Across the Table: Jen Bills
Whether she’s in her native Midwestern Quad Cities, theaters of Chicago or the stages of Amsterdam, OKRP Creative Director Jen Bills has been making audiences laugh for more than two decades.
An alumna of Chicago’s famed Second City, Jen’s foray into the world of comedy was a pretty easy choice. When faced with the decision of playing softball or enrolling in theater classes at a young age, it was a no-brainer for Jen — something fans of sketch comedy and hilarious advertisements are likely thankful for to this day.
Whether she’s improvising onstage with the likes of Jason Sudeikis and Jordan Peele or creating memorable campaigns for clients like Chili’s and Big Lots, Jen knows how to get big laughs.
We sat down with Jen to talk about her career in comedy, improvising for a foreign audience and her crash course in advertising.
I was reading something where you mentioned having to choose between playing softball and doing theater at a young age. What was it that drew you to theater at such a young age?
My mom has a younger sister, Judy, who was an actor — she was a singer and Broadway actress — and I was obsessed with her growing up. So I was drawn to that. I think if you’re a theater kid, you try that out and get the theater bug. But I don’t think it was until I was older that I started to realize I could express my creative voice with words that weren’t just given to me. I didn’t even start improvising in college, even though there was an improv troupe there, because I didn’t really think I had much to say about anything. It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I had so much to say and really jumped into improvising headfirst. That’s where my theater background really came in handy, because a lot of people go into improv with no background in theater and they don’t even know how to keep their faces toward the audience. That’s something you could only really learn doing a ton of plays and stage work.
One thing actors always mention is a person who kind of took them under their wing and really inspired them. Was there a specific mentor in your life?
Yeah and she works for OKRP — Sue Gillan was my chosen mentor. When I first saw her perform, she had just come back from Boom Chicago and was put on Jane — this all-female improv group I played with. Then she was put on Blue Co [touring company] for Second City and I remember telling her, “I liked how you were here. You were always yourself and generous and made sure just how much you valued getting to perform with people.” So, I just always adored Sue and still do to this day. She’s just a very generous communicator and has really taught me the importance of making sure people get noticed for the contributions they make.
Would you say that’s something you took with you into advertising?
I think that’s something that really does matter to me. Whenever Tom likes something, I do my best to make sure that he knows Justine came up with that idea or Dana came up with that line or Durkin had that solved for us. That stuff really means a lot to me, and it’s something I learned from Sue. It just creates such a nice trust among a group when you make sure people get credit for the kick ass stuff they’re doing. I know — through the tenants of improv — a lot of the best ideas and inspiration I find come from sitting in a room for an hour just talking to this awesome group of people who really challenge the way I think. So, if I happen to come up with a line that Tom takes interest in, I know I couldn’t have done that without the awesome people who helped me get to that place.
That brings up a really good point about working as a team. In improv people always stress the importance of working as an ensemble. What do you think are the benefits of working as a group, rather than hashing out an idea by yourself?
It really does change the way you think. Before I started improvising, I distinctly remember thinking that I’d run out of ideas. And working with that type of team setting really does make you feel like this kind of invincible idea maker. Not every idea is gonna win you an Academy Award, but you’re just creating from such a different place. There’s never desperation in the creation because you always figure you’re gonna get to there somehow. So that’s how I’ve approached advertising, as well. Whenever we get a brief, I don’t view that as having only one answer. I view it as if there’s a number of awesome routes we could take and we just have to find the best one.
The idea of an ensemble is something that must’ve really helped when you were performing with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. What was it like doing sketch comedy for people on a totally different continent?
Some people take that job when they’re pretty young, but my husband — then boyfriend — went out when we had quite a bit of Chicago performing under our belst and we already knew everybody who was out there. We replaced people like Seth Meyers, Jill Benjamin and Peter Grosz and we performed with Jordan Peele towards the end of our time because I actually taught him the show when he got out there. But our little group had people like Jason Sudeikis, Kay Cannon, Josh Meyers and Ike Barinholtz. So it was a ton of fun. And you get to know people really well, because you’re in this foreign country just doing sketch comedy every night with this group.
