CHICAGO (WGN) — Chicago is the birthplace and the big leagues of improvisational comedy. In a city packed with talent, it’s not every day you see performers pioneer new territory.
Comedians who call themselves “the world’s most unexpected comedy troupe” performed at Theatre on the Lake on Aug. 7 as part of their Midwest tour.
“We are extraordinary,” said Audrey Castilow, 31, a former high school thespian and comedic actor.
She’s a member of the Improvaneers, the first improv team made up entirely of performers who have Down Syndrome.
“We have an extra chromosome that makes us—that is different about each of us,” Castilow said.
Rob Snow, the founder of the Improvaneers, said he knows the show is as much about performance as it is about perception.
“The misperception is they’re like this, as opposed to thinking, they’re more alike than different,” Snow said. “In so many ways. We use that phrase a good amount in this community.”
Nick Doyle is one of seven members of the Ohio-based comedy troupe. They’re on tour across the Midwest, filming a docuseries.
“I want people to see me as a typical adult, and I want them to see me as a big dog because this big dog is ready to bite,” Doyle said. “The people that look at me in a different way, if I’m being honest with you, I don’t care what they think because I don’t want them to limit me.”
Snow, 52, studied improv comedy in Chicago at The Second City, the Annoyance Theatre, and Improv Olympic before bringing those lessons to a whole new stage.
“There’s an inclusion element with improv that it’s open to everyone,” he said. “Just everybody’s in it, and it’s a really inclusive world.”
When a friend suggested the techniques of improv could help improve the lives of the developmentally disabled, it sparked an idea: “It blew my mind, because so, at the time, I had my son Henry, who has Down Syndrome,” Snow said.
16 years later, he and his son share the stage. Snow guides the group through improv games.
“It’s kind of like a father-son bonding,” Henry Snow said.
Rob Snow realized that improv strengthened specific skills—teamwork, problem solving, and adapting to change.
“If we use improvisation to build these skills, then we will greatly increase social, workplace, lifetime opportunities for people with developmental disabilities,” Snow said.
Improv has even opened doors for some of the performers to form lasting relationships. Nowadays, Doyle and Castilow have a connection beyond comedy.
“We are boyfriend and girlfriend,” she said, with a smile. “It’s been two years.”
“There’s so many things I like about improv,” Doyle said. “I love doing scene work. I love doing stories. I love my cast. If I fall, they bring me back up.”
Improv is all about creating opportunities with the philosophy that teaches actors to embrace “yes, and,” encouraging those on stage to treat all suggestions as valid and build off of whatever the last actor to speak said.
It’s an artform in which every thought—no matter how outlandish or ordinary—is worthwhile.
“You say one thing that pops up in your mind and you just say it, and plus, you did it without a script,” Castilow said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
