#63 Several minutes with a monkey
Issue #63 Several minutes with a monkey
24th May 2023
Greetings from Vienna!
I've spent just under a week in this beautiful city and taught 21 hours of improv in that time. It's been a dream to work with such a generous and supremely talented community of improvisers.
I also visited the impressive Schönbrunn Palace where I learned TWO exciting facts.
A carousel is named after an 18th century pastime whereby the ladies of the court would dress up as Amazon warriors and wildly ride their horses in tight circles around indoor arenas whilst trying to skewer wax effigies of decapitated heads with their swords. It was the only time noble women were allowed to really cut loose.
In the same time period, many working class people were afraid of water because they believed it opened their pores to all manner of demonic assailants. This meant that your average human was absolutely infested with bugs and lice. One service, handily provided at markets, allowed you to exchange a few coins for several minutes with a monkey who would obligingly pick out the offending mini-beasts for you. This is the leading theory as to why we now call them Flea Markets.
The more you know, hey?
Rule of three
[Film] Eye Candy
Eye Candy is a website featuring an extensive list of camera moves and film-making techniques. Ever wondered what a split diopter was? Or datamoshing? Now you have access to multiple examples of each. It's also brilliantly designed and beautifully functional to use.
[Theatre] Conrad: The Factory-Made Boy
This week I had the pleasure of watching my brilliant friend Ursula in a production of Conrad: The Factory-Made Boy. She played Bertie Bertolotti - a scatter-brained artist who one day mistakenly gets a giant tin can in the mail containing an instant child (who has been dehydrated for easy transport). The show was in German so I probably didn't get all the nuances but it was a lively, clever piece of theatre and I loved reading up on the author of the book on which the play was based. Christine Nöstlinger appears to be something of an Austrian national treasure and I deeply appreciated her focus on the needs of children, why it's good to be anti-authoritarian sometimes and her championing of feminist issues in children's literature.
[Podcast] The Movies That Made Me
This movie podcast boasts Joe Dante as one of its hosts. Dante is the director of some of my favourite childhood films including Innerspace and, most importantly, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Each week, the hosts interview a guest (someone who makes movies of their own) and proceed to take a deep dive into the films that inspired their work. What makes it particularly wonderful is they also have a Letterboxd account - so after you've listened you can go back and add all these incredible niche films to your watch list. Bingo! Instant cinephile status. I particularly loved just how clearly and deeply Bill Hader loves cinema.
Spotlight
Improv World Cinema Club starts in just under 2 weeks and the mighty David Escobedo has joined the teaching line-up. I don't think I've ever seen so many world-class instructors on one ticket. If you want to chat about movies AND improvise with fellow performers from all over the world then this online course is for you. Learn with Vinny François, Vera Chok, David Escobedo, Luana Proença, Rita Suszek, Jon Nguyen, Carlos Moreno, Laxmi Priya, Tara Judah and myself. You can sign-up here. We're also happy to give out free and discounted bursary places, as well as spread the price across several payments if that will help you access the teaching. Just send me an email by replying to this newsletter.
Radio contact
Sitting pretty, Radio.