In Improv, Class Clowns Are Star Students

Shan Makor is no political junkie. Yet while many of his teenage friends are outdoors taking advantage of the last balmy evenings before school brings summer to an end, Makor is holed up in a spartan brick basement fretting over just what makes Ross Perot tick.

“He twitches a lot,” Makor says. “I’ve watched him. And his smile is, like, really big and fake.”

Counters coach Cherie Kerr: “No, no. Perot is very stiff. If his mouth wasn’t moving, I’d think he was dead.”

A few minutes later, Andrea Hough is attempting to nail down exactly which way Heidi Fleiss tosses her hair. She and Makor are aspiring comics and members of the Little Crazies improv ensemble who are working on celebrity parody sketches for the group’s new show, “Jokes? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Jokes.”

The 75-minute production opened last weekend at the Orange County Crazies theater in Santa Ana, where performances continue Sunday evenings through Sept. 15. The content is aimed at preteens through adults.

These five writer-performers, age 14 to 16, have put in 20 hours with Kerr and assistant director Eric Halasz, learning improvisational skills and the basics of sketch writing to prepare this original show.

Kerr and Halasz make few allowances for the age or degrees of inexperience of their charges, who were sweating the kinks out of their comedy sketches before opening night. Kerr, the show’s director, would keep on them, correcting slip-ups in delivery or timing on the spot, and not always gently.

“You need to nail this; you’re not nailing it!” Kerr barked from the shadows of the front row during rehearsal. “You had it last week. Run it again.”

Kerr says the 2-year-old program--a 10-week, two-hour-per-week workshop that costs $100 and for which students must audition--is the only one of its kind in the county.

“Anyone who can study this art form is all the better for it,” said Kerr, who has written books on sketch writing and teaches improv to business executives to sharpen their presentation skills.

“Improv is so good for you mentally; it builds confidence, makes you mentally agile and is good for problem solving and listening skills.

“It’s a very complicated theater form, and there’s so much to be gained from it,” she added. “I think it should be a required subject in school, like P.E.”

Little Crazies member Saygen Davila first met Kerr in an outreach workshop she lead at Willard Elementary School in Santa Ana. Davila was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, and came to the United States four years ago. He enters Santa Ana Valley High School in September.

Flashing a dimpled smile, he said he’s naturally shy but uses his comedy skills to make friends and influence people. Like his mom.

“I like improv because it teaches you spontaneity,” he explained, adding with a laugh, “If I get in trouble, I can give my mom an act, and I’m free!”

The Little Crazies are a mixed group. Davila’s cohorts--Hough, Makor, Stephen Moore and Richard Stuart --have had more formal training and performance experience.

Hough and Makor are students at Orange County High School of the Arts at Los Alamitos High School and have performed in 50 shows between them; Moore’s a musician and actor, and Stuart has worked in TV series and on stage.

The sketches the five have created for “Jokes?” are a mixed bag too. A week before opening night, several routines need work.

Makor said he’s proudest of his ballet-parody sketch because it was inspired by two of his heroes: Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Makor, a fan of Dr. Demento, George Carlin and Tom Lehrer, started performing in the third grade.

He’s found that expressing one’s sense of humor “helps a lot and hurts a lot.

“A lot of my peers don’t understand sophisticated jokes, and I end up coming off as a smart-aleck,” he said. “The other day, I did this bit about how Seattle plans to change its motto to ‘E Pluribus Yuppius E Starbuckius,’ and they just sat there, cold.”

Still, he said, a comedian has to take risks.

“There’s a fine line between what’s funny and what’s inappropriate, and sometimes I step on the line,” he said. “You just have to find your audience.”

* What: The Little Crazies in “Jokes? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Jokes!”

* When: 5:30 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 15.

* Where: Orange County Crazies Theater (in the Pacific Symphony Center), 115 E. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana.

* Whereabouts: From the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, exit at Main and drive south to Civic Center Drive. Turn left on Civic Center, right on Bush Street.

* Wherewithal: $8. Tickets sold at the door.

* Where to call: (714) 550-9900.