On March 4, 2017 I headed down to Hollywood, California where Earwolf Studios is located to see Matt Besser record his podcast Improv4Humans. Every once in a while Matt will bring a musical guest to preform some of their songs in between scenes and it turns out he has some pretty great taste in music. Previous musical guests on the show have included Chris Cresswell, Joey Cape and Jeff Rosenstock. For this episode they had Laura Stevenson on to perform.

The way the episodes of Improv4Humans that feature a musical performance works is pretty interesting. Laura would play a song on her acoustic guitar, while the comedians would write down lyrics that stood out to them. Once Laura finished a song Matt would lead a short interview where he would ask about the story behind the song. Incredibly, Laura’s stories and lyrics would be the starting off point and basis for the scene. I don't want to give away anything about the future episode, but what I do have to say is that it was absolutely hilarious. The group managed to twist Laura’s stories into hysterically funny, sometimes dark and absurd scenes.

When it came to Laura’s performance though, she was really great. She managed to squeeze in four songs, which were “The Move,” “Journey To The Center Of The Earth,” “Bells And Whistles,” and “The Hole.” What was really impressive was her ability to sing angelically while playing complex fingerpicking styles. As a guitar player myself, I can tell you that is not easy at all to do. She was very honest when Matt interviewed her and she was a fantastic sport when they poked fun at her stories and lyrics. It was all in good fun.

The comedy was hilarious, Laura’s performance was excellent and those two parts of the podcast created some amazing material. The creative energy in the studio was palpable and just to be able to witness it in person was a very cool experience.