WEBVTT 00:00:00.270 --> 00:00:02.810 Hello everybody and welcome back to the Socap 00:00:02.810 --> 00:00:06.570 Improv Comedy Podcast. My name is Ralph. Ralph 00:00:06.570 --> 00:00:08.750 McLeod. I am the owner and artistic director 00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:11.669 of the Socap Improv Comedy Theatre in Toronto, 00:00:12.050 --> 00:00:15.910 Ontario, Canada. We're at 154 Danforth Avenue 00:00:15.910 --> 00:00:18.570 above the Black Swan Tavern on the second and 00:00:18.570 --> 00:00:22.329 third floor. We have improv classes, shows, events, 00:00:22.750 --> 00:00:25.469 our shows. We also have stand -up shows, sketch 00:00:25.469 --> 00:00:27.449 shows. You can rent our facilities and put on 00:00:27.449 --> 00:00:31.239 your own show. We do corporate events through 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:34.299 our company called Yes Unlimited, which will 00:00:34.299 --> 00:00:36.740 come into your company and help transform your 00:00:36.740 --> 00:00:40.840 team, make everybody like each other, work together, 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:43.719 talk to each other, all kinds of good stuff. 00:00:44.460 --> 00:00:47.619 Anyway, this podcast is about improvisation, 00:00:47.619 --> 00:00:52.679 improv comedy for this day, and also at least 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:56.539 as much about improv for just regular everyday 00:00:56.539 --> 00:01:00.710 life. What can improv do for you? That's the 00:01:00.710 --> 00:01:05.450 question, you know. All right. So today I want 00:01:05.450 --> 00:01:10.170 to talk about the use of dissonance in comedy. 00:01:10.349 --> 00:01:12.409 OK, so first of all, let's back up and discuss 00:01:12.409 --> 00:01:19.969 what is dissonance? Well, dissonance is when 00:01:19.969 --> 00:01:25.599 things don't quite go together. When I first 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:29.439 encountered dissonance as it relates to human 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:33.239 beings is the term cognitive dissonance, which 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:38.560 is the uncomfortable feeling that one gets when 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:42.040 one holds contradictory information in their 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:52.129 hands. An example would be, oh, maybe, you know, 00:01:52.150 --> 00:01:55.750 you have a piece of gum and you crumple up the 00:01:55.750 --> 00:01:58.069 wrapper and there's no garbage around. So you 00:01:58.069 --> 00:02:02.629 throw it on the ground. That's one example. So 00:02:02.629 --> 00:02:05.829 what that means is so basically in that scenario, 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:09.669 you might hold in your head the thought that 00:02:09.669 --> 00:02:13.870 littering is bad, but I just littered. Right. 00:02:13.949 --> 00:02:16.409 Therefore, am I a bad person? So these. These 00:02:16.409 --> 00:02:19.430 two thoughts coexisting together in one's brain 00:02:19.430 --> 00:02:23.990 tends to make an uncomfortable feeling. And so 00:02:23.990 --> 00:02:27.770 what we as human beings tend to do is write some 00:02:27.770 --> 00:02:31.629 kind of fiction that makes that okay. And we'd 00:02:31.629 --> 00:02:33.650 write a line like, well, you know, if there were 00:02:33.650 --> 00:02:35.409 more garbage cans, I wouldn't have to throw my 00:02:35.409 --> 00:02:38.430 stuff on the ground. Ah, and then we breathe 00:02:38.430 --> 00:02:41.050 a sigh of relief because we're not a bad person. 00:02:41.129 --> 00:02:45.539 Or maybe you... When you do your taxes, you don't 00:02:45.539 --> 00:02:48.080 declare all your income, you know, all your cash 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:52.960 income. So here's an example of, oh, well, it's 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:56.879 wrong to cheat, but I'm cheating. Uncomfortable 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:01.539 feeling. Oh, I know everybody does it. I feel 00:03:01.539 --> 00:03:05.740 good. So when we have cognitive dissonance, we 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:10.180 tend to write a line that will, or a fiction, 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:12.439 we come up with an explanation that makes that 00:03:12.439 --> 00:03:16.139 go away. It could be like, well, I know if I 00:03:16.139 --> 00:03:19.960 go to the gym and exercise, I will live longer 