Curtis Needs a Ride , Monday, March 26, 2007
Curtis Needs a Ride hails from Fort Worth. They usually come down to Austin about once every 2 months to perform at the Hideout. But despite having successful shows, and fans that make the trek down to see them, they have remained a mystery... until now. We cornered Austin Hines, troupe member, and forced him to give up the goods.DB: Tell us about your troupe.
Austin: Curtis Needs A Ride started as a side project. All four of us are or were in Senseless Acts of Comedy (SAC), the TCU improv troupe in Ft. Worth. Some of us graduated and therefore had to leave SAC, but weren't about to quit improvising. Originally there were only 3 of us in Curtis Needs A Ride but that soon turned to 4 - what we consider a perfect number. We started hitting up some local (and not local) clubs to see where we could perform. Our biggest response has been from The Hideout. We love Austin and the people at the Hideout have all been great. We don't have any "plans" or "goals" for the troupe necessarily, we just love improvising. I don't think we're ever going to get tired of each other, so there's no telling how far we'll take it.
DB: How did you guys get started and how long have you been performing?
Austin: Our eldest improviser has been going now for 5 years, and our youngest for only 1. But if you came to watch a show you'd never guess who had more experience. We all have different strengths and personalities, which makes for some good diversity. Most of us never took improv seriously as an artform until we got to TCU. SAC performs weekly to at least 60 people - and it's not slapstick hour. We all had to work our way through auditions and sometimes two practices a week. We have also all taken classes at Four Day Weekend (Ft. Worth's finest improvisers) for a few years now. The most important thing for us though, is just getting experience working together. We're all friends, we all have a good time performing, but we also all take it very seriously.
DB: What short and longterm goals does Curtis Needs a Ride have? What does the next year hold?
Austin: 3 of us are going to Guatemala for a week with a local Church to build some houses - a very short term goal for us is to perform for some Guatemalans. We don't really speak Spanish, so it will be a good exercise in wherework and emotional adjustments. A longterm goal is to send off some tapes to a few festivals, get accepted and perform in one. Also we'd like a cool logo so we can make some coasters.DB: What's the Fort Worth improv scene like?
Austin: There's not much improv in Ft. Worth. We have Four Day Weekend downtown who have a great theatre and do 4 shows a week, and those guys are very professional. Then there's the TCU troupe which performs a lot, but anyone outside of the TCU bubble probably hasn't had a chance to hear about them. The biggest problem is people don't really think about improv, or even really know what it's all about. If you ask someone to go see an improv show they will probably ask what it is... "You mean, whose line is it anyway"... there's no concept of improv as art. As for us, we can perform at a coffee shop here and there but there aren't any known "improv venues" in the area.
Curtis Needs a Ride is performing in the Double Barrel on Friday March 30, 2007.
They can be found on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/curtisneedsaride
Labels: curtis needs a ride, interview