Matt Meese, One of the World’s Best Sketch Comedians

Background on Matt Meese

Matt Meese is one of the most talented sketch comedians operating in the industry today and a key member of “Studio C.” This blog provides fascinating details about who he is and how he rose to fame. 

Today many comedians and artists are making their name online rather than breaking into the industry through comedy clubs. Matt Meese is a great example of a comedian and sketch artist who has seen fantastic levels of success through his endeavors across video sites such as YouTube. 

Although Matt was born in New Jersey, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and spent most of his childhood there. Matt has three siblings and is the middle child of the family. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Brigham Young University. 

When Matt was growing up, he always loved the idea of making people laugh but was never completely sure of his talents. His inspiration for comedy stems from the unfortunate things that happen to all of us on occasion. Rather than focusing on the big events, Matt hones in on the smaller occurrences in life that people let get to them. Matt has found that laughing about things helps him deal with stressful situations and realize that things don’t matter as much as they seem to at the time. 

The Birth of “Studio C”

“Studio C” originated from Divine Comedy, a group that Matt formed at Brigham Young University with a few fellow students. According to Matt, it took a full year to bring “Studio C” to fruition after deciding that was the direction they wanted to go. This included building the sets and ensuring that they looked different enough for each episode. It also took time to decide on the right name for the show and get the scripts ready for action. 

While the original comedy group was created for BYU and Latter-day Saint culture, “Studio C” targets a far wider audience. However, for Matt, this was never a difficult transition. The comedian has stated in interviews that this was just a matter of finding topics and ideas that everyone could relate to and essentially just find funny. 

As one of the creators and producers of “Studio C,” Matt is always involved in the sketches from the ground up. However, he cites the team members as people who make things a lot easier for him. Indeed, Matt has worked hard to surround himself with various talented individuals. Matt then throws in additional ideas and puts his own spin on a lot of the sketches. 

Finding Inspiration

Matt finds that his best ideas arrive early in the morning; however, he won’t nail down the details until much later. Many of the ideas that Matt comes up with aren’t used at all but can be the starting points for some fantastic concepts that are made into sketches. Matt acknowledges that all his comedy isn’t gold, but he is never afraid to experiment with different possibilities to ensure that he is pushing his creativity further. 

Clean Comedy 

Studio C” is incredibly popular and some of the videos on YouTube have millions of views. The channel also has over 2.43M subscribers. This is impressive, particularly when you consider that the comedy is often both politically correct and clean rather than being crude or not family-friendly. Matt believes that it isn’t hard to get comedy to this point where everyone can enjoy it. He claims that he often bases the comedy on what he feels good about and what he feels is funny. The group is never working to make everyone laugh but works hard to ensure that their videos provide the right level of quality that the audience has come to expect. 

Matt always knew that he wanted something that his whole family could watch together and enjoy. He believes that through comedy he can help bring families closer together, and this has always been born out of his gospel principles. Matt also feels that the greatest way to make people happy is through comedy. 

A Bright Future 

As well as being the creator and writer of “Studio C,” Matt has been involved in numerous other projects including “Freelancers” and “Bring the Funny.” Along with his fellow “Studio C” team members, Matt is always looking for fresh avenues to explore and is now working in a new production company called JK! Studios. However, he has said he would like to continue making guest appearances on “Studio C.”

Matt Meese Interview Transcript

Charan: All right, we are rolling. And I am now talking with Mr. Matt Meese, who has been a good friend of mine for, man, years now.

Matt: Yeah.

Charan: Because we met, well, this was during the BYU days when Matt was doing Divine Comedy. I never was in Divine Comedy, but we happened to do a video together about—

Matt: And what a video it was [crosstalk 00:01:24]. Actually, it was, like,  a series of videos, but it was one video chopped up, right?

Charan: Yeah.

Matt: That’s what it was?

Charan: Yeah, exactly. And it was about Cosmo. The [crosstalk 00:01:31] mascot for BYU. I just remember getting slapped a lot in the face. You just slapped me over and over, and I realized then that we needed to have a good friendship because—

Matt: Yeah. Otherwise, yeah.

Charan: The slap [crosstalk 00:00:01:43]—

Matt: You’re going to build a lot of resentment.

Charan: Yeah, exactly. A lot of anger. But was that the first time we met? I kind of feel like we knew each other before. Yeah, that might’ve been the first time we did videos together.

