Interview with Corinne Allarde
This is 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/read my interview with another Endgames Improv teacher. We had gotten together over the phone back in December and I had hoped to get this posted before her 401 class began Jan 31st. Alas, at 3 am on a Saturday night (or Sunday morning), I’m getting this interview up and running now!
She’s a teacher, a player, and a seasoned improviser (whose trained at UCB New York, the Magnet Theater, and Annoyance). You know her from Your Fucked Up Relationship on Friday nights and her 401 class on Thursday nights. The amazing, Corinne Allarde. I hope you enjoy listening and/or reading it as much as I had the pleasure of chatting with her.
Feel free to listen to the entire interview here. Stick around to the end and listen to Corinne do a Dada Monologue and play the Alphabet game with me.
You can also read the partially transcribed interview below!
Up to Eleven Questions
What is your favorite way to get an improv suggestion?
The ones that I enjoy the most are like “What is a favorite memory you had as a child?” Something that is very personal to a person as opposed to one word.
What is your least favorite way to get an improv suggestion?
Not getting a suggestion is what I’ve realized I do not enjoy.
What is your idea of happiness?
Being able to spend time with all of my friends and family that I love. Even if it’s fighting, I still think that’s happy times.
What is your idea of a crappy day?
Having to spend the day answering the same questions over and over and over again. I imagine being in customer service would be really hard for me.
What improv game do you love?
I really love Bunny-Bunny. I feel like it’s so fun to watch people doing it and you get exhausted physically from doing it if you're doing it right. I love that one.
What improv game do you hate?
Things that require a lot of rapping.
Who is your favorite improviser to watch?
When I was in NY anybody who was on Death by Roo Roo. Or Jackie Clarke who I don’t see on the improv team anymore. She was the first person I saw where I was like this is magic and how do I be as badass as this person.
Who are your top 3 people you would like to improvise with?
Her (Jackie Clarke), Neil Casey, and Thomas Middleditch.
Who are the top 3 people you would not like to improvise with?
People who are just starting. Not just starting in improv, but are trying too hard to be funny or shocking. I can’t think of three specific people, but that is the thing that gives me so much anxiety.
Are you a chinchilla, octopus, or bear person?
I think I’m a chinchilla. I think if people see me, that would make sense to people.
If leprechauns exist, what would you like to hear them say when you arrive at the end of the rainbow?
It’s not gold. It’s an apartment and has a great kitchen.
The Big Questions.
How did you get involved with improv and how long ago was this?
I think 2008 was probably my first class. I got into it because I was on a corporate volleyball team and some girl had been doing it. And she was like, “if you think are a little bit funny, you should try this thing it’s really fun.” And I saw her show and I was like, “whoa, I could definitely do that” (because she was in her early stages. That’s how I got into it. Shock factor is that Zach Woods who is on Silicon Valley and is very well known now, he was my 101 teacher and my 401 teacher when I first started improv. So that was a good introduction.
Did you have a moment when you knew you were hooked?
Oh, yea! I feel like it was maybe in 101. There was a scene that was going well that I was doing. And I was doing object work and I was informing my scene, and I was just like, “ok, I think I’m sorta understanding how this scene can be funny.” And then I think it’s just constantly chasing that feeling you felt that first time. And that’s just all I’ve been doing these past years.
What is your experience with improv since?
So I was in NY and I had done it there for a while. I was off and on sometimes because my confidence level was always going up and down all the time. I remember shows where I was on the backline the entire time. Which I laugh about now. So, I was off and on. I was actually on an indie team with Julie Katz when I used to live in NY (just as a fun fact). And then when I moved to SF fou/five years ago, I was just going to take improv to meet people because I didn’t know anybody and I didn’t want to know just work people. So, that is when I started at Endgames when I first moved here. And that was the best decision I made too. And 2014 was when I started level 101 here.
Who was your teacher?
It was Keara! Whom I’m on a team with right now.
How did you discover Endgames?
I think I just googled “what was closest to UCB style of improv.” I think I saw YFUR and I saw another company’s show and I thought that was more of my sensibility was at Endgames.
Why do you do it?
Honestly, it’s just an excuse to be an adult and laugh for how many hours has always been a thing I love and enjoyed. Also, improv, at least for me, has given me enough to feel good about. And then also taking it away in the next show, so you always feel like your working toward getting better. So it doesn’t ever feel like I’ve got it mastered. And I think that sort of challenge always keeps me interested. Always being around people who are super super funny and supportive and great (for the most part), that’s why I love it so much.
