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Improv Jam: Thursday 17th May 2012

This week’s jam: Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

This week’s jam is run by me: Parky

I would start by saying that this week’s jam is going to be quite workshop-py for the first hour or so.  If you prefer lots of games and quickfire open scenes, we’ll be doing that towards the end of the jam but I’ll be doing some specific exercises first.  And, as I know some people like to know in advance, there may be some side-coaching and stopping/restarting scenes to get my ideas across.  Just so you know!

The exercises will be based on two of the strongest emotions we can use in improv: hate and love.  There will be lots of murdering followed by lots of loving.  And then we may use both of these emotions in open scenes for the remainder of the jam.

Really important: we are not at TAO Nottingham for jams anymore. As with the last few weeks, we’re in the nice place at 39 Stoney St.

New place usual time:

39 Stoney St
Hockley
NG1 1LX

Thursday 17th May 7.30pm – 9.30pm
£2

Improv Jam – 3 May, 2012

This week’s jam: The For The Baby Jesus’ Sake Make Me Laugh Jam

At the eleventh hour, this week’s jam is run by me: Parky (easily the fifth best performer in our Glee show last Friday).

I’ve spent my entire week being tired, broke and, frankly, quite blue.  And, I have written 8,000 words about minibus insurance and 35,000 words about foreign exchange trading.

So, what I’d really like out of tonight’s jam, is for you lot to make me laugh.  Not chuckles or sniggers – I want you to bring your funny A-game to tonight’s jam and really go for it.  So, we’ll play daft games and do daft open scenes in which the object will be to get the maximum laughage quotient.

Oh, and I have a new tongue twister.  If that’s not reason enough to pay your £2, I don’t know what is.

Really important: we are not at TAO Nottingham this week. As with last week’s jam, we’re in the nice place at 39 Stoney St.

Different place usual time:
39 Stoney St
Hockley
NG1 1LX

Thursday 3rd May 7.30pm – 9.30pm
£2

Improv Jam: Thursday 12 April 2012

This week’s jam: The Open The Door Jam

This week’s jam is run by me: Parky.

Hello all.  This is going to be a fun fun fun jam with lots of opportunity to do some lovely open scenes.  This jam is based on two things: agreement and using a ‘prop’ to generate ideas for scenes.  In this case, the prop is as simple as a door.  We’ll learn how doors can provide great inspiration for open scenes and how the power of agreement can immediately turn an open scene into something marvellous.  Do come along and enjoy!

Really important: we are not at TAO Nottingham this week. As with last week’s jam, we’re in the nice place at 39 Stoney St. Apart from that, it’ll be the usual shenanigans.

Different place usual time:

39 Stoney St
Hockley
NG1 1LX

Thursday 12th April 7.30pm – 9.30pm
£2


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The NOCHYN Jam

One of the things that annoys me most in the world is people who can’t use acronyms properly. You know the people I mean – those who say the acronym, then follow it with a word which has already been shortened to a capital letter in the acronym itself.

PIN number. No it isn’t. It’s a PIN. It’s not a Personal Identification Number Number, is it? It’s not an ATM machine and neither is it an ISA account.

Gah.

Thankfully, no-one referred to David’s Jam as a NOCHYN Now Jam, as that would have ended up in a rant far more passionate than the hatred of ignorant German students, folk music, buttons or music teachers called Fiddler.

NOCHYN stands for ‘No One Can Help You Now’ and the premise of the evening was to encourage people to push on through the natural end of any ideas/comedy and, well, just keep on spewing out crazy shit until something happens.

To this effect, the subject matter for the evening was varied and bizarre. Whilst there were many highlights, I did enjoy Lloydie’s attempt to become the new Professor Brian Cox by inventing a simple co-ordinates system for identifying stars. “9 x 5 x 2″ were the co-ordinates for one bright star, although he appears to have based this regime on the sizes you can buy MDF in from Wickes.

We found love in the Elastoplast factory, a garden centre that sells harmonious bonsai greenhouses and a brand of trainers that may not be cool, but that really last. We faced up to the harsh reality of Edward Norton’s giant army of Scientology lawyers and learned that once you’ve got a bike, you ‘don’t need a fucking car any more’. And, we learned that buttons are the ‘retard of fashion’ and that there’s not much glory in the trenches.

And, we considered the world’s big questions. Why is a Winnie the Pooh Treehouse so hard to get out of the box? Whatever happened to white dog poo? Can you play the flute American Pie style? Why don’t you toggle a bathroom light on and off? Why don’t Nickelodeon get with modern times and make a cartoon called Stab and Jacket? Why do people in glass houses insist on throwing Baby Cherries?

And, in a sentence I may take to my grave, we learned that an umlaut ‘is a perfectly natural process of phonological assimilation.’ Amazing.

[Finally, on a personal level, the sheer quantity of improvisers called Nick is beginning to do my head in. I am considering a re-brand to Parky - a nickname that most other people use for me. Any thoughts?]

Eggs Over Chile: Glee Show Review, 9 March 2011

There have been many brilliant soap operas that haven’t attracted the audience they deserved. Falcon Crest. Eldorado. Albion Market. And now, to that list we can add the dramatic tale of torment, family feuding and goats: Eggs Over Chile.

Eggs Over Chile was the end result of Steve’s Glee show. The first half of the show created and generated intriguing, strange characters before the six players came together for an ambitious second half featuring three episodes of a brand new, only-ever-to-be-seen-once soap opera.

And my, what a drama! The story centred around a lonely little French boy, Bob Fettucine, and his ornithological quest. His attempts to conquer the mighty Mt Teed, Wales/Chile’s (delete as appropriate) highest mountain, in search of his parents brought him into contact with a group of strange, troubled characters.

Bob wasn’t the only one with family problems. Halifax III, the hermaphrodite father of Violin Soundboard – a man whose accent was as mixed as his metaphors – was forced to relive his/her tryst with Jezebel, the former wife of transvestite pop-up librarian Gervais Dracula. Cataract Pineapple also encountered plenty of sticky situations on the mountainside alongside Bob, his French brethren. And who is the mysterious cat breeding Barnabus Boomerang-Armhair, a stranger who, as his name suggests, kept coming back….?

With a twist and turn around ever corner, this Glee show was an interesting and plucky break from the normal game-based show. I preferred the opening half – the creation of character traits through games was hilarious – although I very much admire the ability of all involved to create a lengthy, narrative tale out of these bizarre creations.

Granted, it was a smaller audience than hoped, although those present were treated to another brilliant evening of comedy improvisation. Quite how the likes of limited talent stand-ups can fill the Arena whilst brilliant, quick comedy of this type can’t attract hundreds to the Glee club, heaven only knows.

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