Coming Back

So, I haven't been on here in a while. Life has been busy. Between the beginning of May and the end of October I will have gone from engaged college student to Married, House-renter, with 4 months in a steady job. This blog has become lost in the fray.

This past Friday was Mock Turtle Soup's first show since my leaving. It was also my first show as an audience member. 2 things.

1) What a great show. Really funny.

2) I felt so old.

To be fair, I'm younger than 3 of the 8 remaining members on the team. But they're all still drinking from the improv fountain of youth. I'm glad that I went, but part of me wishes I had waited a few months or so.

It would have made me feel better about the complete lack of familiar faces in the audience. Or the urge to be up on the stage with the guys. Or the kudos and notes and things from watching after 2 years of directing.

Ultimately, I'm glad I went. The best consolation was the show quality leaves no doubt in my mind that they'll do just fine without me. Party on, guys.

Rant: Talky MOJO STEALING Coaches!

I really hate it when coaches talk too much in a workshop. I understand that they have knowledge and they need to convey it, but there should be a limit to how much they are allowed to talk as a coach in a 2 hour workshop.

The worst example is when you do a scene and the director says "cut" or "stop" and then begins to analyze the scene and talk about what would have been a "better choice", or "where we should have gone with the scene." F*%K YOU! I was perfectly happy having a scene about a school of fish that were trying to solve an underwater murder mystery...I don't care if it resembled some news story that made you think about Sarah Palin and you wanted to see a social/political satire! Go straddle a narwhal you chlorinated gene pool!

I feel better now. In all honest this has really only happened to me once or twice. As a director it is easy to analyze where a scene should go in your mind because you are just observing. So I don't blame them for thinking it, but sometimes they need to just shut up and analyze the scene at hand and let go of their preconceptions.

Rant: Improv Words

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I'm back (hopefully) and I've got something to say about our word choices as we and others describe improv, comedy, and the art we do.

1) Improvd, Improvr, Improvation vs. Improvised, Improviser, Improvisation

The Victory Lapse

The Victory Lapse is a force of nature that I recently stumbled upon. Last year I was a player-director for Mock Turtle Soup, so for a year I balanced school work and going to practice with running those very same practices. Pouring my free time into 15 other people, seeing to it that they were getting better at improv, learning, finding their style, growing. Immersing myself in theory and spouting it out like the maternal advice we so often ask for as a suggestion.

For a year I grew so much in my understanding of the things I knew because I was teaching them, and so I am left with this feeling that the things I knew are things I know. Like the back of my hand, internalized, all that jazz. Like most director-performers I got really burnt out, but still churned out workshops and practices because I thought that if I just worked harder at it I would get them better and we would be the best we could be and then I would be able to rest. Went a little crazy, given, but the fact of the matter is that we did grow as a troupe and we've started some really cool things that have carried over, and thank God, somebody else stepped up to direct this year.

I say all that not to toot my own horn, but to give a sufficient backdrop for this year. This is my senior year, I've been doing improv with Mock Turtle Soup for more than 3 years, for between 4 and 8 hours every week (depending on how many practices/shows were that week), last year I probably spent an average of 10-12 hours in any given week doing, talking about, planning, or teaching improv. This year, since I'm not in charge and have a lot of other things on my plate, I do probably a max of 6 hours a week, and usually 4 or so.

I'm in the Victory Lapse, there's a voice in my head that says "Well, you are on the down hill," "You've already beaten college improv," "You've got nothing else to do but be funny," and a little bit of that pride which says "YOU'RE THE FUNNIEST THING EVER." If you're in the same boat, the only thing I can tell you is this: Tell that voice to shut up.

The College Improv Resource

Welcome to the College Improv Resource. The goal is for this to be a place where college improvisers and former college improvisers can come together and give advice, describe forms, describe workshops, share ideas, rant, and just educate and be educated about the art-form they've decided or are thinking about doing.

My hope is that other improvisers from troupes all across the Southeast and across the nation will not only be helped by the wisdom shared here, but themselves become contributors.

Contributors will be by invitation, but all you've got to do is email collegeimprovresource@gmail.com and we'll add you.

Some ground rules:

-This is not a place for bashing other improvisers, but I'm not going to have a 0 criticism rule. If you hate something, say it in a way that proves that you're an educated being capable of righteous hate, not an ignorant lump who gets his jollies from upsetting other people.

-I would prefer this not just be a place where people plead and spam for festivals, shows, tours, or whatever. If you do a lot of it, you might get dropped, just for the sake of the whole. If you want to start a blog for spamming other improvisers about your improv, I will join you, but I don't want it here.

-Please categorize your posts with labels, like who it's for (Directors, Players, Player-Directors), what it's about (Workshop, General Directing, Basic Improv, The Rules, Starting Scenes), whether or not it's a rant, just a game, or just a funny story (Rant, Warm-up Game, Long-form, Short-form Game, Anecdote). Don't feel constricted to just these labels, but the more common labels we use, the easier it is to search through, the more your post will get read.

-Other issues will be addressed as they come up and this welcome-post may change accordingly

I'm going to try to set up a links page so if you want in on some of that sweet stuff let me know as well.

Welcome to the blog.