How do you lose yourself?
... whatever that means to you.
Lose Yourself
Discussion of the art and craft of improvisation.
Moderators: arclight, happywaffle, bradisntclever
Lose Yourself
"Every cat dies 9 times, but every cat does not truly live 9 lives."
-Bravecat
-Bravecat
I am lost. I'm trying to find myself, or prove my non-existence.
But to answer what I believe to be what you were asking, I like to look up at the sky either during the day or night. Then just let the enormity of the universe overwhelm me with the feeling that everything is beautiful and tragic at the same time, and that there really is no difference other than how we perceive it.
To answer in a way that doesn't scare squares and conformists, I would love to be at Fenway eating a Fenway Frank with mustid watching Big Papi launch a three run blast over the Green Monster off Mariano Rivera to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.
But to answer what I believe to be what you were asking, I like to look up at the sky either during the day or night. Then just let the enormity of the universe overwhelm me with the feeling that everything is beautiful and tragic at the same time, and that there really is no difference other than how we perceive it.
To answer in a way that doesn't scare squares and conformists, I would love to be at Fenway eating a Fenway Frank with mustid watching Big Papi launch a three run blast over the Green Monster off Mariano Rivera to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.
Re: Lose Yourself
I don't know, but I always end up finding myself in the last place I look...next to the car keys.York99 wrote:How do you lose yourself?
... whatever that means to you.
Gersh gurndy morn-dee burn-dee, burn-dee, flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip.
I become totally engrossed in activities. Making things is the number one thing. Getting caught up in the creative process and figuring out problems. Rock climbing proved to be a good way to do it as well. Anything where all my energy and concentration is focused outwards, on a specific goal; where I'm being challenged but not frustrated.
Parallelogramophonographpargonohpomargolellarap: It's a palindrome!
In all seriousness, I've been putting some thought into this.
In my personal life, I have a number of ways of "losing myself." A good book, a good night of drinking and hanging out with friends, movies, etc.
In my professional life as an actor and sometimes improvisor, however, I find that the idea of "losing myself" is an unsafe one. I try to immerse myself into a scene as much as possible, and commit myself as fully as I can, but at the same time I prefer to have some inner control over my actions.
I don't know how to explain it by example, because it's just something I do. But I always laugh when I see actors and improvisors try to bury themselves inside a character and become that person. I feel that the character should become you.
At this point, I point out that I'm rambling, and that what I'm talking about really refers more to "legitimate" (scripted) acting rather than improv. I'm also not sure I was very clear above, but I'm really not sure how to articulate how this works for me individually...it just does.
You are all now confused.
In my personal life, I have a number of ways of "losing myself." A good book, a good night of drinking and hanging out with friends, movies, etc.
In my professional life as an actor and sometimes improvisor, however, I find that the idea of "losing myself" is an unsafe one. I try to immerse myself into a scene as much as possible, and commit myself as fully as I can, but at the same time I prefer to have some inner control over my actions.
I don't know how to explain it by example, because it's just something I do. But I always laugh when I see actors and improvisors try to bury themselves inside a character and become that person. I feel that the character should become you.
At this point, I point out that I'm rambling, and that what I'm talking about really refers more to "legitimate" (scripted) acting rather than improv. I'm also not sure I was very clear above, but I'm really not sure how to articulate how this works for me individually...it just does.
You are all now confused.
Gersh gurndy morn-dee burn-dee, burn-dee, flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip.
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- arclight Offline
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That happens with me, though the only character that works with is my delusional PSTD-addled 70-year-old German ex-tank-commander and veteran of the Eastern Front. I can do that guy for hours, but I swear, it freaks out New Yorkers.shksprtx wrote:... But I always laugh when I see actors and improvisors try to bury themselves inside a character and become that person. I feel that the character should become you.
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- beardedlamb Offline
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- Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell Offline
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in my life outside of theatre...i like to go night swimming. just float in the water and stare up at the sky. this works best in the nude. i also like to just sit by myself with a stack of comics and read them non stop. it's engaging and fun and relaxing at the same time and i find i can put aside my own thoughts and own "drama" and just become engrossed in this other world (i can do the same to a certain degree with movies, TV shows or books...but for some reason comics work best). working out is good, too, with the totality of your focus being on the physical, the kinesthetic rather than the cerebral. going out drinking and joking with friends is good...and of course sex is great...because you're not so much "losing" yourself as creating a kind of melded group experience, a communion with people you love and respect where you're all losing and finding yourselves in each other. Of course, these things are independently great for their own reasons as well. 
