WHO IS KIM????

KIM SCHULTZ is a very funny lady who radiates big gamma rays of joy! Originally, a Minnesota girl, Kim is a multi-talented performing artist: She is a gifted actress, a brilliant teacher, a quirky writer, a skilled producer and a knockyouover funny improvisor and stand-up comic. Plus she sings! Kim is grounded and real, while also being silly and over the top fun. Her passion for comedy is contagious and her generosity of spirit is a gift to everyone in her orbit! Kim is definitely someone to watch!

Writing your life

I have been writing a lot lately. Writing this one person show. Telling my stories, incorporating my standup, improvising the whole while. I think the success I have found in writing is due to my ability to say yes to my impulses without judgement and to my ability to squelch the voices in my head that say I can't. If I don't follow impulses and instinct, I become inactive, thinking, worrying and unable to move. And if I can't quiet the voices (kkkill kkkill kkkilll herherherherher) , I can't trust myself enough to do it. Then done. Inaction.

Staying in action keeps our life moving. Staying in action keeps things happening. Improv teaches us this.

Erin Keating, teacher extraordinaire, www.prototypeworkshops.com, makes us write 10 minutes every day. It's nothing, but it keeps us in action. And it's enough.

New classes!

New classes starting!

8 week sessions

MONDAYS start October 29, 630pm

& SATURDAYS start November 10 3pm

8 weeks/$225

ALSO...

ONE DAY IMPROV INTENSIVE

THIS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21 1-5pm

$40

Email me for more info and to register

Audition bigger. Live bigger.

Play creates play; Energy creates energy

SOOO many instances in life about how you get what you put into something. If you bring energy, say, it usually begets energy. It is contagious. the room and the individuals in it are affected. Same with play, if you bring a sense of play to what you are doing, play is created. It's really wonderful and simple. If you bring attitude and judgement, the same is created. Lesson? Bring what you want. Live it. In a truthful way.

Last night was an amazing HAPPY HOUR show! Such talent and fun. And SUCH great energy and play in the room. Lesson learned.

Oh, and...my graduate students of improv are performing this Sunday @ 7pm at a new venue I have: SAGE Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. No drink minimum!! woohoo!


They're SO talented and funny. Hope you can come!

HAPPY HOUR TIME!

Comedy. Variety. Oh my!
Kim Schultz's Happy Hour
where comedy is Absolute...

Sunday October 7, 7pm
@
Ha! Comedy Club
163 West 46th Street. Times Square.
$8/2 reasonably priced drinks. Makes you happier.

http://www.myspace.com/kimschultzhappyhour

Reservations are encouraged. Email me.

Hope to see you SUNDAY!!!

Living the 'harold' Life

I think Life is a Harold.

The Harold is a long form improv structure in which scenes, characters and themes are discovered and reappear several times throughout the structure. It is one of the most freeing and occasionally miserable experience improvisers can have. You must let go of control. You must be free to listen and respond. You must be bold and imaginative. You must trust and take blind leaps of faith. You must make bold declarations of truth and you must play in the worlds discovered. It's brilliant. It can also be dreadful. You are often leaping into nothing.

Life is like that. Brilliant. Occasionally dreadful. Real. You have to be bold, risk, listen, play. Things and people and themes recur. That's my favorite part. Notice some oddity in your day and chances are you'll see or hear about it about 3 more times that week. Listen to what someone tells you and chances are someone else will mention it to you, or you'll see it on a billboard or on the street. Life is a Harold. Things come back. Things affect us. Themes, people, points of view recur. And thats cool. Pay attention to it. Pay attention to the details of your Harold today. Everything is connected.

Showing Up

I'm taking this GREAT class with Erin Keating called PROTOTYPE--about creating a solo performance piece. First of all, Erin is fabulous---insightful, smart and grounded. The group is also great--a brave, creative group of ladies. But it dawned on me how the only way anything gets done is by someone showing up. If none of us said YES and showed up for this class--no class, no one person shows! If nobody shows up for a meeting, no meeting. If no one shows up to clean the highway, dirty highway. If no one shows up for a performance, no show and the actors go have an early beer! Often times, things that seem impossible to start simply need someone to show up and the task is already in motion.

