I’m sick so here’s an old Gabe & Jenny sketch that I love.
- vinny
FOR MY OWN BENEFIT is a monthly charity fundraiser in Toronto featuring these two gentlemen to benefit pancreatic cancer research. Even if you cannot attend, donations can be made through their website.
Details are HERE. Facebook event is HERE.
An age ago, The New Humourists appeared on our stage with a surreal set of sketches. I managed to catch the evening on video and above present my fave sketch of theirs from the night.
- vinny
I’d love to see Montreal’s web-sketch community develop. Fun stuff like this is always welcome.
- vinny
Mitchell & Webb. Excellent sketch comedy.
- vinny
I think I’ve posted this before but I still love it. Gotta be in my top 5 sketches ever.
- vinny
Sometime between when I heard September is National Sketch Writing month and 5 seconds later, I decided to participate in NaSkeWriMo. I know this is an improv blog, but I feel like I might write some stuff about sketches. May your feelings of betrayal be mitigated by this warning.
(Source: improvobsession)
Well, we aren’t. But they are.
The biggest name in Montreal sketch comedy goes to the internet. Go with them.
- vinny
Montreal Improv hosts British Teeth, tonight and tomorrow at 9:30pm.
British Teeth is a character based sketch comedy troupe hailing from Toronto. Their strong character work pokes fun at the foibles of humanity. Join us as we take you from New Jersey to North Korea, with several pit stops along the way!
$8. Free for Montreal Improv students.
This week marks a huge step in my professional life as an improviser. This week, we start shows at the new Montreal Improv Theatre. Our official Grand Opening event is in August (12-13-14, mark your calendars now) but we’re having shows now to get ourselves ready for the big event. We’ve been to a lot of theatres, festivals and such but we’ve never really run one. Like every day we run the space and pay the rent and even go down to details like “Who is going to buy the toilet paper?” or “Do we really need toilet paper?”
One, I couldn’t ask for a better set of co-owners/friends. Everyone brings something awesome to the table and while the four of us haven’t been together very long, I suspect that we’ll be more than the sum of our parts.
Two, owning and running a theatre is a huge amount of work. I suspected it might be but I’m finding out right now. And the pay is kinda crap. But I’ve been doing 9 to 5s since kindergarten and this job is easily the most rewarding I’ve ever had. Every other job has been a drain on my energies, and while this one is physically tiring (especially with all the reno work), I always feel like I have more energy than when I started.
Three, it’s terrifying. Now that I’m here, I don’t want to lose this chance. We’ve worked pretty hard for the last 18 months to get to this point but it can very easily come crashing down. Is Montreal ready for a sketch/improv theatre? Are there enough people out there with enough $ to support us? Where are we going to find sketch troupes (this city doesn’t have a sketch culture)? Will the po-po shut us down (there’s no reason why they should but there are so many by-laws for a group trying to be straight-edge, we’re never sure where the line is)?
So my dream of a space in Montreal dedicated to the crazy craft of improv has become a reality. We just had our first Level 1 class in the space on Saturday. Marc reports it was a success. Tuesday marks the first group of students who remember us from our nomadic days coming back to the fold for Level 2 in our/their new home. And this coming Thu/Fri/Sat we have shows. Thu is the Remix where a bunch of experienced improvisers are going to play together and see what comes up. Fri is Smackdown, our new weekly show that pits two teams against one another and the winner returns the following week. Sat is Epic Adventure. Marc, Bryan and I are going to be performing in the DCM in NYC. We’re going to be performing our ode to the Fantasy genre in the Big Apple so we’re doing a couple sets here to get our engines purring. Besides, Epic Adventure hasn’t been seen here since the Montreal Improv Festival last October. It’s time to bring it back. All shows are at 8pm, at the Montreal Improv Theatre (full listings here).
Montreal Improv Theatre. Nope, it’s still a thrill to write it out.
-fv
The best thing you can do for your scene partner, is to reveal something about your own character.
What?? How does that work? Wha??
For reals!
Statements about your own character help define the story just as much if not more as statements and endowments on the environment and your scene partner. If you decide and share what your character wants/needs in a scene, your scene partner can decide if she wants to help or hinder you and the audience can decide if they want to cheer for you, or root against you.
In points of confusion “I statements” can be a clear way to communicate your drive in the story to your scene partner/s.
Examples of “I statements”:
Take a risk in defining what your character/you want in a scene and watch how the other details of the scene arrive much more effortlessly.
Perhaps you might feel a little obvious… or “cheesy”… giving these I statements… well, too bad! That’s just your worldly cynical self not wanting to show vulnerability. Improv is all about vulnerability. A great hero, and even a great villain always show us where their weaknesses are, so that we can root and cheer and boo when their weaknesses are being attacked, or when they are overcoming them.
We have to know what the characters of the story want to know, how close or far they are from it, and therefore where we are in our story!
YAY!
I love improv blogging because its the only thing that gets me out of bed before 8 am. (an “I statement” just for you)
In other news…
Make sure to see Tumbleweed this Friday 8pm at Mainline Theatre (3997 St Laurent), it’s going to be a very exciting show. Next week I am heading to Toronto for Project Project’s Combustion Festival, which is a fantastic improvisation festival with guests from all over North America! My next blog will no doubt be about the inspirations and wonderful awesome times I encounter there. Festivals for me are the most amazing part of improv.
This week I have been taking in Montreal’s 5th Annual Sketch Festival. And it has been wildly exciting and inspiring! The Sketchfest is on through Saturday. Go check it out tonight (at Nouveau Theatre Ste-Catherine, 264 Ste Catherine E.) , then come to Tumbleweed at Mainline tomorrow, then go back to see the amazing no doubt awesome last night at Sketchfest on Saturday.
COMEDY IS EVERYWHERE!!!
kirsten marie
