Wizards of Waverly Place was on the air for four seasons and helped launch the careers of Selena Gomez, David Henrie, and Jake Austin. The fantasy sitcom was watched by millions on the Disney Channel. At ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas, we chatted with two of the stars from the show, Jennifer Stone and David DeLuise, about their rewatch podcast, Wizards of Waverly Pod. Not only does Wizards of Waverly Pod rewatch the episodes, but it also goes behind the scenes with interviews and anecdotes from the cast and crew who made the show.
The Interview with Jennifer Stone & David DeLuise
[Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.]
Ayla Ruby: I’m so excited to have you guys here for your podcast and just life in general. Can you tell me about how your podcast [Wizards of Waverly Pod] came to be?
David DeLuise: Jennifer called me.
Ayla Ruby: Okay.
David DeLuise: I think it started… We started working November last year.
David DeLuise: I would say since then to now, if I hear that someone else is doing a rewatch podcast, I’m like, “Oh, okay, another one.” Even just the idea of doing a podcast was interesting to me, but I didn’t think it was going to be this big thing.
Ayla Ruby: Yeah.
David DeLuise: I’m really happy that we’re doing it, and in the beginning I was not thinking about people listening.
Jennifer Stone: You just wanted to hang out.
David DeLuise: I was just having a conversation with Jen. Now when we do the podcast, I’m a little more aware of people listening.
Ayla Ruby: Okay.
David DeLuise: But I guess what I was trying to say was, my first thought is, “Everybody’s doing a podcast,” but the fact that there’s a specific thing that we’re talking about-
David DeLuise: We really do enjoy that.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah.
David DeLuise: We’re interviewing guests and we’re also rewatching the show and actually talking about-
Jennifer Stone: It helps me have a focus-
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: Rather than just shooting the sh**.
David DeLuise: Yeah, but when Brendan [Rooney] from PodCo called you.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah. Yeah, so that’s…
David DeLuise: That’s how it started.
Jennifer Stone: I called you. Yeah. It was basically just a big old game of phone tag.
Ayla Ruby: Okay.
Jennifer Stone: Brendan called me because he and Christy started PodCo.
Jennifer Stone: They were like, “We were thinking about doing a Wizards rewatch podcast, which you want to do it?” I was like, “Yes, but not by myself-”
Ayla Ruby: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: Because that would be just weird. Mentally, I was like, “That’s too much me and watching me by myself is…”
Jennifer Stone: I was like, “Well, who’s the person that I have the most fun talking to and spending time with?” David was the first person that came to mind.
David DeLuise: It’s fine. We’re having a good time.
On whether or not they stayed in touch after Wizards of Waverly Place
Ayla Ruby: Did you guys stay in touch? You stayed in touch for a while then?
David DeLuise: Yes. We have stayed in touch. We have some reunion dinners. Jennifer and I teach-
Jennifer Stone: I stayed in touch probably more with you than anybody.
David DeLuise: Well that’s because I’m so cool. But we teach kids, we teach acting at a place called a AGB Actors Giving Back.
Ayla Ruby: Oh, okay.
David DeLuise: We were interacting with each other through that aspect as well. We’ve spent more time together now, which is great. But we did stay in touch throughout from when we stopped shooting.
On if anyone gave them advice before podcasting & if they were podcast fans
Ayla Ruby: Did Brendan or anybody else give you any advice before you plunged into this, as far as podcasting? Had you listened to podcasts before?
Jennifer Stone: I was a big podcast fan. I’m a big murder mystery. I’m a big true-crime fan. That was my podcast experience. But Brendan’s been really helpful because he’s very business savvy, and so is Christy [Carlson Romano], of ingratiating David and I into this space. Because we’ve both been in the entertainment industry for a very long time-
Jennifer Stone: But at the same time, it’s a whole different… It’s a new world kind of thing. He’s been very good about helping us connect the dots that are new to us, but at the same time, on the show allowing us to just be ourselves and not trying to control that narrative, those personalities. Because I think that’s what makes it special, is the fact that people get to see not only two characters they really love from their childhood, but also get to see us be ourselves.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: Where the characters overlap with our own personalities and where they don’t.
