Double Barrel

Get Up

2007-05-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

Shannon McCormick and Shana Merlin are two of the most accomplished and experienced improvisers in Austin. Shana teaches improv classes on a weekly basis, and Shannon helps run The Out of Bounds Improv Festival, now in its 6th year. Together, they form Get Up, an improv group that focuses exclusively on longform narrative... aka stories. We talked with Shannon about Get Up, narrative improv, and the past and future of improv in Austin.

DB: Get Up is one of the few troupes in Austin that focus exclusively on narrative longform (the only other being Shana's other troupe, Girls Girls Girls). What is that you find so compelling about narrative-based improv?

Shannon: As I suspect is true for a lot of people doing longform improv, it’s partly just a question of what I got into first. My first real compulsion to do longform came after seeing We Could Be Heroes’ Six Degrees format. And even before that, all of the longform shows I had seen, or at least the ones that I can remember making an impression on me, were narratives. I lived in Atlanta for a while in the late 90s and saw a few episodes of the first season of Dad’s Garage’s improvised soap opera Scandal. Those shows were pretty great. I even saw a show back in maybe ’93 or ’94 at the Annoyance in Chicago called Brainwaves: The Baby-Eater, which, looking back, I suspect was largely an improvised narrative, although at the time I just thought it was one of the craziest, silliest plays I had ever seen.

I think, too, though, that it’s a question of temperament. I’ve been doing theater in some capacity steadily since 1992, and even earlier if you count high school stuff, except for two years that I spent in graduate school in New Mexico, where I basically spent my time discovering that I didn’t have the discipline to become a professional fiction writer. In some ways I think my frustration with my own writing was I didn’t understand story structure very well and couldn’t find how to make events engaging on the page. Most of my characters were kind of stuck in their own heads. So when I started taking classes at the Hideout with Shana and Sean and the people from BATS who would come out, I found this vast wealth of knowledge of story structure, and the kinds of things that hold the audience’s attention that I had been butting my head up against elsewhere in my life. The hooks got in pretty deep and I haven’t stopped being interested in understanding story and narrative structure since.

But I still haven’t quite answered your question, have I? I guess for me, Get Up does what it does because I find narrative to be deeply and profoundly human. All cultures have narrative and storytelling traditions. We’re just wired for it. Humans are narrative beasties. It’s how we relate to one another. Even something as simple as asking someone how their day was, you’re going to get a story. Hell, it’s how we relate to ourselves. Think about your own past or make projections about the future, and you’re engaged in story-making. And because we’re wired this way, even if you’re doing something onstage that doesn’t seem like a story, the audience is going to be projecting that narrative instinct and craving onto the actions onstage. I think a lot of times scenes live or die depending on this narrative projection the audience does, and rather than ignore that, I’d like to get good at it and use it to my advantage onstage. Which is not to say Get Up wants to tell stories that the audience already knows or that are formulaic. We’re just trying to be cognizant of what the audience is going to be doing regardless of our intentions. Finally, I consider myself an improvising actor before I think of myself as a comedian. Doing narratives is the best way, for me, to keep the audience engaged without being too worried if you’re slaying them with the funny. I like the sensation of an audience silently waiting on the edge of their seats to find out what comes next almost as much as I like getting a big laugh, and I’ve found that often the former makes the latter more likely.

DB: After doing improv in Austin for so long with various groups, how does it feel to have a consistent 2 person troupe? Do you approach it differently than your other projects?

Shannon: That’s interesting. There’s something almost weirdly snotty about being in a duo, even more than doing a solo show. It’s like “Hey everybody, we have this great connection and we don’t need anybody else.” Which from the outside could be kind of icky, I guess, like watching some newly coined couple grope each other in public. But yeah, I love doing scenes with Shana. We’ve worked with each other in some capacity for a long time now, and for me, at least, she’s the person I ‘get’ most consistently. We understand where our scenes are going a lot of times even before we initiate them.

What I really like about doing a two person show is you’ve got no time to hang back and stew over whether the show is going well. You’re just on all the time and you just have to keep pushing the thing forward without pre-calculating too much. With no one else to back you up but your partner, it forces you to listen really hard. If you drop something, there’s not much hiding you can do. We’ve had some shows recently where we’ve been able to playfully incorporate some miffed offers into the show, but we don’t want to make a habit of it.

The other aspect of being in a duo that’s different and really helpful for me is at the practical and logistical level. With only one other’s person’s schedule to worry about, we can rehearse and do shows without too much difficulty. We’re pretty portable, which, as a dad and dude busy with other projects, I’m really appreciative of. If I were in a larger ensemble, I’d have a much harder time being able to juggle my schedule. It’s one of the reasons I don’t play Maestro and shows like as much as I’d like to.

DB: Where would you like to see the future of Austin Improv develop in the next five years or so?

Shannon: I’d love to see us continue with the awesome upwards trajectory we’ve had for the past couple of years. New people coming here to learn or to do their own thing, a multiplicity of styles and voices, and the same open, inviting spirit that we have. That’s one of the hallmarks of our scene and one that I hope doesn’t go away. I think we’re starting to gain a reputation as a cool place to do improv, and I’d like to see that develop and get to the point where some folks at least, can make a decent living just being dedicated to improv. I actually think that time isn’t that far off.

The other thing that I’ve always loved about Austin improv, and a lot of credit here should go to Jeremy Lamb, is a desire to find our own way forward without wanting to just copy what’s been successful elsewhere. The Jury and later the Cupholders have always been a model for me of how to push forward and make your own kind of show, and I think that leadership has rubbed off on a lot of people, like with all the new show formats PGraph has been doing or McNichol and May’s Guided by Videos. I’d love to see that tradition continue.

And of course, I’d love to see Out of Bounds keep getting better and better and more known in the improv world.

DB: Tell us about the origin of Get Up, and your history together as performers.

Shannon: We’ve got kind of an Obi-Wan and Anakin thing going on, in that Shana was my first improv teacher, and now we’re doing shows together. And yes, in most ways I’m definitely the Anakin in the relationship. But yeah, we’ve been doing stuff with each other for a long time. My first two and half years doing improv, I was constantly doing shows, a lot like the Pgraph or ColdTowne guys are right now, with We Could Be Heroes—still a much better name than Heroes of Comedy—as the Heroes were sort of the only game in town. Shana and I did tons of stuff together within that context. Then my son Emmett was born in 2003 and for about a year I took a big step back from doing improv. That time also coincided with a general malaise in the Austin improv scene and I wasn’t really all that compelled to get out and do shows that much. But that time laid the seeds for all kinds of developments with Andy Crouch starting to book shows and make room for people to do their own thing at the Hideout. In the fall of 2004 he asked Shana and I to do a three-person mainstage show at the Hideout for a month or so. We called ourselves, or the show, Hat Trick. It was sort of intended to be a show in the spirit of 3 For All, narrative-based improv. The chemistry wasn’t quite right with that group, most likely because, to my discredit, I’ve not always been the fairest person in the way I’ve treated Andy. But in the aftermath of those shows, I asked Shana to move ahead as a duo and see what that would be like. Our first show was in early 2005 at FronteraFest, where we made it to Best of the Week with our 24 Minutes format. And we’ve been doing a couple shows a month ever since.

DB: Get Up in particular seems to like to tell stories with lots of characters. Obviously this is a challenge with only 2 cast members. What techniques do you use to create distinct characters and to keep all of these characters' traits separate in your head?

Shannon: We’re not always successful with this, but we try to make the various characters we each play within the shows have energies different enough, both from one another and from our own natural tendencies as players. When we remember to do that, the shows usually turn out pretty well. It’s when the characters get samey that we run into problems, especially when we’ve packed a scene with 5 or 6 characters. We both like to play really physically, so grounding the characters in some kind of physical location or with a physical trait helps keep everything straight. Some of the voice-over narrative techniques we use in the show help too, although we use that as much to expand the visual picture in the audience’s minds as we do to sort our who’s onstage.

Also, doing a narrative really helps, and when I do shows with Shana and we edit to a new scene, it’s rare that I don’t know who I’m supposed to be in the upcoming scene. It’s not that we have specific scenes we need to cut to, but when the story’s really clicking along, we can both just sort of feel what needs to come next. In that sense it’s not that hard to remember which character you’re playing.

Recently we’ve rehearsed some more specialized stuff that we’ve noticed ourselves having trouble with, like how to do crowd scenes or group combat scenes without them getting muddy. It’s taken us a while to master little stuff like that, but once we put our brains to it in rehearsal the math of those techniques was pretty easy to piece out. It’s kind of like mapping out a football play, with lots of “to make that scene work, you swap sides of the stage so we can fight each other, and then we’ll spin the scene around so we can change characters and see what’s going on over there.”

