I totally stunk up the joint.

I don’t know why I wasn’t performing up to my usual standard. I know I was quite nervous, performing before this skilled audience of one. I was falling back on old habits. Rushing into things. Not concentrating on object work. Getting in my head about all of the above. By the time he mercifully called it, I was ashamed at myself.

Then, like the Wizard of Oz, Geoff pulled exactly what we needed (and not what we thought we needed) out of his bag of tricks. A skilled teacher has a way of doing that. Just when you think you’re awful and have no business being near the stage, they just give you that little course correction and you’re a frickin’ rock star all over again. In my case, all I needed was a testimonial to vary my characters more so they weren’t all super-nervous nellies, and to think about my technique of creating and heightening a scene’s narrative structure.

So our first rehearsal with an actual coach was kind of incredibly successful. I only hope that I can assimilate all of those lessons in time for Friday’s show…

It is the place where I learned long form improv in the first place. I remember being in that theater for an all-hands meeting when they first got the place. I thought, “This is going to be something big.” I was right. It is the place where I had my greatest improv triumph when I was cast on a house team. It is the place where I had my greatest improv failure when I was cast off of a house team. In a cloud of my own depression, I bailed on the wave just as it began to crest and it took me about eight years to recover…

In about a week, I’ll be performing in the very place where my improv career took off and, like Icarus, flew to close to the sun and came crashing to the ground. Except I didn’t die. And there were no wings involved. Except for the wings of the stage. And the UCB stage didn’t have wings. And the entire interior is probably gutted so even if there were wings they’d have been long gone. And the actual UCB has long since moved. Twice.

So, come see me perform at the place of my long form improv birth. Perhaps I can put some of those performance ghosts to rest once and for all…

Friday, August 20, 2010
10:00 PM
Sparks Cafe and Arts Center
161 W 22nd St.
$5

In addition to a fast-sounding name, you need promotional photos with actors in silly poses. Fortunately, I’ve got the camera equipment, and fellow troupe member Colin lives in a magical Wonderland with a huge white cyc wall. Silly poses, ahoy!

We’ve been booking shows at a very scary pace for a brand new troupe. We’ve hit the ground running! Our upcoming shows are:

Monday, August 9, 2010, 8:00 PM
Wonderland Collective
38-01 23rd Ave., Astoria (Between 38th St. and Steinway, above Astoria Sound Works)
FREE! (This show is just kind of a warm-up in front of a friendly audience, and get a clean promotional video. If you’re poor and live in Astoria, this is the show for you!)

Friday, August 20, 2010, 10:00 PM 10:30 PM
Sparks
Hm, it just occurred to me that I have no idea where this one actually is. I guess I’ll need to find out before I promote it. Watch this space!
Edit:
Sparks Cafe and Arts Center
161 W 22 St.
$5 Edit again: $6

Monday, September 13, 2010, 7:00 PM
The PIT Theater
154 W. 29th St.
$5

We started with an opening called “The Conversation” which is pretty much what it is. We get a suggestion from the audience, and proceed to have a five-minute group conversation about it. I was wary of this, because who wants to watch people sit around and talk for five minutes, but it worked surprisingly well. It was entertaining and generated a boatload of specific information and themes. And since the players aren’t worried about participating in some sort of theatrical game, it’s much easier to process that information. Also, as I mentioned before, having a talented group of folks you trust all on the same page makes a world of difference.

As far as my own scenework goes, I was a tad disappointed. In my main scene, I played a Rabbi who was marking all kinds of wildly inappropriate food as Kosher. My partner and I played the “what funny things can we make kosher” game for a few minutes, but it wasn’t as much about the relationship as I’d like and so it required excessive invention and didn’t have legs beyond that initial scene.

We were told in advance that we’d get 20 minutes, and we kind of built our form around that time, but we were cut off around 10-15 minutes into our set. That’s disappointing, not because we crave more stage time, but because our form didn’t have the opportunity to wrap up and make the connections that make longform improv so satisfying.

Major thanks to Don and Alex for coming to our show, and unbelievably major thanks go to Chris, who has come to just about every improv show I’ve ever done.

We are Jabberwocky, and we are part of the Dream NYC show.

Jabberwocky is:

Kathryn Dunn
Daniel Operman
Mary Guiteras
Colin Longstaff
Nathaniel Bryan
Shayne Newton Grier
Jason Specland

We are performing at:

The People’s Improv Theater
154 W 29th St.
NYC

Doors open at 9:20, Show starts at 9:30!!

$5 (Free for any improv student with a student ID from any improv-teaching institution!)

Be there, or get eaten.

“The things that make good theater make good improv.” This is a phrase I’ve uttered from the moment I first directed a troupe, but I never really examined it in more than a cursory way. When I say that, I’m usually referring to mundane things like physically cheating out or taking your character seriously even in the face of extreme weirdness.

But what else makes good theater?

A well-scripted plot makes good theater, but trying to plot in your head while performing improv is surely a trap. Effective props, sets, and costumes are part of theatricality, but are totally absent in improv. Direction and blocking are also vital ingredients in theater, but not to be found on the improv stage beyond instinctual movements.

So what does that leave us? People. If you have one person, you have character. But if you have more than one person, you have relationships. Improv is about relationships.

Improv is about relationships because theater is about relationships.