David DeLuise: Yeah, which is fine. Also, the podcast people are listening to you, but also we film it as well and you can watch it on YouTube. It’s definitely high quality production. When I first walked onto our set, I was like, “Oh wow, this looks great.”
Jennifer Stone: This is the real thing.
David DeLuise: I love this. It wasn’t just… We put some effort into it, which I really enjoyed. I produced a scripted podcast called Grandma for President, which was really fun.
Ayla Ruby: What is it called?
David DeLuise: Grandma for President.
Ayla Ruby: Grandma for President. Okay.
David DeLuise: We got Mel Brooks to do a part. Jen did a small part in it. That was interesting. And That was a lot of work. That was doing a whole TV show without filming.
David DeLuise: There was a lot of stuff to that. I did… That was my first introduction to the podcast world. I listened to NPR and stuff and mystery things and I enjoyed, but I don’t know – I enjoy the podcast. But I don’t listen to a lot. In Brendan’s preparing us, he said, “There’s the Boy Meets World podcast, and then there’s The Office podcast.” I listened to both of those first episodes. The Office people were like, “Are we? Is this? What’s happening here?”
Jennifer Stone: That was It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
David DeLuise: Oh, it was Always Sunny?
Jennifer Stone: Yeah.
David DeLuise: That’s what I meant to say, Always Sunny, and they were just having fun.
Jennifer Stone: I was like, “Those girls’ voices aren’t that deep.”
David DeLuise: But it was very loose. What did I say?
Jennifer Stone: No, you said The Office podcast and-
Ayla Ruby: But there is an Office podcast.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah.
David DeLuise: Yes. Okay. I meant It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Jennifer Stone: When he made their voices don’t here I know it was Always Sunny.
David DeLuise: Where it’s loose and fun. Then the Boy Meets World podcast, it was very regimented. They were reading a script. They were very-
Jennifer Stone: Organized.
David DeLuise: Organized. What I got from Brendan was, let’s be organized and have fun.
David DeLuise: It was a mixture of the two.
Jennifer Stone: Organized chaos
David DeLuise: Yes.
Jennifer Stone: Which describes us very well.
David DeLuise: Yeah. It’s organized chaos. I love it.
On the organized chaos of the podcast
Ayla Ruby: It seems like a really natural conversation. You talk about the episode, your memories, but it’s also about your life and yourselves.
David DeLuise: Yeah. Some people like that and some people don’t.
Jennifer Stone: Some people hate it.
David DeLuise: Some people say, “Stop talking about yourself,” And some people say, “Only talk about the episode.”
Jennifer Stone: You can’t please everybody.
David DeLuise: We try to do controlled chaos or organized chaos.
Jennifer Stone: Organized chaos.
On dealing with social media comments and reaction
Ayla Ruby: Are there a lot of social media comments or reaction? How do you manage that without internalizing it?
Jennifer Stone: I try to watch it because we’re producers on the show too.
Jennifer Stone: Which is nice. Everything about the podcast, most hosts are just kind of hired hands rather than having a creative involvement. I’ll read when the episodes first come in, especially on YouTube. I’ll read the comments on a producing standpoint, because we’re still relatively new.
David DeLuise: We want to produce and give the fans what they want.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah, it’s a show for the fans.
Jennifer Stone: It’s a pretty much for them. I like to hear what’s working, what they like, what they don’t like. But when I start to internalize and take things personally, then I shut it down-
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: And then I get myself. Once the producer brain starts to wander off and my brain starts to take it in.
David DeLuise: I do very rarely look at the comments because my thought process is if you’re going to believe the positive, you have to believe the negative. Just like with critics, I’m happy if they like it and I’m happy if they don’t like it. I’m doing my best job to put some kind of entertainment forward. I know some people are enjoying it, so that’s good.
David DeLuise: But if you’re doing it only for the people that are critiquing you, you can’t please everybody.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah, they’ll never be happy.
David DeLuise: You just have to put your best foot forward.
Jennifer Stone: Because there’s always going to be one person that’s like, “I didn’t like that.”
David DeLuise: But we do pay attention-
David DeLuise: To mainly the people on our Patreon.
Ayla Ruby: Okay.
David DeLuise: We listen to our Patreon people. I’m kidding.
Ayla Ruby: So subscribe to your podcast.
