Austin Improv

In the 1950s, Jamaican big band jazz musicians attempted to recreate the music they were picking up on the radio from America, namely New Orleans rthym and blues by the likes of Fats Domino, Smiley Louis and Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns. They couldn't quite get it right, but by infusing their indigineous beat, "mento," into the rock 'n' roll they were hearing and their jazz backgrounds, they created a new kind of music -- ska.

Jamaica is an extremely poor country. Few could afford records, but as ska (and later rocksteady and reggae's) popularity grew, DJs would travel around the country holding dances and competing against one another for the biggest crowds. These DJs, who were popular by virtue of them owning a PA system soon began "toasting," or making rhymes, over remixed instrumental "versions" of popular dance hits.

This practice of "toasting" soon made it's way to America by way of Jamaican immigrants in the South Bronx. The idea of toasting and remixing records soon caught on in the neighborhoods as Jamaican immigrants would drive aroung in their cars making rhymes over reggae and funk records. DJs and MCs began sprouting up all over the South Bronx. And that's where hip hop came from. So if anyone ever asks me, I tell them I really like proto hip hop.

And that's how I got into improv.

Jastroch wrote:In the 1950s, Jamaican big band jazz musicians attempted to recreate the music they were picking up on the radio from America, namely New Orleans rthym and blues by the likes of Fats Domino, Smiley Louis and Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns. They couldn't quite get it right, but by infusing their indigineous beat, "mento," into the rock 'n' roll they were hearing and their jazz backgrounds, they created a new kind of music -- ska.

Jamaica is an extremely poor country. Few could afford records, but as ska (and later rocksteady and reggae's) popularity grew, DJs would travel around the country holding dances and competing against one another for the biggest crowds. These DJs, who were popular by virtue of them owning a PA system soon began "toasting," or making rhymes, over remixed instrumental "versions" of popular dance hits.

This practice of "toasting" soon made it's way to America by way of Jamaican immigrants in the South Bronx. The idea of toasting and remixing records soon caught on in the neighborhoods as Jamaican immigrants would drive aroung in their cars making rhymes over reggae and funk records. DJs and MCs began sprouting up all over the South Bronx. And that's where hip hop came from. So if anyone ever asks me, I tell them I really like proto hip hop.

And that's how I got into improv.

Show-off...

Wow... y'all are making me feel OLD.

I got into improv thanks to my 8th grade arts & drama teacher. We 12 & 13 year olds would be given a scenario (you're a worker at a customer service desk, and you're a customer with a complaint, and you over there, you'll be the boss of the store who's looking for a reason to fire the worker...) and we would have to get up in front of class and act it out. We also had to make up limericks on the spot, and we played some physical games. I never thought of it as "improv." It was just "playing."

In high school, I wanted to play in the band, and the only band at my high school was a jazz big band. Players had to learn how to solo. That also was not called "improvising." It was called "taking a solo."

In the theater department shows, we never focused on improv. But we screwed up our lines a lot, and people forgot blocking, and our director always impressed upon us that we weren't allowed to stop. We had to improvise to keep the show going and get it back on track. This of course led to many instances of high-school drama geeks trying to intentionally crack up their stage mates, which led to improvising in order to keep the shows from crashing and burning.

And then, 1986 rolled around. And I went to see the Second City Touring Company when they came through my home town of St. Louis (Home of the 2006 World Series Champions St. Louis Cardinals). It looked like great fun, and they set up whole scenes where they intentionally improvised. And so I started doing that with drama geek friends for the heck of it, wherever we were. A bunch of the improv games that I see on stage are things I first did while riding on a road trip.

When I decided to move to New York City in the early 1990s, it was with the pie-in-the-sky intention of being on Saturday Night Live. I wrote to several cast members and asked them if they had any advice for me. To their credit, Phil Hartman and Juila Sweeney wrote me back. They both said they got their starts in improv, at groups like The Groundlings or Second City. So when I moved to New York, I got on with with biggest (and only) improv theater in town, Chicago City Limits. And after doing that for a time while thinking, "I'm gonna be on SNL some day!" I came to the realization... I can do better than SNL.

And now I'm in Austin, doing the improv thang here which I found via an internet search and asking around, and I'm trying to start my own brewpub and comedy theater, where I can just play and make stuff up and drink beer and have fun with my friends. What's better than that?

Growing up in Ashland, Oregon it was difficult to stay away from the stage. In fact many of my childhood friends have gone on to great things in the theater world which make me feel like an amateur.

My stage debut was in 1987 in the Talent, Oregon Minshall theater production of Scrooge. My father played Ebeneezer Scrooge, and I played Street Urchin #2 (AKA Despair). The following year I was promoted to Tiny Tim "God bless us every one."

I was trained in many different theatrical techniques and styles through a program at my high school called the Shakespear Masters Class. Guild actors from the festival would come in as guest instructors anywhere from two weeks to two months to teach us comedic acting, dramatic acting, character development, researching a role and so on. I think I did my absolute best dramatic work under the wing of one Aldo Billingsley, who has since left the festival for a professorship at Willamette University.

In between all of the training, and voice lessons, and so on. I joined a theater company by the name of the Cygnet Group in Ashland. We put on Children's musicals and it was great fun.

Then I turned 18 and quit theater, walking away from the dramatic arts for good (or so I thought).

The reason I give this background story to you is because the reasons I had for getting into improv were so silly.

In college I had a crush on this guy by the name of Dan Worth who was funny as hell. Every time I would go out, I would bump into him and we would have the best banter. At one point he told me that I needed to audition for his improv troupe. So naturally I did.

I joined Spitting Nonsense in 2001 and stayed with them for a year. That was my first taste of the possibility that an improv show could make money. Our first big production was a two hour show (with intermission) that included sketch, games, and lot's of audience participation. The show ran for two days. Each of us walked away (after paying for our theater space and all of the promotional materials) with about 200 bucks a piece. The show was a big hit, generating lot's of hiring from private groups to come entertain at their conferences. My favorite show that we did was when we were hired by the Colorado Association ofMental Health Workers (I think that's what they were called) who wanted us to "put the fun back into disfunction."

When I moved to Austin just barely over a year ago, I was bored out of my mind, and my now ex-fiancee told me I should try and find some improv. I went to a show at the Hideout in which the Coldtowne Heroes and You, Me and Greg did an amazing job. I met Roy, Kacee and spoke with Andy Crouch about going to the Jams. AND THAT WAS THAT!!