Muprov Musings: Exceptionally Average Improv

Gosh this is like five episodes packed into one... Back in the day we taught a whole second version of this class where we deep dived each of them, but lets start with a fundamental understanding....
If you have strong opinions about acronyms then then you will love this episode. Let us know what team you are on in the comment ;)
#TeamCROW #TeameCROWE #COWREmpromise #hardCORE #CREWcrew

People talk a lot about supporting your partner in improv, but how do you actually make that happen? Well, everyone is different so it really depends on who your partner is! Here are some ways that we practice the meta-stuff and learn to tailor our support to the people that we play with!
Folk singer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDrKeGqV6qY
Time God:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnvYmgiqrt4 

Sometimes the best thing to do is be obvious. Why not take the path of least resistance? It can be hard to feel confident enough to do things the easy way but at the end of the day that is what fundamentals is all about!
Improv Wisdom, By Patricia Ryan Madson:
https://www.amazon.com/Improv-Wisdom-Dont-Prepare-Just/dp/1400081882 
A New Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2qDjmWah6g&t=4306s 
 

Fundamentals go deep! This episode goes from 0 to 100 starting out with the familiar mirror exercises building from Blocking to Yes And, but then taking it two steps beyond the idea of "Yes, and." Experienced improvisers can skip over some of the initial steps but hopefully it is fun to see the whole trajectory laid out! 
Mirror Study: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1108155108 
Hofstadters MU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach 

Whether you are a total beginner or a veteran, if you want to reach the next level of improvisation the best way to do it is to go back to the fundamentals! Rather than going for a traditional intro series, we will pull back the curtain and talk about teaching muprov and how to design a course to teach these fundamentals. You may know some of the exercises, but I bet you will be surprised by the way we use them :). Trey is a wonderful guest and teacher and we are so happy to have him join us to kick off this series!!!

This episode is a short one ;). Hear our takes on Impro Amsterdam, Birthdays, running, and Tob/Bottom. Stick around to the end of the episode and you might win a prize! We have a lot of fun!
Join us next week for the first episode of our Muprov Fundamentals Series! 

Fire, Earth, Water, Air. After 100 years it is finally time to put your fists together and let those eyes glow. Thats right, magic is real and you can become the improv Avatar. Similar to our episode on The Ordeal, this one explores a forbidden technique on the the frontier of what is possible. 
This episode is shorter than normal because we are saving Sign-Off-Palooza for next time! 

We break down our own way to understand status and do some status duels! If you have never heard of status, learn it, if you have heard of it, learn our way and find yourself a powerful opponent! Hal had fun dueling for the real life status in this episode as well :). 

Miranda stays on the podcast to debrief the Tailor of Malta. (So listen to episode 09 if you haven't). Seeing how improvisors analyze their own shows is a great way to apply that learning to your own improv! Stick around for the sign off to get the low down on Swedish dish-clothes, Homebrew Syrups, and drinking Sap. 

John Mistele, Miranda Johnson, and Will Gutzman join the podcast to put on a special Shakespeare show full of hats, shipwrecks, and gnomes! I won't spoiler the ending but boy are there surprises in store....