Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Kendyl speaks. I'm Dr. Brian Stewart Kendall, campus president. And today we have another very special live edition of Kendyl Speaks for Campus Creative Day. And with us today, we have two special hosts. First, our own Alexis Portawando, chair of our business department, and Dash Ruiz are here today to lead our Kendall Speaks live.
Good. We're sat live. All right. Hi.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: As the sign says.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: As the sign says, we are now live on air. It was very misleading earlier. Everybody, this is Alexis Portuando, and this is Dash Ruiz. Hi, everybody.
Thank you.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: That's real applause.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: I know. Yeah, there's real applause and the prerecorded applause, the canned applause. And we're gonna be doing a live podcast for you today. Like we said, it's part of the Kendall Speaks podcast.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: So this is my first time on
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Kendall Speaks and it's my third time.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: I know, I know. I'm triple.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: So the reason. Alex, fantastic. I hope that continues the entire time.
The reason Alexis and I were chosen to do this is because we actually used to do improv together.
Yeah.
Alexis joined the Just the Funny Improv
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Company Comedy Troupe in 2016. January of 2016.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: 2016. And that was roughly around the time where I started directing at the.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Exactly. Also. So you were. You were the coach. You were.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: I was the guy leading the things
[00:01:33] Speaker B: and directing all the shows and. Yeah, it was fun. I started in 2016. I got married at the end of 2015, and then I was like, I kind of need a hobby now that I'm, you know, married.
So I picked up improv, or it picked me up. I don't know. And so I started in January 2016, taking classes and then fell in love.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I think you tried out and you joined us. I know. I joined.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: I got in.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Alexis was a natural. Like, she naturally picked up improv. And for those of you who may not know what improv is, I know a lot of you are thinking right now, stand up. Because the Miami Improv and Contradiction. It's a contradiction.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Because it's called the Miami Improv, but they don't actually do any improv.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Right, right, right, right.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: They. They do stand up there.
It's the difference between a team sport and a solo sport. Right. So where improv is more like basketball or baseball or football, stand up is more like tennis or golf. You're just sort of playing with yourself. Right. Like, you're just on stage.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Right.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: But when you do improv, there are a lot of skills that you have to learn in improv.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Absolutely. And that's why I also wanted to join improv is because I had a goal of doing stand up, and I wanted improv as, like, a baseline to help get me, you know, my feet wet and. And be more comfortable on stage and develop those skills to then work towards doing stand up.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Which is fascinating because I've met over the years a lot of people who start doing improv for many different reasons.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: And one of the ones you hear the most is because they're standup or they want to get into stand up and they want to get better at crowd work.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: So they start doing the improv stuff, and then they just sort of fall in love with.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. And that's what happens. All the hearts. So you've had a much longer improv journey than I have had. So when did you start with improv?
[00:03:21] Speaker A: I started improv in roughly 2012.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: So at that point, for some of you who don't know me, at that point, I had been doing professional wrestling for about 10 years.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: And I was sort of at the end of the peak of my professional wrestling career. And now. Now I'm on the downturn. Right. So now I'm no longer the top guy. I'm the guy who makes the younger guys look good in the ring.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: We need those.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Yeah, we need those.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: We need those. Of course you do.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Everybody has their role to play.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: A baton to pass.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Y. Yeah, exactly. You know, somebody passed the baton to me. I passed the baton to somebody else. So because I'm now on the downswing of my professional wrestling career, I attended a live improv show on the very last date of the girl that I was seeing at the time.
And so I saw the show, and they were having auditions the week after.
And I said, oh, I can do this. This is kind of what I do. What's so hard about that? Wrestling.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: What's so hard about that? And I always loved Whose Line Is It Anyway? And it know Whose Line is It Anyway? Yeah.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: All right. Good, good.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So I grew up with Whose Line Is It Anyway? And I said, this is a lock, like, a lot like whose line? I've always wanted to do Whose line. But this is the closest thing. Right. So it was a wonderful way for me to entertain people and for me to flex my entertainment muscles without killing my body. Like I was in professional wrestling.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Where you were literally flexing.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Where I was literally flexing, yes. And I tried out. I got in, and I sort of learned as I went. Never took a single improv class. And Just sort of came naturally.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: And I did that. Yeah. I joined a group called Negative Four Months, which immediately my marketing brain was like, we need to change this, because why would you put the word negative?
