Interviewing the multi-talented Mark J. Freeman was a pleasure.  He is as warm, charming, and funny in person as he is on Dishin Days (a weekly Days of Our Lives recap show), as well as the other Afterbuzz TV shows he co-hosts.  There was so much I did not know about Mark’s talents and interests and am so glad he chose to share them so generously.

Carolyn Topol Talk:  Many Days fans know you from Dishin Days, but you are very involved in theater.  Can you please share the details of your theater experience, current and past?

Mark J. Freeman:  I’m currently the box office manager of the Odyssey Theater in West L.A.   Rumor has it—and it’s been discussed amongst us at the theater—that we are the longest running 99 seat theater in Los Angeles, but we don’t have proof of it.  It’s gone out on publications, and people have printed that about us.  We’ll take it if it’s true.  I love it!  I actually directed a show in November of 2014 called Beirut and I fell back in love with theater and this is what I want.  This is what I fell in love with; this is what I want to do.  As much as I love hosting, and I still want to keep doing my hosting stuff—I have other avenues I want to go down.  The theater is what I fell in love with, and I want to keep that as my center.

CTT:  So are you more behind the scenes; do you want to remain behind the scenes?

MF:  No, I just want to do my job that I got hired for to the best of my ability before I start going, “Hey, now let me direct.  Hey, I think you should put me in this.”

CTT:  Do you want to direct or perform?

MF:  Both.  I want to do it all. [laughs]

CTT:  How did you get involved with Afterbuzz TV, and ultimately Dishin Days?

MF:  Afterbuzz started [for me] because of Dishin Days.  Tony Moore (host of Dishin Days) — he knew that I watched Days.  We would talk about it.  We worked together at a club when I bartended. I would perform, and he was the MC of those shows, so we’ve known each other for a long, long time.  When he started wanting to do the show he said, “I would love for you to do this,” so I started doing Dishin Days with him and then started doing other shows, which is how most of the hosts at Afterbuzz start. They come in wanting to do a specific show and then they end up doing other shows as well.

CTT:  How many shows do you do?

MF:  I’ve done Dishin Days.  I do RuPaul’s Drag Race, which will be starting at the end of August.  RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.  I did Clipped for a season; unfortunately it got cancelled.  It was very upsetting—I loved the show. It was absolutely brilliant and we actually got to, through Maria Menounos, who runs Afterbuzz… she’s good friends with Ashley Tisdale, who was on Clipped, and we found out a couple of episodes into doing our show that the cast of Clipped would get together every Tuesday to watch their episode and then literally turn on Afterbuzz and watch our Afterbuzz recaps.  We were just blown away!  We were like ‘shut up, Ashley Tisdale’!  They tweeted out this whole video about it and everything.  It was fantastic.  Then for the season finale of Clipped we did a live broadcast from the YouTube studios, and Maria came and Ashley was there.  We had five of the cast members from the show—Lauren Lapkus, Ryan Pinkston, Diona Reasonover, Mike Castle, .  It was an amazing experience with a live audience! [Enthusiastic smile]

CTT:  Were you surprised to have “fans” through your Afterbuzz shows, particularly the Days recap show?

MF:  Yes, yes!  I have fans and I have haters — I definitely get both.

CTT:  Really, haters?

MF:  Not so much from Days, but from RuPaul’s Drag Race. When I joined that panel I got so many nasty tweets and comments on YouTube.  But you know, like Kathy Griffin says, “Bad publicity is good publicity.”  I just took it as… I was hired to give my opinion and react to episodes and if you don’t like my reaction, well, you know…

But it’s been nice and it’s sweet.  I think the Day of Days was the craziest.  We went out there to do press, we were walking to the press room, and people were yelling “Mark, Tony, James!” We were all taken aback and were like ‘they actually watch us’ — we were not expecting it.  It never even crossed my mind that somebody would recognize us, but it’s cool.

CTT:  How long have you watched Days of Our Lives?

MF:  I watched it off and on.  My sister and twin brother watched it and I watched Another World.  I think Days was on before it—I would see the very ending of it and then I’d watch Another World.  Then I got really big into Santa Barbara.  I would always ‘kind of’ watch [Days].  But then when Santa Barbara and Another World were gone I was left with Days.  I think, pretty much, since I was probably 8 or 9 years old, so 20 years ago [laughs out loud] — kidding.

CTT:  I’ll go with that — whatever you say. [lots of laughter]  Do you watch any of the other 3 remaining daytime soaps?

MF:  I do not.  I did watch The Young and the Restless for a short amount of time because the person I was living with watched it, so I kind of got into it a little bit but I don’t really remember much.  I remember Heather Tom — that’s all.

CTT:  And she’s now on The Bold and the Beautiful.

MF:  Exactly.

CTT:  Who was the most intimidating person you ever interviewed and were you ever borderline stage struck in anticipation of an interview?

MF:  I would say Deidre Hall.  I would say we were all in awe.  Deidre Hall and Alison Sweeney, just because we knew we got the heavy hitters.  I think a little bit was that we were intimidated, but also we just wanted to make a good impression.  We didn’t want them to be like ‘What did I just get myself into?’  They were both amazing and we had such a great time and we hung out with Deidre Hall for a while after the interview, at Afterbuzz, after the show.  We gave her a tour and talked about theater.  Both of them were amazing and gracious and wonderful.  I would say those are the two — other than Billy Flynn [laughs], for other reasons — that I was very nervous.

CTT:  What projects are you working on now that you might want to share with everyone?

MF:  We’re about to start doing RuPaul’s Drag Race After Show which will start the end of August.  I do have a couple of other things I’m toying with but I’m not going to discuss yet.

CTT:  So can we have any teasers?

