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Improv. Sketch comedy. And now… television.

In cooperation with UF’s Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA), TSF has embarked on a journey to the world of TV.

During the spring semester, TSF Sketch wrote ten episodes for a little show we like to call “Oppie.” This is the story of a troubled young vampire who just can’t get by in the college world. Sorority parties? More like an all you can eat buffet!

Okay, not really.

Oppie follows two college freshman that are on a quest to get to the top.

For the past two months, TSF has been hard at work filming this show. Gainesville has become our set and Oppie’s world is becoming a reality.

It’s hard work, but it’s also a lot of fun. I’m a telecommunications production major, and I’m learning things that I haven’t been taught yet just by crewing for the show. There’s always something to do on the set, and everyone really has a hand in bringing this show to life.

Oppie is due to premier during the fall semester on Resident TV, but will also be available online. You can follow its progress on the show’s Official Blog.

If you’re interested in working on Oppie, it’s not too late! Shoot an email to theatrestrikeforce@gmail.com and you can sell your soul to us!

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Hey everyone,

What a time for strong openings!

A few weeks ago in Beijing, American Olympic athlete Lolo Jones got off to an early lead in the women’s 100 meter hurdle, just to have her foot snag the second to last hurdle. The minor stumble cost her the gold medal.

Back in June, Sen. Barack Obama’s numbers were soaring in the polls after he clinched the Democratic nomination. Now, he’s bogged down trying to explain what he meant by “lipstick on a pig.”

On that same note, two weekends ago saw the return of two live comedy shows that had strong openings and mediocre follow-ups. Luckily, in the world of live comedy, audiences are surprisingly optimistic. One solid joke can save a good backrub’s worth of eye-rolls. And if you catch them at the start, they’re more willing to wade through the muck with you.

Read more...

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Come one, come all!  Be apart of the excitement, education and elite of being a part of a Theatre Strike Force troupe!

Theatre Strike Force is having auditions for a number of groups, which are all excellent opportunities to learn and explore improv or sketch comedy.


First is AG and the Sunday Group.

AG and the Sunday Group are TSF's premiere long form troupes.  They focus on improvisation scenes with a focus on relationships and characters.  Anyone who would like to become better at the art of improv should attend.

No experience is necessary! The cast includes both those with improv experience and those who did their first scene at the audition!

Long form is very much like an episode of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm. So if you enjoy watching those shows, and always thought that you should be on them, come on out to auditions.

The audition is Tuesday, September 2, from 7:30 to 10 p.m. in room G14 in the Constans Theatre Building at UF.  The only preparation you need is to bring the audition sheet: AG and Sunday Application


Next, TSF's musical troupe is looking for new talent!

Only eight months old, AM Radio is the exciting new troupe on the scene bringing laughter and music to audience's ears around Gainesville.  They use long form and music to create a half hour musical on the spot!

They recently had a hugely successful performance at the GIF Summer Shuffle, which can be seen HERE.  All those who are interested, those with musical experience and those without, are encouraged to attend.

AM Radio will have auditions Sunday, August 31, at 2 p.m.  Meet at the information desk in the Reitz Union.


Finally, TSF is having auditions for it's new sketch arm, TSF Sketch.

TSF Sketch focuses on the writing aspect of comedy.  The group will have from 6 to 10 writers who will prepare sketches for Gator Nights and other TSF events.

If you've ever laughed at Saturday Night Live and thought, "Hey, I could write that," this group is for you!

Everyone interested should fill out the application and send it to theatrestrikeforce@gmail.com by Thursday, September 4:TSF Sketch Application

Good luck to everyone! 

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About a month ago I was riding the bus home late at night with a friend when we happened to meet a girl. She was a student; reserved yet outgoingly friendly. She had the relaxed charm of a chain smoker, but she didn't smoke. And she had an accent.

...e-yah-yah-yah!

We talked with her the whole ride home, but despite our fun conversation, her subtle flirts, and the supportive set-ups from my friend, I completely stalled. The kid with noseplugs at the top of the water slide. I couldn't make a move.

Afterwards, my friend asked me why I tanked. I responded that I didn't know what to say. Knowing that I'm an improviser, he said, "Dude, you do improv. IMPROVISE!"

He had me there. One of the supposed benefits of doing improv is increased spontaneity in social situations. Many companies nowadays offer improv workshops to help employees relax in interpersonal settings and learn to communicate with others more directly. We say improv is like life -- if I can perform a scene where I'm hitting on a girl, why can't I do it in real life?

I think there's a lot of pressure on improvisers to be "masters of social situations." My family thinks I have a response to everything. Employers see "improv training" on the resume and expect a cool guy who sits in the chair backwards and can make a brick laugh. Non-improv friends expect us to be the life of the party and get lots of girls.

