the 'yes' rule in impro

The rule in impro is to always say yes. For the beginner particularly, this is an inflexible rule, for when we say no, we are not accepting what is offered us, and therefore the time is simply wasted finding a new direction to go in. So this rule greatly facilitates scene and narrative development. Now. Thinking people will often object by saying quite rightly, but life is not always positive, affirmative, accepting. So how can I be real if I say yes? And this certainly appears to be a good point. In real life, people do say no. They do reject and block. Surely we must mirror that truth? Also the objection occurs that there is no freedom in it. It is to totalitarian. You MUST say yes. No choice. And I agree. This is true. The rule is inflexible. So why is it necessary?


Well the answer is not to do with truth or freedom. The answer is to do with something that sort of precedes those issues, and is largely, quite invisible or ignored. Something already in place when those concepts materialise. And that is, the properties of words. The nature of words. The way words work. And the word yes, is a word. First and foremost, that’s what it is. And like it or not, as a culture, we have put far too much emphasis on language and talking and everything to do with words being important and influential. In reality, a word is simply a symbol for something else. Therefore a word has no actual existence itself! So when we use a word, not much has really happened, if anything at all! And yet we live in a world where once a thing is said, or written down, we act as if it has actually happened! Think! If a newspaper has the headline, MAN HAS TWO BRAINS! If we were honest, we would admit that we would believe it. And this is why the rule exists. Not because people must always be positive or follow rules, but because we need to remind people that saying words does not change very much. If in a scene I say, “Tree!” People are forced to ask, “But what about the tree?” i.e. give us more. Something real. Something that is not just words. So I would be forced to say, “The tree attacked me!” And then they would say, “Ah ha! Thank God. Something we can work with. Well then. Attacked you did it? Let’s go outside and chop it down!!!” So the yes rule simply points to the fact that a large part of reality is feelings, emotions, atmospheres, the unknown, objects, et cetera... And only a small part is words.
And let’s stop and think about actors. Coming to the theatre the first thing an actor introduced to is a play script which is, in effect, just lots and lot of words. That’s what play scripts are. You can have a silent film, but a silent play, a full length play, is almost impossible. Could you do a silent version of Macbeth? As people know the story you probably could. But Uncle Vanya? That would be ridiculous. Vanya being a good example of our word obsessed modern world. I say word obsessed. Maybe a better way to put it would be to say a culture that is infected with ‘word-faith’. Or as William Burroughs calls it, a word-virus. Another aspect of this is that of people internalising a negative attitude. An automatic negative response. I once entered a scene and the other performer said,      “ Come any nearer and I’ll shoot myself!” The

ultimate negative blocking offer!!! To flow with  things you need to embrace them. And to embrace them, you need to feel positive or

good about them. Often people simply don’t,

and the yes rule here corrects this self

sabotaging behaviour, in performance terms,

but does not change this conditioned negative

 response at a deeper level. There it still very

much exists, despite the constant positive

YES SAYING!!!

Now having said all this I’m going to contradict myself. Oh bugger! Words are magical. Words do contain power. The power of a thing said in the right way, with the right words, like in say Shakespeare or something, cannot be gainsaid. When Oscar Wilde said, ‘A Handbag!?’ the world changed. Forever. But this is poetry. And poetry relates to the individual. And impro is a group exercise. So having a purist pious attitude to the use of words in impro is rather misplaced, wonderful as words are!!!!!!!!

So. I hope all this encourages you to flow with the yes rule, and feel happy about it, and not feel you have signed away your soul to some smirking devil, who just wanted you to mindlessly say yes. YES!

ACTING- A TOLTEC PERSPECTIVE

For actors and performers one issue must be dealt with at the very outset. What should an actor do as regards getting guidance on his chosen field??? Considering the vast number of acting gurus out there, from Stanislavski to Hagen, this is indeed a fraught question. Which school/guru is best? How do they differ? Who is authentic? Who isn’t? These questions are bound to go through any dedicated actor’s mind. Now what I have learned through long experience, and having gone the usual route of following and struggling with methods and techniques, and trying to understand what the gurus were trying to tell me, is, that there is a bottom line. And that this is that acting is a magical thing, and as such, cannot really be analysed, quantified or made rational and comprehensible to the analytical mind. It is really not theoretical. You cannot think your way to a result with acting. And though it is always useful and interesting to know what other people have said on this subject, and familiarise yourself with the different schools of thought, at the end of the day, when you go on stage, you need to drop all that. Drop it completely. Forget it. Forget completely you know anything. And then you must trust in that power that rules over us, and guides us, to provide whatever it is you need, to make a particular scene or character come to life. TRUST. For when it comes to the theoretical approach, I always feel it a bit like that story ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’. The apprentice tries to appropriate the Sorcerer/Guru’s power, but his literal approach to this, simply gets him into endless complications, for the truth is, he is not the guru/sorcerer. He is, himself. In the story he ends up chopping the mop, which only means he has two mops to chop. And chopping those four. And then eight. And then so on, ad-infinitum. And the moral is you cannot just mimic the Guru’s power. You must go on the same journey as him. Find it for yourself. There are no short cuts. So.

