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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the latest edition of
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the Jake's Take with Jake Abellio-Sharp podcast. I'm your host,
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Jake Abellio-Sharp, the chief content producer and writer of jakestake.com,
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a pop culture entertainment news website. If you're watching us
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on YouTube, please give us a thumbs up. And if
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you're listening to our audio platform, please download this episode.
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Consider downloading all of our episodes. I really appreciate it.
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I am so excited to welcome this duo today. They
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are the creators of the.
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musical starring Will Brill, Jillian Jacobs, and Rob Lowe. You
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can watch this incredible dark comedy on September 18th, 2026 nationwide.
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So please help me welcome the director of the film,
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Giselle Bonella, and Alexander Heller, who wrote this film. Hello.
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Hello. Great to be here.
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Thank you, guys. This film was really good. It was
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so surprising. I was laughing, and I was like, dropping
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my jaw at the same time.
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Thank you.
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That's what we want. So how did the musical came
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to be?
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Um, well, we actually did a short film version of
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it together in film school. So, um, that is, that's
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sort of the Genesis of it. Uh, I feel like
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Giselle tells the story better than I do, but basically, um,
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I came up with the idea and I asked her
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if she wanted to do it and she thought I
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was a crazy person. And then a few months later
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called me after her breakup and was like, I feel
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like I get it now. It's time.
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It's time to team up.
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And we put our rings of power together and made
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the movie.
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It was nice to watch you tell that story for once. Awesome.
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Guys, so the Film Triangle focuses on middle school drama
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teacher Doug Leibovitz, played by the amazing Will Brill. Then
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you have Abigail Morris, Jillian Jacobs, and of course, Principal Brady, a.k.a.
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Rob Lowe. So how is this love triangle similar and
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different to other middle and high school movie dramas?
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Well, I feel... Someone I know in education said.
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In school it was like the stakes are so high
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or the drama is so high because the stakes are
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so low. And I really identify with that with this
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film specifically because they're like.
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So, you have so little power that the little power
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that you do have becomes extremely important to you and
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how you decide to.
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Maneuver it for your own agenda.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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We're playing like, I mean, we're, yeah, we're basically playing
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like a high low game the whole time, which I
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think is super fun. And I think, but in.
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Terms of relating it to like other, like, I don't
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know if we were thinking very much of the triangle
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specifically being like the high school element of it, but
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we talked a lot about movies like school of rock
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and election as these things where it's like, like Giselle says,
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where it's like, the stakes feel very high, even though
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it's in this like very low stakes environment.
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And then obviously we talked about the producers a lot.
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There's a sort of, it's not a triangle really, but
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a sort of duo dynamic.
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And yeah.
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I was about ready to say this because when I
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was watching the film and watching Doug Leibovitz, he reminded
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me so much of School of Rock's Dewey Finn with
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elements of the producers about Bialystok. So we're all in
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the same wavelength.
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Yeah.
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Well, Alex and I were reading, uh, the Mel Brooks
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autobiography when we were talking about the idea for the short.
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And I was just so inspired by, um, you know,
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just like the blade it when people use courageous acts
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for something for very, very silly reasons. I, that.
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Is my favorite type of comedy.
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And, um, you know,
Load full transcript
him being a World War II
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veteran and deciding that that was going to be his
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directorial debut and that he has the authority to make
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fun of that was just so brilliant for somebody in
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that era to pull off only 20 years after World
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War II.
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And like the fact that he had.
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Like a partner in Gene Wilder to be, to say like,
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if someone lets you make this film, I will be
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more than happy to be a part of it. And,
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And for us, it was like me as an American,
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as a brown American growing up, you know, in LA
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where we're like, oh, everyone, everyone just thought we were next.
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We were next.
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And there was this like paranoia of just like growing
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up in a world post 9-11 and how everything kind
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of changed. And, and that, and that, I don't know
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that the parallels between that and this kind of felt
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really genius on, on Heller's part with the script.
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And, um, and yeah, and, and it made me, it
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made me excited to take that risk.
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And it's like, if he was, if he was ballsy
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enough to take that risk for his first feature, um,
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why not take a swing?
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And so we did that with the short film.
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Yeah.
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I think there was a lot of, um, you know, if,
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if we, if we brutally messed up the short film,
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it would live on a database at AFI and nobody
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would ever see it. And it would, you know, so
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it's like, taking those opportunities when you have them and
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just being like, let's just go for it. And then
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we put a team together that was really awesome. And
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everybody was on the same page and, you know, we
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all fall marched, you know, behind Giselle's direction and like
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just into this, I don't know, uh, crucible of a
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crazy production. And then, uh, ended up with this short
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film that really helped us find the financing for the feature.
