Rehearsal: Making It Work For Your Team

Posted by Jeff Thompson on January 17, 2023

Not all rehearsal time is created equal, so it is important to learn how to make your rehearsal work for your team’s needs. Rehearsal is an inevitable part of any comedy troupe’s life (unless you’re one of those too cool for school groups that don’t rehearse). Rehearsal provides your team the ability to bond, improve upon your individual weaknesses, and learn to build that unspoken telepathy that long-running teams tend to have!

Here are some things to consider to make the most of your rehearsal time.

What are your team’s goals during rehearsal?

I’m surprised how many teams don’t have clear goals. You can’t make the most of rehearsal if your team doesn’t know what they’re working towards. Do you want to be funny? Corny? Gross and edgy? Do you want to perform for a drunk, rowdy crowd or a refined, older crowd? What does success look like for your team?

I always start with the question about goals with every class I teach and every team I coach. Otherwise, I feel like I’m doing a disservice to my students and performers! What’s the point of paying me if you’re not getting what you want? As much as I love teaching thematic, organic openings, if the group wants to do improvised Jane Austin, then we’re just wasting time.

Are the members of your team aligned with the team’s rehearsal goals?

I have been on plenty of teams where six members of the team are super excited to do a character workshop, and one person feels like it is a waste of time (it was me, I was the jerk). I’ve coached teams where we’ve tried to avoid premise-based improv, which upset the members who wanted to follow game.

If the team has a goal, but not all of the members of the team agree with that goal, then it’s going to be hard to grow as an ensemble.

Imagine if someone was writing on Saturday Night Live. Instead of pitching sketches, they pitched dramatic short films about children overcoming cyberbullying. Sure, it would be a great film. But, it’s not right for SNL. When team members would rather focus on what they want, instead of what the group has decided on, that’s a moment to reassess.

This is why it’s important for goals to be set before rehearsal begins. Then, we’re not discussing “what we should be doing,” but rather “what is the best way to get there?” In order to make the rehearsal work for your team, you have to make sure that everyone is aligned with the team’s goals.

Do you have the right coach or director to help you achieve those goals?

Oftentimes, teams are assigned a coach or director (if we’re talking about a house team at a theater) or they pick a coach or director who they are a fan of. And sometimes you just pick the person who’s available and cheapest. But their ability to get you closer to your goals is more important than their price or how many shows of theirs you’ve seen.

I know my strengths and weaknesses as a director. So, I know which teams I can help and which I can’t. Your rehearsal time is precious, so it’s important to make a business decision, not a personal decision, about who can serve your team the best.

If you have the ability to choose who leads your team, then make sure that they have a plan for your team. This will make the most of the rehearsal time you have together. Also, it’s okay to switch coaches or directors if they no longer meet the needs of the ensemble! And sometimes it’s good to try a new coach for a week, just to see what it feels like.

How will you measure success?

I would argue that learning how to measure success is the best way to ensure that you’re making the most of your rehearsal time. When you don’t have clearly stated goals, you won’t really know if you are progressing as a team.

If you can measure specific behaviors, it will give you the quantifiable data necessary to analyze your progress as a group. Here are a few examples of goals and questions to ask:

We want to be more committed in our acting.

How many times did we break during a show? How many times did we create a clear character who was different from ourselves?

We want to be better at listening.

How many times did someone not respond to the last thing that was said in a scene? How many times did someone call someone the wrong name?

We want to be the funniest team in the world.

How many times did we make the audience laugh? How long was the laughter?

We want to build a dedicated fan base.

How many people who came to the show last week returned this week? How much are our ticket sales increasing month-to-month?

We just want to goof around and have fun.

Did you goof around and have fun?

This might feel more like a research project than a comedy troupe at this point. Although, if the goal is to improvise and grow, it’s important to be able to measure whether or not that growth actually happened. Building in moments of analysis can help you and your team reorient yourselves if you start to get off-track.

What are the signs that things aren’t working?

Unfortunately, not all teams stay together forever. If this is a surprise to you, then sorry about that. Oops. But there are usually signs that a team is starting to drift apart. Here are a few things to watch out for:

It doesn’t feel fun anymore!

If you dread going to rehearsal, then that’s an internal sign that you don’t feel like you’re making progress (or that you’re on a team with problematic people – also bad). Rehearsals are work. However, if they feel like pulling teeth, then that’s a sign that you’re not growing.

Other people aren’t coming to rehearsal.

People are chronically late or cancelling at the last minute. There’s that one guy who was there for the first meeting that you’re starting to think was just part of a fever dream. Other people’s behavior can show you that the team isn’t growing.

Over time, you don’t feel like your shows are getting better.

As we’ve discussed, having those clear goals helps you know that things are working. But they also help you know that things are not working. If you’ve been rehearsing for months and still not seeing any improvement, then it’s time to shake things up. Re-evaluate as a group and check everyone’s commitment to the group goals. And maybe switch up your coach or director for a few weeks to see if that makes a difference

Final thoughts

Rehearsal is the 2-3 hours per week that you get with your team to build whatever you’ve decided you want to work on. So, it’s your job as an ensemble to make the most of it. Having a good foundation and map for future growth will help you stay in alignment and hopefully grow into the internationally renowned ensemble that you want to be. Or the group that makes really funny fart jokes at 11pm on a Tuesday night. Whatever you want, I hope you’re the best at it.

Please Consider Donating

Posted by Bill Binder on March 22, 2022

The Improv Network is holding a fundraiser so we may continue to operate.

Traditionally, our costs to operate have been covered by festivals utilizing our submission services. With festival cancellations due to Covid, we have lost that stream of income.

We are asking you to please consider donating $12 today. $12 covers a full day of our costs to operate as we do now. Our goal is to raise enough money for one year of operations ($4,380) over the next 30 days.

The Improv Network supports the largest user generated database of improv teams and theaters in the world. It provides instant festival submissions for teams, easy festival application management for festivals, and resources and educational tools that include blogs, videos, podcasts, and interviews. On our website, you can find teacher and workshop profiles, connections and chat features with our worldwide improv community, and professional landing pages for individuals, teams, and teachers, all with no ads.

