Story Robot

I probably should have mentioned this at some point.
My comic is now on sale online.
It’s actually pretty good, the narrative was improvised, and Saki’s art is amazing.

You can order it here.

Anytime I get into a conversation about the possibilities of taking improv in new directions this book always comes up.

I love this book. It describes different ways that audiences can participate in a theatrical experience, to quote the improv encyclopedia it includes;
* Environmental theater, in which the audience become characters in a semi-scripted role-play, together with actors
* Playback theater, in which actors `replay` scenes from the audience`s experience
* Forum Theater, or Theater of the Oppressed
* Theatrical Freestyle, developed by Wirth himself, in which audience members join actors on stage to play full-length performances.

It’s also loaded with techniques for working with audience volunteers.

A friend was telling me about a performance he saw of Cinderella;
Cinderella: I don’t know how I’m going to get all this cleaning done in time.
Little girl: *jumping out of the audience* I’ll help you! And so will everyone else.

I think the actress was a bit thrown by this, but it’s exactly the sort of situation that I think Jeff Wirth would relish.

The Improv Handbook
Tom Salinsky and Deborah Frances-White (from The Spontaneity Shop)

Why this book blew my mind.

1. The Improv Handbook is clearly written by people who do exactly the kind of improv that I want to do. Many other improv books I have read and enjoyed; Truth in Comedy, Art by Committee, Improvise, etc. All of these books I have read more than once and got a lot out of, but these books were not written for my style of improv.
(To clarify, my favourite kind of improv is fundamentally narrative based and Johnstone inspired, and that’s what this book is about).

2. I love Keith’s books. Love love love them. But I know many people find them very difficult reads*. This is a much smoother read, the layout is easier on the eyes, the sections follow a logical flow, the index is more useful, and (though this is a bit unfair) the pop culture examples are things that I know and like (I knew it was love when they used Die Hard as an example).

3. It’s filled with exactly the exercises I was looking for as a teacher. The one slightly demoralizing thing about the book is that I saw so many of the little insights that I had gleaned in my years as an improv teacher and thought my very own written down in front of me and put much better than I ever could have. The upside is that in the book I found the exercises that I probably would have eventually worked out for myself (or at least I like to think so).

4. Cross style discussion. I’d always wanted to know what Keith thinks of Del, and what what Mick thinks of Keith and so forth. So it was a treat to see someone asking those questions. Favourite Keith quote “I think what Del was trying to attack was to stop it being a total waste of time.”

You can read a sample from the Improv Handbook here.

*I enjoy the labyrinthine quality of Keith’s writing, it means I’m always finding something I missed last time through. But I certainly see where people are coming from.

I mentioned reading Blink some months ago. Other improvisers keep recommending it to me, so I thought I would revisit one of my favourite parts here, which describes the recognition of ‘fists’: distinctive patterns in morse code.

Morse code is made up of dots and dashes, each of which has its own prescribed length. But no one ever replicates those prescribed lengths perfectly. When operators send a message—particularly using the old manual machines known as the straight key or the bug—they vary the spacing or stretch out the dots and dashes or combine dots and dashes and spaces in a particular rhythm. Morse code is like speech. Everyone has a different voice.

(more…)

A lovely quote from Stephen Nachmanovitch’s Free Play.

Anthropologists have found “galumphing” to be one of the prime talents that characterize higher life forms. Galumphing is the immaculately rambunctious and seemingly inexhaustible play-energy found in puppies, kittens, children, baby baboons–and also in young communities and civilizations. Galumphing is the seemingly useless elaboration and ornamentation of activity. It is profligate, excessive, exaggerated, uneconomical. We galumph when we hop instead of walk, when we take the scenic route instead of the efficient one, when we play a game whose rules demand a limitation of our powers, when we are interested in means rather than ends. When we voluntarily create obstacles in our path and enjoy overcoming them. In the higher animals and people, it is the supreme evolutionary value.

In one of those connection moments that the internet inevitable brings, while typing up the quote I came across this article on the rules of CalvinBall

 I got an e-mail from David Wahl (Creative Creativity) a while ago, which mentioned this activity from The Art of Comedy.

 Reclaiming Your Charm

This exercise helps you discover your true, inner personal charm. One thing that’s important in acting is likeability. Tapping into one’s authenticity is vital in your comedy acting. This charm exercise allows people to embrace the power of agreement, that is, to agree with the other person and to see the magic in the other person.

Sometimes, in comedy, people tend to leave out their unique personality and likeability. They sometimes forget how to be charming and can be rather robotic in their acting. Although comedy certainly uses exaggeration, it has to be based on a layer of truth. The actor has to be real and likeable. As simple as this exercise may seem, it can be challenging, because sometimes people want to lock their personalities away.

People Needed: 2 or more

Scene: Two actors onstage

Directions: One actor is onstage when the other actor enters. The goal of the scene is for the two actors to be as charming as they can. They have a coversation with each other and aren’t concerned about being funny. They focus on tapping their own personal charm and talk with each other in great depth. They compliment each other, express kindness toward one another and notice everything about the other person in a most flattering way.

I haven’t had a chance to try this one yet, but I am intrigued.  As far as I can tell it is trying to teach charisma.  Teaching charisma?  Can it be done?  Isn’t it one of those things that you either have or you don’t?

Does anyone have any hot ideas for teaching charisma?

I’d love to run a workshop on charisma.  Some status work, some body language, the beep beep game*, the presentation minus trick game*…

*as found in impro for storytellers.

I’ve been rereading some of my Improv books.

This weekend it was GURU: MY DAYS WITH DEL CLOSE by Jeff Griggs.

Some thoughts,

1. Jeff Griggs is the kind of improviser I want to be when I grow up.

2. The way Del’s life intertwines with popular culture at large falls somewhere between Forrest Gump and the Da Vinci Code.

3. While sometimes I worry that I’m a little harsh on students, I’m always reassured by the fact that I’ve never told a student to sew her vagina shut.

4. Quote: “Laughter is a response to a gestault formation where two previously incompatible or dissimilar ideas suddenly form into a new piece of understanding. The energy release during that reaction comes out in laughter.” (p41)

Excerpts here and here.

This is the first time Amazon’s recommendation system has turned up something interesting.

Unscripted Learning: Using Improv Activities Across the K-8 Curriculum

Using improv to teach other things is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. So I may have to look into this one.

I found the chapter on improvising maths here (PDF).

Just finished reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

What a great read.  Fundamentally, it is a book about the kind of thinking that happens very quickly, when to trust those snap decisions, and when to question them.  The kinds of issues we improvisers are quite familiar with (in fact, there’s a brief section on improvised theatre).

I’m not sure that reading this book will make you a better improviser, but for an improv teacher, this book is packed full of insights into how the brain works under pressure.

And it’s just really well written.

I’m going to let it sit for a couple of weeks, then go back through it.