Korean Job Discussion Forums

[DanielP]

Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone knew where one could find improv comedy classes in Seoul? I've used Google.kr to no success and I've tried searching here to no success. So besides the improv in comedy class, I'll also need the improv to using search engines class (tum tum tah).......I think I'll start with comedy .

Any help would be much appreciated.

DannyP

[mindmetoo]

Comedy is a rather weird thing in Korea. It's mostly slapstick. Guys running around in women's clothing.

[Mashimaro]

[JongnoGuru]

Ah, the old dropping-the-cookie-tray-on-your-head-for-giving-the-wrong-answer gag. That one never, ever, EVER gets old for the Koreans, does it?

[seoulsucker]

Step 1: Watch Korean TV
Step 2: Take note of frequently aired commercials starring a celebrity
Step 3: Put on suspenders, bald prosthetic, and smear white make up under your nose
Step 4: Have a male friend put on a hanbok
Step 5: Never speak directly to anyone else on stage, only to the audience
Step 6: Repeat a phrase or action you saw in the commercial
Step 7: Sample an archaic American pop song and insert it between gags
Step 8: Repeat commercial phrase again

[JongnoGuru]

I know this doesn't qualify as "improv" as it's normally understood, but as I was telling MM2 off-board, there was a World Expo here many years back, with corporate pavilions and country pavilions. Lots of cool exhibits and amusement-park rides incorporated into many of the Chaebol Paviliion tours. Those were by the most popular, the longest queues I've seen in my life, people waiting 3+ hours for 15-minute rides.

So the GF and I wandered over to... it was either the Malaysian or the Indonesian Country Pavilion, and we were surprised to find something of a mob scene in there, too. Surprised because except for the China Pavilion, most of the country pavilions were absolutely starved for visitors. So what heck is going on here at the Malaysian Pavilion?

There was a huge and, for Koreans, oddly quiet crowd of over 100 people, just sort of camped out there, some sitting on mats, others just standing, all of them facing forward in this clearing alongside the carpeted path that visitors follow as they look at the (generally rather boring) exhibits of the Malaysia Pavilion.

So we're walking along the pathway, GF and I are looking at this assembled throng and wondering what they're doing there, "Are they waiting for some scheduled performance or what?" And just then I stumbled over this imperceptible incline in the pathway (there were cords or pipes running underneath, so they had to arch the walkway up and then down slightly). So I stumble awkwardly and regain my balance, and the moment I do, that crowd BURST into laughter! THAT was what they're all gathering to see -- people tripping over that damn incline in the pathway! Not the exhibit itself, nothing to do with Malaysia. Just the Chaplinesque pratfalls of unwary visitors! THAT was the big (and only) draw!

They had a little restaurant set up in the back, quite good food, we went there for lunch several times during the Expo. While eating there once, we talked with some of the Malaysian girls who were part of the pavilion staff, and we mentioned the little "sobriety test" in the pathway and the big crowds that gather there. They said Koreans would set up mats from the early morning and there'd be crowds the whole day long until the park closed. Why didn't they fix it or make a detour or put up warning signs? The girls said they'd thought about it, but then decided to leave it as it was. It was the only thing drawing a steady flow of visitors.

There used to be something like this at the Korean Folk Village. A huge log was set (or had fallen) from the shore of the lake to the island in the lake. Looking at it from the lakeshore, it seemed solid & sturdy enough, and it also appeared to be the only way to get to the island without actually wading through the waist-deep water. So lots of people would attempt to cross over on it, but what they didn't/couldn't know (and what the grannies and ajoshis perched ALL OVER the banks of the lake wouldn't dare tell you, as it would spoil their fun) is that once you get about half-way across, that log starts wobbling like a sonofabitch, and you're in for a dunking no matter how agile you are.

That's Korean improv.

[JeJuJitsu]

[mindmetoo]