Improv Drag Race - NERVES OF STEEL.

Tonight I'm doing Improv Drag Race and boy am I nervous about it! I'm going to be decked out in drag and performing on an unfamiliar stage with an audience that I have no history with and that's given me a case of the butterflies. Oh, there's also only three people and a host in this show so that has something to do with it, too. I figured I'd write a blog to help analyze what I'm nervous about.

1. Wearing Drag.

I'm not nervous about this because I don't want to wear drag or because I'm afraid people will think I'm a cross-dresser or something. I'm nervous because drag is a cultural thing that I'm not 100% familiar with and I don't want to seem disrespectful of it. I am a stranger in a strange land and no one who's in this show has done drag outside of an improv context (as far as I know) and god what if everybody thinks we're making fun of drag. I want to get on stage and give these people a fuckin overwhelming drag show that features dumb improv jokes. I am going to be totally sincere and committed and that's all I have control over.



2. New place, new audience.

This is something I'm going to have to deal with on every stage that isn't Bongo Java. I feel like there is a little bit of leeway in the regular NIC shows because we have people attend every single show there and they've grown to know me and my sense of humor and they love my dumb jokes even when they are hardly even jokes. But when I really examine that I notice that the same people aren't coming to literally every show. I also notice that new audience members are often the ones who stop by to tell me how much they enjoyed the show. Maybe it's the regulars that are confused and puzzled by me? Either way, new eyes grant me the element of surprise!


3. Small Cast.

There's a lot more pressure on each individual to rock every single game that we have in the set list with a cast of three, but I am legitimately good at every one of the games on the set list. If I'm having an off night, I know that either of the other two people can step up and crush it just as hard as I would've. Plus, I did an improvised shakespeare show with four people and that was way harder than being beautiful an sassy in heels for 90 minutes.

Okay, I think that helped. I'm going to go shave my sideburns and armpits now.

Two Improv Groups (Part Two)

First things first, Newbie group has a name now! Once Upon an Improv, or OUI because we are apparently French (OUI, ET would be a particularly amusing backronym). Pro group is Nashville Improv Company or NIC. There we go, less ambiguity! Now onto the point, I got stuff I need to translate from OUI to NIC that will improve my play.

In OUI, we spend most of our time on longform and scenework which is generally the style of improv that I prefer. I like patient, thoughtful scenes that aren't afraid of a little silence because I find those moments to be the most honest and revealing. The work that we do on Saturday mornings in Clarksville is weird, knotted, hilarious and very often incredibly touching. I jump into scenes face first as soon as a fun opportunity opens up for me. I time jump and tagout for two second gags whenever one pops up in my brain. Above all, it feels like all of us have a whole lot of fun and manage to create some really genuine scenes.

The primary thing I want to bring to NIC is fearlessness. In shows, more often than I'd like, I find myself sacrificing "the fun thing" for "the thing I think the audience wants." I still have fun and the audience still leaves happy, but when I think about the show later I can't help but feel a little hollow. I mean, how many times have I been wrong about "what the audience wants"? Hell, I'm sure a lot of the time they'd really enjoy whatever it is that I wanted to do.

I'm too attached to the rules in NIC. I'm too eager to impress the people I'm playing with and the audience with my improv acumen, that I tend to deny my honest voice. I also need to toss the impression that if I play at my own pace that I'm not doing anything. Very often I speak in a scene just because I feel like I need to speak the same amount that my partner does, even when I'd rather just listen or pantomime. I want to be able to stand by my choices more stalwartly, I suppose.

So next time, Edd, I want you to remember that your audition for NIC is over. You've proven yourself enough and now they're pretty much stuck with you. Plus, you've got enough time in rehearsals to figure out how to absolutely break a game occasionally. Be bold, have fun, and be proud of what you've done.

Where I Say Nice Stuff About Improv Friends

Love and Improv are similar in at least one way: they both can seem impossible until you find the right people. I've found the right people.

The Nashville Improv Company with Tara DeFrancisco and Michael Tatar!

Improv Jams and Why They're Great

Wednesday night, I was lucky enough to be part of Nashville Improv Company's most recent Improv Jam. For the uninitiated, an Improv Jam is when you perform a show and invite audience members to join you on-stage. The NIC does these as short form shows that usually run about 90 minutes. Students, prospective students, improvisers from other troupes, and frequent audience members make up our typical Jam crowd. At first blush, it seems like a lot of things could go wrong by just inviting somebody with potentially no training on stage, but a lot tends to go wrong even when have 10 year vets filling out a cast. Instead of asking what the worst that could happen, let's find out what's the best that could happen.Improv Jams rule. They are crazy fun, and I believe every troupe should have one occasionally. Here's why:

Improv Game: Improv Turducken

The NIC Thanksgiving show (or T. Hanks Giving, as we call it) is coming up this Saturday and we are getting into the holiday spirit by stuffing our games with seasonal cheer. The Improv Turducken isn't a game that we slightly altered to fit a theme, but one that sprang forth in rehearsal as a twisted reminder of what happens when your improv ingenuity goes to far. It is an improv scene, stuffed with another scene, stuffed with another improv scene. It is beautiful and terrifying to behold and also sometimes covered in cranberry sauce.

