I am the Skull of Del Close, I am the sole mortal remains of one of modern improv's founding fathers. There is not a comedy show in existence today that has not in some way been touched by Del and the principles that he taught. He is considered to be one of the conerstones in what is widely considered to be the Holy Trinity of improv,( Viola Spolin, Paul Sills, Del Close.) Del lead an interesting life, way too much to detail it all here, but let me tell you a bit about his life. He was born in Manhattan, Kansas on March 9th, 1934. He was a cousin to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who often joined the family for Thanksgiving dinners. Being the restless sort, he ran away from home at age 17 to join a traveling roadshow called Dr. Dracula's Magic Horror show. He performed as a fire-eater with the show, a skill he would fall back on later in other shows. Later he would attend Kansas State University. He worked at one time in the 1950's as a dreamer for the US government. After leaving this position, he received an invoice from Uncle Sam claiming that he still owed the US taxpayers 2 dreams! In 1957, he made his way to St. Louis where he joined the Local branch of the Compass players. The Compass players would later become what is known today as Second City. While most of the St. Louis cast headed to Chicago, Del opted to go to New York City, where he honed his skills as a hipster comic. He finally came to Chicago in 1960, where he joined Bernie Sahlins, Howard Alk, and Paul Sills, who had founded Second City in 1959. He directed and performed here until 1965, when his enthusiam for ingesting foreign substances was not shared with equal vigor by his Second City Colleagues. So he went off to San Francisco, a city that better tolerated his passions. It was while he was in San Francisco as a member of Bay Area comedy group, "The Committee " that he began to develope "The Harold" . "The Harold" is essentially an exercise in long-form improv. It involves 3 acts over the course of thirty minutes that involves seemingly disjointed parts. It is up to the skill of the student to join all of the parts together by the end of the exercise. He would continue to perfect this exercise for the remainder of his life. It was "The Harold" that would come to define Del, and his contributions to the world of comedy. Amongst his San Francisco highlights were doing light shows for the Grateful Dead, Rooming with legendary counter-culture figure, Wavy Gravy, and touring on the psyhedelic bus in 1968 as one of the Merry Pranksters. In 1970, Del returned again to Chicago. He started doing Improv workshops at the Kingston Mines cafe on Lincoln avenue. In 1973, he returned to Second City as artistic director. It was during that time that he trained a wide arrray of talented young actors that are household names today. He remained at Second city until 1982. In 1984, he teamed with the equally legendary Charna Halpern, who had opened The Improv Olympic 4 years earlier. Like The Second City, Improv Olympic quickly began producing an impressive body of alumni. The Improv Olympic continues in operation under the direction of Charna in it's current incarnation as IO. During the 1980's, Del began to make more regular appearances on the big screen in a number of roles. His filmography can best be viewed at the IMDB. He also managed to stun many of his critics and naysayers with an impressive turn as Polonius in a 1985 production of Hamlet directed by Robert Falls at The Wisdom Bridge theater. It was this performance that landed him a Joeseph Jefferson award. He continued performing in other notable productions , as well as continuing in his duties as an instructor at the Improv Olympic. Del was also a co-founder of the Psychotronic Film Society along with Brian Thomas and Michael Flores. By the mid 1990's, his reckless lifestyle as a young person had begun to take a serious toll on his health. He developed emphysema, and had to breathe with the aid of an oxygen bottle. Despite this, he never did give up getting high. He was hopitalized in March of 1999 with complications from the illness. Sensing that he would never leave the hospital,he decided to host his own wake/farewell party the night before he succumbed to emphysema. Many notable figures from his past were in attendance, including Bill Murray, who paid all the expenses for the party. (He must have felt that Del's prospects for future earnings were bleak!) He died the day after the party on March 4. 1999. He had remarked to the Doctor that he "was tired of being the funniest one in the room". Not content to leave performing behind entirely, he directed in his will that i be removed and placed in permanent residency at the Goodman Theater. He stipulated in his will that i shall receive credit for my portrayal of Yorick in all future productions of Hamlet.
DEL'S ALUMNI CLUB
"It's a grim business, this being funny. Every time you come up with a strong satiric idea, the world tops it. None of our reactionary military characters in the past decade could top the real-life line that came out of Vietnam: 'We had to destroy the village in order to save it.'"
Del Close
OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST:
IO ChIcago
IMPROVRESOURCECENTER
AndyDick.COM
UprightCitizens.org
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