Brennan Lee Mulligan and Isabella Roland go big on life, love, and improv as a comedy couple
polygon.comBrennan Lee Mulligan and Isabella Roland are going bigger. The Dropout power couple, also currently starring in the deliriously fun Dimension 20 season Never Stop Blowing Up, released their new long-form improv comedy special, Bigger, on Dropout last Thursday. It’s 45 minutes of Dropout’s power couple making each other (and the audience) howl with side-splitting laughter, through ridiculous prompt after ridiculous prompt.
The idea was somewhat jokingly pitched in an episode of Dropout’s Dimension 20 talkback show Adventuring Party three years ago, with the title Bigger because it’s “the only note we’ll never get.” Fast-forward a bit, and the idea is a reality. The couple filmed the special at the independent comedy theater The Elysian in LA, and the version on Dropout combines two 70-minute live performances into one seamless 45-minute show.
Polygon spoke with the stars of Bigger about working together as a comedy couple, expressions of love for each other through Dropout programming, how to make each other break, and a little about Never Stop Blowing Up.
This interview is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Polygon: I’m curious — is this your first press tour together?
Isabella Roland: This is our first.
Brennan Lee Mulligan: This is our first. We have been, I think, interviewed as the cast of other D20 seasons. Maybe we did something for Burrow’s End or something during the pandemic for The Seven.
Roland: No. I don’t know if I’ve ever done press in my life.
How does it feel?
Roland: I think this is my debut.
Mulligan: You’re doing great.
Roland: This is my… what’s that… ca-...
Mulligan: Ca-....
Roland: What’s that word?
Mulligan: Your debutante?
Roland: Yeah yeah yeah.
Mulligan: Cotillion!
Roland: Cotillion.
Mulligan: There you go. We got it. Got there!
Cutting down Bigger from two 70-minute shows into a 45-minute special, was there anything that had to get left on the cutting room floor that you were particularly fond of, or any bits that didn’t make it
Read more on polygon.com
