David Tennant Does a Podcast With… · Sony Music Entertainment / No Mystery

Ben Schwartz

·1 hr 13 min·4 clips

Ben Schwartz got his start at UCB by becoming an intern, taking garbage out, and giving out tickets.

1. David Tennant Does a Podcast With… Ben Schwartz centers on comedy, improv, and the path from childhood performance to professional work. 2. David Tennant is the host, and Ben Schwartz is the guest because he is both an actor and an improviser with experience on DuckTales and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. 3. The episode asks how Schwartz built a comedy career from fear of failure into a practiced improvisation skill. 4. Schwartz says he avoided auditioning for the college comedy team and the high-school musical because being told he was not funny or not good would have crushed him. 5. He describes a later performance at The Pit, after UCB, where someone complimented the way his brain made scene connections. 6. Schwartz says that compliment made him feel like he was flying and was the first time someone singled him out for that specific kind of thinking. 7. Tennant and Schwartz compare family humor, with Schwartz describing a mother who is spontaneous and a father who is witty and brain-forward. 8. Tennant tells a childhood story about a nativity play, a tea towel on his head, and a teacher telling him to stop showing off. 9. Schwartz says that moment in the kindergarten classroom showed him comedy could change the mood of a room and get him out of trouble. 10. The two discuss how improv works as a learned skill, with Schwartz saying he can teach rules and scene patterns even if he cannot teach someone to be funny. 11. Schwartz says his instinct in rehearsal is to make things entertaining, but that he sometimes has to fight that instinct when directors want emotional truth instead. 12. He explains that he has done dramatic improv scenes for auditions, including fights, breakups, and burying his soul with another actor. 13. Schwartz says his biggest acting nightmare is finding that his lines are missing from a script page when rehearsal starts. 14. He says Radio City Music Hall felt possible because improv gives him no mistakes, only responses to what happens next. 15. Schwartz describes touring for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with James Marsden and says many people recognize Marsden from the films. 16. He also explains that in places like Brazil he relies on local dubbing partners, because the promotional setup changes from country to country. 17. The tone is loose, self-aware, and theatrical, with Tennant and Schwartz interrupting each other, riffing on tea, dogs, and old press tours. 18. The format feels like a long, conversational hangout that moves quickly between career history and shared jokes. 19. Listeners who like improv, acting process, and comedy careers will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly structured or plot-driven interview may skip it.

As heard by us

A loose comedy chat that turns stage fright and ambition into something tender.

David Tennant and Ben Schwartz open with a playful, slightly awkward note, then settle into why Schwartz wanted to perform at all. The Saturday Night Live memory gives the conversation its center: awe first, confidence later.

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Why you'd press play

If you want improv nerves wrapped in a sideways celebrity chat, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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