Laura Hall

About
is an American musician from Chicago. She is best known for her role as band leader and pianist on the American version of the improvisational comedy television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

Hosted AMAs


Highest Rated Comments


Laura_Hall2819 karma

My biggest screw up on the show, and that's what people remember the most!

There's a button on my keyboard marked "ACC". I never used it or even noticed it was there, but there are a million buttons on a keyboard that you never use. Apparently it stands for "accelerate". As I was playing I started laughing and must have accidentally bumped it, but since I didn't know it was there I had no idea what was happening. I couldn't figure out what made it speed up like that, so I just had to turn it off.

The best part for me was watching Colin trying to keep up with the dancing as it sped up, and the totally baffled look on his face.

Laura_Hall2649 karma

hey everyone, I'm here. Thanks for having me!

Laura_Hall2483 karma

Sorry I was gone for a while. On the phone with my manager finishing up my contract with the new Whose Line! I hate the contract part, so I'm really glad that's done so we can get to the fun part.

break out the champagne!

Laura_Hall2402 karma

It doesn't happen often. When you're playing for improv like that, you have to be so focused; listening to the singer, thinking about where you're going next, etc. that things don't sort of register as funny the same way they do when you're in the audience.

That being said, there was a Three Headed Broadway Singer we did where it was going great, and Drew got all swept up in the moment, and sang a whole bunch of words "Won't you take me on a..." When he realized what he'd done, he looked so genuinely surprised. I had a hard time keeping it together for that.

Just so you know, when I'm not playing, and just watching like an audience member, I laugh my head off.

Laura_Hall2264 karma

OMG, till the day I die! And what they cut out of the shows was how long I often had to vamp between singers....they'd be thinking and thinking, and I'd just be going round and round forever. Ahhh!

Laura_Hall1809 karma

Ryan, Colin and Wayne. New host, Aisha Tyler. Some new fourth chair people.

Laura_Hall1337 karma

I loved all the other musicians who came on, and thought it added a great energy.

But Linda's the one. For one thing, she's a totally badass guitar player. We became such a team, and worked so well together that when the new shows came up, I didn't want to do them if she wasn't going to be there too.

Linda also played on my band's cd, we scored a short film together, we've done live shows together. She's the best.

Laura_Hall1184 karma

  • When they played non music games (the least interesting part of the show if you ask me) we would hang out on the side lines, freezing our butts off because they kept the studio really really cold. We would just watch like the audience members.

  • The producers didn't give me a mic, so I never had the chance to talk. I do know how to though.

  • Of course the music games are my favorite. Even when I'm watching an improv show and not playing, I like the music improv the best.

Laura_Hall1168 karma

It's been a great foot in the door for lots of things, from my band, to teaching, to film scoring, to some cool live improv gigs.

Laura_Hall1022 karma

I've said in a different thread how our process worked. Even if we played around with a style before the show, the guys never heard the suggestions ahead of time, and we never did multiple takes of one song.

However, the show is edited. We would do 5 or 6 Greatest Hits and the producers would pick the best 3 for the show. So we were really improvising, but you're only seeing the stuff that went well.... Or sometimes the stuff that went horribly wrong, because that can be funny too. But what you're not seeing is the stuff that's just mediocre.