“Smosh: We’re All Gonna Die” is an intensely funny, high-tension RPG experience. Inspired by the Smosh game series “Smosh vs. Dread,” this season of “Smosh: We’re All Gonna Die” consists of seven episodes. The series is produced by Jon Matteson (The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals) and George Primavera (Critical Role: ReSlaery’s Take.) The show consists of seven live shows at Dynasty Typewriter, which can also be watched online.
In “Smosh: We’re All Gonna Die,” a group of improvisers attempt to survive a horror- or thriller-inspired encounter. As the Game Master (Primavera) ratchets up the scares and tension, the comedians’ only chance is a steady hand. The success of each decision they make is decided by how well they can pull a set number of blocks from the tower in a specific amount of time.
Each “Smosh: We’re All Gonna Die” show is set in the fictional town of Maw Meadows, Maine, where strange supernatural things are happening without explanation. In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Matteson and Primavera explain the casting process. They also reveal their favorite horror subgenres to play in and praise Smosh. The duo also teased a larger mystery tying each episode together.
We’re All Gonna Die Creators Praise Cast & Smosh
Temple of Geek: How did the idea for this come about? Because I would never have been role play Jenga.
George Primavera:
“Yeah, yeah. Well, so there is a game called Dread that is a really excellent TTRPG, very small and indie. There’ve only been a few actual plays that I’ve used it before, and it just felt like a really great TTRPG for folks that don’t have a lot of experience playing, because when you play something like Dungeons & Dragons, there’s a lot of character sheet and information in front of you.
It’s hard to keep yourself off the page sometimes. So it’s an easy in for really talented and improvisers to play their characters and jump in right away. And it’s also great for the audience to see what’s going on very tangibly, and that makes it such an excellent game system to use for live shows, I think.”
Temple of Geek: How do you pick the cast for each live show?
Jon Matteson:
“So we try to think of people that we think would play really well together and people that we know are incredibly talented and generous and willing to take risks. And we’ve gotten really lucky so far with these casts. Every cast we have and have planned all have incredible chemistry and are willing to lean into the genre of whatever horror tale we’re telling, the niche.”
George Primavera:
“Genre, sub genre. And we’re so lucky to be working with Smosh too, with their incredible well of improvisers and our friends that we get to bring in and have all of these groups collide and play together is such a joy.”
Camp Crystal Lake Was An Inspiration For Smosh: We’re All Gonna Die Episode 2
Temple of Geek: Why did you want to do Camp Horror for this one?
Jon Matteson:
“I think and cut me off, but I think it was based on the cast we had where we were like, oh, these are all Sasquatch a Sasquatch and Angela both have this young, energetic, frenetic energy, and we hadn’t done a Camp Horror tale yet, and this was just the perfect setting and the perfect cast for it. So we thought, why not?”
George Primavera:
“We really like to bounce between horror and thriller pastiches, sort of where we are very clearly inspired by specific stuff like Camp Tuckaway Lake definitely feels like a “Friday the 13th” Camp Crystal Lake, but instead of the classic hockey mask slasher, we have a giant crab that puppets a man. So as we match the genre or the sub-genre rather to the cast that we have that we think are going to nail that particular thing and just make it so the vibe is right, that is the most important thing. Make sure the vibe is right.”
Temple of Geek: With the character creation process, do they come in and you have no idea who they’re playing or have you worked with them?
George Primavera:
“We do do a Session Zero, so we do a little meeting beforehand where we talk about our characters names, where our characters come from, and then we like to establish some connections between characters so that everybody has something that they can reference when they get on stage. It is an improvised show, but there’s much more planning that goes into all the characters and stuff like that. For sure. Kind of like a D&D game where you would have a session zero and you would create your characters with pen and paper, except that we of course don’t need the pen and paper for drill.”
Jon Matteson:
“We’ve discovered for this show, it really helps when the cast and the characters know each other and we do the Session Zero and we talk the day of for several hours about their characters, who they are, what they care about, why they want to live, and that really helps them invest in the rest of the show.”
