Stealing Honor

In the Style of a "Reluctant Thief" Like Thief or Sabotage 

In a World....where there is no honor amongst thieves, one good man with a checkered past looks forward to a peaceful retirement with his daughter but is forced back in by an old associate to commit one last job...

This show contains the improv games Movie Trailer, Scenes Without the Letter, Newsroom, Best of Times Worst of Times, and Cutting Room. And Octopi, VTOL, and a henchman named Stone. 

In this episode, we pay homage to Reluctant Thief movies - the ones where a (somewhat) honorable criminal is trying to leave that life behind but is forced back to commit one...last...job. This one took some weird turns (as they should - it’s improv!) but we’d like to think we managed to tie things together with a nice little bow.

Time Codes

Segment 1 - Discussion the Genre Tropes: 04:01

Segment 2 - Creating the Movie Outline: 10:01

Segment 3 - Picking the Improv Comedy Games: 16:24

Start of show: 21:16

Improv Game - Movie Game: 22:17

Improv Game - Scenes Without the Letter: 24:20

Improv Game -  Newsroom: 32:09

Improv Game - Best of Times, Worst of Times: 43:05

Improv Game - Cutting Room: 52:38

End of show, into announcements: 1:08:20

More Information About the Show, Mike, and Avish

Subscribe to the podcast: www.AvishAndMike.com/subscribe

Our Website: www.AvishAndMike.com

Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/143183833647812

Avish’s site: www.AvishParashar.com 

Mike’s site: www.MikeWorthMusic.com/

 

Transcription of the “Discussing the Genre Tropes” Segment (Unedited and Un-Cleaned up)

Avish Parashar: segment one.

Avish Parashar: Discussing the genre tropes.

Avish Parashar: Alright, so we're going to start by spending five minutes talking about the tropes and commonalities and cliches in this genre, so I will set our timer here for five minutes so Mike when you think of this type of movie what comes to mind.

Michael Worth: So first of the the main character can be followed, obviously, the main character is a retired slash left is like behind him specialist of some sort it's usually like a cyber like a look a bit of a criminal, what is it the victimless crime kind of thing because safecracker or a.

Avish Parashar: yeah it's not yeah it's not like the muscle or the killer it's the yeah someone who's really smart who.

Avish Parashar: yeah doesn't like it, I think fickleness is a great way to describe it like there's like the feeling expert that safe cracking expert.

Avish Parashar: Or maybe even like the you know the deceptive person, but yeah it's not the one who goes in and kills the guards.

Michael Worth: Right um so what happens is no basically this This is basically like a heist movie basically um and there's a couple ways there's a couple ways that trumps can go one is the dude was there, the main bad guy is always this kind of villainous.

Michael Worth: scheming for his own wealthy kind of thing, so he usually runs a corporation or a gang or something like that.

Michael Worth: Definitely it's a trope of the corporation was always a good one, you know where it's like oh i'm a company, I need you to like steal something from a rival company or I need you to like you know steal.

Michael Worth: or or break in and kind of gain this data or something like that swordfish, is one of those kind of like that.

Avish Parashar: yeah.

Michael Worth: Where they get a.

Michael Worth: X men to do you know.

Michael Worth: um so the other trope is there's two ways this can go one is the dude is a solo guy, in which case.

Michael Worth: He spends a lot of there's a lot of casing the joint and kind of a building a plan or it's a heist party and he he builds his like team of three or four people and they kind of go in leverage style and my.

Avish Parashar: yeah I think go either way, I think I think the highest plan is more interesting, I think the solo plan is a little more simple for improv so we can kind of decide which want to do.

Michael Worth: I think i'm solo plan which is kind of cool.

Avish Parashar: And i'll say that usually.

Avish Parashar: there's some leverage like they use the person like they've kidnap the daughter, the best friend the parents usually kidnapping, it could also be like a debt like.

Avish Parashar: You know this person owes but even if they owe money usually it's not like dating get into like $100,000 that usually it's like.

Avish Parashar: You know their best friend did so they're taking on the debt so they're very noble is the the here like yes, even though they're a thief or a criminal to have like a strong moral compass.

Michael Worth: Yes, yes, definitely do yeah and only going with that there's there's definitely a.

