Tag: improv
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 14 – The Women
Woke up Saturday morning with the realization that there was only 4 shows left. End of tour blues set in hard.
I got up and did a little writing. Attempting NaNoWriMo this year. For the past couple of years I start writing and usually wind up being too busy to finish, but it always gives me a good start on something that I can work on throughout the year.
I then met up with Dan, Amanda and Brian as we were going to go get that indian food lunch special we had the other day. We walked over to the place that was supposed to be open by 1. At 1:15 they were still not open and the guy inside was ignoring our walking. We decided to take our party to the place up the street called Spring Roll. We had a delicious lunch and went back to the theatre for the first of two shows.
The Saturday Matinee crowd was just fantastic. They threw out great suggestions and the show was a total blast. We had a fun game show called Wheel of Death that was a ton of fun. One of the ‘punishments’ was death by Miley Cyrus. Ted’s interpretation of that was just way too funny.
(BREAKING BAD SPOILER BELOW)
The Alien Barbershop suggestion was Breaking Bad. My rhyme was:
Oh Walter White
Jessie was his friend
He got cancer and cooked meth
And he died in the end
Then my alien just started saying, “Spoiler Alert, Spoiler Alert!” That got a big laugh.
A really fun matinee show and a great time meeting folks in the lobby especially, superfan, Randall who is already leading the charge to get us back in Toronto! Go, Randall, Go!
Between shows, Michael, Dan and I wound up at the Indian food place which was now open for a quick meal then it was back over to the theatre for our second show.
I want to take a moment to talk about the two women on this tour, Colleen and Peggy. Colleen is just an amazing improviser. She’s so relaxed and incredibly smart. She has an ease in her improvs where she’ll just drop a hilarious little line that will just KILL. Tonight in the audience participation bit, the audience puppeteer was sort of standing crooked, with the puppets head to one side and the audience was just rolling and Colleen just bides her time and says, “Tony, is your neck broke.” Probably not that hilarious in print, but it just tore the house down and I was laughing uncontrollably in the chair. So lucky I get to perform with her. Our ‘New Choice’ scenes have been a lot of fun.
Peggy is just so much fun to be on the road with and perform with. Out of the whole class I’ve known her and Brian for the longest (excepting Patrick) and Peggy and I started in Puppet Up, roughly, about the same time. She is always so funny and there are so many memorable moments with Peggy on stage. Tonight during our ‘Flashback’ scene I just found myself smiling from ear to ear at her ‘passing her kidney stones’ screaming. I was in the scene but just laughing right along with the audience. At that moment I thought to myself, “This is the most fun job in the world.” It really is.
The crowd for the evening show was just as crazy and into it as the matinee crowd. The Alien Barbershop suggestion was YouTube.
I love YouTube
Best entertainment around
Nothing but hours of videos
Of people falling down.
Got an okay laugh. Not the strongest rhyme. But it did okay. The rest of the show was fun with, of course, a lot more Mayor Ford references that the audiences just love. Well most of them anyway.
After the show we hung out at one of the nearby pubs and just chilled. I’m really going to miss this once it’s over.
Now, to bed! Two more shows tomorrow! Gonna make them count!
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 11 – A Walking Tour
In the quest to try new and exciting foods here in Toronto, Dan has got it in his head to get Steak Frites. So he found a place and shortly after noon Dan, Brian and I hopped a cab to a cafe about two and a half miles away.
We had a nice meal at a tiny little french inspired cafe down in the fashion district. After we took a walk to the CN Tower. I used the opportunity to film some Uncle Interloper stuff for Vine and Tout as well as snap a few photos along the way.
After our walk about Dan wanted to take the Subway back to the hotel and Brian and I decided to walk. We then walked most of the way through the large underground mall that’s downtown Toronto. It goes on for blocks and blocks and really has just about every kind of store you’d want in a mall.
When the mall ended we surfaced and continued out nice walk back to the hotel, chatting as we took in the sights. Once back I relaxed, picked up my shirts form the laundry, and caught up on email. Just generally relaxing before tonight’s show.
The goal for tonight it to listen. Focus. Have a really great improv night with super strong puppetry.
It’s amazing how small puppetry movements can get big reactions. Earlier in the run I was doing a scene with Colleen and she made a comment in an improv and I thought, “My character would be nervous about that.” so I just had my puppet take two small steps backwards and look nervously at Colleen’s character. This got a huge laugh from the audience and it was so simple. That same night there was another instance where I made a character do a move and it got a laugh. These two experiences really drove it into me that the puppetry can be just as funny as any witty line of improvised dialogue. Since then I’ve really been looking for those moments in scenes to make those simple puppetry movements.
Tonight’s show was really a lot of fun. Fantastic laughs, great suggestions. I really focused on listening and responding and it worked. Also found some fun puppetry movements as well. Really fun show. Everyone was on and the crowd was great.
The suggestion for alien barbershop was Online Banking. I was much more relaxed tonight and easily came up with a rhyme. During the intro to the song though my punchline got scooped. Instead of panicking, I remained calm and quickly came up with a rhyme that, actually, I think was better than the original.
Oh online banking
Make me forlorn.
Cause when I login,
I see how much I spent on porn.
Got a nice laugh with that one. And totally not true. Totally, not true at all. Totally.
After the show, and meeting the crowd in the lobby, Patrick, Peggy, Brian and I went to a place called Spring Roll right near the theatre and the food was delicious.
