The Kaleidoscope. That show is celebrating it’s 1 year…



The Kaleidoscope.

That show is celebrating it’s 1 year anniversary. It was put together by Alan Starzinski (pronounced Zinsk. The rest is silent) and I think it’s a great show.

The concept of the show is that Alan picks captains and asks them to gather teams of people made up largely of folks they have never improvised with. This is one of my favorite things to do in improv. Sometimes you get caught up playing with the same people for weeks and weeks. But there is something magical about the energy of performing with someone for the first time.

There’s been other shows with that goal. The Project would end with Big Team Skirmish. UCB puts up a show called The Blender once in a while. Wednesday’s with Harold does it too. I’m sure there’s been a lot of other shows like that. I love all those opportunities. But The Kaleidoscope is entirely about mixing people up, and it’s been running 2 or 3 times a month for an entire year. That’s admirable.

Maybe Alan put it together just so he could work with a lot of new people. If so, I think it was a smart decision. But regardless of his reason I think it’s grown into something bigger and cooler.

I have been to this show a lot, and been lucky enough to get to perform at it a lot too. It’s always good. Sometimes great.

Occasionally the show has goals. One week was to perform an old UCB 600 level form. A couple of times it’s been all musical improv. Often it’s off of another person’s monologues.

I love that too! Not only is Alan giving 24-32 people a chance to do an extra show every week, but he even adds one more person to practice telling monologues. That’s not an easy opportunity to come by.

So thanks Alan for putting up this show. I think it really is a gift to the improv community. Happy 1 year anniversary!

If you haven’t checked out this show yet, do it!

http://www.improvresourcecenter.com/mb/showthread.php?t=66759

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caitlintime: Snuggie or Die A Diamonds, Wow! Video…



caitlintime:

Snuggie or Die

A Diamonds, Wow! Video Product

Written by Caitlin Tegart. Starring D’Arcy Erokan, Fran Gillespie, Kevin Hines and John Murray.

I think this is my first tumblr reblog.

This IS the second video from Diamonds Wow.

I am in this one. It was very cold to shoot despite being a not-cold January day. 5 hours without a coat can get to you. Lucky I had that snuggie!

I found performing off of Fran to be easy. She would glare at me with some intensity that reacting in character was a snap. If my performance is halfway decent it is because of her. That makes Snuggie or Die the rare video that I am in that I can watch without cringing at myself.

John and D’arcy were great too of course, but they didn’t have cause to get up in my face.

Also check out that plane at the start of this video. And check out the shots! It looks like we are deep in the woods instead of off the trail at Prospect Park. There is a shot at about :27 seconds where the wind blows some leaves across the shot that looks amazing. This came out great!

I’ll shut up now.

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The final Macroscene show is tonight.I talked about the previous…



The final Macroscene show is tonight.

I talked about the previous weeks here:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

I’ve been getting a ton of compliments on the show. That’s great, though I really feel like the performers deserve all the credit. They’d be great doing any form of any kind. I also think by this point I’ve had each member of the cast brought up to me during these compliments. No one hasn’t impressed the audience. And last week had two of the best shows yet.

The first half started at a television studio before everyone became embroiled in a battle between an eccentric producer versus Martha Stewart. All of this part of the producers plan to help his newly promoted producer (former boom operator) get her show off the ground, “A Little Too Real”

The second half took place in a hospital starting with super models visiting make-a-wish children (who wanted to meet baseball players), but then quickly getting sucked into a panic over the spread of a new disease that left drawings of penises on people’s faces. The CDC eventually arrived and shot all the super models.

Here are some of the people responsible for praise this show has received:

Terry Withers - I’ve known Terry quite a while now. I’ve coached him with the group that would become Smirk before getting to enjoy his work with Robber Baron and I feel very lucky to be friends with him. But this guy is a weirdo. And I mean that in the best way possible. His characters are bizarre but fully realized. Terry is always hilarious. But it doesn’t stop there. When someone does a scene with Terry they look better then they have ever looked before. He makes everyone look great and immediately made this show look easy. and he yeses people’s ideas with more joy then anyone. Watching Terry get thrown for a loop by an odd idea only to see him turn around and push that idea even further is wonderful.

Cathryn Mudon - I had never seen Cathryn before this class, and she was another one Gethard raved about to me. After one of the shows Cathryn told me she had been bugging Hunter Nelson about how to impress me so that she could get into this class. She didn’t need to worry as she got in without me every having met her. But she can rest easy, I’m impressed. Cathryn is hilarious. Her ideas are the sort of ones that fall just next to normal. Ideas that would only occur to her. And that is my favorite kind of crazy, the kind that isn’t crazy to the person making the move. Cathryn legitimately doesn’t realize how funny she is. I had to beg her not to leave scenes early. She always wanted to get out of other’s ways, and I kept pushing her back in their way. More Cathryn is a good thing.