Michael Worth: don't kill, whenever possible, like so he's not going in and everything's very slick, and like here's the problem with getting like knocking somebody out or something but there's no death clause, you know that, in the tropes.

yeah.

Avish Parashar: yeah.

Michael Worth: You go for it.

Avish Parashar: So there's all there's usually a police officer detective.

Avish Parashar: Who starts to suspect that this person is not all bad.

Avish Parashar: You know in in in Assam casing this out, or if it's like a hostage thing depends, how far it goes a lot of times the police officer eventually figures out that our hero is not.

Avish Parashar: Like being forced to do it, even though the rest of the police force electronic stop and arrest them like usually one person who gets it.

Michael Worth: So now, the question is this here's here's a trick question when that when the event finally happens when you know the break in the theme is probably gonna be a thief thing.

Michael Worth: Does it is, is the is the trope the excellent and slick execution to to get the object without anybody knowing, or is it like things start to go bad and the hero has to think quickly to kind of overcome obstacles or is it a little bit of both.

Avish Parashar: I would say it's usually more the second more like yeah something goes wrong um and and sometimes it can be one of two things, it could be either something goes wrong.

Avish Parashar: i'm either the here i'll make something go wrong like they intentionally do something on the download without the bad guys knowing or you know the hero does something like to save a life right like instead of killing the god who saves a God, but then that creates complications.

Michael Worth: yeah yeah.

um.

Avish Parashar: But yeah I would say, usually not I say doesn't usually just get executed really flawlessly and everything's.

Michael Worth: yeah and the final trope is at the at the end of the company, the confrontation with the the villain um this is more of a question there's a couple ways, it can go either the hero kills the film, which is really.

Michael Worth: useful because usually this is almost become a PG thing i'm or the the hero tricks the villain so that he gets back the person who's kidnapped with the money and what he gives the villain incriminate slash gets the villain arrested.

Avish Parashar: yeah like does a twist where.

Avish Parashar: yeah he thinks the hero did what he wanted to, but in fact it it flips it around and then yeah yeah yeah.

Michael Worth: And then you know that's usually the last of that trope that's a pretty good you know that's a pretty good broad outline of what these kind of film is going to be.

Avish Parashar: yeah and I will say The other thing is if it's a heist type thing for the group, then.

Avish Parashar: there's usually some people within the group who are like there's like us like one who kind of is more an ally who's who agrees with the hero like not wanting to hurt and then everyone else was like psychotic like.

Michael Worth: yeah yeah.

Avish Parashar: At least like one psycho bad guy who's not the main bad guy but I was just like I just want to kill COPs and.

Michael Worth: and

Avish Parashar: and others were like well I don't know I kind of what the hero got he's got a point alright So those are duck timers yeah we have a lot of tropes i'm so good, which brings us to segment to creating the outline.

Transcription of the “Creating the Outline” Segment (Unedited and Un-Cleaned up)

Avish Parashar: Alright, so now we're going to spend about five minutes hashing out our outline for this we do a four act structure which is basically a three act structure we just put Act two into.

Avish Parashar: X, two and three to two X, because the first half is usually more reactive, the second is proactive just helps with the improv a little bit.

Avish Parashar: And just kind of the disclaimer here we're going to make the outline now, but since this is improv and using improv games, we may very well veer from it, but this will be a kind of starting point and and lifeline alright, so our five minutes starts now.

Avish Parashar: All right, so uh you know first question, as usual, is we usually either start with a movie trailer or a prologue.

Michael Worth: This is going to be a trailer.

Avish Parashar: yeah.

Michael Worth: yeah trailer for this one.

Avish Parashar: Alright, so let's start with a movie trailer all right, then act one.

Avish Parashar: Oh, and what have you the truth, so in act one.

Avish Parashar: Obvious obviously the we meet the hero, and they get forced into into joining the gang right right.

Michael Worth: or joining joining the.

Avish Parashar: The operation right Bob right.

Michael Worth: So i'm gonna put down instead with main character he's living his post.

Michael Worth: Crime simple life, the interest of villain it's almost always a face to face meeting the number one of these like con things where you never see what curtain come never in the same room.

Michael Worth: yeah villain co OPS car to do the operation I don't think in this one he's going to join the team, I think the whole point is that this guy is kind of slick kind of James Bond he does it by his own.

Avish Parashar: A lot of time okay yeah so I like that so.

