Comedic Pursuits

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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I got to sit down with an incredibly interesting guy who’s lived a million comedy lives. I’m talking, of course, about Michael Bird. He currently lives in New York City, but he does his show, Bird and Friends Cosmic Unity, all over the country and internationally.

Highlights from my interview with Michael Bird

He recently hit his hundredth show, which is incredible, especially since he’s only been doing it for a little under two years. We’ll talk about his show, his comedy training in Chicago, Austin, DC, and UCB, his time with WIT ensemble Commonwealth, and his house team at The PIT in New York City.

Without further ado, Michael Bird.

Some of Michael’s answers have been edited for clarity. To hear his full responses, listen to his podcast episode.

What are some of your first memories of comedy?

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher was reading Jack and the Beanstalk to us. She wanted people to act out the story while she was reading, and she chose me to play Jack. I crushed it. While she was reading, we basically had to improvise the things that were happening in the story.

There was one part where the giant came, and I was hiding from him in the oven. I pretended to go to sleep, and I started snoring. When I did that, the entire kindergarten class started laughing, and I felt this burst of joy in that laughter because it was what I wanted to happen. I was trying to be funny, and it worked. I was like, “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

What was your college improv experience like?

I went to college at UT Austin and ended up auditioning for a new improv group on campus called Giggle Pants. The group started as three guys who did ComedySportz, short-form improv, with each other in high school. It was all dudes, and it got super raunchy all the time. I was like, “Is this what I have to do to be funny?” I was not doing well, and I thought they were going to kick me out.

I think I Googled “how to get good at improv,” and this book, The Second City Almanac of Improvisation, popped up. I finished it in a weekend, and it changed everything. I felt like every chapter was full of golden improv advice.

I went to the next rehearsal, and I was charged. We played a short-form game, and I came in hard with a relationship. I made one of the guys my girlfriend who I was breaking up with, and I got into it. Everyone was like, “Where the fuck is this coming from?”

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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne.

I’m very excited for this episode because I got to sit down with one of my dear friends,. He’s someone I connected with right away in the comedy scene and an inspiration to me. He’s creative, crazy, hilarious, and cracks me up every time I see him. He brings so much energy to any room he’s in, let alone any project he’s part of.

I’m talking, of course, about Robin Doody.

Highlights from my interview with Robin Doody

We’ll talk about Robin growing up in Houston, Texas, and his transition from lacrosse bro to political madman. His interest in politics led him to DC, at which point he got involved with improv and moved through the ranks very quickly. He’s a ridiculous person. I enjoy every interaction I’ve had with him.

Robin was part of former WIT ensemble Commonwealth for a year before it was sunset. We’ll get into that, but I’m very happy to report that Robin has since been doing a lot of other creative projects.

Without further ado, Robin Doody.

Some parts of this interview have been edited for clarity. To hear Robin’s full responses, listen to his podcast episode.

Growing up, part one

I never identified as a creative person when I was younger, which I think was a missed opportunity. But I played the violin, and I performed a lot. I started playing the violin when I was four. We would do bank performances during the holiday season, but my favorite thing was doing Christmas carols around a neighborhood in Houston. We would also play fiddle at the Houston Rodeo. That was probably my first huge performance with a big crowd.

I always considered myself to be funny, and I was a class clown, for sure. I would push the limit a lot, and I liked to make my friends laugh. In retrospect, I was disrespectful to teachers and that wasn’t chill.

I didn’t do any theater in school, though. I did sports, and I was always the funniest kid on the sports team. I don’t have any regrets, but if I could do it over, I would probably give up the sports and focus on theater. When I’m feeling selfish, I wish I’d had a mentor to push me to do that.

The beginnings of a political career

After high school, I went to Rice University and majored in history. After I graduated, I moved to Galveston, Texas, and was a field organizer. I was very passionate at the time about turning Texas blue, which I think I could still be passionate abou...

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Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne.

This week I got to sit down with someone who I have found to be a very funny, very talented, very bright and nice person. I’m talking, of course, about Kate Symes.

Highlights from my interview with Kate Symes

Kate has been doing improv for a little over eight years now, so we have a lot to cover in this episode. She’s from the West Coast and has gone on a bunch of different adventures.

