Santa Barbara Improv Workshop

Ben, Brian, Guy, Katie, and Patrick are in a Panel of Experts scene, discussing Graphic Arts. I suppose it’s obvious that I brought hats for the night. The rest of the (record number of) photos can be found in our album.

Yes, we did our usual 1 Word Story as part of our warm ups, and then we did a Reason For Being Late exercise.

For our short form work, we did Transfer Emotions scenes and then Panel of Experts. Next came the Irish Drinking Song scenes.

We ended the night with Switch Dubbing.

For my favorite line of the night, I had trouble picking between these three (for various reasons):

I’m not yelling, I’m just telling you what to do.

You get fucked less in graphic arts.

My suspenders are the foundation of my being.

Here are Justin and Lilia in an Alliteration scene. The rest of the photos from the night (and we’re back to our usual number) can be found in our album.

After our usual warm ups, including the 1 Word Story, we started with our Yes And … exercise. It’s good that we revisit this from time to time, because the intent is to practice both the Yes (which was great) as well as the And (which needs work).

We moved on to Alliteration which went well and was fun. And then came our usual Irish Drinking Song.

We ended the night with a new piece, One Act Tag. This went better than I expected, and I plan on coming back to this as a long form (multi-scene) practice structure.

My favorite line of the night (it still makes me chuckle):

Maybe you’re a foreigner, or maybe you’re just poor.

Here we see Karla, Guy, Allegra, Ben, and Dana in their 1 Word Story group. This is one of only three pictures we have in our album from this class. For some reason not many pictures were taken.

We did the 1 Word Story at the end of our warm up work. We also did a complete set of It’s Tuesday exercises.

Counting Words was our first scene work, and then we moved on to Swedish Scenes. And of course everyone did the Irish Drinking Song.

We ended the night with 3 Line Drills.

I was out of town this week, so the amazingly talented Victoria stepped in and covered the workshop for me. From all reports it was a fabulous class.

Thanks Victora!

Ben, Tom, and Robert are pretty focued on Tom’s activity while in this Bus Stop scene. The album has more pictures from the night.

We began the night with warm-ups, including 1 Word Story. Then we started our scene work with 5 Letter Word. Next came a set of Rhyming Scenes.

We got in our standard Irish Drinking Song and ended with two Bus Stop scenes, which I think went very well.

My favorite quote of the night (not necessarily the funniest):

The life of this town gets lower and lower

As much as people groan about the Irish Drinking Song, that seems to be one everyone enjoys. Here are Lilia, Nancy, Mike, Brian, and Todd singing away. There are more pictures from the night at our album.

After our warmups (including 1 Word Story), we did a complete rotation of Gift Giving. Then everyone participated in a series of Growing and Shrinking scenes.

Next was Switch Characters which we haven’t done in some time, and I think went pretty well. Then we moved on to the Irish Drinking Song.

We ended the night with Freeze Scene Swap, a new game. I think it ended well.

How could I not make this the cover shot for the class? They are doing the Macarena! It made perfect sense in the scene, but good lord, the MACARENA! Well, there are more pictures from the night in our album.

We started the night with warm-ups, and we got in a Story Intro and a Pattern Game as well as 1 Word Story. Next was Gibberish Switch, which worked pretty well. Then we got to a piece we haven’t seen in a while, He Said She Said.

Everyone sang their hearts out for Irish Drinking Song, and then we ended the night with 3 Line Drills.

Mark’s getting pummled in the scene In a BLANK, With a BLANK, While BLANK. Those are Patrick and Tom’s hands doing the pummeling. You’ll find quite a few more pictures (199) from this class in our album.

After our warm ups, we started the night with Machine scenes. We continued with In a BLANK, With a BLANK, While BLANK, and there were quite a few good scenes in that set, including my favorite line of the night (below).

Next came Repeating Scene Changing Emotion scenes, which was a nice variation on our usual form. Then everyone participated in an Irish Drinking Song, and since we were running late we finished with Line Freeze Tag.

My favorite line of the night:

I’ve never met a clergyman with special sauce!

The next Improvisational Comedy Show from the Santa Barbara Improv Workshop will be:

Date: Saturday June 6, 2009

Time: 8:00 pm until about 9:30 pm

Location: Jefferson Hall, 1525 Santa Barbara Street (near Anapamu)

Price: $5 at the door

Our classroom space is in the Evacuation Warning area for the Jesusita Fire, so I am cancelling the workshop for tonight. I’ll try and stop by to put up signs, and let people know. We’ll see if I can get into the area.

It’s better if everyone stays off the roads. Please be safe out there!

Alan