This week was full of FOMO, FOMO and FOMO
IF you have noticed I(MG) am out of town , feeling real fomo,also sorry for the delay on this
We started the week with an Internal Jam
With our calendars filled with intensives, shows and public jams, an internal jam has become a rare occurrence (we’re changing that). We got together on a Tuesday night and did a few montages and an Armando - stories of woe from the Indian railways, Indian telemarketers and how the research side of The History Channel was uh…compromised. We jammed so hard that we forgot to take a picture to commemorate. And hence, enjoy this screen grab of the security footage. We promise, that’s the real reason for this photo being on this blog.
Next was our jam Make Friends with the stage
Wednesday, 12th August
This week we had more new faces! And since these accounts of the jams are getting a bit repetitive, how about an observation and an explanation of the human behaviour behind it? Every so often, during a jam, we’ll have a participant or two who go for characters that are mean or say things that are hurtful. Now, you could wave it off saying it’s improv and it’s all make believe so it doesn’t matter, or we could be punitive and shut down this “problematic” behaviour. I’ve done both in the past but I’ve come to realise there’s a secret third thing you could do - get reeeeaaallly curious about why that person made that choice. 9/10 times, these same people entered the jam with arms folded, not making eye contact and seeming generally uncomfortable being in the room. It’s nervousness, but the less popular kind. The kind that makes your nervous system believe you’re in danger so your mind quickly tries to throw someone else under the bus before you even register what you’re saying on stage. Once, as a director, you realise that it wasn’t an intentional choice to be mean, but fight-or-flight kicking in, it’s easier to redirect the scene. I usually go with something physiological - “relax your shoulders/take a deep breath/smile at your scene partner/smile at the audience members, and now try saying something else”. Almost like magic, the mean character disappears.
Then, we had our Regular The Silliest Show Tonight
Friday, 14th August
We had the silliest time yet again this Friday! We played under classic improv constraints such as a three-headed expert giving dating advice as each head speaks One. Word. At. A. Time. and characters participating in an Independence Day flag hoisting while being allowed to speak only in one-syllable words. A conniving principal and teacher were forced into increasingly absurd choices to make their students’ lives hell by the director’s calls of ‘New Choice!’. We Bollywood-ified Everything, Everywhere, All At Once by adding a theme song titled “I hate my mom!” (never thought we’d have to repeat this line so many times 😆)
Next up, we finished our internal Storytelling Intensives
Saturday, 15th August
Day 3 was some very interesting exercises and a very fun, kinda tricky format called - The Living Room!
We started an exercise called “That reminds me of…”. It starts with one person telling a story and if midway someone is reminded of another one from their life, they are allowed to go “that reminds me of …” and tell that story. This helps build the muscle to interrupt and pursue your ideas as an improviser. I know how that sounds - interrupting is rude right? Yes and no. Sometimes if somebody else’s story sparks another one in you, I like to think it’s part of the magic and might make for a very interesting turn of events. So you deserve to share that without getting too much in your head about being too polite. But of course if the person telling their story is passionate about theirs, they are allowed to go “wait wait let me complete mine” and we gotta respect. This tug of war is something we constantly deal with while improvising scenes and it’s also what leads to every discovery in scenes.
After a few more exercises, we moved to a few runs of the format! The living room is a format inspired by a bunch of improvisers hanging out in a living room (duh!) on the sofa. They have real conversations and share true stories on the sofa and then jump to doing scenes prompted by the real conversations happening. It’s a deceptively tricky format - you gotta switch between improviser you and the real you quickly and often. Another challenge is the conversations on the sofa have to be interesting yet provide enough tidbits for the improvisers to mine for their scenes. To be honest I feel like this format would be very fun to watch as an audience because it gives you a look into somebody’s living room and see the improvisers' creativity based on those real stories.
We did another exercise which was really surreal. It made me realise how much our gut and body really knows about where to go. So often as improvisers we try too hard to ‘come up with a good idea’ and are stuck in the chatter in our heads. It’s also important to trust your gut’s calling and go with it.
