WEBVTT 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:05.000 Hey everybody, welcome back to the SoCap Improv 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.919 Comedy Podcast. Today it's episode number 43. 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:12.519 A note on playing baddies, villains, or agents 00:00:12.519 --> 00:00:15.599 of chaos. I'll use all three interchangeably. 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:18.980 Bad guys. Yeah, so my name is Ralph. I'm the 00:00:18.980 --> 00:00:21.500 owner and artistic director at the Socap Improv 00:00:21.500 --> 00:00:24.980 Comedy Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I 00:00:24.980 --> 00:00:28.100 invite you to send feedback, questions, notes 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:32.640 on how terrible you think I am, or better, how 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:36.320 much you're enjoying this dumb thing that I am 00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:39.969 really enjoying doing. Yeah, so we have classes, 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:42.750 drop -ins, regular classes. If you're not in 00:00:42.750 --> 00:00:45.109 the city of Toronto, maybe you'll pass through 00:00:45.109 --> 00:00:47.590 someday and you're like, oh, well, I'd like to 00:00:47.590 --> 00:00:50.549 see what he's going to say all the fuss is about. 00:00:50.670 --> 00:00:55.630 But, well, there's a lack of fuss. Any hoodle. 00:00:56.509 --> 00:01:00.810 Yeah, so I want to talk about playing villains 00:01:00.810 --> 00:01:04.689 in the style that I teach, which is less game 00:01:04.689 --> 00:01:06.700 of the scene. Not that I'm opposed to game of 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:11.159 the scene, but I much more take a scene starts 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:14.819 and, you know, follow where the scene goes. And 00:01:14.819 --> 00:01:18.840 for me, that's mainly in character and story. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.939 And most of my scenes that in my classes follow 00:01:21.939 --> 00:01:25.739 that simple three act structure and often have, 00:01:25.739 --> 00:01:30.540 you know, a main character and then antagonists, 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:34.349 villains, as you will, you know, a classic. A 00:01:34.349 --> 00:01:36.950 scene that I'll be using today and I use a lot 00:01:36.950 --> 00:01:40.390 is, you know, a couple and one of them is cheating. 00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:43.370 You clearly, in that case, have a main character 00:01:43.370 --> 00:01:47.170 who is sympathetic and an antagonist or a baddie 00:01:47.170 --> 00:01:50.230 who is cheating because they are lying and they 00:01:50.230 --> 00:01:54.709 have power over our main character. So, you know, 00:01:54.750 --> 00:01:59.129 villains are, of course, necessary. Luke Skywalker 00:01:59.129 --> 00:02:02.269 needs Darth Vader the way Dorothy needs the Wicked 00:02:02.269 --> 00:02:06.430 Witch. villains uh help take our main characters 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:10.969 through um the crucible uh that builds empathy 00:02:10.969 --> 00:02:14.789 and uh ultimately leads to catharsis on behalf 00:02:14.789 --> 00:02:18.569 of the audience watching them and uh just a side 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:20.250 note you don't need to be aware of this while 00:02:20.250 --> 00:02:22.849 you're improvising because you know stories are 00:02:22.849 --> 00:02:26.550 so part of our makeup and our dna this just happens 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:29.969 automatically um but in this case you know where 00:02:29.969 --> 00:02:33.449 you have these scenes with uh often I don't know 00:02:33.449 --> 00:02:35.550 how often. I mean, more than half probably, but 00:02:35.550 --> 00:02:37.930 not every scene for sure. Where you have like 00:02:37.930 --> 00:02:40.069 a main character and then a villain character. 00:02:40.650 --> 00:02:44.229 And often these scenes will fail near the beginning 00:02:44.229 --> 00:02:49.129 because one character will refuse to become the 00:02:49.129 --> 00:02:52.009 villain. One of the actors or the improvisers 00:02:52.009 --> 00:02:54.870 won't want to play a villain, won't know how 00:02:54.870 --> 00:02:59.260 to play it, and they'll kind of deflect. And 00:02:59.260 --> 00:03:04.180 in these scenes, you'll see two actors kind of 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:06.500 competing to make the other one worse than they 00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:08.560 are. Well, I cheated, yeah, but I only did that 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:13.560 because you insulted me or you did this or you 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:15.840 did something else. And they just muddy the water 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:19.500 and nobody cares and people tune out. It just 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:24.259 sort of fizzles out. So number one, when in doubt 00:03:24.259 --> 00:03:28.379 as a villain, my... advice, my best practice. 