GUS, the delightful and talented team from The Baltimore Improv Group, opens its sets these days by asking the audience for "Three non-geographic locations." Asked to come up and lead a practice, I brought this exercise with me. We had a lot of fun with it. You will, too. Have you ever been in The […]
When asked for a desired focus for a scheduled coaching session, a Duo sent me the following: Mainly character stuff, fleshing them out versus building out more plot. Getting better at finding and sticking to the game of the scene. What follows is some didactic and exercises that filled two hours. DIDACTIC: How do You […]
I started my Twitter account to drive folks to my site. David Pijor told me what I needed to do on Twitter was get "conversation going." So #ToTheEtherTuesday and #WordAssociationWednesday were born as conversation starters. And I like them as improv pattern practice. Obviously they rely on more on text than emotion and are near-devoid […]
I love Pattern Play. I love the way an ensemble, focused-outward on making each new move in the service of what they individually have seen come before, can make a group look like it has ESP. I love "the moment." I love the way an authentic reaction to a moment -that in no way could […]
My latest Patterns & Games class embraced To The Ether style group games like no other class I've had. They had three To The Ether games in their showcase! It brings a tear to this guy's eye. I'm sharing 4 of them that I (obviously) recorded. They each showcase a nice lesson. The 1 2 […]
I recorded the session of my Patterns & Games class at The Coalition Theater in which we tackled the My 3 Rules game I've previously presented as a warm-up. One, the camera's distance makes it hard for the viewer to really track the game in play. Two, oh, man, looking for a drinking game? Watch […]
Watch this. Keep watching. Wait for it. Stay with it. There it is. [wpvideo RW9h0Kis] Following the simplest pattern saves the day. And gets a nice big laugh.
Oh, man, this organic group game made me laugh. It's simple and fun. All Chapman has to do accept each addition with his character's garbled, "That's my thing..." The audience loves him for it! They know he's getting put upon by his fellow players (literally by the end!) and they reward his acceptance and commitment […]
The Johnsons' performances account for the majority of this site's videos. Why? I'm their coach. That means A) I love them, B) their work often reflects Improv As Improv Does Best characteristics and C) theirs are the recordings that are the easiest for me to get. But I have been a bad coach lately and […]
In learning Tertiary Moves an improv student is taught that "the first move is trump" (a reference to card games not our shitty president). In practice this means that if the first tertiary move is a Walk-on then the next tertiary move should also be a Walk-on to heighten the game at play. While there […]