Hey everybody, welcome back to the SoCap Improv
Comedy Podcast. My name is Ralph, I'm the owner
and artistic director at the SoCap Improv Comedy
Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. S -O -C
-A -P dot C -A, SoCap dot C -A. Uh, yeah, so
come on down and take a class with us, or send
me questions, or comments, or whatever you like.
Uh, and the purpose of this podcast is to talk
about improvisational comedy. But not just for
stage, but also in real life. You know, I say
this all the time, but I live my life honestly
by a lot of the principles that I talk about
when I talk about improvisation. You know, so
just briefly some examples are I try, don't try
to control what happens to me. I try to control
how I react to it. And try to see the value in
all the things that happen, whether good or bad.
I try to love what happens. As Nietzsche said,
amor fati, love what happens. I do try to treat
problems and chaos and nuance as opportunities
rather than things to avoid or be mad about.
And I think for me, when I live my life this
way, it really makes life more enjoyable. You
know, my mood is better and I'm more flexible
and all these other things. So today's topic,
I want to talk about being specific versus being
general in your offers. And I'll get into what
I mean in a moment. But just, you know, I think
we all kind of know what specific and general
is, right? But, you know, in general, like don't
say or try not to say, oh, do you want to get
in my car? It's better to say, do you want to
get into my Hummer or my Mazda 3 or my Volkswagen
Beetle? Right. Or, hey, you want some food versus,
hey, you want some greasy fries or you want some
cheese, French cheese omelette, the omelette
du fromage. You want something like that? These
are, that's being specific. And now why? Why,
Ralph, why does it matter? Well, number one,
for an audience, whether that audience is on
stage or, you know, across the dinner table from
you, specific offers are more relatable to people.
And in the terms of being on stage, they'll tend
to laugh, right? And so for an example, You know,
I've heard, and this is the one that resonates
with me because I've heard this. I've heard people,
you know, when an offer is made and, you know,
they're talking about washing their clothes and
they say, don't add the detergent. They say,
oh, add the Tide and people will laugh. And I
was always very curious about why people laughed
at that. And I've come to believe that it's because,
oh, Tide, I know that. Or I use that. That's
I get that, you know, and it just increases the
connection between you and your audience. And
it pulls them in a bit more because even if they
don't use Tide, they've probably heard of it.
And yes, Tide is sponsoring this episode. So
go out and get your Tide. Right. And being specific
also creates a connection and the clarity. You
know, it's. You know, it's different if you're,
you know, talking about, oh, at the aquarium,
it's like, oh, I see fish. Oh, no, no, look,
I see a turtle. And, you know, if people bend
to Ripley's or other aquarium, oh, yeah, sea
turtles. They'll have more of an emotional attachment
to that or like, oh, it's a shark or a salmon,
you know, rather than just a generic fish. It's
like a specific thing. So it's relatable. People
will laugh. Oh, yeah, I know that. And they will
have more of a connection to a specific thing
versus just a little thing. And one time this
happens a lot is in scenes in a library or bookstore
where someone pulls a book off a shelf. And they'll
often say, oh, it's a dictionary or it's a fiction
book. And in those cases, generally, you know,
when you say the name of the title of the book,
someone says, what are you reading? It's better
to have like a real book title. And better. I
mean, because if you say a real title like, oh,
it's Moby Dick or the Game of Thrones or Lord
of the Rings or The Stand, you know, anybody
who knows that book will laugh. Ha ha. You have
created a mini environment, a mini relatable,
a mini community with that. And they'll laugh.
at the recognition of it so the the laughter
is ahaha i'm i know that book i'm in oh i'm look
at me i'm smart and i'm elevated so they really
like it one thing uh just while i'm talking about
books you know uh so the two things i see the
most are people say oh it's a fiction book or
a dictionary or the or they'll try to make up
a title right and then they'll pause because
they're trying to think of a perfect hilarious
title Oh, a thousand and eight uses for cheese.
And if you say that, you might get one or two
people in the audience doing that head laugh.
Ha! Right. Oh, that's clever. Right. And they
might like it. And I'm not here to say that that's
good or bad or if you prefer like a belly laugh.
But you won't get that connection. You will get
often a couple of people laughing like that.
at your cleverness, but you'll miss out on that.
