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today I would like to extend >> Jeanan Yasiri: As we begin
supporting this course. The UW office of corporate
relations, the UW college of
support. engineering for their technical
provided from the Ewing Marion Financial support that is
committed to advancing academic education and entrepreneurship.
Additionally we'd like to thank our media partners, Wisconsin
Public Television and their University Place crew for taping
today's lecture.
introduce a very special guest Today I'm very pleased to
Former president of Walt Disney to ouFeature Animation andider.
co-producer of the recently released documentary
"Waking Sleeping Beauty." Peter was president with the
Walt Disney company for 17 years
and innovative periods. duriWhile at Disney, he wasoric
responsible for helping turn the
around and created over 50 feature animation department
Including some of the most animated and live action movies.
grossing animated features that criticalDisney released. highest
They included,
"The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," which
was the first animated feature
Academy Award for Best Picture, "Aladdin," "The Lion King,"
as well which was one of the
films of all time. highest grossing animated
created the highly successful Ppartnership between Pixar andt
Disney. He was promoted to studio chief
in 1999 and a few years later,
theater production company. His career in theater includes
having won a Tony Award for producing "The Lion King"
on Broadway.
The Musical" in London, Heand currently is creatingt:
a new show with a renowned
As I mentioned before Peter is Florentine artist Maria Cassi.
documentary "Waking Sleeping co-producer of the recent
revival of Disney animation during the 1980s and early '90s.
He has earned an honorary doctorate from Purdue University
and as we close our semester it is very interesting for us to be
able to learn from entrepreneurs
of course, but it is a distinct pleasure to introduce you to anr
entrepreneur who quite literally
millions of people across the reawakeneworld.ation for
Please join me in welcoming Peter Schneider.
( applause )
Peter Schneider: Thank you
I got to apologize for a couple of things.
First off, today was supposed to be the Governor Jim Doyle
was on your schedule, I'm not Jim Doyle.
Of course we share maybe one
unemployed, but never mind that. thing in common, we're both
we didn't know quite The other thing was,
I asked Jeanan, "Give me some guidelines."
She said well, talk a little bit
talk a little bit about first to inyourself.ourself and
Well, she did that already. So there's not much more to talk
about.
well what is the class about? She said entrepreneurialism.
I had no clue what that meant.
So I went to the dictionary and LiI looked up the word.e.
Do you all know what the word means?
You're in this darn class.
Anybody? What does the word mean?
Innovation okay. Okay, what?.
right way how you pronounce it? So Defines the damn word-- the
Oops, I'll say "darn" word--
Someone or organization who organizes, manages,
and takes the risk. That seemed to be manages,
organizes, takes the risk.
talking about. I have no clue what they're
"What are the four things that entrepreneurialism does?"
Their risk. >> Their risk.
Wealth creation.
Speed of wealth creation. >> Speed of wealth creation.
And...
Other than the last one, >> Innovation.
I have no interest I have no clue.
I thought well then, what the heck am I actually going to talk
about.
is a related subject to this. You're all out there trying to
be entrepreneurs and my basic question is what are you
entrepreneuring with? Where do the ideas and
activities come from
and take risk? that you can organize, manage,
sitting at the breakfast table My parents are here, and I was
to me, "Well this is simple." this If I had $10 million, said
I would find a 100 people and I'd give them all $10 million
each, and hopefully one of them would be Google and the other 99
would fail. Then I'd be rich and wouldn't
have to work again forever. I said well your missing
one really key ingredient in that scenario.
Which is, how do you pick the first 100?
Because for everybody out here
there are 1,000 different things in this audience,
any good? tSo what I want to talk abouty
today is can you define and help
the possibility that whatever yoursyou do might be good.izing
And my entire background is an
I worry about, think about the artist, basically.
And I struggle with the following question, and this is
the first time I've ever used KeyNote or PowerPoint.
See how nervous I was?
going to be recorded, you have I knew I was coming here, it's
So, the first question I always ask myself in terms of this.
question of how do you create movies, like where did "Little
Mermaid" come from, where do
The first question I ask myself is can the creative process be
defined?
yourself about any industry, The kind of thing you'd ask
Can the generation of successful forget the word creative.
