best places for short form?

G

Gavin

Pleasantly Pudgy
#21
#21
The point of my post was only to point out the falseness of saying that long form is only being performed for other performers. Those statements are untrue. If I’m going to get into it though…

It takes a while to get good at long form and you need a place to perform until you are able to do consistently good work that a non improv audience would be entertained by. As a result there’s a scene where people do a lot of performing for their peers. I don’t think any long form improviser here would debate that. The problem I have is that you make it sound like people who are doing long form are sitting around and patting each other on the back rather than working on a craft which can and is intended to entertain a non-improviser audience. I can take 4 or 5 of the funniest people I know right now and have them doing a pretty good short form show consisting of World’s Worst, Party Quirks and Conducted Story by the end of the week. If I taught those same people long form it would take much, much longer. Short form is easier. That’s not up for debate right? If you want to put up a short form show you’ll be doing it sooner. You sound like someone who walks into a culinary school and says, “Why are you guys just cooking for the class? You all know how to make Hot Pockets. People love Hot Pockets! Get out there!”

Also classes AREN’T geared towards teaching you how to get on a Harold team, or impress artistic directors. You’re wrong. That’s you reading into them. I teach at UCB and not once have I ever said, “Good job, I really feel like we’re getting closer to getting you guys on a Harold Team.” I’ve also never heard that said in a single class I’ve taken as a student. At the theatre I teach at, the point of classes is to get you good at Harold which teaches you skills that help you to be successful at comedy. I bet every teacher at the Magnet, PIT, UCB or any other theatre has the same goal.
 
Q

qnarf

you get gun!
#22
#22
[moderator]
dudes: the title of the thread is 'best places for shortform' not 'my opinion about longform vs. shortform and which makes you what kind of douche for performing it or not liking it'.
thankfully, the latter is a topic well tread on this board for more than a decade at this point. i love you guys [except gavin, who is a murderer], and if you'd like to go after each other for choice of craft or opinions held dearly, might i suggest digging up some old threads on the topic and seeing how well they turned out?
[/mod]

in chicago i saw a level five show at second city and it was all short form.
 
ChrisCamp

ChrisCamp

A regular guy!
#23
#23
I've heard a lot of good things about the FACE OFF Short form company based out of Queens, NY. They were well received at the Chicago Improv Festival this year and are doing a hell of a job setting up the improv part of the Queens Fringe Festival - they have a lot of professionalism about them. Can't wait to check their show out later this month.

and sheeeesh Gavin, take a chill pill. We all know you are really good at long form. ;)
 
mullaney

mullaney

IRC Administrator
Staff member
#24
#24
There seems to be more short form at Second City than there used to be. They use it in their touring shows a lot these days.
 
G

Gavin

Pleasantly Pudgy
#25
#25
I don’t think I ever said that people who do or like short form are douches. If I implied it, I apologize. Obviously people should be able to like whatever they like without someone shitting on it. I agree that a debate about the two on a message board would be both pointless and boring. And to be honest I didn’t intend to have one, I just worked my way there from being overly defensive perhaps. So thank you for pointing out that I was engaging in one.

There was just a tone in this thread that was overtly shitty and dismissive about the long form improv community which is the group of people who I thought (unless it’s changed over the years since I’ve posted regularly) primarily read this message board.

I don’t know any good places for short form.
 
B

BGulya

New Member
#28
#28
I was also upset by some of those coments. But, to be fair, I think the overal negativity of this thread began with some unecessary jokes at the expense of short form, on a thread intended primarily for short formers.

This thread started with an earnest request for advice and help. I wish improvisors wouldn't jump on each other so much. Caylen, I hope you found what you needed somewhere on here.
 
H

high violet

New Member
#29
#29
I apologize for starting/contributing to the side discussion in here.

My post was in response to Gavin but my comments weren't attempting to describe him specifically or every single person who performs longform or coaches it; I perform longform and prefer longform. I was just replying to the barbs about short form by posting criticisms of "my own" form (like when a person points out flaws in their family members to make a point that no family is better and they all have different pros and cons).

I made a new thread to discuss the more detailed points I made that some took offense to.
 
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