Mischief Makers Episode 4: Nancy Zamit
[Upbeat music plays]
Host: Welcome to Mischief Makers, your one stop shop for all things Mischief. Join your host Dave Hearn, as he finds out what makes Mischief... well, Mischief!Dave Hearn: Hello and welcome to Mischief Makers! I'm Dave Hearn, and with me, I have the utterly wonderful Nancy Zamit. AKA N. Hello Nance!Nancy Zamit: Hi Dave!DH: Hello.NZ: AKA D.DH: Yeah, the big D. So, as you know, this program is designed to help people get to know Mischief, and you are one of those people.NZ: Hi!DH: This is...what is this, our third attempt at this now maybe?NZ: Yeah, our third time.DH: Yeah, it's weird because I think you've been having some internet trouble, but we're persistent.NZ: Oh, yeah.DH: Well, it sounds like it's going well.NZ: I feel like it is happening. We're both really apprehensive, so we keep pausing for each other because we're assuming there's issues, but there's not.DH: Yeah. So, if you're listening to this and it sounds like we're tense, it's because we're waiting for it to cut out at any moment.[NZ laughs]DH: So that the whole thing could just stop. It would just be sort of two mumbling fools, cut out.NZ: It's going to be really goodDH: It is good.NZ: Really good, really fun and not at all tense or cuti-outie.DH: No, no, it won't be. Well, I don't know how much you remember from the last one, but I don't have it...I still don't have any jingles.NZ: Balls.DH: So, I'm kind of asking people to come up with some jingles.NZ: Right.DH: Are you happy to do that?NZ: Always.DH: Great! So, the first one...the first section is the Getting to Know You section. So, I just need like a little kind, of getting to know you three second jingle.NZ: Three seconds! That's so fast.DH: Or, you know, it could be...it could be long as you want really, it could be a minute if you want to go.NZ: I won't go on. Getting to know me?DH: Yeah. Just like a little jingle to header the section.NZ: All right. You just say when, and something will come out.DH: Okay. Go.NZ: [In a high-pitched voice] Oh! It's Nance! And she's a little girl![NZ and DH laugh]DH: What was that!NZ: I told you it wasn't funny! It was all panic![NZ and DH laugh]DH: That wasn't a jingle. That was just nothing! Well, remember that because we're going to use that to close the section as well.NZ: Absolutely not, no.[NZ laughs]DH: So log that. I mean, it is recorded so we can listen to it.NZ: Alright.[NZ and DH laugh]NZ: I don't think anyone should have to go through that again.DH: No, I think we're gonna put them through that again. I mean, I had to put everyone though Jonno [Sayer] screaming Get Up, because some people had requested that he records...you know his get out thing from The Lodge?NZ: Oh my god.DH: So, he recorded like an alarm.NZ: His poor wife now has to wake up to that every day! I reckon John's really weird at home, and shouts comedy things at her all the time.DH: Just like doing comedy...Yeah, Charlie [Russell] and I do quite a lot of comedy stuff.
Do you and Chris [Nancy's husband] do a lot of weird comedy?NZ: Yeah.DH: I feel like this is perfect for getting to know you, we're getting to know you and your weird life.[NZ and DH laugh]NZ: Thank you. I'm so glad it's on the internet.DH: Yeah, well, it's currently being stored there at the moment, but it will be released next week.NZ: No! Perfect!DH: So, the first question for you actually, about getting to know you is, what's it like being an actor and being a mum and a wife.NZ: And a wife. Oh boy! Well, the wife part is really easy because that's just nice and not religious. I don't really believe in marriage, I guess. But I really wanted to be with someone forever, so I got married so that's really nice.DH: Sure.NZ: The mother bit is really nice as well, because I've got a real nice son and he's not quite two yet. So he's at a really fun age where he's just warming sentences and sounds like a real idiot all the time, and it's really, really lolz.DH: Nice!NZ: Just doing it all at the same time with acting, you just need to have a really good support network, I guess, and my husband is absolutely amazing. He's basically allowed me to have... not like he's allowed me, like you can have a career if you like, but he's enabled it I guess.DH: Yeah.NZ: Which is really important. And luckily my son doesn't quite know where I go, so he doesn't understand that I leave him a lot yet, I imagine that'll get harder as he gets older.
