7/4/2025¹
Hello friends,
Something I do for other classes I teach is write a little note – I like to write it and I like to read it and I hope you like to hear it.
The main thing I have to say to you is “thanks.” I’ve had such a great week with you all. You are funny, kind, creative, and a joy to be around. I’m very impressed with the work you’ve made in such a short time.² I hope you all feel proud because you should.
I hope, also, that you continue to be curious and generous and kind, as I have seen you each be in this workshop. I can hardly remember what my life was like when I was your age.³ But everything good that has happened in my life has come from taking some risks, making connections with people, and offering something of myself. As in comedy, your true self is something so wondrous and fascinating, and when you share that with others you give them an invaluable gift.
I think it’s worthwhile to think back on our first moments together in this room on Monday. It was very, very quiet. Not a lot of eye contact. And now look at us! Constantly yukking it up and scarfing fruit snacks! I think possibly the best moment of this whole week for me was our morning chit chat yesterday, about when we go to bed, 24-hour establishments, our plans for next week. I felt like we were all very good friends on summer vacation. And I guess maybe we are.
I think it’s so funny that possibly more than half of you did not necessarily want to be here at all.4 And you have made such great work and made us all laugh so much. Another good lesson: Your enjoyment in life is directly connected to your participation in life.5
I am glad that I got to know each of you. I wish many exciting adventures, excitements, and good health for you in the near and far future.
As for today’s performance, remember the Three F’s of comedy: Fast, Fun, and Friendly.™6 Enjoy yourselves, this is a celebration of our time together and your wonderful and very weird minds. You are going to blow the audience away.7 Savor all the feelings you have: nervousness, excitement, the feeling of making people laugh, the feeling of failing to do so – it’s all for you to experience, and it will not last.8
Lastly, a while ago I told myself that I was done teaching camps like this. For a few reasons, mostly to do with my own pride, or ego.9 I’m so so so glad that I went back on my word and worked with you all. You’ve started my summer off right. The summer of 2025. The best summer of our lives!
Skeletons are ugly.10
– Chris11
1 You see this date? I was working on Independence Day. Doesn’t matter if it’s a national holiday!! We are out here working at TBG!!!!
2 This group wrote and performed seven sketches in a five-day period. It’s an incredible task for anyone. And a lot of that time was wasted by me babbling on about what I think I know about comedy.
3 I don’t know how it came about – but I recently found an old article from my hometown newspaper – in those days, they would print your homeroom assignment in the paper – and I saw hundreds of kids’ names and their homeroom assignments. Names and people I haven’t thought about for decades now. When I saw their names, there was an onslaught of images and feelings. It’s funny – I liked these people! And I think they liked me! – and they are beyond a distant memory now. But they all came back instantly.
4 About two days into the workshop, I asked the gang why they were here. And one person said, “My mom forced me.” They went on to explain that basically their parent delivered them to TBG and dropped them off. They were not at a place where they were even happy about it yet. And then a few other kids shared a similar story. Imagine you were me. I laughed very hard. I told them I was glad they were here, even if it was under duress.
5 This is something that Doug said at an all-staff meeting, or some approximation of it. The more time I spend with Doug, the more impressed I am with Doug. And this reveals a parallel postulate: My enjoyment of Doug is directly connected to my time spent with Doug.
6 I invented these three F’s about a decade ago, immediately prior to a midnight improv show. I instantly knew it was an important chestnut, and all these years later, it hasn’t caught on. Hopefully this blog will change everything for me. (I think this every blog.)
7 They did.
8 My graduate school program director said something like this on the first day we met as a group: He said, “Right now you are feeling awkward and anxious. You don’t know one another. You’re nervous. Savor this. It will not last. In a few days or weeks, you will be used to each other.” The considerable sum of money I spent on tuition was worth this moment alone.
9 To get into specifics, I was feeling that I was at a point where I was not a cool person, that teens and kids saw me as one of the thousands of old people that populate the background of their lives. This, of course, was very possibly untrue, but it was a story I had begun to tell myself. And the price of having that story in my mind was losing weeks like the one I’ve just had. This time around because I was so damn broke, I signed up for anything I could teach. And that desperation gave me some money, but a treasure greater than money (but not transferable into money): joy.
10 This was a declaration in an improv from a student who had been pretty quiet up to this point, and it set the minds of the class on fire. We laughed hard. And we also spoke about how often there needs to be ugliness in order for there to be beauty, ie, skeletons and internal organs are ugly and gross, but they keep the human on the outside looking sweet.
11 I’m a traditionalist when it comes to letter writing in that I do sign my name at the end.
To take a class with Chris, try the Short Film Creation Workshop starting 9/4!
Check out TBG’s full schedule of classes, including youth options!