Rance Rizzutto

Want to know a little bit about my relationship with Deanna? Check out our feature story in fart.com!

It happens every year. Did you know about it? Let’s go back a step, do you know about ComedySportz? Team based, family-friendly, competitive improv in over 20 cities across this fine planet.

Unfortunately, some in the Chicago community seem to look down on shortform improv, even though when it comes to doing corporate shows, every major theater in the city uses shortform in their shows.

ComedySportz is great not only because it keeps the pace quick, but because it incorporates the audience and keeps from getting blue. I’ve been performing in one city or another since ’99. One of the crown gems of performing for this institution is the yearly World Championship. Last year was in Philadelphia, this year was in Indianapolis…a scorching hot Indianapolis.

Let me take you behind the scenes.

MONDAY- Starting the Monday of Championship week, players slowly start arriving. Monday is usually managers and owners conducting business meetings.

TUESDAY- ComedySportz has plenty of games to choose from (well over 100), that doesn’t stop us from coming up with new ones. One of the main Tuesday events is the New Games Workshop: any cities with new games present their gem to the assembled ensemble members. A lot are fairly good, some are awful, and a few make every improvisor drool in anticipation of playing it in their city.

There will also usually be some hang time involving karaoke.

WEDNESDAY- I didn’t actually arrive until late in the day on Wednesday this year. I think the new games workshop might have even been on this day. Most of the players will have arrived by Tuesday night, with another small cluster of arrivals today. This is the first night of shows. Each night from here to Friday will have two shows, each of those shows having two teams in the first half, and two new teams in the second half. Saturday is a little different…more on that later.

THURSDAY/FRIDAY- There is an early morning meeting to go over any needed info about the day, and any newly arriving players get introduced. Then there are workshops in the morning and afternoon. The nice thing about having a lot of players from different cities is that there are plenty of veterans offering workshops. I have my Improv Rehab workshop that has become quite popular so I offered it twice.

SATURDAY- No one gets up for anything on this day. Generally, improvisors are getting about 7-20 hours of sleep total over the week from late nights of hanging out and games. The shows on this night are a little different in that the first show is earlier, and one half is the hosting team vs the All-Stars (players from random cities voted on by all players). Then another show. Then the late show being the hosting team vs the best team from the series.

That night is the closest thing an adult can experience to being a kid at summer camp on the last day. Lots of new friends bidding fond farewells. Hell, there was even a proposal at 2:00am.

Here are just a few highlights from my week:
-reffing for a fun crowd and having one of my bits repeated three times over the week.
-teaching my Improv Rehab workshop two times and watching everyone melt their brains and then pull it together.
-participating in Open Source.

Open Source was the highlight for me. It may not make a lot of sense, but I’ll give it a shot. In the Friday afternoon workshop slot there was only Open Source. There were various rooms reserved in two time blocks. When the leader explained it and said “go,” if you had an idea for a workshop you wrote the name down and where it would be, and your name. No one signed up for anything. You then took a few minutes to read all the offerings. From there, you would walk to where your feet took you. If you felt like it wasn’t for you, you simply followed your feet out to another thing. This is the rule of two feet.

If you were hosting a workshop and no one showed up, you were asked to wait 10 minutes in case people’s feet didn’t take them to the right place and your’s was next.

Why did I like this so much? A few reasons. I offered “Nappin’ of the Opera” where we would go up to one of the boxes in the theater and lie down. It was a jokey idea, but I was also a little tired and wouldn’t have minded just chillin’. I didn’t really expect anyone. 7 people showed up. A few more after them too, but the space was limited. We didn’t actually sleep, but it was fun to be in a pile and do bits. There were also some deeper scenework workshops, some philosophical discussions, and game specific workshops…all with attendance. The cool thing about it was that everyone who showed had no idea what would be offered, and yet the thing they needed was provided.

Round two I didn’t offer anything, but joined Minimally Intrusive Pranks On Other Groups…silly fun, and just what our group needed.

Way to go, Open Source!

It is always fun looking forward to the Championship, always sad to see it end.

You know what is nice about 2012 though? CSz Championship: Chicago. Be Ready!

ComedySportz is competitive, short-form improvisation at its finest! Two teams compete for points, laughs, and the glory of the CSz trophy. Suitable for all ages, and every show is different so you can to see it again and again, as most people do.

Thursday 7/7/11 at 8:00pm!

I was recently interviewed by Sarah Terez Rosenblum for the Chicago Suntimes’ Our Town blog about the Chicago Improv Festival.

