HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SHOW TONIGHT?
GRIFF: Touched
a lot of butts. Made a ton of jokes about families getting melted to
death in a fire station. Killed Jonbenet Ramsey at the top of a
mountain. Uhhhh yea. I’d say THAT’S a good show. Adam
Levin saved the day by setting up this show. He, myself, and Bill Letz
did a group scene at the top of the show and branched out from there. We
took our time but it definitely wasn’t a slow show. It’s always easy
when you play with friends who know what they’re doing.
JAMES: I
played in The Funeral at Stage 773 with Kelsey Kinney, Amy Thompson,
and Eric Harrington. The Funeral is a form that was invented by Danny
Bischoff, and it’s one of my favorite forms to do. The nature of it
really forces you to focus on relationships rather than plot. It also
facilitates gift giving better than most other forms. Tonight I got to
play a kid who was just despised by his father, no matter what he did.
There’s something really fun about playing the character that gets
kicked around by everyone. It gives you permission to be pathetic.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT GRIFF/JAMES?
GRIFF: James
is really good at performing the Funeral because that is an improv show
you really have to see to understand. Like, it’s form is more than just
an excuse to set up a collection of entirely improvised scenes. You
really need to study it to get it. No way I could have pulled that off.
They probably did some really experimental edits that someone like me
would never understand.
JAMES: He’s
not bitter at all and is able to get over things that are out of his
control really quickly. He is never the guy to write passive aggressive
things, you know, like how a child would if they didn’t get their way?
Not Griff.
HOW DO YOU FEEL / WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT IMPROV?
GRIFF: I’ve
started having better shows when I take it slow. I need to focus on
that. You still need to make deliberate moves and react to each other,
but you’ve gotta find a way to be natural about it all. Sometimes I get
in my head because everyone around me is saying hilarious lines and I
can’t think of anything or don’t understand the joke (cause I’m real
dumb). I shouldn’t worry about forcing a funny or insane line. I say
those things naturally and should let them just come to me. Tonight was a
good reminder of that.
JAMES: Like
I said above, The Funeral is designed to bring out relationships rather
than plot. You set up how you feel about another character in a
monologue, and then play an everyday scene with them. Rather than
following a story, you learn about how these characters get along with
each other, how they react to different situations, that sort of thing. I
get really caught up in trying to shoehorn clever plot devices and
twists into shows a lot. After doing shows like this, it’s good to
remind myself that I’m working too hard. Improv is a lot easier than I’m
making it.
IF YOU WERE A BOOK OF POETRY, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR TITLE?
GRIFF: Lizard Man, Lizard Mind, Human Heart
JAMES: Jimmy Lightning’s Big Book of Rhymes and Feelings.
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