Bovine Metropolis Theater

Improvisation to most people is people getting up and taking suggestions, coming out and being funny.  And for the average spectator that is all you need to know.  What most folks don’t know is that there is a split in the improv community.  I find that many improvisers divide themselves into two camps.  Short form and long form.  Short form being games played on stage.  Going to the audience frequently for more information to start new games.  Those of you who have seen “Whose Line is it Anyway” have seen game improv (short form).  The other side of the division in the improv community is long-form.  Long form can most easily be explained as improvisations that take one suggestion, normally have multiple ideas generated from the original suggestion and are scenic in their orientation Like Del Close’s Harold.   An improvised play could be considered a long-form.

Short Form and Long Form very in terms of format and content.  The difference is very easy for the audience to see.  You might say one looks like entertainment and one looks like art.  Let’s look at both a little more closely.

Short Form

Short form is usually a series of games.  The structures of the games are done in a way to allow you a very high success rate.  They all have beginning, middles and ends.  For example: Beginning, this is how the game starts, two players will come out and start a scene doing nothing but asking questions.  Middle, when one of them makes a statement someone from the back line will come in and take their place and continue.  End, it’s over when the lights go off, or when someone stops it.  If you know how the game is played then there is a freedom that comes from playing the game.

You can make so many choices.  If you know the rules of the road, the road can take you anywhere.  As long as everyone follows the rules of the road (the game) then the results can be hilarious and rewarding.  Once everyone is playing on the same page, games also allow you the freedom to play and the safety that comes from everyone knowing the game structure.

Games are so much fun.  They are fast paced and focused on eliciting laughter.  The goal is to make people laugh.  Because that is the goal, laughter is immediate positive reinforcement.  I say something, it gets a laugh I have succeeded.  There are few other forms of entertainment that the results are so immediate.  This is the reason that the audience is a necessary component.  If your goal is to make an audience laugh they are part of the equation.  Improv goes one-step further to make the audience part of the equation, performers take suggestions from the audience to give them inspiration for their games.  This gives the audience twice the payoff.  When the performers are successful the audience had something to do with the success.

Some of the other immediate benefits of improv are that there are no scripts to memorize and no homework.  You learn in workshops and on stage.  You must learn how the game is played and the rest is trial and error.

Performing “Short Form” you can “go for the joke” which simply means getting a laugh at the expense of the scene.  The improvers goal is to get laughs.  If improver goes for the joke and succeeds the scene is served.

Short Form is a blast!  I have been to shows that just do games and have laughed as hard as I have ever laughed.  It’s fast, fun and pretty safe.

Long Form       

A long form is where you get few suggestions and create scenes and or games for while based on that one subject.  I believe that there are essentially 3 circles of long form that cross over each other.

One style is the “gimmick” style long form.  This is the long form that is using a style or gimmick to keep it together.  Examples are Freeze tag, 20 Bucks, Slacker, etc.  All of these styles have one thing in common, that how you play it is predicated on the form.  If you must shout ‘freeze’ then assume one of the players positions and start a new scene.  That is how it must be played.  Everyone knows the gimmick and knows how to play the game.

The ”free form” long form is a long form that just goes.  Scenes, games, monologues, whatever may pop up.  Things just start happening.  This is my favorite form.  Stories may or may not happen.  Characters may or may not reoccur.  It only thing that matters is the flow

The third style is the “story” long form.  Some of these include improvised plays, movies, and some free style and gimmick long forms may have reoccurring characters and start to tell a story.  In my book this is the highest level of long form, just as it is a goal of most contemporary theater.

When performing a “story” style long form, sometimes what happens is people start introducing too much information.  The stories become convoluted and lost.  It is at this point (or hopefully before) that the experienced improviser will look back to see what should come next.  I think Alan Watts said that “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”  This is much of the wisdom you will need for doing a long form.

The structure of a long form is a series of scenes.  This makes scenes the unit of measure.  Scenes in a long form should be open.  I bring this you bring that let’s see what happens.  Other players starting new scenes end most scenes that are taking place.  The majority of the time the lights are the final curtain.

The outcome should be the culmination of the scenes that we all bring.  We should have an amalgam of everything that happened as the result.  No one knows what it the outcome will be before you do it.

Some long forms don’t play for laughs, but I think these are the exception.  Laughs are just as important to Long form players as they are to short form players, but laughs are not the goal.  Having a successful scene is the ultimate goal of the long form improviser.

