Action and Followthrough

The more time I spend in California, the less of an idealist and the more of a realist I become. About many things, but I'll focus on craft in this.

I've enjoyed a commercial class I've been taking for the past 3 months because the coach offers "hands-on" methods, or real productivity measures, that keep me moving forward. Stand like this. Answer the phone this way. Do mailings like this. Etc.

The problem with a lot of acting classes is they're too philosophical. There's no physical labor, just mental note-taking. Hearing a lesson like "you need to fall in love and then have your heart broken to experience the full spectrum of human emotion" is not bad, but it's easy to write that in notebook , rather than have realistic aims of bringing that to the stage or screen. We're past that point now.

Taking class, I glance at my peers and they're taking pages of notes. Pages. I snuck a look at the girl beside me last night. She was writing things like "don't forget to smile!" and "be believable!" and "make sure you're prepared before you audition!"

Ah, I'm dogging on her. If she needs to take notes on such things, that's her right. Even though I happen to know she's been taking this particular class for a year. It's action and followthrough that makes people successful, not writing in notebooks and saying the right stuff.

I have 75-80% working knowledge on how to market and sell myself out here. I know because I have some limited success. But there's still some things I haven't figured out yet. It's that other 20% I'm seeking help with. What do I not know? It's up to me to cut through the BS, or what doesn't benefit me anymore, and find the Aha! stuff.

Improv classes are the same. There's no better way to learn than to actually get up on stage and work. You gotta hop onstage and embarrass yourself quickly. I was in an improv scene four weeks ago in front of a lot of people at IO West and lost my way. Everybody walked away from me, and I had to crawl my way off. I still felt good about it afterward, because I was up there.

We could sit and talk about improv until the wee hours of the morning. "Explore the problem, don't fix it!" "Establish relationship quickly!" "Let activity heighten emotion!" That's great stuff... to hear. If I'm having trouble with those things in practice, I prefer to scribble on a little note in my pocket, so I don't forgot, rather than in a big official binder of acting stuff that's gonna intimidate and discourage me from opening it up.

Obviously, I work in the entertainment world, so I use these examples. But apply what I'm saying to your work. If you are studying or working at something in your life, find the information that gets you productive and moving. You are a smart person. Don't sit at your idealistic desk and have the facts all day. We don't need scene study criticism. We don't need to take notes to remember to smile.

It is time to get up and do. And when you've gotten up and done your best, it's totally cool to sit down with a drink and have that philosophical conversation. Because you produced the sweat and tears.

Learn what realistically will help you and take action and followthrough!

Note: This very piece is idealistic, but it serves the realistic aim of getting my brain awake this morning, helping me stay sharp and thinking.