Learning the comedy business is starting to get very expensive

June 19, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment 

I’m very fortunate to be living in Toronto right now. There are so many resources available here that were not available to me in either Calgary or Winnipeg. Because of this, I have concentrated on getting better at my craft rather than trying to propel my career forward before I am ready. The only trouble I’m running into right now are expenses.

There are many, many great classes and courses to take in Toronto, especially with Second City in town along with many great acting studios like Sears and Switzer. I definitely believe in taking classes, and I have gotten a lot out of each and every class I have taken, though I do have to watch out for how much money I have been spending lately. It’s definitely a difficult balance at times.

The Second City classes have definitely helped me improve my comedic range. Coming from a stand-up background, my character skills were definitely lacking. At least now I feel more comfortable going forward with different types of comedy outside of stand-up such as improv and sketch, making me much more well rounded and marketable.

My next seminar revolves around personal publicity. This is definitely the most important seminar for me in a while. If there’s one thing I need to learn before opening my one-man show early next year, it’s going to be how to promote the show and get people in the seats. Otherwise, I’ll just be performing in front of an empty audience.

I think I can manage my expenses for the time being, and hopefully the dollars coming in from performing will start to balance the expenses going out. Luckily for me, I’ve kept my day job, which is allowing me to overspend a little bit on the comedy side.

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The Improvisation Program, Level B with instructor Cary West at Second City Training Centre, Toronto, Improv Class

May 3, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I’m currently taking Level B improv classes at The Second City Toronto Training Centre with instructor Cary West. I’ll be blogging about my experiences below. This post will be updated after each class (as opposed to me writing a new post each class), so bookmark this page if you want to follow along with my experiences.

DAY SIX – Sunday, May 3, 2009: The Improvisation Program, Level B with instructor Cary West at Second City Training Centre, Toronto, Improv Class

My last day at Level B intensive was a great culmination of everything we learned so far. I skipped out on Saturday’s class due to a personal engagement, but I’m happy I made it back for the finale. Our final day was a lot more relaxed and more a review than anything else. We were able to play some games that I saw at Wheel of Improv, so now I hope to be more comfortable when playing along on Mondays.

In all, I’m super happy that I took the Level B intensive and am now caught up with my Level A class so that I can take Level C with them starting next week. The intensive format is definitely different from the weekly class format, and I think that I enjoy both forms.

As for Level B itself, I feel a lot more comfortable with environment, though it’s still not my strong suit. I’ll have to work at it some more for sure in the later levels, but I’m looking forward to it.

DAY FOUR – Friday, May 1, 2009: The Improvisation Program, Level B with instructor Cary West at Second City Training Centre, Toronto, Improv Class

Today’s class was all about environment. I was really tired and a bit beat down from the week, so I had to really pull from all my energy banks to be able to tackle some of our exercises. I still have a long way to go as far as environment, but at least now I know what exercises I can do on my own to improve.

My favourite exercise involved performing the same action in four, eight and 20 steps. I was given the action of getting ready in the morning. Performing this action in four steps was funny and showed how disconnected we can be as performers when we don’t add in the little touches. Expanding to eight steps felt a bit better and is probably closer to where I’m at right now as a performer. Trying to add up to 20 steps was really difficult for me, as I ran out of things to do. Now, getting ready for the morning in real life obviously takes a lot more than 20 steps, so I’ve just got to concentrate more on the little details.

The ultimate goal is to be able to perform any action in 50 steps. I’m a ways away from doing this, but now I know how to move forward. I will definitely practice on my own.

DAY THREE – Sunday, April 26, 2009: The Improvisation Program, Level B with instructor Cary West at Second City Training Centre, Toronto, Improv Class

I had yet another great day at my Second City improv class. I’m really starting to feel more comfortable working with environment, which has been my biggest weakness by far.

Today’s class was really well structured. We worked on several smaller exercises leading up to a final exercise that used the skills we learned throughout the day. This is the first time I’ve felt this type of progression in an improv class. The fact that we got to use everything we had learned gave me a great sense of accomplish when we were done.

