World’s Nerdiest Improv Show – Episode 9: Creamy Curry Soup with Zucchini and Potatoes

Show

Show Notes

Katrina and Jen talk about improv, including improv articles they found on the internet and facts you can add to your scenes. Discover soup and what the word of the day is. Watch TJ’s Movie Minute featuring improvisers from “our universe”! And see what Will Hines photo will end up on the studio wall. You know, important stuff like that.

Show notes (including links), transcript available below. Contact available at: http://ween.is (come be our guest!). Also available as a podcast.

Word of the Week: Erinaceous

Soup: Creamy Curry Soup with Zucchini and Potatoes

TJ’s Movie Minute: A Better You

Links to content discussed:

• Professional work & improv
• Location games
• Talon birds, that’s only one talon thankuverymuch
• Carrots

Plugs:

• Katrina: contact her! Give her a job! She is amazing!
• Improvised Morning Show
• WGIS Jams, Fridays at 11am and 5pm PT: More info or head straight to the Jam on Zoom
• WGIS online classes
• The next “Characters Only” class

Comedy Ads

See all our comedy ads on this playlist!

Credits

Starring:

Katrina Charles as Katrina Charles

Jen deHaan as Jen deHaan

TJ as TJ’s Movie Minute

Music & Sound FX: Katrina Charles

Set/Video Design & OBS Button Pusher: Jen deHaan

Production: Jen deHaan / FlatImprov.com

Podcast production: FlatImprov.com Podcasts

Theme song:

Title: WNIS (Weenis) Theme

Written by: Katrina Charles

Performed by: Katrina Charles and the Katrina Charles choir

Executive Producer: Will Hines’ photo

End Credits: Music by Patrick Richmond from Pixabay

Special thanks to: World’s Greatest Improv School (WGIS) (weegis)

Socials & Livestream

Homepage: http://ween.is

Twitch: http://twitch.tv/wgimprovschool

YouTube: http://youtube.com/@flatimprov

Socials: Instagram | TikTok | Threads

Podcast:

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Transcript

Note: You can also click the youtube video above to access YouTube’s transcript on their site.

Speaker A – [00:00 – 01:19]
Life’s too normal. And you need a change from something totally expected to something strange. Assignment. Go to a place where if our dreams come true. And all we need is you. It’s the world’s nerdiest improv

Speaker A – [01:19 – 01:33]
show. That you and I as weenies don’t you know. Get your internet connected and your screen aglow. And we’ll make it up as we go. The world’s nerdiest improv show.

Speaker B – [01:33 – 01:39]
Welcome, everyone. Welcome to

Speaker B – [01:39 – 01:59]
the world’s nerdiest improv show. Parentheses Wness parentheses. Weenies. Where the parentheses are set out loud. And we are your hosts. I’m Catrina Charles, and I’m Jen. Dan. This is the show where we talk about improv stuff and things

Speaker B – [01:59 – 02:19]
and stuff, and that’s about it. Yeah, exactly. Got it. Yeah. And I think, uh, we’re gonna have guests very soon. We’ve got some people that we’re going to be interviewing here on the show, so I’m excited about that for sure. Very excited to expand our our reach. Um, make

Speaker B – [02:19 – 02:39]
you know, the, the extended universe of people. It’s very exciting. Oh, my goodness. This is the beginning. We’re gonna have a weenus universe. We are a w u w u n I s a wellness, a wellness, the we just world universe

Speaker B – [02:39 – 02:59]
Oh improv show I thinking up uh, acronyms are not my my strong suit. No. Do you know what I learned? There’s a difference between an acronym and an initialism. Oh, do tell. An acronym is one where you say it out verbally like

Speaker B – [02:59 – 03:18]
Venus. Venus is an acronym because we’ve turned it into a word. But if you say the letters individually, like w n I s, that’s an initialism. But Weenus is an acronym, and I might have that backwards

Speaker B – [03:18 – 03:21]
So we’re kind of like both.

Speaker C – [03:21 – 03:22]
Yeah.

Speaker B – [03:22 – 03:36]
Yeah, I guess I guess well, I think we’re probably an acronym because we do use it as a word. Um, but if we only used the letters, it would be initialism. Well, it’s the world’s nerdiest improv show. Wnis Venus.

Speaker C – [03:36 – 03:37]
Yeah.

Speaker B – [03:37 – 03:39]
So we’re all

Speaker B – [03:39 – 03:58]
of the above. We’re every. We’re everything. Oh, we said it at the same time. We’re everything. We are everything and we’re nothing. No. And we’re everything and everything. All right, well, how was your week? Oh, you know, my week’s been going pretty well, except I am. I’m a little

Speaker B – [03:58 – 04:12]
sad. Um, one of one of my favorite activities to do in my apartment is take pictures of birds that visit the tree outside my window. Yeah. And I got notice that tomorrow they’re cutting down that tree.

Speaker C – [04:12 – 04:13]
Oh, no.

