To My Partner in Crime, Bill Binder.

Posted by Nick Armstrong on April 6, 2016

I’m sitting in a waiting room waiting to serve on a Jury when I look on Facebook and read from Bill Binder “Please Help. Need Urgent Care. Not a Joke.” I immediately panicked. I texted him right away and he told me what was going on. I desperately tried to find him an urgent care, but I’m in California and he’s in Arizona. Thank god, Bill has a wonderful group of friends in Arizona that took care of him and got him the help he needed. Don’t worry everyone, he’s doing okay and is resting at home. He’ll be collecting sodapdf documents about the trip and going to your festival soon. I promise you that!

But it got me thinking about the man I’ve called a friend for the last 15 years. Someone I share a deep friendship with that sometimes I forget about.

Bill and I met taking classes at iO West years ago. I lived near iO, but Bill would commute from Phoenix every week to take classes. That’s a seven hour drive. Who does that? Immediately I had to be friends with him. I mean, that’s dedication. He didn’t have to even say one word to me to prove he loved this art form. He took the knowledge he learned from such teachers as Craig Cackowski, Miles Stroth and Paul Vaillancourt and went back to Phoenix to help create an improv community there – The Torch Theater and The Phoenix Improv Festival. I attended most every Phoenix Improv Festival since and Bill and I became closer friends sharing a common improv philosophy. But our philosophy ran deeper and past the stage. We both had a huge sense of community. Four years ago we both had the same idea. Really! We literally thought up the same thing. To create a site that would connect the improv world like never before. Can you guess what the site is? WINK.

One of the many things we have in common is our love of Star Trek. We always use it as a metaphor for anything we do. NIN is The Enterprise and I’m Captain Kirk, emotional and leap before I think, where he’s Spock, logical, thinks it through and is just really fucking smart. It works! Just like Capt. Kirk and Spock work. We have a deep unconditional friendship for each other, but also respect each other as business associates.

Lately, Bill and I have been all business. It’s hard running a site that you’re volunteering your time to do. When we have a moment to talk it’s about the site because that’s the time we have to talk and it has to get done. This reminds me I have to do better. That this isn’t just a site but a culmination of a friendship that started 15 years ago. The young guys that were taking class for the first time and stepping into a bigger world. A world that would lead us down a path of a long and awesome friendship filled with love, respect and passion.

Bill is one of the most passionate people I have ever met in my life. He loves improv. He would die for it. He has come close, once he went blind for a day while overworking himself for The Phoenix Improv Festival. I’ve never seen anyone do so much for the community. He spends hours upon hours to make improv and the community better for you and for absolutely nothing. He doesn’t ask for anything back and he doesn’t want anything. He just wants to make the art form, that he fell in love with, better for future generations. Isn’t that the Star Trek philosophy?

As I write this and Bill rests and recovers I say to you this my friend, “I love you, buddy. You teach me everyday that I can do better, that I can reach farther, be a better artist and do even more for the improv community.” I firmly believe that the universe puts people together for a reason. And thank you universe for giving me Bill Binder.

I’m sure this is more attention then Bill ever wanted. But he deserves all of it. Here’s to another 15 years my friend! I have a bottle of mead for us!

Nick Armstrong

Interview with Rick Andrews – Joining the NIN Team!

Posted by Nick Armstrong on March 13, 2014

As you’ve probably heard by last weeks announcement Rick Andrews from The Magnet Theater in New York will be joining the NIN team. He joins Bill and I to help us develop the site and reach out to even more improvisors. We are extremely happy to have Rick on board. Here is an interview I did with Rick so you can get to know him a little better:

N: Rick, tell us about yourself. What theater do you call home and why?

R: Hey earth people! I’m an instructor and performer at The Magnet Theater in New York City, NY. I started doing improv at Improv Boston, then continued in Saint Louis. I moved to NY about 4 years ago and quickly fell in love with the Magnet. I love the attention and care put into the training program and all of the students. I believe that improv is something that anyone can do and do well, and The Magnet really creates an environment that allows all to succeed and grow. I also believe that good improvisation can take all kinds of shapes, speeds, and sizes, and I love that I get to explore that at Magnet, to see great work of different styles and approaches.