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Just to start off telling them right
[00:05:07] Speaker A: thing you're trying to sell. Yeah. Come watch my show. It's negative.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Nobody wants that.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: No one wants that.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: But eventually the guy who ran that troop stole all of our money and left. And the ones of us who were left started our own improv troupe called Society Circus Players. And that troupe has now been going for 11 years.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: It's going strong. Yes. Yes. And so that was a negative exit of the troop. But yeah. So foreshadowing for sure.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Right. I turned that into. Oh, yeah, we turned that into a positive. And so Society Circus Players have been going for 11 years. Eventually, I joined Just the Funny so I could do more improv in my search to become the busiest human being on the planet.
And then, you know, I did Just the Funny. When you were there.
After a little while, I think after Covid, I left Just the Funny theater.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: But I stayed with Society Circus Players.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Yes, you did.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: And one of the things that happened with Society Circus Players was that during COVID we started doing something called SCP Arcade, which is. Well, which was on Instagram Live. We would basically call each other and play games.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: Very cool.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: And it was a way, because during COVID everybody was looking for a way to entertain and work their craft and do their thing. And once we all went back to the office, we could no longer, just in the middle of the day, call each other and play games. Yeah. So we decided, hey, we should make a podcast about this.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So myself and my co owner, the other person who owns Society Circus Players, some of you might know her, her name is Alicia Garcia. She's a professor at the Padrone campus. Shout out to Alicia. Yeah. Thank you. Thank.
She is my co owner of Society Circus Players and now my co host of the podcast. So we've had a weekly podcast that has gone out since 2000.
We're almost at 200 episodes, whatever that
[00:06:56] Speaker B: turned out to Major.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: That's a long time.
We actually make 200 episodes right before the end of the year, and we've been doing it ever since. So that's part of the reason they asked me to come here so we can talk about what goes into making a podcast.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: So what goes into making a podcast?
[00:07:11] Speaker A: We're just gonna get right into it. Great.
Well, one of the things that I would recommend if you're just. If you're trying to think about starting a podcast. Yeah. Have a niche.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Okay. Yes. Because every. We joke that we don't need more podcasts, but we kind of also do need more podcasts.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: So what sets you apart?
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Right. I think what sets you apart from other podcasts is very important. You see a gap that needs to be filled, and you fill that gap. And I think the same is true for a lot of things. Absolutely. You're trying to start a business, you're trying to create a product.
You find a need, you find a gap, you find a hole that needs to be filled, and you become the thing that fills that hole.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Right. So one of the things that we wanted to do is we looked around and we're like, okay, cool. There's a lot of podcasts that are about true crime. There's a lot of podcasts that are about, you know, people being unalived. There's.
There's a lot of podcasts that are.
Pardon me for saying, this is a lot of straight white dudes talking at each other really loudly.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Are sports also involved?
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Sports are also a big thing in podcast. Right?
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: So, you know, my co owner and I were like, well, okay, so you're a lady, and I'm a Hispanic male, and we bring that to the table, number one.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: That comes with you.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that comes with us. But we wanted to do something positive, Right. We wanted to do something where you could.
I want to escape all the negativity and all the, you know, the weird stuff that's in the world.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: We basically wanted to create a podcast that you could just have on in the background. And it's sort of like when you attend a game night, and maybe you're not the big gaming type, but you're like, I want to socialize and be around my friends. Yeah, I want to be there. I want to have a drink. I don't necessarily want to play the game, but I like being around the people in the conversations. And that's what we decided to do with our podcast. So we just pick a game, we play the game for 20 to 30 minutes, and we have fun and we make each other laugh.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. I love games, too.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it's good. I think everybody kind of loves games, right? In a way, it is our natural state. Right. If you go back into the theory of evolution, right? Before we had.
