HOW TO: Make and Sell a Stand-Up Special (w/ Ruby Karp)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Again, not all of them, but a good amount of them are actually being self funded. And then put like sold to the streamers. But these streamers have like, very high [00:00:10] Speaker B: standards, even from comedians with large followings that are super popular. [00:00:14] Speaker A: Like, you wouldn't believe the names that are producing it themselves. And then of course, I think they make the money back on the back end. But Netflix isn't just like shelling out money to people to produce. To produce them specifically. Yeah, because then people are just doing it themselves. And then, you know, I'm sure they buy it for more money than. I'm sure there's a way to make a profit. But the issue is the standards that these, like, major streamers have are significantly higher than some of the like. Not Netflix named streamers tech wise or content wise. [00:00:48] Speaker C: Okay, okay. [00:00:49] Speaker A: So it's like you could have the most beautiful show in the world, but you. To produce a special at their standards probably costs around $150,000. [00:01:00] Speaker C: I'm Luke Steinfeld. [00:01:02] Speaker B: And I'm Wyatt Sarkisian. [00:01:03] Speaker C: We made the 5050 podcast to support you on your filmmaking journey. [00:01:06] Speaker B: 50% business, 50% creative. [00:01:09] Speaker C: Every Tuesday, a new how to. [00:01:11] Speaker B: This week, comedian Ruby Karp is welcomed back onto the pod to discuss her debut stand up special, I Don't Trust Adults. Ruby made it big at an early age. Like a really early age. We're talking live shows with Amy Poehler and Natasha Leone. At 10 years old, that skyrocketed her into a world of TED talks, memoirs, speaking gigs, NYC performing arts, high school. The list goes on and on. In this special, Ruby finally reflects on the toll that early success takes, even for someone with dreams as big as hers, and how she turned a one woman show into a sellable standup special. You'll be able to stream I Don't Trust Adults on veeps on September 10th. But in the meantime, enjoy the episode. [00:01:59] Speaker A: No, girl, I use roan mics. [00:02:02] Speaker B: You do for your Vetches? [00:02:04] Speaker A: For my betches, yeah. [00:02:05] Speaker C: Oh, thanks. [00:02:06] Speaker B: You click on Vetches is a cool company. [00:02:08] Speaker A: It is. My job kind of rocks. [00:02:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:10] Speaker A: So I can't complain. [00:02:10] Speaker B: You just get to, like, be on the red carpet. [00:02:12] Speaker A: I get to just like, be on camera and make memes. It's my whole job. [00:02:16] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. [00:02:17] Speaker A: I just went to New York and I pitched them a web series and they let me, like, direct and star in it and write. Write it. [00:02:22] Speaker C: What? [00:02:22] Speaker A: Great. And they funded it and I was like, great. [00:02:24] Speaker C: What? [00:02:25] Speaker B: That's amazing. [00:02:26] Speaker A: It's kind of the best job or. But it's Also like, one of those jobs where it's like, your job's gonna lead to cool stuff. My job is kind of like me being like, this is a fake job and I'm waiting for something real to happen in my life. [00:02:37] Speaker C: But that's so cool that they just allow you to. Yeah, no, they really like that. [00:02:41] Speaker A: They foster creativity for sure. [00:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:44] Speaker C: Can you give the lowdown? You guys obviously had a nice conversation. Little car ride together to catch up. [00:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Also when you're talking, just like talking to Mike. Yeah. You don't need to do it like that. [00:02:57] Speaker A: But just like. [00:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah, but just like. Yeah, we just hold it like this. And then when you're not talking, like it's a vape. Yeah. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Like. [00:03:03] Speaker C: Yeah, you can. You can hit it too, if you want. [00:03:05] Speaker B: Yeah, you can hit it. [00:03:07] Speaker C: Yeah. So my. Mine is strawberry. [00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:13] Speaker C: Mango, Strawberry shortcake. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Have you ever seen the ones that are just like, drool seven. [00:03:18] Speaker C: Like, they're like, oh, with the games on it or something. Yeah. [00:03:21] Speaker A: Like, they're just like making. Oh, yeah, they have. [00:03:22] Speaker C: Remember the full on computer now. Yeah. [00:03:24] Speaker B: I think they're all touch screen chimney smoke. [00:03:27] Speaker C: You can like, they count steps. [00:03:29] Speaker B: Old couch. It's like, yeah. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Oh, what's. [00:03:32] Speaker C: What's wild is that for a time they were like, we're not targeting kids. We promise. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:38] Speaker C: And it's like, no, you're. [00:03:39] Speaker A: It's like games now. [00:03:40] Speaker C: It's like bubble. [00:03:41] Speaker A: Bubble gum, bubblegum pizzazz. [00:03:43] Speaker C: You know, it's like doodle jump on it. [00:03:45] Speaker A: And that is something I associate with adults. [00:03:48] Speaker C: Yeah. So people are trying to get off of cigarette addiction. Like, nicotine and stuff are not like, I want to play doodle drum on my face. You know, like, thank God it's quiet so my teacher doesn't hear me hitting this. Right, right. It's terrible. [00:04:01] Speaker B: Wait, so what were we talking about? Baches. [00:04:05] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember from our original conversation, the first podcast that we did together, I was just like, what? You've done so much stuff. It, like, it's unbelievable. [00:04:21] Speaker B: The angle was at whatever, 10 years old, outside of UCB, smoking cigs. [00:04:27] Speaker A: Totally. [00:04:29] Speaker B: That was the. That was the sort of image that we were. That that was painted. [00:04:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:34] Speaker A: And I think that's awesome that that's people's point of view of me. [00:04:36] Speaker B: Totally. [00:04:37] Speaker A: I mean. Yeah, it's true. I. Quick recap for those who weren't OG listeners. [00:04:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:04:44] Speaker A: But I grew up in New York. I was raised by a single mom who she isn't, like, in entertainment at all, but she in the 90s started like a feminist zine where she would interview like cool up and coming women across all industries doing cool stuff. And through that she met people like Amy Poehler and all these at the time, like up and coming comedians, musicians. And my mom just got super close with a lot of comedians, specifically people at ucb, which at the time was just beginning. And my mom, a single mom working a full time job, needed people to watch her kid and who's more unemployed than improvisers. She would just kind of leave me at UCB all the time. And so I kind of grew up. [00:05:29] Speaker B: And like that's so fun too. No, and also that's like the best summer camp ever. [00:05:33] Speaker C: That's more unemployed than improvises. Crazy. [00:05:36] Speaker A: But am I wrong? [00:05:37] Speaker C: No, because it's the classes are like 1pm to 4pm it's like how, it's [00:05:40] Speaker A: like, how do you people go to this? And it's like because they don't have jobs. And also it's like, who's better for a child to be around than people whose whole thing is like getting in touch with childlike joy? [00:05:49] Speaker B: Totally. [00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:51] Speaker B: Absolute like entertainers with pure hearts. [00:05:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:54] Speaker C: You want to play? [00:05:55] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. [00:05:56] Speaker B: You're playing make believe for a living. [00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah. But for no money. And so I like grew up at UCB just kind of just being around and at the time again, like it wasn't like as what it is now. And so they'd bring me on stage a lot and like do bits with me and you know, include me. I would do like there's a show called ASCAT which is like kind of UCB's like flagship show, improv show. They would like have me on the back line doing improv with them because they'd be like, isn't it hilarious? We have a four year old doing improv. So that's like how I'd be like. Yes. And then when I was 7, Amy Poehler was doing a web series called Smart Girls at the party where she would interview like young child women. Young child women is what you call them. [00:06:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:42] Speaker B: That is a blog line. [00:06:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I think the easier way to say that is young girls. But for some reason I was like, I need to specify each other, but they're women. But child version. And I was one of the girls she interviewed. My interview was about feminism. It was me breaking down feminism. And after that she said she was like, you're ready to do monologues at ascat, which is like the basically what I think could be best described as almost like the standup that sets up the improv that they do it based off of. [00:07:16] Speaker C: Right. [00:07:17] Speaker B: Sometimes they'll bring in a celeb guest or whatever to tell a crazy story. [00:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And so people would come hoping it'd be like Lena Dunham and then they'd be like, we have a child. And so I started doing that when I was 8 and I would do that maybe twice a year until I turned 11 where I started hosting my own stand up show at ucb. And at the time I was also. And this is, we'll get into this, but this is like what my solo show is about. I was also randomly like a child activist. All of this comes down to I really wanted to be on Broadway and I didn't know what fame