In Improv, we need to show up--to class, to the scene, to our lives. If we don't show up, the scene collapses or our scene partners are left hanging or the class is cancelled or we're suddenly 60 and are filled with regrets for not showing up in our lives.

Hard things, seemingly impossible, get done when one brave soul shows up. Sometimes, like on a lazy Sunday or in a bad mood, that is the hardest part. but it is also the easiest. Take a step forward. Show up. Show up for your partner, for your team, for the world. See what happens in your life.

Kim Schultz's Happy Hour!!! is back!!!

Sunday, September 9

630pm

Ha! Comedy Club/163 west 46th street

Reservations: 646-642-6957 or email:

kimschultzimprov@gmail.com

$8/2 drink minimum

Come laugh, be happy!

creating light

I was teaching last night and we got into a discussion about living and working from outside what you know. Living in the place that you don't know you don't know and how to do that.

It seems to me we self-impose rules on what is and can be in our life. Early on, we decided certain things about ourselves and the world, and as adults we rarely stop to re-examine them. Improv can do that. It can help you re-examine what rules you operate from because there are no rules in improv and we always seek rules. In improv, you have to move in the darkness, knowing nothing. But the thing about improv is that not only can it open windows, but it can even create windows where before there was only wall.

Recently, in my life, I've been looking at the truths I have determined to be true in my life and been examing them for their validity. Is this the truth? Is it the only truth? Are there other possiblities? What if there were? What if I declared another truth and lived from that one instead? Would anyone be the wiser? Would anyone care? Maybe my life would change. Or maybe it would just be a fun game. Either way.....there seems to be more light.

The joy of improv

Improv is such a joy to watch when the players are filled with joy. When they are filled with angst, judgement and fear, it is no longer fun to watch. If you're not having fun, do something. Doing is action and action creates freedom and freedom creates joy. Not doing is thinking and thinking creates angst, judgement and fear.

Be a 6 year old. Everything is huge and joyful. See your world today through a 6-year old's eyes.

Trust is a many splendored thing or who took my doughnut!?!?!?

Trust.
It's a funny thing. Some people always have it, some never do, sometimes you lose it, sometimes you have to earn it, other times it's given away for free. It's hard to predict trust. It's a slippery little thing...trust.

In improv, TRUST is ESSENTIAL to good scenework. We must trust that we're all looking out for each other and will each do our best to do the best improv work we can. Certainly, trust builds over time, but I often find that the best improvisers and the best improv ensembles have it immediately(or some nascent form of it) and don't question it (certainly be greateful for it, but no questions! Don't mess with the mojo!) In improv, we are starting from a place of nothing, of nakedness and building into something(hopefully) wonderful. In order for that to work, I believe we have to trust the process. we have to trust each other and we have to trust ourselves. All equally important.

Recently, I had an experience where I could have lost trust in someone. He didn't tell me the truth. And I'm a big fan of the truth. So I had a choice. I could be a non-truster, run with the masses, trusting no one or nothing, being skeptical about everything and getting nothing. Or I could take a leap, be a truster and risk getting hurt again, this time potentially much worse. I choose the latter. I choose to be a leaptrustrisker.

Sure, you may get hurt when you trust. Your scene may suck rocks. Life scene or improv scene! But as high as the stakes are, the potential is even higher. The reward is unmatched. And trust is the only way there.

One last thought: Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to earn trust? If it was just given? as a gift? Crazy.

seeing the big picture

I haven't blogged in about 17 centuries....my apologies to my frequent readers.....

I've been away-

see above (yes, I am wearing a cowboy hat next to a funny tree)

I was in Israel..amazing trip...blah blah blah....but what it reminded me of is how important travel is to those who think big or act big. Even if it's travelling to the next town, travelling reminds us how big the world is, how little our troubles are and at the same time how small the world is and how we have similar problems.

