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.

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drew tarvin

Andrew Tarvin is the world’s first Humor Engineer teaching people how to get better results while having more fun. He has worked with thousands of people at 250+ organizations, including P&G, GE, and Microsoft. He is a best-selling author, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and TEDx, and has delivered programs in 50 states, 20+ countries, and 6 continents. He loves the color orange and is obsessed with chocolate.
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