Chicago Style Improv Comedy

Author : Amy E. Seham
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 508 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Comedy
ISBN : WISC:89090028960

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Chicago-style Improv-comedy by Amy E. Seham Pdf

Author : Amy E. Seham
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2009-10-20
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781496802026

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Whose Improv Is It Anyway? by Amy E. Seham Pdf

On both sides of the stage improv-comedy's popularity has increased exponentially throughout the 1980s and '90s and into the new millennium. Presto! An original song is created out of thin air. With nothing but a suggestion from the audience, daring young improvisers working without a net or a script create hilarious characters, sketches, and songs. Thrilled by the danger, the immediacy, and the virtuosity of improv-comedy, spectators laugh and cheer. American improv-comedy burst onto the scene in the 1950s with Chicago's the Compass Players (best known for the brilliant comedy duo Mike Nichols and Elaine May) and the Second City, which launched the careers of many popular comedians, including Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and Mike Myers. Chicago continues to be a mecca for young performers who travel from faraway places to study improv. At the same time, the techniques of Chicago improv have infiltrated classrooms, workshops, rehearsals, and comedy clubs across North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Improv's influence is increasingly evident in contemporary films and in interactive entertainment on the internet. Drawing on the experiences of working improvisers, Whose Improv Is It Anyway? provides a never-before-published account of developments beyond Second City's mainstream approach to the genre. This fascinating history chronicles the origins of "the Harold," a sophisticated new "long-form" style of improv developed in the '80s at ImprovOlympic and details the importance and pitfalls of ComedySports. Here also is a backstage glimpse at the Annoyance Theatre, best known on the national scene for its production of The Real Live Brady Bunch. Readers will get the scoop on the recent work of players who, feeling excluded by early improv's "white guys in ties," created such independent groups as the Free Associates and the African American troupe Oui Be Negroes. There is far more to the art of improv than may be suggested by the sketches on Saturday Night Live or the games on Whose Line Is It Anyway? This history, an insider's look at the evolution of improv-comedy in Chicago, reveals the struggles, the laughter, and the ideals of mutual support, freedom, and openness that have inspired many performers. It explores the power games, the gender inequities, and the racial tensions that can emerge in improvised performance, and it shares the techniques and strategies veteran players use to combat these problems. Improv art is revealed to be an art of compromise, a fragile negotiation between the poles of process and product. The result, as shown here, can be exciting, shimmering, magical, and not exclusively the property of any troupe or actor.

Author : Rob Kozlowski
Publisher : Heinemann Drama
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Education
ISBN : UOM:39015056263695

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The Art of Chicago Improv by Rob Kozlowski Pdf

Kozlowski traces the history of improvisational acting in Chicago from the days of Viola Spolin to the appearance of the Compass, Second City, and today's practitioners

Author : M. Fotis
Publisher : Springer
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2014-02-11
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781137376589

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Long Form Improvisation and American Comedy by M. Fotis Pdf

Long form scenic improv began with the Harold. The comic philosophy of this form started an era of comedy marked by support, trust, and collaboration. This book tells of the Harold, beginning with the development of improv theatre, through the tensions and evolutions that led to its creation at iO, and to its use in contemporary filmmaking.

Author : Matt Fotis,Siobhan O'Hara
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2015-10-14
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781317390176

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The Comedy Improv Handbook by Matt Fotis,Siobhan O'Hara Pdf

The Comedy Improv Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to University Improvisational Comedy in Theatre and Performance is a one-stop resource for both improv teachers and students, covering improv history, theory, maxims, exercises, games, and structures. You will learn the necessary skills and techniques needed to become a successful improviser, developing a basic understanding of the history of improvisation and its major influences, structures, and theories. This book also addresses issues associated with being a college improviser – like auditions, rehearsals, performances, and the dynamics of improv groups.

Author : C. Drinko
Publisher : Springer
Page : 133 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2013-04-05
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781137335296

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Theatrical Improvisation, Consciousness, and Cognition by C. Drinko Pdf

Improvisation teachers have long known that the human mind could be trained to be effortlessly spontaneous and intuitive. Drinko explores what these improvisation teachers knew about improvisation's effects on consciousness and cognition and compares these theories to current findings in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.

