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[0:30] R. Alex Murray: Hello, friends. Welcome back to Ale and Well Met. The Twenty Sided Tavern Podcast. It's me, R. Alex Murray. You're, for now, still hosting Tavern Keeper and Bar Idiot. And, hey, I'm here with our current mage and guest star, Aabria Iyengar, hanging out. What's going on, Aabria? How are you?

[0:49] Aabria Iyengar: Oh, I'm so good. Please pardon my voice. I've been shouting for two weeks. I said this right before we got on the call. We've established a theme now because a couple weeks ago, Felicia was talking about how wrecked she was after a week. Like, how are you? How are you doing physically?

[1:12] Aabria Iyengar: I am broken with all the love in my heart. My knees have gone out. I wear a fatty brace. My voice is voicing. I've never had a better time, but I've also never been more reminded that my job is to sit for a living than coming here and hucking my ass across this stage for two weeks.

[1:35] R. Alex Murray: I mean, and huck we do. It's the problem of trying to keep up with. I mean, my old ass has that problem, too. You try to keep up with these children who are like, I'm going to live forever.

[1:46] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. And I can do a flip. And I'm like, I've tripped on the stairs in that theater so many times. Every stair is a new choice in depth and width and height. And I've never, ever acclimated to them. So I'm like bent 90 degrees staring at the stairs every time I have to go up and down. I was like, oh, I'll adjust at some point. Nope, never. Not even a little bit.

[2:14] R. Alex Murray: No, I mean, well, you know, you've got the advantage of being of having an end, right?

[2:21] Aabria Iyengar: True.

[2:22] R. Alex Murray: Yeah. You got one more show tonight. You can't go one more.

[2:25] Aabria Iyengar: God, I'm so excited. Last night was feral. So it definitely feels like we've hit the point where it was the acclimation to like, can I keep up with the level of story and improv and comedy that everyone's doing? And then at some point you forget about being in your head and it just feels like recess. And now here at the end of it, it's like, okay, now my favorite thing when I get comfortable in this space and this storytelling style is to start limit testing and kicking pillars. So these last couple of shows have been like, well, what if I just become the DM and I just kick Connor out and make some weird choices?

[3:06] R. Alex Murray: I'm deeply sad I was not around for that. That's very good that you just muscled your way behind the DM screen.

[3:10] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. A hundred percent.

[3:11] R. Alex Murray: I mean, it's just, just another, another gem in your TST infinity gauntlet.

[3:17] Aabria Iyengar: We're doing it.

[3:18] R. Alex Murray: Yeah, baby. I got to come back again and for real, get back there. Now, you know what's going on. You'll never, ever be rid of me. That's the fun thing is like, all right, now that I know how to say that single hardest line in the show, the role of a 20 side to determine how successfully are fulfilling those decisions. Now that I can say that I'll come back whenever.

[3:39] Aabria Iyengar: You're going to wake up in a cold sweat two weeks from now.

[3:44] R. Alex Murray: The role of a 20 side to determine how successful we are.

[3:48] Aabria Iyengar: That fucking looks. I cannot tell you how much that line turns your egg or turns your brain into a hard boiled egg. Just so smooth, so slippery. It shoots off my brain every night and I'm like, is this the night? Is this the one where I will not get this line right?

[4:02] R. Alex Murray: Nope. No, you're crushing it. Just destroying it. It's such a, we, I don't know if we said it last time we were talking to Felicia or whoever, or Jazzy or anybody who's done it. Like, it's an insane string of words that you, a human being would never put that sentence together.

[4:18] Aabria Iyengar: It's like, it's like, I mean, it's what it's like is what it is, is that somebody tried to write what Dungeons and Dragons is in one sentence and it's perfect. But in order to explain the like point of role playing games in like 30 words, all 30 words have to be insane.

[4:38] Aabria Iyengar: It's truly this sentence, y'all. It's like Yggdrasil is the world tree because every word of it was picked to try to get as much context into a single sentence as possible. But it makes your brain go on like a thousand tangents and you're like, oh, there's a million worlds here that are required to explain what the sentence is trying to do. And every time I feel myself getting pulled into the void mid thoughts.

[5:04] R. Alex Murray: Well, yeah, that's why we keep getting the most powerful people we can and nailing them to that sentence.

[5:10] Aabria Iyengar: I am Odin on the world tree of that sentence.

[5:16] R. Alex Murray: Oh man. Like, well, I mean, on that note, what else? Like, is there anything else in the show that you've like, that you didn't expect? Like that like was more difficult? Like, or, or yeah.

[5:29] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. You know what? I think I have two answers for this. I think the thing that like was surprising with like the more difficult of it all was trying to resist the urge to like fall into a rut once you get an idea for a character and just hit those beats again. There's something about the like, oh, I think I figured out like what the quirk of this character is. And there's like a, like you have to resist the urge to go like, well, now that I know it, I'm just going to do it again and again.

[6:01] R. Alex Murray: Right. You get caught in a loop, right?

[6:01] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. Because we're running the same scenario over and over again.

[6:04] Aabria Iyengar: Yes. A thousand percent. And there's something in that, like, if you know, you're like, if you know there's no tail on it. Like if I'm here playing the mage for as long as I can, then I think you get liberated from the like, there's no rut. I'm going to fall into the pattern. Like I know what this character is and now I can iterate. But when you're only here for a little bit, you're like, once I find it, I got to do it and do it and do it again.

[6:27] Aabria Iyengar: So having that, like, okay, I finally figured out Zvezda. Don't just do the same bits with her. Also, because I found out quite early, there were like some really lovely fans that were coming back multiple times during my run. And I was like, oh, the worst thing I can do is give you the same jokes twice. So it was like.

