Kristi Boulton

Kristi Boulton an improv artist and is one of the members of the Improv Troupe, The Understudies, presenting Waaaay Off Broadway at the 2018 Hamilton Fringe.

Waaaay Off Broadway: A Musical Improv Show!

Waaaay Off Broadway is the musical improv show that you’ve always dreamed of seeing, especially because you create the show! Watch as the Understudies improvise dynamic scenes peppered with songs, topped off with a mini-musical inspired entirely by audience suggestions! Musical accompaniment provided by Steve McRae and Aaron Bruinsma. Grab your opera glasses and hold on to your playbills, people! It’s gonna be a HIT!

The Staircase Theatre
Friday, 20 July @ 9:50pm
Saturday, 21 July @ 7pm
Sunday, 22 July @ 3pm
Monday, 23 July @ 6pm
Tuesday, 24 July @ 8:35pm
Wednesday, 25 July @ 7:25pm
Thursday, 26 July @ 8:55pm
Friday, 27 July @ 9:55pm
Saturday, 28 July @ 8:25pm
Sunday, 29 July @ 4:40pm

Transcript

Welcome to episode 138 of Stageworthy. I’m your host, Phil Rickaby. Stageworthy is a podcast about people in Canadian theatre featuring conversations with actors, directors, playwrights, and more.

Guys, remember two years ago when I performed my solo play, The Commandment, at the Hamilton Fringe? Well, I’m doing it again. I’m taking The Commandment to the Halifax Fringe, and I just found out that I’ll also be at the Fundy Fringe Festival as well. And I’m going to perform The Commandment in Toronto on August 16th at the Red Sand Castle Theatre for one night only.

You can find details about that on my company website, homebodyproductions.ca. You know, if you like the podcast, I hope you’ll leave a comment or rating on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your ratings and comments do help new people find this show. Or you know what? Even better, if you know somebody that you think might like the show, tell them about it.

Some of my favourite podcasts became my favourite because somebody I knew told me about them. If you want to drop me a line, you can find Stageworthy on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at stageworthypod, and you can find the website at stageworthypodcast.com. If you want to drop me a line, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at philrickaby, and my website is philrickaby.com. My guest this week is Kristi Boulton of Hamilton’s The Understudies, who are presenting their improv show way off Broadway at the Staircase Theatre in Hamilton as part of the 2018 Hamilton Fringe. Are you in rehearsal right now? No, no, I’m at home.

No, I mean like not right now, but like… Yes, yeah, we are. It’s hard with improv because like you can have an idea of like what the, you know, the beats of the show are just for like the offers and everything that you’re going to get, but you just like run the gauntlet every time you rehearse and just hope that you make some good scenes. I guess your best bet is to just sort of, I mean I guess that’s sort of the question, is like when… So you’re doing an improvised musical? Well, it’s sort of like that.

For the first part of the show, what we’re doing is we’re getting offers and incorporating songs and music into scene work, so it’s all kind of like randomized at the beginning, brought on by different offers from the audience, and then for the last portion of the show, for about the 10 to 15 minute mark, we put on a whole musical so that the audience gets they don’t have to sit through an entire long form show, because sometimes that can be, especially with musicals, that can be really a hard sit if it’s not going well. So I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Who’s Line, but when everybody feels it when there’s like a scene that is just like grading. So what we like to do is we’ll have our scene build up and do like a whole bunch of different offers, so the audience is just more engaged, and then at the end we put on that 10-15 minute musical.

So how do you rehearse for this? Well, we meet in Andrew’s basement. He’s one of the troupe, Andrew Hopps, and it’s Andrew Hopps, Adriana, Alfano, Marta Lass, and myself, and for the past two and a half years, we’ve been meeting in basements and rehearsal rooms, and you just play together and laugh, and you talk about the different goals that you have moving forward, and you talk about what you’re trying to achieve during the rehearsal versus for the show, and it’s a lot of planning the games and the offers and making sure that there’s a nice flow, but really it’s just getting together and making stuff up. And the troupe is called the Understudies, is that right? Yep, the Understudies.

And you guys, this is, is this your third fringe, your third Hamilton fringe? It is, it’s our third fringe. Nice. Yeah, it’s been a bit of a wild ride.

Our first one, they’ve all been at the Staircase Theatre, hashtag team staircase, and they’ve all been at the Staircase, but we’ve gotten to progressively bigger rooms, which has been pretty cool. So yeah, third fringe. What was your first one? What was your first fringe? What was the show? Well, with the Understudies, the first show was called Act One, Scene Two, and we took a bunch of different popular media, and we would use those as the offers to recreate, you know, nostalgic stuff from childhood or use offers like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to make a scene, and it was really fun.

Last year, we did a really, a show that actually we started for around the Valentine’s season, and it was called Swipe Right for Love, and it was all about terrible online dating experiences and drawing from that and creating scenes. Okay. Yeah, and this year, we decided we wanted to just push ourselves to do something completely out of our comfort zone.

So we ended up taking a class at Second City in musical improv for about three months, or two months, and just decided that was what we’re going to do in the fringe, because we wanted to push ourselves to do something more. Has there been any point during the process where somebody has been like, what the fuck were we thinking when we thought of doing a musical? A million times. I feel like that’s what everybody does with a show, though, in general.

