{"id":135,"date":"2012-08-30T22:39:09","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T05:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/?p=135"},"modified":"2012-08-30T22:39:18","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T05:39:18","slug":"getting-to-know-you-andrew-mcmasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/?p=135","title":{"rendered":"Getting to Know You: Andrew McMasters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi all!<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my getting to know you post; My name is Andrew McMasters. I started doing improv about 25 years ago. I am one of the founders of Jet City Improv. I like theater management and nachos.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, I love pointing out that I have never had what people consider &#8216;formal&#8217; improv training. I didn&#8217;t go to Second City. I didn&#8217;t work with Del Close. My life hasn&#8217;t been altered by the previous teachings of the masters. What I like is&#8230; well&#8230; providing a meaningful comedic experience for an audience.<\/p>\n<p>Let me say that again; providing a meaningful\u00a0comedic experience for an audience. Don&#8217;t get me wrong, I LOVE doing this work &#8211; but the truth is, we do it for the <em>audience<\/em>. Without them, we don&#8217;t have a reason to do this. This isn&#8217;t an art form that exists in a vacuum. It is a conversation &#8211; a DIRECT conversation with an audience, in a way that a lot of scripted theater cannot invite or explore.<\/p>\n<p>That is what I love. Not just the thrill of doing it &#8211; but the desire to make contact with an entire roomful of people and create laughter that can last well beyond the evenings festivities.<\/p>\n<p>A number of years ago, back when i was bar tending, I had a chef i worked with that was going through a tough time. His wife left him, he was having financial troubles, and close to being fired. He came in and asked me &#8220;how can you always be so happy?&#8221; I thought about it and replied &#8216;every weekend I get on stage and hear people&#8217;s laughter. I play. Others play with me. Audiences love it. It&#8217;s hard not to be happy when you do that every weekend.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>I still believe that to be true.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi all! Here&#8217;s my getting to know you post; My name is Andrew McMasters. I started doing improv about 25 years ago. I am one of the founders of Jet City Improv. I like theater management and nachos. Additionally, I &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/?p=135\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gtky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aroundtheblockimprov.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}