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[0:00] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to The Fabulous 54 Below. Before we get started this evening, just a polite reminder, please take this moment to silence your cell phones.

[0:08] Macon Prickett: And also, there is no flash photography, please.

[0:16] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: Welcome to The 54 Below Podcast, where we bring you behind the scenes of the world-famous Broadway supper club. I'm Michael.

[0:21] Macon Prickett: And I'm Megan. And we have a treat for you today.

[0:28] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: Michael, what is that on your desk?

[0:34] Macon Prickett: Oh, you mean my big red no button? Yeah. Why?

[0:39] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: No, no, no. A thousand times, no. And there you have it. Okay.

[0:47] Macon Prickett: Listen, sometimes it's nice to have a reminder to set boundaries for yourself, just for your mental health. And also, I'm planning a wedding this year, and I really need to just have that work-life balance. So it's a nice reminder for me to tell myself no sometimes. But what about, do you have that? Don't you have that?

[1:06] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: Yeah. I mean, I don't have a no button, but no really is a powerful word. There's a lot of power behind that.

[1:14] Macon Prickett: Yeah. I'll need to explore that. Maybe I'll get one.

[1:17] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: Truly. And I know, especially with how you not only do all the live streaming programming stuff, you also are here as a production assistant, and you're also down there sometimes as a maitre d'. So that's a lot of work, huh?

[1:27] Macon Prickett: Yeah. Well, I think most of us, I mean, you especially know that we all wear many hats around here. So we keep busy, but we also are so lucky to work at such a cool place where we can all dip our toes into the many areas of work that we have around here.

[1:43] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: No, I like to be all over the place, and I think it makes me a little more well-rounded and get to do a little bit of it all. What's your one highlight with any of the artists you've interacted with this week, or even audience member?

[2:07] Macon Prickett: Audience member. Well, we had one of our favorite regulars, Joanne. It was her birthday yesterday. She's a St. Patrick's Day baby. So we prepared a special birthday cake for her, which was awesome. The room sang to her. That was a really special thing that happened. And yeah, I would say that's probably one of my highlights other than working with Jen Colella, which again is the highlight of any day.

[2:32] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: Okay. Wait, wait, wait. Jen Colella is not why we're here today. We got a little sidetracked. It's really, it's my fault and this, you know, big red number, but why don't we go back, Megan? You were saying earlier.

[2:47] Macon Prickett: Great. Okay. Sorry, folks. We got a little sidetracked, but our guest today is a 54 Below staple. One of our cabaret leading ladies, the amazing Storm Large. Hi. Welcome to the podcast.

[3:01] Storm Large: Okay. For the first-timers in our podcast, Storm, can you tell us who is Storm Large?

[3:07] Storm Large: Oh, do you want me to talk about myself in the third person? Storm Large was arrested when she was 18 years old. They dropped the charges because it was a first offense. It was a possession of a Class B substance and contributing to the delinquency of minors, but the minors that I was supposedly contributing to their delinquency were my drug dealers. So that was 18. Do you want to talk about something more relevant? I am a singer. My face is red. I'm a singer, a songwriter, an author, a playwright, a mouthy person, lover, fighter, and I absolutely adore 54 Below. How many times have I been there? In the 20s? High 20s? We'll have to count. We'll have to actually tally it up. It's been quite a bit. It's been a lot.

[4:01] Storm Large: Yeah. For a while, I felt like the house band because most places you play once every two years and then they bring you back so people will come, but it's such a great living room vibe. I mean, obviously a way nicer living room than I have with better food and much better looking people, but it's so intimate. There are no bad seats in the house. The sound is great. Everybody who works there is great. I had to describe myself recently also in another interview. What did I say? I was like, oh, they were comparing me to some legend. I don't remember now, but some legendary artist and I'm like, no. I was like, I'm not. I don't consider myself kind of that caliber artist, but the similarities were that I am a genre fluid artist.

I would be considered a polyglot in styles because I don't sing opera. I am not trained. I am a reactionary animal. I react to music, respond in emotional, different emotional ways. And I see the story in the song. So I never considered myself like a cabaret artist, but because I tell jokes and stories, that's sort of the category I fall into. But music and songs and jokes are sort of the narrative that is sort of my oeuvre. I try to gather the hearts and minds of the people in the room wherever I am, take them on a trip, tell them a story that in the end they find themselves in a better place, in a more loved place, in a place of understanding, in a place of collected like a community. They're part of something because we tend to get so myopically focused, self-focused, especially nowadays.