David DeLuise: Yes, exactly.
On the legacy of Wizards of Waverly Place and the Wizards of Waverly Pod
Ayla Ruby: Exactly. Obviously Wizards of Waverly Place has a legacy. There are people that are still watching. There are people that grew up watching it. What has that been like for you guys? It’s been many, many years ago. Do people still come up to you in your life now? Because I think you’re a nurse and you’re doing writing, right? Or, something?
David DeLuise: I’m doing everything.
Ayla Ruby: Everything.
David DeLuise: I’m mostly a dog dad. But yes, since the show hit, it hasn’t stopped.
David DeLuise: Every once in a while, and I’ll say when I’m in Europe, not so much, but a little bit. But in America, very often people come up to me and say, “Oh my God, you’re Jerry Russo. You were my childhood. Can I take a picture?” And I’m like, “Yeah, of course.” It’s so much better, because when my dad [Dom DeLuise] who was famous back in the day, you’d have to find a pen and a piece of paper and you’d write an autograph because you didn’t have… Everybody didn’t have a camera in their pocket.
David DeLuise: I do love it when a fan comes up and says, “I love your work and thank you,” And we take a picture and I enjoy that. They used to come up and say, “Oh my God, I love you from Wizards.” Now they’re like, “Oh my God, I love the podcast. [Wizards of Waverly Pod] You and Jen are so much fun.”
Ayla Ruby: Oh, that’s wonderful.
Jennifer Stone: It’s cool how it’s kind of evolved.
David DeLuise: Has it ever died down since?
Jennifer Stone: I think it’s ebbs and flows. Right after when we were on the show, when it was actively airing, it was really popular, which was lovely. After it stopped running on the channel, it kind of dipped and then Disney Plus came out and it like it came out for the first time all over again.
Ayla Ruby: Yes.
Jennifer Stone: It was pretty consistent after that. Then with the podcast, it’s been even more so, where it’s like people come up and they’re like, “You’re my childhood. Oh, also I love the podcast.”
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: “You make my Mondays so much better. My Monday. I hate Mondays, but you make it so much nicer.” Those kind of things. It’s just kind of added this other layer, which is really nice. I feel like people get to know us a little bit more-
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: Versus thinking that we’re just like these characters that we played 10 plus years ago.
David DeLuise: But that’s also really weird because-
Jennifer Stone: It’s strange too.
David DeLuise: They’re not critiquing Jerry Russo. They’re critiquing me. It’s like a standup comic. They’re putting out the best or the version of themselves that they want you to see.
Jennifer Stone: Well, I discovered today that DeLuise had never been through, I went through that. When I was a teenager, social media was brand new.
Ayla Ruby: Right.
Jennifer Stone: But I still went through my awkward teenage years with everyone commenting on that.
Ayla Ruby: Which is a good thing. Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah, which was a lot, but I didn’t know until today that you never really had anyone comment on you specifically.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: I mean as a person.
David DeLuise: Well, I mean on a small level, you get on your social, you get some people saying stuff. But as an actor, not a lot of reviews, I guess, you would say.
Jennifer Stone: That’s kind of nice-
David DeLuise: Which I’m fine with.
Jennifer Stone: It’s kind of nice to just do your thing and have to worry about what people think about it. Because also too, when they’re critiquing you on just who you are as a human being, it’s a lot.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
The Wizards of Waverly Pod hosts on acting & their careers
Ayla Ruby: As far as acting goes, do you feel, where are your careers? As far as, what does the podcast mean for that? Do you have projects you’re kind of working on together or?
David DeLuise: I’m going to answer that first. In the beginning, like I said, I was saying whatever I wanted because, and I got concerned later and I talked to my wife and I said, “I don’t remember what I said.” She goes, “were you speaking your truth?” “Yes.” “Were you speaking from your heart?” “Yes.” “Okay, so you’re good.” I said, “If I say anything wrong and I get canceled, it doesn’t really matter because I’m not really working doing anything else, so I don’t have to worry about that.”
Jennifer Stone: David’s a world traveler.
Ayla Ruby: Okay.
David DeLuise: Listen-
Jennifer Stone: He’s everywhere.
David DeLuise: I enjoy acting at this point now. I’m still going to act always. But memorizing lines now has become very tough for me.
