Mission To Zyxx - Reminiscin' to Zyxx

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

The cast takes a trip down memory avenue – pretty sure that’s the saying? – to talk about their personal origins in improv, the heyday of UCB New York, and the comedy shows and experiences they���ll never forget, even if they might want to. You’ll finally learn how many cast members cleaned toilets to get free improv classes. And in case you didn’t hear, The Young Old Derf Chronicles will premiere on Dec 3rd!  Lovingly researched and sound-described transcripts are embedded in every episode page on missiontozyxx.space!

Hello, Zix fans. It is us, the cast of Mission to Zix. Hello. Heard of it. And we are here with our monthly episode, On Time, as always, here in the month of September. The first episode we've really listed in this month, all of them have been on time and will be. And with these episodes, we take ideas from fans over on our Discord, and the subject of this episode is Improv. Hooray! Heard of it.

Are we calling this Mission to Bits? Is that what to some? Mission to bits? What would this be? Mission. I was thinking reminiscent to Zix. So in this episode, we're going to tell stories

about improv and improv shows, things we love, things we hate, things that we are proud of and things we're ashamed of, a lot of which orbited around the UCB Theater in New York. This is sort of our life in the theater, parentheses basement. Yeah, exactly. This is inside the improv studio.

Under the improv studio. Under the improv studio. Well, you know, I think the show, Mission to Zix that we all know and love, came together because we are all improvisers. That's how we met each other. And it's something that we all, as much as we may not want to admit it, really care about, unfortunately. It's something.

Wait, we should be, why are we so sad? We should be proud of the fact. that we spent most of our 20s in a basement. I cleaned toilets on Saturday nights so I could do improv at the UCB. When I, my fondest memory of UCB, I was so obsessed in the beginning, as one always is. And I would go to DCM,

which is a 72-hour 24-7 improv festival. And I did the last intern slot. This is my first year living in New York first. I immediately joined UCB. And I did the last slot to clean up the theater just so I could, like, go to the party afterwards. And it's like, it was bubble. The toilets were bubbling out. Yes.

Oh, my gosh. The bubbling toilets. It was so hot in there. The toilets at Chelsea used to get so hot that they would steam up. Yeah. God, hot toilets. Yes. But we were so happy to clean because we were so excited to be.

there. I begged to intern at the theater for almost two years so that I could do the whole curriculum free, but also that meant every Saturday I showed up at five and left at like two in the morning. Yeah, 5 p.m. to 2 in the morning. So I could clean the toilets and recycle all the bottles that people left between the seats. I once found a four loco, a can of four with former interns Maggie Spalman Catherine Mon and Alex French and then we split

it outside of the theater Whoa! You split a four loco? Yep. Four ways? Yeah, and this is before Everyone got one loco pre-band four-locos? Yeah, this is pre-banded four-loco. Hey. Allie, Allie, question, was this an already open

four-locco? No, no, no, it was a... That's gross. Okay, I was a least hat It was an unopened four-lookup, but we were all... Oh, then hell yeah. We found a four local filled with cigarettes, and we split it in the parking lot. We were like, oh, my God, this contraband, and so we had to try it. Also, at this time, I was living in Stanford, Connecticut, and I would miss the last train, usually back to Connecticut. So I would then stay at a friend's house, and I would take the subway all the way out to the last stop in Astoria, and then walk.

another 15 minutes. I don't know why my friend Meg never gave me a key, so I would ring the doorbell, almost close to four in the morning. That's awesome. Wow. That's something you can only do when you are 22 years old. Yeah, I think it was such a community.

It was such a constant obligation for all of us. Most of us spent years attending the theater or performing at the theater three, four, five nights a week? A hundred percent. And for me, I moved to New York with the idea that I would be a theater actor and when I started doing comedy

after about a year of not doing a whole lot of theater or doing a theater that wasn't very fulfilling and didn't pay anything and wasn't very good. The idea of, hey, you could be performing live in front of an audience and doing stuff that was really fun and new and good in a community that was very active and very cool. And when you weren't doing that, you could go see that same exact level of good, interesting live theater. For me, as like a theater kid, I was like, oh, it's a no-brainer. I'll do that for years on end. And as long as it pays the same amount as the non-paying work I was

doing that I didn't enjoy before that, I'm happy. So we all did that. And in a post-COVID, post-previous UCB world, that community is not really there anymore. So that's sort of another thing that makes it all feel like a weird fever dream. Fever dream. Yeah. We all came about at the UCB theater in New York at a time when it was not like celebrity quite yet, but it was headed there. There was like such an upswing there. So it felt so awesome to be.

there. Like being able to take a class, do your class show, you meet a bunch of people, you get up on the stage, you try to figure it out, you get better. Meanwhile, you're getting into the free Askat show on Sunday nights where you wait in line and then you get in there, you sit on the floor and you see things that you're like, how are these people this funny right in front of my eyes? I want to do that. It's my version. Like, I can't do music. I can't even know what music is. But this is like my version of that. Yeah. And it just was from the jump.

