GERTRUDE and MR. RESISTOR 10/30/05

Both teams kept the action moving, Mr. Resistors' zip zop factor was a little higher than Gertrude. Both teams were fun to watch; they made an enjoyable improv evening. I went to the Del Close Marathon at UCB in July. There was a countdown clock facing the stage. This seemed to be a great device to facilitate conclusion of a Teams' set. When time is down to the last few minutes, actors can try to bring disparate scenes together. Tieing together of the scenes into a cogent story, would have enhanced both teams performance. Some memorable quotes: GERTRUDE. "I think you're pretty" "I want to touch it." (birthmak) "It's rough." "Dude, it's your bachelor party." "When it comes to debauchery, there's nothing like a list." "Milk isn't going to do any good, you're dieing.""I kinda want to live." "Sometimes the truth isn't good." "I'm in charge of this party." "I'm pregnant." "I love you and I trust you." "If you touch another living woman, I will cut your penis off." "We don't have to rape anybody tonight." MR. RESISTOR. " I always wanted to kill a white boy." "My wife left me, she took the kids and went to New Mexico.""My dad didn't love me growing up." "Son when you're a man you'll know what it's about." "It'll be OK we'll get through this." " I woke up this morning, and I realized I discovered the color of depression."" You're blowing my mind a little too early in the morning.""Human beings are fucked up."

STRIKING VIKING STORY PIRATES

In life we all have a responsibility that goes beyond and outside of ourselves. For us, it is not just about performing, or writing, or entertaining, part of the deal is inspiring, -- planting a seed. Striking Viking Story Pirates (www.storypirates.com) entertains, and introduces children to the world of writing, and performing, and thinking. The company solicits stories from children. These stories form the genesis of a series of scripts, which are presented with music and puppetry. I saw their performance at the Drama Book Store theater, on Saturday. The show is designed for children; I enjoyed it too. I looked at the audiance around me, the children were enthralled. One of the performed pieces was originally written by a girl in the audiance. The cast honored this aspiring writer with a guest appearance on stage, and a signed cast poster from the show. This is an inspiring endeavor. There is only one drawback: The cost of $20.00 for an adult and $15.00 for a child is a big chunk of change for a young family.

IMPRODOME 10/28/05

Bellicose bombastic bastards, faithless lunatics, parrotting blasphemous chatter. Gumming through lips coated with life force candy. Sweetness personified in time and space inhabited through guidance of imagination. Electric force stimulation of neurons and matter, encapsulated, connected in cranial rectum of our essential being. One tiny speck in gargantuan vastness of all; one infintessemal milli moment in perspectivve of eternity: IMPRODOME. The events of this night will remain seared permanently in the crevices of my being. On a new twist, Dr. Oddbody MC'd. Sean Wiggins, physically personified as honest Abe Lincoln, imbued the miasma with his perspective of sex, life, sex, work, sex: You get the idea. CO-DEPENDENTS. Dave, Sean and me. I have no comments or quotes, since this was my team. Yang told me, he thinks I am afraid of something, when I am on stage. I did not know what he meant. BEES. "It's pretty damning what your husband is doing." "That's me as James Bond dressed up as Abraham Lincoln." PENALTY BOX. "You need me coming with my big erect cock." "Seriously, ease back or somebody's going to get hurt."" She seems titillated by dreams that are not me." Great energy, fast cuts. Zip, Zap, Zop. SCOOTER LIBBY. "Can't you finish the chess game." "Let's jump off a clock tower right now." "You have time to masturbate?""I don't want to have sex with a 65 year old woman." LIBERATED AFRO BUNNY. "I've never done this before, you know that." "Careful, those are real." "If I don't make the dance team, I'm going to make your life a living hell." "We're a traditional household." "I've got two frigging dads." "I was trying to be cool." "If there is one thing a woman of my generation knows it is to be forced into things." WHITES OF THEIR EYES. Starring Bukkake girl. "Should we tell our friend about our story?" "Where theres howling, theres probably treasure." "You're looking real itchy." BRIDES OF CHRIST. "He had holes in his brain before he got that.""and a huge cock." "I'm careless with it, like some people are careless with our friendship." "Why can't you be a lesbian, like your sister." SMACK O LANTERN. "My life has been toiling on this paper." "Now all you have is the gypsey woman program." "Time for old Joe to end his life on this earth." "What are we going to do with ourselves, now that we know our Father is Lucifer?"

