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On paper, Charna Halpern is intimidating. Really intimidating. Through her partnership with Del Close, she co-founded ImprovOlympic, developed The Harold and helped launch the careers of everyone from Chris Farley to Matt Besser to Rachel Dratch. Oh, and she introduced Amy Poehler to Tina Fey.

In person, Halpern is a warm, Midwestern, cool aunt type. She drives a convertible, brings her dogs everywhere, and never hesitates to say exactly what's on her mind. Her no-nonsense demeanor may make you forget she's a kingmaker and a legend until she offhandedly mentions getting high with Del Close. Someone give this woman a reality show.

While Harold Ramis isn’t quite a household name, he absolutely should be. As a writer/director, the man shaped the big screen personas of Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, John Candy, and Rodney Dangerfield, amongst others, defined the comedic tastes of a generation, and had more of an effect on American film humor than just about anybody in the past few decades. Before conquering Hollywood, Ramis performed at Second City Chicago, on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, and on SCTV (where he also served as head writer). Ramis then went on to write, direct, and/or star in a string of hit comedies that includes Animal House, Caddyshack, Stripes, National Lampoon's Vacation, [...]

This is the first in a series of columns and interviews in which I'll examine improv comedy and how it affects the comedy scene in general. I’m saying “comedy scene” because even I don’t even know what I mean yet.

One thing I'm going to do is talk to comedians working for high profile shows/movies and seeing how improv affected their careers. This interview is with Alex Baze, the producer of Weekend Update for Saturday Night Live. In the early 1990s Baze was on the improv team The Victim’s Family at the ImprovOlympic in Chicago (today known as iO) along with Rachel Dratch, Adam McKay, and Miles Stroth.

Although [...]

Here's a recently unearthed gem: it's an interview with Del Close from Chicago public access TV in 1986 done by current Conan writer Brian Stack. If you're unfamiliar with Del Close, he basically created longform improv and taught an incredible number of famous comedic actors, from John Belushi and Bill Murray to Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert. He's such a mythic figure in the comedy world, having died in 1999 at age 64, that it's surreal to watch him talk about the artform that he invented in such clear, direct language. Here's Stack on the story behind this video:

I’m proud to say I shot this “interview” the [...]

An hour of Amy Poehler and Jane Lynch chatting would be worth it no matter what they're talking about, but if they're talking about Amy's early days at Second City and ImprovOlympic, whether Del Close was a misogynist or just a misanthrope, and the decisions to turn down sitcom money to stay with the rest of the UCB, then you have already clicked the link and I am just talking to no one. La la la la there isn't anyone reading this because everyone is over in another tab watching that amazing interview.

Note: the video above is the trailer for Spring Breakdown, the unreleased movie [...]