Some Johnstone Quotes

[kbadr]

Just curious, Kareem - shouldn't you amuse yourself every now and then even if it's not amusing to anyone else? I think a little of that helps me stretch.

Sure, do things that amuse you, and if it's also generous, the audience and your fellow players will be delighted. I *think* if you do things to amuse yourself that are essentially selfish, and don't also amuse your fellow players, eventually no one will want to play with you.

[jillybee72]

"If you want to win, it all gets horrible."

"There are no improvisors who don't have cataclysmic failures. It's just that they just happen less often and they don't look like failures because we look happy."

"Don't be perfect. Make mistakes and then you're more interesting to an audience."

These three together are highlighted for me. The best shows are effortless, they have that wu wei, but what is my attitude the rest of the time, that's what I'm interested in. I try hard to be perfect when things aren't going well. I guess I never noticed that. When things are going well, I'm happy and playful. I want to be that all the time.

[Jeff]

Jill, I'm still patiently waiting to see you do or say or write something, in response to which I don't think to myself, "Man, Jill Bernard is awesome."

[mpbrockman]

Just curious, Kareem - shouldn't you amuse yourself every now and then even if it's not amusing to anyone else? I think a little of that helps me stretch.

Sure, do things that amuse you, and if it's also generous, the audience and your fellow players will be delighted. I *think* if you do things to amuse yourself that are essentially selfish, and don't also amuse your fellow players, eventually no one will want to play with you.

I think see what I was failing to differentiate between. There is amusing yourself and hoping others are amused as well; and there's, for lack of a better phrase, masturbating in front of an audience. The worst thing that happens with the first is that you just miss the mark, with the second you're just being a "look at me" asshat. Sort of like 90% of all lead guitar players.

Oops - instrumental prejudice...

[Asaf]

I think the key is GENUINELY amusing yourself. When you are masturbating in front of the audience it is because you are trying to feed some other (for lack of a subtler word) sickness. A need to be loved. A need to control. A need to milk the audience for laughs.

Those are all things that are not about being present. They are about looking from above and monitoring the results and making sure that the results go their way.

If you are about being amused and sharing that fun, that is the most in the moment you can be.

I often tell my students: "You aren't having fun because the improv is going well. It is going well because you are having fun."

[mpbrockman]

I often tell my students: "You aren't having fun because the improv is going well. It is going well because you are having fun."

I like this a lot.

You know, I can only recall two shows I was involved in that were no fun at all, and they both had to do with massive technical difficulties/equipment failure - talk about taking you out of the moment. One was a Shakespeare show I'm pretty sure you were in in which my synth kept switching patches at random. Arrrrrgh.... those damn mysteriously reappearing bells!

[DollarBill]

Okay I learned a TON of stuff, but as far as basic lessons that you could glean from little quotes, here are some crumbs from the proverbial table:

The thing that made the whole thing worth while was his attitude of:
"Add what I'm doing to what you're doing, or just take the bits you like." I was just super glad to hear that he didn't believe that the way he was teaching was the only way to get good results, unlike some other places I've trained.

The thing he kept going back to that you wont hear very many other places is: "Don't be original. When it's obvious, it's right and good." We worked pretty tirelessly on the concept that being on the stage can cause us to lose touch with what the audience wants. If we relax and practice, we can get good at doing, while on stage, what we generally, instinctively know is right while we're sitting in the audience.

RELAX! Jimminy Christmas, Relax. There are quotes all over my notes about not being afraid and relaxing and so on: "If you're full of fear your brain will try to protect you... from the future." That's my favorite one, but seriously there are at least 10 in my notes.

Practice, practice practice. Pay attention. Practice. And while you're doing that: "Laugh at your mistakes." He said over and over that mistakes are how we learn but we are taught to feel bad at them in school and in life. Love them. Learn from them. Don't dwell on them.

"Have a positive inner attitude." Love what you're doing. Anytime you break a "rule" it should be done with a positive inner attitude. If you're playing a character that kills people... LOVE to kill people. If you're playing a character the kills people because they hate themself, LOVE to hate yourself because you kill people. This ties in with Kareem's benevolent improviser stuff.

There was really a ton more info, and a few more big idea lessons I could write down, but I'd say the stuff I've written here is enough to keep most improvisers busy for at least six months. What a week, man. Thanks, Hideout! Thanks, Keith!

[spantell]

Thanks for all these quotes (and notes from Peter).

I like this one, but I don't really know what it means

"Comedy is like science. You can have opinions but you have to test them. Otherwise we'd never have electric lights which are really quite useful."

[kbadr]

I like this one, but I don't really know what it means

"Comedy is like science. You can have opinions but you have to test them. Otherwise we'd never have electric lights which are really quite useful."

He is very big on questioning anything that is presented to you as truth.
You can have opinions about what works and what doesn't, but the audience (en masse) will tell you if you're opinions are true.

[beardedlamb]

i think what he's saying, Spanny, is that you have to get up on stage and perform comedy. it does no good to theorize and talk about it. the only way to create comedy is to do it. as in, if electricity had stayed a theory, it would not exist as it does today.

[acrouch]

It's really good practice to run simple setups over and over again (two people on a date, etc.). We could all stand to do it more.

Totally 100% agree. I always try and push doing three-line scene starts over and over as well.

Not that kind of simple setups over and over again! Keith would use the same scene over and over again to demonstrate different stuff. We must have done the same simple scene where one person invites the other back to their place for a drink at least 20 times working on different stuff (tilts, emotional characters, realistic acting, etc.).

[HerrHerr]

It's really good practice to run simple setups over and over again (two people on a date, etc.). We could all stand to do it more.

Totally 100% agree. I always try and push doing three-line scene starts over and over as well.

Not that kind of simple setups over and over again! Keith would use the same scene over and over again to demonstrate different stuff. We must have done the same simple scene where one person invites the other back to their place for a drink at least 20 times working on different stuff (tilts, emotional characters, realistic acting, etc.).

Sure, that too. Why not? Improv doesn't have to 100 different locations or set-ups. How about 1 set-up and
100 different relationships?

[KathyRose]

Keith also had some pointed advice for Maestro directors. He was not enamoured of "parlor tricks" - arbitrary impediments put on the players. I got the impression that he thought that the "tricks" were "disrespectful" to the craft - treating the improvisers like trained apes in a circus (or something along that line).

He emphasized that the director, like other improvisers, should make offers that delighted the players on stage. Some of the more advanced improvisers might like to work with the challenges and impediments.

He also said that directors should not give a lot of instruction at the top of a scene, but rather, make mid-course corrections if the scene has stalled.

[jillybee72]

Another:

"You're taking a risk if you come to play soccer dressed for cricket, but it's stupid."