A Few Fun Old Improv Videos

A Throwback Video

I love improv and for a little bit, I was in a troupe that meant weekly. We would get together and practice improvisational acting through games. Some required multiple people with strict formats. Other games were solo practices. Rant and Rave is one game where you perform an improvized monologue about something you love or hate. The topic would be given to you by the audience or when we were practicing one of the other members.

Around the time I was in that troupe I wanted to do some extra acting so asked Facebook and my friends for prompts. With two prompts I was able to do a rant and rave. The Veruca Salt was a different kind of a prompt where I just made up a monologue. Here are the three videos that came out of the prompts.

Want More?

If you would like to watch more videos please check out my YouTube channel. You can also keep up to date with all my happenings on Instagram or Facebook. Also, I do post regular throwback posts on this site.

Here I stand (An Original monologue)

Here I stand is an original monologue I wrote in 2014. I noticed a few months ago it wasn’t on this site, so here it is.

Here I stand: Monologue

Here I stand. I am standing on my own two feet, wishing that they were not attached, so that I could move around and see exactly where I am standing. Where am I standing? What am I doing and why am I staying?

Still at least I’m standing on my own two feet, right? And I have the world ahead of me. I am making it on my own. Yes, I am doing my own thing living this adult life. Still I have questions and I never know if I’m doing everything right.

Most days, actually, I know I’ve done at least one thing wrong. But I’m making it on my own. Living my own adult life, alone. Yes, I am standing on my own two feet, but you know what sometimes I wish I wasn’t. I wish that there was some sort of clear arrow pointing me one way or the other. But, I guess the adult life doesn’t entirely work that way. So, here I stand. I am standing on my own two feet.

Want More?

I do have a playlist of my acting videos on Youtube and a playlist for my writings. If you would like to read more monologues that I wrote there is a section on this site for that too.

A DreamWard Bound Post From Far, Far Away

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Okay, maybe I’m not far, far away. I may feel like I am, but I am actually home. The feeling of being in a different galaxy comes from watching all the Star Wars movies (except for episode 1) yesterday. It was a great experience. I now can say I’ve seen all the Star Wars movies(except for episode 1). I really enjoyed the movies. The only issue is that I have been watching 4 hours or less of television weekly. I only watch television with my friends now and maybe a couple of YouTube videos. By the last movies I had a hard time finishing. I was entering a movie overload. I did finish and finished without my eyes bleeding or my brain exploding.

The marathon of awesomeness is why I did not post this week’s DreamWard Bound yesterday. I woke up, went to my friends’ house, watch Star Wars, came home, and went to bed. That was my day yesterday. It was crazy for me that I did nothing on my Saturday, which is typically my blog/ artistic work day. I am thankful, that I have tomorrow off of work. I will be able to edit and write. I might even find time to do a video.

I did do some things to move forward in my journey to my dreams. I am sure I did do some stuff.

Let’s see I published some posts, all of which were still from my vacation. Also, I did some research into film companies or groups around me. It was not really successful research, since I am stuck between “beggars can’t be choosers” and “I don’t want my name associated with that type of video.” Basically the level of quality is not great, but I need to start somewhere.

I will be doing more searches and looking for other productions that I hopefully can audition for. That will be an ongoing thing. I am pretty sure I will always be looking for auditions and new productions, since that is the way of an actor.

I am also, publishing/ moving over my Goal Getter’s series to my channel. So far, I have published the introduction and the first 3 steps. More will be published this week.

Here is the list of other things I published this week.

To Sleep

Stories (A poem)

Writing with colors

My Ring

Weekly Writing Prompt

Feeling DreamWard Bound.

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I am feeling like I can actually achieve my end goals this week. I published posts that I wrote on my vacation, which meant I did not need to write as much this week. Instead I was able to focus on planning, figure out new ideas, and look forward.

Out of the 5 posts that I did published this week, 2 of them really brought readers to this blog, which is great. I thought they might since the 2 posts were titled, “Meeting Mormons,” and “Elevation.” Elevation is my church so I bet people involved in that would like to read about their tribe. The Mormon post I bet was interesting because it’s an interaction post about a religion/ people group that is usually represented as negative. The people I met were really nice and it was a positive interaction.

I did write a poem, that will be published after all my vacation writings are up. I’m sure I will have more ramblings by the time I’m done publishing my vacation stuff. I might even have a short description of a web-series idea.

I do want to do a web-series, but besides the very, very basics I do not have much. I want to figure out who is willing and able before writing the actual script. Which is backwards, but I want it  to help those involved have the greatest chance for success.

