Moms/Comedians Kaela Crawford & Selina Ringel talk to The Inside Reel about relatabilty, development of material and perspective in regards to their new stand-up special on Prime Video: “2 Moms, 1 Mic”.
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 >> But see, that's the thing, even go over to Selena, thank you for sharing that.
00:22 But it's also the thing, it's almost a body horror thing, Selena,
00:27 the way you did, you're like, well, imagine if your penis was cut in half,
00:32 that's what it's like.
00:33 And I'm like, that's a visual, and that really sort of brings it home.
00:37 But it's also like you walked in on him masturbating,
00:40 I thought that was classic because you're like, you're killing all these children.
00:44 But it's these things that's relatable, every relationship,
00:47 people have that on both sides.
00:49 You're like, but can you talk about finding those relatable stories and
00:53 finding which ones you wanna tell?
00:55 Because there's so many, and you have to put it in sort of that set.
00:58 I take it that the sets evolve and they go into other creative things.
01:02 But can you talk about sort of editing, not editing the material,
01:06 but finding out which material works the best for both?
01:10 >> Well, yeah, I mean, I think one of the things with the joke, I mean, and
01:13 I really love this joke about whether men would even have kids at all, right?
01:17 If it was up to them, because I think the amount of stuff that women go through in
01:21 their body to physically have a child is insane.
01:24 We're actually insane.
01:25 There's mental, if you think about telling a woman everything they're
01:30 gonna go through in advance, which is what people tell us in advance.
01:35 They're like, your boobs are gonna literally break,
01:38 your nipples are gonna bleed, your vagina's gonna rip.
01:42 All these people do it and you're like, well, let's just do it anyway.
01:45 It's insane.
01:47 And then I feel like if you even for a second told a guy,
01:52 if you got a paper cut to the tip of your penis when you have a baby,
01:57 I feel like everyone would just go no.
02:01 Let's just never have children, I don't need it.
02:05 So it's just kind of mind blowing to me how much more as women were willing to take.
02:11 And I think that it's so interesting in society that for so
02:16 many years men have been positioned as the stronger,
02:20 the more dominant, the more dominant.
02:23 And we're so much stronger, undeniably stronger.
02:27 It blows my mind.
02:29 And so I thought that was just something that I had to tackle because I think
02:33 about it all the time.
02:35 I think about the human race all the time if it was up to men to have children.
02:41 So that was one piece that I thought was really fun to focus on.
02:46 >> Why are we so unattractive post delivery?
02:49 >> Why?
02:50 No, I'm serious.
02:51 A few days after you have a baby, you look like Charlize Theron in the movie
02:55 Monster.
02:56 >> [LAUGH] >> Except for unfortunately,
02:59 you're not Charlize Theron.
03:01 >> [LAUGH] >> You're just a [BLEEP] monster.
03:05 You know what I mean?
03:06 And the other one was too, I come from a very particular perspective.
03:10 I actually remember when I was doing some of these jokes at the very beginning of
03:14 my stand up career because I started without a kid, but I really wanted one.
03:19 And I've always really wanted one.
03:22 And that's a very particular point of view.
03:24 It's not everybody wants one.
03:25 And I remember at some point one mentor I had said, I would stay away from that.
03:32 You're a little unrelatable because not everybody wants a kid and
03:36 it's hit or miss.
03:38 And I was like, but the thing is I want it so
03:41 bad that there's gotta be a big group of people just like me who want it really bad.
03:48 And I wanna lean into it because I don't feel like I've heard it so much.
03:53 And so I did and I feel like a lot of the stuff with my husband masturbating and
04:00 him killing all our semen and all this stuff.
04:05 It was like a lot of the observations that I was genuinely having on a day to day.
04:11 Especially when I really wanted a kid and I wasn't getting one.
04:15 I was like, what are you doing?
04:21 So I think that it's to me and I think there's a big lesson in general.
04:26 It's like really lean into your truth.
04:28 I think a lot of people will tell you be more relatable, be more like this,
04:32 be more like that.
04:33 But that's not gonna land if it's not your truth.
04:37 The more authentic you are to what you really feel, the more it'll land because
04:42 the people like you will gravitate towards you and be like, I'm just like that.
04:47 Thank you for speaking for me.
04:49 These are all the thoughts I'm having that I haven't allowed myself to say out loud.
04:53 >> My husband finally said yes to having a baby with me.
04:58 Which it was really just good news for him.
05:00 I've been off contraception for months.
05:03 >> [LAUGH] >> Surprise, glad you jumped on board.
05:09 >> I mean, from my perspective, like I was saying, I was just single and
05:13 ready to mingle.
