I was born in Whittier, California. When? A few hours after the contractions started. I grew up in Durham, North Carolina, however.

I wanted to be an actor sometime in elementary school and continued pursuing it through high school, college, and after college. In the midst of my acting education were various improv workshops, acting classes with improv games, and two- to three-person scenes along the way. Then in my mid-twenties I left acting, and pursued other interests. Around 1999 or 2000, I rediscovered improv and just got caught by the transfomational power of it. I’ve been doing a lot of improv ever since.

My role models? Oh man, there are a several. I’m grateful to have worked with some really great improvisers over the past 10 years that have influenced me a ton. My biggest media influences for comedy were Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar, and the Sid Caesar Comedy Hour cast, Bob and Ray, and Ernie Kovacs. I also used to listen to Firesign Theatre, the Goon Show and Beyond the Fringe.

What I get from improv is a tough question to answer. Not because I don’t know but because I kind of know in my heart more than my head. Let me see if I can get some words around this without getting too “woo-woo” about it. It’s about the joy and satisfaction of being part of something bigger than myself. I mean, while I’m the one up there performing, in order to do it, to do it well, in order to walk out into the great unknown – with no script, no idea of what’s going to happen next, in front of an audience no less – takes being able to trust, no…to aspire to live in a place where what happens to me just isn’t all that important. Not in some fatalistic way, but secure in the knowledge, the experience, that what makes improv really work is focusing on making other people look good, on trusting the first thought that comes up, and in saying “yes” rather than trying to protect any internal story we have of ourselves.

In short, performance requires me to be sufficiently present to love other folks more than myself. And living in that space creates this enjoyment for people who come to watch or really, since the audience is involved too, to play along.

So, in the end we are all, performers and audience, in this space of creating something together. And that’s just life changing. It’s a breath of fresh air. And living in that world of improv onstage results in living improv offstage as well. Life just opens up. That’s what performing does for me.

My teachers were primarily Keith Johnstone and many wonderful folks at Vancouver Theatresports in Vancouver, Canada and Bay Area Theatresports in San Francisco.

My most challenging improv moment came during a bar-prov show at a micro brewery/restaurant in the northwest where the ambient noise was so loud that we, the players, could hardly hear ourselves and the audience could barely hear us. My memory of it is like a bad dream. Since then I’ve studied more mime…

Most rewarding moment? What really stands out is a two-person show I used to do with this amazingly talented, salt-of-the-earth guy John Clancy. We wanted to develop a show with the purpose of building community.That was our objective. While the show would start with the audience focused on us, our goal was that by the end of the show we would just bow out and folks would find more value in relating to each other than in relating to us on stage. Those were very fun shows. Just a kick to see folks interacting at the end of the evening, to realize that improvising, play, and story-telling could bring folks together.

I have done and will continue to do film and TV work he re n thvBN Yes, that’s part of what brought me to New York in 2004: the goal to do more scripted work. And I have done some Off-Off Broadway Stage Work and some film and TV projects but even after moving away from improv for about two years, I gravitate back to it.

Why do I do it?

Why I do this? Hey, any chance I get to perform is fantastic. I’d love to be performing several times a week. I really enjoy teaching and corporate training as well and would like to be doing more. I’d love to get back to community building shows and working with special needs groups as well.

Sunday Night Improv is a blast. I love walking in and meeting cast members right before we go on and then, instant trust. Just throw ourselves out there and see what happens. It’s just life-affirming.

My biggest acting influences are those people whom I watch the most, probably Jerry Seinfeld and Tina Fey, particularly, but I try to branch out to the Muppets and Johnny Depp as much as possible. I love performing because it gives me a rush of adrenaline that I can only otherwise get from balancing precariously on the edge of a cliff, and that is neither easy or safe to do on a regular basis.

IMPROV RESUME
1990: Born, and started singing.
1993: Trained performance muscles in first family Lip-Synch Competition
2002: Improv and Acting Classes at CAP center
2004- 2008: Trained in Improv through various shows on Long Island and with friends who created Laugh Laugh Revolution at our high school
2010: Trained at DSI Comedy in NC
2012-2014: Music-Directing for Theater and writing lots of theater songs at the BMI Workshop, a form of personal musical improve!
2014: Started Performing Improv Piano at SNI, and taking classes at UCB

I love SNI because the people always switch in and out, and you always have a fresh batch of people. Also, it’s exciting because it’s improv, and you never know what’s going to happen next!

Most rewarding improv work was probably the hard rock song “Stamps” we created during SNI in September.

I write musicals all the time, and had a reading of one last Spring at the Underground Cabaret in NYC on the Upper West Side; that was a lot of fun!

I hope to take this on with me for many years to come, play for more groups, and get more experience as an improve pianist, and as an improviser myself, because it’s a great release for me, and it’s always a lot of fun.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN? HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN IMPROV?
I was born on the Lower East Side, but discovered improv in New Jersey when my wife Janet pulled a flyer off a store window for classes I was terrified but within three months I was in a class show. And, God help her, Janet has seen just about every show I’ve been in for the last 11 years.

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF PERFORMING?
Laughs, sometimes. There is also a therapeutic element – and an addictive element.

DETAIL, CHRONOLOGICALLY, YOUR IMPROV RESUME/CAREER?
I’ve been with Lunatic Fringe since 2003, performing almost every month.. Otherwise I’ve studied at Second City, Upright Citizens Brigade and Magnet Theater. I’ve also done some corporate improv. And I do SNI regularly.

WHO WERE YOUR TEACHERS?
Aside from Deb and Tom , I’ve ’had a lot of teachers – including Armando Diaz, founder of Magnet theater; and I once had Zach Woods as a substitute at UCB. He now has a starring role on The Office.

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM DOING SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV? IS IT FUN?
SNI is ridiculous fun. Everybody is so talented and it’s really different to perform with different people all the time. While improv is about knowing your partners, it’s exciting to be in a different group for every show.

DESCRIBE YOUR MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT?
Playing a pregnant 16-year-old Southern girl in a UCB class show.

YOUR MOST REWARDING IMPROV WORK?
Playing a pregnant 16-year-old Southern girl in a UCB class show.

DONE ANY WORK IN TV? FILMS? SCRIPTED THEATER?
I’ve done one short film that qualified me for IMDB; otherwise a number of amateur videos.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO GO WITH THIS?
Mostly to have fun. Would be nice to get more corporate gigs.

WORST IMPROV EXPERIENCE?
Performing for a Sweet 16 where the girls were seated at round tables and did nothing but chat throughout the show.

WHEN? A long time ago.

WHERE DID YOU GROW UP? Fort Lee, NJ

HOW’D YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED IN IMPROV? I have always been an improvising pianist. I’ve played in jazz ensembles and free improvising music situations most of my life. I was also the pianist at the Comic Strip from 1979-1982. It was there that I learned how to button a joke and honed my timing skills. Timing is everything! The stand-ups were always improvising skits and asking me to make up background music to their imaginative worlds that they created. Playing improv as a jazz player to playing improv for comics wasn’t that much of a stretch. Mostly, it was a matter of listening and focusing intently on the moment and not stepping on the joke. My ability to understand what “funny is” also helped.

WHO WERE YOUR ACTING/IMPROV INFLUENCES, ROLE MODELS?
Jerry Lewis and Steve Martin are two of my favorite funny people. Their ability to be funny and be subtle about it, along hearing everything as if it was set to music has always been a big influence. This music is everywhere and anytime approach is how I approach playing for improv.

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF PERFORMING?
A fat pay check! And, performing gives me the chance to keep my musical timing mechanism sharp. If I don’t play in an improv setting for too long, my timing gets rusty…it goes south!

DETAIL, CHRONOLOGICALLY, YOUR IMPROV RESUME/CAREER?
Improvising Jazz Pianist – 1991 to present/Improvising Comic Pianist – Comic Strip 1979 – 1982/Musical Theatre Comedy Composer/Pianist – 1981 to present

WHO WERE YOUR TEACHERS?
Chico Marx/Victor Borge/Liberace

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM DOING SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV? IS IT FUN?
A fat pay check! The level of improv artists at SNI is top notch and I have fun collaborating with them in their imaginative world. Yes, it is lots of fun.

