Improv America

Comedian competition

It’s tough enough trying to make a living as a stand-up comedian without other people trying to muscle in on the competitive improvisation circuit here in the States. I’m referring, of course, to those amateur comedians currently running for the Republican Party’s Presidential nomination. Those guys (and girls) should stick to politics and leave us to make the US public laugh; even though they are sometimes way better at it than I could ever be!

I kid, of course. When politicians try and be funny it inevitably backfires and they might as well walk around carrying giant banners with the world “LOSER” in six-foot high letters. When politicians are unintentionally funny, though, clips of their gaffes spread all over the world within hours and rack up millions of hits on YouTube before they’ve even realised what they said.

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Where are they now?

You can’t really talk about improvisational comedy in the US without mentioning the hugely successful TV series ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?'hosted by Drew Carey and featuring some of the best comedians from both sides of the Atlantic, along with the regular performers Wayne Brady, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie. Not a lot of people know that this unusual programme, where the stars had to create comedy sketches from suggestions shouted out by the audience or do something funny with executive office furniture, actually started life as a British radio show. It seems weird that such a visual show would be a success on radio, but those Brits always did have a weird sense of humour…

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No one’s making a living

This summer, the iO Summer Intensive program in Chicago had a record number 111 students. The previous high was 76. This is no anomaly. Every training program is getting more and more crowded. People are flocking to Chicago to study improvisation, but why?

Certainly, most if not all enjoy the craft of comedy and want to get better at making people laugh. Many enjoy the high of a purely creative process. To those studying comedy for these reasons, the rest More

How Does It All Survive in Chicago?

I’ve recently moved to Chicago, and I’m absolutely baffled at how so many improvisation troupes can survive in this city. Not only is iO running shows every night of the week, but you also have The Playground, CiC, ComedySportz, Second City, The Annoyance, and tons of independent troupes doing bar-prov all over the city. I understand that the community is incestuous, but I’m wondering if there’s more to this improv culture here than just students watching students.

I brought this More

Improv America – Beware Of These Consequences Of The Show

Do you love watching Improv America? Well, the show is very entertaining and amusing but viewers must exercise caution. It is advisable to watch out for the following problems that one may face after watching the show.

An honest desire to replicate the funny tricks that were seen on the show. Do not be surprised if you contemplate the idea of using your cell phone to disturb a colleague making a presentation just to check whether the reaction will be More

Another Fine Comedy You’ve Gotten me Into…

Don’t you just love slapstick humour? There is just something enormously funny about seeing people doing dumb things and getting ‘hurt'as a result!!! Of course, slapstick has been around for donkey’s years and the pioneers of this genre included; Charlie Chaplin, The Three Stooges, The Keystone Kops and The Marx Brothers. However, for me, the undisputed grand masters of early slapstick humour had to be Laurel and Hardy!

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had an instant likeability. Their ill-fitting clothes More

Why America Dominates Global Music Industry

While trying for some roaming and worldwide coverage , I got into a discussion with course mates about the American music industry and its dominance of world trade in that field. The United States as most music lovers are aware have the most popular artistes in the world. When we raised this discussion in class, a few people said the reason the US has more popular artistes is because of their population size. Some of us were however able to More

‘a lotta lotta laughs’

In tough times like these, who couldn’t do with a giggle? Comedy clubs are surely what everyone needs in their life right now, right? In and around London there is of course no shortage of great places to meet up with friends and laugh your belly off over some food and drinks. More

Music Box

America is known for its quality and quantity of live improvisation and many comedians and writers have graduated from Improv groups such as Second City to go on to Saturday Night Live among other TV shows. In America improvisation is considered an art form by many of its die hard fans. In Britain however improvisation has so far taken a back seat to theatre and stand up comedy, but in recent years this has started to change. In London and More

What are some Common Methods of Engraving Glass?

Engraving glass requires a tool that abrades the surface of the glass in order to leave a lasting impression and mark. There are complex machines that allows glass engravers to achieve this task mechanically, without requiring much skill or expertise at all, and then there are the more traditional methods of engraving glass that require a lot of practice.
Mastering the use of a diamond-point hand tool is not simple, and it is a task made much more difficult when More