Inside Improv Asylum
In a dimly lit medium-sized theater, a cast member asked, “What historical event do you want to see us perform a dance about?”
An audience member shouted, “The Boston Massacre!”
“No,” the cast member sternly said, and the audience laughed.
Another audience member said, “The Boston Tea Party.”
The cast broke into an absurd dance while throwing imaginary tea into the imaginary Boston Harbor to angry music.
Photo by Adam Spector
This is just a typical night at Improv Asylum, an improvisational comedy theater in the North End neighborhood of Boston. It could be described as Who’s Line Is It Anyway? meets Saturday Night Live.
The Main Stage Cast performs every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Kelly Dooley, a member of Improv Asylum for over a decade, estimates that the planned sketches are about 40 percent scripted and 60 percent improvised.
“We don’t have props, costume pieces, and whatnot. It’s challenging because we’re constantly trying to come up with new stuff and working with a team on the spot,” Dooley said. “During my time at Improv Asylum, I’ve done over 5,000 shows… It’s super challenging and super fun.”
Mike Kelly, one of the performers on Improv Asylum’s more kid friendly Made-Up Matinee show, described some of his creative process behind improvised humor.
“You give the characters problems and hopefully come up with something funny. Sometimes you have the straight man or voice of reason and the funny person, but you can also have a scene where you’re both funny and strange,” Kelly said. “As you get better at improvising, you learn about the strengths of your partners. Sometimes when a character is strange and funny, you make yourself even more out there than the other character, and sometimes they do that to you. It helps give the characters problems.”
The sketches on the more structured shows change every three to four months and are called a “review.” The managing director at Improv Asylum, Bryan Daley, explained how the review processes work. However, the sketches are mostly improvised, making no two shows exactly the same.
“We call a planned set of sketches a ‘review,’ which will be a show that’s consistently performed by the cast for a set number of times,” Daley said. “An average review plays for anywhere from three to four months.”
Similarly, Dooley explained that certain sketches do have a “limited shelf life” and that the cast is usually ready to move on to new material by the end of the review period.
“It can feel like you’re going through the motions of things doing the same sketches multiple times per week for several months, so the improvised part of the material helps keep it fresh and change things up,” Dooley said. “But you start a new rehearsal process (for the next review period with new sketches), and you come up with new things again.”
Daley also mentioned that the type of audience is different depending on the time and night of the show.
“It’s definitely impressive what the cast can do on a night-to-night basis. They really do hold the room for all the shows, especially on Saturday night, 10 o’clock shows where you got a crazy crowd,” Daley said. “They do a good job, still entertaining, making people laugh, and keeping everything reigned in.”
As talented as the cast members may be, Improv Asylum’s cast consists of relative newcomers to the comedy scene and is considered a side job by several employees. Billy Cox, another Main Stage Cast member, mentioned his main goal in comedy is to simply be able to do it full-time.
“I bartend full-time… You can’t live off improv comedy… They don’t pay enough,” Cox said. “Because you live in Boston, you need to make six figures a year to even try to live comfortably… None of us make anywhere near that.”
Cox is a bartender at the Seaport’s Ocean Prime. He mentioned that bartending helped make him better at improvised comedy, and improv made him a better bartender.
“I’m a better bartender than comedian because I’ve been doing it for a lot longer. Bartending made me a better improv comedian by coming up with material and interacting with people on the spot. The skills I learned here also made me a better bartender. The pressure and skills of being in front of a real-time audience of maybe 200 people teaches you to roll with things. It’s helpful to just about any profession.”
Daley and Cox also agreed improv comedy is a skill that is learned and requires training.
According to Daley, “Improv is one of those comedic art forms that requires some training. Unlike stand-up, where you can come up with your own material from the comfort of your home, you really do have to work with other people in improv. It’s definitely the team sport of comedy.”
Daley said most of the main stage cast members took classes taught at Improv Asylum before making it to the official cast. He estimates that 50% of them now teach at the improv training class. In addition to over 10 years of being a cast member, Kelly Dooley now oversees all productions within Improv Asylum and teaches Improv Courses.
“We just changed our training center. We have a bigger office space and with a ton of enrolled students… It’s great,” Dooley said. “It can be a lot to navigate because the training center is becoming so big. We have classes of 20 people with different emotions, different points of view, different ways of life, different ages, so you just have to really control the room and be confident within this and also continue to make it a safe space.”
Those who reach a certain level of improv skill within classes can perform in a show called “House Teams.” This Tuesday night show is performed by teams made up of current and former students of Improv Asylum’s classes. Each group performs a 20-minute improv set. Then it ends with ‘The Lottery,” where Team members are chosen at random to work together with “Main Stage performers and alum to perform a final set of insanity.”
Mike Kelly, one of the performers on the “Made Up Matinee” show, is also part of House Teams, as he still takes classes at Improv Asylum. He became passionate about Improv Comedy recently despite already having an established career in property management and being over 50 years old.
“My wife is a drama teacher and wanted me to take her to Improv Asylum classes. It was a 45-minute drive from where we lived. She wanted me to go with her. Being the good husband I am, I went, and I instantly became addicted, Kelly said. “My wife and I also go to a bar where they have an improv night. I perform with a guy who went to Emerson and was rejected by all student-run comedy groups despite being one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met.”
Kelly mentioned that being older than the rest of the cast and students isn’t as hard as one may expect.
“I once worked with someone who’s a senior in high school, and we had some great fun. The age difference alone is a funny scene with us trying to relate to each other,” Kelly said.
His wife, Karen Kelly, further explained how different ages aren’t a challenge and can actually work in the show’s favor:
“What’s funny is funny… The best improvisers have a vast knowledge of different things and can bring that to the table,” Karen said. “It’s great to have different ages, interests, and backgrounds because that alone gives improvisers material to work with.”
Regarding different backgrounds, Tyler Farley, 26, also performed at House Teams. Despite having a degree in business administration, and currently working as a program manager at Northeastern University, he also takes improv comedy classes.
“There was an improv crew at my school. I didn’t make it to the group until my last semester,” Farley said. Improv is not like stand-up comedy… It’s more like acting in a play than anything else. The difference is we don’t know what the other person is going to do.”
The background piano music that plays during Improv Asylum’s shows is also performed live. The improvised nature of the shows causes the scenes to vary, which means the background music also needs to vary. Nathan Cowper is the Music Director who performs on several Improv Asylum shows every week.
Cowper mentioned that it’s difficult to explain how to learn to play music on the spot with improvised sketches and considered it “a matter of practice makes perfect.”
“My job is really about elevating and underlining the moods that are already going on stage. I’ve been doing this for around six years and performing more nights than not on these shows,” Cowper said. “I’ve gotten to the point that it’s just intuition… the subconscious brain kicking in and recognizing what’s happening on the stage.”
Farley mentioned that he is “consistently impressed” with Cowper’s ability to perform improvised music to match the improvised scenes.
“I have done a lot of improv without music, and it’s not nearly as lively. The background music is essentially like a third perspective, that’s helping you shape the scenes,” Farley said. “You’re going back and forth between the unknown, and it’s amazing he can play depending on the scene.”
Farley also explained that taking improv comedy classes has been a fascinating and unique experience for his resume that has helped make interesting conversations with employers. Not only did he consider the experience helpful for conversations, he also viewed the actual improv skills he gained as useful outside of comedy.
“Improv comedy has actually helped in my professional life way more than I ever would have expected… It teaches you about being very present in the moment, speaking in front of a crowd, listening to people, and rolling with mistakes.”