Stephanie Malek
About This Episode:
This week, Phil Rickaby welcomes Stephanie Malek, performer and producer, to discuss the magic of improvised musicals, the history of Bad Dog Theatre, and the power of finding community through art. Stephanie, who is involved in the show Holiday, an improvised musical, shares insights into the rigorous training required for musical improv, the importance of nurturing other artists, and more!
In this episode:
- Holiday, the Improvised Musical at Factory Theatre
- Bad Dog Theatre, Improv and the community
- The Fandom Show Podcast
- And more!
Guest: 🎭 Stephanie Malek
Stephanie Malek (she/her) is a producer, performer, fangirl, comedian, singer, and all around nerd from Toronto, ON. She is known for producing and performing in the Dora-nominated improvised musical Holiday! An Improvised Musical! She can be found performing at comedy venues around Toronto and the world at festivals such as JFL, New Zealand Improv Fest, and Toronto Sketchfest.
Connect with Stephanie and Bad Dog Theatre:
🌐 Website: baddogtheatre.com
📸 Instagram: @baddogtheatre | @stephanie_malek
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Transcript
Phil: Hello, welcome to Stageworthy. I’m Phil Rickaby, the host and producer of this podcast. Stageworthy is Canada’s theatre podcast, and on Stageworthy, I talk to theatre makers of all kinds, from actors to directors, to playwrights, to stage managers, producers, and more, , some of whom will be household names and others.
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Now, make sure that you stay to the end of the episode, ’cause I want to tell you about next week’s episode, but this week my guest is Stephanie Malek. Stephanie is a performer, improviser, comedian, a self de self-described fan girl, and an all around nerd from Toronto.
She’s known for producing and performing in the Dora Award nominated improvised comedy holiday and improvised musical, which you can see from December 11th to December 21st at Factory theatre.
now here’s my conversation with Stephanie Malek.
Phil: Stephanie Malek, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you making some time. We’re gonna talk about a few things, bad dog and improv related and, and theatre related. But I guess the place that we should start is since when this is coming out, a holiday, an improvised musical,
give it, give, give me the pitch for, for, for that show.
Stephanie: Amazing. Well, most people have heard of Stephen Sondheim one of the most prolific composers to exist in Broadway. And we thought, you know, what would be a really great idea? What if we tried to be that without a script, uh, and also make it a holiday show? So it was conceived by Jen car, and it is the holiday party that we all want to be a part of.
Before we join the stage, we don’t know what it’s going to be. It’ll be inspired by the audience, and then we will create an entire hour long musical out of nothing but your suggestions in the style of Steven Sondheim, so that you’ll walk away with the, the spirit of the season in your heart, and a song a song coming off your lips that will never exist again.
Phil: I was also gonna say, you know, I don’t know if Sondheim isn’t, I mean, people are gonna hate you for the people. Sondheim isn’t known for his, uh, uh, sing ability of the songs. People don’t tend to walk out of his shows humming the tunes, but, uh,
Stephanie: that’s true. Some of them.
some of
Phil: of them, some of them, but it is, there’s always the chance people walk away with Christmas in their hearts and an singable tune on their lips.
Stephanie: It’s okay. We couldn’t sing it again if we tried, so we.
Phil: now where, so, you know, I mean, everybody needs a, like a, a holiday show. Everybody loves a holiday show. Which came first? This or song buster?
Stephanie: Oh, song came first. Song Buster came ages ago, I think about 10 years ago now, which is wild to think about. But I love musical improv. I think it is one of the most impressive forms of performance that exists, but is also the potentially cringes type of performance to exist. ’cause people are already, you hear improv and you’re like, Ooh, that could be awkward.
You hear musical people are like, Ooh, that could be awkward. You put musical improv together, you’re like, that could either be the greatest show you will ever see, or the worst thing you would ever see. So,
Phil: I mean, for some people it was their favourite part of say, for example, whose line is it anyway? And for others it is some of the more skippable episodes of shows that you might find on dropout tv.
Stephanie: It’s true. Wayne Brady is the person who made me want to do it. I think he’s one of the most gifted performers to exist both in the realm of comedy and musicals. And definitely as a person that I look to for like, how did you do this? But I think. Again, musical improv is such a very specific thing that can either go so well or so poorly. And I feel like with this group of people for holiday, there are people who’ve been doing this for 10 plus years each, they’re so skilled. They are so incredible at this art form. Not only in making songs that make sense musically Scott Christian is our musical director, composing it all on the spot. But they’re also wonderful at the theatricality of it. It’s not just, you know, making a hoedown type song that is a little cheeky and a little wink wink. It’s about creating a musical before your very eyes full of heart, full of, full of wonder, full of magic that when people come see the show, nobody believes us that it’s not scripted. we had a, a reviewer come last year who was like, I didn’t believe you, that it was not scripted. So I bought a ticket to a second show. Just to see you prove it. And then we did. And there’s the only thing that’s scripted is the opening number. Other than that, everything is made up that night.
Phil: How do actors and performers rehearse and prepare for an improvised musical?
Stephanie: That’s, that’s a great question. And one of the ones that we get the most think of us as a sports team. You might not know in any given game of a sports team what it’s going to look like. but you do know that you’re gonna have to throw, you do know that you might have, I’m using baseball ’cause baseball was just very top of mind.
You know, you’ll have to throw, you know, you have to catch, you know, you have to run. So it’s running those drills over and over. Practice starting songs based on whatever anything random. You know, as we go through our day, this is actually a, a Wayne Brady tip as you’re going through your day. Look at objects and try to come up with rhymes for them just randomly throughout your day.
Just to get your brain used to working that muscle because it is improv is so much about being in the space and connecting with those people and building those intimate relationships and then feeling comfortable enough to know how to read that person on stage. When you see the little glint in their eye that’s like, oh, we’re about to do it. Okay, we’re dancing. We’re dancing now, let’s go. Um, so it’s, yeah, just getting to know each other, getting to work those muscles of jumping into a song, heightening something, how to bring it down, get the dynamics of the show at play so it’s not just a bunch of people screaming at an audience for an hour.
Phil: So Wayne Brady made you want to be an improviser. are there other improvisers performers that, helped you and made you see that path and that thing that you wanted to do?
Stephanie: Colin Mockery is obviously one of the most iconic improvisers in the world. He’s one of the most recognizable improvisers. He also, as a person, is one of the most generous people, both on and off stage. in a way that really makes me wonder when you, when you meet people in there, not super lovely to work with her.
They might be a little closed off. I’m like that. Colin Mockery is the most generous person in the world, and he’s Colin Mockery. , so he’s always been an inspiration and so, so wonderful. In terms of local performers. Uh, Sarah Hillier was one of the first people I ever saw on stage and went, that person is magical. That person is. Absolutely electric on stage. Same with Jan car, who, part of why I tapped her in for this project, I was like, you’re magic and everything you do is incredible. , Rob Baker’s another one, doing, doing really connected work on stage that is also so over the top sometimes. And how he manages to be both heartfelt and just extravagantly funny, is so skillful. He’s so skilled.
Phil: I wanna come back to Colin Mochrie. No, I’ll just say this about Colin Mockery. He, it seems like all you have to do to get Colin to do a a, a a guest appearance at your improv show is to ask, and he will say yes.
