Last Looks: Champagne & Bullets [Jason Edition] w/ Suzi Barrett

Summary

How Did This Get Made? – Last Looks: Champagne & Bullets [Jason Edition] w/ Suzi Barrett

Release Date: August 29, 2025
Hosts: Jason Mantzoukas (solo host), Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael
Special Guest: Suzi Barrett
Movie Discussed: Champagne & Bullets

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

This solo "Last Looks" episode is presented by Jason Mantzoukas (with Paul and June away), delivering a wild, stream-of-consciousness recap and response to listener feedback on the movie Champagne & Bullets. The episode includes listener corrections and omissions, hilarious voicemails, exclusive deleted content from their Champagne & Bullets live show, and a deep-dive interview with improv legend and podcaster Suzi Barrett about her hit podcast Yes, Also. The show ends with the reveal of next week’s movie and lots of the trademark unhinged HDTGM energy.

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KEY SECTIONS & CONTENT

Introduction & Housekeeping [01:31–05:25]

• Jason is flying solo: "What's up, jerks? It's Jason... Paul is out of town. I got a panicked phone call from Producer Scott... We need to record our Last Looks asap."
• Light ribbing of Discord users: introducing new traditions like user-submitted movie taglines, theme songs, etc.
• Reminder to submit song snippets and taglines via the Discord (discord.gg/hdtgm) or at hdtgm.com.
• Upcoming live How Did This Get Made? shows announced for L.A. at Largo and Dino Improv group; heartfelt shout-out to beloved producer Avril (cancer update and how fans can support her).

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Corrections & Omissions [07:55–16:32]

Theme: Listener Corrections and Omissions (New jingle praise: “This has got a Nashville twang to it. Boy, Nashville. Still? How have we never played Nashville?”)

Fan Submissions and Jason’s Commentary

• [09:05] Joe Tangelo’s Car Scene Correction:

  • Noting a clumsy, left-in driving scene: “The car is just rolling backwards... almost 8 to 10ft backwards, which is pretty hilarious.”
  • Crowd-sourced clarification: Suzuki Sidekick (“a running joke in the Babes in Toyland episode”).

• [10:23] Dave’s Director’s Commentary Bombshell:

  • “In John’s director’s commentary, he says the striptease in his bar arcade was shot as a wet T-shirt contest… But he didn’t use any of that because, ‘that was too much. I didn’t want to do anything gratuitous with the sensuality.’”
  • Jason: “Wild stuff… A wet T-shirt contest would seem a lot less upsetting than some of the stuff actually in the movie.”

• [11:46] Pam on Champagne Usage:

  • “I am surprised that no one brought up how often these people are drinking champagne. Who drinks it that often?”
  • Jason: “We all do, Pam. You’re the only one not drinking champagne... I got up this morning and made a French press of champagne.”

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Listener Voicemails [16:32–22:56]

[16:43] John, Portland, OR – Why So Much Champagne?

• Theory: The main character’s limo-driving job provides the endless bubbly.
• Jason’s Take: “I think the movie just wants to suggest these people are just casually drinking champagne all the time... They’re living that champagne and bullets lifestyle.”

[18:14] Liz, Wisconsin – Cops in Their 50s?

• Shares her dad’s real-life story about passing the Denver PD test at 53 (had a heart attack; is fine now).
• Jason: “Wow, what a roller coaster... A real victory for me, but also now I’m terrified of a heart attack.”

[20:11] Brad, Nashville – The Film’s Music Hubris

• Brings up that John De Hart sings his own sex-scene backing track in the film.
• Jason: “I think this movie is top to bottom hubris... His singing soundtracks his own sex scenes... is absolutely par for the course.”

[22:33] Scott, Massachusetts – Physician Joke Correction

• Pedantic clarification: The joke was a “physician joke,” not “position joke.”
• Jason (roasting): “Scott from Massachusetts, you absolute piece of shit... I don’t need to be corrected on physician/position. Pointless!”

[23:24] Winner!

• [23:53] Liz from Wisconsin wins the week’s “best correction” for her police-exam story.
• Jason: “For you and your dad, a man in his 50s succeeding wildly at the police exam. I’m wishing you and your dad well...”
• Plays a listener’s celebratory winning song.

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Bonus: Deleted Live Show Clip [28:01–28:21]

• Audience asks if Champagne & Bullets could be the origin of “Nundercover” (a classic HDTGM in-joke/pitch).
• Susie Barrett: “Could this be the prequel to Nundercover?”
• Jason (deadpan): “Absolutely not. He’s a lunatic. I don’t want Huck anywhere near my movie!”

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Next Week’s Matinee Preview [32:07–35:42]

• Matinee episode: classic coverage of Hudson Hawk (1991).

• Callback to “Nundercover” as a recurring idea, and hosts’ collective memory gaps: “A lot of times after episodes, we are effectively hit with the Men in Black machine.”

• Next matinee will be episode 25: Catwoman (2011).

• Jason: “Boy, what an absolute banger of a movie... rewatching all the Nolan Batmans... absolute blast.”

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FEATURE INTERVIEW: Suzi Barrett on Improv, Podcasting & Comedy History [35:42–73:34]

Suzi’s Podcast Yes, Also: Origins and Impact

• Jason and Paul heap massive praise on Suzi’s archival podcast about improv:
  • Jason: “It is undeniably an archive of this art form that simply does not exist… It is incredible.” [36:40]
  • Paul: “...It’s like the tip of a very big iceberg... This amorphous, organic thing..."

Key Discussion Points:

• Yes, Also as Oral History: Capturing multiple perspectives on improv’s development (“like every tree in this forest... ask each tree what it’s like…” [40:43])

• Process vs. Mythologizing: Jason emphasizes obsession with talking about how people do improv, not just war stories.

• Different Generations of Improv:

  • Evolution from UCB “punk rock” style, movie-form editing, to today’s streamlined approach.
  • Notable quote: “Besser’s importance cannot be underestimated… They are driven to New York to teach us their version… their punk rock improv. Fast, short songs.” [56:01]

• Teaching Styles and Improv Philosophy:

  • Suzi: Importance of diverse teaching approaches and hearing from people with many improv backgrounds (Groundlings, IO, UCB, etc.).
  • Jason and Paul reminisce about formative teachers (esp. Armando Diaz), the confusion of contradictory approaches, and the power of a great teacher to “synthesize everybody’s stuff.” [58:27]
  • Paul: “A great teacher is basically a translator.” [58:58]
  • Suzi: “When we came to LA... we needed to back up a handful of steps for the audience to catch up with where we were in New York.”

• Rapid Change in Audiences:

  • LA audiences “needed time to catch up” to the high-speed UCB/NYC style.
  • Today’s mass popularity and the role of podcasts and celebrity improv tours (“podcasts have... seeded the terrain a little bit” [71:56]).

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Game of the Scene Debate:

  • Jason: “I think you’ve illustrated the exact word people feel most away about... It’s just a term, but generationally, the younger generation grew up in a prison of the game.” [43:42]
  • Paul: “There is such a thing as a good improviser who is not a funny person... They can do funny scenes... But it’s not the same inroad.” [47:02]

• On Tech and Accessibility:

  • Suzi praises ability now for anyone, anywhere, to watch top improv for “a couple of bucks” via livestreams, and for the democratizing power of cheap podcast-based “masterclasses.” [63:59]

• On Experimentation & Continual Growth:

  • Jason: “Even 25 years in, for those of us who are still invested in shows, there’s so much further to go.” [65:08]
  • Suzi: “Looking at it differently... setting little goals for myself for fun... analyzing the moves and trying to work against certain instincts.”

• Best Starting Points for Yes, Also Listeners:

  • Suzi: “If you want more context and overview of long form, go to Craig Kakowski, Brian Stack, both of you guys (Jason, Paul)... For practical improv advice, Mike McClendon, Tao Yang.” [60:04]

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Why Improv is Exploding on the Road [68:07–71:56]

• Paul: Improv is becoming as tour-able as stand-up because podcasts and TV clout draw crowds who may not even know improv, yet are primed to enjoy it.
• Suzi: “I started asking, do people know what improv is? And it was resoundingly no... so I started letting them in... and shows went great from go.”
• Jason: “Comedy podcasts have educated a generation to receive, if not improv, at least a style of comedy... enough to get them to this show.”

