This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to the Theatre Podcast. Intimate personal conversations with theatre's biggest names. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and this is part of the Broadway Podcast Network.

[0:14] Alan Seales: This episode is with Chris Sullivan, a.k.a. Shockwave, and Aneesa Folds, a.k.a. Young Nees, who are two of the ensemble cast that make up the incredibly funny, incredibly improvised Freestyle Love Supreme that is a different show every single night because of the improvisation that it literally is.

[0:36] Alan Seales: I enjoyed the conversation so much in a different way than I expected to. Part of it was this theme that kind of crept up over and over again was that there was this effort that Chris and some of the other founding members of FLS, they wanted to kind of break the stigma at the time that freestyling was just about putting people down or rap battling or whatever it is, like trying to defeat somebody.

[1:04] Alan Seales: They wanted to create this family, I guess for lack of a better term, where you could come together and have each other's backs. And they said that several times. It's like when they bring in somebody new, when they're starting their academy, the FLS Academy, with new students, they're like, we got each other's backs.

[1:18] Alan Seales: It's a form of therapy. They're trying to help each other out. They're trying to make each other feel better. When someone kind of struggles a little bit, everybody else tries to pick up. It's not about being better. It's about being unified. And it's such a beautiful show and it's such a beautiful feeling I get, even just sitting with the two of them here, the way that they interact with each other and the way that they interacted with me.

[1:41] Alan Seales: And if you listen all the way to the end of the episode, I actually freestyle a little bit. Didn't know that was going to happen. Expected it to because I thought that they would ask me just because they are who they are. I didn't want to, but I did anyway. Anissa picked it up because I was not good. So there's that.

[2:02] Alan Seales: All right. Please visit me online at ttp.fm. You can always find me on the Broadway Podcast Network at bpn.fm slash ttp. And now, everybody, please enjoy this episode here with Anissa Folds and Chris Sullivan.

[2:17] Alan Seales: One, two, three.

[2:25] Alan Seales: Rolling with my homies. Sitting with me today are two of the newest stars to the Broadway stage. They're part of the amazing cast that makes up the critically acclaimed, completely improvised hip hop show Freestyle Love Supreme, which was just extended to Sunday, January 12th, 2020.

[2:52] Alan Seales: Anissa Folds, a.k.a. Young Nees. And Chris Sullivan, a.k.a. Shockwave. Welcome to the Theatre Podcast. I really hope that this entire podcast is just... What is that? What is that noise?

[3:05] Chris Sullivan: Oh, that's not me. I wish it was.

[3:20] Alan Seales: My rhythm, I'm like, I want to talk like this. But I'm no good at this. But now that you're like, Freestyle Love Supreme, this is... Do you do that every time someone says that?

[3:34] Chris Sullivan: Kind of.

[3:34] Aneesa Folds: That, that, that, that, that.

[3:35] Chris Sullivan: No.

[3:38] Alan Seales: Okay, okay, okay. So we're going to start where we normally start on the podcast. And tell me about your childhood. We'll start with you.

[3:44] Chris Sullivan: Oh, Chris.

[3:47] Aneesa Folds: Tell me all your secrets.

[3:48] Chris Sullivan: Doc shows up in the time machine. Here we go. I grew up in Foxborough, Massachusetts. And I went to a really great music program in a small town. And I learned to play percussion. That was my instruments of choice. And then I went to UMass Amherst and got involved more deeper into improv, which I tinkled with. Don't say tinkle.

[4:09] Aneesa Folds: You said tinkle. You said tinkle.

[4:11] Chris Sullivan: In high school. So I went to UMass Amherst and Mission Improvable was my group. And I mixed up sort of my love of hip hop and my experience with playing percussion and dabbled with a little bit of acapella music and sort of put them all into one when I moved to New York City about 15, 16 years ago and got involved with Freestyle Love Supreme. And here we are now on Broadway.

[4:39] Alan Seales: Okay, so we're going to get to the whole beatboxing because you kind of left that gloss over that.

[4:44] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, completely left that out.

[4:45] Alan Seales: This podcast is like five minutes long, right? So I'm going to squeeze it all in.

[4:49] Aneesa Folds: Yes, I am born and raised in New York City. Queens, New York to be exact. Singer first. Started singing back in the day at church. My dad used to sing at lounges.

[5:06] Aneesa Folds: He just wasn't paid for it. He just showed up and sang there.

[5:10] Aneesa Folds: I started doing a musical theater program called Wingspan Arts Theater Conservatory, which is still running today. That's where I found my love for musical theater really. I joined the Young People's Chorus of New York City. So very involved in the arts in my childhood.

[5:27] Aneesa Folds: Always singing though.

[5:28] Aneesa Folds: Always singing. YPC, the choir, I did a lot of traveling when I was a kid. And this is not based in high school. It was based in New York with kids from all over the city. Traveled to Japan, twice, China, Switzerland. Lots of singing in different places.

[5:45] Aneesa Folds: Auditioned for schools, went to school for musical theater at the University of Hartford. Yeah, and now I'm on Broadway with these guys because I went through the Academy and Chris was my teacher.

[6:01] Chris Sullivan: Oh yeah, okay. So you both mentioned the Academy. We will get back to beatboxing, I promise. Don't worry.

[6:07] Chris Sullivan: You're better.

[6:09] Alan Seales: All right. So the FLS Academy, tell me what that is.

[6:12] Chris Sullivan: The FLS Academy is an offshoot of Freestyle Love Supreme. It's the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy.

[6:18] Aneesa Folds: You're getting it.

[6:19] Chris Sullivan: I mean, like three more of those are in the group.

[6:21] Alan Seales: All right.

