Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.154 | Syracuse Improv with Noah Chrysler

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

Noah Chrysler Joins Clickstream Studios and Launches Syracuse Improv On Good News York, host Danny Tripodi interviews Noah Chrysler, a new hire at Clickstream Studios with a long YouTube background and experience in digital marketing strategy for YouTubers and businesses. Noah explains he joined after reaching out repeatedly and meeting the mayor, and he’s excited to collaborate with Danny, Matt, and Amanda while also running Syracuse Improv at Clickstream’s former Spaghetti Warehouse headquarters. Syracuse Improv hosts free, public workshops every other Wednesday from 6–8 PM aimed at rebuilding community and growing an improv scene in Syracuse, with future class levels planned using an inherited curriculum. Noah promotes a one-night “Improvised Dungeons and Dragons” show April 13 at Song & Dance (tickets via syracuseimprov.com). They also discuss Danny’s work at Clickstream and RetroGameCon dates and ticket info. 00:00 Cold Open Banter 01:00 Meet Noah Chrysler 01:17 Noah YouTube Origins 01:41 Joining Clickstream Studios 02:52 Syracuse Improv Pitch 03:31 Who Can Join 04:33 Why Community Matters 06:56 Free Workshops Vision 09:37 Improvised DnD Show 11:24 Cast Roles Audience Input 13:13 Show Details Tickets 13:32 Where to Find Syracuse Improv 14:04 Nonprofit Goals and Education 14:47 Will the Show Return 16:05 Auditions and Getting Involved 18:04 Turning to Clickstream Studios 20:52 Retro Game Con Origins 24:10 Guests and Ticket Info 25:38 Final Thanks and Sign Off

Danny very graciously agreed to do this interview with me. I didn't know I had it an option. Yeah? You're like, I detest every moment of this conversation, and I'm being forced to do this against my will. Hi, everybody, and welcome back to Good News York. I'm your host, Danny Tripodi. And today with me, we've got a wonderful, magnificent person. Noah, why don't you introduce yourself?

Thank you for those adjectives. I don't know if I deserve it. That's very kind. My name is Noah Chrysler. I just started here at Clickstream Studios, and Danny very graciously agreed to do this interview with me to help me promote one of my other things, my other project that I have going, which is...

I didn't know I had it an option. Yeah? You're like, I detest every moment of this conversation, and I'm being forced to do this against my will. No, yeah, I don't know. Syracuse Improv is why I'm here. Well, I think we're also here to talk a little bit about me joining the business and stuff.

Yeah, absolutely. I want to know more about Noah Chrysler. I know who you are now. But for the audience at home, tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah, my name is Noah Chrysler. Let's start there. How far back? I was born in 1996 at Syracuse General, is what it's the name of it?

Krauss. Not, it wasn't Krauss at that time. My name is Noah. I do, I do, I've been making YouTube videos since I was like 14, started at FM High School. And I love YouTube. I've made a lot of videos. You've mentioned that you started making. videos like your first one was made in 2005, which is insane. Yeah, early YouTube. Yeah. So like, you know,

we kind of come from a similar background where like I've been doing YouTube for a very long time. And I always, I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology, eventually found digital marketing is my career. And I really kind of focused on that aspect, right, of like the strategy of like, what are you going to make and like, why are you going to make it, right? And so I basically help YouTubers and basically business owners create YouTube content and then create it strategically so that they can grow their brands and like grow their influence and stuff. And I, yeah. And so I found Clickstream and I was like, this place seems really cool. You guys just bought a spaghetti restaurant. Let's see if I can work here. And so I bugged you and Matt and Amanda a lot. And I sent you guys a bunch of emails. And then you sent me to go meet the mayor, which was super cool. And so that was really awesome. and I don't know, and I'm really excited to join the team. And I think that we're going to make a fantastic combo because, like, the stuff that you make is incredible and it looks really, really good.

