Got Your Back E43: Maybe You Aren’t Listening

Here are some notes and interpretations I took while listening to Austin improv podcast Got Your Back. This is from Episode 43: Maybe You Aren’t Listening. Click the links on the times to be taken to an audio version of the note.

7:08: “If you’re not listening, you’re inventing. [..] If you’re not using what the other person is giving you, or what you’re even giving yourself, or if you’re not aware of what’s going on then you’re not going to be able to use it.”

  • Usually happens the first line out of a scene, due to nervousness?
  • Use the intended specifics given at the top of a scene by your scene partner

9:06: “It’s like you gave some information, and then I was like hey this would be crazy! [..] It’s not working together, it’s like working alone, next to each other at that point.”

11:05: “Relax up top. [..] If you get nervous, just try and do more of what they already said, or just try and react to what was already there. Try to avoid going into your head and creating something external based on something that wasn’t said, inferred, with a subtext of what was said.”

  • If you feel unclear, do some object work, keep listening, let your partner keep feeding you, or just ask them
  • It’s fine to ask “what did you say?” if you didn’t hear your scene partner. React to it!
  • No matter how crazy it gets, we can always make sense of it.

14:31: “It changes the reality every time we aren’t listening.”

15:36: “It’s all right there, you know. It’s always all right there. There’s never nothing going on. If you look at the person there, you’re in a position in relation to each other, you’re probably emoting with your eyes even if it’s just I’m uncomfortable because I’m an improviser on stage and the show just started, and you can always use that. You can always read what’s there.”

  • “Being ahead of your audience is a great thing, but not during the first few lines”
  • Get on the same page as performers, then race to the top!

19:51: “The second level of listening is communicating that you’ve listened.”

  • Listen for the intent behind the message, which will prevent negotiation at the top of the scene. Agree with that first line and play it!
  • Play the simple game and make it more complex.
  • Let the things that come up from the suggestion/opening filter who you are, rather then what you say at the top of a scene.
  • If your scene partner walks through a object work made desk, do you call it out or leave it be? Prioritise: What’s the most important thing in the scene? If the scene partner is talking about relationship, it’s that. If the scene partner is spouting non-sequiturs – it’s the desk. Play with the fire – their intent should be given weight.
  • If you want to play with it, tie everything together – make the walk through a choice with wha telse your scene partner is giving.

35:51: “Listening is the willingness to change.” – Dave Pasquesi (or someone. It wasn’t made clear)

36:06: “The desk in a certain level plays the same role as an improviser talking through their drink as they’re drinking. As an audience member I’m going to notice it and I’m going to move right past it because the interaction and the emotional connection between the two performers trumps that little bad piece, or quote unquote bad piece of space work. [..] If there’s a perfect world to bring it together without derailing the scene, that’s great. But if not, I’d say the emotionality trumps that bad space work and that ignoring it, most of the audience will ignore it [..], maybe some of the improvisers will notice and if they’re judging your show on that they can go fuck themselves.”

  • If you don’t know what to say, let it wash over you. Take a moment and then react.
  • If you’ve created something, there’s probably so much more to do. So explore.
  • If you’re going to reference something, reference something from the show, not something completely outside of the show. Use the universe we have!
  • Entering/editing after a reveal: hurts the group as a whole. If the people in the scene have just found momentum, let them keep that ball rolling before taking or stopping the ball.
  • Side support: Don’t come on to add information that has previously been established. Add information that helps the people in the scene focus, don’t distract them. Give the players time to use that information too – don’t make the move because it’s a “good” move to make.
  • If it’s fun for you on the sidelines, it doesn’t necessarily make it fun for the people in the scene.

54:41: “Try this guys. Go out there, start a scene at a restaurant, be clear you’re at a restaurant but have no waiter there. Be talking to someone else, and see if your group has the discipline to not just walk on with some wacky waiter that changes the game. [..] If there’s a scene at a restaurant there’s going to be a waiter coming in. And they, likely are not going to have the same focus or necessarily be heightening the focus that the two people who started the scene had, and that feels shitty to me, it feels like that person isn’t listening.”

55:41: “So basically, listening trumps inspiration.”

57:52: “Listen to yourself. Do you know what you just did so you can do it again? So you can play that thing? So you can replicate it or in some way use it? You have to have an awareness to yourself.”

  • Take time with what you’re doing. You are not forced to do stuff without realising what you’re doing. Slow down!
  • Call out what the other person is doing – they might not be aware that they are doing it.

59:53: “If they know what they have each done, there’s a whole well to go back to.”

  • Sometimes informed by the feeling of “we need to” instead of listening met with judgement. Keep yes-anding.

1:01:33: Group scenes: Focus everyone on to one piece of information. The more people on stage, the more you should be listening.

1:03:02: Remembering elements of the show: Games/What scenes are about and names!

  • Names: Allows for a slow show to look slick, allow for big show moves to happen because you can shortcut them by simply mentioning the name. Smooths things out, especially for second beats.
  • If it’s half way through the show and you have to keep rebuilding, you would have never be able to build higher than you previously did.
  • Repeat names at least three times, so your teammates have something to use. “Plant the flag”
  • Give them nicknames, adjective names to help them stick. “Old Mean Steve!”
  • Naming scenes: A short descriptor to make things easier to remember in second beats. “Garlic eating Ned”
  • Use physicalities, use space to do second beats and callbacks.
  • Name the scene based on the relationship.
  • You can remember stuff based on movement – rocking back and fourth, part of the stage.
  • Write on your hand (ala spelling bee)
  • Hosting: Don’t over explain! Let the audience handle some of the joy of finding out what’s going to happen for themselves.

