STYLE SHOPPING CULTURE GROOMING SECRETS BM SPORTS THE BM BOX VIDEOS
STYLE SHOPPING CULTURE GROOMING SECRETS BM SPORTS THE BM BOX VIDEOS
On Peter: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank. On Xan: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank.
CULTURE
They've spent almost two years talking to each other occasionally over zoom. Now, with Acting Tips finally available to stream on YouTube, they’re finally ready to open up about the joys, hardships, and allergic reactions that come with filming a six-episode web series
mostly over the internet.
By: Ryan Mach
Photography By: Yoni Shrira
September 20, 2026
It is the coughing you hear first. Hungh hungh hungh! Wet. Productive. Like there’s nobody around him. Like he doesn’t give a damn if there is. This is the cough of an artist. The cough of a creative. Even if what he happens to be creating right now could very well be a new and extremely deadly strain of hantavirus.
The cough rings off the fiber cement siding of the hotel: Hungh hung hungh! He has been doing this since I first arrived, barely able to get out the word “hello” between choked, phlegmy wheezes. He insists that he isn’t sick, that he drank some water that “went down the wrong pipe,” but the only water around is in the hotel pool. His hacking is so potent, so powerful, it seems to rattle the windows and activate nearby car alarms.
In reality, the disturbance is being caused by what must be the 12th plane that has landed at Hollywood Burbank Airport since I met Xan Pemsler here at the luxurious, but affordable Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport. When this latest turbine finally screeches past us, I ask if maybe we should take the conversation inside. “I would,” he croaks, “but it’s so cold in there. I just came in from Tucson, so my body just kind of craves the heat still?” “Couldn’t you just turn off the AC,” I ask. He starts a reply that’s quickly drowned out by the arrival of United Flight 1667 out of Denver.
That’s Xan for you: eccentric, etiolated, economical. His tall, lanky frame, barely contained by the pool lounger he’s lying in, is draped in a linen suit with the tags still on — he tells me he hopes to return it to Amazon after the shoot. I ask him what’s with the get-up. “It’s like those suits that Brad Pitt and George Clooney wore in that GQ interview,” Xan tells me. I admit that I’m not familiar with the interview. “Really?” Xan looks a little concerned. “From 2024? They’re in Brad’s estate on, like, the French Riviera? They get in the pool with all their clothes on?” I shake my head, no. Xan frowns. “Man. We’re really banking on people getting that reference.”
Then I hear it: ring ring ring.
We turn to find Peter Falls, Xan’s partner and co-creator, arriving in a matching linen suit with what looks like — no, it can’t be — a tandem bicycle in tow? With his broad shoulders, widow’s peak, and aviator glasses, Peter cuts a statesmanlike figure, like a younger, smaller Joe Biden. “The lady at the front desk almost didn’t let me take this inside,” he says, a twinkle of mischief in his eye. “Remind me to send her manager an email.” I can’t see his eyes behind the sunglasses, but I assume he winks at me to let me know he’s kidding.
As soon as Xan and Peter are united, a crackling energy of comedic creativity animates the patio. “Xan wanted to see the city. I told him there’s no better way to see Los Angeles than on a bike. A tandem bike, so this knucklehead doesn’t get lost.” Without skipping a beat, Xan replies, “Shut up, dude. You’re the knucklehead.” It’s this talent for improvisational banter that powers Acting Tips, the duo’s six-part web-series that’s currently racking up tens of dozens of views on YouTube.
And as they show me in their hotel room, they’re just as adept at physical comedy. “Ow! Don’t hit me with the zipper end, man,” Peter exclaims as Xan’s pillow makes contact with his face. Now relaxing in their underwear, the two comedians are roughhousing on the bed, enjoying some well-deserved playtime after a very sweaty day full of soul-searching and bike riding. “That’s how you win pillow fights, Peter. You have to use the zipper.”
On Peter: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank. On Xan: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank.
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The pillow fight quickly becomes a wrestling match. The boys tumble and grapple one another. At one point, as he pulls Xan into a headlock, Peter’s flaccid penis is accidentally dislodged from his underwear. Watching the sunburnt skin on Xan’s face make contact multiple times with his partner’s meatus, I’m struck with how intimate, and how delicate, the practice of comedy can be.
On Peter: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank. On Xan: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank.
So Acting Tips is about a lot of things — friendship, death, mental health, orange wine — but it’s also literally about acting. What is it that made the two of you want to focus on the art of acting?
Falls: Well, I actually was giving Xan acting tips for a time. He reached out during the pandemic and asked me for advice.
Pemsler: He was in a Michelob Ultra commercial and he doesn’t even drink beer. So I thought that was really impressive.
When did you guys decide that these tips would be good material for a show?
Pemsler: Well, we were having so much fun. And I was learning a lot. So I figured, why not share this with the rest of the world?
Amazing. You learned so much from Peter that you were able to actually act alongside him.
Falls: Well, he didn’t learn that much. You know, just enough to play the born-yesterday type.
Pemsler: He’s just kidding. We just like to rag on each other for fun. Like the guys from Ocean’s 12.
Falls: Ocean’s 11.
Pemsler: It’s got the same guys.
Falls: But the franchise is called Ocean’s 11.
Pemsler: I haven’t seen that one.
Falls: Nobody knows what you’re fucking talking about when you say the guys from Ocean’s 12.
Xan: [gestures] He knows who I’m talking about! [to me] When I say, “the guys from Ocean’s 12,” you know I mean—
On Peter: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank.
On Peter: Polo by Old Navy, Pants by Amazon Basics, Loafers by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank. On Xan: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank.
Xan, what’s one thing Peter taught you during those initial lessons that’s stuck with you?
Pemsler: One of the most insightful things Peter ever said to me was, “acting is like washing a dish. Whenever you get stuck, don’t get frustrated and try to move against the current. Go with the flow, and don’t be afraid to use a wand.”
Falls: What the fuck are you talking about? I never said anything like that.
Pemsler: You didn’t?
Falls: Of course not. That’s asinine.
Pemsler: [snaps fingers] Right. That was Eddy.
Eddy?
Pemsler: This guy who works at Fiesta Peruviana with me.
Sorry Xan, you’re a waiter at a Peruvian restaurant in Tucson?
Falls: Not a waiter. He washes dishes.
Pemsler: Eddy’s the man. He’s really wise.
Falls: He’s an idiot.
Pemsler: You’re just jealous.
Falls: Why, because you guys kissed?
Pemsler: I told you that in--we don’t kiss, dude! It was one time, he was showing me his technique!
So the show is largely made up of conversations the two of you have on Zoom. But eventually, Peter’s character encourages Xan to move to Los Angeles, which Xan does only to find that--
Pemsler: I just realized you have a whole big ass house. Why do I have to stay in this hotel?
Falls: I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this, Xan: my dog is allergic to Peruvian spices.
Pemsler: I don’t have any Peruvian spices on me, motherfucker. I shower after work.
Falls: Achiote seeps into your skin. Dogs can smell it
Pemsler: There’s no fucking way your dog is allergic to achiote.
Falls: Well, she doesn’t like it, that’s for sure.
To be fair to Peter, it seems like you’re also quite sick, Xan.
Pemsler: I’m not sick!
Falls: He really isn’t. He’s just always coughing like that.
On Peter: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank. On Xan: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank.
So what’s next for you guys? Anything on the horizon?
Falls: Well, I’d love to hit the hotel bar, if you’re offering.
No, I meant in the longer-term.
Pemsler: I have to fly back to Tucson pretty soon. My shift starts in four hours.
No, I meant — wait, didn’t you just land?
Pemsler: Yeah.
So you flew in just for this interview?
Pemsler: That’s right.
Why get a hotel room at all?
Pemsler: That’s what I’m saying!
Falls: [yelling] The dog has a sensitive palate!
On Peter: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank. On Xan: Suit jacket and pants by Amazon Basics, Turtleneck by Temu, Shades by am/pm Market Burbank.
I was asking what projects you guys have planned.
Pemsler: Oh, nothing. We’re really happy with Acting Tips. I don’t really see the need for further projects.
Falls: We’re not greedy. We’re happy to live off the money we make from this.
The money you make off Acting Tips?
Pemsler: Yeah.
Oh.
Falls: What?
Nothing.
Pemsler: Yeah, why’d you say it like that?
Like what?
Falls: Like you’re skeptical.
I’m not skeptical. Definitely not. That’s great, that’s, you know, I’m happy for you guys.
Pemsler: Oh okay, cool.
Falls: Thank you.
All episodes of Acting Tips are now live on YouTube.