photo by aphasiafilms via Flickr Day 2 of my Improv Olympic summer intensive focused on interactive monologues and character wants and needs. Today went by so very fast, so I know it was a good one. A Scene is Like a Road Trip In the morning, we spent almost the entire time doing what are called "interactive monologues." In this case, three people sit on stage in chairs facing the audience. They're lined up in a single row, and are supposed to begin a conversation with a non-existent person based on an audience suggestions which are different for each speaker. There's no chosen order to speak, so the first person starts whenever, and the second one begins when it feels right. The second speaker's one-sided conversation is inspired by the audience suggestion and the first speaker. The same is true of the third who is inspired by both prior speakers and his own audience suggestion. Then our fearless teacher Jessica has the three speakers turn to face each other, continuing their disparate conversations but this time interacting directly with the other speakers on the stage as if they were involved in a direct conversation. Everyone thinks they are talking to the people on the stage, but we all interpret the words a bit differently based on our own personal conversations. Here's an example. I was given the term "Rocket" to build my conversation. I made the conversation be between me, a night club promoter, convincing people to come in and see the headlining band, "Rockit!" The club was in the Sahara Desert for some reason. Later, when the three speakers turned in to face each other, another woman was having her conversation about her baby and said something to me about how she didn't want her kid to die. I explained that I was saying the band, Rockit, was "KILLER." I'm not doing the exercise justice, but it was amazing to see how a group of people talking about very different things could 1) use themes from others' conversations to enhance their own and 2) talk directly to each other without quite talking to each other. On some level, we were all talking about the same thing. Jessica also passed on a great advice from a talented improver named Joe Bill. It's about exploring the nooks and crannies of a scene but making sure you somehow stick to the underlying plot line. His take was this: A scene is like a road trip. You need to leave the road occasionally for gas, food, etc. But you have to remember where you were going and eventually get back on the road. Good advice. The second game we played was a twist on a more common one. The common version has you focus on your pet peeves with "I hate X because..." Instead we played "I love X because..." Show. Don't Tell. The final game was mos def the illest! The setup was two people who each has a want/need/desire to be fulfilled by the other. The trick is they can't just tell the other person what they want. Their characters need to communicate it be creating a relationship and showing the other, such that person two figures it out and gives it to them... or chooses not to. Two people got on stage reached to pull a piece of paper from a cup. They would then turn those papers over to Jessica who sent the to the bathroom. She clued the rest of the class/audience in on what their secret wants were, then brought the two players back out. The matchups of secret wants was hilarious at times. In one case, person A wanted to be talked out of suicide and person B wanted someone to confide in him. In my own case, I wanted a hug and my partner, Leanne, wanted to know the meaning of life. Each pair was given a location as well. Ours was a weight room. This exercise was the height of my improv experience so far. I felt very lost within the scene, having a hard time balancing my attention between listening to Leanne and figuring out what relationship we had that could make her want to hug me. By the end she was expressing complete sympathy and we had moved really close to each other. I put on one of the saddest faces ever, with Jessica saying it was a high moment in HER improv experience, but I didn't get the hug. I also wasn't really sure I knew what Leanne wanted. When the scene was over, the entire audience was pretty amazed because we both had essentially gotten what we needed, if not in a literal way, a very close approximation. I got an emotional hug from Leanne who did everything except wrap her arms around me. And in talking with her, she got from me some deeper understanding of the universe and energy. I had, apparently, come quite close to satisfying her need as well. Watching and being a part of this game honestly scared the hell out of me because it shouldn't work. We demonstrated that humans communicate with one another on a subconscious level, to say the least. What we can't put into precise words, we put into body language, emotion and indirect words. Somehow, we are able to connect with others in a way that builds mutual understanding. If this had happened one or two times, I would have thought it was neat, but it happened seven times with different needs and different people. This work is so inspiring.

photo by strzelecki1 via Flickr As many of you know, I'm in Chicago this summer, primarily to study improvisational comedy with the good folks of Improv Olympic. I'll try to blog a lot about what I'm learning, what's cool, what's weird and whatever else I can think of. As always, if you have comments or questions or things you want to hear about, hollaback in the comments. Day 1. I'm seven minutes late. I don't know what made me think that I could visit any government office and be out in 10 minutes, but I assure you, that will never happen again. I spent Sunday night researching the best way to get around town. It was my plan to keep the car parked as much as possible and experience the L. However, I still had to decide what sort of pass I would get. I settled on an unlimited 30 day joint called the Chicago Card Plus, and headed downtown because you have to buy these in person. There were about 15 people in front of me in line, and the workers behind the glass (I'm SURE it's bullet proof, and after waiting 40 minutes, I'm SURE I know why) had absolutely no focus. They would deal with someone in front of them for a minute, then take a call, then talk amongst themselves and repeat that cycle. I waited in the actual line for maybe 20 - 25 minutes. When I got to a window, she gave me some paper form to fill out. Why weren't those available to fill out why I was waiting?? Because that makes too much damned good sense, that's why! So I filled out the form, handed it to the attendant, only to have her type in exactly what I wrote down. Yo, I could have done that myself! I finally got the card at 10:45, and class starts at 11am. I was downtown, and class is up by Wrigley Field. I took a cab. $20. Thus negating MUCH of the savings of the pass I had just bought. Day 1: I'm a genius I rolled in a few minutes late but in time to hear the last part of iO co-founder Charna Halpern's kickoff speech. "Improv is a thinking man's game. It's like chess. You are all geniuses." I like this gig already. You should read a little more about the iO over here or here, but the basics are that this school focuses on improv just for the art of it, not as a tool to create sketch comedy, for example. Some notable alumni include Tina Fey (oooh la la), STEPHEN COLBERT, Tim Meadows and Chris Farley. There are between 40 and 50 people in the summer program, divided into three sessions. I'm in session one with 13 other people from all over the place. Steve is from London. Karen is from Boise, Idaho. Eric is from Holland. Sarah and her brother, Nick, are from Ottawa. There are even a few New Yorkers. Our fearless teacher for Week 1 is Jessica. We spent the day doing what I can only describe as playing, and it was mad fun. Jessica gave us increasing amounts of freedom in our two-person scene work throughout the day. In the beginning, she told us who our characters were, and she told us when to stop the scene. By the end of the day, we were deciding both all on our own. Day 1: Highlights The day focused a lot on connections and character relationships. We did exercises that forced us to eavesdrop on others' conversations while being engaged in our own so we could learn to pay attention to what's happening on stage and integrate it into our own actions. We were thrown into alien situations with a scene partner and had to instantly demonstrate a history and explore the meaning of that relationship. here are some of the cool, weird, funny and interesting things I remember.

• I was thrown into a scene where me and a guy named Jeff were showing up at the same house to pick up the same woman for a date. Jeff's first statement to me: "are you here to deliver something?" "Yes I am. I'm here to deliver flowers for my date tonight." Later in the scene, Jeff mentioned that he saw our date (Laura) in line at the unemployment office. "That's disappointing," I said. "Why?" "Because she promised me a lot of her lawyer money." "What's that?" "Well, Laura works at a pretty unique law firm. They have clients and documents and stuff, but they also have a big pile of lawyer money, and she was going to give some to me." I have no idea what I was talking about, but it was fun!
• An election for president of a sixth grade class led to riots in the school and chewing gum in all the kids' hair
• A daughter was forced by her overly stringent mother to fax her mom the pizza order from downstairs so her mom could review it

Alright. I'm tired, and you know what? You weren't there, so this might read really dumb. The point is, I learned a shit ton, including the fact the people actually SAY "shit ton." I'll report more from My Chicago Summer as soon as possible. Stay tuned.