Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by John Robison.

On a whim, I decided it might also be helpful for me to figure out which shows of the year were the least successful. Nobody really likes to look at this side of life, but it’s necessary in order to improve. While earning my master’s degree, I heard about managers that fire 10% of their employees each year, no matter what - the bottom 10% performing employees. It’s a tough policy, but I can understand several reasons why, logically, it makes sense - it motivates everyone to improve, and if you’re always eliminating your bottom performers, your overall performance will go up over time. Not a very nice thing to do, necessarily, but I guess that’s business for you. Not a philosophy I personally will ever subscribe to, but it’s interesting to think about on a theoretical level.

The thing I noticed right away about these bottom performing shows is that for the most part, I have already taken steps to correct the reasons for their poor performance. Will those steps work? For some, absolutely. For some… who knows?  Please enjoy the bottom 10, from the top of the bottom to the number one, our worst showing of the year.

10.  RI’s Implympics, 8-29-08

As I look back, there was nothing inherently wrong with the show itself… it was a matter of scheduling. This was our second Friday show that we’d ever done. In July, we expanded to one Friday evening per month as a test. This second one proved that the audience as a whole hadn’t yet caught on to the fact that Friday shows were happening. Also, this show had the misfortune to be scheduled on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. This, as I have discovered, ain’t a great time to have a show.

9. RI’s Halloween & Scary Election Show,  10-31-08

Same deal here… Friday show when people aren’t yet terrifically excited about Friday shows, and it fell on a holiday - Halloween. I think if I had done a better job of promoting this show, it could have done better. Live and learn.

8. Omega Directive Premiere & Hypothetical 7, 8-9-08

Although Omega Directive has proven to be one of my absolute favorite groups to perform with and to watch on video later on, at this time, the group had done no shows. Brand new, untested groups do not usually generate any audience interest.  Attendence for OD shows has picked up since this first one, so people must be enjoying it as much as I do. Then there’s the H7 problem. This group has tremendous troubles attracting audience… their first show here at the Imp was well attended, and has never regained that level. After talks with a few of the H7, I’ve discovered this isn’t necessarily a venue problem… several other H7 shows have had similar problems. However, frequency may be an issue. Different audiences have different rates of audience fatigue. The H7 audience may not be one that can handle a monthly show. So, in 2009 we’ll be cutting back to five H7 shows at the Imp, and they’ll be exploring other venues as well. It doesn’t hurt my feelings that that’s happening - if something’s not working, you have to do what you can to fix it.

7. Game Show: Card Sharks & Makeshift Militia, 5-31-08

As much fun as the Game Show format was, it never caught on with audiences. Maybe not everyone is as big a game show fan as I am. I talked to people, and many of them said they thought it was a cool idea they’d like to be a part of, but those talks didn’t translate into butts in seats. So, we stopped producing the Game Show in May. Problem solved. As far as Makeshift goes, this show happened right after the end of the semester, and their audience had scattered, as had most of their performers.

6. Red Rubber Ball & Trivial Prov-suit, 9-6-08

This one’s easy. This show happened the exact same weekend as the KC Improv Festival. Audiences here were terribly small. It’s tough for the small theater with shows every weekend to compete with a large special event with a great big budget and celebrity power. Good thing it’s only once a year.

5. RI’s Coronation Day, 4-19-08

2008, in my mind, is split into two sections - Jan.-April and May-Dec. (like the romance). In the first few months of the year, I saw that attendance at Roving Imp shows was not at the point where it really should be, so I planned a complete RI lineup shakeup to begin in May. This is the point where we began expanding the number of performance groups and changing the weekends so that the 7pm and 9pm shows were different groups. This has proven to be the best decision of 2008. Attendance since May has been noticeably higher, and I’m 90% sure it’s because of the difference from 7pm to 9pm. This particular April RI show suffered from not only this “previous to May” designation, but also from a really stupid theme. Coronation Day? Really? That’s going to attract people? My bad.

4.  Dictionary Soup, Biblioclast Premiere & the Hypothetical 7, 10-11-08

Again, we have the premiere of a brand new show, which seems to be a pattern, and H7, with the audience problem. That’s more than Dictionary Soup could overcome, which despite a great turnout the previous month, was still a fledgling show - this was only its third appearance in an 18-month period.

3. RI’s Revenge of the Angry Groundhog, 2-2-08

Sure, this one fell on a holiday, but I can’t imagine that that’s the reason for the turnout. This one suffered from the same problem plaguing RI shows in the Jan.-April period, despite what I thought was a fantastic theme.

