This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, you are here. Ale and Well Met. Time to podcast. Dang it. You bet. Here we go. Chat.

[0:23] Maddie Murphy: And it's true. This is just. Oh, we're rapping now? No, no, no. I was giving you a back up.

[0:28] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, thank you. And then da da da da da net 20. That's really nice. Thank you. Of course. I loved it. Oh, welcome back, everybody. This is this week's episode of Ale and Well Met podcast. And the new intro song. Yeah, get ready for that to be in every single episode moving forward. Every single one I'm in. Yes. I'm Cassidy Sledge. I'm hosting today. And we have with us.

[0:54] Maddie Murphy: Hi, y'all. I am Maddy Murphy. I currently play your trickster.

[1:00] Jasmine Malave: And I'm Jasmine Malave. And I'm playing the mage. If you'll notice, we have a little bit of a theme going on today. It's uh, it's all the ladies in the cast. Alex Murray is in the room moderating but he's not allowed to say things.

[1:15] Alex Murray: I'm listening and learning. Hello.

[1:22] Cassidy Sledge: Guess why we're here today. What we chatting about?

[1:28] Maddie Murphy: Oh boy, we're talking about the beautiful ups and downs, the highs and lows of high school football.

[1:37] Cassidy Sledge: More like no boy. Y'all I can't describe to you. Jasmine waited about six seconds with that line. And then like a cartoon, I can only her jaw kind of like slowly approach the microphone. So that while making complete eye contact with me and not blinking. She gave that line. Yep. Please give it again.

[1:55] Jasmine Malave: More like no boy. Lady podcast today.

[2:03] Cassidy Sledge: And you can quote us on that. Okay, so friends question for both of you. We are all fems in art. We're making art. We're fems. Yeah. And I want to know if you have any like, women in your life who have inspired you to like pursue this industry or people you look up to as artists, whether in, you know, the nerd world, the performance world, the music world, whatever.

[2:23] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, um, two big ones for me are sci fi ladies. Sigourney Weaver and Kate Mulgrew are two of my absolute heroes. And Mulgrew. I didn't I was I was so late to the Mulgrew game. I watched Oranges of the New Black and then realized she was in Star Trek. Yes, she's Captain Janeway, the fem captain. Let's go. And also after doing all of this television and stuff, she's gone back and just does theater now. And just theater that she loves and wants to be doing. So she's basically living her absolute best life.

[3:02] Jasmine Malave: For me, I would say first and foremost, what inspired me to be a lady in art is my Nana. She used to be a choreographer and was a badass. She left home at 16 at a time when women do not leave home. And she made her own life and she was a choreographer and such a performer and she passed it on to my mom, who is my biggest fan and hero and support system. So those two personal women. I try to bring in every day I still call my mom before every show she loves. She loves the tavern and like weighing in and then performers. Oh my gosh, I grew up watching so much of like young Frankenstein and Mel Brooks work and Madeline Kahn. Yeah. Laura Leachman just funny women at a time when there were a not a lot of fem performers that typically fem roles were epitome of femininity.

Yeah, and that still exists a lot. But to see funny women be absolute goof weirdos and character builders that totally changed my life. Also Molly Shannon, who's one of my favorite actors of all time. She is so funny, but also one of the best dramatic actors I've ever seen. If you have not seen other people, it is starring her and Jesse Plemons. Prepare to not be okay. It's one of the best performances I've ever seen, but you will not be okay. Don't watch it on a date. I made that mistake.

[4:29] Maddie Murphy: Oh, no. Watching sad movies on a date is so real. I don't know if that's an experience that we all have.

[4:33] Jasmine Malave: No, because I think it's the thing. It's supposed to make you like close, right? Because it's oh my gosh, we're what an intense emotion that we could talk about her like, Oh, are you crying? Maybe we could like, I don't know, like snuggle about it. It's so it's a choice that let me tell you backfires immediately because I sob until I get a migraine ago. I gotta go. I'm not interested in you, but I love this movie.

[4:55] Maddie Murphy: Oh my god, so real. I once went on a date. I don't know if either of you have seen Grave of the Fireflies.

[4:59] Jasmine Malave: No, it's a Studio Ghibli movie. Studio Ghibli made like Spirited Away. Howl's Moving Castle. They're like, like one might refer to them as like the Japanese Disney if you will. And so one of my friends was like, Hey, if you want to like come over and watch a Grave of the Fireflies, I heard it's kind of sad. And I was like, Oh my god. Okay, I'll watch a little sad movie. Maybe we'll smooch a little bit. I was sobbing so hard. I had like snot coming out of my nose.

[5:21] Maddie Murphy: Is that so hard you sweat?

[5:27] Jasmine Malave: Yes. Yes. That's so real. That's a movie that like you watch it once and you never have to watch it ever again because it lives with you. It lives with you every day of your life.

