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🎙️ SHUT UP GAIL – Ep. 7: "Cats, Clapbacks, and Contrasts" with Thea Marie Thorkildsen

This is the fourth installment of the Women of BIT. 

Listen, follow, rate, and share... PLEASE and THANK YOU!

This month on Bit Behind the Scenes (a.k.a. SHUT UP GAIL), Gail gets philosophical, improv-sical, and mildly feline-ical with Norwegian multi-hyphenate Thea Marie Thorkildsen—a political scientist turned stand-up comic, improv rebel, and self-declared curator of "Cat of the Day" (even though it's weekly).

🧠 In This Episode:

• 🏛️ How nine years of political science, psychology, and history shape Thea's comedic instincts

• 🎭 Why breaking the "Yes, and" rule might make you a better improviser

• 🐱 What neighborhood cats really think of Thea's stand-up (spoiler: it's "meow")

• 👏 The story behind her improv group The Clap (yes, that's what it's called, and no, not for that reason)

• 🎤 Performing solo at Oslo Improv Festival and 121 times at Edinburgh Fringe (!)

⚡ Rapid-Fire Round Includes:

• Regression analysis on improv + stand-up combos

• UCB vs. Second City for first dates

• National Cat Day vs. Talk Like a Pirate Day (cat supremacy confirmed)

• Spanish-language improv show titles and fringe audience chaos

💬 Quotable Moments:

"Improv taught me you can break the rules—if you know the rules."
"My cat critics would just say… 'meow.'"
"Gail, you are weird and cool, so shut up, please?"

🇳🇴 Bonus Bits:

• Thea's guide to navigating Norway with just a "plastic card"

• Gail's journey into Duolingo Norwegian

• A teaser for the gang's upcoming Norway Improv Festival takeover

Be sure to come back on the 8th of each month for a new "snack-sized" episode of SHUT UP GAIL.

If YOU want to yell at Gail, please email us at TheBITComedyNetwork@gmail.com

"The BIT Spotlight" is part of The BIT Comedy Network.