IMPROV Class Shows Your Weaknesses! Great to Improve Yourself!

So not only is my improv class getting amazingly fun, I am getting braver by the second! Today was a great day in improv, I had some really funny scenes.. But BEWARE! You must still listen to EVERY word that comes out of your class mates mouths, or you can get yourself in trouble, or rather look foolish and have everyone have a great belly laugh at your expense! Which is what happened to me today, twice.

No big deal, I shook it off and laughed with them and was like UGH!! But this class for me is a God-send because, if you have flaws or areas that need fixing, you're going to lay it all out in the open in from of the world and find out about it, and everyone else will see your flaws too. My flaw is I need to listen MUCH better to what happens before I interject myself into a scene.

For instance, today we did a scene game with 2 people who start and go with a part of info grabbed from another students monologue and go with it. Then you are allowed to do a 'walk on' where you can enter their scene temporarily and have some lines, influence the scene in some way and walk off.. Their scene was from a section of a monologue where, in the story, a couple goes to Hong Kong after their wedding but plans if before the husband gets fired. So as I was planning my 'walk on', the husband states in the scene that he got fired today. I obviously did not hear him say it and I do my walk on and knock on an imaginary door for him to answer only to break the news to him that I am from his job and I am laying him off. Well, that got huge laughs because he already said he got fired today! So where was my brain! Oh well, it really was funny anyway, it's tiny words or sentences that are not processed by your brain can really bite you in the butt!

But in the long run, seeing that I have a flaw to overcome, and the exact nature of the flaw, is great, now I can work on that and nip it in the butt. This really is great for my show too. Imagine I was with a celeb and miss heard something they said and fired back with something completely stupid! It's a class like this that shows you your weaknesses' and areas that need improvement....

This class is great and worth every penny! Plus I really have nerves of steal and can get up in front of many people and do my thing, even if I screw up, it's not the end of the world, just react to screwing up like a pro and move on..

That's all for today's blog!
Rob Redstone

Spreading My Wings in IMPROV Class!

So I always do battle with myself before I go to my IMPROV class, it's a battle over fear, anxiety and attitude. But after I change my attitude, I am ready for the class. So we started off doing the regular exercises and did the singing game like we did last week. Although the energy wasn't there like it was last week. Joel said it was the most 'mellow' he had ever saw that singing game. Probably because last night was a big party night, even Joel had a slight voice problem, he said he was filming last night and that's how his voice was shot.

Anyway, we took a break, and when we got back, the class seemed to be 'ON' so that was good! We did a new exercise called the Chameleon (like the lizard) and we got into a circle and one person in the center. Then one of us goes up to him and does a character and the guy in the center has to improvise the scene and match 100% the way the person acting towards you is doing. So If I went up to that center guy and acted like 'The God Father' he had to replicate my acting but keep the conversation going back and forth for about 4 lines each, till the guy who went up to him gets tapped out by another who pretends she won the lottery and now center guy is jumping all over screaming till another tap out and now it's a child crying over losing her doll, now center guy had to copy that but make more lines to keep it going. After center guy does that for 4 times, Joel will make one of the students who came up to center dude and now he or she becomes the center person.. So always both center person and regular person are acting the same character together, no matter how crazy or outlandish!

That was a blast because these students really knew how to mess with you and make you have range from a crying baby to a star from a wild west movie so it was awesome!
Next we had 2 person scenes that again, we had to establish who we were in relation to each other and where we were. It starts from a single word called out by the audience only you had to be the character from an earlier exercise. Mine has the father of an ex-girlfriend, he was Italian from Brooklyn (an old goom-bah), he was old and had part of his vocal chords removed and was half deaf (in real life)! So I really nailed his whole sound and persona and got LOTS of laughs with that one! After, Joel critiques the skit, he used the phrase "That was VERY FUNNY" and "loved that!".. So I was in the ZONE!

I learned a lot, instead of using 'one liners', just bring life to the scene as best as you can and the laughs come automatically.. If you focus on making jokes for laughs, you will ruin the scene and may not get laughs at all.. So now I forget about the audience sitting down in from of me while I'm on stage and I just bring life to my character and the scene as a whole and go with whatever my partner says and go with it! So I definitely grew bolder today as well as others in the class did.