We started out with free association, kind of similar to when stand-up comedians perform stream of consciousness. I had a great time with this exercise, as I do with most thinking and talking exercises. We built on the free association by introducing an environment. Once we were in our environment, we had to continue talking about an unrelated topic while still continuing our activity. I found this incredibly difficult to do, but I’m sure it will get easier with time. My thoughts were much more muted, and I had difficulty remembering what I was saying.

The new techniques we learned for environment were really helpful. Cary West showed us how to sustain an activity that isn’t overly repetitive. After learning this technique, I was able to try using them during our final exercise. Putting free association, environment and adding an extra improvisor, the final exercise really stretched our improv skills. I was given the environment of a clothing store and had to carry out a conversation while shopping. I think I botched the conversation since I was thinking we were still doing free association and thus spoke way too much.

At the end of the day, though, I felt the most comfortable I’ve ever been while doing environment work. Our instructor Cary is really great with giving us helpful tips and suggestions.

DAY TWO – Saturday, April 25, 2009: The Improvisation Program, Level B with instructor Cary West at Second City Training Centre, Toronto, Improv Class

Today I felt a lot more comfortable than yesterday. A lot of the rust came off, and I was definitely more in the moment.

I was really excited because today we worked a lot on environment, which is my weakest skill for sure tied with character (which will be covered more in Level C). We had an exercise where we had to establish an environment, and the audience had to figure out where we were. I decided to establish a wrestling ring. The good part is that I conveyed the environment well enough that the audience guessed correctly. The bad part is that I have a long way to go as far as committing to a scene.

Now, I fully understand that I have skills that need to be worked on, but I shouldn’t have to work on committing, as that’s something I can do right now whether I have the other skills or not. That’s my takeaway from this week is to always commit fully as much as I can. Cary had some great recommendations after the scene about how I can improve by being more in the moment and adding all the extra little details.

The second part of today concentrated on free association and being generous with our fellow performers. Now this is the part of improv where I feel I shine through much more. Any exercises where it’s about using words and nothing more are where I feel at home. I definitely know I can develop more in this area too, but it’s nice to come back to something I’m good at after spending hours working on my weaknesses. It’s a nice confidence builder for sure.

DAY ONE – Friday, April 24, 2009: The Improvisation Program, Level B with instructor Cary West at Second City Training Centre, Toronto, Improv Class

Ooh, today was definitely a little bit rough. Improv is like a skill that you need to keep sharp, and I definitely was not sharp today as it’s been about three months since my Level A class. This isn’t to say that the class didn’t go well; in fact, it was fantastic and I had a lot of fun.

My instructor for this level is Cary West, an experienced improvisor and actor. Well, instead of describing him, I’ll just paste his bio from the Second City website:

“Cary West has been teaching improvisation since 1996 including the Second City Education Department starting in 2001. A long-time graduate of the Second City Conservatory Program, he has also been involved with the Bad Dog Theatre and the Toronto Film College instructing comedy performance and writing. In 2000, Cary was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award for Best New Sketch Troupe with the Closet Primadonnas and has appeared in numerous award winning short films.”

What’s interesting about Cary is that he started out in stand-up comedy for a year, which of course intrigues me since stand-up comedy is my first love as far as performing goes. Cary is very different from my last instructor, Natasha Boomer, though they both are incredible improvisors in their own right. Cary loves telling stories, which I love because it gives insight into the improv world outisde of just learning how to perform.

My new classmates are really cool too. It was a little strange, though, because 80 per cent of the class knew each other from Level A, and I was one of only two people who was new to their group. I wasn’t phased for too long, though, because the group was very welcoming.

The biggest thing I noticed in my first class back was that I was holding back way too much. I tend to be a little too caught up in my thoughts when performing instead of projecting outward. Hopefully I can start to learn a bit more and get better as the course goes on.