[6:23] Chris Sullivan: The Academy works to foster giving the skills that are part of the set of what we do on stage, which is improv and comedy and the roots of hip hop, which include beatboxing and freestyle rapping.

[6:35] Chris Sullivan: But we also work to foster the environment that it requires to tell your own truths within that same form.

[6:44] Chris Sullivan: So making people feel heard, reaching out to understand where people are coming from, the empathy of the situation on stage in the moment.

[6:54] Chris Sullivan: We work to let every class be as diversely put together as possible.

[7:00] Chris Sullivan: That means diverse within ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender and skill set.

[7:07] Chris Sullivan: So we may have people in the group who have never freestyle rapped, who have never improvised, who have never sang, who don't play a musical instrument.

[7:14] Chris Sullivan: And I just have something that is burning within them and they have stories to tell.

[7:19] Chris Sullivan: So we take an accumulation of all of these types of people, put them all in a room and give them the tools to express themselves.

[7:27] Chris Sullivan: And that's what we got so far.

[7:29] Aneesa Folds: Yeah.

[7:30] Chris Sullivan: And it's an amazing community.

[7:31] Aneesa Folds: It's magic.

[7:32] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, they keep coming back.

[7:33] Chris Sullivan: All that we do, it's very kind of scientific, but we do surveys after classes and we get really great quotes of students, of people saying that this changed their lives and helped them go through a traumatic event or whatnot.

[7:46] Chris Sullivan: So it's not necessarily a training ground to get on Saturday Night Live someday or to be on Broadway someday.

[7:53] Chris Sullivan: Although Anissa is a testament to the possibilities of letting your skills be seen.

[8:01] Chris Sullivan: But it's also more so just giving yourself a platform to express yourself.

[8:05] Alan Seales: That's such a different answer than I expected.

[8:09] Chris Sullivan: That's what it is.

[8:10] Alan Seales: What did you want?

[8:11] Chris Sullivan: It's not what I wanted.

[8:12] Alan Seales: I expected it to be like, oh yeah, we get people together who like to just improvise and in a modern setting with hip hop or bringing the old culture with the new culture.

[8:20] Chris Sullivan: No, it's so much more.

[8:21] Chris Sullivan: Here we go.

[8:22] Chris Sullivan: It's so much more.

[8:23] Chris Sullivan: Before every show, when we do a Freestyle Love Supreme show on Broadway, it's I got your back.

[8:26] Aneesa Folds: I got your back.

[8:27] Chris Sullivan: I got your back.

[8:28] Chris Sullivan: It's the environment on stage that makes what happens on the stage possible.

[8:32] Alan Seales: Right. So Anissa, how long ago did you get involved with the Academy?

[8:37] Aneesa Folds: March of this past year.

[8:40] Chris Sullivan: It's been a wild year.

[8:41] Aneesa Folds: That soon?

[8:42] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, it's been a crazy year.

[8:43] Alan Seales: Wow.

[8:44] Alan Seales: I was going to think like years ago or something, but wow.

[8:48] Alan Seales: Okay.

[8:49] Alan Seales: So then should I call you Chris or Shock?

[8:51] Chris Sullivan: You can call me whatever you want.

[8:53] Chris Sullivan: Chris Shock.

[8:54] Chris Sullivan: Shockwave.

[8:55] Chris Sullivan: Whatever feels right.

[8:56] Alan Seales: Shock Sullivan.

[8:58] Chris Sullivan: Chris.

[8:59] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, I'll call you Shockwave.

[9:00] Chris Sullivan: Shockwave.

[9:01] Chris Sullivan: Whatever you want.

[9:04] Alan Seales: You've seen a lot of people come through, I would assume, right?

[9:06] Chris Sullivan: Over the 16 years, right?

[9:08] Chris Sullivan: The Academy is only about a year old.

[9:10] Alan Seales: Oh, okay.

[9:11] Chris Sullivan: Yeah.

[9:12] Chris Sullivan: Okay.

[9:13] Chris Sullivan: So you've been doing-

[9:14] Chris Sullivan: The group is about 15, 16 years old.

[9:15] Alan Seales: Right.

[9:16] Chris Sullivan: So I guess you've seen a lot of people come in and out in the last year, but then Anissa is the one now that you put on Broadway.

[9:24] Chris Sullivan: To be fair, Anissa brought her own skills to the table, and when we hit Broadway, we were looking for a very specific set of parameters that we needed to fill our space that we needed.

[9:39] Chris Sullivan: We needed a feminine voice or a female identifying voice to go forward because we've been a boys club for so long.

[9:48] Chris Sullivan: We needed somebody more who has a singing voice, and Anissa blows us all away, and someone who can rap at the same time, and someone who has some improv skills or at least stage presence and knows not to upstage people and whatnot, and Anissa took that by far.

[10:07] Alan Seales: So where did you get, Anissa, where did you get your hip hop chops from?

[10:11] Aneesa Folds: Yeah.

[10:12] Aneesa Folds: So my name on stage is Young Neice, and that is a nickname that I kind of gave myself in high school when I was pretending to rap to my friends, kind of a party trick kind of thing.

[10:20] Aneesa Folds: And so all of my friends from home do call me that. And so it's really funny when they come see the show, they're like, Young Neice is on stage, that's wild.

[10:33] Aneesa Folds: But yeah, I just grew up listening to hip hop and dabbling around in it pretty much as a joke at first.

[10:40] Aneesa Folds: And I mean, now I do as a joke still on stage for money.

[10:45] Aneesa Folds: Still just playing around, to be honest, with my friends on stage, yeah.

[10:49] Chris Sullivan: You never forget your first time.

