The 50/50 Podcast

This week, we sit down with filmmaker and actor Santi MacLean to get physical. Santi breaks down his acting practice, Action Theatre — a highly reactive, physical, and primal form of acting derived from dance. We talk about what happens when you completely surrender to an acting exercise, what it means to align your body and instincts with a performance, and how this practice has fundamentally shaped the way Santi approaches directing and filmmaking at large.

We also get into Santi’s ambitious current project, compiling 12 SHORT FILMS to form a collection of films he’s creating almost like an album — blurring the lines between filmmaking, performance art, and experimentation.

Finally, we talk about how our relationship with our own work evolves over time: writing something, putting it away, coming back to it years later, and discovering that you’re suddenly in conversation with the person who made it. What does our art preserve about who we were — and what can it teach us about who we are now?

A conversation about physicality, instinct, experimentation, and the strange experience of constantly creating alongside our younger selves.

Santi's Website 

Santi's Insta

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This week, we’re joined by producer Aisling Lynch of Fourth Wall, who moved to Los Angeles in a yellow Smart Car named Leonardo with just a couple bucks to her name — and quickly began figuring out how to make it work.

Aisling talks about PA’ing on the final week of EUPHORIA Season 2, which led to a full run on THE IDOL and gave her a firsthand education in the chaos of constant rewrites, reshoots, and life on set. We get into why actually being on set is so important for producers — especially as more and more young executives enter the business without much production experience.

From her first desk job at Asylum Entertainment, where she primarily worked in unscripted, to freelancing as a book scout and learning how to read material quickly and instinctively, Aisling breaks down the experiences that shaped her taste and abilities. She then “lucked out” by becoming Russell Hollander’s assistant at Fourth Wall, where he gave her the freedom to source as much material as possible — setting her on a rapid path from assistant to producer.

We talk about the value of being scrappy, making cold calls, finding opportunities wherever you can, figuring out what’s actually working, and learning how to build a productive relationship with your producing partner. 

Aisling Instagram

OPEN HOUSE (Deadline Annoucement)

50/50 Horror Tickets

Wylie Anderson RETURNS to the Pod fresh off directing Grace Guy’s DECKHAND at the Edinburgh Fringe — and fully recovered from much chaos involving international travel and visceral sickness. We also discuss Wylie's HOME MOVIE SHOW: an event where fellow "adults" bring in the earnest, hilarious, deeply personal home movies they made as kids. The live show taps into Wylie’s love of hosting and her ability to access her inner child, while opening up a bigger conversation about purpose — and remembering what is actually FUN about filmmaking.

We also get into Wylie’s newest feature, which she describes as her most personal yet. She shares how she immerses herself in the writing process, including using movement and dance as a way into a script about dance itself. From there, we zoom out to talk about creative process more broadly: setting goals and writing benchmarks, holding yourself accountable, and knowing when — and how — to let other people into the work-in-progress. 

WYLIE INSTA

HOME MOVIE SHOW - RSVP 10/16 SHOW!

DECKHAND @ FRINGE

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(RE-RELEASE) This week, we resurface a CLASSIC episode. We sit down with David Jacobson, marketing director at Cherry Lane Theatre — freshly reopened under A24 — to talk shepherding one of downtown New York’s most historic stages into its next era. David cut his teeth in sports marketing with the New York Knicks and New York Rangers (not to mention a brief, glorious stint working the second floor of the old times square NikeTown — RIP). Along the way, he adopted a simple philosophy passed down from his dad: the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Ask questions. Meet everyone. Be the “dumbest” person in the room. Remain a fan at heart. 

David stepped into Cherry Lane just months before its reopening, balancing the theater’s deep, rebellious history with A24’s modern indie sensibility. He says that running marketing there feels more like a startup than an institution. It’s a candid conversation about hustle, taste, and parlaying every job into meaningful relationships. 

In classic 50/50 fashion, it's another theatre/film mashup. Buckle your seatbelts! 

YOU GOT OLDER at the Cherry Lane Theatre

The Cherry Lane Theatre Instagram

HENRY WINKLER'S INSTAGRAM (random but relevant)

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Director Britt Berke is back on the pod! Since we spoke with her last year, Britt has been BUSY— she most recently directed Ruby Karp’s solo special I DON’T TRUST ADULTS, premiering on VEEPS September 10th. We get into the unique challenges of directing a stand-up special versus theatre (and where the lines between the two blur), including how to manage blocking for stage/film. 

We also dive deep into Britt’s experience directing Julia Atkin’s CRYING AT MY PODIATRIST, a body-horror solo show she was brought on to direct for the Edinburgh Fringe. She and Julia built the show from the ground up - they workshopped it first in NYC and then jetted off to Edinburgh where they only had room for minimal set dressing and a two-person crew.

Britt gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what it actually takes to put up a show at Fringe — including flyering strategies, theatre timeslots, director fees, costs, and why so many industry people love Edinburgh. Plus: shipping-container bars, late-night theatre kid antics, seeing 20+ shows in a month, the list could go on and on. We close the interview by highlighting Britt’s recent directing residencies, how she chooses the projects she wants to work on, and what’s next — including her upcoming production of PHYL at the Mint Theater Company.

