You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try

by kavakristin

That is on my keychain, as I shared with you guys last week in class. I think about it often, and also think about how my courses in the business and design schools have tried to teach us to “fail early, and fail often” with the idea that we learn from our mistakes and go onto bigger and better things. It’s true that you do learn a lot from failures, if you care to go back and unpack them (which can be unpleasant). Thankfully, I have a lot of experience in failure :D. Like the time I got one of the lowest grades on my former advisor’s midterm my first year here. Or being rejected from UCSB for graduate school. There are many other instances where I tried something and failed. But there are more instances where I took a shot and made it. I hope I’m never afraid to try something because I *might* fail. For one thing, that’s pretty boring. And secondly, you can’t always predict how things will go. Somehow I ended up here, with wonderful new advisor, and I have a great fellowship, too. I can’t predict the future, and to cling to something (like finishing a PhD) simply because I’m afraid of the alternative. That to me is would be my biggest failure, and I think about it almost everyday.

So, with this in mind, I have decided (depending on funds and free time) to continue to explore improv! This class has been the wonderful release of energy, creativity, and spontaneity that I have craved since I got here two and a half years ago. I think even just 6 months ago I would have been too worried to go up on stage and just act, but this class has taught me a lot about how much fun it can be, and how to just get into the scene and not worry about anything else. Epic failure also helps, too. 🙂

ALSO, THIS JUST IN: a gchat friend had this posted in her status – a TED talk on “The fringe benefits of failure”. How fortuitous! Here it is now: http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure.html . It’s a great talk (I’ve been listening to it as I write).

by kavakristin

Instead of reading straight through the spontaneity readings, I read through the class blog for a bit. I really enjoy reading about the different perceptions of improv, the reading, and class exercises. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to go to another BATS show this weekend. Seeing live improv is one of my favorite forms of theater now, and I hope everyone who went enjoyed the show. Can’t wait to hear more about it in class!

My one real thought about the subject of today’s reading is from a conversation with a few friends. One of them said that he needed to work on being more spontaneous and that struck me as a kind of odd thing to say. Is spontaneity a skill that can be learned? Maybe it’s not spontaneity itself, but more being okay with the unknown and not being able to predict the outcome of your own actions.

Any-hoo, my brain is too full of Fe(II) reducing U(VI) to have anything of real interest to say Sorry!

 

See-sawing poker

by kavakristin

The reading this week was pretty interesting, and made me think of playing poker in Vegas. Appearance is kind of an important thing in poker, and I sat to the left of a really chatty player that most of the rest of the table found to be very annoying. He knew this, and in fact he even commented that he preferred it if people “didn’t like him” because at least, in his mind, it “forced them to think something of [him]”. I thought this was a really interesting statement. I wonder how often people realize exactly what image they put forth because we all do, to a certain extent. While I was reading the “See-saw” chapter, I thought of this poker guy and how he’s probably lowering his status at the table so he can be underestimated (and therefore win some more money by drawing more people into the pot – he seemed to be doing pretty well while I was there). I also thought about how sometimes other people will lower your status without you even saying a word, like how when I sit down to a poker table full of men they tend to think I don’t know what I’m doing because I’m just some blond girl in a red dress. They may write me off as just someone’s girlfriend who is being bankrolled by the boyfriend (to paraphrase something a guy told me at one of the tables on Sunday night). This may be a bit of a simplistic interpretation of the reading this week, but I can’t help but think about how as soon as the poker guy said he liked it when people didn’t like him, he changed his status in my mind a little bit, just like how when someone asks me what I do and I say I’m a scientist, their opinion of me changes. Also, I am EXHAUSTED right now. Can’t wait for some improv games!  😀

by kavakristin

I have to confess, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to post about this week. I will say that I loved Savannah’s game last week, though, because I reminded me of playing charades with my sister growing up, but this was even better because we could act out something non-verbally with a partner! I love the non-verbal improv games the best right now. Maybe that’s because I can see the situation more easily. But I also loved how Savannah’s game gave the audience a chance to play, too, because we got to guess what career the people were acting out. It’s great seeing how people have structured their games and hear their inspiration – I have a feeling it will help me improve my game before I present sometime next month.

