the Montreal Improv blog

Wednesdays With Kirsten: Rules of Reality

Good morning, Wednesday friends and neighbours. 

Remember the movie Jurassic Park? (OH YEAH).  Well ‘member how this movie asks us to believe as part of its premise, that dinosaurs have been recreated through their ancient DNA, and they are now living happily? On an island? (OH YEAH)

What fun, no?  Imaginative fun with dinos, love stories, Jeff Goldbums… great adventure. And an altered reality that we believe we in and accept.

But what if as they were leaving the island in the helicopter, a spaceship of dinosaur-looking aliens lowered into view beside them, telling them to pull over. 

Or what if when the kid gets electrocuted on the fence, he stood up filled with super-powers, able to read the dino’s minds and shoot dino lasers out his eyes. (or was it the girl kid, I admit, it’s been awhile)

I’m sure at this point, you would agree with me…. WE WOULD HATE THE MOVIE! We would feel cheated and stupid for having believed in the certain set of rules of reality that we accepted, when they all got broken and alien super-powered. That’s not the story I signed up for. 

(waiting patiently for explanation of how this links to improv)

Okay, well… my point is be imaginative! You don’t have to be realistic in improv, you can tell any kind of story you like. Horror, western, fantasy, adventure, alien, dinosaur, love story, space love story.  You can have a talking cat, or boot, or clock, or you can have a visitor from the future. As long as once you’ve set up the platform you commit to it, you commit to the new rules, limitations and truths of the reality you have set up. 

I often say when I am teaching… figure out what kind of story you are telling and then commit to that hard!  If you realize you’ve started the scene with…. on a stormy night, the moon choked between two clouds, we see a small wide eyed child wandering down a dark dirt road in to a small town’s cemetery. THEN YOU ARE TELLING A HORROR STORY, and do not give that up for anything. Play into the genre, play into that reality.  

The word of caution is to not try to include everything into your reality… it doesn’t work… it’s PHYSICS really… he he. I don’t anything about physics, but what I am saying is that one scene, one story… cannot hold all the possibilities of your imagination, it will crumble underneath the weight of your fantastic ideas.

Ex) The small girl wandering towards the cemetery is actually a robot. She has the soul of Joan of Arc and is travelling towards the cemetery to kill a vampire that is after her mother, the town’s first female mayor.  Along the road a deer befriends her and warns her that the sun is angry at the humans, and will bring such a dry heat this summer, her family is sure to die.  Then Joan trips over a rock and farts accidentally, a small chuckle is heard from the boy trapped in the tree at the side of the road. At that moment, the two fall in love.

Although fun to write. This story is going nowhere FAST!  There are no limitations, no circle of reality in which this tale exists. And therefore it will fly into the world of nothing and everything… and be just that. A story about everything, that is actually a story about nothing. 

So this Wednesday, though somewhat complicated… the thought is…

USE YOUR IMAGINATION, set up fantastical elements or quirky details that inspire your story, and your story’s world. And then commit to the things you have set up, instead of piling on more and more and more. Be conscious of the limitations you are setting yourself up with and then play within them. Like the bush border around a playground. Yeah… Iike the bush border around a playground.  

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesdays with Kirsten: Be An Expert

Hey Pals,

You gots a weird passion? Some odd little bit of knowledge stuck up in your brain about something seemingly random, or not random.  Some bits of factos about history because you took all your elective courses in history, or the classics, or stuff about the Dewey Decimal System from that year you had yourself convinced you just might be the sexy librarian of your dreams.  And you think to yourself… this knowledge is useless… well, it’s not.

You can use it in your improv. He he he. Now don’t go launching into odd rants right off the top of a scene. But really, I love it in scenes when a character is an expert on something. Like a little kid who is an expert on pet rock making. He knows just which rocks to pick, why the metamorphic rocks are best for pet rocks, because the glue for the googly eyes sticks best on the metamorphic rocks.

Now maybe you have heard someone say, “Don’t talk about what you are doing. Just do what you are doing.” And I am also of that mind. Also don’t do teaching scenes… those are boring, because often neither teacher or student is emotionally invested. But what is interesting about characters who are experts or obsessed with topics is that they are emotionally involved with what they are talking about. They love it, they relate their life to things about their obsessions, they make analogies about it.

Thomas Glebers (expert pet rock maker) says, “The best kind of friend is like a pet rock, not so loud, just quiet, listening, present, and always there for you, always a constant. “

Now, often when people are just starting improv, they think it funny to create characters who are supposed to be experts but who are actually idiots. This I don’t like. Like a doctor who doesn’t know how to do surgery. This is a gag, and it runs out of laughs pretty quickly.

Nurse: Doctor Linda, We are ready for you… the patient is under.

