Alex Arthur & Cole Spike shot by Alex Beh / Alex Arthur shot by Gallery by Geve / Delaney Rowe shot by Gallery by Geve / Delaney Rowe shot by Alex Arthur
(Plus Her New Book) with Alex Arthur & Cole Spike
Unless you live under a downtown Manhattan rock, The Thing Is..! A Live Variety Show has most likely caught at least the tiniest bit of your attention this year. An ode to the variety shows of the past, producer Cole Spike and host Alex Arthur created the bimonthly show as a celebration of all that New York City artists have to offer: comedy, music, poetry, magic, ventriloquy and just the right amount of gleeful chaos filling the club walls of Jean’s on Lafayette Street.
Starring guests like Kareem Rahma, Delaney Rowe, Caroline Calloway, Jon Rudnitsky, Cat Cohen, Peter Vack, Ivy Wolk, Drew Dunn, Anna Roisman, Sahib Singh, Rebounder, and more!
As they bring their first fourteen months of shows to a close (capping off the year with a very special Live Music Session Number One at Baby’s All Right followed by the final Variety Show of 2025, New York Comedy Festival edition), host and executive producer Alex Arthur and Cole Spike chat with Actor, Writer and recurring guest on the show, Delaney Rowe all things The Thing Is..!
Alex: Uh, here we go. How you doing?
Delaney: I’m tired.
Alex: Same as well.
Delaney: I’m tired and I’m a little hungover. That’s why I’m having a glass of wine right now. Saturday at 5 o’clock, so it’s perfect timing. Is it 5 o’clock?
Alex: I hope so. 5:05.
Delaney: 5:05. Sometimes I feel like I’m, like, scraping to make sure it’s five.
Alex: I know. Well, it’s five in the middle of the Atlantic. It’s five.
Delaney: And I’m also having a Celsius cause I’m a little tired.
Alex: I love Celsii.
Delaney: So, [Alex] you’re not coming out tonight because you’re saving your voice for the show.
Alex: Yes.
Delaney: And what is the preparatory process?
Alex: It’s very much a week in which I don’t entertain loud spaces, which is, you know, pretty much every space in the city of New York. Even restaurants, I find, are just—the decibels are so loud—
Delaney: Decibels!
Alex: So loud. Just because, you know, I like to chat, and I’ll wake up the next morning without a voice.
Delaney: In fact, you do.
Alex: I do.
Delaney: She’s a talker.
Alex: I’m a talker. I’m working on it.
Delaney: Hahah You’re working on it?
Alex: She’s like, are you? But no, yeah, so I’m saving my voice and just getting good sleep and working on all the logistical stuff we have to do for the show, which I’m very excited about.
Delaney: Like what?
Alex: So we have to bring in a bunch of chairs into the space because we’re doing it at Jean’s.
Delaney: Physical labor.
Alex: Physical labor will be tomorrow. Ordering the things that make the labor need to happen, which are the chairs. And then just resting. Cause you know, this show is only like an hour and change, but I like to be rested for it. So yeah, I’m going to try and sleep early tonight.
Delaney: How early are we talking?
Alex: Probably like 10, 11? In bed. Which means two hours in bed.
Delaney: What?
Alex: On my phone. No, I’m kidding.
Delaney: You’re not kidding.
Alex: I’m not kidding. We’ll see. I’m working on that, too.
Delaney: Get off your phone. Did you see that my screen time was 24 minutes a day?
Alex: I did see that.
Delaney: Last week?
Alex: I did see that.
Delaney: Yeah, that’s—that’s an all-time record for me.
Alex: You’re extremely disciplined.
Delaney: No, I’m not disciplined.
Alex: Yeah, you are.
Delaney: No, I’m not disciplined. It’s not discipline that keeps me off my phone. It’s not wanting to deal with the horrifying comparison hangover that happens every time I look at Instagram.
Alex: Yeah.
Delaney: I open it, and I always feel bad about myself. There’s always something that pops up where I feel bad about myself.
Alex: No, I feel you. Me as well.
(Checks phone)
Alex: Ok, Cole’s been at a baby shower and will chime in shortly when she’s back.
Delaney: Well, I wonder how you deal with the nerves of performance so well, considering—I’d say you’re probably someone who maybe runs more anxious in general, and yet you have no performance anxiety. What is that about?
