Commit Even When It Feels Wrong | Second City Improv for Actors 1 Week 2

Giovanni: What is going on, you bluetiful, you beautiful blueberries. Welcome back to Actor's Notes. This is a podcast, this is a channel where I just talk about my notes. Lately we've been reflecting on my improv journey at the Second City in Chicago, and the purpose of Actor's Notes is sharing my notes, my experience, the things that I go through, whether it's in class or on set, or just opinions that I have. And You know, I I I write down these notes and I feel like truthfully, I feel like if I'm going through it, then someone else is too. You might be going through this or you will experience this and you're like, I you know, I don't have, you know, Actor's friends or people in the T V and film industry to talk about this with and they understand what I'm going through or they can help me through this time. Now I'm not saying I can help you through this, even though, you know, the way that I talk while I reflect on my time is very like, you could do this. It's motivational. It's it's it's really not from a teaching standpoint, but it's you know, this advice is the lessons that I would have taught myself before I started. So that's really who I'm teaching. Just me. but this may relate to you because we all you know we'll feel embarrassment in an improv scene or an acting class. We all feel We all feel. I could have just put a period right there and I just did. We all feel. And it's it it's nice to feel heard and feel understood. So that's why I created this podcast, just so you guys can feel understood. If you do, let me know in the comments down below. If you do, today is a fun one because we have more students in our second week of Improv Ractors one. Improv Reactors 1 is a class that lasts for seven weeks. You have to apply for this. You don't have to be a working Actor's, but studying whether that's in college or university, you do have to apply for it. I sent it in my resume and I got in. And so this is the second week Uta of seven for Improv Reactors One. There is another term, Improf Foractors 2, that lasts for seven weeks. When you complete both of those, you can then audition for a conservatory. conservatory are those are the big boys those are the the professional improvisers or it's Stella you know you have to dedicate either six months or you have to dedicate three months I forgot how long it was but Stella it's a term to can to continue on improv professionally at the second city so this is our second week and this was one where I really had to stretch my ability. every single class, it always it will always put you Uta of your comfort zone. There's always something that you're going to do that you never expected, or something that you might feel like, I gotta work on this more. For me, that is developing an accent, embodying a character, and that's exactly what we worked on. Apart from the new students, my teacher Tom, he wrote down just the same things on the whiteboard. Every instructor might be different, but we did our check-ins. Every single class begins with just seeing how our week was. our warm-up exercises, which was we stand in a circle, we play whoosh, zip zip zop, any other game that my teacher recommends. And then we talked about the games that we might play and what we should focus on. We almost immediately went into character work. And that's about movement and your voice and how your environment can really change how your character in this improv scene will act. The reason why it's difficult for me, this kind of goes with ha not having enough courage or not having enough confidence in in committing to an accent because I feel like that accent isn't right. You know, you tried doing a British accent and you feel like it's wrong, so you just don't do it. That's how I thought. Or maybe an embodiment. Maybe you want to embody someone who's more confident or someone who's more shy or someone who's really just loose, you know. And it's just like that's not naturally you. But Then again, you gotta think about what an Actor's does. An Actor's is being truthful under unimaginary circumstances. And one piece of advice that my acting teacher here based in Kentucky, that I go to every single week, and you should too, if it's not an improv class, an acting class, whatever it is, just showing up to class daily. That's what a professional Actor's would do. And so I've been going to the same acting class for four years. and my teacher, shout Uta Beth, she's amazing. She says that don't let You get in the way of your character. Meaning that your character might be, you know, very loose, might be smug, might be mean, might be flirty, might be something that you are not naturally in this world. And so you are getting in the way of the character, living and being truthful. And so it takes a lot of self-awareness to not only know that, but to say put your ego aside and let this character live through you. And this goes to a lot of what people say of you are not your character and you know your character. You wouldn't do that, but your character would. So really it this this goes to self-awareness and just putting your ego aside to let your character come through. And that's something that I had a hard time doing. But the way that we