[10:51] Chris Sullivan: When I saw the show the first time, I don't know if you guys have any recollection of which show you've done.

[10:56] Chris Sullivan: If you say keywords, we'll probably have some recollection.

[11:00] Chris Sullivan: You were lamenting about your love for McDonald's.

[11:03] Aneesa Folds: Oh, okay.

[11:05] Chris Sullivan: It was during the-

[11:06] Chris Sullivan: Pet Peeves McDonald's, okay.

[11:07] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, the Pet Peeves McDonald's, yeah.

[11:09] Chris Sullivan: Somebody said Mitch McDonald, but I was like, but Anthony said, I heard McDonald's.

[11:13] Chris Sullivan: Then I said, I'll take McDonald's.

[11:15] Chris Sullivan: McDonald's is definitely greater than Mitch McDonald.

[11:19] Aneesa Folds: Mitch McDonald, yes, of course.

[11:21] Chris Sullivan: No, I keep going back to the show, and it's the same format, I guess, every night, but it's completely different.

[11:27] Aneesa Folds: It's a similar format.

[11:30] Chris Sullivan: Even the structure of the show has an idea to bring the audience in, educate them what freestyling is, and bring them in and unveil some of our talents at key moments.

[11:43] Chris Sullivan: But some of those pieces, some of those acts are switched.

[11:47] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, sometimes we switch that around, too.

[11:50] Alan Seales: Do you switch it based on the special guests that are coming?

[11:53] Chris Sullivan: Sometimes, yeah.

[11:54] Alan Seales: How far in advance do you know who the guests are?

[11:56] Chris Sullivan: Sometimes a day off.

[11:58] Alan Seales: Really?

[11:59] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, absolutely.

[12:00] Chris Sullivan: That's the beauty of the show.

[12:02] Chris Sullivan: Chris Jackson, James Iglehart, Wayne Brady, Sarah Kay, Daveed Diggs, and Lynn, of course, who all kind of rotate back through.

[12:45] Aneesa Folds: I'm working with you now, but we've got pictures together at the stage door where I was stalking you.

[12:50] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, well, never. I didn't do that. This is great, because there's two types of fans, right? There are two types of fans. There are fans that, Sarah Kay was a fan. She has seen our show 16 years ago, and now she's established on her own right as one of the world-traveled poets who's a genius, and there's influences both ways at that point. So there's fans, and there's fan friends. It's not bad to be a fan, but inserting the word stalking into it makes it seem like it's something that's negative or something like that. It's funny, because hearing that Aneesa has been a fan of ours for a long time, it's never that world of the stans, the Eminem stan fans. It's not that. It's never that.

[13:37] Chris Sullivan: When I hear that, I was like, it doesn't matter, because you can hang. If you can hang with people and be cool, then that's a whole other world. Do you have audience members that just keep coming back over and over and over again?

[13:48] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. I think the record is 18 or 19 shows just within the Broadway run.

[13:52] Chris Sullivan: No kidding. I'm glad you got money to see the show.

[13:54] Aneesa Folds: Well, you've seen a different show every now and then.

[13:59] Chris Sullivan: I mean, yeah, that's the best part about it. But we have lottery tickets. There's people who have won the lottery over and over again, and that's what, $10 tickets or something?

[14:09] Aneesa Folds: That's a little more.

[14:10] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, that's a little more. $10 times the number. He's lying. $10 times the number. Tens of dollars.

[14:15] Aneesa Folds: Tens.

[14:17] Chris Sullivan: There you go. Okay. So, Chris Wave, I promised you we'd get back to the beatboxing. Where did that come into your life?

[14:26] Chris Sullivan: You know, it wasn't kind of until recently that I've discovered that I've become a real beatboxer through Freestyle Love Supreme. I grew up playing percussion, and so rhythm has always been what I've gravitated towards. Hip hop is in my blood. I grew up from the Beastie Boys, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, like the old school, early 80s. I was born in the late 70s. Ooh, ooh. Oh my goodness. Like, I mean, ugh. So that's in my blood, and I grew up playing hardcore music. So music has always been a thing I want to do. That plus improv and improv comedy and a little bit of acapella made me say that this is what I wanted to do. So I was performing improvisation, improvisationally performing beatbox.

I would get suggestions from the audience and improvise a soundscape using object work and improvisational miming. And then I found out about Freestyle Love Supreme that they were just starting this sort of workshopping of what this was. And I saw Anthony Veneziale and Lin-Manuel Miranda performing freestyle rap, but in a way that went against the current paradigm at that time of freestyle rapping, which was embedded in battling and putting the other person down. They were playing characters and telling stories and using improvisational comedy as a backbone. And I saw what they were doing, and it really aligned with what I was doing. And so I met Anthony afterwards, and then we started workshopping things, and the rest is history.

[16:09] Aneesa Folds: And you've also been on The Electric Company?

[16:13] Chris Sullivan: Mm-hmm.

[16:14] Aneesa Folds: Yeah.

[16:15] Chris Sullivan: The reboot.

[16:16] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, the reboot in 2009.

[16:17] Chris Sullivan: I'm not that old. Yeah, 2009 it was rebooted, and they brought in Freestyle Love Supreme to be part of the proof of concept. We all were a part of it from all the old school FLS, the original crew were there. And then over the next two or three years, it shook out, and we did a pilot, and then we went into series. And at that point, when we went into series, I was sort of the only original core cast member of Freestyle Love Supreme that was part of the core cast member of The Electric Company. Bill Sherman shook out to be the musical director, and now Bill Sherman is the musical director of Sesame Street.

[16:51] Aneesa Folds: Street.

[16:53] Chris Sullivan: Street.

[16:54] Aneesa Folds: Street.

