Chaotic Creative: The Ryan and Amy Show
With parodies featuring their gender bending and downright insane characters, the comedy duo of Ryan and Amy have released over 100 online videos garnering over six million views, and for people who spend their time making fun of cities, they sure do show a lot of love to their home town.
Ryan started performing comedy after being inspired by the ladies of SNL, and Amy joined him shortly after attending Vancouver Acting School. Since joining forces 10 years ago, they’ve performed on multiple cruise trips, appeared on Funny or Die, co-starred on several Canadian shows, and were shortlisted for a Canadian comedy award in 2016.
In this interview we learn a lot about what it takes to make a living out of your passion – and why you don’t necessarily have to move anywhere else to make it happen.
Ryan and Amy tell us about the power of using social media and how to be “in people’s faces” without being annoying. We also chat about the potential difficulties of juggling family and a comedy career, the power of networking, and building relationships in the industry. Other topics include the pitfalls of drinking on stage, why ‘Superfudge’ is Ryan’s favourite book, and a secret sketch about anuses.
In this interview, you will learn
- The key to keeping a following on social media (08:11)
- Why Amy thinks Vancouver is moving in the right direction (17:21)
- The importance of getting your name out there (19:31)
- Why relationships are so important when building your career (20:10)
- How to pitch yourself to decision-makers (24:37)
- Why you should never worry about pigeonholing yourself (26:52)
- Ryan’s recommendations for building your career (30:20)
- Plus much more…
Some questions we ask
- How do you decide where you book your shows? (2:25)
- How did you get into the JFL Northwest? (3:04)
- Is there a criteria for getting booked for shows? (2:55)
- Is your JFL show different than your other live shows? (4:21)
- What is it like navigating a career as sketch-comedians Vancouver? (6:26)
- Why don’t you do standup? (7:20)
- How has applying what social media strategy to your comedy brand helped your business? (08:03)
- How often do you meet to create content? (09:55)
- How to do you come up with your characters and know which ones to keep around? (10:49)
- Where do you characters for Moms over Miami come from? (11:44)
- What’s been the most popular Moms over Miami song? (13:03)
- When you start having success, how do you monetize your business? (14:57)
- What’s the goal? (15:45)
- Do you want to work with Canadian media or American? (16:15)
- Why not move to the States and what’s the benefit of staying in Vancouver? (16:35)
- What are your tips for getting past the gatekeepers of comedy? (19:17)
- How do you pitch to decision makers? (24:08)
- Does being different help set you guys apart? (25:50)
- What is your book recommendation? (28:43)
- Why is it important to be a well-rounded ‘renaissance artist’? (29:23)
- What advice would you give to people just starting out in Comedy? (30:36)
- How do you get back on track when you’re feeling negative about your career? (32:03)
The Ryan and Amy Show will appear at JFL Northwest on March 9. Find more information and tickets here.