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<p>« THE HONEY SHOT - SHENG WANG | Main| ASK FOR IT BY NAME - KATIE SCHORR FOR HEALTHY CHOICE » Tuesday Oct 05 2010  Inside With: Leslie Meisel and Megan Neuringer</p>
<p>Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 3:23PM</p>

<p>By: Evan Watkins</p>

<p>Leslie Meisel and Megan Neuringer are no strangers to the New York comedy scene, Leslie performs with UCB Maude Team Thunder Gulch, and Megan performs with the Harold team DeCoster. They have combined forces for the first time for their character spectacular, Love Can Suck a Dick... and So Can I, which is currently playing at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre NY. I had the chance to sit down with both of them before they take their show to LA at the end of the month.</p>

<p>So how long have you been developing Love Can Suck a Dick... and So Can I?</p>

<p>Leslie: We started working on the show together in January.</p>

<p>What was the development process like? I know that both of you have improv backgrounds, so did you discover the characters through improv, or did Megan just bring in a bunch of written pieces?</p>

<p>Megan: There would be characters that Leslie had that she’d been working on, and I would have her improvise with them. So let’s say Leslie improvised something hilarious in the scope of the character, I would direct her in a way that would push her to follow a certain game, or tell her to do it faster, or make it shorter. We ended up transcribing a lot of it, finding out where the funny was, and then got the character on its feet. Then the process would start all over again. It was a lot of writing on your feet, rewriting, adding jokes, getting rid of things, and chipping away at it.</p>

<p>Leslie--how many characters did you bring to Megan for this show?</p>

<p>Leslie: I don’t remember how many I brought in, I think at one point I just performed a showcase for her.</p>

<p>Megan: During the rehearsal process, we found sort of a happy medium of which characters worked and which characters didn’t. And then we found a compromise of what was funny to both of us.</p>

<p>Did you test characters out in front of an audience?</p>

<p>Leslie: We did two characters at UCB’s School Night. I did "Wendy" because it pushed me out of my comfort zone. Right before I went onstage with it, I was nervous and scared and I thought, people could yell at me--someone could beat me up. I think what I learned from performing as Wendy is that, if you’re really nervous and fearful about a character, then just go for it. We also had a character that was a heightened, very confident version of me and Megan wrote a great piece around her. The character was this "I know everything about theater" kind of woman. The first time I performed it, I didn’t think it went that well.</p>

<p>Megan: I told her it went fine.</p>

<p>Leslie: Then we added her to the show, and we both realized she didn’t work in the context of the show, so we ended up cutting her. There is a version of her you'll see in the video piece of the show, it’s basically all of Lennon Parham’s lines.</p>

<p>Megan: It’s kind of amazing how the lines all work for Lennon in the video, but it just couldn’t sustain itself for an entire character monologue.</p>

<p>The show has a lot of audience interaction, have you noticed the different way that audiences respond to what’s happening onstage?</p>

<p>Leslie: There's definitely a difference. If you have a show that's full of out of towners or theater people, I think they’re just watching and getting into it, then there’s a moment where they start to get into it, and pretty soon they’re laughing. Then I think, "Oh they were just listening and watching until they were ready to come on the ride with you." If you have a younger audience, they're more willing to go with whatever's happening on stage at any given moment.</p>

<p>Megan: I think it helps to not be totally reactive to the audience during each show, but I can't help thinking about what the audience is thinking during each show.</p>

<p>How has this show been different from other shows you’ve worked on in the past?</p>

<p>Megan: I spent a lot of years believing that performing in shows was an experience that I did for myself and for my ego. I thought that going onstage and getting laughs was an experience "for me" and that has kind of shifted in the past couple of years. So, Leslie and I then had this epiphany and it all has to do with the artist known as Pink.</p>

<p>Leslie: So I got tickets to go see Pink, and Megan and I were talking after an audition, and I said "So I have these tickets to Pink, do you want to go?" and then Megan was like...</p>

<p>Megan: "I love PINK!" which was kind of a lie, I just wanted to go see a concert at Madison Square Garden with Leslie, I didn’t even own any of her albums.</p>

<p>Leslie: Well, it’s a good thing Megan lied. So we make our way over to Madison Square Garden and the moment we get in, Pink takes the stage--it was this perfect moment. There's this woman who's giving everything she has in this selfless, genuine, and strong performance.</p>

<p>Megan: It was like she was saying "I'm so psyched to be at Madison Square Garden, I'm so psyched I sold it out, this is a dream of mine, and thank you, thank you for being here with me." It made our vision of what we want to create, to like,"give the audience Pink," and thank them for coming to see you. I want to always give the audience Pink.</p>

<p>Leslie: Giving the audience Pink is about not settling. I think a lot of people think that once they have something good, they’re like, "Well, that's done." But we're still creating this show... and we know the potential of what's possible.</p>

<p>You can catch Love Can Suck a Dick... And So Can I at The UCB Theatre NY on Wednesday, October 6th at 8PM or if you live in the Los Angeles area, simply stay put and watch it there during its 2-show run at the UCB LA October 27th and November 4th.</p>

<p>The Apiary | 1 Comment tagged Leslie Meisel , Megan Neuringer , UCBT in EXCLUSIVELY at The Apiary , Interviews Reader Comments (1)</p>
<p>Saw it tonight. Fucking awesome. Two bad ass girls.</p>

<p>October 7, 2010 | Len Post a New Comment</p>
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