Jaeger did not expect his life to go in the direction of acting because when he was younger, he always played sports. He thought acting was childish. Ironically, it was his brother who was the actor and singer in the family. In high school, he took some acting classes but did not perform in any plays. It wasn’t until his best friend Drew Korb convinced him to give Theatre Strike Force a try that he realized his love for improvisation. According to Jaeger, growing up being a class clown correlated well with his new love for acting. Despite his outgoing personality, Jaeger was still nervous as a beginner.
Photo by Krysta Johnson
Friends say Jaeger is "the stopper, the big ball of
energy."
“It’s improvisation and you start with nothing, so you have to really rely on yourself and whoever you’re working with to not look like an ass,” Jaeger says. “If you're having fun, you won’t even be self-conscious about it. You don’t have to be the funniest person in the world – you don’t have to be funny at all. You can probably suck, but you’ll do well in the class as long as you’re there having a positive attitude about it all.”
To ease nerves, The Sunday Group practices on a weekly basis, especially when a show is approaching. During rehearsal, the group works on clicking into what Jaeger calls the “group mind” to get a better sense of what people are going to do, so they can react better and feel more comfortable on stage.
According to Jaeger, one of the most significant lessons that instructors teach you while improvising is to support your fellow actors because if you make someone look bad, the whole group is going to look bad.
“Improvisation is just being able to trust the people you’re working with that they’re not going to come out of left-field with something obscure,” Jaeger says.
Since trusting, supporting and relying on one another is so important in the improvisation world, it’s no surprise that the members of The Sunday Group have forged such a strong bond. It is also not surprising that members of the group have such positive things to say about Jaeger.
According to Gallen, Jaeger is “the show stopper, the big ball of energy.”
“He comes out with 100 percent energy, with 100 percent at whatever he does. Gallen says. “He brings a dynamic that no one else does by never giving up and always trying to entertain. He is one of the few who constantly throws out literary allusions that very few would be able to do.”