This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Susan Blackwell: This is part two of our interview with the guys from Freestyle Love Supreme.

[0:03] Laura Camien: You might want to go back and give part one a listen or not.

[0:06] Susan Blackwell: However, you're doing it, you're doing it right. Enjoy the show.

[0:08] Laura Camien: The Spark File podcast may contain profanity and other adult content. Please use your discretion.

[0:18] Anthony Veneziale: When I bump in something that inspires me.

[0:58] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And with an audience.

[1:05] Anthony Veneziale: Absolutely.

[1:07] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[1:14] Anthony Veneziale: Yeah, and I believe that introvert extrovert does the same injustice as woman man does. It's not binary. There's so much gray area on either side of that spectrum. You know, I think that there's a quadrant at least, but then there's also all of these sliding scales inside of these quadrants. It's yeah like I never wanted to be on stage when I was a kid. Like I said, and that my mother still quotes this to me to this day. She brought all of us. I have four older brothers. She brought us all to the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. And she said, "You're gonna try out for Jesus Christ Superstar." And I said, "I will never get on a stage."

[1:56] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I want to go back and catch.

[1:57] Anthony Veneziale: Um, you mentioned something about classes, and now just hearing you talk, I'm like, sign me up. What are these classes you're talking about? Is it anything on the stage?

[2:07] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Who are Susan? You didn't even email me to tell me who we're talking to.

[2:12] Anthony Veneziale: So but really is it does it have anything to do with these exercises you're talking about or the neural pathways? Like, tell us about these classes.

[2:20] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah, hugely. So I'm lucky enough to have two improv companies. One of them here in New York is called Freestyle of Supreme Academy. And for us, that's a little bit more about a community experience and a little bit more about creating the environment in which people will feel free to fail. Um, and that's something that we've worked really hard at creating the infrastructure and group check-ins and checkouts so that there's a certain amount of psychological safety that gets created very quickly inside of these classes, meaning I'm willing to take a risk in front of strangers.

[2:54] Anthony Veneziale: Uh, and then there's another organization that I started called Speechless, which is out in San Francisco, it's in the Bay Area, but we're growing and expanding. Uh, and we've just opened studios. So for about six years, we've been doing these workshops inside of very big companies.

[3:09] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So we're embedded at Google and at Adobe and at Salesforce, and we are there every week, and we do workshops with people, and we do big giant corporate workshops, but now we're doing these studio classes where you can drop into our studio and do something called restorative play.

[3:26] Anthony Veneziale: It's mental fitness. So we're trying to expand this concept of how we stay healthy. Uh, neuroplasticity being a very big important part of what a healthy brain is able to continue to do.

[3:39] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Wow.

[3:39] Anthony Veneziale: What does that mean?

[3:40] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So learning to learn.

[3:42] Anthony Veneziale: Uh, neuroplasticity is your ability to continue to learn new ways of learning. And the human brain, for a long time, it was thought that that actually had a window of time that it ceased to sort of grow between 18 and 24. Most people, most for a long time, scientists thought that's it. Well, once you hit like 18, between 18 and 24, your ability to learn new ways of learning, everything's set, right?

[4:09] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So your synaptic.

[4:10] Anthony Veneziale: You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

[4:12] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[4:13] Anthony Veneziale: Right. Exactly. Uh, unless you continue to break pattern.

[4:17] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And so restorative play starts to add in a bunch of new adaptogenic skill sets to your brain by doing in the moment play with people in that studio with you and also online.

[4:30] Anthony Veneziale: So we're gonna try to scale this out. So we're I don't know if people heard of mirror, but there's this wonderful exercise mirror now that people can have in their homes and interact with a trainer.

[4:42] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh, we'd like to do the same thing for your brain with improv as that sort of adaptogenic tool.

[4:48] Anthony Veneziale: Wow.

[4:50] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Your opacity is good.

[4:53] Anthony Veneziale: Susan's way back there.

[4:54] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I think we left Susan back about five minutes ago.

[4:59] Anthony Veneziale: Yeah.

[5:00] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Restorative play. I'm into it.

[5:02] Anthony Veneziale: And that's just one of them.

[5:03] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah, there's other classes as well.

[5:05] Anthony Veneziale: Right, we get it, you have more words.

[5:07] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: No, no.

[5:08] Anthony Veneziale: I'll slow down.

