IMPROV AT THE NOTE Starts tomorrow night. I can't honestly say that I'm excited about these gigs, they're much more the brainchild of teammate Patrick Thornton. It's a really cool bar, however, and we have the opportunity to make some cashola for the team. I like them because a lot of the groups that have signed on to perform really don't have a home base anywhere... aside from the occasional guest slot at the Playground or Cagematch at IO... That doesn't apply to our first round o' guests - Judo Intellectual and Plain Cake Donuts. Talk about the Playground Lite... DREAMS The recurrent theme of Friday's Kissing George show... The show was pretty solid as a whole, although playing with only 5 people in the cast is getting a bit taxing. There are times when I feel like everyone else in the group has more important things to do than I do, or at least it's viewed that way by them. I have yet to miss a performance because of work, classes or another gig. That's probably going to change in the next few months, however. I'm currently looking to go back to school, gearing up to take yet another fun standardized test (I've got two - the LSAT and GRE - under my belt already), producing several shows and trying to have a personal life. I'm tired... and my life is only going to get busier. I dream that somebody else would do the work for a change. I dream that the crazy bitch that lives over the Playground would stop calling my apartment at 9:30pm and complaining about the noise from the theater because she has to go sleep. I dream that more than 6 people will show up for Big Bowl of Groovy this Sunday night. I dream that I'll stop bitching so damn much in these journal entries. I dream that instead of staying awake all night because I'm thinking too much about improv, I could sleep a nice dreamless sleep. THE LEGEND OF DEL CLOSE Last night they ran the Del Close docu-thingy on PBS. Mark and I watched it, but I really don't think it did a good job of capturing the "legend" of the man. I feel that's probably an impossibility to do in any finite amount of time - it seems like Del lived several lifetimes in his span of years. I never actually met Del in person. I saw him once, coming from a 5B class in the Cabaret at IO. I was standing by the box office in IO when he walked past me, muttering obscenities, and left the theater. My brush with greatness, you could say. I met Del Close when my team, Kissing George, began to work with his form, "First Impressions". We've never really said a word to one another, but every other week, I take the stage and unravel a little bit of his legend. NEW STUFF Fuzzy and I have been working on several new projects for the Playground and others... but I'll have more to say about them this summer... THINGS I LEARNED TODAY 1. Girls can be pretty and strong. 2. Moving apartments makes me crazy, even if big, burly men do all the lifting. Required viewing: Big Bowl of Groovy That's all I've got to say about that. 4/20/00 BIG BOWL OF GROOVY Sadly, the final Big Bowl of... I don't feel like I necessarily accomplished the goals I set out to with this series, but I did learn a few important things as a producer, the first of which is that a show is never going to do everything you envision it to, but if something good comes from it, it's a success. The show: Pants Happy - Jason Chin, Pat Shay and John Mulhern in a three man continuous scene that tried to answer one of Life's deeper questions. The question of the evening is "Will I ever know what love is?" (the exact question escapes me, but it was along these lines). The exploration of "love" was taken from three different views, the dumped boyfriend (Pat), a dog owner that had just put his dog to sleep (John), the man that didn't need love (Jason). It's nice to see the three guys in action, they've had a long time on Pat Shay Dancers to really get to know each other as performers and friends, which is very obvious from the audience. Even though the scene was a three person one, it really ended up shifting between the three performers into very intense dialogues. The content and emotional commitment was there, but the form suffered from talking head syndrome and sometimes took detours (like Pat's German cat-hurling-tower story) that while interesting, added little to the development of the piece. It's the kind of form I'd like to see them do again in two months after working on it further - there's still a few kinks to iron out, but it's got a lot of promise. The Laboratory - Turned out a hell of a lot better than I was expecting... the opening was a little slow at first, but considering that these improvisers had only met and rehearsed for 45 minutes beforehand, they did great work. Shaun Himmerick - the "director" of the piece - wanted something that didn't necessarily explore plot, but a form that solely explored characters and their reactions in different environments. Favorite characters included Fuzzy's asshole