WEBVTT 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:02.879 Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the SoCap 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:06.179 Improv Comedy Podcast. My name is Ralph. Ralph 00:00:06.179 --> 00:00:08.339 McLeod. I am the owner and artistic director 00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:11.580 of the SoCap Comedy Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, 00:00:12.019 --> 00:00:16.199 Canada. We are at 154 Danforth Avenue on the 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.260 second and third floor above the Black Swan Tavern. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:22.059 Socap .ca is our URL. We do improv classes, shows, 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:24.440 events, corporate events, private events. You 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.519 can rent our space and do your own thing. You 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:29.850 can arrange a class for us to come and... you 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:32.390 know, uh, for a birthday party or a retirement 00:00:32.390 --> 00:00:35.909 or something like that. Um, boy, oh boy, lots 00:00:35.909 --> 00:00:38.630 of different things that you can do with us. 00:00:38.750 --> 00:00:43.130 Uh, every podcast has a sponsor. Uh, this week's 00:00:43.130 --> 00:00:46.189 sponsor is the Canadian designer, Tommy Go Figure. 00:00:46.369 --> 00:00:51.469 Uh, Tommy Go Figure. I don't care. It makes me 00:00:51.469 --> 00:00:53.990 laugh. That's, that's why it's here. Cause it 00:00:53.990 --> 00:00:57.920 made me chuckle. So Tommy Go Figure. for all 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:06.299 your Neil Young tuxedo needs. Love me some Neil 00:01:06.299 --> 00:01:11.519 Young tuxedo. Good stuff. Anyway, so this podcast 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:17.140 is about improvisation and for the stage and 00:01:17.140 --> 00:01:21.620 also how improv can affect and better. Yes, that's 00:01:21.620 --> 00:01:25.519 right. I use the word and better. You know, hey, 00:01:25.620 --> 00:01:28.659 man, if impactful can become a word, so can better 00:01:28.659 --> 00:01:32.939 to make your life better or different or try 00:01:32.939 --> 00:01:36.060 different things. And that's what I want to talk 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:40.319 about today. One of those things that's that 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:42.400 that improv is really, really good at helping 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:47.099 to development, helping to develop. You can't 00:01:47.099 --> 00:01:49.180 have something happen to development. That's 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:53.359 that's not right. It's it's a skill. There's 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:55.359 a lot of skills that improv will help you develop. 00:01:56.519 --> 00:01:59.079 Probably skills that you didn't even think were 00:01:59.079 --> 00:02:03.120 possible. Like, well, that's what we're going 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:09.439 to get into today. So if you have not seen the 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:12.639 TV show Seinfeld, I recommend it. Or if you've 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:15.020 seen it and don't like it, that's fine too. But 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:20.300 I did enjoy it very much. And there is an episode, 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:24.039 one of the... classics to me, I think, were the 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:26.780 classic episodes of that show. And if you don't 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:29.400 know the show, very quickly, Jerry Seinfeld, 00:02:29.479 --> 00:02:32.460 the stand -up comedian, has three friends, all 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:34.819 with different quirks. And one of his friends, 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:39.819 George, is kind of a sad sack. And in one episode, 00:02:39.939 --> 00:02:41.979 he's lamenting to Jerry that he's approaching 00:02:41.979 --> 00:02:45.280 middle age, he's not married, he doesn't have 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:47.080 a job, and he's still living with his parents. 