Follow The Fun
Monday, March 11, 2024
I took workshops with Will Hines and Jim Woods yesterday and boy, they were packed with info. It was so helpful to get their points of view. Some of the points form yesterday
Improv is a "tradeoff triangle" of agreement, commitment, and game.
Improv is finding ways to make the right thing to do, easier to do. Make it easy for yourself.
Find your point of view as an actor, not as a comedian. This is interesting and in sharp contrast to what I've heard from others. There's very little interrogation, and the point of view comes from within you and can be something that in our traditional training would be considered a rationalization. I guess the idea is to trust that something will be found, and it doesn't have to be forced.
Saying yes is so important. Just say yes and figure it out. I personally have had some trouble "negotiating" or rebutting things logically in scene. Sometimes I'm too committed to "reality" that I reject offers or normalize things. Like explaining something away. Say yes more to the accusations and things people are offering or framing.
As someone with an unsual "want" or point of view, once you express your want and it gets "denied", you let it go. Don't try to convince people. You're never going to give up that want, but every time it clashes against the base reality you let it go.
Humor comes from the approach to the ask! This is so important because too often in the FA style of improv I was taught, we make logical game moves where in a way the reaction of the person with the want is almost predictable. Unusual and funny, but kind of predictable. I think this style, of the genuinely unexpected ask is where deep humor comes from that really gets me. I love this style of humor, where even as an improviser watching the show you're not expecting it, but it's not invented.
For example the ATM scene from EIIF
Or a scene last night where Jim was playing a vampire asking Will's character to leave. The contrast of the characters was really funny, but some of the best moments that really got to me were the funny ways that Jim's character was asking Will to leaving e.g. picking up a phone and dialing for an Uber, or framing him for murder.