DESCRIBE YOUR MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT?
Each moment is challenging. It is the challenge of being in the moment that keeps my timing sharp.

YOUR MOST REWARDING IMPROV WORK? Writing music for musical theatre shows. The skill is compositional, but it all comes from my improvisational ability to hear funny and set it to music. Composing to a funny lyric and making it pop-off-the-page is the best. Hearing an audience laugh at the spot that you created for them to laugh, is an unbelievable high.

DONE ANY WORK IN TV? FILMS? SCRIPTED THEATER?
I have written music for children’s educational television, documentary films and musical theatre. My music has won me 4 EMMY awards.

WORST IMPROV EXPERIENCE?
Playing on a punch line! I did it once…I will never do it again. The standup wasn’t pleased with my timing, to say the least.

ANY OTHER THOUGHTS?
If you are explaining funny, then it isn’t funny! Ha!

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO GO WITH THIS?
I hope to continue to improve my improv playing and work with more funny people. And…collect fatter pay checks!

 I was born in Salt Lake City, August 30th 1989. I grew up just right outside of Salt Lake in an area called Murray then at 14 moved to Bayfield, Colorado.

My first improv class was in 2009 while attending The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. The teacher was this frizzy haired, plump, woman who only wore purple. It wasn’t a great first impression I remember often thinking “This is nothing like Who’s Line Is It Anyway, Isn’t improv supposed to be funny?” I’ve always been a goofball but for some reason comedy hadn’t crossed my mind as a possible route for my career, I was stuck on dancing and singing. I graduated later that year and started doing small shows and cabarets, that’s when I discovered that for me funny songs were easier to perform and generally easier to sing. From that moment on I started experimenting with comedy in all forms, sketch, stand up, comedic songs, and soon dropped dancing and musical theatre all together. Stand up was awesome but I felt too stuck in a monologue of jokes, just the slightest distraction threw me off, so I signed up for an improv class at Upright Citizen’s Brigade in 2010. That is when fell in love with improv.

I was half raised by the television and Seinfeld came free with an antenna so I looked up to Julia Louis-Dreyfus as if she was my big sister. Tina Fey is also someone I’ve always admired especially on SNL when she started her Sarah Palin impersonations. Although I only liked watching funny TV shows and Movies I never thought I could do comedy, until I failed at Musical Theatre.

When I’m performing I feel like I can release emotions that just aren’t appropriate to show in regular day life, because if you do you may end up in a psychiatric unit. Specifically with improv, anything is possible and my scene partner and I can experience whatever we choose.

In 2011 I was in a longform improv group called Mr. Roger’s Revenge which performed weekly at the Egarage (now known as Queens Secret Improv Club). The next year teams were shifted around and I was in a new team called Ricky’s Lake into 2012. Then a group called Frosting Hangover formed and we performed biweekly.I then started rehearsing with a short form group called Fighting Laughter Warrior. This group was particularly fun because we were creating the games together and trying different show formats as we went along. The producer/director had the intentions from the begining to turn it into a T.V. show. We worked really hard on it until late 2013 when we were very close to signing a deal with producers to film the pilot but things didn’t work out. Now I have the wonderful Sunday Night Improv crew to keep me a happy camper.

As for teachers, at UCB I had Amber Petty for 101, Brandon Gardner for 201, Kevin Hines for 301 and 401, and Lydia Hensler for Advance Harold. Then, of course I’ve taken a number of Tom Soter’s Monday night classes and Carol Schindler’s workshop.

My most challenging improv moment was when Fighting Laughter Warrior was performing in the back of a busy bar. Most of the patrons in the bar had no idea this show was going on so of course they are talking to their friends as they normally would, like drunk idiots. The noise was bad but what made it worse was the way the venue is you can’t hear anyone on stage without a microphone. It was hard to stay in the scene while holding a microphone, because in most life situations you are not carrying a microphone. As different people spoke in the scene we would pass the microphone to each other…quite a stretch for the audience’s imagination. At the end of the night we had a killer scene where I played a cross dressing donkey so it worked out.

I may just have a horrible memory but I’m pretty sure the worst show I did was at the last Sunday Night Improv I did in May. I had to create a hip hop song on the spot with the title Far Away. I rapped about being from Utah and promising not to convert anyone to Mormonism. The worst experience I had was in an improv I did some time ago. Improv can get super uncomfortable sometimes and there is one particular scene partner I remember from my early years who was really good at making you feel uncomfortable. I was doing a scene with him and I had said he was my husband but he replied by saying he was my son then I begrudgingly justified his statement with incest. Needless to say, it was difficult to keep that scene going anywhere but the gutter and I think that somehow the it ended on a horrible race joke. It wanted to curl into a ball and cry on someone’s lap after that scene.

As for other work, I was recently part of a scene for MTV’s Girl Code where I play a goth chick, have been in College Humor and Funny or Die sketches as well as Improv Everywhere stunts. I host regularly for The Cinema Couch where I’ve interviewed people such as Michael Jai White and Kelly HU, and recently covered the Friars Club Film Festival. As for film I had a small role in a feature film called His Man still in post-production and looking forward to filming an indie project called Raining On Prom night, where I play a musical theatre geek!
I hope to one day write and be a lead in a sitcom that runs until I’m old and wrinkly. That probably isn’t realistic though so I’d settle for whatever TV work I can get, do a bunch of comedic films, and a character role in a commercial like “Flo” from Progressive. As long as I’m making people laugh and not on unemployment I am happy.

I love performing with Sunday Night Improv because it is such an eclectic bunch of people I get to play with, and having a pianist accompany the scenes makes it uniquely exciting. It is the MOST fun! I heard that the updated Websters dictionary definition of Fun added Sunday Night Improv to the description, which totally makes sense. People should come see Sunday Night Improv to experience the Webster definition of Fun!

I was born in The Bronx, New York in 1953. I grew up there and have lived in New York for most of my life, currently in the burbs wondering why I moved.

I got involved with improv through taking classes at Chicago City Limits in the late ’70s. The director of the original company, George Todisco was a huge influence on me, as were all of those original cast members, especially the brilliant Carol Schindler. I was asked to perform with the first touring company and did some New York shows as well.

Soon after, I met my next major influence, Tom Soter, in a CCL class. He asked me to be part of his cable TV comedy show, Videosyncracies, where I learned much from Tom about how to keep my creative “engine” humming and contributed both as an actor and writer. Several years later, I took classes with Michael Rock and performed in association with Michael Gelman of Second City.

I re-connected with Tom Soter recently, taking classes with him and re-discovering my love of improv. Tom also invited me to participate in Sunday Night Improv. The concept of jamming with people I don’t know, who are the cream of the crop from various improv companies and backgrounds, is very exciting to me. It’s great to be making that instant connection with other performers who all speak the same improv language.

My best improv experience was being onstage with the original Chicago City Limits cast, playing Jesus in a talk-show scene. My worst experience? Blocked it out. I’ve also written over 100 TV commercials for ad agencies and done stand-up at Gotham Comedy Club.

To me, improv is a pure source of excitement that informs any other creative outlet I pursue. Where else do you get to be a punk rocker named Johnny Phlegm one minute and a man who’s been wounded by ping-pong balls, the next?

WHERE WERE YOU BORN? HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN IMPROV?
I was born in Kenosha Wisconsin. While taking classes at Second City, I joined Chicago City Limits, which was just forming under the leadership of George Todisco. George was a phenomenal improviser and visionary. He was also a good friend and I miss him.

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF PERFORMING?
Doing improvisation is like creating magic. (At least when it is done well.) It demands that one is present and when one is, the words flow and the magic appears. At Chicago City Limits we were able to achieve what I call “group mind”. We were able at times to work as one. It was amazing and it was for those moments that I loved to perform. Working at the height of one’s intelligence and creativity is what any art form is all about and that is the gift I received from performing.

