Latest / Theatre Life with Ben Kercheval / Episode 1 -- Arielle LaGuette

Transcript

Episode 1 -- Arielle LaGuette · Theatre Life with Ben Kercheval

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: What is that superhero with the rings, the adventures?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's like all the You're talking about Thanos?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm imagining like I'm gonna be honest, this is not gonna be our strongest part of the podcast, is figuring out figuring out who had the rings in the Marvel cinematic universe.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or is it like Power Rangers coming together?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like oh yeah, you're that's what you're thinking of.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I'm thinking.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: You're thinking of Power Rangers, totally separate universe.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the first episode of Theater Life, a podcast for theater people by theater people.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm your host, Ben Kirchoville, and my first guest, the first of many illustrious guests on this podcast, is a multi-talented actor, singer, songwriter, and co-founder of the Fallout Theater, one of Austin, Texas's premier comedy venues.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: Her frequent collaborations at the Filigree Theater in Austin include the recent world premiere of the original play, Take Care of My Friend, as well as Dr.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: Jekyll and Mr.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: Hyde, and Love Island, UK, The Musical, the latter of which she also contributed to as a writer and director.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: She is a member of the improv troops Garage Comedy and Girls, Girls, Girls, and previously performed in what has to be one of the most taxing productions possible, Shit Faced Shakespeare.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: As a singer, she's released two EPs, a self-titled debut in 2016, and her follow-up Case of the Times in 2018.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: Please welcome to the show for the very first time, Ariel Laguette.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: Ariel, welcome to the Theatre Life Podcast.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, what an introduction.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm so honored to be the first.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're the first.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: I was thinking about when I was getting the guest list together, if you've ever seen the movie Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, which is a very funny horror comedy released, I think, in 2022.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the characters in that movie, she's talking about her podcast, because everybody has a podcast right now.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: And when her friend goes, Well, what's your podcast about?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, It's just hanging out with my funniest and smartest friends.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: When I was getting the guest list together, I was like, I could see if I could have anybody on this show.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then I looked at like the first five or six people that I had confirmed.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, no, it's just my funniest and smartest friends.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: We went to college together at the University of North Texas, which it's been almost 20 years.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I was just thinking about that, like how our worlds are now colliding is beyond what I thought would be our futures when we were RAs at uh Bruce Hall in UNT in Denton, Texas.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: The music dorm.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's where all of that's for all of the fit the future famous musicians.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: They were all in that dorm at the same time.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So true.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was just telling people the other day how cool that was that we had practice rooms.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think someone was asking, you know, okay, it's like the musical dorm where people are playing late into the night.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, we had a 24-7 basement of music rehearsal room.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So like, yeah, no, it was pretty good.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we have so many other amazing musicians who like ended up in Austin, uh, one of which who was my roommate for a long time, Michaela Khan and her now husband, Jordan Birchell, and they are amazing musicians and are all around Austin doing things.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we're gonna dive into that for sure here in a little bit, but I actually I kind of want to start there because we were both RAs at Bruce.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's the music dorm.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: You you started to pick up music a lot more in college.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: I I think I was even around when you started picking up the ukulele.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I I wanted to know being in that that crucible of all of those different musical minds, how did that sort of form and shape your just your very infant days of becoming a singer-songwriter?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, nice use of the word crucible.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is a theater podcast.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it is it is true.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I I started really getting into music in college, and yet I didn't go to school for music.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I would say in high school, theater was always my first love.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I did two musicals while I was there, but my senior year is when I, you know, got to play Rizzo in Greece.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that opened my eyes too.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was the first time really like seeing on stage as a soloist.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, just finding my voice and all of that.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So then when I went to college, I did not follow a theatrical path.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had very much the message of you need to find something that's stable and financial, whatever.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I'll be a news anchor.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: That didn't really work out either.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: But but I ended up, yes, being an RA and I definitely have the energy.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know, I love being around people, obviously.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, I think, just being inspired by such talented young musicians.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a few residents on my hall who were just open to teaching me things, and I tried with guitar, I got my grandpa's old guitar.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: He was a lifelong musician and made his living that way.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason my family was in America, basically, and I was impatient.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I got really impatient with that, and then someone was like, Well, you could try ukulele, it's four strings.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then I got my first ukulele off Amazon that was purple, and I remember playing it in like the back room of the the front, the front desk area.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's so funny that you say that because that was really the beginning of everything, and that was the time of like YouTube and singer songwriters, and I was like, I don't want to, I don't want to make videos and just not have not accompany myself.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So then I did the whole YouTube music thing and put out videos and covers and man, yeah.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: What a time.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: Do you ever do you ever go back down those?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: Have those been deleted from internet history, or do you ever go back on those and look at it and either either with some sort of cringe, or do you actually feel like, okay, there was actually something budding there?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is such a good question because I think I recently, within the last few years, have turned a page on the cringe factor.