Long form is a blast.  I have been to long form shows and I laughed so hard and still remember some amazing moments.  It’s can be fast or slow, comedy or drama and it is never safe.  What is more long form has a tendency to be bigger than the sum of all it’s parts.  You can get done with a long form and laugh or be amazed.  Ask “how did that happen?”

Many long formers look at long form as an art.  Some look down on the short formers as if what they are doing is not tough enough.  Improv and Improvisation are both challenging and if long form is an art then so is short form.

My Take

I do not differentiate along the lines of short form and long form.  I differentiate between Improv and Improvisation.

Improv is providing entertainment through quick thought and steadfast, well worn gimmicks, control and pre-planning. 
Improvisation is the art of accepting the unknown gracefully without judgment.

These two entities are different, but have many things in common.  They both are created in the moment.  Both are un-scripted.  They are two different sides of the same coin.

There are always moments of improvising in improv.  They are mirrors of each other.  The same and opposite.  You can’t have one without the other.  Improv is the leader and improvisation is the follower.

Improv       

Improv is the art of making up character, scenes, and games in the moment to entertain the audience.  Improv needs an audience. Improv can also be described as the art of making people laugh. Improvers can learn their art in front of an audience.  It has no script.  It relies solely on the person on stage and their ability to make people laugh.

Let’s compare Commedia with the average improv game played today.  In Commedia the actors knew what the next scene was and what was it’s importance in the overall context of the play, everything else was filled in by the performers.  In an Improv game the actors know the structure of the game and the rules, the performers fill in the rest.  Characters were physical and used set pieces to aid them in filling out scenes.  In most Improv games the bigger the character the better and there are set gimmicks in most games that some performers discover and use again to elicit laughs.

Players who improv with a goal in mind, fame, success, being funny don’t mind having an extensive list of gags and prat-falls to through in whenever they can fit them in.  It helps them be more “successful” when they improv.  Truth be told, comedia dell’arte was built upon this method.  Actors had characters with set routines that they could call upon and adapt for situations when they were in trouble in order to keep the interest of the audience.  They would tumble, sing, play instruments anything to entertain.

There is a place for this type of entertainment, it is low risk. but even in this type of comedy there are true moments of improvisation, moments where no one knows what is going to happen next.

The entertainment that uses established gimmicks, pre-planning,  jokes, directing of scenes, gags or using quick thinking in order to be successful I call “Improv.”

Improvisation       

Improvisation is the art of gracefully accepting the unknown and accepting it as part of the known.  It is done in everyday life.  Theatrical Improvisation is the art of making up characters, scenes, games and story in the moment for the sake of going into the unknown.  It has no script.  Improvisation does not require audience, but it is much more fun with one.  It relies on the person on stage and their ability to go forward into the unknown without fear.

When you are improvising, even at the most basic level, there are moments when you come off stage and think, “What just happened?”  The moments that you were not thinking about what should happen and yet everything came together effortlessly.  These “magical” moments that grow out of the moment, are generated from pure improvisational moments.  When know one knows what is going to happen next, and everyone still moves forward, that is what I call “Improvisation.”  The funniest improvisational scene can not be explained because “you had to be there.”  It came from the moment and lived in the moment.  The life of it is over before I tell it.

Does this mean that improvisers are not funny?  No.  It just means their focus is not on what behaviors produce laughs.  Their focus is reacting to gifts given to them on stage.

So why improvise, when you can do improv and go for the joke and just have fun.  Improvisers focus is on the scene and creating a shared focus sounds like hard work.  For people like me, who love laughs, the laughs are richer and deeper and longer and laugh louder if the humor comes from the scene.  If improviser is not humorous, they can still be engaging.  In this way improviser does not fails often as an improver.  If improver goes for a joke and fails there’s nothing but silence, what is called “crickets,” so called because the silence is so deafening all you can hear is crickets.

If an improviser goes for a joke the scene is over.  The reason is, is that the improviser derives the humor from the situation.  The improviser negates the scene or makes the scene a joke by commenting on it from “outside” the framework of the scene.

The other reason people choose to improvise, is because improvisation can be a hearty meal that satisfies.  I remember going to an improv show with some friends that when we saw it we thought it was funny.  After the show we decided to go for drink.  We sat around talk about how funny the show was, but as we told the funny parts didn’t seem funny anymore.  We forgot more and more “bits” as the night went on.  Until the next day, when I got up, I couldn’t remember what was funny about the show all.  I went back the next week and saw the same jokes and lines.

