Last episode you heard from improvisers who weren’t improvising right now due to the current pandemic. Today, more voices and more reflections on what breaks can give improvisers and also if their views about improv as an art form have changed at all - and if so… how do they feel about the art form now?

This episode features:

Rahel Otsa
Personal website: https://rahelotsa.ee/in-english/ 

Gael Doorneweerd-Perry
Traveling projects:
- http://www.perryweerd.com/
- https://www.ap-improv.com/
Amsterdam projects:
- https://www.flock-theatre.com/
- http://www.perryweerd.com/miyazaki-2020/
Socials:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gael.facebk
- Instagram: @gaelperry
- Blog articles: http://www.perryweerd.com/blog/

King and Pete from Hong Kong:
Hong Kong Improv page: https://www.facebook.com/hongkongimprov/ 
Pete’s personal page: https://www.facebook.com/petegrellacomedy 

Kevin Scott
Centralia Improv podcast: https://anchor.fm/kevin-scott2
Kevin’s other podcast on Movies: https://anchor.fm/kevin-scott15

Katharine Steer:
Tomes Theatrical Productions: https://www.facebook.com/Tomes-103467837769565
An online interview with Katherine about “Well-prov” a project she set up to help a housebound friend improvise: https://medium.com/steel-city-improv/katharine-steer-on-why-she-runs-wellprov-9fea2f047159

Episode transcript:

This…. Is the Improv Chronicle Podcast… I’m Lloydie

Last time you heard from improvisers who weren’t improvising right now due to the current pandemic. Today, more voices and more reflections on what breaks can give improvisers and also if their views about improv as an art form have changed at all - and if so… how do they feel about the art form now?

We start with me taking a short break… 

[walking outside] I have taken to walking a lot recently. I’ve been thinking about improv way more than I’ve been doing it. I’ve done just a few online shows and taught one drop-in workshop. That’s it. In four months. It’s unheard of. The walking has made me think a lot about my relationship with the art form I love and I was really struck by how many improvisers wanted to let other improvisers know that it’s ok to take a break, that if online improv isn’t your thing, that’s fine - and if it is, that’s fine too.

Gael is an improviser from France who performs and tours with his wife in a duo show. They teach internationally together and they were touring before the pandemic hit. They cut their tour short and now Gael isn’t improvising because he believes, right now, there IS no improv.

Gael: Improv did not transfer online. It's just we created a new art form and it just happened to have, in this new art form, most of the people from the old art form which was live improv. I don't think that it was as easy as er, let's go online because it's not the same thing it's not the same media and and to me personally I don't get the same er, yeah, the same pleasure. I don't get the same pleasure as a performer, as a teacher and I  I don't get any pleasure as an audience member and I don't want to produce an art that I I wouldn't want to watch.

Lloydie: Do you still view like improv in the same way or has taking a break given you some kind of perspective on the on the stage or the offstage aspects of improv? 

Gael: I have this internal struggle between me admitting that online improv does not give me joy and that's the reason why I'm not doing it (so I'm saying I'm not doing it, I started a few workshops and it went really well because I designed them for that and I was happy with it but I did not push further because I didn't want to over do it). I have this constant battle between me not wanting to do online improv much because I don't get joy out of it and my inner judge that is like “you're just an old grumpy man and you should adapt and change like all of these other amazing people that apparently find some joy, so it's just up to us Gael, to find some joy!”. I'm so I think something that I realised is that I really signed up as an improviser as a full time professional improviser, I really signed up for the live art form that we used to do and that if the world somehow in the next ten years is staying online or very distant from each other and we are not er, we don't have a lot of opportunities to do that work anymore to do on live improv, and not online improv then I'm not sure still want to be an improviser.

Katharine:  I'm Katharine Steer, I have two things I love doing in my life one is my job, I'm a professional de-clutterer and the other thing is improv which I discovered six years ago and I do a lot of it, I’ve been in several troupes and I’m in two current ones I'm working  on being in a duo.

Lloydie:  Pardon me going right in with linking your job and your improv, but how has it been decluttering your life of improv for the last few months?

Katharine: Well, no one could have anticipated the sudden zero level of improv given I was doing so much, and to my surprise, it’s been okay. I’ve actually almost not missed it which sounds a bit sacrilegious to say. But this has been such an unusual time and of course I’ve had lots of contact with all of my lovely improv friends, but I think because none of us have been able to do it in the way that we knew it, it’s been alright.

Lloydie: So there is an improv-shaped hole in your life at the moment. What have you been filling it with?

Katharine:  Well I've discovered in embroidery which I find mildly hilarious because I’ve never been interested in sewing-y stuff. Yeah, I've been reading joined our reading quite a bit more and then just lolling about. Drifting, pootling around the house enjoying, I have to say, not feeling any pressure to go out.

Kevin:  Hi, I'm Kevin Scott,  I'm in New York City where I improvise with my group Centralia. We've been together over twenty years. I teach for the People's Improv Theater as well as internationally around the world and I'm the host of a podcast the Centralia improvisational podcast.

Lloydie:  Which I love. I'm a huge fan.

Kevin: Oh good! I started it you know around the time I started listening to your podcast and like, I gotta do an improv podcast and it's actually one of the things that's been keeping me sane.

Lloydie:  Well same here. Because, you've you've taken a break from improv after twenty years what is it like not going on stage?

Kevin:  Well it's it’s, it's good and bad, there's upsides and downsides. I like not having to worry about getting ready for a show not that I'm really worried about it but it was a ritual but like I have a wife and a kid and not being able to spend Saturday nights with them is often a challenge. You know we can't go away for the weekend a lot of times although in the last few years I just skip shows. It's something I've given myself permission to do but this is the longest stretch since I started improvising that I haven’t improvised live in a theater with an audience. I think I'm more aware of the changes in my sort of mental rhythm or bio-rhythm or whatever it's called, you know sort of that that feeling I had this weekly high every Saturday night that I wouldn’t come down from until Monday and then I’d start ramping back up again that's gone so I’m much more even keel maybe? I don't know if that's good or bad. Most of what I was getting out of my weekly shows was the camaraderie. It was the companionship with my friends. I sort of always joked that it was like a pleasant night out for us. It's what we did instead of going to a pub, is we just did shows. I now realise that really was it. This is what I do with my friends. Other people go bowling or hunting or fishing. I get up on stage and and make up scenes and bits in front of the public. That's what I do for fun with my friends. So now we're just doing that on Zoom. We're meeting and recently our our former director, a woman by the name of Shira Piven out of Los Angeles, she's been guiding us in improvisational writing where we can write together using sort of the same inter-dynamics, some of our shorthand that we have in improv, you know that we can write very quickly in our collective voice and we're doing that once a week in lieu of doing shows and it's been awesome. I don't know if anything's gonna come out of this writing. I don’t know if we’re going to bottle it rewrite it or anything. It's really just something we're doing to keep us active mentally and creatively.

Lloydie:  I think pretty much all the improvisers I've spoken to who are taking a break have still stayed in touch with most of the people they play with on stage, but when you tour internationally your life, just like we had early with Gael, is going to change dramatically if you're not improvising anymore.

Rahel:  Hi my name is Rahel, I'm from Tallinn, Estonia and I do improv, I teach improv, I've been a teaching improv around the world lately from Australia to New Zealand to Moscow to Estonia and I also run the international improv festival Tilt that's happening in Tallinn, usually in the old times but this one.

Lloydie:  And you've now taken a break from improv. I guess international travel was always going to be out anyway, let alone performance during this time so what have you filled your time with instead?

Rahel: I have a really taken a break because I think also different countries have different rules about how close you could be to each other and which situations the performances are allowed and it felt for me that because it's going to be so tricky for both the audience and the performers I just really I took my time off, Came to my countryside home. I've been enjoying the craft of mowing the lawn with scythe, and I'm really kind of planting peas and getting cherries and apples from the trees.

Lloydie: So you've gone from kind of I suppose the almost artificial environment of a theatre, right out and back into nature 

Rahel: Yes and also because, in the middle of the pandemic I came back off from teaching in Australia and then I was forced to be quarantined for two months in my apartment and in the end I felt a bit claustrophobic there already, so I was really using this as a possibility to come to the countryside and that of course I'm still are here also using computer doing some work stuff but also otherwise connecting with people but I felt that I'm I'm kind of keeping the improv place still a real place not an internal place for myself.

Lloydie: I imagine having a break is done quite a bit for use as a human being. Has it has it also do you think done anything for you as an improviser?

Rahel:  I think, I hope at least, that I am kind of developing a bit more a healthy relationship with improv because I've been doing it for about ten years and and we all come from the “yes and” culture and and it feels like you have to say “yes” all the time with things connected to improv and in improv you're kind of like if you're blocking you’re a “bad person” and I'm kind of, what sort of improv do I want to do, what sort of improviser do I want to say yes to, and also what part of my life does it actually take and and what are the other parts of my life that I can also give my time to so, so yeah I think  I'm kind of trying to set healthy boundaries in the relationship between me and improv so that's our relationship can last forever and ever.

Lloydie: King and Pete are based in Hong Kong and together they co-run Hong Kong Improv who usually run shows on a monthly basis. They're both on the number of teams in Hong Kong and they both have full time jobs away from improv as well. Now that they aren't improvising they’re discovering a new balance in their lives and that their improv is coming out in other ways. Here's Pete…

Pete: Unfortunately for my girlfriend, all of my creative and weird manifestations come out at home and drive her crazy! 

Lloydie: And what about you King? 

King: I have tried to fill the gap with an increased amount of gaming an increased amount of reading actually because I'm a lawyer and usually because like there's a lot of documents that we’re reading I haven't done leisure reading honestly in years and and sort of now this is the time for me, and I'm I feel I have time to actually sit down and do some actual leisure reading and start chipping away at that at that reading list I've had for a while. 

Lloydie: I guess improv can be a little all consuming at times has it given you a kind of a.. some contributors have said it's given them kind of a sense more of like, wanting a bit more balance between their improv life and the rest of their life. How how do you but feel about that? 

Pete: We don't do improv or comedy as such full time, we've always had somewhat of a balance just because we have full time jobs but like you said though we also, as Hong Kong improv run Hong Kong Improv Festival so there's always something going on and it's always the next show or marketing and different promotions and graphics and just trying to train up new teams and so I think having this little break, it does give some perspective to say okay you know what, everything's going on still and the world hasn't stopped because we're not doing improv and so yeah maybe getting more of a balance like you said it does it does come into perspective that way yeah.

King: Yeah and as for me I've always been a huge proponent of improv is a reflection of how you've experienced life and the fact like this happened and it's hard, we can't put on live shows at the moment, I've really actually enjoyed the fact I can step away from from organising stuff. I mean I like performing, I like training, but I can step away from actually organising things. I feel it's been really, it's been really relaxing and and in a way I felt it's a very good way to recharge, to have some new experiences, meet some new people online offline whatever it is. To recharge I think life in general, so that when I, when we go back I'll probably have more material at least that's what I'm hoping.

Lloydie: There are real benefits to taking a break but people can sometimes feel conflicted when they do. Here’s Gael again.

Gael: Improv is a part of my life and I'm pretty all right with taking a break but it is I also feel a lot of shame and guilt saying it. It feels to me because the people that have been going online are claiming out loud and very loudly that it's because they are improvisers that they can adapt and and look at how amazing being an improviser is because it makes you change so quickly from one thing to the other and going online is the proof that improv is healthy for us. The side effect of that, I partly agree with that, but the side effect of it is that me not going online makes me feel super guilty and ashamed to not be an actual improviser because I cannot adapt and I can not a change and I think I'm not I'm probably not the only one. And I guess I just want to to share that it's all right. I am sharing it for myself for hearing myself saying it but also because I think the more the more we are talking about it the easier it will be for people because the people we hear about are the people that went online so we have the feeling, I have the feeling to be the only human being that is an improviser and that decided to take a break from improv because the people that decided to take a break we don't hear about them on Facebook and on Instagram and whatever. We hear about the people that decided to do that thing that is online improv. I guess I just want to share that if you, listener, are taking a break or have taken a break that's all right. You're not a lesser improviser.