She’s taught at Washington Improv Theater, was on Commonwealth, King Bee, Going to the Movies Alone, Press Play, Telenovela, and many other teams. She’s currently on the indie team To Be Frank and is directing The Fourth Estate, which is a brand new WIT show about the media.

Without further ado, Kate Symes.

Some of the following answers and questions have been edited and shortened for clarity. You can hear Kate’s responses in full by listening to the podcast episode.

The early years

I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and am the oldest of four kids, so I think my early comedic influences were my siblings. We weren’t allowed to watch a lot of television growing up. My parents were kind of hippies. They grew out of it as I got older, but they were pretty hardcore hippies when I was young, so television was not a thing. I was encouraged to go play with my siblings in the backyard. We would come up with skits and plays and entertain each other. My dad is super into music, so we listened to a lot of music. We’d play records and put on dance routines. Those were comedic—not on purpose, but accidentally.

Jury’s out on whether this is recreation of one of Kate Symes’s childhood comedic dance routines

I think the earliest thing I saw on film or television that I liked and recognized as comedy was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I love that movie, and I love the style of it. We bought it on VHS, and it was the only movie we owned for five years, so we watched it a lot. I don’t know why, for my parents, that was the acceptable movie to own. But that was it.

I did gymnastics growing up, and I also played the violin. So I did things where I performed, and I was used to being on stage or in front of people doing a thing. So I got comfortable with that early and often. But music and gymnastics tapered off in high school. Then I just started going to keg parties. That was my biggest contribution to society for the last three years of high school.

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It’s 2019. It’s a new year. Maybe it’s a new you. But this is still the Comedic Pursuits podcast, and we’re still doing the same thing we did in 2018. We’ll be sitting down, talking with comedians in the area about their experiences, gaining their knowledge, and having a few laughs along the way.

In this episode, I finally got to interview someone I’ve wanted to know more about. He fascinates me. He warms my heart. He explodes my brain with how fast and good he is at improv. He’s been a role model for me. I’m talking about Denny Johnson, everybody.

Highlights from my interview with Denny Johnson

We’ll cover Denny’s backstory and how he went through the WIT program, how he was introduced to improv, his time on Madeline, his hit FIST team, Going to the Movies Alone, being cast on former WIT ensemble Commonwealth, and what he’s been doing since then.

We’ll also talk about his indie teams, To Be Frank and Ugh. When we recorded this episode a couple months ago, Denny had proposed a new concept show to Washington Improv Theater, and it’s since been approved. It’s called Starship Odyssey: The Final Mission. It’s an improvised sci-fi experience launching at WIT in 2019. Denny is a creator and co-director.

But I think you’re ready to dig into this lovely, hilarious episode. Without further ado, Denny Johnson.

Some parts of this interview have been edited for clarity. To hear Denny’s full responses, listen to his podcast episode.

Listen to Denny’s podcast episode or else

The early years

I grew up in very rural Ohio. My grandfather was a dairy farmer, and my dad was a coal miner. We only had two channels on television, so my comedy exposure was limited. But I think I was still drawn to all the comedy classics.

When Ghostbusters was released, I was probably in first grade. Watching Bill Murray do his thing next to Dan Akroyd doing his thing—which is sort of their classic thing—I was rolling. I don’t think I even understood why it was so funny. My brother and I can still say lines from the movie to each other. But other than that, all we had was NBC and CBS.

I also watched SNL. My first foray into SNL would have been the Mike Myers and Dana Carvey era, the “Wayne’s World” years. Saturday Night Live was great television for us, and you had to watch it live at the time. My brother and I would fight to stay awake, and our goal was always to make it to Weekend Update. Then we would just pass out.

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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne, and I’m here with an exclusive, limited edition, rarely seen before, holographic, never been opened interview with the Comedic Pursuits creator herself, Kelsie Anderson.

Highlights from my interview with Kelsie Anderson

In this interview, we talk about how Kelsie created Comedic Pursuits, which is also on Facebook and Instagram if you haven’t checked it out already. We also talk about her indie teams, doing sketch comedy, and her sketch group Deer Friends. Kelsie is also on WIT Harold team Heirloom.

