How have you found success in coaching? Or, what do you look for in a coach? I am itching to coach more, but I rarely am called or contacted for it. Partly I think it’s a function of being a regular, visible performer; the more you are seen performing consistent and funny shows, the more people will call on you. Another part is how you are viewed in the community; generally positive people get contacted more. And finally, it can be a function of skill and focus; if you are known for being knowledgeable on a particular improv point, you get called when someone wants to work on that thing. For those who know me well, feel free to get real specific with your ideas for me; I can take the notes.
sorry, I thought I’d be able to post multiple ‘answers’ to overcome the space limitation. Anyway,
I’m coaching six groups regularly (five weekly, one whenever our schedules align), and I don’t even have an IRC thread. I’m not sure my ‘visibility’ as a performer (I never know how to gauge this, anyway) is a factor. Word-of-mouth, enthusiasm and dependability were the keys to building that pack of groups… two came from subbing and then taking over when the original coach got too busy; two groups were spinoff groups of the original two, with members recommending me; one was a reply to an IRC post; only one was based on visibility, a friend of a friend who saw my style as a match for her group’s.
The two key things, to get started and get rolling:
• ask your friends to list you/recommend you as a sub. Good for experience, and when those people spread out and join other groups, they might keep you in mind.
• when you coach, put the emphasis on the group, not your own ideas. I like to emphasize, especially in early sessions, that classes are for learning, and practice time is for practice. I try to keep notes brief and focused, and the exercises fun, with lots of time for scenes. Improv students can learn plenty of great concepts and pick up very useful notes in class- during practice, they want to be up and moving, and I make sure they are. If you do that, you’ll be recommended a lot and appreciated.
This whole thread has been pretty great. Five points…
I miss Zuleyka rehearsals, not specifically because we were growing, but because they were consistently the most fucking hilarious 3 hours of my week. We had to stop only for reasons of money and scheduling. Practice is not just useful, it’s an absolute party if you’re in a good, supportive group.
An underrated value of practice that hasn’t been brought up yet- it makes you hold your shows to a higher standard, because you’ve experienced a broader range of what your team Can do. As much as I’ve enjoyed The Bishop’s shows, I know the hilarious, adventurous stuff we’ve done in rehearsal, and we all do, and it keeps us hungry to put our very best work up. We know, from the experience of awesome practices, that we are all capable of better than even the best of what we’ve so far done onstage. I feel like this is a universal sentiment among practicing teams.
Small side project teams are fun. We’re all just artists and performers jamming with eachother. I agree with Brett, I get a little put off by people with a dozen two and three person groups, but we can’t fault people for having fun experimenting with other players. I’d love to do more one-offs with people… it’s actually kindof crazy when I think about how many of my friends I’ve never been onstage with.
Bozarth makes a great point about, we have to live, we can’t just perform. That’s the biggest and most crucial advice that can exist in the realm of improv. It’s such a delightfully addictive art form, it is always an internal battle to not live like it’s the ‘only’ thing. Reading and going to museums and generally engaging with the world in different ways… these are crucial to good work onstage and a good life in general.
Lastly I’d say, in the past few months I’ve gotten a whole lot of work as a coach, and it’s pretty fascinating to open your eyes to the reality that- there is an absolute universe of improvisers who are younger to this than us; people who are not at McManus twice a week, people who cannot name every Harold player, people whose improv experience has thus far pretty much been defined by Roo Roo’s cagematch dominance, with every other team somewhat less central. There’s a world of young players who are still practicing and learning. I don’t know how this specifically relates to the conversation, but it’s an interesting thing that’s been on my mind a lot lately. The boundaries of this world stretch far beyond our bubble.
My favorite improv show of the year (so far) goes to the Zuleyka and Daddy show last night at UCB.
Holy hell, guys. If you weren’t there, you missed a FANTASTIC show. It’s a shame none of the teachers or coaches at UCB were around to see it. If they would have seen that show, there’s no doubt in my mind they would have asked them to do regular sets at the theatre (at least once a month).
To be honest, that show was better than any of the Harold Night shows I’ve seen in the past year. That’s saying a lot because I’ve seen some GREAT sets during Harold Night.
Congrats, Zuleyka and Daddy! YOU KILLED IT!
By the way, thanks for letting me get two slices of pizza.
P.S.- No, they did not bribe me with pizza for this glowing review. That would have taken 2 extra slices and a diet coke.TOMORROW NIGHT.
MIDNIGHT.
UCB.
Thank you so much Frank! Both of Zuleyka’s UCB shows are among my top-five improv experiences this year, and probably ever. Last night was unbelievably fun. The pizza was good, the games were great, the crowd was shockingly large and super supportive, we had a hell of a lot of fun and Daddy was CRAZY good. Every single element exceeded my expectations. Thanks so much if you were there! I hope we get to do it again someday!