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think it used to be, but now I look back in such a, I don't know, just with compassion of like, oh, Arielle, she was really figuring out.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just a little baby.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: She's a little girl.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: She was doing her best.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was really hard on myself.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of them like archived on my own personal page.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that I think that there are some still out there, like on my YouTube page.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um 240p, just the just the greeniest, oh yeah, absolutely worst quality.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: With like a photo booth app filter on it.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I think I I look back now with such uh just I guess gratitude that I had those experiences and the people in that community, and like I don't know, just the older you get, hopefully we're less hard on ourselves.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I look back thinking, like, man, I was so hard on myself, and why?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I guess on that note, we're I mean, music, there's obviously some innate talent there, but how much of that was God given versus okay, I have to I have to teach myself something that doesn't come too naturally, and I have to listen to people who know more than me.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if I've ever really given that it's due maybe thought process.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know that I have genes that were provided to me, you know, with my mom's side of the family and even my dad's, but really my mom's side, like my grandpa was a musician by trade and multi-instrumentalist singer.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: He was kind of like a French Frank Sinatra.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I called him the French Sinatra.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he would do, he would play in clubs and hotels in Monaco in the south of France.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, making his living as a musician.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then my grandma in her youth did opera and just very artistic, that that side of the family, my mom's side of the family.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's become more and more apparent to me the older I've gotten, even like crocheting.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like I picked up crocheting right after my grandma passed away a few years ago because it just felt I don't know.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt like, yeah, she gave me her hands somehow in her in her passing.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other side of it, a few years ago, I decided to sign up for classes, take vocal lessons, find a vocal coach.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that really changed a lot for me to your original question, like how much is it just innate?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think that there's always different degrees of innate talent, but everyone can learn and grow and evolve with uh support and teaching.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I've learned a lot in the past few years, and I feel like my my voice is stronger than it's ever been.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of that is my decision to invest in it.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I feel like I've been investing in that by investing in classes and vocal sessions and uh taking care of drinking more water.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: I got I got my water cup, I'm ready to go.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have this nebulizer.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Aaron Schumacher, another Bruce Hall of the World.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: There's a blast from the past.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: The creator of the thing I'm holding in my hand for those who are listening is the Vocal Mist Nebulizer.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you knew he created this thing, and like I think Chapel Roan uses it.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: That doesn't surprise me.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Schumacher, he was one of my residents.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh was he really?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: He was he was the legendary B100.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: We're so we're gonna try to keep this pretty tight, but I am gonna go down an Aaron Schumacher rabbit hole for like just a minute.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, and I'll have to send him this.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: I I think maybe we're still friends on Facebook or something, but I'll have to I'll have to shoot him to say, hey, you can you came up in like the first episode.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: So he played, I wanna say, we talked about Bruce Hall being just this host of musicians that just were so incredibly talented.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I think he played Session one time with Ben Folds.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I might be, yeah, I might be totally making up history here, but I want to say that he did that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: And he went out, I think he was in LA, and he played in like a bunch of different bands.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: Some are like hardcore metal bands with like Screamo bands that he was in.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: He's sort of been all over the spectrum.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was about to say, I mean, he's doing the dang thing, like he's still out in LA.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I know he's works with several groups and is just still an insane vocalist and business person.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: Moving on.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: This is actually it's I'm I'm really interested in this part because I read a really great story about you when I was doing the research.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: And this these are things that sometimes I didn't even know, which is that's kind of a cool thing in doing this too.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: Is I feel like I'm learning new things about you all these years later.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: But this great story about you, which after college, you picked up everything and you moved to Orlando, and you were gonna try to make it in Disney World.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: Do I have that right?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the key word is try.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Try to make it, and then didn't work out, did it?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I tried, yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I didn't end up at Disney.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Next best thing, Olive Garden, right next to Disney.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know what it was?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: There was actually a audition for the Royal Caribbean in Oklahoma.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember going with a friend of mine in college, and God, I haven't thought about this in forever, but I really didn't have plans after I graduated because yes, I went to school to be a news anchor.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then I realized journalism wasn't my passion.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I had a really honest professor who, thank God, kind of, you know, who knows what I would have done all these years later, but I knew I wasn't going in for it into it for the maybe the right reasons, I guess.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Regardless, I ended up, you know, getting a degree in communications.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I really didn't know what I wanted to do.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I was just kind of up in the air.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then I saw that there were auditions, Royal Caribbean.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I do get a call back, and I'm so green at this point.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like everything I've done, to your point, I wasn't investing in like classes or dancing and all the things.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: So needless to say, that didn't work out.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But then my best friend, Jose Quaira, who also went to UNT, uh now lives in Houston, but he was a performer in Orlando at Disney.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: He played like Pluto and Goofy and a stormtrooper.