[16:55] Chris Sullivan: What? I mean, he's a fantastic musician, and that's where he landed. So yeah. And okay, so I'm just waiting for more sound effects to come at me.

[17:06] Aneesa Folds: There you go.

[17:07] Chris Sullivan: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Do you walk around all day doing that kind of stuff?

[17:10] Aneesa Folds: I kind of don't.

[17:11] Chris Sullivan: No. Our other beatboxer does. A lot of beatboxers do. Kayla Milady, our other beatboxer. I mean, she's overflowing with sound effects. She's fantastic. Because we share a dressing room, so there's so many videos on my phone of her just making noises or finding new noises, and her going, oh, that's kind of cool. Kayla's got sounds I can only dream of.

[17:33] Aneesa Folds: That's true. I read on your resume, Anisa, that you do chipmunk. What is it, chipmunk riffing? Give me a song that I know.

[17:43] Chris Sullivan: A song that you know.

[17:46] Aneesa Folds: Chandelier.

[17:47] Chris Sullivan: You need to get together with Ryan Redmond, who has on her resume that she can do child and mouth voice.

[18:15] Aneesa Folds: I don't know. I'm scared. I don't know if that's something.

[18:18] Chris Sullivan: So do exactly what you do. Good job.

[18:20] Aneesa Folds: I don't like that.

[18:21] Chris Sullivan: It was something like what you just did, but there was actual like ventriloquist kind of stuff where she could, like, yeah, I was good. I was stuck inside your mouth. This podcast is taking a turn. I normally don't do two people. This is a lot of fun. Oh, my goodness. All right. I need to call you young niece.

[18:48] Aneesa Folds: Okay.

[18:49] Chris Sullivan: That's what your name is. Young niece.

[18:51] Aneesa Folds: Young niece.

[18:52] Chris Sullivan: Anisa. It doesn't quite roll off the tongue as like shockwave as crispwave.

[19:09] Aneesa Folds: Okay. So you were an usher in Forza Bruta.

[19:13] Chris Sullivan: I was. We were talking about that. Like, you just made your Broadway run up starting in March. Wild. Right. So in a year, you just went from like, when were you an usher?

[19:25] Aneesa Folds: I guess we'll start back. 2014.

[19:27] Chris Sullivan: Yeah.

[19:28] Aneesa Folds: 14, 15.

[19:29] Chris Sullivan: So someone a couple of years ago.

[19:30] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. Right. And then I left to do a tour. And then, yeah, I did come back for the last performance, though. It was lit. What a great show to usher. It was fun.

[19:37] Chris Sullivan: Yeah. Any show that reigns in the middle of it. Like, in the middle of the inside of the theater. Like, that's the one we want.

[19:43] Aneesa Folds: That's the one we want.

[19:44] Chris Sullivan: That's the one we want.

[19:45] Aneesa Folds: That's the one we want.

[19:46] Chris Sullivan: That's the one we want.

[19:47] Aneesa Folds: That's the one we want.

[19:48] Chris Sullivan: That's the one we want.

[19:49] Aneesa Folds: That's the one we want.

[19:50] Chris Sullivan: That's the one we want.

[19:51] Aneesa Folds: That's the one we want.

[19:52] Chris Sullivan: Like the middle of the inside of the theater. So fun. Like, that's the one where the thing, the paper opens, and the dinosaurs, little plastic dinosaurs.

[19:56] Aneesa Folds: Was there dinosaurs?

[19:57] Chris Sullivan: What are you talking about?

[19:58] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. Oh, that might have been the next one.

[20:00] Chris Sullivan: What was the one after Fresobruta? At the Union Square Theater?

[20:02] Aneesa Folds: At the Roxton Theater. Daryl Roxton.

[20:04] Chris Sullivan: Yeah. What was it? In and of Itself?

[20:07] Aneesa Folds: In and of Itself?

[20:08] Chris Sullivan: No, no. What?

[20:10] Aneesa Folds: It was another like, bouncing on strings show. I know. I know. You made it up. People who are listening, no. They're just saying it out loud. Tweet him, guys. Help him out. You had me like, there was the wall of like bricks, and the dude bust through with the wind.

[20:25] Chris Sullivan: Yes, yes, yes. And he's running on the thing.

[20:27] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. It was a sensory. It was on an episode of America's Next Top Model, too.

[20:30] Chris Sullivan: Was it? I want to watch that. Sorry, that killed the conversation.

[20:34] Aneesa Folds: No, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.

[20:44] Chris Sullivan: Have you ever had a show where, I mean, obviously you're encouraging the audience to participate. It relies on audience participation. Have you ever had a show where it's just been too much, where the audience is like, a little bit too lit on a 10 o'clock Sunday night or something?

[20:55] Aneesa Folds: 10 o'clocks are fun, because people do tend to drink a little bit. Sometimes we'll ask for suggestions, and we'll get a wall of sound, but our mic number one is usually good at getting real specific and being like, okay, this side of the audience right here in this corner, give us stuff. We have to teach them how to do it once they figure it out. It's an art form.

[21:17] Chris Sullivan: Absolutely. And we have, there's a method that we use during the show that's a microphone that's throwable. So cool. It's a padded mic, so at some point we get a suggestion, and then as to not alienate the entire audience, there's a conversation that happens, but the microphone gets thrown out to that person.

[21:34] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. Great.

[21:35] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, that's, the first one I was there, the day in the life was like, something exciting must have happened. So many times. I went to the McDonald's show, and it was like, that was not exciting at all. The guy, I don't know if you remember, woke up with his girlfriend, drove in, got stuck in traffic, and then came to the show.

