improv

Name: Kelly McInerney

Socials: Twitter/Instagram

TrunkSpace: Was comedy always in the cards? Were you a “funny” kid, even at an early age?
McInerney: It kind of was, yeah. I think I didn’t realize it at first but I was always obsessed with comedy. Jim Carrey was my idol as a kid. I was pretty quiet though – didn’t act out – but I was the quiet but funny type in that I was funny with my friends and if people asked me questions, I just wasn’t the big, loud class clown.

TrunkSpace: When did you decide to pursue stand-up comedy as a career and did you make a plan for how you would attack things?
McInerney: I decided to pursue stand-up around 2010. I had been doing improv a while but there comes a point where you’re like, “I don’t want to blame someone else for a shitty show,” and stand-up is just you and you get to write. I didn’t have a set plan… just did as many mics and shows as I could while doing improv too, and eventually I just decided to focus primarily on stand-up.

TrunkSpace: How long did it take for you to discover your voice as a comic?
McInerney: I don’t think it took me long. I always had a certain type of humor I gravitated to even as a kid, so it came kind of second hand when I started to do it.

TrunkSpace: Is the approach you take now on stage different from the approach you took when you first started out? Is it one act that grew into itself or would you consider them two completely different acts?
McInerney: I think my voice is louder now, both literally and the figuratively. Starting out I would just wing every joke but now I try to focus more on the technical aspect, like connecting jokes and if this bit is funny how can a make a similar bit, etc, etc.

TrunkSpace: Is the neon “Open” sign in your brain always turned on, and by that we mean, are you always writing and on alert for new material?
McInerney: Yes and no. I always look for premises but sometimes it’s hard to flesh out the joke. Sometimes I’ll have a funny premise and just hold onto it for months or years until I can grow a solid fun joke out of it.

TrunkSpace: How much work goes into a joke before it’s ready to be tested out in front of a live audience?
McInerney: Some jokes are immediately funny – a lot of those are the one-liners. A lot of times the silly, dumb jokes are just very easy to do off the bat as well. It’s the smarter ones that take a bit to rework and polish off into a funny. Also the ones that are based in tragedy or a serious topic that turns into a funny bit also sometimes takes a bit to rework and sometimes those darker ones don’t work in front of certain audiences.

TrunkSpace: If a joke doesn’t seem to be working, how many chances do you give it in a live setting before you decide to rework it or move on from it altogether?
McInerney: Probably a handful of times – not long. I think you can feel it in the air if an audience kind of likes the way it’s going, but it’s “not there yet” versus “nobody gets the premise,” I’m gonna trash it. Sometimes I don’t trash it though and just save it for a future premise that ends up working better.

TrunkSpace: Is it possible to kill one night and bomb the next with essentially the same set, and if so, what do you chalk that up as?
McInerney: Absolutely. You could blame the audience – doing the same set in, say, Denver, might not hit as well in Phoenix. It also could be your energy. Sometimes I get tired of certain jokes and find myself not selling them as much and the audience can see that. The audience can see when you don’t care. You just have to remember to commit to the bit and jokes even if they’re old. Sure, they’re old for you, but this is a new audience and everything is new to them – you have to remember that.

TrunkSpace: Does a receptive and willing audience fuel your fire of funny and help to put you on your game for the rest of your set?
McInerney: Yes, nothing better than an audience that just loves comedy.

TrunkSpace: What is your most memorable performance experience (good or bad!) that will stick with you for the rest of your career and why?
McInerney: Man, I have no idea. I guess one of the best was when I did a mic in Mexico City in 2017. It wasn’t a traditional open mic – I did at least 10 minutes. I was the only English speaker and even the guy in charge was like, “Hey, heads up, they might not laugh.” And I was going in super nervous, ready to bomb, but hey, at least I did a set in Mexico, right? I ended up crushing so hard. It was one of my favorite sets I’ve ever done. Turns out jizz jokes are universally and internationally loved. The guy in charge ended up giving me a set the following day on their booked show. I was so proud. I kind of like surprising people like that because they don’t expect a blonde white girl with a potty mouth, but I bring it and they get a kick out of it.