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Outro & Next Movie Announcement [73:37–76:01]

• Next Week’s Movie: War of the Worlds (starring Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, et al.)
• Jason: “This was nuts... Rotten Tomatoes rates it at 2%... The cheese factor is perfectly self-aware.”
• Tips for finding HDTGM movies for free, via library streaming services like Kanopy, Hoopla, or Libby.
• Standard appeals for reviews, follows, and support for the team.

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MEMORABLE QUOTES

“We’re living that champagne and bullets lifestyle.”
—Jason Mantzoukas [17:29]

“...top to bottom hubris, and it is all that. His singing soundtracks his own sex scenes. I think is, is absolutely par for the course.”
—Jason Mantzoukas on Champagne & Bullets [21:12]

“It is undeniably an archive of this art form that does not exist. Like, there are books about improv, of course, but there is nothing that approaches this scale and scope...”
—Jason on Suzi Barrett’s Yes, Also [36:40]

“There are professors that can take the fun...there’s a joy right in what we do. And you can watch people get burnt out because it does feel like this elusive thing, but it’s not mathematics.”
—Suzi Barrett [45:39]

“We spent our time stripping out the stuff they put in. So to see the thing grow and ebb and flow as to how everybody does it is all inside of your show.”
—Jason Mantzoukas [37:25]

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IMPORTANT TIMESTAMPS

• [01:31] Jason’s solo intro and Discord/housekeeping
• [07:55] Corrections & Omissions theme and entries
• [16:32] Listener voicemails (champagne, police exams, soundtrack hubris, etc.)
• [23:53] Winner Announcement (Liz from Wisconsin)
• [28:01] Live show deleted clip (Nundercover/Narrative callback)
• [32:07] Matinee preview/talk of Catwoman episode
• [35:42–73:34] Suzi Barrett Interview (deep dive on improv, podcasting, accessibility, process)
• [73:37] Next week’s movie reveal

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EPISODE TONE & STYLE

• Irreverent, wildly humorous, yet deeply nerdy and affectionate about improv and bad movies.
• Jason delivers roasting asides to listeners, producers, and guests.
• The interview steers into sincere and insightful territory talking improv/art, punctuated by HDTGM in-jokes.

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USEFUL LINKS

• Submit to HDTGM
• HDTGM Discord
• Yes, Also Podcast
• Follow @HDTGM on X (Twitter)

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WHO SHOULD LISTEN?

• Fans of How Did This Get Made?, comedy podcast die-hards, improv nerds, and anyone interested in the history and craft of improv comedy.

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End summary. For a full dose of the unfiltered HDTGM experience, listen to the episode in its entirety—preferably with a glass of (French press) champagne in hand.

Transcript

[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Paul Scheer]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Susie Barrett]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right. What's up, jerks? It's Jason. Paul is out of town. I got a panicked. A panicked phone call from producer Scott and he said you gotta get on the WI fi. You gotta get on the computer right now. We need to record our last looks asap. So here we go. We're doing it. It's a Jason episode of Last Looks. We're disconnecting the discord. These fucking idiots convinced me to do one of these again. Hit the theme song. What's up, trucks? How we do tonight? Did you watch the flick? The time is right, Jason, June and.

[Paul Scheer]

Paul get into it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Are you deep sanity? Are you deep breath? Did you take some notes? Did you scratch your head? Did you take all your willpower to think through it? Did you ask yourself all the people yelling geost, don't say. How did this get made? How did this get made? State the math. The farmer's market. Insane. How did this get paid? How did this get made the dog John chasing a junior Gonna come in and rock the room so singing clap your hands say how did this get made? Welcome to how did this get made? Last looks, where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on. Oh, boy. The movie we covered at the end of tour called Champagne and Bullets. Yikes. A full on Yikes movie. A movie that Discord user. We're disconnecting the discord. Dov, Dov thinks should have had the tagline. And then this is all in quotes and italics, which leads me to believe that these are Dov's words. Here's a quarter. Buy yourself a writer, director, actor, singer, producer, unquote. That's Dove's tagline for this movie. We do taglines now? You guys write taglines for the movies now? That's part of what we do. Thank you, Dove, for the movie tagline. And huge shout out to Casey Alexander for that opening theme song, which was a banger. You know what? Every once in a while, I get to come on here and do one of these, and I'm never not blown away by people's musical abilities and that they put those abilities in the service of this absolutely absurd podcast. Remember, if you have a movie tagline that you want to submit to us, you can do it on our Discord. That's the how they do it. I feel like there's gotta be a better way to do it. Don't we have a landline they can leave a message on? Okay, you can go to our Discord at. Hold on. Now I'm having to lean forward to look at the [e-mail] hdtgm. So it's discord. Gilmoregirlshowdidthisgetme. And if you have a Last looks episode theme song, just like Casey Alexander did just moments ago, go to hdtgm.com and click Submit a song button at the end of the homepage. Or not the end of the homepage. There is no end of the homepage, is there? Just keeps scrolling is my guess. But there is a submit a song button on the homepage. Just try and keep them short, guys. 15, 20 seconds for those songs. That's what works best. Much like any second opinion theme song or any other theme song, they go on too long. They always go on too long. So chop them up, guys. We know you love your art, as do we ours, but chop it up. Okay? Coming up on today's episode, we're going to be hearing all of your corrections and omissions on Champagne and Bullets. And I will be playing an exclusive. Exclusive. An exclusive deleted scene from the episode. Well, it's not a deleted scene from the episode. It's probably a delete. I mean, we didn't record any scenes, but. But you're. I'm guessing what this means is there will be exclusive content stuff that was cut out of the EP and we're putting it back in. Why? Probably because it's hilarious. Plus, for all of you improv nerds, and honestly, everybody else, Paul and I have a great guest. We have Susie Barrett, the podcaster behind the fantastic improv podcast. Yes. Also, Paul and I have been a guest on the on the show before. We both love it. We had a great talk with Susie Barrett, who is just a terrific improviser, a teacher, a great podcast host, great conversationalist. We had a great chat and as always, at the end of the show, I will reveal, like a magician, the movie for next week's episode. But for now, I'll just tease that it's a movie. We've been getting a lot of requests to cover, so we did. Okay, before we get to the action, a little bit of housekeeping we have live. How did this get made? Dates on the calendar. Los Angeles, Largo. October 22nd and 23rd. There are still a few tickets left. Get on there, get them up, snatch them up, get on a plane, fly over here, wait in line, get a ticket, go get a coffee, come back, get back in line, walk into the venue, sit in your seat and shit your pants from laughing. October 22nd and 23rd at Largo. Also at Largo Dinosaur Improv, the improv group that Paul and I are a part of. September 19th. September 19th at Largo Dinosaur Improv Tickets. If you want to check it out, go on the website, get tickets. Lastly, a lot of people know that our amazing movie picking producer Avril is still fighting cancer and can always use some more love from you guys. You can email her a message at andrewviebitches XYZ or you can mail her something directly at Avrilhalli. That's H A L L E Y PO Box 641, Agora Hills. A G O U R A California, 91376. I know a lot of you have already reached out and it's been wonderful, so please keep it going. Okay, let's get into it. Last week we talked at length about champagne and bullets. Wow. This movie was nuts. Sure, we might have missed a few things. There was quite a bit to cover, as I remember in this movie. Now, not to pull the curtain back too much but we are some months from when we recorded this. So I have almost completely wiped this movie clean from my mind, shaken the Etch A Sketch of my head. But here is your chance to set us straight. It's time for corrections and omissions Corrections and omissions we ain't rocket science A swing and a miss now somebody's pissed we took a crack but it weren't a fact now the fans are gonna yell at us Corrections and omissions wow. Absolutely stunning. Great. That song came to us from Damon Gentry. Great work. Damon Gentry. That was terrific. I love it. I love it. You know what? The variety. Earlier we heard a song like a rock and roller. This has got a Nashville twang to it. Boy, Nashville. Still? How have we never played Nashville? I don't understand it. Why haven't I set foot on the Ryman stage? That's what I want to know. Okay. Boy, I see it written in the script. I don't want to say these words out loud, but. But here we go. Let's go to the discord. Joe Tangelo writes. The best scene that wasn't mentioned was when they leave Cindy's parents house. Rick is driving that Geo Tracker looking car and has a lot of trouble getting it into first gear before finally peeling out. I love how all the clumsy driving was left in. Okay, so. So I've. We've just watched the scene that Joe Tangelo is referencing and Joe, it's even crazier because yes, you're correct, he is having quite a bit of trouble getting the. I believe Suzuki Samurai is maybe what it is. It's one of the little Suzuki little Jeep type things that the top came off of. Much like a Jeep Wrangler or something like that. Oh, it's a Suzuki Sidekick, says Rert Grimpert. I see. It's been pointed out to me that later in the script, Rert Grimpert chimes in to add, I think the car is a Suzuki Sidekick, which made me laugh because that car was a running joke in the Babes in Toyland episode. Okay, yes. So you're probably right. It's either a Suzuki Sidekick or a Samurai. I can't remember which. Both incredibly perfect 80s era cars. What's incredible, Joe Tangelo is that while he is struggling to get it into gear, the car is just rolling backwards. The car rolls, I'm going to say, almost 8 to 10ft backwards, which is pretty hilarious. And it appears to also have a legitimate California license plate on the. On it with like real, real numbers. Which also made me Laugh. Okay. And thank you, Rupert Grimpert, for chiming in on that. Okay, Dave writes in John's director's commentary. Oh, Dave, please tell me you didn't listen to John's director's commentary. Guys, guys, please. Claw back some part of your life, please. You got. You don't have to give it all away. In John's director's commentary, he says the striptease in his bar arcade was shot as a wet T shirt contest with 10 women. But he didn't end up using any of that footage because, quote, that was too much. I didn't want to do anything gratuitous with the sensuality. Unquote. Okay, okay, okay, I take it back, Dave. Thank you for listening to the director's commentary. Thank you for. For tossing hours of your life away in service of this podcast. Wild Stuff. That's crazy. And I mean, like, part of me wishes I'd seen that footage instead of some of the footage I was forced to watch in this movie. It seems like, frankly, maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. But a wet T shirt contest at a bar would seem to me to be a lot less upsetting than some of the stuff that was included in this movie. Vis a vis. Gratuitous sensuality. Okay, Pam writes, I am surprised that no one brought up how often these people are drinking champagne. Who drinks it that often? We all do, Pam. You're the only one. You're the only one out there not drinking champagne. Everybody's drinking. I'm drinking champagne right now. I got up this morning and I made a French press of champagne, and boy, is it tasty. Delicious. Producer Scott drinking his champagne right now. Look at him putting it up to his lips. All right, Pam, I've got an answer for you in the form of another listener who called in with their own theory on. On what's up with all the champagne in the movie. And we're gonna find out what that theory is and answer some phone calls after a quick break. So if you don't mind, stick the fuck around.

