Podcast episode 492ish: Ryan Beil

This episode is brought to you by baseball and fish. Those were the recurring themes in our hour and a bit with actor/improviser Ryan Beil. He's a huge baseball fan and part-time fish. Last time Ryan was with us was eight long years ago. In this episode, we find out a little-known fact about his old Ryan the Trainee character from the A&W commercials. He also creates a joke out of thin air, tells us about auditioning for a French play, getting roughed up by George Costanza, and explains the term "corpsing."

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Apr. 29: Ryan Beil

Photo: thisisitstudios.com

Ooh, I'm really looking forward to tonight's show. Ryan Beil was last (and first) with us eight years ago, in June of 2010 and it remains one of my favourite episodes. He's just fun to talk with. I have no idea what we'll talk about, but who cares? Ryan is one of the funniest improvisers around. And he's all over the TV set. My wife will be watching some movie on some woman's channel and I hear Ryan. A commercial will come on and I'll hear Ryan. He also runs (somehow) the greatest little comedy venue in town, Little Mountain Gallery, as well as being the Ed McMahon to Paul Anthony at Talent Time. He'll be scooting over from his weekly Sunday Service show at the Fox Cabaret, which, if you haven't been, is one of the funnest shows going.

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Root Bear 2.0

Let's go for three video snippets in a row. What can I say? I was on a roll. The Ryan Beil episode from 2010 was one of my favourites so I thought I'd put together a preview for it. Here, Ryan talks about his famous A&W television commercials.

August 1: A fun repeat

I'm away this week but we've got a lively show to replay. It truly is a very special encore presentation. Jessie Award-winning thespian and comedian Ryan Beil visited the studio a couple months ago and we had a grand old time. If you haven't heard it already, you can catch it again tonight. If you have heard it already, it ages like fine wine and you'll enjoy it even more and catch what you missed from laughing so hard the first time.

Or something like that.

Episode 194ish - Ryan Beil

Here's a modern day classic episode. When Ryan Beil visited our studio on June 13, 2010, he was but a struggling actor with four Jessie Richardson Award nominees to his credit (and one extremely successful and funny series of TV commercials for A&W). Today, a short two-and-a-half weeks later, he is an accomplished award-winning thespian (and comedian), having taken home the Jessie Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role for the eponymous character in Billy Bishop Goes to War. That's the kind of pull What's So Funny? has. But apart from all the pomp, this was just a super fun (and funny) episode I think you'll all enjoy. Listen today and say you heard him when he would still do shows like this. You can click on the gizmo below or go download the thing onto your iPod machine over at iTunes.

June 13: Ryan Beil

Tonight on the big show we've got a big guest. Not physically. But big in stature. Ryan Beil has had an amazing year. Eight days before the Jessie Awards, to be held at the Commodore on June 21, Beil is sitting pretty, if nominations are any indication. As the Georgia Straight reported, "Beil received two lead-actor nominations in the large-theatre category (for his work in Billy Bishop Goes to War and The Comedy of Errors), a lead-actor nomination in small theatre (American Buffalo), and an outstanding-performance nomination in the theatre for young audiences stream (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)."

And if there were awards for Canadian commercials (and there probably are), Beil would clean up there, too, with his Ryan the Trainee ads for A & W. I'm a guy who switches channels at the first sign of a commercial but I always watch Ryan's, not just because I kinda know him, but because they're funny and he's so good in them. He's made junk food and coronary disease cool again.

The kid is going places, needless to say. And the first place he's going to is our show tonight, 11 to midnight. Ryan will be joining us straight from his weekly improv show, The Sunday Service at the Hennessey on Broadway. Yes, he does improv, too. Actor, improv artist, and fast food employee. That's the trifecta right there.