WEBVTT

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Socap

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Improv Comedy Podcast. My name is Ralph McLeod.

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I am the owner and artistic director of the Socap

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Improv Comedy Theatre in Toronto, Canada, located

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at 154 Danforth Avenue above the Black Swan Tavern.

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The URL is socap .ca. That's S -O -C -A -P as

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in Peter dot C -A. Yeah, and... We teach improv

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there and we have a venue with two stages that

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you can rent and put on your own shows. We cast

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things from time to time. We do corporate events,

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private events, whatever you're looking for.

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I'm sure we can help you out. Now, every podcast

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has a sponsor. Tonight's episode is no different

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check it out. All right. So today. uh what i

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want to talk about is um something near and dear

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to my heart is uh well actually everything is

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near and dear to my heart um and it is the what

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can we do uh you know at the very beginning of

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a scene whether we get a suggestion or not and

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uh if you know me or have worked with me you

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know i don't like getting suggestions um for

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a number of reasons number one if you're asking

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a room and there's comedians in there or even

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even if you're even if it's just you know the

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general public they will tend to give you something

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that they think will be funny uh and often these

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things are harder to use them so you kind of

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hamstring yourself in a sense of like when you

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ask for a suggestion and you get umbrella well

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95 times out of 100, the scene will start with

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somebody opening an umbrella. They'll take the

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suggestion very literally, and these literal

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suggestions put us up in our heads, and they

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start us writing fiction. So I'm much more organic,

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and what I mean by that is looking at your scene

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partner, checking in with yourself. listening

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for the audience, listening for sounds in the

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room, and using everything to sort of set a tone

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or a mood that suggests where things are. So,

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yes, that was a big divergence away from what

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I wanted to talk about, which is what can we

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do? A lot of people, especially newer people,

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will think about a line to open the thing. a

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scene with, a funny line. There are certain traditions

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that encourage this kind of writing, a line,

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and often these lines, depending on what they

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are, can start a situation between two characters

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or even the improvisers that is... you know,

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defensive or acrimonious or looks for negativity

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or puts another character in a spot in a bad

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way. So this is an actual example of a line that

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one character said to another one. This is a

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couple years ago in one of my classes where character

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A walked up to character B, looked him square

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in the face and demanded of them, quote, why

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are you eating your pants? Now, that seems like

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it would be funny, right? first of all it's not

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the reaction from myself and you know i watch

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the other people watching the scene is one of

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consternation perplexed um they're like what's

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going on uh not that that's necessarily bad which

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i we may get into if not in this podcast in a

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subsequent podcast where we talk about dissonance

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but for now uh what what does that do well the

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other the person receiving that line has no idea

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they were doing any of that, but has been in

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doubt as eating their own pants, and then immediately

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called out for it in a negative way and demanded

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of them an explanation be given as to why they

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are doing that. Now, can that work? Of course

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it can work. And if I were working with certain

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people, that's a line, I mean, if I'd use that

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exact line, probably not. But something similar

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where I endow them as doing something and demand

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an immediate explanation from it because I know

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they're going to give me one that's going to

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be funny and funny because what the reason it

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will be funny is they'll make it make sense.

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Why are you reading your pants? Well, I couldn't

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eat yours. See, that's work. I mean, I think

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that works to me. That works. It's funny because

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it clears up the dissonance in a way. Not entirely,

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but enough that it makes it makes it funny. Oh,

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of course, you have to eat your own pants if

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you can't eat someone else's. Of course, it doesn't

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explain the underpinning of like why you eat

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pants in the first place. Is there some kind

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of famine going on or your pants delicious? I

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don't know. But justification, which you say,

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well, I'll do that in another episode. We'll

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talk about justification later. But so you can

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do that kind of stuff. And I'm not and I'm never

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against really. There's very little things, a

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few things I'm against. I would, you know, if

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I had a student, and in this case I did, I had

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a conversation about why I don't think that was

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a great idea, especially working with someone

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you don't know, someone who's also fairly new,

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because you put people back on their heels, and

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then if they can't answer it, they're going to

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feel bad, and they're not going to like you,

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because they'll remember you as the one who embarrassed

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them, and it's not going to go very well for

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you. What I really wanted to talk about is not

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what you shouldn't do, but what can you do? To

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me, the good practices, right? These are things

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that I do, the things that I encourage my students

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to do. And I see again and again and again, when

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they do these things, they tend to be more successful

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than not. So what are those? Well, you can make

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a choice about how you feel, right? I feel happy.