PEOPLES IMPROV THEATER 10/23/05

Falling mercilessly through incenced delusion. Believability layered together with intriguing fortune. Tarot cards, mumbles, deconstruction variation, pajamas no, reality shows never seen. The volunteer from the audiance was brilliant. Using a tarot card reading for deconstruction: a clever idea. Insence heightened the feeling. GERTRUDE. Some notable truths from the show: "I'm sorry Darlene, I'll do dishes in a minute." " I don't know how you get through life." " A lot of girls want to have sex a lot." "You're the coolest person I've met." Great second beat with mumbling concluded the show. Bam, bam, bam, cut, cut, cut, scene, scene, scene. Pete is master of the pause that refreshes. Good second beats throughout. Funny conclusion in mens room. MR. RESISTER. Some notable quotes: "I can't believe you did this to me.""I would have been here sooner, but the bathroom only had a hand dryer option.""You're not good enough for the job." "How hard can it be? Apparently very hard." I enjoyed sounds of expresso machine.

IMPRODOME 10/21/05

Meritorious indignation shadowed by fluorescent streams of hope, of love, of squalor, of genius. Sitting, absorbing, in a room of black: black walls, black ceiling, black floor, black chairs. Black like the humus of mother earth; black like the mid-night sky on a moonless night with stars spangling: brilliance. Cathartic energy envelops all, everything: calling forth devil and saint. Screaming luminescence of grey matter: mind stuff, molecules juxtaposed fortituously in grandour eminating beacons shining in night time frenzy: Sparkling, boiling cauldron of soup, no elixir -- elixir of timeless energy transforming tenticles stimulating claustrophobic dens of inequity buried in depths of our bodies, mind, soul: BEING. Essence personified by anecdotal evidence buried within us: Eras of hunger, famine, bounty, riches, ignorance, brilliance. We are the sum of all history: of parents, and ancestors, and humankind, of life, of rocks, dirt and atoms. Freedom constrained by bonds; let it go, let it happen: IMPRODOME! WHITES OF THEIR EYES. Excellent high energy genesis. We journeyed from support group for people who killed things with hammers, to donut shop, to wife to portabella mushroom dinner. White boys sort of found scene in the killing of cat; they did not have their usual razor sharp edge. LEATHER PENCIL FOLLOW. Good scene work with piano. We journeyed from museum of antiquities to hall of violence. Very good characeter work by Ernie. Bar scene: " you'll find your guy someday." Scene moved to trailer. Good truth in scene; good message about life. INDIGO BEARD. Protaginist Switch came in with bang; good play by Gina, being in love with Switch. Running. Losing son to asthma, with relief was scarry but believable. Ghost of Bobby, good ending, adding element of conscience. BRIDES OF CHRIST. Funny classroom scene with teacher picking on one student and lauding cheating student. Interesting journey into the mind. Juxtaposition of defication, conscience, ego, potty mouth, repressed memory. PENALTY BOX. Good opening: "Got us by the balls out there." Good, fast cuts, kept audiance attention. Brothel scene got a little silly. Amazing final scene, with fortune teller morph to time machine. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. Mom scene did not get to the point. Word play on names, cucumber, all silly, but fun to watch. LIGHT PARADE. Point of view of cancer patient did not ring true. Interview scene, tennis court on beach, all good play with a moral: the date is not working. MOBY DICK FOR WHATS A DICK FOR TO PISS WITH. Villan, astrologer, friendsters, midgets, mirrors, confession, spa, kiss, take off the blouse, broken fish tank, shoot her, babies were loud cryers: What more can I say, it was fun to watch. HOODIES. Detention room, praying, angels, no ghosts. A fitting end to a very exciting Improdome.

LET ME KNOW ABOUT YOUR SHOW

Let me know if you are performing, writing, or going to a show. I will attend if I am able. I will post my thoughts on this blog.

Improdome 10/14/05

The night was very high energy, and tons of fun. CATRINA. Big Mac scene did not get to the point. Prophalactic scene was cute in its imagery. The married scene was silly and fun. BRIDES OF CHRIST. Great emotional edge. Good cuts to Mexican restaurant and speed dating. Counciling scene was fun INDIGO BEARD. Disfunctional family -- good emotion. Life guard on beach was cool. WHITES OF THIER EYES. Good dream sequence with recurring demon:Where did reality begin and end? Reverse film technique was cute. Excellent ending with moral comment: Maybe we're not cut out for villany. RABBI BONERFACE. Abusing wife scene was silly, but had good emotional edge. Governor scene did not get to point quickly. The scene degenerated into bisexual marriage theme. The animal scene did not get to point quickly. KA CHING. My group. HOT BITCHES. Good characters. Emotion built nicely. Dodgeball scene with disfunctional family was funny. Good physicality overall. Good second beat with Lisa Lister. THE THIRD RAIL. Good character, attitude,fun to watch. Therapist, friends at work, water cooler love fest. Good second beat with son of therapist. NOW ADAYS. Video will was clever. Good second beat with sardines and midgetville. FLIGHT OF THE BLACK. Great beginning with artificial legs. Good emotional point of view by Diane and Bob. Gay dads, clever and funny cyborg. good second and multiple beats on rape scene. MOBY DICK FACE. Union Pacific scene did not get to point. Good emotional tone on step sisters. Cat scene was cute and clever; this lead to cat finders with good ending.

