December 19th, 1996
Bad Set
At best, improvisation has about a 80% hit ratio. A really good improviser will
do 8 out of 10 good scenes. That's part of why it's both exciting and not.....you never
know what will happen. Some nights the percentage of hits is 95%, and some nights
sets like the one we had last night bring the percentage right back down. I always feel
bad when there's a bad set. I have to clarify that. It always amazes me after a bad
set when the cast apologizes to me. "Sorry about that", some say. It's always surprising
because I feel like it's my fault the set went south, not theirs. I'm one of those directors
that feel accountable for most everything. I wish I were not, but I am. We put up 3 scenes
last night that were risky.........almost all of them sitting, talking, and we had worked a bit
on them so they were thinking a lot through them. One of them was that goddamned Disney
scene that I still can't figure out. It makes me laugh, but I'm the only one.....well, me and
this one lady but I think she was really drunk. I figured that of these three scenes at least
one of them would hit...but none did. They got titters (our stupid word for little laughs),
but no great fun was had.
Rachel said something last night that may sound hokey in the writing, but true none the less.
She said she always feels bad if the set doesn't go well because, for a lot of people in the
audience, this is maybe the one time out of the year that they come to Second City. Or maybe
it's the only time they've been. See, there's something wonderful about people who go see a
show there. They are excited to be there. They've heard about it and know who came from
there and know a bit about it's influence and heritage and by the time they get in the door
after looking at all the pictures of Belushi and Myers and Alda and Rivers and Asner and
Arkin and Radner and etc......they're psyched. We get a little of that, "oh I've heard of this
place" excitement at the Annoyance, but not nearly as much. So what Rachel said is true.
And it reminded me that even though I'm putting up a show there, I have to be aware of
making the set work well enough in general. We don't need to leave the way we left last night
again....I can do a little something about that.
A brighter note
Everything else is going well. In rehearsal we decided, thank goodness, that NPR wasn't
ripping off SNL's version. So we switched it with the new scene Country in the second act
and it works fine. So that's five new scenes in the show. Sunday's set was a riot.
I gave each person in the cast a personal challenge in the way of energy or character and
they each committed to that in a scene. God, they did a great job. They really nailed it for
the most part. I think I'll do that again soon.
I can't think of anything else right now so I'll get out of here....I'm a little burnt out right
now because Monday was the S.C. Christmas party, Tuesday was ours (the Annoyance), and
last night was Improv Olympic. Nothing like partying with the same group of improvisers
3 nights in a row. By the time Improv Olympic's party came around, they were three times
as funny................
bye
Go to.....