Yeah, it's amazing but you need people to help you. It's like having two full time jobs, but they're both really amazing and really fun and really lovely, but you're really tired all the time.DH: Yeah. I was thinking about you this morning actually, because I woke up at like 5am maybe, and so I've been up since five and I just didn't really go back to sleep. And I was just like, oh, this must just be kind of just what happens to Nance every morning.[NZ laughs]NZ: Luckily, he sleeps really well, but yeah, eight o'clock is a lie-in.DH. Nice.NZ: But you just get really used to it, but you are just knackered a lot. But it's especially hard when it's theatre, because when you're doing rehearsal days it's kind of fine because you get home, put the baby to bed and you're on the same schedule. But when you're doing theatre, you start work at the end of your baby day, and then get home at 11:00 and then have to be up again in the morning. So, like that hour between 5pm and 6pm where you're like saying goodbye and then getting on a tube and then going into the theatre, you're like, hang on a minute I'm just starting another job, this is mad.DH: Yeah.NZ: But you know, it's what we do, we have more than one job. Loads of people do it, but it gets tough, it's a tough old sch-log. Especially when we're doing Magic Goes Wrong because I was mucking about with a baby all day, running around and then getting on stage and dancing. I was just constantly knackered; my body was exhausted. And then Herb [Nancy's son] wants to wrestle, run around or dance and you'd be like....Bahahaha.DH: And Magic [Goes Wrong] is a pretty intense track for you as well.NZ: Really intense yeah.DH: So I can imagine that and looking after a kid must be really hard.NZ: But it's good, cause it keeps you lively, keeps you moving.DH: Keeps you honest.NZ: Keeps you honest, yeah.DH: Keeps you honest! So, what advice would you give to actors who are thinking about starting a family, or not necessarily actors, but people who are self-employed.NZ: I got really good advice a couple years ago when I was thinking about it. This woman, Lucy Trod, who's from Showstopper, she'd just had a baby or had a baby a few years before. And I was like, how do you do it? and I was like, asking the same thing. And she was just like, just do it and it will work out. And it's so true, you just figure it out as you go. So my advice would be, that if you're waiting for the right time, there is no right time. I know everyone always says that, but it's really true. And if you want to have a kid, just have a kid, because you'll figure it all out and you kind of adapt, and everyone chips in and you'll be amazed by your friends and your family, on how much people want to help you. It's really lovely, it's a really amazing thing to bring people together. Go for it, that's my advice, go for it. YOLO.DH: So how did your, because presumably, like once you've gone for it and a kid is in the world, how does it shift your perspective and your priority?NZ: It just shifts on its own. You suddenly realise that everything you've been worried about is stupid, and you've got to look after somebody not dying.[NZ and DH laughs]NZ: It makes you feel like...yeah, it shifts everything. But I dunno, it's a very natural thing and it happens really slowly, and you've got months and months of being pregnant or your partner being pregnant to adjust almost. And then the first few years you're just in a bit of a crazy stupor, and you just adjust slowly over time, then about a year into having had the kids, you're like, oh actually yeah I've become a parent, and it's normal. And you think back on how you were, and it's just like from being a teenager to an adult, it's just another step that you've just taken.DH: Yeah.NZ: I don't know, because I don't know what it's like to not do it. So I imagine you go through a similar change when you're not a parent and you just age anyway.DH: Yeah, because I'm definitely different now to when I was twenty-five, and I wonder when I'm like forty-five, I'll look back on my thirty-one-year-old self and think about how different I might be.NZ: You'll be like what a dick that guy was![NZ laughs]DH: What an absolute D![NZ AND DH laughs]NZ: Yeah, I dunno whether it's over time, I dunno, it's hard to explain.DH: Do you find that now you're a parent, because I've asked you this before, and I think you must get asked it quite a lot, that you're always asked to predict what you think your kid will become.NZ: Oh yeah, mate. I get asked that so much, and it's such a weird question because you don't actually know. It's weird, I feel like, I don't know how other parents feel, but I always feel like I don't know my kid. I know that sounds bad, hang on.DH: Yeah.NZ: But when I was pregnant, I remember thinking, oh, there's this baby and it's so cute and we've got this bond or whatever. When I actually gave birth, I looked at him and I was like, who are you? Who is that? I don't know who you are, that is crazy, what a weird alien.