The challenge you mentioned, I feel like that challenge is also potentially what kind of pulled you away a little bit.
Oh totally.
Do you feel like you’ve kind of conquered that need to pull away?
I have to be in the right mindset. So, I have to listen to myself of being like, “you're not having fun right now.” If it was just like for a week or two, I’d push through it. But if it was for a while, it was really important for me to live my life and really appreciate coming back to it. At least for me, it was really important that I did step away before I could enjoy it again.
How much experience do you have outside of Endgames? You said UCB, right?
Yes, so I had done UCB up until I left NY. That was like 2008 to 2014. And again, I was on and off, but I had been active on indie teams and stuff like that. I never had auditioned for Harold teams because my confidence was like “I can’t do that.” I think now would be different because you get so much stage time here (which is a wonderful thing). And I actually went back to NY and took some UCB classes and felt so differently about it. I had done classes at the Magnet and Pitt classes. I had done a number of classes at schools while I was in NY.
Do you feel like each school has a different philosophy of doing improv?
Yea! Even coach to coach or teacher to teacher. When I went back to UCB now, the way that I felt like they were teaching game now was different or maybe I’m different. It definitely resonated with me differently than when I was there a couple of years ago. Then I remember Magnet being a little bit slower paced and taking the time with characters and things like that felt very different than UCB.
What do you feel was your takeaway from each place and how do you feel that compares to what Endgames offers as well?
When I was at the Magnet or when I took classes there anyway, I think just the patience is probably what I picked up from it. I don’t know if I do that, but that was my takeaway from it. UCB is not running past the unusual thing. The scene is already there or the game is already there, you just have to recognize it and acknowledge it. And Endgames, I do think that it’s a little bit of a good mix of the two. So, it makes sense to me that I’m at Endgames here in SF because I think those two things are true.
How has improv impacted your life?
Oh my gosh, so many ways. I am a manager right now and a lot of the lessons I’ve learned in improv (as corny as it sounds) is what I apply to the way I manage people. Like listening to understand. Making sure I’m listening really hard at them and just being as supportive as possible too. And mistakes are totally fine and sometimes a blessing.
How do you think improv is impacting society (if at all)?
It’s definitely impacted my life. I think in the little niche area of what we have, yea. Obviously the comedy scene and all of that. But now I’m hearing some of these articles about how UCB is not doing as well. And I think maybe the swell is not as much as it’s used to be? I don’t know. I feel like that would be really grandiose for me to feel like impacted society as a whole. So, probably not? I don’t know.
Do you feel like it should?
I mean, I’m in this, so I love all of it. I think there is so much benefit to the lessons of improv that would make things better.
What was the worst improv show or experience you’ve had?
So, I think I talked a little bit about this, sitting on the backline. The one that sticks out to me in my Endgames history is I used to be on a team with Lexi Diamond, Sal Testa, Jeremy Shuback, and Mike Shubert called the Efficient Office Practices. And we had done a show that was improv vs stand up. The format of our show was people put in secrets into a jar and we would pick them out as suggestions. And the first one we picked out was “I hate improv.” Then the entire set was just “I hate this” and “why am I here?” We admittedly did a very poor job. I’ve had so many bad shows, but that’s the one I’m like “oh, god, why did we agree to do this?”
You mention Jackie Clarke was your fave improvisor to watch. Why?
When I went to go see them, it was one of the first improv shows that blew my mind. Death by Roo Roo is like a 10-person team and they filled like an hour timeslot. And I remember just her and Neil Casey walking out and me being disappointed it was just two people (because I didn’t really know anything about them or improv). And she was just one of those people who didn’t give a shit. Or it looked like as if it was very effortless for her. She was making really big choices, had the confidence to make those big choices because she could handle it at the end of the show and wrap it all up. But you always knew what she was feeling, what she was doing, what she was choosing to be in those moments. And I just was like, “wow, she has so much confidence. How do you get that way?” And I think that’s what I really loved about her.
What do you feel makes a good improviser?
I think the people that I admire the most or love playing with the most are the people who take care of the scene or the other person. Those are the people that I always feel like are geniuses. The selfless act of making the other person look so good. And I think the confidence thing. I remember hearing a podcast, I think it was Fran … , where she’s like, “you should improvise as if you’re two drinks in.” Being able to improvise technically well in some ways and also having the wild abandon of making big choices and know that it’s going to be okay. And that’s where the fun stuff is. You are not overanalyzing.
