The art form of improvised performance can sometimes feel like walking a tightrope between seeing and being seen, hearing and being heard, getting attention and giving attention. When I get out of balance I start to wobble. I start to shake. Sometimes I fall. I get this wobble sometimes when I’ve done a well-received thing.Continue reading “The Attention Game”
Author Archives: Lela
10 Ways to be More Tree in Improv
When was the last time you sat with a tree? Maybe it was yesterday, maybe last week. Maybe it was last month or year. Time spent with trees is good for our health. I went for a walk with my friend and her tiny son the other day and while we were walking through aContinue reading “10 Ways to be More Tree in Improv”
11 Ways to Own Your Own Scene
Do you ever get an offer and just think, my goodness, what the earth do I do with this? I was recently endowed as a prostitute. It wasn’t what I was expecting. It threw me to be honest. Maybe reading this statement threw you. It’s that moment, isn’t it? The moment when you think: woah,Continue reading “11 Ways to Own Your Own Scene”
The Boundary Line
People playing with my hair during scenes can give me the heebeegeebees. Not everyone knows that. This week I’ve been playing with new people so when I’ve been asked to contribute to boundary chats, I’ve let the group know my hair is off-limits. I’ve said: no playing with my hair, please. I realised it isn’tContinue reading “The Boundary Line”
Improv for Survival
After nearly two years, it felt amazing to put a show in front of a live real-life audience. We had completely lost touch with whether anything we were doing was funny. Had we got to the point where we just made each other laugh? Would it be like a pin drop as we muddled throughContinue reading “Improv for Survival”
Suggest This
You get up onto the stage. You’re raring to go. You’re improvising, running a jam, or hosting a show. You ask for a suggestion. Someone calls back from the audience. You feel grateful someone is saying something. You feel you owe them. But the suggestion is gross. It’s smutty. It’s sexual. It’s unpleasant. It’s aboutContinue reading “Suggest This”
The Real World Return
I look around Beaconsfield Services – a sprawling hexagon-like building crammed with fast food outlets and bright moving screens. Outside it’s pissing it down with rain. The pitch-black void of the world is butting up against the tear-smeared windows. This is purgatory, the no-man’s-land between the improv mothership and that dirty rascal reality. On theContinue reading “The Real World Return”
Hybrid Improv Forms
They could be called the world’s most lovable hybrid – just look at that furry face! They have the playful, shed-less temperament of a poodle, mixed with the fun features of an [insert other dog breed]. And those poodles have been busy. There’s the eskapoo, the schoodle, the bassetoodle, the jack-a-poo, the rottle, the saintContinue reading “Hybrid Improv Forms”
Finding the Fun Improvising Online
The first time I did online improv I wanted to jab myself in the head with a fork. So I might feel something. Anything. Looking around at the other participants I suspected I was not alone. It was painfully slow, flat, and boring. I could see myself smiling inanely but my eye kept being drawnContinue reading “Finding the Fun Improvising Online”
Be You. No, thanks.
I can’t help but feel it’s a bit of a trap. And I don’t like traps. Never have. I made one once when I was on a Wilderness Survival course. It was a weird contraption made from a stick with a hole in the end, some string, and a loop of wire. It was supposedContinue reading “Be You. No, thanks.”
A Cure for Writer’s Block
A surprising number of people claim writer’s block does not exist. What a strange thing it is to suggest that something you have not experienced, can not therefore exist. It feels as weird as declaring love does not exist or happiness for that matter. Can you imagine the uproar in claiming there is no happiness?Continue reading “A Cure for Writer’s Block”
Getting it Back Together
It had been over 18 months since we had done any real-life improvisation together. Would we remember how? The date for doing it kept getting altered. Maybe I was secretly relieved. If we met at all, we’d chat and the time would slip away. The improv – politely waving at us to get our buttsContinue reading “Getting it Back Together”
Spontaneous Tortoise 