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: He played all the really cool characters.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And after I graduated, he's like, What are you doing?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Come move out here with me.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll make it work.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can audition for more cruise ships, you can audition for Disney, right?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, like the opportunities were endless.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like that's where I got the bug.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, you know what?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, YOLO.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: I literally don't have any plans.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Packed up my Pontiac sunfire full of just everything that I owned and made the drive and lived there just for one year, met great people, and it's a very different type of community.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's just like, it's not really a melting pot, it's more of more of like a stew of just so many things.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's not like one type of, I don't know, culture going on in Orlando.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's full of several.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: But one year was enough.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I never worked at Disney, but man, I went all the time.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I did do, and this is like so 2012, it was at Hollywood Studios, which I don't even know if it's called that anymore.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but one of the parks, and they did like an American Idol experience, and every single day you could go audition and then you'd like be one of the shows, and like people would come in and they'd vote for you, and then the person who won at the end of the day got a golden ticket to be first in line.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: I did that many times.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: Did you ever get a golden ticket?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I never got a golden ticket, but I did make it to the finals a few times, so that was really cool.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was fun.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: So it's that's really fascinating because for me, there's so many great artists who have some kind of amazing rejection story.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like early on, something just didn't go their way.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: I'm wondering for you, what was the long-term value of things just kind of going sideways right from the start?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I love that.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, hindsight is 2020.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely wouldn't have had that kind of, I think, wisdom at the time.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I do know that I would say I'm a pretty like resilient person in terms of getting down and picking myself back up again.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it it forced me to just like move in a new direction, try something new, see a new community, become a part of that, find you know, go back to something I used to love.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And like I think I kind of did a lot of side quests.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: I yeah, I think the value, obviously long-term, is that it gave me the opportunity to experience new things that I would not have, right?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And to have the belief that, okay, well, it's not the end of the world.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, I can always try something new, uh, as long as I've got friends around.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's always been important to me.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, can I build a community here?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I let things roll off my back pretty quickly, but in that I also sometimes gave up too soon.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe I took a rejection and realized, like, okay, well, maybe, maybe, you know, theater isn't for me in college.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think there was an opportunity to to perform more.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I just kind of decided, okay, well, maybe maybe it's music.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I stayed down that path for a long time before returning back to my first loves.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, one of those side quests, again, in doing the research on you, you recorded with Joe Rodriguez of the flock of seagulls.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, how did he find you and how did you end up recording with him?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is so Ben, we need to like talk more so that you can remind me of my life and like the things that I've maybe taken for granted or haven't thought about in a long time.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I had uploaded music online.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember what the platform was.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Was it YouTube?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: Was it your 200, 240p YouTube videos?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it was.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's like that would be the obvious answer, but I think it was some, I think there was like some other singer-songwriter platform, maybe it's showing like locals.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like in Orlando and I had some of my music or demos that I, you know, uploaded.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Joe reached out to me.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was very like, yeah, like MySpace coded, you know, like, hey, uh, heard your stuff.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a studio out here and I love working with singer-songwriters.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think we would have a good time.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was man, on.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably 22, 23 at this point.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And everything just felt so in the moment and present.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I look back and wish I would have been more.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think again, I was it's going back to I was really hard on myself all the time.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think just having that external validation was just like, oh my god, me?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Joe was amazing, and I still believe our first recording together is still out there, which was one of my first songs called What Love Should Be.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Really sweet, talented dude.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he's still hopefully out there recording.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, I wonder what inspires someone like him who's been around the game for so long to just seek out these really under the radar or otherwise unknown artists.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love people who just have an immediate discernment about others, just immediately able to tap into that person's like genius or their talent and see potential.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I would not call myself one of those people.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think that's such a beautiful skill and attribute to have as a human.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can think about many friends of mine who are those kinds of people and what a gift it is to have those kind of people in your life because they just see the potential in others so quickly and want to nurture it and be a part of it and are inherently like collaborators.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: I would say the same about my husband.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like he's kind of one of those people that wants to collaborate and build with others and isn't afraid to let someone know what is possible and what they might not see in themselves.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely saw that in Joe, and I may have like not realized it in at the time, but he did teach me a lot, and I think gave me the freedom to tap into my inspirations at the time and like kind of discover my own voice.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it was very like indie, indie pop girl, folk, you know, singer-songwriter.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, we we all know, we all know that type.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: We know that type of music.