November 4, 2025 • 52 mins
It's the Season Six Premiere of Improv and Magic!
Today, we have an exclusive conversation with the quick-witted actor and writer Jonathan Mangum. He's built a career spanning TV, film, and live comedy, including appearances on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, The Wayne Brady Show, and Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza. Jonathan is also known as the announcer on CBS's Let's Make a Deal with Wayne Brady.
In this interview, Jonathan Mangum shares his journey to the stage and his creative process as a performer and writer. Whether you know him from improv, television, or live tours, Jonathan Mangum's story is one of humor, persistence, and creative passion.
For more information about LD, visit ldmadera.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello friends. Well, hello everybody.
Welcome to Improv and Magic and welcome to Season 6.
I'm your friend LD Madera, and I'm very happy to be back with
you again. We've got a lot of great
episodes lined up this season, as well as some fantastic
(00:24):
guests, including today, so let's not waste any time and get
right to it. Today's guest is the absolutely
amazing Jonathan Mangum. He's an actor, writer, and
improviser whose career has reached great heights.
He's appeared on many criticallyacclaimed shows including Whose
Line Is It Anyway, NCIS, The Drew Carey Show, and Reno 911.
(00:50):
He's also performed and collaborated with his good
friend Wayne Brady on other projects, including The Wayne
Brady Show and Drew Carey's Improvaganza.
And he also performs as Wayne's sidekick on the hit TV game show
Let's Make a Deal. Jonathan and Wayne have also
created their own podcast calledWhat If, which can be heard on
(01:11):
all major podcast platforms. This was such a fun conversation
and I can't wait to share this with all of you.
Let's do it here. Now on the season premiere of
Improv and Magic is my guest, Jonathan Mangum.
(01:38):
My friends, I am so happy to welcome right now on Improv and
Magic. He is an unbelievable talent and
you've seen him everywhere. He is the amazing Jonathan
Mangum. Hello Jonathan.
So good to have you here. Hello, do do I say LD or do I go
old? You know what?
Whatever makes you feel at at ease.
How about that? You're old.
(02:00):
Kind of sounds like you're calling me old, but I'll take
it. I'm I we all aren't.
We are we're, we are all old theminute we're born.
It's just an unending trip to tothe end.
So wow, we started dark. I apologize.
Can we start over? You know, it's funny you
mentioned travel. I kind of feel like you're
someone who likes to travel a lot.
(02:20):
Is that true? Do you do a lot of traveling?
Normally I do do a lot of traveling.
I don't like, I like the thing I'm doing when I get there, but
I don't like the traveling part very much.
Being at airports is really unnecessarily stressful and a
pain in the ass almost always, but when I once you get to where
(02:40):
I'm going I have a great time. You prefer the destination
rather than the journey. Yes, in life and in goals.
That's a good way to put it. Well, I'm so excited to learn
all about you. So let's start at the very
beginning with you, Jonathan. OK.
Where did you grow up and what was growing up like for you?
I grew up in Mobile AL which is the southern bit of Alabama
(03:03):
right on the Gulf of Mexico and the the Mobile Bay is down
there. It was a small ish town, couple
100,000 people. Mardi Gras was invented there.
Most people don't know we still do Mardi Gras for a year.
And it was a good place to grow up.
Lots of woods to run around in. You know, you wake up if you're
(03:26):
not in school, you, you play allday, you come home when the
street lights come on and your parents didn't, you know, worry
or give a shit about you, even though you were getting into
trouble. So I, I, I like, I like being
able to grow up in a place whereI could just kind of be free.
Did you do costumes when you didMardi Gras?
So the costumes are the the people on the floats wear the
(03:48):
costumes and you as you watch the floats go by, you know,
you're you're yelling, hey, hey,hey, and and and mobile.
Unlike New Orleans, they actually throw candy and and
beads, but like moon pies, whichare like little like little
Debbie snacks, candy, beads. It it was pretty fun.
(04:08):
You'd come home with a giant you'd you'd have more candy than
you would have on Halloween basically going and during Mardi
Gras, which is a that there's Mardi Gras, which is fat
Tuesday, which I forget is the Tuesday before Lent starts
leading up to that is a whole month and during that month,
during different nights, these different organizations have
their parade. So there's all these different
(04:29):
groups. So man after after going to 5 or
6 parades you would just have bag loads of candy and beads and
it was super fun as a kid. But you didn't have to expose
yourself with the candy, did you?
I did show my tits. I thought it was weird.
They might have thought it was weird that there was a 10 year
old boy showing his tits, but you know it.
(04:52):
It's the South, you know that crazy shit happens.
Exactly. Everything happens in the South.
When you were a kid, did you sort of have an idea of what you
wanted to do when you grew up? No, no.
I mean, well, yes, but no. I loved electronics.
I loved taking like stereos apart and looking at the
transistors and pulling wires off.
(05:14):
I used to do this thing. This was horribly stupid, where
I'd pull out, you know, like an individual transistor where
there's like a like a little like a thin bean in the middle
and you've got two pieces of metal.
And yeah, a circuit board is covered in this.
I would pull one of those out, I'd RIP the plug out of a like a
stereo or some, some old piece of junk, the thing that goes in
(05:35):
the wall. And I plug the plug in the wall
with the two exposed wires and then touch both of those wires
to the ends of the transistors to know what would happen.
And it would always like smoke, but depending on what kind of
transistor, sometimes it was like an orange smoke and like
sometimes it was like a purple flame.
So I was getting all kinds of really dangerous chemical
(05:56):
reactions going on and, and of course my parents didn't know
any of this. Maybe it's best that they
didn't. Probably not.
Probably not. So at what point did you become
interested in becoming a performer?
So I, I was in grade school as Iwent to Catholic grade school
and high school and in like 8th grade they needed someone to
(06:19):
play Jesus in, in the play. And I don't remember, like I, I
guess I, someone jokingly recommended me 'cause I was not
cool. I was like a nerdy, nerdy kid,
super skinny with a giant head of hair.
They called me mop head and pushed me around.
But I think someone jokingly said I should play Jesus.
And then I think that ended up just kind of happening because
(06:40):
they meant it ironically. But I thought it was pretty
good. Jesus, you know, a hard part to
live up to, but I did a pretty good job.
And then it was, it was, it was interesting because it was like,
oh, people are actually like, people are listening to me talk.
I felt like before, you know, you walk up to a group of people
in grade school and you start talking and they, they just,
they're not listening to me. They're never they'll, they'll
(07:00):
just start talking over me in the middle of me talking.
So they had no interest in what I had to say.
But then when you're on stage, like, oh, these people are
forced to listen to me by the social contract that says if
theater is happening, we can't all talk.
So I kind of, I was like, oh, they have to hear me talk.
I kind of like this. Well, especially if you're
Jesus, everyone has to hear you talk.
(07:20):
Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's usually highly recommended.
Yeah, it is. I I tried to do some miracles.
It didn't happen, but they did listen to to Jesus and me quite
a bit. So after that experience of
being Jesus, and how many times have you heard that phrase, did
you decide at that moment if that's what you wanted to do, or
(07:42):
was it kind of just like a hobbyfor you at that point?
It was so that wasn't even really a hobby.
That was just kind of interesting to me.
And then when I got to high school, after a couple years, I
was like, I think I could, you know, try to do one of these
plays because there was a theater department and a, a
friend of mine was really into the theater part because you
should come audition. You should come audition.
So I started doing the the playsin high school and that's when I
(08:05):
was like, oh, this is really fun.
It became a hobby, actually, kind of anyone that's in high
school that, you know, does these extracurricular activities
that take hours and hours and hours.
I mean, you know, that's going to affect your grades, right?
So you, you can't just do eight hour, 8 hours of school and then
be at school from 3:00 PM till 9:30 rehearsing or building sets
(08:26):
or doing that and, and think that your grades aren't going to
go down. So I, I feel like it did
actually kind of hurt my chances.
It, it, it going to college later for me, But I'm, I'm glad
I did it. It was worth it, but I still
wasn't thinking about it as a career.
I, I, I still thought electricalor civil engineering was the was
the way to go. So I didn't know anybody that
(08:46):
had ever been an actor professionally.
I didn't even consider, I didn'teven know there was such thing
as actors that could make a living that worked super famous.
I was like, you're either famousor you're not.
Like there was no other way to make a living.
And most actors that make livingmake a living at it are not
famous so. You know, I also come from I,
(09:07):
like You, was also a drama kid in high school, and I remember
there were certain shows that really resonated with me.
Do you recall doing any plays inyour drama program that really
resonated with you? They I wouldn't say that they
resonated with me like thematically, they just they,
(09:27):
they pulled on all my strengths.For example, we did a lot of
musicals like we did Bye Bye Birdie and we did I forget, But
because I also was a musician, Ihad to program all the songs
into my keyboard. And so I had the job of
basically scoring it and then recording it so they could play
(09:48):
and also being in the show. So it, it just felt like it
pulled all of the things I, I, Icould do to, to their maximum
output for me. What, what, what?
What did you like? What?
What did it say to you when you were in those shows?
Believe it or not, The One Show that really resonated with me
was my sophomore year because itwas a blending of my 2 loves was
(10:10):
Cats. Because not only did I and it
was the first time I actually had ever heard the music.
I'd heard of it because it was abig phenomenon.
And to me, it just seemed like abunch of kiddies singing and
dancing. And then I did the show and
well, turns out that is all it is.
Just kidding. Singing and dancing.
But I got cast as Mr. Mistoffily, so not only did I
get to act, I was also able to do magic as well.
(10:32):
So that made me super happy. That's right.
That's right. At what point did you discover
improv? So I after high school, I, you
know, I was, I was in the marching band and the concert
band in addition to all the drama programs.
And so because I was always at school and always with this
(10:53):
artistic stuff, even though I was in the AP classes and the
honors classes, I didn't, I couldn't get A's.
It was just too much of A time. So I didn't get into any of the
colleges I wanted to. So I ended up going for one year
to Louisiana State University, LSU go Tigers and was a civil
engineer major. But they said you, you know, you
(11:14):
can take these electives. So I took a jazz improvisation
class, which I love. And then I took this like acting
class. I was like, I don't think an
acting class, let's see what this is about.
And one of the first things was,oh, we're going to do something
called improv. I was like, OK, I've never heard
of this. And we did it and it was
horrifying, but it was, it was very exciting.
And so it, that's not the point where I started loving improv,
(11:37):
but that's the first time I did it and saw what it was.
And so I was like, this is cool.I'll put this over here in my
brain and I'll maybe I'll use itlater.
And then after that, after one year at LSU and too many
daiquiris. And if you ever have been to
Louisiana, you know what I'm talking about.
I went to Orlando to work at theDisney World's summer college
(11:57):
program. And then I saw while I was in
Orlando a show called Comedy Sports, which is a, if you don't
know it, it's an improv show, but it's steamed around like a
sports event. So there's two teams, there's a
referee. And I couldn't believe it.
I couldn't believe they were making it up.
I was just in shock and like, what?
They're making this up? I, I don't I don't believe it.
(12:17):
So I went up to them after the show and they said, oh, yeah,
thank you, thank you. You know, we teach classes and I
go, oh, OK. So I was like, I'll just, I'll
sign up for a comedy sports class.
This'll be fun. And then I took one class and
they're like, well, you're ready.
I'm like, ready for what? Ready to do a show.
I I wasn't ready. But that's how that's how you
did it in the day. You didn't spend three years
(12:38):
going through improv companies. You know, their beginner class,
their secondary class, they're advanced.
And then then there's an audition to see if you get to
the main company. Back in the 90s it was like, you
kind of know the rules, so just get up there and suck until
you're funny. Yeah, thrown right into the deep
end right away. Absolutely.
I loved it. When you were taking those
classes, were there was there anything that kind of surprised
(13:00):
you as you were learning how improv works?
At the time, nothing really, there was nothing surprising how
improv works. But but looking back at it now,
I was a little surprised that like in the 90s when you were
learning improv, no one mentioned anything about story
or arc or any of the kind of things that if you took improv
(13:21):
now, you know, at UCB or any of these, you know, big, big improv
places in New York or LA. It's all about the character and
the story and the what and the where and it's it's, it's a very
it's it's a deep dive into what storytelling is and back to
that. It's just like, here's the
here's how the game works. They're going to make all your
sounds and you're going to say something funny when they do.
(13:42):
That's improv. Go.
You know, I tend to notice that throughout the decades, improv
kind of changes in, in as, as far as what's the new flavor
that everyone's interested in. Like, I think you could say that
back in the in the 90s, everyonewas saying, oh, we all want to
do short form. And then that eventually
transitioned to oh. We want to do long.
(14:03):
Form And I think now the new trend is, oh, we want to do
musical improv. Have you tend to notice some of
those flavors of the month that happens in improv?
Yeah, and it's more like flavorsof the decade.
But but in the 90s it wasn't even like I didn't, I didn't
even know what long form was. I'd never heard that term.
I know that they were doing someof that in like Chicago and New
York, that the second city was due, but I'd never heard of
(14:23):
that. Most people hadn't heard of All
you. All you knew was Whose Line is
it Anyway, which was on TV the the British version.
And so that was improv. And I do feel like short form
was unfairly mocked in the 2000sand when people just had a
superiority about long form and that that's such a such a stupid
(14:46):
point of view. It's like it's, it's a good
improv or it's a bad improv. There's there's, it doesn't
matter if it's short or long, it's good or it's bad.
And there's plenty of bad of both and there's plenty of good
of both. And then yeah, music I feel like
is a feels like a little bit of a seems like there's more
musical groups now. Although I will say like one of
(15:06):
like the, the biggest improv thing in the world right now is
drop out TV and drop out shows. Game changer, Make some noise.
Those are all kind of short formstuff.
So I feel like short form has a a bit of a resurgence.
For you, do you feel like you have to sort of change your
(15:28):
approach whether you're doing short form or long form, or is
it all the same to you? There's a little bit of a change
in approach, like I don't feel the, the expediency of having to
be immediately funny. Like in short form, it's like
short form, you just have to keep making jokes.
You just have to keep being funny, which I really love.
(15:50):
But long form, you know, it's like, it's like, oh, I can relax
a little bit. I can, you know, sit back.
I can let some quiet happen. I, I, I compare it to the like
rock and jazz. So I'm a musician.
So I love both of them, but anyone that says 1 is better
than the other is, I think it's totally wrong because yes,
(16:10):
there's jazz. You can go deep and there's so
much great stuff happening in the way the players talk to each
other and that that's all amazing.
And you can't do that with rock.But at the same time, there's no
jazz song that gives you the feeling of like when when you've
broken up with your boyfriend orgirlfriend and you're screaming
free falling when you're drivingdown the road and you're you're
like, that's what rock does. The jazz can't do that.
(16:33):
But then jazz does a thing that rock can't do.
So same thing with improv. Short form is it's a thing.
It's it's its own thing and longform is its other thing.
But they both, they're both awesome.
They're both great. There's no reason you can't
enjoy both of them as a performer or viewer.
It's all the same. Music is music.
Improv is improv. Yep, Yep.
Whenever I encounter first time students, they always feel that
(16:54):
pressure to really be funny and to really make an audience
laugh. Have you ever gone through that
feeling, that pressure to make everyone in the audience crack
up? Yeah, all the time that that's
that is the pressure. I'm doing improv.
Most of the improv I do is comedy improv, short, short
form. And yeah, there's a there's a
big pressure. There's also a confidence.
(17:15):
It's like, oh, OK, I've, I've done how many, how many shows?
And so I'm not, I'm not worried.I'm not going to say something
funny. That's, that's not a worry.
But I do, I am a little nervous before the show.
It's like, oh, I, I want to be good.
I want people to feel like, you know, when they, when they go
see Wayne Brady and myself do a two person show, they've
probably paid 5060 bucks for a ticket.
(17:38):
So it's like, it's a lot of money.
Like I really hope they they they enjoy it.
Well, of course, in show business, we all know about
these great friendships and partnerships like Laurel and
Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Martin Short and Steve Martin,
Penn and Teller, And of course, there's also Jonathan Mangum and
Wayne Brady. Oh, you said my name first.
(17:58):
How nice was that? Yeah, I didn't.
I didn't want Wayne to get jealous.
Yeah, there you go. So how did Jonathan and Wayne
meet? So when I mentioned I was in
Orlando and I started doing improv, I did comedy sports for
a little while and then I got recruited by the bigger improv
company, which was SAC Theaters Theater Sports, which is
(18:20):
basically comedy sports with a little bit, with a slightly less
sports analogy. And Wayne was part of that group
and we started doing shows together.
We were, I, I, I was 20, he was 19.
And we were just thrown into theshow.
And this particular location in Orlando, SAC Theater, we, we did
about 13 shows a week and it was150 people, you know, in every
(18:43):
show on average. No, no tourists almost.
This wasn't the Disney people. This wasn't people going to
Orlando for tourism. This was the University of
Central Florida, Valencia Community College, all the high
schools, they would just come todowntown Orlando to watch us do
this improv stuff that they thatthey saw on Whose Line.
What were your first impressionsof Wayne, and what were Wayne's
(19:04):
first impressions of you? My first impression was Wayne
was was still the impression I have now, which is he's he's
he's such a good singer that it like there's a lot of people
that can do funny improv songs, but there's not a lot of people
who have a Grammy winning voice that can do improv songs and
(19:30):
impressions of famous people that are spot on.
So I, I, I saw that right away. It's like, Oh my God, this is
nobody I know could do this. Fuck that guy.
I was probably sure I was a little jealous of that.
You know, as we've seen the two of you together, there really is
this sense of a ride or die typeof relationship between the two
(19:53):
of you 'cause you've done so much together.
What do you think it is that haskept the two of you together all
these years? I just think that we, we, we're
both, we have, we have a lot in common and then just enough not
in common. I mean, we're both super nerdy.
We both love all the nerdy stuffhe like, but then he branches
(20:16):
off into comic books, which I'm not really into, and I'll, I'll
branch off to into D&D, which he's not as much into.
So we have our own separate nerdist spheres that we kind of
can can bring to the table also.Sounds like a show.
Sounds like a show. Also, we've we've spent like so
much, so many phases of our lives have synced up together.
(20:39):
It's like he got married and then I got married not long
after he had a baby and then I had a baby not long after when
we were on the road together. What when all this was
happening? Because we've been touring, you
know, since he got Whose Line inthe year 2019 or 2020.
So we just have kind of grew up together literally with all
(21:00):
these different phases of, of life.
He has to wear reading glasses now and I have to wear, you
know, it's like that whole kind of thing.
And maybe the two of you will die close In Sync with each
other. That's certainly possible.
I I wouldn't doubt that we'll beon stage somewhere.
And if if one of us dies, I think the other one would do a
bit which would kill us, kill the other person to to make it a
(21:23):
perfect perfect bit. I love that so much.
Do you recall the first time youever did improv for television?
The first time I did improv for television, yes, I want to say
like an like an improv scene, like get a suggestion and do an
(21:43):
improv scene kind of thing. Yeah, I think that would have
been in the year 2000, Wayne Brady had a variety show that he
was able to pitch and sell to ABC.
He had been like the the big upcoming star on Whose Line.
He was young, you know, late 20sor whatever, early 30s.
(22:06):
And they gave him the show. And I was a a regular on that
show. It was a sketch variety show.
We did 12 episodes and we featured improv in it.
There was a lot of sketch, mostly sketch, but there was an
occasional improv bit. Missy Pyle was in that show too.
I don't know if you know Missy Pyle from Not Guardians of the
Galaxy, a Galaxy Quest. Oh yeah.
(22:29):
So we did 12 episodes. They did they they were doing
really well. And then 9/11 happened and then
it was like light hearted comedywas not popular for a while.
So it sadly went away, but we did.
I remember it. I think I, I think the first
game I played on television was probably forward reverse, which
is a a old game where if someonesays forward, the scene goes in
(22:52):
One Direction. When they say reverse, you have
to go do the scene in reverse, saying things in the opposite
order of of when you start. It's really, really silly
physical game. But yeah, that was that was my
first. TV improv.
The first TV improv that I actually saw you do was Drew
Carey's Green Screen show. Sure.
Yeah, that was later. That was like 2006 seven concept
(23:13):
of that was Drew Carey said we're going to get all all my
favorite improvisers. I was actually on the Drew Carey
Show as one of as a regular for the last two seasons.
And he goes, I want all my friends and improvisers to come
do an improv show in front of a green screen and we will hire
animators to come in and animateafterwards.
Right. So if you pretended to pull the
(23:34):
sword out when it ended up on TV, you'd see a little animated
sword. What he didn't realize is that
this is a terrible idea because once you remove the audience's
imagination from the scene, theygive much less of a shit about
it. And then also it doesn't seem
(23:55):
like improv anymore. Like that magic of they're on a
tightrope goes away. So that's why that didn't work.
I thought there was still some funny stuff on it, but it it
just, it didn't work. Yeah, I mean, there's a huge
part of improv where you're swept away by the whole
imagination of it, and once that's taken away, it's kind of
like, OK, you don't have the same feeling.
(24:16):
So I totally get that. Yeah, yeah.
What was it like working with Drew Carey?
Because what I find interesting about Drew Carey is, you know,
he was the host of the American version of Who's Line for a
while. And it kind of seemed in the
beginning he was kind of like talked into it.
But then over time, we really started to see Drew start to
have a much bigger love for thiscraft.
What do you remember with interacting and working with
(24:38):
Drew? So when Drew was doing Whose
Line, I was never on the Drew version of Whose Line, I came up
for the Aisha Tyler on The CW version, but I actually was on
Drew's sitcom during during thattime.
And he he always loved it from the beginning because we used to
go do shows at the Improv on Melrose in Los Angeles.
(25:02):
After Drew Carey tapings, we would do a a gig in Vegas every
every Super Bowl Sunday, we do abig Drew Carey and friends Super
Bowl show. It was like 11 improvisers on
stage. It was such a such a
clusterfuck, but it was so fun. He he's one of the most the
nicest, most generous guys ever.I remember when he the famous
(25:26):
story when he his sitcom got picked up, he just gave his car
to APA. He's like, hey, here you go.
