Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler

Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler is a comedy interview show that treats a celebrity sit-down like a rowdy hang between friends. Aisha Tyler runs the room. Episodes open at a sprint, with sponsor reads she fills with jokes and opinions, quick updates on her own projects, such as tapings of Whose Line Is It Anyway or a comedy night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and an introduction that makes no secret of how much she likes the person across from her. From there the talk loosens into banter. Then it turns to where the guest came from. Most of the guests in these episodes are actors, and the origin story holds most of the conversations together. Michael K. Williams, the actor behind Omar on The Wire, appears in a bonus episode made for app subscribers. He recalls reading three parts in a single audition, being told he could have any role he wanted, and deciding on the spot that he was done dancing. Jaime Camil talks about the nuts and bolts of the job, explaining how much more usable screen time a day Mexican television demands than an American set does, and noting that Jane the Virgin already shoots well past the usual page count. Jessalyn Gilsig tells of a New York play that fell apart in rehearsal when the money disappeared. Her hero in that story is Julie Harris, tiny and immovable, insisting that you cannot promise actors work and then take it away. Not every thread is about craft. Jerry Ferrara talks about a mother fierce enough to confront a man on his behalf, and about the sudden death of his father, something he says he rarely discusses. Emily Bett Rickards and the host trade memories of teenage years spent drinking in parks and woods, a stretch of life that needed nothing more than booze and somewhere to sit. That range is the show's real draw. It can be raunchy, irreverent and happily profane one minute, then quiet and sincere when a guest opens a harder door. Side roads into family and other asides are part of the texture rather than dead air. The closing plugs lean toward pop culture, pointing listeners to events at Comic-Con and E3. The sign-offs are pure affection, with the host hailing her audience as an army and telling them they are legion. For anyone curious about how acting actually works day to day, the Jessalyn Gilsig and Jaime Camil conversations are good places to start. The Jerry Ferrara episode shows how far the host will follow a guest once the jokes stop.