Speaker B – [04:13 – 04:18]
Yeah. Oh, that’s the worst it has been. Um, not

Speaker B – [04:18 – 04:38]
doing well since last summer. It got really hot and then it started not doing well. So I feel like it’s probably a good decision considering I also park right under that tree. Yes. Um, and we do tend to get like, windstorms and stuff. So I think in overall it’s probably the best choice, but I am I am going to miss the birds. Yeah, I, I

Speaker B – [04:38 – 04:58]
remember from um, I have a I’m very fortunate I live in a forest now, so I have no shortage of trees, although we had to cut a bunch of them down for that same reason. They were sick and diseased and so we had to do it for safety reasons, at least around the house. Um, but, uh, and for

Speaker B – [04:58 – 05:18]
fire concerns and all that kind of thing. But, uh, when I lived in a townhouse, there was very I was in the middle of a, I was in the middle of the San Francisco Bay area, so not many trees. And when they cut down, they cut down some trees. I’m not sure about what the reason was because we didn’t hear, but I was devastated and that there’s

Speaker B – [05:18 – 05:38]
not many trees to look at I know. Yeah, that’s that’s the thing I, I think like it makes sense that it needs to go. I understand it’s lived its life. And also I think it’s like there’s an appreciation that like I got to be around as it lived. It’s like last years of life and it really appreciate it and enjoy it. Um, but yeah, I do

Speaker B – [05:38 – 05:58]
live in Washington, so it’s not I don’t have to go far to find trees, but, uh, there’s there’s just not going to be one out my window. Yeah. And that’s a little sad. Yeah. It makes all the difference being able to look at nature. Yeah. Although I do feel like it’s going to open up my view a lot. So in a few, in like a week or two, once I’m over the sad

Speaker B – [05:58 – 06:17]
ness of the tree being gone, right, I’ll probably be like, oh, I have a nice view now. But yeah, you do need to check in to see see what’s up here about the View and if it’s oh, I’ll have to tell you about the view. It’ll I’m sure it’ll look nice, but at the same time there just won’t be a bluebird on, on the bow of a tree. Yeah

Speaker B – [06:17 – 06:38]
well, you have a balcony. Maybe. Maybe, uh, additional attraction, bird attraction elements for the balcony. Maybe I could start attracting them. They told us not to feed the birds, but I could rebel. They took my tree. You could. They took my tree. What? What if I get back? Exactly what if

Speaker B – [06:38 – 06:44]
I leave a peanut on the banister? This is how I show my retaliation.

Speaker D – [06:44 – 06:49]
Retaliation via peanuts. The Katrina story.

Speaker B – [06:49 – 06:57]
Why am I going into, like, wrestler voice? I don’t know, but I love it and it’s really pumping me up and encouraging me to to go

Speaker B – [06:57 – 07:03]
get Rebel is Katrina’s rebellion phase.

Speaker D – [07:03 – 07:07]
She’s leaving our peanut on the balcony for the birds.

Speaker B – [07:07 – 07:17]
I wonder if I’m clipping sorry podcasters, if I’m clipping and I’m right in your ears with that. Yeah. Sorry podcasters. I also have a new microphone

Speaker B – [07:17 – 07:30]
Podcasters. I don’t know if it sounds any better, but hopefully it does. Yeah, let us know. Let us know. You can hear me whining about not being able to look at birds in high definition.

Speaker D – [07:30 – 07:37]
So intricate, so personal, right into your ears. All right. I really

Speaker D – [07:37 – 07:39]
we need we should maybe move on.

Speaker B – [07:39 – 07:42]
Move on. I’m going to keep doing this. Sounds good.

Speaker E – [07:42 – 07:42]
Sounds good.

Speaker B – [07:42 – 07:58]
All right, well, let’s, uh. What should we move on to? Soup, our sponsor soup of the week or the ads? Katrina, you get to choose. Let’s move on to soup. Um, I feel like we just. We need to appreciate it. Give it its full appreciation. This soup again

Speaker B – [07:58 – 08:17]
there is a recipe for it on. Is it plant based? Recipe.com. That is correct. Yes. That is where this soup is from. Uh, our our our soup of the week that’s bringing you this show is a creamy. And I’m reading it off. It’s my own recipe and I don’t

Speaker B – [08:17 – 08:37]
remember what I called it. So I’m gonna read this podcasters I’m reading right now, creamy curry soup with zucchini and potatoes. And it looks like there’s maybe a pumpkin. Or possibly those are sweet potatoes. I don’t remember, but I will put the link to this recipe in

Speaker B – [08:37 – 08:57]
the show notes so we can all learn at the same time. And it does look amazing. It looks like a great, delicious, hearty bowl of curry soup. And I’m probably gonna make it this week. Um, it just looks so good. I might have to make it this week to to remind me if it’s good or not. So hopefully, hopefully it is. But, uh, I do

Speaker B – [08:57 – 09:17]
to, uh, only write very simple, easy, usually inexpensive recipes. So, um, it should be maybe easy enough for me to make as well. I love all of those things. Yeah. And heartiness and cheapness, uh, inexpensive is where it’s at. All right

Speaker B – [09:17 – 09:37]
That’s our. That’s the soup that is bringing us this episode today. Thank you so much. Soup. We appreciate you. Thank you. Soup. We love your support. Uh, and now, should we move on to the ads? Let’s get some ads. Let’s get some ads going. All right, here we go

Speaker B – [09:37 – 09:57]
AD number one. Hey, Venus Krebs, thank you so much for coming. I’m Katrina, and this is my zoom background tour. First we have to start with my gold frame on the wall. Within the frame, we have this, uh, really fun lamp. It’s Jurassic Park. It’s pretty cool

Speaker B – [09:57 – 10:17]
It’s like the T-Rex dressed up here. I have some, like, artwork over here is my playing corner. Um, this here is Tracy, my spider plan. Um, I didn’t think she was gonna make it through the winter, but look at her. She’s thriving. Over here is my Lego orchid. Because between you and me, I can only keep Tracy