did this and how to really take our baby steps into character work and embodying a character is to really take people in our lives. Take celebrities and take animals. I really like the animal approach because Tom said, Alright, everyone, I want you guys to pick an animal, an insect, doesn't matter what it is, but have one in your mind. And we're going to do a monologue about what a good day means to you. And so I'm just I this this might have been a game, this is just how it went. And so I picked, I believe, a butterfly. No, no, no, I might have picked an orangutan. I don't know what I picked. Butterfly or orangutan. I think I picked a bird, actually. I think I picked a bird. And essentially what Tom, our instructor, wanted us to do was he said, okay, when you give your monologue, and you know, there is no right way to do it, just your interpretation of what a good day is. I want you to embody that animal. So sit, how they would sit, if they could sit, speak, give them a persona as if they had one. What would it sound like? How would they breathe? How would they move as if they would talk? If you were a turtle, would you speak a little slower? And that monologue would have lasted hours. Luckily nobody picked that. I think someone did pick sloth, but they embodied the they they took the the physicality. They just started moving a little bit slower, but their voice was a little bit quicker, so they moved their I I I believe I picked a bird, so I was like perched up and I I had my arms like dangled as if like their my my my wings. and so I spoke like that, and I spoke regularly. I didn't have some people gave an accent, some people didn't, I didn't. but he said, at the end of all this, he said, animals are a great way to embody s a persona, a character. If you think about a character who has a lot of confidence, okay, how would they move? Well, let's think about these very empowering animals. You think about a lion or a gorilla or a bear, how would they stand? How would they speak? These are things that you can really incorporate into your character works. I think animals is just a great way, is a very fun way to get Uta of your head, put that into something else to help you with your character work. The other two were celebrities or someone you that you know. we did the same exercise of a monologue, but we said, okay, pick a celebrity, whether you were Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock, whether you were Melissa McCarthy, whatever it was. There were some Actor's and actresses that was like, I don't know how they speak. Some people did great Jim Carreys, but I was like, I don't know. So I just picked Obama. it was like a public fig figure. so I picked Obama and I just literally tried speaking like him because he was the only one I was like, so my favorite day is well, I wake up and my day's already the best it could be, because my eyes are wide open and as long as I have my my life, that's what matters. So I was like doing that. The accent was obviously not Barack Obama, but I committed. Alright, I was like, I I gotta put I gotta stretch my acting ability, so I committed. to the best of my ability. And I did that. Some people did Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, however they wanted to personify their character and how they had a good day. And then it was someone that you knew. Someone that you personally knew. Some people picked a sibling, some people picked a very close friend or someone at work that has a very unique personality. And this was all just training us to Get us Uta of our own heads. Get at us not attacking, not trying to battle our ego, but trying to work with something outside of ourselves. I love the animal framework. You could also do celebrity or public figure or someone that you personally know. And as we played this, it was just it definitely stretched my acting abilities. I was very embarrassed because I just didn't fully commit. But here's the thing: if you commit to an accent, Even though if it's bad, even though you switch halfway through, you commit to it. Don't go back to a normal your normal accent or whatever. I mean, even if you do a good improviser, if you're seeing partner group, they would justify they were like, your accent went away. I knew you were phony. Something like that. But if you're gonna commit, commit. If you're gonna go 100%, go a hundred percent. I'd rather you be confident wrongly. Then be wrongly confident. Ooh, put that an a tattoo and put it on your body. Not me. That would be terrible. Anyways, Tom said that animals are a great way for inspiration, and I totally agree. I love that. Because there are mannerisms, there are characteristics that you can apply to your character when you do scenes. We were really in our head, a lot of us in our class, and Tom kind of noticed that and he said, Guys, you know, I'm throwing a lot at you right now. You know, this is only the second week and we're already getting really in depth with character work in terms of how to apply that into a scene and into yourself and mannerisms. But I want you guys to know. At the you know, it could be a lot, you could be in your own head, but that's the last thing that you want to do is be in your own head. When you're doing an improv scene, because you want