I hope you guys enjoy this interview as much as I did. Without further ado, Kelsie Anderson.

Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity. To hear Kelsie’s full interview, listen to the podcast episode.

What’s your comedy background?

My dad is super funny. He has a really weird sense of humor, and growing up, people would always compare me to him. My dad was probably my first comedy influence, I guess. I also remember watching a lot of SNL growing up. I loved Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig.

But my sister was actually the performer of the family. I was very, very shy as a kid, so talking in front of people was not a thing I did at all. But my sister was into musicals and theater. She did a camp where they put on different scenes from different musicals, and she loved being the center of attention. And at the time, I could never imagine going up on stage and doing weird stuff in front of people.

I think the first time I performed and did something funny was during my junior year of high school. The juniors could write plays to fund junior prom. They wrote the scripts, cast the plays, and directed them. This was in 2008, and I was cast as Sarah Palin. My ex-boyfriend asked me to audition for his play, and asked if I could try out the accent. When I could do it, they decided to cast me. I won best supporting actress for that.

Kelsie Anderson’s role as Sarah Palin in a student-written play was her first comedic role

In high school, we had a ComedySportz team, and I was supposed to try out for it. But I chickened out and ended up leaving. My name was on the sign-up sheet, and I was supposed to go. Then I just got scared and walked right past the door and out of the buildings to my car. And it’s haunted me ever since.

Then I went to the University of Chicago, and I didn’t perform at all. I knew about improv in Chicago.

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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne.

This is episode 13, and 13 is my favorite number. Coincidentally, this is one of my favorite episodes. I got to sit down with Geoff Corey, a super hilarious, delightful human being known for his goofy-ass characters and scenes. We have a lot of laughs this episode, and I think this is actually the most I’ve laughed in any episode so far.

Highlights from my interview with Geoff Corey

Geoff has a great way of breaking down the things he’s done in the past and the things he’s learned. He’s a fantastic storyteller. He was on Not Great with Kids and Wonder Whale. He’s currently on Nox! and Runaway Train. It’s an awesome episode, and I hope you thoroughly enjoy it.

Without further ado, Geoff Cory.

Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity. To hear Geoff’s full responses, listen to his podcast episode.

What’s your comedy background?

Growing up, I was very influenced by my brothers, who are older than me. I was the youngest of three boys. I basically did everything they did with music, film, comedy, shows, movies, anything. I would say the people we idolized were Jim Carrey and Chris Farley. We watched their movies over and over again.

I think that checks out because I’m super physical. I make faces and large, explosive additions to scenes. I think people don’t expect it from me if they don’t know me because I present as a little guy and a thoughtful person. But when a scene starts, I’m just like, “Oh, this scene needs a crazy uncle who only wears underwear.”

Geoff Corey’s face lights up at the prospect of playing unusual characters

I went to college and studied politics as SUNY Albany in upstate New York. I was friends with everyone in the improv club, but I didn’t do improv. The group on campus was called Sketchy Characters. My roommate was in it, and I went to their shows. I liked everybody in the group. I hung out with them and went on their bonding trips even though I wasn’t in the club.

From meeting them, I told myself if I ever found myself in a new city where I didn’t know anybody, I would seek out the improv community because I knew I liked those kinds of people. But then I never did improv until I got to DC.

How did you get into improv in DC?

I came to DC with a boyfriend of five years who was also an honorary member of Sketchy Cha...

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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne, and this week you guys are in for yet another treat. I was able to sit down and get an exclusive interview with the educational director of Washington Improv Theater, Jonathan Murphy.

Highlights from my interview with Jonathan Murphy

Jonathan Murphy is a past FIST winner as part of the team Beverly Crusher and has had a crazy journey in comedy. He’s gone from the East Coast to the West Coast, up and down the West Coast, and back again. He did some awesome stuff in DC, moved out and started his own improv theater in Providence, Rhode Island, moved back, and is now the force behind all of the educational stuff going on at WIT. He’s a really funny dude who loves improv.

Without further ado, Jonathan Murphy. Some of the following questions and responses have been edited for clarity. To hear our full conversation, listen to the podcast episode.

