Supertown Hotshots: Amateur improv group, heavily influenced by the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway? Six members: four just ending tenth grade, two just ending ninth grade.

Setting: Late August, a suburb somewhere in New York State.

Physical descriptions:

Jake: Medium-height, medium weight. Blond hair in a crew cut.

Callie: Shortish, paleish. Dark brown hair, often pigtailed.

Kara [last name pronounced with 'e' silent]: Medium-height, slim. Long blond hair, usually ponytailed.

Joey [last name pronounced with equal emphasis on both syllables]: Tallish. Brown hair, usually ponytailed. Wears braces.

Laura: Medium-height, medium weight. Brown hair, slightly curly, ending at shoulders, often in a headband. Wears glasses.

Raul: Hispanic. Tall, well-built. Black hair, slightly spiked.

Setup: Jake's brother Michael was going to leave for college a few days after the first few tapings. Wanting to brush up on his interviewing skills, since he planned to be a writer for the college magazine, he decided to take on the Supertown Hotshots as practice before he left. The interview is reproduced here.

Michael Renda: All right, guys, first things first: names and ages.

Jake: Jacob Renda, known as Jake. I'm 16.

Callie: Callie--that's short for Carol Lee--Davidson, age 14. But I'll be 15 in three weeks!

Kara: Kara Boske, age 16.

Joey: Joanne--Joey for short--Presnell, age 16.

Laura: Laura Benwick, age 15.

Raul: Raul Manera, age 17.

Michael: Thanks. Next question: How did the idea for the Supertown Hotshots come up?

Kara: It was mostly Jake and Callie's idea. They're the ones who started watching all the improv stuff first, and infected us this summer. And once we were all familiar with it, they were the ones who brought up the idea of our doing the games ourselves as a group.

Raul: Yeah, they've been the idea people. I mean, if you're wondering who our leader is, it's probably Jake. He just took charge all the way. Callie's probably the second-in-command, but you'd never know it, she's so quiet.

Michael: Yeah, you just stole one of my questions. I was going to ask if you had a leader. But I'll ask a related one: I live with Jake, but I haven't caught on to improv as much as you guys have in the past few months. What picqued your interests so much?

Jake: Well, it was Callie who was the first to get into improv, and from there, she infected me. I came over one day and found her in front of the TV, totally fixated on Whose Line is it Anyway?, and I started watching, and that was that. I guess what caught my interest for the show was that it's just plain incredible. I mean, those guys know what they're doing, and to be so good at making something so funny out of nothing...I wanted to do that. They made it look so easy...and so fun. And it got me into improv in general. The other thing, really, though, was the effect this whole improv thing had on Callie. I mean, we're cousins, not far apart in age, and we've hung around each other for most of our lives, since we've lived so close to each other since I was, like, three. Callie's not shy, really, so much as just quiet, and she's always liked to do mostly quiet-type things. But she would watch Whose Line, and just be more hyper than I'd ever seen her. She'd come alive, and be right there when I came, wanting to watch it, or to play the games from it, or something like that. And it kept doing that to her. I mean, the more she watched, the more she started acting like them...and since most of them are such live wires, she started being more of one, too.

Callie: Well, I never meant to start anything like this, just watching it. I was flipping through the channels once, and the title sounded funny, so I watched it...and I couldn't believe how much I laughed, and how much fun it was. They're all such characters on that show. It kept me watching.

Laura: Well, I'm going with Jake and Callie as far as Whose Line. I like it because of the people--they're so talented. It's just unbelievable. I mean, I know not every game they do works, and that they look so amazing because the games that flop don't make it to the episodes. But to have that many, even, that go right...we're not even close to being there yet, as hard as we try, and we'd be hard pressed to be even, like, an eighth as good as they are. As for improv in general--I guess because it's so fun to do. I always have a great time.

Raul: Yeah. But I like it because it's funny. Whose Line or not, any improv cracks me up. Though it is partly because the people are so amazing.

Kara: I like it because it's funny, too.

Joey: Yeah, me three.

Michael: All right, then. Next question: One of the most amazing things about improv is the incredible chemistry between the performers--the best example of this is probably Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie of Whose Line, who almost seem to be able to read each other's minds. Do you guys have any connections like that--do certain pairings of you just click the way Ryan and Colin seem to, or anything like that? I mean, I'm not asking whether any of you are as good as they are--I'm just asking whether any of you guys have a thing where you can guess during the games where the other one's going before they do.

