Tami Sagher 7/26/06 Part 1
Tami Sagher started performing improv in the early 90's with the University of Chicago's 'Off, Off Campus.' She soon after performed with 'Boom Chicago,' the IO teams 'Jane' and 'Georgia Pacific,' and with the Second City Touring Company and ETC cast. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she performs with 'Cog' at IOWest and has been a writer or producer on MadTV for the last 5 seasons.
JF: Where were you born?
TS: I was born in Israel.
JF: Oh really? Where in Israel? In the city or in the countryside?
TS: In a city called Rehovet. It's where the Weisman Institute is. It's kind of like a M.I.T.-like University.
JF: So what was it like growing up there?
TS: Well, we moved when I was 3, so I don't really remember. My extended family still lives there. All my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins still live there.
JF: Where did you move to? Where did you spend most of your time as a kid?
TS: Chicago.
JF: Oh, ok. So what were some early influences on your scene of humor?
TS: Definitely my parents. They took me to Second City as a kid. I was way too young for it. They loved comedy, liked John Cleese and stuff.
JF: What kind of sense of humor did they have? Were they goofy or were they more dry or something?
TS: My dad is really funny, and he loves to tell jokes and he loves puns. He's not so much goofy, but he's more animated than dry. Gilbert and Sullivan was always on in our house.
JF: Do you find that he's brushed off on any of your own comedy?
TS: Yeah, absolutely, but moreso on my personality. Like I'll make inappropriate remarks in social settings, and I'll be like 'oh that's what my dad would do, when people would get mad at him.'
JF: When did you know that you wanted to be a performer or a comedian?
TS: I had vague fantasies of it growing up, but it really happened when I was in college and I got involved in the college improv troupe.
JF: Where did you go to college?
TS: I went to the University of Chicago and the improv group there was called 'Off Off Campus' and it was founded by Bernie Sahlins, who was the original producer for Second City. He came back like 20 years ago and taught an improv class and that spawned the group Off Off Campus. Every year after that they would hold auditions and kind of train the next generation.
JF: What had you been doing up until that time? What were some of your interests?
TS: My big interest was Mathematics. That's what my degree is in. That's what I was studying in school.
JF: Did you have any inkling that you were going to comedy or something artistic?
TS: I wasn't sure. I didn't really dare to hope it, because to be a mathematician or academic you kind of have to have this kind of singular focus. But I did always write through everything. And I had these spurts of performing that gave me hope. But in High School I never got a part, the couple times I got to audition I never got anything.
JF: What was your experience like in Off Off Campus? Was it like a typical college troupe or was it more professional because you guys had such a close connection with Second City?
TS: It wasn't so much professional in that sense, although I think they have more of a connection now, in the past few years. People get to be interns at Second City now. We didn't really have that. U of C doesn't have a theater program. It has a student run program. So it was much more guerilla. We did everything. We created our own shows. In that sense it was great, because you got to do it all. And we did a private little show for Bernie Sahlins. I can't even remember the exact circumstances. We knew he would be in the audience. There were maybe a dozen people there. And he tore us to shreads, absolutely ripped us apart. Then somebody had the smarts to ask him if he would come in and direct us. There must have been some special occasion that we were supposed to perform at. And he did. He came in and he directed us. That was an amazing experience. That was my first inkling that what we did was significant.
I think my big struggle, and I had a lot of struggles in doing it, but my big struggle was 'why?' And he said 'people go to the theater because they want to see how to live.' Something like that. And it suddenly it seemed not trivial or indulgent anymore. And he directed the fuck out of us. Then we did this show and he was really proud of us and that was a big deal.
JF: So what were some of the things that he would stress or some of the things that he would try to improve upon?
TS: Honestly, I think he only met with us 2 or 3 times. [He challenged us in] how we played it. There was a sketch that this guy Dennis O'Brien wrote and it was really brilliant. It was in front of a computer I think. [Bernie] just had us play it so much more real. He had us play moments instead of laughs. Because we didn't have outside training, you get some bad habits ingrained, and he just brute forced them out of us.
JF: So how did you continue with improv?
TS: I started taking classes at Second City clandestinely. I wasn't supposed to be doing it.
JF: Why?
