WEBVTT 00:00:00.810 --> 00:00:03.490 Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the SoCap 00:00:03.490 --> 00:00:06.309 Improv Comedy Podcast. My name is Ralph. I'm 00:00:06.309 --> 00:00:10.289 the owner and artistic director of the SoCap 00:00:10.289 --> 00:00:15.650 Improv Comedy Theatre in Toronto, Ontario. We 00:00:15.650 --> 00:00:19.370 are located at 154 Danforth Avenue, above the 00:00:19.370 --> 00:00:21.410 Black Swan Tavern, around the second and third 00:00:21.410 --> 00:00:26.050 floor. We have improv classes, improv shows, 00:00:26.350 --> 00:00:31.100 corporate events. You can rent our space and 00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:35.359 do your own thing. It's a fun place to hang out 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:43.920 in a world that is increasingly becoming lonelier 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:48.460 and lonelier. It's a good place to come and form 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:51.359 bonds and relationships with people. Anyway, 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:58.539 this is a podcast about improv. and improv for 00:00:58.539 --> 00:01:02.060 the stage. But more specifically, or at least 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:06.739 as much, I try to gear these discussions towards 00:01:06.739 --> 00:01:11.319 people who are not performers. So people who 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:15.599 come and have an interest in improv or want to 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:21.760 know, oh, hey, Ralph, I'm a person who does blank. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:25.420 Why would I want to take an improv class? I don't 00:01:25.420 --> 00:01:30.000 understand. I don't want to be TFA or Lauren 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.859 Ash or some of these other great improvisers 00:01:32.859 --> 00:01:39.579 turned actors. That's a fair question. So that's 00:01:39.579 --> 00:01:42.859 what this podcast talks about. Every podcast 00:01:42.859 --> 00:01:47.799 has a sponsor. We're no different. Today's podcast 00:01:47.799 --> 00:01:51.579 is brought to you by Pontius Pilates. That's 00:01:51.579 --> 00:01:54.500 right, Pontius Pilates. If you're looking for 00:01:54.500 --> 00:01:57.379 a tough workout, this one will crucify you. So 00:01:57.379 --> 00:02:00.159 we're hoping that you'll check out our sponsor, 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:04.260 Pontius Pilates, and go and get in some work. 00:02:05.299 --> 00:02:09.360 I've never taken a Pilates class. I take yoga. 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:13.740 I participate in a yoga class now once a week, 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:18.840 and it's great. It targets all the parts of my 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:22.580 body that I want to ignore. Not ignore. That 00:02:22.580 --> 00:02:25.199 I don't want to work out so much. So it's great 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:29.419 for me. It's great for core, my legs, strength, 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:35.639 balance. It's great. So I recommend yoga to everybody 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:39.680 out there. At least try it. And that's just a 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.139 recommendation. Here's the thing. When I recommend 00:02:43.139 --> 00:02:45.639 something, I'm not saying you need to do it. 00:02:45.659 --> 00:02:49.900 I'm thinking, is this information? You can take 00:02:49.900 --> 00:02:52.419 it or not take it. It doesn't matter to me. You 00:02:52.419 --> 00:02:55.159 know you. Anyway, I have to say that because 00:02:55.159 --> 00:03:00.620 sometimes people get mad at me because I don't 00:03:00.620 --> 00:03:09.419 say often enough that this is not direction or 00:03:09.419 --> 00:03:13.139 advice. It's just information. Anyway, I love 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:17.919 yoga. Check it out. Or don't. Anyway, today what 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:19.800 I want to talk about because it comes up quite 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:24.110 a bit. It's come up a bit late often lately is, 00:03:24.250 --> 00:03:28.370 uh, why do we laugh? What's, what is that about? 00:03:28.669 --> 00:03:35.310 The laughter that comes improv on stage or, um, 00:03:35.490 --> 00:03:37.830 the spontaneous kind of laughter that happens 00:03:37.830 --> 00:03:40.389 when you're hanging out with really good friends. 00:03:40.669 --> 00:03:45.009 Um, cause if you pay attention, if you are an 00:03:45.009 --> 00:03:47.110 improviser and you're in class or you're, you're 00:03:47.110 --> 00:03:51.909 in a show more than a class. specifically, there's 00:03:51.909 --> 00:03:53.770 a lot of laughter. And then when you stop, you 00:03:53.770 --> 00:03:56.509 say, well, why was this thing funny? Most people 00:03:56.509 --> 00:04:02.169 don't know. Or they don't have an answer. And, 00:04:02.349 --> 00:04:06.750 you know, I think we all kind of assume that 00:04:06.750 --> 00:04:08.710 we laugh at things that are funny. Well, what's 00:04:08.710 --> 00:04:12.449 funny? And that's a whole other discussion. But 00:04:12.449 --> 00:04:14.590 when we laugh in improv, the laughter that happens 00:04:14.590 --> 00:04:17.949 in improv is, especially the belly laughs, are... 