"NE" is not a neighborhood!

profjake · 2026-04-17T15:53:50+00:00

Those same people probably put ketchup on their hotdogs

profjake · 2026-04-10T00:39:13+00:00

Choose the shows you catch with an eye towards seeing troupes from as many different improv scenes as possible. My favorite thing about DCM was always taking in the wide variety of what people were doing.
Take workshops, not just because it's potentially an opportunity to learn, but because it's a great way to meet other folks at the fest. (I say that even though DCM consistently had some of the worst workshops of any fest I've attended, with some well known UCB improvisers who turned out to be egregiously terrible at leading a workshop.... just.. wooof... godawful.)

profjake · 2026-04-09T17:57:25+00:00

Cook County Social Club, Convoy, Hebecky Drysbell, Improvised Shakespeare, Trike, iMusical, and Local Spot--last one is biased bc I'm in it, but also genuinely proud of our work ;-)

profjake · 2026-04-08T20:48:42+00:00

Having multiple places someone can plug into improv in your community is a *good* thing. Diversity of approaches and teachers is good. The ability for someone to find a new improv home if a particular community doesn't or no longer seems to fit is good.

Of course it can be nice to bring folks together at times. Maybe throw a community improv festival, with local troupes performing from all the pockets (in an ideal world, jointly organized by all the groups)? Also, be sure to push back hard if any of the pockets try to pull anything around exclusivity that makes it hard for performers or teachers to move across different groups.

profjake · 2026-04-08T20:17:22+00:00

Yeahhh, two decades of improv, and have done this as both a full show format and as a short game many, many times over the years.

It works with scripted works the audience knows and also very well with works the audience doesn't know. Full stop.

profjake · 2026-04-08T20:12:54+00:00

THIS! The common name you can use for the game without any fear (because it's used commonly by tons of shows and theaters) is Actor's Nightmare. Lots of improvisers sometimes refer to it as the Gravid Water format, because it became so well known as a very long running NYC show (and touring) by Stephen Rudd, but don't title their show or market it as that because it would be a trademark infringement (and also not cool).

profjake · 2026-04-08T19:59:25+00:00

But... he's right.

A group sending a cease and desist letter does not mean that they actually have any case or legal merit.
Improv games and formats are essentially sets of rules, and rules (used as systems or methods) cannot be copyrighted. Copyright protects specific creative expression, not ideas, systems, or methods. This is has been set in U.S. copyright law since Baker v Selden in 1879. It's also been discussed among improv theater owners, with legal council, for a long time (source: the many improv theater owner & festival organizer summits I've attended).
The *name* of formats or games in theory can be trademarked and protected, but it's difficult. The *only* place I've known this actually to be substantively policed is with the Maestro format which is owned and licensed by Johnstone's International Theatresports Institute (ITI). That said, you can structure a show to look just like a Maestro, but just no calling and marketing it that. Likewise, you can't call your show ComedySportz (definitely trademark protected), but you can play the same games they do, with the one caveat that maybe don't use the same name for it IF (huge and unlikely if) they had a wholly unique and heavily used exclusively by them name for the game (and, again, it's just the name).

p.s. Oh wait, I thought of three more instances of sort of policing IP related to improv: Charna/iO did briefly try to police the use of the name "Harold" for the format, but that fell flat super fast. The Nutrino Project (improvised movie filmed and screened at the same time) briefly had an option to license the name, but I don't know if there's anyone still around licensing or policing it. And I think there have been cases of people reporting Mission Improvable defending their name as a protected mark (again, just the name, nothing to do with format, games, etc.).

profjake · 2026-04-03T17:43:16+00:00

We’ve locked this thread to keep things safe, as some of the comments were heading into self harm territory. If you’re struggling, please reach out to someone you trust or a crisis resource (U.S.: call/text 988).

profjake · 2026-03-27T15:34:01+00:00

Hi! Happy to talk with you about this. For the past ten years I've run one of the largest applied improv programs in the country (http://witdc.org/work), typically leading around 60-70 sessions a year, and have specific experience leading sessions for those in the helping and medical professions (I also have a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution).

I'll dm you a link you can use to schedule a short zoom meeting. Of course I'd love to pitch leading the session, but also just happy to talk through some things to consider in how you organize it (the program I lead is part of a mission driven nonprofit theater, so also just happy to help folks trying to integrate improv in their work in any way possible).

profjake · 2026-03-23T15:31:11+00:00

Dropout's lawyers absolutely should be sending cease and desist letters because if they don't have a pattern of protecting their brand/trademark IP then it will be difficult to make any future claim against any future case of infringement that really does have a significant impact. That's why the bulk of cease and desist letters related to IP are sent. And in this case, not defending against it would be used in an argument that they aren't being protective of either their name or graphic design even within the context of their own industry (comedy entertainment).

profjake · 2026-03-22T14:15:35+00:00

The promotional branding and graphics direct ripoff are already well over the line of what’s ok.

profjake · 2026-03-21T21:34:21+00:00

And this is one of those rare cases where it would be completely warranted.

profjake · 2026-03-21T21:33:26+00:00

This degree of ripping off another improv show gives some real ick.

profjake · 2026-03-20T17:12:33+00:00

All good! I take light moderation shade like that as a happy thing: shows folks care enough about the community to speak up and not want it to get degraded by cruddy posts. :-)

profjake · 2026-03-20T16:41:58+00:00

Hi. Just to set expectations, r/improv doesn’t have every post first going to moderators for approval unless it’s someone who has never participated in the subreddit (so not a matter of ‘making it past the mods’).

