In this episode of Half Hour, Jeff & Richie sit down with Tye Blue from Off-Broadway's TITANIQUE, the hilarious parody of Titanic. Join them as they delve into Tye's journey into the theatrical world and his passion for creating parody shows. Discover the intricacies of crafting a production around a beloved film and iconic pop star. Explore the fascinating timeline of TITANIQUE's success and gain insights into what the future holds for Tye. Don't miss this captivating conversation that expands the dialogue on Broadway shows and the extraordinary talents behind them.
Also, check out our full review of TITANIQUE here.
If you liked this episode, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review.
Share your thoughts with us on this episode below:
On Instagram: @halfhourpodcast
On TikTok: @halfhourpodcast
On our website: www.twoworldsentertainmentllc.com
In this episode of Half Hour, Jeff & Richie sit down with Tye Blue from Off-Broadway's TITANIQUE, the hilarious parody of Titanic. Join them as they delve into Tye's journey into the theatrical world and his passion for creating parody shows. Discover the intricacies of crafting a production around a beloved film and iconic pop star. Explore the fascinating timeline of TITANIQUE's success and gain insights into what the future holds for Tye. Don't miss this captivating conversation that expands the dialogue on Broadway shows and the extraordinary talents behind them.
Also, check out our full review of TITANIQUE here.
If you liked this episode, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review.
Share your thoughts with us on this episode below:
On Instagram: @halfhourpodcast
On TikTok: @halfhourpodcast
On our website: www.twoworldsentertainmentllc.com
Richie [00:00:03] Half hour.
Jeff [00:00:08] Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, a Broadway podcast.
Speaker 3 [00:00:11] I'm Jeff.
Richie [00:00:12] And I'm Richie. And on today's show, we have a very special guest joining us today. Tye Blue! Tye is a producer and director whose work spans television, theater, and music. Some popular TV credits include four seasons on the Emmy Award-winning casting team of RuPaul's Drag Race, Project Runway, Nailed It! and The Real Housewives. He is most recently best known as the co-author and director of the 2023 Lucille Lortel award-winning off-Broadway musical Titanique, which received 2023 Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle nominations as well.
Jeff [00:00:45] So, Tye, welcome to Half Hour podcast, and thank you so much for joining us today.
Tye Blue [00:00:49] Thanks for having me. It's nice to be here. And nice to be had.
Jeff [00:00:53] Well, we would love to dive right into Titanique. But before we do that, can you let our listeners know a little bit more about your past experience prior to Titanique?
Tye Blue [00:01:02] Sure. I mean, I, I basically started working in the theater as an actor out of college and did some touring. And from there, I thought, well, I guess I need to live in New York. So I moved to New York, and when I planted in New York, I started working as an associate director at Stafford Arena on Alter Boys on off-Broadway and several other things. And so that kind of put me on this directing trajectory for a long time. And then, as with most people, at some point, I got tired of New York and moved to L.A. and thought, you know, warmer, profitable pastures. And it took a long time to get to some of those pastures. But eventually, I did do that, and so did some years in TV in L.A. and was all the while still directing theater kind of on the side and getting the balls rolling for Titanique. And here we are back in New York with a theater production.
Richie [00:02:08] It's very, very, very cool. So tell us a little bit more about some of your inspiration for Titanique. Like, where did I? We've seen it now. I've seen it twice. And a bunch of friends will be like, where did they come up with this idea? So it's kind of like to me, I'm wondering, is it the chicken or the egg? Was it like Celine Dion first and then the story? Or was it like, let's do the story and add Celine Dion music? And, like, how did this all start?
