Improv Workshop and Addiction

I have an addictive personality. I don't mean, "let's see what's Paul's doing! I can't get enough of that guy!"No, I mean, "I like improv. This brings me joy! How man improv classes and improv festivals can I attend this year. Go!" That sort of addiction. It has it's pros and cons. Cons??....ummmm.....hmmm....well....uhhhh. OK, I can't think of many cons. Hell, improv brings me joy. Surrounding myself with teachers like Susan Messing, Rafe Chase, Tim Orr, Mark Sutton, and Joe Bill just magnifies the happiness. Yes. Addiction. I was addicted. To improv, and took a lot of improv workshops. I read books, registered for master class workshops, poured over clips of 3 for All, and Upright Citizens Brigade's Asssscat videos like it was football game film.

Then, I went to San Francisco and studied at BATS. A teacher suggested: "you should do other things." I didn't quite understand. "Go to a museum." But I have improv. "Go read some fiction." But I have improv. "Go find another hobby." But I have improv! "The more you learn, the more you go see the world around you, the richer your improv scenes become." Ohhhhh.

That made a lot of sense. I'm no good at an improv workshop or show if I don't have any life experiences. I got tunnel vision, everything I saw was improv, and the art suffered. The comedy suffered. No one is sitting home on a Saturday night thinking, "Let's go support some local comedy that feels small naive and immature."

So, what did I do with this new insight? Honestly? I wish I could say I went scuba diving in Figi, sky diving in Paris, and fed baby penguins who knew of nothing but life on the streets. They're tough penguins. (side note: if you google "penguin movies," you'll be surprised to find tons penguin films. Well, I was surprised. Maybe you won't be. Maybe you helped produce some of them. In which case, great work with Happy Feet!)

Nope. Instead....I flipped through magazines. I hoarded magazines and stared at ads. And, you should too!

Magazine's are packed with hundreds of worlds. Each ad is a world. You can enter it. You can see how it makes you feel, and what ideas are there. And, then you can jump to another, and adsorb that world. And, on and on and on.

It's an experience hack. Better then real life, and trying new things? No. Never. But, before a show, if you're trying to get your brain flowing with ideas, and thoughts, open up a magazine. I keep a bunch backstage at Blacktop Comedy.

The California Comedy Festival is Here

The third annual California Comedy Festival arrives this weekend at Blacktop Comedy! Are we excited? Very.

Should you buy tickets? Yes!

Will your eyeballs thank you after a weekend of amazing improv at Blacktop Comedy Theater? Of Course!

This year, the California Comedy festival brings together teams from all over the country. We have teams from Dallas, TX (Potty Talk), Phoenix, Arizona (They No Girls), Los Angeles (In Transit, Red Door), and San Francisco (The Letters, 5 Deadly Improvisers), and Fremont (5 Play). Plus, catch great local talent like Dead or Alive, Shorties, and ComedySportz in Sacramento. These are amazing teams. We were so impressed with their submission tapes we new they had to be at the festival. They'll be here soon, performing on Friday and Saturday night.

The festival has undergone some changes in the last few years. Initially, we called it the Milky Way Improv Festival, because, well....that's sounds pretty huge. The second year, we called in the California Improv Festival. This year, we're excited to announce we've settled on a name for years to come, The California Comedy Festival! Makes sense. We're all about comedy.

We're also very excited to move the festival into the new home of Blacktop Comedy Theater in Rocklin, CA. We have spent months sprucing up the new theater, excited to bring this festival to our theater. A larger theater means we can also keep all our workshops at Blacktop. We have a lot of classrooms in our new Rocklin location.

There are soooo many brilliant workshops during the California Comedy Festival. We minimized the class overlap, so you can take as many improv classes as you'd like. I know I'm going to jump into four. I'm an improv nerd, and am very excited about the classes:

BEING YOUR REAL-ASS SELF with  CHELSEA M. COLEMAN

IMPROVISED STAGE COMBAT: THE ART OF FIGHTING WITHOUT FIGHTING with DEREK YEE

PLAYING THE SILENCE with BEN LEDDICK

BEING VULNERABLE  with BILL STAHL

ENSEMBLE APPROACH TO IMPROVISATION with RISH SANGHVI

Finally, we'll be grabbing drinks every evening after the shows, celebrating amazing performers, and an addictive art form we call improv.

Want to join us? We'll be at Dragas and Loree's Little Shack in Rocklin. Dragas is a great new brewery that opened off Taylor road in Rocklin. It's close to the theater and Dutch Brothers (oh yeah...we'll likely be spending a lot of time getting drinks at Dutch Brothers in Rocklin too). Loree's Little Shack is.....um...eclectic. Yep, that's the perfect word. Strong drinks, lots of happiness, and opened late.

We’ll be at Dragas Friday night, and Loree’s Saturday. See you at the festival!

New TJ and Dave Book

This week Pam Victor released her work Improvisation at the Speed of Life: The TJ and Dave Book. The reviews are really positive, and I can't wait for my copy to arrive. I wish Amazon Prime already had those drones services available so I could read it yesterday. Am I hear to complain about first world I-have-to-wait-two-days-for-a-book-to-arrive problems? No. That would be a terrible blog post.

Nope, I wanted to talk about TJ and Dave. The book release reminded me of the first time I saw them at iO Chicago, and how much I learned just watching them. I was attending the iO Summer Intensive program (I highly recommend it. They offer the program in LA too!), and loving my time in Chicago. My teachers, and other students said, "you have to see TJ and Dave," "have you seen TJ and Dave? You have to see TJ and Dave!" "Cancel your plans! Come with us and see TJ and Dave!"

You get the idea. It was must see improv.

And then I saw TJ and Dave.... TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi blew me away. I know, "blown away," sounds hyperbol-ish. It's not. (They blew me away when I was new to improv, and they continue to blow me away every time I see them. I'm in a constant state of, "wow!")

They are patient, and kind, and empathetic; incredibly focused, discovering a character, and living a life. It really is improv theater...that happens to be really, really funny too. I still recall the story characters; two beat cops. What sticks with you is the characters. They're vibrant, and evolve. The story just flows from that.

There was one moment though, I'll never forget. It reinforced: there's a lot of beauty in the detail work. TJ's character, the beat cop, was eating some red rope. And, you knew it, because you saw it! You saw the length, and the packaging. TJ took time to unwrap a red rope. Have you ever tried unwrapping a red rope versus red vines? It takes some patience. TJ was patient. You could see his coil the rope on his wrist, and play with the wrapping, working to separate the vine from it's plastic sheath. He wasn't immediately successful. He had to work at it, at getting at his red rope. He was struggling onstage. He chose to struggle. We can choose to do anything onstage, and he chose to struggle with a tiny bit of plastic and rope. It was beautiful to watch, because he let us see the world, with all it's little annoyances and quirks. We also learned a lot about the character. He wouldn't stop. He wouldn't complain. He knew what he wanted, and he was going to get it. Yeah, I agree...maybe I am looking to deeply at a brief moment on stage. But, then again, isn't that exactly what we're trying to do? Give people moments, funny or not, on which to reflect?