Kyle Kellams: Mandy Patinkin's career stretches across Broadway, film, television, concert halls and social media. He's been awarded a Tony and an Emmy. His credits include “Homeland” and "Chicago Hope" on TV, collaborations on stage with Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Patti LuPone. More than a dozen albums, more than two million followers to his TikTok account that's now morphed into the podcast “Don't Listen to Us”, with his wife Katherine Gordy, and more than three dozen films, including The Princess Bride.
“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
Patinkin says his favorite form of entertainment, though, is an in-person concert. That's just what he'll do. Along with pianist Adam Ben-David on Thursday, Jan. 29 at Walton Arts Center. This concert is titled “JUKEBOX”, and it includes his choice of songs from his career. He says making those selections did require some work.
Mandy Patinkin: We have about fourteen hours worth of repertoire, and then there's new stuff that comes along. So we've been doing what we've been doing with an alternate list of things that we put in and out occasionally. And then we wanted to make something new, because the way we kind of run our game is we'll go to a place and then we'll often come back to that place, but it's usually about two or three years later. And we like to come with something different, even though we're only there often for one night. But that's what we like to do. We like to bring a different show to the next round.
So the goal was, people were always saying to me, you just have to do half, half new, half something different. Half of it. And I went, okay, okay. And so we go about putting a show together like we always do. What's a good song to start with? What's going on in our lives, in the world. What do we feel like? Can we choose this song over here? What's a good thing to follow that? And then we pick this and then we build these building blocks, and then we kind of look at the list. And how many of these were in the old show that we just did for the past two years? Okay. That's too many. Okay. Then we start chiseling away.
And now it's ended up that we don't have a single song that we did in the old, in the past, concert “Being Alive”, which we're still doing, “Being Alive”. So the nice thing is we're going to places to do “Being Alive” because they've never had it. And then we're going to all the other places that we've already done “Being Alive”. We're going back to those places as we've done for 30+ years. We cycle back and forth, and we're bringing them the new show, which we call “JUKEBOX”.
Kellams: What is thrilling about a one night appearance? I mean, you're in, you're out, and then you're on to the next city. Is there something that you like about that?
Patinkin: Yeah. If you said to me, I mean, I've been blessed. I get to do all kinds of different things and different venues and forms, and I love it. And I try to do them all because they're all fun. And as my son would often say, let's just do this until it's fun, until it's no longer fun. If it's not fun, then go stop. And that's how I've pretty much done it the whole way and everything I try, I enjoy it more than I don't, so I keep going back to these different forms. But if you said to me, Mandy, you have to choose one thing to do, I would choose the live concert format.
And the reason being, first of all, I'm with the audience live. That moment of that day, of that week of our lives, of this earth, of the whole world. And no matter what song you sing, whether it's an obscure song, something everybody knows, something people have heard a thousand times, or hearing it for the first time. Every single word on that night will run through each of our ears, my ears, the piano player's ears, and the audience members' ears and reflect what happened in our life up to that moment and particularly that day. And that's the most unique quality about the theater, where it's informing the people. Like myself, I refer to myself as a mailman because I'm not the genius who wrote these things. I'm the mailman who delivers the mail. And so in the live venue, both myself and the piano player, it's never the same way twice. Similar, but there are different ways that it runs through our beings.
A movie or a television show, a play often, a play a little less, but a movie and television show is locked in to the day that you shot it. That's when they captured those scenes, those moments. Then it's adjusted again when they edit it. It's adjusted a third time when they tested with an audience and see where the reactions are so that laughter doesn't cover up an important line, etc. A play is a little different because it's locked in what you say needs to be said before the other person can talk and tell the story and move the action along.
But you don't have those obligations at a concert. You just need to do whatever you want, say whatever you want, sing whatever you want. It's the freest form I've ever known, and I just love it. It's one of the great, great privileges of my life. Second only to my wife. It was a good Freudian slip. I was about to say second only to my wife, the birth of my two children and now my grandchildren.
Kellams: You mentioned your wife. I want to take a detour just for a second and ask you about “Don't Listen to Us”, the podcast. Which is so wonderful and so charming and you speak about not rehearsed and not having lines that you're locked into. Certainly when the two of you are on screen. This is not rehearsed or it doesn't appear to be to me.
