KAPA‘A — There are many myths, legends and lore as to how the InsPirates Improv Comedy Troupe started and much of it just may be true.
According to their website, www.InsPirates.com, the group, “sails the FrequenSeas on a quest for the rich booty of creative inspiration.”
The InsPirates open their treasure chest of Improv games at 8 p.m., tonight and Friday nights until Feb. 1, at Wit’s End Theatre, on the mauka side of Coconut MarketPlace at 4-484 Kuhio Highway in Kapa‘a. Cost is $10 per person.
At the helm of the merry band of pirates is Thalyn Nikolau, a theater professional who moved to Hawai‘i in 1999 after working in various forms of theater along the West Coast.
Working with the Maui Academy of Performing Arts allowed Nikolau the chance to travel throughout the state performing shows. He started the Pono Players, an improv troupe which eventually morphed into the InsPirates.
At one point, he came to Kaua‘i to work on developing a rock musical with a friend, “and the island just kept me.”
Nikolau developed a four-part improv class that quickly took off and allowed him to see who on the island was ready to jump on board as an InsPirate.
One of those characters was Philip Brautigam.
“I’ve never been happier anywhere on the planet,” said Brautigam, an InsPirate who worked in radio and as a performance artist in Chicago before being called to live on Kaua‘i in 2010.
A multi-media marketing designer by day, Brautigam was drawn “like a magnet” to Nikolau’s improv class and had such a good time he eagerly accepted the invite to become an InsPirate.
He lauded Nikolau’s ability to give critical notes that felt almost therapeutic.
“It pushes people’s growth edges and gets them out of their comfort zones,” Nikolau said of helping people overcome their fears around the unknown. “It’s cathartic work for people, especially watching the Muse speaking thorough people so clearly.”
Emma Palumbo experienced that breakthrough moment several times on-stage.
“You have a total emotional release and have to trust yourself to be in the moment because it offers instant gratification,” said Palumbo, who works as a special education teacher during the day, also frequently performs with Women In Theatre productions.
She said improv is her favorite form of theater because it “blurs the line between actor/player and the audience as both go on an energy ride together.”
That energy ride often leaves the audience on a high from laughing, Nikolau said, “It’s a very therapeutic laughter.”
Even though InsPirate Ron Soderstrom has a background in dance and silkwork, he said performing improv helped “open me out of my shell.”
Nikolau said the show is designed to be family-friendly and there was contentious choice to keep it at about a “PG-13 level,” because it forces actors to be more clever.
“It’s more engaging to dip your toe in the realm of innuendo,” he said. “It makes the laughter richer and more accessible.”
That accessibility is what drew Susan Jane LeHoven to take Nikolau’s classes.
LeHoven started by crewing productions with Nikolau and was drawn to the energy of the theater form.
She moved to being on stage after taking an improv class, which she appreciates because the form allows things to “unfold when the time is right.”
For Nikolau, improv is about helping people to communicate better.
“I want more art in the world, and improv helps stimulate creativity and help people communicate more clearly while understanding people more.”