After the day ended we all went for a very satisfying lunch at Hokkaido! Well tbh the vegetarians had a different viewpoint of the food there but that’s all part of the lore at Improv Lore :)
Written by Vaibhav
Sunday, 16th August
On Day 4, we moved to the final format: Reincarnations.
“The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.”
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
If your shoe rack were to describe the state of your room, what would they say? What if you told them that you were expecting a date? Would they say that your room is ready to impress? Would they needle you about your lack of dusting, your clothes on the floor, maybe the cobwebs on the curtains?
Reincarnations is an improv format inspired by the Kathasaritsagara, written by Somadeva, an 11th century philosopher-writer-thinker. The fundamental philosophy of this format is in the interconnectedness of things across time, distance and entities. The present, the past and the future all occur simultaneously. Things happening in another galaxy occupy the same space. Humans, spiders, and tables all have purposes and stories that they’d like to tell.
The format begins with an improviser soliciting suggestions from the audience, usually by asking a question like “what is something that you don’t like doing but must do? Such as cleaning your room, leading Monday morning team catchups, hitting the gym every day, and so on.” Then the audience is asked the 3 steps to solve that problem. As an example, for hitting the gym it could be laying out your clothes, getting into your vehicle and entering the gym. These would then be the 3 acts of the play.
The story then starts with improvisers painting the start of the scene, the clothes you will wear, locations of the wardrobe, car keys, gym card etc. After there are enough elements, the main character steps in to face the problem. One of the inanimate objects then comes alive and proceeds to engage the main character in addressing the problem. Once context is established, the other improvisers begin to edit the scene by picking other objects in the room, using words from the main conversation, changing time, locations and so on to explore their stories. Once done, the main character and the object return. The object proceeds to ask a philosophical question (“prashna”) from the previous scenes. If the character answers “correctly” they get a boon (some problems get solved) or they get cursed (extra problems to deal with) and this continues through the 3 acts.
And you thought improv had no rules!
Did our collective great x 10^18 grandfather Urk the caveman draw lines in the sand while telling his kids about his fantastic hunt? Did the silicon in that sand become chips in the device you’re using to read this article? Will this article inspire a new theology that creates a religion? My main takeaway from the session today is that stories may be unsaid but may yet exist. As a performer, it is on me to use my “improv eyes” to spot these stories and bring them to stage. My other learning is that the stage has given me a few boons. For one, it gives me access to our facilitator, Bala, who is incredibly thoughtful, kind and generous with her mentorship and support and who will cast me in more shows if I say nice things. It also connects me to a cast who make themselves a raucous nuisance at local bars and are an incredibly fun and respectful community to be a part of. The stage has also given me some curses, which you would be able to see at an Improv Lore show. Come visit, support local theatre and spend a nice evening with us. And if you can’t because there’s a potential partner visiting that evening, ask your shoe rack if your room is ready to impress.
Written by Sankarshan
Last up, we had a very fun time at Musical Show
Sunday, 16th August
From a rap battle about brooms to a Hoedown about our audience’s struggles during the week to a German show translated live, this week’s Musical Improv show featured it all. We came up with commercials and jingles for novel products like “a lint roller that sings to you” and “shoe polish that’s also seasoning” (suggestions supplied by a returning audience member from Friday’s show who told us that she’d spent time coming up with ideas she wanted us to bring to life on stage ♥️)
We saw competitive classmates who were secretly terrified of each other, a couple who broke up and made up (“they’re not done!” 🎶), and a Cubbon Park intervention for a workaholic friend (“Your posture sucks!” 🎶). We serenaded an audience member, Maitreyee (hey 🎵, hey 🎵), who was kind enough to share her story with us. We closed out the night by adding the one thing the Harry Potter movies were missing – a Punjabi song. We think Harry would have enjoyed singing “My backstory is tragic, but now I have magic!” just as much as we did 😝
Check out upcoming shows and jams to add improv magic to your week :)