Speaker B – [10:17 – 10:35]
and me alive. Anyone else is not gonna work out this cool picture of New York. I have been to New York. Um, so I do feel like I’m allowed to have this on my wall. But I did get this at World Market. It was on clearance sale. So, um, over here is some artwork by the artist. False knees. You’ll regret

Speaker B – [10:35 – 10:55]
100% of the fries you don’t take. I do live by that motto. I have this, uh, gorgeous Japanese wall hanging. Um, over here is my whiteboard. I find that if in your zoom background, you have a whiteboard, people are gonna be like, wow, what are they up to? They’re very busy. They’re doing things. You know, I drew a rectangle, and I drew a square and an X and a red

Speaker B – [10:55 – 11:15]
oval, um, and a red arrow. Um, and I feel like all of these things make it look like. Wow, she has stuff going on, you know, that kind of thing. Um, I do have a very strict to do list that I stick to. Um. So improv, apply to jobs, dance break last. Um, my to do list is to eat food

Speaker B – [11:15 – 11:35]
So I’m gonna go do that after we’re done up here. I have an artwork by, um, the artist SIM Kay. I really love their work. This one is of, um, hamsters doing solitaire. Which reminds me how life would be different if I was a hamster playing solitaire. How weird would that be? How nice would that be here? I just had

Speaker B – [11:35 – 11:55]
some paddle board paddles for paddle board paddling. Nope. No, we don’t we don’t look over there. That’s that’s where all. Nope. We don’t go over there. Thank you so much for coming on this tour with me. I am Katrina. Uh, thank you so much, Venus Cribs. Um, happy to share this with you. And I will see you on the internet

Speaker B – [11:55 – 12:04]
All right. We’re good. I’m gonna need everyone to help me move everything back the way it was, because I cannot lift, lift all of that garbage back into this corner. Cool. Thank you.

Speaker F – [12:04 – 12:13]
Have you been raised to never let history repeat itself? You might be living in a world of first beats only. How do you know if you’re trying to survive on first beats alone? Symptoms

Speaker F – [12:13 – 12:34]
include your first beat. Was frat bros heading to Burning Man, but your second beat was something unrelated about two sisters gossiping about 90s after school specials or something. Or you’ve thought of a perfect rooster callback, but you kept your mouth shut because you thought no one needed to revisit that great farm scene. Or you could have made

Speaker F – [12:34 – 12:54]
a solid pigeon pecking connection during the third beat, but you didn’t because it would have been too much to go back 30 minutes in the set. You know you’re living an anti-second beat lifestyle that rejects historical repetition. If this very advertisement gives you chills, nausea, acid reflux, a bad case of heartburn, vertigo

Speaker F – [12:54 – 13:14]
unrelenting jazz hands, and chills. If any of these symptoms resemble your history hating reality, you are living in a world of first beats only, and you need help from us here at Do It Again, Please and improv Sabbatical at Do It Again, Please and Improv Sabbatical. You’ll redo history. You’ll get reps of beats, history

Speaker F – [13:14 – 13:33]
starts repeating itself. By noon. You receive the same dry toast you got for breakfast, but also for lunch and also for dinner. Oh, that asshole who stole your parking spot when you arrived. Don’t worry, you’ll see them again. We assigned you parking spot 17 F, and we also hired Chip to

Speaker F – [13:33 – 13:53]
pull in to 17 F seconds before you arrived. In fact, we’ll assign you the task to go off site and pick up your post-it note pads for Do It again, please and Improv Sabbaticals central office five times per day for the length of your stay. And every time you repeat this task, Chip will be waiting in their Rav4 and will pull in to 17 F right as you pull up. Good

Speaker F – [13:53 – 14:12]
work chip, and good work you for reliving this annoying experience five times per day. Doesn’t seem funny yet. Don’t worry. The 11th time Chip pulls into your spot, you’ll get it, because that’s why you’re here. You need to learn to, you know, get it. You’ll marinate on that great comeback while

Speaker F – [14:12 – 14:32]
you’re in aisle five at Office Depot. That’s where the post-its are, and eventually you’ll tell off Chip perfectly every time. So many beats, so much opportunity, so much chip here at Do It Again, Please and Improv Sabbatical. We believe a joke gets funnier the more times you say it, and that dry toast gets moderately tolerable

Speaker F – [14:32 – 14:52]
by day eight. But best of all, we’ll let you mangle your second beat with a premise that barely resembles the first beat, but at least demonstrates you’re moderately aware of the relevant concepts and techniques by the time you drive home from the sabbatical. Don’t live in a world of first beats, only there’s always more roosters to call back, and there’s always

Speaker F – [14:52 – 15:09]
more chip. Call one 800 555 beat. That’s one 805 55BEAT. Call me please and welcome back to the show. That was a lot of fun seeing a tour of your background.

Speaker B – [15:09 – 15:11]
Oh. Thank you. I, um, I’m glad that you enjoyed that

Speaker B – [15:11 – 15:16]
And, um, I again, I’m so sad I’m not in on my improv sabbatical.

Speaker E – [15:16 – 15:22]
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it would be, um, quite a journey, I think.

Speaker B – [15:22 – 15:23]
So many beats.

