Instructor Karen Graci in brief

Several iO West instructors have listed during these brief interviews Harold team King Ten as one to watch.

King Ten team member, performer, producer, and iO West instructor Karen Graci is a key reason we should.

I recently caught up with Graci briefly to see if I could distill King Ten's magic elixir. The ingredients for improv success seem to include confidence, a sense of play, continuously challenging oneself, and generous ensemble work…

Well, sure. I suppose that's why the instructors keep hammering those lessons home.

Like all great teachers, Karen Graci knows and does what she's talking about.

Graci graciously offered even a few more drops of wisdom for the iO West community.

SKK: What was the moment when you first discovered you loved performing improv?

KG: In college. I was studying at American University in Washington, DC and was in a play called The Nerd with my friend, Dave Buckman. It was a fun comedy, and I remember him saying to me, "You love comedy, I love comedy: we should do improv."

And I said, " What's improv?"

And he said, "You know, like Whose Line Is It Anyway?"

And I was like, "What's 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?'"

So, basically, Dave started the first improv group at American University. There were about six or eight of us, and we did short form games. That's when I really started loving the surprise and discovery of improv, the challenge of having to be so clever so fast while still having fun and being stage-worthy.

SKK: What has been your favorite on-stage experience so far?

KG: That's hard to say. I've been fortunate to have many. I was able to perform with an improv group called Baby Wants Candy, and we performed a fully improved musical in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which was really fun.

I also loved performing with the Second City National Touring Company, doing the first-ever Second City USO Tour to the Middle East in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. It was exciting to be able to perform for American troops who were sitting in the audience with guns in their laps. (Talk about having an incentive to do a good show!)

They genuinely appreciated us being there.

And I really loved doing weekly shows in Chicago with iO groups like Rockstar of Siam – which was actually a Cage Match team that won so many shows [we were made into] a Harold team.

We were young and hungry and did the La Ronde and really tried to go for it with each show – to really have fun and do inventive work.

I have to say, though, that King Ten is so fantastic for me right now. We are all genuinely close friends and love being together, love cracking each other up. We try to raise the bar each week for ourselves and push ourselves to do better work, too.

It's hard to have a bad show, then, because you don't want to let your friends down. The best feeling is when I can make my teammates laugh. It must be funny if they laugh.

SKK: What led you to begin teaching improv?

KG: I wanted to teach because I love playing so much. I love the feeling of not having a script, of not knowing what's next, and of embracing the idea that whatever will be will be right. And it will be great.

And it's such a thrilling feeling to create something from nothing that is your own, that entertains people, that surprises them or is truthful to them. The downside is that it is just as fleeting as it is thrilling.

SKK: What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching for you?

KG: The most rewarding aspect of teaching is seeing people's enthusiasm to try, to take a risk, and to be willing to look like a complete and utter douche bag while doing so.

I love seeing more experienced performers go from thinking too much to feeling more on stage. Usually their work gets better when they do that.

I love helping performers switch from being in their head to following their instincts.

There's not much better than seeing students surprise themselves with characters and ideas they didn't know they had...being proud of their work, and having fun.

SKK: What has been your favorite in-class experience so far? This experience could also be "as a result of class."

KG: All of the above, I think. Little moments. Students having more confidence in themselves and their choices. Knowing that they are only as good as they believe they are.

SKK: Lastly, for everyone reading this blog who is trying to figure out what shows to see first, which are a few Harold teams you think are particularly successful, and why do they work so well? You can include your own.

KG: It's hard for me to say which Harold teams people should see you because I don't see as many as I would like. I wish I could say I see every team every week and immerse myself in every show and I am just not able to do that these days.

But I think the key is to see as many shows as you possibly can. I remember being a student in Chicago and being at the theater four or five nights a week to really absorb the whole world of it. I saw terrific shows and many not so great shows. But that's how you learn.

