New Year, New Moment

Improv is all about moments--experiencing and living fully into each moment, finding the funny, the fullness, the...truth ...of THAT moment and living into it. Thats what makes improv funny. Not preplanning the next moment or regretting the past one, but LIVING in this one.

As the year turns, we have a new and big shot at living in the moment. It's a huge moment shift. Take advantage of it. Live fully in it. Enjoy 2009 and all of its ridiculous, sloppy, joyous moments.

Happy holidays and Happy New Year!

Historic Jumps

What a week! I have been a CNN junkie-- addicted to polls, craving more Obama and falling for David Gergen! (His dulcid, fair, even keeled tones draws me in with every breath!) And at last there was a payoff: We Americans have elected a NEW president who I believe CAN and WILL bring the change we so desperately need in this country.

We have taken a BIG LEAP as a country and it feels like we took BIG LEAPS as individuals too. Individuals made this historic election possible.

New York feels different. People are looking at each other, the air is fresher, hope seems to have returned to the collective. Seriously.

NOW is the time to take other big leaps. Ride the wave of momentum! What have you been afraid of doing or avoiding? Take your own big leaps, create your own jumps of faith, discover your own acts of bigness and braveness. Take advantage of the energy and impulse and possibility in the air.

Here's to it!
(...and David Gergen, my new BF! )

P.S. how happy am I if I never see or hear Baye Buchanen again!?!?!

Get Zipped!

There are 2 Zipper shows left of THE F TRIP---my unbelievably autobiographical solo show!

There was a lovely audience for the last show--supportive, intent, engaged. It was an interesting experience for me---playing in such a larger, proper theater space, sharing my intimate story there. I had to keep reminding myself to stay in the present and stay connected. It's funny in a solo show---there's no one to connect to, BUT THE AUDIENCE! So when I struggled onstage, it was usually, because I had stopped connecting to the audience...and connecting in a real way, not a fake way. I genuinely speak to the audience and need their response---be it verbal or just emotional. It's a 2-way street. An actor without an audience is just a rehearsal. Come be a part of the connection. Take my trip.

Tickets: www.thezipperfactory.com and more info at www.theftrip.com
Tuesday, October 14 and 28, 7pm
Zipper, 336 west 37th street.

YES DAY

I just asked a student whom I am personal coaching to do some homework. I asked her between our sessions to find one day to SAY YES to absolutely everything that was proposed to her--to have a "Yes Day". She agreed (almost said no...:)) which got me thinking...thats a tall order! A day of saying yes to all and everything around you. Yes to the homeless man, yes to the request for time, yes to answering the phone when it rings--no screening! We have grown into such habitual no-sayers. Our knee-jerk reaction is often NO. There are always a million reasons why we can't: Money, time, energy, experience.... The Yes muscle is out of work and needs training. That's how improv training helps!

Try it. Choose one day...SAY YES to everything. Write me! Comment on this blog! Tell me how it went! YES!

it's in the details!

In our improv work, we find that better scenes are developed through paying attention to the details. No detail is too small. The way your scene partner stumbled when they entered the scene, the word you chose, the animal sounds given you in the forest, the tone of someone's voice.

The more we notice, connect to and are inspired by the details, the more lucious our scenes are.

Today, pay special attention to the details around you. Listen to this moment. See these details. Use all your senses. Allow the small things to inform and inspire you. Note the luciousness of your life.

The F Trip at THE ZIPPER and COMMONWEAL

'member when I used to blog? Ahh...good times...I have been immersed in the production of producing my solo show, "THE F TRIP". It is a autobiographical story I wrote involving 3 trips and 3 different men. It has to do with fraud, faith, fathers, forgiveness and falling in all the ways you can fall!


It was written in an improvisational style and performed in the same. It is funny, but also gets rather tragic as well! Hmmm. Something for everyone! !!









There are 2 opportunities coming up to see the show in 2 cities!

MINNEAPOLIS/LANESBORO, MN
Commonweal Theatre
Lanesboro, MN
Tuesday, September 30 & Wednesday, October 1, 730pm
Tickets $15
http://www.commonwealtheatre.org/

NEW YORK CITY
The Zipper Factory Theater
NYC, NY
Tuesdays October 7, 14 & 28, 7pm
Tickets $20
http://www.thezipperfactory.com/

ALSO SEE www.theftrip.com

Hope to see you at the show!