It's only got 20,000 miles. Here's a here's a new car.
It's yours because he, yeah, I think they gifted him a Porsche.
That network gave him a fancy car or something.
That's back when network television would get 20-30
million people watching an evening of programming.
(25:49):
And, you know, now you're lucky if you get 2-3 million people on
network TV. But he's always loved the craft.
He's, he's been a big supporter of it.
The way he, he recently mentioned this on a podcast.
I do a podcast with Wayne calledWayne Brady's What If with
Jonathan Mangum, which is available wherever you listen to
podcasts. And we had a Drew Carey episode
(26:09):
and he explained that Dan Patterson, the creator of the
executive producer of whose linewas out pitching, whose line
separate to Drew and Ryan knowing and Drew loved whose
line and goes, Hey, we should weshould make a American version.
And I think Ryan was like, Hey, there's someone pitching it
right now. And he goes, really?
(26:31):
So then Drew met with Dan and itgoes, Hey, I want to be a part
of this. Dan's like, well, you're a big
star, will you host it? And so that's kind of how that
happened. I'm.
Pretty sure. Were there any differences or
were there any things you had tochange about your approach when
you started doing improv for television?
Well, specifically, yes. For whose line?
(26:52):
Like when you come into a group that's already been doing a
million shows together, that's always the hardest thing.
So Wayne does his thing, Colin does his thing, Ryan does his
thing. Like how are you going to fit
into that? You can't be too similar to the
kind of things they do. So trying to find that balance
was a little bit of a tricky, but I decided that I was going
(27:16):
to be just physical and committed.
Like I'm just going to flail. No one's flailing their body
around. I'll do that.
I'll be the one that leaps and jumps and slides and because
that's no, no one's covering that area.
I mean, Wayne is kind of, but itfelt like it was far enough away
(27:37):
from what everybody did. So I did a lot of that at first.
Well, you've also had the opportunity to do other TV shows
you've done. Trust us with your Life, and you
were also on Fast and Loose. Were there any differences
between the shows, or were your approaches just basically the
same no matter what TV show you were on?
For improv, it was pretty much the same.
I kind of was like, I, I like being physical, that's fun.
(28:00):
I like finding out what the rules are and breaking them.
That's also fun. I did Fast and Loose was a
British show. It was partially improvised,
partially scripted. It was similar to his line.
And so I went and did that and did really well.
Wayne and I went and did that. And from that, the executive
producer brought Wayne and I over to Due Trusts With Your
Life, which was AABC show, but it was shot in England.
(28:24):
The late, great Fred Willard wasa host.
And we would interview celebrities and redo, redo their
lives. Also problematic when it comes
to improv. If you've just heard someone
tell the whole story of their life and now you're improvising
that you can put jokes in there,but nothing's new because you've
already heard the story. So also a bad idea for an improv
(28:44):
show. You know, the bad ideas for
improv shows don't don't last. And but I did a great job.
And so because I did so good on those two, then then Dan
Patterson, the EP of whose line,listen to Wayne and put me on
because Wayne had been trying toget me on for a while.
But you know, there's not a lot of spots.
There's just that one seat. There's so many people that are
(29:05):
great. So why, why are we going to put
somebody new in there? That was kind of the approach.
Well, how did you get to be one of the rotating cast members on
Who's Line in 2013? Sometimes I'll, I'll teach
improv workshops and stuff and you know, people, you know, like
how do, how do you get on who's line and, and I was like with
these three easy steps, you can get on who's line One, do improv
(29:28):
every weekend of your life from the ages of 19 to 42.
Audition for it all day long. Auditions, by the way, 7 * / 7
years without getting on it. And then three, make your best
friend the star of the show. With these three simple tips,
anyone could get on who's yeah, it literally was just
(29:55):
perseverance. I mean, I just kept doing well
that the that the producer saw me and Wayne kept saying please
put my friend Jonathan on which it it was encouraging to hear.
In the beginning, Ryan was like,please put my friend Colin on
for the British version because they Dan didn't want Colin
mockery on the original British version of the show.
So Ryan had to had to push to get Colin on him.
(30:19):
Like Colin is a legend of comedynow.
When you've taught improv, have you gotten that a lot?
A lot of people that come up to you asking, hey, how do I get on
whose line? As if that's their like main
number one goal. Not so much anymore.
I mean, Whose Line? It's not really going to air any
new episodes. It's right at the end.
I think there's no more tapings.But people are interested in
(30:41):
things like drop out TV, which is a kind of the big improv
place now. And either that or how do they
move up in whatever program they're in?
Because the way the improv business works now is different
than it used to be in the 90s. Now it's like in order for a,
for an improv theater just to stay open, they have to offer
classes just to pay because it'sreally, really expensive.
(31:05):
And without grants and without donations, it's, it's tough.
So they'll have 3 or 4 levels ofclasses and you'll have to be in
that class for, you know, sometimes six months or longer.
And then you have an audition tomove up to the next class, to
move up to the next class. And then like specifically with
like the Groundlings company here in LA that's launched a
million careers, you have to getinto their Sunday company, be
(31:29):
voted into the Sunday company. Now you're doing shows just on
Sunday. And then from that Sunday
company over the period of months and months, only if
selected, few will be asked to go into the main company.
And then even that is no guarantee of of a successful
career. There are so many people that
that I know and I think they're great that made it to the main
company that just never could make a real career out of it.
(31:50):
So it's people are asking, you know how a lot of times how do I
move up in the program I'm in orhow do I get better?
Well, you know, the world is a lot more interesting now because
I remember a time where if you put that you did improv on your
resume, you know, directors would kind of like dismiss it or
not care. Now it's become a lot more
(32:12):
sought out for directors. Why do you think improv is now a
lot more, for lack of a better term, mainstream than it was
before? I'll, I'll take it a step
further because now I think it'sjumped the shark because now
every actor in LA, at least in LA where I live, says I do
improv and they probably all have done a class and so they
(32:34):
get it. But other than an improv show,
there's not a lot of places to improv in acting.
It's really good. It's a good philosophy for your
life, the yes and philosophy. And it's good for like
discovering your, your characterand, and there's a lot of good
(32:57):
things, great things that improvhelps you with as an actor.
But one of them is you're not going to get hired to go beyond
a law and order SVU and then improvise a line about the body
on the ground. You'll, you'll be, you'll be
fired on the spot. So I'm not sure how that relates
to your your original question. It kind of does.
OK, Yeah, I get the connection. Don't worry.
(33:19):
Well, I bring that up because you've also had a number of
different TV spots. You mentioned you were on the
Drew Carey Show. You also did Just Shoot Me and
Reno 911. Do you feel like in any way
improv kind of helped you createthose characters that you
created on TV? Definitely a million percent,
especially in the audition. A lot of the times in an
audition I would, you know, hopeand pray for something to go
(33:43):
wrong, right? Because I remember 1 audition I
was doing for a movie, I was doing my scene and just out of
the blue a poster on the wall just fucking fell.
Broke and fell over. I don't remember what I said,
but I was like, I even immediately incorporated it into
the scene without batting an eyeas if that was what was supposed
(34:03):
to happen. And so even if my acting wasn't
as good as somebody else had just auditioned, just the fact
that I did that made them go, Ohmy God, did you see how he,
like, you know what I mean? Like, I know you do magic too.
That's like a magic trick. But they're just like, how did
(34:24):
he know? Like, so that just that alone
was enough. Many times, especially in
commercials, I've done hundreds of commercials and I always try
to throw in something. I hope something goes wrong.
I want the reader that's readingwith me to make a mistake so I
can kind of riff on him and the mistake and continue with the
scene like it's. It's absolutely been a huge
(34:47):
help. You know, it's funny, you
reminded me of a very famous scene from the TV show The
X-Files. And I don't know if you know
where I'm getting at, but there's this, there's this one
scene where Scully is walking tolike a, a supermarket and you
know, a car is just supposed to drive.
You know, you see her walking through the glass doors and then
you're supposed to see a car drive behind it.
(35:08):
So they, they did a take Scully walks into the supermarket and
the car crashes into a pole. But she was a pro, so she she
just looked at it, used it in the scene and they just kept
rolling. That's amazing.
That's amazing. There's another story.
Gosh, I'm going to get all the name's wrong and the movies
wrong. But you know, if I were to say
(35:29):
what's a famous, what's a famousNew York catch phrase that
happens when you're walking in traffic and someone almost hits
you, what do you say? What don't you say?
Well. But OK, you, hey, I'm walking
here. You know that, You know that,
You know that quote, right? Yeah.
That's from a movie. I think it was Dustin Hoffman.
(35:50):
And he was crossing the street and that they didn't have the
control of the street and a car almost hit him and he went, hey,
I'm walking completely improvised now.
It's like in everybody's head for the next 65 years, you know?
What I mean I'll I'll even I'll even razy 1 the best improvised
line in my opinion. Star Wars I had.
(36:12):
This one, which I know he didn'timprovise.
Luke, I'm your father 'cause that would be impressive as
hell. No, it's it's the scene where
Han Solo's about to get frozen in carbonite and he's looking at
Leia. Leia says, I love you.
And Harrison says, I know. And that actually was an
improvised line because the original script was like, I love
you. I love you too.
(36:33):
But every time they did it, it just wasn't working.
So then finally the director said, you know what, Harrison,
she's going to say I love you and whatever feels right, just
go ahead and and do it. And so she said I love you.
He said I know. And that forever remained in the
epsilon of Star Wars. Yeah, that's a great line.
I know. What?
I love you what you did there. Wait, I said.
(36:55):
I love you too. That's inappropriate.
How do you feel like your skillsas an improviser has also helped
you as a writer? That's a good question.
It's it just kind of, you know, being good at improv is to have
an open mind to like let where, where any possibility can
(37:17):
happen. And you know, that's really
important in writing too. I also feel like something
that's important in writing is not to fall in love with what
you've written. Like I, I just wrote this scene.
It took me so long to do and nowI'm, I'm, I'm done with it
forever. It's locked and finished and
great and it's like, no, no, that's your first draft.
(37:40):
So improv, you know, I don't, I,I've done a bunch of really fun
shows lately. I don't remember any of them.
I don't remember any of the things I've said.
Nothing I've said was precious. What was precious is that I was
able to make people laugh and ifthey had a good time, the
content, it's not precious. And it's the same thing with
writing. You can't, you can't feel
precious about something you've written, even drafts into.
(38:02):
Like if you're writing a screenplay and it's like, oh,
this is my third draft and I've given it to somebody, a
professional who I look up to, to read it and they gave me
notes and they're wrong. They're wrong because really
it's like, Nope, no, just you. You can't.
Nothing's precious. You have to let it go.
You have to be ready to constantly change it and be open
to new paths and better paths. And it's usually always better.
(38:25):
And then usually when people go rewrite something or that they
didn't want to rewrite before they go, oh, this new version is
way better than the last version.
You know what I mean? It's like it's always, it's
always better. Yeah, there's that tough part
about writing where at some point it doesn't become yours
anymore. Yeah, I get that.
So going back to talking about musical improv, you've had the
opportunity to perform with thisamazing group called Opening
(38:47):
Night. What has your experience been in
performing in that show which everyone loves, and rightfully
so. It's just so amazing and well
done. Oh, thank you, thank you.
