Wed, 19 May 2010

Improvise After the Fact


I'm taking a course called "Improvise the Act" at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama and it's a lot of fun.

Except... I always come up with the perfect idea 30 minutes too late.

Example: Tonight, we were given two nouns and had to come up with a funny reason why they are alike. I was given "pet rock" and "toddler" and came up with "because they're both really quiet."

That limping sound you hear is my lame response slinking offstage.

Thirty minutes later, I came up with "because they both sound like a good idea until you actually get one." That won't get me a job writing for Leno, but at least it has two good legs.

Example: We were given a line and had to build a scene. We got "You don't bring me flowers any more." Yeah, a couple of so-so scenes.

But then thirty minutes later...

"Igor! Igor, I must speak to you. When I ask for amulets of evil for the lair, I want bat wings. I want lizard's tongues. I want bones freshly dug up. But Igor, Igor, you DON'T bring me flowers ANY MORE!"

sigh...

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