Be Funnier with Scotty Meltzer: The Secret of Great Comedy

What is the secret of great comedy…? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not timing. It’s practice. I don’t know how to sit down and write a funny joke. But I do know how to write two dozen jokes and then find out which ones are funny. And this is how every comedy writer that I’ve ever talked to creates …

Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: Object Physical Research

In my last column I wrote at length about the inherent conceptual content of juggling, and so I thought the best way to follow up on that would be by bringing the topic back down to something more tangible: the most tangible and basic thing possible – how we move the objects we use. Something I hold very dear is …

Be Funnier with Scotty Meltzer: Comedy Darwinism

There are two obvious ways to make your show funnier: First, add more laughs. Second, make the laughs you already have bigger. In the next few months, I’m going to use this column to give you some tools to help you do both of these. I hope your feedback and comments help me come up with even more. I’ve talked …

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Interact! – Photo Contest & Haiku Winners!

  Juggling Photo Contest – Landmark Edition   Hey jugglers! Do you have a photo of yourself juggling in front of a famous landmark?  Well, good!  Get ready to send it along to the Interact! – Landmark Photo Contest! This week, we’re asking eZine readers to submit their favorite photos of themselves juggling in front of monuments, landmarks, and other …

Tricks of the Month: January 2012 with Kyle Johnson

This is the first installment of “Tricks of the Month” for the new eZine. It was filmed at the Pre Turbo Fest, at The New England Center for Circus Arts (N.E.C.C.A.), on my way to Turbo Fest in Quebec, Canada. The tricks include some club swinging, multiplexes to balances, rolls, bounces, and more. Enjoy!  

3rd Annual IJA Video Tutorial Contest – March 1st – 31st

Hey folks! It’s my distinct pleasure to announce the the 3rd annual IJA Video Tutorial Contest!  The contest, which will take place from March 1st to March 31st, 2012 looks to be the largest and most exciting tutorial contest to date! Entrants film tutorial videos, upload them to Juggling.tv and YouTube.com, and submit them via the entry form, which will be …

Stagecraft: Improv

NOTE: While most articles on eJuggle are free to the public, this exclusive article is for IJA members only. If you're a member, log in on the side to read the full article. If you're not a member, read about the benefits of IJA membership in the About menu at the top of the page and join today!
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This month we look at the art of Improvisation. The word ultimately comes from the latin: improvisus, which translates as unforeseen. When an artist is involved in the creative process, they literally can not see the terrain that lays ahead.

The creation of performance pieces and the development of new juggling tricks is a pure act of improvisation. We uncover the unseen and reveal the hidden. Although long and short form comedy improv on the whole stands apart from the variety arts, there are so many similarities that it bears a closer look. What’s more, there are many resources that can be found in print that can help us deal with our own issues, such as creative block, free association, and continuity of theme.

Many of today’s great improvisers such as Mike Meyers and Tina Fey got their start at a school in Chicago called Improv Olympics, a school founded Charna Halpern. She is also the author of a classic improv manual: "Truth in Comedy". Here is an excerpt of an interview we did last week.

YOU MUST BE AN IJA MEMBER TO READ THE INTERVIEW WITH CHARNA HALPERN…

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This exclusive article is for IJA members only. Go to https://ezine.juggle.org/membership-options-page/ to join the IJA for this and other benefits.