[6:46] R. Alex Murray: They'll remind you. They'll walk right up to you and be like, hey, you did the, you did the thing again. And it's this like passive aggressive. You're like, thank you. You can't tell if they're like, I love that joke that you do all the time. You're like, ah, this is, this is unintentionally enthusiastically, passive aggressive, which is a thing only a fan can do to you.

[7:08] Aabria Iyengar: Yes.

[7:10] R. Alex Murray: Yeah. And you're like, all right, well, here's, here's something new. And then you just pick up a boot and throw it at somebody like what now?

[7:14] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. A thousand percent. The other hard thing is apparently for me, just remembering the names I've got, like when we do our sort of character election, yeah. For whatever reason, whatever the first name I've like put into the list, it's the hardest thing for me to remember. Cause I like, I know the last two. Cause I'm like finish strong, finish strong. Oh, we have not thought about where we started.

[7:42] Aabria Iyengar: Who the hell are the, this is the third person that I play. I can't tell you how many times, I think pretty much everybody in the cast at one point or another has just turned around and looked at Stomp and been like, what's the third one? Who's the third guy I had last night, but it was the first one. I was like, what's the first one. And I turned and then played it off. Like it was a little bit hoping that just turning a little bit would like give me enough time to remember.

[8:06] Aabria Iyengar: And then I didn't. So I had to double down and be like, no, it's not for real. What was the first is disapproving face looking at you like, oh, have we forgotten our one job?

[8:17] R. Alex Murray: Yeah. Yup. Got that look. I felt well and truly home in that moment. I was like, that's it. When you change around all the time, right. You're going, we're messing around with words and that's a, you know what? That's something actually people in the discord have asked about, like trying to get a character out. Like, I don't know. I don't think this is a question. I think I'm just like, like, uh, commiserating with you about like, it's tough. You don't want to be the same person over and over again for the like repeat fans and whoever. And like, did you have, did you find a way to get out, get out whoever you wanted to get out by the end of, cause we can do it. We can, there's the, there's the big thing. You can absolutely put a thumb on the scale or, or just say something that's just so effusive that people know.

[9:11] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, a hundred percent. So, uh, I realized, and I guess I'll just say it here. Um, my seat, my phrase, the phrase that you're gone by the time this comes out.

[9:23] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Um, my phrase that pays for Ethel is Tiggle Bitty, which is very fun, but because it's so funny to me personally, I kept forgetting the one cause I have like another one when I'm like, I'm so excited to say Tiggle Bitty that I forgot that like the original name I, or like little like load phrase I came for was G-G-G-Gilf, which is just the idea of like a great, great grand Gilf, uh, which no one's ever gotten. They think I'm doing like a Scooby-Doo joke. I was like, oh, oops.

[9:52] R. Alex Murray: The first time I heard it, I was just so like, I just laughed at you just going G-G-G-Gilf.

[9:59] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. Yeah. It does sound like shaggy.

[10:09] Aabria Iyengar: Oh gosh. You want a gilfy snack, baby. Give me that. And she is. Oh gosh. But yeah, it's been really fun playing around with like the order and being like, okay, is it always like whoever you say third or is it like the quality of the, like bit in the name you're using? So it's actually been very fun to like play with the form of this to be like, Oh, I wonder if I like use the same names, but change the order. Or if I'm laughing a little bit when I say one, occasionally I crack myself up with my own joke, which is honestly my most toxic trait.

[10:36] R. Alex Murray: Listen to you take the breath before a Tiggle Bitty is always very fun.

[10:44] Aabria Iyengar: Or yeah. A Tiggle Bitty. And just like, yep. Give her, give her to me. Yeah. Fingers crossed. I get to close out at tonight with Ethel. I'm very excited. That's my dream. She's a killer. She's just, I mean, yeah, she's the best. Thanks. Thanks to Maddie, Maddie Murphy, but came out of her brain and like, it's just her weird aunt that she like, let me put it in.

[11:14] R. Alex Murray: Yeah. The weird pieces of everybody's life that are like now, and now, and now you've got a thumb on the scale too. Like that she's been passed around, which is cool, right?

[11:25] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. It's a weird thing. Cause you got to watch somebody else do it, right? You saw Jasmine do it.

[11:30] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. So I got to watch Jas or so I've never seen Jasmine be the mage. So the ones I was watching, I was, I watched Felicia live. And then the video I was sent like early days was Maddie doing Ethel. So I was actually like a bit intimidated by Ethel because I was like, well, Maddie's so funny.

[11:48] Aabria Iyengar: Oh, Ethel is so iconic. Like this is clearly the killer in the squad. Maybe I'll try to lean into the other characters. So I'm not just showing up and doing like, hi, I'm a cover band covering the greatest hit here. And then finally got to play around. I was like, Oh, you can lean in however you want. She's everyone's weird aunt. So you can really get in there.

[12:10] R. Alex Murray: Yeah. She's just your weird aunt.

[12:10] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. And it's been really fun to like bring Zvezda out and try to figure out like what her whole vibe is and what her whole deal is. And I think last night playing Zvezda probably for the last time in this run, I feel like I finally figured her out. I was like, Oh, we're going to give her like the Sarah Jessica Parker sort of like Sarah Jessica Parker in Hocus Pocus, like very airhead, like, hi, I'm a fraud, but I'm also just so happy to be here. And I don't know what we're doing. And any amount of conflict makes me crumble. I love her.

[12:48] R. Alex Murray: Amazing. The Betty White energy, baby.

[12:57] Aabria Iyengar: Yes. Bring it. Yes. That's so good. It's just fun. It's just, I mean, really part of the curtain. We got one rehearsal. We did a run. You and I did a run together before we started. And it was wild because we had Erica in the room too, right? We were running everybody through it. And Chester Vandriot the third is my guy. He's, and he's just me. And it's the same as like, it's a weird, it's just like me taken to my most Dwarfy and my most fratty. And then to watch like other people mess with him. And then to watch Erica mess with them was wild. And like, I can't wait to see that, like come all the way through and just be like, all right, that's wow. That's weird. That's just somebody mucking around with it.

