Michael Kostroff – Actor (Spider Noir / The Wire / Dog Day Afternoon on Broadway)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Michael Kostroff
Take a walk with me down Fascination Street as I get to know Michael Kostroff. Michael has been a working actor for several decades and is well known for several roles. In this episode, we chat about some of those roles, some of those shows, and he shares experiences from them. We talk about his breakout role on ‘The Wire’, his stints as Max Bialystok in SEVEN separate touring productions of the smash hit ‘The Producers’, and some of his other prominent roles. Aat the time we recorded this episode; Michael was toward the end of his run on ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ on Broadway. Michael was kind enough to actually record this during his Broadway debut! We do a bit of a deep dive into Michael’s career; both before he became a household face, and after. He was a writer at Disneyland, which was a thing I didn’t even know existed. I ask him questions about working on ‘Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip’, and what it is like to work on an Aaron Sorkin project. He shares stories from the set of ‘The Blacklist’ and getting to work with his pal Deirdre Lovejoy again, singing the theme song for a television show, and doing yet another job I didn’t know existed; but this time for Tony Bennett. Then we jump into Michael’s role as the mayor of New York and working with Nicolas Cage on ‘Spider Noir’. Of course, I ask him about fulfilling his life-long dream of performing on Broadway, and what it is like being part of ‘Dog Day Afternoon’. Then we discuss his various books. Michael Kostroff has written 4 books so far, and we get into a couple of them. Michael teaches a workshop that helps actors get out of their own heads when doing auditions, it’s called ‘Audition Psych 101’. He also wrote a book by the same name and there is an audio version as well. We have a pretty in-depth discussion around this topic and his need to share what he has learned along the way. This is a fun and wild ride that goes all over the place. Michael even talks about that one time where he was the driver on the campaign for a person who went on to become The President of the United States of America! Follow Michael everywhere, buy the books, watch the shows, take the workshop. You will be better for it!
