Several times a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

EXTRA-STRENGTH’s own Johnnie Hertlein brings an intensity to the stage that few can match. He’s the kind of guy you want on your side in a bar fight. More importantly he’s the kind of guy that, if he’s on your side, is one of the most loyal and lovable people you could ever have the pleasure to be friends with. And we never, ever want him to get rid of the porn-stache.

When did you start improvising?

Professionally it must have been in ‘92 when I realized that my boss’s wife had paid $80 a ticket to take us to see “Tony & Tina’s Wedding.” I was standing there with like 150 Italian weddings in my belt and I’m looking at these actors thinking, “You’re telling me your Italian???” These guys are getting paid for this… shit… they like playing games? I’ll give’m games. I came up with a character on the fly – one Carmine Carfalio from Brooklyn, in real estate – and I let the people that brought me in on my plan. Come to find out one of the girls in the cast was moving to New York and when the show was ending she told me not to leave. My friends and myself hung out and when she came back she asked if I could help her out in New York. I told her I’d like to but in fact couldn’t. She was going on and on not wanting to hear “no” and then at a certain point in the conversation she asked, “Where is your accent?” That’s when I told her, “Hey you were playing with me so I decided why should you have all the fun?” Two of the show’s producers were standing there and they asked me if I would consider auditioning. I did, was put in the cast and the rest is history.

What do you like about long-form versus short-form improv?

Long-form to me – depending on the group mind or form – can be played slow. You have time with the characters. Long-form allows you the opportunity to give the character an arc and as a player you get to figure out why that character is the way they are based on the rest of the players giving you gifts.

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Several times a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

Tommy Bechtold is the kind of performer that everyone wants to play with, as evidenced by the fact that he seems to have a different show every night (who does he think he is, Brian O’Connell??). Why so many people want to perform with him is evidenced in his answers to these 20 questions and any time he takes the stage. Be sure to check him out on the CW’s “Smash Cuts” if for no other reason than to see Tommy in a show with “smash” in the title.

When did you start improvising?

One of the first things I did when I moved to LA two years ago was sign up to take classes at Groundlings. During that time I would come to iO West to watch shows and slowly I started shifting my focus there. About a year and a half ago I started performing at iO which I am very proud to call my home.

What do you like about long-form versus short-form improv?

I love the patience long-form requires. It’s great to be quick-witted and bits get laughs but to me there are few moments more satisfying in improv than when you have a scene that builds and builds and finally culminates with you, your scene partner(s) and the audience all being on the same page.

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Several times a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

Eric Hunicutt has spent nearly half his life improvising. Not, like, non-stop, he’s done other stuff too. But he started improvising when most people are still taking driver’s ed. He’s one of iO West’s favorite teachers (and ran the Training Program for several years) and also teaches at Steppenwolf Classes West and Warner Loughlin Studios. He’s also a gem and a half. EXTRA-STRENGTH highly recommends you check him out any time you have the opportunity, and you can see him perform on Tuesday nights at iO West with Sweetness and premieres his new scripted show “Sitting at the Grown Up Table” this month at the Charleston Comedy Festival.

When did you start improvising?

When I was 15, in high school – with Comedy Sportz in Raleigh, NC.

What do you like about long-form versus short-form improv?

I really have fond feelings for short-form… it’s how I got interested in improv to begin with, it’s been so useful in long-form and was so fun and playful, it’s where I learned to be confident onstage… I think without doing short-form first I would have been very serious, very precious about long-form and it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun… that being said, I find long-form to be a great challenge in terms of ensemble, managing the tempo, the technical challenges of structure within long-form work is something that is constantly interesting to me – how each form requires the use of different brushes, how to troubleshoot and discover within each piece. I think, generally, that long-form is more intriguing to the performer, if not always as accessible to the uninitiated audience member. Plus, I really like that in long form I’ve been able to bring more theatre, more grounded acting, to the work, as opposed to focusing on the funny and the laughs per minute… and in turn the way I think about long-form has taught me a lot about how to approach scripted work – they feed each other so well.