Stephanie: Yeah, I mean he obviously, he has a life, he has a schedule, he has things he needs to do, but , he’s never not been willing to give back to the community that bore him, which is something that I think is so. Such a gift to the Toronto comedy scene that this person who does not need to be doing these shows, loves this art form so much and cares so much about the continuation of it, that he will show up to your fringe show to be part of it.
He will show up to your holiday show. He will show up, for your fundraiser. Bad Dog Theatre. Did a fundraiser for the 40th year of theatre sports. And he was like, absolutely, I’m in. And asked nothing of us. And then got on stage and said, you know what? Let’s raise some more money. I’m gonna auction off a lunch with me. And we’re like, you what?
And he’s like, yep, no, we’re doing this right now. Live on
stage. We’re doing an auction, which helped support this charity theatre. just out of the goodness of his heart.
Phil: You, you, you mentioned a gift. It’s a gift, but it’s also, I think a lesson. It’s a lesson to teach other people to, like, this is what we should all want to give back. We should all like, nurture those who come after us. , and everybody loves Colin Mockery, so that’s better than everybody being like, you know, he’s really a talented, but what a fricking asshole.
Stephanie: Well, I think it’s such a, a thing in the arts that we for sometimes can lose sight of because it is such a competitive industry. theatre as well as comedy, all of there, there are not a lot of spots at the top. So people assume that it’s person versus person. And I think one of the things that I, that brought me to improv that I love about it is you succeed together. that’s the only way to succeed is by joining up with each other. rising tide lifts all boats. that’s very much a thing that I want to try to bring forward. If someone else is doing a musical improvised show, wonderful. Maybe more people will fall in love with this art form. If people want me to show up at their thing, absolutely, why not?
why not say yes to things? ’cause that’s the whole improv spirit, say yes and, and the world opens up.
Phil: Yeah. Yeah. I also abide by a belief that there is audience enough for everyone. There is people going to theatre. People don’t just go to one theatre, they go to all theatre. And so we’re not in competition. we are, we’re sharing. And so promoting, promoting your show, promotes my show, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And it all grows an audience down the road.
Stephanie: and it grows an appreciation for an art form because, you know, one person show is not the same as another person show. And especially in improv, every show is going to be different. , but not everyone’s gonna be able to come to every single show. So why not give them a wide array of options so that they can build a love for theatre and live entertainment, and share that with others, and bring their friends and bring their enemies.
I don’t care. I’m not picky.
Phil: One of my
favourite stories, one of my favourite stories, uh, I, I was, uh, doing a show the Edmonton Fringe many years ago, and the number of time that I saw somebody, like walk up to somebody be like, Hey, I want to tell you about my show. When they say, when is it, oh, I can’t go that time. When are you interested in a show and they pull out their program and start like helping the person find another show that they can go to.
And I was like, that is the thing.
Stephanie: That is so smart because it’s so easy to just be like accepting the know at face value and going, yeah. Okay. People, especially right now in this day and age of entertainment where everything is accessible all the time, everywhere you are helping to guide people in I think is important because why would someone, why should someone come to your basement theatre as opposed to sitting in their house watching Netflix?
What can you offer? Bring them in, share that with them. If they’re like, oh, I can’t come at this time. Yeah, you could say, sure, fine. Or you could
say, you know what? I think you might actually like this. This is why, and this is how we’ll get you there.
Phil: It really is about, expressing the experience. ’cause people will pay for experiences. I’ve said it a million times on this show, but people will pay for an experience if they get to have their Instagram picture or they get to sit in a room and experience something they can’t do anywhere else.
theatre and improv are things that you can’t do anywhere else. You have to be in that room to really experience it. So we just have to communicate that to those people.
Stephanie: Yeah. ’cause you can, you can watch filmed theatre you can watch filmed improv. I don’t recommend it. It’s weird. It’s weird to watch live theatre that isn’t done very stylistically filmed because that’s not what we’re used to watching on our screens. We’re used to three cameras, five cameras, like dynamic filming.
So like a thing like Hamilton works because when it was filmed, they used so many different camera angles and edit it so smoothly with a director directing that editing. when you watch improv, it’s very easy to go, oh, this is bad. because you’re just watching. You’re watching a copy of something that needs to be experienced. and same with live theatre. When you’re sitting in that audience, it’s not just about what’s on that stage, it’s about the feeling of being with the other audience members, the group reacting to things. Those little moments that you get to share in that room. and those are the things that you cannot replicate on Netflix.
you
can’t replicate that on Crave.
Phil: absolutely can’t. You can’t, you can’t it’s very difficult to do that. You need an audience in the room. I do appreciate how a a, a streaming service, like dropout, I’m gonna mention them probably for the second time, how they’re
Stephanie: We praise Dropout. We love them.
Phil: like how they’re able to do a show, like Make Some Noise, which is an improvised show with three people doing solo duo and trio improvisations.
And you’re not in the room. It’s recorded, it’s edited, but it’s still funny. Like I have there, there isn’t an episode of that show that I haven’t laughed throughout.
Stephanie: It is brilliant. , but , that’s an instance where they’re recording improv, but they’re using their editing very smart. So it feels cohesive. You’re not seeing those lag moments or the jokes that fall flat, which is inevitable. You know, you’re, you’re flying blind 99% of the time. Not every joke’s gonna land, but they’re so smart in the delivery of it.
And I think that that’s bringing a lot of people to an art form that they would never have thought of before.
Phil: It is very true. ’cause I know they, they film three hours minimum and, and you know, edit that down to like 40, 45 minutes, something like that.
Stephanie: must be exhausted.
Phil: they must be exhausted. Task master two, those live studio tapings take a minimum of four hours to get through and then they edit that down to an hour. So, you know, again, it, it’s in the editing and we’re not seeing the stuff that didn’t work.
Stephanie: Yeah, but it, what you get live that you don’t get with edited content is that with improv, the magic is being on the edge of your seat, not knowing if they’re gonna pass or fail, not knowing if something will land. And that tension is
electric. It’s, it’s an exhilarating rush, both on stage and off stage. from the audience perspective, as you’re watching someone, you’re like, are they gonna do it? Are they gonna do it? Will this land? And then when they hit that connection or do that callback it, you can’t help but laugh at that breaking of tension that, like, that magic that proliferates past the, the lip of the stage into the
audience. , and just back to dropout, I went to see them when they came to Toronto as part of just for laughs and. I’ve been producing improv comedy for 10 years now, which is astonishing to think about given that it’s so, ethereal. It’s, it’s a thing that exists once and then disappears. , but seeing that theatre sold out to the brim to watch improv, it’s like, oh, this is for something.
This is, there are people who want and need this and want to see representation on stages and the points of view that we so often in the arts put across. Very liberal, very left-leaning, primarily a lot of care for each other and care for making a safe space on stage and making it. You know, not punching down with any jokes and leaving that space.
I, I came out so inspired. , because, you know, as you produce shows, as you run shows, it can get, it can really wear you down after a while. ’cause you’re like, how do you keep this fresh? How do you keep people interested? And it was so inspiring ’cause they’re doing what we’re doing on stage. You know, there’s the, the gap between us is primarily they’re in LA and they have these resources and we’re not, but the stuff on stage people who love dropout can see that any day of the week in Toronto, obviously there’s varying skill levels depending on the show, whether it’s a student show or a professional show, but people can watch that. it’s just a matter of helping them find it
back to that fringe, uh, that fringe lineup.
