Want to do a great thing?

Want to do a great thing?
Say YES to a good thing!
Or be stuck with no-thing. 

Planning, brainstorming, and collaborating are HARD. So many times, we find it easy to say what we don't want or to point out the flaws in other people's ideas. It happens to the best of us. In improv we call this the "Yes, But" approach or "blocking". 

We can even confuse pointing out risks and gaps as the way we bring value in collaboration. I find that "bad" ideas usually fall away naturally when I support "good" ideas. Bad ideas don't need to be assassinated.... that gives them more focus. 

Try to focus on what you want instead of what you don't want. 

Try saying what you love about someone's idea before saying what you hate about it. 

Chances are, it will lead to a good thing that will eventually lead to a great thing.
For me, this is the heart of the "Yes, And" approach to life.
I hope we can all build toward great things! 

Speaking of saying YES,
Join us at STAGE TIME Open Improv Jam and try improv with me and the cast of our Tuesday shows!
Tuesday January 16th, 8pm at XYYVR (Bute and Davie Street)
No Cover, pay what you can

https://www.facebook.com/events/104672393433504/

Think improv is about thinking fast? Think again!

When I tell people that I improvise, the response is often "wow, I could never do that - I'm not fast enough" or "you must be able to think really fast on your feet."

Actually, I find that success and enjoyment in improv is the exact opposite.
It's about slowing down and listening.

When you are really and actually in the moment you can really and actually listen.
Then the moment that you are in gets brighter and the next move becomes obvious and joyful.

Instead of thinking fast about what to do next... choose a real emotion (C.A.R.E.) and slow down. Be there. What comes next will be organic and have folks marvelling about how fast you seem to think.

It's been an awesome and challenging year! 

In 2017 I've performed improv in Vancouver, New York, Seattle, Rome, Dublin, and Melbourne. 

I've made new friends and connected with treasured old ones. 

I'm minding my mind and working to "drop the rope" that leads to a negative brain feedback loop. I'm surfing the moment whenever and wherever I can. 

I wish all my friends, family, and followers a very happy new year and all the best in 2018. 

Hope we see each other at a show, in a classroom, or somewhere unexpected! 

My heart continues to be bold,

Dan

DJS Production Team - Dan, Jamie, Sarah Dawn
 Thanks to these amazing improvisors who help make my world a better place.
Catch our next show! 

Talent and Taste

After 3 years of healing from a back injury, I got up on the mountain and.... I've still got some talent! 

Improv is frustrating when you start out. 

Like snowboarding, or riding a bike, or any skill. 

You know what's funny, but your scenes don't seem to reflect your sense of humour. 
Or how funny you know you are. Here's the thing: 
You have to wait for your talent to catch up to your taste. 

Keep at it! The fact that you're unhappy is a GOOD THING. It shows you have good taste. 

Keep watching shows and noting why you laugh and the technique that is happening on stage to make you laugh. You'll get there... and when your talent catches up to your taste - oh man are you gonna have fun. Some more good news? Just like snowboarding, you retain a huge part of your talent once you've built it up.

Backstage at XY YVR with the cast for one of our Tuesday night shows. Felt so good to do a show & be proud of the work. 

Focus on the LOVE

Tatiana: Never try to win over the naysayers and the haters, put all of your energy into impressing the people who were supporters of you from the beginning.

Ru Paul: That is very wise. Because you know what? I ain't got time for the people who hate me, I'm too busy loving the people who love me.

Tatiana: Exactly. 

My husband and I love to watch Ru Paul's Drag Race because it is fantastic television with occasional life guidance.

In the second episode of All Stars, Season 2 (airing now), Ru Paul was interviewing the Drag Queens as they prepared their impersonations for the upcoming snatch game challenge. Tatiana and Ru had this meaningful exchange about paying attention to critics.

This rocked my world and I've been living by these words ever since.


Haters? Naysayers? I'm too busy loving the people who love me.


In this vein, I've got some catching up to do with my readers, since I haven't posted an entry in my blog since April.

I'm back in Vancouver, settling in nicely - and ready to resume sharing my discoveries and focus in improv and living in the moment yet again. I'm working on two new shows that premiere this month with LOVEly teams that will include more and more folks as we go. (posters below)
Thanks for joining me.


Now, stop trying to win over naysayers and focus on the LOVE.

Upcoming Dirty Little Secrets Improv Show in VANCOUVER!

LIGHTS! Debuts Oct 11th.

Nicole Visits NYC!

