Basil and Ely Kreimendahl Offered Me Free Maple Syrup

Thanks to the coronavirus, comedians are now trapped at home like the rest of us, so we decided that while we’re all self-isolating, we’d do something a little different from our usual “Follow Friday� column. Instead of interviewing up-and-coming comedians we love on Twitter, we’re going live on Instagram every week to check in on some of our favorite people in comedy and get a firsthand look at how they’re handling the pandemic. So welcome to our new version of the column, now titled “Follow (From a Safe Distance) Friday.�

This week, I suffered through an extreme bout of baby fever during a digital conversation with world’s cutest couple Basil (New Dramatists, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, tapping maple trees and graciously sharing the spoils) and Ely Kreimendahl (Funny or Die, Ars Nova, going viral on Twitter roughly every 2.5 minutes) about how they’re holding up during quar. They described the peculiar intricacies of parenting during a pandemic, introduced viewers to their perfect old-man dog Moishe, and generously invited me to join them and their growing family at the movie theater once we’re all vaxxed up. Ely and I also took a quick conversational detour (sorry, Basil!) to chat about being Geminis, and she detailed her ideal first foray out into the world post-pandemic: “My first [goal] would be to go sit in a diner for hours and get fries; and then, an hour later, some coffee; and then, later, some cake. Just live it up and spend the whole day there.�

You can find Basil on Twitter at @BKreimendahl and Instagram at @basiltapir. You can find Ely on Twitter and Instagram at @ElyKreimendahl.