I DON'T TRUST ADULTS (Britt Directed Ruby Karp Special - on VEEPS Sept 10th)

CRYING AT MY PODIATRIST (FRINGE)

PHYL at MINT THEATRE (Oct 3rd - Nov 7th)

BRITT'S WEBSITE

BRITT'S INSTA

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This week, we sit down with filmmaker/visual artist Gabriella Mykal to talk about her journey from making experimental films in Texas to CalArts, where she made her first doc feature, RP — a documentary exploring the normalization of traumatic sexual experiences through fan fiction. Gabriella discusses the film’s unconventional approach to documentary filmmaking, heavily featuring reenactments to create something that feels high-concept, intellectual, and deeply psychological. We also talk about the experience of seeing the film connect with audiences at its international premiere at TIFF Next Wave.

We also discuss the more business-y elements to Gabriella's film career thus far: her work in reality TV post-production at Renegade83, working on Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut under producer Tiffany Persons, and working in development at Shondaland. We dig into the lessons she learned from each of those experiences, how she managed to keep writing throughout demanding day jobs. Finally, we talk about her plans to actually get those films made — and the reasoning for starting with the most grounded of her many scripts. 

RAPE PLAY - TRAILER

RAPE PLAY (TIFF SITE)

WHAT'S TROUBLING YOU? (w/ JOSH CARONE)

GABRIELLA'S WEBSITE

INSTA

Blacklist Projects Lab Announcement

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This week, we sit down with comedian Ruby Karp! We briefly recap Ruby's unconventional childhood (for more on that, listen to our first episode with her!); how growing up with a single mom ended up with the early UCB improvisers essentially serving as her babysitters. Her solo show, I Don’t Trust Adults, draws from that experience — exploring what it’s like to grow up surrounded by adults, growing up way too fast in some ways and not at all in others. After a successful run at Soho Theatre in NYC, Ruby filmed the show as a standup special, and we get into the ins and outs of working with a theatre, crew, director, and editor to bring a live show to the screen — as well as the business of selling it as a special to a streamer. 

We also dive into Ruby’s approach to launching the special after selling it to VEEPS, a newer streamer focused on comedy and emerging voices. From clips and man-on-the-street content to PR and social strategy, Ruby breaks down how she thinks about turning a special into a full-blown digital campaign. Having previously worked at Betches and Unwell producing social content for other creators, she’s become a one-person digital marketing powerhouse. Watch I Don't Trust Adults -- on VEEPS Sept 10th! 

I DON'T TRUST ADULTS (VEEPS)

Deadline Announcement

Ruby Betches

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This week, actor/comedian/musician Kenzie Gross joins us to talk about growing up in a sports family, where constant competition and a full plate of extracurriculars instilled a strong work ethic in her from a young age. After growing up in Portland, OR and finding her place in musical theatre—often playing the comedic relief—Kenzie headed to USC, where she continued performing and eventually interned at The Groundlings. That experience made her realize, “Oh yeah, this is what I want to do forever.”

We dive into the equally terrifying experiences of starting stand-up and posting comedy videos online, discussing what it’s like to throw yourself into the deep end as a performer, finding your comedic voice, and learning to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

KENZIE'S INSTA

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This week, we talk with Josh Carone of 2bd2bth! We discuss how a conversation with fellow creator and friend Milky Tran was the catalyst for Josh and his comedy partner Jenny to start the group, and they quickly fell in love with the immediate gratification of making internet sketches — the ability to come up with a variety of ideas and bring them to life quickly. For Josh, who had previously only written features, the format felt incredibly freeing artistically. We talk about the process of seeking authenticity while simultaneously paying attention to what the platforms actually want.

Josh also discusses the rise of 2bd2bth while continuing to work a day job on the content side at Sony, an experience that gave him a unique perspective at the intersection of digital content and film — and taught him a ton along the way. We also dig into his beloved short DON’T PAUSE THE GAME, which is a drama (we dont see a ton of drama shorts these days), and Josh's take on male communication. 

2BD2BTH INSTA

JOSH INSTA

DONT PAUSE THE GAME (SHORT FILM)

Some movies become cult classics. THE ROOM became a phenomenon.

This week, we're joined by Josh Folan, Jonathan Mann, and Ted Garvey, the filmmaking team behind the animated documentary ROOM TONE: THE SOUND OF THE ROOM, which tells the unbelievable story of Tommy Wiseau's infamous film through the eyes of the people who were actually there. After meeting legendary sound mixer Zsolt, Josh realized that he was one of the only constants on THE ROOM's famously chaotic set; and he had an incredible story to tell. Alongside boom operator Tim D. Lloyd, Zsolt offers a firsthand perspective on one of the most dysfunctional productions in movie history—and because archival footage wasn't an option, Josh enlisted Jonathan and Ted to bring these stories to life through animation.

We dive into the creative pipeline behind the documentary, from interviews to illustration to the years-long animation process, and discuss the unique challenge of visually recreating stories that had never been seen before. We also talk about the reactions from the people who actually made THE ROOM, what it meant to finally share the finished film with them, and how the project became a source of creative freedom for everyone involved. 

BUY THE FILM

ROOM TONE TRAILER

ROOM TONE (LETTERBOXD)

ROOM TONE (IMDB)

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