DoT Podcast Episode 29 – A Late-Night “Yes, And” Session with Petey Gibson, Plus Music from Amy Helm

There is a concept in improv called “Yes, And…” which basically means that you take whatever reality your scene partner has presented, accept it, and build on it. It’s what keeps a scene going and leads you to unexpected places. Which is exactly what happened with this interview. I had expected to talk to Petey Gibson, stand-up comedian, improv performer, and creator of the wonderful Mary Dolan character, for ten or fifteen minutes and include the interview in Episode 28 of the Department of Tangents Podcast along with the other interviews I had done at the Women In Comedy Festival. We started the interview at 2:26 AM, sitting in the lobby of the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel, which is also home to Laugh Boston. The WICF 2017 after party had just wrapped, and I caught Petey on her way out. What was supposed to be a quick interview turned into an hour of conversation, stopped only because both of us needed to get home and sleep.

It was a delightful conversation, and we told stories I’m sure neither of us had planned to tell on a podcast, in addition to covering Mary Dolan, working in Los Angeles, improv, vaudeville history, Petey’s Somerville series, and the difference between being yourself onstage as a stand-up comedian and being someone else doing character comedy. You can get a bit of a taste for Petey’s comedy in the clips below.

After the conversation, stick around and listen to “Sing To Me” by Amy Helm from her Didn’t It Rain album. Helm is my guest for Episode 30 of the podcast, which will post later this week.

Stream or download Episode 29 in the player below. If you liked this episode, you can subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher, or wherever quality podcasts are downloaded.

Meals With Mary – “Breakfast Sexfast”