And it's only taken me just till about now, where he's started walking and talking and finding things funny and liking specific things, for me to gauge his personality. So, it's a really strange, you can kind of see it forming, and I imagine that parents of like 10-year olds, it must be so interesting to see your children develop into grown up people and have interests, and you can see their life panning out. So far, what I've got is, I feel like Herb might be an engineer because he loves fiddly things.DH: Great.NZ: So anything that's like intricate and needs dexterity and tricky little fingers, and the numbers. He loves numbers. So I feel like he's gonna do something that I really don't understand.DH: Sure. Do you not see him becoming an actor or following in your footsteps?NZ: I mean, it might well happen because he's growing up in a house with two actors. I feel like it's quite worrying actually, because he does this thing where he'll fall over on purpose, and I didn't teach him this.[DH laughs]NZ: But he'll go in the middle of a room and fall over and look up at you and go funny!DH: Great!NZ: Chris is really annoyed because he's like, what have you taught him? Why have you taught him how to be in Mischief? And it's like, I didn't teach him that at all, but he just finds falling over really funny. So maybe he's born to in Mischief, I'm not sure, maybe it's actually in our blood and we didn't realise.DH: Smart kid man, falling over is funny.NZ: He is funny.DH: That's all there is too it.NZ: He is genuinely really funny because he's a toddler and his bones are so bendy, so he can just fall over.DH: He's got such a malleable presence.NZ: Yeah. Yeah like some crazy fool.DH: But you didn't quite follow in your parent's footsteps, because your dad had a lot to do with music, didn't he? Then your mum was a sculptor, is that right?NZ: Yeah, they still going, both of them. My dad's a musician, my mom's a sculptor, but I mean, I kind of did because everyone's creative.DH: Yeah.NZ: It was funny, I've had the opposite of what people normally do about acting. That like the get a real job and have some stability and have some money or whatever. And I remember trying not to be an actor when I was like twenty-one, twenty, and my dad sitting me down and being like, what do you think you're doing? What the hell do you think you're doing! You're an actor, go and be an actor. I was like, oh I don't know, there's no stability and I can't earn any money in it. And he was like, no, you're an actor, you have to be an actor.[DH laughs]NZ: It's weird, I didn't really have a choice. They were like, you were born to do it, you've got to, so here I am.DH: I suppose it feels like, it's worked out quite well, so it feels like it was a good choice.NZ: Lucky. It's just lucky, isn't it.DH: Lucky you.NZ: Lucky. Yeah, lucky me. I've met all of you lot, that's the only reason it's worked out.DH: It's also because you've got some sweet pipes, mate. Some sweet singing vocals.NZ: So that's why I'm a good actor, because of my singing? [NZ laughs]DH: Because of that sweet singing.NZ: I don't have pipes. I'm just loud, small and loud.DH: Yeah, that's all we needed. The brief was out, we need a small, loud woman.NZ: Can take a good tumble.DH: Take a good tumble, yeah. And someone who can produce some Mischief kids.NZ: Sure. Who also take good tumbles.DH: Yeah. I hope he continues to take good tumbles.NZ: Mate, same. Well he's a haemophiliac, so he better not take any more bloody tumbles cause if he starts to grow up and takes tumbles, you know. He couldn't do what we do, because he'd be bruised all the time, it'd be terrible.DH: He'd just bleed out, oh no. Maybe he'll be a director.NZ: Yeah, sure, sure.DH: Put em in the back, wrap him in some pillows.NZ: Safe, wrapped in cotton wool.DH: Yeah. Well I think this is bringing us to the end of the getting to know you section.NZ: Ok.DH: So, we should close it off with that getting to know you jingle.NZ: You wanna hear some of my sweet pipes.DH: Yeah, let's get some of these pipes.NZ: Perfect.DH: Play that organ.NZ: I can't remember it now! My name's Nance, and I'm a girl or something![NZ laughs]DH: Yes, I believe it was your name and then your gender.[NZ and DH laughs]NZ: I was proud of my name.DH: Yeah. Name and gender said in a slightly sort of constricted way.NZ: [said in a tense voice] I'm a girl! Yeah, perfect.DH: Yeah. I was talking to John [Sayer] the other day and Hen [Henry Lewis], and I said we were trying to figure out what the title of the book of your life would be. Like one's life.NZ: I was really confused then, I thought you were all talking about what my life story would be called.