IRTE's Danielle Montezinos asked Hal a few questions about his history with improv and stand-up comedy both inside and outside of New York City.
Danielle: How did you first get into improv?
Hal: How did I ‘first’ get into improv? When I was about 9-10 years old I used to love to watch Jonathan Winters improvise his great characters. I would then go outside and entertain the neighborhood kids. I had two characters that they loved – one was an infant in his mother’s womb and the other was a race car driver because I could do great sound effects with my mouth and would go through all the gears and then a loud crashing sound. The kids just ate it up and I loved the attention.
When I was doing stand-up, in the late 70’s, I had a decent 50 minute set that I used to play colleges. I was hired by a jazz club in Greenville, SC to do two shows one evening and the crowd was great and I had a great first show. The owner came into the dressing room after the first set and told me that the crowd is not leaving… they want to see the second show. I responded, “…holy sh*t, I only have ONE set…” so I improvised the next set. Just like I did when I was a kid – I was scared, but I had fun and so did the crowd.
I moved to New York in 1979 after doing the open mic nights at the clubs…”Catch a Rising Star” and the old “Improv” and did ok… They invited me back. But my material was not up to NYC standards so I took a Comedy Class at the Learning Annex with Joey Novick and he turned me onto a book called Improvisation for the Theater by Viola Spolin. I read the book cover to cover and just fell in love… the whole concept of playing to get to our intuitive was the concept that I had achieved all the way back when I was a 9 year old kid –playing to my friends and knew what it felt like to be in that wonderful zone but didn't understand until Viola Spolin told me how to get there.
D: What was it like working with Paul Sills?
H: I loved Paul Sills. He started Second City in Chicago and he was the son of the great Viola Spolin. I met him when, my wife bought me a 7 week workshop series in the mid to late 80’s. I had studied with David Shepherd, Del Close and Martin Harvey Friedberg by this time and I was also teaching and performing so it was the perfect gift. He taught straight out of his mother’s book but he had no patience. He would yell “… where’s the f*&king smoking gun in this scene…” He was known for his temper, but I didn't see that… I saw that he was just very passionate about the work and he would just get frustrated. I heard stories that he would throw a chair sometimes and thought …well that doesn't seem to be in line with his mom’s teachings. We were playing a game where we had to eat a meal (show don’t tell) and talk about another topic. I had great object work (create the objects in space) … I could show what I was eating, but I wouldn't talk while I was eating and after the game ended Paul said to me, how come I didn't talk that much – I didn't really play the game. I told him that in real life I don’t talk while I eat… I’m all about the food and his response was, “well this isn't real life… this is f*&king ART!” His words were harsh, however, I felt he said them with a great sense of humor, and compassion… we hit it off and we became good friends.
He helped me put a business plan together because I had someone in Atlanta interested in starting an Improv theater. My business plan included the great Paul Sills to direct and the guy got cold feet. He didn’t understand that the joy of theater was the risk and daring behind each show. One of my greatest memories was the week I spent in Door County, WI with my 17 year old son, in 2002, playing at the Paul Sills' Wisconsin Theater Game Center which included a full 5 day long intensive with Paul and his daughter Aretha Sills (Paul said it was the family business.) What a wonderful vacation playing and hanging out with the entire Sills family.
D: You went from Stand-up to improv, do you ever miss Stand-up?
H: I often think about doing stand-up again. I figure that I would be so much better now with all these years of improvisation experience. One of my favorite improvisation teachers was Martin Harvey Friedberg, who used to coach stand-ups using the rules of improvisation. So, I started to coach stand-ups too. The business of stand-up is so different now than when I first came to NYC back in 1979… but funny is still funny and organic is much better than forced comedy.
I'll post part 2 of Hal's interview in a few days.
If you're interested in learning more about Hal's work, consider participating in his one-day workshop with IRTE. You can sign up at irteinfo.wix.com/irte and go to the "hire us" tab, or click here.
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