Ti Coleman

 

Stephen: Gorgeous, I mean, the first question is “name as you’d like it to appear” because this is originally a written interview. I noticed on zoom you’ve got Coach. Is that a preferred title?

 

Ti: With the younger folks it was actually a gender related thing, because to me I present masculine but because I’m still female body a lot of times, especially with young people and with a lot of cis people they will automatically gender me female. And so, when working with young people you know the title is a form of just like helping establish boundaries. So usually it was like Mr Mrs and one day someone started calling me coach I was like that, that’s it that’s the thing. And so that’s what I just go. I’m just coach Ti with young people and it, it works, super well.

 

Stephen Oh, I love that gorgeous. What a fun…. Yeah, language is so complicated sometimes it’s delightful to find something that like feels like it fits

 

Ti: Yeah, it felt good and it also fits my personality as well. So, yeah, people are like “Hey Coach Ti!”, you know even adults call me coach so it fits.

 

Stephen: Love it! Coach! Cool! Gender as you’d like it to appear? How would you describe your gender?

 

Ti: Well, I’d describe my gender as trans masculine, my pronouns are they/them/he/him. So yeah, I think that’s the easiest simplest way to describe my gender.

 

Stephen Cool, what city are you in and or do you improvise in the most?

 

Ti: I am on the Piscataway land known as Baltimore, Maryland, and I improvise… well now everywhere because, you know, global everything, but Baltimore is my home right now.

 

Stephen: Oh, gorgeous. I’ve never been. I very much now just have Good Morning Baltimore stuck in my head. That’s my only cultural touchpoint. Tell us a bit about your improv origin story and or experience. What are you up to? 

 

Ti: Well, I started improv, I’d say 10 years ago something like that probably 12, I don’t know what time is as we said earlier, and I lived in the DC area and so I took a couple of classes with Washington Improv Theater, and I loved it – as soon as I started taking it, it’s you know it’s kind of this thing that I already do in my mind in conversation that there’s a formal thing for it. Let me do it. And then I started doing auditions there in Baltimore and the first team I got on was an indie team – Potluck –  which is I think one of the first indie improv teams in Baltimore. And I just started coming to Baltimore more – it’s actually a home for me my mom’s family is from Baltimore. And eventually I moved there. And, yeah, so I was with Baltimore Improv Group for eight years. I recently parted ways with them in March of last year. So, now I am indie and I do a lot of things with all kinds of groups, I teach with several theaters I teach with Bad Dog theater based out of Toronto. I teach with Coalition theater in Richmond, Maryland Improv Collective I perform with people from all over.

 

Stephen: Cool, I love just the global options that we have nowadays and it feels different than traveling to teach felt, because it’s much more open to anyone. 

 

Ti: Yep.

 

Stephen: Cool. How does being trans influence your improv?

 

Ti: I think it opens me up. I think it makes me really a better player and a coach and teacher because I am a big believer in giving what you need in the world. And so being trans, being non binary, I have needed people to listen better to what I’m offering, what my character choices are and so it makes me more open to that. And also, like I don’t, I am asking people not to assume right? And so that naturally means I don’t need to assume and dropping assumptions makes you a better listener, because then you’re actually paying attention to what someone’s giving you as opposed to trying to fill it in yourself and being a better listener, being more flexible all of those things lead to a lot better improv so just by defining what I need for myself, helped me play better with others.

 

Stephen: Gorgeous. Yeah, I feel really similarly.  I’m so tempted to turn this into like a two hour gab fest but now I have written questions.

 

Ti: Haha, we can have a conversation. I don’t know that…. I mean I know you’re a Virgo so you probably have rules that are unwritten and written but if you, if it inspires some words, share them.

 

Stephen: I work in inclusion, a little bit, and I definitely feel like the, the assumptions thing is something that I work really hard to try and train out of people. I mean it’s never going away because that’s how brains work, but I feel like it just makes improv so much better. And if we’re not explicit about stuff like that people will just naturally assimilate and, yeah, it doesn’t make for good art.

