Episode 43 features Ilana Levine, host of Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine and a star or stage and screen.
We discuss the magic of live performance, creative conversations, nervous energy, and so much more.
During the episode we cover:
- Theatre
- Live Performance
- Podcasting
- Community
- Passion Projects
- Storytelling
- Creative Conversations
- Demystifying success
- And much more…
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine
New evidence of the benefits of arts education
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:22:25
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent Palmer dot com. Breaking the chains is an easily digestible history of spaceflight before NASA. A track by track look at Guster’s classic album Lost and Gone Forever. And this podcast’s first clip show seems to have been well received. This is The Palmer Files episode 43 with Ilana Levine, host of Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine, a star of stage and screen.
00:00:22:34 – 00:01:01:52
Agent Palmer
We discussed the magic of live performance, creative conversations, nervous energy, and so much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:01:56 – 00:01:32:53
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic. Also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 43rd episode is Ilana Levine, a stage and film actress whose own podcast, Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine, is worth your time, especially if you listen to me every other week. We discuss her show during this episode, but know that it is a weekly show featuring artists and their journeys, and I assure you, of the over 200 episodes, there is someone you know or whose work you enjoy among her guests.
00:01:32:58 – 00:02:07:03
Agent Palmer
But enough about her show. Let’s talk about what you are about to hear on this episode of this show. Of course, we talk about podcasting. It’s what happens when podcasters get together, but we also talk about theater and live performance, creative conversations and demystifying success, passion projects and much, much more. Before we get going, remember that if you want to discuss the episode as you listen or afterwards, you can tweet me at Agent Palmer, my guest, Ilana Levine at Ilana Levine, that’s Ilana Levin and this show at The Palmer Files.
00:02:07:07 – 00:02:34:28
Agent Palmer
You can listen to Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine wherever you get your podcasts or visit Little Known Facts podcast.com. Don’t forget, you can see all of my writings and rantings on Agent palmer.com. An email can be sent to the Palmer files at gmail.com. So without further ado. Quiet on the set. Cue the music and Showtime.
00:02:34:33 – 00:02:58:27
Agent Palmer
Ilana, I will admit that even just as a periphery person, there is some. There is a magical place on the stage. And I say that because I was never on it. You have spent time on the stage and a lot of time talking to people that have performed on the stage. Why is the stage such a magical place?
00:02:58:31 – 00:03:35:14
Ilana Levine
You know, that is such a great question. There is something about live performance. And, and obviously that’s not just Broadway. That that is so many different kinds of venues and so many different kinds of artists creating something. But unlike, you know, I’ll speak from my own perspective when you are an actor doing film and television, you can be really, committed to your performance and so pleased with your performance, or so you think.
00:03:35:14 – 00:03:52:40
Ilana Levine
Okay. And you have, you have. Or at least it felt like you did what you wanted to do. Let me let me just preface it by saying that. And then and then the director and the editor take over and sort of it’s their vision of what the final piece of art that goes out into the world looks like.
00:03:52:41 – 00:04:17:34
Ilana Levine
So from, from a purely like ownership perspective of the work, for better or worse. And there are so many mishaps that happen all the time on stage of course. And you can’t cut and start again, but it is one of the only places that the creator of whatever art is being made has 100% full ownership and accountability.
00:04:17:39 – 00:04:49:05
Ilana Levine
So I, I will speak to the sort of when you say, what, what is it there certainly about from a performance standpoint, you fall, you know, you you may you may raise the sword or die on the sword, but it’s yours and it’s never the same. It may be the same words in the same set, but every time a new audience comes into the community of the work you’re creating, it’s it’s just alive and new in a different way.
00:04:49:05 – 00:05:38:50
Ilana Levine
And it’s so unpredictable and and so a it never gets boring. Be it’s always challenging in new ways. And there’s something about humans who, you know, we and that’s why this year, you know, we’re speaking in March of 2021. This episode will live forever. Obviously, we’ve been so isolated and so unable to come together as a community. But there’s something about not just being the performer, but I’ve had the experience where I start connecting to a person I’m sitting next to who is a complete stranger in the theater watching the same play or musical, and then suddenly we’re having some kind of connected experience together because we are moved by by the same thing,
00:05:39:04 – 00:05:45:30
Ilana Levine
even if our histories and stories and lives had nothing in common, you know, on paper.
00:05:45:35 – 00:05:47:03
Agent Palmer
So, yeah.
00:05:47:08 – 00:05:50:05
Ilana Levine
That is what comes to mind.
00:05:50:10 – 00:06:24:44
Agent Palmer
I, I, I, I I’ll be honest, I lost it a bit because I was a member of the crew in middle and high school, even through college. And then it just disappeared for me. And I, I’ve never felt the need to go chase it again, although, although I get just as nervous sitting down to do this podcast as I did on on show nights and I this is mine.
00:06:24:45 – 00:06:39:52
Agent Palmer
When we talk about ownership like this is mine and I give final edit and I still get butterflies sitting down with you or I. I’ve had some of my closest friends on is past guests. I’m still nervous.
00:06:39:57 – 00:07:13:25
Ilana Levine
You know, part of that I think about it is just in general, when we don’t know the outcome of something, when we when we have maybe control of certain aspects of the thing, but we don’t know, you know, what it’s going to be. The butterflies, I think, are. Thrilling. You’re alive and and all of like, every fiber of your body, all of that energy is a because you care about the thing, right?