[5:36] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, I think one of the funniest dates I ever went on was in college. Bjork starred in a movie called Dancer in the Dark, and it is devastating. She famously like she did it. It was an amazing performance. And she went, I will never act again. That nearly killed me because it was such a raw visitor. And I won't ruin why it was just it truly. So I of course, the artsy boy who lived by my dorm was like, Hey, come watch this movie. What you didn't know Bjork acts get ready. And he had planned this was supposed to be a date. Well, Bjork broke my spirit. I cried so hard. I was sweating. I started dry heaving. I finished my glass of wine and went, I have to go be alone now.

[6:34] Jasmine Malave: The closest I have to anything like that is Ernesto makes me watch a lot of movies because I miss a ton of them. And after I watched like five of his top picks, which are like classics that I should have watched like noir films or like just like classics over time, like he made me watch like Tinker Taylor or like some Sylvester Stallone stuff or like stuff like that. And after I watch a few of those, I can get him to watch one like of my picks. Oftentimes it'll be a Pixar that I no one else would watch with me. And so I made him watch Coco with me. And we were sitting on the couch and we got to the part.

[7:04] Maddie Murphy: Did he know it was coming?

[7:09] Jasmine Malave: No. I mean, we all know that we're going to cry in a Pixar movie, but we got to the part and I'm crying. I turn and look at him. He's sobbing and he turned it to me and looked me straight in the eye and said, you did this to me.

[7:23] Maddie Murphy: I mean, to be fair, you did. And it's good because emotional release is really good. Yeah. I feel like one of the easiest ways to do it is through Pixar movies.

[7:39] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, oh, oh, my God. Grandmother Stingray and Moana. Oh, my God. Speaking of my Nana is my hero. Grandmother. Sorry. Sorry. Moana spoilee. There's a Stingray that will have an emotional impact on you. When that happens, I truly just stopped. I pressed the spacebar of my computer and I'm alone, by the way, and just go. No. And then stop for 15 minutes, wash my face twice and then continue the movie.

[8:07] Maddie Murphy: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Did you did you watch the movie? Cry, wash your face, cry again, wash your face or you just wash your face and went, no, I need to do that again.

[8:17] Cassidy Sledge: I just double washed the former. One wash wasn't enough. The emotions were still, were still pouring out and I felt very salty and I needed to fix it. So anyway, we're talking about ladies in art.

[8:35] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, we're talking about ladies in art. What are your picks, Cass?

[8:40] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, oh, I feel like the basic is like Mary. Oh my God. I say Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews. Thank you. My God. My brain went Mary Poppins. No, that's not her name. It's Julie Andrews. But then my brain was only thinking Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews, I think, was a very formative performer in my childhood. I loved her in like, I feel like everything like Princess Diaries, Mary Poppins, loved it all. But I think what made me really want to pursue live performance was seeing Katrina Lenk in The Band's Visit.

[9:05] Maddie Murphy: Oh, cool.

[9:06] Cassidy Sledge: I yes, fantastic show. If if you haven't listened to it yet, I totally, totally recommend it. I was actually studying music ed and I was I was really excited to be an educator. And then I came to New York for the very first time in 2019. I saw The Band's Visit and I saw To Kill a Mockingbird. And after I walked out of those shows, I was like, God damn it. I'm pursuing the wrong thing. I need to be pursuing performance.

[9:35] Maddie Murphy: Yeah. And so I pivoted. And now here I am doing the thing.

[9:42] Jasmine Malave: It's awesome that I mean, you can change your mind, right. And it's also funny. That brings up like there are things that impact you so much. I think for me, this is actually so I saw Les Mis when I was like 11. My mom took us to see it in New York. No, in Chicago. And my mom used to do this thing with my sisters and I because I was raised by a badass single mom. And I have only sisters. And she once a year, she'd be like, we're gonna get cultured. My mom wasn't a performer, but she's like, it was a big deal to take her kids to the theater in Chicago. Yeah, the tickets are expensive. She would get a hotel. So once a year would do that. And she was like, Les Mis is the big show in town, not knowing anything about it.

I had no idea that stages could spin. I had no idea that you could be made to feel something so powerful, like a movie. And so I remember watching Les Mis and the stages spinning, but I'll never forget that for me, that was the moment where I was like, oh, I want to I want to act. But on top of it, my thing was Les Mis is amazing. But I wanted to be the male parts. Because I'm like, you are so powerful and vulnerable and you're fighting for something. And the female parts are quintessentially like they explore very classical femininity, either the disgraced, beaten down woman, yeah, who is destroyed by the patriarchy, or you know, the the romantic desire. But anyway, I just remember watching that and being like, I want to do this. And I want to play the roles that are powerful.

