Latest / Theatre Life with Ben Kercheval / Kaci Beeler | Part II: Taking Improv to Edinburgh Fringe and The Hideout's New Home

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Kaci Beeler | Part II: Taking Improv to Edinburgh Fringe and The Hideout's New Home · Theatre Life with Ben Kercheval

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, it's Ben.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just a quick reminder on this episode.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be part two of our conversation with Casey Beeler of the Hideout Theater in Austin, Texas.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't caught up on episode six, which is the first part of our conversation with Casey, definitely recommend that you do so.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: You don't necessarily need to watch or listen to them in order, but ton of great information, a lot of great stories from Casey in that episode.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Again, highly recommend that you give it a listen.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: But for now, here is part two with Casey Beeler.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, is it a good segue because I feel like you and I could probably talk about this for three hours.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know, and I'm like, I mean, we sorry people.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's some more things that I do want to get to, so I'm gonna maybe we'll put a pin in uh an improv sort of crafting.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So sorry if anyone does not into that too, but yeah.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's okay.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I deep dives are are really informative, but I do want to switch gears.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know that PGAF has traveled all over the world for this.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say if my research serves me, you can correct me if I'm wrong.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I probably am.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Last count 11 countries and 65 cities.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Does that number still hold up?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think so.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I need to like redo it, but I that's about right.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's more like 70 cities at this point.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Within within the uh the variation, I guess you could say.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh is there a city in particular that you walked away from thinking like the improv scene here, or maybe the appreciation for it is way more underrated than you thought.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, like it's better than people think.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like you wouldn't think it is a city that really that really dives into improv and and it is.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: I would say Winnipeg, Canada has a really great.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out Winnipeg, alright.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, totally.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: We went to their improv festival a couple years ago, and it was great because in Canada and parts of Europe there's a festival style that's like an ensemble.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: So some festivals, individual troops will go or groups, and then the festival will showcase groups.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the that's usually the US model.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, oh, you might have this number, you know, two groups per show, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday, whatever.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um in Europe and Canada, there's an ensemble model where there will be multiple shows, but instead of random tons of different groups, it'll just be like we have 12 people that have been rehearsing together for multiple days leading up to the weekend, usually starting Tuesday or Wednesday.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so some of them will know each other beforehand, some of them won't.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe some of the members of the ensemble will direct a show that then they do.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we did this, but it was all four of us in my group thrown into the mix with all these uh Canadians that we knew, some of them from a previous uh similar festivals and other I think we'd met some of them in Vancouver.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Many of them I didn't know, but immediately the first day of rehearsal, I'm like, these people are just like us.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like they have the same narrative sensibilities, they are all actors.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Several a lot of them duh do scripted shows, direct scripted work, really believe in the whole piece.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then I it was just the shows were incredible all weekend, audiences were great, so I I didn't know what to expect, and then amazing.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Winnipeg's pretty small um and kind of stranded in the middle of Canada.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you ever look at the map, it's there's not a lot around.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe improv is that's their valve, right?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think it I yeah.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think people will think that the best improv should be in the major cities, and while there is obviously good things in LA, New York, London, Tokyo, also people go to major cities to do big things.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and maybe they do multiple things.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: In the smaller towns, it can be somebody's life life's work, so it's thought of differently.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a path to being on television.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So because Chicago as well, people will do improv in Chicago, New York, and LA just to get noticed, or because they were told this will look better on your resume, and they might even fall in love with it, but because it is a pathway for something else, the art form is not forefront, the art form is second.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Take me through Edinburgh Fringe.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because that was you you did it for a month, but you also lived together.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was a full immersion if there ever was one.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think of South by on the highest levels of drugs.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Give me your your takeaway from Edinburgh Fringe and what that was like, not just as a performer, but as a spectator for that entire thing.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, so this was 2011.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um Edinburgh Fringe Festival, for those who don't know, is a theater festival, the biggest theater festival in the world that descends upon um Edinburgh, Scotland, for an entire month.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's August every year, and anything that can be a venue is, um, including little hole-in-the-wall rooms.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's thousands and thousands of shows, you couldn't possibly see them all, and people are in the streets firing for people to come to their shows.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: People go to Edinburgh and just see shows.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we went and we did twenty performances.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to remember how many.