I've had, I've had such a blast playing with, with, with those
guys. My friend Shuli Cowan created
that show 20 years ago at the, Ibelieve it was the improv
Olympic here in, in LA, and I'vebeen a part of it for the last
(39:11):
maybe six or seven years. It's so fun.
It's a it's a completely improvised Broadway style music
musical, usually about 45 minutes to an hour.
We don't, we don't make you sit through it too.
Alright, improvised musical. And the only rules that we do is
that in our in our minds, we go to the audience and we we only
(39:32):
ask for one thing, make up the name of a musical that does not
exist. We take that if we've never done
it before, the the first scene and song is going to be our
protagonist and the second sceneis going to be the antagonist
and then the rest is all made-up.
I mean, the first two scenes aremade-up, but we just know if if
(39:53):
you're in that first scene, you're going to be the person
that wants to get out of town and make a new life or the
person that you know, wants to escape the orphanage or the
person that wants to become president.
Like that's that's the first scene.
Whoever's in that scene is goingto be the main character and
whoever's in the next scene is going to be, you know, the
antithesis to that. But that's the only, you know,
(40:13):
rules we. Rules isn't the right word, but
those are the only ideas we go and do that musical with and
then we just, we go out there and just sing and dance and it's
super silly, super fun. We're at the Outside in theater
now here in Los Angeles, which is a really fun place to perform
it. But we've done it at Second City
in LA when it was here and Improv Olympic was here.
(40:35):
It's a blast, I love it, very fun.
We've had Wayne Brady guest manytimes.
Lots of special guests come in and sing with us.
John Hopper, Hopper Popper from Blues Traveler has come in and
played with us. He brings his harp with him and
plays harp solos in her, so it'sreally fun.
You know what a lot of people admire about you is your ability
(40:57):
to just create these songs rightaway, and you seem to be able to
do it with such lightning speed.What is your process in being
able to just create a song immediately just based on one
word or topic? So the process is, is a little
different for like something like opening night than it is
for whose line. Like if we were doing a hoedown.
So on whose line when we're doing a hoedown, if you were to
(41:20):
give me an occupation, like you just give me an occupation.
Banker. Banker OK, so I'm going to think
of what my right when I hear banker, I'm going to think what
is my punch line going to be? What word is it going to be the
punch line? And the first one that comes to
mind is deposit, right? And I'll make it sexual, right?
Like a like that kind of so deposit.
What rhymes with deposit? This is all happening in like a
(41:42):
second closet. So now I know that my second
verse of the hoedown is going tobe blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I opened up the closet. She was surprised when I gave
her my deposit, right? I, I thought of the punchline.
I immediately thought of the word that rhyme with it.
I didn't think of all the words in the middle.
I'm just going to hope that theycome out in a way that makes
sense. But that's all happening super
(42:03):
quick. But that's for one joke.
And I can do that for maybe 2 jokes.
But when you're singing a Broadway musical, you can't.
You're gonna rhyme, what, 10 times?
You can't think of 1010 jokes. So it's different than the
Broadway musical. You kind of just sing what
you're feeling, you know, like I'm a guy out here, I'm alone,
I'm in love. And now it's like, OK, think of
(42:25):
something that makes sense with your character that also rhymes
with love. So I gotta you know, I'm like,
glove, can I say glove shove. My emotions are so hard.
I feel like you will like to shove me around when.
So it's like this. Say a word and then try to
justify it in the theme of the song you're singing.
(42:45):
And sometimes it's it it doesn'twork.
But sometimes when it doesn't work, it's really funny.
A, a, a, a non sequitur rhyme. It's like, wait, why did you
rhyme spatula? Like what you're, you're singing
about your love and you, you said spatula it, well, it
rhymed. So then you have to justify, you
know, you're the spatula becauseyou're the pancake of my heart.
(43:06):
You know, it's like, how do I make sense of what that, what I
just said? And so that's fun because that
to me, that feels like being on a, on a, a high wire, right?
You're, you're, you're crossing that high wire at the circus
because you, you, you literally the other one's a little safer.
You still have to worry. Am I going to say the right
words to make these two rhymes connect?
But when you're doing a a a fullsong, it's like, oh boy, here we
(43:30):
go. You know, this is a question
that I'm very fond of asking forboth the improvisers and
magicians that come on this show.
Obviously you're creating very different characters, but I'm
curious, how much of you actually gets shown through the
characters that you do like? How much of Jonathan do we see?
Yeah, for me it's like 80%. I, if you notice, with the
(43:54):
exception of Wayne maybe on a who's line, everyone's kind of
being themselves and there is a reason for that.
I think that because you want tosay the funniest thing and you
want to be funny, you want to send all of your brain power to
that area of your brain that's like be funny.
And so that's pulling away from the other areas that go, Oh, I'm
(44:18):
a character with a limp and I'lltalk about this and it, you
know, and I'm one of my always his clothes.
You know, I have to do say all this stuff is taken away from my
processing power. So I want to, I want to shift
all the electricity to my processing joke power.
Which is why whenever I start a character in a scene, within
about a minute I am myself. Any accent I'm doing will
(44:41):
disappear. Any gate that I walk with is
gone just 'cause I'm just specifically with like short
form comedy. I'm trying to be funny and I
want all the energy in that department.
Gotcha. How did let's make a deal happen
for you guys? Good question.
Wayne, you know, was coasting onthe success of of who's line and
(45:06):
they came to him and said, we want to we want to do something
a little bit different. We we we like the idea of funny
people hosting game shows as opposed to just your typical I'm
Guy Smiley and this is a yeah. So he was like, OK, yeah, I'll,
I'll do it. I'll I'll do some characters.
I'll make it fun. They go, who do you want to be
your announcer? And they go, well, Jonathan, And
(45:27):
I'm like, I've never announced anything in my life.
Like. I don't I don't have that that
voice of that, you know, so I can't make a Honda Civic sound
good in in but he was like, no, I got to have Jonathan.
And so his the most loyal guy I know.
Wayne Brady got me another gig that's now lasted 8 going on 18
(45:49):
years. So that's how that happened.
You know, it's funny, let's makea deal now.
It feels so different than any other game show I've watched.
Obviously there's contestants that are trying to win money and
prizes, but in between there's like just total insanity.
And I feel like it's just the perfect show for you and Wayne
because anything can happen. You can all of a sudden have a
(46:11):
talk show, Shaggy will come out,and then all these bonkers
things just happen. Do you enjoy that level of
insanity in a show, especially with Wayne?
Yes 1000% and if it what if it was just a game show like if we
were just doing pick a door, pick some, pick a box, I would
not be happy. I would not feel creatively
(46:31):
stimulated in my job. But with Wayne, anything can
happen. He can start singing, Cat can
start playing. He can turn it into something
like and and the producers have learned to yes and any stupid
idea we have. Also they were really smart in
the beginning to say to us, don't edit yourself.
This is daytime TV. But if you want to say fuck, say
(46:52):
it, we'll cut it out obviously. But we don't want you to feel
like you are adjusting your showto a squeaky clean because our
our live show is is not clean atall.
So because they gave us that leeway and because they
understand what Wayne does so well, they really let us turn
that show into kind of a varietyshow that's fighting against a
(47:15):
game show. It definitely has that feel.
And then all of a sudden, the two of you turn into Doctor
Phil, which I also love. Yeah, and, and, you know, there
are people that love it. Some people don't.
Some people are like, Oh my God,it's so funny every morning.
I love the the characters and some people are some people.
I I feel like they're older. Just go just play the damn
games. Why can't you just play the damn
games? Like go watch the price is
(47:37):
right, man. That that why?
Why are you pooping on us? I also love that the audience is
wearing these obnoxious costumes.
That's something that I love too.
You don't. And that started accidentally in
the earlier money hall days, people would want because he
would pick out of the audience. Price is right, you know,
they're they pull them out of a thing.
Come on day. Yeah, on the old money hall, he
would pick people like. I have to be noticed.
(47:59):
How can I be noticed? I know I'll wear a butterfly
costume. And then you started picking
these people like you're dressedlike a butterfly.
And then some people was like, oh, so now everyone's like, we
have to dress up. And it just became the thing
like Halloween. You know, as I sit here
listening to you talk, I can't help but wonder, what if you and
Wayne had a podcast? See what I did there?
(48:20):
I like that and we do. It's called Wayne Brady's What
If with Jonathan Mangum. What a coincidence.
Yeah, we we get on lots of we have some great guests.
Drew Carey, our biggest guest has been one of the drop out TV
people, Brennan Mulligan. We've had Aisha Tyler, Doug
Benson just came out today as ofJuly 3rd, which is when we're
(48:41):
taping this. We bring on people that we know,
comedians, celebrities. We did a Lavar Burton one live
that was great. And we just interview them a
little bit and sometimes it justturns into an improv scene.
Like we'll talk about their pastand maybe just see what would
have happened. What if they had chosen a
different path? What if something else has
happened? What if they didn't marry their
(49:01):
their partner? It's very silly, very loose and
we enjoy it. Well, Jonathan, I've had such a
blast talking to you today, and I have one final question for
you, my friend. Yes.
What's the one piece of advice that has served you well that
you'd want everyone else to hear?
(49:22):
The one piece of advice. These questions seem like they'd
be easy, but they're very hard because my options for answering
include all options. The one piece of advice you can
when hopefully you'll edit this so there's not a 45 second
stumbling around as I. Oh no, I'm keeping that in
(49:45):
keeping that. In I'm trying to make it in my
own voice here. OK?
I think the biggest piece of advice goes to how you perceive
the path to success. It's not through talent,
(50:07):
although that's important. It's not through luck, right
place, right time, although thatis important.
It is almost always mostly from your network of friends and
people that you hang out with and talk to.
I used to think it was way more about talent.
(50:28):
It's not. And So what does this mean?
This means do favors for everyone all the time.
Someone's making a movie, they need someone to operate their
boom pole. Do that.
Someone needs help practicing for an audition, do that.
Always be helping people becausethen people will always be
helping you. And the people that that you
know you're, you're, if you're in your 20s and you're living
(50:51):
with four guys in an apartment, these people that you're hanging
out with and and eating ramen noodles with today, some of them
are going to be the directors and executive producers and net
heads in 10-15 years. So keep your create a network.
Never be a Dick to anybody. Always do as many favors as you
can. That is a much faster way to
(51:12):
success than just talent in my it's.
All about who you know you, you're very.
Good at taking a long winded rambling answer that I did and
summarizing it down into a sentence.
I'm basically your Wikipedia at this point.
Yes, you you just ChatGPT to my Wikipedia.
Thank. You Jonathan, this has been such
(51:33):
a blast. I can't thank you enough for
doing this. Thank you so much and I wish you
all the best in your future my friend.
Thank you old. My thanks to Jonathan Mangum for
sharing his time with me today, and I hope we all remember that
great piece of advice. Be there for people, help people
(51:54):
as much as you can, and they'll be ready to help you in return.
And of course, thanks to all of you, my friends, for joining me
on the season premiere of Improvand Magic.
By the way, do you have a business?
Well, why not promote that business here?
