Awesome Improv

We were shocked to hear that keyboard player Brockett Parsons has never listened to the music of Muse, but that provides an excellent setup for this Pianote video. Lady Gaga’s gifted keyboardist provided a unique jazz-fusion spin on the track Hysteria, performed on his 288-key wraparound keyboard.

We enjoy watching Drumeo’s series, where they ask musicians to create the drum track for a song they’ve never heard. In this session, they challenged Julliard jazz professor Ulysses Owens Jr. to perform the Nirvana song In Bloom. Ulysses’ interpretation both touches on the original and adds some new flourishes compared to Dave Grohl’s original.

We know how important the work of foley artists can be when it comes to adding sound effects to movies. But the clueless dudes in this animated comedy sketch from deansoups must have fallen asleep – or smoked a whole lot of weed – while attending foley school.

The cast of the comedy game show Game Changer was challenged to improvise an entire musical and came up with this bit of comedic genius – a hilarious opening song about a really weird town on the eastern seaboard. Watch the full episode on Dropout or stream the entire soundtrack.

(PG-13) Will Arnett stars in this comedy series that pokes fun at cop dramas. Each episode features a celebrity sidekick who must help detective Terry Seattle solve crimes – without a script. Guests include Conan O’Brien, Ken Jeong, Annie Murphy, Kumail Nanjiani, Sharon Stone, and Marshawn Lynch. Drops 2.3.22 on Netflix.

Dee Bradley Baker has brought characters to life on everything from American Dad! to Samurai Jack. He also has the ability to imitate the sounds of all kinds of creatures, from birds to pigs to angry squirrels. Great Big Story sat down with Dee and asked him to improvise some animal noises. Those alien sounds were insane.

On this episode of IMDb’s Special Skills, Jay Pharoah is joined by Rhys Darby to spend a few minutes talking about impressions, as Rhys shares some of his tricks for making sound effects with his voice, who simply can’t resist trying to do an impression of his New Zealander guest. Michael Winslow has nothing to worry about… yet.

Mario and Fafa take a day off from scripted comedy to do a little improv. First, they play a fun game where they have to try and say the same word at the same time, then another where they identify celebrities and characters who are progressively smaller than the last one they mentioned. Who could be tinier than Ant-Man?

(PG-13: Language) The cast and creators of Rick and Morty dropped by Vulture, and were asked if they’d improvise a mini-episode in which they enter the world of SpongeBob SquarePants, and things quickly go off the rails from there.

During a recent appearance at The Kennedy Center, musician Ben Folds showed off his ability to rapidly improvise, as he composed an entire song live in less than 10 minutes, including all the parts for the National Symphony Orchestra so they could play along.

Jimmy Kimmel decided to get the cast of hit NBC drama ER back together for a big reunion, but it seems as if his last minute plans resulted in nobody but George Clooney showing up. At least he managed to get a second opinion on Jimmy’s diagnosis.

(PG-13 Language) MCs Beardyman, LeeN, and Dizraeli and crew tear up the stage with a fun, freestyle performance based entirely on a random title provided by an audience member. From the all-improv One Album Per Hour tour.

(NSFW:Language) Found footage of the late, great Robin Williams as he improvs to help prove that director Howard Storm can handle working with even the most challenging of actors. Thanks to editor Daniel Pastel for hanging on to this.

The forefather of Home Movies and Bob’s Burgers, Dr. Katz Professional Therapist is a classic animated comedy. So when we stumbled onto the show performed on live stage, we were tickled. You know what the music means.