In performance...I don't like to "lose" myself in the character. The character is not something i become, it's something i'm wearing. A personality that i zip up around my being, but it's still me inside (of course, this applies to personalities in real life as well...they're just fiction suits, as Grant Morrison calls them, that our true selves wear to experience the world). But i think in the sense of not being in your head too much or overthinking things, especially in improv, is good. So it's less of losing your self as losing your self consciousness.
In performance...I don't like to "lose" myself in the character. The character is not something i become, it's something i'm wearing. A personality that i zip up around my being, but it's still me inside (of course, this applies to personalities in real life as well...they're just fiction suits, as Grant Morrison calls them, that our true selves wear to experience the world). But i think in the sense of not being in your head too much or overthinking things, especially in improv, is good. So it's less of losing your self as losing your self consciousness.
Sweetness Prevails.
-the Reverend
-the Reverend
This is a damn good question.
I can't really remember the last time I succeeded in losing myself.
I get semi-lost in reading and watching movies if I care about the characters and their motivations and if the world is fully realized. I find myself day-dreaming about what they'd do in different situations. Like now I'm in Ice and Fire again and it can steal reality away for a few hours.
I can lose myself writing, but it's been a while since I've done that routinely. I did try a while back and wrote some dark stuff that kindof scared me coming out of my head. I've been working on not telling a story actively, but being a passive vehicle through which a story is told and I have had stories get away from me and my ability to control them and go into some dark territory (good, too, but the dark stuff was better). That's as close to losing myself as I've been in a while.
I can't really remember the last time I succeeded in losing myself.
I get semi-lost in reading and watching movies if I care about the characters and their motivations and if the world is fully realized. I find myself day-dreaming about what they'd do in different situations. Like now I'm in Ice and Fire again and it can steal reality away for a few hours.
I can lose myself writing, but it's been a while since I've done that routinely. I did try a while back and wrote some dark stuff that kindof scared me coming out of my head. I've been working on not telling a story actively, but being a passive vehicle through which a story is told and I have had stories get away from me and my ability to control them and go into some dark territory (good, too, but the dark stuff was better). That's as close to losing myself as I've been in a while.
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- kaci_beeler Offline
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I have been working on my visual artistic skills for almost all my life. I found a notebook journal I kept in 1st grade and it says things like, "I Like art it is fun. and neet to do. it's fun just to draw pertty artwrck." So it has been an interest for quite awhile.
but then again, I also wrote:
"I like to read when the sun is green.
I like to write when the sun is white.
I like to spell when the sun is pell."
Anyway. I like to get lost in working on a current project, most likely a painting. I am a little obsessed with perfection when it comes to the stuff I do, and painting is no exception. Sometimes I get into a very strange frame of mind and it takes me hours to work out of that mindset once I've driven myself into it.
I like to read for hours at a time about situations and characters I really care about.
Right now I have some real-time nintendo ds games I'll play for hours, and I get lost in them (though they are mostly unfulfilling after I realise I just wasted two hours running errands for little animals in a tiny town).
I love comics that star Batman, Robin, Nightwing, or Impulse. Though I would prefer a graphic novel because they last longer. And I also used to be able to watch Bonanza for 2 or 3 hours at a time. But not lately. Improv is dominant.
In improvising I sometimes find extremely energetic characters that I love to explore. The kind of characters that's maybe a small part of me deep down and I hardly have to think at all and things just click. It's a nice, gratifying feeling.
but then again, I also wrote:
"I like to read when the sun is green.
I like to write when the sun is white.
I like to spell when the sun is pell."
Anyway. I like to get lost in working on a current project, most likely a painting. I am a little obsessed with perfection when it comes to the stuff I do, and painting is no exception. Sometimes I get into a very strange frame of mind and it takes me hours to work out of that mindset once I've driven myself into it.
I like to read for hours at a time about situations and characters I really care about.