And like, yeah, the more we pass the characters around, it's such a weird, unique thing that like the characters all get. It's like, I mean, it is like Scooby-Doo, right? Like somebody else gets to come and put a hand, you know, Matthew Lillard gets to come and put a hand on Shaggy or whatever. And now he's part of it.

[13:47] Aabria Iyengar: A thousand percent. It's so cool. And also I will always remember.

[13:52] Aabria Iyengar: That rehearsal run. It was the most delightful, beautiful show done for three people total. Box violence for life. For life always. So good. Well, I mean, it'll be I can't wait until we've got to make that happen again. Because yes, it was maybe the only run of Dungeons and Dragons ever, where it's been five fems and one masked dude. Yeah, being the dungeon master, and then just got like death proof curb stomped at the end of it, which was beautiful. You won't forget. I have a snapshot of looking up at you and Maddie and Erica just like looking down at me like the looking last shot in a Tarantino movie like, Oh God, okay, this is real. This is genuine rage. We're working some demons out in the rehearsal room.

Look, you don't need therapy. You just need a little dice. Some little dice, little math rocks and fun little math rocks. Hell yeah. Also, I just need to I just want to say for the record, now that like, it's very you said like, Oh, yeah, Chester's my guy. And I remember like looking at there and going like, Oh, yeah, that's a definitely a very easy two plus two equals four I could have put together on my own. But I do have to say Chester as a concept is such a delight. He's so good and so funny. He's never it's always a full send down the like most wacky delightful Avenue God so enthusiastic, but also like there's room there's room for everybody to put their spin on all these characters, which is great.

And I'm excited for I really hope that like, eventually, we're gonna release character sheets and stuff into the world so people can play with these characters. And like, yes, I don't know fan, whatever. But like, Diego comes in and I play him like a drone an IPA crystal bro, which is, which is just me. And but like that, but Diego don't have that. So Diego comes in with like finance, bro. And it's amazing. And will comes in with like, with like, honor, bro, which very like, I hate bullies. And I want to so it's just everybody brings it's so different. And it's just funky thing. Like, you know, I would love to play taco from TV on a but like, that's somebody else's and that's not what taco is, you know, exists there.

[16:19] Aabria Iyengar: So good. Yeah, well, I don't know. We're just hanging out. But yeah, we're just hanging out. We're just I don't want this to end. I don't know how long this is supposed to last. But we should make it long long talk for like, Oh, yeah, sure. As long as as long as we want. Sorry, cut out my guesses.

[16:38] Aabria Iyengar: Cuss cuss away. I got permission from the Broadway podcasting network. Like the third question I asked was like, Okay, we're on a network is Broadway. It's very can we do cuss words? Yeah, because I'm gonna have to throw episodes that we already have in the trash. Man.

[16:58] Aabria Iyengar: Oh, this is a good like, backstage, backstage nerdery.

[17:03] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, the backstage nerdery compared to like, D 20 backstage nerdery?

[17:11] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. Oh, that's a fun. This is a fun question. Because the days especially on like a two show day, the days are like equally long as like a full film day at D 20. But since most of my time, most of the time when I'm at D 20, I'm the GM. I'm in my little like Heidi hole going like, Great, we ran an episode and now I have a couple hours to turn around a big makeup look and eat and go to the bathroom and write the next episode and like get all those tweaks in and like, check in with players and make sure that like what's happening is working along the arcs that we've discussed before for their character and like, checking the tech with like video village. So there's not a lot of like restfulness during the D 20 film day for me, even as like as a player, definitely less stressful, but it's like still like check all your stuff and make sure everything's like lined up correctly.

There's something so nice about the like, we've just done big physical exertion here like at TST. And it's time to like take a little break, eat a little snack, and talk about the things that like were on your mind. There's also something Oh, oh, this is a debrief from the show, you get to debrief from the show. And I think there's something inside of like actual play where like the errant thoughts that you have to have nothing to do with the game, have a little room to breathe in an actual play, and they have no place to be on stage. So then it's like, here's a like little like, word vomit of like the dumb things I thought of on stage that I didn't want to say because it was distracting from like a tight, like Broadway show.

Yeah, so it's very cool. It's very there's no edit. There's no and there's a and there's a clock we get you know, where that's the big job behind the screen is all the time is like keep it going, keep it going, keep it going pushing. That's I it's so easy to just sit back there and be like, look at these funny people. Look at them go. Oh, shit. We have to leave this place.

[19:10] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, I do that all the time when like a fun bit, especially like I think you and Maggie, because you're both so like physical. Every time you to like start breaking into a bit. I noticed that I'm standing on the side laughing. I'm like, I'm on stage. I'm not in the audience. You have to go contribute. No, but you are. But think about this, this and like this set this iteration of the show is the like that pew that like the characters are all over on a bench. Yeah, it's the same behind. Well, you got you can't see right because you're because of because of proscenium stage, right? Because we're weird. Yeah, around the table is that like, the TK and the dungeon master sitting back there punching each other and laughing and passing each other notes and crap and like whispering into our ears.

Stomp especially the like one liners that come out of his mouth. Nothing compared to the shit that he'll read over and say in your ear. Ridiculous. And then missing out on the bench. Yeah, but we're missing out. I missed the bench. I'm sad. I never got to be on the bench with you because it's a whole other fun dumb game. Next time. Next time, baby. Next time. But like that nonsense of like, God, or there's the Lord don't part where you're being the wizard and you're talking about your buddy. And then you look over and there's just like three idiot gremlin faces looking. You dipshits will put yourself into some sort of pile and you're just like, right? Oh, fuck. I can't. Crack up.

