#58 - Christine Pedi: Drop Your Pants And Go

“I just love the warmth of being in a cabaret. It’s my favorite
place to be next to a Broadway theatre. Maybe more so because you
get food.” Multi-hyphenates don’t always start as actors. Theatre
multi-hyphenates find their way through multiple avenues and for
Christine Pedi, The Lady of 1000 Voices, it started when she
stumbled upon the radio station when she attended Fordham
University studying communications.  After focusing on a radio
career, she started in community theatre, eventually landing her
turn at Forbidden Broadway. Then through a connection from Fordham,
she was asked to interview at SiriusXM Radio. And now – Pedi is one
of the pillars of our community connecting listeners of the radio
to the insight of Broadway. Post pandemic, Pedi is also continuing
her in person cabaret acts, with a massively funny new show at The
Green Room 42, called The Pedi Party, which had a wonderfully
successful first show on January. She will be appearing at TGR42 on
February 20th and March 31st both at 9:30pm.  In this amazing
episode, Pedi lets us in to great stories regarding Howard Stern,
Joan Rivers, while dissecting the changes and fads of cabaret and
sketch comedy, such as how it’s moved from live performance to
YouTube, and what forms a successful cabaret – or the “Drop Your
Pants and Go” mentality. Pedi is also open about losing her
eyesight over the years and shares what that means regarding
performance and work opportunities. We also discuss the importance
of taking care of yourself, a sense of belonging, and hustle. 
“A lot of people your age don’t think about taking care of
themselves until they are my age and then you got a lot of catching
up to do. But to be forced to really address things now will
probably serve you better and probably save you aggravation on
other fronts.”  Christine the “Lady of 1000 Voices" first
discovered her talent for multiple personalities (Merman, Angela
Lansbury, Bernadette Peters etc) through her long association with
the legendary off Broadway revue FORBIDDEN BROADWAY. She received a
Drama Desk nomination for her work in FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD (Liza,
Rosie Perez, Judi Dench, Sharon Stone etc) as well as an LA Ovation
& NAACP Award. She also brought her collection of Divas to off
B'ways long running NEWSICAL the Musical and recently starred in
and co-produced SPAMILTON: An American Parody written by Forbidden
Broadway's creator Gerard Allessandrini. Broadway: Mama Morton (yes
just one character...all night) in the 2nd longest running musical
of all time CHICAGO, LITTLE ME with Martin Short & Faith
Prince, directed by Rob Marshall, and opposite Liev Schreiber in
Eric Bogosians TALK RADIO directed by Robert Falls. SIRIUS XM RADIO
On Broadway host. On Saturday she and the "aMAHzing" Seth Rudetsky
co-host the DUELING DIVAS. Her cabaret show GREAT DAMES has won the
New York Bistro & Nitelife Awards and has played NYC, Los
Angeles, London, South Africa & beyond. THERE’S NO BIZNESS
LIKE SNOW BIZNESS her holiday show has been a seasonal staple in
NYC since 2008. She’s performed in that “cutie patootie” John McD’s
Cabaret Corner on the Rosie O’Donnell Show and sung in many major
NYC venues & cruiseships including Birdland, Feinsteins/54
Below, The Iridium, The Metropolitan Room, The Algonquin, The
Laurie Beechman, Avery Fisher Hall, Don’t Tell Mamas...and the
QE2...AND she's performed for President & Mrs Clinton (playing
a singing HIllary!). Fans of THE SOPRANOS may recognize her as Mrs
Bobby Baccala. Other TV: DR DEATH on NBC PEACOCK. She has many
popular comic videos on Youtube including many SHIT LIZA SAYS
videos including LIZA :At This Performance and LIZA: HELLO DOLLY
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