TrunkSpace: How do you handle hecklers? What approach do you take?
McInerney: It depends on what they say. Sometimes I’ll ignore them, but sometimes I’ll yell back and it ends up becoming a great tag for a joke. One guy boo’d me once as I was doing a blow job joke comparing BJs to ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s) and I said, “Have you had a dick in your mouth and have you eaten ice cream? What tastes better?” Now I add that to the joke and it makes it funnier.

TrunkSpace: What are your thoughts on the stand-up landscape in 2019? Are you optimistic for the future of live comedy?
McInerney: I think too many people are doing it right now. LA is oversaturated. I mean, in a way, I guess it’s cool and good that a lot of people are because comedy is hot right now. Look at Netflix… they have a new special at least once a month. I do think it’s harder now to succeed though because there’s a lot of us, but because there is so many of us there is going to be so much good live comedy coming in the future.

TrunkSpace: Finally, who do YOU find funny?
McInerney: So many things. I’m a big fan of just classic ‘90s humor: poop jokes, guys dressing up as girls, physical comedy like in “Dumb and Dumber” and any ‘90’s Jim Carrey movie. I also love dark jokes and smart ones that I could never think of – the bullets bit in Chris Rock’s “Bigger and Blacker” is one of the best if not the best joke out there. SNL during the Dana Carvey and Will Ferrell eras. Huge fan of assholes that you root for a la “Eastbound & Down” and any Danny McBride thing. Chelsea Peretti, Sarah Silverman, etc, etc. “The Tom Green Show” from way back when is basically what made me the gross goofball I am.

Name: Meghan Ross

Socials: Twitter/Facebook/Instagram

Why We’re Laughing: Tapping into past experiences and her firsthand understanding of those moments to find the funny, Ross is throwing open the windows of her mind to air out the place, and in doing so, inviting us to wander around inside.

TrunkSpace: Was comedy always in the cards? Were you a “funny” kid, even at an early age?
Ross: Funny-LOOKING. (This is my official resignation from comedy.) I was a comedy nerd growing up, consuming everything from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (I’m the Rhoda) to “Strangers with Candy.” But I wasn’t a confident kid, so I never thought I’d actually perform it. I always tried to be funny though, using humor to cope with being an awkward, hairy Syrian girl among the upper-class Aryan race at my Catholic elementary school.

TrunkSpace: When did you decide to pursue stand-up comedy as a career and did you make a plan for how you would attack things?
Ross: I was writing humor pieces and sketches at the end of college, after interning at TV Without Pity (RIP) and continued when I moved to New York and completed the UCB Advanced Studies improv and sketch programs. After several years of improv shows in bar basements, I realized I should focus more on solo work if I want to turn comedy into a career. I started doing stand-up, wrote my first sitcom pilot and screenplay, and pitched more humor essays during my last couple years in New York before moving to Austin to continue it. I host, write, and produce, an all-women late night show called “That Time of the Month” and one of my priorities this year is to expand it beyond the live stage show.

TrunkSpace: How long did it take for you to discover your voice as a comic?
Ross: I’m still discovering my voice after seven years, but it probably took until this year for me to be more comfortable and consistent with my sets, particularly the monologues I write for “That Time of the Month,” which I’d been doing for about three years. Not too bad considering I’m 10 years old if any big shot Hollywood agents are asking.

TrunkSpace: Is the approach you take now on stage different from the approach you took when you first started out? Is it one act that grew into itself or would you consider them two completely different acts?
Ross: I’d consider them different acts. Even after years of trying other forms of comedy, I wasn’t sure what my stand-up voice would be when I started, so I tried to do observational humor mixed in with personal experiences without thinking of the flow or delivery, which are crucial elements to a set. I still balance those two, but I’m more relaxed and try to be conversational versus before when I was robotic and memorizing out of fear of forgetting jokes. (Thanks to local Austin comic Arielle Norman for this much-needed tip from her workshop!)

