Interview with Patrick Cotnoir
We spoke with George Lucas Talk Show (GLTS) producer Patrick Cotnoir for Heyblabber podcast. Below is the transcript of that interview.
Michael: So, today I'm talking to Patrick Cotnoir, who is a producer on The George Lucas Talk Show and who recently produced and narrated a live stage reading of The Phantom Menace script called The Naboo Movie at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles, California. He also has a follow-up to The Naboo Movie called The Great Kamino Kaper coming up, which will be taking place in a few weeks on August 10th, also at Dynasty Typewriter. So welcome, Patrick. Thank you for speaking with me today.
Patrick Cotnoir: Thank you so much for having me. An honor to be here, to finally meet face-to-face.
Michael: Yes. So, I want to talk about The Naboo Movie and The Great Kamino Kaper, but I feel like we should start with The George Lucas Talk Show and your involvement with that since it kind of seems to me that that probably has led to a number of these other projects. So, for those of you who don't know, The George Lucas Talk Show was a monthly show that took place at UCB Theater for about five years and then moved online to, for a long time, a weekly show that aired on Twitch and Planet Scum, while that still existed. The general concept of the show is, what if after selling Lucasfilm to Disney, George Lucas decided to become a talk show host? And of course, it's not actually George Lucas, but a very funny comedian named Connor Ratliff, who is portraying George Lucas. So, is that all fair, correct?
Patrick Cotnoir: I think that's all right. Yeah, that all sounds right. Yeah, we just hit 10 years, which is crazy.
Michael: So, were you involved from the very beginning? I just watched... So, you also have the I'm ‘George Lucas': A Connor Ratliff Story, which has just come out in the last few months, right?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, it's a documentary.
Michael: Okay. So, I know in there, I think you said something about, you had gone to a number of the shows, like, you were going to the shows anyway, and then you kind of became involved in a more official capacity.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, so Connor and I were working on this other show called The Chris Gethard Show. That's where I met him to begin with, and I sort of just immediately knew like, "Oh, this is one of my guys," you know, like, "I'm going to go see everything that this guy goes does as a live show," or whatever. And he told me he was doing this thing. I was a big Star Wars fan, but it had sort of lapsed at that point, because that was, you know, 2014. So, it was pre-Force Awakens, but in that weird lull between Revenge of the Sith and Force Awakens. So, the love was there, but it had just laid dormant for a little while. But I was going to the first show, and I got a call from him maybe 15 minutes before saying, "Hey, so and so was supposed to do warm up for the show, be the warmup comic, and they can't do it. So, I need you to do it." And I was not a performer. I was not, you know, that was not my thing at all. And I was like, "No, absolutely not. Why would I do that?" And he said, "Look, I just need you to do it. It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be easy. Just go for it." So, I did it. I got there. I did the warmup. I did the whole like, "Who's here from out of town? Who's been to a live talk show taping before?" you know, like, the standard questions that they ask before you go see Fallon or Seth Meyers or whoever. It was fun and it was fine, and I got over the fear of being on stage in front of people and that was good, and I just kept going to the show. I missed a couple up top, but not really that many. I would get there early and just help him set up and, like, I would film the show on my cell phone from the front row, just so we like had an archive of it, so he had an archive of it, but I never considered myself like working on the show. And then one day, a couple months in, we were in the bar in front of the UCB and Connor was introducing me to someone. He says, "Oh, this is Patrick, my producer." And I was like, "What are you talking about? Like, we've never spoken about that, that's never been a conversation. I had no idea that you considered me that." And he's like, "Yeah, you're my producer. You've been my producer for a while." And I'm like, "You've got to tell people those things! You can't just like spring that on them and assume that they know these things." But yeah, that was almost 10 years ago. The show has been going on 10 years, but that was probably nine and a half years ago. And we're still here, we're still doing it! My role has evolved a lot. You know, I started like booking the guests pretty soon after that because he was running out of friends to ask, and eventually, during COVID when we were all stuck at home, you know, the three of us were like being very cautious about stuff, we were like not really leaving the house. And when it became a livestream show, it sort of just made sense that I would also be on there because I think we were all losing our minds and needed people to talk to. So, it just felt like the natural next step in the evolution of the show. And yeah, we're still there. It's been a very rewarding experience. And it's something that I've gotten to meet so many cool people and work with so many cool people because of. I will always have a fondness in my heart for that show, no matter what happens.
Michael: So, I guess that kind of touches... I was going to ask, because you are a very big part of the online show... So, the stage show, you weren't as much, you're just behind the scenes?
Patrick Cotnoir: I was never, yeah, I was never on stage, no one ever referenced me. It was purely behind the scenes -was not a part of it at all, really, which is wild.
Michael: And so, we should mention that on the show, George Lucas has a sidekick, Watto played by Griffin Newman. Also, originally, it looks like Jar Jar Binks was the sidekick for the first, like, what? Two years or so?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, two or three, probably.
Michael: I forget the name of the person who played him. Yeah, it was this guy, Shaun Diston and he did it for a few years and then he booked work in LA and had to move out to LA. At that point, you know, it being a monthly live show, it was impossible for people to, not impossible, but it would have been very difficult for people to commute for a monthly midnight-on-a-Friday show. So yeah, he did it for a while. And he, at the time, was not like a huge Star Wars guy, just knew the general things about Jar Jar and the general, like, you know, pop culture feelings for Jar Jar. Since then, he is now a gigantic Star Wars guy, has watched all of it, and is heavily into The High Republic, which is very funny because I think his relationship with the show would have been so different had he been, like, super into Star Wars at the time, you know, but it's very funny that he's come around on that hardcore.
Michael: Has he ever returned since he left? Has he been back on the live show or any of the...?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, when Connor would do live shows in LA, which he did occasionally before COVID, there was probably, like, two or three, and Shaun would usually be the sidekick for those. And then he came on our first livestream on May the 4th, 2020. But by the end of his time on the show, his Jar Jar was no longer, you know, Jar Jar. He was basically just himself like dressed as Jar Jar and he would treat it as if, like, you know, he was the actor Jar Jar, he's booking work, he's like doing all these things, he's, you know, working on set. His voice was basically just his voice. You know, so it wasn't Jar Jar anymore, but it still like had the spirit of Jar Jar, I guess, is the best way to say it.
Michael: Gotcha. All right. So, I guess it's different depending on the show and the guests but how much preparation goes into an episode of the show. I saw in the documentary, you, Connor, and Griffin had like meetings about, you know, at least one specific show and I don't know if that's, like, all the time, or if that was special for whatever was going on. It was talking about, like, twigs from Endor, I think it related to the related to Galaxy's Edge when that first opened.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, I mean, that is weirdly one of the things in the documentary, I don't want to use this word, but I think it's the easiest way to describe it. That was sort of like "faked" for the documentary because we don't normally do meetings that often, it's usually text chains, but that's not visual, you know, you can't really get that in the doc. I'm very happy that that exists, though, because that was our biggest show at the time. It was our Star Wars Day show, and we were trying to do our own version of Galaxy's Edge, because I don't think Galaxy's Edge had opened yet, but we were like, let's beat them to the punch and do our own version called Nebula's Rim. So, it's not normally meeting in person. We've done a handful of meet-in-persons, but it's normally just texting or emailing it back and forth saying like, "This is what I'm going to do." Sometimes we'll do calls and whatever, but in person is rare. The prep varies guest to guest, like you said. But a lot of times, you know, we had Kevin Smith on, for example, on the live stream during lockdown. And I was like, "I'm just gonna rewatch all of the Kevin Smith movies beforehand." So, that was something that was, it was very easy to do that during lockdown to do a lot of prep for that kind of stuff, because we had all the time in the world, you know? But it depends on the person, it depends on if they have something specific that we want to talk to them about. Like, if there's... I don't know, you know, if there's a movie that they're in that George worked on, I will sometimes rewatch those just to remind myself. But I think the three of us have such a very specific pop culture knowledge that normally we do not have to rewatch things or, like, remind ourselves of things because that's just how our brains work, we see something insane and remember it and that's all we want to talk about. But yeah, it really depends on the guest. Most of them, I mean, for a lot of those guests, we knew them before, so it was not as difficult to have conversations. But if it was someone that we were all coming in cold, I think I would at least try to bone up on a lot of stuff. Also, a lot of times, some of the fun of the show is us not knowing things and maybe either doing research while we're talking to them, like going through their IMDB while we're speaking to them, or like, the Wikipedia, just to be like, "Is this true? This is crazy! What is this thing?" you know? That it makes it feel a little fresher, I think for us, because if we come in knowing everything, then we sort of just feel like every other show. Whereas this adds a sense of spontaneity to it. That's also just an excuse for being lazy, though.
