This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Bi Spy (Fringe Adjacent)

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

In the "Fringe Adjacent" portion of our Fringe program, Mike sits down with the team behind the Fringe play Bi Spy - Chris Cole (actor/director), Jen Raines (actor/co-writer) and Bob Raines (actor/Jen's father) join us to talk about their production.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. 20, 4 fringe is here, every voice we want to hear. Stage is set, the lights are bright, bring your art into the night. Casey's heart, it beats so loud, every artist in the crowd. crowd voices rise and colors blend create a world that won't end welcome to fringe the place is calling lights are flashing hearts are falling join the wave come feel the motion dive into this French devotion Oh

Oh Oh Oh Oh oh stories told and laughter shared Every state

shows how we care So Hi everybody Welcome to the podcast Welcome to the French Adjacent portion of the podcast

So so these will be related to 2024 KC Fringe but it's not part of our fringe program I think we have one person number three here and we have a full house tonight so yeah

okay yeah go ahead so all right Bob do what you got to do so I'm going to have my guests introduce themselves my name is Chris Kool I am the director of By Spy. I also play William Hart in the show.

I am Jen Raines, and I play Joan in the show. I also kind of helped get the play together. I was going to say, you're really underselling you, too. Like, you're the lead and the co-writer of the show, too. I mean, you came up with the name of the show. and the stage manager and the prop master and the assistant director and the I mean you wear a lot of hats you I mean that's like French do is you have to yeah we're gonna do and we have so can I introduce yourself please hello my name is Bob

Rains I am my second year of C square actually yeah this is your second year he plays the narrator in the show, so there are some parts where it's like, oh, no, this scene's in heavy spying, which let's decode this. Good, do. So, so, uh, so, uh, you came to me because we were, we're going to be

venue mates. Yes. Yeah. The Independence Boulevard, Christian Church. Yes. I'm glad so. I'm glad so right on Independence Avenue. Yeah.

The infamous, Infant Avenue. Look, and what? I think the building really pretty so I'm just gonna be very very happy that the building's really pretty yeah so because for me that's really all that matters I'm just an architecture boon well you know it's got funny too because like whenever there's I mean a lot of these French venues are just kind of where they fit but they're always like a really super cool building you either end up like the Arts

Asylum or you know that was last year year before we were in the late great upside bunchy so but down right in the heart of the west bottoms too where like whenever we go outside like that old stove factory is cool historically

they've been the venues have been like midtown westport up to but unit station yeah everything but so I'm glad to see a little more spread out

yeah yeah yeah well and we've tried before or to just kind of connect with our venue mates. Last year, I was on a team for Fringe After Dark with someone from one of the other plays at our venue who actually ended up winning best up. So you just, it's really great because you get such a diverse character of people

that comes into each venue and so you get to meet so many great, amazing people and support them. So we actually make it a point to see every show that's at our venue. Cool. So, we'll be coming. Awesome.

Appreciate it. There's this podcast. It sounds really cool. I don't know. Just say it. Yeah. Good deal. So tell me about this,

tell me about your plate. Bye, spy. Bye, SPAP. It started as a really funny joke that I told one night when I was a little silly laughing. and then it kind of turned into something a little more personal than maybe I would have liked. I co-wrote it with Kaylee Smith, and so BISPy is really just written by two chaos bisexuals who are out here just trying to scream into the void, I think. And directed by the one straight who's like, I think this would look good on stage.

the one straight who really likes Bond movies so it's like okay here's the trope you might want and then you got the old guy I'm sorry but it's a legally distinct spy thriller right there will yes it is well it's protected under satire parody but I mean we you know we also pull from a lot of obviously a lot of spy films

our show is actually set a little bit earlier than like the big pop culture, spy boom. Oh, thank you. I should point out, too, that most of the show is written right here in the Nirvana Coffee House Game Lounge, too. Which is a very nice place. It's a lot quieter than my usual game place. I game at Tabletop.

