Tim Mahoney
Ep 4 | Narrative Improv

Tim Mahoney
Tim Mahoney is an improv coach and teacher at Reno Improv. He would rather be doing improv than almost anything else (who wouldn’t?), so you’ll see that beautiful, bearded face consistently around the improv scene, at conventions, or anything improv-related.
In this episode we talk narrative improv, secondary characters, Theatre Sports, and much, much, much, much, much more. (Let’s just say, Tim is never at a loss for words and that’s why we love having him on our podcast!).
We also experiment with the 8-step narrative format on which he bases his newest improv group, Ghost’s performance that looks something like this.
Show Notes
In this episode we go deep into the
Tim Mahoney:
Find him @TimMahoneyComedy on Instagram
Teams: Ghost & We Digress @renoimprov
History – Sam Wasson’s Book “Improv Nation” – Now Available on Amazon for super cheap!
The Reno Improv – https://renoimprov.com/ Follow them @renoimprov on Instagram and Facebook. They have a show EVERY Saturday at 8PM (Come early at 6:30 for the Playground – a 1.5 hour workshop exciting for all levels of players.) $5 gets you into BOTH.
Impro Theatre – see their website at improtheatre.com
San Fransisco Improv Festival – SFimprovfestival.com
Patty Styles: On Facebook @PattiStilesImpro
International Sport Theatre – impro.global
This Episode’s Segments
- Game : Unassociation Game
- History: Olivia Spolin
- Word Of The Day: “Beat”
Credits
- Produced By Jesi Wicks
- Written By Katie Welsh & Jesi Wicks
- Theme Music By Amorphia
- Special thanks to Chris Webster & Reno Improv
Disclaimers
We are not experts, and do not claim to be. Improv is a craft that you can never master or perfect. Instead, we are improv lovers and students of play talking about our learning experiences. We do not subscribe to or endorse anything said by guests on this show unless specifically expressed. All content on this site is copyrighted to Jesi Wicks and Katie Welsh.
The 8 Step Narrative Improv Format
The 8 step narrative improv format is a suggested structure of how your scenes can be laid out. Listen to our podcast with Tim Mahoney to learn more, but here is a rough outline of how each of the 8 scenes would unfold:
- Once upon a time……there was a girl named Dorinda who always wanted to become a professional hair braider.
- And every day….she would braid her sister’s hair.
- Until one day…. she discovered Supercuts.
- And because of that….she applied for the hair-braider-in-training job at Supercuts
- And because of that….she climbed her way up the hair braiding ladder until she became lead hair braider.
- And because of that….she became President of National Hair Braiders of America
- Until one day (heading toward a resolution)….there was a hair braiding scandal that became a tangled mess.
- And ever since that day……Dorinda has focused her efforts on becoming a french twist extraordinaire!
Jesi or Kaie ,get with me to discuss this with me please. One of the things I hear a lot are that you have to know the rules of improv in order to break them. I see a lot of stuff happening in Improv it is basically just people always breaking the rules. Is it really that flexible that there is the ability to break rules at all time? I think the question I’m asking here is about where you go and how to break the rules properly. For example, I saw a scene playing out, where the people were floundering, I thought to add something to help out, and someone else had the same idea at the same time. Their’s was a cut to edit, and mine would have been a walk-on. When the scene actually went forward with the cut to and the existing actors did not have a problem, I did not go out with my offering. When I mentioned this to someone else, the entire group of people looked at me like I was batshit crazy for not having gone on with an offering. My thought on it was they were in a scene I didn’t need to interrupt their scene with something that wasn’t necessary. But really it was weird having people look at me like I should have going on no matter what even though it wasn’t going to help the scene out any it was just going to interrupt them when they had started getting a flow the two people on stage. I guess the question continues as Was I just supposed to do what I thought up and not care about what was going on stage? I really thought improv was supposed to be supportive, but I see people put on their oxygen mask first when they are still in the TSA line. Not than it ruins a scene, but if it complicates it or steals stage time from the people on stage, then is it really supportive, and how do you know the difference?