Here in New York it’s UCB Harold audition time. It’s the time of year when students gather outside of the UCB training center, in the freezing cold, to sign up for a prized audition slot. So it’s been for thousands of years… As someone who has auditioned before I thought I would share some of my experience with all of you and ask for any advice you might have for anybody else. Comments appreciated!
As a word of caution, I have not ever had a successful Harold audition, nor do I know anything you don’t. I just thought this might serve as healthy inspiration for all of you brave enough to audition.
Relax — I know it’s stressful to perform in front of all the teachers and higher-ups at the school, but remember they want you to succeed and they are on your side. Think of it like performing in front of your friends — friends you don’t usually talk to.
Perform with friends — I have to say that I’ve performed with strangers and friends and performing with friends has been much easier. Since you get to sign up with anyone already down, check for people you would like to perform with. I know where they are coming from and vaguely their playing style. I know we should be able to play with anybody, but if you get called back, chances are you will play with someone you haven’t.
Get there early — I can’t stress this enough. Get to the training center at least 15 minutes before your auditions slot. This will give you enough time to meet the people you will be performing with and get used to the energy of the day. If you rush, you will come in in a fluster and have flustered scenes. Get there early and relax for a second before blowing everybody’s minds.
Warm up — Once you get to the training center you might want to warm up with your group. I would recommend warm-ups that let you see their performance styles like 3 line scenes, or listening/eye contact exercises like swoosh or knife throw. Avoid things like stretch & share as they burn through time and while allow you to learn more about the other performers, but do not warm performance muscles.
Listen — You are going to be nervous, you are going to have a shit load of adrenaline flowing through your veins, and lets face it most of you will be high on life (PCPs) — remember to listen to what your partner is saying. respond to your partner. Keep in mind, that in panic situations your focus will narrow and you will tend to talk about the things rather than your relationship or behavior. Take a deep breath and respond to the last thing said.
And — One of my favorite teachers Christina Gausas always says “An improviser shows their personal style by ‘anding’.” This is extremely true for auditions situations. remember how you “and” is your signature. Only you “and” the way you do, because let’s face it “Yessing” is just agreeing with your partner’s “and.” Be sure to give really jusicy “ands.”
Support — This is totally related to giving juicy “ands”, but remember to support your fellow scene partners in every thing they do. Remember that everything your partners says or does in a scene is BRILLIANT. Take whatever they give you and treat it like gold, because it is. You make yourself look good when you make your scene partners look good.
Wear comfortable clothes — Hey, know that halter top and mini skirt you’ve been dying to wear… well this may not be the time to wear things that restrict your movement (sorry audition proctors). Guys, keep those balls INSIDE your pants (sorry audition proctors).
Have Fun! — If nothing else follow this rule. Anybody worth their weight in salt wants to see what excites you. If you are having a miserable time, chances are everybody is having a miserable time. Do what you would want to see on stage. Keep it fun.
Remember why you do this — Lastly at the end of the day being on a house team, or any place for that matter, is nothing more than an opportunity to perform regularly and not an indication of your worth. Remember that you started performing improv because you loved it, not because you wanted to be on a house team, and continue doing it because you love it, not because you want to be on a house team. Some people put a lot of undue pressure on themselves thinking that the opportunity is it — a sign off on how worthy you are as an improviser — well let me assure you it isn’t. This is one theater’s opinion and they have very limited space and opportunity — so at the end of the day remember there are tons of places to continue to hone your skills in performance. You, as a performer, are never defined solely on the places you perform, but on the quality of your work. If it doesn’t work out today, no sweat — there will be many more times you can do quality work. (Ahem… indie community… cough… send me an e-mail… cough…)
So those are my thoughts going into this. You are all wonderful performers in your own right and no matter what happens in that room (watch out for shitting yourself) at the end of the day, you are still the performer you were when you walked in. Remember to be yourself and have fun — you earned it.
When I first started taking improv classes in April/May of 1996 with the UCB Walsh, Besser, Ian and Amy were the only people teaching long form in New York. Indeed they were the only people teaching long form formally in New York for the next three years or so until Armando and Kevin Mullaney and Ali Farahnakian showed up.
