Katherine Phelps

Posted By Katherine on 2009 September 9

Been wondering what I’ve been doing with my time? Making stupid TV comedies! YAY!

Time Titties is a saucy time travel comedy made in Australia for a multi-national Gen-Y audience. The below is my pitch promo reel in order to drum up production support.

With your help I can turn this madness into reality. Tell your friends about the video and encourage them to pass the word on. If you know of any producers in Australia/Britain/North America who might be interested. Send them my way!

Thank you for your support.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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Posted By Katherine on 2009 September 7

One of the most crucial aspects of performance is keeping your energy up. I’m not saying that you have to have an upbeat hyper persona, just a powerful presence that galvanises people’s attention.  I have seen perfectly good jokes fall flat because the performer’s energy went flat. Here’s a list of things you can do to improve your energy.

* Eat and drink only low GI foods before a show.

The last thing you want is a sugar crash or after meal drowsies part of the way through your performance. So either eat low GI or make sure to take a cookie with you on stage.

* Wear clothes that are comfortable.

This will keep you from unneccessarily expending energy on tugging at waistbands or having your mind drift off onto how your toes are being crushed by your pointy shoes.

* Allow yourself to be seen and heard.

I’ve seen far too many performers wanting you to laugh at their jokes, but hiding themselves by wearing dark clothes, shuffling back and forth, standing far back on the stage, looking away from the audience, etc. You diminish yourself and your performance this way by withholding your visible energy. The same is true of perfomers who mumble or speak in a low voice, they are withholding their auditory energy.

* Allow yourself to be uncool and vulnerable.

You are a comedian. Comedians are all about sending up the cool people of the world. Comedians are all about reminding people of their humanity. If you are afraid of looking like a dork, then you are in the wrong industry. Let your dorkiness hang out. Let people laugh when you make mistakes. Anxiety from misplaced self-consciousness and insecurity will rob you of your stage presence.

You need make no apologies for yourself. And that is cool.

* Be 100% committed to everything you do, even if it fails.

Only one real sin exists in entertainment and that’s being boring. Children and animals tend to upstage the adults because they are so completely intent on what they are doing that they draw everyone’s attention. They are not boring. The energy of a pure line of intention is mesmerising to people. They want to know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what will become of your efforts. With intention alone you have already built an affective story.

* Get yourself psyched.

This is where you can hop from foot to foot. Just before going on stage jump, dance around, wriggle your body and chant, “It’s gonna be great, it’s gonna be great.” Anything that will start your energetic engine pumping.

* Ground your energy and stay focussed.

With the engine pumping it’s now time to drive the energy forward in a single pure line where it will have the most impact, right toward your audience. Set your feet solidly on the ground shoulder width apart, take a deep breath, smile, then get going.

* Believe your audience is basically friendly.

I know I’m repeating myself with a number of these, but they are important. Have faith in your audience. See them as a bunch of friends and family at Uncle George’s barbeque, people you are so comfortable with that you don’t mind behaving like a bit of a loon. Who ever cared if you farted at one of those events? Imagine yourself in the same situation.

* Have fun with what you are doing.

If you are having a good time, your energy will be bright, infectious, and your audience will love it. Otherwise, what are you doing in comedy?

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

Category: Exercises, Stagecraft | 2 Comments »
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Posted By Katherine on 2009 August 29

Since I discussed stage movement last Friday, I thought this Friday I might lay down some technical details about stages and stage blocking for the beginners.

As a comedian you are going to be potentially facing four types of performance spaces: proscenium theatre, theatre in the round (arena), thrust (platform or open stage), and a space in the corner of a pub. Each of these have unique advantages and disadvantages. If you start touring, you may be surprised with any one of these four and need to be prepared.

Proscenium Theatre

This is the most standard theatre type. You have a large frame, much like a picture frame, or “arch” through which the audience observes the action beyond. The frame is the area across which the curtains are drawn. Frequently, you will also have an “apron”, a short area in front of the frame. The stage is usually raised above the height of the first row of seats and may have an orchestra pit between stage and audience. The audience are seated in rows facing the stage.

