2 Square

I caught 2 Square, a 2-man improvisation, at UCB recently. It featured 30 Rock’s John Lutz and SNL’s Jason Sudeikis. Man, it was good.

It’s so much harder to describe what makes improv good than bad.

They kept their stories focused. They didn’t go off chasing every diversion; they were patient. Slow beginnings became thoughtful character-driven gems of comedy and wackier bits still made sense in the worlds their inhabited. They were playful, they shot bullets at the stomach, not at the head, they kept it real.

The Guest Room: Ben Whitehouse

Ben Whitehouse is our guest contributor this week. He started learning and performing improv way back in 2001 and has been obsessed with it ever since. Ben has studied with pretty much everyone at UCBNY plus Armando Diaz at Magnet (among others). He performs regularly with LD & The Scientist and co-authors the excellent improv blog Improvoker. He is often found sauntering around UCB Theater in various degrees of unshaveness and loves when people say hi.

Keeping Your Perspective

Ah improv, right? One minute she’s your sweet, sweet girl and the next she doesn’t come home and instead calls you at 4AM stranded with her “girlfriends” at Detroit Metro Airport. Oh yeah, right, her girlfriends?! Come on, who does she know in Detroit… So improv can be frustrating — one minute you feel like you have it down, the next, it leaves you in the lurch.

The other night I had an epiphany. I was on stage with some very accomplished improvisers during an improv lottery, where we all put in our names in a bag and they were pulled out at random. The suggestion was “Star Trek” and we were doing really well for never having worked together and being a little trashed. Then I initiated a scene by pulling out a chair and saying “Okay, for the last time, it was only a television show in the 70’s. It wasn’t real. None of it was real. I am just an actor. I can only answer questions about the television show.” This statement set up my character’s point of view pretty concretely; I am only an actor who can’t answer your questions. It also told the rest of the improvisers on stage what I expected from them: ask me more questions about things I would never be able to answer so I can get angrier and angrier. All the pieces were set for a scene that could sustain itself indefinitely. However, about 2 minutes in, after some dialog about it all being fake, I flipped my characters point of view, or game by talking about the show like it was real.

I felt it happen — it was horrible.

All that pent up energy was let loose and the scene fizzled. I knew I was doing the wrong thing and could hear my coach, Amey Goerlich, like Obi Wan in my mind saying “Keep your perspective, Luke. It’s your roadmap for your scene… Vote for change.” But the damage was done. The scene continued, people had to heighten from nothing and we eventually got back to a place where we had some stakes to care about. But it didn’t feel good.

The lesson I learned, the hard way, is once you have your character’s perspective and behavior (game), that’s all you need. Try not to think it’s not enough, because it is enough. Once you have that perspective, in my case “I am an actor who is asked ridiculous questions I won’t answer”, stick with it. The truth is, I could have played a version of that game in any situation and if the other performers are keyed in on my game, they can present situations that allow me freak out, like getting pulled over by a cop. Once you know it, nail it down and explore the situation on stage. Guaranteed you will find new and exciting ways to play with that perspective as you explore the scene… and don’t let your girlfriend fly to Detroit. Who the hell does she know in Detroit?!

Previous Guests: Charna Halpern, Jill Bernard, Marcel St. Pierre, Josh Fulton, Brendon Bennetts, Terence Bowman, Gil Browdy, Alan Marriott, Jason R. Chin, Ian Parizot, Bill Arnett, Pippa Evans

DIY in NYC

The Apiary is looking at “indie” improv troupes in NYC this week (ie: troupes that play wherever they can find space instead of at the big stages of UCB, PIT, etc.).

A couple of interviews up already:
Fat Penguin
Team Fernandez

Did They Do Notes?

Robin Williams drops by UCB for a Harold.

PS: No, they didn’t.

ImprovEverywhere Gets Money

Dear corporate sponsors, we, too, will accept your cash.

And hats off to IE for a fun little mission. Well done.

Dat’s a Lotta Improv

The Apiary has a brief round-up of the Del Close Marathon that took place this weekend in NYC.

Eliza Skinner has a little musical scene from the Baby Wants Candy show.

The Guest Room: Gil Browdy

Gil Browdy is this week’s guest blogger. He’s a member of New York’s Epione, an improv tragedy group (they just played the Del Close Marathon). Gil began his improv career at the the University of Maryland with Erasable, Inc.. He then jumped ship and moved to Montreal, joining Without Annette, and becoming a regular at Theatre Ste. Catherine before fleeing to NYC. He sometimes goes by his graffiti name, Mr. Sir Duke.

Improv is Funny. NOT.

To start off, allow me to define improv. Improv is working together with a partner to create something completely new and original onstage out of thin air. Improv is cooperation, teamwork, creativity, story, character, emotion and more all wrapped into a (ideally) neat bundle and shipped out to a theatre near you.

If this is the case, then why does improv have to be funny? It turns out it doesn’t.

Read more »

Ah, Yes, Monkey Boners

The Guest Room: Josh Fulton

New York’s Josh Fulton is this week’s guest blogger. He has studied improv for the last five years with many of the most highly regarded teachers in the US, and has performed on several house teams, including ‘The Baldwins’ at the People’s Improv Theater for the last year and a half. He has a blog featuring some great interviews with a lot of the central figures in American improv (Tough to navigate; this incomplete list helps).

How to Build a House

When I started doing improv, I was bored. I had been doing stand-up for the past few years and it had taken its toll on me. A few times every week, I dragged myself out of my dorm room to open mics. After they were done, I dragged myself back, each time feeling more exhausted than when I had left. I didn’t want to quit though, because I wanted to make it in comedy. And the only way I knew to make it in comedy was through stand-up. All of the great comedy performers I knew had come from stand-up. At least that’s what I thought at the time.

It was during this time when I was miserable, but afraid to leave that I kept noticing starred review after starred review for improv shows in Time Out NY. It seemed like improv shows were getting better reviews than stand-up shows. What was wrong with these people? Didn’t they know that improv was nothing but ‘World’s Worst’ and ‘Freeze Tag?’ It was cheap parlor tricks. Or that’s what I had heard in Boston, where I started doing stand-up a few years earlier. Well, one person there said that. At least, that’s what I think he said. That’s how I interpreted it anyway. In any case, improv was terrible, and I knew it.

Read more »

The Orthonormal Basis of Awesomespace

“One Time Too Many” by Pheonix

Also, Striking Viking Story Pirates…

Interviewssss

Vice Magazine has three short interviews with ASSSSCAT members Amy Poehler (SNL), John Lutz (30 Rock) and Jack McBrayer (30 Rock).

The Jerkstore Called

Improv Everywhere is a group out of NYC known for their public, large-scale stunts that are something of a cross between flashmobs and culture jamming. A stunt from 2006 involved a bunch of people showing up to a Best Buy dressed as employees. Pretty cute.

To commemorate the event, they designed and put up for sale a Best Buy-like polo-shirt on Neighborhoodies. Best Buy did not approve. Improv Everywhere and Neighborhoodies were sent Cease&Desist letters and since neither of them have the resources or inclination to fight it, the shirt is gone.

Boo!

For extra weirdness points, Best Buy had sent a C&D to a blog with a post about the shirts and have since apologised.