Kat Letwin, Michael Musi & Kat Sandler of Theatre Brouhaha and Zoomer Live Theatre’s Late Night
The old boys club of late night talk shows is about to be injected with an atomic shot of millennial female. Welcome to the final taping of Marty O’Malley’s Early Late Show, where heir apparent to the host chair, comedienne Sarah Goldberg (Kat Letwin ) is about the fill the very large shoes of reluctant retiree Marty O’Malley (Alon Nashman). The kicker? The Early Late Show is going LIVE, for the first time in 22 years.
To commemorate the passing of the torch, long time executive producer of The Early Late Show has organized to have Marty and Sarah share the host chair. A mistake, that may be the first and last of her career, after a freudian slip throws the taping into chaos.
Housed in media mogul Moses Znaimer Zoomerplex, The Zoomer Live Theatre, will serve as both a theatre and TV studio for Late Night. The theatrical event will be recorded live for broadcast on Vision TV, providing an interesting meta theatrical TV experiment for both the audience and creative team. Kat Sandler’s original script, which won the Fringe 24 hour playwriting contest in 2014 caught Znaimer’s interest due to its unique examination of ageism in the media and entertainment sector. The generational partnership between Canada’s best known media mogul and it’s hottest young playwright has created the perfect breeding ground for the next theatrical smash hit of the year.
Late Night Opens Oct 7, 2016
Kat Letwin:
http://letwinka.tumblr.com/
@letwinka
Michael Musi
@michaelmusi
Kate Sandler
@katsandler
Theatre Brouhaha
http://www.theatrebrouhaha.com/
@TheatreBrouhaha
Stageworthy:
http://www.stageworthypodcast.com
Twitter @stageworthyPod
Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod
Transcript
Welcome to episode 43 of Stageworthy. I’m your host, Phil Rickaby. Stageworthy is a podcast about people in Canadian theatre.
On Stageworthy, I talk to theatre makers in Canada about their journey, about theatre in general, and wherever else the conversation might take us. If you’d like to be a guest on Stageworthy or just want to drop me a line, you can find Stageworthy on Facebook and Twitter at StageWorthyPod, and you can find the website at StageWorthyPodcast.com. If you enjoy the podcast, I hope you’ll subscribe on iTunes or Google Music or whatever podcast app you use, and consider leaving a comment or rating. My guests are Kat Letwin, Michael Musi, and Kat Sandler, talking about Theatre Brouhaha’s upcoming play, Late Night, performing at Moses Nymer’s Zoomerplex in Toronto.
Musi? Yeah. Musi like a moose. Musi like a moose.
Kat Letwin, thank you so much for coming on. This is your rehearsing Late Night? That’s right. Kat Sandler’s new show, and you’re rehearsing it in an act, like, is this happening in an actual TV studio? Yes, yeah, so they actually still shoot, they shoot like some live news segments, they shoot other programs that I don’t know of.
There’s one called, uh, I think, was it, uh, Music Shool? I saw, I saw the cover for that. The show is called Music Shool? Not this one that we’re doing. I mean, actually, I kind of wished it was called Music Shool.
They do have one. I mean, there was like the, like, the title card for it was all over the different, uh, TV screens around the studio, and I was just like, I’m gonna check that out. Yeah, I’m not.
Uh, no. That’s, uh, that’s because of who you are as a person. Fundamentally flawed.
Thank you. You’re welcome. Um, so what is it like rehearsing a play in a TV studio? What? It’s, it’s odd.
Yeah, well, I mean, the play itself takes place in a TV studio, so I think it’s a big blessing that we get to use this space, because a lot of times, uh, when you rehearse a play, you do it in a rehearsal hall, and then you get to the theater, and it’s just a stage, so the, the, the shift to, from the rehearsal space to the, the theater is not so jarring. Yeah. Whereas if we didn’t get to see this space at all, I think it would be terrifying.
Yeah. Because there’s so much to work with. It would, it would be so much more overwhelming, you know, for me personally, just seeing all the different cameras and, like, types of equipment, and knowing that it’s all gonna be moving around, uh, to be able to really get a, like, a physically intimate knowledge of the space, so that when, you know, the cameras are, are, are zooming about the old bodies in the space, I won’t immediately panic.
Don’t do that. What? No. What I, you know what I like about you, Michael Moussey? Tell me.
Uh, I like that, um, that you care about, uh, who I am, and how I present myself to the world. He’s great. He’s always jumping in and just telling me how terrible I am.
Stop talking. Stop talking. He’s doing it again.
Um, but yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s very important. It’s interesting in the rehearsal, uh, uh, space here, being in the TV studio, hearing how the acoustics work differently. Yeah.
Um, and then also be practicing, um, with the parts that were mic’d, uh, live for it, and the parts where we’re not. So also the idea of having to, um, uh, use different, most of, like, uh, volume control, and, uh, and the, the face that you’re making for TV versus the face you’re making for the theatrical audience, um, that’s, that’s in the room. It really is like we’re, we’re rehearsing to, uh, a play and a TV segment.
Yeah. Is that what it is? Yeah, which is exactly what it is. We’re also very aware that we’re in a room with hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment, and we’re all dumb actors who are like, let’s try this.
And then we’re like, but if I try that and break something, no one will ever hire me. No, no, never. I’ll owe so much money that I’ll never be able to pay because I’m an actor.
Um, and that’s how, that’s how my life will be after this moment. Um, yeah, yeah. Uh, it’s odd because, you know, we did another Kat Sandler play together a couple of years ago called Retreat, and we were rehearsing in this basement space, windowless, clockless basement space for, for many, many, many hours a day.
Um, but it was somehow more comfortable because yeah, you could just like flail around and really explore the whole space because you, like there’s water stains everywhere and there’s nothing worth a whole lot of money stored down there. So it’s like, cool. I can just like punch kick my way toward my character, which is what we did, which is exactly what we did.
It was a very karate based. Um, so this show from the way you’re describing it is the audience in space. We’ll be watching you on a play, but also will there be parts that are broadcast to them live? Yeah, they’ll be, they’ll be, uh, signing release, uh, forms, um, because they’ll also appear actually being broadcast or it is.
Yeah. Well, we’re not live. No, but, but we are shooting.
There’s going to be a few days of shooting where they’re shooting the whole performance and a lot, uh, audience reactions and it’s going to be broadcast on vision TV. There are so many, so many dick jokes for, for vision TV. Is vision TV still religious programming? I think it’s some, I think they have some, they have music shul.
I do recall, um, uh, when I lived at the, this, this former roommate of mine, uh, yo, Aaron telling me if you’re listening to this, shout out to you. Um, and she had cable for a bit and we would love just watching so many reruns of like seventh heaven on vision TV. So for me, that’s what that is.
