by Katy Schutte I know it isn’t always realistic to pigeonhole improvisers into one bracket or another, but in planning a rehearsal for the Maydays, I realised that there are things that we get into the habit of practising and avoiding depending on our innate style and on what the groups we play with NEED....

by Jason Blackwater I read this article yesterday. It’s a short piece about Charna Halpern, owner of iO Chicago and Del Close’s partner in crime, having bought a new venue to move iO into, A $6 million project that will open it’s doors in 2014, and it got me thinking about the UK improv scene...

By Rhiannon Vivian Earlier this week I learned four verses of a song I’d never attempted to get to grips with before. I got it around 60% right on the night. And the rest was improvised. Ask me what the lay out of my family home between the ages of 0-4 years old and I...

I recently read a news story about a young man called Vladimir Umanets who is currently under investigation from Scotland Yard for defacing a mark Rothko painting in the Tate Modern (Rothko’s last piece at auction went  for a cool £53.8million – ouch). Umanets, who compares himself to other conceptual artists like Marcel Duchamp,  had...

This is my first appearance on the Maydays blog roll. I arrive as a man who was once known as the Hip-hop Encyclopedia. My occasionally impressive trivia knowledge, sat at the back of my brain, sometimes bursts forth to take the form of externalised rap verbiage, straight outta my face. I think the Maydays accepted...

by Jason Blackwater 10/7/2012 Teatro Lunar Another brilliant day (I would probab ly just assume that I’m having a brilliant time unless otherwise stated from here on out). Marla is a great teacher and I’m learning a lot already. Tag-outs, for example, which were something that I was pretty comfortable with have taken on a lot more...

by Jason Blackwater 9/7/2012 iO Chicago Wherein Jason gets home and writes his blog about being away. Before I start, I would like to reiterate my clarification that there is no substitute for direct learning. Learning from a teacher, in a room, with other students is the ultimate in learning anything. Be it improv, music,...

by Jason BlackwaterN.B – Wifi and computer time are hard to come by in Chicago so I’m going to attempt to catch you up on as much of the last 2 and a half weeks as I can. starting with… 7/7/12 Tasty’s, Astoria, New York It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t return to Tasty’s to...

5/7/12 Astoria, New York”Where’s good for pancakes? I feel like I should have pancakes” In an effort to catch up and not consistently be a day behind I’m doing another blog. Yes, they’re coming pretty fast at the moment but I spent 6 hours on the most whistlestop of whistlestop tours of manhattan yesterday and...

by Jason Blackwater4/7/12 New York CityOK. I’ve not spoken about Chicago much and that’s mainly because I’m not there yet. I will be there. But I’m not yet. I’m going to be there on Sunday. So now we’ve got that cleared up. I know a guy who lives in New York. A Greek/Brit who I went...

by Katy Schutte

by Jason Blackwater 4/7/12 Train: Brighton to Heathrow It appears that improv pilgrimages start with a bacon and cheese baguette. I begin writing not on the plane or in the shadow of the Empire State Building or surrounded by new Converse trainers but on a 7:44 Gatwick Express service to Victoria. I’m travelling at about a mile...

For the Fringe show I wanted to work on a few things. First of all the idea of ‘Soup and Sermon’ which we got from our time working with Jason Chin. So the idea that the preacher gets the non believers into the Church with the Soup and then they stay for the Sermon. With...

By Rebecca MacMillan Magnus J. MacMillan wearing team colours!    It’s great to get back to working with the Maydays again following the birth of my little boy Magnus. Sleep dep does funny things to your improv; it turns off the over-thinking bit of your brain that tries too hard to be clever and funny,...

The Fundamentals of Improv: ‘Yes and’ by Katy Schutte.  

I was teaching a while ago when one of the students, started to look at me in a strange way, with an almost mystical look in his eye. When I asked why he told me that the excercise I was describing was almost exactly what he had been taught by his Aikido instructor a few...

In our current era of information overload and instant everything it seems that our attention spans are getting shorter. Much of our mental processing gets taken up by screening out input in order to find the information that we need. Personally I find it extremely difficult to use a browser that does not have Adblock Plus installed – and...

by Joe Samuel One of the joys of improvisation as a musician is the freedom from the ominous accuracy required when playing written music.  So much store is set by striving for perfection when playing pieces that are written into the universal psyche of pianists across the centuries.  How can I even dare to sit...

by Jules Munns. I have just had the privilege of working with  the excellent Katy Schutte and Phil Lunn on an Improvised Musical in a Weekend. Ten improvisers worked together from Friday night until Sunday evening , then put on a improvised musical. And it was great. Really, really good, much better than I ever imagined....

by Alexis Gallagher This post is for improvisers who haven’t had the chance to visit Chicago. Please forgive me! I am going to risk wasting a few minutes of your time by telling you something that you probably already know. Why do I do this? Only because right now, somewhere out there, is an improviser...