An Interview with Hal Peller, Part 2

The conversation continues in Part 2 of Danielle Montezinos' interview with Hal Peller. Hal is a long time improvisor, teacher, and coach who studied with such luminaries as Paul Sills and Del Close.

Danielle: You coach a lot of successful teams around NYC, is there any advice you can give to a new team just starting out?

Hal: Use Spolin to help with challenges and to gain trust.

Play with great abandon and joy.

Give yourself permission to be foolish and get out of your own way.

Get “out of your head and into the space” – Paul Sills

Have FUN – if it’s not fun, you aren’t playing… you’re working and fearful.

My top 3 rules of improvisation are:

1.     Always make positive choices (Yes…and)
2.     Stay in the moment – to know something so well you don’t have to think about it while you do it – (this takes practice)
3.     Make the other person look great!  (all rules in improvisation can be broken except this one)

D: What's your favorite thing about living in NYC? And, what's your least favorite?

H: It was rough for me moving to New York City on February 14, 1979 from Atlanta, GA.  I lived on a 100 acre farm, with a 4 acre lake and 2 acre horse pasture with horse trails throughout the property and about eleven dogs all living and playing together. We would swim and ride horses all day… and then I moved to New York City with cold weather, alternate side of the street parking and a 5 story walk up… what a nightmare, yet, I was in love and I had my career.  I told Janet, my wife, that I don’t know how long I can last up here in the cold and she said, “… well you better get used to being in the cold because when we have children you are going to be out there playing with them in the snow…” So, I learned how to snow ski and learned that one doesn’t have to be cold, that technology exists that can keep you warm even if the temperature is below 0.

After a year I told Janet that I could tolerate living in the city and then after 5 years I had an epiphany. Janet and I were walking up 5^th Avenue in the city, blue sky, sunny day and I heard this music.  A street performer was playing the steel drums through some sort of synthesizer and he was not playing traditional island music …he was playing classical music and it was so beautiful the feeling just washed over me… where else could I live in the world and be surrounded by this kind of beauty doing what I truly love and the feeling just washed over me… the feeling overwhelming took over my entire body… it was a complete epiphany!  I ran into that guy 3 years later in a Chinese restaurant and I was stunned/shocked to run into him of all the millions of folks who live in the city that I would run into this guy who changed my life… who created this beautiful music… who helped cause my great epiphany and I told him all about it and he looked at me and said, “…well man … I am happy for you… but I CANNOT wait to get the F*&K out of New York…”

D: Why is Spolin work so important in Improv today?

H: Viola Spolin wrote the book that inspired Del Close, David Shepherd and Paul Sills.  She wrote the book that everyone from Alan Alda, Gilda Radner, to Tina Fey, Steven Colbert and Mike Meyers all learned from and helped them become great successes. Alan Alda still uses Viola’s games to work with scientists to help them to communicate better. Viola Spolin wrote the book that changed my life and helped create a career for me that I love more than I can express.  Yet, many of the improv schools today don’t teach her work.  When I coach a ‘Harold Team’ they only give credit to Del Close. They changed improvisation to an art form that requires one to try to be clever.  So, I say that is all well and good, however, if you also include Spolin you will not only find it easier to be clever, you will be remarkable because so few folks even know about her work!

That's great! Great pointers, and a great story. Thanks so much, Hal.

If you'd like to learn more, and sample Hal Peller's  work, consider taking 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.

An Interview with Hal Peller, Part 1

This coming May 4th, here in New York City, improv teacher Hal Peller is going to lead a one-day workshop for IRTE using the techniques and exercises created and developed by Viola Spolin, arguably the creator and founder of today's American improv movement.

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.