Before we had jobs, before we had to, you know, all we did was eat, survive, and then we painted on cave walls.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Right? That's what we did as the surviving
[00:09:29] Speaker B: part, it blows my mind still. Yeah, that's what I told myself after having a baby. I was like, okay, cave people did this. We can. I can do this. I will survive.
People that lived. So, yeah, they didn't have all the baby frills that. That are there today.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: So, yeah, but they still did it, and we still made it.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: But, yes. And fundamentally, we want to play, like, as we just like we do in kindergarten. It stays with us. There's that part of us that would like recess still.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Recess was a big part of our childhood, and we. And I think that's why adults should and still do have game nights with each other. Right. It's a way to socialize. It's a way to get to know each other. It's a way to get together, which is in a sen what improv is for.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Sure, right?
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Improv is just a series of games that are being played by the people on stage.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. So I think what's unique about improv is that it's to kind of dive into it a little bit, is that there are rules and structures and games to provide parameters and guidelines, but that doesn't write or dictate anything that happens with the magic that happens on stage from it. So you plan improv and you do as you were. When you were a director, you would outline, okay, we're gonna do these XYZ games.
But that told us nothing other than what was gonna be the order of events.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Right, right.
I always like to compare it when I'm directing. I compare it to.
Because you tell people all the time, like, oh, I can't make it that night. I've got improv practice. And how do you practice for improv? Right. You get that all the time. And I like to compare it to, say, a baseball game. Right. Where you can practice the skills necessary to play a baseball game and get better at those skills, but you don't necessarily know what's going to happen. You don't know where the ball is going to be hit. You don't know who's going to be on base. You don't know what's going to happen in the game. You're just practicing the skills so that when those things happen, you get better. Which brings me to how improv can help you in your daily life, both personally, professionally.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Right. Because there are skills that you learn in improv that also help you. And one of the things I do is I teach workshops and I do events where you go and you teach stuff like leadership, you teach stuff like teamwork. You teach stuff like public speaking, you
[00:11:54] Speaker B: teach agreement interviewing skills, interviewing skills, negotiation.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Right. And improv can help with all of that. I always highly recommend to everybody, take it long, least one improv class.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Yes, yes. Just get exposed to improv and not be afraid of improv.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: It's for the introverted at heart too. Extroverted at heart. Whatever your entj, whatever Myers Briggs is, you can do improv.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. Exactly. How do you feel that your experience with improv has helped you in your.
In your day to day?
[00:12:23] Speaker B: So. Yeah, so as you said, I am naturally funny. Yes. So that established.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: If you do say so yourself.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: You said it. So I.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: No, you do. You are naturally funny. You're a reiterated so.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: But there's so much, there's so much that I have inside me and I felt that improv would help not.
It would allow me to practice being in humor and getting that out there without overpowering or out overdoing it. So I actually am more reserved with my improv than I am with my own just self being because I don't want to overpower in a scene all the time.
That's a battle that I have because I could easily go out and just, you know, explode and do everything. But I, I have to tell myself, you know, hold back a little bit.
But then also I know I'm not supposed to hold back, so it's my, you know, personal battle. But. But yeah, so being naturally funny is. Is great. And I know so many people are.
But being improvised ready allows you to use it to be more purposeful.
And as a professional, as the chairperson of Global Business, as a college professor, I use it in my classes, I use it with students I interact with.
I use it to kind of help sometimes to control my facial expressions. When I hear student situations, I'm like, huh?
Yes. And tell me more about that and how it was the instructor's fault entirely and you didn't have any responsibility with that. And so it's only written in the syllabus. It's only as clear as possible. But yes, you are the exception. And so. And it allows me to work with students in a more compassionate and candid way. I feel that students, like anybody, appreciate honesty. And so I'm able to be more direct and transparent with students because I.
I'm speaking to them to answer their questions, but also being appropriate and professional in my position. So it's helped me really do a balance of that and all the time, because you never Know what you're gonna get? One thing I love about being a chair is that every day is different.
