The UCB Experience

[ChrisTrew.Com]

I never got to say much about this because of the Toronto Festival, traveling back, then OOB. However:

I wanted everyone to know that it was a really good experience and I recommend it the next time they offer it. UCB offers intensives for their regular classes, but I don't know anything about that. I say keep your eyes out for the next time they do their "Game of the Scene" intensive for experienced improvisers.

I'm very interested (as is Justin York who was there as well) in teaching what I learned there with my own spin on it. A lot of what our teacher preached sparked some of the healthiest and entertaining improv debate I've ever been involved in. In some ways it was anti-Annoyance Theater, so it was fun to try and figure out ways to apply what I learned there while doing things UCB style.

Our teacher also had zero experience with IO, Annoyance, Second City, Groundlings, etc., so it was nice to learn from someone who had one school of thought that he strongly believed in. That was a first for me.

[Rachel]

well teach it!

and sign me up for your class please

: )
R.

[kristin]

The regular class intensives that UCB offers are very introductory. From their levels 101-301, and they cover game of the scene and stuff, but it's also a class for people very, very brand new to improv with the teachers still spending a lot of time covering basic improv stuff. (Of course you can also never get too much of the basics drilled into you.)

Anyway if there were a group of people who wanted to spend a week in New York and spend $325 each on learning, it would be so much more awesome to create a custom schedule, booking a space and coaches. Many of the people who teach you can also hire as a coach for a few hours. Then you could also include people who teach at other theaters (there's no cross-mixing of the teachers) or people who aren't branded teachers but are awesome nonetheless. Especially since you don't even usually know who's teaching the intensive (usually 2 teachers, one in the morning, one in the afternoon) until you show up.

You would only need at least 4 people to make this the cost effective route. I could ramble on a bunch more about this, feel free to ask if you want more info.

[ChrisTrew.Com]

More thoughts aka from my livejournal. (christrew.livejournal.com)

My trip to the Toronto International Improv Festival took me by surprise. I cashed in some frequent flyers miles to pay for the flight, but decided to wing it Chicago style for the roof and bed because I waited til the last minute and nobody on Craigs List was biting. That’s cool.

I was set to be in Canada for 8 days, spending the first 4 at the Second City training center where I was working with the Upright Citizens Brigade and the following 4 performing in the improv festival. I was ready. I had a brand new credit card, one bag, and one body. So…

At the end of the first day of class, I very timidly asked the class if “they knew somewhere maybe that we (Justin York and I) could possibly maybe stay if they know of.” It surprisingly didn’t work. Fine, I’ll take that note. I should have committed. Now look at us. So we go back to the hostel that we grudgingly paid for the night before. The new game plan was to pay for one bed and to steal the other.

However, we run into the fellows and ladies from “The Comedy Project,” an improv company from Pocatello, Idaho. They (pat, pat) know about ColdTowne from reading about other festivals and reading the article about us on YesAnd.com. Something funky has happened with their reservation and they ended up with *ping* 2 extra beds. They say we can sleep there AND they give us our own key! Bless Idaho. We sleep in these free beds for the entire week until the guys from Phoenix show up. They are letting us crash in there hotel room for free since we are housing them the following week for Austin’s Out of Bounds Improv Festival. Free Free Free!

Later that Monday night, I was doing one of the several things that I’m built to do, which is watch wrestling. Some nasty foreigners (I will never be a foreigner) come and watch it with us just as Melena (bare with me here) turns on Mick with a nut jab after he refused to join Vince McMahon’s “Kiss my Ass” club. The fellow turns to me (after watching it for 30 minutes) and says, “Stupid Americans, what they do watching this?” And I love arguing about wrestling. Love it, love it. Only problem was that this guy couldn’t understand English very well, so I ended up arguing with myself. But I won.

The next night we went to a Blue Jays game since my new thing is to watch sports in new cities and listen to the locals talk about it and check out the stadium. It would be the last thing I put on my new credit card because it started getting declined the next morning.

But wait! Magic strikes when the clerk at the hostel asks a couple of us if we want some free Blue Jays tickets that some guy just dropped off. The answer was yes. We took those tickets and scalped them immediately. I now had cash and wouldn’t have to borrow money for 3 days. Seriously.

The UCB intensive was a good experience, but I was ready for the festival to start. We had some pretty good slots (11 pm on a Friday, 6 pm on a Sunday) and considering that it was a 52 hour marathon, those are very very nice slots to have. I heard that our 11 pm slot was the one time during the marathon that people were turned away from the theater.

Immediately following our Friday night show, I competed in a battle rap tournament. I was super warm and awesome and ready to go and I WON. In the final round I competed against “Jo the Ho”, the audience favorite. He didn’t deserve it, though. Fear me. His balls were yams and I told him so. I finally got my Chapel Hill revenge.

It was hard to maintain throughout the marathon, but I saw a lot of shows. Some of them were very difficult to watch, but I saw some really good shit as well. (Cook Out, Aphasia, Munchausen). Made new friends with fancy people I hadn’t met before like Jill Bernard. Stole someone’s change in the green room to buy a Snickers because I’m pathetic sometimes. Had a potentially awkward muffin situation with Phoenix that deserves its own post.

My flight back to Austin was originally scheduled for noon with a 5 hour layover in Atlanta. I got to the airport at 4:30 am because I didn’t have anything else to do and I needed the ride. I tried desperately to change my flight, but nobody on the phone was being helpful. When I got to the front of the line, the lady hooked me up, got a 6 am flight for me. I would be home in Austin by noon.

Almost a year ago to the day I was doing the same thing in Los Angeles, except I was trying to beat a hurricane. I won both times.

Be my friend.

[York99]

Chris Trew nailed most everything. Not positive about the chronology of everything, but it's getting spotty as time passes. Big deal is that we've got valuable UCB knowledge that needs to be passed on and spread out and festival experiences that need to be shared.

Oh yeah, now being world improv travellers, we need to press this issue: things are going to be ok. Relax. Give a hug. Accept a hug. Smile.

[Mo Daviau]

I got pictures of your 11pm Toronto set:
www.flickr.com/photos/mocakesandfrosting

[ChrisTrew.Com]

Mo Mo Mo Thank you Mo