[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Finding Magic Mike.]The delightfully fun and surprisingly emotional HBO Max unscripted competition series Finding Magic Mike, from executive producers Channing Tatum and Steven Soderbergh, follows ten regular guys who have “lost their magic,” which essentially means that they’re looking to regain a sense of confidence in who they are rather than who they think others expect them to be. While being put through a boot camp to eventually narrow them down to the two finalists that will perform alongside the professionals in Magic Mike Live in Las Vegas, they also find themselves baring their souls to each other, Adam Rodriguez (mentor and one of the stars of the Magic Mike films), the creative team (made up of Magic Mike Live executive producer Vince Marini and film franchise and live show choreographers Alison Faulk and Luke Broadlick), and a variety of guest stars, on their way to winning the grand prize of $100,000.
During this interview with Collider, Faulk, Broadlick and Marini talked about the evolution of the Magic Mike franchise, how they each got involved, the amount of hard work that everyone put in to pull all of this off, how close it was between the two finalists, the surprising emotional journey everyone went on, and just how many times they’d had to hear the song “Pony.” They also talked about expanding the live show in Vegas to national and international tours, and working on the upcoming third movie, Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
Collider: To start with a bit of a silly question, how many times do you guys think you have heard the song “Pony” in your lifetimes and do you never want to hear it again?
ALISON FAULK: We’ve heard it a lot. On the first movie, when [Channing Tatum] made the decision to use that song for his solo, we were like, “That’s cool. It’s a grimy little throwback, but it’s dope.” We just didn’t realize how many times we’d have to listen to that song, through the years, because of that decision. Between the films and the live shows and the press and the promo, we’ve heard it a lot.
VINCE MARINI: There are a couple of songs that we’ve heard so many times. “Pony” is definitely one of them. “Be Faithful,” the Fatman Scoop thing, we’ve heard a trillion times. And then, just because of all of the different incarnations of it and all of the things over the years, songs like “Sail” and even “Pillow Talk,” I feel like I’ve heard those songs a billion times.
LUKE BROADLICK: I’ll go to Sephora with my wife and hear “Pony,” and get triggered. It’s everywhere. It’s in really random places.
MARINI: You can hear it in Macy’s.
Alison and Luke, you’ve helped to create this world of Magic Mike, since the beginning. How did you guys originally get involved with the movie and, at that time, could you ever have imagined that it would turn into what will now be a trilogy of movies, a live stage show, and a reality competition? Would you have just thought people were crazy, if somebody had told you that in the beginning?
FAULK: Yeah, definitely. This is actually a great story. It’s funny. Luke and I both grew up, dancing as professional dancers. I toured with Chan’s ex, Jenna Dewan, with Janet [Jackson] and we were roommates. So, when this movie opportunity came up, I had started doing choreography, so she encouraged him to reach out to me. He reached out, and then I reached out to another friend of mine, Teresa Espinosa, and got her on board. We’re very tomboyish, but we needed an actual guy around as well. Luke and I were working on a Britney [Spears] tour, at the time. I was supervising the choreography and Luke was a dancer. We were at an afterparty, and he was a cheeky guy. With all of the women on the tour, he was going up to us and lap dancing us, randomly. He gets on top of me, he’s lap dancing on me, and I looked up at him and was like, “I think I have a job for you.” That was 10 years ago, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.
BROADLICK: That’s exactly how it went down. That was 10 years ago, so I was maybe 19, at the time. I was just that young dancer kid, bouncing and around, and she brought me onto that.
FAULK: The fact that it’s all gotten so big, as a dancer or choreographer, you never imagine something like this. First of all, you’re too close to it to know how people are gonna receive it. So then, when people enjoy it and it keeps going on, it’s just really, really surreal. It’s really cool to be able to be a part of something that makes people happy like this and that we believe in and that has a fun message. It’s really dope to be with so many amazing dancers and see them all have jobs. That’s so cool. Just to be a part of something that’s running for so long is very rare, as a choreographer.
BROADLICK: Usually, a choreographer will with an artist and, if the artist and them mesh well, they’ll have a long career with that person, or a movie franchise, or something like that. This is sort of our artist that blossomed into this thing. It’s really surreal to think that it’s this big.