Doctor: Under what? The table? What she doing there? How am I going to cut her up from under the table?  Oh god… I lost my gloves in her butt. What?

Good grief. 

Why not have a doctor who is an expert on heart surgeries… and the the comedy can come from the hilarity of her expertise… like how she uses her girl scout knowledge of knots to tie off arteries.  

And you might ask me…

“But hey Kirsten… what if there is an actual expert doctor or an actual expert pet rock maker in the audience, and my information is wrong, and I make a huge ass of myself?”

Well, I might say to you. If you are doing improv, and are not willing to be made an ass of, then you might want to look at your choices. He he he.  But I would also say, that actual doctor and actual pet rock maker, might just be tickled and delighted to see what they do portrayed, well or badly as long as it is done with joy and good nature.

I had a lovely student in one of my classes the other day play an expert bicycle repair man.  He was doing a monologue about the different tires, and PSI thingeys, and rims, and he just went on and on with all this well formed jargonish type of speaking. At the end of the monologue I asked him if he knew a lot about bikes. He said no, he was just making it up. To me it sounded for real, and it was hilarious.  And I think it would remain funny, if not even funnier to an actual bicycle nerd, because it was made up.

So try it out. Next time you are in a scene and find yourself tasking with something. Why not be an expert about it, like these peeps, check it; 

Hans Frangler: An expert dog groomer: “You’ve got to brush crossways into the dogs fur to release the essential oils that really make the coat shine with its natural vigour.”

Lena Dubronco: An expert salad maker: “Always do a balsamic reduction. Balsamic is nothing if it isn’t reduced.” 

Dane Cookley: An expert on interior decoration. “You’ve got to brighten these walls, maybe a peach. Because right now my focus is just pullled, and pulled to the exit like a black hole vortex, when really the magnet in the room should really be the hearth, the heart. You’ve got a great fireplace, Markus. You should use it!”

So be an expert, why not. You’re so good at it.

Polly Digglers: Expert on Being an Expert: “I’m the goodest! Weeeeeeeeeee!”

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesdays with Kirsten: The Delicious Power of Callbacks

Good Wednesday to you! This blog today is about the delicious power of callbacks. Why delicious?… why not. The art of improv is somewhat like the art of fine cooking. Or is it? Or will you just believe it if I mention it a bunch of times in this blog.

Callbacks are when you mention something that has happened, or been stated previously in the improv show.  Just a mention. Just a tip of the hat. And for some reason, it brings great satisfaction to the audience.

Why? Why? Why? I think maybe because they know we are just making it up, so the re-mentioning of a fact is a show of skill? An audience always delights at skill. I know I am always amazed by a back flip on stage.  And a good cake, like maybe one that looks like something.  A space-ship cake.

It shows that you have been listening. That you have some idea of where you are going, because you have some idea of where you have been. Now a call back just isn’t a plain restating of something.  It has to be something that was awesome the first time it happened or was said.  

When I am playing in a show I try to remember the things that were said or happened that the audience really responded too. It’s like when you are first dating someone and you pay close attention to the things they really like, so that you can do something nice for them that you know they’ll love…. not just roses on valentine’s day you know (BARF AT THE GENERALITY OF IT!)… something specific.  

Same with an improv show, you have to get to know your audience, and call back the things they love.

Although I admit I am also one to repeat an unfunny joke over and over, hoping by repetition the audience will find it’s humour. Bad Kirsten.  But sometimes it works. he he he.  Bwa ha ha ha.  

Callback mistakes! This is something that i love most about improv. The skill of calling back “mistakes” and weaving them into the story of the scene.  Let’s say one character enters through a swinging door, and the other character enters in the same scene through a padlocked door…. OMG IMPROV PANIC!! (The reality of the scene is ruined, nothing more to do than let a string of combination swears fall out your cursed mouth.) OR, why not every time someone enters the door, it is a different door. Or it is a specific door to each character.  Instead of saying it was a “mistake”… just weave it into the reality of the scene. 

If we are in a scene where we are husband and wife, and you are miming a sink and doing the dishes, and I enter and don’t see you doing that, and I start miming a sink and doing the dishes… UH OH! IMPROV PANIC!! (might as well run around screaming and pants one another because this scene is over!) Or, why not just be a family with two sinks.  And later in the show maybe it will become  a part of the story.

Cheryl: “It’s just that Daryl, we do everything separately. We are supposed to be a married couple through thick and thin. But we have separate beds, separate baths, we can’t even do our dishes in the same sink for gosh sakes Daryl!”

So give it a shot. Callback good things, callback mistakes, callback nonsensical items that might prove to be sensical. Make a delicious cake of your callbacks, pants yourself and run round the streets shouting that you are top chef!  THE TOPPEST OF CHEFS!

Have a great Wednesday!

