For The Love of Improv

We all have to deal with complex emotions regarding loss and tough situations at some point in our lives.  In this episode, we talk with Justin Kavanagh about how we can use improv off-stage to process those feelings and work through the grief and trauma life throws at us. Today's game explores how we listen to and respond to emotions on stage. In our history segment, we will chat about Del Close, and how he views the process of emotional connection with and through the audience. Today's concept is playing to the top of your intelligence - learning how to play low-status characters intelligently and with humanity. This episode is dedicated to Brad Vance - our friend and a fellow player who left life's stage all too early. We miss you! Support the showVisit ForTheLoveOfImprov.com for more!

On August 9th, we discuss character building. We delve deep into things like building a platform and how to use emotion and physicality to create a character. Listen as our guest, Taylor Riedeman, demonstrates some of her quirky and out-of-the-box characters and explains how she conceptualizes them. Our history segment presents the story of the birth of Saturday Night Live (yup, improvisers started that sh*t!) along with a Gilda Radner quote that brings out our inner child.  Finally, we have a special improv game in store for you that might be a tad naughty (how’s that for a teaser?!).Support the showVisit ForTheLoveOfImprov.com for more!

In this episode, we go deep talking about our community and the value of having a strong one. We talk about why loving the people you play with is so important, even if they are not your favorite folks to begin with. We talk about the place of competition in improv, how you can support your fellow players, and how that affects us all on-stage. We will get into a bit of history, introducing you to Viola Spolin, the fore-mother of improv in the US. We will talk about beats and how to recognize them as well as what it means to be a good player off-stage. Our guest, Chris Thigpen, is an amazing improviser who plays on two house teams at the Reno Improv, Ghost Team and All Things Reconsidered. As a natural creative, Chris uses improv as a place to express his talents as an actor and writer. As a businessman, Chris owns his own successful marketing agency, Ace Studios. He is also a filmmaker, photographer, and screenwriter. Support the showVisit ForTheLoveOfImprov.com for more!