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

And we're back. Let's go to the phones and hear another theory about all the champagne in the movie Champagne and Bullets. John from Portland. Let's hear it.

[Listener Callers]

Hey, Paul. This is John from Portland, Oregon. I saw the show Champagne and Bullets with my friends for my birthday. It was a great show. I didn't get to ask my question there, so I wanted to ask it now. Do you think the reason that he has so much champagne throughout the film is due to the fact that he is a limo driver and he's just pilfering the extra champagne throughout the. Throughout his course of work? And is that how he's able to keep all those. His friends of his drinking champagne throughout? It just came to my mind and was thinking about that during the show. But, yeah, great show. Love y'. All. And yeah, very excited. Cheers.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, so I guess what John is suggesting is because the character is a limo driver, he is pilfering the champagne from the. The limo company or something like that, perhaps. I don't know. I think the movie just wants to suggest that. That these people are just casually drinking champagne all the time. I don't think it's interested in interrogating how they got it. They're just living that champagne and bullets lifestyle. And for us to kind of poke around as to how. I don't think that's what the movie's asking. I think the movie's asking us to just sit back and enjoy the absolute insanity that is champagne and bullets. Okay, up next is Liz from Wisconsin.

[Listener Callers]

Hey, Paul. It's Liz from Wisconsin. I was just listening to the most recent episode about champagne and bullets, etc. And thought I'd remark on the question of people testing to become police officers in their 50s. As Jason said, it absolutely is possible. My dad tested for Denver PD when he was 53 and not only passed, but did well, which is unusual and noteworthy, perhaps, but he did it, so there you go. He did end up having a heart attack later that year and not getting to go and do it, which is less good for my point. My dad is fine now. He's not a cop. But I just thought I'd offer that anecdote as proof that, you know, hey, yeah, it's absolutely possible. Sure. Okay. So at least it's been done once. Okay, thanks guys. Bye.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow, what a roller coaster from Liz from Wisconsin. I mean, I loved, I loved hearing, I loved hearing about your dad not only taking the police test but, but, but acing it, but thriving inside of the test, but devastated to hear that he had a heart attack at 53 or 54. So young that kept him out of the job. Terrifying. So a real victory for, in one sense, for me in terms of yes, I was right, someone my age could take and pass the, the police exam. But then also, Liz from Wisconsin, you have now infected me with the idea that I am maybe but a very short period of time away from a heart attack as I am somehow your dad's age, which is also upsetting to me. Or maybe I was your dad's age at that time, which makes more sense. But now I'm knocking on wood here because now I've made myself nervous. But great call from Liz from Wisconsin. Thank you for sharing that. Next up, Brad from Nashville.

[Listener Callers]

Hey, Paul. You all talked a little bit about the music, but I don't think you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Really.

[Listener Callers]

Discussed the fact that John de Hart is the one singing the songs that back his own love scene. And he is a terrible singer. He is entirely off key and it is very obviously his voice that comes in as he is in the bathtub with the playmate. And it really brought up like Joe Bluth vibes from when Job had a mixtape of his own thing to play during love sessions. Anyway, I just wanted to touch on the absolute arrogance of John Hart in singing the backing for his own love making. Thanks. Bye.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, you know what, Brad from Nashville, you know, it's not Paul, it's Jason. It's everybody has addressed their thing to Paul and it's been me the whole whole time. You didn't know. I, I, I can understand that. But first and foremost, to everybody who I've answered, how dare you, how dare you not respect me as the host of this episode? Even though you couldn't have known. That being said. Yeah. No, I mean like I think this movie is top to bottom hubris and it is all that. His singing soundtracks, his own sex scenes. I think is, is absolutely par for the course. I remember, I think Nick Cannon once said on the Howard Stern show that Mariah Carey also liked to listen to her own music during their lovemaking sessions. I believe that is true. And I think he also mentioned that I believe she would have restaurants play a playlist of her songs when she ate there. Something like that. That might be apocryphal. Or maybe misattributed, but I'm pretty sure that's what I heard. That's that. Oh, and we have one last call, and it is from Scott from Massachusetts. Oh, Massachusetts. It doesn't say where in Massachusetts. So this Scott's either fucking cool as hell or an absolute piece of shit. So this better be good, Scott, let's see what you got.

