Using Improv to Improve:  Carolina Improv Company Shakes Up the Strand

By Lauren Poster

Gina Trimarco is not your average transplant. Relatively new to the area, she has brought with her not the desire to wait tables, or go to college, or even to complain about the native southerners while she relaxes in a “more bang for your northern buck” condo. Gina instead comes with an infectious desire to spread some creativity on the Strand, leaving it better than she found it, and maybe just a little bit funnier, too. Founding the Carolina Improv Company in November 2008 with a class of three students, Gina pinned her life on a shoestring and a dream. Performing “like gypsies” wherever they could over the next year, the company has grown to include a cast of 12 regular comedians, finding a new home at the Uptown Theater inside the Myrtle Beach Mall. This is 100 percent Gina’s baby. In addition to hosting comedy events, she hopes to offer live music and art exhibitions in order to foster local talent.

When I arrive at Uptown to view a performance of the troupe, Gina approaches me immediately with a friendly, “I’m at your disposal!” She carries with her a permanent little radius of warmth that makes you instantly receptive to whatever she has to offer. This approachability is well earned. Over the course of her career, Gina has worked on the business end of all types of entertainment venues, including extensive work with live theater. Studying at the Second City conservatory in Chicago during college (Second City is famed for producing a string of successful Saturday Night Live performers), she became enamored of improvisational comedy. Loathe to commit to a life as a “starving artist,” she turned her interest in the arts to more practical matters, like promotion and business accounting.

Perhaps her arrival in Myrtle Beach catalyzed a sort of “sea-change” in Gina; just a year after arriving on the Strand, she left a steady job behind and set her sights on realizing her dream. Clearly missing the lively entertainment scene of her native Chicago, she wanted to apply her business expertise to making something happen locally.

“People kept telling me, ‘this is the beach; it won’t work,’” Gina said. But she wasn’t buying it. Her refusal to settle is paying off. Since their opening in November of last year, performances at the Uptown (which seats about 50 people) have been selling out, even turning patrons away once or twice. At this stage, Carolina Improv Company is not a huge moneymaker. Whatever is earned from the shows gets reinvested into operations. In fact, tips donated to the volunteer staff behind the modest bar go to a rotating list of local charities. Currently, most of CIC’s revenue is generated from the classes Gina teaches throughout the week. Individuals can sign up for a six-week course in improv for $150. Performers at the shows are volunteers selected from Gina’s pool of promising students, all of whom have day jobs in a variety of demanding professional careers. The cast features everything from educators to pediatricians and I.T. workers.

In fact, businesses can arrange for corporate classes with CIC. A businesswoman herself, Gina is not ignorant to the tremendous impact improv comedy can have on interpersonal skills. “Improv teaches you to read your audience ... It’s about life skills,” Gina tells me. The energy performers get is a constant feed from the audience, engaging everyone in a give and take unlike that experienced in any other form of entertainment. Accordingly, performers are very careful not to pick on spectators the way comics at a stand-up event might do. Losing audience members is not in their best interests. If someone appears skittish or unwilling to become a part of the show, he or she is mercifully spared.

What Gina’s brand of improvisational comedy doesn’t do is ridicule. What it does do is teach participants quick thinking and group solidarity. Everyone is there to support everyone else. When someone is foundering, another performer steps in to pick up the slack. It’s really very uplifting to watch. A true mentor, Gina nurtures the strengths of her comedians, but encourages them to expand. She is not above forcing a performer into a key role in a game or exercise they don’t enjoy.

In the currently running show, “Whose Beach is it Anyway?” CIC uses inspiration from BBC’s “Whose Line is it Anyway?” to structure short skits around suggestions from the audience. The platform is equal opportunity, poking fun at the tourists who fill Myrtle Beach hotels and clog its streets as well as the locals who hold up the grocery line looking for discounts. Let me stress, however, that the show is intended to remain as clean as possible. An all-ages affair, obscenities and anything more risque than word-plays or innuendo will be rejected out of hand. ”I want to avoid all that usual gynecologist, proctologist B.S.,” Gina says matter-of-factly during the pre-show pep talk with tonight’s performers.

This also elevates the comedic form from the profane and banal to something more transcendent and cerebral. CIC maintains a class level, and therefore makes participants work harder to find the comedy in a situation. Crudity and low blows don’t make the cut. Really, it’s somewhat of an understatement to employ the tag line used by carolinaimprov.com: “The only place in Myrtle Beach for Improv.” It may be the only place, but it’s also the best, and likely to stay that way due to the enthusiasm and commitment of those involved. In a recent Facebook post for the troupe (you can become a fan of Carolina Improve Company’s page) Gina jokingly refers to “that other place,” presumably the Comedy Cabana. And she is in fact giving the former “only place” for comedy in Myrtle Beach a run for their money. Gina is the proverbial yeast in the brew of local comedy. She is creating new tastes. We no longer have to settle for just domestic.

Gina notes, “(I) thought I’d have a hard time finding talent, but our players could rival a big city anytime.” She is quick to drop gimmicks that don’t work (“I think that’s a copout, man”), and demands a constantly improving standard.

I am curious as to whether themes, and consequently whole riffs, don’t get repeated onstage. Every time they do a skit on outlet shoppers, doesn’t it go the same way? “No,” insists Mike Ritchie, a regular comedian featured. “The scenes are never the same.” Adds Marilou Cook, a former theater instructor, “We never wanna fall into the same routine. The beauty of improv is that it just happens right there in the moment.” Jessica Kristich, a repeat attendee, confirms that the shows are alive and moving. “For sure,” she says, “it’s always new. It really depends on the audience.”

Currently, shows are performed Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $10 ($8 for children) or at a discounted rate online at carolinaimprov.com. Visit the Web site or check out the Facebook page for more information on Gina, her classes, and her inspiring project.

Categories

Offbeat   Entertainment   Visitor Info   Family attractions   Myrtle Beach Area   Blog