You can be so confident one minute, and the next you’re just like, what the hell have we gotten ourselves into? And we don’t have the luxury. I guess it’s sort of, we don’t have the luxury of having lines, but at the same time, it’s also extremely freeing. Because if you mess up one scene, that does not mean, we have each other to always have each other’s backs, and we’re so tight knit, and we know each other so well, that we’re always there to support each other.

But if you’re feeling a little bit low, it’s one scene that you can leave and you don’t have to look at, and you can bam and hit the next one out of the park. So that’s kind of the beauty of improv. But yes, there have been a number of times where it’s just like, holy hell, what have we done to ourselves? You know, I guess you sort of mentioned that all the time.

And that is kind of like the whole creative process is basically, you know, what a great idea. What the fuck was I thinking? No, wait, I think it’s still good. What the fuck was I thinking? Until finally, you get to the point where you’re like, okay, no, I think we’re okay.

Yeah. And I saw actually a really funny meme about this the other day. And it’s so funny that we’re in a generation where we’re like, I saw this meme.

And it’s like any creative process starts off with, I think this is a great idea. This is shit. This is shit.

Why have I done this? This is the worst piece of shit I’ve ever created. Until you finally get to, oh, okay, that was actually pretty good. This is phenomenal.

And like, there’s no in between. I do think that there is a that going through the this is shit process is kind of I think it’s essential, like, because it makes you question what you’re doing. Have you ever? I mean, have you ever seen stuff where there’s, like, they obviously never questioned? Like, oh, God, well, you know, like, I, you know, there’s a I’ll occasionally come across something and you can tell they’ve, they think it’s brilliant.

And they’ve always think they’ve always thought it’s brilliant. So they never questioned the brilliance of the piece. Yeah, I guess you know what, I have seen a couple shows like that, where you go and talk to the cast staffer, but they’re always the shows that kind of suffer.

Because I feel like if you don’t question like what you said, if you don’t question if something is good, or if like what you’re producing is actually worthwhile, or you’re sending, like either a message or you’re bringing joy or doing something that’s got a motivation, you’re not going to grow, you’re the show’s not going to grow, you’re not going to grow as a performer as a creative. So if you don’t question it, well, I mean, that is the truth. That is the truth.

I mean, that like, like, like, we’re both I think we’re both saying, like, it’s important to question it. And if you don’t, yeah, you’re kind of missing an essential part of the creative process. A million, even though even though like, that whole questioning part may not be pleasant, because it’s never just questioning.

It’s usually just like, why did I think this piece of garbage might be good? You know, it’s so funny. This is actually my I think it’s my ninth fringe. And a couple years ago, I wrote and produced a production called The Yellow Wallpaper.

And in the show, we had this like eight foot wall of lycra and wood. And I remember putting it up and building it and just thinking, what the fuck was I thinking? Why did I think that this would be a good idea to have this giant of a set at the Hamilton fringe? Like I’ve made a huge mistake. And my whole cast was just like, No, it’s fine.

I was like, No, why are we doing this? And it made me question everything about the show. And then at the end, people were like, that wall was the best part. Oh, my god.

You just kind of sit there and you’re like, Okay, that may be okay. So all you know, the 15 pounds I lost of like stress is worth it. I look good.

I have a question about that wall. It was was that I mean, for fringe when you’re putting up a set like, what was the like, was that a difficult thing to, to get up every time that you were doing it? Or? Yeah. God, thank God for the Players Guild.

They were so sweet to us. They were just like, if you need an extra 10 minutes, you take it. And they’re just like such a lovely.

Oh, my God. So kind. I was like, Oh, my God.

I know. Fringe is like, I remember one time. Have you ever performed in the fringe? Oh, yeah.

Two summers ago, I had my solo show. The Commandment was at the Hamilton fringe. Oh, yes, I remember.

Totally. Yes, I remember your show. But yeah, I there was this one show I was in years and years and years ago.

And we had our first audience and we had this giant set. I don’t know what the producers were thinking. It was huge.

And we had a pig on wheels. And like all of these giant set pieces. And because we dipped into our performance time putting up the set, they turned on the lights before the show was over.

Oh, no. That’s like. Yeah, it was.

That is the fringe nightmare. Oh, my God. Yeah.

And you’re just like standing there and they’re clearing people out. And you’re like, do I still perform? But no, you can’t. You have to take down this giant set and just stop the show.

And it was like it’s the kind of thing you as an artist is like, oh, my God, my heart. It’s breaking. Well, I mean, most fringes, you know, if you go over a little bit the first time, they’re like, here’s your warning.

How far over were you when they did that? Oh, my God. I don’t know. 10 minutes.

Oh, shit. 10 minutes. Okay.

You know, you deserve that. I’m sorry to say. Yeah, you totally deserve that.

You know what, though? It was it was my first fringe and like a bunch of our first fringes and the director was so like committed to having this giant set. And like this show. Have you ever had a show where it just everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong? Yeah.

It was like a domino effect. Like our props broke. This one guy was like late, almost like 15 minutes to the show and ran on like not in costume.

This was like regular clothes. It was like a million other things that went wrong. And it’s just you.