00:03:29.219 --> 00:03:31.080 Again, this comes with a bunch of caveats that 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:33.199 I'm not going to go into right now. But in general, 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:37.680 you want to not deflect. You don't want to deflect 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.560 that. In this example, hey, you've been having 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:44.060 an affair. We're characterizing this to character 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:48.000 B. You've been having an affair. Generally, what 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.919 will happen in... on stage and in class is that 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:54.740 character that's endowed that way will deflect. 00:03:54.939 --> 00:03:56.939 What? No, I didn't. What are you talking about? 00:03:57.020 --> 00:03:59.879 Oh, you're misunderstanding. Or they'll minimize 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:02.360 it. Oh, it was one time. I'm really sorry. It'll 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:04.699 never happen again. But in general, they're trying 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:07.490 to not embrace being the villain. and they're 00:04:07.490 --> 00:04:13.430 trying to save some face, and the stakes, of 00:04:13.430 --> 00:04:17.230 course, are just lowering, and the air goes out 00:04:17.230 --> 00:04:20.129 of the scene, and nobody has a good time, and 00:04:20.129 --> 00:04:23.589 the audience is bored, and you're probably pretty 00:04:23.589 --> 00:04:28.310 bored too. So deflection, defensiveness lowers 00:04:28.310 --> 00:04:30.850 the stakes and makes the scene harder. It makes 00:04:30.850 --> 00:04:32.769 the job of the improviser harder because now 00:04:32.769 --> 00:04:35.029 you've got to come up with something new, right? 00:04:35.089 --> 00:04:37.920 Or you've got to... push through these objections. 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:41.259 It's classic, like, non -agreement, right? It 00:04:41.259 --> 00:04:44.199 muddies the water. You know, who's really the 00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:47.139 villain? Where did the cheating start? You know, 00:04:47.139 --> 00:04:50.160 and I hear you say, but Ralph, if I'm character 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:53.759 B and I'm cheating, I'm going to deny it. And 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:55.660 you know what? I get that. And I've covered that 00:04:55.660 --> 00:04:58.519 in other podcasts. And I'm not going to go through 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:01.420 it again. But in short, you want to, if that 00:05:01.420 --> 00:05:05.209 is your goal, is to lie. and try to lie about 00:05:05.209 --> 00:05:07.430 it. Oh, no, I'm not cheating. You have to do 00:05:07.430 --> 00:05:09.850 it in a way that makes clear to everyone, that 00:05:09.850 --> 00:05:12.310 is the actors in the audience, not necessarily 00:05:12.310 --> 00:05:14.889 the character, but the actors in the audience, 00:05:15.009 --> 00:05:19.730 that you are lying. But what I would suggest, 00:05:19.970 --> 00:05:26.589 particularly if you're new to this, if nuance 00:05:26.589 --> 00:05:28.810 is something that you're still figuring out, 00:05:28.930 --> 00:05:33.370 is to just accept. and accept what you've been 00:05:33.370 --> 00:05:36.389 endowed with fully. Have you been cheating? I 00:05:36.389 --> 00:05:38.970 sure did. And you know what? And I'll do it again. 00:05:39.050 --> 00:05:42.170 In fact, I'm leaving right now to go see my, 00:05:42.290 --> 00:05:45.790 you know, I have a date, right? This is high 00:05:45.790 --> 00:05:49.769 status acceptance. And there are other ways to 00:05:49.769 --> 00:05:51.730 say yes to this. But since I'm talking about 00:05:51.730 --> 00:05:53.470 villains, I'm going to go the villain route. 