[Listener Callers]

Hey, Paul. Scott from Massachusetts calling. One thing about the joke sequence from Champagne and Bullets, Jason refers to it as a. Having the main character say it was a position joke. I think he introduced it as a physician joke. That's all. Have a great day. Thank you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay. All right, you know what? So we have a little bit of clarity. Scott is an asshole from Massachusetts, so I don't know what town he's from. Probably the South Shore. My guess is Scott is from the South Shore here. Scott, why don't you. Scott. Producer Scott, why don't you play. Why don't you stop drinking champagne? And why don't you play the clip that this fucking asshole's talking about? Do you have any new jokes for you? You know, I always got a new joke for you, Ben. So I got a physician joke for you. This very attractive young lady goes to the doctor for a checkup. The doctor says, hey, you got a disrobe? She says, I'm very shy. Can we turn the lights off? He says, okay, okay. He turns the lights off. She takes her clothes off and she says, doctor, where should I put them? He says, right over here on top of my. That one was good. It's quite a profession. I got another one for you, Ben. Another doctor. Joe pick on Dr. Day. This guy with a duck on his head. He goes to the doctor. The doctor says, can I help you? The duck says, yeah, get this guy off my ass. That one was good, too. You always have a good job. I don't want to hear the jokes. Like, Jesus Christ, Scott. I don't want to hear the jokes again. Okay, so. So producer Scott just played me the thing. I don't know if you've heard it or not. I don't know how this works, but yes, Scott from Massachusetts, you absolute piece of shit. He says physician, but it does sound quite a bit like position. And so I guess I just don't appreciate the corrections that aren't really giving me information. They're just a bit of a. Ha ha. You misheard the movie. Okay, guilty, Scott from Massachusetts. But this is. Again, I don't understand. This is why we should disconnect the discord. This Is pointless. If someone's giving me more information, I like it. I like the director's commentary information from before. But yes, Scott, I don't need it. I didn't need to be corrected on physician position. Pointless. Okay, now, so many great. See in the script. It has, okay, so many great corrections and omissions this week. And I don't think there were. I'll be honest, there weren't so many great ones. There was in fact only there was. So there was only a couple we could pull and many of those were terrible. So now it says pick a winner in. It says in red in all caps, pick a winner. I mean, no. What do I got here? Oh, Liz from Wisconsin. Yes, Liz from Wisconsin. You win. You win. For you and your dad, a man in his 50s succeeding, thriving and succeeding wildly at the police exam. I'm wishing you and your dad well. I'm wishing your dad well in his health and his heart health. Boy, oh boy, tough stuff. But. But I love it. I love hearing about his success taking the police exam. And maybe as a last looks here episode sometime Paul, June and I will all take the police exam just to see how well we do. Wouldn't that be fun? Okay, the winner's name. I write, I say winner's name, which was Liz from Wisconsin. Winner's name, Liz from Wisconsin. As your reward, you get this amazing song from our friend Rob from Long Island. You win. Congratulations to you. Ball picks the winner and the winner is you. You said something smart and funny, so I'm telling you, you win nothing. All right. Thank you, Rob from Long island for that song. Great song. And just cause it said Long island and I can't help but jump to things that are jumping into my head when I read things. If you're not listening to the Gino Lombardo, the John Gabris Gina Lombardo podcast that is on CBB World. You gotta listen. You gotta check it out. It's two seasons of absolute batshit Long island insanity. It is Gabris playing his Gino Lombardo character as if he is a drive time shock jock in Long island radio. It is very funny. So remember, if you want to chime in with your own thoughts about the latest episode, hit up our discord. Or don't just leave us a voicemail Instead by calling 619 Paul ask P A U L A S K. Boy, I love the analog nature of Leave a voicemail. Leave a voicemail. Why not? It was great. It's great to hear the texture of everybody's voices and accents. I love the voicemails. Okay, coming up, after one last break, Paul and I are going to have a great chat with Susie Barrett about her fantastic podcast. Yes. Also, and I'm going to reveal next week's new movie. But first, as promised earlier, take a little listen to this bonus deleted scene from our Champagne and Bullets live show that hints at why we selected this week's matinee episode. Take a listen.

[Susie Barrett]

I love it. All right, what are your names?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow. Oh, Steve.

[Paul Scheer]

Shaira. How would you guys think about remaking this as the origin story for Nundercover, where Huck is her handler?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow.

[Susie Barrett]

All right, this is a callback. Could this be the prequel to Nundercover?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No. Where Huck is her handler? Absolutely not. He's a lunatic. I don't want Huck anywhere near my movie. How dare. Actually, how dare you.

[Susie Barrett]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right, welcome back. By now I'm sure you've noticed that every Tuesday we re release classic how did this get made Episodes back into the feed. This week's matinee covered the 1991 Bruce Willis classic Hudson Hawk, which, not to brag, I saw in theaters. Now that was the episode, you will remember where we came up with the whole idea for Undercover. And would you like to know what has happened in the intervening period of time? Nothing. We haven't written a word. We haven't talked about it. I'd say the only time the word undercover has been brought up again has been on podcast episodes like this one where someone from the audience brought it up again. A lot of times after episodes, we are effectively hit with the Men in Black machine. We re we, we revert to zero. Okay I always feel bad. There's lovely. Fans always come up and ask such wonderful, specific questions based on their profound fandom of the show. And I always feel so terrible saying, I do not remember that episode. That episode that meant so much to you. That. That line, that joke, that. That thing. I've forgotten it somehow, but yet I remember so many of those moments from Doughboys episodes. I'm the one saying to Doughboys, hey, remember when this happened? And they are like, we don't. So I get it. We're all fans. So for next week's matinee, we will be revisiting an oldie episode 25. Holy shit. That is an oldie episode 25. That's gotta be. I mean, that's. What is that? 2011. Wow. Okay. Episode 25, which is I just got confirmation 2011, where we cover Halle Berry's Catwoman. Boy, what an absolute banger of a movie. I just rewatched all the Nolan Batman movies. Phenomenal. Absolute blast. So keep checking out all the replays of classic episodes every Tuesday. Okay, enough matinee, Tonk. Time for Paul and I to chat with Susie Barrett, who's an amazing improviser, writer, actor, teacher, and host of the absolutely fantastic yes. Also podcast, which is essential listening for any improv or comedy fan. If you like this podcast, if you like Bang Bang, if you like any of the comedy podcasts, if you just like comedians, if you just like hearing people talk about process and comedy and comedy of the last 25 to 50 years, yes. Also is an essential listen. I cannot recommend it enough. Susie is a fantastic improviser and a terrific host. She is a great conversationalist. Paul and I have both been on the show, as have a ton of people who you might know from this podcast as guests. So stay tuned for our conversation with Susie and to play us into this Just Chat segment, here's a new theme song inspired by the shimmy slide from Champagne and Bullets. This is the Just Chat scoot by our pal, the Action Jackson 5. Who is that on the dance floor in the cowboy hat? I'm scooting and a shimmy in this way. And that is a teen witch trying to top that old Satan worshippers holding baseball bats. It's just Jason and Paul, and it's called Just Chat.

[Susie Barrett]

Susie. An interesting thing happened, I don't know, maybe about a year ago, Jason and I were both talking about your fantastic podcast, and we are. I mean, I think we're both some of the biggest fans of what you're doing, which is basically creating this giant history of improv through the performers and how people improvise. It's one of the most fascinating looks at some of my favorite performers, people that I perform with a lot, and I never knew any of this stuff about them. It is one of my favorite things to listen to.

[Paul Scheer]

That is such a high compliment. You two have always been two of my favorite improvisers. I feel like you're senior classmen to my freshman, and I've always looked up to you both. It's just such a cool thing that. That people like you are getting into the pod and sharing your wealth of wisdom and. Yeah, hopefully it just continues to keep growing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It really is. It is. I talk about it all the time. I've talked about it on this podcast a lot. I've talked about it on every other podcast that has had me as a guest or I've talked about it to anybody who's asked me to recommend a new podcast. It is an incredible resource. It is undeniably an archive of this art form that does. That simply does not exist. Like, there are books about improv, of course, but there is nothing that approaches this scale and scope to what Paul was saying, like, that we can be listening to you interviewing the generation of. You know, you're saying that we are the seniors to your freshmen. The Chicago generation are the seniors to our freshmen.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So to hear you talking to that generation of people, the people that are going to talk about Jazz Freddy or are going to talk about those shows or those teams or those. Or the advent or the. The beginnings of certain stylistic moves, you know, like the idea that you're talking to the generation that started the movie form or tagouts or stuff like that. These are the bedrock elements of improvising that we knew. And for my generation, I feel like we spent a lot of our time stripping out the stuff they put in. So to see the thing grow and ebb and flow as to how everybody does it is all inside of your show. And it's incredible.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, it's cool that it's also. I feel like this is just the tip of a very big iceberg, too. Like, even, you know, when you guys both have been on the pod, but I plan on having you back in the. This amorphous, organic thing that can keep building as people hear each other's stories and thoughts, then they can come back and re. Reflect. I've had people reaching out, being like, oh, this has unlocked so many memories from my time.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, cool.

