John Feightner

Actor

That guy at the door

I remember seeing the original Batman movie in theaters as a little boy.  Still too young for horror and violence, I have a clear memory of covering my eyes when the Joker uses his joy-buzzer to electrify some no name crook for questioning his authority.

It’s weird to think that the show I am now so invested in was taking its first steps out of the primordial ooze that same year.  It’s also weird to think that Heath Ledger is now the Joker.

After surviving Y2k, I went off to college and happened upon a poster of the 50 Foot Woman trashing a downtown metropolis and the word “Improvs” emblazoned across the top.  Years raised on MST3K and “Whose Line is It Anyway?” made me pause (I was such a nerd back then.  Wait, no…still am).  It was an advertisement for Friday Nite Improvs.  This was only my second day on campus.  I’ve been going to the show ever since.  I’ve pulled roommates, classmates, and family members along for the ride.  Hell, after barely three years I was taking the money at the door.  I clearly can’t get enough.

I’ve seen the audiences wax, wan, and wax again.  I’ve seen us put on the show in dingy classrooms and immaculate new theater spaces. I’ve seen regular performers come and go.  The incoming freshmen are now as old or even younger than the show they’ve come to see.  That’s weird and exciting all at once.  The freshmen will be mixing with the seniors and the older riff-raff.  Fresh eyes and new ideas.  I’ve been watching FNI for seven years and there are still surprises in the old girl yet. 

I’ve been acting professionally in Pittsburgh for about three years now.  Despite that “professional” tag-line and the actual advertising budget, I still get recognized on the street more for Improvs than anything else.  It’s nice to think I’m a part of something as small but as well-known as this two-penny amateur hour put on in a basement every Friday night.  A Pittsburgh institution if you fudge the math just right.  And despite seeing several professional improv troupes here, there, and everywhere else, there is still an energetic charge at FNI that hasn’t been captured anywhere else.

Perhaps it’s the impossibility of the task.  A room full of fools with nothing better to do on a Friday night trying to put together a show without actors.  Just a host and an idea.  An idea that anyone, any Joe or Jill Six-Pack off the street, can be funny if given the chance.  Just put ‘em in a room and shake well.  Sure it can all go horribly wrong (and has) but even if there’s one single moment of brilliance, it lasts and is ten times funnier than anything planned could possible be.  It’s way off track.  There’s no formula for it.  It just happens.  One moment of reality not plastic molded, pre-packaged, rubber stamped, and approved for all audiences.  Ooo, ooo, it’s electric!  Boogie-oogie-oogie!