00:05:53.589 --> 00:05:58.790 And here you have accepted that you are the villain 00:05:58.790 --> 00:06:03.389 and you're playing it. And that right now sets 00:06:03.389 --> 00:06:07.149 up a nice little scene that we can now play. 00:06:07.370 --> 00:06:10.149 And for our main character in this, the one who's 00:06:10.149 --> 00:06:13.170 been cheated on, their job is much easier because 00:06:13.170 --> 00:06:15.829 they can just, how could you do that? How can 00:06:15.829 --> 00:06:18.649 you possibly justify doing this? What's the matter 00:06:18.649 --> 00:06:23.230 with you? To which you can have fun answering 00:06:23.230 --> 00:06:27.949 those questions. Now, one thing about, so that's 00:06:27.949 --> 00:06:32.040 step one. Embrace. that you're the villain. Now, 00:06:32.139 --> 00:06:37.779 the next thing is to try to avoid being cruel. 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:42.199 So, and that's mainly what I want to get into 00:06:42.199 --> 00:06:46.279 is you're playing the villain and you've been 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:52.079 cheating and you could say something very villainous 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:55.279 and heavy. It makes the scene heavy. You could 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:57.399 say, yeah, I cheated. I cheated because I find 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:00.959 you ugly and you're the B word. It's like, oh, 00:07:01.019 --> 00:07:05.160 wow, that's mean. And there's no fun. There's 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:07.920 no joy in that. And that just makes everybody 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:11.800 be uncomfortable and it kills all the fun. So 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:15.899 you want to deliver a similar kind of line, right? 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.139 But you want to do it with playfulness and delight. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:20.939 And I'll just add this now that I say all the 00:07:20.939 --> 00:07:23.300 time. Remember, none of this is real. You're 00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:26.259 not actually cheating on the other performer. 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:29.660 character there is no real affair there's no 00:07:29.660 --> 00:07:32.819 even a real relationship it's all pretend right 00:07:32.819 --> 00:07:39.600 we're all pretending so um you want to respond 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:43.600 you know why did you cheat i cheated because 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:47.139 i really don't like you and now it's like oh 00:07:47.139 --> 00:07:49.860 it's it's more fun it's more palatable it's like 00:07:49.860 --> 00:07:53.100 cartoony evil you want to look at my myself my 00:07:53.100 --> 00:07:55.370 personal experience you know, because I like 00:07:55.370 --> 00:08:00.829 to talk about myself, is when I book TV and film 00:08:00.829 --> 00:08:05.209 and commercials, I do book a fair number of, 00:08:05.209 --> 00:08:08.449 you know, baddies or baddie adjacent, you know, 00:08:08.470 --> 00:08:12.250 sometimes straight out evil characters. I've 00:08:12.250 --> 00:08:16.009 done that on a sketch show. And often like curmudgeons, 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:19.529 people who are like a little PO'd about something. 00:08:20.050 --> 00:08:22.810 They're kind of agents of chaos. And I think 00:08:22.810 --> 00:08:25.800 personally, that the reason I booked these characters 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:30.100 is because I have fun and you can see that I'm 00:08:30.100 --> 00:08:35.080 doing these things, but beneath the yelling and 00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:37.120 the shaking of hands and the gnarling of teeth, 00:08:37.299 --> 00:08:40.399 no, it's gnashing of hands and grinding of teeth, 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:44.759 I forget, is I'm having a good time. And if you 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:46.500 want to see an example of this and you haven't 00:08:46.500 --> 00:08:49.159 seen it, go watch Alan Rickman or just clips 00:08:49.159 --> 00:08:53.690 of it in Die Hard. He plays Hans Gruber. If you 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:56.870 haven't seen the movie, again, I would just go 00:08:56.870 --> 00:08:59.509 see clips of it. But basically, he's a baddie. 00:08:59.750 --> 00:09:04.649 He has taken over the top of this high -rise 00:09:04.649 --> 00:09:08.610 building. He has dozens, if not a hundred hostages. 