Michael: I mean, it seems like... Well, from the George Lucas end, I guess I was wondering about this, too, it seems like Connor has or had a love of Star Wars from very early on, I assume, knew a lot about George Lucas. Is his George Lucas mainly stuff he would know anyway? Like, he's just watched all these interviews? Or is it, you know, as it's doing the character, is he actually like going out and seeking out interviews? Or is it mainly just this is going to come to him anyway, and he knows it?
Patrick Cotnoir: I think it's stuff mostly that would come to him anyway. I mean, look, you know, we've been doing this for so long that anytime George Lucas makes the news in any small way, we each get 35 text messages, you know what I mean? Like, it's just how it is. So, I think we will learn new stuff that way. He also usually before a show will google "George Lucas" and then click the news tab just to make sure nothing has happened in the last, like, two hours that we're gonna miss, you know? But I think he would have known all that stuff anyways. We all like to do deep dives on things and we all like to learn a lot about things that we like. And, you know, Star Wars is something where it's like, there's not a lack of information about Star Wars out there, you know? It's all out there and when it's something that that's what you're into, it's easy to learn things. Yeah, I don't think he really does like research specifically for it. I think it's something where it's like, he was interested in this, he learned this, now he knows it, and he's able to, like, pull out this stuff. But he's also an improviser and there's a lot of stuff he does not know that he's able to BS his way through because he can make it sound good. You know, he's been doing, "George" for so long at this point that, like, he knows how George would react -his George would react - and that has become a crutch that I think has been able to be used a lot on that show.
Michael: I guess it's kind of second nature at this point for him.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, totally. Totally.
Michael: Yeah, because I'll see him pull out things and I'm like, you know, that's a pretty specific thing and you probably saw that same interview I saw. Yeah, I mean, I've been a Star Wars fan... I'll actually say my introduction to Star Wars was actually the Ewok movies, like The Ewok Adventure and Battle for Endor. So, those are the things I really liked as a kid. I'm a little I'm a little too young to be part of that original generation, like, I wouldn't have been born for Star Wars, and then Empire and Return of the Jedi was I was pretty young. But like, when I was, you know, those movies came out when I was like 4 or 5 and my uncle, he was the first person I knew who had a VCR. So, he had taped those, and I would go over to my grandparents' house, and I would just watch those Ewok movies. And then, you know, eventually, I saw the other ones, but the Ewoks were really my big thing. Mainly as a kid, I was into like G.I. Joe, and Transformers and things like that, and then my love for the rest of Star Wars kind of came a little later. But then when I was in high school, we had to do reports on, like, things we were really into, and my report was George Lucas.
Patrick Cotnoir: Amazing. Do you know my thing about the Ewok movies?
Michael: I don't know. I did not get to... I did start watching some of the marathons that you did.
Patrick Cotnoir: This is a very hyper-specific thing. But we did watch the Ewok movies for that first marathon.
Michael: I know. I know you got to them, but I haven't gotten to it yet and I feel like I should.
Patrick Cotnoir: No, no, no. During lockdown, eBay became a very bad habit for me during lockdown, not that it wasn't before, but it like really ramped up during that. And I saw an Ewok poster that I wanted from the first movie, from Caravan of Courage. And I said, "Oh, I gotta have that." It's Italian. It's, like, a beautiful Drew Struzan thing... You're pointing your finger.
Michael: Okay, I think I saw this. I do think I saw it maybe on Twitter or something. Yeah, something's coming to my mind. But go ahead with your story.
Patrick Cotnoir: So, it arrived. You know, it was very cheap. It was, like, weirdly cheap in a way where I was like, "Yeah, I have to buy this. I don't want someone else to have this. I want to have this." It arrived. I started to unbox it and realized I did the calculation wrong on the sizing because it was in centimeters to inches, and I assumed it was a normal-sized poster when in fact it is six feet tall, at least six feet, maybe even more than six feet tall. So, I held off on doing anything with it because I was living in New York at that time, and I had a feeling I was probably going to move. So, it was one of those things where I was like, "Let me just wait until I get into a new place, and then I'll figure this out." So, I sent it to a convention, Warwick Davis signed it, all that stuff. It's literally gigantic. I moved to LA and maybe like a year in it probably took about a year before I was like, "Okay, it's finally time. Let's do this." My entrance hallway is just big enough where I was like, "This is the space. I'm not going to hang up anything on this wall. I'm going to hold on to this space and wait for it to come." And then I got it linen-backed professionally by this company, Fourth Cone Restoration, which, if people haven't seen how they linen-back posters, you should absolutely look up this company because it's fascinating. They, like, wet it with water to make it flat, and then they attach linen to the back of it with glue, and it's truly amazing. And then I had to get it framed, which if anyone knows custom framing, like, it's expensive, right? So, I was calling all these places and they were like, "It's going to be like three grand, something like that." And I was like, "That's so much money, I'm just not going to get it framed right now." And then I went to pick up the poster. They go, "We know what your next question is." And I said, "Oh, yeah?" And they said, "How am I going to get this framed?" And I said, "Exactly. That's exactly my next question." They said, "We know a guy, he'll give you a discount for doing it through us," and it was like a fourth of the price that normally it would be. So, now it's like hanging up on my wall and it's so much... It's taller than me, it's gigantic. But it's, like, the perfect "Welcome to my apartment" thing, you know? And if I ever move into a house, it's gonna be the focal point of that house. So, that's my Ewok movie connection.
Michael: As you were starting to say that, I was like, "Oh, I do feel like I saw that. It was like really large." So, it is in like it's in your house right now, like, over to the side right there. Yeah.
Patrick Cotnoir: Six to eight feet that way.
Michael: Wow, that's great. Had you watched the Ewok movies before that marathon?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, I had seen them when I was a kid. I didn't really remember them that well. I remembered them being very weird in a way that I liked, and I still like them for that. Like, I like that they're just on horses, you know? And that there's, like, chickens around and stuff like that, that it feels like he shot this in the backyard of the ranch, which I think is very funny. And I like how they feel like TV movies, but also have, like, Phil Tippett in them. It's funny seeing a high-budget TV movie from that era. And they look great on Disney+ now, they're so clear and, like, so beautiful. I'm very curious, you may know the answer to this. They got released theatrically in Europe, right? They came out in movie theaters there. On Disney+, they're in 4:3, I'm so curious if they shot them in 16:9, like, in a widescreen, because I've never seen them widescreen. But if they came out in movie theater, I feel like they had to have come out in 16:9 over there. I don't know.
Michael: That I don't know. That's not something I have considered. It's something we'll have to...
Patrick Cotnoir: I think about it constantly. [chuckles]
Michael: Well, I mean, one of the questions I was gonna get to is: You've been doing this show for a while, The George Lucas Talk Show. I know at least as of the documentary, and I haven't heard anything otherwise, no actual George Lucas yet, right?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah.
