Talk of the Triangle

Melissa Wistehuff: We are in for a real treat today. The gifts of Christmas', past, present, and future all rolled up into one, this person has been the executive director of theater in the park since 1972. He's been presented three keys to the city of Raleigh. His daughter is a Hollywood megastar.

He's played the same character every December since 1974. His play has sold over 2 million tickets. He's an induct to the North Carolina Hall of Fame and holds honorary citizenships to Columbia, South Carolina. And let me see if I can pronounce this right Campaign. Oh, Frank we as tiny. Tim says, God bless us everyone, because today we are so excited to be chatting with Mr.

Ba Humbug himself, local icon Ira David Wood

Ira David Wood III: ii. Sounds like you just read an obituary.

Melissa Wistehuff: No more like Wikipedia. Wikipedia page. .

Ira David Wood III: We are so excited to have you here. Really looking forward to talking to you a little about the, what is obviously an illustrious career as we are, as Melissa has.

Just let us all know.

Melissa Wistehuff: Yeah, I just read your resume. Now we can get into the, in between , all the gray parts, .

Ira David Wood III: Now you've been you've been obviously contributing to Raleigh theater for a long time. Obviously you wanted to be an actor. Obvious, that goes without saying, but tell us a little about where you grew up and how you got to that point.

Cause where whereabouts are you from and how'd you get started? I'm from a small town in Eastern North Carolina. About 18 miles from Rocky Mount. Okay. Rocky Mountain was a big city for us, and there was no theater. Department? No, no drama department in our school. I was a future Pharma of America, not by choice.

That's just what you did . And one day the guidance council came to me and he said, David, you belong somewhere with other crazy people like your sale . So you were already demonstrating craziness? Oh yeah. At an early age. Oh yeah. I was the class clown. I was the cut up. I was the one who always got caught in trouble.

So I asked the guidance counselor where this crazy place was, and he said, It's the north Governor School of North Carolina. And he said, You have to audition to get in. There were only two books in our library at school on theater. One was Archie Ball, Mcle, Alicia's Play, jb and the other was an anthology of plays written in 1947.

So I checked the two books out. I combined two monologues into one and I used it to audition to get into Governor school. While I was in governor school, this wonderful Italian man came and spoke to us. His name was Victoria Gini and he was the first chancellor of a new school getting ready to open in Winston Salem, who was gonna teach music, danced and drama and academics under the same roof.

It was the first school of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It was called the North Carolina School of the Arts, and I would've followed that man anywhere after he spoke. I took my same audition piece, I went in, auditioned the School of the Arts, and I was auditioned by a wonderful. Actor from North Carolina, Sydney Blackmer, who most people will probably remember as Ruth Gordon's Warlock husband in Rosemary's Baby.

. Oh my goodness. And he was in Little Caesar with Edward G. Robertson. He has a, had a wonderful career. And he came up to me after my audition and he said it was very good, David , but you played defiance on the wrong foot. And I didn't know that was a right foot or wrong foot footed ft. So I looked at him very quickly.

I said, Yes, sir, I know that, but I'm still young, and I'm not really sure of my defiance yet. So that's why I played it on the back foot. And he looked at me and he said, That was very good . He knew I pulled that outta air. So I went back to my hometown and I waited to hear from School of the Arts.

I was in vocational agriculture class. We were studying how much liquid drains off of a manure pile over a period of time. I that seriously, that's what we studied, the principles. Now I want to know the

Melissa Wistehuff: answer though. .

Ira David Wood III: Oh gosh, I forgot. No, I feel like some of the play about that, right? I'm taking notes. I'm gonna

Melissa Wistehuff: Google it now.

Ira David Wood III: but the principal's voice came on the intercom and he said David would come to the office and right away you start to think, Oh my gosh, what does he know? What does he know that I've done? So I went to the main building and I started walking down this long corridor to the principal's office.

And when I looked at the far end of the hall, my mother was standing there and I went, Oh, this is serious . And they called her first. Ooh, by the time I got to her, I was ready for the blind fold in the last cigarette, . And I looked up at her and I said, Mom, what's wrong? And she said, Nothing. She said, You've been accepted as one of the first students to go to the North Carolina School of Yards.

This is the last time I will see you walk down this hallway. And that's what I wanted to see. Wow. So I went back to book. How old were you at this point? Oh, dinosaurs was still roaming. So were they? Yeah. Yeah. So I was high school. I was So you had not graduated

Melissa Wistehuff: high school?

Ira David Wood III: No, I was a junior. Junior high school.

Okay. Now school, the arts is only high school. Program. Correct? Is it Yes. Or is it just 11th, 12th grade or is it all the way, is it ninth through 12th grade? No, I think it's 11th and 12th. Or it used to be,

Melissa Wistehuff: I really thought this was a college all

Ira David Wood III: along high school, particularly for dancers. They like to get them young.

Okay. Before their feet are Yes. And the body are growing. . So I way back to vo vocational agriculture, my best friend leaned delver and he said, What happened? And I said, I've been accepted at School of the Arts. And he said, What's that ? And I said, I don't know , but it's gonna be better than vocational agriculture

And it changed my life. When I went to the school, I found a square foot of universe that belonged to me. And I think Helen Hayes put it very well. She said, We lose so much of our talent because they can't endure the peer pressure. And I went through, and I did the best Jerry Lewis imitation when I was in high school.

, because if I did Jerry Lewis, I didn't get beat up and I could make them laugh. If you make the bullies laugh, they forget the beating part. That's right. And so one day we were coming back from football practice. I wasn't a football player. I had gone out, but I didn't like it. And I became the, You could have been the mascot.

I was the athletic man manager. Oh, trainer. Okay. I was the one that bandaged everybody up. My mother was a nurse and taught me a lot of that. One of my best friends growing up was a local doctor in town, so he took me under his wing and but we were walking back to the main building from football practice one day, and I was still in my best Jerry Lewis.

Everybody was laughing. They grabbed me all of a sudden and hung me upside down by my feet from the dummy rack. Where they practice tackling, with the dummy. So I, I'm hanging upside down and I don't know what it was, whether it was the blood finally was flowing to my brain, but I looked at them and they were laughing and it occurred to me all of a sudden, they are not laughing with me.

They're laughing at me. And when I got down, when they finally let me down, my life changed because I said, You'll never laugh at me again. You'll laugh with me and I will control that laughter. And it changed my life. That and the school of the yard. So those two things were, I think, universe shifting things for me growing up.

And I, I told my own children as they were growing up, that they had to find that same courage. They had to find that defiance on the forward foot Coming out of this agricultural community. I'm curious what level of support you were getting from your parents for this. Obviously completely different direction than anyone around them was it

Melissa Wistehuff: sounds like your mom was a cheerleader

Ira David Wood III: for you.

She was. My dad died when I was 12, so I retreated into a world of make believe because I could control that. Malay said childhood is a kingdom where nobody dies. And that's true. And I think my childhood ended when my dad died. So by retreating into that world of make believe, it was a world I could control and I could be whoever I wanted to be, which is no different from what I'm doing now.

