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Reddit mentions of Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual
Sentiment score: 17
Reddit mentions: 22
We found 22 Reddit mentions of Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual. Here are the top ones.
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If anyone is interested in the Upright Citizens Brigade there's a book you can purchase that's quite good and is the standard resource for anyone interested in rat dicks.
Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual by Matt Besser, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh
I don't think you need to read the whole book (there's a small summary that's a few pages out there), but I found Greg Dean's book helpful for learning how to write simple setup/punchline jokes.
For improv (and it applies to sketch too imo), the UCB manual is the best book I've read.
For writing, this book from one of the founders of The Onion is really good. I think if I had to recommend just one comedy book, it would be this one.
I didn't read all of your other post. However, I did read the part where you say that you take a few minutes to come up with dialogue in the middle of the game. I don't know what's going on at your gaming table specifically, but I would recommend playing as a fantasy version of yourself. That way, you don't need to think as much about what your character would say. You just say what you would say. You also probably won't have to practice as much during the week.
Also to answer your question, I don't think anyone practices as their current character. However, if you want to practice improvisational speaking, you should check out the improv comedy scene in your town. Also, this improv comedy book has specific drills you can do with your friends to get better at improvisational speaking.
I didn't get involved in the improv scene until after I moved away from there but I've looked into it a little when visiting.
I've seen some shows and taken a workshop at Spectacles in Fullerton that were a lot of fun but the age group may be slightly older than you're looking for. They seem to be the most active and organized group and I think I've seem them post on this sub in the past.
Here are some other organizations I found you may reach out to:
Improv City High Schools
OC Crazies
Nothing about training but maybe a resource.
South Coast Repertory
If you're looking to do Long Form Improv you could pick up the UCB Handbook and some friends and start on your own. After several weeks of consistent practices you could try and hire a coach from one of the resources above. I've found that many coaches are more interested in helping dedicated improvisers improve and not in getting rich... hopefully you'll have the same experience.
Interestingly, this one blog post “How to Be a Better Improviser” is actually a brilliant distillation of the most important concepts.
It goes without saying that without practice reading alone will have limited utility.
They even wrote a manual! They definitely treat comedy as a craft.
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There's three in book form. Take them all and ingest them into your grey matter and develop your own.
I would highly suggest either Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual or any of the other books listed in the sidebar of /r/improv Or Improvisation For The Theater
The UCB manual is mostly concerned with Long-Form Improvisational Comedy, but it'll have good insight for any other kind of work.
Depending on who you ask, you can get different "tenets" of Improv. But the most basic things two I'd say are:
1.) Yes And - It is not just about literally saying yes, but about agreeing and adding information.
2.) Don't Deny - Again, this isn't about saying no, but about not denying the reality which has been created. As in, if you're in a scene where it is established that you're on normal Earth, don't just start going "Hey, I'm flying!"
Bonus question 1 answer being PMed. I've searched and searched and I can't find your name :(
Raffley goodness: In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.
If you're taking the improv route, you may want to try The Second City Almanac of Improvisation or the Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual. Both really great improv 'guides'.
If your friend hasn't read Truth in Comedy, that's a serious must for any comedic performer.
The Upright Citizens Brigade troop produced a bunch of great improvisers. Amy Pohler being one of them. They're also one of two accredited improv schools in the US. They wrote a book I found really useful to spice up my life. Hope it helps :)
Hey man!
I liked your video. It had some solid moments. Your accent and way of speaking is genuinely funny.
I think your video suffered from one fundamental error, and that was failing to establish an easily-understood base reality. In sketch and improv comedy, base reality tells the audience what's going on, and what's normal about a scene. Once we understand the base reality, then when something weird happens, we know that it's weird.
In your video, your base reality is that you're telling the audience a story of an awkward first date. Then, without any explanation, you cut to the farmer character to make a cucumber penis joke. The joke would be really funny, and you play creepy really well, but it doesn't make much sense for the audience in the context of the base reality.
If you preceded the cutaway to the farmer character by saying in the introduction "my farmer twin is going to be helping me tell this story today" or "My cousin is in from out of town today, and he'll be helping me tell this story. He's a little weird..." or "By the way, I have multiple personalities, and my farmer personality pops up randomly from time to time" then the audience would have some context for this new extremely unsettling character, and it wouldn't cause as much confusion. Because we didn't know who that weird guy was, your video lacked clarity, which got in the way of the comedy.
The small short at the beginning of the video suffered from the same thing. I liked it once I understood what you were going for, but it took awhile to understand a clear base reality. If you had a title screen before the scene that said "7:45pm, 911 headquarters, Gary the 911 transcriber" then we would better understand that this guy's job is to transcribe 911 conversations. If we understood that faster, then it would give more time for your punchline 'a balloon animal farted' to hit. That's a really funny punchline, but because the reality that it was delivered in was so hard to understand, it got in the way of it.
