This week Rob and Adam discuss sustaining scenes. How to keep the spark alive while improvising, layered complexity, and the need to get onstage only so you get off stage.  It's all covered on this week's episode of "The Backline with Rob and Adam!"

This week we discuss the art of the deal - initiating with a half-idea to inspire your scene.  Rob and Adam also tackle the difference between preconceived notions and deals, existential ennui onstage, and how this philosophy can help perform in Zoom shows better.

One of the first things we lost in the quarantine was ambition. Performers looked at their calendars and realized their careers (and lives) might never be the same. This week Adam Michael Cawley schools Rob on how to stay ambitious, set long term goals, and be ready for when things open up.

This week Rob and Adam debate over an improviser's responsibility to our audience and how we might renegotiate that relationship in the age of Zoom improv shows. Also discussed: the nature of risk, improv's meta-narrative, and pushing improvisation forward during the pandemic.

This week Rob and Adam crack open the Vault, for an episode about one-person sketch, how to write it, and what's the best way to set it up. Back next week with a new episode.

Sketchtown continues! This week, Rob and Adam discuss the make-up of relationship scenes, why they're funny, and why although they might underrated, continue to serve an important role in a sketch revue.

This week, Rob and Adam discuss styles, frame of reference, parody and finding the perfect vehicle for your premise. Also, the legacy of Second City founder Howard Alk!

Satire is a comedy tradition that is thousands of years old. This episode Adam and Rob discuss satire, authority, and saying what you mean without saying it. Also The Boys, the Annoyance Theater's President Bush is a Great Man, and the art of making maple syrup.

In this episode, Rob and Adam discuss comedy's relationship with tension, why stakes are important, and when you don't need to focus on stakes in a show. Also Adam's favourite instagram account, I Think You Should Leave, and Kurt Vonnegut.

Part Three of Sketchtown. This week, Adam and Rob discuss how to structure a scene, how tension is useful, and why knowing structure is necessary to build out a comedic premise. Also, Adam talks about his favourite Greek myth.