I go to work every day and I can still play cowboys and Indians. I can, I'm living in a world of pretend. Mom was a real supporter. I started writing, by the way, poetry. When I was asked to appear as an actor in Paul Green's, the Lost Colony in Mano for four, the four years of college for me, every summer I would go to Roanoke Island to mano appear in that, toward drama.

And I had discovered in my attic a scrapbook of poems by Woodrow Man Jr. And they had been clipped out of the news and observer and pasted in this scrapbook. And I went up one day and sat for most of the afternoon reading this poetry, and it just, something clicked inside me. It really spoke to me.

So I started writing poetry and a bunch of my friends read the stuff that I'd collected and said, You need to get this published. Long story short, my first book that I got published was called A Lover's Guide to the Outer Banks. And we had the book signing down in Mano. And of course my mom came and my sister was there.

And my mother asked me that. It was the first time she'd asked me, she said, What inspired you to write poetry? And I said there was a book in our attic with poems by Woodrow Man Jr. And they impressed me and I started writing After that, she looked at me and the breath caught, and she said, David Woodrow Man Junior was your father.

Oh, wow. And he used to write poetry. Oh, that's amazing. And she said, I saved just poetry. So in a way it was a wonderful feeling to know. It felt like he had spoken to me a bit. And yeah, that was very important. And that's why I'm writing now in fact, I'm. At 75, I know that my day is on the stage running around as e crew are numbered

In fact, I will give up the role after next year's show and turn it over to my oldest son who I now alternate performances with. And I'll still direct as long as my health holds out, but I said nobody wants to see a 75 year old man running around the state. Yes, we do,

Melissa Wistehuff: David. Yes we do,

Ira David Wood III: But it's less makeup, that's for sure.

Yeah, I'm having more fun writing now. I wrote a book of, with the background of the Russian Revolution and it's about a, based on historical fact about an investigator who wanted to find out, or was assigned to find out what happened to Nicholas Romanoff and his family. Were they indeed all murdered in the basement of the apo of house or did Ansia survive?

And I had a great deal of fun writing that, and I just finished a love story, sat on the outer banks in the turn of the century. Just heard from a publisher two days ago, and they said, Send us the manuscript. We like what we're seeing. So congratulations. Yes. I'm excited about that. And so during Covid, the lockdown writing was your outlet?

Oh, it saved me, cause I, It's perfect sense. Yeah. Get up early in the morning for the house, awaken late at night after they were in bed. I could just sit and go back into that imaginary world, .

Melissa Wistehuff: All right,

Ira David Wood III: so summers out at Roanoke, you get out college now at some point you become executive director Theater Inland Park.

Is that a direct like boom, Or is there some process there? How did you end up, did you try your hand in theater outside of the Raleigh area? Did you jump around much? Has this always been the perfect place for you? Yes. It's always been a perfect place. There was one boom in the middle of the boom booms.

Okay. And I, one of the benefits of going down for four summers to Broan O' Island was I met Andy Griffith, who lived. And we played volleyball. Oh my lord. He

Melissa Wistehuff: cheated. He lived on Roanoke Island? Yes. Oh, I did not realize that. He's buried on Roanoke Island. Oh. And he was a cheater. Okay, good. Yeah,

Ira David Wood III: And Andy got his, I knew it. He flew

Melissa Wistehuff: along. I knew that Andy Griffith wasn't as wholesome. I knew it

Ira David Wood III: something wrong with that show from the start. Yeah. He played so Walter Raleigh and he used to come backstage all the time and he'd drive his boat up and dock and sit at with all of us and

Melissa Wistehuff: And this had to have been after the Andy Griffith Show, cuz that

Ira David Wood III: was, he was still filming.

Oh, he was still okay. Yes, because my first summer in the colony was 68. Ah, okay. So four summers there. So he was still during the Andy Griffiths show. Wow. And I would go and babysit his kids at night because he would call me and say, You're doing anything. And of course if Andy Griffith says, Are you doing?

No, sir. So

Melissa Wistehuff: Ron Howard since he was little. No, that's not Ron Howard. Yeah, no, that was Andy Griffith's daughter, son on the show. On the show. Yeah. He made it so real that I thought it was real son.

Ira David Wood III: It might are we talking about make the leave or are we talking about reality? The lines of blur?

I confuse you

Melissa Wistehuff: every time

Ira David Wood III: we talk. Yeah. But we played volleyball every Sunday at seven 30 in the morning. You were at his house, he put you on a boat, Poor bloody Mary for everybody. And you'd, he'd drive you out to a sandbar, put up the volleyball net, and you had to play all day until the sun went down. It took three summers to figure out how to beat him because he.

Island boys were on his team and they could have been eight years old, but they were all 12 feet tall, . And they just killed us for two summers. And finally I figured it out. I got on our team, three of the best looking dancers in the show. I said, Wear bikinis. I had t-shirts made that said, Eat it Griffith

And I told those girls, I said, Wear those t-shirts and do not take them off until I tell you. Until I tell you to and there was part, we had strateg. So what you're saying is cheating was going around in ramp. Oh yes. Oh yes. I said, Look, but yours

Melissa Wistehuff: is not cheating. Yours is just

Ira David Wood III: slick. It's finding a way to win.

Melissa Wistehuff: You're just skirting the rules. Yes. We're not

Ira David Wood III: cheating. Yes. So we were tied up by the sunset and I turned to the girls. I said, Okay, take 'em off. And when the T-shirts came off and those wonderful dancer bodies were out in those bikini. Those oil and boys couldn't look at anything else. Andy was so ticked off, he was going, Don't look at those girls.

Look at them volleyball, . We beat him. He beat him, which was just so great. We went out to eat that night and had him bring a phone to the table About every 20 minutes we dial his number and, oh, , who, who won the game today and hang up? . I had an invitation for Mandy to come out to the West coast and to have a role on his TV series, which he was getting ready to launch at the time, which was the headmaster series where he played the headmaster of a school.

It swam like a rock. He went on from that to Matlock. Gotcha. And I was, I had come to Raleigh and I was waiting in Raleigh. To head out in the fall of the year and I got a telephone call from the Department of Public Instruction and this man said, I'm looking for a young man who wants to change the world and thinks theater is the way to do it.

And I said, You gotta gimme five minutes. I have to call Andy Griffith on the West Coast. And I did call Andy and I said, I thank you, but I'm gonna put it off at least for a year coming out. Because I was offered a position as the State's first theater Arts consultant in the Department of Public Instruction, which meant I got to go into schools all over the state, find those young people who were like me when I was in school, who were made to feel different and odd because they'd rather practice the piano than.

And to tell them there were places they could go, like Governor's School of the Arts. I would help schools start drama programs. And during the course of that, I directed a rock musical for the Children's Theater of Raleigh. They said, We'll send you to New York. Pick a rock musical, come back and we'll do it.

And I said, I don't wanna go to New York. I said, I'll go into all the city schools, I'll do my standup routine, and then I'll announce that we're having auditions for an original rock musical after school. We had 700 people audition for it. We ended up with an intimate cast of 200 . We had I think a dozen high school kids from all over Raleigh.

