Zach Cherry warns that his Sundays are “pretty boring” — with the caveat that boring, for him, means a wild, 90-minute improv comedy extravaganza of nerdy jokes.
“The most fun part is standing there while other people are performing and laughing really hard,” said Mr. Cherry, a 36-year-old actor and comedian who performs most Sunday nights in the fully improvised comedy show “Raaaatscraps” at Caveat on the Lower East Side. The show features a rotating cast of performers that also includes Jeff Hiller of the HBO comedy “Somebody Somewhere” and Connor Ratliff from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
Mr. Cherry is best known for his role as the snarky overachiever Dylan in the dystopian Apple TV+ workplace thriller series “Severance.” On Thursday, Amazon Prime Video is set to release his latest project, “Fallout,” a postapocalyptic series based on the popular role-playing video game franchise. Mr. Cherry, a self-identified gamer, said he has played many of the nine games in the franchise.
“But I often get kind of overwhelmed and don’t finish them because they’re so gigantic and there’s so much going on,” he said.
Mr. Cherry, who was born in Trenton, N.J., lives in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn with his wife of almost two years, Anabella Cherry, 30, who teaches English as a second language at Hunter College, and their newly adopted 2-year-old rescue dog, Shrek.
A SUMMONS FROM NARNIA I have the Bedtime function on my iPhone set to wake me up at 7 a.m., but almost every day I click “change for one day only” and move it later. I actually wake up around 9 a.m. I use the generic “Early Riser” tone — I’ve never changed it — which starts soft then gets gradually louder. It sounds like something you’d wake up to very gently in Narnia.
WALK IN THE PARK Shrek is quite a scaredy-cat — we just got her in December — and she’s still adjusting to city life. We take her out first thing at a park not too far from our apartment. We bring her down in a little carrier bag. When we get to the park, we have to scope it out and see how busy it is, and if she can handle that level of stimulation. We often have to try to calm her down because some noise has put her into a state of high alert.
FRIENDLY FACE-OFF After we get back from the park, my wife and I play video games or watch TV together. Today we go for Overcooked 2, which is a cooperative cooking simulation game where you’re these little chefs who run a kitchen. But it’s harder than it sounds; your kitchen is also on two separate platforms and a helicopter is moving them away from each other, so you can’t always get to the stove! Another of our favorites is Baldur’s Gate. We also love doing various word games together, like Wordle and Connections.
SHREK SNUGGLES Shrek is very sweet and loves cuddling and being held like a baby. Her favorite way to hang out is to be cradled in one of our arms. We do a family hug pile with her; she loves it. And so do we!
NACHOS AND NOSTALGIA Some of my high school and college buddies are in town, so my wife and I meet them for brunch at Randolph Beer on Prospect Street. This is a momentous occasion for us: It’s the first time we’ve left the house together since we got Shrek. Normally we wouldn’t be able to leave her alone, but Anabella’s mom is in town and agreed to watch her. I get the Kitchen Sink Nachos — sour cream, guacamole, Pepper Jack cheese, black beans and jalapeños — and Anabella gets the Big Ass Pretzel, so I have some of that, too.
ME, MYSELF AND A MATINEE It’s hard for me to want to leave the house when my first thing of the day isn’t until 7 p.m., so, to get myself out, I often see a movie in the afternoon before performing in my show at Caveat. I’m big on seeing movies by myself in theaters. I take the L and then the M to the Regal Essex Crossing on the Lower East Side, which is walking distance from the theater. I’ll literally see anything; I work backward from how long the movie is and what time I need to be out to get to the improv show on time. Anything that’s playing around 4 p.m. is usually prime viewing for me. Today I’m seeing “Dune: Part Two,” and I’m so glad I saw it in a theater. The visuals, the scale, the scope were all so impressive — it makes me wish I saw the first one in a theater, too.
QUICK BITE I grab something quick for dinner a few blocks from the theater, often the Dan Dan Noodles with Beyond Meat at Spicy Moon or the collard greens sandwich at Superiority Burger, when it’s on the menu. I’ve been vegetarian for about four years, since early 2020. Today I get a falafel sandwich from Lava Shawarma.
THE BEST IMPROV SHOW IN THE WORLD The show starts at 7:30, and I try to be at the theater by 7. It’s a bunch of people, many of whom performed in another Sunday night improv show, “Asssscat,” at the Upright Citizens Brigade before it shut down in 2020 during the pandemic. We’ve been doing the show for a little over two years now, and I love it. There are usually about 120 people in the audience.
There’s a rotating cast of 20 improvisers, with eight to 10 in the show each week. And then we have a special guest monologist — often an actor or a writer or a comedian — come and tell stories. They get a suggestion from the audience, and then they riff off that and tell stories from their lives. Then we do a totally improvised show with characters and scenes based on the stories they tell.
Our special guest monologist tonight is Josh Sharp, who co-wrote and starred in “Dicks: The Musical.” He’s an old friend of mine, and of all of us at the show. It’s always fun when the monologist is someone we know, because they know what we need and we can be a little looser.
TV TIME I get back home around 10:30, and I usually watch an episode of “True Detective” with my wife. I’ve really enjoyed this season with Jodie Foster — the vibe, the setting, all the actors in it. I actually didn’t watch Season 3, so I’m not a completist, but this season something clicked with me and I’ve been really digging it.
STILL PROCESSING There are two kinds of nights: Either the show went really well and I’m too jazzed to sleep, or it went poorly and I’m stressing out. Sometimes even an hour of “True Detective” is not enough for me to mellow out. So then I’ll watch a comfort food show like “Monk” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” I’m also a big fan of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” Or I’ll stay up playing a video game like Final Fantasy XVI.
FINALLY FALL ASLEEP I often stay up later than I want, and I regret it on Monday morning and pay for it all week. It can get up into the 2 or 2:30 a.m. range depending on how much I have to process.