Matt: Yeah. Because our social circles were very— There’s a lot of overlapping, Venn-diagram kind of thing going on there.

Matt Meese Talks About His Start in Divine Comedy

Charan: Yeah, for sure. I think back in the day of Divine Comedy, there was Joel Hilton, Will Rubio, [inaudible 00:00:02:08]. Those were the friends that I always hung out with. And I think [inaudible 00:02:11] came on board and were doing some stuff there. And I just remember going to some of your shows, and they were just so funny, and you just had such a dry sense of humor. I just loved it. And so, it was awesome.

Matt: Good, good. Yeah. We definitely enjoyed doing it. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed performing more than I did when we were doing Divine Comedy. There’s just nothing like it. Those audiences were big and energized, and they’re live.

Charan: Yeah. It’s like 900 people there, right? There were, like, a huge amount of people.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah, just ridiculous. And we’re throwing glow sticks out there and throwing out candy. So, it’s just stupid fun. It was really fun.

Charan: Yeah. It’s like, where can your life go from there?

Matt: I know, right?

Charan: Yeah. How did you get involved in comedy before? Did you do it before, and then you decided Divine Comedy? Or were you, like, that was your first [inaudible 00:03:11], and yeah?

Matt: Well, I was always interested in performing. Since I was a kid, it was, like, the first thing I really wanted to be was an actor. Yeah. I was always interested in it, but it never seemed like a logical career choice. I felt, like, weirdly guilty about wanting to do it as a living. So, I would just do it for fun. And then, yeah. I think everything that I enjoyed the most was comedic because you just get that instant feedback. You know it’s working because people are laughing, or you know it’s not working because it’s just crickets.

Charan: No [inaudible 00:03:54]. Yeah, right.

Matt: Yeah, yeah. So, high risk, high reward, I guess. But yeah, I started doing a little bit in college, just, like, I took an acting class, and then they were like, “Oh, we do these little plays on campus to give the directing students some practical experience.” So, I went out for some of those plays, auditioned, and yeah, we did some comedies, and we did some dramas, and I liked the comedies more. And then I was like, “I should go out for Divine Comedy because it looks like they’re having so much fun,” and yeah. That’s how I came to be there.

Charan: Well, I’ll tell you, you were a highlight. I remember, I don’t know if it was Divine Comedy, second generation, because it had been going around for awhile.

Matt: Yeah, a long time.

Charan: Yeah. When you had come on board, and I got to see some of the stuff you were doing, I was like, “Man, that guy has got comedic chops.”

Matt: You’re very kind. Thank you.

Charan: No, it was true, man. It was great. And yeah, it definitely takes a certain level of skill. A lot of the stuff I’ve done acting-wise has been comedic as well, but I never did “Divide Comedy. “I did try out for it, but I didn’t make it, and it’s totally fine. It takes a certain type, I think, to do that sketch-comedy-type deal. And I feel that if I’d worked on it, I could have done it. And maybe it wasn’t really my passion. My passion was more longer-form, TV-show-type stuff [crosstalk 00:05:27]. But loved it. I love what you guys were doing, it was just [crosstalk 00:05:33]—

Matt: Yeah. Well, and it’s interesting, too, there’s a number of people— Like Jeremy, he auditioned, I think, three times before he got in. Jason auditioned twice. I think James did twice. So, it was just, like, it wasn’t necessarily like, “Oh, you either have it or you don’t,” or whatever. It’s just kind of like, what does the group need that year and who is on the judging panel? Things like that can— What did we eat that day? It’s frightening to think about, the lurking variables.

Charan: Yeah. Well, I feel like that’s the name of the game of auditioning, man. And on any given day, you could either really kill it or not kill it. And—

Matt: You must have a lot of experience with that, right? Out in LA just—

Charan: Yeah, for sure. I feel like I’ve done probably over 1,000 auditions [crosstalk 00:06:26]—

Matt: No kidding. Oh my gosh.

Charan: Yeah. So many auditions. And it is, it’s like— And my buddy Adam gave me some great advice. He’s like, “You might not be able to win the role, but if you just win the room—if you just go in there and you have fun, you don’t get the part or something, as long as you had fun—and you left, then you got something out of it.”

