Atlanta’s Godfather of Improv

Robert Lowe is the author of Improvisation, Inc.: Harnessing Spontaneity to Engage People and Groups, (Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer, 2000). This book is the pioneering work in the use of Improvisational Theatre techniques for organizational development and business and professional communication. Robert is known as the Godfather of Improvisational Comedy in Atlanta. He founded “The Lightside City Players” in 1983, “Comedy Atlanta” in 1985, and “The Next City Comedy Theatre” in 1988. In 1989 Robert had a significant influence in the founding of Georgia Tech’s “Let’s Try This” Improv Comedy movement. For nearly 20 years he has brought Improv technique, fun, and exploration to business and organizations of every size and form. His work is known in more than 20 countries, and it has been noted that either Robert, or his students, and now students of his students, have had an influence on almost every venue of Improv comedy in the Atlanta region. I recently had the pleasure of doing an interview with Robert.

Matthew: How did you first discover improv?

Robert: I discovered Improv in San Diego, California in 1980. There was an ad in the San Diego equivalent of “Creative Loafing” that said something like, “Come dance to your hearts content in a smoke free atmosphere.” It had an address in a seedy part of San Diego and turned out to be an upstairs studio where Judith Essex Greer conducted “Dance Jam”, an Improv dance space of exceeding grace and creativity. The whole story is told in my book.

There were Improv players among the dancers who introduced me to Don Victor (trained at Second City and one time partner in Victor and [Whoopie] Goldberg), and Improv Comedy. I fell in love immediately and have never recovered.

Matthew: In what cities have you been involved in the local improv scene?

Robert: I have only been “involved in a local scene” in San Diego and Atlanta. However, I have played in London, Stockholm, New York, Minneapolis, Nassau, Kawai, Charlotte, Athens, GA, and Savannah.

Matthew: What improv related awards have you received?

Robert: I have been blessed to have received “The James Dull Service Award.” Other awards have been more abstract and may reach a bit. I have been awarded a happy, healthy, light filled, graceful, and curious 19 year old son who begins college in Wales in September of 2008. He was the progenitor of the Improv Rule “Don’t drop the prop.” (He being the prop as a 12 year old in the James Dull Theatre at Georgia Tech.)

I have been awarded the delight of watching 1500 people sitting on the green in Piedmont Park, for a summer Improv performance, played with light and delight. I have been graced by the existence of a whole bunch of Improv encouraged by my cultivation. I have been awarded an hour with 25 five year olds playing prop montage for 25 minutes using a stick from a bush, and I have been awarded a thousand other Improv blessings beyond description.

I am a rose gardener. The Improv is a rose garden. I have been awarded a fine garden with which to be in association. (Winston Churchill was once accused of splitting an infinitive as he spoke. He replied that, “Such an accusation was something up with which I will not put.”) Improvisation is the highest order of organization. I have been awarded the truth of that fact.

Matthew: What inspired you to write Improvisation Inc.?

Robert: I was asked to write Improvisation, Inc.. A man from Kansas was in Savannah at a magician’s conference. A man from Atlanta was there as well. The man from Atlanta had nine Grammy Awards for his work using magic to teach nutrition to children. He was quick on his feet and passionate about his message. The man from Kansas used magic to teach thinking, and living well.

The man from Kansas liked the work of the man from Atlanta and asked him if he would like to collaborate on a book about using Improvisation as a creativity tool. The man from Atlanta said, “Oh, you don’t want to talk with me, you want to talk with Robert, in Atlanta.” They came to me and said, “Would you like to write your book?” I could but acquiesce. About four years later, Improvisation, Inc. was published.

I think that it is important to know the sources of information we have about this great art. The following are required reading if you wish to know the whole story. Some of these things are hard to find. So? Go and find them and read them anyway.

• Neva L. Boyd and Dagney Pederson, Folk Games of Denmark and Sweden, Chicago, H.T. FitzSimmons Company, 1915
• Pierre Louis Duchartre, The Italian Comedy, New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1929
• William H. Bridge, Actor in the Making, Boston, Expression Company, 1936
• Neva L. Boyd, Handbook of Games, Chicago, H.T. FitzSimmons Company, 1945
• Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theater, Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press, 1963
• Harry Partch, Genesis of a Music, an account of creative work, its roots, and its fulfillments. New York, NY: DaCapo Press, 1974
• Keith Johnstone, Impro, Improvisation and the Theatre, New York, Theatre Arts Books, 1979
• Daniel Belgrade, The Culture of Spontaneity: Improvisation and the Arts in Postwar America, The university of Chicago Press, 1998
• Stephen Nachmanovitch, Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art, Penguin Putman, Inc., 1990
• Robert Lowe, Improvisation, Inc.: Harnessing Spontaneity to Engage People and Groups, Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2000.

A great history of the modern Improv is available in the following set of books.

• Jeffrey Sweet, Something Wonderful Right Away, Toronto, New Books, 1978
• Janet Coleman, The Compass, Alfred Knopf, New York, 1990
• Sheldon Patinkin, The Second City: Backstage at the World’s Greatest Comedy Theatre, Sourcebooks, Inc., Naperville, IL, 2000

Matthew: Thanks for your time. It’s been a pleasure.

Robert: Again, I am honored that you have asked about my story.
Not reflected here is the fact that there is a whole book in my head about 19 years at Georgia Tech. What a great gift they have all given to me. I have been to the very edges of the creative spirit with the players from this hard core technology school,

I have similar feelings about the Improv that I have about my son. I feel good about my own contribution. However, the real blessing is that I have been allowed to be present for my 28 years in the Improv, and I have been invited to this wonderful 19 year old event called “Let’s Try This,” at Georgia Tech, stretching from Eddie Maiz, through Zot, and Ed King, and Wes Schrader, and through a double dozen others who made me laugh, and laugh again, and on through Jeff Rick, Matthew Falkenberg, and maybe on to some others still.

The Improv is a gift from God in all his and her glory. The miracle is that we are capable of creating “something wonderful right away”. We actually reinvent our universe every day. From the Etruscans and the Atillinae, the question has been, “What new think can we do with this perfect moment?”