Ana Bernot-Reilly

In the very first episode of The Joy of Improv Podcast, I sit down with one of my favorite performers in Atlanta, Ana Bernot-Reilly. Ana shares how she discovered improv in high school, fell in love with long form scene work at SCAD, and moved to Atlanta with one mission: find a two-person improv partner. That search led to the creation of "Mom and Dad", one of the best independent improv teams to ever grace the Atlanta scene.

We get into the craft of grounded, narrative-driven improv and why acting is an underutilized skill for improvisers. We talk about what it means to truly believe in the world you're building on stage, the power of characters who care about each other, and how studying story structure can level up your performance.

The conversation also takes an honest turn into the realities of the community, including what it's like to be a woman at a jam, the importance of check-ins and boundaries, and why "yes and" doesn't mean you can never say no. We also dig into the unglamorous but essential work of producing indie improv shows.

With Ana preparing to move, this episode is both a celebration of her time in Atlanta and a love letter to the community that shaped us both.

Ana's plugs:
- @twobearsblowupinacar
- @momanddadimprov

Mentioned in episode:
- Countdown Improv Festival Website - Instagram
- ATL Ladies Jam - @atlladiesjam
- TWAG (The Working Actors Group) Website - Instagram

Follow us on Instagram - @thejoyofimprovpod

Support the podcast with a small tip - https://ko-fi.com/thejoyofimprov

Email any questions or ideas to joel@thejoyofimprov.com

Host: Joel Camargo - Insta - @joelc1225
Audio Editor: Matt Issacs - Insta - @mattisaacs20

Transcript

Introduction

Joel 0:09

Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in to the Joy of Improv Podcast with me, Joel Camargo. I have a fantastic guest for you today. I'm so lucky and privileged to have Ana Bernot-Reilly as my first guest on the podcast, and we have so much to get into regarding today's conversation. We talk about an important and underutilized skill of acting in improv. We talk about honest passion of two-person narratives. We talk about the origins of honest teams, mom and dad, and two bears blow up in a car. We touch on jams and the importance of jams, the pros and cons of jams, and also what it's like to be a woman at a jam in a space that's more commonly dominated by men. We also touch on what it's like to produce an improv show, what that process is like, sharing responsibilities, if you're on a team, and most importantly, we also talk about David Stork, who you'll learn about in the episode. But just know that David Stork is awesome. We love you, David Stork, and none of this would be possible without David Stork. Thank you so much. Enjoy the episode, everybody. I'm here with a really special guest today, Ana Bernot-Reilly . Ana is one of my favorite performers in Atlanta, has this beautiful play-style that mixes grounded play with silliness, and I'm so excited for you all to get to know Ana. And I'm excited to learn a little bit of Ana's background too. Ana, welcome. Say

Meet Ana

Joel 1:53

hello.

Ana 1:53

Hello. What a very kind and sweet opening. Thank you so much.

Joel 1:58

You're very welcome. Also true. I mean, I can go on and on about my thoughts of you, Ana. And you're such a huge influence on me.

Ana 2:07

Thank you.

Joel 2:08

Um, uh hero, a friend. Man, I remember a show of yours, mom and dad, that what got was got me teary-eyed. I remember crying at one of the shows. Um, do you remember a roll call?

Ana 2:23

Yeah, of course I do.

Joel 2:25

And there was a show where you and Hannah. Hannah was an astronaut or something, and you were you weren't even a character in the show. You were just the a button on the console.

Ana 2:38

Yeah, I remember.

Joel 2:39

And like a voice in Hannah's head or something. Yeah, we were doing it was like a competition because Oh, yes, it was an improv competition.

Ana 2:48

Historically, really good to do. Yes, easy to judge.

Joel 2:52

Super competitive art form, just like the most get the most competitive people out.

Ana 2:56

I went on there with two different teams, you know, hedging my bats.

Joel 3:02

And that show had it was so silly, so fun. And to me, it was very early on in my improv journey. And man, there were just so many beautiful grounded moments in such a silly space. So cool. So I want to get your insights on what brought you to improv, what kept you doing improv and performing. I love to hear how did you find improv?

How Ana Found Improv in High School

Ana 3:29

Uh, I found it in high school, which I'm so grateful for. I started and I didn't know about long form, which became what I only do now. But I was doing short form in high school, and I remember one time somebody had somebody's like mom or dad came to the show and they were like, You should be on SNL. And I was like, My mom just told me about that show. I gotta, oh my god, I gotta get on it. And so obviously the praise was so kind, but also made me feel like, wow, these adults think I'm funny and I'm a kid.

Joel 4:04

And this was in high school.

Ana 4:05

This was in high school, yeah.

Joel 4:07

It is so cool when I hear that somebody had improv in high school.

Ana 4:11

Yes.

Joel 4:12

I've been hearing that more and more the more I'm like reading and listening to other improv podcasts, that people had improv in high school and

Discovering Long Form Improv at SCAD

Joel 4:20

college.

Ana 4:20

Yes, college was huge for me for improv.

Joel 4:23

That is so cool.

Ana 4:25

I so high school, I loved it. I went, I I went to SCAD for undergrad. I studied for performing arts, and I got there, and I quickly learned like, oh, if I want to be able to do anything, I'm gonna have to seek it out. And I had missed auditions for something else, and then I saw that they were doing auditions for their improv, like club. And I was like, oh great, we'll play some games. I'll know exactly what to do. Oh, I hope we play park bench, it'll be great. And we go and they're just they're like, all right, we're doing scene work, and I had never done that before, and I was like in the audition, and oh my god. And I was 17 and like just I don't know. And I just remember like it just clicked. I was like, oh, this is so fun. This is this is like I'm alive, I'm alive, it's happening right now.

Joel 5:18

So that was the moment, the first time you ever did long form improv was the moment that you were like, oh shit, I love this.

Ana 5:23

I loved it. Because I I just was being myself, and you know, I'm 17 and I'm not super comfortable with myself. But I got up there and it was like everything else went away. Like, no, nothing else was going on. It was just like right there with that person and the people on the jury, the other college students who were like, hmm, we'll see if any of these new categories.

Joel 5:44

Oh yeah, those judges, those strict college judges.

Ana 5:47

But honestly, they all took it, they took it very seriously, and I was, I think, also very attracted to that, where I was like, Oh my god, everybody here is like just fiercely into this.

Joel 6:00

Because uh, I guess let me ask you this. Because of the the seriousness that they took it with, I'm assuming a lot of these people were mostly like theater heavy folks, like theater backgrounds, right? Not comedy backgrounds. This is scad.

The Missing Element: Acting in Improv

Ana 6:15

No, they were they were there, a lot of them film TV, but there were also like other majors that would just come and play because they liked doing it. But mostly a lot of actors, which I think definitely helped with how I think I play now, which is I don't know if actor first, but taking it seriously, I think that's why I like doing the improv.

Joel 6:38

I think that's exactly why you're one of my favorite performers, and I think there's this missing element in the education systems in Atlanta that are kind of leaving out acting, that are leaving out the theater serious parts of it, that bring so much depth and life to a performance and a show. Yeah, and when I see you and Hannah play and mom and dad, and and two bears too, that we'll get into these teams like man, you y'all build these characters and worlds out so vividly with so much detail. It is so beautiful to watch, and I think it's that acting part that brings that out.

The Influence of David Stork

Ana 7:22

Yeah, yeah. I think so too. I think that that's I think that's another thing is like I had only had experience doing stage performance, and so it was like I and I think m most of all my professor uh David Stork, who I have to shout out because he made me love this.

Joel 7:45

Hey, way to go, David. Come on, you're awesome. David Stork Stork I love you.

Ana 7:51

I love that man. No, but he really I mean, I think on top of I would I just remember seeing the first shows there after I had auditioned, and then they did like Friday night shows, Saturday night shows. Um, I can't remember. I think it was Friday, whatever. Um, but I remember going to see the shows and it would be the three teams, the like house teams there. And I was just blown away because it would there were there was this like three person I think they were named Stepford. There was this three woman team and I was watching a play. I was watching a play, they would, they would do oh goodness, they just were they were so present and they were so invested in each other, and like the whole rest of the people in the audience they just didn't matter, and I was enamored. I was immediately like, that's that's exactly what I want to be doing, and that's what David taught.

Joel 8:46

Oh, David Stork, David Stork, come on, my king. I love you, King. Yeah, that you that's something I want to be doing too, yeah, is that kind of improv. And what I'm finding and struggling with is there's not enough people, I think, trained with that skill set, um, which is a which is a bummer. So I'm finding myself in my the musical improv classes that I teach trying to play catch up with like getting people to really connect with character work and relationships and you know groundedness, um, because everyone's coming out of their levels regardless of where they took classes and they're ready to play games and be silly and be wacky cartoony characters. Um and there that's a beautiful way to play, that's a style choice. Um yeah, no judgment on that. It that there's just something beautiful that I find in this particular type of play, the grounded play-like theater, theater-esque

What "Grounded" Improv Really Means

Joel 9:44

improv.

Ana 9:44

It speaks to me too. And I also I think that if maybe if folks I don't know, if they knew that it made it less scary, because it does it, you know, when you're playing in this, I guess, narrative-grounded way, you're really focused on the other person the whole time, and it takes the pressure away. I think that that was what I got from watching Stepford was and I hope that's their name, but I don't know if they play together. Um but you just didn't worry about anything else. You're you were completely you looked at your partner and you didn't worry about what you were doing anymore because you knew that they were worrying about you. Yeah. So it made everything easier and it takes the pressure off of thinking about being funny and thinking of jokes. And every I think I think there's just like everything that I watch that I think is really funny is where everybody believes it so hard.

Joel 10:42

Yeah.