Improvisation relies on everyone trying to attain an end with no one forcing it.  Much like a Ouji board everybody is pushing, no one is directing and messages appear.  Improvisation, when done properly, can leave you with that same feeling of “how did that happen?”  Those moments and lines that come out of those moments stick in your head.  20 years later I can remember scenes that happened on stage.  Pure improvisational moments that are embedded in my mind.

 To paraphrase Viola Spolin; Improv goes for the “Ha Ha” and Improvisation goes for the “Ah Ha”.

Short form or long form can be Improv or Improvisation.  The difference is not the form or the content, it’s the context.

An old friend of mine from Chicago writes a blog.  “Angry White Guy in Chicago”   I love reading it and I wanted to re-post his blog from today.

http://donhall.blogspot.com/2010/08/case-for-going-off-grid.html

eric

I was surfing the web today and came across this on a website:

The most important thing there for Sartre is not so much the distinction between essence and existence but the absence of God. For Existentialists like Sartre, the absence of God has a much larger significance than the metaphysics of creation:  Without God there is no purpose, no value, and no meaning in the world. That is the foundational proposition for Existentialism. A world without purpose, value, or meaning is literally senseless, worthless, meaningless, empty, and hopeless. It is, to use a favorite Existentialist term, absurd. http://www.friesian.com/existent.htm

But then I think of “Søren Kierkegaard, posthumously regarded as the father of existentialism, maintained that the individual is solely responsible for giving his or her own life meaning and for living that life passionately and sincerely, in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation, and boredom.”   ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism.}

And then I thought about Improv and the Bovine.  As usual.  I watch a Pepsi commercial and I think of Improv and the Bovine.  I go to church and I think of Improv and the Bovine.  I see everything through Improv/Bovine eyes. It’s kind of sad.  Anyway…

I watch improv and there are players who play as if nothing matters and it’s all a joke.  They come out and take care of themselves and don’t care about anything around them.  Then there are the players who know it doesn’t matter, who know the moment is fleeting and yet still try to build something. They are passionate and sincere.  They are connected to the art in a deep, authentic way.  And it makes me happy.

I also think about our little theater here. I think it serves Improv and to be specific Long Form Improv and it is authentic, passionate and sincere to that purpose. Serving Improv gives the theater a purpose, value and meaning, at least to me.  And it makes me happy.

I am happy a lot.  I would be a lousy existentialist.

The first thing we teach in classes is object work and where work, the act of creating props and a set (location) out of thin air.  It is also the first thing dropped by many improvisers as they learn new skills.  If you teach someone how to do gibberish or character work, objects and the where fall by the wayside.  When I look at YouTube videos of improv sets and often there is no object work at all.  Creating a “where” has become as rarer than having a character.  One of the driving forces for a good player is to connect to the other player on stage and build on what they are bringing, but often times it is done now to the exclusion of other elements of a scene.  What is the most important aspect of a scene?  Is it that need to connect to the other player on stage, or creating a character to take choices personally, or is it turning the space into a location that is not “the stage”.  I think all three are vital for good improvisation, but I will tell you why “the where” is so vital for getting you out of your head and into the scene.

In brief creating the where is done through interaction with your environment.  When I get on stage as an improviser I don’t have a set, any props or in most cases costumes.  However these are important aspects to any play, show, or scene.  The way to create the environment on stage is by interaction and exploration of it.  If I don’t interact and connect with it, it doesn’t exist.  And if a where doesn’t exist, I am just a player on a stage trying to come up with the next joke that connects to the previous joke.  That puts me in my head, instead of putting me in a location and often leads to a talking heads scene.

When I first started improvising I thought I did object work to let the audience know where this scene was taking place.  I would start with a simple action like folding towels, so wherever this scene is it is in the midst of this activity.  I would think that should satisfy the audience.  When the scene got going I would drop my towel folding and start to focus on just connecting with the player on stage.  Having already let the audience know we are in “towel folding land” they don’t care about that anymore, they only care about what I am saying, which by the way should be funny (note to self).

Or if I started a scene and we connected before I could establish a where, I would create the where at the end to get a laugh.  So if the scene was a two people in chairs in a break up scene and nothing else has been established about the where, I would wait until I wanted the scene to end and then start interacting with the where like we were in a car and end the scene by possibly getting out of a car and establishing it is in a new car showroom.  That got a laugh and then I thought the audience was taken care of again.

