Austin Improv

My first fast answer to this is: get better! There are a lot of little things under that umbrella. Of course I am just finishing up classes as well, so I have a long way to go. (Hey it ain't easy being a greenhorn!) I pretty much read through everyone's posts and said "yep, yes, oh yeah, that too!" I want to be more positive, shake off a serious case of holding back, claw through a pile of self doubt, expand my characters, say YES to everything, give gifts, and be present.

I think the first step I need to take in clearing out the space under my umbrella is do more improv. Go to jams, take more classes, have more fun. Improv is the one thing I realize (after 33 years of looking) I am pretty good at. I need to bust through a layer or two of that self doubt mentioned above and get a lot more "serious" about this improv stuff. Because thinking in the long term I would love to be in festivals.

(ps. It is very inspiring for me to see improvisers I look up to coming in here and saying 'there are things I would like to work on')

TexasImprovMassacre wrote: It isn't the actual choice that he made that's "magic" but the way in which he plays it.

I'd still say this misses my point by a touch. It's small, but significant. It's not "the way in which he plays it," it's that he plays it in a specific way (ANY specific way) and the "magic" happens when the rest of the players on stage take the gift that TJ gave them and return the favor with the gift of making TJ's gift the grandest gift in the world.

I'm basically repeating The Annoyance philosophy that it doesn't matter WHAT you say. It just matters THAT you say something and HOW you say it.

Applied: It doesn't matter THAT TJ says something, it's THAT he says something in some kind of interesting way that gives the players added layers to work with.

This is certainly not to take anything away from TJ. He's a master improviser and there's a lot of skill and craft involved.

York99 wrote:

TexasImprovMassacre wrote: It isn't the actual choice that he made that's "magic" but the way in which he plays it.

I'd still say this misses my point by a touch. It's small, but significant. It's not "the way in which he plays it," it's that he plays it in a specific way (ANY specific way) and the "magic" happens when the rest of the players on stage take the gift that TJ gave them and return the favor with the gift of making TJ's gift the grandest gift in the world.

I'm basically repeating The Annoyance philosophy that it doesn't matter WHAT you say. It just matters THAT you say something and HOW you say it.

Applied: It doesn't matter THAT TJ says something, it's THAT he says something in some kind of interesting way that gives the players added layers to work with.

This is certainly not to take anything away from TJ. He's a master improviser and there's a lot of skill and craft involved.

I see what you're getting at now. Group support definitely has something to do with it. Ha, still...with regards to TJ specifically, his moves are "magic" before anyone else in the troupe gets their hands on them. Part of the reason why his moves become the thing of the scene is that he puts so much into them initially. While I do agree with what you're saying about support, I did want to point out that he makes his moves awesome from the get-go.

TexasImprovMassacre wrote:

York99 wrote:

TexasImprovMassacre wrote: It isn't the actual choice that he made that's "magic" but the way in which he plays it.

I'd still say this misses my point by a touch. It's small, but significant. It's not "the way in which he plays it," it's that he plays it in a specific way (ANY specific way) and the "magic" happens when the rest of the players on stage take the gift that TJ gave them and return the favor with the gift of making TJ's gift the grandest gift in the world.

I'm basically repeating The Annoyance philosophy that it doesn't matter WHAT you say. It just matters THAT you say something and HOW you say it.

Applied: It doesn't matter THAT TJ says something, it's THAT he says something in some kind of interesting way that gives the players added layers to work with.

This is certainly not to take anything away from TJ. He's a master improviser and there's a lot of skill and craft involved.

I see what you're getting at now. Group support definitely has something to do with it. Ha, still...with regards to TJ specifically, his moves are "magic" before anyone else in the troupe gets their hands on them. Part of the reason why his moves become the thing of the scene is that he puts so much into them initially. While I do agree with what you're saying about support, I did want to point out that he makes his moves awesome from the get-go.

I got kinda bogged down in the support aspect of it. Here's a way more clear idea of what I was going for.

An inexperienced improviser doesn't know what the scene is missing.
An intermediate improviser knows the scene needs music.
An experienced improviser knows the scene needs rock music.
The very best improvisers know the scene needs The Rolling Stones.
It seems like the handful of improvisers at the very tip top know the scene needs "Under My Thumb" from Altamont on December 6, 1969.

You can have a bad-ass party jamming out to the Stones, but you're not truly gonna make history until TJ throws a toaster in the bathtub with you right when Meredith Hunter gets stabbed.

Glad that's all cleared up now.

York99 wrote: You can have a bad-ass party jamming out to the Stones, but you're not truly gonna make history until TJ throws a toaster in the bathtub with you right when Meredith Hunter gets stabbed.

This is my favorite multi-layered pop-culture reference/improv quote of the week.