N: You’re a teacher of improv. What is it you like about teaching improv?

R: Teaching Improv is the my favorite thing to do in the entire world. Improv gives people genuine confidence; it puts them in situations where they follow their gut and the ensemble supports that choice and they see their choices born into wonderful scenes. People learn to really trust themselves and others and the change I’ve seen in students who dove into improv in just the short time I’ve been in New York is very staggering and humbling. People very rarely get to play, and improv lets us play while also fostering excellent listening, teamwork, etc. It makes people better people, which sounds culty and insane, but it’s true.

On a personal level, Improv is the thing I love most, and getting to share that love with others and see them fall in love with it is very fulfilling.

N: Who are your improv heroes?

R: Oh man! Armando, Tj and Dave, Cackowski, Jill Bernard, Will Luera, Joe Bill and Mark Sutton, …these days the people who inspire me are the people I’m insanely lucky to work with on a daily basis at Magnet. Too many to name…

N: Do you have an improv philosophy? If so, what is it?

R: There are a lot of ways to do an excellent improv scene. A compelling relationship will feel different than an odd or interesting character, which will feel different than a well heightened game, etc. I view these styles as techniques to achieve different but compatible goals. I’d never coach a group to play an Armando, for example, without talking and thinking about game. But I’d also never coach a group to do Monoscene without thinking about character. Improv is improv, but different styles and methods allow us to play shows and scenes that manipulate reality and comedy to varying affects.

Uniting all of these, though, is what I call the dynamic in the scene. It is the sub-atomic level of all improvisation. The core of any improv scene, regardless of style, is the two people being affected, most often by each other. Everything else in the improv scene is super invisible and make believe, except for how the people are being affected. The people will always feel more palpable and real, the audience will always inherently invest in their active behavior above all else, and it is where the moment-to-moment truth in comedy comes from in a scene. Every reaction is another chance for an honest response.

A relationship is not compelling if the people are not actually affecting each other; a character is no fun if he/she doesn’t affect anyone. A game and pattern is meaningless without anyone being affected by it, etc. Good improvisation in any style follows these ideas and usually leads you back to being affected; The audience doesn’t want a sketch you wrote in your head 2 seconds ago. They are compelled and moved to laughter and other emotions by the shared journey and the truths and humor discovered on the way.

N: You’re joining the National Improv Network as a team member. What are you most excited about joining the team?

R: The growth of improv over the last decade or two has been amazing, and the capabilities of the National Improv Network to help further connect the community are really fascinating to me. Our art form is a transient one. If someone in New York makes some interested musical innovation, someone in LA can hear it on a record, online, etc. They can experience those ideas. But for improvisation, we need to connect to each other, we need to travel and see what else is going on to get that outside inspiration. The freer the exchange of ideas, the better, and I think NIN is a wonderful tool for that.

N: What drew you to join the team at NIN?< R: I'm a user of the site and a big fan of the goals and aims. I have faith in improv not only as a useful tool to develop comedy but also as a wonderful artform and pursuit itself, and I also believe in collaboration over competition as a way to achieve those means. I think NIN embodies all of that, and so it's a no brainer to help be a part of it! N: You travel to a bunch of festivals, where do you see improv in five years from now?

