Improv training and the importance of allowing yourself to look STUPID!

Think about that someone you know who is really great at improvising on the spot, whether due to natural ability, upbringing, or training.  They may not necessarily speak quickly, but they've trained themselves to think quickly and are ready with a comeback or a comment before you manage to even process what was just said.  They're on the spot with a joke, can handle awkward or tense moments very easily, they don't seem to have that same brain to mouth hesitation as everyone else does when it comes down to the moment.  (Sometimes it even gets them in trouble if they haven't learned to keep the filter on.)  I seethe with jealousy of those people who are able to just <BOOM> get it. 

Me?  I'm not always ready at a moment's notice, but sometimes I'm good with a quip.  It all depends on whether I catch my gut response in my web of overthinking and second-guessing.  Not just a filter, but a feedback loop of "what if's" and potential scenarios.  It's kept me out of trouble, certainly, but the rest of the time I just kick myself because I couldn't think of anything brilliant or funny to say.  It's not that I'm stupid, I'm just not quick enough to get there most of the time.  Too much time spent in my own brain.

The ability to react quickly and improvise is crucial to acting, and especially voice acting.  Time and time again, when famous actors are asked what they'd suggest to people trying to break into the industry is Improv Training.  It lends to that ability to be in the moment in order to make your performance authentic and real.  So it's something at the very top of the list of what I want to learn next.  Fortunately, I have help from fantastic acting coaches.  Brooke Totman's Intro to Comedy and Improv classes are on deck along with Ted Rooney's advanced On Camera Acting class, and I'm excited and intimidated in equal measure.  But in order to get better you have to throw yourself full bore into that uncomfortable sensation, embracing feeling unprepared and just focusing on getting incrementally better each time you try it.  Just like learning any other new skill.  I'm starting to learn to like that feeling.

I once described that anxiety before performing as this pressure or energy in the center of my chest that I was determined to have fuel me instead of hinder me.  It was like Tony Stark's Arc Reactor right there in my sternum just shooting power to every limb, making my fingers tingly and my breathing and heart rate pick up a bit.  Of course I had to learn after how to calm the hell down, but that energy is still there ready to use.  Pretending I'm Iron Man before I start performing also just gives me a little bit of childlike glee and sense of play that really helps me no matter what I'm working on anyway.  Because, coincidentally, Robert Downey Jr. is also one of those people who is just so quick and reactive and instantly ready for whatever comes his way as well.  I don't think I've ever personally seen him blindsided by a question in any interview or Q and A panel he's been on.

(Robert Downey Jr. in "Iron Man", 2008, Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment)

Improv training can help you make friends and network as well.  Being a good conversationalist, knowing when and how to keep a conversation going instead of letting an awkward silence develop as you search for something to say, makes you look and sound more confident and memorable in a good way. 

More specific to what this blog is about, however, a session in the booth recording for a voice role is often going to include having you make shit up on the spot!  They'll ask you to read the line several different ways, change things up, and sometimes even ad lib your own lines just to see what you might be able to come up with once you're inhabiting the character.  Maybe they just need some background chatter or a new minor character that needs to say a throwaway line that you're expected to just vomit forth with no preparation.  You'll also have to apply this trained quick thinking to scripts you will probably get handed freezing cold, and they expect you to turn out a quality performance the first or second time you've even read the new material.  They're on a schedule.  They're not going to sit there on the other side of the glass and give me three hours to prepare and rehearse.  They're just going to get someone who CAN toss things out there and make strong choices instead. 

This all comes back to something I struggle with a lot: Not being afraid to look or sound STUPID.  It's part of the job description.  Sometimes my stuff is going to fall flat.  Almost constantly I'm going to have to make ridiculous noises and funny faces and look like a total idiot, but man that's half the fun of this whole thing.  If it doesn't work, you just try something different.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  I'm a big overanalyzer.  I scrutinize the smallest details wondering if I said something wrong or came off the wrong way when in reality I'm probably going to be lucky if a person I hand my business card to even remembers the conversation.  I keep having to remind myself that I've got waaaaay more important (and more fun) things to do than worry.

So go ahead.  Get stupid today.

P.S. If you're a Portland, OR resident, go see Brooke and Ted's sketch comedy group Night Bus and their new show "Everything. Now." for the next two Friday and Saturday nights downtown at the Deep End Theater.  My wife and I went last weekend and it was hilarious!