You have new mail! Ah, sorry looks like yet another invite to that Friday show you can’t make anyway.

You guys have got to get your advertising together into one, “group mind”/group e-mail system. I don’t mind an e-mail, but 12 for the same event is too much. So here is the Improvoker time and tested formula for successful e-mailing your fan base.

• Make one person in the group responsible for e-mails - Give them your contacts you wish to e-mail. As a performing group, you should have an e-mail list anyway for people at shows to sign. That gives you one system and one one list to e-mail to.
• BCC your addresses - My e-mail address is for you to tell me about the show, not for you to send to every person you have ever met. This is an important step, because addresses that aren’t BCCed have the distinct opportunity of falling into the hands of spammers through malicious spyware. Respect your audience’s privacy. Keep em secret, keep it safe Frodo.
• Subject your e-mail something sensible, preferably with the group, date, and time clearly expressed - “I have a show!”,”weekend”, “I WRITE EVERYTHING IN CAPS LOCK AND EXCLAMATIONS!!!” These are three shows I really might want to see, but in my limited time and energy - I may not read further. I am not going to come to your show because of the hilarity of your subject line. Tell me what group you are representing, when your show is, what it is (improv or sketch), and where it is, so I can get a sense of if I’m available or not, before I go rooting through the e-mail for information. “Peppermint Captain - Improv Show Sat 11/3 8PM @ Gotham City”, now I don’t even really need to read the e-mail, I can make my decision based purely on the subject.
• Do not send out an e-mail to let your list know you screwed up some non-critical information - “Sorry I didn’t BCC all of you on the last e-mail” is another e-mail that you are sending. Just don’t do it in the future and I’ll forgive you. “Oh Sandy’s name is spelled ‘Sandie’” is not reason to contact your entire fan base. By all means send an e-mail if you really screwed something up, but the less e-mails sent, the happier your recipients.
• See if mailing list software is available to handle your mailing list - this allows your fan base to sign up for your shows at performances and allows you to e-mail them all from a central interface. This kind of stuff is available through most service providers, and is extremely valuable as you grow and expand. See the Improv Everywhere site.
• Keep it short and sweet - I adore you, I can’t wait to see you on stage again, but let’s get this e-mail over with as quickly as possible — so I can get back to my funny.

I know this all might seem a little harsh, but I assure you if you are more focused with your promotion, you will keep fans happy in the long run. Most of all you keep me happy and keeping me happy is really what’s important isn’t it?

Lastly, I hope you all have great shows this weekend and I can’t wait to get your one e-mail next weekend.

Just last week I had an alarming experience. My improv notebook went missing and I panicked. I started calling all the people I knew, to see if anyone had picked it up while we were out. No one knew where it was. I searched my overflowing backpack, my messy apartment, my paper filled office and still nothing. It turned out, I had written a few notes in it last Wednesday during group practice and had left it by the leg of my chair. Luckily for me, Roy Astorias Studio had it turned in and I retrieved it, but it was a harrowing experience. The history of the last year of my improv education is contained in that little notebook and If I were to loose it, I wouldn’t be able to reconstruct all the lessons, exercises, thoughts, or knowledge contained in it.

This, surprisingly, coincided with an article I have been writing, off and on, for the past 3 weeks about keeping an improv notebook. I considered it a sign that I should finish off the article and post it on the website. And so, without further ado…

Recently a UCB instructor asked me, while I was sitting in the UCB training center’s waiting room, writing in my improv notebook, whether I took class notes.

You now I never see many students taking notes in classes I teach. Back when I was in classes I took lots of notes and I still have all my notebooks.
Yeah, I hardy ever see students taking notes in classes and it sees strange to me as well. I would never remember any of this if I didn’t take notes.

Strangely from that time I have taken 2 additional classes and I am consistently the only student who takes regular notes in my classes and the only student I know who keeps an active written journal (besides improvoker web journal). Of course, everyone is different and has different ways of keeping and recording information. Some people may have brains that can retain class information without the need of a notebook, but I am not one of those people and I would wager that the majority of you all are not those types of people.

Enter the Improv Journal

I take copious notes, because when I started taking improv in 2001 - I didn’t. When I started, I really didn’t take improv that seriously. I didn’t read books, didn’t see shows, didn’t connect with the community; it was a hobby and I was just enjoying the ride. When I decided to come back into improv last year, after a short hiatus, I knew I wanted to invest more time into my craft. Sounds pretty pretentious, but true. I had spent a lot of money and time honing skills that I can barely remember now. Sure most of the lessons, good and bad, have been turned into muscle memory, but I would love to have some record of those early days and the specifics of what were said.

