Okay now I’m ahead of the curve, rumor through the grapevine is Chelsea Clarke, of Tantrum, will be filling Shannon O’Neill’s spot on fwänd and Adam Pally, formerly of Beverly Hills, will be filling Will Hines’ spot on 1985.
How was that for a run on sentence?
These are both really interesting moves. Chelsea one of my favorite players currently on a Harold team. Her growth as an improviser, over the last year, has been incredible. Bringing her onto fwänd is a really smart move and one I had not seen coming.
Adam Pally is also a wonderful performer, who was surprisingly not put on any Harold Team in the Decoster, Reynard, $12k shuffle a few weeks back. This was really surprising as Pally is an really smart player and played such an integral role in Beverly Hills. Seeing him again a few weeks back in the Hotsauce Cage-Match reminded me of what a strong player he is. I’m interested to see what effect he has on the 1985 line up. Being such a different player than Will Hines I’m interested how the team incorporates Pally’s abilities.
So, watch for the announcements, see if I’m full of shit, and go see these two new line ups.
Wow, really behind on this post. Shannon O’Neill and Will Hines have joined The Stepfathers! I had just been thinking I wonder who’ll be joining onto the Stepfathers now that Billy Merritt has left for UCBLA. I had thought either Will Hines or Shannon O’Neill might have been added.
It’s a pretty incredible line up and improves an already incredible show.
I’m in week two of Michael Delaney’s eight week Improv 504 Acting for Improvisers class at UCBNY.
I was terrified of Michael when I first arrived in class, because of his reputation as a no punch pulling instructor. I had imagined him to swagger into class, shout at every scene that we were doing it all wrong, and tell us that we were no good. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Delaney is an amazing instructor. His knowledge and thoughts on improv are on a level I have not experienced before. Just about every word out of his mouth makes me furriously write down something in my notebook. He does give candid notes, but I love a note if it’s on point — and Delaney is always on point.
I can really feel that skillset stretching
One topic he is really stressing on in this class, is to take that initiation and not get caught up in it, instead of continuing on exploring the scene. Often I, as an improviser, will get nervous that I wont find that unusual thing and make the ordinary, unusual. This really pulls focus from what’s ultimately the most important part of the scene, the relationships of the characters on stage. He used a cake analogy which has continued to bounce around my head all week. I can’t shake it.
There is power in an archetypal cake. You can make a cake as crazy [unusual] as you want, but sometimes a cake is just a simple cake and the wedding is what we explore.
Master Dialectitian (Original Air Date: 14 June 1999)
Bomb Squad (Original Air Date: 21 June 1999)
Mogomra vs. the Fart Monster (Original Air Date: 28 June 1999)
Real World (Original Air Date: 5 July 1999)
Face Therapy (Original Air Date: 12 July 1999)
Infested with Friars (Original Air Date: 26 July 1999)
Spaghetti Jesus (Original Air Date: 2 August 1999)
Big City (Original Air Date: 9 August 1999)
Hurricane (Original Air Date: 16 August 1999)
Supercool (Original Air Date: 23 August 1999)
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This isn’t some bullshit, “I am a scientologist, so I have to buy Scientology junk” post. As an owner of Season 1, way before I started training at their training center, I will definitely buy this set. Season 1 was okay, but the commentary is like taking a $325 class with Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh. The commentary on season 1 is brilliant, but unlike the first DVD, the UCB4 put commentary on every episode including a question and answer at the Los Angeles Theater. This is huge for anyone who wants to understand the inner workings of 4 of the most talented comedians working today.
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Added into the press release is the announcement that Upright Citizen’s Brigade will be launching their third stage which will be a comedy video website, www.UCBcomedy.com featuring performers from the theaters. I’ve known about these plans for a while and it’s good to see the UCB pushing it forward into a reality.
(I am not a Scientologist) (Good luck Neil.)
Got Season 2 today in the mail from Amazon. I’ll be sure to review the discs on the site once I’ve watched the whole thing and drooled over the commentary. I’m converting the whole set into video files to watch on my iPhone, because I’m not home very often… plus, it’s pretty sweet to watch UCB on my evening commute.
My current Improv 501 class at UCBNY, taught by Chris Gethard, has been busily working through keeping scenes real and our reactions truthful. Gethard is a huge proponent of keeping scenes as truthful as possible and the more I follow his direction, the more I find my scenes go beyond my abilities as an improviser into something much more profound. Playing my scenes as realistically as possible has given me a lot more confidence in taking the stage because while I may not always/ever have something funny to say, I will always be able to react truthfully to a situation.
Let’s not get caught trying to be funny.
Chris Gethard
However, the impulse to be “funny” in a scene is also very tempting. As any improviser can attest, a minute on stage without a laugh can feel like an eternity. I’ve been in class shows where we have “funnied” it up for an audience’s enjoyment at the detriment to our scenes. Unfortunately a lot of this “if you’re not getting laughs, you’re failing” comes from my own insecurities as a performer. We are performing improv comedy right? Comedy is about laughs? Laughs are about jokes? Without laughs you’re just two people in a big black box standing in front of an audience right?