telemarketing king, and Christine Sinacore's slightly psychotic woman obsessed with making babies. For an experiment in spontaneity, it really was pretty okay. Prism - This was honestly the first time I've seen an entire Prism, even though it was truncated a bit from it's usual running time. An interesting form, that spins scenes off of a longer scene at the top of the show which is immediately accepted into the ensembles group mind as a familiar piece of pop culture. The show was set up by Ryan Archibald and Andre Washington as two night club performers - Ryan, a drunk comic who depends on making fun of other cultures for laughs, and Andre, an very spiritual African drummer named Mo Zilla. While the opening of the show was almost serious, the ensemble spun into a rather light-hearted series of scenes and group games. I hate to use the word silly, but Mo Zilla the Movie was just that. It was a lot of fun, but I think the cast experienced what the Sidewalk Ends did the first time we performed outside of IO - the freedom? from the original theater gets you going a little too fast and a little too furious so that by the end of the show, you've had a lot of fun, but it's not necessarily the finest show you've ever done. Still, Prism is a good form and the cast is a good ensemble. It will be interesting to see if they stick together or, like so many other ensembles that no longer have a home at IO, will simply disappear. This was the first Big Bowl of... that we didn't break even on. Fuzzy and I decided that it was time to call it quits. Ah well. I guess there's a reason people do Harolds and montages.... A KISS GOODBYE Kissing George had its first real crisis in the past week, and thankfully everything got resolved in a fairly civil manner without too many threats flying around. Our roster is in the process of changing, an act which I hope will make us a stronger team and allow us to grow even more than we already have. One of our original members was asked to leave, new members are being brought in. Emily had her classmate, Joe, sit in at our last rehearsal - he's really, really tall and really, really lanky. It gives him this very cool scarecrow physicality. Aside from that, he's intelligent and has shown a tremendous amount of flexibility as a person and performer, considering how fast we threw him into rehearsal. It's nice to have a sit-in. Hopefully, an old NU acting buddy of mine and improv veteran, Kate Lee, will also be sitting in with us in the next few weeks after her other performance commitments calm down. BOOM The Playground is currently growing faster than anyone really could have anticipated a year ago when the theater was built. I, of course, wasn't around waaaay back then, but I'm working on some of the new programs that the theater is offering. Master's classes, a co-produced sketch writing class with O.C.Y.C., the Funny Women Festival (we're the headquarters), RECESS, and children's shows are in our future. Along with that, I offered up the Director's Series, which will be kicked off in August with a show directed by Jason Chin and followed up with another directed by Rob Mello. So much stuff to do and see.... WHAT I LEARNED FROM BIG BOWL OF... 1. It's good to take a chance on an idea if you think it's worth pursuing. You have everything to gain. Not pursuing it leaves it out there in creative limbo - somebody else might take it. 2. Alternative improv is interesting, but there's a reason most people perform Harolds and montages, and there's a reason most audience members want to see Harolds and montages. 3. Thinking artistically is important, but never neglect to think about the business (marketing, profits) behind it. 4. Working with a partner in crime is definitely a plus. There's always going to be something you forget or don't know how to do that they invariably will. 5. It's possible to succeed even if your initial goals weren't met. For instance, I brought Second City and Improv Olympic performers that have never set foot in our theater to the Playground. I view that as a success. 6. Producing one show will generally lead to involvement in another. There are a lot of talented people out there that don't want to deal with a lot of the business crapola that comes with putting up a show. 7. Don't talk about things. Do them. It's probably the most important thing to learn in any business or any aspect of life. You will learn from action, you will merely speculate from discussion. Even if the action you take is wrong, there is some merit and something to be gained from it. As improvisers, it's the rule we should live by. Required reading: True and False: Heresay and Common Sense for the Actor by David Mamet That's all I have to say about that. I'll try to say more, more often. CUNT POEMS Last night kicked off the third Chicago Improv Festival, however, it's the first one for me. I wasn't so into the improv thang last year and didn't go to any of the festival festivities. This