THE RIGHT GUIDANCE!!!!!

I am not an acting guru, and that is why I can give you the right guidance on this. And my guidance is not a theory, or a method. My guidance is simply a description, in order to help you see something more clearly; for if we get clarity, we will make progress. And here it is.

Acting is about double-ness. It is about having a split-focus. It is about being yourself, and not yourself, both at once. We forget, the potential to be a character, exists when we are not a character. And when we are on stage playing a character, we are still ourselves, playing a character! In other words, on entering a scene, you must claim your space, by knowing who you are, i.e. what role you are playing, be self orientated, and self justified, and at the same time, you must be focussed outside yourself, on who the other actors are, what roles they are playing, and what their reasons are for being there, and doing what they do. You must do both these things at once. Split the focus!!!! Put in terms of the Toltec teachings, you must believe without believing! Know a thing is both true and false, at the same time. And this is of course theoretically impossible!!!! Your rational mind will never flatten this out to make it reasonable and understandable, for it simply isn’t reasonable and understandable, and yet, at the same time, it is simplicity itself, for we can be double. We can simply feel it! Now to say acting is about double-ness, may seem tad obvious. We may think, but I knew that! Of course it is about double-ness! But I am putting the focus back on this simple thing, to remind people of the essence of acting. Something that has been rather lost with the ‘progress’ that has been made in acting theory. And in order to show you a new way to work, with becoming a better actor, and how we can do this without resorting to gurus, methods, schools and the like, which, in the end, often hinder rather than help the would be actor. So, having understood that all we really need to do in acting, is split the focus, we can ask ourselves, how can I practice that? Well the answer is the place to practice this is in real life. Day to day life. Nuts and bolts life. We can practice having a split focus, within our normal world. We don’t have to be in an acting class, or be on stage, to do it. So let’s look at life.

1. You pay a bill

2. You meet friends.

3. You go to church.

4. You catch a bus.

5. You do a night class.

Here is ‘real life’ in all its majestic wonderfulness! Now. How can we split the focus in theses areas. In broad terms we can intend to be more aware of the inner and the outer in all these activities. There’s subjective, you doing it. And the objective. the place and the people you do it with/in. We find 2 ways to look at same thing.

Taken singly.

1. (The bill.) Past financial history. Present attitude. Your need to pay, and your attitude to paying.

2. (Friends.) Your perception of yourself. Their perception of you.

3. (Church.) Atmosphere inside church. Atmosphere outside church.

4. (Bus.) Focus on destination or journey.

5. (Night class.) Learning and socialising. How do they feel different.

So a lot of it boils down to inner and outer. What is the inner way to look at tieing your shoelace. And what is the outer way? It is 2 ways of seeing the same thing. Now this is the right guidance for it will yield a result, in that you will become more versed in shifting the focus. You will! However, your rational mind may well reject this saying “But I can’t do that! I can’t hold 2 contradictory positions at once.”

It may, your rational mind, even fight back against this threatening activity,
by making you go to sleep. Feel angry and confused.
Making you lose your pen. Notebook. Or trip over the cat.

Nevertheless. This is the right guidance. To act you do need a split focus, and this exercise in awareness will foster it.

Now, we live in an extremely sophisticated civilisation. Something commented on by Shakespeare in King Lear when Lear says:

“For thou are the thing itself, a bare forked animal.”

Simple attitudes to things and simple solutions are frowned upon and laughed at. And this is a shame for in doing this, man cheats himself out of the sublime joy inherent in this child-like truth of simplicity. Obviousness. Un-pretentiousness. A child knows what acting is. A child needs no theory. Acting is just pretending. And what great fun it is! (“Just pretending darling! Are you crazy? Have you seen my Lear???”)

BECKETT TYPE SKETCH FOR 2 ACTORS

(A field. Midnight. Full moon. Hatter, an old clown, still in his clown make up and costume, from the show, sits on a tree stump looking depressed. Enter Hare, another old clown, looking depressed as well.)


Hatt. You got here.

Hare. Yes.

Hatt. Did you manage to slip out undetected?



(Hare nods dejectedly.)



Hatt. Who was on?

Hare. Mario and his dancing penguins.

Hatt. I thought they got sick.

Hare. He gave them anti-biotics. In their pilchards.

Hatt. I thought they liked herring?

Hare. No. Pilchards.



(Hare looks up despondently.)



The moon is full. They say starring at it can drive you mad.

Hatt. Well don’t stare!