As I improvise longer and longer, I realize that the where is not there for your audience it is there for me.  My physical interaction with the where creates a set of possible locations for the scene to take place in my brain.  And each location comes with it’s own set of expectations.  If I am folding towels with my body it sends a signal to my mind that we are somewhere where this is happening and helps inform the scene.  My scene partner and I are at a launderette, the beach, we are professional towel folders, etc. and each location comes with it’s own baggage and attitudes.  This information from the environment influences the interaction and helps me create a more satisfying connection on stage for me and the audience and my fellow players.

I find that when I use one of my senses too much I have to shut down some of my other senses.  If I want to listen intensely, sometimes I shut my eyes.  This happens too with the mind and body.  If I am so focused on using my brain for laughs, wit, or being cleaver, I shut down my body to compensate.  The result is that instead of being in my body you are in my head.  I have seen it a hundred times, the improviser who is thinking has feet of lead and is working, not playing.  Connection to the other players is a great way to stay out of your head, but it is only one connection.  If you are connected to your partner and the environment then you are twice as likely to not get into your head.  Add a strong character to the mix and you are almost never in your head.

I hope in the future I will see less talking heads on YouTube doing improv, but for now I’ll settle for seeing more object/where work on the stage here at The Bovine.

Hello all,You’re receiving this message because you are involved in running an improv theater in the United States, run an important improv related website, or we accidentally thought you fell into of the previous two categories. If we didn’t reach you by accident, read on…

For the last five years, Philly Improv Theater has been working day and night to build a thriving improv and alternative comedy scene in Philadelphia, PA. Now we’re ready to invite performers from across the country to our semi-permanent home for a weekend of special shows dedicated to two-prov: Duofest 2010. We are currently trying to get word out, and also looking for “Artistic Associates” in cities around the country (we are accepting self-nominations) to help spread the word and encourage submissions from their city. There’s no compensation, just the title, but we believe in the pay-it-forward style of helping folks, so we assume that your support will be returned by Philly folks sometime in the future.

I hope you’ll take the time to share this news with performers at your own theaters, or in your own cities and encourage them to apply. Our goal is attract a large swath of applications and create a truly national festival. Already, in the 24 hours since we opened applications we have received a healthy batch of interest from NYC to San Francisco and everywhere in between. We’re committed to booking as many acts as we can, and if response is overwhelming we have a larger back-up venue we may upgrade to.

It’s not mentioned in the release, but our application fee is $22 and we are not charging a performer fee. We’ve got a hotel discount that will hopefully make attending affordable for performers. Full details of the festival can be found on the official website which launched yesterday (along with our online application) at www.duofest.com.

See you in October (we hope)!

Best,

Greg Maughan
Executive Director
Philly Improv Theater (PHIT)
gmaughan@phillyimprovtheater.com
267-233-1556 (office)
267-723-1420 (fax)
http://www.phillyimprovtheater.com

It seems that Improv, especially in Denver, is going through a boom time.  There are now a lot more theaters offering improv comedy/theater in Denver.  There are more classes being offered.  In Denver especially, improv seems to be growing at a great rate. The Bovine and improvisation has been around for a long time and finally it seems improv is catching on and people “get it”.

The first big boom for improvisation was in post war 1940’s and 50’s.  Not just improvisational theater and dance.  William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, and Jack Kerouac were working with improvisational prose and poetry.  The bop scene in music was taking off with Charlie Parker et al.  And Jackson Pollack took improvisation to the canvas.  As a matter of fact there was an entire institution, the Black Mountain College, that was dedicated to exploring the aesthetic of spontaneity.

Today it seems that improvisation is having another boom, but instead of creating art, improvisation is being used as tools to help people to connect and make their lives and work better.  What was a fringe movement among artists has become a mainstream phenomenon that people find useful in virtually every aspect of their lives.

Work

Improvisation is everywhere in Corporate America today.  Publications like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and HR Magazine just to mention a few are printing numerous articles every year about the benefits of improvisation in an ever changing work environment.  Colleges like Stanford and M.I.T. have business schools that offer courses in improvisation.  Companies like Bovine Metropolis are doing Corporate training sessions with all types of companies from Fortune 500 companies and mom and pops.  We have done improvisational workshops for advertising/marketing firms, communications companies, restaurants, sales, management teams, the list is extensive.  Improvisation offers creative insights and physical, hands on training to expose people to positive, pro-active ways of communicating, managing and interacting with each other.  Improv is an asset that all companies should have in their portfolio and now many companies are seeing that too.