One thing I’ve noticed in advertising — especially with copywriters — is that people tend to take sketch classes to help expand their writing. How do you think a background in sketch writing helps with advertising?
Everything about improv is a huge help, because coming up with ideas is so much easier when you’re able to approach brainstorming this way. There’s only possibility because you just don’t judge yourself and get really comfortable with ambiguity. And the other part that’s good about these classes is that one of the scariest things you could do in life is to get up onstage and try to be funny. The first time I did it, I was on the road with one of my friends in Tour Co. and they tried to get me to come out onstage during the improv set after the show and I literally couldn’t get myself to go out. How ridiculous is that? Why would I ever give up the opportunity to go perform with this brilliant improviser who had an idea with me in it? So, going out there and doing shows in the early days really gives you this feeling like, “This is what I’m bringing and you’re either gonna like me or not.” That really prepares you, not only with performing, but at a place like OKRP, because some of the people you’re pitching to are really intimidating and if you’re someone who performs on a regular basis, maybe you’ve just tricked yourself to be dumb enough not to be afraid. But, it makes people in this world and CEOs you’re presenting to less scary.
Something that OKRP is good at is bringing in a lot of outside writers — many from Second City or iO. Why do you think improvisers make for such good commercial writers?
Really, it’s almost identical to advertising, because you’re mostly just filling your brain with these goals and ideas for a client and then you’re finding the most thoughtful ways to do what’s right for them even if it doesn’t always work out. That’s why I bring in a lot of young improvisers to come in and help out. I always remind them that there’s no hard feelings if something doesn’t resonate, as long as they’re being generous and really lending their brain to this. It’s a good learning experience, because, something they wrote might not be right for Ace Hardware, but it doesn’t mean it’s not right for something else. I always joke with them like, “Save it for the screenplay.”
You’ve performed for a number of years. What made you want to get into advertising?
I didn’t have a background in advertising at all. When I left ETC at Second City, I was pregnant with my daughter and when she was around two years old, there was a team that worked with Tom at FCB who were all pretty much improv alumni. So, they asked me to come in and work on something and got really lucky, because one of the first things I wrote ended up being this radio commercial. I ended up writing a bunch of TV spots and stuff and so they just kept bringing me back in to work. And I ended up collecting this little crash course in advertising by pretty much just doing it. Sketch writing really prepared me for advertising, because 15 and 30 second commercials are basically just blackouts in sketch performing. There these short little scenes that have these quick little jokes and get the point across. So, it was pretty natural.
You’ve worked on a bunch of different campaigns at OKRP. Are there any that really stand out to you?
We’ve had a lot of good times here, because I’ve been here almost since the beginning. We’ve had a great time writing all of the Chili’s jingles. One thing that’s really stood out was probably the first time we did the “Singing Jennifers” for Big Lots. Getting to write edgier, truthful lyrics about women really doing Christmas up the way they wanted to was really fun. We wrote lyrics like, “We’re not gift card people” and “Everyday is Black Friday at Big Lots.” So we’ve had some really fun times writing these spots.
One of the things that’s great about our writing style is that you don’t take your ad’s messaging too seriously. As a writer with a comedy background, do you feel like you’re expected to write comically all the time?
Honestly, I think comedians are some of the smartest, most empathetic thinkers. So, I love when comedy people are doing all kinds of different work, because I think comedy forces you to write from a place of truth, so much so that you aren’t tempted to write something that’s already happened before. When comedy people are tasked with doing great stuff, you end up getting some really thoughtful stuff. It doesn’t always have to be so self-serious, but there’s so many different ways to be funny. Plus, I’d rather see funny commercials. I mean, who wants to see boring commercials?