F-tripping big time!

I have not been blogging much as I have been writing my solo show, day and night: The F Trip

It is kicking my butt in every way shape and form. I'm writing my story while trying to maintain authenticity and at the same time, an engaging piece of theatre. I'm also trying to bring all (or most) of who I am to the show, which means funny and serious and improvisational. And I love telling stories. So I am telling 3 stories woven together in an improvisational manner that are at once devastatingly serious and desperately funny...hopefully.....please...God?

The show is moving forward, at sometimes an alarming rate. I will be premiering it at the MIDTOWN INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL July 25-27.(http://www.midtownfestival.org).

...and then fingers crossed, moving it to The Zipper in the Fall.

More details forthcoming...

Plan on coming to see me practice what I preach!

Signs we're "IN IT"

In improv class, usually late in level 3, I ask my students for physical and/or emotional characteristics or signs that they are "In it"(in their bodies, in the moment, in the scene) or "Out of it" (in their heads, thinking, working)


I think its interesting what is present when we are "in it". How cool if we could be more in it in life too.

IN IT signs

having fun

not worrying

listening deeply

it all speeds by

words just come out

feel connected

it's easy

deeper, richer, funnier...and swollen...

Last night in my Level 4 Improv class, I set a goal for several memebers of the class to not manhandle or direct the outcome of the scene, but to allow it to be discovered, to allow it to appear for them to grab. This is a difficult task. We want to protect ourselves, make sure we look good, make sure we don't fail. It's safer and easier to grab a quick half-truth, than wait for something that may never come. In trusting and being open to a new truer, possibility, there is a possibility of failure. I think it's worth it. The scenes that develop when people are organic and honest, not pushy and safe are much deeper, richer, funnier scenes. It's an amazing lesson. It's also a hard one. We sometimes need to trust more, trust the outcome will be good, trust we need to maneuver less and feel and grab more. We need to allow the good stuff to unfold in front of us and then say yes to it. What develops is a deeper, richer, funnier life. I think, anyway.....But I have a strangely swollen foot from my trip to Brazil...so who knows....

Happy Hour!!!

Announcing the triumphant return of

KIM SCHULTZ's HAPPY HOUR!!!

Where Comedy is Absolute

-an old-fashioned, new-fangled comedy variety hour-
Monday, March 31 8pm

COMIX Comedy Club, 353 West 14th Street near 9th.Ochi's Lounge

NO Admission charge!!!! 1 drink/food item minimum

Come laugh, come all!

http://www.comixny.com/www.kimschultzhappyhour/myspace.com

Please RSVP tomailto:toKimschultzimprov@gmail.com

UPDATES!

New Classes!

Level 1 Improv starts THIS SATURDAY at 1130am, 8 weeks, $225

&

ONE-NIGHT IMPROV Intensive is Wednesday, March 19, 6-10pm, $60

Do some improv. Change your life.

letting it in

In some recent classes, I find myself coaching people to "Let it in" "Be affected". I'm curious about this, because when did we stop letting it in and being affected? Did we get wounded or shut down too many times? Why are we so afraid to be vulnerable and be affected? Improv is all about being affected and then moving forward from that spot, being more of who you are at that moment. What's the worst that could happen? Isn't that "worst" far better than the effect on our life of not ever being affected, not ever caring?

Take a flying leap!

Last night I was teaching my level one improv class (such a fun group!) and we were talking about boldness in choice making and the difference it makes. I asked them to be bold in a silly clapping game we were playing. Suddenly, the game became more energized, committed, slightly dangerous and laugh out loud fun! The layering of boldness into what we do seems to affect the outcome. No longer are we meek and waiting, inactive, but rather intentional and specific and ok with it all. And the world supports that. It's reflected in its response.

Be bold about something today. Be intentional and commited about it. See the difference.

New Year! New Post! (at last...)

Happy New Year! a time of rebirth, recharging and reinventing!
The slate is clean; the possibilities, endless.

Every improv scene starts that way: clean fresh, full of possibilities. The more specific and detailed you become in the scene, the more of a reality the scene becomes, the more grounded in truth it becomes. The more interesting it becomes. Thats the joy. Start with nothing, get everything. Same in life.

Have a joyful 2008! I hope you get everything out of it.