 Some of the actors and because my brother is an actor and so like he started Groundlings as a way to not because he thinks of himself like as this like comedy legend but because he knew it would help him with his acting just the improv nature of it and I know a lot of people actually discover it through that and like whether they're a lot of it out here is through the Groundlings program or Second City LA or Upright Citizens Brigade but they discover that you know just the act of the learning like the yes ands and playing off of one another and and building it up and always trying to support the story and and lead towards something is something that they can bring towards any kind of acting whether it be drama or comedy and you know with your route I know we've kind of jumped back and forth but like I believe you went to the Groundlings is that correct? Yeah I did everything pretty much I would say that's probably the best way to utilize those schools like I loved my training at Groundlings I was on the UCB Characters Welcome team I guess I still am but then the pandemic hit and we would do different characters monthly which was great and I did all of Second City Conservatory and would like perform in a running show there I just never loved like I think it's better to approach it like I want to become a stronger actor I want to gain some skills and the reason that as a past time I started teaching character classes now was because I just felt like these institutions like crush people's confidence and identity oftentimes I'm not trying to speak in like broad terms about it I think that there's so many great things about it I just think people don't make a company and they assume so much about themselves that they might just sort of matched a specific mold but I think like the training is invaluable I think we're also kind of departing from that you know it seems like as a result of the pandemic a lot of people are like well I'm a pioneer in my own right and I make content online and I started my own school or you know whatever and I think yeah taking things from each is really great I just I never felt like any one made perfect sense for me is that why you did a little bit of each one yeah I mean I think that's why I did a little bit of each one and started to make my own stuff a lot more was I just didn't want to feel like my only stage and performance opportunities were like the hierarchy of a school you know so I think it's like I loved being on a team at one place or I've loved doing a run of a show at one place but the industry so hard already and it can feel hard when there's hierarchy within a company because there is a very defined hierarchy within those guys I know just within groundlings there's like a stage one that's the entry level everyone goes through it and then not everyone graduates to level two like they'll keep you in level one if they don't feel you're ready or whatever but then let's say you make it to level two then you're still like a level three and then there's like three more levels after that where you eventually you might end up on the like the main stage squad and then from there that's where a lot of people jump off to Saturday Night Live or back in the day mad TV or whatever it might be but it's it's a pretty clearly defined path Scientology yeah and it's and I think it like if it works your way like that's great but you know in my case no women made the company no no women voted it was all white guys voting it felt like a really corrupt system boys club so you had to fit there and I knew I didn't and I remember like company members writing to me and being like this is insane we wish we could do something and I'm like but you can't and I'm lucky that I had built enough outside of that for that not to be but there was a whole year where I thought like I shouldn't do this anymore which is crazy for a 25 and 26 year old to be asking themselves that you know and so that literally that's why I was like I'm not gonna teach character stuff forever I was like I just want I want anyone to take a class and realize like they don't have to maybe feel like one school is their identity because I think it was a real mind-fuck and I think it you know it was also like you guys got to update your system to be and also it's like I still am a white woman and like there were so many other people that had different POVs that weren't represented within that and I think I think this year really opened up a lot of schools eyes to that and they're really trying to like change the infrastructure of it but I hope that isn't just like a blanket statement to get press off their case and that they really follow through with that because otherwise it just isn't indicative of comedy right now and I felt like I would write things and just in general it's like you just want to make sure it matches the zeitgeist of what what's happening you know otherwise it feels kind of antiquated you know but yeah I mean I think there's so many great elements of each school I just think there's no one school is the right school like it fits for you go for it but it doesn't have to and it's not going to it's not gonna be one size fits all is there a place that you can recommend like let's say you don't want to go that path yeah are there like so like for me when I was learning filmmaking a lot of what I learned I learned on set working on you know big productions but YouTube helped a tremendous amount is there something like that for comedy where I mean I period was a theater I really liked and started to host a character Mike there after having done characters welcome at UCB with a friend of mine Jensen who's part of very gay paint because we felt like there wasn't a place for character performers to play without judgment or it gives us themselves permission without the competition kind of inherently because that's the problem with the schools right is it's like whether you support people or not there is still inherent competition it's like you're still trying to compete to get there's only so many spots I think like some of these more independent theaters and I also just think like feeling free to sort of treat it like a buffet where you just survey each thing and then you kind of can take from it what you want and I'm loving seeing people just launching their own shows and backyard shows and variety shows and that's like a little something for everyone that I think helped me the most was starting to put up my own things that I feel like had a little bit of stand-up and a little bit of storytelling and a little character because I was like that's how I feel as a comic and I want to see that represented a little bit more so I think encouraging people to go to those shows and then reaching out to peers that are there I wish I would have done more of that when I was younger but I also think it takes a level of it's like hard to approach people you don't know and anyone that does approach me now I'm like more power to you