They wrote that script in a week. That's book music lyrics. And we premiered it in Broughton. High school and they're auditorium because we didn't have a home at that time. And I was front page news for about a week before the show opened in the news and observer. I was called a degenerate communist.

I was gonna be driven outta town on a rail. And of course we sold out.

Melissa Wistehuff: But Why, what? Because it was rock music. What made you a communist?

Ira David Wood III: I was asked to come in and read the script once it was done to the board of directors. And that was a lady who was president of the board and she did not like rock musicals.

And when I read the script to. She made the announcement, if you vote to do this show, I will resign. They voted unanimously to do the show, so she had to resign then. She was not a happy camper. So she stirred up a lot of what turned out to be incredible publicity for us because I knew it was gonna be fine.

So she was the original Karen? Yes. She was and we got standing ovations after each act, not just at the end of the show. Oh, I'd love to see this

Melissa Wistehuff: show. So have you thought about re redoing this show, bringing

Ira David Wood III: it back? Some things you do just are so perfect for the time because you don't wanna go back, you can't recreate

Melissa Wistehuff: it or afraid you might not

Ira David Wood III: be able to.

I felt that way about Hair Rock, the rock musical hair. We did it years ago and it was phenomenal and we did it three or four years ago again, and I had to contact the original cast of the. First production that we'd done. And I said, Look, they want us to do this again. I don't want to touch it.

Because it was so good the first time around. And they said, Get over yourself, do it again. And I did. And they were right. It was another incredible moment. You don't remember play is, you remember moments. They're just these moments that popped and just touch your soul and your heart.

And so we got it again, which was great. So anyway, after X opened, I was asked to come and be executive director of the Children's Theater of Raleigh. And I said, Great, because after a year in that position, I did feel like a race horse in a barn. And I got back into theater where I could really direct.

But I told them, I said, I wanna change the whole scope of the theater. I don't want to be just children's theater because it was a babysitting service. Parents would drop the kids off and pick 'em up after I said, No, I want the whole families to come. So they said, What's the first play you wanna do as executive director?

And I said, I wanna do William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and I wanna play Hamlet, because it was the, my first summer away from the Lost Colony. And I thought I was gonna lose my mind because. Those four summers down there had just been so wonderful. So I said, I'm gonna pick a play that's just gonna be impossible to do and direct at the same time.

So we did it outdoors. In the Rose Garden amphitheater, I was told that Raleigh would not cross the street to see Shakespeare, . And we played to 16,000 people. We're not

Melissa Wistehuff: all country Bumpings around here. No.

Ira David Wood III: No. But I have to say a couple years ago Raleigh Little Theater did Another Shakespeare play out in the garden.

I'm trying to remember. It's the one that takes place in the garden with all the fairies and Midsummer Night. Yes. Yes, they did Midsummer Night Dream in the Garden at the time. I had a, an artist that I was working with who helped. We were involved on some level with some of the set design and stuff.

But it was really cool out in the garden. He

Melissa Wistehuff: really was. But that one is Children's theater, right?

Ira David Wood III: No. Just the same

Melissa Wistehuff: family theater. Okay. Yeah. I was thinking that they were still the more children focused and you guys were not, they

Ira David Wood III: have a children's theater that, that's just exclusively, Maybe that's what

Melissa Wistehuff: I'm thinking about.

Okay. Yeah,

Ira David Wood III: Yeah. But I, we did Hamlet played to 16,000 people. The next summer we did Richard II at Meredith. On their outdoor amphitheater. Oh, that's beautiful. There and played I wanna say to 16,000 people on opening night, because we were part of the July 4th celebration for Raleigh.

So everybody came out, see the fireworks, and they got Richard the third. They were, you fold them with fireworks and got 'em. Culture. Yes. You slid it in under the line, slid it in underneath . And then we did Romeo and Juliet Taming of the Shrew. We got to Christmas time and Shakespeare had not written a Christmas play.

So I said let's go to the second best English author, which in my opinion was Charles Dickens. And I said, Let's do Christmas Carol. I wanted to do a Christmas show because most of the theaters in town were closed over the holidays. And I thought that was strange because families wanna go out and do things together.

Okay. Over the holidays. I gotta interrupt. Did you hear what he just said? Most of the theaters. Your How many theaters were in Raleigh at that time? And I don't think of this as a big theater community. It, was it bigger

Melissa Wistehuff: than, especially back in the early

Ira David Wood III: 1970s? No it Raleigh little theater. Then there were the university theaters and that was pretty much it.

We have over 70 companies now, and then they're springing up like mushrooms. You're kidding me. Over 70 companies. Some of them only do one or two plays a year. Okay. And right now spaces are, it's a premium. People are looking for places to perform. But yes, we've had a real renaissance since those days when, there was nothing going on around the holidays.

That's fantastic. I don't think anybody realizes that there's that much activity. Cause you hear about it in pockets, you'll hear about burning coals doing X or little theaters doing this, know, But I don't think about it in terms of the Oh, it's come such a long way. And when we opened Christmas Carol, we had to sell the seat cushions off the sofas in the lobby.

Because people said no, we'll sit on the floor. . So the, we put the youngins on the floor and the adults don't tell the fire marshals. . Yes. Yes. With fire marshals was sitting there with the adults, I think. Cause we said just stay close. We don't know what's gonna happen. So we played for three years in at theater in the park, at the Poland Park Armory then, which we ed from the city and we were all dead tired.

And I said, Listen, let's move this down to Memorial Auditorium. We'll play to as many people on a weekend as we play to a week's run, two weeks run at theater in the park. So we moved down there. When we went down to look at Memorial Auditorium, it was locked up because it was only used for wrestling matches and graduation exercise.

No, no place. There's no theater down there. We asked the city manager for the key to get in the building. Oh, I can't find the cake . The lady I was with, who was the new president of the Board of Theater in the park, Deanne Jones, who was also a legend in Raleigh, had in the trunk of her car.

And I never asked why. She had a pair of boat cutters, , and we cut the chain off the door, Memorial Auditorium, and this door creeped open and it was dark in caves. This rat as big as a big old dog, ran by us. But when I stepped in, I went, Oh my God, this is incredible. We did the first big show down in Memorial Lo Auditorium.

We did the Three Musketeers. And we also did the Hunchback of Notre Dame, all original plays that I wrote because we couldn't afford royalties. We had just started out and people started to come and I think city council, the city father suddenly saw the place as a possible money maker for the city.

And so it, it's nice now when I drive by and see Maman and Fletcher and Memorial and know that we had a little part in raising people's consciousness about what we had. It must have

Melissa Wistehuff: been a huge part because I can't even imagine a time that Memorial Auditorium doesn't have something going on.

Oh yeah. It was dark to be that it, Yeah. Since it was dark and you're having to get out the bolt cutters. I can't even picture

Ira David Wood III: that. So when it was built, it must have had some sort of heyday that then dropped way off. Oh, yes. Yes. Okay. Which, like the old ambassador, he didn't build it for wrestling, is what I'm saying.

