Four Day Weekend: 20 things you might not know

The essence of improvisational comedy is thinking on your feet, making things up as you go along, and, of course, being funny.

But that’s not all it’s about.

In the case of Four Day Weekend, the Fort Worth improv troupe that’s celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, it is also about a philosophy — one that says “Yes, and …” to whatever life throws at them.

For instance, more than two decades ago Four Day founders David Wilk, Frank Ford, David Ahearn and Troy Grant were all Dallas-based comedians, in a scene that was increasingly competitive. They were looking for a way to make their budding improv troupe stand out.

“[Troy] said, ‘We gotta look at Fort Worth,’ ” Wilk says during a group conversation at the Four Day Weekend Theater in Sundance Square. (Grant was the only co-founder not present). “We all went, ‘Pffft — what? We’re all Dallas guys!’ And all our friends were like, ‘Fort Worth? That’s crazy! There’s no comedy troupes over there!’ ”

He continues: “And I think Frank said, ‘Yes, and — because we’ll be the only troupe, we’ll be the only game in town.’ ”

Dig a little deeper, and you’ll see that the premise behind their “Yes, and ...” philosophy, is that it never allows you to say “no.”

So you have to consider all the possibilities. Take leaps of faith and find a way to make things work.

That approach has taken Four Day Weekend a long way — from the pre-social-media era, when the troupe attracted customers to its first shows by passing out fliers at 3 in the afternoon in downtown Fort Worth, to a successful small business that performs more than 300 corporate events a year, for everyone from CEOs to presidents to rock stars.

They will celebrate their 20-year milestone and offbeat success with a show March 9 at Bass Hall, a departure from their usual Four Day Weekend Theater upstairs from Reata. Over the years, we’ve gotten to know them pretty well. But there’s still much more to tell.

So, yes, and … here’s 20 Things You Might Not Know About Four Day Weekend, drawn from a free-wheeling conversation with the co-founders.

1. Fort Worth took them by surprise. “I may have been to Fort Worth once” before 1997, Wilk says. “Came to the Main St. Arts Festival once. Came back on a Wednesday night, walked around Sundance Square, and it was alive at like 11 o’clock at night. We’re like, ‘What’s going on down here?’ This was in ’97. I think the comment we made was, ‘You know, if you were in downtown Dallas at 11 o’clock at night, it’s because your Greyhound bus is late.’

“We started walking around and we stumbled on Casa’s Theatre on the Square. We went up, and Mike Hendricks said, ‘We’re closed.’ ‘Well, we want to talk to you.’ ” They told them what they had in mind.

“He was like, ‘That’s interesting. Why don’t you go on after ‘Forever Plaid.’ We’ll do an 80-20 split at the door, give you 50 cash and a six-pack of beer and you can have the theater.’ ”

A year later, the group moved into its current space. They proved to be popular quickly enough that they needed a bigger theater and the move more than doubled their capacity, from 100 seats to 212.

2. Improv comedy wasn’t new when they started — but in Fort Worth, it kinda was. “It preceded ‘Whose Line is it Anyway,’ ” says Ford, referring to an improv comedy show that premiered on ABC in 1998 (a British version, however, had been around for a decade). “So even from a national standpoint, improv really was the redheaded stepchild of comedy — not in comedy circles, but outside of Second City, ‘Saturday Night Live,’ the Groundlings, there was very little knowledge of it.”

Troupe members traveled to Chicago to take classes at Second City, the improv troupe that has generated such famous comedians as John Belushi and Tina Fey. “We kinda saw the light,” Wilk says. ‘Oh, we’re not doing this right.’ ”

3. At the beginning, they weren’t doing things right. But ... “The great thing about improv is that there’s no ‘wrong,’ ” Wilk says. “There are only higher and lower percentage choices. But we were making very low-percentage choices. We didn’t realize that there’s a structure and rules, and that we all play by the same rules.

We’d go out there and just say funny things, and Second City taught us that that’s not what improvisation is. Improvisation is me making you look good, you making me look good, listening, line-building on the pertinent information and then playing by the same rules that you hide from the audience, which is, ‘Strike the word no, replace it with ‘Yes, and ...,’ actively listen, line-build.”

Ford adds: “The comedy culture can be one where there’s sniping and back-biting and this type of thing, but our personalities were more, ‘Hey, we’re a team! We’re the Musketeers! All for one and one for all!’

