Say Something Funny

During SAC practice this week, Ricky focused on some improv fundamentals. Several times when I tell people that I do improv, I will hear remarks like ... "Say something funny. " or  "Oh, do you even have to practice for that?" or "How can you learn to do improv?"

Well, like many things in life, natural ability can only get you so far. You may have the gift of natural athletic ability, which enables you to swim faster than most people, but without consistent training your athletic ability will go to waste. You always have to cultivate the seed, even if it inclined to turn into a apple tree, there's always ways to make it an even bigger and better tree with more care.  Anyways enough with the analogies. Improv is work. We rehearse once a week for two hours.

Basic rules of improv are as follows:
1. Don't Deny.
If you partner says, "Wow I can't believe you know how to play the piano with your teeth."
You wouldn't respond by saying, "No, I don't know how to do that."
2. Add information. Be specific.
At the beginning of the scene make sure you have established a location, a relationship between you and your problem, and a purpose.
3. Listen.
You are not in this scene alone. Make sure you are listening to your partner so you are on the same page.

Ricky then brought up these rules to think about:
Nothing is ignored.
Nothing is forgotten.
Nothing is a mistake.

I would like to touch on the "nothing is a mistake." Sometimes after a performance or even during a scene, I beat myself up about saying something silly during a scene, but Ricky made me realize that nothing I do can be a mistake. If I trust my partner to help me work out what ever I just said, everything will be okay. The key is to JUSTIFY. If I say something like, "That sure is a big snot fest." My partner could justify that sentence by saying, "Yes, I hate being at company parties where everyone is sick.

When we talked about "nothing being forgotten," I realized that sometimes I forget important information during the scene and it messes me the scene up later. For example, if my partner has established there is a table in front of us, I cannot forget about this table and suddenly walk through it. That is a big no no. Also, if my partner mentions at the beginning of the scene that he is shy, I have to remember that through out the scene and don't say something like, "Wow, it is so great that you sky dive all the time with different celebrities."

After my brain hurt from all the new learning, Ricky told us what the judges are going to be looking for when we compete in the Improv festival in a few weeks.

-agreement
-characters
-ensemble
-listening
-playfulness
-relationship
-support

Ricky said he wanted us to be a "well-oiled machine." I thought that was pretty cool and look forward to trying to be able to pull it off in the next few weeks.