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was a real Sarah Borella's core, like you.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Literally who I had in mind, Ingrid Michelson.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: My my original, yeah, I would say inspirations, yeah, right after college, during college.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: I want to switch gears a little bit.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: We've talked a lot about music, but you come back to Austin after a year in Orlando, and I want to start getting into your journey into improv and comedy.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, obviously, you have the background in in theater in high school, but I'm wondering what parts of music and broadcast journalism and all these different routes that you've taken, what parts of those ended up creating the itch that somehow improv comedy of all things was able to scratch.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: So funny how they all honestly are kind of connected.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: The idea of like all of the parts coming together combined, I can look back and think, oh, well, this helped that, and then that helped this, and then this helped that, and you know, kind of how everything was connected.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: With uh improv, the real story there is I was I started working at my first like tech startup.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was in sales and never thought I'd be in sales, but I liked people and I was coaxed into trying out the sales team.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we hired a salesperson and he was doing improv.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: He was also the other weirdest person in the office.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Both of us just we were both on that p the same plane of weird that I wasn't really feeling among everyone else in the corporate space, and which was fine, but it was like, hey, you've got something going on.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then I kind of instant vibes, instant vibes, yeah.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Performer at heart, right?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: Instant chemistry, yeah.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: I it's undeniable when you feel it for sure.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Theater kid energy.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I can't I hate to say it.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I found out he was doing improv, and I think I was also dating someone at the time who had mentioned that they had done improv.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I just kind of thought, well, I really do miss being on stage.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: I missed high school theater, you know, and I did some performance art in college, but it was different.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just like, okay, gateway to entry, pretty easy.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sign up for a class, start taking classes.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: I remember being so nervous, like literally sweating, palms sweating, like driving to my my first improv 101.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Taught by Jisoo Peck, who is still an improviser in Austin and an incredible actor, great guy.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what I would notice at the same time, I was also doing a lot of music uh open mics and smaller coffee house shows.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: The longer I was doing improv, the more comfortable.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I became as a performer, as a musician, because it was a lot easier to have my instrument in front of me, have my microphone, go from one song to another.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing that I hated the most at the time, which is so funny how it's completely switched, but I loved performing a song and I hated having to have the like the in-between, okay, well, that's that song, and here's a new song.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then over time, I would say, fast forward, I did all my improv classes.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: I started performing more regularly.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: I loved that in-between.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I actually enjoyed it, almost felt like yeah, a conversation with the audience.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so improv made me a better, I think, musician, made me a better overall performer, made me a better presenter, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: At work and doing like sales, I'm, you know, doing presentations and demos.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so it kind of just like illuminated, I think, something in me that had been dormant for a little while.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that was like a gateway to then fast forward, you know, two years ago being like, wait, I want to do my theater and like get involved with the Austin Comedy or Austin Theater community.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe, maybe confidence, confidence is is kind of the through line here.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: And I've heard that from other people who have gotten into improv who were not artistic people who who were not born for the stage in any way, but improv somehow just ignited this inner confidence in them where they felt like they could then pretty much do anything without being scared.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: So, what is it about improv that gives you that confidence?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: Is it just is it like that idea of being afraid of something and then realizing it's actually not that bad, or is it something else entirely?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's that.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think to put it simply, it's like the freedom to fail, the permission to fail, being allowed to look stupid, and like realizing the stakes are not that high.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in a group of people who are either gonna look dumb with you or help you not look so dumb.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, that's the I think that's what improv provides that's different from any other, you know, with sketch, of course, you have like the script with stand up, you're alone and you have your script, essentially your set that you've written.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And with improv, it's like, yeah, nothing exists.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you have literally maybe a group of four or five, six, seven people with you on stage.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: And now I've started teaching improv.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really at the end of the day, it's being okay to fail, and being comfortable with the uncomfortable, and just listening to the last thing that was said and not really skipping ahead or thinking ahead or going in, like, oh, I'm gonna say this funny thing.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's actually usually the least funny thing is when there's someone prepared.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, all of that, I mean, I think the listening and the responding, which just like acting is what creates the magic.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: And improv is such a push you into the deep end and just figure it out, you're gonna be able to swim, you're gonna be okay.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot everybody else here is doing the same thing.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I think even the people who maybe aren't elbow deep in improv knows the basic rule of yes and the idea that like you just whatever it is, you're not gonna say no to it.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_03: You're just you're gonna keep moving forward with it.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: But you alluded to it some.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: What specifically, maybe besides that, makes for a really great improv performer?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Strong listening, strong presence, being in the moment, I think are my my favorite performers.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just name one, but there's so many.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he was also a co-founder of mine at Fallout, which is Carlos LaRota.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, can you give me a Mount Rushmore?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: Who's your Mount Rushmore of Austin Improv performers?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, okay.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Carlos LaRota.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Molly Moore, who is in Garage with me.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I would say Alex Walker, another.