Tell us all about the Baltimore Musical Improv Championship. How might you describe your show to someone who knows nothing about improv?
The Musical Improv Championship is a show where two teams of competitors play a range of energetic and fast-paced games where they make up songs on the spot in an effort to win the favor of the audience.
Some games involve songs with a bit of structure, and others involve songs with no structure whatsoever. But no matter what game is played, the content of all the songs will be inspired by input from the audience!
For the more knowledgeable improv crowd, what do you hope they’ll take away from the show.
There are two main things I’m hoping for improv lovers to take away from this show. The first is the power of treating an improv show like a full-on production. I want the audience to feel like this show, with all its high energy, stagecraft, and audience participation, is one giant machine that comes together to seamlessly entertain them.
The other thing I’m hoping comes across is the difference between competition and domination, and the superiority of the former when it comes to improv. This show has competitive elements that envelop the players and audience, but that energy is purposefully kept light-hearted rather than brash because that would mean we are taking ourselves too seriously and spoiling the fun.
What brought you into running a show? Is there anything you’d like to share about your style, how you work to get the most out of teams, or your experience producing or directing?
Baltimore Musical Improv put on an hour-long Labor Day show back in 2024, and I was tasked with running the short-form half of that block. I really enjoyed the experience, so I started wondering what could be possible with a full hour show that included some additional flare. I pitched the show in January 2025 and BIG has given us a monthly slot since!
Since the cast is so big and the games list so diverse, I have settled into a specific approach to get the most out of the team. I make an explicit distinction between some universal skills to apply in all games versus particular skills that make specific games pop. I focus a lot more on the universal skills and treat the particular skills more as stretch goals, since players will start intuitively applying the particular skills if they feel more confident in the universal skills.
If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, what would you have a good chance at winning a medal for?
Guitar Hero, absolutely no doubt. I am not a competitive or boastful person, but I eagerly await the day someone challenges me to a Guitar Hero battle so I can calmly educate them in the art of plastic, fake guitars.
What kind of work do you do? How does your work or career influence you as a performer?
I am a software engineer, so I engage in a lot of analytical thinking and planning all day. This influences my improv for better and for worse, though I’m making progress on the “for worse” part. While in scenes, I feel confident in my ability to connect various things and to provide scenes some of the things they may need to give it a kick. On the other hand, I can get too much in my head and do too much planning at times, which takes me out of the scene.
Tell us about what have you learned in improv? Is there a story about being a student, a performer on a team, or as a teacher?
I tell this story to any improviser who is just starting out or is interested in musical improv, but who has a hesitancy about singing. When I took my first musical improv class in 2024, one of the instructors told me, “you may not be able to sing, but your character believes they can sing”.
Something about that wording was an “aha” moment for me that made me realize and start to internalize the importance of making your character confident, even if you as the actor are not. It was a great lesson for improv (and life, in some ways) that I’m glad I learned!