Dialogue Isn't Everything. It isn't even most things.
Jack Benny had a reputation for being cheap which often became part of his act. One of his most famous jokes was about him being mugged, and the mugger saying "Your money or your life!", to which Benny responds with complete silence, getting a huge laugh. The idea that he was taking the time to consider his options was shown through his lack of response, and the audience got it.
I often see students who panic during silence and feel like they need to fill every space with dialogue. But sometimes those silent moments can create a tension that can really grab an audience, and unnecessary dialogue can actually lower the stakes of the scene.
There are a few phrases that I hear over and over by improv actors avoiding silence. "You know" and "I mean" are the most common, used to stall when the improviser has nothing to say but wants to keep talking. Sometimes they fear the silence to follow. Sometimes they fear giving up control of the scene to their scene partner. Sometimes they simply don't know what else to do, hoping that if they keep talking funny words will eventually come out.
Starting sentences with "Look,..." and "Listen,..." are also tension killers. It's usually the actor (and not the character) saying "I've got something important to say" and implies that the rest of the time they are speaking their words aren't important. They're just filling silence.
In real life when we are strongly affected emotionally we speak very little and communicate primarily through body language. A silent reaction can say so much more than words. It's more believable. It's more real. It's active and in the moment.
Hmmm...ACTIVE...that's a good word. Let's explore it a bit.
Active: engaged in action.
Don't just talk, do stuff.
Active: causing activity or change; capable of exerting influence (opposed to passive).
When you do stuff, you will exert influence on your scene partner and your audience.
Actor: a person who acts.
You get where I'm going here, right?
Now get out there and make stuff up.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Pursuit of Perfection
Last night in class a student said that he needed structure in Harold group games because he was "a perfectionist". He was struggling because he wanted to "do it right" and was having difficulty committing to the game. He was just in his head, and hasn't yet discovered the fun of giving up control, but something about his wording made me think about it for a while after class was over.
Isn't improv by definition imperfect? Is it even possible to do it right?
I don't think so. I think we can do it well, but perfection is a goal best left unachieved. Humans are by nature imperfect. If we weren't, we would all be the same, and we would all be redundant, and we would all be boring. Our imperfections are what make us unique and interesting and beautiful as individuals and as artists.
The magic of improv comes from seeing actors being legitimately surprised in a scene, or making a mistake and embracing it, and there's no structure or formula that can prepare the actor for that. The only way to do it well is to release control and be completely true and honest in the moment. We must embrace our mistakes without judgment of ourselves and others.
In the movie "Almost Famous" there is a great scene between William and Penny Lane that goes something like this:
Penny: I'm going to live in Morocco for a year. Want to come?
William: Yes. (He looks confused) Ask me again.
Penny: Want to come?
William: Yes! Yes.
I watched it once with the director's commentary on, and Cameron Crowe said that the "ask me again" line was not in the script. It was the actor, Patrick Fugit, asking Kate Hudson to repeat her question because he wasn't sure he liked his original response. Crowe kept the "mistake" in the movie, and it's one of the most truthful and touching moments in the film. He was brilliant for recognizing it, and more importantly, he didn't let his ego get in the way of allowing a "mistake" through the editing room.
Life isn't perfect. Humans beings aren't perfect. Why should we expect our art to be?
Now get out there and make stuff up.
Isn't improv by definition imperfect? Is it even possible to do it right?
I don't think so. I think we can do it well, but perfection is a goal best left unachieved. Humans are by nature imperfect. If we weren't, we would all be the same, and we would all be redundant, and we would all be boring. Our imperfections are what make us unique and interesting and beautiful as individuals and as artists.
The magic of improv comes from seeing actors being legitimately surprised in a scene, or making a mistake and embracing it, and there's no structure or formula that can prepare the actor for that. The only way to do it well is to release control and be completely true and honest in the moment. We must embrace our mistakes without judgment of ourselves and others.
In the movie "Almost Famous" there is a great scene between William and Penny Lane that goes something like this:
Penny: I'm going to live in Morocco for a year. Want to come?
William: Yes. (He looks confused) Ask me again.
Penny: Want to come?
William: Yes! Yes.