And art and music brings us out in the safety of a dark room and it brings us sort of out and we a good show. You relate to everything being said and you feel less alone whether you participate or not. You just leave feeling less alone. You feel seen, you feel heard. And that's kind of my what I've always done. And now I can kind of see that that's what I've always done. I don't know if that's art.

[6:48] Sir Michael Allan Galvez: It is. I mean it absolutely. And you do it well. That's making you see me a bunch of times.

[6:54] Macon Prickett: Yes, yes. I absolutely agree with everything you said and I think you do it very well. Exactly what you just explained. And like you know so many of our of the artists who are on our stage it's it is cabaret but you also elevate it in a way that takes you know every audience member on this journey that's different than traditional cabaret shows which is thrilling for a venue such as 54 Below because you're you you have that capability. You have the ability to do that. So why not?

[7:26] Storm Large: How do you guys define cabaret? What is the what is the proper definition of cabaret?

[7:32] Macon Prickett: Well you know that's that's that's a loaded question a loaded question because I was actually just talking about this the other day. It is now really kind of turning into something that I think with what you do with it which is you know you tell stories sing songs you know make this art on stage but there really isn't a formula to it anymore. Even you know we both love Marilyn May you and I and you know Marilyn May is as old school classic cabaret performer as you can think of and right you know the greatest but even still what she's doing on our stage is still so special and unique you know where it's it's not just cabaret you know not that cabaret has any sort of bad you know.

[8:16] Storm Large: No but cabaret does cabaret has taken on at least in pop music cabaret when I was starting out in the 90s it took on um it took on sort of a negative moniker of you're not really pop you're not really rock you're more like cabaret and they used it to be sort of dismissive that you belong on the theater it was like kind of a way to to call somebody queer to call somebody um you know theatrical like theatrical is not uh is not was not a compliment back in the day except in Broadway except right on Broadway and that's not where I was I was a rock and roll kind of punk rock person but I was building audiences still telling stories and relating to people um but not singing show tunes I was like singing punk rock and singing like Metallica covers and and Bad Brains and my own music which was really you know truthful and like intense and also you know ballads and beautiful but truths like really poignant human truths um so it I think it has become less of a diss and more of a description.

[9:32] Macon Prickett: Yeah well even it's funny when you watch like Sex and the City or Will and Grace you know that cabaret show trope like oh god my friend's doing a cabaret show yeah quote unquote it's this it's a very kind of negative thing well there's there are people who do well I'm gonna do a cabaret show and it's all about cat clothing or like they have to have like a weird theme and it's like it's almost like weird and uncomfortable like up-close magic tricks and you're like oh no and they're singing they're very it's very campy it's very Waiting for Guffman you know campy theater like high school.

[10:08] Storm Large: Like musical theater. But it's the format is so loose, it can really be anything, you know, like Sleep No More, which was, you know, the Scottish play, that could be considered cabaret because it's a very personal, unique experience and a unique sort of way to express art in an experience of an artist. And you're experiencing an artist in a very personal, like, because singers, like normally, like a rock star is 20 feet up over your head, lit, electrified, untouchable, impossibly beautiful, like pyrotechnics, aerial fucking stuff. Um, and they're just like this God. But a cabaret artist is pretty much on the in the same room with you. Having a human experience in an intimate human experience, even though they have a microphone, and they're singing and they're talented and whatever, there is much more relational energy, I think, in storytelling, especially.

Um, Michael Feinstein does a really great job with that format in terms of like, he's doing the Tony Bennett story. He did the story Judy Garland story. So it's not about him. But he makes it conversationally makes it accessible. And Marilyn May, Marilyn May can like usually a cabaret artist will discuss the artist and the song and the history, the genre or the the period. Um, I tend to just sort of stay like, you know, like, I got chased by the cops all the way here. Hey, get him a drink, you know, kind of thing. Um, it's, I'm a little more spontaneous, a little more improvisational. But it's, I think it's just a more intimate way to experience music and a more intimate attachment to the person giving you that. Maybe I mean, that's a really long winded way to describe cabaret, but it is, it's sort of all encompassing. It is.

[12:33] Storm Large: Yeah. And I feel like it's a, in a way, you can't really describe it in five words in a sentence. You know, you excel a lot in that narrative. And also, you know, bringing that music into that. I wonder, have you, have you ever, you know, you said you're a musical polyglot. Have you been on stage in a musical theater setting? Is that something that you've done before? Um, what, what is Storm Large in a musical theater setting?

