WEBVTT

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Hey everybody, welcome to the SoCap Improv Comedy

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Podcast. My name is Ralph McLeod. I am the owner

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and artistic director of the SoCap Comedy Theatre

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in Toronto, Ontario. Socap .ca, that's S -O -C

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-A -P as in Peter, dot C -A. That's our website.

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We do shows, improv classes, rentals, all kinds

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of things. And this improv podcast is about...

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We're really talking about my now going on like

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30 some plus years of experience as a performer,

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as a teacher, and what observations I have made

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and what I try to pass along to my students.

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So today, part of what I'm going to talk about

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are individual exercises. And that's what today's

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episode is about. So I'm going to go through

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a specific exercise, what it is, how to do it,

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why we do it. This is the important one, right?

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Because if you don't have a reason why you're

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doing certain things, don't do it. I mean, I

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know, you know, I've been shown so many improv

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exercises and I remember with teachers and I

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was just like, why are we doing this? This seems

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to have no function whatsoever. And I came to

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realize that probably we were doing it because

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they were shown to do it and it was a time filler,

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but it didn't seem to have much point to it.

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If there is no point, why do it? So the first

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exercise I'm going to talk about is the first

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exercise that, in my experience, is the beginning

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exercise in every improv class. And certainly

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for me, unless I have fewer than four students,

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I'm doing this exercise. And it's called clap

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focus. It sounds exciting. But here's the exercise.

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And it's a key one. So what we do is you stand

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in a group. Everybody standing in a circle is

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the best way to do this. You know, I've done

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it in chairs. I've done it in rectangular rooms.

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You know, I've done it in all kinds of things

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because of, you know, just what kind of, you

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know, shape space you have and how many people

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you have and all that. But generally, if possible,

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in a circle where you can see everybody, you

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can see everybody to your right and left of your

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peripheral vision. You can see the whole group

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and everybody's facing each other and looking

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at each other. And then one person starts, and

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what they do is they make eye contact with anybody

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in the circle, and they clap towards them. So

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they make a clapping sound, and they do that,

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and they kind of shoot one of the hands as if

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they're pointing to the other person. So they

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kind of clap and point at the person while making

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eye contact. And it's important. To make the

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eye contact, that's part of it. It's being clear

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with who you are clapping towards. A lot of people

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who do this at the beginning, they will look

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at one person and clap at someone else. It's

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kind of the game. I like messing around, which

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we will get to at some point. But in this exercise,

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that's not what we like to do. We want to be

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clear and direct who we are clapping towards.

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In terms of the communication, It's not just

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enough for me to send my message out and assume

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it's been accepted. I want to be looking at the

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person as clear as I can, clapping at you, yes.

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And then I'm not done until I see you accept

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that and start clapping towards someone else.

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Then I'm done, right? We've closed the circle

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on communication. My job's not done until the

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other person picks that thing up and runs off

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with it. And now we take care of each other.

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We continue to do this. And you go as pretty

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much as fast as you can. Like not, not, not racing,

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but it's pretty quick. It's crisp. You know,

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I don't, I don't like, I don't like the word

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racing, but it is really fast. And, and we just

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keep going like that. Now, a variation that will

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come up and my variation that I've added is sometimes

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when that's going on, I'll start a second class.

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which will, of course, throw everybody into complete

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chaos. Everybody will laugh, and they get really

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nervous. They don't know what's going on. And

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I like to make the point that I never said at

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any point there could only be one cloud. But

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that's just a bullshit rule that we all just

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accepted, or you all just accepted, and didn't

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even question it. It's an invented rule. Now,

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it makes sense. I'm not trying to say everybody

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should know immediately we can do two, but it

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was never stated. It's an implied rule. were

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inferred that people just accept and they huh

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and then you minute you can have two you can

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see people's eyes get big and go oh that's interesting

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anything about that exactly unknown unknowns

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which is something we will get to certainly at

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some point in here as well but the point there

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is like well what limits are you putting on yourself

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that you don't even don't even know you're putting

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on right here's an example of something you were

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doing a limit that you had put on yourself without

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even thinking about it and how many other places

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in your life are you doing that And then when

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you see that something is possible that you didn't

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think was possible before, it starts to open

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your mind and you just go like, oh, right, what

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else is possible? And that's it. That's kind

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of where we're trying to get at. So back to the

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actual exercise of clap focus. If you do keep

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one and you're moving around real fast, why are

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we doing this? Well, improv really relies on

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being in a state of presence. That means that

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the individuals, as many as possible, are existing

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in this moment, this moment that we call infinity,

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you know, this one. Infinity is not a when, it's

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now. It's this moment, this moment, this one.

