Ted Tremper: Improv, Writing and Exposing the Truth About Ourselves
Ted Tremper is a graduate from WSU with a Bachelor's degree in English, a writer, an editor, a film director and a successful stand up comedian who performs improv at Second City and other theaters in Chicago.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, your degrees, and why you chose English as a degree?
I grew up near Seattle, and initially went to WSU to pursue a career in broadcasting. During one of my Communications classes the professor explained that -- in his eyes -- broadcasting is an unshakable institution that if entered would change you before you changed it. I loved theatre, but thought the chances of getting a job with just a theater degree would be abysmal. For some strange reason, I thought an English degree might be much better.
Can you tell us a little bit about what you do at Second City and what your work is all about?
Right now I'm a member of the Second City Conservatory Program, which is essentially a training center for improv comedy performance. We use improvisation as a way to generate ideas for sketch comedy writing. I perform improv all over Chicago and feel that it is the most illuminating art form I've ever been a part of. When it is working well, we are able to expose the most vulnerable parts of ourselves while making an audience laugh (Ideally at how the truth of the performance reflects other truths in their own lives -- and that's a BIG "ideally").
How did your time at WSU and your English degree prepare you for your career?
While I was at WSU I spent 95% of my free time performing improv, theater, and creating short videos. In Chicago, I spend about 96% of my time doing that. Little has changed.
I think that my time at WSU was important in that it taught me that it is possible to pursue many different endeavors at the same time. Right now, I am a television development executive (which sounds much more fancy-pants than it is), a performer, a writer, a film director, and God knows how many other things. I don't think I would have the confidence -- or the stupidity -- to have pursued these different fields at the same time had I not been successful at WSU.
What kind of writing, and how much, do you do on the job? Is writing a major part of your job? What about the other aspects of the English degree (i.e. communication, critical thinking) do you use on the job?
Writing is essential to my job and my non-professional work life. On a daily basis I am writing pitches for television shows to send to network commissioners. I then generally leave my job and go to a horrible diner with good lighting and write or edit for a few hours. After that I go home, eat as much as I possibly can, and pass out.
Do you think, from your perspective as an actor, an English degree is still relevant?
Absolutely. I can't speak for other actors, but I think it would be impossible to embody a character without being able to tear apart his or her dialogue. Without having spent many hours writing papers analyzing prose and plays, this process would be much more of a mystery to me.
What advice would you give to English Majors to help them use their skills with language out there in the world?
I've read a lot of books on "How to Write." If I wrote one, it would be thirteen words long:
Surround yourself with material and writers you love, write constantly, and be honest.
Additionally, the title of this book would be, "If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong." And when you opened it, you'd find it would be dedicated to "All the horrible years it took me to learn this and every awful second I forget it." In all seriousness, if you're going to get into writing, look at the material that you love and spend as much time as you can trying to figure out what you love about it. Experiment by writing brutally honest sprawls of fiction or non-fiction that make you feel the same way. And finally, write whatever the hell you want -- it took me literally a decade to feel okay about trying to write things that made people laugh. If you can figure that out, you might someday get to the point where you're happy with your own writing. And if you can ever get to the point where you actually enjoy writing, well hell, you're going to be better off (mentally) than almost every writer I know.
What do you think the future is for English as a major - ie, how do you see the future of the major as it is applicable to the world at large?
I think the importance of studying English is understanding it as part of a much larger (and more important) analytical way of thinking. My work in improv is based on listening to a single line of dialogue and instantaneously processing its potential for the scene, and then responding. The ability to do that -- hopefully well -- was only helped by practicing analysis of works far greater than anything I will ever create.