EJ Marcus
I CAN SHOW YOU performs at The Elysian Theater in LA on 10/15 at 10/23
EJ Marcus (he/him) is an LA-based actor, writer and comedian whose work and TikTok videos have been featured on USA Today, Funny Or Die, Bustle, and The Face. He performs comedy all over LA and New York.
Michelle Chu (Director of “I Can Show You”) is an LA-based producer, artist, & comedian. She started her career working in development with Topple Productions, best known for creating Transparent. Michelle now works in development and current productions at Bento Box Entertainment, an animation studio best known for Bob’s Burgers.
Your style of comedy is so hyper-specific, with the way you're able to capture small details about certain human beings the rest of us might overlook. When you create a new character to start riffing on, how do you start? Do you find yourself primarily improvising on camera, or do you script your own videos?
EJ: I usually start with a line or phrase that drops me into the idea of a character. With my cool LA dad character, it came from hearing someone say to their child, “c’mon, we gotta go, Daddy needs to finish building your bunk bed today.” And I just sort of repeated that to myself in my head until I had a moment to sit down and really flesh out who this “dad” was. I usually carry around a notebook and if I hear someone say something awesome I’ll jot it down and come back to it later.
What are you showing us in your live performance of "I CAN SHOW YOU"? Beneath the jokes, what would you say is the 'heart' of the show?
EJ: Ohhhh man. The heart of the show is I was a weird little kid who felt like I would never be understood. And now I’m standing on a stage describing those specificities - like my older sister finding bite marks on my wooden bed and telling my mom about it, or getting too excited at a school dance and accidentally shoving a popular girl to the ground - and people are laughing in recognition.
I just think that every single person walks around with their own version of longing, and although my specific journey pointed me towards realizing I was trans (and had undiagnosed ADHD) it’s such a gift to watch all kinds of people see themselves in my stories. We were all kids once! And now we’re all adults and we just walk around saying weird stuff to each other. I love it.
How did you first meet each other? What inspired you to start working together? What's something you particularly like about one another, as creatives?
Michelle: We met freshman year of college and connected over the fact that we are overly emotional Pisces :’( EJ and I were always goofing around and making fools of ourselves to make people laugh. We also were both creative writing majors while trying to do comedy, so we were equal parts clowns and sentimentals. We definitely connected in wanting to make stuff that’s silly but also has some heart to it. While we were at college, a lot of people in comedy were playing the idea with apathy but we wanted people to believe caring can be cool and funny!!
EJ: Yes, I was immediately obsessed with Michelle from afar because she told stories with such vivid imagery and animated mannerisms that I was just watching people all over campus gravitate toward her. I basically promptly got in line to wait my turn to be her best friend and it WORKED!! She is an incredible comedian because she notices things that truly no one else does. She’s someone you just immediately trust as a writer and performer because of her willingness to go the extra mile with her act outs and language. And she’s a dream director because of all that, in addition to her kind way of asking questions like, “okay… how would any of that fit in?” and her distinct burst of laughter when I’ve tried something new and it’s paying off.
Michelle: I love EJ’s comedy sensibility because it’s so perceptive about the world and what makes people tick without making jokes at people’s expense. EJ can make a hilarious character out of just about anyone and radiates his enthusiasm with ease!
I loved watching your videos come up all over social media, especially through the pandemic. Did you first start doing comedy on social media exclusively, and then start performing on stage, after gaining success online? How does performing on TikTok feel different than being in front of an audience? Have you learned anything about yourself as a performer, in the process?
EJ: I was a theater kid in high school and graduated to the beautiful world of sketch in college. I started posting videos because I felt like it was a good way to practice my writing and acting at the same time, and really develop my own voice.
I absolutely cannot rag on TikTok because at this point, it has given me more opportunities and exposure than anything else. It has also provided me with a massive forum of people telling me exactly what they love about my comedy, which is really helpful when I think about it as a kind of workshop. I mean, that level of feedback is a little unfathomable, though, especially when I think back to how fast my heart would beat in my creative writing classes in college when 12 undergrads would sit in a circle and critique my deeply sentimental (bad) poems about the Willamette River.
For me, though, absolutely nothing compares to the feeling of performing for a room of people. It is my favorite thing in the world.
Have you ever pictured the film or tv version of your life? What would that look like? If we saw your childhood represented on screen, what would we see?
EJ: Oh, yes, constantly. Picturing myself onscreen was my favorite pastime as a child. I had one of those tape recorders with a microphone attached and I would carry it around like a purse, narrating my actions constantly. I dreamed someone would find the tapes and immediately whisk me off to Hollywood, where I would star in a sort of grainy coming-of-age movie about a girl on a farm (all cats).
Truly, if you want to know the long answer to this question, you should see my show…!!! But in the meantime, I’ll say that if someone were to actually listen to those tapes, they would hear a breathy, spitty 8 year old describe feeling lonely and melancholy and in the same minute, scream with enthusiasm about riding bikes and soccer and the potential of making a new best friend in school who would want to hang out all the time and think I’m sooo funny and not care that I didn’t have the right clothes.
What are either of you working on next?
Michelle: I’d love to focus on making some animated shorts next. I’m dreaming of making something silly and perhaps have EJ voice a character or two.
EJ: I’m clearing my schedule to voice a character in Michelle’s animated shorts. And also working on a couple scripts of my own!
Are there any upcoming shows, events or performances that you're really looking forward to seeing? Anything your friends or peers are doing, that you recommend we check out?
I Have To Do This - Richard Perez’s solo show. Anything Rob Haze does.