If you were watching the Academy Awards on Sunday, you know that Jordan Peele won an Oscar for Best Original Screen Play for his movie, Get Out. I didn’t get to watch the awards live, but as soon as I found out on Facebook I was really happy for him and proud, since Jordan was part of […]
If you are performing an improv show, you may think that the only thing that will determine whether or not you have a good show is how well your group performs on stage. But the truth is, there is a lot more that goes into having a good show – including the pre-show music, how […]
If there is one thing that is certain in improv, it’s that you are going to fail. Hopefully, you will continue to fail throughout your career, because in improv, if you don't give up, that failure eventually turns into success. No matter how hard you try to avoid it, you cannot have one with other. Unfortunately, […]
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Scott Goldstein is an improviser, director, teacher and writer. He directed The National Touring Company at Second City and The Annoyance Theater, where he also performed. He was the Artistic Director of Flat Iron Comedy and teaches writing and improv at the Second City Training Center. We talk to him about taking long breaks in […]
Have you ever thought about why Chicago is the mecca of improv? Well, I recently had the chance to explore this question in depth when WBEZ, the public radio station in Chicago, contacted me about doing a story about it for their Curious City show. If you ask me, Chicago really has all the right […]
Is ok to say ‘no’ in an improv scene? The answer is yes. Improvisers have struggled with this one for years. They feel if they don't say "yes and..." to everything, they are betraying their scene partner. But if they always avoid saying “no,” they’re usually just betraying themselves. I cannot tell you how many […]
I was looking over some my old blogs recently and came across one I had written in 2013 about tips for doing a great long-form improv show. As I re-read it, I had two reactions. One was, “Hey! I’m a pretty good writer! This is some good information.” And the second one was, “Hmm, I […]
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Pete Holmes is a stand-up comedian and the star and creator of the HBO show "Crashing." He is also the host of the podcast You Made It Weird. We talked to him about finding improv in the sixth grade, what was like moving to Chicago to purse improv back in 2001, how to bring more […]
Dear Betsy, This is your Daddy. I know you are too young to read this, but I wanted to write this because your Daddy needs a blog this week and I love writing about you. I pretty much love you, except for last Sunday when you were really whiney. It was one of those days […]
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