Even without the traditional architectural arrangements, if a performance space is divided in two with performers on one side of the room and audience in facing rows on the other side, then that is also considered proscenium.

The whole point of proscenium theatres is that they provide the illusion of a fourth wall through which you are secretly observing events in people’s lives. This means they also create a  psychic distance that comedians who are creating a rapport with their audience must surmount. You will see many comedians stand as far forward as possible, often on the apron, while delivering their lines. Others will even jump off the stage and start walking down aisles in order to speak more directly with their fans.

Having nearly fallen into the orchestra pit myself during a performance, I warn comedians to mark a spot on the stage beyond which they will not step. It’s acceptable to put a piece of tape on the floor to remind yourself where the line is.

The advantages of proscenium come to fore when you start having more than one comedian sharing the space. People are very willing to suspend their disbelief with this sort of theatre and allow you to create other worlds no matter how silly or absurd. You can also play around with perceptions of time, distance, emotional weight, etc.

Theatre in the Round (Arena)

Theatre in the round is when the performance is held in the centre of a space with the audience surrounding all sides. I know of a few funky bar venues that use this style of staging, particularly if they’re using a converted dance floor. More frequently your hugely popular comedians have to face this performance arrangement in order to accommodate the size of their audience, and end up at a sports arena or the like.

So, the obvious advantage is the sheer volume of people to whom you can give a clear view of the comedian. The disadvantage is that the comedian will always have their back turned to at least half their audience. Certainly, screens broadcasting a face front view of the comedian at all times helps, but if the comedian doesn’t turn and look directly into each section of the audience, those who did not see the comedian’s eyes will feel they haven’t received their money’s worth.

I would only recommend using this form of theatre if you have dynamic material which lends itself to broad frequent movements. I have seen this done successfully by the likes of Ross Noble and Robin Williams, but they project very high energy personas.

Thrust

Most people are familiar with thrust theatres through the fashion industry. The catwalk can in fact be a form of thrust. You will note that the performance space often begins in a proscenium, then a narrow raised platform continues out into the audience space with people surrounding the performance from three sides.

Thrust can work very well for comic performances. If you’re a bit nervous, you can stand at the beginning of the thrust and do your routine proscenium style. You can also use that thrust to get more dramatic with your stories, or more personal with your audience, by walking up and down the space. I would recommend doing this, since with such an arrangement the audience will expect it. Just remember that the further forward you walk on that stage, the more people will be seeing the back of your head.

The Corner of a Pub

This is the least ideal staging. You will probably have a mic and a basic sound system. You may or may not be on a raised platform of some sort. You will be lucky to get a spotlight.

To work this space you will need to learn a lot about vocal projection and charisma. Anything less and you will get lost in the background once people start talking to one another over a beer. Foot movement should probably be cut out all together. You may have the space to only walk a few steps, and short staccato movements generally weaken a performance by distracting the audience from what you are saying. Hand and facial movement are now crucial, since they will help you to convey meaning over poor acoustics.

Yes, this is the low end of comic performance spaces. However, this is where many people get their start. Places like this for honing your skills are invaluable. Also, if you can get people to laugh in a crowded noisy environment, you can get them to laugh anywhere.

Blocking

Performance spaces are generally divided into a grid of nine sections for blocking, five in the case of a thrust theatre.

At one time stages were set at an angle, since the audience might be seated on a level surface. In this way they could see what was going on at the back of the stage as well as the front. More common these days is raised seating, but even so many stages are still at a slight angle. Therefore, we refer to the portion of the stage furthest from the audience as “upstage” and the portion of the stage closest to the audience as “downstage”. And of course between those sections is “centre stage”. In addition to “up” and “down” you also have “stage right” or “house left” and “stage left” or “house right”. Stage left or right is from the actor’s perspective looking out toward the audience. House left or right is from the audience’s perspective.

For theatre in the round you have the same grid, but you will be speaking of the space in terms of north, south, east, west, northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast, and centre.

With thrust you lose four sections of the grid.