Changing topics, back to why I am feeling like I am moving forward with my goals, dreams, and working towards the life I really want. I sat down and revised my goals this past week and I think these will really help propel me into making some head way. The new thing I did was break down the week into different goals. Now,  I won’t be trying to do everything everyday, which causes me to not really get anything done. It will be okay if I don’t edit my book everyday. It has its own day. This is basically what my schedule will look like now.

Sunday= Bible Study (God Goal day)

Monday= BJJ (health goal) and my blog.

Tuesday/ Wednesday= Acting plan (acting goal)

Thursday = Improv and blog

Friday = Book editing (writing goal)

Saturday = Call family and record kids’ videos (relationship goal). Also Acting planning (acting goal).

It’s nerdy but I am really excited about scheduling and planning. This means that I am really excited to see how I can create a plan of action for my acting career. Maybe I will even do acting stuff in the coming months.

That is really why I am feeling dreamward bound. Now here is the stuff I posted this week.

Poem for Music

Elevation

Meeting Mormons

Makes Me Beautiful

Weekly Writing Prompt

DreamWard Bound or The Week I Focused on Networking

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As you know, if you have followed my journey, I’ve been focused on doing and figuring out what I can do to get better at acting and writing. This week I realized that a few people started following my twitter (@tiffaberry). Instead of dismissing them because I didn’t know who they were, I sent them a direct message. Basically I decided to be thankful that new people found me, and curious about how they found me. I do want to know what methods of energy and work are getting me noticed, even if it is only a couple of people.

One of them responded. He didn’t know where he actually found my account, but did point me to a website for film networking. It’s called stage32.  I checked it out, signed up (my profile) and uploaded my resume (TiffanyJoy [yes I see the typo, do you?]). I also added my bio and wrote a couple notes on different forums that they have.  I already have 10 people in my network. I should mention that I signed up two nights and none of my friends seem to be on this. Also it’s me and I don’t have time to sit and search a database. Most of them found me after I posted the notes on the forums. Some of these people are in my area too. There are a few that are further away, but that is good too. I am glad to spread my name around with whoever wants to see or hear about me.

Another cool thing that I started is a new hobby. I apparently needed to be doing more. I am starting to create and mix music on my computer. I have a weird loop now that could almost work. I think it is pretty busy, but I’m still learning the program so throwing things together is fine for me at this point.

The good thing about this new hobby is that my roommate, Kateland, will be doing this with me. My hope is that we can create some good music, since it was music that originally brought us back together and we both love music. She loves music more than me and is the talented one when it comes to music stuff. I have been itching to try to be more musical, though, and this seems like the play to start.

Also, once I get a hold of how to work the program I may actually be able to make song people like. Who knows where this new hobby takes me. I may be on the brink of a new adventure. The possibilities are almost endless.

I just hope that this won’t fully distract me from God, acting, writing, painting, and BJJ. I mean painting is taking a back seat to the others, but it is still  a hobby for me. You know what I will just not sleep. That is how I will get around having all my passions, and hobbies, and a full-time job.

Speaking of passions and hobbies, I did get to write a few things this week. I always feel like I should write more, but I am going on vacation this coming week, so should be able to write while flying at least.

Here is the list of things I published this week.

Guarding The Ladder (A Short Story)

A Romantic Monologue

A Healthy Week to Boost Fitness – I haven’t done this healthy week, but should take my advice.

Weekly Writing Prompt (#24)

Finally, there will not be any DreamWard Bound posts for the next 2 weeks. I will be on vacation and like leaving my computer at home. The whole being on the computer, so much for my work and blog and now music. I will be away from the computer for two weeks.

 

My End Goals And Dreams

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I mentioned in this week’s DreamWard Bound post that I was going to sit down and revise not only my goals but my dreams or end goals. I wanted to start from scratch and figure out where I actually want to go from where I am.

I have done this at least one other time and I do not believe I shared the entire thing that I wrote about my goals and dreams. I have big dreams and sometimes I wonder if I share them if that will hurt my  chances of getting them. Well, more and more I am realizing that dreams are just goals without actionable steps being taken. My dreams might be larger than my life, but I do have small steps to walk towards them. I am creating goals for my life to bring me to my dreams.

Since my ideas of dreams and goals have changed, I would like to share with you my end goal and what I imagine my perfect life to be. I am not saying that my life will be perfect. It will just be perfectly suited for me. I know there will be hard times and sacrifices that I must make along the way, but it will be worth it.

Here you go.

Goals and Dreams:

Where do I start? In my dreams I am a happy artist.

My main focus is writing and acting. I wake up early most days and work long hours when I am on set. I am warm and friendly to both cast and crew. People Enjoy working with me. I work on either faith-based of sci-fi/ fantasy based movies or television shows portraying strong women, dorky side kicks, independent women or other roles that break false images of women or Christians. My main focus with acting is to shine the light of God’s love and the strength he gives his daughters. I want mainstream media to stop putting down or giving a false image of Christian women.