Wait, how did, like, I loved hearing how Alden came by improv. How did everybody else, like, come to be an improviser at the UCB? So I knew about the UCB. When I first got to New York, a friend of mine from college took me to see a show. And I think I went to go see Ruru. Oh, boy. Yeah. And they were legit bad.

because it was only like three of them and they were just not having a good night and I was like okay I guess I don't need to do this because I did sketch in college and that was kind of my interest for a long time and I was like I guess I'll take one of these improv classes

because I was like I don't need to take a sketch class I was in a college sketch group I know how to write a sketch. I was a little bit like I don't know if I need sketch 101 but something everything every single person said when they got to see me.

But I took improv 101 because I was like, well, let me see what it's about. Assuming it was going to be like what I knew improv to be, which was like short form improv. And then literally 30 minutes into my first class, I was like, oh, this is not what I thought it was at all. And Will Heinz taught my first class. And I just had a really, really good time. And so I kept taking classes. and in 301 I met Seth.

We got along really well. We were having a lot of fun. I got invited to join a practice group. We did two shows. And then one guy in the group was like, this is too much time commitment, which is fair. We were kind of psychos about it.

And so I was like, we should ask Seth because he's really good. And everyone was like, yeah, yeah, Seth will be great. And so Seth joined. And that group became Thank You Robot. And we literally did a show. three months ago in New York when we were all there for, for Tribeca. Prolific. I mean, always performing.

One of probably, I mean, no joke, maybe one of the top five longest lived active improv groups in New York. How many years has it been now? 18. Wow. Yeah. The email inviting me to join Thank You Robot was like truly one of the most exciting, like, emails I've ever got. it was like being cast in a TV show at that age and just to have like your peers be like we think you're good we would like you to join this thing it was uh yeah it's like I feel like

there aren't that many it's like somebody being like will you go out with me I mean that lineups stayed together for a long time yeah yeah wait hearing that made me emotional and I also really because I need to bring up this moment that Jeremy did ages ago. When did they host that like Olympics indie team Olympics? God, that was like, that wasn't us. That was. No, somebody else hosted because you competed. Thank you Robot was a competitor.

I was on a team that was competing as well. Yeah, I think that was Tesla put that together. Yes, yes, they did. But Nicole Beyer was one of the judges. She's one of the judges. And so was Dave Bluff band? I forget who the third person was. Maybe. I don't remember.

This is like, this is just like to me one of the most perfect moments in improv. Because Nicole Beyer, true to form, was asked like, oh, throw out like a suggestion of a phrase. And Nicole Beyer goes, she goes, show me that dick. And of course, we see the first scene is like a true to term like, all right, show me that dick. And then the second one is another, like, improviser requesting that the other improviser show them their penis. And then Jeremy goes up there and he does this amazing show me that dick game show. And he just like, he like off the top of the dome was like inventing these dick-related questions. But the one that you asked was about a dicky, the like the neck guard.

Yeah, it was so good. Scouring my mind to like any answer for like a 70s type game show that could have the word dick in it. And I would just be like, this is commonly used as a costume element to prevent a soiling a shirt beneath. Now contestants, show me that dick. And like, people were losing their minds. It was because it was so, because we had just seen like two awful scenes and I think we're all threading. We were all dreading having to see another scene about, like, two non-consensual improv, like, you know, like something like that. And it was just so inspired.

And then also, frankly, leading into the strength of your transatlantic accent, just like. Indeed. It was perfect. Wow. Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Seth, how did you get into UCB stuff? So my, I didn't, I never performed comedy in college or anything.

I moved to New York after college in 2001. And the job I found was as a. as a writing tutor at John J. College. And it was just kind of this room full of, like, people waiting for students to come in and ask for help. And one of the other tutors was Nagine Farsad. And she was like, hey, like, we just, like, love joking around. And she just said, like, you should take classes at UCB.

And I feel like I was always someone who liked, loved comedy, but wasn't really. really a performer like I was a stage crew kid in high school and um and so I took a class in 2002 and I was bad but I liked it but I couldn't really do it and I knew like I'm not really confident enough for this but it's a very cool form and then I just started going to ask at every week yeah which was just like wait you can just sit on the sidewalk for three hours and then you get to go for free and see people from Saturday at live performing. And probably it just felt like some sort of like cracked code of like, like, we have no money, but I got nothing but time, baby.

And so just going to Ask Out every week and seeing the magic of that, people who were like really, really good at it. And then a few years later, I was like, I think I want to take another class. And then I jumped back in to 201 and kind of went like straight through at that point. And then, yeah, met Jeremy and the Thank You Robot crew. and that's how I got so rich. You know,

with friendship, rich with friendship. George Bailey, you know, it's funny because I think that if you were listening to this and you're a person who is cursorily familiar with the idea of

or the community of like improv comedy in New York or L.A. I think it's hard to, it's even hard for me to remember this, which is that like, there was no, you know the internet for example was not a place like you weren't watching improv on on youtube or anything like when i moved to new york in 2004 like i had done a short form improv in college and when a friend of

mine was like you need to take you should take classes at ucb because you did improv in college and i was like yeah but i sort of did that it's like an acapella group it's like it's something you do for a couple years in college and then you never think about it again um and i liked it but it wasn't really I didn't know that it was a thing that people actually cared about in a way that was sustainable. And you go and then you're like, oh, this is, like you said, Seth, it's like this is like this secret that like these several hundred people all know about and we all get together a couple times a week and see this crazy shit that you never see anybody anywhere else. Like there was no, this was before that proliferated into smaller towns that now have improv groups and like colleges everywhere. my college was still doing short form. Justin and I brought long form to my college.

