Improv Insights with No Bears Allowed President, Reagan Olenick

For those of you who haven’t belly laughed at a No Bears Allowed (NBA) show before, NBA is FSU’s one and only comedy improvisation group run by students. Reagan Olenick, who will receive her master’s degree at the end of this year, has been devoted to the NBA team for three years. She worked her way up from vice president and is now president this semester! Her responsibilities include coaching NBA’s Level 1 workshops and the performance team. I recently got the chance to interview Reagan and asked about her love for comedy along with her experiences with NBA.

Her Campus (HC): Who are your comedic inspirations? What techniques of theirs have you utilized to create your own style?

Reagan Olenick (RO): There are too many! Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kerri Kenney-Silver (and the rest of The State), Conan O’Brien, Billy Eichner and Liz Meriwether. Something I appreciate about all of them is how unapologetically weird they are. You can tell so many interesting stories when you stop trying to be normal.

HC: Since NBA shows are improvised, how do you mentally and physically prepare for a performance?

RO: Before a show, we do a little thing where we touch each other’s backs and tell each other “I got your back.” We talk trash about ourselves, which gets all our doubts out and builds up to a big explosion of enthusiasm. Each long-form team has its own way of warming up; mine does a tricky one where we count from one to ten and do the alphabet from A-J simultaneously without speaking over each other. If we do, we start over. We don’t like getting frustrated every time we mess up, so we cheer when we start over and get angry when we finally get it. It really pumps up the energy.

HC: What’s it like being on stage? How do you come up with your next lines? Do you just go with what comes to mind first?

RO: For me, being on stage is exhilarating. I love being in front of an audience and find that I perform best with a crowd watching me. There is an aspect of improv called ‘game’, which we establish during a scene and can inspire ideas. Often, I just go with what comes to mind first. It’s all rooted in who I am as a character, what my relationships are with the other characters, what our objective is and how we can build the world we’re existing in.

HC: What’s the most difficult aspect of doing improv? What’s the easiest?

RO: The most difficult part of doing improv is keeping the scene moving and figuring out where you want to take it. Sometimes you just don’t know what part of the world to explore, or how you relate to your scene partner. We have rules because they provide a loose structure so that the scene can fully develop. It’s so much easier when you’re comfortable with your team and scene partner; you can tell what they need at any given moment and vice versa. I wouldn’t say any one part is easy, but worldbuilding comes very naturally to me. I love to establish the space and figure out how I interact with it and the world beyond the scene.

HC: Are there any jokes or scenes you remember that still make you laugh when you think about them?

RO: One of my favorite scenes was one that we did at the Florida Improv Festival at UF recently. I was a child who was in a car with my divorced parents and their new partners, who they had also dated in the past. My objective was to mess the car up, to both the chagrin and encouragement of the four parental figures surrounding me. At some point, I poured sand in the backseat and rerouted us to the circus.

HC: Has improv taught you any important life lessons?

RO: I think every person should live their life under the most cited rule of improv, “yes, and.” Taking opportunities and turning them into something more is how I clawed my way into Friday Night Live’s cast. It’s something I take with me in every part of my life, and it doesn’t have to be applied only to giant opportunities. Yes, you exist in this moment, and you can do anything you want.

My favorite tenet of improv is “play with love.” A personal motto of mine is that you shouldn’t go anywhere and not try to have a good time, and this principle connects with it so beautifully. I’m always trying to have a good time, and I’ve realized that what I’m doing is playing life with love. Life is the wildest adventure any of us will ever go on, so why not play it with love and try to have a good time?

HC: Why should students audition for No Bears Allowed? Why shouldn’t they? What qualities do you look for?

RO: Students should audition for No Bears if they’re ready to take their improv skills to the next level. We audition for our performance team and Level 2 workshops, but we offer open Level 1 workshops to anyone who wants to come out and have fun! We do a few jams before auditions to prepare, and during auditions, we look to see how you understand improv and what kind of improviser you are. There are no specifics; we put people in whichever level they will learn and grow best in. There isn’t any quality that would make me say someone shouldn’t audition, but intention matters. Improv is fun but we do take it seriously. Our Level 1 workshops are more relaxed and being an audience member is none of the commitment with all the laughs!

NBA’s next event is their Tallahassee Comedy Marathon coming up on April 23!

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