Who is Cousin Sheckie? Is it even a person?
It really could be anything. To me, as a name, a Cousin Sheckie immediately sounded like it could be an intestine puckering rye whiskey and prune juice cocktail recipe hidden deep within one of those Mr. Boston's bartending guides.
On the other hand, the name most obviously sounds like it belongs to some neurotic, despondent relative just back from a 90-day stint in residential therapy for anxiety and caffeine addiction.
In reality, it could be a little of both, depending on how the story unfolds that night.
Cousin Sheckie is actually one of Richmond's newest improv comedy groups. Formed in the summer of 2007, Sheckie consists of seven actor-turned-improvisationists, including Amy Berlin, Abby Davis-Hess, Justin Deming, Jonathan Hardison, Stephen Ryan, Jason Sawyer and Peter Schmidt, all of whom are co-founders of the group.
If you are a regular Richmond theatergoer, some of those names may sound familiar. All of Cousin Sheckie's members are local theater actors and notably not stand up comedians, which is a defining characteristic that separates Sheckie from other improv groups.
"All of us have theatrical roots versus someone who comes from a comedy or improv mold and that crossover from theater to improv is very different than somebody who has gone from standup to improv," said Sheckie member Stephen Ryan. "Basically, we all found each other and we were looking for the same thing. We were several disparate performers here in Richmond all of whom either had a little history with improv or had a yerning to try improv."
Besides having strict theater backgrounds, Ryan said the group's onstage antics are also different from what many might expect from an improv show. Cousin Sheckie performs mainly long form improv, which Ryan said is more like a one-act play that writes itself.
"Short form is what people commonly know of improv," Ryan said. "That is the sort of quick witted, one-liner kind of scene work and it is intended for a different kind of audience and attention span. It's more like Who's Line Is It Anyway."
Long form improv, on the other hand, can be a little more dramatic and the content is more character-driven.
"The comic tone comes from the characters versus coming from a situation as in short-form improv," Ryan said.
Though the group still aims to give the audience a chuckle, Ryan said the humor may be a little different than what many might expect from off-the-cuff comedy.
"Our material may not be riotously laugh-inducing but we aim for a more intelligent, insidious, slow-burn humor versus being immediately and raucously funny and then it is over," he said. "It's a little more cerebral and a little more sophisticated because it is more about creating characters and relationships versus creating a funny line."
But what about the funny name? Some may infer that the group's name is a tribute to the famous Vegas comic Shecky Greene but Ryan said it actually came from one of the group's earliest rehearsals and a reference to broken kneecaps. During some scene work practice, Ryan was playing a college student and Abby Davis-Hess was playing a neurotic overbearing Jewish mother figure.
"There was a lot of crosstalk between us about our family like 'you know what dad would say' and 'your grandpa would be so disappointed in you,'" Ryan said. "Then she brought up something about 'your Cousin Sheckie' and the plot was revealed that the mother was having some sort of gambling quandary and was having to get Cousin Sheckie to help her out to keep her from having to get her kneecaps broken."
The name stuck, the group was solidified and Cousin Sheckie was born, kneecaps intact.