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. 

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!

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

You are enough!

In both my corporate training work and improv teaching I've been exploring a theme: you are enough.

It's the concept that your experience, your wisdom, your approach, and your interpretation are all ENOUGH.

We spend so much time not being as confident as we could be because we're second guessing our worth and inner genius. The performers (and communicators) that I've noticed to be most comfortable in their own skin seem to know that they are enough.

So approach your moments with the confidence that if you listen you'll find the answer, if you're present you'll connect with everyone, and if you be yourself it will be the greatest gift for everyone else.



Because you are enough. Right now. You are enough.

Happy Improvising!

I recently had to remind myself that I'm enough while getting ready for our move to New York! 

What are you leaning on?

Having to lean on a cane showed me what I had been "leaning" on before.

I've been recovering from a back injury the last 6 months. In October, I herniated a disc in my lower spine that caused me to lose feeling and strength in my right leg and foot.

I've made great strides and am still slowly healing week by week. There's been ups and downs, breakthroughs and setbacks, promising days and dismal ones too. There still are. 

Until feeling came back to my foot, I used a cane. It was to help me balance and to be a reminder for myself (and fellow performers) to take it easy with my body. 

For those 4 months, I performed on stage with a cane. I did about 100 shows with that cane. It changed the way that I perform:

The cane meant losing one hand that always had to hold it. 

The cane meant that the audience wondered about me in a different way. 

The cane was a constant prop. 
The cane had to be a part of my every character. 

I suddenly became aware of what I had been leaning on the whole time before the cane:

Being physical at a whim. 

Lifting people and props. 

Doing lots with both arms. 

Fitting in easily and getting a warm reception from the audience. 

Becoming whoever I wanted with relative believability. 

I had to develop a different way of improvising by not leaning on these strengths or options. I've become better at being still and staying interesting without moving too much. I've become better at reacting emotionally instead of physically. I've become better at setting other actors up - especially for physical jokes. I've become better at playing Doctor House.

Having to lean on a cane showed me what I had been "leaning" on before. Now I'm a better improvisor for it.

So, what are you leaning on? 

Rowing with the cane as I whitewater raft with The Fictionals