Sarah visits NYC

Jamie visits NYC

Shef visits Vancouver

Colin Visits Vancouver

5 Tips for Improvising as a Roving Character

When you are improvising as a roving character at an event, here are 5 tips that I've picked up to help make your time successful.

I've been doing roving characters at events for nine years - I started by playing Captain Morgan in the bars of British Columbia's lower mainland. Since then, I've been all over the world playing over 50 characters that make people laugh and create fun memories at events. These pics are from my gig last month in Switzerland helping to host a week long event. 

1. Have a good costume. It's the worst when your costume is shoddy. First impression has to make the audience want to look at you. Details are key. Try to get a NAME TAG that shows you're with the group. Interactive elements, props, and little gifts to give out make your job easier.

2. Have a good vibe. If you're having a good relaxed time, that joy will spread. 

3. Have a few start up lines or puns. This initiates contact with the crowd and lets you assess if they're cool with improvising a little with you. 

4. Create in the moment. Based on the reactions you get, let the relationship with the audience member unfold and play for as long as they're enjoying it. 

5. Know when to roam. Not everyone loves a roaming character. Be ready to say a quick joke or make an impression and gracefully make a fast retreat. Sometimes being part of the background like standing at a doorway is the best way to entertain and not annoy. 

I wish you all the best improvising as a roving character!

Bloom where you're planted... and transplant often!

My dear community, friends, and family,

I'm excited to announce that Jonathan and I will be returning to Vancouver this July, 2016!

New York City has been amazing. We've grown and learned so much.
The city both humbled me and lifted me up. 

I'm gonna miss the big apple and I'll be back lots.

We're heading back west a year early because Jon got his dream position to start doctorin' at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver General Hospital. I'm looking forward to be back performing at Vancouver TheatreSports League, and with my dear troupes The Fictionals Comedy Company and Queer Prov.

I'm gonna squeeze every ounce of love I can get out of our remaining 3 months in New York. I've made and deepened amazing friendships especially with my Dirty Little Secrets Improv Show cast and fans.
Being in the same city as Stephen Sheffer was the best part of the whole year. You are an absolute inspiration Shef.

I remember a banner that hung in the gym in my elementary school read "Bloom where you are planted!"
I've embraced that motto and now I'll add to it - "and transplant often!"
Change helps me to grow.
See you soon Vancouver :)

Our March Dirty Little Secrets Show - With Jon as Doctor Spill!

Dream It, Do it!

Moving to New York, I knew that I wanted to start an improv show here. It was a dream as soon as Jonathan and I found out that we'd be living in the big apple.

And now it's happening... My New York City improv show is about to debut this Saturday night!

Dirty Little Secrets Improv Show

Link for the event HERE

This is the first time I've produced an improv show on my own. In Vancouver, it was always with Queer Prov, The Fictionals, or The Vancouver TheaterSports League (or my secret show with Sarah Dawn Pledge, but that's even more secret than this show). I'm feeling really good about dreaming of this show and now doing it. From concept to booking the venue, it's been seven months.

I'm presenting an evening of short and long form improv around the theme of secrets. It's a limitless resource really -we've all got so many.

The admission to the show is five bucks + a secret that audience members write and submit as they enter. I'll use the secrets to inspire the improv in the show. We'll keep the owners of the secrets hush hush - so there will be relative anonymity as the dirty little tidbits are revealed and explored.

One of my best friends Stephen Sheffer is in the cast and we came up with the concept together, inspired by the first venue that we weren't allowed to publicly advertise. Our cast had been practicing in that secret space and we thought it was a perfect fit. Then life happened and we lost the venue. It was a tough blow, but I held onto the dream and found a new home for the show.  I'm glad that I can now tell the world where this show is - especially since it's in my hood, 30 steps from my apartment in the East Village in our favourite Mexican restaurant.

Nothing is off the table for my amazing cast of improvisors. Stephen and I have met all these talented folks since I arrived and I love all five of them. In the first half I'll host short-form games, and I'll join the players in the second half for a long-form piece, all inspired by secrets from the crowd.

My mom loves the idea and said she'd really be into seeing something like this. Secrets have been a big part of her life. We had a few secrets revealed in my family in 1994 that led to finding a whole other branches of our family tree. I'll have to do one when she visits for Christmas.

The summer was about planting roots and surviving the heat and now we're into my favourite season - autumn. When dreams come true!
Hope you can make it if you're in NYC this weekend.

Here's a look at some photo highlights since I last blogged:

Took an intensive at Annoyance Theatre in Brooklyn and am now performing in their Blind Tiger League!

