Improv Conspiracy Blog

Or "I never knew how much I missed you until we met".

Yah, I’ve done a bit of improv.  Short form, specifically Theatresports, and then a bastardized version of it in bars.  Bar Improv, wow!   Wanna test your mettle?  Try doing one-word-at-a-time for drunks.  Still, improv has been good to me.  Pity I got to hate it so.  

It wasn’t always that way.  I was a passionate performer.  My whole week was geared to that 10min chance to play onstage.  It took a while to get good, but when it happened, my addiction was set.  More time passed, and I got to instruct and even direct a company.  Paid to play, man, that was the pinnacle.  I became a disciple.  I got obsessed with the theory.  I wanted to know how this shit works.  Reaction, motive, action, repeat.  I thought I had it down.  So, why was it getting boring?

I've been in Melbourne 3 months. I still don't have a job, In fact, I'm getting a bit desperate.

I've managed to pick up a bit of temporary work, so that's nice. Parxercise has fallen a bit off the radar, but having some income is a better thing, let's face it. 

What I find next is not a job, but another way of spending my newfound funds - a musical impro workshop from an international guest, Lindsay Hailey. This is what I'm all about, I can't wait.

We are now about one year later. Another plane trip, but this time it’s for real. No more mucking around. I am going to Melbourne and staying there. I mean, it’s really the economically viable choice - I've been going there at least twice a year for the past three years.

I've left the comfort of a cushy job, loving family and wonderful friends for ....what? The only guarantee is I'm part of the Big Hoo-Haa! Melbourne. So on the first Tuesday of my Melbourne life I go to Hoo-Haa training. The first half of the session is a big deconstruct of last year. So I nod wisely and think of Perth...

January, 2011. I'd reached a point in my life where I had to 'do something.' A friend of mine had been talking about a bus tour of New Zealand for a while, so I was like, “Do you know what? Yes. Let's do it!”

Shortly thereafter, I had booked, paid for and sat through the uncomfortable plane rides to New Zealand. Rides? Well, being all the way from WA I had to stop through somewhere.  I was a member of Perth's long standing impro group, "The Big Hoo-Haa!" so I figured I'd make the most of it and pop in to visit our fledgling cousin, "The Big Hoo-Haa! Melbourne."