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David Christopher Interviewed!
Just The Funny and The Miami Improv Festival's David Christopher was just featured in an interview for Miami's Street Magazine!
http://www.miami.com/mld/streetmiami/10276789.htm
For the actual print version with the cool photos:
http://www.justthefunny.com/clippings.html#MEET... DAVID CHRISTOPHER
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Posted on Fri, Nov. 26, 2004
MEET... David Christopher funny guy
INTERVIEW BY JESSICA SICK
David Christopher thinks he's pretty funny. Apparently, a lot of other folks do, too, as Christopher's Just the Funny improv troupe (www.justthefunny.com) is in its fifth year of making audiences pee their pants. Despite his love for karaoke, Meet decided to pass him the mic, to talk about, among other things, his love for Steve Martin, Dungeons and Dragons, and a song about rocking crustaceans.
Do you come from a family of jokesters, or are you the oddball?
I'm totally the oddball in the family. My father is a real estate broker, my mother is an office manager -- they're pretty socially conservative. My brother is very shy and timid. I, on the other hand, wasn't afraid to be outspoken, and my comedy was always at somebody else's expense. [Laughs.] What I like about improv is it gives me a chance to be quick-witted, to really come up with intelligent humor. That's not to say my family didn't get me because they aren't intelligent -- they didn't get me because I'm strange.
Who, or what, did you laugh at growing up?
One my favorite films is The Jerk, with Steve Martin. It's full of intelligent humor, but, at the same time, it's stupid. I think in doing improv, you really try to think, ''Why do people laugh at this?'' Because when you write comedy, you can create these wonderful situations and really refine it and make it funny. When you're doing improv, you don't have that luxury -- you have to be funny right away. One thing I've realized is that people laugh because they relate to things, they recognize things that are wrong with society or things that are strange or funny about themselves or people in general. Some of that is about being quick-witted, but some of it is also about being totally absurd. Absurdity is fun to watch.
What's funny about Miami?
What's not funny about Miami? What's funny about Miami is you definitely have a language barrier. The politics of Miami are funny, and just the whole culture clash. Also, there are so many things that embody Miami. For example, I do a character, Tony Montana, who runs a summer camp for kids. Another member of our troupe plays a guy from Hialeah -- Carlos Valdez, Jr., who is the last guy you'd want to go out with or even be in an elevator with. It's just a stereotype of what is already there.
As part of Just the Funny, you're a stage performer, but you studied film at New York University. How was that experience?
The film degree is a great conversation piece, and it gets your foot in the door in a lot of places. And there's a ''cool factor'' that comes with NYU: You're in New York City, not on a college campus; you actually have to compete with other film shoots, you have to go through the film office in NYC.
Have you used your degree?
Totally. I started working in the video and film business and I actually still do -- my day job is being the director of media services at Miami Dade College. I used to produce [the TV show] Blind Date out in L.A., I worked here at WAMI back in the day, and in New York I worked on films. But I want to do things for me, and that's why I'm trying to step away from all that. I want to work on projects I can really get into.
Like Just the Funny.
Exactly. I just kind of fell into it by accident. I was in Miami working on a film I was producing and the funding fell through. I decided to stay in Miami for awhile and I saw an audition notice for an improv group. I started doing some improv and really liked it, so I started Just the Funny in 1999; just nine veteran actors who decided to form a group to do the kind of improv we wanted to do.
The Miami Improv Festival, which will make its third run in February, is your baby. How did you come up with the idea ?
When I moved out to L.A., I started looking seriously at improv. I saw troupes like Improv Olympic West and the Groundlings, and I felt that it would be great to expose our group and the improv community -- and just the arts community in general -- to what was out there, in other places, and that's when I came up with the idea for the Miami Improv Festival. I think that's the producer in me. I've been in environments where it's produce or die. If you don't produce, you get fired. I come with that mentality, and that's why we have a festival that's going into it's third year.
Miami's arts community isn't exactly a cash cow. How is JTF faring?
We're one of the few theater companies that are for-profit, and we do very well. When I say ''very well,'' it's all relative -- we do well enough to make sure we can exist. Nobody is getting paid -- myself included. All of our money goes back into supporting our company, bringing in instructors from out of town to do workshops, holding parties, promoting our shows to really grow a community of people who want to come back.
Have people tired of the Who's Line is it Anyway? style show, which is what a lot of improv troupes tend to lean toward?
We wanted to stretch beyond our typical Who's Line is it Anyway? type of improv and start doing long form. Imagine, if you will, a bunch of scenes that somehow, some way, have something to do with each other, and putting them all together. It's become a crowd favorite. That's one thing that was really enlightening -- audiences here in Miami are a lot more intelligent than people give them credit for. We thought they were coming for the over-the-top character stuff that may have some sexual innuendo or some risqué quality to it. But they also really like the intelligent humor of our long form stuff, which is basically putting strange people in strange situations.
Can you give an example?
