Acting in Improv

[kaci_beeler]

Can we re-open AIC nominations? I think PGraph just got a lock on "Most Arrogant/Pretentious"

It's because Val no longer regularly checks the forums. Her sunshiny positivity usually keeps us in line.
*sigh*
I don't want to come off as either of those things...not really.

[Roy Janik]

I certainly didn't mean to enrage anyone or make them feel sad or happy or whatever. All I did was offer my opinion. If you need a hug because of what I wrote, please come up and ask for one the next time that we see each other and I will gladly give you one.

Yeah, Jeff makes an excellent point that you weren't even saying "improvisers are lazy"... It's just that that sentiment keeps coming up, usually with the exact phrase: "improvisers are lazy".

But I just don't see it as applicable. Most of the improvisers I know don't do improv because they're frustrated writers. They do it because they love improv... the act of discovery and creation and exploration and acting and comedy all rolled up into one.

Just to see where the community has gotten to in the around 3 years I've been involved with improv is amazing. Rehearsals, workshops, meetings, shows, constant discsussion both online and off... the rise of the ColdTowne ecosystem... I'm just not seeing even a general aura of laziness.

I do agree that I do occasionally hear the "Oh, well it's improv!" excuse when shows go badly, but at least in my experience, more often I hear "we weren't listening", or "we should have committed more", or "we never found a way to connect with the audience."

Am I making sense? I just don't feel that improv attracts lazy people more than any other artform. Sure, there may be lazy improvisers, but I don't find it to be the rule.

But it's all a matter of personal perspective and experience. My main experience has been here in Austin, and only for the last 3 years.

[scook]

if there's any interest in a weekly scene study class in the future, I'd be down for teaching it after new year's...

Arthur, please do this.

I agree, I'd be interested.

[LisaJackson]

if there's any interest in a weekly scene study class in the future, I'd be down for teaching it after new year's...

Arthur, please do this.

I agree, I'd be interested.

Me, three!

And, Tom, if you want to call yourself lazy you're going to have to stop training for marathons. P.S. I got new rad running shoes today!

[shando]

It's like a cake that tastes great, AND is also perfectly decorated. Or like a car that's fast, AND that has a nice paint job. Or like a puppy that's cute, AND it can say "I wuv you."

I wuv Bill Stern.

[York99]

Arthur, please do this.

I agree, I'd be interested.

Me, three!

And, Tom, if you want to call yourself lazy you're going to have to stop training for marathons. P.S. I got new rad running shoes today!

I'm down.
Also might be a good time to mention that when we can figure out a good time, Tom is going to teach an on-camera workshop.
There's a lot of production work going on in and around Austin, so we might as well be the ones to benefit and get some gigs.

[HerrHerr]

I agree, I'd be interested.

Me, three!

And, Tom, if you want to call yourself lazy you're going to have to stop training for marathons. P.S. I got new rad running shoes today!

I'm down.
Also might be a good time to mention that when we can figure out a good time, Tom is going to teach an on-camera workshop.

There's a lot of production work going on in and around Austin, so we might as well be the ones to benefit and get some gigs.

I'm interested, but scared.

[kbadr]

Speaking of acting on camera, this is an interesting (albeit dated-looking) video on screen acting that Michael Caine hosted/produced:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHfz7_YjRww

[HerrHerr]

p.

[Marc Majcher]

I agree, I'd be interested.

Me, three!

Four comes next, and that's me. Yes, please.

Also might be a good time to mention that when we can figure out a good time, Tom is going to teach an on-camera workshop.

Yes, please times two.

[ratliff]

I can't speak for other people, but for me writing and improv are completely different. This is a whole different thread, but they come from very different places in my brain and body. I don't do improv instead of writing. I do improv because I get something from it I have never gotten from writing. And I'm a good writer.

I think the whole who-works-harder argument is silly because every artist, in whatever discipline, has a different relationship to art. Some people are naturals and do great work without breaking a sweat, while some people (to quote Lou Reed) work very hard and never get it right. Unfair but true. Art is a meritocracy, not a democracy, and the merit is unequally distributed.

