MAKING COMEDY IN THE UNFUNNIEST OF YEARS
When Jane Watt was awarded the inaugural Equity Comedy Scholarship, instead of interacting with fellow students face to face, she found herself Zooming into classes from high on an Aussie hilltop. She shares the story of how she and her classmates navigated a world of online improv — and came up smiling.
What a difference a year makes. And what a year it has been! I, for one, won’t need to hear the word ‘unprecedented’ for another few millennia.
This time last year, we were hearing whispers of a virus. There were ‘cases on the. Gold Coast’, ‘cases in the city’ but it was no big deal, right? I was preparing for another leg of our show tour Spamalot, when things went downhill fast. Suddenly, shows were closed, teaching dried up, and I had packed up and shipped out to my parents’ farm in O’Connell, NSW, to live the post-apocalyptic, agrarian lifestyle of my dreams.
For nearly nine months, my partner and I worked there as low-skilled but enthusiastic farm labourers. Not what I had in mind for my 30th year, but having something to keep me honest during that difficult period was a real gift, and certainly helped weather the storm that was 2020.
To my immense pleasure, just as I was settling into my new World War Z iso-chamber, I was awarded the inaugural Equity Comedy Scholarship — an extraordinary opportunity created by Mary Cotter of Equity Foundation, Nancy Hayden, associate artistic director of The Second City, Matt Skrobalak of CBS Television Studios and David Mott of ITV Studios Australia, with a bit of nudge from Australia’s own Sean Micallef. The scholarship offered three months study at The Second City in Chicago, a trip to Los Angeles to sit in on writers’ rooms with the support of CBS Studios, and the chance to have conversations with the development team at ITV Studios Australia on my return home.
But when, and how? As with all things 2020, we ‘pivoted’ (another word I never need to hear again). Second City’s classes went online and instead of the three-month face-to-face course, I was offered a place in the year-long Conservatory Program. I could now do six levels of improv/sketch, finishing with a graduate sketch show, which I would go to Chicago to perform (COVID willing).
So, for many months, living on top of my hill in regional NSW, I would login to this new thing called Zoom and connect with a group of nine improvisers, to learn improv, sketch and political satire.
Of all the things that 2020 was, it was not very funny. Especially for my American classmates who were experiencing a tumultuous Donald Trump presidency, a raging pandemic and the incredible social reckoning of the BLM movement. Not a whole lot to poke fun at there! Even the Trump cabinet didn’t leave much room for laughter because it was almost too scary, too far gone, too out of people’s control to be funny any more.
Now, I like making fun of Yanks just as much as the next person, but here I was, on my hill, reporting that we’d had no local cases in a month and might be able to go to the pub soon… cheers. At one point, I made a joke that maybe we wouldn’t be able to do American accents any more because it would be considered ‘punching down’, and I tell you what — that went down like a lead balloon.
But amidst it all, the absolute joy was that here we were, a bunch of improvisers from around the world, gathering together to have fun and learn. Even if it was silly and wasn’t going to solve the global crisis, there was a certain catharsis in being together and trying, with all our might, to find humour and light in the situation.
My classmates are wonderful, talented performers who have become dear friends and I look forward to meeting them in the real wide world some day soon. The teachers were heroes, navigating the world of online improv classes like champions, fostering a warm and supportive environment.
I had assumed it would be impossible to form genuine connection and scene work in an entirely digital format, but it worked. It worked incredibly well.
For now, I’m back in Sydney, ‘the big smoke’. The world is opening up and I can hug my friends and family. Hopefully, by the end of this year, I’ll be able to get over to the US and hug my new friends, too. In the meantime, I’ll keep pivoting. Standing still, one foot firmly planted on Australian soil, while leaving time for my teammates to avail themselves, so that we can all score a well-earned goal. You’ve got three seconds. That’s netball 101. #centre4lyf
Jane Watt is a Sydney-based actor, writer and improviser. Recent credits include Spamalot: Australian Tour (One Eyed Man), Gypsy (Luckiest) and The Greenhouse (Everyone We Know). The Greenhouse was shown as part of this year’s Queer Screen Film Festival, with official selection for MQFF, BQFF and BFI Flare, and is slated for an Australian theatrical release, distributed by FilmInk Presents.
