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ASD's Improv & Comedy Portal Note: some links open a new window to pages not controlled by ASD.

Interested in seeing ASD perform improv?

Next improv show....TBD

Most recent show:

That's broken down as follows:
Second City Chicago Training Center: 3
ComedySportz Chicago Training Center: 9
Battle-Prov (produced by CSz Chicago): 12
Rec League (produced by CSz Chicago): 4

More to come....

Examples of comedy performed, written or produced by ASD

Hi there! It's me, ASD -- Alan S. Dalinka. One of my off-line activities over the past decade has been playing around with comedy. Growing up in the Chicago area, I was first introduced to improvisational comedy and sketch more years ago than I can remember. Sometime in the 1970s my parents started taking me to The Second City's shows for little kids. As I got older, I attended The Second City's Main Stage shows -- I remember a bunch during my high school and college years in the 1980s -- I also saw shows at Second City ETC and Second City Northwest (while it was still around). I never really considered actually getting on stage and joining in -- even when they asked for volunteers. While I never have had a problem with public speaking, I just never thought about performing. Sure, I had the lead in the First Grade Thanksgiving play and I took a minor role my Senior Year of high school in Inherit the Wind (Jesse H. Dunlap, farmer and cabinet maker -- you remember, the guy with the big line "Cates, you sinner!"), but I was always content either watching a show or playing clarinet on stage with the band and orchestra and in the pit for musicals. As with just about everything else on this website, a trip to Walt Disney World made the difference. In the fall of 1996, I was busy working away at my actual career. I had been working way too many hours for about four months in a row. When a break came along, I booked my first solo trip to Walt Disney World in November. Now, back in those days, Disney offered what I (but apparently only a few others) thought was a GREAT adult experience: The Disney Institute. The program offered lots of adult "enrichment" experiences ranging from a good number of classes I did not take (like cooking, gardening, and rock-wall climbing) to a whole host of creative classes that I did take like radio (where I got to DJ for a half hour), TV news (where I got to anchor a broadcast), TV commercials (where I participated in producing one), Animation (painting cels), and a bunch of others -- including a three hour introduction to improv class (you must have seen that coming?). It was also this trip that I first visited The Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island (see my 1996 Video of all of PI, but no shows) -- but I did not become a multiple-show "regular" viewer until 2000 (more about that later). It was on this trip I also visited the Disney Vacation Club membership pitch -- it took me over three years after that before I bought my membership. Anyway, I really enjoyed that class at The Disney Institute. It gave me some insights about what I was enjoying when I watched improv. I continued to go to shows at The Second City and enjoyed them all the more -- and was more free with the suggestions during the improv sets. I started to find that I really enjoyed cracking up the cast and audience with a good suggestion. During 1997 and the first part of 1998, I went on a couple of blind dates where we went to The Second City to see a show. The names of those women are long since gone from my memory. What I do remember, however, is at the end of the sketch portion of each show, a cast member would tell the audience about the other shows The Second City had going on as well as about The Second City Training Center. Having enjoyed the shows (but not the dates) I thought, "Gee, maybe I should give this a try..." So, I signed up for The Second City Training Center, Level A. It was a blast! As the levels proceeded through the alphabet, after completing Level C, I got my first chance to perform -- our class got to perform on the Main Stage (in the afternoon)! It was incredible! The live audience, the historic Main Stage, etc. etc. (See a video of my first performance game from this very first show!) Next up was Level D with lots of the folks from Level C and some new folks. At the end of Level D was another show on the Main Stage -- this one was less fun but it taught an important lesson: don't let your ensemble get cocky! Also, it taught that it's not so much fun to perform when you can hear a baby crying the whole time -- so, folks, let me say right now: keep the infants at home, turn off your cell phones and pagers, keep your conversations to a minimum, etc. etc. Okay, enough ranting. My Level E class had only six students (including me) in it. So with only six, it meant lots of stage time for the "graduation" performance (pictured left). This show was performed on the Second City ETC Stage (next door to Main Stage, over in Piper's Alley) on a weeknight in front of a paying crowd! Thankfully, we had a reasonably big crowd and the show was a lot of fun. After that, I was rather hooked on improv, so I went where other improvisers go -- the place then known as ImprovOlympic (long-before the USOC made it change the name to just IO). Unfortunately, I had less fun there and, at the same time started to get really busy at work again. By the beginning of 2000, I decided to go back to being an audience member. In February 2000, I took another solo Walt Disney World trip. On this trip, I made many visits to the improv comedy club at Pleasure Island ("PI") -- The Comedy Warehouse. Back then, PI had a New Year's Eve show every night at midnight with dancers, fireworks, and confetti. Each of the nights I was there, I'd catch at least one Comedy Warehouse show before midnight and then get back in line for the post-midnight show -- there was always a great view of the fireworks show from the line. (Quite a few of my days on this trip included Illuminations at Epcot, followed by a walk to BoardWalk through Epcot's International Gateway to catch the bus to PI.) At the end of this Disney World trip, I made another one of those important decisions (though, in retrospect, it would have been better to have made the decision at the beginning of the trip): I became a Disney Vacation Club ("DVC") Member. For me, being a DVC member has meant many visits to PI to see Comedy Warehouse shows (though the fake-New Year's Eve celebrations first lost the confetti, then the dancers, and eventually ended completely in 2006, then they tore down the outdoor stage where the show was and in September 2008 they closed all of the clubs, including The Comedy Warehouse!). After my visit in January 2004, I decided it was time for me to go back to doing more improv. One of my Second City classmates had gone through ComedySportz ("CSz") and spoke highly of it -- so I signed up. That, in turn, meant more performances. Levels 101, 202 and 303 had one show each. Level 404 had three shows (when I took that level, it was considered the Performance/Graduation level). The "Styles & Music" class had a show as did the all-music (new) Level 505 class. In between "graduating" CSz and the introduction of the (new) CSz Level 505, I took three of the levels of classes at Annoyance Productions. I think the classes there were of a great help to me in moving forward with improv skills -- unfortunately, I didn't sign up for Mick Napier's class fast enough and was locked out by demand. (Annoyance then added another level before studying with Mick, and it hasn't yet matched with my schedule -- but, hopefully one day it will.) Around the same time I started the Annoyance classes, I decided to also do something I had been meaning to do for years -- start writing. I figured there was no better way to get myself some of the discipline necessary to write than to take a class. I've known a few people who went through Second City's writing program over the years and they all spoke well of it -- and I had seen a few of the shows produced by the program. The end of 2006 marked my completion of the entire Second City Writing Program. My class' sketch comedy review, Abandon Relationship! was produced at Second City's Donny's Skybox Theatre on the fourth floor of Piper's Alley, Fridays, January 5, 2007 to February 2, 2007 at 9 p.m. It was a great success -- every show a sell-out! I found just as much enjoyment watching the cast sing the opening number of the show (which, as you'll find elsewhere on the page, were my lyrics) and watching/listening to the audience's responses as I do performing. Earlier in 2006, around when I thought I might set improv aside again, CSz held a round of auditions for the then-Sunday-night show, Battle-Prov, at a time I could actually audition. I was added to team DragonFly and from July 2006 to February 2007 performed at 7 p.m. on a Sunday or two all of those months. Battle-Prov then went on on hiatus -- and, really, thank goodness because may of us BP'ers did not really like performing at The Spot (next door to a tattoo parlor and just a few doors down from a methadone clinic -- while CSz awaited the opening of the new CSz Theatre on Belmont (which, though well over-due, finally opened in February 2008). Like Battle-Prov, I took a hiatus from performing -- though not completely by plan. Though not planned to be at the same time, I gave my resignation to my law firm at the end of February 2007 for a new in-house position that I started in April 2007. To keep my toe (?) in improv, I completed a business transaction with ComedySportz as the fall approached and, as part of that, if you see a CSz program, you'll see that I'm now listed as Associate Producer. Not long after the new theatre got up and running, CSz launched a new FREE Comedy Wednesday series with three shows -- REC League, Battle-Prov and The Improv Open Mike. Battle-Prov was re-launched earlier in the Spring as a late-night vehicle where "next generation" improvisers battle other comedy troupes from around Chicago. The REC League was launched to let us Alums of the Training Center (and students) create "mini-shows". My team -- Grand Theft Awesome -- created shows based on the making of a movie -- we played short form improv games from making a movie pitch, to casting, various scenes (including stunts), a trailer and concluded with movie reviewers. The summer series was scheduled through August 27, 2008; my team's last show was August 20, 2008. So there you have it. If something else is happening in my comedy "hobby", that will show up on this page somewhere too. The details of my comedy training over the years are below. Thanks for visiting.

