This week’s Comedy Foot Soldier comes straight outta Austin (Texas that is). Topping Haggerty has been doing and directing improv since (Date not given as she would stab me in the face if I included it). She’s performed at comedy festival in just about every city including Toronto , Miami , Chicago , San Francisco , Atlanta , Austin , Los Angeles and good ol’ NYC. She’s also the founder of the improv group The Kihckercast Project (which I am a member of and I highly suggest you check out when we come to your town.) and an original member of The Resistance. She’s got her own one woman show (THE: WhisperSmack) and her own music CD (Depends On How You Look At It).
Now in true improv nerd fashion she’s performing in Gnap! Theater Production’s Guilds of Steel, an improv format based on World of Warcraft. She’s rocked the stages of every city she’s been to and now she’s taking over Austin. If you are in the area you need to check her out. (On a personal note she registered online to marry people and was the officiant at my wedding. Be nice to her and she will marry you too. Or if you are mean to her she might marry you to someone against your will. She’s bad ass like that.)
What’s the most important thing you learned since you started doing comedy?
That getting on stage, putting words to paper, showing up for auditions, writing a song, having a product, whether good or bad is 75% of the battle. Waiting until something is perfect will get you nowhere fast.
How did you know you were meant to be a comedian?
I always thought I would be the dramatic, blood on my hands screaming at the gods, sort of actress, but I kept getting cast in comedic roles or drawn to comedic projects. Eventually I just accepted, with a little kicking and screaming, that I’m a comedian (and yes, the kicking and screaming was awkward and odd and funny to watch).
What’s been your brightest moment as a comedian?
Going to Buenos Aires to perform my one-person improv show in front of an audience that couldn’t understand anything I said and the show still managed to be entertaining.
What’s been your darkest moment as a comedian?
Chicago . One-person shows festival. 13 audience members, none of whom were there to see my show. 40 minute performance. No laughs. Basically, death warmed over on a stick. It was so painful I didn’t even want to drink afterwards.
What is your favorite thing going on in comedy right now?
I love all the online comedy sketches and mini-films available on the web. It really levels the playing field for comedians and writers who might otherwise not have had a venue to be seen or heard. Yes, there is also a lot of crappy video content out there, but with opportunity and exposure also comes the dark knell of crap.
What is the scariest thing going on in comedy right now?
The personality cults are killing new comedians. The general public is extremely resistant to going out and seeing new sketch shows, or stand-up comedians, because they are unknowns. They are not celebrities or known entities so they assume the shows will be bad. I have seen many sketch and stand-up shows, in small venues, in hard to find places, that are amazingly entertaining, clever, with polished performances, and they were full of unknowns.
Who do you think is today’s most under appreciated comedian/comedy actor?
Alas, I am bad with names, so I’m going to have to say it’s that guy, oh, wait, that chick over there is also hilarious. Dang it, I can’t just pick one!
What’s the best advice you ever received as a comedian?
Stop moving! It seems it was hard for people to listen to what I was saying on stage because I constantly fidgeted like a crack-head who desperately needed to pee.
What’s the worst advice you ever received as a comedian?
Smile more. (Ugh. Bite me!)
What is your craziest show experience?
A weekend of shows I did in San Francisco with The Kihckercast Project was overall the craziest experience. Everything was going wrong which turned out to be beautifully right. The shows were unforgettable and insane and our extracurricular activities encompassed dealing with ever disappearing food sources, dogs sleeping on pillows, missing hosts, lots of knitting, fires being started in fireplaces in 92 degree weather, acid, and a small spray bottle. It was one of those you-had-to-be-there moments in time, but if you were there you would still be painfully laughing about it.
What is the biggest source of your comedy?
Work place inter-personal dynamics and BBC news online.
How would you describe your comedy?
Dark and slightly twisted with adorable bunnies.
Quick Hitters
I would like to be known for…actually making a living using my comedic skills and having just enough memorable ‘aw naw she di-n’t’ moments in my performance career that I will still be a sought after commodity when I’m 85 years old.
Shoot me if I ever…put a gun to my head.
I think most comedians are…sensory impaired. They do not see the world in the ‘right or correct’ way they see it in a clear and more truthful way (which equals hilarious). Well, the good ones do.
The one thing I have never seen a comedian do, but would love to is…to have said comedian (who, for my purposes is powerful and trend setting) put me and several of my comedic friends in a large RV and send us off to do sketch shows in all 50 States (Hawaii will require a tramp steamer). Each town we will perform an all new show, i.e., new sketches being written in the RV as we travel from town to town and all of this amazingness and hilarity to be documented, of course, for television. And you, oh great comedian in the sky, will be given all the credit for the idea.
My favorite comedy bit that I was not involved in is…’I squish your head’. The classic Kids in the Hall sketch. I squish your head – pure, simple, ridiculous, and memorable.
My favorite comedy bit that I was involved in is…Mandy with Scrap Metal Theater. Mandy was hot yet frumpy, sad but strong, well meaning with poor timing, and an owner of her own version of an elvin bag of holding. The kind of character that ripped your heart out and made you wince, and you could not help but laugh at her pain and misery (good stuff!).
People often say they are attracted to a sense of humor. I think that is…true. A sense of humor gets a woman a lot of respect and a man a lot of women.
I would like to plug…myself www.toppinghaggerty.com
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I want to drive the RV!!
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