Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Summer 2019 | Page 10

Happiness
what my family thinks is a terrible sense of
humor over the years, loving comedy and
loving watching improv so I just thought, hey,
this would be kind of fun. I was thinking my
kids are out of the house and in my practice
is now just mediation, so I had time at night
to do it. I thought it was going to be a one-
off, just to try it, but I loved it!
JEB: And do you find you grew as you
were able to be more creative as you took
the course?
NG: Yes, I improved as I moved on to each
level where in level three you can expand the
story more.
RH: The courses at the Comedy Club are
really special. They have built up this real
community of improv learners, fans and in-
structors, and so even though sometimes I
feel pretty out of my league, they are all so
friendly and fun that it doesn’t matter.
JEB: You said that the downfall of a lot of
people is trying to be so funny and creative
in their own world that they cannot see what
is going on, but it does end up being funny,
right?
NG: Yes, it is absolutely funny. Once you
just let yourself be part of the flow of the big-
ger process, you kind of lose any pressure to
be funny, you just add to the scene which
inevitably ends up being funny. I mean it is
hard not to think of funny things but still you
shouldn’t try to be funny, you just go with it.
It never ceases to amaze me, the things that
come to you. The value of it is that it ends
up being incredibly funny and you just get a
rush with it.
JEB: Saying things that you thought of you
never would have….
NG: Right, it was pretty shocking to my
family because it is a safe space, where you
can go off and say things without violating
social constraints, although, we do make a
big effort to make sure that the performanc-
es do not have discriminatory or sexist intent.
JEB: Because off-color tends to be funny,
but you have to be pretty careful, since you
never know what people are going to say,
right?
RH: It’s definitely hard to string five words
together on stage at a comedy club without
saying the f-word, for example.
JEB: But that is allowed.
NG: Correct, there is no censorship.
JEB: So speaking of the f-word, I under-
stand you took the standup class too, Rick,
so that’s more pressure in trying to be as fun-
ny as possible and trying to think of creative
things to say.
RH: Yes, so this may be a stupid analogy,
but it just popped into my head and I am go-
ing to use it.
10
JEB: You are going to improv right here.
RH: Yes! So standup is more like trial work,
you know, prepare, prepare, prepare. I start-
ed out with maybe 10 minutes of pretty lousy
material, and over the course of 5 weeks of
classes, honed it down to maybe 4 minutes
of pretty good stuff. So, like trial work, it’s
the constant sitting with the material and
honing it down…
JEB: And hoping you have a receptive ear.
RH: Yes, hoping you have a receptive ear,
and running it past as many people as pos-
sible to see who thinks it is funny.
JEB: Are you going to give us one of those
4 minutes?
RH: Not on the record.
JEB: Oh, bummer! Contains some f-
bombs?
RH: I suspect so, yeah. But improv, it’s
more like mediation, even just when you are
meeting with your client or meeting with op-
posing counsel for the story. And at the ses-
sions, you have to be ready for anything and
you have to be creative and open. The train-
ings definitely help.
NG: I continue to do trainings and perfor-
mances because I love it so much. Rick is a
little more occupied than me, because he has
3 children at home. A lot of independent im-
prov groups have sprung up out of the club. I
joined one of them, the “old” people group,
and it…
RH: Over 40.
JEB: Oh, wow yikes.
NG: That’s to show you how young the
usual demographic of the comic club is. And
almost every Wednesday night they have
what’s called the “Smack Down” which is
where 3 independent improv groups com-
pete against each other, the audience votes,
and the winner gets to go the next week.
JEB: Ok.
NG: So, the old age group has performed
4 or 5 times in the Smack Down. We won
once and we won the trophy and then we
lost the following week.
JEB: Ok, sounds fun! Are these perfor-
mances at a bar?
NG: No, it’s at the Comedy Club. But it’s a
full liquor licensed bar, with an inside section
with tables and chairs and the stage.
JEB: Ok, nice.
NG: Yes, they do have table servers, and
actually pretty good snack foods and things,
my favorite is they warm up cookies … I
should say we are not getting kickbacks.
JEB: I know, first you were saying how
awesome the Comedy Club is and now you
are saying something about the cookies,
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SUMMER 2019
yeah sure.
NG: There are 5 people in our “senior”
group called Celine Dior (long story) and we
have been a great team. The coach has been
terrific with us. I love it so much that these
performances have been my continuity with
the club. I am not sure what my next things
is, because there was also a sketch comedy
class, which I took, and Rick took that too,
and the only class I haven’t taken is standup.
JEB: You don’t do trial work, so you don’t
need it?
NG: I don’t do trial work, and I never liked
trial work. They did do something this win-
ter where they had improvers who had nev-
er done standup, do standup, and standup
people who had never done improv do im-
prov.
JEB: And?
NG: I thought, and modestly, that it was
funny even though I was nervous all week
and didn’t want my family to come. I didn’t
want to tell them I was doing it.
RH: So you told her you were having an
affair?
JEB: [Laughs] Yeah, anything but standup!
NG: My wife came and said it was pretty
good and was startled by how poised I was.
, generally, I don’t think I could do the stand-
up class because it is too structured for me.
JEB: Too prepared and designed?
RH: Yes, there is a rhythm to typical stand-
up, there is the setup, there’s the joke and
then you move on, but, like Neil, I am more
of a story teller and so I found that structure
kind of hindered me.
JEB: Question for both of you because the
thought of doing either improv or standup
scares the daylights out of me. Class clowns,
yes or no?
RH: No.
NG: No.
JEB: Shy?
RH: Yes.
NG: Yes.
RH: Well, I think, I was a class clown to a
certain group of like 2 or 3 people.
JEB: Ah, so they knew you were funny but
no one else knew you were funny!
NG: My 25-year-old self-looking at myself
now, would be shocked.
JEB: Neither of you would imagine that
you would have done this?
RH: I don’t know, because even though I
was shy about it, I have always liked humor
and I have always liked doing funky things
with words, so maybe I don’t think my teen-
age self would be surprised that I did it more
than once. But I wouldn’t have done it then.
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