DETAIL, CHRONOLOGICALLY, YOUR IMPROV RESUME/CAREER?
Let’s just say I’ve been doing this for a long time. J

WHO WERE YOUR TEACHERS?
Del Close, George Todisco, & Paul Sills.

And all of the terrific improvisers that I have had the pleasure to work with.

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM DOING SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV? IS IT FUN?
It is fun. That is what I get out of it. And the delight of working with wonderfully talented people like Tom and Tom.

DESCRIBE YOUR MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT?
Every moment doing improv is in a way challenging because it demands focus, listening and an openness that allows for the creativity to flow.

YOUR MOST REWARDING IMPROV WORK?
Working with CCL at the height of our run. It was hard work and very rewarding and I will never forget it.

DONE ANY WORK IN TV? FILMS? SCRIPTED THEATER?
Yes a bit. I did some commercials and TV work and a television series called, Encyclopedia.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO GO WITH THIS?
I use improvisation in my work as a speech coach and creative director.

WORST IMPROV EXPERIENCE?
Having to answer these questions.

Leah Goldfarb is a self-described adrenaline junkie, the kind of person who’s always looking for a new challenge. Leah moved from California, where she was raised, to New York City, as a young adult. She graduated from Columbia University, and then went on to have a long and successful real estate career and a long and unsuccessful marriage.  Along the way she raised three amazing children. After they left the nest she was ready to expand her boundaries once again. She tried her hand at acting and, looking to loosen up a little more, turned to improvisation. She soon found that getting up in front of an audience and creating a scene from nothing was both thrilling and scary, giving her the adrenalin rush she so enjoyed. In the improv world, saying “yes, and…” is key, and Leah’s discovery of the concept led her on an amazing journey that continues to this day. She recently added to her expertise by taking improvised musical and rap classes and is forever grateful for the opportunity to develop her skills in Sunday Night Improv. 

A Sunday Night Improv irregular for three years, Rita Rigano has been performing improv, comedy, and storytelling around and about New York City for, well, a long time. Originally part of the sketch comedy team Bellotto and Rigano, Rita segued into solo work and troupe storytelling on her way to the lucrative world of improv. Not just another funny face, Rita also does business training using applied improv techniques. www.ritarigano.com 

I was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1966 where I lived until I was about 7. We then moved to Staten Island where I lived until I married my wife and moved to New Jersey.

I was about ten or eleven when Saturday Night Live was in its infancy, and it was the show to watch for my friends and I, provided we could stay up that late (which often didn’t happen). The episodes when Steve Martin hosted in particular were my favorites. Since this was before VCRs, I was forced to hold a cassette recorder up to the TV if I wanted a copy. That show, along with the rare Monty Python episodes I could catch on PBS planted the seeds of love for sketch comedy. Later on I also became a fan of SCTV. I’d say Steve Martin is my comedy hero, followed by Martin Short and more recently Stephen Colbert. My father was also a very funny man on a daily basis and was a big influence on my sense of humor. He even once did a stand-up routine on an amateur talent night at a resort we were staying at in the Poconos. He taught me the value of being daring, and how you only live once etc. which I try to remember as often as possible.

When my family and I made a trip out to Chicago to visit my wife’s relatives in 2002, I definitely wanted to catch a Second City show. I was aware of so many of the people that had gotten their start there, and the show we saw was really hilarious. As I watched I felt that being on stage making people laugh was something I thought I might be good at, and might really enjoy.

My first time at trying my hand at improv was in 2003. Second City’s website listed drop-in classes in New York City on the Upper West Side. There was a two-night combo class with Michael Gellman (whom I’ve since learned was a big deal in Chicago’s Second City). The first night was for beginners and the second night was for the advanced. On the first night It was a crowded room full of students and I didn’t get a chance to perform in the first half. During the break, I asked Michael how strict they were as to who could come to the advanced class and he said they were not picky and to just come. Then I finally got to perform my first scene ever after the break with two other people. I was nervous but I had been listening intently to whatever rules he had given beforehand and also to what my partners in the scene were saying. As soon as it was over he pointed at me and said loudly “You can definitelycome to the advanced class!”

After that I started taking regular classes at Second City. My instructors there were Matt Higgins, Jay Rhoderick, and Kevin Scott (of the Centralia troupe). Also Tom Carrozza (of Sunday Night Improv fame), and Kelly Haran. I made friendships with some of the other students and we started performing at the New York Comedy Club in the Grown-Ups Playground show, which was a drop-in improv show. We then formed our own troupe called Monkeys in the Atrium and started performing our own show at Ha! comedy club. Our biggest audience (and last show) was in front of about 200 people, which was an incredible experience. Second City stopped offering classes in New York, so I then started taking classes at Upright Citizens Brigade. There my teachers were Chris Gethard, and Mike Delaney. It was around this time that Tom Carrozza suggested I audition for Sunday Night Improv.

Although I passed the audition, it still took me a little while to feel that I was worthy of being in SNI, as so many of the people were really good and had a lot more experience than I had and I wanted to prove myself. But the turning point for me turned out to be a scene where I started using a British accent (thank you, Monty Python) and then did a finale duet with Rosemary Hyziak of our song “A Whore No More.” It really made me feel like I belonged and built up my confidence a lot.

Another fun experience I had was being a promotional performer for the Broadway musical Spamalot. This required me, on the day the box office opened, to skip around Times Square wearing a can of spam costume while banging coconut halves together following a knight who was also skipping around. I actually got Eric Idle’s autograph from that.

I love performing improv because I love making people laugh, and even though most people who know me would actually characterize me as shy, I’m really quite a ham and love the attention. It’s also such a rush, especially when it goes well. I remember one time I was chosen for “Can You Sing This?” and the piano player was playing the intro and it was literally a second away from when I was supposed to start singing and I said to myself (panicking) “I have to make something up and start singing right NOW.” It makes me feel so alive. I also love how improv is a team sport where each of us is supporting each other trying to make each other look good, rather than say stand-up, which is often a bunch of cutthroats. I also feel another important rule is playing to the top of your intelligence. Plus, in improv you get to use so many emotions that you normally don’t get to in real life. In Friendly’s restaurant they give you a box of three crayons to color with (go with me on this one) and that’s like the average number of emotions you generally use in life, whereas in improv it’s like having the big box of 64 with the sharpener and everything. Extreme anger, jealousy, murderous thoughts, etc. can all be played out.

I would love for this to lead to other things, but for now having a full-time job, a wife, and three teenage daughters keeps me pretty busy most of the time. The fact that I suck at auditioning doesn’t help either.

Is a native New Yorker, graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in the dance department, was in the inaugural cast of Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Wonder, and was a former kid stand-in in several movies, and episodes of Law & Order SVU. She’s also been featured in several movies including Howl (2010), played the lead, Florence in the short film Parental Pride directed by Lisa Alonso Vear and the lead, Maggie in the play Stay Together for the Kids with Chelsea Rep Lab, NY.  www.rosezingale.com

A few years ago, Kelsey Grammer produced a television show called World Cup Comedy, and I was selected to represent New York. That was cool because it was a series of actual shows, and I was picked from around 250 improvisers in the city. It was exciting, but challenging, since all the auditions were in front of a live audience.

Performing improv feeds into other outlets of mine such as stand-up and acting. I’ve been able to meet and get to know amazing people. Improvisers are usually very cool, quick-minded, and fun to be around. They also usually more team-oriented than some performance artists so that’s fun as well. Improv has helped me learn to be in the present more and learn to say yes to life and people more. I’ve also, I think, learned to be more accepting of others. You learn to embrace what’s special and interesting about people when you improvise and I like to think that has had an influence with my regular life.

