Behold- the newest and best of NCT video entertainment... the It's That Funny series.
lets start with a simple question: is NCT so funny that the living dead would abandon their persuit of delicious humans in order to better enjoy some top notch competitive improv?
yes. its THAT funny.
is NCT so funny that a zombie guest would actually pay for his admission rather than decapitate and ingest our helpless box office staff?
yes. its THAT funny.
it so so funny that the sneaky 'people' who bring in outside food and beverages will be so distracted by contagious laughter that they dont even get a chance to enjoy the contraband outside food?
yes. it IS that funny.
now, you know some people come to the show thinking theyre too shy to shout out suggestions, but usually everyone comes around...
(the careful observer will note that our box office staff often sneaks into the show after selling tickets)
you may even be persueded to join us up on stage, its that funny.
the message that we want you to take away from this is, of course, if you happen to be at our show and you find yourself beside a rotting possesed shell of a former living human please take a moment to consider their feelings... even zombies just want to have fun on a Friday or Saturday night, at 7:30 or 9:45pm. and besides, you can rest easy, because the show is so funny they wont even try to bite your skull open.
-nct
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Harry Potter and the Show & Tell
im a big harry potter fan. last night i went to see the premier of harry potter and the half blood prince... you'll see how i tie it into improv...
first of all, as an improviser it is our job to know something about everything, particularly HUGE pop culture phenominon like harry potter. sometimes educating ourselves on these things is a pleasure, i.e. harry potter, and sometimes its a chore, i.e. sex and the city...
last nights midnight show experience was certianly an education on harry potter and an excellent people watching opportunity. at a midnight harry potter premiers you'll expect to see the obvious kid in wizzard outfit... most often composed of a graduation robe and witch hat, but sometimes you see a full on hogwarts get up. however, at past premiers i have been surprised to see such costumes as a leprechaun, wendy from wendys, catwoman and a storm trooper. why? i dont know. i saw most of the movies in san diego so its possible that these people got lost on their way to comic con.
at last nights show there were the requisite witches hats and sweater vests but there were also a large number of girls with character names scrawled on their arms in marker... i dont get that. and felt kinda bad for the one who got stuck with 'dobby' written on her biceps in sharpie. clearly she is not the leader of that pack.
anyway, the movie was fantastic.
in my opinion, the best of the series so far. hands down.
for once i didnt mind the obvious omissions and changes (with one exception). and now here is how i tie this in to improv........
this was the first harry potter film to really run with the idea of 'show, dont tell,' an incredibly important concept in improv comedy. the benefit of human performance, as opposed to the written word, is that a look can tell us so much. body language, facial expression, delivery of the lines and the things that AREN'T being said... its as if one picture is worth alot of words. i dont want to put a number on how many words, but a good number. lets say 999. a picture is worth 999 words, that has a nice ring to it.
anyway.
how much time can we save if we allow ourselves to show the audience what we mean without telling them, and it means so much more when the wathcers feel like they are in on a secret and not just sitting idly by being told what to think. am i right? think what i tell you to think!
-nct
first of all, as an improviser it is our job to know something about everything, particularly HUGE pop culture phenominon like harry potter. sometimes educating ourselves on these things is a pleasure, i.e. harry potter, and sometimes its a chore, i.e. sex and the city...
last nights midnight show experience was certianly an education on harry potter and an excellent people watching opportunity. at a midnight harry potter premiers you'll expect to see the obvious kid in wizzard outfit... most often composed of a graduation robe and witch hat, but sometimes you see a full on hogwarts get up. however, at past premiers i have been surprised to see such costumes as a leprechaun, wendy from wendys, catwoman and a storm trooper. why? i dont know. i saw most of the movies in san diego so its possible that these people got lost on their way to comic con.
at last nights show there were the requisite witches hats and sweater vests but there were also a large number of girls with character names scrawled on their arms in marker... i dont get that. and felt kinda bad for the one who got stuck with 'dobby' written on her biceps in sharpie. clearly she is not the leader of that pack.
anyway, the movie was fantastic.
in my opinion, the best of the series so far. hands down.
for once i didnt mind the obvious omissions and changes (with one exception). and now here is how i tie this in to improv........
this was the first harry potter film to really run with the idea of 'show, dont tell,' an incredibly important concept in improv comedy. the benefit of human performance, as opposed to the written word, is that a look can tell us so much. body language, facial expression, delivery of the lines and the things that AREN'T being said... its as if one picture is worth alot of words. i dont want to put a number on how many words, but a good number. lets say 999. a picture is worth 999 words, that has a nice ring to it.
anyway.
how much time can we save if we allow ourselves to show the audience what we mean without telling them, and it means so much more when the wathcers feel like they are in on a secret and not just sitting idly by being told what to think. am i right? think what i tell you to think!