[20:34] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, the little bits that build when you're on the side and you're like, Oh, time to time to jump in. Yeah, have it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, right. Oh, sorry. puns about a buried wizard's name. Yeah, no, we're here.

[20:46] Aabria Iyengar: It's usually me whispering to Maddie about a fanfic I'm writing about the wizard. And whatever spoilers, the wizard and their old partner. Yeah, I'm just like, and then they kissed. And then they probably did some butt stuff. God, I just really need fanfic of this. I'd like this show needs 100% more fanfic.

[21:08] Aabria Iyengar: I'm such a dick. I love being not subtle about that moment either, too. Yes, yes, the buried wizard, who I made love with on a spring afternoon. It's just like, it's like, it's like the wizard doesn't care anymore. It's just like, give the people what they want. One day I'll be as subtle and as acting as Connor Marx, but today is not that day. He's very good that man can on like, little bits of story out. Not me. Just just metaphor hammers and but that's the other thing too, is that like the game is designed like the shows designed for you to be able to come out of character.

[22:46] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, that's fun. Yeah, definitely getting to the point where you're like comfortable enough to be like, Oh, I'm gonna like, sort of like, there is no fourth wall. But like having those moments where you're like, let me drop character for a second. Like, you all have a bit of a language model, like large language model of like, how I would react. So I'm going to feed you a Bria reaction and then like come back in the character has become a more and more fun bit. It's about like, again, with the like last night show where the apprentice was named cram Daniel, which is like a bit from my podcast, which is such a deep and stupid bit that we got to the intermission. He's a basketball wizard. Yes. And I was like, I don't have time to explain. I just crammed unbelievably good basketball wizard name. That's insane.

[23:40] Aabria Iyengar: Cram Daniel and don't forget about slam jam. You'll the basketball spanner. Don't commit rackings, dude. Yeah. So it was very funny watching the like the squad like try to like rage Google and figure out what it was like don't make references like this thing is so stupid. It's so stupid. Don't worry about it. Oh, I have an idea. So then we came to like when it came to like distracting the apprentice. I was like, I run a one shot of cram Daniel here and now and said that out loud without knowing what it was going to mean. No, but then just had a fun moment of like, okay, I'm going to drop zest as a character a breeze here. Now. Let's just yell for a couple minutes. I ran behind rolled some dice yelled at Connor. And then we like swapped back to roll the performance check to see if that worked. And I rolled a natural 20. One of like three I've rolled this entire.

[24:33] Aabria Iyengar: Crazy how how how crazy? Okay, here's something I genuinely know now because like I find the dice it's fucking unbelievable. Yes, the dice are absolutely working with us. They think it's something that has something to do with to get real far out of like us the fucking decider is a sentient life. It's alive and it understands what it needs in the moment. People have been like, I don't want to like anthropomorphize it too much, but you don't have to anthropomorphize. It's just us putting that energy into it, right? Yeah, it's like it's any sacred object is if you just pump energy into it, like it becomes. Yeah, it's like the whole thing. Like the thing. Have you heard about like water? I like you like say nice things to water and it Chris and then freeze it and it freezes into normal beautiful snowflakes. But if you like poor bad intention and say like, just give you give bad vibes to water and then you freeze in then the crystals are weird. So like hateful crystals yet.

[25:32] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, I haven't I haven't heard about that. But I absolutely yeah, for sure. That might be fun little pseudoscience I saw on Pinterest one day, but I do believe that like you pour intention to things. It would make sense because the your the literal vibrations are coming out of your your your body at a different frequency and affecting molecules. I mean, that's science. That's not magic. That's yeah, that's physics. So then when the dice tell a good story, you're like, this was exactly when this was supposed to happen. Like, thank you for affirming the dumbest tangent I've ever gone on. And it makes every other like low to mediocre role feels so good because you're like, it wasn't for now. No, it was it needed to be exactly here now. And I'll go back to being vaguely effective. As soon as this like, stepping out onto a limb is done so good. And then it's so fun to you. And it's weird. You're like, I'm supported by this math rock.

[27:27] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah. Are you a mountain goats fan at all? The band the mountain goats? No, I've never heard of them. No. Well, the mountain goats are them. I love goats. Okay, they're great. Well, they're there. John Darnielle is a nerd. And he wrote an album called and they're one of these incredibly prolific like an album or two a year for 20 years. Indie rock. Oh, fine. He wrote an album called in league with dragons, which is like a concept album, but there's a line in a song from it about about playing D&D. There's there's two lines. One is it never it ever hurts to give thanks to the local gods. You never know who might be hungry, which is incredible. Like, oh, that's a banger. So good. And the second one, which is in reference to rolling a die is it never it never hurts to give thanks to the navigator, even when he's spitting out random numbers, which is yeah. And it's just the like, it's that that like, this is a thing that like we the dice works in mysterious ways level like, yes, like, RPG mysticism.

[27:32] Aabria Iyengar: I mean, I feel like it makes sense. Because at the end of the day, if we wanted to just do normal improv, we could do improv, we can go line up in a black box theater, make a bunch of choices, do a herald and call it a day. The moment you add in a mechanic, like a random number generator, it's a part of the story. So it was always always the promise of the premise. And then when you have those moments where like, story and intention dovetail with a randomized mechanic, that's what makes these like live moments in live theater and actual play feel magical. Yeah, like magic. Yeah, yeah. It feels great. And gosh, it's so it's so fun in a live theater, too. And I think that's a really big, like difference between like actual play where you're like, I'm gonna film this.