And they were like, what? I told my improv group, I was like, you could be doing this stuff. This is what you should be doing. And now they still do it, 20 years later. Whoa. And that's how you got rich, the royalties. That's how I got rich.

My college paid me back for all that money. But it does. Paid for every initiation. I guess what I mean is like, when I think about, even the stories you guys are telling, I was like, yeah, this was like a thing where it felt like a secret society. Now it's so funny because it's not like that at all.

It's a thing tourists do and it's a thing that like college kids do to like pat out their theater resumes or whatever, you know, and like not to shit on it because it's, you know, it's fine, but it wasn't like that for a really long time and it's crazy how what a magical little slice of time that was for us. And I think it explains why we all, you know, people ask us all the time like, where did you mean? We're like UCBA and it's like oh were you guys like on a team together or whatever and I literally cannot

remember meeting any of you like I just knew you after a while you know? Yes yeah yeah it really was like well you would see people around yeah because we were all around all the time there was like three four venues

where it was like yeah you'd be there and then eventually you'd be there at the same time as someone I probably couldn't tell you exactly when I met each of you but I have a distinct memory I think with all of you. I remember seeing Seth at Under St. Marks and talking to you. Under St. Marks is like a theater that I thought was awesome,

was like this badass, like cool theater. I was there like a couple years ago. It's a literal shitbox. It's so disgusting. There are live rats in the roof. Oh, it was famous for like a two-year period for if you went into the green room. It smelled powerfully of dead animals because clearly a rat had died in the wall. Oh, my God.

There was one show where they had, remember when they had to shut down for a while because the rat problem got so bad. Wow. We had, I had a show there with, I'm sure, everybody on this Zoom, like two weeks after it, or like, it reopened. It was the first show.

And the stench was so awful. We ended the show early. Wow. In the summer, it got wild. It had clearly killed all of the rats, but they had all died in the walls. Yeah. Yeah, they poison them.

Problem solved. Yeah. I mean, I stand by the, I will stand by saying Under St. Marks is the best theater in the city, despite all those things. Love performing there. It's like a 45-seat black box that's crumbling. It's perfect for a comedy. It's been a performance space since the 40s. Yeah.

And they would rent it out to us. Yeah, you could just do a show. Yeah. To literally anyone. They let me host a story to. telling show there. I hosted it for four years. For the first year, it was free.

It's just like, it was just like, go for it man. You might sell some beers. Yeah, it was like, so anyway, but that end of, and thank you robot had a, had a, you know, monthly show there for, you know, we did a biweekly show there for a few years. Yeah, I remember that. But show there for, what,

five years or something? I never, I wasn't really part of, I was like an outlier because I wasn't really part of the indie scene. Oh, wow. House teams only. Only glam. All commercial. He's sold out immediately.

Mujan, where did you come from? I feel like... Where did I come from? Yeah. Where did you go? Yeah, my origin story is, uh, it dates back. It was like 2002 or 2003. My brother had an internship here in New York and I just, I don't know, this is wrong,

but in my head, I recall looking at a newspaper and like circling in a red pen, like, oh, there's a show with SNL people. And it ended up being... And we went to like an ASCAT and we saw this form. And that like changed the trajectory of my life. And then I started to college and I was like, sure, all this is fine, but I want to go back. I want to go back to that stage. And so I taught my college group.

My friend and I brought long form also to our college to UC Berkeley. And it still remains Jericho improv, I believe, is hopefully still remains. And we taught ourselves in pro long form from truth and comedy. It was named after my friend. We had a fun friending Jericho. Cool name. And then every year, and As of SketchVest, which is so cool that we got to perform, was like the only time, like, improv and long form and, like, alt comedy that was not just stand-up came to San Francisco.

And I used to intern every single year. And then I told my parents I go to grad school, but instead I went to New York for... Real grad school. Oh, no. For many years, still doing it. I think you mean rad school, right? That's right. Yeah, I mean, I got in and I then rescinded it.

Wait, what was the, what was the graduate program going to be? I got into three programs in three different years and I broke my mom's heart three times. We don't need to talk about it. We can move on. But I'm so curious, what were you going to study? Sure. Well, in undergrad, I actually enjoyed these topics. There are many different versions of me.

I'm a complicated person, but I studied economics, like political economics. And the first school I got into, well, London School. economics. I got into the public policy global population program. You should have done that. I know. I know. It was a year long. Yeah, but like I wouldn't you know. Yeah, I regret everything. But um, and then talking on this microphone over to us about the impact steaming toilets. No. And then I got into it. You could run the UN's improv group as a diplomat. Sure. Sure. Sure. No, my mom brings us up a lot. Um, and And then I got into two other programs as well.

We don't need to talk about it. We can move on. But then I knew to tell the Sarbonne. Yeah, exactly. But it was all because, you know, I'm an Iranian. I'm an, I don't come from like a background of entertainment or comedy. It's just not a thing you do. So I just assumed I would go to grad school.

I would like do college. And then, but I kept being in New York and doing improv and realizing, shit, this is what I want to do. And then it led to me in finally being when I was like 30. being like, oh, I'm a writer. Oh, I'm a performer. Like, it took me a long time to, like, accept that. Yeah, that's so cool.