Yeah. Are we seventh heaven here? No, no, we’re the ninth circle of hell. Um, yeah.
So that’s actually a question. The thing you were saying, let’s do this. The thing that you were saying about the audience, um, the cool part as well for the audience, because it’s so different for us as well.
We’re doing a theater and we’re doing the TV shows. It’s the same for them. Whereas the audience I think will also be like, am I reacting now as a TV audience, which is the laugh untold or, and then when can I be a fear audience where I could laugh or I decide it’s funny.
Right. Yeah. So I think that’s going to be really fun for them to play with as well.
Is there a concern that, that, cause if I’m, I am assuming that there’s an applause sign that will go on for, right. Yeah. Audiences have trouble making shifts sometimes.
Like I’ve done theory of it’s in a style of silent film and because the actors aren’t making noise, sometimes the audience feels like they can’t make noise. And so sometimes if it’s almost like once they get into one head spaces in order to break them out. Well, luckily for us, we’re screening the whole time.
Yeah. I think like, well, my, so my characters, I play an intern who, um, has to take everyone’s job. So I ended up being the audience, uh, warm, upper, warmer, warmer, upper guy, uh, as well as like the, the cue card guy and stuff like that.
And so I think my job at the beginning is very much going to, is very much going to be, uh, letting the audience know kind of what we need from them and what will help out. And I think once that first little segment happens, I think people will catch on. Yeah.
Uh, and then we’re just hoping and goes, well, we don’t know. We have no idea. Uh, yeah.
Uh, who, who knows? Not us. Not us. I don’t want to experiment to think about, uh, a show.
Well, for one thing, I mean, it’s one thing to write a show that’s set in a, a play that’s set in the TV studio, entirely different to actually get to do it in a TV studio. Yeah. Right.
Yeah. And, uh, that’s part of what is, uh, so delightful and so, uh, nebulous, I suppose. Um, like, as you said, it’s an experiment.
We, we don’t know how it’s going to go, but, um, uh, Kat Sandler, not Kat, not me. You don’t talk. No, I wouldn’t have stopped doing that.
Anyway, I’m doing it again. It’s terrible. I’ll go to my therapist and talk about it.
It’s fine. Um, uh, so, so, uh, Kat Sandler has been calling it immersive, uh, 0.5. Yes. Where, um, you know, we’ll, we’ll have kind of like a pre-show setup where there’s a holding space for the audience.
And, you know, uh, much like when you’re going to see a taping of like a late show, um, there’ll be all these things around, you know, you can watch like, you know, like posters from, uh, you know, the, uh, late night, like early, late night with Marty O’Malley, um, uh, stuff about my character who’s, uh, taking over for, uh, uh, taking over Marty’s seat. Um, so they get the feeling and the experience of, of waiting in line for, uh, really being in a studio. So when they go in, it’s like, oh yes, this is exactly what this world is.
And I think what the real fun and the real joy and the real experiment will be is, uh, how the audience feels and shifts when we start from this very structured beginning, uh, right from the holding area to, uh, uh, Michael starting off and warming up and having the applause side and all that. And much, uh, much like what happens in the show as, as, as the show, uh, breaks down as, as what this, this live final broadcast for Marty O’Malley is supposed to be, as it starts going off the rails, then the audience is allowed to kind of follow that train wreck and they’ll find their own rhythm and their own comfort. And I firmly believe in trusting in the audience and both the, like, um, the, the emotional intelligence and the, I was going to say regular intelligence, you know, intelligence, intelligence.
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, uh, brain, brain book smarts.
Um, I think there’ll be able to go with it. Um, uh, we trust that they’ll trust us and we trust them. So, uh, you know, it’s like, all right, let’s all take each other’s hands and, uh, uh, fly off the edge of this cliff together.
Right guys. And also, you know, it can very much be very different shows every night where we have an audience that is, you know, very rowdy and really joins in. The audience that is terrified about what’s going on.
I mean, that’s going to be so fun to play with as well. And we kind of have that freedom. I mean, we’re, we’re on script, but I think we can play with the vibes that we’re getting.
And I think that’ll be really cool. You’ll have, I mean, you get that in regular series. Right.
Exactly. Yeah. It doesn’t have to be about the immersive experience.
Um, so you guys have done, done cat sandwich plays or one cat sandwich play together. And then you also did, I did another one as well. Yeah.
I did a liver after I did retreat with, uh, with, uh, Cat Letwin. You were so good. Oh my God.
Thank you. You were awful. We’re having a ball.
Oh, we’re friends. Um, in terms of, uh, getting in, starting in theater, when, when did you, each of you decide that theater was what you wanted to do? Do you remember when you started acting or doing theater? Yes. Yes.
I remember it very clearly. Um, so it was, uh, I did a summer drama camp with theater Brantford cause I, I, um, grew up in Brantford, Ontario and, uh, they had the camp going on at the Sanderson center, which is this beautiful proscenium dates back to 1919 gorgeous theater. And we were putting on a production of Beauty and the Beast.
So they were using like the kids and teens from, uh, the camp and like mounting this production on this gorgeous stage. And I remember also I was like nine and I was cast as the old woman. And I was like, ah, that’s because of my gravitas, obviously I’m nine.
Um, and I remember just, just not. Is that what you sounded like when you were nine? Yeah, I was a heavy smoker when I was nine. It was a real bad, like pack and a half day, nine-year-old me.
Um, it’s Brantford. So yeah. Who cares? Uh, yeah.
Hanging out the Delta bingo, just smoking as a nine-year-old. Anywho. So we’re on stage and I just remember thinking to myself, like I have never felt anything like this before.
This, this, this, this pure feeling of electricity, the idea of coming out, making character choices, being in the moment, not so much seeing, but feeling the audience and feeling that energy and feeling the way that the show can change every night that we do it. And then they’re like, for some reason, all the cool teens, uh, when they were backstage would eat these like raw potatoes, like they were props and I, and I got to eat the potatoes with them and I was just like, oh, I’m a cool kid. Uh, this is amazing.
And I just remember feeling like I, I, I, I knew that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Like it was just locked in. It was just like, yeah, this is it.
I’ve, I’ve never felt so much love and I have never felt so much joy and everything else that I had done up to that point just felt fine, felt good, but this felt transcended. Did, do you have a sense of, of, of acting or anything before you went to that summer program? Did your parents just sort of throw you into it as something you do for the summer? Yeah, they physically threw me, uh, yeah, into it. Well, they wanted to toughen me up and I think it worked.
