Whilst wasting time before college today I found this blog. Seems pretty interesting I only read the first few sentences of the first few posts, cause I am obviously a very busy serious person.
I like this post in particular, I think everyone has felt like this at some point
Bad Performances Don’t Define You
I still have before bed anxiety attacks about a set I was involved in at the RIF 2008. So this may be the closure I’ve been holding out for.
As promised, we are gonna write a little bit about our friends from Richmond, Virginia, whom we saw in Philadelphia a little over a week ago. Marbles is a duo, featuring the very talented David Pijor and Katie Holcomb. The two are veterans of the RVA comedy scene, and are members of Richmond Comedy Coalition. We had the awesome pleasure of meeting these two, and many of their Richmond cohorts, when we attending The Richmond Improv Festival in ’08 and ’09. So they’ve seen us drunk, we’ve seen them drunk, and we all still love each other. More on glorious feats of intoxication later.
In our last review, we talked about Rosen and Milkshake, another duo who played right before Marbles last week. Two very different styles. R&M painted the environment of their scenes, while Marbles sculpted their characters with amazing detail to add depth to their scenes. After the show we talked to Pijor and Holcomb about their scenework, and they said they “liked to let scenes breathe.” They took time to flush out all their characters, and really explore the relationships that we saw on stage. Both did a great job of jumping into the character, trusting themselves and each other, to find what was interesting and unique about each one. Usually, they would mirror each other at the top of a scene, matching energy, voice, or posture, grounding them together in the same scene. We saw this right from the get-go with two vapid teenage girls, and continued into rustic country father and daughter, anti-materialist hippie parents, whispering book club members, and more.
As the scenes progressed a theme of Us vs. Them emerged. That isn’t to say that the characters on stage didn’t have conflict with each other. However, most of the action came from the friction that arose from the characters fighting the unseen forces that oppress them. The teenagers railed against the newcomers who were ruining their hangout. the hippie parents wanted to protect their child’s creativitty from the dull banal society of the world, Guiseppe (a pizzeria owner) who wanted to fight new technology even at the cost of his relationship with his only employee, and the rustic father’s myopic world view (tempered by the “pounding pelting hail”) clashed with his daughter’s dreams of experiencing a wider and gentler world (she longed to see rainbows not “hail-bows”). This overall all theme made every scene feel more like a piece of an larger reality, and not independent discrete worlds.
Key moments for us in the set were, Katie’s full out committment to the over the top stereotype that is Guiseppe. Pijor did a great job of turning a distraction into a gift, by acknowledging the ghost of Guy Fieri. Which in reality was nothing more than loud, recurring noise coming from upstairs. The two, as expected, played a solid set.
Of course we have a soft spot for the fine comedic styles of Richmond, since the RIF ’08 was the first festival we attended. So even before seeing Marbles last week, we were already aware Richmond ladies are charming, the gentlemen are stand-up, and the RCC as a whole are very talented bunch of comedians. We look forward to seeing Marbles and the other teams of the RCC on future roadtrips, ours or theirs. You can of course find them on the web at http://www.rvacomedy.com and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rvacomedy. If you find yourself in RVA, do yourself a favor and see some shows with these guys.
-Chris / Mike
In our little corner of the Improv Universe we have seen (and sadly performed) way too many scenes about two people sitting around and talking, rather than doing. So many scenes are flat, nameless voids, filled with chairs and people. This last weekend, at the Philly Improv Theater sponsored show in the Philly Fringe Fest, Rosen & Milkshake (formerly Mr. Lizard) didn’t just sit in a void, they sat in an interesting environment, like their sexy GTO, complete with headlight gas tank.
That’s what struck us most about R&M, their physicality. They created space to play in, with details that really painted a picture. Each area of the stage was unique to the characters they had inhabiting it. There was the aforementioned GTO center where our main characters spent most of their time. The bus stop and the club to one side, where the ladies they portrayed like to spend time. And who could forget the other side, where the punching bags lived.
R&M wasn’t all just environment work (which we all neglect, but yawn at when we get the note). The physicality was also in their characters. And it has to be, since they like to play each other’s characters. There were our two main men, a salesman, the ladies who were “ready to step” until they punched a bee hive, and the DJ who just wanted to get some. And they both played all of them, right down to the dance moves that reminded us of those punching bags. It all built to a head as Rosen and Milkshake frantically switched between four characters making out with each other while driving the GTO, complete with over the top air frenching.
With all that switching around, we would have liked to see Rosen initiate more of the transitions. Milkshake definitely was the driving force in these character jumps, and it would have been fun to see Rosen take the lead a bit. But that’s a minor critique in an otherwise really engaging set. The scenes moved a fast pace, but they still gave each scene and character enough space to be explored. We loved the energy these two brought to the stage, a little frantic, but not unfocused.
If you’re in Philly looking for some comedy, then check out this improv duo around town. Starting this Saturday, September 25th, Rosen & Milkshake have a standing gig at Vesuvio Bar & Grill at 8pm. They’re also playing in PHIT’s Duofest on October 3rd at 9pm at the Shubin Theater. And of course you can find them on the good ol’ Facebook too.
– Mike / Chris
Today is September 20th, 2010. Three days ago my good friend, and fellow NJ improviser, Chris Brown (Death By Improv), and I, Michael Hochman (Death By Improv & PHIT house Team codenamed Phoenix), decided it would be a good idea to start an improv blog. It will be slow going at first, due to Brown being busy with school, and me being busy with work, but we’re gonna get the ball rolling, and hopefully pick up speed as we go.
The purpose of this blog is pretty simple: We will go see improv (and probably a fair amount of sketch) as often as our schedule and wallets allow us, in as many places as we can possibly go, and then write about the shows we see, the people we meet, and the theaters and scenes we see and meet them in. Being in NJ, this obviously means we’ll seek out other NJ improvisers, and frequently go to NYC and Philly. But we’ll also take weekend road trips, hopefully sleep on couches and floors of friends, and have a blast doing it.
This past weekend, I performed with my new (and as of yet unnamed) team at PHIT (Philly Improv Theater) as the closing show of the Philly Fringe Fest. So Brown came down to see that, but before I took the stage with my awesome new team, we caught some duo sets by our friends Milkshake & Rosen (Philly group, former known as Mr. Lizard) and Marbles (Richmond, VA). So be on the lookout for our thoughts on those guys soon!
-Hochman
Improv Kerouac 