Hello Beautiful People,
Ari and Emma are NYC-based comedians. Featured on Jezebel, NY Mag, LOGOtv, they have been hailed as a blend of the Beastie Boys and Gilda Radner. As women who write, act, and are making their mark in the comedy world, they are in fact, the PERFECT addition to our Movers & Shakers Q&A Series. Even as I sat her and edited their words, (and my own), I laughed. Like, guffawed in the privacy of my office, for they are in fact, that funny. And doesn’t the world need a bit more light? More humor? More…COMEDY?
So, Write Readers, I implore you to read on and meet these two lovely ladies. I know you’ll adore them as much as I do!
Ladies & Gents, meet Ari + Emma…
MM: First things first, how did you two meet?
ARI: We both met in the NYU sketch comedy group, Hammerkatz. Emma came in halfway through the semester and I was like, “oohh I’m gunna have to check this girl” – but instead we combined forces, kinda like when chocolate meets peanut butter. We also got to spend our junior year together doing a play, “The Dybbuk”, essentially a Jewish Horror Opera – which was both a very strange and liberating experience for us both.
MM: Can you describe to our readers what the process of creating one of your sketches is like?
ARI: A lot of times a sketch just comes out of us chatting and something ridiculous coming up that makes us laugh. For example, we wrote a sketch about “Fart Clouds” which very much came out of Emma being “protective” of her space when she farted in my apartment. At a certain point, one of us was like “this is obviously a sketch we should write.” Then one of us will take a stab at a first draft and the other will work on the second. It also involves a bottle of cheap wine and talking about our feelings – A LOT.
MM: (For both of you) Who is your comedic idol?
EMMA: Tina Fey. I admire how she’s prolific, and manages people, and revises the work of other writers, and makes it look fun and easy, and is also stunning to look at. And has a family. I think there’s some solid time management going on there and I look up to that. Also, she’s a trailblazer. And Margaret Cho for saying the things that need to be said and for struggling to find herself and to be truthful all the time and be messy about it and then triumph.
ARI: I love, love, love Louis CK – again, so prolific in that he writes, directs, acts, and edits his own show. I think it is so incredible to be able to see a vision from beginning to end. And Robin Williams and Nathan Lane – because they are both so hilarious and so very heartbreaking at the same time. I really appreciate the kind of comedy that comes from extraordinarily committed acting.
MM: (For both of you) If you had to pick three words to describe your humor, what would they be?
ARI: I think our work tends to have a certain kind of “magical realism” – a world where anything is possible. It’s also bright and child-like at first glance with a dark, satirical underbelly.
EMMA: I totally agree with Ari’s thirty-three-word description of three words describing our humor!
MM: (For both of you) If we were to walk into your apartments, what books would permanently be on your bookshelf?
ARI: Emma claims she “reads”, but who knows. I just finished reading this amazing book on Scientology, “Going Clear,” that blew my goddamn mind – read it, kids. I’m also working my way through Jonathan Franzen and George Saunders. In terms of what’s on the rest of the shelf – a series of Stanislovski books and “queer theory” books I was supposed to read in college and never did.
EMMA: Ari spelled Stanislavski wrong after MAJORING IN THEATER. Secondly, I do, in actuality, read. I enjoy memoirs and essays by David Rakoff, David Sedaris, Tina Fey, and to a lesser extent Mindy Kaling and Iris Bahr. Also George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut. I would love to be in a sketch group with Kurt Vonnegut, though “Ari and Emma (and Kurt)” wouldn’t fit well into our theme song. Both Ari and I like the work of playwright Eric Bogosian. I also like the plays of Itamar Moses and Christopher Durang. I would like to once again stress that I read.
MM: (For both of you) If you were stranded on a desert island, what movies would you want to have available to you, assuming there is a DVD player?
ARI: I am content with having The Birdcage on repeat.
EMMA: Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. And Contact, starring Jodie Foster.
MM: (For both of you) In today’s economy, arts programs are being cut. What reasons would you give to a politician and/or school board for preserving the arts in schools?
EMMA: The arts give meaning to being alive. Without the arts, you’re just learning a bunch of stuff with no context and no way to process or filter it. Kids will stay in school if there is a great arts teacher to keep them there. Hasn’t this school board ever seen an inspirational movie?
Additionally, mental health is a big issue for our country. The arts save lives. Being alive is a really intense experience and I pity the fool who tries to do that without art.
ARI: Emma nailed it.
MM: (For both of you), what’s the best piece of advice you could offer to aspiring comedians?
ARI: Just keep making work and putting it out into the world. Ira Glass has a great quote about it taking time for your skill-set to catch up with your good taste, and I think that’s very true. I’d also say really just dive into what makes YOU specifically laugh, no matter how strange or weird – cuz that’s where the honesty lives.
EMMA: Be relentless in pursuit of what you want to do. Don’t worry what other people think. Here’s the awesome quote Ari is referring to: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-to-people-who-are-beginners-i-wish.
MM: (Time for the shameless plug – go wild) What’s next for Ari and Emma?
EMMA: We’re working on a sketch comedy pilot and we’re looking to shows like That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC), The Carol Burnett Show, and Comedy Central’s The Kroll Show for what that might look like. We’re applying for grants and to festivals and taking on freelance sketch writing jobs as a duo.
Now that our season is wrapping up, go binge watch all of Ari and Emma: The Sketch Show!
MM: (For both of you) Who is/was your greatest teacher?
EMMA: My greatest teacher ever is Alla Nikitina, a Ukrainian dance teacher I had through middle and high school, who gave me the technical skills and language of physical expression and theatricality that I needed to become myself. My memories of being in her class from age 11 to 13 are some of the most exciting moments of my life.
ARI: I had the most wonderful middle school drama teacher, Mr. Huls. He was the first person to tell me to pursue comedy and the first non-parent adult that was totally accepting and encouraging of my bawdy weirdness. I remember at 11, he encouraged me to do my first stand-up bit at our all-school talent show. It was a terrifyingly insane thing to do as a 6th grader, but it killed. I certainly wouldn’t be doing comedy today if it wasn’t for him.
Live, Love, Learn,
Megan &