Episode 20: Matt Besser and Lyric Lewis

Episode notes

Matt Besser is a comedian, actor, writer, director and founding member of The Upright Citizens Brigade. He also hosts the weekly podcast improv4humans. He tells J. Keith about the two word prompts he’s banned at shows (hint: one’s a type of fruit and the other is a type of animal), and how it came about that he’s featured on his very own Topps baseball card.

Lyric Lewis is an actress and Groundlings Theater performer who’s perhaps best known for her role as Stef on NBC’s A.P. Bio. You may also recognize Lyric from Comedy Central’s Drunk History, and she tells us about an upcoming episode she did about “Cleopatra’s punk ass little sister”.

In this episode, we’ll learn about how Matt adapted the visual format of improv to an audio-only medium, how Lyric used astrology to sort out potential dating prospects, and why Matt claims his memory is spotty, even though Lyric has a hard time believing him.

What’s the difference?

What’s the difference between “damping” and a “dampening”?

What’s the difference between “club soda” and “seltzer?”

Areas of Expertise

Matt Besser: Arkansas cults, Arkansas Razorback football post-1978 and the film Repo Man

Lyric Lewis: The film Jurassic Park, Greek mythology and astrology.

Appearing in this episode:

J. Keith van Straaten
Helen Hong
Matt Besser
Lyric Lewis

With guest experts:

Debby Schriver, an author whose book Whispering in the Daylight: The Children of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and their Journey to Freedom is about to become a documentary.

Jody Duncan, the author of numerous books about the making of movies.

Go Fact Yourself was devised by Jim Newman and J. Keith van Straaten, and produced in collaboration with Maximum Fun. The show is recorded at the Angel City Brewery in downtown Los Angeles.

Theme Song by Jonathan Green
David McKeever is the Live Sound Engineer.
Maximum Fun’s Senior Producer is Laura Swisher
The show is edited by Julian Burrell.