2.  RI’s Implympics/MovieProv, 8-16-08

I’ll first address MovieProv… which I thought was a really neat idea with a lot of promise. I personally never got into MST3K, which maybe should have told me something. If I, the rock star nerd, didn’t like it, what were the chances that people less nerdy than me would like it? This show was universally hated, and it didn’t take long for us to stop doing it. Conceptually, I still like it, and it produced some fun moments, but most audiences were the opposite of interested. So… that didn’t help. Most audience members like coming to two different shows that they’ll enjoy, which didn’t help the RI show at 7pm. Also, did anyone else notice that THREE of the shows on this list are from August? I don’t remember exactly what was happening in the world as a whole in August, but there may have been external factors at work as well.

And now… our least attended show of 2008… the show that makes me shudder to look back upon…

1. MovieProv & the Hypothetical 7, 7-12-08

The double death knell. We’ve already talked about the problems with both of these shows, and we don’t need to rehash that here. As I recall, this was the only show of the entire year where we had the casts of both shows, and maybe one or two others. I do recall that we made absolutely no money this weekend. Let’s never have another weekend like this, OK?

Lessons learned from the bottom 10:

1. My instincts are correct - when I feel like a show is tanking, I give it another month or two, and then make changes. I did this with each and every show on this list, without knowing they would eventually turn out to be the lowest performers. I knew it by feel, which makes me feel good about my innate business sense.

2. It’s important to know when something can be saved and when it needs to die. We didn’t cut the bottom 10% of shows, but we did cut maybe 5%. The Roving Imps could be saved, and I’m glad they were. Game Show needed to die. MovieProv needed to die. I understand that there’s another group in town that is having a lot of success with the MST3K style, but they’re not improvising it on the spot, having never seen the movie before. I’m not bitter… that’s just not something I’m interested in. I’m never bitter that a performance group has success. Success in one area benefits us all.

3.  Don’t expect miracles from brand new, untested formats, no matter how good you think they are. Nobody else knows what I know, and so nobody knows how good or bad this new group is. I wish there were a way around this, but I don’t think that’s possible. Every group has to have a first show.

4. Be flexible, and be ready to change things. Somebody wise probably said something at one time like, “If you are rigid and inflexible, you’ll break when a stiff wind comes along.” They probably said it in a more eloquent way. That’s one of the great things about having your own theater, and not caring about being extremely rich… you have the freedom to experiment. I’ll try almost anything once or twice to see if it works. You never know what might happen.

Happy New Year, all, and thanks for all your support for the Roving Imp Theater. I couldn’t create any of this kind of wonderful art without you, and at the start of shows when I say that I appreciate each and every one of you, I truly mean it. See you in 2009!

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by John Robison.

As we approach the end of 2008, I’ve been doing a lot of looking back… after all, it’s been the first full calendar year that the Roving Imp has been operating. We had shows on 57 nights, and a total of 117 different 45-90 minute shows. That pans out to just over one night a week, and to about two and a quarter shows per week. I always keep track of our top shows, because that’s really cool to be able to replace your top yearly and overall shows as time goes by. It’s quantifiable progress in an artsy unquantifiable environment. It’s also good to see if my instincts as an artist and businessman are backed up by ticket sales.

Our top 10 nights of 2008:

10. ABBA Musical, 7-19-08 - I was commissioned to develop a short musical based on the songs of ABBA and the lives of a couple obsessed with the musical “Mamma Mia.” This night was RI’s first experience with having two shows simulntaneously. Some of us went off to perform the ABBA tribute while others stuck around to run an Improv Jam. It paid off.

9. High School Improv Showdown & Makeshift Militia, 2-9-08 - The High School Improv Showdown was the most difficult show to produce this year, mainly due to the inherent flightiness of high schoolers and to the fact that this was a brand new program. However, the few high schoolers that consistently made it to rehearsals and were able to perform put on really good quality shows that left their huge audiences rolling in the aisles. As you’ll see in the next few, it didn’t matter what the 9pm show was… the 7pm show carried it along in its wake.

8. High School Improv Showdown & Game Show: Trivial Pursuit, 3-8-08 - Again, the high schoolers helped boost ticket sales with their huge numbers of supportive friends and family members, despite being partnered with the completely unpopular Game Show.

7. High School Improv Showdown & Game Show: Deal or No Deal, 4-12-08 - Plans for a 2009 HSIS are in the works. Once again, there are huge difficulties with #1 - getting the message out to high schoolers, whose drama teachers have generally not been too supportive; and #2 - once the high schoolers are interested, getting them to commit a tiny regular portion of their busy lives to do some improv. When they’re here, they love it… but many of them don’t love it enough to commit. Hmmm….

