Witness… The First Episode

It’s here! It’s finally here! Witness if You Will… is officially up and running. I can’t tell you how much of a… I guess relief it all is? That feels like the wrong word, but whatever it is, it’s certainly immensely satisfying, and I’m super proud of what I’ve managed to cobble together. Thank you to all that performers that helped bring these weird stories to life. YOU are the true heroes.

Right here, I just wanted to give you a little insight into the process of putting this whole thing together, so after you’ve listened to the episode (as to avoid SPOILERS, which legally must always be capitalized), come back here and INFORM YOUR BRAIN (which doesn’t legally need to be capitalized, but the caps give it the kind of echoey gusto I’m going for).

So, as I’m sure you may have noticed, there are some interesting things featured in the incredible poster art created by Sean Marney, namely the, well, name. Imagine if You Will… was indeed the original name of the series when it was originally put on live at Stage Werx Theater in August 2017, as a part of Endgames Improv. That phrase is more synonymous with The Twilight Zone and Rod Serling in general, after all, and this series is greatly inspired by the show and the man. BUT… when planning to turn the whole thing into a podcast, I found there already is a podcast with that title, one that, naturally, discusses episodes of The Twilight Zone. As to not cause any fuss with strangers who are rightly doing their own thing (the bastards… just kidding! ❤️❤️❤️), I set out to change the name. I was shocked to discover that the phrase “witness if you will” was featured more on Wikiquote-like pages about Serling than the “imagine” one. That was enough research for me, and thus, a new title was born.

The second thing you might have noticed on Sean’s WOW of a poster (I can’t stop raving about, nor will I stop, and wait till you see the art for the rest of the season, all also worthy of WOWs) is the name Taco Monster. When originally conceived, I wanted this series to be a showcase for the talents of my improvisor friends beyond the world of improvising. A good chunk of people who get into improv don’t have a theater background, so they might not even consider what they do on stage “acting.” But real emotions, relationships, and overall getting the audience to empathize with you are huge components of performing improv, so like it or not, if you can do one, you can do the other, and I wanted to show that off. Now, it might not seem like such a big deal to put scripts in the hands of people who already get up in front of a live audience to make sillies, as stars with improv backgrounds are commonly seen in scripted entertainment all the live-long day. But I needed some kind of gimmick, goddammit! And also, what I found is that people who normally come up with what they’re going to say in the moment aren’t the biggest fans of memorizing lines, but I’ll discuss that more in future posts. In any case, that kind of makes it a big deal, so there.

Anyway, Taco Monster. I began writing the episodes with specific improv teams in mind. An improv team, for the uninitiated, is essentially a group of friends who vibe well together on stage and decide they want to play together forever. They can be made up with as many people as fifteen (hello, chaos) or as few as two (in which case, the word “duo” is used, because, you know… two… duo… yeah…). Taco Monster was formed by Chloe, Natasha and Tess after two members of their previous team, Machete Cats, moved onto other things (I guess “forever” doesn’t always apply; cue feelings of abandonment in five, four…). Taco Monster went on to perform in the Del Close Marathon, SF Femprovisor and star in there own regular show at Endgames called Fake Party.

Taco Monster on stage for the last Fake Party 1/23/18

So “Homecoming” was tailored especially for Chloe, Natasha and Tess. I approached writing the episode kind of like an improv scene: while I had the basic idea of what was going to happen, no pre-planning took place. I truly did not know where the story was going to go. For example (and here be SPOILERS, if you care), I didn’t know Natasha’s Gwen would be so obsessed with 90s references or that they would be pay off by the end until I began to notice a pattern in the things she said, and if there’s one thing improv teaches you, it’s keep your eye out for patterns. I also had no idea that Tess’s Maureen would be killed a little more than halfway through; I was actually very shocked when I saw the story leading that way. But I didn’t want to deprive Tess of stage time, which is why I pulled a Contact and had her come back as one of the aliens in disguise.

“The Homecoming Queen” live at Stage Werx, 8/30/17

Photo: Joshua Love

What I really found through this whole experience was that writing with specific people in mind resulted in some of the most rewarding content I’ve worked on. I don’t recall if I intended at the outset to do multiple episodes, but while writing “Homecoming,” I began listing all the other teams I knew and what genres I would like to see them tackle. However, after three live episodes, I found the process a bit grueling, and like I said, the act of memorizing lines (and I tend to write a butt-ton of very wordy dialogue) in a relatively short amount of time is not too appealing for some (and I don’t blame those some, especially with my butt-ton of very wordy dialogue; I mean, have you seen the length of this post?! I’m so sorry). So the transfer to an audio medium rolled around in my head for a long while, until finally, COVID appeared and made life oh so spectacular for us all. That seemed like as right a time as any to try and get this sucker going. I messaged Chloe, Natasha and Tess (in our group Facebook thread titled “Andy Fanboys Over Taco Monster,” because I really do love them so much), asked if they would be down, they said they were, and on a Saturday in August 2020, coincidentally one day shy of it being three years exactly since the live performance, we all met on Zoom.

The rest is history. Or is it? Can you define it as history when not really a lot has happened yet? I mean, technically everything becomes a part of history after it’s already happened. Like me writing that previous sentence, that’s now a part of history. Same with that last sentence. And that— okay, I’m not doing this. I hope you enjoyed “The Homecoming Queen,” and I’ll see you next week for Episode 2.

—Andy

From left to right: me, Chloe, Tess, and Natasha. I love them so ❤️❤️❤️ 🌮👹