meant or like what how to get there. I didn't realize that to be on Broadway you just have to kind of train to be on Broadway. In my mind I was like, well, well if I just do enough stuff, I'll have a resume which will mean I can be on Broadway. [00:08:03] Speaker B: It's kind of like just the general mindset about even we feel that way sometimes, you know, just like if you [00:08:08] Speaker A: just like do whatever and then something will happen. [00:08:11] Speaker B: But by the way, you're 11 in this scenario. [00:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. [00:08:13] Speaker B: It's really important contention to remind people because you are like having these, you're like okay, like what's the strategy to get on Broadway? Yeah, it's not usually like what an 11 year old is. [00:08:22] Speaker A: No. And I don't want to dox myself but like my email that I made when I was 11 is like a very self important like Ruby informationmail.com for sure. [00:08:32] Speaker B: Like business. [00:08:33] Speaker C: Slime dog. [00:08:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:35] Speaker B: Like Ronaldo. Ronaldo, totally. [00:08:37] Speaker C: That's exactly what it was. I remember that. [00:08:40] Speaker A: And so yeah, I started hosting my own show at UCB and then when I was 16, which you gotta watch the solo show for this story. I did publish a self help memoir. Not self published. It was like a real publisher. Someone paid me money to do that to write a memoir. Me, not a famous person. Also a child, a minor, writing a memoir. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah, usually like the initial things that check like what a memoir, like memoir is like reflecting on like a whole [00:09:12] Speaker A: life and a career. No, there's like 30 pages of me just talking about like my camp boyfriend who dumped me. And so that's like just, that's just more info about me. And then I went to college, still hosting my UCB shows, doing my standup. And then right out of college I got hired at betches. Which is like a women's media company where I make sketches and memes and I like run an account for them. [00:09:40] Speaker C: Like, are you. So you're a producer there or you're writing as well? [00:09:44] Speaker A: Like, because. [00:09:46] Speaker C: Content producer, I've. They. I don't know if that's like your role, but like, they. There are content producers in the industry. Like, studios have those. And it's always kind of like, what is that exactly? [00:09:56] Speaker A: What is that? I think it's different at every company. Like for batches, for example, it's very like they really want their employees on camera, which is really great. Like, they really foster talent. And so when I first started working there, I was a video producer and my job was just to like, be both edit other people's videos, but also just like make sketches and, you know, it's iPhone sketches. So it's not like, you know, these kinds of cameras, big production, but yeah, like, just help grow the company while also putting yourself on camera. They really let me like, experiment, do characters. So I worked there for about like a year and a half and then I got the Charlie Puth show, which we talked about, which is an improvised fictional show on Roku Forever. I feel like mayor of Roku City. [00:10:49] Speaker B: And yeah, it was on Roku. [00:10:53] Speaker A: Everyone's favorite streamer. Yeah. I mean, these days, I mean, you know, anything's possible. [00:10:58] Speaker C: I love Roku. You know, my dog's name was Roku, but. Oh, that was a long time ago. [00:11:03] Speaker B: Was that because of the. [00:11:04] Speaker A: Was because of the channel? [00:11:06] Speaker C: This is before. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Oh, you were just ahead of the curve. [00:11:09] Speaker C: Yeah, we didn't name him. He came named, which is interesting, but yeah, that's. [00:11:14] Speaker A: Someone had a vision. [00:11:14] Speaker B: We can maybe unpack that later, [00:11:18] Speaker A: but yeah. And then I moved out here to do the Charlie Putz show and work on After Midnight as a social media coordinator. I don't remember what my role is, but I did something for social Media After Midnight and then I worked at Unwell and then now I'm back at Betches as a content manager. [00:11:34] Speaker C: So cool. [00:11:35] Speaker B: It's a full circle moment to be back there. It's exciting. And Betches seems like a company just from what I've. I remember listening to a couple interviews with the founders and it seems like their philosophy does sort of align with yours or what you stand for. Yeah. [00:11:50] Speaker A: And like, truly, it's like it is. Of all the places I've worked, definitely, like the most. It's like a great environment and I really love everyone I work with. But also in all of that I did a solo show for six weeks off Broadway. [00:12:05] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:05] Speaker A: Which is now a student. [00:12:07] Speaker B: Yes. Which. Which is connecting to your special. The great Britt Burke, of course, who [00:12:13] Speaker A: is a friend of the pod. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Former guest, which she's doing amazing theater stuff in New York still, which we're gonna, you know, ideally talk with her about soon. But we got in touch with Britt and learned about that whole process. I think we talked about it a little bit on the last pod. But I want to talk about, like, just the. Because we've talked about your past and the content of that show. Obviously we don't want to give the whole thing away, but if we could get into that and just. We want to talk about obviously, 50 50, the business side of what it's like to sell a special and all that too. [00:12:46] Speaker C: Wait, so you. You. Because I remember the last episode we like, really broke down. How to throw your own show. A one person show, you know, which was so interesting and so fun. So now I guess you're on the backside of that. You did it and you're now like, you were pitching or what? [00:13:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:02] Speaker B: Was that always the goal? [00:13:03] Speaker A: Like, yeah. So the thing is about specials is that the kind of landscape has changed a lot. Like, it's not like Netflix is just handing out deals to people. Now. A lot of the specials, not all of them, but a lot of specials that you see on streamers, again, not all of them, but a good amount of them are actually being self funded and then put like, sold to the streamers. But these streamers have, like, very high [00:13:30] Speaker B: standards, even from comedians with large followings that are super popular. [00:13:35] Speaker A: Like, you wouldn't believe the names that are, you know, producing it themselves. And then, of course, I think they make the money back on the back end. But Netflix isn't just like shelling out money to people to produce. To produce them specifically. Yeah, because then people are just doing it themselves. And then, you know, I'm sure they buy it for more money than. I'm sure there's a way to make a profit. But the issue is the standards that these, like, major streamers have are significantly higher than some of the like. Not Netflix named streamers tech wise or tech wise. [00:14:08] Speaker C: Okay, okay. [00:14:09] Speaker A: So it's like you could have the most beautiful show in the world, but to produce a special at their standards probably costs around $150,000. [00:14:18] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:14:19] Speaker C: You know, does it include, like, what does that include? [00:14:23] Speaker A: I think it's. I'm less of a camera person than everyone else, but when I was like having meetings about all of this, I think it's like a matter of venue, crew, equipment. I think there's just like, there's. [00:14:37] Speaker C: Is there a venue cap? Like, they're like, okay, we need to make sure there's at least this many people in this room. Do they care about that? [00:14:42] Speaker A: I think it's. I honestly think it's less about like, this is a beautiful space and more about like literal technical requirements. [00:14:51] Speaker C: Specs, like camera specs. Like, is it 8K? [00:14:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly. [00:14:55] Speaker C: That's interesting though. So it's because that sounds a whole lot more doable than like, okay, we're only taking specials that were shot in a stadium. [00:15:02] Speaker A: Well, but the issue is, like, if you're a comedian with a huge name, you probably make somewhere around that money off of like four shows versus if you're someone like me. Where am I getting $150,000 from? And so what a lot of comedians are doing now is also the scariest part is what if you spend that money and you get investors and you get these people to pay for it and then it doesn't. They don't want it. It doesn't sell. [00:15:31] Speaker C: Welcome to a filmmaking. [00:15:33] Speaker B: Right. And that's also like, that's. Netflix is like, we did the thing where we're paying for everything and now we're gonna like, pull the risk back. [00:15:41] Speaker C: Yeah, that's their strategy. [00:15:42] Speaker B: And they're like, so now we don't have to put a special on that. Like, we can have someone spend all the money on production and then we decide whether or not we want to make it. Like, it's later in the process where there's more of like a proof of, you know, is this something that we want to align ourselves as a streamer? [00:15:58] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:15:59] Speaker B: That's unfortunately for creatives. That's just like how the business. And it's no longer, like, I think no longer are Netflix specials introducing new comedians in the same way, like, Netflix is not going to invest in a new comedian for their special. [00:16:16] Speaker A: And, you know, sometimes they do, but also a lot of breakout talent is being outsourced. Like, it's like, I think about Baby Reindeer, which isn't a stand up special, but it's like that wasn't a show that they funded, but it's a show that they sourced