The Improv Network is run by a board and staff consisting of all unpaid volunteers. Therefore, the $12 each day covers our website, hosting, interactive user database and platform, and all connected software.

We ask that you please consider donating or sharing this. Our mission is to connect improvisers and provide every team, theater, and performer, anywhere in the world, access to the support, information, tools, and resources they need to create outstanding improv and run positive, safe, and diverse theaters and festivals. Now, we are asking for your support.

Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated. We value your time and your part in our community. Thank you.

Update
A special virtual event will be happening on April 24th. Check back soon for more details.

Digital Entertainment Venue Being Built (But Why?)

Digital Entertainment Venues are here to stay

Posted by Marcus Sams on January 29, 2022

Hello, I’m Marcus Sams and I am the founder and AD of Moment Improv Theatre in San Francisco, Ca, USA. I will never forget Wednesday, March 11th 2020 because it was the day that I closed the doors to the physical theatre space that I taught classes and produced shows out of. I had caught wind the week prior that the city would be shutting down, so I ended up already making preparations and was the first improv theatres to close its doors in San Francisco; before a Digital Entertainment Venue was even an idea.

When the pandemic struck, many of us in the improv world had some choices to make. Two of them may have been to lean into virtual improv or wait for the “real” thing to come back. Here we are almost 22 months later and some of us have still not been able to perform the artform that we love on the stages that we love… Wait… let’s dissect some of the above…

Improvisation is Improvisation

I have heard the terms “Real Thing” and “Virtual Improv” in conversations and I of course have some strong opinions, as I do on many things’ improv related. When we deem in-person improv as the “real thing” we other online improv. We make it somehow less than its in-person counterpart. Although there are no mistakes in our improv, I believe this is a mistake and is counter to some of the major tenants of improv. I’m specifically thinking about Yes&, Exploration, and Discovery.

These concepts are important in improv just as much as they are in the artform of online improvisation. Yes, it is an artform, and we are only scratching the surface of what is possible. Like in any art form you must use the right tools for the job. Think about it, if you are a pencil artist that uses pencil on paper and then someone gives you acrylic paints and you try to use the same techniques that you did as a pencil artist, then your art will suffer and you will not have much fun doing it. The same is for our improv. We need to cultivate the skill set and learn the tools. Once we do that, then we can explore and discover what is possible.

Closing a Physical Venue

I consider myself to be fortunate because by the following Monday, I had my first online rehearsal with our main training troupe. I think I wanted to provide some semblance of normalcy to my performers and honestly, for myself as well. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it also was not bad, and it was a start. I could instantly see the potential for online improv and decided to commit to the exploration of this new medium of expression. This work led to me being just as busy as I was pre-pandemic, only it was more research and application based.

Because of my IT background I decided to do the work of exploring this new fairly untapped land of online improv. Working backwards, as I do when crafting workshops or shows, I had to ask myself, what did I want to see in online improv? Because of my on-camera acting and filmmaking experience, my vision centered around the tools of the trade. Lights, Camera, Action!

the new kind of tech booth

Making Changes

I poured over the capabilities of online technologies and developed an approach to our online shows. I quickly realized that IF I wanted people to perform a particular style of online improv, then I would need to teach classes in its approach. The fact is many of us were not trained to be on camera actors. I started to put together a document outlining the approach that I had named the F.L.I. Technique. This stood for Fixed Lens Improvisation. The idea was that in film and television, the camera moves around the performer, while when we are acting to our webcams, it is a fixed lens. We as actors, now needed to move around the frame to tell stronger stories.

This was heavily workshopped with the group, at the time, called the Moment Players. I cannot express my gratitude to them for not only sticking around as this being developed, but also for the trust they put in me to lead them in this new genre of performance. Once many of the techniques were solidified it was time to expand and teach these techniques in classes. Teleprov A-C were formed.

Taking performances online

Performing without a Venue

OK, classes were set, show style and approach was set, and corporate clients were wanting more and more improv because of the general feeling of disconnection we were all feeling. At the time of writing this article, I have personally taught over 925 hours+ of online improv instruction since the pandemic began and yet something was/is still missing.

We still do not have the feeling of going into a theatre and seeing who is around. We rarely get to laugh with each other while watching a show. When performing we rarely get to hear the laughter of the audience. We still do not get the level of connection to our communities as we did in the past. That is what was missing. The since of community. Now, can anything online ever replace what we are all use to in a physical theatre? Nope. Not at all. Are we trying to replace physical improv? Not at all? 22 months later are we still dealing with a virus that is messing up our improv scene? Yes. Do I think online improv has a place in the world? YES& again, we are only scratching the surface.

After running a few hang outs early on I quickly learned that the downfall of zoom or google hangouts is that they work great for meetings, but not for social. It creates a situation where the loudest one in the zoom room wins. You see people participate less and less to the point where they just stop showing up. Also, because many of us already use zoom for work many do not want to use it for pleasure and that makes a lot of sense. A new solution needed to be found.

Opening Night

Opening a Digital Entertainment Venue

This Saturday Moment Improv Theatre will be hosting its first large scale event with the solution that we have chosen to roll with. There are already more than 107 people RSVPed to the Opening Night Gala of the Digital Entertainment Venue. It will be exciting to see how people react to it. At the end of the day, we are attempting to recreate a feeling of live theatre, warts and all. What warts do I speak of? The unknown variables that come with live theatre. Perhaps there will be a loud laugher in your section that makes you laugh more. Perhaps you will run into a friend you have not seen for a long time. Or maybe, the lights and sound go out abruptly?!?! We will all get to experience the unknown together.

Stay tuned for future parts of this blog as I will go into more of the details of this journey. Until then, I’ll see you in the digital theatre.

This is part of an ongoing series of celebrating improv online. A Digital Entertainment Venue is a great addition to the online experience.