Yeah, yeah. Then you have to wear, I have to wear air plugs at Tablecloth. I love this coffee shop because they have, like, actual comfortable seats. and the vibe is just so great. And you can play Catan. So as long as those conditions are meant for a coffee house, that's good for me. And subjective, guess who? Subjective, guess who?

Yeah, I mean, look, most of the time with the guess who, you look at the guy, is like, does he have gray hair? Whenever he play it, it's like, all right, does this guy look suspicious? Does this guy, would this guy drink an IPA? Right. The answer is you usually know. The answer is, well, some of those cards.

too. Like, there's all a hand-in-ball bus. Exactly. But at least the second Catan player I've had on the podcast. I've played, oh, third. I am a Catan. She kicks my butt every single time. She is ruthless. I don't like, maybe not roofless.

No, ruthless is good. Yeah. Very, very. I do own settlers at Catan as well. I haven't played lately, but I have played it soon. We play it blind, so we actually flip all the tiles over and all the number tokens. Oh, wow. And then you pick first, and you only flip what you're actually on,

and you have no idea what you're going to. Well, you kind of have to because you know what resources you're going to be. Yeah, you may get three rocks and nothing else. you don't know it has happened you don't know what you're going to get so yeah and then we incorporated to D20 at some point it gets ridiculous but we're really on a mission

to see how many other games we can add D20s into until we cause our family shame I mean look I've told you my big plan to do risk in D&D simultaneously wow no one will play risk with me I won't So we have done

Since we're on the subject of gaming We have done game by throes on this podcast My big game is smash up Yeah I have I Playtested everything from 70s forward Oh wow I

I've only played smash up twice And I think the first time I played I didn't know the rules And I was playing with a lot of other people Who also didn't know the rules So I'm not good but at the stretch yet. And it is a simple

game to learn. Yeah. That's a funny thing. I don't think I've actually played. I think if I have, it's been a long, long time ago. Look, when I say I own a game, that also doesn't mean I've played it very often. Because I have... Like what, 150, 200 games?

Something like that. Look, it's a scene principle. You buy it, you're wanting your library just a case. Just the case. And we... Let's have a three-parts Twilight and Imperium play-thru. That's how long a game is that you have to break it up to three episodes. And we did that just down the street over here at Game Cafe.

I adore a Game Cafe. When I worked at the Kansas City Public Library, I was a youth librarian, and I did run a ton of games for kids in the area, including D&D. And they always helped me out with anything I needed, and taught me kind of the basics of magic, The Gathering. Not enough that I can play, so please don't try to challenge me. I've never played Magic to the Gathering, actually. Yeah, here's something like Magic to Gathering, too.

I have friends who love it, and, like, I can play it. It's just I prefer D&D, and that weird some people out. People will say they'll come up to me and be like, why do you think D&D is easier to play? you play magic, you play a card, the card says what it does. It's like, does it though? Sometimes it's complicated the card. Like, I just want to argue, so let me play D&D.

Exactly. I have never played D&D, but I am aware of a few stories, like the Dread Gazebo story. Yes. Yes. Which I found out about actually doing some work at American on two back in 2016. So you went to the Hugos. I was working with Fantasy Fight games at the time.

I'm thinking too, because I think that was the Hugo's, you can't say, wasn't it? Yeah, because it was World Cup. I believe I was under a rock for most of the time. So anyways, anyway, when I was there, I took the gaming area and the game rental, the game library.

Yeah. They had underneath the blankets, they had a model gazebo. And they showed everyone the gazebo and gave you a rib and said, I survived the gazebo. Well, you know, it's weekend's fire, too. That's the... Mm-hmm. Yeah.

I guess I grew up. We played a few board games. Sorry. Monopoly. You know. That was back of the day. that's an easy game you know all very good games in their own rights yeah yeah nothing that's what we had though you know that's what that's what they had but look my grandparents

used to probably clue all the time over in like england with their friends too i think it was like clue no at the time cludo yeah which i think it's still the name outside of north america yeah yeah it's kind of like uh where's waldo ever else in the world's like where's wallie it's I was like, no, no. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, we're getting off topic. Yeah. That's generally.

