by Ed Fortune
Occasional George Lucas impersonator Connor Ratliff is better known for being an actor, comedian and podcaster. He’s also one of the longtime performers at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. Film and TV credits include The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Orange Is The New Black, Search Party, Mike Birbiglia’s feature film Don’t Think Twice and the upcoming Mean Girls movie musical. He happens to be the creator/host of the critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast Dead Eyes. We caught up with him to talk about the shows that are on at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.
STARBURST: What’s the pitch for The George Lucas Talk Show?
Connor Ratliff: Retired filmmaker George Lucas hosts a talk show alongside his CGI announcer/sidekick, Watto. Real guests being themselves! We’ve been doing this show for nearly a decade in NYC, and The New York Times has frequently told people to go see it because it’s funny.
It’s not your only show, though. If we enjoy that, what else can we see you in?
We’re doing the Talk Show once a week in Edinburgh – every Friday, late night – but the main show we are bringing is a George Lucas Talk Show Original Play called The Baron & The Junk Dealer. It’s a sci-fi tragicomedy that requires no additional context, though to some extent, it is “What if George and Watto did a serious play?” You don’t need to know who George and Watto are to enjoy it; their names are never mentioned even once.
I’ll also be doing four solo shows at the end of the month called GEORGE-prov: An Improvised Theatrical Experience.
Why are we so fascinated by Star Wars?
At the core of it, George Lucas created a modern fairy tale that resonated deeply with multiple generations. So, most of it as a cultural phenomenon is just people more or less enjoying it. But then you also have people who find it annoying to constantly have to hear about a thing that they never had any interest in. And there is also the small but loud faction of people who are furious because they think it somehow got ‘ruined’ by people making a few that they didn’t enjoy, which is basically like a bunch of middle-aged men yelling about how sugary cereal made for children doesn’t taste good to them anymore. But it’s hard to find someone who simply doesn’t have an opinion about Star Wars because it’s all over the place.
What is the best Star Wars movie?
I guess it depends what you mean by ‘best’. The easy answer for someone of my generation is The Empire Strikes Back because it deepened the characters and resonated as an ambitious movie for kids that had a mostly unhappy ending. I remember how that cliffhanger resonated in my 5-year-old mind for a couple of years, wondering what would come next. But in terms of writing and acting, a lot of the best Star Wars work has been done under Disney. That’s partly because they have done so much of it. If you take the first two trilogies and the Ewok movies and watch them back-to-back with things like The Last Jedi, Rogue One, and Andor, I think it’s difficult to argue that there hasn’t been a marked uptick in the quality of the acting and writing, overall. The two Lucas eras – the original trilogy and the prequels years – are more important in terms of impact. The first three movies are more significant in terms of film history, and the prequels more-or-less changed the way movies are made on a technical level.
Why Watto?
The short answer is that Griffin Newman had a take on the character that was hard to resist. Watto was one of the most problematic characters from the prequels, and Griffin knew how to play with that in a way that was perfect for the tone of the show.
Why theatre? What does theatre bring to this story that other formats don’t?
The live theatre experience is one thing that hasn’t been torn asunder by the digital streaming revolution. It can’t be pirated. You can’t do it on your phone. You literally have to be there. We usually put The George Lucas Talk Show up on our YouTube channel because we developed a live stream audience during lockdown, and we don’t want those fans to be totally left out now that we’re doing in-person shows again. But for the foreseeable future, I’d like The Baron & The Junk Dealer to be a thing that you have to experience in person.
Why the Edinburgh Fringe?
The Fringe has been on my bucket list for a while, and when I started writing The Baron & The Junk Dealer, I thought, “This might be the perfect thing to bring to Edinburgh.” It’s a weird play, and I felt like this is the place to bring something that is a little bit risky.
What else do you plan to do in Scotland?
I want to see a bunch of shows, but I’m also looking forward to developing a kind of daily routine. I lived in Liverpool and then London in the late ’90s/early ’00s, but I haven’t spent very much time in Scotland. I want to do some sightseeing. It depends on how much energy I have in the midst of doing 30 shows in 27 days with one day off.
There are thousands of shows at the fringe. Why should STARBURST readers seek this out?
Griffin and I both have a good track record on the comedy scene in NYC, and any time we’ve travelled with the show, it has gone over well. We did two sold-out shows in London last spring, and I think everybody who went to those would vouch for us. It’s a good time.
Should the Holiday Special be digitally remastered?
Of course! It’s the second Star Wars thing ever made, and that alone makes it an important piece of cinema history. Having said that, part of me thinks that it is more fun for it to remain a pirated thing, poorly recorded on VHS. I think cleaning it up to look brand new sort of cuts against its true nature. It’s a thing you’re not supposed to see.
Would any Star Wars painting be improved with a picture of Mr Spock inserted into it? Such as the iconic first issue of a now-famous science fiction magazine
I think Mr Spock would say that there needs to be a logical reason to insert him. My own criteria are much lower, and I think there should be a hidden Spock in as many Star Wars paintings as possible.
How would you describe your process?
I went to drama school and then later on trained as an improviser, so I think my process sort of feeds off those two disciplines. My foundation is character work, and that sort of dictated the kind of improv I do. With George Lucas, it’s easy to imagine what he wants in any given scenario. With my podcast, Dead Eyes, it was all about conveying a version of myself that had a singular goal and then looking to see the various ways I could make connections with other people that would tie in with that goal. Everything I do starts with a character.
What media are you currently enjoying?
Right now, I’m re-reading some old Disney comics by a man named Carl Barks, whose work I’ve been obsessed with since I was a child. I’m going to take another stab at reading Ulysses soon to see if I can finally get through it this time. I’m listening to a Miles Davis LP called Sorcerer, Elvis Costello’s The Boy Named If and Aimee Mann’s I’m With Stupid. I’m also listening to Billy Ray’s Strike Talk podcast.
Where can we see the shows?
The Baron and The Junk Dealer (Aug 2nd-24th) and GEORGE-prov (Aug 25th-28th) – will be at the Assembly Roxy Downstairs, and The George Lucas Talk Show will happen every Friday late night in August at Assembly George Square Studios, Studio 2. And, of course, 100s of hours of past shows can be found on The George Lucas Talk Show YouTube channel.
Connor Ratliff will present The George Lucas Talk Show at the Edinburgh Festival at Assembly George Square, 11.35pm on Fridays, 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th of August.
Connor Ratliff also stars in The Baron and The Junk Dealer, an original comic play about two fugitives stranded on a desolate planet (Assembly Roxy, 5.55pm August, 2nd – 24th not 15th) and George-Prov: An Improvised Theatrical Experience where “George Lucas” appears in the form of a digital avatar and delivers a one-person improv workshop like no other (Assembly Roxy, 5.55pm, August 25th – 28th)
The George Lucas Talk Show https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/the-george-lucas-talk-show,
George-Prov https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/george-prov-an-improvised-theatrical-experience ,
The Baron and the Junk Dealer https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/the-baron-and-the-junk-dealer
