If you enjoyed the post, here are my lessons from improv class from a long time ago:<p>"People who are charming aren't afraid of failure" - Keith Johnstone<p>It's ok to fail, even if there is an audience paying to see you.<p>If you are doing an action like hula-hooping, don't talk about what you are doing.<p>If you are doing an action, do it with some energy. e.g. lame digging vs spirited digging a hole and throwing dirt over your shoulder.<p>Have a strong opinion! Don't be wishy washy.<p>Have a (secret) strong opinion. Don't tell the audience what it is - don't say what it is - let them try to guess it.<p>Lesson #1 - Stick with your offer.<p>On the suggestion 'purple', I went onstage as Barney and then dropped the suggestion. It would have been more effective if I was fully committed to my offer. How does this apply to pickup? Keep a strong frame.<p>Lesson #2 - Don't teach.<p>In the weird love scene with the chainsaw sculpturing, I was telling her to go over to here - the tree was here, etc. Instead, I should have been telling the audience and her how I <i>felt</i> about what she was doing. Lesson here - don't talk about what you're doing, talk about how it feels to be interacting/doing. This is basically what the statement of intent is based on.<p>Lesson #3 - Have a secret.<p>Maybe not as elaborate as Steve Job's marking-his-territory one but have a mystery - you don't have to tell the audience - they won't ever guess but they'll wonder.<p>Lesson #4 - Use freebies.<p>Simple humor. Beep! Beep! Funny and gets a laugh. Simple.<p>Lesson #5<p>If you don't know what the other person is doing, decide what they're doing.<p>Once you make it verbal/out there, the other person should agree.<p>Lesson #6 - Be in the moment.<p>The audience doesn't know when you play a game if you know what you're doing but if you look like you know what you're doing - they'll be engrossed.
<i>Have you noticed the difference between when you are feigning anger compared to when you are actually angry?</i><p>I've been meditating on this for a couple of minutes and I can't recall a time where I was pretending to be angry when I wasn't. Occasionally, I'm guilty of pretending not to be angry when I definitely am. Anger isn't the most socially acceptable emotion, anyway. What would be the motive for feigning it?
Excellent point. Perhaps slightly tangential, but my advisor recently mentioned (and I agree with him) that one's presentation (spoken and written) often serves as the ultimate means of differentiation between a "good" idea and a "bad" one.<p>In an academic context (CS), this means that grants/papers/proposals often succeed more on the merits of the presenter (or writer) than the inherent value within an idea itself. After all, much of CS research is incremental improvements to existing work. Such papers may need a nice spin.<p>So perhaps undergrad CS majors (or at least, those who are grad school bound) should eschew higher level electives for a class in theatre or rhetoric...
I et a really strong sense of Tantra in reading this article. Tantra talks about how thinking is an enemy that will paralyze you, and that feeling and accepting your emotions will allow you to become complete.<p>Example: pure anger can be seen by a child, and is a beautiful thing. Pure love is also a rarity, but most cherished. Half-attempted "emotions" like thinking they're pretty but not knowing it is just incomplete.