Vic Michaelis on Dropout’s ‘Very Important People’ and ‘Ponies’

I’m looking at Vic Michaelis sideways…Literally.

It’s Friday afternoon, two days after Dropout held its first-ever Emmys FYC event at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, and Michaelis’s Zoom feed has rotated 90 degrees. In traditional Michaelis fashion, they are apologizing for it. “I’m sorry, I look insane,” they say, four clips in their hair, wearing the brown suit familiar to anyone who’s watched an episode of “Very Important People,” the prosthetics-driven talk show they host that’s wrapping its third season on the indie streaming platform. And they’re filming a new fourth season, shooting all the episodes in eight days. They’re currently on day three.

Two nights earlier, Michaelis competed in a live miniature version of the game show, “Game Changer,” alongside longtime cast members Brennan Lee Mulligan and Lou Wilson, with Dropout CEO Sam Reich steering the group through the kind of absurd mini-games that have built the niche platform’s devoted following.

Michaelis has been part of the Dropout fold since the company was still known as CollegeHumor, playing small roles while performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade in L.A., and is now a fixture across the company’s signature platforms, including “Make Some Noise” and “Smartypants.” But the comedian’s mark is increasingly being made outside the sketch comedy space. After a recurring run as Mildred in Season 2 of “Upload,” they landed a series regular role this past year as Cheryl Szymanski in the Peacock spy thriller “Ponies,” opposite Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson.

Now, they are doing Dropout because they want to, and not “just to make rent.” In a sitdown with Variety, they lay it all out.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

It’s a tough industry, especially for someone as kind-hearted as you. How have you navigated it?

I’m lucky. I have a very normal life and a family that, in the best possible way, does not care even a little bit about what I do for a living. They’re very proud of me, and very supportive. Trying to tell my dad I was going to pursue improv comedy as a living was not the easiest conversation. Honestly, the only worse thing I could have told him was that I was getting a tattoo. He didn’t understand it, but he quickly jumped in and learned a lot. He comes to all my shows and watches all my stuff. If I’d wanted to do business, or law, or cut hair, he would have felt the same way about any of those things.

I think it’s important. It is having people in your circle who ground you and remind you that you’re a human being first. This is a town that can make you feel like you’re the only person that matters, and that’s obviously not true. You’re a very tiny piece in a much bigger cosmic puzzle.

If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?

Nurse.

Set the scene. What does Michaelis, the nurse, look like when walking into the room?

I think about this so much. My mom spent a lot of time in hospitals over the last few years, and I spent a lot of time in the medical care system in the States, which is just so broken. Hospitals are where people have their best and worst days. Somebody is getting excellent news and going home, or somebody is getting bad news. So many highs and lows and big emotions. 

Doctors come in and out, and obviously are very busy and have very important jobs, but nurses are the people talking to you every day, dealing with those emotions. It’s a performance in itself. The nurses I dealt with who were the most effective were the ones who could connect with you with a little bit of humor but were also focused and blunt enough to change the course of your day. Could I pull blood? Probably not. That might disqualify me. But I’d like to think I could if I had even one day of training.

What did your parents do?

My dad was in business, like a real road dog. He traveled my whole childhood. When we moved to Canada when I was 15, it was, to my memory, the most time I had ever spent with him. Suddenly, he was around all the time. My parents divorced pretty young, but my mom lived outside Chicago and worked in eldercare, helping elderly people who want to stay in their homes but need in-home caregiving.

You did 14 episodes this season of “Very Important People.” Did you ever think the show would last three seasons? Or even three episodes?

Honestly, I thought I was getting away with murder doing the first one. I wasn’t sure if there was a world at the very beginning of pre-production that the host would rotate. So I said, how do I tangle myself up in this character so much that it’s impossible to replace me with somebody else? How do I become a necklace? You know when you layer necklaces on top of each other and they get so twisted that you have to throw both of them away? I said that’s going to be the VIP. You get rid of me, and if you decide it’s not working, then you’ve got to throw the whole thing out.

I keep hoping you’ll surprise me and have someone like Tom Cruise on the show.

By accident, every season.

Is he there every season?

You have to spot him.

This season, you had one of my secret favorite people, Angela Giarratana from Smosh.

That’s the secret? Make it public. I love her. They’re all so talented at Smosh. I would love to have Shayne Topp and Amanda Lehan-Canto on at some point. The whole cast is so wonderful, they’re all friends, and I’m so lucky to call them friends now. Angela, in particular, has been such a good friend for such a long time. She’s really one of my best friends, and just somebody who’s already obviously known. I can’t wait for her to blow up even more than she has already.

YouTube shows like “Hot Ones” and “Royal Court” were submitted at the Emmys this year. Sam Reich has said, “If someone gets in, it’s a win for all of us.” Do you agree?

Awards, in general, are an interesting thing. You look back on where they come from and the history, and it is special for people to recognize you. Where we’re at within the industry, especially right now, and how new media and independent streamers are viewed by some legacy media, there still seems to be a gate in between. If someone breaks through, we change perception. We’re changing minds. It truly is a community win because it means the gate is open. despite it’s just a tiny little bit. Anybody getting a nomination, “Mythical Kitchen,” literally any of those, it only means good things for everybody. 

You know what they say. “Rising boats flood the town.” What is it? 

“Rising tides kill all ships?” What is it? 

[Publicist chimes in with “Rising tides lift all boats.”]

Oh yeah, “all boats go to heaven.”

Performing with “Game Changer,” it’s not about winning the episode. It’s about creating moments and connecting with the audience. It’s a similar principle here. It’s not about who wins or is nominated. It’s about opening the door and changing the landscape. It’s playing for something bigger than the perceived goal.

I have to follow up on our very first interview in 2024. How are you opening Gmail on your phone today?

