It’s time you got to know recent grad Larry Claudin!
We fancy him a heck of a lot and think you will, too.

How’d you hear about the shop?

I was standing outside of the St. Louis Film Festival’s “Comedy Shorts 2” at the Tivoli to smoke a cigarette. Myself and this other girl (who I didn’t know at all) had gotten locked out of the theater because the doors shut behind us and automatically clicked. We started talking about our love for sketch comedy, she brought up The Improv Shop, and I signed up two years later. That girl was Lyndsay Shipley!

What’s your best memory from classes?

A handful of my classmates came over to my house to practice for our Level 4 Harold Showcase. We were doing a scene on my back patio about a guy who was hurt and needed an ambulance, so we all started screaming “SOMEONE CALL 911! HES HURT F**KING BAD!” Two of my neighbors came up to the fence and were like “IS EVERYTHING OKAY?!” We had to explain what improv was and that we were all grown ups just using our imagination and everything was fine.

What comedy things do you do outside of improvising?

I like to write comedy songs and do comical drawings. I love writing sketch comedy and then filming those sketches with a lot of close friends I’ve met within the community. If none of them are available, I’ll film on my own with a wig, a terrible accent and my iPhone. I also like to do standup but I’ve only done it at the open mic at The Improv Shop so I think it’s hard to say that I “do standup.”

What regular person things do you do outside of comedy?

I hangout with my dog, Gatsby, as much as possible. I work at a coffee house in the morning and I sleep at night. I’ve been wanting to start taking dance lessons but I’m not sure if I’m tall enough. I feel like you need to be lanky to boogie well.