pet peeves

[scook]

People who think they're too cool for school onstage. You're doing improv, you're a fucking nerd, get over yourself, get gayballs, try something stupid and weird, etc.

People onstage who give off the air that they believe they have no place onstage. The audience can't trust you if you don't trust yourself. Get over it. (I used to do this allll the time...ha, so I recognize it big time now, it's painful to watch)

[TexasImprovMassacre]

Oh, another pet peeve of mine is Cody Dearing. Man, that guy.

That's something we can all get behind...

pfffft, I heard he isn't even actually Japanese.

[GregScott]

Someone steps out and starts doing a really cool/interesting pantomime. Then scene partner walks out and says "no, you're doing it wrong, it's like this" and turns so much possibility into a strikingly lame teacher-student scene. *sigh*

[drewlio]

I hate this! Plus the sound of movies from I Love Video isnt fantastic!

[York99]

Plus the sound of movies from I Love Video isnt fantastic!

We pay good money for that soundtrack.

[starkserious]

Here's my list:
Egomaniacs who think they have to be funny in the scene and make it all revolve around them instead of trying create a collobaration with the other players.
Not listening is big one for me, and yes I've been guilty of it myself.
When one player starts driving the scene solely. If a player wants all the attention themselves they should do Standup comedy.
When players denegrate each others characters or making them look stupid. Play to the top of their intelligence.
Players who won't play low status characters or high status. let go of your control issues on stage.
Letting scences go on too long. EDIT EDIT EDIT.

[starkserious]

One more... Taking improv too seriously. Beating themselves up after a bad show and trying to analyze it to much. It's just improv. We're not saving anyones life.

[Roy Janik]

One more... Taking improv too seriously. Beating themselves up after a bad show and trying to analyze it to much. It's just improv. We're not saving anyones life.

Whoops.

[Justin D.]

Sorry, I wasn't being clear, I meant the improvisor, off-stage, about him/herself. Maybe it's better to say humility is an attribute I like.

Any kind? I also think it's really bad form to talk about how you're the best at everything and so forth, but are you saying it's too much to even talk about what a good show you just did? What about mentioning how happy you were that a character/scene worked? I think it's good for the improvisers to do stuff like that and can really offset the overly-negative analysis a lot of us have the habit of doing.

[Belinda]

I think it's good for the improvisers to do stuff like that and can really offset the overly-negative analysis a lot of us have the habit of doing.

I think it's good to talk about your good moments, as long as it's not going on and on all the time. Just remember that people that brag about their prowess generally have none.

On the flip side, I hate it when all I hear is someone bitching about how the show went. Look, it's one show. You didn't like it? Figure out what YOU can do differently and do it.

There has to a balance. If there is, then bitch/praise away.

[mcnichol]

Sorry, I wasn't being clear, I meant the improvisor, off-stage, about him/herself. Maybe it's better to say humility is an attribute I like.

Any kind? I also think it's really bad form to talk about how you're the best at everything and so forth, but are you saying it's too much to even talk about what a good show you just did? What about mentioning how happy you were that a character/scene worked? I think it's good for the improvisers to do stuff like that and can really offset the overly-negative analysis a lot of us have the habit of doing.

It's my own pet peeve, but to be specific what I'd originally said was "Hubris." What you quoted above was my clarification when Ratliff asked if I meant the character or the improvisor. I do not think it's a bad thing if people talk about having had a good show or a successful scene.

[ratliff]

Sorry, I wasn't being clear, I meant the improvisor, off-stage, about him/herself. Maybe it's better to say humility is an attribute I like.

Any kind? I also think it's really bad form to talk about how you're the best at everything and so forth, but are you saying it's too much to even talk about what a good show you just did? What about mentioning how happy you were that a character/scene worked? I think it's good for the improvisers to do stuff like that and can really offset the overly-negative analysis a lot of us have the habit of doing.

I get too hung up on semantics, but I think they're important here. "We had fun tonight" or "That was a good show" affirm that something positive happened without saying why, leaving open the possibility that it was something larger than the group. "We kicked ass tonight" explicitly states that WE are why the show was good.

If you approach improv like sports, i.e., as people training for an event and then performing well or poorly within the parameters of that event, this approach makes perfect sense. You mastered a set of skills and executed them well, so you deserve praise, and positive reinforcement inspires you to excel further.

But if the point of improv is to be completely in the moment and connect with the group mind, then mastering those skills is not an end but a means to something larger, and "We kicked ass" seems like an inadequate way of expressing that.

(To state the obvious, a lot of very fine improvisers take the former rather than the latter approach, so obviously there's nothing inherently wrong with it. It just depends on what your larger aspirations are.)

I won't deny the satisfaction I feel after a great show, but in my case if it's not tempered with gratitude and humility then my ego is in the driver's seat again and trouble is surely looming in the road up ahead. I don't know why improv works when it works, so it seems presumptuous to take credit for it. I'm just glad it ever works at all.

(edited to sound less like a pompous ass and mimimize the possibility of a flame war)

[TexasImprovMassacre]

Improvisers who give suggestions to other troupes without giving the non-improviser audience members a chance to give the suggestion.

[Roy Janik]

Improvisers who give suggestions to other troupes without giving the non-improviser audience members a chance to give the suggestion.

Agreed!

[Justin D.]

If you have friends or family coming to see a show you're in, tell them they have to stay for the whole thing, even after your troupe/part is finished.

It's really fucking annoying, insulting, and distracting when they leave right after one troupe finishes and there's more show left.