to give your full time and attention to the fellow Actor's, to the fellow improviser in group. So we said sometimes it's just best to say fuck it and be open minded and seeing where things go. Okay, don't worry so much about the accents, the mannerisms. And yeah, you have your your core principles of saying yes and don't ask questions, establish your relationship of who are you, where are you, and what do you want. But at the end of the day, the best thing that you could do is probably just listen. Just be open minded. Whatever they say, be like, Yeah, you're right. And add on top of that on however weird it may seem to them or to you. Add on top of it. But guess what? They're gonna justify it and they're gonna add on top of it. And it's just weird, but it's true. And this goes to how a lot of us and I Stella did this even though I knew not to do it, but a lot of us wanna be funny. It's not like we shouldn't be funny, but we should We should really direct ourselves to be more true in a scene rather than trying to find the joke in a scene. Meaning that what I just said, you know, sometimes just say fuck it, be open-minded and just listen to what and look at them. Look at them in the eyes. A lot of the times, this may be you, but this was definitely me. a lot of the times when I began my scene, I would start with environment work. I would start, you know, you know, knitting a sweater, or I would play video games. I would start with the environment first, but I would be f so focused what I was doing, I would forget to look at my partner. there's nothing wrong with taking a Fey beats, but I would just solely focus on what I was doing and forget to check in. Always look at your partner because there's so much information that they can give you with just their body language or their eyes. And you don't need dialogue to understand that someone might be glaring at you or someone might be just be awe-inspired by looking at you. And then that could begin your scene. That's the information, that's the gift that you can take from them. And they even haven't s they even haven't said a word. But going back to being funny, We all wanna be funny, improv is funny, but improv is funny because it's true. This goes to comedy in general in in T V and film and a theater. We when we really reflect on life, it's it's funny because we're just seeing it. That's why comedians are so so enjoyable to watch because they just talk about either mundane things, they just talk about their day. They were like, Yeah, I was at the grocery store and the cashier had the audacity to ask me how my day was and then when I actually told them about my horrible day, they were like, sorry, didn't really care. Like, why would you ask? Why would you give me why would you have the audacity to tell me how bad your day was? It's like you asked. Anyways, it's just like simple things, like everyday life. That's what's being reflected on in improv classes and it's funny. So it's better to just Follow the truth, and the truth is justifying what your scene partner with the group says, saying yes to it, adding on top of it, giving and yeah, that's your that's your gift back. And they would justify it, say yes and add on top of it. And you kind of go through this building block and it's just so weird how things turn Uta to be. but that's the truth, and that's what makes it funny. And that was the end of week two of Improv for Actor's One. Thank you guys for watching. And in case no one has told you yesterday, I love you, you matter, you have value, and let me say something I haven't said before. I like that phrase because we talked about improv and we talked about it's just a reflection of life, so is acting in in a lot of scenes. I like the quote that says that life is a drama in the close up, but when you pan Uta it's a comedy. And this this is a beautiful perspective to have, especially if you're having a bad day, a hard day, maybe you're listening to this in the middle of your day and you kinda feel bored. Days feel redundant. I know I feel like this sometimes. But when you look at it in retrospect, you may feel like or when you look at it in the close up, you may feel like I'm not progressing in my goals. Am I even doing anything? You know, the days have been pretty slow. I feel like I'm not moving in the right direction, or you go on social media and you can start comparing your life to others and you're like, dang, how are they Stella how are they Stella making content or putting themselves Uta there or or doing all this? And it's it gets easy to be envious and it gets easy to compare, but I like to pull myself back Uta and be like, you know what? It's already fall, you know, summertime at the beginning of this year. I accomplished a lot. You accomplished a lot. And don't don't disregard the things that you've already done this past year. And that's something to just appreciate. And that always puts me back in a in a grateful mood of, huh, yeah, today might be slow, but tomorrow might be different. And it wasn't always like this at the beginning of the year. Well, it's not probably gonna not gonna be like this in a Fey hours. So just looking at life like that in retrospect. Give it a try. Let me know what you think. Alright, I love you. See you guys in the next one.