MF:  Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of my life! [lots of laughing]

CTT:  Can you tell us about the fabulous Lorayne Love and how she came to be?

MF:  She came to be kicking and screaming.  I had so many people who told me I needed to do drag when I first came out.  I would go to the drag shows all the time and sit there and watch and be like ‘oh they’re so bad’ or ‘I really like her and she puts thought into it’.  I was always critiquing them.  I had a good friend who was a drag queen and sang live.  His character was Maxine Fisher and he was a Jewish woman so he would do these holiday Hanukah-ramas every Christmas.  He was doing a show and we were hanging out a lot — me, him, and two other guys, and he kept saying, “I want to have back up singers for Maxine in the Christmas show.  I want three ditsy blonde back up singers.”  He said, “I think you guys should be my back up singers.”  We said we didn’t sing. He said, “No, you guys’ll be recorded.  I’ll be singing live.  You’ll just be lip-synching.”  The other two agreed right away but I was like — I’m not doing it; I’m not doing drag; I’m not doing it. Then they got me drunk and I finally said yes — which is how most things happen in my life. [lots more laughing]

We were Candy Cane, Candy Corn, and Candy Bar.  We were the Candy Girls who were his back up singers.  That was the moment for me — it was just about being on stage.  I got a chance to dress up and be this character.  It was like any other theater I had done but it was just a female character.

Then I moved to L.A. and the friend that I moved out there with asked if I would do it again and I said, “I don’t know, maybe.” He said, “If you did it, would you be Candy Cane?”  I said, “No, that was Roger’s thing.”  I said that I’d create my own name. He asked what my name would be.  So I thought, I’m from Lorain, Ohio — I thought ‘Lorayne’ in homage to the town I’m from (I spell it differently from the town).  Then at the time… I don’t even know how this started, but a group of friends I hung out with… we were all “loves”.  So if we liked you [pointing to me] and wanted you to be part of our group, you’d be “Carolyn Love”.  It was Tommy Love, Jerry Love, and I was Mark Free-Love.  So when my friend asked me what my name would be I said, well, I’d want to do Lorayne because of my hometown, and my last name would be Love. It was a no-brainer, cause that’s my name. At the time it made complete sense.

CTT:  Do you ever sing, yourself?

MF:  No.  I did when I was younger, in high school and college, in musicals but not now.

CTT:  What are the top three things you have done so far that you are most proud of?

MF:  That’s a good one… my number one in theater was when I graduated Ohio State and I was in the Ohio State production of “A Comedy of Errors”.  That was such an amazing show, and experience.  I will never, never, never forget it. The way they staged it, it was set on a 1930’s sound stage. I got to enter on a zip-cord.  I was climbing ropes; I was sliding down from the rafters.  It was such a physical presentation of Comedy of Errors.  One of the local papers nominated me for runner-up for “Supporting Actor of the Year” in Central Ohio for my performance.  So that was probably my number one theater experience and the honor was the icing on the cake.

For drag, when I moved to L.A., I started hosting a comedy show.  They would do a stand-up comedy and improv show and I was the host.  I would do it in drag so I started getting really involved in the stand-up world.  I started doing stand-up in drag, as Lorayne.  One of the things I can say I’m most proud of Lorayne is that she has been on the Hollywood Improv stage, The Comedy Store stage, and the World Famous Laugh Factory stage.  That was one of my proudest Lorayne moments.

For Afterbuzz, I would say… we’ve had some great people come through who have been such great sports, but I think the one, who’s actually not a Days person, is my interview with Carnie Wilson. It just kind of happened organically.  I tweeted her when I saw her in a commercial.  She responded back to me, I responded back to her, then I was like, “Why don’t you come and do an interview at Afterbuzz,” and she said, “Okay, when?”  And I was doing an interview with Carnie Wilson.  She baked me pastries and it was an amazing experience.  We still talk.  She’s wonderful!

CTT:  As someone who actually watched that live, it was an amazing interview!

MF:  Thank you, thank you.  Those were probably my three biggest moments.

CTT:  What is your favorite free-time activity when you allow yourself downtime?

MF:  Me and my husband just like to get in the car and go on a road trip somewhere.  We’ll get up and say let’s go here or there.  Marriages have their ups and downs but that’s one neither of us will say ‘no’ to.  We’ll get in the car and go to Big Bear or get in and go to San Diego; take the dogs and just spend the day and take a picnic. I know it sounds cliché but we do like that.

CTT:  It sounds nice when you have a typically hectic life.

MF:  Yeah, especially in L.A.  You kind of have to get away to kind of reset.

CTT:  Do you have any goals for the next 10 years you would be willing to share?

MF:  Ten years — name in lights — no I’m kidding. [laughs]

CTT:  You never know, maybe?

MF:  There’s so many different things I want to do.  It’s hard for me to focus on one thing at a time.  That’s kind of my new strategy.  It’s let’s focus on one thing and get that going right, and once that’s going well then I can start branching out into other things. I don’t know what that’s going to be — whether it’s going to be hosting or the theater, but I have a couple of ideas.

CTT:  As a fan of yours, I think whatever avenue you go to you’ll still have me as a fan.

MF:  Thank you so much!  That means the world to me! [Lots of laughter and smiles.]

*****

It means the world to me that Mark J. Freeman agreed to give me my first face-to-face interview.  Mark’s friendly, welcoming demeanor set the tone for a comfortable conversation that continued long after the formal interview session was completed.

At my request, Mark generously gave me two autographed photos — one of Mark J. Freeman and one of Lorayne Love.  The pair are now framed and hang side by side alongside a series of autographed celebrity photos.

If you would like to follow Mark J. Freeman, his Twitter and Instagram handles are: @loraynelove.