As a single comedian, you are likely to be using almost exclusively the downstage area and/or centre stage areas. Should you be part of a comedy team involving two or more comic actors, then it’s worth making use of the whole space. When you are crossing the stage be sure to always go toward the middle centre of the stage, pivot toward the next part of the stage you wish to inhabit, then move out. This gives your performance a point of focus for the audience.

You should be aware of some subconsciously understood conventions. Moving from house left (stage right) to house right (stage left) is experienced by the audience as a move from the past into the future. I assume this is from our experience of reading. I’ve asked whether in Asia, where some languages are read right to left, if they have the same convention, and haven’t had an answer from anyone yet. Upstage to downstage is seen as moving from past to present. Moving from house right to house left is generally felt to be a more difficult task by the audience. This would be the direction to go if you mime walking against the wind.

Directly facing the audience is the most powerful postion you can take. The next most powerful is facing directly away from the audience, but should be used sparingly for dramatic effect. Profiles are sometimes made stronger by the performers actually speaking to one another while looking toward the audience in a quarter profile stance. A three-quarters profile looking upstage is your weakest stance.

Some of the big comedians have directors who think about these things for them. You will attract such a director more quickly when you start thinking about yourself within a performance space and how to use it to your best advantage now.

For your Friday exercise find a friend and a square space you can run around in. Have your friend shout out “stage left, up”, “stage right, centre”, “down stage”, etc. You are to run to those parts of the stage via middle centre until you readily understand the directions and get a feel for stage movement.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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Posted By Katherine on 2009 August 22

I recently had a chance to catch up with some of my TV watching. Top on my list was the 2009 Raw Comedy Finals on the ABC. This is the national competition that uncovers some of Australia’s finest comedy talent. It was an interesting mix of comedians.  We had men, women, duos, musical acts, doing their thing in a variety of styles. It was so diverse that I sat wondering how each state arrived at their winners, who was judging, and what it said about the local humour.

Overall it was a great night of fun. I did have one niggle. A number of the comedians were wandering all over the stage higgledy-piggledy, forcing cameras this way and that and making me feel motion sick. I’m currently reading Franklin Ajaye’s Comic Insights, a very fine book. He strongly recommends the use of stage movement. I don’t disagree with him, but I would say that budding comedians should follow a few guidelines in this regard.

Certainly standing motionless like a mortified rabbit in gunsight during rabbit season (duck season) often won’t endear you to an audience. But the problem isn’t the standing still. Elliott Goblet, Australia’s answer to Steven Wright, uses very little physical movement and his performances are well loved. The problem is, how much fear are you communicating?

Swaying from foot to foot, nervously scuttling all over the stage, or standing stock still are all ways that indicate you aren’t comfortable in the limelight. You have cast the audience as a pack of evil minions who are about to eat you alive, and they can read that from your body language. Who likes to be cast as an evil minion? This is why the audience becomes uncomfortable and eventually can turn on a comedian.

I have seen comedians fumble lines, trip over mic cables, and the like and still keep the audience on side. This is because they have engaged with the audience and shown that they believe in the audience’s goodwill. When someone thinks well of you, most people want to live up to that image. The same is true in the comedian/audience relationship.

So the trick to stage movement is that it must always be purposeful. If you move from left to right of the stage, then you must have a reason for that movement. If you wave your arm up and down, you must have a reason for that. If you scrunch your face up in a moue, that too requires a reason. These are the sorts of reasons you must have:

• You are imitating the movements of some person during an event (eg a paramedic running to a victim who has fallen because they were stepped on by Godzilla).
• You are generally illustrating movement through time or space (eg you have a joke about rockets being shot from the Earth to the Moon).
• You are building tension as you gradually lead up to a punchline (eg you enumerate the things that are going wrong for the father of the bride at a weddding, ending with the bride running away with the best man).
• You are punctuating important points in your story (eg you emphasise with body and voice the word “luck”, so when your next line is supposed to end with a rhyme but is completed with the word “fudge”, everyone knows what you mean and laughs).