As a side note, I’m really excited to see Cathcart and Olson at Out of Bounds this year, plus they are coming down next month to play at ColdTowne. They’re also a male-female duo who play tons of characters over the course of their shows, but rather than the foolhardy eight-person shoot-out climaxes that Shana and I seem to end up doing a lot, their shows consist of a series of interlocked two-person scenes that unspool over the course of the show. It’s a pretty cool approach.

DB: What improv groups or performers, past or present, influence or inspire you?

Shannon: Man, so many people. I mentioned Jeremy earlier, but there are so many leaders and inspiring figures on the scene in Austin right now it’s awesome. Obviously, Keith Johnstone’s philosophies have had a big personal impact, and from elsewhere the 3 For All and BATS guys and Dad’s Garage guys have been pretty influential. Speaking of BATS, I’ve been lucky enough to have become pals with a couple of guys from Kasper Hauser. Best sketch comics in the game right now, in my opinion. Dasariski really blew me away last year. I could watch those dudes eat soup onstage for a half hour and I would be very happy. I’m really lucky as the producer of Out of Bounds that I get to help bring people down here who are inspiring to me and hopefully will be inspiring to the rest of the community.

I think it’s important, obviously, not to limit one’s improv influences to fellow improvisers. I’m really inspired by the kind of serial narrative TV shows that HBO does, films, fiction and non-fiction, especially history. Some of the best comedic writers in America right now I think are doing comics, like Chris Onstad at Achewood or David Rees’s My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, and I love trying to bring those sensibilities to the stage as well.

DB: Ask yourself a question and answer it here.
Shannon:
Q. Seriously, I get to ask my own question? Okay, how awesome is Sara Farr?

A. She’s totally awesome. I think it took Shana and I a while to hit our groove with the kind of format we wanted to do. We both really like trying to, as Rafe Chase says, “blow out the stage,” meaning that since everything else we’re doing is made up, why be limited in our settings by the physical limitations of the playing space. Those possibilities didn’t fully click for us until last year at Out of Bounds when Sara added her cinematic sound design to our bag of tricks. I’m really crappy at improv tech, and Sara’s really awesome at it. And she did it all because she likes what we do and because she’s a real sweetheart. Just showed up one day with a library of cinematic scores and said “Hey, would you be interested in adding this to your shows?” It’s really allowed Shana and I to find our voice on stage. It’s to the point where I don’t really think of Get Up as a duo anymore, I think of us as two performers and a sound improviser. We should probably update our cast page to reflect that.

Get Up is performing in the Double Barrel on May 18, 2007.

Improv for Evil

2007-05-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

Improv for Evil is celebrating their one year anniversary as a troupe this Friday, May the 11th. Spawned from the womb of Austin Improv just as the current upswell in the scene was beginning, the evil ones have had quite a busy year. We caught up with IfE on this momentous occasion to find out a little bit more about how it feels to be so very very evil.

DB: What are some of your favorite/proudest memories of the past year?

	Jason: I have had many proud moments with my troupe but I think I was most proud of our run at ColdTowne with Pgraph and Spices. Being the new kids on the block, it was nice to be given the chance to do a two month run and share the stage with some extremely talented folks. It gave us a chance to bond more as a troupe and really pushed us to come up with a marketable format. We may have had mixed results with our "Apocalypse" format but I was really proud of us for trying something new and really going out on a limb.
	Matt: I remember our first show, when we were overwhelmed with the support we received - I remember a cookie cake from Pgraph, a bottle of Whiskey from McNichol & May, and the general good vibe in the green room. Some of the most fun shows we ever did were during the Blank Show slot - I remember we did a Nightmare format with just two people in the audience. By the end of it, they asked for our autographs! Another time, a bunch of us took a random road trip to the middle of nowhere to buy poppy seed rolls, and on the way we passed a giant LED sign advertising some lame pecan shack. Ever since, PECANS! has been a troupe joke when things start getting weird. We just recently took a troupe camping trip - Valroth of the Stump has spoken! Performing every Thursday in January and February with Parallelogramophonograph at ColdTowne was a huge highlight as well.
	Bob: Doing amazing work with a great bunch of people. Our Wafflefest show was a real high point.
	Marc: It's been great watching everyone learn new techniques and hone their skills and grow as improvisers over the last year or so. There have been plenty of ups and downs, but it's all gone by so quickly that it's hard to pick out specific bits. I suppose that the high points performance-wise have been our festival appearances - at Frontera and WaffleFest - and our recent two-month run at ColdTowne. Also, some of the best moments we've had during shows are when we can hear certain other improvisers with distinctive laughs cracking up in the audience. Sometimes, the not laughing is even better, though - we've had a few shows with some longish scenes that we thought were dying because nobody in the audience was laughing or making any kind of noise, but then, when the scene ended, got a big round of applause. I love those.
	Mike: I guess my proudest moment of the past year was our very first show. I guess we were all anxious to get to the show and really do a great job. I was really nervous when we were warming up, but once we hit the stage everything just seemed to fall into place and I had a great time.

DB: How has IfE's improv/philosophy/style changed over the past year?

	Jason: We have tried so many different things just trying to find our own voice in the community. When we started out, we were pretty much strictly shortform players. Since then we have branched out into multiple longform styles with varying results. I think our current philosophy/style is a very organic one. We like to try out different forms and blend the elements we enjoy into a new form that plays to our strengths as performers. That's the goal at least.
	Matt: We've elevated our game significantly over where we started from, but we know there's always further to go. We started out with your basic flowy donut montage, but we've done Deconstructions (or our modified form, the Destruction), Nightmare, Harolds, Armando, and even forms we've made up the night of a show, like the successful Groundhog Day style or our current project, Lines. Our philosophy is that we can learn from all of these styles, and we shouldn't be afraid to try them.
	Bob: We've gone back to a more experimental approach, trying new intros and formats rather than working on a signature format. It's helped the group develop its chemistry and made us a bit more agile and confident.
	Marc: I don't think it's changed all that much, really. We've always been about pushing the boundaries of what we already know, and constantly trying new stuff - new formats, new techniques, new everything. We like to take risks, and see how far we can go before breaking down completely. We've really gone out and failed hard on occasion, either doing something totally wacky at a Blank Show, trying crazy ideas for the Cagematch, or jumping up with a new, untested format on a Friday night show - sometimes these come out better than we'd anticipated, sometimes they flop horribly, but I think we've learned something from most of them, and come out better for it.
	Mike: I think our style has changed from performing mostly the same stuff (Montages, short form) to where we are more apt to take chances on new formats. We've tried several new formats: Groundhog Day, The Cutting Room Floor, A Harold, and now we're trying our hand at a modified "living room" format called Lines. We've definitely left our comfort zone and are looking to try new formats and ideas to really challenge ourselves.

DB: IfE has brought in a lot of coaches throughout your career so far. What skills and techniques have you learned from them that you might not have picked up otherwise?

	Jason: I'm not going to name names for fear of leaving someone out. There are so many talented and generous people in the Austin improv community and I am very glad that we have had such a diverse array of coaching. Here is a short list of things that I have learned from coaching. * Improv is not for cool people * Gay Balls! * "I've got a confession to make" * Eye contact! * Be obvious * If you're uncomfortable on stage, the audience loves it * Play big to small houses * LISTEN! * React emotionally * If you can't think of what to say, start with a sound * If you're not failing, you're not pushing yourself I really could go on and on and on but I'll stop now to conserve bandwidth.
	Matt: We're very lucky to have the chance to work with such talented people - they've given us a perspective on improv that you just don't see by going to a jam or playing in Maestro. Christina de Roos, Dav Wallace, Shana Merlin, Erika May, Asaf - all of these people have helped us grow as a troupe. Everything from ways to open a show to group warmups to exercises in rehearsal that help us focus in on aspects of our play that need work. Every troupe should have such good coaches!
	Bob: Though they've used different techniques, every coach has pushed us to be bolder and stronger, to play to our strengths but not use them as a crutch. We have a tendency to go all 'crazy town' and we've learned a lot about grounding scenes and starting with an emotional investment.
	Marc: Wow - we've had so many great people help us out in the last year. From our original sessions with Christina, classes from Buckman and Bob and Erika and Shana, more coaching from Andy and Wallace and Rachel and Lamb and Asaf and Jastroch and everyone else that's come by that I can't remember right now. We've learned so many different things from our different mentors, sometimes we get all confused and start bumping into each other and yelling at walls and whatnot, but we eventually pull ourselves together and get down with the science. It's nice to have so many resources to draw from, but it can lead to a lack of focus at times. I'll let everyone else answer for themselves, but for me, I've gotten a lot out of learning to take it slow with the funny, being comfortable with just being on stage and being quiet and patient and leaving room for stuff to happen - crazytown can be fun, but you don't have to live there all the time.
	Mike: I have learned a great deal from all of our coaches. Erika helped a lot in maintaining characters, developing a stage presence, and keeping grounded when the desire is to go off into some odd place. Asaf just taught me a great technique to really keep the scene between the improvisors and not get lost in the scenery or the extraneous stuff. It's these little bits of information you pick up from those who have a lot of experience and stage time that you can't learn by yourself. I like the idea of a coach because they can give you an honest evaluation of your performance and show you where the rough spots are, then let you know how to correct them. I may think I'm doing well, but a coach will see me blocking, dropping out of character, or just not committing to the scene as I should.