Matt: Right, yeah. It didn’t just take from you.

Charan: Yeah. No, I know. Yeah.

Matt: I heard this thing that Bryan Cranston said about auditioning. I don’t know if you heard it. He was just saying, at some point in his career he decided that he was just going to go in and give a good performance. That was always the goal. It was like, “If I get the part, that’s a bonus. But I’m just, I’m going in there to just give a great performance.” I was like, “That’s cool. I like that mentality.”

Charan: Okay. Not only do I like that mentality and that video, that was the exact video I watched before my very next audition for [inaudible 00:07:26], which I got.

Matt: Oh, no kidding. Wow. It works!

Charan: I applied [crosstalk 00:07:30]. It totally worked. Because for so long, I’ve been trying to portray this character or that character. Well, the truth of it is, is when you’re doing an audition, you have a little bit of time to learn your lines, and learn the character, and all that stuff. It’s [inaudible 00:07:49]. You might as well just bring you to it, right? It might not be what they’re looking for, but at least when you’re being yourself or bringing your voice to it, you have more of a stronger chance of a stronger direction, or whatever you want to call it. And then, if you get the part, then you can work on refining it and finding the right [inaudible 00:08:13] for the character. But yeah, I love that video from Bryan Cranston. That was a huge inspiration for me.

Matt: That’s awesome. That’s really cool.

Charan: I’m glad you [inaudible 00:08:23] that video, because that’s the exact video that [inaudible 00:08:24] inspired me.

Matt: It’s cool to see that it, yeah, it works.

Charan: Yeah. It totally did. It was amazing.

Charan: But one of the things I love that you did, which I’m trying to do in my own life, is you took the principles and ideas from Divine Comedy and you said, “Okay, you know what? Let’s create something. Let’s create something that can maybe sustain us and whatnot.” And using your own strengths and talents, you guys graduated from, I would say, from Divine Comedy into “Studio C,” correct? [crosstalk 00:08:59] Is that how it worked? Because I wasn’t really around for all of that stuff.

Matt: Yeah. In fact, that’s literally how it worked for some of them. I think Stacey was still in college when we started “Studio C,” so he graduated and did that full time. Yeah. And it wasn’t like, “Oh, Matt was the only one who had thought of this,” kind of a thing. I think even in my first year in Divine Comedy, we had talked about the idea of, like, “Oh, wouldn’t it be cool if BYUtv wanted to do a show with us?” And I think we actually filmed some test footage, and we were rejected by BYUtv.

Charan: Oh gosh. Yeah.

Matt: They’re like, “There’s just no place for escapist humor,” I think is what we were told, or something like that, on the channel. And I was like, “Yeah, it is escapist, but it’s also, it’s uplifting, and it’s bringing people together.” And it’s hard to maybe convey that if you’re not talking to them. You’re just like, “Here’s this footage.” So, when I heard that BYUtv was looking for new content, and so I just went over there and I met with [Jared Shores 00:10:07], who later became our producer for the show, and I was just like, “You know what?” I’m like, “Here are our numbers on YouTube. They’re fine.” But maybe compared to what BYUtv’s YouTube numbers were, it was like, “Okay, yeah. Not bad.” You know?

Charan: [crosstalk 00:10:23] So, was there YouTube before BYUtv? Did you guys—

Matt: Sorry, say again?

Charan: Did you guys do stuff for YouTube first and then go to BYUtv?

Matt: Oh, yeah. We were just posting our Divine Comedy stuff on YouTube.

Charan: Okay, got it.

Matt: Yeah, yeah. So, I told Jared, I was just, like, I gave him a couple of tickets to the next Divine Comedy show, and was just, like, “Just come and see it, and that’ll sell it so much better than I can. I can paint a word picture for you, but if you could just see people reacting to us, and see how many people are coming, then I think you can see maybe the potential better.” And so, he came, and he agreed. And then, it was like a year before we were able to film any test footage for “Studio C” because it’s just, like, this long road, and you just don’t know. Even for the first few seasons of “Studio C,” we didn’t know if it was going to continue. So, there’s a lot of, I guess, stress in not knowing.

Charan: And it’s so interesting. I feel like our whole journey of actors, and creating content, and doing all the things—we’re constantly facing the unknown. [inaudible 00:11:33] kind of working right now, but I have no idea what the future holds.