00:07:13:25 – 00:07:34:40
Ilana Levine
You want it. You want your guests to have a great experience. You want it to be, something listeners, get something out of. In the end. You want to do a good job. I mean, they’re all the things that go into anything that we make. But I think any time I have that feeling in my body and I don’t mean to romanticize it because nerves are a drag.
00:07:34:47 – 00:07:54:45
Ilana Levine
Yeah. But but I think it it for me, it always alerts me to, oh, you care about this, you’re doing something that you care about, and you want it to be good. And that makes sense to me. You know, you’ve done so many episodes, it makes sense to me that you would still feel that way each time because you don’t know what’s going to happen.
00:07:54:50 – 00:08:04:04
Agent Palmer
So. Oh, so, so does this mean you. So you’ve given me my out, right? Like so. When I don’t get the butterflies, that’s when it’s time to hang up the microphone.
00:08:04:04 – 00:08:24:58
Ilana Levine
It’s time. Yeah. Or just that day. I don’t know if you have to hang up the microphone, but it means. But you know, even these passion projects, there are still days where it feels like you don’t want to go to work, even though you choose to do it because you’re things are going on in your life. And this might not be the exact mood you’re in.
00:08:25:03 – 00:08:30:38
Ilana Levine
Or, you know, we still have our lives. We still have things that are getting in the way.
00:08:30:43 – 00:08:55:52
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean, as a passion project goes between this and the blog, you know, I, I recently rewrote my about page because I hadn’t done that. I can’t remember when. And it was in rewriting it that I learned I learned like, and this is going to be one of those like this coming November, I my blog turns ten.
00:08:55:57 – 00:08:57:18
Ilana Levine
Right? Wow.
00:08:57:28 – 00:09:32:27
Agent Palmer
I can’t say that I’ve been excited every time I’ve hit publish, or excited every time I sat down to write. But looking back like I’m excited I still have it. Yeah, but it is kind of weird that, like, I’ve got a passion project that turns ten, right? Like that’s to me, that is so mind blowing because I’ve had multiple jobs or not had jobs, I’ve had like thing people and places come in and out of my life.
00:09:32:27 – 00:10:14:01
Agent Palmer
It’s just so weird. But it, you know, it’s mine, right? And. Yeah, I it leads me to a question for you, which is your podcast is yours. And it could also go on in depth ten years, 20 years, whatever it is, it vastly different for you coming from just being an ownership over your part in a play or your part on, on a, on a show where now, like you are the lead or co-lead, I guess because you’re guest.
00:10:14:01 – 00:10:26:26
Agent Palmer
Right? And but you’re also the producer and the director like you are the Alpha and the Omega. You are everything. Is that has that been an adjustment for you?
00:10:26:31 – 00:11:05:51
Ilana Levine
You know, I started out in a theater company, in New York City called Naked Angels that still lives and, and has had a lot of, success in terms of its writers and actors and producers sort of growing and becoming sort of worldwide names. But when that company first started, we all, you know, I, I joined as an actress, but I did a million other things in terms of, you know, building this company and, and just wanting to be helpful in all sorts of ways, whether I was in the show or not.
00:11:05:52 – 00:11:28:10
Ilana Levine
And so it was also an opportunity for those of us who did one thing professionally in this theater home that we created to try on all different sorts of hats, or in and around the world of theater, from producing to, you know, designing to directing to whatever it was you wanted to do or whatever gaps there were at any given time.
00:11:28:15 – 00:11:50:24
Ilana Levine
In our company. And early on, I realized the joy of having some aspect of control, because as an actor, you have there are so many things out of your control until you finally get the part that you get to do. And even then, there’s a lot, you know, someone else decides what you’re wearing and someone else decides where you’re standing.
00:11:50:24 – 00:12:13:34
Ilana Levine
I mean, there’s a lot of other people involved in the creation of that character, but I think I always and I started producing really early on, and I’ve produced some films. And so I, I found for me, it’s really great to sort of get to have this thing that I get to control all these different aspects of.
00:12:13:47 – 00:12:45:29
Ilana Levine
And also, scheduling wise, I have a family, and much of this podcast was born out of the desire to get to have really creative conversations with people I love to help demystify the idea of who who makes it and who doesn’t, sort of just to kind of constantly show people that even the, the, the artist and the sort of greatest artists of our generation kind of have all the same struggles, even around the profession that someone starting out has.
00:12:45:29 – 00:13:22:54
Ilana Levine
And I mean, this is I’ll circle back to your specific question, but this podcast, when you talk about ten years, it’s been almost for I had no intention. Someone came up to me and was like, do you want to try this? And I said, yes. And it was all very whimsical. But I realized after over 20 years of of being an actor and being in place for that long, the number of stories I had heard these really intimate stories in the dressing room, I just thought if I could share that kind of, truth about an artist’s life with other people.
00:13:22:59 – 00:13:46:17
Ilana Levine
It was something I wish I had had when I first started. You know, when I started out, there was no YouTube and there were no Ted talks and there wasn’t access to, you know, people’s inner thoughts and, and, and what it is to keep going in the face of tremendous adversity or why keep going in the face of tremendous adversity?
