Rekha Shankar is bringing together her love of word games and comedy in an all-new show, “Worplay.” This is an all-new variety show launched by Shankar based around her love of word games and experimental comedy. It debuts on September 5 at Dynasty Typewriter.
Wordplay is hosted by Shankar with special guests Angela Giarratana, Patrick McDonald, Kendahl Landreth, and Corin Wells. Shankar has been sharing hilariously competitive smack talk from the group chat that promises an intensely funny show. Shankar has also teased that she will be using Heelys during the show.
In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek Shankar shared what inspired “Wordplay” and how she chose the cast. She also reveals how the Heelys practice is going and why this is a comedy-forward experience. Shankar also shared an exciting update about her movie, “Vidhya’s Guide to the Afterlife,” and shared insight into the “Game Changer” episode “Shamalamadingdong.”
Rekha Shankar Reveals What Inspired Her New Show Wordplay
Temple of Geek: My first question is why did you want to host a game show?
Rekha Shankar:
“I think it’s funny. I wanted to just host a show because the industry is so slow right now, and I think when I was going over things I wanted to do, I was like, well, there’s a ton of improv shows currently happening, and I’m on a lot of improv shows, and then I just thought about stuff I haven’t gotten to do, and I’ve been a huge word game nerd since I was little, but I don’t really have many places to show that off.
So I made a joke, I think, on a Parlor Room episode and Dropout where we were playing Taboo, and someone’s like, oh, Rekha, you’re really into Taboo. And I said something that was like D&D is Brennan’s Forte. I am like, word games are my forte. And I saw that clip going around and I was like, oh, I would love to try something out with this interest I’ve had for so long that I don’t really see in live shows.
Or if I do see it, it’s like there’s a type of person who’s a word nerd that to me is a little unapproachable, that’s very linguistics oriented. I’m like, let me approach it from the comedy angle. That’s something I would like to watch, something that Joe Firestone would put up, a La Punderdome in New York. Let me do whatever my version of a stupid show about words is.”
Temple of Geek: I’ve also enjoyed you posting the group chat of them just giving each other sh-t the whole time. That’s been so much fun.
Rekha Shankar:
“Yay! I am so glad. I have laughed out loud. I try not to comment because it ruins the flow of the screen grab, but it makes me laugh very hard.”
Wordplay Is A Comedy Over Vocabulary Word Game Show
Temple of Geek: Can you talk to me about the casting process? Because I do like that you’ve emphasized, these are word games, but don’t expect hyper intelligence. It’s going to be silly.
Rekha Shankar:
“Yeah. That’s why I just cast people that I’m like, these are all really funny people that do really funny things on stage all the time, and I will just give them a word game. That’s the exact vibe I don’t want to give Will Shortz, who might be a wonderful performer, the task of playing a game of Taboo. I don’t think that will be fun to watch. I want to see people who have really fun, creative ways to describe the word or get flustered or whatever. So I just ultimately picked fun performers over, I think this person will be an excellent word nerd.”
Temple of Geek: Yeah. I did have the thought of Brennan. I don’t think I’ve ever interviewed him and not had to look up words.
Rekha Shankar:
“Oh, that’s so funny. Well, to your point, I make a content warning on the website. I’m like, this show is not smart. Don’t come in here with Latin roots. Because I think, and I’m sure this exists in many circles, there’s a hyper intellectual version of everything. But for me, I’m like, I got into word games playing Scrabble with my grandparents, and while it was we’re trying to win, it was also my grandparents bickering or my grandfather being like, challenge the word if you don’t think it exists.
And then I don’t challenge it. I don’t call his bluff and then it doesn’t exist. And then I’m like, ah, God damn it. So there was so much humor around it, or even when silly things like, oh, playing where my grandfather is only putting two letter words down. And you’re like, scrabble is not a game about vocabulary, it’s about strategy. He’s closing off the board. This is infuriating.
That’s where it gets really funny. Then you get mad. You’re not playing it right. You have to put down a big word, open up the board a little bit. And I think this game is not about vocabulary. It’s not about knowing any word. I’d prefer you don’t.”
Temple of Geek: So are you hoping they make up words and see if anyone calls them on it?
Rekha Shankar:
“I love that. If the game calls for it, do it convince me.”
How Heelys Come Into Play With Rekha Shankar’s Vision
Temple of Geek: What inspired the Heelys decision? Because I feel like that can be either very impressive or very dangerous.
Rekha Shanka:
“Well, I don’t know what inspired it. I was trying to just let my id go when I was thinking of stuff for the show, and I used to host shows all the time in New York and I would never create any barrier whatsoever, because there’d be like 20 people in the audience who cares? So yeah, we’ll bring in props. My friend and I did a thing where we shot a baby out of a cannon, so we bought a baby doll, we made a fake cannon, we shot out of a cannon.
You do all this stuff that you feel free to experiment with when you’re in a tiny black box or you’re in a bar basement. But in LA I’m finding it harder to find those places to experiment. So I haven’t hosted a show that’s like this since moving here. I’ve only really hosted this type of stuff in New York. So it got me thinking like, well, what would I do if I was in New York? I’m like, well, I would do a bunch of stupid stuff, so I would try to make an entrance. I’m like, yeah, Heelys were the first thing that occurred to me. I’m like, great. Let me see if anyone has some.
And then my friend Ria had some, so I was like, great, let me practice these. I’m like, wow, these are really hard. How do I work with that? Letting myself just experiment. It might be too stupid and it might not be funny at all, but I don’t know. It’s such a shame, I think, to be worried about experimenting because you’re like, well, there’s an actual bigger crowd and hopefully it works out. But also hopefully if it’s like, oh my God, this is so stupid, people can appreciate that you’re just trying something.”