Kirsten

Wednesdays with Kirsten: Be yourself.

A little bit of Mom advice to help your improv, or your writing or whatever it may be you are working on.

Be yourself.

At some point in your life, probably your childhood or early adolescence, someone no doubt gave you this advice. Perhaps it was because you liked a boy, or were nervous to make friends, or had to do an interview or a presentation.  And someone who loved you, looked you in the eyes and said, Be Yourself… and they really truly believed that was the best option. 

And then all of a sudden you become an adult. And all of a sudden perhaps you are working in a business in which no one is looking you in the eye, let alone telling you to be yourself.  Everyone has a piece of advice, dress like this for auditions, do your hair like this, get bangs, grow it long, cut it short, wear lots of make-up, wear none, do your nails, be more like this, be less like this bla bla bla bla bla. And this is no different from improv, you have your improv teachers or gurus telling you, it’s done like this, this is how a story is told, this is how a laugh is made, these are the RULES, follow the RULES, be the RULES.

I am not bashing rules of improv here. But I also must say that when I watch my favourite improvisers on stage, they are not adhering to the rules. The only things they are adhering to is their partners, their audience and their gut instincts. They are improvising from their experiences, they are telling stories they care about and know about. And after the show is over, you feel like you know them.  They have shared themselves in such a way that you feel familiar to them now.  (BUT LET ME JUST BE CLEAR HERE!!! You are not familiar. They don’t know you, and really you don’t know them. So don’t get the wrong idea here.) You feel like you know them. That is the test of a great performer I think. If they suck you in, and you relate to them, whether they are doing tragedy, clown, improv or stand-up, an audience is looking for relate-ability. 

And I think the only way a person can be relatable, is if they can relax, get out of their heads and just do. Do the joke, do the thought, do the action. Versus all the mental power that gets sucks into the head game of “How am I doing this? or How am I doing at this?”.  

And also, do it your way. Yes I think it is important to study the technicality of the art you love. But then at some point, one must forget technicality and do it the way that sits well with you. And yes you risk a bunch of people not liking your way, you risk a bunch of people saying your way is shit, your way is the crap way.  But hey… I would rather be thought the crap way than do a phony way.

I would rather have a boy tell me he doesn’t like me than have to wear push-up bras and talk about hockey like I give a shit. he he he.  (those two in combo are funny to me)

And really at the end of the day, if you are a performer, or if you are doing improv for fun… you got into this because you loved it no doubt. Because it made you happy. So don’t forget that. What you should forget about is the “getting it right” attitude.  And what you should remember is the having fun.  

“Get Yourself Off” is a clown rule I was taught by fantastic clown and teacher John Turner.  Tell the stories that make you weep, that make you laugh, that effect your views on things. Be the characters that you want to root for, that are the villains of your life, that are your heroes.  If you love what you are saying and doing, usually the audience will too.

Now, we all know there are some people who love to get themselves off on stage, and the audience does not love it. Well, I would venture to say, that that performer isn’t actually fulfilling themselves. They are probably attempting in their minds, what they believe to be the most awesome thing, and they no doubt believe that “awesome thing” to be outside of themselves… and that’s why they are onstage totally unaware of their audience, it’s because they are not present in themselves.  

Sometimes we still need to hear, that loving voice, look us in the face and tell us, we are great… just how and who we are, and above all we should just “be ourselves.” And often as adults, we have to be that voice for ourselves, which can be a difficult task.  

I like how David Mamet puts it in his book “Truth and False.” He says, to “act first to desire your own good opinion.”

Do the art you want to do, stay professional and be kind but do not let your art suffer to please someone else.  

All the people I love working with most have the uncanny and fantastic ability to cut through any sort of shit, to say what they mean and mean what they say.  And be totally present and confident in how they do it. And they do it to better the project… not to flaunt their brilliant opinions, or to pee their thoughts in the corner and mark their territory. They say it because they care about the project and they want to make it the best it can be, in their opinion… whose else can we really know?

So in conclusion Get Yourself Off, your own way, the way you like it, while being you. And then reap in the comedy benefits? Right? Right?

Come on…. I READ THE SECRET!  he he he.

Happy Wednesday!

Kirsten

Wednesdays with Kirsten: Improv…. WATCH OUT FOR RUTS!

Hey. Hey all. This lovely Wednesday blog is about that shit feeling you get when you think and say….

“I’m in an improv rut!” 

Now this is different from just a life rut. You could be happy as a hot pie cooling on a counter; as happy as man in love staring in to the eyes of his love, through the reflection on his big screen, on which he is playing a video game; you could be as happy as that fat kid who fell into the chocolate river in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory; you could be as happy as all those things in your life, your love life, your sports life (he he he), your financial life (good for you and do you give consultations?), but all of this could still allow for you to find yourself neck deep in a sloppy goopy self hating IMPROV RUT!