Author : Charna Halpern,Del Close,Kim Johnson
Publisher : Meriwether Publishing
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : Improvisation (Acting)
ISBN : 1566080037

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Truth in Comedy by Charna Halpern,Del Close,Kim Johnson Pdf

The 'Harold', an innovative improvisational tool, helped many actors on the road to TV and film stardom, including George Wendt (Norm on Cheers). Now it is described fully in this new book for would-be actors and comics. The 'Harold' is a form of competitive improv involving 6 or 7 players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and 'free associate' on the theme into a series of rapid-fire one-liners that build into totally unpredictable skits with hilarious results. The 'Harold' is a fun way to 'loosen up' and learn to think quickly, build continuity, develop characterisations and sharpen humour.

Author : Sam Wasson
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 485 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : HISTORY
ISBN : 9780544557208

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Improv Nation by Sam Wasson Pdf

A sweeping yet intimate--and often hilarious--history of a uniquely American art form that has never been more popular

Author : Lonely Planet,Mark Andrew,Amy C Balfour,Sarah Baxter,Andrew Bender,Sara Benson,Alison Bing,Nate Cavalieri,Lisa Dunford,Tom Hall,Mariella Krause,Alex Leviton,Emily Matchar,Christopher Pitts,Brendan Sainsbury,Simon Sellars,Adam Skolnick,Regis St Louis,Karla Zimmerman,Paul Bloomfield
Publisher : Lonely Planet
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2018-04-01
Category : Travel
ISBN : 9781787019638

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Lonely Planet Experience USA by Lonely Planet,Mark Andrew,Amy C Balfour,Sarah Baxter,Andrew Bender,Sara Benson,Alison Bing,Nate Cavalieri,Lisa Dunford,Tom Hall,Mariella Krause,Alex Leviton,Emily Matchar,Christopher Pitts,Brendan Sainsbury,Simon Sellars,Adam Skolnick,Regis St Louis,Karla Zimmerman,Paul Bloomfield Pdf

Inside Lonely Planet's Experience USA you'll travel through sprawling cities, small towns, great plains, snow-capped mountains and redwood forests, road-tripping down the Pacific Coast Highway, learning how to spot a bear in the wild, and discovering where to find the country's best music, bourbon, barbeque and more.

Author : Margaret Hicks
Publisher : The History Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : History
ISBN : 1609492110

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Chicago Comedy by Margaret Hicks Pdf

Famous for being a city of broad shoulders, Chicago has also developed an international reputation for split sides and slapped knees. Watch the Chicago style of comedy evolve from nineteenth-century vaudeville, through the rebellious comics of the '50s and into the improvisation and sketch that ushered in a new millennium. Drawing on material both hilarious and profound, Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History touches on what makes Chicago different from other cities and how that difference produced some of the greatest minds comedy will ever know: Amos 'n' Andy, Jack Benny, Lenny Bruce, Del Close, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and so many, many more.

Author : Francis Morgan
Publisher : Soffer Publishing
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2017-06-10
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Vacation Goose Travel Guide Chicago Illinois, USA by Francis Morgan Pdf

Vacation Goose Travel Guide Chicago Illinois, USA is an easy to use small pocket book filled with all you need for your stay in the big city. Top 50 city attractions, top 50 nightlife adventures, top 50 city restaurants, top 50 shopping centers, top 50 hotels, and more than a dozen monthly weather statistics. This travel guide is up to date with the latest developments of the city as of 2017. We hope you let this pocket book be part of yet another fun Chicago adventure :)

Author : Keith Johnstone
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 206 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2012-11-12
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781136610455

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Impro by Keith Johnstone Pdf