Personal Life

Instead of poets working with improvisation to help them explore relationships between people and things, average people are taking improvisation classes to help them in their relationships.  As long as there has been improv classes there have been couples getting together in classes.  People always get together when they are together, but there is a mind set amongst improvisers that makes for quick connections.  As a matter of fact, our theater has seen at least a dozen marriages come out of classes and shows in as many years and many times more relationships that have been long term and short term.  What I have noticed is that more couples and friends are taking classes together. Couples are taking improv classes to help them find play and joy in their lives. The benefit of this is also that not only do they have a fun thing to do together, but they have a shared experience and a shared lexicon.  Friends are taking classes together, groups of men and women are signing up for classes together.  They get to play together every week.  Friends find that they often have more fun together afterward when everyone is building on the same idea and joking and exploring the realm of possibilities instead of just swapping stories.  One of the greatest things people get out of the class is confidence.  They are more comfortable in their skin after a few classes.  It’s amazing to watch and amazing to hear student after student tell me how improv has changed their life for the better.

The Reason

The thing about improvisation is that it teaches you how you manage, deal and work through your fear.  How worthless and time wasting the inaction of ‘worry’ is.  Improv teaches you to move through your fear and move forward into the unknown.  More than that, it teaches you to accept and build on other peoples ideas and support them through their fear.  This is the thing that hits home for so many people.  Creating an atmosphere that you can quickly work through your fear and feel supported throughout the process.

No wonder it is in the mainstream who wouldn’t want a fearless relationship, a fearless management team, a fearless communication style.

It’s taken over 60 years, but I am glad to be a part of the Improv Boom today.  For the last 15 years, we truly feel like we have been helping people by making their lives at home and at work better.

I am not Denver’s Next Improv Star, but man did I have fun in the finale!  Spencer Rybacki was crowned the winner last night.  The judges announced that they chose the winner based off the finale show only, which surprised me a bit.  I thought they would consider the entire season, but I guess us making it to the final 4 was proof enough that we were the best 4 of the competition and were all equal at the start of the final show.

Our guest judge was Kathleen Ham, a talent agent rep for the Donna Baldwin agency.  Her big thing was realism on stage.  She also looked for creativity and organic choices. 

The first half was split into two parts, with one pair challenge and an individual challenge.

Dave and Spencer were the first pair, and I was with Royce.  The grand prize for the show was a headshot package with Photography by Demetrius.  Demetrius was there, so we had to do a one minute commercial for his studio.  Then we had to redo the commercial two different ways based off feedback from Kathleen.  The very first one we did was fun and corny.  The second time was focusing more on realism.  And the third was edgy/artsy.  For that one, I was doing one leg squats on a chair and acting like a jaguar.  Don’t know how I didn’t fall, but it was fun!  They liked our creativity, but she said she didn’t feel like we got real enough.

Dave won that challenge.  He got an advantage for the individual challenge, which was memorizing a commercial script.  He chose the order in which people went, which was Royce, Spencer, me then Dave.  It was a commercial for lawn turf food.  We only had a few minutes to memorize it.  In that time, I focused on the key words (like the client name, slogan, web site, etc).  Then hopefully remember what’s in between!  The first time I read it like myself.  Then Kathleen wanted me to do it like Lady Gaga, so I read it like I was singing her songs “Poker Face”, “Just Dance” and “Love Game”.  That was super challenging.  Then Eric wanted me to do it as big as possible, so I was jumping in the air, moving on the floor, changing the pitch of my voice.  Pretty much using as much energy as humanly possible on that stage without scaring people!  The judges said they all liked my commitment.  Carl said that he could picture me having sparkly green hair as Lady Gaga.

Spencer won the prize for that challenge, taking home two free happy hour drinks or desserts at Rialto Café.  He’s not 21, so I bet he’ll cash in for the desserts unless he waits until his birthday in July.

The second half was my favorite part of the show.  The four of us just go to do a long form improv set.  I was so happy that we all could play together at the end.  We all just clicked so well on stage, trusting each other and allowing scenes to breathe.  We were witty, physical, creative and just plain funny.  It felt good to end the show on such a high note.

