If you're unfamiliar, a faction of it is what was played out in the show "Who's Line is it, Anyway." That'd be considered short-form games.
Whitey had me smirking on the "happiness" thread over there, and made me think that he'd be an awesome improv player with those awesome analogies. I actually think a lot of you would be really good at it.
I've been taking Improv classes for about a year with a handful of peeps at my company (sponsored by the owner), and it's a lot of fun. The lessons are straight from what they do at Second City in Chicago - where a lot of SNL cast members come from.
And it turns out that most of the stuff we're learning is great for dealing with people and circumstances in life in general. After these classes, I can look around, and pretty much everything is improv.
They didn't have those classes in my theater program back in the early 80's. I wish they had. I think it would be awesome. I'd take those classes in a minute around here if they had any. All life is, is improv. So classes would be great for everyone to learn how to deal with life with humor and spontaneity.
My big sister is hilarious, and loves to mock me (or anybody), and is really good at it. Mocking me, that is. (Appy reminds me of her.) So I told her and my mom that I was doing this one day, and they were kind of razzing me about it, and asking questions... so I threw them into a game I had just learned called, "Say What?" and they were hilarious.
Our classes end in a month, and we're supposed to have a show at the end of August (probably just for people we work with). I wish I had the drive/time/energy to keep it up.
I always think of that Michael Scott/Office episode when one of our players turns himself into a kid. He does it all the time, it's impossible to work with and always ends in disaster.
I love improv. You would be surprised how well I play off of other people in person. I don't go out much anymore, but when I do, well, it's a good time. Now I just need to learn when to go home!
