The Painhole
(note: Archived Painhole essays can be found at the bottom of this
page)
I drink too much Rolling Rock.
Notes:
· The fast-approaching Improv-A-Thon is still in great need of volunteers
to help with both pre-show and show things. Anyone willing to lend a hand
should see Me, Steve, Glen, Eric, or Louis A.S.A.P.. Remember that you will
receive a sizable discount on your ticket should you decide to help. Also,
we are still accepting people willing to prostitute themselves for the date
auction. You would have to come up with and pay for a “date” that
we will sell (along with you) as a package during the Improv-A-Thon. Please
see any of the above-mentioned folks if you are interested.
· Semester passes for FNI will be available in two weeks. These passes
can be purchased at FNI and will allow you admission into the show for the
rest of the semester at a discount from the door price. Also, we are negotiating
with several local businesses to allow FNI passes to serve as a discount
coupon for purchases. Please see Ben (that’s me) or Lou for details
or to reserve your pass.
· I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts. (Please feel free to
read amazing amounts of sexual innuendo into that statement)
These notes become tiresome. Away with them! Bring on the dancing girls.
Ah.... Dancing Girls. Oh... sorry. But one day I will have Dancing girls.
They won’t have to do anything degrading or anything. They’ll
just have to dance whenever I clap my hand twice and say, “Bring on
the Dancing Girls”. Actually, I think it would be a pretty good job
for a young woman. Anyone interested?
So, as P.T. Barnum used to say just before he brought on Zelda, the woman
who would swallow anything, “Ladies and Gentlemen.... The Hole.”
Ooh that title is harsh. That’s Ok though. Now that I’m taking
over as host, I wanted to preview how things are going to change. Louis
Stein is a great man. He is a smart man. He has probably single-handedly
turned FNI from a gathering of misfits and losers to the best value for
your entertainment dollar in Pittsburgh. For that, we owe him our undying
respect and gratitude. Working along-side Louis for the past two years and
change, I have had a ring-side seat to his philosophy about improv and how
to make what we do into a seriously kick-ass experience for all involved.
He has been absolutely correct in almost all of his decisions. In fact,
there is probably only one thing wrong with FNI right now and that is what
I plan to fix. Not a stinking one of you knows how to do improv anymore
and those of you who think you do (A-HEM HAT CO.), have forgotten. Well
call me a hot pot of coffee, cause its time to wake up FNI. Good morning
Sunshine.
Now, do I blame Louis for the fact that none of you knows how to
do improv? Nope. Know why? It wasn’t his job to teach you. Louis can’t.
For the most part, he doesn’t play the games and can’t lead by
example. Also, for how great he is at putting on the best possible show
and caring about the audience, Louis is not a student of improv. He knows
how to do it, but never wanted to have to show others. That’s ok though.
Like I said, It wasn’t really his job. Ok, so who’s job was it?
Well I’m getting to that.
When I started coming to Improvs in 1990, there were some of the
best improvers I have ever seen performing at FNI. They were consistently
funny and brilliant, but more importantly, they knew what improv was all
about. These were the so-called “regulars” that I, as well as
most of the current cast of “regulars”, had to learn from. Had
they not been there, at that time, Dean, Steve, Eric, Louis, Glen, and I
would never have learned to do improvs. We also would have had nothing do
do on Friday nights for the past how-ever-many years. Now, when it has become
our great honor to have the torch passed on to us, what have we done with
it? I’ll tell you. Nothing. Not a god-dammed thing. When you become
a “regular” at improvs, it means more than that you are consistantly
funny or that you have been coming to the show for a long time and the audience
loves you. It means that you have honed your improv skills to a point that
your own selfishness and ego that used to be the reason that you got on
stage aren’t important anymore and the host of any given game knows
that he can rely on you to get up on stage and not only do a good job, but
be a good example of the way improv works. The “regular” owes
that to the show (meaning FNI itself) because if it wasn’t for the
regulars who checked their egos at their seats and lead by example, none
of them would have any idea what they are doing either. Well I’m here
to say that we haven’t been doing our jobs. When the current cast of
regulars (and I mean me too) gets up on stage, its no longer about leading
by example. Its about how funny can I be and how good can I look in front
of this audience even if I have to completely forsake the philosophy of
good improving. And guess what? If that is the example that the current
audience who wants to learn sees as the right way of doing things, that’s
what they are going to do. So now, no one seems interested in learning the
correct way of doing improv. Now, its all about being funny and looking
good. Now, while I am just as guilty of this as the next guy, in the past,
I could do little about it because Louis was in charge and all he wanted
to see was people enjoying a good show. Well that’s all well and good,
but if FNI is survive after the current “regulars” are gone (and
someday, god-willing, we will be gone), then it is our job to make sure
that there are some people who are capable of taking over. Right now, there
are people who have the potential to become excellent improvers who come
to the show every week and try their asses off. But without the proper guidance
and example, they will never learn the proper way of doing things. We
have been given a gift. We have been able to use that gift for alot of personal
glory. Now its time to pass that gift on to those who want it too. Don’t
let your egos get in the way of your responsibility.
