RICKY CAMILLERI: Did you think of yourself as a funny person
prior to taking improv?
Or did you discover that you had the ability to make people
laugh when you were doing that?
SUZY NAKAMURA: I know I have the ability to make people laugh.
I don't think I'm funny, if that makes--
if that makes sense.
I don't consider myself funny.
I don't know.
It's a coping mechanism, to be completely honest.
[LAUGHS]
RICKY CAMILLERI: To not consider yourself funny?
SUZY NAKAMURA: No, it's a coping--
comedy is a coping mechanism.
And I think a lot a lot of people would say that, right?
And acting in general, I think, most actors are very shy,
or they're, you know, reserved.
But when you tell them to be someone else,
then they can open up and be a different person.
And that's not rare, is it?
RICKY CAMILLERI: No, that's not rare at all.
I just think Second City is a fairly
difficult thing to get into.
It is, in many ways--
some of the best have come out of there.
And I think you have to be pretty funny.
I mean, you're not just performing when you're there.
You're writing, as well, aren't you?
SUZY NAKAMURA: Yeah, well, you're improvising
and you're writing through improv.
Yeah, but I also think comedy is--
you get a laugh when you tell the truth,
or someone recognizes something, or thinks
you're someone they know.
It's that recognition laugh or that universal laugh.
So I think the more honest you are,
then that's when you're going to get the really good laughs.
[MUSIC PLAYING]