the Montreal Improv blog

Apr
24th

Tue

the Montreal Improv blog: Two-person improv scene ideas

I’m sorry that dating scenes and looking for apartment scenes are feeling tired for you. But the problem doesn’t inherently lie within the situation; it lies in what the royal you are bringing to that situation.

I recently did some scenes in practice where the coach asked us to identify common scenes we’ve seen. Not only common situations, but also the common ways those are played. For example, a couple on a date scene seems to always involve one person not being like their Match.com profile at all.

So after identifying these common tropes, we then set out to consciously defy expectation. Among those scenes, we played a loud cavalier drug deal and a date where people exactly resembled their Match profile to positive results. These scenes were refreshing to watch and fun to play. Why?

Because it’s never the context. It’s not so much that a dating scene is boring, dating is just a context; it’s that we’re doing the same thing over and over within that context. Instead, bring fresh eyes and fresh energy to each improv scene. Allow yourself to make a fun choice, and allow yourself to be surprised. You’d be amazed at the infinity of dating scenes you can watch once you do that.

I get what you’re saying and agree with you 100% from a performing POV. It’s great advice for people who’ve been playing for a while.

I was talking about from a teaching POV, though, and some days when you’re a tired teacher looking for a quick scenario to start two students on, you reach for your go-to setups (in my case, interviews and apartments). The reason they are my go-to is because they are specific, familiar and universal while retaining an infinite variety of possibility within.

(Aside: the blind date, as you mention, is another common choice but I consciously avoid it with beginners because I prefer to neutralize the sexual direction it can take with between strangers/nervous people. Just a personal preference to ease people into this strange world.)

So while each scene from the same starting point goes in its own direction and has its own unique teaching points, as a teacher, some days all it takes to keep things fresh for me is a scene in a nursing home or a father-daughter dance.

- vinny

Apr
6th

Fri

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

Apr
3rd

Tue

(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)

Mar
30th

Fri

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

Mar
23rd

Fri

Two Magic Improv Phrases

Scene going nowhere? Lost track of what is happening? No connection at all with your scene partner? Wish you could reboot the scene?

You can. Here are two lines to keep in your back pocket that function as the CTRL-ALT-DEL of improv.

“What is this really about?”

Your best friend came over and now you’re talking about some nonsense that is boring and possibly involves something outside the scene itself. Forget about the audience tuning out, you can feel yourself tuning out. Bring it back to the personal in one move.

“What is this really about?” suddenly allows everything that precedes it to have a subtext (that probably never existed to begin with). Now you’ve given the chance for your scene partner to reconnect with you. “It’s about your girlfriend.” “It’s about your job performance.” “It’s about my fear of commitment.” You can cut the BS and talk about something that is important to you both. You can get invested in the scene again and if you do, so will the audience.

Sometimes we’ll see scenes where there IS a subtext and we’re dying for it to come to the fore (eg: guy/girl likes guy/girl but is too shy to admit it). That can be fun without ever having it come out but if the scene starts spinning its wheels (dancing around and around the topic becomes boring after a while) one line is all it takes to give the scene some real emotional content.

“I have a confession to make.”

Same deal. This line suddenly forces the players to connect in a personal way. Revealing a hidden secret is usually compelling if done right. A confession about something outside of the scene is a very weak choice and doesn’t allow the player to connect easily but it’s hard to confess about something that doesn’t involve you. So while “What is this really about?” can lead to topics that fail to connect (“It’s about my toy car!” Oy.), confessing something is personal, revealing and raises the stakes of the scene.

-

You should only use one of these per show. If a bunch of your scenes need this band-aid, maybe workshop connecting with your scene partners more. Have an outside eye call out when a scene starts to feel disconnected or the players are talking about something outside of the meat of the scene.

But it’s good to know lines like these exist. When we know the improv plane might crash, it might be a good idea to bring a parachute.

- vinny

Feb
20th

Mon

Guest Writer: John Ratliff (Austin)

John Ratliff teaches improv at ColdTowne Theatre. He is a graduate of ColdTowne Conservatory and has trained at iO Chicago and the Annoyance Theatre. When he’s not performing, teaching, coaching, or discussing improv, Ratliff can be found editing copy, officiating weddings, eating some kind of Mexican breakfast, or lying on the floor listening to records.

My friend Michael Jastroch and I were talking about how a lot of the dramatic improv we’d seen (and, in my case, performed) over the past couple of years was more like melodramatic improv. We both like serious theater, but some of what we’d seen felt contrived and stagey instead of open and authentic. Was this, we wondered, just a function of bad acting? Or was it proof that improv only works as comedy?

Neither, I think. What I suspect we saw was a slightly different version of a perennial improv pitfall: selling out the scene.

We’ve all heard the note “Stop trying to be funny.” The more we perform, the more we realize that a joke, however hilarious, is usually not worth destroying the reality of the scene. (Well, *most* of us come to realize that.)

The same thing happens in dramatic improv … except that instead of going for the joke, we’re going for some kind of emotional payoff.

We probably get cut a little more slack for this than we should be. We’ve all been so indoctrinated with the idea of not going for the easy joke that we start equating “not funny” with “authentic.”

But what both situations have in common is that the improviser is doing something based solely on what kind of reaction she’s expecting to get from the audience instead of paying attention to what’s happening in the moment.

Of course, only the improviser herself can say whether she was selling out the scene. The same move (e.g., tearing up a note without reading it) might spring from a spontaneous realization (“I’m just done with him”) or from a contrived attempt to manipulate the audience’s emotions (“I thought not reading the note made it sadder”).