Avish Parashar: i'm not a heist team I just kind of like I need you to like break into blah blah blah this one time for me.

Avish Parashar: I would say at the end of act one, is where we discover the leverage the villain has you know, like the person who's kidnapped or the the you know why.

Avish Parashar: You know refusal, a call right, of course, here's me like dude i'm out i'm not doing this yep and then something happens where he's forced into it.

Michael Worth: yeah reveals leverage cool and then.

Avish Parashar: Potentially we could meet oh good to the active so act too.

Avish Parashar: I think we should meet the kind of protagonists police officer.

Michael Worth: yeah and you know what usually happens at this point in time here's what's happening Act two is is the setup and the research of the heist by the guy.

Michael Worth: yeah at this point is where he attracts the attention of the police officer, you know, maybe like facial recognition software triggers something or like.

Michael Worth: Some garden notices this guy's been hanging around the location, so you know I mean like that's kind of the police officer gets involved he gets brought in.

Avish Parashar: yeah you know.

Michael Worth: hero begins to plan.

Avish Parashar: And I would say, sometimes in this act, is where the hero, maybe tries to get out of it like you're maybe tries to contact the police or tries to do something, but then, like the bad guy is one step ahead, and you know says know if you do that again like i'm going to kill your whatever.

Michael Worth: Oh yeah that could happen yeah definitely yep.

Avish Parashar: And maybe maybe not my will, maybe I won't work in the scope here, but often there's like a mini heist right here it's like it's like a test run slash they need to second to break into the big vault they need this special device which is hidden in this company's headquarters.

Michael Worth: yeah or or or you have to another corporation just steal them in a piece of tech usually a mini heist.

Michael Worth: To enable the macguffin for the big heist.

Avish Parashar: yeah.

Michael Worth: Right and also usually at this point in time now might be act three nevermind a you know the monk.

Michael Worth: describes in act one the villain usually describes the function.

Michael Worth: Of the object to be dealt with like Oh, you need to get this piece of code that will allow me to like seamlessly change money from one currency to another without any sort of fee.

Avish Parashar: Right you're saying, whatever so.

Michael Worth: yeah doesn't act one because an act for.

Michael Worth: You because the next three, is where the true nature of the object interview that is always different than what it is that we.

Avish Parashar: Are various like.

Michael Worth: yeah right.

Avish Parashar: Like I feel this money it's like oh no that lets me access all the nuclear launch codes.

Michael Worth: Right right oh yeah this device can boil any water oh look I can actually just cause lakes to dry up and cause, you know droughts in like whole you know towns hostage, I was like oh okay.

Avish Parashar: And I think the actual operation.

Avish Parashar: starts in act three.

Michael Worth: Obviously the act three is a yeah is execution.

Michael Worth: Of the operation right.

Avish Parashar: yeah and I think.

Avish Parashar: And their obstacles know things go wrong or you know they're like guards come up or yep.

Michael Worth: I stab at three ends with a getting the object.

Michael Worth: And realizing like we said it's nefarious potential realize in its various potential.

Michael Worth: And this kind of the hero, is trying to figure out what's the company at this point in time, usually at this.

Avish Parashar: I think in act three I think the in the COP is more involved and COPs maybe one of the obstacles in Act two, and certainly not three of the COPs and obstacle.

Avish Parashar: And I would say at the end of act three out either he discovered the here discovers what the actual purpose is or gives it to the.

Avish Parashar: villain and then realize the purpose, but I think the COP gets involved, the end of that three to like maybe catches or or freeze even like realize this number two of them work together.

Michael Worth: yeah yeah so then act, for this is our streets until we want his hero.

Michael Worth: confronts.

Michael Worth: out smarts.

Michael Worth: villain.

Avish Parashar: Conrad.

Avish Parashar: Oh that's often what happens is kind of a trope is that the COP.

Avish Parashar: goes and rescues the leverage, while the hero.

Avish Parashar: Go fill in and so.

Avish Parashar: Basically, save the kidnap person.

Avish Parashar: confront the villain and turn the tables.

Michael Worth: yeah he's good friends announcements phil and competencies in here a cop rescues leverage hero turns tables.

Michael Worth: On villain cool that's it that's a decent outline.

Avish Parashar: That all right, so that also was the end of our five minute timer so we have our outline

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