Jenn Dodd is an entire sketch comedy troupe in one smart, riotous little package. She writes and acts for I’ve Got Munchies, a cooking sketch comedy program that airs biweekly on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. She performed live sketch in a 4-person group called Lolabrigada. Jenn’s must see blog and YouTube channel are her Jenneral Assembly of characters and their stories.

So where do all these people come from? Your characters exhibit all these lovely facets, and then even more detail can be found in your blog entries about them. Are those additional notes that did not make it to the sketches?

I am fascinated by people. I think my characters come from the part of my brain that is (annoyingly) observant of other peoples mannerisms. I’ll find myself watching someone tell a story rather than listening to it; how their lips move, how they use their hands, unique affectations. Countless times, I’m so caught up in observing, it’s an awkward moment when I’m supposed to respond.

My characters are usually based on people I know, people who I’ve observed from my costumer service jobs or a medley of several of them. More often than not, they’re even inspired by an interesting wig that I’ve found. I think I may have a wig addiction. Really. The stories which accompany the videos on my blog are usually done after the fact. It’s essentially me trying to expel any additional information about the character I can think of. Kind of like a character dry heave. Yep, I said it. Character dry heave. [Read more...]