Best Summer Vacation Ever: Improv 101 at UCB with Corey Brown

The best thing I did all summer was take the 8 weeks of Improv 101 at Upright Citizens Brigade with Corey Brown.

Outside the UCBeast Theater in the East Village.

Top 10 takeaways:

10. Immediate street cred for taking improv at UCB.  The other night a casting director called UCB the Juilliard of improv (even though getting into 101 doesn't require an audition). 

9. UCB classes sell out in two minutes (no joke), testing our computer literacy and typing speed (perhaps that was the audition?).

8.  Intellectual rigor required.  One early exercise required us to act like an expert on any topic suggested, and damn, some people riffed on geo-political strife like it was their job.  Corey's feedback was equally intellectual and insightful, too.  UCB's motto is even in Latin: Si haec insolita res vera est, quid exinde verum est? (If this is true, what else is true?).  

7. A rising tide lifts all boats.  I took Ballet 101 with a bunch of chicks who were practically members of Alvin Ailey, and by comparison to them, I moved like a legless chicken.  In the case of improv, fortunately, more experienced classmates buoyed the scenes you were in, and everyone looked better for it.

6.  Laughing for three hours, once a week, for the bargain basement price of $400.  

5. Equal-opportunity class time. (Corey always kept things moving along in even increments for everyone, so no time-sucking divas could emerge.)

4. Free admittance to UCB house team improv shows Mon-Thur with your UCB student ID.  I wish I had seen more!

3. One of UCB's fundamental lessons is to "play to the height of your intellect"--if you understand a reference made by your partner, engage as fully and as honestly as you can. 

2. There's a book, The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual. For $25, the learning continues until I enroll in 201 in November after my upcoming fall play.

1. Final class performance at the UCBeast Theater in the East Village.  Tremendously satisfying to put it all together and see the entire class making smart choices and making the audience laugh.  Can't wait to take 201.