00:13:46:21 – 00:14:09:39
Ilana Levine
What is it? What is this burning desire to tell stories, which is what you began this podcast asking about. So I think I don’t know how long I’m going to keep doing it. As long as there are people who are getting joy out of it, and are listening to it and getting something from it, it’s a pretty joyous thing to do.
00:14:09:39 – 00:14:32:55
Ilana Levine
It doesn’t. It doesn’t, keep me from doing anything else I need to do. And it carves out time every day for me to just focus on something that I care a lot about. And to connect with people, especially this year during the pandemic where we couldn’t see each other. It kept these conversations going, and I needed them selfishly.
00:14:32:59 – 00:15:06:50
Agent Palmer
Well, that’s part of it. I, I look at actors in a general sense, but also create professional creatives is what I will call. I look at them the same way I look at sports, professional sports figures. Right? Because, you know, while I’m I don’t want to put podcasting on the same spectrum as, say, like a recording or like an actual recording artist or somebody who makes a, a, a movie for a studio or, you know, a television sitcom.
00:15:06:55 – 00:15:30:12
Agent Palmer
But I look at those people in a, in a, in a way that, well, lots of people play well. We’ll use basketball. Lots of people play basketball in high school. And then fewer of them play in college, and then fewer of them go to wherever they go. Maybe they don’t get drafted, but they they go a semi-pro route and they eventually maybe work their way up.
00:15:30:12 – 00:16:01:40
Agent Palmer
And that’s not dissimilar to some of the stories that have been told on your show, where there are tons of people like me that were part of either on the stage or behind the scenes in middle and high school, and then there’s fewer of them when they go to college, and then what happens? Like, I just kind of I just left, right, like, I, I, you know, I came back, I, I, I see podcasting as me coming back to it like I’m, I ran a board 20, you know, decades ago.
00:16:01:43 – 00:16:25:05
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Multiple actors on a stage. Now I get to run one for me. Right. Like it’s so small. But I, I look at them in the same light and having gone down a road of, I don’t know, I I’ve always been a fan of the behind the scenes, which is like a big part of your show.
00:16:25:05 – 00:16:25:56
Ilana Levine
But yeah.
00:16:26:00 – 00:16:53:59
Agent Palmer
I’ve, I’ve read I’ve been a very big biography reader of late, especially autobiographies. Love it when it’s just told from like the person telling their story. And it doesn’t matter. Like professionals are, are they all have that same journey and they maybe some seem easier than others, but you still got they all still have to put in the work and.
00:16:54:03 – 00:17:07:36
Agent Palmer
I, I keep going back to the same things. I always go back to baseball in the spring. I always go back to West Wing every couple of years and rewatch it like I am so much a creature of habit, that.
00:17:07:38 – 00:17:09:12
Ilana Levine
It’s like comfort food.
00:17:09:17 – 00:17:28:13
Agent Palmer
Yeah, it really is. And I have to tell you there, I’ve been keeping track of, like, so you’ve collected some of my favorite actors from the television show. Ed, you haven’t got them all yet, but I keep I’m like, mom, maybe she’ll get, you.
00:17:28:13 – 00:17:31:19
Ilana Levine
Got a point. Michaela in black and John Slattery and Slattery.
00:17:31:19 – 00:17:31:33
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:17:31:44 – 00:17:32:32
Ilana Levine
Yep. Yeah, yeah.
00:17:32:36 – 00:17:33:16
Agent Palmer
And then.
00:17:33:16 – 00:17:34:30
Ilana Levine
I in West Wing.
00:17:34:35 – 00:18:04:33
Agent Palmer
At West Wing a lot. Yeah yeah yeah I and what’s funny is I recently spent some time putting together like all of my comfort TV shows. And maybe I’ll write about it, maybe I won’t. But what I found out was there’s an there’s a period of time where NBC was clearly my network like bar none, because it had scrubs, West Wing and Ed all on concurrently.
00:18:04:38 – 00:18:28:50
Agent Palmer
And I didn’t realize that because some of these shows either I came to after the fact or, but it amazes me that that’s a thing I can take a look at. And then I go down that rabbit hole of like, all right, well, yeah, I rewatched West Wing, but now I’m going to go like, let’s let’s see some interviews, let’s find out what else is.
00:18:28:55 – 00:18:45:41
Agent Palmer
But we all want to know more I yeah I feel like that’s the it’s it’s kind of like the human nature. Like we all want to I don’t know, find out how it works. Maybe not to the extent of like how does my car work.
00:18:45:45 – 00:18:46:51
Ilana Levine
Right.
00:18:46:55 – 00:18:47:31
Agent Palmer
I think, you.
00:18:47:31 – 00:18:48:34
Ilana Levine
Know, some people.
00:18:48:34 – 00:18:48:56
Agent Palmer
Some.
00:18:48:56 – 00:18:51:08
Ilana Levine
People do car talk, but. And,
00:18:51:13 – 00:19:01:17
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but we do want to pick and choose our battles, right? So we come in and I go, well, I want to know more about John Slattery. So yeah, I’ve got a place for that.
00:19:01:17 – 00:19:03:07
Ilana Levine
And yeah.
00:19:03:12 – 00:19:34:26
Agent Palmer
I, I, I have my favorite actors, same as I have my favorite athletes. I don’t, I don’t think it’s any different. Do you, do you find similar stories when you talk to these people? Because obviously it is in that kind of pyramid way, like everybody’s got, give or take, and I don’t want to get political with public school and arts, but like, give or take, everybody’s got the same equal access relative, relatively equal access in high school and middle school.