Um, no, I’m not, I’m laughing at the memories of joy. Um, no, I, I, I mean, in the sense that I had seen like some like kids plays before and, um, I, I enjoyed like acting stuff out at home with my brother. Like it was very, I loved, um, making up stories and, um, uh, writing and play acting and all that kind of stuff.
So it just seems some like something that I’d like to do and something I’d like to try. And yeah, like I didn’t know I would love it that much, but it was one of those kind of feelings. I’m like, I think, I think I might quite like this.
So I’m going to give it, give it the old college try. And then, uh, yeah, I’ve been doing it ever since basically. How long between, at what point did you realize that everything you could do as a living? Let’s all be realistic as a living.
Um, I guess in high school, um, I was, uh, there was one, when I was in grade nine, I was doing, uh, three plays at once. Uh, I was doing, um, uh, production for the Sears drama festival. Uh, I was in rehearsals for a community production of the crucible.
And then I was also going to gearing up for rehearsals for like it’s Christmas, Charlie Brown, also at the Sanderson center. And, uh, again, like I I’d feel that joy. And then I’d also feel myself getting better.
And I would, you know, not that like we had a lot of like reviews coming in or anything, but I got a lot of very positive feedback. And when I was in my drama classes in high school too, like I, I, I just, I found myself being able to dive into it in a way that I either chose not to, or just didn’t want to with my other classes. And, uh, in grade 12, I’d, uh, I’d written a play, uh, called that as a Canadian for the Sears drama festival.
And it, it got a lot of, uh, momentum and, uh, it won some awards and it was picked up for a couple of festivals. And I’d been applying to a bunch of schools and I had auditioned for some, uh, like acting conservatories. And like, I was, I was getting into all of them and I was getting scholarships for them as well.
And I thought, okay, you know, my parents were very supportive. They’re like, well, if this is something that you really want to study, then that’s totally fine, but just get a degree. So in case it doesn’t work out, cause it probably won’t not, cause we don’t think you’re good and we don’t love you, but it probably won’t.
Um, you know, you’ll, you’ll be prepared, but I don’t know, in the back of my head, I thought like, no, I understand how much work it is. I, I get it. It’s, it’s a grind.
It requires strength of both, uh, you know, spirit and conviction. Um, and I, I think I have that and it means enough to me and it’s important enough to me that I will make it work because if I don’t, I, I can’t see myself ever really being happy. So, um, yeah, it was the sense of like, oh, I can do this because I have to, because if I don’t, yeah.
Yeah. So yeah. Michael, you’re, you’re seeing this sort of question to you.
When did you start performing? Well, when I was, I was, I think I was eight years old and my cousin was in a show at his high school called the blue and gold review. They did it every year. And it was like, it was this really like stupid variety show where they would like write the script.
And then they’d say something like, uh, they’d end the, the, the last line with like a song title and then it’d go dark. And then someone would be singing that song and then it’d go back. It was a really weird show, but I remember watching it and being, I was like eight years old.
And I was like, what the hell is this? Like what the hell? But like in a good way, I was like, what the hell is this? And I remember all my cousins were sleeping and I was just like, the hell is going on? Why are people doing this on stage? This is the best. And I went home and I remember like writing down what I remembered was the play and performing it in my basement. And then, uh, yeah.
And I was eight. And I remember telling my mom, like, I’m going to high school. I don’t care what’s going on.
I’m going to high school. I’m going to be in that show. And I did.
And I remember I went to that high school and just for it to be in those blue and gold reviews, which at the time was like Broadway. Of course. Yeah.
I was like, I need, I, when I got there, I was like, I’ve made it, you know? And, uh, and I, and I did the shows and it was never, it’s kind of like what I was saying. It was never not an, it was never an option to not do it. It was yeah.
Um, yeah. The second I saw that I 100% knew right away. It wasn’t even something that I really talked about.
It was just like, Oh, well, just so you know, I’m going to be an actor now, everybody. And, um, my parents were insanely supportive. My dad is like super, uh, he’s just like a farmer from Turkey.
And, uh, and he was like, he, you would think that he’d be like, no, be a doctor, you know? And he was like, maybe because I was not good at school, but he was like, he was like, yeah, totally. And my mom was like 100 P. So then, uh, yeah, my mom was really slangy. Uh, and, uh, yeah.
And then, um, after high school, I went to a CGF in Montreal for a couple of years and then I got into a school in New York, went there and then moved to Toronto and Kat was actually the first person I ever auditioned for. When I got to Toronto, I just found her on Kijiji and I auditioned and I remembered thinking, Oh my God, like Toronto playwrights are insanely talented. And then I realized that she was very rare.
No, I’m just saying like, you know, like I, I saw when I read her script, I was like, this is incredible. I’m so excited to see what else is out there. And I quickly found out that Kat was insanely special.
Her style of writing was, it just resonated so much with me. I’ve had, it was so amazing. It’s so funny and so quick and witty.
It’s like a man that wasn’t a piece of shit. Yes, yes, yes. And it was a obnoxious foodie.
Like Kat’s a big obnoxious foodie, like I am. And so I just, anyway, so we, yeah, she wrote, she wrote this play and I auditioned and I didn’t get it. I did not get it.
And I went to go see the play and sat on my chair and was like, no. And then, uh, she gets all that in her face. Do you remember which, which play that was? That was Love, Sex, Money.
It was her first, it was her first play that she did outside of school, I think. Yes. Yeah.
I think so. Uh-huh. And, uh, and Danny Paget got it.
And I was like, I love Danny now. But at the time I was like, I hate that piece of garbage. Uh, and then, uh, tire fire of a human.
And then I literally auditioned for every single one of her plays and did. And I remember every time she’d be, I’d get a call from mom, like, this is it. And she’d be like, babe, it’s not this one.
I it’s not this one, but I promise you it’s going to be one. I promise you. And I was like, yeah, I don’t care.
I don’t care. And I’d hang up and be like, no. Uh, and then finally, when I got retreat, um, it was just like, like, like Kat was saying, we were in a stupid basement, the darkest, most disgusting basement.
And it was like the time of my life. I loved it. We spent like, we had 14 hour days sometimes in that basement, uh, with no windows and tiny little breaks.
Cause we were all in our twenties. Just like, we don’t, we just want to do this. We just want to make this good.
And she’d be like, I think, are you guys tired? Nope, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let’s keep doing it. And there are like anytime we’d stop to like eat, like there are so many photos of us just like sprawled out on top of each other, like puppies, you know, or just like, Oh God, like eating things from a can.
Like, it’s great. Like also like puppies. We had the time of our lives and we all knew that this was something so special and that this wasn’t something that we would get the chance to do with so many other people.