Marcus Sams – Our New Board Member

Posted by Melanie Leon on July 19, 2021

We are thrilled to announce that Marcus Sams is our newest Board Member here at The Improv Network! He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to our team. We cannot thank Marcus enough for volunteering his time and energy. You can meet Marcus on our Improv FAQ conversation series on 8/8/2021 from 1pm-2pm EST, live on our Facebook page!

Marcus and Improv

Marcus Sams is the founder of Moment Improv Theatre as well as the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Improv Festival. He has performed improv since 2001 and has been in 70+ national improv festival shows. This includes the “Secret Show ” at the Chicago Improv Festival. Here, he opened for BassProv with his duo Liss n’ Sams, featuring Joe Liss of Second City. Additionally, he was a “Master Teacher” at the Alaska State Improv Festival in 2017. He has been a headlining act and instructor at the KC Improv Festival, Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, Seattle Festival of Improv Theatre, and others.

With agility built into his bloodstream, Marcus transitioned from in-person improv training to online improv training in 5 days. He taught over 345 hours of online improv instruction in 2020 alone. Moreover, he pioneered the online improvisational style known as the F.L.I. Technique and Teleprov. He has also been producing cutting edge online improv shows since September of 2020. Marcus has taught improv to companies such as Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Airbnb, and Ebay. Also, Marcus has written over 240 hours of curriculum for Moment Improv Theatre and currently teaches 3-5 classes per week. Additionally, Marcus is the founder of one of the first African American owned improv theatres and training centers in the United States, established in 2014.

Marcus’s Approach to Improv

Marcus believes that improv skills are life skills and that anyone can participate in this magical and transformative art form. He has a systematic and heart-centric approach to improv that breaks down improv concepts to their core units. This delivers usable tools to the working player. Marcus was originally trained as a stage actor and brings this respect for stagecraft and training to the improv world. He believes that improv is not a crap-shoot and that once one learns the craft of improv, it frees them up to experience a deeper level of play.

Outside of Improv

When Marcus is not engaged in improv, he also has a lot on his plate. He serves on the Union Square Business Improvement District’s marketing committee, is the co-founder of the Bay Area Film Mixer, and has professional representation through MDT Talent.

Moving Forward

We cannot wait to work with Marcus Sams. Exciting changes are on the horizon and we look forward to having his input. With the celebration of this addition, we also must say a bittersweet goodbye to having Nick Armstrong on our Board. Nick has been here since day one, founding The Improv Network. He has been an incredible team member and mentor every single day. Nick is truly a representation of The Improv Network and its work, and is one of the most supportive people. We hope to make him proud as we continue on with our mission. Nick is moving on to other amazing projects as he continues to be a guiding light in the improv world, and we wish him our best.

Producing Your Own Improv Show

Posted by Jeff Thompson on

Hey you. Congrats on producing your own improv or sketch show! Welcome to the wonderful and thankless world of production. Everything is almost solely on your shoulders! Nope, don’t run… you’re in it now. And there’s no escaping.

When producing your own improv or sketch show, you’ll want to focus on five main areas. These will ensure that your show runs smoothly from the initial planning stages to counting all your money as your limo drives you to the bank.

Choosing Location

You’ve heard the saying “Location, location, location!” right? Well they were talking about producing shows! I can’t actually guarantee that they were. But let’s just pretend that they were because the economy is rough right now and I can’t afford a fact-checker.

Where you hold your show is going to affect a lot of your future decisions. For example, if you hold your show at a theater that has its own programming, they might offer you tech personnel, help with ticketing, and might even have a dedicated parking space that you can use!

The location is going to affect the number of seats. Location is often the most expensive cost in producing a show. Your first show probably doesn’t need a 500 seat theater. Definitely don’t spend money on seats that you can’t fill. You can always book a bigger theater later when the show is a massive success (which it will be).

Also, shows can be held online. This makes your show more accessible. This means that your audience can just shift themselves upright on the couch and tune into your show. This will also be the cheapest option. So don’t forget this as a possibility.

Producing Tech

The more complicated your show is, the more tech you’ll need. Additionally, the more likely it is you’ll have technical issues during a show. We’ll talk about rehearsal in a bit. But, you definitely want to set your tech person up for success.

First of all, make sure your tech has the experience of having run previous improv or sketch shows before. Unless you have a stage manager, coach, or director helping them call the cues, they will have to use their best judgment if something goes awry. For example, if someone changes the out-line of a scene, your tech has to determine the best moment to black out.

Someone with good comedic sensibilities will make you look great, even if a mistake happens.

Secondly, make sure your directions to the tech person are clear. I’ve teched for shows where they don’t give me a full copy of their script. Then they’ll tell me that I’m supposed to blackout the scene when someone says “Watch Out!” Would you believe me if I told you that the phrase “Watch Out!” is said three different times in the sketch?

Just like you would (or at least should) proofread your script for formatting and spelling errors before sending it to your actors, check for issues in your tech sheet.

Obviously, this is less complicated with improv. But you still want to be clear about how you expect the show to end and how transitions during the show should be handled.

Producing Marketing

A few months ago, I wrote an article about “Marketing Your Improv Show.” I won’t go in-depth into anything that was discussed at-length in the article. However, marketing, as you might assume, is an important part of production. Think about how you’re going to get people to the show. Remember, most people don’t buy their tickets until a day or two before the show (sometimes even the day of). So it always feels a little stressful.

Make sure your audience knows all of the key details: how much the show is going to cost, who will be a part of the show, the location of the show, and any important details on parking and buying tickets. For example, if you don’t have a credit card reader, you should very clearly state that the door only accepts cash.

Post as early as possible to gather some awareness of the show. Then, really do a stronger push a week or two before the show. this is where people will start making a committed decision about whether they want to attend.

Setting Up Ticketing and Finances

You’ll want to figure out how you’ll keep track of people who are ticketed and who are not. Some theaters have this system in place, and it makes your life so much easier. But others might not.

How are you going to keep track of people who’s tickets you’ve taken, but left to go to the bathroom or to smoke a cigarette? Will there be a stamp or a ticket stub? Who will be keeping track and checking your list of pre-purchased tickets?