No. The old ambassador movie theater down on Fayetteville Street, Sinatra played there. Elvis Presley played there. We have a heritage that's just remarkable. And in its heyday, when it first open yes, it was used for all kinds of wonderful things. And then, people say every other decade the pendulum swings.

You get support and a rebirth and a little re renaissance and then not so good and then it comes back again. That's why they call theater the imaginary Invalid cuz it looks like that's it. No. There's still a heartbeat. it. Revive again, it comes back.

Melissa Wistehuff: So speaking of theaters theater in the park was renamed the Ira David Wood III Poland Park Theater in 2004.

And I just cannot even imagine how that must feel to you to walk into this space and see your name on the building.

Ira David Wood III: What feels better is to see the kids, the young people who have come through those doors and are now enjoying careers of their own. It's not the name over the door, it's what goes on inside, and I think that we managed to touch hearts and change lives, and we made theater a main course, not just a dessert. And I like a main course that's spicy. I like to put spices on it. So that's what we, have tried to do. Frankie Mun, Malcolm in the middle was our tiny Tim for three years.

I did not know that Michael C. Hall, Dexter was Peter Crochet. In fact, just heard from him this year and he's coming back to the reunion. We're gonna have the 50th anniversary next year. And he said, Oh, I wouldn't miss it. Evan, my daughter, Ira, my son everybody came up and came through those tours.

Christmas Carol is being done in Fort Worth, Texas this year at Casa Manana Theater. And the producer of Casa Manana theater was our production's first Tiny Tim. So it's coming full circle and they're breathing life into the show. They're giving it, an extended life of its own. Another take.

Yes, sure. And that's gratifying. I must say that the name over the door was, the day it meant something to me was putting my mother in the car and driving her around. She didn't know. And I drove up and parked in front and pointed up and she just burst into tears. That was nice. But other than that, it's, it was better than to go watch

Thinking about this, these generations that have come up, particularly through Christmas, Carol, it's my understanding that you're changing Christmas Carol. Every year you're making adjustments and changes. Keeping it fresh. And keeping it fresh. Every night, every, Oh, that's too much for me to handle.

Let's just focus on every year. We'll get to every night. But now you've got this group of proteges, for lack of a better word, that are taking the play in different directions, in different parts. Are they following that lead? Are they doing that kind of taking those kind of creative licenses with the play?

Or are they, know, sticking more to the original text or? Nope, they're we stuck to the original text. I think people would be surprised at how much up the book is we use. Cuz that's the way we started. Just take the book and take all the spoken lines out and put 'em in the. I wanted several things.

When we started writing it, I said I wanted Scrooge to have a teddy bear in Act two because I wanted the kids in the audience to know he was just a big kid. Like they were, he was scared of the dark just like they were. And they would identify with that. I didn't want Christmas future to be the scary skeleton, death, even though that's what he is.

But I said let's make him a befuddled, undertaker. But I tell whoever's doing the role every year, I said, You got the hardest role in the show cuz you're death and there's nothing funny about death when we gotta get, we gotta get him left. And so let's see how we're gonna do it this year. So the befuddled old undertaker who's trying his best to get Scrooge in the casket is what we settled on.

And I said, let's put a little topical humor in there each year. Let's see what's going on politically or around town. Add a little topical humor and because what I wanted to do was make it relevant. Even though we're doing it in the style of the period with the costumes and the scenery, it's all, it looks like Dickens London.

But by making it a, a little more fresh I think it resonates more with people. I didn't want Scrooge to be marose and unfunny , like Dicken wrote him. I wanted him to delight in wrecking Christmas. I wanted him just to, had the most fun to just. He used to bring a gorilla out on a chain and sick the gorilla on these kids trying to sing Christmas carrots.

I remember that one, . We had a blind lady who was a beggar on the street, and the three businessmen would come to him and ask for donations. And while he was listening to their spiel, he saw this blind lady with a 10 cup and he would walk over and just guide her very gently to the edge of the stage and push her off into the orchestra Pit , you talk about taking liberties with Mr.

Dickens and of course every year we love , the Dickens purists who have to be taken out on stretchers. To 9 1 1 ambulances waiting in the parking lot because some people don't read the pr cuz we're going, Please, this is a musical comedy. This is because they sit there grabbing their hearts and going home.

No. What have you done to Dickens? But the thing is, members of the Dickens family have come to Raleigh to see the show. Yeah. Oh, Gerald Dickens, who's a great grandson of Chuck's. We call him Chuck cause we're very familiar with Charles Dickens . He was in town and we got Gerald to come to see the show and afterwards we took him to an Irish pub in Raleigh because there were no English pub.

So that was close as we could get. We sitting around with our mugs of ale and finally I couldn't stand it. And I said, Gerald, I'd have to ask you what do you think of this show? And he said oh. I loved it. It was quite marvelous. And I laughed a lot. And he said, But I think. Charles would've had one problem with it.

I just, my heart went up my throat and I said, Oh, okay. What was that? He said, I think he would've wanted to play your role . So when we took the show to our sister city, Kingston, upon Hall in England, we were invited by another great grandson to come to his castle. It was rather, we had to cross a drawbridge to get to this house.

I could say house, but it was a castle, , and we were treated royally. It was really extraordinary. I met his wife before that in Charlotte. I happened to be in the House of Mercy in Charlotte, which was a home for AIDS patients. My mother, who eventually moved to Charlotte, started a hospice chapter there, the first hospice in Charlotte.

I happened to be there touring through the facility. And in the House of Mercy was a life size portrait of Charles Dickens. And I just stopped dead, looked at this thing and I'm going what is he doing here? He's following you, , I thought. But this very attractive lady walked in and Jos and riding boots.

She had just been out riding horses and she said, Oh, I see you are looking at Charles . And I said yes, as a matter of fact, I am. And I'm just wondering what he's doing here. And she said, and she introduced herself and she was the wife of one of the great grandchildren. And she said, I think if Charles was alive today, this is what he would be doing.

He'd be doing everything he could to find a cure for this disease. And she had taken his writing disc. She brought it over to High Point and had them build a replica and she was auctioning it. She was auctioning it off to raise money for the House of Mercy. And I see. I amazing. And she said I would sell the chamber part under his bed if I thought I could raise money for AIDS research.

So it got to be a very small world. We got to meet a, a good number of the Dickens family and so we felt okay with all the liberties that we take, we've gotten a thumbs up from the family, so that's gotta count for something. But the best compliment comes from the dads because it's always the mamas, God bless them, who round up the family, get dress, get in the truck, we're going down to see a Christmas play.

Melissa Wistehuff: That sounds exactly like me and the

Ira David Wood III: dads. And the dads are just, I don't want, I'm gonna see theater.

Melissa Wistehuff: Yep. And that sounds exactly like my husband. There it is. .

Ira David Wood III: He every dad,

Melissa Wistehuff: There you go. There you go. Guys,

Ira David Wood III: every dad knows he's listening.

