Dancing Through Life with Jordan Litz

Today we're joined by Jordan Litz who is currently playing Fiero in Wicked on Broadway. He is now the longest running guy to ever play this role and Wicked is also his Broadway debut. He has such an interesting story on how he has gotten here from competing against Michael Phelps in the 2012 Olympic trials to Disney World and now playing Fiero in Wicked.

He was kind enough to say yes to my idea of doing the episode and the interview in person in his dressing room at the Gershwin Theater where Wicked has run for over 20 years now. And it was honestly so cool to go behind the stage and see what he sees every night and then walk past all the dressing rooms and then go pee in his dressing room and then record the interview in person.

I did my best to keep it as cool as possible about it and I think I played it off pretty nicely. But because the interview was in person, you will hear at one point somebody walk in and say hi and that was his dresser who is also a really nice guy because we're in his dressing room. And then you'll also hear announcements made over the loudspeaker throughout the interview. You'll hear somebody call like 30 minutes to places because we ran over, like we went a little bit over time. And I kept that all in the interview because I thought it was so cool to be there and to experience all that at the same time.

and I wanted you to have that same experience too. I love this interview so much. It is one of my favorites and I know you're going to love it too. Without further ado, please welcome Jordan Litz to Guys.

Josh Felgoise (01:56.536)

So Wicked is your Broadway debut at 37. gosh, don't say that out loud. have to pretend to play college. okay. Wicked is your first debut Broadway role at whatever later age. And you're now the longest running Fiero on Broadway. Yes. How did you get here and what was your path to Broadway? My path is...

Wildly unorthodox. I was an athlete all of my life. I found performing, or at least musical theater performing at 26. Really? Yeah. Up until that point, I was a swimmer. I was focused on trying to make the Olympic team. I went to the Olympic trials in 2012. Did you? Yeah. That was the dream. Unfortunately, I grew up in the era of Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Yeah. And so those guys are just superhuman when it comes to

the swimming world. while I wasn't necessarily even close to them, just it was never gonna happen with those kinds of guys around. And they swam all of my events. So after 2012, I kind of had to decide, do I want to hang up the goggles and move on with my life? Or do I wanna wait around four more years and give it another try and really hunker down and give it good go?

So I decided to move on and it was the right choice because those guys didn't retire and they came back four years later and still were dominant. So you were at the trials with them? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I swam the 4AM, 2AM and those guys will swam 4AM, 2AM and it's just, yeah, not a good time to be an IAMer in the swimming world. So after that, I went back to school and I studied vocal performance for a very short period of time.

And while I was there, I had to do a musical as part of the curriculum. And it was Sound of Music, and I had no interest in being involved. it was part of the requirement to graduate. And so I did it, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I just thought it was so cool. And up until that point, I had only really, we call it parking and barking, park and bark. I had just stood on a stage in a choir or a barbershop quartet or whatever it was.

Josh Felgoise (04:22.71)

and just sang notes and that's it. And very little acting or movement was involved. And it was just so cool marrying both of those aspects of performing movement and acting and music. Yo, what's up? Hi. Sorry, dude. So marrying all of that stuff together was really, really special. And so after that, I just decided to start.

Pursuing it in like a local sense doing like regional theater and community theater just to make sure that you know a lot of people have this dream of being on Broadway, but Do I'm very real with myself also and I wanted to know if I actually had the ability and the skill set to be successful From a professional standpoint. Yeah, you can have fun and do it and then you can also make a career out of it And I wanted to make sure that I could make a career out of it before I went all in

And luckily, the feedback was really, really good. did some fun roles. My favorite one was Tony in West Side Story. And I did a role called Eddie Birdlace in Dogfight that was really, transformative for me. And after those two, I got really good feedback. And I thought, let's freaking go for it. So I moved to Orlando. And that's where I got my equity card. I joined the Actors' Equity Association, which is the union that all of these actors are covered under.

Worked at Disney World for three and a half years met my wife there. What were you doing at Disney World? I did all kinds of stuff man. I started with the the voices of Liberty, which is a like an eight part acapella group in Epcot and Which was perfect for me for like my first professional true professional gig because it was it was a park and bark, you know, yeah, you stand under this rotunda and like colonial garb and Sing beautiful like jazzy kind of

Americana and Disney tunes and it was amazing. was your wife doing? She was a Disney princess. Which princess? 11 years. She mainly did Cinderella and Ariel. But she was also a dancer too so she danced in some of like the trolley shows and some castle shows and did special events and things like that. yeah, mainly Disney princessing. A true Cinderella story. A true Cinderella story, that's right. I want to go back to that like when you were 26, right? you got...

Josh Felgoise (06:45.964)

when you were trying to become a swimmer or an Olympian, a lot of this listener base is young guys in their 20s. How did you move on from that rejection? How did you overcome that time where you felt that immense rejection, this dream you had that was kind of crushed and became a new dream, of course? I think it was finding a new dream and discovering another skill set that I could pursue.

I was crushed, dude. And I still miss it every single day. I loved the grind. I loved swimming. If there were more pools in New York, I'd be in one every single day. And even now, I still have that thing like, man, I could go back and give it just one more shot and just see what happens. But that's not a good choice at this point. I've got a family to provide for and things like that. So it was finding something new and having belief in myself that I could.

be successful in that other genre. And I think I took the skill set that I developed from the swimming world, the determination, the hard work, and applied it to this new career path. And I think that's a huge part of why I was successful was the skills that I developed from the swimming world. Did you always know you could sing?

Yes, yes. So that was always like something you did on the side? Correct, yeah. Both my parents were music majors in college. My mom was the music director at all of my churches growing up, so I was always in the choirs. I was always in the praise teams, leading, worship, cantering. I sang in my high school choirs, and then my dad and I sang...

