#ChicaGoUK: Reppin' N.I.

It's not just Londoners heading to Chicago this Summer. Or folk from Brighton (London's beach). The "Further Afield" region is being fairly represented, like this 'un from Northern Ireland. Morgan Hearst.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I started stand up comedy 3 years ago at the age of 36. I had always wanted to try stand up but Belfast didn't have an open mic scene until then. Around 2 years ago a friend asked if I wanted to go with him to an improv class at a local arts centre. I went along thinking that it would help my stand up but fell in love with it as an art form in it's self. Last year we started a team called Yes And. To date we are the only regularly performing improv team in Northern Ireland.

What's the best improv call out you've ever heard?

We play in local pubs so a lot of call outs tend to be on the coarse side. I once asked for a location that would fit the stage and got 'The Congo'. We also seem to get the suggestion 'At a meat factory' a lot. I have no idea why.

Which improv course are you doing and what made you choose that one?

I'm doing the summer Intensive at iO. I wanted to learn long form and as iO is where it was created it seemed to be the place to go.

When/how did you start planning your trip?

I booked the course in September or October not sure which but was pretty much as soon as they had it available.

What are you most excited about?

I have signed up for workshops with Susan Messing and Jet Eveleth. Watching videos of Messing with a Friend and The Reckoning were in large part what inspired me to come to Chicago so I'm excited about learning directly from them. I expect to be a little star struck.

Are there any shows you HAVE to see while over there?

TJ and Dave at iO, Messing with a Friend at the Annoyance.

What are you going to do in Chicago when you're not improvising?

The usual tourist stuff, go see Batman and I'm looking for a few open mic spots.

How do you think the trip will change you?

It will leave me with massive debt. I hope to come back to belfast and show the rest of our team what I've learned and start performing long form on regular basis. Who knows, we might get a Belfast long form scene going. That would be worth the bill.

If you could name a new impro group anything you like, what would be?

I've been trying to convince our group to change our name to Giant Frog. So that.


Morgan's website is FailedHuman.com
His Twitter handle is MorganHearst
Follow all the UK improvisers going to Chicago at #ChicaGoUK.

Long Form Improv? Jason Chin FTW!

Neil Curran is founder and chairman of No Drama Theatre and Laughalot Improv in Dublin, a movie lover, Tinnitus sufferer and misunderstood genius.

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

You can get in touch with Neil here

How Do You Do Dat Zen?

For the last 10 days, zen-improv master Jason Chin has been in the country working with The Maydays and a load of other awesome improvisers. On Sunday, everyone above collaborates for one amazing showcase.

Join The Maydays and The Chinnites for FREE at the newest improv venue in town: The Nursery.

A student of Del Close, Jason Chin has been performing, directing, and teaching improvisation in Chicago since 1995. He was Director of the Training Center and Associate Artistic Director to the iO Theater for eight years and is the author of "Longform Improvisation & the Art of Zen". His creation, Whirled News Tonight, an improvised news satire, recently celebrated eight years of continuous performances.

Sunday 12th February
Time: Doors 6pm, Show 6:30pm - 8:30pm with interval.
Cost: FREE
Where: Arch 61, Ewer Street, SE1 0NR


LONDONIMPROV: A REVOLUTION IN COMEDY & THEATRE

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Jason Chin (iO Chicago) longform weekends in London and Brighton

Early bookings are now available for weekend longform workshops by Jason Chin, from the iO theatre in Chicago.

A student of Del Close, Jason Chin has been performing, directing, and teaching improvisation in Chicago since 1995. He was Director of the Training Center and Associate Artistic Director to the iO Theater for eight years and is the author of "Longform Improvisation & the Art of Zen". His creation, Whirled News Tonight, an improvised news satire, recently celebrated eight years of continuous performances.

He has taught and performed all over the world, from Chicago to Manila to Hawaii, and now he is coming to the UK to teach exclusively for the Maydays. This is a rare chance to get instruction from an experienced improviser coming from ground zero of modern longform.

Dates:
Brighton, February 4th/5th, 10am-5pm
London, February 11th/12th, 10am-5pm
Cost: £175 or £150 early bird if booking before Christmas (includes a free copy of Jason's Book 'Zen and the art of Longform Improvisation'
Locations TBC

For bookings and info, contact Heather Urquhart at mayday@themaydays.co.uk or 07818290562.

Words from io - Supporting Your Partner

Luke Beahan is in Chicago right now, learning the ways of Improv in one of the best Improv cities in the world. Lucky so-and-so.

Hey. I am in Chicago right now studying the Summer Intensive course, and I thought that I would write down some of the epiphanies that occur to me as I study improv 4 days a week.

Supporting your partner, you can also call it making them look good. It's a great idea and a wonderful attitude to have on stage, but it's also so vague as to be meaningless. What does it actually mean to make somebody look good? We need specifics to practice and turn into mental muscle memory.

I already understood one aspect of it; reacting to my partner. I have been in and seen scenes where one character shouted or revealed something and the other character just stood there and shrugged or the equivalent thereof. That's letting your partner blow out this huge wad of energy and then making them clean it up off the floor. We need to accept that move and get upset or cry or be incredibly happy. So suddenly there is a reason for them to have done that beautiful big thing on stage. Accept your partners wad of energy.

I think I understood another aspect of this, and it just reminded me of what improv is really about.

I was in a scene playing a scared zoo cleaner watching another player trying to open the moneky cages. The scene fizzled and then in the notes we got, I realised what was missing from my game. We have been working on character wants and motivations, so that in a scene we have a clear goal or need. The scenes we did on these were hilarious and moving. And yet here I was with the motivation of "I don't want to get into trouble" and the scene didn't pop.

The note was this, I had a clear need, but it didn't involve the other characters, and the other two players were doing the same thing, so nothing happened. Near the end I altered my want and turned it into "I don't want You to get me in to trouble," and I was trying to talk this girl out of opening the cages.

That was the only part of the scene that felt like it was going anywhere. When I turned my motivation into something that involved the other player. And it only takes a glance to realise that from that comes a whole load of other details that I can start creating. She is always opening the cages, I get blamed or attacked for the animals getting out, one time a zebra kicked me in the face etc.

Then it also gives here something to do. Is she going to open the cages and let me take the fall again, is she going to persuade me to become an animal activist? Suddenly there are pathways we can run down head first, together, rather than being stuck in our own little bubbles.

So my lesson was. Get involved with your partner, react to them and make it about them, not just you.