Austin Improv

How I do it is I work on a specific thing for a period of time (100+ scenes or so), and then move on to something else. The thing I focus on is NOT something that I randomly choose, but rather some weakness that comes up after a certain period of time. I keep a journal log at home of every single ...

I think that other people have offered some great advice.

I agree that the "double absurd" scene isn't inherently bad, and perhaps Miles was just stopping them in that exercise to keep the scenes focused and illustrate a point...he advocates double absurd scenes in his form for the deconstruction ...

so I don't do it. This happens A LOT.

Try doing it anyway. If the scene needed support, step out. If you have something, great, if not, that's fine too. Maybe your two scene partners will be thankful to have a new entity to react to? Just be bold about whatever choice you make. If you think the ...

If the scene needs a straight man, why not come on as a straight man? It sounds to me like you're pigeonholing the scenes into only the select few patterns of which you're aware. Improv is unbounded. There can be good scenes with two absurd players. While it may be helpful during instruction to ...

Lately I have been doing a lot of improv jams. My goal is to be the most supportive player that I can possibly be. I feel like jams are a good way to practice being extremely supportive...playing with people you don't know/ are less experienced can really help your skills.

But since I've been doing ...

Will do. Thanks!

Anyone have a video of this show?? It's no longer uploaded, which is a bummer, since it was AMAZING. Oh well...i guess that's the nature of improv

If you ever take a workshop from the guys from Dasariski (Bob Dassie, Craig Cackowski, and Rich Talarico)...one of the exercises they teach is "I know because." This is yes-anding at a much deeper level because it focuses on the very last thing said. One person says a line, the next person has to ...

I want to talk about a subject that a lot of people in improv seem to shy away from, and that is what makes an improviser funny. I think it's a touchy subject because whenever it is brought up, there's always the argument about "you don't need to be funny, just interesting." Nevertheless, I think we ...

The reason I first got into improv was because I saw a show in Chicago that absolutely killed. It was done by the Reckoning, and it got a standing ovation. I was blown away by it, and decided from then on I was going to dedicate my time to being as good as they were. My longterm goal as an ...

I hear some improvisers talk about how they are sick of playing with inexperienced improvisers. Also, they only want to play with "good" improvisers or people they know, and I get frustrated. As an experienced improviser you have the power and ability to kill in scenes with inexperienced or "bad ...

For me, if someone starts a scene..I give them the benefit of the doubt. I give them 2 lines to get their idea out, and that's it. Very very rarely do I give them 3 lines. I don't 'yes and', I just 'yes' for the first two lines.This is my way of respecting the other improviser...if they start a ...

Oh, and the reason I'm posting in this forum isn't because I'm in Austin...I just wanted a forum where I can talk about improv stuff. But I need to head down there soon, since I know it has great improv.

That's really interesting. Yeah I tend to use three: Straight, Absurd, or Realistic. I figure in a scene, I am one of the three. In addition to Straight-Straight, we also use Altered Reality, which is just a normal, realistic scene, but where the reality is different. So in your aliens example ...

Yes. In peas in a pod scenes, straight manning ourselves creates the tension that exists in straight/absurd scenes and helps bring the scene back to reality a bit. It's not 100% necessary to do that, but without it, I think it becomes more difficult to play. Probably because it requires more ...