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DC improv royalty Eva Lewis sits down with podcast hosts Puss and Kooch to talk about starting improv in Chicago, what bad shows feel like, and what she’s still learning.
Eva Lewis on Heavy Flo with Puss and Kooch
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. To hear everything Eva has to say, listen to her podcast episode.
Starting out in Chicago
I took my first class when I was studying for the bar in Chicago. All through law school, I would go out to Second City, iO, and some other theater places with some good friends. My friend Mike wanted to take an improv class before he left to practice law in New York, so I said if he signed up, I would sign up. He did, and we took the class, and it was fantastic.
So in 2009, I went through Second City, then did two levels at iO. As I was studying for the bar, once a week there was this nice highlight, taking level one at Second City. Then we’d go drinking with the class afterwards every week. It was a ton of fun. And I’ve stuck with it, and so has my friend Mike. But that’s how I got into improv.
Then I moved back to the Washington, DC, area and started in level one at WIT. I went through that curriculum and started joining teams and Harold and special projects.
I don’t think most people would have come here from Chicago with the experience you had and started at level one. I think most people think they can jump in at higher levels.
I think most people do that. But I felt like I was still learning, and I knew I could learn something from level one. Even though I’d been through the Second City curriculum and had taken classes at iO, I loved the craft, and I wanted to learn more. I didn’t mind going into level one. Most people in my level one class didn’t have any improv experience. Some probably had theater experience. But you can always learn something.
Watching improv as an experienced improviser
I‘ve noticed some more experienced improvisers don’t particularly like going to shows. And I understand why they don’t like going, because they already know how the sausage is made.
If you’re watching new-ish people or beginners, it can be difficult watching improv when it’s not done well. But I do like the little nuggets people throw out there. I love surprises, so anytime someone does something I don’t see coming, that’s comedy gold for me. I think that’s the height of laughter for me.
What do you mean by knowing how the sausage is made when you’re watching a show?
You know when people are doing certain moves or when they’ve missed moves they should be doing. You’re looking at improv more like an analyst than an audience member. Watching Harold recently, I caught myself thinking, “Oh, that was a good move they made,” or, “Oh, why didn’t they all just pile on and attack the stage?”
You know when people are making decisions. You can see when an improviser’s body language is betraying that they’re not confident in what they’re doing. You see little things like that. If an improviser were to tweak it, or if they would just come out and be fierce, they would have a more enjoyable scene for themselves and for the audience.
What good improv feels like
Improv that feels very good to me is when I’m not thinking as much. I’m still thinking, but everything is just flowing, as compared to when I’m doing a show and it’s like trudging through mud.
Then I’m thinking, “How do I get out of this mud? How do I make this scene better? What can be done?” That’s when my brain is really firing all cylinders, and not in a good way. I’d rather be in that space where I just play. If I see something, I do something, or if I hear something, I react to it and go from there.
I think that’s an Eva Lewis superpower. A lot of times, you’re just reacting to something someone just said, which makes whatever they did so cool. I always want to be in a scene with you because you make everyone look so good.
For me, that’s the easiest way to have fun. Because what I’ve learned in improv is that whatever someone says, you can react and make connections with anything. It may be nonsensical, but if it’s logical for you and your character, then the audience will get on board with that.
One of my other commandments is, “Don’t be coy.” I tell my students all the time to just get to it. This isn’t an hour-and-a-half drama or movie. Your scenes are two or three minutes, and the audience should understand why they’re looking at these characters right now. And you do that by not being coy and by coming out with whatever you’re feeling or what you see on the other person and going from there.
I think it’s just so much easier and a more direct route to fun when you can respond to folks.
Dealing with sensitive subjects in improv
WIT had a Resistance program going on around the time of the inauguration in January 2017. Greg approached me with the idea for White Privilege, Black Power, and I thought it sounded cool. I also thought it was going to be a one-off thing. We’ve probably done over 20 shows at this point, but I can only think of one or two shows where it felt like I was going through sludge.
When the show first started, it was more like, “Greg’s white, I’m black. Let’s do some improv.” But as the show has gone on and we’ve invited guest improvisers with certain points of view, it’s become more of trying to take serious topics and make them accessible. We don’t want to make fun of anything or make light of it. We want to take a topic and distill it down to where people can see the faults. Maybe there’s a little punching up. If you’re always the character that’s being picked on, that character is going to stick up for themselves in that moment. But at the same time, it still needs to be entertaining.
What does that look like if you’re trying to create more content from that mission statement?
What we would like to do is go on a tour and see how different audiences in different parts of the country react to the show. We live in DC, which is very liberal and Democrat-leaning. In what we’re saying and what we’re doing, most people here are going to be on board with how we’re doing things and how we’re portraying things. But it would be interesting to see how people in more conservative or more red areas would perceive that show.
How far are you pushing it in this show?
Lisa Kays invited us to the Mid-Atlantic Group Psychotherapy Society Conference. She was an organizer, and she was doing a lot of improv exercises in it. We interviewed one of the therapists at the conference, who was a woman who is legally blind. We were talking to her, and the scenes we did were fine. She talked about how people perceive her and put certain labels onto her when she’s just herself. She’s blind, but she can still function in life and is independent.
So Greg and I did a scene where we did a phone interview where we were guessing what the other person looked like. And then we did another scene where we were high school football players. I had a traumatic brain injury. I was somewhat recovered and coming back to the team and wanted to be treated like one of the boys.
What I said to Greg afterwards was that I wished we had done a scene where one of us was blind. I think we didn’t go there because you don’t want to mock people. But the thing is, there are blind people in the world. And before we start our shows, Greg makes an announcement about the fact that we don’t want to make fun of people or go too far. But the woman at the conference was like, “Go far. Just do it.”