[5:10] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Say a few words. Bridging the gap, right?

[5:12] Anthony Veneziale: So there's a big confidence gap, especially in the tech community that you know, it's right now about 75 25. It's some people say 70 30, but there's so many more bros in tech and programming than there are women, and it's a huge field of opportunity in the future around how the world is going to work.

[5:28] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: There's gonna be a lot more coding that needs to happen and so how do we create an environment where people feel very confident um and also playful and authentically themselves while they're maybe going into that field because that field's huge and it's not just about programming it's about all the support that goes around that as well and it'll still take a human centered communication to do it it's not just that it's going from a machine to a machine it's not typically a field where you think um yeah sure like make some mistakes um that's right play around a bit that's right i you you have to know what you're talking about there's the sense of like I've got to be super confident and so there's a huge confidence gap that's that happens in especially in our country around the way women are raised and the way men are raised.

[6:11] Anthony Veneziale: So on the playground, oh he's just a boy and on the playground you should know better you're a girl.

[6:17] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh and so that style in our schools and prevalent in most of our societies as well really really hammers home the safety uh is super important for women and and reckless abandon is super important for boys and that leads to a big confidence gap.

[6:31] Anthony Veneziale: Uh and so what we're trying to do is undo some of that deep neural networking that has happened in our society and find new ways of breaking apart that specific preferred pathway so that it dissolves and you create new ones that are more helpful and useful for yourself.

[7:13] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh that's right.

[7:14] Anthony Veneziale: We were gonna pull that string.

[7:17] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[7:18] Anthony Veneziale: Oh, uh, so it would be useful if we get some words because we shouldn't know what we're about to say.

[7:24] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So maybe do you want to ask for words from the audience?

[7:26] Anthony Veneziale: Give us a word.

[7:29] Audience: Recreation!

[7:29] Audience: Harness!

[7:29] Audience: Pineapple!

[7:29] Audience: Graffiti!

[7:32] Anthony Veneziale: Great. Okay, here we go.

[7:34] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[7:35] Anthony Veneziale: Okay. Looking for another place in the nation where I can relax with some recreation. I guess I found it. I guess I have to dapple while I eat this like a pineapple. Okay, just check me out. Cause I'm about to shout to the rooftops where I did graffiti with PDA. Could conclusions the needy, but maybe not so great. And I have to harness the power like I was to the Hulk. Or maybe four yes to the big old bulk. Alright, I hope that I have to walk through the park because soon, right? Now we're gonna be on the spark files.

[8:08] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh my god.

[8:11] Anthony Veneziale: Okay.

[8:12] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So we memorized that right before.

[8:14] Anthony Veneziale: Yeah.

[8:14] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So thank you to our plants.

[8:17] Anthony Veneziale: Holy crap.

[8:19] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: He was talking about how in our early days.

[8:31] Anthony Veneziale: He'd be like, as long as someone's wearing a blue shirt tonight, I've got this thing I can say to blue shirt.

[8:45] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Right on it.

[8:53] Anthony Veneziale: Could you please share with us a little bit about your origin story? You are a superhero.

[8:57] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Ooh.

[9:01] Anthony Veneziale: Once upon a time.

[9:04] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: No.

[9:05] Anthony Veneziale: Um I was a very adventurous kid who had lots of diverse interests.

[9:12] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And uh in high school I ranged from participating in the yearbook club to the debate club to all of the bands, orchestra, wind ensemble, and jazz, and uh was secretary of my class.

[9:26] Anthony Veneziale: And um I that same sort of macrocosm in the micro version within the bands and the music parts. I didn't know what I really wanted to play. So I started with piano and I stopped because my piano teacher's house smelled like cats.

[9:40] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And then I then I picked up uh saxophone, played that for a while, and I think it was around Bill Clinton and it felt like overplayed.

[9:49] Anthony Veneziale: So I stopped with that, and I then I picked up a trumpet because there was one in my attic.

[9:54] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: There we go.

[9:54] Anthony Veneziale: I can see I can do two things at once.

[9:58] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um my stepfather had one, so I started playing trumpet and I didn't like it anymore, so I stuck with percussion, and percussion gave me the ability to be eclectic and have diverse interests within the same world.

[10:09] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: You know, so that kind of way is how it's um shifted into my like my more professional life because when I went to college, I was still doing music and still doing percussion, and then I got involved with at UMass.

