Improv: Explaining in Reverse

**Warning: In this post I use the word "anus". That is all.**

In this week's Sea Tea Improv rehearsal, a series of events happened that I wanted to write down, probably because it is an example one of my favorite things about improv: explaining in reverse.

Often times in a scene you find yourself making a big, bold, character/universe defining statement or action only to later need to dig yourself out of the hole you just put yourself in. Actually, that's not quite right. Its more like finding yourself at a mountain peak and then trying to find the path that got you there.

I admire my teammate Joe because I often see him doing this in one breath. He often makes bold declarations in scenes. You can see the process in his eyes as he realizes that what he said probably needs some explanation, thinking of some backup, the light when he gets an idea and the satisfaction as he gets the audience from point 1 to point c (not a typo). All this without hesitation.

The example from this week's rehearsal was more of a slow, group explanation in reverse. We were doing a montage long form, which means getting one suggestion and then doing a series of scenes off of it. It is extremely free form. The scenes can be short or long, and often there are recurring themes/characters/story lines.

In an early scene we met a character of Dan's who was a "dungineer" (or dungeon engineer). When I heard that, I immediately started wondering what dungineer school would be like, so later on I initiated a scene with Dan's character starting his first dungineer class. During the class it came up that I had tortured the sickest man ever, which made me the sickest man ever ever. In response to this, I gave Dan's character my card and said in an offhand way "Here's my card...keep it close to your anus."

Let's step back a moment. Now, I had no in-scene motivation for saying this at all. However, the previous montage we had run included a very detailed story of both a pair of hamsters living in people's rears' and a male prostitute with an amazing amount of...er...storage space. Of course these story-lines ended up meeting for a very odd ending. Also, in Dan's dungineer class he drew a picture of a cow whose mouth was sewn to it's own ass (after being instructed to draw the sickest thing he could think of). Perhaps with those things fresh in my mind "anus" was just at the tip of my....nevermind.

Regardless, Dan did the best possible thing he could do in the situation. He took it in stride, gratefully took my business card and placed it where directed.

Now, that could have been the end of my nonsensical statement, but twice in later scenes characters exchanged business cards from their anuses (never did I think I would need to pluralize "anus"). By repeating the gag, they were also making it normal and a part of the world we were creating. It's a little like watching a kid's movie where the main character can talk to an animal; the first time it happens it can be a bit odd, but the more it happens the more you just accept it and the rules of the universe are defined.

The best part, though, was a later scene when a character of Greg's needed to get a business card because he didn't have any yet. Dan was brilliant as the business card maker and passionately explained how we keep business cards near our anuses because dog's have the right idea in sniffing each other's butts: the anus contains the essence of ourselves and is the fastest way to know the true nature of a person. Greg was "fitted" for a business card by having his scent imprinted on a business card, and gleefully went on his way.

In particularly successful long forms, I love trying to trace back the threads of the world we have created. This one remained clear in my mind from my original statement, to a great "yes, and" from Dan, to support and continued use from other players, to final explanation. I am sure I could have picked a less anus-centric example, but this is what you get.

Anyway, all that aside, we have a show this Sunday at 7pm at the City Steam Brewery in Hartford. This show is actually a benefit show, where any donations or shirt sales will go to a cancer group (I don't want to write the actual name just in case google brings anyone to this entry. I don't think they would appreciate being connected to an entry about anuses.) If you are free you should definitely check it out!

NaNoBlogMo 30 - In Summary

Welp, I did it. This entry marks 30 entry for the 30 days in November (not counting the short entry about the name of my project). After this post, my self-imposed NaNoBlogMo challenge is complete.

I couldn't decide what I wanted my last entry to be about. I thought about doing some leftover bits that I had to talk about that didn't seem worth a full entry. I thought about talking about projects that I am currently working on. I thought about talking about upcoming stuff. So, in summary, I think I am going to do a little bit of all of that. Coherence be damned.

Here is a picture showing all my current knitting projects. Or at least all the ones that I could think of/find. Going clockwise starting from the top left we have the back of the body for my first attempt at knitted chainmail, a lengthwise knit scarf in a pattern called Henry made with a lovely baby camel blend yarn, my Pippin scarf (which I am thinking might be a bit too bright, but I'm ignoring that voice and keeping on with the knititng), and a simple garter stitch scarf with Homespun on my lightup needles that I started while watching a movie with friends and continued knitting since the lightup needles were helpful during the power outage.