Also, once the show is over, where does the money go? Does one member of your team hold on to it? If there were credit card transactions (or Venmo, or CashApp, or PayPal transactions), does it go into one team member’s bank account?

Being clear about how you handle money at the beginning will save you a lot of headache at the end.

Scheduling Rehearsal

Last but not least, rehearsal! Never assume that you can use the space before the show unless you have it in writing from your location. Some theaters might program shows back-to-back. This means during the 30 minutes before your show, the theater might not be available because the previous show needs to end (and they always end late). Then, the staff needs to clean and start getting the audience into their seats so that your show starts on time (which it probably won’t).

Rehearsal gives you time to work out the logistical and technical kinks that you might not have realized were a problem. What happens if the entrance you were going to bring a big prop through has a curtain over it? Or what if the stage is smaller or wider than you realized it was in the pictures, and now your blocking is thrown off?

Getting into the space before you perform is key to having a great show because you’ll catch and fix any mishaps before they have the chance to affect the actual performance. You might also want to check out my article on rehearsals. I’ll be posting it soon!

Final Thoughts on Producing

While this article is not exhaustive, it will provide you with the basic understanding that you’ll need to produce your own improv or sketch show. However, nothing beats actual experience, so make sure that you get out there and try it for yourself! It’s a lot of work, but it’s fulfilling in the end.

Happy producing!

Countdown to a Unique Fundraiser

Posted by Bill Binder on May 21, 2021

If innovation and adaptability are the soul of improv. There are possibly no better personifications of it than Kelly Buttermore and Justin Peters. The creators of From Justin to Kelly, The Very Normal Festival and The Countdown Improv Festival have spent years re-imagining what it is to be performers and teachers, creating conferences and festivals that weren’t carbon copies of the events that already existed around the world. That didn’t stop when our stages had to close their doors last year. Justin and Kelly created new online experiences that went beyond putting their shows on Zoom.

This weekend, they’re putting on a very special and unusual show and fundraiser for the Countdown Festival. I was able to check in with them about the one of a kind festival and fundraiser.

What’s the origin of the name and the festival?

Countdown is unique in many ways, but chief among them is that it’s the only festival in the world devoted exclusively to trio, duo, and solo improv. We’ve been a duo now for 11+ years, and we’re big fans and partisans of small group improv. We like it, in part, because it’s hard. When there’s just a few of you on stage, there’s nowhere to hide, and you’re have to learn pretty quickly how to make your choices work, rather than abandoning them in a panic and retreating to the sidelines to hide out for a few scenes while ruing the day you ever signed up for improv class. Anyway, we were inspired back in 2017 to found a festival that put small groups front and center. In Tampa, where we do not live. (We like to make things difficult for ourselves, we guess.) We’re now in our fifth year, which is unbelievably exciting to us.

The two of us have spent a lot of time performing, teaching, and headlining at festivals all over the country; we took from those experiences and vowed to create the sort of festival that we ourselves would be excited to attend. Our orienting principle is that the festival is first and foremost a truly performer-focused festival, where we welcome, value, and celebrate every single performer on the bill. We don’t have headliners and we don’t stratify our participants; we extend the same courtesy and hospitality to everyone, and we work really hard to situate all of our performers to do their best work and have a great time. We’ve all been to festivals where you board the plane home and think “did anyone even know that I was there?” We pledged never to have anyone ask themselves that question after attending Countdown. (We also pledged that no performer would ever have to pay for a bottle of water while at the festival; this is a really big thing to Justin, for some reason.)

The name itself has a couple different origins. One is the notion of a “3…2…1” countdown, which aligns the trio, duo, and solo angle. We also run a roaming pop-up comedy space in Brooklyn called Countdown Theater; the idea there being that this space (just like improv) won’t be there forever, and if you weren’t there, then you missed it. Ephemerality is the name of the game!

The idea of a “festival” has had to be re-thought this last year as we went online. How did you approach re-inventing yourself?

Reinvention was the name of the game for us in 2020, as it was for improvisers and improv producers everywhere. When we decided to produce Countdown online in 2020, rather than just shelving it for the year and coming back in 2021, we realized that we had to proceed as if we were programming five nights of television, rather than five nights of live performance. Since people would be watching the festival on their screens, we had to adopt the vocabulary of television and make the festival something that would be worth “binge watching.” So we created ongoing narratives, running bits, and through lines to help cohere things. We also held Zoom calls with every single act preceding the festival to help them brainstorm ways to adapt their show to the needs of the camera. It was all a huge learning experience — and an incredibly rewarding one at that. We expanded Countdown in every conceivable way — more performers, more workshops, and two additional nights of shows, and ended up running our biggest and most successful festival yet.

The Very Normal Festival

The virtual version of Countdown was in August 2020, and we were so galvanized by that experience that we decided to turn around and run another one right on its heels in December 2020 called the Very Normal Festival, in honor of the very normal year that was 2020. We encouraged acts to submit the sort of weird, uncategorizable shows and bits that they always wanted to try but could never fit into a traditional festival lineup. We took what we’d learned in August and leaned even harder into the thematicism, and we came up with an overarching narrative that the two of us had been conscripted by a mysterious unseen figure known as the Commodore to produce the most normal comedy festival ever made. Anytime the festival deviated from that norm (which happened constantly), the Commodore would communicate his displeasure via a series of messages in bottles. (There was also a vaguely nautical theme to all of this.) The narrative built over the course of the four nights until the big reveal that the Commodore was really the two of us the entire time. It all ended with a singalong of the Looking Glass song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).” It was absurd and ridiculous and made us want to build more weirdness into our in-person events moving forward.

We need to mention here that neither the virtual version of Countdown nor Very Normal would have been possible without the help of our friends and production partners Anthony Francis and Marisa Cutaia from Improv U in Delray Beach, Florida, and our Atlanta-based designer, Dan Deming-Henes. They are superstars!

There’s lots of traditional fundraising routes. Why a telethon?

