Bryan Cohen
04-03-2007, 01:32 PM
On Sunday night, the cast of Something from Nothing was visited by one of the co-authors of Truth in Comedy who also penned several Monty Python tomes, Kim “Howard” Johnson. Howard lives about an hour and a half outside of the city of Chicago and ever since we told him about our project he’s offered his services for a rehearsal sit down.
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Howard was one of the members of the team Baron’s Barricudas, so it was perfect for a show centering on the improv community in 1985 to have him come in and drop some stories on us. My stage manager Jim and I met up with him at the Lawrence Red Line and took him to dinner at the Broadway Grill. Kim Howard Johnson looks like your dad. He’s in his late forties to early fifties and walks with a pretty unconfident gait. He’s got a big pair of glasses and dresses in a quite nerdy ensemble of some blue jeans and a button down shirt. Jim and I had already been lucky enough to take a peak at Howard’s manuscript for his upcoming non-fiction work: a new book about Del Close.
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Howard shared some stories about Del, some of which we’d heard, some we hadn’t. We hadn’t heard nearly as much about Del’s love life, the original FOT (“Fuck off, turkey!”) story, and some of the exact wordings of Del’s monologue he delivered before the show on the day the Challenger exploded (“When you were children, how many of you had little CO2 rockets?”). And even with some of the stories we had heard from other sources, it was great to hear them from somebody who was there twenty plus years ago to witness them.
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We explained some of the plot lines and characters for the show, some of which followthe stories of the actual Barricuda’s, some of which mimic the actors’ own lives. He was very excited about it and gave us his own two cents on several of our ideas. We headed up to rehearsal in a condo owned by my friend from elementary school, Dave. We sat Howard in an ugly orange recliner, deeming it the power seat, and prepared for the cast to arrive. Reactions of the cast, who had not been told of Howard’s impending arrival, ranged from awkwardness and admiration to “who is that man?”
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We listened to him talk for about an hour and a half. He spoke of more Del stories, touched on some “what really happened” relationship tales between the members of that first iO Harold team, and talked about how everything really was around CrossCurrents, the first major iO home. After Howard left, it was extremely exciting to see how inspired the 2<sup>nd</sup> half of rehearsal was. This first hand account had a major effect on my cast members. It also made me feel quite lucky to have been in the presence of a man who might have always remained as the unseen third person listed on the front page of a book I’d long ago relegated to my shelf.
If you're interesting in finding out more, feel free to e-mail me at bryandavidcohen@gmail.com or to come out to our fundraiser (http://www.chicagoimprov.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23) on Wednesday night at 8 PM at the Spot. Something from Nothing opens at the Apollo Studio Theater on Sunday, April 29th.
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Howard was one of the members of the team Baron’s Barricudas, so it was perfect for a show centering on the improv community in 1985 to have him come in and drop some stories on us. My stage manager Jim and I met up with him at the Lawrence Red Line and took him to dinner at the Broadway Grill. Kim Howard Johnson looks like your dad. He’s in his late forties to early fifties and walks with a pretty unconfident gait. He’s got a big pair of glasses and dresses in a quite nerdy ensemble of some blue jeans and a button down shirt. Jim and I had already been lucky enough to take a peak at Howard’s manuscript for his upcoming non-fiction work: a new book about Del Close.
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o></o>
Howard shared some stories about Del, some of which we’d heard, some we hadn’t. We hadn’t heard nearly as much about Del’s love life, the original FOT (“Fuck off, turkey!”) story, and some of the exact wordings of Del’s monologue he delivered before the show on the day the Challenger exploded (“When you were children, how many of you had little CO2 rockets?”). And even with some of the stories we had heard from other sources, it was great to hear them from somebody who was there twenty plus years ago to witness them.
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o></o>
We explained some of the plot lines and characters for the show, some of which followthe stories of the actual Barricuda’s, some of which mimic the actors’ own lives. He was very excited about it and gave us his own two cents on several of our ideas. We headed up to rehearsal in a condo owned by my friend from elementary school, Dave. We sat Howard in an ugly orange recliner, deeming it the power seat, and prepared for the cast to arrive. Reactions of the cast, who had not been told of Howard’s impending arrival, ranged from awkwardness and admiration to “who is that man?”
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o></o>
We listened to him talk for about an hour and a half. He spoke of more Del stories, touched on some “what really happened” relationship tales between the members of that first iO Harold team, and talked about how everything really was around CrossCurrents, the first major iO home. After Howard left, it was extremely exciting to see how inspired the 2<sup>nd</sup> half of rehearsal was. This first hand account had a major effect on my cast members. It also made me feel quite lucky to have been in the presence of a man who might have always remained as the unseen third person listed on the front page of a book I’d long ago relegated to my shelf.
If you're interesting in finding out more, feel free to e-mail me at bryandavidcohen@gmail.com or to come out to our fundraiser (http://www.chicagoimprov.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23) on Wednesday night at 8 PM at the Spot. Something from Nothing opens at the Apollo Studio Theater on Sunday, April 29th.
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