Patinkin: Not one, not one iota. My son Gideon, and our two producers, Katrina Onstott and Debbie Pacheco, do all the heavy lifting. They do all the planning. What are the questions that will be asked? Who's going to be a guest either at the table or on a zoom call, either sound or video. And Katherine and I have only one instruction, no matter what mood we're in or even if we're fighting and hate each other, we have to sit down in front of the microphones and participate. We don't have a clue what's going to happen. Who's going to talk, what the question's going to be.
Gideon and our producers wisely have chosen from the very beginning that it's fun to have mom and dad surprised, not knowing what's going to happen. And it's incredibly free. And the other thing is, as I said to the two producers who brought the idea to us in the first place, which were Debbie and Katrina, I said, listen, guys, happy to bring it up to Katherine. I said, but it won't work unless Gideon is a part of it. Gideon is the magic sauce.
What happened during the pandemic with the social media? That was all Gideon. Again. We did nothing. He was already before the pandemic holding up the phone, saying, family archives, family archives, mainly taking footage of Kath and me, in case at that time we didn't have any grandchildren. And who knew? There was no pressure, so who knew when that would happen and whether we'd still be here? So he was just trying to assemble some record to introduce them to the people they never met.
Kellams: Right. And I think it's just fitting that you're in this medium, too, because when I think about your career, it just seems so wonderful because there's, you know, “Homeland”, “Chicago”, “Hope”, “Princess Bride”, stage, Tony, Emmy. It seems the gamut and it seems like, boy, I imagine if most entertainers could pick a career, it would be like that where you're, I doubt, ever bored and always challenged.
Patinkin: Well, there are a lot of people that are lucky enough, like I was, to be able to work in, in different venues, different areas of the ball game. And I think we would all agree that we're some of the luckiest people in the world. The reason I think we just don't stick to one is because, for whatever reason, we had an opportunity in one of the other areas and we had fun. And to quote my son Gideon, as long as it's fun, let's keep doing it. So we keep going to all these other things: the stage, the screen recording, television, movies, concerts, podcasts, because we had fun at the last one. And when it stops being fun. Which I don't expect to happen. It's not without challenges. I mean, the concerts alone are an athletic event. There's a lot of pressure. Did you get enough sleep? Did you eat right? Are you exercising? How's your voice? Did you rested enough?
So that is a great problem to have. Not problem. It's a great pressure to have because just the athletic aspect of the craft for concerts especially forces you to have to live a healthy lifestyle, which hopefully keeps you alive a little longer.
Kellams: You know, at the beginning you mentioned that when you're looking at all the songs, you kind of think, where am I in my life? Where are we in the world? And I wonder, for some people, it's a tough time to be optimistic. It's a challenging time. Do you find that music and performance and performance in front of an audience can make people feel better or more optimistic?
Patinkin: I find that that is exactly the definition of my job right now. Maybe always, but now more than ever. Both for myself and for the people who I'm so grateful. Come to share the evening with us. It is a place that I go to to get away from the noise and the insanity, to have an escape. I refer to myself as a mailman. I'm not the genius who wrote these stories, I'm just the guy who is the mailman. I deliver them with my piano player, and it's a great privilege to not have to listen to them by yourself, but to have people in the audience share their pleasure with hearing these stories as well, and that we have that in common.
And there are all kinds of different forms that share that quality. And this one is no different than all the others. So I'm incredibly conscious of it and I'm very conscious of trying to give us all a break from all the things we desperately need a break from, but to always in every choice of every song. and in every gesture. and in every breath I take and every exhale to always infuse it with optimism and empathy and possibility and hope.
Kellams: Mandy Patinkin, cannot wait to see you perform at Walton Arts Center later this month. Thank you so much for your time.
Patinkin: Thank you. And if you got nothing to do, come on down to the theater. And even if you're a little tired, just sit there and go to sleep. It's okay.
Kellams: Thanks so much, I appreciate that.
Patinkin: It's a good place to take a nap.
Kellams: Comfortable? Yes.
Patinkin: Yeah, yeah.
Kellams: Mandy Patinkin and pianist Adam Ben-David will perform at Walton Arts Center Thursday, Jan. 29. The show is titled “JUKEBOX”. Our conversation took place earlier this month.
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