[10:22] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And then um Mission Improvable and in Mission Improbable was the name of our improv group.

[10:28] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um I was right, like why all improv groups and like a cappella groups are like totally fair masked out the name Shockwave was bestowed upon me because I had uh we had some games that we play.

[10:44] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: One was called Death in 30 Seconds, where one improviser would be on stage and they were given a normal household activity, and then another improviser was offstage with a microphone, and they had to provide the sound effects for that person to die in 30 seconds.

[10:58] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So, you know, it could, you know, making pancakes, and it would be like it always ends with death for you.

[11:07] Audience: That's oh my gosh.

[11:09] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Not only just for you, but I shouldn't say this out loud, but I will.

[11:14] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: There is infanticide in almost every one of our shows.

[11:17] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Shockwave somehow finds a way to kill a baby.

[11:21] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh an imaginary baby.

[11:25] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Don't do it.

[11:29] Susan Blackwell: Chris, can I ask about your parents through all of this?

[11:33] Susan Blackwell: I want to try this, I want to try that. Like, were they just like, great, son, go at it?

[11:38] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: What do you love?

[11:39] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[11:39] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um, that's awesome.

[11:41] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I was more or less raised by a single parent by my mom.

[11:45] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um mom wave.

[11:46] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Mom wave, as we affectionately call her.

[11:49] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And she just was overflowing with love and acceptance and you know, it to a point where it was hard growing up sometimes.

[11:57] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: You know, like, come on, mom, just you know, give me some discipline, you know.

[12:01] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh so I didn't really have that figure in my life.

[12:05] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So I was the kid just playing in the woods.

[12:07] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I would go to the library and play in the books.

[12:10] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um, not literally, you know.

[12:12] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And uh so I could just change my mind at will, and she was just okay with it.

[12:16] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So that's wonderful.

[12:18] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um with that worked out, yeah, it worked out.

[12:20] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um, you know, we all find our ways to work out.

[12:23] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So yeah.

[12:27] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah, yeah.

[12:28] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I feel like so many years.

[12:40] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I don't know why.

[12:41] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I don't get it.

[12:42] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: No, I'm kidding.

[12:43] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I got I love you.

[13:03] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Could they be one and the same?

[13:05] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: May I start with batshit crazy?

[13:08] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Don't take mine.

[13:09] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: You're gonna take mine.

[13:10] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh, I'm taking it.

[13:11] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh so um this is 2005, and we had just gotten done.

[13:19] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: A run at Arsnova.

[13:21] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh it was our first like actually produced run.

[13:24] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Everything before that kind of had happened at improv theaters where runs don't happen, just occasional happenings happen.

[13:31] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um, and so uh a couple people came and saw the show, and they're like, wow, this this could probably do really, really well at the fringe festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.

[13:40] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And we all were at the time able to do it.

[13:43] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So we said, God, that sounds pretty cool.

[13:46] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Lynn was still working on In the Heights, it just fell kind of right in the perfect timing.

[13:50] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And so we went over to Edinburgh and we were performing at the assembly rooms, which is an amazing, amazing venue.

[13:57] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I mean, we landed in the catcher's mit of safety in Edinburgh right away.

[14:02] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: It's not it's not a mocking.

[14:06] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh it's just a terrible analogy.

[14:08] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um, so jumping over.

[14:12] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I mean, because the catcher's myth, it's a ball that gets thrown in at high velocity, and then he's got to throw away it.

[14:17] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Nothing rests.

[14:18] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Okay, sure, it's fine.

[14:21] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: What's that?

[14:24] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh, yes.

[14:26] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: You park yourself there.

[14:31] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Great.

[14:32] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So we land on the catcher's mit of safety at the assembly rooms, and we have great audiences, but we need to busk and we need to go out.

[14:39] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And not only are we doing, you know, a we did 36 shows in 25 days.

[14:45] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: We also did appearances.

[14:46] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: We would do like best of fest and all this kind of stuff.

[14:50] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And so one night, and and shockwave, this human next to me, who is a tall drink of water with crystal blue eyes that you could just dive into.

[14:59] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um I think of it as the warm lagoon of ambiotic fluid that's the safety net of my mother's belly.

[15:05] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Sorry, sorry.

[15:07] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Sometimes you have to give color to the advancement as well, shock.

[15:11] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I was stuck in color mode.

[15:12] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Okay, great.

