26 Miles of Comedy
This weekend was the 7th Annual Del Close Marathon at the UCB Theatre, which meant 3 days STRAIGHT of shows shows shows. Today, I am tired.
The pre-kick off for the marathon happened Thursday night in Central Park with a free show with the Original Upright Citizens Brigade and a bunch of others from SNL, Comedy Central, etc.
Improv comedy is a funny thing (da dun dun - RIMSHOT!), because everybody likes to see a little funny from time to time. But only certain people want to sit some 4, 6, 12 hours at a time and see constant non-stop improv shows. It's an amazing experience, realizing that the things you see are created before you and will never be seen again because it came up out of thin air. Even if an idea is taken and developed into a sketch or movie (as many things discovered in improv are), it will still never match the original live out-of-nothingness in the moment it was created. It was amazing to watch some groups this weekend.
Also when you watch improv some 4, 6, 12 hours at a time and combine that with smart, quirky people and the wee hours of the night, strange things happen. I saw some shows on stage that were incredibly strange, and not in that strange performance art way, but more in the "this is CRAZY and I don't know what to say to the person beside me, much less the people who aren't here who will NEVER understand what i am talking about when i tell them about this." Improv is an experiential thing and that's one thing that I like about it. Being there in the moment.
The other cool thing about improv, the marathon, and the UCBT is that it's a very accessible place, unlike going to a huge concert where there's a wall between you and the performers. An example is, I was able to be in two shows this weekend. One called "The Lottery" where they had 5 seasoned improvisers on stage and then they called out dates and any UCB student who's birthday was closest to the date they called out got to get on stage as a performer. Fun, nervous experience. And then the other show I was in.....Sonic Assault....it took place at 3:30 am one night and involved some 50 people on stage in costume chanting, freestlye rap battling, dancing to techno, throwing stuffed animals, spraying baby powder around, and screaming for 30 minutes straight (all led by SNL's Rob Riggle and UCB's Matt Walsh). I know. You weren't there so it doesn't make any sense. Trust me, if you were, it'd be different. But it still wouldn't have made any sense.
Original UCB at Summerstage (Rob Riggle in the background).
View from behind my head of original UCB at Summerstage.
This is Sonic Assault. "That looks chaotic." Yes yes.
The pre-kick off for the marathon happened Thursday night in Central Park with a free show with the Original Upright Citizens Brigade and a bunch of others from SNL, Comedy Central, etc.
Improv comedy is a funny thing (da dun dun - RIMSHOT!), because everybody likes to see a little funny from time to time. But only certain people want to sit some 4, 6, 12 hours at a time and see constant non-stop improv shows. It's an amazing experience, realizing that the things you see are created before you and will never be seen again because it came up out of thin air. Even if an idea is taken and developed into a sketch or movie (as many things discovered in improv are), it will still never match the original live out-of-nothingness in the moment it was created. It was amazing to watch some groups this weekend.
Also when you watch improv some 4, 6, 12 hours at a time and combine that with smart, quirky people and the wee hours of the night, strange things happen. I saw some shows on stage that were incredibly strange, and not in that strange performance art way, but more in the "this is CRAZY and I don't know what to say to the person beside me, much less the people who aren't here who will NEVER understand what i am talking about when i tell them about this." Improv is an experiential thing and that's one thing that I like about it. Being there in the moment.
The other cool thing about improv, the marathon, and the UCBT is that it's a very accessible place, unlike going to a huge concert where there's a wall between you and the performers. An example is, I was able to be in two shows this weekend. One called "The Lottery" where they had 5 seasoned improvisers on stage and then they called out dates and any UCB student who's birthday was closest to the date they called out got to get on stage as a performer. Fun, nervous experience. And then the other show I was in.....Sonic Assault....it took place at 3:30 am one night and involved some 50 people on stage in costume chanting, freestlye rap battling, dancing to techno, throwing stuffed animals, spraying baby powder around, and screaming for 30 minutes straight (all led by SNL's Rob Riggle and UCB's Matt Walsh). I know. You weren't there so it doesn't make any sense. Trust me, if you were, it'd be different. But it still wouldn't have made any sense.
Original UCB at Summerstage (Rob Riggle in the background).
View from behind my head of original UCB at Summerstage.
This is Sonic Assault. "That looks chaotic." Yes yes.
Labels: improv
posted by cory cavin @ 6:28 PM
4 Comments:
At 9:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
coco. i am not sure what you mean when you keep referencing people not getting it unless they were there, i mean it makes perfect sense to me. but everything is clear to me and there is nothing i don't know or understand so maybe i'm alone on this.
At 11:55 PM,
Marshall said…
Cory -- who is rob riggle? Is he the guy who came up with the love toiliet commercial?
I'm watchin' now, buddy.
At 5:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
ummmmm....
At 3:02 PM,
cory cavin said…
kels,
maybe if you were there it would've made less sense b/c it was pretty much insane.
marsh,
to be honest, i don't ever watch tv and have never actually seen rob riggle on SNL currently, but he's a current SNL person and his last name rhymes with wiggle. but the love toilet is awesome....next to the commercial about insurance policies against robots who steal elderly people's prescriptions.
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