The Improv Summit was held on January 29 at Improv Olympic. It was a panel discussion run in conjunction with the Loyola Improv Educators Program. Panelists included Charna Halpern (IO), Mick Napier (The Annoyance/Second City), Susan Messing (The Annoyance), Jimmy Carrane (IO), and Matt Elwell (Comedy Sportz). The discussion was moderated by Jason Chin.

The Del Close Theater was packed mostly with young improvisers; in keeping with our generation's cutthroat yuppie ways, the theme of the evening seemed to be "How do we do the right thing?" with improv.

Are we spreading ourselves too thin? Is Chicago the right place to be? Is hoping to make money in Hollywood selling out? How can we get better? How can we sell out? Will getting better prepare us to sell out? By the way, what is selling out?

The burning question on many people's minds: "Am I going to be a temp the rest of my f*cking life?"

No one asked that question, but we all might as well have. It is a legitimately inescapable fear that this work will not pay off. Will you hate improv if you're 55 and working at the front desk of a law office? Are we training to win the lottery?

Perhaps. But it helps to identify what the Chicago community has to offer. Jimmy Carrane said "For better or worse, Chicago is an artists' community. For better, it's process. For worse, it's process."

Yes. There is so much to learn as an artist and improviser in Chicago. All artistic work is mostly process anyway. The comfort of this creative incubator is actually the best thing about the city. However, it's admittedly easy to get a little too comfortable. Everyone is on a team. Everyone is hanging out at the bar. Sure, people are making progress, but there's a whole lot of lateral movement. A life of lateral movement is not the life for me.

Mick pointed out that "just because you are in a process oriented community doesn't mean you can't have goals." Goals! Well, there it is. Here's a goal: upward movement, whatever that means. If one is looking to take it to the next level and make it a career, one must identify the goal and focus the process.

If what one wants is a product-driven career of creativity that incorporates improv, Messing says "Improv [itself] is not going to take you there."

So, what will?

Charna quickly brought up the importance of The Packet. The elusive Writing Packet that everyone should have in their bag, but almost no one does. Charna noted that John Lutz was scouted in an improv show but had his Packet ready when they asked for it (inevitable). On the flipside, those hired off of the Mainstage at Second City (like Tina Fey) were found in a scripted show that they wrote. In essence: be ready on your own for the break because if it happens at all it will probably only happen once. As Charna said, "A lot of people depend on IO to make it...you can do it yourself." It's a start.

-Mackenzie Condon