And Amanda's super cool and her photography's awesome. And Matt is the chillest dude ever, and I really like him. And I think that it's a good team that we're going to make a lot of good stuff for Clickstream. And one of the cool parts of the job is that Matt allows me to have my little club here, which is Syracuse Improv. And we meet, we are an organization that is trying to reignite the improv spark in Syracuse, New York. And we meet here in the former Spaghetti Warehouse location, current Clickstream headquarters. We meet here every other Wednesday to do a free workshop open to the public at 6 p.m. from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. If you go to Syracuse improv.com, you can find our website and you can find our calendar.

If you subscribe to the Google calendar, you will get notified of every single upcoming workshop whenever we have one. Pretty cool there. Yeah, it is really cool. Thanks, buddy. So tell me a little bit more about Syracuse Improv. So is this open to intermediate? I want to say actor, but it's a little bit different than acting. Could you talk a little bit about that?

Do you have to have skills to it, or are you teaching them those skills? Yeah. So the prerequisites are that you have to be alive. So if you're dead, you can't come. Gotcha. And you have to hopefully, honestly, that's pretty much it, right? Like, be alive and come to our workshops, right? It's a very low bar.

Yeah, exactly, right? No, yeah, it's for everybody. It's for everybody and anybody. I will say there are adult themes present. So, like, if you are under 18, you know, I don't say don't come, right? Like, I started to do improv when I was, like, 14, and I was going to some of the Syracuse Improv Collective stuff. And so, you know, I was introduced to some adult ideas, I suppose. But, you know, but it's not like, it's not anything too raunchy, but, like, you know, it is a comedy environment.

So there are occasional, you know, blue humor, that sort of thing. But no, yeah, it's for absolutely anybody. It's we are trying to build a community, right? That is my biggest thing. That is like the biggest guiding value for me, right? You know, I think, I think especially after COVID, I know COVID, it's 2026. COVID was what, six years ago, right? So I understand that that might be a long time ago.

But I do think that the effects of COVID have truly affected this city in a major way, right? I grew up here, but I was away for about six or so years, right? And so when I came back, I saw how the city had changed. Improv has been a huge part of my life. I did improv in Atlanta, Georgia. Well, first, I did improv. I mean, I started doing improv in high school, but then when I went to college, right, that's how I met all of my friends.

I joined this organization called RIT Improv, and eventually I was on their, like, board and stuff, and that was awesome. But then even when I graduated, I started to perform and coach a little bit at the focus theater in Rochester and that was super awesome because in college I came in I didn't have many friends I didn't have many connections and suddenly I was a part of this group where we were doing these workshops like a few times a week at that point and they were all very much like you're playing these silly games with these rules that are admittedly ridiculous right but the act of doing that so many times

with the same people each week is I really think that it's one of the strongest ways that I've seen to build real community. And so that's why I love improv so much. Like yes, comedy is awesome. Yes, comedy shows are great. But at the same time, I think it's really hard, especially nowadays, especially after COVID, to meet people. And so that is ultimately one of the biggest goals of Syracuse Improfts to build community. So anyway, I went to Rochester, found the improv scene there, made a bunch of friends, went to Atlanta, found the improv scene there, made a bunch of friends, went to Austin, found the improv scene there, made a bunch of friends. And then I came back to Syracuse and there was no improv scene that, I mean, there was.

it was small and I was like we can make it not small the opposite big big is the opposite of yeah it's one of the opposites of small big yeah gigantic is another one I guess um anyway bo jumbo yeah we're good Syracuse improv is the attempt to make the improv scene in Syracuse jumbo I love it I love absolutely so tell me what makes Syracuse improv different than what you described and different from like just taking an improv class at like Boise's or something is there a difference? So the first difference is that it's free. The second one is that I don't think

BOSIS offers improv classes. Really? Although that'd be cool, do they? I don't know. I saw something for BOSIs and I, I don't know. That sounds dope. Yeah, maybe. I always thought Boses was like,

maybe this is really not nice to the people of BOSES, but I thought it was like, oh, I really need to learn how to repair air conditioners. I'm going to sign up for a class of Bocees. It's hands-on learning. Right, yeah. Isn't that what improv is? Sure, yeah.

I mean, hands-on fake air conditioners. If you want to learn the art of faking air conditioner repair in an improv scene, you should come to us, I think. No, yeah. Well, the workshops that we do are free as well. So my vision for this, I really think that the larger vision for the organization is like to create a reverse funnel, right, where anybody can come in at the bottom and not know anything, right? And then the more they're involved in the organization, it develops them as a performer. And it also develops them as like a community leader, right?

