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Artist Spotlight Brian Jordan Alvarez

Where did Marnie T. come from? Is she you?

I would not say she's me now. I realized I listened to a ton of self-help in my life, probably starting in my very early 20s. I've absorbed a lot of it, and a lot of it is good wisdom that can help you feel better in your life. She's sort of an amalgamation of all that coming out. She's a blend of that which is relatively earnest and my very comedic side.

But a lot of these characters were born during the pandemic under lockdown, right?

Yeah. I mean, they were basically all born out of the out of the pacing around in [my] apartment environment. I thought I want to keep doing them as the world reopens, and I think that will be relatively easy. I'm grateful that there was this birth moment for them.

Do these characters come out of certain aspects of your life?

Yeah, I guess so. I feel so grateful that I went to I went to North Carolina School of the Arts for my senior year of high school. It's this amazing acting conservatory. Bob Moyer was the head of the program when I was there. We would do hours and hours of improv, and it was the original improv, like Viola Spolin theater game. I don't know if I'm remembering this right, but we were not allowed to be funny. We weren't allowed to go for the jokes. I got so comfortable just sitting, making things up, like making entertaining stories. Sometimes [my characters] are loosely related to my life, but mostly I'm just spinning on some improv, and it's nice because they move at my pace.

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Carisa Kissane

Update: 2024-05-20