NCCAF Improv Week – Night Four: 2/19/11 (at DSI 7:30)

So it’s been a whole week since I saw this show. But the real world got in the way of writing, having to work and sleep and such. But right now, I’m sitting on a Megabus from NYC to Philly, I have free wifi, so I have no excuse not to write this recap.

IMPROV SLAM at DSI Comedy Theater is a regularly scheduled short form DSI show, but for this festival they did a Chicago vs. DSI show. The show is stuctured much like a ComedySportz show, but without the sports gimmicks. There are two teams, a host and tech who assign some arbitrary points, and it’s family friendly.

I had a blast at this show for a couple of reasons. First off, all the performers individually were really good, everyone seemed like they were on there game. Second, it was great to see really good family friendly comedy. Chris and I both play shortform with Death By Improv, and we are definitely not family friendly. This show, again like Comedysportz, didn’t rely on saying something overtly sexual, crass, or offensive to get a laugh.

But what I liked most about this show was how well tech was incorporated. It sounds stupid to some, but a good job teching can really carry the energy of a show and create a sense of Event. When a show feels like an event, not just some show, it makes it more enjoyable. Most of the time the host would be underscored by some music as he’d talk, genre games would have music for every genre, and rap games like Beastie Rap and Rap Medley had real beats, rather than someone half-ass beatboxing on the side. (good beatboxing is awesome, but most groups, like ours, don’t have beatboxers on the team). Hell, they even brought lights down on half the stage for something like a “film noir” scene. It’s so simple, but most groups either don’t bother, or don’t have talented tech guys.

As far as the actual playing went, as I said, these guys were really fun, both the visiting Chicago team, and the locals. One skill that I think gets spotlighted in a short form show is the ability to justify. Short form games often include gimmicks that are meant to trip us up, but we have to make it work. Like “Blind Line” (aka “Line in a Pocket” or “Lines from the Audience”) where players read lines that they randomly grab, and make it fit. My favorite one was from the audience “Do you want Paper or Plastic?” followed by “That’s what I named my fists!” My absolutely favorite part of the show was in “Panel of Experts” where one of the characters was Rainbow Bright. One of the Chicago players (I sadly don’t remember his name) played Rainbow Bright as a grown up, with a raspy voice, cigarette in hand, and just enough innuendo to let the adults in on the joke, and the kids remain clueless. The character returned later in the show during “Freeze,” as did the dinosaur from “Panel” too. Awesome callbacks.

This show, in conjunction with the N Crowd set I saw the night before, made me want to re-examine how I play shortform, from the games we play to the way we structure the show. The energy was fantastic, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone traveling thru the Chapel Hill area in the futre.

-Hochman

NCCAF Improv Week – Night Three: 2/18/11 (at DSI 11:30)

I meant to post this show recap before passing out last night, but I was really really tired. NCCAF, while awesome, can take a lot out of a guy, especially if you take the super-physical workshop I had with KPR on saturday. But now that I am somewhat well rested, here’s some more Festival-ness.

I spent all of the Friday night at the DSI theater, while Chris went over to the Arts Center. So the 11:30 show that night was rom-com from Chicago, IL; The Swash Improv from Greenville, NC; and Let’s Try This! from Atlanta, GA. I knew nothing about any of these guys, and was honestly worried that I wouldn’t enjoy the show, since there weren’t too many people in the house right away (everyone was probably over at Arts Center Mainstage for Festival All-stars, Death By Roo Roo and Mister Diplomat). But as it turned out, this was a really fun block to see.

Rom-com from Chicago started of the set and really killed. Mick (fellow Death By Improv-er) was there with me, and somewhat drunkenly proclaimed afterward that they were his favorite show of the festival. Level of intoxication aside, these guys were awesome. They start by interviewing a couple in the audience, getting details about how they met, what was there first date, that sort of thing. (It’s just dawning on me now that “rom-com” means romantic comedy.) The set then explored the meeting, of the couple, and the potential future of the couple. In this case, met at a party, drunk. Then went on first date to an improv show (excellent meta-play self-parodying improv), then got engaged and then married, had very dysfunctional kids, got divorced and all along the way everyone was addicted to microwave use. Even the babies were born to the “ding” of a microwave. I think my favorite lines were the two dysfunctional children, first the troubled daughter “I started cutting myself” then the brain-damaged microwaved son “I started helping.” Awesome.