For Thanksgiving, I made an apple pie. I wanted to try something a little bit different. I did my usual crust, tossed the apples in my usual dry mix (sugar/cornstarch/spices), but then before I did my lattice top I poured a bit of caramel sauce over the filling. Not sure how much of a difference it made, but the results were tasty.

On the improv front, Sea Tea is doing great. My teammates won the most recent improv cagematch, we have another monthly show at City Steam Brewery on December 11th (hosted by the fabulous Kate), we got our cast picture framed and hung on the wall of the comedy club (which we've been looking forward to forever), we just started some more long form classes with a pretty talented comedian/writer/actress as our teacher, and I will be making my City Steam hosting debut in January. Keep you eyes on THIS page for news about upcoming shows!

My friend Emily sent me these lovely pictures a few days ago. This scarf is one of the first 5 I ever made. I remember picking out yarn in the tiny yarn shop near my college before I even knew how to knit, planning out my first projects. I thought this warm orange color would be perfect for Emily and her sunny smile. Its been so long since I knit this that I can't really remember much, other than that this was made back when I used to wear each scarf I knitted out once when it was done, because I was so excited it was done.

So there are my leftover bits and bobs. I suppose I should be all reflective on this last month or something. Honestly, a huge part of me is going to be glad its done. I don't have too much free time to begin with, so giving myself a daily assignment was a bit much. I think my fledgling gym habit might have suffered a bit this month. And posting has given me another excuse to hide from my very sad (and full) inbox.

On the whole, though, I'm glad I did it. I set a goal for myself and I met it. It has been a great opportunity for me to collect pictures and stories from projects as recent as this weekend and as old as seven years ago. As for the reason I even started this project, to revamp my blogging mojo, whether or not it has worked remains to be seen. I did mention to a friend that I was slightly worried I would be so sick of blogging after this that it would have the opposite effect, but I don't think that will happen. I am again finding myself phrasing in my head the blog post to go with a project while I am still physically working on it. That's probably a good sign. It will probably be most effective if I give myself a new assignment, such as making sure to post at least once a week. I think that might be a schedule I can keep, as long as I keep busy enough with projects to write about. What do you think?

Thank you to everyone that helped, everyone that sent me pictures of old projects, everyone that suggested topics, everyone that has been commenting and reading. I really appreciate it. It helps a lot to know that I'm not just sending these posts out into nothing but that people are reading them. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I hope you'll stick around.

-S

NaNoBlogMo 13 - How The West Was Fun

Recently I got to do something pretty cool, thanks to my being in Sea Tea Improv. We got contacted a while back by the Mark Twain House about a fundraiser they were planning on doing with a theme of "How the West Was Fun", with a focus on Mark Twain's book "Roughing It". They thought we would be some good entertainment. Based on my past experience with reenactment dinner theater, I jumped at the chance to be involved.

I ended up writing and casting the majority of our script for the evening (with some help and improv from the others). I think one of my favorite parts was who I got to work with and thinking of how best to cast some of the other members of Sea Tea.

I made myself the saloon owner, a character mostly designed to serve as a sort of narrator. Julia, working for the Mark Twain house, I made a saloon girl. Greg, proper and sincere, I made Orion Celmens (Mark Twain's brother). Laura, tough as nails, I made a character from the book that fights back a mangy bad guy with a pair of scissors. Vlad, with a fantastic beard and good at a gruff voice, I made the mangy bad guy. Summar, someone I knew that would love dressing up, I made a fancy french lodge lady. Joe, not a fan of memorizing lines and always playing the more outrageous characters, I made a slightly-out-of-his-mind miner.

I also did some work with costuming. Some costumes or pieces people provided themselves, some we borrowed from the Hartford Children's Theater (which was a HUGE HELP, and also fun looking through their costuming supplies), and some I scrounged for at costuming shops and second hand stores. One area of frustration was that I couldn't find any decent gun holsters. I didn't want the boys wearing cheap-o plastic ones. Finally I just went to a craft store and got some leather pieces and metal fasteners (I already had a leather hole punch and leather chord for ties) and just made a pair. This way they also were made to specifically fit the pop-cap guns we got for the big shoot-out at the end. It was a quick, slap together type job, but it was fun to do even a little bit of crappy leather work again. I like that I have this odd base of skills that come in handy.

