Schoharie Library Notes for Friday, June 29, 2018

Is working for the IRS really funny? Maybe not in real life but, in Kai Collins’ comedy workshop, it was hilarious.

Writers and performance enthusiasts from all over the Capital District gathered at the Schoharie Library on June 11 to learn from Collins — a director, producer, filmmaker, and comedian. She worked with the audience on improv exercises, and gave tips for writing comedy, breaking through writer’s block, developing characters, and being flexible with the creative process.

Collins explained the two most important rules of improv: You must say “yes,” and you are not allowed to say “no.” This means accepting and working with anything and everything your partner throws at you, even if it’s different from your own ideas.

Quick thinking, creativity, flexibility are key. She guided audience volunteers through several sketches, helping them bring out the comedy in seemingly ordinary situations. Since so many audience members were writers, she focused on comedy writing as well.

Collins, a California native, got her start at a young age, putting on plays in her grandmother’s barn, with a ready-made cast of cousins and friends. She took an improv class when the stage combat class she’d enrolled in was canceled, and discovered her passion for comedy.

After graduating from Williams College, she studied improv, sketch comedy, and comedy writing at The Second City Conservatory in Chicago and The Groundlings in Los Angeles, in addition to her studies via the Master of Fine Arts Extension Program at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.

She’s come a long way since the barn, progressing from Youtube to commercials to shorts, and is currently working on a feature-length film. Her dark comedy short, “To the Grave,” exploring friendship and betrayal, was nominated for several awards at the Nice International Filmmakers Festival this year. Her website is www.kaicollinsfilms.com.