HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SHOW TONIGHT?
GRIFF: By far the best Extended Play we’ve done. I had a blast. Lots of big moves by everyone. Ryan Nallen basically improvised an SNL audition. That guy is amazing when you put him on the spot. At one point he had no idea what a filibuster was, but still stepped out to give one. No one was very concerned with being polite, yet we were all on the same page. Only issue I could see was that we talked over each other and were a little scattered at times.
JAMES: This was the most fun. Griff started us off on a really energetic note, and Ryan came in with a goofy Australian accent. We played really gamey, super physical, and with all the energy we could muster. Usually with shows like this, I'd run out of steam after about 15 minutes, but I felt like we were all feeding off of each other. Everyone was being so supportive of each other's ideas, we could do no wrong. No one person was running the show or directing the action. Everybody got their moment(s). One of the best feelings is leaving the stage and your face is already sore from laughing at your friends' bits. This was a great way to close out our run at Extended Play.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT GRIFF / JAMES?
GRIFF: James can justify goddamned near anything. I made some dumb joke about how I had a few ideas to change the government and he jumped in and made us Senators. That one move led to so much more. It became the heart of the show really. I’m glad we’ve done all these shows together. I don’t think I could rely on anyone else as much as I know I can rely on James onstage. Not real life. Just onstage. That guy has some trouble with organization and time management. But onstage, his brain works like a machine.
JAMES: This isn't something that I learned, but my favorite Griff moment. We started the show with him on the ground complaining about being stung by a hornet. We time dashed a couple times away from that moment, but kept playing the same characters. Then, we started making our way back towards the opening through other time dashes, and then suddenly we did something really physical that he transformed back into the opening moment of the show. He seriously had to wait for people to stop clapping to get his next line out. It was some Cook County level work.
HOW DO YOU FEEL / WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT IMPROV?
GRIFF: Tonight I felt like the “don’t drop your shit” part of Annoyance training really paid off. Everyone had a weird thing they kept coming back to throughout the show and, having taken care of themselves, was ready to support everyone else. We also played without any regard for the audience…or at least very little. At the end of the show I had no idea whether or not people had laughed. But, I know James, Ryan, and I were almost in tears the whole time. At the end of the day, that’s what matters most to me with improv. There are lots of ways to get there and we found a great way tonight.
JAMES: It's fun. Like, really fun. For a long time this month, we tried to figure out a form that worked for us. But our favorite shows have been the ones where we just said "let's do what feels right". You've got to take the pressure off yourself and have some fun. Craig Uhlir says that you can only be upset about a show for as long as the show was, and then you have to realize that you're playing make believe with your friends. But going into a show with that attitude is just as helpful.
WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO ACCOMPLISH WITH THE LAST FOUR DAYS OF THIS PROJECT?
JAMES: New best friends for life and improv perfection.
GRIFF: Free beer for life and a job writing for the most creative and hilarious television show ever conceived.
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