00:19:34:31 – 00:19:43:31
Agent Palmer
And then continuing it in a professional way. Everybody’s got a similar story, right? Give or take.
00:19:43:36 – 00:20:10:34
Ilana Levine
Well, you know, it’s funny that you say that because I think generationally it it it changes because that definitely if I look at my, you know, like the Julianne Moore’s The Slattery’s Allison Janney, Uma Thurman, like I’m thinking of certain people who’ve been on the show who who are sort of around the same age, Allison, a give or take a few years.
00:20:10:34 – 00:20:45:37
Ilana Levine
Sure. All of those people who were public school kids, did have arts in their school. Julianne Moore was an Army brat. And so for her, the thing that was amazing, whether she was, you know, whether her family was stationed overseas or in the U.S., anywhere there was a theater department, she could meet people. So whether she was somewhere for a year or if they were stationed for for a number of years, it was sort of like, you know, the way some people fight a poker game wherever they are and speak the language of poker.
00:20:45:42 – 00:21:24:23
Ilana Levine
That was a place for her, a touchstone. Because ironically or not, many actors are super shy in person, and these characters are a place for them to hide, or come alive without the self-consciousness that they have in their real lives. And so the theater, theater programs, the auditorium, you know, there are a number of people who talk to me about how even if they wandered into the, auditorium in their school by mistake, happened to, like, looking for the gym and ended up in the auditorium and started watching what was going on.
00:21:24:23 – 00:22:04:20
Ilana Levine
Suddenly, whether they felt like they could do it or not, whether they decided they wanted to be backstage versus on stage, they saw a community of people being incredibly kind to each other. And having a great time making something. But I but in terms of the generational thing for, for the, you know, I have a lot of younger stars on my show also, and for them, you know, they didn’t all have the kind of theater, programs going on in their schools.
00:22:04:20 – 00:22:38:58
Ilana Levine
Things have been funded, defunded, late. Yeah. But then so they found it, you know, in their community theaters, you know, or wherever they found it. But then YouTube becomes like an asset, an entry point for a lot of younger. I mean, it’s interesting how the internet and technology has created a lot of opportunities and access to information and, and, you know, but a lot of those kids just started making video content on their own, not not necessarily coming through theater.
00:22:39:03 – 00:22:53:14
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean, I, I, I’m lucky enough that I lived grew, I grew up close enough to New York City that there were middle high school and even college trips to New York City.
00:22:53:19 – 00:22:54:47
Ilana Levine
And would you see a Broadway show.
00:22:54:59 – 00:23:01:08
Agent Palmer
Most of the time, unless it was like, oh, we’re going to the, Statue of Liberty.
00:23:01:15 – 00:23:01:38
Ilana Levine
Or whatever?
00:23:01:38 – 00:23:23:31
Agent Palmer
Yeah, yeah, unless it was a museum. Yeah, yeah, we we we went to shows and I’ve in preparation for this particular conversation, I’ve been trying to see if I can remember any of those shows, and I can’t like, I, I can’t I think, like, I honestly believe one of them must have been Phantom of the opera.
00:23:23:38 – 00:23:24:35
Ilana Levine
Sure.
00:23:24:39 – 00:23:43:26
Agent Palmer
I think I would have remembered seeing cats and, I would have remembered seeing rent because I well, I wasn’t the biggest theater slash musical nerd. I hung out with them. Yeah. So having.
00:23:43:26 – 00:23:43:54
Ilana Levine
Loved it.
00:23:44:08 – 00:23:57:21
Agent Palmer
Having never actually seen rent on the stage or the screen, I still know way too many of the songs because we were when we were driving around, they would have it blasting in the car.
00:23:57:32 – 00:23:58:58
Ilana Levine
Of course. Yeah.
00:23:58:58 – 00:24:30:39
Agent Palmer
And, and so I, I can’t remember, but I do know that there is something special about live performance. And I go back to I started, I don’t, I don’t know what you would call it, going down the rabbit hole of like classic shows and in, in terms of like, I’m, I’m a big fan of biographies because most people will be like, well, so and so in really heavily influenced me.
00:24:30:39 – 00:25:02:19
Agent Palmer
And then I go, oh, well, I’m going to read that book next, right? Like and I started to pay more attention to what shows influenced other shows. So I’ve been rewatching Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Right. I and and and now that the Muppets are on Disney Plus, the original Muppet Show, having rewatched a good chunk of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, I see where the Muppets stole some stuff from Laugh-In and and seeing.
00:25:02:23 – 00:25:23:58
Agent Palmer
But but but I know those things were done live or live to an audience. You know, there weren’t there wasn’t so much producing like that was almost live to tape, basically. And it’s you can feel it based on, you know, by comparing it to like a sitcom now, like where it’s not live to tape or it’s live to whoever’s going to edit it.
00:25:23:58 – 00:26:12:17
Agent Palmer
Right. And there’s an energy. And the biggest cliche for it is music, right? Like if we all record together, like it will feel different. But you, you notice I like or maybe I’m paying more attention or because I’ve been consuming so much of this older media where it was live. Like I just feel it. I can tell, like the moment it starts, there aren’t all these cut takes like this is just done and it’s performed and my heart goes out to all those people because I edit this show not heavily, but I edit this show and I think my butterflies would be a thousand times worse if I didn’t know that I had a buffer.
