Long-Form Improv by Ben Hauck

Author:Ben Hauck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

20

Managing Your Attitude

While a player who is out for herself may succeed as

a stand-up comic, she won’t make it as part of a good

improv ensemble.

—Patricia Ryan Madson, Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up

The word “attitude” refers to thinking. Specifically, it refers to the direction of your thinking. For example, if I said to you that you had “a great attitude,” your thinking would be directed toward things I probably thought were great. If I said you had “a bad attitude,” presumably your thinking would be directed toward things I thought were bad.

Contrary to what you may believe, your attitude is not fixed; it is manageable. If your attitude is the direction of your thinking, then you can change the direction of your thinking. You can align your thinking with something great rather than align it with something not so great. Just as well, you can align your thinking with something greater than great.

A number of issues that emerge in improvised scenes are the result of problematic attitudes. Some actors experience troubles in their improvised scenes because they are stubbornly oriented in one direction in their improvised scenes and don’t change that direction. Many times, they simply need a reorientation and redirection in how they think in their improvised scenes. Set on the new course, their stubborn issues can immediately, “miraculously,” disappear.

But many people think they have no control over their thinking, and as a result they believe their attitudes are “stuck.” I disbelieve that, and I often show evidence to the contrary in the long-form improv classes I teach. Actors can think differently about their improvised scenes and quickly get past struggles they may repeatedly have. As a result of a subtle shift in attitude—a subtle shift in thinking—actors can awaken incredible new directions to their improvised scenework.

Many actors first trying long-form improv find that a lot of their improvised scenes get stuck in deadlocks. I’ve found that you can play with a pleasing amount of deadlock in your improvised scenes in an entertaining way as long as you maintain a cooperative attitude. A cooperative attitude is a mindset in which you are ultimately and steadfastly focused on reaching bilateral agreement and getting a win-win outcome.

The opposite of a cooperative attitude is a noncooperative attitude. There are three basic kinds of noncooperative attitudes, all of which I simply call “competitive attitudes.” A competitive attitude is a mindset focused on anything but a win-win outcome; that is, it’s a mindset that’s focused on win-lose, lose-win, or lose-lose outcomes. Anyone holding a competitive attitude is interested in an outcome that ultimately creates a loser—an outcome in which at least one character can’t get what he wants.

You might play the most violent, abusive, argumentative character and still have a cooperative attitude. To do so, you need to have a cooperative attitude in your player-game. When you do, despite the noncooperative appearance of your character-game, you are still directed toward bilateral agreement between the characters.

Similarly, you might play the friendliest neighbor, the nicest grandmother, or the cutest child and still have a competitive attitude.

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