Feel free to reach out and find out how you can sponsor an
episode of Improv and Magic. Feel free to visit my website,
(52:18):
ldmadera.com for more details. We're just getting started with
Season 6, so stay tuned for moreon the only podcast that
celebrates improvisers and magicians, improv and magic.
I'm LD Madera, you are who you are and you are special.
(52:38):
See you next time.
Hello friends. Well, hello everybody.
Welcome to Improv and Magic and welcome to Season 6.
I'm your friend LD Madera, and I'm very happy to be back with
you again. We've got a lot of great
episodes lined up this season, as well as some fantastic
(00:24):
guests, including today, so let's not waste any time and get
right to it. Today's guest is the absolutely
amazing Jonathan Mangum. He's an actor, writer, and
improviser whose career has reached great heights.
He's appeared on many criticallyacclaimed shows including Whose
Line Is It Anyway, NCIS, The Drew Carey Show, and Reno 911.
(00:50):
He's also performed and collaborated with his good
friend Wayne Brady on other projects, including The Wayne
Brady Show and Drew Carey's Improvaganza.
And he also performs as Wayne's sidekick on the hit TV game show
Let's Make a Deal. Jonathan and Wayne have also
created their own podcast calledWhat If, which can be heard on
(01:11):
all major podcast platforms. This was such a fun conversation
and I can't wait to share this with all of you.
Let's do it here. Now on the season premiere of
Improv and Magic is my guest, Jonathan Mangum.
(01:38):
My friends, I am so happy to welcome right now on Improv and
Magic. He is an unbelievable talent and
you've seen him everywhere. He is the amazing Jonathan
Mangum. Hello Jonathan.
So good to have you here. Hello, do do I say LD or do I go
old? You know what?
Whatever makes you feel at at ease.
How about that? You're old.
(02:00):
Kind of sounds like you're calling me old, but I'll take
it. I'm I we all aren't.
We are we're, we are all old theminute we're born.
It's just an unending trip to tothe end.
So wow, we started dark. I apologize.
Can we start over? You know, it's funny you
mentioned travel. I kind of feel like you're
someone who likes to travel a lot.
(02:20):
Is that true? Do you do a lot of traveling?
Normally I do do a lot of traveling.
I don't like, I like the thing I'm doing when I get there, but
I don't like the traveling part very much.
Being at airports is really unnecessarily stressful and a
pain in the ass almost always, but when I once you get to where
(02:40):
I'm going I have a great time. You prefer the destination
rather than the journey. Yes, in life and in goals.
That's a good way to put it. Well, I'm so excited to learn
all about you. So let's start at the very
beginning with you, Jonathan. OK.
Where did you grow up and what was growing up like for you?
I grew up in Mobile AL which is the southern bit of Alabama
(03:03):
right on the Gulf of Mexico and the the Mobile Bay is down
there. It was a small ish town, couple
100,000 people. Mardi Gras was invented there.
Most people don't know we still do Mardi Gras for a year.
And it was a good place to grow up.
Lots of woods to run around in. You know, you wake up if you're
(03:26):
not in school, you, you play allday, you come home when the
street lights come on and your parents didn't, you know, worry
or give a shit about you, even though you were getting into
trouble. So I, I, I like, I like being
able to grow up in a place whereI could just kind of be free.
Did you do costumes when you didMardi Gras?
So the costumes are the the people on the floats wear the
(03:48):
costumes and you as you watch the floats go by, you know,
you're you're yelling, hey, hey,hey, and and and mobile.
Unlike New Orleans, they actually throw candy and and
beads, but like moon pies, whichare like little like little
Debbie snacks, candy, beads. It it was pretty fun.
(04:08):
You'd come home with a giant you'd you'd have more candy than
you would have on Halloween basically going and during Mardi
Gras, which is a that there's Mardi Gras, which is fat
Tuesday, which I forget is the Tuesday before Lent starts
leading up to that is a whole month and during that month,
during different nights, these different organizations have
their parade. So there's all these different
(04:29):
groups. So man after after going to 5 or
6 parades you would just have bag loads of candy and beads and
it was super fun as a kid. But you didn't have to expose
yourself with the candy, did you?
I did show my tits. I thought it was weird.
They might have thought it was weird that there was a 10 year
old boy showing his tits, but you know it.
(04:52):
It's the South, you know that crazy shit happens.
Exactly. Everything happens in the South.
When you were a kid, did you sort of have an idea of what you
wanted to do when you grew up? No, no.
I mean, well, yes, but no. I loved electronics.
I loved taking like stereos apart and looking at the
transistors and pulling wires off.
(05:14):
I used to do this thing. This was horribly stupid, where
I'd pull out, you know, like an individual transistor where
there's like a like a little like a thin bean in the middle
and you've got two pieces of metal.
And yeah, a circuit board is covered in this.
I would pull one of those out, I'd RIP the plug out of a like a
stereo or some, some old piece of junk, the thing that goes in
(05:35):
the wall. And I plug the plug in the wall
with the two exposed wires and then touch both of those wires
to the ends of the transistors to know what would happen.
And it would always like smoke, but depending on what kind of
transistor, sometimes it was like an orange smoke and like
sometimes it was like a purple flame.
So I was getting all kinds of really dangerous chemical
(05:56):
reactions going on and, and of course my parents didn't know
any of this. Maybe it's best that they
didn't. Probably not.
Probably not. So at what point did you become
interested in becoming a performer?
So I, I was in grade school as Iwent to Catholic grade school
and high school and in like 8th grade they needed someone to
(06:19):
play Jesus in, in the play. And I don't remember, like I, I
guess I, someone jokingly recommended me 'cause I was not
cool. I was like a nerdy, nerdy kid,
super skinny with a giant head of hair.
They called me mop head and pushed me around.
But I think someone jokingly said I should play Jesus.
And then I think that ended up just kind of happening because
(06:40):
they meant it ironically. But I thought it was pretty
good. Jesus, you know, a hard part to
live up to, but I did a pretty good job.
And then it was, it was, it was interesting because it was like,
oh, people are actually like, people are listening to me talk.
I felt like before, you know, you walk up to a group of people
in grade school and you start talking and they, they just,
they're not listening to me. They're never they'll, they'll
(07:00):
just start talking over me in the middle of me talking.
So they had no interest in what I had to say.
But then when you're on stage, like, oh, these people are
forced to listen to me by the social contract that says if
theater is happening, we can't all talk.
So I kind of, I was like, oh, they have to hear me talk.
I kind of like this. Well, especially if you're
Jesus, everyone has to hear you talk.
(07:20):
Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's usually highly recommended.
Yeah, it is. I I tried to do some miracles.
It didn't happen, but they did listen to to Jesus and me quite
a bit. So after that experience of
being Jesus, and how many times have you heard that phrase, did
you decide at that moment if that's what you wanted to do, or
(07:42):
was it kind of just like a hobbyfor you at that point?
It was so that wasn't even really a hobby.
That was just kind of interesting to me.
And then when I got to high school, after a couple years, I
was like, I think I could, you know, try to do one of these
plays because there was a theater department and a, a
friend of mine was really into the theater part because you
should come audition. You should come audition.
So I started doing the the playsin high school and that's when I
(08:05):
was like, oh, this is really fun.
It became a hobby, actually, kind of anyone that's in high
school that, you know, does these extracurricular activities
that take hours and hours and hours.
I mean, you know, that's going to affect your grades, right?
So you, you can't just do eight hour, 8 hours of school and then
be at school from 3:00 PM till 9:30 rehearsing or building sets
(08:26):
or doing that and, and think that your grades aren't going to
go down. So I, I feel like it did
actually kind of hurt my chances.
It, it, it going to college later for me, But I'm, I'm glad
I did it. It was worth it, but I still
wasn't thinking about it as a career.
I, I, I still thought electricalor civil engineering was the was
the way to go. So I didn't know anybody that
(08:46):
had ever been an actor professionally.
I didn't even consider, I didn'teven know there was such thing
as actors that could make a living that worked super famous.
I was like, you're either famousor you're not.
Like there was no other way to make a living.
And most actors that make livingmake a living at it are not
famous so. You know, I also come from I,
(09:07):
like You, was also a drama kid in high school, and I remember
there were certain shows that really resonated with me.
Do you recall doing any plays inyour drama program that really
resonated with you? They I wouldn't say that they
resonated with me like thematically, they just they,
(09:27):
they pulled on all my strengths.For example, we did a lot of
musicals like we did Bye Bye Birdie and we did I forget, But
because I also was a musician, Ihad to program all the songs
into my keyboard. And so I had the job of
basically scoring it and then recording it so they could play
(09:48):
and also being in the show. So it, it just felt like it
pulled all of the things I, I, Icould do to, to their maximum
output for me. What, what, what?
What did you like? What?
What did it say to you when you were in those shows?
Believe it or not, The One Show that really resonated with me
was my sophomore year because itwas a blending of my 2 loves was
(10:10):
Cats. Because not only did I and it
was the first time I actually had ever heard the music.
I'd heard of it because it was abig phenomenon.
And to me, it just seemed like abunch of kiddies singing and
dancing. And then I did the show and
well, turns out that is all it is.
Just kidding. Singing and dancing.
But I got cast as Mr. Mistoffily, so not only did I
get to act, I was also able to do magic as well.
(10:32):
So that made me super happy. That's right.
That's right. At what point did you discover
improv? So I after high school, I, you
know, I was, I was in the marching band and the concert
band in addition to all the drama programs.
And so because I was always at school and always with this
(10:53):
artistic stuff, even though I was in the AP classes and the
honors classes, I didn't, I couldn't get A's.
It was just too much of A time. So I didn't get into any of the
colleges I wanted to. So I ended up going for one year
to Louisiana State University, LSU go Tigers and was a civil
engineer major. But they said you, you know, you
(11:14):
can take these electives. So I took a jazz improvisation
class, which I love. And then I took this like acting
class. I was like, I don't think an
acting class, let's see what this is about.
And one of the first things was,oh, we're going to do something
called improv. I was like, OK, I've never heard
of this. And we did it and it was
horrifying, but it was, it was very exciting.
And so it, that's not the point where I started loving improv,
(11:37):
but that's the first time I did it and saw what it was.
And so I was like, this is cool.I'll put this over here in my
brain and I'll maybe I'll use itlater.
And then after that, after one year at LSU and too many
daiquiris. And if you ever have been to
Louisiana, you know what I'm talking about.
I went to Orlando to work at theDisney World's summer college
(11:57):
program. And then I saw while I was in
Orlando a show called Comedy Sports, which is a, if you don't
know it, it's an improv show, but it's steamed around like a
sports event. So there's two teams, there's a
referee. And I couldn't believe it.
I couldn't believe they were making it up.
I was just in shock and like, what?
They're making this up? I, I don't I don't believe it.
(12:17):
So I went up to them after the show and they said, oh, yeah,
thank you, thank you. You know, we teach classes and I
go, oh, OK. So I was like, I'll just, I'll
sign up for a comedy sports class.
This'll be fun. And then I took one class and
they're like, well, you're ready.
I'm like, ready for what? Ready to do a show.
I I wasn't ready. But that's how that's how you
did it in the day. You didn't spend three years
(12:38):
going through improv companies. You know, their beginner class,
their secondary class, they're advanced.
