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
Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Socap .ca.
Come take a class. Come see a show. I love hearing
from people, so please send me questions, comments,
good or bad. I recently got an email from someone
in Turkey. I hope I'm pronouncing that right.
The new name of the country formerly known as
Turkey. But Turkey, that was delightful. So if
you have listened to this podcast or taken a
class with me, you will understand I'm a huge
fan of practicing skills in improv that you take
into the real world. I live my life as much as
possible based on the same things I've learned
in improv. I take that out into the real world.
And what I'm going to talk about today is...
One of my favorite, one of the things I think
that's helped me a lot, and that is reframing.
So in the real world, you know, reframing is
taking a situation. It's noticing your sort of
knee -jerk reaction, human beings being such
creatures of habit and biases. Well, biases,
yes, but, you know, learned sort of reflexes.
we tend to have knee -jerk reactions to situations.
But reframing is about like, okay, understanding
your reaction, taking a step back and thinking,
okay, is this the only way to see this? You know,
what else could this situation mean? How else
could I react to this? I'm always recommending
books. And one book I'd like to recommend is
Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Viktor
Frankl spent years in a Nazi, well, not just
one, in Nazi concentration camps. So if there's
a person who can talk about taking a moment between
a stimulus and a response, he's got my vote.
He's got a quote, and I'm going to butcher it
because I didn't write it down, but it basically
goes, between the stimulus, you know, receiving
some kind of stimulus and your response, there's
space. You know, you don't have to react. You
can respond by taking a moment. And in that space,
there's wisdom, there's growth, there's power,
there's a lot in there. And we often don't take
time to consider that or even think it's possible.
So that's where reframing lives. It lives in
that space. You know, you get, for example, get
a criticism. Somebody criticizes you for your
work. your look, something, and our knee -jerk
reaction for many of us is to react in one of
two ways. One is to get angry or defensive, you
know, fight or flight. We get in this state.
And reframing, you know, you can take a moment
and go like, okay, well, maybe they're right.
Maybe they have a point, right? Or is there something
useful here? Or, okay, I get they're trying to
help. It may be clumsy. but they have better
intentions. And I'm going to take a moment because
reacting this way might just escalate the situation.
And these things are hard to do. I'm not saying,
oh, you can just do that tomorrow. This has to
be something, I think, you've got to get in your
body, learning and make this the reflex. The
reflex is not to react. The reflex is to take
a moment, take a breath, okay, and think about
it. Now, why is improv a great place to practice
reframing? Because there's such low stakes. So,
you know, if you get criticized in an improv
scene, it's very, well, I shouldn't say it's
very easy. It's much easier, I think, because
the stakes are lower, to practice reframing and
staying open and responding instead of reacting.
And think about different ways to handle a situation.
You know, in improv, if a character comes in
and criticizes us. We can practice the knee jerk.
What are you talking about? Getting angry. Or
we can practice different kinds of responses.
You were late. Man, I know. I know I was super
late. But I got to tell you, I was having so
much fun, I lost track of time. Or you were super
late. Well, I just did that because I knew it
was going to upset you. You can think about different
ways to respond and then... Take this out into
the real world and try them out and see how it
goes. One thing I have learned in my nearly 60
years on this planet is as much as I used to
despise conflict, and I don't relish conflict,
but I'm okay with it now because I try to see
it as an opportunity, is that these kind of situations
that are kind of conflict -y almost never go
the way I think they're going to go. They've
almost never gone that way. And usually after
some kind of conflict or airing of grievances,
afterward, the air is much clearer. So moving
straight into improv and being on stage, reframing
in scenes is a critical skill. And one I highly
recommend that you adopt and adapt. adopt for
yourself and adapt for it to work for you. So,
you know, here's like an example, because a lot
of scenes will start with an original or an instant
conflict. Particularly, I find this is more common
with newer players who think conflict between
characters is something that they need to have
for various reasons that I won't go into now.
But for example, character A might come in and
say to you, why didn't you come home last night?
I made dinner. You stumbled in at three o 'clock
in the morning smelling like alcohol. Now that's
a lot of information and they put you in a strong
framing, right? They really want you to be a
villain. They've really laid a lot of stuff on
you. And in my experience, what you'll get most
of the time is the character B being very, defensive
and starts to deny a lot and will create confusion
that muddles the scene. They might just say no
right off the top. What are you talking about?
I was home. Are you drunk? That's just a straight
out denial. And now we've got to figure out what
the reality is or they'll downplay it. Why didn't
you go home last night? Oh, I did. And I thought
you were asleep. I don't want to wake you. So
I just slept on the couch or I went into the
basement or whatever. And that alcohol. Oh, that's
because I hurt myself. So I was using some rubbing
alcohol. You know, they'll try to somehow downplay
it, reach a conclusion where they'll try to like
we would in the real world. And reframing here
in improv goes, oh, OK. I've gotten this letter,
this letter. I've gotten this information. They
want me to play a villain. So I'm going to lean
into it. Why didn't I come home last night? You're
right. I didn't come home. You know why? Because
I didn't want to see you. Oh, okay. Now we have
a scene, right? You've got a scene where the
reality is maintained. We're in agreement as
to what's going on, at least at this point. And
we'll see how it progresses. So why this works
is, A, you stop fighting for control. You stop
arguing with your scene partner and arguing with
the other actor, not the character, the actor,
which I've talked about before, ad nauseum. That
person wants me to be a villain, I'll be a villain.
