Trust Your Instinct | Second City Improv for Actors 2 Week 2

Giovanni: What is going on you beautiful blueberries? improv for Actor's two is the last stretch of my improv journey here at the second city here. I'm at home at the second city in Chicago. It takes me about five hours to get to this training center and it's a three hour improv class and then I drive five hours back. Is it worthwhile? Absolutely. Are you gonna have fun? Absolutely. Am I tired all the time? Absolutely. However, I know it's worth it. And wherever you are in your improv journey, in your acting journey, hopefully this will help because in Actor's notes this is just my notes. These are in the notes that I take in class, these are in the notes and opinions and thoughts, feelings I have. Sometimes I just write down how I'm feeling and it may not have to do with anything that we're learning in class, but it helps me. So hopefully it might help you. The funny thing is with Improv for Actor's 2, it is a part of a 14-week curriculum. It's divided into Improv for Actor's 1, which lasts seven weeks, and then you go into Improv for Actor's 2, and at the end of Improv for Actor's 2, you have the chance to apply for conservatory. And conservatory is the professional improvisers. But we are on week two. of improv for Actor's too. The thing is, the whole the whole term, these whole seven weeks of Improv Fractors 2, I didn't write down any notes. And this is good thing for me because we were physical. We were moving around. We were playing long excuse me, long form, short form improv the entire three hours. So I didn't have any time To sit down and write like I had in the previous classes of improv for Actor's one with a different instructor, and then the first ever improv class I ever took, which is improv one, which lasted eight weeks. It was divided into two things. It was improv for Actor's or sorry, improv one A and Improv One B. I like how the second city structures their classes and feel free to check Uta their website because they have a plethora, not just improv, but writing, sketch comedy. They have workshops and and drop-in classes and and and so many other opportunities that I highly recommend. But for improv for Actor's too, I didn't write down notes during class, so I just went with the flow. I I you improvise, right? You just go with the flow. And so we played many games, we learned a lot on the fly and after class that's when I had time to sit down and actually write down the notes. The ones that stuck Uta to me the most and that's what I'm gonna be talking about. I'm definitely not gonna be talking about the games I played because I have absolutely no idea. I don't remember the games I played. I do remember we didn't play any whoosh, we didn't play any Zip Zeb Zop. That instructor, shout Uta to Jack, forgot his name. Jack, he's an amazing instructor. He definitely saw things from a different point of view. And every single improviser, instructor, Actor's. Whoever you are, you'll see things from a different perspective, but that's just your creative lens. And it's so unique to to Colbert and to be part of a team ensemble and just improvise with someone who thinks a little bit differently because they give you different gifts that you can play with, and it's it's something unique to discover. And so we mainly played the word association game to get our you know bodies, our improviser bodies warmed up, which is we stand in a circle. And every class in terms of the size will be different. Some people have four. Some people have fifteen. That's the max you can have. I believe my class was maybe nine, nine, eight or nine people. And so we would stand in a circle and we would start off with one single word. We'd look at somebody else in the group and whatever word you associate that word with, you say that Uta loud. So I could look at you and say elephant. You think elephant, you think of India. And then you look at someone else, you say India. You think of India, you think of spice, spice, ooh, food, food, hungry, hungry, hippo. You just keep going like that. and you look at someone else different in the group. So this basically trains you to trust your instinct instinct and say it Uta loud. And I think that's a big lesson in such a simple game. We we we haven't even dived into the actual notes, but trust your instinct is one of the biggest things that improvisers face. Because we don't have the self-confidence to feel like what we say is right or is enough for the improv scene. And it's not about being right or not even about having enough information. It's literally just about how you say it, saying it with confidence. I remember in a scene, and this is past time I did a feature film, I was very it was First ever feature film I was a part of, and I just remember the director coming up to me because I messed up my lines so many times, and I came up to him too. Afterwards I said, I'm sorry, I'll I'll work on my scenes. But he came up to me later on and he said, Listen, no one else knows your lines apart from the other Actor's and whoever has the script, but everyone else, we don't know what you are supposed to say. Just say it with confidence. And as long as you say with confidence, and it's less about what you say. It's about being in that moment. Are you actually with the other Actor's present? Are you actually in this scene? Are you giving me not you you don't have to give variety, but are you being truthful under imaginary circumstances, not just trying to focus on the text? It's a matter it's about how you say it. Say it with confidence than what you say. So in an improv scene, it translates very well, especially for a class like this, improv for Actor's. It's not about being right or Giving enough detail in your lines. It's just about saying it with confidence, trusting your instinct and being able to say that Uta loud. That's something that this word association game really enlightened me about. The first note that I have here is don't always make the scene be about what you're doing. Always make it about the other person. This is relationship. This is relationship, relationship, relationship. You're gonna hear this so many times. And what is that? To me. You boil it down to three things. And if anything, you can really skin it down to two things. But one is who are you? Who are you to your senior partner? Give them a name. Give them a relationship. Give them an occupation. Is this a mother and husband? God. yeah. Is this is yeah, is this a mom or dad? Is this husband wife? Are you guys employees? Are you two sharks in the middle of the ocean? Give them a relationship. A simple name. Completely fine. The next environment, where are you? Are you in the