 

Ti: It doesn’t and also improv is about discovery anyway, right? Discovery over exposition. And so I think that the very best improv that I do and watch is people discovering in the moment what’s happening from character relationship building, world building all of that, and those little moments of like, oh wow this is you know, it’s the will, you know, little things like that. And I think that playing without assumptions, leads to more moments of discovery which leads to more magical improv moments.

 

Stephen: Yeah, I super agree. I feel like I’ve definitely been to classes where after a few lines the teacher seems like they know what the end of the scene is already. And like that’s the goal somehow. I don’t get it. Like, write a play! Anyway, 

 

Ti: Yeh, write a play 

 

Stephen: Do you play trans or non binary characters often in improv or elsewhere?

 

Ti: I think in improv usually it’s more of non binary characters, where. Because one thing I say, a lot of times, especially if I’m playing with people I don’t play with is allow me to gender myself if I gender myself at all. And so typically I play non binary characters. I believe to play trans characters in improv… It’s something that I am curious about because of like the level of exposition it would take to be and then also just like how I believe in trans identity is, if, if someone calls me he right because that’s one of my pronouns – to me, that doesn’t erase my trans identity, right, because that’s my pronoun, and so like if I’m playing someone that’s referred to with masculine pronouns that doesn’t necessarily erase the trans identity part, you know, so it’s like what would that line be, because I wouldn’t be saying well actually I’m trans, because anything that they’re referring to I identify as.

 

Stephen Yeah, I feel like for improv especially like it’s hard to play a character that isn’t informed by who you are. So, there’s always that balance, I suppose, besides just sort of announcing it and doing all that exposition, how might you know that the character was transgender or non binary?

 

Ti: In an improv scene?

 

Stephen: Yeah

 

Ti: I think it would be more of just like world building, or you know, like backstory stuff like if it came up right like if someone referred to a before situation and stuff like that and it was just like, you know, that was, that’s who I was, that’s who I am. This is who I am now, things like that but again I think non binary is more of just like how, how they refer to how their titles and things like that. And then if someone was playing trans I think it was more of just how it came out in the scene right like if it just came out in the scene but again I think that when I am playing trans, even if, like my scene partners like, oh I hear you’re Uncle Ti therefore you are a cis man, it’s just like that’s an assumption that I don’t need to break. Because when you call me uncle Ti, that doesn’t erase my transness because that’s how I associate my transness, you know, so it’s weird, it’s a nuance that I don’t feel like it’s going to be translated all the time and in proxy, which I’m fine with, as long as I’m titled, and gendered, the way that I want to be gendered.

 

Stephen: Yeah, I feel like a lot of that also depends on who you’re playing with, and how knowledgeable they are; like if I’m in an all queer group, I definitely think you can push that a little further and or just be more subtle and assume that people are picking up on stuff like that.

 

Ti: Exactly

 

Stephen: You mentioned wanting people to let you gender your own character, um, do you have, how do you feel about playing characters of all different genders?

 

Ti I feel comfortable playing characters of all different genders. I think most experienced improvisers are fine with playing characters of all genders and and, and and wanting to explore that. So I’m fine with that. I don’t, I just like being the one who decides it. Right? And a lot of times what happens, especially with players that I don’t know well are players that are not experienced, we go around we say our pronouns we say well you know, I will say like, this is what I like to play and how I like to be seen and it doesn’t matter because as soon as I get on the scene, it’s like, Mom, Auntie and it’s just, it’s unfortunate because it takes me out; you’re not getting the best of me anymore. You know I’m not fully invested in the scene, because it’s not even, like, oh, you know, you’re irritated because I misgendered you, I mean, because you don’t listen, and that’s like the fundamental thing of improv so if you’ve already negated my choice from the beginning of the scene, then it’s like anything else… It’s like if someone turned your hamburger into a slice of pizza you’re like well if you don’t listen to me, you don’t get the best of me so I think that that’s something that I try to teach when I teach and coach just like how do we get the best of each other. People want to be heard. You know, I mean it’s something even when I do like corporate improv that simple thing of like, let’s just listen to the people, because everyone wants to be heard and know that their choices are valid and we show each other our choices are valid by honoring them yes ANDing them and not just ignoring everything we say and doing, you know, whatever the hell you feel is best. So, yeah.

 

Stephen: I try to coach for similar things, definitely because I very much agree that we need to hear people and see them and respect that. I definitely find that with, I think particularly new students and or people who are still kind of navigating their trans identity just self advocating in those situations is a lot of work.

 

Ti: Yeah, I think.There’s a lot of work we can do so that it doesn’t have to be totally on them, you know, and I don’t think it should be because I think when I mean when I was first navigating, it was a lot! Like it was, I don’t want to you know, I didn’t want to out myself all the time, I didn’t want to feel like, ‘Oh God I gotta be that guy again stopping everything’ you know I have to be the ‘Well Actually’ guy I have to, you know, just suck all the fun out because someone keeps misgendering me and so I’ll just take it… and improv is all about like, you know, the camaraderie the group dynamic, group over self and all that and I think a lot of times, marginalized people, whether that’s marginalized because of gender, sexuality, race all of the things that marginalize us are taught that in order to get along, you have to go along and sometimes go along means sucking it up. And so I had to get to my own place right in my journey where I was like, Actually no, you’re gonna, you’re going to use my.., we’ll stop everything, but the process from figuring out my gender, figuring out how to navigate my gender and then figuring out how to communicate that in all the spaces I was it’s a long process, and I didn’t have anyone asking for pronouns. There was none of that, there was absolutely no… I had to be the person saying, ask for pronouns- I had to be the person. 

Fortunately for me while I was doing that I was also raising up my profile in improv, my profile as a teacher and everything else, so that by the time I was ready to navigate that I was a person people listened to. So I was also able to like make space while I was making space for myself, I was making space for others. But I think that right now… Now that we know right now that we understand what pronouns are and it’s very common. There’s a lot of space that should be made for non binary and trans performers, and they shouldn’t have to do all the advocating for themselves. And it’s not enough to me it’s not enough to just ask if your pronouns are right. How do you, when you’re doing your opening class, how do you like to be gendered in scenes? That’s a simple question, and not make it… not only to the non binary person, right, because that’s what they, that’s what you do, you ask the person who’s different well how do we accommodate you. No, Fuck that, how do we accommodate each other. And if you make everything a standard, you make it so we’re all trying to figure this out, as opposed to let’s stop and point out the one person that’s making it different for us. What changes with that is if everyone answers the question and everything else, then it’s a class question and not, you know, let’s everybody stop because Ti needs extra help. Actually, you guys, y’all need extra help, No, not me. I know how to navigate the world, you don’t.

 

Stephen: Wow, so much of that, just mirrors, my own journey it’s uncanny. I remember when I started asking for pronouns at the beginnings of classes, although I rarely get misgendered because I have a beard and I’m he/him, I met with so much resistance and flat out, like, I was forbidden to do it at certain theaters because they thought it was an unnecessary waste of time. But I so agree that we make the spaces that we need, in a way, and how nice that you’ve managed to achieve some fame and notoriety so that people will listen to you in your neck of the woods as well. Gorgeous. The next question follows on really nicely although we have already kind of touched on it. Does your local improv community know/understand your gender, and if so, how have they been in terms of acceptance or understanding?

