By Frank McDonough

It was a typical phase shift 90s evening. The Rodney King federal trial verdicts had come in that morning and, like London or Hanoi between bombing raids, nothing but the purest. uncertainty hung over Los Angeles. It was under these circumstances that I went to see The Instant Show at 9:00 pm at the Wildside Theater in NoHo.

I brought a friend. Murrey, an aerospace engineer who after being out of work for almost a year had just rejoined the ranks of the employed. As the lights dimmed at the start of the show we realized something—that because of the riot paranoia Murrey and I were the only ones attending the show that night. Still, the show went on.

The evening seemed to be careening toward disaster — the cast outnumbered the audience. I pictured grungy, sweating disciples of Sam Kinison screaming unknown facts about my family at me to get a cheap laugh. I gritted my teeth as the first sketch began.

It started out a little haltingly. The paranoia outside, and the small, uncomfortable audience added a strong element of uncertainty to the proceedings. This quickly went away. The cast was used to uncertainty, for the nature of improvisational comedy is itself mercurial.

Four times every weekend onstage at the Wildside, ten to fifteen creative individuals give birth to fresh comedic ideas. The ideas may either come at the spur of the moment as they do during the Limerick skit where cast members spontaneously spin the rhymes in front of the audience, or after 5 or six minutes of brainstorming. The latter technique is used by the cast members to do, among other things, a double talk foreign film sketch based on a film style and foreign language suggested by the audience. That night Murray and I suggested film noire and Toboggan (we wanted to see if they were up for a challenge). The results were hilarious.

The material was at times silly, nonsensical, or inspired. It was always unexpected, and mostly brilliant. It effectively took our minds off the dire possibility of any post-verdict riots. By the end of the evening the only riotous thing was our laughter.

Sam Longoria is the founder and mastermind behind The Wildside Theater. He performed stand-up comedy and theater in the Seattle area when he was 17. After an eclectic young adulthood that included studying electrical engineering, law, and theater in places like Chicago, New York, and Portland, he wound up in Los Angeles on the other side of the camera doing editing and visual effects.

Sam had a rather illustrious career behind the camera, and he worked on such films as 2010, Die Hard, and Ghost Busters. It was during the filming of Ghost Busters that none other than Dan Ayckroyd encouraged Sam to forego his technical work and turn to comedy full-time. A short time later Sam did just that, performing at improv companies and working as an actor. In just two years he had acted in over 135 productions.

In 1986 Sam again struck out on his own, converting a storefront building in North Hollywood into a 50 seat playhouse that has remained to this day the Wildside Theater. Every weekend on Friday and Saturday Sam’s improv company of some 60 to 75 actors writes, produces, and directs four different shows.

Although the shows are unique and produced by different individuals, the comedy does bear out Sam s philosophy. We don’t go after easy laughs” says Sam, we don’t insult our audience.” His group also steers clear of political material because “we want to be funny five years later.”

Sam is also a strong believer in teamwork. “Our improv is like jumping off a table knowing your friends will catch you after a while you’ll gain enough confidence to make those real daring leaps. He also feels criticism destroys the creativity necessary for good improvisation, and he discourages it among his casts. On improv he notes, “It’s like stopping thinking; if you think about the stuff you’re saying you can really get caught up in analyzing it and when you’re being analytical you can’t come up with funny stuff. One of our mottos is ‘Dare to be stupid.”

Besides the weekend improv shows the Wildside banner flies over other projects as well. The group produces Simul-Trex on KIEV radio, a live improv comedy soundtrack simulcast during the Star Trek reruns on KCOP Channel 13, Wildside actors lip-synch improv comedy into the dour visages of Jim, Bones, Spook, and the rest of the crew of the starship Enterprise. The results are hilarious. One particularly funny scene involved a Wildside player lip-synching Elvis dialogue into the mouth of a belligerent alien. Other notable moments included a popish looking alien speaking in an Italian accent, and the crew of the Enterprise greeting each other with snack food advertising slogans. This year the group also plans to do a simulcast during Star Trek: the Next Generation called Simul-Talk: the Improv Generation.

Sam and the Wildside players recently did a full length film called My Dinner With Laundry In it his improv actors are filmed doing what they do best—improv comedy in the confines of a lo-cal Laundromat. The film has met with consider-able success abroad.

Currently Sam is working on a film entitled The Vampire Strikes Back. The film, originally an Italian vampire comedy, was purchased by Sam and re-dubbed. The dialogue, written by he and Nancy Van Anders, is in the same wacky, off-the-wall style as his other Wildside productions. Sam has also added a prologue entitled: This is Fofina. In it we are introduced to Guido Folino the archetypical Italian film maker, sent up of course, in typical Wildside style.

The Wildside Theater is located at 10945 Camarillo Street in NoHo. There are four shows: 9:00 and 10:30pm Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are $10.00 each.

Simul-Trek can be heard on radio station KIEV 870 AM on Wednesdays at Midnight. It starts broadcasting on May 5th.

The Vampire Strikes Back is currently in test release