6. The Harold, Dictionary Soup & Makeshift Militia, 8-23-08 - A huge show that was bolstered by the fact that a photographer from the KC Star was attending, Dictionary Soup was having its first show in over a year, the KC Improv Festival was coming the following week, and the new Harold class show was really starting to get into gear. Buzz around this show was higher than usual, and it showed in the audience.

5. RI’s Ho-Ho-Holiday Show & Trivial Prov-suit, 12-6-08 - Having a December show make the top 5 was a real relief to me, after having snow put a damper on each and every Saturday show in 2007, and having various holiday activities put a damper on December shows throughout the theater world every single year since Macy’s opened. A Bonner Springs area club got a group together and saw this show, and several former members of the HSIS came home from college to see their favorite show, TrivProv, making it a happy December at the Imp.

4. The Harold & Omega Directive, 10-25-08 - Once again, having the students of the Harold perform for their friends and family made this show one of the highest attended in 2008.

3. High School Improv Showdown & Antiprov, 1-12-08 - The first HSIS to have both teams participate (remember that December snowstorm?), their families and friends were hungry to see them perform, and turned out in droves. This was the second or third truly huge audience we’d ever had, and I remember wondering if the floor would hold. It did, with no problem.

2. RI’s Talkin’ Turkey & Improv Jam, 11-15-08 - The convergence of two large groups coming to see the show made for a great night, and having most of them stay to try their hand at improv was icing on the cake. I love it when a whole bunch of people new to improv come in to a great big crowd and have a great time. It pumps up everyone’s energy, and the show is better for it.

The #1 attended show of 2008, as if you couldn’t guess:

1. High School Improv Showdown Finals & Trivial Prov-suit Premier, 5-10-08 - A deadly combo of a scholarship winner being named, bragging rights being awarded, and the introduction of a heavily-hyped new format made this show the best-attended show in the history of the Roving Imp, and was the first show to have attendance higher than opening night, over a year earlier.

Things I’ve learned from the top 10 shows:

1. If you can get some high schoolers that really enjoy improv, they’re not only great for attendance, but they also infuse life into the whole atmosphere (two former members of HSIS are currently members of the Imps).

2. The same formula can work with adults, too. That’s what the Harold is all about. It won’t work quite as well, because seriously, what adult has 30 BFFs that will come see them?

3. Regularity pays off - when people know to expect the same show on the same weekend every month (or every other month), they go ahead and mark it on the calendar. The Improv Jams are an example of this. There’s a group of fantastic folks that come to every single one. Predictability is everyone’s friend from a scheduling standpoint. Leave the randomness for the stage.

4. The Cheers/Seinfeld/Friends formula works. Follow a popular format with a new one that you think will take off, and some of the fans will follow.  I think TrivProv wouldn’t be the success it is right now if it hadn’t had a start following HSIS. Omega Directive is just as good a show, but hasn’t yet caught on… yet. It’s recently been moved, and follows the Harold show.

That’s the top 10… as always, I’d love to hear feedback. And in a half-assed effort to appear to be a professional blogger, look out very soon for the yang to this particular post - the bottom 10 shows. It’s a darker alley, filled with some mistakes in marketing and production values. Stay tuned.

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Wednesday, December 3, 2008 by John Robison.

I’m like a lot of folks - when I first found out about improvisation, it was through the magic of short form. It was quick, delightful, and fun. I’m also unlike a lot of folks, who fell out of love with short form. They say it’s repetitive, predictable, and unfun. This seems to be the predominant opinion of serious improvisers, to show just how serious they are. This opinion shows that they’ve evolved beyond the need for a quick, cheap laugh; that they’ve moved on to long form - the epitome of spontaneous performance art. I agree with them that quick, cheap laughs are something you should probably steer away from… but I think there’s a definite place for short form, right alongside long form. Please take this journey with me, exploring several observations I’ve had at the Roving Imp, and the actions I’m taking.
Observation #1: Kids like Short Form

I think it’s a product of shorter attention spans, but it’s very evident to me that when kids are in the audience, they pay a lot more attention to the short form. This generally applies to people in the 15 & under demographic… all the way down to my own son, who is almost three and attended his first show last month. He was enthralled by the pasty white rhythms of “Beastie Rap.”  Television has trained our minds from a young age to pay attention to things in 2-to 10 minute segments, and short form plays right into that. There’s also a variety of movment, talking, rhyming, guessing, etc. that happens during short form, and that appeals to the younger folks. Action item #1: Put short form in shows that kids come to.
Observation #2: Adults like Short Form, Too

For all the same reasons that kids like short form, the adults like it, too. My own mother, who is my biggest supporter (she comes every week and always insists on paying), enjoys it all, but always has liked the short form better. Action Item #2: Put short form in shows that adults come to.

