Influence

It was good to get back to iO last night. I missed it. I was very excited and juiced to be back after a week away. Vince's team had gone up first so he was in the audience watching. I love watching Vince perform, one of the things he does best is huge emotional reactions. There is nothing like seeing him bubble and simmer into some kinetic psychological upheaval. For my first scene for Schwa, whether because Vince was there and ethereally impacting my play or part of me was deliberately doing his move, I started off slow and quiet and built quickly to this big emotional outburst. It got a good response and I felt great doing it. It got me thinking about a couple things.

When I first started improvising I was trying to copy Craig(energy and physicality) and Rush(persona and verbal dexterity). As I performed more, learned and grew, I started to more simply incorporate the things, moves, and ideas about them that I liked into my own burgeoning style. As more time passed the people I was influenced by increased. I became more and more alert for moves, voices, characters, and premises that I liked that I could then recycle with my own personal spin. Tisher's put upon pretension, the sharp fluidity of Scott Nelson, the quiet desperate perversion of Brunlieb, the confidence and brass of Donley, the societal awareness and authenticity of Julia, the stage presence and patience of Shotts, the recalcitrance and petulance of Reynolds, the absurdity of Joey, the dramatics of Devin, the characters of Katie Klein, the vulgarity of Carmen, the casual ease of Worsley, and on and on. This amalgamation is used to enhance and diversify what is inherently me. I collect influences and inspirations, as do we all.

Coming back from Richmond I was very much aware and grateful for the vast amount of talent there is in Chicago. On any given night I can go see some friends, acquaintances or strangers do some really incredible work. Richmond does not have that. Not that their improv scene is deficient in any way but just from the nature of being small the people can only be influenced by each other, there isn't the same breadth to draw from, because of its size the individuals creativity and potential growth is limited in certain ways.

Without the guts to straight-up copy you don't necessarily get to the subtleties of influence and inspiration. Without being able to see others do things you would never do your boundaries never change. No artist or performer comes out of the gates fully formed. It takes time to develop a voice and style. You temper your ideas with others. You experiment. You find what works, what feels good. You progress and gain complexity.

Don't be reluctant to lift bits.