The Lightning Strikes The Marble

Every improviser should consider developing a daily regimen that uses purposeful, practical application toward honing your individual craft outside of comparison to other improvisers or to even your regularly scheduled rehearsal and performance schedule.

This is what I did. Your mileage may vary.

Brian gives a thumbs up gesture to an audience enthusiastically returning the same.

VOICE IS A MYTH

Go to your book shelves and find 3 or more books that speak to you. Pull them down and put them on the floor in their own little pile. If you read a lot of e-books or listen to audiobooks, write the title on a scrap piece of paper and put them in the appropriate pile.

There it is. That is your “comedic voice”. Those are the things you’re passionate about and could talk about extemporaneously for hours on end.

Use that in your improv. Use that in your stand-up act. Write about it if you like to write things in whatever format you choose. Use that to make connections with people on and off stage anywhere you go, anywhere in the world.

Brian sprawled on a performance stage inspecting something on the ground.

NOBODY IS RIGHT

“Guru” is a four letter word. I despise purity tests in all things but none more so than the craft of long form improvisation: and it *is* a craft. 

You are already the work of art; everything else is simply practicing your skills. You’re not “bad” at improv; you’re just starting the next stage of something you’ve never done before. It’s extremely rare for someone to sit down at a piano or pick up a chisel or strap on a pair of pointe shoes and be incredible immediately. 

You’re not “rusty” after a long time off from performing; you’ve simply forgotten all of your bad habits. Celebrate your liberation. It’s extremely rare for someone to set down a guitar for 5 years and then pick it back up and have the dexterity be the same, not to mention the calluses, but they didn’t forget how to play guitar. 

The beautiful statue is inside the marble the entire time. You are the marble. Everything else is merely chipping away the excess. Learning how to do the thing is the fun part. You get to see more and more of the person you really are deep down.

There is no such thing as “cheating” in improv; if it works, it works.

The only way it could possibly be considered cheating is if we wrote it out ahead of time and therefore it would become scripted material, and therefore it would cease to be improv so, hence, there is no such thing as cheating in improv. 

Anyone who tells you there is only one “right” way to do something is wrong. 

Including me. Learn from whomever you want, keep what works. Throw away the rest for someone else to pick up as it suits them. It’s a big tent and the success of the circus is that it has something for everyone. Let them have it even if it is not for you.

Brian performing in an improv show.

ACTIVATE YOUR OBSESSIONS

NBA players have regimens they do regularly; same hour of the day, same small movements, same minuscule achievable benchmarks. 

Musicians run scales. Dancers stretch. Painters clean their brushes. Improvisers should absolutely do this as well.

If you create a 5-10 minute “workout” you can do every day from the stuff you’re already fascinated & driven by in your offstage life (remember those books we talked about?), you will have done more to hone your craft in 30 days than the entirety of your rehearsal and performance schedule in that same said month.

For me, it was a matter of taking all the things I already loved and turning it into 5 minutes a day that would help flex my improv muscles without feeling like a chore.

I did National Forensic League Humorous Interpretation in high school, so I made a 10 minute “character creation” exercise from a technique I didn’t even have to learn to do. I played youth club soccer, so I replaced Coerver Drills with a few minutes of “chair sets” on the iOWest (RIP) stage after I closed up for the night.

Brian crouching and giving a stern look during an improv performance.

In college, I wrote songs for the bands that I was in, so I took “The 5 Scenes Everyone Tells You Not To Do” and did each for a minute at a time solo to try and create “micro-scenes” that could tell a short, simple story and become more efficient & economical. 

Miles Stroth taught me the solo exercise he invented, “Cat Clock”, so I paired that with my interest in Lovecraftian cosmic horror to work on my Alternate Reality computing skills for when the moment came onstage in a show to say “Yes, And” to something I didn’t fully understand yet. I’m a filmmaker, so I invented “The Conan Game” where during my commute, I could pretend I was on a talk show talking about my love of improv & what I wanted out of it.

Yoga. Painting. Hiking. Whatever. Find the things you already love, take a small part of it, turn it into a short daily exercise, then forget it and let your subconscious take over from there.

Brian lunging to his right and listening closely to something happening.

SET A STANDARD

All of the aforementioned above is not about reaching or surpassing a specific goal. It’s not about becoming “the best improviser at your theater” or “the funniest person in the community”. The prize is the person you become trying to make it there.

For me personally, the greatest compliment I can give anyone’s art is when I see it and become (more than) slightly irritated that I didn’t think of it first. 

This is not jealousy. It’s a lightning bolt.

THAT is what I should have been doing all along. I’m not mad I didn’t think of it before them, I’m irritated that I hadn’t witnessed it sooner so that I could have started doing it sooner.

Setting a standard of craft that I want to reach helps me believe I can make people feel the way I felt when I first saw something; it will give me a focus so that all future training I do has a practical application and purpose.

My current “North Star” is the end of Bo Burnham’s 2016 Netflix film, MAKE HAPPY.

I want to do an improv performance that has that same rich mixture of honesty, silliness, gravitas and, dare I say, production value. I want to help create an improvised experience big enough to fill that theater the way Mr. Burnham does in that clip. I want to be a part of evolving long form improvisation, the thing that literally saved my life, into something like THAT.