The Swash Improv, a short-form team from Greenville, NC, came next. These guys seemed to have a bit of a slow start, but by the third game there energy was up, and the laughs were coming in. They played a game called Crime Story, which is similar to the game I know called Interrogator. I know it as who they killed, where they killed ’em, and with what weapon. They played what’s the crime, who helped him, and what was the motive. I liked there way a lot better. The game of Two Rooms, taking place in a crematorium and a Pottery Barn had a great start, since the first scene i wasn’t sure which of the two they were in. It was great. They finished with a really strong game of Two Lines, where 2 people can each only speak in one question and one statement each, and one person can say whatever he wants. “I already did that” was used so well, and was set up perfect for the blackout.

Closing out the set was Let’s Try This! from Georgia Tech. This was one of the few heavily themed shows I saw at the festival, and the only one with a formulated plot structure. A lot of improv tries to stay away from telling a story, and instead focuses on exploring ideas and themes. This group though plays a murder mystery. They start by dealing out cards to the players, with different cards representing the character types of Murderer, Victim, Detective, and Bystanders, and a suggestion of a motive for murder. The Detective doesn’t have to be a detective, in fact in this case, it was the victim’s secretary. We find out who everyone is, by doing a run of scenes with the Victim. Then the detective discovers the body, and starts to try to figure out who the Murder is. It was a fun set, with some interesting characters, but the most interesting character in this case was the Victim. Sadly, he was dead for most of the show. Unfortuntely the murder got away with it in this show, cause the detective accussed the wrong character. Oops.

Saturday recaps and some thoughts about workshops with Kevin Patrick Robbins and Tara DeFrancisco will be coming soon!

-Hochman

NCCAF Improv Week – Night Three: 2/18/11 (at DSI 9:30)

Chris and I split up for the night after the Neutrino Boston show. He went to see Beatbox and Emo Phillips, and that review you have probably already seen.  I stuck around at the DSI stage for some Super Cage Match.

So I was thinking, what makes it so super? The answer: 4 teams instead of 2. The let down: two of those teams apparently bailed. So it was a 2 team show, which was still fun to watch, but Einstein Meets Elvis and Dharma just never showed up. Not sure the story there, but wound up just being the two teams. The show started with some great energy, with an awesome video explaining Cage Match, with info about both teams playing, and some great event-building bravado.

Then it all kinda slipped back down to less-than-thrilling levels of entertainment. All that energy went out the window as some sketch thing involving the mafia and the president of Cagematch took focus for nearly 30 – 40 mintues. It was obviously filler for the missing groups, but it really brought the energy down after such an awesome AV opening.

Finally, the show starts, now about 40 minutes into what should have been show time, and Improv Boston Mainstage takes the stage. Everything these guys did was fast and energetic, and really just plain old fun .They tied ideas together really well. Ramone’s eyes,  the spotlight, the detective, the ass slap and WWII all weaved together with tons of other ideas, only to come back and be upped every chance they could. Some favorite lines: “I just decided I won,” right at the tail end of the dating game scene. “And this is World War Two” [gets shot immediately].

A lot my notes about these guys make very little sense in going back and reading them. But that’s because I was scribbling down as many thoughts as I could between laughs. At the DSI dance-party after the saturday shows, I caught up with them, and basically told them how awesome they were. They humbly allowed me to kiss there ass a bit, and then one of them let slip why they had such an action packed, great 25 minutes: They normally play for more like 75 minutes. So here’s my theory: I know nothing about hockey other than that there are 3 periods and fights, but imagine telling a team that the game is only going to be 1 period long. There are going to be better fights.

After Improv Boston Mainstage came the defending DSI Cagematch team Sparky Anderzander. I saw both halves of this duo at other times in the festival (Kennedy on The 708, and Tom on Kid Lincoln and The Slam) and those were really fun sets, and they were both great in them. Sadly, this show wasn’t more of the same. They played a couple on safari in africa, and they had some good bits, but seemed to never really find their stride. And what’s worse was you could see on their faces that they felt it. I know when I feel a show going badly, and that gets in my head, I usually can’t climb outta that whole. As things went on, there were some weird political and sexual stuff that worked it’s way in, and just felt out of place. They started as a couple, one of them loved the safari, one of them was scared. I kinda wished they had just stuck to that simple premise, but it spiraled out. I’m sure it was just an off night for them, since they were the current Cagematch champs, and as I said, they were both really great in the other shows I saw them in.

Boston wound up winning the Cagematch.