I watched it once with the director's commentary on, and Cameron Crowe said that the "ask me again" line was not in the script. It was the actor, Patrick Fugit, asking Kate Hudson to repeat her question because he wasn't sure he liked his original response. Crowe kept the "mistake" in the movie, and it's one of the most truthful and touching moments in the film. He was brilliant for recognizing it, and more importantly, he didn't let his ego get in the way of allowing a "mistake" through the editing room.
Life isn't perfect. Humans beings aren't perfect. Why should we expect our art to be?
Now get out there and make stuff up.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
What Exactly is a Relationship Anyway?
Establish a relationship. Ever heard that before? Every improv teacher says that, and they’re right. But what does it mean?
Here’s the thing…if you call your scene partner “Mom”, you’ve labeled a relationship, but I’m not so sure you’ve established one. We often label our partner up top to get the relationship out of the way, but does this really fill the bill? Sure it helps, at least you now know who you are to each other, and sometimes it can lead to interesting things when it’s unexpected. (Stop flirting with my boyfriend, Mom!) But labeling where you fit on the family tree doesn’t establish a relationship. There are as many mother-child relationships as there are mothers and children. The possibilities for the dynamic between a mother and child are infinite, and it’s important to realize that the dynamic between the two characters is more important than the label. Every member of the audience has a specific frame of reference for a mother-child relationship, and it might not mirror yours, and it might not mirror your characters, and it might be completely irrelevant to what the scene is about.
We’re taught to know each other in a scene, and that’s a helpful idea for beginners, but it isn’t really necessary. (If you’ve ever talked improv with me over a beer, you know that I’m not big on rules.) If you put any two people together, they immediately have a relationship. Sometimes the relationship can be defined easily…mother-child, brothers, best friends, blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring. Sometimes that relationship is a little more difficult to label, such as "the two guys whose wives are best friends and they’ve been thrown together on a beach vacation but they’ve never met and one guy awkwardly walked in on the other one’s wife in the shower just before they were introduced and is trying to avoid talking about it." (Hmmm, that sounds like a fun scene. Too bad we have to know each other; I guess I won’t ever get to play it.) Truth be told, I have a relationship with over six billion people right now. Most of those relationships can be labeled as “complete strangers”, but it’s a relationship none the less.
It comes down to this: feel free to label your scene partner with a relationship at the top of scene, but don’t think for a minute your work is done. The relationship evolves as the scene progresses and is never the same in any two moments in time. Regardless of whether we have known each other all of our lives or we just met, as long as we are affected by each others words and actions in a truthful and meaningful way, we will have a compelling scene that the audience will enjoy.
Now get out there and make stuff up.
Here’s the thing…if you call your scene partner “Mom”, you’ve labeled a relationship, but I’m not so sure you’ve established one. We often label our partner up top to get the relationship out of the way, but does this really fill the bill? Sure it helps, at least you now know who you are to each other, and sometimes it can lead to interesting things when it’s unexpected. (Stop flirting with my boyfriend, Mom!) But labeling where you fit on the family tree doesn’t establish a relationship. There are as many mother-child relationships as there are mothers and children. The possibilities for the dynamic between a mother and child are infinite, and it’s important to realize that the dynamic between the two characters is more important than the label. Every member of the audience has a specific frame of reference for a mother-child relationship, and it might not mirror yours, and it might not mirror your characters, and it might be completely irrelevant to what the scene is about.
We’re taught to know each other in a scene, and that’s a helpful idea for beginners, but it isn’t really necessary. (If you’ve ever talked improv with me over a beer, you know that I’m not big on rules.) If you put any two people together, they immediately have a relationship. Sometimes the relationship can be defined easily…mother-child, brothers, best friends, blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring. Sometimes that relationship is a little more difficult to label, such as "the two guys whose wives are best friends and they’ve been thrown together on a beach vacation but they’ve never met and one guy awkwardly walked in on the other one’s wife in the shower just before they were introduced and is trying to avoid talking about it." (Hmmm, that sounds like a fun scene. Too bad we have to know each other; I guess I won’t ever get to play it.) Truth be told, I have a relationship with over six billion people right now. Most of those relationships can be labeled as “complete strangers”, but it’s a relationship none the less.
It comes down to this: feel free to label your scene partner with a relationship at the top of scene, but don’t think for a minute your work is done. The relationship evolves as the scene progresses and is never the same in any two moments in time. Regardless of whether we have known each other all of our lives or we just met, as long as we are affected by each others words and actions in a truthful and meaningful way, we will have a compelling scene that the audience will enjoy.