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I'm happy. Not like over the moon happy like

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I've won the lottery. But I feel like in a pretty

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good place. And whoever my scene partner is,

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and of course I don't know who this person is,

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you can make some decisions about that. And again,

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I would caution you not to. Only because if I

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make a choice about the person that I'm with

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in this scene is my doctor. Say, okay, you're

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my doctor. And before I have a chance to say

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something, they turn around and they say, so

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inspector, have you solved the case? Uh, okay.

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Now, yes, I can still move forward with, this

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is my doctor. And then what they're choosing

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to talk about is this, but now I've got a bunch

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of writing to do. I've got a bunch of, um, uh,

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I'm not damage control. That's too strong of

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a word, but hope you understand what I mean.

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Like I've got to now contextualize why my doctor

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is calling me inspector and asking me about his

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case. Maybe we're Sherlock Holmes. I don't know.

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But I mean, we can make that work. So it's, again,

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I want to be clear. There's very little few things

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that I say never do these things. But these practices

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will tend to put us in our head. They'll tend

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to lead to some miscommunication. So my best

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practice is make a decision about something like

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an emotion. I'm happy. Therefore, no matter what

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my scene partner does or says, I can still be

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happy. Have you solved the case, Inspector? I

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certainly have. Turns out you're the person who

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did this, right? And I'm happy I've caught you,

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right? So it can work. Or if I choose to be happy

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and the character turns around on wheels and

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says, I hate you, or I can still be happy. I

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know. Finally, I've gotten you upset, which is

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what I've wanted all along. You know, happy.

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Good morning. Good morning. It's a beautiful

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day outside. Oh, it's gorgeous. Let's go fishing.

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You know, you can react happy to everything or

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angry and like you. So you can pick an emotion,

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happy, angry, sad, guilty, jealous, paranoid.

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These all work. And it's not like, you know,

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maybe you choose paranoid. The other person says,

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have you solved the case, inspector? Or good

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morning or whatever. You can maybe, if it really

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doesn't work, I'm trying to think now, it seems

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like it always works, right? It's just all the

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cases back there. Why are you asking? Has the

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chief been asking you to ask me about this? Are

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they mad? You know, you can react to, you can

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keep that initiation by one thing. And the nice

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thing about choosing something, rather than just

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being a blank slate, because you can say, well,

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Ralph, just be a blank slate. You can also do

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the same thing. True, you can. But then the tendency

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is to react either minimally or what tends to

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happen more often in my experience is I have

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infinite choices. And much like sitting in the

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grocery store in front of like a thousand bottles

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of salad dressing, I can't make a choice. I grew

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up at a time, or at least I was fairly young,

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I guess in my 20s, when Blockbuster came out

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at video stores. And people would spend hours

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in the video store agonizing over which movie

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to take home. Because you had so many choices.

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Especially if the one movie you went there to

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get, the new release, they're all out. And then

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you go find a plan B. That was awful, but also

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amazing. But it was hard if you had a family

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of four and everybody's fighting over the choice.

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It makes it even worse. But yes, so when you

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make no choice, you have choice paralysis. You

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tend to. Or you tend to underreact things. Because

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as human beings and as novel improvisers, we

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tend to live in that middle range of okay. Things

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are okay. How are you? Not bad. But we like living

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in that place. We don't like living in the extremes.

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But on stage, we want to be in the extreme. And

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I find even in real life, I don't want to be

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maybe extreme, but I want to be more than okay.

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When people ask me how I am, I tend to say, I'm

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great. I'm doing great. How are you doing? Rather

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than, okay, you know, and not to make a meal

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out of, you know, casual conversation, like,

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how are you doing? But I tend to say great, you

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know, or, or when I'm being playful, you know,

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if someone gives me a compliment, Ralph, you're

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so smart. I'll say like, you have no idea. It

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still makes me laugh because to accept compliments

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or even accusations, accusations or insults,

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you know, Ralph, you're. a garbage person. Oh,

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you have no idea the depths of my depravity.

