By WICF Contributor Pam Victor
[“Geeking
Out with ... ”
is a series
of interviews with well-known, highly experienced improvisers. It’s a chance to
talk about stuff that might interest hardcore, improv dorkwads like me. For an
extended, full-frontal geek-out version of this interview, please visit my
blog, My
Nephew is a Poodle.]
Elyse Schuerman is co-producer of the Women in Comedy Festival,
which has grown exponentially each year thanks to the efforts and good karma of
Elyse and her co-producers and festival creators Michelle Barbera and Maria
Ciampa. Elyse’s improv comedy roots firmly are planted in the fertile soil of ImprovBoston where she worked as
Managing Director from 2003-08. In addition, Elyse has been a Mainstage ImprovBoston cast member since 1999, performed in a vast number of
shows there (such as Bluescreen, Comedia d'ell
High School, BackStory, and Gorefest I-V),
directed (Micetro, UnNatural Selection, Trail Mix), as well as taught improv to students lucky enough to learn under
her sweet, knowledgeable and generous tutelage.
An IB romance got legal when Elyse married improviser and teacher extraordinaire Don
Schuerman. Three years ago, they joined the IB procreation parade with the birth
of their first child, and just a few months ago their son joined the ranks of
sure-to-be-funny IB babies. In order to accommodate our crazy mother-comedian-everything
else schedules, Elyse and I sandwiched our improv geek out session during a
stolen hour on a Tuesday morning as the newborn on her lap held an animated
discussion with the ceiling fan and as I monitored the studies of my
15-year-old homeschooled son via Google chat and the old-fashioned method of
hollering upstairs. The hurried, hilarious experience seemed profoundly apt as
that rush-rush-improvise-rush-rush tempo is what being an improv comedian
mother is all about.
Pam Victor: I'm always interested in
how people found improv - or how improv found them. When did you first get into
it? Was it love at first sight?
Elyse Schuerman: I saw a show at the SAK
Comedy Lab in Orlando while I was in college in Florida during a
theater festival, and it was amazing. It was a Theatresports-style show and the
performers were great. I
also remember an episode of Reading
Rainbow that had Second City or
something like that on the show. As a kid, I thought that was pretty cool. I
got involved with IB [ImprovBoston] through a friend/co-worker who got in to Theatresports.
Pam: Reading Rainbow? So Geordi La Forge turned you on to
improv?
Elyse: Exactly.
Pam: I can see how you would be powerless in the face of that.
Resistance is futile. (That's a Star Trek joke that I would expect you to be
too cool to get.)
Elyse: Ha! Oh, I have seen my share of Star Trek. We all have a little inner
nerd, don't we?
Pam: Particularly improvisers.
Elyse: Yes!
 |
This is Elyse.
She is very nice. |
Pam: So in college you were exposed to improv, but you didn't
start taking classes until you got to Boston?
Elyse: Well, I never "took a class.” It
was 1999 and IB was looking to cast some women.
My friend Kristy, who was involved there,
told me about the auditions. I think before that, they were in need of a tech
person for a show one night, so I volunteered since I could operate a light
board...especially an eight channel light board. (Inner geek.) So, I had done
tech once, seen her perform a couple of times, and then went in to audition. I
was a theater major, so I had done some improv games. I made it in along with a
few other ladies. We rehearsed twice a week, and I learned a lot from Mat Gagne
and Ron Jones, who were my directors.
Pam: How did you get from that first team to working there?
Elyse: I was on the B team at the time, which
meant we rehearsed on our own and with the main troupe…and then Will Luera came on as Artistic Director,
and that is when things got really good at IB. The B team just became a part of
the main troupe under Will's direction, and attended the Chicago Improv
Festival. I really started to "get it."
Pam: Did you go through the levels at that point or just get your
learning on the stage?
Elyse: Just from the stage and watching a lot
of improv. Both of those things really shaped me. I think workshops are great
in the same way rehearsing is great, but to really become a good performer, you
have to perform - in front of an audience
and a
lot.
At my peak I was performing, rehearsing, and
directing six nights a week.
Pam: I'm drooling.
Elyse: Sometimes seven.
Pam: Ok, now I’m doing more than drool…
Elyse: Sexy improv talk!
All that experience was great and really
trained me. Again, practice and thinking about it all the time are keys to
succeeding.
Pam: Thinking about what exactly? What is the angle about improv
that connects you to good performing?
Elyse: For me, it was analyzing what made
other performers good. And I talked about it a lot with my roommate at the time,
who was also an improviser (and then of course my husband, then boyfriend.) In
addition, our conversations were like improv games - not all of them, but many. It's hard to turn
it off, I think.
Pam: More sexy improv talk.
Elyse: To make it sexier, I will take off my
pants...oh wait, there is a sleeping baby on my lap….
I came to realize that commitment was really the key to success. No
matter what you chose at the top of the scene, hold on to it, like it's your lifeline.
I learned a lot from watching students and
the performers I directed too…and the ones that committed were the best. And
commitment also means, "If that's true, what else is true?" So, if
you start as a pirate and your scene partner sets you up in an office, you find
all the ways to be a pirate there. After being disgusted by the copy machine,
you throw it overboard, you ask for your paycheck in gold coins, etc.
Also, always be a pirate.
(No, don't really. Pirates are so five years
ago.)
Pam: LOL!
I guess I'm trying to get to the core of your improv skills set.
