Thomas Middleditch 11/16/06 Part 3

JF: Could you describe what you guys do in the Improvised Shakespeare Company?


TM: Yeah, the home shows that we do at IO are an hour, or a forty five minute play. It's a lot like Baby Wants Candy in a sense. All we get is the title then we make a play of it. With Shakespeare it's fun, because you kind of have the form written out for you. You've got things that you're allowed to do: asides, monologues. You've got a lot of power struggles. It lends itself really easily to emotional heightening. People can hide and still be on stage. These are all things you're allowed to play with. You know it's either going to be a tragedy, a comedy or a history. Normally, the tragedies are the funniest ones, because by the ends everyone dies.



JF: Did it require a lot of reading up on Shakespeare for you?


TM: Everyone brushed up a little bit. I did a little bit. We as a group watched a couple movies and listened to some Shakespeare audio tapes. Blaine got us all the complete works of William Shakespeare. We did a bit of research, but not crazy amounts. All of us for the most part are familiar with it to some degree.



JF: So you guys do try to speak like he wrote?


TM: Yeah, I mean we're not necessarily doing Iambic pentameter the whole time, but we're definitely doing our thee's and thou's. We try and come up with good metaphors. We'll do rhyming couplets and stuff like that. It's pretty cool. When it's all flowing, it amazes even us some of the stuff that comes out. I guess when you get in that zone it just sort of fits.



JF: In your opinion what makes a good coach or a teacher?


TM: Enthusiasm. If they don't care, then why bother? Why am I paying you? Experience. If they can articulate what they want. It's the same as a good coach in any sport. You have to love the game and you have to know what the game is to teach it. They don't have to be super-positive all the time. They can call you out on your bullshit.



JF: What in your opinion makes a good initiation? And have you noticed there are any patterns to how you initiate?


TM: I don't know. That's a difficult question. I guess some people have the impression that it's supposed to be loaded with information. Even if it's only a few words, a lot of it is about the emotion [behind it]. Even though a lot of people rag on it, 'Oh, God if I see another scene that starts with 'Hey.' 'Hey.',' but a lot of great scenes come out of that. Maybe you'll find a game that comes out of people going 'Hey.', 'Hey.', 'Hey.'. So, a good initiation is really dependent upon what comes after it, how you support the first initiation. The first initiation could be nothing as long as it's supported to be just that or something else that's based off of that.

In terms of my initiations, I don't know. I probably have a few base ones that I draw on, which is bad. I don't perceive myself to be a strong initiator. They're not going to bring me off the bench to initate a scene. I've probably got a few base ones that I go to, but I couldn't identify them.



JF: How do you go about creating characters?


TM: Hmm, as I look back, these are characters that I've been doing for years and years. Probably the way that they were all developed, well, not all of them, but the majority of them, were developed by riffing and having fun with friends. Just doing voices. Usually, a lot of them come out by, if I'm doing a crazy British guy, the other person is trying to do the same character, which is heightening that. Or you just get into scenes with people. You're playing around with your friends who are funny and this character comes out.

It's not always that. Sometimes it's myself. I talk to myself a lot, [laughs] and do one man improv scenes in the shower and all that kind of stuff, just trying to entertain myself, because it's either that or go back to the computer and become an addict. It's just definitely experimenting and trying on new things.

I commit physically, but it's not as if if I hunch my back this amazing character is going to come out. That works for some people. You're encouraged to try new physical statures in level 2, which is characters at IO, but usually when it comes to that its like [pirate voice] 'arg, matie!'



JF: [laughs] It sounds like you almost have a box of characters that you can try on.


TM: Yeah, definitely. Everybody's got their characters that they've tried out that they know work. It might be a dangerous habit to rely on those characters for every show that you do. That's probably weird coming from me. It's important even if you have a certain character it's important to do variations of them to suit the mood. You always have to do what's needed.



JF: What does the term the 'game of the scene' mean to you? And how important is it to your own improv?


TM: It's sort of taking what someone did and you're heightening it and bouncing it back to them. It sort of creates this fun playing. That's traditionally what a game is. You're playing. Even if it's a scene where it's all dramatic, and you manage to find the quote unquote game, you're playing with drama of it. It's like a gibberish scene where one person's saying 'bip' and you're like 'bop,' and you're actually literally playing a type of improv game. You're essentially just having fun. It's basically how a game operates. Something gets served to you and you respond through it.



JF: How much of a role does it play in your own improv?


TM: Quite a big role. It depends on what type of improv we're doing. Like with Bullet Lounge, scene after scene aren't necessarily related, they can be completely disjointed and ambiguous. You can have a bit more freedom, but when you have the responsibility of telling a story it's hard to go into a land of crazy. Well, that's not true. I don't know. These are harder questions. [laughs] You know you've found a game when you're having fun with it. In a sense the whole show could be a game, as long as you're having fun.



JF: How important is emotion to good improv? And how important is it to your improv? How do you find being emotional helps you?


TM: I'm pretty confident that emotions are paramount. For me, when I have a contrived, superficial emotion, usually my scenework is not that good, but when I'm really there, when I'm connected [my scenework is better]. Even when it's absurd, even if I'm Mr. Sillypants with a [inaudible], if I'm genuinely proud to be Mr. Sillypants, it's going to be better, because the reactions are going to be more truthful. Even in absurd land, it's about the reactions. In my opinion, any good acting coach is going to tell you that acting is reacting. That's essentially what it is. And if you're not invested emotionally, how can you react? I mean you can, but it's going to be cerebral. It's going to be in your head. I think it's pretty paramount. It's not the only thing, but it's one of the most, if not the most important things.



JF: How important do you think being a good actor is to being a good actor?


TM: It depends. There are some good improvisers and some good comedians who aren't that good actors. It depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to go up there and be funny, you can be funny without being a good actor. Definitely. But I would say the connection from improv to acting works the other way around. Improv has made me a hundred times better actor than I was. Definitely. Even with a scripted work, even if you've done that scene, that line a hundred times before, you have the ability to be in that scene for the very first time, and react accordingly. That's great. You are a good actor.



JF: Where would you like to see improv go in the future artistically and commercially?


TM: It'd be nice if producers would be willing to take a chance and have a completely improvised show. I think it's kind of happened before. I think Curb Your Enthusiasm is largely improvised. Who's Line is It Anyway is supposed to be, but I've been told that it's pretty much all scripted. Yeah, it'd be nice if it got to a point where it'd be financially viable for some producers, and they'd be willing to pay improvisers. It seems like improvising is the one method of live theater which seemingly has no hope of making any decent moeny for the actors [laughs], which is sad because so much of it is so much better than anything else. Some of my favorite shows are all written, but some of the shows that I see at IO are mindbending. It's a shame that that can't go further than that and those people can't get rewarded. If Howie Mandel can get a shitload of money, surely the majority of all these other improvisers I see can get more. Because in the end, it's all about the Benjamins. Ba-ding Dong!



JF: Absolutely. I hear that it's all about the Benjamins all the time. So, artistically where would you like to see it go anywhere in general?


TM: I think the nature of the beast is that it always will [change]. Everyone's going to try new stuff. I'm not worried that it won't. I don't have any strong wants currently, like 'oh, this has got to happen, and it hasn't yet.' I'm content to sort of live within it. I like doing what I like to do. Maybe I'm not the visionary type, not with improv.



JF: Do have anything that you would like to say to the improv community that we didn't get out in this interview?


TM: [laughs] Fuck you! [laughs] Kidding. Um, let me think. Have fun, I guess. Yeah, have fun. If it's not fun, don't do it. If you really can't stand doing it, don't do it. But if you have fun, then it's going to be very rewarding.