While there's routine to things that we do throughout the year and things are cyclical, there's so much surprise factor that we'll have. And so being able to, like, with the sports analogy, like, cradle the catch and really just embrace what is given to you is. Has been instrumental. And I think that you need refreshers in life. So you get to a certain point, and then improv helps kind of, you know, get your gears in a different motion, and it's been very helpful.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: You touched on it a little bit at the beginning there, where you mentioned that it allows you to kind of pull back a little bit. And that's one of the things that we always try to break when we're teaching improv classes or workshops is a lot of people say, oh, you're really funny. You should do improv. Yeah. But when you get on stage, it's not about being funny. You're punching. Yeah. It's about. Because it's a team sport.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Right. You're not throwing the ball up and hitting it yourself.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: You're playing catch with another person.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: So it's very good at helping you decentralize yourself.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Which will come back around to the whole. To the podcast thing. Right.
Because I have a co host. It's not about me, and she knows it's not about her. It's about us and each other and
[00:15:59] Speaker B: what you produce together.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Right. And what you produce together. And that's a beautiful thing about improv.
I usually like to use the metaphor of lego. Right. So I have a LEGO set that's, you know, whatever. Harry Potter Castle. And you have a LEGO set. That's the Simpsons House. Right. Two franchises just to throw them out there.
And you're bringing your pieces and I'm bringing my pieces. And neither one of us are building either one of those two things, but because we're each adding pieces, we're creating this brand new thing.
And to me, that is one of the things that improv has taught me about life and work and just situations in general is that I may be bringing something, but I have to realize that you're also bringing something. What you're bringing may not be the same thing as me, but I can't be negative towards what you're bringing. I can't say, no, I don't want to build your Simpsons house.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: We're not doing that.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Right. I need to say, you bring your piece. It may not Be the Hogwarts house that I'm bringing.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Right. But Simpsons and Hogwarts. I think Universal is going to pick up on this. Universal Studios is listening as we speak.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Well, Disney owns the Simpsons now.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: They took them.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, they do in the Fox thing, when they took over Fox. Right.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: So the Simpsons rights. Not at Universal anymore.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: Yes, it is. Because they still own the licensing. Right. That's a whole nother podcast.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: This is a whole. Nothing we can talk about.
Yeah, there's a whole licensing thing. This is Warner Brothers, which now is owned by Netflix. Eventually, it's all going to be owned by Taco Bell. So it doesn't really matter.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Run for the border.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: But yes, one of the. One of the beautiful things about improv and podcasting, all this stuff is. Yes. It's having that person that you're playing off of and you're communicating with.
Also other things that go into a podcast, if going back on the topic.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Right. It's not just Mike.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Right. It's not just mics.
And the way I started was I purchased the cheapest mics I could find and the cheapest stands you could find. And if you go back and listen, because what's beautiful about this is that we're at episode 197 or whatever, and if you go back and listen to episodes one through 10, you can sort of hear the.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: In the background. Right.
Because I was recording directly to a phone and it was cheap mics or whatever. But if you mainline our podcast, like, you just binge listen to them all the way through.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: We're all going to.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: You just hear. And you're all gonna listen to it. Right. It's called Play Date with Dash and Ally. You can find it on your favorite podcast provider. And if you listen to it all the way through, you can hear the quality get progressively better.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: They got a Patreon.
Yeah.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: I do a seasonal gig every year during the holidays, which I'm currently doing right now.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: With the trees.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: With the trees. Yeah. I'm at the Night Garden. I do some acting for the Night Garden. I won't tell you what it is because I want you to be surprised when you go to the Night Garden and you. Huh? That sounds like Dash.
Yeah. Surprise. But when you go there and you. So I do that seasonal gig, and that's just sort of like a little extra money over the holidays. And with that, I will. I bought new mic stands. So now you don't hear the.
On the table. Right. Because it's a newer, nicer mic stand with Stabilizers. And then I bought new microphones so you don't hear the hiss. I bought more professional cables. So one of the things that I would recommend to people, if you're thinking about starting a podcast, is just start the podcast.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: Just start.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Just start? Yeah, just start. Like, oh, I don't. I don't. You don't need thousands of dollars for all this fancy equipment. You can just start, right? Have your niche, number one, bring to the world something that isn't already there. And that's what you're. That's what you're bringing to the world you're creating. You're bringing something to life that wasn't there before, which is one of the reasons I love creativity to begin with.
