Impro for Storytellers
Keith Johnstone is the inventor of theatresports and in “Impro for Storytellers”, he writes about the importance of stories in improvisational theatre. He argues, that without interesting storylines impro simply degenerates into a loose collection of gags and becomes a lot less interesting. The same is basically true for most magic performances as well. A lot of what we do is interactive, where we break the fourth wall and communicate directly with the spectators. Which makes it a bit strange that many of us rely on “patter” and stocklines, so that the dialogue itself becomes a barrier between performer and audience. That becomes especially odd in close-up performances. I think it was Paul Harris who described it best: -“Wait a minute, I’m trying to have a meaningful conversation with you, and you respond by performing ‘patter’ at me?”
The reason that we rely so much on store-bought dialogue, I think, is because what else is there in our realm? We have to say something, all the theoreticians say we need to both have a script and rehearse it – but nowhere within our craft do we have the necessary tools for devising a compelling open-ended script. Well, until we get those tools, we need to look outside our own domain. And “Impro for Storytellers” is the best resource I’ve found so far. It is like a cookbook filled with techniques that can be applied directly on almost any magic performance. Obviously, since the main focus of the book is theater improvisation, not everything can be adapted, but there are still hundreds of techniques that can.
In improvisational theater you’re on a stage with no script and no idea what’s going to happen next. You’re totally reliant on your co-players and an audience is watching your every move. You can either open yourself to these circumstances and be present and aware of your co-players and surroundings or you can build up a number of defenses and try to play it safe. From that perspective, it is a bit easier in a magic performance, since we always have the magic routine to rely on as a safety net. Using the techniques in this book, you’ll be able to learn how to integrate the spectators’ reactions into the routines so that they becomes an essential part of the performance. You’ll learn to recognize and differentiate between audience responses that moves the action forward, and those that will lead to dead ends – as well of numerous techniques to ‘kill’ nonproductive threads. You’ll learn numerous techniques on how to weave separate isolated comments and events into something that feels like a consistent and planned show.
Most of the exercises in the book are designed to bring your awareness to here and now. Like, don’t worry about what you’re going to say in a minute – when a minute has passed, the scene may be going in a totally different direction. Focus on what’s happening right now with you and your audience. Being present here and now is a skill that can be obtained. And it’s a vital skill in performing strong material.
You can find the book at Amazon and many other places.
- Published in Hinterland
What’s in a name?
Warg, both the site and the name, is the amalgation of several disparate thoughts, discussions and events from the last 2-3 years. And since this new site desperately need contents to replace all the “Lorem ipsum“, I thought I should tell you a bit about the background.
For a long time I’ve had a primitive shop page as a subdomain at my regular site www.tomstone.se. The reason for the subdomain was that I didn’t want people to confuse my hobby project (the shop) for my actual profession (being a performer). But since my two books with Hermetic Press was published, the shop page have been more or less dead. All my new ideas since 2009 have instead been channeled out via my bimonthly column in Genii magazine. However, I’ve always intended to start up the shop again, because I enjoy writing, drawing and doing graphic design.
We have several really clever and creative magicians here in Scandinavia, but who has not got the recognizion they deserve yet. I’ve always thought that it would be nice to put the spotlight on them somehow.
For quite some time I have had the desire to learn more about filming, and since 2010 I have very slowly amassed all sorts of camera equipment, to the degree that I today have a small film studio in my home. And being a magician, the idea of shooting instructional magic films is close at hand. However, since my main focus is to learn to film, I need to be behind the camera rather than in front of it…
Two years ago, during a discussion with my friend Johan Ståhl, I mentioned that I planned to take up the shop again. Johan then suggested that I should make sure to separate the shop from my regular work even further. I.e. not using a subdomain of my regular site, but to come up with a whole separate name & site for it. He had several good points. Among those, the thought that a separate name gives a larger freedom in what I can do with it.
An odd side effect of all this is – Since this is a hobby project, I don’t really have to make a lot of profit. Meaning that I can offer a much larger percentage than usual to those I decide to work with.
So, after some thought, I finally decided to start a site where I can offer ebooks and video downloads. And I named it Warg.
The name is because I wanted to use the name of some animal. The intention of the site is to host a pack of scandinavian magicians, and what kinds of scandinavian animals are there that also is found in packs? Wolves is one answer. The old and ancient scandinavian name for wolf is “warg“. And, interestingly, “warg” is a word that J.R.R. Tolkien used in his fantasy books, so there are several tangents to magicial worlds here.
There are even more connotations involved. I’ll offer instructional ebooks and videos while beeing mostly self-reliant. And the most famous combination of instructions and self-reliance I know is a quote from a swedish cookbook from 1755: “You use what you have”. The name of the author is Cajsa Warg. The association between Warg and pragmatism is strong.
And finally, in George R R Martin’s series “A Song of Ice and Fire” (a.k.a. “Game of Thrones” ) the word Warg, also known as skin-changer, is the name of humans who can enter the minds of wolves and other animals. And if these instructions are done right, they will enter your mind and change the way you think.
So, that is what is in a name.
- Published in Featured