HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SHOW TONIGHT?
GRIFF: Weird show. A bit whacky but with more direction. Definitely weren’t all playing without a care in the world. Felt a little reserved to me. Hard coming on after Carmen Christopher and Nate Varrone did the funniest, freakiest set I’ve seen so far. Those guys are pigs and I’m glad I know them. Our show had some fun stuff but generally felt like a warm up in an Annoyance class where you just say whatever you want rather than a show. I might be too negative though. Everyone else seemed happy with it. Also, Andrew Garman is maybe a genius. More on that later.
JAMES:I barely even remember it. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing in that I wasn’t thinking too much during the show, and a bad thing in that this is going to be a pretty dry blog entry because of it. We played with Sean Price (groan) and Ollie Hobson (way nicer than Sean Price). It was a very short set, since we were going last, it was getting late, and Griffin wanted to go to sleep (seriously, we should look into testing him for Mono). Since it was such a short set, I gave myself the simple goal of initiating a scene by interacting with the space. Man, I can’t say enough how much that helps me. It gives me things to play with and discover, as well as ways to keep the scene moving when the dialogue lags.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT GRIFF / JAMES?
GRIFF: I’m starting to be able to predict what moments Jams will pop in with a joke or how he will react to something I’ve said. There was a moment tonight where I mentioned toilet wine and could just feel that Jams was gonna hop on it. It honestly feels like volleying up a gift or bit for Jams to spike down. It would just be great if I could get that idiot Sean Price to learn how to do the same thing.
JAMES: This was the first show that Griff and I have done together this month that we haven’t had a scene together. So I guess I learned that he loves Sean Price more than he loves me.
HOW DO YOU FEEL / WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT IMPROV?
GRIFF: Things you gotta do at the top of a scene. Make a bold choice or say something personal to your scene partner. Sean and I had a terrible scene at the top of the show because neither of us said anything to or about the other until the very end. We could have cut straight to that and had more fun. Also, Andrew Garman is a spectacle of bold choice making. The guy launches headfirst into everything, regardless of how the scene is going. He’s a spazz like me, but with the commitment and fearlessness of a veteran performer. You gotta be willing to take a huge blind jump. Go watch Garman and you’ll get it.
JAMES: I said it above, and it’s such basic improv advice, but coming into a scene with a point of view, and building the space together with your partner is the best way to start. The great thing about this month is that I can notice things and then work on them immediately. Before we started doing this, I’d get two, maybe three chances a week to self-diagnose and try and correct any problems. I feel like I’m learning how to improvise all over again this month.
WOULD YOU RATHER LIVE ONE 1000 YEAR LIFE, OR TEN 100 YEAR LIVES?
GRIFF: One thousand year life. I am not dealing with middle school again.
JAMES:I’d go with the ten 100 year lives, because I’d get to be a baby ten different times.
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