Greetings Agents,
Right now I am sitting in the lobby of the UCB training center, a little less than an hour early and chilled to the bone. In about forty minutes I will walk into classroom four, meet one of my instructors, and hopefully learn how little I actually knew about improv up until today. I've been told 201 is the class of improv revelations, and judging by the revelations I came across in 101 my mind is about to be blown.
When I took 101 last year I was notorious in the class for my notebook. I recorded every idea, insight, and thought that occurred to me in it, and on the long train rides home I'd go over them relentlessly. The entire process was an amazing learning experience, so I decided (especially for all those interested in furthering their improv experience at UCB) to keep a journal of my two weeks here. I hope you have half as much fun reading this as I'm going to have living this.
Jan 12, 2:05 PM
Just walked out of class and my mind is a buzz. What I was first reminded of was how unsettling is at first. You and a bunch of strangers are thrown into a circle with the intent of making fools of yourselves. The only way to get through it without felling incredibly awkward is to commit to it one hundred percent. Easier said than done. I started feeling a cold come on last night, and the lack of sleep coupled with the cold drained me of what little energy I had. Fortunately, there were times during the warm-ups where I would really cut loose, and it was comforting knowing I had progressed to the point where I can roll with the punches and make the best out of how I feel.
After the warm-ups (we did a Super Hero name game, Pass the Clap, and Follow the Follower) we proceeded right into our first exercise. It was a little jarring. My 101 instructor, Ari Voukydis, would fill the transitions with little gems of improv wisdom or amazing anecdotes which made everyone feel right at home. There was none of that with this instructor.
The exercise we did next was a two-person scene where one person would chose an emotion and make it did while the other person would initiate the scene and try to feed that emotion. The first scene went well, and the second ever more so. I got the courage to get up, hoping I would follow suit suit with the awesomeness. I had to initiate, and with the suggestion "clementine" I established that me and my partner were married farmers, picking apples on a nice day. My scene partner had chosen fear as their emotion, so he quickly justified his panic by declaring his fear of open space. I felt like I knew what to play next. I played onto that feat of the outdoors first, then followed suit by pointing out different things in the environment that he could obviously be afraid of.
The scene sucked. I thought I was playing the game well at first, but my instructor pointed out for me everything I did wrong. First, I wasn't playing my character with any integrity. Second, I wasn't building off of the fact that the person was afraid of open space. Instead, when I pointed out everything in the environment was terrifying I robbed the scene of any surprise. I returned to by seat, dismayed that my first impression I made on my classmates was a shitty scene.
I felt like a schmuck. What was I doing here? I'm such a bad improvisor. Why do I even try? I'll never become a really good improvisor. All this ran through my head as I tried to pay attention to other peoples scenes. I knew it was just my ego whining because it took a blow, so I just kept remind myself that I wanted this class, and every fuck up teaches you more than any success. Turns out, that last part is true.
During the next exercise we started the scene with the "who, what, where" already established. Everyone was on a second date at TGIF. I kept reminding myself that no matter what I needed to play this sincere. I had to react to everything as Jake Lucas would on an actual second date at TGIF. The scene started off and pretty quickly my scene partner established she was a callous bitch about her sister being in the hospital after a tragic accident. I stuck with my gut reaction of "what..." and it worked great. The scene went by with a smoothness I never felt. I KNEW what to do because I KNEW what Jake Lucas would do. It made more realize how my lack of integrity in my characters was by biggest improv flaw and it needed to be hammered out.
So day one went fairly well. A few ups and downs on the emotional roller coaster, but the information I got was right: 201 would be the class of revelations.
