It seems like once a month I totally cheat and put up a short post, but right now I'm home enjoying the holidays with my family. I hope you all are too - wherever you are reading this.
Did you know? Families are great material to be mined for comedy. Just ask mine! Every time I come home my Mom, Dad, sister and brother all have ideas for comedy stuff. My parents tend to share it with me ("it" often being the same ideas over and over). My sister will actually talk about ideas in considerable details that she may or may not ever follow through on. My brother almost always talks about the craziest ideas of all AND follows through on them.
Where do I sit in all this? Your guesses await in the comments section.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
What can PHIT do for you?
One thing the theater hasn't done a great job of is tracking what our students do after they leave our classes. Sometimes we get the random email thanking us or promoting something, but it's not all that often. Certainly a number of people have seen some pretty serious success - whether it be getting published, winning comedy related contests, or making music videos. We got this one last week and we're happy to claim we taught George everything he knows:
If you're a former students who has also done something cool, we'd love to hear about it in the comments section!
If you're a former students who has also done something cool, we'd love to hear about it in the comments section!
Friday, December 12, 2008
internet killed the video star
It seems like I only ever post articles on here, but there's another great one from yesterday's New York Times... YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money. I was pretty amazed to learn that 1) YouTube has introduced ads around some of it's videos (yay for them getting user consent everytime) and 2) that some of the people who are agreeing to have ads and splitting the profits under the partner program are making over $100,000/year. Made me wonder how much Secret Pants would have banked this year if they were participating...
It also brought me back to thinking about how IMPROV can be effectively disseminated on the interweb. YouTube has been a double-edged sword for a lot of sketch groups. It does allow sketches to quickly be released to a mass audience, but on the downside there is a lot of stuff that should never see the light of day getting posted. For improv, videos pose a challenge. A place like YouTube has limits on file length that prevent posting a full improv set, and sites like vimeo which don't tend to be less heavily trafficked.
So what's an improv theater to do? I'm especially curious about this, because looking at the partner program on YouTube I saw an opportunity for the theater to start generating content that could create money for our capital fund - the bank account that is saving up for a permanent space. A few years ago PHIT registered www.phillyimprovtheater.tv and we haven't used it yet... but I would love to see a site that embeds videos of shows (especially for the groups we've created).
Anybody know how we can get longform improv up on the web in a digestable way?
It also brought me back to thinking about how IMPROV can be effectively disseminated on the interweb. YouTube has been a double-edged sword for a lot of sketch groups. It does allow sketches to quickly be released to a mass audience, but on the downside there is a lot of stuff that should never see the light of day getting posted. For improv, videos pose a challenge. A place like YouTube has limits on file length that prevent posting a full improv set, and sites like vimeo which don't tend to be less heavily trafficked.
So what's an improv theater to do? I'm especially curious about this, because looking at the partner program on YouTube I saw an opportunity for the theater to start generating content that could create money for our capital fund - the bank account that is saving up for a permanent space. A few years ago PHIT registered www.phillyimprovtheater.tv and we haven't used it yet... but I would love to see a site that embeds videos of shows (especially for the groups we've created).
Anybody know how we can get longform improv up on the web in a digestable way?
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
guerrilla improv, timidly
Nick and I met Monday evening in a so.phl furniture store to screw around in an improv fashion in the living room and bedroom sets. We were both pretty underpracticed, despite my attending i-incubator sunnight, so in the showroom sets we just did warm-uppy stuff like Electric Factory and Eight Things, and we let that evolve into Beat the Shit Out of the Game. But just a sit-downy, "bat" version. *
We sat in a very country home type living room, and Nick asked me for 8 things found under the counter. I said paper clips, a roach motel, two forks, a pamphlet on the secret history of Philadelphia, and then other stuff. So then we found ourselves riffing on alternate histories of Jefferson and Franklin, and how they were Freemasons and Anabaptists, and Philly's Boathouse row was a Freemason anagram for Boy House (creative, i know), so the founding fathers brought children there and abused them. That sort of very low-key stuff for like 90min.
Another one I enjoyed was the first one, because it just arose so organically. The set we were in looked like a college girl's apartment. I had asked Nick for 8things Tesla was afraid of. I told him my favorite of his answers was karate experts. Then, just as a matter of playful conversation Nick said, "Nikola, please come out. I promise I don't know any karate. Look, I've got a board and I'm punching it and it's still intact... please, Nikola. Come out". So next thing we know I'm Nikola Tesla hiding in the bathroom insisting, "when you came in I swear you did a forward roll!" and, "well why are you wearing a headband?" HILARIOUS!