So that philosophy was more conducive to the way we worked. Our dispositions, our personalities. And it wasn’t that we were doing it wrong. We found a way to do it that we liked doing it, and it made us feel good about the way we were performing.”

4. They had to check their egos at the door. “[Our backstage personalities have] kind of evolved over the years,” Wilk says. “For example, I used to be ‘Tweak.’ That was my nickname. I’m still ‘Tweak,’ but I was a control freak. I think in the beginning, it served us well, but then it became a hindrance. I was kind of a mother hen, I think would be the role.

Ford says: “We learned at the beginning that everybody had a different skill set, different things that they brought to the table. Over time, we began to learn that, ‘Hey, if this person isn’t the best singer, that’s fine. That’s not their skill set. Somebody else is a good singer.

So we began to play to each other’s strengths and used each other’s strengths to compliment our weaknesses,” Ford says.

“I would also say that there’s a lot less neuroses,” Ahearn says. “Everyone’s just kind of like, ‘Be whatever you want to be.’ I think as you get older, your egos just kind of calm down.

You’re just not as competitive anymore, and you’re just like, ‘Whatever happens, it’s all good.’ I feel like it’s so much more laid-back,’ Ahearn says.

5. They have mixed emotions about Caravan of Dreams closing. The Four Day Weekend Theater originally was upstairs from Caravan of Dreams, the long-running Fort Worth nightclub that featured such artists as Ornette Coleman, Brave Combo, Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett and Randy Newman.

It closed in 2001, three years after they moved into the upstairs theater. Reata moved into the downstairs space in 2002.

“As artists and performers, it broke our hearts,” Wilk says. “But as businessmen, it was the greatest thing that ever happened. You take away nationally known name acts downstairs, replace them with 800 people having dinner, and they all go, ‘Hey, what’s there fun to do around here?’

So we went from doing two shows to three and then immediately to four. And we’re like, ‘Holy crap, we’re selling 800 tickets.’ ”

6. If you don’t look good, they don’t look good. The troupe is known for enlisting volunteers from the audience, but they say they don’t make fun of, but have fun with, the volunteers.

“Anybody we interact with, they become the hero,” Wilk says. “Our biggest applause of the night is for our last volunteer. … He’s out there in the lobby and people are taking pictures with him. ’Cause in our world, it’s not ‘me,’ it’s ‘we.’

“So if somebody comes up and says, ‘You were my favorite,’ we laugh when we hear that,” he continues. “That’s not what we’re going for. … If they say I’m their favorite or Frank’s their favorite or Dave’s their favorite, that means you’re not working hard enough, and the others are making you look good.”

7. “Yes, and …” led to a lot of corporate work. “At one of our shows, one of the CEOs said, ‘You guys are great, clean — We have a corporate event coming up. Would you like to do our corporate event?’ We didn’t know what that meant. But we don’t say no, we say ‘Yes, and … we’d love to do yours.’ We did that, and it led to 300 events a year.”

Ahearn: “In the last 20 years, the perception of doing corporate work has fundamentally changed. Twenty years ago it was, ‘Oh, you’re a sellout.’ Now, Dana Carvey was on [comedian] Marc Maron’s show. Marc Maron asked Dana Carvey, ‘You’re doing corporate work?’ Dana Carvey goes, ‘I made a million dollars last month doing corporate work.’ Maron goes, ‘What!?’ ”

8. The corporate work led to magazine exposure. “Southwest Airlines wanted a ‘Yes, and …’ seminar.,” Wilk says. “We said, ‘Great, this is a great company, it’s going to be great for us. We’d love to do it, great.’ They said, ‘It’s the end of our billing cycle; we don’t really have it in the budget for you.’

“But we don’t say ‘No,’ we say ‘Yes, and …’,” he continues, “and in lieu of the money, [we suggested] maybe some tickets for our family to fly on vaction or maybe an ad in the in-flight magazine. Just trying to make ‘Yes, and …’ work. They came back to us with some tickets, which made up the difference, and said, ‘Sorry, can’t do the ad in the in-flight magazine, that’s a different company, a different rep.’

Although when we brought it up to them, they said, ‘We’re doing a creativity-in-workspace article, would you mind if they sat in?’ Well, we’re ‘Yes, and …’ guys, so we said, ‘Yes, and ... instead of sitting in, have them participate.’

So the writer of the story participated in our ‘Yes, and …’ seminar for Southwest Airlines, and this creativity-in-workspace article ended up being a four-page article about Four Day Weekend’s business model.”