Kara: I don't think so--not yet. I think one is starting between Jake and Callie, though. I mean, it makes sense--Ryan and Colin have been friends for almost forever, and so have they--but not quite yet. They still have a ways to go, but there's been a couple times--I noticed it when they tried Sound Effects once. That's a very Ryan and Colin thing on Whose Line--in fact, that game in particular is where most people realize how in tune with each other Ryan and Colin are. It's the same with Callie and Jake sometimes--there's a few games where if they're together, sometimes it's just freaky how they know where to go. If another person's in the game, sometimes they just get left in the dust.

Jake: Well, maybe, but it shouldn't be that way. I mean, you're not supposed to just ignore one person because you have a good thing with the other person. We ought to work on not doing that.

Callie: And I--I mean, you're probably right, Kara, but I never really thought of it that way 'til now. I figured that Jake and I could go at it so well just because we'd been at it a little longer. I mean, he and I were the first to try doing the games, and we picked up on it pretty quickly. I just figured you guys maybe weren't as used to it as we were--because I'm not trying to imply you guys aren't as good as we are, because you are, it's just that...you know, we've just been doing it longer.

Laura: Yeah, but still, I think Kara's right about you guys. There's a whole different connection I've noticed, though: Kara and Jake have a thing going that's a lot like the thing between Greg Proops and Clive Anderson, the host from the UK version. On those shows, Greg picks at Clive all the time, makes fun of him whenever he gets the chance, which Kara tends to do a lot with Jake, I think, when he's hosting--we switch off who the host is so we all have a turn. And like Clive, sometimes Jake will try to find a comeback, and sometimes he'll just shrug and take it. It's funny to watch them.

Kara [laughs]: I think you're right, but I've never thought of it that way, like Callie never thought of the thing with Jake. I just pick at him--'cause, I mean, I'll come right out and say it--it is funny to listen to Jake be the host sometimes. Just some of the things he does, I can't help but get at him about.

Joey: Now, see, if you were a guy, we'd have to take your teasing as a sign of your liking him...

Laura: Ooh, Kara likes Jake!

Kara: I do not!

Jake: C'mon, guys, cut it out! We're on tape! Anyway, they all get after me because I'm always blanking out on what I want to say. I get more "um"s in there than the rest of them do. But I still volunteered to be the host for our first taping--I like being the host because I get to pick the games and make up the scenes--and not to be up on myself or anything, but I think my hosting, apart from the blankouts, is pretty good. But it's not as easy as it looks.

Michael: I see. So, what are all your favorite games and why?

Jake: I like "Narrate", even though I'm not good at it--just because it's my favorite game on Whose Line. It goes all over the place, and still manages to be funny. And I just think it's a cool idea for a game.

Callie: I like "Quick Change" because it's the most fun to play, and one of the funniest to watch. It's not easy, but not all that hard, either.

Kara: My favorite is probably "Hoedown", just because it's a good game on the show, but that's not easy, either. We've tried a few, and now I know why half the people on Whose Line hate it--finding things that rhyme so quickly, and still managing to make it all funny, is not exactly my strong suit.

Laura: Oh, gosh, I'm awful at hoedowns. You should see me, Michael.

Callie: The one where you rhymed yourself into a Colin cop-off was pretty good, though.

Laura: That wasn't talent, that was desperation. But as you were about to say, Joey...

Joey: Oh, thanks. My favorite is "Questions Only", because it's fun and it's what I'm best at.

Kara: Yeah, you pretty much beat everyone at that game.

Laura: My favorite one to watch on Whose Line is "Props", but I think my favorite one to play is "Scenes from a Hat."

Raul: I like all the singing games the best, but we don't do much with them--mostly because we don't have anyone to play instruments for us, but also because none of us are very good at them.

Callie: Well, if anyone is, it's you--but yeah.

Raul: Thanks.

Michael: Funny how you guys all seem to like different things.

Laura: Well, they play so many different ones, it's not hard.

Michael: Yeah, I can understand that. So anyway, how did you guys all happen to meet up?

Jake: You already know the answer to that, since you've lived with me all my life, but I'll humor you.

Michael: Good.

Jake: Callie's my cousin--and yours, of course, Mike--so that relationship goes without saying. Everyone else but Laura I've known since about kindergarten or first grade, so we go way back. We're all used to hanging out together because our moms did this thing when we were little in the summer, where they'd all have coffee at someone's house in the morning, and they'd bring us and we'd play together. That's how it all started, but even when the coffee thing broke up because most of our moms ended up getting jobs and stuff, we stayed together. That's how these guys, except for Laura, know Callie, too. Laura we met through Callie a couple years ago--

Callie: I met her--sorry to break in, Jake...

Jake: That's okay.

Callie: --a few years ago when she moved in when we were in sixth grade--we had a lot of classes together, and knew each other that way. By the next year, we were friends enough to play together a lot. But keep going, Jake.

