Robin Rothman is an actor/musical improviser and singer/songwriter from NYC by way of Philadelphia. An award-winning stalwart of New York’s Musical Magnet Mixer, Robin is known across the globe thanks to her virtual shows brought to you live by the power of the internet. Fresh from playing Las Vegas, she sat down to talk with me about her alter-ego, Trudy Carmichael, lounge cabaret star, and impresario.
📍theSPACE @ Surgeon’s Hall – Haldane Theatre
📅 Aug 5-13, 15-27
🕖 16:20
🕖 Running time (approx.): 50 minutes
👥 Created by: Robin Rothman
💰 From £6.00
🎂 14+
🎭 Wheelchair Access & Accessible Toilets
Could you tell me a little about you and your creative path, where you began, and how that’s led you to where you are now?
I guess I started out a big theatre nerd, ever since I was a little kid in the states, and then eventually decided that I had to go and just do as much theatre and things like that in school, where I was introduced to short-form improv. It was through ComedySportz, which has a national and global presence.
Then I came to New York after college and went to see some shows with a friend at UCB, which was at the time, the big game in town; there was an indie team, ‘I Eat Pandas and Friends,’ and they were doing long-form improv; I was blown away! They were improvising full-blown musicals! As a child I loved musical theatre, and I would make up songs on my own all the time! I was instantly in love.
And then I went to Las Vegas. I must have been 24/25, and on another trip with my family. We were hanging in the Barbary Coast Hotel and Casino, which doesn’t exist anymore. There was a lounge act there and I just thought they were super fun and really cheesy.
I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be fun to do an improv Las Vegas lounge-act kind of show?
I returned to New York and found someone to direct the show. I got an accompanist who had been playing musical improv. We even held auditions and through the rehearsal process, my character Trudy Carmichael was born.
It was five of us in the show, and we were together for a couple of years doing shows at various places: did some cabaret shows, we did shows at improv theatres, and then kind of ran its course. We disbanded.
Then a few years later I was co-producing the New York Musical Improv Festival with a friend of mine. We decided that we should do a mixer: an opportunity for people to come, hop up on stage with some veteran improvisers, so that they too can do a scene into a song.
We needed a host, and my friend said, ‘didn’t you used to this Las Vegas lounge character? Why don’t you host mixer as Trudy Carmichael? It just kind of went from there.
That mixer ran from 2009 all the way up to the lockdown; as a matter of fact, the day that we had our lockdown start in New York, the, it was supposed to be the 11th New York musical improv festival. We had had people flying in from all around the country and even had people coming from the UK. People were getting stuck in New York; it was just kind of mayhem.
Back around 2017, I’d also decided to take the character on the road, and try a bunch of festivals, and so my show ‘Trudy Carmichael Presents The Improvised One Woman Show’, was born! I’ve been performing at various festivals for 5 years or so now.
Does it still bring you the same joy as that first time you got on stage?
It definitely does. I find it’s still evolving. I’m going to workshop ideas over the next month in New York: there’s an NYC to Edinburgh Fringe Festival for people going from the states to Edinburgh. I have a few ideas, I’m framing the show differently this time. Four years ago at the NYC International Fringe Festival, I did ‘Trudy Carmichael Presents: The Improvised One-Woman Herstory’. I would have people give me a suggestion of a woman from history and improvise cabaret as that historical figure. In this show, there will be a little bit of a different approach, but it’s always so very different because every audience is so completely different.
It really depends on the interaction that I have with the audience and myself. I always encourage people to engage with me throughout the show: it’s a fully transparent, breaking the fourth wall, kind of experience…and that’s what makes the show so much fun to do. That’s something that was definitely lacking over the past year and a half. The virtual shows were fun, and good practice while I was locked down, but it’s not the same.
So, it’ll be your first time in Edinburgh, how does that make you feel?
I’m very excited, and everybody I talk to says, ‘you’re gonna fall in love with Edinburgh immediately, it’s the most beautiful city on the planet.’ I was supposed to come 2 years ago, but I’ve been wanting to come for the past 10 years or 15 years. I had thought to myself, what could I bring to that festival? What show could I bring? And so finally I got the show and then a pandemic happens!
So, tell me about the other people working on the show with you?
I have a musical accompanist, John Thorn, an Australian who lives in London. He’s gonna be driving up and I believe he’s bringing his daughter with him too, because she sings. So I think she’s gonna do some performing as well. I have my husband coming with me too, for the first 2 and a half weeks, as my M.C.
