improvarama

  How is your attention? How is your focus? Doing improv brings people to their full attentiveness, because without that you're lost. As Paul Sills taught me, that attentiveness and that improv work best when you get out of your head, when you "stop playwriting" and give the moment all you've got. It's powerful. It's wonderful. It's ever so real.  Great improv keeps us in the present. The past is too boring to play and the future is up for grabs so we must live every present moment tuned in, generating ideas, and sharing responsibility. Improv is life’s attentiveness optimized . — doug smith

It's awkward to experience a creative block when you need to create on the spot. It feels like driving an old country winding road on a dark night when your headlights suddenly go out. Not fun. Scary, even.  Ah, but sometimes creativity feels like that. Sometimes improvisation feels less than automatic. Should we keep driving, or stop in our tracks? Maybe coast? What drives you, what guides you is still there. As long as we put in the hours and work the practice, our practice will kick in and get us going. Don't knock the blocks, they are there to build on. Creative break-thru come after creative blocks. And -- those creative break-thru are sweet indeed. -- doug smith  

The trouble with bad improv is that it looks fake. Maybe the actors are having fun -- they're certainly getting bigger and bigger with their broad attempts at humor -- but it makes me squirm when I see someone acting. Obviously, acting in ways that say "isn't this funny?" and "aren't we all cool?" No, it's not funny. And, no, it's not cool. Improv is bigger than that, better than that, much harder than that. Real improv looks real. Characters are developed. Plots evolve instead of becoming fabricated. Dialogue sounds like overheard conversations with built in subtle yet compelling drama. That's asking a lot from improv, which is why it's so rare. But what if you delivered at that level? What if we each took our improv to a level that is even with the best acting available? What if no one could tell that you were improvising? Wouldn't that be amazing? -- doug smith

A truly great improv actor makes peace with silence. Silence from the character and silence from the audience. It's not about the laugh. -- doug smith