Mediocre Chicago Improvisor
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I Need Projects
I'm back. Not that I was ever gone, or that I'm actually back, but hey.As I recall, my last post came at a time when really nothing I was working on was really getting traction. One of my weaknesses is that after a while of that, I tend to retreat into a lump on the couch. It could (and has) passed …
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My Favorite Theater Word
Be careful with this. If you use it wrong, you're being a douche. Used right, however, it's a good way to handle inappropriate actions from other people without causing undue displeasure.The word is "noted." It's proper usage is when someone is talking to you in a way that's unhelpful and inappropri …
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Brain Dump: Blessed Behavior (Part I)
Here I wrote of the toxic behaviors that can make a group worse. Today is the positive alternative: Behaviors that make a group work.AttendanceYou gotta be at rehearsals. It's stunning how many improvisors don't believe this. If you're at rehearsal, good things like "understanding what's going on" a …
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Metatheater
As a kid, I wanted to be a writer. At various times I took the natural (if, in retrospect, unproductive) action of groups and classes. Every so often, people in these groups would share writings in which the main character was... a writer. That isn't inherently wrong, I guess. But these stories were …
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Brain Dump: Toxic Behavior (Part I)
Stephen Dubner, one of the authors of Freakonomics, offers a thought experiment: Take something and build it from scratch, assuming no limitations and no history and no nothing.I'm going to try that experiment with an improv group--not from a performance aspect, but from a 'getting things done' aspe …
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Auditions: Woo-Hoo!
Or not.I've got an audition this Sunday, one of only about 5 that I've been on this year. (Let's see, there was ComedySportz, Baby Wants Candy, an audition for several Theatre Momentum shows, an "improv" audition for Disney in which the second I walked in, they handed me sides, and this one. Yep, 5! …
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The Duty Show
A few weeks ago, I referenced the "duty show." This is simply any show you go to solely because you know someone in it.It's often an unpleasant experience, though not always. The one that I went to was Night of the Iguana at Raven Theatre, which I quite enjoyed. Plus there's the benefit of how, like …
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Setting Goals
I know that those who make their living providing advice suggest specific goals. (SMART goals, right measurable, assinine, repulsive, and time-sensitive, or something along those lines.)I'm not, actually, as hostile to the idea as my parenthetical comments may seem. But I am a bit bemused when I hea …
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Burnout
If you are involved with improv for any length of time, you will meet them. "They" are the spectacularly enthusiastic novice improvisors who take classes everywhere they can, simultaneously. They spend every off day attending shows, and every conversation enthusing about how great improv is.And they …
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There's a Reason They Call it SM
I've stage managed somewhere between one and six shows. As you can probably guess, I didn't particularly enjoy it. I am, however, extremely glad to have stage managed, even though I really have no desire to do so again in the future.(To explain the "between one and six": My first, "Things You Should …
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Where to Start?
Every so often on the Chicago Improv Network message board, the debate about where you should study improv first and what order you should do the various improv schools in town will flare up.In general, the consensus is start at Second City, then go to iO, and finally Annoyance.The arguments general …
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Improv and Sketch: Uncooperative Siblings, Mark II
Let's try this again.It's okay for an improv group to just be an improv group.Sadly, the spectre of sketch comedy hangs over improv. Too many people view improv as a stepping stone to Second City and then Saturday Night Live, rather than as a worthy end.The trouble is that they're not quite the same …
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Improv and Sketch: Uncooperative Siblings
As you may have noticed (but probably didn't -- one of the advantages of being Mediocre is that you have no delusions of grandeur or overestimation of your own importance) there was a post here earlier today, and now there isn't. I've been thinking about it, and that post just sucked. It happens som …
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This Should Be a Dictatorship
The dramaticity, for lack of a better term that's also an in-joke, within Recapitulation seems to be over. We had a lengthy meeting yesterday which I expected to be a knock-down, drag-out affair, but which turned out instead to be a planning session debating the type of things that would go into a n …
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Concept, or, Montage Bad!
On Friday night, performing with Three Legged Race at Gorilla Tango's Gunfight improv showcase, one of the shows in particular struck me. I don't, sadly, remember its name; I was in mode and therefore not paying spectacular attention.The show, however, was a solo improv performance in the style of a …
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The Official Ren Faire Weekend Log
For general amusement, here is the Official Log from Three Legged Race's Ren Faire weekend. Dave, Adrienne, and I were in one car (the Hoopdy, being driven by Dave), while Doug was driving the Kia with Derick and Adam. Enjoy!Saturday7:28: We leave. Within minutes, Dave has insulted Doug???s driving …
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Why "Good Show", Despite Sucking, Doesn't Suck
Every so often on the Chicago Improv Network message board and in personal discussions with other improvisors, you'll run into an impassioned plea to do away with once and for all the nefarious practice of saying "Good Show" after a show.There's a little something to that. The practice is pretty sil …
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Positivity
About four years ago, I went with a co-worker on a business trip near Detroit. Company policy said that we had to rent a car rather than take our own, which he took care of. You see, he had a coupon.'Twas not a coupon to Enterprise, which is pretty much the rental agency if you're in the city of Chi …
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Ren Faire Recap
All things considered, great fun. Also exhausting. The producer of this particular fair (The Lincolnshire Renaissance Faire in Decatur, as a reminder) also has a magazine (the Regional Renaissance Reporter), and he asked me to write a first-timer's viewpoint article about the experience, which I'm w …
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Professional and Professionalism
Were I in the mood to be a pretentious douchebag, I could go on about how I'm a professional comedian. Which is technically true--my total earnings are $124.14. (The breakdown: $14.14 as my share of $100 that my group received as honorarium for performing at a festival in St. Louis, $85 for a corpor …
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