There's a rerun of Dukes of Hazard on TV somewhere. , There's a football game. That's it. It's always a football. I don't want a guy to say they or, and so when they get dragged in kicking and screaming, but when it's over, what I love is to have, when they come back up and go, You united and want to. But I'm going back to my office.

I'm gonna tell everybody they got to come down there and say this . I laughed. I cried. I peed little in my pants. It was just wonderful. . I

Melissa Wistehuff: wanna know who let my husband in here.

So with this show, you did mention that you like to incorporate current events every year. You get plenty of fodder. What has drawn your attention this year?

It's corn. No.

Ira David Wood III: Oh gosh.

Melissa Wistehuff: Don't get that stuck in my head again. It is the most fantastic. Adam, have you not seen that? It's corn?

Ira David Wood III: You know what? I'm sitting here. It's life changing. Oh. Clearly. The guy who did not get the G yeah. Changing. You missed the meeting. It's corn I'll to him. That's all I have

Melissa Wistehuff: to It's corn.

Just Google. It's corn. It's corn. It's amazing. It'll change your life. It is. It's one of those things like, I don't wanna get baby sharks stuck in my head, . But the it is corn song is fine. Yeah. I'm

Ira David Wood III: fine with it. So let me just say to our listeners, by the time you hear this, I will know what its corn is.

Oh yeah.

Melissa Wistehuff: Cause I'm gonna fit it to you. . .

Ira David Wood III: But last year we had we have a little person in the show who comes on as Christmas presents El. So we always take him and poor Frankie gets don't every year. Last year he was the uh, uh, Covid germ. , you order a Covid costume is a little pink ball with spikes on

And there's a point in the show where Scrooge has just berated, crochet, and then he goes back to his disc and he goes, Where was I? And this is always where we. Interrupt the show, and these people ran across stage screaming. And then of course, Frankie runs behind them as the covid germ. He gets halfway across the stage, they come running back with big needles, hypo, vaccination.

Melissa Wistehuff: I was there for that one. Yep.

Ira David Wood III: He loved it. So Frankie turns around and runs off and we get big applause. So it's those kind of things. You're really

Melissa Wistehuff: the only person that people are, An entire theater of people are gonna start applauding Covid, right? Yeah. And

Ira David Wood III: needles. Yeah. . Yeah. And needles.

And needles. I think the longest laugh we got was during the Mo Lewinsky episode. Oh, I can only imagine that one. Scrooge went to his desk, sat down, and he said, Now where was I? And a woman's hand came up, from between my legs behind the desk. Came up into view with a piece of paper at Parchment and Scooch took parchment and the hand went back, back down.

And I just looked down and I said, Thank you, Monica. , , the show stopped. People lost control of bodily functions in the audience. . And I just sat there like Jack Benny with my head. And when the laughter had peaked and was starting to die, I said, You all go ahead and laugh, but you're not having as much fun as I am.

So it, it's stuff like that, And I, we got a call this year from the governor's office and they said the governor would like to make an appearance in the show, . Oh. So I said, Ah, yeah, that's, We got a spot. Scrooge Falls on the ice at one point, leaving his office. And that's where we used to have the VIPs come on and, Scrooge looks up and goes, Oh, Governor Cooper, so glad you happened along.

I've fallen on the ice and I can't get up. Will you be so kind as to give me a hand? And you go, And then they walk off . That's the intent. That's it. That's the role. But on drum roll, when we went to England, my technical director told the deputy Lord Mayor, who was our guest, don't leave the stage when he finishes.

Just stand there. So Deputy Lord Mayor walks on and I go, Oh, Deputy Lord Mayor. So have you. Will you give me a hand clap? Clap, clap. He doesn't leave . And I'm looking up and then I look into the wings and of course the technical crew is just sliding down the walls. It's the funniest thing they've ever seen.

But I'm the one out here dying on the stage with the mayor standing there. So I looked up at him, I said, Listen, if you're gonna stay here, you better lie down with me. Okay? So the deputy Lord stretched out on the stage, we're lying there. And I did about three minutes with the mayor and finally I said, Okay, if you're gonna stay any longer, you gotta go get a costume on.

Cause you're in the show. He finally got up and left. But that's what I mean about it changing every night. David Henderson, who plays Jacob Marley and I, it's like Harvey Corman and Tim Conway on Carol Burnett. Yeah. We try to crack each other up and it just every, and there is a line he cannot stand.

David Henderson hates the line. Because I make him say it every year because he hates it so much. , he has to say, I feel the end is near . He's talking to screws. So I have him jump up on the bed, screw just lying in bed. Jacob Marley stands on the bed with his back to the audience and there're bunch of Marlet, we call them Marlet, they're tap dancers who dance in Jacob Marley's number, But Jacob Marley looks screw.

And he says, I know you think life is miserable. And I go, Yes. And he says, But I gotta tell you. And he bends over right in my face, which means that his behind is right in the audience's face. And he says, I. And two of the dancers just slap his behind and Rub. And he says to say, I feel the indi there, .

Melissa Wistehuff: It's

Ira David Wood III: horrible.

I, I am laughing so hard. Tears are coming outta my eyes and he's just looking at me like, , I'm gonna get you

Melissa Wistehuff: one day. Screwed. So speaking of, do you have a favorite or most memorable moment on stage? Anything that stands out that happened that you weren't expecting?

Ira David Wood III: Jean Nelson, who's in Hollywood, there were three top male dancers during the Golden, the age of Hollywood.

There was Fred Stair course, Gene Kelly, Gene Nelson, and Gene Nelson. I met at a Sunday, Suray out in LA on one of my trips out. He was delightful, man. And I said, Why don't you come to Raleigh? And direct a show at the theater. He was semi-retired, so he came and directed the elephant man for us at the theater.

And flash forward, he'd gone back to la We were doing Christmas carols December, and they're putting me in the casket and it used to screws, casket used to be one of those magic trick caskets that separates, and of course you, somebody's at the foot end with their feet hanging out. And I'm scrunched up in my end, but when they opened the casket to put me in, I could always see who was in the foot end of the casket. And that night when they opened it up and I got ready to go in, I looked down and Jean Nelson was playing the field was my feet. And I was going, I have the most talented feet in the world. This is there were moments like that.

But for me the last time I ever saw my dad was when he came to tuck me in bed. And when we wrote the show, everything was done. But I told Terry Mann and JK Farrell who helped me put the thing together. I said, I wanna write a song for Bob Crotchet. I want it to be a lullaby that he sings to Tiny Tim.

I want it to be the words that I never got to hear. I wanted to be words that any parent would wanna sing to their child. So I sat at the piano, my dad's picture was hanging on the wall right in front of the piano, and I just started writing this thing one day. My son, when you're grown, you will remember all the happy times you and your dad have known.

. And on the day that you do, you'll know somehow I'm remembering too, all my happy times with you. So we wrote a thing and when we put it on the stage, I told the lighting designer, I said, Jacob, Marley Augusto, Christmas present, and I are sitting on Scrooge's bed and a small wagon comes on stage, and that's tiny Tim's bedroom.

