Photo by Laura Miner
Two years ago today, on Talk Like a Pirate Day, I had my first improv show — a graduation show from Improv 101 at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City. I won’t bore you with the first year details since I’ve already written about them. This past year, compared to that first year, was exponentially more important to my grasping of what improv is.
My post a year ago ended with a cliffhanger about and improv group I was starting up, that group ended up being named Big Gulp and is the primary bunch of people I practice and perform with! I finished up my classes at ImprovBoston near the end of last year, and while I thought those were fantastic, it wasn’t until Big Gulp started rehearsing, and even more so after Bryce Read became our director, that I really felt myself getting any good at improv. We rehearse every week and rather than focusing on a curriculum like the classes did, instruction is there to make each person and the team better at improv, no matter what that means.
In November, Big Gulp auditioned to be part of ImprovBoston’s Studio 40 and were accepted into it. This was my first regular performance opportunity. We would get to perform a couple of times a month in front of real crowds, this definitely helped push me to get better!
This summer, Big Gulp went on to get a second run in Studio 40 that is still ongoing, participated in the Baltimore Improv Festival and the Boston Comedy Arts Festival, performed at the Providence Improv Guild, and finally won a CageMatch at ImprovBoston! We also had to bid farewell to our director, Bryce, who left Boston for Chicago. Thankfully, we were then able to get Will Luera to be our new director and, like Bryce, he often blows my mind with the amount of improv knowledge he has.
Earlier this summer I also started taking classes at ImprovAsylum and recently completed Level 2. I have intentions on taking Level 3 soon, I just have to get around to signing up for it.
And in breaking news, this past Tuesday I auditioned to be a part of ComedySportz Boston and was cast in their Main Stage. ComedySportz is a national franchise of improv that is just starting in Boston in October. This is a very exciting opportunity and I’ll certainly have more details on that soon.