And the option that I gave, you're right, I didn't
come home because I didn't want to be with you.
There's only one possible step forward. There's
other ones. So A, you stop fighting for control.
You stop trying to force the scene into your
plan. Right. And it becomes our plan that we
are created together. You accept the offer that
they've given you. You justify it and you keep
the scene moving forward. Keep going forward.
The argument trap fails often because nothing
happens. We just go back and forth like a hamster
in a wheel just going around, around, around.
And also the scene becomes very clear and faster.
What's at stake, what's going on becomes clearer,
faster, and that becomes more fun for the audience
and the players because now we have to do less
thinking about, okay, I've got to solve all these
problems. And I mean problems, again, as the
actor's problems, like what's going on, who are
we, what's real. We just have more fun and we
play. Another way you can reframe things is a
boring suggestion. into something exciting. So
I don't know, sometimes I've seen this where
someone will ask for a location and they want
something dynamic and they'll get coffee shop.
And you can see all the disappointment on their
face and they go, oh, coffee shop, thanks. And
we'll just bypass how much I hate that for a
moment. But when you reframe, you can love being
in a coffee shop. And maybe the idea of pouring
coffee, you know, being a barista isn't, you
know, your cup of tea, pun totally intended.
But you can pretend to love it, right? Or you
can think of other ways. Okay, what would be
great about this? Oh, I know. I get to brighten
people's day. People come in, they're tired.
I get to make them coffee and they leave happy.
Or I get to play the game of getting everybody's
name wrong on purpose. There are other aspects
of this job that you can find exciting. remember,
it's not real. You're not really working as a
barista. You know, and apologies to baristas.
It's a totally fine job. And you can also, if
you can reframe in another way, because if, okay,
a coffee shop is boring to me, I don't want to
be here. Okay, well, let's reframe it as something
that I want to do. Oh, I know what, I'll burn
it to the ground and go do something else. You
know, remember, when we create things on stage,
none of that is real. Like none of the stuff
is real. Feelings are real. So when I say, you
know, you can, the stuff you create, you can
destroy without consequences, that has some caveats,
right? You can't create babies and dogs and cats
and destroy them because we will judge you harshly
for that. And finally, reframing at the beginning
of a scene to avoid fights over useless stuff
or incidentals, right? Like if someone says,
boy, you don't have much of a sense of humor,
do you? I mean, do you really want to have an
argument, a fight over whether or not your character
has a sense of humor? I don't. And so you can
reframe that into a friendly jibe and accept
it and move on. You know what? I don't. I'm like,
when it comes to jokes, I'm an idiot. Move on.
And now we're still in agreement and we're playful,
right? And you're going to be the kind of improviser
other people really want to play with. That's
the kind of person I want to play with. So in
short. Reframing will make you a better performer.
You become more playful. You become more open,
more flexible. You can pivot easier, right? One
of the analogies I often use is a tennis match.
And the pivoting allows you to like, oh, this
is an offer I'm going to hit with a smash or
a lob. Or I'm going to hit an overhand passing
shot, forehand passing shot down the line. Where
you avoid the argument trap, which goes nowhere
often. Or it can go somewhere, but with more
difficulty. It's more difficult to navigate those
situations. The audience really likes watching
people who are having fun. If you're having fun,
you're not thinking and you're having a great
time. And if you're having a fun time, your scene
partner almost invariably is having a great time.
And you work to justify instead of denying, arguing,
fighting, controlling. If you are one of those
improvisers who are very controlling, a writer
type, this allows you to not control so much.
There are often in scenes these lines that come
up that feel like hard stops, that just kind
of stop everything. If character A wants to raise
the stakes. For example, let's say a couple is
packing to go on their honeymoon and character
A wants to raise the stakes. And they say, oh,
by the way, my mother is coming on our honeymoon.
Now, for B, your logic and my logic might be
absolutely not. That's crazy. This is our honeymoon.
Come on, be an adult and tell them not. They
can't come. But then that just stops everything.
And the game your partner wants to play is mom's
coming on the honeymoon. And why not? Again,
it's not real. In the audience, I mean, as an
audience member, I want to see that. I want to
see the train wreck that will happen. So if you
can get into reframing and you can justify a
reason to let that happen, right? So, oh man,
your mother's coming on her honeymoon. Oh man,
that stinks. But you know what? She is paying
the bill. So I guess we'll have to bring her
along, right? And now we get to have the fun
of watching a honeymoon with the mother on board.
uh much better than just fighting over whether
or not your mother's gonna come i mean you can
do it you can do it you know there's i'm not
saying don't do that please please i don't have
i have one rule that's not true i might have
a couple rules but that's definitely not one
of them um and now the scene is somewhere to
go and we can have fun elaine may the great elaine
may uh who i believe is still with us and i think
she's got to be in her late 90s Her quote is
the improviser's job is to justify. And I don't
know if that's the job, but it is certainly a
huge job. You want to justify the information
that allows the scene to continue and allows
us to keep playing. So in closing, reframing
helps you stay playful, stay open, keep scenes
moving, build real world flexibility and openness
to learn, grow, avoid and downplay conflict.
Okay. That's me for today. Thank you for listening.
See you next time here on the Socap Improv Comedy
Podcast. I'm out. Bye.