An Interview with Alan Starzinski

Welcome to Inside Endgames Improv: Trying to Make Improv Sound Fancy. My name is Kari McCullough and I am the General Administrator and current student of Endgames Improv. You are about to hear my interview with Alan Starzinski from UCB. He’s a teacher, a writer, an actor, an improviser, and Aquaman. He’s coming to town on January 12th, 2019 to teach his magic and we were able to chat him up so you can get to know him a little more. In this interview, we find out Alan’s experience with UCB, how improv can help with writing, and how he became Aquaman.

Feel free to listen to the interview by clicking the playlist or on each audio clip below. I also transcribed a good chunk of the interview. Beware of adult language (in case that’s something you are looking to avoid). Stick around to the end and listen to Alan play Jeopardy.

Playlist

Up To Eleven Questions

1. What is your favorite improv suggestion? There are two that come to mind. My favorite kind is when the audience goes, “try to make something funny out of this!” And, it’s pretty vulgar, but .. we got the suggestion of a stuffed dick.
2. What is your least favorite improv suggestion? Food.
3. What is your idea of happiness? Being with a person that I love and being able to do the things I love to do that’s living. Just being able to get by and not having to worry. Contentedness I think.
4. What is your idea of a crappy day? This past week, I got dropped by my manager and a dude I’ve known for like 12 years died. And then another dude I know for 12 years fell through a skylight and got paralyzed. That’s my idea of a crappy day.
5. What accent do you love to improvise with and why (and please use that accent to answer)? Um, I like to use Irish accent because there’s just something (can’t make out words) it’s English. But you can also go really fast with it. It’s something that sounds kind of like music.
6. (Answer in the accent again) What accent do you hate to improvise with and why? I hate talking like a Boston accent or Staten island because it’s so grating. But also, I don’t because I love fucking accents. I love using all of them. Probably like this. My regular talking voice is my least favorite. Because I have a very generic American accent.
7. Who is your favorite improviser to watch? Neil Casey.
8. Who are your top 3 people you would like to improvise with? Amy Poehler, Colin Farrell, and Brian Stack.
9. Who are the top 3 people you would not like to improvise with? My dad, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin.
10. If you could swap lives with any one person or animal, who would it be? Lady Gaga. Or Shia Labeouf.
11. If Amy Poehler was your next door neighbor, what would you like to hear her say when you arrive at her front doorstep? “Oh! Nice to meet you. Do you want a drink or something?” With like an uptick and a question to it.

What is Alan’s Frist Thing’s First Workshop about?

“It is about starting out the scene with the best footing because the beginning of the scene is the foundation. It’s also focusing on finding that fun thing within the first two lines.”

This workshop focuses on starting the scene well and finding the game quickly. Alan loves this workshop because it allows him to teach his philosophies to all levels of improvisers. Join him on January 12th, 12 to 3 pm at 2989 Mission St, SF. Feel free to listen to the clip above for the full explanation.

First Thing's First Improv Workshop

How did you get involved with improv and how long ago was this?

I started doing improv like short form in high school and I was also doing acting stuff. I lived in New Jersey and my mom would take me into the city to do auditions (and shit like that). One time I was watching the UCB tv show before I was going in because it was on Comedy Central during the day. So I go to this audition and I see Matt Walsh in there. I’m like, Oh my god. I’m talking to him and I go, “Oh yea, the sketch is so funny.” He’s like, “Thank you so much.” “Do you guys still do stuff?” “Yea, we actually have a theater.” And I was like “Oh, cool.” Didn’t think much of it. He’s telling me about classes and stuff. I tell my mom and she’s like “yea, maybe.” And it was never brought up again.

Cut to years later, ASSSCAT did this special on Bravo. It was the first time I have ever seen long-form improv and it blew my fucking my mind. And I started talking to my short form group I was in High School and I was like we should be doing this. They were like, it’s a little advanced. At least the instructor we had. Then I moved to the city and started doing stand up. And then I started seeing free shows at UCB. And that made me stumble onto ASSSCAT, the show that I’d seen years prior and I thought “holy shit, this is amazing.” After seeing ASSSCAT, I was like okay I have to do this. I started putting $20 aside for every shift that I was working at Applebee’s in time square. That’s when I started and that was in 2007. At 16.

Did you have a moment when you knew you were hooked?

I completely abandon stand up and moved on to improv. Cause, it was just a more nurturing atmosphere and it was also more theatrical. And it’s really lazy like you don’t have to prepare anything. So, that was very appealing to me and my sloth.

What is your experience with UCB?

Before I took my 101 class, I was on an indie team called Fat Penguin. We quickly made a name for ourselves as like one of the best indie teams on the scene. And everybody was in 501 and I was still in 101. We were all these misfits that would do the jams all the time. We slowly collected and were really passionate about it. Then I got to audition for my first time, I did not get a call back. Then I auditioned my second time, I also did not get a callback. But I got an email from the AD saying, “you did really well. Please keep taking classes, you are on the right track.” That felt good. From there, I created this show called the Kaleidoscope and it was at the Creek and the Cave in Long Island city. And now there’s one out here in LA and there’s even one in Baltimore. So that’s really cool. The concept of that was to improvise with different people that I never really improvised with before to be able to improvise with anybody so I would be prepared for auditions for Harold Night. That show has been running for like 10+ years in New York.

After a year of doing that, I auditioned the next year and I maybe had the best audition of my fucking life and I got on. And I have had a couple of solo character shows at UCB and even did a one-man improvised musical.

(Listen for more!)

How would you define the improv style UCB teaches?

UCB is very premise and game oriented. I think UCB helps you find out what you think is funny pretty effectively. Helps you hone the craft a little bit more. Where other places are like, “here’s some tools, take what you want!” And UCB is like a little bit more rigid. Kind of like, “this is how you have to do it. You need to do it this way and you need to do it this way.” And then has you take the training wheels off on your own eventually. Which is good and it’s bad. It’s different tactics and they get different results. I was a very wild player when I started out, it was very helpful. I feel like there are parts of my style that I lost that I wish I could reclaim that I probably never will. But I do feel like it’s for the better. And I certainly found my own way of teaching that without restricting it and kind of putting a focus and simplifying it.

What is your goal with writing?

My goal is that I write to perform. That is always the goal as a vehicle for myself. Something I that I noticed a while ago is if there aren’t roles for you, you gotta make them yourself.

What inspired the drunk Aquaman?

I love playing drunk characters and I had an Aquaman costume.

Alan Plays Jeopardy!

We hope you enjoyed my conversation with Alan and hope you can sign up for his workshop on January 12th from 12 to 3 pm at 2989 Mission St. Click the Eventbrite link to grab your spot!

First Thing's First Improv Workshop

Click here to see more with Alan!!