Fighting for Fun

[SarahMarie]

She's a freekin MASTER!

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Sometimes it's good to have the sort of fun you don't normally have as an exercise in living in a different part of the human experience. One year I watched baseball with my friend and really rooted hard for the Twins for an entire season. I honestly don't give a fuck about baseball, but I feel broader for the experience of living in that space for one summer, learning stats, having opinions, following scores, etc.

Dammitt, Jill! You should write a book...

but, like, not a regular sized book...a book that is abnormal in size somehow...

[KathyRose]

If you're offended by something personally, couldn't you just let your character be offended as well, and respond accordingly - or better still, disproportionately?

p.s. I'm hoping this isn't about my character kissing yours at the State Fair!

[jillybee72]

If you're offended by something personally, couldn't you just let your character be offended as well, and respond accordingly - or better still, disproportionately?

Yes of course. But an improvisor who is masking their own distaste inside their character's distaste will never fool anyone, we can hear the improv note you hid in there. A character that's offended better be a game we're playing and not a judgmental move if it's going to read well.

[chicocarlucci]

This whole topic is fascinating as hell. Ratliff, I love your answer for so many reasons I can't get into here.

Ruby if you figure this out, lemme know..

And while we're at it, I don't have any answers to contribute but I have a direction that I've been going in for the last (almost) 2 years now: None of our fun is as big as ALL of our fun. Somewhere between Mojokickball and Improv I started to figure out that the fun in these things has logistics that I have readily overlooked most of my life.

"Grinning and bearing it" seems to only work so far before something snaps and we wind up lashing out in (usually) some passive-aggressive way in rehearsal, or worse, on stage.

"Fun-alchemy", whereby you have the Jedi skills to turn your partner's crap into gold on a regular basis, sounds great. So if you have those skills, well then I guess more power to you. (*ahem, Curtis Lucianni*)

For me, the only thing I can consistently do is to _truly believe_ that the best chance for this scene to be fun is if we are working on the same fun-snowball. And if you don't want to to work on my snowball, then I'm coming over to work on yours. Eventually, if we both keep adding to it, the snowball starts to roll downhill on it's own, has a life of it's own and is easy to see where it's going. And we _both_ have fun. We can then start working on a new snowball - together.

Sure, we all improvise with that person who just doesn't want to be affected, or be vulnerable, who can't escape the gag, who keeps looking at the audience for approval after every line, who won't shut up. And more times than I'd care to admit, that person is me. So I'm really grateful when the other improviser is good enough to do the thing that I do when I'm at my best, and "come work on the other guy's snowball". For me, it's the most practical way to work toward making the scene fun for all of us on stage.

Now "fun for the audience" -- that's a different matter altogether and I don't have the skill to handle or address that one just yet.. Maybe I'll have a vector for that in a couple more years..

[Chuy!]

Now "fun for the audience" -- that's a different matter altogether and I don't have the skill to handle or address that one just yet.. Maybe I'll have a vector for that in a couple more years..

We've all seen you play, Heiberg. We know you don't care about the audience...

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Now "fun for the audience" -- that's a different matter altogether and I don't have the skill to handle or address that one just yet.. Maybe I'll have a vector for that in a couple more years..

We've all seen you play, Heiberg. We know you don't care about the audience...

that's me. you're thinking of me, Chuy. i know Eric and i are both huggers and smell nice, but don't get us TOO confused...

[TeresaYork]

I think a lot about this too. I just want to get to a zen place in my improv where I can make anything fun.

When I see a stand-up comedian handle a heckler masterfully, I've got to think that they've gotten there by lots of practice of dealing with a lot of d-bags.

I think it just comes with experience --you learn how to turn anything into comedy gold or into something meaningful for you. Even if you aren't digging the choice, you never let the audience in on that.

Easy to say, difficult to do.

[ratliff]

I think it just comes with experience --you learn how to turn anything into comedy gold or into something meaningful for you. Even if you aren't digging the choice, you never let the audience in on that.

Easy to say, difficult to do.

And this is where I keep coming back to the basic principles that I learned (up to a point) in Level 1.

What's easier, convincing yourself that you like that horrible, jokey, character-destroying dick joke your partner just made, or training yourself to say yes to everything before you even know what it is?

What's easier, deciding whether these characters are already established enough to sustain an argument scene or just losing the argument as quickly as you can plausibly do it so you can get to what the scene's really about?

What's easier, trying to figure out the sweet spot that combines what you want to happen, what you think your partner wants to happen, and what you think the audience wants to happen or just responding honestly to the last thing someone said?

The longer I do this, the more the AA slogan feels true: "You can act your way into right thinking a lot easier than you can think your way into right action."

It may seem pathetic that for some of us having fun is a learned skill, but there it is. When teachers say "Just have fun" as though it's easy to do, I know they didn't start in the same place I did.

They're completely right, of course, but they're like female yoga teachers who don't mention what to do with your junk in eagle pose. They never had to deal with that obstacle, so it's never occurred to them that other people might.

[chicocarlucci]

You can act your way into right thinking a lot easier than you can think your way into right action.

Man, that's some stone cold wisdom right there. I'm really enjoying your posts Ratliff. I'm glad I know someone who is continually breaking himself down and rebuilding, in spite of having to battle the same kind of ego that we all have to overcome. It's damn inspiring.

[Ruby W.]

I think a lot about this too. I just want to get to a zen place in my improv where I can make anything fun.

yep.

[sara farr]

I'll add one more thing.

I get a kick just being able to improvise with people. We get to be kids again where anything goes -- stepping outside the world of rules, policies and procedures, manners & etiquette, laws and physics. Even if our snowball of a scene is rolling down the hill backwards or flies off the hill into space, I embrace the idea that "WE MADE THIS!" and it gives me an extra kick.

You might try letting go a bit and lowering your expectations to see where it leads you.

[Ryan Hill]

You can act your way into right thinking a lot easier than you can think your way into right action.

Man, that's some stone cold wisdom right there. I'm really enjoying your posts Ratliff. I'm glad I know someone who is continually breaking himself down and rebuilding, in spite of having to battle the same kind of ego that we all have to overcome. It's damn inspiring.

One of the more awesome things you'll hear in 12-step, and there are a lot of awesome things.

Improv demonstrates this principle all the time. A lecture class on improv would be very weak. Get up, do it, fuck it up, try again, you'll get better.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

A lecture class on improv would be very weak.

it's true. i've tried.

[happywaffle]

A lecture class on improv would be very weak.

it's true. i've tried.

Every single party…