I went from being more of a passive audience member who was just enjoying the show to being one who could actually analyze the moves that people were making, figuring out why, for example, a support move works so well, or how an edit was missed, or when something on stage wasn't working how would I fix it?

Then improv goes from being entertainment to being instruction. The more shows you can see, the better – of all teams, of all levels. It'll make you a better performer. And if you have time to see King Ten or Bandit (the team I coach), well, then, I'm not going to stop you.

I'd also like to say that I don't think there is some sort of magic formula for making a great improv team. You can put fantastic players on the team but if there's no team chemistry, if there's no group mind, if there's no listening, if there's no give-and-take, then it's just a bunch of people throwing elbows to get their ideas out and that only lasts so long.

And frankly, that isn't very interesting to watch. I prefer to watch teams that make each other look good by physically, emotionally and intellectually playing to the top of their game to make each other look good. Those are the teams to me that are funny as all hell. It's not only who they are individually that matters, but also what they create between them that's money in the bank.

Karen Graci's bio:

A proud native of Buffalo, NY, Karen Graci performed for Chicago’s The Second City for more than three years. While touring the US and abroad with The Second City National Touring Company, Graci was grateful to perform in The Second City’s first-ever USO Tour, entertaining American troops in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. She was also a resident cast member in The Best of Second City at The Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas for over a year.

Graci co-wrote and starred in the sold-out run of Camp Hot, a three-woman sketch show featured at UCB LA and the Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival. Her one-woman show, Her Potential, was a 2008 Del Close Award nominee for Best Scripted Show at iO West.

A veteran of ComedySportz Chicago and Baby Wants Candy at iO Chicago, Graci now performs regularly at iO West with King Ten. Graci is an instructor at iO West and also taught at Second City Las Vegas and Second City Los Angeles. Most recently, Graci coached the iO West Harold Team, Local 132.

Keep checking the iO West website for Karen Graci's teaching schedule.

- Shawn Kathryn Kane

Instructor Molly Erdman in brief

A cursory glance at iO West instructor Molly Erdman's website is enough to exhaust the unsuspecting visitor. 

This experienced and versatile actor is busy. 

In addition to Molly's many stage performances, commercials and TV guest appearances, she also writes an extremely popular blog entitled Catalog Living, which takes a humorous look at the people who live inside home furnishing catalogs and was named one of Time Magazine’s "Top 25 Blogs of 2011," and her book, Decorating Takes (Wicker) Balls, is due out in the summer of 2012.

It's a wonder Molly had time to this week to teach the Weekly Workout and to share her improv insights, in brief, with me.

SKK:  What was the moment when you first discovered you loved performing improv?

ME:  Back in high school, we'd do improv games in our theater class, and it was my favorite thing in the world.  I spent a summer at a theater camp in Boston and learned the Harold, and I went back for my senior year and started an improv group at my school.  This was back in the Dark Ages when high school improv groups were unheard of.  That sound you just heard was me patting myself on the back.

SKK:  What has been your favorite onstage experience so far?

ME:  Geez, there have been a lot. Some that stick out in my mind probably aren't the best or funniest moments, but are just memorable for some reason.

For instance, on my first Harold team at iO Chicago – Genealogy – in the late 90s, I was doing a scene where I was a bratty kid getting a haircut.  I said to the barber, played by the hilarious Dave Peggs, "I cut out a picture from a magazine of how I want my hair to look." Dave took the picture, looked at it, and said "It's Lily Tomlin."  I lost it. 

To me, that was the funniest person he could have picked for me to want my hair to look like, because I was playing a kid, and because what magazine would I have been reading that had a picture of Lily Tomlin in it? 

It was one of those great lines – two words, even – that gave a ton of information about the character I was playing. But mainly it just made me laugh, and still does today when I think about it.

SKK:  What led you to begin teaching improv? 

ME:  At first I was just curious if I would be any good at it.  I don't think improv ability or talent and teaching prowess necessarily go hand-in-hand.  Now that I feel like I've got my teaching groove, my main goal is to simplify improv and what makes a successful improv scene. 

