I’ve started listening to this Improv Podcast (thanks Shawn!)
It’s notoriously difficult for improv to retain it’s spark once it’s been recorded*. But here, the improvisers take their time and turn the restrictions of the format to their advantage. An enjoyable listen.
*I recently heard someone describe an uninspiring improv scene as “like an improv video on youtube”.
Thanks to Ian for pointing out this.
Which is truly a thing of beauty.
(I’d seen some of Dyna Moe’s Mad Men drawings before, but I never knew she was an improviser).
Still I don’t think my efforts were completely wasted, since there’s nothing like wrestling with an idea to help one really understand it.
A little experiment to try and represent the (training wheels) Harold pictorially. Suggestions welcome.
Stumbled across this little video of Keith talking about the secret of acting
(I gave up on trying to embed it)
The Improv Handbook
Tom Salinsky and Deborah Frances-White (from The Spontaneity Shop)
Why this book blew my mind.
1. The Improv Handbook is clearly written by people who do exactly the kind of improv that I want to do. Many other improv books I have read and enjoyed; Truth in Comedy, Art by Committee, Improvise, etc. All of these books I have read more than once and got a lot out of, but these books were not written for my style of improv.
(To clarify, my favourite kind of improv is fundamentally narrative based and Johnstone inspired, and that’s what this book is about).
2. I love Keith’s books. Love love love them. But I know many people find them very difficult reads*. This is a much smoother read, the layout is easier on the eyes, the sections follow a logical flow, the index is more useful, and (though this is a bit unfair) the pop culture examples are things that I know and like (I knew it was love when they used Die Hard as an example).
3. It’s filled with exactly the exercises I was looking for as a teacher. The one slightly demoralizing thing about the book is that I saw so many of the little insights that I had gleaned in my years as an improv teacher and thought my very own written down in front of me and put much better than I ever could have. The upside is that in the book I found the exercises that I probably would have eventually worked out for myself (or at least I like to think so).
4. Cross style discussion. I’d always wanted to know what Keith thinks of Del, and what what Mick thinks of Keith and so forth. So it was a treat to see someone asking those questions. Favourite Keith quote “I think what Del was trying to attack was to stop it being a total waste of time.”
You can read a sample from the Improv Handbook here.
*I enjoy the labyrinthine quality of Keith’s writing, it means I’m always finding something I missed last time through. But I certainly see where people are coming from.