KrisHermstad

ive been waiting for Adomian to show up in i4h for years! yayyyy. its really something kinda rare to experience. James does brilliant characters but i've only seen him usually doing long form or working out specific characters hes cultivated. of course, if you listen to his stand up and his appearances on todd glass podcast, hes obviously hilarious off the cuff. so it was nice to finally see him do the UCB/out-of-thin-air sorta thing

i loved Mickey Mouse doing improv and saying "No food suggestions." about as meta as it gets. MattyB is the best.

this podcast has become kind of an embarrassment. its like the guests and Andrew are actually unable to make a case/argument for their positions.

Great pod. I have to agree with what most of said. When Ian challenged Ptolemy, Ptolemy had no real constructive disagreement. It almost seems like a marketing gimmick/semantics more than anything. I heard no real difference, other than an attempt to separate yourself from UCB. (and if thats what it is.. Ptolemy made a mistake by even trying to defend the marketing for his classes. I wouldn't want to take his class, because it seems like he was unable to articulate what makes him different. "Rules" are just tools to guide someone. When most people try to figure things out, the "best" will often come up "short cuts." I'm a musician/jazz guitarist. There are a TON of "rules" in music theory, but at a certain level, the more practiced you are, the more you can bend/break the rules. -- The BEST free jazz musicians know how to play jazz directly locked in without hitting a bad note. - There is a naive approach from some musicians to say, "Oh, i don't need to learn any of that, it comes from me." -- to many this is true.. but if you got REALLY good on your own, I bet you'd come up with your own techniques that if taught to someone else, would benefit them greatly. -- and if you are listening to other musicians, you are implicitly being told the "rules" of music whether you realize it or not.. just because you don't know what the call it does mean that specific "sound" doesnt have a name Basically, in any art, there are rules meant to help the artist understand context. Once you understand context, you can completely rearrange it to how YOU see fit. I don't know how you teach an improv class with JUST an opinion. Ultimately, if you just say what you liked/didn't like you are implicitly creating "rules" about what works and what does not. Abstracting the form is one of the greatest accomplishments as an artist.. but you've got to learn to understand the art and its mechanisms in the proper context. He also clearly said they teach the rules in level 1 and 2. So what do they "teach" in level 3 and above? Why have a level 3 if there is no constructive feedback that is SOMEWHAT objective? at that point, it sounds like you are just paying money to "jam." (so to speak) the students could just save money and get together and practice improv for free. having a "mentor" should mean having someone give you tips/pointers on what can be improved etc.. but if you take away any objectivity, then its back to a pointless "pay some guy to watch us improv"

maybe I heard this differently.. but I didn't hear the white husband say anything about how HE is tired of hearing about racism. She said "White people are saying they are tired of hearing about racism." He seemed to be telling her what some other white people thought... not that he agreed with them... so thats how i heard it.. and then you took one sentence and spent 15 minutes telling this woman to divorce her husband. i think y'all heard it wrong, and the fact that are so reactionary kinda makes you look foolish. -- i love this podcast, ive even submitted questions.. but You guys are becoming a caricature of yourself. There are no cases being made.. or arguments being formed.

I think you guys dropped the ball on this one. You never made a case for why not playing rap is racist. Some people just don't like it... you also missed the fact that swift and white producers 'appropriated' Kendrick Lamar to make Swift have a broader appeal. Shit, her label has been doing that since her first single with a pop version and a country version.