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I read a quote
the other day. Somebody like

Can't remember if it was
P.T. Barnum

or Henry David Thoreau that

said that democracy is based
on the notion

that ordinary people
can do extraordinary things.

Societal pressures tend to keep
our abilities quashed down.

We don't sing.
We don't dance

because the professionals
do it for us.

But in order to do
improvisation

You have to have
some respect for

the possibilities of
human abilities.

Like

You have to assume that people
can do extraordinary things

We've got a real special treat
for you right now

It's my pleasure
to introduce to you

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mr. Del Close

If you've never
heard of Del Close

Well, congratulations

That means
you're not a comedian

which all in all, is probably
good news for you.

If you are a comedian,

then you know this actor
turned comedy guru

trained pretty much
everyone in the business.

He was like
a living legend.

If you don't know Del Close,
Google him.

He's done everything interesting
in comedy, in my opinion.

What do you want to see
a show about?

- Yeah, I'm talking to you!
- Um...

Um, crime!

An excellent suggestion!

Del Close showed me
the connection between

comedy and bigger ideas.

We're not worthy!

Oh yeah,
the Cult of Del

it should be the Church of Del.

Del taught me
the whole concept of just

being bold in your life
and being fearless.

I'm just trying
to put you to bed.

No! Me Baby!

Baby no go night night!

It was
the first time I was

part of a Bohemian culture

I was around gay people.
I was around white people

that... I was around white people

A whole lot of white people

Del, thanks for
teaching me everything I know.

Being present in the moment.
In a scene.

And not going for a cheap gag
or a cheap joke.

Thanks honey.

And that's just
a smattering of comedians

who studied with Del Close.

Dozens of those comics started
their own Del-inspired theaters

passing down the wisedom to a
whole new crop of comedy nerds.

Del has created now

multiple generations of people

who seek even more freedom

like the free jazz of the 60s
and 70s.

This is a very pretentious
comparison, I know

- I like it.
- See!

But I'm an eccentric.

That's three
generations of comedians

if you're keeping track.

All of them chasing this myth

of the guru who discovered
a new art form...

Improvised comedy.

Which, for some reason,
he called Harold.

And a friend of mine said

they're doing this pure
improvised show.

It's called Harold.

I went down and I watched it
and I thought, this is for me!

I have to improvise.

A lot of the
comedy everyone is used to

They improvise like crazy.

I mean, look at
Judd Apatow's films.

There's so much improvisation.

I've never been in one... Judd.

When we did
"Anchorman"

and "Talladega Nights"

we improvised for hours.

The skeleton took a shower

The skeleton ran out of shampoo
in the shower.

Which was heavily
inspired by Del Close.

The Human Torch could not
get a bank loan.

The Human Torch

So one cameraman
if you look at his dailies,

you can see the camera
move a little bit.

Sure, laugh it up

But Del's path of destruction
has cut through almost every

seminal comedy moment
of the last sixty years.

Which is all the more amazing
when you realize he was

I bite myself,
I bite myself, I bite myself

literally nuts.

There was a period where Del

was doing shows at Second City

where he was
in the mental hospital.

They had to go pick him up

bring him back to do a show

and then take him back
to the mental hospital.

He was
a fucking crazy person.

He was crazy.

Undecided!

I think
with that crazyness

he's kind of a genius.

So how did a mad man
manage to change

the face of comedy
as we know it?

And end up with roughly the same
name recognition

as a third tier fast food chain?

Well, you can't ask him
because frankly, he's dead.

But he did leave behind
one clue.

The burn of the...

Uh, nickel, dimed,
and quartered

Uh yeah

The goddamn fog

Ooh!
Matin' with Satan.

No! The Creamin' Demon

Which one?

The Creamin' Demon

What am I looking at?

Is maybe what you're asking
yourself right now.

Well, Del Close has just
been hired to write

a comic book about his life.

For DC comics, no less.

Emergency Room Service?

No, no... Emergency...

- Rumors!
- Rumors!

Great minds.

And this is his team.

Smell... of the Mega Brain.

Here's Del.
Full of ideas.

Sniff and Crawl.

Only problem is
they're all batshit.

Done.

That's Mike Gold,
Del's editor,

trying to turn batshit
into comic books.

Well,
he was insane.

Now, I like that.

Insane people come up
with great stories.

They go places nobody's ever
been before.

What happened to Merlin?

Feed us... the Fetus

Here's John
Ostrander,

Del's trusty writing partner.

He's just happy to be
in the room,

even if it smells like an
ashtray full of farts.

Many times, I go,
how did Del and I ever

together?

Del is... hip.

I'm a square.

I'm so square, I'm almost cute.

But I knew comics,

but he was Del.

He had this imagination.

Probably there's androids.

Probably..

- Probably there's androids
- There might be...

You know what?

Oh, and all Del's
lines here are direct quotes

taken from tape recordings
he made throughout his life.

Starting with the
audition process...

Anyway,
back to 1987.

Witches in Toronto

I love that.

Witches...

Toronto freaks me the fuck out.

Right?

That is great.
Can I get an outline on that?

- Witches in Toronto, Thursday?
- Yeah, yeah, you bet.

Beautiful

- Did you write that?
- Good.

I got it.

Witches in Toronto.

I got it.

Thank you, John.

I was the
outside-the-box guy

over at DC.

They had just started
"The Dark Knight"

and "Watchmen" and, you know,
they were feeling pretty good.

And they figured this is
a good time to sort of

push the boundaries of comics
and enjoy the surreal.

That's Del.

Anybody who ventures
into the land of Del Close

hears all of these
Del Close stories.

And they're phenomenal.

We famously
dine out on Del's stories.

We feast on Del's stories.

I wanted to get some of those
in print.

Del volunteered
for some tests

for the U.S. Air Force.

They would give people acid

and they monitor their dreams.

He left the experiment

and he ended up
getting a letter that said:

"Mr. Close, you owe
The United States Air Force

one more dream."

So I'm driving
through the streets

of San Francisco,

and Del is going to eat fire.

He pulled it out,

and that thing of flame
shoots out

and my car caught fire.

He met
Tennessee Williams.

And he reaches out,
and he shakes

Tennessee Williams' hand,

and a cockroach crawls out

from his sleeve onto
Tennesee Williams.

And Del goes

"Excuse me, I believe
that's mine."

And sticks it in his pocket.

Del's whole
movie-acting career

is just so bizarre.

I know he did
a lot of weird films

and stuff earlier in his career.

He had two parts in
"The Untouchables".

- That's right.
- Two parts.

You fellas are untouchable,
is that the thing?

There's a story
of him with L. Ron Hubbard.

He was a science fiction writer
that Del loved,

and L. Ron was complaining
about the fact that

he was getting taxed so heavily,

and he said,
"well, form a church."

And he said,
"Alright, maybe I'll do that."

He was a natural.
These stories are so unusual.

And, in comics,
you have free reign.

For "Wasteland",
Del would be given full freedom

with the comic book form.

Using a variety of artists,
Del could go

literal,

metaphorical,

hallucinatory,

conceptual,

meta,

whatever... this is.

All in service of excavating
his own life story.

Which also happens to be
the story of an entire

comedy movement.

You know,
I'm writing my autobiography.

- You are?
- In a comic book, yeah.

Great!

It's in a comic book called
"Wasteland". It's, uh, for DC.

- Really?
- Yeah.

But what, why?

But I wanted to
leave behind the great lessons

Really?

Indeed,
the secrets of comedy.

Okey, doke.

