Hey everybody, welcome back to the SoCap Improv
Comedy Podcast. My name is Ralph. I'm the owner
and artistic director at SoCap Improv Comedy
Theater at 154 Danforth Avenue. We do improv
classes, shows, corporate events, private bookings.
And if you hear anything on this silly old thing
that sparks your interest, come and take a class
with me at ralph at socap .ca. Um, you know,
I have like on Thursday, do a class for performance
Friday, do a class for, you know, improv for
life. Uh, like why, why the whole point of the
podcast or half point, half the point at least
is why take an improv class. If you're not interested
in getting on stage, that's on Fridays. And then
I do regular classes too. Right now I'm, uh,
doing a class, uh, improv, uh, plays, creating
plays from scratch. And, um, I can tell you that
my students really like it. They're really having
a good time. When people rarely miss classes,
that's when you know, okay, everybody comes every
week. Today, I just want to talk about a real
-life example of improv, one of the tenets of
improv in action. Just going into this theme
of how improv is not just great to watch on stage.
It is. I mean, when it's good, it's amazing.
When it's bad, it's cringing and you want to
gouge your eyeballs out. But when it's good,
you want to watch it. But it's also great in
the real world. I have said this many times,
but I live my life by the principles of improv.
It's like I live it. And this is one of these
examples. So today we're going to look at status.
I haven't done a full podcast on status. I love
teaching status. It's difficult, but really rewarding.
My students either love it or hate it. Because
it is tough. It's very tough. But boy, oh boy,
it's a great tool. It's really good for dealing
in the real world and on stage with conflict.
It's with rudeness, makes you very flexible to
handle different kinds of input. And in the real
world, it's really great for people who are trying
to manipulate people. But I don't mean manipulate
necessarily in a negative way, because sometimes
it's in a good way. So you can use high status
to shut people down, or you can use low status
to open people up. You can affect the behavior.
Maybe affect is better than manipulate using
status. When I'm talking about status, what I'm
talking about in the comedic sense, not in the
world sense. It has nothing to do with your job,
your title, your age, your social rank, your
gender, your ethnicity. It has nothing to do
with that. It's to do with... A character's feeling
of themselves in relation to other characters
or the environment. And in comedy, status is
used a lot. And when it is used, characters that
have a lot of social status, like presidents,
CEOs, army generals, the bosses, the owners,
usually are low status and vice versa. So if
you've ever seen the show M .A .S .H., I know
it's... been off for a long time but that show
first season was a classic status where the the
um the commander of the mash unit uh blake colonel
blake henry blake was very low status and sort
of the lowest ranking member of the um you know
the the army the corporal radar was very high
status in fact he was so high status he could
hear the helicopters before anybody else could
And a lot of comedy comes with high -status characters
who are fools. There's the high -status fool.
If you've ever seen Alistair Forbes, really great
at playing that high -status fool. Anyway, so
it's really good in comedy, but it's also really
good, people use it in real world. And, you know,
status, you know, in improv, it can help you
control situations, remain flexible, as I said.
And one thing it also can do is help you overcome
your own limitations that your own logic brings
to situations. You know, we have default way
of looking at things like, you know, X is always
bad or X is always good. But status helps you
see other signs of these scenarios and, you know,
open up your brain, expand your mind and develop
empathy for different points of view. So, but
in real life, status can really help you shut
people down. You know, if someone's being rude
to you or, you know, stand -up comics do this
with hecklers all the time. Use high status to
shut them down. You can open people up by using
low status. Make your status a little bit lower
than theirs and they will feel more comfortable
and will open up. And, you know, it also helps
handle conflict without losing your cool. In
fact, I grew up, I used to, when I was younger.
do anything to avoid conflict. I despised conflict
and I couldn't handle it. But now, when conflict
rears its ugly head, which it does occasionally,
it's not that I love it, but I see it as an opportunity
and I don't run from it. And one of the cool
things about stat is, I forget the name of the
effect, it's a bias. Once you are aware of it,
you start seeing it everywhere. And it's like
that. So you see it in couples and you can tell
who has the status. Parents and kids, you know,
sometimes kids have status over parents. Actually,
more and more now, you know, young kids who throw
tantrums have status over their parents. They
can manipulate in the workplace, in social groups.
So you see it everywhere. Okay, so I'm going
to switch now and talk about this real life example
because I find it fascinating. And I encourage
you to go and look up the YouTube clip. So this
is from the 1960s. And it's two political commentators.
There's a conservative guy called William F.
Buckley Jr. And there was the liberal Gore Vidal.
And these two gentlemen, I guess, started in
the 60s. I think they became the prominence during
the Kennedy -Nixon era. presidential run, they
are now the template for what TV has become.
You know, you get a guy from the one side and
the guy from the other side, because there's
only two sides, right? And you have them scream
at each other and makes for a really interesting
TV. And, you know, it does. I mean, I got to
give it up to them. It makes for interesting
TV. So overdone now, it's not interesting anymore
to me, but it still works. So you had William
F. Buckley. on the conservative, Gore Vidal on
the liberal. And just a little aside, these two
had way more in common than they had not in common.
But they did hate each other. And they hated
each other for one reason, I mean many reasons,
but Buckley was openly hostile. He was a deeply
conservative Christian, and he was deeply hostile
towards homosexuality. And Vidal happened to
be gay. But in this time, in the 60s, it was
very, you couldn't say that you were gay, obviously.