Uh, it’s just how do you help them find it so that they can
Phil: Exactly. Now I wanna get into Bad Dog in just a couple of minutes, but you’ve listed off a bunch of of performers who are involved in this show, and one of the things that I want to ask about having people who are, you know, they’re, they, they’re the regulars, their personalities, their talents. That’s the regular thing in this improvised holiday musical.
Do these performers each have like a role or a thing that they do that’s kind of their thing that like, you’d be like, all right, we know that so and so’s gonna be the villain. This is this guy’s, the, the, the Crispus self. They do that great soliloquy type song. Like, does everybody have like a thing that they, that they do really well, that everybody looks to them for?
Stephanie: I think everyone has, their pocket that they like to slide into when they’re like, you know what? I know this is a safe place for me to land. Like I know when I’m on stage I can nail an ingenue character. For a music clip room that is a safe go-to for me, a little. I want song. I know I can. Oh, delicious.
, you know, Aurora Brown is incredible at a very nurturing, caring emotional scene. , everyone has their default, but in any given show, we pick one person who’s the party host, we call them the Bobby, because of company. , so every show we’re forced to change those roles. You can’t keep playing the same the same style of character. , also you don’t want to, it gets boring after a while. You’re like, ah, I mean, I guess I could do this ingenue, but I’ve done it a hundred times. So this one I’m gonna be a, a Villainist mother-in-law. And what does that look like in playing with that? So everyone does have. There are specific skillset, whether it’s musically, whether it’s character wise, whether it’s styles of scenes that they like to pay.
Like, I love an emotional scene. I’m not going into a scene going, I’m gonna do a laugh per minute. Gag, gag, gag. I wanna make people cry, and if I can make people cry with improv Delicious. AP Batista is an incredible musical performer. She’s just coming hot off of Telltale Harbor at Mish. , and she’s not an improviser by nature, but you know, when she walks into a scene, you’re like, this is going to hit me right in the gut. , because she has such a strong control over her voice and her point of view that she’s gonna, she’s gonna get you whether she’s playing, no matter what character she’s playing, she’ll still get you
Phil: Let’s turn our attention to Bad Dog and talk a little bit about Bad Dog because bad dog’s been around. For a while. , they’ve had a couple of homes. I mean, I remember my first exposure to Bad Dog was up on the Danforth in a space that I think is now a math le or something like that.
Stephanie: Yeah, it was a massage place I think for a bit.
Phil: Um, you know,
yeah, it’s, they had many, many different lives.
tell me about, for people who might not know what’s Bad Dog theatre, and then we’ll get into a little bit more.
Stephanie: Great bad Dog theatre originally started as theatre sports Toronto in 1982. , it primarily ran shows out of multiple venues, but had its main home at Harbor Front Center. , and it was a, it started with the format theatre sports, which is many people might associate with like short form, which is very similar to whose line, very small games that end up being maybe like three to four minutes in length per scene. , and it did that for a very long time, up until 2003. , and it was the home of people like Keanu Reeves in his professional Broadway biography. Talks about theatre sports. Toronto, Mike Myers was there, Colin Mockery kids in the hall, Linda Cash, Lauren Ash, like Lisa Gilroy. These are all people who have been part of that legacy of theatre sports.
And then in 20 2003 they thought, you know what? Improv is a lot broader than just this one form of show. They did other shows, they did improvise Shakespeare. They’re like calling ourselves theatre sports. Toronto keeps it in a very specific bucket and we wanna do more. So they created Bad Dog theatre.
It was three original creators were Ralph McLeod Marcel St. Pierre and Carrie Griffin. , and they each took on a different role in the business. Started offering classes, started offering workshops to businesses and started creating a wide array of different types of improvised shows from more artistic like using improv as an exploratory art form to create whatever may come or doing parody shows, uh, which is a thing that I fell in love with Bad Dog.
They were doing a Game of Thrones parody show called Throne of Games, and I was like, I’m sorry, you can do. What with this art form, blew my mind. Why I didn’t think of it, I don’t know. But it’s just different ways of presenting unscripted theatre and bad dog. Where it is now, we’re 43 years since the original theatre Sports Toronto.
, we don’t have a physical theatre right now, but we have an education center and we perform everywhere. We, we’ve performed on a ship. We’ve performed we rented a pirate ship down at the harbor front to do a pirate themed show. , we’re at Comedy Bar sometimes we’re at Sweet Action theatre. , we’re incredibly nomadic at the moment because, you know, we live in a, a time where art spaces are precarious.
, but we are a scrappy not-for-profit who just wants to help people fall in love with this art form and to help professionalize it. So people think of improv as art.
Phil: You mentioned Ed Education Center so people can, can can learn the art of improv with bad dog.
Stephanie: Yeah. , you can learn. We start up everyone else with foundations. Uh, you can learn the basic structure of improv Yes. And how to build things together, how to create scenes out of nothing. , and then if people fall in love with it and wanna specialize, there’s different paths with improv that you can take to hone your craft and start creating your own shows that you can then work with us to help put up, uh, and then go off into the world and do your improv and make magic.
Phil: given that, the holiday an improvised musical is set around the Christmas season, what is your, do you, are you a Christmas-y person? Are you more of a Halloween person, or, or like, are you, and, and I’m gonna follow up with like your favourite Christmas or Halloween, uh, a special or movie after that.
So, uh, but which, what’s your, relationship with those holidays?
Stephanie: I am a holiday girly period. I love a holiday. , Halloween is gay Christmas as a queer woman. That is my second Christmas. but the, I love the lead up to Christmas, the month of December when everything’s twinkly outside and the light, the snow falls and you have holiday songs in the background. I find it so magical. I think it’s, it does such a good, that time of year does such a good job of reconnecting us to our younger selves and the magic of Christmas or of whatever holiday you might celebrate I celebrate Christmas, but not everyone does. but that time of year is still because it gets darker, things slow down a bit.
It’s a real lovely chance to connect with each other and to share in some of that magic
that we sometimes lose.
Phil: But it is a great time of year to have like, I don’t know, the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack ready to go so that when it snows you just put that on and make some hot chocolate and just sit there and just sit in that.
Stephanie: Oh, the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack I bought on vinyl a couple years ago. It is, it is a go-to. It is an absolute must. I don’t even watch it every year anymore. , but I have to listen to the soundtrack. If we’re trimming the tree, that soundtrack is on, tso’s doing it this year.
Phil: I saw that I, that one I would watch. ’cause I’ve been watching that. I’m an old man. I’ve seen that a lot. so, I don’t really need to watch it again. Maybe once in a while when I’m really, really nostalgic, but largely I don’t need to watch it. But like you said, that soundtrack, that soundtrack a must.
Stephanie: Yeah. It gets, it gets in me physically. Like I, it, I get that. I think it’s fission where you’re like, whole skin goes goosebumps as soon as it starts. Ooh, it’s phenomenal.
Phil: Yeah. Now, do you have a favourite holiday movie?
Stephanie: Home alone.
It is not a festive season without home alone. , I can watch that movie a thousand times and never be sick of it. and it’s also a movie that does incredible things with its score and its music. , ’cause that’s my, into a lot of the world is musically. , and just hearing that little like, like Oh, incredible.
Phil: The, the genius of John Williams is that he makes you think it’s something that, it’s not Like when I first watched that movie, I thought, oh, they’re just taking music from like other, like Christmas or, or other, other, other composers. He just composes stuff that makes you feel like that. which again, it is his genius.
