Hey everybody and 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. If you're
in the area, please come and take a workshop.
And if you're not or if you are and you don't
want to do that, reach out. Tell me that you
are enjoying this or that you are not. And if
you have like an idea... That's like, Ralph,
what you just said about that thing, that's stupid.
Oh, please let me know. Because maybe you're
right. And I'd learn something. That'd be great.
I love learning stuff. So, you know, I'm always
willing to entertain that everything I say is
completely nonsense. It's complete nonsense.
Like that last sentence. Anyway, I do love to
learn through disagreement. So if you have a
disagreement, let me hear it. And then maybe
I'll ask you what you mean by it. We can have
a conversation, which would be lovely. There's,
you know, many different definitions of improv.
I do like the, I see on YouTube sometimes, the
five levels of, you know, I'm going to explain
like a astrophysicist defines gravity, five levels,
like from kindergarten up to postdoc. And I think
improv is the same. There's simple definitions
and complex definitions. I think one of my favorite
sort of operational definition, like what is
it? What is improv? What is it at its base? I
say improv is play. And when I say play, I don't
mean like board games or sports. Not that those
things aren't wonderful. They are. But they have
stakes, right? When you play chess or badminton,
you probably want to win. You know, unless you're
playing with, you know, really good friends or
children, your own children or something like
that. And it's something that's about something
else. But generally they have stakes. Whereas
improv, there is no like there's no stake at
the outcome. Right. The value of improv is in
the doing. You know, the journey is the destination.
If I can use that old hackneyed phrase. But it's
true. Like the point of improv is. is to do it
and to have that connection with other people,
in my view. So, you know, as adults, and I'm
talking about adults, you know, improv is playing
together. And it's like the imaginative play
we did as children, dress up and pretend. You
know, it can be exaggerated, it's silly, and
it's not real in the sense... That, you know,
when we improvise that we're in a war room, it's
not a real war room, right? Or if we're in a
business and somebody's just had a bad meeting,
there's no real meeting. That's not real. All
that's real is the emotions that we create and
the games we play. Anyway, and that exists on
stage or in a classroom and also in real life.
Like I have, you know, a lot of funny friends.
improv friends, and we're very playful all the
time. Even my 12 -year -old daughter, you know,
when she does something that slightly annoys
me, like not bringing her dishes to the sink
at the end of dinner, I say, well, you know,
this means one thing. I'm going to sell you for
medical experiments, which she laughs at, and
then she threatens to call children's aid on
me and have me taken away in chains. That, you
know, like my examples about improv on stage,
those aren't real. I don't really intend to sell
her for medical experiments. And she knows that.
And she's not really going to call children's
aid and have me taken away in chains. These are
exaggerations. They're playful. They're not real.
You know, and it's like when you're with friends
and you call each other the worst names. And
it's like, that's... It's a badge of honor. Like
that's like it's saying the subtext is we're
so close. I can threaten to murder you. And it's
hilarious and it's fine. And that's play. Flirting
is play. Hanging with your best friends. That's
play. Generally, you know, not always. But, you
know, that kind of like hanging around, banter,
laughing. That's play. And that's what to me
improv is. It's just, I guess, more structured
or it's. It's more, I guess, more structured,
more presentational, might be the better word
anyway. So when we play, you know, and for me,
in my line of teaching, we typically do like
scenic stuff, kind of like I think a sitcom,
situation comedy might be sort of the best sort
of example of what improv, my improv looks like.
And scenes have that kind of loose three act
structure. And within that, you know, there are
characters and characters in scenes or heroes
or villains. There are mentors. There are like
other kinds of characters, you know, the wacky
neighbor, whatever. And those and so there's
many different roles that one can and may need
to adopt, depending on what the scene is. Right?
The scene tells us. We inform what the scene
is, then the scene tells us back, oh, this is
what's going on, this is where you need to slot
yourself in, in order to be of service to the
scene, to the moment, right? So that means that
for us, as an improviser, we have to be very
flexible to take on many different kinds of roles.
Oh, I can't just always be the hero. I mean,
you can be. You can do whatever you want, but
that's going to really limit you and limit the
people you're playing with. And, you know, it's
going to really impact on the kinds of scenes
you can do and all kinds of things. However,
at the end of the day, you can do exactly what
you want. So, but if we're going to be flexible,
sometimes, you know, you have to be mean, you
have to be sympathetic, you have to be vulnerable,
maybe even pathetic. all these different things
or a hero like all these different things and
the topic I want to talk about today is vulnerability
and often it's very it's essential I think for
playful improv like you it's good to be able
to develop your your sense of vulnerability what's
vulnerable for you and I bring this up because
I had two recent examples in classes both similar
in which it was a male and female character and
the female character they were having an argument
and the female character uh made a comment about
the lack of the male characters let's say uh
size uh and sexual prowess so in one case uh
you know the male character said something about
like i have a small attention span and the female
character said oh yeah and what else is small
and he went like everything especially down there
to which everybody laughed at and in the other
case it was um a female saying to the male character
about his level of incompetence and what else
was he incompetent and she said she expected
suspected he was very incompetent in the bedroom
and he said oh you have no idea I have no idea
what's going on in there I have no idea about
any of that stuff or even why people want to
do it and again it brought a lot of laughter
right and you know they're they're bold they're
honest they're also surprising but they're also
relatable right they're relatable in that You
know, those are things that, without context,
if someone said that, you'd be like, oh my gosh,
that's like, I'm sorry. Or, you know, we certainly
wouldn't laugh at it. I mean, we might want to
laugh at it, but we wouldn't laugh out loud.