It's just that is this didn't exist before and now it exists, and it's a beautiful thing.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Yes. And with improv, that will be the only time it exists.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Every time.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Yes. That's one of the greatest things about improv.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: It's not happening again.
[00:19:57] Speaker A: It's not happening. It's like a sunrise or a sunset. It just. It happens this once. It never existed before, it will never exist again.
And it's because it only exists in that room with the people who are there. And you can record it, but it's not the same. Yeah.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: So you had two fingers, and I
[00:20:14] Speaker A: think, right, I had two fingers. I was going to have a third.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: And the third is just get whatever equipment.
Podcasting equipment is so easy to get right now. Right. You can. You can easily buy a kit that has a mixer and two mics and two stands, and that'll just get you started.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: And then little by little, you can just increase and get the things you
[00:20:32] Speaker B: need, or look up failing podcasts and then buy their equipment off of them and be like, haha, sorry it didn't work out for you. But how about.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: There's a. Oh, there's tons of websites where you can get used equipment.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: There's one.
I forgot what the name of it was now, but there is one where the government will sell things that they no longer use. And sometimes it's really good stuff. Right. Like you can go on there because, for example, a fire department in North Carolina will, hey, let's start a podcast. And then they'll start it and they'll do like 20 episodes or whatever. They paid for it on a grant.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: And then, okay, cool, we're done. Now let's sell this equipment and they put it on this government website.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: And you can get all this super professional podcast equipment for.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Look at this. Look it up. It's like government overstock or something like that. And you can get all tons of stuff. Like you can get shelves, you can
[00:21:23] Speaker B: get old fireman jackets, fax machines, in case you were ever looking to get somewhere slowly.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
If you wanted to send an email, but somehow worse. Fax machine. Yeah.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: So I know standup, we spoke about stand up, but that's really where my heart also kind of fell. Just my love for standup.
But. And the differences we talked about team sport, individual sport, et cetera. I also think that with standup, the improv component is helpful because you have to read the room. So yes, there's crowd work, but also if I. Am I talking about, you know, my children, but it's a bunch of single people in the crowd that are 20 and they, they're not there yet, or maybe they will be tonight, but then I have to adjust my, my routine to meet where they're at. So your material can't just be, you know, flat. You have to really, you know, work with that. And, and standup is you do have written material and jokes kind of thing. And, or if you do a story approach or however you're, if you're, you know, one liner person or deadpan person, whatever it is you have to do, you have to write that and improv again, there's no writing.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: No, there's no writing. There's nothing pre written, pre prepared or pre planned. Everything is done on the spot.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Del Close, who is one of the grandfathers of improv, used to say that improv is chaos. Right. Because you can get, you could literally go out there and get the exact same suggestion every single night for every single game. And you do always be different. And you do, you do. I can't. If I had a dollar for every time somebody gave me pineapple as a suggestion.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: I would never have to work or land where again. Yeah, I could just buy really good professional podcasting equipment and retire.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: It's or lamp. Right. We get, we get pineapple, we get lamp, we get screwdriver, and then some other words that I'm not going to say because I'd like my job and
[00:23:24] Speaker B: I want to keep it because it's not even 10:00am yeah, right, exactly.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: But you always get the same suggestions, but every single time it'll be a completely different scene because it's just sort of this idea leads to this idea and we get into the concept of
[00:23:36] Speaker B: yes and yes and tell us more About. Yes and Right.
[00:23:39] Speaker A: For those of you who have never done an improv class, or those of you who are not really truly familiar with improv, there's a concept of yes, and. Which just means that you take the idea that is given to you, you accept it, and you add to it. There's more to it. It's more. It's more truly about being honest to the scene and what's happening.
But it is very opening. Right. Because if somebody just says to you, here, I brought you some chocolates, and you go, oh, great, that ends. That ends the scene.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Grand scene. Right.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: And scene. But if you say, oh, here, I brought you some chocolates, and you go, and it's the ones you know I like. Right. I have just accepted your idea of the chocolates, and I've added the idea that it's the ones I like.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: It is.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: And then you would take that idea and add on top of that.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Should we do a yes and for them?