Like, cause it was nice because, and with this process too, there’s this feeling of like, okay, we have the script and, uh, we have, uh, uh, Oh, Kat Sandler just walked right in. Just when we’re seeing so many nice things. Anyway, let’s stop.
So here’s another reason why she’s a piece of garbage. Can we spit on this or no? Absolutely. Penis! Sorry, it’s in the plate.
Tampon. Tampon. There’s got to be one person who’s listening and they’re hearing all this other than just you whispering tampon into the mic.
Is that what you whispered? It’s important for my personal politics. So yeah, what were you saying? Yeah. The, the fuel of the, the process, um, let me explain your process to you.
Can I kind of, yeah, I got it. It’s like, um, it, well, it’s not, it’s not collective creation because the script is already there. The idea is there.
Um, there is like the clear, like arc and you have your characters, you’re going into it. That’s totally great. But then it becomes this kind of hybrid of working on your feet and then, uh, working in a writer’s room where we’re going through what Kat has brought to us.
And we’re going like in that for, for late night, it was especially a lot of table work. We’re going like joke by joke, line by line. What is it that we can lose? What is it that we really mean? Okay.
And then you figure out the character so much more intimately that way. So that when you, we are on our feet, and we’re still like making changes to the script, we’re still making cuts and we’re adding things or realizing there are better things we can say or better ways to say that better thing that we want to say. Um, so you, your, your hands, you know, your hands are really in the dirt on it.
Like you’re, you’re, you’re just so ensconced. Um, and when everything is shifting and shaping itself, you’re shifting and shaping with it. Um, so suddenly it’s not necessarily that the lines are living in yourself, but this, the idea and the soul of everything behind the lines is there.
And then it’s so much easier to keep going with this, like fly by the seat of your pants, script changes and all these rewrites. And it doesn’t feel that crazy because it’s just like, of course, this is, this is how this needs to find itself. This is like a sense of like, everything is there that needs to be there, but you’re chipping away until you find like the, you know, like the, the, the dinosaur skeleton or paleontologist.
Now this is a very mixed metaphor. Thank you. Thank you.
Can I offer you an empty cocktail? There you go. Thank you. Um, and another thing about the way that Kat works, um, which is the best as an actor is that, um, you have, you, you, she always lets you, um, bring up ideas and bring up suggestions and she’s always open to those things.
And she always also knows when there’s like, I, like I said, this is my third play and I’ve done two plays and there was not a single line in any of those I didn’t enjoy saying because she, and I think she, she has such a great, she has such great, um, uh, I don’t know if that stupid word is, but she knows she just couldn’t tell when there’s something that’s just not sitting right. And she, uh, no, it’s, uh, God, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, definitely not. Absolutely not.
And she’d be like, great. And she, I remember she, she said this a lot in retreat was like, um, instinct was okay. She said a lot was like, If you don’t like something, just don’t say, I don’t like this, give me a suggestion.
And she wouldn’t, and she’d be like, okay. And if she liked it, she’d say, try it. And she’s like, half the time in the rehearsal room, it’s try it, try it, give it a shot.
Let’s try it. And then sometimes you’ll try it and she’ll be like, no. No, garbage, garbage.
And then you like, something you feel in your head and you’re just like, yeah, this is gonna be so good. And she’s like, try it. I’m like, yeah, try it.
Oh no, I’m so sorry I did that. I know, and sometimes you feel so confident, you’re like, Kat, I should definitely say, there’s the moon. And then she’s like, I don’t know, I’m a cat.
I need to say it. She’s like, try it. And I’ll say, there’s the moon.
And right away, I’d be like, yeah, no, that’s not gonna work. Nope, there’s not something at all. Moon is not there, moon’s not there.
What’s in snow moon? Yeah. Kat, could I ask you, Kat Sandler, and I know that I had two Kats during Kat Sandler, could I ask you about how the production of A Layman came about? Yeah, we, I met Moses. I don’t know, maybe a year and a half, two years ago, at a screening of Cock Hype.
I mean, they had called it for tea. And we met, I was very drunk, so he met me. And then we just kind of stood in touch and started hanging out a little bit.
And I had written this play for the 24-hour play contest at French in 2015. And then when I first came and visited, I was visiting the TB Museum. Moses has a TB museum here, it’s crazy.
And I went out to the space and I was like, I have a show that will work so well here. And then we just didn’t, he’d do anything away. He was like, yeah, you can do it here.
I was like, that’s great. And then I just didn’t do it. Why aren’t you writing to me, I don’t know.
He’s like, you don’t have any money. So he, I’ll produce it. So that’s pretty much it.
So we kind of, I made a lot of talks about the script and about kind of how it related, because he’s like the face of Zoomer. He’s gold, isn’t he? His empire is built on this generation. So we do a lot of chats about how that would inform kind of the arguments we fly in.
It’s been really cool. He’s a cool kid. Did you get input on the way the television works? I know, now I’m getting that from his team.
Like the student that’s gonna be involved in the actual production, like he’s met with sound by today. Like, it’s like, you don’t have a set designer or a lighting designer for this. It’s gonna be there to manage that.
So yeah, I think the next tech week is gonna be probably the most crazy tech week of LA. Well, with this tech week, you’re mixing like theater and television. Y’all, there are gonna be a bunch of people.
They’re gonna film it like three to five times for television in the final week of performance. So that’ll be a whole set of people that are on site previous to that. And then for actual regular shows, there’ll be a couple camera people running around too, that’ll be filming the documentary.
And then we’ll be projecting that onto the screens around. Do you see the room? I didn’t get to see the room. No, no, that’s all right.
I think I saw some lights glowing from the door. As soon as I heard about this, I thought this is fucking perfect. Like, to do a show about a television show in a television studio.
It almost makes too much sense, some of you say. You know, it does make too much sense, I would say. Excellent.
Yes, but I think the idea, it’s immersive in a way that we don’t get. We’ve been calling it immersive point. Oh, we talked about this already, Sandler.
Sorry. Tom, thank you. No, you should just take it.
Tom, he’ll be cool with it. If you just say that you can’t. Right, you’ll be cool with it, right, Tom? Thanks.
Thanks, Timon. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, Tom.
Love you. It could because it’s, a lot of other, in a lot of other spots, you would be doing this play and basically the audience would have to imagine the television aspect, but now it’s. That’s a lot to imagine, but a lot.
Like, there’s a lot. Perfect, but it is a really cool blueprint for what could be the bigger, I think, as an idea, depending on how much you want it to infest. And they’re trusting us with a lot.
Like, and I mean, we’re really just these gaffs running around the corporate offices stealing their coffee. Yeah, that’s true. Like, sure, okay, I’ll be a big test, I’ll be a student.
