Austin Improv

on-topic:
i agree with everybody else here. lots ups and downs in the short term, but i try to keep my view in the long term. that's where you can really track growth and whatnot. i used to get really (really)bummed out and self-flaggelating (sp?) when i had a crap show, but i realized that it's just counter-productive to focus on that. just as counter-productive to be really prideful and think you're great when you have a good show. i've found it best to just put the head down and work. pop your head above the water every once in awhile to make sure you're still heading in the right direction. i think i'm still heading in the right direction, still swallowing water every so often...

off-topic:
for what it's worth, i was psyched to see that you and mike will be doing a weekly show at coldtowne -- i don't get to see tkn often enough and it's nice knowing you'll be up in my hood, and with consistency. in terms of getting over-looked, I blame people like wes and trew for doing too much stuff and clogging the improv view. dudes seriously, please stop.*

*editted to add this because people think i'm being serious when i'm not: please don't stop. please keep building things around here.

kbadr wrote:This entire thread is disturbing me and it's the main reason I didn't want to have AIC awards. Anything that causes people like Jeremy and Craig to think they're anything less than awesome is crap.

Ditto. Social psychology and all that.

I'm all for no awards next year.

Craig: as the first person to teach me the Irish accent (even though all you taught me was "My dog has herpes"), you will always be awesome to me.

...not that I don't appreciate the work that Val and Rachel and everyone else has put into the AIC Awards. I'm just sayin...

Craig, I bathed in your sweat during Boys of Summer. And I loved it.

Never leave the stage, man.

c, i always feel that coldtowne scored a big coup in getting knuckleball for the weekly saturday show- hope you're in it for a long while!

.....

I am still a big believer in the awards. Face it, people, someone's gotta be the first out in micetro, someone's gotta lose the cagematch, some people aren't going to be nominated for awards.

It's perfectly understandable that there would be any slight feelings of being slighted, but weigh that small degree of slight with the large degree of satisfaction someone would get from winning 'most improved' or 'hardest working.' Some awards are trite, some are popularity contests, true, but some are a gigantic validation for the peeps who win.

Can't we allow people to be honored sans asterisk?

there's an award show coming up?

phlounderphil wrote: I'm going to go change my signature to "Is He Joking?", because I don't even know if the things I say are serious anymore.

and, phil, if you change your standard-bearing signature you ruin all chances of me winning the remarkably prestigious "best quote" category! That is not something I can allow.

beardedlamb wrote:i was referring to back in the day when people were doing the 'awesome' posts. i felt better when the award nominations came out. and i'm trying to cheer up the craigus with shared pain.
i will speak no more to this issue.
beard.

There will be more awesome posts. And yes, Craig and Jeremy, I know what you're talking about.

Well, I feel that I'm in several places at once, depending on what we are talking about. We walk many journeys and while I may be improving in one area, like short-form games, I may not be making progress in another.

Personally, I am at a psuedo-peak in short-form games. I've become very good at controlling the pace, structure, and gimmicks of games, but I secretly fear that my substance is subpar.

I'm so-so in longer-form stories on stage, though I have begun to restudy the art of story and story-telling off-stage and I can feel those instincts honing. I'm an a place in my "training" where I simply cannot watch a movie without constantly thinking "this is what I'd do next" and making predictions to see if my idea of the story jives with what actually happens (then judging if their or my version was the superior choice).

I'm also in a big "private" training mode, where I'll Beastie Rap alone in the car or just play a character around the house for like 30 mins at a time. How would a Count make a sandwhich? What would a coalminer look up online? I don't know if it is helping my characterization, but I don't feel so lonely with all these people in my head.

I'm also in a weird, often conflicted place creatively, where I want to play with the artform and find its limits (or lack thereof), where I want to control the beast one minute and set it free the next. I'm exploring a lot of creative limitation methods and trying to think on ways to make improv less like a party game and more like a valid, even revered, form of social, emotional, political, personal, and artistic commentary.

All-in-all, I'd say I'm at a solid B, with the occasional gust into B+ and B- territory.

Kareem, you know I love you. But still, you can't negate my whole post with one sentence, not fair. (Thanks for offering for me to guest with you guys, if Piss & Vinegar ever does happen, I would love to guest with you guys!)

Val and Rachel, again, thanks for putting all this work into the ceremony.

Arthur, your quote is still there, you damn well better win that award, although you have some tough competition.

phlounderphil wrote:Arthur, your quote is still there, you damn well better win that award, although you have some tough competition.

Is that quote right? I actually remember it being the other way around.

kbadr wrote:

phlounderphil wrote:Arthur, your quote is still there, you damn well better win that award, although you have some tough competition.

Is that quote right? I actually remember it being the other way around.

Yup, that's the correct quote. He said it right after I handed him the fork I had just pulled from the 100 million year old ham.

kbadr wrote:

phlounderphil wrote:Arthur, your quote is still there, you damn well better win that award, although you have some tough competition.

Is that quote right? I actually remember it being the other way around.

My favorite Arthur quote is still "Snikt, m'lady. Snikt" from the X-Men Shakespeare scene in Blue Maestro.

I think individual awards are a tad dicey. Improv is, at its core, ensemble work. I was always told that if someone comes up to you and says you're the funniest person in the troupe, then you weren't doing your job.

That said, I think some people tend to stand out more than others due to the kinds of choices they make on stage or their natural charisma. Of course, these people wouldn't be shit without the wonderful people supporting them on stage and off, and I'm sure they know that.

Some people get more recognition because they put themselves out there more--doing more work for the community and being more present week to week. Some troupes get more recognition because of the effort they put into promoting themselves.

Ego will crush a scene, a show and a troupe. I wasn't nominated for anything. My first reaction was, "What, am I not funny? Am I not a talented improvisor? Don't I stand out?" Then I tell myself to shut the fuck up, because it's just my own insecurities gnawing at me. When someone else gets nominated for an award and you are not, there's a tendency to replace "Person X is the Best Improvisor in Austin" with "People think I am a shitty improvisor." It's faulty wiring in our brains that does it.

I'm all for these silly awards. It's a nice way to recognize each other, but in the end we're just kind of jerking each other off. And I'm all for casual handjobs.

P.S. If anyone is worried about whether or not they suck, PM me and I will let you know if you suck or don't. I keep a list that I update daily.

i will speak no more on this issue.