the Montreal Improv blog RSS

Apr
23rd
Mon
permalink
Improv Show Description Generator

Yup. Guilty of some of these.

- vinny
4:18pm - Comments (View)


permalink
I have found quite a universal rule which in this matter seems to me valid above all other, and in all human affairs whether in word or deed: and that is to avoid affectation in every way possible as though it were some rough and dangerous reef; and (to pronounce a new word perhaps) to practice in all things a certain sprezzatura [nonchalance], so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.
—

Baldassare Castiglione in 1528, inventing one of my favourite words: sprezzatura.

- vinny

10:00am - Comments (View)


Apr
20th
Fri
permalink
Improv Nonsense: Improvy Moves In Movies

improvnonsense:

I’m going to write an article about “improvy” moments in movies. Not moments that seem to be improvised, but story decisions that seem like the kind of decisions that an improv education would encourage.

I have two main examples:

  • How in Teen Wolf, the movies treats the emergence of a werewolf…

This prompts me to write something I’ve been thinking about for a while (have I written this before?). It’s not a story-based thought but it is definitely a movie and improv conjunction for me.

For those familiar with status work, The Emperor from Return of the Jedi is the ultimate (for me) in high status.

  • Comfortable in his environment: He brings Luke and Vader into his inner sanctum (two people he knows are harbouring thoughts to kill him). The script even has him explicitly dismiss his guards. He releases Luke’s manacles and leaves Luke’s lightsaber ready for him to pick up. “You… want this… don’t you?”
  • Comfortable with personal attack: Luke reaches for his saber, ignites it and strikes at the Emperor. What does the Emperor do? Dodge? Zap Luke? Blink? Nothing. Go ahead and attack me. It’s all good. A common mistake of learning improvisers is to constantly put down the other character to establish dominance. From there, the scene can become an exchange of personal attacks. But you cannot raise your status by lowering another’s. IMO, it only serves to lower your own. (Tip: This applies offstage, too.)
  • Expects attention from others if not outright obedience: He speaks with authority, clarity and confidence. “Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!”
  • Eye contact: Eye contact is a huge way to communicate status. Low status means making eye contact is difficult. The cowl prevents eye contact. HIs eyes glow red; thats just plain creepy! And while he and Luke verbally spar, it’s almost always Luke who breaks eye contact first.
  • Minimal movement: He is near-motionless through all his scenes. He doesn’t even move his body to turn his chair! He releases Luke’s manacles with a twitch of his finger. Stillness reinforces high status like crazy. And the movements he does make are precise and deliberate.

Look at this terrible sword fight from Star Wars: Episode 2 where Yoda jumps around like a crazy person. Is anyone impressed by this? Compare that to this fight scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. (Let’s agree to ignore that dubbing.) C’mon, status can be subjective, but, really, I mean it, c’mon…

High status is all about being comfortable, in your own skin, in the environment and in what is transpiring. Masterclass, y’all.

- vinny
9:08am - Comments (View)


Apr
17th
Tue
permalink

Montreal Improv House Teams, Public School (top) & MicroMacro (bottom). The next House Team night is Saturday May 5th.

Say you’ll be there.

- vinny

9:29am - Comments (View)


Apr
6th
Fri
permalink
Ask us anything!

Hi! I'm running a long-form improv troupe in the Philadelphia area, and I'm planning on coaxing my fellow performers into some dramatic improv. I really enjoyed your short post on drama-prov, and I find the whole thing inspiring. Do you perform any exercises to get into a certain mindset? What kinds of short games/exercises can my group try to get their feet wet?

Hi, Emily!

First, here’s the post Emily’s referring to. Second, hmm. Good questions.

The first difficulty for performers who perform primarily comedy (and it’s one we ran into) is to suppress the urge to be funny and make honest, sincere choices.

Portraying emotions honestly can be very difficult for people without a lot of theatre background (I know I have always struggled with this). A good exercise is the following:

  • Sit three performers side by side in a row
  • The one on the right is crying, the left is laughter, we’ll get to the middle in a second
  • A director starts the left/right people at 1 and then slowly escalates to 10, where 1 is the smallest amount of laughter/weeping and 10 is the maximum amount.
  • The goal is to portray each of those emotions sincerely
  • The person in the middle switches between the two sides, keeping eye contact and reflecting the other person. So while the middle person looks at crying at level 2, they are also crying with an intensity of 2/10
  • The director calls switch and the middle person then shares the emotional state (and eye contact) with the other person. They should feed off each other to help maintain the emotion
  • The director brings everyone up slowly. 1 then 2 then 3, all the way to 10. Switch should be called every other level or so and each level should be held for at least 10 seconds but no more than 20-30. You’ll get a feel for it.
  • Once 10 is reached, you come back down to 1. Slowly still but in about 3/4 the time (or thereabouts, again the more you run this exercise, the better a feel you’ll get for it).

