Sharing a Compliment I Received

Taking in compliments has always been hard for me. I squirm a little bit, I want to deflect them. But as I grow as a person and as an artist, it’s important for me to try to take in the good things that people say about me and try to embrace them. Because it’s only when I can start to love myself a little bit more that I don’t have to worry so much about where I’m getting in my life, and just appreciate where I am.

So in that spirit, I want to share this social media post that one of my improv students wrote about me. It was very moving to me, and a little embarrassing, and I hope you’ll appreciate it.

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Today, I’m appreciating Jimmy Carrane.

As I write this, I am realizing that I know many “sweet” men. By that, I mean men who are warm, sensitive, good men… and still very strong in their own way. Jimmy is yet another “sweetheart of a man,” whom I’ve been lucky enough to meet and know.

This appreciation is all about improv. And it’s all about a humble, very human good man.

Years ago, I took a few improv classes at the Improv Playhouse in Libertyville. And then in 2017, my friend, Michael, convinced me to sign up for Jimmy Carrane’s series of classes called “The Art of Slow Comedy.” At the time, I was already in my late 60s.

Jimmy Carrane has been teaching improv for over 30 years at Second City, iO Chicago and the Annoyance Theater. He has written books, done podcasts and he’s got a blog. And occasionally, Jimmy shows up on TV or in a movie.

I recall walking into this a large room with a wooden floor (near Clark and Montrose) with about 15 other strangers. Jimmy started the session with exercises to get us to drop our defenses and allow ourselves to be a little more honest and a little more vulnerable. Suddenly, I knew more intimate details about 15 other strangers than I knew about some of my friends. I was struck with the honesty of feelings that were being expressed. As a psychotherapist, sometimes it can take weeks for a client to feel comfortable being vulnerable with me. Jimmy’s exercises got that to happen almost immediately.

This allowed me to free myself up, to play all sorts of roles I would never have done before. To allow myself to experience all sorts of feelings and emotions I might not have ever felt before. To get out of my head and stop evaluating myself or worrying about what I look like or how people may be judging me.

The people who signed up for Jimmy’s classes were very diverse. In terms of age. In terms of occupations. In terms of ethnicity. In terms of geographical residence. In terms of physical appearance. In terms of experiences. This was a huge plus for me. I so enjoyed the people I met in Jimmy’s classes.

I learned a lot from Jimmy. But his single best advice for me was to not be so shy, i.e. to “get more into the emotion, to accentuate the emotion.” He pushed me. I responded.

I was hooked. So I signed up for a second set of classes. And then I signed up for the third (and last) set of Jimmy’s classes of “The Art of Slow Comedy.”

At our last class we had to put on an improv show for our family and friends. There were maybe 20 to 25 people in our audience. But one member of the audience was my 35-year-old son. He had met “some girl” online and they had talked about getting together for a first date. She had proposed a Wednesday, but my son said that he couldn’t meet her (in person) that day because his Dad (that’s me) had a show for his improv class. Kind of like a “final exam.” This young woman said, “That sounds like fun,” and she agreed that their first date would be to go to Jimmy Carrane’s “The Art of Slow Comedy" final class show.

Cary and Brianna came to the show that night. I must not have embarrassed myself. Because a few years later, they got married to each other. And now they have a kid. All because their first date was at “The Art of Slow Comedy” final class show.

I thought that they should have named their kid “Jimmy Carrane Bolnick,” but they didn’t listen to me.

Following the conclusion of Jimmy’s classes, eight of us decided that we wanted to get together to practice and play. By a stroke of luck, we were invited to perform once at a local coffee house/bar. We needed a name and “ImprovBus” was born.

We have since performed more than 100 times at multiple venues, comedy sites, restaurants, nursing homes, coffee houses, fundraisers, in a movie theater for a corporate event and several times at Second City. All because of Jimmy Carrane.

It’s especially fun to open for the “Jimmy and Johnny” show. Jimmy Carrane and John Hildreth perform a fun show on the last Sunday of every month at the Bughouse Theater in Chicago. And there have been some times when they’ve asked ImprovBus to be their opening act. Each time, I feel like we really should be giving a thank you shout-out to Jimmy for teaching us and modeling for us when we were improv babies. It’s because of this man that we were there.

We could also give a shout out to John Hildreth, another great coach of ours. But today, it’s all about Jimmy.

Jimmy is very talented and he knows his stuff. He teaches creatively and he gives feedback in a way that makes sense, and he doesn’t make you feel stupid or demeaned when hearing his feedback. It’s a skill I’ve learned as a therapist – how to give difficult feedback to a resistant client.

But Jimmy also talks about his own feelings, his own experiences and his own vulnerabilities. I am a sucker for vulnerability. He is so human and not afraid to say it and show it. I love that about him.

Jimmy talks about how he has viewed himself in the past… and it reminds me of me, at times. Maybe that’s why I connect with him so much as a person.

His one-person stand-up show, “World’s Greatest Dad,” was so personal, so warm, and so honest as Jimmy talked about becoming a dad for the first time at the age of 52. My wife and I were thoroughly entertained by Jimmy's solo performance.

His blogs are personal and warm, but also very instrumental in offering tips about improv. His podcasts are interesting and fun.

Over the years, after my series of Jimmy classes were over, I signed up for occasional workshops (some online, some in person) with him. I was most taken by the workshop “Improv for Therapists.”

Anyone who has studied or performed Improv in Chicago knows of Jimmy Carrane. He is loved by a great many of us. I hope that he knows it, during any of those times when he might question himself. This is a talented, decent, very honest, very humble, very human man who happens to be a great teacher, terrific coach and funny improviser.

I wonder how many hundreds, no, thousands of people in Chicago have been influenced by Jimmy Carrane.

There are still some times when I begin to doubt myself as an improviser. I can get caught up in doing scenes with people who are quicker and wittier than me or people who are just more experienced at doing improv. But when I doubt myself, I think of Jimmy and I slow down, get out of my head and go on with the scene. I think of Jimmy's words to me, and I accentuate the emotion. And I do just fine.

So today, I’m appreciating Jimmy Carrane.

He’s changed my life.

-- Rick Bolnick

Want to learn more from Jimmy Carrane? Sign up now for his next Long Form Tune-Up, happening Aug. 10!