And then then there's an audition to see if you get to
the main company. Back in the 90s it was like, you
kind of know the rules, so just get up there and suck until
you're funny. Yeah, thrown right into the deep
end right away. Absolutely.
I loved it. When you were taking those
classes, were there was there anything that kind of surprised
(13:00):
you as you were learning how improv works?
At the time, nothing really, there was nothing surprising how
improv works. But but looking back at it now,
I was a little surprised that like in the 90s when you were
learning improv, no one mentioned anything about story
or arc or any of the kind of things that if you took improv
(13:21):
now, you know, at UCB or any of these, you know, big, big improv
places in New York or LA. It's all about the character and
the story and the what and the where and it's it's, it's a very
it's it's a deep dive into what storytelling is and back to
that. It's just like, here's the
here's how the game works. They're going to make all your
sounds and you're going to say something funny when they do.
(13:42):
That's improv. Go.
You know, I tend to notice that throughout the decades, improv
kind of changes in, in as, as far as what's the new flavor
that everyone's interested in. Like, I think you could say that
back in the in the 90s, everyonewas saying, oh, we all want to
do short form. And then that eventually
transitioned to oh. We want to do long.
(14:03):
Form And I think now the new trend is, oh, we want to do
musical improv. Have you tend to notice some of
those flavors of the month that happens in improv?
Yeah, and it's more like flavorsof the decade.
But but in the 90s it wasn't even like I didn't, I didn't
even know what long form was. I'd never heard that term.
I know that they were doing someof that in like Chicago and New
York, that the second city was due, but I'd never heard of
(14:23):
that. Most people hadn't heard of All
you. All you knew was Whose Line is
it Anyway, which was on TV the the British version.
And so that was improv. And I do feel like short form
was unfairly mocked in the 2000sand when people just had a
superiority about long form and that that's such a such a stupid
(14:46):
point of view. It's like it's, it's a good
improv or it's a bad improv. There's there's, it doesn't
matter if it's short or long, it's good or it's bad.
And there's plenty of bad of both and there's plenty of good
of both. And then yeah, music I feel like
is a feels like a little bit of a seems like there's more
musical groups now. Although I will say like one of
(15:06):
like the, the biggest improv thing in the world right now is
drop out TV and drop out shows. Game changer, Make some noise.
Those are all kind of short formstuff.
So I feel like short form has a a bit of a resurgence.
For you, do you feel like you have to sort of change your
(15:28):
approach whether you're doing short form or long form, or is
it all the same to you? There's a little bit of a change
in approach, like I don't feel the, the expediency of having to
be immediately funny. Like in short form, it's like
short form, you just have to keep making jokes.
You just have to keep being funny, which I really love.
(15:50):
But long form, you know, it's like, it's like, oh, I can relax
a little bit. I can, you know, sit back.
I can let some quiet happen. I, I, I compare it to the like
rock and jazz. So I'm a musician.
So I love both of them, but anyone that says 1 is better
than the other is, I think it's totally wrong because yes,
(16:10):
there's jazz. You can go deep and there's so
much great stuff happening in the way the players talk to each
other and that that's all amazing.
And you can't do that with rock.But at the same time, there's no
jazz song that gives you the feeling of like when when you've
broken up with your boyfriend orgirlfriend and you're screaming
free falling when you're drivingdown the road and you're you're
like, that's what rock does. The jazz can't do that.
(16:33):
But then jazz does a thing that rock can't do.
So same thing with improv. Short form is it's a thing.
It's it's its own thing and longform is its other thing.
But they both, they're both awesome.
They're both great. There's no reason you can't
enjoy both of them as a performer or viewer.
It's all the same. Music is music.
Improv is improv. Yep, Yep.
Whenever I encounter first time students, they always feel that
(16:54):
pressure to really be funny and to really make an audience
laugh. Have you ever gone through that
feeling, that pressure to make everyone in the audience crack
up? Yeah, all the time that that's
that is the pressure. I'm doing improv.
Most of the improv I do is comedy improv, short, short
form. And yeah, there's a there's a
big pressure. There's also a confidence.
(17:15):
It's like, oh, OK, I've, I've done how many, how many shows?
And so I'm not, I'm not worried.I'm not going to say something
funny. That's, that's not a worry.
But I do, I am a little nervous before the show.
It's like, oh, I, I want to be good.
I want people to feel like, you know, when they, when they go
see Wayne Brady and myself do a two person show, they've
probably paid 5060 bucks for a ticket.
(17:38):
So it's like, it's a lot of money.
Like I really hope they they they enjoy it.
Well, of course, in show business, we all know about
these great friendships and partnerships like Laurel and
Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Martin Short and Steve Martin,
Penn and Teller, And of course, there's also Jonathan Mangum and
Wayne Brady. Oh, you said my name first.
(17:58):
How nice was that? Yeah, I didn't.
I didn't want Wayne to get jealous.
Yeah, there you go. So how did Jonathan and Wayne
meet? So when I mentioned I was in
Orlando and I started doing improv, I did comedy sports for
a little while and then I got recruited by the bigger improv
company, which was SAC Theaters Theater Sports, which is
(18:20):
basically comedy sports with a little bit, with a slightly less
sports analogy. And Wayne was part of that group
and we started doing shows together.
We were, I, I, I was 20, he was 19.
And we were just thrown into theshow.
And this particular location in Orlando, SAC Theater, we, we did
about 13 shows a week and it was150 people, you know, in every
(18:43):
show on average. No, no tourists almost.
This wasn't the Disney people. This wasn't people going to
Orlando for tourism. This was the University of
Central Florida, Valencia Community College, all the high
schools, they would just come todowntown Orlando to watch us do
this improv stuff that they thatthey saw on Whose Line.
What were your first impressionsof Wayne, and what were Wayne's
(19:04):
first impressions of you? My first impression was Wayne
was was still the impression I have now, which is he's he's
he's such a good singer that it like there's a lot of people
that can do funny improv songs, but there's not a lot of people
who have a Grammy winning voice that can do improv songs and
(19:30):
impressions of famous people that are spot on.
So I, I, I saw that right away. It's like, Oh my God, this is
nobody I know could do this. Fuck that guy.
I was probably sure I was a little jealous of that.
You know, as we've seen the two of you together, there really is
this sense of a ride or die typeof relationship between the two
(19:53):
of you 'cause you've done so much together.
What do you think it is that haskept the two of you together all
these years? I just think that we, we, we're
both, we have, we have a lot in common and then just enough not
in common. I mean, we're both super nerdy.
We both love all the nerdy stuffhe like, but then he branches
(20:16):
off into comic books, which I'm not really into, and I'll, I'll
branch off to into D&D, which he's not as much into.
So we have our own separate nerdist spheres that we kind of
can can bring to the table also.Sounds like a show.
Sounds like a show. Also, we've we've spent like so
much, so many phases of our lives have synced up together.
(20:39):
It's like he got married and then I got married not long
after he had a baby and then I had a baby not long after when
we were on the road together. What when all this was
happening? Because we've been touring, you
know, since he got Whose Line inthe year 2019 or 2020.
So we just have kind of grew up together literally with all
(21:00):
these different phases of, of life.
He has to wear reading glasses now and I have to wear, you
know, it's like that whole kind of thing.
And maybe the two of you will die close In Sync with each
other. That's certainly possible.
I I wouldn't doubt that we'll beon stage somewhere.
And if if one of us dies, I think the other one would do a
bit which would kill us, kill the other person to to make it a
(21:23):
perfect perfect bit. I love that so much.
Do you recall the first time youever did improv for television?
The first time I did improv for television, yes, I want to say
like an like an improv scene, like get a suggestion and do an
(21:43):
improv scene kind of thing. Yeah, I think that would have
been in the year 2000, Wayne Brady had a variety show that he
was able to pitch and sell to ABC.
He had been like the the big upcoming star on Whose Line.
He was young, you know, late 20sor whatever, early 30s.
(22:06):
And they gave him the show. And I was a a regular on that
show. It was a sketch variety show.
We did 12 episodes and we featured improv in it.
There was a lot of sketch, mostly sketch, but there was an
occasional improv bit. Missy Pyle was in that show too.
I don't know if you know Missy Pyle from Not Guardians of the
Galaxy, a Galaxy Quest. Oh yeah.
(22:29):
So we did 12 episodes. They did they they were doing
really well. And then 9/11 happened and then
it was like light hearted comedywas not popular for a while.
So it sadly went away, but we did.
I remember it. I think I, I think the first
game I played on television was probably forward reverse, which
is a a old game where if someonesays forward, the scene goes in
(22:52):
One Direction. When they say reverse, you have
to go do the scene in reverse, saying things in the opposite
order of of when you start. It's really, really silly
physical game. But yeah, that was that was my
first. TV improv.
The first TV improv that I actually saw you do was Drew
Carey's Green Screen show. Sure.
Yeah, that was later. That was like 2006 seven concept
(23:13):
of that was Drew Carey said we're going to get all all my
favorite improvisers. I was actually on the Drew Carey
Show as one of as a regular for the last two seasons.
And he goes, I want all my friends and improvisers to come
do an improv show in front of a green screen and we will hire
animators to come in and animateafterwards.
Right. So if you pretended to pull the
(23:34):
sword out when it ended up on TV, you'd see a little animated
sword. What he didn't realize is that
this is a terrible idea because once you remove the audience's
imagination from the scene, theygive much less of a shit about
it. And then also it doesn't seem
(23:55):
like improv anymore. Like that magic of they're on a
tightrope goes away. So that's why that didn't work.
I thought there was still some funny stuff on it, but it it
just, it didn't work. Yeah, I mean, there's a huge
part of improv where you're swept away by the whole
imagination of it, and once that's taken away, it's kind of
like, OK, you don't have the same feeling.
(24:16):
So I totally get that. Yeah, yeah.
What was it like working with Drew Carey?
Because what I find interesting about Drew Carey is, you know,
he was the host of the American version of Who's Line for a
while. And it kind of seemed in the
beginning he was kind of like talked into it.
But then over time, we really started to see Drew start to
have a much bigger love for thiscraft.
What do you remember with interacting and working with
(24:38):
Drew? So when Drew was doing Whose
Line, I was never on the Drew version of Whose Line, I came up
for the Aisha Tyler on The CW version, but I actually was on
Drew's sitcom during during thattime.
And he he always loved it from the beginning because we used to
go do shows at the Improv on Melrose in Los Angeles.
(25:02):
After Drew Carey tapings, we would do a a gig in Vegas every
every Super Bowl Sunday, we do abig Drew Carey and friends Super
Bowl show. It was like 11 improvisers on
stage. It was such a such a
clusterfuck, but it was so fun. He he's one of the most the
nicest, most generous guys ever.I remember when he the famous
(25:26):
story when he his sitcom got picked up, he just gave his car
to APA. He's like, hey, here you go.
It's only got 20,000 miles. Here's a here's a new car.
It's yours because he, yeah, I think they gifted him a Porsche.
That network gave him a fancy car or something.
That's back when network television would get 20-30
million people watching an evening of programming.
(25:49):
And, you know, now you're lucky if you get 2-3 million people on
network TV. But he's always loved the craft.