(Hatt gets up and paces around annoyed.)



You did it again you know. (Miming.) I blow in my saxophone. Your trousers fall down. I drop the baby in surprise, and when we both bend over, bingo! Our heads bang together, but yours was miles away. Miles away.

Hare. I can’t concentrate.

Hatt. Miles away.

Hare. I feel confused.

Hatt. Miles away.

Hare. My mind wanders.

Hatt. Miles away.

Hare. I’m bored with it.

Hatt. (Superior and knowing.) Look. They’re not paying us to be ordinary people who manage to preserve their dignity by rigidly controlling every single aspect of their behaviour and keeping it all within a small and undemonstrative framework.



(Pause.)



Hare. What are you? Some kind of therapist?

Hatt. No. I’m a clown.

Hare. You are a clown.

Hatt. And what are you then. Winston bloody Churchill?

Hare. I told you before that the head banging bizznizz was old hat but you wouldn’t listen, would you?

Hatt. Well. What did you come up with. The fucking squirting flower! Who hasn’t seen that before?

Hare. The kids like the squirting flower! It has class!

Hatt. It’s got about as much class as my arse!



(They square up to each other. Turn away. Hare sits on the tree stump.)



Hare. Oh what difference does it make? It’s not what we want to do.

Hatt. No.

Hare. It’s not like it’s our act.

Hatt. No.

Hare. It’s not the act we wrote.

Hatt. All those years ago.

Hare. In the boarding house.

Hatt. In Brighton.

Hare. When we first met.

Hatt. (Laughing.) Mrs troubshaw.

Hare. (Laughing.) She said her husband’s car had a catholic converter.

Hatt. She had that stick to measure the bathwater.

Hare. In case you took too much.

Hatt. When you farted she said.

Hare. I fear someone has had an extraneous eruction!



(They both laugh.)



Hatt. Priceless. And what about mr Troubshaw.

Hare. The mysterious Mr T.

Hatt. Yeah. You hardly ever saw him.

Hare. Always in the other part of the house.

Hatt. Locked away.

Hare. Doing his stuff.

Hatt. But when he did come out.

Hare. His skin.

Hatt. Like it was covered in a fine white powder.

Hare. Sort of desiccated.

H&H. UUUrrgghh.

Hatt. You know what he was doing back there.

Hatt. I can imagine.

Hare. Holidaymaker’s mysterious disappearance.

Hatt. Torso found by side of dual carriageway.

Hare. Local iron mongers sells out of industrial acid.

H&H. UUUgghhhrrrgh. DESSICATED!

Hatt. I didn’t like being in the same room as him.

Hare. Me nie-ther.

Hatt. Nee-ther.

Hare. Niether. (Pause.) So you know. Why the hell aren’t we doing our OUR act? That was the act we wrote. That’s why we got together. The act. It’s us. Isn’t it? And do we do it? No we don’t.

Hatt. It aint that simple.

Hare. Yes it is.

Hatt. No it isn’t! And we’ve discussed this a million times.

Hare. So?

Hatt. You just can’t do your own act. Nobodies going to pay you for that. Not in this post-modern world.

Hare. Fucking post-modern world.

Hatt. It just isn’t going to happen.

Hare. But our act is good!

Hatt. That isn’t the point. You have to entertain.

Hare. (Disgust.) Entertain. Where’s the artistic element in that?

Hatt. Art isn’t an issue. Only entertainment.

Hare. Bloody philistines.

Hatt. That may well be. But that’s how it is. In this culture, at this point in time, all they want is trouser dropping…

Hare. Head banging…

Hatt. Baby losing…

Hare. Fire engine bell ringing…

Hatt. Custard pie receiving…

Hare. Saxophone bubble blowing…

Hatt. Flower squirting…

Hare. BOLLOX! (Pause.) But our act is good. (Pause.) Let’s do it now.

Hatt. What?

Hare. Let’s do it now. Here.

Hatt. Why? No one’s watching.

Hare. Does there have to be an audience?

Hatt. Yes. Of course. I’m an artist.

Hare. You’re a tosser. Look. I’m the audience, and you’re the audience.



(Hatt is not convinced.)



Percy mate! For the love of Gawd! Let’s do it. Our act. For one last time, here, in a field, under a full moon, at midnight, (Indicating audience.) for the cows, if no one else! It’s our act fer Kristsakes!!!!!!!



(Hatt struggles and at last capitulates. He nods. They turn round and reach into hold-all, that Hare brought on with him. Turn back wearing some kind of nazi uniform with Hitler moustaches. German accents.)



Hare. Hello children.

Hatt. Are you feeling unhappy.

Hare. Are you feeling depressed.

Hatt. Are you tired of zee know-it-all adults?

Hare. Telling you to sit down?

Hatt. To shut up.

Hare. To behave like them?