Matt: Right, right. Exactly. Yeah. And I guess it was just like, at a certain point, you’re just like, “You know what?” Because we had finished the first season, and Jared was like, “Okay, we don’t have the second season green-lit yet. It’s not been approved yet. But if we don’t have anything written, then we won’t be able to do it even if we do get a green light. So, please start writing the next season even though we don’t know we’re going to have a next season.”

Charan: Yeah. Wow, okay. Yeah.

Matt: Yeah, yeah. And I was, like, I think he was right though. We had to do it, and I’m glad we did, but it was just one of those things where you’re just, like, “Sure hope this works out. Otherwise, this’ll be a huge waste of time.”

Charan: Sure. Well, it’s great. The thing is, you guys have been able to create a lot of humor in the world. And correct me if I’m wrong, a lot of your viewership and stuff came from YouTube afterwards. Correct?

Matt: Yeah.

Charan: A lot of people found you on YouTube, and yeah. I was even talking to Mallory about this. You guys connected with Conan O’Brien. Which is just crazy to think that [inaudible 00:12:49] are watching your stuff.

Matt: Right, right. Yeah. It’s interesting to see what leaks to those kids’ parents. Yeah.

Charan: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah. It wasn’t intentional of course, it was just a nice surprise. Yeah.

Charan: Well, I think that’s what’s so great about your comedy, which is, it’s very clean, and it’s universal, and as a result of it people can relate to it, and can connect with it, and not have to feel guilty, or letting their kids watch it, or anything like that.

Matt: Right, right. Exactly, yeah. That’s exactly the goal. Like I was saying, I feel like even though it is escapist or whatever you want to call it, I feel like because you can watch it together, it has something that maybe not a lot of other things are providing. Which is just, yeah, any parent can watch a kids’ show with their kids, but they’re probably not going to love that. So, I wanted something that was just, and we all did, we wanted something that was just fun for everyone and not play down to kids. We wanted to keep it safe for kids but not write a show for kids. It was, like, really aimed at people our own age, just [inaudible 00:14:01] safe enough that everyone else could watch it, too. And then kids became a big driver of those online views, and shares, and things like that.

Matt Meese Talks About “Scott Sterling”

Charan: Yeah. Well, that’s awesome. And I know some of your videos have gotten a ton of views, and there were— Oh man, what is the one that got— The one with the soccer?

Matt: The “Scott Sterling.”

Charan: Yeah, “Scott Sterling.” What was the inspiration behind that one?

Matt: Just, I think physical comedy is really funny, and I wasn’t thinking at the time that soccer was this internationally, very popular sport, which of course it is. At the time, I was just like, “I need something where I can get some repetitiveness out of it in a justifiable way.” And penalty kicks was the answer because it was like, you get five penalty kicks, you get five shots at making a new joke.

Matt: And I had written it one day and pitched it to the group, and it was winter, I think, when I pitched it, and everyone’s, like, “Well, if we’re going to do it, we got to wait until it warms up. So, let’s wait until next year to film it.” Because no one knew what it was at the time. We don’t know what anything is until we could get it out there. So yeah, we waited basically a year almost because we shot it in the fall, I think, of the next year.

Matt: But yeah, it was just one of those things where it’s just like, “Oh, I think this would be fun, and you don’t have to speak the language to get it” kind of a thing. But it wasn’t like we were like, “Oh, you know what? We should write something funny this time, and hope it goes well.” It’s just like, “Oh, it went really well.” I think part of that at least was because a lot of people weren’t sure if it was real or not. Because we shot it like it was real, but that’s what a parody is. So yeah, there was that. But yeah, it got bigger overseas before it got big here. It was like you could watch it on the YouTube tracking. We’re just like, where our views are coming from. We’re like, “Oh, it’s going very well in Europe.” And yeah. Then, it crossed back over to the US, so it was cool.

Charan: That’s awesome, man. I just think it’s so great. The thing that you said just earlier that really struck me was you weren’t writing something to be overly funny or whatever. You had no idea what it was even going to do. You were like, “This’ll be fun. This’ll be great. Let’s just throw it out there and see what happens.”

Matt: Let’s try it. Yeah.