While there were always people taking classes once or twice there was probably a group of about 40 people
Who.
Took.
Classes.
Took two classes a day, three classes at a time and the like. Really into it. Saw shows constantly. There was truly nothing like it at the time. The classes all felt blazing and raw, full of talent and potential.
Just as an aside, these were the days at Solo Arts when you could walk into ASSSCAT 10 or 15 minutes before it started and pick your seat.
All the UCB were incredible teachers for different reasons and with different focuses and that core of students really admired them and listened carefully to what we were learning. Classes were a simple joy. After a few months I had the vague thought that the “laws” that “govern” improv had applications off the stage and sort of aligned with the introspective and spiritual work I had done and cultivated in my life.
One day Amy Poehler gave our class a truly astonishing note – I don’t recall what spurred it.
Treat the stage with respect. Treat it with total and complete reverence. The stage is my church. There is no place that I feel more alive, more myself, more truthful, more satisfied and happy.
Some people go to church to feel in touch with that creative force that some people call God. Well, I get that on stage. I have learned more about the person I want to be and can be from the lessons I have learned in improv classes and performing in shows. That is why I am here today. So if the stage is my church, improv is my religion.
Now, two people up for a scene and just rock out with your cocks out.
It was a stunning moment. Amy just flashed an invitation to a secret part of improv if you wanted to go there with her. Improv wasn’t just being funny with smart funny people getting the rush of being funny on stage for paying customers. It wasn’t therapy, it was opportunity to see yourself differently and be free to just be a truer version of yourself somehow.
All terribly mystical, I know. But it appealed to me and rung deeply true. But a corollary arose in me after considering Amy’s note for a few days. I didn’t doubt for a moment the veracity of Amy offered – that improv offers a method and approach to living a more satisfying and fulfilled and genuine life – I was experiencing that by osmosis somehow.
But the corollary was that if improv could teach us about being better people, more in touch with the power that some people call God…could the great religious traditions teach us something about improv? I already had a deep and well studied library with great religious texts in it and got to work reflecting upon the question.
In further posts I’ll post my investigations and experiments with what the 10 Commandments teach about improv….then maybe I’ll go into some of the other spiritual traditions.
July 5th (when I started writing this) marked my second anniversary of taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade New York. It’s been a fast 2 years, but when I think back to even just a year ago, I am a amazed how far I have come. There have been plateaus, peaks, and a lot of different ways of looking at everything. You learn one thing, think you have mastered it, and before you know it you find you really didn’t know anything at all. Improv is both the most rewarding thing I have ever done with my life and the most frustrating.
UCB has been the center of my education (14 Classes) for the last 2 years and I still count myself as lucky to be part of such a warm and open community. No school is going to give you the golden key to improvisation and make every student into the next Bill Murray, but UCB is a place where if you want to make something of yourself, you can. It’s been frustrating, sometimes humiliating, and occasionally overwhelming, but it’s also been the most educational endeavor I have ever undertaken.
And so I thought I would write down, for posterity, the lessons that are currently bouncing through my mind after 2 years of clases. Hopefully next year I will look back and think “Oh, that’s what I was thinking last year?! Wow, that seems like second nature now”
State-of-My-Union
I’m not sure if I’m a slow exception, but almost 2 yeas to the day of starting classes, and taking them consistently, I finally understand game. That’s a huge thing in my improvisational career.
I’ve also started to feel like my work outside of classes in practice and performance is really starting to shine. I am consistently asked after shows where I trained and who I’ve trained with, which I take as a compliment.
My 4 person improv group is flourishing. We’ve played enough shows that I feel super relaxed on stage and truly feel that no one’s skills outshine any others. We need to write more sketch.
My performance in class still suffers from being too polite and shy to people I don’t know well. I sometimes feel like sociopaths would have a much easier time performing than I do, but feel lucky I’m not a sociopath.
