Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by John Robison.

I’ve just returned from the Chicago Improv Festival, where I performed with Improv-Abilities. It was a great time, and I learned so much that it’ll take me a while to process it all. In my continuing effort to try to not be quite so long winded, I’ll split up my highlights. I love it… every time I go to Chicago, I come back with a series of new blog postings.

The first one is the one that has helped me personally, and one which I plan on immediately implementing in every troupe I coach. The concept is “Predator Mind,” a technique originally from Todd Stashwick, an actor who I enjoyed watching on “The Riches” before I even knew he was an improviser.

Predator mind is basically a state of hyperawareness, useful especially as you’re on the side of a scene. Like a dinosaur, hawk, or wolf, you immerse yourself in the scene, even though you’re not in it. You look for any opportunity to support the scene, heighten it, or clarify it. Many times, a scene does not need your support, and like a good predator, you know enough to stay out of the scene.

There is nothing about this technique that I don’t like. It solves the problem of improvisers sitting down when they’re on the sides. When implemented, every improviser listens as if they are actively participating in every scene. When you have the minds of your entire troupe engaged in every scene, you have increased the potential for something mind-blowing.

It seems like a very simple technique… and it is. That’s what makes it such a valuable tool. Every single member of your troupe can start doing this within 15 minutes. Perhaps it’s just a mental shift. It’s one thing to say, “Support your fellow troupe members.” But if you engage your Predator Mind, it provides a type of framework that makes giving that support much easier.

More cool techniques and observations to come…

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Monday, June 2, 2008 by John Robison.

I have two new groups of high schoolers that are excited about learning some improv over the summer. This is my second batch, and second batches are notoriously better than first batches, simply because the teacher has been seasoned properly. (I must be hungry for cookies.)

When I look back on my first year teaching high schoolers, I often feel sorry that they didn’t get the Mr. Robison that I became in the following years. I gained a great understanding of how to create a balance between being fun, presenting necessary information, discipline, and dealing with administrative pressures. I didn’t have that understanding my first year. I imagine I was exactly the kind of boring teacher that I never wanted to become. Thankfully, with experience, I was able to overcome that shortcoming, at least according to student reviews.

Though I’ve got even more experience now, there’s still plenty of room to learn.  This year, I wanted to really get off on a fun foot, and we played lots of games. Mission accomplished in one sense… they had a lot of fun, and so did the audiences. In another sense, they kind of got the short end of the stick. My first group of high schoolers this past year had a great time, but I feel like I didn’t quite give them a proper grounding in the improv that they did. I really didn’t help them develop their fundamentals as much as I should have. There are plenty of fun games that help develop those basics… so why didn’t I use them?

It’s all about experience. The students are definitely better than when they started with me, but if I had had a bit more focus, they could have been even better, and still had just as much fun. So starting with these summer classes, I’ve expanded the time by a half hour, to make sure we can have tons of fun as well as get those fundamentals down. This way, they not only have fun, but I also get my semi-selfish dream of creating a huge army of young improvisers to help transform the city into one that matches my image of an ideal artsy community. Long ways off, yes, but mighty oaks grow from small bits of squirrel food.

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