Keith Johnstone's involvement with the theatre began when George Devine and Tony Richardson, artistic directors of the Royal Court Theatre, commissioned a play from him. This was in 1956. A few years later he was himself Associate Artistic Director, working as a play-reader and director, in particular helping to run the Writers' Group. The improvisatory techniques and exercises evolved there to foster spontaneity and narrative skills were developed further in the actors' studio then in demonstrations to schools and colleges and ultimately in the founding of a company of performers, called The Theatre Machine. Divided into four sections, 'Status', 'Spontaneity', 'Narrative Skills', and 'Masks and Trance', arranged more or less in the order a group might approach them, the book sets out the specific techniques and exercises which Johnstone has himself found most useful and most stimulating. The result is both an ideas book and a fascinating exploration of the nature of spontaneous creativity.

Author : Matt Fotis
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2020-03-31
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780429807299

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Satire & The State by Matt Fotis Pdf

Satire & The State focuses on performance-based satire, most often seen in sketch comedy, from 1960 to the present, and explores how sketch comedy has shaped the way Americans view the president and themselves. Numerous sketch comedy portrayals of presidents that have seeped into the American consciousness – Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush, and Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush all worked to shape the actual politician’s public persona. The book analyzes these sketches and many others, illustrating how comedy is at the heart of the health and function of American democracy. At its best, satire aimed at the presidency can work as a populist check on executive power, becoming one of the most important weapons for everyday Americans against tyranny and political corruption. At its worst, satire can reflect and promote racism, misogyny, and homophobia in America. Written for students of Theatre, Performance, Political Science, and Media Studies courses, as well as readers with an interest in political comedy, Satire & The State offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between comedy and the presidency, and the ways in which satire becomes a window into the culture, principles, and beliefs of a country.

Author : Jonathan D. Moreno
Publisher : Bellevue Literary Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2014-09-22
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781934137857

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Impromptu Man by Jonathan D. Moreno Pdf

“Impromptu Man captures the remarkable impact of a singular genius, J.L. Moreno, whose creations—the best-known being psychodrama—have shaped our culture in myriad ways, many unrecognized. The record will be set straight for all time by this can’t-put-down biography, a tribute by Jonathan D. Moreno to his father’s masterly legacy.” —DANIEL GOLEMAN, author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ J.L. Moreno (1889-1974), the father of psychodrama, was an early critic of Sigmund Freud, wrote landmark works of Viennese expressionism, founded an experimental theater where he discovered Peter Lorre, influenced Martin Buber, and became one of the most important psychiatrists and social scientists of his time. A mystic, theater impresario and inventor in his youth, Moreno immigrated to America in 1926, where he trained famous actors, introduced group therapy, and was a forerunner of humanistic psychology. As a social reformer, he reorganized schools and prisons, and designed New Deal planned communities for workers and farmers. Moreno’s methods have been adopted by improvisational theater groups, military organizations, educators, business leaders, and trial lawyers. His studies of social networks laid the groundwork for social media like Twitter and Facebook. Featuring interviews with Clay Shirky, Gloria Steinem, and Werner Erhard, among others, original documentary research, and the author’s own perspective growing up as the son of an innovative genius, Impromptu Man is both the study of a great and largely unsung figure of the last century and an epic history, taking readers from the creative chaos of early twentieth-century Vienna to the wired world of Silicon Valley. Jonathan D. Moreno, called the “most interesting bioethicist of our time” by the American Journal of Bioethics, is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Author : J. Leep
Publisher : Springer
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2008-07-01
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780230612556

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Theatrical Improvisation by J. Leep Pdf

Theatrical Improvisation provides an in-depth analysis of short form, long form, and sketch-based improv - tracing the development of each form and the principles that define and connect the styles of performance. Brimming with original interviews from leaders in the field such as Ron West, Charna Halpern, John Sweeny and Margaret Edwartowski, Theatrical Improvisation presents straightforward improvisational theory, history, and trends. Includes easy-to-follow resources on teaching improvisation, with assessment tools, exercises, games, and classroom assignments to enable instructors to incorporate and assess improv in the classroom. Leep offers a practical, essential, and engaging guide for anyone who wants to better understand the art, teach, or perform improvisation.