Most influential improv shows of the last decade?

[Gwyn]

Gol--ley

I remember when Ed was holding auditions. There was a buzz. I knew a lot of people auditioning.

And in one of my notoriously bad, visionless moves,(another one had to do with Metroform auditons-aka-Annoyance) I didn't sign up for it. I felt at that time that I didn't want to audition for improv. If I wanted to do an improv show I knew enough improvisors to call and do my own. Why audition for someone I don't know, when for all I know they could blow?

I really have the golden touch with these things. Seriously, never listen to me on this issue.

 

[Rob Lathan]

Most of you don't know me. I perform every once in a while at the UCBT on a team brilliantly named 'Monkeydick'.

Reading about all of the old school Chicago stuff is fascinating to me. In a weird sort of way it's both nostalgic (even though I wasn't there) and motivational. I'm thinking, "This same phenomenon is sort of happening in front my very eyes in NY. Why don't I get in on the action?"

As for the most influential shows in NY:

1. ASSSSCAT - hands down. If I hadn't read about this show in Time NY in the summer of 1999, and gone to see it, I would never be doing improv right now. I would either be doing terrible, unfulfilling stand-up bits or I would be back in rehab. The first ASSSSCAT I saw I believe included Tommy Blacha as the monologist, the UCB, and writers and performers from Conan and SNL. I spent only 5 bucks for the show, I got to bring in my own beer with no hassle, and I was in tears from laughing so hard. It was so clear to me at that point, "This is it." Why would I go anywhere else? I ended up religiously going to ASSSSCAT every week after that.
At the time I worked for Rolling Stone magazine (not in edit) and I remember the very next morning I emailed Robert Love, the Managing Editor, telling him he should do a piece on the UCB Theatre. He never did, of course.

2. Tracers - This show was directed by Mullaney and stared Mullaney, Delaney, Secunda, Conroy, and Corrdry. (hopefully I remembered everybody) As I recall it was sort of similar to the 'mono scene' the Swarm does at their Friday show, except the location could slightly change in Tracers (Mullaney might want to correct me here) . The show I saw was primarily set at a Mafioso seafood restaurant in New Jersey. It ended brilliantly with two FBI agents in a van outside, listening in on the kingpin's conversation inside, as their van started to tilt upwards and get towed away. I think the audience suggestion was something like 'fish-sticks'.

3. Harold Night & Cagematch - I like how improv can be turned into a competitive sports match.

4. Feature-Feature, the Swarm, & Respecto Montalban

-Alright, I think I've kissed everybody's ass. But I meant every word of it. Sorry for the long post.

 

[Noah Gregoropoulos]

FYI

As memory serves...

Blue Velveeta was
Kevin Dorff
Jay Leggett
Brian Blondell
Mitch Rouse
Susan Messing
Tom Booker
Brendan Sullivan
Brian Blondell
and were an IO house team until 1990

Jazz Freddy had two runs, which included
Pete Gardner
Pat Finn
Noah G
Brian Stack
Rachel Dratch
Kevin Dorff
Miriam Tolan
Stephanie Howard
Susan McLaughlin
Jimmy Carrane
David Koechner
Mollie Allen
Chris Reed
Carlos Jacott
Meredith Zinner
Theresa Mulligan
dir Pete Gardner and Jim Dennen
and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few
It ran at the Live Bait in around 91-92?

Lois Kaz was
David K
Kevin D
Scott Adsit
Rachel D
Theresa M
Dee Ryan
Frances Callier
Miriam T
Brian S
Adam McKay
Matt Dwyer
John Glaser
Nancy Walls
dir Noah G
Ran at SC etc for a summer

Close Quarters was
Craig Cackowski
Stephnie Wier
Bob Dassie
Lillian Frances
Molly Cavanaugh
Peter Gwinn
Rich Talarico
Al Samuels
Dir Noah G

MY BIggest influence was Barron's Barracudas at the IO in the 80s, a lot we take for granted about the Harold form is owed to that era... also other teams like Grime And Punishment

 

[Shitbag Ballcowski]

shitbag has seen alot of these computer posts and can honestly say that this one is the first one that he has not hated and desired to mock,

here are shitbags thoughts

1. as much as it pains him to credit mullaney- blue velvet lounge was fucking amazing- shitbag saw a preview on a thursday night after he was teaching charna about improv. anyway he didn't think it was improvated cause it was so good (he later realized that improvitation could be that good) that team didn't miss a beat. they transformed that shitty little downstairs at io into a true blue velvet lounge. what i mean is they created such a "feel" of an enviornment with their improvitation it was like being taken somewhere else.