00:09:09.250 --> 00:09:11.789 And he's threatening to kill them all if he doesn't 00:09:11.789 --> 00:09:15.090 get his demands met. But you can see him in that 00:09:15.090 --> 00:09:17.860 movie. He's just having a great time. It's hard 00:09:17.860 --> 00:09:19.399 to take your eyes off him. He's having so much 00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:22.340 fun, you know, shooting people and doing all 00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:24.840 these terrible villainous things. But it's not 00:09:24.840 --> 00:09:28.220 real. You know, in the real world, the man is, 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:31.000 you know, it's not even, you can't even describe 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:34.759 him, the level of psychopathy. But because it's 00:09:34.759 --> 00:09:41.019 play, it's great. So we want to be villains. 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:44.440 And we want to do it in a way that is very palatable 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:48.649 and enjoyable. for yourself, for the other performers, 00:09:48.870 --> 00:09:52.269 for the audience in general. And I would say, 00:09:52.370 --> 00:09:55.230 I would suggest you try it with a smile. A smile 00:09:55.230 --> 00:09:58.929 transforms it. And it's a smile of like, ah, 00:09:59.129 --> 00:10:01.490 I'm having a good time because as a villain, 00:10:01.610 --> 00:10:04.769 I believe I am the hero of this story and everything 00:10:04.769 --> 00:10:07.309 I do is justified. You know, like in the real 00:10:07.309 --> 00:10:10.409 world, when people who are villainous actually 00:10:10.409 --> 00:10:16.370 think what they're doing is not only... not only 00:10:16.370 --> 00:10:20.269 do they think it is like uh okay they think is 00:10:20.269 --> 00:10:23.149 they they think any other way it would be stupid 00:10:23.149 --> 00:10:26.289 like it has to be this way so a smile transforms 00:10:26.289 --> 00:10:29.330 your villainy into comedy so you know have you 00:10:29.330 --> 00:10:31.690 been cheating i sure did i did cheat i did it 00:10:31.690 --> 00:10:34.830 and i can't wait to do it again right did you 00:10:34.830 --> 00:10:37.649 steal my car i sure did oh and i smashed it up 00:10:37.649 --> 00:10:40.679 boy That car went real fast and it just came 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:43.100 apart. As soon as I hit that parking meter, it 00:10:43.100 --> 00:10:45.419 just flew apart. It's going to cost you a lot 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:48.639 to get that fixed. These are really fun ways 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:52.600 of playing villains, right? And the smiling signals 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:55.600 to everybody. Hey, we're playing. We're playing, 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:58.519 which is what we're doing, right? We're taking 00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:01.240 it seriously, but within the context of what 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:04.799 we're doing. You know, and audiences love watching 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:07.940 people being bad. They love watching bad examples 00:11:07.940 --> 00:11:11.120 of people. Psychopaths, you know, we love watching 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:13.940 them. And, you know, in the real world, this 00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:15.899 is the same like when you're with friends and 00:11:15.899 --> 00:11:18.080 you call each other idiots, right? You're doing 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:20.419 it because it's fun. You know, you can say things 00:11:20.419 --> 00:11:22.539 to your friends that you can't say to other people. 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:28.019 In fact, part of the joy of friendship is, you 00:11:28.019 --> 00:11:30.740 know, having someone say really bad things to 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:33.990 you, like in a fun... playful way hey you big 00:11:33.990 --> 00:11:37.970 jerk hey you dummy because it's oh they care 00:11:37.970 --> 00:11:40.409 enough they feel comfortable enough around me 00:11:40.409 --> 00:11:42.309 to call me these things so it's it's kind of 00:11:42.309 --> 00:11:47.409 a badge of honor you know and um you know someone 00:11:47.409 --> 00:11:49.970 says to me like if someone insults me you know 00:11:49.970 --> 00:11:52.029 says ralph i think you are a horrible person 00:11:52.029 --> 00:11:55.149 you know and if even if they're