Speaker E – [15:23 – 15:25]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B – [15:25 – 15:31]
I also like how, uh, how we have a production crew we do that showed up to

Speaker B – [15:31 – 15:51]
your apartment? Yes. Oh, my gosh, I wasn’t expecting that, considering it’s usually just us. Um, but, yeah, no, a bunch of people, like, seven people just crammed into my seven. Yeah, but it was great. They helped me move all of the crap that was in this corner. Nice. Away and back and back and back. Yeah. Ah, they’re they’re gentle

Speaker B – [15:51 – 16:09]
They are gentle. Very gentle. Very thorough. Uh, really appreciated it. Um. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you, Venus crew. Thank you. Uh, Venus cribs crew. And maybe I’ll meet them someday. Maybe. Well, I would love, uh, them to do a tour of your your background. Yeah.

Speaker D – [16:09 – 16:10]
It’s green.

Speaker B – [16:10 – 16:11]
I know

Speaker B – [16:11 – 16:31]
Yeah. Pretty much. Well, you have to show everyone your parking garage and your your weird, decrepit house and your your field with, like, just a person in it. Yeah, yeah. Just one solo mannequin on a paddleboard. Yeah. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. And the raccoons in the attic. Yeah. Which I’ve talked about before

Speaker B – [16:31 – 16:51]
You have? Yeah, yeah. All right. Slides are moving on to our segment. That’s this one. I seen on the internet, we’re going through some improv stuff that we’ve found on the internet

Speaker B – [16:51 – 17:11]
this week. Yeah. Katrina, what have you brought for us? Yeah. So I was just wondering because I know, um, they have, like, lots of improv, uh, schools and teachers and stuff will offer classes to, like, corporate people. Um, and as someone who would love to be a corporate person again, hashtag hire me. Um, I was wondering, like, how

Speaker B – [17:11 – 17:31]
improv actually, um, improves, uh, their, their life and their career and, and just, uh, where people go. Um, so I found this post on Reddit. Um, someone asked how was improv improved your professional work? And a lot of people responded. Um, some said that it made them a better team player, made them a better listener, able to kind of, um, just interact easier

Speaker B – [17:31 – 17:51]
Yeah, yeah. Um, but some people also said that it just helped them in their career in general. General, general in general, in general. Standing right here, uh, in, in general, um, just having them take more risks and go towards more what they want to do. Um, so they’ve gotten out of like career rough patches

Speaker B – [17:51 – 18:11]
or just like where it’s been really stagnant and moved in a direction, um, inspired by what they learned with improv. Um, and some person said it also made them the funniest person in the office, which I also think is a huge benefit to doing improv. So if if you’re a working person and you’re still thinking like, oh, maybe

Speaker B – [18:11 – 18:31]
maybe I’m proud of someday, like it might actually help you in your work. It might not just be a fun, fun thing to do. Yeah. Which which is also is it is also a lot of fun. That’s amazing. How many concepts, uh, I mean, applied improv is, is about this, um, in specifically, uh, which there’s an applied improv network

Speaker B – [18:31 – 18:52]
Uh, Ayn, um, if people are watching, listening, interested in some of this work, uh, of just how you can apply these skills to other segments of life, like work or therapy or anxiety or, um, you know, sobriety. There’s all sorts of applications of the things that we learn

Speaker B – [18:52 – 19:12]
Um, and I believe there’s a book called. Yes. And that is specifically for workplace dynamics. Um, I understand it is quite good. I haven’t read it, so I can’t say much more than that other than it exists. Cool. I’ll have to check that out. And you said Applied Improv network. Applied Improv Network. There’s a website

Speaker B – [19:12 – 19:30]
and there’s a very large active Facebook group, um, as well. And they put out, uh, magazines I believe they published digitally. Um, maybe in print, I’m not sure, but they do. Uh, yeah, they’re quite active. Very cool. I’ll have to check that out. I was unaware, yeah.

Speaker F – [19:30 – 19:32]
Oh, we’re

Speaker F – [19:32 – 19:33]
we’re we’re learning.

Speaker B – [19:33 – 19:44]
We’re we’re learning that. Well, that’s what this section is for. It really is. It is for learning. And here we are learning. Here we are learning. Uh, next slide.

Speaker F – [19:44 – 19:47]
Uh, another, uh, Reddit post.

Speaker B – [19:47 – 19:52]
Uh, for our podcast listeners, a previous one was on Reddit. This next one’s on Reddit as well. And

Speaker B – [19:52 – 20:12]
we will be putting these links in the show notes. If you want to go check out what we’re talking about, this next thread is called Need help with Games That Establish Location? I am coming into this with absolutely like I’m I’m. I picked the article uh, the the

Speaker B – [20:12 – 20:32]
topic by title only and I am coming into this with no previous thoughts. So I’m in the moment as we would in improv in this show, putting this up there with no preloaded anything. Uh, so, Katrina, uh, need help with games that establish

Speaker B – [20:32 – 20:52]
location now, I will, uh, bring up two things that I’ve done, uh, in the past that immediately come to mind just because they’re very memorable for me in classes, and the first of which was, uh, I probably one of the very first exercises I did, uh, in setting location

Speaker B – [20:52 – 21:12]
and it was simply set the location sometime during the scene. Uh, very, very simple. But the, uh, teacher was looking for very, very specific locations. Um, like, even nothing implied, nothing left up to, well

Speaker B – [21:12 – 21:32]
you know, we were, uh, two, uh, married, a married couple in a kitchen talking about our stuff. It was you need to actually say here in the kitchen at home. So very kind of forcing it into the scene, which can help. Uh, of course, I took that ultra literally. And in my scene, I gave geographic

Speaker B – [21:32 – 21:52]
coordinates. Like, I brought out my phone and said the GPS location, like, and I, I thought in my literal take that that was actually something to do. Uh, I regret it now. Uh, a long time later. I mean, you followed the assignment to it

Speaker F – [21:52 – 21:59]
I did, but that was my very, very literal take, which I tend to do until I know better sometimes.

