Listen Before You React | Second City Improv for Actors 2 Week 3

Giovanni: What is going on, you beautiful blueberries? Welcome back to Actor's Notes. I really I don't know why I'm calling you guys blueberries. Maybe just because it's my favorite fruit. It's a superfood. It's small, but it's strong. Just like you. Anyways. Actor's Notes is a podcast, is a channel where I simply talk about my notes in class, whether it's acting class or improv class or my experience on set during self tapes. Just thoughts and opinions that I have that Maybe some of you guys might be going through, and this is just a way to seem relatable and to connect. A large part of the TV and film industry and theater and just puse me, all of this is networking. And I think a powerful thing that networking does is to connect you with other people who are going through the same thing, or to help elevate you, or just make some friends, have a community of like-minded people. And this is exactly what Actor's notes. What I intend to do with that is just to have a community of like, dang, Geo's going through that too. I feel that. And this might be something this is very specific, but this feeling of self-confidence, this feeling of putting yourself Uta of your comfort zone and how do you Del with that, especially as an Actor's, as an improviser, this is gonna be something very relatable. Now, I remember the first class of improv for Actor's too, that's where we are right now. We are in the final stretch of our acting journey at the second city in Chicago taking improv classes. Now it's a seven-week course. We already finished Improv for Actor's One, and both Improv for Actor's One and Two, as soon as you finish, you are granted a show, an improv show, and then you have the opportunity to apply for conservatory. Otherwise, if you don't want to take this route, you can take improv one, two, three, four, and five. This is just another set of classes you can take at the Second City, and that lasts for seven weeks, each of them, but I found this one to be more straightforward into conservatory. I'm I have the credits, but I may not pursue it. I'm just adding this to the tool belt as an Actor's, because I truly want to take as many technique classes and acting classes, improv, t just many different things to help me stage combat to help me as an Actor's and my and my goals especially. This one was never on the list, but it is I feel like it's it's important to have. It is musical improv. I'm not a singer, I'm half Filipino, I'm half Russian. On the Filipino side, karaoke is just like karaoke should be in my blood because it is in my culture. however, I didn't get those jeans. I don't know what happened. I got the healthy fitness jeans, but not the musical one. But the thing is, this class, this is improv for Actor's two week three. I feel like I I know I missed improv. For Actor's 2 week 1, mainly just because I didn't write down notes, so I'm not sure exactly where we are here. but I know we're in week three. In terms of the podcast, the channel. I'm not sure if I put that video up. I hope I did. I'm trying to document this journey as best as I can. And then the next series, after we're done, we have four more episodes to go, four more weeks to go, and then I'll actually show you guys in real time the the the vlogs that are recorded at the second city in just my mind. You can see how tired I am after driving five hours to the second city. It takes me it takes me five hours from Kentucky to Chicago, five hours back as a three hour improv class. I'm tired, but I'm I'm motivated. Motivated, especially since improv is just is just fun. And knowing that it's helping you in your acting career is is enough to to keep me going. But going back to musical improv. They they didn't tell us this Nope, I thought this was just gonna be, you know, we're we're back improv for Actor's two. We're gonna, you know, work on what we did last week, but I remember showing up to class and then Jack, my instructor, he said, Guys, we have a special guest today. And then a gentleman by the name of Matthew, shout Uta Matthew, he came in with his keyboard. It was funny because right it was I have a three PM class and he came in, we were about an hour already into this into our class, but he came in. And he said, Good morning. This is Matthew, by the way. and it was around 4 p.m. And he was like, I don't know, I don't know why I said good morning, it's actually four p.m. He seemed like that creative that's in his house just workshopping his his his his music because he's a teacher, he's an improviser, musical improviser, he's just an amazing creative. I think he's an Actor's, I don't know what else he does, but he was he was that that that type of person that's like you're a bit of an oddball. But damn, can you play that music well? Or damn can you improvise well? It's just like one of those creatives. So I find that very intriguing. And so he set up and he kind of took over. but he said, today we're gonna learn musical improv. I was like, no, looking at all my improvisers, I was like, Can you sing? One of them was like, I've actually taken improv shows before. I was like, shut up, Johnny. None of us can sing, except for you. I didn't say that, but