Ayla Ruby: Yeah.
David DeLuise: Also, the opportunities are not really there. I’m auditioning because it’s what is the reality now for small parts on stuff. It’s not so much fun. I embraced it because I wanted to make my health insurance and I got enough jobs to make my health insurance, but it’s not as fun doing three lines on a show and not having more stuff to do.
David DeLuise: It’s not as much fun. I like to, like I produce the podcast, I liked producing this. I like to participate in the project that I’m putting together.
Jennifer Stone: But I think also too, cause David and I have been doing this for so long. I started acting when I was six, and you, acting’s in your blood, you’ve been around it since you were born. I think what’s so cool is we’ve seen the business change to where, when I was even younger, you were either a movie actor or a television actor and you didn’t go do those other things. Streaming wasn’t a thing.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: If you did an online series that was like-
David DeLuise: Loser.
Jennifer Stone: Loser, totally right. Bad job.
Jennifer Stone: Don’t take it. There was this very much, “Stay in your own lane.” You’re an actor, you’re a producer, you’re a writer, you’re not, those don’t enter mix.
Jennifer Stone: Now we’re in this great space where I think as long as… People have a more open idea of what it means to be creative. That’s what I love about doing this podcast, it’s the fact that it brings you into people’s homes and people’s ears and eyes again. It gets you part of that conversation where, “Oh, we just have to do this now.” Now it helps open doors with producing, writing, telling more stories. That’s something too where, David and I have talked about that where it’s like we both love acting, but I think as you get older and as you spend so much time in the business, it becomes harder to want to play someone else’s story-
Jennifer Stone: When you have so many stories to tell. Because I know for me, being a nurse and going through that experience and still going through it, I look at representation-
Jennifer Stone: In television and… Yeah. I can’t think of one thing where I’m like, “Oh, that’s accurately representing nurses.” I can think of maybe Nurse Jackie and that’s about it.
Jennifer Stone: I feel like every artist has that to express, certain representations or understanding certain stories that they hold to be able to tell. That’s where I’m at, is I’m enjoying the creative side of the podcast and I’m enjoying the fact that you don’t have to stay in your lane anymore like you used to-
Jennifer Stone: And then thinking about what stories I want to tell next.
David DeLuise: Yeah. Also, career wise, I enjoy it. I forget that it’s a job, that I make money, but I teach acting.
David DeLuise: Teaching the kids is really fun because when you make a difference in one kid’s life-
Jennifer Stone: David’s so good with kids.
David DeLuise: But it’s… Thank you, Jen.
David DeLuise: Doing a job that you enjoy and not knowing or remembering that it’s a job I think is a very… Do you enjoy what you do?
Ayla Ruby: I do. I love this. Yeah. This is a ton of fun.
David DeLuise: So you’re lucky then.
Ayla Ruby: Yeah, I get to talk to creative people.
On David’s ridiculously cute daschund
David DeLuise: The whole reason why I’ve been working is so that I can enjoy myself. I have my wife, Elia, and my puppy, Tony.
Jennifer Stone: They’re the cutest trio. Oh my god.
David DeLuise: He’s a little mini dachshund.
Ayla Ruby: What kind of puppy is he? Oh, gotcha.
David DeLuise: Little mini dachshund. I’m going to show you a photo now.
Jennifer Stone: I can’t. I can’t.
Ayla Ruby: He’s the cutest.
David DeLuise: I’ve been working my whole life to celebrate and enjoy
Jennifer Stone: You’re in a good place in your life and it’s really cool to see you there.
David DeLuise: There, that’s Tony.
Ayla Ruby: Oh. He’s got the fluffy ears.
David DeLuise: Yeah, he’s a long haired dachshund.
Jennifer Stone: He’s got so much personality.
Ayla Ruby: Oh my gosh.
David DeLuise: He did a commercial with us.
Jennifer Stone: He did.
David DeLuise: A PetSmart commercial.
Jennifer Stone: He did. He did so good.
David DeLuise: Yeah, he didn’t…
Ayla Ruby: Wow.
David DeLuise: Train. What I’m trying to say is the traveling and the life stuff that I do has been paid for by the work that I’ve done.