I find it absolutely invaluable to plant my feet shoulder width apart, take a deep breath, smile, and look into the audience’s eyes before I begin a performance, and often again after I complete a performance. Planting my feet and breathing grounds all that nervous energy, so I can direct it into a confident performance. Any time I don’t know what to do with myself, being self-assured enough to plant my feet again until it becomes clear where and when the next movement is needed will continue to keep my performance strong. Extraneous movement is just going to heighten nervous energy and wastefully send it in all directions. Energy must flow in a single cycle of power. You must clearly and directly send energy to your audience and graciously receive it back from them, using their energy to help you propel more their direction.

You must be one hundred percent committed to what you are saying, to the world you are creating with your stories and persona, and to the movements you make. Take a tip from actors who ask, “What is my motivation here?” Why am I making this movement here and now? Would some other movement or no movement be better? Be aware of where you are coming from: what are the thoughts, experiences, and feelings that are propelling you. Be also aware of where you are going to: what change is this movement creating within yourself and within the story.

Your Friday exercise is to take a short routine and 1) perform it a few times while keeping your feet planted on a single spot, see if you can get yourself comfortable with the power of that sort of stability, then 2) purposefully choreograph all the movements you feel will add to your words and keep yourself to those movements without a single added gesture.

Movement can certainly add dynamism to a performance, but so can a simple powerful presence.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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Posted By Katherine on 2009 August 10

Hello Funsters and Seekers of LOLitanium,

I have done my best to keep up with the blog and pack at the same time. However, this is the last week before M-Day and I’m doing my best to neither explode and leave a greasy brown mess on the boxes, nor implode and disappear into an alternative universe.

I would suggest for last week’s missing Friday exercise, and this week’s inevitably missing Friday exercise, to send jokes to keep me cheered up. The sillier the better. I’ll post my favourites.

Thanks everyone for your patience.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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Posted By Katherine on 2009 August 6

Last night I had the pleasure of not only listening to the music and humour of The Bedroom Philosopher (aka Justin Heazlewood) on his Brown & Orange Album Launch Tour, I also worked as a volunteer selling merchandise for the show. Justin seems to be getting into the swing of turning his whimsical outlook on life into a supportive living.

Recently Justin has done something of a Tim Minchin. Wanting to distinguish himself from Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords, he has opted to update his seventies tossled-hair and mutton chops look for something perhaps more memorable. He now appears like a 1980s David Bowie with glasses. If he starts strutting around and saying, “You remind me of the babe,” we are in big trouble.:)

I was stationed at the back of the room in order to sell the CD this tour is launching, as well as an older CD, t-shirts, and ties. He is wise to have such items for sale. I have found these are the sorts of things that give an audience a chance to extend their pleasure of the event and support the artist.

I’ve professionally published on the Web since it’s inception. I have observed in particular a number of comic strip artists finding their feet in making a living online. Accepting advertising hasn’t been terrifically successful. Sponsors have been unwilling to offer much support and their ads clutter a site and make it less interesting to view. Direct sponsorship by readers achieved through a number of means can work, depending upon the popularity of the strip. Though, even the most successful reader-supported artist is eking a living. What seems to work best is a combination of techniques that heavily includes merchandising of the strips with books, t-shirts, mugs, soft toys, etc. I have heard the same is true for musicians.

I have heard some musicians say that the bulk of their money does not come from sales through the music companies, but through touring and merchandising. Comedian Ross Noble’s reputation comes largely through word of mouth and sales of his DVD.

I know that some artists find this a bitter pill to swallow. They feel cheapend by “commercialising” themselves. Lord Byron achieved artistic freedom and “purity” solely because he was already a wealthy man when he began writing. You can be free and still allow others the opportunity to support your work. How good is a monk in a monastery when he never tests his goodness against the rigours of every day life? Artists can still choose to speak their minds and speak their truth while accepting money. Over time we will see if they have the courage of their convictions.

To me the real test is how much care is put into the products, how much service is offered to the customers, and the ethics of your sales methods. One of Justin’s things is retro ties. So for his show he put together a collection of good quality secondhand ties that were then adorned with the words “The Bedroom Philospher”. Not only were the ties charming, people could enjoy their character and help the environment through their continued use.

