Goodbye Jim

Jim is leaving with Kate for LA tomorrow. His roast was this past Tuesday which was really fun. It was nice, after a couple of actual roast/burn jokes each person said something really sweet about Jim. He will be missed.

I've watched Jim and Craig perform in Middle Age Comeback since I started taking classes at iO, pretty much for their entire run. I learned a lot from just watching Jim. A lot of their best shows were narrative driven which seemed to be something Jim really liked. Two shows stick out in my mind. One was a show where Jim played Dale McFaddin a founding father that time forgot. Craig and Jim jumped from the past to the present and created this really fun story about this forgotten historical character. The other show the suggestion was 'Late For Work'. Jim and Craig were two friends late for work and the entire show was them trying to race there. They cut periodically to Jim as their boss with Craig as his assistant. Both were great shows with clear narratives something I didn't really know how to do but came to from watching them.

In a way Jim also taught me performance integrity. I was at a couple shows where he threw people out. Drunk people, people being disruptive or rude. He had now tolerance for it. He would stop the piece in mid-scene chastise the person and wait for them to be completely out of the building before continuing, without missing a beat. It was something that really inspired me in an odd way. If at iO I'm not being paid, I'm doing it for the love of improv so I really don't have to put up with anything I don't want to. I have the power, that was a great realization.

Jim was also a great director for HouseCo. He gave me the confidence to trust my sketch ideas and develop them, he clarified my ambiguous ideas and showed me how that could be done. He was always articulate and clear and honest with his feedback. Putting up 'Call Of The Riled' taught me a lot because it was directed by Jim. Even though we didn't talk a whole lot I'll miss him. He was always a good guy to be around because he was free and passionate about his ideas. I'll take an angry guy over an apathetic guy any day of the week.

This is a video Ted made for Jim's roast. It's scenes from various Middle Age Comeback shows.


Good luck, goodbye.