Michael: But it sounds like it seems like he's aware of it, or at least his people are aware of it. Is there any developments in that area?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. I mean, we've tried a bunch, obviously. We do shows at San Francisco Sketchfest every year, which is a comedy festival that happens in, like, January and February yearly. So, every time we go up, we ask and every time we go up, we get a letter, a very nice letter back that is not a form letter that is literally, like... The first one that we got was like, "Look, we talked about this, and we want you to know that an actual conversation was had. We really, really thought about this. He's not going to be able to do it. But we wish you and Connor and Griffin all the, you know, have so much fun doing The George Lucas Talk Show at Sketch." Like they named all the things where it's like, you guys know what this is. This is not a mystery anymore. And then they end it both times by saying, "But please keep asking, don't stop asking," which I think is fascinating. I think it's very surprising and interesting. You know, I would love it if one day it happened. I have truly no idea if it ever will, but enough people in his orbit and that work for him either watch the show or know about the show or have engaged in the show in some way that I would be surprised if he doesn't know, but I don't know. You know, he seems like, at least in the past, he's pretty well versed in what's going on. I don't know if he is still as tapped in with all that or not. But yeah, look, I would love it. I have no idea what that show would be. It would be very interesting to figure out what the vibe is, but I have no doubt in my mind that Connor, Griffin, and I, I guess, could figure out how to do that, you know? Someday!
Michael: Well, I mean, we have one question we know is the Ewok movie question.
Patrick Cotnoir: That's true. That's true. But we also sort of don't want to talk to him about Star Wars. That's kind of our thing is, like, he's talked about Star Wars enough, you know?
Michael: Right. But who's asking him that question? That's not...
Patrick Cotnoir: A great point. A great point. I think if we were to talk to him about stuff, it would have to be things like that, that literally I've never heard him talk about. Like, you know, I want to talk to him about like Radioland Murders and More American Graffiti. You know, the thing that we always say is he was an assistant cameraman at Altamont when Gimme Shelter was being filmed, but his camera jammed so none of his footage is in there. And I'm just like, "Did you see the Hell's Angels kill that guy? Where were you? What was going on?" You know? I want to hear him talk about that and he's never, ever brought that up. So, I think things like that interest us more than "Tell us about Lott Dod." You know? [scoffs] That's not as exciting. And I only said Lott Dod because he's sitting in front of me, you know?
Michael: Gotcha.
Patrick Cotnoir: But you know, who knows, who knows? I think it's also one of those things where, like, you don't know how that's going to go and you don't know what you're going to talk about until you're sitting in front of him. Where it's like, what energy is he giving us? Is he into this? Is he, does this feel like an obligation? You know, what is the whole vibe here? I don't know. I would love for it to happen. I'm going to keep trying, but we want the invite to the opening of the museum. That's really what we want because that's happening next year.
Michael: So, it is actually happening next year? It seems like it's been in the works for a while. I know they were trying to get it in Chicago, right? Like that was, that was the original plan and Chicago screwed that up somehow.
Patrick Cotnoir: Chicago said no.
Michael: I think there were at least a few other options.
Patrick Cotnoir: San Francisco. San Francisco said no. Yeah, there was a whole bunch of stuff. As far as I know, the plan is still 2025. I haven't heard anything to the otherwise. It's almost done. Like, I've driven by it a bunch because, you know, I'm in LA now and it seems like it's moving along. Connor wrote a song about the Lucas Museum and there's like an animated music video about it...
Michael: I've seen it.
Patrick Cotnoir: It's on our soundtrack record.
Michael: I have the digital. I also have, somewhere I have the record as well.
Patrick Cotnoir: Oh, amazing. Amazing!
Michael: I don't have a record player, but I have a slowly, slowly growing collection of records that are associated with podcasts.
Patrick Cotnoir: That's so funny. I love that. That's a very specific niche.
Michael: Very specific. Like, I have the "Dead Eyes" song from Dead Eyes. And then I have like Mission to Zyxx. Are you familiar with that one?
Patrick Cotnoir: Of course.
Michael: So, it's like those three. Sorry, go ahead.
Patrick Cotnoir: So funny. No, I love that. I love that you listen to Mission to Zyxx; those people are some of my favorite people, I love ‘em. But they– Oh, we were told by people at the museum that while the museum was being built, that song was being played over the loudspeakers multiple times a day, which I think is so insane, you know? So, the least, the least that they could do is invite us to the opening, you know, the very least.
Michael: Absolutely.
Patrick Cotnoir: We'll see.
Michael: So, how far is it actually like from you? You said you drive by it all the time.
Patrick Cotnoir: Probably 30 minutes, 25 minutes. Like, when you're in that part of town, it's like pretty easy to drive by it, you know, it takes up a lot of space. So yeah, like 30 minutes maybe.
Michael: That's exciting. Every so often, I'll see a job posting for it. And I'm like, I don't know if I want to uproot my entire family to go work there. But like, if I'm going to do it, it's going to be for something like that, like, the Lucas Museum. Yeah, like...
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, it's not in an ideal part of town, but it's near USC and I think it's just one of those things where it's like, they had the space and they were able to get that much space there, you know? But it's a little out of the way for a lot of people. But I'm looking forward to it. It seems like it's gonna be very cool. And I don't know... Put me on the board, you know?
Michael: Yeah, I think I think you could swing that.
Michael: Talk my way into it.
Michael: You've got 10 years of producing a version of George Lucas.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, yeah, yeah! I could do the real thing.
Michael: Yeah, absolutely. A few more things I want to cover. George Lucas has done a number of marathons, we talked about it a little bit. You watched all the Star Wars movies. You watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, right? Arli$$.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yup, Arli$$.
Michael: You've raised a bunch of money for charity. I think the initial one was for people who worked at UCB Theater, right?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, yeah. The theater closed down pretty abruptly, obviously, when COVID happened and the staff was not compensated fairly, we thought. So, there's a GoFundMe going around. And I think at that first one, we raised, like, 22 grand for them or something like that, which was rad.
Michael: Wow.
Patrick Cotnoir: But yeah, we've done a ton of fundraising for different charities or theaters. We did the Museum Moving Image in Queens. We raised like $20,000 for them or something like that. We have chairs in this Museum of the Moving Image; they have a movie theater in there, and we have chairs with our names on them, but it says, "Retired filmmaker George Lucas, Watto, and Patrick." And then on the wall, when you walk in, it has the wall of people who gave money, and we are above because we gave more money than George and Mellody Hobson.
Michael: Oh, wow.
Patrick Cotnoir: Which is very funny to me.
Michael: I wonder if he knows that.
Patrick Cotnoir: I don't know.
Michael: Has he walked through and seen that?
Patrick Cotnoir: My gut says no. But yeah.
Michael: So, like what... So, you said "$22,000? Is that the initial one?
Patrick Cotnoir: That was for the just UCB.
Michael: Yeah. So, like, what's the... Do you have an idea of like what the total?
Patrick Cotnoir: I think it's, like, 275? Somewhere in that range.
Michael: Oh, wow. That's a lot of money.
Patrick Cotnoir: It was a lot of money, yeah. Yeah. People were very generous, and it was, you know, a lot of people, if they were still working, had nothing else to spend money on while they were locked up. They're like, not going to the movies, I'm not spending money on frivolous things.
Michael: We had those stimulus checks so send some of that your way.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it was something around there.
Michael: I mean, George Lucas should feel good about that. Like, all this money being raised in...
Patrick Cotnoir: In his name.
Michael: In his name. You know, all things that are in your favor for a nice meeting there.
Patrick Cotnoir: Look, we love the guy. I like to say that there's a difference between making fun of and poking fun at. And I think that we will poke fun, but I don't think we ever really make fun, ideally, you know? Because we love the guy and he changed all of our lives and, you know, means so much to all of us. The least we can do is have a little fun.
Michael: Right. It doesn't seem mean-spirited. I think...
Patrick Cotnoir: I don't think so.