Is this the case? No! I'm single and I usually bore the hell out of everyone at parties by talking about improv too much. Job interviews suck for me because I immediately feel guilty whenever I say something good about myself. And I've gained ten pounds from all the times I've stuffed my mouth with food to avoid talking at family dinners.

Hell, I can't even order a pizza on the phone without a script.

"Hello, this is Five Star, is this for delivery or pickup?"
"I... don't... know..."
Click.

A lot of us do improv precisely because it isn't real. We play pretend on stage, and if we're lucky, people laugh at us. I know I'm never going to be a badass surgeon who performs a heart transplant while wearing a leather jacket and making out with the nurses. (Is a leather jacket still cool? It's not exactly environmentally-friendly.) But I can totally do that in a scene if I want to. There's a safety net on stage where it's okay to make mistakes, to look ridiculous.

On the bus, making mistakes is a bad thing. (Unless this is the Magic Schoolbus. Remember, Ms. Frizzle is a teacher, not a lover.) "Funny" and "quirky" do not necessarily mean "sexy." Every line, every gesture, every nervous tick at the corner of your mouth counts, and anything can make or break the situation. Sexy foreign girls are typically less forgiving than an audience who wants to be entertained.

Improvisers are not by definition "cool people." Many cool people do improv, sure, but so do many weirdos.

We aren't jaded by being in front of audiences all the time. Our hearts pound just as fast as the heart of the shy girl who's reading her love poem in front of her 7th grade English class, with the poem's subject sitting in the front row. We're just normal people who try to do something extraordinary.

In the end, though, we're still just normal people.

Erik Voss is the president of Theatre Strike Force, but can't use the potty by himself.

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There are a few hobbies among improvisers that are universal.

The most popular seem to be an interest in past and present comedy happenings, an ethereal admiration for movies and a wealthy posession of random facts.  That mishmash of information has one night where it can recieve the spotlight it deserves: Trivia Night.

Every Tuesday, a few of us unite to test our trivial prowress at ******'*, and for three hours we grapple with the greater questions of society today.  Questions like, "What 80s TV show dared to do a sixth season after losing most of its cast and writers?" or "How many pieces of flair were required at the restaurant Jennifer Aniston worked at in Office Space, and how many did she have?"

We celebrate with predicted joy at every correct answer.  At every wrong answer, exclamations of "Noo!" pierce the night air, upset eyes swing toward whoever supplied that answer and mental scores are quickly tabulated to determine the leader.  Why so serious?  The stakes: steaks.

"What fictional TV character drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls, sweats Gatorade and once saw scissor-kicked Angela Lansbury?"

That's right.  The winners of the knowledge bout get their tabs picked up for free by night's end.  So steaks and margaritas are deliciously downed yet cautiously.  Despite large lead margin, everyone fears the sudden shift in points when their free meal becomes a $50 burden.

"What 80s horror movie had the tag line, 'Be afraid.  Be very afraid.'?"

A period of dangerous suspicion always arises around the 2-hour mark when teams begin to enter the home stretch.  On the surface, players are generally friendly and polite.  In actuality, they create conspiracies of cheating by backroom booths and curse quietly when others pull closer.

"What 1968 Rex Harrison movie musical was remade in 1998 to an Eddie Murphy comedy?"

Our paranoia is relaxed by one of the trivia helpers who bears a striking resemblance to Rashida Jones, who plays Karen Filippelli on The Office.  She's frequently beating every team playing, even though she can't legally play (probably).   Her tacit nature offsets the the gaudy male emcee who reminds me of Steve Harwell, lead singer of Smashmouth, for some reason.

"Where was Oceanic flight 815 headed before it crashed?"

I enjoy the danger of losing the free check.  Others fret and stop ordering when the lead is called into question.  So far we've never had to pay the consequence of over confidence.  We've won every time.

"From the TV show Scrubs, what is Dr. Turk's first name?"

So, come Tuesday, we'll gather our Gainesvegas forces again to defend our trivia title.  It is becoming an excellent way to pass the summer.  Who ever said improv wouldn't win you free things?

Trivia Answers:
1. ǝʌıl ʇɥƃıu ʎɐpɹnʇɐs
2. uǝǝʇɟıɟ & uǝǝʇɟıɟ
3. ʎʞsɐɹq llıq
4. ʎlɟ ǝɥʇ
5. ǝlʇʇılop˙ɹp
6. sǝlǝƃuɐ sol
7. ɹǝɥdoʇsıɹɥɔ

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This past Saturday, TSF was represented by 3 different teams at the Moe's Burrito Eating Contest. The teams ("EMoe's," "Team Chris Mullet," and "Theatre Strike Force") were mostly competing against themselves, as the fastest player on each team to eat 3 Moo Moo Mr. Cow burritos, won Free Burritos for a Year.
While all the members of the EMoe's and Team Chris Mullet were in it to win it, Team Theatre Strike Force did what it does best and rigged their own competition in order to guarantee team member, Filup Molina, free burritos for a year. Molina, a too old to still be in school TSF member, recently paid his way back into UF and wiped out his bank account in the process. TSF was there for him and have guaranteed that he will die young and obese, but with his appetite fully satiated.