Barbershop Quartet music all my growing up. Which is super geeky, but I loved it. It was so much fun. And that was the majority of my performing experience was like, I went to international Barbershop Quartet contests and things like that. And sang in a high school quartet. And I did a lot of, and that's where this Os Capella stuff kind of comes from as well. The stairwell sessions that I've been doing is- To somebody that doesn't know what that is. Can you explain what that Yeah, so I've been recording

Josh Felgoise (09:08.866)

basically acapella versions of the Wicked tunes and Oz-related songs. And so I've been using MK Morrissey, Mary-Kate Morrissey, our previous Elphaba, and our current Glinda Alley Trim. The three of us have sort of become friends over the past three years through them being standbys here and me being here as Fiero.

And we just were kind of milling around, hanging out at intermission, singing stuff. And it just sort of became a thing. And we recorded one and posted it and went freaking viral. And we thought, maybe we should continue doing this. And then we posted another one. And that went wildly viral. And so we thought, OK, we have something here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And on top of that, it was just fun. We enjoy doing it. And all of that Oz Capella stuff and musical arranging brain came from.

the barbershop upbringing that I had singing barbershop music for 15 years. And then also the voices of Liberty and the dapper nans, all of that professional vocal experience helped. What was it like auditioning to become Fiero? Because I'm assuming you're up against people who have had this dream for life, right? And you kind of came into this at 26. I'm going to try. What was that like? Honestly, it was terrifying. Auditioning is scary, man.

There are very few times in my life where I am nervous. I'm never nervous doing the show. I'm never nervous doing any show. But auditioning is something different. It's like this adrenaline that just takes over that is hard to manage. In swimming and athletics, that adrenaline's fantastic, because you can harness it. Use it, right. Yeah, you can use it. You can channel it into your speed or drive or strength or whatever it is that you need.

In performing, you have to be so much more calm. And if your heart rate is jacked and your adrenaline's jacked, that affects your voice and your ability to deliver lines in a calm, honest, genuine way. It can easily take over the room. finding a way to like...

Josh Felgoise (11:27.278)

chill yourself before you walk into the room was a challenge for me. It was the exact opposite of what I would do before a race or anything like that, where I'm hopping around, getting myself all pumped up to sprint. But yeah, going against these guys that I'll never forget. I showed up to Telsey casting for my first Wicked audition. And it was like six other guys. And this was like.

four auditions down the line. So it was like six other guys all in the exact same color jeans, the exact same type of boots, the exact same shirt. were It's like a work interview. Dude, we were the exact same person all sitting next to each other just like, hey, what's up? Trying not to make eye contact, but we all know that we're the same and we're about to sing the exact same songs in the same way. Which also doesn't help calm yourself down.

But yeah, I auditioned for the show three times. The first time I went to what's called an EPA, which is an equity principle audition, which is like an open call for equity members. I went in, sang my own song. It was like maybe a minute or so of me singing. And I didn't feel like it went that well, but they liked what I did enough to have me come back in three months later for...

to audition for the understudy Fiero on the tour. So I came back in. I sang for the casting director. I handed him my resume, which was nothing. It was just a blank sheet of paper. was like, hey, this is what we've got here. There's nothing on it. He was like, where are you? I don't understand. I've never heard of you. Tell me your story. And I kind of told him what I'm telling you now. Because you came out of nowhere, right? Yeah, I came out of nowhere, for sure.

And I think that was intriguing to them. I think casting directors are actively looking to cast out of the box. They don't want to cast like the same guy that walks in off the street that has the BFA in musical theater that went to Michigan. I think that's boring to them. Not that that's bad, because it gives you a skill set to approach auditioning and the musical theater professional world.

Josh Felgoise (13:49.784)

but you have to have that one, that X factor, that little bit of magic that separates you from the next guy that walks into the room. And so the fact that I didn't grow up in this, I think was intriguing to them. And it gave me maybe a skillset that the other guys didn't have. So, sang for the casting director. They asked me to come back in the afternoon to sing for the music director. He liked what I did. They asked me to come back the next day to sing for...

our director, our associate director. They asked me to come back a week later to do a movement call with our associate choreographer. So all of this was like, OK, I think it's going the right way. This is good. Finished all of, had the final call back, me and two other guys in a room doing the movement call. All that, I didn't get it. So that was the first time. Wow. Yeah. The second time I went in, was for the understudy, Fear on the Tour. And.

This time I didn't have to go through all of that because they knew who I was. I'd already gone through like this giant screening process. So I went in for, I sang for the music director and the associate director and then did the movement call. So just two little appointments. Didn't get it again. And then finally six months after that, they called me back in again for the understudy of Fiero on the tour. And it was just me by myself.

There was no one else that was called, and I just did one little small appointment. It was like a little movement call, and I sang for the same people. And then I got it the third time. Third time was a charm. And I knew at that point, I was like, OK, I'm the only one here, so I think it's me. And then it just freaking took off from there, man. I would not trade my journey with Wicked for anything, because I basically was in the ensemble for about

three months, two and a half, three months, something like that. And then I got bumped up to Fiero and I've been playing Fiero ever since for almost five years now. It's pretty crazy. Yeah, was a very unusual rise to the role. It it all lined up. Kurt, the guy that I replaced, he had a kid and decided, well, his contract was ending as well. So when his contract had ended, it just happened to line up that they wanted me to stay on. During the time, like the first two times when you didn't

Josh Felgoise (16:16.152)

get it, how did you continue to believe in yourself and continue to hold that, I don't know, belief is the right word. You know what? This is gonna sound so cheesy, but Julie, my wife Julie, was such a help. I remember the first time I didn't get it. I really thought I was gonna get it. It sounds like you were from the story you too. I I went through five different callbacks. They loved what I was doing. I was like, my gosh, am I gonna get cast in Wicked, my first audit? This is unbelievable. Yeah, it's crazy.