If we had a small handful of players we could do more involved exercises and actual scenework. There are some things i'd like to do with four improvisors in the kitchen sets. Even though the two of us have done this several times, it's still intimidating to jump into big character-work among the shoppers and sales staff and security. I'd like to come prepared with a bunch of, i don't know... relationships or situations... that we could employ in each set, because the go-to tends to be family members or couples. The idea of the scene opening up on Tesla already hiding from his visitor is just too awesome to script - that sort of thing could only arise from totally not thinking.
* a Bat is an improv form performed in the dark, wherein the auditory portion of the performance has to conjure the stimulation of the other senses.
We sat in a very country home type living room, and Nick asked me for 8 things found under the counter. I said paper clips, a roach motel, two forks, a pamphlet on the secret history of Philadelphia, and then other stuff. So then we found ourselves riffing on alternate histories of Jefferson and Franklin, and how they were Freemasons and Anabaptists, and Philly's Boathouse row was a Freemason anagram for Boy House (creative, i know), so the founding fathers brought children there and abused them. That sort of very low-key stuff for like 90min.
Another one I enjoyed was the first one, because it just arose so organically. The set we were in looked like a college girl's apartment. I had asked Nick for 8things Tesla was afraid of. I told him my favorite of his answers was karate experts. Then, just as a matter of playful conversation Nick said, "Nikola, please come out. I promise I don't know any karate. Look, I've got a board and I'm punching it and it's still intact... please, Nikola. Come out". So next thing we know I'm Nikola Tesla hiding in the bathroom insisting, "when you came in I swear you did a forward roll!" and, "well why are you wearing a headband?" HILARIOUS!
If we had a small handful of players we could do more involved exercises and actual scenework. There are some things i'd like to do with four improvisors in the kitchen sets. Even though the two of us have done this several times, it's still intimidating to jump into big character-work among the shoppers and sales staff and security. I'd like to come prepared with a bunch of, i don't know... relationships or situations... that we could employ in each set, because the go-to tends to be family members or couples. The idea of the scene opening up on Tesla already hiding from his visitor is just too awesome to script - that sort of thing could only arise from totally not thinking.
* a Bat is an improv form performed in the dark, wherein the auditory portion of the performance has to conjure the stimulation of the other senses.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Another year gone, but a decade gained...
I turn 26 this week. It's not really all that old, but it is funny to look back and realize that I've been doing Improv now since I was 16. That means I have "a decade of improv experience" - which seems to meaningful in a lot of circles.
Joe Bill often asks people how long they have been improvising and talks about folks in terms of it (i.e. "oh, yeah, guys who've *only* been improvising 5 years make that mistake ALL the time"). Keith Johnstone, who I've studied with a couple of times has talked with me about how he's been improvising for more than 50 years and doesn't feel he's gained a great deal more insight in a very long time. I see people on our own house teams or at CAGEMATCH shows who haven't been going nearly as long and are already brilliant on stage.
It all makes me wonder what "a decade of experience" is really worth on an improv stage. Sure, you will have a better sense of things like timing, when to edit, how to work with an audience who aren't into your show and all manner of more technical/behind the scenes type improv stuff. You'll be less likely to make "mistakes" - but also more likely to be able to deal with them, or even flat out ignore the RULES that class beat into you... but at the end of the night all that is really going to matter is were you able to make people laugh. For most people, although not all, this isn't really something that's taught. When a guy like Matt Holmes hits the stage you know he's going to be hilarious. But he's also never taken a class. When someone like John Buseman joins the House Teams almost immediately after completing Level 2 - and when the Level 1 immediately preceeding it had been his first class - it makes you appreciate the kind of natural charisma he has.
It's a dirty secret, but I've always considered myself a middling improviser. I'm a good business person, and I know how to keep things running, but this make 'em ups stuff isn't going to make me rich. Experience is good for getting people to trust you know what to do, for letting people reasonably assume you know how something should work... but it doesn't guarantee you can make it work great.
So, what does all that rambling mean? Don't worry too much about experience. You take a person and they have a certain aptitude for improv - not so much a talent as the right mindset and attitude - then you can refine it, hone it, temper it with experience. Ultimately it all comes back though to whether or not they "got it" early on. Thank god so many great people are around PHIT who did.