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:24.139 and healthier. Or, you know, and so that's, oh, 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:27.280 but I'm not going to the gym. Oh, but you know 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:29.620 what? I'm getting good night's sleep or I'm eating 00:03:29.620 --> 00:03:31.539 well or I'm doing these other things that will 00:03:31.539 --> 00:03:34.419 sort of counteract the negative effects of not 00:03:34.419 --> 00:03:37.400 going to the gym. You know, all these kinds of 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:41.039 things. We're all really good at doing this in 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:43.370 our daily lives and we all do it. In my experience, 00:03:43.449 --> 00:03:47.030 everybody does it. I'm fascinated by cognitive 00:03:47.030 --> 00:03:51.110 dissonance. You see it politically. I think the 00:03:51.110 --> 00:03:54.270 most famous example of cognitive dissonance were 00:03:54.270 --> 00:03:57.870 these people. It was a cult, and they believed 00:03:57.870 --> 00:04:02.550 that the appearance of some comet was going to 00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:05.389 signal the end of humanity. You know what a doomsday 00:04:05.389 --> 00:04:08.650 cult, not the first. There's many of them, and 00:04:08.650 --> 00:04:11.610 they all follow the same kind of pattern. In 00:04:11.610 --> 00:04:12.990 which, you know, they expect the Earth's going 00:04:12.990 --> 00:04:16.509 to end at a certain time and date. And they're 00:04:16.509 --> 00:04:19.670 preparing for everything. And then the day comes, 00:04:19.730 --> 00:04:23.009 you know, that their leader has prophesied will 00:04:23.009 --> 00:04:26.350 be the day. And the day comes, the day ends, 00:04:26.430 --> 00:04:28.509 and the world's still here. And they all look 00:04:28.509 --> 00:04:32.589 around like, huh. Weird, right? That's cognitive 00:04:32.589 --> 00:04:34.769 distance. The Earth was supposed to end. That's 00:04:34.769 --> 00:04:38.490 what we believed in. It didn't end. Hmm. Oh, 00:04:38.790 --> 00:04:43.779 I know. All our praying and prep made God forgive 00:04:43.779 --> 00:04:47.980 us and give us another chance. So that's a big 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:50.980 example of cognitive dissonance. But we all do 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:54.639 it, you know, whether it's whatever you believe 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:58.779 in. Anyway, the dissonance also is a big part 00:04:58.779 --> 00:05:03.000 of comedy. Another example of dissonance, just 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:05.779 not, you know, cognitive dissonance, but in music. 00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:11.149 Yeah, you know, music uses... minor chords or 00:05:11.149 --> 00:05:13.470 seventh chords and they're a little discordant 00:05:13.470 --> 00:05:17.430 and they create kind of a disharmony or they 00:05:17.430 --> 00:05:19.709 don't sound quite right. They build tension. 00:05:20.410 --> 00:05:24.810 And then when the major chord comes, that tension 00:05:24.810 --> 00:05:28.269 is resolved and we tend to feel emotions. There's 00:05:28.269 --> 00:05:32.069 a joke that I wish I had written and it's about 00:05:32.069 --> 00:05:38.879 the G7. The G7 is like the seven most... uh biggest 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:42.019 economies in the world like the u .s france britain 00:05:42.019 --> 00:05:48.199 canada uh and uh the joke is uh oh boy somebody 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:51.439 should follow up the g7 conference with the c 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:53.759 major conference that'll resolve everything it's 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:56.240 a really good joke uh and uh i wish i'd written 00:05:56.240 --> 00:06:00.860 it but so but dissonance also works in comedy 00:06:00.860 --> 00:06:04.240 uh to great effect in fact it's it's it's difficult 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:08.480 sometimes to think about comedy or laughter without 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:12.279 distance. So a good example is like the punchline 00:06:12.279 --> 00:06:16.620 of the joke. Whenever the punchline comes, there's 00:06:16.620 --> 00:06:20.399 always a second of like, are they going to get 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:23.879 it or not? So this is a joke I wrote. What's 00:06:23.879 --> 00:06:27.199 a canopy? And a canopy is a Scottish gentleman's 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:32.480 lament to his urologist. A canopy! It makes me 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:36.560 laugh. But you know, canopy. So when I, when 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.259 the, when the, so that's a bad joke, but once 00:06:39.259 --> 00:06:41.839 the question is posed, there's like, there's 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:45.339 like a moment of, Oh, what if I don't get it? 