Scot Robinson is from Chicago where he cut his teeth at The Second City, Improv Olympic and The Annoyance Theatre for over ten years. He helped create over 35 original shows and logged hundreds, yay, thousands of hours of stage time. Since coming to LA, he’s managed to appear in “Anchorman” with Will Ferrell, on MADTV, Comedy Central, Air America’s “Ravenhurst”, and All Comedy Radio. Scot also appears in the hilarious book “Comedy by the Numbers” and it’s accompanying short films directed by Mr. Show’s Bob Odenkirk and continue to enjoy working with “The Office” Kate Flannery in the critically acclaimed live show “The Lampshades” at numerous venues here in LA, such as the opening act for The Dan Band, as well as the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, the San Francisco Sketchfest, the Vancouver Comedy Festival and the Las Vegas Comedy Festival. The Lampshades also perform every month with Toby Huss in The Rudy Casoni Show at the Steve Allen Theatre. You can also catch Kate & Scot on the hit Disney series “Wizards of Waverly Place” where they play Jen Stone’s parents Marty & Elaine Finkle. And keep your eye out for Scot in Cartoon Network’s new show “Fingerball!”. In addition to teaching at IO West in LA, Scot also teaches how improvisation is used in team building, innovation, problem solving, and overcoming blocks to creativity in the MBA programs at Duke University, UCLA and Columbia University.How were you first introduced to improvisation?
Right after graduating college I moved to downtown Chicago to be a starving artist. I was great at it. One of my best friends from school asked if I wanted to take an improv class with her. I only knew what it was because Chicago was the home to The Second City. We all knew about Second City from the original cast of SNL and SCTV. All you had to do was see a few of the free improv sets they’d do after each show and you’re hooked. Back then people like Mike Myers, Chris Farley, and Bonnie Hunt were on the mainstage not to mention Steve Carrel, Steven Colbert & Amy Sedaris were in the touring company on their way up. Soon after I started my first class at The Players Workshop of The Second City, Mick Napier was starting up the Annoyance Theatre and began teaching his first classes. At the same time Improv Olympic (with Del Close) had just started gaining a foothold, so it wasn’t long before I was working at Second City as well as studying & doing shows at The Annoyance and IO all at the same time. I wasn’t the only one doing this. It was really a golden age of improv in Chicago, before it became such a popular art form. There was ample class time with the best teachers in the country and a relatively small community of performers, so you got tons of stage time.
You were involved in so many shows at the Annoyance Theater in Chicago. Which show was your favorite and why?
They were all so much fun, mainly because everyone had permission, and a good understanding of, improvising within the “script”. I put “script” in quotations because none of the shows ever had an actual written script. It would probably help to understand how we created our shows; Whoever the director was, they’d cast it and start rehearsals. Sometimes the director had an idea of the kind of show they wanted, other times, they had no idea. In rehearsals we’d improvise scenes to try out different characters, relationships and situations. Once everyone decided on their characters, we’d improvise more with the director exploring different relationship pairings, situations, etc. (more of the same, but in a more refined way), all the while constructing a storyline out of the best scenes. Most shows the performers would work with the musical director and write songs for their characters. The director would have to strike a balance with all these characters, storylines, and songs so everything made enough sense. Once the show started it’s run, they’d continued to evolve because people would try out different lines/jokes/bits and the cast would discover a lot of new things. As long as we knew where we needed to get to in our scenes, we’d take different routes there. It kept the shows interesting for us as well as the audiences, some who would see the same shows 10, 20, 50 or more times. I’d have to say my favorites were "Your Butt" and “Co Ed Prison Sluts”. In “Your Butt” the cast was onstage for the entire show and it was entirely in black and white. Co Ed Prison Sluts was fun simply because it was the theatre’s flagship show. Although I didn’t originate the role of the transvestite psychologist, I did the show for over 4 of it’s 10 year run. And I got to work with Kaluah the dog. I believe she was the only cast member to never miss a performance.
You started your improv career in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles in 1997. What changes to the improv scene in Los Angeles have you witnessed over the past decade?
Back when IO West, Bang Theater and Second City LA were getting started people in in LA really weren’t sold on improv at all. Being responsible for someone else’s success just wasn’t how LA actors thought. People would take classes just because their agent told them to, to pad their resume. Consequently their performances were sub-par, which didn’t help matters. It wasn’t until various theater’s reputations of having healthy creative processes and no B.S. politics that a sense of community grew and students began committing themselves to the time it takes to develop. Of course that’s when industry people started coming to check them out. Striking that balance between process and product has always been difficult here so I’m very impressed by the strength of the improv community here.
You currently teach Heightening the Scene (Level 3) at the IO in L.A. What do you hope your students take away from your class?
I’d like my students to show the utmost concern for each other on stage. Taking advantage of every opportunity to show us another facet of your personality is a lot easier when you show your partner your utmost concern. Heightening can mean different things, and students should understand the different ways to achieve it in a clear, concise way. People resonate with different ways of going about it. My favorite definition is Mick Napier’s saying, “Be more the way you are”. We get to know the people in the scene better by learning what’s important to them, and getting to know them better is the whole point.
You appeared in the hilarious "Ron Burgandy / Aqualung / flute scene in the movie Anchorman. What was that experience like for you?
You can get a pretty accurate idea of what the movie set was like by how playful the movie is. The director Adam McKay is an old IO guy and a lot of the cast were seasoned improvisers. The set definitely had that feeling. Just a ton of funny bits from everyone, in every scene. I think most comedy people would want to work in that kind of atmosphere. The only downside is that some very funny people got cut out because they shot SO much funny stuff.
You have been performing as lounge singer Hori Pismo with Kate Flannery in the musical lounge duo "The Lampshades" for over ten years. What has been the evolution of that show?
We started doing The Lampshades back in 1991-92 at The Annoyance in Chicago. Kate and I were doing “Manson: the musical” and “The Real Live Brady Bunch” at the time. We were both fans of old Hollywood, the Rat Pack and old music. We both always wanted to do a lounge act so we asked our very talented friend Dave Adler to help with the music. We’d meet for a couple hours each week and come away with 2 or 3 new songs we’d try out next show, which was opening for Jimmy Carrane’s show “I’m 28 and still live at home and sell office supplies”. Of course the audience didn’t know there was an opening act, so we’d be in a hole before we even started our set. It was a live music act then, and I would drink real scotch before and during our sets. We’d go off on tangents, sing the wrong lyrics, and discover lots of new material simply by virtue of not knowing what we were doing. Kate was a saint considering how Dave and I loved to go off to crazyland. We also tried it as an hour and a half variety show with bad sketches and weird guests. We’ve played so many ridiculous shows in such adverse situations over the years; wedding showers and receptions, a tent in Caesar’s Palace parking lot, nursing conventions, the gay porn awards (you get the picture) that we’ve developed a lot of material which gives us a lot of creative latitude to play it loose and continue to improvise and keep the show feeling fresh. I recently decided to make my character Hori Pismo a happier drunk, which is a departure, and the energy is very different. It’s exciting for everyone not knowing what’s going to be different show to show. It keeps ‘em coming back and keeps us growing as performers.
