Performing tips from some of the finest improvisers around. We asked some of the best improvisers around what they did building up to, just before and during a big show. All their words are unedited by me, it’s exactly as answered direct from various facebook or email conversations. None of them knew who else was[…]
How to create a supportive atmosphere for improvising Quite a few people say there is a very supportive atmosphere at our improv classes, which is very nice of them so thank you very much! This is largely due to me being lucky enough to be taught improv by John Cremer, who is great at creating[…]
Awareness Lovely bunch of people in our improv workshop this evening. Left me so positive about impro that I’m writing this blog on the tube home immediately after before I forget. Workshop was on Awareness, as in being totally aware of what the other improviser is saying, doing, moving, feeling. There is quite a lot[…]
Being Positive Exercises In workshops it’s a good idea to train yourself to be positive in improv scenes and games. I’m not suggesting that all improv scenes should always and only feature positive characters, it’s just good to train yourself in the top end of your positive scale so that your default isn’t always to[…]
Last Thursday was possibly the most exciting day of any regular Edinburgh Fringe goer’s year. The day the Fringe programme magically appears on my doormat. Sometimes I think that browsing through its glossy pages is possibly more exciting than actually going to the Fringe itself. It reminds me of thumbing through the Argos catalogue in[…]
This comes from a staging and scenework workshop I was teaching a couple of weeks ago at one of our Monday improv classes. The first bit also comes from workshops done with Adam Meggido and Dylan Emery, who I think originally did it with Ken Campbell. For a while I’ve been thinking about what makes[…]
Clown Exercises If You Love Me You Would Smile Two actors face each other. Actor One says: “If you love me, you would smile.” Actor Two says: “I do love you, but I can’t smile.” while Actor Two tries not to laugh or smile. They repeat the lines until Actor Two finally smiles or laughs[…]
Beyond Impro Improv seems to be quite a good start for people jumping into the world of performing. Some people stick with improv for performance, and others use it to go into other areas of performing. Also as an improviser it’s helpful to expand horizons and learn new things, and then bring them back to[…]
Clown and Improv I recently did a Clown course with a lovely chap called Mick Barnfather a couple of weeks ago. If you’ve seen me recently you probably know that already, as I tend to start every sentence with “I just did a clown course with Mick Barnfather”. I found it exceptionally helpful; especially as[…]
Reactions bring improv to life These notes come from the Being Altered and Emotions workshops I ran a couple of Mondays ago. Sometimes you can watch people improvise and everything seems to be going ‘right’ – they are listening, saying yes to each other, building platforms, taking on characters, but for some reason the impro[…]
The Secret Of Improv: Be in a Good Mood OK! I admit it! For the past two weeks/months/years I’ve been taking improv way to seriously. I’ve also been spending way too much on facebook and twitter, reading about improv. In fact sometimes it feels like improv these days lives on facebook rather that on a[…]
Improvising believable relationships Characters on stage go from two separate people in separate worlds to a relationship when they have emotional connection, history, feelings, status between each other, knowledge of each other, behaviour and games where they are affected by each other. ‘Brothers’ is just a word on stage, it’s everything else that makes it[…]