​​Improv Jam - The Saturday Night Radical Agreement Jam Pack

Hey so, we’re starting up a new official jam for folks associated with The Radical Agreement Project. This was long time RA student Gordon Deng’s idea and he has also agreed to host the jam, which we are calling The Saturday Night Radical Agreement Jam Pack.

The jam will run virtually on select Saturday evenings starting on 7/20/24. You can learn more on Eventbrite, but you can also learn more by reading the below. 

Rather than vomiting out everything I think about improv jams, I decided this time to record a conversation between myself and Gordon about the jam, just to keep the blog feeling fresh. Below is the transcript.

People improv jamming in an office!

Terry & Gordon Discuss RA’s New Improv Jam!

TERRY

…and, uh, you know, my idea here is to simply tell people in the Radical Agreement community that this new event is going to be happening and is an opportunity for everyone to get some improv reps in. 

GORDON

Yep, yep, people who attend are definitely going to get reps in.

TERRY

But also I think it's kind of interesting, right? An improv Jam is kind of an interesting thing and I've been lucky enough to be around a couple of them so I thought it might be interesting for us to talk a little about why you wanted to run an improv jam and how you are hoping it will come together.

GORDON 

Yeah yeah, I've been in a couple and you know what? They frustrated me at first. But then over time I got used to them and it was actually a really good way to practice

TERRY

Wait, wait, so that surprises me. So you've been to a couple of improv jams already at other online communities or have you done any in person?

GORDON

No, no, there used to be like an improv club here but they closed down I think because of covid and so there's really no in person improv near my area, except in Denver. But I don't want to drive an hour every day. 

TERRY

Oh, where are you?

GORDON

Colorado Springs, so about 30 minutes, to well, I guess where I live is about 40 minutes to Denver 

TERRY

Okay, so, you've been to these other jams and you're going to run the Radical Agreement Jam. Tell me, what were your experiences with the other jams and how do you think that will impact the one you are putting together now?

GORDON

I think the key to the jams is really the structure. Having some kind of set structure that builds up because, you know, it is going to be all skill levels going to these jams. For that reason, you want to start the jam with an exercise basic enough that everybody can participate.

TERRY

Oh, that’s interesting.

GORDON

That way the difficulty of the exercises builds up so then later on the advanced folks can shine. I've been in some jams where there was no structure, just show. Somebody throws out a suggestion and then an hour later you can't really remember what happened. Jams like that can get crazy where it's just nothing but Crazy Town scene after Crazy Town scene.  And that’s not enjoyable to me.

TERRY

It sounds like you have a fairly set structure in mind. Is that true?

GORDON

Yeah definitely. This one jam that I really like has a warmup that everyone participates in first so that everyone has a chance to center and focus themselves before jumping into scenes. Because, you know, people that just jump in, well it might not go so well for them. They might have been doing something else during the day or they might have been running errands, or getting into an argument (or something). So you kind of need some kind of warmup, some kind of breathing exercise or something to center people so that your mind is ready to improv and you can access all the funny things banging around inside your head.

TERRY

I see, so you're so our Jamis going to start with a warm up, and then how do you imagine… Well. Let's say eight people come to the first Jam. How will they be jamming? In like a little set, or in individual scenes?

GORDON

Yeah, so it's kind of a buildup. First the warmup, then we'll do an easy format like the La Ronde. In the La Ronde we'll start with two people and then everybody's numbered so everybody knows the order they are going in and at least gets some type of, uh, interactivity and involvement to begin with.

TERRY 

Gotcha

GORDON

I’ve noticed that starting a jam off this way and it kind of allows you to get a little info on how everyone likes to play, because you watch them in the La Ronde. You learn that,  oh this person likes to throw these kinds of specifics out. Or this person plays super aggressively. Or this other person loves to play big characters. That sort of thing.

TERRY

I love that, yeah! So is that sort of um moderated by the host? Will the host be kind of telling people when to come in and go out? 

GORDON

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

TERRY

So it will be directed essentially. 

GORDON

Yeah, I'll start off and then I'll let the next person know when it is their turn to then go and jump into the scene via chat, so it doesn't interrupt the scene.

TERRY

That's awesome, that really sounds cool and great. And then there'll be some sort of uh additional opportunity to perform improv after that as well?

GORDON

Correct. Once everybody's kind of warmed up, and that warm up might be some sort of short form game. 

TERRY 

Like what?

GORDON

 I might actually go with World's Worst.  I'll take a suggestion for whatever it is, like the world's worst plumber and then people will just take turns just trying to initiate something funny involving a bad plumber.

TERRY

It’s premise based initiations, essentially.

GORDON

So once that is done and the La Ronde is done we’ll move straight into a group wide Slacker.  If there are too many people for that to be feasible, we’ll run two and perform with each other. That way folks can do walk ons and cut to’s and other advanced stuff.

TERRY

I really like the sound of that. 

GORDON

It kind of helps uh helps you practice what you have been learning in improv class. FIrst establish your base reality, the Who, the What, the Where and then onto the fun stuff. If it goes how I’m imagining, it will almost feel like a performance.

TERRY

I love it, I love it. Now this is all gonna be online. Do you imagine people would be turning their cameras off when they're not in scenes? Or will everyone just be in a kind of Brady Bunch formation the whole time?

GORDON

Yeah, so, we'll do the camera off because that makes things a lot cleaner on the screen. We can start off with gallery view when we are doing the structured exercises and the warm-ups, but then during the jam in Zoom you can turn off nonparticipant videos and that makes it easier to see who Is in your scene.

TERRY 

Sure that makes sense.

GORDON

This way you kind of talk to them directly and can really have a chance to connect in your scene and work with that person, instead of just, like, squinting at a tiny little box.

TERRY

You know I'm gonna say something, and I'm not sure if this is actually helpful information or not.

GORDON

Oh boy.

TERRY

Yeah, buckle up! Sometimes when I've thought about jams in the past I've thought about setting expectations for the people who are at the jam you know? Right at the top letting them know what kind of environment it is. What are boundaries that they should be observing…

GORDON

Right! 

TERRY

…because it can vary pretty broadly depending on what kind of comedy environment you are in 

GORDON 

That’s great advice! I think the jams that I participated in, there were a lot of regulars and so maybe some of those things were implied but that's a great idea. Yeah, I can definitely do that

TERRY

Hey you know what? I think we should get back together and record another conversation, maybe in three months?  Sort of tag onto this post a post mortem of the jams we’ve run so far. How did they go? Did we learn anything?  That sort of thing.

GORDON

I’m down.

And that is when the conversation ended!  

As stated before, The Saturday Night Radical Agreement Jam Pack will happen on select Saturdays starting on 7/20, but also on 8/3, 8/10, 8/17 and 8/24 all in 2024 (in case you are reading this on the moon in the year 2085).  The jams are free and if they are well attended we will certainly keep them going past August.