Bill Chott coaches comedy pros in L.A. but lives—and teaches—in South City. Thomas Crone investigates his “Improv Trick” method and other funny business
Photograph by Thomas Crone
On a brisk winter evening, about 20 students filter into Floored, a yoga studio and dance-rehearsal space on South Grand. Just inside the doorway, actor Bill Chott plays a demo reel of his comedic work, clips culled from TV shows, B-movies and his near-star turn in the Johnny Knoxville vehicle The Ringer. He’s introducing himself to newcomers, greeting returnees, fielding questions about the running tape and collecting checks, never ceasing his banter in the tiny entryway.
Eventually enough bodies are packed into the little studio that students spill into the main work space, sitting on the floor or leaning against the mirrored walls, some chatting in pairs.
It’s definitely the first night of a class; that you can tell. It’s the Improv Trick Beginner’s Workshop, a four-weekend affair for a mixed bag of stand-up comics, theater students and teachers, experienced improv-ers and outright newbies. Tonight there’s just a hint of tension in the air.
Chott calls the group to attention, asks the students to form a large circle and starts them playing games. Imaginary red and yellow balls are tossed. Students become mermaids, trucks and the iconic logo of Charlie’s Angels. Poses are struck and unstruck; scenes are frozen. Even for those without a theatrical background, Chott breaks the drill into the simplest possible components, quickly easing whatever worry’s left in the air.
“You take someone’s personal energy and you work it,” Chott says of his “Improv Trick” concept. “Everyone knows how to play—you know to do that when you’re 5 years old. I’m just saying, ‘Yeah, it’s OK to do that.’ Sometimes it’s just getting over that hump of being in front of people. Once they find out, it’s ‘Oh, that’s what it is. I’m supposed to have butterflies? To feel like I’ll vomit? Oh.’ I feel that all the time.”
In addition to teaching in St. Louis—as of March, Laughs on the Landing will serve as his base—Chott regularly flies to Los Angeles and Chicago, coaching working pros and corporate clients. In January—pilot season in the television world—he made the casting rounds, slipping in time as both a teacher and performer (even if you don’t know Chott by sight, you may recognize his voice—he was the announcer for Robert Smigel’s “Ambiguously Gay Duo” animated shorts for Saturday Night Live).
Though Chott cut his teeth in local improv circles, he did wonder how he’d be received on his return from a professional sojourn in L.A. “People have been very welcoming,” he says with relief. “I think it’s like any other creative community: People who want to create one, create one, and people who want to play in a vacuum, play in a vacuum.”
St. Louis, of course, has a long history of improvisational theater; the old Gaslight Square district spawned such nationally known artists as Elaine May and Mike Nichols. Their Compass Players would eventually resettle in Chicago as the famed Second City (of which Chott was a member, back in the ’90s). And now Chott is planning a new “St. Louis style”: “It will be very character-heavy, very music-heavy ... I’d love for that to be my legacy.”
His legacy may come in fits and starts as he juggles out-of-town commitments, but he never allows himself a bad day in the presence of students.
“I want it to be a safe space to create, to draw that out of people,” Chott says, “and that’s something I didn’t realize until I started teaching. I really enjoy improvising, but I also really enjoy drawing it out of people. It’s a click, and they see it, they get it.”
Everyone, Bill?
“There are just some people you can’t turn around.” Pause. “I haven’t met any of them, yet.”
For more information about the Improv Trick—and Bill Chott—visit theimprovtrick.com.
