JF: What I realized when I first started doing this stuff and touring a show is that people expect it to be consistent. My first introduction to real-life comedy outside of college was touring this play. It was a very presentational place, but some of it depended on reactions from the audience. We did a tour and we did 85 shows. It was called “Ridgefield Middle School Talent Night.” It was me and my friend, Dylan Maron, we did this — we wrote this real-time middle school talent show where we played all the parts.

CD: Wow. All over the country?

JF: Yeah. We had to learn really fast because people would come back. It was a fun show for people to be in, to see. So people would come back and they would expect the same thing. We realized this was bigger than just what we wanted. Like if we weren’t in the mood, it didn’t matter ‘cause someone had come and bought tickets and we had to provide what they expected. 

CD: How do you think about process? You have these things where you’re not 100% sure what’s gonna happen. How do you fine tune it and make it better, as an artist?