On every episode of Very Important People, Vic Michaelis interviews a different comedian who's been given a makeover and tasked with creating an improvised character. It's this format that has seen them interview just about anyone (and everything) from a giant slug (Paul F. Tompkins) to their own ex-step-grandmother (Lisa Gilroy). Now, the transformation at the center of the show is starting to apply to Michaelis themself.
While they continue to host the third season of the Dropout online series, Michaelis is also stepping into another creative arena. They’ll appear in the new Peacock original Ponies, starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson, a tonal pivot that trades surprise wigs for espionage, danger, and dark humor. Michaelis is also entering the dome on Dimension 20, Dropout's tabletop roleplaying show, marking another first as they take on tabletop roleplaying in front of a deeply invested audience.
In this interview, Michaelis breaks down what it was like sharing a set with Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson and their dream guest for Very Important People.
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On every episode of Very Important People, we get that opening snapshot with the character name and then the little chyron underneath. If you had a chyron, what would it be?Alive. Coffee. Bird.
Because you like birds and drink coffee?I think being alive has a lot to do with coffee and enjoyment, so those three things feel intertwined. Honestly, I think that’s all you need to know about me as a person.If I got in a fist fight with a stranger on the street and they said, “I’m sorry about that, can I grab you a coffee?” I’d go get it with them. Then we’d go bird-watching. I’d say, “That’s a raven,” and if you said, “Yeah, that’s awesome,” I’d give you my phone number, and we’d hang out.
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How much of Vic, the host of Very Important People, is like the real Vic?From day one, it was always a character that lives somewhere deep inside me. The details are a weird mix. The big stuff has nothing to do with my real life. It’s completely fake. We even have a lore keeper, our script supervisor, who writes everything down. If I contradict myself, Johnny will shout, “You said you were a Sagittarius last episode!” So sometimes I make the little details real because it’s easier to keep track of them. I think at one point I said I was Canadian because it was just an easier detail to remember if it came up again.The big stuff is fictionalized, even if the ideas live somewhere deep inside me. Wanting big things. Wanting to be great. Marty Supreme. Wanting to be Timothée Chalamet is sort of my plan for 2026.
You want the confidence of Timothée Chalamet?Exactly. His confidence is very admirable. Also physically, in how he dresses.
That actually tracks. Watching you, whether it’s on Very Important People, Make Some Noise, or on your new show Ponies, there’s this air of authority. Sam will apologize before giving you a prompt. You’ll literally move him out of the chair. Cheryl on Ponies has that energy, too. Do you feel like you give off authority, intentionally or not?I think I have the confidence of someone raised by a single dad whose only move was telling me I could do anything I wanted so often that I believed it. Any further inspection and it all falls apart. You poke at it and go, “That’s not fabric, that’s a plastic bag.” But on the surface, it holds.I was a weird kid. I spent a lot of time alone, mostly by choice, and I loved making up stories. I used to tell people I had an older brother... these were people who knew my family and that we didn't have an older brother... and I’d say, “We’re not allowed to talk about him.” People were very concerned. I’m really lucky that turned into a profession. Otherwise, it might’ve been a problem.If you say something with enough confidence, it’ll get you far enough. It’s the community theater rule. If you sing loud enough, you’ll get the lead. Once you’re there, what are they going to do?
Let’s talk Ponies. It’s a Russian spy thriller. Did you ever imagine yourself in something like that?Can I tell you my dream? Don’t laugh. All I want to do is be in disaster movies. This feels like a step closer. Action-adventure is exactly where I want to be. Twister is my all-time favorite movie. I heard about 9-1-1: Nashville, where there are two tornadoes coming at each other and I said, “How do I get in that?” I thought I wanted to be a meteorologist as a kid. Turns out I just love Twister and want to be in it.
What is it about danger that appeals to you?It’s a soap opera. Heightened stakes make for the best romance. If a tornado is coming and you’re strapped to a pipe with your ex-wife, that’s the time to say you still have feelings. There’s no better moment to confess. Nothing you say is too crazy when an F5 is bearing down and Dorothy is gone.
(L-R) Nicholas Podany as Ray and Vic Michaelis as Cheryl in 'Ponies'C
Ponies balances extreme darkness with comedy. There is a serial killer plot, but also very funny. What drew you to the project?It’s the best script I’ve ever read. On the page, the comedy was already there. David Iserson and Susanna Fogel are just brilliant, funny people. That tonal balance is their whole thing. In other hands, it could feel unbalanced. But they nailed it. And honestly, that mix is my favorite kind of storytelling. Life isn’t one thing. Sometimes there’s a tornado and you’re signing divorce papers. That’s just how it works.
What was it like working with Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson?They set the tone. That’s always true of the people at the top of the call sheet. They were unbelievably kind and generous. We went to dinner early on. We did a lot of karaoke in Hungary. It felt like camp. Nobody was inaccessible. I hope that warmth comes through in the show.
Did you learn Russian for the show? You were also filming in Hungary, so I imagine you learned some Hungarian, too?I speak Russian in the show. And according to two language coaches, I was one of the worst natural Russian speakers they’d ever heard. My Hungarian was actually better because I like connecting with people. I spent so much time in hair and makeup, learning from people there.
The hair and the outfits in the show are really incredible.I've never been on a show where I get to wear the fun stuff. It was a gift. I wanted to take everything home with me, especially all the suits. It was just absolutely incredible.
I feel like that era of fashion really needs to make a comeback.It's kind of my fashion now. It's kind of my only trick.
Coming from an improv background, how much room was there to improvise on Ponies?There was tons of room. Susanna and David were excited about me improvising. Some of it made it in, some didn’t. I didn't perform for six months. It was the longest stretch since I started improv, so having that outlet was really important to me.