Ana 10:42

And then that's what I think makes it the ridiculous moments feel awesome.

Joel 10:47

Yes, and there's this been this misconception that sometimes I have to clarify in classes with the word grounded.

Ana 10:54

Yeah.

Joel 10:55

People think grounded improv is like when people are being serious.

Ana 11:00

Or sad.

Joel 11:01

Or sad, yes, sad. Sad or depressing or controversial or and they're they're thinking that's grounded. And I'm like, no, it just means committed and believing in the thing that's happening.

unknown 11:14

Absolutely. That's it.

Joel 11:15

Like you could still be a silly, ridiculous concept, but you in the scene and character need to believe it.

Ana 11:23

Yeah.

Joel 11:23

And play that way.

Ana 11:24

Yeah. You could be, yeah, you could be a hanger on a shelf, but what is the like what does the hanger do when he gets home from work? Like that was really awesome. When I was hearing that, I was like, oh, I could play anything, but as long as I want something, yeah, like that'll just make it all the better.

Joel 11:41

I yes.

Ana 11:43

But that's you know, part of the something that you learn in your acting classes is like what's your want?

Acting Skills for Improvisers

Ana 11:50

What's your need?

Joel 11:50

I've got like some I bought some acting books to kind of like start reading them and seeing if I can like do see some of the exercises or take an acting class myself to then see if I can build a curriculum that's for improviser, that's like acting for improvisers class. Because if I want to play with people with the skill set, I don't really I don't know. I feel like let me just help my friends and community learn these skills, but I've got to learn them first myself.

Ana 12:21

Well, there's um twag, shout out Twag. Twag. I taught for them for a little bit. Hannah helped me get to know them. It's the working actors group. Um, and they do improv for actors.

Joel 12:33

Oh, nice. Twag. So Brett's has been there too.

Ana 12:37

Brett Schultz.

Joel 12:38

Brett Schultz. Shout out to the street. For listeners, yeah. Brett Schultz. Actually, we're seeing a bunch of names actually that um who cares? Learn them, look 'em up. We'll get to them. We'll get to all these people, community members.

Ana 12:49

Yeah.

Joel 12:50

Shout out Brett Schultz. Hannah Sleeson. Come on, Hannah. Come on. Um, okay, TWAG, yes. Acting for improvisers, writing this down so I don't forget.

Teaching Adults and Watching Them Come Alive

Ana 13:01

Yeah, that was fun to teach for them because I think that the way that I like to do scene work is uh it just informs the way that I act. And so it felt really natural. And also for the folks, because they were like, I don't know, I was teaching grown-ups. I I know that I'm a grown-up. Oh, I know, I know you mean I'll meet other like grown-ups who I'm like, oh, you've got children and a mortgage, and I'm teaching you zip zap zap. Like that feels really awesome. Yeah. But when they I don't know, when you get folks out of their shell and then they I don't know, you just can kind of like see it click, or especially when I was teaching um the women in the classes and just like seeing them feel so apologetic if they didn't like get something right away. I was so excited that it was improv because I was like, Oh, you're not messing up. You're not messing up, and you actually have to stop saying sorry, please. Please.

Joel 14:05

Yeah.

Ana 14:06

And that was always really exciting.

Women in Improv: Stop Apologizing

Joel 14:08

I'm doing the same as a teacher, and I'm noticing the same. Uh people people are overly apolog apologetic, especially women.

Ana 14:14

Yeah.

Joel 14:14

Yeah. I mean there's a lot, there's a lot of friends of mine who I try to keep on on their toes, be like, hey, you didn't do anything wrong. Hey, you didn't apologize. What are you apologizing for? What did you what did you didn't do anything wrong? They have to keep reminding them. Because you're good to women. You're so right.

Ana 14:29

Yeah.

Joel 14:30

Uh shout out Alyssa.

Ana 14:32

Shout out women.

Joel 14:33

Shout out, shout out women and improv. Hey, all women, you stop apologizing so much. You don't need to. You're not doing anything wrong.

Ana 14:41

Let let my boy preach. Yeah. Talk about what you like about them.

Joel 14:46

Women are so fantastic. Yeah. Honestly, do too much. You have you deserve to relax a little bit. Oh my god. Take some time for yourself. Okay, treat yourself to a nice little massage. Come on.

Ana 14:56

What else? Get him a robe. Get him a massage. Get a robe. Get their nails done.

Joel 15:01

Get some oil. Get your nails done. Get your hair done.

Ana 15:04

And those are all girl things.

Joel 15:05

Those are all girl things. Do what you want to do.

Ana 15:07

Nah, let him freak. Let him watch, let him watch Yowie. Let the women freak.

Joel 15:11

What is Yowie?

Ana 15:13

I'm so sorry to do this right now.

Joel 15:15

Detour.

Ana 15:16

Oh yeah. Yowie's gay anime porn.

Joel 15:19

Okay.

Ana 15:20

For the boys, two boys.

Joel 15:21

Hey, boy, boys.

Ana 15:22

Yuri is for the girls. Two girls.

Joel 15:23

Gary?

Ana 15:24

Yuri.

Joel 15:25

Yuri.

Ana 15:25

I'm really exposing myself right now. Okay. You are.

Joel 15:28

Hey. Hey, we're this is meant to be intimate. The community's getting to know.

Ana 15:33

Why I'm so good at what I do is all the yowie. It's all the fan fiction and the yowie.

Joel 15:39

That's it. There you go, community.

Ana 15:41

That's how you do grounded improv. You watch BL.

Joel 15:45

That's hilarious. Um, you said something a little while ago when you were teaching talking about teaching. Yeah. About adults that have kids and mortgages. Oh my god. And there's something also really beautiful. That's one of the reasons why I fell in love with teaching, also, is being able to see people of all different backgrounds come together and come from these backgrounds where they they have kids' mortgages, a real job where they're, you know, doing big adult things. 401k. 401k, whatever that is. And uh and then you you get them in class and then they to be silly and playful and play together like kids with other adults. And it is such a beautiful sight when you see that person come out of their shell. Oh nothing like it.

Ana 16:37

Yeah, I think it's like when you see them like stop worrying about being in the room, like they're just with their partner at that point. It's awesome, it's the best, and then celebrating it afterwards and being like, I don't think you knew how good you were being. Yeah, you're incredible.

Joel 16:53

Yeah, still they yeah, oh my god, that's something else. Just cheering them on, celebrating and uh a pet peeves when it someone just did a level one and they're like, hey, I'm not feeling like I'm getting this. I don't feel like I'm funny, like and I'm like, you've been doing this for a total of like not even like what 20 hours? I don't even know how many hours. That's too many hours two times eight. 16 hours you've been doing

Why New Improvisers Shouldn't Expect Perfection

Joel 17:16

this.

Ana 17:16

I don't know why I'm not hilarious.

Joel 17:18

It's a ridiculous concept. Yeah, I don't know why I'm not good at this. What if you play piano for 16 hours? You're gonna be you're gonna play concert?

Ana 17:25

You're gonna suck shit. It's gonna suck shit.

Joel 17:28

I've never heard that before, but you're gonna suck shit.

Ana 17:30

I'm teaching you so much today. No, I I agree. I uh but I also think that it's that's you know, kind of touching on just this pressure. I mean, of course, we're doing improv comedy. You're doing I mean, everything you watch, like if folks are going to see shows and they're seeing big big haha laughs, and then they're in class and something's not landing, and it's like, well, for you know, you don't you probably don't have chemistry with anybody in here, first of all, and I'm such a huge proponent of you gotta know the people you're playing with, because then you can know how to play really well. But when you're you've got maybe next to no chemistry with these folks, you just left work. I don't know what headspace you're in. Oh yeah. You just left your mortgage, you just left your kids, you're doing all you just left all your adult things at home.

Joel 18:17

And those are all factors. Yeah, all huge factors.

Ana 18:19

Yeah, and so and also you're just learning how to do I don't know, your two-person scene, and you're also thinking about being funny.

Joel 18:28

Mm-hmm.

Ana 18:28

Yeah. So gosh.

The Importance of Check-Ins

Joel 18:31

Yeah, it's a lot that's why I love check-ins too, incorporating check-ins to everything, classes. Um, it's so important to know where how someone's feeling that day, that class, before even before a show that we're performing in. Hey, I'm at it too, having a rough day. Just so everyone's aware and can take care of that person.

Ana 18:49

And nobody's gonna maybe push your buttons when you don't want it.

Joel 18:52

Yeah. Uh, let's see what else we got. Okay, background. So you got to improv. You did improv at SCAD high school in SCAD. Okay, so you get out of college, and how do you continue doing improv when you get out of SCAD?

Moving to Atlanta and Starting Over

Ana 19:07

To backtrack a little bit, when I was at SCAD, I that was when I was introduced to two-person improv. I was on a two-person improv team for a year and some change, I think. Um and we were called dog teeth. And I just remember, like, that was when I learned narrative. And that because I was like, I want another challenge. What I want more stage time, I guess. No, but I I got really close with my friend Canon, and she and I started to do um, we were on teams together, and then we just got closer and closer, and it helped us in our play, and so then we wanted to try something else, and David introduced that to us. He introduced two-profit, two profit, and I was oh my god, it like blew my mind because it that was where I felt like I was like, oh, we're really making a story here. Because there's you know, you got one other guy. And so she and I were kind of like fumbling for a while at first, and then David got he he would like get on a whiteboard and um would write a genre on the board, and then we would speak out like okay, what are some beats that happen in this genre? So, like what happens in a western.

Joel 20:27

I love that exercise, yeah.

Ana 20:28

Yeah, it was awesome. And so then we would look at those beats and just study, and then we would go watch movies and we would talk about that and just get to know stories better, which then I was like, Oh, first of all, I'm like, oh, everything is the heroes journey. Awesome.