I think there’s something to be said about not being afraid of going there. I think you want to be thoughtful without making fun of someone who’s blind. But you can point out how people perceive someone who is blind. And that’s what the scene would have been about, and we would have been able to do that.
As an example of being respectful of other people’s identities, I’ll also bring up the time Press Play did a show at the Shakespeare Theatre.
J.J. Jackson and I were bakers who were in a relationship, and then Sabahat Chaudhary came into the scene as a male CNN news reporter. But she did a flashback to when she was in high school and labeled herself as “she.” So when we came out of that flashback, I pointed out that she was a girl in high school and now she was a man, and I said, “Oh, so you’re transitioning?” And Sabahat played to the top of her intelligence and said, “Yes, does that matter?” And we went from there and didn’t bring it back up. We just played.
A trans person who was in the audience sent a note to the Shakespeare Theatre afterwards. They said when the scene started, they were on edge because they weren’t sure what was going to happen. But the person appreciated that it was just normal. The scene wasn’t about transitioning or the fact that the character was trans.
I think people have to remember that the funny thing isn’t that you have a British accent or that you’re blind or transgender or black or Latino or whatever. Its whatever attributes you add to that character and what is added into that person. That’s what makes it makes it funny.
When you’re on a thoughtful, experienced team, you’re better able to handle that stuff. Younger improvisers may not have been able to handle that. It’s difficult even for experienced improvisers. But there’s always a way of portraying something that’s thoughtful and honors the subject and still has some type of entertainment to it.
I’ll also say it’s fine to make certain mistakes on stage only if you recognize it and then want to do better. A lot of times, stuff will come out of your mouth and you have no idea where it came from. You want to try and take it back—or maybe lean more into it. But particularly when you’re trying to find that line for you and your improv in terms of what you like and what you don’t like, it’s hard. But I think it’s easier if you’re on a team of people who will hold you accountable.
I’ll hear people talk about something a teammate did on stage that they didn’t like, and I’ll ask, “What happened afterwards when you all talked about it?” And they’ll say they didn’t bring it up. But if it bothers you that much, you should talk about it. I think it’s only at that point where someone doesn’t want to change or they dismiss what you saw in the scene that you need to have a larger conversation about whether you still want to perform together.
For new improvisers, the thing is that you don’t want to censor yourself. Because some of the greatest things just come up in the moment, and you haven’t pre-planned them. And I think everyone is trying to do their best. What happens happens, and if you’ve done something that has offended somebody, you then have to ask, “How could I have done that better?” or, “What could my scene partners have done to help alleviate that situation?”
And for me, I’m open to seeing just about anything onstage if it’s in service of the scene and not just making fun of that subject. But I also like when the audience cringes at something you said because it’s a reaction from them. I think a lot of times, improvisers are not attuned to what the audience is giving them. I try to tell my classes that they have to see when people laugh at something, and that means they like it. And if they like it, maybe you should do it again and see what happens. Or even if the audience groans, that’s still a reaction.
The longest-running indie team in DC (according to Eva and lots of other people on Press Play)
There’s a debate as to whether Press Play, Sistine Robot, or The Lodge is the oldest indie team in DC. But Press Play is the longest consecutively running indie improv team in the Washington, DC, area.
If we have quorum, we practice once a week. I can’t think of a month or two-month span where we didn’t have a show. So we’ve been consistently having shows at least once a month for a while now.
I think Erick Acuña is the youngest person on the team at 32. The majority of folks are married or in serious relationships, and three of them have kids. So the fact that we’ve still been able to stay together as we’ve gotten older and have done more stuff, is cool.
And we’re still doing good shows. If Press Play got to a point where we were consistently doing bad shows, we wouldn’t even have to have a discussion about next steps. But I think we’re still invested in the group because we know the eight of us are good improvisers, and together we combine our powers to be great improvisers and do really good shows.
Projects Eva Lewis is proud of
The 2012 and 2016 POTUS shows were tons of fun. I’ve loved Press Play, particularly when we’ve had to come up with themes for the Shakespeare Theatre shows. Those have always been very good shows. Colossus, which is a newer team for me, is fun. It has kind of the same vibe The Prosecution had. We have silly, fun, fast folks who are really great improvisers that I didn’t get to play with before.
White Privilege Black Power is really good with what Greg and I have been doing and with some of the things we’ve been able to tackle with our guests improvisers. October Issue was several years ago, but that was fantastic and a ton of fun.
I’m also in NIXON, which is a trio with Jamal Newman and Reaves McElveen. Those are always fun shows. They’re two smart, nice guys who know their improv. You have to come out with confidence, and they’re confident players who know what they’re doing. You know you’re always going to be taken care of in a scene with them. Lena Dunahm is doing great shows.
Something Eva Lewis is still working on
I think initially, I thought of improv as a journey, something I was just traveling through. I really liked improv and have kept up with it, and I am good at it. But in terms of benchmark goals, I think of my duo with Greg Tindale, White Privilege, Black Power. We’ve been doing that for two-and-a-half years at this point, and we would like to take that to the next level in terms of doing something more polished, maybe with video production and other things like that. So that might be more of a benchmark goal.
And personally as an improviser, I try to set goals for myself for how much I stick to it, but I’m trying to play different kinds of characters. It didn’t really dawn on me until people started saying it to me, but l often tend to play high-status characters. So I’m doing things like trying to play more lower-status characters and be more physical. Because I know I can talk, but adding the physical part of it is another layer that adds to the scene.
Thanks for getting wet with Puss and Kooch
Tune in next week for an interview with sketch writer and performer Elizabeth Kemp!
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