Amy in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

PSE: Just give us a brief improv bio.

Poehler: Sure. My name is Amy Poehler, my stage name is DJ Hot 'n' Spicy (laughs). I started at Boston College, in a group called "My Mother's Fleabag," which was a shortform group where I learned about initiations and commitment. Then I graduated from B.C. not knowing at all what I wanted to do, other than I wanted to keep improvising. So I moved to Chicago and started at Second City and at ImprovOlympic, taking classes at both. And at ImprovOlympic I studied with Del (Close), and started to be in different shows there and also teach and direct there, and at Second City I joined their touring company and I toured around for a year.

Then I understudied for some mainstage and ETC shows; and then right around that time I met up with an already-formed Upright Citizens Brigade, which was a sketch and improv group that Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Adam McKay and Horatio Sans had started. Myself and Matt Walsh, who was then performing at Second City and the Annoyance (Theater) joined that group and then we kind of reformed the four of us. And then we sat in the Salt and Pepper Diner, next to the Improv Olympic and said, "Chicago has a low ceiling, let's get out of here and go try to get a t.v. show." So, we said, "One, two, three, NEW YORK!" And we moved to New York in 1996, and were here for a couple of years and did a bunch of different shows all around the city, and did small writing jobs for Comedy Central and MTV. We started our show about two years ago on Comedy Central and we started this theatre right here, which we're sitting in now. 

When people ask you, "What is improv?" What do you tell them?

People who have never seen an improv show you mean?

Well, what is your personal definition of improv?

Oh. Um…well, there used to be a funny formula that we used to talk about in "Fleabag", I think we were trying to figure out the formula or something (laughs). And somebody said, "Trust plus energy equals excited queerness," which I thought was kind of funny. Queerness in a funny way, not in a derogatory way, I like gay people (laughs). But, I don't know, I guess it would just be, "making it up as you goes alongsees." I don't know, I don't feel comfortable defining improv, I really don't. I just do it.

So do you feel it's an art form all to itself?

Oh yeah, oh yeah. You know, it was actually really really touching; when Del died, and Del really was, I mean, you can't exaggerate stories about him, he really was a genius. I've never really met or talked to somebody who's actually invented something that I care about so passionately, and I really do feel like he invented pretty much what we're all doing. So, when he died we went back to Chicago for his big memorial service, and, Del was the first person to say that improv is not a means to an end, but an end, that people will come and pay to watch it. And there's a guy at Second City whose name is Bernie, who you've probably read about in Something Wonderful Right Away or all those books, and he still kind of believes that improv is a tool and not a means to and end, and even on Del's death bed they were arguing about it. And (Matt) Besser gave an impassioned speech at Del's funeral, which was really exciting to me because it was, his funeral was packed with people who, quite frankly, maybe didn't give him the respect all the time he deserved.

There's something very hard about staying back and teaching, there's people like the Elaine Mays and Mike Nichols and Alan Arkins of the world who are of course incredibly talented and deserve to be where they are, but they are different than Del who decided to stay and kind of pass the word on, and you don't get much credit for that sometimes. Anyway, Besser gave a really great speech at his funeral about how anybody who has a theatre should have Del's picture in it, anybody that improvises should invoke his name, and anybody who says that improv is not an art form should fuck off, basically. Improv is an art form, and I think it's magical. I think the idea of an ensemble is magical and the idea of writing and directing and acting and all those things together is…few people can do it well.

Where do you see longform going? Do you consider it an art movement?

Yeah I do, I actually do. And I also think it's funny because nobody cares about the longform / shortform debate other than improvisers. And so you always have these debates about which one is better, and nobody cares, I just want it to be funny. Charna (Halpern, owner of the ImprovOlympic and co-author of Truth in Comedy) put it really well, she was like, "Well shortform is like a fish, and longform is a bigger fish, and longform eats shortform so there's shortform inside the longform fish!" But, I think there's something to be said for it, and I think it's a bigger thing which is that, we talk about how t.v. is really bad and movies tend to be pretty bad because I think they tend to underestimate their audience. And I think shows like Mr. Show or the Larry Sanders Show are shows that allow the audience to be smart, to get it, and they're shows that, like longform, are expecting more and I think that it's a movement, it's against instant-gratification comedy, which we're being deluged with now. Like TV shows, I think the improv shows that are on now are just awful, they're awful shows and I think they give terrible names to improv.

You tell somebody you're an improviser and they think you're doing Random Acts of Comedy and it's just like, a bastardization of what I think is the purest form of art. People still don't get it, they still don't understand that…well, number one, it's hard to prove to people that you're improvising when you're on t.v. They don't believe it. Especially with these kinds of shows that are on the air now where they're not improvising half the time. Like Quick Wits where it's like, "Uh, this is an improv show but actually people have prepared it before hand but anyway, back to the improv," and you're like, "What?" 
But we taped a pilot in Chicago for a show called, "The Living Room" which I thought was really funny and we did about three or four shows in a row and took the best stuff, but there's a couple of enemies to improv, and one of them is editing; when you edit on TV it makes it seem like it's not really improv.

And when we pitch A.S.S.S.C.A.T. (UCB's weekly live improvised stage show) around we've had some of the executives be like, "That's so great, I can just see you guys, just a bare stage and celebrity monologists, and it will be really stark and cool…and then we'll have a box of wigs and hats, and we'll do a lot of scenes about what's in the news," and it's like, whatever. So, I have high hopes that it will happen but I hope it will happen the right way.