What is this rut? How can I avoid it’s terrible grasp and stenchy coffee breath?

Well. You can’t. And especially if you are dedicated to learning and improving, improv ruts are just apart of the process. It’s kind of like growing pains.  (shout out to Kirk Cameron, ya ya)

So I should drink a glass of milk before going to bed? And eat more banana’s.

(I don’t know, that’s the advice my mom gave me about growing pains.)

Well, I’m not sure if bananas and dairy will help your improv rut. But here are some things, some thoughts, some ways out of the rut. In case you do fall in.  Do not worry, there is always a way out.  

THREE WAYS TO CLIMB OUT YOUR IMPROV RUT!

NUMBER 1: SHAKE IT UP!  

Hey! Perhaps your rut is all in your head. And what is really going on is that you are bored with yourself. You seem to keep playing the same characters, and making the same choices over and over and over. This isn’t improv anymore, it’s like a re-occuring nightmare in which “I am a fat ten year old boy from New York.”  WHAT THE HELL?

Well, change it up.  Look at what you are doing, and don’t fault it. Everyone loves that little guy.  But maybe it’s time to consciously challenge yourself to do something differently.  So tonight play the high status character. Or play the damsel in distress. Play the narrator, play the tree that blows in the wind at the back of the stage. TRY SOMETHING NEW! And be conscious about it.  Set up the scene in a way that ensures you are branching out.  And then, go back to your fave little new yorker, and even he will seem refreshed after all those new characters. WAHOO!

FURTHERMORE, everybody loves a buffet, and sometimes you got to be the one challenging yourself to try those new dishes. Who knew you secretly loved macaroni salad? TOO MANY ANALOGIES?? TOO BAD! 

Take a risk.  Play that game that you hate. Do a monologue in a scene. Play a scene in a genre.  Play with someone you don’t often play with.  

A rut often occurs because the learning grounds aren’t changing enough to continue inspiring growth. So take your improv into your own hands and make different choices.  AND DON’T BE AFRAID TO FAIL!  Just because you’ve now been doing improv for ________ fill in the blank amount  of time doesn’t mean that you have to “WIN” every scene you do by being the so amazing this many years experienced improviser. Make a choice, take a risk, and look for a minute like a crazy goon that has no idea what he’s doing. There’s fun in that. That’s what got you into improv in the first place…. wasn’t it. (Close up) Wasn’t IT?  (close-up on one eye-ball) WASN’T IT?!?

NUMBER 2: Baby, talk it out.

So maybe you are frustrated, and the people in charge just don’t seem to be quite dishing out the little nuggets of mentorish gold that you need to make the next big leap with your improv. Well, I say look to your peers.

One of the most helpful things I experienced at my time with Rapid Fire Theatre in Edmonton was the notes system, specifically the buddy system. Rapid Fire was a large company, sometimes more than twenty players would be roaming around the stage in one show. That’s alot of notes to give for one man or woman. So the Artistic Directors promoted that we newbies in the company should form note buddies.

PURPOSE OF NOTE BUDDIES:  To watch your peer throughout the show. Paying close attention to their choices and behavious in scenes. They will do the same for you. After the show, perhaps over a bevy or a slice, discuss the show with your note buddy, bringing attention to things they did wonderfully and also areas of concern.  

“Are you aware you totally blocked here?”

“You play that bossy lady character alot. She’s great. But what else you got?”

“You had a great narration at the beginning of the scene. But then you disappeared when the scene needed you most.”

This note buddy should be a person you trust. A person you can talk plainly too. A person who is around the same level of improv that you are.  You can get very specific with this note buddy. You can say “Hey Charla, tonight I am specifically working on phsyical offers. Can you just note me on that aspect?,”  and Charla if she is good note buddy will say ” I COMMEND YOU! and YES! and HOW!”

(man, Charla is da coolest.)

So listen baby. If you got an improv problem, talk it out. Talk it out with a peer. Sometimes these chats can lead to great improv bonds, and then great improv buds, and then great improv troupes.  Some of my favourite troupes were formed over note buddies.  It is a very important aspect for a troupe to have to be able to commend and criticize each other with out the dreaded snaggle toothed EGO gettting involved.

NUMBER THREE: TAKE THE NIGHT OFF!

Wait a minute. Hold on there.  Stop the cow, and the slap the pickle. Take a night wha??? Wha??? whaaaaaaaa?

Well, seriously. If you are in the dirty sloppy grumbly negative part of the rut, where you are feeling that it is unfair, and everybody’s blocking you, and that scene would have won but… bla bla bla bla bla! It’s their fault and la la la. Let me just say, that you are not alone. Everyone feels this at one time or another. But also… this is not the right head space to be going into a show.