[15:13] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh and so Shockwave would often go out and look for opportunities for us to do the thing that we do.

[15:19] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh and there's all these best of the fests that happen at each different venue.

[15:22] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So each different venue kind of puts on their hey, check out this new act.

[15:26] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: It's amazing.

[15:27] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh or check out this new act, it's amazing.

[15:30] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Right, Scottish.

[15:31] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh so um so I see what's happening now.

[15:36] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh, yeah, yeah.

[15:38] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Boomerang.

[15:39] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I like to play in the the cricket match.

[15:41] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Great.

[15:42] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So it's the cricket of safety.

[15:45] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Sorry, Susan.

[15:47] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So there we are, about to go to this best of the fest that Shockwave sets up that starts at 1 a.m.

[15:53] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Of course, it's the fringe.

[15:54] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Things happen at all times.

[15:55] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh, and it's at the gilded Balloon, which is kind of a notorious venue of like, oh yeah, the CD shows happen at the gilded balloon.

[16:03] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: It's funny, but it's always off the handle, and people are like crazy.

[16:07] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So we have the enviable spot of about 3 a.m.

[16:11] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And we're waiting there because we might go on at two, but we might go on at three.

[16:15] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And Shock's like, no, just stick it out, just stick it out.

[16:17] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And we're all exhausted.

[16:17] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: We had done two shows earlier and been on a radio program with Fred McAuley.

[16:22] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And then Shock's like, just stick it out, just stick it out.

[16:24] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And we see in the rafters that there's like two levels of seating, but everyone's just standing up.

[16:29] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: It's one of those kind of mosh pit shows.

[16:31] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: There are people dressed in costume in the mezzanine for reasons we don't know.

[16:35] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And there are, I'd want to say maybe 12 to 13 chavs.

[16:39] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh that's a British euphemism for really low class white people.

[16:44] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh and so there are these chavs dressed up in like Wimbledon gear, and they've got tennis balls, and they're just sitting up there, and we're like, this is a strange thing.

[16:53] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So we finally get the call at like 2 45 to get on stage, and there we go, Lynn Manuel Miranda, myself, Chris Jackson, Bill Sherman, and you.

[17:02] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I think Arthur was smart and did not come.

[17:05] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh and Shock's like, all right, this is it.

[17:07] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: This is our gilded balloon chance.

[17:08] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I'm being mischaracterized in this.

[17:10] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: No, you're not.

[17:11] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: This is exactly what happened.

[17:12] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: You can ask anyone else other than Shockwave.

[17:14] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh and we get out on that stage and we start doing our thing, uh, which is, you know, freestyle rapping.

[17:19] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And for some reason, the rowdy chavs up in the mezzanine are like, let's throw these tennis balls at these performers.

[17:26] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And they start throwing tennis balls at us as we're performing.

[17:30] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And I get hit in my testicles.

[17:34] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh very hard.

[17:36] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And uh, and I say, we're done.

[17:38] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: The show is over.

[17:39] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Let's get out of here.

[17:41] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I was just lacquered in the tokies, which is not a phrase that anyone has ever said before.

[17:46] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: But we'll say it now.

[17:48] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: We say we say it multiple times.

[17:49] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[17:50] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: It is now shorthand for when something goes terribly awry.

[17:54] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So that is my favorite, like gone awry bad shit crazy.

[17:57] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I was lacquered in the tokies, and now it's a sort of freestyle euphemism thereafter.

[18:02] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Wow.

[18:03] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um why don't I uh polish it off with a good story?

[18:06] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[18:07] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: That was a good story.

[18:08] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah, it was a little bit of a I've given that many times in like the press for the Broadway runs just because it's so memorable and it it speaks to, you know, it it was a negative experience, but also speaks to like the longevity of our group and the things we've gone through together.

[18:20] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah, and what I love about it is that everyone rallied though.

[18:23] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Like Chris Jackson got in front of me, Bill Sherman picked me up.

[18:27] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: It felt like we were like an enemy territory.

[18:29] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Everyone carried me out and they were all like, let's go find those chests.

[18:33] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh yeah, I was on the ground.

[18:34] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah, I was hit so incredibly hard.

[18:37] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh and drama.

[18:38] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah, it was drama, and they like they carried me out like totally.

[18:42] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: It was definitely when we say trench.

[18:44] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: This is what we mean.

[18:46] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: We mean risks to your vaccine for rent.