Michael: From anything, you'll hear people in interviews talk about how he has a really good sense of humor. Maybe they say sly sense of humor, something like that, dry sense of humor. So, you know, he'd probably be okay with it. He also has Detours, which, you know, maybe someday we'll see.
Patrick Cotnoir: I doubt it!
Michael: I hear it's just one button you've got to press.
Patrick Cotnoir: That is true. I would be shocked if people saw it. Unless it gets leaked by someone who worked on that show, I would be very surprised if that ever came out. But you never know, weirder things have happened, you know?
Michael: So, I remember a couple of years ago, there was like four or five minutes that leaked, and it was on, I don't know, if it was on Reddit or if it was on YouTube and Reddit. And I watched it, whatever was on there, and there was a part with Jar Jar, and he had some sort of, you know, the comic sitcom trope of two dates in one night. That's the thing I remember from it, and it was like taken down really, really soon after.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. I mean, hypothetically, if I had seen a bunch of episodes, hypothetically, Jar Jar is in that show a pretty good amount.
Michael: And it's Ahmed Best, right?
Patrick Cotnoir: And it is Ahmed Best, yeah. So, hypothetically, there's at least one episode that I'm thinking of that I think is very funny.
Michael: Right. If you're imagining this.
Patrick Cotnoir: If I'm imagining a show hypothetically, you know?
Michael: Okay. I was wondering. I feel like you've got to be in the orbit of some people who are involved in that.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, hypothetically.
Michael: But they would never show you that, I'm sure.
Patrick Cotnoir: No, why would they? Why would they?
Michael: So, have there ever been any guests who completely didn't get it and actually thought they were gonna talking to George Lucas? I mean, so there's not getting, like, the bit and, like, you know, not being into it, but actually thinking, "I'm going to go talk to George Lucas." I assume that when you're booking people, you're giving some sort of, "This is not actually George Lucas."
Patrick Cotnoir: Gosh, who was it? There was someone and I'm, like, remembering the conversation in my head, but I can't remember who the face was of someone where it was like, "It's crazy that George does this show." And I was like, "Uhhh, yeah. Oh... Well, it's actually a comedian." I can't remember who it was! I don't know. I do remember we did a show in Detroit, it was just outside of Detroit in this town called Hamtramck, Michigan. And I, without telling Connor, got the town council to name it George Lucas Talk Show Day in Hamtramck, Michigan that day, and they came to the show and read a proclamation saying like, "Whereas today June 16th," you know, whatever "in Hamtramck, Michigan is George Lucas Talk Show Day." And the guy who was on the council or worked for the mayor or whatever, who came to read it, I think he thought it was George, which is funny because it, like, very much states it in the email that they read at the thing, you know?
Michael: Wait a minute.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, there was someone, I can't remember who it was. It doesn't happen that often because I think I pretty clearly state it out in the email. It's happened with reps. Like, when I'm emailing someone's, like, agent or manager, they're like, "So, is it actually George?" And I'm like, "You didn't read the email. [chuckles] You clearly just skimmed this and now we're trying to pretend like you gave it real thought." But you know, I don't want someone to show up and be mad about it. There's people who haven't done it because they said, "I'm friends with George and I don't want to make him mad." That's definitely happened.
Michael: Okay. Just out of... Not necessarily knowing anything, like, he has a problem with it, just assuming that, you know, on the off chance.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah.
Michael: Gotcha.
Patrick Cotnoir: And some of those people like "I haven't spoken to him in 30 years. I don't want him to be mad at me." And I'm like, "He wouldn't but it's okay. Like, he's not going to know that you did this specifically," you know?
Michael: Right. So, I want to get to The Naboo Movie. So, this happened recently. It was May 19th in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the release of Episode I. You produced, hosted, narrated a live reading of The Phantom Menace. You had a pretty great cast, including Tony Hale as Qui-Gon Jinn, Tawny Newsome as Padme Amidala, Haley Joel Osment as Anakin. Could you talk a little bit about how that came about?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. So, we're friends with the guys from the Star Wars Minute podcast, Pete and Alex, and they also produced this and narrated it with me. But they reached out to me because I was in LA now and they were like, "We've always wanted to do a live reading of Star Wars and with the anniversary of Phantom Menace, it feels like it makes sense. Would you want to do it?" And I was like, "You could have stopped that sentence so much earlier and I would have said yes. Like, yes, the answer is yes, of course. Sounds great." So, I reached out to this theater that I do a lot of stuff at, Dynasty Typewriter here in LA, and was like, "Hey, we want to do this in May. Do you have any dates?" And they were like, "We're pretty much all booked up in May, except we have May 19th open." And I was like, "Well, that's perfect. That's the ideal date to do it on."
Michael: That's the date.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, so that's great. And yeah, I mean, it sort of came together pretty easily, weirdly. You know, it's a lot of parts to cast, but it was a lot of people that I had worked with before. Some of them I'd never worked with before. I'd never worked with Tawny; I'd never worked with Laraine. Eric Bauza, who did Jar Jar, I sort of knew, but we had never really done much together. And basically, everyone we asked said yes. Like, pretty much that's our first choice cast for a lot of those. And the only ones who didn't were, like, not available, you know, that was the reason why they couldn't. And they were great, they were great. It was so much fun. It's one of the things I'm the most proud of that I've worked on. We wanted that movie... I think gets a bad rap generally and I made sure to tell everyone beforehand, I was like, "Listen, this movie gets dunked on sometimes. I don't really think it's fair, and I don't want that to be what tonight is. I want tonight to be a celebration. I don't want it to be, you know, let's pretend like this movie is garbage because it's not." And I think everyone took that the right way and they all knew what I meant by that where, like, again, it's the poking fun of-making fun of. I don't think we made fun of the movie. I think we poked fun with the movie, and I think we took what we liked about it and, you know, emphasized that. And some of those people had never seen that movie before, you know, so it was like a very cold reading for them. Some of them had seen it 25 times, you know? There was a lot of stuff we had to adjust because for cultural sensitivity reasons, which is obviously the right thing, you know, there's some voices we had to work on. And I think everyone knew that and went for it the right way and was able to look at it and be like, "Okay. Well, what's something that we can do with this character that is not a problem, you know?" And, you know, the Neimoidians, they played them like Southern lawyers, Southern gentlemen. And Jar Jar, say what you will about Jar Jar, I love the guy, you know, look, I just did the thing I grabbed earlier to show you. I bought the Regal Robot concept bust mug.
Michael: Oh man, you got it!
Patrick Cotnoir: I got it. Just got it in the mail.
Michael: Is that the... So, I know there was, like, a limited edition one, and then there was a not as limited one. Which one is that? Is that the...?
Patrick Cotnoir: This is the signature edition. There was one where Tony McVey would draw a sketch on it, which, that was too rich for my blood, you know. So, I got the one where it's just a signature. It's still a limited because I think they only had it up for two weeks or something like that, or maybe a week, maybe it was a week. But I'm pretty high up... Trying to see... I think I'm number 13, which is pretty good. I think they made like 250 or something like that. It's great though. It looks great. But Eric did Jar Jar. He's the voice of all the Looney Tunes primarily, he does most of the Looney Tunes, and he did it as Daffy Duck reading his Jar Jar and it really changed the way you look at that character. You're just like, "Oh yeah, this character is a Looney Tune. That's what he is." And it makes so much more sense when you're like– Not more sense, but it makes so much sense when you're watching it like that, where you're like, "Oh wow, that's interesting." There's a lot of lines in that movie that are good lines, but maybe weren't directed or said the correct way in a way where you're like, "I don't really feel like you're selling that." But when you hear someone else say it in a different inflection, a different tone, a different, you know, intention, it's interesting because you're like "That line does work." Like, it's really weird to see that. We also did the shooting script, which is different than the final product so there were some, like, deleted things that I had never really heard in there.