TrunkSpace: Is the neon “Open” sign in your brain always turned on, and by that we mean, are you always writing and on alert for new material?
Ross: I’m not trying to force every single life experience into a joke, but I do jot down ideas in my iPhone notes app as stuff comes to me during random moments throughout the week. My notes usually read as a transcription of a fever dream by the time I revisit it later to adapt into material.

TrunkSpace: How much work goes into a joke before it’s ready to be tested out in front of a live audience?
Ross: More hours of doubt and self-loathing than actual preparation. But I do make sure my former writing partner/co-founder of “That Time of the Month,” Liisa Murray, takes a look at my monologues before the show to make sure it’s not entirely nonsense.

TrunkSpace: If a joke doesn’t seem to be working, how many chances do you give it in a live setting before you decide to rework it or move on from it altogether?
Ross: I’m not married to any of my new jokes (commitment issues) so I usually only give it one more chance before reworking or dropping it completely.

TrunkSpace: Is it possible to kill one night and bomb the next with essentially the same set, and if so, what do you chalk that up as?
Ross: Of course, and it could honestly be a range of different factors, from your own delivery of the jokes, to how warm the audience is once you get on stage.

I once performed a weird bit at a show in Austin (where I didn’t know anyone yet) that killed and then did that same bit a week later at a show in New York (where I did know a bunch of people) and it bombed. My first guess was because the Austin show was experimental, the host helps manage the audience’s expectations that comedians are trying out stuff they’ve never done before, outside of traditional stand-up. My second guess was the audience in New York hated my stinking guts.

TrunkSpace: Does a receptive and willing audience fuel your fire of funny and help to put you on your game for the rest of your set?
Ross: Definitely, because it makes it easier to play off of their energy and even stray a bit from my set, improvising new lines from what they’re reacting strongest to in the performance. But I’ve learned not to be dependent on the audience for that every time because if the energy isn’t there, it’s still on me to finish my set strong. They’ll notice when I’m nervous or lose confidence in my material.

TrunkSpace: What is your most memorable performance experience (good or bad!) that will stick with you for the rest of your career and why?
Ross: Last year after my Aunt Dawn, who I was really close with, passed away, I dedicated an episode of “That Time of the Month” to her, including a monologue memorializing her. I was nervous about performing an emotional comedy set, but it ended up being very therapeutic during a tough time.

TrunkSpace: How do you handle hecklers? What approach do you take?
Ross: I track down a place they like to frequent, such as a coffee shop or public park, stage a meet cute, date them for several years, establish a level of intimacy and unbreakable bond that leads to marriage, get pregnant, move into a refurbished farmhouse upstate to raise our kids, build a life for ourselves over a span of five decades, care for them in their old age, and just as they’re lying on their death bed and we’re sharing our last moment together, I lean over and whisper-scream, “IT’S NOT YOUR FUCKING TURN TO TALK.”

TrunkSpace: What are your thoughts on the stand-up landscape in 2018? Are you optimistic for the future of live comedy?
Ross: I’m excited about diverse voices finally getting the bigger platforms they deserve and I hope the industry continues to recognize them for it. On a separate thought, while it’s gotten a lot easier to put your material out there through different mediums, we’re now watching a lot of those mediums go away, such as with many humor sites shuttering in the past few years. I’m curious to see how comedy scenes adapt to these changes and what the next wave of comedy in the digital age will bring. That last sentence felt like a sound bite from a stammering TV exec at an upfront presentation for pilots adapted from Instagram Stories that will all be canceled by the end of this other sentence.

TrunkSpace: Finally, who do YOU find funny?
Ross: Kate Berlant & John Early, Aparna Nancherla, Jo Firestone, Jenny Slate, Ali Wong, Michelle Wolf, Jessica Williams, Chelsea Peretti, Keep It! (Ira Madison III, Kara Brown, Louis Virtel), my dog Dreidel.

In our new column Deep Focus, TrunkSpace is going behind the camera to talk with the directors, writers, and producers who infuse our world with that perennial pop culture goodness that we can’t get enough of.

