This week, I decided to interview my improv pal Kelly. I’m in an improv troupe called Highly Improvable and she’s currently the Assistant Director. We have show Friday, December 11th. You should go. In other news, this may have been the funniest interview/photo shoot I’ve done thus far for A World of Dresses.
- Name: Kelly McAndrews
- Age: 23
- Location: Cincinnati/Lebanon, Ohio
- Graduated from BGSU
- Majored in film studies, minored in French
How did you get involved in improv? It started in college, right?
Yeah my friends did long-form and I went to the first show, I think, freshman year. I feel really bad saying this, but I was like “I can do that so much better than they can!” So I got involved the next year with that. I didn’t know there were rules to improv. I just thought I was going on a stage and like pretending. That’s why I was like, “I can do this way better than anyone else! I love make believe.” And then I got on there and there were rules, and you have to learn to really respect your scene partner and stuff like that. So it was like oh, this is like an actual craft you have to learn. So that was a blast.
You just thought you jumped up there and started talking.
Yeah seriously. Because the way that they did it was the armando form which is where you do a monologue first and then you go into an act. The way that they did their monologues were a lot like standup routines. They were always making people laugh, so I was like “I love standup! I’ve been watching standup since I was a little kid! I can do this perfectly! I would love it!” But it was a lot harder than I thought.
Have you ever done standup?
Three times in my life (laughs).
Is it something you like or do you like sticking with improv more?
I mean I love it because you control it yourself and you don’t really have to depend on another person to like support you. Like in a scene you have to. But you think it’s going to be just you talking to a crowd and them laughing at you, but there’s so much work that goes behind it. Like you have to write enough to have meat of an argument or a funny story that you have to tell. And then you also have to have it memorized so well so that you’re not standing up there sweating like “Oh, let me check my notes! Ohhh, sorry!” It’s kind of tough. But improv is a lot more like a carnival. You just go and explore different things.
Like a carnival. I like that!
Yeah.
So this was your sophomore year of college that you started going to improv. So I would imagine that that’s probably four years now that you’ve been doing it.
Yes. Maybe it was my junior year. Oh, I don’t remember.
So three or four years.
Yeah because I watched a lot of them and I hung out with those guys so much that I think I auditioned junior year.
So you had to audition to be in your college improv group?
Yeah.
What was that process like?
It was kind of weird, I guess because there were a lot of people like me who didn’t know there were rules. Like comedy standards you had to uphold, so you could get anywhere from people just standing with cold feet like “I have no idea what I’m doing!” and then other people who had been through the audition process already and were already in the group and were made to audition again. They were phenomenal, so you had different kinds of talent, I guess.
Yeah. Was that scary a little bit?
The first time it was. I was made to audition again because I wasn’t like a regular member the next year, so I went through those audition processes a couple of times. By a certain point I was comfortable and I was already friends with everyone before I actually went into it. So it was easier for me because I had that experience with those people already and I could see the way their groups worked, so I could kind of take that style for myself. But it was scary. Every audition process is scary, I think.
Yeah absolutely. There’s always that possibility that it’s not going to work out, which is scary in and of itself.
Yeah.
What keeps you coming back to improv?
The fact that there is so much variety, and that you can get such a variety of players and audiences. Also a difference in creativity. Like certain people will come out of left field with something that really creates a challenge for you. That’s what I like when I’m presented with people who have a completely different comedy style than my own and I have to kind of adapt to that. But then you also get people who have been your friends for years and you can go up on stage and know that it’s going to be hilarious every time. So you really work up trust and friendship.
Yeah! It’s like a team.
Yeah exactly.
Now that you’ve been at this for a bit, are there any sorts of practices that you take with you? Or any sorts of things you do in a scene to save yourself if it’s not going well?
One thing that my very first troupe director told me was “You go on stage and your job is to make the other person look as good as possible. And if that person goes on stage knowing that their job is to make you look as good as possible, then it’s going to be great every single time.” So if I have a scene that’s failing, I’ll turn it around and try to explore the relationship between me and whoever is on stage with me. Or I’ll try and add some new element to the scene to take it a different direction. It’s all about trust and all about joy, I guess. You can’t take out your anger and frustration on your scene partner. You have to show them that you still believe in the scene.
Yeah so it all comes back to that teamwork and that whole idea of “yes and!” where you’re accepting what they throw out.
Yeah.
So I know you got involved in Highly Improvable through your brother Ryan who was a member and now lives in Boston. So yeah, now you’re a post-college graduate. Do you see any differences between our group and what you did in college?
Yeah absolutely because Highly Improvable is a teaching troupe, first and foremost. So we are so much more accepting of everything whereas back in college, we did have an audition process in the first place, so it was kind of elitist. Like “Well if you’re not the best, you can’t get in.” But here all the focus is on learning and growing together. I really like that open environment a lot more. Because I did have conflicts with people in college, like with players I just didn’t gel with. It was all about “We gotta be the best! We gotta be the best!” because there were four troupes on campus, I think. So we were friendly with each other but we were always like in competition with each other to be the best. That was a lot more pressureist … that’s not a word (laughs). It’s an environment of pressure, I guess.
