For over eight years, Amy Goodmurphy and Ryan Steele have been crafting comedy gold together. They were once part of an ensemble sketch show, whose other members all eventually went in other directions; Steele and Goodmurphy were left to collaborate and create as the pair they are today — as The Ryan and Amy Show. When they’re not busy filming and releasing digital shorts online, you can usually find either of them dabbling in one of the city’s other comedic ventures, most notably the prominent sketch comedy monthly The Hero Show. Read on to learn about the pair’s humble beginnings, their experience with a corporate partnership earlier this year, and how these are all just steps along the comedic journey.
How did The Ryan and Amy Show come to be?
Amy Goodmurphy: Well, Ryan and I met eight or nine years ago. I wasn’t in the comedy scene but I’d always wanted to be; I just never knew if that was a possibility or where to start, and Ryan was doing The Ryan Steele Show, which was a sketch comedy show.
Ryan Steele: I had just started comedy too. I was only six months in.
AG: We just hit it off and he asked me to come to one of his shows, since we had the same type of humour. We were in The Ryan Steele Show for three years together and then people started getting different jobs and we were all getting older, and Ryan and I decided we wanted to keep doing what we were doing. We had like-minded ideas of what we thought was funny and where we wanted to be, so we formed The Ryan and Amy Show together.
What was it that drew you to sketch comedy specifically?
AG: I’ve just liked playing characters all my life. I always felt comfortable doing something, or being someone other than myself. It’s really neat getting to play so many characters, instead of something like stand-up where you’re kind of just yourself or you have your shtick. Some stand-up comedians are characters, but they don’t really switch from that. So I like that idea, I like the wigs, I like the makeup, I like being able to put on an entirely different persona.
RS: For me, it’s similar in that it started at a young age, but I’m not much a character guy. I just loved sketch. When I was younger I watched Second City Television, and even though I didn’t totally understand it, I just knew that I loved it. I did acting throughout high school but I just never thought I could do anything with it, and then I took one of those Tony Robbin’s-type of workshops and the woman told me I should do sketch comedy.
Amy and I work well together too, because she’s more of the character person and I’m more of the idea person/straight-man to her zaniness. It works out well.
How would you describe the sketch comedy scene in Vancouver?
AG: It’s a smaller scene, but I think the quality is unlike I’ve ever seen. People are always talking about Toronto, and I get it, because there are some fabulous comedians out there, but there’s this little untapped community here of sketch, of improv, of lots of types of comedy, but sketch for sure. And I’m really happy that we’re a part of it.
RS: There’s so much room for growth though. When I tell people what I do and that I’m a comedian, the first thing is always, “Oh stand-up! Tell me a joke, where do you perform?” No one ever thinks sketch. They go right away to you’re a stand-up comedian, so obviously it has a long way to come in Vancouver. If you say you’re a musician, people ask what kind of music. With comedy, it’s rare. If you say sketch, a lot of people don’t know what you mean.
Earlier this year you did a collaboration with the website Jack’d, and company partnerships are already a mainstay in the music industry. Could you see the same thing happening in the comedy scene?
RS: I feel like we kept our integrity in that video; it was still a Ryan and Amy Show video, so we did it smart enough that we promoted their app and still shined 100 per cent our sense of humour. It was exactly our type of thing without selling out. We want to do more of that — kudos to anyone who can do similar things, as long as they don’t lose who they are.
AG: Not that it’s necessarily selling out for us. It would be if we only did comedy that had nothing to do with what we really believe in. We’re very thankful for everything we’ve ever gotten, but we’ve done some television appearances or other projects where you know it’s not funny. Not that we’re not thankful. When we did Jack’d, the particular guy found us and said he loved our videos and wanted to work with us, so we did all that ourselves from start to finish. Projects like that are amazing. You get paid, which is fabulous, you get it put on a higher platform, and you get to keep true to yourself. The ultimate goal isn’t to keep doing that, but definitely I’d love to sign up for more projects to get us to where we want to be.
What other projects do The Ryan and Amy Show have on the go?
AG: One thing we’re really excited about is we just signed a contract with a production company out of Los Angeles called World of Wonder. They produce a show called RuPaul’s Drag Race and some other great productions, and we just signed a contract with them to create content. We’ve also been writing a TV show pilot, which is the ultimate goal we should mention. We’ve been writing it for two years with a producer in LA as well, and we’re finally wrapping the bow on it. We’re about to start shopping that around, and that’s what all of this is for. Portlandia’s the best comparison to our script, because there’s a girl and a guy duo who do sketch. We’re really excited about that.
Don’t miss your next chance to see The Ryan and Amy Show live: the pair is presenting two separate evenings of sketch comedy at XY Nightclub on November 17 and 19.