ocean? Okay, establish that. If you're a shark, how would they move in the ocean? If you're employees at a coffee shop, how would you go about that? Would you just start making coffee? What would you be doing? Establish a relationship. Are you in the forest? And then the last is what do you want? What's your goal here? And this goes into the next thing that I have. But I really want to stay on this third point. What's your goal? How do you feel about the other person and what they said? How does that affect you and lets you know what your next goal is? Maybe they said something and you don't like what they said. So your goal is, okay, my goal throughout this entire improv scene is to take what they say, truthfully react to it, and give them a gift based on what they said. Maybe someone just says up front, I don't like your gray hoodie, and you don't like them. But you want to react truthfully. Your goal is just reacting truthfully in that entire scene. So I'll be like, listen, Tom, I'm colorblind. I don't know half the shit I'm wearing. Maybe maybe it's less about being upset. Maybe it's just to be being like, Alright, I had enough of your BS. I'm colorblind. Take what you will. And that's a gift. Alright, now you gave them a name, you said they're Tom, and you didn't really establish That's that's the beautiful thing. You established as you go. You discover you discover the scene as you go. You don't have to do it all in three lines, even though the three line scene game and the three line warm-up exercise is very common where you try to establish all those three things, who are you, where are you, what do want, and under three lines with you and a scene partner. It's a great exercise. Really makes things pick up the pace. But leading into the the next note that I have here is when you're having trouble with a scene progression, a tactic is making it the day, having a problem to solve. And that last point is very important. This goals this goes with the goal, have a problem to solve. This really helps navigate a scene. Maybe you are someone who just, you know, the spontaneity, exploring the scene, discovering a way where it might go, or maybe You just blank during your scenes, like I do a lot. Having a problem to solve. Okay, what's your problem? How do I feel about the other person? What's something that we can solve? Okay, you're colorblind. Maybe it's a funny way to maybe that's something to solve. Okay, let's solve your color blindness. How many fingers am I holding up? Like what? That has nothing to do. It's just it's just choice. Alright, it makes the scene a little bit funnier. to your whatever you find interesting. But there's a problem to solve that inspired a different idea. It doesn't have to be about the problem. It could just it help you carry along the scene. I didn't even touch on the first part, so I apologize. Don't always make the scene about what you're doing, always make it about the other person. I did struggle with this, but there's a fine balance because what I just said for the three points on how to establish a relationship. Who are you? Where are you? What do you want? The where are you? And I really like doing this because I played this a lot in Improv for Actor's 1 and Improv 1. One tactic to do is before you even begin a scene, start establishing the relationship. Are you in an ice cream parlor and you're an employee scooping ice cream, making a cone for the customer? Maybe the scene partner is the customer. Maybe they're the boss. Who knows? But I would love I always love starting a scene, not saying any dialogue. I would just just mime. Mime the environment. But improv for Actor's too, I might have or I did focus on the environment too much and not about the scene partner. So instead of solely thinking about ice cream in this ice cream parlor, I was I wasn't talking about my scene partner, how I felt about them, because that's more important. How you feel about the scene partner. Or the group that you're with in that moment, not necessarily about where you are. Where you are just adds specificity. That's the distinction. Where you are adds specificity to the relation to the scene to make it interesting. It shouldn't be the scene. The scene should be you and the other person. Who you are with. That's the first question. Who are you? Who are you to this other person? Okay? So Don't make it always about what you are doing. Don't always just talk about the ice cream or your job. Just talk about the other person. That's way more interesting. What I mean by the day for the second note is when you're having trouble with a scene, progression, a tactic is having a problem to solve, making it the day. How Jack put this, my instructor, he said, if you have trouble progressing a scene, make it the day. Meaning this is the day that I break up with my boyfriend or girlfriend. This is the day that I quit my job and pursue my passion of flight kaiing, of kite flying. Of kite flying. And so today is the day. And who knows, maybe today's I get I get knighted by the Queen. And that is that is just way more interesting than two people having a regular conversation. Nothing wrong with two people having a regular conversation in an improv scene, but when you make it the day, it has more stakes. And that's the third point that I have here. Have stakes and then break them. So the audience came to see not just the show. But to see a reflection of life, truth and themselves, and want to see dramatic real moments and what someone would do after. Meaning that I love this because improv, just like acting, it's just a reflection of life. And you think of improv just trying to be funny, but the reality is that improv is funny because it's true. It's true to life. It's a reflection of life and a lot of things in life, if we think about it in retrospect, it is just funny to think about. You know, if you you zoom Uta far enough in the world, we are just like this little planet amongst a galaxy and and and an infinite galaxies, an infinite space of of so much more than we can possibly fathom. And so if you think about our just daily problems of someone got your Starbucks order wrong or someone called you the wrong name and it really got to you, like how insignificant is that to just the reality of the entire thing we call life? And so it's just funny to think about. And so the audience came to see a reflection of life, and it's funny because it's just like, yeah, I feel the exact same way. This is why we all love comedians, because they talk about such mundane, everyday things that we go through, and we're like, yeah, that is. That is pretty weird, that is pretty funny, and we just laugh about it. And so when you have stakes and break them, this