The Tea Kettle - DesiQuest After Show Podcast - Episode 2 with Rekha Shankar & Michael Schaubach (sneak peak)

When the kettle whistles and the tea is ready, it's time for the DesiQuest after-show—and what a show it is! Omar Najam and I, Sandeep Parikh, are all cozied up inside the teapot, steaming with excitement.  After every episode of DesiQuest is launched, we'll release another episode of the Tea Kettle with me and Omar and a very special guest, or guest from either behind or in front of the camera.

Stepping into the spotlight, our cherished guests Rekha Shankar and Michael Shaubach join us, adding their unique sparkle to the ensemble of DesiQuest.  There's a special kind of magic that happens when Rekha, who animates the vibrant Laddoo Auntie, meshes her family heritage with her character's flair, showing us that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Meanwhile, Michael Shaubch, the maestro behind the scenes, orchestrates the ebb and flow of our on-screen drama, sharing pearls of wisdom about his directing journey and the tributes he weaves into his work. Together, we unwrap the layers of our characters and creative process, reveling in the narratives we've lovingly crafted for our audience.

Buckle up for a culinary rollercoaster as we enter the kitchen with Laddoo Auntie, the queen of candor and culinary delights, whose throne is challenged during a high-stakes kitty party. It's a tale of gastronomic one-upmanship that I, Sandeep Parikh, as both executive producer and actor, recount with the same passion that fuels our beloved Auntie's quest for cooking supremacy. The emotional whirlwind of competing ladles and clashing spices is a story we tell with fervor, and for those craving the full banquet of behind-the-scenes morsels, we extend an invitation to join our Patreon family.  Join us for a heartfelt tribute to storytelling, where the flavors of DesiQuest are as rich and varied as the characters themselves.

Transcript

Sandeep Parikh: 0:05

Hello and welcome to the Tea Kettle, the DesiQuest After Show Podcast exclusive to our Patreon backers. This endeavor cannot be possible without you, you guys, you beautiful backers. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. So so much. I'm your host, Sandeep, I'm the executive producer and cast member who plays Ash, and then I got my co-pilot over here, none other than the glorious, the nutritious, the nutritious Omar Najam, who plays Murkha. Hi Omar.

Omar Najam: 0:33

Hello everyone. I've got your vitamins. You are our vitamins. Oh well, I have them in my body and I don't know how we're going to make this exchange work, but I'm very excited to see how this plays.

Sandeep Parikh: 0:49

We're going to leech them out of you. After every episode of DesiQuest, we release another episode of the Tea Kettle with me and Omar, and then some very special guests, or guests from either behind or in front of the camera, and guess what? We got one of each. Yes, we got one of each. We got, we got. We'll start with Rekha. We got Rekha Shankar, who plays Laddoo Auntie on the show. We love us, some Rekha, rekha, hi, hi, oh, so excited. And then, from behind that camera, we got the one, the only, the guy who is, I mean, just the superglue of this thing Michael Shaubach, our director. Hi, everybody.

Michael Shaubach: 1:32

How does this work? So, if you talk, are you on or are we always on? I need to know if I need a nonverbal face. Do I need a nonverbal acting face?

Sandeep Parikh: 1:41

How does this work? I mean, I want to say yes, just because I want to see that anyway. But I think these are just going to be on audio, so you're probably fine.

Michael Shaubach: 1:50

I just did a podcast where I thought it was video and dressed up very nice, and then learned that it was audio after everything.

Sandeep Parikh: 1:55

So I'm asking these questions up top.

Michael Shaubach: 1:58

It's also yeah. So this is all audio.

Sandeep Parikh: 2:02

This is video. Yeah, this is going to be all audio. Yeah, yeah, so do you want to like for us, for our chemistry?

Omar Najam: 2:07

Yes, Do you want to describe your character, shabak of like how you're rolling in no budget, it's all audio.

Michael Shaubach: 2:14

So I'm. I'm playing the role of Michael Shaubach, Hollywood director, today. My mustache is freshly waxed yes, I was thinking I was going to be on camera the beard is a little unruly, but you know, whatever my hair is, I don't I mean perfection, it is absolutely perfection. I don't know how to explain it. I have a swoop of gray that I feature, One because it just works that way. And two, my mother had the same swoop of gray and styled her hair. It was the 1980s when she had it the one single swoop of gray and she did something similar with her hair. So I do this as an homage to my mother.

Michael Shaubach: 3:01

Oh, my God, I love that, and then classic uh Breezy Hawaiian shirt today.

Omar Najam: 3:07

Yes.

Michael Shaubach: 3:08

To keep things cool on a hot day in Los Angeles, california, in autumn that's so so picture that.

Omar Najam: 3:15

Picture that, wow. Rekha?

Rekha Shankar: 3:19

Yeah, I'm going in here. Absolute perfection. Uh, mustache not threaded. Um, uh, I've got. My bangs are absolutely. You can't even see it, they're fluffed to the nines.

