May 2024 Pony Show

Under the guidance of our MC for the night, Kim, four teams competed in our May Pony Show. Steve, Free Range Comedy, and Broad Rangers returned to compete again. Fort Green Flour had their inaugural show.

Each team was given 20 minutes for their set along with a unique challenge randomly selected by the team.

Steve started and had to include one scene that was exclusively gibberish. Based on audience input, they had scenes about a father in the CIA, tattoo’s of fire, and living in Saudi Arabia.

Next up were the players from Free Range Comedy, and they had to use a chair in a non conventional way. That chair became a barricade limiting access into Santa Barbara, a beautiful paradise only available to an exclusive few. Raspberry sorbet and blueberry pastry were also significant plot points.

The Broad Rangers were next, and they had to use unconventional and unique edits. This led to a lot of ‘Meanwhiles…’ between scenes, which seemed to focus on break ups and body hair.

Finally, Fort Green Flour had to creatively use sound. Using the suggestion of ‘purple’, they gave us horse statues and a lot of sandwiches and the most polite citations. Also a purple Subaru and DEATH (whose chariot makes a funny noise)!

And while the ballots were being counted, all the players from all the teams played a few rounds of 185, exploring toasters, chickens, and pit masters.

And the winner is… The Broad Rangers!

You can download any of the original pictures by clicking on its image, below.

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Star Wars Day May 4 2024 Improv Show

Once again, our May Improv Show landed on May 4th, Star Wars Day! So of course, the show was Sci-Fi themed. But to make it even more special, we invited the Carpinteria players to join us. We do not lack in faith when it comes to improv!

The first half hour was a set of six games that our SB Improv players performed. The second half hour was another set of six games played by the Carpinteria group. Then we combined forces for the last half hour, playing six games with mixed teams.

The night included an uncomfortable relationship between Vader and Han, drug addicted bad guys, Dub-Dub Radio Hour, eating Ewoks, Wicket hitting on Chewbacca, exploding planets, Dippin’ Dots, accurate British accents, Cerulean Sea, 185 meteorites and lightsabers, Wendy’s Space Day, and ‘Space’ everything (space bars, space weddings, space time, space princess, …).

Here are pictures from the show. You can download the originals by clicking on them.

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April 2024 Longform Show

Three longform teams performed at our April Show: The Cornados, The Schwakhammers, and The Establishment.

Birdwatching in Spokane, animals performing on Broadway, llama foisting, and high school math cheating were the theatrical themes explored by The Cronados.

Based on ‘sandwich’, The Schwaks played with employment at sausage factories, undercover cops, human affection at the church, and Andy as God.

The Establishment took ‘Albuquerque‘ and created the saddest Whole Foods, a disturbing hot air balloon, and a pathetic chili festival. ‘Albuquerque: Lean In to the Sadness’.

You can download the original file for any of the images below by clicking on it.

Click image to download Longform Show 04-20-24 Cast 1.jpg

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Click image to download Longform Show 04-20-24 Cornados.jpg

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April 2024 Shortform Show

Here’s the lovely cast of our Shortform show on April 6th, 2024. Only 6 people in the cast, Mariangelica, Brent, Scott, Melissa, Harnoor, and David. I served as MC (although I sang in the Irish Drinking Song, provide relief to one player).

It was a small but appreciative audience, and so they were fortunate enough to see us perform Tag Out Story, ABC’s (timed), Changing Emotions, Counting Words, Pillars, Irish Drinking Song, Swedish Story, Party Quirks, Return Department, Montage, and a bunch of Open Scenes (well, specifically 6).

I’ve got to say that it was a great show! The audience laughed louder than a lot of the bigger audiences we’ve had. And for good reason, there were stories about Dr. Giggles the dentist, sex in a bar, astronaut paleontology, The Rock selling succulents, a non-French Joan of Arc, the zeitgeist, and so much more.

I noted one line, which is delightfully out of context: I don’t need to close. I’m a natural opener.

Thanks to all the players and the audience for a great night.

You can download the original file for the cast photo by clicking on it below.

Click image to download Improv Show 04-06-24 Cast.jpg

I've Got Your Back Class Show

Here are the cast pictures from the March 23rd, 2024 Class Show done by the players in Holly Mae’s I’ve Got Your Back Class. In the pictures are: Holly Mae, Andy, David, Brent, Kim, Madeline, Todd, Melissa, Malachy, Jen, and Bekah,

There were two additional players in the class that couldn’t make the show: Amanda and Atlas.

