Good Improv readin'

[Huskey]

See everyone, the library posters are right! READ.

It took wasn't until I was doing improv that I really appreciated reading. I know that just sounds like it's b/c I am from the south, but well... fuck you, buddy. I was an English Major. I just liked talking about the books, not reading them.

"Billy the Kid" and "Coming trough Slaughter" by Michael Ondaanje- really cool use of the idea of factual history and retelling history. Descriptions that are as improvised as an add on.

"CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" by George Saunders- Total commitment to a weird world. Funny.

These aren't as instructional as they are examples, like Kerouac.

"Side Effects" by Woody Allen- It's like seeing good improv for the first time. Reminds you of all the possibilities.

words

 

[Dyna Moe]

Not Disney's version

I took a bizarro class because I needed more non-Film classes to graduate a semester early on "Creation Myths and Cosmology"

The readings for this class were from the mundane, "Practical Guide to the Constellations" to the ridiculous "Mystical Tour of Magical Places in England"...

The idea of it was all the creation myths of the world were true but not as far as we understand them because we are limited my a science-minded concept of linear time rather than a cyclical and "mystical" idea of time.

The world will end in either 2100 or 2400 as we enter the Age of Aquarius. I don't fucking know why hippies were dancing around over the dawning of this age because when it dawns ALL HELL IS GOING TO BREAK LOOSE. The world has "ended" at the dawning of each age. The Age of Pisces (our current age) started around the time of the birth of Christ (Christ = Fish = Pisces) and goes for one Platonic Cycle to the next age. Our age is our world and when it comes to an end, all cultural progress and understanding made in this age will become IRRELEVANT.

Another thing to consider -- ATLANTIS IS REAL.

I'm not sure you'd get the weird sense of connection from the books without having a mustachioed professor explain it to you but it is amazing what academes without a stage to improvise on can come up with.

DM

 

[Car]

Re: Not Disney's version

Originally posted by Dyna Moe
I took a bizarro class because I needed more non-Film classes to graduate a semester early on "Creation Myths and Cosmology"

The readings for this class were from the mundane, "Practical Guide to the Constellations" to the ridiculous "Mystical Tour of Magical Places in England"...

The idea of it was all the creation myths of the world were true but not as far as we understand them because we are limited my a science-minded concept of linear time rather than a cyclical and "mystical" idea of time.

The world will end in either 2100 or 2400 as we enter the Age of Aquarius. I don't fucking know why hippies were dancing around over the dawning of this age because when it dawns ALL HELL IS GOING TO BREAK LOOSE. The world has "ended" at the dawning of each age. The Age of Pisces (our current age) started around the time of the birth of Christ (Christ = Fish = Pisces) and goes for one Platonic Cycle to the next age. Our age is our world and when it comes to an end, all cultural progress and understanding made in this age will become IRRELEVANT.

Another thing to consider -- ATLANTIS IS REAL.

I'm not sure you'd get the weird sense of connection from the books without having a mustachioed professor explain it to you but it is amazing what academes without a stage to improvise on can come up with.

DM

Was this a Gallatin class?

I took two classes at Gallatin that were totally worthless mockeries or academia.

Advanced Comedy Writing, taught by Barry. I don't remeber his last name cause we weren't supposed to use it. The course was supposed to focus on writing for tv and film. His comedy writing credenitials were being a writer on the late 80's or early nineties Joan Rivers show, and having wrote for a britcom. His manuscript for "The Idiot's Guide to Being Funny" was rejected.

Once he got a job as a professor at NYU, he hired a publicist to spread the new that he was NYU's Comedy Professor (or Professor Punster as he liked to be called), which got him a trip to a comedy festival and speaking gig in Australia which caused him to miss half the semester. He thought the highest form of humor was a pun. He said he would give us all A's if we promised to contact him if we ever became successful., gave no homework and did give everyone A's. Also, he promised to have guest speakers like Jerry Seinfeld, Robert Klein, and Jason Alexander. Then he said he could only get Andy Rooney. He wound up getting a woman who wrote an espisode of Beverly Hillbillies.

I could go on.

I also took a class called "Improvisation: A Route to Creativity in Life". The teacher never did anything resembling improv. Her definition of improv was walking a new way home from school or buying a new vegetable at the supermarket. For two classes we made masks - with paper plates, markers, a pipe cleaners. This teacher - Roz Wilder - and I would up filling harassment complaints against each other with the Dean of Gallatin.

 

[John_Frusciante]

Oh yeah, and Freud's Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious is always a good one for the study of "Why do we make the funny we make and why do people agree to it as funny?"


Zoinks.


John.

 

[Jobean]

This is not related to Freud or Buddhism or anything, but I just finished Me Talk Pretty Some Day by David Sedaris.

HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you haven't read any David Sedaris yet, PLEASE do.
I wasn't able to put it down. I'm starting on Naked next. The book, that is.

 

[Rob Webber]

Sedaris

Barrell Fever kicks both Naked and Me Talk Pretty's asses. Its rare when a book can make me laugh out loud.

 

[Jobean]

I read Barrell Fever, very enjoyable also.

I have to say, though, the stories about the French cannot be beat.

Sedaris Rules

 

[NPetrilli]

You can't kill The Rooster.

 

[tanouye]

Not only is David Sedaris wickedly funny, but reading him turned me on to Sarah Vowell, who got me listening to "This American Life." Double kudos to him.

I've been eyeing the David Rakoff book too, recently. Has anybody read it, and would you recommend it?

 

[Syrup]

Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

 

[Dunford]

Originally posted by tanouye

I've been eyeing the David Rakoff book too, recently. Has anybody read it, and would you recommend it?

betsy stover recommended the rakoff book to me after i asked for a book recommendation. i picked it up. so far, it is absolutely as good as she said it was.

(thanks for the recommendation, betsy.)