The Groundlings Podcast Network

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Mitch Silpa and Jim Cashman are Groundlings alumni who have been writing together for almost 20 years. From their beginnings in the Groundlings main company to having their first sitcom script produced as a pilot for Fox, this hilarious writing duo talk about their writing process, why they enjoy trimming their own material and why improv is an invaluable skill for writers.

The Emmy and Peabody award-winning writing team of Tracy Newman and Jonathan Stark met at the Groundlings theater, but it was not until after they both retired from the main company that they started writing together. Tracy and Jonathan talk about how they got their start writing a spec script for Cheers, what it was like to write Ellen DeGeneres’ famous coming-out episode on the sitcom Ellen and how the person who types in a writing team is usually the one with all the power.

Lisa Kudrow is widely recognized as creating one of the greatest characters in American television. Her role as Phoebe Buffay on Friends was called ‘a delivery system for joy’ by the New York Times. But the origins of Phoebe go all the way back to her training at the Groundlings. Lisa talks about being pushed by her Writing Lab teacher to play a ‘dumb’ character, creating her favorite sketches and monologues in the Groundlings Main Company and how her very first audition in Los Angeles everntually lead to Romy and Michele’s Highschool Reunion.