And then it'll come out either in a couple weeks or a couple months, depending on like, if there's an edit and what else goes into it, there's something so gratifying about being there in the moment and going, like, do you see what's happening here? And having hundreds of people like looking back at you and going, Yes, yeah, it's delightful getting up out of their seats, getting about. Yeah, that's the like, I Yeah, I mean, I've told the story a million times of someone flipping over a throwing a dice.

[27:44] Aabria Iyengar: The Pittsburgh run and a card falling on top of it, and then they turned to the audience, shrugged, and flipped it over, and it was a nat 20. And the guy, I was in the audience, and the guy sitting next to me stood up and threw his chair across the room, like just a visceral reality. He just stood up and just threw his chair and was like, "Ah!" And I was like, "We're all gonna work forever! This is a thing!" Yes, yeah, so wild. God, it is sports. It is sports! It is sport. Well, it's group murder. Gambling is kind of what it is, right? Like, we're all—oh no, that's exactly what it is.

[28:24] Aabria Iyengar: Murder the butterfly! Yes! A blood for the blood god! Let's go! Yeah, absolutely! And that just like chanting. We've had DMs that really hated the chanting, and I love the chanting. Like, you know, that's how we get gods to do things sometimes. Yes, we just—yep, we're gonna evoke you one silly little phrase at a time, yeah, over and over again. Yeah, let's see if we can out scream you, scream you down from heaven and into this dice. Yeah, wild! And that's, I mean, that was sort of my question I think that I was heading to was like, do you find that that happens? Who cares? Do you find that that happens in like—there's that level? I mean, the dice are still helping in an actual play scenario, right? I mean, it's just you're playing the game. Like, it happened at my table last night.

[29:10] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, yeah, it's always fun, and it's always a beautiful surprise. I think the delight here is that there's no affectation or like there's no way to believe that any of this is scripted. There's no way to believe that any of this was like taken again to find a big moment in the edit. Like, yeah, that doesn't happen in any of the other places too, but because like the audience is not there at the, like, yeah, like birth of the story, there's always that little like, "It was too clean. I don't quite trust it." And you're like, "We're all in this room exactly right now. Everybody saw it. The dice is a camera in the sky. Like, let's go! It's a two and a half foot wide d20. Yeah, we all saw it."

[29:58] Aabria Iyengar: Exactly! It was a one! Just—it's just so good every time, right? That's the thing that we just—we've hit this groove, I found, in the last couple of weeks, especially with like big houses again, when we keep walking off going like, "God, that show was awesome!" You find also you said that 16 times in a row. Like, it's just—yeah, yeah, because that's crazy that like this entire run feels like it never hit that like plateau. It was like, "Oh, we found something new! Oh, we found something like delightful! Oh, like this is like a fun dynamic!" Like, there's always something new to discover. Like, I'm sure you've done hundreds of thousands of these, so I cannot speak to your experience with it, but for me coming through and going like, "I've got 16 bites at this apple. Yeah, that's enough to eat an apple."

[30:43] Aabria Iyengar: I wonder if I'll like hit the point where you're like, "And I'm doing it, and I'm coasting, and now I'm thinking about the rest of my day." Like, nope! I wake up every morning like, "It's time to go to Disneyland!" and just sort of wait until I get like head over to the theater, which is always funny because for as much as I'm like, "I can't wait to get there," I'm always arriving exactly on time or one minute late. I can't help who I am in my heart! I could go earlier! Big, big, big stunt star! Gotta make an entrance! Gotta make sure everybody's already in the dressing room so you can walk in and be like, "Everybody, look at the fit! Baby, praise me! Daddy is back again!"

[31:15] Aabria Iyengar: Wearing the same outfit I wore four days ago because I did not pack that much variability! The whole suitcase, nerds! You've seen it all! If a fan throws me a shirt, that will be the change-up! Let's go! I had to make room in my suitcase for a blender. This is the dumbest story, and I just want everyone to know my shame. I decided to rage pack at 3:00 a.m. before getting on the plane to come out, and something about my extraordinarily like loopy brain was like, "You gotta bring a blender! What if you want to make smoothies in New York for fucking two weeks? I need to be healthy because I have to eat pizza and bagels every day! That's all they have!" So I literally brought a Nutribullet, and I used it one time and ignored the smoothie because I don't like smoothies that much.

[32:19] Aabria Iyengar: So got to LA, yelled at you subconsciously, and was like, "Yeah, bring a smoothie! Also eat a burrito before the good burritos are gone!" I truly, like some part of me was like, "You gotta represent for LA! Bring a bunch of green powder and a blender so everyone knows that you live in Los Angeles and have dietary restrictions!" Amazing! God, what—what is your—? Is it gonna go back with you? You're absolutely not! I am gifting that to you guys, and by gifting, I mean cursing it and be like, "Hey guys, here's my mistake! Here's my little blender hubris! Would you like to keep it?" I'm gonna make a plaque! All right, the Aabria Iyengar Memorial Nutribullet! And underneath it, see how long it takes somebody to make a smoothie!

[33:05] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, if you make a smoothie, you are legally obligated to text me about it! Gotta! Everybody! You're just gonna start off my phone number into the Nutribullet, start texting you pictures of smoothies on Tuesday! Yes! "Hey buddy, what's up?" "Hey buddy, thinking of you, drinking some like just a big old brown puddle! Yeah, what are you doing? Are you in the middle of another long shoot day doing stuff? We're all on bean bags eating smoothies! What's up, dog?" The bean bags back there? Oh, they're an act of violence because I don't want to get out of that! No! Stuck! Stuck easily! It's like, "Oh, I'm down here! I'm also old, so like getting out of a bean bag is a struggle!" I tried so hard the first time I like got up, I was like, "Don't make a little sound! Don't make a little sound when you get up!" And now I'm just like every time, like, "You get to know I'm in my late 30s!" Dad grunting out of the—

[34:02] Aabria Iyengar: So bad! Yeah, it's like, "Please, please, TJ, bring my mic down when I'm going up and down the stairs! Please!" Oh God! On stage, just like, "God, we're at the point now where like having to go down—like to go get someone from the audience, I'm like, 'Tonight might just be me yelling from the stage! Like, hey! Hey! First mage to get up here! Come on! Don't! Please don't do that!'" I won't, but I think it in my heart! I'm thinking in my heart!

