Author: John Hanus

• 

• 

• 

What a way to end our Frigid Affair season!  As the exhaustion caught up with Mal and I last night post show, we couldn’t help but have smiles on our faces.  We are very proud of the Urban Yeti team and ecstatic about the support we have seen from the Anchorage community.  Last night capped off Urban Yeti week, which was full of a Geeks Who Drink dance off competition, a feature in the Anchorage Press and a television spot on KTVA’s Daybreak.  We had an awesome time and increased our exposure into the community.  If you haven’t seen our pictures and videos, check out our Urban Yeti Facebook page.

To understand where I am coming from on these show notes, you need to understand what we have been rehearsing over the past month.  There were three rehearsals between our Episode II and III shows and we used them to work a concept I was exposed to through the Upright Citizens Brigade long form manual.  We worked three different aspects of our scenes:

1)  Establishing a strong scene foundation (base reality) with solid characters, environments and detail.  This was a continuation from our last set of rehearsals and notes.

2)  Dropping an oddity the team can easily identify together.  Once the foundation is established, rather than being driven by plot, we tried driving the scene based on an established oddity which doesn’t necessarily blend in the base reality.

3)  Once the oddity is identified, switch the mind set from pure ‘Yes, And’ partner agreement to ‘If, Then’.  Now that we have seen something strange, what does this mean in the world we created.  If that was true, then what else is now true in this world?

I was very happy with our rehearsal process and not necessarily because we did amazing scenes.  Quite opposite, actually.  When we broke our scenes down to the basic structure of establishing a scene foundation and stopping them when someone raised their hand because they identified an ‘oddity’, we found out we are often not on the same page with one another.  What one person thought was odd to play off of and elevate, the rest of the team didn’t catch.  This means our four players were often pulling scenes in different directions.  But isn’t that a set back John?  Quite the contrary sir!  I felt breaking it down to find a weak muscle to strengthen in a matter of one rehearsal was quite impressive on our players part.  They are willing to play for the sake of learning and improve.

Still not seeing it my way?  Let’s look at it in the context of last night’s show.  What you might have seen in the ‘Wrap it and Wack it’ theme of Frigid Affair was some really funny ideas presented by our players and funny character exchanges.  But lets put it in the context of the above structure to show why the players found a lot of success.  A strong scene foundation was established, particularly through strong characters.  We learned about Cody the Coyote, his strong personality and relationships with friends/women.  This was also tied with a corporation thinking of unique ways to market different styles of condoms, based on the headline chosen by the audition.  Then the oddity was dropped and clearly identified by all players in the show:  What Cody the Coyote thinks is sex, is not sex at all.  Now that everyone is on the same page, there are so many places to go and questions to answer.  If Cody doesn’t know what sex is, then who taught him these ridiculous ideas?  If Cody says he had sex in the past, then what were these experiences actually like and who was involved?  If Cody’s girlfriend is still with him, then what are her motivations in the relationship and how does she not fix this?  This is just a sampling of ‘If, Then’ ideas the players explored.  This combined with high energy and strong character diversity by all four players led to a very successful show.  I am excited to continue working the foundation/oddity/elevation formula into our next season of Debauchery.

The strength of the Frigid Affair set then led to some strong short form performances as well.  I enjoyed Four Square, Stand-Ins and Half Life.  It is funny how short form improv is strengthened when you are playing long form to the top of your intelligence.  I could definitely feel the players firing on all cylinders for the whole show.

But enough with all that ego stroking I just did, let’s get some opportunities for improvement in the equation.  Although there were strong indications we were working well in the rehearsal formula, there were still some times when driving towards plot and not listening for natural scene progression had some consequences.  Towards the end of the Frigid Affair set when we tried to bring back the corporation and file cabinet of condom ideas, the idea of trying to weave the storyline cost us continuity.  The players got confused on who stole what idea and for what purpose.  This is a good example of what happens when players are not elevating on the same page and one player’s idea of where the plot needs to go gets lost because listening and agreeing is much harder when someone is working to drive plot.  No worries though, the overall consequence was minimal and I use this to demonstrate more rehearsal is always needed to increase our efficiency of playing to the top of our abilities.