It’s cool because people were almost against it, in the beginning, when they thought it was just “that stripper movie.”
BROADLICK: I think it’s because it’s real.
MARINI: He really believed in the movie and pretty much convinced everybody to do it, and he was right. It was this very specific look, at a very specific time, and was something that he experienced in his life. It’s amazing to see how the brand and the show and the message has evolved, over the years and over the past decade.
FAULK: As we move forward, for better or worse, he always says that his name is associated with this thing, so he wants to leave it better than it started. I feel like the live shows are a different genre than what he started doing. It’s dancers that just happen to take their shirts off. They’re just incredible. The other thing that’s important about it all is that it’s all done with humor. He definitely doesn’t take it too seriously. He cares about it, but it’s all done with a wink and a smile.
It definitely knows what it is and embraces what it is, which makes it fun.
MARINI: It’s a lot of work for us, but it’s also fun. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the craziness of the work, but the truth is that it’s just a good time. When people go to watch the show, if you just sit there and watch the people as they watch the show, they just have so much fun. It’s great.
Vince, how did you end up in the mix of all of this?
MARINI: It was a weird situation. I worked for a company, called Base Entertainment, in Vegas. I come from the theater and live entertainment world, and I was their creative director and executive producer. I had done a number of shows. I had just done this show with Matt Franco, the guy that won America’s Got Talent. I did it in Vegas, and Chan actually came to see it and he met with me. They were looking for somebody to cull everything together. They had people like Alison and Luke, and a number of people from the films, but they were missing people that really understood how to make the live entertainment part of it work. So, when I first heard about it, I was pitched the idea by their agency, at the time. I was like, “Yeah, I don’t know about that.” But then, when I met with Chan, I got a totally different impression about what it was. I tend to gravitate towards people that are passionate about their projects, no matter what it is, and he got me excited and passionate about it. And then, I met everybody and I just loved them. I felt like it was really worth a shot because what he was trying to do was really different and really unique. The first time through, it was fun because we were all figuring it out and creating it as we went along. Everyone was working with new people and it was just a really cool experience. And now, we’ve spent most of the last five years together, so we’ve obviously all become very close. It’s also cool to understand that it’s pretty much the same team. It’s pretty much the same group of people that it started with, and that’s a testament to how close everybody is and how much everybody loves working on the project.
In order to get these guys to the point where they could perform in this show, alongside professionals, it takes several layers. They have to have some sense of musicality and rhythm, they have to be able to learn and retain choreography, and then they have to be able to dance with a partner without hurting anybody. For folks watching this show that don’t understand how difficult all of that is, just how challenging is it to take guys who don’t dance and who haven’t done choreography and put them in a professional performance?
MARINI: With Luke and Alison, I feel like they have a superpower and their superpower is getting people that don’t dance to look like they can dance. It’s what they did in the films. Chan can obviously dance, but a lot of the other guys didn’t know what they were doing. The fact that, when you watch the films, they all look really good, is pretty amazing. The only reason that we went with this concept was because we believed that Alison and Luke could find a way to make these guys do it.
BROADLICK: I don’t know how we do it, to be honest. If someone is willing to go there, then they can achieve something. It happened in the movies. Everybody threw out their own ideas, or just let us have at it, but they were willing to just go for it. With that ambition and that willingness, almost anybody can do anything. All of these guys, on top of being on a reality show, were willing to dance and be vulnerable. I think that was the real special sauce. We care. We’ve been a family, since day one, and we treat each other like that. When someone feels comfortable with that person and they have that trust, on top of their willingness to go for it, it opens up a whole new level of ability and magic.
MARINI: The other two key things that I can see are that, one, we intentionally tried to pick guys that really wanted to achieve something. The only guy that had done a little bit of dancing was Austin, but the other guys had never danced, literally at all. It was really more about finding guys that needed something. They felt like they needed to achieve and accomplish something. And then, the other part of it is that Alison and Luke work really hard and they spend long hours, and they demand that the guys do the same thing. We happened to have guys that fell into that culture, and then Alison would work with them and they’d be up all night in the hallways, rehearsing the dance. That’s special.
