Janet Varney is best known forwell, it depends on what you like her from.
She stars in the audio-drama podcastVoyage to the Starsand hosts the chat podcastThe JV Club.
She is also a founder and director ofSF Sketchfest, running the annual live comedy festival since 2001.
LH:So youre in LA right now.
On location or your normal setup?
JV:Im in my normal setup, my home office.
[As if] shes just a random bird from the area, pecking for seed!
No one is buying it.
I so strongly wish I could communicate to her, no, just stay on the eggs!
just just dont abandon your babies.
That is the number one drama in my life right now.
LH:Poor bird!
Lets talk about your podcasts firstyou have two, is that right?
Ive been doing my podcastThe JV Clubfor like seven years now.
Im around 325 episodes at this point.
The second podcast Im on,Voyage to the Stars, is much newer.
Its an improvised space podcast that I do with Steve Berg and Colton Dunn and Felicia Day.
I play the ships A.I.
Im an alien technology and I have mixed feelings about humans.
LH:Im learning that fiction podcasts all have drastically different processes for getting made.
Do you all record together or remotely?
JV:Definitely together.
I dont know how well I would do an improvised thing [remotely].
No you go ahead!
So Im very pleased that were all in the same room.
Theres a tremendous amount of writing and preparation that goes into it up top.
[The shows creator] Ryan Koppel formats the plot for each episode.
Its a very tightly outlined story.
So its a really rigid way of improvising.
But I love it.
LH:I love seeing the different points on the spectrum of improvisation.
Ive done their show twice.
In one I played a crone who had her own bakery.
They adhere to their overall canon, but other than that, they completely wing it.
LH:OnVoyage, whats your role as producer?
I work withEarwolfto get our studios booked, all that stuff.
I dont sit in for edits.
I get to just enjoy it as a listener when they come out.
Im always excited to hear what theyve added.
Like if Felicias like Oh I cant believe thats a talking carrot!
we dont necessarily make a carrot talk in the moment, but youll hear thisburble burble burblein the background.
LH:And you make a web series too?
Its a mix ofCurbandPortlandia.
Its a bunch of people playing jerk versions of themselves, other people playing [fictional] characters.
Its also like very magical-thinking sketch oriented.
LH:How did you take that show from idea to production?
What was the process?
I had the idea many years ago after my one and only experience seeing a psychic.
I love the idea of psychics.
I wish that I felt like they were real!
But I cant say that my experience gave me much faith.
People want that to become truth so much that they create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So there was this man-on-the-street element to it.
And then it ended up with this fanciful alternate reality version that lampooned LA.
We had a bunch of stuff we really wanted to do.
Scenarios forFortune Rookieare so easy to come up with its almost gross.
and give them these kind of scenarios and what are their problems what are there.
What kind of reading what I do for them?
Theres so many weird real-life ways of telling futures and fortunes.
That was the first time I wrote for friends, and it was so fun to write!
Ive never had an easier time writing anything.
When we started shooting it, I was giddy.
LH:So thats three projects that youre bringing a guest on each episode.
What do you look for when youre choosing a guest?
JV:Thats a great question.
With talking to people about their teenage years, everybody is going to have a great story in them.
By having so much time between you and that version of you, you gain some perspective.
Maybe you have a sense of humor about it, maybe you feel some compassion.
Its a wonderful way to get to know someone very quickly.
LH:Are there any ever any challenges to getting a certain guest, or making schedules work?
JV:For sure for sure.
It becomes a bit of a logistical nightmare, but somehow it always works out and stuff gets made.
That is a champion friend right there.
So you have to be willing to be flexible.
LH:Have you found any specific tricks that help?
Has there been any strategy of trying to cluster people and cluster recordings or shoot altogether?
JV:Weve learned the hard way that its always safer to do something on a weekend.
They of course take precedence.
You squeeze in a Sunday morning here and there.
LH:Lets talk about the S.F.
Can you tell me about your role in co-founding that?
I had been bitten by the San Francisco bug when I was about 13.
I just couldnt get it out of my mind.
There I met my (now many-years-running) two partners, Cole Stratton and David Owen.
There werent a lot of venues that allowed for that or were made for that.
The stages are built for one person with a microphone.
That was our first year, a six-group local sketch fest.
We sold out every show but one, because wed gotten great coverage from theChronicle.
We asked people to submit from all over.
Its still just the three of us [programming the festival].
We have an amazing staff that comes on for a very very short period before and during the festival.
And this next January will be our 19th, which feels really weird to say.
JV:Its very challenging, actually.
There arent a ton that fall within a certain range.
Every year we have our mainstays and were so lucky and happy theyre there.
But there is also a lot of shifting in San Francisco.
People like Dave Chappelle and W. Kamau Bell got incensed to hear that.
They did a press conference on the City Hall steps.
So theyre really lobbying to keep that iconic spot where it is.
But the economy in San Francisco is bananas right now because of one of many tech booms.
This one doesnt seem to have slowed.
So the cost of living has become exorbitant, rents have gone up for businesses.
Luckily a lot of tech people like comedy.
So weve been able to stay in business.
Its three weekends and almost every day in between, we have shows running.
Those things will always be challenging.
And then there are other things that take care of themselves now.
LH:Are there any creative solutions you found for transportation?
This persons supposed to take this person to the airport, but theyre stuck on the bridge.
JV:It almost makes up for the immense amount of traffic its brought into the city.
I wasnt part of some private repertory.
And Im so glad they did.
It was really the first time that I had officially done comedy.
And swiftly thereafter, we founded the festival.
So there were there was always a behind-the-scenes view.
And because I was doing sketch, I never stopped writing.
And I could not live like that.
That would make me go crazy.
So for instance, you asked about what I have coming up to shoot on screen…I dont!
I helped develop and launchHuffPost Live, which was never something I would have imagined doing.
I said, I dont have a degree in journalism.
But Im so glad I did it.
LH:So you must also have to make some hard decisions.
Has there been a time you had to turn something downor a time you did and wish you hadnt?
JV:I dont know that there has been.
Its kind of more small stuff.
I mean I certainly learned doing HuffPost why that was not something I would be able to sustain.
I have too many other things going on that I couldnt stop doing and wouldnt stop doing.
It didnt come down to having to make that choice, which was great.
There are definitely auditions that come up that now mean something different to me.
Like if something shoots in New York half the year.
I have too much stuff thats tying me to the States and specifically being in town.
The anxiety is drilled into you when you come into show business, This could be your last job!
And they do it for you, and do things just for the fun of it.
The idea of being somewhere really far away for an indeterminate period of time is very difficult.
JV:Oh my gosh.
Currently Im going through a realRuth Rendelljag.
Im currently listening toAstas Book, which she wrote under a pen name.
ButAstas Booktakes place in two different time periods.
One of the protagonists is a Danish woman living in London in 1910ish.
You learn a lot more than you thought you would listening to a mystery.
LH:What is something you are still trying to figure out?
It is a challenge to me to sew together some of the different things I do.
But its outside of their fandom.
Thats what were into.