The class performed two longform sets that were fantastic. They beautifully showcased the skills they’d learned.

The rest of the night was an open jam. We formed four teams of players, and each put on a ten minute set. As an added treat, all but one of the groups included one player that had never done improv before.

I had an amazing time and thought all of the sets were wonderful!

You can download the original file for any of the images below by clicking on it.

Click to download Got your Back 1.jpg

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Changing the Wednesday Night Workshop

“You’re just confusing everybody. Just call yourself the teacher!”

That was the the advice given to me some 30 years ago. It finally led me to acknowledge that I was an improv teacher.

The improv class we currently know started in 1989. I joined in December of that year when it had only been going a few weeks. I was brand new to improv and LOVED it!

Over the next few years the instructors changed, and I started performing along with the other students. The instructor at the time (Sharon Bettis) was a member of the performing troupe Kahoots!, and we learned a lot from her.

Unfortunately, around 1992 she was leaving town and planned on ending the class. Another player (Jim McRobie) and I decided to continue the class, but neither of us felt like we could teach. So we called ourselves ‘facilitators’ and basically just planned a bunch of games we could play each week.

Jim ended up leaving town, and it was down to me. I kept calling myself the facilitator, but as new players joined and the old crew left, I was giving more ‘notes’ and talking abut how to do improv more and more.

Finally, a very wise person approached me with quote, above.

Over the last 30 years, the class has gone through a lot of changes: the location (so many), the length of time (originally it was a 90 minute class), the size (we would often cancel because we couldn’t get 4 people to show up), and the syllabus (“we don’t have any kids”). But I’ve been the primary teacher, with substitutes filling in when I was travelling or sick.

That’s now going to change. Santa Barbara Improv has grown… a lot! We’ve been able to add teachers (Amy and George) along with new classes (Long Form Thursday nights). We now have 2 regular shows every month. We’ve recovered from the COVID downturn and our Wednesday night classes have grown to regularly be larger than 20 people.

And we’ll be adding more classes, shows, and workshops going forward. We’re also adding more teachers. And because of that, I’m able to make some changes to the Wednesday night workshop that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now.

I’m going to drop down to teaching Wednesday nights every other week. And the weeks that I don’t teach, we’ll rotate through a pool of (currently) five other instructors. There are a lot of reasons for this. The most important is that I want new players to hear other people talk about improv. I think we all learn different things from other perspectives, and my teaching style doesn’t always resonate with everyone. Other people will teach the same concept I’ve talked about, but they will explain it in a different way, and some folks will hear that better. That’s all to the good.

This will also give me some space to develop a new improv class I’ve had rattling around in my head. My plan is to offer a Level 2/Performance class. All the details haven’t been worked out, so you’ll hear more about it in a future blog entry.

This one is about the new instructors, and how I plan to incorporate them. And, to assure everyone that the Wednesday night class will continue in it’s same overall form: drop in, open to all levels, and a welcoming introduction to Santa Barbara Improv as well as improv in general.

Currently, the rotating roster of additional instructors consists of: Holly Mae Haddock, Linsey Kasehagen, Kymberlee Weil, Kimberly Herriman, and Robert Karl. As we get the scheduling down, I’ll start adding the name of the instructor to the calendar events on the website. We’ll also start posting info about the instructors on the website and on social media.

And this is just one of the changes that are happening around here. More will be announced on social media and discussed here in the blog. Let me (or any of us) know what you think!

Alan

All Boats Improv announces open "improviews" (UPDATED)

All Boats Improv announces open improviews for female-identifying improvisers of all ages.

Our new improv crew, Sirens of Mirth, welcomes intermediate and advanced improvisational performers to play with us. If you are interested in intensive weekly practice and learning new improv skills, come and see if the cut of your jib fits our rigging.

Contact yvette (dot) keller (at) Gmail (dot) com to pick a date to meet the crew and do some improv. Thursday evening improviews are from 6:45 - 8 PM, starting August 11th at a private home on the Mesa. Team members will continue to rehearse until 9 PM.

We’re outfitting a ship that lies somewhere between The Black Pearl and The Good Ship Lollipop: a supportive, held space with open communication. We have plenty of room for wholesome talent, rapscallions, and scallywags. We will swab the short-form decks and hoist long-form sails together. Pirates and scurvy knaves need not apply.