---

Well, DBI is going to be getting on the road soon, so the rest of our reviews will have to wait until we get home. You can look forward to thoughts some of the following: Rom Com; Swash Improv; Let’s Try This!; Underage Sugar Addicts; The Arsenal; PT Scarborough is a Movie; Rookie Card; Middle Management; The Cascade; and Marjean.

-Hochman

Missed Connections at NCCAF: Cubed

At  a festival as large as NCCAF it is pretty much impossible for us to cover all of the shows.  So we felt it necessary to talk about one show that we missed, that we wished we could have seen.

Attn:  Cubed

We’re not sure if you remember us, but we remember you. When we saw you at RiF 2009 we really enjoyed your office hijinks. We were really disappointed that we had to miss your set.  If you’re ever in town again we should make it a priority to meet up and have a few laughs. Also we live in NJ and you are from Philly…..let’s make this happen

Sincerely,

Improv Kerouac.

NCCAF Improv Week – Night Three: 2/18/11 (Cat’s Cradle)

After a wonderful show over at DSi (North Coast, N Crowd, and NeutrinoBoston) I hightailed it over to Cat’s Cradle to catch BEATBOX, and of course Emo Phillips

I don’t like to compare groups, and I don’t want to further fuel the East Coast/Lake Coast schism that is ripping the Hip-Prov scene apart. However it would be almost impossible for me to talk about BEATBOX without talking a little bit about North Coast.  Also that being said, any comparisons are simply to form a framework in my own mind on how to approach this topic.

In Hochman’s review he applied the term, “hip-hopera”, to North Coast.  If I had to steal that term, reexamine it, and try to apply it to BEATBOX, I would say BEATBOX is “hip-harold”.  With NC you have a moment of disconect where the improv and the music slam together and the scene you were just watching fundamentally changes, the best way to describe it would be to liken it to musical theater.  There is the scene and the number and the transition between is usually seamless but still you know when you are watching a scene and when you are listening to a number.

BB is much more true to there improv roots when it comes to the application of mad beats.  When the rhymes start dropping in a BB scene the transition to the flow is more subtle and organic.  It’s as if the characters live in a universe where people will probably start rapping at a moments notice, and they go along with it.  However they were amazing scenes about slow grinding blue tigers and ochello, and I’m not trying to snub my nose at them.

One more thing, though this is more of a mechanics issue, the beatboxing allowed for really smooth cuts and transitions.  The energy never faltered between scenes, and from start to finish you got one big fat chunk of improv goodness to really sit back with, be entertained, and get throughly school by a group of very talented improvisers.  To steal a quote from the BEATBOX, if I had my way this format would “outsell Avatar”.

Before last night, the above video* is about all I knew about Emo Philips, well that and the fact that you can find his 1985 album in the used bin at my local record shop.  But after last night, I felt a little ashamed not only as a comedian, but as a member of the weirdo portion of the human race that I have not been exposed to more of his work, boy is my face red.

Last night I was trying to think of these hyperbolic ways to explain Mister Philips’ work,  I have it written in my note pad, “he is like your escaped grandfather man/child from a clown dimension.”  really over complicated stuff.  But that would belie the beauty and simplicity of his work.  An Emo Philips set is about delivery, timing, diction, and topics that should make you feel uncomfortable but don’t. but it’s a formula that in the hands of an amateur could spell disaster. Fortunately Mister Philips delivers on all accounts.

And that’s all I want to say, oh except, everyone should try to catch his act somewhere, somehow.  Go out and get the the albums, I’m already planning on giving that used vinyl in Fords, Nj a home. Also, if I had to be hyperbolic I would say this,  if Dane Cook is the Yes of stand up comedians.  By that I mean he talks about one topic for twenty minutes without it being funny.  Emo is the RAMONES,  you get about 2 to 3 laugh out loud moments every minute and a half, and a new topic every 25-30 seconds.

To quote a fellow improviser who also saw last night’s set at the Cat’s Cradle,  “That was among the Top 5 funniest things I’ve ever experienced.”

Though I did have one problem with Mister Emo Philips, he talked to great lengths about a line of gretting cards he had available on his website, supposedly, but I can’t seem to find them. Where else am I gonna to find a card for all of the anti-semtics in my life, hmm Mr. Philips?  I mean you really are missing out on a fortune, I would have bought in bulk.

*UHF is amazing, and if anyone has a copy and a mean to watch I propose a viewing party go down at NCCAF.