This is a sponsored interview in partnership with Tecovas.
Meet Shaun Branigan. He’s written for and performed with Esther’s Follies for more than 25 years, which makes him a top Austinite, if you ask us. What’s more Austin than working at a long-running vaudeville theater on Dirty Sixth?
What is your job?
“Esther's Follies is the longest-running vaudeville theater in America. We're equal parts sketch comedy, magic, and musical parody. It's a 90 minute show with sketches and tricks ranging from 2 to 5 minutes. So it's a really rapid fire show. We focus a lot on political satire, but not entirely.
Esther's Follies opened in 1978. The owners, Shannon Sedwick and Michael Shelton, at the time owned Liberty Lunch, and they moved to Sixth Street, where they had a theater that burned down. Probably about 30-plus years ago, they moved to their current address at 525 East Sixth St.
So it's a real Austin institution and there's been so much rapid change in Austin. It's one of these few remaining kinds of Austin-y things that still exists.”
What do you do on an average day?
“We have a writers' meeting on Monday where we all get together and pitch ideas. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we get together during the day and rehearse new stuff and polish up old stuff. And then we have shows all weekend. One show Thursday, two Friday, and two Saturday.
The other week, my job was making a rocket that looks like a wiener for Elon Musk. So I wouldn't call it work. It's my job, but I wouldn't call it work.”
Where do you go to relax or have fun?
“One of my favorite things is on a hot Thursday right after the show, we're out at 9 p.m., and Barton Springs is free at 9 p.m. I zip over to Barton Springs and walk in there for free, swim a lap, come home, and just sleep like the dead.”
