Cole Escola
speaker
166 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Cole Escola’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I – I didn't really and still don't identify really as a comedian because it's hard for me to just, like, plug and play, as they say. Like, just, like, take what I do and stick it in a lineup. Like, I would perform with these, you know, other brilliant comedians like Bowen and John and Julio Torres and Joel Kim Booster and Matt Rogers.
But, you know, the list goes on and on. But I... always felt a little like they were doing their old aunt a favor, letting her bring her wigs and do her little characters. And it's hard to win an audience over. You know, stand-up is you're talking to the audience, and then I come on in a wig and put up a fourth wall, and it's like, what? Ew. Go away.
Well, is it out of this community that O'Mary became possible? Did you workshop it and try it out in smaller venues or did O'Mary kind of come out fully formed?
It basically came out fully formed. For three years, I did a solo sketch show every month at the duplex. And I did it at the duplex because if you got over 60 or 65 people, they let you keep 100% of the door because they made money off the two-drink minimum. I truly did it because I was like... oh my God, I can perform and make like $900 a month.
And so I set this challenge up for myself that I would write a whole new hour every month. And I did that. And it was so challenging and maybe the most like fun, rewarding thing that I ever did for myself. But in writing sketches, I sort of learned how I think a scene should work.
And then after doing those shows for three years, I thought, I wonder if I can build a show of scenes like this that makes sense altogether with an arc, but that also are, you know, like tight, funny scenes. Basically a sitcom. I wanted to see if I could write a sitcom.
And is a play a sitcom?
Yeah. Sitcoms are plays.
Oh, other way.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think plays predate sitcoms. You'll have to fact check me on that. Get your research department on the phone. But, yeah.
Was it surprising to you? Like, did you ever in your mind imagine that it would become this phenomenon that it is?
Never, never, ever, ever. I mean, who... Who would ever think like, okay, Cole, a play where you're in drag playing Mary Todd Lincoln as a wannabe cabaret star. I think you should pursue this as a big Broadway hit. Like that, I mean, absolutely not. We were like over the moon that we got eight weeks at the Lucille Lortel Theater. And I still think that's really cool.
I can't believe that we did get that. But, like, yeah. I still can't really wrap my head around it. And I'm leaving the show. June 21st is my last performance. And I'm slowly starting to... wrap my head around the whole experience. And I will say I've been crying a lot.
Well, you left the show earlier this year, took a few months off, but then you came back. I'm wondering if when you first left, did you know you were leaving the role for just a short period of time and coming back? Because it's rare for original cast members to return to a show after leaving.
I well, I wanted to come back because I was like, I want to close the show. I thought this was when we were like, OK, we're closing at the end of June. And, you know, we we intended to do this show eight weeks off Broadway. And then once it was going well, we were like, oh my God, I hope we can extend three weeks.
And then we went to Broadway and then suddenly I was doing the play for a full calendar year. I had... And projects like scripts that I had promised that I had been paid to write that I didn't write because I was like, well, I'll do it after the eight week O'Mary run. And then, OK, well, I'll do it after the three week extension. And I was just like, I need I need a break.
I also had to move out of my apartment. I was like, I just need time to like get all of these things back in order. And then I want to come back to the show and say goodbye to the show and close it.
When you first took your break, you handed it off first to actress Betty Gilpin and then to actor Titus Burgess. Yes. What was it like handing off the role that you wrote for yourself?
I was scared. I don't know. I was scared for all the reasons. What if they don't quite get it? I don't know. I was scared because I didn't know what to expect. And then the way that they both embraced this role, it's... Like, it was their dream role.
It's so satisfying, and I've said this before, but, like, as someone who was always begging their friends to, like, please be in my movie, like, can we please, like, make this little movie? Can we please, like, put a skit together for the talent show? To now have, like...
Showing 141–160 of 166 · page 8 of 9
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