How did you get into comedy?

When I was doing theater in middle school and high school, we did a lot of comedy. I was super into theater and was a huge theater nerd. I got into theater when I was 12 years old and started doing it pretty seriously.

It’s funny considering how much comedy I was consuming and doing in a theatrical sense, I still didn’t have great interpersonal comedy timing or even a sense of comedy in a more refined way. That part took a while, and I don’t know why. I did a lot of comedic plays and really took the timing seriously. I went through a lot of breaking it down to figure out what the best way to deliver lines was for the biggest laugh or impact.

I ended up going to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, because I wanted to leave home. I grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is a very beautiful city that I wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

I didn’t really find my people until I got to the West Coast. I think a lot of people go through that. I was a very specific kind of person, and I wanted to create a bit of a new identity for myself. I think part of that was moving as far away as possible. I dyed my hair bright red before going to college and was looking for this other experience.

I acted in a David Ives one-act play in the fall of my freshman year at Reed, so I was involved with theater early on. But then that thing kicked in where I wanted to be different. After that, I took a huge step back from theater. I was super into partying and doing drugs and just being a college kid and rebelling.

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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. We’ve got another stellar episode lined up for you today.

This week, I got to sit down with the delightfully versatile Adam Koussari-Amin, who used to play with WIT Harold team Richie before they were retired.

Highlights from my interview with Adam Koussari-Amin

I talked with Adam about his background in comedy, how he got started with improv in DC, his indie team Ugh, his experience with Drag Brunch, and some other exciting topics.

Without further ado, Adam Koussari-Amin. Some answers and responses have been edited for clarity. To hear Adam’s full answers, listen to the podcast episode.

How did you get into comedy?

Growing up, I think I was always kind of a goofy person, but I was a lot more insecure about both myself and my talents. It’s so weird to me because, thinking about what I’d go back and tell my five-year-old self, I’d say, “Just be fucking gay all the time,” and also, “Join theater.” Because if it didn’t really go anywhere, fine. But I’d be playing a lot less catch-up than I am now.

I was a smart kid in high school, but I was one of those smart kids that had no fucking idea what they wanted to do. I mostly just sat around and played video games, then was like, “Now what?” So I took my sister’s college list and applied to bunch of those places. Luckily, I got into the University of Virginia.

Originally, I applied to be in the engineering school because, at the time, I thought I would be a software developer. But when I got there, I realized it wasn’t actually what I wanted to do. It sounded cool, and I liked video games and developing, but my brain wasn’t really structured for that. So I switched to economics because it sounded like I degree I could probably use for whatever. Then I ended up applying to the commerce school because it was what all my smarter friends were doing. I just looked at what all the  intelligent people were doing and tried to keep up with them.

My senior year, I’d come out over the summer, and I was like, “Well, I’m gonna be gay. I’m gonna do all this fucking crazy shit.” I wanted to explore and do all this stuff. I went to go see my friend in this hip hop dance crew called Mahogany, and I decided to join. But that, again, was the limit of my creative pursuits because I always stunted myself.

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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. We have a hell of an episode for you today.

When Kelsie Anderson and I started this podcast, we made a list of some of the top people we didn’t know a lot about but wanted to get some wisdom from in the DC comedy scene. Murphy McHugh was right at the top of the list.

Highlights from my interview with Murphy McHugh

Murphy McHugh owns and operates Dojo Comedy. In this episode, he talks about his upbringing, his trials and tribulations in college, training in New York City, moving to DC, working at WIT, starting Harold Night, the indie scene in DC, and his involvement with Brick Penguin.

This episode is a treasure because there’s so much good stuff in terms of history, nerding out on improv, and great words of wisdom. I hope you appreciate this episode as much as I do.

Without further ado the Murphy McHugh interview. Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity, but you can hear the full interview by listening to the podcast.

How did you get into comedy?

I wasn’t allowed to watch commercial television as a child, but I was allowed to listen to old radio programs. So the first dedicated comedy shows I absorbed were almost all radio shows, like Burns and Allen, Lum and Abner, Red Skelton, and Jack Benny.

