A version of this was originally posted on cpluscomedy.com in 2017.
Podcasting is a bloated medium with no real revenue stream. But it’s also a wonderful art form with dedicated fans. Sure, for every good or thoughtful show there’s always a blunt, disgusting trash counterpart. That’s just how it goes sometimes. The same can be said about making music. Or performing improv shows.
Jessica McKenna not only broke into podcasting last year; she also managed to guest on some of her favorite shows. Not many people will ever get that chance. On top of that, she’s got her hands in various other subgenres of comedy too like funny musicals and improv or a mixture of the three.. From her sets at UCB to her online shows, McKenna sets a new precedent to how the category should be approached. I recently had a chance to geek out with her on podcasting, improv, festivals and comedy in general.
How are preparations for SXSW?
Jessica McKenna: Good. I;m just pretty much going to show up and roll. I don’t even have to do much prep, which is fun. It’s a good benefit about doing improv.
Is that how festivals work? You just show up and see thousands of people and you just make a fool of yourself?
McKenna: [laughs] I just did San Francisco Sketchfest and, yeah, it was basically just show up and make a fool of yourself. For sure.
How long had you been doing improv? I know you do a lot of stuff for UCB.
McKenna: I started doing it a little bit in high school and then through college. I probably started seriously doing it in college. At that point like ten, twelve years. Then I started taking UCB classes right out of college. I’ve been performing at the theater since 2012.
Why UCB? Why not Chicago’s Second City or any other place?
McKenna: I actually went to school outside of Chicago. Obviously, Chicago has an awesome comedy scene. It’s sort of the birthplace of longform improv. But I had my eye in wanting to work in TV. It made sense to go where comedy was but also where acting and writing jobs were. I actually went to New York for a year and started doing UCB there. I was pretty confident that LA was going to be the right place for me. The Chicago theaters are awesome. No disrespect to Chicago! I spent four years outside of it, going in and watching shows; loving it. I just [felt] that LA -- citywise -- was going to be it.
Here’s something I’ve wanted to know for the past few months: where do you come up with your UCB characters? I know the last thing you did there was the emo band called EPIC. I saw the picture you guys had. They do look epic!
McKenna: [laughs] Thanks, man. It was really fun. I do a weekly musical improv show with a larger cast but three of those dudes are in that show. We were really messing around in the green room after a show, talking about that era of pop, punk and emo music. We were making up stupid little songs [saying] “That would be pretty fun actually.” We pitched the show to the artistic director of the theater that the full band name is Every Place I Cry, which is so ridiculous. We were like “Can we do a show where they are getting back together after being broken up for eight years?”
It wasn’t a [typical] improv show, We didn’t do scenes; we just did one long concert but every song was improvised. We got the first title from someone in the audience. We made up songs inspired by the banter. It was a storytelling-type show like VH1 Unplugged or something where we were talking about stories of coming up as a band. And then it was “Oh yeah, that makes me think of our song” and we would start making up this emo song. It was just so fun! [laughs] It’s so fun doing musical improv in general but emo music is so...they’re singing [with] no subtext in very silly metaphors. They’re trying to put it all out there; their hearts are breaking. It’s always fun to improvise with big emotional stuff like that.