Jason Specland's Tumblr

larhunter:

The day the new teams are announced, there’s a lot of space taken up on the web for the newly cast: congratulations and what not. But nothing ever really gets said to the people who are cut. I’ve been thinking a lot about that today, so I decided to offer some advice to those…

I’ve been cut from both the UCB (a very, very long time ago) and (much more recently) the PIT.  (I’m considering going through the Magnet program, just so I can get on a house team and get cut from it.*)

The lesson I learned from UCB:  If you truly love this stuff, don’t quit!  That was a long, long, painful lesson that took me about ten years to learn.  Those years weren’t unproductive.  I did a lot of scripted theater, and met my wife, among other things.  But improv is what I really love, and when I look at the success of many of my peers-at-the-time I wince a bit and wonder what if.

The lesson I learned from the PIT?  Well, it’s so much more recent and I’m still processing it.  One of them is definitely, “Don’t make this stuff so precious that every show is a judgement on your self-worth.”  Perhaps I’d throw in, “Love your teammates, even through the frustrating shows, because your shows will never get better otherwise.”  I’d definitely add, “It’s okay to feel angry, but perhaps you should cool off a bit before you post things you don’t mean on Facebook.”  (You’d think I’d have learned to recognize that “Should I really hit SEND?” feeling by now, but nooooo…)

But that lesson from UCB was well-learned, and you can bet your ass I’m not quitting.  I’ll keep banging on that door that just closed on me, and I’ll keep my eyes open for other doors to bang on.  I’ll keep working, keep getting better, and if I never get on another house team, so be it, but you can bet I’ll be on that stage, making people laugh as best I can, and doing what it’s in my bones to do, for as long as I am physically and mentally able to do so.

* No, I’m not really considering that.**

** Although I was at UCB so long ago, that if I were cut from the Magnet, I’d also have the distinction of being cut by Armando Diaz twice.

chrisreblogs:

“You’ve done this ever since you had that head injury.”

“Have you stopped taking your meds?”

“You have alzheimer’s.”

“You must be stupid.”

“This is what I get for getting an apartment of Craigslist.”

“This is what I get for getting a date from OKCupid.”

“Oh! It was just a dream!”

…

“You’re Crazy” means “I dismiss your offer, and refuse to emotionally react to it.”

thehousethatdelbuilt:

We know not to “deny” in a scene. I’ve talked about why it might be an instinct (borne of a desire to create one’s own reality rather than accept the terms of another’s) and what is and is not denial (simply saying the word “no” in a scene has very little to do with denial. Rather, denial is the…

After some tumblr silence, thehousethatdelbuilt spouts some “instant reblog” wisdom again.

improvnonsense:

(written months and months ago)

I don’t want to do it anymore. I know I’ll change my mind soon, maybe even after a single night’s sleep but I want to capture what this feels like.

Did Stepfathers tonight and my goal going in was to be less ego-driven. Less concerned about how I was doing, how…

johnrossbowie:

Read the attached article for some context.

Now, then, my 2 cents:

Hi - did you just start following this blog because I’m on the hit CBS show The Big Bang Theory once or twice a year? Cool.

Here’s something you might not know about me. I got my start doing improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in 1998, and doing it for free. Free falling, making horrible mistakes, having on-stage epiphanies, making life-long friends, meeting my wife, learning that I wanted to be an actor at an age (27) when a lot of actors are gearing up to quit. I was not paid for these performances - I had access to a stage and the freedom to experiment, and exposure to the greatest audiences in NYC AND more than a few casting directors. (There was a brief period of time where the UCB WAS paying me, to run the office during the day, and I was hopelessly incompetent. I did MUCH better work when I was working there for free.)

I even did standup a few times there - in a loose, pressure free environment, where a shlub without a lot of experience could get up and tell jokes in front of discerning fans. 

I don’t perform there very often anymore — I have two kids with Jamie Denbo, whom I met in Amy Poehler’s Level 2 Improv class (by the way, comedy stardom’s gain is comedy teaching’s loss — Amy was an EXEMPLARY teacher with bottomless patience). Also, I make a living as an actor and writer and I owe virtually all of that to the Upright Citizens Brigade.

Thanks, guys.

I follow you ‘cause you were such an awesome improv coach back in the day that I still remember a practice I had with you, over a decade later.  Also, Naked Babies were some of my idols.

And yeah, Amy’s Level 2 was pretty awesome.  If only I knew at the time how huge she’d eventually become, I’d have paid more attention to every detail, if only to satisfy the people who ask, “You took a class with AMY POEHLER!?  What was it LIKE!?”

shortmikeshort:

Someone tallied up all the points.

No, the points don’t matter.  But they are awesome.

jhobartb:

(Photo by Keith Huang. Not pictured: Alex “King of the Jungle” Farlow)

Tuscarora Fire Company Picnic, the PIT house team I’ve been part of since 2010, has its final show tonight.

I’ve been performing on teams at the PIT for six years total, and I’ve been extremely lucky. My first was …

I had the unique pleasure of being on a team that opened for these guys for six months.  They’re the real deal.  I’m going to be there tonight, and you should be, too.

dougmoe:

improvnonsense:

One of the most common categories of questions I get to this improv blog is the “I’m playing with someone bad. What do I do?” Variations include that so and so is sticking out amongst the group, or maybe is behind everyone else, or playing really broadly, or mugging at the audience, or is somehow…

Just to play Old Man on the Mountain here:  I was moaning to Kevin Dorff about a player I didn’t like on a team I was on once and his advice was don’t worry about “the guy.”  He said, you’ll get rid of “the guy” and there’ll be a new “the guy.”

As an improv teacher, I can see the judging of other people a mile away and the most successful people strap in and go for the ride.  They’re generous of spirit towards one another.  That’s the whole “treat each other as geniuses” part of it.