Sometimes students – and all improvisers – think too much and get so bogged down in rules that we lose sight of the fact that everything we need to make a good scene is right there in front of us.  We just have to slow down enough to recognize it.   

SKK:  What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching for you?

ME:  When a specific exercise or note clicks for a student.  I love that feeling of diagnosing a problem area and being able to find a solution.

SKK:  What has been your favorite in-class experience so far?  This experience could also be "as a result of class."

ME:  I loved the last day of the Level 4 I taught a couple months back.  I asked the class "what do we love about X's improv" for each student, and I just sort of sat there and beamed as everyone offered up all these great insights and compliments about every single person in that class.  I really believe that being able to see and appreciate other people's strengths is an important part of being a good improviser.

SKK:  Lastly, for everyone reading this blog who is trying to figure out what shows to see first, which are a few Harold teams you think are particularly successful, and why do they work so well?  You can include your own.

ME:  I enjoy my current team, Spirit Cat, and my former team, Sweeterhouse, because they're both filled with veteran improvisers who are playful and just plain funny (more back-patting).  I've also always been a fan of Local132 - they have a good blend of comedically diverse players, and their shows are technically solid while also being funny and playful.

Molly Erdman's bio:

Molly Erdman spent eleven years performing at iO Chicago with groups including Genealogy, Valhalla, The Armando Diaz Experience, and the Lindbergh Babies (directed by Del Close). She was a member of Second City’s National Touring Company and created and performed in three Mainstage shows at the Second City Chicago. For four years, she played the quietly suffering wife in the minivan in Sonic commercials. Molly moved to LA in 2007, and she currently performs at iO in The Armando Show.

Molly is also currently teaching Level 2.

 - Shawn Kathryn Kane

 

Instructor Aaron Krebs in brief

If you've been to aarontkrebs.com, you are aware that Aaron Krebs is foremost an actor (and I mean acTOR), but many iO West students are lucky enough to also call him their teacher.

Krebs recently shared with me a few thoughts about performing and teaching improv.

SKK: What was the moment you first discovered you loved performing improv?

AK: Probably during high school. Our theater class had an improv group in it. It started with just theater games in…1992?

SKK: What about these games did you enjoy?

AK: I enjoyed the spontaneity and uncertainty.

SKK: What has been your favorite onstage experience so far?

AK: There's been a lot of 'em… It's all pretty amazing to me. In general, I love the moments when you trust that you're doing something but you don’t' know what it is that you're doing, and you figure it out after you’ve already been doing it.

SKK: What led you to begin teaching improv?

AK: I started teaching because I felt like I developed my own point of view and philosophies about it, and that became something I wanted to share. And I also wanted to make myself better. Although I'm teaching, I'm also learning myself -- with every scene and with every class I watch.

SKK: You've touched on this a little bit, but what would you say is the most rewarding aspect of teaching for you?

AK: My favorite thing about teaching is getting a student to appreciate the art of improv rather than just appreciating it for surface reasons. I enjoy getting someone really enthusiastic about improv.

Improv is something I'm extremely passionate about. If [it's] something actors are passionate about, they should take a class.

SKK: What has been your favorite in-class experience so far? This experience could also be as a result of class.

AK: For me [favorite experiences are] always when you work with someone who's not getting it, and then you offer that piece of information that's easily digestible for them, and it changes for them. I like making people "professionals" at this. An amateur will do improv and not understand what went wrong. A professional will do it and understand.

SKK: What might be an example of something that goes "wrong" that an amateur won't understand but a professional will?

AK: An amateur won't be able to tell you why a scene was bad. A professional will tell you "this scene was bad because we didn't have a relationship" or "we weren't inspiring each other." They can communicate versus knowing just what's "good" and "bad."

SKK: Lastly, for everyone reading this blog who is trying to figure out what shows to see first, which are a few Harold teams you think are particularly successful, and why do they work so well? You can include your own.