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:22.600 much less about saying funny things and more 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:27.480 about bonding and communicating and finding your 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:29.959 group, your tribe. That's, that's, that's why, 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:32.279 that's where a lot of the laughter comes from. 00:04:32.899 --> 00:04:39.040 Um, and, uh, so for example, you know, there's 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:41.500 this exercise, the word of a time game where 00:04:41.500 --> 00:04:44.959 you will have two people, uh, and they will take 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:47.699 turns saying the next word in the sentence. So 00:04:47.699 --> 00:04:51.660 character A might say one, character B, day, 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:58.279 character A. There, character B was a giant monster. 00:04:58.579 --> 00:05:02.600 Whatever. And that's often very funny when you 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:06.740 watch people do it. There's a lot of laughter. 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:12.199 But you get more laughter when the sentence makes 00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:16.259 grammatical sense. When it is a sentence that... 00:05:16.730 --> 00:05:21.269 Everybody recognizes as a sentence. It can be 00:05:21.269 --> 00:05:24.610 somewhat ludicrous in the answer, and often these 00:05:24.610 --> 00:05:29.149 answers are. But the more that sentence is something 00:05:29.149 --> 00:05:31.810 that we recognize as a sentence, and I know what's 00:05:31.810 --> 00:05:35.329 going on, I will laugh. That will get much more 00:05:35.329 --> 00:05:38.910 laughter than a sentence that is disjointed, 00:05:38.910 --> 00:05:41.670 that isn't a real sentence, or that doesn't make 00:05:41.670 --> 00:05:45.790 a lot of sense. This one happened. This is a 00:05:45.790 --> 00:05:49.910 typical one that will happen. Two characters, 00:05:50.050 --> 00:05:51.870 two individuals, not characters. They're playing 00:05:51.870 --> 00:05:54.189 one character. They're two individuals. And they're 00:05:54.189 --> 00:05:56.329 trying to say a sentence. And this happened a 00:05:56.329 --> 00:05:57.970 couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, in one of 00:05:57.970 --> 00:06:03.569 my classes for beginners. And they were asked 00:06:03.569 --> 00:06:07.569 what they were doing. And they responded, I am 00:06:07.569 --> 00:06:14.759 walking my. And the person. who had the next 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:17.560 word the word dog was halfway out of their mouth 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:22.019 and they stopped and they said fish i am walking 00:06:22.019 --> 00:06:26.860 my fish and nobody laughed and everybody just 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:30.560 kind of stood around and looked at them instead 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:33.339 of laughing and i stopped and i said why didn't 00:06:33.339 --> 00:06:38.639 you say dog and they were well it wasn't it was 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:42.040 too obvious it seemed it's got to be better than 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:47.019 that And that's not true. If a dead dog, we would 00:06:47.019 --> 00:06:49.800 have laughed. The thing is with the saying, I'm 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:53.379 walking my fish, the audience or the people watching 00:06:53.379 --> 00:06:56.660 this, or if you're not on stage and you're with 00:06:56.660 --> 00:06:59.980 a group of people at a gathering or something, 00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:03.620 and that happens and you say fish or something 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:08.639 that is quote unquote weird. When I say weird, 00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:11.579 what I mean is something that I don't see in 00:07:11.579 --> 00:07:15.560 my regular life. And I can't relate to walking 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:18.680 a fish. You know, I have an image in my head 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:23.240 of a fish with a leash on it. The fish is in 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:27.100 like an aquarium and the person's walking around. 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:32.240 And it's not to say that that cannot be funny, 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:34.660 but it's not funny in that context. And for me, 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:39.779 what happens is it's just odd. And the audience 00:07:39.779 --> 00:07:42.720 or the people watching this who are participating 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:47.459 in it as a, as spectators, they'll laugh. And 00:07:47.459 --> 00:07:50.680 to me, what happens is when you walk a fish, 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:54.680 they get a little panicky because they think 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:58.160 maybe I'm missing something. Maybe this isn't 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:02.899 for me. And they pull back and they don't laugh 00:08:02.899 --> 00:08:06.519 because it's not for them. It's like telling, 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:08.860 It's like hearing the punchline of a joke and 00:08:08.860 --> 00:08:11.639 not getting it. And everybody else is laughing. 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:13.920 You're the only one not laughing. You'd feel 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:16.959 very, well, first of all, you'd probably fake 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:18.839 the laugh and say, oh, good one. Yeah, I love 00:08:18.839 --> 00:08:21.040 that joke. I'm going to steal it. And you try 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:24.779 to bluff your way into being accepted. But if 00:08:24.779 --> 00:08:27.600 you didn't get it, you would not like that joke. 00:08:27.660 --> 00:08:29.819 And you would get out as fast as possible, like 00:08:29.819 --> 00:08:32.600 get out of that place. And this is the same thing 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:37.399 that happens on stage. And the tendency. Among 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:39.480 newer improvisers. And even people who have been 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:41.720 doing it for a long time. Is to be funny. I want 00:08:41.720 --> 00:08:45.840 to be funny. And what they think. What people 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:48.519 think is going to be funny. Is not. Because it's 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:51.240 just odd. I'm going to walk my fish. It's just 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:55.279 an odd statement. And without having context. 00:08:55.720 --> 00:09:00.820 For why that makes sense. Or where that sentence 00:09:00.820 --> 00:09:04.440 came from. Like if we had prior to that. a discussion 00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:08.700 about walking things you know walking inanimate 00:09:08.700 --> 00:09:11.919 objects or walking animals you can't walk like 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:16.820 a dinosaur or walking a cow oh walk a fish okay 00:09:16.820 --> 00:09:19.519 that that might be funny because we understand 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.059 what we're talking about right we we all understand 00:09:22.059 --> 00:09:24.779 what's going on in the game underneath this the 00:09:24.779 --> 00:09:30.700 subtextual conversation um right so why do we 00:09:30.700 --> 00:09:33.659 laugh well we laugh In this case, if that person 00:09:33.659 --> 00:09:36.220 said dog, we would have laughed because we'd 00:09:36.220 --> 00:09:39.240 all see it coming. And I'm expecting dog and 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:42.019 they say dog. And then I just laughed because 00:09:42.019 --> 00:09:45.320 ha ha ha. I knew what was going on. I belong. 00:09:45.740 --> 00:09:48.799 I'm part of this. This is great. I feel good. 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:52.779 That laughter is a release of the tension that 00:09:52.779 --> 00:09:57.500 happens when maybe I'm not going to be part of 00:09:57.500 --> 00:10:00.669 this group. So one of the reasons that. to me 00:10:00.669 --> 00:10:05.029 anyway, that word of time works so well, is every 00:10:05.029 --> 00:10:09.590 time you start, there is a possibility that for 00:10:09.590 --> 00:10:11.269 an audience member or someone watching this, 00:10:11.450 --> 00:10:13.350 they're going to lose the track of the conversation. 00:10:14.730 --> 00:10:18.710 This might be a time that they're the only ones 00:10:18.710 --> 00:10:21.049 that don't understand what's going on. And so 00:10:21.049 --> 00:10:24.450 when the sentence ends and they get it, oh, it's 00:10:24.450 --> 00:10:26.950 the release of the tension again and the laughter 00:10:26.950 --> 00:10:29.360 comes. Because once you start doing that, there's 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:31.120 a bit of dissonance because we don't know where 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.240 it's going, we don't know what the sentence is 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:37.039 going to be, what's happening. And as it starts 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:41.279 to coalesce and we've had our period of divergence 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:44.419 while we're beginning the sentence and now we're 00:10:44.419 --> 00:10:47.639 converging towards the goal and we all see that 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:49.960 goal coming and we all arrive at the same point 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:55.080 at the same time, we laugh at how wonderful it 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:59.799 is. There's another exercise that I warm up almost 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:01.980 all my classes with, which is the game called 00:11:01.980 --> 00:11:06.720 I Am A, which involves three people one at a 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.500 time. And we make patterns or images or games 00:11:10.500 --> 00:11:14.720 or, well, there's different rules for how the 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:17.200 three things are related. So one person starts 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:22.250 and they say, for example, I am a plane. Actually, 00:11:22.429 --> 00:11:24.110 let me try another one. The first person walks 00:11:24.110 --> 00:11:28.830 out and says, I'm a C. And second character walks 00:11:28.830 --> 00:11:32.330 out or person walks out and says, I'm B. So that 00:11:32.330 --> 00:11:35.629 B contextualizes the first C as the letter C. 00:11:36.370 --> 00:11:40.450 The second character participant could have walked 00:11:40.450 --> 00:11:44.710 out and said, I am an ocean. And then my C, the 00:11:44.710 --> 00:11:49.110 first C would be S -E -A, not the letter C or 00:11:49.110 --> 00:11:52.299 the... Second character walked out and said, 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:56.299 I am here. Or I am smell. Then we got, oh, that's 00:11:56.299 --> 00:12:00.080 that first C is S -E -E. So the second person 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:02.600 contextualizes it. And then the third person 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:05.539 is supposed to follow that pattern. So if I'm 00:12:05.539 --> 00:12:09.480 C and the second character is B, the third person, 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:12.360 the best choice is A. Or some other letter of 00:12:12.360 --> 00:12:14.600 the alphabet. Not to come out all of a sudden 00:12:14.600 --> 00:12:17.460 and say, I'm an ocean. Because if you had, I'm 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:21.960 a C, I'm a B. I'm the ocean. Again, that's not 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:23.480 going to be funny. No one's going to laugh at 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:24.740 that. They're going to go like, well, that's 00:12:24.740 --> 00:12:26.879 odd. It's weird. I don't get it. I don't know 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:28.120 what's happening. They're not going to laugh. 