And you know what? You bounce back from that stuff. And it’s such a learning. Oh, absolutely.

Forget it. You’re just like, OK, this is this is the I mean, it’s it is it is the creative process. And it’s also it’s also a fringe because nothing makes you think fast in a crisis like fringe.

And also like, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah.

I was just going to say that’s the same thing with improv, right? Is that it’s every every moment in improv is a beautiful crisis because you’re constantly like what’s coming next? I have to be so ready. It’s like you’re that you know, when you get that feeling when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you’re just like taught, like your whole body is taught. That’s that’s improv.

And doing that in the fringe, 10 shows in a row is just like it’s insanity because you’re just and doing it with singing. You’re just wound like a bowstring. Well, I mean, the thing is that you’re doing I mean, I know the staircase has a minimum number of performances that you that you do, which is actually more than you would do at a regular fringe venue.

What kind of self care are you are you doing for yourself to get through all of this? Well, you know what, a lot of tea, a lot of lemon tea. And I think it’s just recognizing that rest is important because you know, the fringe like you want to go out every night and see, you know, six different shows and then go to the fringe club and have a drink and hang out. But especially with a show where you’re singing and where you have to be energetic all the time, you just it’s it’s a weird tradeoff because I would love to be out there all the time.

But I also recognize that I, you know, rest is so important. And it sounds like I’m such a little old lady where I’m just like, watch out, children. If you don’t rest, you lose your voice.

But it’s like, I think, you know, it’s one of those things that we forget about because fringe is a slog. And I think that and you know, I’ve been noticing a lot of, you know, there’s a lot of rawness in fringe, because often we’re so close to the thing that we’re doing, that, you know, a bad review is like, hurts a little bit more or like even a mediocre review can hurt a little more than it normally would. And so self care becomes super important at a fringe festival, because you just like, you’re just going, you’re just always going and talking about the show and talking about the show and promoting the show and all this stuff.

And that you don’t often take the time that you need for your own health. Oh, it’s Yeah, preach. It’s so true.

And you’re right, like, you’re so closely tied to it. And it’s, it’s like this, this baby that you have. And then when someone gives you a bad review, it’s like they kick your baby.

And you’re like, Well, how could you do that? Do you not know how much blood, sweat and tears has gone into this? But of course, they don’t, they’re there to be entertained. Like, I remember, last fringe, this one guy walked out of one of our shows, and we overheard him being like, that doesn’t look so hard to do a better launch out of like, you want to go? You want to try this? Why don’t you get up on stage? I’ll give you an offer. And he’s like an obnoxious audience member.

But it happens, right? And you grit and you smile. And you say, I mean, the thing is, I mean, they don’t know, right? As far as they’re concerned, all that you’re doing is getting up there and fucking around, right? You know, it’s not even like, it’s not even like they see the work that goes behind it, because they don’t actually understand what goes into it. Right.

And it’s just like, you, you almost want to take them, I wish they could do backstage, like at fringe and just take eager audience members. And what or like, even asshole audience members, walk them through and be like, this is what a day feels like as a performer, just so you’re aware, like, it’s chaos, but it’s beautiful. You know what, I think that’s a perfect, like, I don’t know, like Instagram takeover right there.

For like the Hamilton fringe or something is to be like, put it put the phone in the hands of a different artist every day and show what fringe looks like. From going from venue to venue to promoting to hurrying to have some dinner to reading a review or whatever that is, and just struggling through that. That’s so true.

That’s a great idea. And I mean, I mean, sure, it’s also a great way to promote. But I mean, we I think that audiences actually do want to go behind the scenes.

They just don’t have the opportunity. So because of that, they think, well, that’s obviously easy. Yeah.

And it’s, I think it’s the same kind of thing. Like when you want to the first time you feel like you want to be on stage or you want to perform, like you have no idea the energy or the the tears and the sweat that goes into actually being a performer. And then when you find that out, you have so much more of an appreciation.

But I feel like until until you see that all it’s it’s the same thing, like when your electricity goes out and you get really frustrated, you’re like, why doesn’t this just work? Why doesn’t this just work? It should be so easy. It’s that same kind of misunderstanding of the speaking of when you first realized first realized when you wanted to perform, what was your like? What what was your intro to performing? Was that was that improv? Was it comedy? Was it theatre? What what what was it for you? For me personally, I think when I was when I was seven, my parents took us to go see a production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat with the famous Donny Osmond Technicolor Dreamcoat. I was in theatre school when that was on.

Yeah, I was. I remember that. Oh, that’s awesome.

We actually saw his last performance because he had an anxiety attack intermission and left. Yeah. And a swing came in.

And my little brother was, I think, four and a half. And he stood up and started yelling, Joseph. But, yeah, I think it was then when the narrator walked out and there was smoke and like she just started singing.

What’s that famous song like? Oh, I don’t even remember. You know, the honest truth is I don’t know the musical that well. Yeah, no, that’s OK.

There’s like this moment she’s like, some folks don’t have anything planned. They hide their hopes in the band. And I just remember her like singing.

And I just I’d never felt goosebumps before. And at six, like everything was goosebumps. And then Joseph came down when the coat was like behind him and waving.

And like it was like the length of the stage. And I just remember being like, I’ve got to go to there just desperately wanting to be one of the kids that was singing on that stage and in one of those bright colored shirts just going. And so I think that was that was the moment for me.

And ever since then, it’s just been something that I have sought out and do an improv. Improv started in high school a little bit, but then I took it. I didn’t do anything with it until I was in outer university and went to the staircase one day and just realized it was this incredible community of people.

And comedy is so much fun in improv, like stand up, stand up, which is funny because, you know, I do a solo show. But to me, that to me, that’s extremely different to say. Yeah, no, it’s I feel like with stand up, you’re you’re there and you’re raw and you’re like people are waiting for you to fail almost with improv.

It’s that they’re there to laugh with you. And because there’s this understanding that it’s all happening at, you know, on the spot and it’s not planned, they’re so along for the ride the most most of the time. And they’re just so ready to be present and participate.

And the energy is so different in the community of people it connects you with. It’s I don’t know, it’s magical. There’s a reason they say the cult of improv because it is it’s like a cult once you’re in.

After you saw that that production of Joseph, what was the next what were the next step when you were like, I mean, this is what I need to do? What was was it hard to convince your family to help you do it? Or were they on board? They were always on board for it to be a pastime. Not so much for it to be like a career. I actually.

Yeah, I, I wanted to go to theatre school. But my dad, my dad had this dream that his three kids would all graduate from university. And that was super important to him.

And my mom passed away when I was pretty young. So like, it was, you know, the sole parent having this like dream for your kids. And he’d given us so much growing up, like, I had an audition for Sheridan’s musical theatre program, and bailed because I was and I had an audition for York as well and bailed because I was so nervous that I was going to fail.

And I wasn’t quite good enough. Because when you’re just at a high school, you don’t have, you know, some people have the confidence, but I found that I just, I was too nervous. And so I went to McMaster for theatre and multimedia, because my dad said as long as I double majored, he was okay with me taking theatre.

But it, it was still an amazing experience. Like McMaster has a great theatre program, but it’s not. Yeah.

Like you said, you went to theatre school, right? I went to George Brown. So where did you go? Back in the day. I mean, at the time, it was like, I don’t, I don’t keep on top of these things.

But it was the I mean, everybody was like, it’s the best one in Canada outside of the National Theatre School. So I was like, sure, whatever. But you know, all of those programs are different.

And it’s only now that I’m really starting to realize how different they are. Oh, it’s like, you can’t even compare them. You might learn some of the basic form, you know, formats, but Well, they all have their own different curriculum.

It’s totally And their own different way of approaching things. So what point I mean, you were you went to you were doing your double major for theatre and multimedia. And at what point did you find was it while you were doing that that you adjoined the cult of improv? Yeah, it was actually after I was when I graduated from Mac, I, I kind of fell into a job in my in multimedia field, which was really lucky, but it stopped me from pursuing any theatre stuff for a while.

And so for about a year and a half, I didn’t do theatre. And then, like I said, this, this guy told me to come to the staircase, who’s a buddy of mine. And I thought, okay, I’ll try it out.

And it came at just the right time. I’d actually just been laid off from that job, my first big girl job. And I that was there was this like healing power of theatre.

I’m sure you felt it too, at some point, or another. Yeah. And when I found improv, I actually found that I enjoyed it as much or not more so than musicals and theatre, which have always been like my, my thing.

And it’s led me to some pretty cool opportunities in short films and doing voice work now with the Infinity Forge and all kinds of other really great opportunities at Second City. And it’s, it brought me with my, with the troupe. So it’s, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind.

You know, I’ve been there for about four and a half, five years now at the staircase, but the understudies have been together for about two and a half years. So yeah, there’s, it’s just improv is, I don’t know. It’s just something magical about it.

When you went to that first night at the staircase, was it a class? Was it just a performance? What was it that you were seeing that so captured you? You know, it was, part of it was the people. And part of it was that I was learning a new skill. It’s like when you stretch a muscle, you haven’t stretched for a while.

And I remember just sitting and watching other people perform. And I thought, God, they’re so quick. They’re so quick.

And I’m not that quick. And I got up and I, you know, I had this really inflated ego about how good I had been in high school at improv. And when I got back up on stage, I sucked.

I was terrible. I actually got called out by the teacher at the time. And he was like, I get the feeling that you.

That’s not a good opening. That’s not an opening that you really want to hear the end of. I know.

But like, he brought me down a notch. He was like, you have a lot to learn and you’ve got the basics, but like, you gotta, you gotta check your ego at the door. And being called out like that, you either, you have one of two options.

One, you never go back there again, because you’re either angry or you’re embarrassed. Or two, you’re like, you’re, you’re right. I’ve been an idiot.

I need to like, be open to learning. And I just remember, even though he’d said that, I still felt really welcomed and warm. And again, I mean, anyone who’s seen improv can understand that it’s, what’s the word? It’s like, all encompassing.

You’re just watching it. You can’t figure out how they come up with their ideas. And half the time you’re laughing, you’re like, how did you do that? Even as a performer who’s been doing it now for, like I said, four and a half, five years, you’re still, you watch people and you’re like, oh my God, how did you come up with that? But yeah.

