5B - Update on IO classes

[DollarBill]

Normally I only post these when I've been inspired in class. I'm posting now because I'm truly uninspired. Noah is a great instructor, but so far in class I've done crappy scene after crappy scene, and I'm starting to question my abilities.

I think it goes to show that if you surround yourself with playful, giving, skillful improvisers and you establish a great connection with them, they can really make your job a lot easier. It's like I tell Joplin when he tries to tell me that I'm a good improviser: I appear better than I am because of how easy my colleagues have made it for me thus far.

Maybe it's the nature of the class: Everyone trying so hard to impress the teacher that we stop having fun in scenes. Maybe I'm in a rut. Maybe I just need to pull out an overly happy character that doesn't speak English very well and have some silly fun. Maybe it just feels way worse in comparison to the improv paradise that was OOB. I don't know. I just hope I figure it out soon. I keep leaving class feeling like crap.

Maybe I can get Ace to do some scenes with me during the week. It'll be hard to find the time between his sleep and diarrhea marathons.

[ratliff]

DO NOT QUESTION YOUR ABILITIES, because

(a) they have been proven over and over again, so we know that any separation from them is only temporary,

(b) your insecurities are a black hole for your fellow improvisers, and dwelling on perceived failings never improves them, so you're making yourself worse, not better, by brooding,

and

(c) if you have no abilities, than some of us really really suck weaseldick, and I would prefer not to dwell on THAT possibility.

I know you can't actually bring up Maestro out loud in class, lest you be tarred and feathered and chased down Clark by an angry mob of iOans, but when you're feeling down, just remind yourself of that night a couple of weeks ago when you triumphed over a field of 24 of some of the best improvisers in the country, AND got Edi Patterson to put her hand on your junk. Not even Noah can claim that.

[DollarBill]

Thanks Ratliff. Although your post made me realize that my post sounds like I'm fishing for compliments. But I'm not. I don't have a blog, so I was kinda just using the forums to vent publicly while trying to simultaneously explain why I hadn't written any new interesting things about classes in a while. Please, no more compliments.

OH! We did "build a room" in class the other day. That was very cool, cuz that was one of the first things I ever did in rehearsals with the Well Hung Jury. A "Full Circle Moment" as Oprah would say.

Building a room: Decide on a type of room (ex. nursery, office, meat locker, etc.) One person (silently, using very focused mime-work) creates an entrance to the room and one object in the room. Each person after that tries to use everything that has been set up before them as accurately as possible and then they create an object. Try to stay as accurate as possible. Which is to say, don't change the location/weight/handle type/swing direction/size of the door if you can help it. Which you can. Pay attention. If someone locks the door when they leave, don't just open it right up (try to avoid being a super-strong wizard who knows no boundaries JUST for the purpose of this exercise). Have fun!
Challenging mode: Don't decide on the type of room before you build it.
Fun tip: There's not always one door to every room.

[ratliff]

That wasn't a compliment, it was a command. Straighten up and fly right, doofus.

[kbadr]

We did that exercise in the Heroes classes. WORLDS COLLIDE!!!

[shando]

WORLDS COLLIDE!!!

IMPOSSIBLE!!! These worlds are sooooo incompatible. At least for purposes of marketing.

[nadine]

it's always curious to me when i hear improvisors that i think are super-awesome, verbalize the same self-doubts i have.

[acrouch]

Nadine! Super Bill said no more comments about what a bad-ass he is despite his clearly misguided musings.

[York99]

WORLDS COLLIDE!!!

IMPOSSIBLE!!! These worlds are sooooo incompatible. At least for purposes of marketing.

I posted a very similar sarcastic remark on someone's blog earlier today.

WORLDS COINCIDE!!

[DollarBill]

OK! Things were much better last class. I am pretty sure, now, that the cause for the mostly-crappy nature of the improv, as of late, is due to people being too thinky/scaredy to have fun and play.