DB: If you could change one thing about the troupe, what would it be?

	Jason: I wish we could all quit our day jobs and focus on honing our craft.
	Nadine: doing more narrative long form
	Bob: I'd lose thirty pounds and we'd get a giant robot. I guess that's two things. Maybe we'd get a giant robot which would help me lose thirty pounds. And crush SUVs. The robot would have to be able to crush an SUV, definitely.
	Marc: Everyone advances at a different rate, even in the same troupe, but I'm feeling like everyone's at a really solid spot right now, and really starting to take off, skill-wise. I'd love for IFE to get some more regular performance slots, so we can play with a couple of different formats, and just nail them - really polish them up and get good at one thing for a while, and just knock it out. But we still love variety, so it'd be nice to have a venue where we could do that on a regular basis, still playing around with a lot of different styles while being able to take the time to get a good handle on each one. I'd also love to start moving in the direction of working on some longer narrative-style improv with IFE sometime, too. A lot of us have strong Johnstone-style narrative leanings, and it'd be fun to bring that out to shows more often. And a lot more singing. La La La!
	Mike: I wouldn't change a thing about any of the members of the troupe. I think we all bring something to the stage and our different personalities and interests allow us to really create some good scenes and stories.

DB: You were the new troupe in town for almost a year. Now, with the advent of groups like Look Cookie and The Starter Kit, how does it feel to be all grown up, and what advice would you give to the new troupes just starting out?

	Jason: It does feel kind of strange not to be the new kids anymore. I'm excited for the new troupes and hope they all break their legs. My advice to them would be... * Get a coach (talk to me if you'd like recommendations) * Rehearse EVERY week * Remember to have fun
	Matt: Its about damn time! We thought we'd only have the honor of being the noobs in town for a couple of months, but with the groups coming up, I'd say it was worth the wait. I can't wait to see their shows! Be fearless! Take as many classes as you can digest, because there is so much talent in this town to draw from.
	Bob: Play a lot. When you fall down, get up and try again - don't worry about it. You can work hard and have fun - if you're not having fun, something's wrong. The stage is the best teacher, but get a coach to help draw out the best that you don't know is in you. Forward!
	Marc: It's nice not to be the "baby troupe" any more. I know that moniker rankled some of us every time we heard it, but we pushed through, and check it out, now we're the surly teenaged troupe with a bad attitude and a inflated sense of self-entitlement and hair growing in weird places. It's been nice, though - everyone in the AIC was super supportive when we started out, and we continue to feel that support as the troupe matures. I look forward to the future, when we're able to vote, drink, drive cars, and fire automatic weapons at foreign devils. Advice for new troupes: Get as much stage time in front of an audience you can - play in maestro, make cagematch teams, go to the jam, do shows in bars and coffee houses, whatever. Every minute you're up there helps. Get as much coaching, training, and advice as you can handle, then sit down and figure out how to integrate all that good stuff into your own individual troupe style. Work it the way you know. Don't forget the shameless promotion, either - you don't have to start out being the best performers in the world, but if you have good marketing, you can build a following, and play more, and become the best performers in the world, then get hooked on the dope, become fat and bald, and die in a puddle of your own vomit. You really can make dreams come true.
	Mike: I like the fact that we're not the "new kids" anymore. A year has passed, and I think we've come a long way since that first show. Advice? Hmm. Just have fun. Be playful. Be open to new ideas and don't be afraid to being any new ideas you may have to your troupe. I love the fact that IfE can just sit down and say "Hey let's try __________ next time!" It took me about six months, but I really learned to have fun while on stage. I think having fun and being playful is important.
	Nadine: Have fun.

DB: What are your plans for the future?

	Jason: I would love to develop a following for our troupe locally and eventually branch out to take over the world. I would also love to make a name for ourselves on the improv festival circuit. We've got a ways to go but we are getting better with each show and rehearsal. Also, I want to purchase an island in the South Pacific, call it "Evil Island" and have improvised luaus year-round.
	Matt: Take over the world.
	Bob: Push to do tighter, more evocative work. Make every show more fun and more interesting than the last one. Play some festivals, see the country.
	Marc: More shows, more venues, more different good stuff. There's idle talk about opening a theater someday, which will serve as an ideal foothold in our quest for world domination. I want to start a white-boy nerdcore rap group, too. Oh, and we need lots more groupies. Talk to us after a show to set up an audition.
	Mike: Get the cloning vats online and create a genetic race of supermen all in my image.

DB: Ask yourself a question and answer it here.

	Jason: Q. Who is the greatest rock vocalist of all time? A. Ronnie James Fucking Dio
	Nadine: Q. what is your favorite food? A. sardines!
	Bob: Q. What's been the hardest problem IfE has faced this year and what did you learn from it? A. Problems with group chemistry. They're tough to deal with because you want to be on good terms with everyone. You have to trust your partners implicitly and have zero reticence to going onstage - you can't pick and choose your scene partner. You can't force people to get along if the chemistry is broken. The most you can do is support people, not take sides, try to mediate, and not fuel the fire. You also have to be honest with people when their behavior is distracting the group. It's impossible for everyone to agree all the time, but at the same time it's really difficult to work under the shadow of stupid interpersonal bullshit. You do the best you can to make the group work or leave when it's a lost cause. I've been in that situation before and it's awful. I wish there was a way to channel that energy into something positive; my best advice is to not feed it and just play forward.
	Marc: Q. How many times have you ascended in Kingdom of Loathing? A. Twenty-five, with twenty-one in hardcore. An adventurer is me!
	Mike: Q. What is your favorite non-improv moment with your troupe? A. I would say our camping trip in March. We were able to just head out to the woods, drink beer, and just hang out together. We were able to get together in a non-improv setting and just have fun together, be it making a cake in a box, drinking gallons of alcohol, grilling, or just sitting around a fire and talking about nothing for hours. It was a really great trip.

Improv for Evil is playing in the Double Barrel on 5/11/2007 at 10PM.

Massive

2007-05-03T02:57:00.000-07:00

Massive is a community of improvisers and improv troupes in Houston, Texas. About once a month Massive sends a group of performers up to Austin to show their stuff. The team performing in the May 4th Double Barrel is The Space Cassettes, made up of Michael Garcia (pictured left), Matt Archambault, Guy Schaafs, and Alison Corriel. Michael, Matt, and Guy were kind enough to answer a few questions about Massive and the Houston Improv scene for us.

DB: It seems like the purpose, structure and makeup of Massive has changed a lot over the past few years. If we're not mistaken, Massive is now an umbrella organization composed of lots of separate troupes. Explain what Massive is today, and what it was in the past.

Matt: Massive is an improv community, made up of members and teams. We perform, we coach, we teach, and all to build an audience here in Houston. The audience is out there, they just need a scene to come to...

Michael: I'd like to think that the purpose of Massive has always been the same. That purpose was and is to build a longform improv community in Houston and force the rest of the country to take notice. Over the last year we've had quite a few solid improvisers leave Houston and make their way to other parts of the country but luckily we've also had a number of talented individuals end up in our city.

Guy: Yep. Sorta. I mean it is and it is. Massive has turned into an energy in the Houston community. The core of Massive is dedicated, DEDICATED, to growing improv in this city. We don't want to be good for Houston, we want to be one of the best in the nation. What we have now is as hippie as it gets -- a tip of the hat to the compass players and all the kats that kicked it off.

DB: What's the Houston Improv scene like?

Michael: I hate to sound cocky or conceited but we are the scene. There are maybe 2 other longform groups here but as far as ensembles go we're it. That's why we've made an effort over the past few months to include other groups in our shows, even shortform groups. We know that in order for improv to catch on here it needs to be represented well. Each time I go to Austin there is a new theater or ensemble performing and teaching. Ultimately I think that pushes the community to do more. That's what we want in Houston.

Matt: The scene here is tribal. There are a few small groups who don't tend to interact much. That's where we come in. We've taken it upon ourselves to introduce everybody...this way we can work together. Then there's ComedySportz Houston, who are great...we love Dianah over there. At Massive, we're lucky to have members with some serious training. There is talent and passion down here in Houston, that's for sure...

