Witness… The Age of Heroes

I don’t believe in heroes. I think. That might be kind of obvious due to both the rampant cynicism heard in my opening monologues (even though I believe I also have a balanced share of hope that goes along with that cynicism, but cynicism’s more entertaining, I guess?), and that this is the second episode of the entire series to tackle the idea of heroism, or lack thereof. If I believe anything, I believe that we are capable of doing a lot of good in the world, good that could be seen as heroic, but we’re also capable of doing so much bad, bad that could be considered evil. And of course, there’s all the stuff in between, because nothing is ever binary, least of all which the actions and emotional spectrum of the human species.

What is this, a fucking psych paper?

Anyway, I knew Season 2 would involve a superhero story. I also knew I wanted to have one episode that was primarily just two people, a “two-hander,” as it’s apparently known in the biz (which biz, I have no idea). Don’t ask me how I decided those two wants would combine into “The Intrepid Reporter”; they just did.

I guess this is interesting (possibly just to me) because the superhero story I had in mind during the live Imagine if You Will… days was going to feature more than two performers/characters. It went by the title “The Fortress of Solitude,” was going to feature a Justice League of sorts (five or six heroes for me to torment with my imagination), and was going to be a vehicle for the improv team, Vagina Jones, an all-lady team in the Endgames community (most of the names listed during the Special Thanks were members of the team at the time of the episode’s initial conception). It had no story beyond involving superheroes, and the only thing to really roll over into “Reporter” was the name Captain Nightmare, but hey, every idea’s gotta start somewhere, even if that somewhere is nowhere. I think that made sense.

The writing of the episode happened to coincide with the release of the film Promising Young Woman, current title holder for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar (well-deserved by Emerald Fennell). If you haven’t seen the film yet, do yourself a favor and watch it. NOW. Seriously, this blog will be here when you get back. Go. GO.

…

Back? Cool. ISN’T THAT MOVIE GREAT??? It absolutely floored me. And after watching it, I sort of wanted “Reporter” to match it tonally, because they both explore similar themes, not least of which is the supposed obligation men seem to believe women hold to them and how fucked up such a notion is (seriously, dudes, be better). But also, this tightrope walk of morality, this anti-hero aspect which makes it difficult to root for someone. A protagonist that lives in the gray area. As I wrote “Reporter,” I found myself going back and forth, wondering who was “right,” or if there even was a “right.” Liana is laser-focused on her profession and is willing to sacrifice Hero-Man based on very little. But at the same time, Hero-Man, despite his good intentions (which are self-proclaimed and therefore not necessarily all that good), falls into a behavior that so many men live inside: their way is THE way, and if anyone goes against their way, then they must be destroyed. It’s that part that really makes me side with Liana in all of this, but again, maybe it’s not a matter of sides. Maybe it’s just a matter of two people with strong ambitions colliding. Neither is purely good nor purely bad, but all their energy goes into their own self-preservation, and at times, focusing on that can lead to others being left cold in the blurs without any second thought.

I think about this kind of stuff a lot. If you remember "The Blue Diamond” from Season 1, I talked a lot about how we put people atop pedestals, only to try and pull them down. There have been so many famous faces in recent years, many people I used to admire in some fashion, who have fallen from grace. Those falls, for the most part, were absolutely justified, but it’s true that in this age of “cancel culture,” our hearts have become overtly sensitive toward anything less than perfect. People should absolutely be held accountable, but there are different degrees of trouble that people may deserve. Then there’s the whole thing of “separating art from the artist,” and whether or not that’s a cop out. Is it just a matter of where we individually draw the line? And is it at all possible to be aware of when and why we may push that line further away in order to, I don’t know, keep things status quo?

I don’t know. Humans are weird.

Speaking of weird, Alexis and Ittai! Casting for “Reporter” wasn’t too difficult. I didn’t write the characters with anybody in mind (I knew I would voice Bullock because I wanted to do my best J. Jonah Jameson impression; I don’t think I pulled it off 100%, but meh, I’ll take it), but when I was thinking of possible performers to play Liana and Hero-Man, Alexis and Ittai stood out.