Long form is really where you see the ''art'' of improv. We have one format called Family Issues. We ask the audience for an issue facing a family, an occupation, and a last name. From those three things, we do monologues -- our actors come out and become the mother, the father, the grandmother, whoever, and the monologues build off of each other. After they set up everyone in the family, you see scenes where the family interacts. The issue is generally the storyline -- the big problem, the big hurdle. Maybe the son is gay, maybe the father is an alcoholic, maybe the mother has a secret desire to be a Las Vegas showgirl. We try to find funny things you normally wouldn't find funny.
JTF also conducts workshops and improv courses. Can you learn to be funny?
You can learn to be funny to a certain degree. I think you can become a very skilled technician in improv. People think improv is just getting on a stage and making stuff up, but there is a technique and a structure and a form behind it. That's what we teach, that's all we really can teach. After that, you're on your own. Being good at improv and being funny is a combination of two things -- being innately funny and being intelligent.
Comedy-wise, who are you liking these days?
Doing improv, I can really appreciate what Mike Myers does, like in Austin Powers. The character development he creates and how a lot of that is probably some sort of improvisation. Chris Rock, because I love brutal honesty. And I love Dennis Miller. I'm not a big fan of what Saturday Night Live has become -- it's very difficult to watch.
Most of the brilliant comedians -- Robin Williams, Steve Martin, Jim Carey -- they've all got a screw or two loose. Do you have a demento side?
I'm a huge dork. I love everything '80s -- I played Dungeons and Dragons when I was young. I'm the type of person who makes up words. I call my daughter a different term of endearment every week, things I'm too embarrassed to let anyone else hear because they're so stupid. When I'm driving to work during rush hour, I'll look over at the person in the car next to me and smile or wave. Or I'll blow a kiss if she's good looking. At the same time, I'm known for my road rage. If somebody cuts me off, it's like a Quentin Tarantino film.
Do you tend to find yourself ''on stage'' even when you're not doing improv?
Totally. We do karaoke all the time, at least once or twice a month. Wherever we can find it. When you get a bunch of improv people doing karaoke, it's crazy.
Do you have a song?
The B-52's ''Rock Lobster'' -- I get to be spazzy, I get to do my Fred Schneider southern gay voice. I did it once in L.A., when I was around a lot of really high-strung producers, and they had karaoke at the restaurant we were at. I put my name and my song in a hat -- nobody knew -- and they called me up. So I did ''Rock Lobster'' and I had a wireless mic, which is dangerous. I was getting in people's faces, screaming, ''rock lobster!'' One everybody asks me to do is ''My Way'' by Frank Sinatra -- but as Tony Montana.
You won the Street Elite award in the Local Theater category. What are you going to do with the smashing award you'll be receiving in six to eight weeks?
I'm going to make it a hood ornament for my car and drive around town, and then we'll take pictures with it naked.
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Just The Funny and The Miami Improv Festival's David Christopher was just featured in an interview for Miami's Street Magazine!
http://www.miami.com/mld/streetmiami/10276789.htm
For the actual print version with the cool photos:
http://www.justthefunny.com/clippings.html#MEET... DAVID CHRISTOPHER
----------
Posted on Fri, Nov. 26, 2004
MEET... David Christopher funny guy
INTERVIEW BY JESSICA SICK
David Christopher thinks he's pretty funny. Apparently, a lot of other folks do, too, as Christopher's Just the Funny improv troupe (www.justthefunny.com) is in its fifth year of making audiences pee their pants. Despite his love for karaoke, Meet decided to pass him the mic, to talk about, among other things, his love for Steve Martin, Dungeons and Dragons, and a song about rocking crustaceans.
Do you come from a family of jokesters, or are you the oddball?
I'm totally the oddball in the family. My father is a real estate broker, my mother is an office manager -- they're pretty socially conservative. My brother is very shy and timid. I, on the other hand, wasn't afraid to be outspoken, and my comedy was always at somebody else's expense. [Laughs.] What I like about improv is it gives me a chance to be quick-witted, to really come up with intelligent humor. That's not to say my family didn't get me because they aren't intelligent -- they didn't get me because I'm strange.
Who, or what, did you laugh at growing up?
One my favorite films is The Jerk, with Steve Martin. It's full of intelligent humor, but, at the same time, it's stupid. I think in doing improv, you really try to think, ''Why do people laugh at this?'' Because when you write comedy, you can create these wonderful situations and really refine it and make it funny. When you're doing improv, you don't have that luxury -- you have to be funny right away. One thing I've realized is that people laugh because they relate to things, they recognize things that are wrong with society or things that are strange or funny about themselves or people in general. Some of that is about being quick-witted, but some of it is also about being totally absurd. Absurdity is fun to watch.
What's funny about Miami?
What's not funny about Miami? What's funny about Miami is you definitely have a language barrier. The politics of Miami are funny, and just the whole culture clash. Also, there are so many things that embody Miami. For example, I do a character, Tony Montana, who runs a summer camp for kids. Another member of our troupe plays a guy from Hialeah -- Carlos Valdez, Jr., who is the last guy you'd want to go out with or even be in an elevator with. It's just a stereotype of what is already there.
As part of Just the Funny, you're a stage performer, but you studied film at New York University. How was that experience?
The film degree is a great conversation piece, and it gets your foot in the door in a lot of places. And there's a ''cool factor'' that comes with NYU: You're in New York City, not on a college campus; you actually have to compete with other film shoots, you have to go through the film office in NYC.