FAULK: When it comes to musicality, we lucked out, to be honest. If you can’t hear the music, that’s a whole other skillset that you have to work with. Thankfully, most of these men generally understood what we were going for, so that was helpful. And then, that last week, when we were preparing for the live show with Johnny and Nate, it was really hard. The amount of times we drilled that choreography into them, it was a thing.
BROADLICK: Yeah, we worked hard.
MARINI: We did get lucky, but we saw a lot of audition tapes and we did try to find people where, even though they were dancers, we felt like there was something in them that would be able to understand what we were trying to teach.
FAULK: Yeah, it was a workable situation. There were tiers of natural ability. They were leaning in the direction that they were probably gonna be okay.
BROADLICK: Even some of the guys that [weren’t as good], Kevin really was not the best dancer, but he still looked good because of the work ethic and the willingness. They worked hard.
Losing somebody to injury, like you did with Kevin, is out of everyone’s hands. That’s just one of those things that happens that really nobody can do anything about. So then, how frustrating is it when you work as hard as you did with these guys, to see one of them (Ross) decide to just self-implode?
FAULK: It’s a giant mirror for yourself, when you have to be vulnerable and put yourself out in these ways and you’re tested in all of these situations. It was trying times. We were in this hotel and under these conditions. It was really hard. There were things that we had hoped for, for him. We were hoping that he would take a journey and go that softer route and embrace that and have some kind of emotional breakthrough.
MARINI: I wanna say something about him. He really wanted to win. He worked hard, during the series. He was not just skating by. He really wanted to win. Unlike a lot of the other guys, who just had a more gentle nature to them, he was somebody that wanted to win and he was an alpha guy and he wasn’t afraid to say exactly what he was thinking. The thing I will say in Ross’ defense is that he never said a bad word about anybody on the show. We probably have a million hours of interviews with this guy and he was actually very supportive of the other guys, throughout the process. Even Ross, who really wanted to win and who definitely had some lessons that we wanted him to learn, along the way, about what it means to be magic in 2021, he really fell into that brotherhood that those guys had. When he went home, I think he really meant it when he said that the one thing he was thankful for is that he wasn’t gonna have to watch anybody else go home.
To see that he was finally starting to get somewhere and then sabotaged himself made it even more frustrating.
BROADLICK: We cared about these guys. We didn’t set these guys up for failure, at all. So, when you care about somebody, and then they still choose to be selfish, it’s tough to receive it. You’re like, “We believe in you. That’s why you’re here. You made top 10. You kept pushing. We’re here for you. But then, you’re still gonna choose you, over the growth and over the experience.” It’s really tough to accept that because you don’t want someone to revert back. You wanna always keep progressing. That’s why it was a little bit difficult.
MARINI: Throughout the process, we were very honest with him about where he was. I remember when he did the Suits number, he did a really good job in that number and really came through. I sat with him and told him that afterwards. And then, when he wasn’t doing what he needed to do, Luke and Alison would have a discussion with him about that very thing. I thought that there was some something there that we could help mold, over time. I was disappointed that that’s the way that he went out. I was hoping that, if he was gonna go out, he was gonna go out a different way and not because he self-sabotaged.
How surprised were you guys that you ended up with two guys at the end, where they had both come so far that either one of them could have won it?
FAULK: Going into it, internally, we would discuss it and be like, “Gosh, who do you think is gonna win.” We didn’t know. We were not looking for the best dancer on this show. We were looking for people’s growth and the things involved with that. Both of these men were growing and growing, and putting in the work, and showing the effort, and being lovely humans, and opening up. It was honestly a best-case scenario that we ended up with two men in Season 1 that just were so game. It literally was like, “Who’s it gonna be?” I feel like that was even more compelling.
MARINI: I’m not gonna lie, after the water dance in Episode 6, I thought Nate was gonna win. He was so good in that water dance. I was blown away by his performance in that, and he really struggled with that, during the rehearsals. He came through hardcore. So, when we were going into the finale, I was thinking, “Okay, I think Nate’s gonna win.” And then, being in the room that night, it was really close, but Johnny’s aerial performance put it over the top for me. He was so good and so connected. What Johnny never could do was really connect with the audience, and he found that in the show. For us, it was undeniable.