The night itself was a lot of fun. I got some weird looks since I was cross dressing (haven't had to bind my chest in forever...forgot how painful it can be!). I even drew on a stubbly beard with eye shadow and mascara. There were a few new experiences, such as wearing mics. It was weird to be mixed in the audience and having the other actor's voices coming from the speakers instead of where they were standing. I'm glad we ran some blocking before the show or I would have been very confused about where everyone was!

It was surreal in a few ways as well. In between our quick scenes we hung out in the cigar room of the Hartford Club (where the event was), which happened to be where the mayor of Hartford was a few times, so we ended up chatting with him for a bit (and even gave him a quick cameo in the show). He attested to my success at crossdressing by saying he at first thought I was a gay man... We were also given dinner afterwards, the same things that the guests got, so it was rather fancy. One of the members, Joe, still didn't have power because of the storm. He joked about the contrast of eating cornish game hen in the Hartford Club and chatting with the major before he had to go back home to his cold, dark apartment.

I'm not sure how long the link will last, but there is a Courant blog entry about the night HERE, which is where I stole/borrowed the top picture from. There was a professional photographer from the Twain House there, so I hope I get to see those pictures!

Again, sorry if this entry is a bit crap but I am in a rush to catch up on entries.

NaNoBlogMo 11 - My Ridiculous Scarf

I have one scarf that I wear the majority of the time during the winter months. When I want to be fancy I wear one of the nice pashmina scarves I got in China. When I want to be warm I wear my Homespun scarf (which I think is the first scarf I made for myself, out of leftover sweater yarn). The rest of the time? I wear my Ridiculous Scarf. My Ridiculous Scarf is ridiculous for two main reasons, it is ridiculously long and it also a ridiculous mix of different patterns. And I love it.

When I started my Ridiculous Scarf I wasn't sure what I was making. I had a bunch of bits and pieces of variegated sock yarns in different patterns and colors leftover from making cell phone covers and arm warmers. I tied them all together with no thought of matching, cast on and started knitting in the round. I remember thinking it could be arm warmers or maybe even an arm to a sweater, but I just kept chugging along knitting the tube. At some point it occurred to me that it could be a scarf and the thickness provided by the fact that it was a tube and not one flat piece would add warmth.

At some point I ran out of bits and pieces and I had to start massacring whole skeins of variegated yarn to continue the OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING pattern I had already started. The scarf started getting scarf-length. Then it surpassed scarf-length and started to getting long. Then it became ridiculously long and I knew I was done. I am 5'11" and if I drape the thing around my neck it nearly reaches the floor. I have to be careful not to close the car door on it (Seriously, I actually did close the car door on it yesterday when I got to work. Now I know how dogs feel when the reach the end of their leash.).
For the tassels I made sure that each tassel was different but that each was made out of only similar bits of yarn from the same skein, as an echo of the weird striped effect the scarf has.


This scarf goes with everything because it goes with nothing. I am pretty sure it has every single color on it somewhere. It is a little like Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat except its Sproffee's Ridiculous Scarf.

Being made both of variegated yarn and of many different yarns tied together, I think that the inside of the scarf is as interesting as the outside (though less polished looking). And since I left the ends of the tube open, I actually can turn the entire scarf inside out if I so desire. Keeping the ends of the scarf open has had other benefits as well. If I forget my gloves and my hands get cold, I can just stick my hands through the ends of my scarf for a little warmth. Occasionally I will scrunch the entire scarf on one arm to make a ridiculous arm warmer. Honestly I think my ridiculous scarf is as much toy to me as it is functional piece of clothing.


My Ridiculous Scarf led to a kind of fantastic moment recently. On November 6th I went to an improv performance by the students that were taking a class taught by my Sea Tea Improv colleagues. I was zipped up in my improv sweatshirt and wearing my Ridiculous Scarf. As I found a seat in the theater a woman and her friends caught my attention and asked "Excuse me, but is that a Tom Baker scarf?" (Tom Baker, aka the Fourth Doctor on Doctor Who and the bearer of the fantastic scarf that was one of my options in my "What Geeky Scarf Should I Knit?" poll). I was sad to say no, but then remembered what t-shirt I was wearing and unzipped my sweatshirt to reveal my "The Angels Have the Phonebox" shirt, a reference to the amazing DW pisode "Blink". We all had a laugh at the chances of it all. I then went on to tell her about my recent poll and if it had won I would be knitting a Doctor Who scarf, but instead pulled out my in-progress Pippin scarf to show them. She asked for my contact information, saying she may commission me to make a Doctor Who scarf for someone on her Christmas list. That would be amazing, but even if it doesn't happen, its a funny story. I later found out they were there for Karyn, someone I made friends with at an improv mixer earlier this year.