Second City Toronto Training Centre Available Improv Courses

http://secondcity.com/?id=training-education/training/toronto/course_descriptions

The Second City

The Second City Toronto Training Centre

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I’m not sure if this comedy is allowed, but I’m going to try it anyway

March 24, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment 

One more day before I film my first video production. On the great advice of a great friend, I have decided to film my comedy set about the SuperPowerBottoms, my gay volleyball team and not-so-subtle stab at promoting rights for bottoms everywhere. Haha, talk about the opposite of mainstream. The video will be targeted to a very specific demographic, but I’m hoping that that demographic will really appreciate it.

The big news of the week, though, is that I have found my own comedy muse: hot blonde actress and improv student Holly. While doing improv, I discovered how much I love collaboration which isn’t something I get to do at all in stand-up. While brainstorming with my muse, I’ve decided to try something off-the-wall and maybe even against the rules.

I’m going to write a stand-up for someone else. I will be the Tina Fey to her Amy Poehler (check Saturday Night Live). Writing stand-up for Holly is actually kind of exciting because of her great acting ability. She has a uniqueness to her look and great timing on her delivery, but at this point in time she is more of a performance artist than a writer. Writing for Holly will allow me to really push myself creatively. I’ve written for my own stand-up persona for so long, that I think writing from the perspective of a young, hot blonde will be very interesting.

The end goal for this writing project is to have Holly perform her material as an opening act when my one-man show debuts (now with a bonus woman!) at the end of this year or early next year. The fact that I’ll be writing both acts will lend itself to some great continuity and some comedy tricks that I’ve been meaning to try and which I don’t think have been done before, as a headliner generally doesn’t write material for their opening act.

Anyhow, with my two current projects progressing well, I’m getting excited and more inspired than ever. It feels great to be pushing the boundaries of an art form that I love so dearly.

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Stand-up offers full creative control, improv offers collaboration

March 15, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

As a hardcore advocate for stand-up comedy, it took me a little while to warm up to the idea of improv comedy. If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll know that I took the Level A class at Second City (which was great by the way).

I really enjoyed the class, and it made me want to look deeper into the world of improv. Despite this, I didn’t quite understand what it was about improv that appealed to me. At first, I thought improv would be a great outlet for me to help improve my stage presence and allow me to add extra dimensions (such as characters) to my stand-up act.

I still feel the same way for the most part, as stand-up comedy will always be my first love, but now I’m beginning to take improv comedy more seriously.

Thinking about it some more, I figured out why I so enjoyed my time with improv: creative collaboration. Now, this is somewhat contradictory for a stand-up comedian to believe, as the best part about stand-up comedy is the lack of collaboration. The entire stand-up piece is the comedian’s alone, no censors or network writers to get in the way. After getting over that initial mental hurdle, I came to realise that I rather enjoy collaborating with others.

I’ll always have my stand-up comedy as my primary form of expression, a place where I can express myself and my views on the world as a whole without dilution, but I must admit that I am going to have to make some room in my life for improv.

I’m still a ways off from forming an improv troupe or anything like that, but I am definitely going to work toward that goal. Stand-up comedy is necessarily a lonely process, but I’m happy to know that I can make some room in my life for some collaboration.

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Second City’s Level A improv class, week two, proves worth every penny

January 18, 2009 by vongsundara · 2 Comments 

I’m only two weeks into my improv class at Second City, and already I’ve gotten my money’s worth. Sunday night improv is starting to become a big highlight of my week.

This week, we focused on specific techniques to help flesh out an improv scene. The biggest challenge was about identifying the what, where and who of the scene. For instance, the first person up establishes what the activity is. The second person establishes where the scene takes place, and the third person establishes the relationship between the three people.

We were also given some great tips on what not to do in improv. One of the big no-no’s is entering a scene with a question.

It was funny, though, that no matter how many times I was told, it was a habit I could not shake. Whenever I came into a scene, I’d ask the person who started the scene a question instead of making a statement. I suppose it’s just human tendency.

I absolutely love how improv is pushing me in new directions creatively. It’s given me lots of ideas for my stand-up, which is why I joined the class in the first place. Unexpectedly, though, it’s also given me a love and appreciation of improv that kind of makes me want to push forward and learn more and more. I haven’t felt this excited since I first discovered stand-up.

