Card Improv

The focus of one of our classes this week was improv using inspiration from two measly cards. We were each given two cards, found a suitable partner whose cards could mesh together with ours, and we were to make two scenes, with inspiration with the four cards. A major challenge we were faced with in the duration of the exercise was that we were not allowed to discuss, only roll with the punches. After the conclusion of the scene, we were allowed to tweak it to perfection.

One problem that I had in the progression in my scene was that I was unable to stop and revise a mistake or a negation from my partner. I had to keep going, and play on with what I had and give more for my partner to play off on. Also, questions were not allowed in the scenes at all, which was yet another obstacle. Actors should only use declarative statements in scenes so that's what we had to do. Finally, creating a sufficient amount of space work in scenes was pretty difficult. Despite all the challenges in the exercise, I enjoyed it and got a lot from it.

Exercise Review

In class on Friday, we played a game that envolved responding and reacting to an idea a partner gave us. The set up of the game went as follows, two lines facing each other and when it was time to go, one person from one of the line would grab a topic card, and the other person would be their partner. For example, if Billy picks a card and it says "salad tongs," he could associate that with a barbeque and could play of that. His partner, Joe, would have to respond to Billy's spacework and lines. This exercise really helped me with my improvisational skills and my quick thinking. Some of my cards were hard in the moment of the exercises, but when I thought about it, they were actually really easy. Also, we played wordball, a game of quick-thing word associations. This was a huge help in the progress of the exercise because it contributed to your rapid feedback to words and phrases.

Favorite Scene

In the movie The Other Guys there contains a scene that I really enjoy. It takes place in the NYPD office with Mark Wallberg and Will Ferell. When Mark is trying to offend Will, he explains that is he was in a different food group then he was, he would eat him. He used the example of lion and a tuna. His exact words were"Even if you weren't in my food chain, I would go out of my way to attack you. If I were a lion and you were a tuna, i would swim into the middle of the ocean and eat you!" This scene in the movie was fulle of hilarity and stupidity which equated to a very funny scene. Towards the end, Mark splashed a hot cup of coffee on Will and the scene was through. I thought that this almost made the scene and finished it perfectly.