NOTES:

  • This exercise is draining.
  • It can be really hard for some people to be sincere in either of these emotions, especially if it feels artificial to them. That’s not uncommon at all but an exercise like this will make you super-aware of it.
  • Don’t let sadness/crying turn to anger

Further exercises:

  • Practice breaking stories/movies into opening act/platform, trigger event/tilt, resolution (eg: WALL-E: lonely boy robot on dirty planet-> meets girl robot sent to test planet -> two robots in love cause people to return to planet)
  • Doing short scenes with dramatic stakes and removing the comedy: break-ups, firing someone, confessing love, at a funeral, wounding someone emotionally, etc etc
  • Running a series of scenes: couple meets, first date, second date, tenth date, meeting one set of parents, moving in together (that’s essentially our opening act)

Anyways, I can go on and on (I think I just did). I and my buddy, Brent, just got accepted to the Philadelphia Improv Fest. So feel free to look me up there and we can talk more or just email me: francois@montrealimprov.com

- vinny

9:59am - Comments (View)


Apr
3rd
Tue
permalink

(via khealywu)

Here’s my take: Improv is unscripted theatre. It’s theatre + It’s unwritten and unrehearsed = It’s unscripted theatre.

Even the Improv Everywhere stuff which is quite scripted (and you’d think, hey, that’s barely improv) becomes improv because the “audience” (who are participants; we at home are the meta-audience?) is reacting spontaneously and it is very much theatre.

AND (you know I will bang this drum until whatever force keeps me alive disappears forever) it does not have to be comedic. But maybe the term improv can now only describe comedy and unscripted theatre that isn’t comedic needs another name… I’m not a prescriptivist when it comes to terms.

- vinny

(Source: improvdoc)

2:54pm - Comments (View)


Mar
30th
Fri
permalink

First Impressions

Hosting.

It’s not easy. It’s a skill and an art and I’m still figuring it out.

But I have figured out two things so far about what to do when you first come onstage.

  • Walk out with confidence and energy.

No hands in pockets. No slumped shoulders. No casual stroll to your mark or the mic or wherever you’re going to stand. Let’s work with the idea that you’re excited to be on that stage. Act like it! Let the crowd know it! If our first image of the show is a sullen/beatdown/don’t-care galump to center stage, I’m already inclined to mirror you and galump my face onto my smartphone.

  • Smile

No need to be over-enthusiastic. No one likes forced or phony. Just be yourself. Be your best self. Be your happy self. Smile. The audience is there to smile and laugh and have a good time. Gent or lady, if you’re genuinely smiling, the crowd will smile along with you and it will mess up their minds because they won’t even know they’re doing it. INCEPTION.

These seem kind of obvious, no? It’s great if you think that but I keep having to give these two notes. Smile and bring a little verve to the stage. If you’ve done any clown work, you know how important an entrance can be. Think of yourself as the cover of a book: you’re maybe not what people came for but you will definitely set the tone.

- vinny

10:00am - Comments (View)


Mar
28th
Wed
permalink
Vote Montreal Improv for Best Comedy Bar

Guys, if you don’t vote for us, you can’t complain when we raise your university tuition fees.

- vinny
10:33am - Comments (View)


Mar
27th
Tue
permalink
The UCB Theatre Announces the 14th Annual Del Close Marathon

ucbdifference:

Remember: The deadline for submissions is April 2! Next Monday!

I really enjoyed my visit to the DCM a couple years ago but right now it’s too busy, too crowded and kind of impersonal for my tastes. All the stuff I love about the city, it turns out I’m not a fan of it when it comes to improv festivals. Give me an intimate festival where I can share a drink with the organizers to say “thanks for the invite”, meet most of the performers and can feel like I was a part of something.

If you’ve never done it, definitely do it. If you can, go see the shows. Especially if Adsit & Gausas play. And definitely take the classes. I still review my notes from the Musical Improv class I took with Eliza Skinner every so often. But I’ll pass on applying this year. There are other festivals out there I want to visit and maybe I’ll see some of you cats at one of them.

- vinny
10:00am - Comments (View)


Mar
26th
Mon
permalink

The Index

Our guest series is at an end for now but I thought it might be useful to have a recap post in case you missed some of them.

A HUGE thank you to our guest writers. I’m kinda sad to end it here but we’ll probably pick it back up again towards the end of the year.

If you’d like to submit something to our next guest series, I’d love to hear from you. Send me a line at: blog@montrealimprov.com.

- vinny

11:26am - Comments (View)