Aaagh Improv Every Day
Well, almost. Last week was fairly exhausting – in a good way, if there is such a thing. Some people tell me there is, the others tell me to have a night in. Ho hum, bring on that gorgeous manic frenzy! Perhaps that’s a bad thing, but it does feel marvellous for a while. So yeah – last week I had fun improvising from Tuesday through to Saturday night. I could really do with a couple of days leave around about now. It seems I’ll have to go to work though.
There has been a good deal of excitement: Tuesday gave us fun and games with the mob at Fisticuffs (we really must plan a show in sometime), followed by more teaching (which really does fix a crappy day and incipient migraine). Jamtimes on Thursday and then on to the shows for the weekend. We had a really nice turnout for MissImp in Action at The Glee Club. We deployed thirteen improvisers to do their stuff, and they did. We had a pretty swift and funny show, and had to deal with / incorporate a pair of rather drunk lady audience people who found occasion to shriek during some scenes. Strange, strange people. Parky laser-eyed them to death during The Shawshank Redemption.
On Saturday I had a rare treat: being invited to play elsewhere. In this case, to perform with The Same Faces in Leicester. I’d only ever met Tom Young, their frontman once before and I was very happy (and somewhat relieved) to find them a delightful bunch of chaps. They do an entirely shortform games show on the first Friday Saturday of each month at The Criterion in Leicester (first Friday in Northampton). We had a very funny show and I’m happy to have contributed to it. It’s also very nice to be invited!
The picture here (thanks to Nick Dunning for the action shot) is of me and Dave Gotheridge playing ‘Greatest Hits’, with Dave collapsing under the joy of watching the boys deliver ‘Minefield’ – a fusion of bluegrass and Icelandic throat singing. We played a lot of games I haven’t even thought of since watching Whose Line back in the olden days. It was a rather nice change of pace. I shall return…
This week I need to chill the fuck out.
♥ Last Week’s Scribbles
I’m still quite disturbed by the dream I had that I wrote up and posted last week. I don’t recommend dreams of death and horror. It seems to be all I dream of. Consequently I’m quite happy to smother my unconscious mind with amitriptilyne. Even when I woke up during a dream thinking it was just some complex logistics I awoke a second time when I realised we were working out how to dispose of a body.
This week, Monday 27th January 2014 – mostly a review of the quite terrible Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
Pulp Pirate 19 – FC 94 Road Couch – excellent pulp fiction podcast featuring a little bit of a story by yours truly.
Shankery – Angry Poetry For Liars – rargh, hate in super-short poem form.
Terrible Dreams Made Into Stories: The Swans – I have no idea why I wrote this down; it was horrible dream.
Media Intake
We were thrilled, positively thrilled to discover the new Lego Movie Lego Minifigures Series 12 in WH Smith’s. We now have all of them bar the lady construction worker (soon to follow!) The new construction sets that have been released so far seem utterly bonkers and promise great fun in the building.
I’m been chewing through books at my usual rate (I’m not sure when I’ve been doing this…) Notable recent reads include Christopher Moore‘s Practical Demonkeeping, Terry Pratchett‘s Raising Steam and Stephen Hunt’s From The Deep of The Dark. I enjoyed all three for quite different reasons. I suppose I ought to do some reviewing of all this stuff I’m consuming. Maybe later in the week.
Events and Excitement
Thursday 13th February
Gorilla Burger: improv comedy carnage
Jam show – a chance for anyone to get on stage, and a superb opportunity to get an idea of what Nottingham improv is all about.
The Corner
8 Stoney Street
(off Broad Street)
Nottingham
7.30pm – £4
https://www.facebook.com/events/218155238365760/
Friday 28th February
MissImp in Action – live improv comedy show
Thrilling all-action end of the month show sporting the best of MissImp inventing scenes and playing games.
The Glee Club
The Waterfront
Canal Street
Nottingham
8.30pm (doors open at 8pm) – £4.50 in advance/£6 on the door (£3 students/MissImp)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1419935891573539/
