Hey everybody, welcome back to the SoCap Improv
Comedy Podcast. My name is Ralph, Ralph McLeod,
the owner and artistic director of the SoCap
Improv Comedy Theatre at 154 Danforth Avenue
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We have improv classes,
shows, events. You can rent our space, put on
your own show. We do corporate events, private
events, got a birthday party coming up. Want
to get a group of people together and do an improv
class? Oh boy. It's super duper fun. I think
I've done like six of them in the last year.
They're really, really great. And they're not
that expensive. They might surprise you. Get
10 or 15 of your friends together. Get a teacher
and improvise for two hours. You know, it's like
two, three hundred bucks. That's not that bad.
I mean, think how much you're going to rent for
a party room. You'll have a much worse experience.
Probably. I don't know. Maybe not. But I think
you would. I want to pause before I get started
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to this. I have no idea. Anyway. Yeah. So this
podcast is geared towards improvisation, improvisation
for the stage. But I am more interested now or
at least as interested in using all of these
techniques offstage. And when I say offstage,
I mean in the real world when you're interacting
with people. you know, at some dinner party somewhere.
And you're like, oh, boy, I wish I knew any way
how to make this more fun and less likely that
I want to gouge out my eyeballs with this salad
fork. And that's what improv can certainly do
for many of us. And I've seen it happen and kind
of a segue, but I was just thinking, you know,
I've been asked this question, you know, my students,
what do my students get and or whatever? what
do I what do my students get out of me uh how
what was the question what do your students learn
I think was the question that I got and uh to
me the hallmark of the people who've been with
me for a long time that I notice about them on
stage is they know they're panic they don't panic
they never panic they'll rush they slow down
they take their time uh they play the moments
and uh I, that gives me so much joy that that's
what my students in general, not all of them.
And, um, you know, cause everybody's different,
but you know, if I, if I was to pick a hallmark
of my, what my students get out of teaching,
you know, studying with me, that's what they
get. They slow down, they're playful, play the
moments, don't worry about where the scene is
going or how to be funny. Maybe that last one,
I don't know about that last one. but they don't
hurry, they don't panic, they don't freak out,
they don't go to low -hanging fruit to get a
laugh. They play, they play, and they take their
time. So today I want to talk about something
that comes up quite a lot, and it is more common
among newer improvisers, but by no means. Is
this limited to them? And it's something that
we all fall into the trap of. And I'm sure I
still do it occasionally. It's probably one of
the things that would happen to me. And I would
think, oh, that was... I can't believe that happened
to me. And what I'm talking about here is this
tendency among improvisers to stop the action.
and or to not to talk about this something rather
than doing it. So the big one for me, the more
critical one is the stopping of the action. And,
you know, it's a typical example or a cliche
example of character races. Let's go to the beach
and character pieces. No, I don't want to go
to the beach. OK, so that's stopping. It was,
you know, it's so much wrong to say so much wrong
with that. And I mean, it really depends on what
comes after that, whether that determines that
was wrong or not. But on the surface of it, you've
got a perfectly good idea. Let's go to the beach.
And the counter, which is no. And the real bad
part there for me or destructive part is there's
no other, nothing else is offered as an alternative.
And so the character that suggested going to
the beach, the actor. Uh, improviser now has
to come up with a new thing. If the person who
says, no, I don't want to go to the beach, doesn't
offer anything else. So kind of guideline number
one here, if you're not enthusiastic about what
someone has offered you, number one, ask yourself,
why not? Uh, and B, you better come up with a
much better idea. And then you should also kind
of apologize to that person. Uh, or. Yeah, I
would say apologize or have a discussion at least
about why going to the beach is not a good enough
idea. Anyway, so that's the sort of cliche one
or a cliche example where we will stop, where
characters will stop action or actors will stop
action on behalf of their characters. And the
reason that happens in my view is it really,
it comes down to generally fear. that one's not
going to instill a lot of fear. Let's go to the
beach. It's a little bit of like, well, how do
I, why I'm getting to the beach? I've got to,
where am I now? I've got to get into a car. Are
we just going to say, well, later at the beach?
And some people who don't know that they can
do that and just say, you know, let's go to the
beach later at the beach. And then they're there
and they've already accepted it. That's one way
you can certainly do it. I'm more of a fan of
let's travel. We can travel to the beach. We
can walk to the beach. There are ways to do that
on stage that it looks like you've traveled a
fair distance, but in reality, you've just done
one walk across the stage at a turn. Oh, here
we are at the beach. It's been lovely. And the
audience will suspend their disbelief. Anyway,
getting way off topic. So that's a tendency is
the stomping of action. Typically over fear.
So going to the beach is not a big one, although
there's that. things i pointed out but there
might be uh other like let's get on a roller
coaster that's or jump out of an airplane the
skydive those are two big ones and and i'd say
the vast majority well over 90 of the scenes
i've seen of people who jump out of airplanes
or uh are gonna get on a roller coaster they
will come up with a million reasons not to do
the thing again probably because of fear because
of i don't know how to mind this thing that seems
daunting and probably not that interesting. And
so that's another one where fear is more prevalent
and obvious. And so those scenes tend to be two
people talking about other things. And why do
we do this? And I don't want to do this anymore.
I was drunk when I said yes and blah, blah, blah,
blah. And nothing happens and nobody cares. And
it seems really boring. And it usually will end
with them deciding to jump out of the plane or
get on the roller coaster. And by then, everybody's
asleep and the scene's over. So what do you do
if you get a suggestion of jumping out of an
airplane? Well, you could pick up from where
you've landed. Wow, that was fun. I don't want
to do that again, but that was great. Or what
I like to do is immediately jump out of the plane.
