Gimme a Second captures the essence of improv

EL DORADO — When Gimme a Second takes the stage, it’s fair to say the audience has no clue as to what will follow.

That’s because Charley Hankins, Bill Meyer, Luke Ramsey, Shelton Harden, Mike Means and Meredith Stone don’t either.

Together they comprise Gimme a Second, El Dorado’s only improv group. Fans of comedy who are 18 years or older can catch the final show of the year at 8 p.m. on Saturday, in the upstairs room of La Bella on the square in downtown El Dorado. There is a $10 cover charge, which includes the price of admission and a pizza bar.

Gimme a Second was started by Harden in 2013. The troupe has a simplicity and practical origin.

Harden said, “I’ve been doing improv for a long time, and so I didn’t have anybody to do improv with. So I decided I’d do a class.”

At the time, Harden was the owner and operator of Bensberg Music and he held the class in a room in the store. From that class he gathered the people that would form Gimme a Second.

Harden is the most seasoned of all the improvers. He calls himself a student of improv and has been performing the craft since 2003. He is also a card carrying member of the Actors Equity Association and a dues paying member of the American Guild of Music Artists. Harden also lists the Upright Citizen’s Brigade – an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago’s ImprovOlympic in 1990 as inspiration. The brigade includes Little Rock’s Matt Besser as a member.

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, improv actually has a fair amount of rules governing it. Chief among them is the rule of what Harden calls “Yes…and?”

“You don’t deny. You say yes to the things that other people on stage do, and the ‘and’ part..you add to it. That’s a very positive thing. The essence of improv is that you support your fellow players,” Harden said,

His fellow players might not have had the years of experience that Harden has, but they’re no less enthusiastic.

“I don’t think any of us were aspiring improvers. It was something we all thought ,’Wow, that’d be fun,’” said Hankins.

Ramsey, a warehouse worker at Lockheed Martin, was drawn to improv simply because, “It was something to do that I thought I would enjoy. They said Shelton was starting a clinic.”

Meyer joined the group for similar reasons. “I knew that the things you do in improv would help me on stage. The idea of being spontaneous and being able to carry on with a scene when someone doesn’t come on stage when they’re supposed to or something breaks that kind of thing.. Initially it was to become a better actor, but now it’s taken on a life of it’s own,” Meyer said.

Means cites a lifelong love of improv as the impetus for singing up. Means said, “I’ve always liked it, it’s always somethign I’ve watched and enjoyed. It seemed like a fun thing to do.”

Stone is the lone female member of Gimme a Second and the member with the least drama experience. She had only appeared on stage in “Oliver” when she was invited by Means to attend the workshop.

“I didn’t have anything else to do and it was free. The rest is history,” she said. “Out of improv I get, one – the longest relationship I’ve ever been in and two – therapy. With these guys, I call us kind of a band, but we’re family, better than a family. What we do together, we’re just saying everything off the top of our head and getting it out. There are not a lot of places you can do that,” she said.

“I bring a different perspective. I don’t know if that’s because I’m a woman or just think outside of the box anyway, but most of the time I’m just one of the guys,” Stone said.

For more information including upcoming performances for Gimme a Second, visit their facebook page.

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