That's, I think,
part of the reason why

he liked "Wasteland".

Because he had a chance
to do more,

and even with some of the
autobiography pieces,

to show more.

He wanted to reveal what
he'd learned in the past

about comedy.

The concept was
the first issue would be of

Del's origin, or as close to
an origin story as possible.

Yeah,
I worked for Dr. Dracula.

I was his assistant.

I carried out a flaming bowl
while Dr. Dracula ate fire.

Del used to tell
everybody that studied with him

about running away from home,
and going and traveling with

Dr. Dracula's Tomb of Terror.

There was this old guy
who played Dr. Dracula.

He would get up, and he would do
a magic act.

And you learned how to
eat fire from him?

No, he wouldn't teach me.
I learned on my own.

And my entrance music was

Dr. Dracula would come down
to the footlights

and he would say,

"A plague of worms will descend
upon you",

and the lights would go out,
and I would run up the aisle

throwing cooked spaghetti
everywhere.

And the audience would literally
go "WAH!"

My first show business
experience

you know, and I cause people
to shit their pants.

You know, man, and it's been
downhill ever since.

I know what Del means.

If I was onstage and something
I did

led someone in the audience
to say, "I just shit my pants!"

Oh my God!

It's an amazing thing.

This line between, kind of,
is it great?

Or is it wrong? Should I be
scared or should I be laughing?

What journey can you take
an audience on?

It was like
performance art

meets improv, which I think is
what Del was kind of all about.

He just loved that weird,
subversive world.

Even if the audience hated it

He was like

killed it!

Freaking people out
as a teenage carnie runaway

was a perfect origin story
for Del.

But what was he running from?

Del's life as a child
was really ordinary

growing up in Kansas

He was much smarter than most
of the kids in his class.

You know, by all conventional
standards, he was brilliant.

But his father didn't see that.

Del loved his mother.
He wanted to love his father.

And then...

John, can I talk
to Del for a minute?

Yeah.

Enjoy... this.

Del,

I just want to say, I love
all the Dr. Dracula stuff

It's great.
The guy pooping his pants.

But I was also wondering,
maybe there's something...

a little darker
from your childhood?

More appropriate for our little
grotesque booklet here?

Nah.

Anything from before
you left Kansas?

Something rotten
in the Little Apple?

Daddy drinks the dark dram.

Sometimes it's hard to deal
with the thing

in terms of the thing itself.

You know?

The thing itself,
an incendiary thing.

Del told a story
throughout his life

"The Big Story", some thought
of it as

When Del was eight, his father
called him over.

He asked his son to bring him
a glass of water he left

on the counter.

Eager to please,
Del does as he's told.

And watches as his father
drains the entire glass.

First come the convulsions,

then the glass smashes
as Del's father goes limp.

As it turned out, the glass
didn't contain water at all.

It was battery acid
Del learned later.

There's at the
heart of that a betrayal.

A father's betrayal of the son.

Okay...

Commiting suicide,
I'm not judging that,

but to do it, in that manner,
in front of your son,

That's a betrayal, that's...
by my likes.

He started
swallowing fire

at a very early age.

To me, if you were going to
psychoanalyze a person whose

father commited suicide,

you might wonder why they're
swallowing fire.

Just asking.

After traveling
with Dr. Dracula

Del was hired as a
"human torch" in Bermuda.

And then Del got another call,
not long after that,

from his friend,
Severn Darden

and he said, "Hey, there's this
theater action happening

in St. Louis.

you really should come out,
and give this a shot."

As Del says, "Well, I'd only
dove three times.

The wind kept shifting.

So this sounded like
a pretty good alternative."

So Del headed out
to join the newly formed,

Compass Players.

Not knowing that he was walking
into the one thing

more dangerous than fire:

the world's first fully
improvised comedy troupe.

What I did over the last
couple of days was like

put myself back into that
period of time

and I was just amazed.

It was definitely
a creative experience.

It was like unmatched
perhaps on the planet.

The Compass Theater was
the first group of people

dedicated to making theatre
out of improvised work.

Geniuses, and dropouts,
beatniks, weirdos.

Highly evolved, very intelligent

The task we were taking on
which nobody had ever done

was to, somehow or another,
train ourselves to improvise

whatever that was.

There was no script.

And we would do a new show
every night.

We would open usually
with some kind of like

some mad opening
that I would start

Like sometimes, I remember,
we would sometimes come in

wearing helmets with flashlights

examining the audience members
as though they were

complex fungi.

And then we would take
suggestions.

We would do a scene
on every suggestion.

I just remember the horror
that everybody felt

before somebody spoke
the first word.

We would just go out
and do literally anything.

Sometimes the audience
was fucking bored.

Right.

But sometimes
we would be doing a scene,

and we would just blurt
these amazing, wonderful things.

We just didn't know why

our successful work
was successful

and why our failures
were failures,

So we can chuckle now, but
this was quite serious

Right.

In improvisation,
each performance was a risk.

But Del sensed that a little
danger could be just the thing

for a genre that had become...

How do I say this?

Ah, good evening,
ladies and gentlemen

Shitty.

A lot of the comedy
on TV,

the kind of Bob Hope stuff

made me feel kind of gross.

And I want to be sure, at all
times, to do the right thing.

That's the right thing.

So that older
generation of comedy

was a palliative.

You know, it was meant to

make life okay,
and you can laugh,

and we'll laugh,
and we'll all be nice people.

Let's not do any jokes
we didn't plan on, huh?

As it turned out,
there were plenty of people

who were tired of Bob Hope's
dick jokes.

So the Compass was
packing them in.

To fill the need, they brought
in two new cast members.

Mike Nichols, and
Elaine May

Yep, that Nichols and May,
but we'll get to that

But like Mike was there
in order to work with Elaine

Uh huh

Elaine was there, to,
you know, work

in improvisational theatre
Right, right.

And so Mike's reasons for
being there were

- a little shaky.
- Right.

And she was able to adapt to it?

Yep, she was able to adapt
to real improvisation.

Elaine was absolutely
fucking amazing.

And fearless.

I have been going with the same
man for the last fourteen years.

Last week, I got the shock
of my life.

There, sitting at
a sidewalk cafe

was my intended
with another woman.

I asked him,
"What is the meaning of this?"

In reply, they both stood up,

and gave me such
a merciless beating.

Del and Elaine May
shared the same kind of

dogged persistence to figure out
what could you do to make

improvisation consistent.

And this was
Elaine May's line,

I love this - tell me
what I need to know

to get off stage without dying.

And they came up
with the kitchen rules.

He and Elaine apparently
constructed

a whole set of rules.
I think they called it,

"The Winchester Kitchen Table
Rules of Improvisation".

Like, don't deny, respect
the other person's reality.

Right.

Remember where
the objects were

Right.

Uh, don't do mime.

That's right.

Always play
to popular intelligence.

- And think the unlikely choice.
- Right.

We're not locked into
this thing like an actor

with a script.

He met his match,

and I think they had
a romantic engagement as well.

Elaine, I was thinking
about this,

I mean, of course, she was
frightening and intimidating,

I mean, the goddess is more
evident in her

than in most people.

And you know,
Right

in all of her phases
Right

The wrathful one,
and the beautiful one.

Right.

It's, uh,

it's like she was
a supernatural figure.

I kept having all these,
what am I doing here?

Why am I in the midst
of all this here?

I was fairly
mentally unstable in those days

cause I was still...

in my father's killing zone.

Everybody says you were
madly in love with Elaine.

- I have her at...
- And vice versa.

