Sprezzatura #18 - Axioms To Govern The Stars
Hello, friends!
If you think of today as February 29 and not March 1, it’s still last month and, therefore, this is still a monthly newsletter. This logic is ironclad and irrefutable.
I have a request for you all, dear readers. I’d love to make this newsletter a little more improv-y and also interactive so I’m starting an Ask Vinny section. Reply to this newsletter with any improv question you might have (any time! doesn’t have to be right after receiving it) and I’ll do my best to answer one or two of them in the next edition. Think of it as a “Dear Abby” column but instead of “Why does my partner fart so much?” it’ll be more “Why does my scene partner fart so much?”
[ARTICLE] - Red Hats, Red Blood
As we learn to live in this new world, this read is both a harrowing and enlightening experience in and of itself.
“A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict.” So when Rowan Zeoli signed up take part in a wargame based on the Jan 6 DC riots, he got an experience that doesn’t fade easily from the mind. It’s a harrowing read that blurs gaming and social commentary while illustrating the power of crowds, immersion, anger, and fear.
“Our mutually exclusive win states were made clear. Team blue, the capitol defenders, must hold the line and defend the capitol. Team red must stop the steal — and hang Mike Pence.”
[TV] Ladies and Gentlemen… 50 years of SNL music
The 50th anniversary show of SNL was decent, neither great nor terrible, with some legit funny moments. But the highlight of NBC’s week of celebrations was the music documentary by Questlove. Making a doc that covers fifty years of live music from a show that not only highlighted the hitmakers but also, to some extent, shaped culture by elevating up-and-comers, seems daunting.
If you’ve seen Summer of Soul, Questlove’s doc about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, you know he’s got great taste in music and tells a great story. This SNL doc follows both of those touchstones to great success. It opens with a luscious extended mash-up medley of SNL performances and then goes into a deep dive of the history of significant guests and performances, almost always featuring an interview with the artist themselves. Huge recommend for any music fans.
[MUSIC] Dopamine by WING
In case you were wondering what the latest supernatural advances in beatboxing are producing:
IMPROV TIPS
Something I often like to share when teaching intermediate students is the theory of the “Four Stages of Competence”. It’s a model that I think does a good job of describing the learning process. It captures what we’re feeling at each stage and why. Maybe you can recognize yourself in one of them?
Stage 1: Unconscious Incompetence
When we are first learning to do something, we are unaware of the difficulty and we simply do it without self-consciousness. There’s a pleasure in the doing without self-judgement and the bliss of ignorance is in full effect. We are like children playing for the sake of playing. This is the joyful high of finishing an introductory class. We know we are not “good” but we also have no expectations of excellence or even what that might mean. This is, sadly, the shortest stage.
Stage 2: Conscious Incompetence
As we start to learn a skill and wish to improve, we begin to see the gap between our novice skills and what is required to become competent at it. This is where we start to wonder why we are suddenly terrible. But that’s not really the case, we are simply more aware of our failure to meet our newly discovered (and ever-rising) standard. This is where a lot of people quit because it’s not a lot of fun to go through the struggle and it’s a test of one’s self-esteem and determination (especially if you have few peers to share the struggle with). This can be a very long stage.
Stage 3: Conscious Competence
After a long period of practise, observation, and imitation, we slowly achieve success. At this stage, there’s a lot of focus and conscious effort being put forth to apply the skills we’ve picked up. Success can feel random, elusive, and fleeting. Students start to reach the high of doing well but it feels like work and comes inconsistently. There is perhaps a narrow set of situations where the skill is regularly applied successfully. This can give repeated work a “sameness” but competence is now clearly apparent. Growing from here requires pushing through the comfort zones and embracing further struggle in new areas. Sorry, this can also be a very long stage.
Stage 4: Unconscious Competence
This is the ultimate goal. When we’ve mastered a skill, we’ve internalised a hundred smaller, foundational skills and can reproduce them without thought or concentration. We simply “do” it without really being able to articulate what it is we’re doing. We can return to a state of childish playfulness; breaking rules and following instincts because we trust our taste and judgment thus allowing us to push the skill into new places and go beyond rote training. We have finally left self-consciousness behind. Though this can require work to maintain, skills gained at this level never truly fade since achieving it means having it imprinted deep in our unconscious.
EVENTS & THINGS
Our Improv College team’s first show is coming up on Monday, March 10th at 9:30pm Eastern. The Fae Team hits the virtual stage, solving problems and being fantastic (in both senses of the word).
Also this, er, next! month, my French show “J’aime l’amour” returns for its monthly engagement at JIM. Friday March 21st at 8pm. Billets disponible ici.
An interesting Wikipedia Page: Clameur de haro
And that’s it for another issue. Tell a friend and spread the word about this silly newsletter. The internet as a space to connect (instead of a place to sell a million terrible ads) feels smaller than ever before.
L8r sk8rs,
Vinny