[34:32] Aabria Iyengar: Just the stampede of nerds! What if it's a little stampede on the last day, and then I become one of the stage lights? It is time! Yeah, it'll just be a really—a cloud with good advice for us about our past! Make a smoothie, and then I dissipate again! Hell yeah! Well, yeah, you like—I'm glad you like coming to—I still like going! I mean, it's fun to go to the theater! Did you—yeah, are you a theater kid? Did you grow up a theater kid?

[35:02] Aabria Iyengar: So I was a theater kid when I was really young and then hard pivoted into sports when I started getting big. So my dad was like, "No, no, no, wife! Look at the size of this child! Somebody give her a basketball! Yeah, she's gonna be over six feet tall! She's not singing those little songs anymore! No more do that little dance you do!" And I got yanked out of like musical theater and ballet and jazz, and it was like, "Cool, here's a basketball! Here's a volleyball! Eventually, I'm gonna add a little shot put into there! Here's your life now!" So I loved theater as a kid, wanted to be an actor as a kid, and then like hard pivoted into sports. So coming back to it now as like a whole adult has been like one of those really nice moments where you're like, "Oh, I can like look back at the 10-year-old version of me and be like, 'We did it! We used to sing!'"

[35:56] Aabria Iyengar: Like on Broadway! I remember like my first tap recital was like on Broadway, where you're just like shuffle, shuffle, stomp! This is 18 four-year-olds! Shuffle, shuffle, tap! And then one starts crying, and then everyone falls—the crier off the stage! Yeah, one of those! Amazing! So it feels so cool to be here and like be with y'all! Like, thank you so much for making this not scary, making it warm and inviting and welcoming! It's been such a joy!

[36:23] Aabria Iyengar: And like a right back! Right back at you! You could have been a huge bitch! I didn't know! Like, I was thinking about it, I was like, "Should I show up and be problematic?" And then I got tired! I mean, that's being a—like being a diva is a lot of work, you know? Like, you gotta—it seems hard! It just seems tough! Like, what—you could just be nice to everybody! Being mean all the time and demanding seems like—it seems lonely! I was like, "Well, like, yeah, like tier one, my hope and my goal and my dream was to show up and not make all of y'all's day harder because like I've dealt with stunt cast and like star cast things before, and you're like, 'Cool, we're gonna accommodate you! We'll wrap you in a little bubble and make sure you're like—you play well and you're not stressed out because I know you have a thousand other things to do!'"

[37:15] Aabria Iyengar: And I was like, "Oh God, I'm becoming that for this lovely group of people I don't know very well at all!" So like the first trick was just can we get in and not make everyone's day meaningfully worse because I'm here and have to be accommodated? Sure! And then past that, it was like, "Man, they're all so cool and nice and welcoming! Like, if I can walk away with like pretty good relationships with everyone, so I'm like, 'I'm back in town! Like, anyone around?' And now it's like, 'If you're ever in LA and you don't stop by my house, I'll find you and I'll kill you!'"

[37:49] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, I mean, it's like it's almost like we all played D&D together for two weeks straight! There's nothing else! And told a bunch of stories! We've saved the world like 20 times and also in time, also we've screwed up a couple—we have to watch the world burn a couple times, which will really lock you like a little bit! Which is how fun is that? I love it! I love that we get to—like it's a thing you can't do, right? Like, I've—you can't! Yeah, I mean, you can be in a long months-long—I mean, I've done it at a table where I've just been like, "All right, fuckers! Strahd wins! Sorry!" But hard to do, I think, in an actual play would be very brave in an actual play scenario unless you were sort of setting out, call it through the style to be like, "Bad guy wins!"

[38:33] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, that would be rough! It would be super rough! Like, gosh, I've—so knock on wood—that we—I haven't gotten the full bad ending yet, but we've gotten so close! I look—there's one little—there's one card in Zvezda's kit that I love and has never helped the story, and that's why I love it so much! Cosmic omen! It's a little like you roll a d6, and if the result is even, you add it to the total of whoever's rolling. Odd, subtract! And I love using it because it has always shot the group in the foot! Like, it always ruins the hero's days! I love that it saved everything the one time you—you needed it! I made Maddie do a thing that was like she didn't want, and it was she was like one short, and you were like, "It was great!"

That was it! That was the one time! Every other time, I have ruined DCs for myself! Amazing! And absolutely ruined my own day, and I've helped the bad guys so much that actually one of the runs, I switched—I switched teams, and I was with—yeah, I'm now a bad guy! Yep, I'm a bad! Yeah, I'm a bad guy now! Sorry!

[39:49] Aabria Iyengar: I mean, I love that too! Like the fact that—well, there you go! There's the dice again! Just being like, "Heel turn!" Like, "Yeah, you're in it now! Yep, yeah, you're bad now because everything you do sucks, and you can't help but do it!" And like, yeah, it's just so fun! Like you were saying, the difference between like pure improv and that is like you just wouldn't—you just would never in the middle of a herald just like whip around on somebody on a story, right? You just do a heel turn! A thousand percent! You would never ever be like, "Just die in the middle of a scene!" You wouldn't just die in the middle of an improv scene! Just—but my character's dead now! And sometimes now because the dice are just like, "Dead!" You just get slapped, and it's like, "All right, deal with it now!"