[NZ laughs]DH: No, the book of your life. What would yours be called?NZ: Strong and wrong.DH: Drama?NZ: Strong and wrong.DH: Oh! I thought you just said drama![NZ and DH laughs]DH: So, that's a bad title. Strong and wrong is good, strong and wrong is very good. I think Henry [Lewis] said his would be living it large.NZ: That's great, of course.DH: And I said to John, would yours be called comedy through tension?[NZ laughs]NZ: What did he say?DH: Strong and wrong. I don't know, because we were just talking about it, because he sent me a video of something that he did, and was just like, is this funny? And I was like, I don't know, and he was like, nah I don't think it is. And I said, it's quite tense, are you going for comedy through tension. Yeah, I think you're probably trying to figure out where on the scale of funny it is.NZ: Yeah.DH: But it wasn't on it.NZ: I feel like you need to laugh though for it to be funny.DH: Yeah, well those are my favourite jokes, when we are in a room together and someone’s goes ok, what about this, delivers the punch line and everyone's silent and just goes, yeah, I think that is funny. Well it is good, but no one laughed.NZ: Yeah. You know that it's not a winner if people aren't laughing. What would yours be?DH: What would mine be?NZ: Permanent state of readiness?DH: Yeah, probably permanent state of readiness or D-Day.NZ: D-Day![NZ and DH laughs]NZ: That's great.DH: Ironically, do you know what I found out the other day? Not the other day, like many years ago, that my birthday, which is the 6th June, is D-Day.NZ: Shut up.DH: So obviously, D-Day linked to many lives lost in the war, but yeah, my birthday is D-Day.NZ: Wow.
DH: So that's the dream.NZ: That is amazing. And also, you can never really announce that can you? Well, you have done on this, but moving on...DH: Actually, let's move on to the next section, right. This one, we're gonna need another jingle. I'm going to give you some prep time now. There's a jingle coming up.NZ: I'm worse with prep time, if you can believe it.DH: Okay. So, this one is called Questions from the Web. Three, two, one, go.NZ: It's Tangley. It's jangly. It's questions from the tangled web![NZ and DH laughs]NZ: Can you tell I really tried?[NZ laughs]DH: It was that I could feel you a beat ahead of yourself losing confidence towards the end.NZ: I just didn't want to say tangled twice. It wasn't good enough.[NZ and DH laughs]DH: It's questions from the tangled web. So remember that, because that's going to be closing this section.NZ: I forgot I had to sing them again! It's so much work the second time.DH: Just say tangled 100 times, it'll be similar.NZ: Tangled, tangled, tangled, tangled, tangled web. What about that?DH: Jingle! Nice. Really nice. Ok, so this is the first question, I got these actually quite a while ago, and I was meant to write down the names of people that had tweeted these questions in, but I didn't.NZ: Shall we make up the names?DH: Yeah, absolutely. This is from @SusanCrest.[NZ and DH laughs]DH: And Susan has asked, what is the best thing about being in Mischief?NZ: This podcast.[NZ and DH laughs]NZ: Crest, it's how you pronounce the t, it's too funny.DH: Crest.NZ: Because I thought you were going to say creche. And then you didn't, you teed it and that floored me.[NZ and DH laughs]NZ: Best thing about being in Mischief, there's so many good things. The fact that we've known each other for a really long time, and you don't have to constantly get to know new people, and I'm not very good at that. I'm not a great first impressions gal, I think I come across quite mean sometimes, or like standoffish, I don't know, there's something, I'm not good at auditions for this exact reason. So, like, I enjoy the fact that people already know me, so I can be myself. But also, because we do comedy and that's amazing, to go to work and laugh with your friends every day. And because all of you guys...it's weird talking to you about it though, Dave, because it's like I'm complimenting you, so just ignore this. Right.DH: I'll take it.NZ: You're just the funniest people I know. I'm getting to go to work and laugh at really funny, talented people who are your friends, who understand your problems and are there for you, is a real privilege. So yeah, that's my answer, qquite serious.DH: No, that's really good. I think that's a really cool thing to enjoy about it that you get to work with your friends. Because I think there's lots of people who make it as actors but don't necessarily get to do that, they get to form maybe new friendships.NZ: I'd find it really hard.DH: Yes, because it's like starting new friendships. It's like starting the first day of school every time you start a new play.NZ: Yeah, I think I'd quickly be outed.DH: As a fraud!NZ: Hang on, you don't really want to come for a drink. I'd be like, no, I don't. I want to go and see my baby, let me go, I don't want to be at the pub.