The Brutal Side of Making It In Show Business - Zach Braff - #1107

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
As somebody that's basically a philistine and has seen maybe two or three theater shows in his entire life.

**Zach Braff** (0:04)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (0:05)
Of a career of being a spectator, and obviously a person who kind of understands the art form as well, what are the ones that stand out to you as, that was really, really special?

**Zach Braff** (0:15)
Well, I'll tell you, Les Mis Robes, which is probably a very common answer for people. I was like 13 years old and I had never really been moved to tears by art before. I had never seen something as a young person, so beautiful in my life. I was so moved by the music, I was so moved by the stagecraft, I was, the story was thrilling. So that was a real seminal moment in my young life. You know, my dad had been bringing me to see all the play. I lived in North Jersey, so my dad would bring me in, you know, it took 45 minutes and he loved theater. He got me into it. So he would bring me to see all these plays. A lot of them were sillies, a lot would go over my head.
But I loved it. And then Les Miserables was the first one where I was at the right age to feel emotion, to have tears streaming down my face. And that's when I was like, what is this? This art form is something that is so powerful. And so then I went on to see like so many productions that both musicals and dramas and comedies were, there was just so much joy for me in seeing it happen live and having it be different every single time. And the shared experience with people around you who are also swiping a tear or laughing.
That's just something really magical. When it's great, when it's great, it's just so fun.

**Chris Williamson** (1:37)
What about when it's bad?

**Zach Braff** (1:39)
When it's bad, it's really bad. And I never leave an intermission just because I'm an actor myself and I feel too bad to do that.
Yeah, it can be horrible. But I try, you know, I do filter what I'm not, I'm not going to see things totally blind.

**Chris Williamson** (1:58)
You're not going in blind.

**Zach Braff** (1:59)
I don't go in totally blind. No, that would be, I'd be lying if I said I was just going to any random show. I definitely go to what I've heard my friends say, you got to check this out.

**Chris Williamson** (2:08)
I've heard that you wanted to be a doctor at one point.

**Zach Braff** (2:11)
When I was in high school, there was a program in my high school with the town had a volunteer rescue squad.
I guess that's just the way it works in some towns. In New Jersey, at least, I can only speak to that, is that the town has a volunteer rescue squad of people who are EMTs who donate their time and there's an ambulance service. On serious calls, the paramedics come in a separate ambulance from the hospital.
They had a program for kids that were 17 and up to volunteer and get trained and go on calls. I went on many calls with the ambulance service. You're mostly doing the grunt work, you're carrying gear, you're moving the stretchers, you're taking blood pressures. But it was thrilling. I think there was a moment there where I thought, wow, what an exciting career path to be. Not that I could necessarily stand the education to become a real doctor, ironically, but maybe a paramedic or maybe something in the field. Then I just never really excelled at the classes that, biology and chemistry and all the things that you need to be really great at, I just didn't have the interest or the skill.

**Chris Williamson** (3:29)
The fun bits were fun, but the technical bits got in the way.

**Zach Braff** (3:31)
Adrenaline was fun and coming to the rescue was fun, and I loved all that. I loved coming to the rescue. I loved the adrenaline of it and feeling like you helped people.
You felt really good. Also, there was a volunteer aspect of it that I'm sorry, that was an important part of it too. I felt great that I was doing all of this in volunteering.

**Chris Williamson** (3:54)
In service.

**Zach Braff** (3:54)
In service, yes.

**Chris Williamson** (3:55)
Isn't it interesting? You get the three emergency services, right? You've got ambulance, fire, police.
There's an issue going on. The ambulance turns up. Everybody's grateful. There's an issue going on. The fire service turns up. Everybody's grateful and turned on. The police turn up.