Charna

where we celebrated our tenth anniversary and incorporated the celebration into our 5th annual improv fest. The fest was amazing-James Grace finds ways to make it bigger and better each year. The last night of the fest is the first thing I want to write about.

It was the night I was given The DEL CLOSE AWARD FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF IMPROVISATION. Its a pretty prestigIous award and has gone in the past to Harry Shearer, the cast of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, Shelly Berman and Fred Willard. When James told me he wanted me to be the recipient this year, I told him that I didn t think that would be appropriate.

I even asked my Mother who is like Miss Manners and she said since I owned the Company that Produces the show it would be wrong. James got mad and said I should stop listening to my Mother. Other alumni called and said that because of the great community I built and how much it supports actors in LA, it is totally appropriate that I get the award.

I relented and Im so glad I did. Before the show started, I saw people walking into the theater that represented all the eras of IO. People like Mitch Rouse from Blue Velveeta (Director and writer of EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH-(A GREAT MOVIE IF YOU HAVENT SEEN IT); Mark Beltzman representing Barons Barracudas, Andy Dick,people from The Family, and folks from The Reckoning.

Too many to recount. BEER SHARK MICE walked on stage to present the award. Each of them said the most beautiful loving things about what I had given them and how important IO and IOWEST are.

David Koechner choked up while giving me his adoration and talking about how none of this would exist if it werent for me. The room was crying. I had no idea it would be such a love fest.

Afterwards, it seemed that every five seconds, someone I had never met would come up to me and grab my hand and thank me for the LA community. I was told what a welcoming place the theater is to new students. I had people tell me they will do whatever it takes to get as good as the players they watch at I.

O. to which I replied, thats what it takes, the desire to do whatever it takes . It was just an amazing night and I think I didnt have a handle on exactly what IOWEST means to the folks out there- till now.

In accepting my award, I was able to convey that it is all of the amazing people who are attracted by the tenets that we preach - The idea of theater of the heart where we cherish each other to succeed on stage - These are the ones who have stayed and made this community so special. And the current students, will be the generation who will carry this on and be the one I point to in the next ten years. Of course, The BEER SHARK MICE guys were absolutely hilarious doing bits throughout the ceremony on stage and I was able to show the audience that no matter how hard things were in the past, these were the guys that got me through it and this was the type of laughter I lived with on a daily basis.

On a side note about the ceremony, one really cool thing happened that really blew me away. Pete Hulne actually had the entire audience improvising with him. It started when Hulne mentioned in his speech that he was the one who had to build each set every time we got thrown out of one place and had to move to another, Then, Pat Finn jokingly mentioned when starting his speech, that he did the electrical.

Hulne came forward and said, but I really built the stages . He made the physical initiation that he was awaiting applause. The audience booed him in unison.

Throughout the speeches, others talked about what they had done in the course of my relationship with them and Hulne kept stepping forward to complain that it was nothing compared to what he had done-begging for applause but always being booed by the audience. AT the end, Koechner credited Hulne with something and they all cheered. 150 people were doing a bit with Hulne who was absolutely clear in his group initiation.

(Ill have an upcoming blog about Hulne as he stars in a TV show that starts in July and I have a good feeling about it) There was a week long cage match with many teams from LA Theaters including IOWEST, Comedy Sportz and UCB. The two finalists were LA s Comedy Sportz and our very own REVOLVER. I decided to go to the cage match to support our team.

They were first and they had the audience screaming every step of the way. I was amazed at how good they were. They had funny scenes, amazing connections, tons of call backs.

I was so proud-they showed the audience just what we do here at I.O. in Chicago (and in most cases, what I would like to see happening more).

After they left the stage and the emcee was trying to introduce the next team, the audience was still screaming for them. Comedy Sportz came on, and while they were entertaining, there was no comparison in the work. Unfortunately, the audience votes and they were invited there by their ComedySportz friends and it was clear they weren t voting their conscience.

Three folks who were sitting on the stairs in front of me, walked out in the middle of their show and handed in their ballets which i looked at. They voted for ComedySportz even though they couldnt stand to watch the whole thing. But it doesnt matter as the trophy was too big to take home.

What matters is they did the work and I can tell all of you that this is a team to pay attention to. Of course, I didnt want them to get swelled heads about how good they were, so i immediately went back stage after they lost and called them a bunch of losers. I am always surprised and delighted when life hands me a major connection and a cool one happened to me the last night of the festival.

Twenty-Five years ago, the first week I began working with David Shepherd, NBC invited David and me to go on an afternoon talk show to discuss our new company. They also said they would give us 5 minutes to do some improv scenes on tv. Since we were just announcing the beginning of ImprovOlympic, there was no one else around who performed besides me.

David found a working actor in Chicago named Rick Kuhlman and asked if he would come to NBC to perform with me. He walked in about ten minutes before we were scheduled to go on air. He was gorgeous, a young Harrison Ford type.

I was nervous because I really didnt have much improv experience yet and I was about to go on tv and I was about to go on tv with a total stranger. Im sure he wasn t too thrilled about the arrangement either. He said, you two have no time to get to know each other and feel comfortable -so Im going to ask you to sit on the floor and make out with each other.

That way you will feel comfortable enough to initiate anything on tv . Well, he was David Shepherd, who were we to say no. We sat down and made out.

We did a pretty good job on the show. Then when it was over, we shook hands and he left. I never saw him again.

Over the years, I always wondered whatever happened to Rick Kuhlman and if he was still an actor. I never forgot that most exciting day- a first for me in gong on tv and making out with a cute stranger. Cut Back to Saturday night .

. We had a new show at IOWEST called TOTALLY LOOPED and I went into the dressing room to say hi to Joe Liss, who is in the show and to introduce myself to Lorraine Newman, who is also in the show and is the loveliest lady in the world. One of the men in the cast came up to me and gently took my hand.

He said, Charna, Id like to introduce myself to you. My name is Rick Kuhlman . I screamed in delight and hugged him.

I knew him right away. We made out and did tv together , I screamed while hugging him. He squeezed me so tight.

He said he wasnt going to even bring it up because I had been through so much over the years and he was sure I would have forgotten that day. It seems it was just as amazing of a day to him. So there he was, 25 years later, doing a show at my theater.

How cool is that? where we celebrated our tenth anniversary and incorporated the celebration into our 5th annual improv fest.