Improv isn’t fair, just like life isn’t fair. And the worst thing to do is to go into an improv show with a negative bubbling white head of a shit attitude pimple just ready to burst all over everyone.

Take it easy on yourself, and take the night off. 

What to do with your night off? Re-inspire yourself. Improv is an artform that asks us to be writers, actors, directors, costume designers etc. So …. do research. Watch plays, watch movies. Read plays, read books. Listen to the news. Writers constantly research their topics of interest. We as improvisers, as story tellers, should be no different. I am constantly seeking new stories, new ways of telling stories. And often when I am feeling an improv rut come on… I run to find a new book to read.  Something to inspire my imagination.

So take the night off the show. Grab a book, a bottle of wine, some deep sea bath salts. (or just a new loofah if you are poor artist like me without the luxuries of a bathtub…ohhhh woe is me… my running clear water only runs out in a stream above my head, instead of making a relaxing pool around my very well fed Canadian February body)

What I am saying with number three is, know when you need the night off. Don’t shit on the show, and don’t shit on yourself either. Take the show off if you can, and if it doesn’t ruin the other players evening, and do something to inspire yourself. You might return to the show with a new hunger, after taking a week off. A new hunger, or a new angle, or a new appreciation, or perhaps just a new idea.  

So there you are. Three ways to help you get out that rut.

SHAKE IT UP!

TALK IT OUT!

TAKE IT OFF!

And then just ride out the rut. Sometimes the rut is getting smaller. Like a tiny sloping hill that you hardly even notice you are walking up a ramp.  Or suddenly over summer you sprout four inches and a pair of breasts. Growing pains are odd in that way, odd, mysterious and magical. Ruts, growing pains, analogies. Love!

kirsten

Wednesdays With Kirsten: It’s In The Tiny Details

So I feel like I am writing a blog about love with the title “It’s In the Tiny Details.” But let me assure you, I KNOW NOTHING OF LOVE! Just kidding.  (hysterical sobbing) 

——— three hours later———

Okay. So the “Tiny Details”. So important to both love and improv. Why? Because the details are what make each unique and special.

When someone loves someone and gets all schmoopy about it, they can always list off a million little disgustingly wonderful habits of the person they love.  

Name Five Things Schmoopy People Love about their Loves

” I love the way he scratches his scalp and then runs his hands through his hair, three times. Always three.”

Barf 1

“I love the way she curls up her nose when she eats pineapple.”

Barf 2

“I love the way she sticks her hands in between the backs of her knees when she’s watching movies that are dramatic in nature.”

Barf 3

“I love how he hums “I want to hold your hand” when he shampoos, and “It’s been a hard day’s night” when he shaves.”

Barf 4

“I love how she growls like a tiny pit bull at her alarm in the morning.”

OKAY BARF! I can’t even get to five because I’ve barfed all my barfs!  But besides the barfs, my point is, people love the tiny little specifics that make people, places, and stories unique.

I watched a young improv troupe the other day that had amazing skills at creating tiny environmental details. The squeaking of a swing in a park at night, the bubbling of muscles on the school bully.  They added such remarkable little details to their characters and scenes that made them unforgettable.  And though the stories sometimes fell apart, but almost always followed a pattern, (as most all stories fit into some archetype that has been around since the beginning of story-telling time), I felt as though I was watching something so completely and wonderfully unique.  And why? Because they added these incredible little golden nuggets, or golden hairs rather, of detail.

So take a moment next time you are creating a character, or narrating a beginning of a scene to create a tiny bit of detail.

Playing an old woman? What is the shape and colour of the glasses is she wearing. What magazine does she have in her purse?  What is the slogan her brooch says and which granddaughter gave it to her?

Doing a scene in a food court? What specials are on?  What kind of fruit juice is swirling in the juicer behind you?  What does the food court smell like?

Take time to discover the details of the scene and share them with the audience.

It will take your barfy love story scenes into the fantastic world of romantic wonderment! And for sure, for sure! for sure… I will cry at all the goopy schmoopy details!

——- this time a happy cry—————-

Just kidding! I have not one feeling! I AM A ROBOT!

love,

kirsten

Wednesdays with Kirsten: The Serious Nature of The Game Whooooosh

I have been in the last couple of weeks doing some improv training for the Canadian Improv Games at different English High Schools around Montreal. Yesterday, at one very school, I could be quoted saying thus,

“I can tell everything I need to know about a team by playing the game of Whoosh!”

So to start off, yes I am a bit pompous. Especially around teenagers, one needs to be. (he he he) Just kidding. But seriously, what is whoosh?

