As I was Watching Saturday Night Live …

by paulkivelson

I was half watching the fake news on Saturday night live they played a clip where the people on stage where trying to sing at the same time without predetermined words.The point of the joke was how bad they where singing. However the thing they where doing was really an improv game. The Improv game that they were playing the fake song they sang together was something that required prefect sink with each other to pretend to be horrible and other things.
I thought that it was interesting that we actually see all these improv around us and we do not even release that it improv. It is crazy that improv is saturated in all we see at a level behond the metaphorical and fiscal. I think that improv needs to be more recognized by the general populous because then people could appreciated a lot more of the media they see at a deeper level.

LARPing

by paulkivelson

I tried something new this weekend LARPing. LARPing is live action role-playing you basically walk around a small room and talk to other people in the room. However you adopt a persona with hidden goals and abilities in a fictional setting with a fictional back stories. Now I am a nerd I will freely admit it, but I have always shied away from LARPing because I did not want to take my nerd levels that high. However when I saw the description of the LARPing event I had my interest sparked. It said come if you enjoy fantasy, acting, and improvisation.
I so I tried it and /i have to say it is really like improvisation, but with some different elements. It is in a way like competitive improvisation, someone will do something and unlike in normal improv the person is forced to take their fellow LARPers lead. It was fun and it defiantly taught me about a new way to experience improv.

Improv everywhere

by paulkivelson

I was hanging out with a friend when they brought up this website. The website was for a group called improv everywhere. They do do many, some actual improv as classically defined, but then they do things like planned flash mobs. I was wondering if things like those flash mobs count as improv? Is the improv in the peoples reaction to the flash mob? Is the definition of a broad thing or something that is very specific?
I found as I watched these admittedly amazing little movies I found my self ask a ton of question about there spot within what we have been learning about improv. I will include a link to their website below:

http://improveverywhere.com/

Improv ball

by paulkivelson

I was thinking about the game we play everyday, Improv ball. I find my self getting so invested in stopping the ball from hitting the ground. I find the same is true from many games I play both board and card. I was wondering why we humans get so involved in things that on the surface seem so pointless and unimportant. However in the heat of the moment I find myself really caring what happened to the ball. I think humans have an extremely impressive ability to frame the mundane aspects of their lives.
I think part of what makes improv so much fun and so interesting is that we can value and care about the random things we are doing and saying and so can the audience. We can enjoy thing for the sake of enjoying them and play characters to capture that character not to get an A.

Contemplating on Chair in my Room

by paulkivelson

I spent an hour sitting in my chair just staring up at the ceiling. I found for the first 5 minutes thinking  about all the deep thing I must be learning from my quite contemplation. Then I checked the clock.  For the next ten minutes I looked up at the ceiling I just got more and more bored, until I checked the clock again. Then my started to wander and I found thoughts drifting all over the place. After the point of extreme boredom you find your own way to keep your mind occupied. The thoughts I had were not super deep they where in truth very one dimensional and mostly about what it would be like if I could teleport.

As I was coming out of my musings I had a thought about improv. The best mode to be in for an improv performance is that space after boredom where your mind is  nimble and able to freely wanders. The question then becomes how to get in that mental state without being incredibly bored for a while and a lot repeatedly looking at the clock. I guess that is why you take improv class so you can learn to go through all the stages of ceiling observation quickly.

Zombie humans, Packman dinosaurs, and suspending disbelief

by paulkivelson

I made and observation during the improve game we played called evolution. I thought it was interesting how we as humans change the way we view information based on the situation. When we as a class entered improve mode we easily accepted that humans walked around like zombies and dinosaurs where actually giant Pack-man monsters. When we are told something through the right lens and/or situation we can easily accept and deal with responses that we would normally find preposterous. I guess imporv has its own lens very special in its own right.

I think part of what makes improv possible is a collective lens between the audience and the people on stage that allows the imporv experience to be accepted by the audience.  Because it is improve we can accept that we are watching two pandas dancing on the moon. I guess life is really about perspective and improv has a very interesting and original perspective.

Being the Little Guy

by paulkivelson

I will full admit when I first walked into the class room I was petrified a small class with multiple professors and everyone was way older than me. It was pretty much every freshman’s nightmare. Then the professor comes up to me and ask me my name, one would think that alleviate so of my worries, but I was thinking ‘oh god not only will I be completely out of my depths but I the professor will be close enough to the class so that they know that I am completely out of my depth”. I sat on my seat and just look around my thoughts awhirl, ‘should I drop it, should I just leave’.

Then we started to acutely get the lesson underway and my thoughts began to change, I began to think ‘maybe I could do this, maybe I would not look like a complete idiot over and over again’. Then we began to talk about the actual course and what we could expect from it. I remember letting out a sigh of relief and thinking oh this could actually be fun. As the class went on I released that we were all beginners to improv we were all on equal footing.  In the end graduate student or freshman undergrad we would all I realize repeatedly fail at the name game.