Improv
50 Improv Tips from Billy Merritt’s Improv Party
Starting in 2002, Billy Merritt (of Ninja, Robot, Pirate fame) started writing what he called “Billy Merrit’s Improv Party.†It started as a story to share his thoughts on improv and turned into a full-blown thread of awesome improv tips. I definitely recommend reading the entire thing (though it is a bit lengthy at 50 posts). It was originally […]
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Drew’s Best Of 2011
After 365, it’s time for the next installment of Drew’s Best Of, this time for 2011. For past years, check out 2008, 2009 and 2010. But let’s stop all this preamble and get on with it. Best Achievement – Publish a Book I think by now we all know that I give myself 10 goals every year. This year […]
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Performances in Review 2011
One of my goals for 2011 was to perform at least 100 times. I was able to meet and surpass that goal, finishing with 119 total performances. Here are some stats regarding the performances: 57% of shows were long-form improv, 42% were short-form improv and 1% were stand-up. 39% of the total shows were at […]
Read MoreMagnet Improv Level 6 Class Notes
Instructor: Armando DiazDate Taken: July 2011 The final class of the Magnet Improv Conservatory is a Team Performance Workshop. You get 6-weeks of classes and then 8-weeks of shows with the same team. The team-specific nature of the class didn’t lend itself to taking too many general improv notes, but there were a few gems […]
Read MoreThe Sentence that Changed Everything
The day started like any other day of my sophomore year at The Ohio State University. I woke up at 10am after hitting the snooze button 2 or 300 times, went to my engineering classes after eating a champion’s breakfast of S’mores Pop Tarts and Dr. Pepper, and then went to study for my major […]
Read MoreMagnet Improv Level 5 Class Notes
Instructor: Armando DiazDate Taken: October 2010 Level 5 at the Magnet focuses on creating an improv revue—four shows that your team does together. I went back to my normal heavy note-taking ways for this class, but can you blame me? It was Armando Diaz teaching! To learn more about the Magnet training program, go here. Class […]
Read MoreBlaine Swen Workshop Notes
Instructor: Blaine SwenDate Taken: August 2010 For DCM 2010, Blaine Swen (founder / performer of Improv Shakespeare and 1-man musical improv show Bash!) offered a 3-hour workshop that focused on 1-person musical improv scenes. Here are the notes from the workshop. Class Notes 3 important points of improv: pov, dialog and emotional dialog come out […]
Read MoreAdvanced Spacework Workshop Notes
Instructor: Dave Jadico (CSz Philadelphia)Date Taken: July 2010 Every year, ComedySportz has a tournament where all of the city teams get together to play, take workshops and hang out. This workshop was part of ComedySportz Tournament 2010 and covers spacework, for both shortform and longform improv. Workshop Notes Every time you touch an object, the audience has a […]
Read MoreMagnet Improv Level 4 Class Notes
Instructor: Alex MarinoDate Taken: May 2010 With Level 4, I continued my focus on experiential learning and just trying to incorporate what I heard as opposed to logically thinking about. Â Our particular class was about the Evente, which lends itself to creating better improvisers for any form. I also learned more from the 4 performances […]
Read MoreMagnet Improv Level 3 Class Notes
Instructor: Peter McNierneyDate Taken: March 2010 As I continued further into the Magnet program, I decided to try to learn more experientially (rather than logically), so I took fewer notes and focused on how I was feeling in scenes—what worked / what didn’t.  Still there were some notes that were too good to not write […]
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