The First Improv Show You Ever Saw

[Brad Hawkins]

In any event, the show that I think brought home that I really wanted to do improv for the rest of my life was the second Confidence Men show I saw, the one-year Conniversary on June 12, 2010. Ken Webster guest-starred, several students (including Chelley) got to go up and do scenes, Southpaw Jones played. It was a amazing. The way I remember it, I signed up for classes the next day, and I'll stick by that until Andy checks his records. Which I don't see him doing.

Brad,

You signed up for Level one on Friday, Jun 4, 2010.

DAMMIT ROY

All right, so what show did I see on Thursday the 3rd? What blew me away so much I had to go sign up immediately?

(because it's not like I just procrastinated signing up for a month and a half, right?)

[Ruby W.]

In any event, the show that I think brought home that I really wanted to do improv for the rest of my life was the second Confidence Men show I saw, the one-year Conniversary on June 12, 2010. Ken Webster guest-starred, several students (including Chelley) got to go up and do scenes, Southpaw Jones played. It was a amazing. The way I remember it, I signed up for classes the next day, and I'll stick by that until Andy checks his records. Which I don't see him doing.

Brad,

You signed up for Level one on Friday, Jun 4, 2010.

DAMMIT ROY

All right, so what show did I see on Thursday the 3rd? What blew me away so much I had to go sign up immediately?

(because it's not like I just procrastinated signing up for a month and a half, right?)

roy says few words. but when he speaks, they count.

[kbadr]

DAMMIT ROY

All right, so what show did I see on Thursday the 3rd? What blew me away so much I had to go sign up immediately?

(because it's not like I just procrastinated signing up for a month and a half, right?)

Tom Booker and Son, Firth & Arjet, The Knuckleball Now

My first AIC show was some sort of two person thing with Kareem and Andy. Andy threw out a chair, but it was unclear if he was starting a scene or just moving the chair. Kareem looked at him for a second, and then you knew, "Oh wow, they are going to make a scene with this chair thing." I thought that was pure magic.

I wish I had some memory of this.

Reminds me that I need to do my random duos thing soon...

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Brad,

You signed up for Level one on Friday, Jun 4, 2010.

DAMMIT ROY

All right, so what show did I see on Thursday the 3rd? What blew me away so much I had to go sign up immediately?

(because it's not like I just procrastinated signing up for a month and a half, right?)

roy says few words. but when he speaks, they count.

he's like a rhetorical sniper...which also explains why he never talks to women or kids.

[Brad Hawkins]

Tom Booker and Son, Firth & Arjet, The Knuckleball Now

Nope, didn't see that show. I guess I must have seen C-Men and that Maestro, then been so horribly underwhelmed that it wasn't until over a month later that, bored, I said "oh, what the hell. FINE, I'll take an improv class."

[B. Tribe]

Aside from obsessively watching Whose Line for about 6 months I think it was a short form troupe in Binghamton at a New Years event and I don't recall them being bad or good. They may have been from out of town cuz every time I saw the actual local team they were awful.

1st in Austin was a Bat at the 40 hour marathon and then Tom Booker as Stool Pigeon. They were both good although the Bat is my least favorite format TO PERFORM, NOT WATCH/LISTEN TO. Other people are great at it.

[happywaffle]

Thanks for bumping the thread Paul, I hadn't seen this before. My comments based on skimming the submissions thus far:

But yeah, I liked the show, but I never felt the inclination to go back. I would've if it had come up.

Co-owner of the Hideout Theatre, ladies and gentlemen!

Kevin did Demon Voice very well. Got a five. since then, I've done several Demon Voices.

Pretty sure I remember this one. The Demon Voice told me I was playing Nintendo. Then the killer mushrooms started coming out of the TV. I ended up getting the princess. Button line: "I KNOW what comes next!" Now the memory is sweeter knowing Ceej was in the audience.

I may be forgetting something, but I'm pretty sure the first live improv I saw was Get Up's Hideout show at Out of Bounds 2005

Mind blown.

I moved to Austin in April of 2000.  A month later, I got pulled over for running a stop sign.

Excellent scene set-up for Evil Peter Rogers.

Andy threw out a chair, but it was unclear if he was starting a scene or just moving the chair. Kareem looked at him for a second, and then you knew, "Oh wow, they are going to make a scene with this chair thing." I thought that was pure magic.

God I love those moments.

====

My first show was Freudian Slip in College Station on a weekend visit to A&M, circa 1998. They asked for a volunteer. I leapt onstage. It was a courtroom game; I was the defendant, and both lawyers left the room while the crowd decided on what I was being accused of. Then the lawyers returned and tried to determine what the case was while they tried it.

When the defense attorney started his opening statement, he said: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury! The only thing this man is guilty of is a receding hairline!" (Insulting an audience volunteer? SERIOUSLY?) Of course I took it in stride, feigned despair, and crawled under my chair.

Show #2 was ComedySportz on the UT campus, circa 2000.

