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’91 grad co-stars in “The Lance Krall Show”
Apr 11, 2005 8:51 AM
By Tannika King - Faculty
Rob Poynter (’91), a self-proclaimed “class clown” during his Darlington days, has come a long way since the day he mooned Skip Saunders’ English class from the Porter breezeway during his junior year.
“My girlfriend at the time was in Mr. Saunders’ class, and sometimes he wouldn’t be in the room when I would pass by the window, so I would try and entertain her and her classmates by whatever means I could,” Poynter said. “One day, I dropped my pants and for some reason I thought it would be even funnier if I pressed my buttocks against the window ... the glass shattered, kids scream, my friends scatter, I’m frightened and I’m standing there, scared and alone with my pants down and filled with glass.
“I thought, ‘OK, be cool. Just turn, wave and walk away. Show’s over.’ I turned and tried to walk away, but my jeans were around my ankles and down I went,” he recalled. “Totally humiliated, I took the jeans off and darted into Wilcox in my boxers. I came back out a couple of minutes later and felt I had to own up to the innocent joke gone awry, so I went into the class and wrote a note to Mr. Saunders on the chalkboard.”
These days, humor has paid off for Poynter, who will co-star in SpikeTV’s “The Lance Krall Show,” a creative mix of unscripted sketches and on-the-street pranks, most of which incorporate an arsenal of characters created by the cast.
“The look and style of our show is really unlike anything else on TV, but in terms of the humor, I would say shows like ‘Arrested Development,’ ‘The Office,’ ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and maybe ‘Saturday Night Live’ [are comparable],” Poynter said. “We’re also not afraid of low-brow humor, or high-brow. We are against the separation of brows.”
Poynter first met show creator Lance Krall in 1997, when he joined Whole World Theater in Atlanta. “Lance was actually my first improv comedy teacher while at Whole World Theater. In fact, fellow cast member Annie Humphrey and I were in the same class,” he said.
Poynter was asked to join the main cast, the core group who were responsible for the show selling out five live shows per week.
“The shows were improv shows, but not like what you’d see on ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway.’ Our style of improv is based more on acting – on reality,” he explained. “We tried and succeeded, I believe, in creating a unique show where the audience left with more than just a good time. On stage, we tried to make situations as real as possible so that other emotions, real emotions, could be felt and experienced by all involved, including the audience. Kind of like seeing a good movie, but one where the audience picks and chooses the scenes.”
Before long, Poynter was full-on with the theater – teaching classes, hosting the weekend shows, and writing and directing “renegades” (videos that would run between scenes during the shows). These renegades were the beginnings of what would eventually lead to “The Lance Krall Show.”
After many years of working together, the cast of the show is essentially the same as the original main cast at Whole World Theater, and, according to Poynter, the chemistry between actors keeps getting stronger.
“We had been filming little scenes in L.A. for a couple of years, just improvised scenes that we thought were funny. Lance edited them together, and that became the pilot,” he said. “It’s absolutely a dream come true. Not only did we get the opportunity to create a show with our friends, but we had complete autonomy throughout the project, which is very rare.”
Poynter, who as a child dreamed of being a singing policeman, said he never thought to pursue acting as a career until he came to Darlington.
“I thought comedy was just something I did that got me in trouble at school and made my friends and family laugh,” he said. “My dad would have me imitate Eddie Murphy’s Buckwheat from ‘Saturday Night Live’ for his friends, and I loved doing that. These were grown men laughing at my comedy.”
Poynter credits his former English teacher David Powell for encouraging him to pursue a career in acting. “Mr. Powell was a big influence on me. He helped me see that acting was something I could actually pursue in life – that there was a way to channel my hyper imagination. He made a big impression on me, and I’ll always be thankful for his guidance and support. Students should feel lucky to have him around,” he said. “I still am a class clown, except that now I’m able to exorcise those comedy demons in front of a camera.”