[18:49] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So kids, hey, wear a cup.

[18:53] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[18:53] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So another festival that we were uh very uh privileged to be a part of and lucky, uh, and I don't believe even exists anymore, but was the Aspen Comedy Festival.

[19:02] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[19:03] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[19:04] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um it was a wonderful uh experience that we were given also around the same time where we already had our run at Arsnova and we got our our big Hollywood agents.

[19:15] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Did we hit them before or after?

[19:16] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: After.

[19:17] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: But like right during, yeah, yeah.

[19:18] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: This was February of 2005.

[19:20] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So um the Aspen Comedy Festival was a place where comedy acts were essentially um shopped around.

[19:27] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Discovered.

[19:28] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah, yeah, like put on put on pedestals.

[19:30] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And it was it was like a week long.

[19:32] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[19:32] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[19:33] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um, and we performed after Flight of the Concords before they had their TV show.

[19:37] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: We shared the dressing room, which was all outside in a tent breathing from oxygen tanks because we're so high up in the air before we went on stage.

[19:45] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh wow.

[19:46] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um and we were asked to perform one of our our bits from our show that we generally close out the show with called Day in the Life, where we bring an audience member on stage and interview them about their day.

[19:57] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And um it inevitably, well, I won't give any spoilers, but it's a great way to end our show.

[20:02] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[20:02] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: So um we have to be twins.

[20:09] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: At least one of them survives.

[20:12] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I must be Romulus.

[20:14] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Cainfield Abel.

[20:16] Anthony Veneziale: Uh so uh we were in Roman. Now it's in Romulus and Remus, and you went Cain and Abel, damn it. We were raised differently. Um the uh the person that we were invited to perform the Day in the Life was Catherine O'Hara.

[20:33] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: What?

[20:34] Anthony Veneziale: So that was a really amazing to be. Lovely fruit wine. Yeah, being being on stage. Um and that so that was a a privilege for us. And when we performed it, there's like just a couple offshoots of the story, which which may blemish the perfect apple I've just presented. But no apple is perfect. So when I remember for me, um you always should check your equipment if you're using somebody else's equipment before you're using it in a in a performance or a um or a practice experience because we were rehearsing this with Catherine um and we're all sort of starstruck, and also what are we doing here? And also, where's the oxygen? So the microphone that I had to use, well, I think we were performing in a basement of some ski lodge or something and um St. Regent's basement.

The microphone that I had had been used before and it was a rough and uh rough mic so that whenever I did something like that's an inhale sound. So when I did that for the very first time while we're performing with Catherine for the very first time all these beard hairs all come into my mouth and into my lungs.

[21:41] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh at least it was Zach Galafinakis's so always check your equipment and then uh he turned the apple over and then a bruise on the back is that when we actually performed this uh live it was at the end we went last it was another sort of best of the fest of Aspen and we went last after uh a bunch of acts but then Paula Poundstone who really pounded the audience.

[22:05] Anthony Veneziale: Oh they all left they hated what she was doing. So in the it we it was like 300 people in the audience and it probably trickled down to like 50. And and then it was also very very late and but we still went through with it and did it so that experience is still there's probably a picture somewhere on MySpace. But it was a wonderful experience but you know show biz I have one that we we we use within Freestyle Love Supreme Academy. Um and it's a it's a phrase that I've heard elsewhere in the improv world, but we've really instituted it because it rings true to what we help to facilitate.

[22:51] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And it's the phrase invest, don't invest.

[22:54] Anthony Veneziale: Invest, don't invent. Yeah invest, don't invent. When we're when we're teaching a sorry, I threw you off. You had it and I was trying to do the thing that you do for me all the time. When you know your own stories, or when you know the story, you can uh more easily tell it. So if you're told to tell a story on the spot, it helps to have a spark of inspiration.

[23:23] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I see what you did there.

[23:24] Anthony Veneziale: Suggestion of a word, um, a place to begin uh to already have uh to do what you already know rather than trying to reinvent something. Why write a book about a character that you've never met or experienced? Write a write a book about a character who you are.

[23:38] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Nice.

[23:39] Anthony Veneziale: Um it just helps to helps you uh gives you some guideposts.

[23:42] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[23:43] Anthony Veneziale: Who keep showing up?

[23:51] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Oh.

[23:53] Anthony Veneziale: Sure. Uh there's gonna be a lot of moments in your life that will try to prevent you from showing up.