Actually, we never
officially broke up.

And I still love her.

Del had met
the two loves of his life.

Improvisation and Elaine.

He was in paradise.

But there was
a snake in the garden

Mike Nichols used to say
"Elaine can work with anybody.

I could only work with Elaine."

Moving out of
the Bob Hope era,

Mike Nichols checked
all the boxes

of the modern comedic genius.

Highly educated and refined,

he was an auteur who
was interested

in the polish of social satire.

Not the sloppiness of improv.

And that had a good deal
to do with our inability

to get along.

Still somehow or other,
a plot was hatched

to go to New York and audition
as a four-person night club act

to become, maybe,
okay, famous.

We did not have plane fare
for the four of us

So we all kicked in money
for Mike and Elaine to go.

So the crucial period comes
when we leave St. Louis

to go to New York.

And I thought it was like,
a guaranteed thing.

When we got to New York,
there was Mike

with a contract
from Jack Rollins

for two.

Not four.

So I was left out in the cold.

And at that point,
Mike and Elaine

began working together.

I was absolutely
completely cast adrift

And I went temporarily nuts.

Can you
analyze this patient?

He is an adult, white male.

The only child
of well-to-do parents.

Since the recent death
of his father,

the patient has suffered from
severe attacks of depression,

withdrawal,

apia, catatonic apathy,
and often toys

with the notion of suicide.

Clean family show,
ladies and gentlemen.

No geeks, no freaks,
no romedy.

Now, I would like to provide
a selection of danse macabre

on my head.

After the breakdown,
Del got back on his feet.

But he wasn't quite the same.

So he drifted to the place
where every dirty hippie

lands eventually.

♪ Ow! ♪

There's a story in "Wasteland"

where Del and his former
writing partner

were sitting around writing,
getting stoned,

trying to figure out
how to be funny onstage.

And their idea was: Okay,

you take some cole slaw,

and you stick it
down your shorts.

Then as you interact with it,
you're doing interesting things

even though you're too stoned
to really be reacting.

And he said first it worked
just as they figured it would.

It was irritating him,
and was giving his performance

and interesting level.

He said, "Howard,
I've discovered the

the problems with it.

If you're wasted, you tend
to forget what you've done.

So he said, after the show,
he was in the bar,

and he picked up
this sweet young thing,

and took her back to his place,

and he got undressed,

and out poured about
a half pound

of warm rancid cabbage.

Cole slaw.

That was the kind of experiment
one came to expect

of The Committee.

Where Del had managed
to get hired as a director.

Wow! The Committee!

It was basically sketch comedy

that was hilarious,
and had a voice that was both

political, and socially,
interpersonally relevant.

♪ Oh, say can you see,
by the dawn's early light ♪

♪ What so proudly we hailed at
the twilight's last gleaming ♪♪

♪ Who put stripes
and bright stars ♪

♪ Through the perilous night ♪

♪ For the ramparts we watched ♪

♪ Were so gallantly streaming♪♪

♪ And the rocket's red glare ♪

♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪

♪ Gave proof through the night ♪

Summer of Love.

Everybody
was sharing everything.

Everything that was done
was done in large groups.

Now, sex, theatre, politics,
the whole thing.

Big bunch of people.

The drug culture
at the Committee

was pot, alcohol,
and psychedelics.

But Del said, let's push this
a little bit further.

Anything that was ingestable
Del would ingest.

I came in once
with eight or ten

different pills.

I had no idea what
any of them even were,

and went to Del, saying,
"Do you have any idea

what these are,
and what they might do?"

And he said, "Let's see!"

He was fueled by the drug

to go further than he might
have gone otherwise

in his work and his curiosity

about life and human experience.

Quaaludes, cole slaw
comedy.

Hey, an experiment
is an experiment

when you're spirtually dead
in the year 1967.

So the Committee turned their
addled brains to improv.

If you could take
a drawer full of drugs,

and still stand for your bows,
could, you say...

improvise a whole play?

So we're doing these
long-form improvisation

experiments.

And I remember, one night,
the longest one we ever did,

it was like maybe twenty people
on this stage for just like

two hours, I remember.

Were those good?
A two hour, twenty people...

Well, I mean it was, um

So we improvised through
the whole workshop,

and then, at the end
of the piece,

everybody fell on the ground,
exhausted from the experience.

It was like...

okay...

can we do some more
funny stuff now?

But Del was just,
you know,

bouncing off the walls,

saying, "We've created
a new form of theatre!"

And everybody was saying,
"Right, Del.

Take it easy."
You know?

Yeah, well, it's a new form
of theatre.

We need a name for it,

and somebody to, kind of,
undercut Del's enthusiasm.

A kind of satiric comment on it.

Said, "Well, Harold's
a nice name."

And it became Del's Holy Grail.

Del had found
his purpose,

and its name was Harold.

But what was it, exactly?

Well, what Del had glimpsed
was just an idea.

The idea that people
could improvise

for long enough to achieve
some greater comic meaning.

And if betting it all
on a half-baked idea

sounds scary

so much the better.

Del
was forever wanting

to follow what he wanted
to follow.

He had this imagination,
you know, he had this outlook.

In the Summer of Love,
in San Francisco,

his new idea wound up
being called "The Harold."

That's what he called it,
at the time, then it stuck.

And Del really believed in it.

But somedays, it was hard
to follow Del

out to those reaches,
that he went to.

I have a bad feeling.

I think we should cut
this coo-coo-bird story.

No, no, let's not.

Let's criticize
the obviously stupid.

I'm just not sure a story
titled "Retroactive Abortion"

is going to sit well with the
people who publish Superman

and Aquaman.

Relax!

This is art!

A function of art
is not to assuage.

For crying out loud!

This is one
of my first jobs with DC!

I can't spoil it!

Oh God, I've spoiled it.

- Oh no.
- Right.

Oh...

Oh man.

...are gonna blow
her little brains over...

No, who ya callin'?

No, don't...

Lynn?

I have these edits here.

Will you get them to the author?

- Oh.
- Thank you.

Arabella, sorry, I just
can't get rid of this guy.

He keeps talking about
how he writes

something called "Wasteland"?

He says we need to stop
making him slice

the comedy sausage?

There's a thin line between

genius and nutbag
in this company

Go for Arabella.

Well alright,
DC's got commercial success.

Fine, great,
there it is.

However, I'll tell you a couple
of cautionary tales.

One time, I was in Los Angeles,
I was at all these restaurants,

the kind where they...

- Has this been happening for
- Yeah.

- this whole time?
- The whole time.

Okay.

More often, some sort
of mystical journey

inside the washing mac...

Hey, have you seen that
new movie "Fatal Attraction"?

- I saw it.
- Was it good?

Oh no, I think you'll hate it.

Unless you hate women,
then you'll love it.

You know?

Oh, well, I love women, so...

- You won't love it.
- Right.

Forming a
secret society

which using secret names.

Now I'd like to tell you
about my...

Okay.
I don't want to go to this.

I think you should.

- Feather on the invite?
- You're right.

What kind of classy event
is that going to be?

I'm old now, you know?

Chicks don't hold my hand
when I'm sad..

Hey, what happened
on your date last night?

Oh, um,

Didn't go great.

What?

- How is that possible?
- I don't know!

He doesn't want a woman
with attitude?

Yeah, well, that's...
what I would have said.

What did you say?

I just said thank you.

Okay.

The praying mantis
can't get it up

until his head has been
gnawed off...

Okay!
Hello dear.