So I told him, I said, You take the lights out on us. I don't want the audience to see us. I want everybody's attention on the bedroom. And tiny Tim in the bed with Bob Crot singing this lullaby. And it's bittersweet for me because it's me saying goodbye to my dad. And every night it's painful kind of to go back and see that it hurts because I still miss him.

I'm 75, I still miss my dad. But that night I looked into the audience and I saw three generations sitting together on the front row. Grandfather, father, son, and the grandson son was sitting in the. And as Bob Crotchet sang the song, I saw the grandfather reach around and put his hand on his son's shoulder.

And then I saw both of 'em put their hands on the shoulder of the grandson, and I lost it one stage. I went, Thank you. Because if they realize what a blessing they have, that they can reach out and touch each other while they're still breathing air and they're still in this world together then you're taking your pain and you are hurt and you miss and you're giving something to somebody so that they understand. And it's a blessing. It's a healing. It's something that you pass on. And after 50 years almost of the show, There's so many stories like that. For all of the indiscretions we take and the liberties with Charles Dickens, we still try to pull it together at the end and treat that moment like it should be treated because we want people to leave the show feeling better.

And they did when they came into the theater. And I think that moment is one of the moments in the show that's always special to me. I always tell the cast every year, if you wanna know what Christmas feels like, it is in the silence at the end of the show, before Scrooge has to sing the verse of the first Noel acapella.

We have the kids come in and they sing with Tiny Tim. They're all in a group in the center of the stage. They're singing and they finish the verse and then they reach out for Scrooge to come. And he very reluctantly is brought into the group and he has to sing. No. Oh no. And he starts and he can't get through it.

He breaks down and cries and of course then the whole cast joins in and the roof of the auditorium is just lifted up, but it's the silence. Before Scrooge sings. 2,500 people don't breathe. It's like this silence. Yeah. And I hold it as long as I can. I've even turned around and made eye contact with everybody on the stage standing behind me.

60 people, 80 people. Depends on the number. I look at them like, Do you feel it? Do you feel it? This is Christmas. This is a little bit of the, of reserve for God himself, and we're really lucky to have. and then you turn, and when Scooch starts to sing, 2,500 people who've just been laughing at all, the Stig will start to cry.

And it's like from the mountaintop, it's a 180.

Melissa Wistehuff: It's an emotional roller coaster. But in a good way though. Yeah. It really isn't a good way.

We'll be back after this short break.

And now back to the show.

Melissa Wistehuff: If you had

to spend the next five decades playing another character, who would that be?

Ooh,

Ira David Wood III: father, grandfather, .

Melissa Wistehuff: Yeah. It doesn't count .

Ira David Wood III: Well,

It does for me. Imaginary character I think is where she's got . Yeah. My grandfather is a character. There you go. Yeah. I missed a lot. Evan. Evan went to work. When she was six, she went to

Melissa Wistehuff: Hollywood. She moved that early. Yes. To Hollywood.

Okay. Yeah. I knew I was young, but I didn't know how young she was. Okay. missed that. And so everybody knows we're talking about Evan Rachel Wood, right? Of Westworld Frozen two fame. Yep. Yeah. So major star. And she came back recently Yes. To do a three week production. Of the father.

, with you. I went to see that opening night. You wanna talk about not expecting to be upset. I I'm so used to seeing you in comedies and laughing at you. And I left there quite depressed. It was a show about a father who has Alzheimer's and the daughter, Evan Rachel Wood her character was taking care of him, so it was quite touching, but it was also so stunning to see the two of you.

Because you're both extraordinary talents and sometimes you don't realize that when you're watching people on tv. And then to see it in person as far as she goes, it was mesmerizing.

Ira David Wood III: It was very special for us. And then, And your son Ira directed it. Yes. Yes. So it was a family affair.

And that's part of the healing too. I know Evan missed me being a part of her life because I was back here with the theater. It was very hard for me to get away and go as often as I wanted to, to the West Coast. And we've talked about that. That's, it's still a pain. And her, and I think, what we arrived at was saying, you.

You're not gonna live in the past anymore, and we can't go back and change that. So what we're gonna do is we'll make every moment count. So I've had a wonderful ride. I've, I've played so many incredible roles. I've been able to do movies, I've been able to do podcasts, , here

Melissa Wistehuff: I am, very best one

Ira David Wood III: ever right here.

So it's been a great ride. . And if I had 50 more years, I would want to spend it with them with my children, with my grandson. I would want to just celebrate every day. I started that in 2010 after my open heart surgery. Every day after that became a celebration because by all rights, I should have been a bunch of ashes sitting in a jar on a mouthpiece.

When I walked in and got diagnosed, the doctor said, You should have a sign inside your chest that says Sanford in sun because your heart is ready for the junk heap. You don't

Melissa Wistehuff: wanna hear that from a doctor. No. And you also have a younger son. Thomas. Thomas. So you've have a new lease on fatherhood, I can imagine.

At

Ira David Wood III: 75 years old. With a 10 year old son. Yeah.

Melissa Wistehuff: Yeah. But makes sense. I would think that you look at it differently. Yeah. Oh yeah. does he have any interest in going into

Ira David Wood III: the theater? He's in Christmas, Carol, and he loves it, so I don't know. We've never pushed them into it. It's just come natural.

Melissa Wistehuff: It's in their blood, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. It is flowing so strongly through you. I can't, I can imagine they can't even help it. What character is he playing

Ira David Wood III: this year? He plays the Baker's Boy. And he loves it. I asked him if he was interested in Tiny Tim. He said no, I'm having fun. Good as the baker boy.

So I said, Great, as that's what you wanna do is have fun. Absolutely. That's actually a great segue cuz I, I really couldn't imagine myself getting through this interview without asking a question on behalf of the theater tech community, which I was really a part of in college and loved. And there was always this fantastic sort of camaraderie slash rivalry between the actors on the stage and everybody running the lights and building the sets and doing all that.

And it was really a special part of my college experience. So on behalf of all those people, I'm envisioning this world you've created around particularly this play. When you take that moment of silence and you're looking around at everybody and all that, how involved are all those people in on all that?

I Is that, is it com is that a recurring community? Is that a transient community for you guys, or is It's a returning community. Each theater we play in Deepak and Durham Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh as their own crew, their own house crew. They fight to, to get, to be able to do our show.

That's awesome. And they're family. Yeah. And we treat 'em like family. And I'd say to the cast, I've said it every year for almost 50 years, We're not a cast. We're a family. We hug, we talk, we visit, we get to know each other. And the crew is the same way when we're over in Durham. My goodness. They give us a opening night party and and they're just a part of our family.

When I walk into theater, I get hugs from 'em, it's Oh, we're so glad you're back. And it's Yes man, I missed you. And how's everything going? And we keep up with 'em. During the year, they'll come over and see our shows. We have one fell at Memorial Litera tour. I mean, He always would come in and say, I got some great sweet potatoes this year, Dave , You want some sweet potatoes?