This time out we’re chatting with Kulap Vilaysack, creator and showrunner for Seeso’s “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$” starring Paul F. Tompkins and Mandell Maughan. We recently sat down with Vilaysack to discuss her upcoming documentary “Origin Story,” how she became a showrunner, and what it’s like working in an environment that nurtures improvisation.

TrunkSpace: We know that networks and execs love working with showrunners that they trust and have an established track record so we’re curious how you broke into the position?
Vilaysack: I think Seeso is the unusual place, because they’re very much creators first. You look at their lineup, a lot of the people come from podcasts. So their main goal is to really make sure that they have a point of view. I think with that said, their knowledge of me, plus me having the strong backup of Mr. Scott Aukerman of “Comedy Bang! Bang!” and Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Grant from “Reno 911!” and many other things, I think they had full confidence in me.

TrunkSpace: Was being a showrunner always in your sights or did it just happen as part of a natural career progression?
Vilaysack: It happened because, I know I talk about this a lot so forgive me, but it really came from Tom going, “Well, you’ll showrun it, right?” And I’m like, “Yeah, you’re right, I will.”

TrunkSpace: Did you feel confident right out of the gates in the position?
Vilaysack: It takes doing. It takes figuring it out. It takes listening. It takes putting together a great team whom I trust and who never let me down. It takes having great mentors and examples. Yeah, like with anything you just learn from doing.

TrunkSpace: You worked on plenty of others shows throughout the years in different capacities. Did you absorb the position through watching other showrunners?
Vilaysack: I don’t know if I learned from other showrunners but certainly I’ve learned from just being on set, seeing how sets work and then watching and going, “Okay, I think that’s great, I’d like to use that for my own project.” Or, “That’s not so great, maybe I’ll try a different way. I think there might be a better way of doing things.”

TrunkSpace: A large portion of “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$” utilizes improv. Does that change the role of a showrunner at all?
Vilaysack: I don’t know, I don’t have any other experience. For me, the show is semi-improvised so we have really strong and clear outlines that have a premise and we know who everybody is to one another and what everybody wants from one another. Then we have the beats of the scene and we have where we’re going to heighten each beat. “Okay, here are examples of dialogue that you can use or not use, but you know what I’m looking for.” And then we have an ending plan. That ending can change and oftentimes does, but there’s no feeling like you’re not supported.

But when you ask me questions in reference to what it’s like to run other shows, I don’t really have any context to share with you.

TrunkSpace: Has a moment of improv within the show ever inspired any of the broad strokes that you guys created beforehand to change? Have any gems come out of stuff where you went, “Okay, let’s rethink what we’re doing longterm?”
Vilaysack: I don’t think so. I’m trying to think here.

We have amazing, genius improvisors. The show is, in many ways, produced like a reality TV show and so we have set stories. In the beginning of the season we sit down and I sit down with all of our cast members and talk to them about what their season long arc is as individuals and then what the arc is for the show. From there we just do a bunch of different scenes and not every scene ends up in the show.

TrunkSpace: As they always say, work begets work in the industry. Do you hope to do more showrunning in the future?
Vilaysack: Yes, I’d love to.

TrunkSpace: You are also currently producing a documentary called “Origin Story” which is very close to you in terms of the subject matter. Did you ever second guess taking that journey and putting it out there for others to see?
Vilaysack: Absolutely. It’s very personal.

TrunkSpace: Where are you in the process of completing the film?
Vilaysack: I’m in post production looking to finish the film and looking to submit to Sundance this year. I’m deep into finishing it.

TrunkSpace: When you first started the film there was no funny in it at all, but from what we understand, you have since gone in and added some lighter moments throughout. Was that an element that you felt the film needed in order to find an audience?
Vilaysack: I think you just need levity. It’s hard for us as humans to go through something and not have a place to take a break. Who wants to watch suffering? As much as a fine film “Dancer in the Dark” was, I’ll never see that again.

TrunkSpace: As a showrunner and creator, you’re creating content that could one day inspire others to create their own content. Do you ever think about that in the course of your day?
Vilaysack: I don’t think about it like that. I think about creating an environment where people can do their best work, where they feel safe and held, and where people can work hard and try things. I think about setting an example. I just think you treat people right and that’s a good idea.