But I immediately, like, moved to New York. I immediately moved to New York after college, like a year after college and immediately signed up for UCD classes. And I was fortunate in, like, my, I did like back to back to back classes. And in my first 501, I got into a Herald team. So I never did, I never did the indie teams. I immediately got into the groups. Yeah.

My recording stopped. Oh, no. When? Eight minutes in. I'll start a new one. That's right. The Zoom is gone. Well, you got, like, Alden and Justin, you guys hosted Gentrify for how long?

Yeah, that's how I knew both of you. That's how I got to know you guys too. Well, let me take it back to, I met. Take it back. Wow. Run it back. I met Alden. We were both doing a Shakespeare tour.

It was a first folio Shakespeare tour where you don't rehearse and you, like, have your lines on your role. And I had done it the year before where I was an intern that I was in the main cast and Alden was an intern. And he was like, yeah, I'm thinking of taking class at UCB. And I was like, I just got put on a house team there. And he was like, what? Why are you here?

I was like, I don't know. It's a paid gig. And I thought a Herald team paid and it doesn't. So I took this paid job. It was the opposite of pay. I got back and they were like, hey, we're cutting you from the team. You were gone for two months. I was like, we're paid job.

job. So I was confused when I first got into the. Wow. I was on a team called Havana Clambake that lasted one cycle. Fair. Classic. Yeah, classic. Good team. Good team. A couple good shows. And then Alden and I took a class together somewhere with Armando. And then we started a three-person improv team that became a sketch team that became like how we got an agent and manager. Truly, I owe UCB for my the house that's around me right now wow because it put me and and all them together in a place our group is called sidecar that would eventually become a show called gentrify that ran for like 15 years in the city and like we had every stand-up coming through our place truly a very long time really any stand-up that came up in new york between like 2008 and

COVID did our show hit our hit our board this is why you both were like celebrities to me I like I feel like also, because also, didn't you, your show used to be at the Brooklyn Lyceum? Yes, a giant bathhouse. Those shows were wild. Those are fun. So we started that show. It was the two of us and Brian Matt Fisher, Aubrey Taback, Darcy Cardin, now famous, and McKenzie Condon, a power agent and manager in Hollywood. And then eventually Brandon Scott Jones joined the cast.

Also famous now. Emily Axford. Also famous now. Well, yes. But that show was in a giant bathhouse that we, I met this guy randomly. So we had this weird deal with him where we split the bar and we made half the door, some crazy thing. And we could do whatever we wanted. And it was like performing in a warehouse and we would have a party after every show for like three hours into this. I remember doing Gentrify in the bathhouse with a group called Daddy that came out of a really crazy UCB class. And the story. And the. Space was so big. One of the guys on our teams who was very physically fit, this guy, Matt Mayer,

just started doing laps of the space while we were doing improv. And like, these were like full, probably eighth of a mile laps he was doing. And he did it for like 10 minutes. It was a giant curtain. We hosted the UCB New Year's Eve Party two years.

Yeah, I went to a couple of those. Got a scarf stolen at one of them. My bet. That's my bad. It was, there were probably like 500 people in the space. I remember buying like 40 bottles of champagne and just handing them out on my shoulders to people.

It was, it felt like being, it was the closest to like Studio 54 energy. Yeah. I remember you guys had like a camp night maybe for Harold groups because they were the opera. Camp Harold. Camp Harold. We had all the Harold teams come out and perform

because the whole reason Gentrify not the coolest name for a comedy show. But the whole point of it was there wasn't any, like, UCB or comedy in Brooklyn. So it was like, that was the joke, sort of, once we moved the show into the city, sort of was like a little fucked up. We eventually changed the name to Beast. But the story I'll tell about sidecar, last thing, is so we did an improv and sketch,

and I worked on a show called Deezeson Mero, and I was at the opening party for the first season. And I'm with this writer, Claire Friedman, talking to her, and her husband, and looks at me, and then he goes off, and then she runs back up to me. He's like, were you in a group named called Sidecar? I was like, yes, but it's been over for years now. And she goes, my husband moved to New York to do comedy. He came and saw Your Best of Sketch Show,

thought it was so amazing that he gave up on comedy and went to law school. Oh, opposite effect. Yes, she was like, he's told me about this show for our entire. entire relationship. And you're one of the people who made the show. Thank you. You made my life way easier because we have money. But I was like, I was like, that's the biggest compliment and sort of a high tragedy that you could have said to me. I do feel like there are people, especially

back in the crazy Chicago days of Del Close, that were told very explicitly by an authority figure, you're bad at comedy, don't do comedy anymore. There are a lot of famous stories about Delclose telling students that. So it's one thing to be told by someone you're not good enough. It is another thing to go to a show that is so good that you think, I am so bad, I need to leave right now. You're so self-reflective that you're like, nobody told you that.

Nobody put you in that position. It's the kind of thing where it's like, that is it, I will never understand that thought process because I'm the opposite, because I'm a delusional person. I will go and watch a show like that and be like, Let me try. I want to make a show. Just as good as that show.