it was just like, I I don't know what's gonna happen today. I'm nervous, it's unexpected. No one told me this. It wasn't on the email. but it's funny because I I talked to some of my other improv classmates from my classes before who who've taken improv for Actor's in the past, and I said, Did you guys ever do improv or musical improv? They were like, Yep. And I was like, Did they tell you that you were gonna be doing it? They were like, Nope. But they tell you because if they or they don't tell you because if they do tell you, you probably won't show up for that class. And knowing that you can miss one or two classes as long as it's justifiable, you can Stella pass the class. And they were like, damn, they they are tricky, tricky bees. And so we did musical improv. We started off with these games. Now I won't go into the games because I don't remember them, but the first game that we played was more of a warm-up exercise. It was like our zip zab. It was like our whoosh, a word association game. But this was more musically, you know, we're getting more musically trained in how to apply improv. The first game, we just stood in a circle, and Matthew or instructor, he started playing on his piano, and he said, Alright, this is what we're gonna do. Simply, I'm gonna play a melody, someone starts off, and you know, we go anybody can volunteer for that. We we we play a melody and you just dance to the beats. However you interpret it, this is improv. This is physical improv. However you want to dance to the beat, it's your choice. Now, as soon as you start dancing, everyone else mimics your dance. It could be simple, you know, tap in your foot, bop in your head. It can be something much bigger depending on how you want to move. So you start dancing, then the group imitates. And then give it about you know ten Second. It's up to you. You'll point to someone else in the group, and then they'll take over because the instructor will play a different beat, or they'll play the same beat, you just dance to the beat of your own drum. to that beat and everyone else mimics and you continue to point to someone else and then imitate their dances and it goes back and forth. So we're getting really into our bodies and Stella applying that improv practice. Just trust whatever you feel. and then you have the support. That's the biggest thing in improv, whether it's musical or just regular improv, you have a hundred percent support from your scene partner, from the group. So everyone else just imitates your dances, imitates your your lead, and then you're all doing it together. And that is so it's so comforting because it's just like I'm not alone in this. And gosh, that is that is the biggest thing. One of the biggest things in improv is how well can you be a team player? How good are you at supporting? This goes beyond just yes and it's just like If you think about what improv is, when you put yourself Uta there and perform without having a script, without ha without knowing what to do, it's scary. But to have a scene partner, to have a teammate, a group, to be Uta there with you, it it's it's comforting because they're they're supporting you in a way that says, Listen, you're scared and I am too. And we can be scared together. And that will just help you Continue on, whether it's musical improv, whether you have to sing, they'll justify it and sing terribly with you, or if you're blanking in a scene, or you're someone who keeps asking questions and negates and doesn't accept gifts, you know they're willing to work with you. and that shows you how good of an improviser are you, how good of a team player can you be. And so after these games, we understood a little bit. We play more games, but we briefly understood why do we sing in improv. Some people just have the knack for it. Some people can sing and they just choose to sing. But we sing to heighten our emotions. And I like this is because we sing when emotions or sorry, when words aren't enough. You ever have that moment and and this goes to like why we listen to sad songs when we're sad or when we want to get motivated, we put on a certain playlist or listen to a certain Creator or certain motivator online. You know, when words aren't enough, when we aren't able to express how we feel, or when our emotions are such at a heightened state, like you ever get so frustrated and and gets in in a certain emotional state where you just you just don't know what to do. You almost want to punch something. Singing is almost like a release. Listening to sad songs when you're sad in a heightened emotion, it's just like it's just another release, it's another way to be understood. So just Singing is just a way to express yourself for the audience to understand you. So we sing when words aren't enough. When we have these heightened emotions. That's just one framework to think about. It also adds specificity, it makes it interesting, it has stakes when you start singing. You know, it's like a it's like a it may yeah, it's just like, they started singing. This is this is more interesting for the audience. And Matthew said this, he said, a lot, if not all, songs are two types of songs. I want songs, or I am songs. Or it it as in, I am going to achieve something, or