Rated PG-13 for subject matter and language, “The Lance Krall Show” will premiere on April 18 at 11 p.m. All eight episodes of the show were filmed in Atlanta.
“My girlfriend at the time was in Mr. Saunders’ class, and sometimes he wouldn’t be in the room when I would pass by the window, so I would try and entertain her and her classmates by whatever means I could,” Poynter said. “One day, I dropped my pants and for some reason I thought it would be even funnier if I pressed my buttocks against the window ... the glass shattered, kids scream, my friends scatter, I’m frightened and I’m standing there, scared and alone with my pants down and filled with glass.
“I thought, ‘OK, be cool. Just turn, wave and walk away. Show’s over.’ I turned and tried to walk away, but my jeans were around my ankles and down I went,” he recalled. “Totally humiliated, I took the jeans off and darted into Wilcox in my boxers. I came back out a couple of minutes later and felt I had to own up to the innocent joke gone awry, so I went into the class and wrote a note to Mr. Saunders on the chalkboard.”
These days, humor has paid off for Poynter, who will co-star in SpikeTV’s “The Lance Krall Show,” a creative mix of unscripted sketches and on-the-street pranks, most of which incorporate an arsenal of characters created by the cast.
“The look and style of our show is really unlike anything else on TV, but in terms of the humor, I would say shows like ‘Arrested Development,’ ‘The Office,’ ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and maybe ‘Saturday Night Live’ [are comparable],” Poynter said. “We’re also not afraid of low-brow humor, or high-brow. We are against the separation of brows.”
Poynter first met show creator Lance Krall in 1997, when he joined Whole World Theater in Atlanta. “Lance was actually my first improv comedy teacher while at Whole World Theater. In fact, fellow cast member Annie Humphrey and I were in the same class,” he said.
Poynter was asked to join the main cast, the core group who were responsible for the show selling out five live shows per week.
“The shows were improv shows, but not like what you’d see on ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway.’ Our style of improv is based more on acting – on reality,” he explained. “We tried and succeeded, I believe, in creating a unique show where the audience left with more than just a good time. On stage, we tried to make situations as real as possible so that other emotions, real emotions, could be felt and experienced by all involved, including the audience. Kind of like seeing a good movie, but one where the audience picks and chooses the scenes.”
Before long, Poynter was full-on with the theater – teaching classes, hosting the weekend shows, and writing and directing “renegades” (videos that would run between scenes during the shows). These renegades were the beginnings of what would eventually lead to “The Lance Krall Show.”
After many years of working together, the cast of the show is essentially the same as the original main cast at Whole World Theater, and, according to Poynter, the chemistry between actors keeps getting stronger.
“We had been filming little scenes in L.A. for a couple of years, just improvised scenes that we thought were funny. Lance edited them together, and that became the pilot,” he said. “It’s absolutely a dream come true. Not only did we get the opportunity to create a show with our friends, but we had complete autonomy throughout the project, which is very rare.”
Poynter, who as a child dreamed of being a singing policeman, said he never thought to pursue acting as a career until he came to Darlington.
“I thought comedy was just something I did that got me in trouble at school and made my friends and family laugh,” he said. “My dad would have me imitate Eddie Murphy’s Buckwheat from ‘Saturday Night Live’ for his friends, and I loved doing that. These were grown men laughing at my comedy.”
Poynter credits his former English teacher David Powell for encouraging him to pursue a career in acting. “Mr. Powell was a big influence on me. He helped me see that acting was something I could actually pursue in life – that there was a way to channel my hyper imagination. He made a big impression on me, and I’ll always be thankful for his guidance and support. Students should feel lucky to have him around,” he said. “I still am a class clown, except that now I’m able to exorcise those comedy demons in front of a camera.”
Rated PG-13 for subject matter and language, “The Lance Krall Show” will premiere on April 18 at 11 p.m. All eight episodes of the show were filmed in Atlanta.