And so I remember getting that phone call. Julie was in New York with me to like hang out and have like a little New York trip together. And I got the phone call that I didn't get it. And the casting director was really encouraging and encouraged me to come back in and keep auditioning for things and developing and working on new aspects of my performance. And I was crushed, man, absolutely crushed. And Julie...

told me like, we were next to Central Park and I had never been to New York. I had never been to Central Park or anything like that. And so she was like, well, let's go walk through Central Park. You've never been there. It's beautiful. It's my favorite part of the city. And so we're walking through and we're talking through it. And as we're walking through, it's beautiful. like snow is falling and we get to the Bow Bridge in the middle of Central Park and there's no one around and there's a saxophone playing Moon River.

And it's just this like most romantic, gorgeous moment. And it's so private and intimate. And I remember we took a picture on the bridge looking out over the city skyline. And in that moment, I had forgotten about Wicked and I had decided that I wanted to propose to Julie on this bridge at some point in the next year. And a year from, about a year from then, I had proposed to Julie on the Bow Bridge. That's a good story. Isn't that crazy? That's a really good story. I had completely forgotten about.

And I just realized how career is important, but she reminded me that it's just your career. The things that matter are the relationships that you have, and she is the most important thing in my life, and all the other stuff is just extra fun. That's a story. I love that. Flash forward to now. You're playing Fiyero on Broadway. What does a day in your life look like? Like, from start to finish?

Josh Felgoise (18:45.698)

How much sleep do you get? What do you eat? Can you eat everything? Can you drink? I wanna know all of that and I've always wondered that for performers on Broadway. Okay, yeah, absolutely. I would say that, man, my lifestyle has changed drastically from when I first started playing Fiyero. When I first started, everything was focused on creating the best show I could possibly create that night.

I would, you know, I focused on eating really great proteins and vegetables and I avoided, the one thing that I do still do is avoiding sugar throughout the week. Sugar just messes with my voice, it creates inflammation that I don't want, it makes me really gunky. So if I avoid sugar all throughout the performing week and then I can have it on my days off, that's great. Which is like just Monday, right?

Yeah, well, Sunday night now, because we just have a Sunday matinee, but Sunday night and Monday. Yeah, we have one day off a week, one and a half days. But if I can avoid sugar and not eat right before I go to sleep, or not eat after shows, basically, if I follow those two rules, I can be really successful as a performer. Everything else is kind of fungible. I don't have to be like an Elphaba that has to...

join a nunnery in order to do this role. The Elphabas, they cut off all their ties with their friends. They're like, hey, I'll see you in a year. I'm going to play Elphaba. It's brutal. Fiero's not necessarily like that. I work out every single day. Every single day that I have a show.

It has changed a little bit. I've gotten into a running kick right now. I'm actually about to run a half marathon on Sunday. Oh, nice. The Brooklyn one? Yes. OK. I'm going to be there. No way. Are you running it? No, but my friend is. So I'm going to go support her. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, very cool. I'll support you now. Yeah, yeah. I'll wave to you if I see you. Me and the guy that plays Averick, Jeff, he and I are running the Brooklyn half on Sunday. So I'm a little bit on a running kick right now. But with that said,

Josh Felgoise (20:56.48)

I also have to maintain a certain physique and muscle mass in order to fill out my costumes. And the brotherhood of the white pants is real. So you don't want to get too lean and thin. There has to be a certain amount of beefiness. So any time I touch a weight, it is heavy, going no more than eight reps. Really, really heavy. And I don't lift long sessions.

I used to do really high volume, lots of pushups, of unstable surfaces, pushups on med balls, things like that. And now it's dumbbell bench press, flat bench press, squats, deadlifts, anything that incorporates as many muscle groups as possible with the shortest amount of time that is perfect for me. I do three 30 to 35 minute weight sessions a week.

as heavy as I can possibly go just to maintain mass. And then I run probably five days a week. Do you take creatine, protein powder, all that stuff? Protein powder is a yes or no. Creatine every single day, five to 10 milligrams. I should be taking it? It depends on your goals. I I just did an episode recently called The Ego of Weightlifting about the ego around weightlifting. What are they saying?

Don't worry about it. We're recording at the theater, by the way, if somebody doesn't know where we are. Yeah, We're in his dressing room We're in my dressing room right now. So there's like, yeah, we're gonna get like announcements about half hour calls and things like that. Cool. Okay. When do you have to finish, by the way? Like hard, hard stop? At half hour would probably be... Okay, we'll get it ...probably good. Yeah, we got so much time. Yeah, no, we're good. Yeah, I was just talking about like, just, I'm in a weightlifting journey right now. Like I...

Then yes, you should be taking creatine. Yes, you should. If you're trying to lift weights and put on mass, yes. All right, and then what other things do you do in the role beside running, lifting? What's your sleep schedule look like? Do you have to have a strict regimen? The answer is yes. Do I? No. The two most important things that you can do as a human are sleep and nutrition.

Josh Felgoise (23:09.612)

And then exercise is number three. But I would say it's more of a distant third. I think exercise is wildly important for your physical and mental health, especially mental health. if I get a great- completely agree. Yes, it is huge. But sleep is number one. Nutrition is number two. I think those are the two most important things. Unfortunately, sleep is difficult right now with a baby and a house and a wife and a dog.

And I also have added, we bought a house in South Orange, New Jersey, which is about an hour commute into the city. So now I lose two to two and a half hours a day on public transit. Which means that I get home at midnight, 12 31, depending on like when the show is done and when I'm done. And the New Jersey transit. And the New Jersey transit is inconsistent. And then I get home and I wanna try and unwind from the show. And that means I'm getting to bed at two.

but then the girls are getting up at 6.30 or 7, and I wanna be involved in that. I wanna be a part of the daytime experience. And so sometimes you get five, six hours, which is horrible, man, and then you come in here and your voice isn't working and you're lethargic and your body hurts and it makes it not fun to play the role. What do you do on those days? I always think about if you don't get enough sleep. When I'm seeing a show and like the,

Cause you all look energized and excited and you do a good job putting that on. like when you don't get enough sleep and you get here, what do you do? Act. It's yeah. I mean, we are professional actors. We're professional actors for a reason, you know, like the show must go on and yeah.

