Harding is co-founder and director of the critically acclaimed improvisation company Improv Asylum, located in Boston's North End. Voted Boston's Best Comedy Club three years running, the theater brings together music, movement, comedy and audience participation to create two hours of clever, smart and side-splitting theater. Improv, a form of acting in which the script is written, directed and performed simultaneously, is alive and well in a city just a few hours from Amherst, the place where Harding made his comedy debut.
College comedian
Harding entered Amherst believing that he would be pre-med and, indeed, by the end of the first semester of his sophomore year, he had completed most of the requirements. But as he was sitting in the genetics lab one day, he realized how much more his classmates seemed to be enjoying it than he was. So, for the second semester of his sophomore year, the only science courses he took were political science, along with a few economics classes. "I think Amherst teaches students how to think and express themselves," Harding said. "We are constantly having to weigh options, deal with people, approach issues on all sides and think it through."
Harding was convinced that he had found his calling and ended up double majoring in political science and environmental economics and law, an interdisciplinary major he created. His thesis was a study of the politics and economics behind a law that was being discussed in the state legislature.
While at Amherst, Harding dabbled in a wide array of activities from resident counselor, to student government, to gospel choir and Rhythm and Shoes (a coed music and sketch group). Perhaps most significant of his non-academic activities was the beginning of his long and illustrious career in comedy.
"I started my stand-up at Amherst when my friends made me enter a National Competition Search at UMass. I had to do five minutes of stand-up comedy and I did really well and was approached to attend a competition in Boston," Harding said. He attended the contest and, at his fourth time ever doing stand-up, came in second place. With this award in hand, Harding was asked to perform at other clubs in Boston and at the other five colleges.
When he graduated, Harding was accepted to several law schools but chose a job with the Chicago advertising firm, Leo Burnett. He worked there for four years, creating advertising spots for Kellogg's. Simultaneously, Harding attended the training center at the critically-acclaimed Chicago Improv group Second City. Just as he was offered a job as the director of Polaroid's advertising in Boston, he was also invited to audition for Second City's touring company. "It was difficult to give up Second City, but [Polaroid] was a great offer professionally, so I decided to come back to Boston."
Harding came to Boston for advertising, but he couldn't let go of his love for comedy. Once in Boston, Harding joined an improv group called Rock Hard Improv that performed every week at the Hard Rock Cafe. He didn't know it then, but his work with them would result in the creation of a business team and would plant the seed for an idea that ultimately would change Harding's life.
The business of improv
At first glance, the second floor corporate office in Boston's North End looks like any other business: the obligatory copy and fax machines, the essential computers and the mandatory employees shuffling files as they make deals on the phone. But, a second inspection suggests that this office is somewhat different from the accounting firm next door. Maybe it's the jumbo gumball machine perched on the low wall or the air hockey table in the inner office. Or maybe the bright orange basketball hoop wedged next to the desk in the main office is what tipped me off. Whatever it is, I knew the moment I walked in that this was an office that created comedy. It is a business of improv.
After performing with his business partner at Rock Hard Improv for a while, Harding and Norm Laviolette decided to set their sights higher. "Once we realized that we were selling out our comedy shows at the Hard Rock Cafe on Monday nights, which is a rough night for theater, and after the group disbanded, we decided that creating our own place was a real possibility," said Harding. "If we did this right, it could be great."
Using many of the skills he developed at Amherst, Harding went about creating the business of his dreams. He and his partner formed a corporation, took out a small business loan and spent a long time casting their new theater. But Amherst was not only educational in the business sense. According to Harding, what he learned at Amherst is a fundamental part of creating good improv-understanding people. "With a good liberal arts education and by learning 'a little about a lot,' you are tapping into the idea of the human condition," he said. "It makes you think about what's going on around you and what is funny about life."
A not-so-funny start
Today, improv-hungry people have the opportunity to find out what's funny about life eight shows a week. Often, turning 50-100 people away from its filled 180-seat theater on Friday or Saturday nights, Harding knows that while life is now good, the road to success was not without problems.