 

Ti: Yeah, they I mean they know. I think their journey was like… my journey was their journey. So I was the first non binary performer, improv performer, and I think the first trans… Well no, not the first trans person. I hate when I don’t speak someone’s name, I forgot her name it’s going to come to me after and I’m gonna be like, edit the interview to include her, but there was a trans improviser came out right before me. She was, she’s an indie player. And so I think they… Baltimore understands it, like the Baltimore improv community, like they’ve, they’ve all they’ve not always (understood) but now they’re but really on it, they understand it’s a standard. It’s not even like a, ‘what do we do’ it’s just like ‘this is what it is’. And I think a lot of that is, to, to, like, to credit us yeah I can’t I’m so pissed I don’t remember her name so infuriating sorry attributing and honoring people is so important to me and so I’m really frustrated with myself that I’m having like this whole brain block we had, I, I used to, co host and co produce a show called Foreplay, and it was a sex education and comedy show, and on our gender episode. 2 I had her come out and do the story. This is I’m so sorry. Anyway, I’m going to stop right now because this is, I’m going to go down this road of just flat self flagellation for a while. I can see her right now. Roller Derby, social work, I’m just watching her nevermind, it’ll come, anyway. There have been me and another person I’ve been out for a while now, and Baltimore has been like really great about that, Baltimore. I love the Baltimore improv community so much, there’s been plenty of like harms done but there’s also been a lot of like growth and really really good art that’s created and still being created there. So I’m grateful that that home is there. And I’m also just grateful for the space that I create, to make it so that’s that’s the case. And then also my, my teammates as well with in Casually Dope were fantastic about making space for me and stuff like that. And, you know, yeah like I have to honor them Blue, Rashida…She’s just fantastic as just an advocate, activist, all the time. And, and the rest of my teammates like Jason, AJ, Harold, Jason, Finn, always made me feel very open, you know. I gender myself, most of the time they just gender me masculine because they know that’s my preference anyway so it felt really good.

 

Stephen: Gorgeous. we can absolutely edit someone’s name into the… at least the written part of this 

 

Ti: Yes, Thank you

 

Stephen: I hear it because I’m also terrible with names but, like, that’s an important thing, so… Yep. Yeah. Yeah. How do you feel about cisgender actors playing trans or non binary characters in improv.

 

Ti: I mean, I haven’t seen it so I don’t know. I think one thing that I tell people when teaching coaching is that identity is not a punchline.  And so, I think, if, if they’re playing it, then I would want them to understand the nuance and and not to play it as a punch line. So the only time I’ve seen. I’ve seen people change genders, as a punch line in the scene. To me that’s not playing trans it’s just like being an asshole so I’ve seen like that, like I’ve, but that’s not that I’ve seen people do.  Play, play like a drag character and stuff like that but to me like drag and trans aren’t necessarily the same thing… They’re both like gender things but they’re not the same thing. 

 

Stephen: I’ve seen it a bunch because I teach a class about it and I’m pushy so I make everyone give it a try, and it’s a really interesting kind of journey to watch people go on. Because when cis people have enough information to do it well, I love seeing it, because, like it just makes me feel seen in that way, that like checking pronouns does. But I think in the beginning you either get the punch line or that I’m terrified to cause offence kind of approaches, neither of which are ideal. Alas!

 

Ti: Yeah, I think I would rather a cis person not approach it if they don’t feel like they can approach it. And also because I think it’s, I think you should do it with people that trust you, and you trust, I don’t think that as cis player if you’re playing with people you’ve never played with, you might have all kinds of like nuanced stuff like that but you don’t if you are if people don’t know you, then it’s going to, most likely, like come off as like what are you doing, and I think that you have to understand your privilege in your position and just, you know, make sure that people know who you are, before you do those booths, because it can come off a certain way.

 

Stephen: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I see a lot of people setting very hard rules about what isn’t isn’t okay in improv and there’s a little bit of well so and so said I was allowed to so I’m also allowed in this situation. But yeah, I feel like the real skill is checking who’s in the room.

 

Ti: Yeah. It also depends to me levels. like, there are some levels of improv that I will just say we’re not doing it, you’re not touching it because you don’t know. You just don’t know how to do it yet… I don’t care how informed you are in your regular life like in comedy and improv it takes time to develop nuance and everything else and if I’m teaching and coaching more advanced people, then it’s like okay, let’s make sure let’s handle this but there’s also a level of accountability that I hold people to that it’s just like… If you want to do this, then we’re going to do it right and, you know, I’m going to take you to the fire a little bit to make sure that you’re doing it right but it’s going to make you a better player and it’s going to make you a more, you know, a performer people are going to trust, which I think is really important.