Speaker B – [21:59 – 22:11]
But, um, yeah, GPS location. I don’t recommend that necessarily, but that is, I’m just being honest in the moment right now. That is something I did. Um, what I do enjoy a lot and exercise that I always

Speaker B – [22:11 – 22:31]
love and will always love is just doing basically a great big scene paint of what’s in the, uh, what what like scene paint. Absolutely everything in the location. Like, let us know that we’re there. And that’s partly because I’m a very visual. Uh hyperphantasia

Speaker B – [22:31 – 22:51]
individual like, I, I do have that, um, and I absolutely love that exercise. But one of the things in the description of this post, I believe, uh, I did also I’m reading this description right now. No, I did read the description. Um, is is how to do space work and etc. things like that. And just having

Speaker B – [22:51 – 23:11]
that highly visual sense of where you are, you can see the whole thing that just helps you during the scene, actually think about what’s there, what else is there, what else can we rest the game with in the environment? And that can help with space. Work on picking up this thing. Because I see it. I actually see it there. So I always love doing that

Speaker B – [23:11 – 23:31]
exercise of scene paint. Every single thing. Katrina, do you does anything come to mind for you? Um, I think mainly scene painting comes to me when it comes with like location. Although, um, I do have to say I do get distracted with scene painting because I will, like, remember where things are. I’ll be like, I’ll mark

Speaker B – [23:31 – 23:51]
it in my mind very specifically where things are. So someone like, walks through like a table or like walks out of a door. That wasn’t where we put the door. Like, I’ll get so distracted by that. It’ll take me out of the scene, you know? Um, so I like I do like scene painting, but often when it comes to location, I

Speaker B – [23:51 – 24:08]
try, like, personally, I like starting really generally and then like painting within the scene, like gradually, almost organically. Yeah. As the scene goes, um, that’s a little bit more helpful for, for just my brain without getting distracted by like, you walk through the chair, Kyle. Like.

Speaker G – [24:08 – 24:11]
Yeah. Like now

Speaker G – [24:11 – 24:14]
you’re asking me about my my chops.

Speaker F – [24:14 – 24:15]
Kyle. Come on, man.

Speaker B – [24:15 – 24:31]
Yeah, and I apologize to any. Kyle’s listening. That was just a name that popped in my head. It wasn’t a specific attack on on all Kyle’s. Yeah, well, all Tad’s and now all chips. And now all Kyle’s are going to hate our show

Speaker B – [24:31 – 24:50]
Or maybe they’ll love it. They might love it. They might love the attention. You know, also a scene painting I do love like a movie scene paint at the beginning, too. Uh, because they’re so because you’re describing oftentimes depending on how you do it. But one way I do like doing is, is describing the actual camera moves as it moves over

Speaker B – [24:50 – 25:10]
like, say you’re doing a movie and you’re doing like a hallmark movie and you’re discussing like, okay, you know, we have a drone shot from up here and we’re zooming over a small town and like doing that whole both the shot and what you see, um, I always find that fun because it adds such a graphical element that you can

Speaker B – [25:10 – 25:28]
really see what’s going on, huh? Yeah. And it helps with the location, too, because you’re like, oh, I’m zoomed up. I’m like, wait, looking at this whole thing, you know, before you, I don’t think in I don’t think I’ve ever done that kind. But that’s really fun. Yeah, I like that idea. Yeah. Well, here we are doing it.

Speaker F – [25:28 – 25:30]
Here we improv show given improv ideas

Speaker B – [25:30 – 25:31]
Look at us. Wow.

Speaker F – [25:31 – 25:33]
Go. We’re talking more.

Speaker B – [25:33 – 25:40]
It’s not just all gardening chat this week, right? We actually add value. We’re at oh my gosh. Here we go.

Speaker H – [25:40 – 25:44]
Production value. You’re valuing up my production.

Speaker D – [25:44 – 25:45]
Yeah. There we go.

Speaker B – [25:45 – 25:49]
Oh I just gave us a free rim shot.

Speaker F – [25:49 – 25:50]
Next slide

Speaker B – [25:50 – 26:10]
Oh it’s our word of the week. Why do we have word of a week. Oh. So uh, maybe you can use it in a scene and it’ll, uh, it can inform character. It can inform, um time period. It can inform profession. It can inform, it can inform, and it can add a little bit of a, of a zhuzh. It’s like a garnish

Speaker B – [26:10 – 26:28]
I would say this is like, you know, parsley on the plate, parsley on the side of the plate. Like you don’t really need it but you can appreciate it. I love parsley, although I have I do try to chew parsley more often than not. Yeah, because I’m like, is it edible? No, it’s still not.

Speaker F – [26:28 – 26:30]
You don’t find parsley edible

Speaker B – [26:30 – 26:50]
Well I mean like, you know, and it’s like the really hard parsley. Oh yeah. Hard parsley. Hard parsley. Maybe it’s not parsley but you know that hard garnish. Like I’ll take a bite of it and be like oh that that feels like I shouldn’t be eating it. There’s uh that’s curly parsley. Probably. There’s a flat leaf parsley. I grow both of them. Oh my gosh, we’re going. We are just migrating back into gardening chat

Speaker B – [26:50 – 26:51]
right now.