Alex: I think that—I mean, I definitely feel anxious the less I’m prepared. So I try and prepare as much as I can, whether that be the songs I choose to sing, the run-of-show down to the minute, although there’s flexibility night-of because there must be. But I think as prepared as I can be, in terms of understanding that I’m here to set up the artists for success pre-show and up there.
Delaney: But you are one of the best performers on the show.
Alex: That’s so kind. Thank you. It’s been so fun. It’s really been like—honestly this sounds so cheesy—but we started the show because we wanted… I just spent four years taking in so much going on in New York and being so inspired by it—music, comedy, poetry. So this has been an opportunity for Cole and me to curate an evening celebrating that. A love letter to what’s exciting about living here.
But to answer your question… I don’t know. I find it so fun and I don’t get to do it as much as I’d like. We do it every six to eight weeks, so when I’m in there, if nerves come up, I’m like, you’re going to be so sad when this is over in an hour. So just lean into it.
Delaney: There you go. How would you differentiate and define you and Cole’s roles?
Alex Arthur & Cole Spike shot by Alex Beh
Alex: Oh, so Cole is the executive producer of the show. She’s a genius. She’s leveled up the ways in which we advertise and have expanded, she understands what turns people off or on in terms of marketing. She keeps things extremely tight—she’s taught me how to communicate with guests and venues. She’s very organized. We’ve put together a nice workflow. And she’s so creative too, with great perspective on run-of-show as an outside eye – as in not on the stage.
Cole: My loves! Hopping in here for a few minutes before I have to head back out. Thank you for doing this with us, Delaney.
Yeah, I wanted to collaborate with Alex on building this show for two reasons: first, to give our community something that doesn’t exist—a variety show where some of the best artists of our generation can come together downtown to perform live, with performances woven together with intention. And second, Alex is extremely talented, and I wanted to create an environment where she could perform and express herself at her highest level without worrying about production. I wanted to produce at a level that could really showcase her and the other performers at their best.
Delaney: As best friends and roommates, how do you navigate the stresses of working together?
Alex: We’ve found a nice way of setting boundaries around when we talk about the show. Which lines of communication are used for what—whether that’s text, email, in person—we’ve learned how to communicate with one another and it’s been helpful. And just a sign of growing older and understanding what people need, I think.
Cole: We also take our work seriously and keep two priorities in mind: first, our relationship comes first, always. And second, when it comes to the show, nothing is personal—any difficult decision comes down to what will be best for the health of the show. Those two things keep us united no matter what. We also have other people we trust who believe in us and the show, and we know we can lean on them if we need objective opinions. We’re very grateful for our support systems.
Delaney: Do you think that because you’ve lived in New York a long time and kind of know everybody, it’s easy for you to pick talent? And you have just this really wide net? Is that why it’s easier for you to do your job or does it make it harder because you don’t want to hurt people’s feelings or not ask friends to do the show? How do you figure that out?
Alex: In the beginning, I think—yeah. Sometimes it makes it easier because I’ve seen so much these last few years that I can put together future shows in my head in terms of guests that would pair well together. And we’ve expanded the shows in terms of variety—for instance, November’s show skewing comedy as a part of NYCF, September’s being all music. Each show can sometimes be a different kind of variety in and of itself so whenever anyone asks us, being able to organize future shows has been helpful because usually they’re already on our master dream list anyway.
Delaney: Who’s your dream guest? Dream big.
Alex: Chris Rock, I really want him to do the show. He’s been to Jean’s before, I see him on the street quite often. And so he’s around. He’s a New Yorker.
Delaney: Yeah, he’s the man. But he did ask to be cut out of my video.
Alex: That is true. I do remember that. I was there.
Delaney: Didn’t you film it?
Alex: I did film it.
Delaney: So I feel a little betrayed right now. Okay, who’s your second dream guest?
Alex: Dave Chappelle, I would die for. For singers—I really want this band called The Thing. They almost did the last show but touring logistics got in the way. People kept telling me, you should have The Thing do The Thing. And when I finally saw them I was blown away. So those are my three dreams, today.
Cole: Echoing Alex, but also in a dream world, it would be incredible to have Cher show up for a song—honoring the original Cher show. She’s my idol. I would also love to have Chloe Fineman come do her hilarious high-level impressions.