I enjoy flirting with customers like most people flirt with babies. There’s no pressure to buy, but it’s a lot of fun hanging out by the sales table, and people are much more likely to go, “Oh what the heck”. We did pretty well on the night. One comment that came up was that people said they could just buy their favourite songs online. Which is true, but it’s not quite as financially supportive as buying a CD, though more environmental. Justin and I spoke about his putting together a DVD of his live show. His songs are fun in and of themselves, but I have to say that his Spike Milliganish patter while performing the songs really brings them to life. It might also serve to give him that Ross Noble boost in word of mouth. Eventually, the net may scuttle this income stream as well, but for the moment it’s a good strategy.

I would suggest to all comedians wanting to make a living of their art to consider how they can merchandise their act. This will require thinking even more deeply about what you are doing as a business. You will need to do some long term planning, learn how to manage stock, bookkeeping, and accounting. If you are lucky, you may find someone who can do this for you, but most of us will have to start out by doing it for ourselves. However, I will say that it needn’t be onerous. I’ve done it, and once you get into the swing of things, even flaky artists can manage.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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Posted By Katherine on 2009 July 31

When I first started studying literature I noticed my compatriots tended to either be high-minded: reading and writing only high literary or avant garde works, or genre focused: reading and writing only within a single field such as speculative fiction, mystery, horror, or romance.

The problem with an English degree is that you go into the subject because of a love of reading. However once it’s your degree, it becomes a chore since you are always reading with a pen in your hand ready to write that graded essay. So what do you do to relax? I was in the position where I was reading and enjoying the high-minded stuff for my degree, and reading pulp fiction to relax.

A famous piece of advice for writers is to read broadly and read deeply. I have learned to become a lover of culture: high, fringe, and mainstream. This has served me well. The artistic works taught me refined language skills, how to evoke emotional depth, and how to broach difficult subjects. The pulp works taught me how to plot, how to generate drama, and how to be accessible to a broad audience.

For comedians I would say we should follow similar advice: take time to watch other comedians and watch a broad diversity of other comedians, not just those doing things similar to your own humour. I am a great fan of Garrison Keillor style humour. He tells stories about farmers and members of small town communities. Yet, we don’t hear many bogan jokes from him. Most of my audience are city folk. I need to be able to reach them, even if I bring in the odd (very odd) cow joke. Also, I can’t be another Garrison Keillor, I can only ever be a Katherine Phelps. So, in order to reach my audience and find my particular voice, I enjoy the boganish humour of Big Al and Claire Hooper. I also watch the charming city humour of Adam Hills. Catherine Deveny’s sharp political humour is worth a look in, though I would drown in sorrow trying to do that stuff myself.

Further I would say that comedians do best when we broadly experience life. You can’t really live the life of a hermit and expect to have enough material to make others laugh. At least dip your toe in some of the current successes/manias even if you will ultimately take them apart with your jokes. I love Harry Potter. It’s very easy for me to tell jokes based on the world of Harry Potter. The DaVinci Code seemed silly to me from the outset. I waited to buy the book when I knew it would start turning up in the two dollar bin at the used bookstore. Fortunately, I was saved from paying any money by a friendly neighbour. The writing was absolutely turgid and the concept ridiculous. But so many people have read it or seen the movie that I now have a point of contact with them through my jokes about that work.

I’m not asking you to force yourself onto experiences you find unpleasant, just be open and free of judgement enough to give a broad variety of things a try. And they don’t all have to be mainstream things. Do something outrageous like take yourself out to an Andean restaurant or an Italian opera. Your impressions of that experience may form the basis of a very funny routine. I remember watching Irish Comedian Ed Byrne doing that by describing the plot to Cosi Fan Tutti while going on about the trials and tribulations of dating. This was laugh until you cry humour.

