See.Hear.Speak 3: Austinist interviews The P! Company

see.hear.speak 3 ("See")
Thursday, January 24th
Coldtowne Theatre (4803-B Airport Blvd)
8pm and 10pm, $10
[info] | [tickets]

The 3rd annual See.Hear.Speak comedy festival begins tonight at Coldtowne Theater. See.Hear.Speak began as a celebration of alternative comedy formats; each night represents a different comedic medium.

“See” is dedicated to filmed comedy, and tonight’s show features local video sketch troupe the P! Company. The P! Company completed a month-and-a-half long sketch run in November and is currently gearing up for their next show, Hanging with Mr. The P! Company. We recently spoke with Andy Petruzzo and Kyle Sweeney of the P! Company about video sketch and their participation in See.Hear.Speak 3.

What do you think about the sketch scene in Austin?

Andy Petruzzo: Backpack Picnic’s video sketches, I think, are really brilliant. I’ve seen them and they’re really well put-together. And we were like, “Yeah, we’ve been doing that for a long time. We should be doing shows.”

Doing what—being brilliant or sketch?

AP: A little from column A and a little from column B. Although I will add that we are brilliant.

Kyle Sweeney: The long and short of it is that we want to be famous.

Do you think that it’s harder to perform sketch live in terms of dealing with audience reactions because you have nothing to hide behind? When you perform a sketch and the audience doesn’t react favorably to it, it’s almost like them telling you that you’re not funny. Because you may have spent two weeks writing and perfecting that sketch.

KS: A live performance is kind of a cruel mistress because you never know how the audience is going to react. And sometimes you’ll spend an entire performance on pins and needles because you’re wondering if something that played really well in rehearsal is going pan out.

Photo courtesy of the P! Company

The biggest thing is to let it go if it doesn’t go well. It’s going to turn out one way or the other; you can’t tell an audience how to feel. Generally, people are willing to go with you as long as you’ve written something smart.

AP: I think the most important thing is to write something and perform something that you’d like to see. That’s sort of been our mantra.

We’ve thought, “we should have this or have that.” But never, “we think the audience would like this.” A sketch always has the potential of alienating some of the audience, but usually that means the other portion of that pie graph likes it.