Chris Haddad > Recent Status Updates

brazenly - without shame

Kid Gleason stared at his players brazenly and murderously after another loss to the Reds in the World Series. He was extremely upset that one of his pitchers didn't go with his calls on three separate occasions as well.

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Cur- A mongrel dog/cowardly person

One of the players was calling Comiskey a cur for accusing his players for throwing the series without any evidence.

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"Cicotte had asked for more money. Comiskey, worried about Cicotte's sore arm and the bad year behind him, would give no more than 5,500. His cagey right arm had snapped out 29 wins and helped capture the American League Pennant." JUST LEAVE THE TEAM. WHY STAY IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT APPRECIATED!!!!!!! (Ask)

"Charles Comiskey, owner of the White Sox, had been especially loyal to the agreement. His ballplayers were the best and were paid as poorly as the worst." Why would he pay them like dirt? CAn't the players just demand a trade, or stop doing so well or something in protest? Even if this scandal didn't happen, the players surely would leave after being paid like crap.

Poignant - A keen sense of sadness or regret.
"The oldest of all Black Sox Legends, the story of the boy who tugged at Jackson's sleeve as he left the courtroom and begged, "Say it ain't so, Joe," still has poignancy. This boy who was so shocked that his favorite player was involved in such a dirty scheme he was just sad as can be. (Vocab)

"Ticket Scalpers were getting the phenomenal price of $50 a pair" I think it is crazy to see how much the dollar value has changed since 1919. I have a feeling we will see a lot of dollar amounts that wouldn't seem substantial today, but were monstrous back then (50 dollars = 685 dollars today) (Favorites/Predict)

"I just got a directing job at The Second City" (In reply to the news), "I'm sorry."

Directing for the Second City has to be one of the more difficult directing jobs there is. I cant imagine how different it must be to try to direct and advise an improv group. You have to make brilliant creative choices while convincing the performers it was all their idea

"The author is not constrained by time. She can even stop time, take a break in the middle of a sentence, and resume the next day -- or even the next year. Improvisers are prisoners of time" I Love this quote because it defines the difference between writing comedy and performing improv. You can always go back and write a scene that was performed in improv. Yo can't improvise a scene that's already written.

I like the way a lot of the essays in this book retain the comedic tone when talking about comedy and what (not) to do. Especially when Tina Fay decides to say that repeating a scene the same way even just once makes you feel like a "dirty whore" Writer's Strategies

"It's important that [The Audience is] seeing it for the first and only time and you make it seem like it's the first and only time... So what if the prop isn't exactly in the same place? It makes it more interesting. It applies to almost everything" Favorites

I feel a lot of this book is about how to deepen comedy, rather than have a few funny scenes. "no one persons experience is blacker or more Hispanic than the next. You're not more Chinese than your neighbor. Life experiences are intrinsically filled filtered through how you appear, just as much as how you were raised and taught" this means to me that no one has an advantage over the other in terms of appearance.

Studying martial arts, circus arts, comedy, sports, art, music, contact improvisation is all important for a person trying to become a great improvisational comedian. This boom emphasizes that it's not about what is said— Anyone can say a funny thing— rather it is how you say it and what is happening in the scene. Be informed on topics so scenes are diverse.

(Talking about the guidelines of improv) "Some of these guidelines may appear to contradict themselves but then so do many things in life" Favorties

There are no accidents or mistakes in improvisation unless you decide you made an accident. If you trip and fall, claim the accidental focus and make use of it; add to the scene.

The trick to Improv is pretending that none of it is pretend. If you create a dining room table in the middle of the scene, you can't just walk through the damn thing later in the scene. The trick is not pretending like your hand is a gun, but pretending like the gun is in your hand. (fav)

"Questions are like asking permission for your idea" I like this quote a lot because it reminds me why I love comedy and Improv. In improv, you can't sit with something for a bit. You have to act fast and move with the flow of things. You can't ask a question. Asking a question is like a huge pause in the middle of an exchange while other actors try to figure out what you want.

There's a phrase coined at The Second City and that phrase is, "We don't allow people to audit the classes". At first glance, I was confused because normally I think of audits as government inspections of my accounts. The other meaning of Audit is informally attending a class. Even though there isn't an audition to take Second City acting classes, They don't allow you to BS your way through it. (F)

"she told me that conflict was an anathema to her workshops. I thought, Five years of training out the window". An anathema, in this context, means something or someone one does not like. Viola Spolin, a famous acting coach at the Second City, did not like to use a conflict as the center of a story in her workshops, shich was unorthodox. Perhaps that is what led to great success with Second City Improv

Chillin in Humanities

Chillin in Humanities