Josh Felgoise (25:01.07)

I'll edit all this after, don't worry. There are a lot more days than there used to be now where I've come in and things just aren't working the way they're supposed to, whether it's vocally or physically. And routine is the key for me. I just go through the exact same routine every single day. And so much of it is muscle memory. I'm at about 1,400 shows of Fiero now. That's insane.

Even when things aren't working exactly the way I want, that muscle memory of 1,400 shows kicks in and it usually just happens. How do you like, does that feel monotonous to you? how do you keep that exciting for you? I don't know how it's been able to, how I've been able to make it still fun after all of this time, because I know a lot of performers that...

if they're in a show for 100 performances, they are checked out. They are done at that point. I think part of it might be, as a swimmer, I swam the same events for 20 years. And I was always trying to perfect those same events. I swam the 200 IM forever. And it was my best race. And I was always trying to have the perfect turn or the perfect underwaters or the perfect catch or whatever it was.

And it's kind of the same thing with this role. I'm always trying to have the perfect up that I fell or the perfect delivery of that joke or whatever it is. And that's not a real thing. There is no perfect delivery. You're never going to have the perfect show from front to back. Yeah. But that competitive nature in me still strives for it every single time I step on the stage. And I think that's what keeps it fresh for me is that drive to be perfect every single time.

even though I know that it's not gonna happen. How does it feel performing every night for a live audience? Like, what is that feeling? It's cool. I mean, it's unbelievable. Especially a show like Wicked, I was in the 20th anniversary cast. I helped reopen the national, we were the first show to open after the pandemic in North America.

Josh Felgoise (27:15.246)

And then I was here for movie release one and I'll be here for movie release two. Which is crazy. it's just such a cool time to be a part of this blockbuster movie musical now. But it's still a job. Yeah. And after doing as many shows as we've done, it can still get hard to show up and do it over and over again.

make each line feel like I'm saying it for the first time. I think one of the things that's been a huge help for me is we do this thing called stage door ring in musical theater, at least on Broadway. And some national tour, a lot of national tours do it as well. But you, you go to the stage door as, a performer and a lot of the fans that have just seen the show have their playbills and you sign their playbills or take a picture with them, talk about

your experience, a lot of us do it, a lot of us don't. It's become a little crazier now since the dawn of social media. I'm sure. Yeah, it's become a little, I hate using the word toxic because it's just so Gen Z, but like. I'm Gen Z, it's okay. Sorry, bro. It's become a little toxic because of social media, but I love to do it because you can have some really.

human interactions with people that love the show. And it reminds me of how special it is to get to play this role and to get to be a part of this incredible Broadway musical. Because as you said, there are guys that grow up wanting to do this. And then I meet little boys at the stage door that are like, want to be Fiera one day. And I'm like, heck yeah.

That's cool, man. Come take my role. I can't do it forever, you know? And also these little girls that come dressed up as Glinda and Elphaba, and I see Greta, you know, my daughter Greta, like, seeing her first Broadway musical, which will be wicked, 100%. How old is she? She's one and a half. So we've got a little ways to go. Unfortunately, she probably won't be old enough to see me in it. You gotta bring her. Maybe for, like, Dancing Through Life. Yeah, she'll love that. I'll sit her in the sound booth for, like, a song.

Josh Felgoise (29:32.64)

But there's no way she'll be at two and a half. Just for the photo op. trust me, we have plenty of photos. OK. She came dressed as Dorothy for Halloween. we got some pictures together and me and my final costume of the night, which I can't talk about in my contract. It's illegal. Really? Is that because of the second movie or no? It's always been that way. Really? Yeah. Well, not always been that way. At some point, I think the dawn of social media kind of

screwed us over, you, yeah, I'm not allowed to talk about my final character, and Bach's not allowed to talk about his, Nessa isn't, it's, because they want to keep the secrets of Wicked alive. But look, when the second movie comes out,

All of that's out the window. 100%. Everyone in the world, and if you don't know by now, the musical's been out for 22 No, it's insane. I have a couple friends who haven't seen the show or part two, and they're like, don't tell, no spoilers. Like, what how do you not know? It's everywhere. No, it's also the movie. the movie. Yeah, once part two comes out, all bets are off. And then at that point, I'll probably be out of the show anyway, so I'll break all the rules. What?

I'm just kidding, Wicked, don't fire me. I'm not gonna break any rules. How has the movie, the Wicked movie and part two coming out, how has that changed the culture around the show or the hype around the show? The hype has always been there. I have never, this is gonna be crazy, this sounds crazy, but I have never in 1,400 shows done a performance of Wicked and not have them stood up at the end.

Every single show there is a standing o at the end. Sometimes it's reluctant. Sometimes it's like not an earned standing ovation. But every single show they're standing at the end of it. So the hype has always been there. I would say that the biggest thing that I've noticed is there are even more first timers than there were before. A lot of people are seeing Wicked the Musical on Broadway for the first time. Yeah. Because of the movie, because they want to see how it ends now.

Josh Felgoise (31:45.806)

And then ticket prices have skyrocketed. Wicked has always been an expensive show. I think we average in the 112 to $120 ticket range, and now it's probably closer to 200, if not more. I think Wicked set the box office record for most money made in a single week.

