by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
If the courtroom is a stage as some say, then John Kalinowski is always comfortable.
Kalinowski is an assistant state attorney by day and the director of ImprovJacksonville by night.
“I really have to change my mental gears when I leave here (his office),” said Kalinowski. “That is my serious part of the day and then I have my fun, entertaining part (of my day).”
Since Kalinowski was a child he wanted to be a lawyer. And once he got to middle school and high school Kalinowski became interested in drama and performed in many of his school’s plays and musicals.
“In college I was in a lot of productions and that led to taking a lot of theater classes,” said Kalinowski.
In 1998 Kalinowski graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in both political science and in theater. He went law school at UF where he continued doing work in theater until he graduated in 2001.
“After a day of classes and hitting the books, it (theater) was something that I could do in the evenings and get my mind off work,” he said. “I made a lot of friends and now a lot of them have gone onto places like Chicago and New York.”
His girlfriend, who he met through UF’s improvisational group, moved to New York City to pursue her improvisational career.
“When I go up there we go to a lot of improv shows and many of the Saturday Night Live stars are performing in the improv shows,” he said.
But big cities like New York and Chicago weren’t what Kalinowski was looking for. A native of Florida, Kalinowski grew up outside of Tampa and knew after graduating he wanted to live in a different Florida city.
Kalinowski has been living and working in Jacksonville for four-and-a-half years, but it took him about three years until he realized Jacksonville had its own improv comedy troupe.
“I missed doing theater and when I found out there was a group here I sought out ImprovJacksonville,” he said.
Kalinowski has only been with ImprovJacksonville for a couple of years. Since then he has worked his way up to being the director of the comedy troupe, a position he took in March. As director, Kalinowski is responsible for shows and the cast. He also educates and trains the troupe’s cast of 12.
When Kalinowski isn’t working with the cast and performing on the stage himself, he can be found at his office in the City Hall Annex or in the court room. Kalinowski works in the special assault unit, which includes rape, molestation, child abuse and neglect cases.
“I need a little humor after that,” he said. “Depending on the day I have, it is easier or harder to switch it off.”
Even though Kalinowski gets a lot of surprised looks on people’s faces when they find out he is both a lawyer and improv actor, Kalinowski said there are many similarities.
“It is interesting how a skill from one helps the other as different as they are,” he said. “Improv helps me to perform on my feet and that helps in a lot of situations in trial. The analytical aspect of law helps me break things down to make them work better.”
Kalinowski said his career and his hobby trigger both left and right brain activity. By doing both it allows him to be both methodical and analytical and at the same time creative, open and loose, he said.
Kalinowski wants to continue to grow in both professions and since he has taken on the job as director he has some goals he would like to achieve at ImprovJacksonville.
“Improv is very popular in places like Chicago and New York and I really want to try and make it more popular here,” he said. “Our goal has been to become a more professional troupe.”
One goal was met recently when the troupe moved into their own performance space in the Landing. Before the group was located at the spot that Boomtown now occupies, ImprovJacksonville did their performances at restaurants and bars. Now the group has six shows a week at their theater inside the Landing.
“We have sharpened how we do the shows and people have changed and they are always coming and going. But with every new group there is a different style of performance,” said Kalinowski.
But most of all, Kalinowski enjoys entertaining people after spending his days in the courtroom.
“I love being able to entertain people, make them laugh and have a good time,” he said. “In a more general sense, I like the idea of bringing improv to the Jacksonville community and Downtown Jacksonville in particular.”
When asked if he had to choose one job over the other, Kalinowski said that he couldn’t choose just one.
“I would pick law if I absolutely had to just because law pays the bills better than theater,” he said.