Saturday, September 10, 2011

In the Moment with Amber Ruffin

Amber Ruffin started improvising at IO in Chicago. She then moved to Amsterdam to become an actor/ writer/ improviser at Boom Chicago for 2 years. Then, to Denver to write and perform in a show for The Second City.Then, Chicago to do the same at The Second City mainstage Chicago. After 2 shows there, She returned to Boom Chicago for 3 years. She recently moved to LA. I give it a month.

How were you introduced to improvisation?

I was introduced to improv in Omaha, Nebraska (where I'm from). Our troupe would visit Chicago for CIF, and Charna Halpern said if I moved to Chicago, I'd be a paid improviser in a year. I got Boom Chicago in less than a year.

What improvisers had the biggest influence on you when you first began your improv career?

When I first moved to Chicago, I loved People Of Earth. They were a team at IO that played with no rules. It was its own genre of comedy that should be called "genius frat". It was young and fun and smart as hell. Once, they got the suggestion of something like chaos. They proceeded to literally rip the theater apart. Christmas tree ruined, gumball machine broken, chairs flying. They got in a lot of trouble, but it, to this day, is the best improv show I've ever seen.

When performing on the Second City Mainstage, you were often chosen to perform monologues. How did that come to be and how much did improvisation play a part?

In Second City shows, no one's really "chosen" to do anything. You just bring in a monologue on monologue day and sometimes, it stays in the show. I loved improvising for monologues. One of my monologues stayed improvised until opening. The director really wanted me to nail it down. After he stopped watching shows, I may have improvised it quite a few times more.

What was the highlight of your time on the Second City Mainstage?

At Second City, the second show on Friday is Fuck Around Friday.It's when you prank one another on stage, trade roles, really have fun with the show. Those were the best times. Because, compared to Boom, Second City is a pretty serious place.

You performed with BOOM Chicago in Amsterdam. What shows did you perform in and how did you find the experience of working overseas?

At Boom, every actor does every show. There, we're extremely interchangeable. There are about 10 of us. And every day 4 or 5 are in the home show and 2 or 3 or 4 are in any tour or corprate shows. Boom was amazing. You literally do shows all over the world, but that's not the best part. Boom is comedy basic training. During a show proccess, you could be writing a scene at 6:55 that goes on at 8. Everyone has to learn it in 3 minutes. Anything could happen. And the audience is no Chicago audience. Sometimes, you have to remember your brand new lines and calm an audience full of bachelor parties. P.S. no one's first language is English. It's the fastest way to learn how to be a performer. Not improviser or actor, but performer.

What will you always remember about Denver when you performed here in the Second City production of "How I Lost My Denvirginity"?

Denver was the best deal ever. We got to live in lovely Denver for a year while we all wrote our 1st second City revue. Everyone was so super nice. I remember feeling bad when Second City Denver closed. It closed because we came in with no advertising. So, we were preparing a show in front of people who knew the name Second City. Young, fun liberal people. But, when the show opened, they advertised to people with theater memberships. Kind of the grey-haired Jersey Boys loving crowd. I said to our producer, Kelly Leonard, "If we had known that was going to be our crowd, we could've written a show just for them". Kelly replied, "If we did that, it wouldn't have been a Second City show."
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