Summary of Games for September 29th

Hey Improvisers

Great session tonight. I had a blast. Sorry my computer wasn't louder. I scolded it and sent it to its room without dinner.

Games:

Acceptance Circle
- Same as last week

Why did we do it?
- Practice makes perfect. And you guys got right back into the swing of things really quickly. Kudos.


“Yes” Circle
- Players are in a circle. One begins by looking at another player. That player must make eye contact, and then say ‘Yes’. The first player then begins moving towards the second player’s position. The second player must make eye-contact with a third person, who must say ‘Yes’, until the second player can move.

Why did we do it?
- Focus on listening and making eye-contact. Saying ‘yes’ is representative of accepting offers.

Tips: Make eye contact! Always be watching everyone else.


What are you doing?
- Two person scene. Player 1 begins by performing an action. Player 2 asks ‘What are you doing?’ Player 1 then says an action completely different than the one he is performing. Player 2 then performs the stated action. Player 1 then asks Player 2 ‘What are you doing?’, and then performs the action stated by Player 2.
- Variation: Get 2 letters, and each word has to start with each letter (i.e. for initials ‘GM’, actions spoken could be ‘Getting Murdered’, ‘Grabbing Money’, ‘Golfing Maggots’, etc)

Why did we do it?
- Focus on listening, being big with actions, association/disassociation.

Tips: Say the first thing that comes to mind. Especially with the Initials variation. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense. A lot of the humour can come from seeing a player’s physical interpretation of something that makes no sense when spoken. i.e. ‘Jerking Water’ ;)


Goalie
- One player in the center (the ‘Goalie). Other players enter as a strong, definitive character. The first sentence spoken must establish the relationship between the characters, and what the scene will be about. (i.e. “Dad, can you teach me how to fish?”) After a few sentences are exchanged, the player who entered must find some logical reason to leave. Another player then enters as a completely different character with a completely different scene.

Why did we do it?
- Although the players who enter have a big role, the focus is on the goalie, and their ability to adapt to new characters and scenes. The goalie is forced to accept the ideas that are presented, because they really have little other option.

Tips: Players – Have a strong character at the beginning, it will help the Goalie respond. Goalie – Try having an emotional reaction to the offers presented.


Master Servant Disaster
- Two players, one is the Master, another is the Servant. The Master has some kind of goal to accomplish at the beginning. Every offer made by the Master must be turned down (preferably in a creative and unique way) by the Servant. Play continues until the Master becomes exasperated, the Servant is tricked into doing something, or the entire world is destroyed.

Why did we do it?
- MSD demonstrates the effect that saying ‘No’ to offers can have on a scene. Every MSD scene goes absolutely nowhere as a result of the Servant’s refusal to do anything.

Tips: This wouldn’t be used as a performance game, but tips are helpful. Master – Be as creative as possible in coming up with solutions to the problem. If you need to, go to your environment! Servant – Be a dick. If you need to, feel free to destroy the entire world, except for the room you’re in.


Freeze
- A game for any number of people, although it tends to get more hectic past eight players. Two are in the center. They begin doing a scene (using big, expressive characters). At any point, a player outside of the scene may clap and shout ‘Freeze!’ When this happens, the players in the scene freeze in their exact positions, and the person who shouted ‘Freeze’ takes the exact position of one of the players, replacing them in the scene. They then begin an entirely different scene, inspired by the position they took from the other player.
- Variations: Blind Pimp Freeze. Players not in the scene face away from the game. At any point, players yell ‘Freeze’ and then shout the name of someone else. The person who is named must go into the scene.

Why did we do it?
- In Freeze, there is no time to say ‘No’ to any offers that are made. You must say ‘Yes’ to everything in order to make the scene interesting. It also stresses the importance of doing big, expressive characters, for the sake of creating more interesting positions to yell ‘Freeze’ upon.

Tips: Try not to get caught up in finding clever positions. Sometimes it’s fun to call Freeze randomly, and go in with what you’re given (i.e. like in Blind Pimp Freeze). Also, it’s good practice to introduce a Who, What, and Where in each scene. Before you call Freeze, check to make sure that the Who What Where have been established. Also, be LOUD when shouting Freeze.


And that's about it for this evening.

Also, remember, we're in JHE 210 next week. I visited it today, and it seems alright. A little small, but it'll be more private.

Yours in HTML,

Cliff

Space, the Final Frontier

Hey Improvisers

We have space booked for the year. I'll let you know what it is at our meeting this evening.

Yours in HTML,

Cliff

ps - Our meeting tonight is still in the Clubspace.
pps - If you're reading this post, you're on top of things. Kudos.