It's been a long time since I got that as a suggestion.
But if I did, I would do the same thing. I would
just immediately jump out of the plane. Because
now you're in the unknown. And now, even though
that's harder, the audience is most likely going
to be with you. Because they don't know what's
going to happen. Is your parachute going to work?
Are you going to reach the ground? Okay, what's
going to happen? And so those are some of the
obvious examples that happen. Another one is
like two characters are in a romantic situation
and it's escalating towards a sexual encounter.
That one also would require some nuance to get
around. The big one there that I often see is,
well, we don't have to go right from, hey, this
is my apartment, to we're deep in each other,
shall we say. You can... What would you like
to drink? Let me dim the lights. Let's put on
some music. So, have you ever done anything like
this before? There's lots of the romancing up
into the actual consummation of the evening,
if you want to put it that way. And as long as
you're progressing, we'll watch that. Not forever,
but for quite a while, as long as action continues.
Which goes to my point, or goes to my, I guess,
the reason I talk about... Don't stop action.
Once you stop action, nothing is happening. Your
audience will go to sleep. Narrative is two things.
Or the progression of story. It's discovery.
The audience or the characters discover something
they did not know before. Oh, my spouse is cheating.
Oh, so -and -so is attracted to me. Oh, I got
fired. These are... Sorry, the last one is not
really a discovery. Oh, I've been fired is a
discovery. The other one is an action. Something
happens. I've been fired. I have discovered my
spouse in the midst of a romantic affiliation
with some stranger. So these are also action.
And you need one of those two to drive a story
forward. And so when you shut down action. you
stop the most obvious way to move the scene forward
so just a little bit of an action because let's
go to the beach is not really action in this
terms of story character sense but it is enough
of a of a forward momentum to keep the audience
okay i'm with you uh but eventually you're gonna
have to get to the action of the scene and and
in this way So just to point out the difference,
there's a difference between getting a cup of
coffee and asking someone else to join you for
a cup of coffee because you want to talk to them
or because you like them. So there's different
qualities there. But for this discussion, don't
stop either one of them. Even if it's something
you dislike, you know, well, it's time to, your
hand has got gangrene. We're going to cut off
your arm. Of course, you know, most actors and
characters and improvisers, well, the characters
and improvisers are different. Most actors, improvisers
would pull their hand away. No, you're not cutting
my hand off. And of course, that's what the character
wants. The character doesn't want their hand
cut off. But as the actor, you've got to let
your character do it. So if you've got in a scene
and you've got gangrene and the character playing
the doctor or whomever with the machete wants
to take off your arm. Oh, man, I didn't think
I'd lose my arm this way, but here it goes. Remember,
it's not real. So you can get your arm cut off
and see. You just have to provide an explanation
as to why your character would say yes. And this
one, we get it because your hand is gangrenous.
And if you do not remove it, you will subsequently
die from that. You can also have other reasons.
You can have reasons that are not even that...
Well, that'd be somewhat relatable, but they
may be things that I wouldn't do. So a character,
you know, it might be, well, I'm going to cut
off your arm with my machete. You know what?
I've never had that level of pain. I wonder what
that's like. That is something that's not quite
relatable, at least not to me. Like I've never
had that level of pain and I'm not really keen
to try it. But I understand on some level why
somebody would, because you've explained it to
me. You've justified it. You've made it somewhat
relatable. Okay, he wants an experience or they
want an experience unlike something they've ever
had. Okay, you know, the thing is when it gets
too unrelatable, people will tune out. But the
base thing here, the base point is do not stop
action. Try to keep action going unless it is
something you do not want to do. If you're doing
a scene with some dude and you don't know them
and they're doing a sexual thing, stop it. Absolutely.
Stop it. Don't do anything you don't want to
do. Maybe they want to be in a car and they see,
oh, there's a pack of dogs running across the
street. Let's run them down. No, no, we're not
doing that. Don't do anything you don't want
to do. But within the realm of make -believe
that you are comfortable with, try to keep action
going, even if it is something you do not like.
Oh, hey, I'm going to cut your hair. Oh, yeah,
it's that time. It is getting kind of long. allow
the action to happen because remember it's not
real and the action no matter what it is like
that kind of action the action that is not tied
to character or emotion like getting your hair
cut which it can be but in in this case it's
just like it's just a plot point um or a beat
of you know of um gotta find a way to differentiate
action and and doing stuff this is a doing thing
And it doesn't matter unless it affects you in
an emotional way, and then it will matter. But
getting a haircut, grabbing a cup of coffee,
getting into your car, taking your keys out,
these are just little bits of business. Business,
that's probably what it is. And they don't matter.
discovering your keys are missing and then going,
no, no, no, I've got to go back to my ex's house
and get my spare set of keys. That's action because
you can tell, ooh, it fills us with a sense of
emotion and purpose. Anyway, that's my thing
for today. Try to do everything you can to keep
the action going. You can subvert it, move it,
whatever you want, but you want to keep doing
things. Uh, and, uh, I'll get into this another
time cause I'm running out of time, but I just,
but since I'm on the topic of action, the minute
you hear yourself or another person saying, you
know what we should do, you immediately do it.
We should go for coffee. Hey, let's sit down
here and have a cup of coffee. We should quit
our jobs. Hey, Hey boss, go to heck. I'm saying
heck because I don't want to get a bad rating
here. But anyway, you know what I mean? As soon
as you say you, we should, or why don't we immediately
do that thing? That's the way you should do it.
All right. Thanks, everybody. This has been another
episode of the Silk App Improv Comedy Podcast.
My name's Ralph. We'll see you here next time
for more improv comedy -related content. Take
care. Bye.