Delaney: Amazing.
Alex Arthur and Cole Spike shot by Morgan Von Steen / Alex Arthur, Cole Spike, and Delaney Rowe shot by Charlie Cohen
Alex: Okay, flipping the script to you, Miss Thang. You’ve done the show a few times now. You’re one of the most incredible writers I’ve ever read the writing of and even if I didn’t know you I would still be saying that. You’re going to be reading a new piece but you’re putting together a book. Explain a little bit about how that came to be and what the process has been like for you.
Delaney: It came to be because I wrote one essay a few years ago after this hilarious experience—me having sex with a 20-year-old when I was 28, this fable about age. I thought it was so funny. I wrote it down, sent it to my team, and they were like, oh, you write? I guess. Then I wrote a few more, got a book agent, and before I knew it, we sold it. I’ve been working on it for a year and a half. We’re actually reselling next week. And the process has been hell. Writing is hell. It has to be hard, I think, because to be so specific requires a grueling amount of self criticism and observation and it’s um it’s a nightmare. So it’s been hell but it’s rewarding. It has been absolutely rewarding. And when I’ve written something I love, it feels like after a great workout. Like, oh, now I have biceps because of Pilates. You look back on a piece and think, I earned that.
Alex: Temporary pain for long-term pleasure. Or you could choose temporary pleasure for long-term pain. So to speak to what you just said, you’ve accumulated these stories—how have you gone about organizing them when you’re putting them all together?
Delaney: It’s really just been chronological. From the first essay that I wrote to the newest. But now we’re sorting it out and we’re realizing that there are four very clear themes. And so we’re gonna kind of define the book that way. The themes are like: love addiction, wellness – like wellness culture, what I would describe as an obsession with coolness or like, “the scene,” and then food/wine/hosting. So it’s like that.
Alex: Love.
Delaney: So it’s all things that feel very me.
Alex: Yes. How has moving to New York either, you know, inspired your writing, or changed the way you write? Or how has moving to New York changed your artistry in any way, if it has at all?
Delaney: It’s just made me smarter. Sharper. People here are so interested in showing you their intellectuality. Which can be grating but it also makes you kind of level up. People aren’t interested in that in LA. So I read more. I spend way less time on my phone here. I see more movies here. I hang out with a larger variety of people here. So in every way, my career has gotten better since moving to New York.
Delaney Rowe for InStyle shot by Emilio Madrid
Alex: Last question: who are some writers you’re really inspired by right now or historically have been inspired by? Slash filmmakers?
Delaney: Well, my favorite writer is Stephanie Danler. My favorite book is Sweetbitter. I think she is fantastic. Filmmakers—I like this guy, Lee Toland Krieger. He went to USC. He graduated way before our time, I think. But he’s top of mind right now because I just rewatched one of his movies Celeste and Jesse Forever. Have you seen that?
Alex: Yes, I love that movie.
Delaney: And then he went on to direct Sabrina the Teenage Witch or something.
Alex: Obsessed.
Delaney: I like directors who can showcase the city that it’s shot in really well. He’s really good at that. More writers: Jean Garnett, she’s an amazing essayist. She was my former editor at Little Brown before she went off independently. She just wrote an incredible piece called The Problem with Loving Men, and it’s about this concept called heterofatalism. Which is about this looming, this looming kind of negative energy that people seem to have around dating now. This like cynicalness, which I find really boring, and she kind of wound up defining it and explains why she thinks it’s like this. It’s a great essay. Jean Garnett, amazing writer.
Alex: Obsessed. Well, we’re so excited for Monday, and I can’t wait to hear what else you’ve written, because I haven’t heard this piece yet.
Delaney: It’s kooky.
Alex: I love it.
Delaney: It’s kooky. And it’s amended for performance.
Alex: Incredible.
Delaney: Oh yes, yes, yes. Because it’s very different from what you’d read in a book.
Alex: Thank you, Delaney Rowe.
Delaney Thank you, Alex Arthur. I love you.
Alex: Love you too. Bye.
Delaney: Great.
Alex Arthur and Delaney Rowe shot by Danya Zelikovsky / Alex Arthur and Delaney Rowe shot by Emilio Madrid / Alex Arthur shot by Stage Media NYC