Joe Bill often asks people how long they have been improvising and talks about folks in terms of it (i.e. "oh, yeah, guys who've *only* been improvising 5 years make that mistake ALL the time"). Keith Johnstone, who I've studied with a couple of times has talked with me about how he's been improvising for more than 50 years and doesn't feel he's gained a great deal more insight in a very long time. I see people on our own house teams or at CAGEMATCH shows who haven't been going nearly as long and are already brilliant on stage.
It all makes me wonder what "a decade of experience" is really worth on an improv stage. Sure, you will have a better sense of things like timing, when to edit, how to work with an audience who aren't into your show and all manner of more technical/behind the scenes type improv stuff. You'll be less likely to make "mistakes" - but also more likely to be able to deal with them, or even flat out ignore the RULES that class beat into you... but at the end of the night all that is really going to matter is were you able to make people laugh. For most people, although not all, this isn't really something that's taught. When a guy like Matt Holmes hits the stage you know he's going to be hilarious. But he's also never taken a class. When someone like John Buseman joins the House Teams almost immediately after completing Level 2 - and when the Level 1 immediately preceeding it had been his first class - it makes you appreciate the kind of natural charisma he has.
It's a dirty secret, but I've always considered myself a middling improviser. I'm a good business person, and I know how to keep things running, but this make 'em ups stuff isn't going to make me rich. Experience is good for getting people to trust you know what to do, for letting people reasonably assume you know how something should work... but it doesn't guarantee you can make it work great.
So, what does all that rambling mean? Don't worry too much about experience. You take a person and they have a certain aptitude for improv - not so much a talent as the right mindset and attitude - then you can refine it, hone it, temper it with experience. Ultimately it all comes back though to whether or not they "got it" early on. Thank god so many great people are around PHIT who did.
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Scramble is now Everything Must Go
Hi everyone! Not a long post tonight, but an important bit of news that I thought I'd share. The Scramble, which was never meant to be its actual name - just a description of what House Team #3 did that we used as a name because folks were being indecisive - has become Everything Must Go.
We settled on the name at rehearsal tonight, after Artistic Director Alexis Simpson made good on a threat from September to call us The Sketchy Players if we couldn't settle on a name...
I personally think it's great, and although folks in the group were exasperated when we finally decided (the name was one of the very first things tossed out about 2 months ago, and we came full circle), I'm totally convinced no one will remember alternatives we discussed in a year's time.
Which sort of highlights the problem that always exists with naming a group. As long as you stay away from anything too punny or grossly inappropriate names will become catchy with an audience for one reason or another - mostly the reason is because the group is funny. People tend to stress a lot about the choice of a name when they don't have to. Knowing their are other options is often a disaster that leads to far too much discussion of a choice that immediately fades into the background once it's made. The best groups I've been in have had names from the start - when they auditioned - and thankfully avoided a conversation about what to call themselves.
The next time you're trying to come up with a name ask yourself if, independent of the people they are associated with, any of these names make much sense:
Stella
Monty Python's Flying Circus
The Upright Citizens Brigade
Meg & Rob
Activity Book
Industrial
The Kids in the Hall
The answer is no. And hence, the name you choose isn't the thing... it's the funny you make.
We settled on the name at rehearsal tonight, after Artistic Director Alexis Simpson made good on a threat from September to call us The Sketchy Players if we couldn't settle on a name...
I personally think it's great, and although folks in the group were exasperated when we finally decided (the name was one of the very first things tossed out about 2 months ago, and we came full circle), I'm totally convinced no one will remember alternatives we discussed in a year's time.
Which sort of highlights the problem that always exists with naming a group. As long as you stay away from anything too punny or grossly inappropriate names will become catchy with an audience for one reason or another - mostly the reason is because the group is funny. People tend to stress a lot about the choice of a name when they don't have to. Knowing their are other options is often a disaster that leads to far too much discussion of a choice that immediately fades into the background once it's made. The best groups I've been in have had names from the start - when they auditioned - and thankfully avoided a conversation about what to call themselves.
The next time you're trying to come up with a name ask yourself if, independent of the people they are associated with, any of these names make much sense:
Stella
Monty Python's Flying Circus
The Upright Citizens Brigade
Meg & Rob
Activity Book
Industrial
The Kids in the Hall
The answer is no. And hence, the name you choose isn't the thing... it's the funny you make.
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