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: 28 God, I don't know.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: We performed for the whole month.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: I know that.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: We had a couple days, I think we had one we got a couple days off.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: We were all living in the same flat that we rented from afar, and when we got there, there was one less bed than we expected.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: So Roy slept on the floor.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Our tech person came with us and also got his spot by paying a certain amount of money to our Kickstarter because we thought we had an extra bed.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we were like, come stay with us, it'd be our tech person.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: So somebody did, but then we get there and there's not an extra bed, and we're all in one room, and it's the basement floor of a place, and mice are in there all the time because our door to the to like to the street was at basement level where they stored all the trash, and there was a gap like a couple inches tall um at the bottom of the door, so we're like, how are all these mice in here?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then we just see them easily getting in and out.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Man.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: So maddening.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: We have a 50-seat venue that we had, and we got a time that was like 7 or 7.30, which you'd think would be great.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we find out that is not the ideal time there because people go to dinner at that time.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: A weirdly ideal time is like 3 p.m.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's a there's a whole thing in Europe of like no dinner is like 7 30 to like 9 30, 10 30.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's they operate on a much later schedule.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Which is so wild because like when I see theater in London, its shows are at 7 or 8.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: But in but for this festival, like sometimes the sold out shows were 9 p.m.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: shows.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we just were like, oh, I mean, we've it was very cold and rainy that year.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're we were outside flyering many hours a day in the streets, and at that time, improv didn't have the best reputation.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a lot better now, and there's some narrative and musical improv shows that have taken off.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's a show called Baby Wants Candy that's done well there.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they also have the money to hire people to fly for them, so the performers aren't doing that.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we just had a lot of people say stuff to us like, just because you make it up doesn't mean it's good.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So why why why is improv's reputation so soured at that point?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was because a lot of people had just seen university level performers, and there were a lot of university level performers in Edinburgh because who'd who has the time to s to go there for a month and live in squalor and do a bunch of shows?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of college students, honestly.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's a lot of not good stuff.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: As much as there was good things there, there is some of the worst theater you could ever see in your life that month.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you get both.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so everybody's comers at Edinburgh French, for sure.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and there's it's it's just like such a wild thing.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so people are relying on word of mouth and then reviews to kind of let people know about their their piece.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we went on, luckily for us, word of mouth started getting around with the improvisers, and so we ended up making incredible connections with a bunch of UK improvisers that became our friends, so it it became fruitful, but it it was that that festival will make or break you, it will really show you who you are.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when we were in Austin, like a big takeaway for me is like when we were doing our weekly show in Austin for many years, it started at a Cold Town Theater, moved to the hideout, um, and has been at the hideout for like the past 17, 16 years.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we get tired sometimes, you know.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Doing a show every week is tiring.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it'd be like, oh man, we had Thursday nights for a long time, and so it's like, okay, it's Thursday, gotta get it together, gotta get across town.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's not fun.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: There are times where it was like, oh, it's only five people in the audience again, you know.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna do an improvised play for five people again.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: I could be at home, you know, I could be watching a movie, I could be sleeping, whatever.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we could get a little cranky, but in Edinburgh, flying in the rain all day, people just being mad that you're handing them a flyer, but it's the only thing you can do, and everyone else is doing it.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And sort of like being scou I'm very sensitive, so people being mad at me all day is not a good feeling.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: When we'd finally get to doing the show and be inside the building and it was warm, it felt great.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was just like, oh thank god we're doing the show.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: The doing the show is so much better than promoting the show.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: And some of our audiences filled up nicely.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think we never had less than 15 people, I believe, which is pretty good for Edinburgh.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, sometimes we'd be handing out tickets last minute for free, trying to get people in.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um sometimes we would just uh I think we did sell out a couple performances, so then we'd have a full house.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: But doing that show how big was your your setup?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was like 50 seats-ish, I think.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um we were doing a different genre every night.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, like, some they they would repeat, but that was also a mistake on our part, was like our flyers like these days come see our improvised brothers Grimm show, and on these days come see our 1940s screwball comedy, and on these days see our improvised French farce, you know.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's like very you don't want to do that.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: You want to give like one clear image to people to follow.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but what was good about doing all the different genres is the improvisers kept coming back and being like, oh, did you see their Grim show?