Apr 11, 2009 01:38
nothing super interesting has been happening lately. just been working, going to shows, going/hanging out with people, doing improv, etc. i got rejected by some girl at the bar last weekend, although i think that was more like "i'm not a whore" than "i don't find you attractive." i mean, i was talking to her for like 3 hours and making her laugh. i probably could've gotten her number if i wanted it, which i didn't. nice girl and all, but not really the type i would want to date probably.
anyway, the real reason for this update is that i just wanted to post some improv notes for myself so i wouldn't lose them. practices have been really shitty lately and i was thinking about it a lot, just trying to figure out why my group and i have been so bad. i sort of figured it out today. we had a show, which was bad, but i think i was at least okay. anyway, here are my boring thoughts:
RE: game
i always get thrown off just by the daunting term that is "game." all this bullshit about "first unusual thing," "patterns," and all that shit. i couldn't wrap my head around it until i thought about it last night and realized that game really is just establishing the reality of the scene quickly (who, what, where), finding something funny ("unusual" is basically the same thing as "funny" i guess, although not always. i think it's like a shortcut for people who aren't funny, basically to keep people from trying to be jokey), and then finding excuses to do that fun funny thing. FOR EXAMPLE, my favorite scene that i've been in in the last couple sessions was this scene i did last week which was basically as follows:
i initiate the scene by sitting down and miming eating. girl sits down across from me.
me: these pita pockets are really good!
girl: i'm glad you like them.
me: i do! they're really great!
girl: you know, you don't have to placate me. if you don't like the pita pockets, then just say so.
me: no, i really do like them! they're delicious!
girl: it seems like you're lying.
me: i'm not, they're really good pita pockets!
girl: then here, if you like them so much, then take mine.
me: gladly, these pita pockets are delicious!
this went on for another minute of basically the same thing, my scene partner trying really hard to start an argument while i played "guy who loves pita pockets." is there really a "game" to that scene? i mean, as i was in it, i remember thinking immediately "it would be really funny if my character just really loved pita pockets" and just kept being all about pita pockets. i don't know that there is a "first unusual thing" to that, just a funny idea for a scene and a really fun guy to play. that being said, i don't know how i would do a 2nd beat of that if we had been doing a harold. maybe something like a guy who won't stop talking to his boss about how much he loves his job. that might work.
anyway, i hope that illustrated my realization about game. i had a show today (which was terrible) and went into it with that in mind and i think my scenes were better than they've been lately because of it. i initiated a second beat of a scene about a guy who killed someone's dog and pretended he didn't know what anything was to try to trick the dog's owner by putting that character type in interrogation for a murder. i thought that was a decent initiation, although that was a hard game to play and the scene got mauled with walk-ons almost immediately. but at least there was a definite game there, which has been a struggle for me lately for some reason. maybe that's a good thing, though. i'm thinking more about improv than before when it was going well so now i think i understand it more than i did before.