Yeah so do you find that the environment we have in Highly Improvable creates community for everybody? Everyone just seems to get along well.
Yeah yeah. I think our issue is the distance. If we were closer to the city center, then we would have so much more … the rest of the Cincinnati improv community would be able to join in and year about us and stuff like that. But the troupe that we do have right now seems to gel real well. We’re kind of feeling each other’s strengths and weaknesses. So we’re all kind of learning together.
What has improv taught you?
More than anything to listen because I used to be one of the people who would wait to talk. It’d be like “Oh yeah great. Here’s my opinion.” But now I try to seek out what another is … I guess their essence. What they want to be and why they’re talking about what they’re talking about. I try to pay attention. I’ve become more observant as well.
So you feel like these things are things you carry with you over into your every day life outside of improv?
Yeah. And there’s also the concept of what you were saying, yes and! Half of it is accepting what happens and the other half is adding to what happens. So you can sort of apply that philosophy to any aspect of life. You have to accept what’s going on, whether it’s some sort of turmoil or good thing, and then you have to contribute to making it better or escalating it, if that makes sense. So just being part of the fun and taking it up a notch.
Yeah. Do you have any examples of ways that you’ve used “Yes and!” in your everyday life?
I think more often than not, in daily conversation, I try make people laugh in conversation. So like if I have a bit going on with somebody, it’s just a question of like adding and adding to whatever it is that we’re talking about. For example I have a friend and we talk about goblins a lot. It’s so stupid. We talk about goblins working because we work at a cafe together. So goblins just mess up stuff in the cafe. And then we keep adding to like “Oh, it’s Peter the goblin. He’s done something again.”
Tell me about your transition to becoming director. Everyone who becomes director starts out as assistant director. What made you decide to go that route?
The first reason I wanted to be assistant director is because I love running warmups. That’s all I wanted to do. Just run warmups. But I knew that it came with the commitment of becoming director and I just assumed I would learn it in this period. I don’t feel super prepared, but once again it’s a learning curve. I just have to dive in and hope that I’m doing what’s expected of me for the troupe. Right now I’m kind of trying to establish myself as a link between Harrison and the rest of us. So like if anybody in the troupe has problems, they can come to me. Which it has kind of happened, in a way. I feel a lot more authoritative than I did. But once again a lot less like one of the cool kids.
Yeah you have to lay down the law.
Yeah like I’m not the class clown anymore. I’m the teacher, which is weird.
How do you feel about becoming director?
It’s terrifying. Mostly my biggest concern right now is what present to get for Harrison when he’s not director anymore. That’s my biggest concern. He’s not a girl. He won’t like flowers, probably. Probably a gift card. I’ll get him a gift card and have everybody sign the card. But he’s been the one who gets cards for everyone when they leave. I’m like “Man, that’s my least favorite part of this. I have to go buy cards for everyone when they leave.”
Well the thing with Harrison is that he’s quite possibly one of the nicest guys in the entire world, so if you get him something he hates he’ll probably just be like “Oh, it’s great!”
I will now take extra effort to get him something that he does hate and I’ll try to catch him in the act of returning it (we both laughed … a lot).
So how does it feel to be a female comedian?
My personal experience hasn’t really be shaped by my oppression as a female. It’s kind of been more like a celebration of the fact. In the few standup bits that I did, the troupes that I was in that were integrated, because I was in one that was all female, I never really felt excluded because of the whole trope that women aren’t funny. I more so felt like people were trying to include my presence and other females involved in our troupes because we were women and because we did have talent and we wanted to be showcased.
So for you, it’s super empowering to be up there as a woman and be like “Yeah!”?
Yeah I love it. And my thing is that improv is so fluid that you can step on stage and it doesn’t matter who you are. What matters is what you become when you’re on stage. So I play men. I play women. I try to switch up my identity as much as possible because there is that whole thing of character work. Like you have to be good at switching between characters in the first place. But I mean that could be as simple as just changing your voice. But I really try to step outside of the box and be as many different identities as possible.
What advice would you give to female comics or females interested in getting into comedy?
Be as big and boisterous and rude as you dare to be. Honestly, like tell dick jokes, tell vagina jokes. Whatever things people have told you not to say, because an audience will respect you for going there nine times out of ten and they’ll remember you for it, honestly.
What does being a woman mean to you?
You know like having a vagina and having breasts (laughs). And like having a menstrual cycle and like the ability to have children. I don’t know, I think deep down it’s a like blessing but also a curse. Like we have something to prove as a race but at the same time we have so many gifts that we can exploit and put out into the world. Like we’re all beautiful and talented.
What do you think are some of women’s strongest gifts?
Our fierceness. Like if you are faced with hardship, I think it’s natural to want to run away. But as women, we are all so strong.
Is there anything else you want to add?
Yes, and!
