IMFourPlay

Few people, if any, have put more time, energy and love into SAK Comedy Lab than Dave Russell. As the Managing Director and Artistic Director of SAK and Producer of FourPlay, Dave and I are in close competition for "longest job description on a business card," and that doesn't include the myriad of non-SAK related work he does in the Parks. Dave and I also placed highly in the recently held OVAs (Orlando Verbosity Awards). As such, I sat down with him, a court stenographer and 15 reams of paper for our little chat...

Current favorite musical: High School Musical - Don't laugh, I have kids! I have seen that movie over 100 times and the tunes are quite catchy!
Current favorite improv game: I love so many improv games. One that offers me the greatest thrill is the 4 letter word game. We start with a 4 letter word from the audience (not profane - “slip,” for example). The first speaker must use “slip” in their dialogue. The second must change 1 letter (can be any letter) and use it in their dialogue. As dialogue goes back and forth, each improviser continues to change one letter. It’s like that puzzle game – can you get from “slip” to “fine” in ten or less steps? Man, its a brain buster, and the audience loves watching the improvisers' heads almost explode.

DC: Dave, I believe you’ve been involved with SAK since its inception. I’d love to know a little about those early days, the SAK founders, and what the original company looked like.

DR: In a way, SAK has led a double life. I was not one of the original members of SAK, but joined the troupe in 1983 (SAK was officially born in 1977 in Buffalo, Minnesota). The original troupe was Craig McNair Wilson (now a writer in San Francisco), Terry Olson (a name recognizable to anyone in the Arts in Central Florida - he is now the Orange County's Department of Arts & Cultural Affairs administrator) and Herb and Bernelle Hansen (Herb works at Walt Disney World as a performer and Show Director and Bernelle lives in Minnesota).

When I joined, SAK was performing street theater mostly at EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World. SAK also performed at Renaissance Festivals (its roots trace to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival), Faires and Expos around the world. In 1989 our production and performance contract with Disney ended. At this point Disney was building a comedic/improvisational pool of performers of their own with the opening of the Disney MGM Studios, Pleasure Island and eventually Animal Kingdom. Up to that point we were pretty much the only comedic and improvisational performers on property.

Having a lot of eagerness and energy to continue performing together, we eventually opened the SAK Comedy Lab in downtown Orlando in 1991. This was a second birthing of sorts for SAK. I am one of the founding members of that company of performers. In those seminal days, we had a troupe of about 12 performers creating and performing plays that we developed improvisationally, most notably Las Vegas Hospital and Fun With Science. We also developed a competitive improvisation format that was part TheaterSports, part ComedySportz, and part our own twisted version. That morphed into our very popular show Duel of Fools. Many of our original company members have gone on to do very well in television, film, writing – all kinds of disciplines. Of course the most notable is Wayne Brady, but SAK alumni include Paul Vogt (MadTV), Joel McCrary (Princess Diaries 1 & 2), Jonathan Mangum (Drew Carey Show), Aaron Shure (Writer, Producer, Everybody Loves Raymond), Paula Pell (Writer, Producer, Saturday Night Live)... And the list goes on.

DC: After your early years with SAK, you departed for the West Coast with several other former company members (as has often been the case historically). Describe the years you spent in Los Angeles with Houseful of Honkeys. What type of improv and theatre work did you get up to?

DR: The L.A. experience (as the cool dudes refer to it) was wonderful and not wonderful at the same time. There are a ton of improv groups in L.A. Some of them are pretty good, a few are great, and a lot weren’t very good at all. The Houseful of Honkeys was one of the higher end improv groups, thankfully. It was sometimes difficult to get the masses excited about improv because so much mediocre improv was being passed off around town as actual entertainment. Also, many of those groups were exploring and performing long form improvisation – much of it transplanted from Chicago where many L.A. improvisers had their roots. Although I love long form improv, its a tough sell to an audience when it’s not packaged properly in my opinion. I think it’s many times like jazz music. There is jazz music that everyone likes, and jazz music that is most appreciated by other jazz musicians who understand and appreciate the subtle musical nuances and tonal explorations. It’s the same with long form improv. So many forms leave the audience thinking “what the heck is this? Is this a show?” Other improvisers love it and appreciate it and understand the subtle nuances, but most of the general public tilts their head like a confused dog. I myself like performing long form. I just like it with a little show value spice – LIKE FOURPLAY!!!! Oops. Producers plug, sorry about that.