and, you know, they put Richard Gad on the map in a way that I think definitely wasn't. [00:16:36] Speaker B: It happens in total different ways. Yeah, absolutely. [00:16:38] Speaker A: And so I think, like, as a artist myself, you have to think about, okay, well, how can I fit myself into this universe. How can I get something out there while also, like, you know, I think I talked to you guys about this, but, like, Off Broadway costs so much money, even if you have investors. It really is. It's like making a short film. You're like, oh, my God, why am I spending all of my savings all of the sudden? And so we were considering all of that while also being like, we have a beautiful set. We've just done six weeks. We have sold out audiences. We need to put this on tape, even if just for ourselves. And so it was like a true family production. My best friend in the world, Tyler Rabin, who I grew up with, has like a Sony FX something. So does his best friend Jabari, who we also grew up with. The two of them were like, we're gonna come with our Sonys. And I don't know what specific number of Sony they have, but it is really, really beautiful quality. They came, we got a couple GoPros. We brought a woman named Ryan Cunningham on board to EP it. Britt directed it. We got someone named S. Tricker who also brought their Sony effects. [00:17:57] Speaker B: So you're doing it in a really resourceful way. [00:18:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:01] Speaker A: And obviously, like, you know, there was still a budget. We still had to spend money. [00:18:06] Speaker B: But it's fun kind of doing a production on a production in a way. [00:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah. But it certainly was not $150,000. But still, if you watch the special, which you should on Veeps, it still looks beautiful, in my opinion. I love the way it looks. I think they did a beautiful job with the coloring and the directing. We had. We shot it over two nights. Tyler was on stage with me. Tyler's also, like, been my best friend since we were like 10 years old. So he was on stage with me filming for like, a more intimate kind of like, you're doing it with me shot. [00:18:46] Speaker C: Cool. [00:18:47] Speaker A: And it was like a really full circle, just kind of like, beautiful. Like we're like, it's some of my best friends in the world all doing this together. Which just kind of made the whole thing special. [00:18:57] Speaker C: Yeah. How did your performance change, if at all, with a camera in your face or cameras? [00:19:03] Speaker A: I. You know, it didn't change because we filmed it at the very end of our six week run. I think I'd done like 23 shows at that point in, like, such a short period of time. [00:19:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it was muscle memory at that point. [00:19:17] Speaker A: The audience knew that it was a special taping. So it was like the most electric. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Oh, that's so fun. [00:19:22] Speaker A: The most electric audience. We had the entire run. And so it was, I mean it was awesome. It was the best. I felt it was also just such a high to end the run on. And we filmed at Soho Playhouse, which is where we had the run, where, you know, Fleabag was. And so many shows that I've seen there that made me want to do what I did. So for me, I was like, you know what? Even if this doesn't sell, like, all my dreams just came true. [00:19:49] Speaker B: And you also didn't like fully break the bank by hiring a person production. [00:19:52] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:19:54] Speaker C: But that, that sounds like the way more like when you said 150k, I was like, yeah, but like, what is it really? You know, because there's no. I mean. And I guess for, for us, like, for someone like yourself, like, it, this, what you've done makes so much more sense. And like you said too of you love how it turned out, you know, and like just the fact that there is that like color of my best. I made this with my best friends, you know, like, you don't, you're not. You spend 150k and like some crew shows up, you know. [00:20:25] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:20:26] Speaker B: Impersonal. [00:20:27] Speaker A: They also don't know you. [00:20:28] Speaker C: You can do that in a few years. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Exactly. They don't know you the way your friends know you. And when it's something like a solo show. [00:20:35] Speaker B: Right. It's not a stand up special. Like, it's. [00:20:37] Speaker A: No, it's like an, it's a story. And you know, so much of filmmaking behind the camera is telling the story alongside the performer. And so they, you know, Brit and Tyler and Jabbari, everyone on the crew really work together to kind of create a vision that I wasn't even aware of because I was like, you know, I couldn't see any of the angles, I couldn't see what they were doing. But the result is, you know, the story is obviously very funny and it's like a wild ride and all this stuff. But it's also, it is partly a story of my life. And you know, they really captured it in a beautiful way that I think only people who know me could do. [00:21:20] Speaker C: It's amazing. So I guess now the next steps of that. So you, you, you shoot these two shows. How long did editing take and how was that process of editing? Were you involved? Was that Brit, was that the ep? [00:21:37] Speaker A: I let Brit and Tyler do their thing. They're also two of the busiest people in the world. And I was like, you know, I'm not, I'm not on a strict timeline. Like, I Was like, you guys do what you have to do to get this done. I'm not worried about it. Like, I trust you both because I also didn't want to be that performer who's like, in the edit bay being like, I don't like how my face looks in that shot. Like, I was like, just let it [00:22:03] Speaker B: all play out and all come in. [00:22:04] Speaker A: I trust Brit's vision. Time Tyler edited it. I was like, the two of you know me so well. I just trust that you guys are gonna kill this. And they did. [00:22:13] Speaker C: Where did you learn to have that sense of trust? Or you see what I get? Like, did you have an experience in the past where you're like, okay, I'll never be like that. Like, what? Did you ever have a time where you saw a performer or an actor walk into an edit bay and say, exactly that? Like, I don't like how my face looks in that. [00:22:32] Speaker A: I think, oh, my God. Did you get an Amber alert? [00:22:34] Speaker B: No, just a phone call. [00:22:35] Speaker A: Oh, [00:22:39] Speaker C: you're good. [00:22:39] Speaker A: Okay. Sorry, Sorry. No, I. I've actually never had a really terrible experience with a director. It was more that I. The way that they gave me so much space to run with my side of the project, which was the writing and the performing. I wanted to give them space to run with their side of it. And because it was so nice of them to put so much work in for me, and they made the show what it is that I was just like, I know that whatever you do is gonna be great because, like, I'm not directing this for a reason. You're directing this because you're a great director and I'm. And I trust you. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. So it's. It's unlike other stories about specials that I've heard, because it's very theater oriented. Like, it's very. It's one person show. You're relying on your director and your collaborators in a different way. [00:23:28] Speaker A: You know, they play such a different role. I mean, Brit. I've talked about this before, but Brit shaped the entire show. When Brit. Before Brit came in, it was good, but Brit made it great. And before, my background is some theater because I went to LaGuardia, famously, which is part of what the special's about. But I also am mostly a stand up comedy sketch universe background, and Brit is a theater background. And so Brit was like, in. If we're doing an off Broadway show, this needs to be a theater piece. There needs to be. Not that you need to go act out scenes and do an interpretive dance, but this Needs to have an emotional. You need to connect with the audience and get them invested in you in a way that stand up doesn't necessarily allow. In the same way, because this is more about getting people, yes, they're laughing and yes, it's funny, but it's about getting them invested in your feelings, which, you know, some standups are capable of doing, but that's not what the show [00:24:33] Speaker C: was before she came. [00:24:34] Speaker B: There's definitely a fine line. Like there. There are stand ups who lean more storytelling. Like classics like Birbiglia. [00:24:42] Speaker A: Right. [00:24:42] Speaker B: Of course. He's like the guy who. Who kind of blurs. [00:24:46] Speaker A: Started this kind of trend, I feel. [00:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He started the trend. Trend, yes. Okay, so if we're gonna keep going with the timeline, you know, at what point do you involve yourself with in the post production process? [00:24:58] Speaker A: I mean, once they have like a cut, I go through it and I'll be like, oh, like, maybe this shot. Like, hold on this. Hold on this punchline longer. Or ooh. Like, not like, not loving the way I look in this one. But I really tried to. To not have a crazy amount of notes. I think most of my notes were just like, is there a take with more laughter? Just stuff like that. But really, I mean, most of my notes were like very small. Like, I never at no point was I, like, we need to redo this whole section, right? It was more just like, you know, very little things that were kind of more about holding on jokes or, you know, random stuff like that. But really they killed it. [00:25:45] Speaker C: There was no opportunity for pickups or. There was. [00:25:49] Speaker A: There was because we filmed it over two nights. What we would do at the end of the show, we would do pickups. So we'd go, hi, audience, thank you for being so nice and awesome. Can you stay seated? And we're just gonna, like, pretend that you've never heard these jokes before and do a couple jokes even better too. So Ryan EP'd. It would, throughout the tapings, take notes of Ruby. You flubbed this line. Or there was like a weird tech thing that happened here. And so at the end of the show, we'd maybe do like five to ten jokes over again. [00:26:20] Speaker B: And that's the two nights you both. You did both of that. [00:26:23] Speaker C: It's really fun. Yeah, really fun. [00:26:25] Speaker A: It. Honestly, it might have been a longer theater experience for some of the audience members, but I would like to think that it was fun because, I don't know, it was like a peek behind the curtain. [00:26:33] Speaker B: Oh, that's so fun. The first time I Saw live a stand up special taping. I was like, wait, this is so fun. Like, I saw this comedian and she came out and she was like, nah, I don't like that entrance. So she went back. [00:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:26:45] Speaker B: It's like, it's fun and the audience loves it. [00:26:47] Speaker C: Like you play with it. [00:26:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's so fun. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And they're on camera, so it's like fun for them too. [00:26:53] Speaker B: And you're seeing this person who's kind of like, you know, like mythologized on stage in a way. Like kind of have like, you're seeing like the real version of them. Cause you're a character when you're on stage, essentially. And then you're like, oh, there's actual Ruby peeking out. [00:27:09] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:27:10] Speaker B: Fun. [00:27:11] Speaker A: Exactly. So, yeah, we edited it and after the edit was locked, or we felt locked enough to, you know, send it to people, we sent it to streamers who we knew we wanted to work with. I think we always really knew we wanted Veeps, which is where it ended up. Veeps is truly a fantastic platform for especially people self producing. They mostly do music and comedy. So, like, how did this get made? Has uploaded their live podcast. Cohen did a special there, but also like, there's a lot of like, you know, comedians whose names you might not know who they've given a platform to. And it's a pay per view platform, so you can have a subscription, but you can also just rent stuff one off. So like, I think my Special is like $4 to rent or something like that. Or you can like have a subscription to the whole service. But it really is. They have such an amazing collection of shows like mine, where it's kind of a mix of stand up and theater, straight up stand up shows, musical comedy podcasts, like live shows, they do a lot of music tapings. [00:28:26] Speaker C: What was the, the, the deal process like with them? And I guess before that you, you guys locked this and you're just like, great, let's send it out. Like, there was no, like, okay, let's show a couple friends or something and see how they feel about it. [00:28:42] Speaker A: I think we, I think because amongst our team, which was Amy Boland, our producer. [00:28:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:48] Speaker A: Tyler, who edited it, and Brit, who directed it. I think the four of us had watched it so many times. We've also, especially me and Amy, who's been there with me since like the conception of the show, we've all seen the show so many times that we knew like, when it was a slam dunk, we were like, we Were like, this is what it's meant to look like and be and feel like. And I think we. I think we just were, like, confident. We were like, this show rocks. We've put so much work into it. Let's just full send it. And so that is when reps got involved. Pitched it out to a couple places just to, you know, try. Try putting ourselves out there to as many places as possible. But, yeah, we connected with Veeps pretty immediately, and they were like, this is great. Like, when do you want to put it up? [00:29:43] Speaker C: Wow. [00:29:44] Speaker A: And just like that. And just like that. Yeah. And it was honestly kind of that simple. The Veeps team is great. They're so easy to work with. We opted for a September release because I think we hammered all this down in May. We were waiting on music rights because, not gonna spoil it, but there is maybe one song in the show, and so we needed to get the rights to that song. And once we got the rights, we were like, okay, we can publish this whenever. But we were like, we didn't want to really release it in the summer just because of JFL and Edinburgh Fringe and people are away for the summer. Yeah, we were just like, let's just, like, so much of it is about my experience at theater high school and so. And like, trying to be a child actor and all this stuff. We were like, I feel like this fits in really well with, like a back to school situation, September vibe. [00:30:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:43] Speaker A: So we were like, let's just wait, hold it on this. Hold on the summer. Maybe get ready for press and, you know, getting people to pay attention to this. And now we're just. Now we're waiting because this is being recorded in July. I don't know when this is coming out, but we are currently in the month of July. [00:30:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:31:02] Speaker B: So exciting. I just like when you were talking about all. And you know, the theater high school experience, like, you went to LaGuardia, which is such, like a known thing in the culture. Are you ever just, like, exhausted from all of this? [00:31:16] Speaker A: Totally. That's so awesome that you asked that. [00:31:19] Speaker B: I'm feeling exhausted just hearing about, like, not in a bad way, but, like, hearing about like, how much. How ambitious you have been for so long. We'll be right back. [00:31:35] Speaker C: I want to play, like, a scary song from, like, a horror movie before this, but all the copyright stuff, so I can't but imagine there's like a scary song playing right now. And it's like, oh, the 5050 horror festival is coming up. You need to submit your short film soon. By August 7th. August 7th is the deadline. You have two months to submit your short film. You have two months and then after that there's another deadline. Read it here first. Submit now. Submit now if you dare. Now. But for real, we have our horror festival coming up in October. October 18th is the actual day. Get your short in by August 7th if you want to be a part of it. We look forward to viewing your submission on film. Freeway 50 50. Horror. Those are the numbers. 505 0. [00:32:33] Speaker B: Horror. [00:32:36] Speaker A: I think it's so funny because I feel like we've talked about this privately, but everyone who you perceive to be like, wow, they're doing so much on their own is like, I don't do anything and nothing is happening in my life. I feel like I'm the kind of person where as soon as I do something cool, I'm like, well, that's done, that's done. [00:32:56] Speaker B: And now. [00:32:56] Speaker A: And now I'm a failure. [00:32:57] Speaker B: Back to square one. [00:32:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I have nothing going on. I guess nothing's happening. [00:33:02] Speaker B: We feel, we talk about that all the time, of course. And by the way, I guess that's what fuels you. [00:33:07] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And also, even people who have made Oscar winning features feel that way. [00:33:14] Speaker C: It's nothing. [00:33:15] Speaker A: Yeah. You know what I mean? I don't think that feeling, if you're a driven person, ever goes away. It's so funny. Cause you say that, but I'm like, girl, I'm not doing anything with my life. But it's. Thank you for saying that. I think that for me, what drives me as a person is like, I want to do. I feel like, I don't know about you guys, but like, my 20s has been very existential. Like, I've been very, like, I'm only here for a short period of time and my body's only gonna function so well for a period of time. And if I'm like, if I'm a storyteller and I'm an artist and I, you know, I want to, I want to change my art with my, my body and with my age and yeah, I want to take advantage of this specific body and this specific age as much as I can. [00:34:04] Speaker C: And I think it doesn't help when the older folks are like, oh, 20s are crazy. [00:34:10] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:34:12] Speaker B: They suck. [00:34:13] Speaker A: And so I think that for me, I'm like, I need to. I need to do as much as I can at all times. [00:34:21] Speaker B: You are, by the way, like, it's crazy. I mean, it's crazy how much you're doing. You're on teams at ucb. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:29] Speaker B: You're popping up and doing stand up, right? [00:34:32] Speaker A: Sure. Yes. [00:34:32] Speaker B: That's where we, like, connected. Ruby was on Linda, which is. [00:34:38] Speaker A: That was awesome. I took a little bit of a break from stand up just. Just for, like, a couple months, because I was doing. I'm on a mod team at ucb. [00:34:47] Speaker C: And what is that? [00:34:48] Speaker A: Mod is a sketch team. So they have, like, house teams. It's. It's like kind of that. That's the whole thing. That's. I was going to continue a sentence and I was like, actually, that's the end of the sentence. [00:34:59] Speaker B: So you're on a team at ucb. The. Seeing you at Linda was awesome because genuinely, if I did not know you, I would be like, this girl's crazy. Regardless of what she says right now. You were so comfortable on stage. Like, you were so. I was like, this is someone who's been around. Been doing this for a long time. [00:35:21] Speaker A: That's, like, why I don't mind taking breaks from stand up. Because I'm like, girl, I've been here since I was 11. Like, we don't need to be. [00:35:27] Speaker C: And. [00:35:27] Speaker B: And if you. If there's a moment where something doesn't land, you will acknowledge it and say exactly what the audience is thinking. Like, it's so strategic and good. [00:35:36] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah. Lately I've been doing. I'm trying a lot of new jokes these days, and I've been doing a lot of. Oh, wow. This is not relatable to anyone at all. I thought we'd all had this experience. [00:35:46] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:35:47] Speaker A: Totally. Yes. [00:35:48] Speaker B: Yeah. People love that. They love that sort of tone. [00:35:50] Speaker A: I think people love when you acknowledge. I mean, I guess that's what stand up is, but they love when you acknowledge the thing that we're all thinking. [00:35:58] Speaker B: But it's hard to be present in that sense because you're so worried about what you're saying in the material. [00:36:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially when you're trying new stuff and you're like, you know, you don't want to look at your phone, but you want to remember your punchline that you worked so hard to perfectly craft. [00:36:09] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:36:10] Speaker A: Um. But, yeah, I. I mean, mod makes me so happy. And I run an improv show at the Lyric, and so I was just. I was doing a lot of sketch and improv that I was just like, there's, like. [00:36:23] Speaker B: Yeah, when you're in, there's, like, unlimited things you can do. [00:36:27] Speaker A: Well, it's just so fun. [00:36:28] Speaker B: There's always, like, fun little venues that you can kind of just Like, I [00:36:31] Speaker A: mean, my improv show can never be monetized because it's called shadowcast improv. So we. I edit movies down to an hour, and then we do the movie. Like, we do an improvised version of the movie as it plays. [00:36:42] Speaker B: It's like a Rocky Horror. [00:36:43] Speaker A: It's like a Rocky Horror thing. So, like, the audience gets, like, chance things to yell at us and throw at us. [00:36:47] Speaker B: What movies are you? [00:36:48] Speaker A: We've done. We've done Wicked. We've done Hunger Games, High School Musical. [00:36:55] Speaker B: The hits. [00:36:56] Speaker A: The hits, of course. Pitch Perfect. [00:36:58] Speaker C: People like that one just like rip these from the Internet. [00:37:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I rip them from the Internet. [00:37:02] Speaker C: You take like an hour off. [00:37:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I cut them down to like 45 minutes. Most of the time it is a blast. But literally it can't even be live streamed anywhere because of copyright. It is truly just something I do for love of the game. [00:37:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think you invite, you know, your improv. [00:37:19] Speaker A: My friends. Yeah. Or just people who I admire, who I would like, love to do improv with. [00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:25] Speaker A: And yeah, it's my favorite show I think I've ever run because it's just so stupid and so chaotic. And I always say to people backstage, I'm like, the goal is not necessarily to do good improv. It's more to keep up and, like, embrace the chaos. [00:37:42] Speaker B: There's no like, restarting or any of that. Like, the movie will be playing. Yeah. [00:37:46] Speaker A: And it's fast. Yeah. [00:37:48] Speaker C: It's 45 minutes. [00:37:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's like, that becomes the game is that it's like keeping up while also being like, this is stupid. And so, I don't know, I was like. I was feeling very fulfilled. We were in post on this, I was like, I don't love doing the same jokes for like five years, which is, you know, part of stand up is you have the same set for a while because you're really fine tuning, like a perfect 10. And I was like, I don't want to get on stage if I don't have anything new to say. And then I had new material as Wyatt saw. And so now I'm kind of just now in the past few months, getting back into stand up again. [00:38:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:26] Speaker C: Is stand up a breeze for you? I mean, you said it. But like, do you. Do you get stage fright? Are you nervous? [00:38:33] Speaker A: Definitely not stage fright. I think stand up for me. When I was a kid, I was like, I'm gonna have a stand up Netflix special one day and I'm gonna be a serious stand up comedian. And that's My future. And also on Broadway, by the way. [00:38:46] Speaker C: And also your parents, like what? [00:38:49] Speaker A: Well, also like, I think I told you guys this, but like I gave a TED talk when I was 12, which is also in the spot special mom. [00:38:55] Speaker B: Just like, like how, how it happened. [00:38:58] Speaker A: My mom just kind of hangs out like my mom, my mom, when I like was like approached by agents when I was a kid, my mom was like, absolutely not. Like, my mom did what she could. She had some framework to be like maybe no. Yeah. Like she was always like, I don't want you to be like a child star, even though you clearly want that. [00:39:16] Speaker B: That's. [00:39:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it was, it was clearly you [00:39:18] Speaker B: were very vocal about wanting to be. [00:39:20] Speaker A: It was kind of like an opposite child star momager situation. Like I felt like I was the momager and my mom was like trying to be like maybe go to school and yeah, the reason I went to college is because my mom didn't graduate college and then in her 50s, got laid off and had a really, really hard time finding a job because no one wanted to hire like a 50 year old woman without a college degree. And my mom and I got our degrees at the same time because we were just like, I love that. We were like one fuck ageism. But also my mom was like, I want you to not have to experience that. And you know, you can always experience ageism. But you know, she was like, I think it's important that you have this experience. And so I did. I went to college. [00:40:11] Speaker B: She must be so proud of you now. [00:40:13] Speaker A: Well, we're best friends, single mom, only [00:40:15] Speaker B: child, right next to each other. [00:40:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, we're kind of like Gilmore Girls, but like cool New York vibe for sure. Like currently in la, but also currently living in LA because it's cheaper. Yeah, she's like, I mean she's the best. And also I wouldn't be able to do. She's the first person I send everything to. All my features, all my stand up sets. Like I bounce everything off of her. Which is so funny because she's not in the arts. But she is a writer. Yeah, she writes, she wrote. She published her first YA novel a few years ago. [00:40:47] Speaker B: Wow. [00:40:48] Speaker A: Yep. [00:40:49] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:40:50] Speaker A: No, she's epic. She's just like us. She works a day job and then she works on her passion projects on the side. [00:40:56] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:40:57] Speaker C: How did she feel about this special? [00:40:59] Speaker A: I mean, she loves it. She's a punchline in a lot of it. Yeah. And she saw every iteration of it. But so much of it is about My childhood growing up at ucb, growing up around all these adult. The show is called I Don't Trust Adults. And so I go through the six adults who made me fundamentally not trust adults. And so, of course, she knows every single adult in the show. [00:41:28] Speaker B: Teachers. [00:41:31] Speaker A: Totally. It is. I'd say it's two teachers at my theater school. Because if you've been to theater school, you know that there is always something weird and illegal going on or borderline illegal. A comedian, a journalist. And then the thing is, there's two others. I don't remember. You're on a couch. Find it out. Go watch. And so my mom. [00:42:02] Speaker B: You're not supposed to remember when you're sitting on a couch. [00:42:04] Speaker A: No, you can't. When you're on a couch, you're just like, I'm on a couch right now. Nothing else is realized. You get relaxed and you're like, I've never done anything in my life. But yeah, she is, you know, both a punchline and also like a rock throughout the show. Because, you know, it is definitely a choice to raise your child in a basement of a grocery store comedy venue. But thankfully it worked out in a good way. [00:42:33] Speaker C: She could probably write a great book in a few years. [00:42:36] Speaker A: Wait, actually, you know, look out for this. My mom wrote her master's thesis on the history of queer stand up comedy. The comedy Queer stand up. Boom. Which happened in the 2010s, and that's coming out next year. And part of, like, when you're writing a, like, thesis book. Book. I don't know the exact terminology. When you're writing a book like that, you have to explain your personal connection and, like, kind of like your. Why. [00:43:01] Speaker B: Like, it's like an academic. [00:43:02] Speaker A: It's an academic thing. This is like something that would be [00:43:04] Speaker C: like something that would struggle. It's like a journal. [00:43:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, like a. This could be like a reference. [00:43:10] Speaker B: There's definitely a word that we're all for. [00:43:12] Speaker A: There's a word that none of us know. But I think you might all at home be like, you are also stupid. I know this word. [00:43:18] Speaker C: This is what happens. [00:43:19] Speaker B: None of us paid attention. [00:43:19] Speaker A: Or none of us sit on couch. [00:43:21] Speaker C: No, we did. We did. It's just a couch. [00:43:24] Speaker A: But she has, like, a very beautiful intro and outro of her connection to this world and her role in it. Because my mom. [00:43:33] Speaker B: Dissertation. [00:43:34] Speaker A: Dissertation. [00:43:36] Speaker C: Dude, let it go, okay? Let it go. [00:43:37] Speaker A: The thing is, I just don't know. And the thing is, I do know because I've read it and I, you know, we talk about it all the time. But in this moment, I'm on couch. When I am on couch, we don't know things. [00:43:47] Speaker C: That's it. Yeah, that's. [00:43:49] Speaker A: But you gotta put your mic up there. You're