Thought For The Week October 19, 2009

"Try to stay in the moment, which only means that every time you do the same scene, on stage or in front of a camera, if you're relaxed and you're reacting to the other actors at that moment - not the way you did it yesterday or fifteen minutes ago - then even though the lines are exactly the same and the staging is exactly the same, the scene will be a little different each time you do it, and it will be alive." - Gene Wilder

When I was in college I appeared in a production of "Trudi and the Minstrel." During the Wednesday night performance, I got a big laugh during a scene I did with another character. On Thursday night the audience didn't laugh at all. That threw me and I started trying to figure out what I had done different. After the show, Ken Rugg, the director, told me, "If you don't get an expected laugh, don't think about it. If you do, you aren't thinking about what you need to be thinking in this performance. Then you won't get any laughs."

Steve Long and I were the headliners at the 1992 NW Festival of Clowns. We were scheduled to perform during the awards banquet. We decided that it would be nice if we did something together. Steve suggested that we perform a skit called Stagecoach. (This skit is described in Creativity For Entertainers Volume Two as well as in some of Barry DeChant's skit books.) Steve told me that he would probably do some improvisation and that it was okay with him if I improvised as well. I listened to everything he said, and reacted to it. For example, when he asked me if I knew what the Shotgun was supposed to watch for I pointed to a pretty woman sitting in the audience. When Steve corrected me by saying I had to look for bad men, I pointed to her husband. We continued in that manner. The performance was a great hit.

A few years later Steve Long and I were both on the UW-L Clown Camp staff. Steve asked me to repeat our performance of Stagecoach as part of his Staff on Stage show. Instead of listening to Steve and reacting to what he said during this performance, I tried to remember what I had done before. The skit fell completely flat.

The key is to listen to your partner. Then react to what they said. Carole and I were performing our Bandanas That Become Tide skit at Clown Camp. (This skit is described in Creativity For Entertainers Volume Three.) In the skit I attempt to follow the directions for a magic effect as she read the instructions out loud. At this particular performance she emphasized the words "Step One." I heard the emphasis and took one step forward. The audience had heard the same emphasis and knew what I was responding to so it got a big laugh. The audience knew I was involved in what was happening at that moment so the skit took on a life of its own. They believed what was happening.

If you are a solo performer, you still have a partner, your audience. You should listen to them and react to what they say. For example, in my mismade flag routine I drop a blue scarf onto the floor while putting a red scarf and a white scarf into a change bag. If somebody tells me right away that I dropped the scarf, I look into the bag to see what happened and slowly pull out a scarf that has red stripes but no field of blue. If nobody says anything about the blue scarf on the floor, I confidently pull the scarf out and proudly display it unaware that the blue field is missing. I wait for somebody to tell me what is wrong. If the first thing they do is say that the blue scarf is on the floor, I look down at it, and then check to see what happened to the flag. If the first thing they say is there aren't any stars, I stare at the flag in confusion wondering what happened to the blue. I don't discover the scarf on the floor until somebody calls my attention to it. I have probably performed my mismade flag routine hundreds of times over the years. But because my partner, the audience, is different each time the routine stays fresh for me.

Do you listen to your partner while performing? Do you listen to the audience? How does what you hear affect your performance? How can you react to what they say?