Improv in Omaha

paulciampanelli:

mullaney:

Etiquette for starting an improv scene

If someone sets a chair for you, sit in it

I mean this both figuratively and literally.

I mean it literally. I’ve lost count of how many times I set a chair or chairs on stage only to watch my scene partners stare like the apes in “2001” encountering the obelisk. I’m not sure how to make that move clearer other than to point and say “Sit down” (which I actually saw someone do once). And I say this as a guy who’s usually really stupid at figuring out what my scene partners want. When someone puts a chair on stage, I get really excited because I actually know what to do.

Never had Mulaney as a teacher, but between his use of the term Etiquette for improv, and this huge pet peeve of mine, I had to reblog.

Just wanted to give a late shout-out to the OK Party guys for throwing Omaha’s first stand-up festival. I heard it kicked major ass.

I wasn’t able to go to it, unfortunately, but it had 2 nights of great line-ups, pulling in national talent like LA, Chicago, and Denver, along with many of Omaha’s best locals.

I did however get to attend the after party held at our very own Studio Gallery, and play kickball with everyone the next day.

I didn’t get to see this either, but I guess Dragon Boy Suede, Howard Kremer, performed on my stage pretty early into morning. I believe he was the guest monologists at ASSSSCAT! the first time I ever went (possibly second.) Also the first (possibly second) improv show I ever saw. That would have been 6 years ago at least.

Then the next day, I played kickball with some great up-and-coming stars like Ben Roy and Sam Tallent. This is the second kickball game I’ve played since I was a kid. My first? Three (possibly four) years ago, I played with great improvisers like Matt Besser, Danielle Schneider, Neil Campbell, and Will McLaughlin.

Funny how things work out in the comedy world.

Younger students have been begging for more stage time, and broke friends have been begging for free shows. Starting tonight, we will have FREE Thursday night shows (most Thursdays).

This will also be a good night for experimental teams, as well as hosting one of our favorite teams monthly, 88improv. 88 will be up tonight. They just left PS Collective to come to Studio Gallery, so this is their debut in their new slot!

They are all brilliant, and fun. Plus, at the end of the night, there’s a Jam, where anyone can hop up on stage with us.

Support improv, have some drinks you brought yourself, and have fun for absolutely free! And/Or come on Fridays, and pay $5 for the best of the best each week!

I forgot to post this pic of my old group, Man Up!. This was from the early days of Room 101.

Why not have our first host of LIVE! be such a bad-ass fighter, his nickname is ‘The Assassin’.

If you watch UFC, or are 20-40 and live in Omaha, you probably know him. He’s pretty excited to do it.

He’ll be joined by our musical act, All Young Girls are Machine Guns. If you are a feminist in Omaha, you probably know them.

Together, that should be a target audience of everyone, Super Bowl half-time style. We also have 11 writers and 16 performers from groups like Collaboration Comedy and 1980star, actors from Shelterbelt, Blue Barn, and Florence, a reporter from KMTV, and most importantly- improvisers from Backline Improv.

The show is Saturday, June 1st at Studio Gallery, 9pm! $10.

I’ve always had a great eye for talent. Just ask some of my all-star improvisers here that I had to bug at first, just to get them to try improv.

My first real example comes from one of the most jam-packed-with-talent teams I’ve ever been a part of. Firehawk.

Some teams get started by friends or classmates, but this time, I sat down and wanted to organize the most talented and diverse team I could of players in my generation. Improvisers that could cover all skills.

The team? Myself, Betsy Sodaro, Casey Feigh, Jonny Svarzbein, George Oz, and Gian Molina. Jonny came up with the name. This must have been late ‘09 I believe.

First show went great, we might have even had two, and then- Bam! UCB Exhibition Cagematch. When a team takes a week off, two new teams go against each other.

It felt real good, when before the show, our opponents saw who they were up against and said to themselves- well, we just lost. They did, but we also had possibly our best show.

So, who did we face next week in Cagematch? That’s right, Death by Roo Roo again. Only this just happened to be the night the whole cast reunited to do LA Cagematch.

We were all still young, and these were our teachers and role models. We were easily intimidated and had an ‘eh’ show. They did pretty great.

We told ourselves that if we could have switched our last week show, we might have won…but probably not.