Austin Improv

Vulnerability was a concept that I took from the summer intensive this year. I hadn't really understood it as a concept until pretty recently, and the more I've thought about it the more I've come to respect it.

Allowing yourself to be vulnerable is to open yourself up to failure. Even though most of us know that we aren't supposed to try to be funny, in many ways we still protect ourselves on stage. I think the best improvisers I have seen allow themselves to be completely vulnerable. They open themselves up entirely to failure, and really...well, improvise.

there are several ways I have seen people protect themselves on stage. Whether it be a safe format, or not investing completely in characters...a lack of willingness to go completely gayballs...even the way they say certain lines. You can sense a lack of commitment. Something behind the delivery that has a tounge in cheek quality, or in some way speaks to the audience that says "yeah, i'm saying and doing this, but its not really me. don't think I'm lame if you don't like it or if this doesn't work"...and that little lack of commitment just destroys the potential for discovery. I feel it often breeds an environment full of judgment and hesitation, and that this is far away from the total support that groups need to really succeed.

I feel like you can't truly improvise when you play like this. You can still get laughs, you can still entertain people, but you aren't going to really play to your maximum potential because you aren't letting yourself take the necessary risks that lead to the bigger pay offs. To truly discover things in the moment, can't be faked, and can't be forced....moreover, it pains me when I see people who have incredible potential limiting themselves to what works for them. Not knowing what else is out there that will also work for themselves because they're too afraid of failure to try something that they don't know will work for them...or ideas get bailed on because they aren't immediately funny. So, discoveries get thrown at the window as the player makes a joke, or does a bit, or some other forced move instead of really digging in and looking for what is there.

So, though I see a lot of improv, I don't always see a lot of improvising.

Have other people noticed this? Does anyone think this is complete bullshit? I guess I'm just curious about what other people think.

I've been wanting to delve more into this area myself lately. In the Razowsky workshop, he talked a lot about making yourself vulnerable and the exercises we did to practice that had some pretty amazing results.

In the past, I've certainly been prone to gagging out on scenes to get the laugh and for a while I was ok with that. Now I want to take my improv to the next level. I want real, honest characters, emotions, reactions, etc. You can't get that if you have the "I'm so fucking cool" layer of irony in front of all of your character work. I want to be vulnerable. I want to discover things about myself and my scene partner that I was not expecting. When it happens, it's magic.

"I don't want to just make the audience laugh, I want to make them cheer."
- Justin York

hi - totally

it's challenging - cuz it's scary. but i totally agree.

i took a class a few months ago and was totally inspired by the guy's contempt of phony.
not one scene in the class tried to be funny, although some were.
it was all about be committed, vulnerable, generous.

when i see a show where everyone is too cool for school - i get bored.
i laugh if its funny, i think who cares? and i forget the show. when i see someone's character be vulnerable and totally committed to the reality on stage - it feels powerful, intriguing, ballsy and wow i love it.

plus, vulnerable and real usually are funny - it's authentic funny and personally, i like that kind best.

mike joplin's committment
chris baldenhofer's vulnerability

seriously.

all true and i think at the heart of good and bad improv. and as is typical with lessons learned in improv, in can be applied to real life. the coolest cats are vulnerable and unguarded. the dickheads are putting on airs, acting actually.

if you like all of these words you just read, talk to me in real life...

NOW we are getting somewhere.

I think that even if you're only goal is to be funny and make people laugh...

... you'd do well to remember that real is always always always funnier.

Best thread ever. Heartily endorses all these thoughts.

Some thoughts ...

"Being vulnerable" doesn't mean you can cry on cue or you're "not afraid to get serious." You don't have to "risk failure" (of not getting a laugh) because a scene suddenly turns dramatic or sad. Being extremely dramatic or sad can be hilarious. (Ever hear of Lucille Ball?) Alan Arkin once said, the only difference between drama and comedy is the ridiculous extremes to which comedians sincerely take their emotions and actions. Think Steve Carell, or even Stephen Colbert. Sincere commitment is what makes it work.

Don't mistake "vulnerability" for "weakness." Being vulnerable doesn't mean giving in or stopping the pursuit of your objective because you encounter resistance or your current tactic isn't working. Don't bail out; change tactics. As Razowsky says, "keep going in the direction you are facing" - driving driving driving / amping it up / pursuing your objective until your scene partner breaks ... or you do.

Which also means that your character must never decide to back down or give in. (That negates the validity of your chosen objective, making everything that preceded the moment a waste of time.) If you fold, you must be driven to that point by your scene partner. So ... we take care of each other by committing to our character choices and not abandoning them.

Even if you choose to be a low-status, compliant character who is always "giving in" to someone else's will, there should be a growing internal pressure, like resentment, which builds until an external "last straw" triggers a behavioral change.

Vulnerability means letting everything matter. So often, things happen in a scene that are glossed over or ignored. Statements like, "I slept with your mother," are thrown out there without so much as the bat of an eye by either player. One player "slaps" another, and the recipient neither flinches nor says, "ouch." Don't pretend it didn't happen, because it did, and what's furthermore, the audience saw it. As Razowsky observed over and over again in our class, "That happened." ... so now, what do you do?

Which reminds me ... When you say or do something, do it because you want a response out of your scene partner, not to get a response from the audience. Your character is unaware of the audience. Play the intentions of the character, not the actor, and your work will be truthful.

The heart of vulnerability (so to speak) is the willingness to be affected - by other people, by the environment, by your own actions. Your character can be stoic or oblivious by nature; but if you make that choice, we must see the character's struggle to remain unaffected by events, or their genuine bewilderment over what is happening.

You can play a character who is smug, glib, smart-mouthed and seemingly invulnerable (for example, a super-hero or the governor of Illinois); however, the scene won't go anywhere unless there is some point at which something changes your character - that juicy moment when an arrow lands and the character's soft underbelly is revealed. Seeing that vulnerability is very satisfying to the audience and often as funny as the braggadocio that precedes the fall.

So ... we need both vulnerability and commitment to make scenes work. When we bring these two qualities to our character work, something magical happens. As Arkin says, "At its best, a scene reveals something unexpected to the players, and lets them experience that transcendent moment in which they are no longer playing a scene, but the scene is playing them."

Now ... when I learn to do this, I'll be one hell of an improvisational actor!

Kathy Rose Center wrote:Don't bail out; change tactics.

YES YES YES!!

I'm a big believer in the predictable absurdity of human behavior (c), but played smart. People don't change their fundamental wants, but they change their behavior at the drop of a hat when it's clear that they're listening and watching and reading a negative or hesitant reaction from the other person.

Behavior is entirely predictable. The way that behavior manifests itself is a rich wonderland of material.

Thanks for this post. Seems like broken ankle leads to all these interesting posts.

At the risk of pissing someone off, I have sometimes wished that some veteran improvisors in town would do this more, since they already know how to improvise. But then I think it's hard, it takes energy and involves risk, like vulnerability in real life. I wish I could do it more (both places but I'm talking improv now) because it is really rewarding. And watching when other people do it, such as you the poster, is also the most rewarding for me.

What I look forward to the most is doing some scenes with people where we are both doing this.