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be people who I perform with, which I would put like all of Garage on my Mount Rushmore, to be honest.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And Maria Pond.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I would also say is I've had this happen a few times.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: She no longer lives in Austin, she lives in Chicago.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yamina Kwan, oh God, and then Vanessa Gonzalez, who's really known for stand-up now, but as an improviser, one of the best improvisers.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Early in my improv, even before I took classes, I remember seeing a video of Yamina and Vanessa thinking, like, God, oh, I want to be friends with them.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then, like, years later, literally, like, they're at my wedding or they're at my birthday.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, this is crazy how life works out.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And just being able to be around people who make you feel like you can be the best version of yourself and get to applaud.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I love being able to, yeah, applaud my friends and and celebrate them and cheerlead them from the sidelines.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: So, on top of the improv that you already do at the Fallout, is girls, girls, girls, is that that's musical improv, right?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: That is musical improv.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I was also there in they're a Mount Rushmore of themselves that I looked up to that I was like, I could never do that.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm doing it, I'm part of it.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: But they've been around for 22 years.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: So go dive into that a little bit more because I was I was looking it up, and the idea, I think, of improv just in general probably scares a lot of people of not having that sort of safety net of a script.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_03: But then now you're introducing music into it as well.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_03: Take us through the mechanics of exactly how that works.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, wow.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: We could do a whole episode on this, Ben.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you'll do maybe one day we will.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe we'll get the girls together and and we'll do a whole thing.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there we go.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, a whole musical improv episode.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the mechanics of it, really having an amazing accompanist is like so key.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: That just like it takes it to another level, right?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this accompanist is a pianist or a guitar player, Dave Ron, shout out an accompanist who does both, gets you a guy who can do both.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: He and many of the other accompanists, Ridica and Ben and so so many.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: So they are reacting to what we are providing.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And just like any any musical, if we're thinking about the mechanics, we're gonna have with our show, we know that we always start with like an opening number.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we know that, yeah, we're gonna make up an opening number on the spot.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And an opening number, there's a lot of different formats that you can do.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can do verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, or you could start with chorus, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, or you know, there's a lot of different formats of just musical, you know, song breakdowns.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we know going in, okay, we're gonna do our typical opening number.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: So then that way when the music starts and we get a suggestion that's give us a location, and someone says the gas station on Old Twerf.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's showing where I live.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: The Lamar, the Lamar Street Chilies, yeah.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: 45th.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: So anybody who's listening in Austin totally knows what we're talking about.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's why this is an Austin podcast.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you get that, and the accompanist is gonna start off strong with an opening number vibe, and then you know, someone chooses, like, okay, I've got a chorus, and then you're coming out and you're like, whatever is gonna come to mind first.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: You start with in this case, the chorus as the starting, you know, bit is maybe like, yeah, uh, it's a bloom and onion.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, a triple dipper appetizer, and then you just kind of create the melody, everyone latches onto it.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: We come on and we support the melody of that chorus, we repeat it, and then we get into verses, and the verses are just like building the world.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's like a little bit of the inside baseball of musical improv is the the guidelines are there, you know, the guardrails, the court.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's a really great interview with Keegan Michael Key, and he talks about improv like a basketball court.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know how people are supposed to play, but you don't really know where the ball's gonna go.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then you just kind of support each other when you're like, oh, cool, we're doing this kind of song.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, this is gonna be the villain song.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, this is gonna be an I want number.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: So having an awareness of musical theater kind of tropes and different song styles, the story arc, all of that plays into the foundation, and then we just we just go.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's less scary than I than I thought it would be, I will say.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_03: That seems like it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: I'm my palms are sweating just talking about it.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's thinking about it.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: Just thinking about it is just breaking me out in the hives.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_03: But so so this is interesting to me because when you're dealing with a a troop like that, a group of people who just have that ability to feed off of each other, it is it better to have everyone kind of like you were saying with your coworker, just everyone's on the same wavelength, or is there such a thing as like good tension in terms of having people bring different abilities or different styles that you have to work around a little bit?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, are you wanting to get into improv then?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think you're really tapping into some things.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: We we can we can see.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: For now, I'm just interested in what you have to say about it.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's improv that happens and it's a mashup of people who have never performed together.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I have done that, and I did that even with a musical, musical improv show, which my friend Marianne Allspaugh, shout out to Marianne, brought together some musical improvisers because she had friends from New York coming in, and we did like a mashup show.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that brings its own magic because you don't know what to expect.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's very much support is number one.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then you have people you've been performing with for 20 years or 10 years or eight years or even one year, and you are aware of each other's kind of like go-to's.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I know when I play with Lindsay Walther, another shout-out in Garage.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: I will likely see at some point a creepy child being embodied on stage, right?