That of course meant I could stalk them later on facebook and find the picture they took of me as proof for when they told the story. It shows me in my full dork pride, improv sweatshirt at my back, Ridiculous Scarf (sadly not Tom Baker scarf) across my knees, Doctor Who shirt and knitting a Pippin scarf.

Yep, that's me.

BUSY BUSY IMPROV BUSY

It's been weeks since I last posted and I apologize. I ended up getting a full time job (yay!) so I am a bit busier than when I started this blog. I do plan to keep it up, though.

The most I have in terms of recent hobby news is of the "OMG SO MUCH IMPROV" variety. I have three shows in the next five days. Here is a little schedule of what's going on!

Tonight we are performing at a high school. I have my improv clothes all stashed behind my desk so I can change and speed out of here as soon as work is done. Don't wanna be late! This one isn't open to the public, sorry.

This Friday, December 17th, we are performing at Jitters Cafe in Southington, CT. This will be the first time I have performed long form for an audience. All of Sea Tea has been taking lessons together recently (we had one this past Sunday, in fact) so I am excited to try it. This one is open to the public!

This Sunday, December 19th, is our monthly performance at the Brew Ha Ha in Hartford, CT. We rehearsed the basic set list last night at practice. I thought it went well and I am looking forward to the show. I am going to be in some guessing roles that I am not usually in, so it will be a bit of a change of pace for me. If you want to come to this show, I sincerely recommend making reservations! Our October show sold out.

We are also performing for a private party for the Science Center people next week.

One thing I am pretty excited about is our show on December 23rd at the Funny Bone comedy club in the Buckland Hills Mall. That'll be my first time performing in a national comedy club. Wish us luck! (And come watch us if you can!).

Check out the Sea Tea website for more info.

Sea Tea Interview

So I realize I had the squash bread post up for a while. I have a few posts already ready to go, but they are all about cooking. I want to throw a little variety in, but I just started a new temp assignment and have been rather improv busy this week. So, I hope you will be happy watching this short interview about Sea Tea Improv with Dan and Julia (two of the original members). As a bonus, about halfway through their talk you can see me from the September show pretending to be a lot more badass than I really am.

8-Bit Improv

So far this blog has been entirely about cooking and crafting so it's probably time to talk improv. I've been doing improv since college and started actually getting paid to perform at bars and the like while I was in China for the last two years. Before I even got back to the US I was looking for improv groups back home so that I could keep it up. Luckily for me, Sea Tea Improv (get it?) held auditions almost immediately after I moved home and I got in. My first show at the Brew Ha Ha comedy club with them was last month, the next one is on Halloween. Spooky.

Today I wanted to mention a game we practiced on Tuesday because it was unlike pretty much any game I had played before. I am 98% sure that one of the Sea Tea peeps, Joe, actually invented this game. It's a bit hard to get your head around, but it's a really interesting concept if you think about it.

His idea is that you treat the stage as though it is the entire universe. And this universe, just like in an 8-bit video game, is forever repeating. So if I walk off the stage on the right, I should end up walking back on the stage on the left without any delay and having crossed no space in between.

Got it?

Now, of course there is no way for me to actually walk off the stage in one direction and instantaneously appear on the other side. That's why we work as a team. If I walk off one side, another actor walks comes on the other side and becomes my character. If I walk off in the middle of the sentence, they should come on and finish it. If I walked off backwards/sideways/with both hands in the air, they should be walking on with the same orientation. We even tried to more complex stuff last night, like reaching offstage so that your partner had to be your arms/head/whatever.

It was a bit of a challenge, but really fun and interesting. It's definitely a game where you need to have a bit of group mind going on so you can almost anticipate what your partner will do and react immediately.

If people want to check Sea Tea out, the next performance is at the Southington Apple Fest this Saturday, and the next Sea Tea show is at the Brew Ha Ha in Hartford on Halloweeeeeeeen.