The festival officially kicks off TODAY! Get out there and see some improv!

In the interview I poke fun at Rebecca Black and her song Friday. If you’re not a teenager you probably agree that Friday is an awful song. Don’t let that stop you from viewing the Bad Lip-Reading version: Gang Fight.

How am I going to show that cowboy I’m alive.

Normally you’d have a fantastic chance of catching me at iO Chicago in the 8:00pm improvised musical The Deltones and with Chaos Theory at 10:30pm. However, I’ll be doing a private show in delightful Springfield, IL this weekend. Catch me next week!

Looking to improve your improv? Hopefully, if you’re an improvisor the answer is “yes.”

Most improvisors go through ebbs and flows of improv awesomeness. What helps me go through these almost biorhythmic phases? Coaching.

This may not be an easy option for everyone, but in Chicago there are plenty of “green” (as in “new” not “eco-friendly”), independent groups. And every group can use a coach.

Now, for the good and bad.

The good thing about coaching is you get an opportunity to see mistakes, weak moves, lack of commitment, whatever…as it happens. You also get the opportunity to solve those problems as they occur. Having that outside eye is what the team needs, but it also increases your awareness as an improvisor.

The bad thing is almost the same as the good. With that awareness comes, well, awareness…while you’re improvising. I find myself needing to shut off “coach-mode” during shows I’m performing in. BUT, shutting off coach-mode is a lot easier than getting out of a rut.

So, if you get the opportunity to coach, take it. Even if it is just a one time thing.

Step 2: Easy Steps To Not Pissing Off Your Agent

You have your headshots. You mailed out your resume and cover letter to some agents. And you heard back! You are now represented!

So, now that you have an agent, here are some ways to not piss them off, and a little insight into the process they go through to get you work.

Not pissing your agent off can be summed up pretty easily: be on time, be prepared, stay in touch, and answer your calls/emails/texts.

Being on time seems like a no-brainer. I feel lucky to have worked for a lot of places that really drove this home: “If you’re 15 minutes early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.” And I like to add for fun “If you’re late, you’re fired.” If your audition is at 1:00, that is when you should be slating and starting your session. If you show up at the door at 1:00 you still need to get buzzed in, fill out an info sheet, get a headshot out of your bag, and get any info from the casting associate. All of that takes a little time. Why not show up 15 minutes early and prepare yourself. Prepare?

Be prepared. Worst-case scenario you will find out about an audition day-of and have to get to the audition with little time to memorize lines. Use that time to learn your lines. If your agent tells you Thursday you have an audition Friday, you have no excuse to not have lines memorized. If you prepare, you get better and get jobs…or at minimum get called in for more jobs. If you get jobs, your agent gets paid…which gets you sent to more jobs.

Staying in touch can mean lots of things. If your agent doesn’t know who you are then they’re not going to know to put you on auditions. A big part of this is keeping your agent informed of your book outs…the days and times you can NOT audition or shoot. As soon as you know you’re not available for a day, let them know immediately. If you find out the next day that you have another day you can’t do, let them know immediately. Even if you know you’re busy 10:00am-2:00pm, it is better for them to know that ahead of time. If your agent knows you can’t be there on a date that ends up being the shoot date for a project, they won’t put you on it. If they think you’ll be perfect, they will probably double check with you and try to work something out.

Lastly, respond. Agents work in a very tight window of time. If you don’t respond to their call, email, or text it will be assumed you’re not available…with some minor stress. If you’re not available, call back right away…but you should have booked out in the first place…right?

Here is a little info on “the process” to let you know why ignoring these things makes you look bad and could piss off your agent:

-commercial or some other project requiring actors hires casting agents to run auditions. Casting agents have scripts and character breakdowns.
-casting agents send info to talent agents along with some actors they already know they’d like to see.
-talent agents send the casting agents a list of all of the actors they represent who a) fit the character description and b) are available according to their book out sheet.
-casting agents look through all the submissions from the talent agents, pick actors, and fill out the casting session schedule based on their choices complete with time slots and sends that info to talent agents.
-talent agents contact talent for confirmations.

In a perfect world all of the actors have followed all the information here and everyone confirms. Life is easy for everyone. Realize that you’ve already gone through an elimination process when you even get called in for an audition. But, it doesn’t really ever go like this.

