The Improv Life Ep.5 with Mayanna Berrin – Fernando’s Improv Blog Podcast

Ep.5 of The Improv Life with Mayanna Berrin

Welcome to Episode 5 of the Improv Life! 

My amazing guest was Mayanna Berrin! An LA based comedian who I have crossed paths with the past year, and who I am just impressed with from top to bottom for a million different reasons. 

I remember meeting Mayanna in my UCB Level 201 Class last year and connecting with her over a show at the Pack Theater called Super Dating Simulator, a choose-your-own-adventure, LIVE anime inspired melodrama created and produced by Sam Weller, Reed H. Sights, and Sara Brown.

We would later both be in Super Dating Simulator where Mayanna was one of the leads, and she absolutely crushed it. Mayanna is super talented. I knew she was funny from seeing her perform and just talking to her, but I never had this deep a conversation with her till today. We did not brush off any topic for being too taboo, controversial, or potentially uncomfortable for the listener. There was an honesty and vulnerability in our conversation that made this episode of the Improv Life very special. Check it out! 

Here’s What Mayanna and I Talked About

• How 1 trip to Broadway changed Mayanna’s life forever and put her on the path to doing Musical Theater 

• Why you have to be a little off-beat to be if you’re going to do comedy 

• Mayanna’s experience getting a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) at the University of Miami and her experience occupying those white spaces 

• The Racism in Broadway Musicals nobody ever talks about, and how that racism affected her school’s curriculum and her BFA experience 

• The micro-aggressions she had to experience while at Miami 

• Our experience in our UCB 201 Class and our critiques of the culture 

• Why people seek validation from comedy and why you shouldn’t 
• The highs and lows of stand-up comedy and dating them 

• Why it’s better to stay in your lane and the pitfalls of making comedy that tries to comprehend the experience of a marginalized group you’re not a part of (basically, don’t do it or be super delicate) 

• Being a BIPOC in comedy, seeing yourself represented on screen, and the effect that has on you and the othering effect it engineers 

• Why improv is a freeing artform and doesn’t have to be tethered to the expectations of other types of theater 

• How to Manage White Fragility in the Improv World 

• Just the general experience of being a BIPOC improviser in a white improv world 

Links: 

You can follow Mayanna on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Bemayanna

You can follow Super Dating Simulator on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/superdatingsimulator/?epa=SEARCH_BOX