For that one time, Siobhan came by with like leftover pizza from some other meeting and I was just like, oh my God, what’s she eating? I was just like, this place is off the hook. Yeah, but I’m thinking some, I think it will be cool. I mean, even if we just did it in the studio, we would just do it in film, think it would be cool? Even a quarter of what I’m imagining happens, it’ll be dope.
It’ll be super cool. Even today, with just the sound design, just playing that like, that typical kind of late night talk show music in between commercials, looking at the space while hearing that music, I was like, what the fuck is going on? It’s so cool. It’s so cool.
Just, just minds exploding. I know, I know. It’s like, oh wow, it’s so real.
I so badly want to see this show. Yeah, I can’t wait to see this show. You’re in it.
Oh, shit. Okay, that makes sense. That’s why I’ve been here so much.
How much of this is in you asking questions and not much of it is? It’s a day’s work. Sorry. No, no, no, that’s what I want.
Then I’m not sorry. And your head socket needs a lot of talking. Great.
It’s a good interview if I’m not talking perf. Oh, and Kat, I talked a little bit with Kat and Michael about what drew them to theater and how they got started. I’d love to ask you the same question and basically, Lynn, why for you theater? Yeah, I think, I mean, I was always a bit of a tyrant.
I used to like direct my cuts and stuff and I was a bit bothered. It’s a little thing that I’ve written just for the praise. We’re just really, I had a kid.
But I think it was, I think this theater and I’m starting to move towards television now, but I think theater was just the fastest way to come up with an idea and present it to an audience because you really don’t need a lot. And I think that’s the biggest misconception about theater is that like, God, it takes so much to get a show up. No, it doesn’t.
It just takes a bunch of people who are willing to now you pay. But that’s it. Hi.
Hi. And that, I mean, this is the first production that Ruho has gotten involved that hasn’t been a festival production. Technically, that is like a full-length production because we’re not being worked.
So it’s like, I think, and there’s something so beautiful that the immediacy of theater, like in this all-time theater, but it’s like working this, working the way I think I want to work in television and theater makes this process kind of special. And I think it’s really, it’s really fun to develop what my actual process in this. Sir, may I have your question? No, it’s me.
Well, the question should be you, but like, do you remember what first made you want to do theater? Aside from that, the immediacy, when young Kat Sandler started writing or thinking about theater, what was it? Well, I used to write short stories and then I would do those plays at like Better Cottage. But then I, my first produced play was I adapted into a book, a children’s book. I wouldn’t add addition.
There was point, there’s more than luck where they count to 10 and it was about a group of animals in the forest and they learned that there are different ways to count 10. I adapted it as play and I put my crush in the title rollup, Dianne. That’s what you do.
Three great singers. And I directed a little workshop production for the whole school. And I really liked that.
And then I kind of like, no, I’m going to be a fantasy actor. So I’ll just leave that one for a bit. But then the same kind of thing happened in high school.
I did a production of, I wrote and directed, started up in a play called The Good Detective. It’s beautiful. And that felt pretty great.
So the poor Alex, which was now his tease. I kind of used space. It was a good space.
Yeah, it was great. And we didn’t know, I’d be the actors before, but we walked in and smelled so much pot. We were like, what’s that smell? And they were like, Soapy Cheezos and those for three nights.
And we were like, okay, you go. I had no idea what my note was. But yeah, and I think it just makes sense.
I really loved, really liked audiences. And that’s kind of been our thing at Brouhaha from day one is like we’re doing this for those people, huh? For us, it’s fine for us, but you put your audience first always. That’s, I mean, that’s one of those things that is, there was this period of time in the 90s where I would go to these gatherings of people who were making theater.
And the phrase I would always hear is, I’m making art for artists. And I would always sit there raging silently at them, thinking like art for artists, but you’re making theater. What about your audience? So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
And I’m accused all the time is that being super populist and making this like pop, whatever I’m looking for. Pop culture? Yeah, like such that just feels poppy. And I’m like, okay.
I mean, that’s, I’m okay with that. I will be okay with that. It’s, I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it.
That people are enjoying it, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I think as long as it’s got a certain level of consistency, I’m okay to be the person that you’re like, okay, yeah, we can go see that because it’ll at least really fun. Is there a particular approach that you take to not just writing, but producing a Brouhaha show? I, well, I think it depends.
This is very different because we’re- This one is very different. Yeah, I mean, I think it starts with the pitch and that’s like goes all the way back to before I write something. I’m like, okay, I know that I have a slot in this time period and we’re in this space.
What do I wanna see? Okay, we’ve done the Burakami, we’ve done the Vetcola and that’s Liber. What’s the elevator sentence for something that I wanna see? Okay, late night coast, the Defraya slip on air, the show’s toast pieces. That’s something that I can sell in a sentence.
Not bad on that one. Yeah, I’m quitting. It’s like, what’s the one, what’s the elevator pitch that gets someone excited? And then how do you promote around that? What’s the image that makes people wonder what the show’s about and why they’ll see it for now? What’s the video that you put into e-mails and we, I knew a lot of social media marketing, like that’s been most of it for day one.
So how do you tease photos of production? How do you do reversal photos? How do you go clap by soundbites? How does all that kind of work? That’s all super important stuff that I think people don’t think about in terms of theater anymore or at all really. I think slowly people are starting to realize it, but I know that Bruja does something that I think a lot of companies would love to do, like just in terms of promotion. Well, and I think a lot of companies too and I briefly worked in the PR department of a few theater companies.
Back in the day. And I noticed that there’s a lack of understanding of like rules and policy of engagement for people using social media. Like people understand now, especially in 2016, they’re like, right, Twitter is important.
People are on Facebook, Snapchat, sure, okay. Should we be making vines? Should we be doing that? And it’s like, okay, they are aware of the tools, but there’s a lack of study or knowledge about how people and how specific demographics engage with those tools and why they’re engaging with them. So it’s not just about pumping out content.
It has to be directed content. It has to be content that understands what kind of audience you want to have. Audience is a huge deal.
And it’s also that people aren’t, Tom and I do a TEDx talk, it’d be hard to say it. People, you’re competing for people’s attention so hard you have to speak in the vocabulary that you’re presenting for Huston. So like you look at the way TV and film is bar marketed and it’s like, you feel like, oh, those are beautiful.
The teasers are sexy. Like you can’t, I don’t want to just put, like if I’m doing late night, I don’t want to put a picture, a little hand-drawn picture of a TV on a poster. That’s not going to sell it for me.
When I see it, when these HBO things shot by my friend Leibovitz, Annie Leibovitz, one of them. Annie. Annie Leibovitz, her friend Leibovitz.