Joel 20:45

And yeah, it's all the same formula, okay.

Ana 20:48

But you know, we would and so I think once we started to see and also seeing like what did we really like because Cannon and I were also she and I would also have like we would do these like really stupid high concept things, but it mattered to the two of us. And so when we graduated, I moved to Atlanta, and when I moved here, I came here with the intention of finding a two-prof partner. Oh that was immediately, I was like, I'm gonna find that person.

The Search for a Two-Person Improv Partner

Joel 21:19

In that voice in your head.

Ana 21:20

Uh was I'm gonna find out. I'm gonna find her, or him, whoever, or them. We just don't know who's gonna be. But I yeah, I was eager to find someone to do that with. Not to recreate that, but it was just a style of play.

Joel 21:36

You knew you fell in love with it and you wanted to do that thing.

Ana 21:38

Yeah, and I wanted to do 30 minutes. And then I also was I was at that time really eager to do like a fully improvised play. I was really eager to like pick a genre out and do an hour of that. And what would that look like? Just one other person, how many characters could we play? Um because I got really invested from like From the genre thing. And so I moved here and I moved here in like November 2019. And so shut down shortly thereafter. And I was, oh my god. When I first moved here, poor, obviously. And I remember hollow. I got here and I learned to drive just to move here because I didn't know how to drive for a long time. Anyway, um somebody rear-ended me, and I don't know what possessed me, but they were like, I don't want to get insurance involved. Can I just Venmo you? And I was like, I trust you, of course. So I was like, Can I take a picture of your license? What would that do? Nothing. Okay. Anyway, got hit by her, not a big deal, didn't do much to the car. I went to, she was like, just send me a quote and I will Venmo you. And I was like, okay, I believe you. And so then I go to like a Honda dealership and I was like, what's it gonna cost to fix this? And it was like $2,000, some odd thing. And I was like, I'm not gonna use that for that. But I sent her, you know, this big fat quote, showed her, like, sent a picture of it, and she venmoed me the money for it.

Joel 23:13

Wow. Yeah, and I was like, that's not where I thought that story was going.

Ana 23:16

No, she sent me the money. People are good. Trust them.

Joel 23:20

People are good. You trusted.

Ana 23:22

I should not have. I would never do that again in my life. But she sent me that money, and then I was able to take a class at dad's because I was like, fuck, I'm not fixing my car and take an improv class.

Joel 23:32

Cool.

Ana 23:33

So I took a class and then uh the shutdown happened.

Joel 23:36

And so did you get to finish that class?

Ana 23:38

I did get to finish that class. Was that level one? Or maybe a level two. I think I emailed and was like, Hey, I've done this before.

Joel 23:44

I'm coming out of scab.

Ana 23:46

Yeah, I was I was a coach.

Joel 23:48

And I was a champ people in high school told me I was hilarious.

Ana 23:52

Yeah, somebody said I'm gonna be on SML.

Joel 23:54

Can I please be on level two?

Ana 23:56

Someone in Florida said I was funny.

Joel 24:00

Yeah, and then they're like, Oh yeah, makes sense. Tracks.

Ana 24:04

Just shut up.

Joel 24:05

Just shut up. Just take level two. Yeah, they're they're getting emails of like, I took an improv class like five years ago. I feel like I could do level two. They're like, shut up.

Ana 24:12

Shut up.

Joel 24:13

Go.

Ana 24:14

I hate you. So I took the class, finished the class, and then lockdown happened. And um, when things opened back up, that was when roll call was kind of doing their thing.

Joel 24:24

Mm-hmm. Yep. All right, that's where I got introduced, also. Yeah, and then you how did you get into roll call?

Ana 24:31

Jams, like well, there was an audition posted, and I was like, been there. I'll do it. And I remember like printing my headshot. This is also like everything was shut down, nobody was doing anything, and so it was like the first time folks were like gathering, and I was like, Oh, I can finally be an actor again. I can finally do improv again, what's this gonna be like? And I just remember I auditioned and I was like, if I don't get this, I don't know what's gonna happen to me, I'm gonna freak.

Joel 25:03

If I don't get this addition audition at roll call theater at Pond City Market.

Ana 25:07

If I don't get to do improv for 20 minutes at Ponce every other week, I'm gonna go to the world.

Joel 25:12

My life is done.

Finding Hannah and the birth of “Mom and Dad”

Ana 25:14

Yeah, done.

Joel 25:15

Yeah.

Ana 25:15

But I remember they would do jams too, and um at the jams, like that was so fun because you got to see everybody, and everybody was obviously so eager to play again. Um, and that's where I saw Hannah playing, and I feel like that was the moment where I was like done.

Joel 25:34

So you weren't on the same team, you saw her on another team. Yeah, cool.

Ana 25:38

And I was on a team, but I was on a team called Conditional Hug with me and a um tomorrow was on that team. Okay. Um, and it was we were it was the four of us, um, and that was very fun. It was me and three other women, and and that was just like I had a mullet, it was great. Oh my god. I was like, I'm queer, and I'm with all these women, and this is amazing, and I'm so brave.

Joel 26:03

Are the other women in the community still, or would they want to know?

Ana 26:07

Carly and Hope. I don't know if Hope's I don't really, I don't really know. I know Carly's making some sketch videos. Tamar is eating it up, younger.

Joel 26:16

Oh my god, tomorrow Tamara Rubin. We'll talk about Tamar Rubin also for the listeners, who's a breakout stand-up comedian in Atlanta who's fantastic, hysterical. So, so talented, so funny. Uh, follow her on Instagram too. And uh follow Ana too. Follow all of us. Just follow, just follow people.

Ana 26:32

Follow David Stork, find him.

Joel 26:34

Find David Stork. Find him.

Ana 26:38

I love you, Tamar.

Joel 26:40

So when you saw Hannah performing, was there something she did? Like what made you what specific thing made you be like, that's her, that's my teammate.

Ana 26:50

She was a freak. She was always a freak. She was a freak. I feel like she was just she was so uninhibited, and she was just a freak weirdo. And I because she I remember there was a scene.

Joel 27:04

She's gonna love this.

Ana 27:05

Uh yeah, good. I'm gonna make fun of her. There was this scene where she was like playing this monster, which makes sense, and she was like hunched over and just being creepy, and I think probably uh saying she was like chained to the wall or something. And she said something about how she was like, Yeah, and then I closed the book on my clit, and I don't know if I could say that on the book.

Joel 27:29

You could say that. Yes. I can say we don't have any sponsors.

Ana 27:33

We love women and we're gonna see a clit.

Joel 27:35

Yeah, exactly.

Ana 27:36

She said that and I was like, that is crazy. I love her, I want to play with her. Yeah.

Joel 27:43

She was just she was She was just a playful, silly gremlin gremlin.

Ana 27:46

Yeah. She was playing a monster that I just believed that she was invested in being a monster. And I and she would just always, there was just something. And I was just like, Oh, I hope she wants to play with me. And I remember there would be a few times after jams, we would like quick passing shift and be like, You were so great, you were so great. And I remember like going home and I was like, Oh god, how do I do this?

Joel 28:09

Yeah, that was my next question. Is like, how what was that moment when you asked when you were I didn't ask, she asked me.

Ana 28:14

Oh my god, are you serious? She asked me. I think she was she got some like stage time at Dynamic, and she was like, Let's do you want to do like a like a two-pro thing?

Joel 28:24

Holy crap.

Ana 28:25

And I was like, I'm gonna bust. Like, this is awesome. I was so psyched.

Joel 28:31

Yeah, there go the sponsorships. I there's no way this podcast is getting the sponsor.

Ana 28:36

It's not true.

Joel 28:36

Yeah, yeah. Then we're gonna get sturda mattress is not gonna approve of this message.

Ana 28:41

No, all this stuff happens for sturda. All this stuff happens on a sturda.

Joel 28:45

And you know what? I don't even want a sponsorship from Surda Mattress. Sturda mattress, you can't dictate what me and Ana say.

Ana 28:50

That's right. I don't even know who you are.

Joel 28:52

Fuck you, sir mattress. Excellent. Anyway, you were talking about busting.

Ana 28:57

Yes. And then I bust it. No, it was she asked me to do a show we were doing, and we called ourselves like double A's. And perfect. Um, and we did two shows that weekend, I think. I remember Brett and Tamar did uh they opened and oh gosh, it's always it's always the usual suspects. Yeah. Oh my gosh, but this was like yeah, we were at Dynamic, El Dorado, hello, and I think this was when it was still like half of a thrift store. Um But I remember I was like, I want to keep doing this, and how do I let her know that I'm serious? And so I remember I was like, let's get lunch. We like went, we're sitting down at lunch, and I was like, I want you to know that I'm I'm meeting this. I'm trying to do this for real.

Joel 29:47

I've been looking at it. It was like a commitment conversation.

Ana 29:50

Well, I was like, Do you want to do this or not? Like I was like, you want to be exclusive? Do you want to play with me?

Joel 29:54

That's what it feels like.

Ana 29:55

I remember I was like, Do you want to be my gloyfan? You want to be my empfog like.

Joel 30:00

Do you want to play with me, please? Always.

Ana 30:02

Always. And I remember I was just like, I was so nervous. She was like, Yeah, that sounds great. Like, I don't know.

Joel 30:08

Like she was so cool about it. She's like, Yeah, I don't give a fuck.

Ana 30:12

I fucking hate you, girl.

Joel 30:15

Yeah, but was that the moment that you chain you like chained it to mom and dad?

Ana 30:19

I remember we were like sitting down at her dining table for a long time, being like, Oh, what should her name be? It can't be double A's. And we were just like throwing things, throwing things, throwing things for too long. And then she we were like, Alright, I guess it's time to look at our phones. And so she was like looking at her phone, she she was showing me this ridiculous picture of her like in these coveralls in like a river holding a fish. And I was like, You look like a dad. And then we were like, Oh my god.