Temple of Geek: Yeah. I’ll clap either way. You’re fine.
Rekha Shankar:
“Thank you. Thank you.”
Temple of Geek: How is the practice going?
Rekha Shankar:
“It’s impossible.”
Temple of Geek: Yeah, they were hard when I was a kid.
Rekha Shankar:
“I had no idea. I saw children using them, and it’s not that I didn’t think it was hard, but I’m like, I actually don’t get it. I don’t get what you’re supposed to do. I know I have to keep my feet kind of staggered, but I don’t know how you get the momentum to land like that. And I know they’re called Heelys, but I’m like, why would I want to balance on only my heels? That’s crazy. Why not just put, if I were reinventing them, I would just put two wheels and then you kick a button on the side and the wheels come out. I truly don’t understand it at all.”
Temple of Geek: I’ve only ever seen very small children be good at it, and I think it’s their center of gravity lets them be good at it. I don’t think it’s a design thing.
Rekha Shankar:
“I think that’s true. I’d probably be really, really good at it. Probably be really awesome at it. Come to think of it, if it weren’t for my damn center of gravity, crap, it always spoils me.”
Wordplay Is The X Games Of Word Games
Temple of Geek: Can you tease a little bit of what we’re going to see with the games in the show?
Rekha Shankar:
“Yeah, so I either took games, word related games that I think are naturally active. For instance, I’ll reveal that we’re going to do a charades game that I think is always a pretty active game. But then I also take games that are a little more boring and I try to make them active. So you might have to do something while doing something very simple and kind of boring to keep it active.
The theme I leaned into was sports. I’m like word play. This is playing with words. So the whole thing has a sports sheen to it. Where I’m like, let’s get active with words in whatever way possible. Take this thing that people kind of associate with a boring Sunday morning activity. And this is the X Games. This is the sports broadcasted version of Word games. This is the ESPN spelling bee, but extreme.”
Temple of Geek: Are you looking to have this be a monthly show?
Rekha Shankar:
“I don’t think I want it to be monthly. I think if I try to recreate the amount of things I am doing for this one, it would not be possible to do it monthly. But, I would love to do it whenever I can because I think it’s just fun and it’s fun to play Word games. This is the type of show I would want to be on. I’m like, can I be on it? And hopefully it’s something I can, I’m doing a show. I think I might be doing a show in London soon, and I’m like, could this be something I take on the road easily? Because I have all these games. I can just design the prompts and take it with me and just leave all the Heelys and the horse hat, I have, spoiler, behind.”
Temple of Geek: I don’t even know what that means. I’m so excited. Do you think you would keep the sports theme for all of them, or would it change?
Rekha Shankar:
“I think I would try to keep the sports theme. I think it’s just fun. What’s the Nickelodeon game show version of Wordle? That sounds fun to me. What’s the big, big version that’s goofy, active and physical, and not physical. You need to be athletic to do it, but just, yeah, Nickelodeon games is the best example I have where it’s just like’s not just the simple task. It’s not just whatever. Spell this word. It’s like you have to do something to get the letters to earn the right to spell it or whatever.”
Rekha Shankar Shares An Exciting Update About Her Movie
Temple of Geek: Can we have an update on your movie? I’m very excited for that.
Rekha Shankar:
“Yes! So this morning I started my final pass, which is just a joke pass of the movie. I am really excited to do this pass, but also, it’s so daunting because you’ve just been doing all this technical story work so far. So you’re like, huh, jokes. But in theory, I’m going to finish that pass by the end of this week, and then we start sending it to people to try to hire people and be like, this is what we’re working with.
Here’s the amount of budget for your department. Does that seem feasible given what the script is? So that stuff is really boring, but also we’ll make everything go 3,000 miles per hour. Where we’re onboarding people and having to build the plane as we’re flying it kind of thing. Also, yesterday we launched a video to ask if anyone had a location they would let us use. It’s a total shot in the dark, but we’ve been so surprised and excited that people have already responded. Being like, you can use my house. I’m like, everyone is so nice.
I think the indie filmmaking community has been so kind, and I don’t know if it’s because they already just are, or it’s because we’re in this horrible industry depression and everyone just feels the need to collectively band their resources together. But it’s been fuel to talk to other filmmakers about this stuff. So yeah, locations are our next big thing we’re trying to land. And then in theory, we’re filming in end of October.”
Rekha Shankar Talks Game Changer Episode Shamalamadingdong
Temple of Geek: How did it feel to be part of revenge upon Sam for all the Game Changer just craziness.
Rekha Shankar:
“It felt awesome! I think what was so surprising to me is how shocked he actually was. I got to be there for the surprise, which was really fun. And I think it is really important that if you are being bullied by someone, you bully them back 10 times hard. If someone pushes you in the sandbox, you push them in the ocean, someone calls you a name, you dox them. And so that’s why it felt good to do that to Sam because he deserved it.”
Temple of Geek: He did deserve it. I don’t know if the message we should be sending is if someone pushed you to the sandbox, push him in the ocean. But he did deserve it.
Rekha Shankar:
“If someone pushed you in the sand, you’re right. You’d push him in quicksand, I guess is the better. You’re right. You’re so right to correct me on that”
Temple of Geek: A thing we all thought would be a much bigger issue based on cartoons.
Rekha Shankar:
“It’s true. The quicksand fear was very strong as a child, but Sam should be afraid of it.”
Wordplay debuts September 5 with in person and live stream tickets available for purchase.