00:26:12:22 – 00:26:37:45
Ilana Levine
You know, I, I would, I would venture to guess because I do, I did and will again a lot of live podcast events. Right. So there’s you can edit obviously the the final version before you put it onto, you know, Apple Podcasts and Spotify and all the places. But in the moment, it’s a live conversation in front of a live audience.
00:26:37:45 – 00:27:07:00
Ilana Levine
And I have to say that in some weird ways, those have needed the least amount of editing. Because there’s something about having that audience there, that makes you very conscious of the fact that whatever happens in the future, you can’t edit it in front of them. And I and I really, you know, I think you might love it.
00:27:07:00 – 00:27:28:40
Ilana Levine
Edit. It’s, you know, something you could put together where you are, but it it was it’s incredibly fun. I mean, I think it’s very comfortable for me because I’m a stage actress. And so doing these in front of an audience is not the strangest thing for me to do or the most uncomfortable, but it was, super fun.
00:27:28:53 – 00:27:30:50
Ilana Levine
I love doing that and I do it a lot.
00:27:30:52 – 00:27:34:18
Agent Palmer
Do you enjoy having the like? Because obviously, I mean, it’s.
00:27:34:18 – 00:27:39:22
Ilana Levine
Fun to hear laughs and it’s it’s fun to hear reactions and whatever the reactions.
00:27:39:22 – 00:27:52:01
Agent Palmer
Do you but do you play to the audience like you? I mean, okay, so you and I are having a conversation and it’s just the two of us, right? And you could play to an audience that doesn’t exist. I mean, we know they’re, you know, they’re somebody who’s your listeners.
00:27:52:01 – 00:27:52:32
Ilana Levine
Yeah.
00:27:52:37 – 00:28:16:15
Agent Palmer
But do you play when you’re in a live podcast setting and there is an audience as you know, at some point there will be again, like, do you end up, you know, like, let’s say, let’s put us in that scenario you’re playing to me as, as the, the other part, but are you playing to the audience as a, as an entity when they’re there differently?
00:28:16:20 – 00:28:44:23
Ilana Levine
That’s a really good question. I wouldn’t say playing to the audience in terms of like not looking at each other as we speak and, you know, I would think of it like, if you imagine a guest on a late night talk show, they’re inclusive of the audience. They are aware of the audience. We do a Q&A at the end so the audience gets, you know, their their time to be a part of the show in a very real way.
00:28:44:28 – 00:29:07:29
Ilana Levine
So I would, I would say it’s, it’s the closest thing to that, that, that, you know, if, if someone is on James Corden, they are talking to James, but there may be something that happens in the audience or, you know, if you say, I’m from Alabama and someone from the audience, you know, who go, you’re like, you know, like you’re not immune or ignoring us.
00:29:07:29 – 00:29:34:11
Ilana Levine
So yes, I wouldn’t say play too, but it’s a very inclusive experience. And, and that’s the hope that people don’t feel like they are in audience to the conversation. For me, the goal of of the podcast, and it’s only possible to a certain degree because people aren’t literally having coffee with you and me or whoever my guest is, sure, but that they should feel like there isn’t a barrier.
00:29:34:26 – 00:29:40:14
Ilana Levine
That’s been my whole point, that there’s no us in them I want. That’s the vibe.
00:29:40:27 – 00:30:14:42
Agent Palmer
I’ve, I feel that in my own show because I try not to do too much homework because I don’t want people to get confused. So if, I mean, the obvious example would be, I, you know, set you up as a, as someone who’s been on the stage, and obviously whatever I did in the, you know, pre show, like intro is what I do there.
00:30:14:50 – 00:30:32:41
Agent Palmer
But I don’t want people to assume, I don’t want to assume knowledge that I know other people don’t have just because I did the homework. Right. Like if you had a book and I read your book, I read it, but I try and put all of it out of my head because I don’t want to be like, what?
00:30:32:41 – 00:31:00:09
Agent Palmer
When you were ten, what was that like? And have everybody who’s listening, who hasn’t read the book go, what do you mean? When she was ten, right. Because I’m not going to assume you’re going to explain it. I, I presume you’re going to answer the question. And I’ve tried to find this balance of trying not to be dumb, but also doing some homework because I want the audience to feel included.
00:31:00:14 – 00:31:14:03
Agent Palmer
But in that regard, I’m treating the audience as the person in the booth behind us at the coffee shop who’s just like, this is a great conversation. I’m just going to stay here and keep eavesdropping on them right?
00:31:14:08 – 00:31:16:26
Ilana Levine
Right, exactly.
00:31:16:30 – 00:31:41:36
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I and in that regard, it’s one of the things I love about podcasting because it’s, it’s it goes back to like what radio used to be, I think, and if you’re not, if you’re not looking for it or even if you are, I mean, you can find people yelling, but I, I just want stories. Yeah.
00:31:41:41 – 00:32:11:50
Ilana Levine
And also, I mean, I think it’s so intimate, you know, having AirPods or earbuds or however you listen or even if it’s just something you’re listening to while you’re cooking on your. Alexa. Yeah. It is I think storytelling and, and podcasting as a form of storytelling, it’s very comforting, you know, I mean, I think, you know, it goes back to when we were kids.