just kind of hanging out. [00:43:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:53] Speaker A: You're like, I don't need a mic. My mom, she falls asleep, actually. So now it's just a combo between the two of us. [00:44:01] Speaker B: We all fall asleep. [00:44:03] Speaker A: That's like the rest of the episode, [00:44:06] Speaker C: like a great thumbnail. [00:44:08] Speaker A: But my mom, because she didn't want me eating, emailing adults. When I was doing my stand up show, my mom would produce the show. And so she did really have a front row seat to a lot of the standup world in the 2010s, right. [00:44:26] Speaker B: She was observing. [00:44:28] Speaker A: She was also doing outreach. [00:44:30] Speaker B: Who are the pillars of the 2010s queer stand up scene? [00:44:34] Speaker A: I mean, at the time, these were all up and comers. [00:44:38] Speaker B: And would that be also considered alt comedy? [00:44:41] Speaker A: Yes, that's definitely. And I think it's only considered alt comedy because we all associate, I would quote, unquote, like mainstream comedy with Bill Burr and no shade. But it's just like the men who have been doing standup specials for 20 years. And then I think they were like, oh, my God, a gay person. That's alt comedy. And it's like, well, just because it's [00:45:08] Speaker B: not what we've seen. [00:45:08] Speaker A: Just because it's not like a guy being like, women be shopping and. Yeah. I mean, also the alt comedy scene, I feel like, feels like a safer space sometimes, depending on the vibe of mainstream comedy at the current moment. That I've always felt more at home in the alt comedy scene than anything. Even though my sets are pretty straight up stand up. [00:45:36] Speaker C: Right. [00:45:37] Speaker B: There's a lot of alt comedy that's like marketed as all comedy, but it's just like great stand up. [00:45:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just kind of someone who's like, not an incel. [00:45:48] Speaker C: Right. [00:45:49] Speaker A: And. Yeah. Yeah. [00:45:52] Speaker C: Cool. Well, I guess returning back to. Is veeps. It's. They're called veeps. [00:45:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like another drop. It's kind of like dropout. [00:46:01] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Can you talk about like the. The actual, like those conversations and what pitching looked like. Was it really just. You sent them the final cut and they're like, great. [00:46:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:15] Speaker C: Okay. [00:46:16] Speaker A: Quite. I like. [00:46:16] Speaker C: That's amazing. [00:46:17] Speaker A: Truly. Not more to that than that. We. We worked on it for like almost a year. [00:46:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:24] Speaker A: And then we emailed it over and they called my agent and were like, we love it, we want it. [00:46:32] Speaker B: Let's get into a deal. [00:46:33] Speaker A: Let's get into it. And then, and then, you know, of course, contract and terms and all that stuff. But in terms of like the actual. Yes, like, it was quick. It was quick. [00:46:42] Speaker C: So with, with your management, with your representation or your agent, like you said, when something like this happens, is it. I mean, because momentum is so much right. Where it's like, oh, we just. This thing, like, how can we kind of parlay this for the next thing? [00:46:55] Speaker B: And marketing, too. [00:46:56] Speaker C: And marketing about that. Yeah. Like, what? Was there a plan? You mentioned the potential for, like, PR and stuff coming, you know, to build to the release in September. But, like, where's your head at now? I know you mentioned, you know, why I'd ask about being a little bit exhausted or just tired in general, but, like, are you like, okay, I'm going to take a vacation for, for a couple weeks and come back and never take a picture. So you're not gonna do that. But like. [00:47:24] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you were just saying I'm feeling ambitious and I'm like, I need to send myself to a place where I speak the same language and be alone for a week. [00:47:32] Speaker C: That's true. [00:47:33] Speaker B: But, yeah, I guess. Where is your mindset? [00:47:36] Speaker C: Yeah, where's your mind? And in conversation with representation as well. [00:47:41] Speaker A: Just hearing what that's like, what it's like having. [00:47:44] Speaker C: Yeah. Post. Post. Having a deal, like, go through, you [00:47:48] Speaker A: know, I mean, love my reps, shout out my reps. I think for me, I think a lot of people don't understand how much of everything we see is people with amazing budgets for PR. PR reps, specifically, PR costs between 3 to $10,000 a month. And normally if you're doing like some sort of press campaign, you're doing at least three months of a contract with the PR person. And if you're again, someone like me who really is, like, being scrappy about it and you don't have, like, big [00:48:24] Speaker B: investors, if you're doing something with like Amazon, then they're. [00:48:29] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. But when you're going, you know, fully independent in the way that we are, we don't have that kind of money, [00:48:38] Speaker B: so you gotta do it in other ways. [00:48:39] Speaker A: Yeah. But the thing is, I think PR has changed. I think that, mind you, of course, it would be amazing to get a publicist. But I also think that, especially I work in social media, we're in a different age of like, what can get people to watch something or what can get people like, you know, to know of you. Half of it is like, you know, man on the street interviews and working at these media companies and doing your friends podcasts who have people who actually listen to them. And obviously it's a cool Instagram post to be able to be like this really big newspaper wrote about me. But I honestly find that more eyes are actually on the digital me clipping up the special and hoping that something goes viral, kind of just like really leaning in. It's true to digital marketing, which thankfully [00:49:41] Speaker B: is you have so much experience in [00:49:42] Speaker A: the industry I work in. [00:49:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:44] Speaker A: And so that's kind of where my mind is at is like, how do I be a one man publicist? And that's the journey I'm currently on. [00:49:54] Speaker C: One of our many filmmakers, but her name is Kate Saltel, if you know Kate, she had a film at our last comedy festival called Headshot and she decided to put well before posting the short film straight to instagram. It's a 10 minute short film posted on Instagram. I've never seen anyone do that because that's insane. Like, you just don't do that. [00:50:19] Speaker B: Nobody like watches something for 10 minutes. [00:50:22] Speaker A: Why not? [00:50:22] Speaker C: Right? [00:50:23] Speaker B: And, and that's what we said. [00:50:25] Speaker C: It's at 200,000 views right now on Instagram. But before that she was just going, having so much fun with this marketing campaign for her short film. And she is a YouTube native, like came from YouTube, understood algorithms and got really into the science of it. Obsessing over obsessing. And her whole philosophy is like, people don't care unless you make them care. [00:50:53] Speaker B: You want to make them feel in on it, like in on the joke. Mm. Yeah. [00:50:57] Speaker C: Yeah. And she really successfully built a cultural phenomena like in our bubble and the [00:51:06] Speaker B: people who want, you know, she wants [00:51:08] Speaker C: watching her stuff, like she, she successfully did that as a one man band. [00:51:13] Speaker B: It's pretty cool. [00:51:14] Speaker C: And it's incredible to see, like, it's, it's like actually unbelievable and it's amazing that it worked. But like this happens and it's gonna continue to happen. And it, we see it more and more and like, yes, the 3 to 10k a month or even more than that for PR is absolutely a thing on the traditional route. But I do think with social media, and I know you're a fricking pro at social media, you don't necessarily need to be spending that much money as you didn't need to spend 150k on [00:51:50] Speaker A: your special, you know, exactly. [00:51:52] Speaker C: Like there's. The walls are coming down and I [00:51:56] Speaker A: think like, you know, there's a lot of like fear mongering about the industry and which you know, is valid fear and about how things are changing. But I also think that there are so many ways in which we can take advantage of how it is changing and use it for our benefit. Like we can benefit from it. [00:52:16] Speaker C: Absolutely, absolutely. It's just a matter of, I guess taking action. [00:52:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:22] Speaker C: Trying things. [00:52:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:24] Speaker C: How do you stay. And we've spoken about this a bunch, even this weekend, but like, how do you stay in the headspace of like, okay, I have an idea. I'm going to go make it. [00:52:36] Speaker A: I think it's with the. What's. What I love about stand up and solo shows is that you really can just go do it with a feature. You have to wait for funding. You have to wait for people to attach. You have to wait for people to just read it. But with solo show, I mean you don't even have to be like a super successful stand up to get a venue. You can just kind of ask and ask a bunch of places and one place is destined to say yes. And even with Edinburgh Fringe, you can go to Edinburgh Fringe and, and be a performer there. You don't have to be a famous person to have a show there. Like, it's really just about where there's a will, there's a way. And that is like what I really love about solo shows and stand up in general. And I think because of that, those are the things that really get me going and get me motivated. But also at the same time, I am always writing features, I'm always writing shows. I'm always like trying to make stuff happen. I'm. I told Wyatt