I'm not saying that we, look, I'm not saying we've used tabletop RPGs as a character-building exercise for this courage show. But the Thirsty Sword Lesbians TGRPG I can vouch for. All right, yeah, no judgment here. Bob is sitting here like, oh, wow. not going to discuss you know it does not bother me i jenna's helped me so much over the years yeah so it was tough but sometimes you just got to i mean i i i don't think 10 years ago you would have i would have been able to make a whole show called by spy let alone have you

participate in it so it's true it's really nice i've grown a lot you know And I think that's kind of a lot of what, how the story got a little personal was it's kind of a coming out and finding yourself and advocating for yourself story while also being disguised as a bunch of goofballs having a good time. Because that ends up being what one of our stories are that we write for ourselves. Last year we did a show of monsters and men in murder that was written by kids. Kaylee Smith. Yes. And it was fantastic. It was amazing. And being a part of that creative process this time and being able to put a lot of myself into it was really fun.

Cool. Kaylee Smith is a machine. She, I mean, she specifically asked us to let you know that she's a maniac. That was a conversation. She's like, hey, I won't be able to make it today. Make sure they know I'm a maniac. And I want to really hit home that. I adored Kaylee, and she's fantastic, and she's completely unhinged.

Yeah. I mean, it's amazing, too, because she will, if you need a story, she will get it to you in two days. Now, you'll have to, like, talk her down from a lot. Like, okay, Kaylee, we can't have the 20-person epic battle scene on stage with, like, six people. We can barely do that in the film. Yeah, exactly. The first draft of Monsters and Men It was an actual six-character knife fight

And I kind of came to Ernest Kaley I don't think you understand I can't make this work So we did cut it down Well I really like last year What we got came up with too Where we had the little vignettes That's sort of implied larger direction

We can imply all sorts of stuff Yeah, and that was, you know, personally speak, a directorial challenge as I put my jobbers and my director hat on. But the one thing I've been very fortunate with is I've had an amazing crew around me. Of course, Jen has been obviously, you know, Atlas holding up the world behind the scenes. but we've also got you know Trey and Deanna as well too who were the show

this year Trey was Dracula last year and then Monsters and then Deanna was Arzeal the demon and this year they are they're more of an ensemble role

but they do play the villains in the show the I even forget the acronym too the strategic tactical artillery the acronym they play the straits like there was a spy the straits they are in khakis and I just envision like if their name was like Greg you know so that was that was kind of the how do you

make how do you make a very unassuming thing kind of be evil? Not evil though, because they're not really evil. They're just different. They're just different. You know, yeah. You know what I mean?

Uninformed. They work for a different agency. The antagonist of the fight. That's a good, that's a better than enemy, the antagonist. That's right. I mean, because that's the thing. They're thinking they're doing the right thing. You can kind of get into because, you know, as much as this, one of the great things about this show and one of the great things about this script is that it's got the right, like the perfect balance.

you have like that emotional core about accepting your value and taking the world and taking what you know that you can do and you basically put that in the middle and you surround it with a lot of high camp satire and very very I mean it's very much the 60s humor it's very much you know, that kind of goofball that ties into, that's all in service of a very real story. And again, too, we're pulling from everywhere, too. Like, there's a lot

of, like, spy tropes. You've got your death traps. You've got your villain monologues. But I also like the propaganda. That's my favorite part. As a lifelong studier of how propaganda words, kind of the intro of the play is almost like a propaganda reel. And so

it's just kind of fun to blend those different things together, but also be able to keep the story, like, meaningful. So, I mean, we had, I think, I think the good part is our crew works really well together and very good at creating dialogue while we're in process that not only fits the story but fits the character and I think everyone is able to contribute so much to this that I think it would be a little absurdist to say that just Kaylee and I wrote it because there's like little bits of everybody in the play because originally Bob's role and Bob is my dad he actually just kind of came aboard and started helping with the first play that we put together, King Kirby.

