While it’s important to choose strong characters, I wanted to take a moment to warn you that picking a strong character and picking an outrageous character, are very different things. An outrageous character choice is always a possible way to go in a scene, but if it turns out that character in your head isn’t as funny as you thought it would be on stage, you and your scene partner are going to be stuck with it for the entirety of a scene… possibly for an entire performance.
There’s nothing like a one eyed lisping hunchback with a gimp arm and an audience not laughing, to really bring this point home.
If you do find yourself on stage playing a crazy character and think “Shit! This is a total mistake, no one is laughing,” the last thing you should do is renege on your choice. Completely commit to your character and stay with it. Chances are, the more time you spend in your outrageous character’s shoes, the more material you’ll have to play with. Play it for all it’s worth. If you don’t get huge laughs, at least you can add a solid performance and solid support to the scene.
In preparation of a practice group I was leading this weekend, focusing on character work, I wanted to be able to define the differences in creating characters. Although I hadn’t thought about it before, improv characters can come in many different flavors. I realized that knowing what character type you typically play, can make a huge difference in your work.
Here are 5 general classifications of characters as interpreted from The Second City Almanac of Improvisation and my own experience. There are many more shades of grey, but this is a good place to start.
I first saw her perform with I Eat Pandas at the Del Close Marathon this year and was absolutely blown away. I eat Pandas was the only improv act I have ever seen get a standing ovation at UCB. It was absolutely incredible.
So before you start buying yourself shit you don’t need and that will fill up your tiny New York apartment, why not buy something which will not only make you a better improvisor, but may even help that lack of rhythm you have.
Classes are Mondays November 6th-27th for a measly $130 (info here). What are you waiting for? Vamonos!
The story behind Del Close’s bequeathing his skull to iO Chicago, to be used in theatrical productions, has always been the subject controversy. The New Yorker has finally unconverted the truth behind Del Close’s skull at the Improv Olympic.
She [Charna Halpern] now pleads guilty” with an explanation. “After Del died, I asked the hospital people if they would help me by taking off the head, and they just laughed,” she said recently. “They suggested I call the Illinois Society of Pathologists. I told the pathologists, “I will give you Del’s body, and it’s a great body, because you can study the effects of smoking, alcohol, cocaine, and heroin on the brain. All I need is the skull.’ They thought about it, and then said, “There’s a fine line between research and art, and we’re concerned about our funding.’ I called labs, researchers, anatomy shops, and it was “No, no, no.’ ”
While it saddens me to know that I shall never be able to manhandle Del’s noggin, I have to say, that I think Charna’s attempt to give Del what he wanted was ambitious. I certainly wouldn’t know who to approach for the skull of a loved one and god knows I couldn’t cut a straight line with a handsaw.
Finally my Improv 201 class, at UCB, is starting to come together. I’ve been having a rough time in class from the first day. I started Improv 201 directly after 101. In fact, I started 201 one day after finishing 101. This lack of time to reflect, sort of threw off my improv game. I jumped into 201 unprepared that the change in teaching styles and curriculum would effect my abilities, but it did.
I’ve always prided myself on having very little inner thought about my improv. I really try not to edit, think, or pre-plan my scene-work. Just jump out and hope for the best. My motto in improv has always been “dare to suck,” meaning that you have to be prepared to fail in order to be able to succeed. This motto had worked until I hit 201, where the sucking really wasn’t the problem, but rather the daring. Read on…
I know this may seem a little cockeyed, posting a quick review of a Tuesday show after a show I saw the following Sunday, but I got bogged down with procrastinating and just couldn’t get my proverbial shit together.
This last Tuesday at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater, premiered the new Harold Night schedule, featuring returning, revised, and new teams. New players have been added to the line ups, aside from Kill your Darlings, which is still remains the original cast. The most notable change, to my mind, is the departure and re-formation of the Mailer-Daemon team as fwänd.Read on…
Hi improvisors. Thought you may be interested in a 