TS: My parents were really opposed. It's kind of a long story. I took classes Saturday morning at Second City, and that was great. I got to work with Don DePollo, who unfortunately has passed away, and then Martin DeMaat, who was also fantastic and also who unfortunately has passed away. Both of them were really encouraging. Martin even helped me [get an internship.] I think for a while I typed up notes or something so that I could help pay for the classes that way. So every Saturday morning I'd get on the bus and head up north and do that.
JF: Is this at the Chicago center?
TS: Yeah.
JF: So what were those early classes like?
TS: They were good. They were not yet what I wanted to do. There was a group, I'm sure you heard of it, called Jazz Freddy. A group of us from Off Off Campus went and saw them perform and it blew our minds. It was long-form done so gorgeously, with such intelligence and beauty. That's what I really wanted to do, but I had no idea how to go about doing that. So at Second City those beginning classes weren't that, but they were starting to connect to a community, something bigger. It was just tapping into that that was a big deal.
JF: This was around 91 or so?
TS: No, this was around 94, because I was just starting college around 91.
JF: Did anything come of your time with Second City and did you study at Improv Olympic as well?
TS: Yeah, I did. I took classes at Second City, then in 95 I got hired for Boom Chicago.
JF: Wow, that was really quick.
TS: Yeah, I'd been doing improv in college in college since 93. It was about 92 or 93. No, 93. So it was pretty quick. And this was only their 3rd year doing it. So it was only 6 months long. I hadn't finished college yet, so I had to go back in the winter quarter to finish. When I was at Boom Chicago, there were a lot of people from Improv Olympic there. They were telling me I should take classes. I must have been at Boom from April to October of 95. So I got back to Chicago and I still had to take level 4 and 5 at Second City. I had taken levels 1, 2 and 3. And I called up Charna to take classes at IO and she said they were full and I'd have to wait a few months. Then I went to the level 4 at Second City, and I really loved my group that I went through level 1, 2 and 3 with. Now I was with a new group and it was just with a horrible teacher. I had good experiences with my teachers at Second City like I said. I had Don Depollo and Martin DeMaat and oh shit what's his name? It will come to me later. But really terrific people. But then they had this guy, I think Ed [Herbstman] even mentioned him in the interview, that Cary Goldberg or something.
JF: [laughs] Wow, people are not afraid to mention this guy by name.
TS: Has anyone else beside Ed mentioned him?
JF: No, but I'm just surprised.
TS: Well, he was such a bad teacher. Maybe that's not really politik for me to say. But I had given up so much to do improv. There's a long story with what I went through with my family. But I sacraficed a lot to do improv. And to have that be my one outlet a week? I called up Charna and I cried. I said 'if this is the only improv I get to do I will go insane.' I think she took pity on me, and probably also enjoyed the Second City bashing, so she let me into her class. And that was terrific. I got put on a team there with some other great people and it was called Georgia Pacific, and that was an amazing experience. So I ended up dropping out of Second City. I never did do a level 5 show, because I was getting so much more out of the IO experience, and I really, really was hating that level 4 class. Then at IO Georgia Pacific quickly became a really tight group. Then Stephanie Weir and Katie, back then her name was Mahaffey, now it's Katie Roberts, they formed a team named Jane and they asked me to join and that was a real turning point for me in terms of what you could do with improv.
JF: What was your time in Boom Chicago like? Had they started using video yet? Were they really popular?
TS: We didn't do any video. I don't even think we used slides or anything. We did use Rock, that was a big thing. We had to do something called ('krompf),' which is a Dutch word, which basically means we had to go and hand out these brochures. It was a really brilliant marketing strategy that Andrew Moskos and Jon Rosenfeld came up with, which was that it was this really sleek 10 page guide to Amsterdam that we gave out free and the last 2 pages were about the theater. It had a really good map of Amsterdam and it was written by these witty, funny guys. So you'd hand these out and also talk up the theater. You had to do that for 2 hours for every show you were in. I think I performed 5 shows a week, so I had to (krompf) 10 hours. And I was terrible at it. I hated it. I wasn't very good, then by the end of the summer I was doing payroll. That only took me like 2 hours, so I still had to go out and (krompf) for 8 hours. [laughs] That's probably not what you meant when you asked me about Boom Chicago. It was really cool because the theater was really finding itself. It had gone from in the beginning being totally tourist supported to the Dutch were really getting into it too. It was great to be in a professional environment. It was really fun, and I have some really good friends who I was there with 11 years ago.
