Austin Improv

Lants wrote:Miggy, the trailer and it's narration was kind of a parody of the opening to the UCB t.v. show.

This thread makes me want to start a fight... does someone want to fight me?

Roy Janik wrote:

Lants wrote:Miggy, the trailer and it's narration was kind of a parody of the opening to the UCB t.v. show.

This thread makes me want to start a fight... does someone want to fight me?

You. Me. Scrabulous. Facebook.

Miggy wrote:

scook wrote:

Miggy wrote:Maybe some people had high expectations because the trailer at the Alamo had them referring to themselves as 'the future of comedy' in a non-ironic voice.

They didn't make that trailer, Henri Mazza did. That's him doing the voice over.

Fair enough. I don't know who Henri Mazza is and I'm not sure what part he plays in this - does he work for the Alamo? I think the trailer itself was fine - actually pretty good production values although someone else mentioned that these guys might have a TV show that they culled from? (I'm a little out of the loop on such things). My sole issue was with the pretentiousness of that line, which it makes me happy to know they didn't put in there. I'm fine with a fan saying it, but that wasn't clear from watching the trailer.

Jastroch wrote: And since it's totally within our right to publicly critique improv, I'm going to start emailing everyone notes after their shows. You shouldn't mind right? Because I'm entitled to my opinion.

The Raven wrote:Nevermore!

The Raven wrote: Nevermore!

ratliff wrote:Hmm, I thought I was done with this thread. I guess not.

Gratuitously announcing to someone in UCB that their show didn't meet our exacting standards is rude. Discussing it among ourselves is not.

We're acting like the fact that this site is pubilcly acessible is exactly the same thing as going up to UCB and saying "I don't like your style," or, to use Jastroch's analogy, "sending them notes." It is not. As the caption at the top of the page clearly indicates, this forum is for Austin improvisers, who often use it to discuss the merits of different styles of improv and increase their understanding of them via insults, accusations, and format-baiting. (We also occasionally stoop to an actual coherent explanation of something, as in the case of Justin's post about UCB and game.)

If UCB wants to go check the improv boards of every town they play in to see how they did, that's their business. But if they do that, they should be prepared to read actual unedited comments about their show.

And here's a radical idea I haven't seen anyone suggest: What if UCB, instead of being either arrogant pricks or thin-skinned pansies, are actually hardworking artists who are confident enough in their considerable skills that they're more interested in getting honest feedback than they are in having blue smoke blown up their asses?

All this fretting about their reaction to some very mild criticism assumes that (a) they can't take it and (b) they give a rat's ass about what we think. I suspect neither is true, BUT if they do actually care so much about what we think that they take the trouble to check our forums looking for it, why are we so embarrassed about the fact that some people here didn't love their show? Why would any healthy artistic community consider this to be a problem?

I liked the show, I thought they were accomplished improvisers, and I got a lot out of it as both an audience member and an improviser. Other people didn't. I think those people are wrong. They think I'm wrong. Why does this suddenly become a problem when we think that someone from UCB might be listening in? Do we think that they don't understand differences of opinion?

If I were in UCB, I wouldn't give a good goddamn what people in Austin or Huntsville or LA thought of my show. I would care what my teammates and my coach thought, and I would care about the opinion of people I already knew to be good judges of improv.

If, however, for whatever reason, I really did care about what Austin improvisers thought, then I would want to know WHAT THEY ACTUALLY THOUGHT.

I'm done now.

Jastroch wrote:Does anyone else find unsolicited notes and criticisms from your peers distasteful and rude?

acrouch wrote:Instead I'm careful about saying anything critical and almost never get useful feedback about my work. Boring.