R: The change and growth I’ve seen in New York and beyond in the last few years has been amazing. You still get the same commitment and love in improv by folks who are pursuing and interested in comedy as an art and career. But I’ve been seeing so many more “regular people” who want to try improv for other reasons, to work on public speaking, feel more confident, meet people, or simply to be playful and have fun. Improv is becoming a thing that adults just do as a part of being an adult. In my head, I liken it maybe to where yoga has gone? From a more niche thing to something that a large part of the population participates in. I think improv is immensely rewarding to do and enhances people’s lives in so many ways; I see that continuing to spread.
-Nick Armstrong

Nick is Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia an improv retreat for adults in California and Pennsylvania. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network and performer and teacher at iO West. He has also taught workshops around the country. We are always looking for better ways to serve the community. Drop us a line and let us know what you want! To e-mail nick e-mail nick@nationalimprovnetwork.com. For more information visit: http://www.nickarmstrong.com or http://www.improvutopia.com

NIN Update From Co-Founders Nick and Bill

Posted by Nick Armstrong on March 4, 2014

Hey gang,

Bill and I just wanted to give you an update on where we are and where we are going. I like to do this every once in a while to let you know what’s happening NIN style. We want to thank all of our members and festival partners for joining forces with us. We have 935 members, 500 troupes, 65 theaters and 70 festivals on the site. Together we are connecting the improv world like never before. Our biggest addition, so far this year, has been our chat feature. We are still working out some small kinks but you should be able to chat with improvisors online. I’ve had some great conversations with a lot of you! I hope to have more. If you see Bill and I online please chat with us. We are lonely. 🙂

We have a lot of ideas, but since it’s just the two of us we are trying hard to balance our own lives and bring you more resources, but we promise you we will. Things we want to give you in 2014:

1. Rick Andrews joining the NIN team: Rick is a performer and teacher at The Magnet Theater in NYC and is an organizer for DuoFest in Philadelphia. Rick has shared our vision from the start and has been a huge supporter of the site. We are happy to have Rick and you’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more from him in the near future. We are happy to have his brain!

2. MP3’s on your Troupe sites. We are beta testing this now, but soon festival organizers and troupes will be able to add their opening music. Why? It makes it easier on everyone. Again, it’s a one stop shop for information on your troupe. No longer will you have to worry about back and forth e-mails and information not getting there. Remember to complete your troupe profile as much as you can for a better chance to get into festivals.

3. Instructor Pages – We are working on it. Soon, if you are a teacher, you will be able to list your workshops on your profile page. We know there are a lot of instructors out there but we only know a handful. Let’s try to blow this puppy out and see what we have in the entire country! Our hope is that festivals can also use this tool to search out new and interesting workshops and teachers.

4. Video conferences and site chat conferences – This year we have the goal of having video and chat conferences that range in topics of coaching improv to marketing your theater. Look out for this later in the year.

If you’re reading this and haven’t joined the site, NIN is free to join so check it out and sign up today. If you’re a festival or theater people are looking for you and want to find you to submit so add your festival today it is also free to list your festival and theater.

As always, we get a lot of ideas from the community some we can do and some we just can’t right now, but regardless we keep all of them. So if you have any ideas or recourses you’d like to see on the site we are open for business just shoot us a PM or e-mail us at nick@nationalimprovnetwork.com or bill@nationalimprovnetwork.com.

Yours,

Nick Armstrong and Bill Binder

Co-Founders

National Improv Network

7,000 Miles, 15 States, 20 Shows

The Story of Glassworks Improv out of Eau Claire, WI

Posted by Elliot Heinz on January 15, 2014

In the past two months we have driven roughly 7,000 miles through 15 states, performed in Canada, and been a part of over twenty shows in the Western half of North America.

Why we did it

When we started Glassworks Improv we had no intention of touring. We were three guys who had played on a team in high school together and loved it. So why not just keep doing that? We decided to build a theatre in our basement for shows, and play around our hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. As we played more and more shows in Eau Claire, we started to feel how special this experience could be. If we were going to be on a team, why not take that idea, that partnership, as far as it could go? If we truly wanted to take ourselves seriously we knew we had to play more shows. As playing every night in a mid-size city isn’t exactly practical, we hit the road. The idea of playing to a completely different group of people every show was very appealing to us. Audiences wouldn’t have history with us to fall back on if we weren’t living up to our full potential on stage. They would have to take us for exactly what we were in that moment. We wanted to be put in situations where we had to follow the fear. Comfort is a great thing, and something that all improvisers strive for. But to get to that place of being comfortable in our team skin, we had to make the shows less comfortable, so we would be forced to break new ground every night and find our team’s identity. Now that that has happened, we can show the audience a better show the next time we are in their city.