JF: Where were you born?
TS: I was born in Israel.
JF: Oh really? Where in Israel? In the city or in the countryside?
TS: In a city called Rehovet. It's where the Weisman Institute is. It's kind of like a M.I.T.-like University.
JF: So what was it like growing up there?
TS: Well, we moved when I was 3, so I don't really remember. My extended family still lives there. All my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins still live there.
JF: Where did you move to? Where did you spend most of your time as a kid?
TS: Chicago.
JF: Oh, ok. So what were some early influences on your scene of humor?
TS: Definitely my parents. They took me to Second City as a kid. I was way too young for it. They loved comedy, liked John Cleese and stuff.
JF: What kind of sense of humor did they have? Were they goofy or were they more dry or something?
TS: My dad is really funny, and he loves to tell jokes and he loves puns. He's not so much goofy, but he's more animated than dry. Gilbert and Sullivan was always on in our house.
JF: Do you find that he's brushed off on any of your own comedy?
TS: Yeah, absolutely, but moreso on my personality. Like I'll make inappropriate remarks in social settings, and I'll be like 'oh that's what my dad would do, when people would get mad at him.'
JF: When did you know that you wanted to be a performer or a comedian?
TS: I had vague fantasies of it growing up, but it really happened when I was in college and I got involved in the college improv troupe.
JF: Where did you go to college?
TS: I went to the University of Chicago and the improv group there was called 'Off Off Campus' and it was founded by Bernie Sahlins, who was the original producer for Second City. He came back like 20 years ago and taught an improv class and that spawned the group Off Off Campus. Every year after that they would hold auditions and kind of train the next generation.
JF: What had you been doing up until that time? What were some of your interests?
TS: My big interest was Mathematics. That's what my degree is in. That's what I was studying in school.
JF: Did you have any inkling that you were going to comedy or something artistic?
TS: I wasn't sure. I didn't really dare to hope it, because to be a mathematician or academic you kind of have to have this kind of singular focus. But I did always write through everything. And I had these spurts of performing that gave me hope. But in High School I never got a part, the couple times I got to audition I never got anything.
JF: What was your experience like in Off Off Campus? Was it like a typical college troupe or was it more professional because you guys had such a close connection with Second City?
TS: It wasn't so much professional in that sense, although I think they have more of a connection now, in the past few years. People get to be interns at Second City now. We didn't really have that. U of C doesn't have a theater program. It has a student run program. So it was much more guerilla. We did everything. We created our own shows. In that sense it was great, because you got to do it all. And we did a private little show for Bernie Sahlins. I can't even remember the exact circumstances. We knew he would be in the audience. There were maybe a dozen people there. And he tore us to shreads, absolutely ripped us apart. Then somebody had the smarts to ask him if he would come in and direct us. There must have been some special occasion that we were supposed to perform at. And he did. He came in and he directed us. That was an amazing experience. That was my first inkling that what we did was significant.
I think my big struggle, and I had a lot of struggles in doing it, but my big struggle was 'why?' And he said 'people go to the theater because they want to see how to live.' Something like that. And it suddenly it seemed not trivial or indulgent anymore. And he directed the fuck out of us. Then we did this show and he was really proud of us and that was a big deal.
JF: So what were some of the things that he would stress or some of the things that he would try to improve upon?
TS: Honestly, I think he only met with us 2 or 3 times. [He challenged us in] how we played it. There was a sketch that this guy Dennis O'Brien wrote and it was really brilliant. It was in front of a computer I think. [Bernie] just had us play it so much more real. He had us play moments instead of laughs. Because we didn't have outside training, you get some bad habits ingrained, and he just brute forced them out of us.
JF: So how did you continue with improv?
TS: I started taking classes at Second City clandestinely. I wasn't supposed to be doing it.
JF: Why?
TS: My parents were really opposed. It's kind of a long story. I took classes Saturday morning at Second City, and that was great. I got to work with Don DePollo, who unfortunately has passed away, and then Martin DeMaat, who was also fantastic and also who unfortunately has passed away. Both of them were really encouraging. Martin even helped me [get an internship.] I think for a while I typed up notes or something so that I could help pay for the classes that way. So every Saturday morning I'd get on the bus and head up north and do that.