[Paul Scheer]

And it's like one of the few art forms that we see the beginning of right in our rear view. Like, you can't just go back and interview the first blues musician anymore, but you can interview some of the first long form improvisers. And that's like a magical thing that I feel compelled to, like, capture.

[Susie Barrett]

Well, what I also really love about it is I think that it's very hard to capture the history of improv, like in a book, because it's very much a person's perspective. I mean, Jason and I came up at UCB at the same time. We have many similar friends, we've done many similar shows, but the way that we got in, the teachers that we had, the way that we experience it is completely different. What we took, what we learned. And I feel like that's the thing that, you know, sometimes a book is kind of hard pressed to do. And I love that you can sit back and listen to people. I think I told you, like, one of my favorite episodes was Carl Tartt, who we perform with a bunch. And his lack of like, oh, yeah, I don't know, I just go out there and I just do what I do. And I love that. And then you hear other people who are very specific about moves and, you know, and there are these things like Jason said that get warped. And I wonder, in that seat that you're in, how do you, I think, do the hardest job, which was like to sit there and kind of craft it for a person, but also kind of help keep it all on track or tell a larger story?

[Paul Scheer]

I think I see it as almost like its own improv scene. Each person who is in that chair is my scene partner. I'm basing everything organically off of what they're saying. I'm gonna follow where it's leading. But if something pops up that feels like a shiny object to me, I'm gonna jump on that. Unless I see that it's making them uncomfortable, and then I'll adjust accordingly, but it is. We cut very little out of it. You know, once in a while there'll be like a rambly tangent that doesn't matter and the person will be like, can.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right, right, right.

[Paul Scheer]

But it is. It feels like its own organism. It feels like we are alive. And it's a different kind of improv than I've ever done. I've never been an interviewer before. I know you guys have done this podcast for years. You're used to this kind of format. It's new to me, and it feels like it scratches a journalistic documentary itch that I Have like, my own curiosity about wanting to open every door. And it's. It's like this incredible opportunity for me to sit down with like, every tree in this forest that I love and ask each tree what it's like to be that tree, you know?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, it's so interesting because I do feel like to what both of you are saying, you know, it's an art form, that we all learn how to do it in classes, or Paul is saying, we've read the books, or, you know, there's ways to receive, how to improvise, and I'm putting that in quotes, but there is. Everybody does it different. And I think what the books and what everything can't quite capture, but I think what your show does capture very well is how everybody does it different, but how imperative it is for those people to then be able to be inside of an ensemble of other people who are doing it differently. And people's ability to succeed and thrive in this art form is their ability to collaborate and learn how. How this person does it, how this and how I fit in. A. A What we talk about so little. I think we talk so often about, like, people's moves or this was great, or blah, blah, blah, but like teams, ensembles. This is a teamwork based art form. This is not, you know, solo, lone wolf style comedy. This is. This thrives in ensembles and people working together. You know, I make you look good, you make me look good, is the ethos that I feel like is so imperative in this art form. And I think what you get at on the show, which I love, is how do people do this thing? How do they think they do this thing? And how do they fit in with other people? You know, that. And what I. The stuff I care about in the show the most is when you're talking about process, how do you think about this, How. How do you do it?

[Susie Barrett]

That was the thing that was kind of eye opening to me, was really trying to think about it, right? Like, even when I. I think when I came on too, I was like, I wanted to talk about some things that I feel like also get labeled the wrong way, right? Because I think a lot of people have, like, it's certain, like, words may be like, oh, I don't like that word, but I do. But every. But people are still using that basis. And that's the other thing too, to kind of pick out. It's like, oh, we actually are working on the same thing. We're just calling it different. We're looking at it differently, but we're.

[Paul Scheer]

Talking about things like using terms like the game of the scene.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Where people have categorized that or assumed that that means one style of play, when really it's also the quote unquote, IO style. It's just. You're calling it different things.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, and I think that's the. And I think you've. You've illustrated the exact word that people have the most Feel the most away about. You know, like, I feel like to some, when you talk about the game of the scene, they are. They act as though that is like an indictment of a style of play, you know, that I don't. I also don't agree with. You know, Like, I think that is. It's just a. It's just a term. But I understand, like, generationally, the younger generation, I think, grew up in a prison of the game.

[Paul Scheer]

And I think it depends on who your teachers have been. I've heard from, like, certain teachers have a style of teaching game that is very binary. Like, that's the correct answer and that's not. You got it. You missed it. Which to me is a miss. And it's unfortunate because it turns a lot of people sour on something that really boils down to just what is the most fun thing to you about this scene? And what do you want to keep playing for you and your partner and the audience? What's the fun? You want to follow? But yeah, for people to feel shut down or like, it's so heady that it's this suddenly left brain pursuit where they have to get the answer right to me is a miss.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, this idea that, like, it's out there and you just need to excavate. Every scene has a game. You just need to dig around in the right place and you'll uncover it like it's a. Like it's a video game or something. And the reality is the answer is that it's a pattern that you play between you and your scene partner. The game is just something between you and your scene partner. It's right there. It's not a third thing out in the world that we need to, like, root around and find as if it's treasure, you know?

[Paul Scheer]

Right.

[Susie Barrett]

I also think it's like any class, whether it's a writing class, an acting class, you know, like, there are professors that can take the fun. There's a joy right in what we do. And I feel like you can watch people get burnt out because it does feel like this elusive thing, but it's not mathematics. And it's like you watch Acting like, I think a lot of. I listened to this director talk privately, so I will not say who it was, but it was a big director talk about how he has to do a bunch of takes to get actors out of their acting style. Right. Like, because it's sort of like you've made all these choices, and you're not making any of these choices as you are acting. You are going off of the notes and the things and your idea. And it's like, how do you break the actor down? I think you can go back to, like, somebody. Like, Kubrick did this a lot too, which is like. And not that. And. And look, Kubrick destroyed people. And, you know, so, I mean.

[Paul Scheer]

But it's like that himself.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah, and himself. And, like. And I think that that's the tricky thing. It's like, how do you walk that line where you get people to feel free enough to take a chance without feeling like I'm making a mistake? And some people are good at teaching. And that's the other thing too. You're. You. You teach. You. You have that ability, I think, to also hear from people who have been taught. And I think a lot of teachers actually don't do that.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, well. And there's. There's different angles. It's like a gem with many facets. Like, there's different ways into it. And, you know, the UCB approach of game and premise is kind of one angle, but it leads to the same center of the gem, which is just, you know, activated listening and energized playfulness. And I think it's interesting we do what we do in pursuit of making comedy. There is improv that doesn't do that, but we all do that. We wanna do funny scenes ultimately or make funny shows. And I've noticed in my years of teaching, there is such a thing as a good improviser who is not a funny person. I've seen it, and I've seen them do funny scenes that they, you know. So I think there's, like, different methods. Feel more like water to certain fish and certain methods that feel like air to the birds. You know, a person who isn't a funny person might not succeed in the kind of premise method. Cause they're not good at finding funny from the outside in and then initiating from that place. But they can do a great improv scene and be very successful in a funny way. It's just not the same inroad. And that's something I like about this podcast too, is I'm like, you know, diving deeper into Groundlings training and early, early IO and like you said, people who were like the very first ones to try a tag or do a sweep edit, and it's like to dissect the history of how people figured out what made something funnier or more successful or more fun to play is a wild privilege to have.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, I mean, I think that like, just in our generational lifetime, so the. This 25 years. I feel like when we started. Paul and I both started at UCB in New York, so never. Paul Wright, you never went to Chicago even for like, classes or something. So never Chicago. But so we are receiving the UCB Armando Diaz, Ali Farinakian generation of, you know, the family. Essentially, we're receiving the movie form form, you know, that, that the family's, you know, signature style was the movie form that they had created. And they'd created this form that had like, like in that way that sometimes improv does, the elements of the movie form had fully invaded everything else. So, like, filmic description pervaded all of ascat, all. And. And then as we started to learn, all of our heralds had filmic kind of language. This kind of. We. We see this person is this. We see that, we take you to that. Blah, blah, blah.

