patbaer:

We’re all waiting for a time when this stuff isn’t a big deal, when you don’t have to point at something and say “this is a first! this is amazing!”, when it’s just another great placement on Harold Night or another great team.

I’ve been here 10 years, and I’ve seen alot of firsts. We’re not there yet. I’m confident we will be. So in the meantime, I hope it’s okay to point at a first and say that it’s about damn time. 

I’m going to broaden Pat’s post so that it’s not just about improv, it’s about life in general and our need to celebrate firsts even as our ultimate goal is to get to a point when equality isn’t a big deal.

My opinions about affirmative action types of programs have swung back and forth a lot, particularly over the last couple of years. I went to Barnard College, not because it was a women’s school but because it was the school that made the most sense to me (small liberal arts with a big research university attached and located in NYC but still retaining a solid campus). Frequently I didn’t even think about it being a women’s college, especially since so many dudes took classes there. For a while my experience at Barnard made me think that there actually wasn’t a need for single gender education and that we should all be working to get past even recognizing gender since it’s fluid and mostly arbitrary (the last part being something that I still generally agree with).

But after getting out of college I realized how nurtured I had been by this school that focuses on promoting women. It prepared me to deal with men in a different way because for four years I was specifically told that I had value, unrelated to my sex or gender identification. Ironically, that was a lesson that was best taught in a single-sex setting. Being surrounded by strong women prepared me to stand on my own when dealing with strong women, men and everyone in between.

In the comedy world, I’ve been hesitant to endorse some of the single-sex programs that are meant to empower women because I hate setting the precedent of excluding men. I was on an all female improv team for a while but we were all women by chance, not design. It was just a fun group that I wanted to play with. I still haven’t been to a Lady Jam for a couple reasons (some having to do with my mixed feelings about something geared exclusively towards women with the concept of “tokenism” thrown in to talk about men, but primarily just because I have been super busy). Regardless of my opinions, the one thing I can’t deny is the positive influence that some of these female oriented programs have had on my peers. At least half a dozen women in the UCB community have told me how supported and empowered the Lady Jam has made them feel. In essence, they talk about the Lady Jam the same way that I just talked about Barnard. This program that’s geared towards women serves an ultimate purpose of nurturing a traditionally underprivileged group’s skills and setting them up to be badasses no matter who they are playing with.

A while ago, Will Hines was telling me about the positive impact that Doppleganger’s Cagematch run had on the esteem of new improvisers who were racial minorities and/or women. For the non straight, white dude crowd, seeing people on stage that look like yourself helps. It makes it easier to envision yourself on that stage. The same applies for women and minorities in politics. We need more so that more young people will see it as a viable career option. Really, we need examples of all genders and all races doing everything so that we can get to a place where it’s not unusual to see any “type” in any job.

So I wish we were at the point when seeing an all female house improv team wasn’t a big deal but I also wish that we were at the point where we (and by we, I mean me) weren’t actively waiting for a female President. We aren’t there yet, so let’s celebrate all of the small victories until they become mundane.

This is actually a much better piece than the New York Times article from the other day. Looking at the UCB model in comparison to other improv theaters is much more useful than comparing it to Comedy Clubs. 

iO only pays a few select performers and staff. Presumably this is to keep shows that consistently sell out like TJ & Dave and Improvised Shakespeare at iO. Personally, I prefer the philosophy behind UCB not paying any performers and so when people reach the point where they think that they deserve to be paid for their work they move on and leave a new spot for an up and coming performer.

It seems like Jeff Garlin is a good example of someone who used the experimental venue of iO in the way I think stand ups should approach UCB. It’s free practice in front of a smart crowd.

improvdanceparty:

First off, take the note. Don’t waste any of your time [or the class/practice] trying to fight the note in your head or with the teacher/ coach.

You will, at some time in your improv training, get a note you disagree with. Or a note that is the opposite of what other teachers and coaches might…

Jet Eveleth said that the best note you can get is to do the opposite of what you have been working on. That means that you have been successful and its time to swing the other way. Eventually if you keep swinging back and forth the pendulum will find its sweet spot in the middle.

improvartvice:

- Martin de Maat

A good reminder to us all

Bill Murray in the NYTimes

( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/movies/bill-murray-star-of-hyde-park-on-hudson.html?hp&_r=1& )

Maybe improv isn’t a road to nowhere as much as it’s a circular track. Running around the track builds your muscles. You might be building your muscles to improve your health or you might be building your muscles to train for the Olympics.
This analogy sounds way less judgemental than my previous post since few people would say that training for races is a disservice to the art of running.
Then again, I don’t think running is an art. Improv is an art.
I need to learn to let stuff go.

halphillips:

Tumblr isn’t letting me reblog this, because it’s an answer to a question and Tumblr is severely flawed. It’s an excellent post and I agree with all of it.