[24:00] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And your job as a creative human being is to keep showing up.

[24:08] Anthony Veneziale: That's right. Lacquered in the tokies. Showing up.

[24:14] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Hey, we have a question we like to ask. What's it all for?

[24:21] Anthony Veneziale: What is it all for?

[24:24] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: You got something, Shock?

[24:26] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh, the first thing I think of is to not be in a cubicle. Um, but I think it's a lot bigger than that. That's just the first thought that comes to mind. Um the way that our world is structured is one where uh it it depends upon power structures that need to be in place, which um arranges people into certain forced uh walls of action and predetermined outcome and the growth of money and economy.

[24:55] Anthony Veneziale: And you know, like our our world is going in a certain direction.

[24:58] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And as artists, we have opportunity to swim upstream to show people that that's not all there is, and to uh live our life with a little bit more happiness and freedom from within rather than without.

[25:12] Anthony Veneziale: Word. For me, it's to help myself and to help others become more fully human.

[25:21] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I like those answers.

[25:28] Anthony Veneziale: I just gave out a big assignment to the Freestyle of Supreme Academy teachers, which is to read Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Uh and if you have read it, good on you. And if you haven't, get it. Uh, there's even free ones available. But uh for me, that really settled uh the score around how to help encourage a community in which everyone's viewpoint is valued and the wisdom of the room is much greater than whatever power structure is in place.

[25:57] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um and I think what Shock was talking about is is very much what the realization of becoming more fully human is all about, which is um having a deep connection to other human beings.

[26:08] Anthony Veneziale: And when you have those deep connections and you support each other, then you become more fully human, and you help them become more fully human.

[26:16] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And I think the world becomes a less uh polarized and much more unified glowing star that we are.

[26:27] Anthony Veneziale: Please repeat the question.

[26:35] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: You know, um I just want to be truthful to the process right now. And we are in such a point of transition of what this group is going through and where we are.

[26:46] Anthony Veneziale: We close in a week or two weeks ago, if this came out.

[26:50] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: We already closed.

[26:51] Anthony Veneziale: We already closed. Who even is this show?

[26:53] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Yeah.

[26:53] Anthony Veneziale: And we're developing the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy, which is a lot of, it's like doing two full-time jobs at once.

[26:59] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Um because this group is so we have the rhythm and how to expand and how to um grow it, there's a lot already on that plate.

[27:09] Anthony Veneziale: And right now I'm looking for that spark. I'm looking for something that is um sort of separate and outside of what it is that we're doing, so that I can reinvigorate and build upon the creativity that I've already uh developed.

[27:29] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Uh yeah. I mean, I have to say that your hand's on my shoulder, like telling me to spark in me right now.

[27:39] Anthony Veneziale: Yeah, like I said, uh, I don't really, you know, being referred to as a beatboxer uh is one thing. So I'm looking for uh to expand upon the maker, which is another thing.

[27:49] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I cannot wait to see what sparks you and what you do with it, honestly.

[27:56] Anthony Veneziale: We love you both.

[28:04] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And Chris Shockwave Salaban.

[28:13] Anthony Veneziale: Wow, thank you.

[28:35] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: We'll even take your feedback, but you know the price of admission.

[28:38] Anthony Veneziale: First, you have to share a creative risk you have taken recently.

[28:54] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Share it with people you hate.

[28:59] Anthony Veneziale: If something tickles your fancy and gets your creative juices flowing, we're writing you a forever permission slip to make that thing that's been knocking at your door.

[29:09] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: It's your turn to take a spark and fan it into a flame.

[29:28] Anthony Veneziale: And take it and make it in the spark.

[29:44] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Could be something that I wanna make or how I wanna be.

[29:49] Anthony Veneziale: I'll pump it in the spark fire.

[29:54] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: I jump into my spark files.

[29:59] Anthony Veneziale: Let's open up the spark files.

[30:04] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: Hey, we want to thank our live hype man, Jack Domilio, and everyone at Mark Fisher Fitness.

[30:08] Anthony Veneziale: Mark Fisher, Michael Keeler, Andrew Cole, the amazing Denise Stumper.

[30:11] Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan: And special thanks to the attendees of the Sparkfile New Year 2020 Creativity Workshop and Live Podcast.

[30:18] Anthony Veneziale: You are truly a bonfire of Sparks.