24th
Guest Writer: Dave Morris (Victoria)
Here’s the first guest piece in our new weekly series. Each Monday we’ll have a new guest dropping by with some thoughts on improv. So, ladies and gentlemen: Victoria’s Dave Morris
Dave Morris is a storyteller and improviser. He’s performed at Festivals around Canada and the world including, but not limited to, Winnipeg, Seattle, Chicago, Berlin, and of course Victoria where he now lives. He spends his days teaching improv classes, performing as a one–man improvised storyteller, and producing The Sunday Night Improv show at the Victoria Event Centre. He is also the Artistic Director of the Paper Street Theatre co. and The Regional Director of the Vancouver Island Region of the Canadian Improv Games. Find him online at [www.davemorrisisa.com]
You can’t model for the rest of your life, so it is important to diversify your career.
-Tyra Banks
The difference between us improvisers and the “talented” Tyra Banks is that we can do what we do for the rest of our lives. We aren’t subject to how pretty we look. But she does raise a very valuable point. Diversification.
There isn’t a lot of demand for the work of an improviser. Don’t get me wrong, there is demand. I am constantly booking/producing shows, workshops, even speaking engagements, and it pays me well enough that I don’t have to work a day job. I’m a career improviser. That said, the majority of my time is not spent improvising. In fact, the act itself takes up a small percentage of my time. I spend most of my time doing one of the following: Scheduling, invoicing, graphic designing, e-mailing, web-designing, reading, learning, travelling, meeting, phone calling/skyping, and other general managing activities.
Being a career improviser, means being more than just an improviser. The moment I decided to improvise for a living, i became a business. Which means I have to do all of the things a business does.
But tell me, this physician of whom you were just speaking, is he a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the sick?
-The Republic, by Plato
If you want to be an improviser full time, you need to learn more then just how to improvise. Things I would recommend learning are: 1) Photoshop. Learn to make posters and flyers. The better your posters, the more professional you look. Looking professional is important to a business. 2) Invoices. Learn how to make a nice invoice, and learn how to file those invoices. Getting paid is a very important part of being a business. 3) Web design. Learn to make a website, or at the very least, learn how to set up a Wordpress site and customize it. An online presence is incredibly important for an independent business.
These are only a few of my recommendations, but I think you get the idea. There isn’t enough money in the world of improvisation to pay one person to book workshops and produce shows, have another person design all the graphics and posters, and have three or four people just teach and perform. If that’s what you’re looking for, you should either start looking for a day job, or learn to live a very modest life. If you want to be an improviser full-time you need to learn to be more then one thing, learn to be MacGyver, Rambo, or Tyra Banks. Learn to diversify.
Previous guests: From the old blog