Now, I'm not saying the Palestinians and I had a kumbya (...we did--I used improv to settle the mid-east conflict...yes...I'm that good), but travel reminds us of who we are and who we're not.

Improv can do that too. It makes us so aware of our moments, of our choices and ultimately who we are. i always say to my students: whatever you come up against in improv is probably what you come up against in life. What you struggle with in improv is what you struggle with in life.

Interesting...anywho. I loved this tree. Take a trip. Enjoy your life.

New classes start soon in NYC. Email me if interested.

ITOTW

A student of mine, Sho Albert, sent me some notes of things I have apparently said in class. So this shall serve as today's Thought of the Week! Thanks Sho!

• There is no right or wrong. Let go. Be on your toes. Don't stand on your heels, watching.Your time, your life, is NOW. Be open. Be present. Be aware. Be forward. JUMP. Follow your impulse.
• YES! YES AND...! Be there for your partners. Make THEM look good.
• Allow things to be energized, committed, and FUN...rather than energized, committed, and WORK.
• If you say it is true, we believe you. So, believe in it yourself.

Last night....

a note of thanks...to all who came out last night and supported
"Kim Schultz's Happy Hour".
we had a great crowd(70?), had lots of laughs and learned lots of lessons:

1. always be specific
2. energy is contagious AND can be rehabilitated with more energy and truth
3. just play and all will be fine

hope everyone left happy and got your Dum-Dum! The big opening number will be available for your viewing on this blog soon!!

next "happy hour" is AUGUST 12 @ Ha! Comedy Club

new classes start in August!

Kim Schultz's HAPPY HOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SUNDAY, June 24

7pm

ha! comedy club

$7 cover/1 drink

ITOTW #2

The more we play, the happier we are.

Army: Be all that you can be!

I was at an awesome corporate training class yesterday for an awesome company called "ID:ology". We spent a chunk of time talking about being fully present at work and bringing 'everything you are to everything you do'. What a great thought! So often we only bring a portion of who we are to different portions of our life. We are only half, quarter or sixteenth people depending on where we are and who we are with. Who has time or interest for...little partial people? What a shame! Because the less we be who we are the harder it is to remember who it is we were.

What if we brought ALL of what we are to ALL of what we do?

Improvisation teaches us that. Each moment in improv is crucial. Without it, we have know idea of what the scene is. We go to our heads; we have to think, worry, create. If we are fully who we are in each moment of the scene, being fully who we've been gifted or discovered ourselves to be, we get to ride, coast, play. Because we are being TRUE to who we are, all of what we are.
We get to be happy.

Happy at work...novel concept.

Bring everything you are to everything you do---onstage and off!

News and the beginning of "ITOTW"!

the second playshop was a big hit. big crowd, lotso laughs! power of "saying yes" in action!

big news!

new show in the works:

Kim Schultz's Happy Hour: Where the Comedy is Absolut!
Old-fashioned, New-fangled comedy variety hour!
Featuring standup, improv, songs, dance, fire eaters and who know what else?

save the date: Sunday, June 24 7pm
at HA! Comedy Club!

• Improv Thought of the Week (ITOTW): Be who you are fully in each moment. Be who you say you are. This is the only moment.

Another opening, another show!

Come see grads of KSI perform comedy funny ha-ha! TUESDAY, JUNE 5! 7PM at
HA! Comedy Club
163 West 46th St in Times Square!

Improv out of context

I have been meeting with lots of companies, law firms, pie shoppes lately to introduce them to the idea of improv in the workplace. It never ceases to amaze me how applicable improv is to all walks of life.

We all need to learn to communicate better,
to better speak our truth
to work work easier as a team
to listen bigger
to trust our instincts
to say yes
to not be afraid of being wrong
to open our imaginations
to be more playful and have more fun

And THIS is what improv does! In an amazingly effective and FUN way. It's accessible for all and impossible for none! Improv is the new black!

IMPROV!!! ...not just for actors anymore.....