Your exercise for today is to:

1. Rent a DVD of some comedian or comic film that you wouldn’t normally go to and watch it.
2. Take yourself out to a restaurant or event totally out of the norm for you. For example—go to a knitting fair, eat at an Eastern European cafe, go see a film at the Chinese cinema based on the look of a poster.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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Posted By Katherine on 2009 July 30

Marion Hotel is one of the latest venues Craig Egan has opened throughout Adelaide. I looked forward to checking the space out after discovering what a gem the Arkaba is for performances. I felt even more excited by the line up of comedians for the evening. I just wish I could have picked a better audience.

The Marion Hotel has a nice comfortable space for the performers to strut their stuff, nothing outstanding but certainly pleasant. I would say I like it better than HWY for coziness. The two pitfalls for the night were 1) not enough audience and 2) too many drunks who ended up taking over the show. If I were Craig, I wouldn’t let myself get too attached to that venue. Perhaps find something in North Adelaide.

I’ve been wanting to write about how to deal with heckling, but haven’t felt experienced enough yet to say anything. To be honest, I am SO grateful I am free of such experience. Last night was painful and I felt nothing but sympathy for the comedians. Now I can write about what worked and didn’t work for them, and perhaps we can at least all learn something.

Rich Naberhood

The host for the evening was Rich Naberhood. You would think with his emphasis on bogan humour as an Elizabeth boy, he would be a natural with the crowd we had. His name is meant to be ironic. However, the instant he said, “I’m Rich Naberhood,” the drunker part of the audience turned on him in a sort of peculiar class war. His humour is a relaxed sort of “meat and potato” style of joke telling. The little girl who sat near me (thank God for one delightful audience member) laughed very hard at some of his one liners. At another venue his working class humour might have had more universal appeal.

The problem he had was that with his relaxed style, he tended to give people time to laugh. Those empty spaces were leapt upon by the drunks as their moment to spout off insults. He would then wait for them to finish, which just gave them more time to spout off more insults.  At one point he asked if the fifteen minutes for his opening routine were up. He sounded like he needed rescuing. So, I checked my watch and said that yes they were. I hope he took that in the  spirit it was intended: a tiny life ring for him to bail long enough to catch his breath. When Rich came back for his next routine he definitely stood his ground better. Perhaps I will see him again sometime when he has a more supportive audience and is given a chance to shine.

Jason Pestell

After the disastrous opening all of the comedians were wary and cut their performances a little short. I was impressed with Jason Pestell’s efforts to make friends with the most vocal heckler by offering him a beer. His word play was delightful, “That was a juice joke…concentrate!” He even threw a kid joke to the little girl. I really like Jason’s material. I’d love to see him smile more while he’s delivering it.

Michael Princi

Michael Princi did the most to quieten the crowd, but not through any special effort. His humour just acted as a natural tonic to calm people down. He was witty; easily accessible; didn’t resort to sex, violence, or body humour; and maintained a snappy pace. This gave the drunks nothing to latch onto. They couldn’t add anything to his jokes, nor did they have the time to do so. Bless you Michael. I’ve always found your humour charming, last night I could have kissed you for helping to rescue the event.

Rob Hunter

Rob Hunter was the comedian for whom I came. He was the 2005 Raw Comedy SA winner and has written for the TV show Spicks and Specks. He projects a boyish character with a psychotic edge. He must have had lessons from Spock the way he was flapping that left eyebrow up and down. His wordplay was clever and, my litmus test for the night, he had the little girl in stitches. I swear he humorously barked like a deranged terrier at the chief heckler, after which the hecklers again remained pretty much quiet. I adore off-centre silliness and Rob served that up in spades. I will have to attend one of his solo shows in the near future.

Average The Band

Our last act thankfully was a crowd pleaser. Average The Band came on and performed a set of goodhearted boganish songs. I’ve seen these guys before with a third member performing support for Tripod at The Gov. They remind me of Bill and Ted from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, only older and with more facial hair. Their songs were tuneful and deceptively clever despite the outer suburb aura.

I would happily see all of the comedians I enjoyed last night again. I don’t know that I would go out of my way to see them at the Marion Hotel. Speaking with Rob Hunter after the show he pointed out that there’s a difference between a simple heckler and a drunk. A heckler is wanting a little attention, a drunk is just making a nuisance of themselves. I could see his point. I’ve seen both Ross Noble and Stephen K. Amos do glorious things riffing off of a responsive audience. I’ve seen several comedians die attempting to cope with drunks.