There is also something we can work on regarding the way oddities are identified through straight characters.  An important part of good improv comedy is making sure everyone is not in on the crazy.  Being in crazy town with everyone in the scene doing something unusual might lead to some good short term laughs, but it can not sustain a scene.  We had good straight characters, but I want to see some more organic/fluid dialogue from these characters and more push back on the oddity.  More push back leads to more detail and more detail leads to more humor.  This is a way to take character interaction in a scene from a B+ to an A.

On a more scene administration front, time jumps are awesome.  They are great ways to see back story on situations and characters.  Sometimes we need to announce time jumps in more detail and I encourage this with our team.  During the show, however, I think we announced too many time jumps when they didn’t need any explaining.  With strong characters and situations, the audience can often follow the story.  Work in this area can further polish our product.

I made a toast last night to our team and made sure they understood how proud Mal and I am of what we are starting to create with Urban Yeti.  But we also need to be aware great beginnings require continued hard work and motivation to reach our full potential.  One season down, but we need to work hard, maintain focus on good improv and continue to find unique ways of spreading the word about Urban Yeti in the community.  Buckle up Alaska, you haven’t seen anything yet…

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Once again, Urban Yeti appreciates Anchorage for coming out and making our second show another sell-out!  We had a great time last night and we hope you did as well.  Looking at the business side of Urban Yeti, we really like what we are seeing.  Hits on the website are up, our relationship with AET is solid and last week we unveiled the Urban Yeti at the Fur Rondy parade.  It was a blast and we took dozens of photos with folk who couldn’t get enough of the Yeti.  Be on the look-out in the coming months.

Let’s talk about last night’s show.  The performers have once again gained my admiration for putting everything out there in front of a hundred people.  I can see the team working skills we have been rehearsing and having a lot of fun doing so.  Some of the areas of focus have been strong, detailed scene initiations and using natural motivations to progress scene work.  I particularly appreciate their support with the failing health of their host/director.  This resulted in tougher transitions, scene cuts and missed admin things like thank-yous and future activities.  No excuses, I’ll be back to 100% next show, folks.

It is a challenge when you ask an improviser to clear their head at the beginning of a long set and approach their scene partners with an open mind, walking off that cliff and having faith everything is going to be okay.  I have chosen to take the director spot with these folks and I find one of the toughest things to do is push them into better, cleaner creativity when you yourself could be in their same shoes.  None-the-less, notes are notes even if you have to work them yourself, and I invite you to join me in this deep dive.

What did I like about last night?  I enjoyed the high energy short form in the second half of the show.  We have been working ID symphony hard this week and I was happy to see the performers find the beat with one another.  Four square, stand-ins and half-life all went well and the players found some good story lines and characters to play off of.  I rather enjoyed the variations created on opening the jelly-fish tank in our last game of the evening.  I also like paddywax.  I love it when no one in the room knows what something is as it creates a clean palette on which to build something new.

I was very pleased with two out of the three set-ups for the frigid affair sequence.  The scene inspired by not saying I love you was a particular success for the performers.  Strong relationship connection in the beginning, finding the game of avoiding the term ‘I love you’ and how far the girl would go to get what she wanted was really fun.  Very nice cherry-on-top of ‘I love you Xbox’.  The sequence inspired by the headline regarding someone being ok after they got thrown in a dump truck from a dumpster had a fun theme of enforcing ‘stench’ rights in the state of Alaska.  After a couple of sitting scenes, the performers responded nicely by doing some good dumpster pantomime work.  That’s right, I just said good dumpster pantomime work. 

But the audience didn’t choose these sequences and opted for the scene inspired by obscene 911 calls.  It is here we find some opportunities for improvements and areas we can focus on in the next couple of rehearsals.  I think the performers would agree out of the three sequences, this storyline presented the biggest challenge of folks getting on the same page and finding some good games to play.  The challenge was present from beginning to end on this story line.  The basis was two kids prank calling a 911 operator, who in turn got so frustrated with the continued harassment she took the issue to her sergeant, who offered to handle it personally but instead focused on training the boys to be better prank callers.  The scene quickly developed the qualities of quick sand.  The original unique game of someone in authority playing to his immature side could have been fun but suffered when not enough time was spent building the sergeant character prior to the immature being introduced and then the players struggled to elevate the immaturity (several dropped prank call opportunities).  Two nice moves were introduced in different middle variations.  The first, if we can prank call the 911 operator with no consequence, who else can we prank call.  The second, if the sergeant doesn’t follow protocol, what else might be going on that is questionable at the station (phone sex).  However, the quick sand sucked us back in as the team felt beholden to characters and ideas which were not working out initially.  Rather than letting go of these weaker ideas and expanding the game, we got sucked back into them.