Tye Blue [00:02:32] Well, it was spawned out of a series of shows that I was directing in L.A. that were all parodies of films, turned into musicals on stage that were pretty campy and used, you know, pretty basic pop songs too, you know, interpolate into the plot, which we kinda rewrite, just fun, light fare, you know, dinner theater. Mm hmm. And I did like six or seven of those in a row. And so I kind of was getting into this, like, pop parody, you know. Tunnel. And actually, Constantine, who played Jack on the show and is one of my co-writers, he was like wasted one night after the show. And he said, you know, we should do next. We should do Titanic. But it's hosted by Celine Dion, and it's all her songs and pointed up Marla. And we're all like several drinks in at this point. I pointed at Marla and was like, And you'll be Celine and I'll be Jack and I got to get to and you just started, like, orchestrating this whole grand vision, and we did nothing on it for two years. And then, out of the blue, one day after Trump got elected, I was lost in such a dark place and needed something happy to focus on. And I just texted Connie and Marla, and I was like, okay, I need to we need to do this. We need to actually write this now. And so, you know, literally like November 10th, 2017, we just started meeting and writing.
Richie [00:03:58] And what was the process like working with Marla and Constantine? How long did that writing process go?
Tye Blue [00:04:04] Well, I mean, truth be told, we we rewrote it so many times all the way up and through the Daryl Roth production even. But we that first sort of like egg of a script that we, you know, delivered would have taken us about. Three months was the first draft. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's how closely we did the first little kind of workshop presentation. But then we would. We would literally do revisions every single time we would do a pop up reading of it again. So it feels like we've never stopped writing it, actually.
Richie [00:04:44] And. And what was what when you were slotting the Celine Dion songs in, was it challenging to figure out what song to put where, or were you worried about like, Oh, the rights to some songs? Like how did the Celine Dion aspect kind of go with the process?
Tye Blue [00:04:58] Well, we're never worried about the rights when we were writing it because we just thought this is something again that we would do in like a cheesy dinner theater in L.A.
Tye Blue [00:05:09] Where no one's paying for shit. You know what I mean?
Richie [00:05:11] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tye Blue [00:05:12] We weren't worried about that. And I mean, but honestly, it was great that we weren't because it, it put us in a free space creatively, and we just, like, let our brains kind of flow. But it wasn't that hard. You guys, like first songs are also anthemic there. So listen, it's a love story. Everything that's just like a catalog full of fun, specific love songs that feel theatrical in nature. And so we we just did an outline really quickly of like what songs could go where, and we would have like basic conceptual ideas, you know what I mean? Like, we'll use this song to illustrate him drawing her and then having sex in the car.
Tye Blue [00:06:01] River Deep will be crashing into the iceberg. We knew conceptually, like what we'd go where it was just a matter of then over time, like, you know, splitting all those hairs.
Jeff [00:06:13] Yeah. So that kind of leads to what was it like starting this as the concert version first into the first off-Broadway run to now where it's at Daryl Roth, What has kind of been added or removed, and what are like the challenges along the way, that popped up?
Tye Blue [00:06:30] Well, I think that the biggest challenges that we had was when we did get a commercial producer. Mm hmm. Then we did have to clear the songs in, and it started getting a little treacherous for sure. Yeah, we lost. It's all coming back to me now, which used to be the opening number. Oh, of obviously perfect to get you to reliving the memory.
Richie [00:06:58] Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:06:59] Yeah, it was glorious. So that one hurt to lose.
Richie [00:07:04] Yeah, sure.
Tye Blue [00:07:05] And we repurposed it with I'm Alive. We also lost power of love, which also hurt. But now we use because you love me in its place. Mm. Oh, and we lost. That's the way it is to &Juliet.
Richie [00:07:22] Yeah. ohh to &Juliet, because I love that song. And I was like, Where is that? And I know it's in &Juliet. Yeah, yeah.
Tye Blue [00:07:28] It was our finale for the first, you know, four years of the show's life.
Richie [00:07:32] Wow. Yeah. Wow.
Richie [00:07:34] So that's interesting, you know, that you have to kind of reformat. But luckily, she has so many songs, you know?
Richie [00:07:39] Yeah, So that's good. Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:07:40] It wasn't that hard. It wasn't that hard.
Richie [00:07:42] Yeah.
Jeff [00:07:42] Well, what were you more attached to that? That was originally in it. That's not in it anymore.