DB: What school/philosophy of improv does Massive primarily focus on? We've noticed quite a few Harolds from the Massive groups that have come lately.

Guy: There is a definite change in the Massive school/philosophy as of late. It revolves around the positive, say yes, attitude we adopted. Over the last six months a team of people, who are in Houston for one reason or the other, have made their way into the Massive family. Some were trained in Chicago (both at IO and SC), others in New York schools and some from the West. We are truly blessed and wholeheartedly feel fate has brought together all of these styles to create something unique.

Matt: With all the recent changes in structure and ensemble, we're still figuring out precisely what our artistic unity revolves around... There's a couple teams who are doing Harolds right now, but The Space Cassettes, Deep Fried, and Soviet Bunnies are all playing with some different structures. We're hoping to see a lot more groups and forms here in the next year.

Michael: The last thing we want to do is assign forms to our teams and our shows. When you come check out a Massive show you're probably gonna see something that derives from the Harold but strays from the norm. We work on established forms but at the same time we have a strong interest in creating our own. For instance, I perform a 2 person show with Alison called f*squared where we do a live set and then immediately follow it with an improvised short film inspired by another audience suggestion. The short is then available for the audience online the next day. We take chances at Massive and that's one of the things i like about us.

DB: What are Massive's goals for the upcoming year?

Matt: In February, we plan to have the second annual Houston Improv Festival, and ideally by then have regular performance slots twice a week...and not necessarily the same venue. We want to be able to provide performance time for as many of our members as possible.

Michael: We want to keep putting quality shows out there to let Houston know what a great art longform is.

Guy: We would also like you Austin guys coming to us. We want to start asking the questions.

DB: How many improvisers make up Massive? We've lost count.

Matt: There's about 20 right now. Plus we perform with groups that are in Houston, but technically not under our umbrella right now...

Michael: Our strength is definitely not in numbers. Instead, our strength lies in the passion and dedication that we have for improv. If you've seen the movie "300", that's us except our abs aren't that good.

DB: What is it that keeps you performing improv?

Guy: Oh, it's entirely for the money. You guys too right?

Michael: For me its knowing that I was here at the beginning of the movement. Just knowing that you were actually part of establishing and nurturing an artistic community of any kind is a very powerful thing. That and someday we want to have a giant "Warriors" style gang fight between Houston and Austin. Right now we're greatly outnumbered so we have to keep building or you guys will kill us.

Matt: Wow, this is personal! Everyone in the group has a different answer, I'm sure... Matt Archambault, part of the leadership team and the coach of Scatter! would say: To create a breathing, interactive universe to delight a live audience. ...eesh, I may regret that in the morning...there's just so many reasons! At the base, the laughter, the imagination, and the relationships are what draws me to anything...

Michael: Did Matt just refer to himself in the third person?

DB: Ask yourself a question and answer it here.

Michael:
Q. Why don't you have a girlfriend?

A. Improv is my girlfriend and I make sweet love to her in front of an audience each time I step onstage. I haven't met her parents yet so I'm not sure how serious it is. We might be exclusive but I'll check with her later when I pick her up from the airport. She went to Vegas with some friends for a bachelorette party.

Guy:
Q. What would make Texas blow up nationally?

A. An I-10 that goes both ways with Austin teams and Houston teams sharing the stage and boosting each other's scene.

Massive's The Space Cassettes are performing in The Double Barrel on 5/4/2007.

Parallelogramophonograph

2007-04-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

Parallelogramophonograph is not even two years old, but you'd never know it to look at them. They perform weekly at Coldtowne, participate in the Double Barrel and Threefer and play regularly in Maestro. Some of them help run the Tuesday Improv Jam, help with scheduling the Austin improv shows, and help with loads of other stuff. In general they run around like crazy. For this interview, we locked each of them in a separate padded cell and forced them to answer their questions alone. Somehow, their responses were surprisingly similar.

DB: PGraph started a weekly run on Thursday nights at the Coldtowne Theater last November. How has having a weekly show changed the troupe, in terms of performance, attitude, energy, etc..?

	Kareem: I remember, in September, saying to the rest of the troupe that I finally felt like we were at the point where we could start to get good. I think having a weekly show had made us so insanely comfortable with each other on stage that we're almost always very playful and fun to watch. Having a predictable, regular schedule has allowed us to come up with new formats and show concepts, too.
	Kaci: Well, I can't quite remember how it felt in the beginning. We've been doing it for almost six months now. I know it really helped us to push ourselves and to do more thematic formats than before. We wanted to use our new time wisely and bring in old and new audiences to experience something unique to Pgraph. All of those performances have helped us immensely. We've gotten tighter on stage; performing with those dudes is a cinch now (in the way of just interacting and knowing them on stage), so we can practice more advanced forms of improv since we're already bonded pretty tight. I usually forget this until I'm with a different group of improvisers...it's never quite the same. Energy-wise, it's been a little bit harder. We have weekly rehearsal and a weekly show along with whatever other improv we're doing (which is usually a lot of stuff). I get tired and sometimes wish for a week off, but then when I actually get some time off I start wishing to do more improv. It's all cyclic and crazy. I really like our formats we've been doing so performing is never a chore.
	Roy: Having a Thursday night run has had a tremendously positive effect on the troupe. I can feel us getting stronger with each show. We're so comfortable playing with each other right now that a lot of things- when to edit a scene, when to wrap up a story, what we want in a given situation, all come effortlessly. Most importantly, the weekly shows have forced us to expand our range. We can't just rely on what worked last week. We need to be constantly exploring new characters, new forms, and new stories, or we'll get bored. The run's also been great because we're getting to see and work with a lot of great Austin improv groups that we'd only see intermittently before- Improv for Evil, Get Up, Spices, Kazillionaire*, The Available Cupholders.
	Valerie: I feel like it has given us a chance to grow a lot quicker, not only through having more shows but in having them more often. And it's given us a chance to explore things in way more depth than we would have otherwise.
	Wes: Having a weekly show has given Pgraph the freedom to explore new formats in an extended way. Instead of doing one-off shows, we can workshop a format, and run it week after week until we refine it as much as possible.

DB: You guys have been putting on themed shows for a while now with specific formats- After School Improv, The 1930s, and Family Portrait. What's been your favorite format so far and why?

	Kareem: Hard to say. They've all gone much better than I thought they would. I think The 1930s was really fun for me because, in addition to having to study the 1930s as background information, we arbitrarily chose a different improv show format for each of the shows. We didn't even advertise that we were doing that. It was just sort of a technical restriction we put on ourselves. A few improvisers noticed it, though, which was cool. Plus, I got to wear a vest.
	Kaci: Wow. Well, After School Improv was kinda my idea because I really wanted to see what an improvised After School Special would look like and I knew we could pull it off. I also LOVE period improv which is why I pushed so strongly for us to do the 1930s show, which was a blast. I wish it had lasted longer than four weeks. But Family Portrait is pretty damn awesome too. It's different from the others in that it's more open. I don't know. I've learned a lot with all of them and I'm not sure I really have a favorite. I guess maybe the 1930s is my favorite. I love the Dust Bowl. I wrote a paper on it once.
	Roy: That is a really tough question. I've loved all the shows for different reasons. But I'd have to say that the 1930s run has been my favorite so far. We accidently stumbled into doing a brand-new show format for each week. For the Gangster/Prohibition show, we did 6 Degrees, for The Dust Bowl we did an interview format, for Riding the Rails we did one long scene that took place on a rail car, and for Technology/Changing times we did a show wrapped in a radio show envelope. Each format pushed our boundaries in different ways. And we'd done so much preparation for the run through extensive research into the 1930s, that we could just cut loose and have fun in the well-defined space we'd created for ourselves.
	Valerie: mmmmm... I like Family Portrait the most because it gives us a chance to do a new kind of scenework and focus on things we haven't focused on before. And I really like character-based things.
	Wes: The 1930's had the best press materials, the most costuming, and was the most variable in terms of show structure. Each week we had a predetermined "theme," like Prohibition, that we could research and then we chose a format that best fit that theme. So it was both highly refined and focused, but open to a wide range of improv styles and formats at the same time.

DB: You've performed over 50 shows in the past year. Describe some of your favorite onstage moments that you can still remember.