Can Google be defined? things be defined?
empirical way that when you evaluate something, it gives you
a better chance of being
So I said, okay, I've made this fantastic movie, which some of
you saw.
Okay, so some of you saw the Anybody see the movie?
And the movie was called movie.
It covered ten years "Waking Sleeping Beauty."
Our premise was that something at Disney Animation.
to 1994, something happened that extraordinary happened from 1984
way animation is perceived today revolutionized and changed the
We set out to capture that. We didn't really set out to
capture the story about how you make animation, because
ultimately, nobody cares how
Hollywood. well you manage things in
So I looked at this movie, and All they care about is the idea.
taken a five-minute sequence out then what I've done today is
to try and answer this question, of this movie and broken it down
quantified, can it be defined, can the creative process be
So what I'm going to do, for and can you maximize it.
movie, and for those who did see those of you who didn't see the
five-minute clip, and then I'm the movie, I'm going to play the
see where the ideas come from. going to break it down so you
Who knows if it's going to work.
Again, this is in the middle of the movie.
And where we are in it, is that we're talking to the two
directors of "Little Mermaid,"
They're sort of discussing where John Musker and Ron Clements.
did "Little Me id" come from.
This is the first fairytale-- ( tone )
Take two. >> In the last 30 years,
three decades.
Well, I mean, it was chosen because we all went to a lunch
about three or four years ago,
a development type thing. And we were supposed to come in
with our three ideas. I don't know if you can use any
of this, but this is sort of
wind up saying later. mBasically, they wanted to draw
on different ideas. One of the ideas that Ron
brought in was
That was one of his three. the "Little Mermaid."
called him about a song writing >>team, Howard Ashman and Alanen
Menken, that he'd worked with on
"Little Shop of Horrors." Peter had worked with them on
the same show as company
to work on the "Little Mermaid." manager, so he brought them in
terrible disappointment when his >> Howard was just coming off a
and burned on Broadway. He came to Los Angeles to start
over again. >> Howard wasn't exactly the
first guy who sprang to mind
He was born into a Jewish family when you said Disney.
on stage in the local children's in Baltimore, where he grew up
He's gay, edgy theater association.
especially "Peter Pan." >> When I was approached with an
opportunity to work for Disney, period, I leapt.
I said what about animation?
That's what I really wanted to What about working in that?
anything in live action. do, much, much more than
theater person, and I do see a Because I'm really a musical
between these two media. very, very strong connection
original treatment in the script >> We had this character in the
was kind of, would be sort of, that was a crab character, that
to keep her out of trouble, and look afwatch over her. and try
He was kind of the crusty old-- >> He was the King's right hand
guy.
he was like a conductor in the >> He worked for the King, and
Howard said, I'm going to make undersea world.
And our first reaction was him Jamaican.
I mean, it was a total twist on what we were thinking.
He rounds up all of these fish, and all of this stuff,
to convince Ariel not to try
And they more or less put on a to become human.
these instruments and show forthemselves.aying all
Okay, so here it starts.
rhythm, clams pick it up, and oysters are beating on lobsters,
whatever.
All the percussion...
The seaweed Is always greener...
There was electricity in the air.
There was a real genius at work,
But that is a big mistake an Just look at .
the world around you
On the ocean floor Right here
Surround you Such wonderful things
Is you lookin' for? Under the sea...
Howard, in a sense, tried to treat it a little more
off the cuff, but I think he
songs, you know, five minutes haafter he got the treatment.he
He said, here, say you had
called "Part of Your World." a song, let's just say it was
but let's just say it was called It could be called anything,
Then he and Alan Weaver in "Part of Your World."
Village, and it was Alan came over and played it on the piano,
and Howard sang it right there. It sounded great.
Look at this stuff
Wouldn't you think Isn't it neat?
Wouldn't you think My collection's complete?
The girl who has everything? I'm the girl
just the intensity. >> SoIt's like it's about with
all that emotion, and then not letting it all out.
Not letting it out. >> Not letting it out,
but having it here. When's it my turn?
Wouldn't I love That stuff really, it's--
Am I still a little too loud? >> You're great.
Oh, better that time? >> You're great.
It gets a little bright in here.
If I could live Outta these waters?
The intensity is better than... ( louder and bolder )
What would I give Is better than noise.
Yeah. >> But it's inner intensity.
