#4 Knitwear icon
Issue #4 Knitwear icon
6th April 2022
Greetings, Wonderfolk! I remain, Chris Mead.
And wow! Thanks for all the replies to last week's Improv Fables. I really enjoyed reconnecting with you all and hearing your news and recommendations. I'm working with Justin, the wonderful brain behind Buttondown (the service I use to distribute this newsletter), to enable comments on the online version of the mailing. That way everyone can benefit from the wellspring of kindness & community this missive has engendered.
It seems like the life-cycle of an improv group particularly stuck a chord with many of you. My hope is that we all find our improv home and get to play with the people who light us up inside.
But we're burning daylight, so let's get to this week's recommendations.
Rule of three
[Game] Monkey Island
Monkey Island is my all-time favourite computer game series. You play Mighty Pirate™ Guybrush Threepwood - a man completely outclassed and out of his depth in every situation. I love everything about these 90s games - the puzzles, the characters but especially the quality of the writing and their brilliant sense of humour. Which is why I was so surprised & delighted when on 1st April this year the original creator of the game, Ron Gilbert, announced he has been working on a sequel for the past 2 years and that it's due out IN 2022 (to be fair he always said he would announce it on April Fool's Day). So basically that's the best news ever. If you're interested in playing the old games before the new one comes along, someone's put a browser emulation of the original game online here.
[Design] Think in Colour
This is a test which measures empathy, open-mindedness, flexibility and intellectual curiosity. All qualities that any improviser (or any human being) will certainly benefit from nurturing. The test itself is great fun but the reason Think in Colour makes it into Rule of Three this week is due to its beautiful design. Your personality is initially represented by a featureless white globe of essence which twists, evolves, becomes textured and floods with colour as you answer the questions. The image above is my final form. Fun!
[Music] Scary Pockets
Scary Pockets are a brilliant YouTube band that do funk covers of pop classics. They put a couple of new tracks out each week. I love this kind of thing.
Mmm Bop | Kiss from a Rose | 2 Become 1 | Brown Eyed Girl | Toss a Coin to your Witcher
Spotlight
This one is a bit of long shot but if you or any of your friends live in the UK near Farnham, Surrey - I've taken the first few steps towards establishing a new improv school at the superb Maltings art centre in town. I'm really excited about bringing improv to my local community so any help you could offer pointing people in my direction would be GREATLY appreciated. I have a beginners course & a performance course, both booked to begin in mid-May. Thanks everyone!
Longform thoughts
For years, I've been using Notion to compile all my teaching notes and improv exercises into one database. I'm making that archive available to everyone who reads this newsletter from now on. Hopefully navigation and filtering is fairly self-explanatory but please do get in touch if you need any guidance. Likewise if you spot any inaccuracies or, particularly, any misattributions. I've committed to adding a handful of exercises each week so hopefully it should grow quite quickly. Finally, it was initially created with me as the sole user so forgive any ... idiosyncrasies.
Radio days
You are a knitwear icon, Radio!