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:50.819 Or it takes a split second for, Oh, I see canopy 00:06:50.819 --> 00:06:53.740 cannot pee. Okay. It takes a second for that. 00:06:53.779 --> 00:06:55.519 And then that you have dissonance. And then the 00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:57.579 laughter comes when the dissonance is resolved 00:06:57.579 --> 00:07:00.220 and you get it. And then that lets you know, 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:03.139 Oh, you're smart. You're included. You're one 00:07:03.139 --> 00:07:07.040 of the group. We laugh. There was the release 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:10.000 of the tension because there's like, maybe I 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:13.339 won't get it. Maybe it's not for me. And so if 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:15.699 someone tells you a joke and everybody gets it 00:07:15.699 --> 00:07:18.980 and you don't, you feel pretty isolated and pretty 00:07:18.980 --> 00:07:20.839 alone and you want to get out of there because 00:07:20.839 --> 00:07:24.319 it's not for you. You're excluded. You're not 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:28.019 part of the group. And the laughter comes at 00:07:28.019 --> 00:07:30.000 the release of the tension. So you can't have 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.160 a release of tension without tension. And that's 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:34.779 what dissonance causes. So in improv, you'll 00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:38.439 see dissonance happen a lot. And it's a great 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:43.879 tool to use when you're improvising. And it's 00:07:43.879 --> 00:07:46.740 not like I ever sit around and go like, you know 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:48.660 what, in this scene, I'm going to use dissonance. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:55.740 But you can create it often just by doing what's 00:07:55.740 --> 00:08:00.819 unexpected. An unexpected point of view. or opinion 00:08:00.819 --> 00:08:04.860 about a very stereotypical or very common occurrence. 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:07.639 And the one I'm always using on here is, you 00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:11.839 know, a person comes home and finds their spouse 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:15.959 has been cheating. Now, in a very, in a relatable 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:19.399 way, our expectation is someone who finds their 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:22.959 spouse has been having an affair would be outraged, 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:26.720 angry, humiliated, hurt, sad, all these things. 00:08:28.829 --> 00:08:31.709 But one thing you can always do is you can go, 00:08:31.769 --> 00:08:34.870 you can be excited. You're cheating. Ah, yes. 00:08:36.190 --> 00:08:39.169 Now, when you do that, that creates distance, 00:08:39.269 --> 00:08:43.009 right? It's interesting. And the audience stops 00:08:43.009 --> 00:08:46.230 and holds their breath because they need to know 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:49.610 why is he excited? I'm not, I don't know why 00:08:49.610 --> 00:08:52.769 he's excited or they're excited. She's excited. 00:08:52.789 --> 00:08:55.309 He's excited. They're excited. What's going on? 00:08:55.710 --> 00:08:58.629 And then when you tell them the reason, ah, man, 00:08:58.730 --> 00:09:00.429 this is great because I've been having an affair 00:09:00.429 --> 00:09:02.549 for a long time and now I don't feel guilty anymore. 