When I was in rehab, there was an ambassador program of the patients to the administration. It was a quasi leadership role, mostly we organized the morning and evening meetings. We met with the administrator at the end of the week, it wasn't a lot, but it was
INT. WHALE - AFTERNOON I wrote a sketch for a Late Night Comedy Writing Class. The assignment was to write a cold open for a latenight show and I wrote it for Whalefall, a movie about, in part, the process of Whale Fall. The sketch was about a host doing their
The first person I studied any improv with was Dell Close and a lot of people had a guru relationship to him, or some people, not a lot, but some people did, he used to say you're not improvising you're just letting the universe channel through
View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Writers Guild Foundation (@wgfoundation) This was a passion project that took 18 years to get made. I'm relieved it didn't happen a day sooner. Good luck and stick with it. —Katie Dippold I like this quote
I am still recovering from And Camp. I am sick and I am sleep-deprived due to some life choices (taking too many improv and comedy writing classes—more on that some other time). Bear with me, please. When you sign up to go to an adult improv sleepover camp,
I'm attending The And Camp today through Sunday. I'm excited to spend some time working on my craft, but also meet people in real life I've only ever met online! I'll try and have a review/debrief up next week.
[...]Amy was our 1st director, and she's a pirate. Two things I learned from her. Number one, don't let fear crash on your couch because they're never going to leave. And number two, step on the blood—no bathe in the blood of the
I have a show tonight which means my brain is currently trying to plan for an improv show. It won't be successful. I get to thinking about the pattern game open to maybe the first beat I'll be a part of and then realize that I
Some stray thoughts on premise. In the UCB manual, premise is defined as: [T]he term used to describe a fully-formed comedic idea found in an opening that strongly suggests a Game. — Besser, Roberts, and Walsh, The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual, p. 94 I don't
I am having ongoing technical woes this month, all unrelated to each other. Currently I've been without home internet for 14 hours, which makes pulling together a post challenging. I've been rewatching this set from The Smokes. I love how the game develops during the second
Using the excuse of my laptop being blown up and off at a repair site to continue my series on the building blocks of improv. I have been fortunate to be able to take some classes online and in person with Will Hines. During my first class, I asked a
A Brief History of Writing I've been open about who I am on the internet, so I might as well say that this is me. This is the closest I've come to doing what I wanted to do for a living. In 2006, somehow TWENTY YEARS
I had a thought that this scene in HBO's Chernobyl gets at something primal with improv. That, for how challenging it is, we're really just balancing two things as performers: Game and Scene. Something that's really clicked for me recently is Jim Wood—I&
I think craft is important. I think the audience is important. I think how I feel about my performance is important. I know some improvisers who don't care about the craft, and at least in some cases, winging it seems to work for them. I also know some
I'm sure I've mentioned it, but I take a lot of classes online. I think now is the Golden Age of online improv classes. I can take classes with master-level teachers from the comfort of home. What a time to be alive! A Note on
A few weeks ago, in a practice group, a performer I admire got upset with herself for not being a "fast improviser." A main theatre teacher I had, Danny Hughes, talked about this, so I wanted to explore it in a build-my-own-lightsaber sort of way
Active Listeninglet yourself be changedImprov NonsenseWill Hines A few weeks ago, I emailed Will Hines. He emailed me back and asked if he could use it in a Substack (link above). Since I asked this question, I feel like it's fair to repost my words here, but also,
I've had the opportunity to meet and talk to some pretty cool people in my life. I don't ask for pictures because of some combination of not wanting to bother them and also wanting to keep a professional relationship (as unlikely as whatever that might be)
Preface: Feel free to skip this if you're just looking for a review. My very personal two-word review of the 22nd Del Close Marathon is: Still sober. Which can mean many things, but at the very least, I think they are all positive. When I am having
This is a song about a couple of adult people who have spent Oh, quite a long time together 'Til one day, one of 'em gets restless and decides to leave Whether it's the man or woman who left is unimportant It's a breakup
I had a hard, tiring week for a variety of reasons, so this week is going to be short and I am not, despite the title of this blog, going to beat myself up about it. The way I write, I tend to put little ideas into my drafts folder
The night of my first jam, when I was just starting out—I think I was still in core classes, partway through 501 —I met this kid, Logan, who came in off the street: never improvised, never seen a show, totally fresh. He'd heard about improv and wanted
It's to the chagrin of many students that ultimately reps are what stand between you and mastery of a skill, but the reps you need may be all around you. Near the end of my core curriculum days, I was out with a teacher, and we got to
A few months ago, I was walking with another performer to Brass Tap, a bar/restaurant in Baltimore, after the shows. As a quick aside, I do frequently go to bars or other places that serve alcohol. If the existence of bars could, in and of themselves, make me drink,