Austin Improv

REMINDER!
http://thatotherpaper.com/austin/itiner ... ns_brigade

I signed up for the first round of classes but now I'm unable to make it. Work is crushing me like a bug this week. PM me if you're interested in taking my spot in the first round of classes.

ColdTowne Theater is COMPLETELY sold out. But Everyone should come to the Art Authority on Wednesday Night. There are still some tickets left and you can get them online at http://www.coldtownetheater.com

Also, they are doing sketch at ColdTowne and improv at the Art Authority.

If someone would like tickets to the 8pm Thursday show, shoot me an email or PM.

So how were the Art Authority shows? Did anyone go?

The shows were great.

Terp 2 It was in effect at the top of each.

Both shows were the same format: Ask the audience some survey questions, and also get stories from particular audience members. Play off that, and repeat as necessary.

Very fun, and also casual. The audience was very much a part of both shows. The main thing I noticed was that they listened to EVERYTHING that people were shouting or saying in the audience. It felt like a Q&A at times, but it was still interesting.

The 10:00 show had a strange vibe. It started with people continually trying to take the prop chairs away from the stage to sit in. Later, Ian Roberts popped his ring finger out of socket, RE-SET IT, and taped up his hand on stage. When it happened he was obviously in terrible pain. It was a delay of 2-3 minutes, then they continued the show. 15 minutes later, a dude in the back of the audience passed out and fell on the sound board. The dude's friends dragged him outside, and UCB again continued the show. Funny show, strange happenings.

What did people think about the workshops? I was in Matt Besser's Thursday class and thought it was really interesting, what did other folks think?

Silence......deafening.....must....escape....

I valued both workshops immensely, though at times it felt more like a lecture than an actual workshop. fine by me, though, as UCB game philosophy has been a big gap in my improv training and I consider myself lucky lucky to be able to hear it from the mouths of two of the founders rather than hear it second- or third-hand.

two lectures isn't enough to really understand how the Game works for myself as a performer, but I feel I'm at least familiar with the tool set I need for occasional experimentation.

the group exercises we did towards the end of the Besser workshop helped to jog my memory of training at IO, which is an added bonus.

i enjoyed the matt walsh workshop on thursday.

from what i heard about the besser workshops, it sounds like he was a little more focused on exploring the details of a scene to create the game.

it was good.

Matt Besser workshop was fascinating. My notes are summarized below (with Matt Besser in quotes):

Preamble
"The Game is the only thing we do."
"You can't mix philosophies or styles of play."
"I'm just telling you what we do."
"Take what you want, leave the rest."
"Improv is not about you; it's about your group."

The Game
"The Game of the scene is the funny thing."
He distinguished between organic scenes in which you find the Game and premise scenes in which you establish the Game with the first line of the scene.

Premise Scenes
You come up with an idea for a Game and deliver a first line that shows your partner that path as clearly as possible.
"If you've got a premise, why not start with it?"
"We want our improv to be as close to sketch as possible."
"I do comedy. We don't do dramatic improv."

How to develop a premise and opening line
Have some kind of opening (audience story, monologue, word association game, etc.) to generate ideas or "funny things" as Matt prefers to call them. Flag two or three things from the opening that strike you as funny. Pick one of the funny things and isolate precisely what is funny about it ("You gotta give it to me in five words"). Create a simple analogy that can be played in a scene. Come up with an opening line that tells your partner and the audience exactly what you're going for.

Example: Story is about going to a pick-up basketball game and a short fat guy was being a dick and acting all bad ass. The funny thing is Short Fat Guy is Delusional about Basketball Skills. Analogy might be Legless Guy is Delusional about Track Skills. First line might be, "Look, dude, I'm not gonna race you. You've got no legs."

We spent a lot of time playing with this idea: Telling stories, pulling out funny things, creating analogies, trying out first lines. From the audience for a while, then with half the class up on stage, playing out full or partial scenes based on the opening lines. The watchwords at every step of the way seemed to be keep it simple. "As much as you think it's obvious, it's not."

When necessary, heighten and explore.

Heighten
"We make the funny thing funnier and funnier."
Find the next, bigger step and take it. Extend the analogy that the game is built on.

Explore
"You say something crazy [heighten] and then justify it [explore]."
"Adding logic to your absurdity."
You have to put the heightening in a logical context or it all goes to crazytown.
"If the heightening stops getting laughs, you probably haven't done your justifying [exploring]."

Group Opening
Openings should be designed to provide funny things for premises.

Pattern Game
Standing in a line on the stage, word associate in no particular order.
After 8-15 words, look for a way back to the original word.
Don't get stuck in one particular area of words for too long.
Look for the laughs.
Loop out three times from the same starter word.
Try to gear your word associations toward looking for premises. Actively look for fruitful associations. Reincorporate material from earlier in the pattern as appropriate. Don't force it.

Matt also talked about things in terms of "earned" and "not earned" a lot.

Good notes, Andy! Maybe this could be the start of the book they want to write!

Yeah, great notes...I'm totally printing that up because my memory is such crap.

Ahhh, thanks so much Andy.

I'm really glad you made the connection between explore and justify. Besser had mentioned the "heighten and explore" idea in an interview, but hadn't gone into details. And Peter had mentioned the emphasis on justifying, but I didn't realize they were the same idea. Makes sense.

Also, my philosophy is that you CAN mix philosophies, so suck it.