I had the pleasure of grabbing coffee with Clinton Store and Zach Dresch, where I learned more about their groups – Creating in Color and Improv Falls. Their two groups will be featured during this month’s Live & Local show at the Pavilion.
Micki: Clinton, tell us about Creating in Color: who are you and what do you do?
Clinton: Yeah, so it’s myself.
It is Shannon Dancler. She’s kind of, I would say the organizer. She really put all this together.
There’s Etta McKinley— everybody knows Etta and she’s pretty much everywhere in Sioux Falls performing. Her band just did a set at the Trio Jazz Club last Wednesday, as a matter of fact.
Josiah Southall. He’s been in a bunch of shows, with me and the Premier Playhouse.
And Ebony Shanklin. We’ve done a bunch of shows together with Premier Playhouse, and Goodnight Theater.
And that’s pretty much how we all met, was just through theater. I think as a matter of fact, the first show that we all got together on was Grease. We did that about two or three years ago. And that’s where I met Josiah, Ebony. And then Etta came along after that: the next year we did Little Mermaid. I played King Triton and she played Sebastian.
To be honest, when I first started doing theater here, there wasn’t a whole lot of other black people doing theater. So whenever we would spot somebody and they’re like, “Hey,” “hey,” shout and wave across the room, “how you doing?”
And then we learned about their background and where they’re from, things like that. And just got together and said, Hey, let’s do this. Put something together.
Didn’t really know if it was going to be something, if we would be continuing. Just, let’s just put something together to celebrate and elevate underrepresented people. Color in song and dance and spoken word, and maybe some theatrics, who knows?
And let’s just do this and see how it goes. And Shannon threw it out there that, hey, they’re looking for performances for Live and Local, and said, oh, let’s throw our name in the hat. And I was honestly like [blows raspberries and gestures his hand away].
And we haven’t done anything yet. We literally just came up with this idea and we did one thing with Dave Holly.
So we threw our name in the hat for Live and Local. Didn’t think we’d get it, figured we’re nobodies, we’ve done nothing.
And they accepted us.
So I talked to Bob Wendland about it, and he was like, yeah we don’t usually take a chance on something that’s new, but they figured, it sounds unique, so let’s give it a shot.
So now it’s like, all right, we gotta get this thing done, we gotta get this figured out. So that’s the long elevator ride to the top of the Empire State Building.
Micki: How long ago did you know you were selected and able to start putting your show together?
Clinton: We found out in maybe October. I think it was even before… somewhere around that timeframe, because they had to announce the next season.
So it might have been October or September. And we knew we weren’t gonna go until February, so we’re like, oh, we got all kinds of time.
So of course it took us a while just because we’re all so busy with doing shows. Shannon is also a choreographer. She teaches dance at different studios plus she’s trying to really break out and do things. She’s been to New York dance school. She’s auditioning for Broadway shows. Etta is touring with her band. So we are all so busy. It really was difficult to coordinate schedules.
But we started rehearsing probably October, November, just figuring out what songs we want to do. We had a decent amount of lead time to figure out and put stuff together. So now it’s the week of, and it’s like, all right, let’s solidify: this is this, now let’s move on, we’re not changing it.
So yeah, we’re really gonna depend on Improv Falls to keep everything straight. They weren’t aware of it, but they’re going to be ushering us in between the numbers of the show. They’re gonna be speaking when we’re not performing, you know? Just filling time. [turning to Zach] Yeah, so, I meant to talk to you about that.
Zach: [laughing] Right, right.
Clinton: Right. [laughing] I want you to talk about the cultural significance of some of those songs.
Zach: [still laughing] Yeah. You know, that’s why we’re improvising things, so we just come up with that. We’re good, we’re good.
Micki: As for the Creating in Color portion of the show, what would you tell people to expect if they come see the show?
Clinton: Expect to have a good time, expect to have some education, expect to be able to see things from a different perspective than maybe they’re used to.
But most importantly it’s just about celebration. And we want people to have a good time. Those who haven’t experienced Etta’s voice or Shannon’s dance or Josiah’s savoir faire or Ebony’s, like really, really powerful way she emotes things physically… they’re in for a treat. With me, they’re outta luck. [laughs]
But yeah, they’re gonna see some people they haven’t seen before and they’re gonna see us together. I don’t think there’s ever been a group like us, together in that particular space.