In almost every musical ever written, there's a place,
it's usually about the third
sometimes it's the second, song of the evening,
But it's quite early. The leading lady usually sits
down on something.
in "Brigadoon." Sometimes it's under the pillars
of Covent Garden in "My Fair
in "Little Shop of Horrors." Lady," or it's a trash can
on something and sings about But the leading lady sits down
And the audience what she wants in life.
then roots for her to get it falls in love with her and
Look at this stuff for the rest of the night.
Wouldn't you think Isn't it neat?
I heard "Part of Your World," Jodi Benson singing that,
and it just captivated me.
I went and told those guys, I really want to do Ariel.
They said, oh, I don't know.
a pretty girl. This is supposed to be
I said, I have to do Ariel. I could feel it in my heart...
Okay, so that's a very
five-minute clip. I want to break it down for you.
The first thing that's the most important thing that you're
going to do with any project
Do you have a good idea? is the fundamental idea.
Is the idea commercial? Because there's lots of good
ideas out there that you're going to have and they're not
going to make a dime. I'm going to pick on John Roach.
Where's John Roach? He wrote "The Straight Story."
John wrote "The Straight Story,"
and it was the first movie I saw it was a David Lynch movie,
I was so blown away by the idea of the movie, the emotion of the
movie, and the fundamental power
But I knew it would make a of the movie.
dollars, or ten thousand dollar, and not a hundred
make, John? dollarsNot that much,did it
$6 million to $8 million. And it's nothing in Hollywood.
But the idea was really good. So, first you have to say,
is the idea good? And how much money, or how much
resonance will the idea have? When you talk about "Avatar"
as an idea, boy,
in terms of just the idea that'of what he's doing.idea,
So the first thing is to think about the idea.
Let's look at this in terms of just the idea, and
break this clip down in terms of what they talked about.
>> This is the first fairytale--
( tone )
In the last 30 years, three decades.
Why was Mermaid chosen? >> Well, I mean, it was chosen
because we all went to a lunch
and all of us, it was sort of a abodevelopment type thing.ago,
And we were supposed to come in with our three ideas.
I don't know if you can use any of this, but this is sort of
more the truth that what we may wind up saying later.
Basically, they wanted to draw
One of the ideas that Ron on brought in wass.
the "Little Mermaid." That was one of his three.
Okay, so the idea goes, Ron Clements goes to a book store.
He knows we're having a gong show, a Disney
gong show to find ideas.
no matter who they were, A gong show was any employee,
their ideas. could come in and pitch us
and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and sometimes Michael Eisner.y
We'd all sit behind a table,
literally 90 seconds to and gtell us your idea.onds,
If you couldn't tell us your
you and threw you out of the idea in 90 seconds, we stopped
So every idea, by and large, room.
collaborative art forms, we're again, we're talking about
media. talking about sort of commercial
academics. We're not talking about
Hollywood. We're talking about in
down to 90 seconds, it probably If isn't good enough to bedea
commercially successful.
the words "fairytale," So, when you hear this clip,
a derivative of "Splash," was gosh, that sounds like
a good idea.
paid to manage, organize. SWe don't get paid very mucht
money to manage, organize or run
You can make a lot of money, if you can have an idea, writers
who have ideas get paid a lot of
good ideas and then bring them money; and people who can spot
You get paid two ways in to the stage or film.
Either you're good with ideas, Hollywood.
them. or you'I spent 17 years.potting
The reason I lasted 17 years, is
good ideas, but I could also because by and large, I had some
more than I was wrong. spot good ideas and be right
do is have an idea, and then So the first thing you have to
okay, your gut says it's the believe in the idea, and then
my environment. Again, why I loved "The Straight
Story," I'll tell you exactly why I said yes to "The Straight
Story," is it would redefine
Disney live action, which had been kiddie movies, as animation
had been, but in 1990, whatever year it was, 1995?
When it came to me, 1999, I used
what Disney could be. Everybody in the industry went,
wow, that's a Disney movie? I can make a Disney movie, too.
And that was the beginning of sort of the Disney live action
rebirth.
was really a powerful idea in Iterms of what I wanted to getit
done. After you have the idea, you
have to find the people.
think is interesting, can you Oncgather a group of peopleyou
together that are going to help you make that idea come to life?