Tye Blue [00:07:49] Well, I'm torn because I actually like the I'm alive opening because it feels very sort of welcoming and expository and like, we're at Caesar's Palace and she's she's suffering in the top of the show. It feels like the top of the show, that groove. So I don't mind it, but I definitely still miss. That's all coming back to me now. It was just so grand, you know? Yeah. And that's the way it is. I, I definitely miss that's the way it is, because it just had a certain sort of slightly cynical lift to it.
Richie [00:08:24] Yeah. Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:08:25] Really fit the finale. It was great.
Richie [00:08:28] Sure.
Jeff [00:08:29] So now that this show has been running at the Daryl Roth and it seems like it's continuing to run for a while now, what are the next steps for the show and where do you see it going.
Richie [00:08:38] Mhm. Or that you're allowed to tell us I guess.
Richie [00:08:41] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:08:43] Well I'll say this. I'm trying to remember exactly what our producer Eva said the other day at Google. She, she got asked this question on a panel and it was like, it was like Barack Obama entered her body. Gloriously vague statement. I'll say this. There are definitely lots of locations on this planet that are interested in having Titanic be a part of their cultural landscape. So we're having those conversations and we just are signing a deal with MTI to, you know.
Richie [00:09:19] Oh great.
Tye Blue [00:09:20] To license the script so great. We're definitely like putting the, the, the bricks in place for the global rollout.
Richie [00:09:27] And it's playing currently scheduled till January, and it, but it just keeps getting extended. So I have friends that are like I still got to go. I'm like, well, they keep extending, but maybe it'll end for good in January. I don't know. But I tell people to go now because, you know, I mean.
Tye Blue [00:09:43] You never know. I think we've been very, very fortunate with the level of success that we've had, and it's because of a lot of different things aligning simultaneously. I think.
Richie [00:09:57] Who knows.
Tye Blue [00:09:57] Daryl Roth wants us to be in her theater like.
Richie [00:09:59] Right now? What a great sentence to say, you know.
Tye Blue [00:10:02] So maybe she'll make it work. But, you know, it's it's hard to keep a show going.
Richie [00:10:08] Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:10:09] Y'all, you might not know this, but off-Broadway does not pay very much.
Richie [00:10:14] Oh, no. Yeah, no, I know. Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:10:16] Like, it's actually not a livable wage.
Richie [00:10:17] Oh, yeah, yeah. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tye Blue [00:10:20] It's hard work. And like, everyone scraping by, it looks glorious, I think, to the outside world. And we're like. It's Scotch tape and hope. Babe.
Richie [00:10:30] Yes.
Richie [00:10:31] And so and speaking of some of this with the casting. So we saw Jackie Burns a few weeks ago. I actually worked on a reading with her really quick one day, like a million years ago, and she was like, a pleasure. And so when I saw she's in this, I'm like, Yes, this totally makes sense. And then you just last night, I believe, had Drew Droege starred as Ruth. Right? And now next week you have Willam from RuPaul coming in. So what's what are you feeling about some of these new casting? How are the audience responding to some of it? Talk a little bit about some of this new cast.
Tye Blue [00:10:59] Well, I'll tell you, last night, here's the crazy thing. I actually wrote this part of Ruth, the Mother and Titanique for Drew Droege to do.
Richie [00:11:11] Oh, my gosh. Wow.
Tye Blue [00:11:13] He was just always so busy in L.A.. Yeah, he's very in-demand there, and he was never able to do it. And so he said, It's okay, let Steven do it. And so our other friend Steven did it for all those years. And it's just a really cool. Sort of out-of-body experience to actually have him on the stage at like the the biggest, prettiest version of the show, bringing himself and putting his stamp on it. And the crowd just ate him up last night.
Richie [00:11:43] Thats 's great.
Tye Blue [00:11:43] Know, he's so unique. He's so special. And it's just his tone is his own. And it's nice to have Titanic is created in a manner that it holds space for certain types of tone to come through, particularly with that character, because we have so much sort of improv included into it. And so it's just nice to have him in it. But I mean, I'll tell you, Jackie Burns is a star.