[40:28] Aabria Iyengar: Yes! But in like a form where you're like, "We've got two hours to do!" Like, you feel like you've got the time and space to be like, "We can tell a lot of story in a lot of directions, and it can be a really big win or really big loss, and all of that is equally exciting to an audience that's just here to see what you've got!"

[40:46] Aabria Iyengar: Yeah, got in the chamber! Well, and then there's the—I mean, you know, I hope if you can take anything from tonight's story, it's this: tomorrow's story is still unwritten! New Year's truest author! Like, every time it hits, and that hits! Yeah, that's a good one! I get teary every time! Every time! I love reading it! I love saying it! We got—I think on our last show together was my first perfect ending as a DM, so it was the first time I've ever read the like perfect, like, "We did it! We nailed it to the ground!" And it was a hard one for it, and like, yeah, those are my favorites! We're like, there's something about this show too because it's so short and so compact and like—not like a one-shot even! It's so little, and it's so like the stakes are rowdy high because we're gonna get to the end in two hours where it's like it feels like everybody's on the verge of death, and it's hard, and you barely scrape by!

[41:36] Aabria Iyengar: So fun. Yeah, every part of this allows for just so much fun story. And you never feel like you're getting in the way of a story when you're offering something improvisational. And then those epilogues where you as the DM are tying off the narrative and all the big things. And then we get to come in and do the little bright work and end on a high note or a hopeful note or a wistful note or a lovely note. It's just it's so well organized that you get something new and beautiful every night. It's so nice. My mom, my mom and her best friend have been in town for a couple days and they've seen like most of the shows that they've been around for. So I think she's now like four deep and she's like, I've seen all your characters.

I get it. And it's the coolest part of this is that it feels violently different every time. And I still don't really know what's going on. I was like, hey, from a boomer, that's a compliment. I'll take it. Drink your gin. I love you. Do your parents understand this life? Do they understand what you do? My mom absolutely gets it now. My dad has just called it like sports with less running. So he's fine with it. It's why so often I color code things with like yellow and purple just to confuse my dad into thinking he's watching a Laker game and be like, psych, you're watching your kid. Good job. Good job. There you go. You just pick up a ball and throw it every once in a while. If I could die, he can't tell that that's not discus.

We're great. Look, I kept it in the tray. Dad, are you proud? So, yeah, he's just like, this is cool and I don't get it and I will never try. And my mom is absolutely like the supportive sports mom. It's like, I've watched a lot of actual play and I saw a bunch of YouTube videos. Did you know people call you? I was like, don't don't don't read that stuff. Please don't read the subreddit. Yeah. So did you know that you get mentioned on a place called Reddit? And I was like, close the laptop. Close it. Close it. I have a very supportive mother in law who listens to everything and she like sends me she probably listen. Hi, Kath. She'll listen to this. She she sends me newspaper clippings every time she sees the words Dungeons or Dragons anywhere and still she doesn't know.

She doesn't know what's going on, but she's just thrilled. Yeah. Oh, she's got that perfect energy. Like, do you still love dinosaurs? And you're like, yeah, I'm thirty eight. But you know what? Every time you every time you open a dinosaur present from your aunt, you're like, fuck you, dinosaur. Yeah. Yeah. You go through a range where you're like, as a kid, amazing. As a teen, I contain multitudes. As a full adult, you're like, amazing again, actually. I do really like dinosaurs. Dinosaurs is kick ass. They got two brains. There's a brain in this thing's ass and it's awesome. Yeah. That booty. What that what that booty brain do? Like, yeah, if my aunt offered me a wing that tail, if my aunt offered me like a natural history museum, like membership, I'd actually get genuinely geeked out.

We've looped back around to six year old again. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's that's the what we're all embracing as elder millennials, embracing our chewiness as hard as we can. Oh, yeah. Yeah. To cringe. I've killed the part of me that cringes. I did that two inch twist from every film that snaps people's little spines. I don't care. A little tiny Aabria on your shoulder is like you're a nerd and you're a dweeb. Yeah. Drop. I used to be cool. Who cares? Being cool just means you don't like a thing that you like. You subordinate your preferences to the group's thing. That's actually dumb as hell. Yeah. I like what I like. And if you don't like what I like, keep it pushing. Who cares? Leave me be.

Let me do it. It's just so much. So much work to hate on things. Jesus. Who's got that energy? Like a lot of people for whatever reason. Yeah. And you're doing that for free. Yeah. For free. No, no. You have to pay me for any strong feeling. Ben Shapiro is getting paid at least, man. Why are you guys doing? You're doing a bad impression of a little dweeb for free. Thank you. Know your value. Yeah. Hate for profit. Yeah. Don't give that away. You're messing up your eye. You're putting wrinkles in your forehead for nothing. Thank you. Exactly. This is like showing toesies. Like you don't show feet for free and you don't hate this economy. You're just going to tell people what you don't like on Facebook.

Come on. Come on. I just I just I just went for a fake aunt and went to name all three of my aunts who are so like I do that all the time. I do that constantly where I'm like, oh, don't name a real person. Well, when all you got to do is come up with damn names in your head all the time. Right. Like, it's just so funny. There's just like the streak of when you're like, oh, I'm in the like I'm in the drift and I can name a thousand characters. But that one time you're like I was doing something else with the ninety nine percent of my brain that I use. And you ask me for a name and I'm like to bark. Oh, no. Oh, no. Pretty great. Oh, God. You're like, oh, this guy's going to be around for the whole campaign.

He's it. He's it right now. He's a great, good. Barkley has been adopted by the parties. Everybody's I did a fart buckle. I did a fart buckle like I made it. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Sometimes you just make a little fart buckle. Oopie. Just oh, damn it. I did. I made him a halfling and he's got a stupid voice. And now everybody loves Barkley, son of a bitch. Yes. Oh, there's nothing worse than like doing a little voice because you're like, this is a side thing. You're like, oh, am I going to be saddle with this for the rest of my life? Yes. Great. I got like this. Especially you the other day when you hard committed to Toad. Terrible. Oh, the worst scream. I was like, stop, stop. Terrible. Please stop.

