If you turn on your TV to catch the morning weather forecast in Sarasota, there's a good chance you're hearing it from longtime ABC 7 meteorologist John Scalzi.
But beginning this week, you can see him in a different role.
Scalzi is part of the acting troupe in "Lucky Stiff," a comedic murder mystery at Florida Studio Theatre.
He recently talked about the show with WUSF's Cathy Carter.
The interview below has been lightly edited for clarity.
John, you've been doing the weather in Sarasota since 1995. So, how did it come to be that we will now see you as an actor?
Yes, don't be scared of coming to the show, because you think I might break out into a "partly cloudy, chance of rain" forecast for you.
I actually started off way, way back a long time ago, when dinosaurs roamed the planet as an actor.
So how did I come into this show? Well, my wife and I are at dinner, and she excused herself for a few moments, so I opened up my phone, checked my email, and there was an email from Richard Hopkins, who is the artistic director of Florida Studio Theatre, saying, "John, I've got the perfect show for you. You play a dead person." The tears were pouring down my face. I was laughing so hard.
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First of all, I couldn't believe it. I made sure that playing a dead person wouldn't be too challenging for a meteorologist, and he assured me that they would take good care of me, which they have.
The show is called "Lucky Stiff." Yes, you are the stiff. As you mentioned, you play a dead guy. Please tell me you're not a method actor.
Well, I do get up at two in the morning to broadcast. So maybe there's a little bit of method in there!
Wow, that's a really early start to the day.
Yes, I'm at my computer at home. Luckily, nowadays, you can do a lot of things at home, so I can log into the computers at work and prepare my show, go over some weather, things that make a forecast, write for the web, and then I'm off to work for the first broadcast at 5 a.m. every weekday morning.
How are you managing rehearsal schedules when you have that really important full-time job?
Well, they have been just so gracious to work it into my schedule. The rehearsals are in the afternoons. I do the noon show, as well, as you may know, on ABC 7, and so about 1 o'clock, 1:15, I'm pretty much done.
I don't have too much of a problem getting there by 2 o'clock when the rehearsals reconvene. I don't know what it's going to be like when the shows start in the evening.
I just can't help but think that all of these wonderful creative juices that are going on all around me and in the show, and I occasionally get to do a little shtick myself there, it's just going to buoy me up, and it's all going to be just fine.
As a dead person, the kind of cool thing is I can kind of sit back in my chair, and all around me there are these amazing people doing amazing things, singing so beautifully, dancing so wonderfully, and I've got the best seat in the house.
You really are a fixture in the Sarasota community. So many people wake up to your face every day. You must get stopped on the street.
Sometimes. I do get it once in a while. My wife won't let me wear a dirty shirt outside the house. I'm very, very grateful to all of the people who watch our show and who take the time to kind of stop on the street and say hello and send an email, and occasionally, very occasionally, once in a while, criticize my ties. But usually, they don't. They usually like my ties.
Lucky Stiff at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota runs Nov. 5 through Dec 28.
