Chaos Attraction

Laura and Rick Hall Musical Improv Workshop

2018-02-16, 10:33 p.m.

On February 16, I did a musical improv workshop with Laura Hall and her husband Rick. It was neato.

Fun things I've found out about Whose Line Is It Anyway?:
* Hoedown requires rhymes, Colin loves filling it in. * Hoedown's rhyme scheme is AABB. Write it in your head and then sing, less improv-ing
* Wayne is thinking of what to do while he grooves--he has no idea ahead of time!
* Irish drinking song--they put Ryan on the end, he hates it, he swears and they can't use it--why not put Wayne there? Colin lost it but plows ahead
* On show they don't worry about the first stanza, they are setting up for the second rhyme.
* The key to Hoedown is editing. CW is so cheap, they can't produce it for that price so they will use shots they haven't aired.
* 28-30 games are shot in one day and then they piece shows together.
* They can make 2+ shows out of taped games (or 3-4 shows)
* 6 days of filming = 12 shows.
* They may do 5 songs and use 3 in the show after editing.
* ABC used them all up, CW doesn't. CW has enough leftovers over 4 years. *IF* there are new shows, could be 3 done off and on for 20+ years.
* Why are there "points" (that don't matter?) on the show: Their contract is for a game show, which means they can pay less. They are cheap. (I have the note "even bad tv $", whatever that means.)

Class notes:
* Most of the time you don't have to rhyme, especially while doing Harolds. People won't notice, they are pulled in by character, emotions, and relationships.
* Sing about what you feel, don't tell the plot. Tell your want.
* Singing in improv is more dramatic and can go places regular improv can't.
* Don't stop to think of rhyme--don't worry about doing it if it blocks you
* You probably know a lot of songs where you don't know the lyrics
* You can leave space in a song, that's okay.
* "Part of the fun is watching you work at it." You have 2 stories going--the story you tell and the story of the improvness with no net

Games played:
* Playing people in library, NYC, homeless and religious
* Singing the last line of a song (in different styles, with some random phrase not normally in song). I sang "lost in the mail."
* Gibbberish--while doing that one they said, don't worry about being funny, be interesting.
* Sing Your story--sing a short story from your life, get to the point. I had nothing to say about my week other than reading "He's Scared, She's Scared." I fumbled the crap out of it, but recovered later.
* Several people from the cast of You! The Musical (the musical improv show) were in this and they got their own section of having to do harder stuff, which had each of them making up a verse or a chorus or a bridge.
* Meanwhile, the rest of us just like, made up rhymes to the name "Joe."
* We did "Irish Drinking Song." Rhyme scheme of this goes 1 2 3 4 / 2 3 4 1 / 3 4 1 2 / 4 1 2 3. The best rhyme has to be from the third person. My group covered graduation and did well.
* We finished with a conducted song where we got called on to make up lines, with a title/name/item suggested.

Lines other people said:
* "I crapped on my dad's face...I was 8 months old.")
* Some guy's 10 year old kid answered the question of "what do you want for breakfast" with "Ultimate immortality!"
* "I wanna put my assets in your equity without any penalty."
* "And now I"m giving tours of my pantry"--when Laura sings it it sounds dirty
* "And my husband's gay." "Well, that was easier to tell than I thought."
"I said Magnum Condoms," not "Magna Carta."

It was good fun.


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