David DeLuise: A lot of people are like, “Oh, you’re traveling so much, you’re going there and you’re doing,” and I’m like, isn’t that why we all fucking work so that we can do the fucking thing?
Jennifer Stone: Enjoy your life.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
On the merits of enjoying life
David DeLuise: But people, and I’m asking both of you this question, why are people mad at me for enjoying my life?
Ayla Ruby: Because they want to be doing it, I think.
David DeLuise: Ah, okay.
Ayla Ruby: I don’t know.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah. No, I think you’re absolutely right. I think it’s a production as well. Because I also think it’s also, let me know if you disagree with me, I do think it’s more of an Americanized concept of you have to work until you die, until 65.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: Not that you die at 65, but you know what I mean.
Jennifer Stone: You have to work until you retire and then you can enjoy your life.
David DeLuise: Right.
Jennifer Stone: Because it’s a strange American concept where, I agree with, I think you’re doing it right. No, you’re supposed to enjoy your life throughout. You’re supposed to enjoy the journey, not reaching this destination.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: I think a lot of people are destination minded, so when they see someone who’s enjoying their life, and I think it almost feels to a lot of people like you’re cheating the system and how it’s supposed to be when really-
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: Everyone that’s focused on a destination is got to go wrong, gotta back then.
David DeLuise: I’ve been asking people now, if you have enough money, what do you do? I’m like, “You have 25 million, what do you do?” A friend of mine was like, “Well, I would do more books on tape or…” I was like, “Your go-to is work? What the fuck?”
Jennifer Stone: Yeah.
David DeLuise: But it’s interesting because I think part of retiring means you have to figure out what you’re doing. But I have so much time on my hands. I’ve been figuring out what to do with my time for a long time. Because as an actor, you might try to get work for months and months and months. You have to fill your time there.
David DeLuise: Being creative is what I like doing. Painting or working with wood or building stuff. I enjoy that. That gives me pleasure.
Jennifer Stone: I’m still waiting on my cabinet that you’re going to make me.
David DeLuise: Okay, Jen, I’ll make you a cabinet.
Jennifer Stone: He never promised that. He never promised that. I pulled that out of my a**.
On parallels between acting and nursing
Ayla Ruby: Okay. You’re a nurse and you were a nurse during-
David DeLuise: She works at an emergency room. She’s full nurse, full on nurse. Jen’s about to tell you that she wipes people’s a**es.
Jennifer Stone: I wasn’t going to say that.
Ayla Ruby: Can you talk about, has being an actress, has that prepared you at all for, are there any carryover skills between acting and nursing?
Jennifer Stone: To be honest, it’s a great question. I didn’t anticipate that there would be. I still like to separate the two a lot where I’m like, “This is my actor brain, this is my nurse brain.” But I stay very busy because, like David was saying, there’s… It’s feast or famine is an actor-
Jennifer Stone: And you go through phases and seasons and I hate waiting by the phone.
Jennifer Stone: There’s a lot of reasons I became a nurse. But one of them is, I hate waiting for things to happen. I like to be busy. I like to be doing things. That was, acting is for me, and nursing I do for other people. It’s one of those things where the empathy aspect was something that overlapped that I didn’t expect. Because as an actor, you have to have so much empathy and have to have such a strong, empathetic muscle because that’s everything.
Jennifer Stone: You’re pulling from human nature and characters and having to be empathetic because you might read a character that you’re like, “Why on Earth would anyone do that?” And have to find, with full empathy, the reason, because you have to portray it. In the ER, I have to have empathy for people from all walks of life that I would’ve never encountered otherwise. That has been the biggest thing that overlaps the two that I just had never anticipated was going to happen. It’s been helpful actually being an actor because I’ve spent since I was six working that empathy muscle-
Jennifer Stone: To the point that sometimes I have to check it because it becomes too much. Sometimes I have to, as a protective mechanism, back off because it’s too emotionally taxing sometimes depending on the situation.
David DeLuise: Doing it for the other people, taking care of the other people. I’m so proud of Jen because she’s doing that. It’s… I don’t want to say the word real, but acting and working in the entertainment business is real. Although there’s a very different aspect to being a nurse as to what that means-
David DeLuise: To society, for your fellow man.
