Although she’s appeared in everything from big-budget blockbusters like Jurassic World to small-screen darlings like Orange Is The New Black, Lauren Lapkus is perhaps best known for playing characters that don’t exist in linear stories. The comedian has made a name for herself in both the improv and podcast worlds through her own invented characters who live fantastical and often dirty lives. These personalities show up on her weekly podcast, With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus, and appeared on the episode she helmed for the Netflix series The Characters. People across the United States will be able to witness Lapkus’ thought process in real time as part of the 2016 Comedy Bang! Bang! tour. How does Lapkus come up with her best characters, from Ho Ho The Naughty Elf to kid detective Murphy O’Malaman? In January, The A.V. Club talked to her about that process backstage at Riot L.A., where she’d just finished a live recording of With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus hosted by Wild Horses.
The A.V. Club: How do you come up with a specific character? You’ve been almost 20 characters on Comedy Bang! Bang!, for example.
Lauren Lapkus: For those I either think of a voice or a certain kind of game for the character, something I like about the character. All I come in with is the voice and the general idea behind the character, so I usually don’t give myself too much information in advance.
For Ho Ho, I just wanted to be an elf who gives toys to bad girls and boys. That’s all I really knew going in. And then it becomes what it is with everyone else improvising along. For my podcast, With Special Guest, I don’t know anything in advance. The other people give me any information about my character that they want, and that’s all I have to go on. So that’s fun for me because I can come up with less in advance, and I like to be able to just go with it in the moment.
For me it’s all about keeping it really simple and letting it grow within the confines of the show as opposed to coming in with a whole thing. Sometimes I’m doing Comedy Bang! Bang! with other people, and I’ll notice they’ll come in with the character and they kind of have almost a plotline that they want to get through with the character or certain things they want to happen during the show. I think that’s really fun, but I just like to fly by the seat of my pants a little more.
AVC: If you’re doing CBB with one of those people, do they tell you the storyline going in or do you have to guess on the fly? For instance, when you were on with Joe Wengert and he was doing his Brad Hammerstone character, did he let you know that Brad’s actually Scrooge McDuck?
LL: That’s kind of what I was thinking of, like Joe has a secret that he wants to get out or something. He doesn’t say anything in advance, but the way he plays it, he kind of lets it out a little bit at a time, so you get that he’s getting at something and you want to help him and help it come out. That’s such a fun style for him.