He's, he's been a big supporter of it.
The way he, he recently mentioned this on a podcast.
I do a podcast with Wayne calledWayne Brady's What If with
Jonathan Mangum, which is available wherever you listen to
podcasts. And we had a Drew Carey episode
(26:09):
and he explained that Dan Patterson, the creator of the
executive producer of whose linewas out pitching, whose line
separate to Drew and Ryan knowing and Drew loved whose
line and goes, Hey, we should weshould make a American version.
And I think Ryan was like, Hey, there's someone pitching it
right now. And he goes, really?
(26:31):
So then Drew met with Dan and itgoes, Hey, I want to be a part
of this. Dan's like, well, you're a big
star, will you host it? And so that's kind of how that
happened. I'm.
Pretty sure. Were there any differences or
were there any things you had tochange about your approach when
you started doing improv for television?
Well, specifically, yes. For whose line?
(26:52):
Like when you come into a group that's already been doing a
million shows together, that's always the hardest thing.
So Wayne does his thing, Colin does his thing, Ryan does his
thing. Like how are you going to fit
into that? You can't be too similar to the
kind of things they do. So trying to find that balance
was a little bit of a tricky, but I decided that I was going
(27:16):
to be just physical and committed.
Like I'm just going to flail. No one's flailing their body
around. I'll do that.
I'll be the one that leaps and jumps and slides and because
that's no, no one's covering that area.
I mean, Wayne is kind of, but itfelt like it was far enough away
(27:37):
from what everybody did. So I did a lot of that at first.
Well, you've also had the opportunity to do other TV shows
you've done. Trust us with your Life, and you
were also on Fast and Loose. Were there any differences
between the shows, or were your approaches just basically the
same no matter what TV show you were on?
For improv, it was pretty much the same.
I kind of was like, I, I like being physical, that's fun.
(28:00):
I like finding out what the rules are and breaking them.
That's also fun. I did Fast and Loose was a
British show. It was partially improvised,
partially scripted. It was similar to his line.
And so I went and did that and did really well.
Wayne and I went and did that. And from that, the executive
producer brought Wayne and I over to Due Trusts With Your
Life, which was AABC show, but it was shot in England.
(28:24):
The late, great Fred Willard wasa host.
And we would interview celebrities and redo, redo their
lives. Also problematic when it comes
to improv. If you've just heard someone
tell the whole story of their life and now you're improvising
that you can put jokes in there,but nothing's new because you've
already heard the story. So also a bad idea for an improv
(28:44):
show. You know, the bad ideas for
improv shows don't don't last. And but I did a great job.
And so because I did so good on those two, then then Dan
Patterson, the EP of whose line,listen to Wayne and put me on
because Wayne had been trying toget me on for a while.
But you know, there's not a lot of spots.
There's just that one seat. There's so many people that are
(29:05):
great. So why, why are we going to put
somebody new in there? That was kind of the approach.
Well, how did you get to be one of the rotating cast members on
Who's Line in 2013? Sometimes I'll, I'll teach
improv workshops and stuff and you know, people, you know, like
how do, how do you get on who's line and, and I was like with
these three easy steps, you can get on who's line One, do improv
(29:28):
every weekend of your life from the ages of 19 to 42.
Audition for it all day long. Auditions, by the way, 7 * / 7
years without getting on it. And then three, make your best
friend the star of the show. With these three simple tips,
anyone could get on who's yeah, it literally was just
(29:55):
perseverance. I mean, I just kept doing well
that the that the producer saw me and Wayne kept saying please
put my friend Jonathan on which it it was encouraging to hear.
In the beginning, Ryan was like,please put my friend Colin on
for the British version because they Dan didn't want Colin
mockery on the original British version of the show.
So Ryan had to had to push to get Colin on him.
(30:19):
Like Colin is a legend of comedynow.
When you've taught improv, have you gotten that a lot?
A lot of people that come up to you asking, hey, how do I get on
whose line? As if that's their like main
number one goal. Not so much anymore.
I mean, Whose Line? It's not really going to air any
new episodes. It's right at the end.
I think there's no more tapings.But people are interested in
(30:41):
things like drop out TV, which is a kind of the big improv
place now. And either that or how do they
move up in whatever program they're in?
Because the way the improv business works now is different
than it used to be in the 90s. Now it's like in order for a,
for an improv theater just to stay open, they have to offer
classes just to pay because it'sreally, really expensive.
(31:05):
And without grants and without donations, it's, it's tough.
So they'll have 3 or 4 levels ofclasses and you'll have to be in
that class for, you know, sometimes six months or longer.
And then you have an audition tomove up to the next class, to
move up to the next class. And then like specifically with
like the Groundlings company here in LA that's launched a
million careers, you have to getinto their Sunday company, be
(31:29):
voted into the Sunday company. Now you're doing shows just on
Sunday. And then from that Sunday
company over the period of months and months, only if
selected, few will be asked to go into the main company.
And then even that is no guarantee of of a successful
career. There are so many people that
that I know and I think they're great that made it to the main
company that just never could make a real career out of it.
(31:50):
So it's people are asking, you know how a lot of times how do I
move up in the program I'm in orhow do I get better?
Well, you know, the world is a lot more interesting now because
I remember a time where if you put that you did improv on your
resume, you know, directors would kind of like dismiss it or
not care. Now it's become a lot more
(32:12):
sought out for directors. Why do you think improv is now a
lot more, for lack of a better term, mainstream than it was
before? I'll, I'll take it a step
further because now I think it'sjumped the shark because now
every actor in LA, at least in LA where I live, says I do
improv and they probably all have done a class and so they
(32:34):
get it. But other than an improv show,
there's not a lot of places to improv in acting.
It's really good. It's a good philosophy for your
life, the yes and philosophy. And it's good for like
discovering your, your characterand, and there's a lot of good
(32:57):
things, great things that improvhelps you with as an actor.
But one of them is you're not going to get hired to go beyond
a law and order SVU and then improvise a line about the body
on the ground. You'll, you'll be, you'll be
fired on the spot. So I'm not sure how that relates
to your your original question. It kind of does.
OK, Yeah, I get the connection. Don't worry.
(33:19):
Well, I bring that up because you've also had a number of
different TV spots. You mentioned you were on the
Drew Carey Show. You also did Just Shoot Me and
Reno 911. Do you feel like in any way
improv kind of helped you createthose characters that you
created on TV? Definitely a million percent,
especially in the audition. A lot of the times in an
audition I would, you know, hopeand pray for something to go
(33:43):
wrong, right? Because I remember 1 audition I
was doing for a movie, I was doing my scene and just out of
the blue a poster on the wall just fucking fell.
Broke and fell over. I don't remember what I said,
but I was like, I even immediately incorporated it into
the scene without batting an eyeas if that was what was supposed
(34:03):
to happen. And so even if my acting wasn't
as good as somebody else had just auditioned, just the fact
that I did that made them go, Ohmy God, did you see how he,
like, you know what I mean? Like, I know you do magic too.
That's like a magic trick. But they're just like, how did
(34:24):
he know? Like, so that just that alone
was enough. Many times, especially in
commercials, I've done hundreds of commercials and I always try
to throw in something. I hope something goes wrong.
I want the reader that's readingwith me to make a mistake so I
can kind of riff on him and the mistake and continue with the
scene like it's. It's absolutely been a huge
(34:47):
help. You know, it's funny, you
reminded me of a very famous scene from the TV show The
X-Files. And I don't know if you know
where I'm getting at, but there's this, there's this one
scene where Scully is walking tolike a, a supermarket and you
know, a car is just supposed to drive.
You know, you see her walking through the glass doors and then
you're supposed to see a car drive behind it.
(35:08):
So they, they did a take Scully walks into the supermarket and
the car crashes into a pole. But she was a pro, so she she
just looked at it, used it in the scene and they just kept
rolling. That's amazing.
That's amazing. There's another story.
Gosh, I'm going to get all the name's wrong and the movies
wrong. But you know, if I were to say
(35:29):
what's a famous, what's a famousNew York catch phrase that
happens when you're walking in traffic and someone almost hits
you, what do you say? What don't you say?
Well. But OK, you, hey, I'm walking
here. You know that, You know that,
You know that quote, right? Yeah.
That's from a movie. I think it was Dustin Hoffman.
(35:50):
And he was crossing the street and that they didn't have the
control of the street and a car almost hit him and he went, hey,
I'm walking completely improvised now.
It's like in everybody's head for the next 65 years, you know?
What I mean I'll I'll even I'll even razy 1 the best improvised
line in my opinion. Star Wars I had.
(36:12):
This one, which I know he didn'timprovise.
Luke, I'm your father 'cause that would be impressive as
hell. No, it's it's the scene where
Han Solo's about to get frozen in carbonite and he's looking at
Leia. Leia says, I love you.
And Harrison says, I know. And that actually was an
improvised line because the original script was like, I love
you. I love you too.
(36:33):
But every time they did it, it just wasn't working.
So then finally the director said, you know what, Harrison,
she's going to say I love you and whatever feels right, just
go ahead and and do it. And so she said I love you.
He said I know. And that forever remained in the
epsilon of Star Wars. Yeah, that's a great line.
I know. What?
I love you what you did there. Wait, I said.
(36:55):
I love you too. That's inappropriate.
How do you feel like your skillsas an improviser has also helped
you as a writer? That's a good question.
It's it just kind of, you know, being good at improv is to have
an open mind to like let where, where any possibility can
(37:17):
happen. And you know, that's really
important in writing too. I also feel like something
that's important in writing is not to fall in love with what
you've written. Like I, I just wrote this scene.
It took me so long to do and nowI'm, I'm, I'm done with it
forever. It's locked and finished and
great and it's like, no, no, that's your first draft.
(37:40):
So improv, you know, I don't, I,I've done a bunch of really fun
shows lately. I don't remember any of them.
I don't remember any of the things I've said.
Nothing I've said was precious. What was precious is that I was
able to make people laugh and ifthey had a good time, the
content, it's not precious. And it's the same thing with
writing. You can't, you can't feel
precious about something you've written, even drafts into.
(38:02):
Like if you're writing a screenplay and it's like, oh,
this is my third draft and I've given it to somebody, a
professional who I look up to, to read it and they gave me
notes and they're wrong. They're wrong because really
it's like, Nope, no, just you. You can't.
Nothing's precious. You have to let it go.
You have to be ready to constantly change it and be open
to new paths and better paths. And it's usually always better.
(38:25):
And then usually when people go rewrite something or that they
didn't want to rewrite before they go, oh, this new version is
way better than the last version.
You know what I mean? It's like it's always, it's
always better. Yeah, there's that tough part
about writing where at some point it doesn't become yours
anymore. Yeah, I get that.
So going back to talking about musical improv, you've had the
opportunity to perform with thisamazing group called Opening
(38:47):
Night. What has your experience been in
performing in that show which everyone loves, and rightfully
so. It's just so amazing and well
done. Oh, thank you, thank you.
I've had, I've had such a blast playing with, with, with those
guys. My friend Shuli Cowan created
that show 20 years ago at the, Ibelieve it was the improv
Olympic here in, in LA, and I'vebeen a part of it for the last
(39:11):
maybe six or seven years. It's so fun.
