Congrats to Levin and Annie!
Posted by Tuck | Filed under The Tuck
Tomorrow, Saturday July 7th, Levin O’Connor and Annie Kouris are getting married.
I could not be happier for both of them. They are my teammates, my friends and my family.
To commemorate this special occasion, I would like to share a few memories of each of them.
I met Levin in Chicago sometime around March or April of 2002. We were both in Level 2 at iO in Chicago along with Dave Taylor and Molly Hale of USS Rock n Roll. I don’t remember my first meeting with him or what are first words were to each other, I just remember him always being my friend. We went through classes together and were placed on different teams upon graduation. Even though we didn’t perform together we hung out from time to time. I went to his place to watch the Super Bowl and think he was the first person so say, “Did we just see a nipple?” after the Janet Jackson half-time celebration. He came to my going away party when I moved to Los Angeles.
I do remember when our friendship was cemented forever. I had been in Los Angeles for about 8 months and I came back to Chicago to perform in Sketchfest with Molly Hale. It was one of those Chicago nights when the temperature was well below zero and instead of allowing me to walk to the train, Levin drove me to where I was staying even thought it was out of his way.
In the car he told me he was thinking about moving to Los Angeles and maybe we could do something together, improv, sketch, whatever. I said that was a great idea. Dave Taylor was also moving out around the same time and that was the beginning of the 25th Century Heroes comedy team.
Levin is kind, generous, smart, funny, and just a great person to be around. He is the type of guy that you can get a beer with and talk about anything and before you know it hours have passed and you are disappointed that you have to go home.
I am proud to call him my friend and no matter where are paths take us in life, I know that will always be so.
I nicknamed Annie “Whisper” almost immediately when I met her. If you know Annie, you know how funny that is. If you don’t know Annie it’s because she is LOUD. Not in a bad way, she just has a voice that operates on a level that can be measured from space.
I first met Annie through Levin when they were on The Jungle at iO West. I always thought she was funny and the few brief times we hung out she was a one time fun gal.
I really got to know Annie when I joined USS Rock n Roll. I was excited to perform with her but what I was not expecting was her enthusiasm and love of improv and everything that has to do with it. She opened my eyes to a lot of stuff that I didn’t even realize was important even though I had been doing improv for about 5 years when I met her. That is something I will never forget.
Annie and I argue a lot about the little things in life. I remember vividly a long argument we had when we were driving to San Luis Obispo for an improv workshop and show. It was about her habit of taking a bite of something, a piece of pizza, a cookie, whatever and putting it back for other people to finish because she can’t eat the whole thing. She thought it was okay, I did not, and around we went. For a long time. We never came to the “let’s agree to disagree” part to end the argument. Each of us believes we are right and we still argue about it from time to time although I am convinced that Annie leaves pieces of food where she knows I will find it just to rile me up. It’s one of the things I love about her.
Some of the other things I love about her is our mutual love of bad movies, our mutual love of certain fantasy books/movies and the fact that we can all go to the Renaissance Fair and have a blast.
She is fun to be around, great to sit and have a chat with, she cares about people and will do anything for her friends.
They make a great pair.
Life is made up of important events. We cherish them and look back on them with joy in our hearts.
My heart will be very full tomorrow.
Share your favorite Annie and Levin moments in the comments section, or just wish them well.