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This moment that just keeps going on and on and

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on. And we want to be here. We don't want to

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be, you know, worried about the future, depressed

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about the past, thinking about things we can't

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control. We want to be here and now. Because

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that way we are open and we are able to engage

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and play with other people. Play is a really

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big one that I will spend many episodes talking

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about play and how important it is. So that's

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why we do it. We go as fast as we can because

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when it's zipping around, you can't be thinking

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about what's for dinner, who's picking up the

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kids, you know, oh, that project I got to go.

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Like, you know, oh, this essay I've got to write.

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You can't think about those things. You know,

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you're here in the moment and you're engaging

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and you're part of something. And that's what

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we try to do. And that's why we do Clock Focus.

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And that's why it always starts. because I can

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always tell if that's going real fast around,

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it's going to be a great class. If it's not,

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if it's scattered, we do it a little bit longer.

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I try to get people into doing it, but the class

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is going to not be as crisp as it can be when

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that's flying around. So that's the first exercise

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I do. That's the way I do it. That's a variation.

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Another variation you can do is, especially with

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new groups or newer groups, you can, as you clap

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towards someone, you can say their name. And

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this will help us get names real fast. I always

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make it clear that, you know, we all forget names.

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So if you forget it once or twice, ask and they'll

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tell you. Or pronunciation is another one. I

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like to pronounce people's names the way they

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want to, you know, the way they like to have

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them pronounced. Now, sometimes that's not possible

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because there's some vowels I just can't do.

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But I can do as much, I can do the best job I

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can. So that's a good way to get names real fast.

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Go around, get everybody's name. And I say, just

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remember one. You just have to remember one at

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the beginning. Just remember one name, and then

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you can do it. And that's very, very fun. There's

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another little thing that happens since I'm talking

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about clap focus. And this will open up the door

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into vulnerability, which is another topic that

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we'll spend a lot of time talking about. There's

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often a moment, especially with newer groups

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doing clap focus, where it'll get dropped. Someone

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will clap at someone. It doesn't really get...

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it doesn't get you know communicated and the

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person who's on the spot looks at everybody like

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with help me written all over their face was

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that me and they're really embarrassed and they

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feel like they let everybody down and the group

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usually responds to that with a big hearty chuckle

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it's laugh it's very funny it's funny we're not

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funny we laugh laughter and humor that's another

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one we'll spend lots of time talking about but

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uh and in that moment you know it's those are

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key moments i love teachable moments and that's

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a key one And I just point out, well, that's

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interesting. We laughed. Why did we laugh? Well,

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there's a lot going on. But the big thing is

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empathy. Anybody who was staring at that person

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knows what that feels like because they were

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terrified it was going to happen to them, that

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they were going to be the one that messed up

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in front of everybody and look silly or foolish

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or humiliated. And we all laugh, but that laugh

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is not derisive. We're not laughing at the person.

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We're laughing in... not in association with,

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but in empathy with. I understand what that would

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be like, but it happened to you and not me. And

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that makes me feel better. And also, the other

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part about that is I like you more. The person

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who got, you know, failed or whatever, who got

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embarrassed momentarily is now generally well

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-liked by everybody in the group. And if you

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immediately took a straw poll as like, who's

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the president of this group, that person would

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be the front runner. And it's true. So vulnerability

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is incredibly powerful, and we'll talk about

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it, but that's a key thing that happens in CloudFocus,

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happens almost every time I do this with a new

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group. There's going to be that moment where

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someone, was that me? Oh, I don't know. Oh, oh,

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no. And everybody laughs when we talk about it.

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Laughter is interesting, and there's often things

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to talk about when we're laughing, especially

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when the scene is going on, when we're doing

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something together and we're laughing, right?

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Laughter and humor. I'm not getting into it now

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because it's a whole... dozens of episodes but

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you know when you laugh at something hmm what

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was that about that's interesting uh okay well

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that's clap focus that's the way it works uh

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that's why i know it's valuable because it helps

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bring everybody into a state of presence here

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and now and that's where you want to be uh i

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spend as much of my life as possible in a state

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of presence and it's uh um boy boy it's hard

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not to go down rabbit holes of talking about

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things because presence is very healing for the

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body, for sure, for the body and the mind. All

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right. So that was a little thing of the clap

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focus. So again, my name is Ralph McClatt. I

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am the owner and director of the SoCap Comedy

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Theater, socap .ca. I do a show the fourth Friday

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of every month at the old SoCap called The Stupid

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Good Comedy Show with three of my good friends.

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And that's always a hoot. And before that, at

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six o 'clock, we do a class. It's called Making

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Friends. So you basically come, you do a 90 -minute

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improv class. then you watch my show and then

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we all hang out and have a good time. And it's

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a great way to meet people in a very stress -free

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or at least very low stress. We do as much as

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we can to take away all the stress and all the

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stakes and make it just a fun thing. Because

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you can't really play if there are stakes. If

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you feel like there's some winning and losing

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going on, we try to take that right out of it.

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Anyway, hope to see you all soon. This has been

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the SoCap Improv Comedy Podcast. Take care, everybody.

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Bye.