Them's fightin' words

I totaly missed this response to our first post on this blog. Thought it was worth putting up again.

zcsmith said...
Oh my god when on gods green earth will people STOP performing Improv as a viable form of entertainment!!!

I have had the misfortune of briefly working with Diana Francis and Chris Cassilian or whatever his last name is once ago, far way, and it was incredibly painful! It was for a summer program with kids and these two "performers" really believed the hype!!

Ok back to my rant about Improv. I have never in my life got what is so incredibly entertaining about watching people who believe they are both talented and funny make up stuff as they go along.

I realize that there are and can be moments of genius, but they are far too few and far between for my money!

I don't care how many great reviews you guys get from the papers because it is clear that most reviews are really a bad guide to what is good and what isn't, being that they are incredibly subjective of course.

My rant is because over the past years I have continued to see people perform and act as though they were the funniest people who would ever walk the earth, yet I would watch and think, "hmmm these people really enjoy hearing themselves talk!"

Improv screams for a revisit to Vaudville!!

Improv is incredibly difficult and it is a great way to learn skills, but to make it into a career, I just shake my head...NOOOOO!!!!!

Ad lib, now that is entertainment. Take a script and then toss a few ad libs in that work, and then you have something with fire underneath it!

"who's line is it" or whatever it was called with Drew Carey and Ryan Stiles. Feh! complete Drek.

I could go on and on, but my rants are needed elsewhere!

Lots of love....

ZC

People really get mad at improv. Man do they get mad at it. When we did Sketchfest in Vancouver when I tried to get across that we do sketch improv, that is improvised sketch comedy I almost got my head bit off. Sketch was sacred and improv was hack.

I call Bullshit!

Some improv is hack. Some stand-up is hack. Some sit-coms are hack. The form itself isn't. It's what you do with it. Our goal when Urban Improv started was to try something new, and 7 years later I think we've come up with a form that's simple and our own.

When you lump all improv together you're just wrongheaded. When you come to someone's web site and slam the members of the group you're out of line. Debate the form if you'd like but get insulting and you can fuck off.

You don't like Who's Line? Fine but millions of folks do. Are they all wrong?

I smell a lot of bitter on you. My advice would be to lose the chip and the smug. Maybe an improv class would help you interact with folks better. One of the first rules of improv is to not try and be funny (or think you're funny) but to try and make the other person on stage look good.

Ian

Diana has asked that I add this...

oh fuck off. we're funny.

diana