman, which is rare. They had to rescind the offer and they said, people were saying if you’d pushed the ethnic thing or played a sport, isn’t that sweet? We could have gotten in, again, sports versus arts. So I was horrendously depressed that I was rejected. I got back from a theme park one day, was rejected by three schools. So I was really upset. And then I went to George Mason University. And I was…
I was like, I didn’t want to go here. I lived on campus. It wasn’t the place I wanted to go. And then I graduated. I started working before I graduated. I was working as a professional actor in the local dinner theater circuit. I was doing industrial films. I was a featured extra in a couple film movies. I was…
doing all these things that I couldn’t, it took me a few years to look back and go, Ryan, you could not have done that at that other school, which was on a beautiful but isolated campus in the middle of nowhere. You couldn’t have started working professionally. You couldn’t have made these contacts. You would have been in the performing group, but to what end? You’ve become, you’ve studied languages, you’ve become.
Ryan Duncan (01:29:27.726)
fluent in another language you’ve studied. It’s French and Arabic and I was studied abroad and I graduated in four years and I ended up on the Dean’s List three times because I watched Where There’s a Will, There’s an A. I don’t know if you remember that Michael Landon used to sell that program about how to study smarter, not study harder. And I looked back and it took me a few years to go, oh my God, I’m so glad I was at GMU, which was in the DC area, around places I could work and get into.
I was not delayed. I would have had a delayed career and maybe not done what I’ve done. And then during the pandemic, they chose me as a honored alumni and I won an award, which is somewhere that little thing up there. And I was like, what? Like, but what you’ve done with your career and worked in the nonprofit sector and I worked with…
James Larson (01:30:02.514)
Mmm.
Ryan Duncan (01:30:18.662)
I volunteered teaching English to people seeking asylum and I taught refugees in Brooklyn and I’ve worked with Only Make Believe and TDF with Young Playwrights and all these other things that I’ve done because what we do heals and what we do fixes and what we do solves problems. It glorifies and then it does all these wonderful other things. And so I was like, oh my God, what I thought I wanted was not what I wanted. It wouldn’t have helped me, but it focused on it.
We want the job that’s in front of us because it’s in front of us. We don’t see it, it’s like, Ryan, shut up. You have a show coming behind that, that you really wanted, that’s perfect for you. You’re taking things out of lack. You’re thinking out of lack.
James Larson (01:30:47.963)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (01:31:02.91)
You know, and when I booked Shrek, I was sitting with a friend and it was two o’clock. And then I got it, I told her, well, I haven’t heard it’s been two weeks. But I heard stuff over the first, from the first audition, but I was like, man, I don’t know. And then 20 minutes later, my agent calls and it’s like, I had just sent her, hey, it went well. And she goes, yep, they want you to cover Donkey and be one of the pigs and blah, blah. And then my friend Connie goes, two o’clock, no Broadway show, 2.30 Broadway show. And I was like, isn’t that funny?
James Larson (01:31:03.251)
Right.
James Larson (01:31:31.461)
That’s how it works, you know? And that’s the exciting part too. I mean, it’s not all bad. It’s like, it’s kind of what could be next, you know? It’s the excitement of it that has to propel actors on, you know?
Ryan Duncan (01:31:32.747)
Right around the corner.
Ryan Duncan (01:31:47.41)
And while you’re working, while you’re working, Shrek lasted a year. They’re putting out a new tour. I was just reading Janine and David’s blurb about rewriting some things. And we were in the middle of the run. I think it was the winter. It was a horrible day. We were tired. It became, it started to feel like a job. And we got a note on the call board that said, a woman had come to the show with her son, who has, this is interesting too, he had a autoimmune issue.
James Larson (01:31:56.73)
Right.
Ryan Duncan (01:32:15.166)
and had to wear a mask. This was 2009, and he was so embarrassed of having to wear a mask. Like, little did he know, like.
how many years later everyone would be in a mask. And he was embarrassed and the woman said in the theater during act one he was crying because people were staring at his mask and he can’t take it off because of the germs. And then she said in act two, you all sang this song called Freak Flag where you said what makes you different makes you strong and that’s what I’ve always said to him. And then he was proud to wear his mask and he finished the show and we couldn’t stay after because of his condition or whatever, but we wanted you to know
how much it meant to us. And we were standing at the call board crying because we’d done months and months and months of the show. And we were like, you know, you can’t always see the audience because there’s a light line, right? There’s an audience and you see it is a fourth wall. And I was like, here is a kid who it meant so much to. Every night there’s someone in the audience it’s gonna mean something to and you have no idea.