sincere like 00:11:55.149 --> 00:11:58.610 i'll smile and i'll say you my friend are a fine 00:11:58.610 --> 00:12:01.360 judgy character And it takes away all the sting 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:04.519 of any kind of insult. It's very playful. Anybody 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:08.360 who has no ability with, you know, interpersonal 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:10.980 relationships has no idea what to do, and it 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:14.440 dispels any kind of conflict. So it can diffuse 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:17.500 tension, you know, it removes power, gets a laugh, 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:23.740 calms everything down. And also, smiling, just 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:26.779 as a side note, I'll probably do this one in 00:12:26.779 --> 00:12:31.529 another podcast. But, you know, often in scenes, 00:12:31.629 --> 00:12:33.929 you will come into contact with a character who's 00:12:33.929 --> 00:12:36.250 doing something wacky. You know, something that, 00:12:36.250 --> 00:12:40.549 I mean, this is particularly, again, newer improvisers 00:12:40.549 --> 00:12:43.549 will try to make the situation funny. So, for 00:12:43.549 --> 00:12:46.470 example, my favorite example is they'll play 00:12:46.470 --> 00:12:49.110 a doctor, but this doctor will not operate with 00:12:49.110 --> 00:12:51.110 the tools that a doctor would operate with. They'd 00:12:51.110 --> 00:12:54.250 operate with a chainsaw. And it's weird, and 00:12:54.250 --> 00:12:55.710 they do it because they think it will be funny. 00:12:57.929 --> 00:12:59.429 But, you know, anything like that, if you encounter 00:12:59.429 --> 00:13:01.149 another character doing something weird, the 00:13:01.149 --> 00:13:04.389 tendency is to, you know, frown, kind of look 00:13:04.389 --> 00:13:07.230 at them like, well, that's weird. Very judgy. 00:13:07.409 --> 00:13:10.409 And then it tends to make them stop doing things 00:13:10.409 --> 00:13:12.669 because they feel like you didn't like the idea. 00:13:13.269 --> 00:13:15.950 So once again, bring out that smile. So someone 00:13:15.950 --> 00:13:18.230 does something, you know, they operate with a 00:13:18.230 --> 00:13:21.470 chainsaw. You look at them like, wow, that's 00:13:21.470 --> 00:13:24.809 one wacky hospital. Really? Chainsaw, huh? Okay, 00:13:25.070 --> 00:13:27.779 well. hey, I got nothing. Why don't you take 00:13:27.779 --> 00:13:31.220 out my gallbladder? Again, not real. You can 00:13:31.220 --> 00:13:34.419 take out your gallbladder in a scene with a chainsaw 00:13:34.419 --> 00:13:38.639 and I bet you'll survive. So less of you're being 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:41.779 weird in a bad way, but you're being weird in 00:13:41.779 --> 00:13:45.000 a totally fun, cool way. And it'll encourage 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.480 people to open up, give you more stuff. The audience 00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:52.100 will laugh along with you and you'll just be 00:13:52.100 --> 00:13:55.080 more fun and playful. So the main takeaway here 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:58.690 is, When endowed as a villain, try to own it. 00:13:59.350 --> 00:14:02.970 Try to own being a villain. You can, if you really 00:14:02.970 --> 00:14:05.570 need to, go another route. But the number one 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:08.549 is own it. Keep the stakes high. Don't minimize. 00:14:08.669 --> 00:14:11.350 Don't deflect. Don't get defensive. Own it. And 00:14:11.350 --> 00:14:14.350 then deliver your villainy with joy and playfulness. 00:14:14.570 --> 00:14:17.850 And a smile will certainly help with that. Your 00:14:17.850 --> 00:14:20.070 audience will enjoy it. Your partner will enjoy 00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:22.730 it. And you will enjoy it. And the scene will 00:14:22.730 --> 00:14:26.789 thrive. Okay, so that's for me today. That's 00:14:26.789 --> 00:14:28.809 for me today. That's it for me today. This has 00:14:28.809 --> 00:14:35.049 been Ralph, SoCap Comedy, SoCap .ca. Please send 00:14:35.049 --> 00:14:38.590 me, you know, questions, topics, anything, anything 00:14:38.590 --> 00:14:43.429 you want. And if you're ever in Toronto and you 00:14:43.429 --> 00:14:45.250 want to come and try a dropping class or something 00:14:45.250 --> 00:14:48.509 else, give me a shout. All right, thanks, everybody. 00:14:48.669 --> 00:14:49.870 Have a great day. Ciao.