Lloydie: King is excited that improv is still cropping up even when it's not in a structured show environment and even when people aren't necessarily expecting to improvise.

King: Improv people will do other things online but then because they’re improv people they can't resist improvising. Say they're playing games or streaming and usually say we're playing games we just games, now we can't resist sort of turning that into the stage. That has become I think, and I know some some people have sort of made that into their art form so it's not just improv, it improv you blended into something else and then you express it, but its improv element is still there. That part element I definitely feel has grown and I do appreciate that because it's sort of it's using improv as a skill but not as the art form itself.

Lloydie: Rahel is definitely looking forward to getting back off her break 

Rahel: It's as if I was apart from a person that I really truly love and I know that I'm going to meet with them again so I'm very much waiting for this meeting but also maybe I’ve reevaluated some of the ways that I set-up how I'm doing improv, either it's a class or as a show or a group. What are the ways that I want these groups to work like? How do I want people to feel themselves in the workshop so that's each and every moment kind of becomes important again. So that we're not just doing it because it's our regular Thursday we meet up we do things or ‘Hey someone said let's do improv jam so we're going to do it’. During this time I've done a few improv workshops also and doing each one of them now means so much more because there are so scarce. I'm hoping when going back I'm going to be really kind of focused on each everything that I do and I'm not maybe just kind of do them because I have to do them or because Hey someone said let's do something.

Lloydie: And Kevin thinks his approach to improv is going to change as well.

Kevin: I want to take more of a Zen approach to it you know. Just being present, having no agenda to entertain, really appreciate the fact that I'm with my friends with an audience in a space which I took for granted for so long but I'm sure when we're back it's gonna feel so special to do it again. In the same way that if you were to have a pint with friends for the first time after lockdown it would feel like the best point you've ever had. It's going to feel, I'm sure it's going to feel really really special and what I'd like you know, the way I'm thinking about improv as an art form now is less of means to express an idea I've already had but just really be in the moment and try and create something in that time for the people that are there which is, you know I've always been aware of that's a part of improv. I mean it's for most people I think that's the most important thing but I always saw maybe a sixty / forty and sixty percent of my intention was to be funny and be entertaining and put on a good show and I think that's it's going to shift. Its already shifted mentally but hopefully it'll shift in practice and maybe flip the other way that it's mostly going to be a Zen approach with a little bit of that I need to get my voice out there kind of thing.

Lloydie: And if you're thinking ‘could taking a break benefit me?’ take a listen to Katharine.

Katharine: Taking a break can be a really good thing because I think the mindset subconsciously still continues to mull things over and things will still be percolating. I haven't stopped learning because I stopped doing improv for a while. I think all the accumulated learning is still filtering through my body right through to brain and cellular level so but when we do return and we’re able to do it live again I think I'll be that much more accomplished because it had this time just to let things drift and filter and to just watch life through and improviser’s eyes who’s not doing improv at the moment.

Lloydie: And that matches Pete in Hong Kong's view as well.

Pete: Good improv comes from life experiences and by having a chance to take a break it's giving everyone a chance to explore what else is inside. When you came in I was talking about my battle with the aphids with the garden, well you know with this is something that I would never of thought of or had going into a scene, so there's extra characters now. Extra tools in my tool kit.

Next time… on the Improv Chronicle Podcast

Physicality in improv - usually a rich topic but how do we address it when we are improvising online in little boxes?

The improv chronicle podcast is produced and presented by me, Lloydie James Lloyd. YOU can help the podcast right now - Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcast app If you have an idea for a possible episode  go to  - www.improvchronicle.com