	Kareem: They're all a blur. I love it when my troupe-mates can read my mind, though. There have been an increasing number of moments where I will say something on stage, and I am intentionally more vague than improv training says you should be, but the Kittens know exactly what I'm saying. (I started re-telling an example, but it just came out as a "you had to be there moment." Suffice it to say it involved me as a child with cancer, and wanting Kaci's hair) One specific show/moment that sticks out is a Family Portrait we did recently where I was playing a very grounded father character (well, grounded for me.) There were some moments in that show that were getting absolutely no laughs, but I was totally comfortable with it because everything I was saying felt natural, even if it was more "dramatic" than "funny." The Family Portrait format's allowed for several of those moments. I love that shit.
	Kaci: Hah! I really liked our hobo train car show as part of the 1930s. My hobo had a wooden spoon for a prop and Hobo court was held. You know what? Each show has had some great moments, so that it really is hard for me to remember specifics (seriously!). I had this really weird relationship with Kareem in one of the Family Portrait shows recently. I was an old Hispanic mother and he was my disgruntled American son. It felt very real at some part of the show. It was electric almost, this feeling I got. I also always liked when I forced Wes to play a cheerleader or some other high school girl in the After School Improv shows. I would just look over at him on the sideline and say something like, "Come on Marissa! Oma god!" and he would snap into character. Ah, the powers you can get from working with the same group for a long time. It's awesome.
	Roy: It's really really hard to remember specifics. Johnstone said, and I totally agree, that with bad shows, you can remember every excruciating second, and with good shows you're like "W-what just happened?" That being said, I'll do my best. One of my favorite moments was the very first one, from our debut performance at Wafflest 2005. The lights went down, the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Also sprach Zarathustra) played, and a spotlight came up to an actual, lone cat sitting in a chair. The cat sat there, and glanced about nervously. Every time it moved its head, the audience erupted in laughter. There. One of my favorite memories was one we scripted, and ultimately weren't even in. Suck it. Besides that, my troupemates constantly amaze me- In the opening scene of our "Hobo" show, Kaci played an old hobo hiding in a barrel. She eventually jabbed a hole out of the barrel's bottom with a wooden spoon, and threatened anyone who offended her. It was just a pleasure to watch. For some reason, I love watching Kareem do solo work on stage. Some of my favorite scenes have involved Kareem being alone on stage while the rest of us talk to him from the wings. This has taken the form of interrogations, job interviews, talks with God, whatever. No one plays high status better than Wes, but I think my favorite Wes moments are when someone (usually Kaci) forces him to play a bouncy cheerleader-type character. Like everything he does, Wes commits and sticks it. Knowing him, though, just makes it hilarious. Valerie. Two Words: Sassy. Grandma.
	Valerie: I don't remember any right now. Sorry! (editor's note: Valerie's interview was conducted over the phone while she was at her day job... making awesome, fancy jewelry. Everyone else though was in an individual padded cell, really).
	Wes: I think one of my favorite moments was when Kareem handed me a shovel, got on his knees, and screamed at me to hit him with it. I did. Then I told him I was sick of doing this every Christmas and one of the most delightfully oddball relationships was born. Also, that time I endowed Massachusetts as being an imaginary land, which has become part of our troupe mythos.

DB: Most of you come from a Johstonian improv upbringing. Austin's known for its diversity of improv styles, backgrounds, formats, and so forth. What troupes, styles, teachers, or shows have had a big influence on you as a performer and a troupe?

	Kareem: Available Cupholders and Tight were probably my big local influences (though AC weren't local at the time.) I've often thought that if a troupe could master the longform styles of both the Cupholders and Tight, they'd rule the improv world. I've loved Chris Allen's physicality since the first Micetro I saw him in, too. And The Knuckleball Now's playfulness is inspiring. I was in a "Knuckleball Now" show that ended up just being Craig, Chris Allen, and myself, and it somehow had the same crazy playful feeling that I've seen in the real TKN shows. Craig Kotfas must be some sort of Improv Elf with magical playfulness dust.
	Kaci: I suppose I really do come from a Johnstonian improv upbringing. I stumbled into it because I saw others who were influenced by him and I really liked their stuff. I started seeing improv at the Hideout in the summer of 2002. I would frequently go see the Well Hung Jury, partially because they were alumni from my current HS at the time and mostly because they were just so damn awesome. I performed with a high school troupe called The PITS a year or so later and we were self-taught, mostly off of internet site, articles, watching improv, and reading some of Johnston's philosophies in Impro, his book. After awhile we got Jeremy Lamb to teach as a few workshops and they were great. I like for improv to sometimes mirror good scripted theatre/acting. Like for example, a fully improvised play that feels like a scripted theatre experience, you know, in the fact that the characters, plot, and situations are well flushed-out by the end. I come from a theatre background so that experience and knowledge helps me a lot as a performer. And in turn the improv helps my scripted performances. I like nuclear family dystopia situations. I also enjoy orphans. A LOT.
	Roy: There's this chart in my mind that I think of a lot. It's got many dimensions, but I'll boil it down to just 2 for this discussion. There's the Available Cupholders axis, where as you travel down it you become tighter and more adept at longform narrative, playful formats, and group mind. Then there's the Frank Mills axis, where the higher you go the more grounded, realistic, and character/relationship-based your improv becomes. To me, both groups are beacons of good improv, but in radically different ways. I felt like for a long time we as a troupe were traveling down the Available Cupholders axis. Family Portrait is our blatant attempt to journey a little in the Frank Mills direction. But everything going on in Austin inspires me. The Knuckleball Now's playfulness is awesome, and works well in any situation. And of course the grounding in Johnstone's style I got from Andy Crouch's classes informs everything I do. I could go on and on. Oh, and even though I've only seen them once (at Out of Bounds 2006), Three-for-all had a profound effect on me. Those guys do some good work, and I hope to be like them when I grow up.
	Valerie: Umm... I was really inspired by the Frank Mills and their style of improv- more low-key, but real. And they really get in depth in their scenes. And also going to Chicago and studying with Annoyance gave me a new perspective on improv and new skills in my toolbelt. I firmly believe that all the styles of improv aren't in opposition, they're just different viewpoints on the same basic tenets... that there's room for all types of improv- serious, slapstick, crazy. Stories, characters, relationships. It's all the same.
	Wes: Andy Crouch taught me the basics as my first improv instructor and now he's teaching me to teach. I've taken workshops from a number of people and just playing with others in the community always teaches me something. Most recently, my biggest influence and teacher has been my girlfriend, Christina. She learned and approaches improv differently than myself. She has a good eye for finding the game in a scene and knowing what a scene or show needs at that moment. I always learn something new working with her.

DB: If you were granted one troupe-related wish, what would it be?

	Kareem: An actual review of one of our shows. The lack of a review feels like a big gaping hole in our Improv Bucket.
	Kaci: I'd like us to have packed audiences for all/the majority of our shows. Perform more at large venues. Get paid a living wage. Is that too many wishes? Screw it.
	Roy: A large, enthusiastic fanbase with nothing to do on Thursdays. I truly feel we're doing our best work right now, and I would love for more people to see it. I love performing with my troupe, but it's so gratifying to entertain a packed room full of strangers.
	Valerie: To all have matching pajamas.
	Wes: That we win a lottery large enough to build a top-notch theater, advertise, and take a year off our jobs to study improv with coaches we've flown in from around the world all day... or a talking pony.

DB:What will the next year hold for PGraph's future?

	Kareem: We'll continue to bust our asses. I'd like us to come up with a new show concept and perform a run of it at a theatre doesn't typically have improv shows. We'll probably submit to some more festivals, too, if we're not set on fire by the audience at OoB West.
	Kaci: Well, we're performing at OOB West in LA in the end of May. We plan to continue to create more new formats and perform weekly. We'd like to do some shows at more venues, and find more creative ways to advertise. I don't know, we're pretty much open to any idea. I'd like to get matching windbreakers and duffle bags. I think a small part of me wishes still for that gymnastics/cheerleading squad mentality with the troupe. We could have embroidered names on them!!!
	Roy: Trying to make my wish of a large fanbase come true. We'll be putting on more formats, performing in more traditional theatre venues, performing in festivals (OOB West, woo!), filming more stuff, and in general making everything bigger and better.
	Valerie: I hope we'll be continually challenging ourselves, trying new things, exploring new modes of storytelling, shadow puppets, and becoming well respected and well known... in Austin and beyond.
	Wes: Our first troupe baby! Basically I see a lot more shows, several new formats, our first out of state performances, increased advertising, and ever-increasing performance quality.

DB: Ask yourself a question and answer it here.