My notes perform 5 major functions:

• Class Notes
• Thoughts/Improv Diary
• Recaps and Reviews of Shows
• Sketch Writing ideas
• Movies, TV, Theater people mention

My notebook is so important to my improv training, that I really don’t know how I would attend classes without it. The sheer number of lesson to remember in just a single class, can springboard me into my head, in no time. My notebook allows me to take the information, that would normally fill my thoughts, and record them elsewhere for later review. This truly allows my brain to focus on the scenework at hand, rather than juggling focus with specifics notes. And as we all know thinking too much can cripple an improviser’s ability to perform.

In a sense, my improv notebook acts like a repository for the things I need to remember long-term. It allows me to compartmentalize ideas and get them out of my short-term, so I can use that space for my scene work. If it all seems a little confusing, why not start your notebook today.

I’m more than half way through level 301 at UCB NY and it’s been interesting. My instructor Chris Gethard may be one of the most brilliant thinkers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. He is insightful, straightforward, and extremely astute in his observations about improvisers and their work. I have been humbled, on several occasions, by his on point notes which have really catapulted my understanding of Improv as an art-form rather than just a means for a cheap laugh.

I have, however, been thinking a lot about improv recently and not enjoying my progress in class or practice group. This has been largly to my thinking too much about what I’m doing wrong and holding onto my mistakes rather than noting them and letting them go. I have been putting undue stress on myself to perform.

Don’t suck, don’t suck. Please don’t suck.

So, before my class on Thursday, I decided that I don’t pay $325 a level to beat myself up. I don’t spend 3 hours after an exhausting day of work to feel worse about myself than I did before. I certainly don’t want to give up. I love improv - I should let my self criticisms go and have fun. This is improv! Why am I taking it so seriously? Why aren’t I having the fun I was having in 101?

This isn’t rocket surgery.

The most basic component of improv is play. When children play there is no right or wrong, mistakes are part of the process and are adapted on as they happen. Children understand that there is nothing to loose so they have no problems making leaps of faith when playing. Yet when I’m playing in improv I’m so afraid of not making mistakes, that I never make the moves I want to, because I’m afraid of screwing up the scene. Amazingly, or not so amazingly, once I decided to have fun - I felt free in class. I jumped into scenes, played game, raised stakes, supported scenes, and had a lot of fun unencumbered by my judgements. Sure I made mistakes, but I also learned from those mistakes ¹. Even when Chris gave me notes, I took them to heart, feeling encouraged that I could do better next time rather than discouraged that I haddn’t done better at the time.

At the end of the day, we all do this because we love it, we all love it because it’s fun, it’s fun because it’s not supposed to be taken too seriously.

It’s only Improv.

¹ As a supporting move to a scene I was in about confronting fears, Dan, a fellow student, came out as a bull for my scene partner and I to bullfight. He passed by once and exited stage left. Wanting more scenes with the bull, I broke the scene’s reality to comment on how weird it was that the bull just ran off after one pass. In retrospect I should have gave Dan a cue by saying something to the effect of Here comes that bull again. This would have given Dan the heads up I wanted him to come back in and moved the scene forward at the same time.

In preparation of a practice group I was leading this weekend, focusing on character work, I wanted to be able to define the differences in creating characters. Although I hadn’t thought about it before, improv characters can come in many different flavors. I realized that knowing what character type you typically play, can make a huge difference in your work.

Here are 5 general classifications of characters as interpreted from The Second City Almanac of Improvisation and my own experience. There are many more shades of grey, but this is a good place to start.

1. You
   This is you. Used in everyday life and asking for suggestion at the beginning of a performance. This is the “you” you leave at the door in improv. It is the you that doesn’t “yes and” by default and thinks before jumping.
2. Manifestation of Yourself
   This is almost you. No character put on, other than the ability to “yes and” ideas and character traits. ie - you are yourself, but can accept you are a serial killer if someone says you are one in the scene. While this character should be in every performers repertoire, as characters are just interpretations of one’s self, if this is the only character in your bag of tricks you will hit a wall in your work.
3. Cliché (Generic Character)
   This isn’t a fully fledged character, but more of a broad generalization of one. Usually these are used in the process of developing a fully fledged character or at the start of a scene. ie - You are french (and have a french accent), or you are a bartender (usually cleaning the bar), or you are a ballerina (who pirouettes). These characters are sometimes useful to have, but are dangerous if they do not evolve into more fleshed out characters. They, however, can be really useful for setting scenes, laying a groundwork, creating more complex characters, comic effect, and support of scenes.
4. Narrow Comic Perspective
   A 2 dimensional character, used for accentuation or punctuation in a scene, usually to move a game forward. This is not a cliché or a cartoon character. It is a reaction to a specific need of a scene. ie - You are the encyclopedia salesman who relates everything back to the importance of owning a really good set of encyclopedias, or you are the businessman who sees the world as a powerpoint presentation and cannot interact with people without pointing with a presentation pointer, or you talk slow because you are a turtle. This usually can not be fully fleshed out into a 3 dimensional character (see below), but evolves out of the need of a scene.
5. The 3 Dimensional Character
   This is a relatively fully fleshed out character. It has facets, contradictions, and quirks. You know this character. It will evolve, reoccurring in scenes and improvisations, in some shape or form. These are by far the most dynamic characters to create. ie - old hobo, used to work at the steel mill before it shut because of modernization. They take time and energy to define, but once created they are invaluable to any improvisor. Again, these characters are great to have in your bag of tricks, but should be pliable. These are not set-in-stone sitcom or sketch characters. They should be able to transform to suit the scenes they are in.

