How To Create A Groundlings Character

There are various improv comedy schools in Los Angeles, each one of them with their own particular brand of funny. The Groundlings find their funny in specific and slightly absurd characters. We're talking "I'm gonna need a wig and a lavender pant-suit" characters. It's not enough to have a silly walk, a funny voice, and a facial tic. Anyone can randomly assemble a mishmash of freak characteristics; the difficulty comes when trying to give this character a clear point of view that integrates all of the elements. To help students, they provide the following questionnaire.

Name:

Age:

Hair:

Eyes:

Skin:

Body Type:

Outstanding Physical Characteristic:

Voice Type:

Occupation:

Favorite Food:

Least Favorite Food:

Favorite Color/Texture:

Bad Habits:

Mannerisms:

Idiosyncrasies:

Musical Tastes:

Games:

Religion:

Schooling:

Favorite Book:

Current Reading:

Military Service:

Phobias:

Where From:

Where Now:

Who Do I Live With:

Relatives Living:

Married:

Children:

Love Life:

Greetings:

Pajamas:

Favorite Expression:

Self-Description:

How Do Others See Me?

Hobby:

Talents:

Pets:

Who Do I Confide In:

Something I Can’t Do:

Most Important Person:

Values:

Can’t Live Without:

Favorite Movie/TV:

What Is Funny to Me:

Idolize Who:

What I Want From Others:

Handicaps:

Philosophy of Life:

What’s My Problem:

What Do I need?

What Do I Want?

“When I fall in love, I always…”

Earliest Memory:

Favorite Memory:

Parents:

Passed Groundlings Level One

Today was my last day in the Groundlings basic improv class. You have to audition to get into the class, and a decent number of people don't make it. At the end of the term, each student meets privately with the instructor for an evaluation of their work and to find out whether or not they can move on to Level Two.

Actress Jennifer Coolige had to repeat Basic three times before they let her move up to Level Two. So as we were finishing up our last class session, I began steeling myself for the possibility of repeating the intro course.

At the end of class, our instructor set out a sign-up sheet and pen whilst the seething horde of students high on improv and caffeine literally wrestled for pole position. I struggled to scratch out my initials on the legal pad while my legs were being held in the air and I was being dragged away by an actor who played serial killer Norman Bates in a haunted house (and you think I'm kidding about this). Despite this grandiose effort, I was only able to secure my place in the middle of the pack (#5 of 12).

When I finally met with my instructor, she let me know that I was ready to move on to Level Two. Yippee! I was quite flattered when she said the following of my work:

"You take really good care of your scene partners, which is what this is all about. You are very good about taking care of the who, what, where and you've always got solid character work. You're talented and you're funny, which is something that I can't teach, so good for you. I hope that you go through the rest of the Groundlings program, you're entertaining to watch."

Unfortunately when I went to register for the Level Two class, all of the slots were filled and I signed up for the sketch comedy writing class instead. I'm excited to do more work with The Groundlings, I'm learning a ton and I feel like I'm a much better comic actor as a result.

Too Busy to Blog

This past week has been pretty hectic and I've given this blog less attention than I would like. However, leading a life so interesting that I don't have time to write about its myriad happenings is not an altogether bad situation to be in. For now, I'll just give you the bullet points, and with luck I'll be able to find time to write more detailed entries later.

• I attended the opening night of my friend Diablo Cody's film "Juno". See this movie – you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be quoting it for weeks.
  
• I signed with a talent manager named Blair Silver who found me through a cold-submission by Sage Marketing for Actors.
  
• I love my Groundlings class. I'm learning a ton, and my commercial acting is improving as a result.
  
• I've got one week left in my commercial acting class with Jeff Hardwick. I'm learning scads here as well.
  
• I attended a free workshop held by John Sudol on commercial acting which was extremely informative.
  
• I've fleshed out the story of my screenplay a bit more.
  
• I got the first of a series of checks in the mail from my day-job. Thank goodness!

Jennifer Coolidge told me not to sit on my ass.