Have you used your degree?
Totally. I started working in the video and film business and I actually still do -- my day job is being the director of media services at Miami Dade College. I used to produce [the TV show] Blind Date out in L.A., I worked here at WAMI back in the day, and in New York I worked on films. But I want to do things for me, and that's why I'm trying to step away from all that. I want to work on projects I can really get into.
Like Just the Funny.
Exactly. I just kind of fell into it by accident. I was in Miami working on a film I was producing and the funding fell through. I decided to stay in Miami for awhile and I saw an audition notice for an improv group. I started doing some improv and really liked it, so I started Just the Funny in 1999; just nine veteran actors who decided to form a group to do the kind of improv we wanted to do.
The Miami Improv Festival, which will make its third run in February, is your baby. How did you come up with the idea ?
When I moved out to L.A., I started looking seriously at improv. I saw troupes like Improv Olympic West and the Groundlings, and I felt that it would be great to expose our group and the improv community -- and just the arts community in general -- to what was out there, in other places, and that's when I came up with the idea for the Miami Improv Festival. I think that's the producer in me. I've been in environments where it's produce or die. If you don't produce, you get fired. I come with that mentality, and that's why we have a festival that's going into it's third year.
Miami's arts community isn't exactly a cash cow. How is JTF faring?
We're one of the few theater companies that are for-profit, and we do very well. When I say ''very well,'' it's all relative -- we do well enough to make sure we can exist. Nobody is getting paid -- myself included. All of our money goes back into supporting our company, bringing in instructors from out of town to do workshops, holding parties, promoting our shows to really grow a community of people who want to come back.
Have people tired of the Who's Line is it Anyway? style show, which is what a lot of improv troupes tend to lean toward?
We wanted to stretch beyond our typical Who's Line is it Anyway? type of improv and start doing long form. Imagine, if you will, a bunch of scenes that somehow, some way, have something to do with each other, and putting them all together. It's become a crowd favorite. That's one thing that was really enlightening -- audiences here in Miami are a lot more intelligent than people give them credit for. We thought they were coming for the over-the-top character stuff that may have some sexual innuendo or some risqué quality to it. But they also really like the intelligent humor of our long form stuff, which is basically putting strange people in strange situations.
Can you give an example?
Long form is really where you see the ''art'' of improv. We have one format called Family Issues. We ask the audience for an issue facing a family, an occupation, and a last name. From those three things, we do monologues -- our actors come out and become the mother, the father, the grandmother, whoever, and the monologues build off of each other. After they set up everyone in the family, you see scenes where the family interacts. The issue is generally the storyline -- the big problem, the big hurdle. Maybe the son is gay, maybe the father is an alcoholic, maybe the mother has a secret desire to be a Las Vegas showgirl. We try to find funny things you normally wouldn't find funny.
JTF also conducts workshops and improv courses. Can you learn to be funny?
You can learn to be funny to a certain degree. I think you can become a very skilled technician in improv. People think improv is just getting on a stage and making stuff up, but there is a technique and a structure and a form behind it. That's what we teach, that's all we really can teach. After that, you're on your own. Being good at improv and being funny is a combination of two things -- being innately funny and being intelligent.
Comedy-wise, who are you liking these days?
Doing improv, I can really appreciate what Mike Myers does, like in Austin Powers. The character development he creates and how a lot of that is probably some sort of improvisation. Chris Rock, because I love brutal honesty. And I love Dennis Miller. I'm not a big fan of what Saturday Night Live has become -- it's very difficult to watch.
Most of the brilliant comedians -- Robin Williams, Steve Martin, Jim Carey -- they've all got a screw or two loose. Do you have a demento side?
I'm a huge dork. I love everything '80s -- I played Dungeons and Dragons when I was young. I'm the type of person who makes up words. I call my daughter a different term of endearment every week, things I'm too embarrassed to let anyone else hear because they're so stupid. When I'm driving to work during rush hour, I'll look over at the person in the car next to me and smile or wave. Or I'll blow a kiss if she's good looking. At the same time, I'm known for my road rage. If somebody cuts me off, it's like a Quentin Tarantino film.
Do you tend to find yourself ''on stage'' even when you're not doing improv?
Totally. We do karaoke all the time, at least once or twice a month. Wherever we can find it. When you get a bunch of improv people doing karaoke, it's crazy.
Do you have a song?
The B-52's ''Rock Lobster'' -- I get to be spazzy, I get to do my Fred Schneider southern gay voice. I did it once in L.A., when I was around a lot of really high-strung producers, and they had karaoke at the restaurant we were at. I put my name and my song in a hat -- nobody knew -- and they called me up. So I did ''Rock Lobster'' and I had a wireless mic, which is dangerous. I was getting in people's faces, screaming, ''rock lobster!'' One everybody asks me to do is ''My Way'' by Frank Sinatra -- but as Tony Montana.
You won the Street Elite award in the Local Theater category. What are you going to do with the smashing award you'll be receiving in six to eight weeks?
I'm going to make it a hood ornament for my car and drive around town, and then we'll take pictures with it naked.
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