Brynna Campbell

Kevin Hines: Advice for Two Person Improv Teams

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:15:20 -0700

Kevin Hines: Advice for Two Person Improv Teams:

Don’t be fooled by that title. I have no advice for Two Person improv teams. Instead I am asking for other people to give advice.

I’m often asked for advice by people starting their own 2 person groups. I understand this! Will and I perform as the Brothers Hines and are both teachers. We should…

One of my two-person teams used to have practices with three other two-person teams, and then only work with our partners the whole time. That way you get to defray the costs of a coach, and it’s not so hard on the coach when it comes to repeating exercises.

This is a picture of my mom at my housewarming party with the...

Sun, 12 May 2013 21:37:48 -0700

This is a picture of my mom at my housewarming party with the present she got me. In case you can’t read it, it says “Brynna’s Book of Alchemy.” If there’s one thing I’ve gotten from my mom, it’s to spend silly amounts of time on cool crafts to give people. This is a book of all her favorite recipes.

My mom’s always gone above and beyond when it comes to trying to make things fun. Every summer, we had Mom’s Summer School, where we learned something new, and it’s why I know how to play piano and touch type, am proficient on Greek mythology, and why I love multicultural food. She taught me how to garden, and the names of plants and animals, and not to be squeamish about bugs, even though she wouldn’t touch them herself. She taught me big words at an early age, and never believed in dumbing anything down for me.

This is also my mom. She is the voiceover behind Julie Winters in The Maxx. She isn’t just a quiet writer who makes things for her kids. She’s also the Jungle Queen. In the Northridge earthquake of 1994, she was afraid, but instead of panicking in front of her small children, she told us we were all getting Quaker Oats and Milkshakes in celebration.

She’s also never settled on just one job. She’s a romance author and a voiceover actress. She was in an ’80s girl band:

(She’s the lowest altitude one)

She taught me to work hard at what you love, but also that it’s okay to quit something if you realize you hate it.

I could go on for a long time, but I won’t be a Tumblr hog. So to sum up: my mom is cool. Happy Mother’s Day!

onlyfoolsandvikings: Motivational Megafauna, they’re extinct...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:58:27 -0700

onlyfoolsandvikings:

Motivational Megafauna, they’re extinct but they are proud of you.

Oh man, I love this.

ryanjameshitchcock: darwinsassistant: Here is one of my very...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 13:51:54 -0700

ryanjameshitchcock:

darwinsassistant:

Here is one of my very favorite Miocene animals, The Thalassocnus or Sea sloth from the coast of Peru. They seemed to have eaten sea grass. Over time, they shifted from a preference for feeding in shallow water to a preference for deeper waters.

Sea sloth. This is a thing that existed. Incredible.

Aaaaaah! It’s a hairy manatee!

Five More Awesome Animals No One Has Heard Of

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:48:44 -0700

1) Draco Lizard.

IT FLIES. IT IS A DRAGON. AAAAAHHHHHH!

2) Capybara.

This is the world’s largest rodent. IT’S A GIANT GUINEA PIG! CAT IS FOR SCALE!

3) Gavial

Look at these ladies! These are crocodilians who eat fish and crustaceans! They use underwater claps of their jaws to stun fish! They’re like scary hummingbirds! EEEEE!

4) Cassowary

This is a DINOSAUR. Look at those feet! They even have a velociraptor claw! Look up the sounds they make if you don’t believe me. WOMP WOMP WOMP. AAH, I have to give you a link for that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7xf1xHONc

5) Aye-aye

This is 50 percent gremlin and 50 percent Gollum, making it 120 percent awesome. TAKE THAT, MATH! They have a super long middle finger to tap trees to listen for insects under the bark. THIS ONE IS CHEWING A TREE!

Feminism

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:35:36 -0700

I’ve always considered myself a feminist. I believe everyone should be treated equally, and with the same respect. There are real feminist issues, like rape, birth control, and equal pay that I would love to see people fight for. But there are so many issues that feminists get completely wrong, and it’s really been rubbing me the wrong way lately.