The Groundlings

My family loves "The Groundlings" theater in Hollywood on Melrose. The Groundlings list of alumni reads like a regular who's who in comedy: Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Janeane Garofalo, and Pat Morita (say what?!) to name a few. This has led many people, including my father, to believe that making it into The Groundlings company is the key to "making it". This has led to the school having 2yr waiting lists to get into some of their classes. Things have cooled down a little since that absurd peak was reached, but the school still requires that you audition to take their beginning classes! Well, I auditioned a week ago, and passed the test. I've been waitlisted for the current term, and will be able to enroll in the next session if I beat other actors to the Groundlings school website.

Jennifer Coolidge Q&A
My dad heard that actor Jennifer Coolidge was participating in a Q&A and he offered to buy me a ticket to the event. As a lover of all things free, and not one to turn down an evening with a busty blonde, I accepted his offer. Ms. Coolidge is far more intelligent and good-looking than most of her film roles would lead you to suspect. The Q&A was a very entertaining and informative two hours where she described her experiences at the Groundlings, working in feature films, and her desire to do just about any project so long as it is paid.

Going Outside
At one point Coolidge said "Cool things happen when you're not sitting around your house with your dog. Go out, even if you don't have the money to drink." I took that note to heart, and instead of retiring to a meal of easy-mac at Chez Donovan I drove over to a vegan restaurant a few blocks from my house that I'd never tried. The food was great and cheap. Towards the end of my meal, I got a call from my sister. I of course couldn't wait to tell her about Jennifer Coolidge describing her as "You know… Stiffler's Mom from American Pie." After I said goodbye to my sister, I went to use the restroom. As I returned to my seat, who did I see sitting in a table just across the room from mine, but: Jennifer Coolidge. I had just had a phone conversation about the woman completely oblivious to the fact that she was 15 feet away from me the whole time.

I spent the next five minutes paying my tab and hemming and hawing about whether I should thank her for an excellent Q&A. I opted to just walk back to my car – she seemed fairly involved in a bowl of soup and I'm chickenshit.

Notes from the Q&A
The following are some of the more cogent points from the evening:

• The terrible jobs you have are the best sources for sketches.
  
• You don't actually get paid when you're a Groundlings company member (ugh!)
  
• Perhaps trying to prove my father right, she said "Everything good in my career came from The Groundlings. If it weren't for them, I'd still be waiting tables."
  
• With one-line auditions, go in there and make a strong impression. Be unique, everyone is giving them the same flat read.
  
• TV shows fire actors more than ever, they're trying to make up for bad writing with good casting.
  
• Modeling is the most brutal, the music industry is cut-throat, but the absolute weirdest behavior happens in the film/tv industry.
  
• Stay away from people at auditions, other actors play dirty tricks and you don't want to get thrown off your game.
  
• Don't get passive with your career once things start going your way. Work even harder.
  
• Building a relationship with a Casting Director is important to the point that you should take crappy jobs. Hooker #3 led Coolidge to American Pie and Legally Blonde.
  
• Go into auditions as your character – CDs are just too tired to be imaginative about this stuff.
  
• The comedy world is much smaller than drama – you've got a better shot of making it in comedy.
  
• In improv, anyone can steal your part. Take it back with some over the top reactions of statements like "You sure talk a lot."
  
• Girls from Texas get cast because they know how to use hair rollers; go into the audition looking the part.
  
• Most Importantly: create your own projects. No one else will.

One of the major themes of her discussion was the dearth of good roles available to comic actresses. This is certainly something that lends itself to further discussion.

Student Directing Exercise at the LA Film School

I was a film major at UC Santa Cruz, and I was gypped*. I acted in a student production at LA Film School and I was absolutely blown away by their facilities. The shoot for this project took place in a sound stage, a SOUND STAGE with sound-deadening material on the walls and a proper power grid for lighting and everything. As I walked into the building I saw their ADR mixing studio, a huge glass-walled room lousy with expensive-looking machines that went beep, blip, and blop. While in Santa Cruz, we worked with crappy MiniDV cameras using the dorms and friends’ cluttered apartments as locations; LAFS is a world of difference (assuming you want to do production, not theory & criticism).

The actual shoot went pretty well. I had one line in an interrogation scene “I don’t bargain with murderers” which I delivered to a man in a wheel chair** after being punched by a large directing student named Lex. The Fitzmaurice work was helpful; I went through the destructuring series as a warm-up before the shoot began. Of course the destructuring series can feel like torture, so it lessened the amount of acting I had to do for the scene.