Yeah, which is just crazy. So, hats off to him. He probably... I mean, Alden, what you were just saying is why I do improv because I went to college thinking, I'm going to be, I want to do musical theater. I, like, I crush musical theater in middle school and high school. I'm going to be on Broadway one day.

Freshman year audition, head of the musical department, says, no, I'd never cast you. Woof. That's so nice. Nasty. Crushed. Would you ever see that? Crushed.

And so then I did improv instead in college. Wow. You know, that man who I won't first name, last name, he deserves no press, uh, changed the trajectory of my life and made me clean toilets and do comedy for the rest of my days. Wow. Wild. That is wild. I remember thinking in classes and performances just like, oh, all the students.

stupid shit I think about all the time is suddenly valuable. Like, oh, I just had a funny, I had a random funny idea and you're walking on the street and there's nowhere to put it. There's no point for it. And suddenly, like, you can do that on stage and there's a crowd of people and there's a structure to it that you can learn to actually become better at it. It felt like so, it felt magical and it felt like just so exciting that it was something you could not only do and have people value, but that you could learn to be better at.

Like, felt crazy that you could learn it. Yeah. And, like, when we were doing it in our 20s and, like, you know, if I ever long, we were doing it, our 30s, we did so many shows, so many shows in the basement, so many shows, like, in a bar. Like, we were allowed to fail, which felt really good and safe. Like, especially improv.

And no one was recording it, which was lovely. Oh, my. Thank goodness. There were no live streams happening. No, so we were allowed to just, like, get better by being bad and, like, getting, you know, practicing and practicing and practicing. Except I allowed the version of myself in my 20s to be so affected by a bad show. I would, I would, uh, the way I would carry that around like a bad taste on my tongue for like a week.

Yeah, of course, I know. Yeah, I get that. Did it, was anyone else a teacher? Or was it just me? I taught character classes. Oh, that's right. I was almost a sketch teacher. A coached.

Because I, one thing that really was interesting for me was becoming a teacher. And like, by the time I came a teacher, I was, I think my group Bucky was already on the weekend. So I was like, hey, I'm like, I know how to improvise. Like, I've been doing this for years. Teaching taught me so much more about improv than I ever thought it would. Really? Yeah. Because I, like I'm coaching out here in LA now.

People don't know who I am, but I have like a profile on improvcoaches.com, which is how I used to find coaches back in the day. And so I'll get a random email. And then I'll work with groups. And the first couple of times I coached out here is like, man, I haven't done this in a long time. And then I coached and they were like,

wow, this was really helpful. And I was like, oh, right, I did this for like a decade. And like, no shade on it. any teachers in LA, but it's like, I do have a lot of experience doing this. And so I'm working with this group that I've been working with all summer. And they're like, it's really interesting to hear you describe it that way. And I'm like, oh, I guess they don't teach that anymore. And so now I'm giving them perspectives that they literally don't get at the theater anymore. And I went on sort of a rant the last time I coached with them where, because LA has like, you know, they've got groundlings. There's

I.O. Is there so IO? I think Iyo shut down out here. But some people are from Chicago, so they have trained at different theaters and stuff. And I was like, all that stuff is great. And like, yeah, take classes at our theaters. But I was sort of like, when you see shows of house teams at different theaters, the styles are a little different. But really, I think high level improvisers are all doing the same thing. They're thinking about it in a different way, but what they're actually doing is the same thing. And what the thing is is pattern recognition. And I went on this big rant where it's like, it's all, all improv is like a set of patterns. But that's also all that music is. And like when you, can you hear that in the background? There's like dogs going crazy. All right, good. Oh, man.

I thought you were about to cue music. You have a live musician, Jeremy. But like classical music is the same thing where it's like, here's the motif. And then we replay the motif. slower we replay it faster we layer it on top of itself we invert it we reverse it it's and it's like it's the same thing it's the same thing with jazz where it's like oh we play the head melody and then someone does a solo on it we then someone else does a solo on it then we go back to the head right it's and it's the same thing with improv where it's like what's the game

here it is we'll play it in a different way a different way back to this same right and so i'm very it's hard to learn that but i am like once you learn that you cannot be shaken out of a scene, you know what I mean? Like, there's no reason to panic ever. Well, I'd say once you learn that, you can't not do it in almost any aspect of you like? Yes, yes. And it perhaps is bad, like a slightly dangerous way.

Maybe in a broken brain way, but yeah. Yeah. But like character behavior is pattern recognition. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like playing games and then repeating games is pattern recognition. It's like that's, and sketch is pattern recognition. It's all the same thing.

But that's, teaching really proved for me. It's like, oh, okay. I see what's happening here. Was it that you started seeing your students recognize patterns, or you started recognizing that they needed pattern? Both, and also I noticed that when I was struggling in improv scenes, I wasn't doing it. I was like, oh, man, I'm not doing what I teach my students how to do.

And I had sort of a reputation for being a good teacher. of the pattern game, which is an opening in improv and is famously sort of abstract and a little difficult to learn. And I literally, I got sort of well known for teaching it in 301. And part of, I think, why that was is because I would do it as slowly as I possibly could. And I would stress that you will not be an expert by this by the time you leave this class. You will hopefully understand how it works, but it will take you many, many, many repetitions of this to become what you consider good at it. Yeah.

