Just a short one today. I have a question but it’s not a very good question. Kinda like when a moms know their teenaged boy stole their victoria secret catalogue and just asks them in front of the neighborhood girls to embarrass you.
Here’s the question:
Is it possible to learn something genuinely new from EVERY single improv set that you either do or see?
I think that yes, something is always a new fact in an improv set, but goddamn it if it isn’t hard to remember 3 days later. And maybe if I wasn’t really looking for it in the first place, I never knew it to begin with. Here’s the experiment. Call it a New Years Resolution if you will. Every time you see a show, write down one thing you really learned from watching it or doing it. Maybe it’s as simple as “that police officer character really harshed the buzz of that scene. Maybe people with positions of authority should be used sparingly” or “I wish someone had been a GODAMN HORSE in that scene!” Anything. It can be small like the little dipper, or it can be big like big ben, just as long as it’s something that you learned, and not just something that you liked. If you liked something but you were already aware of it as an improv move or something, pick something else. This is about personal learning. Whatever the case may be, figure out what that one thing was. Got it? For every show? Got it? Okay, now do one or more of the following things with it:
1. Add it to a paper list that you keep somewhere.
2. Email it to someone who does improv and get an email chain going.
3. Facebook message it to me so I can learn to and I’ll email you back validating that what you learned was, in fact, a fact. Unless it wasn’t. Then you’re WASTING EVERYONE’S TIME.
Do you have to do this? No, you idiot, it’s just a suggestion. But if you don’t I’ll think less of you.
Love forever,
Rollie
