Improvoker

Follow the Fear: The Influence of Del Close

iamwhitehouse — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:50:00 -0400

Follow the Fear: The Influence of Del Close

"It takes a lot of strength to follow the fear, instead of fighting the fear."

iamwhitehouse — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:59:01 -0400

“It takes a lot of strength to follow the fear, instead of fighting the fear.”

- Stephanie Weir

“The smallest, teeniest, weeniest emotional discovery...

iamwhitehouse — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:34:00 -0400

“The smallest, teeniest, weeniest emotional discovery that’s real, beats the hell out of the biggest one that’s phony.”
– Del Close

“I’m having trouble imagining Del Close saying ’teeniest, weeniest.’”
- mullaney

I too had trouble believing Del’s grizzly smoker’s voice saying “teeniest, weeniest,” but once you hear it, you’ll be a believer.

It happens at 6:50 and is kind of amazing.

"Nothing we say to each other is innocent of emotional manipulation. Everything that we do on stage..."

iamwhitehouse — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:16:00 -0400

“Nothing we say to each other is innocent of emotional manipulation. Everything that we do on stage is to effect each other in some way and if we notice, very carefully, how those swine we are working with are trying to get to us and get at us. Sometimes I suggest we perform on stage as though we are a whole bunch or raving paranoids, (with) these paranoid adjustments, nothing I hear is going to be simple. Nothing you say to me is going to be accepted at face value. Ohh? It always means something else.”

- Del Close

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iamwhitehouse — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:00:06 -0400

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

iamwhitehouse — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:00:36 -0400

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

- Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

"Del told me a great thing when I first started out at Second City, he was art director. I used to..."

iamwhitehouse — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:53:36 -0400

“Del told me a great thing when I first started out at Second City, he was art director. I used to get by winking at the audience in my behavior and making smart jokes. And Del pulled me aside one day, after a show, and said ‘Some day you are going to look into a mirror and say “I’m so cute and I’m only 45 years old.”’ And it sort of sobered me up and taught me there was more than just scoring with the audience, it wasn’t about just getting a laugh. Del taught us the dictive [sic] that if you concentrate on making everyone else around you look good, it makes everybody look good. …which works in life as well as it does on the stage.”

- Harold Ramis at Del Close’s Death Party

Andy Kaufman Beyond, Dharbin

iamwhitehouse — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:20:05 -0400

Andy Kaufman Beyond, Dharbin

Context is EVERYTHING. (via nevver)

iamwhitehouse — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:05:05 -0400

Context is EVERYTHING. (via nevver)

"Let’s not get caught trying to be funny."

iamwhitehouse — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:00:05 -0400

“Let’s not get caught trying to be funny.”

- Chris Gethard, Improv 501 (2007)

The note is in relation to playing real grounded scenes in improv.

A wonderful comment both on Steve Jobs and also valuable advice...

iamwhitehouse — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:31:34 -0400

A wonderful comment both on Steve Jobs and also valuable advice for improvisation.

“You see I think that he better than anyone else understood, that while ideas ultimately can be so powerful, they begin as fragile barely formed thoughts — so easily missed, so easily compromised, so easily just squished.”

Jonathan Ive - Tribute to Steve Jobs (by threecubed)

georgp:

The best things to create are those you deeply care about.

"The smallest, teeniest, weeniest emotional discovery that’s real, beats the hell out of the..."

iamwhitehouse — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:20:48 -0400

“The smallest, teeniest, weeniest emotional discovery that’s real, beats the hell out of the biggest one that’s phony.”

- Del Close

Justification

iamwhitehouse — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:05:48 -0400

Justification:

nicclee:

Today I practiced with some folks from my 401 class. Our coach was Don Fanelli, who I must say is great. (Side note: I’m not sure he realizes it, but he uses a lot of Chicago-style language to gives notes through that game-oriented UCB lens. It’s great to hear a UCB guy talk about our characters’ deal!) We did a couple of exercises to work on justifications. I have to admit that justifications are not always on my mind and that’s something I do need to work on. Often what I think is a justification is really just a why. Woah. What’s the difference?

