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Jason (centre) pictured with Cariad (right) and Berkan (left).

I spent last weekend braving the Siberian weather in the UK and attending a Long Form improvisation weekend of workshops with Jason Chin. Jason hails from the infamous iO Theatre in Chicago where he has been involved with improv for over 15 years. He has held the positions of the iO Associate Artistic Director, as well as the Director of their Training Center. Jason created the improvised news satire, Whirled News Tonight, which has been running for over 8 years. He is the author of Long-form Improvisation and the Art of Zen Jason was in the UK as a guest of The Maydays.

Or in short, he has the credentials!

My inability to read emails correctly resulted in me arriving in the UK on a Thursday night, for a course that would not kick off until Saturday morning. I spent the Thursday night and Friday taking in the local offerings in Cambridge. Those offerings consisted mostly of snow and cold though. And a search for a scarf.

But I digress. So after a miserable night’s sleep I rose from the dead early on Saturday morning to take a train to London. My destination was “The Nursery” in Southwark. (Note to Irish readers, it is not pronounced South Wark!) An upbeat Jason greeted us at the door and in total there was about 16 of us ready to get stuck in! There were a couple of familiar faces from my previous improv adventure with the Maydays in Leela as blogged about here.

But lets talk about the venue, The Nursery. It was as if the room was built under a railway bridge, with the walls filled in cement and a door added. No, this is not a metaphor, the room really was under a railway bridge! The room was cool and quirky. But, it had no heating. And it was freezing! Thanks to the brainwaves of one of the participants, a few phone calls later we had a flurry of portable heaters which helped to stave off some of the cold by lunchtime. Every little helps!

So Jason gave us an introduction and we got stuck in. After a couple of warm up exercises, we spent most of the day (and the following day) in a variety of open scenes. It was quickly obvious that most people in attendance were experienced improvisers and some people perform regularly. The talent on display was excellent and equally hilarious! But Jason brought an additional edge to the proceedings. He is a fantastic teacher, very attentive and offers great insight into improvisation with his thoughts and feedback. His ability to plants seeds in your head brought out very fruitful results on stage. Jason put much emphasis on emotional reaction and the +1 and it was as if everything just ‘made sense’!

I personally find performing improv, especially long form, very liberating. The concept of “Group Mind” during a scene creates a strong bond between performers and the experience and energy becomes shared. There were many hugs, claps and back pats after each scene which only serves to highlight the enjoyment and bond that performing together brings. While you become used to it with your own troupe, its rejuvenating to experience it with new people.

There were so many great scenes over the 2 days (and probably even more during the showcase on the final day which due to my flight home, I missed), many colourful characters and hilarious quotes. Moments like when during a scene Jesus cries, “If I can’t repair a rusty hinge how am I expected to perform miracles!” Or after a scene involving a character receiving a banana on his birthday, Jason asked Andrew how he felt in the scene and Andrew replied, “Was that before banana or after banana?” All classic spontaneous moments!

I met some great people over the 2 days and I’m looking forward to meeting again, be it on stage or viewing from the audience. I’m also looking forward to my US trip in 2013 when Chicago is on the agenda!

Every time I attend or partake in anything improv related in the UK, I am inevitably filled at some point with jealousy at how large and cohesive the improv scene is there compared with Ireland. Its not that we don’t have great improvisers in Ireland, we have some great talent too. But we need more troupes, more venues willing to open their doors to improv and we need to raise the profile of improvisation in Ireland to a higher level.
To quote a friend who used to perform with me in improv shows, “I told people in work that I have done improv before, and thoroughly explained exactly what this entails. Despite this, many a conversation has been started with the line: ‘Did you know Dave did stand-up?’”

But lets not end on a downer. A fantastic weekend of improv with great people and great tutoring was had. If you have a chance to train with Jason in Chicago or indeed The Maydays in the UK, just do it!

You can follow Jason’s blog here

You can visit the Mayday’s website here

What the hell is Osho Leela? Sounds like a character from a Legend of Zelda video game. Far from it. From their website:

We are a special bunch of people, united by the desire to live communally and linked by the search for spiritual growth and raising personal awareness.