Jeffrey's friend David Geffen called him about a song writing
team, Howard Ashman and Alan
the off-Broadway hit Menken, that he'd worked with on
Peter had worked with them on "the same show as company
manager, so he brought them in
Howard was just coming off a to work on the "Little Mermaid."
musical "Smile" crashed terrand burned on Broadway.n his
He came to Los Angeles to start over again.
Howard wasn't exactly the first guy who sprang to mind
when you said Disney. He was born into a Jewish family
in Baltimore, where he grew up
theater association. on stage in the local children's
and loved musicals, especially "Peter Pan."
When I was approached with an opportunity to work for Disney,
period, I leapt.
What about working in that? That's what I really wanted?
to do, much, much more than anything in live action.
Because I'm really a musical
a very, very strong connection theater person, and I do see
Okay, so our contention in between these two media.
key individuals who came along this case, is Howard one of the
"Little Mermaid" and advance it ato the next to the next stage.
What you're looking for,
Howard came in. in mPeople ask me a lot,re--
the difference between
and Pixar Animation, Disney Animation
What is the overlap? and is there a connection.
of movies, and why does Disney Why do they make a certain kind
I always answer the question make other kinds of movies?
It's the people and their sensibilities that make movies,
not companies.
"Little Mermaid," "Beauty and So the Beast," "Lion King,"ut,
"Pocahontas," they all spring from a very simple source,
which is the Broadway musical.
Howard Ashman had, the other And what you see in this is
is great craft and great thing that you have with people
And Howard Ashman, along with Ron and John, and thousands of
other people who made this
passion, and they have great movie, have craft, and they have
So, when you look at this, you discipline.
What you see if you look at the heamovie, and you look at thec.
culture was, what you drop
was not-- It was a very insular world.
Disney Animation in 1984
Very insular, no outside influences.
And along come these outside
from Broadway. musical theater people,
into the department. They bring that influence
"Little Mermaid," then you say, let's make it a musical.
You go out and get, at the time,
You all know who Al Menken is today, or he's won Academy
Awards, but at that time, he was
in New York, working with his justpartner, Howard Ashman.back
They had just done
Howard had just done "Smile" "Little Shop of Horrors."
a disaster on Broadway. wOpened and closed.,
Howard needed someplace new to be an artist.
Someplace where he could
something. reinvent himself and reinvent
So now we sort of have the two And along comes Howard.
got the idea and you've got the different idpeople.ich is you've
You also have to have something else in my opinion, which is
uniqueness. Something about what you're
doing, the people, the point
So watch this again in terms of, of view, has to be unique.
We had this character in the from a uniqueness point of view.
that was a crab character, that owas kind of, would be sort of,t
look after the mermaid and try
watch over her. He was kind of the crusty old--
He was the King's right hand
He worked for the King, and he was like a conductor in the
undersea world. Howard said, I'm going to make
him Jamaican. And our first reaction was
Jamaican? I mean, it was a total twist on
what we were thinking.
in the collaborative process, somebody comes along and changes
your point of view on what it is.
I can tell you the following
people. About 15-16 years ago, Alan
Menken and I went to Disney World with our kids.
His kids and my kids are roughly
At that time, they were 8, 9, 6, 7, 12, in that range.
It was the premiere of
the golf ball ride "Spaceship Earth," you know,
That big sort of signature thing at Walt Disney World?
There's a ride in it. that WaltWho knew?orld has.
You have a little car, and you
It had just been renovated. There are dioramas, which are
pictures, and you're in this
It's fabulous and it's car.
Then you sort of hang all of a unbelievable.
the solar system. suYou are in the solar system.n
It's pretty darn exciting.
Alan, wasn't that great? I get off the ride and I say to
says, the music was terrible. He And I said, what music? he
Because I hadn't heard any of the music.
I couldn't have cared less about
It wasn't about the music. the music.
is about the music. Alan's entire being is about how
does the music sound, reflect,
He's one of the most unique idiot savants in some sense, I
know, because out of his fingers
But in terms of anything else, come melodies.
change, no, it's all about the in terms of understanding maybe
So part of what you're looking music.
around you. fBecause that's what makes arte
interesting.
We've all done it, the idea of We've all seen it.
