Category Archives: Uncategorized

Aug 2

The Zipper

“It’s sweeping the nation!”

That’s what Nick Leveski and I claim when we introduce the form. And if you all adopt it, we won’t be lying!

The Zipper has been the mainstay middle act in Leveski’s and my first-Thursday-of-the-month show, Action Pack. Our two person show Pack is the closer. We have a rotating group of opening acts.

And in The Zipper anyone from the audience can join all of the night’s performers on stage – no experience necessary.

It’s incredibly fun. It brings in a repeat audience. And it helps build a community.

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May 19

Ah, Horse Apples

Hi. Been a while.

Just performed with Horse Apples – Me, David, Nick, Matt, and Barry.

We want to keep doing this because it’s fun for us – we’re all dads and at least 40, so really this is the fun for us. But we’re very sensitive to holding up a space in a community we’re so glad to see growing. We want to deserve our spot, not just get to ride out our wake.

Solution 1 – Get the Young Hungrys to open the show. They’ll bring friends and family. An audience is often more family and friends than random entertainment seekers. Even in the bigger cities if you consider “students and hobbiests” who are “there to see their friends,” “there to see their friends.” Our families and friends are asleep in our/their children’s beds. The Young Hungrys’ friends and family would show up, not yet exhausted by either the invites or the improv.

Solution 2 – Cultivate Opener with TLC. Leveraging “The Lottery” approach, marry outstanding students with establishment players/teachers in a group committed to multiple rehearsals and shows. Barry coached. Casts have been great.

Solution 3 – Do better improv. Can’t coast. Gotta step up. We needed to rehearse. We needed coaching – one voice that could matter more than our opinions and align us. At The Second City, star players were going to First Cities for sitcoms they could think of you for. Think of times when you just laughed at something funny and those times you wanted the person eliciting laughter to know you were laughing so you laughed a little harder. Horse Apples are the guys who moved to Third City, Richmond VA, for family. No one in our audience is motivated to show up or laugh for us; we gotta make’em laugh.

Solution 4 – Gimmick? Tenure in improv is immaterial when a child is infinitely better at improvising than an adult. But, maybe one benefit of our beens-around-the-block is owning being a museum. We’ll fill a wheel with named improv formats written on each pie piece. An audience member would spin the wheel to determine our form for the night and give us our suggestion and the show would start.

Tonight we spun the wheel for the first time…

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May 29

My Three Rules – a pattern warm-up

MY THREE RULES – Everyone in a circle.  Here are my three rules.

  • Rule #1: To pass to your right or left, you turn to that person and say their name.
  • Rule #2: To return the pass right back to the person who just spoke to you, say YOUR name.
  • Rule #3: To pass to any player other than the players on your direct left or right, you lock eyes with that person and – in a character voice – say their name.

Have a player start with one of the rules. Guaranteed, the first time they play, they’ll use “my rules” but will not be thinking at all about establishing any rules for when to deploy each move. Continue reading →

Oct 20

Exercises for Active Emotions

Don’t be the improver who initiates a scene by running to center stage and delivering a premise.

Don’t be an improviser in a scene where two players stand shoulder-to-shoulder, cheating-out, and talking about something not in-the-moment.

Don’t be a point in the arch of a group game where improvisers stand in a semi-circle and discuss a topic.

See your environment. Endow. And have an emotional stake in the details.

That’s the core of Improv As Improv Does Best.

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