Observation #3: Guessing Games Make People Laugh

With our audiences, the exact right move lately has been to wrap up our first half with a guessing game. The spectators seem to absolutely love watching an improviser frustrated by his or her inability to guess that they’re getting drunk because they accidentally ate a dolphin for Thanksgiving dinner, especially when you add some great, grounded characters into the mix. This also explains the appeal of Chain Murder, my aforementioned mother’s absolute favorite game. Action Item #3: Without overdoing it, end the first half of short form with a guessing game.

Observation #4: End the show on a high note

Our typical Roving Imp show includes a short form first half and a long form (or medium form) second half. This works well… we’ve been doing it almost since the start, and people seem to enjoy the variety. However, long forms do not always end with a bang. Sometimes they end with a whisper, and sometimes they end before they’re all wrapped up. To avoid a sense of “we saw an incomplete show,” when this happens, I have on deck a “freeze game” or a rhyming game, depending on how much time we’ve got. It might be Doo Ron Ron, and it might be Dear Diary. Either way, it helps us end on a high note. I recently read that people remember the best thing about their experience as well as the last thing that happened. Giving them some quick laughs right before they go home might help return business.Action Item #4: Have a freeze game or rhyming game ready to go just in case.

Observation #5: Short Form helps Long Form

We’ve done shows with both halves being long form, and those shows are really great, but sometimes tend to be more “talky” than the shows that start with a first half of short form. Shows that start with short or medium form are more energetic and more entertaining, especially when you don’t have a lot of time to warm up together as a group. Action Item #5: Starting in 2009, we’re transitioning all our completely long form shows to have a first half that has scenes that are quicker and not necessarily connected.

Observation #6: To the Haters

A lot of people out there (mostly intermediate & upper level improvisers) have said that they can no longer stand to do short form. I cannot understand why this might be. If you’re getting a good diet of long form in your improv, short form can still be completely fun if you do it correctly. When it comes down to it, all improv is the same. The only difference between short form and long form is that short form has more restrictions (yes, a shorter time frame is one of them). So why not play your short form with the same good skill that you use for your long form? Would it really be that bad if you end up telling a story during Doo Ron Run? What if you end up having a really fun 15-minute long Conducted Story? Would that really be so bad? All you have to do is apply your skills. See what happens.
If you’re in a space where you aren’t loving the SF, maybe you’re being formulaic, predictable, and/or unimaginative. Give yourself some gifts. Try out some new characters. It’s short form… if they’re not your favorite, you’re not stuck with them for the whole show. If it’s appropriate, break some of the rules of the game you’re playing. See what happens. It’s improv, right? It’s impossible to be wrong.
Or… give yourself MORE restrictions than the game calls for. Just last night I was hosting a short form game of Emotional Party, where one person (me) hosted a theme party, and as each guest comes in, everyone in the room adopts the emotional state of the entering person. At face value, this game is one that could get old really fast. But here’s how we did it: the audience suggested that we were having a voodoo party, so I set up the party scene by attempting to gather my zombie ingredients and by preparing voodoo dolls of each guest, remarking that I’d have to gather hair or body pieces from each of my guests to complete the dolls. I did myself a huge favor, because now I was not only reacting to things happening around me, but I also had a goal: get pieces of the guests.That’s a great trick in your long form: have a secret (or not so secret) goal. It works great in short form too.
As the first person came in, he was depressed. I had him go ahead and cut himself and collect his blood into a bucket. Done. The second person came in, and was homicidally angry. He ended up cutting off my nose, but I got his ear. Sample collected. The third person was unexplainably amorous. There ended up being a giant writhing mass of actors in the center of the stage, and I seem to recall there was someone crawling up my back… but I took advantage of the situation and conspicuously cut a lock of hair off the latest guest.
In short, I made another secret game to play at the very same time I was playing the first game. Audiences love this, because it gives them something extra to enjoy. I loved it because I got to play two games at once.
Action Item #6: This one’s homework. Play short form like it’s long form. Find games. Be positive. Be artsy. And for God’s sake - Have Fun!

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