We’re back. Did you forget about us? You shouldn’t have. We were hot and heavy in March. Then we ghosted you for a bit. But now, it’s summertime, and we’re back, easy, breezy, and beautiful. We have sun hats and sundresses and wedges—or, at least, Kara does.

But we didn’t decide to come back just to talk about Kara. We’ve got a really exciting preview of our new podcast series, Heavy Flo with Puss and Kooch, which will start in August. But before that, we thought you needed to know about a show called Want and Need by Kristin OBrien and Zach Mason It’s at DCAC, and it opens on Friday, July 19. We’ll be there on opening night, so you can sit with us.

The show features performers Analía Gómez Vidal, Caroline Chen, Erin Murray, Sam Schifrin. So go! You can purchase your tickets on Zach and Kristin’s website.

In the meantime, you can listen to the podcast on repeat until the show starts and enjoy this wonderful conversation we had with Kristin. She’s an awesome person who has some really awesome stuff inside her brain, and we loved digging into it.

A conversation with Kristin OBrien

We talked with Kristin about the idea and effort behind constantly creating. We also talked with her about Barbara Bush—Puss and Kooch loves talkin’ some bush—and her partnership with Zach Mason, with whom she created, directed, and produced Want and Need. 

Some of the following questions and responses have been edited for clarity. To hear the full conversation with Kristin, listen to her podcast episode.

Do you teach at all?

I have no desire to teach, which feels really shitty to say. I feel ashamed of it, but I’ve never wanted to be a teacher in my life, of anything. I hosted a couple Harold Night jams, and I hated it. I never want to do that again. 

I think because I do stuff with kids now—that’s not teaching, thank god—I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything in terms of doing some sort of social good. 

What do you do with kids? 

I just came from Alateen. Al-Anon is for friends and family members of alcoholics, and Alateen is a group that’s just for kids. This is the only one that’s in Montgomery County, and there are only three in this part of the state. There’s one in DC, one and Prince George County that’s closing, and the one we just started two years ago in Montgomery.

I love doing that. It feels good to give kids a place to talk about that stuff and not feel shame. And that’s what improv does for me, in a way. If you don’t know, Zach and I do really dark, gloomy, and introspective comedy all the time. I love doing that, and it’s cathartic for me. I think that’s what I get through doing Alateen, giving kids a place to just talk and be themselves. 

I recently relistened to Zach’s podcast episode, and he talked a lot about you guys being “that person” for each other through Harold auditions.

Yeah, that was really nice, to have someone who has anxiety like I do—we’re both high-key anxiety people—with me. 

Suggesting to each other, “How about we just not do this?” as an escape is a thing Zach and I do all the time. Our first Zach and Kristin show went off the rails because the tech didn’t work. The plugs on the stage didn’t have any ele...