Absolutely. That is a fabulous movie.
Stephanie: He’s so brilliant, and if it wasn’t such a beautiful thing, I would think that he was being like almost evil in his manipulation of our feelings through music. But I’m like, no, it’s wholesome and beautiful. I will not be tarnished, like Jurassic Park is another one. Musically, I could talk scores
forever.
We won’t do that.
Phil: mean, the thing is, I mean, we could, I mean, we go wherever we want to in this conversation. The thing about that is that, like, I remember when I was a kid and my dad was like, you’re only scared of this because of the music. And it turned off the music. And I was like, oh, you’re right. If you turn the sound off, this isn’t scary at all.
And the, it has such a power, like, you know, the movie Halloween wouldn’t be scary if you took that soundtrack away. In fact, apparently when they first made that movie and they were sewing it to people, it wasn’t scary ’cause it didn’t have the soundtrack yet. it’s such a powerful thing to add to a film.
Stephanie: Yeah. I think music is powerful no matter what you add it to. I think it, it makes life sweeter. To add music to it.
Phil: Absolutely. , I would love to talk to you about you and your theatre journey, how you came to theatre and how, how you decide, how you went from watching Wayne Brady to wanting to do improv. But let’s start with theatre in general. What was your first exposure to theatre?
Stephanie: , my aunt was a stage manager first at Heart House and then at Stratford Festival and then through opera Hamilton. , so I was around theatre a lot. , I was around performance a lot. My mom was a publicist for musicians, and my dad worked for a music publishing company. , so art was just around all the time.
But theatre I specifically was just so drawn to, and I will never forget. , at Heart House, my aunt did a production of Godspell and my dad was in the band. , Jonathan Crombie was in the cast. , and I was just there and like, I’d be hanging out with Jonathan Crombie in between things and he’d be drawing pictures for me and I’d just be hanging out with all these actors and I was like. It, my brain just lit up. , and then they started doing plays that might need a kid in it, like six characters in search of an author. They’re like, here we have a kid taker. , so then I just be put into these heart house productions randomly as a child. And they’re like, one of them was like, you’re in a, well now you have to sit in this well in the dark for 20 minutes.
You cannot get up. And I was like, okay. And I tried to like peek over and it’s like, no, you’re supposed to be dead. Oh, okay. so I, I started really young with that love of it. , I got to see a lot of shows because my aunt was doing all these shows. , and I think the younger you expose kids to theatre, like they’re gonna fall in love with it so fast. , and I did all the musicals in school. I did all of the, like any concert that existed, they’re like, we need someone to sing or perform. I was like, I will be at the front. And they’d be like, Steph, please calm down. I’d be like, no, I’m in it. , and then as I started getting older, I kind of, . Got really awkward and shy about performing in front of people.
And I started to get anxious. Like I became a very anxious person in my twenties. , and it was like, I can’t do theatre anymore. It’s too scary. , it makes me wanna throw up every time I think about getting on stage. , so I stopped doing it. I stopped performing for a while. I did a bit of music, but still being on stage was very hard. , and then decided I wanted to try it once more. I went and did a musical up in Richmond Hill. It was rent, so I was like, I know rent like the back of my hand. This doesn’t even feel like work. ’cause this is just what I do at home. It was just sing rent. , so that was, I felt like a safe entry point back.
, but I was still working a corporate job and not really connecting to the arts. , and then I saw a Groupon for Second City Level A classes and I was like, yeah, why not? Sure. $99. What’s the worst that could happen? , a friend of mine had taken this level a class and said it was a lot of fun and you just got to laugh, uh, for three hours a week.
And I was like, who doesn’t wanna laugh for three hours a week? So I did the class with , the incredible Palomo Nunez, who’s still one of my favorite performers in the city. , and then kind of fell off it again ’cause just life got busy and then went back and did level C intensive with Reed Janice, who’s in our cast now, which is delightful.
And I knew Reed outside of this through a, a common friend. But once I started that class. It was like gangbusters. Like you couldn’t stop me from doing improv. I immediately, being the nerd I am was like, I’m gonna produce a show. And they’re like, you’re in Level D. I’m like, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter.
I’m gonna produce a show. Have you produced? No. I don’t know what I’m doing. It can’t be that hard. , it is, it’s very hard. But I produced, my first show was called Middle Mirth, and it was a Lord of the Rings improv show. , and I got all my friends to come do it with me. And it was probably garbage. It was probably a terrible show, but I was like, it’s emerging of the things that I love and that I’m excited about and that I just wanna share with people.
I’m a very excitable person and I just wanna be excited with people and around other people. , so that was, yeah, around that same time is when I discovered Bad Dog through Throne of Games. , and then was like, I wanna take classes there. I don’t wanna, I’m not in this to write sketch, which is a lot of what Second City is doing is. Their main stage product is Sketch and improv is a tool that then gets developed into sketches. I was like, I’m not interested in Sketch. I like the spontaneity of making this up on the spot and connecting with people. , so then I found Bad Dog and I started volunteering with them, I think in 2011. , and they haven’t gotten rid of me yet which is great. Thank you. Thank you. Fat Dog.
Phil: , you mentioned that moment that, that at a certain point you became anxious and afraid to get on stage. Did that just develop on its own? Did something happen that, that did that, or did, is it
Stephanie: there’s multiple
Phil: a, a teenager or a young adult?
Stephanie: I think I was naturally predisposed to be a bit anxious as a teen. But I think one of the things when I was in my twenties and I was in a band everyone was really insistent on how cool you had to be and don’t look like you’re having fun. Look aloof, don’t care. And I was like, that is impossible for me.
Everything that I feel is on my face immediately. , which is a blessing and a curse, but it was an environment where they were just telling me essentially, don’t do what you do. And I was like, okay, well I guess what I do is bad and I guess nobody wants that. I’m too much for this. Maybe I just shouldn’t be on stage, even though I love performing, I’m just a bit too much. , and you’ll find, uh, and I think it, it’s, the thing for a lot of improvisers is they, it’s hard finding the place where you feel like you can be yourself both on stage and off stage. And improv was the first place that I really felt comfortable to bring the thing that I am, the thing, the person that I am out to play.
And where I found acceptance for that and like the first year of performing, I was petrified every time I had to go on stage. , it got to the point where I was like, I can’t perform if I don’t have a beer before. And terrible habit to have improvisers and alcohol, I think are a, a natural, natural partners by virtue of setting.
But I think that for me, I was so afraid that I needed to just tamper. It down a bit. , but as I got comfortable with my voice and with with performing and knowing that I can trust the people on stage around me, obviously that disappeared. You can’t, you can’t drink before every show. That’s not sustainable. , but just connecting with others and finding that love, I think was helped me get over that fear. And improv forces you to be present. You can’t live in your head and in your fear if you’re trying to create something on stage with people, you just have to look into their eyes and trust that you’re gonna make something together. And it might be great and it might be terrible but it’s gonna be fun and it’s gonna be joyful.
Phil: Mm. , you mentioned earlier that you were doing a corporate job before you found your way to improv. , how long were you doing a corporate job and how does that do the skills that you gained at the corporate job? , come in handy in what you do now with bad dog.
Stephanie: Yeah, I, I, I was working in corporate I probably about 15 years in different corporate and office settings. , and I think one of the things that I gained from that, that I get to apply to the arts and shares, I am extremely, I’m very diligent in communication. , I’m very organized. I’m very on top of making sure things are happening.