[NZ and DH laughs]NZ: Also, another thing is just performing the actual shows, like the audiences at Mischief shows are so amazing. And I think there's nothing quite like it really, and I think everyone that's done a Mischief show has said that. It's a real joy to perform all of them because there's so many laughs in them, it's just different from any other show or play that I've ever been part of. It's like really, really cool to perform them. I really, really miss performing Magic Goes Wrong at the moment. It's really sad.DH: Yeah, it's been a bit tough, isn't it? Do you think we'll go back into it? Or they'll just move onto a new cast?NZ: I dunno. I think we might do for a bit while they finish rehearsing, but it will be so funny to go back for a couple of weeks, all of us. Particularly me and Bryony doing that track, Friday, we're going to be so like, oh god! it's going to be hard.DH: That's going to be a shock to the system. Mate, I'll have to go back in the tank.NZ: Oh, that's awful.DH: Yeah.NZ: If we get called anytime soon, I can't do it anyway.DH: Yeah, how did you break your toe?NZ: It was so stupid. I just tripped over a chair.[NZ and DH laughs]NZ: My foot when one way and my little toe went the other.DH: Mate, that's bleak.NZ: It was horrible, it was so bleak. I was in the hallway of my house, and I was like oooww, and my husband popped his head through the hallway. He was like, what are you doing? Get off the floor. And I was like, I broke it, I broke it, I've broken it. And he was just like, yeah, just strap it up, just fucking...I'm sorry for swearing, excuse me. He didn't even swear. And he's not Australian. I mean, the whole impression was wrong.[NZ and DH laughs]DH: Yeah, it should be stated that he is from New Zealand.NZ: But he basically was like...DH: (in New Zealand accent), Just strap it up mate!NZ: Just walk it off and you'll be fine. Rugby, lads, lads, lads.DH: Absolute lads.NZ: All right.DH: The second question is from Ben Westbury, and Ben asks...it doesn't have to be Mischief related, but what are you most proud of so far?NZ: In my life? My whole life?DH: Yeah. Maybe it should be Mischief related, because I imagine it's...NZ: I'm definitely most proud of having a baby in my life. But Mischief related, I feel like that's really what people want to hear on this shindig, because otherwise what you're just listening to a woman being like, I gave birth you know![NZ and DH laughs]DH: [in a funny voice] Listen guys, I gave birth. That's all you're going to hear about for an hour.NZ: I'll sing it from my sweet pipes, I gave birth!DH: How about we change Ben's question to what's second thing you're most proud of?NZ: Don't do that. Just make it Mischief related.DH: Ok, Mischief related. What was your most proud Mischief moment?NZ: Winning the Olivier, that was bloody brilliant. But the one I thought of in my little brain before that, which I didn't say out loud, was and I always think of this, these three moments. The first one is when we were in Edinburgh doing The Play That Goes Wrong and we knew that we'd transferred to Trafalgar Studios on our run, and we'd sold out the run at The Pleasance, and we got transferred to that 350-seater in the Pleasance. And doing that show with one of the best things ever, ever, ever, because it was just like such an important shift for us as a company.DH: Yeah.NZ: The audience that was in that, I remember it was like loads of our friends that we've known for the last seven years doing Edinburgh’s, and it was just crazy supportive, and our tiny little set in this massive space was just so ridiculous. But it was one of the best things I think I've ever done, ever. The other one was the dress rehearsal on Broadway, because it was a similar thing, it was like all of the other Broadway shows and everyone was so supportive.DH: Yeah.NZ: It was crazy. It was crazy.DH: I remember finding that quite a weird experience, because I remember talking to Matthew DiCarlo, who for people who don't know him, he was the PSM on the show,
and he came to me before that dress run started, and he was just like, hey babe you excited? And I was just like, um yeah, I mean we've done like 900 shows and it's just a dress run, so yeah, I'll be excited when we open the show in earnest. And he was like, it's sold out, and I said what do you mean, there's usually like 20 people at a dress run, and he was like, no, no, no, 900 seats, every single one is full from the cast of Hamilton to Dear Evan Hansen, every show on Broadway. And I was really blown away by that support.NZ: Yeah. That was so crazy, that was amazing. It was really weird because it made the actual opening night kind of like, I don't want to say less good cause it wasn't less good, but it was like, we were spoiled. It