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Back to Very Important People. One of the joys of the format is how many different people you work with. What’s that been like?It’s such a gift. BobbyMoynihan was a full-circle moment for me. He was my era of SNL. Performing with him was huge. In Season 3, that moment was Eugene Cordero. He’s a titan of improv. Everything I threw at him, good or bad, he turned into a character choice. It was masterful.
As an executive producer, how much do you know before someone shows up in costume? Are those reactions real?It’s twofold. I help pair improvisers with characters. I have a mood board for the character, essentially. With the babies episode with Jacob Wysocki and Brennan Lee Mulligan, I knew they were doing mouth casts. I did not know what that meant. Seeing it was horrifying. It was the most horrified I have ever been on set. And the end of that episode is legitimately the most... gobsmacked is a word that I feel like is not used appropriately, but my jaw was hanging. It was crazy. It blew my mind. It was terrifying.
I assume there is a big difference between what they might be and what they actually bring to life.That's kind of it. I don't sit in or see the reveals because I don't find it very helpful to know what they're workshopping or exactly what they land on. For our purposes of improv, the hair and the makeup, that's all suggestion for the improv scene. When they come in, that's the starting point. We spend the entire scene flushing things out. People discover things. So I don't want anybody to feel married to something they said after having seen themselves for 30 seconds. Because people are, in that moment, freaking out, wondering what they are going to do with this.The first time I see them in real life is when they arrive on set. We then do last looks. But also, I like seeing people put on the voice and get into character. With Brennan, I saw that for the first time on set and my reaction truly was genuine. He didn't blink the entire time.
There has been some Emmy buzz around the show. But your belief is that the attention should be on the work of the hair and make-up team on the show. Tell me more about that.It is makeup, and it is hair. A huge part of being in this new category means that hair and makeup get to get their flowers for this. Again, if [the Emmy buzz] is going anywhere... if you only get one vote to cast, it should be for the hair and makeup team. That would be the biggest win for the team, I think.
Who are the dream VIP guests?Catherine O'Hara. C'mon. Please. Please. I just think that she would be brilliant. She is my comedy star and all of my favorite comedy is rooted back in Canadian comedies. Having her on would be truly incredible. I don't know that she would ever do it. It's intense. You're in hair and makeup for three to four ouse and you don't know what you're going to be. So I get it. But if she would ever want to do it, we would have her in a heartbeat.
Just give her a lighter makeup day. You don't have to do that much for Catherine O'Hara.Right. Yeah, we'll part her hair different. That'll be her, and I bet it would be incredible.
You are from Canada. There has been so much incredible comedy that has come out of Canada. The ratio of population size versus how many people end up successful in comedy is incredible. I think that people are not looking hard enough at Canadian film and television. One of the really cool things about Heated Rivalry being a Crave original and then coming to the US and being so successful airing in real time is that people will take Canadian content a little more seriously. It's amazing. There's incredible stuff up[ there and I'm glad it's starting to get its flowers.
I am really drawn to moments where you break on Very Important People. What is the type of comedy that you think brings out that reaction in you?People always ask me what my favorite episode is, and I don't really have an answer. Comedy is so deeply subjective, and the point is to honor what comedians bring in on the day. We're bringing in people that have a comedic sensibility and a comedic point of view. Our goal is to make sure that the comedic ideas that they are expressing are honored and put out in a way that hopefully works. The beauty of the show is that every episode is for somebody, even if it's not for you, which is beautiful. I love getting to see my friends shine, it's the best part of the job.All that being said — and this is not a comment on my favorite episode). But there is one person that makes me laugh harder than anybody else. I think it's because we have similar life experiences and have similar thoughts on identity and similar upbringings, and that's Ally Beardsley. They make me laugh harder than anybody else in the world, I think. We just get together, and I don't know what happens. They made me break harder than anybody else on a regular basis. And I do improv with them pretty regularly. We have so many similar touchstones, whether it be random stuff from my childhood. It really is wonderful.
And you're stepping into the Dimension 20 dome with them for the first time.It's the scariest thing I've ever done. Hands down. Point blank. Period.
Why was that so scary?I had originally said no when I got the call. I said there's not a chance. And then David Kearns, at Dropout, asked me to hop on a call with him. I was in Hungary, still filming Ponies. Nothing about being on the show made sense to me. I'm not a D&D player. Shooting was to begin the day I returned from Hungary and I hadn't performed in six months. None of this made sense. None of this lined up. Then David called and told me the show was going to be with all of my best friends. And I said okay.I chatted a lot with Brennan about it. He's an improviser, and he said, "This is a device for storytelling. And I really trust in your ability to tell a story". I said that was the kindest thing that one of my favorite storytellers in the world could have possibly said to me, and it gave me the confidence going into it. It's one thing existing here, and then it's another thing handing it out to people. That's the scary part. People are very invested, and it's a beautiful thing, but also a very scary thing.
Have your feelings on being part of it changed since filming it?Would you go back and do it again?Yeah, I think it would be really situational, especially D&D proper. I'm not a very educated person, but I am a very academically minded person. I dropped out of college. But when it comes to comedy, I am a student of comedy. First and foremost, I love learning about comedy. I like knowing the rules. And so when it comes to D&D, I feel like I don't know it backwards and forwards enough to be confident in what I'm doing. That's how I felt in the first few episodes of Gladlands. I was like, "Am I doing this right?" And then after Episode 2, I was like "I get it." We would do two episode film days, so after the first day, all of a sudden I clicked in. I then sent Brennan an hour and a half worth of voice notes. That's sort of how the end of the season played out. It was one of the most artistically satisfying things I've ever done.
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