Chaos Attraction

Improv 301 2.0 Week 8: This Really Is Therapy Night

2016-06-30, 2:06 p.m.

Previous week here.

Notes:
* Good group scenes
* NO narrating
* Walk out one at a time
* Give example of a hit on the pattern
* 2-3 hits, then keep following the pattern
* Lead with body parts to create character
* Specific background
* Turn anything into a pattern
* Group scene part 2
* Come out, initiate with clear pattern and familiar relationship-front load-and then commit to characters
* “I am” statements turn into character
* “Monologues are crazy important…it’s like a cheat sheet.”
* Be detailed, make analogies
* Sum it up somehow, is good jumping off point

Harold 1:
Monologue 1: Being followed around a bar like they were chimps at a bar, now they think we’re friends
Monologue 2: Dating two meth heads named Sean, having bad taste in men, fishing in a small pond
Monologue 3: Being high on coffee and getting 100 on a test.

Beat 1a: gelato, once you go chocolate you never go back, I walk on as a dude talking about a long banana on the gelato
Beat 1b: McDonald’s
Beat 1c: In a bar, ordering “sex on the beach” and “slippery nipple.”

Beat 2a: methmatch.com, that’s hot how you smoke that.
Beat 2b: prison escape. Wanna get hostages/prostitutes? Don’t date someone who got out early, look for prostitutes,
Beat 2c: creepyguyinapark.com.

Beat 3a: I initiated: monkeys in a bar
Beat 3b: bulls in a china shop
Beat 3c: octopus at Disneyland, wants to hug Goofy

Group 1: Ellen’s ex-boyfriends club
Group 2: Cereals with dirty names

Brian’s critiques:
Say thanks for the suggestion, turn around and say, “I heard X!”
“This really is therapy night.”
Have one foot facing the audience at all times
Try not to put out chairs in the third beat
“That was a little bumpy. The ideas were there…”
Picking up men at gelato hit something and then went past it.
Slow down “rocky road scene.”
Come out when you are needed
Don’t ask questions or argue
Chicken McNuggets can be dirty
Make your orders into trying to attract people
Get to crazy town faster
Methmatch.com, both of you are unusual and that’s ok. “Well, let’s go for a walk and suck some dick for meth.”
“I’m not saying every scene should end with sucking dick….”
Edit on “do you like kids?”
You forgot you’re on a date.
Kevin McDonald-when he writes sketches he puts rules on the sketch. Establish the world. Not clear if monkeys knew they were in a bar. Or if it is a monkey bar. Establish the rules.
Bulls in china shop-he liked the registry idea. More clear rules.
Octopus on dry land. Needed to be clearer.
Ex-boyfriend club. All named Steve. All in good fun. This happens to Brian and Ellen all the time. Don’t ask questions in a group scene, just hit the pattern. Cleanest group scene, more hits and less scene. Second scene was just hits. “board” scenes are death.
We’re too busy not playing and trying not to make mistakes. Be a character in a scene.

Harold 2:
Monologue A: watching a fight
Monologue B: when locked out of your car, he wouldn’t break the window, but he laid under the running car.
Monologue C: theft, lost his Ipod, friend owes him.

Beat 1a: easily upset, burning shirt, watch terrorists.
Beat 1b: birthday party, I walk on as a friend trying to calm her down over a leaning cake-eventually bump it.
Beat 1c: the condom broke.

Beat 2a: goodwill vs. salvation army. Sort buttons, piss rags, look for the good toy.
Beat 2b: Target vs. Walmart-deals and discounts, please don’t subsidize me!
Beat 2c: Starbucks vs. Dutch Bros.

Beat 3a: making life more exciting by having a little bit of problems by setting paper on fire, waving a gun out the window, Thelma and louise.
Beat 3b: making crazy things happening seem normal, hold gun like a dog
Beat 3c: make tough decision, disarm security alarm.

Group 1: reasons to lie under a car, I initiate as a high person contemplating.
Group 2: can’t get cell reception, now what?

Critiques:
Better than the last one, still in your head a little bit.
More upset than you is hard to do. Hulk out every time something small happens.
Warring companies find the good toy. Brian saw them as generals.
Trying to put this into scene, best way to play it. Didn’t tell about uniqueness of their businesses. Competing same skills. He wanted differences of businesses.
Third one: be more grounded. Make something heightened into more regular. Should have walked on when prompted. Started nuclear war. But let’s unlock our house at same time.
Car scene: say what you want before you play it.
Group 2: ways to play it: things we do to get a signal or how are we going to do things now. Group scenes are too open ended.
Play and have fun. Don’t look like you are doing something wrong. Have had good group scenes in this class, but be more specific.
Pattern and who are most crucial, the rest will come.

At Improv Jam that night, I did a monologue about Grandma’s boob grabbing, later played a mean grandma with string in her back, and a Filipino mom who stopped grabbing boobs as a greeting in America because here’s it’s considered sexual harassment.


I do not have a journal entry for the performance for this class because I ended up not going to the show. It turned out we had season theater tickets that night that I thought would be easy to switch for another night, and it turned out that wasn’t doable, and Mom got annoyed enough at me for wanting to bail that I gave up.
Frankly, this class was having enough issues that I’m kinda not super sorry (but somewhat sorry because my absence probably made it worse) that I missed it. I don’t want to know how that went.
It was a weird class, most of the time things just weren’t gelling and we weren’t getting each other. Very strange.


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