The week before Thanksgiving 2019. Brian lost his voice to six hours of Ninja Star, Shea asked for my mom’s deviled egg recipe, and we got into Black Friday, Santa, white elephant rules and the roofer who did his job like a craftsman. Then the real point: why people stop investing in themselves in December, and why the studio is the gym for your soul.
Why we show actors the inside of a casting room, the hour our improv troupe spent telling each other things nobody knew, a college football player who came in to learn listening, and what a CEO’s visualization has to do with a scene.
Kyle Maynard, born a quadruple amputee, climbed Kilimanjaro and wrote a New York Times bestseller. I met him backstage at NextCon while coaching a CEO’s keynote. He came on to talk about mastery with no summit, why he stopped talking in absolutes, and the night he danced alone in the Phoenix airport until two police officers asked if he was okay.
Shea sent me a thank-you text after a hard week and it made everything melt away. I read it, showed my wife, and forgot to reply. Twelve minutes on why a thank-you matters more than you think, and why the people who loved your audition will never tell you.
A student emailed to say she couldn’t get emotional in the scene and put the credit on the coach. Shea told her the truth: you’re afraid of something, and you are the only person who can remove it. Why we refuse the credit, why we don’t want students dependent on us, and the light switch.
The night after what Joey called the best class ever: why you can’t grow until you get to failure, how perceived pressure in a room with no stakes teaches you to handle the real thing, and the ex-ASU football player with the notebook.
The sound on a Monday livestream was botched, three tired people started blaming each other at 10:45 at night, and the next morning we did it differently. Forty-five minutes on watching your own game tape, the wrong Sally, accountability, and how to handle a teammate who screwed up.
The first Boondocks improv show in years, and what the rehearsals exposed: breaking character is pride, arguing over choices is pride, and giving without expecting anything back is the opposite. Fifteen minutes with Brian and Joey.
Joey slept through an afternoon and decided I was mad at him. I had decided to let him sleep. Two stories, one true. Why the first story your head writes about someone is usually wrong, the highlight reel that decides your worth, and why honesty is attractive.
Asher Angel trained here as a kid, and the week Shazam came out we went to see it at 10 in the morning. Brian and Joey Sweeney join Jason, John Luke and me on what Asher was doing in the early scenes, why the lead in the biggest movie in the country was still pushing himself, the 4 a.m. wrestling match in your own head, taking your goals as seriously as a plane ticket, and Will Smith’s brick wall.
Frank Caliendo walked into the studio already famous and asked to be treated like a beginner who knows nothing. An hour with Frank, John Luke and Jason on what three weeks of memorization taught him, why repetition in acting is not doing the same thing twice, the moment acting became listening, and a Jack Nicholson improv on a boat that breaks down what point of view does for a scene.
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