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Did you see their screwball comedy?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: This is crazy.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so by the end of it, we were like, oh, the show is the reward.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: The show is not the work.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: The show is the reward.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Everything else is the work.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: The show should feel like the reward, it should feel like the dessert, it should feel like the special thing, it shouldn't feel like the work.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was what we brought back with us to Austin.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was so nice to come back here and be like, oh, we don't fly her in the streets to get people here.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: We might post on the internet, but I'm not in the streets all day.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's a blessing.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think it really did change how I viewed the performance itself and how we as an ensemble felt, and it kind of made it where now when we do our show, we step into the time stream, and the time stream is always there.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what's happening in my life, doesn't matter that my dad had died a week before.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing my improvised play, and when I'm on stage, it's barely registering to me that anything in my life is bad.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: All I feel is the connection to the fellow performers and the audience, and everything else falls away.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a magical space.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so that really reinforced that feeling.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine too that if you're all living together in a rat-infested room, that there's a certain trauma bond there.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: That you build.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh god, yeah, we have so many stories, and we definitely were down each other's throats.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like there were some fights.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: That was that was inevitable.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, make or break, and it and it almost broke us, but then I, you know, it's a little bit more than a lot of people.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, dude.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Were you were you ever like actually potentially on the fringe of maybe disbanding as a group?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely think we were, you know, it cost us at least$15,000 to do it.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we had raised, I think, four or five thousand dollars.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was we were never odd audacious enough to ask for the full amount.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like now I see people raising thirty thousand dollars to make a play, and I'm like, it makes me almost angry because I could have been us.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, we didn't we worked really hard just to raise the five thousand dollars, I think, to supplement the trip, and then the rest was out of our own pocket, and so because we didn't make our money back and we didn't get like we had been told before we went in by people who had gone before, like, you guys would kill.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I bet you guys could get to the point where you can go to Edinburgh every year and make bank, like some people do.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, people will make lots of money at that festival if word gets out and it's good and they get a good review.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I think our expectations were set a little high, and so once again, it was like a humbling experience.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: But also, it's a good example of something I just wrote down last night after meditating in the bathtub.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let me read it.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Go for it.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Floor is yours.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh process is the way outcomes are a surprise.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all about process and not pushing an outcome and letting yourself be surprised by the outcome.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're making a show, enjoy the ever every ounce of the process.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Who shows up, if there's a reviewer, how it goes, that's an outcome, and it's a surprise.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: And forcing an I an outcome is usually a recipe for disappointment, as opposed to let's just see what happens.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you never know the ripples your work makes or who it will touch or how it will change your life or who you'll meet.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So by saying, like, man, this show is only a success if it sells out and gets a great review, maybe it's a success because you met somebody that's going to be an an incredible collaborator or friend to you.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or maybe it's a success because you learned something about yourself, or maybe it's a success because uh it opened the doorway to you meeting somebody that then you would tour with, or any number of things that you can't predict.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think we had an idea of a certain outcome, and there was a different one that was it led to us many times now going to the UK and and teaching and performing.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think though at the time we were like, oh wow, we can make good money.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and and look, monetization in the arts is not common and certainly not your barameter for success.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think about like when Timmy Chalamet got completely dragged online for his his statement about ballet and it being a dead and but I think it's because for whatever reason in his mind, it's like the way that you quantify success is through, you know, dollars and cents.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and I and he tends to be, and I say this as someone who thinks he's a tremendous actor, but he I I think it gets a little bit too uh awardsy, like this is the only way that you're gonna be known as one of the greats, is if you win this, or it's this you have this amount of money or success.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like it's it's really measured in so many other ways.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Impact being one of them, but also just learning.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you the four of you came back.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I guess it would be you and your tech, you came back from Edinburgh, like you're now bonded, and you sort of understand each other in a way that you you didn't before, and you may have performed for five people or fifteen people, but you did it, and then you you went back overseas.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: You've gone, you what, you did what three weeks in Australia?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: A hundred percent.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like really show you what you're made out of and like why you do the work that you do.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I've had people ask me about the success piece of things.