Oh, no, I'm more invested in your scene. I'm
more with you. You want to really bring people
on board. I say often that, you know, we're not
trying to be comedians so much as trying to spread
joy. If you spread joy, that will make people
laugh a lot more and have a better time and want
to come back and see you again, whether you're
on stage or whether you're out in the world.
So just some other little examples. If someone
offers you a drink, instead of saying, oh, would
you like a drink? Say, would you like a non -alcoholic
beer? Would you like a tea? Someone brings you
flowers. Not just, oh, you brought me flowers.
Oh, you brought me yellow carnations. If you
have a smell in the air, it's like, oh, I smell
jasmine or burnt toast or the smell of decay
versus just a smell. If you're around the sensor
objects like a fire, oh, feel the heat of the
fire. We have a beverage. Oh, this coffee's hot.
In your imagination, in your mind's eye, try
to see these things and comment on them and kind
of imagine you can feel them. Because this takes
me to my next thing about being specific. Not
only will you create connections with other people,
but it will root you in the present. right if
you can if you look if you're doing a scene where
you're fishing and you look out and you see the
lake and you see mountains or trees and clouds
and birds chirping and hear the crickets that
will root you in the here and now the same way
that using an emotion does you'll be in the moment
uh if you see those things you won't be you will
be present and your self -consciousness will
go away so it helps you get into the moment It
overcomes your self -consciousness. It makes
you more receptive and open and aware. And the
third thing about being really specific, so we've
got it will make you more relatable. It will
root you in the moment. And the third is it suggests
character, right? So if I say, would you like
a non -alcoholic beer? Well, that says something
about my character, right? It says, oh, maybe
my character is against alcohol or is conscious
of their health versus just to drink, right?
It'll pick up little subtle comments that other
people can build on and you start to have a rapport
and you build something from that. And so that's
the third one is that you have a sense of the
character, right? So those are the three kind
of things. Now, there is one time that I recommend
it's not a good time to be specific because,
you know, no rules and sometimes it's not a good
idea. And one of those times it's not good to
be specific is when you're talking about. a cause
of a death of a character like why is a character
dying because if you say something like if you're
dying of cancer or heart disease or stroke or
something that is a real thing anybody generally
watching you especially an audience will be taken
away from the moment and they'll think about
the time that terrible disease affected them
or someone that they loved because we've all
been touched by these horrendous diseases So
that will take your audience and your whether
that audience is again sitting in the stands
or across the dinner table from you. It'll take
them away from the moment and they'll be thinking
about they'll be transported like out of the
moment and back into their their mind, their
self -consciousness. So once again, this is not
about being PC, which, you know, people ask me
a lot. It's like it's not about being PC. It's
about not. not upsetting your audience unnecessarily
and it will it will tend to upset them i've seen
people run out of the theater crying because
on stage people were talking about a character
dying of of um cancer and uh they were being
kind of flippant about it and you know it's just
gonna upset people and you know at the end of
the day you do what you want but i don't want
to upset my audience okay so when it comes to
death what i would recommend is that you uh you
know, talk about very general things like, oh,
they were poisoned or they died of a mysterious
illness or a scurvy, something that doesn't,
you know, that's unlikely to affect somebody
in your life. It's funny because sometimes, you
know, we say murdered a lot. We murder a lot
of characters. And for some reason, that one
rarely gets upset, anybody upset. And I'm sure
that I've had many people in my audiences who've,
you know, had family members murdered. But anyway,
I digress. So in closing, being specific is generally
a much better way to go than just being generic
because it will create a relatable connection
between you and your audience. It will root you
in the present moment if you can see these things,
if you see yellow carnations versus just flowers.
And it will suggest character. It will suggest,
you know, aspects of your character. Like if
you're eating in, you know, if you're eating
at McDonald's versus, oh, I'm eating at, you
know, this Michelin restaurant, that's going
to tell us something about your character, right?
Which will help. inspire your scene partner to
add more things to it, right? It's easier to
build something when, you know, your choices
become limited. So if we're eating at a Michelin
restaurant, that tells us some things about these
characters and it will make making other choices
easier. Right. So that's what I have today. Thank
you very much for checking us out. We'll see
you here next time on the SoCap Improv Comedy
Podcast. My name has been Ralph and we'll see
you next time. Take care, as always. Ciao.