She’s also pretty cool, I think. Anyway, we’re just offending all the ladies. But I think it’s like, how do you, yeah, who’s who, how do you lure an audience away from Netflix, it’s pretty fucking hard.
And just saying, which we can play is not enough. No. Well, Tom, Tom McGue was on this podcast last year and talked about HBO being sort of like an inspiration for how you would watch stuff.
Totally. And I think like, well, that’s what like all of our titles, like I think like even, yeah, from title even. Well, like I wouldn’t, I don’t think I’d call something like, and then the wind ran through the barley.
Can I be an ally? Can I be an ally? Hear me shredding my copy of it? Love, Sex, Money? The first one, yeah. And we were like, what’s it about? It’s just about a sex robot, ultimately. Yeah, I think a lot of people have a, if you build it, they will come mentality.
And that’s not true. It’s not true at all. Why? Well, exactly.
And this is what I think hooks on to what you were saying before about making theater for audiences. Then you can’t just say like, I done did a thing. Come see the thing I done did.
Like people are, why, as you said, why would they care? If I’m not giving you a reason to care, then why should they automatically care just because I made something? I don’t know. Like it’s like a two-year-old who takes a shit and then it’s like, come look at the poo I made. It’s like, ah, okay, great.
I do think there’s a lot of that sort of thing. I made something so come when there isn’t enough reason. I know I see, I hear a lot of things and I think to myself, I should go see that.
It’s like the obligation. But it’s also, that’s the way you pitch it, right? Like we were doing Bright Lights. Like I had really wanted to do, like that was kind of this, I think it was too subtle of a feminist piece in the end.
But like that, I was like, I don’t wanna do a play about consent. I wanna do a play about aliens that has subtones of consent and you wanna read them and if you wanna look for them, they’re totally there. And if you don’t, you can just watch a play about aliens.
And I think that’s the thing, like using humor to talk about the hardest issues. Like it’s a lot of shit in this play. Like aging is like, there’s a whole clustered buck on the subject.
It’s difficult to deal with it. I’m not, I don’t know if we’re doing it sensibly enough, but we’re doing it. And that’s something, people say you should be writing about like these big issues and like why I am, I’m just doing it in hopefully what is a funny way so that you don’t have to see an issue play.
You can see a play and take, find issues that you connect with within it. Yeah, like if I want to watch someone on their soapbox, I just log onto my Facebook feed and that’s fine. And sometimes I do.
Sometimes I just want to be cleansed through the fire of anger and righteous indignation and people saying this is right and this is wrong. Here’s what we need to be doing. Let’s all be better people.
Like I get that. But to be able to see a piece that is able to explore those themes and ideas in a way that is bigger than just its need to talk about those things that connects it to, you know, as you said, to humor, to something ridiculous, to something sad. And you are able to take people into these places where they are confronting these terrible things, where you are engaging with the darker parts of the world and frankly ourselves, but you do it in a way where at the end you don’t feel beaten over the head with this hammer.
Maybe some people still will, but like you can’t control all that. But you can do it as you play, whatever it is. Yeah, you definitely can.
You should have to at least entertain. Like I don’t want to see something and be known to them somehow. If I learn something or if I come up with my, it’s not gonna change.
I think entertaining is a better method. That’s the first thing we said. We were like, what do we want to do? Okay, ultimately, best term was remodeling having had a good time.
Even if they get high. Yeah. But that’s still a good time.
That’s still a good time. Yeah. I don’t want you to leave confused.
No. Half an hour, half an hour later, like what? Speaking about leaving, I have to leave. I’m glad, I know you do.
Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you.
Thank you. Come see Late Night cause it’s fun. It’s really fun.
You guys keep talking, you have better things to say. No. No, I know it’s late.
Oh, buddy. I love you. Remember, I love you.
Ask you about the Neil Patrick Harris thing from Fringe. Oh yeah. Was that awesome? It was awesome.
He’s great. He is a sweetheart. Really nice guy.
We hung out a bit. People made a huge deal about it. Yeah, people were, it’s one of those very celebrity financial people who make a huge deal out of it.
I mean, it’s not like we call each other up over each other’s hair now. Like we’re like, people are like, is this best friend? And I’m like, no, he’s back in Hollywood. Yeah, no, obviously we’re Skyping every single day.
I was actually just surprised, like not surprised that he came, but I’m just impressed at the decay. He was gonna come, like he was actually looking for a thing to do genuinely. And I just, I, he was like, so many people tweeted at me.
And I was like, I asked everyone to. But yeah, he’s a, I think it’s pretty amazing. I like to hope that if any of us ever got that famous, we would still partake in local art.
Sheer, I think that’s amazing, especially when you go to this. It’s also, he’s like alone in his own bedroom in a city that’s not his home. Like, either you can stay in the hotel, you’re in the hotel.
Watch TV. It’s where you could go out. Yeah, and see, like, and he’s also like a theater guy.
Like, so of course, why would he not want to check out a cool piece? But especially like, it’s nice for something as big as a fringe festival. He’s like, yeah, I want to go see something. I don’t have that much time.
But then he saw three plays. But he saw three good plays. Thanks, Neil.
I know you’re listening. It’s not like he’s a guy who could just sort of stand in line at a fringe fest. So, yeah, yeah.
And that was, that was a terrifying day of fun. I’m sure it was all of those things. I don’t even know.
Like, there’s so many things I would ask you about playwriting and things like that. And there’s so, like, I’m overwhelmed with the number of questions I could ask you. But I think I will start with, if you were Cat Sandler, since I have two cats in the room, to describe any kind of, you said that you started to like your elevator pitch? Yeah.
I usually start with knowing that I have to do a play for some reason. Like, I immediately start with, like, I have like, I have some documents that are just like ideas and it’s just titles, plays. I don’t know, probably the best one was, like, when I went to Stratford Redditor Tweet last year, I started working on four plays.
And like, a couple of them were things I had been thinking about for a while. And I just, and it’s just time, like to, I just had the time to sit down there. And I always work on more than one thing at once because I think they end for each other.
But normally it would be like, I feel like doing a play, what space can we get? Oh shit, this is available. Okay, we have a month. Okay, what’s hot right now was an idea, but was round.
Pardon me. And yeah, I mean, I don’t, like now it’s a little bit more like I have, like I do this show at Queens University coming up and they’re like, what are you going to do? What, like, what show do you want to do? And I was like, I don’t know. What I’d like to do is audition, see who’s around, see what they’re to write for, write some, they kind of develop it with them.
Is it’s gonna, I’m saying, I’m watching university students play like old people. Yeah. Yeah.
I’m rather write a script for the, like a Jordan to the power of borrow. Cause that was really cool. Yeah.
So I think it’s more like a, what’s, what’s happening in the world. It was like, it’s funny. I had read that article, thought about that.