I am going to get over my heartbreak, or I am doing this, going to achieve this, I am broken. You know, that's a lot of songs and how they are structured when it comes to musicians and artists. Or I want songs. I want money and fame. I want to achieve this. You know, y it's either I want songs or I am songs. I'm no musician, but this is what he said. So I was writing that down. and I found this interesting. In improv, he he used the word piffy here, piffy. and you can you can just replace that with songgy. He said, How do you know when an improv scene is going to go into a song, into a performance like that? He says When one character starts, you know, saying initiating something in a piffy way, in a songgy way. So, you know, you could establish who are you, where are you, what do you want, you're doing your scene, and then I don't know, you're you're with your mom and you're the daughter. And you're in the kitchen, and you're arguing because the daughter was expelled from school and the daughter's, you know, is lying. This is all improv by the way. You could see how well of an improviser I am and how well I've practiced. It's I'm Uta of practice. but the the daughter goes like this. Mom, I just I just don't know what to do. I really don't know what to do. I don't know what to do for you. So you start you start singing it a piffy way, in a songy type of way, and that cues in who if you have a if you have like a piano improviser, you just have someone off to the side because I've noticed that in a lot of improv shows. There's like a piano or a musical person on the side. They'll pick up on that cue, like, I don't know what to do. You start singing it, and then they're like, I think they're gonna go into song. Then they start improvising a beat, and it's just like, there you go, you're going into a song. So it's not as soon as one improviser initiates a piffy, songgy type of vibe, you're like, this is going into song. You don't have to respond back in a song. I mean you can, you should if you take in musical improv. And I think when you go into conservatory. I think it's a requirement. I'm not sure, don't quote me, but that's how you Notes when an improv scene is about to go into songs. we played more games, and like I said, I can't remember the games that we played, how exactly they wanted it structured. But the biggest thing here, and it goes back to the teamwork, a lot of us, I mean two, maybe two of us, in my in my improv class, they were actual singers. But what I noticed was that it's just an uncomfortable position to start singing in class, whether it's something that you're comfortable with or not, because you're Stella learning improv. We're Stella in class training and learning. And it's not like we have everything down perfectly, no matter if some of us have been doing this for years, or if this is just, you know, we're four weeks into our improv journey. but we were playing these games, and what I love the most is that we had the support you have the support. your of your classmates. And if you don't, I don't think they're a good improviser, you have a hundred percent support. Meaning when you start breaking down into song and singing, you you know that they're going to either support it by saying yes and singing with you. That could be a form of saying yes and or just taking that gift and running with it. They're not going to say you can't sing well, you should stop that. They're not gonna say that. They're not gonna say that. They can They can say no to whatever you were saying, but not to, you know, how you're performing, if that makes any sense. And I think one game that we were doing is that Matthew, our instructor, noticed that we were all getting in our heads about the singing. So we said, Okay guys, here's what we're gonna do. we were standing in two different lines from the game previously, and he said, This is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna start playing a beat on the piano, a melody. And he said, I want you to say any phrase based on an emotion I give you, or your partner gives you. And what he means by that is like person A says love. And then person B says, okay, what's a simple phrase about love? And that could be, my yar my heart yearns for another. Anything, just improv, simple phrase based on an emotion. So love, my heart yearns for another. And then Matthew was like, okay. My heart yearns for another. I'm gonna play a melody and I want you to sing that. I don't want you to sing it. So he started playing this very slow, beautiful melody, and I have to go to the beat, and he was playing it, and I was like, here we go. here's the big point, too. I say the line twice, as in I'll I'll sing like, My heart yearns for another. My heart yearns for another. And then on that third beat, everyone, include all eight of us, eight or nine of us, we all sing the same thing the way that I sang it. So everyone. Says, my heart yearns for another. And we say that about two to three more times as he's playing this melody. And it was beautiful to see because the first two times you say it by yourself. You're the only one singing in that classroom. You're like, Am I even on beat? Doesn't matter. That third time when everyone joins in, here's why the