I’ll admit it: when I first stepped into the director role for the 1986 Mee-Ow Show, I had no idea I’d still be talking about it nearly four decades later. Back then, I was a third-year graduate student just hoping to put on a good show and not embarrass myself in front of the student body. We called it Oedipuss ‘n’ Boots — yes, really — and somehow, it worked.

That year, we took the bold (some might say insane) step of taking Mee-Ow across the Atlantic to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was the first time Mee-Ow had ventured to the world’s largest arts festival, and honestly, we had no idea what we were getting into. We were just a group of scrappy Northwestern students, jet-lagged, slightly under-rehearsed, and very much winging it in front of an international crowd. But it was magic. Terrifying, humbling, exhilarating magic. It was also the moment I realized improv wasn’t just a fun college thing — it was something I wanted to spend my life doing.

Fast forward a few years, and that scrappy improv spirit helped launch Whose Line Is It Anyway? — first on BBC Radio, then Channel 4, and eventually in the U.S. with Drew Carey and later Aisha Tyler. People always ask me how you take something as chaotic and spontaneous as improv and make it work for television. Truth is, Mee-Ow gave me the blueprint. The energy, the timing, the sense that absolutely anything could happen — those are all things we learned (and often failed at) on the Norris stage.

One thing I always loved about Mee-Ow was that if a joke bombed, you just plowed ahead and hoped the next one would land. In television, you don’t have that luxury — there’s a camera capturing every awkward pause for eternity. But the essence is the same. Whether it’s 50 people in McCormick Auditorium or 5 million watching on TV, it’s all about connection, surprise, and a little bit of chaos.

Coming back to Northwestern for Mee-Ow’s 50th this year was surreal. Seeing all those faces — old friends, new performers, fellow comedy weirdos — reminded me just how much this little show means. Mee-Ow wasn’t just a campus comedy troupe. It was our lab, our playground, our launchpad.

I owe it more than I can say. And if you were ever part of Mee-Ow — as a performer, a director, or even just someone who laughed at the right time — thank you. You helped build something that’s still rippling outward.