Jake: ...And when the two of them found out that Laura lives pretty near Joey, sometimes she and Callie would kind of fall in with us when we did stuff at Joey's house--I mean, Callie's kind of like a little sister to both of us--I'm including you in that, Mike. But since we're not real siblings, we don't tend to get on each other's nerves a lot like real siblings tend to, so I didn't mind her playing with us once in a while. And when she started bringing Laura, that was good, too, because then we had six, and could play three-on-three games and stuff like that. As for Kara, Raul, Joey, and me, we're all in the same grade in school, so we see in other in classes every so often, too.

Michael: Yeah, Callie always did tend to stick by us--but especially you.

Callie: Well, like Jake said, I live only a few houses down. I don't have any brothers or sisters, and playing by myself all the time got boring, and my parents didn't want me by myself all the time anyway. But--well, maybe I'm a little shy sometimes, I guess. I tended to stick by Jake because I've known him forever, like he said, too--and he was closer in age to me than you, Mike. And I didn't have a lot of close friends besides Laura, so I stuck by her the most of them. And I knew Jake's friends, like he said--but we got to know each other even better when this thing started.

Michael: All right. So when did this start?

Callie: Well, it was late June of this year, I think, when I first discovered improv in general: first Whose Line, and I've explained that. Then in a youth group I go to sometimes, we went and saw a different improv group. In early July, I "infected" Jake, as he puts it, and it didn't take long for him to do the same with the others. By mid-July, we were all around a TV twice a day to catch English-version Whose Line, then when the American episodes came on once a week, we'd get together for them, too.

Laura: Remember how funny it was when Chip Esten used your last name in that Party Quirks game?

[All laugh]

Michael: What was that?

Laura: Oh...there's this game called Party Quirks on Whose Line, and basically one person's the host of a party, and the other people are guests who come to the party. But all the guests are given some sort of strange character they have to be...

Kara [with a laugh]: Good job, Laura--I can tell you're fighting the urge to just recite Clive Anderson's description of the game--I mean, we've all heard it a hundred times...[imitates Clive Anderson's British accent] "This game will feature"--Tony or Greg, depending--"as the host of the party. All the others will be guests at the party, but each guest has been allocated with a strange behavior, or 'quirk'..."

Laura [cutting her off loudly]: ...And the host has to guess what the character is. So in this one English-version one, Chip Esten's this guy who advertises everything he sees, and when Tony Slattery, the host, opens the door for him, he points to the doorbell and advertises it: "Davidson Doorbells. They ring better. They ring louder!" And Callie just went completely slack-jawed for about ten seconds, and finally went...[imitates dreamlike voice] "I'm in a sketch!" And we all cracked up, because it was just the funniest voice we'd ever heard out of her.

Callie: It was cool, okay? [smiles] So anyway, we got together for the episodes every day...and there was a really big English-version marathon on, too, one Sunday, and we watched all eight hours of it, or whatever, didn't we?

Laura: Yeah, we did, and we'd already seen--what was it, six?--of the episodes.

Kara: Yeah, six. Out of sixteen, though, so it wasn't bad.

Michael [laughing a bit]: You guys counted how many you'd seen?

Kara: Yeah, and we watched them all again, too.

Joey [grins and shrugs]: What can we say? We're improv freaks.

Laura: I think it was at that point--the marathon--that my mom kind of began to worry about me. [She laughs.] 'Cause, remember, we watched the marathon at my house. Before that, you guys would come over every so often, 'cause we'd switch between houses, but she didn't really ask what I was always doing with you guys. So when she sees us fixated for eight hours straight on Whose Line, and hears us talking about all these other episodes we've been seeing, she's like, "When did this start, and how long have you been so obsessive?"

Callie: Yeah, I think my parents were caught off guard, too--I've never been so, I don't know, into anything TV-related in my life--but since I wasn't so quiet all the time--I don't know, it sort of bothered them how quiet I'd always been--they let me keep on it. So by the end of July, we'd been sort of trying the games ourselves between episodes--I mean, for those few weeks there, our whole lives were improv; we just couldn't get enough, could we?

Kara: Oh, jeesh, no. When we weren't watching it live--well, you know what I mean--we were watching ones we'd taped, or playing the games. But the freaky thing is, by then it wasn't in the same way as most whosers--that's the nickname, or whatever, for Whose Line fans--are. I mean, we were obsessive, yes, but not so much because of the people. I mean--it's hard to explain. We were obsessive about the show, yes, but mostly because it was improv. We started wanting to know more about the actors on it, yes, but not because we were big fans of theirs, as much as because they were ways to get to improv, and darn good improv at that. It...it wasn't actor fanaticism for the sake of liking them as people--it was liking them because they can do such incredible, funny stuff.