Tomorrow, a day off for Halloween and then it’s a straight sprint to the end! The end…boooo.
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 10 – Off
Whenever I’m on one of these Puppet Up Tours I am always eternally grateful. I understand there are a ton of people who’d love to be able to do this job and I’m extremely thankful that I get to do it. As such, I do my best to keep a positive outlook on the show and the travel aspect of bringing this show on the road. I look at things like bus rides with half blind drivers and 4 hour bus trips that turn into 7 hour bus trips as adventures. Look, I could be stuck in an office somewhere instead of stepping onto a stage with a puppet on my hand. So, I very rarely complain. I try not to complain at all, again, because I know I’m lucky to be here.
This trip has been great in that after the first day flight, there hasn’t been any travel. It’s been city living. Sure the wifi in the hotel and the wifi at the theatre are spotty, but I’m not here to surf the web. I’m here to do the best puppet improv I can. That’s my job. No complaining.
And this isn’t a complaint. I will simply say that housekeeping here at the hotel, love to do their job. Either that or they get paid by the number of rooms they clean a day because the Housekeeping staff here will not let any Do Not Disturb sign hinder them from doing their job. In fact, if that sign is up, they will call the room just to make absolutely sure you really, really mean ‘Do Not Disturb.’ That is dedication. Again, not complaining. It’s all an adventure.
Speaking of a having a job to do, today was the return to shows! Patrick is a great director and great at changing up who is in what improv and even the improv structures to keep things fresh. He sent out an email earlier in the day listing a few of the changes coming this week and it’s going to make for some really fun shows.
Tonight show was a decent show. The audience had a great time and in the lobby after, they were really complimentary. I will say it wasn’t my best show on this tour. Just off a little. Maybe sleeping in too long today put me in a low key mood. I’m not sure. I started off pretty good with a New Choice scene with Colleen that really did well, but after that I just sort of felt out of it.
For alien barbershop I just could not think of a rhyme. I was trying and trying but I couldn’t think of anything. I finally settled on something and the MOMENT I began singing I came up with another rhyme that would have been better, but by then it was far too late. Anyway, the topic was ‘Setting Things on Fire.’ My rhyme:
I set thing on fire.
I create my own hell.
The flames are so pretty.
(then here I had my alien sniff a little bit.)
What is that smell?
The joke being something was on fire. Ugh. I don’t know, it was poor. The whole rest of the show I just seemed off. Gotta get my head in the game tomorrow, for sure!
After the show, Dan and I went out to the Chinese Dumpling place next door. I ordered Pineapple Chicken and was just not thrilled with it. Ate there twice and officially ruling out a return trip.
That was the adventure of today. Looking forward to tomorrow and to stepping up my improv/puppetry game. And, as always, more than grateful that I get to do this.
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 8 – Matinee
Ah the life of a big time puppeteer on the road. Today I got to do what, I’m sure, you’re all imagining we do on our downtime…laundry. Yes, today was laundry day. The excitement never ends.
It continued my love affair with Canadian Money. It is funny to me that Canadian Money is so different from american money. Our money seems dull and boring while Canadian money reminds of money you’d see in a sci-fi film as currency from an alien world. “I’ll pay you 15 Klurbuts for that.” and then you hand over a few slips of plastic covered paper. When we’ve gone out to eat, I often feel bad leaving Canadian money just because I feel like it’s not really paying. Of course it is, but I get the feeling I’m dining and dashing and just leaving colored slips of paper behind.
Anyway, this morning I’m at the front desk with two golden coins asking for dollar coins because, obviously they are gold so they much be two dollar coins and the desk clerk is looking at me like I’m an idiot. Of course, the golden coins are dollar coins. Duh.
At any rate, laundry was done.
The cast has discovered Kinder Eggs. We don’t have them in the states, presumably because our kids are stupid and would try to eat the toys. We’ve been enjoying the eggs and the toys inside backstage.
Today was our final show before a day off and it was a Sunday matinee. The audience was fantastic and the suggestions were great. Patrick also mixed up the casting a bit so we were all thrown into scenes we aren’t normally in and I think that helped make for a great show.
Michael and I got to start the show with a scene about a colonoscopy. Can’t get much better than that. Some great scenes in today’s show and it was cool knowing there were some friends in the crowd too! Brian K. and Ceris, both huge muppet fans, were there and it was great talking to them after the show.
Alien Barbershop was an odd one. Just a completely different type of suggestion than we normally have. The suggestion was: Training Fleas. So my rhyme was:
Oh, training fleas,
Is a tough road to hoe.
If a dog comes by,
He’ll steal the show.
It got an okay laugh for such a corny old joke. Other fun bits today featured a fantastic date scene, an amazing audience participation bit and a great round of play and understudies.
After the show, I cleared out my stuff from our dressing room so I could do more laundry (huzzah) and because we wouldn’t have access to the backstage until Tuesday night before our next show.
After getting back to the hotel, Dan and I went to a all you can eat Indian food buffet. Yeah, I may have been bitten by that bug. Don’t mind so much. It’s good. Should have tried it sooner.
After that it was home to retire to bed early because tomorrow we’re off to Niagara Falls. Look for fun pictures from that.
For not I’ll leave you with this picture of the Walk symbol from the Canadian crossing lights. To me he just looks like a really happy guy who’s excited to be going wherever he’s off to.
