Chaos Attraction

Improv 301 3.0 Week 1: Pee On The Dog

2016-07-14, 2:17 p.m.

Previous class here.

Administrative note: I'm trying to get all these entries up months late and frankly, I don't remember all the details from the sketchy notes, so I'm probably leaving most of this in here without a whole lot of explanation.

I was kind of apprehensive after my last class. The first time I took 301, everyone was great and half of them got in during auditions, the lucky dogs. The second time...was not going well. This third class, though, seems to be a lot better. it turns out most of this group have all been taking classes together at the same time in order and so they are pretty close, which is interesting when you haven’t been doing that. They’re nice people though, so it’s not too weird for me.

At the end of this class, the Comedy Spot is going to hold auditions again, so there’s something to look forward to. They’re not going to have too many open slots so don’t get your hopes up, but I am going to think of it as practice time, and keep my schedule open.

Notes:
* Do the do thing/get in the sauce, act it out.
* When in doubt, dash it out.
* Play the easiest pattern, “my farts talk.”
* Give people a gift in the scene and leave.
* Walk ons are grounded.
* 0, 3, 8 on a 1-10 scale.
* No scenes in a psych office-you set yourself up for talking the entire time
* Just say what you are trying to say
* Make assumptions
* Don’t ask questions
* Don’t play stupid in a scene.
* Say it and play it

First round scenes:
Monologue A: “I know somebody who just peed on somebody.”
Monologue B: “Why did she eat that card?
Monologue C: working late at sega game testing, getting high.

Beat 1a: stay late and hang out with the cool senators and get high
Beat 1b: dog training. The concept was that one guy was all, I met a famous dog trainer and he said to pee on the dog. The other guy in the scene was...reluctant to do so, which led to Brian saying, “Whip it out and pee on the dog” and “The life lesson is piss on the dog so we can move forward.”
Beat 1c: 14 year engagement, off and on relationship.
Every scene has a title and the title is the name of the pattern.

Critique notes:
Wait on the back line until you have a story.
Be very specific in stage all the time.
Tell them what you have them
At the beginning of the scene, agree with whatever is going on.
“Do you piss on the dog? Yes, and a lot.”
Doesn’t matter if you offend someone.
We need to see the pattern.
Trench improv-if you say no at the start, nothing happens
Choose places where you can play the pattern

Bad habits:
Balance reality and unusual yin yang
Machine gun hits but no reality
“no” grounded player (piss on dog)
Don’t talk too long, start doing
Listen
Repeat what people tell you
Repeated boring initiations
Arguing
Establish all parts of WWPW
Noel-something you do when you are nervous and unfocused and you don’t notice. Need to add focus to your scene.
“Part of improv is knowing when you suck.”
“It’s okay to suck. Admit that it sucked.”
Be able to self edit, admit you sucked and figure out why it sucked.
Ebbs and flows in show, alternate and vary it.
How do you practice monologues? Read headlines and see what they remind you of.
“You tell your best monologues when you’re drinking.”
Try to be as diverse as possible.
Get out and do stuff to have stories
“every time I travel I end up with a new story.”

Monologue A: locked keys in car
Monologue B: tires slashed
Monologue C: “I would dance and sing all night in fire.” Pyromaniac

Beat 1a: pyromaniac on 4th of July
Beat 1b: I initiate, a watermaniac.
Beat 1c: locked keys in car, loses keys repeatedly while wife is pregnant.

Notes:
“the first time I blew my anus off…” Brian suggests. FIRST TIME?!
Smart grinding?!
Play a simple pattern, embody a pattern, be a character. Be a creepy pyro
Should have gone dirty with the water
What slight change could I make to this
Have a very clear idea of who you are
Brian just put on his own 4th of July extravaganza right here.
TAKE ON A CHARACTER

Brian had us brainstorm what a football dad would say and then had someone do a monologue as that character. Adding this to curriculum!

Throw yourself into these roles
“Patterns are just unusual characters,” person will have their own sensibilities.
“I just wanna get wet in public.”

At Improv Jam, I played (a) an orphan being caught by a wimpy Superman while screaming, and (b) someone attending a Septemberfest discount fest, eating tiny weiners out of someone’s hand.


previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry
hosted by DiaryLand.com