A particularly frustrating event in Harding's memory is the incident that delayed their 1998 opening by six months. "On the Friday before we opened, we had a kind, old fire inspector who told us that he couldn't sign our inspection forms then, but if we changed some light bulbs and made a few minor alterations, he could sign the forms on Monday," Harding said. "Well, Monday came, and he didn't show up. It turns out that he had died over the weekend. And so we were given another inspector who was much harsher and refused to think about letting us open until we made major changes."
The ordeal didn't end there. Just days before the new opening, the pipes burst in Harding's brand new theater, which prompted the term "the fecal flood." Nonetheless, they opened that weekend. "There we were, handing buckets to each other and cleaning the theater up," he said. "In the beginning, sometimes only one person would come to a performance but we always did the show for that single audience member. We kept on going and going and going."
Today, despite the frequent sell-outs of its mainstage performances (of which Harding is a member) and its up-and-coming touring company shows, this comedic businessman has not rested. Since its shaky inception in 1998, the Improv Asylum has expanded to training schools, corporate programs and a traveling theater that performs at parties and events throughout the country.
The Training Center, whose winter 2002 schedule boasted seven classes of varying levels (including introduction, character development and performance), promises a wide variety of benefits from this dose of improv. Increased confidence, improved public speaking and gained comfort in social settings are qualities that Harding insists he sees in his students. "It's very interesting to see how people get so close and comfortable with each other through improv," he said. "It's great to see connections develop, too. People from very different walks of life take our classes and, by the end, they're all going out for drinks together."
The corporate programs, whose clients include Verizon, Dunkin' Donuts, Guinness/Bass Imports and the National Football League, have also been a great accomplishment. Helping to create the trend of enjoyable and effective corporate training sessions, Harding attributes improv's requirements-that one must be open and accepting-as a key reason that its corporate trainings are so successful. He lists improving team communication and better brainstorming skills as some of the benefits that result from a day of corporate training in their Asylum theater. "The primary rule of improv is to take what someone offers you and just go with it," Harding said. "This is important to do in business settings, too. It's how great ideas are created."
When the world changed ...
Harding's group has been so successful that Boston mayor Tom Menino declared Sept. 6, 2001, Improv Asylum Appreciation Day. "Improv Asylum has served the cultural needs of the Boston community in an outstanding and hilarious manner," said Menino. This honor came on the evening of their 1,000th mainstage performance.
But a week later, the proclamation seemed less than important. As a company, Harding and the Improv Asylum, were affected by the events of Sept. 11. The Improv Asylum has shows in L.A. for NBC and other networks and Harding and his cast were scheduled to be on Flight 185 on Sept. 12. After the attacks, Harding said he had to do some soul-searching to decide if comedy had a place in this new world.
"Collectively, as a cast, we had to ask if we were comfortable performing," he said. We knew it was going to be weird, but we also knew that people needed to laugh. It's a healing thing." Harding said that they decided to do a show that weekend and that, afterwards, people came up to him and thanked the theater for staying open.
This was not the first time that the Improv Asylum has helped people through tragedy. Harding tells the story of receiving a letter from a Canadian man who had to drive his wife to Boston every couple weeks to get treatment for her cancer. They happened to come to a show one night after her stay at the hospital and loved it so much that they came back every time they were in Boston. In his letter, the man recalled that the trip down was always horrible as they thought about the dark possibilities but the trip home was full of laughter as they recounted the show. Harding said he was honored by the letter and became more convinced at comedy's healing powers. "We're not revolutionizing the world here, but we're touching people," he said.
Harding sees the future as a time of unending possibility. Having been approached for television and movie deals, he also hopes to expand his current operations, as well as opening other Improv Asylums throughout the country.
The success of his company has translated into feelings of delight for Harding. "As opposed to getting money and success however I can, and then trying to be happy, I try to live by the philosophy of finding what I want to do in life and then acting on it," Harding said. "I really enjoy what I'm doing now. I co-run a business. I've created classes and developed workshops. I'm a writer, a director and an actor. It's all-consuming, but it doesn't feel like a job. It's what I do. And I love it."