It was the combination of the uniqueness and the people that
maybe starts to make "Little
You see Howard there. You see these guys talking about
the crab. Well, if you've seen "Princess
and the Frog," this character that they initially thought
about is in that movie, a crusty
princess. old sidekiBoring. helps the
Dull. Howard's take on making
Sebastian Jamaican was good for the music, because Alan could
then write Caribbean, which was very catchy, and very
successful. But it also gave the character
an edge and a point of view,
but a little more sophisticated. which was not soft and silly,
trying to make these movies, not And what we were doing was
all when you were 6, 7, 8, 9, for fou10, 11, 12 and 13.or you
So now you have an idea.
You have the people around you. Now you sort of have to have the
inspiration.
have the idea. It's not just good enough to
communicate the idea. You have to inspire the
communication of it.
following two things. The first time you see Howard
talking, Howard is talking to the animators.
He's sitting in a room with skeptical people, because
anybody outside the animation business who can't draw isn't
worth talking to, at least they weren't at the time.
And here is Howard Ashman, an outsider, and he'll sit in front
of these guys and tell them about the song he has written
with Alan, which is called
Now, we faked it up and put the clip in, we put some
animation in, but Howard sat
through that song, and made the there song come to life.he way
Because if you watch it for a second, and you know the clip,
he is that character. And he sings this character.
It's his demo.
Sam Wright. HBut Howard was singing thisot
demo, which you're hearing. Then you see him working with
Jodi Benson.
played Ariel. Not only is he communicating to
a broad spectrum of people, he
the most sensitive way, how to is now telling the actress in
How to make it come to life. sing the song.
inspiration, you've got to have somebody, someway, some being,
to inspire a collaborative group
and deliver what's in your head. of people to go to the next step
fish, and all of this stuff, >> He rounds up all of these
to become human. to convince Ariel not to try
a show for her, by playing all And they more or less put on
themselves. Okay, so here it starts.
He starts establishing the
oysters are beating on lobsters, rhythm, clams pick it up, and
All the percussion...
The seaweed is always greener...
There was electricity in the air.
There was a real genius at work,
But that is a big mistake an Just look at .
The world around you
On the ocean floor Right here
Surround you Such wonderful things
Is you lookin' for? Under the sea...
Howard, in a sense, tried to treat it a little more
off the cuff, but I think he
songs, you know, five minutes haafter he got the treatment.he
He said, here, say you had
called "Part of Your World." a song, let's just say it was
but let's just say it was called It could be called anything,
Then he and Alan Weaver in "Part of Your World."
Village, and Alan came over Hoand played it on the piano,ch
and Howard sang it right there. It sounded great.
Look at this stuff
Wouldn't you think Isn't it neat?
Wouldn't you think My collection's complete?
The girl who has everything? I'm the girl
just the intensity. >> SoIt's like it's about with
all that emotion, and then not letting it all out.
Not letting it out. >> Not letting it out,
but having it here. When's it my turn?
Wouldn't I love That stuff really, it's--
Am I still a little too loud? >> You're great.
Oh, better that time? >> You're great.
It gets a little bright in here.
If I could live Outta these waters?
The intensity is better than... ( louder and bolder )
What would I give Is better than noise.
Yeah. >> But it's inner intensity.
Okay, so again, this clip,
because it's never been seen. It was sitting in somebody's
trunk.
was that every piece of footage Thin the movie was shot beforee
1994, which is 15-16 years ago. So everything was a collection,
was a collage.
we chose to immerse you in the As a documentary filmmaker,
be observational. So if you saw the movie, we had
no talking heads. Most documentaries, if you look
at them today, are modern day talking heads with a clip.
Our process was not that. Our process was to put you into
our shoes Don Hahn's and mine,
place 15-25 years ago. in the rooms that were taking
Jodi had not been seen for 20 The clip of Hyears.working with
It was in somebody's garage, the
character. animator who was animating the
you know, I've got this tape of He calleJodi and Howard.d said,
Do you want it? And it's about 40 minutes long,
and it's on the DVD release that
So the entire thing. came out last week.
who Howard was and watching him It's very emowork.l if you know
The nuance of watching Howard work is extraordinary in terms
of the performance he gets out
Because it's not just sing the of Jodi Benson.
the following manner, make it darn song,make sense.the song in
So the inspiration is not external inspiration.
It's not selling the project, per se, to an external audience,
it's selling it to the internal audience.
It's selling it to the people that have to go off and do it.
The next thing maybe should be
the clips are in the way they bare, so that's the way it is.ut
There are always rules. In any artistic project, there's
a rule someplace. And you've got to know the
rules.
into, you've got to know the In any business you're going
to break the rules, you better rules, because if you're going
Never stick to a rule if you break them for a reason.
But to do something without knowing the rule, and then doing
it stupidly because you didn't
mistake. understand the rule would be a
know your rules, know your So before you go do anything,
medium you're working in, crand what are the rules.he
This is one of the most, for me,
things that Howard said, the most moving, most important
Howard died of AIDS in 1991. and left as a legacy.
that Howard left. TIf you go back and look at any,
successful show, Broadway show, Broadway musical, movie musical,
look at the unsuccessful ones and you'll discover why from
watching Howard talk about it.
ever written, there's a place, >> In almost every musical
song of the evening, it's usually about the third
sometimes it's the fourth. sometimes it's the second,
The leading lady usually sits Budown on something..
Sometimes it's a tree stump,
Sometimes it's under the pillars in "Brigadoon."
Lady," or it's a trash can of Covent Garden in "My Fair
But the leading lady sits down in "Little Shop of Horrors."
what she wants in life. on somAnd the audience about
falls in love with her and then roots for her to get it
for the rest of the night.
He's not wrong. In every musical ever written,
there is this song. Now, you might look at, you're
in town, you might look at some of "American Idiot," you may
look at certain newer musicals, they may not do it.
But there's always someplace in a musical where the leading
character, the character, the protagonist, comes forward and
says this is what I want, and by
standing in the way saying, I'm not going to let you have it.
And the hero says, yes, you are.
And the villain says, no you're I'm goinnot. get it.
And the hero wins.
storytelling. ThIt's as simple as that.ood
Now, can you make it unique?
Can you sell it? Can you make it interesting?
Can it be all those things in terms of, can it be something
more than just cliche?
left us, which is know your And that I thrules. what Howard
Know your craft and know your rules.
Because from the rules, allows
Because the breaking of the rules are equally important as
the rules.
what I call the elevation. And in the last section, it's
collaborative art form. It takes a hundred people,
a thousand people, sorry, a thousand people to make a movie,
all the way down from the directors, down to the ink and
painters, to the clean-up artists, the assistants.
And most businesses take a lot
Very few businesses are single of people to do.
businesses. Most have one, two, three, four,
five, a thousand people that
And they're has to be a certain passion that somebody hears the
idea and says, I can make it
I hear what he's doing with that, I hear that voice, and it
speaks to me. That particular sound, I can do
something with that no one
This is the case of Glen Keane. belSo let's watch thisith.
in terms of Glen. Wouldn't you think
My collection's complete? >> I heard "Part of Your World,"
Jodi Benson singing that, and it just captivated me.
I have to do that.
I really want to do Ariel. I went and told those guys,
This is supposed to be They said, oh, I don't know.
Can you do that? a pretty girl.
I could feel it in my heart... I said, I have to do Ariel.
known for doing pretty girls. >> OkayHe did villains.was not
He did all sorts of things. What he used as the inspiration,
which is not in this movie
too romantic and sickie, he used because we thought it was all
inspiration. his wife Linda as the
has really long hair. And he'd been drawing Linda for
years.
Jodi Benson and Linda Keane Tbecame Ariel in terms of the
hair, the look, the feel, the whole thing, that Glen used all
his personal resources to bring this character to life.
It's probably some of the best
time, certainly in terms of in animation done in this period of
'65, this was certainly the best the lat 20 years, since 1956-57,
individual after the nine old amen, being Franke, and Ollie,e
and the geniuses of that period of time.
So part of this is not only to
that, but to find the way to get unique people to do all
idea by people's own individual elevate the passion. elevate the
So the five, again. I'm sure there are hundreds of
them. There are hundreds of things
that I'm missing in terms of
happen. But as you go about your own
desires to make things, test it out and see what you've got.
Add more rules. Add more things that make it
possible. But I'm in the business of
trying to find things that are
I'm in the business of looking interesting.
collaborative artist, is there a at other things and saying, as a
interesting with that, with them, that might make some
money.
