Jenna Ebersberger

I Survived Theatre School

Intro: The 90s are back and so is Gina on the Adam McKay train, Joe Vs. the Volcano, Dan Hedaya, absurdism, hating the planet, Don't Look Up, #whatdosingleasianwomendoafterwork
Let Me Run This By You: putting yourself in a new and unfamiliar context, Michael Shannon's Red Orchid theatre, Wallace Shawn's Evening at the Talk House, asshole casting directors, wearing ear pieces, when Boz got a perm, Art and Science Hair Salon.
Interview: We talk to Jenna Ebersberger about growing up in LA, Columbia College, Second City, the Groundlings, Barbara Robertson, Wondery, My Favorite Murder

FULL TRANSCRIPT (unedited):
2 (10s):
And I'm Gina Kalichi. We went to theater school

1 (12s):
Together. We survived it.

2 (14s):
He didn't quite understand it. 20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of it all.

1 (22s):
And you will too. Are we famous yet? I mean, I think the bubble is going to burst a little bit, but I don't think it's going to pop all the way. Like, I don't think it's gonna be over over, but I just think that life is a series of bubbles popping. Right? It's like a series. I see. Everything is so cyclical. And the thing that actually funny enough made me see it truly is watching fashion styles. Right? So like the nineties are really in and I'm like cracking up at coworking and looking around. Cause a lot of my co-working cohort are wearing nineties clothes because they're young and I am just like, oh my God, I, I, it is unbelievable how the things that, and this happens to every generation.

1 (1m 15s):
I mean, we're, I'm not unique. I know this, but like, I'm like, oh, if you want to look at why things are, how things are cyclical, look at the fashion, like, look at what is happening. I make the huge, the mom jeans wide legs.

2 (1m 31s):
Right. But at the same time, how come like the forties haven't come back or the, or maybe they have, maybe they come back in little ways or the twenties I wanna, I want to, or the fifties, even you don't really here. You don't really see, I guess maybe the fifth, late fifties and early sixties had somewhat of a resurgence with mad men. And they did that whole co-branding with J crew. Oh wait, is J crew still a company?

1 (1m 53s):
Yeah, it is. I mean, I think they keep going bankrupt, but then they keep getting saved. So I know it's a company because I shop there at the outlets. So it's still around. I just don't know. They're always, and I think they're all owned by like the gap, right. Or like I had

2 (2m 10s):
UPMC.

1 (2m 12s):
So basically Michael Jackson's estate owns. Yeah.

2 (2m 15s):
Yes. Pretty much. I mean, I wouldn't be, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised. Okay. That leads me to this thing. I wanted to give you an update about, which is that I finally finished watching. Don't look up. Oh,

1 (2m 28s):
The MCAT

2 (2m 29s):
I'm back on the Adam McKay train. I thought it was a great movie. I give it a, give it a thumbs up. I completely understand. I've never read specific criticisms of it, but I completely understand that some people don't like it and it had kind of a sensibility to me, it kind of, it absurd a sensibility that a lot of people just don't care for it because it just feels too outside. Like I like a lot of things that get really panned when you know, the flops, like I liked Joe versus the volcano was a total commercial flight. Love

1 (3m 8s):
That movie. I think that movie is fucking brilliant. And I so good. I realized that I get a lot of my language from that movie in terms of, I go, I'm like, oh my God, she's such a flibbertigibbet

2 (3m 19s):
She's such a flibbertigibbet I have a t-shirt that says I'm not arguing that with you. And as a picture of Dan Hidatsa sitting at his desk, I mean that God, I challenge you to find a better piece of solo performance and phone acting than Dan in

1 (3m 38s):
Joe versus the

2 (3m 39s):
Brilliant. So good. Yeah. Go ahead. So, so, so don't look up. Yeah. It's well, it's absurd because it is absurd the way that we've completely trashed this planet in such a short period of time and also the way in which we're just, we, we both, we simultaneously know this and just keep doing all the same things that we've always done. Well, yeah. Even people who are climate warriors who are doing the most, I, I feel like it doesn't matter anymore. It's all over.

1 (4m 12s):
Yeah. I mean, I think that I just get this, this feeling that we're too late and maybe, and this is just always what I come down to. And I think it's easier for me because I, in some ways to say this, cause I don't have children, but like maybe this is supposed to be happening since it's happening. Like maybe we did this and then we have to face the consequences. Like we're always so used to being

2 (4m 44s):
Saved or having to face being

1 (4m 46s):
Saved by something or someone like, maybe this is it for us. And look, maybe there's another species that could come and do a better job. Like we, we can't be the only,

2 (5m 1s):
No girl, we cannot be the only ones. And what's funny about the, are you going to watch the movie? Don't look up? I don't want to spoil it for her. So yeah, the whole thing is about, there's a comment coming and the scientists are going to the president and they're trying to figure out how to spin it. And then what they finally come up with this, with this Steve jobs type character that the technology guy played to perfection by mark Rylance comes up with this technological solution to he's going to send these missiles. And they're going to attach themselves to the comment because, because, because the comment actually has this very precious metal that they need to, they need, of course.

2 (5m 41s):
So they it's like this thing where they send these 20 missile, drones, whatever they are that are supposed to attach themselves to the comment and then break it into pieces. It just lands in the ocean and doesn't hurt anybody. But of course it fails. And at the very last minute, Meryl Streep who plays president, her character gets into, she calls. She makes, she calls Leonardo DiCaprio's character and says, listen, we've got these eight pods and they fit four people a piece or something like that. And the idea is if you get in it, you know, it's something that's going to survive Armageddon. So he says, no thanks. And presumably it's just her.

2 (6m 22s):
And maybe this mark Rylance guy, the end of the movie shows 22,000 years later. And those pods land on the planet, I don't know, I guess it's earth, which has been repopulated with dinosaurs and all the pods land and everybody gets out and they they're all they're all girl. Yes. I would never have guessed that. But that's exactly what happened. But before that, what you notice is that everybody who gets out of the pods is all old white people. So that they're gonna, this is the people who are going to repopulate the really planet and then Meryl Streep's characte...