Archives: June 2011

What Now?



Two improvisers have hit the height of their scene and seem to be running out of material. What is the best plan of action to help them out of that hole?

Jarvis: Sweep that shit. The improvisers on stage will thank you for saving their asses. Nothing is worse than feeling like you got left out there to bomb. Don’t be afraid of cutting it to soon either. The audience’ll eat that shit up if the scene gets called back later.

Antoine: Come out and give the both of them a quick gift. Doing tap outs is a good way to give them some back story or a specific emotion. Time lapses can also give some weight to the scene by getting them to the point of what they had been setting up. Sometimes becoming the character they’ve been talking about helps get them on the same page or just stepping out and calling out exactly what is going on can be the perfect end point for the scene.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen. Just two of MANY ways to help your fellow players out of the pit falls of improv. Until next time . . .

“Play Like Nobody’s Watching!”

Fanatic Feature: Vanessa Heightens

Austin improv

Imagine this: You’re driving down that comfortable road called life, the windows rolled down, cool breeze running through your hair- everything seems to be on the right track. And then suddenly-BOOM! Improv hits you and you don’t know how it happened. Vanessa Gonzalez, comic veteran and TNM all-star, had a similar “run in” with improv and all its wonder, starting with the Megaphone Show, which quickly led her to jump into improv headfirst with classes at TNM. Her super funny troupe, HandBomb, is set to tear up Austin’s stage all July long, and with a future of improv on the horizon, it’s hard to pin Vanessa down. Let’s meet the improviser!

How did you first get involved with The New Movement?

Dan Grimm asked Danu Uribe, Javier Smith and I to be the monologists in the Megaphone Show on Cinco de Mayo. I knew very little about The New Movement, all I knew was that I had to show up and tell some stories about being Mexican. I was completely blown away by that Megaphone Show cast and how funny and playful they were together. I thought to myself, “Fuck! I wanna do that.”  It wasn’t even a week later, I emailed Danu and Javier saying, “I’m taking improv classes. Who’s with me?” And the rest, as they say, is history.

What classes are you currently taking at TNM?

I am a proud TNM alum.

When can we see you next at TNM?

You can see me every Wednesday night in TNM’s Megaphone Show @ 9:30p and Hand Bomb will hold the residency slot every Thursday night in July.

What is your favorite scene you’ve seen at TNM?

One scene that I’ve never forgotten is a scene from TNM’s 2nd ever Level 5 Graduation Show. It was a scene with J.P.R. and Alex Berry. J.P.R. was a chicken that was tired of living on a farm and wanted to move to the big city to peruse his dreams. Alex was J.P.R.’s Momma Hen and convinced that his big city dreams were just foolishness. What was most funny about this scene was their physicality and how committed they were to becoming these chickens. It still makes me laugh when I think about it.

Do you have an improv motto?

If you feel like a badass on stage, you will be a badass on stage. Own it.

Also, ”Heighten or die!” -Shyla Ray. Love that.

A Champion Must be Crowned!

This weekend is all about these things: Hot Dogs. Three colors. Large cloth hanging from large pole. More colors but this time they are in the sky. No bank transactions. We are happy to add to the list of traditions because Independence Slay is here! A champion MUST BE CROWNED! We are also happy to show you this video of some backyard wrestlers doing something that is also called Independence Slay. It’s got bad language though, kiddos. Be safe out there.

A letter to all of our friends from Chris and Tami

On July 1st Chris and Tami, founders of TNM, are relocating from Austin to their hometown New Orleans. While we will be splitting our time between New Orleans and Austin, our home address will be in NOLA. Some of you may have questions about this, if so – read this letter! We’ll do our best to explain our plans and motivations. If you don’t have questions – OK, cool!

Regardless, JOIN US WEDNESDAY NIGHT @ TNM FOR A CHRIS AND TAMI SAY “SEE YOU IN A COUPLE WEEKS” PARTY! We’ll be there all night, from 7p-post megaphone show and into the night.


So: In 2005 we lived, worked and were performing members of a comedy theater in New Orleans. When Katrina hit, we relocated to Austin and opted to dive into the study and practice of improv and comedy as full time jobs. We helped to grow the improv scene in Austin from twice weekly shows to a full schedule of improv performances at multiple theaters across the city. We felt terribly guilty about not returning to NOLA immediately. But we felt our work and circumstances seemed to keep pulling us deeper into developing our business and our creative selves in Austin. We always knew in our hearts that all of this work was motivation spawning from the storm. We were given the worst possible circumstances (losing our jobs/flooded out theater and not being able to return to our homes in NOLA) and we were hellbent on making something beautiful emerge from all the shit. We used Austin as the strong surrogate city we needed to do the thing we loved for the place that we loved. And then we fell in love with Austin along the way…

A note on leaving New Orleans: if you had asked us a week before Katrina if we would ever move away from New Orleans we would have looked at you confused and said “…..wait……..what?”. New Orleans is a love or hate city. For those who love it, they love it with a profound, obsessive depth. People get starry eyed when they talk about how the city strikes a cord that resonates unlike anything else – it’s closer to the feeling of being in love than just being a fun place on a map. We are those people, being New Orleanians has been a part of our adult identity, has defined us absolutely.

We have had opportunities over the past few years to return to New Orleans but it never quite lined up right. We wanted to bring something special back with us, prove that we had earned being away during these delicate years after Katrina. And now with all of your help we have built the strong soaring rainbow hawk that is TNM! To be able to share something as strong as our TNM community with NOLA is a dream for us and for our friends who have continued to work comedy in New Orleans.

Since 2005 we have consistently maintained our vision – To build an improv and comedy community in the South that is competitive with the meccas of Chicago/NYC/LA. And we are doing it. Each month we get bigger and are doing more cool shit. Even though we will not physically be at TNM Austin every night, we’ll be back every few weeks. TNM is the most important thing in the world to us. It’s all we do, it’s all we have done for years and we are not abandoning it, we are leaving to help make it stronger. We will do what it takes to maintain a strong and healthy environment in Austin as well as continue to nurture the scene in New Orleans. If that means we revisit how often we are back in Austin, then BOOM. We will have a physical location, full schedule of shows and events, full schedule of classes in New Orleans very soon. We scouting property as soon as we get to New Orleans and breaking ground on the marketing and community building machine that TNM reps.

For those of you who joined us in NOLA for the megaphone marathons, you understand how exciting it is to bridge these communities and strengthen their bind. For those of you who have not yet taken the NOLA trip, this is your invitation!

8p Handbomb w/ Level 2 Recital!

What better way to close out a month-long run with a recital!  This level two class has just completed some serious improv training and are chomping at the bit to get out there and show everybody what’s up.  What else is up?  Handbomb’s finale show until next month, of course.  Come join the party.

« Older Entries

“Chris and Tami live and breathe the art form and have built their own language of improv, a style characteristic of The New Movement.” – The Austin-American Statesman