a break from china proceedings to interject theatre musings

i will break from telling stories of china to talk about the show i went to see last night.

it was the opening night of CIF ((Chicago Improv Festival) the biggest improv festival in the US) and i was looking forward to checking things out this year. gotta stay on top of what everyone's doing so i can do things that are completely different. it's the first CIF in a while that i am not performing in and unfortunately i'll be leaving town for most of it.
so, i went to the opening night show and before i go any further i should note that i only went because i was offered discount tickets. normally, the mainstage performances are $25 which is way too expensive for me. even if i could afford it, i still wouldn't. it must be hard to justify why those tickets are so expensive when people ask.
went with de bebe for $10 a person, pretty much the max that i'll spend on any show. the bill for the evening was chicago comedysportz, annoyance, and boom chicago from amsterdam.
these are three groups who i especially need to pay attention to. i like to see comedysportz every once in a while to remind me of why i don't do it. the show began at 8:05 and their set-up ran for 15 minutes (half their scheduled set). 15 minutes of explaining improv to an audience of people who know what it is and all about the stupid bag and the groaning foul. then they played games for 20 or so minutes. nothing new in style or function. the same wandering around that any CZ show offers.

well, enough of that unprovoked hostility.
and on to this unprovoked hostility.

annoyance came next. annoyance is an institution; a school of thought unto themselves; radicals who didn't give a lick about anything. their style is brash, unapologetic, and typically tighter than last night's show. last night they seemed "off."
one of the concepts behind their improv is the idea of taking care of #1. they are taught to continue with their original idea in a scene rather than morphing to fit the other player's ideas. this is a dangerous technique. it means that sometimes the characters get into bickering matches and the characters become combative and compete for the audience's gaze. occasionally it will pay off with an excellent joke that comments on the absurdity of the situation, i.e. the gardener who points out that he must be crazy tending to a garden in an airplane cockpit. while this generally obtains a laugh, it does nothing to increase the trust between players and progress the scene narratively. they trade instant laughs for prolonged scenety which leads to better characters and better stories. it's all about the now. that's dangerous and when the players are a bit off it makes for a flat show. when the players are on and everyone is up to their par with being clever and funny, i've heard the shows are amazing. i've only seen them twice and unfortunately they've both been off nights.
this concept of self-importance also leads to improvisers being stand-outs. they compete with each other for stage time and laughs. usually, when a new scene started there were too many people on stage, ready to do battle and prove that their idea is the best, instead of connecting and building something together. there was one scene that wasn't really getting off the ground, due to the fact that the two characters were in completely incongruent environments and unwilling to bend. so another actor came in to end their scene and begin another. but one of the characters stayed and still clung to his idea. another actor had to physically remove him from the scene but by that point he had already destroyed the energy for the next scene. and all because his idea was the best...
another qualm i have with their shows is that they are typically blue. i think this comes from a sheets to the wind attitude toward censoring the improv, a complete 180 from comedysportz which prides itself on being squeeky, family clean. last night, the shades of blue were not present. it was refreshing considering the last show i saw which was rife with cheap jokes and dick humor turned me off immensely. i hope they're changing their tune a bit and have grown out of / become bored with saying the word ass 43 times a show. overall, the show was what i expected. promising characters from promising, experienced improvisers who are misguided by shotty theory.

and lastly, boom chicago.
a little history: boom chicago is composed of mostly american comedy actors similar to second city caliber who live and work in amsterdam at their resident theatre. as far as i know they run the same structure as 2nd city. they have a sketch show running several times a week and follow it up with improv sets. very professional, very well rehearsed, a good gig to have.
their show last night left very little to be desired. the show ran at breakneck speed and was the best use of multimedia i have ever seen with out being all, "look we're using cool video stuff." their sketch was great, not too political, not too scatalogical and chock full of gutlaughs. the material was matched in quality by the actors who brought a lot of their own style to the characters and improvised very well. all in all, an excellent show and definitely worth the $20 i spent. i'd go see them again tonight if i was a millionaire or didn't have to eat tomorrow.

i feel adequately abreast of what is happening with these three groups and i'm glad i went. gotta stay on top of things.

now i'm going back to making chinese mix cds,
b