Have you ever been sick of improv? Like, just over it? I am right now, and I hope I’m not alone with this one. I have been improvising pretty much my whole life, and right now I am sick of it. I have lost my passion. Frankly, I’m just bored with it, and when I feel like […]
I have yet to have a student in one of my improv classes or workshops come up to me and say, "Hey, can you just point out the good stuff I do today?" Nope, it’s always the opposite: "Hey, can you please tell me the things I'm doing wrong? I can take it. You can […]
Improvisers are told all the time how important is to "give gifts to your scene partners," but are rarely shown how, leaving them dazed and confused. I am no different. At times I am confused by it, too. Certainly, I been around long enough that I know a good gift on stage when I see one, […]
Growing up as a fat, awkward and insecure teenager, I had a dream of performing stand-up comedy. Over the last 33 years, I’ve gotten sidetracked from that by this thing called improvising. But recently I had been so burnt out on teaching improv that I knew I had to get back to doing something that […]
Nothing frustrates me more than watching a perfectly good scene be ambushed by an unnecessary walk-on. We are all familiar with the scene where a couple is out to dinner at a restaurant and then the zany waiter ambushes the scene and the scene ends up becoming all about the zany waiter and has nothing […]
This month, I've been really busy at Improv Nerd. So to prevent me from becoming even more overwhelmed and crabby than usual, I am turning over this week's blog to my wife, Lauren. Last week, Lauren was lucky enough to hear Judd Apatow speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival while I was busy teaching a corporate […]
Auditioning is a way of life for improvisers. You’ll never stop auditioning, so you’ll just have to get good at it! Learning to embrace the audition process, and to finally relax and have fun, will do wonders for your performance. We asked some professional improvisers -- Jay Sukow, a former teacher at Second City; Amey […]
If you've been taking improv classes for a while, you know that most improvisers are really warm, nice and funny people. But every once in a while, you get someone in your class you just can't stand. Trust me, you don't want to be that person. Luckily, I've done a lot of thinking about what […]
Jay Sukow is a great improviser and teacher here in Chicago. He’s part of the old guard; he’s been improvising, teaching and directing for years. His students worship him, and rightfully so. He is so positive and affirming in his approach that it makes me jealous. This July, Jay and his wife and two kids […]
How many times have you started a scene by saying, “How are you doing?” or “What are you up to?” If you’ve done that, you know that the scene goes absolutely nowhere. If you have a good teacher, director, or coach, he or she will usually say, "You need to start your scenes in the middle." […]