I was born in Memphis and grew up on a farm just outside the city. I worked in advertising and got into improv originally just because it looked fun and would help me at work. You have to think on your feet a lot in the advertising industry. Then it evolved as I actively started acting and working as a stand-up.

Actingwise, I’ve always been a fan of Mickey Rourke, Russel Crowe, and the usuals (De Niro, Pacino, Nicholson). From a pure comedic acting standpoint, I love to watch Paul Rudd, that guy can do it all in terms of playing a straight man or knocking it out of the park.

Improv influences in the beginning was Centralia and later on Swarm and Mother. Then Nuetrino made a big impact on me I would say in how a show can be structured and their fearlessness.

I started with the Second City Training Center here in New York. I auditioned and was selected to perform in the Second City Revue Showcase “Stop Spreading the Booze,” which ran at PSNBC Theater in New York. It was an amazing cast, which included Casey Wilson, who went on to SNL. I later studied with all the levels at Upright Citizens Brigade. Then I went on to the Pit, which I’m at currently. I’ve been on several house teams and have taught there as well for the last few years. I was also a part of a ComedyNet instructional series called “Improv School” that was part reality show/part actual improv instruction.

At Second City, I studied with all the guys from Centralia (Kevin, Jay and Matt) and also Jack McBrayer. So, I was spoiled early on.At UCB, it was Billy Merritt, Seth Morris, and Matt Walsh. Then, at the Pit, I had the good fortune to study with veterans such as Ali Farahnakian, Kurt Braunohler, Ptolemy Slocum, Matt Donnelly, and Rebecca Johnson. It has been great because they were all amazing and have different styles and approaches.

My most rewarding improv work was probably being selected out of New York City out of so many auditioners for the Kelsey Grammer show. It came at a time when the validation was needed and it seemed to carry over to some other performance areas where a certain tipping point happened for me. Also, my current work on the Baldwins at the Pit. I feel lucky to get to share the stage with them each week. We’re doing some fun things in general with our shows but are also gearing up for our second run of “Dr. Oddbody,” which is an improvised horror show. A bit of “Tales from the Crypt” but improvised.

Besides World Cup Comedy, I was on a Discovery Channel show called Go Ahead Make My Dinner, and I was a host for a while on TVLand’s PRIME Movies. That was cool because they let me write and improvise a lot of what I said about the movies. I just shot a thing for Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker that airs later this year. I was in a movie a while back that had some improv greats in it like Matt Walsh, Horatio Sanz, and Rob Huebel, called The Best Man. You see me on the DVD and find my words on the editing floor. I also just did two shorts that are about to come out. One’s called Do Not Call and the other one is The Long Lost Love of Peter Harrison. I am scheduled to shoot a film co-starring Sunday Night Improv performers Laurel Sturrock, Todd Cowdery, Rosemary Hyziak, and Kelly Stevenson, to be directed by Christian Doherty.

I’ve done a lot of theater and most of it has come from people I’ve met along improv circles. I was in SUV the Musical, which was a New York City Fringe Festival Award-winner, and Joespeh Goebbels! Live From Hell, which won best play for the New York Cringe Festival. I played Satan in that one. The one other theater thing that really stands out is I played Richard Foreman’s ego (you’d have to see it to understand it) in Being Richard Foreman. That even played at his own Ontological Theater here in the city.

My worst improv experience? The thing that comes to mind is doing an improv show for charity in someone’s yard. One of the folks in the group asked if his buddy could sit in. The guy was having phone calls on his cell from the back line while scenes are going on. Then he left us cause “he had to take this” and later came back to the show to jump in a scene.

I love the shows at Sunday Night Improv because it’s a wonderful rotating cast each week and it always has a real feel of spontaneity to it. You never know what’s going to happen. Also, just to get to sing with the world-class pianists that sit in is a great treat in and of itself. I don’t have much cause to get to sing these days, so it’s a real joy.

In the end, improv is a great way to learn a valuable skill that translates to other things and at the same time you’re learning a new way of seeing life. Have fun with it and support your local shows. You can keep up with me on my on my website http://www.chrisgriggscomedy.com/

I just want to keep on trucking, getting better and looking for new opportunities. The Pit is about to move into a new theater so it’s an exciting time.

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What follows is a brief interview with George Francois. I hope my comments have helped round out the portrait of this remarkable improviser. – Tom Soter

WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Accra, Ghana

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN IMPROV?
I always improvised, using piano, drums, guitar, xylophone etc. Improvisation is a natural part of many african musical genres. in traditional village settings, music and improvisation is always linked to story-telling, games, rituals and the like. My Uncle George (The late Justice G.R.M. Francois) introduced me to Jazz and blues at the age of 15. I went to Music College in England, and improvised all sorts of musical genres in bars and clubs to earn some extra money. When I came to the States I got involved in black gospel music, another excellent form that demands improvising skills. Classical music also has some elements of improvisation. However, with respect to piano comedy improv and piano underscoring, I was introduced to this about 4 years ago by Tom Soter, and although I brought a wealth of experience with me, I have learned ever I know about the subtleties of this genre from him.

WHO WERE YOUR ACTING/IMPROV INFLUENCES, ROLE MODELS?
Emulating good ballroom dancers actually works for me here. On stage I am always trying to find the right ‘vibe’ or musical motif for a particular moment. And yet I must not be too attached to my musical motif, but be prepared to shift its flow with the actor’s impulses, because their response to the motif (if they do respond) may lead us all in a direction that I had not anticipated. So there is a natural flow of transformative energy. Yet my main role is to heighten the effect of whatever the actors are trying to convey. So there are ways in which my role is unequal to that of the actors, although it is always just as important. I think ballroom dancers understand this dynamic very well. Certainly, I have seen this sort of energy ebb and flow when I watch some of Tom Soter’s best actors negotiate collaborations with different personalities on stage, and grapple with varying skill levels of improvisers as they try to effect humorous moments out of thin air. I would include on this list of excellent improvisers, names like Carole Bugge, Rosemary Hyziak, Tom Soter himself, and Tom Carrozza. There are others, but these names stand out for me.

DETAIL, CHRONOLOGICALLY, YOUR IMPROV RESUME/CAREER?
I joined Tom Soter’s group four years ago, and have been only with him since that time.

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF PERFORMING?
A change of scenery (from classical concertizing and teaching), intellectual and creative stimulus, an occasional brain spasm, fun, good times, meeting creative people
WHO WERE YOUR TEACHERS? For comedy, it has been only Tom Soter. Classically I have mainly studied with Marjorie Clementi, David Renner, Heasook Rhee, Samuel Sanders.

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM DOING SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV? IS IT FUN?
Yup, very fun. I do it because I enjoy it.

DESCRIBE YOUR MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT?
When I have to improvise a song in a style of a composer or playwright I have never heard of.

YOUR MOST REWARDING IMPROV WORK? When I pull the above off.

DONE ANY WORK IN TV? FILMS? SCRIPTED THEATER?
Occasionally, but nothing substantial.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO GO WITH THIS?
I’d like to keep getting better at it, and to keep on learning about different musical and acting genres.

WORST IMPROV EXPERIENCE?
When I am working with improvisers who have no sense of how to ballroom dance.

TBA…

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN IMPROV?
A friend was taking classes with Kim Schultz Improv, and it sounded like so much fun. After being envious for several months, I realized I could take classes, too.

WHO WERE YOUR ACTING/IMPROV INFLUENCES, ROLE MODELS?
When I go see Improv, I go see Baby Wants Candy, the Improvised Shakespeare Company, and TJ and Dave.

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF PERFORMING? Always a rush. And a ton of satisfaction from those magical moments of building something with my scene partners. And once I got a Tom Carrozza CD.