I think it's true, just a good thought for anyone who's like wanting to improvise or do anything. It's like you're never, you, some people are immediately great, sure, but like this is something that takes practice. Like we literally have herald practices. Yeah. Like, it's always a surprise to me because the barrier to entry for most people on improv is how do you get up there and not know what you're going to say?

Yeah. And once you like do it for like, practice. for a while, that's never the issue. At least for me, it's never like, I don't know anything to say. Yeah, I have plenty to say. Initiating it seems an easy part. It just doesn't make sense unless you get good at it through practice like Jeremy's saying by the pattern. So like, it's just funny what a misunderstanding most people who don't on the outside have about improv.

From the inside, it's all about like, ah, I was a little bit off on the word choice I made there. And I should have initiated this way rather than that way. Like it's all technicalities and not. at all fear or emotion-based. But on the click, when improv clicked in, and this is like a sort of a woo-woo answer to that story, but I was doing an improv scene in college, and I remember, I went to Hamilton College, was in, like, the barn space. It was, like, just random on a stage.

There were, like, 15 people in the crowd. And I remember this moment where, like, I was up there, and it was, like, some, like, very short-for-me-type scene. And I remember feeling the, like time slowed down moment, feeling the audience getting ready to laugh at what I was going to say next. But me not knowing exactly what I was going to say, but knowing, like, sort of like you're saying, Jeremy, the pattern or the peg it had to hit. And the feeling of knowing it was going to hit before I say it and then saying it hitting, I was like, that's a high. I'll never stop chasing. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, the laugh before a line where, like, you know, like, it's just a look like everyone feels it. Yeah, just the energy where you see that, like, the audience, like, leaning. It's going to be it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's crazy. There's no other, I mean, like you said, Jeremy, besides, you know, jazz or, you know, anything else that is also improv-related, there's no other thing like that in art where you get to create it with an audience who's hoping. you'll do the thing that makes it all make sense and then you do and everybody's like you're

fucking amazing and like that's something that you can't it's hard to do even in like stand up or something where you can build to a great punchline situations most of those other art forms are sort of about keeping something from the audience before you know whenever i see death of a salesman and willie loman kills himself i'm always like yes exactly i'm exactly i remember So Jeremy and I, for a while, performed two-person shows, which is very fun. Bentland. Yeah, there was a run of Bentland. Some of the shows as ourselves and some as our washed-up Vegas lounge entertainer uncles.

But I remember we did a show. It was like a loft apartment show. Oh, I remember this show. And do you remember this show where this guy came up to us afterwards and was like, so how much of that did you write? which is a really which is a nice compliment it was one of the better shows that we did he he was incredulous like he would not believe that it was improvised yeah he really wouldn't back down yeah and we're just like none it's like we made it all up I wanted to be like you know much harder like that it's so much less work to not write this and memorize we all we had to do is show up and like this one worked out and it's nice of you that you don't believe it's possible to have been made up on the spot but also show you Shut up. The truth is, all we had to do was show up and also practice for four years.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's true. That's true. Yeah. But, yeah, once you've done that, these shows probably are going to be good. But, yeah, that can be an experience of the first time you see it as an audience member, especially if you haven't, you don't know any of the apparatus of how it's done. It's just like, wait, how does this happen?

How can this possibly work when no one knows what they're going to say? Well, but the other thing is, I mean, Seth, like, that's why we kept going to. shows three or four times a week for years is that it's almost more enriching when you know more about it like watching as a veteran improviser watching great improv is still really exciting because you're like these guys get it yeah so my dad my dad sells new and used industrial warehouse equipment but he also teaches meditation this is a known quantity about my dad but my dad also teaches meditation and has been for at this point probably 15 years maybe closer to 20 and he he has a meditation group that he runs out of the church I went to growing up and he writes a little email to them

each week to like give them something to focus on with their meditation and he sent it to me after he sent it to his group where because he's seen me do improv and he wrote a whole essay about like I'm a Buddhist my son's an improviser and he's like what they're doing what we're doing wow wait that's so cool yeah and it was I'll we can put the link in the show notes because he has a website now where he publishes all these but like it the idea is that like as an improviser

you're reacting to directly to what's in front of you emotionally and and logically and ideally if you're if you are focused and you are present in the art of meditation it's like that's what you are also doing with your life have an honest reaction to it you have control over your own life the same way improvisers it's like

have the reaction and then like decide what you want to do going forward was this your dad's like first time seeing you do improv that like sparked this connection for him or he had seen me do improv before but I think he and my mom took an improv class in Rhode Island oh because you did improv

that's so nice maybe yeah But I think like, yes, that's so sweet. You think they accidentally took it? And we're like, oh, this is our son, does. You're probably right. But like, yeah, my mom was like, your dad is so good. And I was like, my dad, the reason I do comedy is like, my dad is a pretty good sense of humor.

And so I think that's probably a big part of it. Ken Bent. Great name. Can we also put the link in for the new and use? industrial equipment? Oh, yeah, of course. We should. We should, definitely.

Cool. Seth, you talking about TuProv made me want to just say how much I love TuProv, and I feel like the thing that really clicked for me, aside from this show that Jeremy did that I think about all the time, is the show, because I lived out in L.A. for a year, and I did, I took 301, 401, and 501 out in L.A. and I was an accolite because I had no friends. I didn't know anybody in Los Angeles. I was there for a job, and I would do improv classes on the weekends.