Michael: Yeah, there's that one line where Valorum is like, "You betrayed me," which I don't remember... I don't remember hearing that or seeing it. I mean, maybe a long time ago, but that is interesting, and they took that out. But... Go ahead.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, I mean, the one that I always think of is when Anakin is flying the N1 Starfighter with R2 up to the droid ship and Anakin says something like, "You're right! This is nothing like pod racing." And then like two minutes later, he goes, "Now this is pod racing!" And you're like, that line is supposed to be a response to something. Like, it makes so much more sense when you hear that. But it was, it was very interesting and very fascinating. Pete from Star Wars Minute, who was also doing it was this, he was the script guy so he was the one who was editing the script a little bit down to make it a little bit shorter. It was still pretty long, but it was a little bit shorter. And I didn't read it beforehand specifically because I was like, I want to see what's different in here with everyone else at the time. So, it was a very cool experience. It's all on YouTube. People can watch it at naboomovie.com and it's up there for free. And then, you know, we got the next one coming up August 10th, 2024. If you're in the LA area, you can get tickets. They may already be gone by that point because they're moving quick, but you can also get livestream tickets and those are super helpful for us to just, like, keep doing these shows, you know, to cover all the weird costs for props and music and, you know, all that stuff. So, if you get a livestream ticket, it does really, really help us. And then, yeah, I mean, you know, I'm sure there will be more down the line, but it's going to be very fun. The cast is insane. The cast is genuinely crazy. It's a lot of returning people, but there's some new people that are truly, truly bananas. I'll write you one, and I don't want you to say, even though it'll be out at this point, but I just want you to react.
Michael: Oh, I see it, I see it! Oh wow! That's...
Patrick Cotnoir: Wild.
Michael: That is wild.
Patrick Cotnoir: It's very weird. But there's a lot of cool people doing this one. So, I'm very excited for it.
Michael: I have a number of questions. I think you covered a lot of what I was going to ask. Back to Eric Bauza as Jar Jar. So, how did that come about? Like, was it always, this is going to be... Was it always like Daffy Duck? Was it potentially other cartoon characters, other options? I know you said the Neimoidians were, like, Southern lawyers. I was thinking Droopy Dog, but I don't know. I don't know if that's quite right.
Patrick Cotnoir: That's really funny, yeah.
Michael: But that's what it kind of reminded me of.
Patrick Cotnoir: I mean, with Jar Jar, it was tough because I asked Ahmed, he was very excited about it, but he was not in town, and he was like genuinely bummed he couldn't do it.
Michael: That was going to be my other question. Because I know you've had him on the show and I was like, was there ever any consideration for bringing him in or bringing him in as another character? Giving him a chance as a...
Patrick Cotnoir: Yes. 100%.
Michael: Okay... Go ahead.
Patrick Cotnoir: No, no, no. I fully gave him free rein. I said, "If you want to freaking play Padme, you can play Padme. Do whatever you want to do." And he was like, "This sounds awesome. I'm so sad that I'm not in town for it." So, that was, you know, when that happens, it's tough because you're like, "Okay, now we're back to square one. What do we do?" And with a character like that, you've got to do it right. You've got to do it in a way that isn't, you know, a problem. So, I was like, "Okay, I want to have a voice actor do it. Let me think of who the best person would be." I knew Eric– I tried to get him on another show, and we, like, followed each other on stuff. So, like, we knew each other a little bit, but not really that well and it was just, you know, it worked out great because I knew he was a big Star Wars guy and I knew he was a big Episode I guy, and he had like a Qui-Gon tie that he wore that night. You know, he was all in and he was so excited when I asked him. So, I said, "You can do Jar Jar or you can do any one of your voices." And secretly I was hoping he would do Daffy, that's what I was, like, secretly hoping. And it was, it was Kismet and he emailed back and said, "What about Daffy?" And I said, "Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. I didn't want to suggest it." Because you don't want to pimp someone into having to do a voice, you know? You don't want to be like, "Okay, dance. Dance for me. Do the voice! Do the voice!" But he was very happy to do it and it was great. It was truly, like, the only way I could have seen that working, which was very exciting. So, I'm very happy that it worked out that he was around and into it, you know? I think I answered that question.
Michael: No, no, you did. So, is there one official voice or is he one of them? I don't know if this is... I know sometimes...
Patrick Cotnoir: For the Looney Tunes, you're saying?
Michael: Yeah, yeah. Like, is he the official Daffy Duck or do they sometimes have other people doing it? I know he does... I know it looks like he's done a lot of them, I just didn't know if the one or...
Patrick Cotnoir: I believe at this point, he is the Daffy. I think for a lot of the other ones, they bop around between guys a lot, like Eric will do Bugs, but also... Oh god, what's his name? Jeff Bennett does Bugs sometimes. There's a few Bugs that will pop up, based on project to project. But I believe he is the Daffy at this point. I'm not as well-versed in the intricacies of Looney Tunes voices as a lot of people but I know for a lot of things, they will bop between some of their guys, you know, they've got a few guys. But he's he seems to be their go-to at this point.
Michael: Yeah, I think he did go into, like... He went into Porky Pig, I think at least yeah, the show too. So, I saw, like, Bugs and Porky Pig, I think on his on his IMDB as well.
Patrick Cotnoir: Very talented guy.
Michael: You kept it pretty close to the script for The Naboo Movie. You know, obviously, there were the different interpretations of, you know, voices. Was there ever any... Did you ever have any consideration of adding stuff, like, adding full-on scenes?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, I don't think so. I think we wanted to keep it as close to what it was because, you know, we're not George, you know? I don't want to... Who are we to say, "Oh, this should have been here or whatever," you know? I just wanted it to be a straight reading. This is it. You hear what's on the page, all that. I think everything in the script, pretty much, maybe a few sentences here and there were added or adjusted to, like, make something make a little more sense. But things were cut out for sure, just for timing and pacing reasons. And, you know, it takes a long time to read a script, like, this thing was almost three hours as it is. So, if that stuff had not been cut out, it would have been probably 45 minutes longer. But it was mostly just lines here or there or stuff that wasn't super necessary or memorable, or even in the movie to begin with, you know?
Michael: Gotcha. So, what were the... Whatchamacallit... Were there rehearsals?
Patrick Cotnoir: Nope.
Michael: So, this was all first time... only time?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yup. Everyone showed up maybe 20 minutes before. They were given the scripts beforehand and, you know, obviously, some of them had seen the movie. But like, everyone showed up 20 minutes before. A lot of people met each other– You know, Vic, who was Obi-Wan, and Tony, who was Qui-Gon had never met before, and their chemistry is so good in it that you would think that they knew each other. But like, I watched them meet right before we went on stage and that was that. And I think it's the ideal way to do it. Also, when you're working with a cast that big and with that many like heavy hitters, it's hard A) to be like, "Hey, can you come to this thing for three hours?" And then B) to be like, "And also can you come another day so we can do a rehearsal?" Especially when you're, you know, not compensating them in a way that, like, a TV show would, or a movie would, or whatever. So, it was, you know, it was all on the fly, all fresh, all new, and I think that was the right way to do it.
Michael: Tony Hale does mispronounce "Coruscant" a number of times, and then Haley Joel Osment. Do you guys refer to him with all three names when you talk to him? [chuckles]
Patrick Cotnoir: That's a great question. I will usually do Haley or Haley Joel, but my sister's name is Haley so it's hard if I'm, like, talking to my family about it, I'll have to be like "Haley Joel," you know, whatever.
Michael: I can't think of it, it sounds weird. But I'm just like...
Patrick Cotnoir: Of course. Yeah, you've got to do the whole thing. He's great. He's so fun and he's down for anything. He's, like, always game and it's really, really rad. It's really rad to just, like, have him hang out and be around, and you're like, "You've had the coolest career and you're so like normal and chill." He's the best. He's the best.
Michael: And there's a world where he was Anakin, right? Like, I think he said...
Patrick Cotnoir: He auditioned, yeah.