[11:10] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, and it was always really hard to therefore find examples to be like, how do I fit in as a femme performer who doesn't necessarily couldn't play the the ingenue or wouldn't wouldn't pull it off as well as somebody else when I really want to play? You know, the wacky, the wacky person who typically is male?

[11:32] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah. Did you have a moment where you were watching live theater and you went, this is it. This is what I want to do?

[11:37] Jasmine Malave: I don't know if I have like a live theater moment specifically, I kind of just fell into community theater as a kid. And that just became my absolute. I want to say I was gonna say second home, but honestly, more than that. So community theater is really what happened for me. It was the place that I spent all of my free time. And so it just became my entire life.

[12:00] Cassidy Sledge: What was your first, first show or first big role?

[12:03] Jasmine Malave: Oh, what we did this community theater, like, silly comedy version of the Nutcracker. Like, yeah, a retelling kind of thing.

[12:12] Maddie Murphy: And you were the nut?

[12:15] Jasmine Malave: Oh, close. I was one of the little Hershey kisses. I was like eight.

[12:20] Maddie Murphy: Oh my god.

[12:21] Jasmine Malave: And did this little dance number. There's a costume of me somewhere as a little Hershey kiss of one of the trios doing a can can number essentially.

[12:30] Maddie Murphy: Was your dress like a little like foil ball?

[12:32] Jasmine Malave: It was yeah, like a little foil, like little a line. Yeah, it was so funny. And then after that, I kind of didn't do theater for a hot minute. And then when I did get back into it, it was because the community theater was auditioning for Aladdin. And obviously, I needed to insert myself into that show.

[12:51] Cassidy Sledge: Your namesake.

[12:53] Jasmine Malave: Yeah, exactly.

[12:54] Maddie Murphy: In this version, it was Princess Baldrubador, whatever.

[12:57] Cassidy Sledge: What?

[12:58] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, whatever the traditional thing is, though. I don't know what the fuck.

[13:02] Cassidy Sledge: No, no, no. I'm sorry. Traditional. Princess Baldrubador? That is an NPC name that we'd get at 20-Sided Tavern.

[13:11] Maddie Murphy: Oh, absolutely.

[13:12] Cassidy Sledge: Princess Ballsdroupidor.

[13:14] Maddie Murphy: Oh no.

[13:16] Cassidy Sledge: Which honestly, anyone listening, please, please give us that. That would mean a lot.

[13:20] Maddie Murphy: That would mean a lot.

[13:21] Cassidy Sledge: Please don't.

[13:22] Maddie Murphy: Please do.

[13:23] Cassidy Sledge: We don't want droopy balls.

[13:24] Maddie Murphy: Hey, they come in all forms. We don't know what balls we're talking about. It's probably testicles.

[13:30] Cassidy Sledge: After a certain age, though, they're going to get droopy no matter what. And that's just aging. It's not you.

[13:35] Maddie Murphy: Exactly.

[13:36] Cassidy Sledge: I'm going to change this conversation topic. Maddie, what was your first big show, big role?

[13:40] Maddie Murphy: So I actually, so I played soccer growing up, and I was super athletic.

[13:47] Jasmine Malave: Sports.

[13:49] Maddie Murphy: I started doing theater in high school, though, because, again, I really wanted to be an actor, but wasn't sure how to make the leap from athletics, which is all I did. And I started just playing really small roles. I would audition, and let's see, I was the haberdasher in a three-and-a-half-hour version of Taming of the Shrew. My mom went to see it once, and she gave me a massive hug and then went, oh, my God, I'm so proud of you. Never make me do that again.

[14:18] Jasmine Malave: Which is fair, because it was a bunch of 15-year-olds really milking every line of Taming of the Shrew. And then, let's see, I played the nurse that came in at the very end of Streetcar Named Desire. And then eventually, so I functionally, as my mom says, I played rocks for years, rocks and trees and little things. And then eventually I got to be like the, oh, here we go. I'm ready. Give it to me.

[14:47] Maddie Murphy: I finally got a lead role and I was Malin in Steel Magnolias. And what my 17-year-old ass was doing playing a mourning mother, aged mother, screaming over the death of her daughter, the needless death of her daughter from complications of diabetes following pregnancy. I don't know, but let me tell you, you did the performance of a lifetime. Oh, the best is there's photos. They teased out my hair. Because all the costumes and the hair are also done by fellow high school students. And they did a great job. But it basically is so the Ethel costume in Twenty Sided Tavern. Imagine me with Ethel's hair, but it's my hair. So it's just a 17-year-old brown hair. I had it was massive. It was exceptional.

It was glorious. So that desperately to see these pictures. I'll dig some up. I will send them to Murray and please post it with this. And then and then I actually fell into improv in college. We there were no other acting opportunities while I was studying nutrition. And again, did not think that I could be an actor, though I secretly aspired to. So I fell into improv. And that's kind of now flash forward 10 years later. Now we're here.