The indie improv community is the healthiest I have ever seen it. New groups are starting to once again surface, which is reassuring that it wasn’t just my generation that had a group boom. I feel very lucky to be part of the indie improv community.
Longform Musical Improvisation is one of the best trainings for all of your improv skills and from reading Funniest One In The Room, Del knew it too. It has taught me more about the themes in life than any other class. Eliza Skinner elevates the craft to an art form. (She’s teaching two DCM workshops — take them! Sunday 2-5pm&Wednesday 6-9pm)
Current circulating ideas
Be truthful always — never go for the joke. Truth in Comedy is good, but Comedy in Truth is better.
Game is not about the unusual things, but rather your relationships to them. (relationship — noun — the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected). If this is true (about my character/behavior/relationship/environment/etc.), what else (about my behavior) is true?
Game is celebrating/exploring/wallowing in situations/problems/fun, rather than trying to invent/solve/move past them.
Never take any lesson from any instructor at face value — you must own it before it can be true for you. Discover why the rules are true.
Support everything, in improv, unconditionally always. Everything you or your partner say is brilliant — listen to that subconscious brilliance and figure out what it means.
“Yes And = Yes Why” –Anthony King
Always make your partner look better. You are always on stage to protect your partner, always take the bullet.
Game is usually in the first 3 lines of dialog, so pay special attention up top to everything you and your partners say.
Listen to yourself as much as you listen to your partner — you may not be aware of the games you are setting up.
Trust your opinions — your opinions make your improv different from everyone elses.
And! — Anding is how you make your mark on a scene.
“Perform each scene like it will be your last.” –Amey Goerlich
Never be polite — take, give, demand, and never apologize.
Tell your scene partner what you are feeling, don’t assume they are on the same page.
Take your time — perform in the same tempo as you live your life, anything else will feel foreign.
Make this be the day something happens — something happening doesn’t always mean something external.
Allow your characters to have wants for themselves — this can flesh out a character better than anything.
Always warm-up before a class or performance — remember exercises warm up different parts of your brain and body. Try to do a left brain exercise (7 things, Hot Spot), right brain exercise (3 characteristics, character wheel, made-up hot spot) and an energy exercise (Crazy 8’s, knife throw, moving in space)
Group mind, group mind, group mind.
You are brave for trying this — most people go through their lives never living to their potential, feel comforted that even if you fail you are still one of the few who are trying.
My Musical Improv 101 class at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, taught by the incredibly talented Eliza Skinner, ended the other week. It was undoubtedly the most fun I’ve had in an improv class to date. Learning to sing improvised songs was a liberating experience, not only because singing is so much fun, but because it’s a class that you truly feel on the same level as everyone else.
I haven’t felt this free since 101
The mechanics of musical improv are undoubtedly a little different than that of scenic improv, but at their core it’s the same stuff. You agree, support, and play games in the same way, however because you are operating within a song, there is an added level of structure that plays alongside it all. Where a two person scene was once king, you now have to do all, most of the time by yourself, in song. It sounds far more difficult than it actually is.
The song structures in musical improv is fairly simple. You have two basic structures a tagline song or a verse chorus song. What I found so interesting is that previously, in 2 person scenes, I would be a very “one note” player. Rarely did I “if this is true, what else is true.” But in a song, the verse structure cannot move forward if you aren’t actively heightening your subject choices. Additionally in a Verse Chorus Structure, you need to pick a Chorus at the start to be the engine which will power your song. This Chorus has to be simple, memorable, and universal, but it also has to in some way represent what you are about to sing. So, where I once found myself trying to create and find games in scenes, now I chose the entire game from the beginning.
Wax On, Wax Off teaching
Interestingly, at the end of the class all my scenic improv skills, which I was using in practice and performance, had improved. The stuff that seemed unrelated were in fact improving by the lessons I was learning in musical improv. I was making bold choices up top. I was defining my characters wants and making those wants important. I was supporting everything strongly. I was listening to myself up top to find game. I was keeping it simple. I was having fun.
