Wednesday, July 7, 2010
speakeasy Speakeasy with actor/playwright Matt Myers
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 3:59 PM
- Shannon Jenkins
- CARD SHARK: Matt Myers
Can you describe the plot of Spoon? How did it originate?
It’s about a cursed spoon, the spoon that the devil actually used, and anyone who uses it receives the curse. I originally had an idea for a musical like The Music Man — do you know The Music Man?
Yes. It’s not the first play I’d think of hearing the description for Spoon.
I thought it would be funny to have a show about a town called Spoonville, and someone comes selling sporks, and these dark, horrible things start happening. The more I started developing it, the more I thought it should be a series of short stories — originally, there were six. I changed it from spork to spoon within a week or two before I pitched it at Dad’s.
How many songs does it have, and what do they sound like?
There are 13 plays and 7 or 8 songs, along with some transitional music. When I wrote the script, I left places for the lyrics, in case we wanted to collaborate on them, but Tony was fine with composing music for the stuff I’d written. For instance, in the middle of the show there was a weird spot that needed something, so I got a guitar, wrote a song and recorded a crappy MP3, and he made it much better. A lot of songs have a very old sound to them. Each fits its own story. There’s a country song, a Les Miserables song, one of my favorites is an origin song that jumps around in genres. It’s very Tom Waits-y. Sunday at rehearsal I said “Tom Waits’ fingerprints are all over this.”
I primarily know your work as a writer, but you’ve worked on collaborative shows for Dad’s Garage. How much of your artistic career involves writing?
With Dad’s Garage, I co-wrote Drove and Date, and I’ve written stuff for 8 1/2 x 11 and Free Parking. I contributed to On The Road with Jack for Jack in the Black Box. I wrote plays when I was in college in Pensacola, Fla. And I’ve written some short films and a full-length movie called Groping For Love. A friend of mine and I made it in 2005 — it was about a guy that repossesses organs that people haven’t paid for, which may sound a little familiar today.
In college I wrote and acted a lot, and thought of myself as an actor. Before I graduated, I had a meeting with faculty — we all had to have these meetings — and they told me ‘You should be a writer, you’d be happier.’ And I was disappointed to hear that. For my first five years out of college, I rebelled against that: “I’m not a writer, I’m an actor!” Now my work is about 70-30 acting-writing. Last year my grandfather suffered kidney failure, and since then I haven’t taken a show, in case I need to come home, so I’ve been writing a lot more.
I’m surprised to know that you’re so involved with wrestling.
I loved wrestling before I loved theater. When I was 8 or 9 years old, shortly before my parents got divorced, my aunt and uncle took me to wrestling matches, and I instantly got into it. By the time I was 10 or 11, I got that it was fake, but it didn’t matter. When I got older, I thought that I should take acting classes, because that could help me become a wrestler. Eventually, Stephen Platinum Scarborough and I worked on BRAWL together at Dad’s, and I’ve lately I’ve been more involved with Steve’s Platinum Championship Wrestling.
Do you wrestle as a character?
I have a joke character called Oscar Worthy, who’s a method actor like Mickey Rourke, researching the role as a wrestler. He’s a lot like Andy Kaufman as a wrestler, a huge jerk. I’ve been training for the past couple of years and have recently gotten more into it at Platinum xx. As Oscar Worthy, I’d come in and do underhanded things, then I lost and had my head shaved. Then I came back in a mask, and eventually I revealed that it was me all along! All along, it’s been me that they’ve been cheering!
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