Billy Merritt Workshop Notes

Instructor: Billy Merritt
Date Taken: January 2010

I took a 3-hour workshop with Billy Merritt and definitely enjoyed it, especially the Ninja, Robot, Pirate metaphor and exercises. Here are the notes from his workshop.

Workshop Notes

• Improv is 2 things: pattern and rhythm. 
• Mirroring also means stage picture. 
• Turn improv technique into story. 
• If you’re tentative as an improviser, your scene will be too. 
• When you name someone, you own a piece of them—so name your scene partners. 
• Surrender yourself to your personal rituals on stage so you don’t have to think about what you’re talking about. 
• Action is what the scene is about.  Activity is what you’re in doing in the scene. 
• Going through personal rituals on stage aren’t game, they just ground you in reality. 
• Don’t wait for class to become a better improviser. 
• Don’t let fear crash on your couch. 
• A strong improviser is a pirate, ninja and robot. 
• Pirate—Attack scenes like a pirate.  No fear, be ruthless. Bathe in the blood of game. 
• Robot—Analyze scenes like a robot.  Every scene is like a program, find the program and then just follow the logic of it. 
• Ninja—Edit / Add to scenes like a ninja.  The audience should never notice your moves.