Christmas week with five million dollars in a week. Holy shit. Yeah, isn't that crazy? That's a lot of money. So yeah, so those two things, lots of first timers being brought into the musical theater world and ticket prices have skyrocketed. But the hype around the show has always been there. People are nuts about Wicked. Yeah, yeah. How does the audience, or does the audience affect your performance? Like if they're clapping more,

are you singing better or like, does it change or even if they're not a fun audience or you see someone with like a phone, like are you just like, I'm gonna like. man, there's so much to unpack there. Let's see. I don't sing any better when there's a good audience versus a bad audience. I have way too much pride to go out there and sing less than. And it's the same with the acting. Now with that said,

I make different choices depending on the audience. like if the audience is giving us a lot and they're laughing at everything. And clapping a lot. they're like going crazy when I say I'm going with Elphaba in the Wizard Chamber 2 or they're like, they're screaming at the slaps in the fallen house scene or when I swing in on the rope. Like if the reactions are huge for that stuff.

then we take more time with them and our deliveries are so much more broad and expansive and sometimes more ridiculous. If the audience is a lot quieter and they're not as responsive, you kind of have to move through it. The show ends up being like two or three or four minutes faster because you're not pausing for laughs and your delivery sometimes becomes a little more honest and a little more grounded and human because

Josh Felgoise (33:58.306)

that's what the audience calls for. that's one of the great things about musical theater, which is why you see all of these George Clooney across the street and Denzel and Jake Gyllenhaal and all of these like big movie stars coming to do Broadway because of that live... Like the interaction. The interaction between the audience is different every single night, which makes it alive and fun and...

and challenging. TV and film is about making each other laugh and making each other feel something in the moment and making yourself feel something. And it's not necessarily about the audience. You're not trying to evoke emotion out of the audience. So that's why so many people come to do it, because it's a change of pace from the TV and film world. So yeah, the audience response absolutely changes.

how we deliver things and move through the show. But I don't do a less than show because an audience is not giving us anything. Got it. Okay. And I imagine it's like really cool knowing that it's someone's first time seeing the show every single night. Yes. And that like you have an opportunity to make a mark on them for life. Like you'll be their first Fiero every time they talk about Wicked. It's always going to come up as long as they live. The show, it's huge. So that's really cool.

What do you eat today? I meant to ask that before. What is that? What did you have today? And what we have tonight? Well, the goal is to not eat after the show. Okay. So, technically, I'm done eating for the day. Oh, really? Sometimes I'll have, I call it a scare snack. You would know why, because of my final character. But when I get into my final costume, I will...

have a snack at that point, because I'm done singing for the day, and it's not technically after the show. So I'll have a little scare snack, which a lot of times is like an apple in an RX bar or something like that, something simple and quick that I can eat in five minutes. But I'm not really strict on what I put in my body except for sweets. That makes sense. I think that...

Josh Felgoise (36:20.694)

I think we're gonna look back at added sugar and just sugar in general in 50 years the way we look at smoking now. That's a heavy statement. Ooh, I like it. That's a heavy statement, but I think it is wildly addictive and it's so horrible for you and it's absolutely in everything. And it's responsible for so many diseases, heart disease, all kinds, like there's just, it's...

There's nothing good about it except for the taste and because it's so addictive, it's really hard to cut it. Cut it. So as I said, if I can avoid that throughout the week and not eat after the shows, those are really my own only two dietary rules. Do drink? I don't drink. OK, I don't drink. So it makes it much easier. It does. Yeah. Hungover during the week. For sure. I also I never acquired a taste for it. I drank in college. I drank in college because it was part of the

the athlete culture in college. Where'd you go to college? I went to Fresno Pacific University, which is like a small private Christian university in California. Cool. And so I went there, and it's part of the culture. It's part of, you you go to parties and you play beer pong. Right, right, right. And you play flip cup and all this stuff. And it's just, it's part of what you do. But I never enjoyed the taste of it, really. And...

There's so many drawbacks to it. You don't feel good after you do it. It's expensive. And if I have to drink to have fun with my friends, I need to find new friends. You know what I'm saying? So I just never really fell in love with the concept of it. And I wish that I did, because it's cool to go out to a fancy restaurant. Julie, my wife, likes to have a Manhattan when we go out and things like that. They look really classy. But I'm like,

I'll have water. Yeah, it probably makes performing so much easier. It does. It does, for sure. For sure. It's like alcohol is the death of your voice. At least for me it is. So yeah, I don't drink and especially, yeah, now that I've taken up performing, it's just not worth it. High protein diets, know, fish. Spicy food, spicy food. I don't, because I don't love it.

Josh Felgoise (38:42.798)

I'm OK with it, but spicy food definitely does mess with your voice. Yeah, yeah, For sure, for sure. Lots of sulfuric. You don't want burp on stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. But people do. Yeah, of course. Some of my Glinda's during Oz Dust, that moment where we're dancing off on the side, they're just like, on the side.

I'm not gonna name them, but some are worse than others. That's so fun. I'm sure there's so many funny moments that happen on stage. Is there anything like somebody's messed up or set a line wrong or sang the wrong word? Every night, Every night there is something that goes wrong, but we're pros and we can cover each other and fix it. Yeah, I've had plenty of mess ups on stage.

Very few times do I forget lines, though. I can think of maybe, I can count them on one hand, how many times I've forgotten lines on stage. Because I am wildly militant when it comes to memorizing lines, and I don't ever want to forget it. So I don't forget lines very often, but you forget a dance step every now and then, or you drop a prop.

I fell down the stairs one time coming in for train scene when I have the flowers and I come to see Elphaba. Those are steep stairs, aren't they? So steep. Yeah, they look crazy. So steep. Yeah, and I was coming down the stairs and- What was the audience like? dude. Was the audience. It was terrifying. But I ended up being fine. Apparently, I don't remember what happened because I blacked out for like five seconds.

but I fell, I started falling at like the top of the stairs. And by the time I was done, I had ended up like center stage. But Allie was on at that point, she was the standby and she was on and she watched it happen. And she said that I like spider crawled across the stage with the flowers in my hand or something. I don't know what happened. I made it work, but I got up and I went to hand the flowers to Alphaba and they had like bent in half and it was, yeah, it was fine. But things like that happened where,

Josh Felgoise (40:55.308)

somebody will fall or will drop the hat and gets dropped in the fallen house scene where the witches are fighting. The hat gets dropped a lot and I'll have to like grab the hat and the broom and somehow get it to Elphaba. Things like that. I mean, there are a lot of little mishaps that happen almost every single day. But as I said, we're professionals and we cover. Yeah. Do you have a pre-show routine or like something that you do to like...

prepare yourself for the show? depends on the role, you know? This role? This role, no. This role, my ritual, because he's such like a chill dude, I want to carry that into the first scene. I don't really like, besides warming up, I warm up vocally and physically so that like my body's ready for the... What's a warm up look like?

