We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kali and Janée Marie Meadows. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kali and Janée Marie below.

Kali and Janée Marie, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

We are lifelong learners. Why stop? There is never a point where we think, “shut the book on that. No more to learn.” We love doing it all. Creating worlds. So the craft for us goes in so many directions. There’s improv, character work, comedic characters, dramatic characters, writing, editing, filming, animating, learning to color grade, learning how to build sets, making clams squirt out of the ground. We know we can’t stop learning if we want to continue to grow. Didn’t Einstein say, “once you stop learning, you start dying?”

Kali and Janée Marie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Kali Meadows and Janée Marie Meadows are adult sisters. Despite being five years apart in age, they were raised as twins. It was easier for their parents that way. Not bothering to memorize their daughters’ names, they were referred to as “the girls.” Now they are self-monikered as Hot Metal Playground, a comedic duo that performs sketch and improv. Their twin language speaks to skewer society. No one is safe from getting burned on the Hot Metal Playground. Their characters range from government officials waxing poetic about AI and humanity’s merging to mildly disturbing teachers who insist on checking your back for scoliosis to demons making hot sauce from tit milk — a lil’ something for everyone.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Being sisters, we have this shared experience with our childhood environment. And so we both grew up in a perfectionistic household. We often joke that we have a master’s degree in perfectionism. For us, comedy was that breath of fresh air which rescued us from that world. And much later on, when we decided to dive into improv, it helped turn our perspectives around even more. It taught us a lot about life. It’s all about embracing the messiness, going with the flow, and finding beauty in imperfections.

Nowadays, everyone talks about perfectionism, but it’s one thing to talk about it and another to confront it head-on. You’ve got to dig deep and pull out those stubborn perfectionism roots that have woven themselves into every nook and cranny of your mind. It’s like adults planted these perfectionism seeds inside us years ago, and they’ve been quietly growing ever since.

Perfectionism has this way of mimicking your own voice, doesn’t it? It tries to convince you that you’re nothing without it, that it’s your lifeline. But as you embrace failure and self-acceptance, you start to see that you can strive for excellence without getting caught up in the illusion of perfection.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Creativity is often misunderstood as some innate gift, but in reality, it’s an intelligence. The truth is, creatives invest relentless efforts in honing their skills, learning, and training rigorously. It might not seem like it because good art seems like magic, doesn’t it? But man, is there logic and reason behind every creative pursuit.

Society has prioritized fields like science, math, and engineering over the arts. This is a damn shame because regardless of whether one personally comprehends the nuances of creativity, it holds as much value as any esteemed non-creative field. We strongly believe creativity and non-creativity are just two sides of the same amazing coin.

Contact Info:

• Website: hotmetalplayground.com
• Instagram: hotmetalplayground
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hotmetalplayground

Image Credits
Janée Marie Meadows, Kali Meadows