And then the kid, we sent them swag and the kid was wearing one of our swings. Justin made a freak flag capes. It was more like a flag. There were flags and this kid wore it as a cape and I was proud to wear his mask. They sent us a follow-up because we sent them a letter. And I was like, we’re making a paycheck. I bought an apartment from Shrek and then here’s some kid who got some kind of healing from it.
James Larson (01:33:43.409)
Hmm.
Ryan Duncan (01:33:43.902)
I’ve done readings now with young people who have, Shrek is the reason they’re an actor. And they were like, oh my God, you were in Shrek? And I was like, yeah, I was one of the pigs. And they’re like, this is why I’m an actor. Now we’re in a reading together. And I’m like, we have no idea the reach, we have a reach that we don’t always, that we take for granted because of the feeling of what it’s like to perform and that there are people out there who are like, I needed you today.
James Larson (01:34:10.093)
Yeah, that’s the power of what we do. And it’s, I think we need more reminders about that instead of just thinking about where am I gonna eat after the show or something.
Ryan Duncan (01:34:19.402)
Right, yeah. Do I get the six wings or the 10 chicken wings? It’s like a paper. And you play instruments. I mean, that was huge. Like a lot of, there were a lot of shows that there was something I saw recently that was like, everyone’s gonna play an instrument. I’m like, oh, I don’t play enough of one.
James Larson (01:34:27.269)
Yeah, Ryan, yeah, I do, yeah.
James Larson (01:34:40.034)
You don’t? You don’t play anything?
Ryan Duncan (01:34:42.03)
I used to play piano. I don’t play well enough to do it in a show. And I know a little guitar. Like, in getting the band back together, I was on electric guitar and I played all my chords and everything, but I wasn’t mic’d, thank God, because I’m not amazing. I played saxophone in sixth grade, but I cacked in a, I didn’t practice enough and I cacked in a concert and they put me in the back.
James Larson (01:34:49.255)
Depends on the show, I mean, yeah.
James Larson (01:35:08.279)
Well, there’s always time to practice. I’m always trying to learn new instruments because it can broaden your horizons in what you do.
Ryan Duncan (01:35:16.482)
How many do you play?
James Larson (01:35:21.842)
I have quite a few right now. Upright, I have guitar, yeah, acoustic, electric, upright bass, electric bass, ukulele, mandolin. My first instrument was a viola, so I’m very string heavy. Like basically I’ve played, I’m not great at them, but viola was my first instrument. I can get okay on violin. Cello I’ve learned for some auditions, but I’m not great. And then upright bass I’ve done.
Ryan Duncan (01:35:23.318)
do guitar and bass, right?
James Larson (01:35:48.749)
But I have an audition now too where I have to pull out all the stops and try and learn these songs and do some instruments. But yeah. I mean…
Ryan Duncan (01:35:57.55)
They’re gonna do Oppenheimer the musical where they need people to look Teutonic and play a bunch of instruments. Everyone plays a, and you’re gonna be the head of the pack.
James Larson (01:36:07.268)
And the bomb will just be like a giant gong that like someone like hits
Ryan Duncan (01:36:09.947)
Yay.
some big artistic lighting effect.
James Larson (01:36:17.014)
Well, Ryan, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it.
Ryan Duncan (01:36:17.166)
Good.
Ryan Duncan (01:36:20.95)
for having me. It feels good. I appreciate it.
James Larson (01:36:22.625)
Yeah, awesome. And thanks everyone for listening. And oh, if someone wants to check you out, where can they look you up?
Ryan Duncan (01:36:32.174)
I’m on Instagram. I love Instagram. It’s mostly, it’s like comedy and art and all kinds of stuff. It’s runyoncal, R-U-N-Y-O-N-C-A-L. Um, I have a, my website is super busy. I need to downsize it. It’s like ryan-duncan.com. And, um, yeah.
James Larson (01:36:52.998)
Awesome.
Ryan Duncan (01:36:53.13)
And I hope to see you in person. We should do coffee and just like catch up, catch up.
James Larson (01:36:56.986)
Yeah, we will we will awesome
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