Then I’ll most likely find somebody to take over his role when he has to leave. Something that I’m going also ask my venue is if it’s possible to bring in other instrumentalists to fill out the band. It’s something I’ve enjoyed doing in the past with my show; cycling in other instrumentalists.
It’s gonna be such a huge learning experience for me. I’m just so looking forward to meeting all these different performers from all over the world, and possibly collaborating with some of them on different things, and hopefully doing some spots in shows with other people. This is going to be crazy, interacting with everybody after being locked in our rooms. My biggest concern is just taking care to not lose my voice during the run, I’m wary of the Edinburgh flu!
I’m gonna get a booster before I head over. I had Covid about a month and a half ago, thankfully, it wasn’t that bad. I just want to take so many things out of the equation, because for a week I had no voice at all. I’ve invested far too much time and money to take chances.
I certainly welcome if people want to wear masks in the theatre. I’m being very cautious myself, so when I’ve been flying to and from Vegas, I have my N95 mask. Then when flying out to see my parents, his side of the plane were wearing mask – I didn’t pick seats ahead of time, hence the separation – my side was mask-less. I had two unmasked people either side of me. The woman next started coughing all the time; I covered myself with blankets, as well as my mask! I don’t want to get anything; masks in very highly populated areas make sense to me. Why do I have to deal with it? Why do I have to get sick?
Let me add my own voice to this: we want the Fringe to be a success, so wear a mask when you’re in crowded places.
Back to the show, what should an audience expect, who is it for?
Well, it’s a comedy cabaret, a wildly unpredictable experience where we’re really building a show together. The audience is gonna be giving their suggestions, however they want, but it’s really just an open dialogue between me and them. I think we’ll be starting from a place when I ask them to name something that’s really challenging them, and then run through an arc where your problems are Trudy’s problems.
So, we’re gonna kind of sing our way through whatever’s troubling us. Trudy’s had a hard struggle in the past and all sorts of different triumphs and tragedies, but she just gets through everything through song.
That’s sort of her philosophy: no matter what happens in life, music makes everything better…music and singing make everything better. My goal is to take people on a journey, finding laughter through the tears; making it a cathartic kind of journey. I’m not trying to depress anybody, or take things to a really dark place, but Trudy’s not afraid to call things out and get into some deeper things to raise people up, and find the joy and laughter.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s also a lot of just silly antics. I want people to come away feeling better, having had a unique experience, because it really is different every time. No one will ever have the same show we did.
And so is Edinburgh a stepping stone to anything else after?
I really do have a dream of taking it to a larger cabaret stage. Back here in NY that could be at Joe’s Pub, a venue that’s been on my list for a very long time.
I think I’m just trying to build up an audience more, make sure I can sell it to different people. I’m excited about Edinburgh audiences because I’ve been told they’re more open to stuff that gets weird/unpredictable and you can be completely out there with it.
My show in Vegas, that audience that was a little more conservative I felt…like a little more reserved. I felt that I had to open them up, like really like kind of pull them along with me a little bit more, before I really cracked them.
I just anticipate that Edinburgh audiences are just gonna be open to everything, and ready for anything. I think that I want to just carry those experiences with me to give more confidence in myself to approach larger venues. I think that this show can be in any kind of venue. Yes. I definitely plan on touring with it more.
I would like to do some touring through Europe after the show, and bring it to different communities, different community groups. It’s something that I can adapt for a lot of different audiences. I can even adapt it for student audiences; I’ve done corporate events before; I’ve hosted a lot of different awards. I’d like to get more involved in doing corporate events, Trudy’s a great host.
I’d also love to do an off-Broadway run, or maybe something in the West End; expanding the band would be great, possibly get some backing singers so it can really blow it out…absolutely blow up the experience: bigger, better, faster, longer…all that!
And what would a good Edinburgh run look like for you, after the act, looking back on your time here?
I think if I was able to get good audiences for every show, sell out maybe? I just need to put, keep putting that energy out there that we’re gonna sell; we’re gonna sell out every show.
Also, I’d like to feel I’ve made a lot of good connections with people and have made some new friends. I want to feel like I’m at the start of beautiful friendships with people out performing in the world, and potentially future collaborators. That’s probably the biggest thing that I’ll be using to judge how successful my run was. Because I mean, I’m not gonna make the money back! This is my big investment in myself, and I believe in the show enough to be taking this leap.
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