#erick hellwig

Job #9 - Improv Show Videographer

Wonder why you never see videos of your favorite comedians from their theater days? Think of Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler- why don’t you see videos from their time at Second City?

There’s something about the live nature of improv that doesn’t come across on video. In live theater, pauses are valuable in a way they can’t be on YouTube. Improv also feeds of the audience atmosphere to create a scene that can never be as funny when you see it on screen. When my sketch team recently shot The Barista, we edited it down to almost half it’s original length- just because comedy on YouTube has to be a lot quicker to be funny than in person.

I edited the video above to highlight one single idea that spanned Herschel's 25-minute set. You’re watching excerpts taken from the first through last scenes to show how an idea evolves over a show.

Oh yeah, and for the first time ever, no one came to their show. Gary DeNoia blogs about it here.