And I think that, that, when I entered the comedy community, they’re like, wait, you like to schedule things? And I was like, Uhhuh. They’re like, Ooh, you’re a producer. And I’m like, okay, what does that mean in improv? , but I think, you know, arts don’t happen without administrators. , and the two skills are not necessarily. So far apart as people seem to think they are. And I think people assume like, oh, well I’m a performer, I’m not an administrator. And I was like, well, I, I happen to be both. , so being really good at following up on things, being really good at talking to people and communicating clearly expressing yourself through writing. These are all tools that I got from these corporate gigs from these not corporate gigs, corporate work that I did, that I then got to bring into my roles in the comedy community. And it helped me find acceptance because people are like, oh, you like to do this? I’m like, Ooh, let me send emails all day long. Delicious. I love it. They’re like, girl, you wild? Sure. They were just happy to have people who wanted to do that work.
Phil: Oh, that leads me to you. You sort of, like you said, what is a producer as far as improv is concerned? is a producer as far as improv is concerned?
Stephanie: Ooh, it’s a lot of emails. It’s a lot of, . It’s a lot of bringing people together and finding ways to help make sure that everyone’s on the same page. , improv I think, gets a bad rap because of the fact that we make everything up. People assume that it’s not really a serious thing. , and it’s not, it’s not an art form, it’s not an industry. , but I think because it can be so magical, it can be so special that you have to like, oh, this is gonna sound antithetical. Let me work through this live on mic. Let’s go. , I think you have to have the, the structure in place so that the art can happen and that the magic can happen if you don’t have a venue.
If you don’t have a cast, if you don’t have a way for them to get paid. If you don’t have costumes, sometimes, if you don’t have rehearsal time, if you don’t have a director it, you can still make a show. , but. It’s harder to make larger scale things, more inventive things, more boundary pushing things things in places you might not expect it.
Those things are hard to have happen without somebody behind the scenes making those decisions, sending those emails, following up, making sure that meetings get booked. , and I feel like a bit of a, like, executive assistant to the improv community sometimes of just connecting all those dots and establishing those relationships with people.
Like we, we don’t have a venue right now, so we, we rely on other people with venues and someone has to make those calls and have those conversations and build those relationships and build that trust. , and that’s where a producer comes in handy. Someone has to, you know, call up theatres and go, Hey, you don’t really know me, but , we wanna rent your boat. And they’re like, what? And you’re like, trust me. We’ll make it happen.
Phil: Holiday an improvised musical is part of the factory theatre season. how did that come about?
Stephanie: Ooh. Well, it, it came about I used to work as the front of house box, office manager at Buddies and Bad Times theatre with Mel Hague and Mark Aikman, who are the current artistic and artistic and managing director of Factory theatre. So they both worked at, buddies when I did, and we had a lovely relationship there.
And then, we had run holiday at the Assembly theatre as part of a festival called Comedy on Queen. , and we ran there and I decided to put us in for some Dora nominations because I was like, you know what, why not? Why not improv? other improvised shows and comedy shows had won in the past and been nominated.
So I was like. You know, I’m feeling cheeky. Let’s do it. , and out of that run, we were nominated for three Doras for outstanding, creative direction, ensemble and production. , and we went to, we got invited to the Dora nomination ceremony, and it was very exciting. , and we were completely unexpectedly nominated. And then I walked out and I saw Mark Aikman, who is, the managing director at the general manager of Factory. , and he’s like, how are you doing? I’m like, oh, I’m good. you know, if you ever want to book an Adora nominated holiday musical at Factory, you, you let me know. And he was like, are you serious?
And I was like, I guess he’s like, let’s chat. we hopped on a call. We talked through, the idea for this show as well as potential partnerships. and then the rest is history. We did it last year and it was extremely successful and a lot of fun to be partnering, because factory theatre has always been about the creation of new works, especially Canadian works and improv weirdly falls under that category by virtue of being a new work every single day as creators creating stuff.
So Mel and Mark believed in the viability of this partnership and the creation of this and other shows. We have two shows as part of this season and then invite us back again this year with, with an even stronger partnership. So,
Phil: Nice.
Stephanie: be too bold. Be too bold.
Phil: this is, the thing is, is I was thinking as you were saying the story, like, you said do you want a, a show, a do award winning show in your season or a, a partnership? And they said, are you serious? The answer is always yes.
Stephanie: Yes.
Phil: yes.
In
Stephanie: It needs to be. Yes, we’re we’re in the arts. Man. It’s all about faking it. You gotta fake it. Do I know how to put on a theatre show into the theatre season? I did not before. Do I know now? Absolutely.
Phil: you go. We learn on the fly. We learn mo I mean, honestly, we learn most things on the fly, like pod podcasting and other
Stephanie: exactly.
Phil: you know? I wanna jump back for a second. ’cause you mentioned you were like, sitting in as a child with like this production of Godspell that goes on and that show always hits in a certain point in my brain.
’cause it was one of my, when I was a little kid in the seventies, it was one of the first sound, musical soundtrack albums that I knew of. I also knew that it was playing in Toronto. What I didn’t know at the time is that that cast was the birth of all that is good in like, like SCTV and, and so many people who went on to, to, to, to do so much, so many things.
And also kind of was the show that proved that a Canadian show, a Canadian production, can be a viable thing and run and run and run. , I don’t know if you have any kind of relationship o with that particular show other than the fact that you were a kid.
Stephanie: I mean, Godspeed weird. Like I am not a religious person, but it was one of my favorite musicals as a kid. Like I, my aunt had an old VHS that was taped off of TV that had the commercials, and I would watch it obsessively. I thought that the cast was so wonderful. It, it’s such a funny show. It’s, you know, it’s dealing with the, the end of Jesus’ life.
It’s very intense thematically, but something about the writing and the performances of those different characters has such levity and joyfulness to it that I think lends itself so naturally to comedic actors. , let’s do another production of Godspell. Everyone. Let’s go. How do we make that happen? ,
Phil: I, I’ve been thinking about that show like since I was a kid and the fact that. It hasn’t been produced in Toronto on a massive scale of the way it deserves to be. , is kind of surprising how important that show was. There’s a documentary that came out that cites it as being like the birthplace, the birth of comedy or something in, in, in, in Toronto.
But it also did so much for theatre in Toronto. And I think it, it, you are right, somebody should be doing should do that. Like now
Stephanie: Are we doing this right now or are we starting a
production
Phil: might be starting a production of Godsspell.
Stephanie: I think we’re starting a pro. I’m in, I’m
in. Who would be Jesus,
Phil: know, probably not me. I’m too old, but there’s a Jesus out there listening to this show right now.
Stephanie: yeah.
Phil: can you talk about the compassion.
