Good Day Sacramento and Blacktop Comedy

Last week we had visitors! Melissa Cabral of Good Day Sacramento came out to Blacktop Comedy. We spent some time demonstrating improv, showing Sacramento how supportive improv can be. We shared a couple "rules" of improv: "yes, and," and "don't try and be funny." We even got Melissa onstage to improvise with our cast. We played some of our favorite short form improv games like Freeze, and I'm a Tree. She's good! Though, she thought she didn't do well. Doubt creeps into everyone's mind. She's an experienced reporter, with hundreds of hours of live in-field experience, thinking on her feet, adapting to situations, and even she wasn't immune to, "I wasn't good!" We pointed out her successes, and they were many. She listened really well, and used space objects (mime). She frequently was living in the moment, and helping her partners look good.  It's not that she was initially dismissive of "what" she did well. Melissa, in fact, didn't even consider her sucesses. They weren't on her rader to either acknowledge or dismiss. She was initially demonstrating these improv rules on autopilot, and therefore, after the piece on Good Day Sacramento, as they were packing up their equipment, and ready to shoot off to another spot in Rocklin, she didn't congratulate herself. She didn't even see anything to congradulate.

That's one great thing about improv, and working with your team. They're so quick to notice the things you didn't. It sounds a little, "um, yeah, obvious," but we're with ourselves all the time! What we do becomes unremarkable. Well, unremarkable to us. That's where a fantastic improv team comes in. They can help pick you up, brush you off, and point of what you did well.

Notice that?

No

Notice that?

Oh yeah.

Notice that?

Thanks!

Teams are more then just great confidence boosters. They can see things you miss, can help you recognize parts of your improv game you need to improve. Do you need to work on heightening, characters, or entrances? Maybe you have a verbal or physical crutch you have never noticed. We all have physical and verbal space fillers.

I literally used to try and FILL UP space, by shifting my weight from my left foot to my right foot, and back again. I would just sway onstage. Ever try to looking powerful and sway? It's hard! Fortunately, a member of the team let me know. It was a face palm moment. Of course! That makes sense. I had never noticed.

It was great being on Good Day Sacramento! Want to see our clip with Melissa Cabral? Check it out!

Squeaky Clean Comedy Saturday

Yes! We're back! Its been a nice break, but it's so great to get back onstage, and offer some Saturday night comedy. Squeaky Clean Comedy returns this Saturday night! The perfect show if you like your comedy clean. Does that mean this is a kid's show? No. This show is all ages. Clean comedy means no swearing or offensive content. If you love clean comedy you'll love the show. Will kids love the show? Absolutely! Rocklin. Placer. Do you know what's about to happen this Saturday? We've spent the last month retooling Squeaky Clean Comedy. We went back to the improv whiteboard and worked on making a better show. We toiled, we planned, we looked at videos. We studied the comedy masters, and realized we had a long way to go. We subtracted, and added, and shifted, and reinforced.  There was some chemistry involved. We had beakers, and one of those really weird looking chemistry set pieces that looks like an anteater. What does it do? We could never figure it out so we just left it sitting at the theater. It made our improv comedy experiments look cooler.

What's our goal? We don't want people walking away saying, "oh well that's a cute little local theater show. These local improv comics are so adorable. I don't think we'll ever attend it again, though. Let's go home and just use Netflix from here on out."

We want you blown away. We want you walking out of the theater thinking, "how did they do that? How do they do improv? Could I do that? It looks like so much fun!"

Yes! It is fun! And, yes, we will bring you a very unique, funny, and memorable show this Saturday! Local theater, local comedy, can be incredible, and we want to be just more proof!

I'm tempted to tell you the surprises in store, but that'd really spoil the fun. OK. I'll just say this. Do you love color? It's the perfect all ages comedy show right here in Rocklin.

What are your thoughts about DJ's? Do you love The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, or The Late show with Seth Myers?

OK. That's all I'll say. If you want to grab tickets for the show they are still available. You can grab them online, or at the box office. We love Netflix, but try some live comedy this weekend. We're right off Sunset, by Dutch Brothers in Rocklin.

Friday Evening in the Park

Where will you be tonight? Take the family out to Johnson-Springview Park in Rocklin, and enjoy Evening in the Park, organized by the City of Rocklin. Show up at 6:00pm, and catch us onstage! We will be doing 45 minutes of short form improv games. It'll be be improv comedy fit for the whole family! Wait, hold on. I should explain. I always say "short form improv games" like that's universally understood. I'm going to pretend you're looking at the computer monitor, or phone, face scrunched up, silently mouthing, "what's that?"

Short form improv games are those improv games you see on, Whose Line is it Anyway? If you're an improvisers, go ahead and skip the rest of this paragraph as it'll just cause an unsafe amount of eye rolling (many improvisers, in their natural habitat hate comparing their art and comedy to Whose Line is it Anyway. They feel it undermines the comedy, a dismissive, "we're like that." But hell, if it makes you go, "oh! I know that! I'll give your show a try," I'm all for saying "remember Drew Carey? Do you love Aisha Tyler, Ryan Stiles, Wayne Brady and Colin Mochrie.  It's like those hilarious shenanigans! Come enjoy the show!!"). We're going to play some audience favorites tonight like Blind Line, Puppet, and Sound Effects. We love performing at Evening in the Park, and bringing a lot of audience interactive games. Most improv games are audience interactive, as the audience gives suggestions, but Sound Effects and Puppets take the audience interaction to another level, because they jump onstage and perform along side us.

So. Improv. 6:00pm tonight! At Johnson-SpringView Park!

There's also lots of other things to do. Food trucks for one! Stuff your face with delicious food, check out all the vendors, and there's plenty of kids activities too (bounce houses, face painting, etc.). And, it's a cool summer night!

Yep. Lots of stuff, for the price of $0. It's free! Evening in the Park are free! Thanks Rocklin, and We are Rocklin Partners!

We'll have some special giveaways too at the show! T-Shirts and tickets for our audience volunteers. Of course, that's just icing on the comedy cake. You'll walk offstage after participating in a game of sound effects, and think, "That was fun. That was fun! I can't believe I just did that! And I get a t-shirt?! Best. Day. Ever."

We'll also be sharing information about the premiere of our first improvised musical at Blacktop Comedy! Off (the Cuff) Broadway!

You probably need directions. You're already reading this article, and reading an article and clicking a link to Johnson-Springview is infinitely easier then searching for it. So, here you go! A link fo Johnson-Springview Park. We'll see you at 6:00pm tonight!