Filup represented Strike Force well by placing fourth overall out of 150 contestants.

Check out the article I wrote about it for my reporting class:

"Kid-sized burritos too much for some at eating contest"
by RICHARD KLOPFENSTEIN

The best part about losing on purpose is how badly you get to do it.

Read on for pictures of the various methods Strike Force members used to lose.

Read more...

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The TSF website has been completely redesigned from the ground up.
You might have noticed.

Anyway, take a look around, get comfortable, this is your home now. We've finally decided to pay some attention to website design and have hopped on the current trend of fully integrating a blog into your website. Being such gloryhogs, sharing what we write with all 14000 people on the internet was a no-brainer.

The major difference with this design is that the blog is not simply for TSF's diary entries--

---

Dear blog,

It's hard being a not-for-profit. I think I'm quickly falling for another organization... She's brilliant, sexy, useful and rich. But alas, Google and I just come from different sides of the digital tracks (|==|==|==|==|==|==|). That kinda looks like a penis, hee.
--

---

TSF's such a perv. The blogs also serve as a quick way to post interactive updates for various categories. For example, if you are browsing the "Shows" page, you'll be kept up to date with upcoming shows, get a recap of some of our bigger shows from the stage perspective, and be able to leave comments telling us what you thought as well.

We've done our best to create some back log blogs (b-log blogs?) but keep revisiting the site as we'll constantly be generating more material. In the meantime, take a look around and try to get a feel for the girl.

See ya,

TSF

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Our major event to close out Spring semester was our annual 12 HOURS OF IMPROV. All semester we raised money (deadly games of ASSASSIN, sexy Date Auctions, etc.) leading up to our main fundraising event. As was the trend, this year's 12 Hours was our most lucrative one yet.

Some great troupes performed, including the debut of the brand-new TSF musical troupe: AM-Radio.


At the end of the night our voices were gone and our minds were mush, but it was all worth it, because we raised $680. If you add in the $1800 (!) from our Date Auction, and money raised by individuals as well as at Relay For Life, then you get... our final total... which was.... drumroll please... ... ... I don't know exactly. BUT, I know what it was very near. Going by TSF bylaws, we round up to the nearest thousand, so... WE DID IT!!! We raised $5000 for the American Cancer Society. We are the champions... 2 Legit 2 Quit... Un Dos Tres, Ale Ale Ale.

That is by far the most money TSF has ever raised for our Relay For Life team. In fact, we were the 3rd highest grossing team (of 55) that participated. We had some extra pride walking that track this year.*

Special thanks to Catherine Alford and Samantha Kanal for all their help putting the fundraisers and events together.


*-TSF walking with pride.

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For those of you planning to attend Summer B semester, and:

• You haven't picked your classes yet (really? you haven't picked your classes yet? )
• You've got any interest in learning how to do the same kind of improv that TSF does (really? you see TSF as role models? ),
• You'd like to take a fun (and pretty easy) class that's also a 3000-level humanities credit (really? you want to have fun AND get gen-eds out the way? ... wait, no... ...there we go)

RUN, don't walk, to a sitting position in front of a computer, and sign up for:

TPP 3124 Improvisation and Social/Political Issues
Credits: 1 to 3; can be repeated for up to 6 credits. 3rd Period, M-F. That's daily improv fun from 11am-12:15pm.

The class is taught by graduate acting students and also actual TSF performers (that's right, your teachers will be the same people who regularly offend society... and now, you can too!).

If you're not around for the Summer, feel free to register for Fall instead (or in addition). Fall improv will be Tues. & Thurs. 9th and 10th periods (4:05pm-6pm).

It's a lot of fun and a great experience. Not only did most of us learn our craft there, but many of us were introverts who were taught how to overcome stage fright and truly come out of our shells*. So hurry up and get to ISIS (here, I'll give you a boost) and I'll see ya there.
*-Of course, some turned out to be actual turtles. Very unlucky turtles.

P.S. For those of you keeping up with UF news, don't worry, this class isn't affected by budget cuts... Luckily, improvisers already have everything they need.

It's only $47 MILLION DOLLARS.

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"Theatre Strike Force ready to battle for belly laughs"
by  Katie Sanders
Independent Florida Alligator

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