Project 4 Analysis

I have such mixed feelings about this project. I enjoyed it. I had fun writing something funny. But I am always so critical on my humor that I never really thought what I wrote was super funny. It was a roller coaster of laughs and hates as I was typing it. I did not get any suggestions of how to make it better during the group workshop which was kind of expected since people don't really like to say what's bad about your project in your face. At least for this project. So when I went to revise it, I did change a few small things, nothing that really changed the paper significantly, and I even went and had my paper read by my roommate and a friend who goes to a different school. I always have the same problem with each of my projects. Revision. So for my complete global revision for this project I think I am going to try and just take my key jokes and put them in a comic. It is going to be hard, but it will make me discover what the key points of my sketch is and be able to only use the important parts. Maybe that's what I had to originally do for all my other projects instead of just doing minor changes. Sucks that it took me all semester to find that out.

A Time Traveling Blog Post

According to my calculations, this blog post will be posting on this website on the thirteenth of April in the year 2012. By then, I know, this post will be considered "late" but in reality this is probably the most important blog post to have ever been written. I have discovered a way to write a blog post and send into the future! Astounding I know. This blog post was supposed to be about relating an article to the ethnography that I will have already written, but I have been so distracted by discovering this time travel technology that I cannot remember how I am exactly supposed to write this. But I shall do my best. In my research I could not find an ethnography on improv theater, I could only found articles concerning improvised music for jazz. I did, however, I find this interesting article that discussed improv as a whole and even used quotes from Del Close on several occasions. What made the article interesting to me was how it talked about what makes a good improviser. Knowing the do's and don't's of improv. Ways to improve your improv and other fun facts concerning improv. It even mentioned how Chicago was and still is a main hub for improvised comedy which has a direct correlation to my own ethnography. It helped provide support for my original hypothesis that improv is effected by where the team comes from.

How is this Funny?

In this blog post I will be analyzing my own writing to determine what exactly makes it funny. I decided to write a script for a sketch or a video...not really sure. Could be done either way really. But what makes it funny, I guess, is that I used an improv game called typewriter to actually write the script out. So it starts off with the narrator coming in to sit down and write a book and introduces the scene and characters etc. But the humor comes from when the characters actually interact with the narrator. It's a fun convention that can be used in this type of game. But it gets kind of more humorous when the main character isn't going to take anymore of the narrator's shit and breaks free and...well I don't want to give it away. But it's funny how meta the sketch gets at the end.

This blog kinda sucked on my part. I don't like to toot my own horn about what's funny. Because I honestly didn't think this was the best sketch I could have written. Sure I'm proud of some parts, but I don't write funny that well. I can perform funny. Just not write it. I would rather someone else's opinion about what's funny on my piece. Thank god for peer reviewing.

A Humor Analysis

Since I can not do my original idea of taking the recorded improv shows and mashing together to create a 3-5 minute video of this weeks show, I am instead going to do this genre analysis on the sketch script that I will be completing for this project. I kind of forgot what genre analyses are about. Or I just cant think of how to analyze a script that I have no idea what it is going to be about yet. I guess that does not matter in the long run since this is an analysis on the genre as a whole not just specifically on my piece. Analyzing a sketch script...well it is going to need a few one liners. Some interesting characters. A good plot. Some type of twist, but not like a M. Night Shyamalan style twist. I need an actual good twist that's comedic too. The tricky part is going to fit all of this within the 3-5 material limit. Though, that's pretty much what a good improv scene is. So all I need to do is think of my own improv scene and write it out. And have drafts. I think a good sketch scene should include all of what I previously listed; good characters, plot, twist, one-liners, and also be honest. The characters in the scene need to be honest with their choices by staying true to what their character believes in. That sounded kinda sloppy but it makes sense to me.

Some Funny Ideas...

To be honest, this project is probably going to be the hardest and most painful project of all times. Writing humorously is not for everyone. Certainly not every single one of us in this class. I know I can't write good humor. I can be funny. Anyone can be funny when they're in a relaxed environment shootin' the shit with their friends, but writing and scripting out comedy is a whole new ball game. I am really hoping that I will be able to do what I have been meaning to talk to you about since yesterday which is turning a recording of one of my improv shows. I perform each week and for the past several week, the shows have been recorded with some scenes winding up on YouTube. So I am really hoping that I could compile a few of my best scenes and turn that in *fingers crossed*. If not, and the project has to actually be scripted then I guess I'll write a quick sketch? I have never been good at coming up with comedy on the spot, which is some sort of irony since I am on the improv team. But improvisational comedy is completely different than from the slap-stick comedy you get from your typical sketches, at least the improv I have been taught. To me, the truth is funny. If you tell an honest story then it'll be funny. Even if you are two absurd or random characters in a scene but having an honest conversation being honest to that character choice, you will have a funny scene. Granted yes sometimes that choice can make the scene pretty sad, but it's still a real scene that you would expect to see if you were observing those peoples lives. So if the whole video compilation doesn't work out, I'll write a sketch. Should be interesting.

Project 3 Project Analysis

I had a lot of fun doing this project. I got to research something that I already knew a lot about and I got to actually enjoy working on. My observation was watching a bunch of improv teams do their stuff for Pete sake. Improv has become one of my passions ever since I joined ISU's team earlier this team. It has become an essential part of my life. Doing improvisation has been a stress relief, a life lesson experience and a place where I have found the closest friends that I will ever have. To write a whole ethnography about something I care about so much just made this whole project a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable. Needless to say, even though I loved my topic there were some things I know I could have improved on. I wish I had been able to revise it more. I really wanted to add the explanation and differences between short and long form. Though not absolutely necessary, I think it would have cleared up some misconceptions throughout the paper. Also I should have figured out how to cite my interviews better. I gave credit in my paper but not in my reference page. C'est la vie though right? Good news is that I actually had a peer reviewer that gave me good notes and things to change in my paper. I am not sure if that means that my writing was not as good this time around or this person legitimately read and edited my paper. Either way it was a nice change up. It got me to actually catch some points in my paper that I wanted to change. Each paper so far has been about something I like and enjoy, which I am assuming is what everyone else does for their papers which I find interesting to see what some of their topics are because it allows me to indirectly get to know that person a little better, but something about writing about something I am so gosh darn passionate about made me feel more satisfied turning in this paper.