JF: I was thinking about that. I was listening to Etta James last night, and I was like, “She just had to sing ‘At Last’ a million times.”

 

CD: Yeah, forever. That’s her whole life, is just singing that one song.

 

JF: And to feel it emotionally every time. Or like Jennifer Holliday had to do that with her song, “And I’m Telling You.” That song is so emotional and raw. She had to do it over and over again. For her whole life.

 

CD: But it seems like you could never get stuck like that. No one’s ever going to be like, “I wish Jo could react to that old man winning over and over again,” right?

 

JF: Right.

 

CD: But you have set something up where people are like, “I want that feeling for myself as an audience member again.” Which is why people come back.

 

JF: Yeah. The tricky thing is making it regular. I did this weekly bingo night for two years in the crustiest bar in Brooklyn. I felt like every week people wanted the same magic to happen. And some weeks it just wasn’t as magical.

 

Some times not a lot of people came and I had to figure out a way to make the show even happen. But some weeks it was like there would be crazy amounts of people there. Then I would be like, “Okay, great. Let’s do it.” But even then people would be like “Hey, where’s the crazy guy from last week? It’s not the same!”