XVR27's Improv Interviews - Dawn E. Emanuele - Growing Up & Personal Experiences
Whose Improv Is It Anyway? : Original On-The-Spot Satire
An Interview With Dawn E. Emanuele
Growing Up & Personal Experiences
ChivalRuss: Alright, let's start out with acting - formal training, experience,
and some of the stuff you've done.
Dawn E. Emanuele: Umm, early, like in grade school, I remember being in a play,
"Babar's Birthday", and (laughing) "Snow White & The Seven Dwarves" where I was the mirror and one of the trees and the
background, but I was in kindergarten at the time.
ChivalRuss: Did you have to practice to mimic movements as the mirror?
Dawn E. Emanuele: No, it was pretty much just remembering my lines and a couple
lines to a little kid can be, y'know...
ChivalRuss: What area did you grow up in?
Dawn E. Emanuele: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
ChivalRuss: So were you born here and grew up here?
Dawn E. Emanuele: Yeah, I grew up in Milwaukee, I was born in Green Bay but we
only lived there until I was about a year old. Umm, I've lived in Milwaukee for the last twenty-six years then. I was
born November 5th, 1974. And in high school, I had a cousin who was in ComedySportz as a professional, actually got
paid to do the performances and I always thought that it was interesting and fun, but when I went to sign up for it, it
was full. So, I missed it because there were too many people. Well, within a couple of weeks, so many people had
dropped out, I was on the team. And, by the end of the season, I was the captain.
ChivalRuss: Was your cousin still on the team?
Dawn E. Emanuele: No, I was trying out for the high school team. He was actually
an adult who had been doing it who, on Friday and Saturday nights, would do performances where people would pay ten
bucks a head to drink and eat and laugh their butts off.
ChivalRuss: Alright - martial arts. Tell me about this.
Dawn E. Emanuele: Well, it goes back to the fact that I'm really super-shy and
when I was nine, that summer, I was outside with my cousins and some neighborhood boys were causing some problems and my
mom was sick of me getting picked on. And I always got picked on in class; this is true. I was always so quiet. And
I was small; because of where my birthday falls, I ended up being a year older than everyone else because I didn't quite
make the cut-off date. But I was still usually one of the four or five smallest children in the class. That and that
it wasn't until fifth grade that they found out, "Hey, there's an actual reason why she's in the fifth grade and can't
spell her middle name 'Elizabeth' or 'Milwaukee' or 'Wisconsin' or the street she lives on, let alone the word 'street',
and she's at a first grade spelling level". Meanwhile, my reading comprehension was at twelfth grade and my logic was,
like, eleventh or twelfth grade. Everything else put me at a higher grade level. Everything did. Even math skills put
me at a higher grade than what I was supposed to be, except for the spelling. So, it didn't really lend itself to me
being very confident. And I got into a kind of skirmish with the kids and my mom was sick of it and took me to a
martial arts school and I went to the same school from the age of nine until about the age of sixteen or seventeen
until it got to the point where it was easier for me to say that I was in it to actually go. Y'know, it was one of
those where I'd start to not go. Although, I would like to get back into it because it was a definite anger release.
Not that I'm a violent person, but...
ChivalRuss: ...but everybody has anger.
Dawn E. Emanuele: Yeah, I realized even about six months to a year after being out
of it that I was angry all the time. And yeah, you could look at it and say I'm a teenage girl, but... y'know. And I
was really pretty good at it. I was not shy when it came to sparring. Umm... I would walk up to people, kids who had
just gotten their green belts - the belts that they had to reach before they started sparring - and I would get right in
their face and I'd look at them and I'd go, "More fresh meat." I'd nod, then I'd turn and walk away. And I had some of
the boys so intimidated that even during a testing where we're not supposed to be physically harming each other and just
going back and forth and demonstrating things, that I would... they'd be terrified to have to spar against me because I
would stretch, my mom made me stretch before class, in addition to everything else because at ten I developed tendinitis
in both knees, so I was growing too fast. Yes, I'm only 5'3" now, but I was still somehow managing to grow too fast at
this point and not stretching my tendons enough. So I had to really do that and because of that, my mom's got a couple
of pictures of me kicking men in the head. I was very god at sparring and even the men would be nice to me because I
looked a lot younger than I even was and they didn't want to hurt me until I punched them in the chest and then, "OK,
we're gonna spar like we're actually sparring."