BefI'll take questions-- and
Does that go away?
Before I take questions, It goes away.
one other thing, I just want to talk about
I have had the very good fortune again, a different process.
working in Italy. Again, serendipitous, I had twos
weeks off in January two years
do. aI had been wanting to go toto
Italy for six months, you know, go live in Italy.
Isn't that everybody's dream? If you have second life,
go live in Italy. Make it to Italy.
So I went to Italy for two
else can you do. weeks, because you know, what
Italian classes, because you I said I would take two weeks of
language. And I didn't want to go to
Venice, which was a huge
I didn't want to go to Venice because it looked too much like
Disneyland, and I'm not a big fan of going to Disneyland
again.
extraordinarily silly. It's not true, it's
dirty, so I went to Florence. RRandomly, I went to Florence.o
And one of my rules, see we all have rules in life.
When I travel by myself, I can
except dinner. do almost anything by myself
yourself. You're a complete loser sitting
by yourself.
You go into a restaurant, oh, who's that loser?
Right?
Breakfast, fine. Lunch, fine.
Dinner, loser. No one cares.
My rule then in Florence would So I said, okay, fine.
less than three hours at dinner, be that I'm going to spend no
you get out, you're home, you're because by yourself, you eat,
What's the fun in that? So I won't tell you the long
story of how I got to this
But I happen to walk into this restaurant.
I sat down. It's a fancy restaurant.
I sat there and the restaurant
They come to your table and they has no menu.
Well I know that if you order the food, it's going to come too
quickly, and then I have to go
So I tried to order a bottle of wine first.
They wouldn't have it, because
order the food, then order the in Italy, you're supposed to
But I like to order the wine wine.
little wine, take up some time, fiand then order the food. a
So we argued for 20 minutes.
You have to order the food I want to order the wine.
No, I'd like to order the wine. So finally I got my wine.
They didn't speak very good English.
But by the time they came back
forgotten what the menu was, and to take my food order, I had
after this whole thing to say I could you please tell me thed
menu again. So I ordered the shark and the
pasta, because that's all I remembered.
I didn't really want the shark
That's all I remembered. or the pasta.
time. The So I ordered the shark. this
I'm one of these people going,
could I have done better? oh,Ooh, ah, ugh, do it again!uh,
So it's a very fancy restaurant,
down in jeans, and I go, oh, and some guy is walking up and
A fancy restaurant, must be the owner.
I call him over.
He says, Julio. I saI said, Julio--name?
He speaks very little English.
No, no, my dad is the owner. Are you the owner?
I've ordered the shark Julio, I've made a huge mistake.
And I don't really care how much and the pasta.
bring me, could you just please it bring me some food.you
He said, sure.
Eleven courses later, not Itasting portions, 11 courses
later, extraordinary, I'm presented with the bill.
And I go, oh, dear. Oh, well, I've had a fantastic
four-hour meal. Unbelievable.
I talked to Hugo the wine steward, Julio.
I've made friends with everybody
They have no clue what I do. in the restaurant.
I don't care. We chitchat about this in our
limited, I speak no Italian.
don't speak Italian. And three years later, I still
So we chitchat. The bill comes, I pick it up
slowly, and I'm charged for the shark and the pasta, and that's
it. So, okay, now I'm walking out of
the restaurant going, that was
It was basically all fish. pretty damn good.
woman says, no, no, no. And I geJulio attends. and the
Excuse me?
No, no, no, Julio attends. Julio.
completely understand what And of course, we as Americans,
Please stand here. they're saying.
Julio is going to come back, and Please wait.
So I go, okay. wants to say something to you.
beckons me across the street. JuliAnd I think is he gay,t of
or just Italian.
So I'm walking across the street, and I'm going, okay, I'm
on an adventure.
I walk across the street into It'the theater.re.
What theater? There's some guitarist, two
guitarists and a flutist
Julio hands me a glass of wine. There's 150 people there.
And he says, enjoy the show.
I drink my wine. I'm sort of staggered by it.
Then I say tomorrow night I'll I walk out.
And tomorrow night, sure enough, be back for the meat courses.
In the middle of the street are three people waiting for me.
And they sort of explain to me
The owner, Fabio, runs four whrestaurants.n.