Rekha Shankar: 3:34

They look really, really, really good my hair not washed, but in a big clip, because that's what you have to do because it's interesting when you have curly hair, oily at the top, dry at the bottom. Um, my shirt, easy, breezy, short sleeve, it's another hot day in Los Angeles, california. Um, and I guess, in terms of homages to family, um, uh, I have a nose ring that, and my grandmother had a nose ring forever, so that's a big homage and I actually also have a lot of gray hairs and that's actually my homage to Shaubach's mother.

Omar Najam: 4:12

Wow, great stuff.

Sandeep Parikh: 4:17

This is going to be an awesome session.

Omar Najam: 4:21

And that's our time.

Sandeep Parikh: 4:24

Well, before we dive into episode two, we ask all of our listeners if you haven't already, maybe you want to support us a little bit more you can head on over to desiquest. com and hop onto our mailing list and then, when you do that, you get a special discount for some merchandise. You can't see this, but I'm wearing the shirt right now, and there's going to be probably, by the time this comes out, a couple more t-shirts for you to snag, or what. Hoodies and other fun thingies.

Michael Shaubach: 4:50

A new logo, a new logo, a new logo. So they'll see that. They'll have already seen that.

Sandeep Parikh: 4:56

A kind of logo.

Michael Shaubach: 4:57

The fabulous VoodooVal.

Rekha Shankar: 5:00

It's going to be like people listening to this will have seen something I like. We don't know what it is.

Omar Najam: 5:04

We don't know what is the legacy of that.

Rekha Shankar: 5:06

So Rekha describe it.

Sandeep Parikh: 5:08

I'm just kidding.

Rekha Shankar: 5:09

Okay, this logo rolls in, dressed to the nines, looking for perfection. A slash, not thread.

Omar Najam: 5:16

Oh, all right, right, right.

Sandeep Parikh: 5:19

Also, what we want to do before we start the show is that we had a bunch of sponsors come in and really take a bet and a chance on us. We didn't have any metrics to show them to be like oh, this is how much ROI you're returning on investment You're going to get? Like no, we didn't have any of that. They were like we love you guys, we want to support what you're doing and we think you're going to reach an audience that matters, and so we want to shout them out Free of charge. They didn't pay for this little thing, but we're going to shout them out anyway Because we really love the folks. Over at Position Squared. They create a podcast called the Spark of Ages podcast.

Sandeep Parikh: 5:53

It's fantastic, I know, because I'm in it sometimes but it's a really great podcast and it's where they interview founders, entrepreneurs, creators, artists all about what sparked them to their brilliant idea that then went on to become their company that they exited, or a big piece of art that really changed things. So it's a really cool podcast hosted by Rajiv Parikh, who has a very cool last name because he might be related to me, I don't know Whoa.

Omar Najam: 6:27

But anyway, so if you want to.

Sandeep Parikh: 6:29

You know. Support the family Parikh and check out our collective podcast together. Go check out the Spark of Ages podcast. The links and stuff will be in the show notes. So there you go. That would be helpful. But now let's dive in. Let's jump into episode 102, the second episode of DesiQuest, the second of what's going to be eight episodes, and I think we could start off. You know, let's just start off with a little bit of an introduction to Rekha's character. Oh Laddoo auntie.

Omar Najam: 7:00

Yeah.

Sandeep Parikh: 7:00

Why don't you give us a vibe check on who is Laddoo auntie. What's she about?

Rekha Shankar: 7:05

She is sort of prototypical auntie very opinionated, strong-willed, kind of emotionally aggressive, very blunt, and it doesn't even feel right to use honest, because like honest doesn't mean like rude, but with aunties it sort of does, but it's only because she cares. She cares very deeply. She's an incredible cook and a lot of her skills she feels are kind of maybe more in the domestic realm. So a lot of her journey is sort of finding how her legacy lives on when she kind of has such an insular, small, immediate life and in her own eyes how she would describe it.

Sandeep Parikh: 7:53

Totally, and so we kind of jump into this episode to Kitty Party, when Laddoo auntie is kind of facing off right against a rival, can you take us through what you were thinking as your character, or as an actor as well, like in this moment where it's revealed to you that there's someone filling the tables full of food that you did not make? How is Laddoo auntie taking this and how are you, Rekha, kind of opting to play into these moments?

Rekha Shankar: 8:26

Well for Laddoo auntie, that's not good, and it's something I like about playing characters that are really like one track minded is it's really easy to know their triggers. So like if you play someone who's a really good cook and always wants to feed you if somebody else is feeding you, that's like such an easy thing to be like. No, like nobody else is. This is why it's here. It tastes worse.

Sandeep Parikh: 8:56

Hey, so sorry to interrupt, but the rest of this episode is for our Patreon subscribers only. So if you'd like to hear the rest of this juicy conversation, let me tell you it gets juicy. There's another 50 minutes 50, 5, 0 of this conversation over at patreoncom slash basic quest. Thank you so much for supporting the show.