[Susie Barrett]

When Adam McKay did that the first time at an ASCAT, it blew my mind because it was like, whoa, wait, what is happening?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, so he. So they would edit like. Like, let's say they lead a tag and they're bringing you to the doctor's office and they say, like, we. We take you to a doctor's office and we see that the. The doctor is immaculately dressed and has a Rolex on.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wow.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Not. Not all the time, not every edit, not every time, but all of those tools that the family had built up with Dell as the movie form tools had like, pervaded everything. Right? And so much so that when we came up, it was just part of how we worked. We worked with all of that stuff and then slowly. But what that stuff did was provide a bridge for the audience to get into faster moving scene work. You know, like, you didn't have to take the time to illustrate that. Now we're in a dentist's office and I'm the evil dentist who's the villain of the scene. Blah, blah, blah. Because the scenic description at the very beginning set it up, you know, and it, it, it moved the odd. It jumped the audience forward in time without them having to get there within five lines, you know, and it also.

[Susie Barrett]

Was a, A way to kind of lay in jokes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right.

[Susie Barrett]

Because it was this thing that you have a blank stage, a bunch of people up there just, you know, in their jeans and T shirts. And now all of a sudden, visually it pulled you in. I think that like, that was the thing that was kind of interesting for me. I was coming from slightly more of a costume based or like a look based improv. So seeing that like for the first time before I started taking classes, I was like, oh, wow. You can use your words to paint it all out. And you know, and the audience is like, you know, it's the difference with the audience finding out that you're in a tuxedo or being painted with a tuxedo. Either way, you know, it's gonna be fulfilling. But it was fun to see.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And then I think in only maybe 10 or so years later, all of that stuff was stripped out in a way that felt to me important because I also, I felt like the audience had already caught up. Like the audience didn't need that bridge language anymore. We could still move just as fast without having to give all of the. Without having to step out of the scene to be this other omniscient kind of character who gets to describe and gets to. That went away completely. Nobody does that anymore. Everything is internal again.

[Paul Scheer]

Isn't it cool that like on the micro level, this form improv is something that is about the relationship between the people on stage and the audience in the room that night. Like on the micro level. But what you're describing shows that. It's also that on a macro level that over a period of 10 years and audiences needs and reactions determined the course of the very art form. And that something was stripped down because the audience didn't need it anymore. Like it's like a fractal structure. Like the whole is the part. Yeah.

[Susie Barrett]

I don't know if I talked about this on your show, but it's something I talk about a lot. When we first came to LA or UCB first came to la, I felt like we needed to back up a handful of steps for the audience to catch up with where we were in New York. And that was something like one of the reasons that we built, I guess at that point it was MySpace was to show. No, no, this is improv. You're. We're basing this on you. We're interviewing you. That's not a plant. We're bringing you up. Like it was almost like proving to the audience like, this is improv. And then it all of a sudden it caught up. But it was like Those first maybe year. I feel like it was like just teaching the audience who hadn't seen this style how to. What it was.

[Paul Scheer]

And you could feel that palpably like in. In the room show like MySpace or Facebook. You could feel like the audience was on board more than a show where you were just getting a suggestion and doing scenes.

[Susie Barrett]

I also. I also felt the audience was. And this is. I. Now I'm full la. I don't think the audience was as hip as they were in New York because we were making jokes in New York that I think were maybe harder or. And the audience.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The audience. I would. I agree. 100. We're talking 2004, 2005.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The. Or 2005, 2006, I guess. The audience, I believe, didn't get a lot of it. It was moving too fast. Now, IO existed. Groundlings existed. But they were much. They weren't as fast. They were. And we were. We were used to an. A younger hipper audience in New York that was just showing up a lot to shows.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So they were with. They had grown with us in a lot of ways or they were part of it. And it felt like in la it took a minute to find that audience that was like, oh, whoa, this is it.

[Paul Scheer]

You know what's amazing to me is like in talking to people like Craig Kakowski, who are, you know, like ground.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Floor, kind of the absolute fucking king.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, the best. But these like old school Chicago people. Brian Stacks, another one who they. That like when Besser and the UCB4 kind of emerged as this force in Chicago and then moved to. Or I guess it was the family that emerged like this. They said they pushed the style of improv to be a much faster, taggier style. And what's interesting to me is like then they brought that to New York and kind of led the charge there. Now you're talking about bringing that to la. But it all kind of originated from like Besser and Adam McKay and Ian. These like fast brains. And that's wild to me that people in an art form can be so pivotal in their own like style and the way their brain works that they can move the entire paradigm simply by.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Being the way they are. Besser especially, I would say, cause McKay, I think McKay's impact is so felt so large at Saturday Night Live where he goes and then becomes head writer and dominates that environment. But Besser's importance cannot be underestimated and Ian as well, because they are driven to New York to start a school to teach us their version of it their fast. You know, what they would call punk rock improv.

[Susie Barrett]

Right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know, like, we want to play fast songs. Fast short songs. Boom, boom, boom. Move it. Quick, quick, quick. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. You know, it was all punk rock. It felt like that. And. And it wasn't. You know, notably, Walsh in the same group is an annoyance guy. Like when you took a. When before the curriculum as it is got codified, when you took a Walsh class, you were taking an annoyance class. You were taking a freewheeling, you know, open ended, anything is possible style annoyance.

[Susie Barrett]

Class, which was the coolest thing because the four of them came from very different. Like, it was like, like you were. You weren't even just taking curriculum. You were taking four different perspectives on the same, like the core idea of what everyone was doing. But it was wildly different.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And very. And I will say, as a result, very confusing.

[Susie Barrett]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right.

[Susie Barrett]

I mean, I mean, but I do think that, like, there was an attitude of, all right, I've taught you what I need to teach you now you go over here. So, like, I took Walsh later in my run. So, like, all right, I was probably with some people who had never really improvised, but then what he was doing was like, freeing me up in the strictness that I'd already come to. Like, it was like you could kind of do any of them in any order. Although I think, you know, it would. It probably was. I mean, coming from Besser going down. Yeah, I mean, I think actually coming from Besser going down, that's the way I did it. It was almost like the hardest structure into the loosest structure.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's tough.

[Susie Barrett]

But it was.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I felt very lucky that I got. I got Armando first, which Paul, you didn't, because Armando hadn't arrived yet when you started. I felt very lucky because Armando was awesome. The Armando Diaz, I feel like, doesn't get enough credit, doesn't get enough love as truly the. The. For generationally, for us, the goat teacher, like the person who, Who. Who really helped take all of what. The. What. You know, because I took Armando a couple of times. I. He. He was a mother a long time mother. Coach. Mother being the. The team that I was on, he really did a great job synthesizing everybody's stuff from Ian to Besser and, and giving it to you in a package that was understandable.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So that it didn't seem like, like, well, wait a minute. Besser said this thing. And that directly contradicts this thing that Walsh said or this thing that Amy said. How do I justify those two things, you know, And Armando is very good at doing that of. Of. Of say, of kind of what we're talking about saying, giving you the information in a way that is. They are all just trying to say this and this. We can. This. This move forward we can all agree is necessary. They're just telling you how to do it differently.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Which to me is the difference between a great teacher and a great improviser. It's like a great teacher is basically a translator. They're, like, taking the wealth of information and then making it kind of palatable, understandable.

[Susie Barrett]

You know, Armando was also one of those people who came in knowing a lot of different forms and wanting to. Like, he taught us the herald and the dark, which was one of the coolest things. And it also taught us to play slower and play in different avenues. Right. Because I just think it's. I think it's good to have different teachers. But I guess the question that I have for you is, you know, you're listening to Jason and I. We could keep you here forever. But, like, what are. What are the episodes that you felt like, all right, I'm. I'm in. You know, if you're a person, you're in Texas. There's no improv theater, but you're trying to do something or you're interested in it. Like, what's, like, a good entry point for people? Because I think if you're an improviser, jump in at any point. You're going to find great stuff. But if there's people out there, like, oh, I want to understand more. I want to, like, what are good introductory episodes for people, if that's something at the top of your head.