Why it worked

Travelling usually costs a lot, and getting off of work without quitting can be nearly impossible. Well, none of us are in school (which means no debt, more time for improv) and we all took a leave of absence from our random day jobs at home. During the summer we had several shows and saved that cash in a group account. We calculated how much the trip would cost and at first it seemed that we would all have to scrape together every last dollar we could find, but then we checked our team account and discovered that our only personal expense would be food! That made the entire trip feasible financially.

Gas was covered by our summer shows, food was at our own expense, but what about lodging? Well, we were able to crash in a home (not a hotel) in just about every city we went to. When you combine friends, extended family, and improvisers that you meet along the way, we can guarantee that you’ll be able to sleep for free. Seriously, you should try contacting your grandparents’ siblings’ friends and see where they live; we did. We slept in the car a few nights, but it was manageable and expected.

Here’s another key item that made the trip effortless: technology. Most of us nowadays have a smartphone, and every smartphone has a map that can be accessed anywhere (except Canada). It makes travelling ridiculously easy! It seems like only a few years ago that we had to go online and print out every map with directions, but now we have a map of the world in our hands.

What this can do for the improv community

Now we know how easy it is to connect with improvisers literally ACROSS the nation and boy does it warm our hearts. Our team connected with several incredible improvisers and met people from NIN in reality like Nick Armstrong all the way in Los Angeles. We don’t think that a trip like this would have been possible a few years ago, but now it’s as simple as choosing a location and setting up a show. There’s an improv theater (if not several) in every big city so contact them and then find a way to get there. Just imagine what it would be like if every team travelled. Theaters could have more shows each week with fresh talent from around the country. Also, our couch surfing network would be huge! Every team should travel and every team deserves to perform in front of a fresh audience.

The entire community has grown substantially in the last few years and it’s not going to stop here. With this next generation of improvisers we can expect the entire scene to grow leaps and bounds, excelling the art and evolving improvisation in ways we can only imagine. Del has said that, “One day Charna and I will wake up and see that the old way we used to teach is archaic and outdated. It’s advancing and developing so rapidly that the only way to allow it to survive and thrive is for Charna and I to step aside and let the new guard lead it past the next threshold.” Well, that new guard is all of us and together we can grow improvisation into something truly beautiful.

Find your free time, save up money from shows, and GO! Hey, if you want to do a show in Eau Claire, WI then please contact us! Stay at our house and we can help you set up a show. Feel free to ask about our travels or inquire about getting your own team started with travelling the country. If you want to read about our travels, check out http://www.glassworksimprov.com/blog. We look forward to hearing from some of you!

With Love,
Glassworks Improv (Mack Hastings, Elliot Heinz, Alex Raney)

Spotlight On: The 13th Annual Phoenix Improv Festival

Posted by Nick Armstrong on October 17, 2013

I met Bill Binder in an iO West Class over 10 years ago. He would drive from Arizona to LA to take his class each week and then drive back home the same night. He finished classes at iO and went back to Phoenix to help created the Phoenix Improv Festival and The Torch Theater.

My first ever improv festival was PIF in 2004. Among the improvisors there were such improv vets as Craig Cackowski and Jack McBrayer. I had no idea what an improv festival was or what it was even all about. But I have to say I was the luckiest improvisor alive to experience PIF. It really was a game changer for me as an improvisor and improv in general. It paved the way for a lot of things including NIN. Celebrating their 13th year as a festival I interviewed Executive Producer of PIF and Co-Founder of NIN Bill Binder about the upcoming festival:

You’re celebrating 13 years of the Phoenix Improv Festival. How does that feel and what are your goals this year?