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:30.080 Everybody's going to go up on their head. They're 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:31.659 going to panic a little bit, thinking they're 00:12:31.659 --> 00:12:34.080 the only ones who don't have it. They're going 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:37.159 to be thinking hard about trying to make it all 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:39.019 make sense so they feel better about themselves. 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:43.519 But it's not going to work. But that's what the 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:46.039 tendency is for people to do. I can't say A because 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:48.679 that's too obvious. Say the obvious thing. because 00:12:48.679 --> 00:12:50.720 that will be inclusive. That will include people. 00:12:50.820 --> 00:12:53.620 They'll relate to it better. So why do we laugh? 00:12:53.700 --> 00:12:56.039 We laugh because we know what's going on, because 00:12:56.039 --> 00:12:59.899 we're a part of something. And I'm not going 00:12:59.899 --> 00:13:02.779 to go into it today, but dissonance, the thing 00:13:02.779 --> 00:13:06.299 that creates that imbalance or the panic that 00:13:06.299 --> 00:13:09.519 is a relief is a big part of comedy. We need 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:12.340 to have, before you can have the release of tension, 00:13:12.500 --> 00:13:15.259 you've got to build some tension. So it's the 00:13:15.259 --> 00:13:18.080 release of tension. recognizing that you belong, 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:20.879 that you're part of this. And I just wanted to 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:22.659 finish because I lost my train of thought about 00:13:22.659 --> 00:13:26.700 that game. I am a, so when the, when the more, 00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:29.179 the more obvious you are in this game, the more 00:13:29.179 --> 00:13:32.759 people will laugh. I had one just a couple of 00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:39.879 days ago in the class. And I can't remember the 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:44.889 exact one, but it was a, it was a title. uh of 00:13:44.889 --> 00:13:49.629 something like a very well -known like uh oh 00:13:49.629 --> 00:13:52.389 yes like alice in wonderland say it was something 00:13:52.389 --> 00:13:54.649 very similar to that so the first person that 00:13:54.649 --> 00:13:57.490 went out was i'm alice the second person came 00:13:57.490 --> 00:14:01.929 out and said wonderland and then two of us uh 00:14:01.929 --> 00:14:05.429 very quickly ran in and both said in so we completed 00:14:05.429 --> 00:14:08.529 the title and the whole place went crazy like 00:14:08.529 --> 00:14:13.019 it was a huge laugh from everybody um Because 00:14:13.019 --> 00:14:15.159 it was so relatable. And it was so like, I know 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:17.799 Alice in Wonderland. That's why it's funny. That's 00:14:17.799 --> 00:14:20.399 why we laugh. It releases the tension. Because 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:22.980 we know we found our group, our people, our tribe. 00:14:23.059 --> 00:14:26.700 I belong. I'm one of you. I'm in. I'm accepted. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:29.879 That's why it's funny. And that's why we laugh. 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:31.899 That's a lot of the laughter, especially the 00:14:31.899 --> 00:14:36.460 belly laughter that you get in scenes, in shows, 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:39.919 but also in the real world. You know, there's 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.500 this overwhelming... thrive a lot of us have 00:14:42.500 --> 00:14:46.240 to be impressive to wow people another does is 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:50.139 it pushes people away the best way is to be relatable 00:14:50.139 --> 00:14:53.679 you will get people to like you a lot better 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:55.840 that way anyway that's my thing for today why 00:14:55.840 --> 00:14:59.340 we laugh uh i think it's really interesting and 00:14:59.340 --> 00:15:04.679 and i encourage you to when you laugh or you 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:07.620 hear people laugh to figure out what that's about 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:10.830 anyway that's my time Have a great rest of the 00:15:10.830 --> 00:15:12.350 week, everybody, and we'll see you back here 00:15:12.350 --> 00:15:15.149 next time for more SOCAP Improv Comedy Podcast 00:15:15.149 --> 00:15:18.669 brought to you by Pontius Pilates. That's right. 00:15:18.769 --> 00:15:23.350 They'll nail you to the wall with their hardcore 00:15:23.350 --> 00:15:25.750 workouts. Take care. Bye, everybody.