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's there's like, or she's like gonna have the best button that that ties the whole story together.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's the good tension in a way, is like leaving space for someone to shine.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, if maybe what you thought was about to happen doesn't happen, it's like, okay, cool, we go in a new direction and we support the next thing because yeah, you're yes anding it all.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the yes and is it's less of an agreement, it's like more of just like a shared belief of like, oh yeah, this is the truth, like this is the truth we're playing in right now, and for the rest of the show.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_03: There has to be something really rewarding, too, about being a part of that.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_03: That it's like collectively together, you all were able to sort of raise something from nothing into an actual thing, and you and the audience, everyone collectively all agreed to just believe in it for however long you did it, it was a thing that was very real, and that's that has to feel really good, doesn't it?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's be honest, there are bad improv shows.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: We've all had them, we've all seen them.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and and and to anyone, so you asked if I would be interested in improv.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_03: The thing that ultimately keeps me away from it, and I know that if if I went into it with open eyes and a willingness to learn, then I feel like I could develop the skill and and be good at it.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: The thing that keeps me away from it is I've seen bad improv.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and the line between bad improv and even passable improv, like even so it doesn't have to be of the highest quality, but even something where you're like, okay, like that was that was pretty good.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_03: The line is so thin, it drops off a cliff so fast, and I it it petrifies me.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that's like the magic of comedy is sometimes even you know, I think about SNL and like certain sketches flop that probably killed in the writer's in the reading, yeah.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the reading.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like the same way with improv, but this is why it goes back to listening and presence.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'll even add another thing ease, like just ease of uh being watched, right?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like the people that I listed in my Mount Rushmore are so easy to watch because I know that they are having a good time no matter what.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: So even though, let's say things are falling apart mid-show, it's like the ability to accept that and then figure out, like, well, what do we do with this?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is our new reality.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's very fun.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: I've even had times where I'm like, I don't, I'm not even tracking what's happening on stage.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: So as my character or whatever it is, like I'll just say it out loud.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on, someone explain to me exactly what's going on right now.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because it is at the same time, like it's a gift for you, but also the audience doesn't want to feel like they're watching you struggle.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fine line, it's a super fine line, and I'm not, I'm no like expert in improv, but from my experience of it over the past like decade or so, I really do feel like it's the actor going back to being okay with failing because the moment that they're not is the moment that the tension increases, and then the audience feels it.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're co- you know, co-cast, co-cast, that's not a word, but you know, your your castmates feel it.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's yeah, that's it.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just like the the the permission to fail and look like an idiot and remember, like, but that's that's part of this, and that's what's fun.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the more you accept it, the easier you can move through it.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things that you do see with Casey Beeler and Roy Janik when they do stuff like that.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: So are amazing, yeah.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: And well, and part of that is they have such a history together, they've been doing it for such a long time, they have incredible on-stage chemistry.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_03: Sideways for them is different than maybe sideways for someone else.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Beginners, yeah.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_03: Beginners, but their situational awareness of it going sideways, but also leaning into it is it's endearing when they do because it gets back to the believability aspect of it.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody believes that this is batshit, yeah.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_03: And but you're just you roll with it, and yeah, and so it ends up being something that you can stay engaged with because you can see how in control they are, even when it there are momentary lapses.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like at no point does the car ever completely veer off the road for them.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_03: For something that's so kind of loud and brash, it's a very understated skill to have.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_03: And it can go in different directions at at various points, but you have to be able to at least control kind of what's going on.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: And they do a very good job of that.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_03: I'm curious for girls, girls, girls.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_03: I want to get back to that just real quick before we move on.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_03: Was there ever a musical number that it just you were like nailed it?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's ex that was that was the one.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: There was a show that against all odds was incredible.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: So go ahead.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_03: This floor's yours.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there was a Friday night.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: Our shows were, this was maybe two years ago, and we had a pretty, you know, good system of making sure who was available, which nights.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: For some reason, that day, there was like maybe two people in the cast who were like, oh shit, I totally forgot.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm out of town, I can't be in the show.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or oh, I have my kids' game, I can't be at the show.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: So there's only three of us who are left.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: We were like, okay, the show must go on.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then an hour before the show, we realized that our musician, for some reason, either just didn't get booked or got booked on a different day.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we didn't we didn't have an accompanist.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we are like calling on different accompanists in Austin of, can you get to Fallout in an hour?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: And do you want to do this hour slot with us without any you know preparation, which you know helps it's musical improv.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Did we did not get a musician?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, literally the three of us deciding like, okay, okay, we're just gonna we're gonna accompany each other.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: We could just do a little like uh melody on the sidelines, uh a little beatbox, sure, whatever.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what can we do to make this alive?
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And even if it's just uh a cappella on stage, we'll make it work.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: This show was flawless.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, and I and it's a lightning in a bottle will never happen again, has never happened before, in a way that I couldn't even tell you.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: I do know that we were in a school, so it was like this school musical, and there's only three of us Megan Flynn, Sarah During, and I.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: And Megan Flynn is just incredible.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: She's been in the troupe for, yeah, over 15 years, I think.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Sarah was an incredible vocalist, and then I had some a cappella, like contemporary a cappella moves from my early days at UNT and the green tones.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, we're all just like really digging deep into what we had available to us, and somehow, some way the audience was on board for it all.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: We had like a packed house, and literally was my worst nightmare.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like going into it, I felt like this could be a disaster.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: But all we committed to before going on stage, we always like set intentions, was just like we're gonna we're gonna support each other.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have fun and support each other.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is all we can do, and letting the audience know too like, hey, we're doing something a little different than we're used to tonight.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then so we got them bought in from the beginning and just kind of like our our attitude wasn't freaking out about it, whether or not we were on the inside.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so then the rest just kind of the cards just fell in place.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I I will never forget that show and how we were all like, Oh, yeah, that'll never happen again.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_03: Very nice.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_03: I think this was the question I've been most anxious, and and I really want to hear the answer to it.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_03: Should face Shakespeare.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: Were you the person who was shit-faced?