00:32:11:50 – 00:32:45:53
Ilana Levine
It’s a very familiar, soothing kind of way to, to to take in stories and content and, yeah, I feel so lucky to make one. I, I feel like I listen to them, you know, I listened to them before I started making one. I mean, they’re 1 billion more now than there were at the time. But I do feel like it’s been a great addition to the entertainment and, content world of content.
00:32:45:58 – 00:32:48:19
Ilana Levine
I think it’s a good thing.
00:32:48:24 – 00:33:03:32
Agent Palmer
So when, when were you approached to do your podcast and and if so, right, like you had been listening to them, were you like, what am I going to do?
00:33:03:37 – 00:33:24:39
Ilana Levine
I did I did think that. And then I thought, you know, they tell new writers sort of right. What, you know, when you’re beginning. And I thought, what what do I have access to? What do I feel at all like an expert in or close to, you know, what have I put in my Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours of an in.
00:33:24:39 – 00:33:46:45
Ilana Levine
And it’s been, in the world of of, you know, telling stories. And it all happened very organically. And and John Slattery, who you mentioned earlier, is an old friend of mine and. Right when I was sort of pitched to to do a show and figure out what it was, I was with him. And he’s just so hilarious.
00:33:46:46 – 00:34:08:14
Ilana Levine
He’s just one of the best storytellers I know. And and when you’re starting something, it’s hard. You know, this was going to be, as it turns out, a celebrity interview podcast from a different angle. And, he was very gracious and agreed to come on, even though there was no show and there was no one I could go.
00:34:08:14 – 00:34:27:30
Ilana Levine
Well, you know, Octavia Spencer was already on, do you? You know, there was no one. I said, I’m there. And, and it it was so much fun. And it was so easy. I mean, I wasn’t a stranger. I’d done a million voiceovers, so. So it’s. Or every time you do a film or movie, you do ADR, which is when you have to go back.
00:34:27:30 – 00:34:52:43
Ilana Levine
And for those of you who haven’t done it, you if the sound quality wasn’t good on the day of the shoot, you go in and you try to recreate your performance. And I’ve done books on tape, so I’ve always loved the form of being an audio only actor when when given the chance. So the technology part was not, scary to me.
00:34:52:48 – 00:35:15:40
Ilana Levine
And when we were done, Slattery was like, wow, you’re like a female Howard Stern. And I thought that was the strangest thing. I was like, I don’t know what you mean. And he’s like, I just felt like I didn’t know where this was going to go. But I always felt safe and like I wanted to go on the ride with you.
00:35:15:40 – 00:35:41:07
Ilana Levine
So I realized it wasn’t necessarily the raunchy, crazy, explicit stuff of Howard Stern, but just Howard is an incredible interviewer. Yeah. And so to be told early on, and man, I had a lot to learn still. So I appreciate his having said that. And it was quite a confidence booster, but it it took a while for me to kind of understand the narrative deeply.
00:35:41:12 – 00:36:07:47
Ilana Levine
But I appreciated that. And it was a wonderful compliment when I realized what he meant, and it gave me some confidence to then ask the next person in the next person. And I just went through for the first hundred episodes, I think it was like all the casts I’ve been a part of in shows or, I mean, I’ve been doing this a long time, and I was in shows with a lot of people, so it it really kept itself going.
00:36:07:47 – 00:36:19:21
Ilana Levine
And then and then it got popular. So then publicists would reach out to me to have their guests on, and that opened up a world of people I didn’t already know, which was equally exciting.
00:36:19:23 – 00:36:21:35
Agent Palmer
Do you get starstruck at all?
00:36:21:40 – 00:36:47:35
Ilana Levine
I do get starstruck. I get inspired. What’s been really fun is, over time and my listeners really wanted to be actors, but I’ve been able to, like, bring in other creative people who don’t just act who I love. And so for me, I just feel like how how did you write that book? Like, whatever it is, I’m just like, it’s just so exciting to me.
00:36:47:48 – 00:37:12:23
Ilana Levine
I mean, I get crushes on everyone. I mean, especially hilarious people like Mike Birbiglia. They’ve just been people who’ve come on. And I’m the most happily married person to a brilliant actor, Dominic Cummings, who, if you look at his picture, he’s really handsome. He’s got all the things going for him. So it’s not crushes in any way that are, going to continue past the hour in the booth.
00:37:12:28 – 00:37:39:12
Ilana Levine
But I just sit there like, I can’t believe I’m here with Matthew Broderick, who’s doing his Marlon Brando impression for me, when Marlon had to have, like, an earwig in his ear to be told his like, it’s just hilarious. And, yeah, I just feel so grateful to be in the presence of people who are so willing to not do the typical late night prep package.
00:37:39:12 – 00:37:55:31
Ilana Levine
I’m promoting a specific movie, film or film, television show or play or book, but just to kind of get back to their origins story and see where it goes. And then to highlight this beautiful thing we’ve made that we’re we’re, you know, also talking about, see.
00:37:55:32 – 00:38:09:49
Agent Palmer
I don’t get crushes so much as I feel like, oh, we’re going to be friends for the next 20. Like I get like 20 minutes into it thing and I’m like, oh, we’re going to be friends forever. And I know that that’s not realistic. I well, some of these people, I.