What really happens is the cycle continues with:

-some actors are sick, or out of town and forgot to book out, or don’t answer the phone/email/text about the audition.
-those actors who aren’t confirmed create holes in the schedule.
-casting agents go back to the lists of actors the talent agents sent and find people to fill the holes.
-talent agent lets THOSE people know.
-cycle continues until everyone is confirmed

This is all before the audition even happens. Stay in touch and answer your phone/emails/texts play a major part in the pre-audition process. Especially letting your agent know when you’re booked out for partial days (10am-2pm). When they submit you in the first place they can make note of that when they’re building the initial session schedule. If your time slot doesn’t work for you all you can do is hope that someone else’s slot opens up.

So, you get the audition. You’ve confirmed with your agent. They email you the script. Your audition is tomorrow at noon. All you have to do is work the lines, a lot…and show up early. But let’s say you didn’t. You glanced at the lines and printed them out knowing you would work on them on the way to the audition. You receive an important call from someone…a long call. You don’t get off the phone with them, but finish getting ready, hop in a cab, and make it to outside the audition at 12:10. You were on the phone, so you didn’t work your lines. You’re late, so you don’t have time to work them before going in. Even at 10 minutes late there is a chance the auditioners put a call in to your agent to find out where you were…a call you don’t want your agent to get. And after all that, the read you give on-camera is your very first read of the lines for you. And unless you’re brilliant, that means it sucked. Which means you wasted everyone’s time for two days…from scheduling until now. AND you probably delayed the entire schedule 15 minutes.

Be on time.

Be prepared.

If you’re running even slightly behind the protocol is to call your agent immediately and they will contact the audition.

Oh, one other thing. Don’t lie to cover your butt or make you look good. If you go to an audition and say you never got a script from your agent either you’re lying, or you need a new agent. If it is the day before an audition and you don’t have your lines yet, contact your agent. If you were an extra in a movie filmed in Chicago and you try to say you had a part bigger than that, you will get caught. You’re auditioning for people who probably cast the movie, and if they didn’t, they definitely know who did. Honesty, yet again, is always the best policy.

Will there be a Step 3? Who knows? What do you want to know about? If I know, I’ll try to elaborate, if I don’t know I won’t make up stuff.

I’ve recently just come away from some experiences that have given me, what I feel, is a more complete outlook on how to be a working actor…well, how to not blow it as a working actor for sure. What were the experiences? I found a new agent and I interned for a casting agency to find out more about the back end of the acting business.

Just so we’re clear, when I say “working actor” I mean “actor in Chicago with an agent who sends said actor on auditions for various commercials and such.”

Today, STEP 1: Where To Start?

First, you need to know two things: a) do you like to act? and b) do you have a firm grasp on how many other people do too? A lot. If you’ve done a lot of acting through high school and college you’re off to a good start for a start. If you’ve never done anything or taken any classes but you want to be just like [insert favorite actor name] you might want to start with a beginner acting class. But be aware that a lot of people out there are trying to make it as an actor. If you can’t handle rejection this might not be for you.

I’m going to assume you have some experience and have been in Chicago and you’re just not sure what to do next. Maybe you’ve done some plays, or maybe, as is more common in Chicago, you’re an improvisor who took an improv class out of college and discovered you liked it and you’re good at it and you keep hearing about people getting agents.

A good place to start is to get a current headshot. I’m not just saying this because I’m also a headshot photographer. If you’re current headshot doesn’t look like you it is useless. And when I say “like you” I’m not just talking about having old headshots. Did you get recent headshots someplace where the stylist was so awesome that you look the most glamorous you’ve ever looked? So glamorous, in fact, that you’ve never looked like that before? Not you.

Tobias Fünke's Bad Headshots (Arrested Development)

Also, so much casting done in Chicago now is done via the web. This means your headshot isn’t being viewed at 8×10 inches, but 300×480 pixels. The more of your body that is in the headshot, the smaller your head and more importantly your eyes will appear on the small web photo.

Find a photographer and get shots printed. At least 50. Most photographers will offer touched up images with your shoot…2-5 seems average. I personally don’t offer touched up images, but I do offer the entire shoot in high-res. Why don’t I touch up? Most of the printing places will either offer it for $20ish per image, OR when you get prints the $20 to touch up is part of the package…why pay extra to touch up a photo that has been touched up?

Once you have a headshot, print up resumes and make sure they’re 8×10 too. Put those together with a cover letter and mail them out to all the casting and talent agents.

This step is a summary, for sure. I can understand if there are specific questions. What should my acting resume look like? What is in an actor’s cover letter? Google.

Headshot and resume are the main things to get in step one.