DETAIL, CHRONOLOGICALLY, YOUR IMPROV RESUME/CAREER?
Took Kim Schultz Improv levels 1 – 4 in 2008
Started performing with Kim Schultz’s Under the Street Improv show at Comix in 2009
First SNI show in May of 2009
Started performing with KSI’s House Team, Hi Robot, in 2010
Currently performing with indie team Tri-Robot

WHO WERE YOUR TEACHERS?
Kim Schultz, Tom Soter, Michael Gellman of Second City Chicago, Gary Austin, founder of the Groundlings, David Razowsky of Second City L.A., Armando Diaz of the Magnet, Rachel Hamilton of the Magnet, Scotty Watson of Artistic New Directions

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM DOING SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV? IS IT FUN?
Fun is the biggest thing I get from SNI. And because I’m always performing with a different line up of performers it’s a great chance to be spontaneous and just play – because there’s no other way to do it. I love having the chance to do musical improv, and I can always count on being impressed by my fellow improvisors on any given night.

DESCRIBE YOUR MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT?
I was in a piece directed by Gary Austin where our team members would be paired up by the audience and engage in a romantic (very likely in a physical way) scene. I was paired up with the largest man in the group. Our scene ended up being a really rewarding challenge and was met with enthusiastic applause.

YOUR MOST REWARDING IMPROV WORK? Being asked to guest host SNI’s “Time for Movies.” Performing 15-minute short plays for Michael Gellman. Really truly playing when I was just a beginner and had no expectations of myself.

DONE ANY WORK IN TV? FILMS? SCRIPTED THEATER?
Just shot a pilot with Richard Klein, still best known as Larry on Three’s Company. Performed in a version of Alice in Wonderland at the Soho Playhouse last month. Will be appearing in “Champions” as part of Turtle Shell Productions’ Summer Shorties 10-minute play festival at the end of July.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO GO WITH THIS?
I hope to have a lot of fun because I won’t make a lot of money doing improv. But I’ll keep doing improv to make sure honesty and spontaneity are always part of my acting. Which I do hope to make a lot of money doing!

WORST IMPROV EXPERIENCE?
Being first out on my first SNI “Do Do Run Run”? Actually, it’s impossible to have a bad experience with improv. If you’re really improvising, every moment is brilliant, right?

I was born in Philadelphia sometime in the 1970s. I grew up in South Jersey. I first got involved in improv when I started taking classes at HB Studios. I had a teacher there named Rasa Allen Kazlas, who was pretty strict, and I needed that at the time. I was very broad and silly as a performer, and she hammered some skills into me. She was also supportive as a teacher, and enjoyed seeing people’s work, including my own. My influences were people who took control of their work, like Woody Allen, although I don’t think I have much in common with Woody Allen. I was very much influenced by watching SCTV and Saturday Night Live as a kid, and always enjoyed creating my own characters.

When performing I get to get “out of my head,” which I think is important in improv. To leave everything else behind for an hour and not think beyond what is happening in the moment. I have learned over the years to not look back at an improv performance afterwards and evaluate what I did or beat myself up for something that I thought didn’t work. When the show is over, it’s over.

I have also learned to always be committed on stage. It was a rookie mistake for me to think something was going poorly and lose steam. First of all, it’s not up to me how the quality is – the audience may be enjoying it immensely, even if it doesn’t seem great to me. And second of all, if you, as a performer, can show real commitment and focus to what you are doing, it’s always going to have some merit.

I did improv and sketch comedy for four years with Unusual Suspects, which also featured Sunday Night Improv’s Juliette Moore and David Haitkin. We did extensive runs at Surf Reality, back in the day, and also did shows at the Producers Club. That was from 1999-2003. Also during that time, I was in the rotating cast of Klaatu with Greg Sullivan. In 2003, I started doing my own solo shows and touring with them. That was a different kind of improv, to be riffing on top of the written material with the audience.

My teachers over the years have included SNI’s Tom Carrozza, who has become a friend of mine, and was an early supporter of having me in SNI. He’s a great guy and he often sends me YouTube links for obscure commercials and other odd things.

I went to school for Film and Television at Temple University. I’ve been in some indie films over the years, and wrote, directed and starred in an indie feature called Kin in the 90s. I do enjoy many aspects of making films, but it’s not the same as the instant connection you have as performer in front of a live audience. So, I hope to keep doing both, and to get more into producing my own work. At some point, I would also like to have a stretch as a sketch comedian on television, and it would probably be in a project I would create on my own.

My most challenging improv moment… I did my solo show Hooray for Speech Therapy in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a few years ago. The show is about my life growing up as a stutterer. At one point I said, “I don’t know if any of you ever saw the production of Jesus Christ Superstar I was in in Williamstown, New Jersey.” A woman in the audience wanted to include herself in the show and yelled out, “I did!” I said, “Well, you don’t have to stay for the next five minutes because I’ll be talking about it.” She then said, “I can’t leave! I’m in a wheelchair!” Sure enough, she WAS in a wheelchair. The place became completely silent. I said, “There is only room for one handicapped person here, woman!” Everyone laughed and I was back on track. Whew!

As for my most rewarding work, I think it’s the work I’m doing now because I’ve reached the point where I am just enjoying what I’m doing and not afraid to experiment. Performing is really a privilege. Even if there is just one person in the audience, it’s a privilege that I have the opportunity to perform for them and enjoy the process. I don’t take it for granted.

Right now I am preparing to tour Canada and the Midwest with a show I wrote and perform in called The Last Straight Man In Theatre. I play all the characters and I interact on stage with a film that plays throughout. It’s like a 3-D movie, only the actor is literally out of the screen. I started doing the show last year, and it’s gotten some very good reviews. I will be having a ten-week run of it in the fall in Brooklyn.

Worst improv experience? Hopefully if there was one that was awful, I have forgotten it! But, really, the worst experiences were years ago when I was very hard on myself as a performer. Now I’m fully enjoying myself.

Doing Sunday Night Improv is fun! I think what I enjoy most about it is that I get to work with new people every time I do it. I have no idea what level of experience the performers I’m working with have, and I don’t care. We all meet, and 20 minutes later we are an ensemble in front of an audience. That’s pretty cool.

I’d like to add: visit my website: https://www.kurtfitzpatrick.com/

Carole Bugge would rather scratch an itch than live with it. “People become improvisers because they have an itch that has not been scratched as an actor,” she says. “What’s great about improv is that it’s the perfect marriage of performing and writing.”

Call her the ultimate control freak, but don’t call Carole Bugge predictable. Whether it’s upper-crust British experts, Southern snobs, or wild-eyed Jeopardy game show contestants, the tall, red-headed improviser is as surprising as the art she practices as a performer at the Sunday Night Improv comedy jam at the HomeGrown Theater on 100th Street and Broadway. For Bugge, improv is the best of both worlds: she can act but can also appear in little playlets that she helps create at the speed of thought.

Creation started for her in Ohio, “a repressed, Waspy state,” in which she spent her adolescence. Her parents were both teachers, but Carole’s early dreams were to become a cartoonist for Walt Disney. “I was writing from the time I could hold a pencil, cartooning. When I was five, I was certain I would work for Walt Disney. That was my ambition. When he died, I wept bitterly.”

She was also drawn to the anarchy and verbal humor of the Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes. No wonder: even as a child she was performing wild routines in front of her family. “When I grew up, I was always improvising stuff. I loved comedy and had memorized routines by the Smothers Brothers, Bill Cosby, all of Monty Python. But at dinner I would just riff on. Everyone was having hysterics. I loved it.”

By the time she had finished college at Duke University in Durham, N.C., she had already written many short stories, and by 1977 had authored a one-act play. She came to New York to perform and in the process discovered improvisational theater.

“I heard that a group called the First Amendment was performing near the play I was appearing in, so I went down there. I loved it. The whole idea of improv was appealing. It liberated you from other people’s words. I think acting is hard, hard work and that improv is like playing.”

She took classes and performed with First Amendment for about a year, and then began studying at Chicago City Limits with its founder, the late George Todisco. “In my first experience in class I was all over the map,” she says. “I didn’t know the first thing about technique and introduced enough ideas in two minutes for five scenes.”

Once she was on stage, it was hard to get her off. She went on to seven years as part of the touring and then main companies of Chicago City Limits, creating characters, singing improvised songs, and crafting well-made scenes.