Now

by kavakristin

Sorry! I wrote up the following entry last night and somehow thought that I’d have time to edit it/post it before class. Well, as that’s not going to happen, I’ll just post the two different thoughts that I had:

1.

I seemed to have blinked and the week and weekend are over. I’ve been trying to plan less and be more in the moment, which seems very in the spirit of the class. You know, just to play off the situations that are presented to you now and not worry so much about what’s coming or what just happened. So far so good, and I think that every Monday kind of helps me to just understand “now” a little better than I did last week.

B:

Like I heard someone say – words are like toothpaste; once it comes out, you can’t stick it back in the tube. For great improv, this is also true. You slip up and call a character by the wrong name, or misname an invisible prop that’s being used in a scene and your fellow actors can’t just go with it because it degrads from the authenticity of the scene and it also kills a certain element of the humor and creativity. I guess in a sense we, the audience, want to see the improv actors fail because their failure, or more importantly, how they deal with their failure, is hilarious. It’s a game between the audience and the actors, and after a good show, both sides win. At least, this is the impression I got when I went to the BATS show on Saturday night with Lindsay, Saif, and Savannah. It was a great show!

Woo!

by kavakristin

I passed my qualifying exam last Wednesday, and to celebrate months of studying and focusing on my research, I took a trip to LA/San Diego. It’s funny, and kind of appropriate for this trip, I guess, that I intentionally made no firm plans. I just had a car, and a couple of places to sleep, and the desire not to plan out anything structured. I guess after all the rigor of studying at the office all day everyday, I just wanted to improvise a little holiday.

Sorry this post isn’t any longer – I’m actually still in LA and just had the most delicious hamburger EVER (at Father’s Office). I will see you all in class tomorrow, though, and hopefully without the deer in the headlights look I’m sure I had since the start of the quarter. Doesn’t mean that I’ll jump out for scene work, though – I’m still a super introvert! 🙂 (http://jerrybrito.org/post/6114304704/top-ten-myths-about-introverts , but myth number 9 does not necessarily apply to me – I’m definitely a thrill seeker.)

Michael Scarn, FBI

by kavakristin

Every time I think about improv lately, I think about Steve Carrel’s character, Michael Scott, in the tv show The Office, and why his character is so bad at improv (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY6zTFnNS-A). Today, and on the first day of class, the instructors posted the four points/tenants of improv: 1. Listen, 2. Say yes, 3. Make my partner look good, and 4. Embrace my inner spontaneity. Michael manages to fail extraordinarily at all four. He does not listen to his fellow improv-ers and constantly relies on them always saying “yes” to his incessant  secret-agent gun shooting sprees. Because of this, no one in his group wants to act with him. He provides the perfect example of how not to improv, and yet in doing so, is provides a pretty hilarious clip.

I’m very happy to say that my improv experience has been much more fun than Michael’s poor classmates, and I think this will be a great quarter of listening, making our classmates look good, embracing our inner spontaneity, and, most importantly, saying yes.

 

 

TTSS

by kavakristin

I saw Tinker Tailor Solider Spy this past Friday night and I really enjoyed it. It is kind of the opposite of improv, I know – every single scene, expression, and word had to be carefully planned. First this story was condensed from a le Carre novel to a six hour BBC miniseries and then down to a two hour film. Some thought it was over ambitious and confusing (ahem Saif :), but it really appealed to me. I love stories and movies where the observant reader/viewer is rewarded. Every single detail had meaning, and if you look away for a minute, you’ll miss something important. I think that improv can be as detailed and complex as TTSS. There’s a reason for every action, intended or not. The funniest and most meaningful things can be in the smallest look, image or movement. I love to see what people say and do on a daily basis. Sometimes it can be a bit sensory overload, but I love observing, which is why I loved the movie. I am curious and to see what this class will bring!