 

Stephen: Yeah, absolutely. There’s nothing like seeing somebody make a move and going -sharp intake of breath- oh no it’s fine.  What are some things that teachers/directors/other performers can do to make sure that trans and non-binary improvisers feel safe and welcome?

 

Ti: I think just defining what, you know what, safe and welcome looks like because I think people say safe, and welcome and then they just keep it pushing and it’s like, you need to  define that.  I think it’s like just defining what safety looks like… Again making things, not making gender things exceptions but just like, this is the rule to how things are offered, just to the class, the question how do you gender yourself in a scene, and not only asking that to someone who has different pronouns than they present. 

 

Obviously checking for pronouns is good and things like that, having different ways for people to talk about how they’re feeling like in the scene, obviously having stops in the scene, all those options, especially in classes and stuff like that. Yeah, and I think just making it more standard, you know, making gender differences a more standard thing and not something that they only do. Also don’t only discuss it when there is someone trans or non binary, right, like don’t only ask that question because someone is present because it could be someone who is not there yet in that journey. And they, so they, they are just going in the world as whenever they present as, and they could just be waiting for the opportunity. And because you don’t see it because they haven’t announced their pronouns you don’t feel the need to ask them, these questions, so you keep it pushing. So just make it standard regardless of who’s in your class. So everyone’s thinking about it, you know.

 

Stephen: Yeah, I, I super agree about asking pronouns, even if there’s nobody in the room who’s getting mis-pronouned, because how we treat people who aren’t there has so much effect on the broader community that we’re creating. Yeah, I love the thought of being really purposeful about that cos we do have a lot of influence. 

 

Ti: Yeah, yeah, your teachers directors coaches like they yeah we are the ones that like really set tones and stuff like that so use that position carefully.

 

Stephen: Yeah. I’m so thinking about examples of trans or non binary characters across all media improv, movies, plays comics. What are some of the best characters that you’ve seen? and or the worst. 

 

Ti: I don’t have any, I’m not going to honor any worst characters, because I don’t like saying the names of people that piss me off. But I think they’re like Laverne Cox obviously she’s fucking amazing. And she, her character that they built for her in Orange is the New Black, I think, was one of the first like layered trans characters that I saw in a non trans non queer environment because usually that’s only, only if everything is queer do you see something layered like that and not like, this is a story, so I thought that was great. Someone who inspires me is Brian Michael Smith, who’s a black trans actor, and he, his character… I think it was a cop on the Queen Sugar, and I still remember the moment that his character revealed that he was trans, and it, it actually affects me, like I was actually… I did not know I needed to be seen and like represented in that way until I saw him have a conversation about being trans, with his friend, and it kind of choked me up, I’m not gonna lie. So I love that and he’s now a series regular I think on another show where he’s a firefighter or an EMT or something like that so he’s someone I look up to because I think there are you know we have like some, we have more visibility for trans women. And I think that’s dope but also like trans men exist too and and so seeing, especially a black trans man being visible like that it makes me really happy.

 

Stephen: Yeah. I super agree about trans masc visibility, I feel like when I see castings for trans actors 9 out of 10 of them are trans femme. And I get it, we’re stealthy but, you know…

 

Ti: um, yeah I know and I have these conversations with my trans friends and it’s just like it is part of the fact that we are stealthy, and some of us like I have trans friends like nah I’m good and so I get that, because not everyone wants to physically transition, and, and identify as trans, you know some people want to transition and identify as a cis person and that is I honestly their, their thing, that’s on them but I also think that having trans masc visibility is super important, and also just in the conversation because I feel like we talked about trans people the default is trans femme folks. And for a lot of good reasons like the vulnerability, the violence against them all that like I believe, you know, my. I’m always like protect black women first so I totally. And also, trans masculine people exist, please.

