Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Interviews

Normally we do all the recording for Radiostar on Sunday nights, but we recently decided to leave Sundays for improv and try other nights for mass bulk recording sessions of interviews and scripted work. Thus it was that Diana Brown and I met up with Sam Shaw in the Cassandra's Call Studio on Monday night and recorded Radiostar: Studio Interviews: the Sam Shaw Interview.

Sam's a great guy and a brilliant improviser with a rich and varied history of both improv and scripted work. It's not surprise therefore that this was also our longest interview to date. We actually are splitting it up into two different podcasts, since we've agreed that 20 minutes is about as long as we want any podcast to go if we can help it.

One very interesting difference between this interview and others we've done, is that improv is a much more collaborative process than writing. Playwrights work with directors and actors, to be sure, but it's much easier to talk about the process on its own terms. Improv is something that cannot be done alone at any point, and so the interview has a potentially bewildering array of references to other improv troupes, performers, historical figures, and even fictional constructs. At first I was a little concerned about losing whatever audience we have to this continual cross referencing, but the more I listed to the interview the more convinced I was that this was the truest representation of improv as an art form. Improv is people bouncing off of each other and seeing what new trajectory is achieved from that collision.

It also helps that Sam is very easy to listen to, and is as engaging on the "radio" as he is in person.

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