Speaker F – [26:51 – 26:53]
Flat leaf parsley versus curly parsley.

Speaker B – [26:53 – 27:05]
Oh, I like the conversation of like tell me what I can and can’t eat on a plate. I find that helpful. Yeah. I also love how much we’ve tangent off word of the week. We haven’t even given anyone the word of the week.

Speaker F – [27:05 – 27:06]
I’m sorry.

Speaker B – [27:06 – 27:09]
Oh, we’re we’re trying so hard.

Speaker D – [27:09 – 27:10]
We are trying

Speaker D – [27:10 – 27:10]
hard.

Speaker F – [27:10 – 27:11]
All right.

Speaker B – [27:11 – 27:15]
Podcast listeners, we are still looking at the slide for word of the week.

Speaker F – [27:15 – 27:17]
So we have not moved on to Parsley Chat.

Speaker B – [27:17 – 27:30]
We are still there. And the word of the week is erinaceus e r I n a c e o u s that will be in the show notes with a link to the dictionary entry, because that is kind

Speaker B – [27:30 – 27:50]
of detail we offer here on w n I s Weenus resembles relates or pertains to a hedgehog. I have to say, in a weird way, this circles back because non-edible parsley is a little erinaceus. It does somewhat resemble

Speaker B – [27:50 – 27:59]
a hedgehog. It freaking does. Wow, I had see if that detail was in a scene.

Speaker F – [27:59 – 28:00]
I would love that.

Speaker B – [28:00 – 28:10]
I would love that connection in a scene. And would we get it without the word erinaceus? Maybe not. I don’t think so. I, I until right now, I did not

Speaker B – [28:10 – 28:30]
know erinaceus was. Oh, sorry a word. Um, or, um, a thing. See, I didn’t know it either until I looked it up this morning. I was like, we need a word of the day, I do. I want to know how this word came to be, like, was someone just seeing a lot of rocks that tended to look like hedgehogs? And their name was Aaron

Speaker B – [28:30 – 28:49]
And people were like, oh, Aaron sees another hedgehog rock. So Arab nations, I, I do not know. That would be maybe some of our listeners know and can let us know because the asius is um, certainly a a whatever you lop

Speaker B – [28:49 – 29:09]
on to the end established. I would also like to say that I am incorrect and retract my statement that this word of the week is like a garnish on a scene, because we just proved that it’s useful for more than that. It’s more than a garnish. You are making

Speaker B – [29:09 – 29:29]
potential connections and other additions to the scene based on using such a word. Exactly. Yes. No. This is connected so many, um, neurons in my brain. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Like what? This is I mean, I was about to throw up production value again. This has nothing

Speaker B – [29:29 – 29:49]
to do with production. This is improv value right now. I also just want to know what, um, what does like, relates or pertains to a hedgehog being like like its diet is. Erinaceus. It’s like living space. Is erinaceus like. Yeah. Its favorite television show is erinaceus. Like, yeah. How far have those things? How do we know how

Speaker B – [29:49 – 30:08]
far does this go. Yeah yeah all the way. Also incorporate chocolate hedgehogs which are my favorite. Oh my gosh. Is that something that’s in the United States. It’s a Canadian thing for sure. We have I probably it sounds familiar, but I also just

Speaker B – [30:08 – 30:15]
I don’t know, chocolate and in the shape of a chocolate in a shape that’s familiar, delightful on its own.

Speaker F – [30:15 – 30:28]
But, uh, the ones, the chocolate hedgehogs that we get in western Canada from a place called Purdy’s. This is not a plug, but I’m plugs Purdy’s plug, Purdy’s Canada.

Speaker B – [30:28 – 30:29]
They make

Speaker B – [30:29 – 30:48]
chocolate hedgehogs that have a hazelnut, a dense like dense ganache type center, hazelnut flavored center. It is. They’re delightful. Uh, that that sounds familiar. I feel like I have had that before, but I might be just making it up anyway. Moving on.

Speaker F – [30:48 – 30:48]
Moving

Speaker F – [30:48 – 30:50]
on, moving on, chocolate chap.

Speaker B – [30:50 – 30:51]
More food.

Speaker F – [30:51 – 30:52]
Getting lots of improv, lots of food.

Speaker B – [30:52 – 31:08]
In today’s episode, now we’re moving on to scene sprinkles. This is where we are, uh, learning things, uh, that we can now apply, uh, to our scenes through flash memory, etc. things

Speaker B – [31:08 – 31:28]
that we’ve learned or something comes up in a scene and we’re adding additional details for interest or just plain being an improv nerd. Uh, is that is that a sufficient explanation of what we’re doing here? Katrina? Sounds sufficient. All right, we’ll go with that then. What’s your, uh, what’s your scene

Speaker B – [31:28 – 31:48]
Sprinkle your fact of the week. So my scene sprinkle comes from a TikTok I saw this week about cassowaries, which are large birds. And apparently they’re the most dangerous bird in the world. Um, but the thing that that got me so much about, because I’ve heard of cassowaries and how they’ll, like, chase people. And, you know, what got me is they have, like, a Talon that

Speaker B – [31:48 – 32:08]
they can, like, cut people with. So they, they’re actually like modern day velociraptors. Like what? They’re just like scary birds with a with a talon. Um, and they can run 31mph, which feels, again, too fast for a bird. A couple weeks ago, I brought in that wild turkeys can fly like 50 miles an hour. Also too fast

Speaker B – [32:08 – 32:27]
for a bird. It was like 50, right? 55, I think. 55. Yeah, I think too fast for a bird. Yeah, but, um, too fast for a large bird. Like a small bird. Okay. Mhm. Go for it. But like, large birds are scary. Don’t like it. Um, so a bird running at you at 31mph feels too fast. Especially when it has a knife

Speaker B – [32:27 – 32:43]
So, um, just single Talon. Do you know, like one Talon? It’s like it has, like, fingers and then like one talon. Like a velociraptor. So both. Both, uh, legs or arms have one talon, a single talent. Wow.