[21:54] Aneesa Folds: Well, sometimes the magic is in creating some fantastic situation out of the mundane. Our show is, there's through lines that happen. So by the end of the show, there's so many things that we've all shared together with the audience, and there's so many callbacks that can happen. In a way, that ending number that we do, if the day in the life that we are reenacting is something that's sort of mundane, quote-unquote boring, there's so many ways that we can weave in the aspects of the rest of the show.

[22:28] Chris Sullivan: Turn it around. It's really a long form. Well, from a beatboxing standpoint, where do you, I keep hitting that spring, from a beatboxing standpoint, do you work with Arthur, Arthur Geniuses, do you work with him, sort of lead him to see where the music goes, or is it kind of vice versa? Like with rhythm or the tempo?

[22:53] Chris Sullivan: It's really everything, and we've been doing this for so long. There's the improvisational rhythm section that is happening, and the rules or the leads or the cues have for a long time gone unspoken or unnoticed, and now as we're actually training people to come in, we're saying, oh, we have to really kind of call out how to do this because it feels like it's second nature, a lot of these things, but it's really not. Some people need to be trained as to improvisationally vamp behind the explanation of what the next game is going to happen. We're still adding cues as the run is evolving. There's a point where we're listing off various qualifications that need to happen before the next thing happens, and we've added bullet-pointing those qualifications in sound effect.

So it depends on the song-slash-game that we're doing. Sometimes I'm leading it, and they're catching up to me, and sometimes we're working on it together, looking at it. Sometimes I'm dropping out the beat for the lyrics to be in the clear, and we're all together and they're having eye contact. So it really depends on the song.

[24:05] Aneesa Folds: You mentioned the cues, and that reminded me that while I was watching it, I was impressed because the lighting designer has to be with you guys too.

[24:12] Chris Sullivan: He's improvising as well, yeah.

[24:13] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, so the lighting designer is like, this needs to be bright, this needs to come down, we've got a spot over here, or whatever it is, and that's impressive. Like the whole crew.

[24:21] Chris Sullivan: It's a full-on family affair, like we're all in there doing it, nobody knows what's going to happen.

[24:30] Chris Sullivan: Same with us. We're just all in there together. Do you bring your day with you on stage? Are you allowed to do that? Like the mood that you're in or does it like color the... Maybe talk about True.

[24:43] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. I mean, in any, you know, we go through life, whatever you get on stage, you might not be having the best day or whatever. But once you get into that theater and you're doing the thing on stage, you don't have time to think about anything else. You have to be in the moment for what's happening. Chris mentioned True, which is when we get a word from the audience and we have to tell a true story. You have to use your life experience. And if that triggers something for you to talk about your day, then yeah, you use that. I'm sorry. I remember your story about artichoke pizza. You wrote a whole song about your first day at artichoke pizza.

[25:24] Chris Sullivan: I will never forget him because I went on a date with a guy and he introduced me to artichoke pizza and I fell in love with the artichoke pizza. Not him, but I will never forget him. Because it wasn't a suggestion, it was just artichoke.

[25:40] Aneesa Folds: Artichoke, yeah.

[25:41] Chris Sullivan: Yeah.

[25:41] Aneesa Folds: And then I think CJ, Chris Jackson was like, you were talking about something, you know, expanding your heart, like an artichoke opens or whatever it was. But the way that, or maybe it was Arthur. I love when Arthur comes out during that and things, man.

[25:53] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, he's one of our secret weapons. He's doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes almost, and then we pull back the curtain and surprise, he's got a voice of gold.

[26:01] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, it's true.

[26:02] Chris Sullivan: If you wonder meets D'Angelo.

[26:04] Aneesa Folds: Yes.

[26:04] Chris Sullivan: So anyway, you were saying, talking about true, you bring your real life stuff into it.

[26:08] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. I mean, what else? There was one that I've been talking about a lot, my mother's laugh, which I talked about my mom and how she was dealing with when my grandmother got diagnosed with dementia and how she was strong through it and was able to laugh and bring her pictures and share memories, even though it was a really hard time. I mean, true is a really great part of the show because sometimes it gets vulnerable when you're, you have a certain amount of time to tell a true story. You don't have time to think about anything else. You just have to say what you know. And so we as a group learn about each other constantly on stage through stories that people tell. And I mean, that's the beauty of the show to me also, is just getting to learn about my friends while it's happening in real time.

[26:55] Chris Sullivan: Oh yeah, I see. Everybody's laughing at each other or with each other.

[27:00] Aneesa Folds: Because you're telling stories that...

[27:02] Chris Sullivan: I almost peed myself on stage yesterday. That was so funny. We did a day in the life where this woman went on a hike. It was a silent hike. So when we got to that part...

[27:15] Aneesa Folds: But she was like a burner.

[27:17] Chris Sullivan: You know, like Ayahuasca.

[27:18] Aneesa Folds: She was in Woodstock.

[27:19] Chris Sullivan: She was in Woodstock that day, earlier in the day.

[27:23] Aneesa Folds: So we get to the part where we're doing the silent hike. And so everybody stops everything. Music is stopped. And it's just us on the microphones going...

[27:31] Chris Sullivan: And the beat is the sound of walking through leaves.

[27:35] Aneesa Folds: And I just was laughing on the microphone the whole... It was funny. It was so funny. The audience was dying. I was dying. I almost peed on myself.

[27:41] Chris Sullivan: Yeah.

[27:44] Aneesa Folds: Do you guys... With the guest performers that come out, I mean, you're learning things about each other anyway. But are there still moments that you're surprising each other with new improvisational styles or new things? I was reading on BroadwayWorld.com that Chris came out and improvised... Or he was rapping with a whistle the other day or something.