Yes?
Here's the deal.

I'm not paying a lot of
attention to your

"Waste-lords" right now.

- Oh, "Wasteland".
- "Wasteland".

Yeah, and that's a benefit

for both of us, I think, right?

I don't have to read
your gross stories.

Mike Gold sent me the outline...

for "Retroactive Abortion".

It was disgusting,
to be frank.

And then you don't have to
deal with me breathing down

your neck.
Does that make sense?

- Yes, but...
- Great.

So why don't we instate a policy
of benign neglect?

Leave us alone.

And don't make us
take you anymore seriously

than we want to,

and we'll get alone fine.

Okay, if I can play de...

You know what?
I will go to that.

That's what I thought

Okay?

Oh, Del loved to push
the boundaries

in a corporate environment.

"Wasteland" is, there's
a sort of, special thing

that's like, yes!
We've invaded...

DC was the majors.

It was one of the two biggies.

DC and Marvel.

Del loved the idea of that.

He wanted his influence
to spread out.

He wanted the recognition

that he knows his stuff.

I think there's something
that continues

when he went to Second City.

This is one of
Chicago's cultural institutions:

the Second City Theatre.

The inside of this place
is familiar to a lot of people

who enjoy an evening of comedy.

This bare stage
with its familiar chairs

is a landmark
of American theatre.

And through the years, it has
served as a training ground

for many young, talented
performers

on their way up.

In 1973, Second City
was the country's most

famous comedy theater.

And any fanboy can breathlessly
list the legendary comics

that filled that stage.

Ah! That's Derry the Honky!

Harry the Donkey?

But a lesser known fact

was that their director,

like the goddamn
Zelig of comedy,

was Del Close.

Where are we gonna take it...

Yes, we're at the top, right?

Lured by
the possibility

of finding a stage for his newly
discovered art form, Harold.

Del agreed to direct the
theatre's scripted sketch shows

But by night, he'd use
the theatre

as his personal laboratory,

developing the Harold
in underground workshops.

Remember, we got style.

Del spends
his evenings

at the Wells Street
Second City Theater.

He's doing what some call
impossible.

Close runs a workshop
in improvisation.

Del was the one voice

in the wilderness which is like

Improv is a performance medium
in its own right.

People will come just to see
comedy improvisation

and it works by itself.

It's not a means to anything
other than the thing.

Although
improvisation

has been established as comedy

Close has a greater vision
for it.

That was always
the problem with improvisation.

You can't depend on it.

You don't know if it's
going to be entertainment.

It might just be

Oh, look at these people
shitting themselves.

That's always
a distinct possibility.

One of Del's
fundamental comic exercises

was "What's the worst thing
that could happen?"

Now let's play with it.

What's the impossibility?
Let's make it possible.

And that's what Del used to do
in his workshops.

As an actor
the Harold workshop

was really

this liberating force.

And you never know
if it's going to tank

or if it's going to work.

That's what makes it so exciting

I used to sort of
get by on winking

at the audience kind of
in my behavior,

making like smart jokes.

And Del pulled me aside one day
after a show, and said,

"Some day you're going to
look in the mirror and say,

'I'm so cute,
and I'm only 45 years old.'"

And it sort of sobered me up,
you know?

It taught me that, you know,
that there was more

to just scoring
with the audience.

It wasn't about
just getting a laugh.

It was putting
human nature

up onstage to study it.

To see why people do the shit
that they do

to each other, to people
that you love,

to people that you hate.

Like why do we behave
the way that we do

and exploring that.

He came up with the line
"You have a light within you"

"Burn it out."

To me it means,
go for it

until you get to the meat
of your soul,

and the heart of your comedy,

and if you fall off the stage,

Too bad!

But, unfortunately,
not everybody was so

excited about doing
long-form improvisation

at Second City.

This was the source of dispute
between Del and Bernie Sahlins

who was the long time producer
at Second City.

They want you to meet
the man who gave this place

its start and who has been
the driving force

behind it all the way.

His name is Bernard Sahlins,

and he's owner, producer,
and sometimes director here.

He is truly Second City's
first citizen.

Bernie Sahlins
was not at all interested

in doing
long-form improvisation.

Uh
Why?

They had a formula that worked.

Bernie's formula
was as follows:

Drunken audience suggestions

Any fantasies at all,
whatever you would like to do.

A whipped cream party.

A whipped cream party.

Plus
backstage planning

Three-mile island,

invasion of Normandy,

and Catherine the Great,
hubba hubba.

Plus
weeks and weeks of rehearsal

Rehearsal.
Rehearsal.

Rehearsal.

Until
all the mistakes

and failed experiments
were buffed away,

revealing a show that even the
boys from marketing could love.

It was money,
we bring in regular audiences.

What they did was very safe.

Improvisation, especially,
in the early days

was not safe.

I had a fundamental
disagreement about the uses

of improvisation.

There are others, led by Del,
that feel that the process

itself had some
mysterious beauty.

I think if you're going to see
improvisers,

often enough, you'll see that
half of their audience

are other improvisers.

Sometimes it's brilliant,
and most of the time,

by my lights,
it's not brilliant.

I remember Bernie
allowed Del

to run his workshops,

but you're not going to
screw with the stage on that.

The notion of improvisation
as a performance art form

that's preposterous.

The Big No.

Ten years later, during
the writing of "Wasteland",

it still stung.

So Del took his anger
toward all the bosses

who had ever shut him down

turned them into one,
vaguely anti-Semitic

Bernie look-a-like,
and named him Lash LaRue

after a cowboy he worked for
in his teens.

But like all Del's creations,

once brought into existence,

they tend not to stay put.

Well, howdy,
shithead.

Hear you're having trouble
with your boss.

Lemme guess, he's a moron,
and you're a genius.

He's not a bad guy.

I like him.

He's just, you know,

greedy, and intrusive, and...

It's his candy store.

Lemme ask you something.

And I know I'm just a big ol'
dumb fake cowboy,

but what is your beef
with Bernie?

I thought you guys just wanted
a couple of yuks.

Well,
to the general public

it's a trivial little
disagreement.

But to us, it's a great crisis
of artistic vision!

Bernie's conception
of improvisation? Oh boy!

True improvisation
demands your whole mind.

We're not reproducing
human behavior!

We're transforming it
so that it's

meaning appears.

Well, shit,
Hell's mouse.

Hey Trisha? Can you
get a babysitter?

Del Close is putting on
one of his Meaning shows.

Uh, here we're going to see
human behavior transformed

Hey do we get a free diaper
with this show

from when we shit our pants
cuz of all the meaning?

Do me a favor? Just
pretend this isn't bullshit

Busting your chops,
buddy, rough.

To Del Close.

Worst Employee.

All that fancy talk, still can't
put on a show worth a shit.

Goddammit!

Tastes like
a lollipop's butthole.

Bernie always thought
that Del was crazy.

To expect people to see shows
where wholly 100%

improvised.

The actors, on the other end,

you know, most of them
loved improvisation,

and doing it in a long-form.

They can see it all paying off.

Sister,
is this really necessary?

I was told, I could just come in
and get some antibiotics.

Oh really, you were just trying
to get some shots and pills?

Oh really?
Well, who told you that?

Just this guy...

Just this guy?
I wanna know what guy.

- You know, just a guy!
- No, I wanna know what guy

told you that!

This guy! He told me!

It's the greatest
job any young actor can have

Cause there's no place like that
where you get to improvise.

There's something about that
technique that makes you

really like a sponge.

You really do... you try to
absorb everything you can.