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Like you can very playful. You can do these things

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and it, and it makes you very likable. So anyway,

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so going back to the initiation, pick, uh, an

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emotion. I'm happy. I'm angry, sad, um, continent,

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whatever. Pick an attitude, which is kind of

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like an emotion, an attitude about the person

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you're with. I like you. I don't like you. I'm

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suspicious of you. I feel I'm better than you.

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And then status status is the third one. you

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know, I'm above you, I'm beneath you. And that

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goes into, I want to be your friend or I'm going

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to crush you utterly. And it's going to be, I'm

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going to have a really good time doing it. So

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these will all work and they happen no matter

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what the other person says or does. You don't

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have to pivot away from your choice and rewrite

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and do anything else. And the nice thing about

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making a choice and having an initiation is you

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have now a thing, to react to the beginning of

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a character i'm playing a character who is happy

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you know i don't know why he's happy or she's

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happier they're happy but i will figure it out

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in the fullness of time and then uh because that's

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that's one thing that happens when you make these

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choices is at least for me and i see it in my

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students all the time too uh that why you are

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happy or why you are paranoid or why you are

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feeling guilty will come out, even without really

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focusing on it. It's just our brain just starts

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giving us the contextualizing machine that is

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our brain will just start giving us lots of reasons

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as to why we feel a certain way, why I am happy,

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why I am sad, why I am guilty, why I am bad.

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These will all start falling into place as we

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uncover what's going on. What are we participating

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in? What are we watching? What is growing here

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in front of our eyes? So for initiations, especially

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for newer people, or if you're experienced but

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you're working on something you don't know, I

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caution you to stay away from singing up a line

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of dialogue and saying that, which contains information.

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this sort of approach of the laying on of information

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in which a character will say something like,

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well, darling, here we are, walking along the

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shores of the Champs -Élysées. I mean, that gives

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you a who, what, and where in one line. And again,

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I'm not saying never do that. Sometimes it may

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be necessary. But to me, it robs your scene partner

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of any opportunity to be a part of the creation

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of... the context. They just have to go, yes,

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and of course, skilled improvisers will say,

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that's right, sweetheart. And, it's great to

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be here with you, back in the place where we

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celebrated our honeymoon. Arena, renew our vows.

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Why did I say honeymoon? I can't remember what

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I said in my first line. Here we are at our honeymoon.

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Yes. So, it would be stupid if the characters

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said yes on our honeymoon. Sweetheart, here we

00:14:57.139 --> 00:14:59.980
are, walking and then along the Champs -Élysées

00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:02.360
to celebrate our honeymoon. Yes, the skilled

00:15:02.360 --> 00:15:04.679
supervisor would say, yes, that's right, my love.

00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:06.480
You know, from the moment I saw you, I knew there

00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:08.779
was no one else for me but you. There we go.

00:15:08.860 --> 00:15:10.600
We got a beginning of a scene. So you can do

00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:13.519
it. I'm not saying never do these things. What

00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:21.039
I'm saying is that when you do that, you may

00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:24.419
find that you then will have to do some writing.

00:15:25.129 --> 00:15:28.590
or some flipping, or some contextualizing. And

00:15:28.590 --> 00:15:30.909
again, those can present opportunities. Like

00:15:30.909 --> 00:15:32.429
in the case of, why are you reading your own

00:15:32.429 --> 00:15:37.090
pants? Well, because your pants were dirty. Okay.

00:15:38.129 --> 00:15:43.350
That works. All right. But I strongly recommend,

00:15:43.710 --> 00:15:46.350
especially for newer people, to pick, rather

00:15:46.350 --> 00:15:50.230
than a thought bug and an inventive lie, to be

00:15:50.230 --> 00:15:53.389
a receptive participant in what's going on by

00:15:53.389 --> 00:15:57.340
making a choice. And focusing, not focusing,

00:15:57.559 --> 00:16:01.159
filtering whatever information you get through

00:16:01.159 --> 00:16:04.679
that. You know, if you're happy and you look

00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:06.059
over at your scene partner and they're scowling

00:16:06.059 --> 00:16:07.600
at you, well, now you know why you're happy.

00:16:07.820 --> 00:16:10.899
Because you made them upset. Don't know why.