The thing that’s been endlessly bugging me about feminism is that most people aren’t taking into account half of the equation. They talk about how women should be treated as people. And I agree. But in doing so, many feminists end up doing what they accuse their male counterparts of doing, and it drives me crazy.

I grew up in a household with a wonderful father and brother who never treated me like I was a gender. My dad’s only repetitive advice to me was “you can do anything you set your mind to do.” To which I would try to find something I couldn’t do, like grow wings and fly (“but you could hang glide!”). He didn’t once say GIRLS can do anything. Because that separates us into genders. It didn’t even occur to me that gender made people different, and anyone who said something to the contrary in school was an idiot (to be fair, I thought a lot of people in school were idiots).

My brother and I used to play mad scientist, where we’d invent things or pick up bugs or make potions (usually dirt and whatever liquids we could find in the house that were deemed safe by my mom). We played Power Rangers, and had lightsaber duels with broomsticks. Never once did I hear a, “you can’t play that, you’re a girl.”

And these are just two examples of the many awesome men I’ve been around in my life.

It’s because of these men that I have a complaint with the way the majority of feminism seems to be running itself. Because it’s a two-way street. The moment you start saying that all men are oppressing you instead of jerks, you’re being sexist.

Equality isn’t, “now we can be creeps, too.” I’ve seen so many feminists do things that they think make them unique and progressive that they would detest if a man did it. I’ll give you two examples:

1) “You’re a MAN, you’d never understand.”

If a dude said, “you’re a woman, you’d never understand” to me, I would be PISSED OFF. Because it denies the idea that I could have basic human empathy. And the more we deny men of having basic human empathy, the more we widen the gender divide.

2) “Oh, I’d fuck Robert Pattinson.”

I know you’re feeling empowered when you say things like this. But put this in a different light:

“Oh, I’d fuck Megan Fox.”

If a guy said that, you’d be PISSED OFF. And rightfully so. But before you say, “well, it’s accepted for guys to do that,” I’ll say this. No, it’s not. For every guy out of college who says something like this, there’s another guy there saying “dude, don’t be gross.” Because that’s not a socially acceptable way to behave. Our society overall thinks frat boys are gross. They’re certainly portrayed that way in movies and television.

Men are victims of gender inequality in a different way. We complain about being expected to be a homemaker and raise kids. But men are expected to work their whole lives. My brother doesn’t want to date right now because he doesn’t feel like he’s financially stable enough to have a girlfriend. That’s sad. That isn’t even a thought I would have in my head, since a lady in society doesn’t have that kind of standard put on her.

And worse, men are expected not to cry about it when things get tough. That’s shitty. I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t allowed to cry about things. Men are human beings, too.

When people accuse men of thinking with their dicks, that’s every bit as offensive as saying women are mad because they’re PMSing. Stop doing this. Because it both offends nice people and gives gross people from both genders permission to behave like lunatics. And if you’re going to complain about the word “pussy” being used to mean coward, then complain about the word “dick” to mean jerk.

So many feminists seek to get justice from men who wronged them by accusing the whole gender of being that way. That is what embarrasses me about being a feminist. Have I been wronged by men? Sure. I’ve been stalked on the subway and had to pull out my pepper spray. I’ve had to hit a man in the balls because he grabbed my ass out of nowhere. I’ve been poked, prodded, and told to get in a car. But the moment we start thinking that this is a thing all men do, or that a man couldn’t possibly empathize with this stuff, we start treating the opposite gender like they’re inferior.

We’re a social species. We need each other. We’re all just people, and I think if we start treating each other that way, and treating people on a case-by-case basis instead of lumping them into a group, the better off we will be when it comes to the big issues like rape and equal pay. And that goes toward men, too.

Sorry if this is rambly. I’ve just been thinking about it for a while.

This is the story of our lives!

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:00:24 -0700

This is the story of our lives!

