While watching or performing in an improv scene:
- If someone throws something, do your eyes follow the path of the object?
- If someone gets stabbed or shot, do you wince in pain?
- If someone enters a scene, do you notice whether they left the door open?
- If someone tosses someone to someone else, and the person fails to catch it, do you imagine the object hitting the person and falling to the floor?
You should.
You would if it were actually happening. If I chucked a book at you, you’d wince and turn away, then the book would hit you, and then you’d turn back, angry at me. But someone throws a book at someone in an improv scene, and the most that most people will say is “Ouch! You threw a book at me!”
If you don’t believe, in that very moment, that those objects are real, that each one has its own weight and location, then stop wasting my fucking time. You’re standing on stage, saying shit you think is funny, and only the boring people are laughing.
Stop thinking, and start reacting.
Ooo this is a good piece. Read it!
Mullaney: Tips for success - From Mick Napier in the latest Annoyance Newsletter -
Normally Mick Napier writes about whatever thing is on his mind in his missive to the annoyance community (past examples: toys, vulgar language, racism.) But this time he decided to drop some serious knowledge on folks:
In these newsletters, I rarely write about…
I’m guessing these questions are inspired by the reblog of Mick’s newsletter where he said:
Study acting. You won’t, but you ought to. You won’t because you think you are SO fucking funny, and don’t need it. But you do. You really do. I tell people that, and they say “yeah, yeah, but what do I need to DO to get an edge?” I say it. No one does it. It’s such an easy edge.
Let’s take them one at a time.
What finally is the relationship between acting and improvising?
I think it’s only recently that improvising has been seen as this thing that is separate from acting. Improvisation has long been a part of acting training in some form, whether you are talking about Comedia or Meisner. Their separation is unnatural in my opinion. If you are learning to be an actor, you have to learn how to improvise on some level.
In Meisner you are learning to improvise with emotions and behavior and desires, both yours and your scene partners. This past year I’ve been studying theatre in a more European mode and although we are focusing on our voice and our body instead of our mind, and although we sometimes use masks, we are often creating in a way that a conventional improvisor would recognize. There is a heavy emphasis on finding and developing games, and using improvisation to devise theatre. And even though those games feel quite different from the games of content that I see improvisor doing. So anyway, they are intertwined.
Do actors make for good improvisers, good improvisers, actors?
Yes, usually, but not always. I’ve worked with actors who would make lousy improvisors and vice versa, but the skills for each certainly help the other. When I was a younger performer, I noticed the things I was learning in acting class (pay attention to your partner’s behavior and emotions, trust your gut reactions to them, act on your impulses, go after what you want) all helped with my improv. More recently my physical theatre training has helped the way I carry myself on stage and and helped me make a greater range of character choices in improv.
And I’m sure I’m a much more flexible actor because of my improv. I’ve done thousands of improv scenes and tried on many types of characters that I would never be cast as. This has made me much more comfortable making bigger choices in my acting. Early on it helped me combat stage fright. After doing a couple hundred improv shows, I returned to doing a play and I found I was much less nervous on opening night then before I had done all that improv.
What does each take or leave from the other?
Improv should take whatever it can from any performance art: music, dance, singing, clowning, performance art and certainly acting. Acting always should have an improvisational core, in my opinion, so it should take all it can. In a lot of ways, acting is improv within the contraints of a script and direction.
I hope this helps, feel free to follow up with other questions.
I like to think Douglas Adams would have been a fan of longform improvisation.
(via becausefayesaidso)
(via herokiddy)
Improv Is Easy!: IT'S ALL THE SAME -
Rules posted in Merce Cunningham’s Studios, written by John Cage. This is about dance. But seems applicable to other things!
THE RULES
RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
RULE TWO: General duties of a student - pull everything…
These rules were made for dance, but they can be easily translated to improv. Have a look.
(via improvisorsimprovisor)
I Haz an Improv?: Crazytown vs The Real World -
I recently won position of emcee of the Agents of Improv next year, which was a very pleasant and very surprising surprise. That is my news, on to my point.
Something that happens in Agents, and that I may have mentioned previously, is trips to Crazytown. The reality of the scene is something…
Worth the quick read.
Billy Merritt's Improv Dance Party Pt2: Coach-less Improv Rehearsals.... -
Or as I like to call them.. Charades!
I have been told by a few of my students that they’ve been doing practice sessions without a coach. They say it’s hard to find a coach, get the coach they want, or can’t afford one.
All well and good, but don’t think for a minute that you are improving…
(Source: improvartvice)
I thought about this a lot and came up with too many specific examples, but I think they can all be grouped under two main points…
- The only bad initiation would be setting yourself and your partner up to do a scene you actively dislike and don’t wanna play.
- That initiation where neither performer has anything and stares at one another for about five seconds. Why do we do this so often?!
We could write a textbook called The Don’ts of Initiating, but if you wanna keep your improv easy, just don’t initiate a scene you hate. Almost anything else (even my personal favorite: “Get the eff outta here!”) can be really, really fun.
I’d love to hear some other takes on this question!
I would also add, don’t start a scene that you know your partner will hate.
I’d also go with coming out with a vague initiation, or being too polite so as not to step on your scene partner in case they had an idea. Those can be considered “bad,” but that also doesn’t mean the scene couldn’t be dynamite.
It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. But, starting off strong is a hell of a lot easier.
For all you improvisers with dreams of making it big, here’s a bit of a push from Steve Martin.
(Source: leilockheart, via anthonyking)
A great explanation on team size from Kevin Mullaney. Good stuff.