Blog
by Steve Roe,
co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro.
Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
I'm on a bit of a break from teaching and performing until September now, and I woke up with these happy memories of the year so far and thought I'd share:
DANGER: DRAMA LUVIE ALERT!!!
End of Course Shows
These are actually my favourite shows ever, it's so exciting seeing people performing improv for the first time and it's always amazing seeing them blow the roof off The Miller! It was great having Steve Tanner and Jon Keene in a performance course, two old school friends of mine who actually named Hoopla years ago accidentally on camping trip to Devon. Also it was great having Hannah from Theatre Delicatessen and Nomad Studio doing a course, it's a classic case of Theatre Deli bonding people together and helping people learn from each other.
Anthony Atamanuik, The Nursery, C3Something
I was lucky enough to do some workshops with Anthony Atamanuik (Death by Roo Roo, UCB). He'd always been a performer I'd love watching (here he is in a monoscene, https://youtu.be/eyeFemMm9s0) so it was really inspiring to be taught by him too. His workshops felt totally in synch with what I want to do in improv, and it really woke me up to how funny and exciting improv can be.
Many thanks to C3Something and The Nursery and Slapdash Festival for getting him and so many other great people over. In London we are in the amazing position of having people from all over the world coming to teach us and perform, it's becoming a melting pot of improv and the improv casserole it is creating tastes delicious.
Hoopla Summer Festival
We tried out our first ever summer festival of improv with around 25 shows over two days. I enjoyed it so much I actually can't wait to do it again, probably for few more days next summer and maybe a smaller winter version too. I have the greatest respect for Little Sebastian, who did the last act of the first night and even though it was really late and many of the audience had gone to catch last tubes they were totally professional, upbeat and put on a great show. Also LadyG who performed solo and yet was totally committed to big emotions in scenes and combined clowning and improv really well, she also made me laugh loudly from the sound booth. Also Excursions ending the second night with Ella screaming from the back and then transforming the noise into the most beautiful song that has ever happened. Also also also so many fun acts and lovely volunteers and thanks everyone! Oh gosh I'm turning into a lovie. Sod it, nothing wrong with that, I'm a lovie.
Audience
I love our audience, we really do have the best audience ever. People who watched ever show at our festival, we salute you! People waiting to get on front row for RH and Friends. People volunteering to be in games off the cuff. People putting up with the sound of the kitchen next door during a quiet scene on stage. It's great that we now have an improv audience, oh my gosh that's lovely, and we want to keep booking in fun and interesting things for people to see and participate in.
New Improvisers
It took me bloody ages to pluck up the courage to perform in an improv show, and then ages again to do my second one. So it's amazing to see improvisers who are new to the scene be so supportive and so committed right from the start, there's a real spirit of anything is possible right now and new people are bring new energy that is inspiring everyone.
Teachers
I love having more teachers with us now, being able to catch up after workshops and swap notes and exercises has been really fun and made it clearer what we are doing and why. The moment I'm lacking motivation or energy I talk to one of them and they pick me up. I actually don't know where they all get their energy from actually, but it's contagious on a good way.
Improvised Opera
I love doing this so much. It's with a good friend of mine (Becca Marriott) who is a trained opera singer (unlike me) and it's so much fun it's like being on a rollercoaster. I'm hoping to do more of this inbetween Becca doing 'proper' operas.
Theatre Delicatessen
This place has made such a massive difference to us. Having a place with so much reasonably priced rehearsal space has enabled us to do more, and also helped the improv scene to work together. There were many nights where I think there were about 6 improv groups on the same night, and then hanging out in the bar after. The staff there are amazing too, so professional and friendly.
The Miller
It's also great having a lovely place like The Miller to work with. We've got a really great relationship with James and the rest of the team, and they are really supportive of improv, so it's lovely being in synch with a venue like that. I love being able to buy cider by the box at a pub too, although that is slightly jealous and usually results in me having to get a night bus after some dodgy fried chicken in Borough High Street.
Performing with Friends
I recently read a blog with some advice from Amy Poehler (http://hellogiggles.com/amy-poehler-comedy-wisdom/) where she said to focus on doing good stuff friends, and I couldn't agree more. In fact I now have it stuck on a post it note above my computer. I love meeting up with people like Joel and Sophie on a Friday morning to record some improvised sketches, or teams to film things, or George and I improvising in the kitchen, or House Band to play some games, that's what it's all about. So hopefully in Autumn we'll be 'getting gooder' with more friends.
