Magnet Improv Level 2 Class Notes

Instructor: Louis Kornfeld
Date Taken: November 2009

After going through the curriculum at UCB, my biggest weakness as an improviser was reacting emotionally.  After great experiences with Shoot from the Hip (full of Magnet people) and the Dynamic Duos class, I decided to go through the Magnet program with an emphasis on improving as an emotional player.

I was able to skip Level 1 and started with Level 2.  Here are the notes.

To find out more about the Magnet training program, go here.

Class Notes

• Start your scene by reacting to something that has already happened
• Don’t present your idea, embody or be the idea
• Take a suggestion and think about the emotions it inspires
• Deal with your own honesty on stage
• Your scene partner on stage can be your “suggestion”—take what you notice about each other and personalize it
• Theres enormous value into trusting your instincts and reactions to what your scene partner is giving
• Make an offer and then pay attention to their reaction, that’s your new suggestion
• “How well am I performing” is one of the most worthless questions in improv.  If you are asking that, you aren’t paying attention
• Scenes shouldn’t be hard. they should have energy, not effort
• Law of adjacency – given one very specific detail, there is a another specific detail that is related to it.  Improv is communicating those adjancecies
• You can “sell” anything to the audience if you commit
• The one thing we don’t want to be on stage is neutral. don’t be the “too cool for school” attitude
• Take full ownership of what you do on stage
• Specific thoughts lead to specific action. if you make a decision in your mind as to what’s going on, it will inform your decisions
• Big truths are made up of a bunch of tiny truths
• Positive emotion is not a weak one
• Don’t forget the different shades of an emotion. be specific—gloom is different than depression
• An emotional reaction gives you another thing to explore. explore how you feel about what’s happening on stage
• Strong reactions beget strong reactions. when you don’t have them it forces you to have to think instead of reacting
• Dirty little secret of improv: it doesn’t really matter what your reaction is so long as its committed
• Heightening = magnifying the behavior
• Theres a lot more power in exploring what you’ve already created instead of just creating new ideas
• Improv is not just about making shit up, its about using what you have