on different levels. Yeah. I told Wyatt I, I had a rom com that I wrote that I loved and then I got the advice to make it a book. So now I'm writing it as a book so that it's IP and it's just like cool. I'm just, you know, doing the reverse, I guess. But I think all of this is just, it's all just throwing paint. And there are ways to throw paint that might get you to where you want to be faster. But I think for me it's like the way I think stay motivated and stay creatively inspired is by doing so many different avenues that different forms. When I'm bored of book, I go to script and when I'm bored of script, I go to show pitch pilot. Exactly. Exactly. [00:54:26] Speaker B: That's awesome. So what's next for you after this inevitably comes out? Huge success. [00:54:34] Speaker A: Obviously I'll be the most famous girl in the world. [00:54:37] Speaker B: PR people are Wanting to work for you. They're like, can we pay you? [00:54:41] Speaker A: And I'd be like, I have to think about it. [00:54:43] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:54:44] Speaker A: I think for me, I really, really would like people to watch this show. That would be really awesome. I'm working on my next solo show. We're gonna try and go to Fringe next year with it. Almost do kind of, I think, the reverse of what we did this time around, which is do Fringe first and then think about off Broadway and all that stuff. And then I think otherwise. As Wyatt knows, I'm pitching, I'm writing. I'm just hoping to sell one of the many things I'm trying to get made. I'm doing mod at ucb. My improv show auditions, just as per usual, just hoping something hits. [00:55:28] Speaker C: Yep. [00:55:29] Speaker B: You're hitting the ground running. [00:55:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. Yeah. And that's, I think, why, when we were talking about, like, oh, my God, you're doing so much, and you're like, yeah, but, like, I'm trying to do so much, and I'm kind of hoping on and waiting on a yes, which is why I love to do these things that I can control. [00:55:45] Speaker B: You. You have to. You have to be doing so many things. [00:55:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:48] Speaker B: You cannot just be, like, doing one thing, shipping around a script, waiting for people to read it, waiting for Pat. Like, that's not the productive. You have to be every night, getting up somewhere, performing somewhere like that. That's exactly what, like, a modern version of a multiyphonate is. [00:56:05] Speaker C: And doing that, when the opportunity comes, you're ready. [00:56:08] Speaker B: You're so in shape. [00:56:09] Speaker A: Totally. So, I don't know. I think I'm also a believer in right place, right time. I think that all of these things, one day will click, and it'll be like, oh, I did that thing super scrappily so that now I can function on this not scrappy set. [00:56:26] Speaker C: And people will be like, oh, my gosh, Ruby Carb. She just showed up. It's like, no, I've been. I was. I did a TED Talk when I was 11. [00:56:32] Speaker A: I know. [00:56:32] Speaker B: I will say no no matter what, if you have a big break. People are like, well, where did this person come from? [00:56:38] Speaker A: I'll go, girl, you ever heard of a digital footprint? [00:56:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm always like, people are always like, timothee Chami's digital footprint is crazy. I'm like, you are not prepared to Google search me. [00:56:50] Speaker C: Wasn't he LaGuardia? [00:56:51] Speaker A: He was a LaGuardia kid. Yeah. [00:56:53] Speaker C: Do you have any crazy stories about him? So I definitely echoes in the halls, probably. [00:56:57] Speaker A: This is what I tell people about LaGuardia. [00:56:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:57:00] Speaker A: Everyone's perception of LaGuardia is that the kids who go there are super talented and they all get super famous, which is true for some. [00:57:09] Speaker C: Then there's who else? What? [00:57:10] Speaker A: It was like a people who I. Okay. I think, like, historically it's like Jennifer Aniston, Al Pacino, Timothee Chamois and Sakura. [00:57:20] Speaker B: Have you heard of. [00:57:20] Speaker A: Do you know who those people are? [00:57:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you know who those people are? [00:57:23] Speaker A: But I think when I say this to people, when you use the term child star, you assume that that means it's a child who was famous. You underestimate how many children were trying to be child stars but did not succeed, but were still in that universe. That is how I would refer to myself at a place like laguardia. And also my childhood theater school is not for the weak. I would say LaGuardia mainly taught. least my program is taught under Meisner, which is kind of one of the, like, very, very emotionally intense acting methods that they're teaching to 14 year olds. [00:58:00] Speaker B: Awful, by the way. That's like abusive. That's awful. [00:58:03] Speaker A: So, like my freshman year of high school, my teacher would be like, go into the hallway and imagine you're watching your mom get hit by a car, then come in and do the scene. And I would be like, yes, of course I can do that. And then also at theater schools and theater camps, there are no boundaries because there's not really lines, because it's emotional. It's about your teacher being like, use it. Use your trauma to access your emotion in this scene. [00:58:35] Speaker B: Totally. [00:58:36] Speaker A: And so because of that, there's a lot of just weird gray area stuff that is able to occur because of that. And I think that's a lot of what I explore in the show is you're exploring it. [00:58:49] Speaker B: You're not taking a stance necessarily on it. Or what is the. [00:58:54] Speaker C: I think I take a pretty far. [00:58:56] Speaker B: What's the thesis then? [00:58:58] Speaker A: I think my thesis is. And I think it'll make more sense if you watch the whole story. My perception of adults as a child was that these were people who knew everything, who I could trust because they were there to guide me. Especially like a teacher. A teacher is there to kind of be like your work mom, like the person who, for those eight hours of the day, is your confidant. Especially in acting, which is something that's so intimate and personal and really requires a lot of trust. [00:59:34] Speaker B: Yeah, they're holding like a blob of emotions in Their hands. [00:59:37] Speaker A: Exactly. And in general, I think like children and everyone's perception of children is that we are trusting the adults moving through the universe to treat them with respect and to treat them like they are children. But we're in a society right now. And I explain this in the show, like I was like in 2010, I was 10. That is like right around the time where like Greta Thunberg popped on the scene and we started really idolizing. Greta Thunberg popped off. But at that time it's like when we really started on the Internet, you know, idolizing children and being like this child is gonna save the world. And in that we started talking about children as if they were not children. We started speaking on their looks and their thoughts and then it's like this is a 12 year old girl. [01:00:28] Speaker C: Right. [01:00:29] Speaker B: They're like adults who are more impressive because of their age. [01:00:33] Speaker A: Yes. And this gets even to even in our 20s. Like, well, oh well, she's 25 and she's done all this, which makes her so much more impressive than a 30 year old who's done all of that. [01:00:42] Speaker B: Even though they've done the same, even [01:00:43] Speaker A: though they've done the same things. And I think a big thesis of the show is when I became an adult myself, I reflected on my childhood because I couldn't stop thinking about high school and I couldn't stop thinking about my childhood. Even though so much of my experiences at UCB were so positive. I was like, why has everyone moved on and I haven't? And I think it's because I was grappling with realizing that I shouldn't have trusted these adults and that adults be moving weird with children and just I don't know how. We really need to treat children with kindness and treat them like they're kids while also respecting that they are people with thoughts and feelings just a little bit shorter. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're just, you know, they're just tinier. But also they just, I don't know, I feel like when we've all been 16 and there's nothing more emotionally intense than being a 16 year old girl [01:01:52] Speaker B: and those people who are tapped into your emotions, who are adults, are so powerful. [01:01:58] Speaker A: Exactly. And so I guess with great power comes great responsibility. [01:02:03] Speaker B: Well, this is a world that I, I, I'm sure you told one of many stories that could be told in your solar and I'm sure this, it seems like there's so much more to mind from these experiences and, and we can all relate to it in a specific way. I mean Maybe more directly people who did the. Like, I remember doing theater in high school and, like, sometimes the stuff that. That theater directors and theater teachers would ask kids are like, if this was any. Any other context, this would be so inappropriate. [01:02:34] Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly. I had teachers at my school. I don't talk about this in the show, but, like, there were teachers who would be like, you need to act sexier in this scene. And, like, you need to seduce. [01:02:43] Speaker B: And it's okay because you're playing a character. You know, it's like, exactly. [01:02:47] Speaker A: And it's like. It's what I mean about language of. I guess this is okay because you're not, like, physically touching me, but this is still inappropriate, especially as an adult thinking about that. I'm like, that's weird. And, yeah, I think part of the show is, you know, not me. I don't really. Part of the show is not me necessarily being like, at no point am I, like, feel bad. For me, it's more that it's. I think