 

Stephen: Yeah, I get that. Yeah. This is not an official interview question but now I’m, I guess just. I’ve been pondering a lot about sort of trans masc representation, and what it looks like. And I feel like a lot of trans masc people are less visible partly because they’re reluctant to outwardly embrace aggressive masculinity just because toxic masculinity is such like such a negative thing that nobody wants to get near there’s like, there’s a fine line to tow to find that expression. You know what I mean.

 

Ti: Oh fuck yeah I think I most yeah I, my, my journey in gender. A lot of that has been about untangling masculinity from toxic masculinity. Yeah, and figuring out what that and I still sometimes just like with, like I’m leaning this way leaning that way am i going toxic and everything else and sometimes I am and I’m just I haven’t realized it because it’s not, it’s not always this, you know, big expressions of it sometimes just like, why are you making this decision. Why are you making this assumption, you know, so I get that, I think that all people, regardless of gender have to do a lot of work in untangling toxic masculinity and misogyny from their thinking, because I think across genders, across trans accross cis that has seeped into us right, because they that has been the dominant point of view for a very long time. And I think as someone who is… Because I identify as trans masculine I plan on doing more like gender reassignment things. I am very conscious of that because I don’t want to… I don’t want to transition just to contribute to harm, you know, I i don’t want to do that. And so yeah, it’s definitely something that I think about often. I would have conversations about that often, I never want to stop having conversations, because I want to always be holding myself accountable and that my community holds me accountable as well. I’m very community centered person, and so I expect that my people hold me accountable and call me on my shit, because I’m going to do the same to you, and that’s what we have to do, you know. I feel like that’s that’s love to me is accountability to each other and part of me being accountable to my community is making sure that I’m not harming them.

 

Stephen: I very much hear that and I hear the thing about some trans folk not wanting to be visible, I, I feel like part of the reason why I constantly talk about it is like, being in receipt of the privilege that this face gets, if I weren’t really vocal about it and really vocal about feminism it feels a little bit like I’ve abandoned the team

 

Ti: Yeah, it’s hard right because I’m so… man I fucking get it, it’s a lot; being known as trans, being known as queer comes with a lot of things. And so that’s why I don’t, I want everyone to stay on the team. I want everybody like, come on girl, come back, but I also, frankly, get it, it’s it’s a lot to hold and then especially if you, if you consider other intersections with that, like if you consider blackness with that… It’s already going to be a lot. And so, I get it, I totally get it but that’s why I’m, I am glad to be in community. And now we’re in community with trans masc people who are outwardly trans and are still having those conversations.

 

Stephen:  It’s important to me too.This sort of dovetails with the character question but who are some trans or non binary people in the world broadly who you look up to and or in improv 

 

Ti: Should have so many lists, I, I’m going to start with my community, my one of my siblings Blair is non binary, and they’re just, I mean they inspire me all the time because they are so wonderful fiercely femme. And just so whole, and they, I love them that’s why I called them my sib. Theo George is a trans masculine person who is like awesome music, research, just an incredible human being. 

Lee Livingston Perine is a trans man in DC, who does makers lab does a lot of like DC queer stuff. Johnelle, I can’t remember his last name but he’s out and he does New York Public Health things. I don’t know I have a lot of really I’m just naming all the trans people, which is fine. Um, Ia, who does Safe Haven. Safe Haven in Baltimore, Maryland.

There’s a lot of Baltimore and DC is like a just a big ass queer space which I’m very grateful for. But yeah, a lot of the people that I admire people who I either know or am in community with and stuff like that. Because of how they move in the world, it makes my world a little bit bigger. And then just like, you know, all of Pose, you know I just… I love seeing us out there and I like in all the different ways. It’s so funny because I usually have a list just again just needing names I guess my coffee has not hit, but there’s a lot of people that I’m forgetting, and I’m sorry that I started naming people. Because I have messed up pronunciations and all that stuff but it’s fine.

 

Stephen:If you think of any more we can, we can add those into the written on as well. The character, and people that we look up to thing is such an important one for me because I feel like when I talk to cis people about trans stuff, I hear again and again. Well, I don’t, I don’t know any or I don’t have the context or. So just to say, Well, here are some TV shows you can watch and people you can follow on Twitter, feels like a practical way forward.

