Improvising monologues while walking the dog

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This article was published 21/07/2023 (1143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Stephen Sim is saying yes to himself.

The veteran improviser has been making people laugh at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival for 30 years, as one-half of the improvisational duo CRUMBS, or as the host of The Big Stupid Improv Show, a fringe favourite since 1999.

This year, he’s doing something new. Something scary. Something he’s wanted to try for a long time. The Smallest Stupid Improv Show (Venue 5, to July 30) will be Sim’s first solo improv show.

“I have not felt this way about a show or about opening a fringe or about anything in a long time, because this is so new for me,” says Sim, 50.

When thinking about what to do for this year’s auspicious fringe — “I don’t understand how it’s been 30 years, but I just keep doing the math and it keeps working out,” he says — he considered doing another Big Stupid Improv Show, a reliable crowd pleaser. He thought about doing an improv show featuring him and a revolving door of guests.

Or, he could take a risk.

“I was talking to my partner (Caity Curtis, who will be calling the lights for the show) about what my options were, and she said, ‘(the solo show) is the only one where you said it and your eyes lit up,’” Sim says. “I was like, but it’s terrifying.’ And she said, ‘That’s the one that you should do.’”

The last few years, Sim says, have been about doing things that scare him. Not dangerous or reckless things, “but saying yes to things outside my comfort zone. And this fits into that.”

Sim started improvising monologues while walking his dog (out loud, unless there were lots of people around). “That was a way for me to practise that solo, improvising craft,” he says. He also Zoomed with many other improvisers and performers about what a solo improv show could look like. “That was really helpful as well.”

Without giving too much away, this is roughly how the show will go. He’ll talk to the audience at the beginning to get some suggestions and inspiration. “And then… I start,” he says. “I just make up a show.”

Sim might be solo for The Smallest Stupid Improv Show, but he won’t be alone. In addition to Curtis, he’ll be accompanied by longtime collaborator DJ Hunnicutt (a.k.a. Tyler Sneesby), who will provide the soundtrack for most of the shows. Club Soda Improv contributors Kevin Ramberran and Ben Sellick will also be musical guests.

This is the first improv show DJ Hunnicutt has done since he lost the majority of his eyesight in 2019. Sim says Sneesby told him he didn’t think he could do improv shows anymore, but Sim couldn’t imagine anyone else.

“I said to him, ‘Hey, I know you said you wouldn’t do an improv show anymore. But what if you did?’” Sim says. “And instantly, he said yes, too.”

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Sim is uncharacteristically nervous ahead of this run of shows — though it’s a nervous excitement, he says. The challenge, he says, is not letting the fear take over “and to remain in that playful state.”

Learning to improvise with himself has been a welcome creative shot in the arm at this point in his career, but he still loves improvising with other people.

“To me, improv is that collaboration, and I love playing with other people. So, to be like, I’m gonna do it all by myself and have nobody else to generate with, or bounce ideas with, or collaborate with? Not nobody, because there’s Caity up in the booth and there’s Tyler playing music. But there’s nobody to say yes to.”

Sometimes, though, you just gotta say yes to yourself.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com

Jen Zoratti
Columnist

Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen.

Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.