Very simply, the problem is that my justifications are often not specific enough. And Don urged us to make our justifications more specific. Allow me to combine this note with something I picked up from Winston Noel (via Lydia Hensler): You need a why for the why. Epiphany! (It’s basically two different ways of saying the same thing, but still - epiphany!)

If you think about it, what some people think is the justification for a weird behavior isn’t actually the justification. For example, say the weird behavior is that you don’t like to touch anything or anybody. The justification you give is that you’re a germaphobe. For most people, that’s enough and you heighten based on that justification. Suddenly, you’re tagged into situations where germs are inevitably around you (hospital, bowling alley, locker room) and your emotional reactions get bigger and more panicky.

Now lets say you gave a why for your why. Suddenly your game moves can get more specific. Why are you a germaphobe? You’re afraid of dying. Germs = death. Your why for your why now allows for more specific game moves.

We practiced a La Ronde, which is quite difficult but fun once you get the hang of it, and really good practice for getting out clear points of view. One of my characters believed in doing things properly and the justification was everything should be done right. The scene was fine and the tag out to my 2nd scene was someone who wanted to wing Monopoly rather than playing by the rules.

Don asked me what my deal was and then asked if I could make my justification more specific. “Why would your character need to follow the rules all the time?” “Because it’s safe.” Boom. A why for my why. Now tag outs can be more specific and put my character in situations that allow me to heighten my need for safety.

Justifications don’t have to be crazy. They should be simple. But they are necessary because, as I am reminded over and over, they influence what kinds of moves you make in a scene. They allow you to establish your character’s deal (point of view, philosophy, game, whatever you want to call it), and then run with it. Exploration is limited with vague or weak justifications.

I hope this makes sense. I’m still working the kinks of understanding the skill before I work the muscle.

This makes total sense.

This brings me back to my UCB 301 when Chris Gethard gave me the note that unless a character has real human reactions, an audience simply can’t relate and therefor doesn’t care to what happens to them. Likewise with justifications they should be real, human, justifications. If no audience member can relate to your character’s justifications, the more likely they won’t care (or laugh at) what that character does on stage.

connorratliff: -saturdaynightlive: Deadline is reporting that...

iamwhitehouse — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:47:25 -0400

connorratliff:

-saturdaynightlive:

Deadline is reporting that SNL has tested seven ladies over the fast few weeks to fill the place of Kristen Wiig, whose future at the show is very much up in the air. Furthermore, the site reports that Kate McKinnon will make her debut on next week’s show hosted by Sofia Vergara. (TO BE UPDATED)

!!!

This sounds great! I’m assuming soon Harold auditions will also have an option to put you directly on SNL

Let's party! - Brown's Mumbler

iamwhitehouse — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:22:00 -0400

Let's party! - Brown's Mumbler:

One of the most talented improvisers I know, Corey Brown, gracefully bows out of Harold Night at UCB. As someone who first got to know Corey through his blog before he moved to the city (I think this is right, but my memory sucks), I have grown to deeply respect him and his improvisation. As someone who doesn’t go to Harold night regularly, I hope this means he will do more indie shows and I’ll get to see him perform more there.

Thank you to everyone who has been texting me, gchatting me and calling me telling me that you are sorry for me that I am not on Harold Night currently. It seriously means a lot to me, but before anyone else does this, everything is wonderful. Seriously. I got my phone call from Nate letting me know that the night will be moving on without me and I wasn’t sad. I’ve had 4 long and amazing years performing on that night with some of the most talented people to come through the system. I got to be on amazing team after team and do amazing show after show. I got to perform in multiple DCMs, as well as in one ASSSSCAT. I got to WIN cagematch (and lose). There is nothing to be sad about! So I’m not. It has been absolutely amazing and exciting (Tebow). The theater has to accept growth and change, and sometimes some of us to don’t fit into that change, and it’s back to school. Which is fun! With a new AD comes a new vision, and it is my job to learn that vision and adapt to it… Read on

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iamwhitehouse — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:00:05 -0400

Posted this a few days ago on Facebook. Interesting look at the...