I mean, but it is a muscle, right? So the longer you do it, the better you get. Even, even some people might, you know, four years, you’d be, some people might be like, oh, you really don’t hit your stride until you’ve been doing it for 10 years or whatever. I don’t even know if that’s the thing they say, but.

Yeah, no, it’s true though. I mean, you always, I don’t know. You’ve, you’ve probably felt this, that glass ceiling that you hit when you’ve like, feel like you’ve maybe done all of you can, but you have to break through it.

And so that’s why the four of us decided to go to Second City to try out the musical improv because Mart is, well, he’s been doing improv now for 15, 16 years at the Staircase. And he’s definitely the most seasoned and he’s so strong. And Adri and I, Adriana and I had started almost at the exact same time as each other.

And we were both, we threw ourselves into it. Adriana actually did so many, like she was there as much as she could be. I was about half the time as she was there and she just like, just was like a Phoenix.

She just exploded into the improv scene. And Andrew came a few years later after he’d been teaching at Second City, he’d been teaching French improv. And so when we were all at the Staircase, Mart was the most seasoned, but like Andrew, Adri and I were still just discovering what our strengths were and what our, what our preferences were, what our characters were.

And then we all realized after we’d been a troupe for about two years that we wanted to do something different because you do, you get, you stretch that muscle and you work it out and you feel really good. But then you’re, you think, well, what’s next? What do I do? What do I keep doing to keep learning? Because if you don’t keep learning, you know, you get, I guess, sedentary in your craft. And that’s why we chose music because Mart had never done musical improv and the three of us had never done it.

And we all thought it would be a way to learn and stretch and, you know, magnify what we could do. And it’s a really cool, like it’s, I’m not gonna lie, it’s a cool talent to be able to make up songs on the spot. I used to watch Wayne Brady and just be like, how are you so good? Like he was amazing.

And I think that we all just really wanted to try something where we could push ourselves to have a challenge that was both achievable, but would also- Do you remember what the moment was when you realized that you’d hit that ceiling where you had to shake things up? I think for me, I can’t speak for the other three, but I think for me, I started teaching at The Staircase and was getting a lot of joy from teaching. And I would come to the classes on the Tuesday nights that they have advanced classes at The Staircase for invited improvisers. And I was, I was getting something from the classes, but I didn’t feel like I was contributing anymore, because I was just doing the same old thing.

And I found myself going home. And I often come home after a class and think about the scenes that I did and the characters I did and take apart why I did that and whatnot, as much as, you know, any other improviser can. And I just realized I wasn’t, I wasn’t pushing myself.

I was just resting on my laurels. And so we created the understudies and as a way to like, perform more and actually get on stage and across the boards. And I went to a Second City show a couple, I guess a year ago now, and just was watching the calibre of improv and thought, I’m not here yet.

I want to be here. And then the three of the four of us just started talking and music was the next step. It was the next thing that none of us had done.

And we just all kind of knew that we needed something different, something more. And The Staircase has since like started doing some pretty amazing stuff. They have this new program called Wild Card Wednesdays, and it’s a different class each week, focusing on different things.

And they still have their Tuesday advanced and their Monday boot camps. But I think the four of us have all felt the growing pains of discovering this new thing. And it’s been hard.

I mean, I’m sure you can empathize whenever you start something new. Again, it’s that ego check. It’s like when I started improv, you know, four or five years ago, you’ve got to really check yourself, check your ego and be open to not panicking when you’re learning.

Because I don’t I flight or fight. I when I get nervous and I find that this whole process has it teaches you a lot about yourself as a performer, but a lot about yourself as a person. And that’s something that improv does, too, because you it’s reactionary.

And when you find yourself reacting negatively, well, that’s that’s certainly true. And I think that I think it’s so when you mentioned the the you know, when you start to feel like, you know, you get to a certain point and you’re just you can be doing the same thing. But a lot of people, you know, they’re doing the same thing and they figure they’re good at that.

And so they might not push themselves any further because it’s really uncomfortable. Because trying new things is uncomfortable. Mm hmm.

And it’s scary, you know, so true. But that. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

But don’t you get the thrill of that? I feel like. Yeah, I I love that. I feel like you you get that.

It’s that moment when it’s terrifying to realize that you’re not. And I guess this is kind of a negative way of putting it, but it’s not negative. It’s to realize that you’re not as good as you thought you were.

But that’s important. It’s like when you have a bit of a self-discovery moment, like if you if you’re if you’ve been performing for a long time and you think, I am so good at this. And then you go and watch someone like Shauna McKenna at your like, I suck at this.

Oh, my God. I’ll never be as good as her. But at the same time, it’s it’s those moments, I think, that are so important.

And instead of being negative and saying, like, I’ll never be this good. You have to take that leap and go, OK, fuck it. Like, how do I be better? And open yourself up to someone like telling you that you’re kind of.

Well, you also I mean, you have to fail a lot to get good at anything. Nobody picks up the guitar and is a virtuoso the first time they do it. You’ve got to fall on your face a bunch of times before you can get good at a thing.

Mm hmm. So true. And it is.

It’s terrifying. Failure is. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Around it. Failure is so scary. But.

I think we talk about this with improv all the time. It’s that failure is important. Like it’s it is a huge part of the learning process.