00:09:02.730 --> 00:09:04.549 And then the audience will laugh and they'll 00:09:04.549 --> 00:09:08.169 laugh like, oh, that's why they're happy because 00:09:08.169 --> 00:09:11.549 they've also been cheating. And so when the dissonance 00:09:11.549 --> 00:09:15.250 is resolved, you get a laugh, but you can't have 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:18.909 a laugh. In this case, there are cases where 00:09:18.909 --> 00:09:20.610 you will get laughs without dissonance, but this 00:09:20.610 --> 00:09:26.580 is a specific case of how. You paint a different 00:09:26.580 --> 00:09:29.879 expectation or a different reality in the audience's 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:32.899 mind. Oh, I would have expected this reaction 00:09:32.899 --> 00:09:35.399 to this information, but I didn't get that. I 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:38.720 got something completely different. And you need 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:41.899 to tell the audience what that is. And the audience, 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:43.820 that's whether you're on stage and you have an 00:09:43.820 --> 00:09:45.659 audience watching you, you're in a classroom, 00:09:45.740 --> 00:09:48.259 or your audience is the person you're interacting 00:09:48.259 --> 00:09:51.000 with. I like to do this, you know, when I play 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.990 with people in real life, you know. And they'll 00:09:53.990 --> 00:09:59.769 say something and I'll say something that they 00:09:59.769 --> 00:10:04.350 don't expect. And it has the same effect. You 00:10:04.350 --> 00:10:06.690 know, in my class, when I'm teaching this, I'll 00:10:06.690 --> 00:10:08.710 always get something in class to call me a jerk. 00:10:08.850 --> 00:10:11.049 I don't say jerk. I say something, a swear word, 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:12.870 but I'm not going to use it here. I say, call 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.450 me a jerk. And they call me a jerk. And then 00:10:15.450 --> 00:10:16.870 I just look at them and smile and go, you're 00:10:16.870 --> 00:10:20.769 not wrong. And it makes the audience laugh. And 00:10:20.769 --> 00:10:24.710 because, you know. their expectation is that 00:10:24.710 --> 00:10:26.610 I'm going to be offended that I'm not offended. 00:10:26.690 --> 00:10:28.850 And I say, well, you know, Ron, I'm a real big 00:10:28.850 --> 00:10:30.990 jerk. And then I play with them and it's very 00:10:30.990 --> 00:10:37.730 fun. Yes. So, so dissonance is again, that, that 00:10:37.730 --> 00:10:41.350 feeling of, I don't know what's going on. And 00:10:41.350 --> 00:10:43.029 you see the same thing, even in the beginning 00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:46.289 of a scene, when two people are started, there's 00:10:46.289 --> 00:10:49.529 the audience will, okay. They will give you their. 00:10:51.409 --> 00:10:53.669 attention. The same way that if you met somebody 00:10:53.669 --> 00:10:55.309 and they started talking to you, you'd give them 00:10:55.309 --> 00:10:58.330 a certain amount of time in order for them to 00:10:58.330 --> 00:11:01.190 prove that they're worthy of having your attention. 00:11:01.409 --> 00:11:05.169 And it's the same thing. And if you watch scenes 00:11:05.169 --> 00:11:08.409 carefully, you'll notice that first laugh that 00:11:08.409 --> 00:11:12.289 an audience will give is when the audience understands 00:11:12.289 --> 00:11:16.070 what's going on. And it's the same thing when 00:11:16.070 --> 00:11:18.049 you're talking to a person that you've never 00:11:18.049 --> 00:11:21.100 met before. They will relax when they understand, 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:23.299 oh, you're somebody I want to talk to because 00:11:23.299 --> 00:11:26.220 probably because you're relatable and you're 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:28.940 not you're not trying to affect me in some way. 00:11:29.019 --> 00:11:32.980 You're not trying to put one over on me, change 00:11:32.980 --> 00:11:35.360 me. You're just accepting who I am. And I like 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:39.679 that. So dissonance is a really powerful tool. 00:11:40.620 --> 00:11:44.080 And and one thing about if you do not answer 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:50.690 it, if you create an odd situation. And you don't 00:11:50.690 --> 00:11:52.730 answer the question. So if, you know, in my example, 00:11:52.850 --> 00:11:54.889 if someone comes home and finds their spouse 