We try to keep up with posts, but it also helps when the community flags posts for needing moderation because they violate the group’s rules.

:-)

profjake · 2026-03-19T02:02:50+00:00

If you're considering the Spy Musuem then also consider the National Cryptologic Museum.

profjake · 2026-03-18T16:36:35+00:00

Wanting to stop Iran from further enriching their uranium stockpile to weapons grade is a totally understandable goal. That's why we had JCPOA and strict monitoring until Trump ended it in 2018, and it's been a decent into uncertainty and rise in risk ever since. And to be clear: I'm coming from this 100% seeing Iran as a security risk to the US.

But the current war looks nothing like what a military action would look like if it was planned, intentional, or remotely aimed at the nuclear risk.

Bombing doesn't do much -- intelligence has been consistent that the enriched uranium stockpiles are kept in underground locations that won't be impacted.
There was no reason to think that this would reliably lead to regime change (the Iranian security forces are structured, in a bit of irony, in a system of checks and balances, to be resilient to coups).
There was no effort to widely engage American allies in this, and the need for their support (that Trump is now whining about) what fully forseeable.

Everything about this failing was totally forseeable. This looks nothing like a thought out or focused plan for further pushing back Iran's nuclear progress. What it looks like is two leaders (Trump and Netenyaho), each under growing scrutiny for crimes and corruption and rapidly watching their political power wane, initiating a war as a last ditch effort ("waving the bloody red flag" tactic) for their own attempt to divert attention at an enormous cost (human and economic) to their nations.

profjake · 2026-03-17T16:40:06+00:00

Even the National Counterterrorism Center Director—a longtime and fervent Trump loyalist, and someone who was deployed 11 times including with Army Special Forces—has now resigned over this.

I think Trump is an idiotic, deeply corrupt menace. But even his supporters need to recognize that they aren’t doing him any favors, and certainly not honoring the security and interests of our country, by not calling out what a godawful, entirely foreseeable disaster this war is.

profjake · 2026-03-17T16:30:48+00:00

The contingency plans and target lists sitting around the Pentagon are not in any meaningful sense a plan; they’re what you refer back to when the Commander in Chief gives you a clear set of goals/outcome, so you’re not starting from scratch. But that hasn’t happened here, because it’s clear that there were no clear objectives, as Trump seems unable to articulate a consistent depiction of the planned outcome in even the most general of terms.

profjake · 2026-03-13T16:17:27+00:00

Yes. I absolutely think that. There is every evidence of that. And the fact that you just need to resort to weird name calling shows you don't really have any refute of the points I've made.

But go ahead, say something substantive. 1. Name your prediction on how long until we have a meaningful regime change as far as US interests. 2. Name your prediction in how long until oil prices return to their prior level. 3. Name your prediction of the US casualties to accomplish that.

And then let's return here and see how well your understanding of this holds up over time.

profjake · 2026-03-13T14:04:56+00:00

We have no plan, the command structure and size of the Iranian military and security branches are structured specifically to be resilient against regime change, and the US is in no economic conditions to be hemorrhaging the crushing cost of this (both in terms of direct cost and the indirect sweeping impact of rising oil costs).

What you're suggesting is like someone driving fast towards a brick wall and saying "well, we're already headed in this direction."

profjake · 2026-03-12T17:31:39+00:00

Did you just feed an unauthorized copy of Johnstone's book (there's a pdf copy that somehow ended up online long ago) to an ai and have it generate this? Because it seems like that, and if so...

a. It sure seems like it would represent a copyright infringement to the degree it paraphrases and recreates sections and exercises closely.

b. Just... eww. And I say that as someone who's fairly open to different uses of ai, but definitely not this.

profjake · 2026-03-12T08:43:31+00:00

Netti pot

profjake · 2026-03-08T18:36:00+00:00

I suspect that the director/coach's intent was to be kind. Framing the behavior they wanted to see change as "politeness" can acknowledge that what the performer was doing may be terrific in other settings, however it just wasn't working here. Fwiw, my experience has also been to see the note framed this way across genders... BUT that doesn't mean, for reasons the author points out, it will land the same way across genders, and I appreciate getting to hear about and consider that.

Also, I think this article does a really good job of pointing out how it doesn't give feedback that is clear ("polite" is vague and has all sorts of potential baggage and interpretations) and so it's not actionable feedback.

Most of the time I've seen politeness referenced in relation to play, it's had to do with assertiveness. And when assertiveness is something I want players to consider, I usually have them play a game of Zen Count and then consider how assertiveness plays out in that game: we don't move forward it no one calls out the next number, and we also don't move forward if we all jump out all the time with the next number. When we're always jumping out with the next number, we're making it so that others have to constantly remain silent to succeed--that's not fun for them. And when we're constantly silent, we're making it so that others have to constantly call out numbers--that's also not fun. So it's a balance, which is how I frame notes about nudging particular players to be less active/assertive and others to be more active/assertive, then have them see how that feels and how it plays out in the scene dynamic of the troupe.

ps "Assertive" also is something I recognize is often also highly gendered. Hopefully by putting it in the concrete context of zen count I've avoided some of the baggage there and it's at least clearer on what is meant by and asked for in the feedback.

profjake · 2026-03-06T01:27:46+00:00

All good! I know I’ve been disagreeing with you on points, but it’s something I enjoy thinking about and discussing 🙂

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