But why do we fall Master Wayne?  We sometimes struggle in scenes and that is okay.  Not only okay, it is natural.  The important part is the lessons we take away to work, the ability to show we recognize the weak and strive to make it stronger.  What can we take away from last night’s frigid affair sequence?  We can certainly take away letting things go when they aren’t working.  It’s okay if one of the characters is inexplicably dropped from the story line.  It is okay if we leave the sergeant behind.  It is okay if we trash something that doesn’t work.  Elevating a scene can often times mean not looking back and we could have use more of this last night.  We can also take away the need to rehearse finding the game and playing it together.  We will be working this over the next couple of rehearsals by starting open scenes with strong base realities.  Nothing odd, just characters staying true to their motivations.  Then we will work on dropping in the odd and elevating it.  But most importantly, we will work on everyone recognizing the oddity and joining each other in the game.  I as a director have danced around what I have been reading for inspiration in an attempt to find a unique voice.  I still think we create a unique voice, but I want to try some of the lessons more directly.

Also, an important thing we need to emphasize, regardless of format or long form / short form is holding our characters.  It is tough in rehearsal to crack down on something like this because it is typically a sign your performers are having fun.  No one wants to throw the birthday cake on the ground when folks are singing happy birthday.  But 2 -3 times is cool for the audience to connect with the performers.  5 or more times and the perception of skill level starts degrading away.  We need to take this more seriously.

I love this environment we have created and adore the team we have.  I’m excited to rehearse with everyone and see our development as we finish out the first season.  We are also close to announcing our second season of shows, which in itself is a success for Urban Yeti Improv.  Thanks for reading and I have enjoyed this journey immensely.  Don’t be nervous, tell me what you think.

Surrounding me in the above picture you will find a superb cast of improv talent.  On the evening of Saturday, February 1st, we had the pleasure of putting up our ‘Frigid Affair’ show for the first time.  More importantly, it was the premiere event for Urban Yeti Improv.  We have to give a huge shout out to the Anchorage community, especially family and friends for making our first show both a premiere and a sell-out.  The pressure was certainly on, but the performers saw that and turned it into tremendous opportunity.

Rather than send the ensemble show notes, my intent for show reviews is to put them here for anyone interested to see.  I want you to see what I’m seeing when I watch a show and I want to know what you are seeing.  Feel free to share with me your thoughts and comments.  Urban Yeti Improv wants you to share in this experience with us.

I’m going to make a bold statement to lead off my review:  I’ve never seen more skill shine through in a show Mal and I have been a part of.  This reason alone makes this one of the proudest I have ever been in my improv career.  Sure, blame it on the premiere event rush or the nerves going into a sold out show, fair push, but for a long time I have been hosting shows and watching for signs of an ensemble coming together to achieve more creativity in their scenes.  Last night the opportunities were found and played.  In the beginning I was trying to write notes from the side between transitions.  After a few minutes, the scenes were so strong I just wanted to watch and enjoy.  The four performers above should be proud of the art they put on the stage.

All right all right, I’ll back it up with proof and also balance with needed improvements.  First off, I enjoyed the energy the performers brought to the stage and the audience warm-up transitioning into freeze tag showed it clearly.  Each performer started with strong voice and initiation. 