-nct
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
launch
things dont always go smoothly. this years patriotapalooza is a good example of something that didnt go smoothly...
unfortunatly a giant diet coke-splosion soaked the rocket launcher and, thuswise, neither rocket launched.
so there we all were on the sidewalk, taking in a confetti and aspertame-a-riffic lame replacement fireworks show, anticipating the grand finally and... "three- two- one-" nothing!
the lauch pad was so wet there was nothing we could do. in spite of several more attempts, we had to send our audience away with a very anti-climatic... "sorry about that... happy 4th of july!"
i certianly hope that the city of mesa is willing to pony up for the real thing next year.
unfortunatly a giant diet coke-splosion soaked the rocket launcher and, thuswise, neither rocket launched.
so there we all were on the sidewalk, taking in a confetti and aspertame-a-riffic lame replacement fireworks show, anticipating the grand finally and... "three- two- one-" nothing!
the lauch pad was so wet there was nothing we could do. in spite of several more attempts, we had to send our audience away with a very anti-climatic... "sorry about that... happy 4th of july!"
i certianly hope that the city of mesa is willing to pony up for the real thing next year.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
lamerworks
currently packing wadding and engines into our rockets in preperation for a launch tonight and simultaniously trying to edit the music on sound byte and put some more variety in there.
shows last night were very funny and looking forward to a good one tonight, expecting players to arrive early to go over the beats of the lamerworks show...
not too late to partake.
shows last night were very funny and looking forward to a good one tonight, expecting players to arrive early to go over the beats of the lamerworks show...
not too late to partake.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
socially awkward networking
Its a full time job to maintain all the profiles and postings we have floating around in this crazy series of tubes we call the internets...
theres just so many places to update my status.
**roll your eyes now- because this is the part where i go on and on about how it was when i was a kid... no i did not have to walk up hill in show both ways to school without shoes (im an az native and, as such, have never even seen snow) but i did have to survive my entire teenage life without a cell phone. take that.**
i had a friendster account back before most of the players on our team graduated (or started) high school. i have an actual friendster, its true. someone i actually found on friendster, who i didnt already know, that i met in person and became very good friends with. so, it CAN happen.
ten years ago, when i was in high school (reunion this year, lets go Firebirds!)- im not sure al gore had even invented the internets yet. i had a pager. and my friend and i wrote and distributed an underground newspaper which contained, basically, what you would now make up most of your social networking bulletins. only we printed it on actual paper. made of actual dead trees. and there was no copy and paste option, we had no choice but to think of it ourselves in our easily distracted and internetless teenage brains- based only on the 'viral networking' of passing notes between class (also printed on vintage dead trees.)
then i had AIM, then i had friendster (like i said), then i had to haul all that information over to myspace. to her credit, myspace hung in there a good long while. reluctantly i moved all that information again to facebook. Now i have to tweet my twitter as well as updating yelp, going, azcentral (who i love for awarding us 2 best of phoenix titles this year), azfamily, stumbleupon, linkedin, digg, etc etc etc
the truth is that my status update should always read 'nct phoenix is currently updating her status'
big picture results? many more trees survive and many more people have access to paperless teenage babbling angst. youre welcome, rainforest. told you we'd save you.
-nct
p.s. i dont have to see snow to know i wouldnt like it. give me flaming hot sand over frozen flakes any day.
theres just so many places to update my status.
**roll your eyes now- because this is the part where i go on and on about how it was when i was a kid... no i did not have to walk up hill in show both ways to school without shoes (im an az native and, as such, have never even seen snow) but i did have to survive my entire teenage life without a cell phone. take that.**
i had a friendster account back before most of the players on our team graduated (or started) high school. i have an actual friendster, its true. someone i actually found on friendster, who i didnt already know, that i met in person and became very good friends with. so, it CAN happen.
ten years ago, when i was in high school (reunion this year, lets go Firebirds!)- im not sure al gore had even invented the internets yet. i had a pager. and my friend and i wrote and distributed an underground newspaper which contained, basically, what you would now make up most of your social networking bulletins. only we printed it on actual paper. made of actual dead trees. and there was no copy and paste option, we had no choice but to think of it ourselves in our easily distracted and internetless teenage brains- based only on the 'viral networking' of passing notes between class (also printed on vintage dead trees.)
then i had AIM, then i had friendster (like i said), then i had to haul all that information over to myspace. to her credit, myspace hung in there a good long while. reluctantly i moved all that information again to facebook. Now i have to tweet my twitter as well as updating yelp, going, azcentral (who i love for awarding us 2 best of phoenix titles this year), azfamily, stumbleupon, linkedin, digg, etc etc etc
the truth is that my status update should always read 'nct phoenix is currently updating her status'
big picture results? many more trees survive and many more people have access to paperless teenage babbling angst. youre welcome, rainforest. told you we'd save you.
-nct
p.s. i dont have to see snow to know i wouldnt like it. give me flaming hot sand over frozen flakes any day.
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