[28:03] Chris Sullivan: Yeah.

[28:05] Aneesa Folds: Oh, not Chris. Chris Jackson. Was it you?

[28:07] Chris Sullivan: No, it was him.

[28:08] Aneesa Folds: It was you?

[28:09] Chris Sullivan: Chris with the whistle. Constantly. Yeah. I mean, we walk into the situation and we don't know what's going to happen. And so we all feel for each other when we see each other step forward and go in our element that we have each other's backs in a sense that we're constantly surprising each other. I'm constantly surprising myself. I mean, coming into this experience, a huge thing was fear. But you can't be afraid. You just have to trust yourself. And so I'm constantly surprising myself all the time. I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do with this word. And then something just happens.

[28:51] Aneesa Folds: Yeah.

[28:52] Chris Sullivan: How far in advance are you thinking? Are you thinking of the rhyme and working your way backwards? Because I've done... I did a little improv. I did a little improv.

[29:00] Aneesa Folds: I jabbled a little.

[29:02] Chris Sullivan: Mark and Mark, right?

[29:05] Aneesa Folds: Everybody did improv. So when I did it, I would think of what I wanted to rhyme to and work my way backwards to get there. That was how my mind worked.

[29:13] Chris Sullivan: It really changes. You can only plan so much. We don't have much time. So I might think of, if I get a word, I might be like, okay, this rhymes with this, this rhymes with this. And then you just have to fill in the blanks. But I mean, especially in True, you truly can only plan so much. So the rest of it just comes as it goes. It's just as it's coming to you.

[29:37] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. Lin puts it as, it's like a language filter.

[29:40] Chris Sullivan: Right.

[29:41] Aneesa Folds: So the way that you tell the story could be, hey, do it in a funny voice or, hey, do it like in, what do you call it? Baby in the mouth, whatever.

[29:50] Chris Sullivan: Yeah. Baby stuck in mouth. Child stuck in mouth.

[29:53] Aneesa Folds: That's a form of filter. And then the freestyle filter is everybody builds their own in different ways. And so you can tell the same story through rhyme and it doesn't even have to rhyme, but your rhyme may be at the end of the couplet or it may loop around and you find it in the next couplet or something like that. So a lot of that comes with practice, but the more important part is what comes through the content. I guess what I was going to ask was, I guess, favorite moments when you're thinking back to everything. I mean, you've got 16 years of this to look back on, but I guess from the Broadway run, is there anything that sticks out as so surprising to yourself, even getting over your own fear and be like, I can't believe that just came out of my mouth.

That was amazing. I mean, I guess sometimes at the beginning of the show, I'm thrown into things that I haven't done before, like 10 minutes before I found out that I was going to do Foundations of Freestyle, which is when you get onto the stool and they pass you words and you just got to rap. And I think I found that out 10 minutes before, terrifying. That one, you really have no time to plan anything because you're getting new words every, what, four. And so the first time I did it, I was surprised with myself because I didn't think I could do it, but everyone was like, yeah, you got this. It's going to be fine. And it was fine. Yeah. I forgot the question, but I think I answered it, right?

[31:26] Chris Sullivan: Yeah. I think you answered it.

[31:27] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. What stands out as a defining, surprising moment?

[31:31] Chris Sullivan: Yeah. Also, the first time I was on stage with UTK was really cool because we had met for the first time that day. And then we did the show together for the first time that day. And so he had never heard me sing or do anything before. And we were doing a second chance and I started singing and he goes, huh, do that again. And then I started singing more. He was like, oh, mom, do you hear how good that judge can sing? I think that was my favorite part too. So yeah, that was happening on stage. It was a real life interaction happening in the middle of the scene. And so then Anissa starts singing more. She takes us all to church and we're all like, woo. And we keep it going. And in the similar way that you would throw something at someone because they're doing so well.

We have towels on the side of the stage. The towels started getting thrown. I took my shoe off. People took their shoes off. The stools, there's still a dent. I had no idea, but I looked. There's still a dent in the stage from one of the stools when we threw the stool at her because she was taking us all to church. Yeah. I finished singing and I looked over and I was like, what the hell is going on? The sounds of shoes and stools and everything clumping behind you. I guess the show must go on. Do you guys have any other styles of music that you listen to other than hip hop? Where do you get inspired from that's sort of, I guess, outside of the hip hop?

[33:03] Aneesa Folds: I mean, name it. Yeah, truly everything. Yeah, I mean.

[33:06] Chris Sullivan: I almost want to say in this day and age, if you're trapped in one genre, there's something wrong with you. It's like the Spotify genre and that trivializes it. But if it's good music, it's good music. If it's two-step or if it's New Orleans bounce or if it's like underground hip hop or Broadway tunes. Or bluegrass. If it's good music, it's good music.

[33:25] Aneesa Folds: I'm from North Carolina, man. It speaks to me. I love some good Bella Fleck.

[33:29] Chris Sullivan: Absolutely.

[33:30] Aneesa Folds: Flecktones.

[33:31] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, yeah. Just watching a good music.

[33:34] Aneesa Folds: Jesus.

[33:35] Chris Sullivan: Jesus.

[33:35] Aneesa Folds: It's like the first time.

[33:37] Chris Sullivan: I'm animated. I'm getting excited.

[33:42] Aneesa Folds: Doing it on purpose.

[33:43] Chris Sullivan: There's some sound.

[33:44] Aneesa Folds: That's right. Yeah, the first time watching somebody who is really good at their craft, just wail at it. That's why I like you watching you on stage, Chris, just beatboxing, get up there and do the thing. It's just impressive. And watching you, Anissa, just sing and take everybody to church, whatever is going to happen. Having the top talent up there just all come together and seeing this, that is why the audience comes with you guys every night. Because you're having fun. And it shows. And you're also delivering this great performance all at the same time.