Richie [00:12:12] Yeah! A star.
Richie [00:12:12] Star of the season.
Tye Blue [00:12:15] Dot com. Forward slash female dot UK like she's a star.
Richie [00:12:22] No. Yeah, she.
Jeff [00:12:23] Is. That was my first time seeing it was with Jackie. And what she's doing up on that stage is just hysterical. It's like.
Tye Blue [00:12:30] Do you know what gets me about Jackie? And I think this is the secret to her success, even though she's like, the longest running Elphaba in Broadway history. She is an actor.
Richie [00:12:39] First.
Tye Blue [00:12:40] Who has an MFA in acting, and she sings, I think it's the Secret.
Richie [00:12:46] Yeah, they are some of the best. Yeah, I. I got it. And I also feel like she. I saw Marla do it when it was in the other space. And then I now I saw Jackie and two different takes on it, like, they're both so great and I, but people ask me like, Oh, what did you think of both of like, I can't even, like, begin to compare them. They're so different and they're both so great. I just thought, what a great role that is, you know.
Jeff [00:13:08] Which is one thing that we were saying to like is that a director choice when you have someone new come in to play the role or is that an actor choice to be playing that kind of because Celine has so many different characters herself? Like, which one are you going to get? So it's like, perfect that it worked that way. So, you know, that was one thing that we were curious about.
Tye Blue [00:13:26] It's it's tricky, and I'll tell you that. And in replacing Marla, obviously, it was a very daunting thing to do. Jackie was a clear frontrunner from like audition number one. She just embodied her in ways that Marla did not. And I'll never forget it. She she started her audition in Facing Upstage, and it literally was the way she turned her body around. It's like Celine entered the chat, and so there was something about her proportions and her body movement and her angles and her just vulnerability and openness and joy, her waterfall of joy, that is her spirit that really drew me to her. But, you know, we have we have multiple understudies who play Celine, and everyone is slightly different. It's just it's just we have a roadmap, you know, like this sort of a gesture on this. Love is pronounced lurve. You know, we have a little bit of a glossary, but right. Again, the show is built on the authenticity of the performers. And I think that that's part of the success of the show is that we're not like a cookie cutter, you know, say the exact same line the exact same way, like the first guy did 19 years ago. We are not that we we come from a place of speak in your natural voice and. Relay that relay the idea you know, it's it's I'm all about that authenticity.
Richie [00:15:10] And and to speak more on that when you're looking at this from the director's perspective, I mean how much of this is actually improvised and how much is script? Because there's definitely moments now that I've seen it twice where I'm like, Well, that was really different, but it totally still works. So like, do you tell the actors, take it and run? Or do you say, Well, hold back a little on this part? Like, where do you fit with the improv from a director standpoint?
Tye Blue [00:15:32] Well, these days I do not say take it and run.
Richie [00:15:36] Okay.
Tye Blue [00:15:36] Although, although I did say to Drew last night. This is your moment. Hmm? Run. You know, play. We trust you. The ball will pull you back, but. When we were writing it, we would get together and workshop these scenes and in like a writers room, sort of a setting with the actors, and it just created a sort of play in the moment, a little bit, enough to kind of keep multiple balls in the air and. That always carried over. Every time we would do another reading, we would keep that sort of, you know, pop culture referential, quirky contemporary asides in the mix. And they just have become part of our formula. And I think I think it feels more improvised than it actually is.
Richie [00:16:32] Okay. Okay. Because I feel like that when they go below deck and Celine takes them, that seems so like guttural.
Richie [00:16:40] Yeah, I.
Tye Blue [00:16:42] Literally was a moment where we we didn't know what the hell to write. And Connie and I just said to Marla, Just make it up. Just just improvise something. And so she did, and we just never got around to writing it.
Jeff [00:16:55] Have you created guidelines for that now that they should kind of follow when they're doing that?