CALLING ALL IMPROVISERS-----

I'm organizing am improv troupe! This troupe will be practicing and performing longform with some games and music at Stand Up NY in June and again in August. I am looking for experienced long-form improvisers who are playful, smart and wanna play. Some pay based on door sales...

Interested? Send me your stuff.

ALSO---

Starting a new SUMMER INTRO to IMPROV intensive. 2 weeks/$65. midtown location. Great way to introduce yourself to improv and me. Saturday and Wednesday sessions in June. Email me to register or for more info.

Thanks! JUMP!

Email me at kimschultzimprov@gmail.com

What Sally Fields says.....

I was shamefully watching an episode of my new favorite show, "Brothers and Sisters" the other night...maybe it was even last night. And Sally Fields had met a new boy she was considering dating. She then brought him on a weekend getaway(Seemed a little premature...) Foolishly and secretly, he went off in the woods and kissed her arch-nemisis Holly. Sally was classy about it of course, but she nonetheless, threw him a gem...a real keeper: "We present ourselves fully in the first moment we meet someone. When I met you, you were sleeping with a 22 year old undergrad. What more did I need to know?" Or words to that effect.....

Sally is so smart. A. because she took work on a good series and I'm glad to see her working again and B. Because she's right. we do present ourselves fully in the first moment of meeting someone. That's why we have instincts about liking someone right away or disliking them immediately.

Improv is all about being yourself more fully in each moment. Not always easy. Sometimes it's easier to be a shell. But even then, that's who you are at that moment and that's what people get.

I was teaching high school non actors improv this week. They were visiting from North Carolina.
Ahhh, the high school years!

They were so worried about looking bad or different or committing fully or being wrong. There is such a fear from the start of adolescence of being FULLY OURSELVES. Unfortunately, it often carries over into adulthood. So I pushed the high school girls past their level of comfort(Because that's what I do!) and saw glimpses of who they were or could be. Improv can do that. It can fully flesh out who you truly are. So when you meet Sally Fields, she can say right away, "I knew you for what you were! I adore you! I could tell in the first moment!"

P.S. Is anyone else sick of Calista? Gya!

This is the game.

I was playing an improv game with my class last night. It was a simple, silly child's game focusing on playing and not thinking. Everyone was playing by the rules, doing their job in the game--but something was missing. They were doing what they had to do to participate in the game but nothing more. It took me a minute to realize this. And to notice also that no one was having fun. No one was 100% committed or being 100% playful. It was if people were waiting for the class to start, the real class, the real exercises, the REAL games. And in fact it already had. And they were missing it. This was their game. This was their class.

How often does this happen in life? We sit around waiting for our "real life" to begin. Once we're out of debt, out of school, or in love, or land that perfect job...all the while missing out on where we are right now. Missing out on what is right in front of us. Improv reminds us that 'THIS" is the game. This, right now, is what we should be playing, not anticipating the future, better game, but playing this one fully and with committment and conviction.

I called my students out on it and they started to play the game more fully and miraculously we ALL started to have more fun. And that's the funny thing. When we commit to the game now, it becomes more fun, more engaging. We don't know what the future holds. We may not even have a future. We only have right now------ to play fully.

This is the game. This is the moment. This is your life.

The truth of it

So...I went to the Pit www.pit-nyc.com the other night. We saw this wonderful improvised therapy/storytelling long form. It was dangerous because of how truthful it was. And I believe that is what makes good theatre. Truth. Say what you know. Declare it to the best of your ability and in the most specific way you can. My students have been working so hard on the PLAYSHOP coming up tomorrow night. www.Standupny.com. And there are so many new elements thrown at them, but through it all, SPEAKING YOUR TRUTH will always get you through it all. Say what you know to who you know. And don't talk to strangers!

If you're in the NYC area...come see what I'm talking about.
Tuesday night@7pm@Stand Up NY Comedy Club

PLAYSHOP NEXT TUESDAY, APRIL 24TH

playtime

I'm planning the line up for the performance playshop, my grads are going to do next week at Stand Up NY. It's so funny because there is so much work behind the play. The students have worked so hard to get where they are. I work to organize the show. We are working all weekend to be ready to perform, to be ready to play. And all it is...is play! I think it's the most important thing to remember-- that all it's play! We get so stressed out over things, over auditions, over lines, over, rules, over bosses, over fights, but if we lighten up and play more and work less, things seem to get easier....except taxes! That always seems to be work...

