Archive for January, 2008

Harold Night 1/29/08 Impressions

by Ben Whitehouse.

I just wanted to take a minute out to congratulate the UCB Harold teams that performed last night. I was extremely impressed by the high quality of performance and energy all the players brought to the stage. In particular I wanted to spotlight the work of a few players that really made an impression on me.

Ben Rogers of 1985 did a scene with Sue Galloway about Valentines day and basically made the whole thing a dick joke. However, Ben committed so heavily to the performance that it was incredibly funny and not at all awkward to watch. Usually I am put off by juvenile humor, but hats off to Ben for pulling it off so effortlessly.

Another 1985 player of note is Gavin Speiller. From the early on Gavin has been one of my favorite players at UCB. He’s smart, funny, and can pull off a cute character at the drop of a hat, but it’s only in the last year I have noticed his ability to really selflessly support everything on stage. Last night he came into scenes repeatedly and added the perfect game move to the mix; the abusive hunter and his dog, the treasure thief, “there is only one burger left” brother. Repeatedly Gavin reminds me how good you can be at unabashed support.

Lastly, fwänd’s Gil Ozeri tried some pretty experimental transitions last night. Instead of a sweep edit, Gil said while editing the scene “we see this scene is part of a huge quilt” (to which Gabrus said one of the funniest lines of the night about lupus). While the edits didn’t quite congeal and were dropped on an edit or two, I really appreciated Gil’s attempt to blow out the suggestion of pincushion into something more. For a student grappling with broader ideas in performances, Gil’s example to experiment even at the possibility of failure is inspiring.

Thank you to all the Harold teams, you guys are all inspirations… alright, alright, maybe that was a bit much.

The Ol’ Wrap-Up Routine

by Ben Whitehouse.

So, being that I update this website by myself, one of the many tricks up my sleeve for creating content out of thin air, is to write a bulleted list of things which I am entirely too lazy to write about in more detail. This is the trick in my bag I will use today to get you all up on what’s been happening in the New York improv scene. It should be noted, however, that all of these bulleted points probably deserve far more fleshing out than they shall be giving here.I apologize for not getting this information out earlier but I was in England and Ireland on a well deserved vacation (6 years) and had put improv on the back burner for a bit. Sorry.So, lets recap this bitch:

  • UCBComedy.com, the long awaited streaming video component of the Upright CItizens Brigade website, launches with sketches from UCB’s biggest and brightest.
  • Word on the street is UCB New York has tightened up their approval system for getting into upper level classes. The majority of comments in the community is positive, aside from people who didn’t get into said higher level classes.
  • UCBNY Harold Night’s 2008 season debuts with some strong performances and enough references to masturbation to appease any high school student.
  • The independent scene has been strengthened by teams creating repeating showcases of newer groups at independent venues. This is giving rise to improvisers who are getting very good at performing earlier in their improv training.
  • Improv Anywhere looses it’s pants for 2008 across the country.
  • MySpace starts looking for Improv Groups

Alright, anything I’m forgetting?

…and we’re back

by Ben Whitehouse.

Sorry for the months of silence kids. Took a holiday from improv, work, and the United States, but now I’m back. I got some interesting news on the improv front and a few new insights I’ll be writing about from a few upper classes at the UCB here in New York.

2008 is the year of some improv, let’s get and’ing.