Hatt. To be boring unhappy robots.

Hare. In a boring unhappy universe?

Hatt. And giving you zee potty training.

Hare. Poop poop poop.

Hatt. Zee etiquette training.

Hare. Zee fork, zee spoon, zee k-niff.

Hatt. Zee brain training.

Hare. (Singing.) I am zee very model of a modern major general, with informations animal, zee vegetable and mineral.

Hatt. Zen fear no more.

Hare. For we are here.



Song



Everybody needs to be

A nazi now and then

What will make zee world go round

A final prog-err-ah-ham!!!

So it’s time to get your parents

Take them far away

Conduct some fun experiments

It’s time for you to play.

They acted like nazis to poor you

Now you can be a nazi to them

It’s only fair

Do you think they care?

How much must you bear?

(March type music.)

So children unite!

You know you must fight.

This parental blight!

For we are the Hitler clowns

And we are fucking right!





Hare. It’s a fantastic act!

Hatt. It certainly hits the spot.

Hare. The Hitler clowns. What a genius we had when we came up with that!!!

Hatt. Yeah. Genius.

Hare. The moon’s gone behind a cloud.

Hatt. Yeah. (Pause.) Well. That’s that then. We did it.

Hare. Yeah. One last time.

Hatt. One last time.

Hare. The last post.

Hatt. The end of the road.

Hare. The final …

Hatt. Curtain?

Hare. Encore.

(Pause.)

Hatt. Did you bring it?

Hare. You mean the rope? The rope to hang ourselves with?

Hatt. (Sarcastic.) No. The bleedin clockwork stirrup pump.

Hare. (Despondent.) Yeah.



(Mime. Takes it out of bag. Everything with rope is mimed.)



Hatt. What are you looking at me like that for? We agreed. We painstakingly went through all the pros and cons, the ifs and buts, the yeas and nays. Are we going to carry on being a couple of sad old clowns, going through the same stale routines, just to make a mindless bunch of kids, scream pointlessly with mindless bloody laughter? Are we? Are we? Where’s are dignity? Where’s our integrity? Where’s our true clown spirit? I’ll tell you. Here. Here, in this here rope. Rope. (Pause.) So come on. Tie the bloody noose and let’s get it over with.

(Hare starts to tie rope to tree bough above head.)

Hare. But one of us will have to go first and then suppose the other one changes his mind. Loses his nerve.

Hatt. We discussed that. Memory like a sieve. We go together.

Hare. Two heads in one noose? That’s a bit unorthodox.

Hatt. Yes. Well. We’re clowns not merchant bankers.

Hare. (Worried.) But will it work? Surely the noose is a one person piece of equipment?

Hatt. (Thinking.) Alright then. We go one at a time.

Hare. But who goes first?

Hatt. I will. There. Problem solved.

(Hare organises rope and moves tree stump to stand on. Hatt stands on it. Noose mime.

Hare. Ready?

Hatt. Ready. (Pause.) I hereby renounce life for being the painful godless sham it is, Samuel Beckett. Like a mental patient receiving an award for playing William Shakespeare, yadda yadda yadda, the end.



(Hatt sways on the tree stump. Screws eyes shut. Tension.)



Hare. Wait!

Hatt. What?

Hare. I’ve had a strange kind of epiphany or mystical realisation!

Hatt. Oh bollox! What?

Hare. I’ve realised. If I looked in my heart. If I was honest with myself, really honest, not pretend honest, I’d have to admit, I’ve only one real friend in the world. And that’s you Hatt. And when you stepped up there on the stump, I saw it all. All we have shared. All the struggle. All the heartache. All the times we died on our arses. The boredom. The rejections. All of it. And I realised. There’s still one thing that’s important to me. And that’s not, NOT, letting you down. So that’s why I’m making this confession. Because once you’ve gone, I don’t think I’ll be able to go through with it. Without you here, to egg me on, my nerve will go. And I don’t want to let you down. That would make me fell worse than what I normally feel even. So I’m asking you. (Kneeling like in prayer.)Hatt. Give it another go. Maybe there is a point to it all. Maybe there is a purpose. Maybe there’s,(Like a sacrilege.) even a God. Who knows. Who really knows. Please.



(Hatt takes off noose and steps down off tree stump.


They awkwardly embrace. Take down rope and put it in hold-all.)



Hatt. So. A happy ending.

Hare. (Despondent.) Yeah. Happy.

Hatt. Come on.



(They start to leave.)



And remember. Tomorrow night. When I drop the baby.

Hare. Yeah yeah yeah.



(They exit. Curtain.)

THE IMPRO MYTHS

IMPRO MYTH ONE


Your mind analyses the elements of a scene in order to arrive at the thing you must contribute.



