Since 1993 Eric has trained over thousands of improvisers and professionals in the art of improvisation. He has produced and directed over 30 full length sketch comedy shows and even more improvised shows. He has also directed and written plays for Bovine Metropolis Theater and Wells Humor Organization.He studied improvisation in Chicago at The Players Workshop for The Second City, The Second City, Improv Olympic, and The Annoyance Theater. He has studied under and worked with Del Close, Martin DeMaat, Keith Johnstone, Paul Sills, Mick Napier just to name a few.
Before opening the Bovine Metropolis Theater Eric was a corporate trainer at USWest for three years, teaching managers skills based interviewing skills and assessment techniques. He graduated with a BA from Colorado State University in Speech Communication.
How were you first introduced to improvisation?
My friend Renee Albert told me that I should go to “The Second City” for classes. I started by taking a year of classes at the “Players Workshop of The Second City”, I can remember my first class, sitting in the lobby, waiting, with headshots of Bill Murray, Brian Doyle Murray, George Wendt, Shelley Long, etc. up on the wall. I was going to be funny! I had no idea of what improv was about.
My first class, my instructor was Martin DeMaat, he had us do a mirroring exercise. One of us would lead and one of us would follow. He started switching who was leading and who was following faster and faster and I got lost and just started reacting and following. I realized that I had no control and neither did my partner and yet the mirroring still moved forward, almost with a life of its own. This was a mystical thing that something could happen without anyone forcing it. I was hooked.
What were some early influences on your sense of humor?
My father blames himself for me owning an improv theater. He told me once, “The only positive reinforcement we ever gave you is when you were funny”. My dad was also the one who got me into the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, etc.
When I was growing up I loved Steve Martin, Saturday Night Live (especially John Belushi), and Mel Brooks. I loved Monty Python, as a matter of fact; my friends and I used to do a live comedy radio show on KCOL in High School called “Nights of the Round Table”. Most of the movies that I loved in the 80’s, I found out later were made by The Second City alumni.
You studied in Chicago at Second City, iO, and the Annoyance Theater. When you returned to Denver you were involved with the improv troupe Head Games. When did you decide that you wanted to own an improv and sketch theater in Denver?
I decided to open an Improv Theater in Denver while I was studying with Del Close at IO, more than a year before I left Chicago. While in Chicago, I would make notes and sketches of the theater. I created a directing class at Players Workshop, so that I could be a better director.
I love Improvisation and I love Colorado so I always knew I would come back. I would focus on what I wanted to bring to Colorado from Chicago (and what I didn’t want to bring). I believed that Colorado was the perfect place to bring to the stage the attitude and concepts I was taught in classes in Chicago by the masters. How the focus of the improvisation could actually be about bringing gifts, team work, fun, connection, accepting the unknown and diving deeper into it, etc. Denver seemed like a place where true improvisation could flourish without being a slave to the joke and self serving behavior on stage.
The Bovine Metropolis recently celebrated it's 50th graduating class from the Boivne School of Improv. In your opinion, what makes a good improv teacher?
A good improv teacher is someone who loves improv and realizes that their job is to get out of way of other people falling in love with improv.
A good improv teacher knows it is their job not to teach, but to set up the exercises in a way that the improvisers discover improv for themselves.
A good improv teacher is like a good wing-man; they know it is not about them.
You have produced, written, directed, and appeared in dozens of improv and sketch productions since starting the Bovine Metropolis Theater with your wife Denise Maes. Is there a production that you have been most proud of artistically?
"The Play Incubator". This show was a work of pure improvisation. Each performance the entire feel, structure, and form of the show was different. It was an improvised play in two acts with only two locations, each actor would play one character for the entire night. We would get a suggestion for the title and a location for the first act to take place. The structure of the show was all based on characters wants and needs and archetypes (based on the title of the play).
During intermission we would stay on stage in character not speaking to each other. We would get a different location for the second act to happen and just fly. It was an incredibly wild ride. One performance the show was a 1950’s sci-fi movie, the next show was like a Beckett play, the next would be a romantic comedy.
I think improvisation is a truly amazing artistic feat when everyone comes to the stage and discovers the form, the tone, and the meaning from the suggestion. Letting go of all ideas except that tonight is going to be perfect.
The Denver improv scene has grown by leaps and bounds since you opened the Bovine. Where do you feel the future of improv and sketch comedy is headed in Denver?
The improv scene in Denver is growing from the efforts of everyone in the community. It is a collaborative effort from every player, coach, student and repeat audience member. I hope the scene continues to grow exponentially and continues to welcome, embrace and encourage everyone that wants to take their fun seriously.
I know the scene will continue to grow, but Denver can boom, big! In order for it to pop, we need to create a sustainable, thriving improv community in Denver. That would require a few culture changes:
1. Right now Denver doesn’t need to produce more improv, but better improv. Rehearse, practice and play with intention. There are some great shows and groups performing right now, but every group can do better and we can all push and encourage each other to strive for the magic on stage every night.
2. Then we need to take pride, in our abilities, performances, and our performance venues, but mostly in improv as an art form. A pride that is self assured and vocalized. Remembering that pride does not need to denigrate others in order to find its value.
3. Performers need to support and be enthusiastic about all improv, not just the shows in which they are performing. On nights when players are not playing or rehearsing they need to be watching, enjoying and rooting for other improvisers. We need to build a community of people that need and value improv beyond their own participation in it, or it is no better than Karaoke.
4. We need to share this passion, this joy of improv and spread it to the all the people we know. Get more people aware of how amazing it is to watch great improv. Players need to coach, teach, and inspire other players. And everyone needs to talk up and at least Facebook about shows that were great in which we didn’t perform.
5. Once all this has occurred, then there needs to be many more stages dedicated to different aspects and types of improv. We are seeing more and more improv shows in Denver popping up, but we need even more and they all need to have a differentiating benefit so that performers with different visions have places to play.
