Improv vs. Standup

[apiaryist]

This is as good a place as any to mention that ColdTowne Theater will be changing its branding from "Free Parking and Live Comedy" to "Live Fuck Show" starting this March.

I'm concerned that people will think the show is still stand-up, could you either take the picture of me with a microphone off the poster or write "this show is not stand-up, but in fact actual people having sex or "fucking" on stage, I understand the confusion as these things are so incredibly similar." somewhere on the poster?

What is the difference between "Live" and "Fuck Show"?

A time saver on the poster would be to photoshop the mic in front of Lance into a phallus.

[Jastroch]

A time saver on the poster would be to photoshop the mic in front of Lance into a phallus.

That's actually the new theater logo. We've nixed the boxers and gone straight for the sexy.

[Spaztique]

There are a multitude of problems why "improv" and "stand-up" are confused by some of the general public, including a national chain of stand-up venues across the country poorly named "The Improv".

This is what I think it mainly has to do with: most people like calling stand-up "improv" in the same way people call anime "children's cartoons" or video games "murder simulators" because we have stand-up clubs out there promising "live improv comedy" and giving people stand-up instead, in turn skewing the title "improv" into mainly stand-up.

For example, if I were to open a donut shop called "The Hospital", and then I were to spread this donut shop chain all over the country, soon enough, people would refer to any place you could buy donuts at as "The Hospital", and whenever somebody was badly injured and needed help, asking to go to "The Hospital", they'd mistakenly drive them to a donut shop, and inversely, like the situation we have at the Hideout with stand-up goers accidentally walking into improv shows, people would be going into real hospitals expecting donuts and instead find doctors, x-rays, and dialysis machines, and if they do find any donuts, they're not exactly the edible kind.

I have been watching too much Zero Punctuation.

[Jastroch]

If someone comes in to your theater expecting stand up, and sees a kick ass improv show, doesn't that benefit you?

[Spaztique]

If someone comes in to your theater expecting stand up, and sees a kick ass improv show, doesn't that benefit you?

Financially, but not critically.

Here's a modern person's thought process:
1. I'm going to see a kickass "improv" show here!
2. Wow. This show is really funny. In fact, it's the greatest thing I've ever seen! But when are they going to get to the "improv"?
3. THAT SUCKED!!! That wasn't stand-up at all! I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!

It's like telling somebody a song they really like is made by an artist they despise or that the food they were eating that they really liked isn't made of what they think it's made of: no matter what, if it's not what they originally saw in the prospect, they'll hate it no matter how much they originally liked/loved it.

[TexasImprovMassacre]

You guys are right, the audience is dumb as shit, and the only reason they aren't leaving shows satisfied is because they didn't know what they were getting into.

[Maggie Maye]

You guys are right, the audience is dumb as shit, and the only reason they aren't leaving shows satisfied is because they didn't know what they were getting into.

Well, improv is kind of an esoteric thing. Unless you know an improviser or you go see live shows, there aren't many examples for the average person. There's Who's Line is it Anyway, but that show was, like, 10 years ago. That and Wild 'N Out (which I suspect was actually scripted to an extent) but they do state that everything that they did, "came right off the dome," or something to that effect.

When you tell people they're going to see live comedy, they associate it with standup. It's what they're accustomed to. They see it on television, in movies and there are multitudes well known standup comedians (the common person could name 10 famous stand up comedians before they could cite a single well known improvisor known purely for improv). So when told that they're going to see "live comedy," what else would they think? That they're going to watch a taping of a sitcom? That they're going to witness someone compose a witty prose? For the most part, when people think of live comedy, they think of standup. I don't think it's necessarily a case of mis-marketing by the AIC, I think it's a societal thing.

[improvstitute]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RviYo3WsqjU[/youtube]

I didn't know Dwayne Wayne did improv???

[Jastroch]

awwww, the forum switch chewed my posts... they were so smart and well informed... shucks

[TexasImprovMassacre]

awwww, the forum switch chewed my posts... they were so smart and well informed... shucks

mine too

one time i went to see a live fuck show, but all the girls did was have me write down phrases on slips of paper and throw them at them. Then they picked them up and read them like they had meant to say them.

i didn't get hard at all!

[ChrisTrew.Com]

i do comedy

[TexasImprovMassacre]

I'm sad this thread died

[themoss]

You know I never know what i am gonna get when I see a live sex show but the possibilities are endless so i pay my ten dollars...I sit down and hope that I don't get shit on.
I think improv is pretty much the same thing...no, exactly the same.

[ChrisTrew.Com]

I'm sad this thread died