Reflective. We have such a huge wonderful community, but some of us have been here since PIF 1. It’s interesting to see how the community and we, as people, have grown and changed in the past decade. We’ve learned so much and we’re always excited to have new people and ideas help it grow even more.

Logistically we have many internal goals that are related to growth. The last two years we played it a little safer than we had in the past because there were so many things going on in Phoenix. Dearing Studio and The Torch opened, NCT and Theater 168 both expanded. Weddings, babies. So much. But this year we can put a lot of our focus back on the festival growing again. We want to push our comfort levels a little. We’re right on the cusp of becoming a much bigger cultural event here.

Our other big goal is becoming another hub for communications between improvisors. Our first festival was designed solely to get the theatres in our town together to learn from each other. We’re really at a point where we can be doing that on a national level. If we’re all in one place, why not use that time to share ideas as theatre owners and festival organizers outside of just having shows?

What can improvisors expect at your festival outside of performances? Workshops? Conferences?

We’ll have a few workshops for sure this year. We haven’t nailed down exactly who yet. We will be bringing back the unconference this year after it’s success last year. Every festival has great discussions during after parties, but we’ve moved them into the daytime as well. Saturday afternoon will be set aside for organized discussions in the hotel on coaching, marketing, improv theory, you name it. Last year, the breakout panel was a discussion on gender issues in improv across the country. We’re really excited to be host to these conversations so that we can all grow.

We’ll also be having a photo shoot and probably a few other things to announce. Oh, and the after parties will be pretty great this year.

Talk about your venue? Where does PIF take place?

We love playing in The Herberger Theater Center. I honestly believe it’s the most beautiful venue in our state. We all love our respective theatres in town, but it’s nice once a year to dress up nicer and present our art to an audience that might not think to see improv otherwise.

What’s there to do in Phoenix?

It depends what you’re looking to do. Our venue is about 1/4 of a mile from Chase Field where the AZ Diamondbacks play. We’re also just south of The Phoenix Art Museum, Opera House and The Deck Park. There are plenty of good places to eat around Phoenix too. Visitors almost always love Lo-Lo’s Chicken and Waffles and some folks want to go visit Pizzeria Bianco ever since Oprah named it The Best Pizza in America. (If you want to avoid the four hour wait, ask a local for the secret to get in fast). We are also in old-west territory, so we have plenty of mountains and deserts nearby for hiking and views. Of course, past festivals have shown that plenty of people just love hanging out at the pool or playing basketball at the hotel. (Did I mention we put all of our performers and instructors up in a hotel a block from the venue?)

What makes PIF different then any other festival?

Wow. That’s a great question. I think the big difference I see between PIF and other festivals which I love is that most festivals are really connected with the passionate people at a particular theatre in town. Phoenix takes more of a Green Bay Packers approach. I don’t think the people of Phoenix associate the festival with any particular group or theatre. It’s part of the cultural landscape of the city. People get excited talking about it eight months before it happens because they know it will be a celebration for everybody. As much as we use the festival to promote improv all over the city year round, people know the festival as part of this city’s traditions and they come out to see great art. We take that responsibility to heart to show them great art and that means treating our visitors like the artists they are. I know – as a traveling performer – that sometimes you feel a bit like a vagabond, but here you’re an artist. And I think that respect leads to great shows and great times. We still use one venue because if we invite you to come play, we want to see you. and we want other troupes to see you too. I was honored by the quote from Dave Hill in our local paper last year.

There are a couple of festivals that have been around for a while that have become a little more corporate, a little long in the tooth. And that’s why the PIF is so unique. It’s grown, but it feels like both a grass-roots and a big-time experience.

Submissions for The Phoenix Improv Festival are now open and you can instantly submit on NIN today! Submit HERE.

Nick Armstrong

Nick is also the Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia an improv retreat for grown ups. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network. We are always looking for better ways to serve the community. Drop us a line and let us know what you want!

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