Tye Blue [00:17:00] Yes. So, like, we have let's Marla's crazy heart. She she didn't want to burden anyone with that task, even though it was her favorite moment in the show every night, because it was so freeing. She's got a very specific, you know, skill set. And not everybody can tell a hilarious improvised story on the spot every night. And we just thought, let's take some of her greatest hits and create a like an addendum, like a glossary in the back of the script. So we're going to include that with the script now. So all future Celine's have a bank of successful Marla Brando improvs to pull from.
Jeff [00:17:46] Okay.
Richie [00:17:47] That's great. That makes it.
Tye Blue [00:17:50] Anything else fun for the actress and feels like they're improvising, but it's still of a quality that we want.
Jeff [00:17:59] Okay, that's pretty cool. Yeah, you were like, hysterically laughing because it also just felt very current and natural because they're talking about like, you know, Pink's on tour, but no one knows because Taylor Swift and Beyonce are on tour. And we were just I was like, I can't believe they ever just said that. But it's the funniest thing.
Richie [00:18:16] You know, it was.
Jeff [00:18:17] It just worked really well, which creatively is there's a lot of pop culture included in this book of the musical. And it makes sense, you know, with your history of RuPaul and the history of the show. So did you know what you kind of wanted to incorporate into this from the pop culture world.
Richie [00:18:36] When you were writing.
Tye Blue [00:18:36] It? Honestly, no, I don't think that we were conscious of it. It was just something that. We would kick him about when we would get together, you know, like we're we are drag race fans and music fans. And it just became something that started to be woven in. Maybe it was partly because I worked on the show. I don't I don't know, but. No one's ever asked that for more of the pop culture. Was that an intentional throughline that we kind of put and it wasn't. We just wanted to keep it like cool and contemporary and kind of be an anti musical musical, getting away from that like, formulaic Broadway thing. Yeah, something that felt more available to a contemporary audience.
Jeff [00:19:28] Yeah, well, it makes it feel like it's more downtown, like when the audience that's going to the show gets all the references, you know? But maybe my mom sitting next to me might not. But she still laughs because everyone else is laughing. It just like, worked, you know? Yeah.
Richie [00:19:42] So that was and I feel like I come from such the theater world that I love, like the Patti LuPone cut out moment. It's like the best to me, I think. I don't know how she ever com or I feel like she should go see it and like, what would you even do?
Tye Blue [00:19:58] Oh, God. To my knowledge, she has not seen it, and I think she would find it hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe not the punching her off stage, but. But.
Richie [00:20:15] Yeah, it's scary. And this is like another interesting question that I have. And maybe you've never been asked this, or maybe you don't even care what the answer is. But we. I left the show and I was like, I picked up on this the second time I heard. I think Celine's character says, she says, And we'd actually like to dedicate this last song to all the victims of this. And I and there was a moment where I said, Oh my gosh, this is actually like a tragedy from a long, long time ago. And now it's kind of in the. Obviously, the movie was so big, but then like it was in the news last year when that like wreckage happened and and people are still so fascinated with this and some people from a historic like tragedy perspective. And so I guess the question is like, do you ever get worried that someone's going to be like, this is rude or disrespectful? I mean, maybe y'all don't care or do care. I don't know. I'm just curious, too. Like, how does anybody ever said, like, this is not cool? I don't.
Tye Blue [00:21:04] Know. Like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I put that in the eye of the three of us. I am the I am the cautious, fearful one in that way. And I noticed that when we were initially promoting the pop-up reading versions, we would do it at Green Room 42, whatever. There would be a lot of comments on our posts like this is the Titanic sinking is not a parody not something that deserves to, you know, too soon.
Tye Blue [00:21:39] One hundred years is still too soon to make this a parody, and I think. That, of course, was a defining moment for me. And I don't know if we already had the dedication in there, but. One thing that is very important to me about this show, because I'm going to be very honest. Yes, we wrote a funny book, but like, we didn't write that movie, not live that tragedy. We are not Celine Dion did not write those songs. You know what I mean? We're taking a lot of other people's IP and sort of blending it into something new. And so out of respect to everybody, out of respect to the survivors, out of respect to Jim Cameron, who apparently does not have a good sense of humor.