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, even like talking to like some students at my old high school um several years ago, and some students said it was me and a casting director speaking, and he was like, Well, neither of you were really that successful.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so like why do you do this?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we were like, Wow, you don't know anything yet, kid.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, to me and this person, we're like, we're still doing what we love to do, which I would count as a success, right?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's just very funny.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've been thinking a lot about what success is, and I think there is an energy the universe really loves and ripples are created more with like joy and play and expansion than they are by rigid rules and holding things down and trying to force something into a certain shape.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think the things that have a greater ripple effect across people and entities is something that is more amorphous and playful and open.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Not when something's like, it must win an Oscar, it must be this way, it has to be seen seriously, it has to be taken seriously.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a very diminutive way of the same thing.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's there's never gonna you're never gonna be fully satisfied.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: You will be chasing something forever that will never be enough.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's why I and this is on I just want to make sure that I'm clear on this, this is on a much smaller scale, but it's why I don't care what the audience thinks.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, yeah.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't and I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, like, do I hope they enjoy something?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I want them to enjoy it.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: They came here, they spent money.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ticket prices are not cheap, even for community theater.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do I hope, you know, they enjoyed it?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but I don't take their opinion into account for what I consider to be a success.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I consider the work that everybody puts into it to be the success.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Do we felt like we found something together that was organic and real?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: That that's the level of success that I'm talking about.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's why I don't really care about reviews.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: I and I and I understand that reviews can be a launching pad.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like for Edinburgh Fringe, reviews could make or break whether people came and saw your show.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I understand that there's a there's a value in there and there can be a quantitative value in them.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I I don't let it affect my mindset for it because you're gonna be forever chasing something that doesn't get you exactly what you want.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Or awards, even.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: I know people who will start chasing awards.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: And they'll they'll they'll do a production in order to get an award, even if it's just a local theater award.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just sort of a dead end, energy-wise.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: It takes you off the path of like realizing what that thing is, and as far as the audience and how they feel, it's it's an interesting debate.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of improvisers who believe like fuck the audience.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we're a little different in that we are like the audience is smarter than us, is our belief.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, they're smarter than us, they're more aware.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, individual people who are loudmouthed who want to like talk down to me after the show.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: I've definitely had dudes try and explain improv to me at parties, and I'm like, are you kidding?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like somebody who's done none or seen some.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, so one guy was like, Oh, I I follow this one group at the Renfair trying to tell me.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, get out of here, dude.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: That happens a lot if you're a femme.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Men will try and tell you what you do and are.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: So F that.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but we are always paying attention to their energy, and we can tweak in little ways that I think do make a difference.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, I also have to trust remember to trust my gut and like if they're quiet, you know, and kind of trust the difference between bored quiet and leaning forward quiet and what is actually in my control.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes it is like I've seen shows where the the performers just uh kind of abandon the crowd and are just telling in jokes, you know, slapping each other's dicks.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Figuratively or literally, and the audience is completely left out.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like I want to bring my ideal is that they feel brought in and that their energy matters in the room.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, there's a there's a difference between collective, like caring what they think, but but the collective engagement.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: The collective engagement, exactly.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really interesting.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I like to watch the audience leave the theater because that will tell me a lot about how it was for them.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if they leave slowly, it's a really good sign because they're like, ooh, I want to be in this energy some more.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: If an audience gets up and all leaves as fast as possible, it is a sign.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: It is a clear sign.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Keith Johnstone, uh, one of the founding fathers of modern improvisation, was like, don't judge your show until you performed it to a full audience, was basically his belief.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because then you would really see, like, if the audience is full and it doesn't go well, it is your show.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Your show is the problem, something is off, and it has to be fixed if you want it to be to be done well.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you're performing that show for a half-empty house or half full house, however you like to view it, it's harder to judge it how it is.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: But if you have a full audience that's excitedly talking and tittering before the show, and then they're dead quiet throughout the piece and they leave quickly, you did something wrong.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's okay because we're all people, doing a bad show doesn't mean you are bad.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's a chance to learn, and that's an interesting thing that I've found over time.