Because we maintain an open door policy in our community, the size of our group is ever-changing. However, we do have a fixed group of around 15 adults and two children. At the time of writing we have six guests, some of whom will be staying for a longer time, while the rest are here temporarily.

Hippies?

Ok maybe not. But more of that later. Why am I talking about Osho?

A friend of No Drama, John Loftus of Choke Improv talked me into attending a Improvisation Comedy Festival in the UK, facilitated by John Cremer and the award winning Maydays. I had only heard good things about John Cremer but had never even seen a picture of the man.

I talked Brian Quinn of No Drama into coming along so John L. took care of the arrangements. It was after the arrangements were made, John fillled me in on the logistics of the weekend. Namely the “hippy” bit. A weekend in a caravan with no meat served in the restaurant lay in store. I had no sandals to bring with me.

We were due to fly to Bristol on Friday 24th on an afternoon flight with Ryanair. Things got off to a bad start when our flight was delayed for nearly 6 hours resulting in an arrival in Bristol of approx 1:10am rather than the scheduled 6:20pm. The fun didnt end then, we had a 90 minute drive ahead of us to the secluded countryside location in Gillingham. (No, not the one in Kent. The other one)

Sandals
It was cold. And the caravan was cosy thanks to John L. pre heating our rooms with the portable heaters. (John arrived earlier that day as he was flying from Knock). I always knew John was a mammy at heart.

Fortunately we didn’t miss any workshops with our late arrival. Friday evening was more a meet and greet occasion over dinner. The fun and games was scheduled to kick off at 8:30am with breakfast with workshops from 9:30am. I had a whopping 4 hours sleep to look forward to.

I’m not a morning person, and I never will be. I feel no shame for that. But some people just don’t get those of us who are not morning people. There is nothing wrong with me. I dont need a dose of sunshine stuck up my arse in the morning. I just need, space, time and tea.

So you can imagine my anxiety when at 9:30am we conjugate in the main hall and a DJ starts playing dance music while waiting for John Cremer to kick off the proceedings. I kid you not, lots of people started dancing. Some of the girls formed lines and danced in sync. Even John L. started dancing. It was surreal, at that hour of the morning. Taking in the sight, there was about 40-50 people there, a wide mix of ages and an even 50/50 split gender wise. Oh and we had to take off our shoes. But that was ok. My socks had no holes.

It was at this point I was first introduced to the talent of the Maydays. John Cremer took the stage and kicked things off. His first point was to officially welcome myself and Brian. He asked me to tell the group a bit about the ordeal of the journey we had. So I did. The second the story finished, the keyboard player kicked off and John C. informed the room that it sounded like we had the Aviation Blues.

The Maydays got stuck into 12 bar blues with some musical improv influenced by my story. There was no hesitation on their part, no confusion over who had to sing the next part. It all sounded rehearsed and scripted. It was amazing.

Improv Everywhere
For the duration of the day, there was a choice of between 3 and 4 workshops to chose from. It was a bit like being in college again with the class and room schedule handed to everyone. I decided to spend my morning in two Long Form workshops.

The long form exercises and games were lots of fun. Our improv shows as part of Laughalot focus on short form improv but in our workshops in Dublin, we would perform long form sketches and exercises. But we hadnt performed long form in front of an audience yet.

The long form workshops pulled a crowd. But the standard of improv was high. It was interesting and a challenge to work with competent performers that I had never met before. It didnt feel like a competitive environment. There was great support and encouragement from the tutors. After about 3 hours of long form it was time for lunch.

Organic Noms
The folk running Osho are quite the organic type. The lunch was home made, home grown. There was soup, delicious bread and salad on offer. And tea. Its very important to emphasise that there was an abundance of all sorts of teas and tea breaks throughout the weekend. I loved that about Osho. An appreciation of tea.

Mainland
Some lunchtime conversations ensued. I must point out before I go on, that I’m crap at remembering names. So if I talk about someone from here on and don’t mention his or her name, its because I cant remember it. And I was probably told it. More than once.

