Tom Soter • Improv • Soter Ink Editorial Squad

Tom's first improv group The New York Improv Squad staged a reunion at Sunday Night Improv, July 1.
At left, The Squad wows the Festival of Street Entertainers downtown in the mid-80's. At right, they improvise for paparazzi in front of Fairway, upper west side, 2007.

SUNDAY NIGHT IMPROV -- a "unique" (Time Out New York), "wonderful" (Backstage), "hilarious" (Newark Star-Ledger) comedy jam session -- continues its run of Sunday performances on the Upper West Side at the 78th Street Theater Lab at 78th Street and Broadway.

The "Jam", which began in 1992, mixes and matches experienced improvisers from a wide variety of successful New York City improv groups. The fluctuating cast members are all alumni of -- or current performers at -- such groups as Chicago City Limits, First Amendment, Johnny Lunchpail, The Chainsaw Boys, Ka-Baam! and The Improvoholics.

In addition to improvised skits, playlets and games, each 90-minute performance also includes a number of breathtaking musical segments, including its most audience-pleasing form, "Can You Sing This?" -- a series of composed-on-the-spot songs with audience-concocted titles and audience-determined styles ranging from operetta to rap.

The Jam began its run at the Village's Westbeth Theater, then moved to Morningside Heights for extended runs at the West End Cafe and The HomeGrown Theater followed by two seasons at the West Side YMCA's historic Little Theater. It was last seen at the Chicago City Limits Theater on 60th Street.

The new Sunday Night Improv shows are at the 78th Street Theater Lab, 236 West 78th Street, just off Broadway, every Sunday at 7pm. Admission is $10. Reservations: 212-353-7716.

Tom's popular Monday night "Improv for Everyone" class continues at 78th Street Theater Lab, 236 West 78th Street, 7-9 PM (Mondays).

Choose one: Tom Soter (1) is seen every week as the host of the satirical Weak Previews movie review show, reviewing movies that were never made; (2) has been an improv teacher since 1987; (3) has been an editor at Habitat magazine, since 1982; (4) is the author of two books, Bond and Beyond: 007 and Other Special Agents and Investigating Couples: An Analysis of The Thin Man, The Avengers, and The X-Files; (5) is six-foot-seven and built like Hulk Hogan.

If you chose No. 5, then you obviously have never seen Sunday Night Improv, the long-running comedy jam at the HomeGrown Theater of which Soter is the producer, emcee, and most regular performer. As for Choices 1-4, they're all true ? which means that Tom Soter leads a very busy life.

The five-foot-nine, spectacled comic was born on October 23, 1956 in New York City. He began improvising 12 years later when he and his friends and family made audio tape "radio shows" without scripts (the first was called "The Lethal Camera"; later programs included "Planet of the Nuns" and "The West that Wasn't.") He soon began appearing in improvised Super-8 action movies, created by pal Christian Doherty (the most bizarre was You Made Me Hate Myself). By 1980, he was producing a cable TV access comedy show called Videosyncracies.

In the meantime, he was also pursuing a career as as a writer. In 1978, fresh out of Columbia University, he worked as an editor at Firehouse, a monthly publication for firefighters. By 1982, he had begun his long association with Habitat, which is about cooperative living, not hamsters.

Over the years, he has also written for New York Newsday, V, Video, Video Times, View, Shoot, The New York Observer, Diversion, Southwest Spirit, Britain's Empire: The Movie Magazine, Movieline, The Dial, Nostalgia, INTV Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, World Screen News, and The New York Times.

In 1981, he began his long love affair with improvisation. He saw a performance of New York's Chicago City Limits and was soon taking classes with CCL founder George Todisco, as well as David Regal, Linda Gelman, Chris Oyen, Bill McLaughlin, and Carol Schindler of CCL, and Del Close of Second City.

In 1984, he started performing with his own successful improv group, the New York Improv Squad at night spots around New York, including The Original Improvisation and Folk City. He also co-founded the improv troupe Improv DaDa, which won first place in Freestyle Repertory Theatre's 1991 city-wide improv competition.

In 1987, he started teaching improvisation. His graduates include most of the Chainsaw Boys, former Chicago City Limits cast members Larry Bell and Sean Conroy, Gotham City Improv's David Storck, Beth Littleford of TV's The Daily Show, and Denny Siegel of TV's Whose Line is it Anyway?

In 1992 he took over the long-running improv jam, which he rechristened Sunday Night Improv. "I love teaching and I love the jam," he said recently. "I guess I love keeping busy. I hope I can continue doing this until they carry me away."