Tea talk

Having attention to this moment keeps us in this moment. But that's hard. We generally do(or at least I do) a hundred things at once. And then wonder why nothing gets done or feels like it got done or made us at all happy. Breathe. Notice. Patricia Madsen in her "Improv Wisdom" writes:

"Some art forms build in the idea of paying attention to what is right in front of us. Those who study the Japenese tea ceremony learn the concept of 'tea talk'. Guests know that inside the teahouse one must speak only of what is inside the house. Even polite discussion of the news, social or political events or personal issues is forbidden, including complaining about the heat or mentioning any discomfort. Instead, the guest is invited to pay attention to the detail of what is present at the moment--the scroll in the alcove, the flower in the vase, the kind of sweet that was chosen to be served along with the bitter, frothy green tea. What is spoken is meant to be a reminder of the unique character of the event. The tea saying, Ichi go, ichi ei means "One time, one meeting". This particular gathering will never happen again. Live it now. Savor the detail."

Or as my friend Amanda Whisner said, "What happens in Vegas , stays in Vegas!" Same thing.

Ichi go, Ichi ei. See? Now you know some Japenese! What??? You have an itchy eye??

Trusting instinct

I recently had an incident with a business associate that reminds me of how true and important what improv teaches is.

This person sent up my "Spidey-senses" from the get. Everything in me told me not to trust him. My instinct said "no". And being an improv teacher, I'm a big "yes" person, so you can imagine my dilemma. I wanted to say yes to what he offered. I should say yes. So, I said yes.

But it just goes to prove that in improv, as in life, there are no rules. Everytime you think you can make one (saying 'yes' for example) something comes along and disproves the theory. So, I said yes to this person in my life, but I stayed present to my feelings and instincts and tried to pay close attention to the "Scene" of my interactions with him. Well, turns out, your instinct is never wrong when listened to without self-imposed filters. He turned out to be a big fat liar. I knew it from the start and got out before more damage was done.

What's cool about improv and life is that there are no rules to follow, with which to turn off your instinct and present moment awareness and just say 'hey, I'm following the rules". We have to listen, trust ourselves, and follow through with what our instincts and impulses tell us, not follow a rule book. We make up our own book as we go along. It's easier than it sounds. It's just doing less and imposing less. It's feeling more and listening more. And oh, yes, it's also about remembering that improv, like life, is supposed to be "play" not "work".

wax on, wax off.

New Day, New Blog...

New font...too...See? I keep my word.

I was teaching my level 1 improv class last night and had some revelations. We were talking about heightening your point of view in scenework, being committed to it, being 100% true to who you were at that moment in the scene. And it dawned on me, how great life would be if people did this in the world. How great if our leaders were authentic in in their dealings and committed to that-- no matter what the odds. What if our friends were 100% committed to being their own authentic selves. There would be no discrepency between what should and what is. We would all be committed to what is present and authentic NOW---having nothing to do with regret for the past or worry for the future. It's easy-- because truth is easy.

Hmmm......now I really need some more coffee.

I have a performance playshop with 8 fabulous, former students that will be performing later in April. I'll keep you posted on details. Talk about seeing authenticity and commitment in action!

First time blogging! I so scare-wed!

So, now I can add blogging to my list of special skills on my resume thanks to my friend and student Kali Karagias. http://www.adhd.typepad.com

Woo-hoo! Is it working? Am I blogging? I am sooooo 2007!

I teach improv, in fact run my own school o' improv! I also do corporate improv, educational improv and have just been named Director of Improv at STAND UP NY at this major comedy club in NYC.

Soon there will be pictures and special fonts, games and puzzles!---but for now this will have to do!

Say YES to what life offers you! More sage advice to follow...