It started as a short story and then it became play. Literally, I started with just the image. I was like, what happens if you walk into the theater and there’s just a body on slab, I thought about, okay, medical, wait, I’ll get to hospital.
Mays teach hospital, maybe it’s something that a heart knows. It’s about a litter, liver’s alcoholism. Is that me? And that’s kind of how it, it rolls.
And then I talk it out to people always, all weekend. That’s where I get into huge arguments. Sometimes I’ll be like, I want to write this play, but this is on me.
Like, that’s too touchy. And then I’ll be like, listen, I never write. Great.
Yeah. The best place to find you. Do you, do you, do those, those conversations must inform what you eventually.
Absolutely. I, I take too many. I take too much advice.
Cause I’m a people pleaser. I mean, I don’t ultimately, I do some heads up. It’s like, no fuck that.
That’s, that’s, that’s all. That’s what my idea is happening. But it, I really do.
I just don’t go, I can’t write in a vacuum. I never could. Like even like listening today, I was like, of course that makes sense.
It just sounds better. And I have to hear someone say it a few different ways before I can pick it out. Especially when you’re trying to make fairly naturalistic dialogue.
And now it’s been found even more like the number of people that talk at the same time and the level of intricacy in it, you’re heading of a step. I couldn’t, I personally couldn’t do this by myself. I need to have, you know, people.
And also so the people in the room when we’re like making these changes and we can, we’ve gone through it on our feet. So when we have it in the script, it’s like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. This, this totally makes sense.
All these like brackets and slashes. And like, Kat and Lucia both sound shows of me. So they’re, they kind of just stopped.
They’re like, we’ll just learn it. They’re learning it in the room. Everyone else is still a little bit like, I should take this, they’re coming in like, no, there’s no point.
We’ll have a new one. It’ll be fine. But yeah, I think, yeah.
So my process is just like, how do you make it cool? Like, what is it? What is it? Start with, try to find a cool idea. Think about what my, like whoever I consider to be my audience. And that, the coolest thing is that that audience is shifting.
They’re like, the Tarot audience is very different from the people looking in this first stuff. Yeah. And like, the Queen’s audience will be very different too.
Absolutely. And the TV audience that I’m working for now is very different as well. So yeah, I think it’s just, and at the cost of all of it different every time.
But it’s always about listening and being flexible. And it’s really fucking hard. I know most of you are playing it the way I know.
To say, okay, you guys can change whatever you want. You can’t then turn it off. So no, it’s like, it’s like, someone will be like, yeah, like I’ll say, this is Kat, and they’ll go, oh, thank God.
If you’re like, oh, Kat, is it that bad? it’d be leaving your, putting your art on your sleeve with Kat to be so open, which is why I messed up the past few years. You just want to have people that you trust. Yeah.
That can be your buddy. Yeah. It’s just like, if there’s one person in the cast, especially for a process as, that’s at once as versatile and awesome and fun and like, I don’t know, beefy as yours, but there’s still a fragility to it because all the pieces matter.
I think that, I think I just quoted The Wire. All the pieces matter. Overwhelming too sometimes when someone’s like, you think you find a group and someone says, can we try this? And you’re like, that’s going to undo all the thingies.
That idea, that one does that last hour we spent working to do, but sometimes it’s better and sometimes it’s not. And you don’t really get to be like, no, we try your idea of it outdoors. Yeah.
And it just, so yeah, it’s hard, but it’s so worth it for me. And I don’t know, like with Mustard, I was really like, I didn’t direct it, but I was in the room the whole time. Ashley was so generous to let me do it.
So I don’t know how to write this kind of dialogue on my own, really, as I workshop. It’s interesting. You were talking about how you work with people.
I have heard a lot of authors talk about how they put themselves into a room and they do it alone. And I always think about how to get the community of writing or out of writing. Yeah.
But for me, that’s hierarchical. Yeah. So I can lock myself in for a week and bang at a draft, but I don’t call Tom and I’ll like get my mom to read it.
And even then, or sometimes, like even within that, we go up a few actors, I have a plethora of readers, by the one. Cause I just need to hear it. Yeah.
It’s never, you can never really know what you’ve written until you’ve heard about it. Not with six voices. Yeah.
And it’s kind of like, like now the process is like everything. It’s like, how much can I keep on myself? Like how fast can I write the first thing? How many, how many constrictions can I give myself? So this is like, okay, commercials are three minutes in real life. So how close to a commercial, like can I get this scene to be, that’s supposed to be a silver commercial? So if you’re not gonna have three minutes, it costs.
But like six minutes, that’s doable. And that’s a lot to, like those constrictions are a lot. Or like, red lights had so many ideas in it and it had to be 60 minutes.
And everyone was, I was like, how, okay, if it’s co-op, I need to know what can leave. So it has to be something all the time. Right.
So that she never, ever, ever gets you dropped the ball. And that’s kind of it, that there’s no backstage in this show. and it’s random.
There’s a whole other element of camera. So it’s kind of like you’re writing things for the cameras to pick up as well. It’s really, it’s cool.
It’s fascinating. It’s fascinating. What’s it like, I mean, you’ve worked on a Cap Sandler show before.
Yes. How is this show, there’s all kinds of different elements. Have you found more freedom in this show? Or has it been a different process? It’s been different.
In some very, very cool ways. Like as I had mentioned earlier, the start of the process was way more like a writer’s room. Like solid, straight up.
We’re all sitting around a table. Kat’s got her computer plugged into a TV. This is different.
Yeah, with an HDMI cable. So we’re just there, okay, watching the changes and going through our scripts and making decisions about like cuts or changing things or like hearing jokes. Yeah.
Yeah. Which is, which is really interesting. I, I, I’m, I’m not great at that part.
Like I know, I’m just too antsy, I guess. Like I, I, I pace when I’m thinking my ideas out or, you know, but well, I think Nigel was talking about it. Nigel Downer, who’s also in the show, was a wonderful improviser and comedian and actor and all that.
He was the best. And just thinking like, well, we’re used to just like being up there and like, you know, like verbally talking things out. Or if like we’re thinking of ideas, I just like sitting down for a long period of time.
It just, it feels very stagnating for me. however, like once we got into the rhythm of that, I was like, okay, well this is just what it feels like to sit down and, and really just be like writing and banging things out with a group of people. Okay.
No problem. But it was like, oh, I can’t wait to get on my feet. Now that we are on our feet and making those changes, it’s interesting because the character that he plays in Retreat was just so ridiculous.
And like, there’s still a lot of like, you know, heart and all that stuff, but it was just big. It was a big character. And, and this one that I play isn’t, this like, it’s odd because I’m playing this comedian, but I’m very much one of the straight men in the show, which is really difficult.