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we rotated that.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: So we've talked already about how improv scares the ever-living bejesus out of me.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, should face Shakespeare.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: The idea of not having complete control over yourself, any sort of thing that would inhibit your ability to perform.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_03: I almost can't, I can't even fathom it.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_03: So walk me through what that process is like, both as someone who's been the one who's inebriated and the person who's had to react and respond to the person who's inebriated.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Man, we are going way back.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's an amazing concept that only works because there's like strict guidelines.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: You have a handler all night long who is there with you as you have your like pre-drinks, who's making sure you're not getting too many drinks on stage.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like there is a safety net in there, so no one's gonna get blackout because of that.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, that would be a nightmare.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's also there's a there's a safety aspect to it that you have to do.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: There is safety, yes.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Safety is key.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Safety is number one because we have like swords and shit on stage.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like we literally did our, you know, stage combat and fencing, and the show itself is, you know, and I I I don't know, it's not happening in in Austin right now.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think they they really like pared down.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: It started in Boston, but even before then, it was at Edinburgh Fringe.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like there's other people who could talk about this with so much more like knowledge, but in my two years of doing that, I would say the experience as like the drinker was so free.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: You I had no you had no care on the world because at that point everyone else is having to play off of you.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your role is like to play your role and to allow the inebriation, I guess, and the adrenaline of it all.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I will say once you get on stage, you kind of sober up kind of quickly.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: So then it becomes this play of the audience gets to buy you a new drink, and then you know, your cast members or your handlers making sure that you're still in a pretty good place, but you get the permission to play with your cast members.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that's like what it is like.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, there have been times where I mean, there was one where I literally almost like had a comical, like almost falling off the stage teeter totter like moment.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's there definitely were some times where it maybe wasn't super safe, but yeah, as the drinker, you're not having to necessarily worry about the show.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: As the other players, which is what you're Doing most often is having a very strong understanding of the text, but also having the ability to improvise and get things back to like it's like you know where the story ends.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we just gotta make sure, and sometimes the ending is different, and that's where it combined theater with improv because at the end of the day, then we like could play with a certain tropes, you could improvise in with Shakespearean language, which was really fun, but that required a lot more paying attention, being okay with whatever came out of the mouth of the person who was drunk.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's also a host, so that's important too, is there's someone who is kind of like hosting the show.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if anything ever got like too hairy and weird, they could step in and be like, hey, why don't we go ahead and whatever take it back to one?
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: But that was, yeah, that was a fun little little side quest.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Again, little journey that I got to take.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_03: When you're doing something like that that combines a sort of a scripted or at least an outline of what you're supposed to be doing versus, you know, improv.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_03: Is it sort of like a lizard where their eyes are going in different directions?
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_03: Are there just different parts of your brain that are having to operate and sort of keep this thing all together?
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_03: Or is it all just kind of one big mesh of things?
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I like the lizard analogy.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely think it's probably more of like, well, I guess to keep the lizard analogy going.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know how lizards can like see more colors than humans?
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of like that where you're just having to really notice all of the colors that are happening.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't even say I was the best at it.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like I had so much fun.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think that, but I think having the strong Shakespearean understand, like text understanding.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then really strong improv those are the two, yeah.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: I would say, I mean, the main like crayons you're coloring with.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: But then the way that everything like weaves in together, like the stage combat and the dancing, we had choreography throughout.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_03: To be able to have that understanding of Shakespeare, to be able to have the understanding of improv for such a wild concept.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_03: I think it sounds like people would be surprised to know just how much real skill it actually takes to perform something like that at a high level.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was an honor to be a part of, for sure.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I did feel like I mean, I looked around me and my fellow castmates just co-cast.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: What did I say earlier?
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's it's castmates.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna go ahead and just make that the established vernacular from here on out.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: My co-caster is like, nope, try it again.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: Castmates.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: My casties, my castmates.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, I very much was like in awe of the talent that I was surrounded by, which only then made me want to perform at a higher level, too.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, such great performers who are still doing amazing things in Austin.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: Liz Waters, I know she's an amazing actress.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jacob Rosenbaum, he's in Georgetown Palace right now, doing every beautiful thing.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, there's so many.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: I felt very lucky to be a part of that.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that feels like a blast from the past in a lot of ways.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh one one final question, and then we're gonna kind of wrap this up a little bit.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: So when you when you were transitioning from new movement into Fallout Theater, I know you're one of multiple co-founders, everyone's wearing different hats.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_03: You ended up actually soliciting a lot of help from other other comedy troops and theaters from around Austin, including the hideout, which we talked about just a little bit ago with Casey Bueller.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_03: What is it about Austin's creative scene, just to use a broader term?