	Kareem: (editor's note: Kareem refuses to talk to himself on the grounds that he's not an idiot)
	Kaci: Q: Why was the dadaism movement created in the theatre? A: That's a good question, though it's funny that you ask that. Dadaism in theatre was basically a reaction against the World Wars. People were appalled that such a world could be so cruel and violent, and so things reverted back to nonsense as a reaction against reason and morally (which didn't seem to be all that reasonable or that moral). It sadly had an end built into it from the beginning, because like the avant guard movements, the message of "nothing has meaning" doesn't give a movement a leg to stand on. If things don't matter then why bother going to see them more than once? It was a short-lived movement but an influential one. It led into the surrealist theatre movement and a lot of the techniques seen in modern theatre today have roots in dadaism. Cyclical cat bag, you hetero polish stick person. Take my unhappy motion and grapple the sip.
	Roy: Q:If you had a time machine and could travel back to any time in history, when would it be and why? A: You would think I'd say the Age of the Dinosaurs, but you'd be wrong. If I went tromping around with dinosaurs, I'd probably wind up very very dead. I'd say the Renaissance, but I'd probably be burned for a heretic. Actually, pretty much any time before the 1950s, I think that my weak, flabby body would wind up bloated and discarded in a ditch. So screw it. Dinosaurs it is! I'd gather up some of the smaller ones and train them to fight one another.
	Valerie: Q: What's on your skirt right now? A: elephants.
	Wes: Q:What invention has seen the most improvement over the last 20 years? A:I'm going to have to go with the elevator. Some of the new ones run absolutely silent and are so smooth that you never even realize you're moving. On the best ones, you can barely feel them stop. Amazing!

The Knuckleball Now

2007-04-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

One of the qualities that makes improv so unique is the absolute joy that both players and audience members can experience while witnessing the act of creation, live on stage. No troupe embodies that sense of play and discovery better than the Knuckleball Now. We asked Craig Kotfas of TKN a few questions about their process, their outlook, and baseball.

DB: The Knuckleball Now has a reputation for being one of the most playful troupes in Austin. Why do you think that is and was it intentional?

CK of TKN: Absolutely Donkey... TKN is our 3 initials, our mantra is also three letters "F-U-N", and I feel that comes across. We are guys just having fun. "Lets have FUN." We are like little children playing "pretend" in the backyard, only difference is that people payed $7-10 to watch. I feel although I am on stage, I too am an audience member, but with a really sweet view. The usual "flowy" format (to be discussed shortly) allows us to just bounce off each other like as if the ritalin has worn off... Fun Fun Fun, till the light person fades to black.

DB: TKN seems to always perform, and excel at a montagy/flowy donut type of show. Will you ever switch it up, or do you intentionally keep it loose?

CK of TKN: Ah, I saw this coming. To tell you the truth, before every show we stand on the breezeway, and discuss what format we will do and it usually comes back to "Whatever, let's just improvise." Meaning, if we discover a story and characters and want to continue with them, we will. Joplin and I were just flowing one night, and we ended doing a Shakespeare longform for two thirds of the show, unplanned. So it's a mapless journey we take. To some improvisers this may seem as an easy way out, thinking "wheres the challenge?"... The challenge is having a fun ride for 25-45 minutes and letting the audience sit shotgun.

Actually, the format that The Knuckleball Now does is what I call "Peak and Pop". Whenever we have a special guest playing with us (thanks to those who have, and those who will one day)... I simple tell them "Peak and Pop". This basically means the first few scenes are short and energetic... we go in and do a scene that peaks quickly and then "POP" into another one. This establishes a tempo, gets the crowd's attention, and builds a bank for the "2nd half callbacks". Though our scenes are random, elements start to carry over, and by the homestretch of the show, the audience is seeing the show, "re-flash" before their eyes through an onslaught of Callbacks recapping what we discussed.

There are many different forms of improv... The Frank Mills have won respect and awards playing a realistic slice of life, based on characters and relationships, the real meat of story telling... we try to put those ingredients into a blender and hit puree. Our product may not appeal to all, but that is fine with us. IT does appeal to some, and as long as we 3 (sometimes 2, sometimes 4, sometimes 1 + guest) are among them, I go home happy..

But the most important tool of TKN besides our playful nature, is the ability to make you think. Whether it's about society, politics, cultural observations, or commentary on life (as well as the show). We find ways to make each other, as well as the audience, go "wow, I never thought of it that way." Personally, I think David Modigliani's Ivy league education and fresh mind plays a part, Michael Joplin being as SMART and "hard core" as they come, and Mikey D'Alonzo (when in earshot) is a Fort Knox Wealth of useful knowledge and fun.... I feel 3 or 4 players is optimal for great improv. But the strange thing is that we really like proving with each other, even though the only time we see each other is 30 minutes before the show and the show itself. We haven't rehearsed in years. We each have our own lives and schedules, and TKN almost becomes the "Guys Night Out." An improv therapy session if you will. And to me our chemistry is stronger than most projects I've done. I hope our occasional shows leave the audience wanting more TKN... like a special morsel of improv.

DB: What other improv in town do you enjoy watching?

CK of TKN: I don't know about the others in TKN, but I almost find it hard to watch improv... if things aren't gelling, I feel the pain and want to hide, but if its rocking, I can't bear sitting down and not jumping up there. The improv I enjoy watching is people having fun. I love all who prov, but there was a night I ran lights recently, "Junk" (old foolish mortals) cracked me up, "GET-UP" re-amazed me, the "Bearded Lamb", and the "Available Cupholders" are so sweet that diabetics need to be aware! "P-graph" have the "fun" element that draws me as well. And every time I turn around there are "improv atoms" forming new sweet and inspiring molecules. I can go on and on about the troupes not listed here... so many!

DB: What does the next year hold for The Knuckleball Now?

CK of TKN: We plan to do our occasional shows as usual. Hopefully head out to OOB West...(hint hint Mikey)... OOB 6 here.. and maybe update the site one day... as for real TKN plans..."Whatever, let'ss just improvise!"

DB: Ichiro: overrated, or proof that the Japanese can deconstruct anything we do and figure out how to do it better?

CK of TKN: Ichiro, is a sweet slap hitter, free agent to be, who dethroned George Sissler in hits for a single season. He's currently in the American League, I am Cubs fan in the National League, and since the Cubs haven't been to the world series since 1945, I will deal with the American League when we cross that bridge. Go Cubs. What is Japanese?

The Knuckleball Now performed in the Double Barrel in March.

Curtis Needs a Ride

2007-03-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

Curtis Needs a Ride hails from Fort Worth. They usually come down to Austin about once every 2 months to perform at the Hideout. But despite having successful shows, and fans that make the trek down to see them, they have remained a mystery... until now. We cornered Austin Hines, troupe member, and forced him to give up the goods.

DB: Tell us about your troupe.

Austin: Curtis Needs A Ride started as a side project. All four of us are or were in Senseless Acts of Comedy (SAC), the TCU improv troupe in Ft. Worth. Some of us graduated and therefore had to leave SAC, but weren't about to quit improvising. Originally there were only 3 of us in Curtis Needs A Ride but that soon turned to 4 - what we consider a perfect number. We started hitting up some local (and not local) clubs to see where we could perform. Our biggest response has been from The Hideout. We love Austin and the people at the Hideout have all been great. We don't have any "plans" or "goals" for the troupe necessarily, we just love improvising. I don't think we're ever going to get tired of each other, so there's no telling how far we'll take it.

DB: How did you guys get started and how long have you been performing?

Austin: Our eldest improviser has been going now for 5 years, and our youngest for only 1. But if you came to watch a show you'd never guess who had more experience. We all have different strengths and personalities, which makes for some good diversity. Most of us never took improv seriously as an artform until we got to TCU. SAC performs weekly to at least 60 people - and it's not slapstick hour. We all had to work our way through auditions and sometimes two practices a week. We have also all taken classes at Four Day Weekend (Ft. Worth's finest improvisers) for a few years now. The most important thing for us though, is just getting experience working together. We're all friends, we all have a good time performing, but we also all take it very seriously.

DB: What short and longterm goals does Curtis Needs a Ride have? What does the next year hold?

Austin: 3 of us are going to Guatemala for a week with a local Church to build some houses - a very short term goal for us is to perform for some Guatemalans. We don't really speak Spanish, so it will be a good exercise in wherework and emotional adjustments. A longterm goal is to send off some tapes to a few festivals, get accepted and perform in one. Also we'd like a cool logo so we can make some coasters.

DB: What's the Fort Worth improv scene like?

Austin: There's not much improv in Ft. Worth. We have Four Day Weekend downtown who have a great theatre and do 4 shows a week, and those guys are very professional. Then there's the TCU troupe which performs a lot, but anyone outside of the TCU bubble probably hasn't had a chance to hear about them. The biggest problem is people don't really think about improv, or even really know what it's all about. If you ask someone to go see an improv show they will probably ask what it is... "You mean, whose line is it anyway"... there's no concept of improv as art. As for us, we can perform at a coffee shop here and there but there aren't any known "improv venues" in the area.

