Next At Bat

In which: Kevin Albertson, Josh Kaplan, Madde Gibba, Max Leibowitz, and Josh Awend of The Kid's Table discuss why friendship is better than rehearsal, how taking their name too literally can lead to disaster, and their favorite color, purple. Also, we listen to a tape recording of Josh K and Madde's first improv class.

In which: Tyler Michaels, MJ Marsh, Joe Rapp, Matthew Pitner, Lucas Vonasek and Tyler Mills of The Bearded Men discuss the origins of the group, the importance of creating your own opportunities, and the value of discovering things on your own. Also, Matt exercises a demon.

In which: Sidney Oxborough, Dan Jaquette, Gubby Kubik, Drew Kersten, Sean Hansberry, Jane White, and Erin Sheppard of Colossus discuss the advantage of having a director cast a group, how their organic form formed organically, and some ways to save time when getting dressed in the morning. Also, we invite you to play the Colossus drinking game while listening to this episode.

In which: Madde Gibba of Madde Gibba: Does Not Play Well With Others discusses how high risk can yield high rewards, the difference between being genuine and being self-indulgent, and doing improv warm-ups alone. Also we get in the tube of possibility.

In which: Jeremy Gustafson and John Hawkins, the old and new owners of Samaritan Casting discuss the change in ownership, what they can do for actors and producers, and try to once and for all explain the difference between the mailing lists and the database. Also, Jeremy dates a southern girl and John gets butt cancer.

In which: Drew Kersten and our own Matt McCloud of Drew & Matt discuss the benefits of rehearsing, breaking improv rules, and creating mulitidimensional characters, and special guest co-host Eric Heiberg introduces a brand new segment, Eric's Octagon. Also, Eric has a hard time assimilating to America.

In which: Jennifer Dorsman van Kaam and Alex Collyard of Lunch with Jen and Alex discuss how to change the world with a webseries, how their absurd senses of humor compliment each other's, and generally do their best to avoid answering Matt's questions. Also, we learn how Matt got his position as host of Next At Bat.

In which: Dan Haeg and Nate Morse (as well as the namesake of the group, and Dan's wife, Casey Haeg) join us to discuss what Dan's experience was like improvising for the first time in a performance setting, the improvisational techniques (though he would likely not call it that) that Nate utilized and worked on to make this group so successful, and Casey's perspective as an invested audience member. Also, Matt, Philip, Casey and Nate could take a lesson or two from Dan on how to do a callback.

In which: Michael Krefting, Bryan Pierce and Jane White, who attended every show at HUGE Theater's 2012 Improvathon (and will be attempting to attend every show in this year's Improvathon) discuss why someone would do such a crazy thing, how important it is to support HUGE during Give to the Max Day (November 14th, and the importance of caffeine. Also we consider using dessert to take over the world.

In which: Dan and Ellen Jaquette (yep, they're married) discuss why they finally started doing improv as a duo, how working together has helped them work on more grounded scenework, and how they love both the Philadelphia and Twin Cities improv scenes even though they are different. Also, Dan wins Ellen in an epic showdown.

In which: Huge Theater Hangout Auction winner Amy Zajack discusses how her advancement in improv has been more, "Oh, Duh!" than, "Ah, ha!," what her aspirations are for future teams, and how travel and cooking are the other loves of her life. Also, Matt gets eaten by owls.

In which: Jen Scott and Butch Roy discuss how Adorable began doing monoscenes, why monoscenes are appealing to them and why they think some find those types of scenes difficult, and the importance of maintaining perspective on your art. Also, Butch, Jen and Matt go watch Dark City.

In which - Carolyn Blomberg, Tonia Elbert, Joe Halvarson, Andy Katzung and Matthew McCloud discuss how subtle tweaks to their form have had larger effects on their performances, the challenges of working subtly, and letting go of preconceived notions of how their performances should be versus how they are. Also, Carolyn inadvertently teaches Tonia the ways of serial killing.

In which: Carolyn Blomberg, Josh Kuehn, MJ Marsh, Joe Rapp and Katie Vannelli (unfortunately, Matthew Pitner, Butch Roy and Hannah Wydeven were unavailable) join us to discuss how they have gotten both quicker and more prudent with experience in their form, how the audience affects their performances, and how working the specific techniques required for their form affect other improvisation they do. Also, Josh discovers his folly in trusting birds.

In which: Lauren Anderson and Nels Lennes (Butch Roy was unavailable unfortunately) discuss the fun they have together, the history of their friendship, their group and the Twin Cities Improv Festival (of which Five Man Job are the producers), and how working within a restrictive form is actually freeing for improvisors. Also, we all get each other.