What Jastroch pointed out is that if you’ve decided to be dramatic, you’ll start ignoring obviously funny things about the scene in order to pump up the pathos, in exactly the same way that you start ignoring everything except the joke in a game-heavy scene. Either way, you’re no longer listening to what the scene has to tell you.

Aren’t we always telling our students that real life can be hilarious if we just pay sufficient attention to the details? So doesn’t it stand to reason that a realistically played scene, no matter how serious, might have some comic elements in it?

Last year I was cast in a show called Austin Secrets in which the scenes were based on secrets submitted by the audience. The director had explicitly told us he wanted a couple of serious scenes in each show. But what we found was that — with very few exceptions — even scenes played completely seriously started getting laughs sooner or later. Part of it was just the release of tension in uncomfortable situations, but part of it was the stubborn fact that comedy and tragedy are really just two ways of looking at the exact same material. I think we’ve gotten so used to deciding which one we’re doing and aiming for it that we forget about a third possbility: playing as truthfully as possible and letting the audience make up their own minds which it is.

My mother, who is generally very supportive of my improv, didn’t really like Austin Secrets. In particular, she didn’t like the serious scenes, because “I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel.”

Exactly.

Previous guests: Jill Bernard, Andrea Del Campo, Etan Muskat, Rick Andrews, Kristen Schier, Andy Eninger, Jeroen Van Dyck, Remy Bertrand, Caspar Shjelbred, Sean Michaels, Kareem Badr, RobYn Slade, Ian Parizot, Rachel Klein, Dave Morris, Alex Wlasenko, From the old blog

Dec
29th

Thu

Blink Blink Blink by Kirsten Rasmussen at Wildside Festival

Gang, our favourite Kirsten has a show coming up at the Centaur. If you missed it at the Fringe, this is your chance to see it. I thought it was one of the best things I saw at the Fringe this year. Do go check it out…

- vinny

Here’s the details and press notes:

Blink Blink Blink is a one woman dark comedy written and performed by Kirsten Rasmussen. Blink Blink Blink is the comedic story of a motivational speaker Sara Tonin, and a scared little bunny, Benjamin Bunny. All Sara wants is the success and happiness she’s worked so hard for. All Benjamin wants is to be more courageous like his heroic father. They both strive so blindly for their goals, that they lose sight of themselves and collide head-on with each other.

Blink Blink Blink was first produced by the artist as a workshop performance at the Free Standing Room Theatre in Montreal in January 2011. Then the show was presented Shumiatcher Sandbox Series season at the Globe Theatre in Regina, Saskatchewan in May. Then the artist produced the show at the Montreal Fringe Festival in June.

At the Montreal Fringe Festival Blink Blink Blink was nominated for Best Comedy by Just For Laughs and Best English Production by the Centaur Theatre. Blink Blink Blink was awarded the Best English Production.

Quotes About Blink Blink Blink

“I was snorting with laughter.”

“The writing is sharp and funny…”

-       Canada Arts Connect Magazine

“ You will laugh to tears.”

“The show is f@%king fantastic!”

-       Montreal Mirror

“Rasmussen’s timing is unreal.”

-       Charlebois Post

“Kirsten Rasmussen’s star power is mind-blowing.”

- Charlebois Post

Kirsten Rasmussen was a co-founder and director of Montreal Improv. And her award winning solo show Blink Blink Blink is being featured at the Centaur’s Wildside Festival Jan 3 through 14th. Kirsten is an actor/improviser and writer and this show combines all of those things, and a little clowning too.

The show began as an idea that was flushed out through improvisation, both in rehearsal and fully improvised run that happened last January. After many improvised runs, Kirsten wrote the piece down. But she improvises in each show, finding new lines, new jokes and new moments between the characters and her audience.

This show is a great showcase of how the skills of improv can play into creation; how the art of story telling taught by improv can be used in writing; and how the imagination we use in improv to create characters and environments out of nothing is extremely relevant to independent theatre.

The show is running:

Jan 3rd, 7pm
Jan 5th, 7pm
Jan 7th, 9pm
Jan 11th, 9pm
Jan 13th, 7pm

Call Centaur Theatre Box Office For Tickets (514) 288-3161

Reg Tickets $15 ($12 for students/under 30/seniors)

Nov
26th

Fri

The Bitter End Presents: The House of Shadows

Dec. 2nd, 8pm

$7

Aug
14th

Sat

Grand Opening Weekend: Day 2

Aug
12th

Thu

GRAND OPENING TONIGHT, MOFOS!

Three nights of comedy to officially open our brand new independent theatre dedicated to improv and sketch comedy. You’re invited to the party!

Thu Aug 12, 8pm:
The Bitter End Presents
- Witness as they bring to life a brand new, fully improvised theatrical experience.

AND
On The Spot
- The challenge: 25 improv scenes in 45 minutes.

Fri Aug 13, 8pm:
Smackdown
- Two teams fight it out and the audience decides the winner
AND
Uncalled For
- Plus special guest/original flavour: Amanda Walsh!

Sat Aug 14, 8pm:
SICK!
- The premiere of the recurring improvised hospital soap opera
AND
The Jam
- Vancouver’s Stefana Fratila and her music inspire and punctuate the scenes

Each show is 10$, has a 50/50 raffle and is followed by a dance party. Confirm attendance and be eligible to win a free ticket and a 5 show pass!

BONUS: We have a liquor license for the fest! What? Beer is what.

Note:

Student passes and 5for25 passes will not be honoured for these three shows.
Doors open at 7:30pm.