IMPRODOME 10/7/05

We learned some things, among them is: Diana's inner voice is Shawn. Hardy Boys. The first scene degenerated into trite homosexuality. Scene about chasing girls meandered. It took too long for Mom and Dad scene to get to point. Old English. Hostage scene started with good emotional tone, then degenerated into silliness. (shooting holes in hippo collection). Good scene work in bar. Plush. Good use of monologue. Nice play with smoking and language, mexican food and air freshener. The second monologue lead to a scene that did not get to the point. The salutarian scene had a good dynamic. Oven Mit Parade. Good emotional committment in first scene, the scene meandered. The uncle scene had good potential and built a new emotional tone. Handicapped scene was too funny to be creepy. Flight of the Blazak. Excellent scene work and emotional tone in Diner. Good segue into robbing diner. Ernie's epic journey was silly; it worked and it was very funny. Intruder. The first scene with Police was confusing, truth in comedy was lost. A good attempt at redemption was made with second beat near end of set. French scene was good group game. The scene started with silliness, but gained emotional tone, and created a reality. Whites of Their Eyes. The rollercoaster scene meandered and did not get to the point. The pool scene with a second head sprouting from shoulder was silly, but did manage to get laughs. Penis mention at end was overdone. Scenes with money and college were silly but showed a desire to find a universal truth to communicate to audiance. Premoisened. Excellent emotional tone: from getting high, to tupperware party to prostate removal. Good final line: "Sorry I slept with your brother." Over all this was a high energy, fun to be at event.

Truth In Comedy

Why does an audiance respond to some things and not others? Response comes from some sort of identification or recognition of reality. When watching a performance, the audiance becomes G-d. They approve, disapprove, do not understand, and sometimes, they let their minds wander. As improvers we need to create a reality observers can identify with, and recognize. If people cannot identify the place, situation, players, their minds will wander, they will turn off. Performers should not take too long to establish a reality, or get to point (climax), or truth. Too much dilly dallying is the kiss of death: dreaded audiance boredom sets in. Identifiable reality is harder to establish in fantasy scenes. On an alien space ship, we do not immediately identify with the aliens. If these aliens have to deal with familiar problems, we can then draw them in, but it takes more time, and effort. Too many improvers resort to shock to draw in an audiance: homo sexuality is a big theme. Grasping onto shock short changes the ultimate power we may be able to achieve in a scene. The best scenes I have watched involved every day people in every day places, presented with not every day, believable problems. It is a great deal of fun seeing how actors play out these situations: infidelity, divorce, death, marriage, etc. This brings us to an important part of truth in comedy. Appropriate reactions to fantasy situations on stage, can be a powerful teaching and socializing tool. We have the power to do a great deal of good.

IMPRODOME 9/30/05

As part of her opening monologue Diana made the declaration all women should make to the world, to men, to me: "I love cock". I had the feeling she was not talking about chickens! Pepperoni Pop Corn brought forth the first few lines which had potential for creating an awsome scene, and set. They got lost. Truth in comedy would have triumphed. The beginning of the mother/son relationship was awsome; they changed the characters, the nature of the scene, and as a result it got silly, muddled, and not funny. TRUTH IN COMEDY. Plush was silly but fun. I suppose I have a different mind than most people. I did not see that real emotional edge that makes improv and theater and film engrossing. I did not think they deserved to win. Bitches of Justice set had a nice start building the story. Good second beat with binoculers. They were drunk, and suddenly were sober. This did not make sense to me. Whites of Their Eyes: Excellent emotional committment to video game by Yang. The overall story had some flow and made sense: Shawn was believable as a bad kid. The overall story was not really believable, but hey this is improv. This simple but elegent improv set could be expanded into a serious script. Oreo Jump did not get to the point or basic truth for awhile. The multiple couple including girl/girl was a fun surprise. This improv set could be expanded into a porno movie script. Premoisened exhibited good emotional edge throughout. Good use of multiple characters. This was a group that was really fun to watch. GR. Spickles was fun to watch and exhibited some truth in comedy. Good use of physicality.