[16:03] Jasmine Malave: Yeah.

[16:04] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, I will say that, like, I don't know what I originally had a plan for. But for some reason, comedy is the bit that stuck. And so it was always just a lot of different comedy shows throughout high school, I was always doing whatever I could at the community's youth theater, sometimes doing stuff for the main stage with the adults. And if I wasn't in one of those shows that I was teching. And so I was like, always in the booth, running lights or sound. At one point, I got my first little professional job doing lights and sound at a dinner theater that was attached to a racetrack in Phoenix. So like drive over do my little theater job running a manual light and sound board. I'm talking sliders for the lights and like, wow, and then go back home.

[17:01] Cassidy Sledge: The best is you also are perfectly suited to be a jockey. So I just wish you like and then I would do that. And then I would hop on a horse and race the night away. Bob's your uncle?

[17:02] Maddie Murphy: I'll never forget my first mare, Seabiscuit was the name, might have heard of her. Toby McGuire did me dirty in his performance of me. That horse was a real bastard.

[17:11] Jasmine Malave: That horse embezzled.

[17:13] Maddie Murphy: That's what nobody talks about with Seabiscuit. And what I mean by that is he ate all the winnings. No, fast as the dickens, but insider trading. Lock that horse up.

[17:20] Cassidy Sledge: Speaking of which though, did you, as we all kind of found performance in our own way, did you find that you've always kind of been like the little, the funky little weirdo, like the funny person? Or was that something that you discovered later on?

[17:35] Maddie Murphy: Um, I think that everyone was trying to tell me I was the funky little weirdo. And I was always getting character roles. And I was mad because I wanted to do leads and I didn't get to ever do any leads. And I think that like now I realize either A, they were right all along, but also B, I grew up in Arizona in the aughts and I was the only brown person. So that didn't help.

[18:17] Cassidy Sledge: What about you, Cass?

[18:19] Maddie Murphy: This is kind of like my first real comedic role, I guess. In the past, I had long blonde hair. And I think people saw that and they're like, Hmm, oh, that person has to be sexy on stage. So like, in high school, like, I was in Les Mis and they made me prostitute number two.

[18:40] Jasmine Malave: Oh, God.

[18:40] Maddie Murphy: And the best of the prostitutes. Thank you very much.

[18:44] Cassidy Sledge: Until Seabiscuit got us.

[18:47] Maddie Murphy: My line was, you remember, first the worst, second, the best. Third is the one that Seabiscuit killed.

[18:56] Jasmine Malave: That's what we say.

[18:57] Maddie Murphy: Goddamn Seabiscuit. I had the line, make money in your sleep, you know, because sensual.

[19:04] Cassidy Sledge: And then I like the shoulder wiggle that you're doing every time you say sensual.

[19:08] Maddie Murphy: It's part of it.

[19:09] Cassidy Sledge: And I say this with immense love. It's not sensual.

[19:12] Maddie Murphy: I think I think that's up to interpretation.

[19:15] Cassidy Sledge: It looks like you're trying to knock two parrots off your body.

[19:20] Maddie Murphy: Are parrots not sensual?

[19:21] Cassidy Sledge: No, they listen. Again, I love everything you're doing. I don't know what's going on in your dungeon. You are a little goober weirdo, just like all of us here.

[19:30] Maddie Murphy: Thank you.

[19:31] Cassidy Sledge: Thank you very much. I was also in a production of, oh, man, what was it? I want to say it was As You Like It, some Shakespearean show that does not have a prostitute role, but the director created one for me.

[19:46] Maddie Murphy: Oh, my God.

[19:47] Cassidy Sledge: And then I was...

[19:48] Maddie Murphy: So your wheelhouse is...

[19:53] Cassidy Sledge: I'm going to laugh so hard I fucking pause the recording.

[19:57] Maddie Murphy: You start the recording again.

[19:59] Cassidy Sledge: They must know.

[20:00] Maddie Murphy: They must know. Y'all, we got Murray laughing so hard he had to pause the recording. He's broken the stratosphere of the podcast space.

[20:11] Cassidy Sledge: So you had a prostitute role created for you. It's that is a and you were, you know, in high school, a large teenager. I say large. Sorry. I meant large as in like older teenager. You're almost about to leave your teenage head. I call them large teenagers, just like small adults are 20 and 20 to 25.

[20:29] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, I think I was a middling. It was 15.

[20:31] Cassidy Sledge: A middling teenager in your wheelhouse was invented prostitute.

[20:35] Maddie Murphy: Precisely. I don't know if you're familiar with Little Shop of Horrors.

[20:38] Cassidy Sledge: Yes. I was an ensemble for that.