year, I know better.... anyhow, the sheer amount of improv is amazing, the people watching opportunities are fabulous, the schedule looks to be very entertaining. Tuesday's show featured the Impromptones, JTS Brown and Dratch & Fey. I wasn't too impressed with the Impromptones, except for Michael Pollock, the group's musical director. He plays the keyboard for the other three, and I'm always impressed with a solid musician that can improvise. As far as their set went - it's fun like karaoke is fun, but gets old after a while. Baby Wants Candy does a better long form musical, and doesn't seem to get stuck on words/concepts like "pee" as the Impromptones did for their "long" form. JTS Brown pulled off a mid-range show - I've seen them better and worse - some funny stuff, but very hard to hear in the audience. That's partially due to the space and partially due to the inability to mic improv effectively... There were a lot of people on stage too - many of the cast hardly found their way out on stage during the piece, which is disappointing. After the show, somebody commented to my group that JTS Brown performs improv for improvisers - that caters to the inside jokes and flashy tricks we know and love, but isn't necessarily concerned with included the non-improv audience. One final observation - lines like "Is this a bottle or a can? Whatever." should never used in a scene, for you've just shot your scene partner in the foot by making them look like an idiot. Support. Always. Dratch & Fey were excellent and left the audience parroting lines from the sketches all the way home. Funny, funny, vulgar women. Highlights for me - Fey's "Cunt Poems", the Siamese twins, Puma, and their portrayal of white trash romance. Allison Bills spent last summer trying to reconstruct their entire show for me in bits and pieces since I never had the chance to see it over at Second City. I'm glad I finally saw it. After the show I ran into former teammate Dennis O'Toole who told me that "It's the kind of stuff that makes me want to go home and stay up all night writing." I amazes me that SNL sucks as much as it does with both of these talented women on board. After the show, off to the Lincoln Tap room for free pizza and drinks, courtesy of Jonathan Pitts and the CIF crew. I saw half of the original Sidewalk Ends crew, which made me a little sad and homesick for the wild days of Harolds and late night boogie sessions with my old teammates. They're all doing well with their different teams and projects... I think I may have to break my five month fast of IO and go check out their new stuff. The atmosphere of this fest is so completely different compared to the KC fest I hit in October. Chicago is Improv. There are so many people studying here at the Mecca, it takes an event like this to really hammer it home to me. But I'm slow sometimes... GRRRR Frustrating rehearsal on Monday night with Kissing George. I'm having a problem with the vast amount of talking we do in some of our rehearsals and the very little amount of actual rehearsing that happens. I don't learn well from descriptions, I have to actually do things, which is why I push so hard for people to act instead of talk. Mark and I snapped at each other too, which is becoming an increasing problem. I'm stubborn and don't always listen. We take all this frustrating crap home with us occasionally which is bad. I keep biting my tongue, but the frustration is starting to boil over and I won't be able to contain it. I'm not sure if it's all rooted in the team or me or what, but if it keeps up, I'll probably do something I regret. I need a good screaming, throwing things session. Tantrams thrown with no one around are generally the best kind. THINGS I LEARNED TODAY 1. Don't get involved with improvisers. There's so many of them floating around the city this week, but it's really not a good idea. Find some nice stockbroker to hook up with during the fest. Or a doctor. Or that guy behind the counter at the 7-11. 2. Journals are some of the best archives of theater - the process, the events, the people. I re-read a bunch of the Argos Achives... you can learn from other people's ramblings. 3. PUMA! A Moment of Zen: "There was a study that found that 98% of people that sing in the shower are gay." - Kimber, an acute audience member in response to Impromptone James Bailey's question, "Do you sing in the shower?" That's all I have to say about that. UPDATE AND OVERHAUL I'm trying to expand this website to include some more stuff, aside from my random ramblings. I added a section for classes, workshops and other resources, and upgraded the Upcoming Shows section to contain a mostly complete listing of improv shows (and related comedy shows), audition notices and special improv events pages. If you have something that you'd like to post or plug, or if I've neglected to list something (which I'm sure I have) let me know (note from Megan - this was on my old site. I