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because, like I said, you will in this work, whether it's scripted or not, you will eat it and you will fall on your face and you will make mistakes.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, as a playwright, I've written and done shows where I wanted to cut a scene from a play, let a friend convince me to keep it in, felt very strongly I should cut it, then watched each night as the audience got bored during the scene and was like, I knew it, I didn't do it, I didn't listen to my instincts.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of it for me, my own thing is my mistakes are not in is is usually not listening to my gut because I will have a strong feeling, and so now at this point in my career, if I have a strong gut feeling, I'm following it, even if someone else is like, no, I think that scene's good, or I like it.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's like actually that's the that's when I'm like I'm most wary, yeah.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I'm like, if I have a my gut is personally, and it's different for everybody, and it depends on your life path.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe if this if you haven't found this to be true for you, then it may never be true.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: But my gut is not wrong about people, relationships, art choices.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I'm like, ooh, I don't think that's working, is not.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think you can tell when something isn't working.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a there's like a deflated feeling, and and to me, it's not always even about audience reaction, it's usually about pacing and energy.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can tell when something is not even dragging from like a tempo perspective, but you can tell when it's sucking the energy out of the scene, when it's not contributing in a positive way.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: But that comes from experience of understanding what serves what it is that you're doing.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the you you had a great quote when I was doing research for you, the greatest thing that I read from you that I loved, because it gets back to the feeling, the c not just the feeling that you have, but the collective audience feelings when you experience something great, you want to go out and run around the parking lot that it just there's there's a there's an energy that you have, and I love theater that gives me that.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: I saw at the opera house, the bathstrop opera house, which is where I do a lot of stuff.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Friend of mine, Kelsey Leighton, directed Puffs, which is a oh I love that show.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: I saw it, I saw it in New York, yeah.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they did a great job with it because it's all about pace.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's all about timing.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Then you can find your three to five spots to let things sink in a little bit more because for as funny as Puffs is, the ending is there's some weight to it.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really great when you can have tempo and pacing and energy, and uh and you're and it's it's flowing through all of that, and then when you you can let it sit just a little bit at the end, and the payoff is so good when it lands.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like watching a gymnast land off the vault, like when they stick it, and you walk out of it, and it just you do, you feel like you want to go for a sprint.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Think about how it felt, and I think every I think people listening could really relate to this because it's so recent, but Alyssa Liu's performance on the ice.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and she's you know the I think people feel this when they're watching Olympic competition because they're especially if it's something where it's a routine and you know that a big mistake ruins it, and so you're like cheering for them to land everything, but you're also you know the difference when somebody is flying versus forcing.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you feel that they are free, like see in this case, on the ice or whatever they're doing, when they're free in their performance, but it is also precise and they're having fun and they're in the moment and they're loving it, it's such a different thing from the really precise people who are tightly locked in and it's very stiff in a sense.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember watching her, and she had such, she has this like move where she's she moves into being sliding on her knees with her arms in the air and doing this really beautiful thing at the end.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: I highly recommend going back and watching it if you haven't seen it.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: But it's incredible, and when she lands it, it is like your heart's gonna explode through your chest watching it.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's why she exploded so much, is because she brought that feeling to people of like the energy, the the pacing, the the like the there was so much heart there.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and yeah, when I see theater that god, there's been some great shows where and that's what I want.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like I get so excited when the lights go down at the beginning of the show, but right before it starts.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love that feeling when it's about to happen.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like, woo.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then um ideally that at the end, I'm like, oh my god, what a twist, or like w what a revelation, or like how much fun was that?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I I I have like goosebumps right now, just like talking about it.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: That live theater limbic system, mirror neuron thing, and you're in your in in the audience, and it being a a a joint experience is also part of it.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Movie can feel amazing too, um, but uh that clean.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why I think there's that extra sense of electricity is because it's one and done.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: You'll get more performances.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: But you won't get anything that was just like that.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: So before moving on from this, because it it does make me think about it, was there anything at Fringe that you saw that made you feel that way?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that's it.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, I did see great stuff there.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a while ago, but I will say I saw um oh my god, it was a production of a clockwork orange, like a stage, a stage version of a clockwork orange that was like so visceral.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: And this company was kind of known for doing really visceral work, and it was it was uh that was an ecstatic.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think I really like stuff too.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's very like sensual and not afraid to be sensual.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and this one had those elements that push-pull that's like grotesque, like drawing you in charismatic.