[20:40] Maddie Murphy: And there's a character named Mrs. Loose, who is not a particularly sexual character at all.

[20:44] Cassidy Sledge: It's the name, though.

[20:45] Maddie Murphy: Mrs. Loose. They looked at her. They looked at me, said, Mrs. Loose. And they said, hey, what if we gave you an ear fetish? And I was like, what is going on?

[20:55] Cassidy Sledge: Interesting. I want to talk to the adults in your hometown.

[20:59] Maddie Murphy: Yes. Yes. Conversation should be had because having this conversation now out loud makes me go, wait a minute, hold on a second.

[21:09] Cassidy Sledge: I think, too, no one's surprised. I was always the goofy little goblin weirdo, but I myself didn't think that I was funny. I grew up in a really, really gregarious, funny Italian family. And so to me, like my sisters are the funniest people in the world. And I just couldn't keep up by virtue of being younger. And then to finally be like, oh, learning to embrace just the I am a creature. I'm a little creature feature. I really discovered that doing improv in college and kind of never looked back after that, where it was like, oh, the sensual prostitute character. That's not me, but just the sturdy goblin, that's more my wheelhouse.

[21:54] Maddie Murphy: See, I feel that really heavily as well, because there would be so many little sweet sensual ingenue things. And I guess I could fake some of that if you want me to do my like weird Disney princess voice.

[22:06] Cassidy Sledge: But yes, please give us princess balls be dropping, please.

[22:12] Maddie Murphy: Princess which balls be dropping.

[22:16] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah, that's balls be dropping, please.

[22:20] Maddie Murphy: I guess like if I do like a weird princess voice like, oh, welcome. We're going to go to the magical castle.

[22:28] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, my God, it was the laugh at the end.

[22:30] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, I can do like I want to do voiceover and shit, but that's not real.

[22:35] Cassidy Sledge: Sure. Yeah, you're I mean, we were just talking about that the other day, like the affectation that you often get.

[22:40] Maddie Murphy: Yeah. As as a woman, how common it is to to change your voice, you know, and how encouraged is. So I guess my version of princess balls be dropping is.

[22:51] Maddie Murphy: Um. Hello and welcome, if you would please be so sure as to go to the tea service room, we would be much obliged to serve you.

[23:03] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, my God.

[23:05] Maddie Murphy: The laugh is the period.

[23:07] Cassidy Sledge: I lend is what I think yours is real anime. I really like it.

[23:10] Maddie Murphy: Wait, I want to try. I want to try.

[23:11] Cassidy Sledge: Is your now your this is Cassidy's balls be dropping.

[23:14] Maddie Murphy: Yeah. Wait, can you give me can you give me a prompt?

[23:17] Cassidy Sledge: Here, I'll give you an interest song.

[23:19] Maddie Murphy: So much better. But up, up, up, up, up, who's coming down the stairs in a flashy gown? It's Princess Balls be dropping that 20.

[23:27] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, hello and welcome to the castle.

[23:33] Maddie Murphy: Oh, my God. You're a little snake in a top hat.

[23:34] Cassidy Sledge: Oh yeah. Right.

[23:36] Maddie Murphy: With like big eyelashes and a little hat.

[23:38] Cassidy Sledge: Why a snake?

[23:40] Maddie Murphy: I just saw a cutie pie garden snake. I don't know.

[23:42] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, wow.

[23:42] Maddie Murphy: I don't know. Part of me feels like I'm like, did Polly Pocket ever have a voice?

[23:47] Cassidy Sledge: That was the Polly Pocket voice.

[23:48] Maddie Murphy: I was going to say, I feel like I just channeled or maybe like like Barbie's dream house when like when like you ring her doorbell and she's like, hi, welcome to Barbie town.

[24:00] Cassidy Sledge: I would give any Barbie.

[24:04] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, Barbie town named after her.

[24:06] Cassidy Sledge: I would give anything for that scene. Instead, Barbie opens the door is like, hey, what's up? She's got full smoker's voice. She's smoking a pack a day. She's got one hair. She's holding a room temperature gallon of chocolate milk and go like, ah, what's up? And in the other hand, she's got a gin martini.

[24:20] Maddie Murphy: Ah, she's got.

[24:21] Cassidy Sledge: And she's mixing them together.

[24:24] Maddie Murphy: Oh, and on one foot is like a proper shoe. And on the other is just like a slipper, like a glass slipper or like a living room slip.

[24:34] Cassidy Sledge: No, like a fuzzy slipper.

[24:41] Maddie Murphy: Her eyebrows have clearly just been burned off in some sort of cooking, but she still has her rollers in.

[24:48] Cassidy Sledge: The other half, she just started teasing.