Whoosh is a warm-up improv game that is played in a circle.  The basic level of it is whoosh is passed around the circle like an energy, it travels from person to person in one direction around the circle. Then you can add levels like “WHOAH” which stops the whoosh and rebounds it to travel in the opposite direction. You can add “RAMP” which makes the whoosh jump over the person next to you and land on the next person. And at this point you can add many fun hilarious levels to the game which gives players handfuls of choices to make, respond to and be confused by. There is volcano, fiesta, energy ball, name game, gracious goat, power shot, zip zap zop, and tunnel, to name a few.  

Now by standing back and watching this game one might think. Oh this is just to warm up the goof balls! How could you possibly see what improvisers need to work on by their playing this game?

Well first of all, it is very important to warm up the goof balls. If your “goof balls” aren’t warmed up before entering an improv scene, i dare say you might not have the playfulness needed to charm yourself to the audience, or your scene partner.  Improv is play, it is pretend… and though we can be very SERIOUS about it. The most essential ingredient needed is playfulness.  

NOW FOR THE THINGS I CAN SEE!

In the actual playing of whoosh, I can often detect certain habits and what they might mean for the team or improvisers doing those habits.

HESITATING:  There is big pauses or air time between one whoosh and the next player. Hesitating is often caused by one of two things; Shyness or OverThinking. In each case the player is stuck in their head to find the right or clever choice rather then keeping the energy of whoosh, or the scene going forward.

COMMITMENT:  In whoosh each of the offers have different sounds to them. Power Shot (the way I play it) is to be yelled wrestler-like in a deep lunge.  Often players who have commitment issues will make all the offers sound the same, or drop the vocal and physical energy or momentum of the whoosh.  (This lack of commitment is also referred to as WIMPING)

SCENE STEALER:  This player will often over play the game, for instance they might call Fiesta over and over and over. (which always leaves them with the energy) Or they might just keep power shotting between a friend back and forth. No doubt this person is also the scene stealer on stage. This person might be interested more in serving themselves and their own fun versus their scene partners, the audience or the story. 

COMMENTING CONRAD:  This refers to players commenting about choices made, either their own or other players. Often you will see a commenting Conrad after a “mistake” was made.  Whoosh is a game designed to have you make “mistakes”. Just as improv, in it’s nature, is bound to have some bumps and “mess-ups” along the way. What one needs to do, is just keep the energy/ scene/ story going instead of wasting time on commenting on the “mess-up”. Often chances are no one would have noticed the screw up, if you had not commented on it.   

I can also detect great things about players and teams from whoosh. I can detect if there is commitment, and a sense of playfulness. If this exists it often means the individuals are confidant in themselves, and have bonded as a group.

If the game, even after so many rounds, continues to be exciting, i can see that the team/troupe  has great timing and an ability to naturally feel out when the games needs a change, variety.  This shows up in scene work as well, when they can feel out the timing of a story to know when to raise the stakes, or tilt the scene.

I can tell which players like to play support in scenes. Often the players who just keep “whooshing” throughout all levels of the game. I can tell which players like to take risks.  I can tell which players have a good sense of ensemble by sending the energy to some one on the team who hasn’t had it for awhile yet. 

There is much I can tell from the game WHOOSH!  So next time you are playing it, keep that mind. And if I am present know that, I AM ANALYSING YOUR EVERY MOVE! BWA HAHAHHHAHAHHAhAHAH!  But in a good way. For the sake of good improv, and for the sake of a good exciting game of Whoosh!

 My point is this Wednesday, that you might be thinking,

“Oh this is just a silly game, when can we get to real improv?”

And in fact the games we play to warm up for improv touch upon every skill we need for great scenes.  And also they are great fun! So, take them SERIOUSLY and play them with all your goofy might!

Happy Wednesday.

Kirsten

Wednesdays with Kirsten: Creeping for Characters

So if someone were to ask me, 

Someone: Hey Kirsten… what is the key to improv? 

I would have to reply…

Kirsten: Well Someone, for me, the key is characters. For me though. If you asked anybody else…

Someone: Okay. Hey Anybody Else… what is the key to improv?

Anybody Else: (ANYTHING COULD GO HERE)

My point being, we all find our different dumbo feathers or secret keys to unlock the large imagination doors of improv.  For me it is character.

Someone: Um excuse me, Kirsten. Follow up question. Where do you get all your characters? By your wildly organized and successful life (he he) I am going to assume you do not have multiple personality disorder, so therefore, where do you get all your ideas for characters?

Kirsten: I am a creeper, but not in a creepy way.

Someone zips up it’s hoody.

Kirsten: I said, not in a creepy way.

Someone puts on the hood of it’s hoody.

What I mean to say is that I watch people, I listen to people. I recently have stopped listening to music as I walk places or take the transit so that I have more opportunity to do just this. 

