Translation: "It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for the Tuesday Night Jam!" Hosted at the Hideout Theatre on 7th and Congress from 7 P.M. to 10 P.M.!!!
New to the Jam?: The Tuesday Night Jam, done every Tuesday at the Hideout Theatre from 7-10 P.M., is a low-stress high-impact way to try out improv for free. It's open to the public, totally free, and not only does it welcome improvisers of all skill levels, but this is the best and safest way to break into improv! If you're too scared to perform, you don't have to: the Jam is also free to observe.
What we do at the Jam: Most jams start with warm-up games to learn eachother's names, get out of our heads, and start thinking like improvisers. Then, we move onto games and exercises that focus on either one specific improv skill or several improv skills at once. We round the night off with a mock Maestro show, full of short-form games like you'd see at the Hideout's Maestro show or Whose Line Is It Anyway.
Do you guys do longform improv?: When enough people want to do it, yes. For those wanting to try their hand at longform improv (i.e. improvised stories), we have recently started regularly doing rounds of the ultra-easy Character Freeze, where improvisers do an entire improvised story arc from start to finish, and the results are memorable.
Past Character Freeze stories include...
-A volatile love triangle between a supermarket manager, two custodians, one of the custodian's moms, and a video gamer, which ended in tragedy.
-A mischievous young boy who starts a conspiracy against his father.
-A boy who heads off to Paris against his family's wishes.
-A duel between an angry bus station depot clerk and a young man trying to get to Newark, another bus station employee, a traveling musician, and a guitar-playing hobo.
-My personal favorite, Samson the Cigar salesman runs for president after meeting George Bush, and ends up not only winning, but finding his long-lost son. Aside from being really well done and very funny (spawning the line, "You don't have to sit in the back. This ain't no cop car."), it holds a special place in my heart because it was created entirely by newcomers to the jam with little-to-no improv experience. If they can do it, so can you!
What if I'm not good at improv?: You will be by the end of the night! Aside from being just a fun outlet for improvisers to goof around, it's also a place to learn new skills and try out new techniques or games.
What if I'm not funny?: You don't have to be funny. That's what your scene partners are there for: to make you look funny and vice versa.
Do I have to sign up for something?: Nope. As long as you come by between the hours of 7 and 10 P.M., you can jump right into the action. And don't forget: IT'S FREE!!!
Attendance has been sparse lately, so bring your friends! Bring your family! Invite your theatre class! Invite friends from the office! The more people, the better the jam!