Category Archives: Game

My Movie Improv Game

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: dallas, Tx
Performance Date: 4/6/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Cameron is an avid improviser who specializes in long form improvisation.

Piece:

One of my favorite improv games has definitely got to be My movie. The way my movie is played is that a group  A group of improvisers  get in a line in front of a caller. They  get an audience suggestion for a letter and  suggest movie titles that start with that letter as the caller points to them. If the caller wants to hear a tag line for the movie he signals for it. When the caller finds a title he likes he says “let’s watch” and a very brief scene from the movie follows. Then the improvisers return and move on to the next letter. I like this game because it is super fast paced and you get to see a lot of variety in such a short time.

Collector’s thoughts:

My movie is a game that heavily relies on references or nods to famous movies. In this way copyrighted material is acknowledged and used and also changed in a way. This works to show that even if material is copyrighted, it is impossible for the owners of the copyright to prevent the material from being used in some way or another.

 

 

Switching Soccer Shin Guards

Nationality: African-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pacifica, Ca
Performance Date: 4/11/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Karl is a freshman aerospace engineering major. He spent thirteen years in a traditional boy’s chorus. He is also an avid soccer player

Piece:

When I played soccer in high school, my team had this tradition of if we were down we would all take one shin guard out and give it to someone else on the team to wear. SO we would all have like each other’s shin guards on instead of our own. I guess it was sorta a way to like bind us together when we were down and inspire us to try to score another goal and win.

Collector’s thoughts:

The informant explains that the exchanging of shin guards was done as a way to promote good luck when the team was down. Traditions like this are common throughouts sports and can be seen in many different sports. Similar to this tradition, baseball players turn their hats inside out when they are down to promote good luck. It is interesting how in sports one wishes for luck when ultimately it is the athlete using their own skills to accomplish a goal.

 

 

Second city and UCB Improv Schools

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dallas, tx
Performance Date: 4/6/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Cameron is an avid improviser who specializes in long form improvisation.

Piece:

There are two main improv schools that teach the craft and those are Second City and the UCB but they both have very different styles. UCB is game based which means that basically they focus more on finding an action or phrase to be funny and then heightening that and using that to make the scene funny. Whereas with second nature they are super character driven and focus on making compelling characters, not really on the action of the scene itself. And I tend to think that ummm Second City has the better format and style, but at the same time Second City uses improv as a means to the ends of writing sketch scenes. But I think that improv can be an ends itself. But overall i think both schools have a lot of good skills that are worth taking.    

 

Collector’s thoughts:

Both schools have tried to, in one way or another, write canonized rules for an improv scene. In doing so they claim that they are able to create the best Improv scenes and have the best style. The reality though is that many improvisers take classes from both schools in order to be well balanced in different techniques. Improvisers take notes and ideas from everywhere and use these to synthesize themselves as a unique improviser.

The Rain Song

Nationality: Hispanic
Age: 48
Occupation: Payroll Administrator
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 26, 2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

At a family dinner, I asked my mom if she could tell me any folklore. She told me the following:

M: “Que llueva, que llueva

La virgen de la cueva,

los pajaritos cantan,

la luna se levanta,

Que si, que no,

Que caiga un chaparrón.”

which translates to:

“Let it rain, let it rain,

The virgin of the cave,

The little birds sing,

The moon rises,

What if, what not,

Let a shower go down.”

Collector Analysis:

The rain song was a song my mom used to sing when she was a little girl. She sang it with a hint of nostalgia in her voice. I’ve heard her sing this song before. Growing up in Los Angeles, I didn’t experience much rain but whenever it rained a lot my mom was always by the window singing this song. It was her way of calling for more rain. As a little girl, she sang this song with her friends from her neighborhood and school. They would hold hands and spin in a circle, very similar to how young kids sing ‘ring around the rosie’. However now, my mom sings this song in an attempt to call down more rain because it reminds her of El Salvador.

I cannot even imagine my mom singing this as a little girl, but at the same time she is very fond of this song. She has taught it to several of the younger kids in our family. I found it interesting how the song incorporates nature, because El Salvador is very rural, as well as including christian images, like the virgin Mary. Even the songs my mom sang as a child were influenced by Christianity in one way or another.

Tucanje jaja (Cracking eggs)

Nationality: American
Age: 49
Occupation: financial manager
Residence: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Performance Date: 4/19/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Croatian

Tucanje jaja (Cracking eggs)

Informant: SK is my mom. She was born and raised in New York, but moved to Croatia in 2002 and has been living there ever since.

 

What’s your favorite thing to do on Easter?

 

“Play cracking eggs.”

 

What’s that?

 

“It’s a game my family plays every Easter.”

 

How do you play it?

 

“Ok, so you need two players, each player has an egg and you hit the egg with the other egg. The egg that’s the least damaged is the winner. The winner as a prize gets to eat the egg.”

 

This game is a traditional Easter game that’s appropriate for all generations, and it’s interesting how from simple things like eggs a family cam make up a game that will bring the family even closer. Having it played on a holiday like Easter makes it even better because the whole family is there.