My Annoyance Experience - As Per Roy's Request

[DollarBill]

Day one was the normal first day of class experience. We went around and said our names and our history of doing improv. One thing that was different was that the instructor, Megan Johns, encouraged us to talk about improv class pet peeves. For example, if someone hated the buzz words "you're too in your head," I think she would try to avoid that.

Anyway, she told us that we wouldn't be warming up in the traditional circle way. When class starts we'll just do scenes. A bunch of scenes. One after the other till we're warm. I have mixed feelings about that, but maybe it's just cuz I've been doing things the same way for almost 10 years. Maybe I'm like the old lady with the $2000 solitaire machine. We'll see. I'll just go with the flow and see what pops out (hopefully not Ace's stinky wiener).

So then we did traditional warm-ups because we had been sitting for an hour, but she assured us that it would be the only time. Then we did the scenes. The warm up scenes. They were good. Fun stuff. Then we did an exercise where the scenes were of varying length: 5 seconds, 10 seconds, and 30 seconds. Heres what I took from it... Initiate strongly. The 5 second scenes were best when people weren't trying to wrap things up in 2 lines. They wrapped up naturally when people just played them like they were gonna be in the scene for 5 minutes. Pretty sweet. That was all we had time for, and Megan didn't over-explain anything. I have a feeling that a lot of Annoyance is gonna be about finding your own path. I can dig it.

One final thought: I LOVE LEVEL ONES!!! Every "beginning" improv class I've ever taken has been great. I love level one. I have some theories as to why. Almost nobody has any ego because, "If you're so great, why are you in level one?" Also, everyone is really excited. There's just this freshness. An excitement to learn. I really think the most important lessons I ever learn are in the more "beginning" levels of improv class. Also, nobody is afraid yet. They haven't been told what not to do, so they aren't scared of committing that mistake. Less pressure, more freedom, less ego, more eagerness, less thinking, more playing. I LOVE LEVEL ONES!!!

[Marc Majcher]

One final thought: I LOVE LEVEL ONES!!!

I gotta say, I'm totally with you. Freshness is yummy. I recently showed up early for a thing at Coldtowne, and wound up sitting in on an Improv 101 class with Trew and maybe three other folks who were all totally new, and at the end of the hour, my face hurt from smiling, and I was all like, "Fuck Yeah! This is awesome!" Because it was. Still is. Catching that new improv smell after stewing in your own stink for a while is refreshing.

[sara farr]

One final thought: I LOVE LEVEL ONES!!!

I gotta say, I'm totally with you.

I could live in Level One.

[Jeff]

Maybe there should be like a 4-week Level 1 class for Level 4+ people, and the students pretend that they don't know that stuff already.

[starkserious]

We should all retake level one every damn year just to remember our beginners mind.

[TexasImprovMassacre]

I've heard legend of level zero

[Floyd VanBuskirk]

Yes. Level "0" Where we give ourselves suggestions and then ignore them. This is where I live. I am teacher and student here.

[DollarBill]

CLASS #2:
Warm up scenes - I like it and I don't. It does help kick off the rust, but it's hard to get pumped or whatever. I miss my word-ass. and organic games.

Then we did two person scenes where both people had the same lay-on. For example: "You are both gonna be as sexy as possible in this scene." So whatever your character is you play whatever is sexy to that character. It was fun. It was all about just picking something, sticking to it, and letting that be your starting point for your scene. It was definitely helpful for a lot of the people who had never improvised before.

Here's the sweetest thing that's happened to me in improv in a long time. At the end of class we had extra time. The instructor said she likes to just let people do 2-person scenes and give notes. After a couple scenes, Ace got up so I got up too. I live with him, but I hardly get to improvise with him anymore. We did a really nice scene. Felt effortless. The only thing I can compare it to is wine tasting. If you've never done it you don't really realize the differences between wines 'til you taste a bunch of them back to back. It was SOOO different being in a scene with Ace versus any of the other people in that class (including the really good people). Ensemble. Skill. Familiarity. Trust. What a weird and awesome experience.

[Floyd VanBuskirk]

I certainly know what you mean. There is something nice about working with a variety of people. It brings about surprises and a heightened level of attention that is exciting. But working with someone you are familiar with and comfortable around is, for me, the most satisfying way to improvise. Johnstone said that the people an audience enjoyed watching the most were the ones who had the warmest feelings for each other. Whether the scene succeeded or not was not as important as seeing people on stage that truly liked being together up there. By in large, I have found improvisers to be a very generous, open, inclusive, fun loving and friendly tribe of folks that I have had a great deal of fun meeting and playing with. There is no better way to get to know someone than to improvise with them. But there is know better way to improvise than play with someone that you know really well.