It's a it's a completely improvised Broadway style music
musical, usually about 45 minutes to an hour.
We don't, we don't make you sit through it too.
Alright, improvised musical. And the only rules that we do is
that in our in our minds, we go to the audience and we we only
(39:32):
ask for one thing, make up the name of a musical that does not
exist. We take that if we've never done
it before, the the first scene and song is going to be our
protagonist and the second sceneis going to be the antagonist
and then the rest is all made-up.
I mean, the first two scenes aremade-up, but we just know if if
(39:53):
you're in that first scene, you're going to be the person
that wants to get out of town and make a new life or the
person that you know, wants to escape the orphanage or the
person that wants to become president.
Like that's that's the first scene.
Whoever's in that scene is goingto be the main character and
whoever's in the next scene is going to be, you know, the
antithesis to that. But that's the only, you know,
(40:13):
rules we. Rules isn't the right word, but
those are the only ideas we go and do that musical with and
then we just, we go out there and just sing and dance and it's
super silly, super fun. We're at the Outside in theater
now here in Los Angeles, which is a really fun place to perform
it. But we've done it at Second City
in LA when it was here and Improv Olympic was here.
(40:35):
It's a blast, I love it, very fun.
We've had Wayne Brady guest manytimes.
Lots of special guests come in and sing with us.
John Hopper, Hopper Popper from Blues Traveler has come in and
played with us. He brings his harp with him and
plays harp solos in her, so it'sreally fun.
You know what a lot of people admire about you is your ability
(40:57):
to just create these songs rightaway, and you seem to be able to
do it with such lightning speed.What is your process in being
able to just create a song immediately just based on one
word or topic? So the process is, is a little
different for like something like opening night than it is
for whose line. Like if we were doing a hoedown.
So on whose line when we're doing a hoedown, if you were to
(41:20):
give me an occupation, like you just give me an occupation.
Banker. Banker OK, so I'm going to think
of what my right when I hear banker, I'm going to think what
is my punch line going to be? What word is it going to be the
punch line? And the first one that comes to
mind is deposit, right? And I'll make it sexual, right?
Like a like that kind of so deposit.
What rhymes with deposit? This is all happening in like a
(41:42):
second closet. So now I know that my second
verse of the hoedown is going tobe blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I opened up the closet. She was surprised when I gave
her my deposit, right? I, I thought of the punchline.
I immediately thought of the word that rhyme with it.
I didn't think of all the words in the middle.
I'm just going to hope that theycome out in a way that makes
sense. But that's all happening super
(42:03):
quick. But that's for one joke.
And I can do that for maybe 2 jokes.
But when you're singing a Broadway musical, you can't.
You're gonna rhyme, what, 10 times?
You can't think of 1010 jokes. So it's different than the
Broadway musical. You kind of just sing what
you're feeling, you know, like I'm a guy out here, I'm alone,
I'm in love. And now it's like, OK, think of
(42:25):
something that makes sense with your character that also rhymes
with love. So I gotta you know, I'm like,
glove, can I say glove shove. My emotions are so hard.
I feel like you will like to shove me around when.
So it's like this. Say a word and then try to
justify it in the theme of the song you're singing.
(42:45):
And sometimes it's it it doesn'twork.
But sometimes when it doesn't work, it's really funny.
A, a, a, a non sequitur rhyme. It's like, wait, why did you
rhyme spatula? Like what you're, you're singing
about your love and you, you said spatula it, well, it
rhymed. So then you have to justify, you
know, you're the spatula becauseyou're the pancake of my heart.
(43:06):
You know, it's like, how do I make sense of what that, what I
just said? And so that's fun because that
to me, that feels like being on a, on a, a high wire, right?
You're, you're, you're crossing that high wire at the circus
because you, you, you literally the other one's a little safer.
You still have to worry. Am I going to say the right
words to make these two rhymes connect?
But when you're doing a a a fullsong, it's like, oh boy, here we
(43:30):
go. You know, this is a question
that I'm very fond of asking forboth the improvisers and
magicians that come on this show.
Obviously you're creating very different characters, but I'm
curious, how much of you actually gets shown through the
characters that you do like? How much of Jonathan do we see?
Yeah, for me it's like 80%. I, if you notice, with the
(43:54):
exception of Wayne maybe on a who's line, everyone's kind of
being themselves and there is a reason for that.
I think that because you want tosay the funniest thing and you
want to be funny, you want to send all of your brain power to
that area of your brain that's like be funny.
And so that's pulling away from the other areas that go, Oh, I'm
(44:18):
a character with a limp and I'lltalk about this and it, you
know, and I'm one of my always his clothes.
You know, I have to do say all this stuff is taken away from my
processing power. So I want to, I want to shift
all the electricity to my processing joke power.
Which is why whenever I start a character in a scene, within
about a minute I am myself. Any accent I'm doing will
(44:41):
disappear. Any gate that I walk with is
gone just 'cause I'm just specifically with like short
form comedy. I'm trying to be funny and I
want all the energy in that department.
Gotcha. How did let's make a deal happen
for you guys? Good question.
Wayne, you know, was coasting onthe success of of who's line and
(45:06):
they came to him and said, we want to we want to do something
a little bit different. We we we like the idea of funny
people hosting game shows as opposed to just your typical I'm
Guy Smiley and this is a yeah. So he was like, OK, yeah, I'll,
I'll do it. I'll I'll do some characters.
I'll make it fun. They go, who do you want to be
your announcer? And they go, well, Jonathan, And
(45:27):
I'm like, I've never announced anything in my life.
Like. I don't I don't have that that
voice of that, you know, so I can't make a Honda Civic sound
good in in but he was like, no, I got to have Jonathan.
And so his the most loyal guy I know.
Wayne Brady got me another gig that's now lasted 8 going on 18
(45:49):
years. So that's how that happened.
You know, it's funny, let's makea deal now.
It feels so different than any other game show I've watched.
Obviously there's contestants that are trying to win money and
prizes, but in between there's like just total insanity.
And I feel like it's just the perfect show for you and Wayne
because anything can happen. You can all of a sudden have a
(46:11):
talk show, Shaggy will come out,and then all these bonkers
things just happen. Do you enjoy that level of
insanity in a show, especially with Wayne?
Yes 1000% and if it what if it was just a game show like if we
were just doing pick a door, pick some, pick a box, I would
not be happy. I would not feel creatively
(46:31):
stimulated in my job. But with Wayne, anything can
happen. He can start singing, Cat can
start playing. He can turn it into something
like and and the producers have learned to yes and any stupid
idea we have. Also they were really smart in
the beginning to say to us, don't edit yourself.
This is daytime TV. But if you want to say fuck, say
(46:52):
it, we'll cut it out obviously. But we don't want you to feel
like you are adjusting your showto a squeaky clean because our
our live show is is not clean atall.
So because they gave us that leeway and because they
understand what Wayne does so well, they really let us turn
that show into kind of a varietyshow that's fighting against a
(47:15):
game show. It definitely has that feel.
And then all of a sudden, the two of you turn into Doctor
Phil, which I also love. Yeah, and, and, you know, there
are people that love it. Some people don't.
Some people are like, Oh my God,it's so funny every morning.
I love the the characters and some people are some people.
I I feel like they're older. Just go just play the damn
games. Why can't you just play the damn
games? Like go watch the price is
(47:37):
right, man. That that why?
Why are you pooping on us? I also love that the audience is
wearing these obnoxious costumes.
That's something that I love too.
You don't. And that started accidentally in
the earlier money hall days, people would want because he
would pick out of the audience. Price is right, you know,
they're they pull them out of a thing.
Come on day. Yeah, on the old money hall, he
would pick people like. I have to be noticed.
(47:59):
How can I be noticed? I know I'll wear a butterfly
costume. And then you started picking
these people like you're dressedlike a butterfly.
And then some people was like, oh, so now everyone's like, we
have to dress up. And it just became the thing
like Halloween. You know, as I sit here
listening to you talk, I can't help but wonder, what if you and
Wayne had a podcast? See what I did there?
(48:20):
I like that and we do. It's called Wayne Brady's What
If with Jonathan Mangum. What a coincidence.
Yeah, we we get on lots of we have some great guests.
Drew Carey, our biggest guest has been one of the drop out TV
people, Brennan Mulligan. We've had Aisha Tyler, Doug
Benson just came out today as ofJuly 3rd, which is when we're
(48:41):
taping this. We bring on people that we know,
comedians, celebrities. We did a Lavar Burton one live
that was great. And we just interview them a
little bit and sometimes it justturns into an improv scene.
Like we'll talk about their pastand maybe just see what would
have happened. What if they had chosen a
different path? What if something else has
happened? What if they didn't marry their
(49:01):
their partner? It's very silly, very loose and
we enjoy it. Well, Jonathan, I've had such a
blast talking to you today, and I have one final question for
you, my friend. Yes.
What's the one piece of advice that has served you well that
you'd want everyone else to hear?
(49:22):
The one piece of advice. These questions seem like they'd
be easy, but they're very hard because my options for answering
include all options. The one piece of advice you can
when hopefully you'll edit this so there's not a 45 second
stumbling around as I. Oh no, I'm keeping that in
(49:45):
keeping that. In I'm trying to make it in my
own voice here. OK?
I think the biggest piece of advice goes to how you perceive
the path to success. It's not through talent,
(50:07):
although that's important. It's not through luck, right
place, right time, although thatis important.
It is almost always mostly from your network of friends and
people that you hang out with and talk to.
I used to think it was way more about talent.
(50:28):
It's not. And So what does this mean?
This means do favors for everyone all the time.
Someone's making a movie, they need someone to operate their
boom pole. Do that.
Someone needs help practicing for an audition, do that.
Always be helping people becausethen people will always be
helping you. And the people that that you
know you're, you're, if you're in your 20s and you're living
(50:51):
with four guys in an apartment, these people that you're hanging
out with and and eating ramen noodles with today, some of them
are going to be the directors and executive producers and net
heads in 10-15 years. So keep your create a network.
Never be a Dick to anybody. Always do as many favors as you
can. That is a much faster way to
(51:12):
success than just talent in my it's.
All about who you know you, you're very.
Good at taking a long winded rambling answer that I did and
summarizing it down into a sentence.
I'm basically your Wikipedia at this point.
Yes, you you just ChatGPT to my Wikipedia.
Thank. You Jonathan, this has been such
(51:33):
a blast. I can't thank you enough for
doing this. Thank you so much and I wish you
all the best in your future my friend.
Thank you old. My thanks to Jonathan Mangum for
sharing his time with me today, and I hope we all remember that
great piece of advice. Be there for people, help people
(51:54):
as much as you can, and they'll be ready to help you in return.
And of course, thanks to all of you, my friends, for joining me
on the season premiere of Improvand Magic.
By the way, do you have a business?
Well, why not promote that business here?
Feel free to reach out and find out how you can sponsor an
episode of Improv and Magic. Feel free to visit my website,
(52:18):
ldmadera.com for more details. We're just getting started with
Season 6, so stay tuned for moreon the only podcast that
celebrates improvisers and magicians, improv and magic.
I'm LD Madera, you are who you are and you are special.
(52:38):
See you next time.
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