[13:03] Storm Large: I did. Um, it's funny, I went to acting school in New York, I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. And they, within a week, they decided that my career was going to be Broadway musicals. Because I was kind of fat, really loud, and not pretty in the traditional, in their traditional sense, because they did a lot of, they, they pushed a lot of their actor students to go to soap operas, that was their thing. They wanted, they wanted TV actors, they wanted beautiful people, but the loud, fat theatrical ones, oh, musical theater. And I was like, and the 80s was like, Les Mis and Cats and I'm like, get out of here. And Phantom, it was all very maudlin. And I was like, going downtown and partying with the Ramones.

And like the cycle sluts from hell. And like, I was a, I was a rock and roll person. And so the Cro-Mags and stuff. So I, um, I was like, okay, these aren't my people, but I have to graduate because I paid for it. When I was on TV in 2006. And when I got back to Portland, where I lived, I was like the most famous person in Portland ever. And so the local theater, Portland Center Stage, was like, if we could get this, we could get a golden lasso around this unicorn, get her to do something. We're going to make dough. And so they cast me Sally Bowles in Cabaret. And I was like, I don't want that. But then I liked them, but I liked the music. I was like, oh, this doesn't suck. This is cool. What I got to play a kind of a prostitute singing kind of hooker.

I could do that. That's not hard for me. And so, but then I found, because I was, I was told people out of acting school, I was like, I'm not, I'm not an actor. I, I, I'm not a good actor. I'm a singer. I could take a song and I can make it honest, but I, I am not an actor. But then I found sort of by accidentally getting, doing theater, and there was a lot of acting in Cabaret. I, I really got into the whole scene of, we are singing, we are fucking, we are doing drugs, we are trying to survive. We know the world as we know it is ending. But we're just gonna keep on, keep the lights on, keep the fishnets on and keep on singing and do another line and we're gonna find love and there's gonna be an answer.

It's a, it's a, it's a time that reminds me of another time. What is that time? Anyway, moving right along. Um, but yeah, I, I, I started to get into it. It's funny because I, I kind of okey-doked myself into it. And then after that, they asked me to write a play and I was like, yeah, sex, drugs and rock and roll. And they're like, yeah. And let's talk about your mom. I'm like, no, that's stupid. And they're like, no, we want to know about your mom and how she was mentally ill and how um she tried to kill yourself and you were a runaway and you were a drug addict and and homeless and I'm like, no, that's no, nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to know that sad stuff. And so, finally, James Beaton, my business partner, kinda convinced me to try to do it.

He's like, you know, it's a, you know, people would really like to know this and if people look at, people look up to you and if they knew that that's where you came from, you might help somebody and I'm like, nobody wants to see and I didn't buy it. I didn't get it and so then I but I got talked into doing crazy enough. It was a huge success and it absolutely did help a lot of people and I wrote the book and um it was remarkable and it was a very important lesson in like vulnerability being an artist and being vulnerable um in life and in art is a superpower. Uh when I was growing up, it was kinda tough. I got some situations growing up where you're vulnerable. You get kicked in the throat.

You get thrown down. You get taken. You get hurt. You gotta be invulnerable, impenetrable, and tough. But in art, vulnerability diffuses the audience and it brings people in and does like this crazy weird alchemical healing thing. So, um the musical theater thing, you won't see me putting on the freaking mask or doing any kind of cat thing. Um none of that but um I have a new respect for musical theater. Uh I mean, I taught myself to sing listening to Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair and um a little bit of South Pacific. Okay. With my grandfather in there. So, there's a couple things in there. I'm like, okay. Okay. Well, maybe some of that. Yeah. Um but but yeah, I'm not I'm not uh I'm not as filled with rage and hatred of of uh musical theater because also they were like, oh, that's where you belong. Like, it felt like the dustbin and I was nineteen. Yeah. And I was like, this is all fat and punk rock and not attractive to you. Don't don't don't cat me. Right. Dude, don't cat me.

[18:34] Storm Large: So, it doesn't mean you're gonna be Ethel Merman, you know. Right. Nothing wrong with Ethel Merman but come on. I'm a nineteen. We love Ethel. Yeah. Well, going off that, where did um just because this is something I know you but I don't actually know. Where did this musical journey start for you? Like, where where what's the beginning of that story?

