Summary of Games for January 19th, 2009

Hey improvisers

Wonderful session tonight. You were all really adept at the Status games we worked on. It was really entertaining to watch.

Seriously, though, try to identify if your friends play high-status or low-status. It’s interesting, at the very least. Once you begin to identify the hidden status motivations in every line (and believe me, no line is free from status motivations), you’ll have a hard time stopping.

Anyway, on to the summary.


Tug-of-War

Everyone partners up, and plays a mimed game of tug-of-war. In reality, there are winners and losers all the time. It’s unreasonable to expect that a scene will proceed without a discernable winner or loser. It is fun to be the winner, but it’s just as fun to be the loser.

Try being what your partner wants you to be. If you perceive them as wanting to win, try giving in. If they want to lose, pull harder. Unless you’re willing to be manipulated and changed while performing, then you’d probably do better working alone.

Sometimes, too, it’s fun to play to what the audience wants. In the round of Bronwyn vs. Martin, Herman and Hisham, it was pretty obvious that everyone wanted Bronwyn to win. When she did, she was met with uproarious applause. It’s always a good idea to stay where the audience expects things to go, even if it wouldn’t normally happen in real life.

Again, the best way to evaluate if a scene was a success is whether or not you had fun with it. If you enjoyed yourself, then the audience will have a good time too. The audience can sense when you’re struggling, or not having a good time. Have fun with everything. Nothing’s of consequence in Improv, so why not try losing?


Status Exercises

Group Interactions – Saying ‘Hello’

Everyone walks around and says ‘Hello.’ At first, it was a little awkward, and people were making huge attempts at being friendly and ‘interesting.’ I had to stop a few people and tell them to just say ‘Hello.’ Things calmed down after, but everything was a little bit weird, still. The group became much more interesting when certain people were told to sustain eye contact (high-status), and certain people to break eye contact and then rapidly look back (low-status).

The comments were essentially bang on. The people instructed to hold eye contact felt powerful, dominant, forceful, and intrusive. Someone commented that they felt like a sexual predator. (Maybe because they weren’t used to holding eye contact?) The people instructed to break eye contact felt awkward, timid, quiet, and weak. All the comments given were exactly what you would expect from high-status people and low-status people. The group became more interesting because everyone suddenly understood their role.

Try watching people on the street. See if you can identify who is high-status and who is low-status just from their walk. High-status people will probably be moving very directly, overtaking slower walkers, etc. You may also notice people stepping around them. Low-status people will probably keep their eyes to the ground, and when confronted with someone who appears higher status, they will move around. It’s funny to watch two people with similarly high or low status walk towards each other. More often than not, they’ll do that awkward dance around each other, as neither person knows who should step away.

As a summary:

High-status
- Direct
- Good posture
- Openness
- Sustained eye-contact
- Confident

Low-status
- Indirect
- Slouching
- Taking up as little space as possible
- Indirect and quick eye-contact

Remember, there is a difference between class and status. You can have a high-class character playing low-status (like the King in ‘Start the Revolution Without Me’). You can also have a low-class character who plays high-status (like Mike’s hobo who confidently pulled gum off the bench and ate it.)


The Seesaw

This concept was introduced when we added speech to the scenes that were being played. Status is your relationships to other people. Your speech and the manner in which you conduct yourself communicate status. Whether or not you’re consciously aware of it, everything you do communicates some form of status.

There are two ways to raise your status. You can either raise your own status (“I can speak 10 different languages”), or you can lower everyone else’s (“You can’t speak 10 different languages”).

Similarly, there are two ways to lower your status. You can lower your own (“I wish I could speak 10 different languages”), or you can raise everyone else’s (“You can speak 10 different languages? That’s amazing!”).

There’s also raising and lowering your status by proxy. For example, if someone comments on your hat, and how great it is, then you’ll probably feel a boost in status. They’re not complimenting you per se; it’s your hat that’s actually getting the compliment. But you feel the boost regardless.