This has all happened to us. You are sitting in a cafe, reading a book, sipping on a ‘au lait’, when these two chatty Cathys walk in and dive into a juicy bit of gossip. You don’t know these Cathys, you don’t know who they are chittering about, but it’s fascinating all the same. So in that situation, I would listen with all my might. If I had a pen handy after they left, I might try to write down a few of the key phrases that they used.  Then I might practice to myself out loud what their voices and inflections sounded like. 

I do this while I am listening to the radio, or watching a movie. I have a good friend who does it in conversation with me. If I say something particularly charactery, he repeats right back in the exact same tone. At first I thought he was mocking me, but no he is just creeping for characters.

So look around you. Watch the grandmother in the dollar store searching through plastic flowers, or the woman in the grocery store fondling the oranges one by one. Or the man outside the large humming truck chuckling with his buddies while chucking down a sandwich.  People are fascinating.  Their behaviors are even more fascinating. So watch, and listen and learn.  

Character might not be your secret key to improv, but it is a skill that is needed and can be improved upon.  So don’t be a creeper, not in a creepy way. Be a creeper for characters and just keep an eye and an ear out the fascinating world that surrounds you, on the bus, or the metro or your walk to work, or the place where you put the foods in your mouth.  Unplug yourself from that portable isolating music device and plug into what’s going on around you. BUT NOT IN A CREEPY WAY. Why did I use the word creeping? erf. UPHILL BATTLE!  he he.

Happy Wednesday.

Love Kirsten.

Wednesdays With Kirsten: Improv wears a Superman Shirt

Hey. So maybe you are thinking improv improv improv… So Good! But, so instant and then so… gone.  Improv is like love, you can’t make it stay… or pay… errr… pay the bills… much like love won’t pay the bills? …ummm this got weird. MY POINT IS…. improv is a fleeting beautiful run away art.  So what can it teach us artists who are also interested in security, in performances and stories that can be told over and over and over and maybe make us famous so we can quit our service jobs that we are not very good at anyways? Hmmm, improv? You beautiful hippie, what have you got for us practical well meaning money/fame hungry performers???

“Much, I have much to offer you,” improv says as she fiddles an amber stone dangling from a silver chain around her free flowing neck. (She also wears a Superman t-shirt, converse shoes and black jeans made in Canada, bought second-hand at a Sally-ann.)

I share a bag of Smartfood popcorn with Improv, and her and I discuss her offerings.  

—-

Recently I put up a workshop performance of a solo show I am working on. And without improv’s confidence in chaos, I would not have survived the experience. But I did survive, even better, I think I kind of succeeded. (he he he, awkward modest hand patting own back… well not that modest I guess.) I give much credit to improv in my process, as a performer and writer.

I have been performing my own writing for many years. Since I was 15, when I began writing for my school’s spring play.  It was sort of sketch writing, and it left a lot to be desired. But it’s where I began.  I liked the editing process, I liked that sometimes we would think of the funniest bits on our feet instead of at our desks. 

In University I continued writing for myself. I took play writing courses, poetry courses, and self-created theatre classes, I participated in extra-curricular student run festivals. Shouting my own writing from the rooftops of Edmonton, I always experienced a sort of panic when my own words fell from my mouth. And I wondered at times how could the words that came from my mind through my hands to the page, could still sound inauthentic coming out of my mouth. There was something missing, there was a certain stiffness in the words that went from the paper to performance. The ideas were all right, but the execution lacked, well it lacked… something I did not know what until now.  

—-

Improv sips at a peach ice tea through a curly straw. She looks at me seriously and then smiles and says, “Get up on your feet and talk it out. Does the story make sense, it is simple but interesting?” A Clown in a black unitard walks in and joins Improv on the couch. They share the ice tea. Improv speaks and Clown moves, they seem to understand one another. I smell my fingers, they smell like Smartfood. I hate that smell, I love that food. A paradox… or is that irony… I asked Alanis, she had no idea. (90’s joke, oh gawd)

——-

This show was different than any show I had ever written before. Because I didn’t actually write it, err write it down I mean. If you looked at my script you would see a weird numbered sheet of titled beats, physical cue lines and “ideas” for dialogue.  No actual words in paragraphs with character names glued on the top left hand side to show ownership.  Just beat ideas, and transitions. The only part I really wrote on the script were the songs.  Don’t get me wrong I did rehearse the dialogue and wrote some of it down and edited it, but then still just put it down on the script as an idea. 

I have now experienced the fuzzy line between written and unwritten. Every night the show was the same, but also every night the show was different.  And I loved that. Improv has given me much. She has given me story-telling skills, miming skills, charming skills, character commitment skills and the skill of working and bettering on the fly.   