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Several times a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

EXTRA-STRENGTH’s Brandon Pico is, believe it or not, the only member of the cast who used to be a professional athlete. This not only means he has killer abs, it makes him the consummate team-player. Though he is a big fan of cheap beer, he’s also fond of red wine, which he calls “grope juice.” Have no fear though; he prefers to be the grope-ee.

When did you start improvising?

My first class was with Scot Robinson over at Second City in October 2005.

What do you like about long-form improv versus short-form?

Coming from a stand-up comedy background, I really had to be taught the basics of scene-work over being funny. Thus, I strayed away from short-form which focuses more on quick bits verses the relationship/story you build in long-form. Kay Cannon used to yell at me for trying to be funny in my Level 2 classes. She now has two Emmys. So I will continue to heed her advice.

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Twice a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

Jill Alexander is a long-time friend of EXTRA-STRENGTH. Conroy DJed her wedding, and both he and O’Connell called her out in their Performer Profiles as someone who they look to as a constant source of inspiration. Jill is simply one of those people we all hope we can, at some point, be favourably compared to.

Watching Jill perform she immediately reminds you of someone you know. This is primarily because you can’t watch TV for an hour without seeing her. She’s appeared in over 50 national commercials, as well as numerous regional, print, and Internet campaigns. The fact that she is beautiful, whip-smart and funny as hell is gravy.

Jill started improvising more than 15 years ago at Northwestern University and was a member of The Groundlings Sunday Company. You can see her at iOWest with our house team Trophy Wife (declared “A name to watch!” by New York Magazine), the Friday 40, and the awesome genre-based Kind Stranger Presents (a favourite of Extra-Strength’s, Kind Stranger has “presented” everything from Greek Tragedy to Tennessee Williams to Law & Order). Her TV credits include CSI Miami, Secret Girlfriend & Quarterlife.

Jill is both an improv coach and teaches on-camera technique for commercials and television at iOWest as well as private audition technique workshops. EXTRA-STRENGTH is thrilled to get her thoughts on improv and performing.

When did you start improvising?

At Northwestern University in 1993. The Mee-Ow show.

What do you like about long-form versus short-form improv?

Long-form is still a challenge for me and likely always will be. Long-form is storytelling. Short-form is joke-telling. I excel at short-form but I prefer long-form since it is hard on my brain.

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Twice a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

EXTRA-STRENGTH’s Travis Guba is more than just our treasured teammate, video guru and token blond. He’s a classically trained actor (like, really classically) and improviser with too many film, TV & commercial credits to count, and despite appearing to easily be able to take your head off in a bar fight (assuming he’s standing on said bar, or perhaps wearing stilts) he’s also one of the nicest guys you could ever have the pleasure of knowing.

When did you start improvising?

I took some classes at L.A. Theatersports in 1991 and I was hooked. When I was studying acting there were always opportunities for improv, but it was when I was at the Experimental Theater Wing of NYU that I was introduced to completely different styles of improv. Whether it was doing Meisner exercises or exploring Viewpoints movement or mask work or clown work. It was all enjoyable to me. It was a real downer when I did a regular play because things were more set in stone and I got bored 3 weeks into rehearsal. Especially when I was working with someone passionately against improvising. *A big shout out to the Delaware School of Acting on that note. *

I’ve found that strict dialogue or blocking can make it harder to create a performance with the kind of vitality that comes from discovering something on the spot. I’ve figured out what I truly love about performance: being so utterly present in that moment of discovery and sharing that experience with a group of people who would follow you into the darkest spots of your mind. It doesn’t always happen, but it’s awesome when it does!

What do you like about long-form versus short-form improv?

I like them both, but I feel that long-form has so much more room for scenes that are funny because they are truthful. Those are my favorite laughs. Long-form contains some short-form elements, so you have to have some ability to play in a quick manner when necessary and it adds a nice pacing variety to a piece. I suppose I think of long-form as a whale and short-form as the fish that it just ate whole.