I'd like you to
take a look at this picture

and tell me...

John Belushi
is a prime example

of Del's work.

There was serious danger
on the stage.

But it was hilarious.

This fish comes from one
of the most polluted

streams in the United States.

That fish was actually
killed by pollution?

Well, not directly, Tommy,
see the fish crawled out

of the water and was hit
by a car.

He's a very good example
of the kind of approach

that Del would expect.

That quality of walking
the tightrope.

And just when
it seemed

the power balance might be
tipping in Del's favor

Live from New York,
it's Saturday Night!

The director can

set the goals,

work with the actors,
and train them to some extent

Okay?

But then, when
push comes to shove.

I'm the one who stayed behind.

and we're ready to go on to
make films and television.

Without his most
prized cast members,

uncertainty took hold.

What if the excitement
of the Harold

had been more about
the brilliant talent

than the form itself?

What if the form itself,
God forbid

fucking sucked?

Satchel

Damn!

General.

It was a very
frustrating experience.

Those were really years
of struggle for Del.

Well, he'd scream at people
or belittle them.

Del would self-destruct,

or OD or disappear...

all the time.

I'm sorry, you know,
like, uh...

that's... am I ratting him out?

- No!
- Is everyone...

Everyone's ratting him out
Yes!

Okay, good.

The wheels were
coming off Del's rebel act,

and Bernie's patience
had worn thin.

He needed Del, but he no longer
wanted to see, hear,

or smell him.

So he decided to export him.

Canada,
the endless surprise.

♪ Magical, we want to see,
come on up ♪

Come on up.

♪ Come on up! ♪

And so, Del found
himself banished

to Second City's new Canadian
outpost

to direct a group of unknowns.

Okay, this is
the Great White North

okay, on the map.

Now here is a different color
cuz it's like U.S.A.

They got like a
pimple right here

- It's Florida.
- It's Florida.

Martin Short
was in that cast.

Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin,
Dave Thomas, John Candy.

It was interesting...
the Toronto group

versus Second City in Chicago

The behavior issues were
quite different, you know?

Our cast started
having families.

They were settled down.

There wasn't outrageous issues
with drinking or drugs.

And Del, he was going through
a lot of stuff,

you know, personally.

I mean, he was well-documented
about his addictions.

So you never knew
which Del was going to show up.

Had you heard
about Del before Toronto?

Oh yeah!

He was infamous
before we saw him

They said, you know,
he's out of his mind.

He was a delicate basket of eggs

that were ready to break
at any moment.

He was definitely going through
his crazy period,

you know what I mean?

Del, Del!
Whoa, whoa!

Hey! Put that thing down, man!

Get a hold of yourself, dude!

Where ya going with this
comic book thing?

I mean, what happened to those

secrets of comedy
you were writing, Huh?

Did ya drop them while you
were reaching for your bong?

Well...

it became decadent right away...

You gotta channel your follies
and stupidity

and use it for comedy.

A short time ago, the manager
was having trouble

with the same limousine.

He had a...

I have a hard time
being a person too.

No shit, Del!

No shit...

So one of the
early nights,

when Del had come,
we were doing workshops

he said,

And he gets up on stage,
takes over.

Now this was a story
Del had

had already told us that this
was how his father died.

So...

Okay, we're going
to do a scene now, Dave, where

you will play the doctor
that comes and tells me

that my father died
from drinking sulfuric acid.

I looked at him, and said,

I'm not doing that.

That's not a good joke.

I think Del was always
interested in making

the audience gasp,

and that would be equivalent
to a laugh.

Which I never believed.

They wanted to laugh.

You have a responsibility
to that audience.

And without them,
you got nothing, you know?

You're a... You're a madman
on a street corner,

you know, raving at passers-by.

And he was a madman,
there's no denying that.

It got worse.

Iconic actor,
John Belushi, died today

at the rented hotel bungalow
in Hollywood Hills.

Authorities say that
cause of death is believed

to have been a heart attack.

Fire department medics say
they were called to the hotel

where they found Belushi
unconscious...

One evening, we heard
Del's booming voice

and he had a real booming voice,

screaming,
in the little alleyway

behind the theater.

It was probably
ten degrees above zero.

He walks in his stocking feet,
all the way down Jarvis Street.

And he came backstage

By this time, we see Andrew
backing up.

And Del moving at him,
trying to punch him.

And he started
throwing punches at me,

and then John Candy
got inbetween us.

And he's so big
that Del can't reach over him

punching Andrew,

and Marty gets up
'cause he hated Del,

and sanctimoniously
closes the door

like we don't need to see this.

Del was screaming about how
Andrew had betrayed him.

"You demon!"

"You Judas!"

And then there was
a bit of a pause,

"You cheeser!"

He yelled out, "You cheeser!"

He ran out of ammo

at sort of the demonic level
of things to describe

Andrew as, and

tripled out with "Cheeser".

So that's our show for today.

So good day.

To me, it was just like,
he's fucking nuts.

We gotta get him on a plane
as fast as we can,

so that he's no longer
our responsibility.

Bernie and Joyce Sloan
met him at the airport,

took him straight to

some psychiatric ward,
and he was

an inpatient there for awhile.

He checked himself
into Cook County

a psychiatric wing.

You know, he was sort of still
being very active,

as if he was still directing
the show from the psych ward.

And he would call in,
and he'd throw out ideas.

with the hope that he was going
to come back

and finish the show off,
which he didn't.

Bernie kept Del
around for the next few years

but his addictions and combative
nature eventually

got him fired for good.

So without a stage,
or coherent creator,

the art form called "Harold"
reached a dead end.

People like to talk
about the beauty

of the creative process.

They compare it to
the depths of the ocean,

or a gently flowing river.

But if you really
need a metaphor

here's the one Del
kept coming back to:

it's a sewer.

The thing
about horror stories

they usually take you into
a dark place,

and then they would take you
back out again.

We didn't do that.

We'd take you to a dark place,
and then say bye,

and leave you there.

We wouldn't tell you
how something

ended somtimes.
We wouldn't tell you

how to feel about it.

And so...

most of our readership
didn't quite get it.

Oh, this is the one,
this letter.

Dear Mr. Close,

What is the point?

Am I interested in what
Del Close puts down

his underwear?

To be honest,
I couldn't give a toss.

You are a boring old hippie,
and I claim my five pounds.

He didn't say anything about me.

Exposes a middle-age neurotic
with no ideas.

Trying to
reinvent everything

every eight pages,

every twelve issues
gets a little tough.

At that point,
it was a question of

do we keep on
writing the stories?

The question is this...

How do we achieve the goals
we have in mind?

Huh? I have to toss a few coins,

and write a bunch of lines
on a blackboard.

Okay, I, uh,

I think I'm going to
excuse myself

Hold that.

What is it?

This hexagram
looks like a breakthrough.

As a swollen river
breaks through its dykes,

this refers to a time when
inferior people

will gradually
begin to disappear.

Oh.

Your influence is on the way.

Won't be easy.

I think we're
on the right track.

One thing
about Del was

he found rock bottom an oldly
inspiring place to be.

And he wasn't alone.

They'd been doing
comedy at college,

on the radio
and some live shows.

And I thought, maybe,
I can do this for a living.

The only place I knew where
people were doing it

was Second City, and I thought,

I would go, just see
what happens there,

under the guise of doing
a news report

for my college radio station.

I called and got an interview
with Joyce Sloane,

the denmother of Second City.

She told me a lot of, sort of,
magical, legend stories

about the actors who
had been on the stage there.