Joel 30:50

Did you do it? Did it have the same time?

Ana 30:51

You were both like, oh I don't, I yeah, probably. Could you yeah, just make up the story?

Joel 30:55

That sounds cool.

Ana 30:56

And then we looked at each other and we were like, That's it. Then we were like, Oh, mom and dad, that's fun. And we were interested in doing narrative, and we were doing narrative, we were doing long form. We're like, Oh, it's like stories that you know were like your parents telling you a story before bed. Cute and but they're scary sometimes, and I remember we're doing a lot of horror at the beginning. Um but yeah.

Joel 31:20

Wow, mom and dad, mama and papa, mama and papa, yeah, and for listeners who don't know this team, um, mom and dad is oh my god, one of the best independent teams to ever grace Atlanta.

Ana 31:35

Oh my god.

Joel 31:36

Some of the best improv shows I've ever seen were Ana and Hannah performing two-person narrative shows. And I've been to more than one mom and dad show where I've been teary-eyed. Lord, the story narrative was so good that it's fun, silly, and then there's also emotional, powerful moments. Ugh, such beautiful shows. Um, and all that to say, you probably can't see any because Ana's Ana's moving. Because Ana's moving, unfortunately.

Ana's Move to California and the Countdown Improv Festival

Ana 32:07

Well, I'm moving, I'm moving to California. Um congrats. Thank you. I'm not nervous. And but I yeah, I mean we've been playing together for five years. And but you know, we're planning on there's a festival that we go to like every year. And Hannah was like, well, let's go to it again. Like, and we always drove. We always like drive there.

Joel 32:26

So which one is that?

Ana 32:28

Um, it's called Countdown. Oh my god, I just know yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel bad for saying question mark, but I'm just yeah, it's countdown something.

Joel 32:36

That sounds about right.

Ana 32:38

And it's uh exclusively like two and three person teams. Um and they're fantastic. They always take such good care of their improvisers, they're such huge advocates for saying, like, oh, what we're doing is not just like throw around. I know that everybody here is taking time off. How do we take care of you? How do we get grants to make this thing happen? Like they are they're working.

Joel 33:01

Wow. That festival in general. Good to know.

Ana 33:04

Yeah, good to know. Amazing, amazing, and they just they take the best care.

Joel 33:08

I'll Google um I'll Google the festival name and then I'll like tag a add a little audio clip at the end to shout them out. Amazing. Just so people can Google and follow.

Ana 33:17

I feel so ding-dong-dumb that I can't think of the name of this moment, but I'm I'm just a little nervous to be recording.

Joel 33:24

Well, actually, this is a podcast. This is uh for everyone, this is the first episode I'm recording. Um, so we're like figuring stuff. We can actually just like Google it right now and then edit it. Yeah, we just look it up and then we don't have to like include the pause. Look, everyone, this is me putting my pen down. But you're not gonna hear that because I'm gonna edit it out.

Ana 33:43

Yeah, we're deep sea.

Joel 33:45

Okay, so maybe I will keep that in the yeah.

Ana 33:48

Yeah.

Joel 33:48

Okay, so this I'll edit out. I'll Google it. You want to take a drink?

Ana 33:50

No. We're just touching things.

Joel 33:55

Countdown festival, countdown improv festival.

Ana 33:57

I'm gonna put that in like Ibor, Florida.

Joel 34:00

Countdown festival, improv, Florida. Let's put these words together.

Ana 34:05

Is that right? Let me see it. Let me take a little peeky.

Joel 34:08

Yeah, feel free to click.

Ana 34:09

Yeah, baby. This is it.

Joel 34:11

Yeah, countdown improv festival. You got it. So you you nailed it. How dare I doubt myself? How dare you doubt yourself. You're so smart. I'm not gonna edit any of this because you were right.

Ana 34:20

No, please.

Joel 34:20

I want everyone to know that you were right. Yeah. And you doubted yourself.

Ana 34:23

I know. Classic, classic me, classic Ana. Oh yeah. I fucking love this festival. Everybody there is so supportive, and everybody there is a dork. And they love this thing.

Joel 34:35

I love that.

Ana 34:36

And Justin and Kelly who run it.

Joel 34:38

I love Justin and Kelly. They run that? Holy crap.

Ana 34:42

This is their festival.

Joel 34:44

Shout out Justin and Kelly. Um, these are two fantastic improvisers from Florida who I did a workshop with them when they came up here for the golden dynamics. I forgot the name of that festival. Good.

unknown 34:57

Let 'em squirm.

"Love the One You're With" mentality

Joel 35:00

Um festival, improv festival at dynamic I'll draw out a few years back. They did such a beautiful workshop. It was called Love the One You're With. That was the name of the workshop, and I was like, oh, this is interesting. And then the the bio was pretty standard of like, hey, how to connect with your singing partner, how to like play with love, and and I was like, oh, this sounds fascinating. Like, I'd love to learn this. And it was one of the best workshops I've ever taken. I improv workshops are usually pretty shoddy. Any one-day workshop is like copy paste. I feel like everything I've taken is copy paste. It feels like a level one.

Ana 35:38

It's sometimes just folks trying to, you know, pay for the trip.

Joel 35:41

Yeah, exactly. But this workshop was so beautiful. Um, Justin and Kelly, and we did this exercise that was so good. We started like doing regular improv, just like getting reps out, to get stuff out, and then we did this exercise like you sit across from somebody and you say, I love you. And you say it to each other like a few times taking turns, I love you. And the next person goes, I love you. I love you, I love you, and you keep saying it, and then we're like, Okay, let's start a scene in five, four, and then we do a scene, and it was completely different energy than the scenes we were doing previously. Yeah, just from starting from a place of love and look eye contact and connecting with your scene partner, it was night and day, yeah, and I was like, holy crap, it's the best.

Ana 36:32

It was in yeah, I just I I feel like I only am interested in watching people play with really tender hearts and I think that the only work if you're doing narrative, like I don't you know I don't want to speak in where like this is oh, whatever. This is how I feel about it. If I have to see you like love your improv partner, like I have to see you believe in them, and I have to see your total investment in them. And I wanna see characters who like each other. Like I am I mean, I'm just it's so it's easy to fight. It's easy. Arguments are that's the first thing everybody does in improv. It's easy, it's it's the grab for. I love to see two people who just like each other, and then if they argue, that's fantastic. I care about you. So now I have I'm hoping

Playing with Tender Hearts and Rooting for Characters

Ana 37:29

that you can't.

Joel 37:29

Yeah, there's an investment there. Yeah, yeah.

Ana 37:32

And so before every show, lately, Hannah and I will look at each other and we'll be like, we love each other, we like each other, we know each other, and then we'll go on, just as a reminder. Like, I'm on your team. You and I are on it's on the same team. We're gonna start caring about each other, and then if you decide that you hate me and you want to kill me in the set, so be it. But at least you liked me at the top. Yeah, and so at least it matters at the top.

Joel 37:59

I love that.

Ana 37:59

I do too. It's the only way I want to play.

Joel 38:02

I talked to I emailed Justin and Kelly after that, after that workshop, and I was like, hey, I'd love to learn about this curriculum. Like, if you would let me reteach this, like the exercises and stuff, like I think this is really important for Atlanta. I'd love to, but no pressure if not. Like, I know yeah, it's your stuff. And they were both they replied and was like, Oh yeah, do it. Like, yeah, I could tell I'll send you stuff, like I'll send you resources. Like, what do you want to know? Like, I'll I'm I I'll send you too much. Let me know if it's this is too much stuff, and they were just so willing to share stuff, and I was like, Oh my god, they're incredible people. And I it's still in an email somewhere, I just never got around to it because life, yeah, um, but that's something I still want to bring to Atlanta is that class workshop.

Ana 38:46

You have to, yeah. Or if you don't, put in your own work right away. Yeah, you know, it's just and that's how they play. Yeah, when I watch them, it's just two people who are each I wanna I wanna watch things where I'm rooting for someone where I'm actively uh anything I'm watching a TV show movie, I if I'm not if you're not rooting for them, it's kind of a bullshit experience. And even I'll and I'll root for shitty characters too. I love that's why we like an underdog. Like we'll watch things like Wolf of Wolf of Wall Street, we'll watch things like Marty Supreme and two total boy movies. But I I was just thinking about this because I just I've just I just watched Marty Supreme last week or this week, I don't know. Um, whatever.

Joel 39:32

Time doesn't isn't it?

Ana 39:33

Yeah, and he was a total shitbag scumbag.

Joel 39:35

He was a shitbag scumbag?

Ana 39:36

Well, yeah, he's like a Marty. Yeah, it's okay. But I still was like the I still my my stomach would clench in hopes that it would work out for him. Um because you know, you s you saw why he was like that. And I'm not an advocate for you being a shitbag scumbag, but you know, if you're watching this piece of media and I still am rooting for you, then you did something at the beginning of your story that really impacted me. And that's and I want to see that in your improv.

Joel 40:06

Yeah.

Ana 40:06

I do. Show it to me. Where is it?

Save the Cat and Learning Story Structure

Joel 40:09

Show it to me. Hey, that's similar formula to save the cat, actually. Save the cat, screenplay writing, formula, whatever, starts the it's save the cat because ideally this character does something heroic like saving a cat.

Ana 40:22

Yeah.

Joel 40:22

And there was like some actual like literal example, like it's from a movie or show or whatever where someone saves a cat and then like they go through trials and stuff, and but you you care about the character already. Um, so that and you mentioned this earlier that I wrote down. Uh oh, no story you mentioned about knowing stories better when you started in SCAD learning about watching movies and talking about movies and plots and heroes' journey. Um, that's a part of improv I don't think people realize they could be doing is learning how our stories are told. What's that formula? How can I tell a better story on stage? And this is stuff that like you could just be YouTubing and learning.