Stephanie: The Compassion Fund. Yeah. So that was something that we did with theatre Direct and Balancing Act. and, it was, they’ve run it a few times now, but the idea that Compassion Fund is, . People in the arts don’t have any sort of additional security a lot of the time. , they are performers, but they also often have lives as caregivers. , parents whether it’s for family members, there’s a lot of additional things that performers will have to take on in their lives that they don’t get compensated for. That there are no accommodations made for. You either are an actor in a room or you are a parent outside of the room, NA, near the two shall meet. , and the idea of the Compassion Fund is to provide a bit of a bridge for folks both financially but also integrating. , their needs into your operating principles. , you know, recognizing that parents sometimes need to be able to come and go if something happens with their child. , caregivers might have to come late or need to leave early because they have to attend to these people in their lives that need them. , so the goal of it is to provide both financial and structural changes to help accommodate parents so that they can still be performers. We. We have lost so many people in our community because of the inability to help them balance the various needs of their lives. , and so this, this is just a small way to try to help with that, even if it’s finding, giving them money so they can have a babysitter so they could do a show. , so often parents are like, I can’t, I, I have my kid. I can’t just do a 9:00 PM bar show because I need to pay for someone to look after this. So even if I’m getting paid for that work, it’s just going straight back into childcare. so yeah, it’s, it’s been a really beautiful project to be a part of and the people at theatre Direct and Balancing Act have we’re such wonderful guiders through these resources and creating these structures at, at bad dogs so that we can, we can accommodate and keep a lot of these incredible artists as part of our fold.
Phil: theatre is not an industry that has been particularly forgiving of people’s personal lives.
Stephanie: No.
Phil: I remember, you know, being in theatre school and basically being told you’re gonna miss weddings, funerals, birthdays, all of these things, you’re gonna give up so much of your life in service of theatre. And I kind of feel like, like there comes a certain point in your, in your life where those things mean too much.
Like in your twenties you can kind of be like, ah, there’d be another wedding. But there’s a, there’s, you know, there’s a time when, when these things start to mean a lot and we shouldn’t be expected to just assume that we can’t go.
Stephanie: Yeah. I think, I think art is very important. I think theatre is, transformative and connects people globally. But why is it so important that you have to miss milestones of your life in service of a play or an improv show like. Our is our work so grand that we don’t get to be humans as part of it, even though our work is demanding the most human of emotion and skills like those two things don’t fundamentally meet. And I think that’s one of the things I appreciate so much about programs like this and even working at Bad Dog because Bad Dog is a not-for-profit. We’re not beholden to shareholders. We’re not there trying to make a buck at the end of the day so we can invest those resources in finding ways to make this industry and this art form more human more caring, more compassionate. you know, even work like balancing, the Compassion Fund and like our city’s on our stages, it’s about making spaces so that everyone has a voice and everyone can show the things that they have to offer. , because why, why shouldn’t
they? Why shouldn’t they get to do those things? Why shouldn’t they get to show themselves?
It’s so healing art is so healing. To gate, keep that from people because of caregiving responsibilities access needs. , it’s, it seems so unfair and so antithetical to the beautiful connective work that we’re trying to do.
Phil: And these are all things that, like you were saying, you said so beautifully that these are things that are part of life. We’re supposed to be like reflecting life. Emulating life. Like we can’t do those things well if we don’t get to experience them. Otherwise we’re just, I saw somebody at a funeral once rather than like being the person at the funeral once or something like that.
It’s a weird thing.
Stephanie: it’s a weird thing, and I think artists get worse at their job when all they do is that art form. , you see it a lot with improvisers that are kind of newer to mid-tier, is that you fall in love with improv, and improv is the only thing you do. It’s the only thing you watch. It’s the only thing you talk about. But improv is supposed to reflect the world around us. It’s very funny to be shown the world and go, oh yeah, that is ridiculous. That is silly. , but when you stop being part of the world, what are you reflecting? You’re just a hall of mirrors just showing the same image a thousand times. , that doesn’t change. , you need the, that real world experience and those connections to make something exciting and heartfelt to watch.
Phil: Absolutely. . I now, you, you, one of the things that you mentioned earlier was like getting your start at Bad Dog with the, the Game of Thrones show, the Throne of Games show and that kind of thing. , which does tell me that you do have a bit of, of a nerdy or geeky side to yourself. , which, I imagine that some of the work through Bad Dog allows you to, to bring those two things.
The, the, the nerdy and geeky together with a theatrical.
Stephanie: Yes, it’s my favorite thing to combine is making these experiences. So people it, there was a time back in the olden days when nerds were not allowed out of their basements. , they, God forbid you connected with someone else on a nerdy topic, you would be ous ousted from society. , and growing up in that era where like you kind of hid all your nerdy stuff because it would make you othered, it would make people look down on you or make fun of you or bully you. , we’re not in that era anymore. And nerdy stuff is a beautiful way to connect with others. you know, I do a podcast with my partner called The Fandom Show, and the whole idea is that. Loving things is incredible and magical and it’s an opportunity to Maye Martin put it really well in their special, which is like, it’s like a snow globe.
It’s like, this is a piece of me. Do you wanna see the piece of me? Maybe we can connect over this piece of me. And I think that that’s where I love infusing nerdiness and comedy. It’s just a way for people to show these little pieces of them and hopefully that connects with someone else who’s desperate to show someone their pieces and go, oh, you also like this.
Oh, me too. Let’s be friends about it. , bad Dog has a great show called D and d Live, which another early thing that I fell in love with, which is, you know, we have a lot of actual play d and d stuff happening now through Dropout, through Dimension 20, through, you know, a lot of different actual play things.
But one of the things I loved so much about that show is. It was like, we all know the structure of Dungeons and Dragons in this audience, so we don’t have to explain that platform. We don’t have to play that platform. We’re playing everything above the role playing aspect, the jokes, the puns, the, we’re still infusing the core concepts of d and d, but it’s theatre and Sex T Rex is so magnificent at that part, primarily in scripted, but they also do improv. , so they do such a good job of connecting that as well. , that I think is, is, so powerful. Most, most theatre actors are nerds, I’m gonna call it. And if they say they’re not, they’re liars. You might not be a nerd about a traditional nerdy thing like a Star Wars or a , star Trek, or some very star based nerdery, but we’re all nerds. , so just enjoy
it. It’s, it’s such a fun way to connect with people and to show them who you are,
, and be accepted for it.
Phil: yeah. There’s so many, you know, Shakespeare nerds and all that sort of like every, like you’re right, all, all theatre people are nerds. They’re nerdy about theatre or they’re nerdy about something else. I remember many years ago being at, I guess this was like early two thousands at Fan Expo in Toronto, and I encountered a guy who had kind of come by accident.
Stephanie: Oh,
Phil: sort of came, I guess it was late on a Sunday or something, and he like, but he sort of like had found his people, like he hadn’t come to the city to be like, oh, I’m going to fan expo. He saw the cosplay went, I’m going to go to this thing and just. Like, I encountered him as he was leaving and he was like, shook and like, just like, this is the greatest thing ever that this exists.
He hadn’t expected it. And that’s the kind of community that, that like nerdy stuff. And when you can come together over nerdy stuff, it brings it, it’s, it’s so important to be able to connect on these things that means so much to us.
Stephanie: Yeah. And I think one of the things I like so much about improv and nerd Nerdery mixed together is the people who are doing it are never, they might be making fun of the source material or poking at it, but they’re never, they’re never punching down. They’re never making fun of nerds. They’re never making fun of the source material in a negative way, which I think sometimes shows like The Big Bang Theory purports to be for nerds.
I think it’s actually a very mean show towards nerds. it’s very bullying, and othering. It’s just like, haha, look at these freaks.
Phil: always, I always said that the, The Big Bang Theory was like a show that made fun of nerds and community was a show written by nerds that made fun of regular people.