The next step will be up soon, but you don’t need to worry about it until you have an agent. It is:

Step 2: Easy Steps To Not Pissing Off Your Agent

I’ve been living in Chicago since 2003. I know what winter is like here, and I was lucky enough to have a mild one my first year here to help me ease into it. Through my jobs and travels I have been able to avoid the last three winters here. Working on the NCL ships for Second City Theatricals almost always took me someplace warm. The closest I got to a winter was porting in NYC every Saturday for 5 hours. One time we even had about a quarter inch of snow on the deck as we set sail for warmer waters.

This will be my first Chicago winter in a while and I think I’m weak. When we had our first 50 degree day and I was chilled to the core I knew I was in trouble. Slowly, I’m adjusting. The weather has been nice enough to throw in a couple of warm bumps…giving me a little more time to prepare.

Preparation for me has been all about affordable gear, and I’m almost complete. I picked up about 4 thermal shirts from Target, finally they are making clothes that are skinny AND have long enough sleeves. While on a remote show for iO Chicago we stopped at a mall because we had a few hours to kill. Found a puffy coat on super sale at Burlington Coat factory. It is a Phat Farm classic, so…yeah, I’m pretty gangsta. While on an emceeing job downtown I had a couple hours in between and headed off to find the most important piece: water-proof boots.

I’m excited about snow. And now I can walk in it. We’ve been apart a while now, Winter. Let’s meet.

Lately I’ve discovered something that felt nerdy at first, but has crossed over into the world of fun. Geocaching. What is geocaching? Basically, object hide-n-seek, or a never ending scavenger hunt. A cache is hidden somewhere. This cache can be very small (do a Google image search for “Urban micro cache” to see what I mean) to something big. Each cache has at minimum a log. If you find it you write your name…usually your user name on the geocache website where you would then go to log that you found it. If there are trinkets in there it is a take one leave one honor system.

Take a look at this video for the best explanation.

I first got interested when I read Chris Alvarado’s blog entry about running into a geocacher. I did a little internet research and found out a movie a Chicago improvisor was in (Splinterheads…geocache specific trailer below) had geocaching as a theme.

I figured my phone had GPS, and this would be a great way for Deanna and I to go on walks. So, we went for one and…no luck.

I downloaded a free app that gave more accurate GPS readings and we went to a different location and…no luck. Since I had never found one before I didn’t know exactly what to look for. Luckily on the website people log in whether they found a cache or if it is gone. This one was found two days prior so it had to be there. I sent the last finder a message and he gave me some clues but wouldn’t tell me where it was. I went back and pop…found it. A small, black, magnetic key holder with some log sheets. I wrote my name down and went back to log online.

Since then I’ve looked for a couple other unsuccessful caches, and upgraded to a different software (cachesense for the BlackBerry) that has a compass and radar feature, but most importantly, a nice way to connect to the geocache site and load coordinates. No where ever I go I just open that up, search for caches near me, and away I go.

I went out to dinner with some friends and while walking back I was going to explain geocaching to them. When I loaded the nearest caches I realized we were mere feet away from one and we all found it together.

Now, one of the rules is stealth. You don’t want to have people around you noticing you finding a cool thing if they are likely to dig in and not follow etiquette. This can be tricky. The main reason I am writing this post right now is I had some time downtown yesterday and found 3 of 5 caches I checked. While at one (of the unsuccessful finds) I noticed a couple looking semi-suspicious. I could tell they were geocaching and I wish I would have said something so we could have hunted together…but I didn’t and none of us found it.

Later that night I was at another location. The home of the first settlers in Chicago. There was a clue for this find but I wasn’t having luck, partially because I didn’t want to look too suspicious for the security people watching the area. I saw another guy kind of hanging out and did a walk-by to see if I could notice GPS software on his phone. Couldn’t tell. I double checked to see if he was still there, but he disappeared. All along this area were plaques about the first settlers in Chicago, so I read them all while also looking for the cache. As I walked back to GZ (ground zero) I saw that guy again and said “geocaching?” He was. We looked less sneaky since there were now two of us and we found the cache about 3 minutes before security did a walk-by check on us.

Oh, how did I know (besides the plaques) that it was the location of the first Chicago settlers? A majority of the caches I have looked at are placed for a reason. They take you to a place and the website for that cache has info. Whether it is a historical place, a cool place to go, or a nice reason to get out and about, it is great. I’ve been in Chicago 7 years now and I am seeing things I’d never noticed before.

Give it a try! Need help? Message me. And now, the geocaching trailer for Splinterheads.