Speaker F – [32:43 – 32:47]
That is just. That is frightening. That is like a scary

Speaker B – [32:47 – 33:00]
Yeah. One large bird coming at you with a one knife on each arm. Yeah, it’s like Edward scissors hands, but, like, not the secondary. Edward. Nice knife. Hands.

Speaker D – [33:00 – 33:04]
Knife fists. His fists for knives. Oh, man.

Speaker F – [33:04 – 33:07]
Uh, I’ve gotta stop with the

Speaker F – [33:07 – 33:08]
fists.

Speaker B – [33:08 – 33:20]
For knives, for knives. Backwards knives for fists. I can’t cut this, but I can punch it. Uh, see that?

Speaker F – [33:20 – 33:26]
That right there is how we would be using this in, what are you, some kind of reverse cassowary?

Speaker D – [33:26 – 33:27]
And

Speaker D – [33:27 – 33:33]
what? This is the kind of scene that we’re advocating for right now.

Speaker B – [33:33 – 33:46]
Um, go all out, live your dreams. Be a reverse cassowary. Right. Uh, let’s see that. That is smooth. If I heard that in the scene, I would be like, wow, right? That’s smooth and smart. Exactly.

Speaker D – [33:46 – 33:47]
The kind of improv

Speaker D – [33:47 – 33:50]
we’re doing. Smooth and smart. Come here.

Speaker B – [33:50 – 34:07]
We we play to the top of intelligence. We do. Actually, that is exactly what we’re doing right now. Um, now, uh, my fact of the week, if we’re ready, I don’t like I still want to stick on the Talon thing, but we’re. I guess we’re moving on to carrots now

Speaker B – [34:07 – 34:24]
Um, I did literally the reason that this fact popped up for me. And again, everyone, we will be putting links in the show notes to where these sources are that we’re viewing, uh, visually on the screen right now.

Speaker F – [34:24 – 34:27]
Previous one was a TikTok about

Speaker F – [34:27 – 34:28]
cassowaries. We’ll link to that.

Speaker B – [34:28 – 34:47]
This one is, uh, Reddit Facts subreddit, and I did a scene last week that was about purple carrots, purple carrots with orange on the inside, which is a type that I grow, which is why I thought of it. And then, uh, this popped up in my feed about the

Speaker B – [34:47 – 35:07]
source of the colors of carrots. And this was a fact that I could have dropped into the scene that I did. So it’s a little bit of post scene regret that I didn’t know more about the background, the, uh, actual genetic, uh, or breeding basically

Speaker B – [35:07 – 35:27]
species origins of the carrot, which is a root vegetable. And uh, this fact, the modern orange carrot was developed in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Before that, carrots were mostly purple or white. And, um, they’re looking at that fact because there was a claim

Speaker B – [35:27 – 35:47]
that carrots used to be purple, yellow and white until the 1600s when the Dutch created orange carrots. This is false. It actually goes back further than that. And about their origins, and we don’t really need to get into the origins. As fascinating as it is to me as someone who grows for seed saving

Speaker B – [35:47 – 36:07]
which is very nerdy, uh, which is why I was interested in this fact, which is why I brought up the carrot thing in the first place. Oh my goodness. Anyways, I will be putting this science this article if you are interested in the actual origins of the orange carrot. I’m sure so many improvisers listening to this are going wow

Speaker B – [36:07 – 36:27]
I can’t wait to click that link and read the science behind it, because this is a long and nerdy scientific article. I’m thrilled to look into this and read about a paragraph and then, um, get bored and and stop reading it. But I know enough. I do want to say

Speaker B – [36:27 – 36:46]
to, um, part of this part is like to gift knowledge onto our listeners and watchers, but also, um, encourage you to follow what you enjoy, like follow your passions because it will inform your improv it if you delve deeper into yourself

Speaker B – [36:46 – 37:06]
you can bring more to your scene. So there’s something to be said for for that as well, even if particularly carrots may not interest you, I wouldn’t know why. They’re very interesting. Yeah. So yeah, I mean it could be Dungeons and Dragons or carrots, whatever it is. And that’s what we’re just encouraging, is the continuation

Speaker B – [37:06 – 37:20]
of learning to lean into your own interests and add those details to a scene, for sure. Yeah. And I do love carrots. I love carrots. Yeah, I carrot about it. Oh oh we get the rimshot.

Speaker F – [37:20 – 37:26]
That was AA2 rim shot.

Speaker B – [37:26 – 37:26]
I

Speaker B – [37:26 – 37:46]
don’t know if you could have heard that but there was two rim shots for that one miraculous wonderful wordplay I thank you. Yeah you’re welcome. And if you want to add facts to this show, if there’s something that you want to add, please check out our weenies

Speaker B – [37:46 – 38:06]
website and there’s a form on there. You can submit whatever to us. You can say hello, say hi, or add facts, or if there’s some improv knowledge that you would like to share, please do so and share your hobby. Oh yeah, share your interest. Share your improv love. If you’d like to do my homework

Speaker B – [38:06 – 38:26]
for me, you can find me TikToks that are interesting. And if you find a job for Catrina, oh my gosh, hire me. Hire Catrina, preferably remote. I’m a UX writer, content designer, conversation designer. Oh my gosh, just let me let me have money. Thank you so much. And you can contact us there. You can contact us on our social media

Speaker B – [38:26 – 38:33]
which is an improv show. If you have a job for Catrina, you can contact us on any of those places.