While we’re also pursuing traditional fundraising routes this year — sponsorships, grants, and so on — our costs for 2021 are projected to be higher than ever before, so we need to find ways to open new revenue streams. The telethon — in which we’re going to be performing a 12.5-hour monoscene with no breaks — seemed like a fun stunt that at best would galvanize community support and consolidate individual donations around a central thesis, and at worst would make us both really exhausted and sort of depressed that no one else cares about this thing as much as we do. It’s worth a shot! We wanted to do something fun and unique where just hearing about the concept would theoretically grab the audience’s attention and make them not only think “wow, I gotta see that!” but also “wow, that’s ambitious and I want to support that!” We also wanted to do something that was, frankly, fun and creatively fulfilling/challenging for the two of us — and, voila, the idea to do a twelve and a half hour-long monoscene was born.

We’ll be honest here, we have literally no idea what we’ve gotten ourselves into. Then again, we also never could have foreseen producing an improv festival in Tampa, a city nearly 1200 miles away from where we actually live in NYC, but here we are. Life comes at you fast!

A dramatically long show could take many forms. What drew you to the monoscene?

The monoscene was a natural choice for us, as it’s the basis for our duo’s own signature format, the Walter, which emphasizes eye contact, physical proximity, and a total commitment to the moment. A 12.5-hour monoscene, however, is a whole other ballgame, so we’ve gotten over 50 improvisers (and counting) from all over to join the scene over Zoom as character walk-ons over the course of the day. (Those characters can also recur — just as long as they return as the same character later on, otherwise total chaos will ensue.) It’s going to be one hell of a show.

As the founders, producers, and faces of a festival centered around small group improv, we wanted to show just how hard we were willing to commit to the most extreme version of duo improv we could dream up. It’s going to force us to really sit in the characters that we create, and be patient with our scenework. We think the length of the show is actually going to be a little bit freeing, insofar as we can just *live* in these characters and this world for an extended period, and not have to work so hard to impose a 30-minute story arc on the whole thing. There’ll still be story and character arcs, don’t get us wrong, it’s just that we can let them develop over time, which is sort of cool.

Why Twitch? Will you be using the chat?

We had really positive experiences with Twitch with our two festivals last year; the platform is really user-friendly and allows for instantaneous audience engagement via the chat, which is a lot of fun to watch in real time. We will definitely be using the chat for the telethon, both to stoke donations and as a recap feature for those viewers who will be joining the scene in progress and will want some context for what they’re seeing. Think of it as a “Previously on this telethon…” Should be fun! But we’ll also be streaming simultaneously on our Facebook pages in case that’s easier for people.

What is Twitch? How do I use it?

Twitch is an online video service, similar to YouTube or Facebook. The major difference is that it is primarily designed for watching live video instead of per-recoded shows. This has made it a natural place for many improv companies. You can watch shows without an account, or you can create a free account and gain the ability to chat with other audience members, and sometimes performers in a chat area.

The Fundraiser can be found here on Twitch. Be sure to search for some of your other favorite improv shows there too.

Learn more about Twitch here.

How can people support the festival?

The biggest way you can support the festival is to donate to our fundraising campaign. Literally every dollar helps as we return our festival to an in-person event this year, and it’s especially helpful in the wake of the pandemic, which has had the effect of increasing production costs and lowering revenues for performing arts venues and events everywhere. Producing an event of this magnitude is hard, doing it in this environment is even harder.

By donating, you’ll not just be helping us to put on a top notch improv festival in September — one founded on egalitarian, mindful, performer-friendly principles — you will be helping to revitalize improv comedy in Tampa. Tampa’s Box Theater closed in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, leaving Hillsborough County without a dedicated improv venue. Our festival has always been a vital part of the improv ecosystem in Tampa, now it plays an even bigger role as the only extant improv event in town. Despite the fact that we don’t live here, we love it here and have come to know and truly love the improv community in Tampa Bay, and we want to be a part of rebuilding it here.

Soap Opera as an Exercise for Long-Form

Posted by Chris Petersen on April 21, 2021

Deidre Hall, Eileen Davidson
“Days of our Lives” Set
NBC Studios
Burbank
11/21/14
© sean smith/jpistudios.com
310-657-9661
Episode # 12580
U.S.Airdate 04/29/15

If you’ve been doing long-form improv for a while, it’s easy to forget how daunting it is as a student to make the leap from short-form. And if you have been doing long-form, it’s also easy to have plot-heavy sets where everyone is struggling to connect to one another. To strengthen the skills and confidence in long-form playing, I like to use a game called Soap Opera. This has helped groups at any and every level. It adds some training wheels for beginning students and helps existing long-form groups work on making relationships while allowing stories to emerge unforced in a set.

How to Use Soap Opera as an Exercise

I start this by having the class or troupe assign each other a character with the format, adjective-occupation (or role). If they’re stuck, I’ll suggest they start with classic soap opera archetypes, like ‘Lusty Gardener’ or ‘Scheming Mayor,’ but really anything works. Getting the suggestions from two different people helps create less obvious juxtapositions. Note that these labels serve as the character’s names as well.

An important thing to point out to the group (which hopefully they’ll come to see on their own) is that the helpful word in the character’s names isn’t the noun, but the adjective. They’re not going to get much mileage concentrating on the gardener part of their character. It’s that adjective that colors the lens through which they do things. ‘Lusty,’ ‘Vengeful,’ ‘Depressed’…..these are the traits that give the players a way to make decisions. How would I respond to this situation if my emotion were X?

You might think focusing on this would result in one-dimensional characters, limited to one emotion in their palette. Turns out that just making any decision like this helps students find a range of human responses. And no matter the adjective or emotion that they’re assigned, when they’re forced to dig a little deeper to play with it, they’ll find there’s a wide range of available responses.

One of the great things about the soap opera conceit is that it’s an excuse to go big and exaggerated. This can result in pretty broad characters, but that’s okay. Anything that encourages playing with big characteristics and choices is good. My experience is that it helps give players an ‘excuse’ to play a character far removed from themselves.

We get a title for this imaginary soap opera and then I tell them it’s something like episode 47 of season 12. That helps get us away from introduction scenes and work with characters that have known each other a while. Any two players come out and start a scene.

