Fancy-Pants Advice?

[mitchmills]

I’m very excited to be playing in tonight’s Fancy-Pants Mashup, but I’ve only been doing improv since January, and in addition I’ve never actually seen a Fancy-Pants show.

I’ll be dressed to the nines (elevens even), and am just looking to have fun, but I’d appreciate any advice or suggestions from those with more experience in this particular format. I’d especially love to hear about your favorite two-person games / activities and why you like them.

Thanks!

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Fancy Pants is one of the most fun, most playful, lowest pressure improv jams I've ever seen, played in, or hosted. just go into it with two things in mind: you're going to look good and you're going to have fun. everything else is just trimmings on the plate.

personally, I can never remember games so I try to think of some kind of scene set up. which is nice because you can always layer a game on top of it if your scene partner has an idea for a game. but personal favorite two person games are Musical Eye Contact and Oscar Winning Moment (both of which require some level of tech, so let the host and booth know if you've got those in mind). New Choice and Alphabet Game are also classic standbys and good crowd pleasers!

[Ryan Austin]

Jordan is right, Fancy Pants is super low pressure. In addition, you are in control of what you'd like to play. So my advice is to play what you really want or feel really comfortable with. At least for the first scene. After that, challenge yourself to try something different.

Classics are
-New choice
-Moving bodies
-Twin Pillars
-Eye contact w/ music

I challenge every performer at every Fancy Pants to chase their own inspiration and do something that sounds like a lot of fun to them. To make up a game or play their favorite. I've had a slew of amazing and truly unique scenes come from this. Some are...
-Batman Babysitter
-More Cher
-Dinosaur Office
-Scene from an AIC thread

Of course, inspiration doesn't always strike, so if someone can't think of anything they'd like to do or are just genuinely curious to try something random, I have them ask me for a setup.I have a whole list of setups and games I make up each month and I keep an eye on what the show and players need at that time.

So even if you can't think of anything or don't know what to do, you can't go wrong.

It'll be a ton of fun and you'll be great. There's no notes after the show, so no one will tell you what you did "wrong". (unless you really want notes, then just come to me personally) But this show really is a great opportunity to have fun. Pay attention to what tickles you today. If you've been impersonating Willem Dafoe all day, play a scene as him!

[Ryan Austin]

I guess as far as advice for the format, just hit relationship as much as you can. There's a dozen (or more) improv things to work on at any given time, but the advice I've always found helpful is to just work on one thing at a time. Sean Hill said he sometimes writes one word on his hand. Like Character. He'll be on the sides and go, "Oh, yeah, I'm working on character tonight. I'll go out as a unique character next"

For Fancy Pants, I would write Relationship on my hand (literal or metaphorical). Since it's two person scenes, just locking eyes with the other person and defining/furthering the relationship is great.

So that's my advice for scene work tonight. Lock eyes and go, RELATIONSHIP.

[mitchmills]

Thanks! Helpful stuff.

[mitchmills]

That was a lot of fun. Highly recommended.