But it’s not really about doing a show that looks like that, much less surpassing it. It’s not about making money or becoming famous or having a bunch of people tell me I “revolutionized the art form” or any other useless thing my ego could dream up. 

The prize is the person I hope to become reaching for it. I want to climb where the lightning strikes the marble.

See you there.

Brian in a stylized image with colorful streaks shooting from his eye.

We’re feeling peach-y

Our first fruited sour recently went on draft, over.look. It is a revolutionary product that uses a Chico (see: clean) yeast strain tweaked to produce lactic acid without the risk of equipment contamination.

We then added all natural peach puree for a big flavor explosion. The pH finished at 3.5, a wonderful harmony between fleshy peach sweetness and tart acidity.

Sour offerings have been one of our top requests. Come try a pint today! And return soon as our base sour will come out as a fast follow release. Let us know whether you are digging the fruit addition or rocking out to the base sour.

Beginning of the year updates

This is Tony, the owner of hear.say. I wanted to provide some updates to start the year on where things stand. I’ve gotten feedback that folks value these updates, so I’ll try to keep up a cadence of longer form updates on the business at least quarterly on top of our weekly newsletters.

Upcoming beers and our new canning line

We’ve been teasing a red ale for awhile and it should be on draft soon as our first low 4% ABV offering. We love dry, crushable, low-ABV beers and it seems like the current market trends back that up. Expect more beers like zen.waves and our red ale in that 3-4.5% range!

Ben is also working on some styles new to hear.say and rebrews (with small tweaks) of favorites like our Kölsch and WCIPA.

I’m also excited to share that we recently purchased a canning line that should arrive next week. We’ll tune that up and aim to bring packaged beer online in February. Packaged to go beer is currently one of our top business priorities!

Side note: I’m also working on getting wine on in the taphouse and should have an update there in January.

New hours

After a solid trial run, we are closing on Mondays through February. We are staying open until 11 pm on Thursdays, though, to accommodate a new event in karaoke.

Jan/Feb hours

Tu/Wed: 4 - 10 pm

Thurs/Fri: 4 - 11 pm

Sat: 12 pm - 11 pm

Sun: 12 pm - 10 pm

January is typically the slowest month for breweries. We greatly appreciate your business anytime, but especially in the beginning part of the year!

Food update

Through February, our food truck will only be open on Fridays and Saturdays during business hours and for some special/private events as announced. For the time being, we are mainly serving appetizers and our chicken finger basket.

At the bar, we’ll offer a house soup or chili as well as a selection of Pilar’s Tamales for fast service whenever we are open. We also have an arrangement with Hello Faz to get a discount on pizzas delivered right to your table.

Until further notice, outside food is welcome in the brewery. Consider supporting any of our neighbors like Chela’s, Buscemi’s, Hello Faz, or Pilar’s!

New events

We are always launching something fun and new at hear.say! Starting January 9, we are bringing karaoke fun to the people every Thursday from 8 pm - 11 pm. We also have some terrific new comedy events coming soon. Here’s a good sense of what our events calendar will soon look like at full ramp up:

Tues: Special partnership events (e.g. board games, D&D, and Hall of Heroes

Wed: Trivia Night in the taphouse from 7 - 9 pm.

Thurs: Improv shows from 7 - 8 pm. Karaoke from 8 pm to closing.

Fri: Eleven Non-Blondes from 7:30 - 9 pm. Stand up comedy or hybrid improv/stand up shows from 9:30 pm - 10:30 pm.

Sat: Saturday Night improv from 7:30 - 9 pm. Genre improv show from 9:30 - 10:30 pm.

Sun: Family-friendly playtime 12 - 3 pm. Special shows from 6:30 - 7:30. Improv jams twice a month from 7:30 - 9:30 pm.

My wife Lauren has rebuilt our Events page with a huge boost to readability. Take a look at https://www.heardotsay.com/events and let us know what you think! It should be far easier now to see what’s happening and whether it’s in the taphouse, theater, or other location.

Doubling improv class enrollment

We just attained our big goal to double class enrollment from 30 to 60 students! To accommodate this level of growth, we recently signed a deal with York to host classes at their events building on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

We still have 11 Beginner (Level 101) spots available, but they are going fast. We also only have 2 spots in our 4-week boot camp with Lola Castellano. Register at https://www.heardotsay.com/classes!

Students also get a new benefit ($60 value) each class term: 4 free tickets to any Friday or Saturday night improv show good through the end of the year. Students are also now welcome to attend any of our upcoming Thursday shows at no cost as space allows.

How you can help us

1. Mug club members make a strong commitment to our business and get access to monthly members' events and special offers. You get an 18 oz draft of our beers and $1 off all drinks. Join online or in the taphouse for $65.

2. Host an event with us. All of our space is available to rent! We can add private shows, food, drink packages, team building training and more depending on your needs.

3. Leave us a review on Google.

4. Rate our beers on Untappd. We are right above the 4.0 mark currently which is a key quality indicator in the craft beer world.