FAULK: In the finale, we gave them a lot of moments where we were like, “Okay, you can freestyle here and do your own thing here,” and every time he had a special moment, he really made the most of it and went above and beyond and was like shining. He was like, “This is it! I’m doing it!” That was the one thing where I really felt like, every time he had a solo or a moment, he took advantage of it.
MARINI: It was a crazy night. I’ve not been that nervous, in a very, very long time. For most shows, I don’t really get nervous. I’m always like, “It’s gonna be fine. Everybody’s ready. They’re professionals. They’re gonna nail it.” But I was afraid because they learned this so quickly and some of it’s flat out dangerous. We had to take a lot of safety precautions for them, along the way. I just wanted them to get through it. After that horrible thing with Kevin, I just wanted them to get through it.
Were you also surprised by how emotionally attached these guys got to each other, and also how deeply you connected with them? Could you ever have imagined that you would’ve been in tears to send them home?
FAULK: Leading up to this, we hadn’t done an unscripted show like this and been involved on a day-to-day basis like that. You hear through the grapevine that it’s so hard and you’re like, “Yeah, okay.” And then, week one, because you’re spending all day, every day, with everybody, and then you see these men be so vulnerable and try so hard and give every bit of themselves and they want it so badly, it’s just the way the show is made, but someone has to go home every week. You know that, if you could spend more time with them, they could do so much more. And I’m a crier, by nature.
MARINI: One thing that adds to the challenge is that the reality is that, in our world, we often have to say goodbye to different professionals, for various reasons, and that’s always hard, but it’s a job, so it is what it is. But making them go home, I know it was our job, but it felt more personal than it would have normally, in a job situation. That wasn’t a made-up thing. No one wanted to do the eliminations, so we really did do those stupid things to see who would have to do it. Alison got really lucky when we were doing these eliminations because she never had to eliminate anybody. And then, we got to the time where we had to eliminate Ricky, and I didn’t wanna send him home. I didn’t think I could get through the actual elimination. It ended up that Alison lost and Adam [Rodriguez], Luke and I were all like, “Yes!” I looked over at her, she was just bawling, and I felt terrible. She was so tired and working so hard, and she had to eliminate Ricky. It was the worst. The thing that was the most surprising to me – and it shouldn’t have been, but it was – was how close the guys got. I don’t know why I didn’t expect it to be like that, but it reminded me of every sports team I was ever on, when I was a kid. You get so close to people that you’re working that hard with and that you’re trying to achieve something with, and even though they were in competition, man, those guys got to really care about each other.
FAULK: They were so supportive.
BROADLICK: Every time we’ve ever cast people, in anything that we’ve done, usually the first thing is, if Chan and I couldn’t just hang out with the guy, then we might not mesh. If we couldn’t hang out after work and just be cool with one another, then maybe that might not be the right person. And all of these guys, I could easily hang out with. Instantly, we had this bond because we saw something in them that we wanted to be a part of. That’s what made it even harder. You could disconnect, teach the guys some dance moves, and then just let them go and send them off on their way. But when you’re investing in them on multiple levels, and it’s not just dance, then you go deeper and you’re invested, and they know exactly how you feel. Now, you’re connected, and that’s what was really tough. Every time we had to send somebody home, I was always like, “I can’t do it.” I really couldn’t.
What’s next? Are you going to do another season of this show? Are you working on the third Magic Mike movie?
MARINI: Alison and Luke are working on the movie in the spring. And then, we have our national tour for Magic Mike Live, launching in Nashville in the spring. We’ll find out about what’s next for the TV show. Hopefully, that goes well. And then, we have a UK arena tour to worry about.
Were you guys surprised that there was going to be a third Magic Mike movie? Was that anything you had seen coming?
FAULK: Definitely not. Chan had always said that the third movie is the live show. We were really shocked, and very happily shocked.
MARINI: The one thing I wasn’t shocked about is that when Steven [Soderbergh] saw the live show, it got him thinking about a third movie. That’s something that he’s talked about a lot, over the years. I’m really glad it’s happening because I think that there’s more of that story to tell, for sure. I’m super excited that Steven and Greg [Jacobs] and everybody is working on it again. That’s really exciting to me.
BROADLICK: Yeah, it’s exciting.
Finding Magic Mike is available to stream at HBO Max.