AK: Elevator on Thursdays is my show. Obviously I'd love for people to come see that, and, backing up what I was talking about, our work is relationship-based and character-based. USS Rock n Roll is a solid team with a great focus on ensemble. King Ten is another team I'd recommend. I think that they encompass the attitude of fun. And Trophy Wife is a fantastic team also. They do consistently good work.

Aaron Krebs' bio:

Aaron Krebs, from Texas by way of Chicago, has been involved with improv for over twelve years. He is part of the National Improv Touring Company, Mission IMPROVable, where he performed in such noted comedy festivals as: Chicago Improv Festival, Memphis Comedy Fest, Orlando Fool's Festival, Great Lakes Comedy Fest, Big Stinkin Improv Festival, as well as others. After three seasons of touring the US, Krebs is proud to find his home here at iO West.

Aaron Krebs currently teaches Level 3.


 - Shawn Kathryn Kane

Instructor Eric Hunicutt in brief

According to a 2007 interview Eric Hunicutt gave Josh Fult, the world has Hunicutt's father and grandfather to thank for Hunicutt's performance acumen. 

However, paraphrasing Hunicutt's website: his thoughts and opinions change with the tides, which is fitting for an improviser. 

This week, I was fortunate to gather some of Hunicutt's more recent ruminations on his participation in the long-form art form, albeit in brief.

SKK:  What was the moment when you first discovered you loved performing improv?

EH:  I started my first improv class in high school when I was 15.  Within a year, I was performing a couple times a week with ComedySportz in Raleigh, NC, and was totally hooked.  It's incredible, now, to realize that I've been doing this for over half my life. I still love it and am intrigued by it.

SKK:  What has been your favorite on-stage experience so far?

EH:  I'm not sure I can pinpoint a single experience that stands out above all others.  There are a lot of great memories. Some of my favorite shows have been at festivals, performing in an unfamiliar space – a new town.
The energy in that kind of environment has produced some really cool shows, ones I'd love to do again.

SKK:  What led you to begin teaching improv?

EH:  I want to use my experience to help others feel the same joy and sense of power that I feel in improv, and, after coaching for awhile, I found I was able to articulate a lot of things that were helpful to others. I want to help this art form continue to evolve, to grow. And I have pretty strong opinions about playing with integrity and honesty. So, like any opinionated person, I want to share my thoughts with younger and newer artists.

SKK:  What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching for you?

EH:  Witnessing students finding themselves in the work – the rare moment when they forget about getting it "right" and trying to be "good" and just flow.  Seeing the kind of confidence and power that shows up in those moments is the best. Plus, I've learned more about improv, acting, and performing by teaching than I ever did before. There's definitely a self-serving aspect of teaching for me.  I've grown exponentially since I started and continue to do so.

SKK:  What has been your favorite in-class experience so far? This experience could also be as a result of class.

EH:  I really like getting a chance to perform with former students.  The whole generational aspect of improv is great in that way.

SKK:  Lastly, for everyone reading this blog who is trying to figure out what shows to see first, which are a few Harold teams you think are particularly successful, and why do they work so well? You can include your own.

EH:  I'm a fan of Waterloo (and also their coach, full disclosure).  They are doing really fun and unconventional work.  They're a great ensemble, and their shows are a blast for them and the audience alike.

Eric Hunicutt's bio:

Eric Hunicutt is an actor, director, writer and teacher based in Los Angeles.  His work can be seen in commercials, television and films as well as onstage weekly with the groups Sweeterhouse, The Armando Show, and The Reckoning at the iO West Theater where Hunicutt is a member of the teaching faculty and former director of the iO West Training Center.

Hunicutt currently teaches all over the country as well as at iO West.  Keep checking the iO West schedule to find his classes.

 - Shawn Kathryn Kane

Instructor Craig Cackowski in brief

Craig Cackowski is a busy fellow – actor, improviser, popular iO West teacher, and sometime-police officer on hit NBC comedy Community.  I stole some of Officer Cackowski's time, in brief, so that he could provide some insights into the man, the myth, the...instructor.