[34:17] Chris Sullivan: And I wanted to go back to something you were talking about, Anissa. You said you performed with UTK. You met him that day and then performed with him that night. I was wondering, I guess, sort of like good musicians who can all come together and just jam and make it sound good. Good freestyling. Is it good improv or good freestylers? Freestylers? Is that what it's called? Freestylists? Freestylers.

[34:41] Aneesa Folds: Freestyle.

[34:43] Chris Sullivan: Them who freestyle.

[34:44] Aneesa Folds: Them who freestyle. The good them who freestyle.

[34:46] Chris Sullivan: Throw a couple of accents in there, too.

[34:48] Aneesa Folds: Yeah.

[34:50] Chris Sullivan: Do them who freestyle.

[34:52] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, there you go.

[34:53] Chris Sullivan: You have to lift your shoulders, Anissa.

[36:45] Chris Sullivan: I would be like, what the hell am I doing here with these clowns? Like in a good way, clowns in a good way. Just these amazing, talented people. But then, you know, you got to step on stage. And is it proving it to yourself or proving it to them? What do you think? Definitely to myself. Yeah. As I said, I was, I mean, in the unknown, you're terrified. You don't know what's going to happen. But we, before we go on stage, we say we got each other's back. We got each other's back. And it's true. If you, you fail, we're, we're okay with making mistakes. The audience is going to be there with us. But if you do fail, someone's going to be right there to pick you up. That's the truth of it. Yeah. So the whole show always succeeds.

Yeah, we've had very few auditions, quote unquote, for this group. If you, if you have the skill set of freestyle rapping, if you're a hip hop head who's been raised and born and born and raised in the scene, and you've been battling your whole life, you might have trouble being in this group because it's not just about freestyle rapping. It's about how, how well can you crack open your soul to the audience in a real revealing way? How well can you relate to other people? And then there's like a theatrical overlay to it. Can you play, you know, play to the audience and follow a story spine and stuff like that? So those things are very important as well. And that's the kind of thing that we, we are now trying to educate or to unveil in the academy and the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy, trying to tap into those skill sets.

It's not just freestyle rapping, but it's being comfortable in who you are and being able to, to relate to other people and let them feel comfortable in who they are so you can open up to each other. It's like, sounds like a form of therapy. It is a form of therapy. Our show is a form of therapy. Absolutely. If I'm ever having a bad day, when I get there, I can't, I can no longer have a bad day. I'll put it that way. It really is therapy.

[38:41] Alan Seales: What do you guys do for warmups, like backstage? You just, I feel like it's just hugs and like back, back, back. We got this, we got this.

[38:46] Chris Sullivan: In the green room, we'll use the words that we haven't used from the audience and just pass them to each other. Or we'll do things like sound bombs, where we all stand in a circle and warm up using different sounds and, you know, feeling out the energy of each other. We'll pass twos back and forth, play different games.

[39:13] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[39:14] Chris Sullivan: The sound bomb is a really interesting way to connect on a sonic level and an emotional level. It's literally if the, if we were all standing in a circle, just stand there and the first sound that kind of creeps out, another person kind of makes that same sound. You mirror it and then you add another thing and then, and then you build and you create a abundance of energy until it's growing and there's a, there's like a, a throbbing pulse to it. And then you kind of find an ending to it. And that will just, for us, it brings us together on the same page and you open your, open your eyes again and okay, let's go do a show. It helps you focus.

[39:51] Alan Seales: Oh, you guys are all, you have your set, your eyes closed.

[39:55] Chris Sullivan: Sometimes, sometimes that's, I mean, but you also got to amp up the energy too. Then we'll like pass twos and, and drop a bunch of F-bombs. Get it out of, get it out of the system before we get up on stage.

[40:06] Alan Seales: So I've got, um, I've got a Patreon account. And so the certain patrons of a certain level get to ask questions. So this is from a patron. It says, sad, but true that FLS is a limited run on Broadway, but now that you've gotten Broadway under your belt, what do you hope is next for you both? Or what will you, or what will be next? Can you tell us what's happening after the show?

[40:27] Chris Sullivan: Um, no, it's all improv. It's all made up. It's going to walk out of the show and be like, all right. Yeah. I mean, the instinct is that it's not going to end. Absolutely. Especially with the Academy. The Academy hopes to push out several, uh, unending mini groups that are within our same umbrella of a brand of sort, uh, you know, an empathetic storytelling vehicle for a diverse set of voices to freestyle and create music. So if it's not Freestyle Love Supreme, it will be some brothers and sisters that will be out there, but the proper group, hopefully something else happens. So if you know someone, say something.

[41:05] Alan Seales: And then the other question, uh, from patrons here is Chris, what's the weirdest sound you can make?

[41:12] Chris Sullivan: Weirdest? Define weird. Non-traditional to come out of one's vocal cords. Just make all of them. Hmm. I mean, I did the baby sound. My baby is my go-to. I sometimes like to default to killing a baby on stage.

[41:31] Aneesa Folds: He does do that a lot.

[41:32] Chris Sullivan: It's just, uh, it's just fun. It's so creative. It's just fun. It's so creative. Um, I like, so there's a, okay, I got it. There's a arcade game called Joust. Uh, by arcade, I mean like the giant, you know, the big systems. And so it's two birds that are, or one bird, if it's a one player and you have to kill little other birds that have little guys riding it. And then like, um, anyway, so it's great. All you need, all you need is a joystick and a flapper button. So you just need to fly. But then when the bird dies and the bird comes back to life, it has an, a period of invincibility before it actually is present in the game. So the vultures don't get it. So the sound is this while it's being invincible.