2. sqrew puppies- not only because it featured some of the best improvators (who didn't get the press of some others) in chicago but also because it featured some of the most commited improvitation ever
and it also proved that just having fun on stage can be fun for an audience too. (something that is all too often forgoten in the slave to form world that some improvators live in.)


3. zumph- funny funny shit- two men can be a cast of hundreds- this is a form i would like to see alot of different people do (example: if brian stack and brian mcann (two of shitbags favorites) did a zumph the they might not leave any laughs for the rest of us improvators) - although miles and dan did it great.

4. maybe not influencial but the amateur showoffs did 4 or 5 of the funniest shows shitbag has ever seen- they were a playground team and they would do a linear form (for example one night they took sonny bono's funeral as a suggestion and improvised all of the events that lead eventually to his death and ended with his funeral- probably the least seen of any of these groups but one of shitbags alltime favorites (they also had a great group of jugs amoung the ladies in that group- but that is another thread waiting to happen)


these were in no particular order.

shitbag of course considers himself the most influential of all the cyber improvators ( a sad lonley lot that is growing by the minute) stop reading this and go try to either be influenced or influence improvitation by actually doing or watching it.

 

[katie landfear]

shitbag has smelly balls

Dear Shitbag Ballcowski,
Shut the hell up! Nobody cares what you have to say.Your name is Joe Canale and you are retarded and gay. Just because you understudy tourco doesn't mean you are the next Kelly Leonard. Go rest your boner on Basha's back where it belongs. You're a fucking dork, dude!

 

[mullaney]

Anyone remember seeing the Chris Hogan Show? That was the first 2-person long form show I can remember. It featured Chris Hogan and John Lehr. I think I saw that show even before I saw a Harold at IO. Very cool.

In fact the more I think about it these days, the ED crew (Chris and John were both in ED before the Chris Hogan Show) probably should be given THE credit for pushing improvisation back into the theaters where it belongs. Jazz Freddy certainly wouldn't have happened without ED, you might even argue that Three Mad Rituals might not have happened without Jazz Freddy to compete with. I think most of the Chicago long-formers think of ImprovOlympic as the theater that really got long form going in Chicago, but perhaps it took another group (the ED/Jim Dennen crew) to give the IO people the push they needed.

P.S. Anyone know where I can get a hold of Jim Dennen?

 

[Brian Stack]

I saw The Chris Hogan Show and liked it very much. I was impressed with it for a number of reasons. First of all, it was only two people out there the entire time. I know that people have tried that since but I'd never seen it before Chris and John Lehr did it. It was also a very smart and funny show.

I was also amazed at John Lehr's ability to play female characters that didn't seem like caricatures. When John played a woman, it just seemed like you were watching a woman. I still don't know how he did that so well.

And, Kevin, I think you're right about Ed being so influential. It's true that we wouldn't have ever been able to develop Jazz Freddy without it and almost half our cast came from the Ed group, including Pete who directed the first run of Jazz Freddy in addition to performing in it.

Of course, we couldn't have done it without IO, either. Aside from one person, everyone in Jazz Freddy that hadn't been in Ed was an IO alum. Pete was actually in IO and Ed and bridged the two groups in putting us together.

I wish I could tell you what Jim Dennen is doing now or even where he lives these days but I don't have a clue.

 

[Dunford]

This is going to sound very ass-kissy, but you know, there's a time and place for everything so I'm just going to pucker up. Plus there may just be a bit too much of my back story involved, but hey, here goes.

I'm from the Bronx, born and raised. I didn't realize how much I liked performing until I went away to Syracuse's tiny Le Moyne College. And I thought I was the cock of the walk and "doing improv" when myself and my costar Juan would get onstage with a scenario and "just wing it."