Terrible. I just wanted to come over to you and gently be like, don't do that. Don't do that. They don't deserve this stuff. Everyone in the audience. No one. No one gets that. No, no, no, no. Oh, God. You didn't commit. That's great. I did. And it hurt and it was worth it. It was worth it when we bailed out of it and we got a lot. But it was a perfect it was a perfect like bailout. I love it. So stupid. Such a stupid, such a silly, weird thing that we do. Right. I love that we get to do this for fun and profit. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah. It's the best. The profit's real nice. The fun's real. Yeah. Yeah. The fun's real nice. Golly. Oh, I'm getting all misty eyed now thinking about like, oh, I won't see you for literal two months because I'm going to I'm going to come back and visit during Erica's run.

So. Hell yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm trying, you know, I'm trying. I'm trying to sneak myself out to L.A. We're all trying to get bi-coastal nerd energy in this piece. Let's be little bi-coastal babies. Hell yeah. That's the dream, man. I mean, thanks for hanging out. You got you got anything else you want to let the people know about your experience of the 20 sided tavern that you have? Ooh, anything else? Um, you know what? This was my first time having Malort in a really long time, and I'm actually really mad about that. That was the worst and hardest part of this. That drink tastes like what a crit fail feels like with all my heart. You're just like, I don't want to swallow it. I don't want to move through this.

I want to hold it in my mouth and then it will escape my body like a bat. It'll just fly out of a different hole later. It's the worst. It's the worst. And it stays with you. I almost licked will any other flavor, any other flavor is better than what's in my mouth right now. Give me anything. I mean, like anybody, there is a fair amount of licking on the stage. If you managed to, you know what? Haven't been licked. We got one more night. All right. There's still time. All right. Well, I do remember it. Okay. Last story. And then we will actually close this down and I will move on. You can move on with your day. I will release you to these streets. But I do remember that first day where everyone's like, what's your comfort level?

Like, what do you, what do you like? Where where's good and where's bad? And I was like, we're about to get weird in front of your face. But I mean, it was also one of those things where I was like, I know you guys just from like the face card, like email that was sent out. So I don't know you for shit. Don't touch my face or my hair. You made a joke about like spitting. Don't spit on me. Like I was such a little prude at first, like trying to be like, I'm a normal amount of fun. Don't spit on me. Third, it took me to the third day, third, third show. And I was like, yes, please baby bird water from your mouth into my mouth. You did a knee slide over there. We're like, yes, give it. Me too, though.

I love to be a part of it. I don't want to be left out. The one that didn't do it. So now I have to remember about licking. But also, I don't need anyone to lick me because you're just going to lick off a big stripe of brown. The hardest part about doing little stage smoochies is that I like rub off an amount of brown on whoever I make physical contact with so that I follow them around for the next like minute and a half, like an aunt trying to like rub it off. Like, hey, let me get this before you show up on Instagram and get instantly canceled for brown face. I got you. Hold still. Hold still. Come here, honey. Come here, honey. Come here, honey. I'm helping. I'm helping. I got you. I got you.

It's good for Apple. I'm like, oh, I'm in character. Hold still on that. Come here. Let me just get that. Let me let me get that before Tumblr gets to you. There is I can I tell you that I played the king of Siam my senior year of high school. Can you imagine how rough that looks? It was bad. We've all had those moments. It was real bad. Oh, in Rome, Georgia, the whitest fucking place in the world. They were like, I know what we'll do for our senior musical. I was orange. And and there was a Tumblr for a while called white kids in yellow face doing the king and I and I was like, let me go and slap myself up on this. So I get out. Yeah, I might want to run for office one day. Let me go ahead and get out in front of this and just be like, yep, sorry, I don't know.

I don't know. I was 18. They put it on happens, dog. I feel like every high school, like every high school theater program is there just to really humble the actors later when you're like, you did this before you knew it was a thing to consider. And you were a child and you trusted adults. We got the West Side Story the year before that. And it looked like it was like, you know, it was like the sharks were just like the one Puerto Rican kid that went to school and every black theater kid and then just the brunette kids. And then the show just looked like the fucking Hitler youth, just a bunch of Aryan. Like it was just like I look back at pictures and I'm like, guys, this is bad. My school did Little Shoppe my senior year and I like I had to stop doing theater by my sophomore year because like sports was the way it was like our it was our period structure.

Like once you like pass through like the early theater staff, it was in the same slot as every sports practice. So I made the call and I was like, cool, no more senior. They're like, we're doing Little Shoppe. Hey, I used to do theater. Do you want to try out and be one of the girls? I was like, oh, how wonderful. I love that you remembered that I love theater. And I showed up. I was like, oh, it's all the black. It's all the black kids. We need this do group. Got it. We need the do up girls. Interesting. Can I try to be Audrey? No, we don't need that. No, no. Just do this. And I auditioned during the warm up for a basket, like an important basketball game and then had to leave like made like mid song because I heard the buzzer and I was like, and I got to go.

Goodbye. I just sprinted off. Got to go. Yeah, man. It's on them. I couldn't sing anyway. So you win. You're here. You're fine. We all made it out and the pictures are there and there's nothing we can do about it. Well, hell yeah. Well, thanks for sitting down and hanging out. Yeah. Thanks for hanging out. You're the best. Yeah, you're the best. This has been glorious. And come come back soon. Please come play with us. Hell yeah. Done. I'll come back and see how my blender is doing. I'm back. We'll have a smoothie waiting for you. All right. One more one more time for the record then. Till till next time. And well met. Hell yeah.