And it sucks that failure has such a negative connotation around it because failure is how you learn. And it’s not a negative thing. It’s something to look back on and go, yeah, I used to be like this or I used to do it like this or OK, that didn’t work.

How do I make it better? It’s a. Well, that’s the thing. I mean, you know, here’s, you know, old man Phil. There’s a whole generation of kids who are like now, you know, being insulated from failure.

And so they’re not really learning the lessons that failure teaches. And they don’t quite know how to deal with it like. You know, if you’ve never if you never if you never had to fail when you were a kid, when you fail in university, that’s a massive thing.

I failed a lot when I was a kid. But, you know, I think a lot of us did. But like I, you know, trying new things is still is still really terrifying.

You know, I always get I always realize that when something new is proposed, my gut reaction is, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And that’s it’s at that point that if I realize that I’m doing it, I have to I have to go almost immediately from that to, oh, yes, no, I know what this is. I know what this is.

This is this is lizard brain afraid of of change and be like, well, OK, if we’re afraid of change, there’s a reason for it. So, yes, but that’s such a hard switch to make. Yeah, well, nobody and that’s nobody wants to fail because failures, like you said, it’s scary, but I feel like you’re right.

There’s the shell. The sheltering aspect doesn’t help anybody. And if you can’t know how far away is the ground, you’ll never know.

But yeah, no, I agree with you. What have that’s been the things that you’ve learned from failure while you’ve been working on this show, which is called is it way off Broadway? Is that how you would say it? Yep, that’s it. Way off Broadway because we are way off Broadway.

Um, things I’ve learned from doing this show. Oh, there’s been there’s been some hard moments, um, to be honest, because I love singing. I love being in the spotlight.

I love, you know, karaoke and musicals. And I I just I when I sing, I get so excited that people are hearing me on stage. It’s like it’s so egotistical because I’m just like, Oh, I hope they think I’m good.

But it’s like deep down. I have a confidence that I I know that I have a nice voice. But that also has made me incredibly nervous on stage, whereas my other improvisers all have beautiful voices.

But because they aren’t trained singers or haven’t done performing in the same capacity that I have in musicals and had that background, they’re more uninhibited than I am, because they they aren’t as concerned, I guess, in the same way that I am about sounding pretty. They’re more worried that what they’re saying is hilarious because it is. And um, what they’re doing is for the betterment of the scene, whereas personally, something that I’ve struggled with is stepping in.

It’s again, it’s ego. I’ve said that like 15 times during this talk. But, um, I get really wrapped up in the idea of sounding good versus substance.

And so that’s been a really hard learning experience for me. And it’s put them in precarious situations, too. Luckily, just at rehearsals, because I get in my head.

I mean, do you do this when you if you make a mistake on stage or anything? It’s takes you you’re out you’re immediately you’re just like, oh, God, what have I done? And you have to like, get back. Absolutely. And you know, it’s harder because when I’m doing my solo show, if I lost the plot, if I lost where I was for a second, it’s not like anybody can can help me.

I just have to try to figure out where I am, right? I’ve forgotten or whatever. And, you know, and that’s but even if you have somebody who’s who can help you, there’s always going to be that moment of disorientation as you kind of so so when you’re has it for you? Has it been the like, Oh, I didn’t sound as awesome as I wanted. And that’s what took you out? Yes, and no.

Um, well, for instance, like, I still feel bad about this. And he’s told me it’s fine a million times. But we did this every year, we’ll do a preview of the show.

So we’ll put on the production that we’re going to be showing for the fringe about two months ahead of time, just to like, test it out, make sure there’s no kinks. And if there are, we work them out, we get feedback from the audience and from our, our friends and, and peers. And they tell us what needs working and twerking so that we come to the fringe, we have a really strong production.

So we did this back in May. And I had a panic moment on stage, which very rarely happens to me when I’m playing with the understudies, because I trust them all so much. But I, we were doing this game that I was really not comfortable with that we’ve since cut from the show because I panicked.

It’s called Irish drinking song. Do you know it? Yes, it’s the one where it’s like, oh, I did I did I did I did I did I, and it was going so fast that and I was so wrapped up in my head about what my line was going to be because I had to like come up with something that rhymed with or that kept with the story and rhymed. And I was uncomfortable with the game.

But I hadn’t admitted it to myself. And then my I was standing next to Andrew. And Andrew did his chorus, and I did not hear it.

I was just so wrapped up in my head. I time like glitched. And I didn’t realize that he had finished.

And so when it came to my turn, I panicked. Oh, my God. Why are you looking at your turn in front of the whole audience.

And I put him on the spot. And he knew that he was so courteous that he just did it. And I was devastated.

I’m still devastated that I did that. And that’s I feel like that was a big learning curve for me because I kept thinking I was in my head because I was so desperate to be funny, to sound good to make sure that I was following a story and doing all these things that I wasn’t being a team player. I was being very insular and very selfish.

And it was a necessary wake up call. Because when you’re doing improv, you have to trust each other. You have to be able to rely on each other.

And when you’re in a situation where you don’t necessarily feel comfortable with your other teammate, you’re both putting everybody at risk. You’re putting your team at risk if you’re the one who’s uncomfortable. So I just was devastated.