Ok I got that off my chest. Now instead of bitching, how am I going
to fix it? Well I’m here to tell you that its time for a giant kick
in all of you improv asses. The improv that has been going on at FNI for
the past two years has been entertaining and funny. It has also been contrived,
boring, and completely without the spirit that improv is supposed to be
about. The roots of improv are in theater. (Oh and to you regulars who are
sitting there reading this and saying to yourself,” I know all this.
I don’t need to hear it again,” you’d better listen because
you sure seem to have forgotten). Each game that we play was designed by
a theater person to teach an actor a certain skill. Some really funny and
brilliant things can come out of these games, but it can only be brilliant
scene-work if the player trusts the structure of the game to make the comedy
come out of honest reaction instead of pre-conceived or contrived jokes
(see last weeks painhole). We say failure is ok all the time, but we never
think about why that is important. The “failure is ok” rule is
there not because we want you to come up on stage and tell jokes or do a
scene that you have entirely mapped out in your head before you even say
a word. The Failure is OK Rule is to let people know that sometimes your
honest reaction within the structure of these games isn’t going to
go over. When that happens, it is ok as long as you have stuck to the rules
of improving. Now when I say the rules of improving , I don’t mean
the rules that we say every week. I mean the over-all philosophy of improving.
Improving isn’t about homogenizing the structure down into something
comfortable or easy to play. In fact, this is what has been my problem within
the hat co. Its all become about ,”how can we learn some trick or gimmick
that will make this game easy to play but still make us look good?”
Well there is an easy out in improving. You can learn these little tricks
and gimmicks or you can come up into a scene with all your little pre-thought-out
jokes in your head and pass it off as improv and you’ll probably get
some laughs. But that’s not improv. The true challenge of improv is
to let go of your fear of failure and your ego-driven drive for success
and just let a scene happen . It is also gaining to ability to trust that
the structure of the game and your partner(s) will be enough that if you
lose yourself within your character and the world set up for you, and stop
making jokes the scene you create will be funny and entertaining enough
without you having to force it. And guess what? It will. I’ve seen
it in the glorious past of improvs and even, on rare occasions, in its present.
We can pretty easily go along and continue to do a good and funny show or
we can remember what the goal of FNI is and start to teach others what we
were supposed to have learned. So I present a two-fold challenge:
1. To the “regulars”: Go back to your improv roots. I don’t
really care what you do with the Hat Co. I have no control over that. But
when you are at FNI, remember that improv is about taking chances and trusting
your partner and the structure of the game to create the comedy. It is NOT
about your ego or your little tricks to make everything you do look good.
Also remember that FNI is what made you the improver you are and that you
owe it to the show and the people who attend to lead by example and do it
right so that they can pick up where you leave off. Most importantly, though,
start leaving your egos at the door and be willing to pass on what you have
learned to others. Be driven by your love of improvs and not your love of
personal glory.
2. To the audience interested in performing: Accept the fact that what you
have been doing is not good improv and be willing to accept the changes
that I implement and that (hopefully) the regulars carry out. Someday FNI
will belong to you. It is up to you to get the skills to keep it going and
to pass on to others.
With respect for those that taught me and hope for the future,
Ben
(producer, and soon to be the 5th host of FNI)
PS. questions/comments should be directed to my email or the Hotrim.
ARCHIVES: