At a place where you can actually BUY a beer!
You Me & Greg will be performing with The Total Foxes, the awesome band that played Improv Prom, this Tuesday, followed by a rollicking round of Family Feud!
All of this fun takes place at the Carousel Lounge (1110 E 52nd St) and it starts at 9:00PM. Admission is completely FREE!
It's tough gathering up a lot of support in the community lately, and it would be really nice to see some improvisers turn out for this. Especially if you care about my friendship with you at all (smirk).
Besides (excluding the Great Mundane), I've come to see YOUR shows!
With much love,
-Phil
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- phlounderphil Offline
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- Evilpandabear Offline
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- phlounderphil Offline
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Thank you guys for showing up. We never told Jerm we had an emergency, but we did tell Jerm that something else had come up, and we'd like to reschedule. Also, a rescheduling would give us more time to advertise this and actually hope that people came out to see it this time.
I didn't expect you guys to show up, and noone had told me that you had been there.
It might've been worth staying around for. But as it was, the situation seemed pretty bleak (as in, there was NOONE there, not even my mother could make it tonight, which is just sad!)
I didn't expect you guys to show up, and noone had told me that you had been there.
It might've been worth staying around for. But as it was, the situation seemed pretty bleak (as in, there was NOONE there, not even my mother could make it tonight, which is just sad!)
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- kbadr Offline
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Yeah, actually right after we got there the Carousel filled up to a point I'd personally ever seen it at. The drawing power of the Jerm must be growing.
Besides, Bar Prov is all about small, unresponsive crowds. That's why you do it, to learn how to win over a crowd that doesn't want to see you. I like the challenge.
Besides, Bar Prov is all about small, unresponsive crowds. That's why you do it, to learn how to win over a crowd that doesn't want to see you. I like the challenge.
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- phlounderphil Offline
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I don't need a lecture on what BarProv is about, I've played to small crowds people.
I know what it's like to do a horrible show for a group of people who have no interest whatsoever in paying attention. After all, I went to high-school. ;) And I have parents ;)
Anyways. Anyone interested, please come back out in two weeks when this will be more organized.
Honestly, it wasn't about the crowd, it was just a bad night, and I was only one-third of the decision. Again, I'm sorry you guys came all the way out to see a show that didn't happen. Thank you for being supportive. You're better than Jay (who was probably at home jacking up his post-count right here on the damn forum!)
Love to everyone (except you)
-phil
I know what it's like to do a horrible show for a group of people who have no interest whatsoever in paying attention. After all, I went to high-school. ;) And I have parents ;)
Anyways. Anyone interested, please come back out in two weeks when this will be more organized.
Honestly, it wasn't about the crowd, it was just a bad night, and I was only one-third of the decision. Again, I'm sorry you guys came all the way out to see a show that didn't happen. Thank you for being supportive. You're better than Jay (who was probably at home jacking up his post-count right here on the damn forum!)
Love to everyone (except you)
-phil
I, on the other hand, do need a lecture in BarProv. Anyone want to give a presentation on winning over hostile/disinterested audiences?
PGraph plays every Thursday at 8pm! https://www.hideouttheatre.com/shows/pgraph/
Agreed.
I would love to take a workshop from people that have played (and played well) hostile environments and crowds that didn't come out necessarily to see improv (especially people that have played in mixed sets, like with music or other acts).
I'm thinking Dav Wallace for some reason, but I'm sure others have this knowledge and skill.
I would love to take a workshop from people that have played (and played well) hostile environments and crowds that didn't come out necessarily to see improv (especially people that have played in mixed sets, like with music or other acts).
I'm thinking Dav Wallace for some reason, but I'm sure others have this knowledge and skill.
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- beardedlamb Offline
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the term lost cause comes to mind. i would say avoid these situations if possible. but if you really want to take it on, you have to adjust your content. it's not about good characters or good stories. these take too long to pay off in a short-attention span situation. you have to gag more and edit more. or you have to just do short form, which isn't always a bad thing. we do a few games for our college shows to give them what they walked in expecting to see. then we trick tham and play a longer "game" that's actually a long form. some of these colleges are what i would deem "hostile" although in the mind of an improviser hostile can also just mean unresponsive or small.I, on the other hand, do need a lecture in BarProv.
the problem with improv is that it really does feed off the audience. not in just the suggestion taking at the top, but it requires almost a two-way agreement betwen the audience and the performers. with large audiences familiar with your work, this agreement is inherent. when it's eight people in a bar with loud machines and beer coolers and whispering, it gets very difficult.
i.e. we played a show in columbus, oh with this situation exactly. we made the mistake of hitting them with longform. it sank. they wanted to bring us back this year so we negotiated ourselves away from that bar and into a theatre. the shows should be much better this year.
just be careful taking your usual brand of great theatrical improv into a bar of jagovs. that's all i'm sayin.
b
ps - i'm formulating a bunch of theory on the psychology of improv and the audience. i'll probably teach something on it once it's a little straighter in my mind. environment is a component of that and will be included.
I love this post.
Ahh, Barprov.
I started with it at the Velveeta, but the answer there was to go blue. If no one was paying attention, Andy Cobb would come out naked, cupping his balls in his hands. He owned the room after that.
However, this is more about playing for crouds that are unresponsive. With Mission Improvable, we tour around and play tons of colleges. We play to about 200-400 on any given night. However, we are booked at Community Colleges at lunch time, for students that had no idea there was even a show going on that day. They are trying to do homework, and we are trying to get suggestions of a relationship. The note we always give ourselves is that this show will be for us. This is a time to try new things and make each other laugh. If we can make each other laugh after spending so much time on the road, then we are guarenteed to have someone else laughing as well.
The secret is to not get discouraged. It's so easy to get mad at an audience of 3 or 6, but they are the ones you need to praise. They are the ones who came to see you. It makes everyone uncomfortable if there is tension about a small turnout and it goes unaddressed. The audience who is there is not unaware of the small croud, and to make them feel easier, address the fact there is no one there, and make it as fun as possible. Thank the 4 people that came out, and give them the show you would normally only do in rehearsal. Take the gloves off, use your blue, make each other laugh, have a blast, cup your balls, and know that the next show will be a sellout.
Save your top shelf game for the next night.
-Joeyc
Weirdest Show Experience - It was Austin 1999, Inflatable Egos played a Thursday at Movements Gallery on 6th. The only people there were 2 girlfriends, and maybe one paying member. The lights went out halfway into the show, we grabbed candles, lit them around the stage, I think one audience member had a flashlight, and we continued to do our show. To tell the truth, one of the most fun shows ever. The people who were there, will never forget that show.
Don't give up on the show. Make it awesome.
Ahh, Barprov.
I started with it at the Velveeta, but the answer there was to go blue. If no one was paying attention, Andy Cobb would come out naked, cupping his balls in his hands. He owned the room after that.
However, this is more about playing for crouds that are unresponsive. With Mission Improvable, we tour around and play tons of colleges. We play to about 200-400 on any given night. However, we are booked at Community Colleges at lunch time, for students that had no idea there was even a show going on that day. They are trying to do homework, and we are trying to get suggestions of a relationship. The note we always give ourselves is that this show will be for us. This is a time to try new things and make each other laugh. If we can make each other laugh after spending so much time on the road, then we are guarenteed to have someone else laughing as well.
The secret is to not get discouraged. It's so easy to get mad at an audience of 3 or 6, but they are the ones you need to praise. They are the ones who came to see you. It makes everyone uncomfortable if there is tension about a small turnout and it goes unaddressed. The audience who is there is not unaware of the small croud, and to make them feel easier, address the fact there is no one there, and make it as fun as possible. Thank the 4 people that came out, and give them the show you would normally only do in rehearsal. Take the gloves off, use your blue, make each other laugh, have a blast, cup your balls, and know that the next show will be a sellout.
Save your top shelf game for the next night.
-Joeyc
Weirdest Show Experience - It was Austin 1999, Inflatable Egos played a Thursday at Movements Gallery on 6th. The only people there were 2 girlfriends, and maybe one paying member. The lights went out halfway into the show, we grabbed candles, lit them around the stage, I think one audience member had a flashlight, and we continued to do our show. To tell the truth, one of the most fun shows ever. The people who were there, will never forget that show.
Don't give up on the show. Make it awesome.
You've hit both of our last experiences with Parallelogramophonograph...
The note we always give ourselves is that this show will be for us.
This was sortof like our first show. We had a few helpful folks we knew there, but it was basically our troupe and 2 or 3 strangers and while not perfect, we did act more like we were rehearsing with some people watching.
we played a show in columbus, oh with this situation exactly. we made the mistake of hitting them with longform. it sank.
This was more like our second show, but without the long-form. We knew from our first time and common-sense to go in gamey, so we did...but we still chose scenic games. At the time, we didn't have a lot of experience with gamey-games, like Five/Three Things, etc. We chose things like Entrances and Exits and the Alphabet Game--games that rely on scenework along with the comedy to be truly engaging. Problem was we had less engagement than we hoped.
We also went on after 6 musical acts and "closed the show," so it was odd (we were the only non-musicians). Maybe we should have done one game in-between each act or gone sooner or something, but again, that's why I liked these shows...live and learn.
I truly cherish both experiences for a variety of reasons.
One is that it breaks you of the mindset that you are funny to everyone everywhere. People laugh at your shows at the Hideout, but those people came to see that type of show. I want to learn to walk into any room and own it, but that was a reality check that said "Whoa, Tex! You ain't there yet champ."
Also, they were really the first shows I'd done outside the Hideout and you don't realize how many gimmicks you use on that stage that aren't available to you in other settings until you need them. Like Entrances and exits without wings to hide in or a door to use...the mechanics are very different than on a set stage.
In most ways, they were truly growth experiences and mentally liberating and I'd go and do them all again, gladly get up next week and tank for the revelations it gave me and benefit it served to my comedy style. In fact, I'd love to do it more than I have. I think tanking is good for the soul (so long as you don't make a habit of it). You just have to be willing to think on it and learn from it.
Again, I'd love a workshop.
The note we always give ourselves is that this show will be for us.
This was sortof like our first show. We had a few helpful folks we knew there, but it was basically our troupe and 2 or 3 strangers and while not perfect, we did act more like we were rehearsing with some people watching.
we played a show in columbus, oh with this situation exactly. we made the mistake of hitting them with longform. it sank.
This was more like our second show, but without the long-form. We knew from our first time and common-sense to go in gamey, so we did...but we still chose scenic games. At the time, we didn't have a lot of experience with gamey-games, like Five/Three Things, etc. We chose things like Entrances and Exits and the Alphabet Game--games that rely on scenework along with the comedy to be truly engaging. Problem was we had less engagement than we hoped.
We also went on after 6 musical acts and "closed the show," so it was odd (we were the only non-musicians). Maybe we should have done one game in-between each act or gone sooner or something, but again, that's why I liked these shows...live and learn.
I truly cherish both experiences for a variety of reasons.
One is that it breaks you of the mindset that you are funny to everyone everywhere. People laugh at your shows at the Hideout, but those people came to see that type of show. I want to learn to walk into any room and own it, but that was a reality check that said "Whoa, Tex! You ain't there yet champ."
Also, they were really the first shows I'd done outside the Hideout and you don't realize how many gimmicks you use on that stage that aren't available to you in other settings until you need them. Like Entrances and exits without wings to hide in or a door to use...the mechanics are very different than on a set stage.
In most ways, they were truly growth experiences and mentally liberating and I'd go and do them all again, gladly get up next week and tank for the revelations it gave me and benefit it served to my comedy style. In fact, I'd love to do it more than I have. I think tanking is good for the soul (so long as you don't make a habit of it). You just have to be willing to think on it and learn from it.
Again, I'd love a workshop.
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- deroosisonfire Offline
- Posts: 553
- Joined: September 10th, 2005, 4:49 pm
- Location: Austin, TX
my group in ny performed at a lot of different kinds of events where we were not the main reason for attendance, and we approached different situations differently. some of this stuff you can plan in advance, and other stuff you'll have to feel out during the show.
- with a quiet/small audience you have to commit even more to the entire show experience. the audience may be enjoying the show, but nobody wants to be the only one to laugh, so they stay quiet. if you laugh, it gives them more permission to. by committing more to the experience you make it clear to the audience that you take this performance seriously and you want them to, too. admit that it's a small/quiet show, and i'd probably make some joke about how they should be excited for it because they'll have an incredibly high funny/audience member ratio.
- it seems counterintuitive, but with a hostile audience i'd try games where you bring audience members onstage. once that happens, you've blurred the line of "us" versus "them." plus, the audience will be rooting for the audience member onstage to succeed. it often gets the audience a little warmer and melts the hostility.
- with a distracted audience you have to make yourself impossible to ignore, at least at first. i agree with jeremy's technique of starting with gamey stuff and winning them over, and then transitioning to more scenic stuff. and, if ever there were a time to go blue this is it. but i'd use it sparingly, and only at the beginning to get their attention; then you just wow them with your 'prov prowess.
- with a quiet/small audience you have to commit even more to the entire show experience. the audience may be enjoying the show, but nobody wants to be the only one to laugh, so they stay quiet. if you laugh, it gives them more permission to. by committing more to the experience you make it clear to the audience that you take this performance seriously and you want them to, too. admit that it's a small/quiet show, and i'd probably make some joke about how they should be excited for it because they'll have an incredibly high funny/audience member ratio.
- it seems counterintuitive, but with a hostile audience i'd try games where you bring audience members onstage. once that happens, you've blurred the line of "us" versus "them." plus, the audience will be rooting for the audience member onstage to succeed. it often gets the audience a little warmer and melts the hostility.
- with a distracted audience you have to make yourself impossible to ignore, at least at first. i agree with jeremy's technique of starting with gamey stuff and winning them over, and then transitioning to more scenic stuff. and, if ever there were a time to go blue this is it. but i'd use it sparingly, and only at the beginning to get their attention; then you just wow them with your 'prov prowess.
"There's no such thing as extra pepperoni. There's just pepperoni you can transfer to another person."
-Wes
-Wes
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- Evilpandabear Offline
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