Joey: Although Brad Sherwood is pretty good-looking...[she laughs]

Kara: Anyway, I still probably haven't explained it right. The only way I can try to say it is that we started watching it for the humor, and for the people, but eventually we ended up watching it more because we'd fallen in love with improv itself, and people like Ryan and Colin and Greg were just ways to get to improv, and people to learn from. Really, I think the Supertown Hotshots were what we'd been working up to, without knowing it, ever since we started watching Whose Line. I love the show because it's funny, like I said, but really, we were always in it for the games, and for learning how to do the games. Everything else was just really nice side effects.

Laura: Wow...yeah. You explained it very well, I think. And, please, Michael, don't ask us how we fell so fast and so hard for improv, because I don't think any of us could explain it. It just clicked for all of us--I mean, for me, as soon as I started watching it, it was just like, "Where has this been all my life?"

Raul: Yeah, I get that. The four of us--besides you and Callie, I mean--were kind of like that, too, I think. I mean, as a group, we'd always been into funny stuff, and have always teased each other about stuff, and liked to do stuff as a group. So when we could use each other to be funny, I think it just seemed perfect for us. But it's better still with the two of you, because we needed a host, which makes five, and one to videotape--or just for variety, when we weren't taping--and that makes six. It just seemed right that way. So this has been really wild in the way it's turned out--and really cool.

Jake: So we eventually decided to form our own improv troupe--not really for audiences, even, but just for the heck of it. To be official improv artists, I guess. We needed a name, though, and after about a whole day of making on-and-off suggestions, Callie came up with "Supertown Hotshots", which we eventually decided on. Just to, like, explain the name and everything, it's a double reference to Whose Line is it Anyway?--"double reference" because it involves two members of the show. Colin Mochrie was on another show for a while--I think it went off the air--called The Supertown Challenge, and Ryan Stiles was in the movie Hotshots! Part Deux. And Callie combined them, and there you have it. It's a good name. It kind of makes us sound like we're up on ourselves, maybe, but it's very catchy. But, hey, we've completely run away with this interview, Mike. Give us another question.

Mike: Hm, let's see...I guess the next question is whether you ever plan to perform for audiences.

Jake: We've only talked about it a little, but I think we decided that we want to, eventually, but not for a long time yet. We've got to get a lot better first.

Raul: Yeah, that's what we said. A month is definitely not enough time to get ready for the big time--or whatever.

Mike: All right. One last question, guys: Has this made any of you consider doing improv for a living?

[Silence for a bit, some looking around]

Jake [hestitatingly]: I have thought about it, but I don't think I actually will. I think I'd rather be--well, I don't know what. But somehow I don't think I'll be doing this. I think I'll always love improv, and always be willing to do it for fun, or something like that, but I don't think I could make a living of it.

Callie: I don't think I will, either. I think I'm going to be a nurse, or a pediatrician--but at the same time, I think whatever I do, I'll have to bring improv into it somehow. I mean, to be fair, I've only just fallen in love with it. I don't know if--like most interests of mine--this one will peak somewhere, then drop off. But somehow I don't think it will. And I don't know how you could bring improv into a career like medicine, but--I don't know. Right now it almost seems like I'd have to.

Kara: I don't really know--I might, really. I've never loved to do anything as much as this--of course, as Callie points out, I've only loved improv for a month or so--so maybe it'll wear off. But I don't know. I'm waiting and seeing.

Joey: Hm. I'd kind of like to, but I don't think I could ever be good enough at it. I mean, I know we're going to get better at it, but I still don't think my wits could ever be quick enough. Sure, I'm good at Questions Only, but you can't base a career on the ability to answer a question with another question. There are a lot of talented people out there. I mean, right here and now, where we have no competition, it's one thing to say, "Yeah, maybe I could do it," but trying out against people like Wayne Brady would just be very...daunting.

Laura: Good call. I'd like to, just because it's so much fun, and it'd be a great career--but I don't think I'd ever have the guts to do improv in front of big audiences of people who've never seen me, and people who'd expect me to be as good as Whose Line...I mean, it's so easy for stuff to go wrong. So it'd be great if I were brave enough, but right now I'm nowhere near it.

Raul: I've got the guts. I've done some serious thinking about it, and I think if I work hard enough, I could do it. And I want to get into theater or acting, anyway, so...if it works out, I'd love to.

Michael: Interesting...well, that's all, guys. Thanks for your time. And, hey, if you guys ever get to thinking you're good enough, let me know--I don't know, maybe I could get you a gig at the college theater.

All: Oh, thanks! [variations]

Callie: See you, Mike!

Jake [high-pitched, childish voice]: Bye, Mikey!

Michael: Shut up, Jake!

[tape clicks off]