Ana 41:04

I love the University of YouTube.

Joel 41:06

Oh, hell yeah.

Ana 41:07

The people's free school. Yeah. You could be reading fables, you could be there I mean also read a book, like it's gonna help the improv.

Joel 41:17

It's gonna help your performance.

Ana 41:19

Yeah, the more that you're invested in in like doing your life and and f feeling really fulfilled in your own life, the better your work's gonna be overall because you have so much more to pull from. So if like if you're only exclusively like looking at one type of media, I mean there's you know, reading one genre, you're I think your work's gonna be kind of limited. So if you can kind of play around in lots of different things.

Joel 41:46

Experience experience multiple medias and genres. And like you like that genre exercise you mentioned, like you have to know the beats of that specific genre and the characters in that world, yeah. Right, to per to perform it properly. So to get educated in multiple genres and stories, like just improves what we're pulling from.

Ana 42:08

Yeah, if you're doing if you're doing narrative, like I hope that you're interested in storytelling.

Joel 42:15

So yeah, absolutely. Um, shout out David Stork again.

Ana 42:19

David! Stop thinking about you, buddy.

Joel 42:22

David Stork are the man. Okay, so we talked about mom and dad.

unknown 42:25

Yeah.

The Origin of “Two Bears Blow Up in a Car”

Joel 42:26

Um, two bears blow up in a car.

unknown 42:28

My boys!

Joel 42:29

You boys! My boys! Your boys! Yes, boys. Uh, who are the boys?

Ana 42:35

We got Lucas Pulitzer, we've got Jordan Patrick, and we've got Brett Schultz.

Joel 42:41

Fantastic boys.

Ana 42:42

My gentleman. My sweet gentleman.

Joel 42:45

And so how did that come? How did two bears blow up in a car come about? That's another another one fantastic indie team in Atlanta.

Ana 42:51

Oh, thank you. I love them. Um we've all just kind of been playing in each other's circles. I think that's the case for everybody. Probably, yep. Yeah, it's a pretty tight petri dish here. And everybody's gonna get a little I think everybody's kind of playing with everybody. Very polyamorous. Pretty polyamorous, a lot of polycueled vibes in the ATL improv community. Um and so I mean, we'd been playing with each other, watching each other, um, jamming with each other. And then I honestly can't think of like the exact moment. I remember there was like a a team we played, we did one show, and we were called like anything for Nick and all of us were like Nick being my now fiance. And and the it in the picture it looked like he died, so that's really Go look for that old poster. Put that anybody watching the pod right now, we're gonna put that up on the screen.

Joel 43:50

Yeah. Um Yeah, we'll put it on the the Instagram.

Ana 43:52

And here's the screen. And here's the screen, and there we go. Um, anyway, but we were All um just kind of playing with each other, and then I think I assume it was just one of us who were like, Well, let's all do a show, let's just let's do something. And I I really can't. It was not sometimes

Building an Indie Team: Rehearsals, Vision, and Notes

Ana 44:13

it's just that.

Joel 44:13

Yeah, sometimes it's like, hey, we have fun guys. You don't want to do a show?

Ana 44:16

Yeah. And so then we would just we were and we were also all just like I want to rehearse and do a proper kind of like team experience. Let's rehearse together. Let's um let's have regular rehearsals, let's like make sure that we're focused on like how what kind of shows do we want to be producing and and um figuring out like how do we want to give each other notes? So it was you know, we wanted to kind of build something that felt like we are legitimate.

Joel 44:48

Like talk about the shared vision, how you wanna how do what what thing do you want to create together? Um what was that system, that note system giving each other notes? Did you find something that works?

Ana 44:58

I remember there was kind of a point in my life where I was like, uh guys, I can't do notes right after the show. Otherwise I'm just gonna scream. I'm gonna scream.

Joel 45:08

Yeah, I I also do have a no notes after show rule.

Ana 45:11

And like I remember in college there was something of course this like very beautiful early improv masturbatory thing of like we would do a show and then we would all hang out afterwards, like house party style, and be like sit in a circle and be like, alright, boys, how's the game? What moves were good? You were so great in this moment. I feel like this is where it would really shine. Like, of course, that's college. But yeah, yeah, I was like, I think that there hit a point where we were doing shows and it was like afterwards, I'm like, we can totally all say, like, oh, I loved when you did that. Yes. But if there's anything kind of like that we want to nitpick, which of course I'm so happy to do, if we do it right after the show, not good. I'm gonna I'm gonna punch you.

Joel 45:55

I'm gonna freak out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I think after a show should it feel

Separating Self-Worth from Show Quality

Joel 46:00

celebratory.

Ana 46:00

Yeah.

Joel 46:01

Whether it was an amazing show or the worst show you ever did.

Ana 46:04

Total shitbox.

Joel 46:05

We have a sh total shitbox. Afterwards, she'd be like, hey, we did a show. I love being on stage with you. Let's go get a drink, let's go get some food, let's get a hot dog, or whatever the case is.

Ana 46:15

I've I've been really trying to like decenter myself from like the my self-worth and value from the quality of show. Yes. Because that was a huge I mean, it still is something I'm working on. Where I'll have like if I do three shows in a week and two of them I'm like, wow, total freaking bangers. And then, of course, one of them could or will be a stinker, because that's just the name of the game. And it's like I'm like, it doesn't matter how good those other two shows are. I should not live anymore. I have to go over an improv show.

Joel 46:52

Over an improv show. So game. Just for everyone listening, you're always harder on yourself than you need to be.

Ana 46:59

Yeah.

Joel 47:00

Just know that. And for whatever reason, improvisers, so the stakes are so low. They're so low.

Ana 47:06

Sky high.

Joel 47:07

Yeah, we all do. We all make them sky high for ourselves. And it doesn't need to be the case. It's just so beautiful for you all to just get out there, play, be silly with your friends. It's so nourishing for your heart, your soul. So just remember that when you're out there performing or rehearsing or practicing with the team. Like, doesn't matter, whatever you're doing.

Ana 47:25

And I feel like it goes directly against how I believe in this thing where I can't be focused on an end result. Like I don't go into the show thinking about the end result. So why am I so affected by it when it when inevitably it's gonna happen? Yeah. Where it's just it has to. There's no world where somebody is doing a really awesome improv show every single time.

Joel 47:50

Every single time. It's literally impossible.

Ana 47:52

Yeah.

Joel 47:53

And like in even the nature of improv, it's it's it's gone when it happens. Yeah. You do it and it's done.

Ana 48:01

Yeah.

Joel 48:01

It's never happening again. Why are you gonna stress about it?

Ana 48:04

And for days, Ronna.

Joel 48:06

Yeah.

Ana 48:06

Why am I thinking about it days after in the shower? Just staying up. If I had just done this move, I could have fixed the whole thing. That's so stupid.

Joel 48:14

Just waking up in cold sweats. Just why didn't I make that plot move sooner?

Ana 48:21

Just getting in the car right after the show and like white knuckling the fucking steering wheel. I should have done it differently.

Joel 48:28

Oh, why didn't I feed the jellyfish the ice cream cone? Two scenes before we could have got to that plot hook faster.

Ana 48:37

I'm still thinking about that today. Oh my god. That's fine.

Joel 48:40

I'm fine. Oh my gosh. I should have been timing us.

unknown 48:44

Oh.

Joel 48:44

What are you let's see.

unknown 48:46

I don't know.

Joel 48:47

No, no, no. We're good. We're still under an hour, I think.

unknown 48:49

Oh, sweet. Okay.

Joel 48:53

Listeners, you're gonna get a three-hour first episode.

Ana 48:56

Welcome. No edits. No cuts. No edits.

Joel 48:58

No edits, no cuts. Forget about it. Um, jams.

The Complicated World of Improv Jams

Ana 49:02

Hello.

Joel 49:03

Hello, jams.

Ana 49:04

Hello, jams.

Joel 49:05

Do you like them? Love them? Hate them?

Ana 49:07

I have a lot of feelings about them.

Joel 49:09

Ooh, Jackpot.

Ana 49:11

Ooh, baby.

Joel 49:12

Ooh, baby, jackpot feelings.

Ana 49:15

Well, if they are a place where. Oh, God, a jam.

Joel 49:21

Here we go. I'm loving where this is going. I wish y'all could have seen Ana's face right now.

Ana 49:26

We're gonna put it up on the clip. Yeah, probably. And here's the clip. Here it is.

Joel 49:31

I'm gonna do a sketch afterwards.

Being a Woman at a Jam

Ana 49:33

Here's a drawing of this. Yeah. It's complicated because I I feel like when I think of a jam, I think of like the most car accident moments, you know, where I'm like, fuck, that was awful when that just happened. And I think it's just because it can feel scary. I'll speak for myself. As a woman going to a jam, what's gonna happen to me?

Joel 50:00

Yeah.

Ana 50:00

What's gonna happen to me tonight?

Joel 50:01

Yeah, that's huge.

Ana 50:02

Because I remember the first jam that I went to here and I was on the team with all dudes, and that's great. I love playing with everybody. But when they exclusively do scenes together and tap you out to not be in the scene anymore, because they're like, well, we're having f Okay, we're recording again.

Joel 50:20

The battery, okay, this is the first podcast episode. The battery just died on the recorder. Um, so I plugged it in to a wall outlet. I'm using a for those who care, I'm using a zoom pot track four, and it has it, it's battery battery powered. Um, but also okay, anyways, we're fucking back to it.

Ana 50:41

I unplugged it just to feel something awesome.

