My introduction to long-form improv comedy was a team from Chicago called Burn Manhattan. This mustve been like 98 or 99; small hole-in-the-wall theater in the lower east side. Having been obsessed with Whose Line and short form for years, I was blown away by them. Twenty-five mins into the set, an actor yelled, You know what, this blows! We need to start over. Were starting over!!! Then they literally started the show over from the top. I had perma-smile. I remember walking right up to two of them after the show and literally beaming. Can I...like...shake your hand? Three years and about 12 terrible off-off plays later, I went with a friend to UCBs new location on 26th street for Harold night. The first team I saw was Optimist International, a team of insane organic openings and brilliant callbacks. I used to daydream that theyd magically call me on stage to sit in with them. This may seem unusual, Jack McBrayer or Brian Huskey or Seth Morris or Terry Jinn or Rhea Dates or Chris Gethard would say, but is there a Fred Urfer here? This was Shannon ONeills first team. Amy Rhodes was also on that team. They would both coach my indie team, Filibuster, for over a year with my friends Joy Masters, Joree Adilman Weinstein, Beth White, and Brian McManus. Then I took that 8 1/2 year break, paid off student loans, and got married. Then, like the lightning bolt that hits Johnny 5 giving him life, I realized that the funnest, most challenging, most rewarding thing Ive ever done was long-form improv. So I emailed my good friend and Cooter teammate Elizabeth Findlay and she told me to sign up for Level 1 with Rick at Magnet Theater, stat! Brick was the first team I ever saw at Magnet—really they were my introduction to that theater. I dont remember the full set, but I remember a beautiful mistake early in their set of a trip to brown town which took over and had the full team crawling the the window colon and exclaiming Yay! We made it to brown town!! Tonight, Brick goes up to that improv graveyard in the sky. They join Optimist and other dynamos like Police Chief Rumble and Dillinger and Respecto Montalban. And like Short Circuit 2 when Johnny 5 comes of age and travels to the big city, new teams will evolve into new Bricks and Optimists and Dillingers. Its probably because Im older than all of you (except Dan Dobransky...that kids bald) but tonight will feel especially bittersweet. I dont see another 8 1/2 year break in my future. And theres nothing like being a noob, having a team take you by the hand, whisper in your ear that this is the place you want to be, and slowly and confidently thrusting you through their improv colon, depositing you in a warm home in the heart of brown town. Thank you, Brick.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 17:04:40 +0000
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