Dan Izzo and 'Uncles on the Moon'

I was an Uncle long before I was ever an uncle.

Daz Izzo runs the Improv Inferno out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, but before that, he did lots and lots of improv teaching, including at Second City in Chicago.

Improv is the art of literally making something funny out of nothing, so it should only go without saying that Dan has a TON of patience. His ability to see the good in the work of myself and my fellow students never ceased to amaze me, and he aways did so with great positive support, wit, and energy. When we had worked with him for several terms, we rewarded Dan with a giant poster-sized caricature of himself that we had all autographed, featuring Dan saying several of the stupid things he would repeatedly say. At first he looked as though he might die of embarrassment... and then as though he were going to kill me personally! I had only meant to pay tribute to a great talent and mentor, but somehow my intentions were misconstrued. Dan has been nice enough to allow the art from the poster to be reprinted here, so I guess he's not all that upset after all.


Later many of the gang from the aforementioned classes got together and put on some shows for the general public.


We called ourselves "Uncles on the Moon" because so often in improv, the audience is asked to shout out locations and relationships for possible sketch ideas. Inevitably someone would shout out "Uncles!", to which Uncle on the Moon
Patrick Mene would proclaim, "Uncles is not a relationship!
It's just two guys!!"