John Belushi, he came
to our door and he knocked,

and he said, "I want to get
on that stage", and we

looked at him, and said,
"You get up there, mister!"

I think Joyce wanted to tell me
the legend, you know?

But I think, what
she didn't realize

was what I wanted to hear was,

you know,

"they sucked
when we first saw them",

"they were terrible", and then,
"they worked really really hard

for a long time,

and they slowly got better".

You know? That's what I wanted
to hear.

And I walked out thinking,
I can't do this

'cause I'm just not that great.

I walked down the street
to Barbara's Bookstore,

and this guy walks in,

and he's talking to the girl
at the, um,

desk, and she's calling him Del.

I didn't know
what Del Close looked like,

but I'd seen his name
in the program of Second City.

I walk over, I go,

"Are you Del Close?",
and he goes, "Yeah."

and I go, "Well, I just
interviewed Joyce Sloan,

I'm here, can I interview you
about Second City and stuff?"

And he said, "That's great!
I'd love to."

And he explained that he had
just quit Second City

the day before,

and he had just quit cocaine,
I think, a few weeks before,

and he's changing his life now,

and he would love
to talk about that.

One, two, test, test.

Okay, um, Bob Odenkirk here.

Got some really
important questions here.

So we walk over
to his little apartment

across from Second City,
and at the time,

they had a window
that was busted out.

And this is February,
in Chicago.

So, the fucking, freezing

cold wind blowing
in that little... that window

the whole time
we're sitting there.

He had stopped
hard drugs.

He had stopped coke and heroine.

He went to this coven,
this witch gathering.

'Cause he was a witch, you know?

And he did a ceremony to get
rid of his cocaine addiction,

which he said worked.

I mean, I don't know that stuff,
I'm a kid from Naperville.

But if he says he quite coke,
and he did it by going to

a witch ceremony

then I believe him.

The crazy thing is
that

I walked out of Del's place

so excited about doing comedy

and being in show business.

And it was not through
any overt effort

though, I promise you.

He didn't sit around and go,
You should do this!

I mean, he was just talking
about his life.

Talking about all these
things he was dealing with

personally and professionally,
and it made it seem real.

It made it seem possible,
and it made it seem amazing.

But also I wouldn't put it
past myself for thinking,

If he can do all he did

and still have his brain intact,

imagine what I could do if I'm
not doing cocaine or heroin.

You know, I might even
have some money left over

to fix the window.

Well,
I'll end this for you.

No, no, no I wanna...

Window or no window,
Del was ready to get back

to work on the "Harold".

But where to begin?

Hello!

I was an improviser

that was desperate
to learn more.

I was bored. I felt like it
was the same old jokes.

the same old tricks.

And so I sought out Del, because
I wanted to see if there was

something I could steal
from him.

My first meeting with Del
was a disaster.

It was Halloween. I saw him
at an art gallery,

and I went with the plan
that I would talk to him

and see if I could get
him to teach a class.

And he was wearing
these witches' robes,

and he was invoking demons,
and doing this very scary

invocation of gods.

And I went up to him
afterwards, and said,

"You have a lot of nerve
for invoking demons

with all these people
in the room."

And he said, "I protected the
building", and I was like,

and I just walked out in a huff,
and then I was like "Oh God."

There was your meeting with
Del Close and look what you did

Then a couple weeks later there
was Del, sitting in the theater.

And I thought, well,
I had heard rumors

that he was always high,
and that he doesn't

remember people.

I figured, he's not going to
remember me.

So I said, "Hey, how'd you like
to make two hundred bucks

in pot?"

And he was like, "Hm,
what do I gotta do?"

And I said, "Just teach one
three hour class",

and he was like,

"Can I do anything I want?"

And I said, "Yeah," and he said,
"Can I invoke demons?"

So he taught a class,
and he revealed the secrets

of the universe to us.

And we talked, and I said,
"I just feel like there's

something more for
improvisation."

and he said, "Well,

perhaps you're not a twit
after all."

And then he told me, he had
been working on this thing

since the 60s when he was
directing the Committee

called Harold.

which was basically unteachable
and unplayable,

but if I would like to shut down
my little game theater

perhaps we could find a way
to make it work

and change the face
of improvisational comedy,

and I said, "Yes please!"

Here's the funny thing
about Del.

I mean, he was like this legend,
he was definitely brilliant.

But he could also be a little
bit of a baby sometimes.

And after the end of his run
at Second City,

there was still a serious
argument going on

about... is improv
even a performance

uh, form?

It wasn't a polished,
regular Second City show.

It was a road to nowhere.

The only thing you could get
out of improv at that time

was to get better
at doing improv.

I think he worried
that he was wrong,

and maybe a big group of people
onstage just making stuff up

really is a trainwreck.

Like, the thing is that
Second City worked for awhile.

Was it an accident, you know?

Did it just happen?

It's easy to question
the validity of your art form.

if it only works when
Bill Murray and Gilda Radner

do it.

Charna saw that the real proof
of the Harold would be

if it was teachable.

We thought, okay,

We really have to find a way
to train anyone

that comes through the doors.

You know, I said to him,
"I'm asking you to just listen,

and collaborate,
and work together,

and I'm going to take you idea,

and I'm gonna
make it brilliant."

He just trusted me, and

opened up and let it in.

Charna really believed
in Del,

but she saw that you need a form

for groups of people to use
as a guide rail onstage,

so it doesn't turn
into a giant mess.

And that was when it hooked.

That was when they cracked
this form called

"The Teaching Harold".

Yeah, you could probably
use graphics if you need,

- We are going to...
- you could show... yeah, yeah,

perfect!

All of this starts
with a one-word suggestion.

Okay, we need a theme

something meaty
we can tear apart.

We get one
suggestion from the audience

like

God or cardboard.

We're not going to do a full,
long improvisation about

God or cardboard; we're going
to use this suggestion

to be inspired by.

You sort of
toss around ideas

whether it's in monologue, or
word association, or whatever.

And now those were our blocks
from which we could build.

That is going to give
information for the first scene

that you go into.

Then you'd break off
and do two-person scenes.

Scene one, scene two,
scene three.

Then what you do is you

bring each of these scenes back.

And the scenes can progress.

Same characters,
different time.

In the past or in the future.

And the next step of the
three scenes

that we invented
first time around.

And then you have
a third beat,

third set of scenes.

And it all harkens
back to the original suggestion

And by this time,
the scenes

are beginning to interrelate,
to be affected by each other,

to mirror each other, to rhyme

with each other in some sort
of mad, conceptual way.

And the goal was not to tie
it up all neatly

but just to see how
some of these things

all along had been related.

You see amazing moments
of discovery,

moments of connection where
the group brain really does

start functioning.

Yeah, you're looking
for discoveries.

That's the juice of the Harold.

And that's why our audience
is so much on our side.

The audience is with you.

They're seeing that you don't
have a script.

They're seeing that you're
looking for the discovery,

so when you find it,

and it's really good,
they cheer.

There was a
distinction made

at the very beginning:
we're not looking for laughs.

We're looking for cheers
and roars.

With the Teaching Harold
suddenly the

idealistic dream
became a reality.

And finally,
almost twenty years

after Del first glimpsed it,

Harold actually worked.

Wowee, Harriet, wowee!

I'm the happiest
fellow on campus!

♪ Howie ♪

I loved him.
He was just the best.

He was always doing
something cute.

He was in "The Blob".

When we were
at the movie theater,

I guess the director had given
him some of the tentacles

from the movie when it was done
being shooting,

and he never told me.

There was this one scene
where she was

climbing down the man hole,
and the Blob reaches down

and starts touching her head.

As it's happening,
he slowly starts

sliding the tentacles
down my face, and I

scream so loud, you know,
and I'm seeing the tentacles

Um, so, oh he was so romantic.

♪ And when we dance ♪

We knew that
we couldn't be lovers

because he felt that I would be
grossed out

or he would kill me,

one or the other, so we decided
just to be family.

♪ We'll do the sock hop ♪

And that's when the
art form spread

like wildfire.

Charna was his anchor,
was his rock, you know,

she permitted him to

to live, and made sure he could
live the life that he wanted.

She convinced him to go back
to the first rule of improv

and say yes.

You know, open your eyes,
and open your mind.

I think that's what
happened to him.

Hm?

What the heck is this?

- You made me a Voodoo priestess?
- Uh...

How did you not think
I wasn't find out about this?

I mean, I'm the Grand Summoner
of your coven, Del.

- I know shit.
- Blessed be.

You know, not only is this
offensive to me

as a druid, it's definitely
a little racist.

Well, it's an archetype.

It's lazy.

You know what?
You might be right.

I won't argue with you.

My mood has changed.

Really?

I learned a great lesson

which is: conflict is boring,

and agreement is less boring.

We don't need that old

tacked-on, obligatory conflict,
"yeah, but"

- What about "Yes, and"?
- Hm.

In these situations, "Yes, and"
is a lot better.

Care, concern,

- Let's take care of each other.
- Yep.

That doesn't sound like
the guy who wrote this.

I mean, it sort of looks like
you're dissecting someone here.

Ooh, hey, you gotta light?

Well, sometimes, you can develop
a picture of a person

and that can change
right under your nose.

Hm.

I think he was
interested in

exploring transformation.

Improvisational work itself,
I think,

worked on his system, you know,

and made him...
open him up,

made him eager to open up more.

And it was really when he began
working with Charna Halpern

at the Improv Olympics, I think,
which was his stage,

and his joint,

and his students, that he really
began to accept himself

and accept the work.

With his very own
stage, at long last,

Del could finally put whatever
he wanted on it.

My name is Del,
and Charna's partner.

And what
he wanted was

everyone.

Before the Improv Olympics
I think the general consensus

was that improvisation

couldn't be studied,
and it couldn't be understood

and couldn't be taught.

And we discovered
that this was not true.

It does not take an
enormous amount of training

for somebody of ordinary
abilities

and no theatrical experience

to participate in some degree
of credibility

in a public improvisation.

We were freaks,
basically.

He took in a bunch of
really smart

talented freaks
who were ostracized

by every fringe of society,

and we finally found each other.

That becomes the
kind of incubator

for a lot of people who don't
belong in a

trad... they're not like
traditional actors.

They're not standups.

It attracts a lot of smart,
nerdy people

who want to exercise that
in favor of comedy.

It's always this or that!

You empower

creative voices

to express themselves
in the moment

as only they want to.

He gave permission

for people to say

I have unusual connections.
I have eccentricities.

I belong onstage.

Intellectuals
and anti-intellectuals,

philosophers, and

dope-smokers, low status,
and high status,

Most people existed
on that stage because

Del Close said
we need people like that.

I think
he got to a point

where he probably
became more enamoured

with people who were
taking improv class to become

you know, better salespeople,

because they weren't doing it

for the purpose
of getting on SNL

or getting a sitcom

or a fucking beer commercial.

They just wanted to, like,
come out of their shell.

One of Del's
favorite students was a

deaf prison electrician, um.

He was this older,
middle-aged guy

He had actually done
some living,

and he had interesting
life experiences,

Regretfully, we could
not locate the electrician.

But we did find a few tapes
with these guys on them.

Ted Bundy was quite a character.

Let's edit that out.
That feels wrong.

My name is Amy Poehler,

and my last name is:
P-O-E-H

L-E-R.

And Del totally
opened my eyes

to the potential

that I didn't know I had.

I didn't know what
I wanted to do,

and he gave me a vision

to say yes onstage and in life.

There's no wrong move.

You're a poet onstage.
You're an artist.

Take what you have in your life,
and put it into your art.

We were all so
obsessed with it.

We would do Harolds
in people's living rooms.

We would rehearse
in dining rooms.

Anywhere we could.

When I improvise
with someone,

we can do something a lot better

than either of us
are capable of.

A notion of "just pay attention"

just care about
this other person.

Rather than get the laugh.

You also
have to remember

you're in the 1980s.

There's actually the opposite
message is being told

in our society.

We're being told that the
individual is what rules now

I mean, if you need help,
you're weak.

If you watch
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off",

you know, it's a very
entertaining movie,

but the message of that movie
is about one guy

who's in charge. One guy who
games the system.

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger
is the one guy,

and meanwhile, Del is teaching
the exact opposite,

and what you discover is

it's got a tremendous
amount of power.

And the people who really
commit to it,

just right away start doing
special, unique work.

It's a true
outsider art.

It's just filled with people
who are funny

and that like you,
no matter what.

You feel like, you're part of
a much bigger thing.

My friends in
Scarbrough, Ontario said

"so what do you do? Kinda like,
get drunk and crack jokes?"

And it's kind of, halfway
between that and

Uh, truly getting in touch
with your higher self.

Are you a comedy fan?

If so, you have this man
to thank for developing

countless comedians
and comic actors

over the years.

His name is Del Close.

In the 80s,
more and more people

were moving to Chicago
to do long-form improv.

And Del was the selling point.

And now
I would like you to meet

the best partner
a girl could have...

Mr. Del Close!

I think
as he got older,

he carried himself
in that guru way,

and I think he enjoyed the role.

There wasn't a modesty
of like "Oh, no, no,

please, I'm just here
to run a few exercises".

For Charna,
as the businesswoman,

it's also a smart business
decision of just like,

this is the guy!

Everybody has to study
with this guy.

You've gotta come through here,

take all the levels
to get to this guy.

It is a cult.

Uh, um, yeah.

Improv Olympic is a cult,

and I got sucked into it, um...

One night, out of nowhere,

these like eight guys
came at me,

and they were just these like,

doughy looking white guys
in khaki pants,

and they told me,
I had to go with them,

and that I couldn't
deny anything they said,

and that I had to
heighten their initiation.

And, you know,
the next thing I know,

I'm writing out checks
to Yes, And Productions.

A cult of personality
was forming,

distracting Del
from other things.

Like say,

living up to the ideals
of his egaitarian art form

by putting someone other
than white guys

from Schomberg onstage.

But alas,
his focus was elsewhere.

I sometimes sit around
and wonder

would I like to have millions
and millions of dollars?

Direct movies?
Direct Broadway plays?

Raise Arabian stallions?

Or work with Charna here at...

I think there was a big part of
Del that wanted to be famous.

I think it was a conflict
within himself,

between his artistic aspirations
and wanting popular fame

like his contemporaries,
you know?

Like Mike Nichols,
who couldn't have been

bigger.

His Broadway
directing debut

with Neil Simon's
"Barefoot in the Park"

earned Nichols the first
of six Tony awards

and the reputation
for having the Midas touch.

If I'd gone
a different direction,

maybe I'd have Arabian stallions

and be married to Diana Sawyer
like Mike Nichols,

but here,

I'm in a basement with Charna.

And he had a sense
of humor about it,

but it's only natural to
compare yourself to your peers,

that he had come up with,

and to see his students
reap awards

that he never reaped himself.

