I used

to live in Toluca Lake and back there used to be a Ballytotal Fitness.

And somehow they had some special when I signed up.

This was just so many years ago that said I could get two gym memberships for the price of one.

And I was like, great.

I don't know what I would do with the other one, but I was like, this is too good to be true.

So I signed up for it, not realizing.

Yeah, look at me just freewheeling on my shiny wheeled creation

What was your first reaction to hearing that Carol was coming back?

Honestly, my first reaction was she's not really a drama manufacturer, so what's going to happen? But she's so iconically New York now, like changing the street parking and all.

She's just so perfectly downtown New York.

I love her.

What

In honor of your solo show, Are You Mad at Me?, which Bravo-Liberty are you most mad at right

now? Good question.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

I know.

I always feel like, wouldn't it be so great if we just heard one of their mics the whole time? Like, Sonja, you know how she's always talking while other people are talking, but really low? I would love to just know what her entire storyline is in her head of what, just what's happened.

Especially in New York, they all talk so much, you know, that it would just be great to be like, I don't know, just behind the scenes of, what was this person saying dur- during this entire conversation? Um, I don't know.

I will say that there are some that I'm not as crazy about as I used to be, and maybe that just means they need a refresh, or maybe that just means I didn't love the vibe from the beginning.

Like, for me, and I know I'm an outlier here, um, I've never loved Beverly Hills.

It's never really been the one I'm drawn to.

... that first episode.

Okay

...

when you were doing the monologue, you were on your own, but you would, the, you could go to some of the other, other writers for punch-ups.

But everyone there, and, and other writers' rooms are different.

Everyone there, it was very indivo- individualistic there.

Yeah.

And they, there was someone on there who claimed to be, who claims, who says, like, "I'm like, yeah, I guess you could say I'm MAGA, but I'm very MAGA-lite.

Like, I believe in the right social issues, but I'm MAGA-lite." I'm like, "There's no such thing." But then they said, um-

When did you find community within the LGBTQ community?

Pretty quickly, and that had to do really with, at the time, things are much better now, but at the time when I did, like, the Upright Citizens Brigade or the Groundlings in LA, which are both comedy programs, there were very few gay performers in that scene, truly.

Um, or let me put it this way.

Gay performers who actually got stage time.

That was very difficult.

Those places were very bro-y.

The amount, I mean, this was also in the industry at large too, even higher up, but the amount of times I was told that my show was too gay, that this idea was too gay, that the script was too gay, that this pitch was too gay, i- in a way that no one would talk like that now.

Can you talk about your musical inspirations? Were you a, a Broadway theater kid?

Do you remember seeing it for the first time?

I do.

And I believe my, well, I know my aunt rented it and movies that I wasn't allowed to watch at home.

I was allowed to watch at my aunt's house and working girl, I believe is rated R, which is so funny because it really doesn't feel like it at all.

It feels, or maybe boobs.

Yeah.

Oh, there are boobs in it.

How has your relationship with this movie changed since, you know, seeing it as a kid? Like, has it affected the work that you've done or inspired you in other ways?

Mm-hmm.

And a lot of it's about the way I walk.

I, I hate walking onto a stage.

It's so vulnerable.

I feel like I look like an idiot.

I, every time I catch my reflection in like the window of a building I saw, because how I think I walk in the mirror in my home is so different than how I actually walk.

And, uh, all those things just sort of destroy me.

Amazing.

Well, I mean that just goes to show th- no matter what you love you can turn it into-

into-... your art, and you can- I can't believe that one people liked, because we loved doing it, but we were like, "This is just for us." But I think it is a relaxing thing to discuss.

Right.

[laughs] And it's so relatable.

Everybody goes to the grocery store.

It's true.

It's true.

Do you have any suggestions for me?"

Mm-hmm

... that will bring more ease and support on the road to your goal later.

You're on the path to success.

Stay focused, determined, and steady.

Are you currently moving toward things that fill you with passion? If not, it's time to plot a new course.

Now is not the time to follow.

Forge your own path.

I actually, and I'm, I will say this was deeply unfair of me to just be like, "Now you have one."

How did it come here to New York? What's the journey been, Mike,

for you? So this was all...

It started off as just sort of frankensteining some of my favorite stand-up bits I've done, which I had sort of not done really since the pandemic.

And then I started writing more and had been... doing 10 minute sets all over town and in LA mostly.

And so I gathered those together.

And then from there, I was like, I want to do, I don't want to do an hour of standup.

I want to do an hour solo show because they're starting to become a very clear through line there of essentially the title of the show, which is, are you mad at me? And just constantly being afraid of that.

So is there a message at the end? Are you trying to heal yourself from this?

[laughs]

Who's never even made me say, "Ha." Anyway, I was watching this community theater production of Lost in Yonkers, and the guy playing, I believe the main character's, I forget her name, but it, Mercedes Ruehl played her in the movie.

The guy playing, I think, her brother, who's, like, a gangster, and he t- teaches the kids about what moxie is.

I remember thinking, like, "Wow." And by the way, don't know how I figured this out at such a young age, but I later found out that he was, in fact, gay, even though he was playing this really alpha gangster.

I just had a sense about it.

And I remember thinking, "Just this tough-talking guy." Also had, like, s- speaking of Big Business, Big Business, Working Girl, these were all movies that I belie- Soap Dish even when I was a kid.

Well, by the way, speaking of, speaking of the hor- the horrors of a solo show, I have similarly been, uh, taken one to a few different places, and it really is a, a, a equally gratifying and horrifying experience.

It's definitely both.

Can you give us a flavor about what you talk about within the show?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Well, one of the things I talk about is as a major people pleaser, one of the things I really hate doing is if I bought clothes from a store and they don't work out, having to return them because you're literally leading with I'm not pleased.

so i do like a full i like go in disguise in case that same salesperson is there so i have a like a torch song about returning a crew neck t-shirt to the gap and how a lot of times i'll end up buying even more of the same thing because i'm so afraid so that's definitely in there that happens to me a lot so i have a song about that um i also have a bit about uh But there is...

I'm so jealous of people who really live their truth, even if it's completely delusional.

Like Hilaria Baldwin or someone like that, who is just unapologetically who she is.

And so I try out different methods of trying to wear different ways to be confident.

What are you expecting from Edinburgh Fringe audiences? Are you having to tailor any parts of the show?

I interrupted you.

No, what, what drove me the...

W- one moment that really got under my skin, because I, I was just like, what a great opportunity.

Did anyone understand what the Sphinx was saying?

It was like, what? What? What? And I just never really ever found my, my footing after that.

Because they make it...

Again, and I know we are...

But im- immediately it's so difficult because you're like, you can't even grasp the concept that they're not brothers, that they're uncle and nephew.