It’s about being present with one another. It’s about getting into a sandbox and playing and it’s about making a cool show.

Visit Seeso to learn more about “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$” and to watch the latest season!

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a geek. It’s okay, we are too! In fact, saying you’re a geek is a bit of a badge of honor these days. And there’s plenty of geek variety to choose from if you don’t want to paint with a broad brush. Some of us may be comic book nerds. Others may be music snobs. Hell, we even know a few fantasy sports fanatics who could tell you more about Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts’ bowling scores than a Spider-Man fan could tell you about Peter’s proportionate strength of a spider.

One Fando Calrissian (see what we did there?) who waves her geek flag proudly is Brittni Barger, host of the PBS series “Beyond Geek,” which returns for season 2 this May.

We recently sat down with Barger to discuss when nerdom went mainstream, her love for improv and randomly enough, B-52’s frontman Fred Schneider.

TrunkSpace: For many people, the mention of PBS brings about thoughts of “Reading Rainbow,” “Sesame Street” and “Masterpiece Theatre.” When did they embrace the “cool” of a show like “Beyond Geek” and look to attract a hipper audience?
Barger: Yeah. That’s a great question. I think Joe Gillis, the director and creator, saw an opportunity that was kind of missing in that arena on PBS and so he wanted to fill that void. He had this idea that had been brewing for, I think he said 10 years at one point, and he just put a lot of work and effort into compiling all of these different geekdoms that he had found out about and wanted to explore further. It was all Joe that kind of put the pedal to the metal and got it done.

TrunkSpace: So how did you get involved in the series?
Barger: I got involved with the series because I had worked with Ivan Harder and Odin Abbott on “Smosh,” which is a web series on YouTube, and they also work on “Beyond Geek” so they recommended me for it.

TrunkSpace: So what were you looking to bring to the table and how do you view your particular voice and role on the show?
Barger: Well, I think why Joe chose me is that I have a definite quirkiness to me and I really get invested in people’s personal stories. When we did the initial interview for the job I kind of ended up asking Joe a lot of questions even though I was the one interviewing for it and I think he really liked that because I have a genuine interest in the human story and I think that’s what he was looking for in a host.

TrunkSpace: Do you have a journalistic background or do you approach your job of host as more of a storyteller?
Barger: Absolutely, yeah… just pure storytelling. I don’t have any background in journalism whatsoever. It’s all acting. (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: From your perspective, when did geek culture become mainstream and accepted?
Barger: Right after I got out of high school… when I went to college I saw a turnaround in geek culture becoming mainstream pop culture. Well actually, maybe even before that because I remember when I was a kid how popular the “X-Men” animated series was and I remember loving comic books as a kid and into my adulthood. I feel like my generation specifically kind of took the reigns and said, “This is what we like and you have to be okay with it now.” (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: Do you think kids or teenagers who are into geek culture these days have an easier time being accepted for those interests than those of previous generations?
Barger: Yeah. I think what people are passionate about in general is more acceptable nowadays. Being fringe is cool.

TrunkSpace: You have a background in improv. We would imagine you can put those skills to use in your duties as a host because you have to be on your toes in any given situation.
Barger: Absolutely. There’s the general rule of “Yes, And…”, so you’re accepting what’s given to you and you’re building off of that. Joe would give me a set list of questions that he wanted to be hit throughout the interview and then he would give me the freedom to play around and ask questions that I was interested in personally. And so I got to get my own story that me as a viewer would want to hear from the people that I was interviewing, which was a lot of fun.

TrunkSpace: As a fan of geek culture yourself, was there a moment in the production of “Beyond Geek” where you felt more like a fan than a host?
Barger: Oh yeah! I got to learn lightsaber combat. They took me to a trainer who was a professional lightsaber combat trainer named Novastar and I got to learn all of the steps of his combat system. And then we compiled a kind of a choreography that we played out in this epic lightsaber battle. That was just the epitome of my nerdery reaching its peak. (Laughter) It was one of the best experiences of my life.