JF: Is this at the Chicago center?
TS: Yeah.
JF: So what were those early classes like?
TS: They were good. They were not yet what I wanted to do. There was a group, I'm sure you heard of it, called Jazz Freddy. A group of us from Off Off Campus went and saw them perform and it blew our minds. It was long-form done so gorgeously, with such intelligence and beauty. That's what I really wanted to do, but I had no idea how to go about doing that. So at Second City those beginning classes weren't that, but they were starting to connect to a community, something bigger. It was just tapping into that that was a big deal.
JF: This was around 91 or so?
TS: No, this was around 94, because I was just starting college around 91.
JF: Did anything come of your time with Second City and did you study at Improv Olympic as well?
TS: Yeah, I did. I took classes at Second City, then in 95 I got hired for Boom Chicago.
JF: Wow, that was really quick.
TS: Yeah, I'd been doing improv in college in college since 93. It was about 92 or 93. No, 93. So it was pretty quick. And this was only their 3rd year doing it. So it was only 6 months long. I hadn't finished college yet, so I had to go back in the winter quarter to finish. When I was at Boom Chicago, there were a lot of people from Improv Olympic there. They were telling me I should take classes. I must have been at Boom from April to October of 95. So I got back to Chicago and I still had to take level 4 and 5 at Second City. I had taken levels 1, 2 and 3. And I called up Charna to take classes at IO and she said they were full and I'd have to wait a few months. Then I went to the level 4 at Second City, and I really loved my group that I went through level 1, 2 and 3 with. Now I was with a new group and it was just with a horrible teacher. I had good experiences with my teachers at Second City like I said. I had Don Depollo and Martin DeMaat and oh shit what's his name? It will come to me later. But really terrific people. But then they had this guy, I think Ed [Herbstman] even mentioned him in the interview, that Cary Goldberg or something.
JF: [laughs] Wow, people are not afraid to mention this guy by name.
TS: Has anyone else beside Ed mentioned him?
JF: No, but I'm just surprised.
TS: Well, he was such a bad teacher. Maybe that's not really politik for me to say. But I had given up so much to do improv. There's a long story with what I went through with my family. But I sacraficed a lot to do improv. And to have that be my one outlet a week? I called up Charna and I cried. I said 'if this is the only improv I get to do I will go insane.' I think she took pity on me, and probably also enjoyed the Second City bashing, so she let me into her class. And that was terrific. I got put on a team there with some other great people and it was called Georgia Pacific, and that was an amazing experience. So I ended up dropping out of Second City. I never did do a level 5 show, because I was getting so much more out of the IO experience, and I really, really was hating that level 4 class. Then at IO Georgia Pacific quickly became a really tight group. Then Stephanie Weir and Katie, back then her name was Mahaffey, now it's Katie Roberts, they formed a team named Jane and they asked me to join and that was a real turning point for me in terms of what you could do with improv.
JF: What was your time in Boom Chicago like? Had they started using video yet? Were they really popular?
TS: We didn't do any video. I don't even think we used slides or anything. We did use Rock, that was a big thing. We had to do something called ('krompf),' which is a Dutch word, which basically means we had to go and hand out these brochures. It was a really brilliant marketing strategy that Andrew Moskos and Jon Rosenfeld came up with, which was that it was this really sleek 10 page guide to Amsterdam that we gave out free and the last 2 pages were about the theater. It had a really good map of Amsterdam and it was written by these witty, funny guys. So you'd hand these out and also talk up the theater. You had to do that for 2 hours for every show you were in. I think I performed 5 shows a week, so I had to (krompf) 10 hours. And I was terrible at it. I hated it. I wasn't very good, then by the end of the summer I was doing payroll. That only took me like 2 hours, so I still had to go out and (krompf) for 8 hours. [laughs] That's probably not what you meant when you asked me about Boom Chicago. It was really cool because the theater was really finding itself. It had gone from in the beginning being totally tourist supported to the Dutch were really getting into it too. It was great to be in a professional environment. It was really fun, and I have some really good friends who I was there with 11 years ago.
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