was different, it was such a big sense of community in the theatre, and I don't think that we've ever really felt properly involved in the theatrical community in the way that we maybe should have done because we always work together. We're quite insular because we have been a company for so long that we're not like, I don't know, perhaps as connected as other companies are sometimes.DH: I know what you mean. I definitely speak to other actors and stuff, and sometimes jealous because I sort of speak to my friends who are actors and go, wow, you know so many other actors or casting directors or directors, and you're so on the pulse about what's going on.NZ: Yeah.DH: And I guess because we've just sort of always done things our own way, but yeah you sort of, well, I certainly feel a bit like, oh, wow, I'm not a very good actor, because I don't know all of this stuff.NZ: Totally, I feel exactly the same. Like Bry [Bryony Corrigan] and Roxy [Faridany] know so many people between them, they're always talking about different casting directors, different things, you know. And I would just sit there, do my makeup, I don't know what you're talking about if you're not talking about Shields or Hen or John or Charlie, I don't know anyone.DH: Yeah, I'm always surprised when more actors join, because you're like, there are other actors in the world! But that's a very good thing to be proud of, the dress run.NZ: I dunno, I just think generally it's just how we've made all of our shows, and the collaborative way that we've done that I'm just really proud of. I think crazy stuff, like when you see productions in other countries, I just went on holiday to Italy, not just now, but last summer, last time we had a holiday was August last year, and got off the plane in Rome and there was a massive poster of one of our shows, and it was the costume I had helped design back in the day, on some Italian lady in a show that I will never see, which I was just like, wow, that is crazy. And when you see a Hong Kong version or something, or just the artwork, it's like, really mad. That's kind of cool.DH: Yeah, that's really cool. I was really lucky, because I got to help out on the Hungarian version and I saw that like three times, all in Hungarian. And it's amazing how obviously you know, so much about what's going on but in a completely different language. Yeah, it's really amazing seeing it.NZ: I like seeing the audience for those shows, because you're like, man, I can't even speak to anyone. And I have no idea who you are or what you done, but it's like every little bit of our shows is made with love and care from us. And as soon as you let it go, it has its own little life and that's something really cool.DH: Yeah, I would say that's probably one of the things I'm really proud of, actually, is that we've all learnt... because this is a question we get asked quite a lot about how do you feel handing it over to another cast? And I think really early on it was a bit of a struggle, but actually now I'm much more like, oh, yeah, you guys go and make it better.NZ: When we first handed it over, it was handing it over to all our really good friends who were also like a big part of Mischief and that journey. So even though it was strange, but it wasn't too hard. It was quite a long time to not be like, that's not how.... does it. And it's funny because, you see other people doing that now like when they leave. It always happens to a cast when they leave shows, and the first time you watch the new cast do it, people. They don't get their backs up, but they're like, oh, it's not that. Whatever. And I just feel so like, yeah, I remember that feeling, but it's not relevant because...just give them a few weeks to bed it in and they'll create it into something completely different, and you might like it even more.DH: Yeah. I'm always really impressed by new casts coming in, because it always feels like such a big challenge to kind of pick up these shows. But they don't ever really feel like challenges to us because we're always there from the beginning. And then you speak to someone, you're like, oh, yeah, it is really hard, it is hard work because you haven't built in incrementally, you're just being given a play and told learn this. Yeah, it's really hard.NZ: It's so funny when people learn it, you get like everybody having the same realizations at the same time. So like a couple of weeks in, whoever's playing the Dennis, or something will realise exactly the rhythm that shoots them or whatever. You just see things click into place, and you'll find that everyone has a really similar journey. And I remember talking to someone from somewhere else in the world, I can't remember where, but just like having the exact same Annie journey and realising how to do the