I sense that each comedian needs to develop their own methods for working with hecklers as suits the persona they have created. However, drunks need to be universally ignored and not given the time to embarrass themselves. Personally, I would say these venues need to take more responsibility for their drunks. First, they aren’t supposed to serve intoxicated individuals and, second, they should have a trained bouncer on hand to see someone off the premises if they are bothering other patrons.

To all who performed last night I hope the small group of enthusiastic fans you had at the front of the venue helped to make the night worthwhile, because your performances were certainly worthwhile.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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Posted By Katherine on 2009 July 30

Last Sunday my TheatreSports improvisation class was asked to perform for the Almond Blossom Festival. This was a great way to farewell all the wonderful people with whom I’ve been developing my performing and improvising skills before moving to Melbourne.

The festival itself was charming. I watched open dog trials where little scruffy moppets up to proper sheep dogs jumped through hoops, walked over bridges, ran around gates, etc. They had two Scottish marching bands. For the first time ever I watched Morris dancing live. That was amazing. I’ve heard people joke about how twee Morris dancing is with its bells and ribbons, but if you take the bells and ribbons away, you’ve got healthy men practising hitting one another with swacking great poles. I think it’s a cunning way to disguise the fact you are learning a martial art. And of course lots of tasty flavoured almonds were available everywhere for munching.

The performance hall is a small space attached to a basketball court. A number of young dance and music groups were presenting their stuff all day there. While my impro group warmed up in the green room, I had the pleasure of watching a group of zombies and Michael Jacksons costume up and head onto stage.

Last year we had separate children’s and adult’s beginner impro classes. This year for the intermediate course, our instructor combined the two classes. Even so, the adults and the children tended to keep to separate groups, which I found a bit silly and therefore started mixing it up. Eventually, I was doing more with the children. For our performance the two kids who were participating and myself agreed we would all wear tie-dye t-shirts. We kind of became a team.

When our time came Kyle, Daniel, and I did such TheatreSports games as Genre Replay where we created a story, then did it over again in three different genre styles such as comedy, horror, and opera; Emotional Replay; and Stunt Doubles where any time two actors in a scene were about to perform an action, they would call out “stunt doubles!” and a couple of stunt doubles would do the action in as extreme and outrageous manner as possible, then call back the actors.

The one game I played exclusively with the adults was Slide Show. For several public performances of this I’ve been dobbed in as the person telling the funny story about the still image my compatriots form. It’s nice having your team say, “Can you do the storytelling, you do it so well.” Again I received laughs for my performance in this. I’m going to have to figure out how to do impro storytelling for a standup routine.

I feel I’m still having a tendency in my performances to go straight to the top of my emotional range and staying there, rather than varying things. I was pleased with how I made reasonable use of the performance space, finding good motivated reasons to move up, down, and side to side (forward and back was done, but a little problematic with that space). Overall the day was great fun and a success. Congratulations to the rest of our dedicated team of comic actors and a special thanks to Jeff and Anne Simmons of ImproNow!

I’m looking forward to learning and playing with a new TheatreSports group in Melbourne.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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Posted By Katherine on 2009 July 24

For standup comedians your most valuable asset is your voice. As such you will need to take good care of it. The last thing you want is for your voice to become hoarse or raspy during a performance, or worse still, lose it all together. Ongoing abuse of your voice can result in vocal cord nodules or polyps, the later for which you may need surgery to remove.

The four points you need to remember concerning healthy and effective use of your voice are:

1. Good posture
2. Proper breathing
3. Projection
4. Enunciation

Gentle warm-ups are a way to prepare your body to get the most benefit and least damage out of these points. Running is a good aerobic activity, but if you start running without warming up, you may damage your muscles and negate any benefits from the exercise. The same is true for your voice.