Joel 50:45

Yes. Okay, so where we were, Ana was just telling me on men, yes. Ragging on men at the jam. Yes. Because yeah, you were saying you're only woman in a jam team. Um and they're finding fun games together, or whatever the case is.

Ana 51:01

We're playing games where they're like kind of like the joke is like, my penis is out, and they're like, Well, she can't be in a scene. Or and so there was finally like a moment where I was doing a scene with somebody and we were kind of just figuring it out, whatever. And then somebody comes in and they're like, Alright, hurry it up, speed daters. And I'm like, I wasn't even flirting with this person. I wasn't even They're just going for the joke. Well, they were going for the joke, and also like now I'm supposed to be like attracted to this person and like doing a romantic scene because I couldn't just be in the scene with this other person. I had of course to be which I don't know. It's just like I don't uh that's something I say in check-ins where I'm like, I I love romance in improv, don't get me wrong. I'll kiss, I'll do it. I love falling in love. I will cast myself as a mom. I will cast myself as a girlfriend, but I'll also cast myself as a firefighter. Yeah. I'll also cast myself as the president.

Joel 52:05

As a pirate, as an alien. As an alien, yeah.

Ana 52:07

And yeah, they'll have sex lives and we'll talk about it.

Joel 52:10

Yeah.

Ana 52:11

But if we've not played together all night and your first instinct is like, well, to girls and it seems to bush, and now they have to kiss, and I have to do kissing. And it just is like a bummer to I don't know. It's just the the world of your imagination in this in this thing where we can do and say and be whatever we want, whatever kind of character we want. And you're just putting me on in a date with this person, like whatever. I know we're all just nervous and kind of figuring things out, but it did suck. Yeah. And that's kind of the nature of the beast. And sometimes at Jan like I've just heard other people at Jans being like, yeah, and then they're doing it. I just think that sometimes folks can take advantage of the fact that like it's yes and and they're not gonna say no to me.

Joel 52:54

100%. That's one of the reasons why I believe that rule should be clarified more. Yeah, should be taught better that it's not you don't have to literally say yes all the time. No, and I that's not what yes and means. It just means agreeing to the reality of the scene or the world or the universe, whatever. And sometimes yes and gets people into trouble because they think they have to keep agreeing to something in a scene even though it's uncomfortable.

Rethinking "Yes And" and Learning to Say No

Ana 53:20

Especially really green new folks, which awesome. I'm so glad that you're like, well, I want to fulfill the rules. I want to support the rule that everybody on this earth knows about with this thing. And folks who are more advanced might take advantage of that. Yeah. So I think instilling the no but of it, where it's like, no, I don't want to do that, but here's a new offer that's still in the realm of what we're talking about. But also, I know that I'll play and I'll straight up I'll say no. Yeah. And not to stop the scene, but if the reality is my character would not want to do that thing, and I do think that me saying no is still making the still it's not putting a roadblock down, it's not stopping the momentum. If my no is still pushing us towards maybe eventually, like my character has to say yes at some point. Or if I just building towards something, yeah. Or or that just it goes against my character's morals. I'm gonna say no. And it's gonna make sense and it's gonna be to the benefit of the overall narrative. So I can say no, and I will. And I And you should.

Joel 54:30

Yeah. And listeners out there, you should say no sometimes.

Ana 54:34

Listeners, put it up on the screen.

Joel 54:36

But you there's no we're not we're just for listeners. We're not recording video. Ana keeps playing like we can put it up on a screen. But we don't have a screen.

Ana 54:46

No, it's we'll put it up. Don't worry, don't worry, guys. I'm recording.

Joel 54:51

Um But you touch on something really important about jams. Yeah, yeah. That I think people don't talk about enough. Well, I've talked about it with other women in the community, but you're not the only one that feels that way. You're not the only one who's been to a jam and they're like, I think I'm good. I'm not gonna go.

Making Jams Safer and More Inclusive

Ana 55:07

Which sucks because it's also so good for you.

Joel 55:10

Yeah. It's such a great place. It's it's such a great uh opportunity to practice, to learn, to play with all different kinds of people and play styles.

Ana 55:19

Stay warm.

Joel 55:21

Just stay warm uh during the certain seasons.

Ana 55:24

I didn't mean like a stretch, but yeah, to go somewhere warm. It's true. To keep the to keep the instrument limber.

Joel 55:31

Yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah.

Ana 55:32

Yeah, like if you're like between teams.

Joel 55:36

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you're right.

Ana 55:38

Just a place to be like, oh, I still got this. Or maybe you have a show and you haven't maybe you got a show in a week and you can't rehearse. And you're at you go to a gym. Be like, great, this is where I got to shake some rust off. And now when I go to my show, I'm not gonna make so many panicked decisions and I can be a better listener. Yes. So you have to be an excellent listener when you're playing at a jam.

Joel 56:00

Hell yeah. More than people think you need to.

Ana 56:02

Yeah.

Joel 56:03

And some of the problem is what we're discussing is that there's also people who aren't present, who aren't listening there, who aren't using that practice.

Ana 56:11

And maybe because they're not taking classes and they have every right to be there too. Um, and that's totally fucking fine.

Joel 56:19

Or they're nervous, or they're nervous and feeling insecure, and they feel like they need to go for a joke to make the room laugh. Sure.

Ana 56:27

And someone's gonna do a handstand or a cartwheel. Yes. And they're gonna kick somebody else on each other.

Joel 56:32

Is it or gonna kick somebody in the face?

Ana 56:33

Yeah, and that's gonna happen at every gym.

Joel 56:35

That's gonna happen at the jam. You just gotta come ready, get a mouthpiece.

Ana 56:38

But if I didn't go to jams, I wouldn't have met Hannah. I wouldn't have met so many other friends that I have today.

Joel 56:44

Yeah.

Ana 56:44

Like they are, you know, you it's you know It's a community-building moment also. Absolutely.

Joel 56:50

So when that that still happens at jams.

Ana 56:52

Yeah.

Joel 56:52

It's probably never gonna stop.

Ana 56:55

Probably not.

Joel 56:56

Unfortunately. Um so whose responsibility do you think is it to keep things in check? Is it is it anybody's? Is it the hosts?

Ana 57:09

I mean, it's such a this is a team sport.

Joel 57:11

Yeah.

Ana 57:12

I hope that we all feel the urge to keep each other safe. And I think if we ask that everybody's keeping each other safe, especially the host, and we look out for each other in that way, it's just naturally gonna happen a lot less. Because if we're all more comfortable to speak up and say, hey, I didn't really love that. If you've got and you know, and not villainizing somebody, if somebody didn't do something that was atrocious, if they didn't say something hateful, but they, you know, did a natural human normal thing and like maybe made a mistake, maybe spoke over you. I don't know. It doesn't sure whatever comes up. If we can all really find a way to just comfortably and without coming at each other, yeah, without contempt, have a little bit of grace, absolutely and then discuss it. Yeah, I think it's all about approach. So if we all feel comfortable to approach, we can hold each other accountable. But I do think that if you're running something, you can set the tone.

Joel 58:08

Oh, 100%. I do believe the host sets that tone, should set that tone and sets some of those standards.

Ana 58:15

Set some really clear boundaries. Hey, did you do a check-in? Are you okay with being picked up? If you're not, and your team says no, let's just not do that.

Joel 58:26

Yeah.

Ana 58:26

I know that you can do it. I know everybody here is super strong and buffed, but let's not pick each other up.

Joel 58:31

Yep. Yeah. Um, when I host the jams at Dad's Garage, I at the top, I'll be explaining the the core boundaries for everybody for the jam. Um, bikini zone and like sell them. So a lot of the basics we have one that's like, um, don't be a bummer. And that and then I elaborate, and I'm like, hey, we all come here from work or whatever, stressors from outside in this world, and we want to come here and have a good time. Be positive, be silly, lift each other up and support each other. So some kind of messaging there. And at the top, I do feel like it sets a tone. I feel like the jams go smoother if it's just verbally put out there in the universe for the jammers to hear and understand. I feel like you're right. I think it does affect the tone.

unknown 59:16

Absolutely.

The Ladies Jam and Creating Space for Women

Joel 59:17

Um and speaking of the jam and this kind of like societal struggle with like the you know, there's always gonna be more men than women at a jam in classes, probably. If you're looking, if you're a woman listener and you're looking to get some space for yourself to play, there's actually a ladies' jam that Sydney Van Alstein runs.

Ana 59:41

Oh my god, how cool.

Joel 59:42

I have a bunch of stuff to tag in this. This is kind of exciting. I'm gonna have a bunch of links in the, you know, like in a podcast episode. We're gonna put it on the screen. Yeah, okay, we're gonna put it on the screen.

Ana 59:51

All right, here it is.

Joel 59:52

Um ladies, there's a ladies' jam once a month. I'll link the Instagram page in the podcast um description bio. I actually don't know how it works yet. This is the first recording. So I'm gonna link it. We're gonna put it on the screen. We're gonna put it on the screen for you. We're gonna put a QR code on the screen.

Ana 1:00:09

There it is.

Joel 1:00:10

There you go. Pause the video.

Ana 1:00:12

Pause it right here.

Joel 1:00:13

Take the QR code.

Ana 1:00:15

Okay, and there we go.

Joel 1:00:16

Follow. Thank you. There we go. Um, so there's ladies' jam for you um if you feel more comfortable doing that, which I think is a beautiful thing to have in the community. Thank you, Sid. Shout out Sydney.

Ana 1:00:25

Shout out Sydney, shout out David, shout out David Stork.

Joel 1:00:30

Yeah, shout out Sydney. Um yeah, jams, jams are essential. What else do I have on my list here? Did you were you a producer on any of the teams you were on?

