Eliminate fear and you are more creative
When you are on stage… you are like an animal in the clearing being stared at by lots of eyes in the dark brush. This can lead us to be self conscious and this can produce fear. And when we are fearful we become aggressive. Improvisers who are aggressive begin to attack each other or the narrative. When you eliminate fear you are more creative and collaborative.
One of the jobs of the improv teacher, therefore, is to reduce the fear for the improviser.
An easy way to reduce the fear is to encourage the improvisers to be obvious. As improvisers we often feel that we need a ‘good’ choice or a ‘funny’ thing to say. But there is so much power in being obvious.
If youâre not obvious â itâs almost impossible to get narrative going.
It may be worth developing the skill of being obvious.
In a workshop in SF (August 2009) Keith Johnstone (author of Impro) led us in “The Little Voice Exercise” (sometimes called “Speck”).
The Little Voice Exercise [which also works well in performance]
In this exercise an off-stage actor supplies the voice for an imaginary small creature on stage.
Bring two actors to the stage and asks which actor can make a small voice.
Make sure it’s loud enough for all to hear and place that actor (B) on a chair just off stage. The other actor (A) is instructed to walk across the stage as if coming home from work through a public park.
[Actor A walks across the stage.]
Actor B from off stage: Hey there.
Actor A looks down: Was that you?
Actor B: Yes.
Actor A: I’ve never seen a mouse in a karate outfit before… and you can talk!
Actor B: I’ve just come from class.
Actor A: You can talk.
Actor B: Sure. I need your help, Sharon.
Actor A: You know my name?!
Teaching Points
To be fair, the scene in the workshop did not play out that way the first time. The actor walking across the stage walked across the stage without a ‘peep’ from the off stage actor.
- Teaching point:Â Actors are reluctant to contribute.
Actor (A) walked across the stage again, the little voice said “hello” and the actor (A) started looking all around the stage for the source of the little voice.
- Teaching points: Actors are reluctant to identify things. Actors are reluctant to develop the action. If you hear a sound in your house, you know where it came from.
When the actor is prompted to ‘see the creature’ the developing conversation avoids identifying what the creature is and why it is talking to the person.
- Teaching point: These are the questions that the audience wants answered. But improvisers search for ‘creative’ things to say which is actually a defense to stay safe.
This simple exercise illustrates how difficult it is to name things, how difficult it is for us to develop the action and how normal it is to protect ourselves (fear).
Keith had this observation about “The Little Voice” game recently:
Eliminate Fear vs. Increase the fear
If you play a scene where you meet a talking mouse in a karate outfit:
- If you are scared: itâs looking for a cat.
- If youâre less scared: itâs looking for your cat.
- If youâre unafraid: itâs looking for you.
I mentioned this progression to Keith the next morning and he look at me with a sly smile and saidâŠ
- and if youâre really frightened, youâre looking for a cat too!