Tootfinder

#hoopla will let you share a book via the ParkMobile app, but GOD FORBID you simply want to copy the link to your clipboard. #ux #hoopladigital

Final Improv session before the show this evening and mostly just practice for the final event.
Steve Hoopla threw in some extra chaos with the half of us assigned 'audience' each time given cards to shout out immediate things that need to happen: A declaration of love, a sudden death, an appearance of a lost love-child etc.
In theory this means that final rehearsal is more chaotic and deranged than the final show will be. The lesson is that we can cope and continue even if somehow everyone dies in the third scene.
Stories about office romance and intrigue and bullying bosses, and about an art super villain determined to murder the whole world's inner-artist.
Both of which would indeed have gone more smoothly without the audience demanding sudden entrance by men with guns or that we find an excuse for a love child or impulsive marriage proposal.
So thats it until the show. Come along see it going more smoothly than that next Thursday in London if you want.
#improv #london #hooplaImpro

Because because because because because. Because of the wonderful things he did in the last scene.
Improv teacher Steve Hoopla in today's 'story' course guided us through some "Because Games", in which scenes are to be causally connected. Each following on from prior scenes. Because that happened, this happened.
He didn't explicitly mention Pixar's "Story Spine", but the main loop in Pixar's story template is "...and because of that..." looping over and over between the introduction, call to adventure, and conclusion.
Causality is what strings a story together, gives it structure an avoids it being just a disconnected dream sequence. This scene is only happening because of the events in the prior scenes. It gives the string of scenes meaning and relevance.
So good fun to drill some of that stuff with the team and end up with sheep infestations and santa claus robot wars among other laughs.
Gonna miss next week's session due to a prior engagement, but the team is gelling well. Pretty sure we could do this show without much further guidance really. Everyone's very good.
#london #improv #hooplaImpro

Half way through the Hoopla Improv Story narrative course and we actually attempt a couple of 20 minute stories.
One pretty confused one about a voyage to find unicorns which ended up about time-travellers due to mixups.
And one about the child of a missing astronaut seeking his father by joining a space mission.
Edits are what made the main difference here. Shouting "Cut to the jail" left half the players thinking they were in a flashback and the other half thinking they were in the consequences of the previous scene. Thus one ending up being a time-traveler.
A more coherent edit might have been "Flashback to jail", and these more coherent edits are key to what made the second story less chaotic and more whole. "Cut to the training test" or "Flashback to school where a teacher is impressed with the protagonist"
I like a game with a narrator. The narrator can give the story structure and theme and act as a director of the action. But we can do that without a narrator if the edits are well thought out and shouted clearly enough to keep the actors on the same track.
Mind you, the chaos is the funny bit usually.
#improv #hooplaImpro #london

Back to doing some improv, with a 8 week course on the mechanics and structure of story.
Seem to be a nice bunch. Everyone with the right energy and fearlessness. Nice diverse range of people.
Steve Roe leading the course. Him and his friend co-founded Hoopla 20 years ago and now its the biggest improv training school in the UK. Seems like a good teacher as you'd expect.
There will be a show on 19th of March. That'll be about the fifth one I've done. Its nice because you get to do some acting type stuff without having to learn any lines 😆
#improv #london #hooplaImpro