You know, it's gotta be
hard sometimes.

And he's like,
"Wait a minute!"

I taught that big guy
with the glasses

everything he knows,

and he's using what I'm using,

and so is that Rachel Dratch,

and I feel like
they ripped me off!"

We were like, "Well, I thought,

the idea was that you teach us,
and we could use it."

But we realized
he was just wounded.

He felt a little left out.

It bugged him.
It definitely did.

Alright,
we're rolling right now.

As comfortable as you are
talking about this...

You worked with
Saturday Night Live for awhile.

Yeah, yes.

And what do you think

when you see
all these improvisers

from Chicago going out,
and doing things like

Saturday Night Live?

I mean, you can't work
with all these terrific people

Um,

you know, without...
But then,

A Harvard
Medical School study

has determined that
rectal thermometers

are still the best ways
to take a baby's temperature.

Plus it really teaches the baby
who's boss.

I mean have you ever gone
on vacation,

and left your child home?

No.

- Old Testament, Mr. Mayor.
- Yes.

Real wrath of God type stuff.

Forty years of darkness,
earthquakes, volcanoes!

Human sacrifice!

Dogs and cats, living together!

I can't believe what
an asshole you are!

No, maybe, she smiled.

She's smiling at
what an asshole you are

No, no, no, no, she was smiling
at how money I was.

Historically, syphillis
is right up there with Germans.

Morning, everybody!

Though you don't want
a fish sandwich?

Upright Citizens Bri...

Behave!

Hi!

Correct.

Was he cool
being the teacher,

the trainer,

the guy that
you've never heard of?

Well,

I don't know, I mean...

I can't tell you
what he thought.

But I can tell you that
the last conversation

that I had with him

I told him,
I hope I made you proud.

And he said, "Yes."

That I, like,
never let him down.

And it was weird because he

how do you say goodbye
to somebody

for the last time, you know?

I saw that
he was weaker

like when we'd walk somewhere

he'd have to stop and breathe.

He was now coughing so badly
that he would vomit.

I was so angry
because he was still smoking

at the time.

I was like, "You can't
smoke anymore."

And I remember
when we went to the doctor,

they did all these tests,

and the doctor came out,
and he said,

"it's Emphysema."

So it's a pretty awful death.

But we had a great party for him

like he wanted
to die a special way.

Me and Bill Murray
pulled it off.

The hospital gave me
this room in the basement,

and all these people came back,
I mean everyone came back.

Murrays there, and Ramis.

Charna is obviously hosting, and

really guiding everybody
through the processes well.

Well, she's the high priestess.

It was hard on Bernie.
Much harder than he let on.

And he wanted to go talk to Del.

Charna already knew that they
were going to have a moment,

so she kind of cleared out
this place for these two

giants to have their final chat.

And you could see at one point,
Del kinda nodding,

nodding, and he was

kind of leaning, and

I thought he was
going to topple forward,

and for a moment,

I thought, and a bunch of people
around me thought,

maybe this...
maybe he's going,

maybe this is it?

And then somebody said to me,
in that typical Second City

scene...-
stepping on his air tube!

And then, Bernie's like,

"What?"
"You're on his oxygen!"

He goes like this,
and then Del's like,

"Whoa! Hey, I'm back!"

I gave him a hug,
and he said to me,

"Here's an art form!"

And I said, "Del, for tonight,
it's an art form."

It's worth noting,
that on his last

full day on Earth,

Del didn't tell
the wild stories.

He didn't talk about the drugs,
the rage, the chaos,

the stunts, the myths.

He didn't even tell
his father's suicide story.

Hm.

Wonder why.

I found out
when I was writing my book,

a few years later,

it wasn't exactly
the way he told it.

Del was in New York,
you know,

he was a thousand
more miles away,

when his father
actually killed himself.

He said he was ten years old
when it happened.

Well, he was twenty years old.

So he kept changing all of this.

And he would just sit back
and let the legend grow

because he knew that's
what was happening with it.

Yeah, yeah,
I've heard that story.

Is it true?
I don't know.

But that's part
of the complexity

that made up Del.

Del's telling that story

about his father, even if
it wasn't factually true,

that says something about Del.

Stories are a wonderful tool

for getting at
what we're all about.

But all stories are lies.

Lies in service of the truth.

Or maybe in search of the truth.

You know, and that's what
"Wasteland" was for Del.

Del

wanted "Wasteland"
to be a rulebook

of the nature of comedy.

But, at the end of the day,

It was a way to come to terms
with the world view

that he taught

that comedy's about

everybody.

It's about the stage.

It's about the story
and the experience,

not about any one person.

He was a young comedian.

He didn't know
what he was doing.

He got into show business
for all the wrong reasons.

He got satisfaction in the fact
that it was too easy.

Very easy, very easy to impress.

But then he began to learn.

You!

You! You, you asshole!
You began to learn.

And then you began to realize

what you've
gotten yourself into.

I am not what
he expected to become.

I am the messenger.

I am the channel.

I am the door through which

you will pass,

but he may not.

But he understands.

Some people
have a simple story.

One the world eats up,

and success comes easily.

But fuck those people.

Because there's another group

who are a little louder,
weirder,

sloppier,
little more honest.

And for them,

Del kicked open a door.

You know, as I leave it,

I began to realize that
we really haven't done

such a bad job

for the world,

and I think that we need

all my fellow conspiratorians

to recognize this.

You know, we're not doing as bad
as they claim we are.

And so let's hear it
for the fucking human race.

Haven't I passed
this way before?

Same sewer,
different ending.

Oh.

I guess this is the end.

It's kinda like fireworks,
the most ephemeral

of art forms.

You know, once it's gone,
it's gone, baby.

There's the afterimage
for a few seconds,

but nobody will ever see
anything like it again.

Del wanted to
bequeath his skull

to the Goodman Theater,
to Robert Falls.

So that he could keep working,
you know.

He wanted to be
Yorick, in uh,

in Hamlet.

So you accepted the gift of the

the skull.
I think that's great.

Yeah.

I guess I'm early though.

So on his death bed,
he said to me,

"Make it happen,
any way you can."

Well, it isn't that easy.

I called so many places,
and so many, um,

and associations, and said,
"You can have the body to study

Just...

decapitate him,
and prepare the skull."

And most people would say,
"Oh, no thank you."

So I went to this place where
they sell skulls, and

human bones to hospitals,
and stuff like that.

And my sister and I,
we went shopping

to go pick out skulls.

So then I was like,
"This looks like him.

And this doesn't.
This head's big enough!"

And so we bought a skull,

and I'll never forget, because
I went back to my hou...

sister's house with her,
and then I realized,

Del didn't have teeth.

She pulled the teeth for me.

I was too squeamish.

And um, I took the skull home,

and put it in my pantry,
and waited a few months

'cause I read that beetles have
eated... that there' this whole

process to preparing a skull,
so I had to pretend

that I was doing that.

I got away with it for years,
and years and years,

'til some jerky reporter

brought some actor there,
and it turns out there was

a screw that showed
there was an autopsy,

and that the screw itself
was sixty years old,

and I was like,

aw, man,
why would you ruin that?

So I did get caught,
in the long run.

But at least, he got
another story out of it.

And I figured Del would
like that, you know,

because Del taught us

that we take care
of each other's ideas,

that we make them happen.

We don't say no
to each other's ideas.

We make them happen.

And that's what he wanted,
and that was my job

was to make it happen.

Any way I can.

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