Dance Prov...

It seems like I am taking longer and longer to enter these blogs. I'm sorry about that! So we hosted Improvisational Open Mic Night on Friday, April 30 in the Comedy Lounge of The DC Improv. There were about 25 players interested in performing and roughly 20 audience members there to get some free laughs. I was trying to be creative and think of a new way to open up the show to get people focused so I decided to play a quick game of "Simon Says". I have to admit that game is way more fun as a kid but at least it got everyone on their feet moving around for a bit. I also tried to start off the evening with a new twist following that. I called it "Dance Prov". Basically, I called three actors to the stage; played a song where the actors had to move around and dance. When I stopped the song from the back whatever position the actors were in; they had to freeze that way and start the scene from that position. (It was a twist on Freeze Tag). I have to pat myself on the back and congratulate the actors who played along with me when I played Sarah Mclaughlin's "Angel". HAHAHAHA...some things I do just for me. We played mostly short form games for the rest of the night and of course ended it with the standard "Lines from a Hat". Thanks to everyone who came out to the event. Regarding the next one; I don't know when it will be yet (hence the delay in this blog) since I have some personal things and priorities I have to deal with. Email me at allyson@dcimprov.com if you are interested in the event and I hope to get a new date finalized soon.
Happy Improvising!

I Saw You Improvise...

I know, it's been a very very long time and I am way behind on this update. I'm sorry but things have been very hectic for me this past month (and it doesn't seem to be slowing down). So here's a quick recall of what I can remember from March 5th. I opened the show with some excerpts of my first boyfriend's love letters which I believe were disturbing and funny all at the same time. We did some standard warm-ups, yelled a whole bunch, etc. I had about 40 people in the room and at least 30 interested in playing. I did some oldies but goodies and tried a couple of new things. The thing about new things is that they are hit or miss. For example, I tried to be topical and do Deleted Scenes strictly based on the 10 2010 Oscar Nominated Films. BOMBED! That was a bad idea. So I switched it up and decided to read some excerpts out of the City Paper in the Personals Section under "I Saw You". Scenes were developed based on those premises and I think in the end I can call this one a success. We had a ton of laughs and it was a very relaxed environment. Some new people gave Improv a shot while the old schoolers flaunted their skills. Red Dragon and Menorah Sailboat debuted some long form improv while Gio did his one man improv sketch. Of course we ended with Lines from a Hat, all in all I think we had a very enjoyable evening and thanks to all those who came out for the event. You definitely get your money's worth coming out to this event.

Now, like I mentioned things are extremely busy for me so the next open mic night won't be until Friday, April 30th in The DC Improv Comedy Lounge. Doors open at 6:30pm and sign-up is until 7:30pm. The show will begin promptly at 8:05pm and its FREE. I hope you can make it!

The first one of 2010...

So I know I am way behind writing this blog since the first DC Improvisational Open Mic night of 2010 took place on Friday, January 22nd. Sorry but things have been hectic for me here. Let me first say that I was so not expecting a big crowd to come out. In fact, I woke up not feeling that well and I had mentally prepared earlier in the day for an intimate crowd with mostly people I knew so it would be a fairly easy night. Man was I wrong! There was standing room only and the place was packed. It completely took me by surprise and I was not prepared for it. The only plus was that I was able to use an opening video from a year or so ago (the sex tape) since most people there hadn't seen it. I started the night off and again, I was not firing at the top of my game. I made sure to explain to the crowd that this event is free and that is a safe place for people. I had about 30 people interested in performing that night. We had some hits and missed throughout the evening and I felt that the energy in the room was on the lower end. I guess that's to be expected when it's freezing outside and it's a Friday night in DC. Regardless we pulled it through and everyone got stage time. I brought back the Superheros game since it was a huge success the month before as well as some of the regular hits. However, for the first time in 3 years I actually relinquished my job as the host to my friend Phillipe since I was not feeling well about 2/3 through the evening. This was extremely emotional and hard for me to do since DC Improvisational Open Mic Night had been my baby from the start. I never missed a night hosting and I took that kind of hard. But many thanks to Phillipe and the offers from other people who said they would cover me if I ever needed it. My job can be exhausting and sometimes I just don't have it in me. I have come to realize that my health takes precedent and that in the end it's not about me hosting; it's about giving the opportunity to the community of improvisers out there so they have a place to let go and practice their skills. I'm taking February off but will return on Friday, March 5, 2010. Sign-up is 6:30pm - 7:30pm and the show will begin at 8:05 pm.

The last day of Hannukkah...

Was awesome! I couldn't think of a better way to spend the final night of the festival of lights than with some funny improv people. Improv Open Mic Night was hosted on Friday, December 18, 2009. Not only was this the final night of Hanukkah but it was also my 3 year anniversary since I started this forum back in Dec 2006. Time flies! We had a great group of people with about 30 wanting to perform. There were some new faces in the crowd and some other people who were at the first ever event back in 2006 (thanks Loser Josh folks!). I opened the night up with a karaoke video I made to Adam Sandler's "Chanukkah Song". We had a few laughs and were ready to kick off the show. Some of the highlights of the night were, "Diwali" , "Jizz in a drink" (I don't know how that came into play) and of course the "Amateur Rap Battle". The Rap battle was amazing. In the true spirit of Improv, the other people on stage caught on and jumped in. It was a true "Yo Mama" show in action and everyone was "yes anding"...it was awesome! Some new things I tried was a Superheros game with a large group of people. I think that worked really well and I'll definitely bring it back. Everyone got to perform on stage at least twice and of course we did the lightning round of Lines From A Hat to end the event. Thanks to everyone who has supported this forum for the past three years. It looks like I will be returning on Friday, January 22, 2010 in The DC Improv Comedy Lounge. Sign-up is 6:30pm - 7:30pm and the show will begin at 8:05 pm. See you in the New Year!