TrunkSpace: And that’s in Season 2, correct?
Barger: That is in season 2, yeah. That’s the whole “Star Wars” themed episode.

TrunkSpace: Is there a particular cup of geek tea that you’re most drawn too? Is there a genre or franchise that you’d consider your favorite?
Barger: I really, really love graphic novels and books in general. My biggest passion is books. I’m a bibliophile through and through, so anything that has to do with that… or the telling of stories in different ways to tell the stories. So, I would say I’ve been really, really big into graphic novels the last few years. Batman is obviously a mainstay of that kind of fiction for me. And then there’s a lot of really… companies like Dark Horse and Image Comics have just really changed the landscape of what graphic novels are nowadays, so that’s where my passion lies for sure.

TrunkSpace: Speaking of books, you work on another project that might have the best title of all time… “Brittni’s Book Boner Bistro.” Can you tell us about that?
Barger: (Laughter) I was friends with these creators in Sacramento called FourLetterNerds and they really wanted to create content with me, but I’ve always had kind of a problem with YouTube in that there’s just so much… it’s inundated with people that have nothing to say. So if I did a show I wanted to make sure that it had a very specific focus and something that I had a lot of things to talk about. And so that thing to me was books. They wanted to put a spin on it where it had equal parts my personality and my opinion on books or introducing an audience to a different kind of literature that they might not be exposed to normally… and that kind of covered all of the genres. That was our main goal was that we would hit a bunch of different genres and that we would make it a comedy and use improv… write out scripts but then use improv around it and just kind of play and have fun. So that was the burst of “Brittni’s Book Boner Bistro.”

TrunkSpace: It’s going back full circle to the start of our conversation where we mentioned “Reading Rainbow.”
Barger: I don’t think they would accept that title on PBS. (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: Going back to the improv side of things, can you tell us a little bit about how you got involved in it?
Barger: I was an acting intern at B Street Theatre in Sacramento, California, which is kind of where I cut my teeth on improv and acting. It was a ten month acting internship and included in the internship was an improv class. I had never taken improv before. I had always mistakenly judged it as a lower form of art, which was idiotic of me, but I just didn’t know any better. So, when I took the classes, I kind of realized that it’s one of the highest forms of art because you have to use a whole new set of tools in order to accomplish it. I grew to appreciate it very much. Then I auditioned for their improv sketch company at B Street and I got into that. We did five consecutive seasons of a show called B Street Live. A lot of times it’s kid of unheard of to get paid to do improv and it was a very rare experience that I got to be a part of… to have improv be my job for five years, which was really cool.

TrunkSpace: Is there a particular exercise or type of skit… and forgive us if we’re using the wrong terminology… that you enjoy the most when it comes to improv?
Barger: One of the warm-ups that just cracked me up every time and made me feel so loose and ready to go was… and I don’t even know if this is an actual improv game, but that’s the best part of improv is that it’s such a new art form that people are constantly adding to it. There aren’t any real rules about what it has to be. It’s still growing. And so one of the games that I liked to play was called “Hey, Fred Schneider.” Fred Schneider is from the B-52s and so you would sing a song that went…
(In Fred Schneider’s voice)
“Hey, Fred Schneider… what are you doooooing?”
And then you would go around in a circle and you would have to answer in the Fred Schneider voice what you were doing and it could be anything.
(In Fred Schneider’s voice)
“I’m flying a plannnne into the sunnnn.” (Laughter)
And you could work off of that, so it could be a thematic kind of Fred Schneider game or you could just be completely random and it was an exercise that opened your mind so completely to the fact that everything is possible. Anything and everything is possible in improv and to accept that.

TrunkSpace: I hope Fred Schneider finds out about this game that he has inadvertently given birth to.
Barger: (Laughter) I do too! I wonder if he’s aware.
TrunkSpace: It would be amazing if Fred Schneider sat in on a round of “Hey, Fred Schneider” one night.
Barger: Oh my God! That’s so meta! (Laughter)

Barger can be seen in season 2 of “Beyond Geek,” which premieres in May. She will also be starring in a theater show called “Stupid Fucking Bird” at Capital Stage in Sacramento, California.