Austin Improv

Games are super fun and good training tools and helped me learn to make stronger quicker more fearless decisions on stage yadda yadda yadda...

That said, I think short form games can instill some bad scenework habits if done wrong. I'm a firm, firm believer that beginning improvisors should be treated like geniuses. Start them right off the bat learning the fundamentals of scene work---characters, relationships, etc...

When I first got here, there were a couple of fresh faces (I won't name names) who said, and I quote "Oh, we're not ready to do a long form yet, we're not good enough." POPPY COCK! That idea is so alien to me that I don't even know how to react to it. Improv is improv, and if you have the proper tools under your belt, there's nothing you can't do. But m training emphasized long form from day one, so...

Blah.

Wesley wrote:I'll voice the same concern that was voiced before with "making this happen" as it applies to games in the 3fer...

I must have missed this when it was brought up. I'll say this, Jastroch is fine with playing games. If anyone wants to start a shirt form team, I'll be happy to play provided I have the time.

ColdTowne, however, does long form improv and, short of a jam of some kind, is not interested in playing short form games before their shows.

Wesley wrote:but when a troupe may only have 2 or 3 shows in a two month block, how do you say "You have to burn one of them playing games, even if you don't want to."

Right now we're asking troupes to burn two out of their three shows playing for NO ONE. We're clearly doing something wrong if every other week we've got 5 or 10 people in the audience. Pitching the Threefer as Games, Scenes and Longform (and scheduling it and hosting it that way) would make it a better show. And a more marketable show.

I don't play Maestro every week because it's my bag. I do it because it sells, and because I believe it's a fantastic introduction to improv. And we MUST introduce people to improv. And most of our shows don't do that. We're presenting a curious art form that occasionally blows a few people away when we're really really good.

So either we keep performing for inadequate crowds until we get really really good all the time (which will take longer because we're performing for inadequate crowds) and hope that we can survive in the meantime. Or we make some small "sacrifices" to bring in the people. And I'm not calling for massive reforms here, just a small tweak of one show.

I think Phil's got it right. We're not forcing anyone to do games, just asking for volunteers to sacrifice 25 minutes every two or three months to help bring more people to improv.

And for the record, I think a sweet improvised longform narrative is the most powerful thing ever. If every show we did was as much fun as Parallelogramophonograph's Afterschool Improv show last Thursday or almost every Knuckleball Now show I've ever seen, we would be beating people away with sticks.

Jastroch wrote: I must have missed this when it was brought up. I'll say this, Jastroch is fine with playing games. If anyone wants to start a shirt form team, I'll be happy to play provided I have the time.

I too would play on a shortform team if it was scheduled ahead of time. I wouldn't want to do gamey stuff in a threefer with IFE since we've been working so hard on our longform techniques, but I would if the choice were "Do games or don't play". I do really enjoy playing games though and would like to perform with like-minded peeps. We could all perform under the Heroes of Comedy house team or come up with a more kickass name.

I think improv would be easier for the audience to get into if we introduced all of our shows with live music. I'm sure some groups out there would be into bringing some instruments and jamming out for crowd. Our numbers have been down recently, so let's think about this. Let's also add live music to the 3-fer so an audience can "get in tha grooove" for some improv.

have our numbers really been down recently? i was at all 3 shows last friday, and they were all pretty close to full. even the cagematch had upwards of 25 audience members.

the mathematician in me urges us to collect data on numbers of audience members before we lament the lack of fans.

also i am terrible at games. i would not like it if i was forced to play games. i think the best way to get crowds is to do good shows and get people to come back and bring friends. i think any one who was at any of friday's shows will be back.

andrea wrote:have our numbers really been down recently? i was at all 3 shows last friday, and they were all pretty close to full. even the cagematch had upwards of 25 audience members.

the mathematician in me urges us to collect data on numbers of audience members before we lament the lack of fans.

also i am terrible at games. i would not like it if i was forced to play games. i think the best way to get crowds is to do good shows and get people to come back and bring friends. i think any one who was at any of friday's shows will be back.