That's not an argument against working hard. On the contrary, for someone like me it's a necessity if I want to get good. But it's a personal decision, not a moral issue. I expect to be judged on my performance, not on how many hours I logged practicing my spacework in front of the mirror. I happen to think that practicing spacework will improve my performance, but I don't know that for a fact. It's a personal choice I make based on incomplete information, and even if it makes me better it might not make me as good as someone who never rehearses and treats the whole thing as a lark.

I think one reason that improvisers can be pegged as lazy is that a lot of us are far less interested in making something specific happen than we are in creating a space (in ourselves and onstage) where anything can happen.

The conventional Western notion of success is that you visualize your goal and then work to achieve it by deploying the weapon of your will against all obstacles. I find that antithetical to the spirit of improv. I'm much more interested in making myself completely available to the immediate moment.

Obviously, this can involve a lot of intentional practice. I play better when I'm rehearsed and warmed up and my body is flexible and strong and my mind is clear. I know how to make these things happen, and I make them a priority. Sometimes I fail to honor that priority.

But past that point I don't know what works and what doesn't, because I don't know where improv comes from, and neither do you. The only thing I'm pretty sure of is that it doesn't come from my rational brain.

I disagree with Justin about an actor not getting anything from talking to a homeless guy. Any artist works with the materials at hand, which includes his or her entire life experience up to that point. Robert DeNiro based Travis Bickle's physicality on that of a crab, but I bet he didn't know we was going to do that the first time he noticed how a crab moved.

So my job, as I see it, is to stay flexible, open, and centered and let the moment and my accumulated experience do the rest. Hard work is fun and worth doing, regardless of what results it produces. But what I do is not nearly as important as how I do it.

[ratliff]

Speaking of acting on camera, this is an interesting (albeit dated-looking) video on screen acting that Michael Caine hosted/produced:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHfz7_YjRww

Holy cow, I'm not even interested in film acting and I'm riveted by this. Hey actors: Is he any good as a teacher?

Also, I like how he makes them play scenes from his own movies.

Edit: Ohmigod, the guy with the dark shag haircut is SO BAD.

Edit: There are two kinds of improv teachers: those who talk about what you just did and those who talk about what they would have done. If Michael Caine taught improv, he would fall in the latter category.

[Mo Daviau]

To respond to Mr. Ratliff's statement on writing:

I get so much great fiction writing from my improv training! My new writing group tells me my characters are sharp and distinct and really well-formed and I tell them to go take improv classes because that's where I learned to draw up really great characters.

So for me, improv helps my writing, but maybe not vice-versa. My novel-writing is best when it comes from the same place in my head and heart as improv does.

[sara farr]

I'm lazy in the sense that I only work hard at things I like to do

"...and slack off, procrastinate, or ignore the things I hate to do." That's how I'd end that sentence -- for me. I love my work, but I HATE aspects of it, and the result is I excell at some parts, and fail others.

My grandfather died thinking I was a good granddaughter, but a lazy worker. I am not lazy, but I can see as how I'd be percieved as such. My methods are not usual. I work in an art field and most working artists do not have to conform their work habits to the usual "8a-6p" workday. By having flexible working hours, I am thought of as lazy, but in reality, probably worked longer hours than my grandfather ever worked.

Improv is sort of like that. The artform is not as structured as a scripted play, yet really good improv IS VERY STRUCTURED. There are guidelines you can train into your rote behavior to make saying YES AND a more natural, and therefore enjoyable, behavior. By training yourself to LIVE IN THE MOMENT, you can appear to do your job effortlessly.

I think of improvisers as TRACK STARS. Everyone can run a race. You don't even need shoes. But there are only a few runners in the world that people identify as being the FASTEST! Good improvisers are like that. They train and work on their running skills. They don't need much in the way of equipment, but they have to train their bodies and minds to be able to BE the fastest.

If you asked the average Joe if track stars were lazier than football stars, I bet the answer would be YES -- to some degree there is less structure to be learned as a runner, but that doesn't make one athlete LESS than the other. They both train the same amount of hours. And I'd even go as far as say that the RUNNER is the better athelete (but then, my first animation job was working for an ex-world class runner: Mark Witherspoon).

P.S. Overall, I'm a good instructor... I just found out I'm getting a national award for teaching excellance this year. Toot, toot!

[ratliff]

More than one really good teacher has told me that the emotional connection is more important than the funny line, and I believe it. So I keep digging away at it even (possibly) at the expense of actual entertainment value.

I never thought of it that way.