Five Awesome Animals No One Has Heard Of

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:43:00 -0800

Animals are awesome. But no one has heard of the COOLEST ONES. Here are my top five, in no particular order:

1. Sandfish Skink

“Oh, so it’s just a small lizard.” WRONG! This thing is called a sandfish skink because it swims through sand like it’s water! You know all those movies with sandworms in them where all you see is a moving pile of sand? IT’S ALL REAL!

2. Pallas Cat

Who decided lions and tigers were the cool wild cats? LOOK AT THIS CAT! JUST LOOK AT IT!

3. Pangolin

This is a mammal with scale armor for fur! It walks on two legs! It sprays like a skunk! When threatened, it rolls into a ball! AAAAGGHGHGH!

4. Golden Tree Snake

In case you’re confused by the picture, that is a snake FLYING. It goes to the tops of trees, jumps off, and glides around with its flattened body. Oh, and it can CHANGE DIRECTION MIDAIR.

5. Hoatzin

In case you’re wondering why this bird is being such a showoff, it’s because its babies have CLAWS ON THEIR WINGS. That’s what PTERODACTYLS have.

Unrelated Note: I had a really hard time narrowing this list to five. I will probably make more of these lists.

BOOM!

ferniecommaalex: My goodness, this is good. Nick Wiger, ladies...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:28:59 -0800

ferniecommaalex:

My goodness, this is good. Nick Wiger, ladies and gentlemen.

This.

jake regal is a dumb weirdo.: Harolds and Maudes and Thoughts

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:51:32 -0800

jake regal is a dumb weirdo.: Harolds and Maudes and Thoughts:

adumbweirdo:

There have been several posts made in recent months written about how it’s not the end of the world to not make a Harold or Maude Team at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. The one thing all of these posts have in common is that they were written by people who have comfortably been performing…

This comes closer to how I feel about things than any other post on the subject.

ucbcomingclean: I held on to unused ballots from Cagematch so I...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:14:35 -0800

ucbcomingclean:

I held on to unused ballots from Cagematch so I could use them towards Heather & Miles at a future date.

Dear Person Who Wrote This,

You suck. Maybe I know you personally. Maybe you’ll chalk this up to the internet making people tactless and think that if I knew who said this, I’d really actually like you as a person. Nope. Maybe I’ll never know who wrote this, but know that I think you’re ruining something nice. It’s always possible we’ll have our Batman/Catwoman exchange (Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it. But voter fraud at Cagematch is a real dick move). But even if that doesn’t happen, I hope you feel super guilty.

mrscottdavis: theidiotking: ATTENTION LA (And especially...

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:11:34 -0800

mrscottdavis:

theidiotking:

ATTENTION LA (And especially Sliverlake/Los Feliz):

This wonderful poodle named Tesla has gone missing. Last seen around the corner of Rowena and Hyperion this afternoon. She is very nice, so no need to be afraid. If you see her, please call 203-521-3771.

Reposting this for my friend Alex. Please share and keep your eyes open. Thanks!

Tesla is still missing. Please spread the word by reposting and retweeting.

The most recent spotting of her is at Santa Monica and Virgil area.

Find updates and join the search by looking for #FindTesla on Twitter.

Thanks!

Look for her! #FindTesla

Everyone has one. Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:25:18 -0800

Everyone has one. Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

improvobsession: Episode 26Kid Grift Listen to...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:47:15 -0800

improvobsession:

Episode 26
Kid Grift
Listen to in iTunes or Online

It’s a well-documented fact that Kid Grift can shoot beams of light out of their hands.

lindsaykatai: markdavidchristenson: WHAT A GREAT GIFT from...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:10:54 -0800

lindsaykatai:

markdavidchristenson:

WHAT A GREAT GIFT from Becky Drysdale!!!

WELCOME TO THE CLUBHOUSE

What the hell is The Clubhouse?

(more pictures on Becky’s original post - HERE)

On Nov 6th I signed a lease on a commercial space on El Centro and Santa Monica. Originally, I

was on the hunt for a new space to teach my classes, that I could also share with other indie teachers

and teams as a classroom or rehearsal space. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be great if there was a space to

perform as well…and what if there was somewhere to hang out too? Within about two days, with the help of Suzi Barrett and Jesse Glasgow, The Clubhouse was born.