 

Ti: Yeah, exactly. I think that’s important and I also think it’s just like, just being out as a performer. It’s such an honor, because I know you know I’ve heard people tell me like, Oh, you know you being this person helped me be the person I am. And that feels wonderful because someone else being their person, or sometimes because I didn’t see myself usually that was just like, I guess I’ll just have to be the person. Um, but I think it is important for people to understand that we are very visible, you know that it’s your blind eye, it’s not our lack of existence that’s happening.

 

Stephen: So much so, Yeah. And, yeah, it’s hard work, I guess to be your own advocate and role model but in a way that’s also. Yeah, a really big privilege, when you see it paying off. What’s something special that you and or trans or non binary performers have to offer [Stephen makes a big sweeping arm gesture]

 

Ti:  Is that your trans rainbow? I like that

Stephen: I’ve become extra camp in the year of zoom! Just all of my hand gestures are right up here. 

 

Ti: No no I’m the same way uh yeah I think what I was saying earlier really about, in particular for improv just because of how we approach ourselves is how we approach the world. And so that lack of assumption, that allowing for discovery, I think that that makes us distinct and special. I think performers in general, trans and non binary folks in general, because of when you follow marginalized people and when you allow them to show you how the world should be the world is going to be better, because these are the people that need the world to be better, and they understand because they’ve we’ve experienced so much shit that we can help clear some stuff and so, whenever you have a louder voice if you can find some of the smaller voice, listen to them because they’re going to show you something that you missed. And so I think that people who have experienced their own journeys and identity, have a unique voice that people that never have to consider who they are, don’t have and so that’s something that is helpful.

 

Stephen:Yeah, that’s a gorgeous way of putting it: the loud voice and the softer voice. Yeah, thank you. Is there anything else you’d like to say about being a transgender/non binary improviser that I haven’t asked you yet that you’d like to get off your chest.

 

Ti: No, I think you got everything it’s just. It’s an honour and I want to be in community with more trans and non-binary players. So, if you see me out here in these digital streets like hit me up, and also I kind of think we should start a trans masculine improv thing, maybe, if that’s not already a thing, I think we need to get together in and play, you do some stuff.

 

Stephen: Yeah, I definitely. Yeah, let’s do that

 

Ti: Okay, good, good, good. I was like, you call your folks. I’ll call my folks and let’s come together and even if it’s just a jam but I think we have something special let’s do it.

 

Stephen: Oh, yeah, sold, I’d love that. Cool, so people watching, keep an eye out for that, I guess it’ll be a thing 

 

Ti: Coming your way.

 

Stephen: Yeah, while I’ve got you. Do you have any fun projects or classes or things coming up that you’d like to tell the nice people watching about. 

 

Ti: Yes, I’m teaching some classes with Bad Dog coming up. Probably coalition, I don’t know, go to https://www.ticoleman.com/events , if I put all this stuff there because this thing. Depending on when this is out. I’ll probably be working on bringing black Blackberry Jam which is an all black jam that I do. Yeah, I don’t know ticoleman.com because I don’t know, and also Facebook Ti Coleman IG is TIOLODY but if you look up Ti Coleman, all my stuff comes Google me, and find me and follow me, please I need it. I need validation. Also I do really cool things and I want you to be a part of them. So yeah, find me then we can build  community together. That’d be awesome.

 

Stephen Gorgeous. Thank you so much. I feel like anyone who thinks we shouldn’t strive for external validation just doesn’t have enough of it because it’s delightful isn’t it. 

 

Ti: It is wonderful yeah very open about my needs for and my wants for it because, yeah. I’m a comedian. That’s why do you think I get on stage. Yes, it feels good, but also for the sweet sweet laughs It’s so good

 

Stephen: Gorgeous, beautiful, I’m going to go ahead and stop the recording there. Please go like, follow, and validate Ti. 

 

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