[24:51] Maddie Murphy: Like Maddie's one role. Hey, what's up, you little swamp need folks? Come on in. Welcome to Barbie town.

[25:02] Cassidy Sledge: See, that's that's that's that's that's who I am on the inside. This is why none of us play ingenues.

[25:09] Maddie Murphy: So did we have any any like particularly femme literature or like media that we really enjoyed growing up?

[25:17] Jasmine Malave: So I actually struggled to find a lot that I could relate to. Again, I read a ton of fantasy and it was always like it was always difficult to feel aligned to the female protagonists because they often fell into really common tropes. You know, I think we all know the and it's still very much so a trend. But like the I say that I'm special, which is the idea of, you know, you got your Bella from Twilight. You have your the idea of just someone who is naturally so sensual and wanted, but she doesn't know it.

[26:01] Maddie Murphy: Hold on. I really need everyone to note that Maddie also did the shoulder wiggle and sensual.

[26:05] Jasmine Malave: Yeah, I locked eyes with you and I showed you what it looks like. And I think it was very sensual.

[26:07] Maddie Murphy: Oh, excuse me. So sorry. I just have to get these two canaries off my shoulders.

[26:11] Jasmine Malave: OK, sorry. No, but I think and again, that's a totally valid character. And if you relate to it, awesome. But I always found typically characters portrayed by mask characters were the ones that I was like, oh, that's the interesting one. Or you have like you're in Harry Potter, the Hermione's who are brilliant, but grating right there, they're somehow their abilities make them undesirable in society in some way. And that is an obstacle that they have to overcome or they literally have to dull their shine.

[27:00] Maddie Murphy: Yeah.

[27:01] Jasmine Malave: And so I always I clocked that even as a kid. So I again think I will bring it back. Like the reason why a 20 sided tavern is truly just the dream is because we get to play these characters the exact way that we want to play them. And gender is inconsequential or better yet, I can appear as a fem presenting character or a mask presenting character. And I don't have to justify why me, Mattie Murphy is playing it. I just get to play.

[27:16] Cassidy Sledge: Yay. What about you, Jazzy?

[27:19] Jasmine Malave: I don't know that I had specific things I did really love growing up for like Halloween's. I would want to do different Disney princesses. But the ones that I enjoyed playing were the ones that I enjoyed dressing up as were like Princess Jasmine, which I felt like she had more autonomy. She ran away from the castle or like your Esmeralda, who kind of was trying to fight against the power. So stuff like that. I just it's hard to find characters that you can feel excited for in those those stories when the women are given one path, which is like the love story.

[28:03] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, it's I feel like especially I think that like we've kind of slowly started having a shift recently in media where like women are finally becoming more three dimensional characters. But I do I agree. Growing up, I feel it was really not. I feel like Avatar, The Last Airbender kind of.

[28:16] Jasmine Malave: Oh, that was a good scratch that itch for me because.

[28:18] Maddie Murphy: Oh, yeah. Katara was like, oh, my God, tough. And like like I feel like every femme character in that show had a real personality and they were respected for their craft, their abilities, and they had arcs, you know, like like Katara starts off as her. It's like a running joke throughout the series that, you know, she's so like misty eyed and weepy because, you know, she's literally dealing with trauma the entire series.

[28:46] Jasmine Malave: But her.

[28:47] Maddie Murphy: Yeah, you mean like the death of her mom and the loss of her entire tribe, the withering away of a culture that she's bearing witness to finally finding a little heaven and he's a sexist. I said little heaven. I might say a little heavy.

[29:04] Jasmine Malave: Yeah. And so I think I don't know, watching watching a character that was not mask presenting, be able to have an arc where they they become stronger and and like when she when she seeks out revenge for her mother's killer, Avatar spoilers, if you haven't seen it and how she she chooses in the end to to turn away from rage, to turn away from revenge and to choose to like.

[29:35] Madelyn Murphy: Wait, Jasmine, put your hand on Madelyn's face. Wait, okay. Oh, see? Put your hand on my face. Okay, here we go. See, no, your face is bigger than my hand. You've got a pretty good size face. My face, my face is as big as your tiny little hand. Wait, Jasmine, can I put my hand on your face? Yeah. Okay, I got big hands. My face is pretty small too. It is, it is, it's just if you look, you don't look at me and go, look at that little bean head lady. But then you really look at the size of my face. Hold on, hold on, how tall are both of you?

[30:05] Jasmine Malave: 5'1".

[30:06] Madelyn Murphy: I'm 7'2". Murray's trying real hard not to laugh. Murray, you want to put your big, meaty hand up to my face and see how much bigger it is?

[30:14] Murray: Not meaty. I got tiny hands.

[30:16] Madelyn Murphy: Tiny hands, Murray? Oh, actually, you do. You have, I wouldn't say it in a mean way, you just have, yeah, that's like a nice hand. I'd hold that hand.