Along the way, she kept writing stories and began penning plays and musicals. Her first musical, a Gothic drama which combined Faustian ideas with a Jack the Ripper-style character, appeared three years ago; her second one, about Sherlock Holmes, was completed and publicly read recently; and her third was a version of The House of the Seven Gables. In 1997, St. Martin’s Press published her Sherlock Holmes novel, The Star of India.

She doesn’t think improv is an end in itself but finds it a wonderful tool. “Improvisation doesn’t go anywhere,” she notes. “It is completely disposable; a dead end. Improv does not translate into film or television. But it does help in writing. You become interested in narrative. While working on it, I’ve thought a lot about narrative problems.”

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN IMPROV?
I was doing stand-up in the ’80s and started taking improv classes to help me ad lib and respond to hecklers.

WHO WERE YOUR ACTING/IMPROV INFLUENCES, ROLE MODELS?
Growing up, I was a big fan of Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, and Jerry Lewis (yes, I’m old). And the cast of the Carol Burnett show. All of them were my influences for characters and sketch comedy. And later Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, SNL, and SCTV.

Also, as a kid my brother and I and the neighborhood kids used to do a lot of games that required using our imaginations and creating characters/stories/ad libbing. Our favorite was a game called “Statues” where someone would spin you around and you would freeze in that position. Then a “customer” would turn you on and you had to perform on the spot based on your pose.

DETAIL, CHRONOLOGICALLY, YOUR IMPROV RESUME/CAREER?
I started taking classes at First Amendment in the ’80s, and then Bob Greenberg (who I met there) introduced me to Katha Feffer. I took her classes for about a year and then was cast as a regular member of her group, For Play. I performed with For Play for a few years, then Some Assembly Required for about a year. I then fell out of it until recently getting the itch back, and started dropping in on Carl Kissin’s classes about two years ago. Carl introduced me to Tom Soter, who started putting me in Sunday Night Improv shows.

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF PERFORMING?
I’m a ham. Put mustard on me. I love making people laugh. Or hear them applaud if I’m playing music (I’d prefer they didn’t laugh then.)

WHO WERE YOUR TEACHERS?
Katha Feffer, Carl Kissin, Tom Soter, Nancy Lombardo, Tom Carozza, and a few other First Amendment types.

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM DOING SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV? IS IT FUN?
It’s a blast. Great to be back doing improv after a long layoff. And I enjoy the challenge of thinking on my feet and helping a scene work.

DESCRIBE YOUR MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT?
Can’t think of one specifically, but I’ve been involved in many improv shows where the audience just wanted raunchy, bathroom/bedroom humor. I always try to rise above that and be clever.

YOUR MOST REWARDING IMPROV WORK?
We did some great Harolds with For Play that could have stood on their own as plays.

WORST IMPROV EXPERIENCE?
Two months ago. Leaving a wonderful class taught by Carol Schindler, and breaking my ankle going down the steps!

DONE ANY WORK IN TV? FILMS? SCRIPTED THEATER?
I majored in theatre in college, then realized I sucked as a scripted actor. Auditioned for a lot of TV and films, but other people must have thought I sucked there.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO GO WITH THIS?
At this point in my life, I no longer expect to be the next big star. I’m just looking to have fun and enjoy a creative outlet.

When I turned forty, I realized I had spent the twenty years since college using my talents to make other people look good. Along the way folks kept telling me that I was funny and that I should be the one up onstage. So I thought, “Why not?” I tried stand-up and hated it. I ran into the same problem of remembering and repeating material. Improv proved to be the happiest place for an undisciplined ham like me. No blocking to remember and the only mistake you can make is to block or deny what is going on with your scene partner. Besides being great fun it’s a great study in cooperation. You have to agree with what’s offered and, as a result, can find yourself saying and doing (and being) things you’d otherwise never have imagined.

My hometown is Lynbrook, New York which is located on the south shore of Long Island. I was born on July 27th, 1956, the same year Rock & Roll burst on the scene. By all reports my arrival was much quieter. I’m the youngest of five kids. My Dad was a cop and my Mom had her hands full raising us. When her hands got emptier she became a real estate broker. We all grew up in a house on Lyon Place where my Mother still lives today.

I’ve worked more than twenty-five years as an editor and sometime producer at WABC-TV. My first love is writing because I can do it anywhere anytime. I’ve directed everything I can whenever I can. From plays of every length, to two feature films, to radio dramas, to sketch comedy, to short films and videos…I’ve even directed traffic. But for that I only needed one finger.

I got involved in improv very accidentally. I had studied theatre and film at Adelphi University and took classes at HB Studios, The American Academy and sat in on lectures at the Actor’s Studio. While I had a lot of enthusiasm I was a simply terrible actor. I would get so caught up in the plays I was in that I’d forget my lines and blocking. My fellow performers threatened to kill me if I continued. So by popular demand I stopped acting and concentrated instead on learning to write and direct. It was while directing the sketch comedy group SPANK (which starred Jonny Fido, Janice Bremec and Leo Jenicek) when I realized they were speaking in a short hand I didn’t understand. They’d say stuff like, “Yeah. That’s like DING.” Or, “It’s a 60/30/10 scene.” I learned they were referring to improv games that I didn’t know. So I figured it would be a good idea to learn them. And that’s how I came to study improv.

I saw Jonathan Winters on TV as a kid and loved what he did. Still do. And I saw Nichols and May as well. One night (in the late 1980s) a friend asked me if I could fill in doing lights for his girlfriend’s improv show. The guy had a gig with his band and had to leave mid-show. He knew I’d done lights and had seen the group perform so he said, “When the scene feels like it’s over or they get a big laugh…BLACKOUT.” And then he left. So I did the lights. The group was called The New York Improv Squad featuring a talented guy named Tom Soter. Years later, when I was looking for someone to study with I asked a number of talented improvisers I knew who could give me the best training. And they all said, “Go study with Tom.” And I did.

I did Tom’s drop in class on Sundays and then became a “Wingnut” in his performance class. I met some amazing performers along the way who were performing as a new group called The Chainsaw Boys. I did lights for them a few times at The House of Candles and performed with most of them in Wingnut shows and Sunday Night Improv jams. Eventually, I was invited to join the group and we did shows all over New York at spaces like NADA 45, The Piano Store, HERE Arts Center, The Kraine, and The Bank Street Theatre. The Chainsaw Boys have performed from Austin to Boston, did the Del Close Marathon at UCB, and were the first improv group ever to appear in The New York Fringe Festival. I left the group to direct a film and have continued to be a regular performer of short- and long-form improv in showcases in New York and LA. And there are rumblings of a Chainsaw Boys reunion on the way. So look out!

My teachers? First and foremost Tom Soter. Learned the nuts and bolts from the Wingnut King. I studied song improv with Noel Katz, who went on to be the musical director for The Chainsaw Boys. We also wrote a musical play together called “Couplets.” I learned a lot from every member of The Chainsaw Boys. They all encouraged, challenged, and amazed me night after night. With them, I developed a second sense of humor peculiar to that melange of talented humanity. Most especially I’m grateful to Miriam Sirota and Leo Jenicek for gently guiding me through my first improv scenes onstage in Tom’s class. I took a few classes at UCB when they were just getting started. Leo Jenicek and I studied long-form improv with Todd Stashwick (of Burn Manhattan and the Doubtful Guests) and Todd went on to coach the group to help us build a stronger ensemble. Todd is a Second City alumnus and he graciously made it possible for me to visit Dell Close in Chicago where he was still teaching. I got to spend a long afternoon with Del, observing his class and picking his brain. We were thrilled to have the great David Shiner (of Cirque De Soleil and Fool Moon) come to see The Chainsaw Boys and he graciously gave us notes after the show. That was an honor and a great treat. George Wendt (of Cheers) came as well but gave few notes and drank much beer. I spent an afternoon observing Paul Sills (one of the originators of Second City) as he directed an improvised play. His advice to all improvisers, “Listen more than you talk. And don’t forget to act.” In addition, I’ve shaken hands with every member of the amazing cast of SCTV except for Martin Short and Joe Flaherty. But I’ve got them in my sites.

