Can you give me any tips?

No, I probably can't. Every time someone asks me that I always hesitate. I'm no teacher, I just happen to do improv a lot. Heck the only class I ever took about improv was back freshman year of high school. I had just started getting into acting, and the only class open at that time was improv/beginning acting. So I thought what the heck, I could try that. I don't remember a single thing that I was taught there. I remember playing games, most notably Bus Stop, and Freeze, along with the occasional word association. But theories, rules, lessons, or anything like that was nowhere to be found in this classroom. And I guess that's probably the best way anyone can learn.

When I was looking for a topic to tackle and write about I usually came up with a lot of nothing. It was like that when I was asked to run a workshop. Shoot, I don't know a darn thing, what could I possibly do to help people with their scenes. I ended up on general acting techniques, ways to simply look better on a stage. Nothing really to do with improv, more to do with performance. I know how to perform. (Take notice I never said well) There are a few other things I know a lot about, and by a lot I mean just enough to write more than a sentence about. I know how to not think. I know how to react honestly. And I know how to try. To start let's not think. Its really easy I swear, you start by thinking, then quickly you stop thinking, and you especially don't want to think about not thinking. Go ahead try it right now. Its okay I can wait...............Did it work? Don't worry, it doesn't work for me either.

So how is it that I don't think, that I rarely am in my head, as many experienced improvisers would say. I don't know. As I am writing these words I am becoming increasingly aware of how intertwined those above topics are. Well lets see if I can't untangle them for just a little while. I don't think while I am in a scene because I got lucky. When I first started improv I was never told a single rule. I was never told about acceptance and blocking, about building or 3's, or any of that stuff. (For the sake of brevity I'm not going to define any "technical" or "improv" terms that I might use. You can look them up, it won't hurt I swear.) I was told to go out there make something up, and hopefully it would be funny. Through that introduction I learned to stay out of my head. Those must be really comforting and helpful words to about 90% of the people who would bother to read this, those who have already heard the rules. Well there is hope, a way around that little bit of misfortune. I don't like telling people to not think. Cause that is impossible. I instead want to tell people to think about the right things. Don't think about rules, don't think about whether or not the audience laughed. Don't think about that cute girl, in the third row who winked at you. Instead think about your scene. Think about what the heck your partner just said. Wait she just mentioned something about Billy beating up his teacher for some lunch money. Oh we must be married with an aggressive little boy. Did he just say he wanted to sacrifice a virgin to the pagan gods. Well that's interesting. Never done that one before. But hey there's a first for everything. Here is what to think about. Every time you go on stage you have a character. It may be undeveloped, just a few scattered ideas, or it might be this deeply rooted character that is so vivid you can taste it. But that's not important, all you need to think about is how would that character react to what was just said. Its a split second thought, but its the only one that matters. Then you move onto stage two, honest reactions.

The easiest way to learn this one is to simply look into your own life, into your real life experiences. Think back to some crazy event, or something that just seemed odd at the time. Yeah, its alright to think right now, and feel free to take your time. When something unexpected happened, did you let it slide, build on it, call it out, fight it, or ignore it? There are probably a couple thousand other reactions that could have happened, and truth be told they were all honest, real, and valid. Guess what, the same is true for an improv scene. Say you have firmly established that you are a midwestern farmer who hates corn. Then suddenly your partner shows that he is really an evil genius who is out to get James Bond, and is taking you hostage. First thing I thought of after I came up with that scenario, was the farmer merely mentioning how he didn't have much knowledge in such things as evil plans and crazy traps, but he failed to see how James Bond would care about little old him. There we go, we have a reaction. Doubt. Hey you know what, that probably would have been a fantastic scene if I had let it play out a little longer. I am finding there is not much to say about reaction, other than it is important. Go with your first thought (ha told you, you have to think) it will be your best, because it will be honest. When I said I am pregnant, and your first thought was, "I doubt it, your a dude" go with it. It will be hilarious, I swear. Don't worry if you just "blocked" my idea, let me justify your reaction with my own. Then we will have a scene going, then we can find a game, and really make the audience laugh. That's all I have to say about that. This is just one you have to try out for yourselves. And you just have to be willing to say to yourself what the heck, why not?

Remember way back in paragraph one when I said my response to to hearing about the class was what the heck, I could try that? Well that's what this is all about. As long as you go into a scene, a game, an exercise, life, with that attitude of ultimate acceptance, with that thought of sure I could go along with that, you will be fine. That's not something you can teach. At least I have no idea how you could. Its probably something that you just have to have. Lucky for me I have it, or I just met the right person to instill that kind of thinking in me. I don't want to sound arrogant about this but I am struggling to put it any other way. Is it a gift, or a talent, or a skill set, or general philosophy of life? Could be any of those. But I will let you in on a little secret. Its definitely one of the philosophies I live by. Is that why I am able to do improv, or is it the other way around? Who knows. Its like trying to figure out what truth is. Good luck with that one. But seriously the only true tip I can give to someone is that just go out there and do it. Whether that means saying a line, making a crazy motion with your left foot, or just staring off into space, just do it. Yes I am being payed by Nike to say all this.

I will give you all one final example of just doing it. One scene I did, I started off as the small town guy who made it to the presidency of the United States. Somewhere along the way we started singing "America the Beautiful." I then thought, wouldn't it be funny if I danced to this. Next thing I know I am doing everything from ballet to getting my butt slapped by one of my partners. After that a real life American Flag is pulled out. I pull myself together, only to have a deep emotion come over me. I then proceeded to wipe my tears and blow my nose on the flag. And you know what, it was a hilarious scene. You know why? Cause the only thing I was ever thinking about was, what would this guy really do? Could I tell you exactly why all those events took place? Probably not. Funny thing about reacting is that rarely is it stored in memory. Most times just doing something based off others ideas (i.e. reacting) will fly through your mind so quickly that you'll never have a chance to think about remembering it. I only remember general actions, never any jokes or lines, or an overall goal of a scene, and that is good enough.

If this resonates true with one person, or helps someone else do better on stage, well then I guess I did my job. If not, you guys may want to stop and think about coming to me for anymore tips.

Scott C.