Richie [00:22:25] Oh, okay.
Tye Blue [00:22:26] And who takes the wreckage very seriously. It was just something that I wanted to do as a kind of a bow on the end to show we are respectful human beings who just want to make people smile. You know, we do care.
Richie [00:22:43] And I thought that was nice, that it's almost like this. Everyone come together. You can take your phone out now. You can videotape. This is for them. And you sing the song that everyone knows. It's just a nice, as you said, bow to rap. And and I did appreciate that. I thought it was nice. I was just curious if you ever had gotten kicked back like that. It was just in the beginning.
Tye Blue [00:23:00] We did. Now we have well, maybe the marketing people hide the comments from me. I don't know. I think that people get it now.
Richie [00:23:07] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Richie [00:23:09] And so moving off the Titanique a little bit, because we're going to go to wrap up soon. What for you is next for you? Do you have new projects in store from writing, directing or acting or producing? Where where are you going next now after Titanique?
Tye Blue [00:23:23] Well, yeah, I do. I do. I have a few things at play. There is a new sort of nightlife experience that I'm directing called Tipsy Whisper, which is set in like a 1920s speakeasy, loosely based around the life of a woman named Texas Gwynne, who was basically she dominated the life, the nightlife scene back then, and they called her the Queen of the night. And she was just an imposing personality. And we were working on this in fun, kind of exciting, slightly immersive, sexy, kind of a club, kind of a theater. It's a huge dance experience. So working on that for next year.
Jeff [00:24:07] And it's not a parody.
Tye Blue [00:24:09] Not a parody.
Richie [00:24:09] Now there's some.
Tye Blue [00:24:11] Art hitting jazz and really, really incredible choreography by Carla Garcia.
Jeff [00:24:17] What is it for New York?
Tye Blue [00:24:19] It's for here. Yeah.
Richie [00:24:20] Great.
Tye Blue [00:24:21] Needs to go to Vegas, too. So I'm trying to, like, get Caesars to grab it.
Richie [00:24:27] Yeah, Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:24:27] Just very that also. But, yeah, it'll be running in New York in March.
Richie [00:24:32] Cool.
Tye Blue [00:24:32] Well, I'm working on that, and I've got a couple of new musicals that I'm in talks to direct, one of which I won't say anything official, but it looks like it's happening next August off-Broadway. So there are a few things coming.
Richie [00:24:46] Yes, this is great. I love hearing that. That's awesome. Good for you.
Richie [00:24:50] Thank you.
Tye Blue [00:24:51] And Connie, Marla and I are dabbling in a new thing, too.
Richie [00:24:56] I love it.
Richie [00:24:56] Why not? You have all this amazing success. You all do this. What you do so well, and people are eating it up.
Tye Blue [00:25:02] So keep it up. I mean, why not, right?
Richie [00:25:06] And so, we do have one final question before we get ready to wrap up. We ask all our visitors this. We would love to know one fun behind-the-scenes moment of any project or show that you've worked on Titanique or not Titanique. Something silly and fun backstage that you're allowed to tell us on air here that maybe our viewers have never heard before, or listeners, I should say.
Tye Blue [00:25:26] I don't know why this just popped into my brain. Maybe because I was panicking when I was just there's a RuPaul through line as well in my life. There is a RuPaul through line and. So RuPaul came to see the show. Oh, it was crazy. But we were told that he did not want to. Be sort of known if you want to be incognito. He wanted to be held off like in a private area. And it was a long rehearsal day before the show. And I just needed I'm a big napper. I just needed to grab like literally 13 minutes on a bench in the anteroom. And so I'm in there taking a nap, and all of a sudden I hear footsteps and I open my eyes and an all black adorned mask wearing incognito, RuPaul is staring.
Richie [00:26:26] At me.
Tye Blue [00:26:28] And it scares the shit out of me.
