It’s the first evening post Daylight Savings Time at American Stage Theatre, but even more surreal than the early darkness is an imposing Liam Neeson issuing threats as a surly janitor on The Cosby Show — plus a shweet Carol Channing on Beverly Hills 90210 and irate Al Pacino on Alf. The live “clips” are part of Hawk & Wayne’s once-monthly Mockumentary Show performance, their 2015-16 improv series.
Each season, improvisational masters Gavin Hawk and Ricky Wayne, who’ve trained with the Groundlings and other prestigious companies, work from a new theme. In the past seven years they’ve pioneered long-form improv in the Bay area with acts based on the numbers 3, 2, 1; News of the Weird; the workplace (It’s A Living) and other yearlong motifs.
Across the bay, Post Dinner Conversation Inc. (PDC) has kept busy, too. Their workshops at this weekend’s Tampa Improv Fest have all sold out. Co-sponsored by the reputed Sak Comedy Lab of Orlando, the three-day event features improv acts from throughout Florida and across the U.S. The lineup includes such inventively named acts as Transvaginal Mesh (a Minneapolis troupe) and Atlanta's Party Like Fuck (who, unfortunately, had to drop out).
The first all-theater Tampa Bay team, Bay to Bay, will fill the PLF slot Friday at 8:30 p.m. The all-star troupe will feature Nicholas Riggs (PDC), Patrick McInnis (American Stage/The Third Thought in St. Petersburg), Darryl Knapp (Dear Aunt Gertrude/Florida Studio Theater in Tampa/Sarasota) and Will Luera (Florida Studio Theater). It'll be the first team in Tampa Bay history to bring together veteran players from all major regional improv institutions for a public long-form show.
“Improv isn’t just something you throw at the wall and make it stick,” says Riggs. “It’s a destination.” The 30-year-old grad student joined Hawk and Wayne for a joint interview with CL. Like Riggs, the duo stresses the importance of establishing a scene with dedicated theater spaces for performances.
“It’s our seventh year,” says Wayne, “and only in the past six months [have we] seen the numbers that indicate we have to move out of our current situation.” He's been working hard on finding a permanent theater space (and hopes a theater angel will help them make it happen). The duo’s fourth 2015-16 performance at American Stage drew an overflow crowd of around 80 attendees; the tables in the theater's lobby cabaret usually accommodate around 50.
Challenges aside, the duo is thrilled to work at American Stage and teaches improv classes there for performers at all levels.
The Tampa Improv Festival is another success story, one that represents the work of many local artists.
Local improv master Crystal Haralambou of The Box, an alternative arts space in Ybor City, coached many of the performers active in the scene today and helped spawn the improv festival idea from informal playground jams she hosted in Ybor City. (She will reprise the event the Wednesday before the fest.)
“Improv as an art form in Tampa is actually a lot older and more diverse than people think,” says Riggs. “Teams like The Third Thought and theaters like The Box featuring teams like Dear Aunt Gertrude and Alpaca Suitcase have been around for years, with their own unique approach to teaching and doing comedy.”
The guys also give shout-outs to Darryl Knapp, most likely the scene’s longest-performing and still active vet; the short-form troupe WIT Improv; and Eckerd College’s Another Man’s Trash, which sells out shows monthly and got accepted into the prestigious Chicago Improv Festival.
Wayne, Hawk and Riggs all agree that long-form improv is more fun to perform than short-form (a 30-minute act built from one suggestion versus 5-10-minute scenes and games à la Whose Line Is It Anyway?). All of the shows in the Tampa Improv Festival are long-form, with Hawk & Wayne in the coveted Saturday 8 p.m. slot as headliners. They'll bring their Mockumentary show across the bay for the occasion.
Comparisons to punk rock and jazz come up when talking about the organic, in-the-moment magic of long-form, along with live painting and jam bands. “All of the art in my house comes from people that have painted it live watching a jam band onstage … then there’s the audience watching them paint it as they watch the band. It’s like super meta,” jokes Riggs.
“Improv is like the theater equivalent of being in a rock band,” says Hawk. “You have a unique voice, it’s your material. You get immediate feedback; you’ll go anywhere, you’ll perform in a bar or wherever. It’s punk rock.”
Training is crucial, they all say. It may be no coincidence that arguably the area's most well-attended improv programs are long-form shows, which often feature the most actively workshopping performers.
About a decade older than Riggs, Hawk, a theater professor at Eckerd College, the artistic director of A Simple Theatre and dad of two, says he and Wayne are more like the cranky middle-aged men of the scene, but continue to do improv because they love it. They say they are thrilled that protege Riggs, who’s trained in American Stage’s improv classes, has taken the improv ball and run with it.
Riggs, now 30 and recently married to PDC co-founder Hannah Prince, is studying for a Ph. D in communication and teaching underclassmen film and public speaking, along with coaching business students from the freshman to MFA levels on how to use improv in the marketplace. He’s at a critical career juncture but says he plans to stay put for the time being.
“I plan to keep doing this in my spare time … though I have no spare time. What is that?” Riggs says with a laugh.
Wayne is keeping busy, as well, as a rising TV star. He’s co-starring on WGN’s upcoming series Outsiders about a freaky town deep in the Appalachian mountains — a show he describes as Winter’s Bone meets Sons of Anarchy. IMDB has him listed as appearing in five episodes.
“It’s the biggest role I’ve done on television,” Wayne says. “I play Donnie, a right-wing doomsday prepper who owns a hobby shop. He is extremely racist and an alcoholic.”
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2015.