One of them happens to be a club, which is breakfast, lunch
and dinner, and the theater.
there. And his wife, Maria, performs
see her perform in two weeks? WI say no, I'm going to Israel.
I'm going to London.
can't come back. I'm casting "Sister Act," I
They don't know who I am. So I hDon't care.h them.
I don't care. We have a great time.
We eat. We dine.
And I go off to Israel. I go off to London.
And two weeks later, I happen to
What am I going to do? have three days free.
How bad can that be? I'll go to Florence.
Miriam, again, I'm going to come So I email Miriam, and I say
please. bShe writes back and says no,
we're going to give you a ticket, and would you like to
have dinner with the family afterwards.
I go, not really, no, I just
So, I go back, and many things want to see the show.
I meet these extraordinary happen, but I see the show.
I have dinner afterwards. It's all in Italian.
The show the is completely in Italian.
The audience roars hysterically,
interesting about this woman. bReally interesting.g
I don't understand a word of it.
she's really interesting. So we sit down at dinner, and I
say to her, tell me about yourself.
Do you have a director? No, the audience directs me.
How do you put your pieces
She tells me how she puts her pieces together.
It looks like she's put them
interesting. together herself, which is
But they're sort of disjointed. They're little sketches.
So I say great, fabulous. I go away.
Cut.
street at our other restaurant, Tthe first one I went to, ande
then come back here and have
So I have two dinners. dinner with us again afterwards.
I say to her, Maria, have you That ever been to America?k and
She says no, I'd like to go.
( laughter ) Would September work for you?
yes, September might work for And I go, weme. um, uh, yes,
And six months later, I'm presenting Maria in Pasadena,
upstairs at a small theater,
And the show is something called "Crepapelle," which is
laugh until your sides split. Really interesting.
Everybody says to me, everybody in the audience says to me, boy
is she talented.
Even one guy, David Trainor, No clue what you do with her.
director, next to me, I wouldn't who's a rather famous TV
Not gonna work. I go, you know, she's really
interesting.
She has the show sort of half in There's something about her.
English, but it's in Italian. So, along with my friend Patrick
Pacheco, I said Patrick, come out here and see this woman.
And then for the next two and a half years, Patrick and I go
back and forth to Florence. How bad can that be?
We drink wine.
I don't think it's going to make We have no objective in mind.
But the idea of just creating something with Maria Cassi, and
the extraordinary food. I've eaten and drunk more
extraordinary wines and had more
places than I could ever meals cooked for me in various
Of course, there's no free imagine, all for free.
fortune to go backwards and luncforwards, and Patrick.e a
But extraordinary.
we constructed a show called Over two and a half years,
and Other Animals." And last January,
an Italian producer, who
Robert Wilson's producer, sthey said, I think there might
be something here.
have presented at Poughkeepsie, Ain workshop, upstate New York.e
It opened in Milan officially four weeks ago.
It's playing in Florence. It went to Bucharest.
I may never see a dime from it, because there's not a lot of
money in these kinds of things, but the idea of walking in
someplace, to such a romantic notion.
And what I urge you all to do,
highlights, one of the most fundamentally changing things in
my life, was to work in Italy,
people. andI just basically am thezing
audience, and I say to her all
I'm just there to hear what you say, and tell you what I think.
We've constructed a really
will come to America, and tour interesting show, which I hope
It plays every two weeks in Florence at their theater now
for the next year.
Florence. So my hope for you all, when I
end here, is that you have the
that the romanticism of that courage of your convictions,
romantic story in terms of just what it was, is that when you
walk into any room, any place in
there. the world, the idea might be
It's just about finding it, bringing your uniqueness to it,
bringing your collaboration,
then making it be something yourbeyond anybody else's and
expectations, because they don't
Ultimately, the only thing that counts in this business, and
sometimes you're successful financially, and sometimes
you're not, but the only thing
view in the arts, and how you construct that point of view,
collaborate that point of view, have it changed and molded by
really talented and clever
unique, which then in turn moves people, and make it something
that be one person or a million anpeople, or ten million, or aer
hundred million people. A simple idea goes that way.
So I thank you. I'll take questions.
I'll do anything you want now.
Whatever you want. Thank you I'll tap dance.
very much.