I'll bring you a bushel. I said, Yes, sir. I'll take those sweet potatoes. So that's the group. So how do

Melissa Wistehuff: you break into this group? , do people have an opportunity to join the cast and crew? I know you have auditions, but are they already set in stone in what you, who you're gonna choose?

Ira David Wood III: We have some people who return every year. , but we always have openings for new people. Do you?

Melissa Wistehuff: Yeah. And I think, is it primarily dancers or is it. A little bit of everything.

Ira David Wood III: It's it, the chorus we cast every year probably for a new tiny Tim for a new Christmas past because they tend to grow up each year.

So they age out of the role. Yes. David Henderson has been Jacob Barley for about 20 years over. I thought. I thought so. Okay. And Bob Crot it David Moore. Same. Same way. John Sherra c. Present as a wonderful voice. And he sings the wine of human kindness. And I told John, I said, John, you got the role for Life , because he's just wonderful when he comes on.

It's

Melissa Wistehuff: James Earl Jones type of Yes. Darth made deep voice beautiful. You can't replace

Ira David Wood III: that voice. No. And so I I told Ira, I said, next year after the 50th anniversary and I passed the role to you, I said, maybe I'll come on as a lamplight a couple of nights. Be the narrator again. So I'll get out of it Totally. But you're gonna miss it. I, yeah, I am. But you know what? I'm going to enjoy. Celebrating the holidays because , you haven't

Melissa Wistehuff: had, Yeah. You haven't had a holiday since 1974.

Ira David Wood III: That's right. And my children never had Thanksgiving at home because we toured for 20 years to Columbia, South Carolina over the Thanksgiving holidays.

So our Thanksgiving was in a suite in a hotel. They, we had it catered and they brought up Thanksgiving dinner and see as a

Melissa Wistehuff: mom. That sounds fantastic. Oh, I'm it catered. It's in a hotel. They're cleaning up after me.

Ira David Wood III: Yes. But he's bringing this huge bag of sweet potatoes with him. Yes. He found us outta Carolina.

Yes. . Yes, we did. And but it was joyous because the band would come. Anybody who didn't have a family to go home to. Would come with us early down to Columbia in the hotel. We would get up on Thanksgiving morning, everybody would show up in our suite in pajamas and bathrobes. We'd have amaretto coffee, we'd watch the Macy's parade, , and then everybody would go back to their rooms.

Dress staff would come in with a cater. Thanksgiving dinner. This sounds like my

Melissa Wistehuff: ideal Thanksgiving. It was wonderful. Absolutely. Really was . I wouldn't wanna, I wouldn't wanna go back to normal You say

Ira David Wood III: that, but imagine that. No, but for the last 40 years, I can see how you

Melissa Wistehuff: might Well, I can definitely see after the Thanksgiving part.

That sounds fabulous. The rest, Yeah, you could, You're gonna get to chill out a little bit. Yeah. And enjoy, get to go home. And around the Christmas tree you'll also be there and cheering on Ira. And maybe Thomas will continue being a part of it as well. Yeah. Has Evan thought about coming back?

Ira David Wood III: Absolutely. She and Ira promised me, they said, Dad, I, we want you to know that we intend to keep the show going. Good. After, even after you're gone. Cause she was in it before, right? Yeah, she was Christmas past. Okay. And just, Wonderful.

Melissa Wistehuff: She bet. I bet she was amazing. I'd love

Ira David Wood III: to see that she was, And may still come back because I said, Christmas Pass doesn't have an age.

She could be your very true age, come out of that box. . So we'll see. I we never know. We never

Melissa Wistehuff: know. That would be amazing. Even if for one night or two nights. Sure. It doesn't have to be the whole run. It would just be amazing to do that before you retire. I came up with a trivia game is a mix between things related to a Christmas Carol and then just general Christmas trivia. So now we are going to test your Christmas trivia knowledge and we are gonna play the ghost of Christmas Pass trivia game.

All right, We take our trivia games very seriously here. David, I'm

Ira David Wood III: putting on my serious face. Okay. This is a

Melissa Wistehuff: pass or fail.

Ira David Wood III: Oh, and what does he get if he wins absolutely nothing. Excellent. That's what I thought. That's typically what we give all our

Melissa Wistehuff: winners as

Ira David Wood III: and losers, , and I'm sure they're grateful.

Melissa Wistehuff: Okay, first question. Scrooge McDuck took on the animated version of the role of Scrooge. In the 1983 Mickey's Christmas Carol, which is one of my family's favorites, which famous character played Jacob Marley's ghost in this adaptation?

Ira David Wood III: Was it

Melissa Wistehuff: goofy? It was Jing. Ding, ding ding. Nice. Okay, you're starting off well.

All right.

Ira David Wood III: 1974 was the year you started at Christmas. Carol, what was the highest grossing film at the box office that year?

Melissa Wistehuff: Blazing? This one's throwing you off cuz it's not Christmas related. Yes.

Ira David Wood III: Blazing Saddles, the Sting are Godfather too. I gotta go with Godfather too.

Oh, Blazing Saddles. Blazing Saddles. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. I

Melissa Wistehuff: thought it was Godfather too as well. Yeah. . Yeah. The Sting won Best Oscar that year, but Blazing Saddle won the box office.

Ira David Wood III: Ju know they edited it for commercial TV not long ago and they said it will air from eight o'clock to 8 0 5.

It's amazing. That kind of humor. I feel like it's, there's a lot of that. You can't even see him doing it now. No. There's no way. Male said World. You couldn't do it now. Yeah. Couldn't.

Melissa Wistehuff: You attempt it at and your play every year. Okay. Number three, you star and a Christmas Carol, but which classic Christmas Carol as voted on by Time Magazine readers.

Every year since 1978 is the top Christmas song. Joy To the World. Silent Night or Oh, Holy Night. Every year. This is one by the Time Magazine readers Silent Night. It is correct. Dang. All

Ira David Wood III: Excellent. Okay, we're getting

Melissa Wistehuff: serious. Not too bad. You've got a 75 so far, which is pretty much how I graduated high school, written by

Ira David Wood III: a priest who took a walk at on Christmas Eve and Germany, I think looked out of a sleeping town and wrote the words and got the choir director of his church played the guitar to do the music.

That Christmas day, they, the congregation was the first to hear Silent Night. --Wow. So if you're talking about trivia, I do know that. Oh

Melissa Wistehuff: my goodness. That's how he knew that answer. Answer. Okay. I can't stump him. We're gonna,

Ira David Wood III: we're gonna move on to a different sort of trivia question in Rudolph, The Red Nose Reindeer.

How many reindeer Pull Rudolph sleigh. I guess including Rudolph? Yes. Yes. Just to be clear, how many Paul Santa sleigh, I should, I guess that's the better way to phrase it. How in, in the I guess that was the clay animation or whatever that sort of the night before

Melissa Wistehuff: the original

Ira David Wood III: Rudolph.

Yes. Yeah. Rudolph the night before Christmas says what to my wondering, eyes should appear, but a miniature slay and eight tiny reindeer. So it would be nine if you're concluding.