Just wanted to add that it really bothers me when people talk about improv as a dead end, or about how improv won’t pay the bills, or even about how improv is OK as part of the equation but that you also have to write.

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I too am offended when people look to improv as a means to an end. Improv is about being in the moment, not manipulation for your own gain. I really want to repost the following quote from Will’s original post: 

Road to nowhere! Good heavens. I mean, ALL ROADS LEAD NOWHERE. Try not to think about that. Spend your days in love with what you’re doing as much as fucking possible and thank the stars for your chances to do that. Be nice and honest and brave and hopeful and then let it go.

And let’s leave on this.

improvartvice:

-Neil W. Casey

This is my favorite quote on heightening.

The proper use of chairs in an improv set #io #improv #chicago #chairs (Taken with Instagram)

In about forty-five minutes I need to leave my room and head to our rehearsal space to begin the third week of the iO summer intensive program but first I want to reflect a bit on week two.

Our teacher was Jet Eveleth who prefaced her teachings with telling us that this was just what works for her and that she is unlike any other improv teacher. While I can not comment on all improv teachers, she is certainly unique to the improv teachers that I’ve had and I am extremely grateful that I had the opportunity to work with her. Jet also described herself as a “huge hippie” and I must agree with that, using “hippie” in the least derogatory way imaginable.

She began by teaching us about tapping into our inner “clown” and finding the face that we project when we are at an absolute neutral. She talked a lot about clown-theory and other ways that we could build on what was naturally within us to create comic highs. The terminology that Jet used was often unlike any that I’ve ever heard before. She talked a lot about how we need to keep our “charge” up because that’s the energy between people that’s interesting to watch. She encouraged using “breath noises” to inform character because it reveals so much when you let out a sound as you exhale.

Rather than who-what-where, Jet encouraged us to look to our partner, our character and our environment. She said that anytime we were in our heads we should go to one of those things. She also discouraged trying to “get everything out” immediately because often that comes across as one player trying to direct the scene instead of allowing everyone to discover it together.

We did not work much on scene work. Jet described the improv program with an analogy to quilting. She said that the scenes are fabric and everything that was non-scenic was the stitching. To work on stitching, you need fabric but in level two that isn’t the focus. 

In working on the non-scenic elements of improv we got to play a lot with ideas that verged on performance art. We worked a lot with transitions and allowing transitions to dictate the next scene. Often the performers who would start the next scene would just be whoever was left on stage after a transition finished. This felt a lot more collaborative and supportive than what I normally see in improv shows (a sweep edit followed by a fight to get on stage and get your idea out, or worse, nobody wanting to go out because they don’t have an idea). Rather than focusing on premise or game, we focused on presence and listening and reacting to our scene partners. Another trio of things to balance (or plates to spin) comes out of heightening, tension and risk. Jet talked a lot about not staying in places that are safe. Sometimes we would exit our safe zones by going after our wants whole heartedly. We must surrender our egos and allow ourselves to look dumb. This came out the most prominently during our last day when we focused on dancing to music and allowing that to spit us out into scenes. Using music as a transition (not unlike Mother’s Soundtrack Harolds) forces the improvisers to surrender to an outside power and trust that it will work out.

One more things I really liked was Jet’s insistence that a Harold doesn’t have to be a formulaic procedure. Things will naturally come back (sometimes in threes) and we should just surrender our trust to the improv Gods that this will happen. Focusing more on the form instead of the scene work will lead to some shitty improv. As far as “game” in relation to improv goes, at UCB game was often defined as a pattern of behavior. Humans naturally produce patterns, so if we are just listening and reacting in a scene, game will come out.

Looking at my notes, these are a few sentences or phrases I really like

• A scene with legs has truth and tension.
• Your body can recognize the end of a beat.
• Pursue 50% gold (things that will be good) and 50% shit (real risks that might suck) at all times.
• Sometimes we overcomplicate things because we don’t think what we have is enough. You are enough.
• Be cool with the physicality that the piece spits you into.
• Physical position gives you everything.
• Unless your walk on really helps the scene, don’t do it.
• It’s all about balance and time. Something can be awesome but not for eight minutes. If you let something go on too long, no one will want it to come back.
• Play the way you want to ten years from now.
• Comedic Tools: Recognition of truth and Tension dance
• Beingness -> Emotion -> Impulse. It must be in that order or else the impulse will be fake.

For whatever it’s worth, a classmate of mine has been posting day by day records of his notes. They are much more comprehensive than mine. Here are links to them.

Week 1, Class 1

Week 1, Class 2

Week 1, Class 3

Week 1, Class 4

Week 2, Class 1

Week 2, Class 2

Week 2, Class 3

Week 2, Class 4