Spencer was crowned the winner.  We were all happy for him, and I think Spencer was a bit shocked.  This was definitely one of the coolest shows I’ve ever been a part of, and I want to thank everyone for their support throughout all the weeks.  I especially enjoyed sharing this journey all the way to the end with Dave.  It was so cool to be in the finale together.

The four of us are going to create an improv group together.  I mean, how can we not?!  J  We’ll forever be known as the Final 4 in the very first “Denver’s Next Improv Star”, and I’m happy to take that title home with me. 

*Yvette*

This blog seems like a no-brainer.  We play because it is fun!  We have a blast!

But sometimes improv becomes hard and then you stop having fun.

You are not playing.  You want to be funny.  You want to add to the scene.  You don’t want to suck.  You have issues with someone, or everyone in your group.  You have issues with the coach. Whatever it is, you are working too hard and fun is diminished.

Improv should never be work, it is play!

Let’s take this from a different angle.  Instead of looking at what we can do to your improv to get you back to play, let’s look at play and see what we can take from that and put back into our improv.

Play is fun.  Play has no purpose except play.  You don’t swing on a swing to become famous, or to impress people, or not to suck.  You swing to swing.  It is it’s own end.  Improv must be the same. Play to play.  Not to make friends, not to become famous, not to get out of the house.  Play because you are playing.  Improvise to improvise, no other reason.

Play has no permanent effect on anything.  Play is play.  It doesn’t cure cancer, make you bank account bigger, or help you with your relationship.  It is just fun (yes, the benefits of play are far reaching, but we will talk about that in another blog).  Improv has no value.  Nothing is preserved.  The moment is here and lost.  It lives in the moment and then evaporates into the ether.

Play, true play has no judgment.  You don’t get out on the playground and say “Someday if I get good enough I will become a professional tether ball player.” or “I suck at tag” or “I hope that I follow all the rules of doing double dutch.”  You get out there and play.  Who cares if you are playing dolls and using a rock as the mommy.  You don’t.   My three year old everyday says to me “let’s pretend..” and then says something.  If she says let’s pretend we are in the desert, then we play.  We are hot and thirsty and the sun is beating down.  We don’t worry about our “object work” or our “environmental work”, we just play.

Somewhere along the way we try to be better than everyone else, or just like everyone else, or accepted by others.  We shift our compass from us and our joy to others and what they think.  You have to keep that youthful mind that it does not matter what others think, it is only what feels right and easy to us that should matter.

When you are playing you must be in the moment.  If you are playing tag you must run away from whoever is “it”.  You don’t preconceive, plot or plan.  You react and act.  If you are jumping rope and you worry about the rhyme you miss the skip and stop the rope.  And who care?  Everyone misses the skip sometime.  You just get back in line.  As soon as you start thinking about it, you are no longer in the moment, you are judging, evaluating and sucking at what you were enjoying.

What is the problem?

So now that we know what play and joyful improv should be, how can we get there?  What is the problem?  It’s your head.  You are in it.  Let’s look at 3 things you can do to have more joy on stage.

If you are on the side and have “sticky feet” and can’t figure out how to get into the scene/show.  Move your feet.  Your mind and body are connected, more than that. You are your body and mind.  Move your foot, run across stage, do a safe environmental background bit.  Once your body is moving it starts your head moving.  They call it being in your head, they could just as easily call it being out of your body.  So start with the body.

  Don’t know or care what you will be doing on stage, just move!

If you are sucking (judgment) in a scene, connect with your partner on stage.  Look at them in the eyes.  Read their eyes.  Get lost in their eyes and the moment.  Hear their words and watch them.  Try to read between the lines of what they are saying and call it out.  The only thing that matters in the world, right now, is happening in their eyes.

I did a scene with a good friend a year ago.  We came out and he started selling me a TV.  “Oh God a transaction scene” I thought.  So I just started looking at his eyes.  The more I looked at him and listened the more I felt in awe of this TV salesman.  My first line, after a lengthy monologue about panel TV’s was “God I want to be you!”.  It changed the scene.  I didn’t have to think of an emotion, I just had to look into his eyes and read what he was doing on stage.

If you are in your head in a scene focus on your partners eyes .