And so now we've roped him into acting, so he's doing great. I wouldn't say roped, because when I was younger, I did a lot of acting. I just didn't stay in it. When you wore younger man's clothes. Yeah, when I wore younger man's clothes. I mean, but still, it was a moment so much of. show came up I think we had another guest here

yeah but so much the shows came about with our current crew I had done six by ten at the Arts Asylum for the barn players this was back

in 2021 and I had written the script it was a Shakespeare parody of card events entitled The Most Limitable Tragedy of Backwater Jacks. You know, I said in the script, our director dropped out. So I just went on, I just actually emailed the producer.

I just said, hey, just in case of absolute emergency, if you needed a director, I'd be willing to do it and then I get a email back within hours saying can you get a cast together so I just go on Facebook and just beg all of my friends like please help

but then from there you know a lot of that crew went to King Kirby and you know Jen had actually asked like hey do you need help with this show I'd like be evolved whatever

our actors had to drop out of that show just because of scheduling conflicts. I can tell you the exact moment when I knew Jen Be Perfect because she played for our listeners who are fans of the Marvel comics. King Kirby

is about Jack Kirby, the artist and co-creator of essentially the Marvel Universe. And Jen eventually ended up in the role of Ross, his

you know his wife arguably his business partner and kind of his bulldog at times um but you're trying to tell me something well

you know we had jam board just a stage match and we said hey we don't have anybody for this park to read for it and she goes okay do I have to do it in accent it's like no no you're good

you're good you're fine can I do an accent? And that's what I realized, like, I think we could fill this role. And now she's the lead and co-writer of the current show. To be fair, I tried very hard not to be the lead of the current show. It was actually... One of those things that gets thrust upon. Well, originally it was planned for a couple of our other cast members to be, like, the stars.

But they were doing a lot of nonprofit work. over the summer and helping out. And so they're like, we just don't know if we can commit to a huge role. And I was like, well, I can't cast anyone else by this time we had to get going. And I was like, okay, well, I think it was his plan all along to try to do that. So, but it's good. I think I should probably know my lines better than I do as someone who wrote it. But to be fair, it's kind of like Kevin Smith.

Yeah. The reason he played Silent Bob was he originally with Clerks, he originally wrote the character of Randall to play himself and then realize, oh, shit, I can't remember the lines that I wrote for this character. So, I'm going

to cast Jeff Anderson to play Randall and then I'm going to cast myself to play Silent Bob. Yeah. Just so I can say I'm in the movie. Yeah. Well, and that's one thing when they brought me in. I tell I said, look, I'm getting close to 60, okay? So when they come to me and say, hey, we've got these, all these lines for you to learn.

I'm like, uh, uh, so I asked this year, I said, if you could give me a little bit smaller. And they did, and I do a lot of acting without saying a word. I mean, look, the parts you do speak are kind of great. originally the narrator role was just going to kind of be at the very beginning during like the propaganda film and then he was funny so we let him do more and it's amazing too because so much of I mean not only we're pulling from both spy films we're pulling from everything like Scooby-Doo Scooby-Doo. The Benny Hill theme still plays in my head.

And when we're talking to, we wanted Bob to be kind of like the Rod Serling of the show, just come out and just like, say, if you're approval. Just personally speaking, with the character I play the show, Will, the, you know, love interest, the husband, the partner. The partner, yeah. love interest I mean look I guess she's still technically

interested I guess that's true yes but like some of the thoughts I go through my head Joan and Will have a very a lot of people are only going to know this from the Will Smith movie have a very James

West Artemis Gordon relationship but also too when because so much of Will is started pretending to be in the masculine role, the hero role. For whatever reason, my first thought when I'm doing a lot of the dialogue, a lot of the really stuffy, like, I'm here a new spy business dialogue, I just see myself as Adam West in Batman, in the Bill Dozier Batman.