But because we knew both these male characters
were very, very, let's say, meek, vulnerable,
weak, it made sense. So we laughed at... Oh,
of course they would be. Haha, that makes sense,
right? So we laugh because we get it. We're playing
along. So, you know, vulnerability is a great
tool to have in your belt. That self -deprecation,
you know, is very playful. It lets your other
scene partners and the audience, whether that
audience is a stage audience or, you know, at
a dinner party. And I'm going to get back to
that in a minute. but it lets them know they
can let their guard down, right? Oh, okay, you're
fine. You're very fine. And you know, you're
not a threat to my ego. I can relax, right? Audiences
witnessing it love vulnerability. They love that
low status. It makes them feel better about themselves,
makes them feel superior. So they laugh and they
like you. You know, and it opens the door to
bigger things to come. You know, like if that's
true, well, what else is true? What else is going
on? What else is wrong with this person? And
now two caveats. Number one, especially in public,
you don't want to be so vulnerable as to be pathetic.
One time I was a student of mine and they were
doing like a like a dating scene, like a Tinder
date. And he was like, well, I'm not employed.
I live with my parents. I don't have the best
hygiene. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's
going on? And he was saying, well, I'm being
vulnerable. I'm like, oh, you're being pathetic.
Your vulnerability, it's so much that you're
pathetic and nobody would want to be with you.
So you can't go too far, right? There's a limit
there. And what that limit is, is up to you to
find it. And the second thing is comfortability.
Your comfortability. with how vulnerable you
can be. And if you have a hard time saying, oh,
yeah, you know, saying how small you are down
there, you know, I think the first thing that
I would suggest is to notice when you find resistance.
Where does your resistance, what's too much for
you? Where is that level? And find your version
of vulnerability. You know, you don't have to
go straight to, you know, sexual self -deprecation
or being pathetic you don't have to do that uh
it's i think it's better if you can and better
in the sense of like more playful you have more
opportunities to go places more things that you
can do but um you don't have to be that far and
uh you know you can deflect it so you know in
this previous example like what else is small
you can say hey i know what you're thinking but
you'd be wrong about that you know you can still
be playful and be you know and have a bit of
a Maintain your ego. So I'm not here to say you
must do these things. In fact, I have, I said,
I hope many times, I don't really have any rules,
maybe one about agreement, but I certainly, and
maybe a second rule would be don't do anything
that makes you uncomfortable, which if it makes
you uncomfortable, don't do it. But all that
said, I would encourage you not to be like a
Donald Trump. Where you're unable to even entertain
the idea that you're not the absolute best at
everything. In fact, I'm just laughing because
he recently said in reference to the World Cup.
He's like, nobody knows more about sports than
I do. But even I didn't know you would get disqualified
for the next game if you got a red card. It's
like, okay, fair enough. You know, our goal when
we're improvising is as much as possible to stay
open. Stay playful, to be connected, and be part
of something bigger than us. And we should attempt
to do that as much as possible because for a
myriad of reasons of which ourselves is a chief
reason. That's when people report doing a scene
and being like, wow, that was effortless. It
felt great. I wasn't panicking. I didn't think
about where I was going. I didn't want the floor
to open up. I was just... Having a good time.
You are in the moment because you are connected.
But do not do what makes you uncomfortable. Something
is uncomfortable, something is awkward, weird,
stop, time out, you know. And if you're in front
of an audience, just leave the scene. You know,
oh, hey, oh, look at the time. I got to go. You
leave. And if you got, if that's, well, I'm not
going to go into that now, but get out of there.
You know, if you're uncomfortable. Everybody
will know you're uncomfortable and they'll want
you to leave too. Okay, so the takeaways. Saying
yes in scenes and playing the role the scene
has decided that it wants you to play requires
you to have some vulnerability often. That vulnerability
unlocks playfulness. That playfulness unlocks
even more playfulness, right? It's the rising
tide raises all boats metaphor, but in this case,
it's true. So I'm encouraging you to think about
vulnerability. How can you be more vulnerable
in scenes and open up the possibilities for you?
Okay, that's the time I have today. Thank you
very much for tuning in. My name is Ralph, so
cap .ca. Give me a shout. Maybe you think this
was all nonsense and horse hooey. Let me know
and then tell me why and I'll learn something.
All right, thank you all. Have a great day and
we'll see you next time. Ciao.