I met her award-winning cat, Willow.

Willow won an award from Highwire Improv as “best improv cat.”

I enjoyed talking to Kristin Elliott, and this time, I got to speak to her about a fantastic new group called B-Side Improv in New York. The whole thing started from a widespread feeling: “Too many people for not enough opportunities.” 

Kristin credits a lot of the origins of B-Side to working with Kate Martino. During the pandemic, Kate and Kristin met doing improv while participating in the Armory’s online improv teams. It wasn’t until they met in person at the Barracks (part of the Armory in New York) that they became friends.

Kate began producing shows at Young 3Ethels, a bar with a performance space in the back. Kristin produced a team called Mixed Tape, which was mainly just a mash-up team – hence the name. In bringing over Mixed Tape to perform in one of Kate’s all-female and gender non conforming shows, Kristin changed the name to B-Side. There are two reasons why she called it B-Side:

All-male improv teams were dominating the scene. Being all-female, they provided the alternative, or the “B-side”, to the main scene. For people unfamiliar with tapes or records, back when you would be albums, there would be an A-side and a B-side. The A-side had all the popular songs that sold the album. On the other hand, the B-side consisted of unknown songs or the artist’s passion projects.

She also jokingly said during the interview, “The best way to support each other is to walk B-side (beside) each other.”

B-Side Improv was an accidental success.

The original cast was Katherine, Barb, Steph, Lex, Nicolette and Kristin. It was meant to be a singularity—another mash-up team like Mixed Tape. But as Kristin says, “It was just magic.”

Most were aware of each other, but weren’t yet friends, and they just clicked. They had heard of each other, but something was there about the timing and the energy. Their first show was at Young Ethel’s on March 9, 2023.

“Is this a thing?” Kristin asked the group. The group said, “Yes, this is a thing.” It was instant chemistry.

Their first official show as a team (not as a mash-up team) was on April 9, one month later. In becoming an official team, Kristin laid out a set of rules:

• Everyone contributes
• Everyone pays dues
• Everyone promotes
• Not one thing falls on one person’s shoulders

Kristin had learned from previous producing experiences that so many people think they can get by on talent. These rules help projects get by as a team. As Kristin puts it, “People need to invest time offstage if you want to get on stage in front of an audience.”

B-Side is an all-female, multi-generational team. The age ranges from 76-33.

She credits a lot of the team’s success to its members not being friends prior. As the team grew, they became more familiar with one another. They came in with no expectations of one another, and as they became closer, the team became tighter.

At the end of the interview, I was introduced to her other cat, who is equally adorable but has not won any awards at the time of this interview.

Trailblazers is a series focusing on people who are building and contributing to the improv artform today. It is meant to document that new ideas pop up in improv all the time. We have tendency to uphold historical things as the most significant, and overlook that we are making history all the time. 10 years from now someone may be talking about the people in this series and what amazing things they accomplished. It isn’t too late for you to start your own team or company.

DAVID ESCOBEDO is a post graduate student researching improv in England. He has been performing and coaching since 1994. He still loves seeing new students perform and watching imperfect improv. He runs the Improv Boost and has a couple of series where he interviews practitioners regardless of their experience or years in improv. You can check out his podcast David is Curious on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher.