I’ve been doing improv for a couple years now, and while my skills are always in constant disrepair, there are some incredibly talented people out there in your own backyard (especially if you happen to live in Chicago or New York…but that’s a different site altogether).

Los Angeles has a new(ish) improv community that is being fueled by the success of improvisers such as Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler ( not to mention the rest of the Upright Citizens Brigade), and just about every single person you see in a Sonic or other dumb commercial. They’re all improvisers, every single on of them!

Your chances of going to an improv show around LA and saying at least one time ‘Hey i recognize that guy from…’ are nearly 100%, and with the exodus of performers from the Midwest and the East Coast to the Golden State, the chances are getting even BETTER (and so is the talent). The shows are dirt cheap (rarely costing more than ten bucks, and often times are FREE…did i say FREE? I did!) and are full of some of the most talented up and coming performers/writers/entertainment folks around.

The ‘magic’ of improv, is that there are no scripts, and everything is made up right in front of the audiences face – generally from their suggestions! It’s like YOU’RE the writer of a half hour television sitcom! (that happens to not be on television). The appeal to an audience, is that: 1. it’s cheap entertainment 2. it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity (no matter how many times a group will get the suggestion ‘pizza’, the moment that is created on stage will be different EVERY SINGLE TIME – think about that next time you’re singing along to that Radiohead song you like so much at their $100 concert and their tired old set list) 3. it’s fun. And that’s the most important part. Watching people succeed (or inevitably fail) on stage is an extremely exciting opportunity. Witnessing performers walk the tightrope of ultimate embarrassment is unmatched by rehearsed entertainment.

Where can you see this stuff? TONS of places. So many places are offering high quality improv for the price of a beer (or less).

The Improv Space In Westwood
The IO West In Hollywood
Upright Citizens Brigade (or UCB for those who are much more savvy) In Hollywood
Room 101 In Los Angeles
Mission Improvable In Santa Monica

There are plenty of places all over town. There are even smaller theaters and venues that offer improv on various days of the week. You really have no excuse to go out there and get out of your comfort zone. 90% of these theaters offer classes and workshops – ranging from free to ridiculously overpriced – if you’re so inclined to give it a shot.

Don’t confuse it with ‘The Improv’, or you will be severely gouged and disappointed. Unless you’re looking for overprices standup, then by all means go check out ‘The Improv’.

Many teams are putting their shows online nowadays too (but believe me, the magic is in the room – not on the video – you will often look at video of shows you saw and wonder why anyone was laughing so hard…it’s unexplainable, and can only be experienced in the moment). My team ‘The Board’ has a show below you can check out

The Board Goes to Washington from Adam Macy on Vimeo.

and there are some other teams that put their performances online as well – including an excellent, well established group USS Rock N Roll

So, come out to The Improv Space every Friday at 8:30 to watch your very own Arnold Benedict make a fool of himself (email me downinthewell@gmail.com for comps and special gifts and prizes) or go to one of the many other venues that are available for your entertainment.

Become Un-Bored.

AB

I’m a regular guy – I’m not a smart guy, but the guy who does all the ‘smart guy’ stuff around this website has taken a moment out of his busy IT infected day to explain, in a little more abstract detail, about exactly why we should really be opposing this legislation. Take a moment to read through – and PLEASE repost if it makes any sense to you.

[full entry]

Why do people keep having these things made? (the 3-D ultrasound images that look like little turd humans, I’m not questioning the creation of babies themselves – i don’t want to sound anti-kid baby here all of a sudden)

Yeah, real cute baby Einstein - but you look like a mud pie.

Does it not look like a child made out of melted fudge? Have you ever played the board game Candyland? Could you imagine giving birth to this thing!?

Congratulations Mrs. Spencer - your baby is a healthy 80's pop culture reference

You could build a pueblo out of this kid.

Conception began during the Green Day set at Woodstock ’94.

Supposedly the technology is much better now, and if you have a descent enough insurance plan – your 3-D ultrasound will look like an actual real infant and not a terrifying Junior Jabba The Hut

But, a world without mud babies is a world i don’t wanna live in.

Things I Thought I Wouldn’t Like

Bridesmaids.

The reason i began writing these was based entirely on a conversation i had with my sister about this movie.  She (like so many other women in the film industry – and comedy) hark it as a ‘landmark film that shatters the glass ceiling’ (a paraphrase and reinterpretation of many of their statements – but pretty accurate) – this film will change the way they’re made!

I disagreed – but upon finding out that i hadn’t really even paid attention to the movie the first time through – the naysayers declared my opinion invalid.  (citing the fact that if the movie couldn’t capture my full attention while i sit on my couch and internet – then it wasn’t worth it’s salt, regardless of who made it)

So i watched it last night with undivided attention.