Amen on all counts. Except I'm awesome at short form games. That's why I always win Maestro.

andrea wrote:i think the best way to get crowds is to do good shows and get people to come back and bring friends.

Hmmm, that seems to make a bizarre sort of sense...


So we could continue to improve as performers and troupes (and as a community), and allow word of mouth to spread and marketing from flyers and press write-ups to build our audience slowly over time as they get used to what we do and do well.

Or we could try to be everything to the everyone and not just focus on what we do well in a given slot (3-fer = longform, dbl-barrel = longer form, Maestro = shortform, etc).

I dunno. If we decide on the latter, and add short-form and live music, let's also add a chili cookoff. People who might be thrown off by short form improv, long form improv, and live music might be into chili. Who's with me?

I hesitate about posting this, because I don't want to be arguing...
but just for the record...
whole improv worlds were built in other cities without the improvisers doing short form... or for that matter, plot-based longform...

mcnichol wrote:I dunno. If we decide on the latter, and add short-form and live music, let's also add a chili cookoff. People who might be thrown off by short form improv, long form improv, and live music might be into chili. Who's with me?

I smell sarcasm...

Seriously, audiences take a long time to build, and I think the Austin audience is more sophisticated than most. I think they're ready to and do enjoy long form.

I for one initially enjoyed, but then HATED "Who's Line is it Anyway." It wasn't until I went to my first UCB show in New York that I realized that Improv was something a whole fuck of a lot cooler than it was on the TV.

I think that, like me, a large segment of the youths are turned off by improv because of short form. I've heard this from several people over the course of my improv career. People I dragged to shows who had no idea what it is we were doing...

mcnichol wrote:People who might be thrown off by short form improv, long form improv, and live music might be into chili. Who's with me?

Mmmmm...Chili...Drool...

Join us on Sunday night as You Me & Greg presents their brand new format at the Coldtowne Theater.

FUCK LONGFORM.

They'll be performing all your favorite short-form games, serving warm chili, and insulting your intelligence. It all combines for a wonderful evening of fun. Members of Coldtowne, The Frank Mills, IFE, and Parallelogramophonograph will not be allowed to enter the theater for the first thirty minutes.

THEN, they'll kick the first audience out, invite in all the refugees who weren't allowed into the shortform show. Dump all of the chili out and begin serving the finest Beluga caviar and champagne while they present a structured longform Harold narrative with dramatic overtones and some substance for once.

Seriously guys.

There is no one way.

Troupe A pulls 100 people into a show because it's free, and they're doing shortform, and they have lots of friends.
Troupe B performs a 40 minute piece of brilliance to an audience of 10 who enjoy themselves and are actually made to think while watching a comedy show.

There's positives and negatives to both of those, I think.

Do what you want, yes. But just because you're doing one thing don't mean you gotta diss on the other. I mean, ultimately, it doesn't matter because improv as an artform is going nowhere anyways, so who cares if you're fading into oblivion while playing Sit - Stand - Kneel, or bearing your soul in some heartbreaking longform.

This thread makes me want to fucking vomit, on all of you. Jesus Christ.

mcnichol wrote:If we decide on the latter, and add short-form and live music, let's also add a chili cookoff.

That would probably be a pretty fantastic show. Or festival.

improv as an artform is going nowhere anyways

Oh, go to college already.


You have to admit though, when The JokR (or was it Gesture), punched that other guy in the crotch and called it comedy, a guffaw in fact went up.

I propose a mandatory crotch punch in all of our shows, games or not, as that is obviously what the people want.

That would mean that the 3fer would be three crotch-puntastic shows for the price of one!
"Honey, trust me, you'll love it! It's like they make all this stuff up on the fly and then punch each other in the crotches! THE CROTCHES!"