ImprovPolemic
Improvisers and stand-ups clash over new iO show
Comedians TJ Miller and Thomas Middleditch.
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Early this year, when iO announced Thomas & TJ's Tuesday Riot—the improv-comedy theater's first show featuring stand-up comedians from outside iO—message boards buzzed with skepticism, mudslinging, and some optimism. It might seem like a typical Internet flame war, but Chicago's improv and stand-up communities are relatively small, tight-knit, and territorial. In some people's eyes, iO crossed a line. E-bickering aside, is there any reason not to combine improv and stand-up?
"Nope," says iO co-founder Charna Halpern. "Improvisers are scared, but they're overreacting. They're worried [iO's] going to start just doing stand-up. It's just Tuesday."
Still, iO is an improv institution in an improv mecca. Audiences can see stand-up elsewhere. "My biggest concern about having stand-up at iO is that it will skew expectations of future students and future audience members," said one iO performer on the Chicago Improv Network message board. "If someone wants to do stand-up, they should go to a stand-up club."
Thomas Middleditch and TJ Miller, both members of iO house-team Bullet Lounge, select the stand-ups, and plan to include sketch troupes in the Tuesday Riot. They also show the occasional comedy short film and perform improv after the stand-ups. Such a mixing of comic media is common elsewhere.
"It honestly is one of the weirdest things I've ever encountered," Miller says."I perform a lot in New York and sometimes in L.A., as well as tons of other cities, and there isn't this split at all."
"As it's progressed," adds Middleditch, "the relationship between improv and written work can be firmly connected. That's why you see sketch shows, one-man plays, and written musicals at iO. Stand-up, to me at least, is just another medium under the same umbrella."
That probably makes sense to outsiders, but not to some insiders.
"Sketch shows are still in the realm of theater performance," says an iO performer who asked not to be named. "They use characters, scenery, staging,lighting, and scripts. They're not just one person talkingon stage trying to get laughs. Many of the shows put up [at iO] are developed through improv, so we should have stage time for that."
Halpern and Del Close developed long-form improvisation (a.k.a. "The Harold"), which has reigned supreme at iO since Close joined the theater in 1984. But even Close—a god in improv circles—had a background in stand-up, including a couple of comedy albums. That kind of experience is much rarer these days, at least from the improv side of the fence.
"Most stand-ups at some point at least try to do improv, take an improv class, or at least take a writing class at iO or Second City," says local comedian Dave Odd, who books stand-up shows around town. "It seems many improvisers have an inexplicably deep hatred for stand-up, but refuse to come see it or try it."
The purity debate is also shortsighted, Odd adds.
"Experimenting with different forms can only increase your potential demographic," he says. "Nobody is going to come to iO and see a stand-up show and say, 'Poppycock! I will never return to this dreadful place!' If anything, non-improv and sketch fans will come in for the first time ever and say, 'Hey this is a cool place, I'm going to come back to see some other shows here.'"
Halpern takes a similar why-can't-we-all-just-get-along stance. "A little improv isn't going to hurt, and a little stand-up isn't going to hurt. Hopefully improv people will see how stand-up complements improv."