[00:24:25] Speaker A: Oh, sure, let's do a yes and
[00:24:26] Speaker B: let's get a suggestion.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: Yeah, let's get a suggestion from the audience, please. If you can give me a random object that you would find in the junk drawer of your kitchen. Pineapple. A pineapple.
A rubber band. A rubber band. Great. Exactly. So maybe I would start off a scene by saying something like, these things are never in the size that I need them in.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Yes. And. And they're always bunched together.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Yes. And remember when they used to come in balls.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Yes. And playing with them was kind of a thing.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Yes. And it always takes me back to my childhood.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: Yes. And we're not going there again.
Childhood. No, We've talked about this.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: Yes. And I think we should talk about it more.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Yes. And I really think that when you were watching spongebob excessively, it got to you
[00:25:29] Speaker A: and seen. Great. Yeah. That's awesome. So see how we got from the rubber bands to the spongebob? It was the pineapple. We ended up going back to the pineapple eventually.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: That was for you.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that was for you.
That's the idea of. Yes, and Right. Where we just continuously agree with each other and move forward. And that's. Yeah, that's one of the main concepts of it. And that's one of the things that has helped us in our personal and professional lives.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
So is there a game that we could do and. And maybe invite a friend?
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's exactly it. I was hoping that we're.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: I think we can take another.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: And let's. For the next couple minutes, I think we should Give somebody the experience.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: We have this mic. It's not just for looks.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Yeah. It's. It's not just for stage presence.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Right there in the back, I see
[00:26:11] Speaker A: somebody raising their hand.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: I saw a reluctant hand. Come on down.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: Come on. Come on down.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: You're the next contestant.
The first and last contestant.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: All right. Yeah. It's a long walk coming through.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: A big.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: A big crowd. The.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: The canned applause being mixed in with the real applause is really throwing me. I'm like, there are a lot of people here. There's really not. Hey, what's your name?
[00:26:35] Speaker B: My name is Divya.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Divya.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Divya.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Yay.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: Hi, Divya. What do you do here at mdc? I major in cyber security, so I'm always. Almost done. Are you a student?
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: That's so cute.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: Welcome. I'm a cyber security pro.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Yeah. What got you into cyber security?
[00:26:51] Speaker B: I didn't want to do medical, so let's go to the tech side. Those were the only two options, right?
[00:26:55] Speaker A: It was medical or tech, and that's the only way.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: I mean, tech seemed more, you know, mysterious. I want to. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Which one? I started out in computer science, and then I was like, I cannot pass this math class. So I decided, hey, TV broadcast. Yeah, that's what I'm doing, because there's no math requirement. But if you are good at math, then do the thing.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Yes. No, I'm gonna pretend. Okay, well, then. Perfect.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Yeah, perfect. This is what you're gonna. You're gonna. Yes. And being good at math.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: So are we gonna. So you want to do another. Yes. And. Or is there a different thing we could do?
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Let's see. You know what's a good game to play? Play with somebody when you're just starting out at improv. And we're. We're. Yes. Ending it.
Let's do a one word at a time story.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: All right.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: I feel like it's a really fun way. Have you ever done improv before?
[00:27:41] Speaker B: No.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Okay, so Div has never done improv before.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Beautiful.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: This is the way it's going to work. We're going to start off by telling a story.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Right. And we're going to do it one word at a time. And it always starts with once upon a time. And it will end with the end when we feel like it's. It's over.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: Right. And you're smiling because you already know how this goes.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: So it's funny.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Don't be afraid. Yeah. Don't be afraid to end Ascendance. Don't be afraid to add characters. Give them names.
And we're just going to go from there. So can we get a mythological creature from this. Not from this table with the pineapples. From over there in the back. The people who didn't want to move to the front when I asked you to. Yes.
Can I get a suggestion of a mythological creature, a fairy, and from where. Where is the fairy from? That is not a fictional place. A real place.
