Thursday, July 31, 2014

Spotlight On...Amber Ruffin

Name: Amber Ruffin

Hometown: Omaha, Nebraska

Favorite Credits: "Key and Peele", "Drunk History" Narrator

Why theater?: I started improvising in Omaha and loved it so much that I moved to Chicago to do it full time.

Tell us about King of Kong?: King of Kong is a documentary that follows 2 men on their quest for the Donkey Kong arcade game high score. The 2 men are extreme characters. One nerdy and severely kind, the other- evil.

What inspired you to create King of Kong?: Making a musical from the documentary seemed like the right thing to do. The movie is so extreme, so silly, that it was just perfect. After Lauren and I wrote it, we entered it in a competition called Serial Killers at Sacred Fools Theater. 10 minutes of your show goes up against 4 other shows and the winners move onto the next week. After 3 weeks we were out of show, so we wrote 2 new songs every week for the rest of the competition and ended up with 2 hours of material and winning the whole thing!

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?:
I'm an improviser, so I love improv comedy. I am an alum of The Second City Chicago Mainstage, so I love their work.
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?:My dream is to do improvised music with Stevie Wonder.

What show have you recommended to your friends?:
In my opinion, the show to see at Fringe is Absolutely Filthy. It's a show that imagines Charlie Brown's Pig Pen at 30.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: My movie would be called, "It's getting fun in here!" and I would be played by Richard Simmons.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: CAKE

What’s the most played song on your iTunes?: I would guess something by Robin Thicke.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?
: I'd probably be a gymnastics coach.

What’s up next?: For now, I'm gonna concentrate on being a writer at "Late Night With Seth Meyers". But, after that, maybe some sketch show.