I also think if you're an actor and you can improvise, when you go on an audition and you can improvise you're just a genius. If you can, you know, take a Tide commercial and you can just say one funny line that's not in the commercial they think you're a genius. 

For the people who are trying to be part of the movement, which seems to be the younger ranks like the college troupes who are starting to convert to longform, is there anything that younger troupes should know or look out for?

I think so, I think the idea of ensemble should really be re-enforced and that's staying with the same group of people. In college troupes the turnover can be so fast and so furious that you don't ever really get to develop as a group, like who has different roles in the group and how is it working with all these people. I think people need to be encouraged to stick together. And I also think that people need to keep their numbers down, I think improv troupes are too big. I know improv troupes that have like fourteen people and it's like, you can't make it happen. And also if you have a good director or a good vision you also have to.

I think the moment of being an adult improviser and being mature is realizing who not to play with. Like, who doesn't work, and make sure your group is filled with people you want to play with. It's not communism, it's shouldn't be that everybody gets a try no matter how good or bad they are. It's our profession and our art, so we should eventually strive to be working with the best people. If you improvise with good people you just always look good. "Fleabag" was always five men and five women, and I was always against that because quite frankly there were sometimes funnier men than women that we should've put in the group, or vice versa, and it would just be like reaching a quota of making sure it was equal. That didn't always mean it was the best group

Talking about female improvisers, do you feel that it's harder to be a female improviser?

No, it's not harder. If you're good, it's not hard. 

Why do you think we see less female improvisers than male improvisers?

www.ucbtheater.com 

You really excel at characters. It seems like we always know exactly who you are from the first sentence out of your mouth. 

Well, that comes easy to me. Different skills come easier to different people. I think that Ian (Roberts) is really good at premise stuff and at heightening the game, and Besser's an excellent premise improviser, he always has an idea of what the scene is about, and I tend to be a little bit stronger with characters, that's what I feel more comfortable with. But, the flipside of that is that you have to be like, "Okay, you're good at that, now work on the things you're not as good at." 

Is it just a natural knack or do you have a certain sort of method?

I always like to picture what the character is wearing, I like when people improvise and they're playing a character and you know what they're wearing. I think specifics are the difference between character and caricature. Sometimes in my class I have people come in and do monologues inspired by people they know and I always find that to be useful to do specifics about somebody and then you're actually doing a character and not doing some random old lady or something. 

Even out in Chicago you guys were noted for your speed and you're certainly admired around here (New York) for that. What is the key to speed?

That came really from The Family. When I moved to Chicago they were like THE big team at ImprovOlympic, and they were really fast and really aggressive, and you could even say masculine in that sense. It was really coming from a school at that time of improvisers who were really taking things really slow and letting scenes go on a long long, time before editing, and they were editing really fast and I found that really exciting. I think it goes back to this idea of always leaving the audience wanting more rather than letting your ideas peeter out in front of them. And I think in some ways that editing fast improv is a way of saving yourself from those moments. I think it's just an aggressive style that we've developed.

Stage tool wise, are there any keys…like in terms of ideas…do you set up your environment first or your character first, or is it just key in the opening line?

Just personally I think it's all in the opening line. I think you have to kind of say it. Nick Napier, who I think is really good teacher, used to do this exercise called "Start Talking," and all he'd do is just point to you and you'd have to start talking, and it's this really simple exercise but it really gets you out of your head from those scenes where you start with this pressure that the first thing you say has to be really great and funny. It's the same thing like when you're in a two person scene and one of the people hasn't said anything yet, and there's this pressure like, "Who is this person, what are they gonna say? It'd better be really funny." So I think half the battle is just to start talking, and try to develop characters and environment, too. But what we teach here is all about finding the game and I think the better you get at it the more you are able to get the game out in the first line and then everybody can relax, cause they know who they are and what they're supposed to be doing.

There's a lot of actors and improvisers all over New York City, there's a lot of young improvisers, a lot of good talent. Is there any advice or suggestions you can give them?

Well it's a good point because we have a lot of improvisers here and it's really hard. You can't really make a living improvising, unfortunately, right now. There's very few people who are. So you have to find ways to challenge and channel that. One of the ways is, we have a lot of improvisers here who do commercials, and stuff on Conan (O'Brian) and stuff like that, and I know a bunch of people who are auditioning for sketch shows right now, and they'll say to you, "Okay we want you to do five characters." So I would suggest improvisers getting a really good bed of characters that they can pull out. If you do a scene and you really like a character in it or a premise in it to write it down and to work on it so that you can have five or six characters that you can pull out in an audition. Also being around good people is important. Chicago is an incredible starter-friendly place to learn…but it's about proximity to the game. In Chicago it's like, if you're playing volleyball and you say, "Hey I got this cousin who's a really great volleyball player, should I call him?" As opposed to New York where it's like, "Hey I got this cousin who's a really great volleyball player and he's right here." In New York and L.A., you're right there. In New York if you're close to the game, if you're surrounded, it happens to you. If you're farther away from the game, it's just that much harder to be discovered if you're in Chicago or New Jersey, or wherever you are. It's one step away from where it all happens, if you want to be in television or film. 

Thank you so much.

You're welcome!

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