The Life of an Indie Improv Producer

unknown 1:00:44

Oh yeah. Oh, hell yeah. Oh hell yeah.

Ana 1:00:47

Produce and shows. Oh, if you're an improviser, that's indie. You're also a producer. Automatically.

Joel 1:00:57

Yeah, you're learning a bunch of skills that you did not know you needed to.

Ana 1:01:01

I got so into graphic design because of this. Uh-huh. And it is now graphic design is my passion now.

Joel 1:01:07

Wow.

Ana 1:01:08

I love it. I love it.

Joel 1:01:09

That's fantastic.

Ana 1:01:10

Yeah, if you need a show poster, hit my line.

Joel 1:01:14

Okay. I'll link it. You will put the put it on the screen. We'll put the link on the screen.

Ana 1:01:17

Here, we'll put a couple of the post a couple of my favorite posters I've made. Here's this slide, another one, and the third. Okay. Great.

Joel 1:01:25

Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um, but so true. I'm still learning Canva.

Ana 1:01:29

May I learn?

Joel 1:01:30

I'm still learning how to use like new tools that keep coming out or how to make things easier. Learning fonts. What kind of fonts fit the vibe of a show? It's just like so much to learn and understand.

Ana 1:01:42

Yeah. To take care of yourself to be able to fill up your audience.

Joel 1:01:46

Yeah. It's all important. And colors and like contrasting color, what colors fit together?

Ana 1:01:52

Always yellow text. No fucking matter what. But go on go on Netflix, go look at any of those fucking movie posters. Yellow fucking text.

Joel 1:02:02

Really?

Ana 1:02:03

Yes. We'll put it up on the screen. Here it is.

Joel 1:02:05

Okay, we'll put examples up on the screen.

Ana 1:02:07

It's always yellow text.

Joel 1:02:09

Um, so producing. It did it, was it shared responsibility on those teams? Was it just you?

Ana 1:02:16

It was I mean, when when mom and dad was just jumping in, getting started. I mean, even still today. I think all of us still do it. Um when we were just getting started, I mean it's contacting other teams. Will you come and play with us? Will you come and do 25 minutes? So locking down other teams and locking down the venue, talking about like what the money split is gonna be if if you're dealing with that. Uh we were doing shows, I mean, pretty exclusively for many years at Dynamic. And because they're also an indie theater, we never took any money.

Joel 1:02:49

Um we were always just like just let dynamic have it. Just give it all to the house.

Ana 1:02:53

Give it all to the house. Especially we were doing like five dollar shows at the time.

Joel 1:02:56

Right.

Ana 1:02:56

We were like, well, I guess we don't need it twelve dollars. You can have it.

Joel 1:02:59

Yeah. Yeah.

Ana 1:03:00

If we do a split, we'll have thirty-seven dollars especially for all of those like three people shows we were shows for three people. Yeah. Um, which is so real and so awesome and important. Yes. Let us forget we gotta do those shows for the three people that show up. 100% because those three people are always gonna be there. They always are. Yeah. Anyway. But yeah, you know, we're it were doing and then like posting online all the time. What is our voice? How and posting as frequently as we can, posting as silly as we can. Um also, like I remember I was doing flyers at the we had my um my friend Patrick Calvio, he did a lot of illustrations of the mom and dad posters, which we were doing for such a long time, where he would take like very recognizable Americana kind of work and putting illustrations of Hannah and I. So like the um like like mad TV kind of style images of us, or oh my god, what is it where the like brother and sister farmers would look for? Yeah, they're ones holding the pitchfork. That one I remember.

Joel 1:04:13

Yeah, that was a fun that was a fun one. I love it. We'll put it up on the screen.

Ana 1:04:16

Here it's here it is. Hannah's like seven feet tall in that picture in terms of scale. It's awesome. Whatever. So uh we would I would take all those posters and I would print them and which was so dumb. I like didn't have any links or QR codes or anything on it. It was just it just would say Mom and Dad Improv and I went and I would just fly her everywhere, just put them. I would go to go to like college campus-y kind of areas and put them on like boards there if I could. I would put them on like whatever pole I could, like any sort of like electric box. I was just putting them everywhere. And I remember and I would go into any coffee shop, I was like, give up community board, like for s for a super long time. Like I was like, I'm gonna be bite to the ground, going out, putting my faisa, putting these cartoons of us up. And we would be like, if anybody sees it, take a picture, and like you know, we were very old school.

Joel 1:05:09

Sure.

Ana 1:05:10

But and then a really big thing was like producing the shows that we could also um build enough of a momentum so that we could like tour and go do festivals and then documenting the festivals. Yeah.

Joel 1:05:25

Just a lot of like some video pictures, yeah. So you can post and then like have more materials to do flyers with. Yeah.

Ana 1:05:34

So it's just you know, you are your own PR team, but then you're also the people booking the venue, and then you're also the people making sure that the other teams feel really taken care of. And what's your intro song? What do you want to walk on to?

Joel 1:05:49

There's so many little details that I think people don't realize go into producing a show. Yeah. Um oh, yeah. But if you're out there listening and you wanna produce a show, you wanna make a team. You gotta start somewhere. And there's there's tons of resources online. Yeah. Canva free, YouTube, how to learn how to do that, how to use these

Sharing the Load: Why Teams Need Dedicated Producers

Joel 1:06:08

tools.

Ana 1:06:08

Also, if you are just a producer, you will get, I mean say you're a producer and so many drinking like Vulcan improv teams are gonna flock to you. Yeah. We need producers who try to do that task.

Joel 1:06:23

Producers who just produce someone else's show?

Ana 1:06:26

Yeah, that's producer. That's the job title. It's somebody who I mean, that's the job title. There are people who want to be producers, like they just enjoy the that experience. Like we had um our good friend Theodora. She was producing for two bears because she had direct contact with like Red Light Cafe. Right. And so she was like putting our she was putting it together where she was booking us with the theater and booking the other teams and taking a lot of that pressure off of us. And we paid her, of course.

Joel 1:07:00

Cool. Bones, but whatever we could pay her in soup.

Ana 1:07:05

Well, I mean, whatever we could give, like we like talked about a percentage with her, like and man, we were we racking it in.

Joel 1:07:13

Yeah, I bet.

Ana 1:07:14

No, but I mean we had like um Jordan was the treasurer, and he like I guess technically still is. Yeah. Um, and like would take care of all like any money that would come in, Jordan would have that, it would go to where it needed to go. Um, we used the money to buy shirts and sell merch, which if anybody wants any, I've got like 40 shirts I'm trying to get off of my fucking hands for free. So I'll put a picture of the shirt up right now. But anyway, so I mean there would if you if you have somebody who likes the act of producing, they like that job. If you're like looking for more experience in that, fucking talk to us in the improv community. You'll have so many shows that you could produce. And if you take that responsibility off of people's hands, you'll do better shows because you won't be a producer setting up chairs beforehand. You can just be a performer.

Joel 1:08:06

Hell yeah. That's one of the things I hate about doing both. Yeah. About producing a show and then still have to perform. Yeah. It's like it's so hard to be present. It's so hard to like plug out of producer mode, setting up the room, making sure everyone's feeling comfortable, getting making sure warm-ups are on time, making sure we have enough time to do all our warm-ups and exercises, making sure the door person has the comp list, making sure they know the price to what to for walk-up sales, and making sure the owner knows the tech set. Like, well, um, it's just so much stuff. And I don't get have enough time to decompress and get into play mode sometimes.

Ana 1:08:44

Yeah.

Joel 1:08:45

And it sucks. It sucks. Just it's for everyone out there. Just know that, yeah, having a person that's totally producing, ideal.

Ana 1:08:53

That's awesome.

Joel 1:08:54

And also just split even a split of the responsibilities would help. If you have a team and there's a split of the responsibilities, that helps a ton.

Ana 1:09:04

Yes.

Joel 1:09:05

Um, yes. Producing, yeah, so essential. And I think it's different than other cities too, because I feel like other sit cities, the main cities, New York, Chicago, LA, have a system where they like have house teams. And I feel like the theaters produce the show and then the players just show up.

Ana 1:09:23

If they have the resources, absolutely. But I think that it's still an issue where the teams, I mean, you have to be advertising.

Joel 1:09:31

Yeah.

Ana 1:09:31

So if if what you mean, you'll have the relief of not having to deal with the house and the tickets and yeah, you have some of it off your plate. You have all of that. You can go and be the performer. But during the week, you're still like somebody come see my improv show.

Joel 1:09:44

Yeah, I gotta reshare the sh reshare the post.

Ana 1:09:46

Yeah.

Best Advice: Watch as Much Improv as You Can

Joel 1:09:47

So what's something did us did someone's advice to you stand out that helped you during your improv journey? Was it David Stork?

Ana 1:09:56

I was yeah, it was. Obviously, oh my god. Yeah, he changed my he he I went to SCAD, I was like, I'm gonna be a theater actor. And I got very involved in film and TV, um, because they had that and it was an option. But above all, I walked away from there wanting to be an improviser. That I was I remember there was another student there who was like, if I could major in this, I would. And I was I remember like saying to Nick, my fiance, um My fiance. Um gotta say it as many times as you can. I have to, it's so fun. No, but I just remember I was like, I would too. I would totally I would totally go into student debt for this. Like it, and I did. And I did. But honestly, I was like, there's just nothing I've never felt like this. Like I I'm like, oh, the euphoria of this thing of of I feel like an actor when I do this. I feel like I can get out of my head. It feels so good for me. Um I struggle with decision making, and this is just pure decision making. And uh when I'm up there doing it, and I just get to do it. And I'm so good at it then. And so there, you know, it just is I get to take the I if I could just take those skills and and believe that I can do it in my regular life, like beautiful. It just anyway, it just it it shifted it shifted my whole life when I started to to do it there, and it was because of how David spoke about it. And I hate to further push the narrative that improv is a cult because whenever we talk about it, it sure sounds like sure, but isn't everything you know, everything's a cult, everything's a cult.

