After training with the world famous Second City in Chicago, Kevin founded Bang Bang Spontaneous Theater, which included at one time or another, Tracy Letts (Pulitzer Prize), Greg Kotis (Tony Award), Michael Shannon (Academy Award Nominee), Reggie Hayes, Paul Dillon, Amy Pietz and a host of other Chicago theater luminaries. Kevin has been working in New York City for a decade including time with the legendary Burn Manhattan under the direction of Shira Piven. He now improvises with Centralia, a ensemble dedicated to expanding the possibilities of improvisational theater and comedy. He has directed The Royal We, "Minimum Wage", "Massholia" and numerous short films the web series "Successorize," "Shouting News" and "Law & Order: Interns."You can follow Kevin's work at funnyordie.com, youtube.com/potatopix and potatopix.com.
Who were your comedic influences growing up?
Ok. Comedic influences- I grew up in an Irish catholic family and humor was part of how we communicated; humor and guilt over the sins you hadn't committed yet. My family were all in an informal competition to be recognized as the funniest. This was great training. My father would make super -8 home movies of us and our vacations and whatnot and then play them in reverse or in fast motion and invent crazy narratives about what was happening. We also would turn down the volume on the TV and dub the voices ourselves. My brothers would kill at that. As far as professional stuff, early SNL (Belushi changed his name to "Kevin Scott" for a few episodes on the show and as a little kid this blew my mind and I was hooked) I remember liking Flip Wilson, George Carlin, Steve Martin, of course, he was like Elvis back then. I also got a lot from Bugs Bunny and the Muppets. My mother had a Nichols and May record that I used to laugh at not knowing what was funny but wanting to 'get it'. Later I did. Their rhythms are still in my head sometimes. In fact the track "Nichols and May at Work" revealed the process and the fact that it was a process and a really really fun process and I just loved that track in particular and hoped I would marry Elaine May (I haven't... Yet). I loved watching Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore do their talk shows after school for whatever comics would be on.- David Brenner, Richard Beltzer, Jay Leno, Tim Thomerson, Martin Mull, etc.; these were talk shows on in the afternoon like Ellen, Oprah or Rosie but were more like the Tonight Show. Albert Brooks stood out for me at this time, too; he was so inventive and was making short films for SNL. As a young teenager I got into Cheech and Chong and Richard Pryor. They were both doing movies at that point, and it was cool to like them, but I discovered the albums and got into them deeper. I loved SCTV and Monty Python was big for me, too- just insane premises and such comitted execution, watching them at a certain age for me was like listening to Sergeant Peppers for music fans; it was both catchy and a glimpse at a deeper world. Woody Allen's early movies would play on TV from time to time and they were must see in my house (I once laughed so hard at a bit in Take The Money and Run it gave me an athsma attack that kept me out of school for a week) later I really got into Annie Hall and Woodys other work of that period. The HBO young comedians special every year was an event in my life, just huge. I'd watch all the airings and memorize the bits to do later. This is a partial list by the way.
How were you first introduced to improv comedy?
I first did improv in High School. I got lucky and had a great director there. We would do games as warm-ups and I had license to be funny with my own ideas. I also got lucky in that there was a theme park in my home town and my first job was doing shows for kids. Again improv games were part of the rehearsal process and we would stay after work and do the games for each other. We thought we were just brilliant, then we took a road trip to see the Second City Tour Co and I saw what pros could do with the same games and I was then on a mission to be that good.
You founded Bang Bang Spontaneous Theater in Chicago which ran a weekly show for nearly 10 years. The ensemble at one time included Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tracy Letts. What was the reason for the show's longevity and success?
Why did Bang Bang last 10 years? Low overhead.
Bang Bang started when I was in Chicago training with Second City. We just wanted to get good at improvising. One of the guys from class I asked to work out with us was friends with a group of young Chicago actors including Michael Shannon and Tracy Letts. He asked them to join. We wanted to try to meld the two types of Chicago theater at the time- Steppenwolf 'rock and roll' theater and Second City comedy. We stressed being honest and true and not shying away from dark material. We wanted to be funny and scary and have a good time doing it; and nothing was more fun than doing it well. At one point after a show, Letts said we should no longer take suggestions. We were getting some pretty bad ones for a while and how many clever ways can interpret "vagina!"? So we started doing scenes that came from us and what mattered to us. And it also changed us from short form to long form as most short form requires a suggestion from the audience. (BTW, if it was called "long form" then, we didn't know it; we had seen improvised one act plays and we knew what Del Close was doing with the Harold but we didn't know of a separation between short and long forms- it was all improvisation, just with games or without.) I don't think I answered the question but it it has something to do with the work and the desire to really do something that hits the audience hard with surprises and deeply felt stuff- there were tears and rants and nakedness on stage and off and when it worked it was a thrill to be a part of. I think audiences like the different and challenging.