Michael: Yeah, I think I saw the interview you did with him. Yeah, I think it was probably the first time you had him on. And he mentioned, I think he got to a certain point. I don't think he was, like, final round or anything, but I mean...
Patrick Cotnoir: He was up... He did it. He did it, which is exciting. I mean, there's a very real world where he was Anakin, you know? He had the career at that point where that could have happened. But if he had gotten Anakin, he probably would not have done Sixth Sense, just timing-wise, you know, so it's, like, this weird... Dominoes that you're pushing down where, like, things would have been very different for him.
Michael: Very different.
Patrick Cotnoir: Cool guy.
Michael: So, was he, like, first choice? Did you know immediately...?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, he was the first.
Michael: That makes sense. He does such a good job. I mean, he's a little he's a little creepy as Anakin. [laughs]
Patrick Cotnoir: But that script is weird. You know, so you gotta take it, read the script the way you want to read it, you know?
Michael: Yeah, very, very funny. I was a little surprised that Griffin was not Watto. Is that a... Was that just a not-available thing?
Patrick Cotnoir: He's just not in LA, you know? I wasn't going to be able to pay for flights to come out.
Michael: Gotcha. I was gonna ask if you tried to get anyone from the actual movie to appear. We talked about Ahmed. Anybody else?
Patrick Cotnoir: I don't think we tried anyone else. I think he was the one. The only other one we probably would have tried but we ended up cutting the pod race sequence, which if you haven't seen it, it will make sense in context is Greg Proops, who's one of the two-headed narrator, you know, the play-by-play announcer guys, Fode and Beed. He's probably the only other one I would have asked just because I don't know who else would have done it. You know, nobody really lives in LA except for... I don't even know if Sam Jackson lives here. I think Sam Jackson doesn't even live here. So, like, you know, there's not a lot of people around, which is tough. But who knows, maybe in future readings, people from the movies will be in them. I don't know, you'll have to wait and see.
Michael: I guess we'll have to find out. It seems like it was pretty successful. Obviously, you're doing a second one at least. So, you know, maybe word will spread and people will be willing to, you know, Liam Neeson... Well, he's dead already, but he could be somebody else.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, let him play... I don't even know. Tion Medon? Maybe he can play Tion Medon.
Michael: Wait, is he the one from the Utapau?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. Yeah, let him play.
Michael: Like, I don't know that one! Oh no, I do. I pulled it out. I figured it out.
Patrick Cotnoir: I tried to go deep cut.
Michael: Yeah. So, we got The Great Kamino Kaper coming up, and you said your hope is to do more, I think.
Patrick Cotnoir: Look, we got seven more. We got seven more. So, let's go.
Michael: Well, I would hope that you'll at least complete the trilogy. But yes, so you got seven more or...
Patrick Cotnoir: As of now, I think the goal is to do as many as we can do.
Michael: But you also got Solo. You also got Rogue One.
Patrick Cotnoir: Great point.
Michael: Are we gonna get to the Ewok Adventure?
Patrick Cotnoir: I mean, I would love it. Honestly, before Ewok Adventure, I would like to do Holiday Special, that would be my preference. But yeah, I mean, look, we'll see how these go, you know? Will we do the Clone Wars movie? Who do I get to play Stinky? I don't know. I think we know Bobby Moynihan would play Stinky. I think that's the obvious choice for Stinky.
Michael: So, I recently spoke to a friend of The George Lucas Talk Show and now I feel friend of this show - my show is called Heyblabber Podcast, I don't know if I don't know if I've mentioned that - Bobby Lopez. So yeah, you know, double EGOT winner, the world's only. I know you had him on your recent Oscar show. Do you remember what his connection to Jar Jar Binks is?
Patrick Cotnoir: Remember what his connection to Jar Jar Binks is?
Michael: Yeah.
Patrick Cotnoir: No!
Michael: One of his first jobs, he worked with the musician Meco, who did the Star Wars disco, is it coming back to you?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, yeah, yeah, a little bit. There was a song, right? Wasn't there a Jar Jar song?
Michael: There's a song that's called "Cousin Jar Jar," and he co-wrote the lyrics with the individual who he co-wrote Avenue Q with...
Patrick Cotnoir: Jeff Marks.
Michael: There we go. And so, he co-wrote that and he also provides the voice of Jar Jar. So, it was exciting to get him on and talk about that because I'm surprised it's not a more well-known fact. Like, when I saw what you guys talked about, I was like, oh, I'm surprised it didn't... Like, because there's a lot of there's not that much about Jar Jar Binks out in the world.
Patrick Cotnoir: Sure. Here's the thing with scoops on our show. We get a lot of good scoops from people, but they're usually, like, three hours into an episode. So, the people who would be reporting on those things don't watch that long. So, a lot of these things that we have learned just go unnoticed by the world because it's so deep buried into an episode, which I think they were pretty deep into that episode. I think they're pretty far in.
Michael: So, you said a lot of the cast is returning for The Great Kamino Kaper. I know. So, I know certain characters are not in the movie. Are you able to talk about... I guess you're probably not able to talk about too much, what the cast is.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, I mean, a lot of people are coming back, primarily playing the same characters for the most part, but there's also a bunch of new people. We have more people in this show than we had in the last show, and we had a lot of people in the last show. I think the last show had 16 cast members or 15, and we have 19 now. So, there's a bunch of new people, but also fresh faces. I don't think people will be disappointed by it. I'm sure by the time this comes out, it will be announced. I just don't want to say anything right now, in case before it gets announced, people bail, you know?
Michael: Yeah. No problem.
Patrick Cotnoir: But there's some people that are genuinely... Someone is flying out from New York, which is bizarre to me. Someone I only kind of know.
Michael: All right. So, I guess I want to talk about, this is a Jar Jar Binks-themed podcast, we have discussed them a little bit. I guess we should talk a little bit more about Jar Jar, you know, what your feelings are. I think you're a little younger than me so I would guess you were maybe more in the age range, maybe a little older, than Jar Jar is necessarily intended.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, I mean, I was 7 when that movie came out. So, it's kind of the perfect age for it. You know, I've always been pro Jar Jar. I think there's a point in everyone's life, especially in a Star Wars fan's life though, when you feel like you've grown out of it, you know, or like it's not the cool thing anymore and after those prequels, or even during the prequels, to be honest, but after the prequels came out, it was like, "Okay, well, that was part of my life. It's not really anymore." But always liked Jar Jar, always been a Jar Jar defender. Obviously, you know, I want the frickin' maquette, which was not nothing so it would have been weird if I was not a Jar Jar guy. But I also, you know, I understand the criticism that people have on it and they're totally right to feel those ways. But I think he's a very funny character, you know, he makes me laugh. And even in that re-release that came out a couple months ago, I was like, he's killing like every joke's hitting right now, you know, people are going for it. And I think being 7 at the time was the perfect time for it. If I had been any older, maybe it wouldn't have been my thing. But like, you know, being able to be a child when that movie came out really hit me hard. And, you know, I have so many toys from that movie because I was the right age, like, even look, you know, I've got the frickin'... All these action figures around my apartment are just like mostly Phantom Menace action figures because I have so many of them. I wish there was more Jar Jar content out there, I hope he comes back and something. I think if Disney had any balls, they would bring him back in a project, put him in Andor, you know, put him in a Senate scene in Andor. How great would that be? People would lose their minds! Something, something. And I'm very happy that Ahmed's being brought back into the fold with the Kelleran Beq stuff and with, you know, Jedi Temple Challenge and all that. It's very exciting for him. And I hope that I just want him to be happy and I want him to live his best life and if that includes Star Wars, great, and if it doesn't include Star Wars, that's also totally fine. But he's such a smart guy, such a cool guy and I want the best for him. I shouldn't talk about a project that's not out, but I worked with him on something else that has yet to be released. I cast him in something else that is yet to be released and I'm waiting on it to come out because I was hoping... This is pre-him coming back in Mando. And I really wanted to kickstart the Ahmed Best. So, I'm still waiting on this thing to be out, but it's done so... Hopefully soon. When that comes out, I can come back and talk about it. But yeah, a cool guy, a great guy. And just like, you know, it sucks what he went through, and it sucks all the things that were thrown at him and blamed on him and all that. I'm sad that he felt the way he did about it for so long and I'm happy that he seems to have come to a place of acceptance and of joy and of love for those movies that is, you know, is genuine. So, very pro Jar Jar.
