Don't Be Funny, Be True | Second City Improv for Actors 1 Week 7

Giovanni: what's going on, you beautiful blueberries? This is well, this is the last class for Actor's for Improv 1. every single class will always be a every single last class has this bittersweet moment. but I think it's just a nice way to finish off this term that Tom did, not just for improv for Actor's one, but also for improv 1. I was fortunate to have Tom. As my instructor at the Second City in Chicago. And this is Actor's' notes. This is just the notes that I've taken in those improv classes and on sets and whether it's a commercial or background work. they're just thoughts that I have. Maybe even during or after not during self-tapes, but after self-tapes. Just questions that I have and opinions and thoughts that I'm just like, does anyone else feel this way or think this way? Whether that's in an improv class, an acting class, whatever it may be. So that's why I just created Actor's' notes. Maybe somebody else does. I truly do feel like if you're going through it, somebody else is too. And this is just my journey. going back to this bittersweet moment and how I love how Tom ends off these classes is that we don't do anything we don't have a pizza party. We just we just have class. We just have class, so What we did is we did our warm-up exercises like normal. We did our zip zap zap whoosh, some word association games just to get us more familiar. not familiar, but more get our blood flowing. Excuse me. We did our check-ins. How was your week? Talks about the games that we were going to play, some we played, many times before like three line scenes, other times we just played random games, whether that was more group games because we we thought that were more fun, or specific games tailored to my classmates on what they struggled with, including myself in terms of how to create an improv scene, whether that was trying to establish the environment quicker or make sure you establish the relationship faster, things like this. I'm gonna say this right now. I'm always gonna say this because we Stella have Actor's for improv too to finish, but this is a huge milestone at the end of class where I may not talk about the games that we play, mainly because I don't remember them. but I will talk about the things that I learned during that time, and you can always implement implement this into the games that you play. The big one here. I circled right here. It says, Don't be funny, be true. Don't be funny be true. An improv and over time you'll always try to find the joke, which there's nothing wrong with that. But I remember only focusing on okay where's the joke? How can I be funny here? how can I make this something that the audience will laugh at? And I was less focused on being true to improv, being true to discovering the scene with my scene partner. And the truth I mean, improv is funny because it's just a refresh reflection of life. And life, if you think about it, is just funny. I love the quote, I don't know who coined the quote, but it said comedy is a drama in close up, but when you pan Uta, it's a wait, what is it? Yeah, cow life is a drama w in a close up, but when you pan Uta, it's a comedy. Yeah. I was getting to it. And so in an improv scene, whether you're a boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife, brother and sister, daughter and mother, whatever it may be, when you're just having a regular conversation about breakfast or your relationship and you're just willing to discover with your scene and it's true. It may not be entertaining as in funny But it's true, and that's way more important than trying to be funny. Discovering, listening, being open-minded, doing actual improv with your senior partner. It's not always funny, but it's true, and that's way better than just trying to seek Uta the joke. More games. Ooh, but here we kind of dabbled into subtext. Improfer Actor's too, with a different instructor, we focus heavily on the subtext. But what do I mean by this? Subtext is what is underneath what you say. Meaning if you look at your scene partner and you say, I love you. Well, that's warm, genuine, charming. Or if you look at someone and you say the exact same line. But with different subtext it could look something like this. Love you. Yeah, maybe my face changed, the way that I said it changed, there's a lot going on. There's subtext. Why did you say it like that? How you say something. You think about the phrase it's not what you say, it's about how you say it. And how you say it is the subtext. You don't have to say what how you feel, but through what you say, we know how you feel. And that that underlying emotion, that's the subtext. So we were trying different games to understand the subtext. So we would have an emotion. We would begin off a scene having a simple emotion, happy, sad, disgust, anger, things like this. And we would go into the scene with that emotion and hold that emotion and do improv. Just support the other person, say yes and continue to have that emotion. At the end of the improv scene, we we just saw how much it would have changed because of the subtext from our emotion affecting our lines. And This is where it was unique 'cause I was and I'm Stella I I I Stella had to play with it, but understanding the difference between emotions and feelings and to my understanding, emotions are just that na natural human reaction of that fight or flight instinct of the happiness, the sadness, the the anger, just like you think about your basic emotions. Our feelings is how we interpret those emotions. You could feel anger or your emotion is anger, but you feel well maybe you could feel regret that you did something it's making you frustrated and gosh. Thinking about emotions and feelings, even Stella, I have to do I am Stella trying to better understand. But everyone has their process on on on their definitions on what this means. And what I mean by that is like their breakdown on understanding these feelings and emotions. I'm really getting into a lot of psychology here, and that's what acting is. That's why we're taking improper Actor's. And Improv is nothing different than acting in terms of active listening and in terms of staying open minded. Just being in that process, being able to discover something with your senior partner with the group. I wrote down a lot of questions here for Tom because I knew this was gonna be the last class and the last class I was going to see him in. And so I was like act I was asking, okay, what do you think what what's improv for Actor's two gonna be like? Or ooh, w w how do I do sound effects? I didn't realize this was one too. Like when you open up a door, you can just make a sound effect like or ding dong or things like this. And I was like, Ooh, I've noticed a lot of improv shows, improv ensembles, they do this as well. Should I do that? So I like, I gotta play with that. I didn't I don't think I ever im implemented sound effects into my scenes after that in Improv for Actor's 2, but it was something I was curious about that I really respected that other improvisers did in their scenes. I was I just found it more interesting. And You know, I I wish this one was gonna be a lot longer, but truthfully, I guess maybe Tom did did tailor this last class a little specifically. Yes, we did our beginning warm up and check-ins and we just went over some games, but he said, you know what? You guys this is our last class, let's have some fun. Now that I'm just like recollecting on on what happened that time, we just played fun games. We just had fun. And it was games that we didn't really focus too much on, all right, I gotta make sure I establish the relationship of who I am I, where am I, what do I want, what are the goals, things like this. He just said, guys, I think the most important thing we need to learn here is to make sure we have fun and stay in touch with our inner child and let's just do that. Let's have fun. What are the f what are the games that you guys enjoy the most? And we played four squares, scene tag, freeze tag, three line scenes. We just play our zip zap zap our whoosh because this is reminded us from our first days of improv one and improv for Actor's one and so I think that's just the biggest lesson to leave you with anything. I mean I'll just say it right now in case no one has told you today. I love you. You matter you have value and let me say something I haven't said before. I've said this before and that is stay in touch with your inner child. That is sometimes as an Actor's When you have a script and you memorize the script to the best of your ability and you Stella feel like you haven't had the script down, you're gonna memorize it more, there there there is an importance in being prepared as an Actor's, as an improviser, to know, you know, your prep could be just remembering the basics of saying yes and establish the relationship, all these things. It's good to be prepared. But then when director goes action or when you begin your improv scene, just Not throw it Uta the door, but just let yourself be free. Have fun, play, discover. And it won't always I don't think there's gonna be a perfect take, perfect moment, like that was the take, that was the one, 'cause it's never as what you feel like it'll look like when you're watching it on screen or when you rewatch it somehow. But the feeling of freedom in play and discovery, that's something that no matter how it looks, it will always be fulfilling. So Yeah, that was the end of Improv for Actor's One. I'll see you guys for Improv for Actor's Two, week one next. Thank you. I love you.