And now I'm back in NYC, and I stumbled upon the Uprights when my friend Amy, who'd studied in Chicago, recommended it to me. The last few months, I've just thrown myself into the scene, head-long. I complete level 2 on saturday, and start level 3 in April. I love performing improv and am completely smitten by the Harold. However, I am so new to it all, it's just ridiculous.

It is really cool to read this thread and catch up on the back history of it all. It gives me so much more respect for improvising as art than I'd had prior. And, while I have nothing to add in terms of what's been influential on me, I can say (without being too sappy) that I look forward to being influenced in the time to come.

<sound of me removing my lips from the collective butt>

dunford

 

[Syrup]

Debt to Monkeydick

re: student eyes & rob's post

The student eye phenomena makes every show I see at Upright an Event. I always walk the five blocks back to my dorm in an altered state, feeling the way I imagine religous fanatics feel after stoning non-believers or dancing with cobras (actually, being a chick and walking home alone after Cagematch around midnight or so is not unlike dancing with cobras --- maybe I shouldn't broadcast that on the Internet). Sean Conroy's amazing show "Taught" wouldn't leave me for weeks . . . still hasn't, really. Secunda's One Woman Show was a treat. And I live for Harold Night, sometimes even braving the first row; sitting there means dodging stray sweat and spit, and once a flying chair.

What I believe was Monkeydick's first time at Cagematch had a big impact on me. Umbrellas, pop tarts . . . I lack the skill and vocabulary to describe it but I'd never seen Harold in quite that light. I hope they'll be on the Thursday sched for a while.

I guess what I'm getting out of this thread of improv history and discussion of influences is the beauty of student eyes. They're another shot at innocence. At least until you trade them in for the opportunity to take risks required in order to give back to everyone who influenced you . . . or else horrify them by going down in flames. I hope, someday, to be able to pay my debt back to everyone at UCBT, including Monkeydick.

That, and now I finally know why we're not allowed to drop kick chicken wings into the audience. Good to know . . .

Thanks again to everyone at UCBT.

PS- sitting in front of Ms. Charna Halpern at the last Cagematch was a religous experience in itself.

 

[Brian Stack]

Syrup and Dan, (man, if I had a nickel for every time I began a correspondence with those words! I'm also thinking of starting a two-person soul act with that name, by the way)

Just reading what you posted is really inspiring. Thanks for writing it down, it reminds me a lot of why I wanted to do improv in the first place.

The day we feel like we don't have something to learn is the day we should quit. Or parade around arrogantly in a smoking jacket, flailing our arms, shouting, "I don't have something to learn!".

Unless your smoking jacket is made of high-quality silk, the second option is both sad and humiliating.

 

[Jake Fogelnest]

The James Eason Late Night Jazz Picnic.

 

[Rob Lathan]

Hey Syrup,
Thank you very much for your insightful post. Everybody at Monkeydick thanks you for your kind words. We would like to cordially invite you to see our next show at the UCBT on March 29th at 9:30.

I agree with Brian that everybody involved with improv is constantly part of an ongoing learning process. We are all students. Nobody ever masters it. Well nobody except for that old guy parading around in his smoking jacket made of high-quality silk. What's his name? Hugh something? I think he's the only one who's truly mastered it.

Except I like to think that if you look beyond the iron gates surrounding his mansion . . . and take a closer look . . . towards the hot-tub in the backyard full of 5 of his 7 girlfriends (including twin sisters) . . . and then take a closer look . . . at a 70 year old man wearing scuba gear under water . . . you will see a sad and lonely man.

I'm right, aren't I?

 

[Gwyn]

Brian, I'd pay money to see

someone "arrogantly" flailing their arms around and shouting. Anything.
Smoking jacket is just gravy.

 

[cosmo22]

Summer of 1996

I wan an intern at Second City for a summer while I was in college and it was right after Pinata Full of Bees opened. I remember seeing the show for the first time in shock because it was so different from the other shows I had seen there. I also saw an Armando that summer where Rich Telerico was the monologist. I still remember a lot of the scenes from it. It was the first long form I had seen (I hadn't even seen a Harold) and it was an incredible show.