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_03: What is it about that scene in general that just makes it so much more collaborative and welcoming in a space that's normally hyper competitive?
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, talk about pre-COVID and post-COVID.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: I would say like the greater Austin creative scene and especially the comedy scene has really become almost a tale of two cities.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: Of like, there's the there's this new, there's a new Austin comedy, and it's in the world of the the mothership and the kiltonies, and like not necessarily my bag, and has its own audience, and that that is that is something that was born out of the COVID downtime, and I don't know, it being seemingly an open opportunity to like introduce a different different type of comedy.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be very dramatic here.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely a different demographic, a different type of comedy goer for sure.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I do think like, yeah, to each his own, right?
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: But then there's the Austin comedy scene that really had its roots in such like an alternative, wacky, almost clownish type of performances you'd see on stage and shows and stand-up comedians who have gone on to do amazing things, but all really rooted in kind of the what makes Austin weird, which is kind of a dying breathe.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: We really have to work hard to keep Austin weird these days.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Fallout still has remnants of that.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: And at the the start of Fallout in 2018, I really and all of the co-owners, we were really passionate about changing the tide from feeling kind of separated and to to bring everybody back together.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like there was a bit of separation within the improv troops, I mean prof troops, improv theaters in 2018.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was like five.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's Institution, Hideout, Cold Town, Fallout, and Merlin Works.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we did like a whole five, they call it the five families, and now there's really three families, but the five families show, which we brought in performers and owners from those shows, and we all performed together.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think our goal as community members and performers turned co-founders.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: We really wanted to underline the importance of community and that, like, well, isn't community the point?
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't the point to all be together and like not isn't the point of improv?
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I really, yeah, I feel like that was a beautiful outcome of the fallout kind of emerging out of the ashes of what once was.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was a ton of people coming together and be like, hey, how can I help?
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the Kickstarter and just having so much support from other theaters was a reminder of like, yeah, we're all doing stuff with each other anyway.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're bringing in a different troupe from a different theater.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: But it it's it's different.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's different than like a New York or an LA or Chicago where there is maybe a little bit more competition.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't think the people who are here really doing improv hardcore are necessarily like thinking their whole career is writing on it.
• 51:14
  unknown: Yeah.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: As opposed to maybe going to LA, maybe you're thinking like, okay, there's a lot more writing on this.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I want to get picked up, I want my show to I want to pilot, you know, and which totally makes sense.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I think Austin has the privilege of maybe being a bar more laid back in that way.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_03: Personal stakes, I mean, can certainly play a factor in that.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_03: I wonder if that also for Austin is changing, considering that it's becoming a scene for for comedy and for acting.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's I mean awesome.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's there there are physics, there are some opposing physics to that.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, on one hand, it's good, and on the other hand, it's with that growth and with that level of spotlight and awareness, it it just it goes both ways.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: Rising tides lift all boats.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what I keep, you know, wanting to go back to.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I do believe it.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I do.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think it's bad that we've had this kind of tale of two cities of Austin comedy emerge.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: There are benefits to the access that it's it's created, maybe.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, look at like we've got Andrew Dismukes on SNL.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: He was an Austin comic.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Devin Walker just finished up his time there.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: You got Vanessa Gonzalez who's opening for you know, Chelsea Handler, who was on her tour.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of amazing people coming out of Austin, and that's just like very few.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: But to your point, even in the greater like acting community and theater community.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_03: What's up next for Garage Comedy or Girls, Girls, or Girls?
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_03: What are you guys?
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_03: What are we working on next?
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: For garage, we just came back from New York.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: We did the Del Close Marathons, which is the improv festival held by UCB.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the big Upright Citizens Brigade, and then there's Second City, and then there's Groundling.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: So those are like your the top improv theaters in the U.S.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we just did that, which was a blast.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_03: Well, if you can believe it, did we do that?
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_03: We've covered a lot of ground.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: We covered so much, and we went through a lot of history.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I it was a lot of a walk down memory lane for myself, even.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for the research.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_03: It also helps when you have really interesting nuggets, which you have plenty of.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll sign off with that.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks to my guest, Ariel Laguette.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_03: You can find her at Austin's Fallout Theater every Thursday with Garage Comedy.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_03: You can follow all of our socials on Instagram, on Facebook, on X and Blue Sky, on TikTok, at Theater Life Pod.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_03: And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow Theater Life on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube so that the next conversation fides you and find everything at theaterlifepodcast.com.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_03: New episodes drop every two weeks.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_03: Until then, I'm Ben Kirchhoffel.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_03: See you next time.