We are mustering a crew of 8-10 improvisers so that absence doesn’t inhibit rehearsal or performance. Once the muster list is at capacity, we have marshaled outside coaches to provide feedback.

Yvette Keller anchors the crew, with co-captains Cora Danielson, Monica Phillips, Kim Herriman, Samantha Stevenson, and Cie Gumuncio.

All Boats Improv announces open "improviews"

All Boats Improv announces open “improviews” for female-identifying improvisers of all ages. 

Our new improv crew, Rising Tide, welcomes intermediate and advanced improvisational performers to play with us. If you are interested in intensive weekly practice and learning new improv skills, come and see if the cut of your jib fits our rigging. 

Contact yvette (dot) keller (at) Gmail (dot) com to pick a date to meet the crew and do some improv. Thursday evening improviews are from 6:45 - 8 PM, starting August 4th. Team members will continue to rehearse until 9 PM.

We’re outfitting a ship that lies somewhere between The Black Pearl and The Good Ship Lollipop: a supportive, held space with open communication. We have plenty of room for wholesome talent, rapscallions, and scallywags. We will swab the short-form decks and hoist long-form sails together. Pirates and scurvy knaves need not apply.

We are mustering a crew of 8-10 improvisers so that absence doesn’t inhibit rehearsal or performance. Yvette Keller anchors the crew, with co-captains Cora Danielson, Monica Phillips, Kim Herriman, Samantha Stevenson, and Cie Gumuncio. Once the muster list is at capacity, we have marshaled outside coaches to provide feedback.

Pandemic

Well, it’s been over a year since my last post, and I hope you’re wondering what’s been happening.

You guessed it; a global pandemic! We had to cancel classes, shows, and workshops. Basically shut everything down.

Most of you I’ve communicated with directly about our decisions and activities. Everyone has been understanding since we are all, more or less, in the same boat.

But I’ve been avoiding updating this site and announcing our decisions, mainly because it’s painful. I’ve had a lot of inquiries lately about whether we are still having classes, what our plans are, etc. So, I figure now is the time to start updating everyone about our plans going forward.

Frankly, we’re still on hold. However, I can see light on the horizon. Vaccinations are accelerating, and some businesses are slowly reopening. Live theater and adult classes aren’t in the current relaxing of lockdowns, but we can see it coming. My rough predictions are for us to reopen sometime in the summer, but there aren’t any concrete plans currently. I’m waiting to see what the state and local health officials recommend, and to watch what other theater troupes do to open up again. I’ll keep you posted here and on other social media (mainly the Facebook groups).

I look forward to seeing you all again in class and at shows!

February 26, 2020 Workshop

Well, this was quite the interesting class. I believe we had 13 new players. My uncertainty is because I only got a chance to meet 8 of them before we started (Welcome William, Selone, Noah, Caroline, Riley, Syndney, Conrad, and Sam) plus William’s sister (who came late and I didn’t write her name down), along with 4 others who came in a bit later and I didn’t get a chance to meet. There may have been others, or I may have lost count.

At one point, there were 31 people in class, so we were just under half being made up of folks who hadn’t done improv before.

We started with Character Intro, Pass the Box, and One Word Story. Our exercise was Gift Giving. Then everyone did a 5 Letter Word scene. Our musical exercise was Beasty Rap, and then we did Entrances and Exits. We filled the last minutes with Freeze Tag.

It was amazing how enthusiastic all the new folks were. Those who were brand new as well as those who’ve only been to one or two other classes were all eager to jump up and participate in the games. It was a very fun class.

February 19, 2020 Workshop

A very fun class with 25 people, two of which were new, so welcome Christina and Allison.

We warmed up with Character Intro, Three Part Narrative, and One Word Story. For the exercise, I gave folks a choice and Story-Story-Die was selected by popular acclaim. Even those who didn’t know the game were enthusiastic (I guess the name was enough to sell them).

Everyone did Changing Emotions and we finished with three rounds of Hook Up-Break Up.

February 12, 2020 Workshop

Sorry for the delay getting this posted. Let’s see what I can report from my rusty memory and my notes.

We had 29 people in this class, with two new to us. Welcome Robert and Sam!

We warmed up with Character Intro, Zip-Zap-Zop, and One Word Story. Our exercise was Class Photo, and we played Alliteration, Irish Drinking Song, and World’s Worst.

And here are the photos I’ve got from the night:

February 5, 2020 Workshop

We had 20 people in class, and nowadays that’s a small class. With smaller classes I can either do more large group games or focus on two person games, and tonight I tried to split it between the two.