Show #3 was Andy's graduation show, fall 2001. I started Level One with Shana the very next morning.

[Mike]

I think I first saw the British "Whose Line" on cable in the early 90's. Later in the 90's I saw a group at Queens College called Neuman's Nose, and I dabbled a little in performing some short form while at college with other members of the campus humor magazine.

In Austin I think my first show was Polite Society Presents followed by Maestro. I remember Polite Society had a Saturday run and I usually hung around Austin after my level 1 improv classes to watch the show.

I can remember Roy's performance in Maestro - it was in a Yearbook Photo scene, and Roy was in the Chess Club. He gave a passionate speech about how he related to the knight on the board, moving through life two squares up and one over. After that, I realized I HAD to play Maestro and would bug Andy endlessly about it.

[valetoile]

My memory for stuff like this is so bad, but here's what I can piece together:
I grew up watching the British Whose Line and then later the American version.

I played around at, and saw others playing around at improv games and scenes in high school, either as a theatre game or a speech tournament consolation event.

Probably the first real live improv show I ever saw was the Well Hung Jury. I say this not because I remember a particular first show, but because it seems likely. i do remember a couple of their early shows specifically.

It's also likely that I was performing, or at least rehearsing improv, before I ever saw it being done live.

I also remember seeing a Six Degrees show at the Hideout early on, with Sean Hill, Jeremy Lamb, and Shana Merlin. It was a medieval plotline, Shana was a princess who escaped.

[Katie T.]

Val has unlocked my memory! I first saw Comedy Sportz at Northcross Mall in about 1994. Then I used to watch Only 90% Effective, a UT troupe, in 1995/96 a lot. Never made it to a Monk's Night Out show, though I kept meaning to, and then didn't see improv again until 2007? It might have been Upright Citizens Brigade touring co. at the Texas Union Theater. Snackers had just formed.

[Halyn]

My dad took me to see a Maestro when I was in the 6th grade. The drive down I was super skeptical, and I thought it was going to be some weird lame one-off type thing. I think I thought it was like a play/performance art piece.

From then on I begged him to take me as often as we could make the hour drive from Georgetown, and we saw it as often as we could. I remember leaving and us feeling so tired and exhausted because they were just so mind-blowing and hilarious to us. We would try and remember every scene, and it was virtually impossible.

One of the only scenes I can ever remember from all those shows was of a guy (I always think it was Ceej or Marc) who was Amish but secretly blogging about like these evil crops or something. He was trying to post to the outside world, and I think in the end the town just blew up. It was awesome.

I saw Maesetros for years until I actually saw another improv show that wasn't Maestro and it was a Pgrah show. I don't really remember anything about it except for being confused that they were doing an entire story, and not understanding how that could possibly be a thing.

[Roy Janik]

I can remember Roy's performance in Maestro - it was in a Yearbook Photo scene, and Roy was in the Chess Club. He gave a passionate speech about how he related to the knight on the board, moving through life two squares up and one over.

I still remember that scene fondly. Or more specifically, the weird detached sense of stuff coming out of my mouth without me thinking of it, and a little bit of my brain/attention checking in with the director (Jeremy?) to see if they liked it.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

I don't really remember anything about it except for being confused that they were doing an entire story, and not understanding how that could possibly be a thing.

i've been doing this for half of my life, and i still don't understand that. ain't it wonderful?

[Roy Janik]

One of the only scenes I can ever remember from all those shows was of a guy (I always think it was Ceej or Marc) who was Amish but secretly blogging about like these evil crops or something.

Amish? Probably Ceej. He used to have a beard that always made me think "Amish".

I saw Maesetros for years until I actually saw another improv show that wasn't Maestro and it was a Pgrah show. I don't really remember anything about it except for being confused that they were doing an entire story, and not understanding how that could possibly be a thing.

Yeah, I'm still dubious. Sounds unlikely.

[Kayla Lane]

My sister and I were in love with Whose Line when we were little kids. Then when I was a teenager, I performed in a yearly shortform show at my high school my junior and senior years. I'm pretty sure it was horrible and blue and stupid, but I had so much fun.

The first live improv show I *saw* was a Harold at UCB when I was interning in NYC in summer 2010. I thought it was really groovy and I liked all the organic group game stuff. It looked really fun, and I believed it was something I could learn to do and would enjoy. But I put it on my "someday" list.

Then, I came back to Austin a few months later. I went to a Pgraph show with my friend who had free tickets because she was taking an improv class. The show stuck in my mind because I'd never seen an improvised narrative, and I certainly had never seen any dramatic improv. It was their Eris format and Roy's character died or disappeared in space or something. I hate sci-fi, but I loved that show because it wasn't really about sci-fi at all; it was about people and feelings.

So I signed up for a class in November and had my mind blown. I expected it to be more like acting classes I had taken, and instead it was this weird creativity training-personal development-abstract performance-adult playplace-wondergasm that I had always fantasized about but didn't think existed. The shows piqued my interest, but class is where I fell in love.