Michael Strassner Talks Channeling Some Of His Hardest Years Into SXSW Breakout ‘The Baltimorons’ — Comedy Means Business Podcast

If there’s one lesson to take from the story of Michael Strassner, it’s that even the worst moments in life can lead to something beautiful, given time, community support, and the willingness to fight.

In 2018, Strassner hit a low point that forced a hard reckoning. Booted from the Groundlings over his drinking and very narrowly missing out on a spot on Saturday Night Live, he attempted to take his own life. Fortunately, he survived, entering a 12-step program the next day, where he came to recognize the joy that could exist on the other side of despair. And less than a decade later, he hit on the greatest year of his life after channeling pain into art with The Baltimorons, a scrappy indie he calls “the little movie that could.”

A work of fiction rooted in real and raw components of Strassner’s life experience, The Baltimorons won the Audience Award in its premiere at last year’s SXSW Film Festival. The film chronicles the blooming of an unexpected May-December romance between a Baltimore dentist (Liz Larsen) and a down-on-his-luck comedian (Strassner) who lands in her chair with a cracked tooth on Christmas Eve.

Both a love letter to Strassners’ hometown and a showcase of his capabilities, as a breakout writer/performer, the film is directed by Jay Duplass, who here returned to features for the first time in over a decade, working from a script written with Strassner. One of the best films of last year, and a testament to the power of original storytelling, The Baltimorons is up for the John Cassavetes Award, recognizing features made for under $1 million, at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards, where Larsen will vie for Best Breakthrough Performance — a category that undoubtedly should have included Strassner, as well.

Recently marking eight years sober, a milestone he speaks about with visible emotion, Strassner appears in today’s episode of Comedy Means Business to discuss what it’s meant for him to get to this place in life, where he can look back and see that the paths that didn’t work out ultimately led him somewhere better.

Over the course of the episode, he chronicles his journey with The Baltimorons, beginning with a cold Instagram DM to Duplass — a journey he says didn’t happen to him, but for him — and explains what he learned in working alongside “Mr. Independent,” Jay Duplass.

If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.