22nd
My post-Harold team audition period thoughts.
I just want to say something about the past 19 months, at least for posterity. I want to summarize my point of view about improv from 101 until now, about 6 weeks away from my 2nd 501 at the UCB. Please don’t “read more” unless you have time to kill and are extremely bored, this is going to be a really long, self-serving post.
When I moved to New York in June of 2008 and signed up for my improv 101 class at the UCB starting in August, it was my goal to make it onto a team at the UCB. No timeframe in mind, just to do it.
When I finished my 101 with Erik Tanouye, I was positive I was on the right track. I thought I was the shit. I now know I was not, but I thought I was pretty great at the time. I definitely thought I was the best in class. I don’t remember ever getting a bad note in this class. I remember getting a lot of praise. But we’re talking about 101. That’s like thinking you’re the funniest kid on your street. Stupid.
When I finished my 201 with Joe Wengert, I was positive I was on the right track. I thought I was the shit. I now know I was not, but I thought I was pretty great at the time. I definitely thought I was the best in this god-awful class. This class was brutal. Luckily, it was only four weeks. Lots of bad scenes for 3 weeks before it kinda came together at the end. I remember getting the only laughs in our terrible class show. But we’re talking about 201. That’s like thinking you’re the funniest kid in your grade. Stupid.
Practice groups starting forming around this time. I was in a few. I remember having fun. I also remember feeling very disconnected, but that was probably my fault. That’s kind of what I do, not connect with anyone. I wish I could go back and correct that. There’s a lot of people from those 201 practice groups that I wish I talked to more often/at all.
When I finished my 301 with Kevin Hines, I was positive I was on the right track. I thought I was the shit. I now know I was not, but I thought I was pretty great at the time. I definitely thought I was the best in a class where EVERYONE was good except for 1 or 2 people (you know who you are). I remember that I thought this class was the beginning of what I was waiting for when I started doing improv; everyone was talented, everyone was friendly, we had a great practice group going that I thought would turn into a team, etc. This class was great. But we’re talking about 301. Like reminiscing about junior high. Stupid.
When I finished my 401 with Porter Mason, I was positive I was on the right track. I thought I was the shit. I now know I was not, but I thought I was pretty great at the time. I definitely thought I was the best in a class where EVERYONE was good and over half were great. No stragglers in this class. I really loved this class and still reminisce about it today, as sad as that may be. Even though I didn’t pass, I thought I was great for the 2nd half of class and believed Porter’s note that he just wanted me to show I could sustain it over a full 8 weeks instead of just 4. I remember that I thought this class was a continuation of the last, that things were just going to get better and better. Everyone was fun and funny, things were ramping up. This was like freshman year of high school for me, and specifically me, because my high school had 9th grade at its own school so you wouldn’t get picked on by upperclassmen. Like graduating to high school only not really. 401 sort of matters.
Teams started forming at this time. Boys Club For Men was the first team made up almost entirely of people I knew. I give them credit for pretty much forcing me to start my own group rather than wait around for someone to ask me. The Grandmas (Joe Levine, Tyler J. Gilmore) started shortly after this. Joe Paolucci was initially in this group, but was later asked to leave due to personal issues (but I’ll still stand by the fact that I think Joe is really funny and I’m really disappointed that he doesn’t do improv anymore. I’m really disappointed we had to kick him out also, I really liked playing with him, but let’s not get into that.).
I fucking hated running an improv team. Booking coaches, booking rehearsals, booking shows. I hated it. HATED it. Rehearsals were always fun. Shows were usually fun. The Grandmas were a great team. I’m happy to say our first show was opening for WILDER (Nick Ross, Jill Donnelly, Graeme Hinde, Amy Flanagan) at their last show in New York (they may have done more since, I have no idea). I’m happy to say we played Improdome at The PIT once and would have won if we weren’t the very last team of the night and everyone hadn’t already filled out their ballots. I’m happy to say we played a show with Karate Parade and the aforementioned Boys Club and completely destroyed (with my cousin in from out of town!). I’ll go ahead and sound like a pompous prick and say I and The Grandmas were excellent at this point. We were a unique team with a unique point of view and I was finally opening up and playing characters as well as I’d been playing the straight man. If auditions happened in the midst of this, I would have been legitimately enraged if I didn’t get a callback.
Then The Grandmas had a terrible show 2 days later opening for Boys Club and have not done a show since. We won’t get into this, there are more factors at play than just that bad show. I do miss doing The Grandmas, that might come back this summer.
That bad show happened about 5 weeks into my 401 with Kevin Hines. I killed that class for the first 4 weeks. Kevin loved me. I was in both halves of our midway show. Admittedly, this class was pretty week, but I was feeling pretty good about myself during this time. Then that bad Boys Club show happened and I pretty much lost the passion I’d had for improv. Stopped pushing myself, stopped caring about getting better. I passed, but things had definitely changed. I didn’t care anymore, not like I did.
In an effort to try to get back what I’d lost, I signed up for a 501 with Zach Woods. This did not help. Although this was a really fun class filled with lots of people I like, I was just a continuation of my 401 with Kevin Hines. I had fun the first 4 weeks, proved to myself that I was good enough at improv, and then was horrible for the 2nd half of class. I remember being bored with improv and specifically with doing Harolds. I wanted to start a Movie team, but after lack of interest from a few parties, I dropped that idea.
In an effort to try to rekindle my interest in improv, I signed up for a 4-week Slacker class at the Magnet. Something completely different from anything I’d done at UCB. The first week was okay. The second week was okay, but I definitely wasn’t enjoying it like I’d hoped to. I straight-up skipped the third week for no good reason. And then the fourth week was just like week 2. I coasted through the 2 grad shows playing like how I play when I’m not having fun (not supporting very well, only tagging in when I have an idea I think is funny, playing myself). I thought I wouldn’t take another improv class until they offered another Movie class at the UCB, I was completely over improv and wanted to focus on other extracurriculars, which I’m actually happy about. I’ve accomplished a lot since this class ended that is still continuing now. Great decision, me.
That brings us up to the announcement of Harold team auditions, about a month into me being done with improv for now and having little/no interest in it for the foreseeable future. When auditions were announced, I had barely any interest and decided to do it just to do it because I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t. If these had happened back in September 2009 after my Porter Mason 401, I would have been ready and eager. I’m confident I would have gotten a callback But now? I couldn’t give less of a shit. I hadn’t committed to an improv scene in about 3 months. I hadn’t practiced in 2. I didn’t practice in the two weeks prior to auditions. I played in my audition like I did in 201: unconfident and playing myself. Needless to say, I did not receive a callback.
But having done auditions, I’m now back at the point where I want to do improv again. In other words, I suck enough to where the challenge of getting good at improv is back. Sometimes you need to step away from something to realize how much you miss it. And I do miss it. I start another 501 with Will Hines in May. I’m looking forward to it. But I wonder if I’m just chasing another class like my 301 and 401 with Porter Mason. Because I don’t think anything will ever recapture that feeling of everyone coming up together, learning together, being “nobody” together. We’re all who we are now. That feeling of discovery is gone. And that makes me sad.
Your reward for reading this whole thing is some Michael Jordan highlights:
