Don't Bring Tomatoes. Do Bring Cheer.
World-Renowned Improvisers Set to Barnstorm Bar Harbor
This article was generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
BAR HARBOR—In improv, there’s no script. There are no writers jotting down notes. There are no lines to remember. There is no stand-up routine memorized. There is absolutely no time to prepare.
It’s just four men on the stage, thinking quick, working together, and making people hysterical—in a good way.
Actor, improviser, writer, and dad, Brad Morris will be one of those men next week at Bar Harbor’s Criterion Theatre, and he knows that makes him lucky.
He gets to go to Maine in the summer and get paid for it. He gets to go up on stage with three of his friends, and riff and laugh; and he gets to create narrative with them all to the laughs, cheers, and nods of a whole bunch of strangers.
“I’m preparing my body the last few weeks for potential gout. Lobsters and fried clams. I’m very very excited to take it all in,” he said while heading out on a ferry on a trip to Boston right before he headed up to Maine. “Bar Harbor is the crown jewel of our little tour.”
Everyone who wants to be a part of that crown jewel and to watch long-form Chicago-style improvisation can head to the Criterion Theatre, July 30, and witness Morris in action with Matt Walsh (Veep, founding member of Upright Citizens Brigade), Marc Evan Jackson (The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Joe Canale, and Brad Morris.
All are veterans of the improv comedy scene rooted in Chicago. Morris and Canale are alums of The Second City Mainstage in Chicago and Walsh is a former member of The Second City Touring Company and iO Chicago. Jackson was a member of The Second City Detroit and a member of the long-form improv group called ‘The 313’.
They are all coming to the Criterion.
“Maine’s the greatest. It really is. There are so few places in the US where when you’re there your tension releases a bit, your blood pressure drops—not to an unsafe level,” he joked.
His goals are a lot like other tourists’: get that blood pressure down, see everyone, eat everything.
JUST SAY YES
Morris isn’t just a tourist, not really. He’s a performer and a brilliant one. He writes. He acts. He directs. He lives in Los Angeles though he comes from Chicago and has definite Maine summer camp ties. He’s performed at The Second City and at iO Theater. Morris is an alum of The Second City Chicago resident stage.
He’s starred in Playing House, was a recurring character in Cougar Town. He’s guest starred on Curb Your Enthusiasm, A.P Bio, Veronica Mars, and Great News, but he’s a fan of improv, of not having any insulation between him and the audience.
For some people that would be scary. For Morris it is joy and creating community one event at a time.
“We end up talking to the audience as ourselves and each other. We chat with people,” Morris said. And he’ll likely have questions. “I know we’ll ask people how many people live in Bar Harbor year-round. I’m fascinated by places like that—a town that changes its complexion.”
Those complexion changes that fluctuate in the seasons, not just in the weather, but with the people fascinate Morris, but a lot of things do, and it all feeds into his process of comedy and of writing.
The complexions of his life and its motivations have changed, too.
The impetus and the spirit that allows places and people to become who they want to be, to go to who they want to be, their core, is part of what is bringing Morris and these top-notch improvisers to Maine and all over the world.
During the pandemic, he said, there are a zillion examples and stories of people who had realizations that they lost what was important to them, what made them tick, what was their purpose.
“We lost so many of our home theaters during that time,” he said. “When things started to clear up, a lot of things became evident.”
One of those things was the community of improvisers that he longed to barnstorm with again.
“Improvising was always part of this wonderful community and language that a bunch of us weirdos speak,” he said, and though he’d moved to Los Angeles and away from his Chicago roots, he started to get that improv itch that was begging for him to scratch it.
“Last summer two things happened,” he said. One was a writers strike, but another was a European love and celebration of long-form English improvisational theater. Immersed. He taught. He performed. He went to Ireland, Barcelona, London. And his friends went there, too.
“It was so f-ing fun that we all looked at each other,” he said of being on stage, immersed in the improv world again. When they exchanged that look, they decided that they wanted to do improv, do it more, do it together, and do it often.
He laughed and explained, “It’s so selfish. Nobody is getting rich off these shows.”