mantelpiece shtick, but with someone that I couldn't even speak the same language, was having the same, if you do that it gets a bigger laugh than this, and if you do that it gets a bigger laugh than this, the exact same things happen. I guess it's just interesting. And so, you know, everyone's going through the same thing and everyone's capable and it just works.DH: Shall we have a look at our next question?NZ: Yeah mate.DH: Which is from Simon Glib. And Simon asks, what act did you most enjoy performing in Groan Ups?NZ: Oooohh, man I dunno. I think maybe the last one, the third act.DH: As the adults.NZ: Because it was really fun to do, but also, we were rehearsing Magic Goes Wrong at the same time, so the first act used to really knacker me out because it was so physically full-on to be a toddler or a 6-year-old, sorry. Doing that tantrum just used to absolutely dead me every time, I'd get out from it, and be like Jesus![NZ laughs]NZ: I think act one, I really love doing, I love doing them all. And I remember I was quite a driving force in Act 2, so I used to get really knackered from that as well. And it was a lot of making out with Henry Shields, and his tongue and my tongue were deeply in each other's mouths. So, not like I didn't look forward to that every night, but it was quite hard to do every night, not that I don't love Shields, but like, I imagine he found it harder than I did, because I'm a rancid squid.[NZ laughs]DH: A rancid squid.NZ: If you just don't feel like, I'm sure every actor gets this, and every time anyone gets this with anyone, no matter what you're doing, but if you have to have an intimate moment with someone onstage, on the days that you just feel like keeping yourself to yourself, you've still got to go and shove your tongue down someone's throat, that's quite difficult. I remember, act three was exciting to play a strong, sharp witted lady who was like the villain. I really enjoyed playing the villain, that was fun.DH: Yeah. I kind of get like that idea actually of...because I remember definitely with The Play That Goes Wrong, obviously the character of Max being very open and happy and smiley, and on the days that you're just not feeling like that. I mean it's your job I suppose, you're an actor, but at the same time you're just a bit like, ah.NZ: I'm gonna be happy, but I want a nap.DH: Yeah. I just want to go to sleep.NZ: It's tough, when you just...when there's no private moment.DH: I think with those kinds of things as well, there's pressure. I know we put a lot pressure on ourselves early on, but there's definitely pressure on actors to freely relish what you have and enjoy what you have. I think, like, I'd love to be one of those people that's just like...because I do love performing and I love doing the shows, and I definitely love working with Mischief, but I really would love to be one of these people that's just like every single show is a gift. But sometimes they're not.NZ: Yeah. You know I used to be very... I mean, you know, I was very like that for years and years and years and years, but I just think I got a bit too tired.
NZ: I think doing the Magic Goes Wrong rehearsals and Groan Ups in the evening, with the baby, I got really like, wow, I don't know if I can physically do this for long, I don't think I could have done it for longer than we did it. So yeah, they were those days.DH: Yeah, that makes sense.NZ: You do stuff really, really, really bad because if you're onstage making people laugh, doing a job that literally thousands of people would give their right arm to do instead of you. So, to be like, I don't really want to do it today, you just feel like an arsehole. But actually, you're a human being and you're pushed to your limits and maybe, yeah, you don't want to do a tantrum or have a tongue in your mouth or eat a cupcake. The bloody cupcakes, eating that cupcake every day, some days I just didn't want to do it. But you know, you do.DH: Just shovel it down.NZ: Just got to shovel a cupcake in babe, don't ya.DH: Shovel it down babe, it's in the script, you gotta do it.NZ: Better than working in an office, for me anyway.DH: Jono said about when we were leaving Play That Goes Wrong, he said towards the end he was just like, I think if you do something, you know, five or six hundred times or whatever and you're still, every single day you love it and you still have that same energy you did on day one, I think you have an unhealthy relationship with it, if that's the case, just because I think after a while, it does become difficult and that's okay.NZ: You should have ups and downs. But I dunno, you know me Dave, what I was like on Play That Goes Wrong. It took me to near the end of the Broadway run to be bored of it, I held out for a very, very, very, very long time. And