Anyone who has spent a lot of their time trying to come up with new formats will appreciate this:
We started working on what our format will be for our performances. Noah split us up into three groups and gave a speech about how formats generally fall into three categories, but we shouldn't feel constrained and that formats are often inspired by songs or movies or life, etc. SO GET THIS! The first thing one of the dudes in my group says: "So, I saw 'Sliding Doors' this weekend." I swear, the "sliding doors/run lola run" discussion comes up every 6 months when trying to invent formats. It's not a bad thing. In fact, I love it. I think we came up with a great format based on the whole idea that a minute detail in someone's life could alter its course dramatically. Kinda like if you draw two lines from the same starting point with an angle of a fraction of a degree between them. They will remain close together for quite some time, but given several miles worth of line they will end up in very different places.

Anyway, I guess I'm just very proud to have worked with who I have worked with. I feel a sense of accomplishment in the amount of forms that the Jury and the Cupholders were able explore. AND, more importantly, I'm awed and exited at the amount there is left to learn about the nature of "form" in improv (and improv in general).

Love affair: Restored.

[shando]

OK! Things were much better last class. I am pretty sure, now, that the cause for the mostly-crappy nature of the improv, as of late, is due to people being too thinky/scaredy to have fun and play.

Anyone who has spent a lot of their time trying to come up with new formats will appreciate this:
We started working on what our format will be for our performances. Noah split us up into three groups and gave a speech about how formats generally fall into three categories, but we shouldn't feel constrained and that formats are often inspired by songs or movies or life, etc. SO GET THIS! The first thing one of the dudes in my group says: "So, I saw 'Sliding Doors' this weekend." I swear, the "sliding doors/run lola run" discussion comes up every 6 months when trying to invent formats. It's not a bad thing. In fact, I love it. I think we came up with a great format based on the whole idea that a minute detail in someone's life could alter its course dramatically. Kinda like if you draw two lines from the same starting point with an angle of a fraction of a degree between them. They will remain close together for quite some time, but given several miles worth of line they will end up in very different places.

Anyway, I guess I'm just very proud to have worked with who I have worked with. I feel a sense of accomplishment in the amount of forms that the Jury and the Cupholders were able explore. AND, more importantly, I'm awed and exited at the amount there is left to learn about the nature of "form" in improv (and improv in general).

Love affair: Restored.

Nice.

[kbadr]

I'd love to take a workshop or class specifically about creating formats. It's something Pgraph has always just felt out and figured out on its own. I'd be curious to see how other people do it.

[yodApollo]

hello again. remember me?
did someone say format?

for me, the new formats rarely come out of a group brainstorming or collaborative process. i think because i'm constantly thinking about improv, whenever i digest any new infomration it kind of passes through that filter and i think, how can i do this with improv? that's how most of the things i've come up with in the past have come from. there is a period of discovery and collaboration when it comes to rehearsing a new format. we sit around and talk about it, ways to enhance it, potential pitfalls. then, the most important part comes, doing it. not sex, but the new format idea.

i guess what i'm trying to say is that sitting in a room with 5 people and saying let's invent a new format is probably not the way to get good stuff. it requires exploration of outside artforms and an awareness of life in general. people ging away and coming back with semi-formed ideas was always the way my groups came up with the best stuff.

[vine311]

hello again. remember me?
did someone say format?

for me, the new formats rarely come out of a group brainstorming or collaborative process. i think because i'm constantly thinking about improv, whenever i digest any new infomration it kind of passes through that filter and i think, how can i do this with improv? that's how most of the things i've come up with in the past have come from. there is a period of discovery and collaboration when it comes to rehearsing a new format. we sit around and talk about it, ways to enhance it, potential pitfalls. then, the most important part comes, doing it. not sex, but the new format idea.

i guess what i'm trying to say is that sitting in a room with 5 people and saying let's invent a new format is probably not the way to get good stuff. it requires exploration of outside artforms and an awareness of life in general. people ging away and coming back with semi-formed ideas was always the way my groups came up with the best stuff.

John Hunt returns!

[yodApollo]

gosh, this is embarassing and hard to explain. this is actually jeremy lamb. i'm on john hunt's old computer and apparently he's still logged into the forums from when he worked at this station. so, i'm going to log out and let's just never speak of this again.

again, i am jeremy, but john will be glad to know you still remember him, too.