The SNI jam is a joy because you get to play with improvisers from other groups, other backgrounds, other age groups and sometimes other countries. It is a great way to flex your improv muscles and work with veterans and newbies under the lights. Thanks to the Jam I’ve had the opportunity to work with and learn from brilliant improvisors like Larry Bell, Cate Smit, Tom Carrozza, Lucy Avery Brooke, Chris Hoyle, Denny Siegel and too many others for my feeble mind to recall now. I can’t speak for anyone else (or the audience) but doing the show is always fun for me.

My MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT is easy. The Chainsaw Boys were onstage at The Improv Asylum in Boston. The theater was in the semi-round and had a bar. To insure that their patrons could enjoy the show without running out of libation the bar sold buckets of beer. I believe there were four beers to a bucket. So our group is onstage in the middle of doing our long form when a drunken women (who’d finished her bucket and needed the restroom) staggered out of her seat and walked right up to me in the middle of the stage. I tried to treat her with the all the respect an intoxicated person who walks into your show deserves. But she didn’t appreciate it. She was pretty belligerent (not to mention bleary-eyed) so I gently handed her off to one of the ushers who escorted her back to the bar. I’m proud to say the troupe rallied and got a lot of laughs out of the situation. We finished the show with a gospel song with the title (suggested by the audience) of “Don’t Walk on the Stage.” It all has to be seen to be believed. I hope to post the whole nasty episode on youtube very soon. Look for it under “The Chainsaw Boys and a Drunk.”

My most rewarding improv work? I’ve always been a huge Jack Benny fan. I’ve marveled at how he could get such big laughs with just a look, a gesture. So, I wanted to have a “Jack Benny” moment where the laugh came from not speaking. My moment came onstage in Austin, Texas. The Chainsaw Boys were at Esther’s Pool doing our long form when Karen Herr turned to Miriam Sirota and told her she couldn’t move forward. Miriam asked what was holding her back and Karen said, “My hesitation.” So I walked out into the scene and just stood there. Karen asked me who I was and I said, “Your hesitation.” Big laugh. When she started to speak I just held up a hand and she stopped. More big laughs. Thanks Mr. Benny. As much fun as it is to jam with people you barely know it’s ten times more rewarding for me to have the high level of agreement and support you can only get from folks you work with over time. So being a member of The Chainsaw Boys was the most rewarding experience for me. And, to be perfectly honest, the first time I looked out at the audience and saw more total strangers than friends and relatives…that was a huge thrill.

As soon as I make my first million in improv…I’m out. So, I should be around for quite a while. I use my experience with improv as a tool. It’s greatly helped my writing and directing. It’s made me more spontaneous and open to changing the set ideas I might have about something. As a writer I rarely get blocked because improv has showed me that there’s a million ways any scene can go. One need only make a choice. And the stronger the choice…the better the scene.

I would recommend improv classes to everyone. It’s great for building confidence as a public speaker and excites the mind. It also removes tarnish from Grandma’s silver, unclogs drains, relieves joint discomfort and leaves no lingering odor. Which is more than I can say for the lady in Boston.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN? HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN IMPROV?
Yonkers NY, My whole life was improvisation. I was on my own at 18 putting myself through college so when ever anyone asked can you play this or that. I’d say “Nobody does (fill in blank) like I do” and take the job whether I was qualified or not. That lead to acting jobs and radio commercials. Because nobody does voices like I do.

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF PERFORMING? Money! Hahah. The satisfaction of entertaining and sharing my joy of it with audience.

DETAIL, CHRONOLOGICALLY, YOUR IMPROV RESUME/CAREER?
In short, performing improvisation in college, then part of a traveling stage show for low income areas. Then coming to New York and auditioning for the First Amendment Theater company as an act, which soon evolved into Strictly Improv a show that ran for I think 13-14 years where I worked with the most talented group people I will ever know. Everyone a stand out including my long time comedy springboard, Tom Carrozza.

WHO WERE YOUR TEACHERS?
One stand out Shaw Robinson and the school of life.

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM DOING SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV? IS IT FUN?
A great workout and the pleasure of working some of New York’s top improvisors. Its a great fu and a challenge, especially since sometimes I’ll be working with people I never met. So you never know what can happen!

DESCRIBE YOUR MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT?
Performing improv live on television and also working with Robin Williams

YOUR MOST REWARDING IMPROV WORK?
See above; also working and performing for cancer patients and the wounded warrior program.

DONE ANY WORK IN TV? FILMS? SCRIPTED THEATER?
Written and performed on HBO & FOX TV Credits: The Colin Quinn Show, Saturday Night Live, All My Children, The Sopranos, Nickeloden, Sirrus radio and in numerous commercials usually playing an Italian peasant. I also had the audaciy to sing for Barbra Streisand and be proud of it. I am a a proud member of the Friars club and host of Comedy Concepts Blog Radio http://www.blogtalkradio.com/comedy-concepts You can see the Nancy Lombardo Show every Friday at 7 P.M. on Channels 56, Time Warner; 83, RCN; 34 FIOS; and live on the internet WWW.MNN.ORG .

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO GO WITH THIS?
Just to keep challenge my creative side by thinking creating and performing in the moment. That and the guaranteed comedy pilot I was told I would get if I did Tom Soter’s show.

WORST IMPROV EXPERIENCE?
Being physically hurt by an out of control improvisor on stage. That’s why it’s important to train and know what your doing at all times.

WHEN?
Time has folded and shifted since then, but I can drink and vote legally.

WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?
Lots of different places. I was raised by carney folk.

HOW’D YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED IN IMPROV? I needed to be able to think on my feet, to avoid a beating from Fagin.

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF PERFORMING? The temporary feeling of self-worth that only laughter and applause give me.

DETAIL, CHRONOLOGICALLY, YOUR IMPROV RESUME/CAREER?
I’ve been an improviser since birth. Later, I was asked to join the Chainsawboys.

WHO WERE YOUR TEACHERS?
Sir Beswick Figglestick, Madame Dul La Touserant, Master Sun Shan, who later became my deadliest foe. Also Tom Soter.

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM DOING SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV?
A big fat check! Wait, we don’t get paid? Man… Then the joy of performing with a shifting group if funny people. I guess.

DESCRIBE YOUR MOST CHALLENGING IMPROV MOMENT?
Performing Shakespeare. It seems most directors want you to stick to the text.

YOUR MOST REWARDING IMPROV WORK?After a really great show, I was given a goose that laid golden eggs. Just chocolate wrapped in foil, but still pretty cool.

DONE ANY WORK IN TV? FILMS? SCRIPTED THEATER?
I was in the BBC’s longest-running series, Down The Copperwhithe. Five whole episodes! Then there was my one-man show, Chuck Todd Talks Filthy.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO GO WITH THIS?
To a small island in the South Seas, where I’ll drink everything out of a coconut except coconut milk.

WORST IMPROV EXPERIENCE?
When I chat up a woman, and she won’t yes and me. BTW, a “yes and” is illegal in most states.

ANY OTHER THOUGHTS?
Bacon makes everything better.

“JERRY MADE ME DO IT” By JOHN DRAKE

He is the debonair debater in a talk show discussing the pros and cons of spaghetti. He is the pratfalling nerd, blithely drinking a concoction by the hunchbacked doorman Brad in the creeky old castle. He is also a stern husband, frantic guest, and tap-dancing villain. But above all else, he is Karl Tiedemann. And he is funny.

Tiedemann, a regular performer at Sunday Night Improv, is modest about his own skills but makes no (funny) bones about what he thinks makes for good comedy. “The most important thing is to be able to separate the funny ideas from the unfunny ones and show the audience just the funny ones. The gag writer Robert Orben said over 30 years ago that the most important quality a comedy writer can have is the ability to know what’s funny.