“I always tell my students, the things that make us successful adults in the real world don’t help us to be better improvisers.”
- Jean Villepique (from web interview about Camp Magnet)“Improv rules tend to be life rules. They exist to make our work look more like life.”
- Ian Roberts (from UCBT Level 101 Scenework Notes Handout)DISCUSS!
(P.S. The question mark in the title of this post is intentional.)
This question has sparked a dozen different observations in my head, and it’s gonna take me hours to organize them- though I’m looking forward to it. In the meantime, I’ve always found the inverse of these ideas funny, in a frustrating way. That is, a bad improv character would make a horrible human being.
“You put extra salt on your french fries? FUCK! I fucking hate you! I don’t wanna hang out any more!”
Seriously, guys. This woman, Shannon O’Neill, is one of my favorite people ever and one of my favorite improv teachers/performers. I feel sorry for anyone who has never seen this fantastic woman perform. She did so much for me to get me out of my head and to love improv.
You are wonderful, Shanon O’Neill!
20 minutes from a Times Square performance with UCB Tour Co.
The following words are not allowed to be said: all the words I use.
I had Shannon for 201, 301, and 501 (aka the best class I’ve ever taken). She is amazing, and I’m surprised she was allowed to get on a headset and do improv in front of the general public (including tweens). Shannon O’Neill is the most dangerous improviser I’ve ever seen. She’s like Wolverine.
I had Shannon for 101, 301 and 501. To this day, I think my Shannon O’Neill’s 301 remains my favorite class ever. Classmates were a big part of it (Tegart, Martin, Cutsinger and Jacobson remain fan favorites and it was the first time I thought “Wow, these dudes are going to be really good.”) but you’re seriously doing yourself a disservice if you don’t take Shannon for an upper level class. 101 O’Neill and 501 O’Neill might have the same values but are completely different beasts. On stage she is maybe the ballsiest, most fearless player I’ve seen. A+++ WOULD LEARN FROM AGAIN!!
UGH I WANT TO KICK A BABY. I had a HUGE long post about my various awesome experiences in SPO’s classes (201, 501, In A World) and it got deleted and that stupid tumblr save drafts feature didn’t work AT ALL. fuck fuck fuck.
201: god I sucked, I didn’t ‘get’ anything.
501: awesome awesome awesome class, saved me from giving up on improv. Shannon teaches you how to play better and shows what a team should feel like.
In A World: I loved my team so much - Johnny McNulty, Caitlin Tegart, Ashely Ann Hale, Hallie Haglund, Abbi Jacobsen, Curtis Retherford, Dave Bluvband (first of 2 600s we did together, I am pissed our streak ended). We ruled (we had 2 awesome shows, one ok and 1 truly terrible show, not too bad). The class was full of awesome people I feel honored to have played with. Also the class where I trained myself to not break in scenes with Paul Welsh (took 6 weeks). Included such other greats as: Chris Scott (we both signed off gchat because we didn’t want to tell the other we’d gotten in, in case the other hadn’t), Sarah Claspell, Dan Black - so many greats. <3
Shannon is the smartest teacher at UCB right now.
YEAH I SAID IT YOU WANNA FIGHT ABOUT IT?
One of the smartest, bravest, and most fun performers out there, and the captain and cornerstone of some of the smartest, bravest and most fun ensembles I’ve ever seen. I used to feel enormously intimidated around Shannon (generally I am still hopelessly shy around the alumni of my five favorite teams) so it was a huge relief, when I finally took a class with her, to find that she was an incredibly cool and supportive teacher. Shannon’s laugh is also one of my favorites to earn, because her favorite moves aren’t the ones that are perfect, they’re the ones that are surprising. If you’ve delighted Shannon, odds are you’ve done something brave and brand new, and that’s a terrific way to feel about improv.
As part of the special week of shows leading up to The Del Close Marathon, The UCB Theatre is having the Harold Night Time Machine, a reunion of some of UCB’s best Harold Teams ever.
It’s going to be pretty exciting for the improv nerds, a group in which I definitely include myself. People who have been around for a while will get to see some of their favorite ensembles perform one more time. Younger students, who haven’t had a chance to see these great teams before, will finally get a chance to see them in action.
First up is Creep, which is the longest running team in Harold Night history. (Bastian is about to eclipse them, but they’re still second as of today.) I still think Creep is one of the most underrated “great” all-time UCB teams. They went on an unbelievable winning streak of awesome shows during their prime and they set a new standard for stage presence and acting on Harold Night. And their group games were always on point. Memorable scene: Anthony Atamanuik, playing a detective, is interviewing Birch, who is a tenant speaking from the second floor balcony of his apartment building, about a murder. First beat is hilarious. In the second beat, Birch initiates the scene as the downstairs neighbor. His initiation to Anthony: “Hey! Psssst! Don’t listen to her!” as he points to the character he had played in the first beat.