So although perhaps it will not be improv that buys my ticket out of service-job-hell and into the lap of iPhone-bon-voyagerie (want so bad to travel right now… and also I guess just so to have some apps you know… just a few).  Improv will be the secret spandex S under the shirt of stand up, or one woman show, or sitcom. Whatever it may be.

 The secret spandex S - stands for Smartfood and Superman and Sillyness.  

——

After our discussion Improv, Clown and I all lament that there is not a third season of Party Down.  Then we talk about how True Blood gives us nightmares, but I join them on the couch and we watch a few episodes anyways.  mmmm peach ice tea!

why improv is the best.

Hello blog readers.

Just wanted to make sure you all knew about the wonderful show happening tonight at the Montreal Improv Theatre. It is going to be fantastic. It features some of the leading ladies in Improv across the country as well as your favourites from Montreal.

It has been my great opportunity to have participated in many festivals across Canada. In Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Montreal. To have played shows in Edmonton, Ottawa, Regina, Toronto and Montreal. And to be a part of Canadian Improv Games as a workshop leader and trainer.  With these opportunities I have come to meet and befriend improvisers from every corner of this hilarious place called Canada. 

What is so great about meeting improvisors from other communities is that you see how there city has shaped their style. It’s fascinating.  

I started my improv career in Edmonton with Rapid Fire Theatre. And it is just how it sounds, fast paced,rapid fire bordering on aggressive comedy, I loved it! Theatre is also a very important word here. Edmonton has a very vibrant theatre community.  And Rapid Fire Theatre’s stage is at the Varscona Theatre, which is shared with three or four other independent theatre companies.  The city and the theatre community helped to shaped Rapid Fire Theatre. And now it is a thirty year old company and world re-known for it’s highly physical fast paced improv comedy. The improv style uses much more of a theatre approach, using genres and styles from theatre, playing with theatre styled blocking and transition styles.  

(Tonight Amy Shostak, Artistic Director of Rapid Fire Theatre, will be tearing up the stage at our theatre)

Of course I know much more about Edmonton and Montreal then the other cities. But i have spent a tiny bit of time in the Ottawa and Toronto improv scenes.   

Ottawa is the city where the Canadian Improv Games came into being. For those of you who don’t know, the Canadian Improv Games is a competition styled format for high school students.  I wish my little town in Saskatchewan had done it. Alas I did not get involved in the games until well into my twenties. But I love it. The CIG format requires large teams of max 8 players, the teams tackle 4 out of 5 different events in a night of play, (a show).  The events are story, character, theme, style and life.  The Games originated in Ottawa, but are now played all over Canada, with national competition happening in Ottawa every spring. The CIG has no doubt had a huge influence over the improv community in Ottawa. 

(Tonight Cari Leslie of the Canadian Improv Games, as well as the improv troupe CRUSH, and she stars as the host of the TV show “A World of Wonders”)

Toronto is an amazing city for improv.  There is just SO MUCH OF IT going on.  And the big influence seems to  be Second City. Though the range of work coming out of Toronto suggests differently.  Second City has been around forever, and there certainly is some kind of magical feeling when you walk into that theatre and see pictures and Mike Meyers and Martin Short on the wall.  It is political, social commentary working towards sketches improv, and it does that very well.  Then there is more indie companies like Ghost Jail, and National Theatre of the World, Projectproject. There is the recent influence of a new space, the Comedy Bar- an amazing venue ran by comedians for comedians. The Comedy Bar is a mecca of awesome people, shows and laughs. I just want to talk a little about Ghost Jail as a form that really feels like it’s from Toronto.  Ghost Jail is a fantastic long-form that includes improvised writing. During scenes, improvisers who are not in that scene will stand on the side and write on pads of paper, then they will read what they’ve written between scenes. In Toronto where many improvisers also work as writers on television, or as stand-ups, or sketch writers, it seems very appropriate to have a format that includes writing.  

(Tonight we have Kayla Lorette Artistic Director Of Ghost Jail and star of “That’s So Weird” as well as we have Ava  Julien from the Beat Arthurs who I believe play out of Comedy Bar.)

And then we have our own fantastic improvisers from the shows we know and love all around town.

Sandi Armstrong who directs and teaches at Sunday Night Improv at Theatre St Catherine. (originated from Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary)

Heidi Lynne Weeks -On the Spot Improv (She spent some time in Vancouver playing with Vancouver Theatre Sports League that has been around forever)

Vanessa Matsui- She is the leading female in The Bitter End- both it’s live and web series format.  She is also a fantastic actor, director and creator. And one of the masterminds behinds a new interactive website for teen girls called CRANKYTOWN.  Super Cool!

So come check out the show tonight. Come see a nice buffet of Canadian Improv.  It’s going to be hilarious I promise you!

best,

Kirsten Rasmussen