At this point – before any improv has happened – these characters have:

A name
An emotion that gives at least a hint to their point of view
An understanding that they have a history with their scene partner
A backline of similarly armed characters

That’s a lot of the who-what-where taken care of for us, but in a lightweight way so they can just play as their character. All they really have to hold onto is that adjective in their name.

Players tag each other out in whatever manner makes sense for the group (clapping, calling ‘freeze’, etc). I encourage them to try it both ways: always leaving one player out there with an edit and always swapping out both characters.

Most importantly, this game is built entirely on the network of two-person relationships. Every scene is defined by two characters being together and doing something. I have them stick to that two-person rule with the understanding that a situation might eventually come up needing more than that. This encourages only adding more people when it’s absolutely necessary. They kind of have to ‘earn’ it.

Potential Challenge

The hardest thing I’ve seen players deal with in the Soap Opera is remembering everyone’s names. To help, I have everyone review several times before we start, then say one line of dialog as that character. I tell them to overuse character’s names when they can, to an absolutely ridiculous degree (ridiculousness is an ideal spot to get to in the exercise). There’s a wonderful group support system that happens with this. While one character’s name might come easily to mind, someone else might have a different character’s name easily at hand. As a result, the whole group reinforces each other’s memory.

But the best thing they can do to reinforce who is who is to play the hell out of those names. If you’re the Lusty Gardener, you need to be as soap opera passionate as you can be. It needs to be clear to everyone you’re playing with that: Oh yeah. That’s that character.

Debrief

When the set is done (I’m the one to call it), we’ll talk through where the story went. Often, I’ll try to map out the various connections between the different people and how they feel about each other. The fun discovery is that even when they couldn’t feel it while playing, a story automatically develops just from being these characters. They don’t have time to shape an overall plot. Everyone is too busy robbing the bank, having an affair, poisoning the mayor, or what have you. Plot is what characters do. Play with your characters and you’ll create a plot – a story – just by having them do something.

Thank you so much to Chris Petersen for writing this blog!

Looking for some dramatic soap opera scenes? Here they are!

Healthy Festival Selection for your Troupe

Festival Selection in an Age of Abundance

Posted by Bill Binder on March 15, 2021

Festival selection can seem daunting. Selecting which festivals to submit to used to be a ludicrous hypothetical. 20 years ago, depending on the part of the world you lived in, there were maybe three or four festivals that were feasible to visit. Everyone put their VHS tapes in the mail and hoped for the best. It was an exciting time to be invited to one of them.

Now there is an abundance of amazing festivals. That doesn’t reduce the prestige of a festival invite; quite the opposite in many cases. Festivals have grown together, shared ideas, and made an amazing circuit of festivals. It does however mean that the options can be a little staggering. Many troupes, especially younger ones, don’t have the time or money to go to more than one or two festivals a year. And those same troupes don’t always have the experience or the friend network to know what to expect from different festivals. So how does a team pick a festival?

What is the festival looking for?

The first question is if your show fits the festival. Think about your show and your audiences. Is that the same thing that’s being asked for by the festival? That’s not always an easy question to answer. Here are a few ways to make it clearer.

What kinds of shows is the festival hosting? Is it improv exclusive or a mix of stand-up, sketch, and improv? Is it looking for more comedy-eccentric shows or more theatrical shows? Are they looking for short-form and/or long-form? Is it a Johnstone festival or a ComedySportz event? Will it be a musical festival, a festival for seniors, or a youth festival? All of these things are usually pretty easy to figure out if you read the festival description and check out their website. Many festivals also have great FAQ page about what they’re looking for and what to expect if you visit. Don’t ignore these FAQs. They’re there to help you understand what you’re submitting to.

Also, read the descriptions and FAQs carefully. Sometimes, there are very specific things that might not fit your description. A festival a few years ago specifically said “We love Harold, but we chose not to feature any this year.” OK, great. If you’re a Harold team, bookmark that festival for next year.

There are some things that are not going to be in the FAQ or the description that are specific to your troupe. If your show is spectacularly technically advanced, reach out to the festival producers and see if that’s going to work with their logistics. If your show tends to favor lots of inside jokes about your home town, that might not translate in another continent.

What is the audience looking for?

There’s one question to ask yourself that gets asked far too infrequently. Is this audience appropriate for our show? Think about your own show. It probably is something similar to this: you play every Friday night for the same regular audience members who have found you and enjoy your style. The show is in a set with one or maybe two other groups in a 60 minute block. That’s fantastic. That’s not what your festival experience might be. You’ll be performing for potentially a much bigger audience that doesn’t know you, and you’re maybe the seventh show they saw that evening. If it’s a marathon show, you might be going on at 2:45AM in the morning. Is that necessarily a bad thing? No, not at all! It can be an amazing new experience, but it is different.

Let’s go back to that “maybe the seventh show” idea. A weekly show has a lot of freedom to slowly build intricate relationships. A festival show doesn’t always have that. You might only have 20 minutes, one-time, to do your show. Will the show still translate for the audience? Also, putting your improvised Herman Melville show after a show called “Monkey Fart Danger Hour” is going to be like eating a bunch of Cheez-Its right after eating a bunch of Flaming Hot Cheetos. I absolutely, non-ironically, would love to see both of those shows, but maybe not back to back. So how do you fit into all of this?

When all of that is exhausted, you still have a tremendous resource. Email. The producers of these festivals deal with troupes all of the time. They know you have questions, and 9 times out of 10, they’re super-cool and happy to talk to you. They want great shows for their fest, but they also want your show to be as awesome as it can be. Producers are cool that way.

Is this practical?

Nothing is the same kind of heartbreaking as getting invited to a cool festival and then having to decline the invitation. Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our day planners. Some festivals in far away parts of the world are enticing, but healthy festival selection is about testing the feasibility of a trip. Your expenses for a trip aren’t just travel. It’s also lodging, food, and many other small considerations. For many of your troupe members, this is in addition to not getting paid for their day to day job if you have to travel or perform on weekdays. Many festivals try to put out of town visitors on weekends, but not all.