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And that was kind of like,
that's what opened the doors.
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I bet it was like, I would love to learn
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some of your favorite memories filming musical because I bet
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filming the scene where the actual musical take 9-11 musical
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took place was absolutely, it was very hard for people
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not to laugh, but to be shocked.
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I mean, yeah, I don't know, turning my head to
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the left and watching all of the parents with their
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phones out, like videotaping their kids doing this. It was
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just like, it was surreal.
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You know what I mean?
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Or like having a little kid in like a huge
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army backpack come over and be like, I can't, it's
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too heavy. It's like, you know, it's just crazy.
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Yeah. I think it was important for us to use
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middle schoolers as like a clear image of, of innocence
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to juxtapose like the violence of the events that they're reenacting.
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And I think that was, um, I think because we
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use the same department heads from the short to the feature,
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we were all like crying, laughing, making the thing. So
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we're like, as long as like other people find it
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funny as well, if they find it as funny as
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we do, I think we'll be okay. And like, I don't,
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I'm not, I'm not here to make something that everyone
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is going to love, but as long as like some
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people really like it, that's good with me.
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Oh yeah, I got to say this.
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It was really fun watching the scenes, like the rehearsal
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and watching Will Brill unravel throughout the movie. He did
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a phenomenal job.
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Yeah, Will's amazing. I think like that was huge for me.
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It was the person who's going to be carrying this
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film and be our lead. I knew it was going
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to be a really intense process because it was our
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first feature. We were only given, you know, 19 days
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to shoot it. I wanted somebody who was going to
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be a partner and who was game.
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For that challenge.
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And, you know, him coming from theater, he has such
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an incredible work ethic and there were always like things
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being switched around where like we were working at a
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school that we paid very little money for.
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And as a result, they would always double book us.
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And so they had booked these volleyball tournaments and most
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of our films takes place in a school auditorium. So
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we'd get kicked out of the auditorium as we were filming.
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And so a lot of our scenes were not, were
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like split in half where we'd have to come back
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to finish shooting it.
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And so our schedule was just always being shifted and.
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He just like basically had the whole film ready to
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go and was ready to like, he, he did so
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many incredible monologues in like one or two takes.
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It was pretty phenomenal.
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If I didn't have him, I don't think we would
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have made our production.
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We wouldn't have finished the film.
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And, and the way he just, yeah. I mean, working
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with the kids and everything, it's just like made everything
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so much smoother.
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Yeah.
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All right.
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Which is amazing.
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I really hope, I'm knocking on wood, that you guys
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get a lot of rewards your way, especially for Best
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Actor for Will and Best Director and Best Screenplay, because
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this was phenomenal. So before we wound up our conversation,
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I want to ask, why should my audience check out
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the musical?
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Well, if you like comedies, I don't think that there
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are enough of them, especially in theaters. So if you
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like comedies, you should check out the musical because you know,
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let's keep comedy alive and not just on streaming.
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I think, I think the theater is like the best
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place to watch a comedy. There's nothing more infectious than laughter.
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And I like that. That's, I don't know.
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I think that, it would be so, it's such a
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huge privilege that we're even going to theaters.
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I still don't believe it.
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Especially having made the short with Alex and my friends five,
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four or five years ago now and, and premiering at
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Sundance and.
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The fact that it gets to, you know, have its
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first run.
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To the public in theaters is, is, I just feel
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like the luckiest person in the world.
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And I hope people can experience.
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It in the theater and then, you know, rewatch it
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as many, I feel like comedy is the films that
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you always rewatch with your family.
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And I hope this becomes one of them.
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We're going to heal the nation.
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Absolutely.
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You have a nation for laughter, especially through our daughter,
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hopefully through kit, through performers and every, and guys got
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to say this. Thank you so much for, for taking
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time out of your schedule to speak with this. I
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really hope and pray that we get like another sequel
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or something like that, or maybe put it or put Elliot,
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I mean, Doug in another area.
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So thank guys.
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Thank you so much for Alex Giselle. Thank you so
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much for taking time out of your schedules to speak
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with me today. I appreciate it.
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Of course. Thanks for having us.
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No.
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Yeah.
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Thank you so much. It was great to meet you. Absolutely.
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And guys, thank you so much for watching. Thank you
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so much for listening.
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Until next time, have a great one, everybody. Goodbye!