Any road will take you there
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If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.
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If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.
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Here in New York it’s UCB Harold audition time. It’s the time of year when students gather outside of the UCB training center, in the freezing cold, to sign up for a prized audition slot. So it’s been for thousands of years… As someone who has auditioned before I thought I would share some of my experience with all of you and ask for any advice you might have for anybody else. Comments appreciated!
As a word of caution, I have not ever had a successful Harold audition, nor do I know anything you don’t. I just thought this might serve as healthy inspiration for all of you brave enough to audition.
So those are my thoughts going into this. You are all wonderful performers in your own right and no matter what happens in that room (watch out for shitting yourself) at the end of the day, you are still the performer you were when you walked in. Remember to be yourself and have fun — you earned it.
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Was pretty excited to sign up for this class over at Magnet Theater and as there is still a spot available before Sunday’s class, I thought I would bring it to your attention, if you didn’t know about it already. Forsooth!

NEW!!! IMPROVISED SHAKESPEARE with Blaine Swen ONE DAY WORKSHOP!!!*
Take a risk! Learn how to create a fully improvised story using the language and themes of William Shakespeare! We’ll explore the use of heightened emotional responses, rich character subtext, finding the game within a scene, and developing a sense of play. Our class will be filled with power struggles, star-crossed lovers, sprites, kings, queens, princesses, sword-play, rhyming couplets, asides, insults, persons in disguise and all that we’ve come to expect from the pen of the Great Bard. One day workshop. Limit 16 students. Pre-requisite: Level One or equivalent experience.
Availability: OPEN
Instructor: Blaine Swen
Dates: January 25 (One Day Workshop)
Day: Sunday
Time: 3-6pm
Price: $50
Location: Pearl Studios 500 8th Avenue 4th Floor, between 35th/36th StsFor specific dates and locations click here.
Remember: Your registration is not complete until you have paid.
*Cod piece not included
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We at improvoker are very pleased to announce the addition of Philip Buuck of mychicagoimprov.com to our writers. We are excited to see what’s happening in the Chicago improv scene and egarly look forward to hearing Philip’s thoughts on improvisation.
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One of my closest and dearest friends Abra “Pinky” Tabak has just been added to UCB house team Bastian. As someone who has thought Abra is one of the most talented improvisers I have ever met, it’s good to see UCB thinks so as well. As for adding her to Bastian, I can’t imagine a better group for her warm and supporting personality.

The kids on Bastian, as I have told them in various states of drunkeness, are one of my favorite Harold Teams because of their incredibly supportive playing style. So look out for your new member of the flock, she is the jam.
Congratulations Abra! See you next Tuesday.
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So what does an improviser write about a weekend full of improvisation after it’s all over and it’s months later? (seriously Ben, months?!) There is so much. (Ben, what the hell has taken you so long to write this up?) A weekend full of beer, fist fights, and an overwhelming amount of hilarity. (You can hear me Ben, I can see you wincing) This was by far the most intense DCM I have attended. (HEY BEN! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME) 3 days of non-stop improv, is a lot of improv, even for the heartiest of improv junkies. (Oh, it’s going to be like that huh?) This year, I’ll have to admit, I stayed largely to shows I knew most and while I did explore some of the other theaters, most of my time was spent at the UCB main stage. (Vagina) What? Come on, kids read this! Okay I’ve been really busy at work and haven’t had any time to write. I’m sorry! Okay? (okay)
This was my third year of Del Close Marathons and from the 3 I have attended, this year seemed the most sober. Perhaps it was the deaths of both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, or the missing energy of Amy Poehler, or the introspective press conference, or the vastness of the Marathon now filling 4 theaters, but I got a definite sense of a community looking in on itself. Of course being that the marathon is now 4 theaters wide, I may have only seen one impression of a now huge pool of performances.
UCB is in a strange place at the moment. Their success as both a theater where the best and brightest comedians are trained, with Bobby Moynahan moving to SNL, and also the most successful improv training center in New York, if not the country, has left UCB trying to figure out how to deal with it’s unparalleled popularity. This showed itself during the Friday press conference as the UCB3 — Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Matt Besser — took the stage outlining the UCBs revamped improv curriculum:
These should be no shock to anyone who has spent time at the UCB training center. Most of these have been on the lips of instructors since I first started training, but the fact that the UCB is now defining it’s perspective publicly, on long form improvisation, is sign of their new found leadership roll in the improv community. Although, Matt Besser did make it quite clear that these may not be true of all schools, but they are what is true for the UCB.
As most of you know each year I try to take away a few things which become apparent after watching hours and hours of improv. I trite them down in a notebook in the dark. I try not to edit them and write them down as I wrote them.
Out of all the performances of the marathon, I think the highlight was Code Duello’s saturday night performance off of the suggestion of “rabies.” The performance was based on Aaron Burr killing Hamelton’s cat and having to replace it with a sabertooth tiger. This however was nothing to the incredible playing of both Neil Reynolds and Matt Tucker, whose moves grounded the scenework so much that the idea of entire premise of a dead cat being replaced with a sabertooth tiger seemed totally justified. Out of the 4 times I’ve seen Code Duello, this was by far their most impressive show, so much so that they proved something that I had never seen prior.
We all Know how to get laughs from an audience. It isn’t hard. But I want us to get cheers.
– Del Close
They had cheers, laughs, and a standing ovation at the end of their set.
WeirDass at the FIT auditorium. As usual Stefanie Wier and Bob Dassie produced a show that was incredible to watch. Full of rich characters and incredible scenework their set again reminded me how important listening and responding is to improvisation. They have a bond that one can only imagine can only be made possible by being married to your scene partner. It was so inspiring to see the two of them on stage that the day after the marathon, I formed a 2 person improv group based very roughly on the Weirdass form. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, WeirDass is reeeeeeeeally good.
The always impeccable Baby Wants Candy, performed an incredible set about a speakeasy that had points of shockingly sublime songwork that really highlighted what committing to every part of performance can do.
And so, that’s the wrap up. If you have any questions, or comments feel free to drop a line. I’ll be sure to respond to you early February.