00:11:54.889 --> 00:11:57.570 has been cheating and then goes, woohoo, this 00:11:57.570 --> 00:12:01.350 is great. Then walks out. Everybody just left 00:12:01.350 --> 00:12:03.149 looking at each other thinking like, what's that 00:12:03.149 --> 00:12:05.389 about? And if you do that in front of an audience, 00:12:05.590 --> 00:12:07.629 what they will do is everybody will write their 00:12:07.629 --> 00:12:11.309 own fiction, probably, if they care enough. And 00:12:11.309 --> 00:12:13.730 it'll all be different. And then if you come 00:12:13.730 --> 00:12:16.210 back in or someone comes back in, comes back 00:12:16.210 --> 00:12:19.070 later and then explains why that dissonance happened, 00:12:19.210 --> 00:12:21.889 that's too late. Because your dissonance, your 00:12:21.889 --> 00:12:23.549 explanation better match what everybody's thinking 00:12:23.549 --> 00:12:25.649 or else they will not trust you. Because again, 00:12:25.690 --> 00:12:29.309 it's not for them. I've talked about this before. 00:12:29.409 --> 00:12:32.769 This is why relatability is a much better strategy 00:12:32.769 --> 00:12:35.350 than trying to wow people with your creativity 00:12:35.350 --> 00:12:38.149 and originality. Not that creative and original 00:12:38.149 --> 00:12:41.610 is wrong, but it's just you're going to create. 00:12:43.540 --> 00:12:45.899 you're going to create more problems, but then 00:12:45.899 --> 00:12:49.220 again, the payoff might be bigger too. But relatability 00:12:49.220 --> 00:12:51.980 is what will endear an audience to you. Audiences 00:12:51.980 --> 00:12:53.639 want to know what's going on because they want 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:55.059 to feel like they're involved, like they're a 00:12:55.059 --> 00:12:58.899 part of it. Audiences, like all of us, very selfish, 00:12:59.139 --> 00:13:01.759 right? What's in it for me? Why should I see 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:04.779 your show? Why should I talk to you? What's in 00:13:04.779 --> 00:13:08.980 it for me? Now that's, it's not. Every time I 00:13:08.980 --> 00:13:10.580 hear myself saying that, I think, oh, we're all 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:15.320 jerks. No, we can't help it. We all want things 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.279 that are relatable to ourselves. That's why we 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:20.279 like the stories we like and the movies we like 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:22.539 and the music we like, because it speaks to us. 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:25.559 It's relatable to us. It is something in it that 00:13:25.559 --> 00:13:31.919 is for me. So a dissonance creates that uncomfortable 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:36.000 feeling in the audience's brain, like the punchline 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.440 of a joke. And then when you resolve it, they 00:13:38.440 --> 00:13:41.279 laugh because they understand it's for me. I 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:43.820 am welcome. I have found my people, my tribe, 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.559 my community. Thank you. And that's great, too, 00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:52.059 because that dissonance will focus people's minds 00:13:52.059 --> 00:13:54.940 and make them present. They'll be like, eh. You 00:13:54.940 --> 00:13:57.940 know, if you capture their attention, they will 00:13:57.940 --> 00:14:01.899 be with you on your journey. Again, whether you're 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:04.940 on stage or you're talking to them at a party 00:14:04.940 --> 00:14:08.019 or over dinner. you've got their attention and 00:14:08.019 --> 00:14:11.080 they're focused and they're present. It's impossible 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:13.460 to do that and be thinking like, what's for dinner? 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:16.919 Who's picking up the kids? Oh, I got to get back 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:18.659 to so -and -so with that email they sent me. 