1:28:00: What to do if someone isn’t listening to you:

  • Listen to them, go to them. Long term, may not be someone you want to play with.
  • Use the “not-listening”. Justify what they are saying and build off it. Don’t pretend it didn’t happen, it’s a gift.

1:31:07: You realise you’re not listening: Don’t beat yourself up in the moment, just start listening.

1:31:39: Joe Bill – two ways to deal with the negative and positive on stage.

  • Boil everything down to the plain of it’s existance – everything is a duoality, either a postive or a negative. Take in what your scene partner is doing on stage and frame it as either with curiosity (positive, I want more of that) or with suspicion (negative, I don’t want more of that). Use it to explore the reason behind the action.
  • “I think it’s much more sustainable to say ‘why would you doing that?’ then to just say ‘stop doing that'”
  • If you’re going to ask a question, add information like a name. “You went to the store, Joe?”
    Memory exercise: Repeating some of the last line and adding on. Makes what you’re playing with super clear.

As veteran improvisers, without realizing it, we become severely limited by our own “good” scenic choices, and we start making them all the time. It’s at this point that improv stops being improv, and turns into a party trick. Before making these moves on stage, you may as well turn to the audience and say, “Hey, look what I can do!” while also turning to your scene partner and saying, “Hey, no matter what you say, I’m still going to do this!”

Will Hines – The Sleepover Form Workshop

In preparation for the Del Close Marathon, the Upright Citizens Brigade Training Centre offered a bunch of workshops covering various topics. I attended a workshop with Will Hines covering two ‘harder’ long-forms that he saw many times when starting with the UCB – The Sleepover and Tracers. Below are the notes and impressions from The Sleepover portion of the workshop.

How It Came About: Mother were a Harold Night team at UCBNY known for their high energy, aggressive playstyle. Sometimes the play was too aggressive – scenes would get tagged out almost immediately, and shows had a tendency to fizzle out on occasion. The name “The Sleepover” came from the team’s tendency to run sleep over themed group games in Harolds.

The new form, workshopped with Armando Diaz was intended to improve the team’s acting chops, while slowing them down and forcing hard commitment to characters. The Sleepover has elements of La Ronde and the Deconstruction – each player starts by playing one character for the initial run of scenes, and later scenes as part of the montage/run start with the characters seen earlier until tag runs/side support commences.

I learned this from watching Mother’s shows. If you end up taking a class with Mother, they’re right.
Will Hines

Opening: After taking a suggestion, each player steps out one by one to announce their mantra. The mantra is a line of vaguely inspiration dialogue inspired by the suggestion such as “go big or go home” or “God is on our side” , and is presented as if the person is talking into a mirror. This is used to inform each player’s emotional character choice, so once you have said your mantra make a decision based on what you said – this will be your character for the show.

Be aware of volume: each player should say their mantra at least three times loudly before fading down, and stage picture: everyone should be standing out of line (north/south rule), using the entire stage.

Once everyone has stepped out and said their mantra, everyone should start repeating their mantras louder and louder and then leave the stage one by one, until only one player is left (Player A). This player is considered “activated” and can then pick a second player to activate and then perform a scene, with the second player (Player B) initiating the scene.

In summary:

  1. Suggestion
  2. Each player announces a mantra, one by one
  3. Each player leaves the stage, leaving one player (activated)
  4. The activated person picks a second person to activate.
  5. The second person initiates a scene.

Opening Scenes: When the scene starts, you develop who you using the mantra as inspiration. In order to start in the middle of a scene (as opposed to “hi, how are you?”) the initiator should be answering a question that was asked off-stage. The scene plays out as normal – remember to name each other and use philosophy, history, specifics, and relationship as keys to helping the scene develop. Characters should have emotional tones – no-one is identical, and give gifts through agreements and confirmation.

You are rewarded for simple choices that are easy to remember.
Will Hines

Scenes are edited by having the non-activated players step out and repeat their mantra. Players A & B leave the stage. Player B then activates another player (Player C) who initiates a scene with Player B. The rest of the players leave the stage, and the scene plays out. As a result, every character in this universe knows each other. USE NAMES.

The opening run of scenes repeats until every player in the team has had at least one scene. In a team of six players, the scenes would run in the following order:

  1. Player A & B
  2. Player B & C
  3. Player C & D
  4. Player D & E
  5. Player E & F

The final scene can be wiped with a sweep edit. Alternatively everyone can step out to repeat their mantras before leaving the stage.

Montage Run: Once everyone has performed a scene, the montage run of the show commences. Anyone can initiate with anyone else, and side supports, tag outs, and edits are performed as normal. The only condition is the scene must begin with the two characters seen in the earlier scenes. This can (should?) be played deconstruction style – bring back all the fun things that came up earlier and mine them for all their worth, getting quicker and quicker until you hit that big bang.

Ending: Blackout on the high point.

There’s also the concept of taking care of the audience. In other words, there is no movie without an audience. Movies don’t exist unless there’s someone there to watch them. So they’ve given you their trust. They’ve given you their time. So it’s like, are we taking care of them?
Michael Showalter on the unwritten agreement between the filmmaker and the filmgoer.

Kevin Scott on the unspoken improviser/audience agreement

[..] part of being an improviser that the audience wants to see is a display of skill that the audience does not have. It’s like watching dancers on Broadway – they want to see someone who can do something that they can’t.
Kevin Scott of Centralia on the unspoken agreement between the audience and an improviser, as heard on Improv Nerd E134.

Happy birthday to the Improv Conspiracy’s late night show Cage Match, which I happen to produce! The first birthday show features current Cage Match champs Small Car (5-0) take on the forty-seventh team in Cage Match’s short history – Marzipan O’Malley. 10pm at the Dan.