6/11/12

Have a conversation with a specific person in your life

Couple of thoughtful comments on how acting class can impact a comedian.

Aalap said:

One interesting tip they gave was to speak to a specific person. Commercial acting is unique in that you're often instructed to look into the camera. Which I think is almost exactly the same as looking at a standup audience. Our instructor told us to read the ad copy as if we were having a conversation with a specific person in our lives. This removed a huge block for me during the class because I stopped "acting" and started "talking" to the camera. I think technique is pretty helpful in comedy too, look at audience, not just a glance, look in someone's eyes, make a connection and talk as you would to a human being.


Clean Person said:

I tend to do a lot of act outs and if you watch some of the greats they commit so hard to some of their act outs that sometimes it feels like it transcends the joke or the punchline. Baron Vaughn is a good example of a contemporary comedian who has some amazing act outs. He is a trained actor btw. But then you have someone like Rory Scovel who had no formal acting training, yet he commits so hard to some of the act outs and improvisations he does.

Also I recently moved to LA and met with a manager out here, and she asked me if I had ever taken any acting classes and i told her i actually when to theatre school, then she said, "well you have half the battle won then." So i think it's a plus for agents or managers out here.


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