So I think they’re gonna see something that’s a little unique but at the same time familiar and fun.
Micki: Is that part of how you went about choosing the songs? Was the familiarity part?
Clinton: Yes. That was a big part of it. There’s going to be probably a couple songs that not everyone is familiar with, or they’re gonna say, “oh, I know that song. I just wasn’t sure who sang that.” But for the most part, it’s going to be things that they are mostly familiar with.
Except for the spoken word parts. Etta, I think, created her own poem she’s going to deliver. I actually cheated and I stole one from — I actually talked to him, Lawrence Diggs. He’s done a lot of spoken word with the Symphony Orchestra, and I went to one of his performances, I think it was last February, and I was blown away. So I actually called him and said, “Hey, can I use one of your poems for this, for the spoken word?” So it’s a short one. But most people will never have heard it before and I hope I can deliver it in as elegant as the manner that he does. I’ll go lower my voice a little bit and speak a little slower and kind of Barry White it up a little bit. It’ll be Clinton’s Barry White meets Kevin Hart.
Micki: [laughing] I’ve never thought of those two being together. Very nice. I like it. That sounds like a fun time
Clinton: Yeah, it’s gonna be a good time. There’s a lot of nerves with it, which is amazing to me. No matter how many times I’ve been on a stage in front of people, every time I have to do it again, it’s like, okay, I really hope they like me. You know?
Zach: [nods emphatically in agreement]
Micki: Zach, tell me about the composition of Improv Falls.
Zach: Most of the cast was in a play together with our friend Kim Bartling, who was a theater professor at USF. She put together a play at the White Wall Sessions back in the day called Crimes of the Heart.
And most of the cast in that wanted to keep working together. So Debbi had suggested what if we meet during the summer and do improv? And let’s bring my friend Zach, because he really loves improv too. I wasn’t in the play, but we all met up and the chemistry was pretty palpable and pretty strong.
Then we got offered to do a private party for an Active Generations thing and it went great. And so people were hitting us up like, when are you gonna do a public show? And we’re like, oh, we didn’t think about that.
So we set one up at Remedy Brewing in January, 2019 and it went great. We just kept doing shows and now we do a one-night residency each month at Icon, we have a set Friday every month. And that’s been going great.
And we like doing these different shows, especially this one at the Pavilion. ’cause it’s gonna be a good one to test playing to a theater instead of a club space.
We’re excited to do this. We’ve had a couple members that left the group and then a couple that have joined and we have Jessica Graeber. She’s had experience throughout the country doing improv, so she’s great. She joined us in 2022. She performed with ComedySportz in Utah, Jester’Z in Arizona and Just the Funny in Miami!
And Michael Sorenson, who I’m in a Dueling Pianos group with, he’s our piano player. He’s an essential asset to our group. And he knows exactly when to throw in the right amount of music or sound effects. Just perfect.
And Chris Andrews is in our group. He’s fantastic. He commits to a bit and he’ll go really strong.
We got Bill Ballard. He’s always been great at playing those even-keel kind of guys, but Bill won’t be able to be at this show. He’s in Cancun, I think it’s Cancun — he’s going out of town to a very nice place.
We’ve got standup comic extraordinary, Nathan Hults, filling in for Bill. And Nathan did improv with Debbi. Debbi went to USF, but she went to improv classes and improv nights at Augie to kind of get both worlds and explore that.
And I met Nate through Debbi and then started doing standup and following the guidance of Nate. So Nate is a very important figure in my life and so I’m excited to have him perform with us.
We’ve got Emily Wilson who started with Improv Falls. She and I have been close. We’ve done standup shows together too, so that’s gonna be a lot of fun.
And Debbi Jones. Debbi is probably one of the most essential people that got me to performing in general, I owe a lot to her.
Clinton: Didn’t you have some new people join or did I miss those names?
Zach: Jess and Michael are the new ones. They were at the first Live and Local show we did in September 2023, so they’ve been with us for a couple of years. So technically they’ll always be the new people, but they’re not new anymore.
