y’all, I love Jason Ralph a lot, but he’s so fucking weird and it just makes me laugh, like, a lot.
here we have the hilarious explanation for the name of his theater company, Strangemen Theatre Company.
I cut this excerpt myself, full podcast here
you know, I kinda feel like I ought to transcribe this cause that’s what you’re supposed to do (i think), but also, the hilarity of it Can Not Be Captured by just reading it. their sleepy voices Make it what it is
okay I promise it’s more fun if you listen to it, but I was bored at work so here’s a transcript under the cut for if you can’t listen.
Jason: You’re going to make me sound stupid on this, aren’t you—
Jasmine: I’m going to make you sound stupid?
*Rachel laughs*
Jason: Yeah.
Jasmine: I found out today that your theater company, Strangemen and Company, is called that because when you were in college, you used to bring home little, weird, strange man figurines in your house?
Jason: Yeah.
Jasmine: And, as James told it, he was like, “why do you keep— living your life this way?” and you said “I like to be in a room full of strange men.”
Jason: Mm-hmm.
(Pause)
Rachel, in the background: I’ve never heard that told so specifically, that’s a good one.
Jasmine: Why?
Jason: Well, it’s a dual— it’s— it— a lot of things happened, a lot of strange things happened all at once, where, well I— something happened in my life where I started collecting these strange men—
Jasmine: What thing happened in your life to make you collect strange men?
Jason: Well, I’m not sure, like, there was a change in my— in—
Jasmine: A change in you?
Jason: I guess— I guess what happened, there was a change in— no, the— it had always been there, but I—
Jasmine: What is “it”?
*Rachel laughs*
Jason: The strange-ness.
Rachel: It sounds like puberty, or you’re coming out of the closet, or something—
Jason: No, but, it—
Jasmine: It's a combination of both.
Jason: No, but— that I had always been this way, but I was finally discovering it, and I kinda— James’s mom, for making the discovery, for making it clear to me, cause, it was really late in James and I’s relationship—
Jasmine: Thanks for saying relationship.
*Jason laughs*
Jason: Um— *more laughter*
Rachel in the background: It still sounds like you’re coming out of the closet.
Jasmine: This would be an amazing time to come out of the closet.
*Jason's still laughing*
Jason: It’s like that, but— so— James and I have been together for a really long time—
*everyone laughs*
Jason: And, it was, like, several years into our relationship, and he told me about the first time that I met his mom, and what her reaction to me was, and she said— he said that she said that, after I left— that she looked at him, like, and he was kinda looking at her kinda expectant like, "what do you think”, you know—
Jasmine: What do you think of my new boyfriend?
Jason: Yeah, and she said, “you know, he’s, uh, he’s strange.” And, when James told me that story, I was flabbergasted, I really was, cause I—
Jasmine: No one’s ever called you strange before?
Jason: No one had ever said that to me before—
Rachel: Well, no one had ever told him that they found him strange—
Jasmine: That makes a lot more sense.
Jason: I fancied myself, like, a really boring, normal— like, the most normal person. Like, the most normal that a person could be—
Jasmine: Do you still fancy yourself that way?
Jason: —with the most normal thoughts— and the thing is, I don’t, and that was the beginning of the change, and that’s when I became self-aware, in that moment.
Jasmine: So you blossomed into the Jason you are today, from the opinion of your friend’s mom.
Jason: Mm-hmm. And then I started collecting these dolls—
*Jason laughs*
Rachel: You’re talking about the ~change~
Jason: And then I made a theater company, and so it’s been— it’s been strange ever since.