As you would expect (as stubborn as i tend to be) – my opinion has not changed.  I just can’t watch this film and think to myself – *sigh* ‘groundbreaking’.

Kristin Wiig plays your classic downtrodden yet hopeful thirty something still clamoring her way towards an epiphany.  She is cute, charming, and a passionate ‘every girl’ – totally relateable – finally women can have an honest to goodness role model they can look up to – the loud, selfish, not afraid to fart joke Wiig.

Great.

Yes, the film is touching – yes it has it’s moments where i truly laughed out loud – groundbreaking?  no.

My argument isn’t meant to be misogynistic (at least i don’t think it should be taken as such) -  but shouldn’t something be ‘new and interesting’ to be considered ‘groundbreaking’?  I understand women in comedy don’t get the respect they sometimes deserve (but, as anyone who knows anything about comedy can attest to – ANY woman with a fraction of talent in comedy (and good looks doesn’t hurt either) nowadays gets eaten up by the talent sharks the instant they show promise re: whitney).  Bridesmaids is just a re-hash of bad comedy that has been made so many times before – but, with a woman at the helm.

I understand that this movie wasn’t for ME – and i respect that.  But neither are cartoons, and i more than often LOVE those.

i thought it didn’t live up to the hype (as to be expected) – but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some redeeming qualities.  There are much worse movies out there that i have seen that never would have had the Bride shit in the street while trying on a one of a kind French designer dress.  The roommates were good for a little laugh – but the standout was really Melissa McCarthy who played the rotund ‘Chris Farley’ roll – and she was hilarious in almost every scene she was in – naturally, because that’s why she was written into the film.  The comic relief in a comedy film was the saving grace.

Lucille Ball and Roseanne Barr were ‘groundbreaking’.  They were pioneers of their craft.  They didn’t just decide to map their concept over a time tested template and call it genius.  They transformed the medium in ways that Bridesmaids can never touch.

Listen folks – kick back on a sunday night and watch Bridesmaids.  Laugh along with foul mouthed females telling you the best dick jokes you may have never heard.  Applaud as the soft, sweet smelling facade is peeled away from everything you thought occurs between friends of the female persuasion.  It’s entertaining and irreverent – but the shovels will stay on the shelves.

but maybe i’m missing something.

I generally try and take funny pictures and send them to my friends, but sometimes (most of the times)  - these pictures aren’t really that funny.  Here is a small collection of the ones I found worthy of resizing and posting.  Definitely worth the ten seconds it will take to see them (and then quickly UNsee them)

A place ladders shouldn't be: Right outside my bathroom stall

Come on, you know you'd take that picture too! Think about all that HECK!

A bathroom stall at the fair, that doesn't seem all that fair. #fatpeople'sproblems

I SWEAR i saw a cat wearing a pillbox hat, am I just crazy?

Two crappy computers might just be a #brokepeoplesproblems

Things I Thought I wouldn’t Like.

A bit of an introduction:

I’m one of those people who hates something (be it films, bands, co-workers, anything really) before i’ve really even experienced it.  You know the type, complains about how terrible (insert popular blockbuster action flick here) is going to be, then never even sees it – while continually trashing it.  Yeah, i’m one of those goons.

I have recently taken to proactively seeking out these pieces of work in order to dispel the terrible rumors that I’ve been spreading to myself about them.  Take, The Rolling Stones for instance.  The Stones are one of those bands that I decided early on i would never own an album of.

They’re too old to rock and roll, but weren’t always.  They’ve withstood the test of time and deserve a fair shake.  There has to be more depth in there than the overplayed radio hits we’ve all been subjugated to after all of these years.

But this isn’t about the Rolling Fucking Stones (it may be eventually, but that was just one of the many examples i could provide at this moment – i hold strong opinions about things i know nothing about).

This is about ALL the things that i thought i wouldn’t like.  Beginning with:

MACHETE. A Robert Rodriguez film. [full entry]

An unfortunate name for an unfortunate woman

She wasn’t quite that character from the hit Disney flick ‘Hercules’, but that nacho burrito sure wreaked some sort of Hell on my lower intestine.

I think you’re reading that right.  And downinthewell does not approve.

A Guest Column about summer love by A.N. Owen:

After college I rented a house with three of my buddies and we proceeded to pass the next two years in a drunken, drug induced haze….needless to say, it was lots of fun…anyway..

on one particular night, the usual drinking and merry making had occurred and i found myself entertaining a certain lady friend.  Things were progressing nicely, as things tend to do when fueled by my boozy charm and rugged good looks; until i realized that, if the evening was going to progress the way i would like it to, i was lacking the proper……..let’s say “attire”.

Now, despite the seemingly endless list of disgusting habits that one is bound to witness while living in a house with three other twenty-something males, there is one tried and true rule that will never fail you [full entry]