If it’s hard you are doing it wrong.  Always take the path of least resistance.  Not in a scene, but in your head.  If you think you should do something, it is better to do it than to mull it over.  Think about it.  Evaluate it.  That is a lot of thinking and thinking is work.  Thinking is not play.  Play uses your whole body and mind.  Thinking uses just your mind.  Thinking is about the past or future.  “Should I….”, “Why did I….”  Just jump.  You may add you may destroy, but at least you will be in the moment and not in the purgatory of your mind.

The active path is always the right choice.

The last thing I am going to say is “let it go”.  Focus on the joy after the set too.  Rehashing bad scenes does nothing to help you.  It just makes you feel bad about what you did on stage.  If you have a coach who can tell you quick fixes on how to avoid general pitfalls in the future, that can be helpful, but trying to figure out what you should have said or done is a waste of energy.  Focus on the great moves and the good lines and the fun you had on stage.  Focus on the times you almost broke or almost broke someone else on stage.

After the lights go down, focus on the joyfulness of playing and performing.

Somewhere most people are beat into worrying about what other people think, removing them from a direct experience.  Have others judge, and value you is time spent moving away from your core. I notice this happens as you get older. So my advice for joyful play is PLAY!

There is a quote that has been on the wall of the theater for years:

We do not cease to play because we grow old. We grow old because we cease to play.~ George Bernard Shaw 

Play! Play for yourself and for the sake of just playing.

I think the last verse of Bob Dylan’s song “Forever Young” offers the best advice for anyone seeking the Joy of Improv:

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

This blog is dedicated to my friend Kelly Jo.  Happy Birthday!  May you stay forever young, on and off stage! - Love, Eric

I didn’t think it was possible, but last night’s show topped the week before!  The night started off with a curve ball thrown at the judges.  The original guest judge had to cancel because he got food poisoning (freelance entertainment writer for the Westword).  So Eric called in a new guest judge, musician Seymour Muchmore.

The theme last night was music.  I may not be the best singer, but I always enjoy when music is involved.  It’s all about selling it baby!

The five of us all played together for the whole show.  It was awesome!  For the first half, we started off with an improvised blues song about ice cream.  We all had a lot of fun with it, and I was praised for initiating and establishing the chorus.

Then we had to play a game where environmental music influenced the scenes.  For example, when Seymour would play a certain style of music, we had to match and justify that mood and move the scene forward.  Eric said that I didn’t change quick enough when Seymour started playing more intense/evil music, saying that I was waiting for Dave to do something. 

The final game for the first half was called Sing It.  We’d do a scene, and then Eric would shout “sing it,” and we’d have to sing the last sentence and start a song.  That was crazy!  It started off with Royce as Spencer’s barber in jail.  Hilarious!  Royce was cutting his hair like he had hedge clippers, which Dave came in as the warden and called him out on, and both Spencer and Royce had strong songs.  Then Cheryl and I started a scene, and I was a little girl drawing on the kitchen floor.  Dave came in as her new boyfriend/my new dad and was complaining that he’d have to clean up.  That led to a conversation about grafitti, and Spencer tapped out Cheryl and Dave to transport us to a wall to grafitti.  I changed one of Spencer’s pieces into a wizard, and Eric shouted “sing it,” and Seymour started playing an upbeat polka song.  Cue lots of dancing and silly lyrics about pigs, rainbows and leprechauns, and part of that dancing turned into the Russian squat and kick type dance, which Spencer joined me in on.  I was complimented for doing that and being a good entertainer, especially while singing and dancing at the same time.  Royce came on to say he was going to tell on us, and then Dave came on as the principal.  He started a song, and then we all joined in with dancing to make it a group number.  Great way to close out the first half!

Royce, Cheryl and I were in the top 3 for the first half.  I won, taking home a free happy hour drink or dessert at the Rialto Café!  It felt good to have that win before going into the second half.  Eric then announced the online poll winner for most energetic player, which was me!  Yay!  I won two tickets to the Denver Botanic Gardens.  Thank you to everyone who voted for me!

I know all of us were a bit intimidated by the music but were willing to take it head on and have fun with it.  Dave seemed a bit frustrated that he didn’t get in the rhythm of the first half, but he totally brought it the second half!

When we came back out, we found out that we had to do a 30 minute improvised musical!  I’ve never done anything like that before, and neither had anyone else on stage.  There was no time to be scared.  We just had to keep in mind the structure of a musical and go for it!  Choreography, songs, plot, etc.  Our suggestion was a name of a musical that’s never been created, and we got Vietnam Veteranarians.  Ha!