Charan: Let’s try it out. I think sometimes we’re too afraid to create things. Because we’re like, “Oh, what are they going to think?” Or what are they not going to think. But if you’re having fun doing it, who cares, right? You might as well go out, have some fun, and—

Matt: Yeah, I very much agree with that. Especially in this day and age, there are going to be people who find what you think is funny to be funny. You will find an audience. Everyone can find an audience these days, basically, so yeah. And then, when you have it clean to boot, then you just expand your options.

Charan: Yeah. I love that.

Matt: Yeah. [crosstalk 00:17:16] I was— Oh, sorry. No, go ahead.

Charan: You go ahead.

Matt Meese Talks About Learning by Doing

Matt: Oh, okay. I’ll go ahead. Well, I used to teach a sketch writing class at BYU for a few semesters, and I would always start the class with this story. I doubt it’s true, but I believe that the principle at least is true. That there was this teacher who taught pottery, and he decided to grade the students based on their best pot one semester. He’s like, “Whatever your best pot is, that’s your grade. So, if you make a pot that is just beautiful on day one, you can get an A for the class.”

Matt: And then the next semester he graded them just based on the amount of the poundage of pots they made. So, if they had 50 pounds of pots—it doesn’t matter if they were good, bad, ugly, doesn’t matter; they just needed 50 pounds worth of pots—at the end of the semester they would get an A. But the students in the second semester had better-looking pots because they weren’t trying to make one perfect pot; they were just making lots of pots. They were just doing it over and over again. And they would just learn things that the first group never did because they weren’t making nearly as many things, but they’re just, like, learning by doing.

Matt: And I think that’s why Divine Comedy was so awesome for us because for years that’s what we did. We were learning by doing. We had an audience giving us feedback all the time. So, you could just keep trying things, testing things out. But at the end of the day, you’re still guessing. You’re just—you are. You think, “Oh, here’s the joke. I hope it will get a laugh. Let’s see if it does,” sort of a thing. But you get better at guessing, right? Just that skill improves, but you still are guessing.

Charan: Yeah, your timing is better. You’re trying [inaudible 00:19:06] different things out. I love that. I think that’s a great principle.

Charan: I took an acting class in LA where the whole thing was all about doing drills over, and over, and over, and over. What was interesting, though, was when you finished the drill, you decided when you were done, basically. You would keep going, and going, and going, and then when you’re done, the only feedback that your partner could give you is, “Good.” That was it. It was a very interesting way of learning, right? Because the teachers are like, “Look, art is subjective. It’s very subjective. And we feel like the only way people will ever get better at their art is just by doing it over, and over, and over again. Why overly criticize something?”

Matt: That’s interesting.

Charan: And I liked that technique.

Matt: Did you?

Charan: I really did. There were certain things that I didn’t like about it. We didn’t really do scene studies and all those things, as other classes would. But what I liked about it was you decided when you felt good about, “Yeah. Well, I feel good about this.” And you have to be honest with yourself. And so, [inaudible 00:20:18] rule is like, “Whatever you decide to do, commit 100%.”

Matt: I like that.

Charan: But then, you make the decisions, and you decide, and so you can keep practicing drills over and over, and you might not ever get it done, and that’s okay. Or you can be like, “Yeah, I feel good about this. Let’s do the next one.” And then, just by doing things that way, you just started feeling more natural, and more relaxed, and yeah. It was almost that, even though it’s that guessing game, like you’re saying, you’re able to still feel a little bit more confident in your abilities, and confident in what would work, what doesn’t, based off of previous [inaudible 00:00:20:55].

Matt: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Man, that’s really interesting.

Charan: Yeah. It was a cool class.

Matt: Little exercise. Yeah.

Matt Meese Talks About the Keys to His Success

Charan: Yeah. Now, one of the things, Matt, I love about you is you, ever since I’ve known you, have had a very level head, a grounded approach to things. And despite what your characters are, I know who you are.

Charan: But especially because you guys have seen tremendous amounts of success, and have seen a lot of exposure, and people have really enjoyed your work. But still, despite all of that stuff, you have maintained this humility and this very graciousness about you, and you’re very kind to people that approach you—

Matt: You’re very kind to people. Thank you.

Charan: No, it’s true. I don’t know. And so, I guess what would you say has been the key to that? How have you been able to not let things go to your head but just say, “Hey, you know what? This is all good and fun, and thank you so much.”