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's the thing that I find so interesting about Clockwork Orange as a film, is this character, you absolutely hate this character, but then they are very charismatic and lovable, and then when they're being tortured, you feel for them, and then you're like, I hated this person, and I thought they sh should be punished, uh thwarted, and then now that they're being punished, I'm having such a hard time watching that.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: When something's playing with my emotions, and they had a lot of fun, like choreography too, in the mix.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that was one show that really stood out to me, and it made me want to do like an all-female or femme clockwork orange stage production that I had thought of for a while, and then I wasn't sure how to do it.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just kind of like put it out of my mind.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: But for a couple years there, I was back when I wrote this, um, I wrote this play, co-wrote this play called Blood, Sweat and Cheers, which was a um comedy about competitive cheerleading.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was really like a dramedy, to be to be truthful, that had a large female cast, and at that time in 2013, there wasn't a lot of large femme ensemble pieces in Austin, and some of the work I've made was to help with that imbalance, um, which is different now, I'd say, in 2026, but still it's funny because I feel like we're backsliding into uh still the same male-driven pieces of theater.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, but back then in 2011, it was a r it was like very forefront to feeling that m a lot of the things I saw in Edinburgh were still m mainly men on stage, even.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: And some pieces, and and you then you wonder like, does it have to be siloed into like an all-women production to just have equal gender representation?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: But but yeah, that that show was great.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: And there were several other little weird intimate pieces I saw.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was a cool it'd be cool to go and just watch a lot of stuff, but uh I also just love to go to London and watch as much theater as possible.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I'm gonna do in between like performing and teaching when I'm there is Roy and I just go and we will try sometimes, we'll see matinee evening performance, matinee, evening performance.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: We'll like stuff our days with with as much theater as possible, and maybe a little bit of musicals, but mostly I'm interested in the straight plays, and so that's what I like is like I love to see plays where I get so lost in the piece that I forget that I'm watching theater or I'm so in it, and my I love that feeling.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love being completely lost or just so excited for what happens next.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um and there's always a couple things like that whenever I go to London.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: If I see like five or seven things, I'll see some stuff that I'm I could I could cry at the end of this.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's not even an emotional show, I just could cry because I love I love as as a crier, as a big time crier, it's it's again it's a catharsis.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's why I love art, is I love the idea that a person did this.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like this c this came from somebody, and that you can feel that connection, and it's so inherently human, and it's um yeah, crying's good.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: I love crying at shows.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's it's beautiful.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not no apologies about that.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: I love to hear that.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I will cry when something's really wonderful, too.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: If I think somebody's really something's really lovely, that'll make me cry.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just uh or or if any children, any number of children sing or dance, also sometimes I'll make them cry.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm just like, look at them go.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we all have our things.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: We all have our things.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh somewhat somewhat speaking of making things cry, maybe not in a good way.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, not maybe at all, not in a good way.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I do want to end on this.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hide out theater, yeah, hideout theater mood recently.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're off of Congress, and now you're on uh Lamar.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know that that's been a touchy situation, but I did want to get an update from you on how all of that's going.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: You have a fundraiser up right now.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me how the process is going of of getting the space up and going and where you guys are at right now.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we we were told or the so I I to clarify my position with them, I was on the management team of the hideout um for about 10 years and left in 2018, but then still contract with them and perform there a lot.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I say we, but technically like I'm not on the team, but also I'm very entrenched and did do the basically the makeover of the new space.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um and all the like old sets and stuff that we had the at the old at the downtown space.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I had started doing stuff at the hideout, like I said, in like two thousand It opened in 1999.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: So like I was there for most of her history downtown, and we had a about a 50-seat space in the upstairs, uh, and the downstairs sat anywhere from like 70 to 90, depending on the types of chairs and how much we cram crammed them in.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then we had a coffee house in the front that that people might remember, the hideout coffee house.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: There for a long time, very 90s vibes.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and a landlord basically a guy, the our our most recent landlord, just a lawyer, rich lawyer, had moved to Chicago for most of the hideout's history, moved back, walking around downtown, wanted to own a bar, apparently saw the hideout.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's many other empty buildings on Congress that were former bars, literally still built out to be a bar.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: This guy doesn't look into them.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: He reaches out to the current owner that bought it in 2020 when the original owners who had had it in their family for like a hundred years, no doubt, they used to own the entire block and then sold it off piece by piece until it was just the hideout left.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: They got tired of it.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: They thought COVID's a sinking ship.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: Let's offload this.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: They sold it to a guy who was just happy to hold on to it as an investment.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: So this guy walks past all these empty, buyable bar buildings on Congress, likes the vibe, contacts the owner who is just sitting on this investment, makes an offer, and the guy takes it.