Now get out there and make stuff up.
The Psychic Pattern Matching Machine
I had a psychic experience once. A while ago I was exiting from the freeway behind a flatbed tow truck towing a car. We were stopped at a traffic light, on a hill, and somehow I knew that when the truck started up the hill, the car was going to come loose and that I should leave plenty of room behind. The light turned green, and sure enough the car moved backward as the truck moved forward. Fortunately it didn’t come completely off of the truck, but it did fall far enough off of the truck that had I not left extra room it might have hit my car.
I’m not a psychic. I don’t believe in psychic ability, at least not in the “magic” sense. (Maybe you do…there’s nothing wrong with that. I won’t judge.) What I do believe is that the human brain is the most powerful and efficient pattern matching machine in the world. I like to call this “intuition”. Every time we see, hear, smell, or touch something, our brains subconsciously compare it to every sensory memory pattern we have in an attempt to synthesize new information. Every sensory input either creates new knowledge, or reinforces what we already know through pattern matching. Our brain does all of this without conscious effort, just like breathing.
What I believe happened in the tow truck incident was that subconsciously I recognized something that didn’t match the “secure tow truck operation”, the “acceleration and incline physics”, or the “safe following distance” patterns in my brain. I have no idea exactly what I saw; I just knew that something bad was going to happen. And that’s the downside. We don’t have conscious control of intuition. We can’t turn it off and on, we can’t force it, and we can’t control it. All we can do is choose whether or not to listen.
In improv conscious invention of circumstances, connections, characters…anything really…is difficult. Invention requires thinking of an idea, executing that idea, communicating that idea to your scene partner, and then finding the next idea and repeating the process. And we have to do it fast, before the audience gets bored. It’s hard work. Discovering those things by just letting our subconscious pattern match on what’s happening in the moment is easy. It just happens. In fact, if we are inventing instead of discovering, we have to consciously ignore our intuition while it’s trying to give us the answers for free. When we let our subconscious guide our scenes our work seems more pure and less forced. And it’s much more fun, both for the actor and for the audience.
Trust your intuition. Discover the scene rather than inventing it. Have fun.
Now get out there and make stuff up.
I’m not a psychic. I don’t believe in psychic ability, at least not in the “magic” sense. (Maybe you do…there’s nothing wrong with that. I won’t judge.) What I do believe is that the human brain is the most powerful and efficient pattern matching machine in the world. I like to call this “intuition”. Every time we see, hear, smell, or touch something, our brains subconsciously compare it to every sensory memory pattern we have in an attempt to synthesize new information. Every sensory input either creates new knowledge, or reinforces what we already know through pattern matching. Our brain does all of this without conscious effort, just like breathing.
What I believe happened in the tow truck incident was that subconsciously I recognized something that didn’t match the “secure tow truck operation”, the “acceleration and incline physics”, or the “safe following distance” patterns in my brain. I have no idea exactly what I saw; I just knew that something bad was going to happen. And that’s the downside. We don’t have conscious control of intuition. We can’t turn it off and on, we can’t force it, and we can’t control it. All we can do is choose whether or not to listen.
In improv conscious invention of circumstances, connections, characters…anything really…is difficult. Invention requires thinking of an idea, executing that idea, communicating that idea to your scene partner, and then finding the next idea and repeating the process. And we have to do it fast, before the audience gets bored. It’s hard work. Discovering those things by just letting our subconscious pattern match on what’s happening in the moment is easy. It just happens. In fact, if we are inventing instead of discovering, we have to consciously ignore our intuition while it’s trying to give us the answers for free. When we let our subconscious guide our scenes our work seems more pure and less forced. And it’s much more fun, both for the actor and for the audience.
Trust your intuition. Discover the scene rather than inventing it. Have fun.
Now get out there and make stuff up.