Matt: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there’s a number of things that help contribute to that for sure. But when you, I think, especially in YouTube when it’s like, “Oh, ‘Scott Sterling’ did so well,” it’s got just tens of millions of views, it’s being really well received. And then, you see the sneezing panda video, and it’s got twice as many views or something, you’re like, “Yes. Yes, okay. Nothing great here. We’re just adding to the zeitgeist.” And that’s in and of itself, I think, cool that you’re just contributing something, and it doesn’t matter that it’s got a ton of views or not a ton of views.

Matt: And I think I wrote the best and the worst sketch of that season that “Scott Sterling” came out, like “Scott Sterling” being the best, and then I wrote the worst one, too, in terms of views. And it was just like, “Yeah, this is the game. You’re just going to make stuff.”

Matt: And so, I think that helps, and also just the ideas, like— Granted, we have an audience who watches us outside of Utah, but it started in Utah for sure, and that’s probably where the biggest audience base was. Maybe still is.

Matt: So, it was always just reminders like people watch it here and they might know you here, but you go somewhere else, they’re not going to know you. But if you’re Chris Evans or something, anywhere you go you’re going to be recognized and seen. It’s like, man, that is crazy amounts of fame. That’s real fame there.

Matt: And so, we always felt we were just like, “Yeah, what we do is always going to be on a smaller scale than anything big-time.” And more and more, I became really happy about that, because I can’t imagine going somewhere and having the entire place know who you are. We’ll go somewhere—

Charan: Yeah. It’s not fun. Not that that’s me or anything, but I am actually friends with some celebrities, and they have to be homebodies. When I connected with them, it was in their home and private, you know? Because they have to be so careful about everything. I don’t know if I’d ever want that.

Matt: Yeah. I think when I was a kid, I was like, “Well, that would be cool.” You know? Everywhere you go, people would know you or whatever. And I’m not saying I’m bothered when a fan of “Studio C” or JK! Studios comes up to us or wants a picture or something. I think that’s really great and awesome. I just can’t imagine if it was, like, everyone in the room every time you went out. I don’t know how you have a normal life the way we understand it to be. Like you said, you got to be a homebody. And I kind of am a homebody, but I like going out to eat.

Charan: Sure. You want to have a normal life. That’s why I would love to just be a working actor, but as far as becoming a massive, massive celebrity or whatnot, it’s not really— That was never my [inaudible 00:25:07] motivation. Right? It was more [crosstalk 00:25:09]—

Matt: Yeah. Which is good. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you’re doing it because you enjoy it, then you’re never going to be disappointed, I think, with the results. Like, “I’m not famous enough.”

Matt: But also, the fact that this group—we’ve been together for a long time, since college and stuff. And we all did Divine Comedy because it was fun. We weren’t planning a career path with this, it just worked out that way, and we’re happy it did. But because we all started out that way, it felt like we were all on the same page, we’re all in the same boat, we all think like, “Oh, what a fun, weird thing we’re experiencing.” And it’s great. It’s just great, and it’s fun. We’re having a good time.

Charan: Well, what’s cool is you literally are writing your future. You know?

Matt: Yeah, yeah.

Charan: You are. Because it’s not the path that of like, “Oh, I’m going to be a doctor, and I’m going to go down this path like everyone else has gone down,” and you’ve seen it before. It’s just like, “Hey, I am in uncharted waters. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going for it.” Going from Divine Comedy to “Studio C” and now to JK! Studios, it’s the same thing, right? You’re just creating your own path. And I think it’s amazing.

Matt: Thank you very much.

Charan: I’ll tell you a story that happened to me. I got to hang out with Ben Stiller. Okay? The most random, random thing. And he saw me do a prank video, and he thought it was hilarious. And anyway, I told him I wanted to be an actor, and he sat me down and he gave me some really good advice.

Charan: But one of the things [inaudible 00:26:49] specifically was like, “You’ve got to be enthusiastic about it, really persevere,” but he kept saying, “Create your own path.” He kept saying that: “Create your own path.”

Matt: I like that.

Charan: And I loved it. It’s been such great advice because, yeah, I feel like I have. And even though I don’t fully know what that path looks like, it’s okay because I can create that every day. You know?

Matt: Yeah. No, I love that.