When I was a kid, I’d read joke books in bookstores, but when the internet became a thing, I could look up jokes. A dial-up connection was fast enough that you could read a lot of jokes if you waited for the page to load. At one point, I assembled and compiled my favorite jokes and put them in a book so I could tell them to my cousins.

Then I went to college at Villanova, and I was miserable and lonely. I wasn’t ready to be a freshman in college. I was the odd one out by a long shot. My first job out of high school was working as a bouncer and waiter in Adams Morgan. When I got to college, all these kids were having their wannabe Animal House freshman year where they got drunk every weekend, but I’d spent three months at a bar watching adults get actually drunk. So the room parties were lame, and I didn’t drink. That was socially isolating, but I was also not the easiest person to get to know. I was an odd fellow, to say the least.

I remember talking online to a girl I had a crush on. She told me I was funny, and I realized I was funny. I decided that was my thing, and I was going to try to be funny. I wrote some original material and started doing open mics on campus and in Philadelphia my freshman and sophomore year.

At some point, I realized I needed to change schools. Villanova wasn’t a good place for me, so I transferred to Georgetown.

How did you get involved with improv at Georgetown?

In my second year at Villanova, The Upright Citizens Brigade touring company had come through and done a show and a workshop on campus. I did the workshop, and when I transferred schools, I decided to audition for the Georgetown Players Improv Group. I hadn’t done any improv aside from that workshop, but I auditioned, got through to callbacks, and made it onto the team.

I realized as soon as I got on that all these other people were really good. I didn’t know why they’d taken me. I knew that I was funny enough,

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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne. Before we get into today’s episode, I just want to say thank you for listening.

This has been such a fun project. We’ve had a ton of talented, funny people on already, and we’ve got so many more episodes recorded. This train’s just going to keep on chugging along. I hope you guys are enjoying the ride.

For today’s episode, I sat down with Erick Acuña. You may have seen him around town. He’s at every show ever. He’s also on eight or nine teams. He’s obsessed with comedy and is really funny.

Highlights from my interview with Erick Acuña

Erick is from Lima, Peru and was first introduced to comedy there. We’ll talk about his training in Peru and the US and how he dealt with English a second language during his improv classes.

He’s started a bunch of fun teams and programs, including directing WIT special project Heavy Rotation. He’s been a performer with Improv Actually and WIT Harold team Captain PhD. When we recorded this episode, he was working on a one man sketch show, Acuña Acuna. He’s since performed it at Dojo Comedy and in New York.

Without further ado, let’s dive right into the Erica Acuña interview. Some of the answers and responses have been edited for clarity. But you can hear Erick’s full take on improv by listening to the podcast episode.

How did you get into comedy and performance?

In high school, I loved theater, but I think my first introduction to comedy was watching American sitcoms. That’s also how I started learning English. Seinfeld was one of my all-time favorite shows.

Humor and comedy is different in Latin America than in the States. In Peru in particular, especially in the 1990s, comedy was very rude and very raw. Just insulting someone was considered funny. So watching the subtlety of Seinfeld and certain jokes was so different from anything that I’d watched before. Back in the ’90s in Peru, we were also in the middle of an armed conflict. There weren’t that many comedy shows, so pretty much anything that I watched was from the States.

But watching American comedy shows was just a hobby for me. I wanted to be a musician. I play guitar and drums, and I had a punk rock band when I was in school. Back then, thought, there wasn’t really a possibility to be a musician or a comedian or an actor or do creative stuff. You needed a legit job and a legit career, so I went to law school.

At first I hated it. I had this internship, and I had to wear a suit. I couldn’t imagine wearing a suit and going to court for the rest of my life. I just needed an outlet. A friend of mine told me they’d started taking classes at an improv comedy theater that had just opened in the city. I’d never heard of improv at that point, but my friend persuaded me to take classes at this theater called Que Tal. The founder was an Argentinian actor and comedian. He’d moved to Peru because he realized that there wasn’t any improv scene at all there, so he founded a theater and did clown and improv.

I started taking classes and enrolled in the program at the theater in 2009. I was still in law school, and I would take improv classes every Friday night from 7pm to 10pm.