I was like, oh, my God. And that’s something I’ve been learning is how to and this is the thing. You can do something for years and years and years and then discover that you have something deep inside of you that you still need to fix to make yourself better.

And my thing is that I tend to get so in my head, I don’t even hear people talking. And it’s rare. How long after you did that did you realize that he had gone? Fringeworthy.

Oh, no. About a minute and a half. Because I made him sing through another round and we finished the game.

And I kind of like came to and went, well, wait, what just happened? And I went to Mark and I was like, did Andrew sing twice? Yeah, because you and I was like, oh, my God. And he was like, super sweet about it, obviously, because we’re all friends. But I was just I was devastated.

I was like, oh, God, because I mean, I made sure not only just out of myself, but, you know, out of Andrew. So, yeah, it was I mean, these are the truth moments that you don’t get when you’re, you know, an audience member, right? You don’t have absolutely like, oh, God, what have I done? Um, have you ever had it? No, not like that. Not like that.

I’ve had I’ve had like an epic line that like, completely, like made me laugh and I could not get things together. For like days. Like, I would, I flubbed the line so badly.

And it was so hilarious that I just I was doing Hamlet. And so I, I, the guy was playing Hamlet, I had to test every day after that. Can I make eye contact today? And for in our first scene on stage? Can I make eye contact? Nope.

Okay. And so it was like, almost like four full performances before I could make eye contact and keep things together. It was the worst.

It was the worst because it was like this thing had happened and it took me so out and I laughed on stage like out and out, laughed on stage. And there was I was terrified of doing that. But it was also a really funny thing that happened.

So it was like, I didn’t want either thing. I didn’t want it to happen again. And so I was um, like, I could not get out of my head.

So it took days for me to be able to even really be able to play the role that I was playing. Oh, my God. Oh, it’s like, and you know what, it was my own fault.

Because you know, when you’re in theatre school and stuff, they say never joke about the lines until the show’s over. Never joke about the lines until the show’s over. Well, I was joking about the lines and the show wasn’t over.

And so one of the jokes, because I thought it was so funny. And I said it over and over again, after I found after I heard it. It came out.

And I said it during performance. And that’s what made me yeah, you know, so oh, my God, it was like, literally, and that’s how I now like, don’t fuck with the lines until the show’s over. Well, that’s so funny.

I mean, it’s terrifying. But that’s the one thing that’s nice about improv versus stage is that when you mess up like I did, one, you have like the same thing with theatre, you have people who are there to have your back, and they’ll like, help you with a line or help you through a tough scene or something. But you know, you can laugh with the audience.

Because if the audience sees that happen, you know, and that I mean, that’s the joy that you have, like, you can, like, with this particular line flub, I there was there was no, there was like, there was no, no covering. Nobody was, you know, with the metre, it was like, so like, it worked. But it was like, because I laughed, I couldn’t get away with it.

I was, I was playing many roles. But this one happened during the role of the player King. And just you know, to get it out.

The line as written is a non she finds him striking too short at Greeks. stage manager at the time, you know, they the crew would like do these little ridiculous cartoons. And they thought that it would like that the player King, like beating up on too short Greeks was hilarious.

And so they told me and I said, it wouldn’t be funny if I said that a non she finds him striking at too short Greeks. And so I did. And so I did.

So yeah. Oh, no. Yeah.

Oh, no. I just laughed because I, I was in a production of Hamlet when I was at McMaster, it was called Hamlet’s dorm. And it was actually like, really cool.

It was Hamlet, but we just taken out some of the some of the text and made it so it was six different people representing Hamlet psyche and set in a more modern environment. But I do remember that scene and Hamlet is just not there’s no comedy really in Hamlet. There’s like brief moments with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

But I can imagine if you’re just on stage. Oh my god. The thing is that that role is supposed to be so important and sedate and serious, and I fucked it up.

I fucked it up huge. And the thing is that that everybody on stage was laughing too, which didn’t help. No, but of course, but it was like, you know, I think it was the worst because I laughed everybody else probably could have got away with it.

But anyway. So like when you when you fuck up like that, and you know, you can really like you suddenly get so in your head that, you know, it’s like, you know, people talk about the times that Olivier, not that I’m comparing myself to him, but that he would like, he like he got would get stage fright, or he would like, go through these phases where he’d be afraid of losing his lines. And so he’d be like, nobody talked to me.

He’d be so in his head that he was afraid of losing his line. Yeah. And it’s when you’re in your head, and you’re worried about it, that that’s when that sort of thing happens.

And again, I think that’s kind of what happened to you in that game is you got way into your head. Oh my god, like, I, I wish I could say that I’d had it. Usually, I have the poise to recover.

And, you know, 99% of the time, I can recover. But like, even recently, we were doing a show, and I had food poisoning. And instead of like, recognizing that I had food poisoning and taking a bit of a backseat, I threw myself into a scene and just created this really obnoxious character that wasn’t good for anybody.

And the scene suffered for it, because I didn’t recognize, again, this is something you have to learn, right? I didn’t recognize that I should have just let my team take the lead. And now I’ll like, I’ve learned that forever. And it wasn’t like it was the worst scene ever.

