Posts Tagged “Quotes”

Archetypal Cake

by Ben Whitehouse.

Castle Cake

I’m in week two of Michael Delaney’s eight week Improv 504 Acting for Improvisers class at UCBNY.

I was terrified of Michael when I first arrived in class, because of his reputation as a no punch pulling instructor. I had imagined him to swagger into class, shout at every scene that we were doing it all wrong, and tell us that we were no good. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Delaney is an amazing instructor. His knowledge and thoughts on improv are on a level I have not experienced before. Just about every word out of his mouth makes me furriously write down something in my notebook. He does give candid notes, but I love a note if it’s on point — and Delaney is always on point.

I can really feel that skillset stretching

One topic he is really stressing on in this class, is to take that initiation and not get caught up in it, instead of continuing on exploring the scene. Often I, as an improviser, will get nervous that I wont find that unusual thing and make the ordinary, unusual. This really pulls focus from what’s ultimately the most important part of the scene, the relationships of the characters on stage. He used a cake analogy which has continued to bounce around my head all week. I can’t shake it.

There is power in an archetypal cake. You can make a cake as crazy [unusual] as you want, but sometimes a cake is just a simple cake and the wedding is what we explore.

Michael Delaney

Balancing Truth and Comedy

by Ben Whitehouse.

My current Improv 501 class at UCBNY, taught by Chris Gethard, has been busily working through keeping scenes real and our reactions truthful. Gethard is a huge proponent of keeping scenes as truthful as possible and the more I follow his direction, the more I find my scenes go beyond my abilities as an improviser into something much more profound. Playing my scenes as realistically as possible has given me a lot more confidence in taking the stage because while I may not always/ever have something funny to say, I will always be able to react truthfully to a situation.

Let’s not get caught trying to be funny.

Chris Gethard

However, the impulse to be “funny” in a scene is also very tempting. As any improviser can attest, a minute on stage without a laugh can feel like an eternity. I’ve been in class shows where we have “funnied” it up for an audience’s enjoyment at the detriment to our scenes. Unfortunately a lot of this “if you’re not getting laughs, you’re failing” comes from my own insecurities as a performer. We are performing improv comedy right? Comedy is about laughs? Laughs are about jokes? Without laughs you’re just two people in a big black box standing in front of an audience right?

Read on…