Hotel costs can get up there and putting a troupe of eight in one room sounds manageable, but it’s a pain. Do you know why? Everyone has different after-party schedules and no one gets any sleep. Then, your show is off and you’ve put a lot of time and money into representing yourself in a way that you didn’t want.

Will you do a good show?

Everything mentioned in this post so far has a fair amount of wiggle room. It’s possible to justify and blur lines a little bit when you really have your heart set on a festival. The result of that though is that every compromise ends up being a compromise to your show. Can you fit seven people in a hotel room? You sure can. I’ve done it. But you will have sleep deprived team members trying to perform. Can you do your show with three members staying at home? You can, but that’s not what you presented to the festival and it’s a disservice to you, the festival, and to the people at home. Can you modify your show to be a better fit for the festival? Probably, but then you’re not really doing the show you love. You’re just being Sandy at the end of “Greece,” and that’s nobody’s favorite part of the movie.

You can always justify reasons to submit to a festival. But the more you do, the more you should think about if a little more thought needs to go into your festival selection.

Online Festival Selection

Online Festivals have been born of necessity over the last year. But don’t assume they’ll disappear when physical doors open. Have a conversation with your troupe about your virtual shows and what your goals are. One of the joys of online shows is that a lot of the logistics from this post become much more manageable, but they do add a few new topics. For example, you may be doing a show in a time zone that’s very strange for you. Make sure your troupe is up for that.

A quick note on tech. You may use OBS or some other software beyond Zoom to make your show work. That often means a set-up connected to your Twitch account or your computer. You are set up to broadcast from and to a specific place. When you’re in a festival environment, you’re a guest in their software. With a little planning between you and the festival’s tech team, you can make sure your show works for both parties. (Huge shout out to all the tech people who have made our transition this year possible. We’d be nowhere without you) That conversation needs to happen, and probably before you even decide to submit. Otherwise, it won’t be fun for anyone.

Is this going to be fun?

Really, it all comes down to this. If you’re new to the festival circuit, this blog may sound discouraging. But being thoughtful in your festival selection doesn’t mean to stop reaching out for cool opportunities, it just means being smarter about it. You’re going to have years of amazing trips and friendships ahead of you. You are going to have so much fun. I hope to personally meet you at some festival out there in the future. The longer you attend festivals, the more your network of friends will grow and make this process easier. Some thoughtful festival selection now means we’ll have a greater chance of playing together down the road.

Marketing Your Improv Show

Posted by Jeff Thompson on February 22, 2021

If you are like many other comedians, you probably haven’t put much thought into the marketing of your improv show. You made a Facebook invite, invited your friends, and made a post or two on Instagram… but is that enough?

Imagine this- you’re in line at your local coffee shop. The line advances and you’re next. You see a stack of brightly colored postcards that seem to be advertising an upcoming show.

The postcards are glossy on the front and matte on the back. There are a bunch of smiling faces attached to posed and costumed bodies. Also, there are words on the postcard. You consider moving to see what the words say, but you decide against it.

Then, you pull out your phone and check your text messages. You advance in the line. Finally, you order your coffee. The postcards sit there and gather dust. Fade to black.

This story unfortunately doesn’t have a happy ending, because you could have been an audience member for your city’s hottest improv show. But, you missed out because their marketing is ineffective.

People often think, “If my show is good enough, I shouldn’t need to worry about marketing.” This is patently false. I’m not just saying that because I have an MBA with a marketing emphasis and I want to feel better about my mountains of student loan debt (even though that is a consideration). If your show is good, then marketing should be your main concern. Because why waste your time being good if no one knows it?

Here are some things to consider when putting together a show:

What makes your show unique?

This is honestly the hardest question for teams to answer. However, putting work into understanding the answer to this question will make it easier to promote your show.

Is your team a bunch of dudes who do a Harold? I’m sorry to say that there are one or two other teams that do the exact same thing. But just one or two, so that’s okay.

Are you a team of former Navy Veterans who dress as members of the band KISS and do improvised Shakespeare? Yeah, that’s pretty unique! And I’d bet my improv diploma (from a very prestigious improv school) that that show would sell.

Understand what makes you unique, and you’re going to have a much easier time marketing your improv show. The alternative is that you blend in with all the other noise. Remember, you’re also competing with Netflix, TikTok, and Disney+ for people’s time, money, and attention (this sentence will be incredibly dated in about two years).

Who is going to watch this show?

No show appeals to everyone. And, if you try to sell your show to everyone, you’re wasting your time and energy. Big advertising firms have this figured out. You’re not going to see a Mary Kay ad right after a wrestling match. Nor are you going to see a Life Alert add in the middle of a block of Cartoon Network shows.

Put some thought into who your audience might be. If you’re doing improvised Star Wars, then are there ways to market just to Star Wars fans? For a team composed of septuagenarians, perhaps advertising at the local college isn’t wise.

If you know your brand, then you can know your audience. Think about what they’re probably doing before they come see your show, and you’ll have a better idea of how to find them.

How would they prefer to find out about this show?

As mentioned before, you want to be careful about wasting your marketing energy on things that won’t be productive for your show. For example, if I know that I’m putting together an improv show for kids, then I probably won’t post about it on Facebook. UNLESS I’m trying to sell it to the parents of those kids.

Also, think about how you would rather find out about a show. What would a show have to do to make you interested in watching it? Are email blasts helpful or a waste of time? There are tools like MailChimp that allow you to actually see how many people open and engage with your emails. Try out the free versions and see what kind of responses you get.

Additionally, don’t go crazy with social media accounts. Instead of having a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Parler (this joke will be dated at the time of publishing this article), TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest for your team…. maybe just pick one and get REALLY good at it.

Marketing and building a brand and a relationship with your audience takes time. So, wasting energy on things that aren’t productive just means that you’ll burn out quickly.

What is the relevant information that people need to know about your show?

Again, people have limited time and attention. Be quick, direct, and informative. Watch commercials, look at social media advertising, and pay attention to the emails that you receive. What catches your attention, what bores you, and what annoys you? Learn from others!