00:38:09:57 – 00:38:10:17
Ilana Levine
Mean.
00:38:10:25 – 00:38:11:59
Agent Palmer
Some of these people I’ve just met.
00:38:11:59 – 00:38:18:21
Ilana Levine
I know I think that’s a much better way to put it, because crush sort of has other.
00:38:18:25 – 00:38:19:05
Agent Palmer
Yeah, other.
00:38:19:07 – 00:38:29:18
Ilana Levine
Characters about it. Yeah. And I think that’s exactly right. I think I feel like, how is it that we’ve just met and I feel like I’ve known you my whole life. I think it’s more that.
00:38:29:22 – 00:38:46:50
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No, it’s and and, you know, I mean, going back to me being nervous, I because I get nervous going into any recording. I don’t get starstruck like I’m already I’m already nervous enough it it’s trying.
00:38:46:50 – 00:38:47:53
Ilana Levine
To get your heart rate down.
00:38:48:07 – 00:38:56:40
Agent Palmer
There. It doesn’t matter. Yeah. It doesn’t matter who you are. My Fitbit’s going to be like oh okay. What’s going on.
00:38:56:45 – 00:39:09:27
Ilana Levine
What. Have a heart attack. I’m good. Yeah I get it, I get it. Well it’s been so fun talking to you. I feel like I heard you on, dark Angel.
00:39:09:31 – 00:39:13:39
Agent Palmer
Yes, I would, yeah, I was on Dark Angels a Pretty Freaks at one point.
00:39:13:45 – 00:39:32:00
Ilana Levine
Yes. Dark music, pretty freaks. I love those guys. And when they asked me to be on their show, I. I know that I heard you. I know I knew the Agent Palmer of it all from that when you reached out to me, I was like, how do I how do I know that? So thank you for reaching out.
00:39:32:00 – 00:39:37:00
Ilana Levine
I appreciate it all these years later to to reconnect through them. Well, we’re the sweetest.
00:39:37:11 – 00:39:49:58
Agent Palmer
Absolutely. And you know, back then, I didn’t even have my show. I mean, back then, I was just back then, I was just an annoying listener who was sending anybody who would read them emails for their show.
00:39:50:02 – 00:39:50:40
Ilana Levine
There you go.
00:39:50:44 – 00:39:51:34
Agent Palmer
That’s what I was doing.
00:39:51:34 – 00:39:57:33
Ilana Levine
There you go. It worked out.
00:39:57:37 – 00:40:01:43
Agent Palmer
You.
00:40:01:47 – 00:40:21:50
Agent Palmer
I could have spoken to Alana for the next few hours. And in some episode recordings of this podcast, that is what happens. I bring the show to a close. Stop recording, but keep talking. Which, to those of you who know me, isn’t a surprise. And to those of you who have been listening, it shouldn’t be. But back to the episode that you just heard.
00:40:22:03 – 00:40:43:01
Agent Palmer
Our connection is 100% due to Neil and on a lease of Dark Angels and Pretty freaks. And while I do this show for the stories, as Alana does with hers, we both want to create community, which is where our overlap with Neil and on a lease started. Those two have created a community that is wholly their own. We should all be so lucky.
00:40:43:05 – 00:41:03:57
Agent Palmer
And another thing Alana spoke about the generational differences in journeys, from first being a part of amateur theater to being on the stage, on or off Broadway, or lighting up a screen of some kind with a little time to think on that. I believe it’s not just in acting. I think generationally experience is very more now than they ever did.
00:41:04:02 – 00:41:32:09
Agent Palmer
The baby boomers had a fairly similar childhood to that of their parents and their parents and their parents, but generation X had a childhood that was unique, as did millennials and xenial or whatever we’re calling the youngest generation. Now, I will acknowledge that a good portion of those differences come from technology. As a member of the older generation in between Gen X and millennial, I can vouch for growing up with early technology of internet and computers.
00:41:32:09 – 00:41:58:16
Agent Palmer
But because it wasn’t widespread or even very powerful when compared to what existed for millennials, I pretty much associate my growing up with generation X, and while technology isn’t the only thing that impacts our stories, it is the one constant. Even if you didn’t have a computer in your house growing up, you remember having them in school at some point, or you remember your little sibling having them and you didn’t.
00:41:58:21 – 00:42:27:09
Agent Palmer
Technology allows us to have clear delineations in time. But and this is super unfortunate, as you heard, Alana state, the art in education also have a clear delineation. I grew up in a time when arts were being defunded, sure, but they weren’t disappearing and that is a big difference. Arts in education is important. Every year they get cut is another year that another study comes out saying how important they are.
00:42:27:14 – 00:42:57:51
Agent Palmer
A study done by the Brookings Institution found that a substantial increase in arts educational experiences has remarkable impacts on students academic, social, and emotional outcomes. End quote. And none of that should come as a shock. Unfortunately, a trope in American television is the school teacher or principal who attempts to fight the school board on standardized testing and make education about learning and not just regurgitating facts for a test that can make the school look good.
00:42:57:55 – 00:43:30:14
Agent Palmer
Making the case for comprehension over recollection. The other trope is the fight to keep funding for the band, or the arts or theater. Of course, being television, most of those schools can afford to allow the school board to make a fiscally poor decision because there aren’t real world repercussions. And most of the time, unfortunately, it is a poor financial decision to go against standardized testing or to keep funding the arts because test scores are like money, they talk.