Melissa Wistehuff: Very good. Thought I was gonna stump you. . I had to count. Did you see me counting on my fingers to make sure dash, Your dams are brains are fixing.

Okay. Sleepy sneezy. Wrong one. Wrong one. Okay. According to the song, what did My True Love give to me on the eighth day of Christmas,

Ira David Wood III: eighth Lords are leap. That is incorrect.

Melissa Wistehuff: That is incorrect. It's eight mil maids and

Ira David Wood III: milking. Milking, Yes. But that's why the Lord's leaving. That's why. That's

Melissa Wistehuff: why they left.

Gotcha. We'll give you half a credit for that one then. I'm just

Ira David Wood III: thinking that agricultural nature of the A, You blocked it out. Yes, I did. So you are the author of a book called Confessions of an Elf in the movie Elf. What was the first rule in the code of elves? The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear.

There is room for everyone on the nice list treat every day. Like Christmas. I think the first one, the best way to spread Christmas year is to sing loud for all to hear. Yes. Unfortunately, that is the wrong answer. I'm sorry.

Melissa Wistehuff: Ah yeah, You're about to be fired,

Ira David Wood III: David. Yes. Treat every day like Christmas.

Christmas. . Okay. That would've been my second choice.

Melissa Wistehuff: in the Muppet Christmas Carol, By the way, did you guys know that there are nearly 60 films made about a Christmas Carol? I was shocked to find that out, but Muppet sits up there, but about

Ira David Wood III: 57 of them are irrelevant, are not

Melissa Wistehuff: very good . The Muppets Christmas Carol is my husband's favorite, so we do watch that every year.

What character plays Bob Crotchet.

Ira David Wood III: Is it

Melissa Wistehuff: Kermit? It is Kermit. Very good. He's an

Ira David Wood III: obvious Bob Crotchet. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just sitting there going, I thought it was a little too obvious, but right down to his spindly little legs. Exactly. All right, question number eight. What is the highest grossing Christmas movie of all time with Box Office totals and DVD sales?

Keeping in mind that box office totals are a lot higher now than for older movies, like a Christmas story, and it's a wonderful life. Here are your three choices. Home Alone, The Grinch or the Polar Express Home Alone? The Grinch. The Grinch. The, Oh, wait a minute. Which version?

Melissa Wistehuff: It's the animated version. I was shocked.

All

Ira David Wood III: I would've said that if I had known it was the animated version, You're

Melissa Wistehuff: gonna give it to you. We'll give him a half a credit. No, we're gonna them full credit. No is half full credit. Adam, you're too nice. Remember, it's, That's Christmas spirit. That's right. Okay. Number nine.

Ira David Wood III: Wait.

Hold that thought for one second. Okay. The Grinch, You Scrooge. Who's a better scooch? Oh. This is not on the trivial list, but I was dying to ask this question cuz obviously the Grinch is a great Scrooge. He is. He is. But is he a better scooch than Scooch? He is Scrooge. They're both the same characters.

One is green and one is me. You they both transformed themselves. They both start out eating Christmas. So it's, I think Dr. Seuss just took that story and made him green. Made him green. Not

Melissa Wistehuff: easy being green. Both of their heart grew. Three. Yeah. What, Three times the size by the end of the, Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. What popular Christmas song was actually written for Thanksgiving? Jingle Bells Baby. It's cold outside. Or the most wonderful time of the year?

Ira David Wood III: I would go with baby. It's cold outside. I'm sorry. That is incorrect.

Melissa Wistehuff: It's jingle bells. Get outta town. I never knew that it was written for Thanksgiving.

You

Ira David Wood III: wouldn't know that. You've been in a suite for That's true. For 50 years, but I can, That makes sense. One horse open sleigh, So it's not necessarily Christmas and you're, I think it was written through

Melissa Wistehuff: the Woods area. It was cold already by Thanksgiving,

Ira David Wood III: right? Yep. You over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house, we go so yeah, that makes sense. All right. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Melissa Wistehuff: Got one final question. This is do or die.

Ira David Wood III: Okay. For all the marbles. Actually, I have no idea where he is at in the count. Keeping count. No. So we're just gonna say him a couple. The one, the question. All right. Yeah. Do or die. Oh God. All right.

You've been Grand Marshall, the Raleigh Christmas parade. However, what is considered to be Raleigh's official start of the holiday season each year? The downtown Raleigh Tree Lighting. The first night of ice skating at Redham Amphitheater or the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert tree lighting.

Melissa Wistehuff: That is correct.

Awesome. So I'm not sure if this happens every year this way, but I know that this year the tree lighting is the night before the Christmas parade. So that is the official start of the holiday season in Raleigh. And do you know it's right in front of Memorial Auditorium, right? That's where the tree is?

Or am I

wrong

Ira David Wood III: about that? They used to light it in front of the capital bar capital. And the governor was there and Yeah. They used to have the Raleigh Christmas parade at night. Oh,

Melissa Wistehuff: I wonder if it was in conjunction with the tree lighting. It could

Ira David Wood III: have. It could very have been, maybe.

But that would be fun at night. That

Melissa Wistehuff: would be fun. I think it would be. Town of does theirs at night and it is so much fun and beautiful and the bands have lights and stuff on their instruments and it's really fun. I'd love it at

Ira David Wood III: night. Like Christmas story that in the movie version, they're marching, They have the parade at night.

Remember when they go and they watch it, It just seems like there's some wonderful photographs of the parade on Fayetteville Street. I think if you Google 'em. Yeah. But you can see that Christmas parade at night. I wish they'd go back to it. At least try it one year.

Melissa Wistehuff: Yeah, that would be fun. Yeah.

You've got some pool .

Ira David Wood III: Yes. Yeah. Oh, I get, I have to tell you this. Next week I am going to speak to a room full of Santa Claus. I can't wait in full Santa Regalia or as scr. They all have their beards. They have real beards. They have to be real these days. Yes. Yeah. Yes. But these this is gonna be a room full of Santa Helpers and SCR is going to talk to 'em.

I can't

Melissa Wistehuff: wait. So what are you gonna, , How are you gonna, how are you gonna is give them Santa

Ira David Wood III: Convention? Is it like, it's a SantaCon? I mean what Yeah. Yeah. It could be Santa Con. We're meeting in a Golden Corral.

Melissa Wistehuff: as it

Ira David Wood III: should be in a private meeting room. Screws in a room full of Santa.

It has to

Melissa Wistehuff: eat. Yes.

Ira David Wood III: I just wanna see what the parking lot looks like. Is it all slaves or is it like a little bit of this? It's gotta be fun. I can't wait. I can't wait. I gotta get my picture made with a room full of. Please do. Yes. Yeah, and send it to us. And then Melissa is not only co-host of this podcast, but she's also our social media guru for Carry Living in Midtown magazines.

So if you send her a picture like that, you better believe it'll be, she'll get it all

Melissa Wistehuff: over social. You're gonna be blasted. Thank you so much for coming today. Oh, thank you all. for this season ahead and for your final season next year.

Ira David Wood III: ba humbug,