A lovely lady from England, joined myself, Brian, John L and John C at a picnic bench in the gardens. She asked us about No Drama and what we did in Dublin. Then this happened:

Nice Lady: “So why don’t you come put on a show on the mainland?”

She was oblivious to what she had said. Now, it didn’t offend anyone and we laughed. But it was amusing as to her bewilderment as to what the issue was. John C. explained what she had said. She still didn’t get it. So we called her a European. We knew she wouldn’t like that!

I got talking to one of the residents of Leela over lunch too. A very happy and joyous man. While he at first might come across a bit odd, I realised while talking to him that he was very much happy in his own skin. He was very happy in life but spoke of wanting to hear negativity in life so that he could bring balance to it. Still, I didnt bother him with my problems. I didn’t want to turn him into a broken man! My last memory of the conversation is him saying,

“I learnt so much from my mistakes, that I think I will make a few more.”

La la lalala la
I was determined to give it shot. It’s something that we know we need to introduce to the Laughalot shows. When done right, its a hilarious part of a show. When done wrong, its embarrassing, boring and yawn enducing….

Musical Improv! I was terrified. I mean, I have had two motorcycles accidents in recent years yet I was more terrified of doing some musical improv. However the tutors were very supportive and encouraging. But lets be honest, there was no denying that I was going to have to sing at some stage. Improvised singing. But I did. I was sweating buckets and in need of an AED by the end of the session but I did it. As did Brian. And the scary part? It was great fun and we wanted more!

After a break, I was in two minds what to do next. Brian went to a character development workshop but I decided that I couldnt let the weekend go by without doing some short form improv. I figured it would be a nice way to wind down the day.

Of course, I had forgotten that short form improv can be intense, laugh-a-minute and extremely draining. So after a fun packed 90 minutes, I was fit for bed!

The day’s workshops were over and the evening’s entertainment was due to begin. Dinner first (a tasty Indian vegetarian curry with naan.) followed by some shows.

Look into my eyes…
First up some stage hypnosis. Make what you will of that. Entertaining but surely you can’t hyponotise people that fast? Well she did, and thankfully didnt resort to hypnotising people into thinking chairs were sexy or anything like that.

Next up was the Osho Leela inhouse Improv troupe. A quick 20 minute set and some good short form improv demonstrated with some challenging games.

And the grand finale, The Maydays performing some long form improv – musical numbers and all! It was easy to see why The Maydays have won awards. It was like watching a scripted, rehearsed show. It was hilarious with a story told from start to finish. The songs had a rehearsed feel to them and really brought the scenes to a new level.

After the Maydays performed the room was converted into a nightclub setting and the bar opened. Myself and a few others had a peak into the “Theatre Costume Room” (how cool is that!) and picked out some appropriate outfits for the occasion.

Much banter and craic was had over the rest of the night. Most importantly, we introduced the words “gee” and “gawl” into the English folk’s vocabulary. While I can’t remember everyone’s name that I bent the ear off, interogated with questions and probed with deliberatly leading sexist enquiries, I will give special mention to Meg, Aine, Sam, “B”, Maureen, Gillis, Jason, Flora, Carrie, Andy (and the other folk whose names escape me!) who were good sport and craic for enduring my ramblings! After all that, it was time for bed!

Uh Oh…
The cold of the night tooks its toll and I was awoke Sunday morning, after a poor night’s rest with a sore throat and flu symptoms. I knew another music workshop wouldnt be a runner today but I did take part in a workshop on “Object and Environment”.

Unfortunately for myself and Brian, that is where our Osho adventure had to end as we had a flight home to catch. We had to sacrifice on another 2 workshops as a result but we still had a fantastic weekend of improv.

I was going to go into detail on some of things we learned and picked up over the weekend but I have decided to keep that under wraps and if you want to find out more, well you will just have to come to one of No Drama’s workshops! (Comedy Improvisation runs every Sunday at 5:30pm and the general workshop runs every Tuesday at 7pm. Both workshops take place in Synge Street Primary school.)