For the last week, 1107-A El Centro has been transformed from an office space into a full service improv Clubhouse. On the first floor is a large open space for a classroom, down a few stairs is a lounge area with a kitchen and bathroom and up a flight of stairs, where once were three tiny offices, is now a Blackbox theatre / second classroom in the making.

The idea behind The Clubhouse is to have a home base for indie improv in LA that was built for improv by improvisors. As a relative newcomer to LA, it has been easy to see from the outside what would help this growing community.

One of the things that I have noticed is lacking, is simply a place to hang out before and after shows. Instead of getting booted into a hallway or a parking lot after your show, what if you could just go downstairs chill out on couches and drink beer? What if in between your class and your show you could just grab some food, come and play board games and dick around on the internet until showtime?

Another issue is that the spaces people are renting from are simply not for improv. There will often be someone else’s sets or lighting left behind, a manager who doesn’t really understand what the hell improv is, and a million little things telling you that this is not your space. The Clubhouse is. The Indie team running the night will have their own sign to hang on the outside wall. They will open and close when they want to, and have a place to keep their beer buckets or use the fridge for their donation beer and water. The lighting board will be set up with user friendly improv lighting that will simple for anyone to use including reds and blues and a disco ball. The sound system has a built in ipod dock as well as connections for mics and whatever else you need to plug in.

At the outside gate will be a silent doorbell that will flash a light on the inside, signaling someone to buzz you in without disturbing the show or the people hanging out downstairs.

One night of the week The Clubhouse will have a midnight movie. This will be anything from Spinal Tap to Airplane to Charlie Chaplin classics to old Looney Tunes cartoons to the Muppet movies to Star Wars to Little Shop of Horrors and everything in between. The idea is to show movies people love, need to see, and fatten our reference base of nerdy shit that we use every day on stage. Also there is no better place to find game than Looney Tunes and Charlie Chaplin, no better place to study character work that Waiting for Guffman, and no better way to get inspired than an all night british office marathon! It’s our screen, we can do what we want with it!

Then of course…parties. Dance your balls off upstairs, chill out downstairs. The Clubhouse is our own 2000 square foot living room.

What the Clubhouse is not.

Here is what The Clubhouse is not. It is not it’s own theatre with house teams and a house form and a curriculum and a training center. It is not a brand name or a new kid on the block. The Clubhouse is a space for indie improv, indie teachers, and a place for what is already going on all over the city to happen in one place. It is a place to work and play and hang out. There will not be Clubhouse auditions or Clubhouse teachers. When you are teaching there, it is your classroom. When you are playing there, it is your theatre.

The Clubhouse is a space that is meant to support and add to the existing theatres and programs in the city, not to compete with them. It is a place to get better.

So now what?

The Clubhouse is moving along quickly, but there are a million things that need to be done. Lights need to be hung, Ikea shit needs to be put together, stages need building, couches need picking up and moving, soundproofing needs to be hung…and a zillion other things are needed from lightbulbs to website creation.

There are two kinds of help that are needed! One is just plain grunt work. I need people who want to lift things and measure things and do shitty errands. The other is financial. With the help of my bff and improv partner Suzi Barrett, we were able to make the deposit and pay first months rent. I have found amazing deals on lights and sound and people have generously donated their time and energy doing things that would cost a ton of money to hire someone else to do. We are getting an amazing amount of work included in the lease for free as well as utilities because the landlord is an insane man, and as far as starting a business goes, the Clubhouse is pretty damn cheap. However to get up and running any help would be hugely appreciated, as it will take a few months for The Clubhouse get rolling and to start paying for itself. Any money donated will be used to make the space better. If you want to help, in either way, please email me at drysdaleclasses@gmail.com.

When does it open?!

Right now the top priority is finishing the space which will hopefully be done in the next week. After that I will begin to put together a schedule of what is happening on what nights. I will be working on a system to make the day to day logistics as easy for everyone as possible but it will take some time. My plan is to have an opening night soon, and then spend time over the holidays figuring out the best way to make the Clubhouse run smoothly. My hope is by the new year, everything will be ready.

