Craig Cackowski began improvising in 1989 with the College of William and Mary's I.T. After moving to Chicago in 1992, he studied at the Improv Olympic with Charna Halpern and Del Close. He has played on numerous Harold teams over the years at iO, including Baby Wants Candy, Carl and the Passions, and Cog. He has taught for iO and iO West since 1995 and directed such shows as Frank Booth in The Blue Velvet Lounge and J.T.S. Brown. As a Second City cast member, he co-wrote and appeared in five revues on the Chicago Mainstage and E.T.C. Currently residing in Los Angeles, he teaches frequently at the Second City and iO West, where he is the three-time winner of the Del Close Award for Teacher of the Year. He may be currently seen in such longform shows as The Armando Show, Quartet, and Dasariski, his long-running 3-man show with Robert Dassie and Rich Talarico. Film and television appearances include "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Community", "How I Met Your Mother", "Arrested Development", and "Year of the Dog".How were you first introduced to improvisation?
I was a freshman at the College of William and Mary and saw our college troupe, I.T. in the lobby of the cafeteria. They seemed to me like the coolest, funniest and most literate people on campus, which should give you some idea of how cool I was! I was too intimidated to audition that year, but I followed their shows for two years before I finally got in my junior year. It was a mixture of shortform and Harold. I was hooked for life.
Your sister Liz is also a comedian. How was humor valued in your family growing up?
Everyone in my family is funny. We love to laugh. My dad has a high-pitched laugh and would laugh too long, too loud, and at inappropriate times when we would go to the movies, so much that my mom would constantly shush him. More importantly, we're all willing to laugh at ourselves and our mistakes, which gave me the requisite humility for a career in show business...never take yourself, or anything, too seriously!
You performed with Second City touring company, etc., and Main Stage from 1995 to 2002. Is there an experience from your years at Second City that stand out for you?
Wow...so many great experiences, it really was like going to comedy grad school. I learned so much about timing, about refining a scene, adjusting to different audiences and fellow performers. But for one, single memory: I was lucky enough to work there during the 40th anniversary celebration, when a bunch of alumni came back. David Pompeii and I wrote a scene called "Gourds", a slow, character-driven scene about an African-American man and an immigrant striking up a conversation on a courthouse bench. Alan Arkin attended the show during the anniversary weekend, and made a point to compliment us on the sketch and how it reminded him of the type of scenes the original company did. It felt great to know that one of Second City's original, legendary cast members felt we were honoring the spirit in which the company was created.
You spent a number of years studying and performing in Chicago. What brought you to Los Angeles?
After leaving the Main Stage, I felt there weren't enough new challenges for me left in Chicago. I would kick myself if I didn't give L.A. a chance and challenge myself to be an actor where there's more opportunities (and more rejection) than anywhere else. There's film and TV projects that come through Chicago, but I found that I was agonizing over the 4 or 5 big auditions I would get a year...I wanted to be in a place where I had 4 or 5 big auditions a month, where it was no big deal.
You have been traveling to perform or teach in other improv cities (with a possible visit to Denver next year). Has there been anything that surprised you in the improv communities you have visited?
It's interesting to see how much has changed in the 20+ years I've been doing improv. A college troupe was a rarity when I was starting out, now it seems that most high schools have troupes. There was no internet to share information, now previously isolated communities have the same resources available to them as the big-city folks. And there's so many improv festivals now, where you can get high-quality instruction, and learn from watching other improvisors. If anything, there's sometimes more passion and dedication in the cities where improv isn't a stepping stone to big-time show biz...it reminds me of my early days in Chicago, when people were improvising purely because they loved it.
You perform in "Dasariski" with Bob Dassie and Rich Talarico. What type of form(s) do the three of you prefer to perform and why?
There is not a form so much as there is a style. We do long, slow, 3-person scenes, and our shows usually last 45-50 minutes. Sometimes we will stay in one scene as long as possible, so the entire show is one 3 character scene, sometimes we will explore the backstories of those characters more, so it involves flashing back and forward and meeting other characters. Other times we explore the environment more, and meet a bunch of unconnected characters at a mall, or a theater opening night, for example. The show usually ends up having a loose storyline in the end, so it's fair to call it a one-act play, though we don't think of it as narrative improv.
Fear in improv is a common theme discussed among improv performers and teachers. How has your attitude about "fear" in improv changed over the years?
Fear is something to be tapped into and enjoyed. If you can use your adrenaline to help you focus rather than paralyze you or spaz you out, it's a great way of getting out of your head. I still get nervous before performances...you're about to make up an entire show, and you don't know what you're going to say, so why wouldn't that be scary? The key thing, though, is to think of it as roller coaster fear, rather than, say, dentist fear....we're going on a big, scary ride, and we don't know what's going to happen, but it's going to be FUN.