Clockwise from left: Alexis Gay (Liana), me, Ittai Geiger (Hero-Man)

Ittai is doing his impression of Robin Williams doing an impression of a hot dog from *Mrs. Doubtfire*.

I met Alexis at an Endgames Jam and would periodically see her around the community; I think we had a long conversation at a birthday party where we found ourselves in an awkward doorway that served as entry and exit to the kitchen, and if you know parties, you know everyone inevitably hangs out in the kitchen. She was initially part of the Harold team I coached, WILDCARD!, but had to drop out from the team after a few months, which was a bummer, because she’s a talented performer. Maybe you know her from her Youtube videos, or maybe you’ve heard her on her podcast, Non-Technical, or followed her on any of her socials (see the episode page for links to those), but if you haven’t, do yourself a favor and check ‘em out now.

This was a take of Liana laughing excessively at Hero-Man’s less than heroic behavior.

Clearly Ittai was very in character.

Ittai, I first saw perform in a show put on by Craig Gaspian (Goose from “The Party Crashers) called Vision Quest. It was a show meant to give improvisers who weren’t on house teams more stage time, as well as delve into some weird, almost experimental improv, something Craig thrives in. Ittai was part of the first iteration of that show, and he immediately stood out to me with his penchants for big characters and silly voices/accents. I also was interested in a couch he was selling at some point. Ittai is a founding member of the Drunk Theater Company, a hit show that performed at PianoFight pre-pandemic (they even had a billboard once!), but like so many improv shows, had to relocate online once we were all confined to our homes. They aren’t performing for the time being, but be sure to check out their archived performances.

You would think setting up a recording time that involved only three people would be the easiest thing in the world, especially when it would be done over Zoom and travel wasn’t necessary. But you would be wrong. It took three attempts to set up a recording date. For the first scheduled date, Alexis had a last minute appointment and couldn’t make it. The next time was set up for two days later, but then Ittai got stuck in a work meeting that went long. Real life: always getting in the way of creative endeavors. Thankfully, we all managed to congregate a week later, and the recording took place.

This was an extremely fun recording session. So many running bits and inside jokes were created, so much so that I had such a hard time deciding on what to use for the funny outtake. If you have questions about that, by the way, I’m here to answer them. I mean, assuming the main question is, “Why is Alexis talking about the word ‘spoon’ and what words rhyme with it when there’s no part of the episode that involved an “-oon” word?” Simple answer: there was a mistake. Ittai accidentally pronounced the name as “Bruin,” perhaps because of my lack of umlauts in the script (though I don’t know if the name actually includes an umlaut? Too lazy to look it up), so different takes needed to be recorded, one where Hero-Man’s just being neglectful and mispronouncing the name so Liana needs to correct him, and one where we just go with this new pronunciation. Funnily enough, I never thought to redo any takes where Ittai says the name correctly. Maybe because his deliveries were so self-assured and what I was looking for on the first take. What’s in a name, anyway? Isn’t that Hero-Man’s whole schtick? Although, maybe I shouldn’t emulate him…

One thing I’m particularly proud of with this episode is the sound design, specifically during the Hero-Jet attack scene. There was a lot of fussing in that, trying to make the audio dynamic and realistic. This was both challenging and a major blast. Even finding the right volume for the bird being shot sound took several tries, as it couldn’t be too loud, but it also couldn’t be too quiet, because then the joke would be lost. I’m a really big fan of the old timey plane diving sound I found; it brings to mind classic radio plays, which is kind of this podcast’s whole deal, right?

So there you have it. “The Intrepid Reporter,” Witness if You Will’s first take on the superhero genre. Is that to say that there will be more? Well, you might have to stay through the end credits to find out for sure. I mean, not the end credits of the episode, as that ends with the “spoon” thing. I mean the end credits of… this… blog? I’m writing this when it’s late and my eyes hurt, cut me some slack.

—Andy

Witness… The Waterbody Canines

Witness… The Friendly Ghosts