SKK:   What was the moment when you first discovered you loved performing improv?

CC:  This is going to both sound lame as hell and date me horribly, but I was in my college improv troupe when "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer was popular, and I made a reference to "Stop! Hammer time!" that (you'll have to trust me on this) was totally in the moment and appropriate to the scene and it simultaneously surprised me, my partner and the audience at the same time and brought the house down. I guess I've been chasing that unique high you get from improv in front of a live audience ever since – and I've also improved my reference level.

SKK:   What has been your favorite onstage experience so far?

CC:  Wow, tough to pick just one! I guess the most recent great show I've been in is always my favorite... We just did a Quartet show where we were all in high school concert band that was both tons of fun and allowed me to exorcise some personal demons dating back to my own band experiences.

SKK:   What led you to begin teaching improv? 

CC:  Besides the sweet, sweet cash money? I was a coach for a couple years in Chicago for a terrific team called Frank Booth. I guess [founder and director of iO Chicago] Charna [Halpern] saw enough in me as a coach to believe I could teach as well. I can't say I was totally ready, but I got to do a lot of on-the-job training. I learn just as much from teaching improv as I do from performing it.

SKK:    What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching for you?

CC:  Just those "A-ha" moments that students get when you [as the teacher] can make a small adjustment and help them understand what a truly great scene really feels like. It doesn't mean that they'll immediately begin to duplicate that feeling every time, but I can tell when I've helped to hook somebody onto this great art form for life.

SKK:    What has been your favorite in-class experience so far? This experience could also be as a result of class.

CC:  I always enjoy the last day of Level 4…Evaluation Day. The students get to give feedback to each other, and it's always overwhelmingly more positive than they would ever expect. Then I give them feedback and assign them specific exercises off of their problem areas. It's a productive and supportive day for everyone.

SKK:   Lastly, for everyone reading this blog who is trying to figure out what shows to see first, which are a few Harold teams you think are particularly successful, and why do they work so well? You can include your own.

CC:  I think Local 132 and Waterloo are great to watch for playfulness [and] USS Rock n Roll for group mind and unconditional support.  Natural 20 is a super-talented, up-and-coming team. King Ten, though (who I have been lucky enough to sit in with a few times), is the team that I think pushes the envelope of the possibilities of Harold the most, and produces shows that are both hysterically funny and little works of art.

Craig Cackowski's bio:

Craig Cackowski has been involved with Improv Olympic as a performer, coach, teacher, and director since 1992. He recently relocated to L.A. after 11 years in Chicago, where he also performed with Second City on their 2 resident stages, and with their National Touring Company.

Presently, Cackowski performs with Quartet, The Armando Show, COG, Thoughtcrime, Dasariski, among others, and he currently teaches Advanced Scene Work – Level 4.

 - Shawn Kathryn Kane

iO West artistic director James Grace in brief

JamesGrace, Artistic Director of iO West, is known to many as an authority figure, the location where the buck stops, the guy in charge, albeit a hilarious guy in charge.

I sat down with him recently, and briefly, in the iO West office to get a glimpse of the man behind the machine.

SKK: What was the moment you first discovered you loved performing improv?

JG: Improv as we [perform it] now? I started in high school. I went to a high school that fostered our development, and they brought in different workshops: Shakespeare, improv, and other artistic classes. So in high school, I got a taste of improv, and I loved it.

SKK: What has been your favorite on-stage experience so far?

JG: Oh, there have been too many to list.

SKK: What led you to begin teaching improv?

JG: I started coaching when I was 18 back in Chicago, and I really enjoyed working with people, passing on what I knew and learning from them. It was part of my learning process back then; it was part of my growth as well as theirs. And I would say that that continues to this day, about 10 years later at the age of 28. You're constantly learning from the people you're working with. So it's a really unique experience to pull something out of someone and then also grow as a result.

What has been your favorite in-class experience so far? In-class or as a result of class?