We did our show with Night Shield, which was a night and day show. It was improv group and hip-hop. That was a fun show.
And we were honored to be asked back a second time.
Micki: What can people expect from the Improv Falls part of the show this year?
Zach: It’s gonna be fueled by their suggestions — audience fuels our fire, so to speak.
A lot of storytelling stuff. Some belated Valentine’s Day feel, I assume. We’ll see where the night takes us, but it’s gonna be a lot of hilarity, a lot of, probably someone flubbing up, mainly me.
It’ll be weird, but it’ll be fun. We’re gonna do some short-form stuff, some long-form, so it’s gonna be a mixture of all that.
Micki: So obviously with improv you can’t rehearse a script. How do you put the show together without having an actual script?
Zach: We order the concepts of the things we want to do. And then just be like, “okay, who wants to do this?”
Usually each show we do, we have one person host it. They’re the one that’s getting the audience suggestions and they go, “okay, you’re in a spaceship. And go.” That kind of thing. And then they’ll go onto the next thing, introduce the next thing.
Hosting is another skill entirely, ’cause you have to check in on the pulse of the audience, see how they’re feeling about it. And the cast is just doing their thing, going up and saying stuff. Sometimes you’d rather just facilitate — or set up the chaos and let the chaos be, instead of be the chaos. So it’s kind of nice like, “alright, you are two cowboys in Iowa. Go for it.”
Micki: Who will be the host for this show?
Zach: All of us are kind of hosting this one. It’s such a big show for us that we don’t want someone to not be able to participate in the fun.
So we’re rotating. We are ordering the games that we want to do or styles and then, okay, Emily’s gonna host this game. Bill will host this game. That kind of thing.
Micki: For somebody who has never attended an Improv Falls show, is there something you could compare it to? Like, if you’ve seen … ?
Zach: Whose Line Is It Anyway is a huge one. That’s the main one. For Gen Z, TikTok, Dropout / College Humor kind of stuff’s been big. It’s a lot of newer improv comedians, performing on game shows with no audience.
They prompt ’em to do stuff and then you just do it. They’ll be like, we are gonna give you a famous line from a movie and say it in this different manner that we’ve delivered for you. Like the line “roads, where we’re going we don’t need roads” from Back to the Future. But say it like you’re just about to start a musical number.
Roads. Where we’re going [starts singing] we don’t need roads. [all laughing]
Yeah, that kind of stuff is super fun. Whose Line will always be my biggest improv influence, but Dropout’s been a big, newer influence on me too.
Micki: If somebody wants to go see the show, where do they get tickets?
Clinton: For Facebook and Instagram users you can find Improv Falls and Creating in Color out there and there’ll be links to the show there.
Probably your local coffee shop is gonna have a poster somewhere. If they don’t, you need to ask ’em why they don’t have Live and Local up there with these two amazing groups. [laughing]
You can follow some of us on our individual Instagram’s, like Clinton…I think it’s Clinton Store Second to None. I made it up a long time ago. I was just thinking of something that sounded catchy at the time [laughing].
Zach: So mine is Z A Dresch. I never thought of it this way, but it’s like [with a French accent] Za Dresch.
Micki: [laughing] I like it — that’s good!
Zach: Yeah. And, zachdresch.com. I have links to all my millions of events going on. My girlfriend designs it. Becca — fiancé now.
Micki: Yeah, Congratulations!
Zach: Thank you. Yeah, she organizes it, so ticket links on there too, if you want to go that route. But otherwise, Pavilion website is the place to go for that,
Micki: Okay. So, get your tickets, get ’em early, get there early so you can sit close and give suggestions, right?
Zach: Yeah, if you are a person that is very vocal and loves to be a part of the action, get there early and get seats up front. Because we can’t hear you if you’re way in the back. Unless you’re really loud. Good for you. But if you’re timid, front row.
Clinton: I’m gonna add to that too. Our show is music and fun and celebration and we are highly interested in audience participation. So that means if you’re sitting in your seat and you hear something that you like, you don’t have to sit there like you’re at the ballet.
You can stand up, you can sing along, clap along. And just enjoy and have a good time!
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