[18:59] Storm Large: I always always always could sing. Um and I think it came from actually my ear because I could imitate anything I heard from a little kid. I would imitate birds, wolf sounds, dog sounds, people's accents, people's voices, um and then I would sing along to the radio and I could make my voice match the voice that I heard and then I started to remember songs really quickly. Uh jingles and things I learned at school and then I started to do plays when I was in like third grade and I'd get the lead and uh was really cool for me and singing was very easy for me but I was also told to shut up. Uh girls are to be seen not heard. In fact, in your case, why don't you just go in your room? Why don't you just leave? Why just go away? I was um I just wanted attention and I just wanted love. You know, um I wanted my mom to come home from the hospital and I wanted my dad to love me and think I was good at something and so.

[20:17] Storm Large: I learned, even though I was... My mom loved my singing, but she was always locked up in a mental institution. I'm like, so this crazy person thinks I'm great, so what does that say? My dad, everybody loves my dad, and my dad is this golden boy, and he's telling me to be quiet and that to want attention is a very bad thing. And I'm like, but I just want to be loved. I don't want to be yelled at. I don't want to be hated. I want to be loved. But I learned very young that my singing voice delighted people, not my family, but strangers. And when I would sing a song, people would be delighted, and they would be happy to see me. And when they saw me again, they'd be like, you're the little singer.

And I'm like... And so in my little dumb head, I was like, I have something. I have something that people like, and it's mine. It's just this thing I can do. It's the secret little thing that I can do. And then in my 20s, when I was done running away, I graduated school, and I left the East Coast and just drove as far as I could, ended up in San Francisco, started singing in bands, and was like, okay, so I'll never make money. I'll never go anywhere, but I'll have friends, free beer, and probably get laid, and I'll have something to do all the time, and people will come and be happy to be near me. And you know what? That's all I need. And that was my motivation. I never thought I would ever get a record deal.

I never thought I would ever be ever anybody. I never thought I'd be on like an interview podcast for a place that loves to have me over and over again while I'm getting ready to go perform with a symphony in Santa Barbara. I didn't think I was going to live this long, let alone be doing this until now. People are like, oh, your young self, did you ever see your career going this way? I'm like, no. I just wanted to not end up on the Darwin Awards. I wanted to live. I just, I didn't think, I mean, I didn't think. I just did. So people are like, how do you know when you made it? I'm like, I haven't made it. I'm still making. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing something. Yeah. So yeah, I'm super grateful. So grateful. I don't even remember what the question was, but hopefully I answered it. Sorry, 80 days.

[23:02] Macon Prickett: No, you did. And we are super grateful to have you on this podcast and really have you in our space. It's a great story. And thank you for sharing all of this. And I think that actually gets us to our break.

[23:16] Storm Large: Yeah. So we'll be right back after these messages, folks. Please don't go away.

[23:38] Macon Prickett: Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of The Musical. We hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel. And if you'd like to see more episodes of The Musical, please click the link in the description below. And if you'd like to support us, you can do so by donating to a subsidized ticket initiative, which provides accessible tickets to a more diverse audience. 54 Below is committed to making Broadway's living room a space for all.

[24:04] Storm Large: Oh, I was doing Jeopardy.

[24:13] Macon Prickett: Oh, yeah, you were. Sorry.

[24:16] Storm Large: That's more. Yeah.

[24:19] Storm Large: This podcast was brought to you by cocaine. Cocaine is the answer to all of your social situations. Suddenly, all of your stories will be funny and you'll be admired and encouraged to talk endlessly and breathlessly about yourself. Common side effects are dry mouth, locked jaw, paranoia, and diarrhea. 9 out of 10 people tested experienced fiending addiction or sudden death by massive coronary. When given a placebo, ask your concert promoter about cocaine today. Come on, concert promoter.

[24:47] Macon Prickett: Yeah, that's the ad. That's the ad, for sure.

[24:51] Macon Prickett: All right, Storm, we are back.

[24:53] Storm Large: Hi.

[24:55] Macon Prickett: Hello again. Okay, so I got to know, in your show, you sing songs popularized by some kick-ass women. Tag yourself, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, or Billie Eilish.

[25:06] Storm Large: Wow, that was quick. I was going to say, so is that where you consider your life, like you are in your life today and that resonates with you the most?