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Getting to play with and learn from some of the most talented improvisers in the country is the sweetest aspect of having our home base at L.A.’s iO West Theatre. EXTRA-STRENGTH is extending our Performer Profiles Series beyond our own cast and is honored to feature Shulie Cowen’s insight into performing and the art of improv (check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of terms and concepts).

Shulie is the director and co-star of Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!®, one of the most popular shows at the iO West Theatre in Los Angeles. She’s also one of our theatre’s most awesome improv teachers (so sayeth Conroy, though he’s hardly alone in that opinion). Her numerous film and television credits include Curb Your Enthusiasm, Factory, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, Just Like Heaven, How I Met Your Mother and Reno 911!, and she was part of the original cast of the long-running musical Schoolhouse Rock Live!

You can catch Shulie every Friday night at 9pm in Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!® and also check out her voiceover work at voiceovergal.com.

When did you start improvising?

I started in college. A show we did in an art gallery. Each week was a new show with improv, sketches and stand-up.

What do you like about long-form versus short-form improv?

I love them both! Each has different challenges, but I love that long-form is like putting a puzzle together. I imagine it as building the Jenga stack from the bottom up. I also love being able to explore characters in a different way than you can in short-form.

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Twice a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

Extra-Strength fans might be surprised (or not) to learn that our show came about primarily because of Alexis Simpson. Her arrival in L.A. is what inspired the show that has subsequently become legend. Alexis is not just an amazing performer and an awesome broad, she’s also someone whose thorough understanding of the business side of live theatre is inspiring to everyone who is fortunate enough to talk to her for five minutes.

When did you start improvising?

1999. No wait, 2000.

What do you like about long-form improv versus short-form?

I enjoy both. They serve different needs and different tastes, but both provide opportunities for audiences to laugh and have fun. I love improv and I love that there are different varieties for people to enjoy. It means more people will be able to enjoy this amazing art form. I guess what I like about long-form is that it provides more opportunity for me to follow my impulses. Although you can still do that in short-form, short-form’s more structured and so it’s easier to ignore your impulses because they don’t happen to fit.

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Twice a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed some light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

Maggy Keegan is Extra-Strength’s newest cast member. An accomplished singer, dancer, actor, writer and producer as well as a crack improviser, Maggy performs and hosts numerous shows at the iO West theatre and makes her Extra-Strength debut next weekend on Saturday November 14th at 11pm.

When did you start improvising?

I started taking short-form improv classes while I was still working in non-profit in Philadelphia around six years ago.  I really began my improv training in earnest two years ago at iO West.

What do you like about long-form versus short-form improv?

I like both for different reasons as they work different muscles. I fell in love with long-form improv because of the challenge of it and because of the teamwork it requires in order for it to be done well.

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Twice a month Extra-Strength News features “Performer Profiles” where we ask 20 Questions to notable improvisers from around the country to get their thoughts and insights into the art form and shed some light on how their brains work. You can also check our Improviser’s Glossary for explanations of some terms and concepts.

Extra-Strength’s Brian O’Connell is a familiar face to anyone who frequents the iO West Theatre in Los Angeles, where he runs the bar and seems to appear in every other show, including Dr. God, Tigerpants and MUD. Brian also wrote, directed and starred in the independent feature KILLER VIEW.

When did you start improvising?

I started improvising on March 3^rd, 2003. I remember distinctly it being that date as I had seen my first ever show in January and wanted to sign up immediately but had missed the registration at iOWest. I’ve never left.

What do you like about long-form versus short-form improv?

Basically, short-form’s not my cup of tea because I don’t find it particularly challenging or dangerous for either the audience or the performer. Normally, when people ask me why I don’t perform short-form improvisation, I’ll respond, “Because I can’t do a short form show about ‘betrayal’.” It’s a polite way of saying that it’s not my bag without offending my friends who really adore short-form.

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