Richie [00:26:31] Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:26:33] And I'm and I'm immediately like, Oh, you want to be alone? You don't want to be touched or talked to. Let me get out of your way. And he was so sweet. He was like, No, no, no, no, no stuff. Just lay back down. It's fine. We're fine. We'll sit here, take a nap. You need a nap? I was like, No, it's okay. I have to. I have to go do things. And he said, No, no, no, listen, I'll tell you a story. It'll put you right to sleep. I said, somehow I doubt that.
Richie [00:26:59] But thank you.
Tye Blue [00:27:03] And I just said, Thank you for coming. It means a lot to us. And he said, Are you involved with the production? And I said, Yes. I'm the director and coauthor, and it means a lot that you're here and you'll soon know why, but I hope you enjoy it.
Richie [00:27:18] Yeah.
Tye Blue [00:27:19] And then I.
Richie [00:27:20] Said.
Tye Blue [00:27:22] And you must be the husband.
Richie [00:27:24] Oh. Oh. Oh, wow.
Tye Blue [00:27:33] And I'm going to let you know right now the face that his husband gave me. Oh, no, I've killed him.
Richie [00:27:41] He was not having it. Oh, really? And then to show you how this is fun.
Tye Blue [00:27:47] I felt horrible. I was right behind him the whole night. So I sent an email the next day apologizing, and the president of Rue's company was like, Please, They don't even remember that. They were.
Richie [00:27:59] So blown.
Tye Blue [00:28:00] Away by the show. They all, we love you. We want to work with you guys. Yadda, yadda, yadda. So. Yeah.
Richie [00:28:07] Wow.
Tye Blue [00:28:08] RuPaul stories.
Richie [00:28:09] And that's so great that RuPaul came. I mean, because there's so much reference. And like, at the end of the show, did you hear anything specific from him or?
Tye Blue [00:28:19] Well, I. I got a meeting with the president of Ru's Company. Okay. And Jay Marcus is his name. I mean, one of the biggest compliments we've ever received. He basically said, listen, we went back to the hotel room that night and just sat around the table and we're thinking, these kids are geniuses. What can we do with that? And so, you know, I pitched a bunch of things to him and great, great. We're going to we're going to see if I can create something for RuPaul to star in. And, you know.
Richie [00:28:49] Oh, my gosh.
Richie [00:28:50] How amazing. Good for you.
Jeff [00:28:52] They should have you write the Rusical for the show.
Tye Blue [00:28:54] I would love.
Richie [00:28:55] That. Oh, yeah. I would love.
Tye Blue [00:28:58] To be like a producer on set there.
Richie [00:29:01] Yeah. Yeah, sure.
Tye Blue [00:29:03] My experience, like casting the show was. So toxic and so did not the brand.
Richie [00:29:09] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tye Blue [00:29:11] Yeah. I'd love to do that.
Richie [00:29:12] Yeah, for sure.
Richie [00:29:14] Well, I wish we could talk for another half hour. We're almost out of time, and I hate to say that, but that's all we have time for today. But thank you all so much for listening. We really appreciate you all coming on and listening to us interview time today.
Jeff [00:29:27] And we hope you enjoyed our conversation with Tye. Tye, if people want to follow you or connect with you more, where's the best place for them to do that?
Tye Blue [00:29:37] Well, you can check out my website. Ty Blue dot. itstyeblue.com. If you're one of those, you know, people of a certain age who likes to sit and read something, or I use Instagram mostly, and my handle is @tyeblue1.
Jeff [00:29:54] They're amazing.
Richie [00:29:55] Awesome. And to all our listeners, if you have any suggestions for future episodes, people you'd like to hear us speak with, we would love to hear from you. And you can connect with us on Instagram and on TikTok @halfhourpodcast. Also, if you'd like to hear and check out more of our full review and thoughts of Titanique you can go back and listen to our past podcast episode, all about that, which is links in the description of this podcast episode as well.
Jeff [00:30:18] Yeah, so thanks so much for joining us today Tye.
Tye Blue [00:30:20] Thanks for having me.
Richie [00:30:21] Yeah, thank you. And I'm Richie saying Ta Ta for now.
Richie [00:30:25] Bye.