[ebooks] Whose Improv Is It Anyway?: Beyond Second City by Amy E. Seham at Arts-Photography

Review

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Willing to say the taboo"By ShmikeyAs a female improviser. I had been aware of and frustrated by many of the gender power dynamics in the improv troupes I have worked with. This book hit me at the exact right time in my comedy career -- it gave the words and theory I needed to face head-on the unproductive loops and outsider status that I had been trying to fight.After I read of this book. I started talking openly about race and gender with my improv troupe. It was the jumping-off point for us. as a company. to become more conscious in our approach to the art and our relationships with each other. on and off stage.28 of 31 people found the following review helpful. Valuable but frustratingBy CustomerThere is so much valuable in this book that its shortcomings are all the more frustrating. Nobody else has described in as much depth the history of the improv movement in Chicago since the rise of Second City. Certainly there are hard facts in here that I didnt know. and this is a field in which I wrote one of the early books.Unfortunately. much of the text has been written through such narrow ideological blinders that the author sometimes offers arguments so contorted that she unwittingly contradicts herself.As she quotes from my book. SOMETHING WONDERFUL RIGHT AWAY. I have to confess to being upset by the use she makes of one passage with an early Second City player. the late Roger Bowen. She misinterprets what he said about black players in improv profoundly. and her misinterpretation has the lamentable effect of implying he was a racist. Since Bowen isnt around to defend himself. and since he was one of the most progressive. thoughftul and generous souls ever to grace an improvisational stage. this is deeply disturbing. His memory deserves better.If one can distinguish between the often genuinely insightful analyses she presents and gaffes such as the one I mention above. there is a great deal here to chew on. She correctly identifies the contradictions in a form of theatre that grew out of a desire to offer a progressive/radical view of society and those aspects of improvisation which encourage the reinforcement of stereotypes. Im not aware of anybody else who has made this point as well. so this would deserve its place in the literature if only for raising this issue.On balance. a book that I think serious improvisers should read. but with some skepticism.12 of 18 people found the following review helpful. More Than a Little Misleading...By Daniel TelferI borrowed this book from a friend and was quite excited. I performed at Chicagos Improv Olympic for over three years as well as places like the Playground and the Chicago Improv Festival. and right there on the cover is one of my teachers! As I flipped through it I saw tons of pictures of people I called friend and was excited to see interviews with some of my former team coaches.The trouble seems to be that while the book was written in good faith (in the spirit of giving theaters who perform chiefly improv as much credit as the not-so-improv-anymore Second City) it misinterprets many facts. Shortly after mentioning the book on an online message board I discovered that someone who I was excited to see mentioned in the book had been given a false history in it.Upon further inspection I noticed the book. although covering much ground where it had never been covered before in improv. seemed to have a bit of a bullying attitude towards what true improv was. All these things combined was very frustrating. as people who dont live here have nothing to go by when it comes to this "age" of improv besides this misleading and inaccurate book. Hopefully someone will come along who is less ambitious and more interested in chronicling events. and I hope this happens for those not in Chicago. If you are in Chicago. youre better off scanning the reviews in the free papers for a more clear vision of the scene. even though there arent as many nice group photos.