Temple of Geek: Yeah, I was curious because it’s not something where it’s like you have to fill out a character sheet. It is very much just like you’re this guy, hope you don’t get yourself killed.
George Primavera:
“You know what I think it is honestly, is we have the bones of characters during that Session Zero. And then when we get here on the day, the natural energy of going into a live show starts to make the cast forge even more bonds together. And then that energy is so alive and fresh when we get to the stage.”
Jon Matteson:
“And when people feel the stakes of the Jenga Tower for the first time on stage, even though they’ve never played Dread before, everyone’s investment and passion about the story and staying alive escalates to an 11.”
The Physicality Of Jenga Is Perfect For Comedy & Tension
Temple of Geek: The first pull I was, because I was kind of like, okay, this is fun. And then it was like the third time I’m like, oh, we’re going to die so fast.
Jon Matteson:
“The audience can see the stakes physically in front of them, and they’re all invested with us.”
Temple of Geek: What’s your favorite part about bringing more of an acting mentality to it? Not just sitting at a table. You have NPCs that are coming in and the tree belt and being silly and all of that aspect, and even the physicality of the Jenga Tower. Rolling dice can be intense, but that’s a physicality aspect of if you twitch, you’re done.
Jon Matteson:
“I feel like it just really makes the actors feel part of the world right away all the time when they see that tower wiggling on that table, and when the audience is sort of oh-ing and screaming, then they feel the relief when they survive and the just crushing defeat if they sadly die.”
George Primavera:
“One of the funniest things too is that these are seasoned performers. These people have been on stage all the time and they start shaking like a leaf when they go for that tower. You know what I mean? And one of my favorite things to do when I’m GMing, this kind of game is to really ratchet up, are you sure you’re ready for this? Yeah, sure. You’re ready for this. And I think that that energy carries the narrative and makes the characters make choices that might be bolder and crazier as the story goes along, which is only good for a live show.”
Jon Matteson:
“George as a DM really crafts the tale and listens so well to the performers and where they’re going. And the fact that none of this is scripted. We just have these tent poles throughout the show. George does an incredible job crafting that tale based on what choices they make or if they die or if they don’t die. And I mean, even tonight, it felt like the arcs were just, they all landed beautifully.”
George Primavera:
“The crew is a major part of that too. We set up some loose cues for locations that we go to with some predetermined sounds and music that are appropriate for the moment, but a lot of it is them improvising with us on stage. Which is unbelievable.”
Jon Matteson:
“Dynasty really is the perfect place for this type of show because they get the cinematic nature of this show, and it feels like a live cinematic experience, and it’s thanks to them, but we can pull it off.”
George Primavera:
“We get to play with people entering from the audience with a steady cam operator following them up to the stage. How crazy is that for a live show.”
Jon Matteson:
“We’ve had other shows where there’s an actor in the booth with a camera on them as if they’re in a helicopter. And we’re just making more risks, taking more risks and making more choices in that direction.”
George Primavera:
“We have a lot of new stuff we’re itching to try.”
Time Is Not The Players Friend When George Primavera GMs
Temple of Geek: And then one of the things I noticed that you do as a GM in this is you don’t give them that freeze time of planning. I am so used to it. So when you were like, y’all have been talking too long, the crab is here. Why did you want to do that? Is it just to ratchet up the intensity?
George Primavera:
“When you have a live show and you have a time constraint of, we probably have two hours at the high end of our runtime for a show here, it doesn’t do to dally. Right. Fair. And I think having the action keep heightening and keep heightening keeps that energy only crescendoing through the entire show to the point where at the end, people are screaming and clapping with their hands above their heads for somebody pulling five blocks from a wooden tower.”
Jon Matteson:
“And if you’re in a horror movie and the characters are talking about what they’re going to do for too long in a cabin, the monster’s going to come out and take a stab at them.”