Anyway, I'm left knowing I'm getting better and funnier in this class, and feeling more free to do more outlandish things in front of people and having it be a good thing! Laughter is music to my ears and I got lots of that today.. Now to see one more show at the UCB theater to fill my homework obligation. I did hear a quick blurb about the show we have to put on to graduate from this class from 101 to 201. But I will not think about it till those days arrive. Now I keep hearing in my head "Take a scene study class after this". And my answer is, YES I WILL!

OH, earlier we had a character development exercise and we had to walk around and got advice from Joel as we all walked around each other and at a certain moment he said 'STOP' and we had to have a conversation with whoever was next to us in 'the character', I was 'Elf' from the movie Elf with Will Ferrell, Oh it was so good, not only did I see that movie (I forget I may like it more that Nightmare Before Christmas)20 times, I really nailed 'Elf', I did it with a young woman that happens to be from my building! (Can't wait to see her in the elevator this week! LOL) I was like "someone needs a hug!" Hah.., Oh, and I did the bit where I describe how I went through the "sea of swirly twirly gumdrops and went through the Lincoln Tunnel" Ahhhh, that was great... LOL! I also mentioned the elf's major food groups, sugar, candy, candy canes, candy corns, and more sugar!.. Until next Sundays IMPROV class!!

I hope you all enjoyed my second blog!!
Peace Out Home Dogs!
Rob Redstone

This weekends IMPROV Class!

So today was class 4 of 8 hosted at the Hyperion Theater (right between Hollywood and my home in Glendale CA, although classes are really UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade Theater) classes which I now have my class ID with. An excellent recommendation from my friend Romi Dames (Hannah Montana's Tracie Van Horn who is Hannah's friend and party planner with the nasal voice on the show). My teacher is Joel Spence who is as excellent as Romi said he would be, he has an IMDB page and has been seen on 'How I Met Your Mother' playing 'Toy Guy', if you watch that show you know how awesome it is!

Anyway, the class is PURE WORK, no kidding here, today was the first day it was more fun and mostly shot right by, well at least the first half anyway. We did almost like a game where we (16 of us) got into a circle and the teacher shouts out one word to start our direction and one of us goes in the center and sings out loud a song that that word reminds him of, (the class has to sing along if they know the words) then the class can't leave him up there singing, so if he says a word or phrase that reminds you of a song, you have to enter the circle and tap him, he is then relieved of his singing and you start your song and everyone now sings your song, and it keeps going. Man that was fun.

Joel said this exercise will be your worst nightmare or you were BORN TO DO THIS GAME. Well, me and the class were Born to do it because, we rocked it! One of my songs was from an OLD TV show theme song (show was 'Greatest American Hero') so I sang "Believe it or not, I'm waLKIN ON AIR, i NEVER THOUGHT i COULD FEEL SO FREE-EE-EE", (sorry bout the caps), I didn't think many would know it but they did and supported me immediately! Ahhhh, good times. I think being soo vulnerable like that singing when none of us, (ok one of us was good) was a good singer. But singing quality was no factor in this game, it was the continuation of a word or phrase in the song inspiring you to be next to save your buddy. You definitely see how the songs are cleverly connected! We definitely bonded during that exercise.

Next came 2 person improvisation scenes which simply cannot be predicted if they are good or bad or great or hilarious. You need to establish who you are in relation to each other and where you are during your dialogue, and sometimes you have to use an imaginary object before you can reply to each other, that was a blast!

So next week on Saturday, I resume my mentoring classes with my radio show mentor (a 20 year veteran in radio here in LA), I will be at a hub of 6 radio stations in a real radio studio and practicing announcing, voice-over and commercials, right here in GLENDALE of coarse (I got side tracked with these mentoring sessions because of my move).. And then on Sunday I will be at my IMPROV class so I will be pretty beat during my work week.. This IMPROV class has inspired me to take a 'scene study' class..and be part of a play or show here at the UCB theater. I definitely have the bug to act, some of my earlier shows I acted for comedy reasons and I enjoy physical comedy. I really want to do more than I let on that I want to do, even start an animation studio. When I went to Design school on the east coast, I learned Lightwave 3D and still have passions for 3D animation.

That's all for now! I hope you enjoyed my first blog!
Rob Redstone