iamwhitehouse — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:00:05 -0400

Posted this a few days ago on Facebook. Interesting look at the new UCBEast theater.

chrisreblogs: Flie this under Improv Rambling: Don’t Ignore The...

iamwhitehouse — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:45:00 -0400

chrisreblogs:

Flie this under Improv Rambling: Don’t Ignore The Simple Game

There are other versions on the web I like better. This one for is perhaps my favorite for Kristen’s dancing (but is still too short). This one is cut part way though but I believe it is the one they did for 10 minutes, as you can tell by where Kurt’s voice gets to. I also recommend listen to the Radiolab episode “Loops” that opens with a discussion of this sketch.

What does this have to do with improv? Sometimes you don’t need anything. Sometimes you find a fun thing and you just beat it to death. And once it is dead, you beat it again until it comes back alive even stronger. And then you kill it again. And then you beat it harder until it rises yet again.

(Another example is the peeing scene early in Austen Powers. It’s a stupid bit that stops being funny, gets funny again, stops, and then gets funny. But Kristen Schaal’s A Horse is my favorite.)

How could this fail? Easily.

This is sort of thing will most likely be killed by too much justification. It works, in part, because it is super simple… and well, stupid. (Maybe it would work with some super smart and simple, but I can not think of a great example of it.) If it was explained, “We have to keep doing this dance or the kidnappers will kill our dog,” we know now why they keep going. And that kills it.

You have to be brave. Because you will drop into voids of not laughter. You have to trust that you will get it back. And you might not. You may very well fail.

You have to commit. You can not, in anyway, give any sense that it is not great. You can play with energy but you can’t drop he energy very low for very long before you bring it back even bigger. This is the equivalent in a “normal game” of resting the game.

It isn’t for all teams and is certainly something that if you abuse gets old quick. If you have one of these every show (much less every show), it will be a gimmick. But if you are open to these moments and learn to sense when you’ve hit on one of these (and especially if you can do it as a team), they can be particularly magical.

John Robert Wilson is the person who made me trust these moments. I used to watch him baffled by his ability to not over think a moment. He can find one word and realize that it has power and he follows it with abandon. A break through moment in my improv life was being on stage with him and use just repeating the word “Ribs.”

tomcostello:

Kristen Schaal is a horse.

Andy Kaufman would have been very proud of this.

Wonderful thoughts from Chris Scott of Thank You Robot on committing to repetition and simplicity. I always attribute repetition’s power on our logical nature as human being and trying to find order out of something which has order, but no meaning. Repetition gives weight and meaning to nonsense.

Same could probably be said to be true about silence and pregnant pauses.

"Learn to embrace whatever you might consider, or what you are being told, is your bad habit and not..."

iamwhitehouse — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:00:05 -0400

“Learn to embrace whatever you might consider, or what you are being told, is your bad habit and not be scared of it. In other words, keep your enemies closer - keep your bad habits close to you, so you can own them. Don’t be afraid of them. because if that happens and if what you’ve been told is your bad habit appears on stage with you, you’re going to panic. …Don’t be afraid of your bad habits, it’s not going to get you past them.”

- Billy Merritt, Project Improviser Episode 4

theneedtofail: Here is a clip of Abbi Jacobson (Broad City)...

iamwhitehouse — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:13:00 -0400

theneedtofail:

Here is a clip of Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) relaying some advice Zach Woods had told her when she was struggling to get on a house team.

To all that didn’t get a call back for Harold/Lloyd: Keep creating.

To all that did get a call back: Keep creating.

To all that get on a team: Keep creating.

GOOD LUCK!

I am sorry I haven’t posted in a while. It has mainly been because of insane scheduling. Both mine and the people I was looking to interview. I believe I will be changing to a podcast format and hopefully by the summer I will have some interviews to post. I still need to get out my Broad City interview and hopefully that will be coming soon. In the mean time, I can always post some personal failure stories. Never give up!

The truth.

You know how many people got famous solely from being on a Harold team, weekend team, or any other improv team? No one. Ever. And getting on a Harold team probably isn’t why you started taking classes in the first place. Keep creating for yourself. Keep creating.