At her Chicago high school, Nicola Chin had a choice: Get paid to learn circus arts or comedy improv.
There wasn’t a contest.
“I can’t do juggling to save my life,” she said.
Going for laughs was a good call. She’s now a community organizer and coach with her company Up With Community and she just finished teaching the second class of her Laugh L+A comedy improv.
Name: Nicola Marie Chin
Age: 31.83
Lives: Lewiston!
What’s improv class like? We create an open space where we can learn/remember as adults how to tap our creative, unhindered powers for innovation, team work and discovery that are often so easily found in our childhoods. It’s also just absurdly fun to be completely who you are AND someone else at the same time with so much FREEDOM!
We often start by doing activities and games that do not involve words, helping us ground in our body and become more aware. Once we are physically present, and fully aware, we do more games that allow us to bring sounds, emotions or really simple narratives (how was your day?) to our bodies. Once we can ground ourselves in combining physicality with honest reactions to the world around us, then we begin playing more complex games that allow us to build narratives with a partner, stories with a beginning, middle and end. For example, we may play a game where two people are playing out a scene while switching between movie genres. The switching of genres is the gimmick, but at the base of it, the two players are building a fun story for the audience. In more advanced classes we explore how to build scenes without gimmick games.
Say someone in class is so shy their name is Mr. Wallflower. How do you loosen them up? Each person decides how to loosen up, and has the potential to loosen themselves up. I just help the process along by inviting them to try out really simple exercises/experiences, such as: dancing with our eyes closed, trying someone else’s character, remembering what really makes us happy and sharing it with a teammate.
Most memorable student, so far: Oh, this is a hard one! I would say it was a person who did identify as a Ms. Wallflower. After several classes of staying in the background, she let loose with one of the biggest and funniest characters I’ve seen. We didn’t see it coming, but she blew us away. Every time I can see that in a student it is a gift and truly remarkable.
Most unusual prop or scenario you’ve been presented with for your own improv? So many times, scenarios that an audience provides sticks with you for a moment and then disappear from memory as you move on to the next scene, but one I will remember was when I had to create an entire commercial and product line of chicken lights. It was one of the first improv scenes I did in college during an audition for the school’s improv troupe. I rolled with it by reallllllly believing I was holding a live glowing chicken in my hands and ran with it. Fortunately that scene helped me get into the troupe and ended up changing my life.
How can comedy work into community organizing? Comedy improv has helped me with all aspects of work, both the business of running an organization and community organizing. I am able to better problem solve, build teams and communicate effectively by practicing the skills of comedy improv: thinking outside the box, leveraging creativity and building confidence and resourcefulness.
You’re an avid sci-fi reader: Recent reads you’d recommend? I have fallen in love with “The Forge of God” and “Anvil of Stars” by Greg Bear, recommended to me by my husband, Ben. They are a perfect mix of thought-provoking scientific ideas and incredible character development.
Book that you would stamp “Warning: Do Not Open!” on the cover: Well, I probably would never stamp a book “do not open.” Each book is worth at least 5 minutes — that is my comedy improv side.
Best way to read: physical paper book or e-reader? My Kindle is incredibly useful, but I love the smell and feel of paper. Nothing can ever replace that for me.
Last thing you found doubling-over, laugh-out-loud funny: My husband makes me laugh the most. This weekend we had a “you-had-to-be-there” laugh-out-loud moment after going to see “Tomorrowland” in Auburn. Let’s just say I thought it was an adult sci-fi film and he hilariously pointed out the error of my thinking and my rather chronic inability to gauge the age-appropriateness of . . . everything, all the time.
kskelton@sunjournal.com
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