When the AD invited us to enter the set, I came in guns-a-blazin’. I was emotionally connected, focused, and in-the-moment… for about an hour. And then the shoot began. It went well (my goal was not to push) but I had blown my emotional wad during the camera rehearsal, so I was a semi-dead.

I brought this up in my acting class tonight, and my instructor Richard Seyd said “Never do that. Focus on learning the blocking and the mechanics of the shot during the rehearsals, save the emotion for the actual shooting.” Well, I suppose you live and you learn.

TIP: After a shoot is over, individually thank *every* member of the crew. It’s the right thing to do, they have helped you quite a bit after all.

*Apologies to any Gypsies or descendants thereof for the use of “gypped”.

**Ask me in person for a story about a teenage boy who wants to swim the great lakes and is a fan of truck drivers.

Actors Are Crazy

Ask anyone who works in technical theater, it's cold hard fact that "actors are crazy." It's not just acting that they're discussing - let's be honest: dressing up in a costume, putting on makeup, and pretending that you're someone else is a little crazy. Then whilst pretending you're someone else you end up murdering someone else who's pretending to be another someone else in front of 1000 audience members who can't see this magical "4th wall" you keep talking about. Nope, that's not even the beginning of the certifiable behavior that most actors willingly engage in.

A lot of actors can pass as "normals" until you see them doing their warm-ups. I spent an entire weekend at a Fitzmaurice Voice Technique Workshop taught by Saul Katsubei. It was phenomenal and I've grown quite a bit as an artist (I've tripled the size of house I can easily play to) - but we did some wacky ass shit to get to the end result.

Some highlights:
Ass Tag - Wherein you attempt to bop others on their bottoms while keeping both your biscuits safe.
Destructuring - Wherein you place your body in such an awkward position that it begins to shudder involuntarily while you hyperventilate and moan loudly.
Breathing Buddy - Wherein 15 strangers lay on the ground in a giant puppy pile trying to feel each other breathe through at least two contact points.


There's a lot more that transpired, and a lot that was learned - but looking back on the weekend I question my ability to turn down the Kool-aid if it is ever offered to me.

Get a Life... Coach.

I was first introduced to the concept of a "Life Coach" at a planning retreat hosted by my formal school district. At this retreat I was asked to take off my shoes, walk around the room, shake hands, and hug everyone else in the room without smiling...

broke teachers - shoes = stinky socks with holes
stinky socks with holes = awkward
awkward = smiling/laughing
= an inordinately difficult exercise

At the time it felt like a lot of hooey, and I don't doubt that in large part it was. But after this 2-day retreat I was super hot to trot on pursuing my newly-discovered goal: Getting an MFA in Theater. Had my superintendent not brought his personal life-coaching consultants in, I'd probably still be teaching and living in the bay area.

Which is why I was so excited when my acting-classmate told me that the supremely likable Dallas Travers, of Sage Marketing for Actors, did life coaching at $75/hr. I scheduled my first private coaching session with her for Friday. But when I discovered that her actual rates were something closer to $125 for 50min, my tailed dropped between my legs and I called to cancel my session.

It seems like one needs to have their life pretty well on track before they can afford to bring in someone to coach them along.

So that leaves YOU, oh reader of mine, to leave comments that kick my ass into gear if I ever seem to be slacking.

Monologues

As an actor, at some point, you will have to perform monologues. It's just the way it is. The audition monologue in particular is rough. As an actor you have to bring your character, the other character, the arc of the play's narrative, and the environment you exist in to life with no aide outside of yourself.

Richard Seyd has asked me to bring a couple monologues into class so that he can get a sense of where I'm at. It looks like I'm going to do a piece from "Biloxi Blues" by Neil Simon and another from "Spring Storm" by Tennessee Williams. These are the same pieces I used for the TBA (Theater Bay Area) general auditions. I honestly feel like I should have better pieces than this, but I've done these two more than any others so they are my go-to pieces.

So the moral of the story is: Always have a few monologues ready, and for goodness sakes don't wait around until you need them to get them ready - because if you do you'll end up going back to the same dried up well.