Drinking Buddies Sketch
I'm slowly but surely working out how to film sketches and improv, and have tried out a few things this summer. One sketch was The Drinking Buddies Sketch (not yet edited) which was so much fun. I found myself writing something down without thinking ("10 people are stood in my bedroom shouting wake up") and then on the day there's this "holy shit this is real" feeling. Everything we've filmed so far has been so much fun to do, mainly it's the bringing people together and making something from nothing. I'm going to be editing soon and we are going to film loads more in the autumn. It's much harder work than I thought, so new found respect for directors and editors, but also much more fun that I thought.
Pubnic
The big improv picnic turned into a pubnic due to bad weather, but it was still really fun and nice to chat to people I don't usually get to chat to, without having to worry about last tubes or night buses.
And loads more, so thanks everyone! Have a great summer and we'll be back with loads more shows and workshops and things from September.
Blog
by Steve Roe,
co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro.
Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
Wednesday, 29 July 2015
Friday, 29 May 2015
Stop measuring yourself against others
Blog
by Steve Roe,
co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro.
Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
Recently I've had a few people in workshops who have been looking like they've been having a great time all workshop, have been really fun in all the games, and yet afterwards have revealed in the pub or over email that they actually felt like they were doing really 'badly' and were the 'worse' in the group.
Often there is a large gap between how we perceive ourselves and how we are perceived by others. Most of the performers I know still have this, as do loads of people new to improv.
So why do measure ourselves to others?
Here's my own experience:
I signed up for a week long intensive workshop with a visting US teacher the other year. Only torwards the end of the week did I realise that all I'd been thinking about was how well I was doing as compared to the rest of the group, whether I was the best or not, and collecting compliments the teacher said to me like mushrooms in Mario Kart. What a waste of time! It could have been a golden opportunity to form a team with the people there, to really bond, to maybe form a show group. But it was just me and my ego, sitting in the corner with my notepad.
For me I think this attitude is a leftover from my education.
At school with GCSEs and A-Levels we had to line up to collect our results from the headteacher. One by one we walked into his office, were given our grades, and then had to walk out where there would be about 100 of our year group who would then immediately know. Everyone knew what everyone else had got. We'd been told these results were the most important things in our lives, so how good you felt about yourself was directly connected to what you got and what you got compared to everyone else.
At my university our final results were stuck on a wall. Not a facebook wall, an actual wall. They weren't listed in alphabetical order, but in order of grade. So you would go up and start at the top looking for your name, and the further down you got until you found your name the worse you had done. Everyone else's grades were there to see, everyone knew what everyone else had got, and all they talked about in the pub afterwards was what everyone had got. Being better than everyone meant 'happy', being worse meant 'sad'.
When studying for most exams there were right and wrong answers (I did a lot of Maths), and right and wrong methods of getting to these answers. Our value and efforts had a directly measurable result that could be directly compared to others, and my entire self worth was wrapped up in my postion in that hierarchy.
After that there were job interviews, with lots of friends going for similar jobs, and people either got jobs ('happy') or didn't ('sad'), and then there was how much they get paid, yet again more ways for people to measure themselves against others.
However in improv, and most creative endeavours, there is no right or wrong. This takes ages to really 'get'. There is no right or wrong, no correct outcome, no limits and no rules. The only person that can define what you want to do is you. This is scary at first but eventually liberating. You can do anything you want. What do you want to do on stage or screen? Do that. What do you find beautiful and fun? Do that. Nobody else can tell you that. Courses and things might offer options but really it's up to you to then take what you like and do what you love.
This can be a breakthrough for beginners. Sometimes they stop mid game and say they don't know what to do, but if you ask them what they actually feel like doing, and they do it, genius can come out. After years in work or education where there is a mystical correct way of doing everything, and a prescribed sequence of actions to be learnt, to be in a fully open and creative environment can be frightening at first but eventually liberating.
Similarly for performing groups. For ages they can try and perfect a set form, but usually they become amazing when they discover what is unique about them and pursue what they find fun, and often discover a whole new thing.