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so basically, out from underneath us, he gets the building.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Turns out the hideouts lease, which was still much longer, was not very good for the leaseholder.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so then there was about a year of us knowing it was gonna go away, but not know when.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then he finally pulled the plug at the end of March 2026, and it was basically like, okay, you're out, I'm gonna build this bar.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were very touch-and-go leading up to that, not knowing how much programming we could have, because it was like, oh, it's gonna end in August.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's gonna end in November, now December, now January, now February.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: It was just like this weird, like he kept extending it.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so then it was a pretty sad goodbye.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's it had been so hard to keep it alive downtown through the years to keep it viable, and we had been making it viable, I think, after COVID.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, obviously, it was not doing well during COVID, and the business was in the red.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: So to survive COVID, thanks in part to Kareem Bhadra getting so many venue grants, um, working so hard to keep it alive, just to have some rich dude just be like, nah, I want to build a dream bar.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a building that is mostly windowless.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, good luck.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was pretty perfect to have a theater in there in the coffee house.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was a great setup.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was it was particularly heartbreaking the last month it was open because it was just selling out shows, coffee houses full.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, this is a model that works.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: Being downtown, getting downtown sucks, but it was like a special event kind of feeling for people.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: But moving over, and we turned basically a classroom annex space, so a space that the hideout had been using just to teach classes out of two rooms and a bathroom.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, you know, Roy, I think we can make this into a little theater.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: I had done a performance there in 2020 before shut the shutdown hit.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: So then we did that, like basically spent all of April and part of May turning it into a little 35-40 seat theater in the back and a lounge in the front, they can still both be classrooms uh when they need to be.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, the theater is always like a theater.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: There is a stage, there are risers, there's a tech booth, lights, all that.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then I painted a mirror mural on the backdrop.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: We basically made it where even though you're in an office park, when you enter the space, it feels very bohemian and artsy.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that was my goal was like, I want people to come here and like the shows, but I want them to like how the place feels.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so so far we've been open since May 22nd, and audiences love the space, it's very intimate.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: You can whisper on stage and be heard, is how good the acoustics are in that room.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, and let me tell you something.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh good acoustics in in in a theater theater are hard to find, let alone in a space that is is not meant for theater.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh oh, so there are just so many places that I have I've performed or I've been and have watched a show, and uh, when you get good acoustics It's great.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you can't hear the show, it's a terrible feeling.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's kind of the worst thing.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you can't see very well, but you can hear, you can like get by.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: But if you can't hear the show, it's over.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it it really is.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's like I guess the cool thing is like it's been nice not as a performer having to drive downtown every week and deal with all of that.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's easier for people coming to see us.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, we're not as central now, it's a little more like north central.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's great, but it's uh it's been nice to have the reset and to not be dark for very long.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think that I've known so many theaters in Austin who lost their space and just couldn't recover into a new one.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's a desire to reclaim what you had and try to build big again.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's kind of what the Hideouts fundraiser is.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: There will be classes at night and shows on the weekends, so it's full to bursting.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: So having a bigger space would be nice, but Austin has not made that easy.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we even thought that we had a space, and that's kind of falling through called Art Hub ATX, um, for various reasons.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: One being that like we don't have a million dollars to build out a space.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: And like no donor, no major donor has come forward, a lot of small donations, and so that has all helped us to keep it going.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think something I'm really proud of is that we've had such affordable tickets over time.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: All of our tickets are basically, I believe, seven to twenty dollars, but most falling between seven to fifteen dollars a ticket, which is pretty much unheard of now.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I think.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: And great shows, including like my weekly show.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we do a full improvised play, and it's pay what you can.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's ten, twelve or something.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you pick.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want the more discounted price, you can pick that, and then there's a standard price, and then there's like a hideout supporter price tier for every ticket, but it's still never more than$20.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think the only time we charge more is like Valentine's Day and New Year's.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so we've kept these prices super affordable all these years.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: We pay our teachers well, we pay our staff.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: So Hideout's worked really hard to to try and stay afloat, treat people well, and uh have have affordable tickets.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's always tricky to feel that, oh, you maybe should have been greedier as a company, maybe, but then also why would you ever, you know?