The rewards of understanding and using characters effectively in scenes are incredible. Having the ability to adapt quickly and compliment a scene, will not only make you a stronger improvisor, but will allow you to step into any scene with a pair of shoes you feel comfortable in.

If it weren’t for Truth In Comedy, I wouldn’t be improvising today.

One thing to note, however, is that reading about improv, while you are learning or performing, will undoubtedly screw you up. While thinking, in most situations, is a good thing, in improv it can actually serve as inconvenience. Thinking, or being “in your head,” in improv can be a huge problem. It can screw up your scenework, stop you from listening, create insecurities, confuse your instincts, slow your responses, even give you a false sense of failing in a scene even if it’s going well.

So, why read?

If it weren’t for Improvise, I wouldn’t be improvising as well as I do today.

Luckily, these are all temporary side effects of you growing as an improvisor. Your brain is thinking, because you haven’t commited the ideas into your memory yet. I find, once I let the ideas sink in, my improv scenework improves dramically. It takes a little while, but once the lessons learned from books becomes habitual information, you have more tools to attack a scene with without having to think about them.

I send you this warning because I have seen improvisors, reading books, get dejected because they feel they suck. It’s not you, it’s the book making you think. Read all you want, but remember to give yourself a little judgmental leeway while doing so.

Finally my Improv 201 class, at UCB, is starting to come together. I’ve been having a rough time in class from the first day. I started Improv 201 directly after 101. In fact, I started 201 one day after finishing 101. This lack of time to reflect, sort of threw off my improv game. I jumped into 201 unprepared that the change in teaching styles and curriculum would effect my abilities, but it did.

I’ve always prided myself on having very little inner thought about my improv. I really try not to edit, think, or pre-plan my scene-work. Just jump out and hope for the best. My motto in improv has always been “dare to suck,” meaning that you have to be prepared to fail in order to be able to succeed. This motto had worked until I hit 201, where the sucking really wasn’t the problem, but rather the daring.

In Improv 201 there is emphasis on “finding the game” or “the game of the scene” and as much as I appreciate this notion, I believe this notion is flawed. “Finding” in my head means searching. Searching means thinking and thinking is definitely, analytical, left brain territory. Improvising I have always equated with the intuitive and creative right brain. Thinking about the game, automatically snaps me into my left brain, and in effect, turns off the improv side of my brain. My scenes have suffered as a result.

Then last class, I had a epiphany. “Finding the game” can have multiple definitions. While finding can mean “to discover (someone or something) after a deliberate search” it can also mean “to discover or perceive by chance or unexpectedly.” This was the definition I was looking for. “Finding the game” is too simplistic a description of what should be “notice, by chance, a game.” Granted, “Finding the game” does have a much better ring, but it’s important to understand that the purpose in not to look for the game, but rather to notice it when it passes by. This change in thought completely changed my scene-work.

It’s also important to note here, the change in semantics from “the” to “a”. “Finding the game” means there is one game to be found, and often frightened me into thinking, “Is this the game? Or is it the right game? Or is it just a game, but not the right one.” Contrarily, “finding a game” means, while there may be a lot of games out there to find, your job is just to find any one of them. It changes the performer’s relation to the game and allows them to move forward in their scene-work rather than spending time judging the game they have just found.

I got up on stage in class and started improvising, letting a scene unfold. Right off the bat my scene partner negated the reality of a very detailed scene I had built about the Mediterranean, and instead of letting it throw me, I noticed a game. I built more and more elaborate locations for her to nock down, and she did. After the scene ended, the teacher even noted that the negation of my scene-work could have been disastrous, but “Luckily, he knew what he was doing.” While it was a small compliment, it filled me with a true sense of accomplishment, that I had taken a step forward in my improv education and finally got what “finding the game” is about.

Status, in improv, is how your characters hold themselves. These mannerisms are some of the most basic tools used in improvisation as they define characters and situations very quickly without much effort. The effects of status are also very subliminal, and can have profound effects on an improv audience.

I would encourage you all, when you are next in a public place, to enjoy the act of people watching and study real people’s mannerisms.

Link: Status as defined by the Improv Encyclopedia