00:43:30:19 – 00:43:59:48
Agent Palmer
This isn’t news, but if you want to help fight for arts education, I suggest taking a look at American Eyes for the arts.org. The arts are important not just to youth education, but it does start there. To borrow a quote from The West Wing in episode six of season three, Toby is defending the NEA, the National Endowment for the Arts, to someone and says that, quote, there is a connection between progress of a society and progress in the arts.
00:43:59:52 – 00:44:26:21
Agent Palmer
The age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias, the age of Lorenzo de Medici was also the age of Leonardo da Vinci. The age of Elizabeth was the age of Shakespeare. End quote. And he’s not wrong. So think about the importance of the arts in your life, and then think about what you are doing to ensure they are just as important to the next generation.
00:44:26:26 – 00:44:45:00
Agent Palmer
Thank you for listening to The Palmer Files episode 43. As a reminder, all links are available in the show notes. And now for the official business, the Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can tweet me at Agent Palmer, my guest, Ilana Levine at Ilana Levine.
00:44:45:00 – 00:45:15:39
Agent Palmer
That’s Ilana Levin, and this show at The Palmer Files. You can listen to Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine. Wherever you get your podcasts or visit Little Known Facts podcast.com. Don’t forget, you can see all of my writings and writings on Agent palmer.com and email can be sent to the Palmer Files at gmail.com.
00:45:15:44 – 00:45:23:44
Unknown
You.
00:45:23:49 – 00:45:35:45
Unknown
Need.
00:45:35:50 – 00:45:46:38
Unknown
To be.
00:45:46:43 – 00:45:50:17
Unknown
Even.
00:45:50:22 – 00:45:53:17
Agent Palmer
All right. Ilana, do you have one final question for me?
00:45:53:22 – 00:46:04:48
Ilana Levine
Can you remember whether it’s for middle school or high school? Any of the plays or musicals that you were crew on?
00:46:04:53 – 00:46:11:04
Agent Palmer
Okay, so I okay. High school, I remember we did.
00:46:11:05 – 00:46:13:20
Ilana Levine
You know, you look like you’re in high school right now.
00:46:13:20 – 00:46:18:28
Agent Palmer
Just remembering what I’m like. I’m candidly, you look 14.
00:46:18:33 – 00:46:20:00
Ilana Levine
Okay. Go ahead.
00:46:20:04 – 00:46:49:52
Agent Palmer
High school, I believe we did high school. I did Shenandoah one year. Because specifically, and, you know, this was the, the 90s. So we had just discovered the idea of a laptop portable computer. So there’s a there’s a scene where they’re in a tent, and we just had fun playing random sound effects that we found from the early internet during rehearsals.
00:46:49:52 – 00:47:05:59
Agent Palmer
Obviously not, but, yeah. In college I did, The Crucible and those are the I know I did others I like, I know there were others. Those are the only two I can remember.
00:47:06:03 – 00:47:12:06
Ilana Levine
And that’s okay. Those are both. Those are both. Very popular shows.
00:47:12:08 – 00:47:42:46
Agent Palmer
I I’ll say this, I remember the I don’t remember much of The Crucible except how it ends. I like I remember more weight, right. Like I that I remember and Shenandoah, I tried to block out of my mind because I remember for months after the cast party, I still had the songs in my head, right? Which is the it’s why I always preferred plays to musicals, because plays like, maybe you remember a line musicals, those are in your head.
00:47:42:51 – 00:47:48:51
Ilana Levine
That is why you have to do a lot of musicals, so that as soon as one is over, you can move on to the next one.
00:47:48:52 – 00:47:52:14
Agent Palmer
So that’s the so because I only did like three, that’s why I was.
00:47:52:17 – 00:48:00:23
Ilana Levine
That’s all you got. That’s all you got. But those are good ones. And I love seeing your brain working so hard to go back there.
00:48:00:37 – 00:48:09:24
Agent Palmer
I know somewhere in my house and I’ve been trying to, like, purge items and, like, clean and not go minimalist, but just get rid of stuff somewhere.
00:48:09:24 – 00:48:10:32
Ilana Levine
I can do it.
00:48:10:38 – 00:48:35:08
Agent Palmer
No, no, I couldn’t go that far. But I know somewhere and I didn’t throw it away. But somewhere. I have a thank you letter from a director from it might be Shenandoah, I don’t remember. I’d have to look at the year and, like, corresponded with yearbooks. But I do know I did see over the course of, like, going through stuff I thank you letter from from from way back when.
00:48:35:12 – 00:48:39:16
Ilana Levine
It’s a very gracious business.
00:48:39:21 – 00:48:40:54
Agent Palmer
I still remember.
00:48:41:01 – 00:48:41:52
Ilana Levine
The thank you.
00:48:41:55 – 00:49:02:51
Agent Palmer
I still remember everybody like I’m not I may not be in touch with them, but I still remember it. I will say this. It’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood. It’s a family. Whether you’ve done whether you’ve just been behind or on like I it it’s it’s in that way. It’s just like sports where like there’s a common language.
00:49:02:56 – 00:49:14:33
Ilana Levine
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah I know I miss it. I can’t wait to get back to it when, when we’re, you know, we’re back in theaters and, and public spaces in that way.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).