Curtis Needs a Ride is performing in the Double Barrel on Friday March 30, 2007.
They can be found on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/curtisneedsaride

McNichol and May

2007-03-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Mcnichol and May are a Chicago-trained duo that also happens to be married. They perform some the smartest most award-winningest improv and sketch in Austin. They also teach classes, and perform with The Frank Mills.

Read on for a discourse on Chicago, the Origin Story of M&M, and puppies.

DB: What got you both doing improv?

Erika: I moved to Chicago at the end of 2000 to take classes at Second City, thinking I would be doing sketch. I enrolled in the writing program and the IFA (improvisation for actors) program; at that point, improvisation was just a means to an end (sketch) for me. My only touchstone for improvisation was short form, which I had seen once or twice. It didn't really call to me, at all. After a couple of months of classes, my classmates were talking about taking classes at this place called Improv Olympic, where you could get a lot more stage time. I wanted to learn everything I could, so I called up and was put on the waiting list for classes. I started at IO in April of 2001 and was put on a team in October. The IO philosophy centers on thematic longform, playing realistic characters and finding the funny through truthful interactions. The emphasis on well-acted comedy really appealed to me, too. I've been performing ever since.

Bob: Some friends and I moved to Chicago in the summer of 1999 - I was thinking I would play in bands and stuff there. On a whim, influenced by lack of money and lots of free time, my roommate and I went to a free night at a place called ImprovOlympic. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but had low expectations - I was thinking it would be like standup or Who’s Line type stuff. We were both blown away to see this whole thing crafted before us, and returned to see tons more shows over the next year. Finally we decided we should either shit or get off the pot, so we signed up for classes... and loved it! I was put on a team at IO after I finished classes, performed in/on a bunch more teams/shows over the years. And now I’m in Austin.

DB: When did you decide you wanted to perform as an
improv duo?

Erika: The weird thing is, it wasn't a conscious decision at all. Tight had been accepted to perform at the Del Close festival in New York a month or two after we got here, and had scheduled a slot in the threefer (it was the twofer then, I think?). Since we hadn't planned on going to the festival, Bob and I agreed to fill in for the night. We were trying to come up with a name and Andy Crouch recommended we call ourselves "McNichol and May", after Nichols and May. We ended up having a kick-ass time performing together, and were pleasantly surprised by how much audience members and other improvisers dug it, so we decided to keep doing it under that moniker.

Bob: We’d actually met in Chicago by working in this three-person group that never really came to fruition, just a bunch of rehearsals. We never really worked together outside of that initial group until we got to Austin.

DB: How do the goals of McNichol & May differ from that of your larger team, The Frank Mills?

Erika: Personally, I want the Frank Mills to be the standard-bearer of thematic, character-driven improvisation and sketch - to demonstrate the very best of the artform and what it can be. For me, McNichol and May is about experimentation and tradition; using media to inform scene ideas (as in Guided by Videos), playing with the intersection of sketch and improv and pushing myself as a player, etc.. Right now, I'm really excited about the idea of McNichol and May getting all old-school and performing the Harold. It gets a bad rap down here, and it kicked my ass when I was a newer improviser, but it's survived for a reason - it’s a great form for dissecting the audience suggestion and translating it into a thematic statement.

Bob: I don’t really think of the teams or groups I’ve been in having separate goals necessarily. I have more personal goals for what I want to bring to a group or show. But I do think the group mind / group personality drives what the team ultimately does, and not always intentionally.

DB: How does being married affect the group dynamic of McNichol and May?

Erika: It's awesome. We lucked out, I think. Most of the time, we entertain ourselves by doing bits when we're hanging out…we’re really stupid around each other and have zero judgment of each of our individual dork outs. I trust Bob completely and know my ideas will not only be accepted, but improved upon - it makes it easy to be in the moment on stage.

Bob: I want to give a stupid answer to this, but I really agree with Erika there. It’s just like any group relationship - the more trust and group mind you have, whether it’s between 2 people or 10, the better. We’ve been building up trust and group mind for years outside of improv, so it really helps when we bring it to improv. It’s also easier to schedule rehearsals and get rides to shows.

DB: You guys migrated from Chicago. How do the Chicago and Austin scenes differ?

Erika: Chicago is a more mature scene, merely because it's been around since the 1950's. With that comes more competition for stage time and a more institutionalized philosophical approach at the various theatres. There's also a lot more focus on making it commercially, and - as a result- players that are interested in getting hired for Tour Co. and eventually getting cast on SNL or the Daily Show feel compelled to select projects that are going to be good vehicles for buzz. There's still a good variety of work going on, and the individual theatres tend to trade off in taking the baton of experimentation. For example, Annoyance Theatre (where Mick Napier is the artistic director) is experiencing this huge artistic growth spurt right now and a lot of old-school Improv Olympic people are now gravitating there to play. In Austin, I think there's still a variety of philosophies going on at each of the theatres, but it seems to be moving towards having a 'house feel' at each. Austin also has a ton more performance opportunities, especially for newer players. There's less 'culling out' of players at early levels, which I think is going to help cultivate a more diverse sense of what good improvisation can be, vs. a narrow evaluation of potential that’s based on eye of the institutional beholder. The downside is that quality is inconsistent and players don't always take their shows seriously here, because there's no disincentive to sloppy work. That said, Austin has some awesome players, and I think that is because people are given the opportunity to chart their own path.

Bob: I agree that there are people with those end goals in Chicago.. of making it to film or tv or whatnot - simply because the steps that can lead to that exist in Chicago. But there are a lot of people there who really just enjoy performing improv and don’t give a crap about any of that other stuff. Also, we have maybe, what, 50? 75? 100 tops active improvisors down here. I think it’s hard to imagine coming from our environment, but in Chicago there are thousands and thousands of people doing improv. Additionally, there are many, many people in Chicago who have been performing improv for 10, 20, 30 years and continue to. More importantly, those people are also often teaching and coaching newer improvisors, so there’s a depth of knowledge and understanding that exists in Chicago that’s really unmatched in other city. Chicago has improv and sketch shows every night of the week at this point, and at multiple theaters. And people move to Chicago specifically to learn/perform improv, and to take those steps that lead to tv/film/etc. So, in some ways, we have a different dynamic down here, as anyone who’s improvising in Austin isn’t concerned about climbing any ladder or anything. If you’re improvising here in Austin you’re doing it simply for the love of the craft. I like that alot. Because nothing is institutionalized or really set in stone down here, the AIC has really brought everyone together and it feels like we’re driving the cart. It’s much harder to have that sense in Chicago because you are not always in charge of making those creative decisions, or it’s much more diffcult to make them. I can safely say we have a very enviable situation here.

DB: What improv groups, past or present, have inspired you?

Erika: TJ & Dave, Weirdass (Stephanie Weir and Bob Dassie), Bassprov, Valhalla, to name a few. I also like watching newer improvisers, and make a point to see how some of my favorite players around here approach stuff, especially if I'm feeling stuck.

Bob: Oh man. I could rattle off a bunch of old names and groups, but I’ll just say I’m influenced by the people I work with and by the groups I’ve been lucky enough to see through my time in Chicago and here in Austin. I also will echo Erika and say that some of the most inspiring stuff comes from people who are newer to improv because they don’t have as many boundaries in their mind as to what one should or shouldn’t do, so it’s often a more creative fountain there. Also: Peter Cook, Peter Cook, Peter Cook. And Cantinflas.

DB: How's the new puppy working out?

Erika: Okay. We thought all that energy we saw at the shelter would translate into being really good at editing and pacing, but she's really playing back on her heels so far.

Bob: She’s a handful. She’s the sweetest creature in the world, but man is she also infuriating at times. And she understands almost no English, so communication has been tough. She’s about 65 lbs, all muscle, but she thinks she’s still a tiny puppy. This has led to lots of wacky and hilarious situations.

DB: What have you been obsessed with recently?

Bob: One thing has been the astounding amount of music on film/video/tv that has surfaced over the last 5 years or so due to the ease of file sharing, the ease of home video conversion (ie. VHS ---> DVD), and the lack of degradation with digital copies. I’ve been able to see bands perform I missed when I was younger or I am too young for. Recently I’ve found an amazing Nation of Ulysses show from 1992, a Thelonious Monk performance from Poland in 1966, Can on Germany tv in 1970, The Mummies on public access tv in 1991, Television rehearsing in 1974... just tons and tons of stuff. I’m admittedly obsessed with tracking down as much as I can, as much as my hard drive can hold.

Erika: I dont know that it's so much of an obsession as an interest, but I've been actively looking for and purchasing vintage clothing. I just bought a squaw shirt that looks like it was part of a band uniform in 1976. It made me feel like a superhero, so I bought it.

McNichol & May are performing in the Double Barrel on Friday, March 23rd, 2007.