let's all reframe how we view children as adults and also how we think about some of the adults we interacted with. [01:03:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You're. You're 25. You're fine. You have processed all of this. You know, let's. Let's look back at it together. [01:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. No, I was very cautious of being like, this is not me airing out totally. [01:03:42] Speaker B: Like, I don't want you to feel bad for me by the end of this show. [01:03:45] Speaker A: I. Yeah, I'm not, like, screaming like, this is a show. This is a comedy show. [01:03:50] Speaker C: Right. [01:03:51] Speaker A: Just with a thesis and a story. [01:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. [01:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:56] Speaker C: I'm excited to see it. [01:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Really, really excited to see it. [01:03:59] Speaker A: You guys are invited to the premiere, of course. [01:04:01] Speaker C: Are you doing a. [01:04:02] Speaker A: We're gonna try and do a screening on September 10th, so mark your calendars. [01:04:07] Speaker B: Fantastic. [01:04:07] Speaker C: September 10th. [01:04:08] Speaker B: Great. Well, thank you for coming on. [01:04:10] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me. [01:04:12] Speaker C: We gotta ask the last question. [01:04:13] Speaker A: Oh, ask the. [01:04:14] Speaker C: Oh, you're getting there. [01:04:16] Speaker A: He's leading into it. Luke. [01:04:18] Speaker C: He was so. That was. I so bought that. [01:04:20] Speaker B: I was like, whoa, it's fun. [01:04:22] Speaker A: Actor. [01:04:23] Speaker B: It's fun. It's fun to talk to you a second time. And I feel like you could come on in another year and we would have a full other thing to talk about, God willing. Or maybe you'll be in Edinburgh then, you know. [01:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah, you will be. [01:04:36] Speaker B: But we do ask one final question, which is kind of funny because we did ask. Ask you this question, I believe, the first time. But it's fun to compare the two and see how they've changed. And it's an intentionally vague question. What is the dream for you? [01:04:50] Speaker A: Totally. And the thing is, I have no memory of anything I ever say on a podcast, so I might say the [01:04:57] Speaker B: exact same thing, and that would be kind of fun. [01:04:59] Speaker A: And I actually think I know exactly what I said because I was about to say it. So I think I'm gonna guess last time I said to be able to be employed doing art. I think for me, the goal has never been notoriety per se, but more so just the ability to financially support myself while doing the things I want to do. And so I guess that is still true. But I also think that the dream is to do everything. I think I like doing everything and I want to do everything. I want to get a show made. I want to direct and write and star in my own features. I want to publish books. I want to keep doing stand up and improv and sketch and just kind of get as much as I possibly can out of all of these worlds I like to live in. [01:05:52] Speaker B: I love that. I think more people should be saying unapologetically that they want to do everything. [01:05:56] Speaker C: I love that. Right. Yeah, absolutely. [01:05:58] Speaker B: We need more of that. [01:05:59] Speaker A: And the people who do it are so fucking cool. Like, Miranda July is like, probably, I think, whose career I'd like to. [01:06:06] Speaker B: That is really cool. [01:06:07] Speaker C: I love that. [01:06:08] Speaker A: And yeah, I'm like, I don't know. I think I just think of so many different artists who do so many different things, and I think we have a real habit as a society of like, boxing people into the thing that we know them best for. [01:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah, for better or for worse. [01:06:23] Speaker A: But I think it's like, that's not fun. And also, as a creative, it's like, I'm not in it because I'm like, I want everyone to know me as an actress. I'm like, I'm doing this because, like, I love doing this. [01:06:32] Speaker B: Totally. [01:06:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:33] Speaker B: Let's. Let's have. We need more. More mess. [01:06:36] Speaker C: You know, it's. It's really hard. It's a very difficult thing, though, because like you said, you know, the boxes are a real thing. And it's like. [01:06:43] Speaker B: And it helps people. It helps people who make things happen, contextualize and understand people. [01:06:49] Speaker C: Yeah. And. And you. It's like, okay, I want to be a director, I guess, but I also want to do all this other stuff. But, like, you have to start with this and then you can get there. It's like, well, you're proven that you don't have to do that. You know, you do it all. [01:07:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:03] Speaker A: Thank you. I think. I think a lot about Timothee Chalamet's I think, SAG speech where he was like, I want to be one of the greats. And everyone was like, why would you say that? And I'm kind of like. I don't know. Like, I think people should be more unapologetically just like. [01:07:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:07:15] Speaker A: Like, I'm like, just. Just, like, be honest. Like, I want. I want to be awesome. I want to, like, be good at my art. Like, I want. I don't know. I want to be creative. [01:07:26] Speaker B: Like, I'm like, what's wrong with that output? Yeah. Whatever it is, like, just working those muscles. [01:07:33] Speaker C: You gotta give us one Timmy story. [01:07:35] Speaker A: Okay, so what's the lore? [01:07:37] Speaker B: Cause I have my NYU Timmy lore. As we all know. You know? [01:07:40] Speaker A: As we all know. No, we don't. [01:07:42] Speaker B: No, no, no, keep going. [01:07:43] Speaker A: He's like, I don't want that clipped. [01:07:45] Speaker B: We'll link it in the description. [01:07:47] Speaker A: The thing is, I entered the school as a freshman when he. Right when he graduated. So, like, we missed each other. I met. We missed each other. I missed being in the school. At the same time, he's like, ruby was so awesome. I would have been so nice to her. So I missed him. But what I will say of what I know is that when I was at the school, he would come every single year to talk to the seniors. So it was like, you're always, like, waiting for your turn to be a senior. Senior. So that, like, you can get your talk back with. [01:08:19] Speaker B: Popped off, like, right after graduating. I guess. [01:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, well, the thing is, he was working. He was in other stuff before Call [01:08:25] Speaker B: me by your name, he was interstellar. He was in. [01:08:28] Speaker A: And he was in. I forget. I forget what it was called, but he was in, like, some movie with, like, Lili Reinhart. So he was, like, always working. [01:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah, working. [01:08:37] Speaker A: But by the time I was a senior, ladybird and call me by your name, all that stuff had come out. And he would always come and talk to the drama majors, and he was super sweet, and he would just, like, talk about his career and take questions. [01:08:49] Speaker C: Yes, I'm 25 now. [01:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah. He'd be like, so I'm a child and I'm kind of Oscar nominated. And we'd all be like, totally. That's so us. [01:08:58] Speaker B: Yeah, we see ourselves. [01:08:59] Speaker A: Yeah, like, that's gonna be me, obviously. [01:09:02] Speaker B: Classic LaGuardia story. [01:09:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And he. I mean, he rocked. I mean, he was really nice. I Don't know him. [01:09:08] Speaker C: But did he come to your class and talk? [01:09:12] Speaker A: Yeah, he would talk. Because I think in our major, I think there were, like, 80 people per year. [01:09:19] Speaker C: This is small. It's pretty intimate. [01:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah, well, because LaGuardia is not just a theater school. There's vocal majors and there's instrumental major, [01:09:25] Speaker C: so it's all different. Concentrate. [01:09:27] Speaker A: So he would come and talk to specifically the drama majors and super sweet. [01:09:33] Speaker B: Luke, do you have any other questions about Timothy the Chalamet? [01:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:37] Speaker B: Jesus. [01:09:38] Speaker A: Okay. Fanboy over here. [01:09:41] Speaker B: Jeez. [01:09:41] Speaker C: Yeah. All right. [01:09:42] Speaker B: Thanks for coming on, Ruby. [01:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. Congratulations on. [01:09:47] Speaker C: On everything. I want to hear more about Veeps. [01:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, of course. Glad we could end on the note of Timothy Chalamet. Loving that little man. [01:09:55] Speaker B: Classic. For this podcast obsessed over here. [01:09:58] Speaker C: Every podcast, I. I have to ask about Timmy Church. Yeah. Contractually, every episode. Yeah. Because we have a partnership with Gatorade, so it's like a. [01:10:06] Speaker A: So it's like a thing. [01:10:07] Speaker C: And the World Cup's happening, and. [01:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah. This Adidas thing with huge. It's a huge Adidas Gatorade cameo. [01:10:12] Speaker C: It's a big money for us. [01:10:14] Speaker B: Yeah, we get 20 bucks per episode, too. [01:10:16] Speaker C: 20 bucks per episode to talk, to ask about sh. Yeah. [01:10:19] Speaker B: And say the word Gatorade ten times. [01:10:21] Speaker C: Gatorade. Gatorade. [01:10:22] Speaker A: Gatorade. Gatorade. Gatorade. [01:10:23] Speaker C: Gatorade. Did you learn something? I'm like your mom. Did you learn something in this episode? I hope so. Or not. That's okay. Thanks for hanging. Make sure you follow us at the 5050 Fest on Instagram and give us five stars, because. Why not? Why not subscribe? Why not? You know why not. Okay, bye.