Austin Improv

nadine wrote:Deb Downing

fyi, Deb is a Texas (and I think even Austin) native. she apparently used to perform here in Austin long before my time.

fyi, Deb is a Texas (and I think even Austin) native.

as is steph weir from Weirdass. she's not from austin, but rather odessa (slowdeatha for the townies).

buckman went to deb's wedding, so he could probably put folks in touch.

I'm concerned that we're only concerned about women. Where were all the *looks around* black people? How come there was no one in a wheel chair? Where was the all-gay, chap-wearin', cowboy-revue improv troupe? And one of our few Asian representatives, G.I. Gene, whom I offensively referred to as Charlie during miniature golf much to my soul's detriment, was forced by his teammates to golf with the yellow ball!

I think we have a lot of issues to work through and a lot more healing before we dare put on a festival of this magnitude again.

I'm going to go light a candle for us all.

wes bain quips aside, i *WOULD* love to see some groups in the vein you mentioned wes.

i know the folks in GayCo (CHI) came down for Big Stinkin and would probably be interested again.

additionally, PIMProv would be a great add, as would Sirens.

did i say i loved the festival? Great.

e

I quip because I care.

Don't get me wrong. I'd love to see an all-female or all-gay troupe headline the festival. Or come play at all. I just don't want to see them because they are those things. I want to see them because they are talented and solid improvisers.

I'm too much of a capitalist to care about who's this sex or that race. For me, the best known and talented people get the best slots and that's that. And from what I heard about the shows, that pretty much seems to be what happened.

The fact that, with shows of that quailty, anyone even noticed or cared whether or not there was a woman in them is beyond me. If it was the whole fest, yeah, then there's a concern, but there were all-girl troupes, female hosts, Latino troupes, etc.

I just don't see the concern, but since some people do, I think it's only fair to ask, couched in quip though it was, why that concern is focused all in one direction.

And I fully agree. It was a hell of a festival! Kudos to Shannon, Lamb, and Mikey D.

i can think of several homosexuals that were in the festival and don't get me started on the sunday show.
for real though, a person doesn't have to be in a troupe composed completely of one group to represent. and why call attention to meaningless differences like race and gender? isn't that more demeaning?

but as i understand it, people aren't actually complaining about this. we're just discussing it, right? or are people upset about representation?

I hope people aren't complaining. I'm with Wes, I'm surprised that anyone even noticed.


Sigh.

ChrisTrew.Com wrote:I hope people aren't complaining.

I'm not complaining. It was just a discussion. We all know the festival went well. One observation on gender, that's more a community issue than a festival issue, isn't going to make the festival suddenly be bad.

ChrisTrew.Com wrote:I'm with Wes, I'm surprised that anyone even noticed.

I would like to point out, the people who originally did notice the lack of female gender on the mainstage were all female. My friend. Erika's friend. That Crazy cola chick. It's like the racism thing. Black people perceive racism in many situations that white people don't. It's about what you're predisposed to perceive in some cases. And if you're not predisposed to it, you won't notice it until it's blatent. That said, neither Erika nor me noticed the lack of females (which I again emphasize is not an accusation that it was an intentional omission) until our friends pointed it out to us.

I passed along an observation. People have privately told me that it was a valid observation. I've no idea why they don't just post.

I don't know guys, obviously I'm not saying to put someone in a show because they're a woman, or because they're gay, asian or a poodle. Duh.

Diversity is a boring PC word, but occasionally worth thinking about.

Bah. I'm done beating this thread to death.
nadine -- grumpy feminist.

Well, I'm not a racist or anything, but I AM NOT going to share the stage with a poodle.

I shared it with a cat one time and the damned thing stole the show.

Shaun Landry of Oui Be Negros (currently residing in San Francisco) seemed interested in OoB 2007 when I probed her about it. I bet we could get her down her, and she covers two demographics. : )

I agree that I do NOT want to see a troupe booked BECAUSE they have the right numbers of gays or Latinos or African-Americans. That way lies madness, and endlessly unexpiated guilt, and shitty shows. I can't tell you how many lefty political benefits in Austin have been miserable failures because the organizers booked the shows based on diversity and inclusiveness rather than on who would sell friggin' tickets.

If the biggest headliners we can get are all white males (Jon being the honorable exception), is that our fault? Is improv nationally pretty white and male? If so, we didn't cause the problem, and we can't fix it by booking different acts.

What we CAN do is be really proactive about encouraging people of color and other underrepresented groups to come take classes and learn how to be badass improvisers. I know that seems like reverse discrimination, but look at it from the other point of view: If you came to see a show and noticed that nobody in it looked like you, mightn't you need a little extra encouragement to think that you were welcome?

I used to work at Texas Monthly, which was lily-white for years, and the official explanation was always that qualified candidates never applied for the jobs. Maybe so, but why didn't they apply? Was it because Texas Monthly was known far and wide for having an all-white staff? At some point somebody has to swallow their pride and make an effort to bridge the gap, even if that effort is above and beyond what's expected or required. I think it's easier for an institution to make the effort than an individual; hence my suggestion that we start getting aggro about diversifying the improv community. If we were to succeed, it would be one more hugely cool thing about Austin improv that other people would want to emulate. But I think it probably won't happen without some intentional outreach.

What if we contacted the theater departments of local colleges and asked them if we could come do a presentation consisting of some improv and some explanation of the form? I would bet money there's some kid at Huston-Tillotson right now who would love to do improv if she knew it existed.

What we CAN do is be really proactive about encouraging people of color and other underrepresented groups to come take classes and learn how to be badass improvisers.

This initiative I support 100%. So much so I stayed up until 2:00 in the morning just to say so. Now it's said and I'm going to bed.

The idea has been glanced off in passing in the past, but never fully pursued. (Though I did send an e-mail just last week inviting a journalist for one of the local alternative lifestyle zines to come take in a show ironically enough.) I say you should have it added to the AIC meeting agenda.

I'm not a member of AIC, as far as I know, but maybe someone who is will pick this up and run with it.

ratliff wrote:I'm not a member of AIC, as far as I know, but maybe someone who is will pick this up and run with it.

Can we go ahead and settle the question of membership this weekend so John can feel included?

John's in an AIC troupe, so of course he's in.
And I covet both his troupe and musical talent.

But yes, we should settle this issue officially, once and for all.