Base reality is really my biggest tip! If you're looking to get serious about doing comedy/sketch stuff, I'd recommend ordering the UCB Manual on amazon. In the first few chapters they talk about the structure of a comedic scene, and base reality is a really big part of that. I also think this video is similar to Olan Roger's classic storytelling style, and I think you could learn from studying the way he greets the audience, and helps them understand exactly what's going on.
My last note would be that the intro b-roll montage bits were really beautiful, but I felt like they could have used audio. I wanted to hear you move that chair, and wanted to hear that record scratch. It felt a little unnatural without the natural audio.
Regardless man, solid video! Very high quality. I think working on base reality/audience understanding would really help you. I subbed and I'm excited for whatever you make next!
If you live near a larger city there's probably some sort of improv happening near you. Otherwise there's a great book for beginners put out by the upright citizens brigade theater you can getright here it's great for beginners and you can learn and find some like minded friends to practice with you.
If you want to get really into it, but don't want to move to one of the three big cities (LA, NYC, Chicago) you can find coaches to meet with you via Skype or Google hangouts. It's not a totally perfect system, but it's really helped me get some great instruction fairly cheaply.
Hopefully though you can find some sort of training center near you and take some classes.
Have fun!
I've heard good things about the UCB's Comedy Improvisation Manual.
Do you have a background in comedy? Having experience in improv and/or sketch comedy will definitely be helpful. If you're near any major city, there are probably classes that you can take.
In terms of sketch writing, there are two main things you're going to need to understand. First, and arguably the most important, is the idea of Game. It's the fundamental pattern of what makes funny things funny. The inside joke that is crafted between the performers and the audience.
The second thing is just writing believable dialogue and characters you can invest in. You could have an incredible idea for a sketch, but if the dialogue is weak, then it's going to be harder to keep the audience's attention. Since you're on r/screenwriting, you probably have a good sense of this, so we'll focus on the Game.
In terms of resources, there are a number of great books on improv theory (unfortunately not very much about sketch, but at their core, the scene structure is quite similar).
The Upright Citizens Brigade just released a book that I haven't read yet, but seems like it focuses a lot on game, so it might be helpful. Truth in Comedy is another popular book about improv.
Once you understand the basics of how a comedic scene is crafted, I'd say just watch a lot of sketches. Watch SNL, Britanick, Good Neighbors, anything you can find online. Notice what their Game is. How they build and present their characters. It's the same thing with screenwriting. Once you know the pieces of a strong screenplay, you notice when they're done well or poorly in every movie you see. Then, find a style of comedy that is meaningful and funny to you and start writing!
Sorry for the huge post. I hope this was helpful! Best of luck!
Just one question: What is the game of the scene?
If you can't answer that, read this... http://www.amazon.com/Upright-Citizens-Brigade-Comedy-Improvisation/dp/0989387801/
So... I'm gonna be a little critical here.
I don't get this sketch. In improv terms, I don't know what the "game of the scene" is. Your comedic goal seems to be weirdness and then shock value. It's not that it can't work, it's just not for me. For example I feel like this same scene could easily have been accomplished with 2 characters instead of 4 or 5, and it probably would have let you define a relationship between those two characters more easily and play with that relationship.
Anyway, your production quality seems fine to me, you mention some audio concerns, but that to me shouldn't be your focus. I would recommend some improv or comedy writing books, my favourite being Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual. It'll teach you some core essentials for finding fun in scenes.
Hope this helps! :)
Improv can be structured into sketch as seen by UCB here. I know very few book dedicated solely to sketch but some overall comedy guides go into detail about sketch form and its place in comedy overall. Here.
Also, get people to pool their money and get a copy of the UCB manual! It is the best, and super approachable: http://www.amazon.com/Upright-Citizens-Brigade-Comedy-Improvisation/dp/0989387801/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406825908&sr=8-1&keywords=ucb+manual
If you want to get good find some local classes in your area, then work to join a team.
The UCB improv manual is one recommended book for a game heavy style of improv. It is the textbook for the UCB classes. Truth is Comedy is the textbook for IO which has a more honest style improv.
Go to shows if you have them in your area and watch improv as you learn you will begin to see what people are doing and understand why. This youtube channel is some UCB teams performing; I particularly like the team Fuck that Shit. I also personally love Off Book the Improvised Musical podcast. They are some incredible improvisers. Start with Ep 75 if you want a good one.
Last if you want a more relaxed fun way try finding a role playing game group. This won't make you great at stage improv but you can pick up some of the skills. Most people play D&D which is not a bad place to start in tabletop RPGs especially with 5th edition. If you can find people running more story games you can get somewhere closer to narrative improv minus the audience.
https://www.amazon.com/Upright-Citizens-Brigade-Comedy-Improvisation/dp/0989387801