Smash Chat
Episode #11 – Never Too Late for Dessert

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by Mitchel Clow
@MitchClow

Posted on 9:10 am,
April 3, 2012

Mitch Jess and Megan gather together late on a Monday night to once again recap the latest Smash episode!

-Mitch ate a lot of sugar and is really hyper!

-We’re hoping to see Karen’s orange juice commercial as a webisode on NBC.com

-Megan describes why it may be shocking that John was a Republican.

-So…Sneaky Bastard is bi? Or just sleazy?

-We’re finally starting to see Ivy and Derrick function as a couple.

-Now it’s Dev’s turn to punch someone in the preview!

-Mitch rants about the singles for each week not being available on iTunes immediately.

-News includes Megan Hilty’s upcoming album, the song Eileen will sing, and listener

comments about the 90′s tech talked about in last week’s episode.

Here are the two pictures that we talked about, as promised!

This episode's hosts: Jessica O'Neal, Mitchel Clow, Megan Stoll

http://twitter.com/megan_stoll Megan Stoll

Mitch, the sound effect you used for the f-bomb in there threw me off!! Haha.
- Mitchel Clow
  
  Haha it was supposed to be a sheep baaing, but it ended up sounding really weird :p
- http://twitter.com/jessoneal84 Jessica O’Neal
  
  Hahaha, me too Megan! I am pretty sure that I actually said “what the hell” out loud. :P
An Oxford Comma

This is the funniest and best episode yet! Though I have to say that Coty was indeed missed. Great episode you guys!
- Mitchel Clow
  
  We miss Coty too, but we’ll have him on in future shows! Maybe when he’s done with school for the summer!
- http://twitter.com/jessoneal84 Jessica O’Neal
  
  Hahaha, thanks! :) It really is ridiculous how much fun we had recording it, so I am glad that that came across. I miss having Coty on with us so much, but he is certainly not forgotten (clearly, since I mention about once every 10 minutes :P).
Kate

Mitch, I agree that “Bombshell” isn’t a good name….but for a different reason than you mentioned. Just think about all the puns critics and journalists can use for their headlines if the show isn’t a success (i.e. if the show “bombs”). No playwright would name their show Bombshell.
- Mitchel Clow
  
  Yeah, good point. If you look at it that way, it’s almost like naming your play “Failure”.
  
  Then again, if it turns out to be a great show, the pun could work out to be something like “‘Bombshell’ was anything but”, eh?
- http://twitter.com/jessoneal84 Jessica O’Neal
  
  Oh, good point!
Ocy

Hi there. I need to say that I absolutely love this podcast, it
makes me laugh so much and often I get a better idea of what the episodes are
about from listening to you guys. I had some things that I wanted to say from
previous SmashChat episodes but never really got the chance because I hadn’t
ever been completely caught up with the podcast until now.

1.In Inception (It was a while ago, I know…) you all seemed very
confused about why everyone was so captivated by Karen’s performance, because
the song wasn’t overly amazing. While I like the song, I understand that it
wasn’t spectacular, but it was the fact that she wasn’t putting on an act for
them. All of the other auditions had been performing for them, pretending to be
Marilyn, but she was just performing. It was much more natural and I really
think that’s what intrigued them, maybe.

2. I think they’ve added in the storyline of Dev to show that
there’s still a world outside the theatre and that these people who are so
involved in stage performance can get so swept away that they forget that there
is a world going on around them. I think the same thing is going on with Tom
and John. To me, it’s a way of showing how all-consuming the theatre world is
and how easily people can be swept away by it. But I don’t know, I could be
completely wrong there. I find the storyline interesting…

3. You all seemed confused about Derek going back to Ivy and put
it down to him actually having some level of care about her. I personally think
that it’s not true, no offence. I can see it being more of a control thing,
because Ivy broke up with him and he only wants it to continue because it didn’t
end on his terms. I also think that it’s partly because he still wants to be in
people’s good books. He didn’t want to burn bridges with people he might have
to work with in the near future, because we’ve seen how badly that’s going
between him and Tom. I don’t think that Derek is interested in any sort of
emotional relationship with Ivy, but knows that she will be more useful if he
acts like he’s supportive.