The Understudies, I’m so grateful to say, have always put on phenomenal shows, like we’ve always had really great feedback. I’ve had maybe two shows with them that I think the four or the four of us can agree were like, mediocre, but they were still good, because we’re strong improvisers. I feel very confident saying that we’re very strong, the four of us work really well together.

But it is in those moments, when you have to, like, take a second and think about what you’ve done, and how it’s affected others. It’s not even about how they’ve, you know, if there’s a situation where they’ve affected you, it’s about how you affect them. And in something like improv, because you work so closely together, you have to be aware of what you’re doing, and how it’s like affecting your team.

And those learning experiences are fucking hard. They’re hard. But they bleed into every other part of your life.

Like, I’m sure with this, like, you know, now, like, you don’t joke about the line. But at the same time, you since that happened? Yeah, yeah. And like, if you’re better for it, but there’s always still that, like, little bit of your conscious.

I’m totally conscious of it. I’m totally conscious of like, you know, if I hear other people fucking with lines, I’m like, let me tell you a little story of what happens when you fuck with the line before the show’s over. Yeah, and it’s so true.

Like, I do the same thing. Now, when I was teaching, I taught a workshop series at the Staircase, about a month ago, and I had this phenomenal group of performers, both new and advanced. And I used a lot of like, those terror moments that you hope that they don’t have to go through, so that you learn from and you can, like, tell them through your, your, like, fragile wisdom.

Just like, I did. Well, yeah. And I mean, don’t do.

Well, you know, on the other hand, you know, telling people not to do a thing is never going to sink in as much as when they do the thing. So you know, you could try to save them from that. But they are probably not going to really remember that in the same way that they will until years from now, when they do the thing.

And they’ll be like, you know, I remember now, Christy said, never do this thing. I remember that now. But I had to do that thing to make it sink in.

You’re right. Like a million times, right? It’s so funny. I just make sure they get that meme again.

Like, you can do the thing. But it’s, God, and that’s the power of theatre, right? Is that it doesn’t matter if someone tells you, it’s going back to theatre school, you can try a million things and listen to your professors and listen to professionals and do all of the, you know, all of the work. But until you’re actually doing it, you’ll never be able to experience what that exhilaration is, what that fear is.

No. And it’s funny because, you know, when I was in theatre school, they used to say, eventually, you will understand everything that I’m trying to tell you right now. You won’t right now.

And I was like, listen, you fucking old man, what are you talking about with that shit? Don’t think me that. Just tell me what I need to know. Don’t go through all of this rigmarole and one day you’ll understand.

And then one day I understood. And I was like, oh. And recently I’ve been like, I would love to go back to theatre school knowing what I know now because I would approach it so differently.

But again, I mean, it’s the things that you know now. Like if I was still 19 and going through theatre school, I probably would still be a punk ass kid. Yeah.

Maybe a little bit of an asshole, like a little fool himself. Oh, yeah. No, I was.

I remember when I started at Mac, I was like, I’ve been in four productions. I’m an artist. No, you’re not.

Shut up. Get out of your own. Get your head out of your ass.

But you’re right. You can’t. And that’s why, again, we go back to failure.

Failure is important. Failure is a part of like. And it’s I think it’s the worst and best part about being a creative person, because if you’re like someone who works with numbers or you work like, let’s say you work as an accountant and you do your math wrong, like you don’t think, oh, this is a growing opportunity.

No, you just math. But like when you’re a theatre person or you work in the arts, you have this beautiful opportunity to, you know, take the things that you’ve learned about yourself from being on stage or being on camera or writing or directing or producing. And you have these moments where you can really like learn and grow as a person along with your art.

Like it’s so special. Who gets like what other profession gets to do that? It’s hard, but I feel like you become well-rounded if you can do it well. Absolutely.

Christy, where can we find you online, you and The Understudies? Well, you can find us all over the place. We have all kinds of social media, but we are on Facebook at just The Understudies Hamilton. And you can find us on Twitter.

We’re Understudies Ham. And we are very active on Instagram, which is also Understudies Ham, both the same Twitter handle as Instagram. And yeah, we’re all over the Fringe website and hashtag Team Staircase.

And where can we find you, Christy? Yeah, we’re just really pumped. Yes. Do you have your own Twitter or Instagram that you want to share? I have my own Twitter and Instagram.

I’m just at Christy.Bolton for both Facebook and Instagram. I’m not really active on Twitter, to be perfectly honest, unless you want to read the Bolton blurt which is a daily newspaper that goes out. What is the Bolton blurt? What does that do? It’s this newspaper thing I curate and it goes out daily.

But I don’t publicize it very much because it’s such an almost forgotten internet thing. I don’t really know how else to describe it. But I sometimes have people being like, oh, I remember the Bolton blurt was really good yesterday.

I’m like, you read that? So I’ll pitch it now. But you can also just find me and the rest of the Understudies at The Staircase. That’s usually where we’re hanging out doing improv.

And the Hamilton Fringe starts… When does the Hamilton Fringe start? Oh, it starts on the 19th. So by the time people are hearing this, we will be in the middle of Fringe. You will be tired.

You will be in the middle of doing 10 performances. I hope that you’re hydrated and caffeinated and you’re having a good Fringe. Thank you.

This has been a Homebody Productions production.