Posture warm-ups

Good posture, particularly good neck and shoulder posture, ensure that you are not forcing your voice. Air has a good clear passage in and out of your body and the muscles around your vocal cords will be less strained. The most popular piece of advice to assist with good posture is to imagine a string at the top of your head pulling you up. This helps to a degree, but without good body awareness, some misalignments may continue to be over-looked.

Stand with your back against the wall. Feel the places where your body connects to the wall.

Pull your shoulders back, so you can feel the entirety of your shoulder blades against the wall. Breathe in and slowly lift your shoulders toward your ears such that you can feel your shoulder blades sliding up. Breathe out and lightly drop your shoulders. Do this three times. Feel your shoulders relax into this position.

People who work at a computer are particularly prone to holding their heads forward and pushing their chins out in order to see the screen. While standing against the wall pull your chin in forming a turkey neck or double chins. The back of your neck will lengthen and move closer to the wall (not touching). Let this position go and sense where the most comfortable posture for your neck is now. Does your neck seem to be rising straight up from your spine? Do the turkey neck three times.

Place a hand between the small of your back and the wall. Sense how large the open space is there. Remove your hand. Now flex your hips forward so that the small of your back is flat against the wall. Release the flex. You should still have a space between the small of your back and the wall, but it may be a smaller space. Do three hip flexes.

Once you have adjusted your posture with these exercises take a step away from the wall holding your posture. Take three deep breaths and the observe what this posture feels like. I find if I have begun to slouch, all I need do is take a deep breath and allow my expanding chest to move my head and shoulders to the correct places.

Breath and projection warm-ups

Key to both proper breathing and strong projection is the diaphragm. Your diaphragm is a system of muscles just below the rib cage and above the abdominal cavity. A good way to find these muscles and to strengthen them is to place your hand just beneath your ribs and say “HUH-HUH-HUH-HUH…”. Feel the muscles bouncing up and down. Try deepening the tone of your voice, so you can really feel the trampoline effect forcing small breaths out of your body.

Adjust your body to the correct posture, slightly bend your knees, and hold your arms loose so they are hanging at the side of your body a little way from it. Close your eyes and slowly breathe in through your nose to a count of five while expanding your stomach. Feel the air lifting the lower part of your rib cage and then the upper part. Make sure your shoulders remain relaxed and do not move up and down.  As you breathe out through your mouth, do so slowly and lightly while still holding the muscles of your diaphragm gently taut and only fully releasing them at the end of a breath. Do this at least three times before going on stage in order to ground yourself. It’s also worthwhile taking up breath meditation or singing lessons to really learn how to control your breathing.

You will not be using your diaphragm to force breath and sound, but rather support strong projection. Another exercise to help with breath and voice is to just yawn loudly several times. Make sure to open your mouth and jaw wide and go “Aaahh!” Notice how little breath is required to make a big sound?

Enunciation and vocal cord warmups

For your jokes to be understood you will need to use good enunciation. I’m not talking about speaking like some toffy-nosed Henry Higgins, just speaking clearly. Part of that will be about warming up the muscles in your face and vocal cords so that they respond quickly and accurately each time you wish to form a word. A good start is to just open and close your mouth while massaging the muscles in your cheeks.

Quietly begin humming, take a breath, and continue to hum for two more breaths. Turn the hum into the sound of “mum-mum-mum-mum…” Go back to humming and hum like a siren: starting low and quiet, getting higher and louder, then lower and quieter again.

You should be familiar with the musical scale sung as “do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do”. Instead of singing the scale, speak “do-re-me, etc” with the same tone as the note, then go up and down the scale.

Finally and most fun, go through a number of tongue twisters to get your mouth and tongue in good working order. Here are a few samples.

• Red leather yellow leather.
• Eleven benevolent elephants.
• Peggy Babcock.
• While one slick seal slid up the slide, the other slick seal slid down.
• While one purple porpose popped up the pole, the other purple porpoise popped down.
• A critical cricket critic.

Tips

Before going on stage you will need your vocal cords to be moist and supple. Do not drink anything with caffeine in it nor alcohol, both of these will dehydrate you and the vocal folds. Lots of water before and during will be the biggest help. After a session warm water or a spoon full of honey will soothe the throat.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

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