The Groundlings’ “Cooking with Gas” Turns 30

Leonard Robinson loves to do improv. “The fun thing about improv is that it’s not written down, so you don’t know what’s going to happen. You really don’t know if it was good or bad until we say ‘lights’ and you’re finished with that scene. It’s all the same kind of experience to me: I’m just enjoying that wild ride.” Robinson is not only an actor with several credits to his name, he’s also a member of The Groundlings.

The Groundlings have been around for over 40 years. Not only is it one of the places to go for improv comedy in LA, it’s a training ground for many people who become well-known in Hollywood. The Groundlings can count Chris Kattan, Kathy Griffin, Kristen Wiig, and Will Forte are just a few that are alumni.

The theatre has several shows that they put on regularly, and March is celebrating the 30th anniversary of their “Cooking with Gas” production. The longest running short-form improv show in Los Angeles, the name comes from the uniqueness of the show: using alumni and Sunday company members, the “GAS” stands for Groundings Alumni Sunday.

“It’s two acts,” Deanna Oliver explains. Oliver is not only directing two of the productions, she’s a teacher at the school and is an alumni from the 1980s. “The first act is short fun scenes, and the second act is a play.” She pauses, then corrects herself. “They call it a scenario, but I call it a play. It’s a bunch of scenes bult on each other. That’s a lot of fun.”

Oliver has done the show a number of times. Her directorial style focuses less on games and more on scenes. “I ask for very little suggestions. And for the second act, I try to do a real play – because why not?”

She tends to focus on parodies of existing plays, such as The Glass Menagerie but with a collection of succulents versus the menagerie, or a take on Mamet’s American Buffalo.

“Here’s what I do,” she says, explaining how she directs. “Depending on who’s in the cast, you try to think, ‘Oh, Lisa Kudrow would be great at this,’ or “Julia Sweeny would be great at doing this’. I don’t discuss it with them: they don’t get to know what they’re doing and they don’t want to know. I try to come up with a playlist that I only have. Before the show, I say, ‘Do what the scene requires,’ which means don’t try to be funny, just be great actors. They love that – because it’s easier that way. The minute you try to be funny, you’re probably not. Just do the scene, you’ll be fine. And then you just set them up and make sure you get a get a good suggestion – that’s how you direct. And then make sure you black it out when the scene is done. Those are the skills I bring to it.”

In fact, the focus on scenes versus games is what she feels has changed the most over the past 30 years of doing the show. “Better scene work. Games are fun, but I prefer just scene work. I’d rather do a scene: what’s their relationship? Where are they going? What happened? I think one of the last ones I did, the title was ‘mixed messages’ and it was fantastic. I like theatre rather than just standing up there and trying to be funny.”

Robinson brings up another aspect of how the work has changed over the past 30 years. “Last time I was directing, I was paired with Lauren Burns. Our partnership is basically to make sure our casting and our special guests are diverse. We’ve been able to open up the stage and bring in a lot of people who normally wouldn’t have performed with us. To have an all-white cast: it’s a little lazy now. We do have other options. I think that’s the biggest shift – not only in LA, but in The Groundlings: within the last couple of years is to make sure the stage is a lot more diverse.”

So why should someone check out The Groundlings? Oliver mentions the world-class teachers and training, and how many alum moved on to things such as Saturday Night Live. But they both mention the character-driven style as being intrinsic to the company.

Robinson credits his work with The Groundlings for helping him in his acting work. “Most recently, I was a series regular on the HBO show Insecure, and after that I followed up with a recurring on Blockbuster on Netflix. Those are two different kinds of genres: Insecure is more of a dramady. And I’m able to improvise in both, which is great. I credit a lot of that to The Groundlings. Our style of improv approach is character-based first. A very specific character who is going through something, obstacles, and having emotional responses. In between takes, or at the beginnings of scenes, you’d just improvise a bit, because it helps you get into the scene and sometimes it helps you get out of the scene. Most producers and directors, especially in sitcoms, appreciate that. When you’re doing the same joke over and over again, it’s sometimes hard to keep it fresh when you’re filming it. So, being able to improvise a little bit here and there helps keep everything light and keep the script fresh.”

Being in LA means, says Oliver, means the audience is a mix of locals as well as tourists. Robinson agrees that it’s a mix, with the tourists tending to come in on the weekends. He also mentions that the audience also tends to have students from the school. “Even if they’re from LA, they’re all from someplace else,” Oliver says with a laugh.

Cooking with Gas started March 2, and goes every Thursday at 8 pm. Guests include Michael McDonald, Julia Sweeney, Lisa Kudrow, Cheri Oteri to name a few. Tickets are $22 and more information can be found at https://groundlings.com/shows/cookin-with-gas-30th.