On the hook

I've said before that Jet Eveleth is one of my favorite teachers. Here she is, talking about nerves and fear:


There are at least 19 wonderful things in this video, but I want to highlight this comment:

"I purposely do things that scare me all the time to learn how to manage my adrenaline so that I can be more authentic onstage. ... Especially because I teach, I think it's really important for me to constantly be scared so I'm empathetic with my students."

Sometimes, after a Jet workshop, I'd ask, "I'd never done that exercise before; what is it from? Where can I learn more things like this? How can I get better at this?"

Jet's answer was usually along the lines of, "I learned it from clowning. Paola Colletto is the best clowning teacher around. Take classes from her if you can."


So I Googled Paola Colletto and found out that her classes were way out of my budget, in terms of both time and money. And I felt a little relieved. Well, that scary thing isn't an option for me. I'm off the hook.

Until last week, when I heard through the Facebook grapevine that Paola was offering a class called "Physical Theater for Improvisers." It's in my schedule and my budget. That puts me back on the hook. I've talked with Paola, sent my registration check, put it on my calendar.

I'm purposely doing a thing that scares me. And now it's time to panic.*




*My friend Steve asked when the class was, and I told him it doesn't start for another 3 weeks. "So now is not actually time to panic. You cannot possibly panic for 3 weeks straight." Watch me.

It's not called stealing.

When I get home from taking an improv class, coaching a troupe, teaching a workshop, or playing in a practice, my first impulse is to write. I don't know really know what I think about anything until I've written it out and looked at it.

(When I finish performing a show, however, my impulse is to stay out too late eating junk food with my friends, then come home and crash. I don't know why this is, but I think it's a good thing not to over-analyze your own shows. Let someone else do that.)


When I've taught and coached, some of the more proactive students/players have emailed me to ask me for more personal feedback than I could give in front of the group. If you're one of those wonderful people, I hope you don't mind that I'll be borrowing from some of my responses to you.


If you've ever been one of my teachers or coaches, I've probably written down things you've said. I hope you don't mind if I share them with other people. I'll do my best to remember who said what.

But my favorite teachers have gotten so deeply into my head that I may steal from them without realizing it. I think I'm ok with that. If you're one of those teachers, I imagine that you're ok with it, too, because you know that this art form will wither and die if we don't let other people take our ideas and run with them. That's how we're trained to act toward each other on stage, anyway.
 

"In the arts, it's not called stealing. It's called being part of a movement." -- Noah Gregoropoulos