Hiali. I knew deep in my heart of hearts, I knew we were gonna get Hialeah.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Classic Hialeah.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: It's one of those things. If I could have written it down, put it in an envelope, sealed it, and been like, I would have been the greatest magic trick of all time.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: Right. They always do that. Right.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Okay, so, Divya, here's what we're. So we're gonna start. Ready? We're in. It's a story about fairies from Hialeah. We're gonna do it one word at a time.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: Once upon a time.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: One more time.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: There was a fairy who would run away from Hialeah.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: As you should.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Suddenly, there was no way to help her sister.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: No way to help her sister. So she ran away.
Her sister was left behind. There's a sister fairy.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: Then Maquinda suddenly advanced upon her elbows.
Just go with it. And she knelt and she cried and ran away.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: Typhonated.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: We'll allow it.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
To the club.
Ooh.
Club Med. Okay, so she's retired. Okay.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: Elderly sister.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: So here's where we are. Here's where we are. Maquinda ran away from Hialeah. Couldn't help her sister.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: No.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: But went to club medicine.
Maquinda sat.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: I can't say the word solo. Ly. Like solo. Like alone. Alone.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Okay. So she.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Maquinda, sat alone in her balcony, looking through a.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Looking.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: Looking through.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: Looking through a looking through window.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: Crying.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: Crying because she couldn't help her sister.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: I know.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: All right, let's wrap this up here.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: Then.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Maquinda gazed deeply into her journal, where
[00:31:06] Speaker B: she wrote the sad conclusion to her stay.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: The end. Thank you. Bravo.
That was good. Divya.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Great job. Great.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: That's wonderful. And that's really. That's all that improv is.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: It's just one.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Like, she provides a thing. I provide a thing. You provide a thing. And then. And together we made a truly confusing story. Yeah. Thank you.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: We just saved you thousands of dollars in. In lessons.
You're welcome.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: Thank you so much. Yeah. They know. Thank you for being here. Thank you for volunteering. I appreciate you.
Round of applause for Divi, everybody. Thank you for helping us.
And if for all of your network security needs, Divya will be available in
[00:31:51] Speaker B: shortly when she one to two years, when she graduates.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
That's awesome. So let's wrap this up. Alexis, it's been an absolute pleasure.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: It's been my pleasure. Yes. Dash, Always great to see you. Always great to work with you.
Great energy and great fun.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Always the same. And. And again, if you ever want to catch any of the stuff we're doing. Are you still doing any improv?
[00:32:10] Speaker B: No, because I. I had children, and so, like, the only time to do improv is. Is in the evening, and it's like, I have to see the kids. It's like, otherwise, they just ruin everything. Yes, I know. So. And once they can, like, you know,
[00:32:25] Speaker A: you know, what's going to happen is they're going to get old enough to hear the stories about when you used to do improv, and they're going to be like, mommy, I.
I want to see you do improv. And that was more Elmo than it was a child, but it was a
[00:32:38] Speaker B: merger of my son and daughter.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: And. Yeah, so. And then you're like, you know what? I want to get back into improv just so my kids can watch me do improv.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Well, I totally do improv with my kids.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: I'm like, a hit.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Yes. Yes.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: So you do still do improv?
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Well, just homegrown.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Just. You don't get paid for it, so it's almost exactly like you're back doing it.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: Because once I, like. Like I'm an animal or creature or something or doing a voice, then they want more of it, and they direct me to do, like, things that are just, like, too extreme.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: So, yeah.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a little savage.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: I mean. Yeah. And if you want to catch any of the stuff that I do, it's Society circus players. You can follow us on our website, you can follow us on any of our social medias. If you want to listen to the podcast, it's playdate with Dash and Allie on your favorite podcast provider.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: And if you want to see my homegrown improv, any night from 6, 8pm at my house.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Because then the kids go to sleep
[00:33:32] Speaker B: at 8pm and then I can go to sleep.
[00:33:36] Speaker A: All right, so thank you, everybody. We truly appreciate you having us here. Truly appreciate you listening.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: Thank you, everyone.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Thank you so much.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Have a great day.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: Yes. Enjoy Creatives Day. Cheers.
Thank you for joining us today on Kindle. Speaks live. We want to thank our two guest hosts today, Alexis and Dash. And goodbye for now.