[…]
fwand is up last. It’s probably the team that the majority of the people in the audience will remember. The amazing thing about fwand was that they were all individually hilarious people, yet they took a giant risk as a team by doing organic edits in their Harolds. Their support and physicality was off the charts and, in a lot of ways, is unmatched by other teams past and present. One scene that sticks out to me: The suggestion to the Harold was “tea bag.” Dominic initated a group game where he just sat down on a chair, asleep. There was a momentary pause before everyone tiptoed in quietly and tried to tea bag him during his sleep. Right before they were about to do it, Dominic woke up, the entire group hid, and Dom looked around with a flashlight for any commotion. He went back to sleep again and the rest of the group tried to tea bag him again. They heightened this pattern hilariously: the group physically carrying Gil right on top of Dom, then Dom waking up and flashing an old-timey kerosene lamp, etc.
Okay, now I’m in the mood to talk teams.
The period that I most consistently saw Harold Night, before I got cast, was the spring and summer of 2006. The two groups that were really in their prime then were Creep and Mailer Daemon. So they’ve always been the two groups that I’ve held in a really special, exalted place in my memory.
Creep was packed with uniquely hilarious, weird, committed veterans. Atamanuik, Bernat, Cordero, Harms, Hiller, Karels, Ozols, Skinner. A lot of brilliant people passed through Creep, but that particular octet is my all-time favorite. Honestly, I can’t remember much of their work, I only remember how I felt watching them at the time. And from that memory, I consider them the best team I ever saw.
Mailer Daemon really felt like, the team that all the students connected to, the team we wanted to be on. I know I did. They were young and fun and brave and unbelievably cool. When I came back from summer vacation, starting my junior year at NYU and level 401 at the UCBT, I remember feeling deeply disappointed that they broke up- but I was glad so many of them were still together on fwand. When fwand emerged as one of the all-time greats and a huge audience favorite, I always felt like I was in on some secret- “of course they’re awesome, they’re most of Mailer Daemon, and those guys were amazing.”
Besides Mailer Daemon, Creep and fwand, the other two teams that I will eternally remember and rave about- the last casts of 1985 and TRUCKS. 1985 was so poised, and knew the Harold so well, that they could break it and transform it with ease. Of all the famed ‘thematic/organic’ teams in the theatre’s lineage, like Arsenal or the Shoves, 1985 was the one I really got to see and got to love.
and TRUCKS- what a force. Unbelievable artistic bravery and supportiveness. When you go through your prime the same time as fwand and 1985, it’s just an unfortunate fact that you’ll be underrated. But my goodness. Those guys delivered some of the most relentlessly fun and weird shows I’ve seen on Harold Night. And there’s no real ancestor or heir to their style- they are entirely their own animal. I’ll carry a torch for this team, forever.
Tonight at 10.
Congratulations to everybody who got to see my favorite improv experience ever. It’s an unbelievable honor to perform pretty much every week with Benjamin Apple, Tim Dunn, D’Arcy Erokan, Brandon Scott Jones, Ben Ragheb and Sydney Hollis. So, so fucking fun. Thank you so much if you saw the show!
Last night’s Cage Match was possibly the single best improv experience of my life. The only thing better than tipping your own chair over backwards and knowing your team will catch you is getting to improvise with that same fearlessness in every single scene because you work with the most supportive improvisers in the world. Thanks to everyone who came out and put us on the Cage Match 2009 charts with the fourth-highest average votes per show and the seventh-highest total votes for the season. We’re also seventh on the all-time top ten list for average votes per show!
Treehouse (me, Spike, Aaron) reunited last night, as Spike is in town. Drank seven shots each. Maybe you got a text message from me. Anyway, it felt wonderful just floating around, hanging out with them. So much love in my heart for the old days.
Harold teams are a lot like rock bands:
- The good ones always claim full ownership of their work. Even if the quality of the work falls short of being good, the group always puts their stamp on it. The identity and sensibility of the team/band is always clear and unmistakable.
Agreed. This is what I always said about late-stage T.R.U.C.K.S. and that’s why they remain one of my all time favorites/influences.
There were a couple things I learned from my first Harold experience that I really wanted to bring to my next Harold experience, and this was one of them. This is one of the reasons I’m pretty excited for The Bishop- I’m paying much more attention to the personalities of the players and what we can uniquely create and contribute, with this specific ensemble. We’ll see how it goes.
I’ll catch up on drawings tonight and over the next few days. Extremely busy schedule, lately.
