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.