Jennifer Stone: I think it satisfies different human needs.
David DeLuise: Yeah, or your fellow person. What are you supposed to say there?
Jennifer Stone: Person works.
David DeLuise: Am I your fellow? Fellow person.
Jennifer Stone: Fellow person. Right. But yeah. I think acting and nursing or whatever you find in life, it satisfies different human beings, not only for yourself but for other people.
David DeLuise: Doesn’t it feel so good? Didn’t you feel great that you went to school?
Jennifer Stone: Yeah.
David DeLuise: Graduated, got the job. There’s a lot of work that you put into this.
Jennifer Stone: No, I’m very proud of it.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: I’m very proud of it. Also, too, I think it’s made me a better actor because I have all of these lives and stories to pull from and all of this experience I never had before.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
The Wizards of Waverly Pod team on teaching acting
Ayla Ruby: Back to the school a little bit, you know guys have both said that you’re teaching acting.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Ayla Ruby: How did that come about? Did you just connect to the school?
David DeLuise: I started the school-
Ayla Ruby: You started the school? Okay.
David DeLuise: A long time ago. There were some other schools that I was working with and they weren’t providing what I thought was enough for what they were paying. Jen and several other working actors. Annalise-
Ayla Ruby: Yeah.
David DeLuise: Actually teaches there as well. We give them the tools to get out of their shells. They take head shots. And they learn how to do improv. They learn how to do a scene. And they film the scene with me. There’s a lot of stuff. We’ve had hundreds of kids get agents and managers and stuff. There was one girl who was an extra on a McDonald’s commercial and they were like, “We need someone to say this.” She jumped in, she did it, and she made her college tuition-
Ayla Ruby: Wow.
David DeLuise: From doing that one thing.
Jennifer Stone: I have to say that’s something that’s really special, because I feel like the hardest part when people want to act is, “How do I start?”
Jennifer Stone: That’s a nice, I feel like you’ve given people somewhat of a bridge of how to break in and start.
David DeLuise: Right. It’s tough because you have to have a job to get an agent and you have to have an agent to get a job.
Ayla Ruby: It’s like a chicken and egg thing.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah.
David DeLuise: Yeah, exactly.
Jennifer Stone: Then you have to have a job to get in the union, but if you’re not in the union, you can’t get a job.
David DeLuise: It’s very backwards.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah, yeah.
David DeLuise: But because of the actors giving back, we give them the opportunity to get representation by preparing them in every aspect.
David DeLuise: It feels good. Not like saving people’s lives.
Jennifer Stone: Again, different human needs.
On if Stone has had people come up to her who listen to the Wizards of Waverly Pod
Ayla Ruby: Yeah. Have you had people who come up to you, within your, would you call it a day job? Within your nursing career that have seen you on TV or heard the podcast?
Jennifer Stone: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have.
Ayla Ruby: How’s that been?
Jennifer Stone: I’ve had some interesting encounters. It always takes me off guard because, like I said, I have my acting brain and my nursing brain, even though they do mingle. But when I’m at work, I’m at the hospital. I can’t really be thinking about-
Jennifer Stone: Production with the podcast. I can’t be thinking about those things. Even though sometimes I have to… I have to work on lines on my lunch break or whatever.
Jennifer Stone: But usually I try to just focus on nursing when I’m there. When someone goes, “Oh my God, are you?” It takes me… I have a small stroke. It takes me a second. I’m like, “Wait, what?”
Jennifer Stone: It takes me a second to flip into that realization. But yeah, I’ve had some interesting encounters with people where I’ve just given a safe sex talk before I give them an STD vaccine or something. Then they’re like, “Oh, are you?” and I’m like, “This is too…”
Jennifer Stone: Or someone’s just telling me a super intimate detail about their life, or it’s kind of like going to a barber with your butt hole.
Jennifer Stone: But it is-
David DeLuise: I love that.
Jennifer Stone: What it is.
David DeLuise: But didn’t, correct me if I’m wrong, didn’t somebody come in on mushrooms?
Jennifer Stone: Yeah, I’ve had a few people-
David DeLuise: And they were like, “Are you?”