goes to the relationship, okay? And you this goes to making a the day. What if it's the example of today's the day I break up with my boyfriend and girlfriend? That's a very common thing. That's many things or that's something that many people go through. And so here we want to see dramatic real moments and what someone would do after. Meaning you have these high stakes of breaking up with your boyfriend and girlfriend, so you sit them down and be like Jessica. This is gonna be hard for me to say. And you're like, Tom, I'm I'm gonna stop you right there. I think we should break up. Boom. Stake you had stakes and you you you you had stakes and you break them, and then what happens after? This is when the audience leans in. Like, what is Tom going to say now? Or what's gonna happen now? And and the other character can be like, Thank God. Okay, we're on the same page. Cause I was gonna say this is gonna be very awkward. We've only been dating for one week. I've already given you a ring. I know we're engaged, but it I thought it was moving too fast. And so look, we're giving gifts. We we we're just seeing where things go and sometimes it's just not even like a one week engagement. That's not reality. some sometimes it is. But the audience leans in, like, what's going to happen afterward? 'Cause I've been in that same position. What would you do? And in improv scene you play, you discover, you go, you can go anywhere. And that's the that's that's the stakes. You have the stakes, I'm gonna break up with my boyfriend or girlfriend, but you break them and then you twist them in a way of like, ooh, I didn't expect him to say one week he already in you know gave her a ring and they're on the same page. What? This is so weird, this is not common. But it's funny just cause it's it's it's lighthearted, it's playful. This is gonna be a quick one because After class, I only wrote down three notes to keep this easier for when I vlogged at the second city. And I'll do a whole nother series of me sharing my actual real time at the second city. This is just a reflection on the notes. And so I recorded on my camera just my actual thoughts in real time after class. You can see the tiredness in my eyes, but you can just feel the enthusiasm. in my voice about this acting class. So I legit talk about everything that I'm writing down in real time, but this is really meaning me honing in everything to teach you in a better way. And so the last things that I wrote here was take what you want and leave what you don't. This is very important because this is the first thing that my instructor Jack ever told me, and I it's very important because your instructor is going to teach a curriculum. Or you're going to teach in a way that's different than someone else, or your improv class is going to be different than mine. Maybe you're not taking a seven-week course. Maybe it's a 12-week. Maybe it's just a day. Regardless or not, there's always something to learn. And you, this is the most important part, you need to know yourself and have self-awareness to know what you need as an Actor's, what you should work on as an Actor's, what you don't know, and what you do know. As an improviser, as an Actor's, as a human being. So when you go to this improv class, Take something that you need and leave what you don't. If they're saying something that you don't agree with, and this goes for me and Jack as well, because there are a lot of things are like, huh, I tend to think differently. But I'm gonna I'm gonna see things from your perspective right now. So take what you want, leave what you don't. Simple as that. Second, know the rules in order to break them. This is important. Even though that I'm more than 14, 15 weeks into improv at the second city. We need to know the rules of yes and. Don't ask questions. Always support. How to be a good teammate. How to listen. Simple things. You need to learn that foundation of what it takes to be a good improviser in order to break them. So learn those rules and then you can start playing around with asking questions, with saying no, with declining gifts. I'm not going to say not being a team player, because there's Stella some things about just listening. Like always listen. Just don't break that rule and not listen. But being more free in your improv because you already know the the foundation is is something to pay attention to. And third, don't let a mistake stop you from taking a risk again. Good improvisers will justify it. I wrote this down because I remember during the second week, especially with long form improv that I haven't done before, I was making many mistakes, I was Stella asking questions, saying no. blanking so many times and so I was making a lot of mistakes i in my eyes but I didn't let that stop me from continuing the next scene because the next the very next line the very next things that you say or they say that's a new opportunity to just have a fresh slate. This can go with acting because in scenes you do many different takes. Maybe you give variety on how you say a certain line or your character that you're with the group that you're with They deliver a line to you that you react differently, and then you do a different take. But you're like, Ooh, the last take really caught me off guard. Doesn't matter, it's in the past. Do a different take. Unless you're someone like me who does the same take the same way, but I realized that's not true. If we try if we live the same way every single day and have this groundhog day, it doesn't make it interesting. I like to give the director I like to give my same partner variety. It's not always gonna be the same take. Sometimes it is, but Being truthful in that situation is important. And so don't let let don't let a mistake stop you from taking a risk. That risk could simply be making a bolder choice, putting on an accent in your next line or in the next scene or game that you play. But putting yourself Uta there again, volunteering for an improv scene, that's a risk. And that's what a good improviser will do. And a good improviser will justify it. Meaning no matter how weird your risk is, how you do this accents, or how left field your next suggestion or their suggestion is, a good improviser will take that gift, accept it, add on top of it, and justify it. And 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. This has nothing to do with anything I said today. But don't forget to eat your fruits. You got your blueberries. That's why I call you guys blueberries, because they are superfood. Make sure you take care of your health. with fruits. Are you eating fruits in your diet? Let me know in the comments down below. Alright. I love you. I'll see you guys in the next one.