Alyssa was impressed with all of the characters Ash had. It would be interesting to see how the other two performed in sketches.
@Sugar The girls were thinking of character ideas. Serena did have some, but Misty was more than happy to share characters that were rejected.
"Now that's something I would like to hear. I'm more than positive thee were way more failures than successes while coming up with the chaacters."
@Sugar "For every Flynn Devine or Colorato, there were just as many characters and ideas that never took the stage." Misty began. "Some of these never made out of the concept stage." Serena went on. "One idea was 'Classroom Cutters' where everyone would play the silly students to my well intentioned but dull teacher." Misty began. "But the more we thought about it, there was only so many ways to do the gag, so on the cutting floor it went." "Teacher never got a name..." Ash adds. 'Another act that got the boot was 'Stupendous Stephania'." Serena went on. "The idea seemed hilarious in theory--a performer is announced to do something, but the performer never actually does anything. But in practice, it confused the test audiences, and after that one sketch, I told the producers I never wanted to play that character again."
"Wow, talk about falling completely flat." Alyssa was astounded at how some of the characters and ideas were doomed from the start and others fell flat later on in production. In whatever case, this really inspired her in more ways than one.
@Sugar "Not even the boys are immune to rejected and bad characters..." Misty added. "We do try to steer clear of all stereotypes when designing characters." Brock adds. "But it has unintentionally happened before. Once it's brought to our attention, that character is immediately shelved." "Luckily, none of the rejected characters ever made it onto an episode." Ash assured the audience.
"Oh wow, so everyone gets a piece of the rejection pie." Once again, Alyssa was astounded about the number of characters that didn't make the cut.
Martine was fascinated at the creativity that was embodied in these sketches. While she could understand the effort to avoid stereotyping, she also saw it partly as constraining. At some point, creativity would have little room left. "What other characters actually made it, on the other hand? What were they like?" she asked.
@122 Generation (Misty has made a successful character, while Serena's still thinking up some) "My first one that really took off is my character for our melodrama spoof, simply called the Lady in Red." Misty explained. "Since we perform these in the style of an old silent movie, it's actually harder to perform when you can't talk." "I play the piano for those, by the way..." Serena grins.
Once again, Alyssa was excited about the creativity of the characters and how they performed in the sketches. She simply had to ask. "What are the song/s called and how do they sound?"
@Sugar "Unfortunately, we don't have a piano in here, so I can't exactly perform them here..." Serena admitted. "We use a genuine acoustic piano for the melodrama spoof, for authenticity." Brock asks. "So it would be harder to bring one in here."
Alyssa sat back in her seat. "Remind me to keep that in the back of my head for next time." She said to herself. As the questions continued, she began to think of some more.
Martine raised her hand. "Say, do you have characters for specific genres? Like... romance, for example?"
@122 Generation "Yes, and no." Brock replied. "While certain characters were created for a specific sketch, that character doesn't appear in every sketch we do of that genre. I have a few more characters, including a more realistic minstrel, for straight fantasy. Flynn Devine is better suited for a comic fantasy, or fantasy spoofs and parodies."
"I was going to ask the same thing." Alyssa mentioned. "A few demonstrations would be nice to see how everything works."
@Sugar @122 Generation "As much as we wish we could put on a sketch or three here, we don't have the space." Brock sighed. "If you do want to learn more about our sketches and the characters we play, we do have a sketch guide on the Miracle Morning site.
"A sketch guide, huh? I really have to check that out later, sounds like it would be a good read." Alyssa tried to think of more questions.