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:22.960 You're focused. And that's one of the reasons 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:28.399 why it's compelling because we get a mental break 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:31.419 and we get to focus on the here and now and we 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:34.080 can let go of our problems and our worries and 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.679 our... you know, focusing on the future or the 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:39.500 past or things we can't control here. We're locked 00:14:39.500 --> 00:14:42.940 in and we're in the moment. Experiencing eternity. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:45.860 Eternity is not a when. Eternity is right now. 00:14:45.879 --> 00:14:48.080 It's this moment. This one that keeps going on 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:51.620 and on and on. And dissonance like, you know, 00:14:51.620 --> 00:14:54.720 uncomfortable things, mistakes, all these things 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.139 will focus everybody's mind. Everybody's focused. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:14:59.519 You know, whenever there's a mistake, whenever 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:01.759 there's some kind of contradiction, everybody 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:05.440 holds their breath. waiting to find out what's 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:09.000 going on and if you can answer it uh people will 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:12.919 laugh generally and very much like you okay i 00:15:12.919 --> 00:15:15.879 think that's it you know so the use of dissonance 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:19.759 in comedy uh and i i was i thought i have another 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:23.480 podcast coming up on uh you know cognitive dissonance 00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:28.220 and uh and and how we can write lines with it 00:15:28.220 --> 00:15:33.700 how you can write jokes and how you can um you 00:15:33.700 --> 00:15:36.659 know it's a well i think you know it's more like 00:15:36.659 --> 00:15:39.059 writing really it's it's really hard to come 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:40.419 up with these things in the moment although i've 00:15:40.419 --> 00:15:43.600 seen it happen and uh when it does it's absolutely 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:45.240 brilliant so i got some great examples that i'll 00:15:45.240 --> 00:15:47.559 share with you that i've seen about that but 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:51.059 anyway uh cognitive dissonance don't run from 00:15:51.059 --> 00:15:54.120 it and i love it so you know making a choice 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:57.600 that's unexpected but then just explaining why 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:01.299 that's good why is it good that uh you know you're 00:16:03.259 --> 00:16:06.720 spouse is having an affair why is it good that 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:10.659 um uh we're trying to think of anything bad that 00:16:10.659 --> 00:16:13.759 happens on stage you know like um you got fired 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:18.039 okay see we don't expect people to be happy but 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:21.740 you know johnson you're fired yes thank you boss 00:16:21.740 --> 00:16:26.799 what ah i hated this job anyway oh okay you know 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:28.419 i wanted to quit but i didn't have the gumption 00:16:28.419 --> 00:16:32.049 now you fired me and now i'm free okay Now I'm 00:16:32.049 --> 00:16:34.350 in. Now I understand why he's happy. They're 00:16:34.350 --> 00:16:38.090 happy. I just want to know what's going on so 00:16:38.090 --> 00:16:41.429 that I can participate in what's happening, right? 00:16:42.009 --> 00:16:44.830 There's this thing that I run into all the time 00:16:44.830 --> 00:16:48.610 where students, where improvisers feel like, 00:16:48.649 --> 00:16:50.409 oh, I've got to hide this, right? I want to hide 00:16:50.409 --> 00:16:52.710 it and reveal it at the right time. No, you don't. 00:16:52.909 --> 00:16:55.169 No, you know, that's a really hard thing to do. 00:16:55.529 --> 00:17:01.539 You can do it, but it's not. Not in the way you 00:17:01.539 --> 00:17:05.220 think. I know that's so stupid to say that. It's 00:17:05.220 --> 00:17:07.920 just a really difficult thing to do. It's nuanced. 