[Paul Scheer]

That's such a good question. It depends. There's maybe two avenues for this. One is, like, if you want more context and overview of long form itself, or if you want, like, practical tools for doing better. Scenes in the first lane are like, Craig Kakowski, Brian Stack, both of you guys. You know, Kakowski and Stack are good for the Chicago context. You guys are good for the New York context. Julie Brister's another New York early adopter.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's a great one.

[Paul Scheer]

Will Hines also.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, yeah, incredible. And I'll throw in Gethard in that New York contingent as well, 100%.

[Paul Scheer]

But in the lane of press, practical improv advice. I think Mike McClendon's episode is great with a lot of, like, really actionable, simple tools and methods. Tao Yang had some fun, hot takes on Heralds and openings that I really liked. Man, I'm forgetting so many people.

[Susie Barrett]

But this is a great, this is a great way to start. And you know, and I also.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's good for our audience as well, because our audience are not necessarily improv Die Hards. So it's good to be able to give people different ways in. Because, and, and, and I would say too, the way that, like, we talk about, like, if for people, whenever somebody says, like, how, how can I get somebody into your podcast, to our podcast, rather, I'm always like, oh, have them pick a movie that they like, you know, or so. And that's the same for your podcast. Look on the list of people that are there and pick out the people that you like or, or recognize. And for, for, for listeners of this podcast, it could be Paul and myself, but it could also be, like I said, Gethard or Paul F. Tompkins or there's, there's a lot of people in your list that are going to be recognizable to folks. And then once you're in, then just start because there are you. One of the things that I love about the podcast, even though I'm couldn't be more inside improv, is you're interviewing generationally younger people that I just do not know. And to hear that generation talk boy, is that exciting.

[Paul Scheer]

And that'll be relatable to a lot of your listeners. Like, I try to get all the dropout kids on. Jacob Wysocki is another big episode of an episode. Yeah. Jamie Moyer, another great one. She came up through Second City Detroit and has kind of a different angle on everything. More emotional play, more like freeing up your right brain, your inner child, you know. But yeah, you're right. Find whatever strand you want to pull first, and then you won't be able to stop unraveling it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But I, the, the. I will say just for me, though, that, like, you've mentioned a couple of my favorites. Kakowski, I think, is just one of my favorite convers. It's a. He's. He's always the person at a party that I'm excited to talk to.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know, so I'm all, anytime I can hear him, I, I thought that episode was great. And then just two of my absolute favorite improvisers you've. You've interviewed, which is Dassey and Steph Weir.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, yes. To have forgot about them. Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

To have both of those, like, true geniuses. So funny. You know, who oftentimes they're a married couple, so they, they work together on every level. I thought both of those episodes were.

[Susie Barrett]

Invaluable the other part of this that I think is kind of amazing is right now we are living in a time, no matter where you live, no matter what your access is, for a couple of bucks you can watch some of these people, Jason and myself included, improvising on stage in New York, in Los Angeles. And it's. That's something that I really think is awesome. Right. I don't know how much I love videotaping improv, but I also, I, I love the idea that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You mean live stream.

[Susie Barrett]

Yes, yes. Sorry. Yeah, sorry, sorry.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm sorry.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah. Like, that to me is something that I think is really cool. Like, you know, know. Whereas we probably, we heard a lot of stories, we never get to see any of these people. And you could watch people do fine shows like, you know what I'm saying? Then that's, then that's good to watch a fine show. Like it could be like, maybe it's a great show, but it's also like sometimes it's like, oh, you get to see the whole thing. It does. It's not mythologized as much, which I think is a good thing sometimes too, to see the balance of it.

[Paul Scheer]

And that's one of the goals of our podcast too, is to not only be this repository of improv history, but also basically very, very, very dirt cheap master classes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right?

[Paul Scheer]

And you know, Susan Messing was in town a few months ago and I took her masterclass and it was basically all the same content as her part two of our yes, also episode. So I was like, man, for eight bucks a month, people, it's like a cup of coffee and they're getting six extra episodes a month. That it's just when I was coming up, the only option was to spend hundreds of dollars on an eight week class. And now it's like you can spend a little bit of money and get all of this knowledge and all these like exercises and listen to people.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And I love the part of. It's what you're talking about right there. I love the. How did you come up? It's great, it's great to hear how people found improv, who their teachers were, etc, if great. Fine. What I, what I digest with such glee is process is how do you. Because you know, as much as if I talk to Stack or something like that, that I'm happy to hear tales of the old days. I want to hear about jazz, Freddy, blah, blah, blah. But I really want to hear how do you do this? How. What are you, you know, like that to me is what Your podcast is giving, especially in that second half. That and I would come back to the podcast and just do three hours of process questions from the audience. You know what I mean? Like, that's the stuff that we can all mythologize and romanticize nostalgically for. Like, I was there when, you know, this happened and that happened. I was in the room when, blah, blah, blah, who cares? What I'm really interested in, what I'm really curious about is kind of what we're talking about is how do we Even now, 25 years in the fact that I'm still watching people. Like I watched Brian stack in Washington D.C. during gravid water a couple of years ago, go play incredibly economically with scene partners with such few lines, making the most with such few lines. Whereas then I would go on stage in the same exact show and just drown in improvised lines. That I was. That I was the one doing that I was. I couldn't immediately do what he was doing, and that was making me so frustrated. And I spent the last three years trying to do what he was doing. It's incredible. You know, that's all I want to talk about is. Is even 25 years in, I think for those of us who are still obsessed with or still invested in doing regular shows, there is still so much further to go.

[Susie Barrett]

Well, that's. I mean, that's the thing that you brought to me, which is like, thinking about it in a way, looking at it differently, like. Like, it's even setting little goals for myself, for fun. Like, I love performing and I love doing this, but, like, I think about it in a way that I haven't thought about it in a long time because it is like analyzing the moves and trying to work against certain instincts. And I love that ability, especially as we get into it. And you, you teach. So you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You're you, you.

[Susie Barrett]

This is a whole entry point for anyone in the world of comedy. Go to your website, listen to the podcast, subscribe to this supercast, you get all this bonus content, you get a bonus Instagram as well, some fun stuff.

[Paul Scheer]

You can become our close friends on Instagram and then allows you to submit questions to our future guests directly.

[Susie Barrett]

It's really cool.

[Paul Scheer]

When both of you came on, you had people who had, like, reached out specifically to you with questions. It's a cool access.

[Susie Barrett]

Let me ask you one question before we let you go. I think when I first started doing improv, it felt like, like, wow. This style, this long form style is not like, I can't take this on the road. And now all I'm seeing are people doing improv, long form improv on the road. And I wanted to get your take on. Like what. What do you think change? What do you. Because we're talking about, oh, well, LA had to catch up or this place had to catch up. Like what, what do you think is different? Like that makes it something that people now it's like a, like an art form, like standup or something like that.

[Paul Scheer]

I feel like from. From where I sit, it worked on the road before in colleges. Like, you know, when I was in college even like, you know, there was word of an improv group coming through town. We knew what Second City was. We knew to like it because whose line existed? So there was like, that was something that college kids would see. I think the difference now with people like you guys and Ben Schwartz and the dropout kids, like selling out these huge venues is that you guys have the benefits of like a fame level, a clout with the general public. So people know to trust. Like they see Ben Schwartz on a marquee and they go, I love that guy, he's so funny. I don't know what this is. And often I've done a couple of his tour shows and he'll poll the audience before the show and be like, how many of you have seen improv before? And like a third, like a thousand out of 3,000 will clap. And then it's like, how many people have no idea what this is? And you thought you were gonna see a standup show and it's like a raucous cheer.

