Becca Cato
Where you’re from / where you’ve lived
Terryville, Connecticut / Gardener, Massachusetts / Chattanooga, Tennessee
How you got into improv
I grew up with a mother who worked in stand-up comedy for 27 years of my life; she marketed herself as a comedienne, she was her own agent, and she busted her butt at it for many years. I watched my mom actively & successfully chase her dream in comedy, all before/during/after her fight with breast cancer. Some days, she would get a chemo treatment on a Friday morning and be on a stage that same Friday night. I worked the door for her at many of her shows in Connecticut & New York from approx. ages 11-17. When I started in improv with Improv Chattanooga in 2016, she mentioned she got her start in comedy in 1996 by doing improv in my home state of Connecticut. I was surprised, but I wasn’t THAT surprised.
Other than having my mother be a comedian, I grew up watching ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’, stand-up comedy, and plenty of comedy films. I’d say my weirdness turned into funniness when I was 15, and I started learning how to hone in on it when I was 25. But participating in improv is so much more than knowing how and when to “be funny”. It’s about knowing how & when to listen, knowing how & when to react… So, there’s plenty more that I’ve learned since I’ve started.
What you love about improv
I love that improv is more than being funny. I love that it’s a way to learn how to have more engaging conversations, or how to talk myself into or out of any given situation. I love that improv is learning to have fun with my words and my actions. I love that I’ve learned how to convey what I’m thinking and change what my face is doing, instead of assuming everyone can hear my silly, friendly thoughts while I sit there with serious RBF like a human version of Grumpy Cat (RIP).
I also love the relationships I’ve formed since 2016 because of improv. Not only do I have dozens of friends that I’ve met just because I do improv, I also met my husband in 2016 when we both started taking classes with Improv Chattanooga. I’d say we certainly have one of those bonds where we’re often asked, “how the hell did you two find each other!?” And it was Improv Chattanooga, yawl.
What inspires you
Funny people inspire me. There’s nothing that makes me more jazzed to BE funny than being around people who I find funny. Sometimes that can be in the form of a podcast, or maybe from watching/hearing stand-up, but nothing beats riffing with friends.
Non-improv related tidbit
I love making crafts and putting together costumes. I always grew up with a craft cabinet filled with construction paper, glue, stickers, scissors, markers, paints, etc. I’ve tried to carry that into my adult years. Crafting now comes in many forms for me: cross stitching, painting figures or furniture, writing stand-up or hashing out story ideas, impressing my niece by coloring in the lines, etc.
I didn’t really enjoy dressing up in costume as a child, so I have plenty of time to make up for. In 2024, I put together a costume for and/or dressed up as: “Rebecca McGonagall” (late Minerva’s great-great-granddaughter), Medusa, Waluigi, Eve (from the Bible), & Snow White – and that’s just when I wasn’t getting dressed up in glam as myself!