Pictures and Words

Last Wednesday, I was in an improv show called “The Series”, presented by Edge Improv.

An old, old photo of me, wearing the coat I wore on stage.

There are two types of improvised theatre – short-form and long-form. Most of you are probably familiar with short-form, which is stuff like Whose Line is it Anyway? or Theatresports; lots of short games, with rules like “Everyone can only speak in questions”, or “Every time the audience laughs, you have to put a marshmallow in your mouth.”

I love short-form, but long-form is my real passion – in long-form improvisation, you construct a story over multiple scenes, you get a chance to really build a character and I think it’s a lot more fun. The stakes are higher, you’re putting all of the evening’s eggs in one basket, but if it works, it really rocks the house.

“The Series” was made up of three long-form shows, with short-form “advertisements” inbetween. I was in two of them – The Movie Show, a parody of the Australian movie review show by the same name, and Moore’s Law, a cyberpunk show. The third was That’s Amoré, a comedic “dating show”. At the end of the evening, the audience got to vote, and one show was “renewed” for another week, while the other two were “cancelled”.

That’s Amoré and The Movie Show were essentially a set of themed short-form games, but Moore’s Law was true long-form. Jason Christie, a local improvisor, came up with the idea, and asked if I wanted a role. I, with my passion for long-form, enthusiastically accepted; Jason played the main character, “Moore”, as well as directing the piece. I played “Choomba”, his best friend, the comic relief of the show. Brad Daniels, the man behind Edge, played “The Overman”, the antagonist. Other local improvisors Louise Callinan and Faheem Anwar respectively played “Discordia”, the love interest/femme fatale, and “Bolts”, the main rival.

The show went well; we won, and got renewed for another episode next week. I had a friend film the performance, and decided to subtitle it and display it to the internet at large. I also typed up a transcript, which can be found on my “scripts” page, under “theatre”.

Without further ado, here is “Moore’s Law”, episode 1: (running time: 15 minutes. Rated PG, because we say “fuck” about twice.)

We were given characters and relationships to other characters, and a paragraph or two about the world we lived in, but everything else in the show was completely made up on the spot. Improvised plot, improvised movements, every scene, every line, every action…even that fight scene! I know, it looks so pre-planned!

The second episode will be this Wednesday, at 7:30pm, with details available at Edge. Hope to see you there!