This is the most prevalent myth, Mr Jones, and the use of games and controlling strategies, that rely on cultural expertise, fosters this myth. HOWEVER. It is a myth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A better way to arrive at the knowledge of what to contribute to a scene, is to feel your way into it. FEEL. Don’t look directly at it. This isn’t about emotion. Emotion a different area. You must feel. Stop thinking. Feel your way in the dark. Work with the your lack of knowledge, not your possession of knowledge. The analogy is with driving a car. You feel it. You drive with the seat of your pants. It is instinctive.

So guideline, not rule, is to feel. It you start thinking, try and observe yourself doing it, and them remind yourself to feel.

And this means feeling simple things. Like for example, feeling hot. Or feeling your uncertainty. Feeling your unsure-ness about what to do in a scene, could well be a good starting point for a scene. It’s an illogical thing, that uncertainty can be productive of certainty. But there it is. And when people say, “But I don’t know what I feel!” then of course, that is what you feel. This boredom. Frustration. Doubt.

IMPRO MYTH TWO

To be good at impro you must be witty clever and talented.

Well Mr Jones,this is the socially conditioned view of impro based on all the ideas we have been imprinted with by the competitive, judgemental, goal orientated world, we have all grown up in. Much better to just understand that this is not the reality. It is just a very one-dimensional view of life. A very self-obsessed view. Talent is indeed a wonderful thing, but it often has the negative effect of making people over value one area of their lives, causing an imbalance. Picasso was a good example. No one can deny his power in creating images. He was though not good at relationships, even with his own children! Also talent is really very misunderstood. It helps to shift the focus and see it in terms of extra self awareness, relating to a certain area. In short, Mr Long, impro can be whatever we make it. Whatever we bring to it. It is up to us.

IMPRO MYTH THREE

Impro is so frightening it can kill you!

Hear is our fear of losing our coolness coolness! Mr Jones! writ large for all to see. We are terrified of stepping out of the comfort zone. The known. And this really is just ignoring reality in a head strong stubborn way, for no matter what fight we put up, or resistance we have, life will eventually force us out of the known, the comfort zone, and the intelligent thing is to go to meet it, and not passively wait till it comes crashing down on your comfortable head!!!!!!! OUCH!

IMPRO MYTH FOUR

You can progress up through the levels with impro getting more and more sophisticated as you go along.


What important to understand here, Mr Jones, is that on the one hand you can become more fluid in changing your intensity, and consequently be a better improviser, but impro itself is a zen thing. It will always be the stupid silly thing it was when you first did it. There’s a book called ‘zen mind beginner’s mind,’ and this the impro mind. It always a beginners mind, even if you are very quick fluent and proficient at doing it!!!Doh!!!!!

IMPRO MYTH FIVE

Impro will help you in other areas of life.

Finally!!! Mr Jones! A myth that is true!!! I knew we’d get there sooner or later, Mr Jones!!! Yes. Whether it a job interview, the need to chat up the opposite sex, creative writing, or whatever, impro can and will help in these and other areas. Hoo-ray! Success at last!!!

IMPRO & THE SPIRITUAL

Impro is people improvising games, stories, scenes, songs, in a performance context,or in a workshop, and this is not considered spiritual by the majority. Spirituality is always seen as something elevated and refined and what happens when you free associate, is a load of repressed sex and rage type stuff comes up, and this seen as low. Base. Not elevated. Impro also seen as people being witty & flippant, entertaining and funny. Something clever and heady. And again that show-biz, not spiritual. And this is product of turning impro, into an entertainment. A comedy producing machine. It’s as well to remember though that Keith Johnson, who wrote the book, and who started the whole impro movement, did not start it entirely for that. His original impro experiments went into much darker areas. They were much more to do with serious theatre. Narrative. Character. So if we shift the focus on this, and now look at impro, only as a scene, A SCENE, generating machine,  a way to find a story and some characters, we must ask what is actually happening when we enter a scene? What are the fundamental elements of that? The answer is that the fundamental thing is, we cannot control or choose, most of what occurs in the scene. We have no real way of choosing the elements in a scene. They won’t conform to our tastes, ideas, expectations!!!!!!!!!


(A enters. Starts cleaning a window. B enters with a baby in her arms. Says. “It’s got a fever!” Concerned, A mops baby’s brow with window sponge. B says, “Not with that!” And a row ensues.)

As you can see here at beginning A does not know who he is. Where he is. What his relation to B is. This was all made clear be B’s offer of bringing in the baby. It then became clear they were parents at home. The point being that what ever is there, the window cleaning, the baby, the sponge, you will have to work with it. You can’t really choose it. A does know why he cleaning window. B doesn’t know how A react to the baby. If indeed she does know she is holding a baby. Agreement must be reached, because no one knows what’s there to begin with. But whatever is there we must work with it. We can’t ignore the window cleaning. The baby. The sponge. We must work with these elements.