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Second City’s Level A improv class, week one, packed with great info

January 13, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment 

My first-ever improv class at Second City’s training centre went extremely well. I had a lot of fun, and it’s gotten my creative juices flowing again, which is why I took this class in the first place.

You see, improv is quite the opposite of stand-up comedy. Improv is all about feeding off of an ensemble and going beyond yourself with multiple characters (think Mike Myers) while stand-up is about working on your own to be as believable as yourself as possible.

My class is made up of a dozen students. My teacher is quite hilarious and almost exactly like I’d imagine an improv teacher to be like. She’s very outgoing, talkative and agressive in the best ways possible. There are a couple of students who have already shown a lot of potential, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop.

Our first class was made up of a series of improv exercises. We kind of went through all the improv techniques in one day. Over the next six weeks, we’ll be going deeper into each of the techniques, and on our final day we’ll go through all of them again.

My favourite exercise consisted of having to answer questions in tune with a partner, speaking at the same time. My team decided to speak very slowly to try and figure out what the other person was saying. We ended up veering off in interesting directions, and some of our answers ended up being quite funny.

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Improv class at Second City has taken over my Sundays, goodbye football

January 10, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I’m excited to start a new chapter of my comedy life this week. Today, I went to take a tour of the Second City training centre, where I’ll be taking improv classes for the next year. My classes will be on Sunday, which is perfect timing since NFL football is coming to an end and my Sundays will soon be open.

At first, I was hesitant to take a class on improv, since it seems to be the polar opposite of what my stage style is. Stand-up is generally about being able to portray yourself and make it believable. Improv and sketch are more about suspension of disbelief and playing many different characters.

I’m still definitely a stand-up at heart, but with my creative juices stagnating as of late, I’m hoping the challenges brought about by improv will help get some ideas flowing through my head and get me excited about comedy again.

Today was orientation day, so I was able to meet the artistic director, Kevin Frank. I thought it was a nice touch that it was someone important as Kevin Frank to be the person leading orientation day.

I’m looking forward to meeting my instructor tomorrow, and I’ll give weekly updates on how my improv training is going. Who knows? Maybe improv will add a whole new dimension that I can bring to stage during my stand-up performances.

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Being a leader is more difficult than I imagined, I have lots to learn

December 4, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

The recent leadership struggle in Canada’s Parliament between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives and the coalition of Stephane Dion, Liberals, Jack Layton, NDP, and Gilles Duceppe, Bloc Quebecois, has come to a standstill and won’t be resolved for another seven weeks. All this talk of leadership has gotten me thinking about my own leadership abilities.

I’ve always personally thought that I was a natural-born leader, though recent developments have led me to question my abilities. Both at work and in my personal life, I’ve always been thrust into positions of leadership. From a young age, I have always led or been very near the leadership position in every group I have been a part of. At times, the leadership has been thrust upon me and at other times I have sought leadership.

In some ways, I am not a very natural leader at all, but I am often placed in positions of leadership because of my ability to gain trust and belief from others. The trust is often gained through observations of my ability to inspire others through my actions and initiatives and my ability to work well on my own and overcome obstacles. Unfortunately, it is this very nature that makes it difficult for me to lead in the traditional sense.

In the volunteer world, I have found that I am better served as a secondary leader or co-leader whose purpose is to inspire through action, leaving the world of traditional leadership to those more capable. I have recently found the same at work, where I didn’t fare so well at directly managing and supervising staff but have fared much better when managing people as resources, meaning those I am in charge of have separate supervisors to deal with everyday managing while I deal with the bigger picture.

Unfortunately for me, there are times where I have to step up and lead in both ways, as the option to co-lead is not always there. With the SuperPowerBottoms, I am fortunate enough to have a great group of players to lead: They are hard working, show up early and are motivated to practice. In fact, they are so great a team that I have to question my leadership as the main reason to why we haven’t improved sooner. I suppose I can only do my best, and perhaps things will turn around soon enough.

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