Michael: Yeah. I mean, to a couple of your points, I definitely am hoping, I keep expecting Jar Jar to show up in something. I agree, Andor, I always think, you know, he could be a secret leader of the Rebel Alliance; he could be doing the same thing that Leia and Mon Mothma and Bail Organa are doing, secretly leading. You know, they could do a Jar Jar-based show, we could get our friend Bobby Lopez to come back and do the...
Patrick Cotnoir: Write that musical.
Michael: The Jar Jar musical, yeah. There are there are so many things. There was a 25th-anniversary comic where they added just, like, a couple new scenes or alternate scenes and Jar Jar was in that, and it's like any time Jar Jar appears in something, I'm like, "Is this gonna be it?" It seemed like this is the year, 25th anniversary. Let's start seeing Jar Jar in more things.
Patrick Cotnoir: I know. I would love to. There's still time. We got five more months.
Michael: We do.
Patrick Cotnoir: Put him in Skeleton Crew have those little kids from Skeleton Crew find him, that sounds good. That's like the perfect spot to put him in, you know?
Michael: Yeah, absolutely. And I did love Kelleran Beq's appearance in The Mandalorian, and it does seem like they could be leading towards Jar Jar being behind, you know, I think someone said "That's his ship. It looks like his ship."
Patrick Cotnoir: I'm ready.
Michael: So, maybe Season 4 of Mandalorian, we'll see him.
Patrick Cotnoir: I would love it.
Michael: I would love it too. I feel bad about all the hate that he got. I don't necessarily understand that. I can get being disappointed in something but why, you know, spend all your time and then going after actors that are doing a job?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, people are dumb. People are dumb, that's why.
Michael: It doesn't make sense to me. Did you watch The Acolyte?
Patrick Cotnoir: I did. I liked it. I was into it. I hope there's a Season 2, I would love to see more of those characters and more of what happens in that time frame. I like that it's unburdened by a lot of, you know, things that take place within those 20 years or whatever you want to call it that they've been sticking to (more than that, I guess 40 years). But I like that we really don't know what happens to 99% of those characters and I hope they do more of it.
Michael: Anything could happen. Yeah, no, I liked it too. I thought it was really interesting. I like that time frame. We haven't seen that time frame on screen. It's good. So, what are your thoughts on the Darth Jar Jar theory? I have to assume you're aware of it.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. I mean, look, I'm ready for was it Rebuild the Galaxy, is that what it's called?
Michael: Oh, yeah, yeah. The LEGO one.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, starring Bobby Moynihan and written by my friends, Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit. And look, have I seen some of it? Maybe. Is it very good? Maybe, hypothetically, maybe, you know? But I think that's going to be very good for the Darth Jar Jar community and I am excited for, I'm excited for that. You know, I think it's a fun theory; I don't necessarily buy into it in any real way, but I do think it's fun and silly, you know? And I'm all for more people talking about Jar Jar, you know?
Michael: Yeah, agreed. I don't think I buy into it. I feel like something would have come out by now. Like, some, I don't feel like they could have actually kept that a secret if there was something in Lucasfilm. Part of the problem with George Lucas selling to Disney is that this theory came out afterwards so he's not really getting asked as much stuff. So, I've never seen him be asked about this theory and, you know, we have no idea. I feel like if he was asked, I could see him just being like, "Yeah, that sounds good. That's what it is."
Patrick Cotnoir: "Sure. Whatever you want."
Michael: "That's what I was planning on doing." So, I don't know, even if we got an answer from him, I don't know that we could fully, fully believe it.
Patrick Cotnoir: Who knows?
Michael: Who knows. So, The Great Kamino Kaper is set for August 10th, that's just nine days before International Talk Like Jar Jar Binks Day, August 19th.
Patrick Cotnoir: Oh wow.
Michael: I mean, I'm assuming that this is why you said it for that day, like kind of.
Patrick Cotnoir: That's exactly why. Yeah, yeah. I knew that I wanted to get people in the mood and ready for it, you know?
Michael: Right, for the season. I don't know your plans for The Kamino Kaper.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yes. Oh, I thought you meant for International Talk Like Jar Jar Day.
Michael: Oh well, I don't know those either. You know, you'll have to let me know. Is it safe to assume that the entirety of The Attack of the Clones script will be translated into Gunganese?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. Well, that's actually how George wrote it for the filming script, and then they had to re-translate it back when they were on set, which was annoying for people, but it seemed like it all worked out in the end. That's why some of those lines are a little clunky. It's like Google Translate, you know when you do that and it like doesn't always turn out the right way. The whole thing, the whole thing will be in Gunganese.
Michael: Awesome!
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. It's gonna be cool. It's going to be different, I think, which is exciting for us.
Michael: Oh, great. So then, what are your plans? I mean, International Talk Like Jar Jar Binks Day? Like, do you celebrate privately?
Patrick Cotnoir: I think there's only one plan, right?
Michael: Talk like Jar Jar Binks.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah.
Michael: Okay. There you go.
Patrick Cotnoir: I don't know what other plans could you have. That's the thing! That's the day! You sit at home, lock your doors, and you just talk like Jar Jar Binks.
Michael: All right. Good. So, if you had the ability to work on any project for Lucasfilm, would you be interested in doing so? Like in what capacity on screen, behind the scenes?
Patrick Cotnoir: Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, look, I would love to cast something. Sure. I would love to. But also, the dream, the dream is to be either a background guy or a guy with like one line, and then you just get to go to conventions for the rest of your life. That's the dream, you know? I'm very curious how all of the Disney-era background guys will be for conventions. I'm very curious if Mando guys will be doing conventions 40 years from now, or if that's just for the people who were part of the George movies. I don't know. But yeah, put me in a frickin' Bith head, you know, in the background, I'm totally fine with that. I would love that. I don't need, I'm not an actor, you know? I don't need that much attention on me. But if I could just walk across the screen dressed as a frickin' Aqualish, yeah, man, I'm in. I'm in.
Michael: What was it? Was it Nsync that was supposed to be in Attack of the Clones? Were they the ones?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. But then I've since heard that it's only some of Nsync. I don't think Justin was there, and I don't think, maybe Lance? But I just heard recently someone asked, like, Joey Fatone about it, and three of them shot or something like that. That footage is out there. Put them back in, you know, Maclunkey them and put them in the movie.
Michael: That is one of the... That is a tragedy that George does not have access to the movies anymore. I can't just be adding. I was so excited when Maclunkey happened.
Patrick Cotnoir: It's the best. It's maybe the best thing to happen to Star Wars in the last 30 years.
Michael: Yeah. I'd say probably. It's great.
Patrick Cotnoir: My favorite thing is that clearly that edit was done before the Disney sale because George worked on it. And I think it was done around the 3D re-release time, which is like 2010, 2011, somewhere in there, which means Maclunkey was just sitting on a shelf for nine to ten years and no one knew about it. And George knew, and it was like this little ticking time bomb where he's like, "Someday, this is coming. This is gonna happen." And he was just patiently biding his time until this thing got released. That's my favorite thing about Maclunkey is that it was just there for so long and we had no idea.
Michael: And nobody, nobody knew.
Patrick Cotnoir: Nobody. Nobody knew.