Now this is the spiritual truth impro shows us, in that in life we often find good reasons for not working with what’s there. If a thing is below our standards, not to our taste, not what we expected, not in keeping with our ideas, somehow ‘unsavoury’, we reject it in favour of some other thing, we can go in search of!!! IN SEARCH OF!!!! i.e. something in the future. At a later date. Not now. We have this luxury in life that we can control, reject, pass over things in search of a more pleasing, or a better alternative, in the future. And this is perfectly acceptable and fine. The drawback with it of course, is that it does take us out of the moment. OUT OF THE MOMENT! By embracing something that only exists in the future, we are rejecting the here and now. We are not being in the moment. This is a thing that gurus and impro teachers alike, are always, constantly  telling us to do. Stay in the moment. And impro  does actively teach us that we can do this. WE CAN! That we can shift the focus on this. We can instead accept what is there, and work with it, intelligently looking for agreements, instead of denying what’s in front of us, and demanding something different.

WE CAN!

Now this is the harder option, but in long term it will achieve a more satisfying outcome. Now you might protest that this isn’t a spiritual truth, but a self-development truth, and that they are not the same thing. And this is very common. Most people do not want spirituality to be about the nuts and bolts of human relationships, but  choose to see it as something more refined, more elevated. More, in a word, SPIRITUAL. In response to this I’ll say that charity, begins at home. How can something be spiritual, if it separates you from others, by making us feel superior???

Also that spiritual comes from word 'spirit'. and this is something disembodied. and before we incarnate our group awareness is effectively disembodied, and so spirituality is essentially about group awareness, or our
relationship to each other, in group terms.

It also mirrors the fact that we need to find connections between things, for we can only really make progress in our understanding of life, when we can relate one thing, to another different thing, and so intuit the pattern that lies beyond the surface of things. Having said this though, in doing impro we must not think we can use it in one particular way. i.e. as an exercise in finding the links between things, because that is what its for. No. We need to drop all our agendas, try and be in the moment, and trust in ourselves to grow from the experience, no matter how it transpires. Put another way, we must try not to be too goal orientated, which again is putting the focus on something in the future.

Now in coming to impro everyone more or less, starts in the same place. And this is a painful uncomfortable place. The place of being stuck. In Toltec terms it means your assemblage point is fixed. Stuck on one spot. What impro requires is fluidity. When you assemblage point moves, keeping it simple, you change your intensity. You would change in a scene, because the story demands it, from a young person to an old person, say. Two very different intensities. This would require an energetic fluidity. Or put simply, the ability to drop one thing and take up another quite quickly. So, to un-stick ourselves means we will have to go through an unpleasant period. A probationary period. For some time it feel wrong. Difficult. Even perhaps hopeless. However, if we can just stay with it, and trust in the process, we will reap the spiritual rewards it has to offer. These benefits are the cornerstone of spiritual development. This is why impro, even when it is seen as being very challenging, and not spiritual by most people, and the province of a few ultra talented types, is really none of these things and IS something worth pursuing from a spiritual standpoint.

IMPRO-THE SHOCKING TRUTH!

INTRO:
The main difficulty in gaining a deeper understanding of just about anything, is that we tend to view things in isolation. Consequently we see impro, as being solely about performance, theatre maybe, having fun, comedy, and so on. Being identified with our view of the world means we have this narrow focus and this prevents us seeing that that things do connect. One thing does merge into another. Our narrow focus though demands that it doesn’t. In this purist sense then, impro is only about impro, as theatre is only about theatre, and film is only about film. Put another way, we do not see that life is a whole, and that if we are going to tune up one area, like say the performance area, we do need to carry that through and tune up all the other areas. Like for example, we can become a better improviser, and still be terrible at relationships. For these are two different things, quite unconnected, and we have decided we want to be better at impro, for we have performance ambitions in that area, but we are not too bothered about relationships, for we feel that that’s just how we are. Or that this is not our preference, for something to work with. Now what I have spoken about here is something which it is very difficult for the rational mind to grasp. This is a truth you cannot flatten out and explain. Consequently I’ll begin this exposé of the shocking truth about impro, by saying that it doesn’t matter if cannot grasp what I am saying here. SHOCK! HORROR! Try to let go of that desire to analytically understand everything, at least in this context. And then try to just flow with your feelings. So in the end, if all this article does, should you get to the end of it, is just to annoy you, then that in a way is good. It is how you feel. And that is the right place to start. And if you can do this and keep doing this whilst suspending judgement, understanding will arrive, sooner or later.

The shocking truth: The Beginning!