We started out with the opening group number.  Dave was the lead character, establishing himself as the chief veterinarian.  He was working on saving a dog named Fido, and the rest of us were marching in the background with rifles.  Cheryl established the group dance/march which was awesome.  Dave’s song was hilarious!  He was saying that since the dog lost his leg he could be like Lieutenant Dan and he’d get a doggie wheelchair too.

Then we got into the scenes.  Dave and Cheryl established that rats were a problem in Vietnam but that they wanted to save them.  Royce became a mutated rat.  Then Spencer and I came on, and we were in a bar.  Spencer has a twisted mind!  During the whole show, he had the best, most disturbed one liners.  Spencer was a marine, and I was an American girl.  We sang a tango like duet, revealing that we’re falling in love, but my father wouldn’t let me be with a marine.  I need to be with a man in the navy, like my dad.  Throughout the rest of the musical, Spencer and I became the villains.  We had a slow love song about taking down my dad, his partner and all the rats so we could live happily ever after in a wonderland.  Dave and Cheryl just wanted to be good veterinarians, and we took advantage of their niceness.  Spencer was known as Butch the Butcher, but he got scared killing everyone off.  I took one of his cleavers and slashed Royce and Cheryl.  I also chloroformed Dave, but I didn’t want to slash him because there needed to be resolution between us.  Dave woke up, and I had a song about not knowing what to do (kill or save him).  Then Dave had a great song I’ll title “Oh the Irony.”  He also had a great line “I fought for the right for you to tie me up.”  There was a happy ending.  Dave let me be with Spencer, and everyone was saved.  We had a good closing number, including more singing and matching choreography!

I was so proud and impressed with everyone in the musical, especially since this was a brand new thing for all of us.  After the judges deliberated, they didn’t announce a bottom two or three.  They went through their critiques of all five of us.  Eric said Royce had a strong first half, but his choice as the rat inhibited him and felt like he didn’t contribute a lot.  For Dave, they said he had a better second half than first half, starting the musical strong and having a solid character and songs.  Spencer had a good, twisted character in the musical, but Eric said he was off on his rhythm and trying to find the melody.  Cheryl was praised for a strong first half, including singing in character, but she didn’t have a solo song or sing much in the musical.  I was praised for initiating the blues chorus and for my singing/dancing combo in the first half but was called out for the lack of change in the environmental music challenge.  Eric said that he felt like I was leading a lot of the scenes and initiated songs, including background vocals. 

Cheryl was sent home.  They said it was even harder this time to decide who to send home.  She will be greatly missed!  Eric announced that I won the elimination challenge, taking home three free Bovine summer workshop series vouchers.  Awesome prize!! 

So we’re down to the Final 4 – me, Dave, Royce and Spencer!!!  I am PUMPED, and I feel more confident going into the final show with the most recent win under my belt.  I’m so excited to be with such fabulous players and to have made it this far.  I’m the only lady and also the only one without a theater degree or going to school for theater.  I’m definitely going to represent those groups in the finale!

Please come see me in the Final show!  It’s Saturday, April 10, 8 pm, Bovine Metropolis Theater.  Call 303-758-4722 or go to www.bovinemetropolis.com to reserve your tix.  This show will sell out, so get your tix sooner than later!

And don’t forget there’s a reunion show where all the players will come back to play together one last time.  That show is Saturday, April 17.  Same place and time.

See you at the final show!!

*Yvette*

Hello to The Team at Bovine Metropolis Improv!!!
Greetings from New York City.  I am currently working with the Friars Club in New York on their First Annual International Improv and Sketch Competition.  Right now we’re reaching out to everyone in the comedy community, specifically, improv and sketch.  We certainly want to make sure that all of Denver’s talented artists are aware of this great opportunity!

In short, we’re going to be holding a WORLDWIDE sketch + improv competition with $20,000 in cash payouts!  As far as we know, this is the first competition of this magnitude for the sketch and improv genres - pretty exciting stuff!  Full details are below, and you will also find an application attached to this email. Also, if you know of anyone that would be interested in participating, please feel free to forward this email!
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  I look forward to hearing from you and Bring on the laughter!!!

Best Wishes,

Andrea Simmons
Programmer

FriarsClub Improv + Sketch Competition (FrISC)
http://www.friarsclub.com/filmfestival/frisc.html