A Barrel of Monkeys

I’m in Dallas, TX this weekend, for an improv convention. Only convention doesn’t quite sum it up, and neither does festival. It’s really something so much different than any other kind of improv meet up you’re likely to hear about. The first group I ever did improv with was the Stage Monkeys back in Hattiesburg, MS, but it’s not the only troupe to fly the banner of “Stage Monkeys”. The Stage Monkeys (full title “Cult of the Stage Monkey”) is actually a national confederation of improv groups, from the District of Columbia to San Diego, CA. Six troupes total and a huge smattering of what we refer to as “at-large” members filling all points in between. This effectively makes the Stage Monkeys one of the widest reaching improv organizations in the U.S., and one of the ways we celebrate this is with our annual meeting, the Barrel of Monkeys (clever, right?)

But like I said, Barrel sort of defies any kind of conventional titling that is typically applied to any sort of national improv festival. The Stage Monkeys are unique in our actually quite interactive and welcoming national-level discussions. Barrel is a weekend of workshops, sure. And it also has performances and socials, but it seems like calling it a festival doesn’t really fit the bill. The closest thing I’m familiar with it being similar to comes from when I was in the Boy Scouts honor society, the Order of the Arrow, where we would have a national meeting that we called the Conclave once a year. Conclave was where all the different chapters would get together, generally for no real reason other than fellowship. (Conclave as it turns out, has the definition of “a meeting of family members”.)

The difference is this: other festivals invite whoever will make the festival seem the most prestigious: the best teachers, groups, performers, etc. They also invite anyone who’s willing to foot the entrance fees, so as a result, the festival is filled with really great improvisers without a doubt, but they also don’t really know each other, don’t have much of an inclination to get to know each other, so it ends up being like back in high school. You’re all there for the same absolute purpose (i.e. go to school), but it’s heavily splintered under all the different allegiances to different cliques. Even within the larger theatres, even though everyone is very welcoming, generally speaking there isn’t a lot of organization wide camaraderie.

The Stage Monkeys in the end does have a bunch of separately operating groups but when they get together, it no longer matters. For example, this year’s organizer is a Monkey named Matt. Now I have actually met, and talked to in person, Matt three times in my entire life. I have exchanged emails and talked to on the phone maybe another 5 times, but every time I see him (including the first) it’s like seeing an old friend again. We hug (and I should point out I’m not a big hugger) and talk like we’ve known each other for years and have hung out thousands of times. This is the basic gist of my lesson this week to my chapter of Monkeys; they will never be as strong as individual improvisers as they can be when they work as a team. Improv is a team sport, but it’s also an art form, which means doubly more so it relies on collaboration with other improvisers.

The Stage Monkeys it seems, actively try to break down the barriers that hold “separatist” groups apart, and it generally works really well. There are no cliques, no little groups; there is just Monkey, which is really great. Now there will be workshops (which are taught internally for the most part), shows (which, to be honest, are primarily for our own benefit), but there will also be drinking, sharing of ideas, and good times. We emphasize teaching internally because we like to promote the free exchange of ideas and providing support to our fellow practitioners. I challenge someone to come up with an equally widespread improv organization that matches what we do. For example, when I moved from Hattiesburg, MS to Chicago, I was basically just accepted into the local chapter merely as a matter of course. We may all be from different cities, states, and we may in fact all be approaching improv differently, but we are united in a common philosophy and love for improv and for that reason, we are more than invincible. We are friends.