It's like, Robin, we need to stop the Joker from. And I really, I really like the... The relationships of that couple of highs, it's definitely not reminiscent of any relationship that I have in real life or otherwise. All similarities to persons alive or dead are merely a coincidence. Like I said, it kind of got really personal for me when, you know, part of the narrative is like being able to trust your partner and being able to talk to them. And I was like, don't read anything into that.

I just wanted to do my funny Batman voice. That's all the... I am doubt for the funny about my voice. Citizens of Cohawk. Yeah, citizen of Cahawaw. Exactly. It's Adam Wee here. Nobody misses with Adam Wee.

Yeah, that's, I mean, one of the great things about the show, too, is that, I mean, there is that core, but we still have a lot of fun with it. And we do have a lot of really just high camp, you know, like, a lot of really. I mean, some of the spy tools. I'm not saying there's a banana that comes out that gets used as everything as like a telephone or shoe or a shoe. Yeah, I mean, there's, you know, like a martini code that gets a little, little haywire. I just think that it's just an echo of how our group just naturally is weird and a little campy and a little cringy, I think is what the children say. Yeah. But also, we're just a bunch of weirdos,

and we like to make weirdo stuff for weirdo people and let everyone feel loved and accepted. Was it three years ago when you guys did King Herbie? I'd never heard of French before in my entire life. Yeah, I'd never attended either. No inkling, nothing, because I would just, you know. Well, ever since I've gotten into that first show, I wasn't in the first one.

but I was set up and breakdown. Yeah. You know? He helped a lot. Yeah. So I'm like, okay. And that kind of got me into it. Yeah.

So French to me now is like, man, what show? Oh, look. There's this. Oh, oh, I want to go. Well, we kind of, so we're both spreadsheet nerds. So we actually create a spreadsheet schedule to try to see as many shows as possible. last year you had 19 and I had 20 and then the year before I think we did 16 together yeah because last year you saw one that I did because I went to see was it which one was it

naked mole rat? I'm a naked mole rat yeah which was great and if the people who did naked mole rat and stinky cheese men are also at French we're going you should go see their stuff because they're hilarious yeah it's what I do because I had I've been volunteering at fringe for 10 years now too and like I've done the ticket sales I've done you know guests you know check people in like here's your seat I've read you announcements so yeah I would always that goes back to like my first couple years I'd always make a list so like here are the shows I've seen and now is here's the shows I've seen asterisk with the exception of like by spy right yeah yeah I've been for Franks front

here since 2011 oh so yeah yeah see he's a veteran david he's got me even did a video one day one year soon yeah that's a lot that's pretty fun i can imagine yeah well i was gonna say this is the the 20th yeah yeah yeah you're 20 this year wow yeah i mean it's wild too and you hear like i know some people have been there for a while like brother john started doing it like year two go to his show. Yeah. If nothing else, too. I mean, there's some artists who've been there for, you know, years of years. Brother John's always, like, at the

top of my list up. I don't care. He's like a staple. He is. Yeah. He's a good guy. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. He's a super nice dude. Yeah, super. Yeah. Well, he's on the show. I'm listed. All right. Yeah. Good deal. So I know a couple of,

a couple of plays this year. One is It's a, it's a Jamie Morrow running the thing, and she's been on the podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's paid a genre. One of the best lines ever, thank you, Jamie's. That is amazing. I mean, look, wasn't that, was it like Harrison Ford, who somebody asked what he thought being back of the Millennium Falcon,

And, you know, after all these years, his thought was like, yeah, I thought I'm getting paid. And so, yeah, I mean, look, we're all making do. We're all getting through the day. Well, there's a few people that we've kind of met throughout the years who have shows. And it's kind of like when you see them at your shows, you give them, you know, you say hi because you've missed them all year and you love hanging out with them. You know, you guys talk about how things are growing, and then it's great. Abby, yeah. What is her show this year? Down the rabbit hole, or down her rabbit hole, I think it is, yeah, Abby Bland.