Stephanie: Yes. Perfect. , yeah, it’s just, I think that that was one of the things I loved so much about finding these shows. , and then later creating these shows is just making a space for people to love the things that they love and see others loving it too, and get some laughs and find community. ’cause so often a lot of nerd nerdy pursuits are solitary, or they’re, they’re things that you discover on your own, or maybe with one friend that you get to have like your Lord of the Rings chats with.
But it’s because they’re things that you experience often on their own and by yourself. . Who do you get to talk to about those online forums are great for that, but also you wanna meet people in person who like the things you like. , so it’s just such a nice way to bridge that in a way that is less participatory.
It’s still a little participatory. , but you also don’t have to be a really confident person going up and making these connections right away. You’re all watching it and now you have a thing to talk about. Now you have an in that allows you to open that door to making more friends through that shared love.
Phil: Speaking of connecting on nerdy things you, you did talk about the podcast that you have with your partner, the Fandom Show. , I’m curious about how that podcast, that, sorry, that award-winning podcast, came about.
Stephanie: , so it, that came about during the pandemic. , I became obsessed with the show, Shera Princesses of Power on Netflix. , shout out to Andy Stevenson, the executive producer of that show for making the most delightfully heartfelt queer show. , the just, it was so. It’s touched me so much in a time where we were so separate. , and then previous Ad of Bad Dog Coco Galore was like, you keep talking about, why don’t you talk about this? Do you wanna do like an interview show or something? And I was like, I don’t know. ’cause Bad Dog had during the Pandemic Bad Dog tv, which it was programming ongoing improvised content on YouTube as a way of paying artists and allowing them to still create and trying to connect with our community when we were all so separate. , and so Kaya and I talked about it and , with our friend Philippe Demas created the idea of this podcast of just interviewing people where they are the experts on the subject by virtue of their love of the topic. , there’s a podcast called Ologies that I really, really love by Ally Ward, and she interviews different ologists, different scientists about their area of study. And I was like, I love this, but so many people are experts on the things that they love without being a scientist about it. So. How do we make a spot for those people to share the love of the stuff that they care so deeply about? So we created this show in the Pandemic, originally as a YouTube show and then quickly realized this doesn’t need to be video. No one needs to watch us do this. , and then joined up with the from Superheroes Network we changed some elements originally our friend Philippe came in for a jokey segment called The Gatekeeper, and he essentially quizzed the participants on how much they knew about their subject. And they were like, this is more negative than we wanna be.
Because so much of, there’s so many gatekeepers in, in nerd communities, and we hate it. We hate gatekeeping. , it’s like, oh yeah, you like this name every blood. I’m like, well, not everyone loves things in statistics and facts. I am an extremely passionate nerd who loves things, but I’m not a. Memorize every fact about that nerd. , doesn’t mean I don’t love something as much as someone else, but that’s not how I love things. , so then we partnered with from Superheroes Network. they have incredible podcasts. Like I hate it, but I love it. , talk from Superheroes. The villain was right, so very nerdy and comedy we’re like, Ooh, please pick us.
And they’re like, we’re not taking any more podcasts. And we’re like, that’s fair, but maybe us. , and then we ended up meeting with them and we’ve now done 103 episodes recorded. just talking nerdy people about the things that they’re nerdy about no matter what the topic.
Phil: Congratulations on crossing that a hundred episode line. It is the that mark. I think it’s one of those, because you know, you’ve, of course as a podcast, you’ve heard of Pod Fade. People start a podcast, they make it three episodes, then it gets hard and there are milestones along the way. 10 is a good milestone, but 100 is like hitting that Century Club is a great spot to be like okay, so this is a habit now.
Stephanie: Yeah, this is just something we do. , it’s, it’s so, it’s such an interesting thing that that point where podcasts are like, we’re doing this. We have four episodes out, and then we’re stopping. I’m like, but you took the best name.
You took the best name for your podcast. Give it to me.
Phil: I very much that, very much that. But then also like that is kind of why when an episode, when a podcast starts, if it’s a new podcast, I’ll be like, I don’t wanna get attached to this yet. I want to see if you can get to 10 episodes. ’cause I don’t wanna get attached to a show and then have it disappear.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Phil: companies are really bad for that. Like theatre companies start podcasts ’cause they get funding for it or something, and then they put out six episodes and they’re like, well, funding’s over. We’re done. We’re never doing that again. And every, almost every theatre in this country has done that once.
And it drives me crazy because you go, you see that, oh, they have a podcast from eight years ago that they never did anymore than it, it’s really frustrating. But
Stephanie: Or like a
show specific
podcast, and you’re like, what, what? This doesn’t need to exist. I, I feel that way about when, um, shows and like even improv groups create an Instagram account. They’re like, now we have an Instagram. I’m like, okay, cool. And it’s like, you’ve done no shows yet. Okay, that’s fine. That’s great.
You’re excited.
Phil: I get that. I, I get the enthusiasm to do like a a, you know, if you’re a company, you do, you do a, an Instagram for the show. But like when the show’s done and you don’t post anything anymore, why did I bother following that? I’m interested in you as the, the people making it. Like you should talk about it and sure.
If you want to have an Instagram for it, but don’t just keep everything in that one silo.
Stephanie: Yeah. I mean, and ultimately if you’re creating a single show. Uh, everyone has their own Instagram accounts. It doesn’t, like, I’m not going to, I might go to the theatre company’s Instagram, but I’m not gonna go to the specific show’s Instagram. ’cause it’s, it’s gonna disappear. It’s gonna stop being updated.
, and we’ve all done it. We’ve all made
seven Instagram accounts for different improv groups. That lasted one show. You know,
I’m not naming any of
Phil: think this is it. This is the one, it’s going to work. And then, you know, you have one post on that Instagram account and you’re like, can I just delete that whole account?
Stephanie: Yeah. Doing an Instagram is hard.
Like we, Kai and I, Kai is my life and podcast partner, and we have social media for the Fandom show. And even just doing one post a week, we’re like, what do we post? What it like, it’s, it’s so hard to do a good job of social media.
Phil: It is, it’s very hard to do a good job with social media. And it is, it is. Especially when, you know, podcasting, if you’re not a famous person, is not exactly a lucrative, uh, business, but it does take a lot of time. So you are committed to making the podcast and now you’re committed to like creating posts for social media to, I don’t know, get more people to listen to the show.
So maybe one day you might be able to make a couple of bucks.
Stephanie: Yeah. Or you’re spending a bunch of time making patron content for Patreon,
that people might read or they might not. It’s hard to know sometimes,
Phil: , I do wanna ask you, you have 103 episodes in the tank for the Fandom show.
Do you have a favorite?
Stephanie: Ooh. Like, there’s been a lot of really incredible episodes. , two, the first two that come to mind are Craig Faye, an incredible standup comic. , a deep, deep, deep nerd. He’s the host of the villain was Right, and he came to us and said, I wanna do an episode on clocks and time. And we’re like, what? And he’s like, this is why I think it’ll be a good episode. , please, please let me, we’re like, no question. Absolutely. And we are like, how, how do you even ask questions about time or clocks? Like you can ask like, oh, how do they work? , but that episode was one of the most intriguing episodes that we’ve ever had. He’s such a smart and detailed person that I think it’s one of our most popular episodes, and everyone talks about it because it was just. , I liken it to the Hagfish episodes of Ologies where you’re like, what is a hag? What is this gonna be? And then you finish the episode and you’re like, this is the most interesting thing I’ve ever heard. And I, I could listen to this for like 10 hours. We actually recently talked to Craig and we’re like, can you come back for clocks in time, part two, please. Um, because obviously it’s a pretty infinite subject. There’s a lot to say about
it, but he’s just, his veracity for the information and sharing that information was so incredible. , and the other episode of Note was it was on Bluey the kids TV show. , and our guest was Kinley Mockery. , and she came on.
