In the mind as you enter…

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 by John Robison.

An e-mail to me: I’ve been thinking about improv mindsets recently and was wondering if you have any goals, intentions or understandings in your head when you go on-stage. “Be funny” is the first thing that came to my mind, but that’s probably not the most empowering mindset (and may have bad results.) “Do the scene justice” is the next thing I thought, but is upholding a plot, characters and relationships really more important than marketing the scene to the audience? “Have fun” was another thought, but that doesn’t account for the high standard many improvisers hold themselves to.
What do you normally think to yourself?

Let’s take this a little bit at a time…
I think that saying to yourself “be funny” is like playing Russian Roulette with five bullets in the chamber. You’re not going to win this one. Everybody and their grandpa tries to be funny, and let’s be honest - they’re not funny. I have never genuinely laughed at a single thing my grandfather has ever said.

Your goal should be to “be real.” Each human is a unique individual, and will have a different outlook on every given topic. Since you’re one of those unique individuals, by being real, you’re giving your audience something they couldn’t get anywhere else. People will laugh, but they will not be laughing at how funny you are… they’ll be laughing at your honest reactions. People are fascinated by the way people behave in real situations - hence the popularity of reality shows (real ones… scripted reality shows are terrible - have you seen “The Hills?”). Be real, and you’ll be funny. It’ll happen.

Doing the scene justice is a good idea, but it seems a like kind of a nebulous thought to have in your head as you’re heading onto the stage. If you’re doing your job correctly, your actions will not only create great relationships and characters with a nice simple plot to hold it all together, but will also entrance the audience. Audiences want scenes to work well. Honestly, I do not think of the audience while I am within the piece. I pay more attention to the energy in the room.*

Perhaps a more helpful outlook from the sidelines is “What does this scene/piece need?” See my paragraph on Predator Mind below…

Have fun? Absolutely. If this isn’t fun, then you need to stop doing it right the hell now. You have a limited amount of free time - why are you doing this if you’re not having fun, especially if you’re doing it for little or no pay? Just to make sure I have fun, I remind myself to have fun before each and every show, and remind myself how lucky I am to be able to go out, pretend to be someone else, say ridiculous things that I personally don’t believe (I had a character last weekend ready to defend Sarah Palin and everything she stands for), and have people pay you to do it.  And by the way, having fun and also having high standards are not exclusive. I think they go hand in hand.

Here are three techniques that I regularly employ when I’m on the sidelines:

• Completely blank your mind - Michelangelo was said to have stared at a piece of marble, see the sculpture waiting within, and then to remove the portions that didn’t belong. Some people see longform the same way. From the moment your ensemble hears the suggestion, the mental energy begins to flow, and the piece forms onstage without you having to actively do anything. Trust in that energy and the ability of your unconscious to interpret it. Go on stage with absolutely nothing in mind, and see what already exists there. See what inhabits you when you step up.** It can be scary as hell, but you’ll discover things you wouldn’t ordinarily think of. I’ve found that this works best at the very start of a piece, and not quite so well later on.

• Initiating line - No matter what you think might happen in the piece later on, it won’t. Trying to plan ahead will not work unless you force it, and when you force it, you will destroy it. Comedy is like a soap bubble… beautiful, amazing, and easily annihilated. That being said, you can still give it gentle nudges. In the fraction of a second it takes me to step onto the stage, I formulate a concept of the initiating line I want to say, and how to say it. And that’s all. You’ve blown the bubble… and now you have to see where it sails. Let your scene partner react, and the two of you reacting honestly in the moment will create a scene completely different and way funnier than anything you could have planned out on the sidelines.

And while I’m on this topic, no matter what line you initiate with, for the love of God, have some emotion behind it. So very many times I’ve seen an actor come on stage and say something about the environment like, “Look at that fishtank,” which is like an engraved golden ticket to a maddeningly boring-ass scene about wacky stuff. However, that same line, said with perceptible fear, euphoria, sadness, hatred, or some other strongly felt emotion will lead to a much richer scene. AND it gives your partner more direction, which is always a plus.

• Predator Mind - While you’re on the sidelines, do not think at all of the future, but rather let your spirit of the wolf come out. Watch and listen to what’s happening on stage as if it were your next meal, and you’re starving. Listen to every little detail. Live in the moment, and be ready to pounce when you identify something that must happen. Time for an edit? Do it. Need a walk-on character to help clarify what the environment is? You’re there. What is the scene calling for right now? A high energy character? Clarification? Heightening? Consistently aggressive editing? You’ll sense when something is not right, especially after you’ve been doing it awhile.

You’re not sitting there looking for opportunities to go on stage… if the scene is cooking, do not disturb the dynamic they’ve got going… you’ll pop that soap bubble. If you’re adding something necessary to the scene, you’re adding to that bubble, and making it more amazing. Sometimes, it calls for nothing, and the right move is to stay the hell out of its way, even if that means you do nothing the entire but edit and scene paint - because that’s what the piece needs you to do.

You cannot have a complete Predator Mind if you’re sitting on the sidelines plotting and planning ahead. Be the scene.

So, to boil an incredibly long answer down to one hippy-dippy take-home concept: The scene is alive. You are not in control of it. As a beginning improviser, you do not fully understand its language, so you must not assume you know how it lives. Listen to it carefully, and it will tell you how to make it thrive.

Now begins the footnote section…

*If you don’t believe in invisible energy that flows between and among actors and audiences, you may not be cut out to be a performer. There’s a reason that shows are better live than on tape, and it’s human-generated energy. Read the chapter on thermodynamics in Mick Napier’s “Improvise.” Then after you’re done being confused (he once told me he wrote that chapter in a hotel in Amsterdam, if that helps), read it again. He’s right. The energy is there, and you’ll kick up your game several notches when you learn to recognize it and use it… as long as you don’t depend upon it.

**Seriously… the energy is there, and your subconscious can pick up on it and lead you the right way. I’m a huge fan of the subconscious.

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