But they love it.
“It’s a fun excuse to travel around and make people smile,” Morris said.
IMPROV ACADIA AND THE YES AND …
Bar Harbor has a long acquaintance with improv thanks to the work of Improv Acadia, which began in 2005. Owners Jennifer Shepard and Larrance Fingerhut brought improv and renowned improvisers to Cottage Street in Bar Harbor, season after season. Its last full season in Bar Harbor was 2021. Shepard accepted a position as Penobscot Theatre Company director. They still do improv there sometimes, but Bar Harbor has felt the loss of the late night laughter the company brought to its downtown.
START ANYWHERE AND PAY ATTENTION
The fully improvised performance on July 30 will be inspired by a short chat with the audience at the top of the show. “The chat inspires improvised scenes that feature irreverent characters, and heightened spins on recognizable situations and topics,” according to the Criterion press release.
Tim Meadows of Saturday Night Live (SNL) fame often tours with the group as does Rachel Dratch of SNL fame, but neither will be at the Criterion show.
Meadows recently credited two men who will be there—Morris and Canale—as his saving graces.
“I was in a state of being somewhat depressed, and I was kind of questioning my talent and my career,” Meadows told the Chicago Sun Times recently. ”It was sort of a reaffirmation to myself that I had talent and that the things that had happened to me in my career weren’t a fluke.”
It wasn’t a fluke at all—not for any of these top performers, and improvisation shows just how quick, how interactive, how brilliant, and how generous they all can be.
“It’s so different than any other art form,” Morris said.
It’s about the ensemble, listening to the audience and the performers, building relationships as each performer builds on the other’s thoughts.
One of those improvisers is Mark Evan Jackson. Jackson has been Sparks Nevada in the Thrilling Adventure Hour, Kevin Cozner in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Trevor Nelsson in Parks and Recreation among other shows. He is also a podcaster.
“He’s like a genius improviser. It’s a lovely enjoyable experience,” Morris said.
TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER
In long form improvisation, the players take inspiration at the top of the set to inspire scenes. It gets riffy. It devolves. They go on tangents with theme and call backs and the narrative takes shapes.
“Every show is completely different. There aren’t even characters that are stock,” Morris said.
There’s a big industry now that is about taking tenents of improv and applying them to life. Those are maxims like ‘be prepared,’ ‘take care of each other,’ ‘just say yes,’ ‘don’t prepare’ and ‘just show up,’ ‘make mistakes please,’ and ‘wake up to the gifts.’
“The rules that we use when we are being our most in the moment loose and animated but also grounded selves is essentially a conversation—whether you’re talking to a sibling, boss, co-worker,” Morris said. “Those are the exact same foundations as life. You remove the need to be ‘funny’ and there’s a lot of comedy that comes out of human behavior and truth. I believe deeply that life is improv and improv is life.”
He said it’s about listening and not feeling the need to change the reality you’re in for your own service. If you can connect with someone and really listen to them and then react? Adding a little bit from your side each time? That’s when improvisation blends with life blends with art and blends with education.
“It makes me happy,” he said. “Other than summer camp in Maine—some of the greatest lifelong friendships I have are in that community.”
One of the things they do on the stage and off is take care of each other.
And maybe those friendships will inspire a little more next week
“A tour that’s a barnstorm of Maine—In the summer—what could be better?” he laughed.
Maybe not much.
MORE INFORMATION
Dratch, Walsh, & Friends: Chicago Style Improv - Waterville Opera House www.watervillecreates.org , 8 p.m. Saturday, July 27
Dratch, Walsh, & Friends: Chicago Style Improv - Rockland Strand, - SOLD OUT, Sunday, July 28
Dratch, Walsh, & Friends: Chicago Style Improv - Vinegar Hill Music Theatre, Arundel 9 p.m., Monday, July 29 SOLD OUT
Walsh, Jackson & Friends: Chicago Style Improv - Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor criteriontheatre.org, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 30
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Note - Marc Evan Jackson is in the Tuesday, July 30 show
Marc Evan Jackson (The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
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