And then Nathan. Yes. You remember names way better than I do, and the face is kind of used. But, you know, there's just people that you meet and you get to know, and that's what I love about Fridge. It's just kind of getting to connect with people and support everyone. It's so great. You know, the one thing, too, it's like, you know, French starts. in like 2004, right?

If I got to do my math, I guess it's minus 20 from the... But, I mean, that was when I graduated high school, so I never got to do any of the team play running workshops, which, I mean, that seems like such an amazing opportunity, too, for especially younger folks who are looking... You know, who want to be chaos goblins like the rest of us, too. I would just suggest find a group and get in, and dig in and have fun I mean I work a job yeah every day this is not that being in the

play yeah it's hard because you know I usually go to bed about 8 830 because I'm up at you know so to have rehearsals of the late you know but I tell you what just to break up your life, give you something different to do. It is just amazing to get back into this. Yeah. And I really appreciate you guys doing it. Yeah, no worries. I appreciate it. I mean, you've been amazing so far.

I mean, it's funny too because as much as, I mean, I told the story all the time about King Kirby and when I realized Jen would be the perfect Raws. I think both Jen and I had that moment in the Monsters of Men when

we cast, we were like, hey, we need Bob to play Bob The Midwest Dad The Midwest Dad I didn't realize it When I first picked up the script And then after I read through it I'm like, oh my goodness

Yeah And it's funny too Because whenever they would post this during the festival Of like come see some of the great shows They would always have at least one picture of Bob They would always have him He was wearing a fanny pack He was

fanny pack and a Hawaiian shirt socks with sandals too I mean that one you know there's one of you know hem hiding behind the chair there's that other with a candle

I mean I got like excited whenever I'd see like another post on Facebook that's Bob they're posted Bob good deal yeah all right all right

so yeah I'm looking forward to looking forward to this yeah the fringe and guess I look with your production thank you and wonderful best of look with yours we're excited to see you absolutely yeah we've been kind of looking for

so hey you know you got a guest list up for the show you can't you're revealed right now I think you can just I can uh went until we've uh... yeah as I upset your uh marketing here yeah that's all right yeah so uh yeah of course this will release after fringe is completed but uh but yeah if you do get you um yeah it sounds like it's going to be great

if you find a time machine if you could break you know break space time i mean probably we could put it up i mean yeah oh yeah probably yeah that would be easier yeah exactly That might be a lot. You can keep eye on the YouTube's. I'm not a physicist, a lot. If you want to say it, and this is After Fringe, get in touch with Chris, because he's the social media one.

I have deleted all of that, and now I'm thinking about throwing my phone in a lake. But just contact him, and he'll have me give it to you. Yeah, you can find me at, yeah, you can find me at, sequel writings on on Twitter we're not going to call X the end of the gap here I call it Twitter

it's Twitter yeah but yeah I'm also on Instagram and Blue Sky as Urban Space Man 23 follow C Square Productions on Facebook I'm doing all my plugles here do your plus because I don't want anyone

to get in touch with me ever so exactly I'm like please be my friend Follow me. Look at my pictures of, you know, food and man buildings on Instagram. Right. All right, good deal. And I think that's a great...

So thank you all for... Thank you. It's great. That's great. And everyone listening at home. That'll do it. And we will talk to you next time. Bye.

I won't talk to you next time. We'll be back on the show, right? This podcast is Uncall for is hosted, produced and edited by Mike Chernefsky. Opening music for our Casey Fringe program is welcome to Fringe, courtesy of suno.com. Outroom music for our Casey French program is Fantasia, Fantasia by Kevin McLeod at incompetic.com, licensed under Creative Commons by attribution 4.0 license. If you are in the United States or Canada, you can call us at 816-832-5-1-60.

Leave your message or question for us, and if we like it, we will play it on the podcast. Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive on-called for merchandise, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and so much more. Go to www.com.cafepress.com slash uncalled for pod. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time. You know,