Oh and we charged $1.99 per ticket. Side Note: our first mention outside of Chicago was in the Denver Post. We were very excited to be recognized outside of our bubble.
How did you find the transition of moving from the Chicago improv scene to the New York City improv scene in the mid 90's?
My move to New York happened at a time when some of the Bang Bang folks were moving to LA for work and I grew up on the east coast and wanted go back, partially because my father died and I wanted to be closer to home. I also just always loved New York. I got lucky again in that what we and others had been discovering in Chicago hadn't been seen in New York yet. We got here the same time as UCB, so there were two long-form improv groups in New York. Now there are 3 theaters doing it full time and countless other independent teams doing shows all over. We were pioneers and it was all timing. We dressed up in suits and were very physical (my group at at time was called Burn Manhattan) our director, Shira Piven had us push the theatricality and make our work more dynamic. For some new yorkers we were something cool to check out. There is nothing like being something considered cool in New York. We were part of the downtown theater scene which at that time was heavily avant garde, but we were funny. We were not part of the comedy world as much. Now there is an improv world here and were a part of that but I hope we keep some downtown-avant-street-cred.
How has the improv scene in NYC changed over the years?
New York now has its own style of improv. It's hard and fast like a lot in New York. There is still some short-form but the yuk-yuk style isn't pervasive. Watching it evolve has forced me to change my game. New York is a destination for people who want to do the work. You used to have to go to Chicago or maybe LA but now New York is just as important to developing talent. I could not have predicted how big the improv community would get here. We taught classes when people started asking how we did what we did and we would get a dozen students once in a while. UCB was doing the same thing, but who knew it would become an industry with three theaters and three training centers with full time staff and literally thousands of students at any given time. Crazy. The cool thing now is there is an audience for shows and groups take risks and work to stand out by being really good and/or really different- it pushes it all further.
You perform regularly with a group called Centralia in New York City, how would you describe the troupe's style and form?
Centralia came out of Burn Manhattan. 2 actors and our musician moved away for work and we kept on as a trio incorporating various musicians from time to time. We do a highly theatrical long form that is always evolving. Each run is based on a theme, idea or question we want to explore; sometimes personal, political or cultural. We design lighting and video elements and devise a staging set-up. We like to keep offering up something new to the audience in terms of an experience. Our aim is to do a rock concert improv show where the presentation is as important as the content. It's also important to make the audience feel like their being present is special and important to us. We hope it's clear that we are putting on a show for them and not just showing up in our street clothes to fuck around.
Our current run has us doing single stories, as much as we can, and singing songs in a cabaret format and staging; meaning it's like a one act play where in the actors and occasionally the characters will grab a mic and sing a song that has been inspired by what transpired on stage. Were still very physical on stage but we're now older so maybe not as crazy as we once were.
You have directed a number of short films that can be seen on Funny or Die (including for The Royal We). How has improvisation helped you as a director?
Improv is always part of my work as a writer and filmmaker. Some stuff that's shot comes from improv shows, sometimes improv is used to flesh out an idea. Sometimes we just grab a camera and improvise straight to tape. If improv is not used in the writing I will still use it in rehearsals or on set to get everyone in a state of play, crew included. For The Royal We we'd start improvising and re-improvise whatever worked over and over until it was set. This is the Second City method and it helps create more organic and character centered material, which is the kind of stuff we were interested in. We focused a lot on political/social satire and if you don't do that with organic, character centered scenes it can really turn off the audience; it's then all opinion and not theater. And improvising helps make it much much funnier. As for directing, I mean actually making a movie, you have to be prepared for anything to happen in production, you need to be able to Yes...And whatever comes your way. This is true in filmmaking and in life.
What projects are you currently working on?
I'm currently doing Centralia shows every week and we're also writing our second album of songs. If it all goes well we'll be doing some sort of rock and roll comedy concert show. I'm also developing a TV pilot with Freemantle Media and working with some actors towards improvising a feature film. And I'm teaching my 18 month old daughter how to yes...and.
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