Trying to do comedy without that is akin to being a tone deaf opera singer striving for the Met.” Born and raised in New York City, Tiedemann has been creating comedy ever since college, where he co-wrote (and sometimes directed) award-winning films at the New York University Film School. One of them, Ready, Willing, Unable, is a farce about an inept young man that hearkens back to Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Another, King of the Zs, is a parody documentary about a grade Z film studio which helped Tiedemann land his first TV job as one of the original writers on Late Night with David Letterman. (Tiedemann also introduced Letterman to Calvert DeForest, an actor in King of the Zs, who became better known as Larry “Bud” Melman.)

Along the way, he wrote a play, Alias the Fox, penned articles for National Lampoon, hosted cable television’s Videosyncracies, and crafted material for various TV shows featuring Robert Klein. And, oh yes, he also began improvising. “The person who got me to do improv was Jerry Seinfeld,” he says. “We were hanging out at The Comic Strip and he kept saying how good it was. So I tried it.” Tiedemann studied with Tamara Wilcox, who later founded the National Improvisation Theater, took workshops at Chicago City Limits, and then, for two years performed with Laughing Matters, an improvisational group known for its verbal wit and broad physical humor. 

Improvisation helped Tiedemann isolate the creative from the constructive, a process which he had read about in a book called Writing with Power. “That book talks about how writing requires a critical facility and also a creative facility,” he notes. “If the critical comes in too soon, it stifles the creative, so the idea is to isolate them. One way to do that is free writing, where you write without a break for 10 minutes to get through writer’s block. The free association aspect is similar to improvisation.”

Although he is known by many as an improviser, Tiedemann considers himself primarily a writer. After leaving Late Night, he worked on the Mickey Mouse Club and spent four years as part of Breslau and Tiedemann, a comedy team that performed all over New York (among their best-known, Tiedemann-scripted bits were a Shakespearean version of the classic “Who’s On First?” routine, and a murder mystery in which the suspects acted like Jeopardy contestants). He also saw his farce, Running in the Red, appear to good reviews at the Flat Rock Playhouse State Theatre of North Carolina. And he has taught sketch-writing at the American Comedy Institute. Tiedemann sees improv as a wonderful creative hobby.

“I don’t get material directly from improv, but I do feel that going up hundreds of times and being thrown problems and challenges in improvised scenes and having to meet them quickly helps prepare you for when you’re writing something. “Writing is just a series of problems and challenges which you have to deal with effectively,” he adds. “Improvisation helps form a flexibility of mind. But beyond that, I tell people doing improv is my equivalent of bowling – and both bowling and improv are about equally financially renumerative.”

How did you get involved in improvisation?
I saw an ad in Backstage in 1983 or so. I had just finished an equity showcase, a show called the Pahokie Beach, in which I played a lifeguard who was a bass player on the side. And I remember it because I broke my finger on stage. There’s a photo of me staring at my hand in dismay.

I was looking for the next thing to do and saw [improv troupe] the First Amendment performing. Something struck me. I loved the way they pulled stuff out of thin air. So, I went to auditions. Barbara [Contardi, the company director] told me I was good but not ready. But I really wanted to do it, so she took me on. I went to workshops and worked lights for the show. That was invaluable in understanding the structure of a scene.

Why did you get involved in acting to begin with?
I grew up in New Jersey, and belonged to a church that had shows my father acted in. My father did the lead in The Music Man and My Fair Lady. I did The Mikado and Gilbert and Sullivan as a child. in the chorus I grew up around theater. Then, I began playing my guitar in coffee houses. I came to New York in 1979. I always had this dichotomy within me between music and acting. I did musical showcases at Kenny’s Castaways; I did original songs at a bar on Bleecker Street. Mercifully, none are on tape. At the 13th Street Theater, I started doing lights. I worked my way up to original productions on stage.

You also continued with your music?
I became involved in a rock band called No Laughing. We released a single, distributed by CBS Records in which we took a Chinese food menu and set it to doo-wop. We thought it was funny but absolutely nothing happened with it. My partner assured me that within eight weeks I’d be off bicycles [as a messenger] and in limousines.

Why did you start including your guitar in your act?
Since I was coming from First Amendment, I was aware I could do something improvisationally with my guitar. Soon, I made my living from guitar improv comedy. I’d go there, and then get a suggestion and musical style and do both. I felt like I was a bard, singing the news of day in reggae, blues, and opera. I started doing that April 1, 1987. I know that because it was my last day as a bartender and first as a stand-up.

I’ve been to 45 states with my act. I began touring four years ago. Over the course of time, my act has become more stand-up and less musically oriented, to the dismay of club owners, who want the music. People perceive you as being certain way, and you get typed.

What appeals to you about improv?
To me, it’s fun when improv takes off on its own, when you reach that magic moment when it all just takes off, when you take that lumbering big old Wright Brothers plane down the road, and it just takes off. It’s wonderful when it achieves its own reality and sense of purpose. You can’t plan those moments. They just happen.

I was born in Lakewood New Jersey and moved to NYC after I graduated from college to attend drama school. My acting/improv/comedy role models are too numerous to list completely but my pantheon would include Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, the original casts of SCTV and SNL, The Pythons, Christopher Guest, French and Saunders and Tracey Ullman.

I got started in improv because I had taken a break from acting and was feeling kind of rusty. I wanted to do something to limber up. I decided that improv would be a perfect way to shake off the dust creatively. I began taking classes and I was pretty immediately taken with the fun, spontaneity and of course the laughter.

What I love most about performing improv is the playful collaboration between the performers and the audience. I also love how sometimes a malapropism or a mistaken identity or some other unintentional gaffe can be as funny if not funnier than something that happens intentionally.

I began performing in 2007 with Kim Schultz’s Happy Hour and became part of her house team Hi Robot. We performed at Stand-Up New York, HA! Comedy club, Ochi’s Lounge at Comix and did Test Drive at The Magnet. I am currently performing with the Hi Robot splinter team, Tri-Robot and we have performed at, The Broadway Comedy Club, The PIT, Artistic New Directions and The Wild Project.

My first improv teachers were Kim Schultz and Tom Soter. I have also taken classes with Bob Verlaque, Carl Kissin, Chris Griggs and Tom Carozza, workshops with Carol Schindler, Michael Gellman and Gary Austin and had coaching sessions with Rachel Hamilton and Dave Razowsky. I’ve learned important things from them all.

Sunday Night Improv is great fun! It is a genuine treat to perform with such talented and funny improvisers and the ever-changing mix of performers presents all kinds of opportunities to learn new things.

Improv is full of challenging and rewarding moments. There were many moments when nerves were a big challenge for me. When I first started performing, I often felt like Shelly Duvall in The Shining on stage (yeah, not good). Because improv is all about listening and keeping your mind open to what unfolds in the moment, focus is pretty essential. The more I took classes and performed and learned to focus on the immediate nerves, fortunately, became less and less of an issue. I’ve often found that the biggest challenges reap the biggest rewards. Each challenge I have faced as an improviser has taught me something valuable and has been galvanizing in some way. So, I would say my challenges have been my rewards. Sometimes the fortune cookie is right.

When I graduated from drama school I worked on a few plays and then took a break from acting. I recently had a part in the latest APAR Films project, Subliminal Mutilations. As for where exactly I want to go with this, I suppose what I’d really like to do is direct.

Regarding my worst improv experience, well even though my inclination is to make lemonade out of life’s lemons sometimes there’s just not enough sugar. Hi Robot had a performance slot in a cabaret showcase. We were the only comedy act in an evening of song. There was a large and fairly tipsy group who were there to see a friend sing. She was slated to go on after us. During our set they began to chant her name. (Who knew the cabaret types were so rambunctious?). This was bad for obvious reasons, but especially bad when you are trying to get audience suggestions and all you can hear is one person’s name. Limiting indeed. Pretty awful then but pretty funny now.