00:16:11.419 --> 00:16:14.179
That we will get to, right, in the fullness of

00:16:14.179 --> 00:16:17.519
time as we discover that together. And that divergent

00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:19.879
process of making these discoveries together

00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:22.799
during the beginning of scenes and divergent

00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:26.830
thinking. which we'll get to another time, is

00:16:26.830 --> 00:16:30.210
exhilarating, you know, as we all make these

00:16:30.210 --> 00:16:33.409
discoveries together in real time. Anyway, that's

00:16:33.409 --> 00:16:37.149
my thing for today. The moment before, the moment

00:16:37.149 --> 00:16:38.690
you can start, no matter what your suggestion

00:16:38.690 --> 00:16:42.009
is, rather than, you know, literally doing that

00:16:42.009 --> 00:16:43.970
thing, opening an umbrella if it's an umbrella

00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:47.389
or cutting cheese if it's cheese or, you know,

00:16:47.409 --> 00:16:49.629
cutting carrots if you're making dinner, also

00:16:49.629 --> 00:16:52.549
think about how you feel. And if you don't know,

00:16:52.570 --> 00:16:55.240
if you can't make a decision, like. Be happy

00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:58.039
like the people you're with. It will make you

00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:00.399
much more likely to say yes, much more likely

00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:02.519
to buy into what you're doing, much more likely

00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:06.480
to work together to create the fiction and uncover

00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:10.799
or discover who we are and what is going on.

00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:15.740
And when conflict arises, it's much more likely

00:17:15.740 --> 00:17:18.180
to make that conflict outside of the two of us.

00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:20.240
So the conflict does not exist between the characters.

00:17:20.750 --> 00:17:23.730
at least original. It exists outside of us. We

00:17:23.730 --> 00:17:28.970
have to face this together. And while that may

00:17:28.970 --> 00:17:31.990
seem more difficult, I don't know if it does

00:17:31.990 --> 00:17:35.890
or not, to write that kind of scene or create

00:17:35.890 --> 00:17:39.390
it in real time, I find it's not. And they're

00:17:39.390 --> 00:17:43.890
often way better scenes. The scenes that are

00:17:43.890 --> 00:17:45.970
really hard are the ones, or the most difficult,

00:17:46.170 --> 00:17:47.890
especially for newer people, but they are more

00:17:47.890 --> 00:17:50.440
comfortable and familiar. is the scenes in which

00:17:50.440 --> 00:17:52.740
there's direct conflict between the two characters.

00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:56.200
Mom loved you best. No, she didn't. She did not.

00:17:56.859 --> 00:17:59.039
She loved you more than she loved me. How could

00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:00.839
you say that? Obviously, it was you that she

00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:04.720
loved more. Oh, au contraire. Not in my experience.

00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:08.019
Anyway, that's my thing for today. Pick an emotion.

00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:12.180
Pick an attitude. Pick status. And always, always,

00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:14.920
always have fun. If you want to pick angry, pick

00:18:14.920 --> 00:18:17.660
angry because it's fun to do it. Not because

00:18:17.660 --> 00:18:21.460
you're... upset right if you're upset fight against

00:18:21.460 --> 00:18:23.819
that like you as an individual as a performer

00:18:23.819 --> 00:18:27.079
if you're having a bad day don't get having a

00:18:27.079 --> 00:18:31.920
bad day as a character trait because it's it

00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:34.119
can be really hard to watch a character who's

00:18:34.119 --> 00:18:36.319
having a bad day go up on stage and have a bad

00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:39.339
day but if you're having a great day go up on

00:18:39.339 --> 00:18:41.180
stage and have a bad day that's that can be really

00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:44.039
fun because it really comes down to what do audiences

00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:47.940
react to the way the actor is feeling that they're

00:18:47.940 --> 00:18:51.029
watching that's the magic of it you'll know how

00:18:51.029 --> 00:18:52.849
you feel all right thanks everybody thanks for

00:18:52.849 --> 00:18:54.910
tuning in we'll see you next time here on the

00:18:54.910 --> 00:18:58.690
socap improv comedy podcast socap .ca brought

00:18:58.690 --> 00:19:02.269
to you by libidinous libidinous for all your

00:19:02.269 --> 00:19:04.210
sexy needs bye