Interview by: Joan Starkey, Staff Writer
Welcome to the Mess Fest Interview Series! In the days leading up to Mess Fest, we will be sharing interviews with many great comedic minds across the festival. Today, Joan speaks with Lexi Hannah, a fourth-year Comedy Arts major. Lexi is interested in using puppetry as a freeing comedic outlet–and seeing just how much she can get away with.
Joan Starkey (JS): Tell me about your show!
Lexi Hannah (LH): Me and my friend Trevor Dudasik are collaborating on a puppet show for Mess Fest called Trevor and Qlarissa’s Puppet Show. It’s a children’s show gone wrong. The puppets of the children’s show take over what’s going on because they’re sick of it, they’re sick of being puppets.
JS: That’s so funny. How did you and Trevor know that you wanted to pitch this show in particular?
LH: Well, I’ve always been a big puppet person. Me and Trevor have both always wanted to do something puppet related for the Comedy Arts program, but we felt like we didn’t have enough people who were interested. So, this year Trevor was the one who asked me to collaborate on it. He was like, “I think we have enough people to put on a puppet show.” It turns out, we do!
JS: What is it about puppets that draws you to them creatively and comedically?
LH: Personally, puppets are so interesting because people see them in one particular way. They usually see puppets as a children’s act, or light and fluffy. But, I really got into puppet comedy when I saw the show Felt in Chicago. They’re a puppet improv troupe. That’s what sparked my interest. Oh, you can do puppet comedy that isn’t just child friendly, there are people who are into puppets! It’s also really fun to improvise through something where you don’t feel like it’s yourself. I feel like having a puppet gives you so much more physicality than just your regular body. I’m someone who can’t move very much, but when I have a puppet it just feels like I can do whatever I want. I have much more freedom over what I can do.
"I'm someone who can't move very much, but when I have a puppet it just feels like I can do whatever I want. I have much more freedom over what I can do."
JS: Where did the inspiration for the material in this show come from?
LH: Me and Trevor both really like the Muppets. Big Muppet people! There has been raunchy puppet stuff done. There’s the movie with the puppets and Melissa McCarthy which was supposed to be a dirty movie [see: The Happytime Murders]. We both agreed we didn’t want to go extreme raunch with it because that’s just defeating the purpose. But, we also decided we wanted to find the line of child-friendly and raunchy, to see if we could walk that line.
JS: What is the creative partnership and process like between you and Trevor?
LH: Oh, it’s awesome, it’s really awesome. I feel like me and Trevor balance each other out really well. It’s nice to collaborate with someone who doesn’t mind giving up control. I’m somebody who’s very go-with-the-flow and so is Trevor, so it’s nice to have a partnership, especially when it comes to puppets. We’re very trustworthy of each other and our castmates.
JS: Can you describe the show using one word?
LH: Cigarette.
JS: What’s going to be different about Mess Fest this year?
LH: Well, for starters, we’re not at TTS anymore. We’re going to the Annoyance! I think this process has been super different because a lot of people have had to adapt. Last year with Mess Fest there were only a certain amount of shows that were allowed to go up. And this year there’s a lot more, so there’s a lot more schedule conflict. But, it’s been interesting because I feel like it’s preparing us for the real world. But it’s been a really good lesson on how to bend with your cast and have faith in other people and really learn how to trust others. So that’s been a good experience. I think this is a lesson that will stick with me personally for a really long time.
JS: What are the other benefits of having more shows at MessFest?
LH: I think it’s great, the amount of shows that are being put up. It’s a great opportunity for a lot of different people to explore different routes of comedy. You know, we have a lot of improv shows, which is great because we didn’t have a lot of improv shows last year, it was mostly sketch [see improv example: Of Dice and DILFs]. And there’s one group doing an interactive puzzle show, which I think is cool [see: Operation Bugspray]. I think this Mess Fest is about experimenting, which I think is great for laying down the foundations of future Mess Fests. I feel like every year we learn something new and this year we’re learning what it’s like to have a LOT of shows and avenues of comedy we can go down.
JS: Mess Fest as an experiment this year, that’s a really great way to put it. What do you think Trevor and Qlarissa’s Puppet Show is experimenting on?
LH: We’re really experimenting with puppet comedy. We’re also experimenting with the idea of half-written, half-improvised work. I think that’s a really fun thing we’re doing right now. We’re doing a thing where we lay out the ground rules, but we let our cast play within those, and see what they find and do. So, we’ve been really experimenting with structure vs. non-structure and seeing how that works for us.
JS: What have you found from that?
LH: I’ve found it’s hard! It’s really hard to trust other people. I think that’s the case for all comedians, we are such self-driving people that it’s hard for us to trust one another because we feel like— a lot of comedians take on the burden of, “if nobody’s going to do it I have to,” which I think is harmful and tiring. So, it’s been hard for me because I’m one of those people too, I need to be driving the boat at all times. But, you’ve got to really learn to trust people, even if you don’t know them very well. At the start of this year, I didn’t know some of the cast very well, I just knew them in passing. But, the more I rehearse with them and the more I get to know them and learn their comedy, it’s a really interesting process because I completely trust them. I 100% trust them. I’m not worried about them. It’s a really great way to get to know people. And it’s also a really great way to understand others’ comedy.
"I think that's the case for all comedians, we are such self-driving people that it's hard for us to trust one another...But you've got to really learn to trust people, even if you don't know them very well."
JS: What is exciting to you about performing in an off-campus space this year?
LH: I’m excited to put that on my resume! I’m also really excited because, you know, performing in a TTS space you always have that sureness of, “I know the space and I know what can go wrong.” With a bar or a performance space that we’re not used to, it is that scariness of, “I’m performing in a space that I don’t know very well.” But I think that really sets us up well for when we graduate. You’re not going to have a space that you know well every single time. You’re not going to have a space where you get to do a tech in before you perform. So, it is a little scary and sometimes it feels a little rushed, but I think the importance of that is that it’s preparing us for when we graduate and that feeling of urgency that’s in the real world.
JS: Are there any other shows that you’re doing at Mess Fest that you want to plug?
LH: Yeah! I am helping my friend Devin, my bestie for life, do a show about her identity called 50/50. I’ve been helping them direct that and go over their writing. I’m really excited for that show. I’m also directing a show called Bound for Error. That’s not a show I created or came up with, but I’m very lucky that the people that do perform in it have opened their arms to me watching and giving notes. You know, I’m a stranger basically to that cast, but it was really heartwarming that they did accept me watching and giving notes and directing with such open arms and willingness.
Trevor and Qlarissa’s Puppet Show performs on 1/11 and 1/12 at midnight in the Annoyance Big Theatre and features John Bordeaux, Sydney Breedlove, Eli Carey, Adam Cox, Trevor Dudasik, Lexi Hannah, Lucas Johnson, Quinn Kempe, Logan Munoz, Tucker Privette, Robert Vetter, and Joseph Walsdorf. The show is assistant directed by Peyton Baisden.
See also, shows directed by Lexi: