Personal Notes = Personal Nopes
Posted by dandy | Filed under Uncategorized
Hot on the heals of The Tuck’s piece yesterday ‘Find Your Weakness’ I am writing this follow-up. Please know that this is not coming from a place of criticism of our last rehearsal. Lloyd, aka The Reason, did a great job of coming up with personal challenges for each of us that will no doubt make each of us stronger. It should also be noted that I specifically requested more ‘personal notes’ from The Reason. But…
…asking for personal notes is a total load of BS.
If you are a coach or teacher you have no doubt been asked to “give more personal notes” by eager improv minds. Or maybe you are the eager young improv mind that posed the question. And I know that it comes from a good place, but it misses the point.
It is not that we don’t all need notes. But this desire to have somebody tell us what we need to do to get better is faulty. Sure a teacher or coach is there to offer perspective and help you grow. But my problem with it is this: you know what you need to do (yes you do), so don’t wait for somebody else to give you permission or call you out on it. Want a note? Here: wherever you feel least comfortable, do that more. If you hate something, short form games, abstract group work, emotional reactions, whatever, you will not progress until you face it. Improv is a constant self-assessment and nobody can self-asses you better than you…self. To wait for somebody else to point it out, is to pass the buck.
Improv is hard. There is no cheating it. There are no shortcuts. Nobody can hold you hand and walk you through it. I know, telling you this little secret pretty much makes my profession as an improv teacher obsolete. I guess I am banking on your lack of motivation and courage to keep me in business. If you want to get better, you don’t need better coaching, you need to hold yourself more accountable. Personal accountability means realizing that it isn’t your teammate that is fucking up the scene, it isn’t that your coach isn’t seeing it or that their exercises aren’t good enough, it isn’t any of these things. It is you.
The good news is that we all know the answers all the time. Of course you do. Your body was built with the same awarenesses and feelings as mine. So be your own coach and if you want to get better, coach yourself better. Don’t let yourself be lazy. Do the tasks that you most want to avoid. Use this feeling, this aversion, as your guide. Any time you encounter it, you are coaching yourself and you can either let yourself off the hook, or you can take it on and grow.
Climbing down from my high horse…now.
Good day.
9 Responses to “Personal Notes = Personal Nopes”
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Finn White Says:
July 24th, 2010 at 6:19 pmI strongly agree with you… AND… I also disagree with you. With all due respect to your much greater experience when it comes to the improv world, this post resonates with me in my work as a personal trainer. From a certain point of view, yes there is little I can coach a client to do that he or she couldn't ultimately do on their own. The great news is, because they choose me my clients don't HAVE TO. I believe human beings are designed to partner. The whole (I think) Buddhist idea that a person cannot see their own face, that others are mirrors that show us who we are. As long as we never pass the buck, have the awareness that ultimately, at the end of the day, the person making that growth, going out and getting it, responsible for it, is accountable for it is YOU, that really your improv coach, your trainer, your shrink, your lover, at least in terms of what you learn and take from those people, they are in fact also YOU, you are on the right path. Thanks for your post.
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the Mouth Says:
July 24th, 2010 at 9:49 pmamen.
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The Rose Says:
July 24th, 2010 at 10:07 pmI totally agree with this. As a coach, I always feel very awkward when people ask for "personal notes." because I sometimes feel that what they actually want is psychoanalysis or for me to fix them. I am not qualified to do either one.
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Jessica Young Says:
July 24th, 2010 at 10:43 pmLove this! Well said.
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dandy Says:
July 25th, 2010 at 12:28 pmI hear you, and I do totally agree that in improv, as in all of life, we learn from those around us. We do reflect back at ourselves through those around us. No argument from me on that point. I would however say that because improv is an ensemble art form, and as such we are constantly being faced with this reflection and my point is that when we are asking for someone else to tell us how to get better, we are waiting for somebody else to tell us about our own reflection.
Honestly, I overplayed the uselessness of coaches and teachers a bit in my post to make a point. They have their use and their purpose and I love doing both jobs BUT their job is not to crawl inside your head, find your fears and face them for you which often feels like what is being asked when people request personal notes. Nobody can tell you the thing you need to do to be great at improv, that has to come from you. If you want to be great, above all other skills you must be great at this — at least that is what I think.
Thank you for your comment Finn! And thanks for reading.
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dandy Says:
July 25th, 2010 at 12:29 pmright. But real quick, couldn’t you just straighten out my life for me? Thanks Rose.
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Head ChImp Says:
July 25th, 2010 at 9:54 pmI agree that we each know what makes us uncomfortable so there are some clear areas for us to work. Yet I disagree in that we all need someone to help us see what's possible. For example, if you never saw an NBA game but played basketball, you might think at your current stage, you are a great player and have nowhere else to go. You need to see higher levels to know there's more out there. Discomfort is one thing, ignorance is another. As a teacher of high schoolers (both academic and improv), I am in a constant war with complacency due to simple ignorance of what's possible. I imagine most improv teachers have stories of improvisors who thought they were amazing until you showed them another group or gave them some feedback that opened their minds to another way to go.
It's one thing to want to improve, but it's another to know how to do it. I know you're not arguing against feedback – feedback helps and sometimes very specific (personal) notes are part of that. -
Dawn Hunnicutt Says:
July 27th, 2010 at 5:38 pmImprov is tennis…you need a teacher to give you the basics (I believe), watch your strokes, make adjustments, break bad habits. A topspin forehand is something that needs to be taugh, and very few can glean it from watching. Once you get a pretty good grip on the game (no pun intended), if you're hitting everything into the net, you know enough at this point to make adjustments on your own (knees aren't bent for me more than likely, raquet isn't down, etc.). So, yes, at a certain point an improviser knows for herself what is/isn't working and the adjustments to make (listen, just react and respond, don't go for the joke, etc.) I am ultimately responsible for my work on stage and my contributions to the team. Yes. I am getting better at knowing what did and didn't work, and if we are all tuned in, we should all be able to "see" the piece as a whole and making those mental adjustments on our own; however, I find coaches to be invaluable. Don't know why. Like the feedback (when we hear things twice, we finally learn it?) A team of actors without a coach or director….could that be likened to "Lord of the Flies?" I don't know. I'll give it some more thought. I just figure if Roger Federer still has a coach, I probably still need one too.
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dandy Says:
July 28th, 2010 at 2:18 pmI agree with all of this. And honestly, I think coaches are important too – USS has a great one and he is a major reason for us getting better with time.
My driving force in wanting to write this piece is simply that I believe too often players are waiting for somebody else to point out the thing that they already knew they needed to do. Improv growth, particularly once you have the basic principles down, is such a personal journey. I feel when things are working the best, all players are individually attacking their own personal aversions which frees the coach up to do his/her job of steering the ensemble towards something larger.
