Goodbye 3541

I started taking classes at iO in 2007. I didn't go to a show for my first term there because I was too scared to use my student ID and I was too broke to pay for a show. During level 2 I mustered up enough courage to go see the Sunday 10:30 show which turned out to be GhettoBlaster and 3033. The first show I didn't care for much but when 3033 took the stage I was enthralled. They took a suggestion and for thirty minutes danced and interpretively moved to a soundtrack, no dialogue. I remember it being funny but it struck me more as an engaging piece of theater, even more impressive given these five men were big, big but graceful. From then on I was hooked.

The following week I went back on Sunday this time for the whole evening. That was the first time I saw Deep Schwa. I fell in love. They were so fast, so smart, so wickedly playful. I don't remember much about the show but after it my face hurt from laughing. The team at the time was Jeff Griggs, Brett Lyons, Dan Antonucci, Kevin Fleming, Meagan Flanigan, Brian Jack and Colleen Murray. Craig Uhlir got back from Vegas a month or so after I started watching Schwa and at first I didn't like him- too sharp, too mean, too aggressive. As a teacher Craig won me over and that roster of Schwa became my signpost and my inspiration for what improv was and could be. Subsequent additions and returning members like Rob Janas, Brian Wilson, Kate Duffy, Joe Canale, Danny Mora, and Neil McNamara were also incredible to watch. Since that first show back in 2007 I've only missed a handful of Sunday nights at iO, less than ten.

                             

I didn't got on a team after classes, I was crushed and angry. I did some work, auditioned, and made it in. My first team at iO was FireCup, it was a great first team, we really cared about each other and most of the time it showed on stage. It was a huge accomplishment when we started playing downstairs in the Cab, in my mind that was always the stage to play on, the goal, where the real work was being done. My second team was Rick where I think I did some of my best work with the Harold. My third team The Hague was great in its atonal weirdness. My independent team The Album and Julia and I's two person show Salute Jive both got runs in the Cabaret, both were unexpected and I couldn't have been more grateful for the opportunities. Ted and I put up our two person sketch show "A Year Of Saturdays" in the DCT, it was the first thing I did that I felt was in my voice. I found that voice at iO.

I had some great teachers and some bad teachers who talked too much. I had some boring teachers and some creepy teachers and some inspiring teachers. I learned some great lessons, some of them because of how angry and biting they were delivered. Some people were mean to me, I was mean to some people, I embarrassed myself a number of times, sometimes I was too proud. Occasionally I talked too much shit.

I had the pleasure of coaching JaJaJa, Echo my first Harold team the members of which will always be near and dear to me and currently coach Attica. I made a lot of friends, was involved with many interesting projects, got inspired, got motivated, got beaten down and picked myself up. I had a place to go whenever I wanted. I found a home and an art form that excited me. 

I don't have much attachment to the building itself, it's the people that are important, but I'll miss the Cabaret stage, the low ceiling, the simple lights, the way the laughs and indifference sounded. I'll miss watching a great show and getting pumped up to go on after or watching a terrible show and getting pumped up to get the crowd back. I'll miss doing a great set coming off and feeling sorry for the team that has to follow it. I'll miss the challenges and the energy, the heat and the camaraderie. It was such a unique space, part bar part theater, compact and intimate. I'll miss sneaking in the back and watching shows from the hall way and then disappearing during freeze.

It wasn't a flawless place. It could be dangerous both interpersonally and in regards to performance. It could be a place of judgement but also kindness and acceptance. Of contradictions. It was a place where you could seek and find some clarity of purpose. Hone your comedic chops in a classroom or on a stage.

It was a magical place and after tonight it's gone.

Runnin' Coin

After the Kzoo show I asked Beanpole to make some posters for Craig and I's two man show Runnin' Coin. I described the Kzoo show in as much detail as I could but the most memorable thing was a scene where I was flying Craig as a rich guy around in a plane.

Next time we have a show we'll have a show poster ready to go. Hopefully that'll be soon.

Kzoo Improv Fest

Yesterday was the final day of the Kalamazoo Improv Festival. The Album performed in the 8 o'clock slot and Craig and I performed at the 10 o'clock slot. Both shows were tons of fun.

The Album show was real fun. We hadn't played together in a long, long time and it was nice to get back into the grove. The group work was just as good as it ever was but we got cut early. It felt like we had just started getting going when the lights got pulled. For some reason the way the festival was structured the first two groups got twenty minutes only. I really didn't understand that and felt like we were slightly gypped.

Craig and I's show was great. Our suggestion was 'proctology' which kind of threw me. The first scene Craig was doing most of the talking and I wasn't doing much. Then about 2 minutes into the show Craig hit himself in the face with a stool causing him to bleed. That also took me out for a second. Once I realized the cut was minor we both kicked in to gear and ran pell-mell till the end of the show. My favorite part was a scene we did where I was flying a bi-plane. Craig was a rich guy passenger and we were doing a bunch of plane tricks which we would act out with the chairs. Eventually we got out on the wings, parachuted down to Craig's pool, drank a Tab then jet packed back up and into the plane. The audience went nuts. It felt great. After the little hiccup in the beginning the show was effortless and so full of joy for me I can't really describe it. It was like when you are a kid and you start to fall over and then you run so that you don't fall but then you lean more so you have to run even faster not to fall. The show was like that. Or at least that's how I felt.

Joyous momentum.

Des Plaines Improv Fest

Friday Craig and I did the Des Plaines Improv Fest: Runnin' Coin. The first time Craig and I did a two-man was two years ago. I was working as a bank teller and did tons of bank bits in shows. The name came from that.

It was great riding up with Craig cause we are both so busy all the time it's rare we have an hour to simply talk to each other. We talked a lot of shop and caught up on each others lives. I love talking to Craig. He is one of the most engaging people I have ever met.

We get there and the venue is both good and bad. It reminded me of the Titanic in a way. It was enormous 500 seater, cavernous, bad acoustics and cold. And there weren't that many people there. We walked in and were treated great. Super great. Bill and company who organized it were amazing. We had our own dressing room and sandwiches and soda and everything. Very cool but very weird space. Craig and I got there early and watched the 7 o'clock slot.

The light board was out so they had flood lights in which to perform in. Terrible. You could tell it demoralized the improvisers and sucked the energy out of the room. The lights kicked in towards the end of that set and were all ready for Craig and I.

Craig and I were both nervous. The venue was oppressive and the audience was tepid at best. (Although my parents and grandmother were there so for me there wasn't a possibility of not killing it). Craig and I took the stage and killed. Just crushed. Craig introduced our piece in a way the audience understood what we were doing. We navigated the acoustic issues easily and did funny-fun scenes the audience could identify with. We engaged an unwieldy oppressive room. We even got applause after the first scene.

We saw the moment. Understood it. And took advantage of it.

Improv wins.

Del would have been proud.