Improv TurDucken: We have improv'd too deep, and too greedily.

Improvisers and Responsibility

Improvisers are a diverse group of people. We excel in a wide variety of things and we struggle with an incredibly broad range of deficiencies at the same time. Improv is a job that is often done for free (or very close to it) so most of us have day-jobs that we use to support our improv habits. We have families and friends outside of improv who don't understand what we mean when we say we have to go to rehearsal. I get it, fellow improvisers. It's tough to commit fully to this thing, but somebody's gotta do it.

Blog-O-Ween! Pictures from GMXv6

GMX was hella fun. Nearly too fun. Here are some pictures:

Pictured Here: Friend Durst (aka Mike Whidden) standing watch over our Star Wars themed Comedy Carnival Cornhole Center

Pictured here is Boba Fett, Lego Torture Walk, and Molly Bahre who's clearly having none of it.

We had a booth! Look at our beautiful shirts, our beautiful Jesse, and our okay Brittney.

I have mentioned that I am not a Dr. Who fan, but this Dalek was absolutely wonderful.

And here's my second sauciest Tardis pose. I can't share the #1 ranker, it's too scintillating. 

Blog-O-Ween! GMX This Weekend!

The Nashville Improv Company has bravely volunteered to do about 16 hours worth of panels at the Geek Media Expo (GMX) this year and I am (perhaps foolishly) blindly following them into battle. We had a smattering of panels last year and it seems that the Geeky, Media-y, Expo-y powers that be liked us a whole bunch. The feeling's mutual, GMX, we love you too!

Blog-O-Ween! Women in Improv

In the Nashville Improv Company we are lucky enough to have a large amount of talented women. 6 out of our 16 members are ladies, but that runs counter to the trend in most improv circles. Most groups, in Nashville and elsewhere, feature maybe two women in a cast of eight or so. Women are pretty strongly represented in the Music, Theatre and Dance worlds, so it's not that they're not interested in performing. In a world where women are just as capable improvisers as men are, why are there so few female improvisers?

I find that, moreso than men, women are forced into subordinate roles in scenes incredibly often. Not only that, but if they try to resist they find themselves berated by their male counterparts. Heck, sometimes they accept the offer and still get berated for their troubles. Quite a few professional improvisers (including Susan Messing and Nikki Pierce) believe that it's not that huge of a hurdle. They basically claim that all the ladies dealing with these issues should suck it up and improv harder.

It's kind of easy for people with as much experience and training as Susan Messing to suggest that most female improvisers are only limiting themselves. Strong and specific initiations don't come easily and quickly for every performer. Being labeled as a weak, worthless character over and over again when you are just learning how to improvise is a huge hurdle to have to leap over. When improv loses its spontaneity and fun, why would you even want to continue? If you get crushed on every rep before you have a chance to learn, I don't blame you for wanting to quit. I'd want to quit.

Improv-ladies, do you feel like comedy and improvisation are biased against you? How have you dealt with misogyny in scenes? Was overcoming the issues just a function of stronger, more specific initiations or was it finding a group of non-jerks? Was it a combination of both? Let me know your experiences, cause I super feel like I don't know what I'm talking about.

Blog-O-Ween! You Got Your Pop Culture In My Improv!

The dreaded Pop Culture suggestion or reference appearing in an improv show is enough to make some improvisers quake in terror. But fear not! Pop Culture can be a powerful ally in impressing your audience. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to audience members who were so pumped that we got their specific suggestion. It's not about having a magical, in-depth knowledge of everything, but it is about loving and respecting every single suggestion enough to give it a shot.

How I Stumbled Into Improv

It's been nearly a year and a half since I began improvising professionally. I was a freshly graduated theatre major who was struggling to be an actor. In my desperate quest to find more stage time, I googled "nashville improv" and was directed to the fledgling Nashville Improv Company website. They had a place to enter your e-mail address to be notified of auditions, and even though it seemed pretty sketchy I chose to sign up. It had been years since I'd improvised outside of a college class, but I wasn't really expecting to be cast in an improv troupe. I'd go and get some audition practice in, network a little, and move on with my life. The best laid plans, am I right?