So you really want to have a very funny straight man always? No. The hard man. One of them, one of them hard men, eh? I mean, but this one is like, so it’s so back and forth.
The straight men have kind of going. It does. So you are, you are the straight man.
Yeah. Which, which is okay. But it’s also interesting because the way that like my character develops and the journey she goes on, you know, she’s taking over this late night show and, you know, people keep telling her she’s very funny, but she’s just like, you can see why things start going off the rails.
And as like, as actor, as like a comedian, me, as like actress, as Cat Letwin, I’m just like, no, I have to be the funniest person in the room. And I have to keep like offering things. And I’m like, well, no, you know, for, we’re going through a certain scene and like, it’s supposed to be a bit awkward.
I’m like, oh no, no, no. But Sarah, like my character would say this and this and this, cause that’s funny and getting back up. Oh, right.
She’s not supposed to do that. Oh. So it’s also, now I’m starting to shift the way that I, I, I work in the room.
It’s cause at first I came in with this idea. I’m like, oh, Sarah’s a comedian. I’m just gonna like act like a fucking comedian.
But I’m like, oh, that’s not what Sarah needs. And that’s not what the play needs. She is still a comedian.
Yes. And she still has to be funny, but she’s not funny in the way I’m funny. Then cats, also too, the cats offers are so hilarious.
And cat will take a joke and just show, you do a little bit on this. So you just run with it and you keep joking, dokey dokey till you find it. For me, I like know that rhythmically, I don’t want that because everything’s stacked with Jenga.
Right. So she’ll go on a joke at like, where maybe sometimes the fourth joke, the Tatooine, like that was maybe the fourth in a series of jokes that you made, but she’s just still talking. And I’m like, oh no, we’ve lost.
Now the rhythm is lost. Cause you’re still going off on a joke over there. It’s also because I’m a selfish performer.
And what we in the business call selfish. Selfish in this play. But, I think too, like, what’s so nice to watch is people, a cat is constantly being asked to play the broadest characters.
And I think this is, you’ve heard it before. This is maybe the closest to you, cat. Yeah.
Yeah. I think so. It’s more wild in the time that I’ve known you.
Yeah. I mean, like the last play that I played, a dance raccoon. And I was like, you know, that is me.
It is me. But yeah, this, and that was actually kind of what, why I wanted the part so much, but also why I was so terrified going into the first day. Cause I’m like, how do I play in myself? Like for possibly this, this character just gets shocked.
Oh, it’s, and I end up doing, I’ll catch myself doing rehearsals. Oh no, I’m like, it’s so scary. And like, there’s no, there’s no, stop it as it all, but no, no, it’s fine.
Like at the end of the day, I was just like, yeah, she’s a whore. Yeah. She tweeted that.
Great. Oh, I’m glad about that fact that I know. Where you were, if you came into rehearsal, you were really excited to do this.
And then suddenly you, the realization of how close the character was to you, that it switched to fear. No, no, no, no, no, it wasn’t that at all. It was, I, running in its initial infancy.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And it’s, it’s cool. Cause the way they submit the, the scripts, there’s no name or gender or anything on it. There was another script that was very similar in style to yours.
The, the two highest rated ones. Cause also using the slashes and also just the kind of humor. I’m like, it could be either one, but I also, yeah, I think I rated yours like three points above the other one.
And they were both like very high. There you go. So yeah, I’d read that and I was just like, oh, this is a, this is such a great script.
And then also Kat had me over for a couple of those read-throughs with wine, just to go and talk about it. We’re in the morning. So those were the mornings.
Forcing alcohol on bit. That’s not, nope. That doesn’t, I always gladly accepted.
Yeah. So I, I knew, I knew what it was going in and I was excited, but like the, the, the, the, not fear. Fear’s not the right word.
The hesitation or kind of a feeling of more responsibility with, with creating this, with this character and playing it well and properly. And with a sense of like justice, I guess, to what it is. To watch you kind of like not roll up, but to realize like, to be making those all you did in the last few days and make it on our feet.
I, I watch you like stifle the stifle the offer, like make the good off of the one that, that you really care about. And I should direct all, but to just see you how to settle into Sarah. Yeah.
That’ll happen too as we start running it. Cause I think, yeah, I think I have real issues with Sarah until right now. Oh no, that’s definitely, that’s definitely who she is.
And I, it’s very, so now that I’m playing it from that angle, now that I’m exploring it from, from that angle, then I’m like, okay, now, now it’s not that I am trying to comedically win in a room. That’s where I can’t be like me, where, and that is, it’s a defense mechanism. You always want to, you’re so great.
It’s great for me. It’s great for our process. Thank you so much.
yeah. We’ll credit you. Yeah.
It’s a, you know, so this for like, you know, a comedian sees a punchline, like, like a dog sees a baked ham. It’s just gonna, it’s just gonna growl, you know? So I, I, I want to do that. Like I, but it’s like, no, that’s, if I am going to go for the punchline, or try to be the funniest person in the room, how can I do it in a way that it fits within the, the rhythm of cat show that still proves when other characters say, oh, you’re very funny.
The audience can be like, yeah, she is. But then also see how that instinct when she’s in front of the camera, doing the show live, how she’s like, yeah, that’s funny, but that is so wrong. And that is not going to land for anybody else, even though intellectually it could be funny.
Difference. Like we’re in this alley. I was watching today.
We’re in alley staging. Here’s the brew. I don’t know how it wants to be back on that spot.
And it means that the best angle is an angle where no one is sitting. It’s where the camera. Yeah.
So it’s, it’s just, it really changes like, like the rhythm of something that comes more forward because if you don’t have something boomy around looking to look at necessarily, and you really want to make sure everything checks out. And I like, I care about rhythm more than most people. Just in case it, I like to hear that hatter.
Yeah. Feel the rhythm, feel the running. I don’t care.
It’s like author. I think you’re out. Yeah.
But I like all kind of, I’ve got to be like that. Take that in there. But that’s like writing a stuff.
That’s like writing a standup set. That’s like me. You know, you have that and in your joke and you cut it and suddenly it goes from being like, Oh, ha ha ha do like that is hilarious.
It is about that rhythm. And especially if you’re doing a show about comedy, it’s all in the timing. You, you have to be that attuned to it.
Absolutely. So it makes it more painstaking, makes it hard. That’s why, you know, comedy is fucking hard, but yeah, I think it’s the right instinct.
In my opinion. Well, I’d like to thank you both. Thank you too, Michael.
Bye. Bye Michael. Just kidding, you’re a lot of fun.
Thanks for watching, Beth. Thank you so much.
