Austin Improv

When there's the start of an interesting relationship and people come on stage and be silly to get laughs so the interesting dynamic doesn't go anywhere.

kbadr wrote:Pop culture references in any shape or form.

You forgot to add ". . . from any decade later than the 1950s."

I'll pile on the previous comments and single out gagging or forcing a joke instead of really being emotionally present in the moment. (Pot, kettle, etc.) I teach high school kids, who have WAY more reason to be protecting themselves emotionally onstage than we do, and even the jokiest of them has managed to really dig into a scene and be real at least once. If a hormone-ravaged pubescent can do it in front of the cute older girls in his class, I have no excuses, because in terms of emotional threat that's about as risky as it gets.

Talking about doing instead of doing.

Talking about Jastroch instead of doing Jastroch.

arthur echo:
When someone calls out the weird/fun/interesting thing and then it goes away.

Bob echo:
not giving things the weight they deserve by not reacting. Like when someone dies on stage and everyone just stares at them instead of being horrified. Or when a couple of giggly girls react to you holding someone at gunpoint by not following your demands...and then they make your gun a water-pistol.

When someone whips out a pistol or knife in such a manner that the other improviser(s) doesn't have a chance to enagage emotionally
before being stabbed or shot.

(Like J.R. in Dallas.)

Oh, and people dying instantly when they are attacked OR not reacting at all.

(Not like Tim Roth in Reservoir Dogs.)

HerrHerr wrote:When someone whips out a pistol or knife in such a manner that the other improviser(s) doesn't have a chance to enagage emotionally
before being stabbed or shot.

(Like J.R. in Dallas.)

Oh, and people dying instantly when they are attacked OR not reacting at all.

(Not like Tim Roth in Reservoir Dogs.)

I think it depends on the situation. I walked into a scene the other night and Rachel shot me after two lines -- understandably so; I called her a slut -- so I sort of assumed that she wanted me dead as fast as possible. If I'd taken more than ten seconds to die it would have been the largest part of my scene, and would have been an implicit denial of her decision to shoot me. I feel like improvisers who say "I can't believe you shot me!" aren't necessarily in character when they say that.

ratliff wrote:

HerrHerr wrote:When someone whips out a pistol or knife in such a manner that the other improviser(s) doesn't have a chance to enagage emotionally
before being stabbed or shot.

(Like J.R. in Dallas.)

Oh, and people dying instantly when they are attacked OR not reacting at all.

(Not like Tim Roth in Reservoir Dogs.)

I think it depends on the situation. I walked into a scene the other night and Rachel shot me after two lines -- understandably so; I called her a slut -- so I sort of assumed that she wanted me dead as fast as possible. If I'd taken more than ten seconds to die it would have been the largest part of my scene, and would have been an implicit denial of her decision to shoot me. I feel like improvisers who say "I can't believe you shot me!" aren't necessarily in character when they say that.

yeah, I guess what I mean to say is whenever someone does it out of fear and rushes it.

(Like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.)

It's painful to watch someone say, "Or we could do this. Or we could do that." Do something! Anybody!

Also, it's painful when someone walks on stage for the joke, and they don't get edited. Very soon they find themselves say something like, "So....how about the ____?"

Shame on them if their joke is lame, but shame on everyone else for not editing on a laugh.

I will commit all of these errors tonight in rehearsal now that I've written this.

The more I watch improv, the scarier a high energy show is where no one is connecting at all to each other. It just ends up being a bunch of pirates, people playing dogs, boring professors, and dirty dads who are so high on talking and finding a quick joke. It makes the improvers look like they are on crack, and they are bouncing your sense of humor against the wall like a racquetball.

my latest pet peeve is when people in the lighting booth cut the lights solely based on a pre-determined run time, rather on the crest of a good scene's laugh or a sweet callback.

if the show is slotted for 25 minutes, I'd rather have the lights go out on an awesome laugh at 20 minutes (or even 27! or hell, 18 would be fine), than on the end of a weak scene or in the middle of a scene that just happened to cross that 25 minute threshold.


everybody deserves to go out on a win.


thank you for reading this.

people who complain.

Not doing scenes with Cody and Stephanie

Dave wrote:my latest pet peeve is when people in the lighting booth cut the lights solely based on a pre-determined run time, rather on the crest of a good scene's laugh or a sweet callback.

if the show is slotted for 25 minutes, I'd rather have the lights go out on an awesome laugh at 20 minutes (or even 27! or hell, 18 would be fine), than on the end of a weak scene or in the middle of a scene that just happened to cross that 25 minute threshold.

thank you for reading this.

Word to all of this. I'd also like to add not playing music during the blackout at the end of the show.

Michael wrote:Not doing scenes with Cody and Stephanie

snap