940 Audio

The One Thing People Are Talking About Today: Improv

Terence from OTS and I were on What’s Up Montreal last Sunday, hosted by Natasha Hall. She had us on to plug our upcoming joint-show, Ultimate Improv Championship, and to talk improv. We also played a few games.

Natasha was a pleasant and welcoming host. You’d never know she’s only been doing this for only 2 months.

The interviewing went well enough. I think I adequately described our long-form show, Uno. (Clip) When asked if there were any times I didn’t enjoy improv, I meant to speak in general terms about turning scenes and shows around when things aren’t going well–that moments of despair can turn to triumph, that this is one of the glorious aspects of improv. But in the moment, the example I was thinking of was that heckler-from-hell from a few months ago. (Clip)

Terence and I also did some on-air improv which was, shall we say, forgettable. We did a 1-word story about a guy in Shaghai, a 1-word story about a big monkey (Clip), and a game of More Specific.

My favourite part of the interview is included in that last clip. After a fairly choppy 1-word story, Natasha interrupted (fortunately!) and we had this exchange:

N.H: “Is this a passing of the buck? Is that the goal? Is the goal to screw your partner up, to like, try and give them as little as possible to work with?”
BJ: “Ah… Not usually, no.” [laughter all around]
N.H.: “But that’s what’s happening?”
TB: “If you’re picking that up…”

Obama?

Yeah, um, in improv, you generally want the opposite. You want to make others look good. Looks like Natasha caught us making each other look bad! Oopsie!

Thanks to Natasha and Terence!

Oh, inside the newsroom, there’s a sign that says: What is the one thing that people are talking about today? That’s indeed a fairly concise way of summing up talk-radio for you. Still, I find corporate instructions on the wall to be a tad demeaning. Don’t tell my Joe Cannon what to do! He’ll wash his hands before returning to work if he sodding well wants to.

Until next time, keep drinking that Kool-Aid!

940 AM at 12:30 PM

I’ll be on the air tomorrow (Sunday) with Terence from OTS to talk about our forthcoming show at the ComedyWorks. We’re on at 12:30PM (i.e. afternoon) for the second half of What’s Up Montreal? with Natasha Hall.

I wake up to 940AM on most days and I’ve got to say that at noon on Sundays, my answer to What’s Up, Montreal? is usually Not me, yet.