Random updates

Hello all,

I haven’t blogged in way more time than I’m comfy with, but for good reason - there’s been so much going on that time has been scarce. So, here’s a big sample of some of the random events/ideas that have kept me from writing:

Puppet Nation: As many of you may have seen, Puppet Nation isn’t on the schedule. We got to the week of the show, had a powwow, and concluded that we did not yet have the show ready to go. We weren’t confident in our ability to entertain the audience, so we pulled the show. I still have it on the back burner, and it’ll stay there until we are able to improve our puppetry. I am going to try to schedule something with members of my favorite puppet troupe in Chicago… more about this below!

Improv Survivor: The postponement of Puppet Nation left a hole in the schedule during the last week of January - a hole that had to be filled in less than a week. During that week, I came up with a brand new format based on the reality show “Survivor,” which I had never seen before, but knew enough about to know I wanted to do it. We cancelled PN on Monday, and on Tuesday, I started scrambling. During that week, I watched an entire season and a half of Survivor, using my handy-dandy Internet connection. I sculpted the entire format, we workshopped it on Thursday, and performed it on Friday.

I’m sure a dozen people have done Survivor shows before, but this one is really unique. Basically, it’s a giant longform in which the six players and host draw personality characteristics out of the audience suggestion hat, and assume characters that they play for the entire time. They then alternate between “challenges,” which are short form games, and “camp,” which is the longform portion, where the characters interact in whatever ways they want. Camp is also where the special audience-provided useless rewards come into play. This format still is not quite at the stellar level I’d like it to be, but it’s entertaining and it’s interesting. I look forward to tweaking it as we go forward.

One: Our group Omega Directive has been so successful that I’ve begun recruiting for a brand new elite group. Out of the eight spots, I’ve got two full right now… I am confident I could have the other six full by the end of the day, but I’m really trying to get some folks that might not come to the Imp otherwise. I’m also trying to balance the group as far as men & women go… which is super tough. Right now, I plan to start rehearsals for this group at the start of June (a rough time of year for me… more later) and start performing in July. Quick turnaround, but if it’s cast well, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Baby: My wife and I are expecting a girl at the end of May… which is tough. There aren’t that many improvisers in Kansas City with children, but all of them can tell you how tough it is to balance family with a craft that demands evening and weekend hours. Plus, when you own a theater, you can’t really just shut down for two months and put yourself on parental leave. So instead of shutting down over Memorial Day weekend, as we normally do, we’ll be taking the last weekend off, because a fella has to give himself at least a week to adjust to a screaming uncontrollable bundle of joy. Insane to start a new group the week after that? Yes. But I’ve been accused of being insane many times before. It’s temporary… but the art that springs from insanity persists long beyond.

Thunderdome: James and I will be taking our Trivial Prov-suit show to the Kansas City Improv Thunderdome on Saturday - March 14. We have absolutely no chance of winning, as it’s an audience-based voting process and we’re a two-man group who is splitting audience between Thunderdome and the Roving Imp, which will still be open. James and I had one of our best shows last weekend, and I’m looking forward to playing in front of a whole group of people that has never seen the show before. Hopefully it will inspire some of them to see our show more regularly. That’s really the point of competing - just getting our name, unique show, and brand of fun out there. We actually did TP in the mini-Thunderdome last August and advanced to the finals, despite doing what were in my opinion two of the worst TP shows we’ve ever presented. I think if James and I are on our game this Saturday, we can really amaze some folks, which would be great - people that don’t come out to the Imp’s more advanced shows have no idea the kind of quality that happens.

On that same note, James only has two more regular TProvs left before he moves to Chicago. After that, my partner will be Jeremy Danner, and possibly one other person… who hasn’t said yes yet.

Chicago Festival: Though the Imp didn’t have its video recording system perfected in time to be able to have any shows to submit to festivals, I am lucky to have performed with a group that did… and sure enough, that video earned Babelfish a spot as a performing group in the Chicago Improv Festival. I have performed with Babelfish twice… it’s basically a group of Joe Henley and Nathan Stewart and whomever else happens to be there. In this particular format, Joe and Nathan sit around talking to each other about random stuff, and I wait offstage, listen, and pull themes from the conversation, then initiate scenes. It’s incredibly difficult and rewarding, as the person in my spot has to initiate every scene, as well as have a wide variety of characters to contrast the two characters who are in conversation. In a way, Joe and Nathan are the college professors forced to interact with me, the LSD hallucination with form. Good times.

This is what happens when you don’t blog for such a long time. We’re already super long, and I’ve only managed to get halfway through my topics. Perhaps I’ll wait on the other ones until later. It’s feast or famine around here. Thanks for reading - I really do appreciate it!

Since you made it this far… why not come out to the Imp? I’ll even give you a dollar off if you mention this blog (offer good until I’ve posted two more blogs after this one). If you can’t make it to the Imp, leave a comment. I love reading those comments… even the ones that say I’m an arrogant jackass.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 10:45 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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