But I would go to see any show that I could go see at the Franklin Theater. And I used to go see this group shitty jobs, like every week. Oh, sure. And they were, like, on a cage match run, and they were performing Sundays at, like, 11 o'clock at night. And I would go to every show. and this one night I think it might have been cage match nobody showed up except for

Charlie Sanders and Eric Apple and they were going to do a two-probs set and they did an entirely silent set for a cage match and it was amazing and it was Jeremy all pattern and just like repeating

it was just like it was there was such a rhythm there was such a rhythm to it But really, the thing that, like, really resonated with me and still does is just, like, this radical support. Like, you just, it's so hard, especially when you're, like, starting improv, like, on a team and you don't know your teammates and, like, especially because early UCB felt so competitive, so ego would really get involved. But, like, when you just, like, free fall into the other person's arms, it is so cool to see people just be like, like respect and fully trust each other. It's amazing. Yeah.

Yeah. I've shared the link to my dad's post and also his high-end modular cabinet business. Matt Denny and Josh Sharp used to host Cool shit weird shit. Which I loved. And I once got my mom to do a set with me on. stage where I asked it was very easy she was so nervous this is like to your point to of like I don't want to get on stage and say the wrong thing so I was like don't worry all you have to I'm going to just ask you questions you can take your time responding and I I just

asked her questions about personal questions about me that were like uh at what age do I need to give up trying to become a professional like actor and uh my mom killed like in you know like the first response that she had I think just got her like the biggest laugh and then she was just

having the time of her life she like sent then there was like a video of it and she sent it to like all of her friends of course why not it's got to oh yeah

it was very fun amazing that's great I love that story that's so sweet Alden do you remember doing improv at Lydia Hensler's parents anniversary. Oh.

This was not a positive memory for all this. If you remember that we did it, I don't remember anything about the set. So Lydia Hensler, who fans may remember as Squirreled in season one, the photographer. Oh, good job, Jeremy. She had a bunch of us come out, including me, I think, Alden, and definitely Josh Patton, aka Maganak from season one to, and I think maybe Morgan Jarrett,

aka Jan. Sounds right. Jan with the van. Jan with the van. To perform for her parents' wedding anniversary at her grandparents' like senior center. Yep. Wow.

And so we interviewed. Great show. Oh, it was her dad's birthday, is what it was. Dad was turning like 60 or something. He interviewed her dad and we did an improv show about it. And literally all we did was scenes

where, like, things he had talked about in the interview, we would do them. And people were like, ah, ah, gah, like, laughing so hard. And after the show, Josh Patton just kind of turned to us where they gave, they had this absurd spread of food because it's a senior center. And so we were, like, eating, like, meatballs out of, like, a, you know, catering, and we're like, hey, this is pretty good. And Josh Patton turned to all of us. He goes, we've practiced for years to be two seconds faster than regular people.

And literally, that's what it was. We were doing the thing that they had just heard, but they hadn't thought of the little twist that we were going to put on it. But they probably would have if you gave them a minute. But we did it fast enough where they're like, how are they doing this? These are wizards.

It was great. It was a fantastic time. That's so funny. Yeah. There were a couple years in there where people would ask you to do stuff like that. Like you'd perform at somebody's wedding. Well, I'm just recalling,

I probably repressed this memory, but what was the strangest thank you robot gig which was the male members of thank you robot performed as surprise strippers at a lesbian bachelorette party and we were like hidey fliced by my now wife who was like hey boys you want to be strippers and we were i feel like we were all like we can't say no to this I think I sent an email and it was one of those emails where you get like you see the replies come in like it was like yes yes yes

but I think I remember being so nervous like we were kind of like giggling but it was the kind of thing where we showed up pretending we were like there to pick up boxes of stuff and us being us it was

truly a surprise that we were strippers because we had prepped a lot of bits is what I remember We had prepped enough bits. Also, we went to a Mexican place and all drank two margaritas before we did this because we were, like, slightly terrifying. Oh, my God. We did crowd work. We did crowd work.

Yeah, there was. Somebody did a bit where they were wearing, like, five pairs of underwear, and they just kept taking them off. Yeah. I think that was J.R. Yeah. A.K.A. the grower mind. It was good. It was, truly, I'm, like, glad I had that experience once, and I'm like, I don't know that I could ever do that.

You don't want to be a stripper. The siren call of stripping is missing. No, it didn't get me. Not like improv. One of the strangest shows that I ever did was with Alden. We were doing a tour of Alaska with a sketch show that we wrote about the history of Alaska, because Alden's from Alaska. And we got invited to do a portion of it at a Russian old believer outpost that we had to drive a long ways to,

and then do we take ATVs down a switchbacker? back road to a little village that looked more like the lost others outposts than anything I've ever seen before. Everyone's in tunics and like durned-style dresses and a bunch of kids. There's like, the entire town is there watching us. And we're like, this is not going to be good. We do some of the sketches about the history of Alaska, very safe versions of them. And then we're like, and then we're going to do some improv.

