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Improviser Molly Graham talks with Puss and Kooch about tapping into your wise mind, the benefits of improv and storytelling, and saying funny things.

Molly Graham on Heavy Flo with Puss and Kooch

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. To hear everything Molly has to say, listen to her podcast episode.

Starting out with The Quitters

Thank God for The Quitters. I wouldn’t have stuck to improv without them. I took a break from improv after doing one class because I thought we were going to move. So I didn’t sign up for a class because I thought we were going to leave before that eight weeks was up. 

That turned into two cycles where I thought we were going to move. But then we didn’t move, so I signed up for another improv class. That was where I met Kristin O’Brien and Tonya Jordan. I think that’s when we started going to Zach Mason’s practice group together. Helper Pony came out of that, and The Quitters were sort of a spin-off from that practice group. 

Had I not had the experience of re-finding Kristin and meeting Tonya when I landed back in improv, it would not have stuck the way it did. Now with teaching, I see students on indie teams get a thousand percent better between Levels 2 and 3. It’s not class. 

They’re doing improv with a group of people on another day of the week and getting the reps. But they’re also doing improv in a way that’s self-directed, with a group of people they chose. They like each other, they’re jamming on the same stuff. Those students get way, way, way better. 

I don’t think I would’ve stuck to improv if I hadn’t had The Quitters to make me better faster. I’m not good at doing things I’m not good at. I will stop very quickly if I’m not good at it. So I think having the reps to get better at improv faster made it stick for me when it might not have otherwise if I’d just been doing classes.

Working with Story District 

I came to DC with a job that turned into a software project management thing. I followed that through various job changes and promotions until I was working at a job that I won’t name because I’m going to say bad things about it. 

Word to the wise: If someone offers you a huge raise, ask why. I took a job for a huge raise, and it turned out to be a mess. I could not save it. Superman could not have saved it, and I certainly couldn’t. 

Molly Graham’s feelings about leaving her old, bad job

It was terrible, and I was crying in my car every day and wanting to go in and hand my laptop to the CFO and say I was never coming back....