From An Actor's Perspective

1.  Remember when you didn't blog almost all of March and then you blogged 3 days in a row?
2.  I am a lil' drunk.
3. It's four a.m.
4.  I am in culture shock.
5.  As an actor, with many friends who are pursuing acting professionally, who considered pursuing it professionally herself, I didn't expect there to be such a disparity between actors and improvisors.   Honestly, I thought it would a natural extension of it.  I was under the very genuine impression that most improvisors would be actors who had honed their craft into a specific and moderately intolerable niche.  Like all my friends who do Shakespeare festivals.

But that is not the case.  Improvisation, it seems, is an extension of the comedian.  Perhaps this is just the nature of the studio where I'm taking classes... but these people always seem to be "on".   Always trying to crack a joke. Which is cool, but very very inaccessible.  Like when douchebag actors start singing show tunes at an IHOP at 1 in the morning.  Unfortunately, I tend to know the showtunes and will sing along at least briefly before catching myself.  But what if you were in your first play ever and all of the sudden you are tipsy at IHOP and everyone busts out a little something from Wicked.   You might feel a little disconnected.

And then sometimes... just sometimes... you hear an improvisor refer to an actor in a kind of derogatory tone.  And I've gotta say, it gets under my skin.  When was the last time I jumped down an improvisor or comedian's throat for trying to act?  Probably all the time.  I'm actually very critical.  But it doesn't prevent me from getting very defensive on my own behalf.  "Hey, this shit is very different, and in acting you aren't always looking for the next joke, okay? Sometimes you want the audience to shut up."

I think I need to explore other studios in the Bay Area when I get a chance, to see if one of them is less interested in cracking jokes in everyday conversation, or if that's just the nature of the beast... just like doing the Time Warp in a bowling alley shouldn't be surprising at a musical's cast party.