Joel 1:11:54

Gamers are a cult, like every religion, uh cat people that love cats, they're a cult. Like any group that collectively likes a thing can be considered a cult. And I love it. And this is I freaking love it. Community cult is synonymous with community.

Ana 1:12:09

Let's talk about it.

Joel 1:12:10

Let's talk about it. Put that on the screen. That's the next podcast episode. The whole episode is that.

Ana 1:12:15

I I just remember I was I loved it so much, and I was like, how do I get better at this? Like your student came up to you and they were like, I just feel like I'm not good at this yet. And I just remember David saying, like, just watch as much as you can. Go watch as much as you can. Come to every show, watch every show that you can, watch hours of this. Wow. And it was like watching good examples, watching watching teams have the best show, and then the next week, like what wasn't working so well, and then what how do they come back and do the next show? Like, and seeing them, you know, everybody's still kind of when everybody flocks to this part of it, something maybe some space work gets forgotten because they're so busy working on relationships. Like you just you're just watching, and and I I think that obviously like that you can only when he said to just watch it as much as possible, like that's all I would do.

Joel 1:13:08

Yeah.

Ana 1:13:08

And I would go by myself and I would go watch the shows, and I was like, this is this is I'm at church, baby. It was great. And then now a piece of advice I do think about I think especially when you're involved in the indie scene and you are kind of scrambling for

“Is your bit sustainable? Think Before You Walk On”

Ana 1:13:30

stage time or scrambling to like and you're just playing with different groups, or maybe you're playing on like rotating casts. I don't I don't remember who told me, but they were like, if you're if you can't sustain your bit for more than the first line that you're thinking of, don't go out there and do that bit. If you can't sustain it for five minutes, I love that, don't go out there and do that bit. Are you are you serving the scene at all, or do you just also want to get in on it? Can you sustain what you're doing? No, don't fucking get out there and do that.

Joel 1:14:01

I love that.

Ana 1:14:01

Me too.

Joel 1:14:02

I love that. I loved that because I was like so many walk-ons would be prevented with that.

Ana 1:14:07

Yeah, and it just shows that it I don't know, like, give give them a chance to figure out what they're doing before you are like, I'm gonna save this.

Joel 1:14:15

Yeah, watch it. I know exactly what to do.

Ana 1:14:18

This scene needs a little bit of me smoking a cigarette in the background.

Joel 1:14:22

This scene needs me to come in and be like, hey, what are you doing in my living room?

Ana 1:14:26

Oh, we're at an Arby's. Great.

Joel 1:14:29

Great, thanks. Thank you so much.

Ana 1:14:31

Thanks for that offer. Can you what else are you gonna do with that offer now?

Joel 1:14:33

Yeah.

Ana 1:14:34

So, like, are you supporting the people and what they're figuring out? Like, are you listening to what they're doing, or are you thinking about if I go out there and do this bit, I'm gonna get a big laugh. Because I'm gonna take advantage of of the kind of dip in energy of them figuring out what's going on and like doing improv. I'm gonna take advantage of that and I'm gonna jump out there and do my big freaking moment.

Joel 1:14:58

And what's really happening is you're throwing your scene partners under the bus.

Ana 1:15:02

Yeah.

Joel 1:15:04

And audience members are gonna notice that too.

Ana 1:15:07

Yeah, they do.

Joel 1:15:08

Sure. Some are some are gonna laugh, some are gonna chuckle.

Ana 1:15:11

They're gonna give you a little hot.

Joel 1:15:12

But there's some people in your room like, ooh, okay.

Ana 1:15:14

Yeah.

Joel 1:15:14

Good to know.

Ana 1:15:15

Yeah, I see you.

Joel 1:15:16

I see you.

Ana 1:15:17

I see you freak. Oh, I'll never play with them again. They didn't fucking trust me.

Joel 1:15:24

Yeah.

Ana 1:15:25

Yeah.

Joel 1:15:26

Oh man, that's I love that. I love can you sustain that?

Ana 1:15:29

Is that bit sustainable?

Joel 1:15:30

Is that bit sustainable? Is that bit sustainable? I'm writing that down. Oh, yes. Yes. I'm gonna write it down and then put it up on the screen.

Ana 1:15:40

And here it is. Pick a font. It's yellow.

Receiving Tough Notes and Breaking "Ana-isms"

Joel 1:15:44

Did you ever get a note that sucked from somebody and you're like, that that's not I don't like that.

Ana 1:15:50

I mean, I'm sure. No, I've never got a bad note. I've never received negative feedback.

Joel 1:15:55

That's beautiful. You've been surrounded by great people that give you great feedback.

Ana 1:15:59

No, I mean I've I think I've got to be aware of it.

Joel 1:16:02

Or maybe you just in one ear out the other. You didn't like it, you're like, eh.

Ana 1:16:05

Whatever. No, I remember I was doing a play that was very improv heavy. And I was still playing a character in it. And I remember them being like, you're doing a lot of anna-isms in this. And maybe that's just specific to doing a play, whatever. But it did make me think about my character work in general. Like, am I just kind of doing anna bits? Or am I playing this character? And I just I I do think about I do I mean that happened so many years ago, and I still do think about like the phrasing of anna-isms. And so, like, because I want to go and play p people. Like, I want to be different characters. I want to be someone else when I'm playing. Absolutely. And so if I am just kind of falling back on Ana-isms, that I'm like, okay, well, this scene isn't working, and I I'm gonna fall back on this like bit that I this little this little quip that I know will work. I'm like, I'm that I'm not really like in it. So it helps me feel feel like I could remain focused on like the character I was playing.

Heartfelt Goodbyes and Looking Ahead

Joel 1:17:13

And I love playing very specific characters. Yeah, very specific characters. Oh, it's so good. It's uh I'm gonna miss you very much.

Ana 1:17:22

I'm gonna miss you very much. I'm gonna miss you so much.

Joel 1:17:26

Oh, that's very sweet.

Ana 1:17:27

I if you know, you opened with saying some really kind things about me, and I I'm so glad that you're doing this. You play with such an open and tender, unguarded heart, and that is you know, you get that for free. And it's so hard to it's so hard to find like people that play like that. And it just, you know, it's because you're like that in your real life. And there have been you've just been so supportive of me, of your community, and like you have all it's just everything, it just feels like it's in service of taking care of of your people and your tribe, and I appreciate that. Oh my god. I'm just it's so beautiful to see, and it's so wonderful to get to be in that circle of care.

Joel 1:18:16

Yeah, yeah, you are, and you I mean, I would argue that you helped me become this person that's here. Oh my god. Um, I have like this short list of people. You, Madeline, have been huge influences on me artistically and just like, yeah, personally.

Ana 1:18:33

Thank you.

Joel 1:18:33

So thank you so much.

Ana 1:18:35

Oh my gosh.

Joel 1:18:36

Oh this is so sweet. Oh, you're moving. Okay, let me think here. I don't know how much time this is, but I feel like that's good.

Ana 1:18:45

I feel like, yeah.

Joel 1:18:46

I feel like that's good.

Ana 1:18:47

I'm so also grateful to get to do this because I'm moving.

Joel 1:18:51

Yeah.

Ana 1:18:52

And I'm in this very like I wouldn't be able to do this move if I didn't have the confidence of of the years of doing this here and the people supported, and like how much I've been supported by my community here. And so getting to recollect and and think about it and and put it, lay all these cards out of things to remember, like what a perfect like book end to I'm so glad that it feels that way. Yeah.

Joel 1:19:18

Um, and it's beautiful for me too because I've known you for a few years post-pandemic, but just in improv communities and uh here if our Java, our Java Vino.

unknown 1:19:27

Oh my god.

Joel 1:19:29

Java Vino era where Audit used to work at Java Vino block away from me.

unknown 1:19:33

Yeah, I'm actually well again voice stats on the still. Yeah, I can steam milk like a fucking pro.

Joel 1:19:39

Like a po.

unknown 1:19:40

Like a po.

Joel 1:19:41

Um, and I'm so glad because I got to learn so much about you that I didn't know before about how you got to improv, and it's such a beautiful, beautiful to hear and learn about too, and hear about you in general.

Ana 1:19:51

Well, thank you for letting me talk about myself for so long. You're so welcome.

Joel 1:19:56

If you're visiting, give me a heads up in the future.

Ana 1:19:58

Oh my god, yeah.

Joel 1:19:59

And we'll we'll have you back on so we can talk about the California scene. Oh. I'm ready, I'm ready pre-planning future episode on the number two. Yes. Talking about comparisons to Atlanta scene and the California scene.

Ana 1:20:13

And I will be ranking them. So everybody better be on their best screen.

Joel 1:20:19

It will have a screen. It will put it on the screen, the one and two.

Ana 1:20:23

We'll do that, we'll do this tear thingy. Here it is.

Joel 1:20:26

That's what it looks like. Uh all right, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening in uh on a little sign-off. Go ahead, do your thing.

Ana 1:20:34

I fucking love you, Atlanta. I love you guys. Thank you so much, Joel, for having me.

Joel 1:20:40

You're so welcome. Thanks for being here, everyone. This has been uh The Joy of Improv with Joel Camargo. Thank you so much, and talk to you next time. I'd like to shout out Matt Isaacs for editing this episode. Thank you so much, Matt. Matt is a talented and kind member of the improv community here in Atlanta. If you have any audio editing needs, reach out to me and I'll connect you with Matthew. He'll take really good care of your audio needs. Reach out to me at Joel at thejoyofimprov.com.