So, to begin with, in the first instance, no matter what the deeper truths of the impro scene are, I would encourage everyone to do it. Working with our blocks and inhibitions in a creative way, can only be a good thing. This holds good even if your interest in impro is purely a performers interest, and not a therapeutic one. Now, moving on to the deeper truths, when people first come to impro they are to different degrees blocked and inhibited, lacking trust and technique, and through doing impro, they are taught a set of rules, which greatly facilitate being un-blocked and spontaneous. And this really facilitates performance, helping the performer’s gifts to really shine through. You internalise the right response to situations, those which allow space, development, and general positive characteristics, and this leads to more satisfying performances. This is the blueprint Keith Johnson, who wrote the book on it, has given us. So job done! People are now free spontaneous improvisers! So what’s the problem?

The problem is, and this is a truth we’d all, in our mad scramble for fame and glory, much rather ignore, is that impro shows are entertaining and funny, and audiences are amazed to see people working without a script, and yet these same shows are also predictable, and a bit stereotypical, with obvious plots and obvious characters. To recap, you create a comedy product, but it lacks authenticity, or any deeper level. What you get is the appearance of spontaneity, but not spontaneity itself. You don’t get anything new, quirky, left field or original. Now if we just want bland X-factor type entertainment this is fine. But if we want, like Oliver, a little more, then this a problem. And if that the case we must identify where problem stems from. Now. I always felt uncomfortable in impro classes because people would insist on me following the rules. And I knew, the rules do work. I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH RULES!!! I am not proposing anarchy. Society needs its rules and laws to function effectively. So why was I uncomfortable? And then I realised this was because a part of me knew to be spontaneous, you can’t really follow rules, no matter how well they work! The one doesn’t jibe with the other. The definition of spontaneity is something beyond rules, not in their moral sense, but in sense of what kind of behaviour is allowed. If I push a custard pie in a vicar’s face at a Fete, it would go against the rules of polite behaviour, and yet it would be spontaneous! No question. Pie. Face. Spontaneous. This makes me think of course of Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice In Wonderland, a situation with a lot of rules about polite behaviour, the English Tea Party, which the Hatter and Hare do not subvert, but simply ignore, thus making an outrageous scene.

Now I’m well aware that most people are happy with the bland predict-able safe comfortable option. They don’t want to be challenged, and neither do they think it is necessary to be challenged. Why bother to think deeply about things, when you have another champagne party instead????? No. This not an easy option. It is very much the ‘unknown’. And that is frightening and difficult. But still. Think. If we hadn’t embraced the ‘unknown’, we wouldn’t have air travel. The internet. Seinfeld. And do you really want to live in a world without those things???

Lecture over. AND NOW IT’S…

The shocking truth!

What has happened is this. The improviser has replaced a bad set of rules, with a good set of rules, but he still in many ways no better off, for he still following a set of rules!!!!!!!!!!!! The point being that our inhibition was never the problem. The problem was what created the inhibition,in the first place, which was rules themselves! So if we continue to adhere to systems that use rules, we are continuing to inhibit ourselves at some deeper level!!! Another way we could put this is to say that in applying the rules and standards that apply to life, society, human conduct, too impro, we are ignoring the fact that impro isn’t life. It is fantasy. Invented. An imaginative realm. So the problem is one of discrimination. We do not discriminate between life, and not-life!!! So that’s all it is. A very simple truth. And yet, one that it is extremely difficult to grasp, as it is really to do with the heart, and not with the head.

Finally, you may think, but this negative truth does not empower me! But think. We automatically see the negative as being something bad and undesirable. And yet in truth, it is just a different type of energy. Positive energy. Negative energy. In physics they wouldn’t say negative energy bad. That would be ridiculous, even for scientists!!! And this is just social conditioning, that has always insisted that we must avoid the dark side. And so we discriminate against, and not between. Bad. Doh! But finally, my last appeal, I would also encourage you to look at successful comedy people like Spike Milligan, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, and many more. These marvellous people who have done so much to change our awareness of things, and ask yourself, do these people follow the rules???????????? The answer is no. What they have in common is a disregard for rules in general. Look at Cleese goose-stepping in front of the german tourists. Is this following the rules???????????????????Is it???? (Don’t mention the war!!!)

EVERYMAN & FELLOWSHIP

(A modern version of scene from ‘Everyman’ the medieval miracle play.)
(Enter John Everyman. He addresses audience.)

JOHN. Hi. John Everyman. I run a creative design digital media network. We’re at the sharp end of the information highway. (Sighs.) Yadda, yadda, yadda. But having just met ‘ Death’, who informed me, I have to go on a long journey to meet ..(Looks up.) that doesn’t seem quite so important anymore. (Pause.) What am I going to miss most? Golf? Ascot? A private view with Tracey Emin? (Tenderly.) My two boys, Josh and Sebastian. And Belinda of course. Although we have been going through a bit of a rocky patch lately. We did consider counselling, but then we had a row and went off the idea. What can you do? She wants me to go to one of those Tantric sex weekend things. But I find all that new age stuff, too touchy feely. Anyway. All that’s behind me now. Must get moving.

