Muprov Musings: Exceptionally Average Improv

We are going back to the basics! Shout out to Ken Adams and the storyspine. Lets platform some scenes! 

Most failed scenes are one side-coach away from being great. On this episode we talk through three simple coach lines that can save the day. If you practice it enough with a coach, the voice in your head will begin to remind you all by yourself! 

Improv is all about flexibility and change, so how does the way we teach it change over time as each generation gets to improve on the past? Enter Ness Arikan— who learned improv in this fundamentals curriculum, and now is the current instructor to this same workshop. She has reworked the whole curriculum and can give a rare inside look at the cutting edge of teaching fundamentals!

The next generation of improvisors are crazy :). 

Gosh this is like five episodes packed into one... Back in the day we taught a whole second version of this class where we deep dived each of them, but lets start with a fundamental understanding....

If you have strong opinions about acronyms then then you will love this episode. Let us know what team you are on in the comment ;)

#TeamCROW #TeameCROWE #COWREmpromise #hardCORE #CREWcrew

People talk a lot about supporting your partner in improv, but how do you actually make that happen? Well, everyone is different so it really depends on who your partner is! Here are some ways that we practice the meta-stuff and learn to tailor our support to the people that we play with!

Folk singer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDrKeGqV6qY

Time God:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnvYmgiqrt4 

Sometimes the best thing to do is be obvious. Why not take the path of least resistance? It can be hard to feel confident enough to do things the easy way but at the end of the day that is what fundamentals is all about!

Improv Wisdom, By Patricia Ryan Madson:

https://www.amazon.com/Improv-Wisdom-Dont-Prepare-Just/dp/1400081882 

A New Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2qDjmWah6g&t=4306s 

Fundamentals go deep! This episode goes from 0 to 100 starting out with the familiar mirror exercises building from Blocking to Yes And, but then taking it two steps beyond the idea of "Yes, and." Experienced improvisers can skip over some of the initial steps but hopefully it is fun to see the whole trajectory laid out! 

Mirror Study: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1108155108 

Hofstadters MU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach 

Whether you are a total beginner or a veteran, if you want to reach the next level of improvisation the best way to do it is to go back to the fundamentals! Rather than going for a traditional intro series, we will pull back the curtain and talk about teaching muprov and how to design a course to teach these fundamentals. You may know some of the exercises, but I bet you will be surprised by the way we use them :). Trey is a wonderful guest and teacher and we are so happy to have him join us to kick off this series!!!

This episode is a short one ;). Hear our takes on Impro Amsterdam, Birthdays, running, and Tob/Bottom. Stick around to the end of the episode and you might win a prize! We have a lot of fun!

Join us next week for the first episode of our Muprov Fundamentals Series! 

Fire, Earth, Water, Air. After 100 years it is finally time to put your fists together and let those eyes glow. Thats right, magic is real and you can become the improv Avatar. Similar to our episode on The Ordeal, this one explores a forbidden technique on the the frontier of what is possible. 

This episode is shorter than normal because we are saving Sign-Off-Palooza for next time!