Sarah Nowak is a graduate of the Second City Improv Conservatory in Toronto and has studied improv with Ali Faranakian, Ptolemy Slocum, Kurt Braunholer, Pat Shay and many others. Since moving to New York, she has performed with the improv groups Jesus Chrysler, Chicken Ranch, Team Fernandez, The Strange Box of Dr. Oddbody, Kill Secretary, Kill, and has hit the festival circuit with the independent ensemble Sid Viscous. She also occasionally enjoys performing in live scripted works of varying lengths. She currently performs every Saturday with The PIT’s improv house team The Baldwins.How were you first introduced to improvisation?
A million years ago, someone handed my brother Adam a flyer for a free "comedy workshop". We went to the workshop and learned some short form games and then we were asked to join the team, which became the Buffalo chapter of Comedysportz. I didn't know what improv was, I was just goofing. I loved comedy but had no aspiration to be on stage, I was a pretty quiet kid up until then. I ended up being in the first improv show I ever saw, which is mildly unsettling, since we charged people money to watch it. Later, I saw the Calendar Girls in Chicago, which was my first time seeing a long form show. They did a LaRonde, and it changed my life. I didn't know improv could be like that, just scenes flowing into one another with no no wigs, no stupid songs, just these two women being really honest and playing real. It was hilarious, I wanted to see more of it and I wanted to do it.
You studied at the Second City Conservatory in Toronto. How popular is the world of improv and sketch comedy in Toronto?
Enormous. I went up there once or twice weekly, mostly for my classes or to see a random show, but I couldn't really get into the scene up there because I don't drive and I was relying on my boyfriend at the time. It's unfortunate, because I really loved it and I briefly considered going for Canadian citizenship in order to keep working up there. But the Training Centre at that time was huge. When I was in the conservatory, Mike Myers was really popular and I think that brought a lot of people in.
You perform at the Peoples Improv Theater in NYC with the house team The Baldwins. How would you describe the Baldwin's style and form?
Our form is sort of a Deconstruction/loose Harold. We don't have a hard form, or, we might and I am just not paying any attention to it. I like to think our focus is solid scene work. We play a little slower than some groups, and try to bring everything back and explore every discovery. After shows we sit around and talk about all of the things we forgot to bring back. It's a group of smart, respectful people, so things rarely go super blue.We're also a group of teachers and coaches, so we can get a little analytical of our own moves. Something I like about us is even though the group has been around for four years, we're still exploring new ways to play and unique ways to keep our shows interesting to the audience and to ourselves. We recently took a Contact Improvisation class together, which, if you don't know, is a dance class where you are in constant, sweaty and grunty physical contact with another person. It made for a lot of inside jokes, if nothing else.
Can you tell us about the improv-horror show you produced called "The Strange Box of Doctor Oddbody?
That's actually my brother Adam's show, we've produced it together the past few years and have cast my team The Baldwins as the players. He and I are hardcore horror nerds. In the show, Adam plays Dr. Avery Oddbody, who is a sort of crypt-keeper type host, and he gets the titles for three different stories, and we perform them.
The improv itself is different, because we are limited within each story to that universe, which is really fun to play. Instead of exploring the suggestion, we explore one narrative at a time, and bring it all back to a gruesome end. We have a few rules, one is that we can never have a monster that already exists. No Dracula, no werewolves, NO Twilight references. We have to create our own monsters and work within a lore that we are creating on the spot. Its a really fun challenge and it is, every time, very scary. For our run last year, the first story of the night was always performed in the dark with flashlights and our suggestion was some kind of horrible sound Adam would play from the booth. The shows were always pretty funny, don't get me wrong, but the experience of being in the dark was always very, very scary. I remember playing a scene with Jen Curran, another Baldwin. We had exited a scene, went through a transformation and returned as snake creatures, slowly crawling out on stage on our elbows with our heads down. I have no idea what it looked like but I remember really scaring myself with that.
I always marvel at how it is funny, but also very scary, and for those to things to exist together, it's my favorite everything.
As a Level 1 teacher at the PIT, what message do you want your students to leave with after finishing their first level of improv classes?
Beyond the basics, my hope is that they know in their bones that they already have it in them to do it. A lot of times you see people come in with the heightened awareness that they are in a "comedy class" and they start working really hard to make scenes interesting or to say funny things. The funnest part for me is to watch them figure out that they are already interesting, and that human beings are hilarious as ourselves.Kevin Scott (whom you have profiled before) told me something I tell my classes all the time, which is "Human beings react to human behavior." Real, honest reactions are the most powerful. I hope they come away from my class with that and a real desire to keep exploring improv and participating in its evolution. Also, seriously, don't eat in class or rehearsal. It's so gross.
What is it about improv that makes you want to continue performing?
The money! It's too good! I am CLEANING UP.
I guess much of my life is wrapped up in it I wouldn't know how to stop if I wanted to. But also, after the 100 million years I've been doing this I am learning new stuff all of the time like it's my first day, and I still really look forward to getting on stage every week. I get really excited to see what's going to happen. It's goofy but true. The people are the best you will ever meet. Everyone is so different but so kind and cool and fun to hang out with. I am very lucky to have found this. And also the money.