There were six new players joining us, so welcome Souheil, Bassem, Sam, Rob, Leilani, and Christine.

Our warm ups were Character Intro, Enemy Defender, and One Word Story. Our exercise piece was Three Headed Conversation.

Then it was Pillars and Irish Drinking Song. We ended with a couple of rounds of Park Bench.

Sketch Comedy Show: February 1, 2020

Our annual sketch comedy show was a complete success: huge crowd (basically standing room only); funny scripts; amazing cast performance; and an appreciative audience.

There were 15 pieces, 13 performers, and it lasted just over an hour.

Thank you to Yeah Sand: Heather, Heather, and Ali

And thank you to all the other players!

January 29, 2020 Workshop

We had 20 people in class, and nowadays that’s a small class. With smaller classes I can either do more large group games or focus on two person games, and tonight I tried to split it between the two.

There were two new players joining us, so welcome Madeline and Jake.

Our warm ups were Character Intro, Red Ball, and One Word Story. Our exercise piece was Standing, Sitting, Bending.

Then it was Emotional Zone and Beasty Rap. We ended the night with Three Line Drill.

XProv! January 24, 2020

XProv is shorthand for “experimental improv”. It’s a night where we can try things that we don’t normally get to: new improv games, sketch pieces in development, a new form for an improv troupe, an exercise that focuses on an improv skill, or…

We start the night reviewing the pieces that folks have brought to try and then break up into groups that will learn and practice those pieces. That normally goes from 7:00 pm to 8:00, but this night we didn’t have anything that needed practice, and so we start the performance early, about 7:50 pm.

The performance part of the night is meant to last an hour or so. It’s not open to the public; we are are just performing for each other in order to get some practice and feedback. This was our lineup for the night:

1) Status Switch: Sarah brought this one, and it’s an exercise where we are focusing on status as a character skill. It’s done as a two person exercise, one person has high status, the other has low status. In the course of the scene, the two need to change status, the high status player become low status, and the low status becoming high. I think everyone had a go at this one.

2) Split Screen: I believe Monica brought this one, although we’ve done it before. This is a hard one to describe - basically the stage is divided into two, where the left half is really the right side of a regular scene, and the right half of the stage would be the left half of a normal scene. There are four total players representing two characters on the stage. Two players are the characters in the right half, and the other two players are the same characters in the left half. When one of the right half players walks off stage (on the right side), the left side player for that same character walks onto the left half of the stage and vice-versa. It’s a delightful tour de force that really should be seen to be understood. And when the audience finally gets what’s going on, you can almost hear the “ahhs” of delight and amazement. We did a couple of rounds.

3) Cut To: Monica brought this one, and we did it as a two person scene with a director. The players will conduct a scene, and periodically the director sill stop the scene and change the setting to one that’s been referred to in the previous scene. It can be set in the future or the past.

4) Video Dubbing: This is a perennial favorite at xprov. A series of scenes from a movie or TV is played on a video screen with the sound off. A player is assigned to each speaking character on screen and they provide the voice for that character. This night, we had a series of scenes from a Sports Night episode. We’re getting better at performing this, and I’m getting better at picking out scenes that lend themselves to being dubbed. We’ll put this in a performance soon.

5) See No Evil, Hear No Evil: This is an exercise that Monica developed to help with editing scenes in a long form piece. It’s done as a rotation, with two players performing a scene and two players in the back line. One of those players has their ears covered so they cannot hear the scene but can see it. The other player is listening to the scene but has their back turned so that they cannot see it. It’s the responsibility of the player who is only listening (See No Evil) to call out “sweep” when they feel the scene should be edited. The player who couldn’t hear the scene (Hear No Evil), steps in and starts a new scene, replacing whomever had been performing the longest. The other player that had been in the scene stays the same character for the new scene. The See No Evil player becomes the Hear No Evil player, and a new player joins into the rotation as the new See No Evil player (the one who will have to “sweep” the new scene). Yeah, you needed to be there to really understand this one

We played several rounds of that exercise, going long in the performance part of the night.

Finally, the last hour is when we review the pieces that were performed, giving feedback. However, since so many of the pieces this night were skill building, we really spent the night giving feedback to the players. Actually, it sort of devolved into old man Alan discussing his ideas on the sorts of skills players should be developing as they progress learning improv. Never give me a chance to pontificate.

