The always entertaining and informative i.O. blogs are celebrating their one year blogiversary. They enjoyed a little shout out on the Comedy Central Insider blog, which mentions this post by Baz, who offers a nice summary of his favorite posts from his fellow improv bloggers over the past year.

While we're talking about i.O., let's check in with Crago's careful instructions on how to handle a tipsy Cubs fan who's stumbled into the Del Close theater looking for...whatever it is they're looking for: "When a drunk Cub fan finds their way into the theatre. Don’t approach them. Treat them like a sleepwalking victim, because in most instances, that’s what they are. They’re so loaded up on Jagerbombs and Old Style, that they walk in a haze. Just let them come into the theatre and eventually they’ll figure out that Dane Cook isn’t in there doing standup."

Bill Arnett offers a special memorial blog post to author Kurt Vonnegut, who passed away this week. He recalls how Vonnegut's “Breakfast of Champions” taught him about an author's control of the story, and how to manage the "what next" question that improv deals with on its feet: "In improv the question 'what next' can be absolutely paralyzing. You just finished the first beat of a Harold. You have three story lines, six characters and innumerable themes. What do you do now? It’s easy to feel that you have an obligation to some story that’s slowly developing. It’s easy to let your characters become driven by the plot instead of letting them drive the action. Take a page from Kurt Vonnegut (page 14, please) and do something really stupid. Try to ruin your show. Try really hard to ruin what your doing. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn that you can’t."

Baz also offers a tip of the hat to Vonnegut, by posting a picture of something the cantankerous genius apparently scribbled to a fan a few years ago, answering the question "Where do you get your ideas from?" Vonnegut explained: "I was goofing around like everyone else in Indiana, and all of a sudden stuff came gushing out. It was disgust with civilization." Why did this man never try stand-up comedy?

- Elizabeth McQuern