05:14 And I didn't want a baby the same way that Selena did.
05:18 I was sort of like, yeah, maybe I'll have a kid, maybe I won't.
05:21 But that's why, once again, that's why we work so well together.
05:24 Because we have such different perspectives in life.
05:28 And like Selena knows, I'm an incredibly anxious person.
05:31 I was terrified to get a nanny for my kid.
05:34 I didn't have one for 19 months.
05:35 I'm like, everyone is out to get my child specifically.
05:39 Like she is stunning, she is perfect, she's genius.
05:42 No one can come near her.
05:46 And that's sort of stuff that I'm working on for my new set.
05:48 Because it is this perspective that not everyone has.
05:52 But people do have the perspective of feeling anxious.
05:56 And knowing what it's like to heighten that anxiety and
06:00 go to worst case scenario.
06:01 So even though maybe they're not worried about losing their children at Disneyland,
06:05 even though they've never been to Disneyland,
06:08 they can relate to that feeling of feeling scared.
06:11 >> I was like, Kayla, but how are you gonna survive?
06:13 What if you talk about your nanny's situation?
06:15 >> Yeah, because it's practical application.
06:17 I mean, that's why there's one thing I think you say in your set, Kayla,
06:21 like, okay, I look at Zillow the way men look at porn.
06:25 And I mean, that's a really probably true statement.
06:29 I don't know many men who go look on Zillow, but plenty will go look at porn and
06:33 say, yeah, I'd like that, but I can't have.
06:35 And it's very relatable.
06:37 >> Well, especially like men that work from home, it's like, I'm on Home Depot and
06:42 I have porn on the side.
06:44 I'm gonna buy a desk and then watch a little porn, not gonna do anything, but
06:48 just like throughout the day.
06:49 Then so I've got my emails open and Zillow, that's what it is for women.
06:54 Maybe women it's like Gmail, Anthropologie and Zillow.
06:58 >> I went to the movies recently, is that relatable?
07:02 >> [LAUGH] >> I hadn't been to the movies since
07:06 before the pandemic.
07:08 And before the pandemic, everyone that worked behind the counter called me miss.
07:11 They'd be like, miss, here's your popcorn.
07:14 I went back to the movies recently.
07:16 And everyone that worked behind the counter called me ma'am.
07:19 >> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, they were like, ma'am,
07:21 your hot dog.
07:22 I was like, how banged up do I have to look?
07:25 >> [LAUGH] >> That within the span of just two years,
07:30 I went from looking like a miss to a ma'am, right?
07:34 I went from being like a sprite little twizzler to just like a shriveled
07:37 raisinette.
07:38 >> But how do you think comedy in your perspective, and
07:40 I've seen this with other comics, like Taylor Tomlinson and Ilza.
07:47 It's finding these transparencies,
07:50 finding the honesty in the comedy that really comes through.
07:53 And you're both talking about that, about that authenticity and
07:56 being comfortable with who you are.
07:59 I mean, obviously, there's still those things you have to deal with.
08:02 I mean, when you were talking, I think, Selena, about the thing is I'm gorgeous,
08:07 but I'm also Mexican.
08:08 I love that.
08:09 She's like, I think I have to deal more with the gorgeous element.
08:12 But I love sort of that perspective because it shows, yeah, again, humanity.
08:17 That's the one thing.
08:18 I've been talking to a lot of people about this this morning,
08:21 about the idea that even if you have this massive sort of idea of what life is and
08:26 everything comes back to these intimate moments and these human moments you have.
08:30 Can you talk about the importance of that in your life,
08:34 in your comedy for both of you, and then I'll let you go.
08:37 >> For me at least, and this is something that I'm very big on,
08:40 is I really believe that timing is actually important.
08:44 Because like you said, we're constantly growing and evolving, right?
08:47 So I know a lot of people, and there's no judgment on this,
08:50 will work on a project for like ten years, right?
08:53 And maybe after ten years, that project is brilliant.
08:56 I mean, it might be close to perfect.
08:59 They really spent a lot of time and energy and they put that out.
09:04 And I can see and value their effort and their time for having done it that way.
09:10 But for me, the way I work is I have to keep rolling with what's
09:15 relevant to me right now.
09:17 So I could never, I just made a feature film and
09:22 I'm putting it out in one year, and that's fast.
09:26 But to me, this is super relevant to me right now.
09:30 So I could have waited to get more money and more cast and more blah, blah, blah.
09:36 But my whole motto in my life is I am not willing to wait to get on the train.
09:44 I'm just going to be the train and people can jump on my train.
09:48 And when I'm doing something, I'm doing it, I'm putting in my 100,
09:52 but I'm also finishing it and I'm putting it out.
