HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SHOW TONIGHT?
DUGAN:Definitely the most unique improv experience I’ve ever been a part of. Chris Fair does this show weekly, and by himself, and I don’t know how he does it. For those that have never seen the Laser Improv Show, Chris Fair stands behind a canvas that has been painted with some kind of black light paint, and when you shine a laser on it, it leaves an image that fades away slowly. So, you can literally paint your characters and scenes on the canvas. I was WAY out of my element artistically speaking. I was drawing stick figures while he was drawing fully fleshed out faces and using perspective and foreshortening and all sorts of other art techniques to get his ideas across. I also can’t write backwards to save my life.
GRIFF: Man that was weird. A huge crowd of what I took to be mostly newer improvisors (just because I had never seen any of them before) takes over the Playground’s Mixer. I went with Amy Thompson who used to go all the time and I have been a few times myself when I first came to Chicago. I’ve never seen so many people at the mixer. With so many players on each team I just decided to try to do as many bits as I could think of. Of course, I couldn’t tell if any of them hit because there were five different things happening on stage at once so who knows what people were laughing at.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT GRIFF / JAMES?
DUGAN: That I miss him when he’s not here. As a co-worker just said to me, we’re meant to be together.
GRIFF: Nothing, because that fool scheduled himself for an 8PM show that turned out to be a 10PM show and we couldn’t go to the mixer together.
HOW DO YOU FEEL / WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT IMPROV?
DUGAN: About half-way through the show, I realized that I was playing totally wrong. No one could see us behind the canvas, so no one really knew who was drawing what unless you straight up told the audience. At that point, I started to feel much less self-conscious about what I was doing, and started to have fun with what Chris was doing. I started added details to the characters that he was drawing, or filling in the background rather than trying to create something completely new of my own. My favorite moments of the show were when we would draw one picture together. This is going to sound corny, but it was like I learned how to “Yes And” all over again. What you do onstage should contribute to the show as a whole, it shouldn’t just serve your needs. At the end of the show, the audience shouldn’t be thinking about who made what moves, they should be enjoying the big picture.
GRIFF: Sometimes you’ve got no choice than to jump on board the manic train. There’s no other way to keep up when everyone around you is almost foaming at the mouth to get in there. I kind of envy most of the people at the mixer for just wanting it so bad. I want to play with that kind of desire.
YOU’RE ONE WEEK IN, HOW DOES IT FEEL?
DUGAN: So far, I’ve spent $23 dollars to do improv 7 times. Based just on what I’ve learned about playing with mash-up groups, I’d say it’s been worth it.
GRIFF: Right now I feel like when Christ fell for the first time.
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