Saturday, October 31, 2009

Recent News

The mother of the 6-year-old balloon boy admitted to officials that the situation was all a hoax. Other hoaxes she is taking responsibility for include crop circles and David Blaine.

Ex-Golden Girl, Bea Arthur, left $300,000 in her will to the Ali Forner Center in New York, an organization that supports homeless LGBT youth. After hearing the news, many gays have replied, "Thank God she’s dead."

Union workers have refused to help Ford Motors cut labor costs. Workers worried that if they cut costs down, they would have to change the company name to Kia.

Television producer, Laurie Jacobson, shares stories of ghost sightings on famous Hollywood hangouts. In the interview, Jacobson said, “Sometimes I’ll see a ghost, and it will take me a minute to realize that it’s just Joan Rivers.”

If you're looking for something really spooky, check out the dead people at...


Bodies: The Exhibition
Sunday - Thursday : 10:00 am - 7:00 pm
Friday - Saturday : 10:00 am - 10:00 pm
1505 5th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101



Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Improvised scene work

The final scenes from Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run:


Whenever I tell someone that I'm going to improv rehearsal, they jokingly respond "how do you practice improv?" Well, there are multiple ways to practice improv, but one of the best is to practice the essentials of scene building - quickly developing C.R.O.W., creating high stakes, making strong decisions, etc. - and making all of that second nature to one's self. After that happens, the focus can be put on the "game" that is being played.

There are many important elements to the final scenes in Take the Money and Run. 1) The two characters focus solely on their relationship. 2) Virgil has strong motives - to rob this man. 3) Status takes a sharp turn in the end, changing the holder of it from Virgil to Eddie. 4) It's fun and doesn't worry the audience. 5)There is an obvious "game" being played.

The "game" was one of the best I have ever witnessed. It was to reminisce in a situation where two people would not be civil. But what made it stand out was that the game was about their relationship. It stayed about the two, and it didn't need any outside influence.

Though the scene isn't improvised, it is still one that can teach improvisers about the necessities of scene work. It's a great comic scene that follows a simple through line, it develops the essentials to scene building, and most of all, it is fun to watch.

Monday, October 26, 2009

The Exorcist: Still Possessing Girls



Fuck Paranormal Activity, because I haven't seen it yet. And fuck vampires, zombies, and people in masks, because the scariest thing this Halloween is Catholics.

Last night was the first time I watched The Exorcist in its entirety. I'm 23, and I've wasted all of my previous years fearing things like fire and rapists, when all along, I could have used God to give me the creeps.

Remember the good ol' Testament, when God smote the world with floods and murderous Abrahams? Well The Exorcist taps into that same market, utilizing the fear of God and his counterpart, Satan, to instill a supernatural terror in its many viewers.

Having seen the film 36 years after its original release, many plot points were spoiled. For example, I knew that Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) was the one who would be possessed. So I watched the opening sequences with Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) in Iraq and I anxiously thought, "Where's the demon bitch at?" But as the movie plays out, and the climax welcomes back Father Merrin to help perform the exorcism, it all pays off in a happy vomiting death match.

So if you're one of the 30 or so people who still haven't seen The Exorcist, see it. Because it's an original, truly horrifying movie. And it makes Vincent Price look like a kid in a bed sheet.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Children are the Wild Things

Where the Wild Things Are is the closest one will get to being inside of a child without having to fear that the parents will press charges against you. Spike Jonze creates a phenomenal story about the inner workings of a child's mind. In changing the 338 word children’s book into a feature length film, Jonze creates a movie welcome to people of all ages.

Max is a 9-year-old boy whose imaginative life is filled with rough housing and harmless violence. When he retreats to his imagination, he finds a group of monsters who include Tony Soprano, the Last King of Scotland, and that guy that Daniel Day-Lewis killed. The monsters request that he becomes their king, and Max gladly accepts their offer. But it isn’t long until real problems occur – the loss of friendship, love affairs, rat infestations – causing Max to realize that he is ill-equipped for such a position. He leaves at the height of the troubles and once again finds solace in the real world.

Where the Wild Things Are is a recreation of a child's mentality. Just like other children, Max has a tendency to run from his problems, even if he create them in his imagination. Spike Jonze does a great job at demonstrating this, showing us that, just like children, Max is a character with a short attention span who is focused until the fun stops being so fun.

So if you have a lazy kid that's a dick then leaves the scene of the crime, see Where the Wild Things Are. And maybe afterwards, you won’t hit him so hard when he fucks up.