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That Other Paper Any comedian who’s worth his weight in yuks knows that improv came out of Chicago. You knew that, so you moved there. Why did you move back?
Jeremy Lamb I don’t do interviews.
TOP Neither do we.
JL Well, I think it’s fair to say that some improv came from Chicago. As an art form it’s extremely young and seems to have had many simultaneous developments in England and the Midwest back in the ’50s and ’60s. Chicago is, without a doubt, the place you go to get the best schooling in modern improv from places like Second City, IO, and the Annoyance. I made a blunder when heading to Chicago because I was thinking I was the shit. I started to engage in these programs but felt I was hearing things I already knew and felt that I should be teaching the class in many circumstances. So I stopped going to classes and thereby cut myself off from networking opportunities as well as the chance to perform on the marquee stages. I embittered and outcast myself for the couple years I lived there.
TOP So you knew Chicago wasn’t for you, but what made you decide that Austin was?
JL Because it’s where I’m from, and a Texas boy can try to leave all he wants, but he’ll eventually come home. The scene here is really vibrant right now – there are so many great groups and spaces as well as a support community in the Austin Improv Collective that is unlike any other group in the country as far as I know. I wouldn’t say I’m here permanently, but I’m here indefinitely and hoping to build this scene up and attract teachers and performers here. The end goal is to be a similar learning and performing hub to Chicago, and to have people looking to perform, get schooled, and even launch a successful acting or comedy career here in Austin. It’s possible, so why shouldn’t we try it?
TOP You seem to be willing to try lots of things that most comedians wouldn’t, specifically solo shows. Bearded Lamb is performing twice in see. hear. speak. – once in hear. and once in speak. Do you think this makes you more of a Desperado of Comedy?
JL If I had more time to prepare some video pieces, you’d probably be seeing some video stuff, too. I just get ideas that I have to perform or make a reality. I would be extremely bored if I had to only do one thing. I like being busy directing, performing, producing, filming, writing, whatever. That’s another reason I like Austin. I can pretty much do whatever I want here, and that’s very artistically freeing.
TOP What’s something you’ve done onstage in Austin that couldn’t have been done anywhere else? There was once a one-man show where you hypnotized an unwilling audience, but that’s probably not it.
JL It’s the accessibility and my reputation here that affords me the ability to do anything I want. I would have no reservations about doing a naked air guitar, or a hypnotism thing anywhere else, it would just be a case of not having as much of an audience, and I would have to work harder to get the space and promote it. As far as content, I do feel like Austin audiences are a little more liberal in what they can take than other parts of the US, excepting big cities like Chicago or New York.
TOP You’ve set the record for longest improv show with your old troupe Well Hung Jury, and you’ve also toured the glamorous college circuit with your current troupe The Available Cupholders. How would you compare your two most well-known troupes?
JL It’s really like the same thing – only very different. Being the director and producer of both groups has pretty much kept the style and quality consistent through both. The members of The Cupholders are all improvisers who desired to make improv their job. I don’t think the same can be said for all members of The Jury. Now it just so happens that The Cupholders is made up of half the members of Well Hung Jury. And those were the ones who had the most commitment and drive to succeed at making money doing improv.
TOP So The Cupholders is basically Well Hung Jury with a more committed jury?
JL The split of Well Hung Jury was just one of those things that had to happen. There was some minimal in-fighting but nothing too spectacular. We had done everything we could do with that group of people. We did a lot of great things and worked really hard for five years, but at the end of it, it was really about who wants to keep this doing this at this high level or even higher level of commitment.
TOP What is it that holds a comedy troupe together, other than paying gigs?
JL Both of these groups are made up of my best friends in the world. That helps for sure. I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else, and after having done that in some cases, I’m only reinforced in those ideas. We shared some really exciting and special moments in Well Hung Jury and it has become a bit of an “old buddy” institution where we help each other with stuff and all that. We’ve been through all kinds of crises from broken relationships, drugs, tragedy, mental health issues – everything you’d expect from a group of people in their mid-twenties who’ve known each other for 15 years. Available Cupholders is just the modern incarnation of the work that Well Hung Jury left undone.
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