Thanks to the Christopher Guests and Whose Line Is It Anyways of the world, improvisational comedy is all the rage. And who better to talk improv shop then with John Lehr, co-creator and star of 10 Items or Less, an entirely improvised original program on TBS. Airing Monday nights at 11:00 pm, 10 Items follows the trials and tribulations of the employees of a small mom-and-pop food market, the Green and Grains, which was recently taken over by the late owner’s nebbish son, Leslie Poole (Lehr). Hollywood.com riffed a bit with Lehr, whose life-long passion for pure improvisation finally found an outlet at TBS.
HW: 10 Items or Less is your brainchild then?
JL: Yeah, it’s my baby. This is what I wanted to do when I grew up. And now that I’ve done it, I don’t know what else to do. [Laughs] It’s just so exciting and gratifying to have it actually happening. It’s weird.
HW: And good on TBS to pick up on it, right?
JL: I know, NBC chickens out, and TBS steps right up! Meaning NBC’s decision to cut back on their original programming and focus on reality television. But yeah, we’re launching a new network in many ways. Incredible. Who could imagine my first show launches a network? I just felt at home with TBS from the get-go and so pleased they wanted the show. It’s the right fit.
HW: What were your thought processes behind this?
JL: Improv was my background in Chicago, but I quickly learned you can’t make a living doing that. So I ended up writing and acting. And the acting I did was basically character acting. I worked on a lot of sitcoms, and it just seemed like there was such an emphasis on getting the words right, and the words I was seeing weren’t that great. There were kind of clever but in the end, it seems like the whole TV business in the ‘80s and ‘90s was writer oriented. It focused around the writer and the writer was king. And the actors’ job was to not screw it up. I’m actually thrilled NBC came out with that statement. I’m one of the few people who think reality TV is actually a good thing. What it says to me is that people are more interested in these subtle, complex characters. Because what’s more subtle and complex than a real person.
HW: Yeah, but it’s all the silly stuff they make those people do that makes reality TV difficult to watch, for me at least.
JL: I totally agree. But what’s underneath is that you are getting to know these people. It’s an excuse to get to know them. I think there’s a nugget in there that’s really valuable—that people are more open to more complex, interesting characters. And I think people are less interested in the set up, set up, punch line humor. And that excites me. So I think the reason we finally got our chance is that we offer a balance there. When your improvising for four hours straight, which is basically what we do, then after the first 10 minutes, you’re out of your head. You’re just vomiting up words and your subconscious takes over. You start to say stuff that’s, well, true. Or say something that’s a part of you, things you’ve been thinking about. Like Leslie’s relationship with his dad is very similar to my relationship with my dad. Role playing is a therapy tool, so after awhile, you just start saying real sh*t. That’s the stuff we are after–funny but real.
HW: I also love the little video bites on your official Web site.
JL: Yeah, we shot most of that for promos, and we are going to release more and more. We have HOURS of stuff.
HW: Are there differences between being an improviser and an actor?
JL: Improvisers are very odd people, but they tend to have more to say. You have to! Where actors are more the chameleon types, who put on a costume and go for it. Believe me, it’s no small thing and I have a lot of respect for it, but doing improv is different.
HW: Did you look for people who could improvise when you cast the show?
JL: We did and we didn’t. In many cases, improv has been a way for actors to get noticed and further their careers and basically get on Saturday Night Live. That’s the main goal. But the problem with those styles–and they are antithetical to our styles–is that it’s really presentational, joke oriented. Kind of cynical and mean, making fun of stuff. Which is what we wanted to stay away from as much as possible. So, we were looking for people with improv talent, who hadn’t been steered down that direction. And it kind of took us down some interesting paths. Some of the cast members had never improvised before, if you asked them. But once you got to know them, you realize they’ve been improvising their whole lives. Natural talent, like Greg Davis Jr., who plays Buck the butcher. Never done improv before, but he’s kick ass at it! Others though, like Christopher Liam Moore, who plays Richard, and myself, who’ve been doing improv all our lives. Also Kirsten Gronfield, who plays Ingrid. She comes from the Groundlings.
HW: The cast dynamics really work. It must be a hoot on set.
JL: That’s because they help create the characters. When they add something to the character, like Richard coming up with a whole ice-skating thing, that’s his idea that we immediately grab onto it. So, they own these characters, they know them inside and out. We have a rule anything that’s talked about or brought up stays within the world of the characters. Unless you do something way out of bounds, like made your character mentally challenged or racist. Besides something obviously wrong as that, whatever they want is justified in the show. They feel a real confidence.
HW: How does it work exactly? Do you show the actors an outline on how you’d like the scene to go and then let them loose?
JL: Actually, we don’t show the actors the outlines. The three of us who write the show, we write a very, very specific outline. Kind of complex. The analogy we like to use is that we are kind of like basketball coaches and we have these plays. But once the players are on the floor, they do what they do. If Michael Jordan decides to improvise a shot, I’m not going to say no. So, the actors show up, but they don’t know what the episode’s about. We shoot in order, so they learn what the episode’s about as we move along. They kind of figure it out by the end, obviously after the first take, they get a sense what the scene is about. But sometimes not. I think the problem with some improv shows is that they tell the actors too much. Then the actors have this job of sort of writing the show. So we steer clear of that, but obviously guide it certain ways because we need to hit certain points to keep it kind of glued together. But usually if the writing is good enough, they’ll naturally go that way anyway. Anytime we have to really guide them, we know we’ve screwed up somehow.
HW: Who came up with the name of the store, Greens and Grains?
JL: I came up with that. I just like the way it sounded. It just came out, “Greens and Grains, that’s fantastic!” You gotta love the graphic, too, with the cornucopia. How often do you get a cornucopia in a TV show? I mean, we wanted to have this free-for-all style of shooting and improv, so we needed a place that’s wide open, lots of nooks and crannies and is well lit. Nancy Howard [one of the show’s other writers] came up with the grocery store idea. We were actually stunned it hadn’t been done before. But then there’s this movie coming out with Morgan Freeman called 10 Items or Less, which is hilarious.
HW: Are you nervous about the show’s chances?
JL: Look, we’ve done five shows, and I’m really proud of what we’ve done. It’s like you’ve got 150 people working on this thing, so of course, I feel kind of a responsibility for their jobs. They are all counting on it, so I take that responsibility very seriously. I mean, I feel like we’ve given [the show] our best shot, and if America loves it, great. If not, we’ll we’ve still done the best we could.