9. “Yes, and …” could work in Congress. “And a congresswoman read [the magazine] article on a flight, took it to Washington, D.C., put the magazine down on chairman John Larson’s desk and said, ‘Our meetings suck! All we do is argue! We need these guys,’ ” Wilk says.

“My phone rings: ‘Hi, this is Dave.’ ‘Hello, Dave, this is Congressman John Larson (D-Conn.).’ I think it’s these guys. I’ll play along. But no, it’s real. ‘I’ve heard some great things about your organization.’ ‘I wish I could say the same about y’all’s.’ Silence.

Three weeks later, we’re giving our ‘Yes, and …’ to Congress, we meet the president and then it completely changed for us. That was the catapult into, ‘We’re experts in our field.’ It was like, ‘Well, if we’re good enough for the United States Congress, certainly we can bring them into — insert company name here.’ ”

10. They’ve met more than one George W. Bush. During an overseas trip to entertain U.S. troops, they were approached by a young serviceman in Kosovo.

“He says, ‘Check out my name,’ ” Wilk says. “[It was][ George W. Bush. ‘Really?’ He says, ‘Yeah, my parents are big fans of the president. … My whole life I’ve wanted a head shot that says “To George W. Bush from George W. Bush.” [We say] ‘Oddly enough, we know him. Let’s see what we can do.’

“When we got back [to the States], Dave called his chief of staff, and not only did George W. Bush, the president, send him a photo, he called him. The kid comes in to the CO’s office. ‘Hello?’ It’s the president, George W. Bush, thanking George W. Bush for his service.”

Wilk says they’ve met the former president several times and he’s even given them some good-natured ribbing. “George W. Bush called us ‘Texas homeboys,’ ” Wilk says, “and then he said onstage: ‘Oh, you got Four Day Weekend back? Couldn’t afford any real entertainment?’ Which is a pretty good line, when you think about it.”

11. They’ve worked with rock stars at corporate events. Wilk: “The people we’ve worked with — Dana Carvey and REO Speedwagon and ZZ Top — they’re all doing it, and they’re all making a fortune.”

Ford: “Whatever purist mentality related to it, we just understood it early on. We were ahead of the curve. ‘This is a viable revenue stream for our business. Why would we not co-opt some of this stuff and work with corporations? Which opened up so many other doors in other ways for us.”

Ahearn: “We saw Leno do a gig at a pool. For a million bucks! Plus we’re on stages that are like the Rolling Stones, playing for 5,000 people. Every corporate gig. It taught us to play big rooms. What we do here — that can’t translate to 5,000 people. You have to figure out ways to do it.

Wilk: “I’ve introduced REO Speedwagon, the Beach Boys. We were in the wrong dressing room and we ate the Beach Boys’ food.”

12. They’ve played bigger stages than Bass Hall — but Bass Hall is still a little intimidating. “That place is so unbelievable,” Ahearn says. “We’ve played theaters of that quality a handful of times. But there won’t be fear around it. We’re going to have to figure out ways to alter what we do here for the bigger room, but that’s what makes it fun.”

Wilk: “Because here it’s three black chairs and no microphone. There it’s going to have to be four black chairs and no mics.”

Ford: “This show is based on an intimate theater setting, but to get to play a room like that is amazing. You always have trepidation when you’re first invited: ‘How many seats does this place hold?’

But they were blown away at how many people bought tickets, and it’s selling out. That makes you feel good when a venue like Bass Hall approaches you and people buy the tickets and support the show in those kinds of numbers.”

13. People come a long way to see their shows. Audience members have come from as far as Waco and Longview, as well as from smaller towns north of Fort Worth, such as Boyd and Pilot Point.

“One guy from Oklahoma City flew his plane here to impress his date and couldn’t get tickets,” Wilk says. “We were sold out, and he tried to give us 100 bucks to get in. We are the thing to do, and we take great pride in that.

“And we know: Tickets are 20 bucks. However, two tickets: That’s 40. Drinks: 10, 15, now you’re at 55. You went to dinner, now you’re at 110. You’ve got a baby-sitter, that’s 60. You’re at 170 — we have a huge responsibility to make sure they have a $170 experience here, because that’s what it costs people to come here. They could’ve gone anywhere. They choose to come here, and we do not take that for granted.”

14. Twenty years later, people are still discovering them. “There are people in Sundance West who don’t know about this show,” Wilk says, referring to the condo building that’s around the block. “ ‘We didn’t know that you were here!’ We hear that every weekend. ‘Are you new? How long have you been here?’

“Over 20 years, we’ve wrestled with that,” Ahearn says. “People say, ‘If you’re so good, what are you doing in Fort Worth, Texas?’ We do run into that. But if you just walked into the building, you would know immediately. You find another place like this in the country, and we’ll consider moving there.”

15. They’ve had an unusual encounter with the Secret Service. “We were in Vegas, Frank and I,” Ahearn says. “We’re all sitting there, we’re backstage, and President Bush is there, so Secret Service people are there, and it’s really hyper-tense.

“Frank and I ... keep looking up at a Secret Service agent and he’s looking over at us. ‘What’s going on? Why does this guy keep looking at us?’ He keeps looking over, so finally I get up and walk over. ‘Everything cool, man?’ And he goes, ‘Ohhh, I am so sorry. I apologize. My wife and I went on a first date to your show.’

“I was like, ‘Really?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, I know it’s weird. She’s from the area and that’s where we went, and I just wanted to say we really like your show.’ We’re like, ‘OK!’ And he says, ‘Now, sit ... down. The president’s speaking.’ ”

16. One of the cast members had his first date with his wife at their show. Aside from the co-founders, the current cast consists of Ray Sharp, Anthony Bowling, Andrew Hamer, Josh Roberts and Oliver Tull (who also co-hosts “Eye Opener,” a Dallas-based, nationally distributed morning show that airs locally on KDAF/Channel 33).

“Josh [who joined the troupe in 2002], his first date with his wife, she brought him to Four Day Weekend,” Wilk says. “He loved it. She got him (improv) classes for his birthday. I was his Level 1 instructor and I told these guys, ‘Hey, man — this kid has something. You gotta come see him.’ So they came to a showcase and he tanked. They’re like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Now, he’s a mainstay of the show, and he’s been with us 15 years.

Ahearn quips: “And his wife regrets that decision.”

Wilk adds: “She can’t stand it. We’ve taken her husband every Friday and Saturday night for 15 years.”

17. You may have seen them without knowing it. Wilk has appeared in commercials for Dish Network, Papa John’s, Rold Gold and other companies. Ford has done spots for numerous companies, including Whataburger and McDonald’s. In 2006, Ford was nominated for a Lone Star Emmy Award for co-writing and appearing in “Quizmasters,” a series of spots promoting a contest on KTXA/Channel 21.

18. The name Four Day Weekend is an ode to a comedy legend: “It is a tip of the hat to ‘The Simpsons,’ ” Wilk said. “Homer didn’t go to work on Thursday, and Marge said, ‘Homer, your boss called and said if you don’t come in to work on Friday, don’t bother to come in on Monday.’ And of course Homer misinterprets and screams, ‘Woo-hoo! Four-day weekend!’ ” We saw that back in 1996, and said that if we ever start a show, we’re gonna call it Four Day Weekend.”

“P.S., marketing nightmare,” Wilk jokes. “We’re only open two days.”

19. It’s OK to take out your phone at their show — now. “We used to get so mad at this during the show,” Wilk says, holding up his cellphone. “How dare you? This is theater!”

Wilk continues: “Our lighting guy said, ‘Can I speak freely?’ ‘Yes, and ...’ ‘I don’t know why you’re getting mad at everyone on their cellphones.They’re on Yelp, they’re giving you rave reviews. They’re giving shout-outs on Twitter and then you yell at ’em.’

“So it was the lighting guy’s idea: ‘Why don’t you have them upload photos to your Facebook and improvise from photos?’ So we could implement that immediately. Our Facebook numbers went from nominal to tens of thousands. We have 2,200 five-star reviews.”

20. They have a book coming out. “The working title is ‘Happy Accidents,’ ” Ford says. “It’s going to be published in September, October. It’s autobiographical, but within our story, we sort of talk about philosophies that got us to where we are.

“I think the book speaks to the universal understanding that everyone improvises,” he adds. “We’re already improvising anyway, in life. Let’s all play by the same set of rules and enhance that improvisational aspect of our everyday lives.

“You’ll be a better ‘Yes, and …’ person, a better ‘Yes, and …’ group, a better ‘Yes, and …’ company, a better ‘Yes, and …city.’ And who knows how far we can take it?”

This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Four Day Weekend: 20 things you might not know."