ChivalRuss: What martial art was it?
Dawn E. Emanuele: Tae Kwon Do. It was the same school that I went to... the
American Tae Kwon Do Association, also known as the ATA. It was a very good school. I was very comfortable and very
safe there. I had four cousins that also went to that same school.
ChivalRuss: How high did you get?
Dawn E. Emanuele: I got to a first degree black belt decided. Recommended, in my
school, was where you had up to six months to test to become a decided. Recommended was like a 'you just sort of got
it' and then in decided was 'you have it and it cannot be taken away from you' unless you, y'know, maliciously went out
and broke someone's leg. Then they'd just be like, "You know, you might not deserve this." But it helped me with so
much and it taught me so much over the years - respect and definitely, if I ever have children even in my care, they
will be taking some kind of self-defense classes. I'm not going to pressure them that they have to take them, it gave
me confidence in defending myself, knowing that I could stand up for things and if something came down to it, that I
would at least have a chance and not have to worry. So that started pulling me out of my shell too. That, and going
into the ComedySportz, and the theater, they were all happening right after each other, things became very natural. And
with acting, the only time I'm nervous is before I get up on stage. And once I'm on there, I love it. As long as I
know my lines, I'm fine. And with ComedySportz, there were no set lines, y'know. You just... on the fly, pull it out
of your brain, throw it against the wall, watch it splat, and hope everyone laughs. Which I just thought of right
now.
ChivalRuss: The last question on the topic. Off the top of your head, how much do
you think you remember and how effective do you think you could be?
Dawn E. Emanuele: Well, as far as my speed goes, I'm probably not fast. But I
was in it for so long, even though it's been about ten years since I quit, my boyfriend - Joel Talacko - he and I have
been together for seven years and before the recent car accident that we were in, him and I would actually spar
together. And he's from a completely different school of thought - he learned from an ex-cop and a creepy military man
that is half blind. So, you know, he learned a lot dirtier street-fighting where I learned very clean 'you could only
hit above the belt below the neck or anywhere on the head', but on the chest, it was just the chest - no back, no
side... it was very controlled. But fighting against Joel, it was pretty much anything goes. And with him, neither one
of us are ticklish, so we will have pressure point fights...
ChivalRuss: Oh...
Dawn E. Emanuele: ...where we chase each other around and make each other's arms
go numb or eyes water and giggle hysterically the entire time. Nothing at all is ever meant malicious by it; we have
never done it maliciously, ever. It's always been an, "Oh yeah, punk? You think that's funny? Here you go." And
we're just giggling the entire time.
ChivalRuss: All in good clean fun.
Dawn E. Emanuele: ALL in good clean fun. So yeah, I think I could still kick
somebody's butt.
ChivalRuss: Anybody? Or just somebodies?
Dawn E. Emanuele: Somebodies - I'm not gonna, y'know, go around picking a fight
too often. Part of it helps by being a compass. I never really had to use it.
ChivalRuss: OK, the personal section. You've been dating Joel for seven years.
Dawn E. Emanuele: Yep.
ChivalRuss: How'd you meet him?
Dawn E. Emanuele: Umm, nine years ago at his friend's birthday party. My best
friend had taken me there. He was seventeen, I was nineteen. He was all hopped up on Mountain Dew, Pixie Sticks, and
the fact that he didn't have to go home that night. I was made at my boyfriend, my glasses had broken, and my mom had
decided that even though I was nineteen, she was going to take the car away from me. So, I was in a bad mood. When we
met that night, I thought he was kind of cute, but a little bit of a spaz. He thought I was cute, but a b**ch. And you
know what? We were. and we ended up in a staring contest and we never got to finish it because I had to be home. Two
years later, my best friend calls me up and tells me, "I have the perfect guy for you. He's into acting, Renaissance,
tarot card reading, and martial arts and talking to him is just like talking to you. He does art, too, and everything's
great." And I liked him so much right away and we clicked and we're cute and we get along well and I don't know of any
other couple that can work together like we do. We worked at a restaurant together - a horrible, real job - and we do
the shows together and we vacation together and he's very encouraging and he's cute; that helps.
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