Vocally or physically? Both. So vocally, I work with a guy named Mike Ruckles, and I have all of my lessons recorded on my phone in voice memos. And a lot of times I'll just warm up with a voice lesson that I've had with him recently because it's kind of current to what my voice sounds like and what we're currently working on. Every show you'll do that? Like tonight you'll do that? Every single show. Every single show. So like at 20 minutes before the show, I'll...

even a half an hour before the show, I'll start warming up, get this thing going. And once that's ready, a lot of times I'll go and I'll visit with our Glinda or our Elphaba, as I said, I don't see them ever really, because there's never a time in the show where all three of us are off stage. At any point in time in the show, the three of us are on stage at some point, whether it's me by myself or Elphaba by herself or

Glenda by herself or Elphaba and Glenda or me and Glenda or me and Elphaba, we're never all off stage at the same time. So my opportunity to visit with them as Jordan and Allie or Jordan and Lencia is, it has to happen before the show or after the show. And after the show, we're all too tired or we're trying to catch a train or whatever, get home and rest for the next day. So yeah, at half hour, I'll go hang out with Lencia or MK or Alyssa or.

Josh Felgoise (43:16.086)

Lissa or Talia or whoever the green girl is and entertain them while they're getting green and I'll go talk to the Glendas for a little while and yeah, and catch up. And it's great because you develop a friendship that you can carry on stage. There's a feeling of safety when you look across and you look in someone's eyes and you're like, that's Mackenzie. I feel safe because that's my friend Mackenzie, not Glenda.

And so yeah, I think that's really important and that's part of my pre-show ritual to just go visit with people. Say hi, yeah. Yeah, yeah. How does the role change when someone new comes in? Like, is it a diff, it's different obviously based on your relationship you have with them, but like, does it feel like a coworker leaving when somebody leaves? Like how do you navigate all that? It feels like you're losing a friend. Yeah. Like, it's absolutely devastating.

Yeah, I cry every single time. Every single time. Like, I remember when Mackenzie left for the 20th anniversary cast. Well, all of them, of course. But Mackenzie and I, in particular, were really close. And during Oz Dust, that moment. Mackenzie played who? Mackenzie was Glinda for the 20th anniversary cast. And she and I were really tight. And I remember during the Oz Dust sequence on their final show, like,

That was always our time to check in with each other because we don't have to say any lines at that point. We don't have any choreography. You guys can chat. We can literally just chat as Jordan and Mackenzie or Jordan and Ali or whoever it is and see how you're doing and check in on your mental health and how you're doing. And I just started crying.

I was like, I'm so sorry, I'm trying to hold it in. And she's like, don't start now, don't start now. We have like two hours of show left. so far to go. But yeah, you feel like you're losing a friend when MK and Alexandra and I were super tight as well. She was our previous Glinda. We were really tight because she was also a Broadway parent. She had a kid who was also around Greta's age. Got it. And so we had this camaraderie that

Josh Felgoise (45:34.368)

that I love MK, but it was a different friendship. It was a different camaraderie. Alexandra and I could look at each other and know exactly what we were going through and the rigors and fatigue and demand of being a parent while trying to come in and be 100 % for an audience that paid $400 to see you be one of these iconic roles.

So there were times in that Ozda sequence where we're dancing together where we would just like, she'd like lay her head on my shoulder and we'd just be like asleep for two minutes for just a moment of reprieve to kind of rest. And we knew exactly what the other person was struggling with that day without saying a word. But yeah, it's when someone leaves the show, you lose a friend, but you gain a new friend. Of course, yeah, yeah.

Lencie and I are brand new to each other. I had never met her before she And she plays Elphaba. She's our new Elphaba. I had never met her until she walked into rehearsal for the first day. And you have an entire year to develop this friendship and new things on stage, new funny moments that make each other laugh and new human.

interactions and Allie and I have been doing the show together for a long time now and so it was like getting a new friend or an old friend back. That's cool. That's really cool. Yeah. How do you balance off stage? How do you balance your relationship with your wife and your kid and your friendships with this? Like it's a really demanding schedule, right? Like you got to get here, I don't know, early before the show. You're leaving late and it's every single day beside Monday. Like how do you? I've always wondered how people on Broadway balance that.

It is, yeah, it's all about time management and being really structured with your calendar and making it clear to each other when you have appointments that you need to be at. But also scheduling free time to spend with each other. Like yesterday, the girls came to the Broadway softball game and they watched the game and then we went to lunch afterwards and like that kind of stuff.

Josh Felgoise (47:54.892)

It was the best day I've had in months because it was an opportunity for us to just hang out with each other and not have an interview necessarily or an audition or. Sorry to make you do No, dude, this is actually a really chill one. I'm enjoying Of course. This is a great interview. I'm happy to that. It's not like on TV where I have to like perfect and we can just shoot the shit. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, it's like.

Wait, the Broadway Softball League, can you explain that? It's a bunch of different shows. we have a Broadway Softball League that's the oldest softball league in all of New York City, I think. That's really cool. least in Central Park, I know that. It's 70 years old. think we just celebrated 70th anniversary. And it's like all the shows. It's all the Broadway shows play against each other. So you know the other guys from other shows too. Sometimes. So like we played MJ. We had our first. That's so cool. We had our first preseason game yesterday.

MJ I'm gonna call you guys out. None of you guys play for the none of you guys actually perform for the show. That's BS They had like Nick Jonas playing for them. really? Yeah, he was playing third bass I was like you at least you're in a Broadway show Yeah a lot of the other guys are like they work front of house or they're ushers or like or they're like friends of ushers in the show or Like so they don't actually perform in the show. Why did Nick Jonas end up in the mj great question?

Don't know hysterical. Don't know. Did he play well? He was fine. How'd you play? I played horrible. OK, I was worse or better than Nick. We were about the same. OK, OK. About the same, to be honest. So fine was generous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I had a terrible game yesterday, but I also I hadn't picked up a bat or threw a ball in a year since the end of the previous season. do you play next? We play. I don't know who we play.

They haven't sent us our schedule yet. That's awesome though. Yeah, so we played MJ, but they're also one of the best teams in league because they're stacked. And they have Nick Jonas. And they have Nick Jonas, exactly. Screw you, Nick Jonas! But yeah, Wicked, we won the championship last year. Congratulations. Broadway Softball League champions, and I hit the walk-off homer. Wow, very exciting. That was not representative of what I did yesterday, but that's okay. That's okay. Can't win them all. a whole season to figure it out. Yeah, we have lot of time to go.

Josh Felgoise (50:15.854)

So yeah, they came to the Broadway softball game yesterday and we got a, was that the, where? I don't know, I took it somewhere else. I asked you about the league. But I asked about how you balance personal life, friendships, and making time for yourself too with the show. it's, I think people, when you have a child and a family and things like that, your friends tend to cut you some slack. And they tend to understand that like, we'll hang when we have a free moment.

and they don't judge you for it necessarily. Yeah, there's a certain amount of grace given. That's nice. So I have a really good friend that lives out in Brooklyn, and he and I try and see each other as often as we can. But also, he lives in Brooklyn, and I live in Jersey, which is like an hour and 45 minute travel now. But yeah, you see them when you can, you schedule that time rather than... I miss the days of...

like spontaneous hanging out, like in college and post college when you're single, you're like, hey, you just texted a friend, what are you doing right now? Like, let's go hang out. That doesn't exist anymore. I haven't had that for a long, long time. It has to be planned out like two, three weeks in advance to have any sort of fun thing on top of the work life schedule. Yeah, just time management, really. What do you do at intermission?

Like, well, I'm peeing. What are you doing? That's also changed. In the old days, pre-Gretta, it was like I'd hang out with people, or I'd go interact with the cast, or go talk to management, or I would sing with the standbys, or I'd play piano, or whatever it is. Now it's sit and look at the wall and just recover.

From the moment I leave stage after the train scene, which is when one short day starts, up until the start of act two, that like 35 minutes is the only time in my day where no one is expecting anything of me. And I can just- That's you time. That is just my time to just sit and veg. And while I would love to be productive with it,

Josh Felgoise (52:39.166)

Sometimes I just need to turn off my brain and and whether that's just like look at the wall or sometimes it is like sitting down at my piano and kind of just mindlessly noodling around on nice on arrangements or something like that. It's an opportunity to just not do anything. What do you do during a two show day? Like do you stay here all day? Yeah, now I have to unfortunately because I live so far away. Yeah. We saw Sting. I'm sorry. You were saying something. It is it is. Yeah, I mean it.

I try and go out of the building to get lunch, especially when the weather gets better, to have an opportunity to breathe some fresh air and not be in the Gershwin for a while. Because while I have a beautiful, gorgeous, large dressing room, it's still like a prison cell in a way. There's no windows. I just noticed that. Yeah, there's no windows in any dressing room here. So it's like, you've got to get out of this black box and breathe.

breathe the air and touch some grass for a little bit. Yeah. I wanted to ask you as well, like, what is it like winding down after a show? Does it take a minute to, like, chill out? And because I'm sure it's a high, right? Like, you're getting a standing ovation. You just sang some, like, huge songs. Like, what's that like? It's really hard to come down after a show.

which is why I have such a hard time sleeping. If you're gonna ask me for advice on how to sleep, well, I'm the worst person to talk about it because that is my weakest thing is proper sleep and proper preparation for sleep. I know what I should do and I never do it. It's hard. It's become like, this is so bad, I'm saying this on a podcast, but it's become where I have to like,

like put in like one headphone and lay on my pillow and listen to the most boring podcast about like how the earth revolves. Yeah, like an audio book. do audio books. Something. And I know that's not the best way to fall asleep, but it has to be something that engages my mind in some way, but it's not so interesting that I listen to it. Right.

Josh Felgoise (54:50.742)

No, that makes total sense and I'm not far off from you. Cause I've tried the box breathing, all of the things that you're spelled like inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Like I've tried all of the different things, sleeping in different ways, all of the stuff and nothing helps me come down from the high of the show. It's probably such a high, right? It's a high for sure and it's exhausting. You get, you're overtired.

if that makes sense. You're so emotionally and physically tired from the show that you're too tired to sleep. It reminds me of Greta, my daughter. When she gets too tired, she just screams. And I would scream too if I was one and a half. I would too. I was allowed. What is your favorite song in the show? Mine's Dancing with Life, by the way, which is your No, that's a lie. I swear, it's my favorite song. I love that.

I said that the first time I saw it. I think I didn't tell you this, saw it when I was like 10 maybe. No way. I loved that song. I thought it was so good. That's so cool. I love that because a lot of people, I feel like Dancing Through Life a lot of times is like an overlooked song. I think it's the best song on the show. the whole sequence is like, it's like a 10 minute sequence all the way from that My Entrance through the end of Dance, through Oz Dust. It's a long sequence and it's a huge part of...

how Elphaba and Glinda become friends through the Ozda sequence and introduces my character and my relationship with Elphaba and my relationship with Glinda. There's so much that happens in the course of that 10 minutes. And the song is freaking kick ass. The song's insane. It's so I also think the movie brought a new light to the song. Totally. Like, totally made it this huge number that people are like, yeah, fuck yeah. Yeah. So.

Do you have a favorite song? Do you have a favorite line? And I'll share mine with you after. favorite, consistently my favorite song to sing is Dancing Through Life. As long as your mind is very hit or miss, depending on how my voice feels, depending on who my Alphaba is, there's a lot of variables that go into that song that can make it either really fricking fun or terrifying. Got it.