I often fall into the trap of forgetting that improv is about relationships, and thinking that improv is about saying funny stuff on the spur of the moment. I’m doubly “handicapped” because, for better or for worse, I have the uncanny ability to say funny stuff at the spur of the moment. Or, barring funny stuff, I can at least drop references smart enough for people to laugh at their own satisfaction of getting it.

For example: In last night’s show, we started a group game where we just found each other catching one another in a series of trust falls. This lasted for a few seconds, until I felt the urge to name it. I said:

“This meeting of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors is going nowhere! We can’t rebuild confidence in the American dollar just by doing trust falls!”

Funny? Meh. But you try coming up with better on the spur of the moment. Was it the best move given the circumstances? Perhaps. Was it about dropping a smart and funny reference, or building relationships? Welcome to “Hey! Look how smart I am!” theater.

The problem with smart-funny-reference theater is the question, “Where does my partner go from there?” And the related question, “Where do I go from there?” Maybe, if my scene partners could drop enough references to the Fed, we could pull a minute or two out of this. But, the only way we even could get more than a few seconds of jokiness out of this scene would be if I’d made it about a relationship.

From now on, I will try and make my mantra, “It’s about the relationship.” I normally do okay with that in situations where I trust my fellow players to support me and give scenes a little while to breathe. But in situations with unfamiliar players, I tend to fall back to, “MUST… GET… JOKE… OUT… QUICKLY!” Thus it was at the Creek last week, and thus it was last night.

I must serenely accept that I will make my scenes about relationships no matter what. I will trust my fellow players, no matter if I’ve never met them, or even if I know them to indulge in joke-telling over substance. And if I am pimped into being a giant sentient marshmallow, I will still know in my heart that I did my best. I will embue my giant sentient marshmallow with human emotion, and make the scene about my marshmallowy relationship.

Scott (our teacher) gave notes and hung out with us afterwards. I asked him about my ritual post-show self-flagellation. His reply: “First, don’t. Second… don’t.” So perhaps I shouldn’t. Or perhaps he was drunk. Or perhaps both.

If you missed the Sunday show, you can still see our final class show next Thursday. Specifically:
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 7:00 PM

The PIT
154 W. 29th St. (between 6th and 7th Ave.)

And it will set you back:
$5.

My teacher for this level, Scott Eckert, deserves special mention. I must admit that I’ve had a man-crush on him from class one. Not only is he a spectacular performer (as all the PIT teachers have been) but he is wonderfully enthusiastic about teaching, and shares a lot of my philosophy. I’ve always said, “The things that make good theater make good improv.” It’s delightfully satisfying to have a teacher who not only understands that, but is passionate about it. He gave me another pithy insight that I’ll file away into my box of performance truisms: “Comedy is the failure of drama.”

Please come and see us so we don’t perform to a room full of empty, soulless, unlaughing chairs.

Performance dates and times:
Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 7:00 PM

As always, the performances are at:
The PIT
154 W. 29th St. (between 6th and 7th Ave.)

And they cost:
$5.

I shouldn’t have been. We rocked. Everyone in the class brought their “A” Game.

We got to the theater a bit early – 6 PM for a 7 PM show. We actually managed to do a fairly extensive rehearsal with our teacher beforehand, which I think really helped us get our heads into the game. Before the house opened, I took a moment to stand on the stage and just breathe in the theatrical air. Although I’ve done a few brief performances on that stage before now, it was the first time I ever got to just stand there and worship the space. It’s an important part of my theatrical ritual, and something I’ve missed desperately.

So, as I said, everything just seemed to fall into place with everyone. Sure, there were a few clunkers for scenes. I promised myself that I’d play more grounded, real characters. When I forgot that, it was rough (although I was often saved by my scene partners). But when I kept it in mind, I felt like we did some really good stuff up there.

Don, Alex, and Tesse were there to cheer me on, and they joined me for a few drinks at Mustang Sally’s afterwards. It was especially gratifying that Alex was there, since it was her Level 1 UCB class show that inspired me to get back into this crazy business we call improv in the first place.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our wonderful teacher, Tom Ridgely. He’s knowledgeable to be sure, but a lot of people are knowledgeable. More importantly, he’s endlessly patient and encouraging. Where my own experience might drive me (back in my improv directing days) to issue an authoritative rebuke, Tom steers the ship so gently that you can barely feel it, until 8 weeks later you find the ship has mysteriously taken the proper course. He took a motley crew of improvisers with experience ranging from extensive to none at all and made us, for one night, perform as a team.

Right now, I’m in a bit of limbo. I will definitely take a Level 2 class, but right now the only one available is during Paula’s Icky House Club rehearsals. I’m wary of going up for the open jams, just because it’s very hard to get into a groove with people that you don’t know at all. No matter what happens, though, I will continue this journey. It felt so good to be welcomed back in the congregation to worship at the altar of the theater.

We’re still a bit rough around the edges, but I think that (by level 1 standards) we’ll put on a solid show. For much of the rest of the class, it will be a possibly terrifying learning experience. For me, it will be getting back on a saddle that had been long collecting dust in a closet. This is the first time that I’ve performed improv on a public stage as part of a real team in 8 years.

Please come, won’t you?

The People’s Improv Theater
154 W 29th St. Between 6th and 7th Ave.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
7:00 P.M.