the the teamwork is so important. On that third time, everyone's singing with you loud and proud. And you just feel that confidence in that moment. You're like, everyone's singing with me. I'm not alone here. That feeling right there, that's the feeling that you give to your scene partner when you support them, when you say yes and when you are just with them on stage and they're blanking and they're looking at you, you're looking at them, and you figure it Uta as you go. It's that feeling of support that is so reassuring, that gives you that confidence. Yeah, we we sang it two or three more times and we continued it on. All of us we weren't the best singers, but we did support. We did support. And that's the biggest thing I learned here. we continue to play games. Another one I I realized I was doing was during the improv scene. We we started just doing regular three like improv scenes. We yeah, I think we did three line scenes, but we did improv scenes and he said, Alright, I'm gonna stop you in the middle of an improv scene, whatever last line you said, I'm gonna play a melody and you sing it. And as I was just doing this improv scene, he said, Ooh, that line, whatever you just said, say that again and it was something about me climbing a wall and then I started climbing or He started playing a melody. As soon as he pressed like one single key on that keyboard, I started dancing and bopping. He was like, Whoa, whoa, whoa. What was that? What are you doing? I was like, I'm I'm I'm dancing to the tune, you know, it helps me get in this singy songy type of way. He was like, I understand that, but I didn't even start the song. How could you know what to do if you didn't give the chance to listen? And this re I was like, that's so true. I I was already thinking, I was I had this preconceived idea of how I wanted to dance because I knew I was going to do it, not actually actively listening to this the maybe he was gonna play it fast or slow. Regardless, as soon as he started playing, I already had, you know, a beat. And I didn't give myself the chance to listen to how he was going to play, to where I can react truthfully to that and then just go on from there. And this just goes to listening. Some of us have preconceived ideas when we go into our scenes, but we don't give the chance to actually listen to what our scene partner is saying, or give the chance to hear what's going on, or reading body language. These are different things that we can first take a beat, take a moment to pay attention to, and then react to it. So I was like, okay. That was like an epiphany type of moment. So I took a beat, took a minute, I made a mistake, which is totally cool. And in that real time, it shows you how well can you adapt. So I said, Okay, okay. And he started playing the song again. And I was listening to it. It was like a I don't know what kind of beat, it was like a jazzy beat. Took a minute. I started dancing to it. And then I sang as terribly Uta of tune as I was and started singing that. It was like good, very good. The whole imp like the whole improv zing, I don't even know where it went, but I was like, I'm going to listen to the music the same way you can listen to your scene partner, the improviser, their body language. This just goes to how well you can actively listen. And that was class. I appreciate you guys, in case no one has told you today, I love you. You matter, you have value. Let me say something I haven't said before. This is actually something my instructor Tom, shout Uta Tom. He was my first ever instructor for Improv 1, the first ever improv class I've ever taken. And he said, In our lives, the majority of people are no-butters. Meaning, when you think of the golden rule of yes and, it means you say yes to someone, regardless of how left field or weird it may be. You just say yes to them. And You add on top of it. You add your uniqueness, your weirdness to it. You say yes to someone. But in a world of no butters, we we we hear no so much. Even as children growing up, what growing up, what what do we hear most from our parents? No, don't touch that. No, you're not supposed to eat that. No, no, no. And it's just like almost embedded in us to hear no and to react to that. But when you hear yes from someone, it's like a breath of fresh air to say yes. And then they add on top of it? A like it's just like it's like a hug. It's warm. It's nice. And when we live a life of yes and and we say yes to other people, you you don't understand how much of an impact that makes. It's the same feeling of when I was referring to the game when we were singing and the first two times you do it by yourself and then the third time the group, everyone joins with you. You just feel this Reassurance, this confidence, you you you feel not alone. And so when you say yes and to someone, this goes in life. You say yes to people. It's a little scary, like you start saying yes to things, like, yeah, sure, I'll go to your baby shower, or yeah, why why don't I go back to church? When you say yes and you allow yourself just to experience something again or something new, it's a beautiful thing to see what it does to you when you're in that moment. Thank you. I'll see you guys in the next one. I love you.