HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SHOW?
DUGAN: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SHOW TONIGHT?
I actually had two shows tonight. I played with Winter Formal at iO, and then went to Hang Sesh with Best Budz. So I did twice as much improv as Griffin, which means that I’m twice as committed to the art. Hang Sesh was good. Not great, but it wasn’t terrible. We focused a lot more on slowing down, and taking our time with these scenes. This might not have been the night to do that. All of the shows before us were VERY high energy and were super goofy. I got in my head quite a bit during this show. I don’t think that the scenes were ever really boring, but they came close. At the very top of the show, Griffin and Sean what’s-his-name initiated with a big move. They were celebrating New Year’s, and popping poppers, pouring champagne, and having a great time. I didn’t get on board right away, and fell into playing the opposite side of the spectrum. Becca and I played a brother and sister who had everything going wrong for them, basic sad sacks. If I had just joined in the celebration and enjoyed it, I wonder if we would have had the same energy problem.
GRIFF: Tonight was a slower show. we were joined by Becca “dirty sack” Slack and Sean “I fuck everything up” Price. They are both a lot of fun to play with and very reliable except for Sean who ruins most of what he touches. I kind of wish we hadn’t told them we were trying to play slower though because overall it felt like a low energy show (a tone set by James and I). I felt like we could have had way more emotion and more play. It seemed that we were kind of playing on our heels and trying to write the scene rather than reacting. If anything I’m down on myself for not ever just making a big move and committing to it so that the scene’s would move on. At some point someone just has to pick a game and stick to it. Looking back this is definitely Sean “I hate myself” Price’s fault.
HOW DO YOU FEEL/WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT IMPROV?
DUGAN: I had a teacher (Mr. Dave Razowsky) who used to talk about how people are always trying to be so polite in improv. You don’t make moves because you’re afraid that you’re going to step on someone else’s move. Or you let the other person establish all the circumstances because you don’t want to accidentally do something that they don’t want to do. I felt like I was being way too polite tonight, in both of the shows. I like to play with strong, risk taking people, so I should strive to be one of those people also.
GRIFF: These late shows are hard to get a lot of energy behind. We desperately need to start warming up more consistently. I’m having a hard time going from 0 to 60 and doing all those crazy moves everyone knows me for around town. I’ve got this one where I make a joke really quietly and then repeat it and get louder and louder and boy do folks really get spoofed up on that one! Maybe I need to drink more RedBull and listen to more KoL (the old stuff)? I need to feel less in control of myself onstage and more like I am dreaming. You know how you don’t think really when you are dreaming? Like your brain is driving and you are sitting in the passenger seat watching it happen. That’s what I want onstage. That’s what RedBull and the Kings do for me. Sean “I’m a peckerhead” Price was running sound for the show tonight and of course his dumbass didn’t play anything anyone liked. Totally killed the vibe. The other groups were great at overcoming Sean’s inadequacies and they all had amazing high energy shows.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT JAMES/GRIFF?
DUGAN: We’ve been doing this improv marathon for a little over a week now, and I’m real glad that I’m doing it with Griff. We’re able to talk after the shows about what happened and critique our performances without offending each other. We’re usually in agreement about what went wrong and what went right. It’s good to know that I don’t have to watch what I say because I might hurt his feelings, and I hope he feels that way too. It may seem like I’m just heaping a lot of praise of Griffin right now, but it’s only because I saw him throw Sean Price in the trunk of his car a few minutes ago. I don’t want to be next.
GRIFF: After the show we talked (making progress!) and it is good to know that James feels about the same as me about the show. It is great to work with someone who can have an ok show and say with them afterwards, “we can do better”. He wants to become a more proficient improviser and probably murder the shit out of Sean Price just like me. (Can you say that on the Internet?) James has been playing about four years longer than me and I just wish he had some lessons to teach me or something. Starting to feel a little “gypped” by this whole mentor/novice relationship.
IF YOU HAD ONLY ONE LIFE TO LIVE AND MONEY WAS NO OBJECT, WHO WOULD WIN IN A FIST FIGHT?
DUGAN:The hell kind of question is this? This is why I should be the one coming up with the closing question. We’ll talk about this tonight, Griffin.
GRIFF: Currently listening to Kings of Leon’s newest album and hating it. I can hear Sean Price humming along in the trunk of my car. What an idiot.
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