She was very nervous about it, and she’s like, I, this is a, a love that I’ve always kept to myself because I’m an adult who loves a kids show. And I felt a lot of shame about that, but I. I think that it’s such a beautiful touching thing no matter your age. , and her bravery and sharing this thing that was so private to her, I think just really really impacted me and really made for a beautiful and thoughtful episode beyond the topic. , and I think that’s just the thing that is always my favorite is when you’re like, this is gonna be an episode on Dungeons and Dragons. And then it becomes, oh, our Ursula Kayla Gwyn episode with Aurora Brown was another one. It’s like, this is about a sci-fi author, but it became such a deep talk about humanity and the, the core nature of it.
And I was like, that’s the best. I love when they surprise me. ’cause you could talk about a lot of this stuff at face value, but people love these things for a reason and connect to the things they love for a reason. And I like hearing about that part of like, what is it that it’s touching inside you?
Phil: Well, your episodes on that show, they’re about an hour and 15 minutes in general. And it,
Stephanie: We tried to make it shorter. You
just can’t,
Phil: but you can’t, if you’re gonna talk to somebody for an hour, even an hour you are not, you can’t get, you can’t just stay surface. So now you’re gonna, you’re gonna ask questions, you’re gonna delve in.
It’s gonna be like, you’re gonna go really deep on this topic. , and it’s not gonna be the things that you initially thought. ’cause you’re gonna discover things along the way.
Stephanie: Yeah. And I mean, you know, you run a, an interview show you come prepared with your questions. If you don’t touch a single one of your questions, that’s great. If you use all your questions, that’s great. It’s about connecting with the person and just having a conversation and seeing where it goes.
Phil: I always think that if I didn’t do any of the questions that I had written down, it’s a successful interview because we didn’t, like, I didn’t need to look down. We connected, we had a great conversation. And, uh that’s, that’s like what I want out of a conversation like this is, I want that connection and that, that conversation.
Stephanie: Yeah, and I mean, I think that by the very nature of the, the industry and the topics that you cover it’s with art, artistic and creative people talking about something that they care a lot about and that they’ve invested a lot of time and energy into. It’s not dissimilar. , it’s, you’re, you’re learning about the person.
You’re learning about the ways that they love the thing that they love, which in this case is theatre and, and the arts. And in our case, it’s
everything. it’s troll dolls.
Phil: I, oh, LABU boo. I just listened to the Labu Boo episode, which I, you know, yeah.
Stephanie: It was so fun because that was a Lucinda Mu , Jamie is a drag artist and an incredible, fashion designer and creator, and was like, I’ve never been on a podcast. This is my secret thing that I had. Like, I’ll talk to people in person, but I, I’ve never really talked about it in terms of my fandom.
And we’re like, oh yes, we were just shooting the shit. Talking about, I was I’ve engaged him to create an outfit for holiday. ’cause I was like, you know what? I wanna have a nice costume this year. Uh, we all bring our own clothes to it. We’re not such a high budget production. We’re a, a charity theatre. , but I was like, I’m gonna spoil myself this year. And then just started, started talking to Jamie about Laboo. ’cause he had one on his bag. And I was like, explain this to me please. ’cause they’re everywhere and I don’t get it and I don’t judge it, but I don’t understand. And then I was like, you’re gonna be a guest on the Fandom show. I’m sorry.
Phil: Do you ever have people who, who, they’re gonna do this show, but they say, I dunno if I could talk about myself, or, I dunno if I could talk about this thing for an hour. And then when you’re done, they’re like, what Already?
Stephanie: Yeah, we’ve had about 103 of those. so far. Every single guest says that, or I don’t know everything about this. I like, I’m not an expert in that way. And we’re like, that doesn’t, that’s not what you’re here for. You’re just here to talk about the thing that you love, however you love it.
But every guest is like, I didn’t even touch my notes.
And we’re like, we get
Phil: yeah. And you know what the thing is? When somebody is really passionate about something, they don’t need to touch those notes. They don’t even need to look. The only thing that I ever tell people to have notes for is like, if you’re gonna list off a bunch of names, write ’em down
Stephanie: Yes,
Phil: forget one person and then you’re gonna feel
always one person and that person’s gonna take it personally.,
As, just in closing now this is not the first time that you’ve performed a holiday, an improvised musical. , and I wonder if there’s something that you most look forward to every year as you approach this show.
Stephanie: , oh. I, I think for me, the thing I look forward to the most is just helping to create a little piece of joy and a a little spontaneous moment of holiday sincerity. , in a world that doesn’t love sincerity and wants people to be jaded and separate, it is a moment where we all get to just connect together and share some real beautiful emotions with each other through music. , it’s so special that people choose to spend any time with us in live theatre. , and when we all get to just when a song finishes or even when it starts and you have that connection with them because they know it’s just happening out of nowhere, you know, it’s happening out of nowhere and you’re all just in it together, like on top.
Like that happens in most improv shows. But the holiday theme on top of it just opens up a level of sincerity that people aren’t there to scoff at. , they’re there to embrace, appreciate, and get on board for. And so I think that that’s the thing I get most excited for is that genuine connection.
Phil: Amazing. Well, Stephanie, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. And looking forward to holiday and improvised musical this year.
Stephanie: Please, please come everyone. Please come. , if you just want an opportunity to laugh and feel joyful for a good hour and a half out of your life we’d love to have you there.
Phil: Thanks for listening to the end of this episode. I’m gonna tell you about next week’s episode, which I am absolutely thrilled about, next week’s episode is gonna be my last episode for the year, just for the year and I’m gonna take a couple of of weeks off from producing the podcast and then hit the ground running again in, in January once the holidays are over. Let’s talk about Patreon because I cannot do this show without the patrons who’ve chosen to back down Patreon.
it costs money to put out a podcast to costs money, to put it, it costs money to put out a podcast, even though you can get it, you can listen to it for free. The entire archive of stage is available to you right now and forever for free, wherever you get your podcasts. So. You can go back and listen to the early episodes right through there are over four, there are almost 450 episodes at this point for you to listen to.
Each and every one is available to you for free. But it costs me some money to make those episodes both in time but also in real financial costs. for editing software, for hosting a website, for hosting the audio files, for image creation, and all the things I use to help promote the show.
So, all of that comes out of my pocket, but if you wanna help me to make Stageworthy, then go to patreon.com/Stageworthy and become a patron patrons. Get early access to episodes participate in conversations about issues and questions and just theatre in general.
And the more patrons we get, the more we’ll be able to do. On the Patreon. So if you like this show, there are various levels of, of support that you can give all very affordable and Canadian dollars, by the way, go to patreon.com/stageworthy and become a patron, next week.
I will be hosting a year end Roundup with Ryan from the Cup podcast and Janine from A View From the Box, and I am super excited for you to hear this conversation. We talk about the highlights of the year. Different things around Toronto their favourite shows, and just so much more.
So I can’t wait for you to listen to that podcast. So tune in next week for the last episode of Stageworthy for 2025 with an end of year roundup in Toronto theatre. See you next week.
