Michael Pizza's Brett Elam on His First Classes at ComedySportz!

When I first moved to Chicago to study improv, my sister was performing with a team called Baby Wants Candy at the iO theater. It was hilarious and fun and the performers were lightning fast. The more shows I saw at the theater, the more I realized just how much I wanted to be onstage playing rather than sitting in the crowd watching. Almost immediately, iO became my home and long form improvisation became my life. I took classes at iO and The Annoyance and I went and watched shows 5 or 6 nights a week. I guess that's called an "improv nerd". But, in a new city without friends, I quickly found that it is easy to make friends in a community that is literally taught to "support" everyone.


Now, I am on two long form improv teams that regularly play on weekends and almost every person I know in this city is a friend I met through improv. It's great. But I still go watch those same great performers and try to study what it is that sets them apart from the others. How did they get so fast? How are their words so concise? What is it about them that makes them one step ahead of everyone else and how do I get to that level? Finally, in my study of some of my favorite improvisers, I realized one connecting thread that ties them all together: they all have shortform training at ComedySportz.


There can sometimes be a stigma among long form improvisers that short form improv is too "gamey" or "jokey". I've met improvisers from both camps that don't respect the other as an art form. But the best improvisers are getting off stage at their long form shows each week and high tailing it over to ComedySportz to do their short form shows. So I've decided that, in the interest of being the best improviser I can be, I'm going to study at ComedySportz.


I've been to two classes so far and they have been amazing. I forgot how much fun classes are. And what I'm realizing is short form incorporates all the same teachings that long form stresses. Support. Choices. Agreement. Short form just helps the performer get to those choices FASTER. And, with an added lay-on of a "game" in a scene, it is helping me exercise areas of my brain that have kind of atrophied recently with all these long form shows. Anyway, I will continue to update this blog with my thoughts on the class. But right now, I'm really excited about ComedySportz and all the potential I see to become a better improviser. This is gonna be fun...