[25:13] Storm Large: Billie Eilish resonates with me the most because she, I was never as good. Okay, let me just get that. I was never as good as her. She's ridiculous. But in terms of natural truth, sort of lyric telling, is now totally accepted. And now it's even though she's a little bit provocative. But she's, I got told to sing nice songs and not talk about revenge and not talk about dicks and not talk about, you know, sex so much and be so vulgar. And I was never gratuitously vulgar, but just like she is, you know. So I would see myself more, I mean, like an ancient Billie Eilish. I don't know about ancient. I'm not sure about ancient. Well, she's like 19 years old. Isn't she?

[26:15] Macon Prickett: She is so young. She has a freaking Oscar.

[26:21] Storm Large: Wow. She's dope dude. She was a little older. Wow. Yeah, she's young. Well, and she has the colored hair thing, you know.

[26:28] Macon Prickett: That's true.

[26:30] Storm Large: Been doing it since I was like 13 years old, man. I'm 55. You bitches have it so easy now. I used to have to put Kool-Aid in my hair.

[26:35] Macon Prickett: I'm sorry, what?

[26:36] Storm Large: Bleach. I used to bleach my hair with bleach from the laundry room. The Clorox. Yeah. I smelled like a pool.

[26:51] Storm Large: Yeah. Bad. Amazing that I, and I had little sores on my head. I was like, oh, these itch. And then I guess I got to shave my head again. Yeah, man. Don't put bleach on your head, kids. I didn't have parents either, dude. You're doing the best you can.

[27:02] Macon Prickett: I'm doing what I can, man. I don't know anything about coloring hair, so let's get that on the record. So I'm glad I know this much now.

[27:14] Storm Large: Exactly. I love the blue, actually.

[27:18] Macon Prickett: Thank you. I like the shade of blue. The blue's working. For our listeners who cannot see, Storm Large has blue hair. There's a picture on our website.

[27:24] Storm Large: Yeah. And go to Storm of 69 on Instagram and you'll see all the current pictures. And 69 is the year of my birth, not my favorite position, just FYI.

[27:32] Macon Prickett: My priorities get all swimmy. It's like, this feels good, but I think I'm supposed to be participating in some way. Well, I'm tired.

[27:46] Storm Large: That's right. Yeah. You're working. Working. You're still making it, as you said.

[27:52] Macon Prickett: Making it. Hell yeah. Okay. For our last segment, we are going to put 54 seconds on the clock. And in 54 seconds, for any of our listeners who don't already have tickets for Storm Large Inside Voice on March 31st at 7, what are you waiting for, first of all? And we're going to give Storm 54 seconds to give us that pitch. Pitch that show to us and that's going to lead us out. All right. Let's do it.

[28:17] Storm Large: All right. 54 seconds on the clock starting now. Okay. Well, first of all, if you haven't been to 54 Below at all, it is definitely time for you to change that up and to bust that cherry. You go down into the basement and coming from the rafters is all the cocaine residue from the 70s, from the Studio 54 that hailed Supreme above. But down below, the food is good. The water is clean. The people are beautiful and everybody's kind. I come in usually from the back of the room, making a bunch of noise. And this show is called Inside Voice, which is a play on being told to shut up. So I'm going to sing all sweet and quiet. I might take some French fries from you. So order extra. They're excellent, by the way. And I'm going to be singing songs of uppity women, uppity men. People have had things to say about being told not to talk. And that's time.

[29:20] Macon Prickett: Perfect. Amazing. Well, that's as good a pitch as I've ever heard.

[29:25] Storm Large: Oh, good. I'm not good at pitching. I'm like, ah, just come. I'm good.

[29:28] Macon Prickett: Yeah. Well, and you know what? Just come. I'm good. That's...

[29:36] Storm Large: Just come. I'm good. That sounds like a good tagline for OnlyFans. Just come. I'm good.

[29:41] Macon Prickett: Obsessed. Oh, my gosh. Well, Storm, thank you so much for joining us today. I love you.

[29:43] Storm Large: I love you. I'll do anything for you guys.

[29:47] Macon Prickett: And we cannot wait to have you back on March 31st at 7 p.m. It's going to be awesome.

[29:48] Storm Large: Get those tickets.

[29:49] Macon Prickett: Get those tickets. In all truth, it does sell out. So please do come if you haven't come.

[29:55] Storm Large: That's right.

[29:56] Macon Prickett: Thanks so much for joining us, Storm.

[29:58] Storm Large: Bye. Love you. I'll talk to you later.

[30:00] Macon Prickett: Bye. See you soon. Bye.

[30:05] Announcer: You've been listening to The 54 Below Podcast, part of the Broadway Podcast Network. To find out more about our upcoming shows, visit us at 54below.org.