I knew that if I'd gone, that means most people had gone, but it kept me going. I'm really glad that I had the structure and the job because I had such a hard time in New York, I had such bad depression that I wasn't...there were some days where I really didn't want to do anything and I had to go and do a comedy show, and I did rely on it. It was really amazing, it was really, really, really amazing to do.DH: Do you think it made it easier?NZ: Yeah, definitely. It's incredible, it puts everything into perspective. And you're there making tons of people laugh, and that's just incredible to make sure that somebody laughs today, even if it's not you. That's nice and gives you maybe a little of hope. Possibly John [Sayer] is right, maybe it is completely unhealthy to have the drive, but I dunno, you've got to...I don't know what I'm talking about anymore.DH: No, I know what you mean. I'd have to ask John, but I imagine what he meant was that if you still feel like that, then that's great, but you're still kind of trying to force yourself to feel like that, that's not a healthy thing to do.NZ: Yeah, you definitely have to let yourself be a human being and relax. I think that is, going back to the first question or second question you asked me, that's what I've learned about having a kid, is to give myself a break and to know that I actually can't do everything. And it's better to say no to things because you can't do everything, than to try and do everything and let everyone down.DH: Yeah.NZ: And that's the main lesson. Since we've been on the lockdown, I have just not done anything. Like this is one of two podcast things that I've done, and that's it. I'm just allowing myself to just be a mum at the moment.DH: Yeah, and that's great. Well, we are approaching the end of our time here.NZ: Right, so I need to do that jingle again, I'll try to remember it.DH: Yeah, give me the questions from the web jingle.NZ: Web web web web web web web web web web. Tangled tangled Jangle jangle tangled web.DH: Nice. That was perfect. The final one is the final sort of section is the quick fire section. So, we'll do this.NZ: It's got weird, so we need a quick fire.[00:44:56] Yeah, we got quick fire to straighten this out. So, give us a quick-fire jingle. Three, two, one.NZ: Oh jingle! makes funny noise[NZ and DH laughs]DH: Nice. Okay, so you get the idea of quick fire, I'm going to ask you loads of questions, just answer them as fast as you can.NZ: Okay.DH: So, first question, here we go. What is your favourite colour?NZ: Green.DH: What is your spirit animal?NZ: A lion. Woo!DH: Nice. Who is the bossiest member of Mischief?NZ: Me.DH: Nice. Who is the most likely to corpse on stage?NZ: Charlie.DH: Nice. Is a Jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit?NZ: It's horrid. Don't eat them.DH: Good. What is your favourite film?NZ: Oh my god, that's such a hard question. Oh, Meet Me in St. Louis.DH: Yeah, quick-fire. Excellent. And who in Mischief would be the first person to die in a zombie apocalypse?NZ: Oh, God, I think it's me.DH: Sure. And finally, who is your comedy hero?NZ: Oh God. All of you lot, all of you. Mischief Theatre.DH: And that brings us to the end of the quick-fire section.NZ: Well done Dave.DH: I was waiting for your quick-fire jingle.NZ: Sorry. Sorry. Oh, everything jingle quick-fire! pow pow pow![DH and NZ laugh]DH: Very different, but that was good, I liked it a lot.NZ: Experimental quick-fire round.DH: Well, that's great. So finally, before we go, do you have any TV recommendations for people? Any kind of documentaries or anything that you think you absolutely have to watch this?NZ: Okay, I absolutely have. If you haven't watched Succession, I've just finished that, that is so great!DH: It's great, isn't it?NZ: It's so great and funny and the best, and I want to be friends with Greg so bad. I dunno, obviously there's the standard Tiger King, but is that old news now? I don't know. You know what I've been really enjoying, and this sounds very wholesome, but Jamie Oliver's little cooking program that he's doing from his kitchen...the meals are actually quite easy to make. TV, the Maradona documentaries, it's not recent, so that's not good. Oh, Sunderland Til I Die, it's about football. I don't know if this is the right crowd to plug that, but Sunderland Til I Die is really good.DH: Very good. Well, Nancy Zamit, thank you very much for talking to me.NZ: Thank you very much, D. Hearn.DH: For the questions, thanks. And if you spotted one of your questions there, do tweet me and say, that was my question. Obviously, I made up some names, we don't know. But thanks very much for listening guys, as I say we've been talking to the wonderful Nancy Zamit. And keep an eye out for our next episode and keep on making mischief.