[30:25] Jasmine Malave: Have you had any experiences in the tavern of an audience member coming up to you saying anything about, you know, seeing themselves reflected on stage in like a femme way or Jasmine as a POC? Like, have you, have you had any moments where you've been able to connect with someone and see your presence on stage making a difference?

[30:46] Jasmine Malave: Yeah, I think coming to the tavern a little bit later, I think everybody already had seen Maddie in a lot of advertisements and stuff. So I think that that was already clear that we have femme representation. And that's important. The big one that I keep getting messages for is a lot of AAPI people and people stopping me after the show to be like, I know you're Filipino, I can tell because we can tell. And I don't know what it is about. It's a thing. And so that's definitely been a fun one.

[31:14] Jasmine Malave: And I even got a DM this last week where somebody messaged to say, really exciting to see AAPI representation. You're killing it. And it was just really nice. It means a lot to me. It's also why I have terrible anxiety because I don't want to do a bad job when people see me on the stage. But it's really exciting. I mean, I say that a little tongue in cheek, I'm fine. I'm having a lot of fun doing the show, but it feels like a lot of pressure in a lot of ways.

[31:43] Madelyn Murphy: To your point about pressure, doing improv for many, many years, it still is a very fairly male and masc dominated space. I think femme presenting people are kind of in the minority of it a lot. And it definitely is also a Caucasian space primarily.

[32:01] Madelyn Murphy: And I just remember there were so many shows of being essentially the only woman on stage. And so many years of constantly you walk out in a scene and you are automatically the aggravating wife, the mistress or the stripper. The amount of times that I walked into a scene and somebody sat on a chair and went dance for me, baby.

[32:22] Madelyn Murphy: Now granted, a lot of that is starting out and inexperience, but also just the idea of it really is like you look around and you have your particular gaze and you see a woman and you go, I know who you are in the scene and putting that. And that is, of course, never once happened at 20 Sided Tavern walking through scenes, but you do that for years.

[32:42] Madelyn Murphy: And you learn there's techniques to deal with it, some things, but it's so funny to be like the idea of, oh, you're the woman here is still very pervasive. And I understand that, too, of feeling very much so part of why I love playing the weirdos that are functionally kind of like genderless, like the gender doesn't define them necessarily. It doesn't drive them as much as their strange personality quirk is exactly that of nobody's coming out and saying, oh, you're the subservient position.

[33:05] Madelyn Murphy: You serve me or, you know, it's very hard to be pigeonholed into fem tropes when you're already just playing like the little weirdo, the little guy. So that's that's why it's something I gravitate towards. And that is a fear that I have held to where it's like if you are one of a handful of women in a space to be like, I want to hold my own. And it's not that was the funny woman. Yeah, that was a person that was another performer. That's something I feel.

[33:30] Jasmine Malave: And to answer your question, I think my heart has melted multiple times meeting a lot of little little ladies, little women in the audience who love D&D. And I think particularly getting to play a when I play characters that are male like Tamerlane, I've gotten them being like, it's so exciting. You played a boy.

[33:54] Jasmine Malave: You were a boy and you and you won, but you were a boy, but you also kind of played it like a girl. I get they're like fascinated by that. And I find that very empowering to be like, you can be whatever, do it, whatever you want. And also getting to play Barry Von Goblin Tooth, who is a goblin. His tagline is he's just a little guy and he's a little weirdo. And several times, very excited children have run up to me and went, I want to be a goblin.

[34:20] Madelyn Murphy: Yay. And there and you could tell like, there's something about you can see little kids holding back who they are, because the conditioning has already started. Yeah. And to find them be like that manic gleam in their eye of like, I want to do that. And being like, you can.

[34:36] Jasmine Malave: Oh God, I'm tearing up a little like that's really, that's really meaningful. And it's really powerful to in being myself finding my other little fellow weirdos. Yeah. And saying it's okay. And you can be celebrated and you can be successful and you can be free. It's the best feeling in the world.

[34:57] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, there was um, one one show where I, I was on for DM. And there was a group of I love telling the story. I think I told it when we had the talk back with a Bria. And there were a group of 12 year olds. They're all celebrating one girl's birthday. And she loves Lord of the Rings. That's like her favorite thing. Hell yeah. And so for her birthday, she was like, I want to go see the Dungeons and Dragons show.

[35:23] Madelyn Murphy: So she brought all of her friends and she showed up and like she had little elf ears and a cape. And some of her friends also had capes, but some of her friends didn't. So they just brought blankets with duct tape on.

[35:31] Jasmine Malave: Oh, I love it.