actually tired to keep an up-to-date listing of all the improv going on in Chicago for a while.). Interactive is good. NEIL BALDWIN Last night's winner of the free Playground t-shirt. Thanks for signing the mailing list. The show was pretty good across the board - I usually don't like working Thursday nights because they tend to have light houses and guest ensembles that aren't the most polished. Last night we had a house of about 40 people who were very into the show and ready to laugh. The guest ensemble, The Beverly Thrillbillies, did a nice job - it's actually the first time I've ever seen a group perform a Harold at the Playground. You know, I bitch a lot about Harold because I feel like improvisers get stuck on it (which I still believe very strongly), but it's a really valid form and an excellent way to teach beginning improvisers. The roadmap is easy to follow, which I really liked working lights because I knew exactly when the show was done - as did the ensemble. It forces you to raise the stakes in relationships, though it would have been nice to see the principal characters from each of their scenes interact with a different person. The third scene of the series got stuck in limbo land because of this. My only problem with last night's Harold - group games, group games, group games. The opening was a very cool group game - a story told from eight different points of view - but after that, they became obligatory, distracting and absurd. Liz Allen does really good work with groups, like Mission:Improvable on stuff like this - I wish more coaches knew how to tap her insight. Inside Vladimir had a good solid show - lots of mean comedy (their specialty), and the ensemble had a lot of fun. I always like to look at performers off stage who smile and laugh along with the audience. It shows they're listening to their teammates and having a good time. Both essential for improv. Homey Loves Chachi rounded things out - you can tell they've been working with Rob Mello because they attack things a lot faster and don't stand around waiting for people to start scenes. The initiations aren't always the best, but they're fast and thinking from that Meisner mode Rob insists on working from. It will be interesting to see how he effects their performances in the next few months. COLBY'S ADVICE This is an excerpt from Jason Chin's interview of the Upright Citizen's Brigade, which was supposed to appear in the CIF edition of Performink, but for various reasons, didn't. The entire interview can be found on Jason's Argos Archives site, but I really like the advice that Amy Poehler had for improvisers: Keep studying, don't ever think that you need to stop because you've got it. Commit, I guess is my biggest thing. The difference between people who are going to be good and people who aren't is commitment. That means committing actually in the scene means believing that you are in that place even if the scene is tanking committing to it is to me impressive. It shows courage, intelligence and respect. And commit to the craft. If you sign up for a class, go to it. If you going to be in a class, be in it. If you going to perform, perform all the time. Don't be distracted by the five hundred other shows you're doing. People do too many shows! (laughs) Do a couple and commit to really hard to selling them and pushing them and making them work. Don't spread yourself too thin. It happens in Chicago all the time. People are doing five million shows in five million theaters. It happens in New York constantly too. It's hard to focus. THINGS I LEARNED TODAY 1. According to the current listings in PerformInk and Metromix, Sex Wars AND Slam Dunk are still both running at the Improv Olympic. Mark, you've been missing an awful lot of shows.... Charna's sure to be really pissed at you by now. 2. Gin & Juice translates well from rap to bluegrass. Required viewing: Go see part of the Chicago Improv Festival. There's so much improv this weekend, you have no good reason not to.
4/3/00
Long time, no write. Sorry everybody... between illness and projects and horrible work deadlines, I haven't had time for too much musing.
April 9th, 8pm @ The Playground
Featuring: Pants Happy, The Laboratory and Prism!
Admission: $5
It's been a while, I know. I stopped bitching to everyone else to go out and do something and went out and did something myself. But first, some closure...
I can't remember if I'd assigned this before, but I'm finding it to be an interesting read. Some of it you will completely agree with, some of it will piss you off. If you find that to be true, than you have an opinion about acting/improv. Good for you. More people need to have their own opinions about their artform.
4/26/00
The two weeks brings the Chicago Improv Festival and the Playground's Third Anniversary celebrations. Christ, that's shitload of improv...
4/28/00
I haven't been at the fest for a few days, but the big push is coming this weekend...