I mean, I don't know if it's obvious anymore,
but, you know, if he'd been outed as gay, it
would have ended his career. And, you know, in
that inner circle, like everybody knew that Gore
Vidal was gay, but no one said it publicly. They
kept it quiet. So in this one particular debate,
and it's on YouTube, I would recommend you go
see it. Just do Gore Vidal and William Buckley
on the Vietnam War, where Buckley loses it. So
they're debating the Vietnam War. And Buckley
mentions the word fascism. And Vidal, Gore Vidal
just smiles at him and says, well, if anyone
here is a crypto fascist, it's you. And Buckley
got really mad at that comment and he fired back
and he said, you call me a fascist again, you
queer, and I'll sock you. Queer being, you know,
a pejorative for a gay man. And this. happened
on live TV, could not be edited, so it went out.
And after that happens, the camera pans over
to Gore Vidal, who's got a big smile on his face.
Huge smile. He won. You know, he sits there,
he's smiling, and he's really calm. And that's
what he wanted. He wanted to get Buckley off
his, upset him, and get him to react, which he
did. And even though it cost him the potential
of being outed, he didn't care. What he cared
about was winning. So that's the lesson for improv
characters is that, you know, what matters in
status is maintaining your status. And to do
that means that you have to lose in other ways,
potentially. So, you know, how do you play a
high status character who is homeless or eats
out of dumpsters, right? How do you play a high
status character who seems to have everything
perfect in their lives? And again, once you see
it, you see examples of real people who are like
this. You know, the person who seemingly has
nothing but... has is so full of joy that they
almost make you mad or vice versa the person
who seems to have everything and is miserable
and it helps you for the non -performers get
into that mindset but for the performance it's
uh it's a very fun um insight into human behavior
and um And very, very, very funny to watch too.
And again, it's such a great tool. So today I'll
be talking about status and conflict. High status
is, because when it's taught, sometimes it's
taught or you can think of it as, well, a high
status character would be like a real jerk. You
just tell everybody to shut up and do everything.
But to me, that's a very low status character
because they have a lot of concern about the
way people see them. To me, a high status character
is like, the buddha or jesus you can't really
get them um anyway when when when someone insults
you uh and you're the the worst thing that you
want to do is uh is get upset right is uh because
then they've won right the the moment you react
emotionally like buckley did the other person
wins so when someone says something like that
seems rude uh and you get upset They've won.
And that's why you never see stand -ups, the
good ones, let hecklers win. They always win.
So how do we do that? How do we handle an insult
and stay calm and collected? Well, the first
thing that we do is we smile. And we own the
insult. And we treat it like what they just said
was a compliment or was the perfect thing to
say. So, for example, this happens to me. And
I've had this or worse thing said to me. And
I've responded exactly this way. Someone says
to me, Ralph, you're an idiot. My high status
reply is, well, sir, you have an excellent eye
for character. Right. Or I would say like an
idiot. Oh, you've got that completely wrong.
I'm an actual I'm way worse than that. I'm a
congenital moron. You know, when you because
when you say yes to the insult, it takes away
all of its sting. And when the sting is gone,
that person who's insulted you has basically
given you the best shot. And they they they didn't
even dent your armor. And people have no idea
what to do with that. And they just kind of get.
They're a little weird and they leave. But the
last thing they really tried to do is, and it's
only ever happened to me once, where someone
has tried it again. And boy, oh boy, that was
one of my most fond memories of someone trying
to double down on insulting me and backfired
both times on this guy big time. So it's the
same tool on stage in the real world. Like I
said, I live by these things, you know, real
quick. And I'm sure I've shared this story before
where one time I came out and two guys were trying
to steal my bike. And, you know, rather than
freaking out, and I don't recommend you do this
because it might not have been safe, although
there were thousands of people around not doing
anything to save my bike. You know, I just walked
up to these two guys, smiled in their face and
said, hey, that's my bike. And guys, oh, it's
a good bike. I'm like, I know. I'd like to keep
it. But I was smiling and having a good time.
No threat. And they got out of there so fast.
It wasn't even funny. Although it was funny.
And I've talked about high status. But low status
also works very, very well too. You got to give
a talk in front of a thousand people. And you're
nervous. Open with a bit of low status self -deprecation.
And people will instantly like you. Because when
you walk on the stage, everybody's like, okay,
who's this person? What do they got to tell me?
And the minute you humanize yourself with a little
low status, they go, oh, you're not a threat.
And they like you. So Al Gore, former vice president
of the U .S., when he was on the speaking tour
in the early part of the century, he used to
open up his talks by saying, hello, my name is
Al Gore. I used to be the president of the United
States. And that is a reference to his the infamous
or famous 2000 election where he won the popular
vote. But then it went to the, you know, went
to the Supreme Court and eventually they elected
George Bush was called the president after Al
Gore conceded. OK, so in closing, I just want
to recommend status. It may be something you've
never heard of or never considered. Or have been
taught and may have been taught it in a way that's
not helpful. Because, you know, for me, status
has to be fun. Right? It's got to be fun and
playful. It can't be strident or pathetic. Like
it's got to be joyous. Even low status too. Low
status is joyous. High status is joyous. It's
not, it's not, low status is not pathetic. And
high status is not strident. Right. Those are
different views. You know, like the myth of the
alpha male. To me, an alpha male, like someone
who's got to be like, you know, Donald Trump,
whether you like him or not or hate him, you
know, he's full of bravado and he's boisterous
and, you know, and bullies are the same way.
They're not high status. They're low status.
They're very broken on the inside and they cover
it up with a lot of false bravado. That's low
status to me. That's not a fun kind of low status.
It's just a sad, kind of low status. Anyway,
that's my time. My name has been Ralph. Come
visit us at socap .ca. Come take a class. See
a show. Drop me a line. Thanks for listening.
See you next time. Bye.