[35:34] Madelyn Murphy: And they were like, Oh my gosh, you know, I wanted I want to do what you do. I like I want to start playing D&D and I want to run the game and I want to play all the characters. And and afterwards the the dad took the time to write an email and say thank you so much for for making my daughter's birthday and for changing her perspective on on Dungeons and Dragons and showing her that this is something she could do.

[36:02] Jasmine Malave: I mean, dude, fem DMs rock. It's always so exciting. I mean, like, again, Bria is an amazing DM and also just to see. Yeah, and just to see a woman, a powerful woman just be who she is and run a game is not seen enough anyway. And it's just like hell yeah, like do it. Just lead.

[36:23] Madelyn Murphy: And it's you know, because it's D&D. No one's like, asking the question. Like, why is a woman here? It just is no justifications necessary. That's the whole point of like, you don't have to justify and be like, this is why I'm allowed to play this. It's Nope. Here I am, motherfuckers. Z-Biscuit dropped me off.

[36:43] Jasmine Malave: That's, that's something that it took me a long time to realize by doing 20 sided tavern of just like, oh, I'm walking into a space where the first 15 minutes of my being here is not me explaining to you why I get to be here.

[37:01] Jasmine Malave: Yes, I think that the biggest thing that I've learned the last like, few weeks is that the only person who's really being critical of anything is myself. Like, just I have so much of this unnecessary mental baggage around even something as silly as like Asians not really being considered funny as early as 10 years ago, right? Like, that was still a thing.

[37:20] Jasmine Malave: And having to deal with that. And I remember being just excited that when The Good Place came out, that was still one of the early examples of an Asian not being bookish, just being stupid. Like and being so excited. I was like telling all my friends, you guys, Asians have to be stupid now. And like how hyped I was. And that was so recent.

[37:39] Jasmine Malave: So like, it's just really nice to know that I can show up for this. It doesn't no one's asking any questions about it. No one's asking anything about me being a woman or being a person of color because I am mixed and I just get to play and I never have to feel bad or apologize for it.

[37:56] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, I just want to say, I always love it when we're on stage together. Yeah, I really love playing D&D with you guys. You do. Oh, and then Seabiscuit comes and ruins it. And then we ride into the sunset. And then we ride straight to the sea. Where the biscuits await!

[38:12] Cassidy Sledge: All right. Well, I think that that is probably all the time we have left. If we want to drop socials and ways to reach and follow and contact us, Maddie?

[38:23] Madelyn Murphy: Yeah, I also just want to say to anybody listening out here, if you however you identify, if you feel like a weirdo or out of place, you're not. You're awesome. Do your thing. Explore who you are. And you don't have to wear any coats that you feel that don't fit. That sounds very lame, but I really wholeheartedly, really, really mean it. And if you don't feel good out in the world, come hang out with us. Really, please, please, please. And DM me and I will get you a ticket.

[38:51] Madelyn Murphy: And also you can find me on Instagram at mad.mad.murphy. And I would also like to tout another company that I think does incredible work in terms of just having badass femme presenting improvisers, comedians, leaders, and that is at high stakes Chicago. Cool. Jazzy?

[39:06] Jasmine Malave: You can find me at all of my handles are basically just Jazzy Loves Drama. And yeah, I just wanted to add on to what Maddie said. You are enough and everybody. I go to the Mermaid Parade every year and it's my favorite parade because I call it like the freak flag parade. It's just everybody shows up with their brand of weirdo and it's the most beautiful happy day in the world and everyone should live their lives like it's Mermaid Parade.

[39:35] Jasmine Malave: Every day. Everybody is weird. Never forget that everybody is a little goblin freak weirdo. And if you pretend you're not, that's a lie. Everybody's weird. Whether you're a princess balls be dropping or a Mr. Person or a seed biscuit. Oh, shit. Here it comes.

[39:55] Madelyn Murphy: He can't see you if you don't move. That's T-Rex. Quick. Somebody say Tobey Maguire three times fast in the mirror and he'll disappear. No, that'll just summon Tobey. Circa Spider-Man 3. Oh no, the emo one. To-be-mo.

[40:14] Cassidy Sledge: I am Cassidy Sledge. You can find me on Instagram at Cassidy Sledge. You can find my website at www.cassidysledge.com. And also, if you're a lady out there and you're a little weirdo and you're thinking, hmm, I kind of want to run a D&D game. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it right now. DM me. We'll find you a one shot. We'll find you a campaign. Let's make it happen.

[40:41] Cassidy Sledge: DM me to DM me. And just DM me to say hi, because I'm friendly. Uh oh. You said it while laughing. It's like a trap. It's time for the outro music. Crit 20. Nat 20. Nat 20. Ailing well met. My baby's your widow. Be a goblin and sweat. You can cry at a date. Ew, it's not a date. Just feel your emotions. Here we go. Nat 20.

[41:06] Madelyn Murphy: Bitches. Bitches.