I want to be a part of a movement where we bring Christian morals back to entertainment and art. I want to help people see that Christianity is about loving each other and God’s love. I want to show and teach people that religion for religion’s sake is wrong, but a loving relationship with God is the way to live. He is the one who can save the world and he is the reason for love. Jesus came to the world not to condemn it but to save it and the world should know that. I want to help the world learn that kind of love.

Sorry for that little rant. Let me continue with the other areas of my future life.

I have a fan base that feels comfortable around me and who I actually help. They find support along with a distant friend in me.

I am more than an actor though. I also write and publish books. I have my blog, but my books are my main writing focus and means of income as far as writing is concerned.

I also work towards crossing 1 item off my bucket list each year.

When I am not writing or acting I want to be training BJJ or even another martial art. I want to be able to learn from every aspect of my life and use it towards acting, writing or any other art form I may take up. BJJ helps me prepare for fight scenes and give me confidence and friendship. My end goal with BJJ is to be physically healthy, able to protect myself, and perhaps even become a black belt.

For my family I imagine that I am close and talk often to both my real family and my church family. I know that they will always be there for me and they support me the best way they can. I want to be able to support them also with the needs they have. I also want to become as open as possible with each and every family member, creating relationships with no walls.

I know that I can do all this because I am focused on God. He is the only way that I will stay on track. I will grow my relationship with him daily either by prayer, podcasts, books, sermons, audio-books or conversations directed towards God.

My goals that I have are as follows:

Spiritual: In order to focus on God more fully I will not watch tv or YouTube, unless with friends or it’s teaching on God, for the next 3 months (until September 13th) and with that extra time I will listen to a podcast or read a Biblical based book. This time will be focused on growing my understanding about God and exploring where he might be leading me.

 Relationship: I will tell one person that I love them every day for the next month (until July 13th) and try to start a conversation with them. I am doing this to strengthen my relationships and spread my love.

Physical: I am going to train BJJ at least 3 days and do bed-room workouts 2 other days every week. In addition I am going to eat 1 organic meal a week and at least 1 healthy meal every day. I will do this for the next month (until July 13th).

Editing: I will spend 30 hrs in the next 30 days editing my book (July 13th), keeping in mind that my new deadline for the second draft is November 1st.

Acting/ Writing: I will write 1 monologue a week and record at least 1 monologue a month. I will post every monologue that I record to YouTube to help grow my audience and receive feedback. I will do this for 3 months (until September 13th).

DreamWard Bound With Where I am

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I took some time today to figure out where I am with my goals, what I am doing, and what I can change. I know that I don’t want to push myself too much. I don’t want to burn out like I did before Christmas. I do want to keep on keeping on with them. I do want to work towards my goals, challenging myself as I do.

I realized that for now I need to have a more relaxed format and although I will be trying to do more and more as time goes on I am only going to do a little with each category of my life that I want to focus on.

With God and the Bible I have been listening to an audio Bible instead of reading it. I allow myself to relax and have even fallen asleep listening to it. I know this is not ideal, but at least I am listening and going through the Bible. Now when I try to read it I will at least have some knowledge of all the books. I am also starting to listening to two podcasts on my way to work. At least I am trying to start listening to the podcasts, but technology is fighting against me.

Next, I did have a goal about my family. I want to talk to them more. I realized though, I want stronger relationships with everyone in my life. That is why I am going to still try to contact my family members at least once a week, something that I still have not mastered, but I am also going to be intentional with the people around me. I going to try to encourage my BJJ classmates more, help my friends, and talk to people more. I am going to try to be intentionally more friendly and more open.

As far as my novel goes I am going to be focusing the most sit down alone time to that. I want to keep my deadline and to do that I have to edit 1.5 chapters a week. I am planning to spend most of this weekend with my characters and story. Hopefully I will be able to polish it up nicely and only have to go over it one or two more times. I want to be finishing up with it this time next year.

My health is next on the important scale. Since I have started Brazilian Jit Jitsu I have found a want and almost need to be healthier. I want to push myself harder to be healthy in my eating and activities. I am not going to jump right over to the super healthy side of things. If I do that I will wind up giving into the not healthy eating patterns that I fall into so often. Instead I will start gradual and listen to my body. I will be eating more salads and vegetables. I am also doing a 100 day exercise  challenge, which I mentioned in another post.  I did revise the challenge, since I did not have enough space to safely do any sort of rolls. As it is I have to reset my shrimps and hip switches at least 3 times. I am doing the challenge though. I am at day 15, so far. My fitness and health will be steps towards being in the best shape that I can be. It will be a long journey, but I am on it.