Training & Performance

IMPROVISATION

June 2008 to August 2008	ComedySportz' Rec League	Coach: Dave Ries
July 2006 to February 2007	ComedySportz' Battle-Prov	Coach: Alida Vitas Dow

2009	ComedySportz, Level 506 (Advanced Music & Rap)	Steph McCullough/Rene Duquesnoy
2006	ComedySportz, Level 505 (Musical Improv)	Steph McCullough/Alida Vitas
2005	Annoyance Productions, Level 3	Susan Messing
2005	Annoyance Productions, Level 2	Tony Mendoza
2005	Annoyance Productions, Level 1	Tony Mendoza
2005	ComedySportz, Styles & Music	Keith Whipple/Jeff Shivar
2004	ComedySportz, Level 404 (Performance)	Matt Elwell
2004	ComedySportz, Level 303 (Games)	Rance Rizzutto
2004	ComedySportz, Level 202 (Scenes & Characters)	Jason Anfinsen
2004	ComedySportz, Level 101 (Intro)	Katherine Gotsick
1999	ImprovOlympic Level 2	Craig Cackowski
1999	ImprovOlympic Level 1	Charna Halpern
1999	The Second City, Level E	Jonathan Pitts
1999	The Second City, Level D	Patty de Maat
1999	The Second City, Level C	Spike Kunetz
1998	The Second City, Level B	Matt Dwyer
1998	The Second City, Level A	Tom Green

COMEDY WRITING

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Most Recent Production -- Now Closed!

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