The Harold is a famous improv format pioneered by our inspiration Del Close. The Harold Interviews is an series of interviews following a similar format with some of Improv’s most notable performers from all over the world. Welcome our latest interviewee, Craig Cackowski!

THE NEW MOVEMENT: What’s the best improv show you’ve ever seen?
Craig Cackowski: I’ve seen many great shows over the years, but, to me, even the best shows will never compare to the shows you see with a newbie’s eyes, those shows that make you think, “But this can’t possibly be improvised! This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen! These are the coolest people on earth! I want them to be my friends!” Those are the shows that hook you into the artform for life, and those shows for me were Jazz Freddy and The Family in Three Mad Rituals, both of which played in Chicago in 1993. Jazz Freddy was classy, slow scenework that played in a real theater, and featured Brian Stack, Kevin Dorff, Dave Koechner, Noah Gregoropoulos, Pat Finn, Rachel Dratch, Miriam Tolan, Pete Gardner and many other greats. Three Mad Rituals was the Family doing a Deconstruction, a Movie, and a Harold, in that order, all off of one suggestion. It went an hour and a half and had an intermission. The Family were an iO house team consisting of Ian Roberts, Matt Besser, Adam McKay, Neil Flynn, Ali Fahrahnakian, and Miles Stroth.

TNM: Describe your experience watching your first improv show.
CC: I was a college freshman at William and Mary, and I.T., the W & M troupe, did a show in the middle of the day at our Student Center. It was all short-form, but, again, I thought these were the coolest people on earth and I wanted to be their friends. I didn’t get into the group ’til my junior year, but that day kicked off a 20-year love affair with improv.

TNM:What made you start doing improv?
CC: Mostly, my friends who were in I.T. thought I would be good at it and pressured me to audition. I was scared shitless and tanked my first audition. It wasn’t until I was in the group for several months that I had any inclination that I was any good at it. So I guess the answer is I was forced to do it by people who thought I was funny!

TNM: What’s the best improv show you’ve ever done?
CC: My three-man show Dasariski tapes (nearly) all of our improv shows, and we transcribe the ones we really like into written material, but that’s pretty much a guarantee that we’ll deliver our best show when the camera’s not there. We did a show at the Del Close Marathon a couple years ago when I was a widow and Bob and Rich were my adult sons, and I had had a lifetime affair with a Chinese restaurateur, Mr. Woo, and revealed to them that Mr. Woo was their real dad. Beyond that, the specifics of that show are fuzzy to me, but we just know it was the best show we ever did. In a way, not having that show on tape to re-watch just makes it grow in reputation in our minds, and is more in the true spirit of improv, which is a (hopefully) electric moment shared together by performer and audience. When that moment is over, all we have left is the memories of that communal experience.

TNM: Describe the experience performing in your first improv show.
CC: I believe I shit my pants.

TNM: What makes you continue doing improv?
CC: Other than the CRAZY MONEY? The fact that any time you take the stage, it might be the greatest thing that you’ve ever done in your life, and that anybody has ever seen. Most of the time it’s not, but when it is, you never forget it.

Craig Cackowski is a monster of the national improv scene and seeing him perform whenever you can is HIGHLY recommended. He’s usually in Los Angles at the iO theater.