Now, there is my acting. It is on the back burner and I am not really focused on it as a career or really an actionable goal at the moment. However, that does not mean I am doing nothing with it. I am still going to my improv group almost weekly. I have had to take a few weeks off in this new year. It seemed like I was either sick or burnt out by Thursday. I am getting back in the rhythm of life it seems, though. I am even leading a group this coming week. Since, this is my only outlet for acting I will be intentional with it. I am going to focus on growing my skills, learning more about improv and hopefully leading when needed.

Finally, there is this blog thing that I am trying to do, also. I love writing and seeing people visiting what I wrote. I enjoy the feedback, even if it is mostly just likes. I am learning what people like to read and what is the most interesting to them. I am also learning what pulls them in and how what I say affects the stats of the site. This blog is a learning experience for me just as much as it is about the writing and making me focused on my writing.  Although I am learning and enjoying having this outlet, like I said last week I believe, I need to not have this be my main focus. I will be trying to do at least two posts every week, one being the DreamWard Bound posts and the other being my weekly writing prompt posts, that have been a lot less than weekly.

Those are all the thoughts I have now. I know this post is longer than my recent posts. I am sure I will go back to basically having no updates next week. It is the whole thinking about my DreamWard journey, that makes this one long.

I do hope you enjoyed this and like always, please, let me know what you think.

The first DreamWard Bound in November

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Well, I had another crazy week. This was a different kind of crazy than most weeks are though. It was the week of Halloween and my birthday. This being the case I tried to get every thing that I needed to do for my blog and YouTube channels done on Monday. I did get the videos done edited and uploaded to YouTube, but did not write that much. Thankfully I took the Wednesday off of my day job and was able to write a bit after my Birthday dinner.

Thursday and Friday were exclusively dedicated to my work’s haunted house that I helped with and was in. I got to work around 8 on Thursday stayed until 11, which meant I got home at midnight just to wake up at 5:45 to go back in. After work on Friday I went out with my friends, because it was Halloween until 1.

I find it funny that I was complaining a bit about being tired and drained, but honestly I felt like I was in a production again, so was actually pretty happy. I loved the staying up late, getting things ready and trying out acting things. I never really was a creepy character before so it was fun to improv the little haunted house scene I was in.

I actually can’t wait until I work like that more. I really do enjoy building and creating with a group, then getting ready to act (although it was only a work haunted house), then actually making people react. It was fun. I always have fun when I do that type of thing.

That is all I can think to update you on now, so here is the list of things you should read or watch.

What Makes me Unique (Video)

Rose Tyler’s Monologue from Doctor Who (video)

Step 6 (video)

Blessed (A Poem)

Beach Walk (A Poem)

A Reflective Upper Post 

To Do: (A Poem)

 

This is a short weekly update post. If you want these longer or shorter let me know.

Words about this past Stated Song video

I realized the other day that I have not mentioned anything about my videos with the exception that I am still doing them.

This past weekend I did another Stated Song, instead of a traditional monologue. Stated Songs are the least viewed videos on my channel and I basically do them for myself. I will be doing more monologues next week. However, I felt like I needed to do it, partly because I already had it Queued up in my mind to do it and partly because it is exactly where I am right now.

The song that I turned into a monologue was “I Want To Be Something,” by Weezer. I really like Weezer’s music, which you can by the fact that this is my second video using their songs as a monologue. The first one being “The Other Way”

I hope you like it and please let me know what you think.

Also, The song  “I Want To Be Something” was written and performed by Weezer. It appears on the band’s album Hurley which was released in 2010. Although there is no music video there is a recording of this song on YouTube here :http://youtu.be/a_m4SlbUujA and the band’s channel is https://www.youtube.com/user/WeezerVEVO . The band’s website is http://www.weezer.com/.

Connecting with a Character

I just recorded a video that talks about connecting with a character. I had written everything out, but I did not memorize what I wrote so the video is a bit different. I wanted to make sure I shared both though, because I believe they both have value.

First here is what I wrote. The video is below the write up.

The steps towards my goals I want to talk about is connecting with a character. It is something that I believe an actor has to do to portray a character justly. Something needs to snap in place and you the actor has to feel right with the character you have to fully get the character you are portraying.

I have struggled with this as you can see in my precious videos or at least I can see it in the stated songs and poetry readings I’ve done. Something just wasn’t clicking, the character I was trying be were just words. They had no life to them.

Well this week at my improv group a character clicked with me. I really feel like I did the character justice even if it was a silly improv game. I still made that connection, which has been a while since I could say that.

Thinking about it I wonder if I just haven’t realized it at improv before or if it’s growth. Either way it is a boost of confidence for me and reassurance that I can act. I just need to find the character in the words and figure out how to bring the scripted ones to life.