Here's an email I received from a new patron to Improv Open Mic Night. I think she summed this up better than I could.
"Last night was totally hilarious and fun in a really supportive environment despite me knowing only 2 other people there, Allyson and Dan. It was fun cool and exciting like if your friends were standing around a trampoline/net thing and had to toss you up into the air and were
responsible and concerned for your safety as well and made sure you did not fall or bounce off, painfully, into thorny bushes somewhere. So that nurturing, watchful, considerate person was Allyson! Go girl and thanks for taking it easy on me and still getting me up on stage.
It was just fantastic and fun! For me, the biggest surprise of the night was the mean, fierce, sick and quick lyrical genius from our own Dan, who was the obvious champion in the Rap Rival scenario. Our whole table ( and yes, we met 6 new people last night who sat with us) was totally proud of Dan in all his scenes. You'd never guess he kept saying he was nervous--his style, with the thoughtful pause and then spewing out something hilarious and unexpected, worked really well. The other hilarious moment of the night was a theme that threaded through many of the acts, and that was Diwali, which then evolved into Diwanzaa and Diwannukah. Globalization and diversity in comedy, man, I was diggin it. You could see the folks using what Shawn's outfitted us with--the who/where/emotional response, the human madlib, and others. It was really funny to see when one actor would come behind another actor to add more waving and spinning hands to liken the Hindu God Shiva/Vishnu/Ram...it was all over the place, it was great!
Just wanted to share with you guys. We are gonna have so much fun, this is cool!
Hope you are staying warm and cozy on this snowfilled saturday.
See you on Monday! shaps"

New Date Announced!

The next open mic night will be held on Friday, December 18, 2009 in The DC Improv Comedy Lounge. Sign-up to play is 6:30pm - 7:30pm and the show will begin at 8:05 pm.

I hope you can make it...this is the 3 year anniversary show of this event. Time flies when you are having fun improvising.

How many Firemen does it take to unplug a microwave?

The answer is 38; which we learned this past Friday when I hosted DC Improvisational Open Mic night in the Comedy Lounge. Even though I was exhausted that night I decided to open with a personal story that has an embarrassing element to it. At every open mic night, the goal of the forum is to create a place where there is no such thing as making a fool out of yourself so what better way to create that atmosphere than by throwing myself under the bus for other people's enjoyment? After I told the story, I invited 3 improv actors to come on stage and reenact the events that had taken place. We had a good laugh; we all screamed and we got ready to start the show. We had about 40 people in the audience with roughly half interested in performing. I did some regular games and attempted a couple of new ones. Since it was Friday the 13th I decided to create a game based on superstitions. I found a list of superstitions and set up 2 person scenes based on the superstition I read aloud. This game seemed to work pretty well. Another new one that I think was successful was a game called "Sounds Like a Song". Basic premise is it is a series of 2 person scenes and at one point during the scene one actor leads the scene into a song. I tried to get everyone on stage at least twice in the evening in addition to the lightning round of scenes from a hat. The Migraines, Gio and The Unemployed performed as well that night. All in all, I think it was a successful event (even though I was not bringing my A game) and thank those people who came out to the show. We had about a 50/50 split between new folks and regular attendees so thanks again.

The next one is still in the works. I'll keep you posted.

Boo! Macarena! Quiet Please!

Alright, so I am almost 2 weeks late writing this entry and I'm sorry about that. I hosted Improvisational Open Mic night on October 9th to a standing room only crowd. Since it was October, I decided to start off the show with something scary. So I made a short video that featured some funny/scary moments of people tormenting their kids by scaring them (thanks America's Funniest Videos) followed by the music of Los Del Rio's "Macarena", which is scary all on its own. It was not the best opening but it was an opening and we had a few laughs and got ready to improvise. I decided to open this month up to just solo performers and I did not have slots for groups. I think in the end I had almost 40 people I wanted to get stage time so I tried to do some larger group games to give people a chance. Some of them were great...others not so much. Here's a list of successful ones: Before or After, Ally Says, Freeze Tag and probably the best was Deleted Scenes. For deleted scenes, I chose a group of 10 improv actors and used only scary movies. The goal was to re create scenes that were cut from that particular movie. Too bad I can't do scary movies every month. In March, I can probably choose to work with Leprechaun 1 - 5; so start watching those movies now to be prepared. Now, we once again did Mystery Date which went over okay but we did need some assistance from random "clue people" to help with the guessing. Plus I got totally distracted by a group of people who were drunk and very loud seated right next to me and clearly lost interest in the show (they were not improvisers, they were friends of one). To the point where "fun and playful Ally" turned into "club manager get these people to be quiet Ally". I had addressed them from the stage a couple of times and then finally I had to address them off the stage, it was at this point that one of the larger group games kinda tanked. I tried to do a musical genre game after but it was a mess so we switched to a game of World's Worst (thanks to a suggestion from the audience because I was too frazzled by the disrepectful group - can you tell I'm still bent from that?). Of course we ended with the lightning round of "Lines From A Hat". Overall we had a good time and I was shocked at how crowded it was. I guess that means I'll be back for another month. Next one is scheduled for Friday, November 13 in The DC Improv Comedy Lounge. Sign-up is from 6:30-7:30 pm and the show will begin at 8:05 pm. See you then!!