Shortform for the Masses, Longform for the Practitioners?

I shall begin my expressing my love for both forms.
Both forms are different to each other but hold a similar basis.
I love them both for their different attributes.

On my US visit I was discussing once again the attraction of Improv to an audience.  I mentioned how our shortform kind of looks after itself now, we have a fairly steady (touch wood) stream of audience coming through the doors who love the show and keep coming back.
Our longform however... we tend to perform to mostly an audience of Improv students, workshoppers, improv nerds ;)

She said to me... "But that's true everywhere".

And yes, it's not the first time I've heard this.  For the most part, audience for longform, more interpretive and experimental formats do indeed tend to be people who are either improvising themselves, or really want to be.

The longform shows that seem to really do well, and cross that divide tend to be the more accessible of topics.  The more 'obvious' of what they are...
Showstoppers, Austentatious, Shakesprov, 'insert name of something people already know'prov...

And that makes sense... most people who go to watch improv watch it because it's a funny show (and most likely because someone else has told them to watch it), not BECAUSE it's improv.  The made up part is what MAKES it funny (for the most part) but it's not necessarily the draw.

We find, if we get people into our shortform once they will get it, enjoy it (if it's their cup of tea of course) and then come back at some point.  With longform, they will either get it or really not understand what they just watched.  But I feel that that's just the way it is, I don't feel that a compromise should be made personally... I don't want/need to make a tonne of money off my longform show.  I know it's good, I know my players are excellent.  The audience that get it LOVE it.  We all go on that journey together.  There's something very pure about it...

Here's hoping more people will wander into Longform and love it just as much as the nerds*


*of which I am one.


ADDENDUM
Our last show, August, had an audience made up of 90% improv virgins who all LOVED the show :D
And here's the second half to enjoy...

Improv Promo Shots

Big arms!  BIG ARMS!

How do we get across what we do in a photo?

BIG ARMS!

I wonder when this became the norm.  Just google 'Improv' and see the images are all the same.

Small group of people BIG ARMS!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this as such, it's just an interesting observation.

Compare it to images of Theatre.

More sedate, less arms, more somber for the most part. (don't get me wrong I found some big arm pictures there too, but they were mostly from musicals).

And again - a comparison with photos of Stand Up:

A mixture of wacky and morose at times.

I have an interest in this as a photographer as well.  How to get across a 'story' with an image, in this case, the story of what WE do for our show.  It's a hard one.  I always want to show fun as well as our interactive nature and a hint of our show structure...

We'd NEVER do the BIG ARMS though.... oh wait....

I don't really have any conclusion to this post... only that I suppose as time goes on and more and more people discover Improv our promotional images can potentially lose some of the wacky and gain a bit more 'art'?  Maybe?  Time will tell... until then, ARMS TO THE SKY PEOPLE!

So.... how do YOU label yourself?

I asked this of an improv group a while ago.

What do you call yourself?

...

I did a show on Sunday where the promoter asked about how we all manage to fit our shows around our stand up... I explained that only a handful (I think at the last count 5 of us out of 23) are stand ups and the rest are improvisers.
Actually, that's a lie.
I first said the rest are 'actors'... which is not what I wanted to say.

For someone to simply be 'an improviser' seems remote.

Firstly... most people in improv troupes DO do other things, they do stand up, they act, they sing, they write etc etc... so why label in the first place?

But yet I have people in my troupe who would describe themselves soley as improvisers... this is their calling, their release, their outlet.

Yes yes, you would call yourself different things in different company (whenever asked what I do, I mostly refer to myself as a lecturer... it always seems easier if nothing else).  But why are we not telling people that we are improvisers?

In the past when I have you get the whole 'tell us a joke then'... people really don't get what it is that we do.
I suppose if I were to conclude here I would say maybe we need to wait til Improv is better known over here...

But how is it going to get better known?

We tell people...

Shout it loud and proud... you're an improviser, and even if I have to have a conversation that will include the words 'whose' 'line' 'is' 'it' and 'anyway' at least people are finding out about it.

I'M AN IMPROVISER .... (and a lecturer).

Play with friends? Play with strangers?

I had this conversation with another improviser recently. He said how he preferred to perform win people they didn't play with regularly .
Whereas I enjoy this every so often , l get much more of a kick playing with people I know well.
I know what I can get way with .
l know who I can play with , and by that I mean play with emotionally and physically .
l know how far to push things .

l always feel a bit of a dick doing things like that to someone l don't know that well.

Who would you rather play with?

Failing to Fail

I took part in a clowning workshop last weekend.

I've touched on clowning a little over the years but not really gone into it too far.

I learned a lot, I got a lot out of it.  The main thing I learned is that I really, really, struggle to fail.

That actually sounds like a really bold statement ;)  But really... I don't let myself fail.

I've been 'in charge' of many things since a young age (I directed my first show at age 12 (it wasn't very good)).  I've always been the person who organises and runs things.  I've always seen being unsure or unable to answer to anything as a weakness and as such it's stopped me learning.  I don't challenge myself because I a) don't want to be wrong and b) if I do something and it ends up being wrong it feels like a huge waste of time.
I've always struggled with this.

No one LIKES to fail though really, do they?

Well a clown is fine with it... and works through it optimistically (another trait I don't really have).

So.  We were given a task, one of many on the day, which was going to be hard if not impossible to achieve.  It was a clapping game, hitting beats at a certain time, with a partner.
The exercise isn't important really... what I did with it was.
I figured out how to win.
I completed it.
We got to the end of it, and the teacher had nothing to say to us.  No one laughed.  We were done.  We sat down.
I leant over to my partner and apologied - "We didn't get any feedback because we failed to fail, my fault, sorry".

After being an improviser for nearly 13 years you'd think I'd be all over this... I was kicking myself.  Within my troupe nowadays I'm a little better at making myself this vulnerable, but MORE EFFORT NEEDED.

If you see me, make sure I'm failing at something... it will cheer me up.

To snog or not to snog?

Where do you stand on this improv peeps.

I am very happy to let anyone in my troupe maul me or kiss me... does that make me an improv slut?

In my mind it's more along the lines of I'm just happy to go wherever the scene takes me.  In fact the only time I've ever frozen in a scene was when my character was endowed as being pregnant... that's been the only thing I've struggled with (because it's something I would never want to happen in real life).

I feel lucky to be in a troupe where I can trust everyone enough to feel like I can do whatever I want, and let them do whatever they want too.

Yeah.  It does sound a bit slutty.

New Challenges

This weekend one of my players, who has been improvising for nearly 13 years now, took part in a singing workshop.
This was a huge deal for him.
He's convinced himself he can't sing, and therefore can't improvise songs.  He has avoided it as best he could his entire Improv career.

Over time I think it gets harder for us to push ourselves out there again.  We get used to working one way or another.
Which is not to say you grow stagnant (although some people do) but you get comfortable.
Comfortable and safe.
Two words that could damage your improv.
Try something new, try something dangerous, try something that scares you.

I hope he got a lot out of the workshop, he was awesome, did some great stuff and pushed through his worries.
I am hoping he will do it again.
We all need those pushes from time to time... because risking failure means you're learning.

(as an aside I don't really think you can fail in improv as long as you're doing something... hopefully that comment won't come back to bite me when I'm grading my improv students ;) )