I can’t talk about this with you, Clayton. I’m not doing this with you. Downloaded the app. Is that what you want to hear? I got the app.

Did you really get the app?

I got bullied by my friends, and somebody that I respect in the industry, now I have the app. I hope you’re happy.

Are you mad at Variety at all for what got out?

I wasn’t mad. I was disappointed and furious. You know how something happens, and then it just becomes part of your public persona. That is just a thing now. It’s like a part of my cache of things, like pretzel pizza, “can I have a dollar,” or “Evelyn Tucci,” and that I don’t have Gmail on my phone.

I’m glad to provide the service to make you more efficient.

I’m shaking my head, and I want that on the record.

What are you looking for in roles? What do you have coming up?

I’ve got a video game coming out soon, which I’m really excited about. It’s different than anything I’ve ever done. It was an absolute blast. In general, “Ponies” was such a delight. If I could hand-pick the types of parts I would want to be doing, it’s getting to be a fun character in a prestige action-adventure. Like, that’s literally all I would want to do. You know the movie “San Andreas”? I want to do “San Andreas.” I want to be both Alexandra Daddario and The Rock. I want adventurous stuff, monster-y things. There is so much cool stuff to be done and to be made. I remember the feeling I got watching the first “Guardians of the Galaxy” in theaters. It just rewired my brain chemistry. I want to do things that make my dad really excited to see. I’ve been so lucky that the kind of stuff I’ve done has been the kind that makes my dad go, “This is exactly the type of stuff I’m interested in.” That is my guiding principle. I want my dad to be proud of me.

So if you weren’t in it, your dad wouldn’t go to an improv show or watch an episode of “Game Changer”?

For sure. That’s for me. That’s like my heart. It’s weird, it’s fun, it’s indie. I love playing weird, sad characters who think they’re getting exactly what they want, in a monkey’s paw kind of way, where they’re getting their dream, just not in the way they wanted. I love characters like that. Especially when it comes to film and television, doing stuff that’s fun, action, adventure, twisty, turny. Those are the kind of movies I like to watch. Obviously, if you want to hire me, I will do anything literally. Hire me, and I will do it, I promise. But in a perfect world, I want the stuff that my dad and my siblings are going to go watch, cinematic stuff. I hope people keep making stuff for theaters and big audiences like that. It’s what made me fall in love with film. I’m really lucky to be part of this new wave, and I hope it continues.

When you go off to film “Ponies” and come back to do Dropout, is there ever a disconnect?

Dropout is so home at this point. It really is. It feels like home, too, because in the same way that I get to tell my dad, I get to text Sam and be like, Sam, guess what I’m doing, and send photos. Everybody is just genuinely very excited, and it’s really nice to have a place in the industry that feels like a place you can come home to. That’s the reason that, especially when I first booked “Ponies,” people spent a lot of time being like, ” Does this mean you’re not going to do Dropout stuff anymore? Are you going to do less Dropout? And I was like, kind of the contrary. It means I get to do more things I want to be doing. I get to do Dropout because I want to do Dropout, not because, you know, you’ve got to make rent. I think art is better when you’re doing it because you’re inspired and not because you’ve got to eat.

You just set me up perfectly. Looking into the future: Vic Michaelis wins an Oscar one day. Even at Tom Cruise levels of stardom, are you still doing Dropout?

Of course. I literally was talking to Sam this morning. We’re filming VIP right now, and he came over to the set to say hi. It means I’ll have more time and resources to focus on the ideas I’m preparing. You have more weird life experiences. Maybe the timing gets a little funky. It may mean I’m not doing everything, but Sam asked me about “Game Changer,” and I love it. It’s my favorite thing to do. I love puzzles. I’m also very acutely aware of how many people would love to be in my position. “Game Changer,” especially, and VIP, it’s a dream. I get to play exactly the type of character I’ve always wanted to play. Sam gave us a blank creative check to make what we want, and if it works, we’ll keep making it; if it doesn’t, we’ll retool. People liked it and were watching it, and the price we pay is that we’re given creative freedom to keep making stuff. You don’t really see that anywhere. In the climate the industry is in right now, people are putting a lot of money behind things and are scared to take risks. It’s such a gift to be in a space where the best ideas win out. How often does that happen? It feels very rare. This is just a place where, I don’t know, it feels very special.

Do you have imposter syndrome?

I’m adjacent to that. I’m somebody who feels like I get a lot of opportunities because somebody else has passed or somebody else, at the last minute, hasn’t been able to do something. Even with “Ponies.” I was the last one cast, basically. Literally everybody I know was up for it before they came and talked to me. I don’t care how I got into the room. People could have been fighting tooth and nail to keep me from being there. If I get in a room, I’m there. I don’t care how I get the opportunity. I will say thank you and take it, even if it seems like people do not want me there. That’s fine. You don’t have to want me here. Let me show you. If you still don’t like it, then kick me out. That’s no problem. It is sort of that adjacent thing of, maybe I’m not supposed to be in the room, but I’m here. Let’s see what happens.

Anything I didn’t ask that you want to include?

I can’t help but, literally sitting here talking to you about a show I was working on, on the set of another show that I’m working on, feel, as cheesy as this sounds, honestly, unbelievably grateful. If this all went away tomorrow, at least I got to do it. How many people get to say that? I know that’s not the sexiest answer, but that’s how I’m sitting here talking to you right now, with my hair in the craziest clips that they could possibly be.

You know, this story is going to have to start with “Vic Michaelis is sideways on Zoom with clips in their hair…”

[Michaelis rotates their phone, and the Zoom is correctly framed.]

Wait, was it really sideways the whole time?

Yes, the whole time. It’s been perfect.

I’m 100 years old.