May 2012
30 posts
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WatchWhy can’t we watch improv on tape?
Improv loses something when it is filmed and re-watched, goes the conventional wisdom. Yet I just watched this Adsit and Guasas clip and was utterly riveted every moment.
Perhaps it’s not the removal of the magic of creation that is often cited. “There’s just something different about it. It’s concrete now, on tape,” a person...
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Improv Rambling: Premise, Reaction, Rereaction (a...
chrisreblogs:
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the very tops of scenes. Those first three lines. So often if there aren’t choices made in those three lines, if we don’t actively communicate and don’t listen hard, scenes meander or fall flat as we attempt to find something to latch on to. So what are the “tricks” that I can use to make those first moments work for us, to make it easier.
...
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Intern Caroline: 12 Things I Learned from... →
Extremely important: You should be performing now.
carolineeand:
2. There is no reason for me to not be performing. People throughout the day would ask me if I was a performer, and I would respond “No, I’m only in 201.” Often the response to that was “So what?” My mentality has been that I want to get good at improv before I let anyone see me do it. That’s not going to work. That isn’t how...
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Watchrickycamilleri:
bbook:
This week, we’re bringing you video interviews with some of the most respected names in New York comedy. While many think of comedy shows as cheesy affairs featuring lame stand-up comics and two-drink minimums, a new crowd of performers are changing the game by hosting their own shows to showcase their own talents as well as those of their friends, colleagues, and...
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“He taught people to commit. Like: “Don’t walk out there with one...”
– Bill Murray, speaking on Del Close.
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/man-at-his-best/q-and-a/bill-murray-interview-0612#ixzz1vu97244C
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Improv Cheatsheets for Teachers →
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Improv Obsession: You Can’t Improvise Like Your... →
This reminds me of something else I wrote a while back that might be relevant to the conversation:
Choice-coaching is probably the worst way to direct improvisors. For the uninitiated; choice-coaching is the process of telling an improvisor exactly what choice to make in a scene as it progresses. While the choices may lead to well-structured scenes, they do nothing to broaden the improvisor’s...
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Notes on teaching improv from Jill Bernard →
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"The most important thing an improviser can be is...
nicolemarietherese:
- Gethard
I don’t want to quote him out of context, so let me provide some background.
Read More
Very important. PLease read.
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Watch
downrightupright:
… if you don’t like the Harold then you probably haven’t seen a good Harold. I’ve said before that I don’t like “slow play” or really “real” improv, even though I’ve seen it a bunch of times. But it turned out, it was because I didn’t like the shows, not because I didn’t like the form or style.
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WHEN PEOPLE ARE DOING A SCENE ABOUT THE CHAIRS ON...
whatshouldwecallimprov:
I really only have one improv request. Let’s not ever do a scene about the chairs again. As near as I can tell, it’s never interesting.
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When you're part of a great scene and someone tags...
whatshouldwecallucb:
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“I think what I’ve offered was different. But not because I drew better than...”
– Maurice Sendak, via Drawn (via deantrippe)
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Neil Gaiman: For all the people who ask me for... →
neil-gaiman:
Neil Gaiman
1 Write.
2 Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3 Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4 Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like…
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Tag Outs
downrightupright:
Hey! Let’s talk about tag outs. Identifying them at the top of the newly-tagged-into scene will make you seem really fast and ahead of the audience.
For the sake of convenience, let’s base the scene off of this scenario:
The scene begins in an operating table and you stumble into the room, as the doctor’s assistant Clumsy Carl. He asks for a scalpal and you drop it inside the...
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I Haz an Improv?: Crazytown vs The Real World →
ihazanimprov:
I recently won position of emcee of the Agents of Improv next year, which was a very pleasant and very surprising surprise. That is my news, on to my point.
Something that happens in Agents, and that I may have mentioned previously, is trips to Crazytown. The reality of the scene is something…
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Improv Is Easy!: Notes from Susan Messing's NY... →
nicclee:
Susan Messing did a workshop yesterday that was a wonderful re-introduction for me to Chicago-style improv. It also made me super sad again not to have finished the Annoyance program. Susan said everyone has a theory about how to do improv and they are just that - theories. There is…
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“1. Commit.
2. Voice compensates for body.
3. You aren’t allowed to fuck up....”
– Scott Woods via http://www.gotpoetry.com/News/article/sid=57844.html
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I'm really digging this guy's thoughts. →
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“Media volatility makes more people and more ideas famous for ever shorter...”
– Seth Godin via http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
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