George Primavera:
“That’s a also thing for the genre. When there’s downtime, the jump scare happens. That is such a common horror thing. I also think a lot of the up top conversation is for character establishment, and I’m not so worried about planning as I am about knowing who these people are so that we care about them when they’re engaged.”
Temple of Geek: What has been your favorite part about partnering with Smosh for this?
George Primavera:
“They have such an amazing team of folks, both creatively and logistically. They make so much possible in a very short amount of time, a hundred percent. And they’re incredible collaborators. They have really allowed us to push things in a way, not only on stage and live, but also on the digital side of things. For example, this show this evening, we had a poll go up for the digital audience asking whether or not Ricky Carroll, the senior counselor, puts his keys in his breast pocket or in his pants pocket.
Which would then determine whether or not the players need to go to the crab to get the keys for the bus, or they need to go to the Lakeside and encounter the cultists. And that’s only possible because of Smosh and their partnership with Kiswe. Having all of these people, Dynasty, Smosh, Kiswe and Jon and I as a creator duo, I think we have a really cool recipe for a super delicious soup. And you can quote me on that.”
Temple of Geek: Breast pocket was an unexpected option for keys.
George Primavera:
“I know, right? How uncomfortable could that be?”
Temple of Geek: He was like, I can never remember. I’m like, what do you mean?
George Primavera:
“What do you mean it’s so uncomfortable?”
Jon Matteson:
“Well, Ricky Carroll is a weirdo, and he’s in a bad place”
George Primavera:
“He’s not having a great day. He’s probably numb from the theragun.”
Jon Matteson:
“And the divorce.”
Horror Inspirations For Smosh: We’re All Gonna Die
Temple of Geek: Have you had a favorite sub-genre of horror or thriller that you’ve done so far, and one you want to do and haven’t yet?
Jon Matteson:
“This feels like a cop out answer. Every show feels like it’s gotten better and more alive inside the genre, but I really liked the last show that we did with these four assassins trying to kill each other. It felt very action packed, and the players at some point were actively trying to kill each other and had to keep pulling blocks and somehow didn’t die, which was unbelievable and shocking. But selfishly, I want to do a space station where we’re running from an alien, Alien type thing, but that may be in some time in the future.”
George Primavera:
“I think this show so far has been my favorite sub genre, just because I grew up so afraid of the “Friday the 13th.” As a kid, my cousins would have these DVDs that the covers would scare me. So I’ve always, when I finally became old enough to not be very afraid, I watched them and was less afraid of them, but really appreciated how melodramatic it is in a way, and how dumb these characters are.
We have some very intelligent actors playing some very dumb characters on the stage, which is really, really fun. So that genre of slasher really lends itself to a funny onstage performance. And then what I want to do, we’re probably going to do it soon, so I want to be vauge But I really like very well-equipped people like a soldier or some kind of trained fighter entering into a situation where they really are outmatched by something.
In a way that is almost eldritch in nature, which is, I think, a theme we keep coming back to with this setting of Maw Meadows, Maine. We put all these things in. We are building over the course of these shows, a bigger and bigger mystery.”
The Mystery Of Maw Meadows, Maine
Temple of Geek: So they’re all set in the same place.
George Primavera:
“They’re all set in the same place in Maw Meadows, Maine. Yes, they’re all standalone shows. You can watch every show and not need to have watched the others, but there are little Easter eggs hidden in each show that are kind of consistent. For example, we have these necklaces that show up with a spiral pattern on them.”
Temple of Geek: Like the rock the sheriff was holding.
George Primavera:
“That’s right. And those show up in every show so far.”
Jon Matteson:
“We have this thing that we’re building to in this series, or at least in this first season, where we hope to reveal it near the end of the season of what’s causing these eldritch occurrences in this peninsula of Maine.”
The first two “Smosh: We’re All Gonna Die” are available to watch via Smosh. Tickets for the remaining five shows are available for purchase. In person tickets are available through Dynasty Typewriter with livestream tickets available through Smosh.
