Laughter is not the only legitimate response an audience can have to a show.
R. Kevin Doyle on comedy as a byproduct of improvisation, not the absolute. More on Improv Nerd from 35:14 in.
Quotes
Now, and I’d say for the past ten years I’m so much about the patients and group work, and being able to combine those things of not feeling like you have to invent crazy things to get laughs or try not to go directly for a laugh. It’s all about that collaboration and the patients and being kind and good to each other on stage.
Jeff Griggs on Improv Nerd talking about what he tries to share when teaching improv.
Drinking a beverage in an improv scene is the most shaded window into what’s going on.
Drinking a beverage in an improv scene is the most shaded window into what’s going on. … In no way does it enhance their character, point of view … because it’s not about drinking a beverage but HOW they drink the beverage.
Mark Sutton on some object work that I’ve seen and done too many times.
Being good at improv means knowing how to manage doubt and anxiety. They never totally go away but they can be handled.
Will Hines answers some reader mail on how to feel “right” before performing.
When you’re performing, you know, it’s about you. You have to be kind of in touch with how you’re doing and how you’re responding and relating to the audiences and to your band members. But when you’re writing, it’s not about you. Even if the speaker of the poem or the speaker of the rhyme is ‘I,’ it’s not necessarily you — you need to take yourself away from it so your characters can speak, so the words can speak. So those two things, the performer and the writer, they don’t sit very comfortably in the same space.
Been listening to a lot of Kate Tempest lately. From an improv pov this is something I’ve been working a lot of lately – separating Michael from the person in the scene. It’s hard! You are training yourself not to get distracted by yourself while in the act of a show. But at the same time you can’t entirely put that away, you need to be in tune with what you’re doing and what you’re teammates are doing and how the audience is reacting to it. I’ll keep y’all updated with how I deal with this.
“Being self-critical is one thing, but being self-punishing is something else.”
Being self-critical is one thing, but being self-punishing is something else. Being self-flagellant isn’t productive. And ultimately, that’s what the job is, is to produce, right?
So I think there’s something to be said for, just, be gentle. Do better next time. And never stop moving.
Matt Fraction (h/t Hal Phillips).
“There are three reasons we don’t support someone: laziness, judgement, fear. All of these are fucking unacceptable”
There are three reasons we don’t support someone: laziness, judgement, fear. All of these are fucking unacceptable.
Adal Rifal, via Sam Clifford.
There’s sometimes psychological reasons people tell stories badly. One element of good storying is being emotionally connected to the words you’re saying, but if people are in denial about something, or suppressing the emotions involved, the story can sound somehow flat and affectless.
Alex Blumberg of This American Life/Gimlet Media talking about what makes stories work for radio. Replace stories with scenes and radio with improv shows, and well… More at Transom.
“When We Judge, We Miss Information”
When we judge, we miss information.
Charna Halpern
Nathan [Fielder] had made a lot of pieces at This Hour Has 22 Minutes in Canada, and I think one of the things he found out, and it made such a big difference in Nathan for You, is just to really not ever force anything and not try to create a reaction. Like if a person is in a real situation, their reactions might be very small, but that’s still the real reaction of that person in that situation. As much as I like, you know,The Three Stooges or Bugs Bunny or something, it’s really funny just to see how a person actually behaves in a really awkward situation, and sometimes people being small and polite is just as funny. If it was written, a lot of times there’d be a really big reaction because you want the audience to feel something, so it’s really cool when people — especially when it’s actors and you’re banking on your actors being funny — that you just let them be natural and accept that people watching this will get that it’s a truthful reaction.
Michael Koman on letting audiences find the funny from truthful reactions – something that applies to improv as much as the written material he’s talking about. More comedy theory in a really great interview with Splitsider here.