Tag Archives: Improv

First Improv Call-Out a Success

The first call-out for our new troupe was a success. We met three new people and saw some familiar faces. Our next jam session/workshop will be this coming Saturday, August 29th. The time to be announced as soon as we hear back from everyone on what works best for them. We figured something around 3PM or 7PM.

If you’re interested, please contact us using the form, leaving a comment on this post, or by writing us at improv@-REMOVETHISTEXT-themediacollective.org

(Solo) Improv Exercise: RSS Monologue

RSS Monologue

What you will need: A computer or RSS enabled device

Directions:

  1. Load a news RSS service in your favorite RSS reader (Firefox will work nicely and there are several listed below)
  2. Increase the font size so you can read it while standing
  3. Set your computer to autoscroll (video in full post)

Start up monologues based off of the title and opening sentence of the news stories that are scrolling over your screen. You should make sure that your screen is scrolling slow enough so you can say a few lines for each article.

Variations

Have two people or an entire ensemble use the news stories to start scenes.

RSS news Services and the limit of the results in the RSS feed

Google News Top Stories (100)
Google News World News (100)
Google News USA News (100)
Yahoo! World News (10)
Yahoo! USA News (10)
Yahoo! Top News (10)
Reuters Top News (10)
Reuters USA News (10)
Reuters World News (10)
Reuters Political News (10)
Reuters BusinessNews (10)

Digg Labs also has some good tools for this exercise:

Big Spy
Pics

And there is also twistori, a twitter news feed based on emotions.

Continue reading (Solo) Improv Exercise: RSS Monologue

Summer Improv Workshops

We will be starting a free summer Improv Workshop for those of you that are in the area over the summer. The call outs (we’re having multiple) are May 21st (Thursday) and May 23rd (Saturday). We are meeting on the main floor of the Union, above the food courts.

Contact us if you are planning on attending so we have an idea of how many to expect.

We will populate our improv workshop page with more information as well.

Three Pillars of Comedy Documentation and Interview

Three Pillars of Comedy Purdue University April 3rd, 2009 Flyer

We attended the three pillars of comedy put on by the Purdue improv group, The Crazy Monkeys. The night consisted of three different types of comedy: short form, long form, and sketch. The Ship of Fools, The Crazy Monkeys, and the University tWits performed each of these styles respectively.

We recorded the introduction to night given by Shauvon at Hot Box Pizza, followed by Andrew’s warm-up of the crowd before the Ship of Fools came out on stage.

[audio:http://www.themediacollective.org/wp-content/uploads/newschannelinternet/themediacollective.org-introduction-04-03-2009.mp3]

We missed the intro to the Crazy Monkey’s show at Greyhouse so we were unable to capture that audio.

Before the third installment of this great event started, I managed to snag an interview with Logan Lampton, a member of the Crazy Monkeys. We talked about the night, how he become a member, and the process of animating imaginary people.

[audio:http://www.themediacollective.org/wp-content/uploads/newschannelinternet/themediacollective.org-crazymonkeyinterview-04-03-2009.mp3]

And, like the idiots we are, nothing of the University tWits was recorded. So there you have it, an incomplete documentation of the nights events. Enjoy!