This made me think, maybe this idea of classes, much like the raw harold class focussed on support, that look at a particular facet of improv are actually just as important as Harold workshops. These classes show us something universal about the skills of improv. They strengthen in the way that lifting weights strengthen, by targeting distinct improv muscles that you can use in your everyday work. Sure you can still jump into the ring and train by throwing punches, but sometimes jumping rope can be just as useful.
Lessons Learned from Musical Improv:
Make strong, want based, choices up top
Be specific about what you’re talking about
Have important, meaningful, wants for your characters
Game is like a song — Keep your view consistent, Expand your views (if this is true what else is true), explore patterns, get out before it gets repetitive
Explore your environment as if it were a stocked stage
Use the stage, remember stage picture, and keep action active
Keep your songs, wants, and initiations simple and memorable — Think about the universality of your themes
Backline should support the ideas on stage and not pull focus with extraneous moves
Support everything unconditionally — Enough support can make all the difference
Look like you know what’s going on, give em’ your pokerface
Remember that tragedy can be just as powerful as comedy
Give your audience a musical worthy of the stage. If they paid $45 would it be worth it?
So, I told you guys it was a worthwhile show, but now I’m going to lay it down. I have seen a lot of improv in my time at UCB and the Raw Harold continues to be the best thing I have seen in a long time. Last week’s show was exceptional and the improvisers, student improvisers mind you, surpassed their individual talents to create a truly inspirational show.
Yeah, Inspirational.
I walked away from last weeks performance saying “I want to improvise like that.” This is the same feeling I get when I watch 4 Square or Gravid Water. And not to say that I think Chris Gethard is trying to make any particular statement about what improv can be, but the fact of the matter is anyone could perform to the caliber of these performers if they risked and supported everything (like these performers do).
My last write-up I tried to break down the form of the raw Harold. I tried to equate the scenes I saw on stage to forms I had learned, tried to make jumps in logic, tried to find patterns. However, if there is a form, I can’t figure it out. I tried to keep track of scenes and for the most part this last performance did not follow any of the previous performance’s rules. Everything blended together; group games, scenes, meta, audience participation. I quickly forgot to write down the hierarchy of scenes, because I simply couldn’t keep track of them.
It’s like watching a con artist using slight of hand.
Now, while I’m saying there may be no discernible pattern, I do think there is a rhythm to the scenes. This rhythm I feel is not part of the form, if there is a form, but rather an indicator of the performers’ improv training. The scenes move in a quick succession, each performer taking focus and releasing it once it has been taken. Again it’s a bit of a magic trick the way the scenes work, each scene moving toward what each performer finds interesting and followed by the rest of the group unconditionally.
I could write further about the scenes last week; about Greg’s incredible ability to ground scenes, about Katie getting lovingly picked on by Jacob, about audience members replaced by improvisers, about one of the funniest references to Who’s Line is it Anyways’ Party Quirks, or my sister Amy getting pulled into the audience to reveal to the Raw Harold audience some incredibly personal information.
But in the end I think I’ll leave it as I began it — the Raw Harold continues to be the best thing I have seen in a long time. If you miss this show, you will be less of an improviser because of it. Take nap and see the show. Tonight at 11pm UCB Theatre.
I kind of feel, in my own work, that when I start to focus on one part of my performance — another part falls apart. This seems most true when I focus on game. When I focus on game I find most of my scenes get less and less of it. This is in part because game doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Game can only truly show itself when performers on stage are making strong choices about their viewpoints, relationship, and situation.
One simple tool in getting into this game producing state is to pick an emotion for your character toward your partner. This isn’t to say every scene has to be super happy, super sad, or super angry. It just means pick an emotional vantage point for your character. It doesn’t have to be an extreme emotional vantage point, it doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be an emotion toward your partner. This very quickly creates a sub-context to the scene, creates a relationship between the characters, and adds depth to scene — which helps scenes that suffer from talking heads.
Emotion is also one of those choices which you can sustain through a scene without much thought. I find that the more heady scenes become, the harder it is for me to follow and keep on anding. Emotion, on the other hand, is fairly easy for me to keep going because I can rely on my own capacity for emotion rather than my capacity for hilarious lines.