I apologize in advance for shit being a little rickety for a while!

For now I have created a CLUBHOUSE FACEBOOK PAGE where I will be posting updates and so on until a website is created. I will post news and photos and let people know when help is needed and so on through that, as apposed to emailing people three hundred times a day. To LIKE The Clubhouse click HERE and please spread the word!!!!

To email me directly about helping out with your muscles or your wallet, continue to email me at drysdaleclasses@gmail.com

Thank you all for your interest and support. I look forward to hearing from you, and can’t wait to open up and start making The Clubhouse what I know it can be. A huge thank you to Suzi Barrett and Jesse Glasgow and Timm Sharp for their help in making this thing a reality.

Shit’s gonna be dope.

beck

FUN.

This! Everyone help out!

ryanjameshitchcock: chrisreblogs: And in Pennsylvania...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:01:14 -0800

ryanjameshitchcock:

chrisreblogs:

And in Pennsylvania today…

I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’. From the top of Romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama’s name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein’s button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said “It’s nothing to worry about, everything will be OK.” and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.

This is when my chest starts hurting.

Jesus Christ, I hope this is someone pulling a hoax.

This is why I’m scared.

Alex Fernie's Smart Answer About Being Fed Up With An Improv Coach

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 23:12:35 -0700

Alex Fernie's Smart Answer About Being Fed Up With An Improv Coach:

improvnonsense:

Fernie is smart, right? It’s annoying.

This is great. Except that SNAKES DON’T HAVE HANDS, FERNIE!

Busted: This Atlantic article pissed me off. It’s entitled “Why so many Pretty...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:35:59 -0700

Busted: This Atlantic article pissed me off. It’s entitled “Why so many Pretty...:

lindseybarrow:

This Atlantic article pissed me off. It’s entitled “Why so many Pretty Female Comedians Pretend They’re Ugly”. And just the title alone infuriates me. I hate when people talk about women’s looks. It’s sexist as shit. See the article is trying to say, “Hey pretty comedians, we care about what…

I agree with this! It offends me that the article says that women in comedy are “pretending” to be ugly. As if someone attractive can’t be clumsy or terrible at talking to men or awkward or ridiculously needy. It’s great that people have multiple attributes that don’t fit some kind of weird mold. Comedy is about interesting contradictions within people. The fact that Tina Fey understands things like desperation and depression when she’s writing Liz Lemon has nothing to do with her looks. It has to do with her own personal experiences, which happen to people whether they are pretty or ugly or smart or stupid.

Also, one time I was standing outside of UCB and I overheard someone say, “it’s weird how all the performers at the theatre pretend to be nerdy all the time.” I laughed a lot.

thechrisgethardshow: connorratliff4president: RATLIFF 35/2012...

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:36:20 -0700

thechrisgethardshow:

connorratliff4president:

RATLIFF 35/2012 MUSIC VIDEO: ”Vote For Me, Maybe”

Presidential candidate Connor Ratliff (Age 37) sings and dances in the hope that you will possibly vote for him.

I think it’s time to officially close the book on “Call Me Maybe” parodies. You can’t beat future President of the United States Connor Ratliff. Go home.

This.

Like Minded People

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:47:27 -0700

improvnonsense:

I guess the most important thing UCB improv gave me was: all of my friends. This is a sentimental recollection of what it felt like to take an improv class and realize that I liked everybody in an entire community.

Read More

I felt the same way when I came out to UCBLA to perform for the first time (I was singing backup in a short sketch). I was just out of college, and as I stood in front of the theatre afterward, I talked to Charlyne Yi about what we would do in a zombie apocalypse. I had spent four years stomping out any semblance of what I was interested in because I was met with blank stares from my sorority jerk classmates. Coming to UCB, I felt like a weight had been lifted. I could talk about zombie apocalypses, and Lord of the Rings, and the latest Joss Whedon project, and most importantly, I could behave like a weirdo again.