Right now I have some real-time nintendo ds games I'll play for hours, and I get lost in them (though they are mostly unfulfilling after I realise I just wasted two hours running errands for little animals in a tiny town).
I love comics that star Batman, Robin, Nightwing, or Impulse. Though I would prefer a graphic novel because they last longer. And I also used to be able to watch Bonanza for 2 or 3 hours at a time. But not lately. Improv is dominant.
In improvising I sometimes find extremely energetic characters that I love to explore. The kind of characters that's maybe a small part of me deep down and I hardly have to think at all and things just click. It's a nice, gratifying feeling.
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- phlounderphil Offline
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I love this thread. Let me tell you where it came from. I was listening to Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" -- stay with me here -- and realized that he was saying it somewhat as advice. I thought to myself that I definitely lose myself in the moment on stage, but how the hell do you tell someone how to do that. I went online to look at the lyrics and found no help there. I decided to post the question on the forum, then thought that leaving it open-ended might produce more interesting responses... and it has.
For the sake of completing what I originally set out to do (my compulsive side shows), however, I re-pose the question in this form: How would you tell someone HOW to lose himself or herself?
For the sake of completing what I originally set out to do (my compulsive side shows), however, I re-pose the question in this form: How would you tell someone HOW to lose himself or herself?
"Every cat dies 9 times, but every cat does not truly live 9 lives."
-Bravecat
-Bravecat
Well, you need to first convince them that losing oneself is a good and powerful thing.
I think a lot of people are simply scared to give up control in general, much less give up control of themselves, of their very being. If you think about it, that is a TERRIFYING prospect. Especially publically, in front of a crowd of paying audience members, with others on stage counting on you.
Once you convince people that this is not only an OK thing, but a desirable thing, I think it just takes trust in one's fellow players, love of the game, and practice, practice, practice.
I always say that I want to be a storyteller, that I want to get up on stage and tell stories. Well, this is not entirely true. I don't want to be a story teller (active) so much as I want to be a vessel through which a story is told (passive). I want the story to use me, to tell itself through me. And I want to be free enough to go where it wants me to go. I don't want to be off stage actively thinking "This is what this story needs," or "I want the story to be x, so I'm going to go out and say z," or "If Billy is the protagonist, then I need to do this thing..." I want to just step out and go and let the story use me as it needs me. I think the mind finds more and makes faster connections when you aren't looking for them.
I've not succeeded a lot at this, but I have from time to time and I actually feel more in control of my talents (stronger characters, bolder choices, more playful) when I feel less in control of the story. I forget myself and afterwards I look back and either can't remember the show because I was so far gone (this has happened several times in Maestro), or think of it as one of my best shows ever.
I think a lot of people are simply scared to give up control in general, much less give up control of themselves, of their very being. If you think about it, that is a TERRIFYING prospect. Especially publically, in front of a crowd of paying audience members, with others on stage counting on you.
Once you convince people that this is not only an OK thing, but a desirable thing, I think it just takes trust in one's fellow players, love of the game, and practice, practice, practice.
I always say that I want to be a storyteller, that I want to get up on stage and tell stories. Well, this is not entirely true. I don't want to be a story teller (active) so much as I want to be a vessel through which a story is told (passive). I want the story to use me, to tell itself through me. And I want to be free enough to go where it wants me to go. I don't want to be off stage actively thinking "This is what this story needs," or "I want the story to be x, so I'm going to go out and say z," or "If Billy is the protagonist, then I need to do this thing..." I want to just step out and go and let the story use me as it needs me. I think the mind finds more and makes faster connections when you aren't looking for them.
I've not succeeded a lot at this, but I have from time to time and I actually feel more in control of my talents (stronger characters, bolder choices, more playful) when I feel less in control of the story. I forget myself and afterwards I look back and either can't remember the show because I was so far gone (this has happened several times in Maestro), or think of it as one of my best shows ever.
Huh.
I've lost myself in writing, in improv, in dance, in watching art, in sex (definitely), in the bite of a perfect summer tomato with basil and fresh bufalo mozzarella with a teeny bit of balsamic vinegar. And I've NOT lost myself in any of those things as well. Occasionally at the same time which is quite a mind fuck.
Its all about the zone. And the zone likes to play keep away.
Its all about the zone. And the zone likes to play keep away.