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that's been the thing I've been grappling with that we we've been kind of skirting around, is like heart and success, and like what does that mean, and what are your values um as an artist, and how do you live your values in different ways?
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you, when you mess up, do you do you learn from them and and come back at it?
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think the good thing about it is being in a smaller space, able to recoup some of that, those losses, and operate on a much more intimate scale.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and the audiences love this space, like we're getting such good feedback.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: So now I don't feel so weird about it, but when I was building it, I was like, this could be terrible.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I was worried about it, and uh, but I was like, little boutique theater, little intimate magical space, um, not a bad seat in the house.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's like and then it's like free parking, affordable tickets.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: So now I'm like, there are really no downsides, uh, except just that we don't get the as big of a playing space as we once had, I you know, and uh as good of a lights lighting system.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like the stuff you nerd over if you're into theater, we don't have as much space for that.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm just happy that it's not totally gone because there was a time where it just felt like oh the hideout's gonna just go away forever.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I was gonna fight to to make a space or rent a space or something.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just glad we were talking about authenticity and specificity and people wanting that, and I believe it's a space for that kind of art.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you've built up that cache for 20 years.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's already baked into the space is what it is.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's good and bad with it, obviously.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: But you've baked it, but you've baked in the the fact that people know what they're getting out of it.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yes, yes, and so it's been so nice, and then already we have repeat customers who never even went downtown who have just shown up week after week.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I started to recognize them.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh wait, it's this person again.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and they're like, Yeah, I've come three weeks in a row.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like my treat for myself, and I'm like, oh, that's so great.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's lovely.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: It is lovely, actually.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited, I'm learning to embrace uncertainty.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I've had a lot of like death and loss and change in my life.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and as an artist, your future is always a little uncertain feeling.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so lately I've just been thinking, actually, I'm really flexible, and I like seeing what's next, and I like building and I like this um this process, like enjoying the process and then seeing what's going on.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: Being surprised by the outcome.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: Being surprised by the outcome.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, what a button that we can put on that.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I do have the fundraiser link that I'm gonna put in the description for this podcast.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if anybody wants to donate to the new hideout on Lamar Boulevard, you are free to do so.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll end on that.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to thank my guest, Casey Beeler.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can check out her entire portfolio on her website, caseybeeler.com.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: Follow her on Instagram at CaseyBeeler, and you can catch her with PG Graph every Friday night at the new Hideout Theater in Lamar Boulevard.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is 8.30, 7:30, 8:30?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: 830.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: 8:30 p.m.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I've seen PG Graph perform before.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: They are at the top of their game.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: There is a very thin line between good improv and improv that is not good, and they ride the right side of it.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: So fully endorsed by the Theater Life Podcast.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can follow all of our socials on Instagram, on Facebook, on X and Blue Sky, and on TikTok.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you enjoyed these episodes, be sure to follow Theater Life on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube so that the next conversation finds you and find everything at theaterlifepodcast.com.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: New episodes drop every two weeks.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, I'm Ben Kirchhoffal.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: See you next time.