[42:28] Alan Seales: Cool.

[42:29] Chris Sullivan: And when that sound ends, you better be ready to flap. Nope. Not quite. My favorite part of this whole thing. My favorite whole thing was the, was the lead up at the story. He's like, I don't explain what the sound is. This is really, um, yeah. Okay. It's a good warmup to play for singers to a lip trill. Yes.

[42:50] Alan Seales: Yeah. All right. So we'll wrap this thing up here. I always ask everybody three standard closing questions. And Anissa, we'll start with you. The first one is what motivates you?

[42:58] Aneesa Folds: What's the same ones for me too? Can I start writing my answers?

[43:04] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[43:05] Aneesa Folds: Okay. Go ahead. Um, what motivates me? Little Anissa motivates me because she would be so out of her mind about what is happening in life right now. She would not believe it at all, but yeah, just that, that's what motivates me and my family too, I guess.

[43:33] Chris Sullivan: Oh, it's back and forth. Yeah. Um, and you should ask me the second one next.

[43:39] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yes. That's fair. Equal amount of preparation.

[43:44] Chris Sullivan: Um, I've always said when I was young that I would like to be self-sufficient on my own first so that my cup can fill over and then take care of my friends and family and then let that cup fill over and then take care of the greater good. Um, I've such learned that now it's possible to do the, the next two prior or at the same time. So, but that model I think is a, is a good one to, to follow because you have to take care of yourself first. So it's, it's not just money. It's also giving back to others, but also making sure that you are good. So the little shockwave, but then also, also the bigger, bigger others.

[44:33] Aneesa Folds: Yeah.

[44:34] Chris Sullivan: Yeah. That goes along with the, the whole message of FLS I think is just to do, just to be nice, right? You're not trying to put each other down. You're not trying to, to battle or defeat somebody. It's the whole point is to build somebody up. So yeah, you're living the message.

[44:51] Alan Seales: Okay. So first question here for you, or next question for you, what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people now listening out, starting out down a similar path?

[45:04] Aneesa Folds: Hmm. Um, more lip trills. Yeah. Much more lip trills. Many more. Uh, I've always been somebody who's very eclectic with diverse interests. And, um, I would say, uh, keep doing more of more, uh, and find where the iron is hot, strike that and pay attention to those things, but continue to keep other things burning because those other things that are burning, those back burners will eventually all fold into the same bucket and you'll end up doing something completely new and weird, like beat boxing and improv show on Broadway.

[45:43] Chris Sullivan: And he said, um, for me, I would say, just keep going. Don't stop. Um, really just believe in what you have and try not to get down on yourself because this business is just so hard. And sometimes it's not about your talent. Sometimes somebody you're not the same height as somebody, or they were left-handed and you're right-handed and it could be so minuscule, but you can't let those things get you down. Um, yeah, just to keep going because things are going to happen. I really didn't want to do anything else with my life. So that just the fact that I kept going is the testament to that.

[46:29] Alan Seales: All right. So the final question, this is a toss up. You guys can decide who goes first. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[46:40] Chris Sullivan: Goonies the musical.

[46:41] Aneesa Folds: Is that real?

[46:45] Chris Sullivan: No, I mean, that's the answer, but it should be.

[46:47] Aneesa Folds: Oh my God. One show.

[46:49] Chris Sullivan: Or MacGyver the musical.

[46:53] Aneesa Folds: MacGruber.

[46:54] Chris Sullivan: I mean, our show is different every time.

[46:56] Aneesa Folds: That's a good point.

[46:57] Chris Sullivan: I mean, yeah. Even when I'm not on, I enjoy watching it. Yeah. The ushers and security guard, everyone who's staff at the booth theater is like, this is the funnest show. It's because it's different. It's just new content. One time we had, what did I, I don't know if I can say that on here, but nevermind. I'll tell you later.

[47:20] Alan Seales: All right. All right. So where can we find you on social media? Cliffhanger.

[47:24] Aneesa Folds: Yeah. Where can we find you online?

[47:26] Aneesa Folds: Anissa Folds. That's A-N-E-E-S-A-F-O-L-D-S on everything.

[47:29] Chris Sullivan: No relation to Ben?

[47:32] Aneesa Folds: No, no relation to Ben, even though I do make that joke to my dad a lot, but he doesn't like it.

[47:35] Chris Sullivan: On Instagram, I am sharkwave, not shockwave, but sharkwave. Shockwave is owned by Macromedia and Viacom, so it's very difficult to get that name. And Twitter, it's offbookbeatbox.

[47:50] Alan Seales: Sweet. You can get me at the theaterpodcast.com, theater underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter, facebook.com slash official theater podcast. This is the theater podcast.

[48:04] Alan Seales: This is edited by Matthew Hendershot. Thank you to jukebox the ghost and shockwave for the intro and outro music.

[48:11] Chris Sullivan: Yeah. Oh, here we go. Yeah. All right.

[48:19] Alan Seales: Now I got the pressure. Your word is Broadway.

[48:22] Chris Sullivan: Broadway.

[48:23] Alan Seales: Oh, shit. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. The other time I got up one day and I went on down to see the Broadway. I was out in the show and I went to the show.

[48:32] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we went to the show because he knows Broadway.

[48:39] Chris Sullivan: Yeah. It's your favorite hood. We chilling in Times Square. We're going to do it all the time. We've got shockwave on the beat. Tell you what's on my mind. See, I had you. I appreciate it. No fear. I got your back. All right. Take a deep breath. Make the world a little colorful.