Leading Brands

2007-03-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

The Leading Brands recently performed their 1 year anniversary show in the Double Barrel. We asked the Brands about their past, their future, and their curious custom of giving away valuable prizes to audience members.

DB: Your upcoming show on 3/16 marks your 1 year anniversary as a troupe. What are some favorite troupe memories of the past year?

LB: Some of our fondest memories were of our first rehearsals in Frank's barn. We were working on improv of course, but also on our group dynamic. It was a mix of suffering through winter rehearsals with little more than a space heater to keep us warm and then hanging out together afterwards and eating and drinking till late. In hindsite, we had some of those "we lived through that together" kind of experiences. Several of us also took a road trip together out to San Francisco for an intensive workshop with Keith Johnstone which was a great time to be a part of the troupe.

DB: What will the next year bring for the Leading Brands?

LB: We're hoping for a year of improved consistency and increased variety in our formats. We've had a string of strong shows recently so we're already on our way.

DB: You often give away the "leading brand" of some product to an audience member at each show. Name some of them. What was the most expensive?

We've given away everything from Easy Mac to Mexican gum to Toilet Paper and sometimes some more obscure items from other countries when members of the troupe have traveled recently. They don't cost a lot of money generally, but people appreciate them. We gave away giant water noodles once and we later saw the audience member awkwardly carrying it down sixth street. The most expensive was probably a bucket of Dos Equis that we bought on the quick because we had forgotten to pick something up beforehand.

DB: Describe a typical Leading Brands rehearsal.

The Leading Brands like to entertain. It's in our blood and when there's no audience - we entertain each other. We also tend to start or end with food. That's part of the deal and why we hire coaches to keep us on point and focus on our objectives rather than just making merry.

DB: If you could sum up The Leading Brands into a single slogan or philosophy, what would it be?

Hmmm..... The Leading Brands saved me 15% on my car insurance ??!!!

DB: What's the best part about being in the AIC (Austin Improv Collective)?

Well, shucks, all the nice people in this community... we're privileged to perform this art form with such fantastic peers who continue to grow and inspire us.

The Leading Brands performed in the Double Barrel on 3/16/2007.
Visit their website at http://www.theleadingbrands.com.

Girls Girls Girls

2007-03-14T02:14:00.000-07:00

Shana Merlin, founder and member of Girls, Girls, Girls was gracious enough to answer a few burnin' questions we had about the troupe, their goals, and the upcoming Ladies Are Funny Festival (LAFF).

DB: What is Girls Girls Girls?

Merlin: We are an improv comedy troupe that makes up full length musicals on the spot. We improvise the story, songs, and dances along with a live musical improviser. It's a ton of fun.

DB: Girls Girls Girls is now the oldest active improv troupe in Austin. What's the secret to your longevity?

Merlin: Making an improv troupe last is tricky. You need to get a group of people who have the same artistic goals as well as the same commitment level to the troupe. We are lucky in GGG to have a core membership that has both of those things. Plus we are really strict and structured. Everyone has a troupe job, whether it is treasurer, webmaster, or fluffer, who checks in on people and make sure they are feeling good in relation to the troupe. We have lots of business meetings, and policies on things from being late to rehearsal to what to wear in the show. And what we do is freakin' fun. It's addictive and keeps troupe members coming back for more.

DB: About how many different performers have been in Girls Girls Girls over the years?

Merlin: We have 7 Girls currently in the troupe and 1 musical improviser. We have about 10 alumni girls, and about 5 alumni musical improvisers. That's 22 total performers who have been in GGG.

DB: Tell us about the upcoming LAFF festival and GGG's role in it.

Merlin: GGG is so excited about this! We are producing LAFF, the Ladies are Funny Festival. On April 27-28 there is going to be a full weekend of performances by female improvisers, rap groups, clowns, and bands. We have performers from out of town and out of the state traveling to be here that weekend. Along with the shows there are going to be parties and panel discussions. We are going to build community, celebrate women in comedy, and entertain the crap out of our audiences.

DB: What does the future hold for GGG?

Merlin: We want to tour more around the country--booking our own shows and heading to festivals. When the Girls have a great show, we think we do some of the best musical improv in Austin and the nation. We want to spread the love, get tons of fans, teach workshops, get super rich, and drive pink and black cars. That, and the return of Boys of Summer, in July and August of 2007. Each Saturday at 8pm we will have a guest boy perform a musical with us.

DB: What's the hardest thing about doing musical improv that probably wouldn't occur to most people?

Merlin: Doing it in heels.

Girls Girls Girls performs in The Double Barrel on 4/27/2007, along with Superovum.
Their website is http://ggg.austinimprov.com.
The LAFF website is http://laff.austinimprov.com

Available Cupholders

2007-03-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

We had a little sit-down with Jeremy Lamb, director of and performer in The Available Cupholders, one of Austin's most popular and experienced improv troupes. He had much to say about flexibility, Chicago, the evolution of improv, and 'making it' financially as an improviser.

DB: The Cupholders migrated en masse from Chicago not too long ago. How would you describe your experience as a troupe in Chicago versus your experience in Austin?

Lamb: It's hard for a group to get serious play in front of audiences in Chicago. Despite our credentials, I submitted repeatedly to be a guest team on the Playground schedule and was rejected. We played shows to very small audiences at the Cornservatory and to mostly improviser-heavy crowds at what amounts to open mic spots at local bars. These improviser crowds either didn't understand our style, or were not willing to give up the laughs. Our shows and morale suffered because of this.

Troupes, or teams as they are called in Chicago, are usually formed by a training center that is geared to perform on their stages. They can control content and quality this way. This also makes it impossible to perform in front of a decent audience without going through a training center.

We even did a week in weird places series where we did 5 shows in one week in odd locations all over Chicago. This was poorly attended save our Saturday show downtown which did very well. It was maybe our most triumphant show in Chicago.

Austin is what Chicago is not and that's what makes it a better and cheaper place to live and train in my opinion. The scene is more open and the talent per capita far surpasses that of Chicago.

DB: You guys tour a lot compared to other troupes. How do you tailor your shows to fit the places/events you'll be playing?

Lamb: We are a very heavy audience mindset group. Some groups don't care about what's going on with the audience, whether they're having a good time, what have you. We've played a lot of weird circumstances and playing on the road in various situations teaches you a lot about not knowing what to expect, and adjusting on the fly. We've played conservative Christian colleges repeatedly. We played a hippie resort town, we played what amounted to an RV park in North Texas for old folks and their grandkids. It's gotten pretty weird. We played a show to an audience of 7 in a lecture hall in Massachusetts and then played to a gym full of 600 college students in Wisconsin the next week for the same paycheck. We've played shows for 5th graders. There's really no end to what we'll do and it's all about getting in the audience's head and taking a best stab at what we think they'll like as a collected unit. We've failed many times, of course. Our first college show in 2004 was in rural rural rural Oklahoma and we had people clearing out of there just bored silly by what we were doing. That sucked. But, we actually learned a lot from that experience. Improv is all about immediate adaptation and that's what we've been able to do with each show since then.

DB: What does the next year hold for the Cupholders?

Lamb: Sweeping, awkward feeling change. Two of us are moving out of state, and a third is threatening to move as well. This is what keeps me up at night. I don't want to break it down and start all over, get a new stupid web domain and cast a whole new bunch of people. So, I don't know exactly what's going to happen. I have a couple people I'd like to invite into the group but I don't want it to get out of control as well. If everyone moves back in a year, I don't want to have a 7-person troupe bickering with itself about stage and touring time. I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do.

DB: The Cupholders seem to perform new formats of improv shows all the time. What's the process and motivation for coming up with new formats?

Lamb: We have found this is the best way to retain and introduce new audience members to improv. Old people who like us want to see us try new things all the time and new people are maybe hooked by whatever recent idea we've come up with. You can tell someone you're doing a show a thousand times but until you hook them with something that sticks in their brain as something they want to see, you're wasting your breath, and your flyer.

Plus, format innovation is the essence of evolving the artform. A stagnant artform dies away as it is unable to adapt. The evolution of the form ensures that it's zeitgeisty and that's what people want I've found. And stuff that works, we revisit. We like to mix it up but we're certainly not afraid to do an oldie but a goodie that still seems relevant.

DB: What's been your proudest moment for the Cupholders so far?

Lamb: I'd say being able to make this into a viable business that turned a profit in 2005 as a touring company was a huge accomplishment. Keeping it together would have been another feat altogether but to know it's possible to do improv and get paid for it, in most cases quite well, is a beacon of hope for the artform and for me personally. Working in improv theatre as my sole career is Goal One for my life.

The Available Cupholders perform in the Double Barrel on 3/9/2007, along with Girls Girls Girls.