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:14.119 It's covered up. It's hidden very well. Yeah, 00:17:14.180 --> 00:17:16.900 it's really difficult. And really, you know, 00:17:16.900 --> 00:17:18.420 since you get an idea to do something, you should 00:17:18.420 --> 00:17:20.579 do it right away. Because the audience can see 00:17:20.579 --> 00:17:24.400 it coming and they don't miss a thing. And if 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:26.440 you try to pretend that you're smarter than the 00:17:26.440 --> 00:17:28.420 audience or hiding things from them, they will 00:17:28.420 --> 00:17:33.289 hate you. And you will fail. So, yes, dissonance 00:17:33.289 --> 00:17:38.069 in comedy, great tool. I recommend it. Or when 00:17:38.069 --> 00:17:41.789 you see it happening, you know, blocks, blocks. 00:17:41.910 --> 00:17:43.710 We used to call these things blocks. It's a denial 00:17:43.710 --> 00:17:48.509 of reality. You know, here's an example is my 00:17:48.509 --> 00:17:52.250 favorite kind of one that I use. A word character 00:17:52.250 --> 00:17:55.910 A says, you know, hey, man, I was at a great 00:17:55.910 --> 00:17:57.970 party last night. It's crazy. Your mother was 00:17:57.970 --> 00:18:00.259 there. And then character B says something that 00:18:00.259 --> 00:18:03.599 makes that first line impossible. Dude, my mother 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:07.240 died 10 years ago. Ooh, ooh, they see the B line 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:11.140 seems to make A's impossible, creates dissonance. 00:18:11.819 --> 00:18:14.519 But if A sticks with it, they can write a line 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:17.380 that will make both of those lines true, and 00:18:17.380 --> 00:18:20.980 we'll get a gay laugh. Because if A goes back 00:18:20.980 --> 00:18:23.740 and says, I know, man, I said it was a crazy 00:18:23.740 --> 00:18:27.470 party. oh my gosh, the party was so crazy that 00:18:27.470 --> 00:18:29.849 there were ghosts there or people came back from 00:18:29.849 --> 00:18:31.609 the dead or zombies or something. But the mother 00:18:31.609 --> 00:18:33.650 was there, but even though she's dead, that's 00:18:33.650 --> 00:18:35.710 how crazy the party was. And when you can do 00:18:35.710 --> 00:18:38.950 that, not only is it very fun because we've removed 00:18:38.950 --> 00:18:42.569 the dissonance, the cognitive dissonance, but 00:18:42.569 --> 00:18:46.829 we've also enriched the world. Oh, I understand 00:18:46.829 --> 00:18:48.910 more about this world. Oh, this world where there's 00:18:48.910 --> 00:18:51.970 ghosts or zombies or demons or whatever. Oh, 00:18:52.069 --> 00:18:57.500 that's cool. And that's also the dialectic, which 00:18:57.500 --> 00:19:02.940 is Aristotelian dialectic. Thesis, antithesis, 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:06.859 synthesis, right? Line A makes a statement. Line 00:19:06.859 --> 00:19:10.720 B seems to make line A impossible for some reason. 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:14.119 And then line C makes both statements true. And 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:16.980 we laugh and we feel really good because we get 00:19:16.980 --> 00:19:19.259 it and we're smart and we found our people and 00:19:19.259 --> 00:19:21.569 our group and we laugh. All right. Thanks, everybody. 00:19:21.670 --> 00:19:23.549 Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you back here 00:19:23.549 --> 00:19:27.269 next time for more SOCAP Improv Comedy podcasts. 00:19:27.890 --> 00:19:30.130 Oops, I forgot to mention our sponsor today. 00:19:31.890 --> 00:19:37.769 Today's sponsor is... I don't have one. I forgot 00:19:37.769 --> 00:19:40.190 to think up one before launching this thing. 00:19:40.430 --> 00:19:43.009 But we've had some great sponsors, haven't we? 00:19:43.049 --> 00:19:46.170 We've had Custard's Last Stand. That's a beautiful 00:19:46.170 --> 00:19:51.359 dessert place. We've had Adequate Sack. Wexler's 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:55.579 Beef. Burt Reynolds Boat Rentals. Burt Reynolds 00:19:55.579 --> 00:19:58.859 Boat Rentals. Say that one 10 times fast. And 00:19:58.859 --> 00:20:02.900 also the new show coming up this fall. Look for 00:20:02.900 --> 00:20:05.740 it. It's Judge Dame Judy Dench. And if you can 00:20:05.740 --> 00:20:08.440 say that five times, I will give you a quarter. 00:20:08.539 --> 00:20:11.119 Judge Dame Judy Dench. All right. Thanks, everybody. 00:20:11.220 --> 00:20:12.440 Have a great week. Bye -bye.