Long form can be fun and a rewarding theatrical experience, but the Honkeys style was short form story-based scenes, songs and games. Very much like SAK in that respect - not surprising though, seeing as though we all came from the SAK stable. As the Houseful of Honkeys, we were very lucky to make a place for ourselves in the L.A. improv world. Ask any improviser in Hollywood and they will have heard of the Houseful of Honkeys. The toughest thing we faced was finding a performance home. In Orlando, we had our own theater. None of us knew how long the SAK train would choo, and the lure of Los Angeles was very strong indeed. But we were not in a place where we could have/run our own theater. You think real estate is expensive here!!! So we parked ourselves in suitable locations – coffee houses, small improv venues showcasing many groups, etc., whose owners and operations would eventually change. We were very lucky, however, to hold a spot at the ACME Comedy Theater in Hollywood for quite a while. This is a theater similar to the Groundlings where they perform sketch comedy mostly and utilize improv workshops for material development. It was unheard of for an outside group to play there regularly. The Honkeys played there for 3 years.

DC: Several years ago, you were lured back to Orlando and to the SAK family. What brought you back to these parts and had SAK changed a lot in your absence?

DR: Lured to L.A. - Lured back to Orlando. Boy do I sound flighty. My move back to Orlando and holding the reins at SAK actually happened through a series of events that all worked together with serendipitous timing. SAK was at a bit of a cross-roads. Finances were already tough at SAK and the direction was seeming to move away from our original vision. So we were faced with a “what should we do?” Should we close SAK down? Find a new leader? Let it continue on its present course? At about the same time, in L.A. I and my family (I went out there with my wife, and now we had 2 kids - whoopee!!) were finding it increasingly challenging to have a comfortable living out there. Much of my work was as a consultant with theme parks and production companies and many of those opportunities had dried up after 9/11 (which is by the way my daughter’s birthday. “Happy second birthday honey – oh look at the news...” Interesting day.) In addition, we’d just amassed a huge debt when my appendix exploded. What a rotten thing for an appendix to do on very limited medical insurance coverage. So moving back to Orlando was a great opportunity for us to settle down financially, work to get back on track and hey, at the same time I can run SAK.

DC: You recently launched a Help Save SAK campaign. The company has been buffeted by rising parking costs, hurricanes and shrinking budgets, and yet people keep coming through those brightly painted yellow doors! What is it that gives SAK such staying power, in your opinion?

DR: That is a question I ask myself over and over again, late at night, eyes wide open at 2am. The other burning question is – should we continue to do this? Is it worth it? The answer is a resounding YES. The Help Save SAK campaign is an effort to get the word out and find ways interested folks can help us remain a force in comedy improvisational entertainment here in Orlando. The main thrust is a call for people to spread the word about SAK to as many people as they possibly can using word of mouth, myspace, e-mail, and also ask (or remind) folks to come to our theater – come often, and bring a friend.

As to the staying power? It’s just starting to sink in. When I came back, SAK was in a very challenging place financially and emotionally. My plan at first was to prepare to shut it down, but do it in celebration for the wonderful years we’d had and not crashing in flames. We slowly started to work our way back and then a funny thing happened. I found myself standing in our theater on numerous occasions – sometimes as a performer on the stage, sometimes in the house, sometimes in the lobby as our audiences were coming or going. I just loved what I felt. Everyone seemed so filled with joy. College students, high school students, little kids 10 and 12 years old, their parents, somebody’s grandma and grandpa. All laughing and smiling and filled with joy. Our mission statement is “To create an audience, people who want joy, by playing together.” Playing with our audiences and creating a joyful environment where they are encouraged to participate with us is a SAK signature. From our street performance days when we’d narrate Romeo and Juliet in 20 minutes and pick senior citizens to play the parts of Romeo and Juliet to the shows you see 5 nights a week on the SAK Comedy Lab stage to the Corporate shows we do regularly - people are filled with joy. How can you not want that to continue - despite the hardships and challenges. God has always been gracious to help us when the chips are down. These economic and operational trials and tribulations help bring those who know us closer in to us. That’s actually not a bad thing. We would just love for LOTS more people to know about us.

DC: Here, here! Oh dear, the stenographer's fingers seem to have caught on fire and I'm not sure if the internet actually has enough memory for me to publish all of this, so we'd better stop here. But thanks so much for all the great stories.

To learn more about Dave, go here or here.

DR: One final note: Slip, slit, slot, soot, foot, fort, fore, fire, fine.