Elyse: My
skills or bag of tricks are trying to anchor or commit at the top. And try to
complement my scene partners on stage.
Pam: ImprovBoston seems to be a theater that really values the
contributions of female comedians. At least from my outsider’s perspective, the
theater seems to be very successful in balancing women and men on stage, and
the whole environment there is very unified and cohesive. First of all, do you
agree? And secondly, if so, how did the theater get to that place?
Elyse: I totally agree, though I don't think
it worked too hard to do it. I think more and more ladies started taking
classes and shined just as much as the men (per capita). And then they just
started coming into the casts. I think Will, Don [Schuerman], Matt Mosher and
my other IB contemporaries were so open to diversity too. They didn't just cast
people they were friends with.
(Hang on…baby crying.)
Pam: Sure.
Elyse: I know we were very aware of how
troupes were stacked. We all wanted to see equal balance in the genders; but as
more ladies performed, more were taking classes and getting in to troupes. I
think now it's just a fact that 50% of the folks who audition and are good are
women.
 |
WICF Producer Goddesses
Elyse Schuerman, Michelle Barbera, Maria Ciampa |
Elyse: Michelle and Maria proposed it to IB
when I was Managing Director, and we said yes to producing it. The next year,
after I left the Managing Director position, I came on as a third producer. (I
asked to be a part of it, as I totally loved it and the ladies.) It is a great
festival, and not just for the ladies to perform in. We felt the name would
attract female performers, and it has, but we are open to both genders. It ends
up flipping the usual male to female ratio. And I am getting to meet my
favorite female comedians - that is good!
Pam: What have you learned from being exposed to all these great
female comedians?
Elyse: I've learned a lot more about the
industry than I wanted, but it's been fun. I think it's hard to be a woman
comic who wants to write for TV.
(Sorry, major baby spit up, here...)
Listening to how it all works at the panel
discussions, I mean. No one griped, but it's a rigorous process.
Pam: Yeah, those panel discussions are an incredibly - and to me
surprisingly - valuable part of the festival.
Elyse: Yeah, our goal is to keep them free to
the public - an important part of the festival, for sure.
Pam: I know you’re still early in the process right now, but can
you give us a sneak peek into what to expect from the next WICF (March 21-25,
2012)?
Elyse: We had double the submissions, so some
awesome talent will be there. We will be adding some new and exciting venues. And
one of our confirmed headliners is Carol
Leifer, who I LOVED when I was a pre-teen when she had a show on A&E
and she was fantastic. She still is, but she was my first introduction to stand
up so it is pretty cool.
She has done so much writing for TV and
producing too, so it will be interesting to hear her talk about it.
We will have more headliners this year... Keep
looking at www.womenincomedyfestival.com
for exciting announcements! (That's my commercial in this interview.)
Pam: That's SO exciting, Elyse. What you ladies are doing is so
important and I think it will have implications on the improv world on the
national and maybe even international scale. How do you feel about the state of
women in comedy today?
Elyse: I think it's the best it has ever been.
I think the final glass ceiling is seeing [more] women writers and directors in
comedy. We need to push our numbers there. We have plans to see that happen, or
at least make some impact in that area. (We hope.)
***
Read the extended version of this interview and others in the "Geeking Out with..." series at My Nephew is a Poodle.
 |
| Photo credit: Jeff Hausthor |
Have you ever read a “How to Get Ahead in Your Field in 90 Days or Less Using Negotiating Techniques/Mind Control/Fairy Dust” article or book and just sort of let the advice glance off, assuming that it doesn’t really apply to you because you don’t wear a suit and look like a businesslady stock photo?I live on Wall Street, and once walked up out of the subway to see a movie being filmed on Wall Street. It was a Saturday, and all the besuited people were actors. It looked just like … well, a movie. Because everyone was very young and attractive, and also carrying briefcases — rich, shiny leather, or gleaming chrome. Briefcases. No one does that. Not even on Wall Street. This was some Platonic ideal of Wall Street, minus all the grumpy older men with bad skin and frowzy trenchcoats who try to cut the line at Starbucks.Are you are imagining “business” exclusively the way it is portrayed in the movies, or — even better — the movies of your formative years? Like Wall Street or Boiler Room or even What Women Want (gross when it came out, and even grosser now, Mel Gibson). I have found myself doing this. For instance, certainly you’ve heard the advice to make friends with gatekeepers, to always be nice to the receptionist. It’s easy to see myself doing this on Mad Men. She has a beehive and a prim little suit and would like it if you sent flowers. But in real life, the person at the front desk is almost certainly a 23 year old who is always on Facebook. She is wearing leggings. So, yes, that is the person you are supposed to be nice to. (For the record, if I made less than $15 an hour, I would wear leggings too, just to stay sane.)
Jennifer Dziura (jenniferdziura.com) writes career and life coaching advice for young women at TheGrindstone and TheGloss. She believes you can make money without being a douchebag. She believes in working harder and smarter now so you can have "balance" when you're wrinkly and covered in diamonds. She believes in starting businesses on zero dollars, selling expensive things to rich people, and laughing very hard at people who try to "manifest their dreams" without learning any real skills or shaping the fuck up. She likes to help. Jennifer also performs (sort of) educational one-woman shows about philosophy and punctuation. Her "The History of Women in 30 Minutes" is appearing in the Women in Comedy Festival.
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