And then, because eventually in like a year or two, I'm probably going to be exhausted and older and sad and maybe like sleeping. And so it's like, I'm not going to want to lead everything myself, right? And the idea is to like create a system where people grow and they eventually take it over, right? And so that is what I'm trying to do. Anybody can join. It's designed to be approachable and then nurture the talent and develop the talent from within so that like eventually those people go on to either perform and become incredible performers and go on to have comedy careers or. potentially just like help run the organization, perform in shows. Yeah, we're doing our first premiere show on April 13th at the song and dance.

It's called Improvised Dungeons and Dragons. It's going to be a lot of fun. I think we're going to talk more about that later. But yeah, that's basically the vision. Anybody can show up. We will offer levels as well. That is something that we're going to do. So you can take a level one class, level two class, probably level three class,

and then probably other additional classes and things. We haven't announced those yet, but they're in the works. And also somebody from the Syracuse Improft, collective from back in the day, reached out to me and he sent me all of their curriculum, which was like really, really good. It was cool. It was super cool. They had a master's student do her master's thesis on creating improv curriculum.

And so this is like master's level improv curriculum, which is sick as hell. And so, I don't know, I'm stoked. So when we do build classes, we are going to have a really solid foundation, which I'm stoked about. Nice. That's really exciting. You know, I think it's great to offer these classes that are really, you've, really, you can use them the rest of your life, you know, public speaking and just feeling comfortable in front of an audience. Like, I'm sure that kind of scratches the itch that improv does, you know.

Yeah. There's a better way to phrase that, but. No, yeah, exactly. So tell me a little bit more about the show, the Dungeons Improv, Improvized Dungeons and Dragons. What's that all about? Yes, improvised Dungeons and Dragons. Here's what's going to happen from a high level, okay? I'm hoping, I'm hoping.

By the way, you can really help with this vision. Okay, I'm hoping that the nerds of Syracuse and or normal, normy individuals, the muggles of Syracuse as well as the nerds. I really want some nerds. Please, if you're a nerd, please come, right? I want them to flock to the song and dance. It's the venue name. You should go there. It's a good time.

It's in the basement. It's kind of hard to get to. You have to go through this weird, creepy elevator or go down the stairs. I'll make signs. Don't worry. You'll find it. I think it's 115 Jefferson Street, right? I think it's next to, it's down there.

Yeah. Yeah. I want them to come. I want them to dress up in costumes. Wizards. Be a sater. Be a druid. Be a something from Dungeons and Dragons.

Hoping. Hoping. You don't have to. If you want to just be yourself, totally cool too. I want you to come. I want you to get a bunch of drinks. I want you to get it hammered

and watch us improvise a Dungeons and Dragons campaign on the fly. Is it real D&D? The answer is no. It's like a, it is a long-form improv show where we're going to go on it, completely made up adventure story. It's a one-shot campaign,

and it's going to be heavily influenced by the rules of D&D. But it's not going to be like, I'm not going to be like, your charisma score is this, and this plus this equals that. We're not doing that. It's a lot more quick, but we're using a lot of the ideas,

principles, and motifs from Dungeons of Dragons. It's going to be awesome. Did that answer your question? Yeah, no, that's great. So is it preset? Like, are there going to be actors with, specific classes, how is that going to work? Yeah, so no. So basically, we're going to talk to the crowd and we're going to build the show

with the crowd. We had this idea where we're going to interview somebody and basically like enact their life, but I think we're kind of gearing towards, we've been rehearsing all month and it's been a lot of fun. The show, we saw the show grow a lot, which I think has been wonderful. And the direction that we're kind of leaning towards is like we want the audience to be able to influence the show a lot, right? So like, if you want to give us something that's really tough to play. I think that that's really fun, right? So at the beginning of the show, we have three adventurers. Okay, so that's our main party. There's three adventurers. Then that's Aidan Procopio. That is Mike Saltman, and that is Joy Opera. I don't know

everybody's last name, so maybe I shouldn't set the precedent of knowing everybody's last name. But I did know those three. Then we have our main villain, who is Becca Brown. I knew her last name, too. So there's three adventures. There's a villain. And then we also have three NPCs. We've got Crystal, Pistol. We've got Jonathan. Don't know Jonathan's last name. Sorry, Jonathan. He doesn't have a last name. It's just Jonathan. And then we've got Jesse as well. And their job is to basically populate this world with other interesting Dungeons and Dragons characters. So you might have a henchman. You might have, you know, a barkeeper. We might have a, and just any NPC that you would find in the world. And I'm going to be dungeon mastering.