Diana Kolsky - Another one that I had never before seen in class, and another one Gethard complimented to me (I’d worry that he likes everyone, but the folks he praised in this class all met his expectations). Diana was a little reserved the first couple of weeks, which didn’t stop her from being awesome. It just kept her from being non-stop awesome. That stopped being a problem as the weeks went on and she stepped up and delivered some killer moves. Patient, smart moves. Diana plays with an intensity that is pretty killer. Whether she is playing it straight or not she anchors a crazy scene, not by dragging into a dull place but by giving the others a center to orbit around.

Shaun Diston - I saved this guy for last. He was in my first 8 week 101 class. He then took my first 8 week 301 class. Now around this time Shaun told me he planned on taking my first 600 class too. I didn’t believe it would happen at the time but it did. I am not sure if Shaun took this class just to honor his promise, but no matter what the reason I am glad he did. Shaun is a force to be reckoned with and brings an energy on stage with him that is exciting to watch. I can easily forget he hasn’t been doing this too long because of the confidence and swiftness he plays with. He pushes things, and himself constantly. His mistakes are mistakes that everyone should be making. The kind that come from trying to get better all the time. Game, characters, support, presence. Shaun’s got the goods and I’m glad he keeps taking my classes.

And that’s the last 1/4 of the class! See this show! This is the last week!

http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/shows/2238

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Alan was about to open his book to finish reading the third…



Alan was about to open his book to finish reading the third chapter of Captain Argot and The Gleaming Temple. It was an old pulp novel he found at a thrift store and it was terrible. The characters were rip offs of other more popular pulp heroes like Doc Savage and the Shadow. The plot meandered and was filled with holes. And there was a lot of nearly pornographic sex described.

Alan didn’t mind the sex, but he would complain about it to people if they asked about the book.

What Alan didn’t know is that when he opened the book up today he would be sucked into the world of Captain Argot. He would be face to face with the cardboard sidekick Ming Ya and the ridiculous villain Specterous just as Specterous attempted to fire his disintegrator beam at Ming Ya.

Alan would leap into action and save Ming Ya thereby getting fully involved in the case of the Gleaming Temple. Alan’s disgust at the flimsily constructed world of Captain Argot would drive him to suicide a mere 2 months after the case of the Gleaming Temple was completed and a month before the case of the Missing Shrunken Heads.

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Achilles studied his headphones. They had begun to allow him to…



Achilles studied his headphones. They had begun to allow him to read people’s minds and he couldn’t determine why. Everything looked normal.

Achilles knew that many would find the ability to read minds a handy one, but he had downloaded the new Vampire Weekend album and wanted to listen to it. An impossible task with the thoughts of everyone in the room coursing through his headphones in perfectly clear stereo sound.

“Does this mean I have to buy another set of headphones?” Achilles mumbled to himself. “I just bought these!” If only his unreasonable supervisor Mr. Killinger would let him play music through his speakers.

Then Achilles noticed the switch labeled ESP on the side of his headphones. “How did I miss that?” Achilles wondered “Is that standard on these headphones? And if so, why did they get such a low rating on CNET”

Achilles decided not to trust the reviews of CNET any longer, a decision that had been a long time coming.

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Hey Tumblr. So I’m working with a new team – Diamonds Wow…



Hey Tumblr. So I’m working with a new team - Diamonds Wow - to make some online videos for ucbcomedy.com . The group includes some pretty awesome folks: Ed Mundy, Ryan O’Laughlin, Zach Neumeyer, Melinda Taub, Caitlin Tegart, and Spencer Griffin.

Our first video went up today and it stars Timothy Dunn

Lots of thanks also to all the folks who did the thankless extra work. Standing in front of a green screen, in a really hot room, in full winter clothing.

So watch, enjoy, and be kind - because I wrote this one and I have a fragile ego.

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Sarah’s body temperature continued to drop. Soon the…



Sarah’s body temperature continued to drop. Soon the winter coat and constant stream of hot beverages were not enough to keep her skin from beginning to freeze. Desperately she finally agreed to Dr. Station’s plan. A plan that involved her temporarily moving into the doctor’s freezer where he promised to construct a suit for her to wear.

Only after arriving in the freezer did Sarah realize Dr. Station’s plan was based on the Batman villain Mr. Freeze and not based on any actual science.

Two days after moving into the freezer Sarah constructed a body cast out of ice. Wearing the ice body cast Sarah escaped during one of Dr. Station’s hour long bubble baths and began to search for help. As the ice body cast melted she slid down the streets of Manhattan until crashing into a limousine. Inside the limousine was Dr. Toraz the foremost expert on body temperature. It only took Dr. Toraz 2 weeks to find a cure, but that was enough time for him to also fall in love with Sarah.

Sarah turned down his proposal because Dr. Toraz’s breath always smelled like pepper steak.

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The third Macroscene show is tonight.I talked about the previous…



The third Macroscene show is tonight.