4. Love cassette tapes. Still have a few and I also still have a
working tape player (which comes in handy if I want to actually listen to the
tapes…) But I’m 18 so I also use CD’s and iTunes.

5. I do not like the name Bombshell for the musical. I didn’t
really understand why they just couldn’t call it Marilyn. I mean, I know that
the title does reflect the story of Marilyn, but I just don’t like it.

6. Going back a bit to one of the first episodes of Smash, I was
thinking about when Julia said ‘Do we even need a Joe DiMaggio?’ when they were considering
Michael Swift to play him. Just as a bit of a random comment, I read into that
like Michael was her own Joe DiMaggio and she wished she could go back and just
erase that part of her own story. But no, she can’t. I was disappointed when
they fired him, because I thought he was excellent in the role. I know there
was personal stuff going on but I just really liked him playing DiMaggio. But I
didn’t like the character Michael as a person. It gets to me when people get
all personal about those things, so I’m a little bit on Derek’s side with this
one.

7. I don’t
find Derek attractive at all, or Michael. Dev is sort of attractive but in a
snobby way. If he just stood there and didn’t say anything I would be happy.
Being a big science nerd, I like Frank.

8. Leo’s character
really confuses me. He seems very emotional and slow for a teenager and I just
find that odd. I mean, they’re all a bit dopey at that age, but still. I can’t
tell if it’s the acting or the way the character is written, but it doesn’t
seem very natural to me.

9. I do
not understand why they auto-tuned the song that Karen and Ivy sung together
while they were drunk. It was in the middle of the street, there is no way it
could have sounded like that. I don’t want another show like Glee where these
songs just pop up and are amazing and auto-tuned and seem to happen for no real
reason. I preferred those songs where it was natural, like with Ivy rehearsing
to herself in the mirror and things like that. If you want to make a show that’s
real, stop giving us all this fake stuff.

10. I
know that nobody likes Ellis (Sneaky Bastard) but I think the story is great
with him. He is made to be unlikable and make the story more interesting and
intense because we know that something is going to happen because of him. He’s
a pot stirrer. It makes it easier for the more dramatic scenes to come into
play.

11. All the
guest stars so far have been amazing, really good. But I’m not looking forward to
Uma Thurma. I just don’t enjoy watching her. I can’t even really explain why, I
just don’t.

12 Now I want
to have a wedding, just for the cake. It sounds amazing.

I have
lots of other things that I could rant about but looking back now I think I
should probably stop… I have no friends who watch the show so I really have
nobody to talk to about it. So you’re probably going be seeing a lot comments more
from me!

One last
thing quickly! Mitch, you speak really quietly. I’m not sure if it’s the fault
of a microphone you’re using, but sometimes it can get a bit hard to hear and
it’s sad because you say interesting things and sometimes I miss them because
you are quiet! I also miss Coty, but Megan is amazing. Mitch and Jess are
amazing as well, and so was Roxanne when she was on a few episodes back. And I’ll
be quiet now…
- Mitchel Clow
  
  Wow! Thank you so much for all of your wonderful feedback! I highly enjoyed reading it all, and look forward to reading your comments in the future.
  
  And not to worry, I will speak up louder and turn up the volume on my recording from now on =] Feedback like your’s really helps our show to grow and become a better place!
  - http://twitter.com/megan_stoll Megan Stoll
    
    Thanks for all of the great feedback, Ocy! You have some really well thought out opinions! :)
- http://twitter.com/jessoneal84 Jessica O’Neal
  
  WOW! This was awesome! Thank you so, so much for taking the time to write all of this out. You have some really great insights (I especially liked what you had to say about the purpose of Dev and the DiMaggio bit). Interesting take on Derek and Ivy…I will definitely have to chew that idea over. And I agree, while I HATE the Sneaky Bastard, I am glad that he is on the show. He is the character I love to hate, sort of like Umbridge.
  
