The Afterparty bucks traditional genre categories, letting each episode highlight a new storytelling format from psychological thriller to musical to romcom. What unites them all, however, is the murder mystery at the heart of The Afterparty and the story's comedic delivery. The cast features wildly talented comedians, including Sam Richardson and Ben Schwartz, who play main characters Aniq and Yasper. Famous for their improv skills, Richardson and Schwartz help viewers relate to and root for their characters and make The Afterparty a comedy delight.
Sam Richardson and Ben Schwartz spoke with CBR about their roles in the upcoming murder mystery comedy The Afterparty. The experienced improv artists dove into how much they got to ad-lib on set, finding their on-screen dynamic and why everyone should watch the series. They also hijacked the interview briefly to share what comics they've been reading and what they're looking forward to reading in the future.
CBR: Yasper and Aniq have such chemistry in the show -- how did that develop and what was it like working together?
Sam Richardson: We kind of jumped right into it. We didn't know each other very well, Ben and I didn't know each other very well, before we started filming it. And truly we didn't even get to really interact with each other before we were on set because we're in the thick of ... of lockdown.
Ben Schwartz: COVID, it's called COVID.
Richardson: It's called COVID, COVID...19 it was, right?
Schwartz: I don't know what the new model is, but it was definitely called COVID.
Richardson: Yeah, it was 19. We were in the thick of it, we were in lockdown so we weren't seeing anybody. We weren't even together for the table reads so on set was the first time where we get to really interact with each other as these characters. But then us as people are so similar, Ben and I, that we have a quick shorthand, coming from the same sort of comedy background and being kind of similar people as well, that we became fast friends. That was able to really show, I feel, in the scenes as well.
Schwartz: It was amazing, E.L. It was like meeting someone that I felt like I was friends with for my whole life. Then all of a sudden, I met Sam and it was just so easy. We're doing the same bits, we watched the same cartoons growing up. Sam knows every...I thought I knew all the themes to every cartoon show growing up and then Sam is like, "No, you don't, I know all the themes." And he's correct. He does.
Richardson: I would tell him every day no, he doesn't.
Schwartz: As he told me every day that I wasn't good enough. But it was awesome. And then also, he's so funny that we get to be funny together. E.L., what comic books are you reading right now? You're from a comic book site, what's your favorite comic book right now?
I just finished reading The Magicians: New Class.
Schwartz: I don't know that one yet.
I don't think there are a lot of issues, just one collected graphic novel. What are you reading right now, Ben?
Schwartz: You know what I got, I got Blankets in front of me right now, I haven't read that yet. I know it's not a comic book, it's a graphic novel, I apologize. But the stuff that I have in my drawer is I have a lot of Plastic Man. I've been trying to play Plastic Man forever, nobody's let me get at that throne. You know what else I like from back in the day is Slapstick. I love that. Remember that? Almost like a clown-looking guy with a big hammer. What about you, Sam?
Richardson: I'm supposed to be reading Abbott. I haven't read Abbott yet but I just ordered it. So I'm hoping to read Abbott as my next sort of dive into a graphic novel slash comic.
Sounds great. Thanks for taking over the interview there for a bit.
Schwartz: I'm just excited to talk to somebody about comic books.
You both are experienced improv artists -- how much of your characters' dialogue and relationships are scripted vs. ad-libbed?
Schwartz: I started improv when I was in college, so around 2002. I did something at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York until around 2009, then I moved over to LA and did it at UCB LA and then Largo and then toured. It's still one of my favorite things in the universe to do, and so for me to be paired with Sam, who will explain his experience right when I'm done -- which is incredible as well -- it was so fun. So I'd say probably the amount of improv we did -- we always did the script and then Chris [Miller, writer and director] always gave us a platform and a place to play and find scenes and make it funnier -- not funnier, just like find little moments, little nuggets in there. So I bet there is quite a bit of improv in there, but the structure and the scenes, they're all there and a lot of the comedy was there because the episodes are written so, so well.
Richardson: I have a very similar background to Ben's. I came up through the Second City. I started my first classes when I was in high school, so around 2000, and then did more Conservatory about 2002, understudied the Second City in Detroit, then worked on a Second City cruise ship, performing improv and sketch on Second City cruise ship, then joined the touring company, Second City Tour, in about two years, then wrote two shows in the main stage of Second City in Chicago before moving out to California. So a lot of time spent in improv, for sure.
Getting to improvise off of a script, knowing a script and re-improvising something, was a skill that I was able to take from Second City and then put it towards Veep. The work in Veep does that a lot where you are re-improvising stuff. So that sort of language is something I'm very comfortable with and familiar with. Then coming to a set like this and getting to work with a brilliant improvisor like Ben, where you are able to do the scene as is because it is great, but you are also able to zhuzh it and make it your own and give yourself green lights here and there to swap some sort of idea or line or whatever for another one is something that I think we're both -- and most of the cast is -- very familiar with and comfortable with doing. Chris is such a great director in that he allows that sort of thing and encourages that sort of collaboration, where he's not precious but he wants to funniest thing or the best thing to go in. So it was truly a great experience in doing that sort of thing.
Aniq designs escape rooms for a living, which I think is such a such a piece of 2020s culture. So Sam, was this your idea? Was it something you could tap into? Are you an escape room fan?
Richardson: You know what, I didn't put that in the script, that was in there even when I was sent the scripts, but I love escape rooms. It's like, put me in any escape room and I'll have the time of my life and [leans in conspiratorially] I may even get out of it. But I think it's such a perfect detail for a person who, because Aniq is the number one suspect right off the top, he feels like it's up to him to, "Oh, I gotta find who the killer is." So it's up to these two to try and figure out who it is. Being a person who loves escape rooms, it means he has a knack for finding clues and doing that sort of thing. So I think it's a perfect background without him being a detective himself.
Ben, music is so important to the character of Yasper, especially Ska — what's your experience with that genre?
Schwartz: I had never...by the way, Sam is the one who almost had a Ska band. Sam had a parody of...not parody, what would you call it?
Richardson: Cover band, essentially.
Schwartz: A cover band of No Doubt. But I sang in high school, like all the all-county and fun little thingies there, and then my voice dropped like 30 octaves and I was no longer a soprano. But the musical stuff, I love to express myself in ways like that. That's so fun and I've never been able to actually be part of a musical in my life, so this was the first time learning how to dance and sing and all that stuff and it was really exciting. With hopes that in the end people enjoy it and just jam out, we're all trying to jam out to some tunes, do you know what I mean?
Richardson: Mm hmm.
So, quickly, why should folks tune into The Afterparty?
Schwartz: This is what we got. E.L., this is what we got. We have action, we have romance, we have animation, we have music, we have noir-ish, we have comedy, we have Lord, we have Miller, we have Richardson, we have Chao, we have Schwartz, we have Barinholtz, we have Franco, we have Demetriou, we have Early, we have Angelson, we have Tiya...
Richardson: ...Sircar, we have you. And you know, we got Haddish, baby.
Schwartz: We got Haddish baby. We got her. We got her.
Richardson: We got her, we got Haddish baby, yeah.
Schwartz: We got her, baby.
The first three episodes of The Afterparty premiere Jan. 28 on Apple TV+.