JG: Well it's been over 20 years of teaching, so I don't have a specific [experience in mind], but what I really love is having taught someone and then later getting to play with them on stage. So I love the relationships. You meet someone, you help them develop, you learn from them as well, and eventually new relationships and friendships are born from that.

SKK: Lastly, for everyone reading this blog who is trying to figure out what shows to see first, which are a few Harold teams you think are particularly successful, and why do they work so well? You can include your own.

JG: I think that King Ten is one of those teams, and part of the main reason is the relationships that they have on stage. They're a team that's been together a long time, and yet they're using the basic improv rules to create great work onstage.USS Rock n Roll is a team that does exceptionally good group work. They have great writing energy. They can find something, heighten it, and build it to the next thing.

I would highlight those two as two of our strongest veteran teams, but there are also a number of newer teams coming up. Trophy Wife is a team that's very connected and does consistently outstanding work. [It's] also a team that is not afraid and is challenging itself to grow.

James Grace's bio:James Grace, the Artistic Director of the iO West Theater, has performed, written, produced and directed comedy for the stage, web, television and film.

Credits include Super Troopers, Beer Fest, Real World Hollywood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Reno 911, Mr. Wrong and many more. He has performed and taught improvisational comedy for over two decades.

James currently teaches Work Out Classes and Harold - Level 5.

- Shawn Kathryn Kane

Brandon Sornberger in brief

This week, popular iO West teacher Brandon J. Sornberger steps into the additional role of iO West bar manager. 

Sornberger will soon be busier than ever, so I was lucky to catch up with him, briefly, to discuss his thoughts on improvisation and teaching at iO West.

SKK:  What was the moment you first discovered you loved performing improv?

BJS:  It was 1996, I was going to Hamilton College and I was cast in a play - 12 of us were cast - but the parts weren't to be decided until after we'd improvised the first several weeks of rehearsal. So we improvised for weeks, and I'd never found anything as invigorating.

SKK:  What led you to begin teaching improv? 

BJS:  I sort of fell into it, but I'd also developed a specific theory over time that I wanted to pass on to students. 

SKK:  And what was that theory?

BJS:  Basically, "be yourself and react honestly.  Stop with all the characters, please."

SKK:  What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching for you?

BJS:  Watching a struggling student do a gratifying scene - a scene that realizes the potential of the art form.

SKK:  What has been your favorite in-class experience so far?

BJS:  "In-class" or "as a result of class"?

SKK:  Sure.

BJS:  I've received notes and cards from students thanking me for helping them discover this [art form] and find that they really love it.  And that's been really satisfying to pass on - my passion for it - to someone else.

SKK:  Lastly, for everyone reading this blog who is trying to figure out what shows to see first, which are a few Harold teams you think are particularly successful, and why do they work so well? You can include your own.

BJS:  I think King Ten is good because, with all their experience, they have a great group mind and are confident.  I also enjoy the playfulness of Spirit Cat and Waterloo.

Brandon J. Sornberger is originally from Upstate New York. He has performed and taught improv in New York City, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.

While at iO Chicago, Sornberger performed with the "iO Muscial Featuring The Deltones," "Bullet Lounge," and "Let Them Ho’s Fight." He is happily married and has an affinity for cowboy boots.

Furthermore, Sornberger currently teaches Harold – Level 5 and Intermediate Forms – Level 6.

  - Shawn Katheryn Kane

Brandon Sornberger and Jessica Makinson

iO West tumblr talks with Seth Weitberg

Meet improvisatore Seth Weitberg.

Weitberg is a teacher, performer, and coach at iO West who began short form improv at Duke University before moving to Chicago in 2003 where he studied and performed at iO Chicago and Second City.

Seth has an organic approach to long form, in particular the Harold, a form which he teaches in Level 5.

Click here to read the full conversation between improviser and Tumblr impresario Colin Hughes and Seth Weitberg.