Charan: And [inaudible 00:27:14]. You never know what’s going to be the outcome of it, but as long as you’re having fun and enjoying it, you can say, “Hey, this was a success because I had a good time.”

Matt: Right. Yeah. No, I totally agree. Because I feel like the path that we all took to get where we are with JK! Studios and “Studio C,” it wasn’t a recommended path. It’s like, yeah, go to Provo, Utah, and do comedy, and then you’ll be able to have your own show where you get to write the stuff you want to do, keeping whatever standards it is that you want to be keeping, and things like that. It’s like, yeah, that’s not a recommended path for what we do, but it was the right one. It was the one that worked for us.

Charan: Yeah. No, that’s awesome, man. That’s great.

Matt Meese Talks About Finding Joy in Uncertainty

Charan: So, I guess the last little bit of this I want to talk about is, we’re all facing an uncertain time being in quarantine, and [inaudible 00:28:13] a lot of things have shut down and everything. And I would say, what would you say is the key to having joy during this time when you are in a very, very uncertain place in life?

Matt: Yeah. That’s a really good question, and I doubt I have, I don’t know, anything very profound. But I do think that thinking about your blessings, if you will, the things that you have that are really good in life, I think, help a lot because, I don’t know, it just puts things into a bigger perspective as opposed to just like, “Right now, this thing is really hard, or this feels very challenging.” Just in the bigger picture of things, it’s like, “Man, here I am in America, enjoying a lot of freedoms that are unprecedented in human history, and I have a home, and I have clothes and food, and there was even enough time to get more food before things shut down, and you can still get food even now.” And just things like that.

Matt: And the opportunity for a lot of people to still work from home even though 20 years ago or something, I think a lot of people might’ve just had to be fired completely, or something. There’s just all kinds of things that make this not as bad as it could be, and it could have been so much worse. Not to diminish in any way what people are going through, because a lot of people are absolutely suffering, and more to come, I’m sure. But I, just for me, thinking about the things that are still good—and with a lot of hope that things are going to get good again as we continue to do what we can to help flatten the curve and all of that—I feel like that helps me.

Charan: Yeah, I love that. The idea of gratitude has always been something that has resonated with me. Because A, just having that sense of gratefulness for the things that you have, the blessings that you have, already lifts your spirits up.

Charan: And a lot of times, anxieties and worries come from things that we can’t control. And when we’re focusing on the things that we can’t control, then yes, we will definitely feel that stress, we’ll feel that anxiety. And it’s kind of like, wherever you put your attention to grows. And so, [inaudible 00:31:00] put your attention to things that you can control, and you can control how grateful you are. And I love that. Just being thankful every single day for the little things. Right?

Charan: And I think that if we just do that and just that alone, that will lift our spirits. So yeah, I like that, man. That’s good advice. And it’s simple, but it’s great advice. Right? And it’s something that anyone can do right now, and it’s totally free to do.

Matt: Yeah, yeah. That’s what I like about it, is it’s, like, anyone can do it.

Charan: It’s very cost-effective.

Matt: Yeah.

Charan: [inaudible 00:31:45].

Matt: Yeah, yeah.

Charan: Well, Matt, I really appreciate you taking the time and chat [inaudible 00:31:50]. This has been awesome.

Matt: Happy to do it. Thanks for doing the videos.

Charan: Yeah, of course. Of course. And yeah, I don’t know. I’m not trying to become YouTube-famous, or Facebook-famous, or anything like that. I just think, hey, spreading a little bit of joy and hope in the world is a cool thing.

Matt: Yeah. Oh yeah, you’re never going to regret that, I don’t think.

Charan: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for all of your work and all of your comedy, because there’s always goodness behind it. And I think it’s great to laugh, and it’s great to spread goodness. So, I appreciate you doing the work that you’ve done.

Matt: Yeah. Thank you very much.

Charan: Awesome.

Matt: Appreciate it.

Charan: Well, thanks again, and I will chat with you soon I’m sure. Okay?

Matt: Alrighty.

Charan: Okay, take care.

Matt: See ya.

Charan: Bye.

Charan: Thanks so much for listening to Lemonade Stand podcast and we hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you use to be alerted when we release new episodes. We’d also love to hear your feedback in the reviews. And if you or someone you know has an awesome Lemonade Stand Story, please reach out to us on social media and let us know. Thanks so much, and have a great day.