3-2-1 Kill! at the Alamo Drafthouse Tonight!

What is an improvised movie format?

AS: An improvised movie format takes elements from other long-form improv formats and utilizes cameras to put them on a tape and on a screen as well as on a stage. There are three different teams of improvisers – one is on stage performing, one is out in the field getting ready to do their video segment, the other is in the theater, gets the suggestion and runs out to film their video segment.

So these three teams of improvisers create characters and weave a story together.

Kaci Beeler: Not only the actors are improvisers. The cameramen are improvisers as well, directing the scenes as they go along.

AS: One of the things I feel strongly about with the use of a video camera with improvisation is the fact that you aren’t just doing an improvised scene in front of a camera. You have this wonderful tool – this wonderful ability to make sure that the audience sees exactly what you see as a camera man.

KB: Right, it’s another player in the show.

Is it hard being one of the teams out in the field and not receiving that instant feedback from the audience as to whether or not a joke worked?

Photo by Coldtowne

KB: It is very different than doing improv on stage. You don’t have that instant feedback – you know, what’s working and what isn’t. So you have to go with that much more instinctive approach and get the feedback from your fellow players and the camera man.

KB: It’s a lot of instinct and a lot of trust in your own ability. Usually, if it’s funny to you, it’ll be funny to someone else. That’s the theory.

But if something doesn’t work – if it completely falls flat, you’re stuck having to own up to that. Because in a normal improv show you can weave that into something else, right? Just at the drop of a hat change the setting, change your character, change the dynamic of the relationship between two characters. But when you’re being filmed, you can’t disrupt the storyline that you’re presenting to the audience, right?

AS: The storyline is not necessarily a literal storyline. When we introduce characters and a relationship, we don’t have to follow a pair up until the end of the show. We utilize the characters to introduce themes and to introduce relationships and we use that as a jumping-off point.

KB: If we want to change up the energy to make it more positive because we can see that it’s going sort of negative – we can take it in any direction. As long as it’s following in some thematic vein, I don’t think it’s giving up on the original scene.

How does it feel to be one of the first shows to debut at the new Alamo Drafthouse?

KB: Awesome.

AS: It feels pretty awesome. We were one of the last shows to perform at the Drafthouse on Colorado before it closed, and now we’re one of the first groups to perform at the theatre on 6th.

KB: I’m excited about the new space.

AS: I haven’t even seen it. We’re going to have to scope it out. We’re going to be running around in a two-block radius around the theatre at 9:45 on a Tuesday night. There’s no telling what’s going to be open, what section of a block has been taken over by the homeless people and in order to go there you have to pay a tithe.

KB: That’s actually the fun thing about it. We never know what we’ll find in an alley that we can use or down the street.

AS: There are going to be a lot of businesses open. A lot of phone booths and ATM booths.

Do you think opening the new theatre with a show like this sets a precedent for live shows taking over the stage?

AS: It’s hard to do improve in a space that has a stage that huge. And that’s why the video format works perfect for it – it’s being projected, there’s a sound system. There is a stage team up there, but they have wireless microphones on and there’s a video camera following them as they’re on stage. So even though you can see them in person, you can still see the close-ups projected.

There’s a lot that would otherwise be lost in a space that big. And that’s why it’s hard to do comedy in front of a large group of people – unless it’s a stand-up show, in which case it’s a single person staying still with a microphone for the most part.

Martin Lawrence doesn’t stand still.

AS: I offered him an invitation to come to this show. I was starring alongside him in Big Momma’s House 2 playing the role of Mall Artist. My scene got cut, his did not.

What do you think an audience member takes away from this show that they wouldn’t take away from just having seen a movie or having seen an improv show?

KB: What they’re seeing is more of an authentic moment – something created right before their eyes.

AS: You’ve heard of maybe 48-hour film festivals, where a script is shot in 48 hours. Well, this is even less than that – it has so much room for error, but it also has a whole lot of room for spontaneity and genius.

And that’s what so great about improv – seeing people teetering at the edge of oblivion and then using their talent and instincts to plow forward and make it happen. And when people walk out of the improv show that we’re doing at the Drafthouse, I want them to have that feeling of having seen it there and then and it will never happen again. And they were a part of it.