Batman Vs. Superman
Quick, without thinking about it, who is more interesting, Superman or Batman? I'll bet you said Batman. The numbers don't lie:
Domestic Gross of Batman and Superman films
It doesn't make sense. Superman is nearly invincible. He has X-ray vision. He can melt steel with his breath. He can fly so fast around the earth that it begins to spin backwards and reverse time. In the last Superman movie, he actually got shot at point blank range IN THE EYEBALL and the bullet bounced off. Superman can do anything. That should make for a great movie every time, right? Superman is invulnerable. He’s polite, he’s respectful, and he’s NEVER tempted to do wrong. He isn’t human. I’ll say that again…HE ISN’T HUMAN.
Batman, meanwhile, is just a rich guy who can fight. That's not so special. I could win the lottery, buy a mansion and a tricked out car, and take Kung Fu lessons. I could BE BATMAN!
And that is why Batman is more popular than Superman. Batman is vulnerable, and we can relate to him. Unfortunately, Superman’s weaknesses often show up in improv.
In improv, playing vulnerable characters is one of the most difficult skills to learn. We (men especially) are raised to believe that we shouldn't show emotion publicly, so onstage we play characters who aren't emotionally affected by the world around them. Many beginning improvisers believe that choosing not to be affected by big offers is a funny and interesting choice. How many times have you seen this scene?
Character 1: "Your mother just died."
Character 2: "Ok, what's for dinner?"
The problem is, while that may FEEL like a surprising and interesting choice, it usually comes from a place of fear. We’re afraid to reveal ourselves on stage in front of strangers. We don’t want people to see the faces we make when we’re hurt, or sad, or afraid, or confused. Those are private emotions, and it’s human nature to want to keep them inside. We’re taught in our real lives to be brave in the face of adversity (which is a good thing) but we mistakenly believe that means to be unaffected by adversity. (Not so good.)
Think about it…who’s braver, the guy who makes a name for himself as a crime fighter by traveling to a planet full of relative weaklings who don’t stand a chance against him, or the guy who knows his life is on the line every time he fights crime, but he does it anyway?
Be Batman.
Now get out there and make stuff up.
Domestic Gross of Batman and Superman films
| The Dark Knight: | $533,316,061 |
| Batman Begins: | $205,343,774 |
| Batman & Robin: | $107,285,004 |
| Batman Forever: | $183,997,904 |
| Batman Returns: | $162,744,850 |
| Batman: | $251,185,407 |
| Superman Returns: | $200,069,408 |
| Superman 4: | $ 15,681,020 |
| Superman 3: | $ 56,950,623 |
| Superman 2: | $101,347,629 |
| Superman: | $ 40,925,251 |
It doesn't make sense. Superman is nearly invincible. He has X-ray vision. He can melt steel with his breath. He can fly so fast around the earth that it begins to spin backwards and reverse time. In the last Superman movie, he actually got shot at point blank range IN THE EYEBALL and the bullet bounced off. Superman can do anything. That should make for a great movie every time, right? Superman is invulnerable. He’s polite, he’s respectful, and he’s NEVER tempted to do wrong. He isn’t human. I’ll say that again…HE ISN’T HUMAN.
Batman, meanwhile, is just a rich guy who can fight. That's not so special. I could win the lottery, buy a mansion and a tricked out car, and take Kung Fu lessons. I could BE BATMAN!
And that is why Batman is more popular than Superman. Batman is vulnerable, and we can relate to him. Unfortunately, Superman’s weaknesses often show up in improv.
In improv, playing vulnerable characters is one of the most difficult skills to learn. We (men especially) are raised to believe that we shouldn't show emotion publicly, so onstage we play characters who aren't emotionally affected by the world around them. Many beginning improvisers believe that choosing not to be affected by big offers is a funny and interesting choice. How many times have you seen this scene?
Character 1: "Your mother just died."
Character 2: "Ok, what's for dinner?"
The problem is, while that may FEEL like a surprising and interesting choice, it usually comes from a place of fear. We’re afraid to reveal ourselves on stage in front of strangers. We don’t want people to see the faces we make when we’re hurt, or sad, or afraid, or confused. Those are private emotions, and it’s human nature to want to keep them inside. We’re taught in our real lives to be brave in the face of adversity (which is a good thing) but we mistakenly believe that means to be unaffected by adversity. (Not so good.)
Think about it…who’s braver, the guy who makes a name for himself as a crime fighter by traveling to a planet full of relative weaklings who don’t stand a chance against him, or the guy who knows his life is on the line every time he fights crime, but he does it anyway?
Be Batman.
Now get out there and make stuff up.
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