A student's take on teacher and performer Dave Hill

There are few wonderful people in the world that give you all of their attention when you speak with them. Maybe it's due to his extensive improv training, but Dave Hill is one of those people.

I fell in love with Dave’s fun and supportive approach to improv during Level 1, and, like so many students, I'm really looking forward to coming full circle and having him again for level 7.

However, Dave is such an active member in the iO West community, there seem to be so many opportunities to otherwise study with him.

Like so many iO alums, Dave began his improv experience in the improv paradise of Chicago. What Chicago lacks in palm trees, it makes up for in theaters.

Throughout his years in Chicago, Dave performed regularly at Second City and Improv Olympic (now called iO) after completing both improv programs and Second City's writing program.

In Los Angeles, Dave has continued his improvisational performing while also focusing on writing and acting for television. Dave has been on shows like Reno 911!, American Body Shop, and he has taken advantage of the web series boom, showing us improvisers once again: adapt or die.

Dave Hill’s workshops and intensives are some of the most popular in the iO West program. There’s one called “Just the Facts," which focuses on teaching performers how to focus on what's really important in a scene when it's not going anywhere and how to infuse helpful specifics.

Coming up this month, Dave is teaching his very popular Character Workshop, which emphasizes not only creating fun characters, but developing them and experimenting with them throughout the length of a show. Registration is available now, and I imagine the class will fill up fast.

I imagine that Dave's accessibility and versatility as both a teacher and performer stem in part from his varied educational background. In addition to his writing and acting training, he got his BA from Princeton in Politics with a minor in East Asian Studies, which gives folks like me, with a degree in Theatre Arts and a minor in Japanese, even more hope for their improv future.

 - Elizabeth Steele

A student's take on teacher and performer Dave Razowsky

The thing is, I don't consider myself very funny.  

But when I recount to my friends the awkward, stupid and ridiculous things that happen to me with some dry, witty commentary, people laugh and tell me I'm funny.  

Sometimes, though that "You're funny," reads more like "Oh, aren’t you cute." But like most of us who didn't get enough love in our childhoods, I’ll take praise where I can get it.  

Convinced as I was that I was the next big dramatic actress, I got a fancy theatre degree, which is pretty much toilet paper here in LA, and have been paying for it ever since.  Now, don't get me wrong, that witty lyricist Billy Shakespeare is one funny guy, but knowing that about Shakespeare didn't earn me many friends outside of the Renaissance Faire circuit.  

Fast forward to a year ago, where my admiration of actresses like Stephnie Weir, Mo Collins, Amy Poehler, and Tina Fey led me to UCB and iO West, wishing I could somehow hone my ability to make people laugh.

Dave Razowsky was my Level I teacher at iO West, and I had so much fun learning to ignore the critic in my head and to just go with all of my crazy tangents, or, as they say in improv, to just say “Yes and” no matter what, supporting not only my ideas, but those of my teammates as well.

It's all about trust.

Trust that your ideas will be supported and your teammates will back you up.  

If you think you're a monkey, and someone says lovingly, "Honey, I can't believe we've been married for ten years!" Guess what?  You're a monkey who's been married for ten years.

Is your spouse, then, also a monkey? Who knows? Maybe.

A major tenet of Level I and, of course, all successful improv is Be present.  

Know what's going on so you can be there for your teammates and so you can pick up on what Razowsky calls "shiny objects" that may be reinserted later.  

"Hold on to your shit!" Razowsky would shout if we started to cave in to our teammate’s character or to solve the problem that lies between us.

The tension is what makes the relationship interesting. If f you give in too soon, the power dissipates and a great scene deflates.  

Keep doing what you're doing until you can't do anything else BUT change, and THEN you change.

Level I was heavy on character and object work, rightfully establishing the importance of these skills from the jump.  

As one moves forward into the ensemble work of Level II – learning the games, edits, and skeletal parts of the Harold – it becomes quite apparent how right Razowsky was.

Hold onto your shit, because shit's about to get crazy!

 - D. Amelia