I talked about the previous shows before:
Week 2
Week 1

Two shows have gone by and I’m very pleased with the result. Last week a show took place in medieval England. Not setting the show in current times is definitely fair game in the macroscene, but we had only done it once in class. Still this class loves to challenge themselves and so they didn’t shy away from doing a series of scenes in a British Kingdom where a nearly blind king allowed his subjects to rape horses to make their bleak lives better. Although he did lock up time lost travelers who had misplaced their El Camino Time Machines.

The second half took place in a town where everyone worked with their child, except for the sterile cop who decided to leave town with ill gotten money only to find himself stranded in a pocket universe called Happy Town. Somehow the unknowingly adopted daughter of a comic book shop owner escaped Happy Town only to get trapped in a dust filled world of sorrow. The show was started with such a nice message of family only to end in some sort of Science Fiction short story.
The cast continues to impress me, and doesn’t seem to get phased by me over-talking the show before or after. Nor do they get phased by these online bursts of compliments (I hope). Speaking of which here are a few more members of the cast:

Dave Bluvband - Everyone loves this guy right? I sure do. He’s got that right mix of wierdo and smarty pants that keeps an audience guessing and laughing. He’s got a perfect sense of the absurd and did one of my favorite improv double takes in a class. I’ve coached Bluvband a lot, so sometimes I take for granted how funny he can be and how nice he is. He seems to love every move his scene partners make, and that is the perfect formula to make great improv. He plays the same with everyone, and can seemingly match any move that is made. I can’t praise him enough.

Johnny McNulty - This is another guy I’ve coached a bunch before getting him in this class. And Johnny brings his own brand of oddness to the table. But where most folks throw those moves in your face Johnny plays his moves in measured steps doling them out in bursts of awesome. Johnny’s silent rage he felt towards his park bench rival Johnny was louder then any tirade, and he only needed a few choice words to make any move. Or earlier in the show when Johnny picked his moment to point out to a disgruntled criminal that the diploma hanging on the wall was for an ASSOCIATE degree, it flowed out of an earlier game while not stopping the new scene. Any improviser who needs to learn patience on stage should watch Johnny in action.

Miles Klee - I had seen Miles do improv only a few times before this class. So I didn’t have a great feel for what he would bring to the stage. I knew past teachers loved the guy, and everyone who has been in class with him agreed so it wasn’t a huge leap to think he’d be good. But I wasn’t prepared for who smart he is. Miles is one of those guys that can catch any reference or at least fool me into thinking he caught it. While playing 1 of 2 over-educated telephone operators he made me believe he had an unending supply of quotes about philosophy. Miles is also another one of these guys who is a sharp shooter at making his moves. He’ll enter a scene pick his moment and kill it, seemingly anytime he wants. On top of that, he can pick the most interesting reaction to any unusual situation he is placed in. He also plays a great scarecrow.

Dan Black - I don’t know how I avoided seeing Dan do improv before this class but somehow I did. Lucky for me I emailed Chris Gethard to ask about Dan and hopefully Gethard doesn’t mind me saying that I was given some pretty high praise. Well earned too. Dan plays like a powerhouse. He makes a show MOVE. I believe he could be in every scene of every show for a week and not slow down. On top of that he takes a note and puts it in action immediately. On two different occasions I gave Dan notes about changing up the way he played. More diverse characters. Hold off on some of his callbacks. I never had to give those notes again. And I love the way his characters avoid some common pitfalls with unwarranted honesty and by wearing their emotions on their sleeves. In the first show of this run Dan played a racist and wasn’t afraid to go there. But also kept the audience on his side by telling his mother he didn’t believe the things he said, and he only did it to make her laugh. I talked to Gethard near the end of the classes and he immediately noted what a big fan of Dan’s I had become. Truth!

And that’s just 1/4 of the class! See this show!

http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/shows/2238

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As far as Erik knew he was the last man alive. For some reason…



As far as Erik knew he was the last man alive. For some reason the virus had no effect on him. Was it because of the tainted salad he had accidentally eaten earlier that week? Was it because he slept under an emergency heat blanket when his AC unit broke? Was it due to some genetic mutation he was unaware of? Erik had no idea.

Despite not having seen a living being in days Erik continued to go to his office and do his job. He knew that he likely would not be paid. Unless the pay had been fully automated before the outbreak, something HR had promised for months. Of course even if Erik was paid, it was unlikely that money would serve any purpose in the lifeless world.

Still, Erik hated the idea of his work piling up. It gnawed at him while he tried to sleep. The datastream he was hired to parse was still being sent, and would continue to be sent until the computers that did the night time calculations broke down. Of course Erik could try to break into the server room and simply destroy those computers. Then the workflow would stop and he could sleep at night. But that door looked pretty solid, and parsing the data streams was a simple brainless task. In fact, he thought he would finish early today.

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So I love the soon to be officially cancelled Better Off Ted. In…



So I love the soon to be officially cancelled Better Off Ted. In a recent episode a memo contained a typo asking people to NOW use vulgar language. And since Veridian won’t admit to mistakes, ever starts speaking vulgarly.


This video contains NSFW (or TV) vulgarities.

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