  I look forward to reading your comments on future episodes! Thank you so much for listening. :)
Ocy

Oh, something that I forgot to mention. I download the podcast from iTunes and a lot of the time there is this strange little snippet right at the end that sometimes doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’m just wondering if that’s supposed to be there of if it’s accidental…
- Mitchel Clow
  
  Haha funny you should mention that. I intentionally choose random moments to put at the end of some shows as a sort of “bloopers” reel. Got the idea from what Mugglecast used to do.
StarKiddie

THANK YOU FOR THE ITUNES RANT!!!! It’s literally been bugging me for sooooo long, I really want the 52nd street song!!!! RRRAAAAAWWWWWRRRR!!!!!
- Mitchel Clow
  
  Thank you! Glad someone else feels so passionately about it!
StarKiddie

Oh- and I did jazz hands:)
- Ocy
  
  So did I!
http://twitter.com/ducadiposa Gianmarco Segato

Whew…finally caught up with tout Smash…haven’t listened to your commentary yet but…wow, what an epi! Very strange to see Karen and Ivy sort of socializing, but despite their fun, I’m very concerned for Ivy. The creators of the show have structured this so well as I’d imagine it was much the same for Marilyn’s admirers…such great talent which appears to be going down the tubes in the face of substance abuse. The s.b. has stooped to an all time low in the obviously implied sleeping with the agent scene….wow, this is very brave for a big network I would say! Love that Tom and Ivy’s friend (Sam?…can’t remember his name) seem to be on the verge of hooking up. This show gets better and better from a dramatic viewpoint…I didn’t expect Julia’s storyline to get soooo serious…I think Messing is really showing what great talent she has.
http://jeff-dodge.blogspot.com/ Jeff D.

Did you actually think that Ivy singing “Breakaway” was not auto-tuned? That’s not how I felt. Yes, it didn’t sound like a robot, but the voice did not sound like Megan Hilty; it sounded too high-pitched, a little too pop-sounding. I love this song, because it’s a Kelly Clarkson song, but they made it too pop sounding mainly because of the higher-pitch, moreso than the original.
http://twitter.com/ducadiposa Gianmarco Segato

I’d love if someone can explain exactly what is “autotuning”. I’m a singer, but in the classical world, and it’s a foreign concept here! I’m taking that autotuning can only be used for pre-recorded performances that are then lipsynched? Surely not on live Broadway itself?
- http://jeff-dodge.blogspot.com/ Jeff D.
  
  I’m sure someone can explain it better than me, but I’ll give it a shot. Autotuning is when the producers/mixers take the audio recording of a song and edit, touch it up, make it as perfect as possible. When you listen to an album, there’s a reason why nothing sounds off-key; it’s because in editing, they’ve perfected the vocals.
  
  But in recent times, auto-tune has really gotten a bad rap, because it’s been overused a lot. A lot of people complain about the auto-tuning done on Glee, when the vocal might not sound completely like the person singing it–that’s usually because they went a little overboard on perfecting it.
  
  And if you’re listening to a track and it sounds a little computer/robot-like, it’s been auto-tuned. And Auto-tune has almost become its own art form, with many in the hip/hop and rap communities purposefully using Auto-tune as part of songs, for creative reasons.
  
  You know how someone like Britney Spears doesn’t sing live? She always lip-sync’s? Well, when she’s performing and you listen to the vocals, it obviously sounds auto-tuned; that voice would not sound that way if she was actually singing live.
  
  There is a way to do auto-tune live, but you would have to have some sort of a special effect running through your microphone, so that when you speak or sing into the mic, it’ll sound strange.
  
  So to respond to your final question, Broadway is done live (unless of course they did something with it as part of the storyline).
  - http://twitter.com/jessoneal84 Jessica O’Neal
    
    That pretty much covers it all. I don’t know if you have ever seen the software used to auto-tune vocals, but it is crazy. You can literally take the pitch of a note sung and change it to whatever note you want. Most of the time it is used to just correct small imperfections, but as Jeff said, there is a growing trend to make things more obviously auto-tuned as a sort of sound effect.
    - http://twitter.com/ducadiposa Gianmarco Segato
      
      Thanks Jessica!
  - http://twitter.com/ducadiposa Gianmarco Segato
    
    Thanks – that covers it!

Smash Chat Episode #11 – Never Too Late for Dessert

Smash Chat
Episode #11 – Never Too Late for Dessert