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What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Discussion of the art and craft of improvisation.

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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by Ryan Hill »

After the Halloween Black Vault a fellow improviser who also does film stuff said, "That was professional level acting."

It is very difficult for me to agree with, but I definitely appreciate the compliment.
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by shando »

Slightly outside of improv, but here's one I got this weekend that totally made my day--"If we can't manage to get someone better than Shannon, let's just get Shannon."
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell »

just got this one last week...

"Even when you fail, it works!"

i want this to be my motto. 8)
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by happywaffle »

shando wrote:Slightly outside of improv, but here's one I got this weekend that totally made my day--"If we can't manage to get someone better than Shannon, let's just get Shannon."
(Mind you, this statement also works if you're completely incompetent.)

Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by shando »

happywaffle wrote:
shando wrote:Slightly outside of improv, but here's one I got this weekend that totally made my day--"If we can't manage to get someone better than Shannon, let's just get Shannon."
(Mind you, this statement also works if you're completely incompetent.)
:D (in this context it was a compliment, but yes, true)
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by Roy Janik »

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell wrote:just got this one last week...

"Even when you fail, it works!"

i want this to be my motto. 8)
I think I said those exact words in the Week One, Level One class I was teaching this past Saturday.
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by Brad Hawkins »

I got a compliment in my inbox a couple weeks ago... I thought I wouldn't post it here because, as anyone who knows me knows, I'm much better at self-deprecation than self-promotion, but this thread is here and everyone's sharing such awesome compliments and I was feeling left out.

From an individual in the local arts scene who saw me direct the Derby once:
The teams were okay ... the house was, what, like half or 2/3 full? It was Just Another Iteration of A Semi-Weekly Show, y'know? BUT:

Dude, you did your job as host as if the Derby was The Tonight Show and you were guesting in for Johnny Carson on national TV, as if you were passionate about nothing so much as making sure the audience was having an enjoyable time right there & then, that the performers were encouraged to do their best & keep things moving smoothly.

Seriously ~ For what it's worth to hear … your energy & commitment, man, you brought the PROFESSIONALISM & I still think about that night. You bring good things to this town.
That really made my -- well, period between getting this and now, really.
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by valetoile »

Brad Hawkins wrote:I got a compliment in my inbox a couple weeks ago... I thought I wouldn't post it here because, as anyone who knows me knows, I'm much better at self-deprecation than self-promotion, but this thread is here and everyone's sharing such awesome compliments and I was feeling left out.

From an individual in the local arts scene who saw me direct the Derby once:
The teams were okay ... the house was, what, like half or 2/3 full? It was Just Another Iteration of A Semi-Weekly Show, y'know? BUT:

Dude, you did your job as host as if the Derby was The Tonight Show and you were guesting in for Johnny Carson on national TV, as if you were passionate about nothing so much as making sure the audience was having an enjoyable time right there & then, that the performers were encouraged to do their best & keep things moving smoothly.

Seriously ~ For what it's worth to hear … your energy & commitment, man, you brought the PROFESSIONALISM & I still think about that night. You bring good things to this town.
That really made my -- well, period between getting this and now, really.
Ha, I think I know who wrote that just based on the writing style. That is a compliment indeed.
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by PyroDan »

I filmed a short a couple weekends ago, it was improvised, and we had a teenage actress and her mother as well as her acting coach onsite. At a point in our lunch break, the mother struck up a conversation and told me that the three of them were all entranced by how masterful my acting was and the acting coach wanted to see more of my work. I feel ridiculous for it, as in the scene I was web browsing and ignoring my pretend-wife. Nonetheless it felt good.
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by Spots »

*dusts off a copy of "Dan's Misogyny Reel" and loads the projector*
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Re: What's the best improv compliment you've received?

Post by jillybee72 »

This is tangentially related but I have nowhere else to express it.

Yesterday we did a French Braid (which is a training wheels Harold sans opening & games) - we're in Level One so I wasn't trying to make them do anything more complicated than go through three sets of first and second beats. After they finished a student asked, "Would it be okay to take an idea from their scene and tie it into something from our scene?" I tried to tell him how incredible he was for basically just figuring out how a Harold works with his own brain and I was so effusive I think he was a little baffled, to him it didn't seem like anything you'd pile on praise for, it was just a question. How fucking brilliant is that, though?
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