What's a suggestion from you guys? and the one kid goes or they all talk for a minute right Alden and they come back and they're like where do the animals go to the bathroom in New York because there's no tall grass that was a suggestion and then you're like one of the

the suggestion I remember that they gave us because we did a couple of those were they gave us a suggestion of taxi and so we did this like a classic like improvised taxi scene where a guy is getting in a cab and talking about something and halfway through the scene

I realized I was like these kids don't these kids were hoping we would teach them what a taxi is like what exactly a taxi is or does they were like why is this guy why this guy just rob a bank

like that's not what a taxi that's not what I thought a taxi was for in Alaska people don't know that improv sets are usually about a half hour long and they wanted it to be 90 minutes long which is too long for an improv show but we did it. We did We did double-headers some days.

We were doing three hours. Three hours? It was just all to myself and Matt Fisher, just the three of us, three-persons. Wow. What's your hurts? Yeah, it was actually great. Yeah. I feel like with Zix, like we, not particularly on purpose,

but I feel like we were able to capture some of the best things about improv and the reason we don't write the show is that it's, it's funnier if it's improvised it's funnier if it's surprising to us in addition to the audience but then of course we edit it and sound design it and put it out in a fashion that like

you know tens of thousands of people can hear it as opposed to having to cram in a rat smelling basement in New York people can just stay in their rat smelling homes if they want and when it's at its best it's just like when a scene

is going in a way that no one predicted maybe often because Mujan said that there's shaving elves or something such as that and it changes the whole direction of the episode. Well, I have to note that sometimes making those sort of choices in my life has made, if I like join like a jam or like a show with new performers I have to perform before, sometimes if I do make a play like that, it isn't, you know, we're so lucky to be so supported by each other. Well, you do your Statham, right? And everyone jumps on board.

Yeah, sure, sure. Sometimes you can do that, and people will be like, why did I don't understand? And then you're just like, okay. So sometimes it's good to surround yourself. Yeah, when you do improv with people, it's like creating a basketball team. It's like people who have different skills.

Skill sets. Yeah. And that's how, you know, you get together. That's true. Well, I think, you know, thank you, Robot and Gentrify aside. I think the crew of Mission of Zix has now been working together for longer than most of our projects. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Very true. We first met up in late 2016 to start talking about it. And when we set out to do the show, I think the idea, besides copying Magic Tavern, which we did happily. But besides, you know, improvising something with continuity and editing it, I think one of the things we wanted to do is, like you said, kind of capture that magic of improv in a way that felt to people listening to a recorded version of it, the way that we all feel when we watch good improv.

And I think we were able to crack that code a little bit. But I think what we also did, we managed to do sort of an accident, And it is, like, we made a cast of characters who are similar enough to ourselves that, like, our characters support each other in the same way we do as performers supporting each other on stage. Like, so a lot of those games are inherent in who we are. Like, if I'm in a scene with Jeremy that is not a Zix scene, I lean on him the way that Plect leans on C-53 to, like, be like, what's going on? Right. Or, like, explain this. Or, like, organize this for me, you know? So I'm an idiot and you're not. Yeah, exactly.

Jeremy will explain. Yeah. But it is a role I played frequently in groups outside of Mission to Zix. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, it's fun to, you know, I think we all like playing all different kinds of roles, but I think that that was something that was kind of a happy accident, I think. I don't think it was something we thought about when we were putting the show together was like, how can we make improvising easier for us?

Like, how can we make making this show feel more natural? Because I think it was just something we lucked into. But I think what ended up happening was that it made improvising as them and supporting each other as them feel more natural and easier, which I think was really, really nice. I mean, it's just so effortless to get into those scenes where PLEC is being hassled by DIRF. And it's like, well, that's our relationship. Like, that's just how we are, you know. I don't know, sometimes. Huh.

It really makes you think. It really makes you think. but yeah it's it's i don't know we we got lucky i think was like so what do you want to play i don't know i play like a middle manager yeah i play like i know it all asshole yeah i'll do that and i remember Winston was like i don't even need to play anything yeah Winston's like i'll play side characters yeah like i don't know if i like you guys don't need to be in every hips crazy choice in season three i'll i'll come out hot though

with a new yeah that's that's the that's the podcast version of lurking on the back line for all the first beats. Exactly. Yeah, I'm sort of a group game guy. Crushing it in the third half. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I do feel like my like continuation of improv classes has just been performing with you guys

because I feel like I've learned I've learned so much. Like we've done so many hours of improv together to just pick up moves. And I feel like that was like one exciting thing about watching shows is you just like learn more vocabulary of like types of moves that you can make and just be like oh you can respond that way that's like another way of saying yes like screaming no can be a yes if it's like agreeing with the overall premise of the scene or something um in later seasons i feel like i can when editing episodes i can hear myself i'm like oh i'm i'm trying to like pull an alley move in that line or something like a poor man's version of it that may work

you all my teachers wow cool how do we want to wrap this up what a good question I feel like in the spirit of what this episode is we should improvise the end wow okay cool yeah we should do a sentence

one word each so it'll be final six word sentence okay Seth you start therefore our Little. Spirits. Have grown.

Very nice. Very nice. Really good, really good. Wow. Perfect. And that's the episode title. That actually was very sweet way to wrap up the thing. It's a grown.

Therefore. Thank you, listeners, for listening through to this trip down memory lane. We will see you next month. Happy September. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. Wait, whoa, we shouldn't. What's this, like, the episode's over?