WATERLOO — Linda Kash gets recognized almost every day — and it is not just because of her playful improvisation classes.
From 1994 to 2020, Kash was the angel in the Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercials. In 2020, she gave her wings to another angel.
Now she drives from her home in Toronto to teach improvisation classes at Laurier.
The whimsical ads featured Kash on a cloud in heaven. She sometimes spoke with a good-looking male angel — her “manservant” — who would bring her a bagel topped with cream cheese.
Kash would then bite into the bagel with an emphatic crunch.
“The art direction was so flipping beautiful,” she said. “Adding humour to an iconic image of an angel is great.”
The commercials, with the allusion to heaven, were not only creative; Kash also enjoyed how they flipped gender roles on their head.
“In its own small way it had a feminist bent, because she (the main angel) drove the spot and he (the male angel) was the eye candy, which is sort of the reverse of what viewers were used to,” she said.
“That was 1994. They were still using women in beer commercials in a way that objectified.”
Although the ads made her a recognizable face, the Montreal-born Kash had many other roles on films and TV, appearing on the hit comedy “Seinfeld,” and a Titanic series.
Her favourite films to work on were always those with improvised scripts — such as “Waiting for Guffman” by Christopher Guest. Kash knew she was playing the wife of a dentist, that they were the only Jewish people within 500 miles and her husband was going to star in a play that was at the heart of the movie.
“Everything else about my attitude or how I felt — everything was up to me, which was great fun.”
Improvisation has played a big role in how Kash developed, as both a person and a performer.
“There’s no script, so it really forces you to rely on your own instincts. It pushes you to find your own funny bone. It teaches you how to listen and collaborate,” said Kash, now 61.
Those are all useful skills, whether you’re a doctor, stay-at-home parent, or performer, she said.
“You build this armour to be able to represent yourself and your point of view,” she said, while at the same time working with other people’s imaginations. “There’s nothing more confidence-building than making your peers laugh.”
In September, Kash started teaching an improvisation class at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Her class attracts students from different programs and backgrounds, some of whom may be nervous about improvising.
But she said it is her job to foster a safe — and challenging — environment for her students.
Because students grew up seeing her face on TV, Kash said it gives them a sense of safety in her classroom.
“Which is fun. It keeps me pretty well grounded, because it’s a bit of an absurd reason to be well-known,” she said.
Kash wants improv to be a mandatory class in elementary schools, alongside math and science.
“Once you get to Grade 7 and Grade 8, that’s when you start feeling a little discouraged by showing your true colours. That’s when peers get a little critical of you,” she said.
This causes students to shut down and some children lose their voice, said Kash. Teaching improvisation could help to bolster the confidence of kids at that age.
“The thing about learning is I’m not going to tell you what you get out of it. You’re going to tell me what you got out of it because I would like you to notice,” she said.
“Do I listen? Do I share ideas? Do I shut people down for the sake of a joke? I want people to notice their own behaviours.”