Improv Analysis

Hey Improvisers

Let's play a game. Every so often, I'll post a video of an Improv game being played. I want you to tell me things that they can improve upon. In this week's example, give me reasons why you feel this is excruciating to watch. (Hint: There are many reasons).

Behold, this week's example: Ikkicon 2007 Improv: Freeze Tag. Although we haven't played Freeze yet, see if you can find things that you don't like. We'll discuss it on monday.



Leave a comment. There's no wrong answers.

Cheers,

Cliff

Power Cord

Hey gang

Someone left a laptop power cord in the Clubspace yesterday. If you happened to see one, or even picked it up, give me a shout at the Gmail account.

Cheers,

Cliff

September 22nd, 2008 - Games and Summary

Hey Improvisers

Here's a summary of what we did tonight:

Wupong:
- To pass to the left, you say 'Wupong' and point your fist to the left. Reverse for the right.
- Three drips to a drop, and then the person after continues
- Three Arigatoos, and then everyone says Gozaimasu. The person who Gozaimasu landed on continues
- Ping to a person, the two people on the sides of the person say 'Pong' and point above that person's head.

Why did we do it?
- Focus on listening, and paying attention. Accepting offers from other players, even if the offer comes from across the circle (as 'Ping' often does)

Clap Focus:
- Pass the Clap along. Make EYE CONTACT before passing it to the next person.

Why did we do it?
- Focus on paying attention. A metaphor for accepting offers from other people, and being aware of where the energy is travelling in a scene.

Association/Disassociation Circle:
- Association: Start with a word (i.e. Green). Next person says the first word that comes to mind when hearing that word, and so on. Try to go as quickly as you can. Also try it with eyes closed.
- Disassociation: Start with a word (i.e. Green). Next person says the first word completely unrelated to that word that comes to mind. Try to go as quickly as possible. And with eyes closed.

Why did we do it?
- Focus on relying on your impulses (they're more often than not pretty much on the spot). For association, it doesn't matter what you come up with, because it's whatever you think of first. Forces people to be put on the spot while relying on instincts.
- Disassociation focuses on trying not to preconceive your responses. Just feel what the scene needs and go for it. Channel the energy you feel.
- Both: Don't go for the joke. The point here is to go quickly, and think of the first thing you can. Same thing in Improv. It's not the jokes that get the laughs (they often fall completely flat), it's the relationships and the characters that do (which, as a bonus, are more often than not much more reliable and much more universally accessible than simple jokes).

Character Creation:
- Create a character through one of the following means: Either lead with a different part of your body (i.e. elbow, foot, etc), identify animalistic traits that you can give to a human, or do a poor impersonation of someone (poor impersonations will more often than not create more unique characters than good ones. I've heard that Kirk Van Houten's voice was created when Hank Azaria tried to impersonate Pamela Hayden's voice for Milhouse). This will help with your character's physicality and voice.
- Once you have your character, identify the most appropriate job for them. Then, identify the most inappropriate, or ironic job for that character. This will help give your character a little bit of motivation.

Why did we do it?
- It's important to be able to create a character in little time flat. By adopting easily accessible concepts or traits, you can create interesting characters from almost nothing. It's also interesting (and funny) to take the traits from one profession (i.e. Pro wrestler) and apply them to the most opposite job you can think of (i.e. Doctor).
- Remember, it's not the jokes that lead a scene to success: It's the characters and their relationships to each other. Make interesting characters with conflict inherit in their personalities, and bingo bango, you've got a scene.

Character Dinner:
- Four people out at a dinner. At the beginning, everyone creates a unique character. When switch is called, players move to a different seat, and become the character that was sitting there.

Why did we do it?
- It balances creating strong, unique characters with listening. You can't be too focused on one while sacrificing the other. If you're putting too much focus on your own character, you'll forget who everyone else is. If you're putting too much focus on listening to everyone else, your own character won't be defined enough to be repeated by other players.

Here's something to think about for next week: Think of lots of different animals, and try to identify subtleties in their traits.

Impersonations: Do people say that your impersonation of Bill Cosby is bad? Run with it. Even if your friends hate it, the stage will love it.

Also, it's a good idea to have 3 or 4 default names to go to when you're creating characters. That way, if you need a name for your character, you don't need to give it any excess thought: Just go to one of your stock names. For reference, mine are Mac Fleetwood, Les Zeppelin, Carl Vanderkart, Shades McCool and Cidolfus Brecht. They serve me pretty well (Also, Les can become Leslie, and Carl can become Carly, thus enabling me to do a gender switch if necessary). Just something to think about.

I'll see you all next week.

Here comes my name,

Cliff

The Improg

I guess you could consider this a test post. And it pretty much is. A test post, that is.

So, we're off to a rockin' start.