A MASSIVE thanks to John Cremer, The Maydays for putting together an excellent weekend. Also huge thanks to the good people at Leela for looking after us and getting involved in the improv! It was a great weekend with new friends made and awesome improv performed!

For more info on John Cremer and The Maydays see below.

http://www.johncremer.co.uk/

http://www.themaydays.co.uk/

For more info on Osho Leela, check out their website below.

http://www.osholeela.co.uk/

Want to try some improv or theatre with No Drama Theatre? Check out our website for more info:

http://nodramatheatre.com/

So you may have read a previous blog post about No Drama Theatre’s Improv shows (Previously called Improvlova) or perhaps you have attended one of our shows (and hopefully had a good time!). We recently rebranded the improv show to Laughalot Improv to coincide with the launch of our regular monthly show in The Duke pub in Dublin. Serious business then? So how did it come about and what the hell is a theatre group doing improv comedy for?

For those of you who have no idea what Im talking about, improv comedy is comedy improvisation. Its unrehearsed, unscripted and with many of the games peformed, influenced based on suggestions from the audience. The result, when done right, should be a performance of sharp wit with hilarious scenarios. If done wrong, tumbleweeds, boos and tuts from the audience. If done very well, be prepared for accusations of having rehearsed or prepared already! (Some of the episodes of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” are so funny, they often look rehearsed!)

I’ve always loved improvised comedy. About 18 months ago, I thought it would be fun to organise a night of improv comedy as a fundraiser for the group. We were quite nervous on the night, a few drinks were consumsed for Dutch courage and the adrenalin was pumping. The first show was in Cassidy’s bar on Westmoreland St in Dublin. It was a massive success. I judge success based on the feedback of audience members present with no affiliation with the group. It proved to be quite inspiring! So we proceeded to organise some more shows, at random all of which were received well with a great turnout.

Earlier this year I figured that the improv show was something that could be turned from a fundraiser to a viable arm of No Drama Theatre. There was a demand among members for improv and for the chance to perform on stage. There are of course other improv comedy groups in Dublin but for new people wanting to get involved, it can prove very difficult as the improv groups are a tight knit unit.

I attended other improv shows this year to see how the competition faired. Choke Comedy Improv in Limerick and the Craic Pack group in Dublin. Both groups were excellent and each had their own slant with their improv shows. I chatted to one of the founders of Craic Pack after one show, the talented Peter O’Byrne.

Peter is no stranger to comedy. He has been performing with Craic Pack for many years since its founding and also frequents the stand up scene. When not on stage, he can also be found on the TV from time to time. Peter also runs Introductionary courses to Comedy Improv.

Knowing that it was time for us to invest seriously in our improv and up our game, I invited Peter to run some improv workshops for No Drama. They were a roaring success. He’s an excellent tutor and those of us who perform in the improv show benefited greatly from his tutorage.

Our improv shows in the Duke now have a more structured and confident edge. We ban performers taking alcohol before and during the show. We have call times and a 1 hour warm up before each show. We also have “rehearsals” the week of the show.

“Rehearsals” I hear you say? Well, its not a rehearsal as such but an improv fresher. We’ve learnt that being funny has very little to do with successful improv. It takes good teamwork and going with what you are presented with on stage. It is in fact, a mindset. Improv goes against the grain of how we were reared to live our lives. Therefore in our rehearsal class, we spend the time carrying out improv exercises that have little to do with humour and everything to do with getting in the mindset. It makes a massive difference to our performance on the night of a show.

I never tire of improv. Every show brings something different and there is always a few moments of comedy gold in each show. The buzz of hearing the audience laugh and the odd heckle is fantastic.

As the show has become more successful, we now have the additional challenge of ensuring that people dont view No Drama Theatre as a improvisation theatre group. The rebranding and handling of our improv shows and workshops is being kept seperate to our theatre workshops and shows to ensure we keep ourselves focussed. But it has to be said, its alot of fun! Hopefully you will catch one of our shows too!