DAY 4 - BUGHOUSE THEATER

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SHOW TONIGHT?

GRIFF: Went really well. We played with Andrew Garman and Tess Borgenjorffenhoff and, because James and I were feeling like slowing it down a little, did a mono-scene. I don’t think any of us had ever tried to sustain a scene for the entirety of the show. I don’t think it could have gone any better. If anything I felt like it could have gone longer. We did a good job of getting out information about all the characters, with a strong focus on Garman and James’s conflict. Felt like I could have been looser. Was still thinking through things rather than reacting to them quickly. There was too much standing-and-talking-while-pretending-to-eat-an-imaginary-cheeseburger for my liking. Really need to just do something and commit.

DUGAN: This was my favorite show that we've done so far. After both realizing how heavy on game play we've been so far, and after watching Liam just CRUSH it on Thursday night, we decided to play a mono-scene show. It was incredible to see how that forced us to bring out relationships and deal with the stuff that was happening in front of us at that moment. There were no cutaways, no throwaway lines, no tags, nothing that would give us an "out" for doing something dumb or silly. I'd like to do a show like this at least once a week from here on out.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT JAMES/GRIFF?

GRIFF: James pushed for us to do a mono-scene with everyone only playing one character and I kind of protested that idea by saying “but if we really want to we should be able to give ourselves an out and edit the scene or play someone new”. James just responded, “Yea, but let’s just do one character the whole time and if it doesn’t go well we’ll just do something else next week.” The guy’s wise. I liked having some boundaries to the show. Also, for a guy who claims to love puns James hated my Wok Band jokes after the show.

DUGAN: When we were deciding what to do in the show, Griff seemed a little nervous about committing to a mono scene show. He kept saying things like "we'll do a mono-scene, but if we feel like we need to cut away, we will" or "if you want to play more than one character, we can do it, right?". I was pretty adamant about not giving us an excuse to do something funny just for funny's sake. The idea behind this month is to push ourselves, and I felt like this was the biggest push for Griffin. He's a real funny and outlandish guy, and has told me before that he's not really sure what it means to play "grounded".  He played so real tonight. It was awesome to see him do that.

HOW DO YOU FEEL/ WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT IMPROV?

GRIFF: Group scenes can be a complete train wreck when everyone is trying to rush through and find the game and beat it to the ground. By only allowing ourselves one scene we took the pressure off of finding a joke and allowed ourselves to explore a little. The jokes and games came and they were less expected and deeper because they came from a more grounded place. People can react to me yelling about why it is good to say something racist once in awhile because everyone has something dark hidden in them. That says a whole lot more about my character and his world than if I tried to make a joke about Chinese people like “Hey why don’t we all go play Wok Band?”

DUGAN: First off, Bughouse Theater on a Friday night is a treasure trove of improv that I didn't know about. The house was full, five teams performed, Kunckleball closed out the show with a bang, and everybody was having the time of their lives. If you're on an independent team looking for stage time, definitely look into this. And O'Donovan's bar right next door? What a delightful watering hole!

I already kind of spoke to the benefits of doing one scene in one location, I really can't say enough how freeing it was. I've done so much improv for the last couple years that was focused on moving as fast as I can, editing quick, getting a laugh, and hitting the game hard. Slowing it down and taking our time with this one really reminded me of the improv that I love to do.

WHAT BOOK WOULD YOU LIKE TO THROW AT JAMES/GRIFFIN?

GRIFF: The Wok Band instruction manual. See, it’s a game much like Rock Band instead of instruments everyone has a Wok and they are cooking something. Also, one of the players is that guy who cooks with fire in front of you. It’s great.

DUGAN: Whatever book that juries are always throwing at people. I mean c'mon. What's the deal with that? Where did that come from?