Improv Nation

Starred review from March 26, 2018
De Vries does a remarkable job of narrating Wasson’s sweeping history of American improvisational comedy, which begins in a Chicago bar in the McCarthy era and covers the emergence of groups such as Second City, Upright Citizens Brigade, and the cast of Saturday Night Live. De Vries’s whimsical tones capture the eccentric working relationship of the groundbreaking team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May as they move from stage to film. In rendering the heartbreaking passages related to comedic superstars John Belushi and Chris Farley—both of whom died from drug overdoses at the age of 33—De Vries provides a wistful tenor of regret in the reactions of their friends and colleagues. De Vries also ably handles the rapid transitions in the narrative with skill, pausing just enough to shift gears so that listeners can keep up. With the exception of providing vivid mimicry of Bill Murray’s performance as the gopher-hunting groundskeeper in the movie Caddyshack, De Vries does not attempt to imitate celebrity voices. Rather, he devotes the bulk of his energy to the narrative at large and in doing so skillfully keeps listeners attuned. A HMH/Dolan hardcover.

Starred review from October 30, 2017
Wasson (Fosse) makes a thoroughly entertaining case that improvisational comedy has “replaced jazz as America’s most popular art” and represents the best of democracy. Improv was a product of the McCarthy era and came of age quickly with an energetic, ambitious cast of characters. Wasson brilliantly weaves together the disparate strands of improv’s first decade, when players with different philosophies and skill sets persevered in defining their art. These pioneers, including the duo of Mike Nichols and Elaine May and actor and comedian Del Close, influenced the explosion of comic talent that poured out over the next half century. Wasson nicely foreshadows future events and collaborations and does an admirable job of making simultaneous events easy to follow by drawing contrasts (for example, the collegiality of SCTV’s Canadian style vs. the raw competitive ambition of New York City’s Saturday Night Live cast in the 1970s). He covers such major late-night figures as John Belushi, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Murray, as well as Alan Arkin and Harold Ramis. In the spirit of an improv performer, Wasson takes care to never let the stars take over the show. Photos.