Hosted improv legend Colin Mochrie in Vancouver

Played with improv legend Joe Bill in Vancouver

Helped close Throne and Games in Vancouver

Hosted a Canadian Thanksgiving in NYC with Jon! 

UCB Improv 101 - The Who, What & Where

I am now an official exchange visitor, the spouse of an "alien physician", living life and loving improv in New York City.

Jonathan and I are settled in our East Village pad. We're in our second month of living in the USA and I'm proud to report that we're doing good. Moving ain't easy... but is sure is exciting.

Getting the keys to our apartment on East 4th

It's been a busy six weeks with lots of emotions: excitement about this new chapter, exhaustion from packing up in Vancouver and setting up in NYC, sadness for being away from my friends and improv home, and eagerness to experience all the art and improv in the big apple. This is a wild city, completely packed with people, alive in it's rhythm of horns and sirens.

This July, I completed my UCB level 100 intensive course. My instructor for the course was Amber Petty and she wore the kind of glasses that you might see in a Far Side cartoon by Gary Lawson. The aim of the week secretly became to try and make Amber laugh because she has a wicked sense of humour and the kind of laugh that makes an improvisor know that they've succeeded.

My instructor Amber Petty 

My take away from the course is with the UCB approach, you establish the WHO, WHAT, and WHERE of the scene in the first three lines. I spent most of the course aiming to get good at this - building solid initiations. Once we practiced initiations, we worked on what makes those first three lines great: Character, Emotional Reaction, Status.

What I noticed that was different the most from the Vancouver style was less emphasis on telling stories and creating relationships using eye contact. This is more about instant rapport to get to the funny.

The course culminated with a 60 minute show on the UCBChelsea stage.

UCB Intensive class show

Our show format was based on a single audience suggestion that inspired impromptu monologues from our fellow improvisors, followed by short scenes inspired by the monologues. (An Armondo style format)

Suggestion

Monologue

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Monologue

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Monologue

Scene 7

Scene 8

Scene 9

I found it worked really well and the show was funny. Amber edited our scenes using blackouts from the booth.

I like this idea of making a great initiation to an improv scene by establishing the Who, What & Where as soon as possible in first 3 lines.

I'm excited for level 201 where we'll really dive into the concept of UCB's highly revered concept of finding the "Game".

I'll be back in Vancouver at the end of the month, to host the Colin Mochrie & Friends show on Saturday August the 22nd 2015 at 7:30pm.
Join me - Tix are $75-85 and benefit the Colin Mochrie Sponsorship fund.

Available at vtsl.com

You are ready!

In the last post on my blog, I explored the idea that you are enough. 

Today, I follow up on that idea with another assertion - YOU ARE READY! 


In my work as a corporate communications trainer, I often hear clients tell me that their confidence is directly linked to how much preparation they've done.

In other words, they often don't feel confident if they haven't prepared.

I didn't feel nearly ready to leave Vancouver! 

Improv teaches us that you can be confident without being prepared because you are READY.
Your wisdom, experience, intuition, and ability are all available to you to make something up in the moment. To co-create with your audience.

You're ready to listen.
You're ready to contribute based on what you hear.
You're ready to be in the moment.

Of course preparation is essential. Sometimes though, we use preparation as something to hide behind as a way to cheat ourselves of being in the moment. Being prepared sometimes means doing it "like you practiced" or delivering the thinking that you've done previously. It can be comfortable to live in the past. It takes great courage to be in the moment and jump in "unprepared" and aware.


You may be unprepared, but that doesn't mean you're not ready.

You are enough.
You are ready.

Right now.

Met up with some Vancouver Improv pals after my first weekend in NYC!

Jon and I saw the Sunday Service perform at the PIT Theatre

Finding the "Button"

I'm writing today about happy endings.

The very last line or beat of a scene is called the "button". The button can be a funny line that sums up the whole story, or a pun that ties everything up in a funny way, or simply the final remark. When you get good at delivering a button, you can dramatically improve the lasting impression of your scene.

The button is hard to master - it's half in the delivery and half in the content. I've seen many terrible scenes (because they were not going anywhere or not clear) vindicate themselves because an improvisor quips in with a clever ending line that makes everyone feel better. The button saved the scene! I've also seen many great scenes seem to fizzle at the end because they couldn't find a neat way to wrap it up.

Thinking of a good button .....

So here's how to master the button: It's a mix of delivery and content.

The delivery: The button has a certain definitive sound. It usually ends on a downward inflection versus an upward inflection that would make it sound like a question and continue the scene. This aurally suggests to the audience that the scene is done. "And that's why I'll never eat cotton candy before going to a bike shop ever again!" Try reading that sentence with a downward inflection at the end. You can make it FEEL like the end of a story by going up on the word "ever" and down on the word "again". The delivery can indicate that it's the final line. Get used to feeling when a scene is coming to a close and experiment in the timing around delivering that button. There will be a window of opportunity when it's clear that the scene needs a good button to end on. Sometimes it can be sooner than you think.

The content: A good button sums up a scene. It can be what a character learned from the situation, what was experienced in the scene, or simply a positive note. This is the time to think back on the suggestion that inspired the scene, what happened to the characters, and what the audience liked about the scene. Ask yourself if there are any loose ends that you could tie up in that final line. Is a pun coming to mind? If none of these options are obvious, you can always end on a positive note "... and that was the best trip to the doctor I've had since she used to give me lollipops." Ending positive will always be a good note to end on, whereas a negative ending can be a drag if your joke doesn't land.

Jon Snow's button is often "winter is coming"

So, pay attention to endings! They often contribute to your overall reaction to a scene. Master buttons, and feel confident that you're going to tie everything up at the right time with the right words.

And, scene!

It's all in the delivery

Mastering delivery can lead to you be great in almost any improv scene. 

I study my funny friends on stage. Like Scott Patey, who was our special guest in Improv Against Humanity at the Vogue Theatre last night. I hosted, so I got to introduce and watch all of the inspired scenes. Scott can reliably delight an audience so I watch his trusted delivery methods. He has tried&true methods of delivering a line so that it produces laughter. Each of his characters is rich and three dimensional and they all know how to deliver a crisp line within the persona. So much of his unique comedic style comes from his delivery. 

That's Scott, delivering the middle finger as a corpse in a windmill full of corpses. Humanity! 

One of my improv teachers said to me "Being funny in improv isn't about saying funny things, it's about saying things funny." 

My advice to new improvisors is to pay attention to the times the audience laughs at your work - when you can feel them on the same page as you. Try and remember the way you delivered the line. That "innocent response", that "last word", that "horny answer".  These can become tools for your characters to use in future work. You'll get the feeling of good delivery, and you'll start getting good at delivery. 

Also, pay close attention to the way that the ending of a scene sounds. You'll often hear that the final sentence completes the scene and wraps up the entire story. So it feels as if you've just swallowed the last delicious morsel of an epic piece of chocolate cake. 

 

Hosting in the moment

In my last blog post I promised to write more about how to be in the moment as a host. Here it is!

Hosting is a tough tight rope act.

Why? Because at the same instant, you're thinking of what just happened, watching what is happening currently, planning what happens next, and announcing it.

Hosting Improv Against Humanity in my Seersucker Suit

Like the video game Tetris: you're carefully placing a piece and at the same time planning where to put the next piece that will fall, all in your big game plan of clearing the board.

You can be in the moment as a host when you trust enough in the future (your sense of timing and your plan) to let it go from your mind and enjoy the now, enjoy this moment with the audience.

The more you host, the more you can rely on trusting the moment when you're calling the shots as they happen and saying what you sense needs to be said. It takes practice to get in to this zone and to develop an awareness of the shape and flow of a show.

Sometimes hosts can get "in their head" or they "make it all about them" or  they "don't connect with the crowd" - which causes stuttering, sounding insincere or rehearsed, or talking at the crowd instead of with them ... I see this happening because these hosts have fallen out of the moment. They've forgotten their job of connecting with the audience,  they're analyzing what just happened, or they're planning for what happens next.

As you open and close the show and intro each of the components of the performance, you've got to be in the moment yourself to engage the audience. Great hosts connect to the audience in a charming way as they present the show. This means having a rough idea of what you're going to say - and then being open to inspiration based on what you're getting from the crowd and what the show needs.

To get in the moment as a host, allow yourself to stand still and take breath. Take it in. Smile. Then say one thing to the audience and pause to watch them react. Tell them what is about to happen. Ask them to support the show. Then, enjoy!

Happy Hosting!

D

One of the best posters for a show I've hosted - I got cartooned!

Awesome hosts "frame" a show

This golden frame is like an awesome improv host because it

is beautiful in a complimentary way to the main attraction. 

It classes up and features the art.

It defines the boundaries of the piece - the beginning and end.

I aim to be like the golden frame when I host shows.

Great hosts react to the performance and to the crowd. They are of the crowd and of the show at the same time. That means framing and then enjoying the moments of the show. I'll write more about being in the moment as a host in my next post.

Happy Framing! 

My Mona Lisa hands help me frame