The Improv Institute’s first home, a rented storefront on Belmont west of Western, wasn’t far from the rest of the off-Loop theater community, but it seemed like another world. You never saw anyone walking down the sidewalk, and even cars seemed to avoid this stretch of Belmont. The streetlights were always out, too, which meant that it was perpetually cloaked in sinister shadows. And what went on inside was unlike almost anything going on elsewhere in the city.
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The Generic Comedy Company performed a regular revue at their new digs, but before long the place became as well known for its classes as for its shows. There weren’t a lot of places to study improv back then. There was Jo Forsberg’s Players Workshop, Charna Halpern and David Shepherd’s ImprovOlympic, and Second City, taking its first tentative steps toward putting together a training center. The prevailing philosophy of improvisation at the time held that it was a tool, a useful technique through which performers could generate jokes and funny situations that could be polished into permanent sketches.
Under her leadership teams of improvisers vied twice a week at CrossCurrents for the chance to perform in one of three coveted Saturday-night slots. After each team took its turn Halpern would ask the audience to vote by applause on performance in three categories, then she’d assign a number to the applause level. Frequently, the hypercompetitive atmosphere actually interfered with the improvisation. Players who took Close’s teaching to heart, and took their time creating scenes, were frequently thrown off teams “for not being funny enough.”
In the improv community reactions to the company’s new gypsy status ranged from “Oh my god!” to “No!” to “Are they selling their chairs?” Bronis, who with Pat Musker runs the day-to-day operations, isn’t certain what the group’s next move will be. He’s negotiating for a space to move their current hit show Flanagan’s Wake into. Bronis admits that there’s talk of a name change, since the company is so strongly identified with the building on Belmont. And maybe, though Bronis didn’t say this, the Improv Institute that pioneered pure improv, the group that taught Chicago improv for improv’s sake, closed a long time ago.
