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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Cast Members of Choose Your Own Musical!

Shout out any title you can dream up during a Choose Your Own Musical! show at the DSI Comedy Theater and a cast of improvisors will make it a reality. These comedians somehow find the content for a whole show in a matter of seconds, making up big characters, funny scenes, and, along with the help of an accompanying pianist, big musical numbers.

With only a few more chances to hear these players in action, we thought it about time to find out if a few of their cast handle our five questions. See how they handled it after the jump.

1. If your show were an outdoor activity, which would it be?
VINNY VALDIVIA: It would be lawn darts because it’s fun, at times dangerous and you never know what could happen.
BRANDON HOLMES: To me, our show feels a little bit like a big pot luck, family reunion-style. Everyone brings their own dish to the table and they’re all thrown together and yeah, you might forget if that was Sarah’s green beans or Vinny’s mac’n’cheese or Shane’s fried chicken but all the food is mushing together on the plate anyways so it doesn’t matter and you eat it and love it. What I’m saying is that our show has a supportive, communal feel and no one in the group is that weird aunt that brought a fruitcake.
SARAH ELDRED: I would also like to add that at this potluck, we would probably play kickball. or at least i’d try to make everyone play kickball.

2. What is musical improv? (What can audiences expect to see/experience?)
VINNY: Musical Improv is just fun, Thiink about when you were a kid and all you had was your friends and your imagination. Now add singing and lots of practice. No script! No net! No parents! No Bedtime!
BRANDON: Musical improv is music and lyrics made up ON THE SPOT and inspired by the audience’s suggestions. Our show has two acts. In the first act we perform some musical improv games that are basically songs we make up on the spot in a variety of different styles or structures. We take an intermission and you buy a beer. Then we come back with a 100% made up musical. The audience gives us a suggestion of a musical that’s never been made before, and we create a 40ish minute comedic musical, complete with fun characters, dramatic solos, big group numbers, and maybe a little bit of dancing and jazz hands. I should also add that our accompanist, Mr. Arthur Vargas, is playing the piano for the whole show and that he’s talented and handsome and charming!

3. Describe your typical practice.
VINNY: Personally, I try my hard to pick people up off the ground as much as possible. That’s what’s going on in my head. Typically, it’s most fun I have as far as practices go and I’m on like 700 teams. It’s great because we will support each other no matter the choice. Shit can get weird and the weird is supported by all.
BRANDON: Because I work on Sundays (the day we practice), I am typically late to a typical practice, and wearing my work uniform and smelling like old coffee. So I can’t tell you for sure how a typical practice starts, but I’m pretty sure they warm up vocally. After that we generally have a very specific goal for that practice such as working on dancing, finding a chorus in the songs we’re creating, figuring out how to seamlessly end our songs in an impressive way, or figuring out when it’s appropriate to have a solo versus a big group number. So we’ll improvise songs with these goals in mind for about an hour, and then we’ll do a longform musical, and then we’ll talk about it. Basically an improv practice is doing improv. There’s really no better way to learn how to get better at improv than to just do improv.

4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that would really surprise people?
VINNY: As a whole, I say our main inspiration is Korean Karaoke. My musical influence is the West Side Story, I used to watch it with my Dad over and over again. It was a double VHS set. I’m old.
BRANDON: I, for one, am inspired by my friends and family who I interact with daily (that reminds me that I need to call my mother…). We create comedic and interesting and engaging situations and scenarios in our day to day interactions all the time (think of all those inside jokes you and your friends share and how important they feel to you…), and I think improv oftentimes is displaying those very real relationships and kicking it up a notch or fifty to make them pop more on stage. And musical improv is doing all that then singing about it! Also, Amy Sedaris is an idol!
SARAH: Arthur Vargas, [the show’s accompanist,] is my idol. No surprises there!

5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (How ’d that turn out?)
VINNY: I wanted to be in a Monkees cover band called the Junior Monkees. I wanted to play drums but also be lead singer. So like a Davey/Mickey hybrid. I did end up playing drums for several years in some fun bands and now I sing in a musical improv show so I would save I was partial success. The only fail on my part was incorporating the Monkees, give me time.
BRANDON: I distinctly remember talking to my dad one day when I was a kid about the probability of me making it to the NBA. I was very into sports at the time and thought that I obviously had the required talent and all I needed was the drive, determination, practice time, and of course the loving support of my family. My dad said, “Well, in the NBA there are only about 12 people on one team, but in the NFL there are closer to 50. So, you know, statistically speaking, you would have a better chance playing professional football.” I had no desire to play football. Disheartened by my father’s lack of enthusiasm for my life goals, I decided instead to major in religion in college and become a barista/improviser. Also, I am lazy. I think in hindsight I’m glad I’m not in the NBA.
SARAH: I think I just always wanted to be famous. When I was little I thought that would take talent and working hard, but now I think I can probs just go on a reality show for neurotic, opinionated girls who will, through the course of the show, get lasik.

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Sing and dance your way over to the DSI Comedy Theater in Carrboro to see and hear the cast produce a whole musical based on your suggestions. And by all means, give Vinny, Brandon, and Sarah a high five when you see them!