Improv Class: Week Three

As promised last week, this week’s class was structured almost entirely around scene work and actual bits we could use in our “graduation performance”.

Two that stand out as highlights for me were “fake hands” and “interview for the blind”. Both situations revolve around a one-on-one interview setup with a third improviser providing either hands and arms for the interviewee or sign language narrative for the hearing impaired.

The former was made really popular by Ryan Stiles on the American/Drew Carey version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? The latter is familiar to anyone who has watched improv – and it’s all the mime/signer.

We also took a good deal of time to work on helping one another out in scenes. Learning to play off of one another more dramatically/humorously. We practiced things like broader physical motions and voice intonations.

We also discussed body positioning in relation to the audience and the effective use of the space afforded on the stage.

All in all a class that really felt like we could have performed certain parts in front of an actual audience.

Improv is so fleeting, it’s about getting your body and mind in sync with the performance and the other people on stage. I’m hard pressed to remember all the specifics except I laughed more and worked harder than any other night.

I’m hopeful tonight was a good sign. If we were lauhging (and getting laughs) the performance should follow.

Then again, the old saying goes “Dying is easy; comedy is hard.”

I guess we’ll see soon.

One other note: we’re not practicing next Tuesday because of the holiday so the performance is being pushed back by one week to accomodate for our missed practice.

Improv!

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