Why do I improvise?
I’m writing on my new blog every day for thirty days straight. This is the fifth one.My acting career began with improv. It began on Congress Ave just south of 7th at the Hideout Theater in Austin, TX. You can see the Texas state capitol from the front door. You walk a block south on Congress and you’re on the legendary/infamous sixth street, where there are wall-to-wall bars for stretching for miles.Fast forward three years. When I moved to Los Angeles, I had the bigshot idea that I wasn’t going to continue doing improv. I had moved to Los Angeles to act – and I wanted to get away from improv. Well after three months in Los Angeles, I started taking two different improv classes, and I founded an improv show that I was a part of for three years. Doctor Who Live. We improvised a 45-minute long improvised episode of the British sci-fi drama Doctor Who. We performed at two sci-fi convention shows in front of over a thousand people. We performed two Saturdays a month on Hollywood Blvd just east of the famous Chinese Theater at a smaller theater called iO West. Your first step outside the theater will land you on Chris Farley’s Walk of Fame star.Fast forward to today. I’m on a two-year-old improv team that’s done 193 shows. Stormchaser. We do a 15-45 minute show where we improvise a series of scenes that may or may not have anything to do with each other. We really don’t know how or if anything will relate, but usually there are thematic threads or characters that follow several scenes. I love this show, and reading over my dry description of what we do, I’m let down. I’m definitely not doing it justice. But improv is an art form that sometimes needs to be seen to be understood. At its best, improv is pure playful joy built on listening, fueled by excitement and passion, and wrapped in love and acceptance. When I play I feel joyful, excited, loving, and loved. Why am I still doing improv? I wonder.In a career where it’s hard to get the job, I can bypass auditioning for a part and give it to myself on stage. I can be Sheriff Longmire. I can be Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises. I can be Sean Penn in Fast Times. I can be Brando in Streetcar. I can be Walken in the Deer Hunter. I can be anything! It’s beautiful. Hollywood be damned – I’m my own casting director and I’m giving myself every part. And not only that, but I can slip in and out of these characters in a matter of seconds. I can play characters from five of my favorite movies in one improv show. Why am I still doing improv? I wonder.But seriously. I haven’t been paid one cent for doing an improv show. There’s a serious and very low ceiling of success. Why am I still doing improv? I’m not just doing it to get better at acting. When it’s done well, improv is a beautiful form in and of itself. We create beautiful works of art just by exhibiting the most fundamental human skill: listening. And in a city where it’s hard to act, I want to be consistently working on my craft on a stage in front of an audience. I can’t do that anywhere. I can do that with my friends on Stormchaser.Play me out Heartless Bastards.