#ny-bourhoods

[hipbang2011tour]

Improvland

In response to our tsumani of fan desperation I (Tom, the elbow-y one) have developed a Social Media Disaster Relief Program that will consist of five reflections on the two weeks we just spent in New York performing as part of the Del Close Marathon and FringeNYC.  Out of respect to the city, these reflections will be organized in five memory-neighbourhoods: three actual, two experiential.  One will be posted everyday(ish) so check back or be left out!

This particular show took place at 4:15am.  No big deal. The Big Apple was a dream destination for us, and in many ways the gem in the crown of our tour, so we were out to make the most of the town.  But we were also there for business…improv business.  All of this time was concentrated on two theatre companies that make their home in the same eight block area around 26th street and 8th avenue also known—for the sake of this post—as Improvland.[1]

Our first weekend in town was dominated—completely—by the shows and parties of the infamous Del Close Marathon, the huge festival the Uprights Citizens Brigade (UCB) puts on each year that runs no-stop for 72 hours.  UCB is where many famous-ies got their start, and it’s also where thousands and thousands of others paid thousands and thousands to take classes.  For hockey fans, UCB is the Notre Dame of development programs, for tight rope fans it is Brunar’s High Top Tots Training.[2]

The weekend was pretty incredible.  Yeah, there was an open bar, two-floor dance party going on at all times for performers in a loft down the street, but there was so much more…highlights included three tremendous ladies of Doppleganger who hold no regard for your delicate sensibilities, Canadian homeboys Sex T-Rex, and L.A. superspeed demons Convoy. 

Outside of the festival we took in improv all over the place, but mostly at the Magnet Theatre.  Magnet has more of an indy vibe, preaches a less restrictive philoshophy to its students and teams, and personally several of my favourite groups[3] and teams ever have come from there.  There are no hockey schools like it, but in the tight rope world it would be the White Cat Red Line school.  We saw great shows from Dunk and Brick there, and then played a fun (as in, beer-heavy) mixer with a couple of New York favourites.

All in all, our time in improvland was pretty damn top notch.  For a couple guys used to a town of a relatively small cohort of talented improvisers that do some-not-lots of shows each week, seeing a city with hundreds or thousands of great performers getting attention from “average” New Yorkers, this put things in perspective a bit.  We have a good thing going here, Vancouver.

[1] Reading over it, this whole post is pretty damn improv nerdy.  If that’s not your thing, well, no hard feelings, come back tomorrow, when I will resume reflecting on other things almost as exciting, like the places I found good soft cheeses, and the experience I had almost buying some shoes I was pretty ok with.  

[2] You don’t know that isn’t real.

[3] Has everyone heard that 4Track is no longer?  R.I.P. favourite improv troupe/form ever. 

[hipbang2011tour]

Harlem – Not a Slum, Not a Suburb (NY-bourhoods Pt. 1)

When you’re as popular as Hip.Bang! is, your fans get upset when you don’t interact with them.  We’re massive, and our fans have gone to extreme lengths to demand that we post more on this blog, from a drunken friend saying “you should write more”, to that same friend repeating that phrase moments later.  And sure, our blog doesn’t have comments, and sure, we interact with our Facebook page in a post-structuralist (see: lazy) way, such that even if people weren’t paying attention we wouldn’t know…but we know you’re reading this right now – admit it.

All this clever preamble is to say that in response to our tsumani of fan desperation I (Tom - the squirrly one) have developed a Social Media Disaster Relief Program that will consist of five reflections on the two weeks we just spent in New York performing as part of the Del Close Marathon and FringeNYC.  Out of respect to the city, these reflections will be organized by neighbourhood: three actual, two experiential.  One will be posted everyday at 9am for the next five days so check back or be left out!

The Streets

We subletted a room in Harlem for the two weeks we were in the Big Apple (August 9-August 22 for those of you keeping careful, careful track at home).  My mother, who lived in Harlem six blocks away from where we were staying back in the 70’s-ish (I’m a good son) described the area at the time as “an absolute slum.”  New Yorkers talk about everyone having “their own New York” and Harlem was the homebase of ours.

Well, things have changed…mostly.  For one thing, there is more than just one white family living in Harlem.  There are about five.  For another, the neighbourhood (at least the part we were in – at 129th street and St. Nicholas Terrace) was safe, vibrant, and really active, and we witnessed some amazing cultural moments.  Probably the wildest was the full block party that erupted in the basketball court across the street that culminated in a massive freestyle rap show lit only by people’s cell phones, complete with a dance team and several hype men.

Less thrilling was that a few days earlier we’d parked our whip (that means car, guys.  C’mon, this is Harlem) next to the aforementioned court only to discover the next morning that our driver side window has been smashed, and our stereo faceplate stolen.  Enter the NYPD.

Cop from NYPD Blue: Dun park your car next to a park.  They know you’re not from the hood. They probably standin’ ‘round here laughin’ at you talkin’ to us.

White boy from Saskatchewan: But sir we just came here to do our improvised theatre performance for the great people of New—

Cop from Law & Order (different cop): Listen kid, don’t park on this street no more. Park somewhere where there are cameras. (dramatic pause as he spits a full six ounces on the sidewalk) This is Harlem. (dramatic pause as he checks out a passing woman – ‘ooooeeee’).  Street smarts.

NYPD Blue: Listen, I know a place in the Bronx you can get ‘yer glass done tonight, anytime, whenever—

And that’s when we were sent on an amazing trip to what I have coined the Auto Glass Ghetto – blocks and blocks of sketchy, too-real-to-be-real auto glass repair shops with scrap metal, parts, and Latino gentlemen.  To be clear, the NYPD were great—salty, stereotypical, and a little sexiest maybe—but awesome to deal with and really helpful. 

The whole neighbourhood was our home for two super memorables weeks and I’ll never forget what it was like to live the less-mean-than-they-used-to-be streets of Harlem.

Tom