 

[Syrup]

I heart Monkeydick

March 29th at 9:30? I'll be there with bells on . . . or maybe a smoking jacket (I'd get a smoking jacket with bells, but that might kind of ruin the effect). But I am so there. And yes, I have a crush on all the good people of Monkeydick.

While pondering my love and adoration for UCB/T and all who work there, I realize I know precious little about the beginnings of UCBT. I've gathered from the lil' lounge at the theatre (many entertaining photos, clippings, flyers bedeck its walls, if bedeck is in fact a word) that UCB got together in Chicago and then moved to NYC and established UCBT. What were the early early days of UCB/UCBT like? There aren't books and resources for UCBT like there are for Second City, Compass, et al, and it obviously doesn't have the decades of history like SC -- but still, I have the feeling there are a lot of stories there I haven't heard. Somebody tell! I am a newbie in every sense of the word. Sharing means caring . . .

(looking forward to this week's 9:30 show, but for Cagematch I'll be doin' Standby . . . dying to hear Secunda say the kittens line )

 

[Spiro]

bedeck

3 entries found.

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be·deck (b-dk)
v. tr. be·decked, be·deck·ing, be·decks.

To adorn or ornament in a showy fashion.

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Pronunciation Key
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
Copyright © 1996, 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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bedeck \Be*deck"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bedecked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Bedecking.] To deck, ornament, or adorn; to grace.

Bedecked with boughs, flowers, and garlands. --Pennant.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

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bedeck v : decorate; "deck the halls with holly" [syn: deck, bedight]
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University

 

[Katie]

The Family at IO was definitely my biggest influence while I was learning to improvise. I feel so fortunate to have been able to see them when they were just doing Harolds in the regular show and then to see almost every performance of "Three Mad Rituals."

Another influencial show was Mobius American Theater (I don't know if I have the name right) with Mullaney, Boland, Gwynn, Lawrence?, Doreen, Vickie (whoever I've forgotten, please forgive me). I'll always have images from that show -- it took place in New Orleans the day the freedom buses went through. It was a perfect play. It really inspired me when I thought about doing other non-Harold improv shows.

 

[ALibera]

I just want to add my voice to Brian's and Kevin's - in the spirit of this thread, ED really was one of the most influential shows of the last decade. Truly influential in the sense that the improv that I saw being done before ED and after were honestly different. A lot of what people are talking about on this thread are the shows/performances that inspired them personally but in a sense ED was unique in that I'm not even certain that a lot of the improvisors who were influenced by the work even saw the show or knew what had happened to cause changes. BTW, I saw a press release for collaboraction (they do a one act fest here in Chicago and they have a website) and I'm pretty certain that Jim Dennen was listed as a director of one of the one-acts.

The thing I loved about the Chris Hogan show was that it was like being at someone's party and just sitting in the kitchen and watching Chris and John do bits - it had that kind of intimacy.

And no one is allowed to write any histories of UCB yet - on my personal timeline, those guys just left Chicago for New York.

Anne

 

[Billy Merritt]

History is being made at the UCB Theater every night. New Groups and new ideas, for a new time, and a new feeling, with new pasts, and a new present. new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new ne wne wne wne wne wn ennenwnenwnenwnwnwnwenwenwnwnenwenwnwnwnwenenewnenwnwnwnwnwnwenenenwenwnenwnenwnenenwenewnenenwnwnemmmnnnnnnmmmnmmn10001101101010110110101010101101010101010101010101010101010001101010111010101010010110101010101010101010101001010010100100101001011110010101010101011010101010101010101010101001010010101010101010101010101001.

Robots Rule,
All Hail Landau

 

[youngcat]

Originally posted by ALibera

And no one is allowed to write any histories of UCB yet - on my personal timeline, those guys just left Chicago for New York.

I swear I'm not starting trouble....

For those of us who never saw the shows you are talking about, and who are new to Long Form, and who LIVE IN NEW YORK, not Chicago, UCB is every bit as influential as Ed, Jazz Freddy, The Family (oh wait...that is The UCB) et al...
Not only are The UCB themselves a huge influence on the New York Scene, but groups like "The Swarm" are emerging from the theater, and shaping and defining an entire new generation of performers, so, I have to disagree,here. The influence is happening. Sorry.