Michael: I saw in your bio that it said you worked at Sesame Street. Could you talk about that a little bit? Like, how long was that? What'd you do?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, totally. So, I interned there in college, but the way that I got it is kind of a fun story. Big, big Muppet kid growing up and still, to this day, you know, it's one of my interests, one of my core interests. And when I was... Let's see, I would have been maybe 12-ish. Caroll Spinney, who played Big Bird and Oscar, came out with a memoir and he did a Q&A and, like, a reading from the memoir at the UConn Puppetry School and I grew up in Connecticut. So, we went down, and he did, you know, give us a full speech and then started a question-and-answer thing and I asked, – it's very fun because this is on video, my dad was videoing it, so it's nice to have this preserved forever – I go, "Do you ever give tours of the set?" And he goes, "No, not really. You got to know someone," and, like, gave a little wave, right? So, we go, and we meet him, and he signs the book and stuff. We get our picture with him. We go home, send the picture out to him to be signed, and sent back to us, and he does it. Three or four months later, I get a postcard in the mail being like, "Hey Patrick, it's Caroll. If you ever want to come to the set, here's my number. Give me a call," which is crazy, you know? So, we gave him a call. I go to the set when I'm 13, 14, something like that. I went three times in middle and high school, which was very cool. I really wanted to work there. It was the thing I wanted to do, you know, it's Star Wars and Muppets were my two things, and SNL; those are, like, the three things that I really wanted to do, didn't know in what capacity. So we go, it's great, keep in touch, meet some other people there. Everyone's very nice to me, all that. I go to college in New York, and I email this guy, Marty Robinson, who was Telly and Snuffy and a bunch of other characters. And I say, "Hey, I don't know if you know the internship person, but if you do, could you put me in touch? I'm here, I would love to do it." He puts me in touch. I get the job. You know, I go in for an interview and all that stuff, kind of a little nepo-y, but at the same time, it doesn't matter. You know, it was like... I feel like I put in the time. I put in the time in the work to make this happen. So, I interned there for like a year and I was there for a lot of very cool stuff. As of today, I was there for Frank Oz's last days working on Sesame Street, he has not gone back since then. Jerry Nelson, who was the Count, and a whole bunch of other characters, I was there for his last day on set. A lot of people who retired, I was there for their end or close to the end. It was, you know, it was a wild experience; it was very weird to like "work" there. It was a lot of, you know, like, making copies and getting coffee and stuff. But at the same time, like I was able to come in on days I wasn't working and just, like, lurk in the back of the set and watch how things were done and how things were made. And it really was one of the first times when I got real, you know, set experience or at least, like, exposure to being on set and knowing how things actually happen. It was very fun and very cool. I will never take it off my resume because it's always the thing that people ask about.
Michael: Yeah. I mean, it sounds like an awesome job. There was a time where I was like, how could I make that happen? But didn't figure it out. I definitely, I had a Muppet phase too when I was young. And I remember when Jim Henson died and that was... I was so sad. That's one of those deaths, I think that's one that, as maybe of celebrity deaths, that's affected me the most. Like, I still wonder, you know, what else he would have done.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, it is. It's very sad. You know, it's crazy when you think about how the majority of things that he did, you know, starting at the Muppet Show, there's only like 15 years of that. His Muppet Show started in ‘76, I think, and then he died in ‘90. Like, it's crazy how much he packed into such a short amount of time, you know?
Michael: Yeah. I read the biography on him or a biography on him a few years ago, and there was a lot of stuff in there that I was surprised about that.
Michael: Brian Jay Jones, he wrote George Lucas's biography too.
Michael: I haven't read that one yet. I have that, I have it.
Patrick Cotnoir: It's good.
Michael: But after I saw like the same guy wrote it, I was like, I guess I really should listen to that or read it. There was something about, like, a nightclub that he was involved in?
Patrick Cotnoir: Oh yeah.
Michael: Remember? And I was like, I had no idea.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. He wanted to do this really in-depth, like, almost a film nightclub; there would be stuff projected on the ceiling and like movies playing on the walls and stuff, it was going to be insane. He had so many insane ideas. It's sad that, you know, you don't get to see what he would be doing today. But the company's still around and they're still doing very cool motion capture puppetry stuff and there's a lot of neat things that they're working on.
Michael: Yeah. Speaking of biographies, is that the Charles Schultz one back there on...?
Patrick Cotnoir: It is. On my shelf.
Michael: All right. I thought so. Looks very distinctive. I read that one too a while ago, but...
Patrick Cotnoir: I remember... I think I read that one on a set. I think I was working on a movie called It Comes at Night starring Uncle Owen himself, Joel Edgerton. I was a PA and my whole job was to sit outside the door of a house and not let people in for 12 hours a day. And I got through a lot of books on that set.
Michael: I've heard your name at the end of episodes of I Said No Gifts! So, is that, like, your day job?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. Day job is I book podcasts for the Exactly Right network. So, it's seven or eight shows, probably, weekly shows that come out. And yeah, it's just a lot of emailing and a lot of Excel spreadsheets to keep track of who's where and who's coming on when. And yeah, I Said No Gifts! and Do You Need a Ride? and Bananas, and That's Messed Up. They have a whole bunch of shows that I work on over there. So, that's the day job. Been there two and a half years, something like that. It's crazy.
Michael: Cool. And is that all done remotely, or is that part of why...
Patrick Cotnoir: It's mostly, yeah, it's mostly done remotely. We do have an office that I go into sometimes, but it's, like, once or twice a month I go in at this point. I'll probably start going a little more. But yeah, it was one of the reasons I moved out here was just, you know, had a job that was based in LA. And even though it was mostly remote at that time, I knew the office was opening so it just gave me a good excuse.
Michael: Awesome. All right. I mean, I think that's largely covering the stuff I wanted to, is there anything else that you want to discuss or plug? You got Naboo Movie just came out, you can watch that at naboomovie.com. Kamino Kaper, August 10th.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah. You can go to kaminokaper.com. I'm "George Lucas": A Connor Ratliff Story, which is the documentary about The George Lucas Talk Show. You can go to ImGeorgeLucas.com. It's on VOD. It's coming to more VOD platforms on August 20th to be able to watch it on iTunes and all those thoughts. George Lucas Talk Show is all on YouTube, you can search that. I recommend if you've never seen it, just finding a guest that you like and watching it that way. What else? What else? Ideally, the documentary is coming out on Blu-ray very soon, we're working on that. Hopefully, I'm hoping by the end of the year, but we'll see. You can follow me on Twitter @PatrickCotnoir on Instagram @Cotnoir, my website's PatrickCotnoir, and that's got all the info on all the stuff out there. Working on too many things, you know?
Michael: Well, that's good.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, yeah. It's not bad. It's not bad.
Michael: It's good to be busy. I don't feel like it's too presumptuous to ask, but if you do get on a Zoom call with the real George Lucas, is it okay, like, could you just loop me in as well?
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Not presumptuous at all.
Michael: I mean, I feel like, here are some questions: Where did heyblibber come from? What's the Gungan word for ‘ice cream'?
Patrick Cotnoir: Great question.
Michael: What's the Gungan word for ‘pretzel'?
Patrick Cotnoir: Sure.
Michael: And basically, the rest of the English dictionary.
Patrick Cotnoir: Dictionary, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael: Because I have a translator on the website.
Patrick Cotnoir: Oh, sure.
Michael: It's like, there's only so much I can, so far I can go. I don't want to make stuff up, and I would like some official...
Patrick Cotnoir: You want the real answer. I'll bring it up.
Michael: Right. So, you know, just reach out to me, check with my schedule too, if that's okay.
Patrick Cotnoir: Yeah, yeah. No, we can work around you, whatever you're doing, and we'll make sure that it works for him.
Michael: Okay, that sounds good.
Patrick Cotnoir: I love it.
Michael: I think that's... We could probably go on for a while, but I'll let you go. Thank you for talking to me, bye!
Patrick Cotnoir: Bye.
--
Transcript by Aveline Malek.