If you’re following celebrities, and something tragic happens to one of your favourites, then you might feel your status lowered. If something awesome happens to them, you might feel great. I’m reminded of Kelly on ‘The Office.’ Her sun rises and sets on celebrities. Remember in season 3, when Jim returns, and Kelly confronts him claiming she has so much to tell him about? And then she references Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ baby Suri, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s baby Shiloh? That made her day. Did I spell Shiloh right?

Anyway.

Sometimes you can tell who people are simply from observing their status interactions. For example, in Fatima and Lucy’s scene, someone said that they were wives of rich husbands in an office building. No one had to think too hard about it, it was just so.

Also, when Herman created his entire living room from naught, he barely hesitated. He didn’t think about anything in the room, because it was just there.

(When creating environments, try just walking around and toying with things. You don’t really need to create anything, cos it’s all there already.)

I’m not sure if that made sense.

As a summary:

Raise your status by exemplifying yourself. Raise your status by lowering others. Lower your status by raising others. Lower your status by insulting yourself.


1, 2, 3, 4: Tell me that you love me more!

4 people are given either a number 1, 2, 3 or 4. Player 4 enters the scene and establishes the environment. Player 3 enters and is higher status than player 4. Player 2 enters and is higher status still. Player 1 enters and is the highest status of all. Players then leave in reverse order: 1, then 2, then 3. Player 4 then concludes the scene.

This game was a joy to watch. Everyone’s scenes were interesting and hilarious. Watching player 4 scramble to make sure that everyone’s needs were met was hilarious. Watching player 1 abuse his power was awesome. (And I say ‘his’ not to be exclusive, but because all the player 1s were male: Mike, Colin and Justin. So there.)

Let’s break it down scene by scene.

Dentist’s Office

First off, what a wonderful suggestion: The break room at a Dentist’s office. Brilliant.

Artevan’s introduction was great. A casual stride in, picking out something to eat, and calmly sitting down. Then Bronwyn came in and stole his thunder, playing down his lunch. Katie came in and began commanding everyone. At this point, Artevan was already cowering in the corner. When Mike came in, all hell broke loose. He was easily the highest status Dentist I think I’ve ever seen, or ever will see. It would be interesting to put a superordinate goal in the scene for everyone to work towards.

Lipstick Conference

Again, what a brilliant suggestion. A conference at a firm for Lipstick. Absolutely wild.

This scene was easily one of the most entertaining ones I have ever seen. Martin scrambling around to get chairs for everyone. Rick sitting in lipstick and then blaming it on Martin. Matt and Colin’s displeasure at there only being 12 types of lipstick. Matt’s explosion as soon as Colin left. Everything about the scene clicked. Congratulations, guys.

Camelot

Again, an awesome suggestion!

Lower energy than the one before, but still really well executed. Ben was great as number 4. Kaylan and Harjot were great at passing orders along the line. Justin was excellent at being commanding. Apparently, Lancelot is the bad guy in Camelot. Who knew?

I would really like to try performing this game in front of an audience. Even if we don’t explain the premise, or the status choices, it would be very, very entertaining to watch.


Glasses and Governors

This game was used as a way of demonstrating status switches. It’s fun to watch someone go from very high-status to very low-status in the blink of an eye. (Or rather, in the putting on of glasses).

It’s a tough scene to do, too, because it’s very trying, and can be very embarrassing. I don’t think it was for anyone this time, but it could happen…


I believe that’s it for me, for now. Once again, a fantastic session tonight guys. I enjoyed everything you were doing. I hope you had fun, too, cos it certainly looked like you were.

Next week, we’ll work on incorporating Status into the games we’re familiar with. We’ll also build our setlist for the Matthews show later in the evening.

Take care gang. Great work again. You should all be proud. I am.

Cheers,

Cliff

PS - Sorry for the long post. There was a lot to write about. :)