Comedian Vic Michaelis on their internet talk show, working with Emilia Clarke — and launching an MLM

Vic Michaelis may be a beloved improv comedian who has racked up millions of views across YouTube and TikTok. And the Canadian-raised actor may be about to transition to more mainstream fame off the back of a new espionage thriller.

But they haven't ruled out a pivot to a multi-level marketing scheme.

Such a turn would only add to a delightfully chaotic career trajectory. Michaelis launched a third season of the web series Very Important People late last year, to the rabid delight of Dropout.tv’s fans. Michaelis is a central member of the Dropout studio and streaming service cast, who plays a neurotic, perpetually-near-tears "Host Vic" version of themselves, wrangling costumed comedians through chaotic improvised interviews.

And after starring in the Kickstarter-funded comedy flick D(e)ad, they've made a leap to prime time: appearing as type-A office manager and embassy wife Cheryl, alongside Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke and The White Lotus’s Haley Lu Richardson, in the new series Ponies. That Peacock show follows two women roped into espionage after their CIA husbands’ mysterious deaths. 

But it's a tricky business to jumping from internet to TV notoriety. We caught up to Michaelis to talk about branching out from do-it-yourself productions to traditional content — and their masterplan to sell earthquake preparedness kits. 

We've talked before, and going back to that interview, you described how you really wanted to act in a disaster film, specifically Twisters. Which I assumed was a bit, but I've seen in other interviews you're doubling down on this. This is a real yearning.

Vic Michaelis: I can't express enough how little of a bit this is. I want to be in a disaster movie so bad it's not even funny. I have seen the posters for 9-1-1: Nashville when there's a guy dangling off a building as not one, but two tornadoes close in. I was like, "That should be me. How do I make that me?" So if you've got any tips, let me know, people. Because I think it’s that people keep going, "Oh, hahaha, that’s funny." And I'm like, "Hahaha. No, I'm serious."

You're not quite in the disaster world yet, but it does feel Ponies is a step in that direction. Was that what drew you to the project?

I mean, on the page, it was so vivid and funny and it was like one of the best scripts I’ve read in a long time. It’s one thing when the story’s great, and it’s another thing getting the script and it being vivid strictly on the page. Not only were the jokes and writing really tight, but even the stage direction was funny. I think one of the first episodes where there's male nudity, and it's like "We're seeing full frontal male nudity." This is a premium show, this is a prestige drama. But it was like, "Oh, yeah, that's so funny."

This series also does really flip gender stereotypes on its head. At the same time, your character is very classically feminine. Was that something that you were experimenting with?

Totally. It was so fun. My favourite type of character to play is a character who thinks they're really high status but isn't. Or wants to be really high status and isn't. I think there is so much comedy in that space in between those two things, you know what I mean? 

I feel like I see certain parallels between Cheryl and Host Vic, the fictional Vic Michaelis of VIP. Was there any kind of feeding off there?

I totally agree. And I think it's part of what really drew me to Cheryl is I was like, “Oh, I see you. I know you.” But with Host Vic, I think Host Vic wants success so badly and thinks they are a serious journalist, but is missing some of the competence and skill and talent. Whereas Cheryl has those things, but it's circumstantial reasons why she can't rise above her station. It's the time period. It's the fact that the people around her don't see her value in the same way. 

Whereas with Host Vic, they think they're there, but they just simply don't have that skill set. In no world was Host Vic ever going to be an MSNBC reporter, whereas Cheryl, in another world, would be a CEO of a major company or would be a senator in her own right. It is such a fun well to draw from. This is gonna sound maybe mean, but it's a fun character thing because it's something that's so far from me as a personality: to be mean and make it everybody else's problem.