Jennifer Stone: I pick my moments. It depends on the situation. I’ve had a few people come in high as a kite on various substances and they’ll be like, “You’re so-and-so,” and I’m… Sometimes because I’m at work too. I like to enjoy my job, so sometimes I’ll be like, “No, that’s not me.”
Jennifer Stone: I pick my moments. If it makes sense, I’ll say yes, and then if it doesn’t. Then that person’s just like, “I was so stoned, I thought I saw Jennifer.”
David DeLuise: But it doesn’t stop you from doing your job-
Jennifer Stone: No.
David DeLuise: Which is good.
Ayla Ruby: Now you’re both… I have the time, so I’m just going to keep asking as long as you’re cool with that.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah.
On recording the Wizards of Waverly Pod
Ayla Ruby: What’s recording like for you? You mentioned that there’s somebody else’s living room and an actual… It’s a studio?
Jennifer Stone: We’re in a studio.
David DeLuise: We have a studio. We have a spot, a stage and a backdrop and everything, which everybody can watch on YouTube.
David DeLuise: It’s good. PodCo does it right.
Ayla Ruby: High production value.
David DeLuise: A big thing is when you’re rewatching, we’re not rewatching it there.
Ayla Ruby: Right.
David DeLuise: We have to re-watch it, take notes and make sure that we bring up-
Jennifer Stone: That’s a whole copyright issue with Disney.
Ayla Ruby: Oh, yeah.
Jennifer Stone: We can’t actually re-watch it.
David DeLuise: Which is interesting because it’s on… I guess because we’re profiting-
Jennifer Stone: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
David DeLuise: You can’t do that, but-
Ayla Ruby: You can’t even show clips, right? They’re like-
Jennifer Stone: You can, but it’s such a small amount that it’s not really, it doesn’t end up really being worth it because it would be so frenetic-
Jennifer Stone:To just show, okay, 10 seconds here, 10 seconds, it would be too chaotic.
David DeLuise: I try my best to describe what the scene is-
David DeLuise: And what was happening. Also, anybody can go on Disney Plus-
Ayla Ruby: Yep.
David DeLuise: And watch it. It’s just not there.
Jennifer Stone: Not anybody. It’s expensive, but you YouTube.
Ayla Ruby: Okay.
Jennifer Stone: Disney Plus is expensive, let’s be honest.
David DeLuise: When we have a guest, I’ll watch what their stuff was and go in into figure out the punching, like you preparing for the questions.
Jennifer Stone: That’s one thing. You and I have never been interviewers before.
David DeLuise: Well, I did. I hosted an interview show one time.
David DeLuise: But it’s hard because you have to pay attention to what the guest is saying so you can respond, pre-read your questions and know what’s happening-
David DeLuise: And make sure that the time is appropriate for when the commercial happens. There’s a lot to it.
Jennifer Stone: And speaking, our brains are mush by the end of the time.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Ayla Ruby: Sorry, speaking of time, they just gave me the cue. I think I’ve got one last question.
David DeLuise: Yes.
Ayla Ruby: Is there anything else you want to share, either about the podcast, about yourselves, that you just want people to know moving forward about-
Jennifer Stone: I think for the podcast, we’re on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube every Mondays. With my fans, but like I said, they’ve said, “You’ve made my Mondays,” which I love, like I said. I think that’s so special.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: I like that people can start their week with us and, constantly, it’s a show for the fans. We’re constantly trying to find the right mix. And we’re still relatively new. We’re trying to find that right mixture of things.
Jennifer Stone: Keep coming back, we’ll keep evolving with you and growing with you and we’re just getting started with this.
David DeLuise: As I said jokingly, but the Patreon people is who I usually listen to the most.
David DeLuise: Because I know that those are our number one fans. Like Jen said, we do need to get a consensus of what everybody’s enjoying so we can get them more of that. I just want everyone to keep listening and watching. Don’t do anything in your life. Just listen and watch all the podcast.
Jennifer Stone: We have 106 episodes and and a movie and a special.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
Jennifer Stone: We’re going to be here for a minute.
David DeLuise: Yeah.
David DeLuise: Okay, good. It’s very nice to meet you.
Ayla Ruby: It was wonderful to meet you. Thank you so much.
Jennifer Stone: Enjoy the rest of your day.
Ayla Ruby: Thank you.
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