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:50.180 And that every choice he seems to make is the 00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:52.680 wrong one. To which Jerry counsels him and says, 00:02:52.780 --> 00:02:55.479 well, and if everything you do is wrong, then 00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:58.800 the opposite must be the correct choice. And 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:02.780 George decides to do the opposite. And he immediately 00:03:02.780 --> 00:03:05.520 walks over to an attractive woman at the coffee 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.120 shop and says, hello, my name is George. I'm 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:10.780 unemployed and I live with my parents. And she 00:03:10.780 --> 00:03:13.659 turns around at him and looks at him like he's 00:03:13.659 --> 00:03:16.199 the sexiest man alive. And she said, who are 00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:19.699 you, George Costanza? And that's the beginning 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:22.990 of a romance. And so it works. It works. And 00:03:22.990 --> 00:03:25.189 so that is something that you can definitely 00:03:25.189 --> 00:03:29.490 do in improv. And in fact, I'm often counseling 00:03:29.490 --> 00:03:33.889 my students to try the opposite. The opposite 00:03:33.889 --> 00:03:36.009 of what? Well, the opposite of what you would 00:03:36.009 --> 00:03:39.750 do in a certain situation. And I'll give you 00:03:39.750 --> 00:03:41.889 an example that I probably use a lot on this 00:03:41.889 --> 00:03:44.710 podcast because it's a good one. You know, a 00:03:44.710 --> 00:03:48.009 person comes home and declares to their spouse 00:03:48.009 --> 00:03:51.860 that they're having an affair. uh and then their 00:03:51.860 --> 00:03:57.159 spouse uh their response is woohoo amazing uh 00:03:57.159 --> 00:04:01.080 okay well let's see now why is that the opposite 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:06.439 well uh when when we watch drama there's certain 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:09.699 rules certain things that we expect and here's 00:04:09.699 --> 00:04:13.340 an expectation uh that unless we've had a situation 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:16.579 ourselves in which we were excited to be told 00:04:16.579 --> 00:04:19.670 by that our spouse was having an affair carrying 00:04:19.670 --> 00:04:22.009 on an illicit relationship without knowledge 00:04:22.009 --> 00:04:27.350 or consent or prior understanding. Our expectation 00:04:27.350 --> 00:04:29.769 is that person who receives the information would 00:04:29.769 --> 00:04:33.730 be shocked, saddened, angry, resentful, hurt, 00:04:33.829 --> 00:04:38.009 spiteful. These are reactions that in our world 00:04:38.009 --> 00:04:44.410 would make sense. And probably the vast majority 00:04:44.410 --> 00:04:47.430 of us would react that way. And on stage, when 00:04:47.430 --> 00:04:49.709 you're playing a character, or it's pretend, 00:04:50.069 --> 00:04:52.050 you know, we're playing pretend, make -believe 00:04:52.050 --> 00:04:55.610 with someone else. That's the reaction you will 00:04:55.610 --> 00:04:59.870 see most often, is, what? Oh, no, say it isn't 00:04:59.870 --> 00:05:03.750 so. But you can also do the opposite. And in 00:05:03.750 --> 00:05:06.649 this case, woo -hoo, is kind of an opposite choice. 00:05:07.170 --> 00:05:10.009 Instead of being upset by it, you choose to be 00:05:10.009 --> 00:05:17.819 elated by it. And the only question here, of 00:05:17.819 --> 00:05:20.160 course, for comedy purposes, it works because 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:26.000 the woohoo creates some dissonance, some uncomfortableness 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:29.120 because it doesn't make sense. So there's some 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:31.439 tension that's built into the audience that we 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:33.639 get a little nervous because they don't know 00:05:33.639 --> 00:05:35.740 what's going on. And so they're looking around 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:38.300 like, oh, maybe I'm stupid. I don't get it. It's 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:42.579 not for me. I'm being pushed out. And then what's 00:05:42.579 --> 00:05:47.920 required. is an explanation as to why the woohoo 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:53.939 happened. And that's what you fill in. You reply. 00:05:54.579 --> 00:05:58.000 You add it. One of the characters adds in. It 00:05:58.000 --> 00:05:59.680 could be the person themselves saying, woohoo, 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.439 hey, you're cheating. And now I get to cheat 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:04.839 too. Or you're cheating. Oh, I've been cheating 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:07.620 for a long time. And now I don't feel guilty 00:06:07.620 --> 00:06:10.079 about it anymore. And when you do that, the audience 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:14.000 will laugh. because the mystery has been solved, 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:17.839 the dissonance has evaporated. Ah, I get it. 00:06:19.100 --> 00:06:22.000 This can also be done by the other character, 00:06:22.060 --> 00:06:25.879 too, who can say, oh, I see why you're happy, 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:27.680 because you've been cheating a long time, and 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:29.680 now you don't feel guilty about it. So anybody 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:33.379 can fill it in. But the point is, when you do 00:06:33.379 --> 00:06:37.319 the opposite, it often will require a bit of 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:42.040 explanation. But... it is often very fun to do 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:46.100 the opposite, to do the unexpected. If A is true, 00:06:46.339 --> 00:06:49.879 the opposite of A is probably also true. Meaning 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:54.720 that, you know, I have certain reactions to things. 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:59.939 And I, and I'm saying I and us, one, we tend 00:06:59.939 --> 00:07:04.360 to have the same reaction, the same kind of information 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:07.899 over and over and over again. And I think many 00:07:07.899 --> 00:07:11.480 of us get stuck. into thinking that's the way 00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:13.399 it is. There is no other possible explanation 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:18.439 or response. I hit a red light. Damn, I'm upset. 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:20.699 I'm frustrated because I always hit red lights. 00:07:21.620 --> 00:07:28.199 Or, you know, I really wanted this specific job 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:31.399 and I didn't get it. Rats. I'm depressed. I'm 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:34.300 upset. And the opposite allows us to think about, 00:07:34.379 --> 00:07:39.939 well, that is one valid. response to this stimuli. 00:07:40.779 --> 00:07:43.259 But there are other options. You know, we can't 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:45.420 choose what happens to us, only how we react 00:07:45.420 --> 00:07:47.740 to it. And improv gets you a chance to go, okay, 00:07:47.779 --> 00:07:48.959 well, I didn't get that job. Okay, so what's 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:52.060 the opportunity here? Well, I've got six more 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:54.399 months to go write my novel. You know, that's 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:56.819 a cliche example, but it is true. You have a 00:07:56.819 --> 00:07:59.079 little bit more time to do something else. When 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:01.180 you're stopped from doing one thing, it allows 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:03.879 you to do something else. Similarly, you stop 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:07.850 at a red light. Ah, nuts. I hate that I have 00:08:07.850 --> 00:08:10.149 to sit here for 30 seconds, whatever it is. Well, 00:08:10.290 --> 00:08:13.810 what about the opportunity it provides? Oh, well, 00:08:13.910 --> 00:08:18.110 I get a chance to practice being okay with disappointment. 00:08:18.509 --> 00:08:21.089 Whatever. That is a thing. And it is a thing. 00:08:23.660 --> 00:08:27.259 So everything doesn't have to be one way. We're 00:08:27.259 --> 00:08:29.519 locked in a pattern. And that's one thing that 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:33.159 improv can show you is an alternative point of 00:08:33.159 --> 00:08:35.500 view or an alternative way of looking at something 00:08:35.500 --> 00:08:38.740 or an alternative strategy. And it starts to 00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:42.279 expand your mind and give you more options. You 00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:45.240 know, when we approach situations and we're not 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:48.080 stressed, we tend to see more options. That's 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:49.659 why they always say, if you write an angry email, 00:08:49.860 --> 00:08:52.500 sleep on it before you send it. Because when 00:08:52.500 --> 00:08:54.860 you write the angry email, you're stressed and 00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:58.820 stress narrows our focus. Also, literally narrows 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:01.720 our focus, but also it narrows our focus in terms 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:04.539 of our range of options that we see as possible 00:09:04.539 --> 00:09:07.399 options. Fight, flight, freeze or flop, right? 00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:11.059 Or flop, I guess, is the fifth one now. But we 00:09:11.059 --> 00:09:13.860 just see a range of a narrow range of options 00:09:13.860 --> 00:09:16.539 instead of multitudes of options that do exist. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:21.340 But we often are. because of bias and conditionings 00:09:21.340 --> 00:09:23.879 and all these things, just see a relative few 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:28.299 options. And there are multiple options. I'm 00:09:28.299 --> 00:09:30.200 not saying in every single case, but certainly 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:33.340 far more than I would wager almost everybody, 00:09:33.539 --> 00:09:35.860 including myself, thinks about. I'm as guilty 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:38.980 of this as anybody. I'm not in any way some kind 00:09:38.980 --> 00:09:41.340 of magical being that doesn't fall prey to my 00:09:41.340 --> 00:09:45.700 biases and conditioning. I sure do. I tend to 00:09:45.700 --> 00:09:49.029 recognize it often, though. after the fact it 00:09:49.029 --> 00:09:52.169 was too late but for next time haha next time 00:09:52.169 --> 00:09:54.990 i will figure it out anyway try the opposite 00:09:54.990 --> 00:09:59.409 and just as the last little button on this especially 00:09:59.409 --> 00:10:03.730 when it comes to fear um and fear you know rules 00:10:03.730 --> 00:10:10.830 our lives uh there are two ways two very stereotypical 00:10:10.830 --> 00:10:13.750 ways though that that human beings tend to deal 00:10:13.750 --> 00:10:19.549 with fear uh one kind of person wants to control 00:10:19.549 --> 00:10:22.870 the situation control the stimuli that's giving 00:10:22.870 --> 00:10:26.429 them fear and another type wants to pretend it's 00:10:26.429 --> 00:10:29.190 not happening make someone else responsible for 00:10:29.190 --> 00:10:32.330 it run away from it pretend it's not it's not 00:10:32.330 --> 00:10:36.309 happening um and i think there's a there's a 00:10:36.309 --> 00:10:39.870 in psychology there's a thing called transactional 00:10:39.870 --> 00:10:43.570 analysis and as a friend of mine who was a psychologist 00:10:43.570 --> 00:10:47.279 said It's kind of like the, it's, it's a, it's 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:50.740 a, it's not a good theory. It's the, it's a good 00:10:50.740 --> 00:10:52.539 theory, but it's not really working practice, 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:56.299 but I find it works in improv for sure. And I 00:10:56.299 --> 00:10:59.539 see a lot of it in, in people on stage when they 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:02.039 are, you know, being on stage heightens your 00:11:02.039 --> 00:11:04.919 level of anxiety and fear for everybody, unless 00:11:04.919 --> 00:11:07.700 you've had just a lot of experience or you're 00:11:07.700 --> 00:11:11.299 blessed in some way. But people tend to come 00:11:11.299 --> 00:11:13.980 in those two conditions. They control their fear 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:17.600 or they abrogate it. And going back to this document 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:20.259 I read on transactional analysis, it's like if 00:11:20.259 --> 00:11:26.919 you... The example they use is pretend you're 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:32.080 in your house and you look over in your neighbor's 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:35.179 yard and there's your neighbor and their spouse 00:11:35.179 --> 00:11:39.789 and they're both naked out in the... in the in 00:11:39.789 --> 00:11:45.490 the backyard uh if if that's something that would 00:11:45.490 --> 00:11:50.629 unnerve you uh the two the two types of people 00:11:50.629 --> 00:11:53.210 one will go down and yell at them put your clothes 00:11:53.210 --> 00:11:55.970 on and the second person will close the shutters 00:11:55.970 --> 00:11:57.549 and run away and pretend it's not happening those 00:11:57.549 --> 00:11:59.450 are the those and those are very general and 00:11:59.450 --> 00:12:01.009 very stereotypical and not true of everybody 00:12:01.009 --> 00:12:03.129 but we tend to fall in that spectrum and that's 00:12:03.129 --> 00:12:05.309 that's typically when it comes to uncomfortable 00:12:05.309 --> 00:12:09.679 situations fear we tend to control it or we tend 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:12.700 to walk away from it and that definitely happens 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:16.320 on in improv i see that in in my students all 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:20.399 the time um where they will tend to be in one 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:23.659 of those camps or another there's an improv type 00:12:23.659 --> 00:12:25.820 that are the writers they are the people that 00:12:25.820 --> 00:12:28.419 come in and kind of dictate who people are what's 00:12:28.419 --> 00:12:30.279 going on and they're in their own head and they're 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:32.700 inventing a lot And then there's the type that 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:35.019 will tend to, well, what do you want to do? What's 00:12:35.019 --> 00:12:36.679 happening? Who are you? They'll ask a lot of 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:40.960 questions and will be reticent to make choices 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:44.019 about what's going on or how they feel. They'd 00:12:44.019 --> 00:12:46.860 rather just live and let the other person make 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:49.919 these choices and then they'll go along. And 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:52.139 that tends to happen. But with improv, you can 00:12:52.139 --> 00:12:54.200 do the opposite. If you're someone who seeks 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:56.600 to control all the time, you can let go and let 00:12:56.600 --> 00:13:00.169 someone else run the show and vice versa. If 00:13:00.169 --> 00:13:03.190 you're someone who likes to let other people 00:13:03.190 --> 00:13:06.529 take charge, you can practice taking charge in 00:13:06.529 --> 00:13:08.909 a place that's safe. So once again, improv gives 00:13:08.909 --> 00:13:12.250 you a place where you can role play and try things 00:13:12.250 --> 00:13:17.809 in a scenario that is safe with zero stakes and 00:13:17.809 --> 00:13:20.330 to see what it's like. I've probably talked about 00:13:20.330 --> 00:13:22.649 this before, but a lot of students will tell 00:13:22.649 --> 00:13:26.330 me, Ralph, this is therapy. And I will always 00:13:26.330 --> 00:13:27.970 hasten to correct them and I'll say, it's not 00:13:27.970 --> 00:13:30.370 therapy because I'm not a therapist and I'm not 00:13:30.370 --> 00:13:32.149 going to help you. I'm unable to help you with 00:13:32.149 --> 00:13:35.149 your specific problem. However, I find that implant 00:13:35.149 --> 00:13:38.049 is therapeutic in that you can come and you can 00:13:38.049 --> 00:13:41.330 work out things from your life, which I have 00:13:41.330 --> 00:13:45.529 certainly done. And you can, when you're role 00:13:45.529 --> 00:13:47.070 -playing these things, make different choices 00:13:47.070 --> 00:13:52.600 that you made at the time. If it's a situation 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:56.440 that you were with another person, some kind 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.379 of conflict scenario, you can play their point 00:13:59.379 --> 00:14:04.259 of view. If you've been dumped and you're always 00:14:04.259 --> 00:14:06.039 getting dumped, well, you can get on stage and 00:14:06.039 --> 00:14:07.440 you can play the person who's dumping other people 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:09.960 or vice versa. You can see what that's like. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.080 You can get a window into a different experience. 00:14:12.379 --> 00:14:15.340 Empathy builds empathy. Anyway, try the opposite. 00:14:15.419 --> 00:14:19.419 This is why I'm encouraging you. or at least 00:14:19.419 --> 00:14:23.340 just be open to the idea that, well, this choice 00:14:23.340 --> 00:14:26.679 that I made, that seems to me, at this moment 00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:29.200 right now, a no -brainer. Like, I have no other 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:31.940 choice. This is the only way to respond to that. 00:14:32.299 --> 00:14:34.200 Someone yells at me, the only way to respond 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:36.139 is to yell back. Someone yells at me, the only 00:14:36.139 --> 00:14:42.840 response is to cower. No. Maybe. You know, I 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:46.139 don't know you, but I'm just saying that certainly 00:14:46.139 --> 00:14:50.610 in my life, things that i thought were ingrained 00:14:50.610 --> 00:14:53.309 and the way it was always going to be have turned 00:14:53.309 --> 00:14:58.429 out to be in some cases the opposite uh or laughably 00:14:58.429 --> 00:15:03.590 wrong or short -sighted um yeah anyway That's 00:15:03.590 --> 00:15:05.470 what I wanted to talk about today. So try the 00:15:05.470 --> 00:15:08.129 opposite. You know, because you might just have 00:15:08.129 --> 00:15:10.850 a George Costanza moment. So that's once again, 00:15:10.889 --> 00:15:14.090 that's been the Socap Improv Comedy Podcast this 00:15:14.090 --> 00:15:16.889 month brought to you by the famous Canadian designer 00:15:16.889 --> 00:15:22.070 Tommy Gofinger for all your Neil Young Tuxedo 00:15:22.070 --> 00:15:24.710 needs. Take care. See you next week. Bye.