Not much to go over in the warm-ups, the Frigid Affair beginning, middle, end set is where the real juice is at.  In my previous post on base reality I mentioned we only had enough rehearsal time to emphasize foundation, but snippets of game work was emerging out of the strong offers at the top of the scene.  To be honest, I was most nervous going into our premiere event that we would have strong who/what/where but a lot of fluff/chaff dragging the energy down without specific focus on finding the inner games in rehearsal.  I was pleasantly surprised a spark fueled the performers into finding several different ideas to play off of and they kept the content interesting through a 30 minute longer form set.  In one of the stories not continued, two performers set out for Las Vegas to try and beat the casino’s and put the odds in their favor through card counting.  The scene started strong, two friends down on their luck training in card counting.  It could have easily gone to Vegas and run through the standard montage of craziness, but one of the players introduced a character trait of constantly spilling the beans, every time someone other than his friend looked at him, he felt he had a secret he couldn’t hold in and became a nervous wreck.  Even more delightful, another performer in the scene built in several straight characters (airline stewardess, card dealer) who responded as most people would: double take on the odd trait, but then back to business as normal.  Because of this, a game was developed and played several times: Blabber mouth testing the boundaries of whom in the environment actually cares about his shady activities.  Another great example was the scene which was actually developed through the whole Frigid Affair sequence:  The Horrors of Hallow Verde retirement home.  The foundation was clearly established of a family putting grandma in a retirement home.  We could of watched ole crazy Granny say curse words and treat people like crap for a whole 30 minute set, but instead an abnormality was introduced by a Hallow Verde care taker making the grandmother submissive through horrible treatment.  Beyond introducing the game of horrible treatment in a typically comforting environment, I was particularly proud of other players identifying and expanding.  Before the abnormality was dropped, another performed introduced a ‘front desk’ man at Hallow Verde who was very kind.  As the scene progressed towards the end, he added to the equation by introducing the concept every employee was in on it.  If the grandmother is treated poorly by their primary caretaker, then what if others are letting it happen?  How far would they go to keep the secret?  Excellent example of listening and communication.

I also appreciated a strong use of scene transition and pantomime.  There were several examples of players being on the same page in the environments established.  “Don’t go out into the real world, there are only freaks out there” was quickly followed by a clear window curtain opening and two players portraying ‘passer-bys’.  Inspecting grandma’s degraded state and wheel chair was quickly followed by time jumps to show previous questionable caretaker practices.  Wonderful listening and initiative by the performers.

Now for some opportunities for improvement.  Strong ideas in scenes get a little weaker when we break character and there was a bit of this throughout the show.  Not much to expand on here other than taking away we need to hold our shit because it strengthens the reality of the scene.  I say ‘we’ very strongly here because I’m also particularly weak in this area.  I’m also looking for more natural character responses.  The end of the frigid affair sequence was a good example of this.  The players struggled to find a natural ending to an epic climax they set up.  Performers were all waiting for one another to find a way to escape the miserable staff of Hallow Verde and it got a tad crazy.  But, if you run down the characters established, you had a grand daughter assertive enough to investigate the atrocities done to her elder grandmother, a weak brother who always did what he was told (sidenote: awesome knife give away), a frail grandmother who could barely walk and two employees willing to do a lot to hide the secret of Hallow Verde.  Rather than waiting for someone to take control, I feel looking into their character motivations and environment would have presented several easy opportunities.  Take a deep breath, realize there was a knife somewhere in the room, a character with the strength of resolve in saving her family, an open door not blocked by the caretakers and a grandma/little brother who might be due for a surprise.  When in doubt, when there is confusion, just look around and do what your character is inclined to do.

There were also some opportunities to improve the short form set.  It seemed the intermission weakened a bit the listening/expanding skills of the first half.  Short form needs energy, needs clear objective.  But there was less sharing and more reliance on single players to drive entire scenes.  Examples include cop driving story progression for entire two minutes of Half Life, constantly looking to the foundation player of Stand Ins for help.  We need to work on getting the same skills to help both our short and longer forms.  Strong base realities, yes and, finding the game are not just tools for long form.

Finally, I’ll morph my nervous observation above into an objective for the future.  We will make sure it doesn’t take an audience to get the skills I was so proud of seeing above.  I’m confident we are on a constant incline from first rehearsal to first show and beyond, but I want to make sure we don’t fall into show spikes followed by weaker scenes in rehearsal.

I imagine our next rehearsals will serve to strengthen natural character reactions and finding the inner games of our scene work.  But we also can’t completely drop the need to work base realities.  It will be fun to hit the notebook over the next two weeks to try and combine these themes together into a rehearsal structure.

You shouldn’t take the opportunities described above and leave on a down note.  This show was excellent, the performers were excellent.  If this was our capability after four rehearsals and one show, I’m excited to climb to new heights as we hit the stage even more.  Thank you for a wonderful experience Mal, Erik, Aneliese, John, Josh and Mike.  Thanks for the awesome support Anchorage!