So I'm going to hopefully have a cloak on with some cool makeup. up on my eyes and maybe a crystal ball and it's going to be really fun. And I'm going to have some dice and I'm going to be sitting and kind of narrating and dungeon mastering from the back. But yeah, the audience gets a lot of opportunity to influence what's going on on stage. We're going to ask the audience at the beginning to write in suggestions of potentially like magical potions, right? What should this magical potion do?

What should this spell do? That sort of thing. It should be a lot of fun. Song and dance, April 13th, 8 p.m. We're doing it one night only, right? The show starts at 8 p.m. The door's open at 7. So you can pregame and everybody's going to be in costume.

And I'm hoping it'll be fun. The pregame will be fun. I think I'm going to send the cast out to like go fuck around in the crowd. So it'll be fun. That's really cool. Yeah. And where can folks go if they want to get tickets? You can go to Syracuse improv.com.

You can just find it there. But I think also Syracuse improv. com slash D&D. You can also find us at on Instagram at SYR Improv. You can go to the Facebook page, Syracuse Improv. We have a great meetup group too. And you can go Syracuse Improv Meetup. And then that will show up as well.

Very cool. Very cool. And is there any future plans for, if this is successful, are you planning on doing this more often? Or are there different shows that you have planned? Yeah. So that's a great question. The proceeds from this show are going to go into helping turn Circus Improv into a 501c3 so that we are an official non-profit. My goal is to not get rich from this.

I just love improv and I want people to love it too. And another goal is to like also increase the level of improv knowledge in the city, right? I spent a long time in high school learning improv and then I spent a long time at RIT like learning improv. And then I spent a long time in Atlanta learning improv. And then I also spent a long time in in Austin, Texas learning improv, right? And so I'm excited to bring that knowledge to classes and shows and things. So one of our values also is education, right? And helping people in the Syracuse area like learn more about the rules of improv and just raise the level of knowledge in the area.

But yeah, anyway, the other stuff. that we're going to do, I would like to do this show again, but in order to do this show again, Danny, I need Syracuse's nerds and normal people and muggles and anyone else in normal clothes who just wants to come see you and check it out. $12 online, $15 at the door. Please come. If they show up, you know, and there's support here, then I think we're probably going to do this again. And the song and dances reach back out and they're like, hey, you know, what do you think? So if this goes well, we'll probably do this version again. If we want to do more of a showcase thing in the future. We might, we might pivot to that. But I don't know. I've been

talking a lot. Thank you for listening so much. You're the best. Yeah. Thank you for bringing this up. This is a super cool thing. You know, it's something that I think Syracuse was missing. And it's, it's cool. It really is something that, I don't know, just adds value to our city. And I think more people should learn about it and know about it. Yeah, I'm trying. I mean, I grew up in Syracuse, right? There's so much potential in this city, right? But I do think it can be a little hard to get involved, you know, and find community, right? And so for a little while, I was like butt hurt and sad. It's like, oh, man, there's no real big community in Syracuse.

And it's like, screw that. Let's build it. Let's build community, you know? Yeah, that's great. I did have one other question now that we're talking about it. So the people in the show were these people that were in your Syracuse improv? How did you come across this? Were there tryouts?

Yeah. For future people that might be interested in doing improv d&D. Yeah. So we did auditions, right? I tried to do auditions in a very intentional way and try to explain, like, repeatedly that it's like, look, I understand. Like, if you made it into this show, it doesn't mean that like these people are amazing and everybody else is the worst.

