Notes from Chicago

[acrouch]

I have finally acquired/pirated internet access in a Lou Malnati's pizza where I will soon enjoy a peperoni and mushroom pizza.

I can only speak for my own experiences, but hopefully everyone else will chime in as they can:

Sunday I got off a plane, got on a train, dumped my stuff at my friend Frankie's apartment, ate excellent Colombian food and got a driving tour of the improv theatres (ala Frankie). He's taking classes at Second City, so we stopped there and he showed me around.

They had three sold-out shows in three different theatres on a Sunday night. That's crazy.

Monday's Annoyance classes were really annoying. The content was interesting, but dimmed by massive massive inefficiency in the class format. The student teacher ratio is 25 to 1 and most of the exercises involved two people getting up and everyone else watching. So each exercise took about 25-35 minutes and for every four hours of class, you're lucky to spend 20 minutes actually improvising. But the teachers were pleasant and clearly very knowledgable and we got a solid introduction to the Annoyance philosophy.

Monday Night I went to Frankie's (my friend and host, remember) graduation show for his Second City Conservatory class. There was some funny stuff, but it was sketch, which isn't really my bag. (side note: apparently there's a book, the Art of Chicago Longform, in the Hideout lending library that was originally mine and in which I wrote, "Boo sketch" next to something and now everyone else here is making fun of me for it.) I caught a train to the Annoyance, went the wrong way, got back going the right way and saw a 10:30 show (on a Monday!) called Be Frank that was just okay, but was interesting in the further insight it gave me into what Annoyance is teaching. The crowd was pretty sparse, maybe nine or ten people.

Tuesday's classes were less tedious and there were more exciting ideas being presented. Mark Sutton taught the early session, and we absolutely have to get that guy down to Austin. He's just a little inspiring.

And tonight I saw an immensely mediocre Harold night at Improv Olympic. I went because the Reckoning was playing, but it turned out they were doing a combo set with some other troupe and the end result was blah.
Improv Olympic has such a cool, professional little theatre though. And a sold-out crowd on a Tuesday night.

The sum total of my experiences so far has been inspiring, from both the positive and the negative stuff.

[acrouch]

So, some actual improv theory & practice?

The main gist of Annoyance (as you know if you've read Mick Napier's book) is "take care of yourself by creating a strong character/initiation at the top of the scene and hold on to it."

They seem to think that this is radical, and after having seen a bad Improv Olympic show, I can see what they think they're rebelling against, but in a lot of ways I think we're already doing this stuff in Austin. Not dropping offers, committing to your character, having objectives. Basically gets you to the same place, but the way they teach it and make it their first priority is intriguing. It's also frustrating in some ways...

Shit. I'm getting kicked out of the pizza place. More on this soon.

[kbadr]

Cool summary, Andy. Keep the reports comin'.
I'm dying to go to another city to study and see what other communities are like. I feel like an Improv Isolationist.

[kaci_beeler]

Yeah, thanks for the update!

[ChrisTrew.Com]

Well. I'll say this. I'm not too pleased with much right now.
Classes are too big, not getting enough notes, taking too many breaks (when we've already been sitting still for 60+ minutes), teachers don't seem to be on the same page at all, etc. etc.

The good news is that Justin York and I went and talked to the training center director and one of the Annoyance producers about our problems and they listened and were very nice. We'll see what happens next.

Grrrr, disappointment
Grrr, want to do more stuff
Grrr, I hope everything gets better

More later.

[acrouch]

We'll see what happens next.

So instead of the writing workshop that we were supposed to get as the second half of yesterday, they responded to our complaints about not enough improv and feedback and Mick Napier taught the class himself.

Which was pretty sweet. He ran us through a bunch of scene starts, and within ten minutes he had memorized everyone's names (except Valerie, which took him two guesses, the first being Olivia) and within 30 minutes he had collected enough information about each of us to give us fairly specific, reasonably accurate personal notes.

Mick Napier is another person that we really need to get down to Austin for a workshop weekend. His ideas about improv are challenging to a lot of what I've learned over the past five years. But he clearly cares about improv and about making it good, so that's a dialogue I'm excited about.

A lot of the notes he gave essentially came down to being more aggressive with the scenework. Not taking time to figure out who you are, but diving headfirst into your character and physicality. Attacking the scene and owning the scene and all that. Holding onto your shit.

more details later.

[nadine]

Yeah, bring Mick Napier or Mark Sutton down here!!

Thanks for the notes, Andy

[smerlin]

Thanks for the updates Andy, I'm really interested in hearing all about it.

I'm jealous and not at the same time.

[ChrisTrew.Com]

So!
After 4/5 classes being VERY difficult to sit still in, Justin York and myself put together a plan. It was very evil and well contructed. We talked about it for 3 minutes.

During the lunch break, we went upstairs and talked to the training center director and one of the Annoyance producers. We told them our complaints, they listened, we talked some more, and they apologized, listened, were very nice, we talked, etc. blah.

Then Mick Napier stepped in and within 10 minutes we had all doubled our stage time from the previous 5 workshops combined. He whipped us, took care of us, talked to us, hung out with us after class, etc. Did all the right things. The intensive was back on track.

Unfortunately it got a little more off track the next afternoon, but Susan Messing did her job well and Mick returned for another rehearsal Friday afternoon.

So, in the end, I'm a satisfied customer. I was almost the most pissed off disappointed dude, but I'm good now. I got a lot out of Mick's teaching and feel like a stronger improviser already.

A couple of the people from the intensive are wanting to come down to Austin asap. Look for Roy and Justine to visit during OOB and some others to do an organized invasion at The Space eventually.

There!

[York99]

As crappy as a lot of the intensive was put together, I gleened (is that the right word?) a hell of a lot of info there and I would say it really challenged a lot of my approach and philosophy. That might be a bit strong. I didn't get any rules really, but I did get a butt-load of tools. Even the crappy classes had some golden nuggets in there. You really had to pay attention, though, as much of it was putting people to sleep. Mainly it re-inforced things that I haven't had hammered in to me in a while.

Also got a lot out of shows around Chicago and at the Del Close Marathon.

Here are just a few:
-Have fun
-Don't lose your shit (read: make a character p.o.v. at the top of the scene and stick with it)
-Have fun
-Take care of your scene partner by taking care of yourself
-Have fun

Sounds basic, but it's not. I'd be happy to chat with anyone about it.

Come see the Annoyance players at TNA this week!

[F.C. Glasses]

you should take the fart clown glasses intensive.

it starts on friday at 11:30 pm.

you have a booger.