Speaker I – [38:33 – 38:34]
Yes.

Speaker B – [38:34 – 38:46]
All right. But we do have something from our universe, our Venus universe. It’s TJ doing TJ’s movie minute. So, uh, were

Speaker B – [38:46 – 39:01]
you the w e u the okay, we extended universe. Extended universe I love it, I love it. The w e u. We call it the Wu. And then now it’s an acronym and not an initialism.

Speaker D – [39:01 – 39:04]
Uh, we gotta choose.

Speaker B – [39:04 – 39:06]
All right, TJ, what does TJ

Speaker B – [39:06 – 39:08]
got for us this week?

Speaker J – [39:08 – 39:26]
Uh, this movie is so good. It is directed by Walshy. I always called Walshy Matt Walsh in in by Walshy and Brian Huskey, whom I adore. Both some of my heroes. I love them so, so, so much. This

Speaker J – [39:26 – 39:46]
is about a hypnotherapist played by Brian, um, and has many different eclectic, interesting, um, patients and, uh, people. He’s like, um, helping work through a lot of their issues. And, um, the more the movie goes on, we kind of see that, you know, he has his own personal issues

Speaker J – [39:46 – 40:07]
that he’s not really, um, addressing quite as much as other people’s. And it’s a really, really beautiful, hilarious, wonderful movie. And just the script by Brian and Walshy is just amazing. And I just it’s really good. So please watch it. Uh, Brian Walshy

Speaker J – [40:07 – 40:11]
you’re the best, I love it.

Speaker B – [40:11 – 40:27]
Thank you, TJ and that movie, uh, for especially for our podcast listeners is called a Better you a better you. Um y-o-u. And, uh, yeah. Check that out. Thank you TJ, for your TJ movie minute

Speaker B – [40:27 – 40:46]
Yay, T.J. minute. Movie minute. Yes. Movies that connect to our improv universe, our greater improv universe, um, directed by stars, etc.. And TJ is bringing us those movies to check out. All right, Katrina

Speaker I – [40:46 – 40:47]
Yeah.

Speaker B – [40:47 – 40:58]
Let’s, uh, first, let’s first do, uh, some let’s, uh, move change our studio up a little bit. Let’s do some plugs.

Speaker I – [40:58 – 41:00]
Plugs.

Speaker B – [41:00 – 41:06]
Do you have any plugs to add this week? Well, I already begged for a job, so kind of. Oh, that’s

Speaker B – [41:06 – 41:26]
that’s it. Um, yeah. Not not not a whole lot going on. Um, I did last week host my very first. We just jam the evening after or the afternoon jam. So I’ll probably be doing that again soon. So if you’re up for some fun. Rob, we just has jams every Friday. Um, go, go

Speaker B – [41:26 – 41:46]
to the visit. Visit us. Yes, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific time. Uh, you can go to Weegies slash jam and I can put the link in, um, in the show notes as well. But it’s also on the World’s Greatest Improv School website, which is, I guess, what I’ll plug. Uh, we

Speaker B – [41:46 – 42:06]
improv school.com online, lots of online classes in addition to those online jams. Um, and I have a couple coming up, one in April on characters. So that’s going to be fun. Yeah. Uh, character classes are really fun. Yeah. Jen. Jen knows character for sure. I do

Speaker B – [42:06 – 42:16]
more than a wrestling voice or whatever that voice was earlier on. Um, just just I should clarify, but some sometimes that’s also all you need.

Speaker D – [42:16 – 42:21]
Sometimes that’s all you need. That’s all you need. Okay, I’ll just stop.

Speaker B – [42:21 – 42:26]
Uh, we got the most important part of the show before we go and head off

Speaker B – [42:26 – 42:47]
And we’re changing the picture on our wall. Podcast listeners, you would have to see the visual to appreciate what this image is. If you know where this image is from on our wall

Speaker B – [42:47 – 43:06]
and the changing of the will. Hines. But do let us know and you will win, and we will give you a shout out on the next show if you know where this image is from. It was posted this week. I will give that hint and that is all I’ll say. The, um, the suspense is killing me. Oh, it is suspenseful

Speaker B – [43:06 – 43:21]
Uh, all right, well, do you have anything else to add, or should we roll those credits? I feel like let’s let’s roll it. Uh, we’ll see you all back here next week. Enjoy some improv. Go do some improv. Go do improv and tell us what it’s like.

Speaker D – [43:21 – 43:26]
Contact us on Wednesday’s. That’s

Speaker D – [43:26 – 43:32]
w e e n dot I s did it help you in your career this week?

Speaker B – [43:32 – 43:33]
Let us know. Let us know.

Speaker A – [43:33 – 43:38]
Have you read the book? Yes. Comment and let us know about that.

Speaker B – [43:38 – 43:40]
Have you read any book?

Speaker D – [43:40 – 43:43]
Let us know if you’ve read any book. Yeah.

Speaker B – [43:43 – 43:46]
All right. And blackout

Speaker B – [43:46 – 43:47]
out.