Josh Felgoise (57:08.3)

Dancing Through Life is fun every single time. It's never not fun. It seems fun. It's a blast, You own it, by the way. Thank you. Appreciate that. feel like I've grown into it. I don't think it was my strongest suit when I first started. But over the course of five years, I've definitely grown into the song and into the role. My favorite song in the show in general is either One Short Day or For Good.

There's so many good songs in this show. There's so many good songs. I think For Good is the first song that I really fell in love with in the show. Sometimes, like when I get into my final costume, if I have some time, I'll go and like watch the girl sing it from the wings. That's cool. it's so touching and it's beautiful. That's really cool. And it's one of the songs that is a great standalone song outside of the show. So many of our songs in our musical can't

really be sung outside the show because they're so show specific. One short day in the Emerald City, like, how is that, like, you can't perform that at a concert. Like, dancing through life, kind of can. What is this feeling now? Not really. No one warns the wicked. No. Even Defying Gravity, they like talk about the wizard and all of this stuff that isn't a... Yeah, there's a lot in the middle. Yes, there's nothing applicable to, to like real...

life. Whereas for good, the message of the song is universal and can be sung anywhere. That's great. And so I think that's one of the things that makes it transcend our musical, unlike no good deed or things like that. Favorite line. My favorite comedy line to deliver is my family has a castle in Kiomiko. No one's ever there except the centuries who watch over it.

we've never lived in it. And she says, where do you live? And I say, the other castle. The other castle is such a funny, unexpected line. Yeah, it's great. And if you deliver it, it's just like, don't worry about it. It's the other castle. I have more important things to talk about. It hits every single time. I think that's a great line. And then from a heartfelt standpoint, I love it's looking at things another way. After as long as you're mine,

Josh Felgoise (59:33.226)

Elphaba just says, she says, I just wish, and I say, what? I wish I could be beautiful for you. Elphaba, don't tell me that I am. You don't have to lie to me. It's not lying. It's looking at things another way. And that is the heart of the show. If you want wicked, encapsulated in a line, that is it. And Fiero gets to deliver the line. How freaking cool is that? It's not Glenda that says it, it's me.

And so I think that is very, very cool that I get to say that line every night. Now I gotta hear yours. Mine is from your song, from Dancing Through Life. You sing, if only because dust is what we come to. And I fucking love that line. And I made a TikTok about it when the movie came out and it went really viral. And that line specifically, think is like, I don't know. I think about that all the time.

why not try or go for things? Because if only because dust is what we come to. Like at the end of the day, we're all gonna die. And why not try for the things you wanna try in life? So I love that line. I think it's so good. That's really special. and I plan on using that line. So I think Dancing Through Life will be my, I don't wanna give this away too soon, but Dancing Through Life will be the final Azcapella song that I do. That makes sense. Because it's my song. Yeah. And I...

I need to use a couple of choice lyrics from that song that are really, really special and moving. Because yes, it's an upbeat, fun tune, but it's got a lot of poignant lines to it, like the one that you're talking So many. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's good stuff. I love that. It's really well written. What is your advice for a young guy listening who wants to pursue this type of...

Josh Felgoise (01:01:22.562)

man, there's so many things that are out of your control as far as what roles are gonna be offered to you and what opportunities you're gonna have. The only two things that you can control, work hard and be nice to people. That's it. If you do those two things, everything else is out of your control. I love that. You can't control the amount of talent that you have. You're already born with it. You can control...

memorizing all of your lines and being more prepared than anyone else when you walk into the room you can control what you eat you can control what you how much you sleep and all of those other Tangibles are within your control and that's how hard you work And then the being nice to people people work with people that they like to be around and I've seen so many people That are less talented than the other guy

get the job because you want to be around them, because they're just cool people and they're just, they have infectious personality. Wait, can we hold on? let me, no, no, no, we can keep going. I just need to sign in really fast. Hold on a second. Take your time. Sorry, we're going long. Okay, and then what is your advice for your younger self?

Josh Felgoise (01:02:51.96)

think this is a very common sentiment that a lot of people will tell themselves, but don't stop taking everything so seriously. The stresses of your little young life are so much less of a big deal than you think it is. People aren't judging you the way that you think they're judging you.

feel free to take those risks that you're afraid to take. Yes, stop taking stuff so seriously because I think that really hinders you how willing you are to take those big risks because fear of failure, fear of judgment, whatever it is, you gotta let go of that stuff because you're gonna be so much more successful if you do. It's great advice.

Jordan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. was so much fun. Thanks for having me. You're great on the podcast. Appreciate it, Of course, you're great on the mic. But thank you so much for doing this. This was awesome. Keep dancing through, baby. All right. I love that. Thank you so much. Absolutely, dude. That is the episode. Thank you so much listening to Guy's Set, a guy's guide to what should be talked about. I'm Josh. I'm 24 years old, and I'm here every single week, every single Tuesday to talk about what should be talked about for guys in their 20s.

If you liked this episode, I really hope you did. Please like subscribing this podcast five stars. Leave a review. That's one, two, three, four, five stars, not four at three. I tune on one. It's five stars. Thank you so much for that. I really appreciate that. If you want to check out Jordan Litz in wicked head to wicked.com. I don't even know. He didn't tell me to do this promotion, but like I thought he was so awesome. So I want to shout him out and shout out wicked as well. Uh, head to like, I think it's wicked.com. Uh, you can search Jordan Litz and, uh, check out his Tik TOK, his Instagram. He posts a lot of fun stuff on there.

And if you have anything you want me to talk about that should be talked about for guys in their twenties, send it to my DMS. It's at the guy set T H E G U Y S E T on Instagram, on Tik TOK on all social media platforms on YouTube as well. Or you can email me. It's Josh J O S H at guyset.com G U Y S E T.com. And I will be sure to talk about it. Also head over to guyset.com for so much more content. And next Tuesday, I'll be dropping the newest edition of guyset magazine, which features Jordan Litz on the cover.

Josh Felgoise (01:05:11.128)

Thank you so much listening to guys set a guys guide to what should be talked about and I will see you guys next Tuesday. See you guys.