"You Guys Are F**ing Hardcore."
That's a direct quote.
I was at the B.A.R.T. station waiting for the transfer back to my friend's apt. in El Cerrito. We had just come from "Let It Snow," an improv show by the Unscripted Theater Company (www.un-scripted.com). They're very good, by the way, you should go see them.
Myself, Amber, and John were waiting for the train and thinking about old times. John came down for Thanksgiving from Oregon, and we were having a reunion. We used to be in our own Improv group, just the three of us. Watching the show brought back memories.
John said, "It makes me want to do some improv."
Amber responded by going into a warm-up we used to do, called "The Huddle." Basically, you start by doing a repetitive motion, combined with a sound (doesn't have to make sense). Once everybody's been doing their own random motion and noise for a bit, they slowly start to change theirs for someone else's. There's no cue. The rule is, if you feel really into what you're doing, you keep doing it. But if you don't feel that into it, then look at what the others are doing, and you transform your motion into one of theirs that you like. All kinds of things can come out of this: scenes, characters, motives.
So there we are, on the platform, making weird noises and strange repetitive gestures as people rush by catching their train.
We didn't do it for very long. Just one transition and what might have turned into a scene, but then we stopped. And that's when I notice the guy staring at us. "What the hell was that?"
We started laughing our asses off.
We gave a short explanation of what we were doing, and the whole time, his eyes were wide like he couldn't believe what he just saw. He said, "You should've seen the look on people's faces when they went by."
And then he follows up with the quote we've decided will be our motto if we ever do a reunion show: "You guys are fucking hardcore."
Good times.
I was at the B.A.R.T. station waiting for the transfer back to my friend's apt. in El Cerrito. We had just come from "Let It Snow," an improv show by the Unscripted Theater Company (www.un-scripted.com). They're very good, by the way, you should go see them.
Myself, Amber, and John were waiting for the train and thinking about old times. John came down for Thanksgiving from Oregon, and we were having a reunion. We used to be in our own Improv group, just the three of us. Watching the show brought back memories.
John said, "It makes me want to do some improv."
Amber responded by going into a warm-up we used to do, called "The Huddle." Basically, you start by doing a repetitive motion, combined with a sound (doesn't have to make sense). Once everybody's been doing their own random motion and noise for a bit, they slowly start to change theirs for someone else's. There's no cue. The rule is, if you feel really into what you're doing, you keep doing it. But if you don't feel that into it, then look at what the others are doing, and you transform your motion into one of theirs that you like. All kinds of things can come out of this: scenes, characters, motives.
So there we are, on the platform, making weird noises and strange repetitive gestures as people rush by catching their train.
We didn't do it for very long. Just one transition and what might have turned into a scene, but then we stopped. And that's when I notice the guy staring at us. "What the hell was that?"
We started laughing our asses off.
We gave a short explanation of what we were doing, and the whole time, his eyes were wide like he couldn't believe what he just saw. He said, "You should've seen the look on people's faces when they went by."
And then he follows up with the quote we've decided will be our motto if we ever do a reunion show: "You guys are fucking hardcore."
Good times.