Improv acting is not just saying the lines but connecting with the other actor.

Matt Besser

Categorized in : Just Saying Acting Lines

I'm more comfortable doing a character than being myself.

doing myself being-myself character

Don't invite me to a surprise birthday party. I don't have room for that secret. I've got enough real secrets I have to keep: dark, life-destroying secrets.

me surprise dark birthday

I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and before the Internet and before everything, just to get anything interesting, you had to go on vacation to San Francisco or something. But I think when you're in the middle of America, you feel very jealous of not just comedy but music that you don't have access to.

you jealous internet music

I don't think 'Freak Dance' is a parody; it's more reference than anything. People don't think of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' as a 'Frankenstein' parody. It's kind of like that.

picture think dance people

I like musicals that are sometimes comedic, but I haven't even seen the Monty Python musical, and I'm a huge Monty Python fan.

fan seen like sometimes

A story is ultimately a memory. It's important when you're telling a story to think about why this memory is a memory. You don't remember everything in life; you just remember certain things - so, why this one?

memory you remember life

The most difficult thing to pull off in a musical is the choreography.

off most choreography difficult

Acting is just about the script and the director giving you notes. In improv, it's more about trusting that the group will carry you.

will group you giving

I'd been involved with stand-up before improv, so I already thought highly of myself as being a funny person. I never thought I wasn't funny.

never thought myself funny

There's a creative vibe at U.C.B., and to maintain it, we can't pay people. If you pay, then you have to assign worth to shows, and then people will resent that.

will you creative people

We agree that there is a problem in the sketch and improv community where, in general, there should be more interest from a more diverse sampling of our society. That is precisely why we do have diversity scholarships and why we've put together a diversity program to try to figure this problem out.

diversity society community together

I got really depressed when Sidney Moncrief lost to Larry Bird. That really depressed me.

got me lost bird

I can't stand USC. They get such media attention.

stand get media attention

It's almost kind of satisfying when you get direct proof that someone stole your bit. It makes the times you had the paranoid suspicion feel less crazy.

feel someone you crazy

I don't think I've ever had a conversation with a comedian who stole except for when it's been in anger.

who think anger conversation

I feel like there are a lot of bands or musicians that probably think improv is corny, because I think that's a sentiment out there.

musicians i-feel-like feel think

You're always starting with a nugget of truth, whether it's a song or an improv scene.

you always truth song

I was a DJ in college and had my own punk music-focused show all four years.

dj own my-own college

I didn't even learn to play guitar until the movie 'Walk Hard,' which is probably fortunate because maybe I would have pursued it, and that would have been a waste of my time.

walk guitar play time

Right after college, a buddy of mine was moving to Boulder for some summer program, and he was like, 'Come live with me.' And I figured, why not? I love Colorado.

live me love moving