Hey internet! It’s EXTRA STRENGTH cast member Alexis Simpson. I’m sure you’ll find this difficult to believe, but the fact is that EXTRA STRENGTH isn’t the only thing I do with my time. Like many members of the iO West family and greater improv community, I live a double life. I have an agent, I audition, I do shows — but in between, I look for any reasonable paid work such that I can afford to eat.
But unlike most of the actors I know, I have a bachelor’s in psychology with a concentration in neural and behavioral sciences. Oh, and I spent several post-grad years working full-time in a drug addiction research lab. The lab investigated the neural basis of psychostimulant addiction in the mammalian limbic system using a rodent self-administration model. So, in layman’s terms: I GOT RATS HIGH ON COCAINE, FOR SCIENCE.
Prior, during, and since my glory days as a “lab rat coke dealer,” I’ve held a number of interesting jobs and a number of boring jobs that resulted in interesting stories. To that end, I thought you might enjoy hearing some of these stories, and thought I would gather them under the header “Day Job/Night Job.” You can look forward to hearing about the time I got hit on while cleaning a hamster cage! Or the time my Egyptian Jon Lovitz-look-alike boss sent me home with 4 whole chickens!! Or the day I discovered that Megan Fox fans are dumber than Adriana Lima fans!!!! Hey, that was today!
But I won’t do it now. I have to leave for my shift at the iO West Box Office and then I’m off to the Ladies Are Funny Festival in Austin, Texas with The Real Housewives of Philadelphia. So for now, consider yourself teased.
Happy weekend!
