Interview: LOTTIE PLATCHETT's Tom Lenk Keeps His Hands In Many Fires

Sweet Nell Productions & Outside In Theatre, in collaboration with Family Affairs Studio, will world premiere Justin Elizabeth Sayre's Lottie Platchett Took a Hatchet at Assembly Festival as part of The Edinburgh Fringe Festival August 4th - 27th, with a preview in Los Angeles at Casita del Compo's Cavern Club June 10th - 12th. Jessica Hanna directs the cast of Kirsten Vangsness as Lottie (June 10 & 11) Lauren Lopez as Lottie (June 12 & August 4 - 27) with Tom Lenk, Ryan W Garcia, Tom Detrinis and Justin Elizabeth Sayre.

I had the opportunity to ask Tom Lenk a few queries about his many successful ventures, as well as his history with producer/director Tom Detrinis.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Tom! I have seen you performing at Rockwell and Celebration through the years.

What cosmic forces brought you and Tom Detrinis together to make wonderful theatre pieces (like Tilda Swinton Answers An Ad on Craigslist in 2017).

We started performing in 30 Minute Musicals together and when Tilda writer Byron Lane sent me the script, I immediately wanted Tom to direct! BTW TOM IS RIDICULOUS in Lottie.

Before you embark across the seas to Edinburgh (August 4-27, 2022), you'll be performing Lottie Platchett Took a Hatchet at the Cavern Club at Casita del Campo (June 10-12). What would your three-line pitch of Lottie be?

It's a Lizzie Borden parody, but think Kill Bill meets The Crucible as if performed by the Muppets?

Who do you play in Lottie?

I play Lottie's brother, "Pansy." He has a penchant for erotic pencil etchings and is Lottie's only ally in the Platchett household.

If you were to submit Pansy to an online dating site, what qualities of your character would you include?

• travels by mail

• well versed in the gay hanky code

• accepts all nudes (sketches only)

• can't host (lives with parents)

• (imaginary) dog dad

What flaws would you definitely omit?

• tiny hands

Any room for improv in Lottie? Or will it just seem that you're making up lines off the cuff?

We stick to the (amazing and hilarious) script by Justin Elizabeth Sayre. Unless, we are having to coax rowdy audience members into settling down, ha, ha, ha!

This won't be the first time you've performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. You brought Tilda Swinton in 2018. How do you find Edinburgh audiences compared to Los Angeles? (more boisterous? Louder? More polite?)

I think our "Tilda" audiences were boisterous, loud and wonderful regardless of our location! We made sure to swap out jokes to be specific to the city we were in so as not to waste a single laugh line! I did learn from my solo show "Tom Lenk is TRASH" that L.A. audiences LOVED audience participation and Edinburgh audiences HATED IT! OOOOOPS! Lesson learned. Group pipe cleaner crafts must appeal to a subconscious American childhood art class memories?

What inspired you to dress up in various celebrity outfits?

I was looking at photos of the Met Gala arrivals and thought, what if I put my crafting skills to the test to see how many of these lewks I could make in a week just to amuse myself... I had no idea it would lead to getting to live-craft award shows for E! and do window displays for luxury brand Acne Studios and sit across from Nina Garcia at Paris Fashion Week?!

Who was the first celebrity you parodied in costume?

Solange in a yellow dress that looked like it was made out of those accordion style tissue paper party decoration thingies.

Tell us about the very first commercial that you nailed the audition for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaGGOBYmeiw

OK, I just did some research to find (sorry so grainy) it and here is me at :14 mark wearing my own jacket I wore to the audition (unintentionally Pepsi colors). It premiered during the Oscars that year and I was so excited to make the cut of the commercial, I quit my job at the GAP. Turns out that they played the 1:00 min version once, at the Oscars. And then NEVER AGAIN. And they get one airing of the commercial included in the $800 they pay you for the day of filming. I'm glad I learned this lesson early on. Don't get excited 'til the check clears! HA, ha, ha! That being said, years later I booked a series of Pepsi Max commercials that were very good to me and flew me to London, Argentina and Brazil for filming so thank you Pepsi!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfTyGvoUNvY

Besides all your TV work, you've performed your solo comedy show all over the world. Do you prefer to perform as Tom Lenk? Or as a scripted character?

I love both! I will say though, that my favorite on stage experience was doing Buyer & Cellar which is solo AND scripted! It was the most challenging, exciting and exhausting thing I've ever done! Whenever I find myself thinking in regards to a role or big audition - can I really pull this off? - I just remind myself that I was able to successfully learn an hour-and-a-half one-man play and perform it eight shows a week!

Thank you again, Tom! I look forward to catching you at Casita in June.

For tickets to the live performance of Lottie Platchett Took a Hatchet at Assembly Festival as part of The Edinburgh Fringe Festival August 4th - 27th; log onto assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/lottie-platchett-took-a-hatchet

For tickets to the live performances at Casita Del Campo's Cavern Club June 10th, 11th & 12th; click on the button below: