Goodbye Conner

I've watched Conner perform on various teams and at various theaters since I started taking classes 5 years ago. At first I didn't care for him as a performer. He did a lot of call outs and made a lot of jokes. He did scenes with premises like a gay Nazi cyborg raping Hitler. Last year Conner got on a team with Tisher and I started going to a lot of their shows. I've come to love watching him perform. He goes blue and does crazy scenes but there's a manic emotionality to it. He plays with a courageous abandon that's mesmerizing to watch. His commitment level always seems to be at 100% and a lot of the time he can be so self-deprecating its disturbing. One of my favorite scenes of Conner's in recent memory was one that took place on an old west wagon train. Conner was playing a drifter who would travel with wagon trains and convince the women to have sex with him because his sperm would make them invincible. That sentence doesn't do justice to the playfulness or sense of maniacal fun of the scene but it was one of the best scenes I'd seen in months.

Conner and I started to get to know each other over the past year and I found him real nice and approachable which isn't what I expected. Watching him on stage you get the impression he might have a 'fuck it' attitude which he doesn't. A couple months ago we got into a bit battle on Facebook which for me solidified our friendship in an odd way. You can find a recap here: The Status War. We never really hung out  outside improv but I consider him a friend who I'll sorely miss.

(Conner and Steph from Conner's last Holy Fuck show)

Conner's leaving tomorrow for New York. Another great Chicago performer flying the coop. I regret I didn't get to know him better when he was here but I'm grateful for the conversations we had and the times I got to watch him perform. I'll miss seeing him onstage most of all. We only did one very short scene together during freeze one night where I played his Hispanic girlfriend, I'll never forget it.

Goodbye Conner, I'm sure there's a lot of rambling incoherent bums you can base characters on in central park.

Conner's Website: Coozehound