{"id":2547,"date":"2016-11-25T23:57:27","date_gmt":"2016-11-25T23:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/?p=2547"},"modified":"2016-11-25T23:57:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T23:57:27","slug":"book-log-47-the-upright-citizens-brigade-comedy-improvisation-manual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/?p=2547","title":{"rendered":"Book Log #47 – The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual<\/em> by Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, & Matt Walsh [Drama Bookstore, New York City, $25]<\/p>\n

The last time I looked for books about improv, there were about three. Impro for Storytellers<\/em> by Keith Johnstone, Improvisation for the Theater<\/em> by Viola Spolin and some other book I’m forgetting that I didn’t read. Truth in Comedy<\/em> by Charna Halpern and Del Close– I just looked it up. <\/p>\n

There are now hundreds. Dozens in the Drama Bookstore in New York City, which is a great stop for the theatrically minded.<\/p>\n

The UCB is strongly in the Del Close school. If I came from any school of improv, it was more Johnstone, who begat TheatreSports<\/em>, which begat ComedySportz<\/em>, which was my first exposure to Improv in 1985. But I have no cultish attachment to any of them.<\/p>\n

I wish I had picked up Truth<\/em> back when I was actually doing improv, it probably would have helped.<\/p>\n

This UCB book is chock full of good stuff I’d heard bits and pieces of over the years. I was surprised at their aversion to actual storytelling, though. Their thought was that the plot or storyline is almost insignificant in doing comedy improv, whereas I (and Johnstone, I believe) have seen story as the cake you put the comedy frosting on. Johnstone’s title, was, after all, for Storytellers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Is this a conscious wall they’re putting between the Haralders and the TheatreSportsers? Dunno. Don’t care either.<\/p>\n

Though the book is needlessly repetitive in many places, it’s an inspirational read. It focuses on long form improv (which they capitalize LongForm), which I greatly prefer these days. Ironically, I have never actually seen a true Harald (the longform primarily described here), though I have heard people go on about it. It seems interesting, if rigid in structure.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I’ll catch one next time I’m in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Books Read: 47
\nWeek Number: 47
\nParity again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual by Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, & Matt Walsh [Drama Bookstore, New York City, $25] The last time I looked for books about improv, there were about three. Impro for Storytellers by Keith Johnstone, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[481,513],"tags":[509,5],"class_list":["post-2547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-log","category-books","tag-book-log-2016","tag-improv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2548,"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547\/revisions\/2548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journal.electric-rocket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}