Is the messaging you use around your show confusing? Can people figure out what you are “selling” at a quick glance? If your show is called “BLAST PARTY: AN EXTRAVAGANZA OF EXTRAVAGANCE,” then I might just ignore it because I’m confused (or I might check it out because of curiosity – who knows?).

If you’re advertising to improvisers, then you don’t need to explain a lot of things. You can use our shorthand: longform, Harold, Deconstruction, etc. If you’re advertising to the uninitiated, you might have to spell things out. “Blast Party is an improvised show about five, goofy friends who have to save America from a new terrorist plot every week. Each Saturday, they will take a few suggestions from the audience and create a new show on the spot.”

Include the information that will help people decide whether or not they want to see the show. Also, include how to see the show when they decide they want to see it.

What is the best way to package all of the above information?

Finally, you have to decide how to package everything. A postcard might have attention grabbing visuals on the front, with key information detailed on the back. While an email invite might be filled with GIFs or links to performances, and information about the next show.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy that will work for all teams. But if you take the time to think about your show’s uniqueness, your ideal audience, their preferences, and how best to communicate to them, you’ll have a dedicated and adoring audience in no time.

Lindsey Barrow: Intersectional Feminism and Improv

Posted by Jeff Thompson on January 18, 2021

Just Lindsey being Lindsey.

I recently sat down with Lindsey Barrow (just kidding, I emailed her– it’s still a pandemic). She is the Artistic Director of The Ruby LA, an intersectional, feminist comedy theater in Los Angeles. Full disclosure, Lindsey and I are friends (although she prefers that I not say that in public or private). I think she is one of the unsung heroes of the improv community.

Lindsey Barrow has performed at various theatres including The Ruby, Nerdist, UCB, iO, and Second City doing stand-up, sketch comedy, and improv. She’s performed sketch and improv for over ten years and you can see her on shows like Speechless and Casual, and way too many commercials.

So The Ruby is an intersectional, feminist comedy theater. Can you tell us what that means and how you’ve implemented that philosophy?

Lindsey with her improv team, Karen.

Lindsey Barrow: Sure! Intersectional Feminism in comedy means we understand that a person’s comedy style will not only be influenced by their perspective of being a woman, or a black man, or a non-binary person. But, there are many areas of inequality that will determine a performer’s point of view, what they think is funny, or how they can function in society. We take all of that into consideration when we plan out our curriculum. We want you to be able to grow into the funniest person you think you can be, not the funniest person Randy thinks you should be. I mean, Randy’s funny and all… but like, he might not get a joke about tampons or pronoun mistakes.

In all seriousness, Equality, Inclusivity, and Diversity (or EDI) have always been a number one priority for us. We make sure our board and instructors match the community we want to serve. This is called a top-down approach. Therefore, EDI has always been first on our minds. It is not a patch that was thrown in after we created a comedy school.

What issues have you seen in the comedy community? What is The Ruby doing to help fix them?

Lindsey Barrow: I’m excited performers are feeling empowered to speak up and correct theaters that they call home when it comes to EDI. A lot of these comedy institutions rely on a “one way to be funny” mentality. This has trickled down to “white dude in his late 40’s thing is funny.” And that sucks. There are so many ways to be funny – see previous statement about Randy. Plus, just an entire system that works against anyone who is a marginalized voice, doesn’t have the ability to easily take a class and network, or isn’t related to a Coppola.

Sketch Team “Rosa” performing at the Ruby

Please tell me more.

I worry that the necessary changes that need to be made will be forgotten because of the pandemic. Also, I’m worried about the onus for change being placed on BIPOC shoulders. Running a theater is hard work. It pays no money and maybe gets you a “thanks for your work” email like once every few months. Expecting BIPOC folks to open and run an expensive theater for themselves because white spaces aren’t doing better isn’t a great answer. Unless folks want to open up said theater, then they obviously should. I must warn you, it pays no money and the thank you emails are sparse, but they are nice.

Additionally, there are a lot of great spaces that are ALREADY run by these folks. So support them and help them grow instead of just telling black people to open their own space. Which was just a weird thing that happened last summer. Giving a shout out on Twitter is rad, buying a class is radder, volunteering and connecting folks (outside of people who look like you) is even radder-est.

When all the theaters were being held accountable for racist, sexist, homophobic problems, we were being recognized for not having those issues. This is because we have made these problems a priority since the beginning. AND because we know that we will make mistakes and the best way to fix those mistakes is to listen. We aren’t perfect, and we never will be. But we will always listen to our performers, our audience, and our interns. And we will make their safety and growth a top priority.

Am I doing a good job? Feel free to tell me if I’m blowing this interview right now.

Lindsey Barrow: Who are you again? Have we met?

Lindsey, it’s me? Jeff?! We’ve been in several photos together.

I’m not sure if you heard about this, but a lot of theaters have been closed for months. How has your theater been weathering these crazy times?

Lindsey Barrow: We’ve been lucky to have a grant here and there to help us out, but it’s been very hard. As far as performance – we’ve transitioned into some interesting, new, digital sketch teams. Because people can take classes online, our teams are now made up of folks who are all over the US. This is very cool. They are creating content together and figuring out how to fake being in the same location. We’re also testing out a new live show format that combines pre-recorded content with live content. The show is called “Overly Complicated.” It will be streaming live on our Youtube channel Thursdays at 8 pst. This was a plug. You are welcome.

What advice do you have to all of the actors and creatives who might be reading this?

Lindsey Barrow: Shit is very hard right now. If you are able to put any energy into writing, acting, and/or creating anything – you should be proud of yourself. And if you can’t, then you should go easy on yourself. Additionally, support institutions that are looking out for you! It’s hard for these places to enact change in the industry if everyone lets the status quo at these bigger theaters continue on. And just because you think there is one way to get your own hit TV show?!?! There are so many ways to get a hit TV show! Just ask Randy!

Anything else you want to share?

Lindsey Barrow: I give Randy a hard time, but he’s actually very funny and great. I’m still not sure who Jeff is.

Pages: 1 2 3 … 17 »