[Susie Barrett]

W. You know, something I just started doing on the last tour that we did was I started asking, do you. Do people know what improv is? And the. And it was resoundingly no. And what I think I was able to do for the first time and I'm like, I can't believe I've done this. It's what I kind of do with. When we do with how to discover, kind of set the tone. I'm like, this is what you're gonna see, this is what's gonna happen. Like ultimate, like in the very. In a very baseline, like, we're making this stuff up. We're talking to you. We're going to use it to improvise. Like we kind of let them in on it. And I felt like the shows that we did on this last tour, they always are really fun, but I felt like they were really fun right from. Right from go. And I think the difference was the like, for a majority of that audience, they're like. I think they're like, oh, is it going to be a standup show now? Is somebody else going to come out? Like, what am I seeing? And I feel like letting them in. And you forget, oh, my God.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right.

[Susie Barrett]

They don't exactly know what they're seeing.

[Paul Scheer]

And it's so fun to do shows for people who are about to have their minds blown.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Who have never seen improv, and they're about to see, like, the top level of improv from people who have done it for 25 years, and it's an art form they didn't even know existed. That's fun. That's a whole new layer that's beyond doing great shows for an ascat crowd or a crowd that's mostly improvisers, you know?

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I also think, like, I don't think we can underestimate how much much podcasts. Comedy podcasts, yes. Have educated a generation to receive, if not improv comedy, which in some cases Comedy Bang Bang or Besser's show, improv for humans, you know, that is straight improv, scenic based improv. We get that. But even our show or other comedy shows are at least priming people for a style of comedy that then when they go to Ben Schwartz or when they go to Dinosaur or when they go to, you know, any of these touring shows, they are. They understand improv a little bit more. Right. Than just a cold audience who just is like, what is it? You know?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Comedy podcasts have done a little bit, seeded the. The terrain a little bit, educated people enough to get them to this show.

[Susie Barrett]

Right. And even if they don't know why they're there, they're excited to be there. Which is the difference between. And I think I may talk about this on your show. US Respecto. Going to Minneapolis Mall of America and doing a show on a Friday night at 8 o' clock and people being angry, you know, and there's no. There was no kill yourself was said in the first five minutes. Like, all right, well, not gonna win over this crap. Susie, this has been awesome. Like we said, we love your show.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's the best.

[Susie Barrett]

You're in la. Look up Susie, because if you're interested in any of this stuff, she's teaching, she's out there, she's doing it all.

[Paul Scheer]

Come find me. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me on. And, yeah, hope to have you guys back on the show. This was awesome. I want to have you guys back on. Yes. Also together.

[Susie Barrett]

Oh, my gosh.

[Paul Scheer]

Do more of this.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's great fun for everybody listening on our side. You know, go seek this podcast out. It will be incredibly informative and. And also very funny. Like, not for nothing. Scenes often break out in your interviews and it's a very funny way to oftentimes illustrate something that the people are the interviewee and you are talking about. And that is also a very fun, unique element to the show, which I always enjoy.

[Susie Barrett]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Cool. Well, thanks for having me and thanks again for all the. The love and support of the pod. It's very awesome.

[Susie Barrett]

All right, we will talk to you later. Thanks, Susie.

[Paul Scheer]

Thank you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, we did it. Thanks again to Susie Barrett. Now it's finally time to announce our next movie. Next week we'll be going from boobs and shooters to ice cubes and computers. Okay. No. What was that? So that ride rhymes. I don't like that. I don't like. I don't like being forced. I don't like rhymes being sprung on me. Wow. That. That was shocking that my whole system reacted to that. So I'm gonna. I'm not. You can keep all this in, but next week I'm not gonna do this whole rhyming. We do. I guess we do rhymes. Boy, I don't know.

[Listener Callers]

This.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We're becoming. We're becoming. What are we doing? We just do rhyming stuff now? This is. This. The show's becoming too cute, Scott. We're too. We. We can't be this cute. Next week we're going to be covering Ice Cubes movie War of the Worlds. And if you haven't watched this, I gotta. I gotta tell you, you have to check it out. It's absolutely bananas. I guess you guys have all been demanding it. And I'll be honest, whether you asked for it or not, we absolutely were gonna have to cover this because was having now seen it and talked about it. This was nuts. The movie stars Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark, Greg, a bunch of other people. Here's a breakdown of the plot. You don't need. Do you need a breakdown of the plot? Do you need. It's. It's War of the Worlds, guys. Except what if War of the Worlds took place on a computer screen Because Cube is on a computer, the whole movie. Rotten Tomatoes rates this movie at 2%. And for our review snippet, I'll pull a quote from the only positive review of the movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Jordan Hoffman from Entertainment Weekly writes, is this movie really that bad? The answer is absolutely not. It's certainly stupid, but it's also a great deal of fun. War of the Worlds is never boring. It is filled with entertaining lines and it has a cheese factor that is perfectly self aware. I agree with Jordan Hoffman right here. And I think, you know, without, you know, giving away too much, I think we all felt similarly. We had a blast just as, as Jordan Hoffman did here. It's, it is the cheese factor is perfectly self aware. I think they're having a blast in this movie. You know what? Let's listen to the trailer.

[Paul Scheer]

Dad, when's the last time you left the office?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's classified. Our most precious resource on earth is data. And data is food for the superior intelligence. Eyewitness video is coming in from all over the world. Terrifying machines. Ling out of these meteors. D Get away from that. Get out of there. Okay, that's the trailer. I think you get it now, so, so tune in. It's going to be a great one. One last thing that we don't mention in the episode, but I think is worth mentioning here for War of the Worlds is that the very real tagline for this movie is quote, it's worse than you think, unquote. You can only watch War of the Worlds on Amazon Prime. But, but even if you have ad free prime video, guess what? You're going to be receiving quite a few Amazon ads during this movie. There is, I don't want to say anything, but one of the characters is driving an Amazon delivery truck. So that's part of the movie. But you know what? Here's the thing. I don't love that next week's movie's only available on a subscription service. And we always try and look out for you guys. Guys. And keep it such that our movies are available on free streaming services, many of which are available through your library. I'm talking about your canopies, your Libby's, your hooplas. These are free digital media services that are offered by your local library. You can, you can watch a lot of the movies that we cover. They have a surprisingly robust library of stuff that you can get get. And they have ebooks and they have audio books. So it's not just your library isn't just helping you with how did this get made movies. It's also helping you listen to all the Bosch books as audiobooks. You know, what are you up to? I mean, if I'm, if I, I'm spending the summer relistening to the Star Wars Thrawn audiobooks, guess what? They're available through the library. So Hoopla, Kanopy and Libby. These are free digital streaming services. That are available through your library. We love the libraries. We love the librarians that show up to our shows. There's always quite a few of them in the audience. And as they say in Boise, I think Boise had the right idea. Put an exclamation point at the end of all our libraries. Stop asking about the library. Stop giving libraries a question mark mark or a period at the end the library. It's too soft. We we gotta get. We have to reiterate it that we are library. That's it for last looks. If you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Rate and review us. I know we always say it at the end of the episode. People forget to do it, but it does mean something. So do it up. Please also make sure you are following us on your podcast app and have automatic downloads turned on. It helps the show and we appreciate it. Visit us on all social media dtgm and a big thanks to our producers Scott Sonny and Molly Reynolds, our movie picking producer Avril Halley and our audio engineer Casey Holford. An incredible team of people who make this absolutely dumb show run so well. We will see you next week for War of the Worlds. Do yourselves a favor and watch it beforehand. It's a good one. Disconnect the discord as I can't. I mean boy, I feel like I've got hives from talking about the discord so much in the last hour. I've got to have to go and do an EpiPen. Eat shit everybody.

[Susie Barrett]

Adam Pali here and I'm John Gabris. We're a couple actors and best friends who you may know as the hosts of the TV show 101 Places to Party before youe Die. Now we're bringing you a comedic look at health and wellness with our new show, Staying Alive.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We'll have guests like our friend actor Jerry O', Connell, ketamine therapist Dr. Stephen.

[Susie Barrett]

Radowitz, Paul Scheer, Ego Wodom, Gillian Bell, Dr. Dolittle staying alive with John Gabrison Adam Pally is out right now.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Get them a week early and ad.

[Susie Barrett]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Susie Barrett]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Susie Barrett]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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