Unfortunately, no pictures from the night. We just haven’t gotten into the habit yet. I’ll work on that next time.

January 22, 2020 Workshop: A Smaller Night

It was a smaller class than usual with 18 people, two of them were new players (welcome Nick and Lindsey).

Our group warm ups were Character Intro, Slap-Clap-Snap, and One Word Story. We started our exercises with Mutant, and then we played Create an Object to Speak and Entrances and Exits. Our song was the Irish Drinking Song which left us with just enough time for a couple sets of 185.

This week my “Intro to Improv” topics were Chivalry and Reincorporation. I talked about losing an argument for the sake of a scene, since no one really wants to see an argument on stage. The point of Chivalry is to be willing to give up your ego.

Reincorporation is about focus. Rather than introduce new concepts, our job is to keep exploring the initial ideas in a scene - reincorporating the people, plot, and relationships - to avoid losing focus and letting the scene wander aimlessly.

A few memorable moments:

• Competitive complementary drinks

• The worst science class

• Eye worms (eew!)

• Blake’s room (never gonna happen)

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Longform Show Review: January 18, 2020

Another amazing longform show! Thank you to all three troupes:

The Reverberators: Blake, Chad, Emma-Jane, Geoff, Monica, Sarah

The Schwackhammers: Ali, Andy, Cameron, Heather

The Establishment: Alan, Amy, George

Here are a few cryptic notes from my recollection of the show:

• The Reverberators had a lot to say about Top Ramen , Community Theater, kicking puppies, and creepy dark rooms

• The Schwackhammers decided to spend some time exploring the challenges faced by a group of Victoria Secret thieves, including the proper pronunciation of bras, Gilbert unable to avoid being naked, and the challenges of leadership

• The Establishment explored Chipotle (or chipote… or chipatas… or chipities…), the advantages of moving to Santa Barbara from New York, Betsy Johnson, and of course…Larry

And then there was this picture from the after-party which I’ll let speak for itself:

January 15, 2020 Workshop: Finally Back Into a Routine

Although every class is its own special snowflake, this night followed what has become a fairly typical pattern.

We had 24 people in class, this time with four brand new to us (welcome Joanna, Leon, Angelique, and Tim) and two additional players who I hadn’t met but attended a workshop in December (hello to Harmon and Sierra). Also, welcome back Angela, who’s been traveling the world for several months.

Our group warm ups were Character Intro, Whoosh-Bang-Pow, and One Word Story. The exercise was Machine, and then we played Changing Count and Irish Drinking Song. We ended with Sound Effects as a rotation.

Also, in addition to general announcements, I’m going to start formally presenting improv concepts: defining terms, discussing rules of thumb, and ways to approach scenes. Tonight I talked about questions and why to avoid them (they don’t add to a scene, but require our partners to add information), and why we try to avoid crazy, drugged, and child characters (because those characters and anything they say can be discounted from what’s happening in a scene). I also like mentioning how you can effectively break these rules of thumb, if you know the reasons behind them.

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Game: Slideshow

Number of players: 4 or 5 Tags: Exercise, large group, all levels

When: This is an easy exercise, done just after warm ups

Overview: This exercise is done in groups of four or five players. Each player will have a turn presenting their own slide show. The other players will be creating the images that the presenter has to describe.

Introduction: "We’re now going to see a slide show. Unfortunately, the person presenting the slideshow has no real idea what they’ll find in each photo.”

Details: Immediately after the presenter is selected, they will step forward so that they cannot see what the other players are doing. The presenter will give a brief introduction to the slideshow: the purpose of the trip, where the pictures where taken, who went on the trip, etc. During that description, the players will move about, trying different physical poses, interacting with each other, in general trying different stage pictures until the presenter says something like “and here’s the first photo, click.”

When the presenter says “click,” all the other players freeze in their current positions. The presenter immediately turns around and then has to describe this photo, justifying everyone’s pose, in the context of their slideshow.

After the description, the presenter steps forward again and sets up the events leading to the next photo. During the set up, the other players move around again, interacting and perhaps influenced by the previous photo and descriptions. They keep moving until they hear the presenter say “click” when they immediately freeze for the narrator to again turn around and describe this new photo.

We typically limit this to three photos; basically the beginning, middle, and end of a trip. After the third picture the presenter can say a concluding, summation line.

After this presenter finishes, then the next player in the group takes a turn as the presenter. The exercise continues through all the players having a turn as the presenter.