Digging Holes and Projectile Vomiting: An Interview with the Improv Duo Hunicutt & Grace

Steven Ray Littles II

Hunicutt and Grace with Drum Machine
Friday, September 2
The State Theater (719 Congress Avenue)
$17, 8pm
[info] | [tickets]

Hunicutt & Grace are an improv duo made up of (surprise!) two comedians: Eric Hunicutt and James Grace, both based out of iO West in Los Angeles. Hunicutt started performing at the Comedy Sportz improv theater in Raleigh, North Carolina when he was still in high school, and ended up in Chicago after college, training and performing at iO (Improv Olympics) and Second City. Though he's now based in Los Angeles, he has been a member of the Chicago-based troupe The Reckoning for the better part of a decade. He's way hyphenated: a teacher-actor-director-writer, his film-stage-screen-commercial work might make you wonder how he had time to start one more performing gig with his iO coworker (boss, actually) James Grace. Grace is Artistic Director of iO West, which was founded by improv legends Del Close and Charna Halpern. You might recognize him from his many film and television appearances, including Super Troopers, Reno 911!, Beerfest, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Austinist caught up with the duo in advance of their performance at The State Theater tonight for the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival. They're also part of Stool Pigeon for Out of Bounds, and each are leading workshops: Hunicutt on Sunday at noon, looking at group scenes, and Grace on Saturday at noon, working on the improv tactic The Herald. As a way of distinguishing voices during the following phone interview, Grace assured Austinist he was the one with the "really good looking, studly voice."

You both work at iO West, Eric as a teacher and James as the artistic director. Is that where you met for the first time?

Grace: Eric and I met when he took over the position of office manager. He was hired through our Chicago branch. We spent more time together than we did with our wives, over the course of three or four years. It got to where I could start a sentence and Eric would finish it for me.

How did your improv duo start?

Hunicutt: I think we just got up one evening and tried a show. Our origin story is, I think there was a show that was supposed to go on stage one night and they couldn't.

Grace: It was really more out of necessity than, "Hey, let's do a show together."

Hunicutt: But it ended up being really really fun, a really fantastic experience in spite of our lack of concerted planning. It turns out, we like talking to each other as other people as much as we like talking to each other as ourselves.

Your bio for Out of Bounds describes your performance pretty generally. I don't know who wrote it, but it ends, "You will lave this show incredibly entertained, slightly disturbed, but ultimately relaxed and rejuvenated!" This is vague, and sounds a bit like a yoga class. What is going to happen at the show?

Grace: I wrote that. I kinda free formed it there a little, but I think it speaks to how you can tell when people like working with each other on stage, and that kind of translates out to the audience. We also have the capability to get to the weird, so that might explain the "slightly disturbed" part.

Hunicutt: I've never been to a disturbed yoga class, so I don't know what that might mean. I like that the show is allowed to go wherever it wants to go. The looseness and the trust works well for the audience as well as the people on stage. There's potential for any given night to be very unique because of that. I think there's a lot of potential energy, we can go all over the map, whether ridiculously, stupidly slapstick or emotional and honest.

Grace: I think part of the thing is that there's so much in the moment happening with us that the audience is really part of that moment.

How is the improv experience different for you as performers, and how is it different for your audiences, do you think?

Grace: The big thing about it is, it is the only form in which the audience is in on it from the very beginning. It's not like, "Here's a finished product" - it starts with somebody tripping as they come on stage. It's like basketball. You know you're going to score, but it's about watching how they get there. I've done movies where improv has been involved in the process, but as an audience member, you don't get to see the genesis of it. All the improv I've done for television and film has been something the writer has put in as sort of an addendum.

Hunicutt: I like improv's transparency. I think there's something really wonderful there. I think it's an addictive thing because the level of ownership the actors have is so high. You tend to get to play outside of type, and especially where we are, in LA, that's a nice way to stretch. For example, I look about ten years younger than I am, so it's nice to be able to play someone my age. I think that also translates to the experience. I know James and I are big fans of digging ourselves a hole and trying to find our way out of it. We just jump in and try to find our way out. With a script, you know the end, and there's a real fun to not knowing.

Grace: I concur!

You're both also appearing in Stool Pigeon, which takes a group of improvisers and has them create a story based on a guest monologuist's tale. How is that format different for you as a performer?

Hunicutt: For me, the difference in the intimacy and level of participation in a two person scene and something big like Stool Pigeon is that [in the latter] you're playing knowing that it's for the ensemble rather than yourself. You can't really be precious about every minute and every word on stage, because it's going to be chaos. You're answering the question of "What does the show need?" in a different way. You might be providing garnish or acting as an extra in somebody's scene. I know I haven't played with a lot of those people before, so that's gonna be fun.

Grace: I was part of Armando [the original version of monologue-inspired, long-form improv]. You also have to realize when you do this that you're playing with a lot of different people, and they have different agendas of what they're trying to accomplish. Especially when it's a bunch of people being thrown together, you just have to follow the basics and know why you're there. As opposed to when I'm with Eric, I know we're in the moment and he's gonna catch me no matter what happens.

Hunicutt: Which is fun and scary, in a different kind of way. It makes you use something that you don't use every time you're on stage, but you still have it in your pocket from before. You are figuring out what version of yourself you're going to be with the group.

Grace: Irene White is going to be there. Getting a chance to be on stage with her makes that show for me.

Hunicutt: I came last year [to Out of Bounds] and it was great. I was really thrilled when James asked me if I wanted to come back. Previously, I hadn't been to Austin since 1997.

Grace: I was there [in Austin] one time, driving back from Boston with my wife in her grandmother's Chevy Impala that we bought for a dollar. We tried to go to Stubb's, but it was closed, so we went to a place across I-35 and it was fantastic. That night, I caught my wife's flu, though, and I projectile vomited in our hotel.

Hunicutt: That sounded fun up until the vomiting part.

Grace: Yeah. I'm really excited: this is my first Out of Bounds Festival. I've always said, "I've gotta get back to Austin." My last time here was ten years ago.