Like that's, like we are trying to create a very welcoming community, right? And so when I did auditions, I wanted them to be in a very, also my co-founder, Johnny Nolan is fantastic and I love him so much. And I don't know, he has a nine to five as well, though. And so, like, you know, he is not here for this interview, but he is a great person. And if you can't tell, Danny, I'm a little bit sporadic sometimes. Really? Yeah, crazy, right?

Crazy. So Johnny's a great partner in this because, like, he is like, great. Okay, cool. He'll do all the homework parts. And I'm like, you know, it's just super helpful. The Tasmanian devil. It's a yin and yang. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. He's the best. I think he's yin. I think I might, I don't know. Maybe we could cast yourself, tag yourself. I'm yin. Okay. What was your question?

We did auditions. We did auditions. I tried to do it very intentionally to make it welcoming, right? And we're going to do auditions in the future, right? So if you want to audition for future stuff, we'd love to have you. The best way, though, to get involved is to come to our free workshops that, again, are open to the community. Anybody is welcome. 6 to 8 p.m.

Every other Wednesday. Syracuse improv.com. That calendar, you can hit that little three dots, be like, subscribe to this calendar, get it in your email. Get it. You can also join our mailing list. That's also super helpful, and you can do that that way. How are you, Danny?

I've talked too much. No, it's, I'm great. Thanks for asking. Absolutely. Cool. Yeah, no. Is there anything else that I might have skipped over that you wanted to add? I want to talk about Clickstream.

Sure. Yeah, let's talk about it. Are you excited to build an awesome content marketing company together? Am I? Yeah. Hell yeah. Does a bear shit? the woods.

Hell yeah. Tag yourself. I have the bear. Bears unite. Yeah. Tell me about you. Tell me about your, like, tell me about clickstream, tell me about you, and tell me about the vision for the future.

I thought I was the host. I know. But now I'm, you're reversing the roles now. I'm turning the tables because I think I talk too much. Yeah, sure. Okay. I'm Danny Tripodi. I'm 33 years old.

I have always had a passion for video editing and making. fun videos with my friends and that kind of transitioned into hey I could do this for a living you know um so just out of working with Windows movie maker when I was like 10 and editing a stupid video and uploading it to YouTube and nobody's seeing it I was like I want to do this forever so this working at ClickStream studios kind of helps obtain that goal of doing this forever you know making fun content fun engaging content and making something that will make a lasting impression on the city, hopefully. You know, if we help enough businesses, I hope that it,

people know ClickStream Studios is where I want to go to get my content seen. Yeah. Hell yeah. No, and I love that, dude. And yeah, when I met you and you show me your work, your work is incredible. And I think, I will say that, like, not only fun content, I think making content in general is super fun, and I love it and I have a huge passion for it. But I also think, like, I don't know, and I've told this directly to clients, and I, you know, I think it's important, right?

It's like, I want them to write us a big check every month. And I want them to be so excited and so happy to do it because they see the work that we do. And they completely understand the value and they're like, this is my favorite check to write every month, right? Yeah. And I want this place to be awesome. And I want it to, again, like you said, help not just fun content, but effective content, right? that helps people hit their real goals, right, and does it in a very efficient way, where it's also easy for them, where they love the process, right?

Hey, I showed up, I did this thing. I actually had some fun doing it. I got the bugs out, right? Like, and I, you know, I was a little nervous, but I got through it, and then I had a blast. And then, not Danny did it himself, but, you know, like, like Clickstream, handled all the post-production, didn't have to touch a thing, and it was just done for me.

and I'm seeing incredible results, right? That's like the vision that I want to also bring together. And I think that I'm just really excited to do it together. So I don't know. Likewise. And I also think that stuff that you do with Retro GameCon. I don't know if you've talked on Good News York about it. Get Retro GameCon stuff?

Yes. I don't know what you're talking about. Did you design this mascot? I want to know more about the mascot. I didn't. I can't take credit for Retro Boy, but the modern redesign of Retro Boy, I can take credit for. He was originally designed by the founder, Ed Fourth,

and then it was taken by Nathan Grant, who kind of made him more of like a personality, added little Sonic shoes and gave him these shoulder buttons they're supposed to be, but we also wanted it to be kind of like a silhouette, you know, Mickey Mouse. He's recognizable, yeah. And what's more recognizable than a little Game Boy? and we called him retro boy.