09:55 And it might not be perfect, and that's okay.
09:59 - But it's you. - But it's me.
10:01 But it's me and it's real and it's in real time.
10:04 And it's important to me in the moment that I put it out.
10:07 And it means something to me in that moment.
10:10 And I'll look back and probably go, I could have done this, this, this and this.
10:16 But I'll also be like, that was so authentically that moment I was going
10:20 through then, and that's okay.
10:23 Because I think so much of growth is allowing yourself to just keep doing it
10:29 versus getting stuck in how it's not perfect.
10:33 And I think sometimes when you get stuck in how it's not perfect,
10:35 then you don't end up releasing it.
10:37 By the time you do, it's not relevant anymore.
10:39 Then you don't feel close to it anymore.
10:42 So it's like to me, again, this special, we conceived, trained, shot,
10:49 and put it out within a year, which is nothing when you think about
10:54 what it takes to do something like this.
10:56 But I also feel like I watch this special and I'm like,
11:00 oh, this is so me right now.
11:03 Like it feels so like the right time for this part of me to be expressed.
11:11 And I feel that way about all my projects.
11:13 And it's something that I work really hard to do.
11:17 And 20 years from now, I'll tell you if it was brilliant
11:21 or if it didn't work for me.
11:22 But I was nauseous every day for nine months.
11:27 Yeah, brutal.
11:28 Like no one told me I looked glowing.
11:30 [LAUGHTER]
11:36 Like the most common response I got was just Kayla, look at you.
11:41 [LAUGHTER]
11:44 Look at you.
11:45 [LAUGHTER]
11:48 A couple people told me I look jolly.
11:50 [LAUGHTER]
11:53 Yeah, men don't ever tell a woman she looks jolly.
11:56 [LAUGHTER]
11:57 Especially with our special, I kept saying we have to release on Mother's Day.
12:00 Like no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
12:02 Like if we don't release on Mother's Day, I swear to God,
12:06 like I was adamant about like we have to, like no matter what.
12:10 Because I know that this isn't going to be relevant in six months.
12:13 I know that if we sit on it and wait, it's--
12:16 our perspectives are going to shift.
12:17 The world is going to shift.
12:19 It's a very timely special.
12:21 And when you have a timely special, you do have to release it right away.
12:24 We talk about the pandemic.
12:26 Six months from now, people aren't going to be talking about the pandemic.
12:28 And people aren't going to want to hear about it.
12:30 They're going to say we've moved on.
12:32 And then I look at my old sets when I first started out.
12:37 It's weird how much my perspective has shifted.
12:41 It's weird after having a kid how much more empathy I have.
12:45 To the point where like if I watch a commercial with a kid in it,
12:49 I'm bawling.
12:51 Like I just sob.
12:53 I can sob immediately.
12:55 Don't show me anything on TikTok that has a sweet kid doing something
12:59 sweet for their parent because I physically can't handle it.
13:03 Like it just--Pixar movies destroy me.
13:06 Like when I watch a film with her, I watch my daughter watching the movie.
13:11 And it's--my perspective about life has changed and what's important
13:16 and what's not important.
13:18 And so you're constantly transforming yourself and your material
13:23 and a year from now it's going to be different.
13:25 And like you said, the kids are going to grow up.
13:28 And so our material will have to shift with it.
13:31 And then I think that there's some material though that is universal
13:35 that will last forever.
13:38 That is stuff that I've always done throughout my entire set,
13:41 like the difference between men and women.
13:44 Like that is--it's just--it's always going to be--
13:48 Universal, yeah.
13:49 Whether men are from Mars, women are from Venus,
13:51 like that concept is always going to be accurate until the end of time.
13:56 And so that's actually material I think that will stand the test of time.
14:00 But I think also--sorry to what you're saying, Kayla--
14:03 I do think a lot of the stuff in our special is about what it feels like
14:07 to be a mom.
14:09 And I think that also stands the test of time.
14:12 So like I think as much as we're evolving and changing
14:16 and it might not feel like where we're at,
14:19 I really do believe that this special will always connect to moms
14:24 because there's always going to be hundreds of thousands of millions
14:28 of new moms every day going, "Ah, I feel just like that.
14:31 I just had my baby. I was just cut in half.
14:34 I was just told by my husband that we had a baby."
14:37 I was just--so it might not be where we're at.
14:39 Like we might be with teenagers going, "Oh, God, that was so long ago."
14:43 But there's going to be all these moms that just had a baby
14:45 that just went through it.
14:47 So to me I'm also excited about the fact that I do think this is a special
14:51 that will stand the test of time.
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