Because there is no defined value or grading system, because it's an artistic endeavour and therefore defined by the artist, there is actually no reason to compare yourself to others. Every group is singing their own song, so just sing the song you love.
Yet sometimes we don't do the things we love in improv or the arts because we fear being measured by others, but nobody can do that as there is no grading system in the first place, there is no right or wrong. A 100m runner can't tell a 100m swimmer they are too slow at the 100m, they are doing their own thing.
So you can't do 'badly' at improv as there is no right or wrong in the first place, it is an act of pure art and creativity. And you can't be the 'worse' in the group because there is no grading system.
There are no rules in improv. There are some guidelines that help people play together, but the only person that can define the values/rules/ is you and you are totally free to do what you want.
Blog by Steve Roe, co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro. Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
Recently I've had a few people in workshops who have been looking like they've been having a great time all workshop, have been really fun in all the games, and yet afterwards have revealed in the pub or over email that they actually felt like they were doing really 'badly' and were the 'worse' in the group.
Often there is a large gap between how we perceive ourselves and how we are perceived by others. Most of the performers I know still have this, as do loads of people new to improv.
So why do measure ourselves to others?
Here's my own experience:
I signed up for a week long intensive workshop with a visting US teacher the other year. Only torwards the end of the week did I realise that all I'd been thinking about was how well I was doing as compared to the rest of the group, whether I was the best or not, and collecting compliments the teacher said to me like mushrooms in Mario Kart. What a waste of time! It could have been a golden opportunity to form a team with the people there, to really bond, to maybe form a show group. But it was just me and my ego, sitting in the corner with my notepad.
For me I think this attitude is a leftover from my education.
At school with GCSEs and A-Levels we had to line up to collect our results from the headteacher. One by one we walked into his office, were given our grades, and then had to walk out where there would be about 100 of our year group who would then immediately know. Everyone knew what everyone else had got. We'd been told these results were the most important things in our lives, so how good you felt about yourself was directly connected to what you got and what you got compared to everyone else.
At my university our final results were stuck on a wall. Not a facebook wall, an actual wall. They weren't listed in alphabetical order, but in order of grade. So you would go up and start at the top looking for your name, and the further down you got until you found your name the worse you had done. Everyone else's grades were there to see, everyone knew what everyone else had got, and all they talked about in the pub afterwards was what everyone had got. Being better than everyone meant 'happy', being worse meant 'sad'.
When studying for most exams there were right and wrong answers (I did a lot of Maths), and right and wrong methods of getting to these answers. Our value and efforts had a directly measurable result that could be directly compared to others, and my entire self worth was wrapped up in my postion in that hierarchy.
After that there were job interviews, with lots of friends going for similar jobs, and people either got jobs ('happy') or didn't ('sad'), and then there was how much they get paid, yet again more ways for people to measure themselves against others.
However in improv, and most creative endeavours, there is no right or wrong. This takes ages to really 'get'. There is no right or wrong, no correct outcome, no limits and no rules. The only person that can define what you want to do is you. This is scary at first but eventually liberating. You can do anything you want. What do you want to do on stage or screen? Do that. What do you find beautiful and fun? Do that. Nobody else can tell you that. Courses and things might offer options but really it's up to you to then take what you like and do what you love.
This can be a breakthrough for beginners. Sometimes they stop mid game and say they don't know what to do, but if you ask them what they actually feel like doing, and they do it, genius can come out. After years in work or education where there is a mystical correct way of doing everything, and a prescribed sequence of actions to be learnt, to be in a fully open and creative environment can be frightening at first but eventually liberating.
Similarly for performing groups. For ages they can try and perfect a set form, but usually they become amazing when they discover what is unique about them and pursue what they find fun, and often discover a whole new thing.
Because there is no defined value or grading system, because it's an artistic endeavour and therefore defined by the artist, there is actually no reason to compare yourself to others. Every group is singing their own song, so just sing the song you love.
Yet sometimes we don't do the things we love in improv or the arts because we fear being measured by others, but nobody can do that as there is no grading system in the first place, there is no right or wrong. A 100m runner can't tell a 100m swimmer they are too slow at the 100m, they are doing their own thing.
So you can't do 'badly' at improv as there is no right or wrong in the first place, it is an act of pure art and creativity. And you can't be the 'worse' in the group because there is no grading system.
There are no rules in improv. There are some guidelines that help people play together, but the only person that can define the values/rules/ is you and you are totally free to do what you want.
Blog by Steve Roe, co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro. Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
Thursday, 21 May 2015
The Spirit of Improv
Blog
by Steve Roe,
co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro.
Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
There are structural things to improv, the things that hold a show together and enable people to work together as a team, but underlying that is the spirit of improv.
Here's what the spirit of improv means to me at the moment, written in no particular order as it comes to me:
An audience is watching, your friend walks on stage and does something, you have no idea what they are doing, you jump on and join them anyway. You've never done any acting or improv or anything like that before, you sign up to an impro workshop anyway, you feel terrified on the day but you walk into the room anyway and throw yourself into it. You go and watch a jam, they ask for people to sign up, you weren't going to but you sign up anyway, you end up performing with someone you've only just met on stage. You ask for a genre from the audience, they shout out "French new wave" or something, you have no idea what that it is but do it anyway. You're doing a show that seems bigger than you were expecting, you feel nervous back stage but run on stage anyway and throw caution to the wind. You're doing a show that seems smaller than you were expecting, you feel nervous back stage but run on stage anyway and throw caution to the wind. You have a choice between doing the show that you feel safe in and the show that you're not sure about but excites you, you do the latter show, or both. You do the shows and things you love. You see someone do an amazing scene and rather than feel jealous you walk up to them and tell them how much you loved it. You get a room with some people you've just met in a workshop and attempt to create something beautiful with them. You put on a show in a small room above a pub in your hometown to friends and family using games you've only read about in a book and play them your own way. You go to the South Bank and do something on the streets just because. You jump in with emotion or movement so you haven't got time to think. You make it your job to support everything that gets said right from the start. You bring biscuits to a room of improvisers that weren't expecting them. The audience gives a suggestion, nobody goes on stage, the lights shine brightly, you don't have any idea what to do, but go on stage anyway. You feel so connected to your team that it's like time slows down. You're not sure what you're doing, you're going through an improv slump, you turn up anyway and get on stage and have fun anyway. You're back stage and one of your cast looks nervous, you give them a hug and make them smile. You're in story, someone says something that you don't understand, you back them up and support the hell out of everything.
Blog by Steve Roe, co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro. Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
There are structural things to improv, the things that hold a show together and enable people to work together as a team, but underlying that is the spirit of improv.
Here's what the spirit of improv means to me at the moment, written in no particular order as it comes to me:
An audience is watching, your friend walks on stage and does something, you have no idea what they are doing, you jump on and join them anyway. You've never done any acting or improv or anything like that before, you sign up to an impro workshop anyway, you feel terrified on the day but you walk into the room anyway and throw yourself into it. You go and watch a jam, they ask for people to sign up, you weren't going to but you sign up anyway, you end up performing with someone you've only just met on stage. You ask for a genre from the audience, they shout out "French new wave" or something, you have no idea what that it is but do it anyway. You're doing a show that seems bigger than you were expecting, you feel nervous back stage but run on stage anyway and throw caution to the wind. You're doing a show that seems smaller than you were expecting, you feel nervous back stage but run on stage anyway and throw caution to the wind. You have a choice between doing the show that you feel safe in and the show that you're not sure about but excites you, you do the latter show, or both. You do the shows and things you love. You see someone do an amazing scene and rather than feel jealous you walk up to them and tell them how much you loved it. You get a room with some people you've just met in a workshop and attempt to create something beautiful with them. You put on a show in a small room above a pub in your hometown to friends and family using games you've only read about in a book and play them your own way. You go to the South Bank and do something on the streets just because. You jump in with emotion or movement so you haven't got time to think. You make it your job to support everything that gets said right from the start. You bring biscuits to a room of improvisers that weren't expecting them. The audience gives a suggestion, nobody goes on stage, the lights shine brightly, you don't have any idea what to do, but go on stage anyway. You feel so connected to your team that it's like time slows down. You're not sure what you're doing, you're going through an improv slump, you turn up anyway and get on stage and have fun anyway. You're back stage and one of your cast looks nervous, you give them a hug and make them smile. You're in story, someone says something that you don't understand, you back them up and support the hell out of everything.
Blog by Steve Roe, co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro. Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
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