You know, he's our mascot, and he's been the face of Retro GameCon, which is great. So last year we got these printed up and shipped out, and it was so cool to see people at the show walking around with Retro Boys, either holding it or, like, in somebody's backpack. And I was like, wow, I helped, like, make that a possibility. That was super cool.

Yeah, dude. I think you've had a huge impact on this city. I don't know. I've been postering for, for, improvised d and so i've been going door to door to comic shops and video game shops and kind of trick-or-treating and being like hey guy please stick this in your window and everywhere i go there's a retro boy on a poster somewhere and everybody and i go oh do you know danny and everybody's like oh yeah i know danny danny's the best and i'm like oh it's so cool like i don't know man i think uh i think

that your next event for this is when it's in the spring right yeah we have spring edition that's may 16th and 17th at the on center and then our fall show will come later october 2nd third and fourth also at the on center hell yeah i know that this interview is kind of yeah you flipped it on me i said you want to do the sign off or no i don't i want you to do but i don't know for what what is retro game con for people who don't understand what that is it's uh new york state's largest video game convention it's it is uh amazing it's so cool to see the different worlds aligned because you'll have these kids that are like 12 13 years old and have never held controller that didn't have motion controls

and they're experiencing this for the first time in our free play area and it's just so awesome to see because they're with their parents and they're like oh I remember playing GoldenEy as a kid this was amazing like Johnny come look at this and then they just take over and they're like oh it's Slappers only and they're playing with some other friends and it's

What is Slappers only? I want to know what that means Oh it was a term from GoldenEye that you use cool it was no guns slappers Gotcha I played that a few times I was odd job You know, with the hat. The razor blade.

Yeah. He's got the hip box, the messed up hip box. Yes. Yes. I played that a lot. I did, Isaac. On his end, 64. It was really fun.

That's awesome. Yeah. So how long have you been doing that? Oh, geez. Since 2016. Wow. The convention's been going since 2013. That was its inception.

But since then it's grown and become a three-day event. And it's something that I'm excited to see people are excited for. We go to other conventions and shows and set up. And people are like, oh, when's retro? I'm so, I can't wait for retro. It's so cool to see. Yeah. And you've got, you've got Sly Cooper coming, I saw.

Yes, Kevin Miller, the voice of Sly Cooper is coming, as well as Alesia Glydewell, who was, gosh, I forget her name, but she was in the second, I want to say, Sly Cooper, the female Sly Cooper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's cool. That's the first ever con appearance of, both of them being at a show. So it's,

it's really cool to have that. Hell yeah. And of course we got Kenny James, Doug, uh, if, sorry, Doug Bowser as,

uh, the voice of Bowser from the video games for the past like 20 years. Wow. Uh, and, uh, like Mario Party? Like,

which one's specific? Oh, yeah, like, uh, I think from Super Mario 64 up till, I don't know if he's changed.

He's just, he's not, he's not Jack Black in, sure. Bowser in the movie. But, But we also have Daitzki, Diceke, Diceke, Suji. Dyskai, Dyske Suji.

Oh, sorry, that's a person. Yes, Diceke Suji is the voice of Scorpion for Mortal Kombat 1, as well as the main protagonist from Ghost of Sushima. Yeah. So really cool. And they're coming to Syracuse. Yeah, they're coming to, May 18th. May 16th.

May 17th. Sorry. You're terrible. I know. Cool. Yeah. How do you people buy it? buy tickets. People can buy tickets at retrogamecon.com. Hell yeah, dude. I don't know. Danny,

it's been great meeting you because I just appreciate, you know, I don't know. I think it's awesome. You have a wonderful reputation around town and I, and I'm just so excited to. I'm in awe of, like, what you've already built. And I am stoked to help in the ways that I can. And I'm also stoked to just be here at Clickstream. So, I don't know. Cool. Okay, sorry for driving for a second. No, you're good. Love it. Love you. Thanks for sitting down and talking with me. Thank you for watching Good News York. I've been your host, Danny Tripote. We'll see you next time.