(Pause.) Look! I’ll be honest! The thing I fear most is going alone. Always was the sociable type. If only I could get someone to come with.

(Enter Tony Fellowship.)

Hello! It’s Tony Fellowship! I know him from golf, openings, racing. Just about everything, come to think of it. Tony!

(Tony saunters over.)

TONY. John! Fancy meeting you here? In this busy street in a modern city.

JOHN. Yes. Co-in, or what? Walk?

(They walk and chat.)

So. How’s Biz?

TONY. Oh. Mustn’t grumble. We got the Fairchild contract.

JOHN. Oh well done! Mountains of moolah.

TONY. Yes. Mountains! (Pause.) But money isn’t everything.

JOHN. (Shaking head.) No.

TONY. (Shaking head.) No.

(They walk. John lowers head.)

TONY. You seem a bit despond old boy.

JOHN. Am I?

TONY. Yes. Got a prob?

JOHN. Yes. I’m in trouble.

TONY. Look John. Whatever it is. You can depend on me. I’m your friend.

JOHN. I appreciate that Tony. You’re a brick.

TONY. So. Come on. Out with it. If some bastards done you over I’ll…

JOHN. No. It’s nothing like that. But I am worried. It is bad. Very bad. And if I unload on you, and it’s like too much, then I’ll feel ten times worse. I know I will.

TONY. (Open arms.) John! I won’t let you down!

JOHN. You won’t?

TONY. (Firm.) No.

JOHN. Yeah. You always were there for me.

TONY. (Conviction.) And I always will be! Why. If you were in Hell, not that it exists, I’d go right down there, and get you right out!

JOHN. You would, wouldn’t you.

TONY. Yes. Indubitably. Without doubt.

JOHN. It’s only as much as I deserve, considering.

TONY. Don’t talk about deserving. I’m not doing this because you’re deserving. But if a chap can’t back his words up with actions, what is he? A worm.

JOHN. A louse.

TONY. A worthless fellow. So John. Tell me what it is. And I, rest assured, will stand by you.

(Long pause. I mean long. There is a long pause. John overcomes his inner conflict and then speaks. After a pause.)

JOHN. I met someone or ‘something’and it informed me, and there is no argument about this, I must, I must, I have to go on a long journey, right away, to meet… (Looks up.) And, big and, I need someone to ‘come with’.

(Long pause.)

TONY. Right. (Pause.) Now let’s consider this like rational human beings.

JOHN. Yes. Let’s.

TONY. I have said I won’t let you down. That’s taken as read, isn’t it?

JOHN. Yes.

TONY. Even though, anyone in his right mind, would be just a little scared out of his wits, at such a prospect, I said, I would.

JOHN. You said you would, even go to hell! Not that it exists, and get me right out, should that be the case.

TONY. Yes. I did ‘say’ that. You’re not wrong there. Those words. Yes. I spoke them. (Pause.) But all that aside, important as it is, if we go on this journey, when will we be coming back?

JOHN. Well, never.

TONY. What never?

JOHN. No. Never.

TONY. Just what was this someone or something you met?

JOHN. It was Death.

TONY. DEATH! Well that means then you’re asking me to go on a journey to my certain death! Me! Tony Rupert Fellowship!

Who never had a day off sick in his life! Me! Dead! Gone! (Pause.) I’m not fucking going!

JOHN. But you promised!

TONY. Promised. Promised. That’s putting it a bit strongly. Promised.(Pause.) Look. Ask me anything else. Drugs. Money laundering. Even to go on one of those touchy feely Tantric sex things, but don’t ask me this. I just can’t die. Not today, thank you very much. (Pause.) I’d even go as far as murder.

(John grabs him by the shoulders.)

JOHN. LOOK! I don’t need a murder! I need someone to come with me on that long last road to see … (Looks up.) Remember. Remember all we’ve shared together. When we won the Cup. When we had sex with those 2 girls at Uni. in a field under the stars. Our men’s group vision quest when we all got naked and roared at the moon!!!! For God sakes REMEMBER!!!!!!!!!!

(Pause.)

TONY. Good times, bad times. But death is death.

JOHN. (Deflated.) Yes. Out brief can…Yes. You’re right. Well at least walk me to the tube. I must be off.

TONY. I would. Honestly. But I’m due at the Office.

(Tony begins to leave.)

JOHN. (Bitter.) Go on then. Go to your office!

(Tony comes back. Gives John a look.)

JOHN. Don’t worry. I forgive you. Go on. Go and live. Have a long life. I give you my blessing.

TONY. Thanks.

(They hug. Tony exits.)

JOHN. O false and fickle world, my fate is set, I am everything, and nothing yet.





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