I've been told a few times to speak up more bc I'm funny, but I find it hard to do so bc I find myself in scenes with dominant players who won't let me speak and I never want to talk over people or unnecessarily interject if in a group game. If they initiate I always wait till they’re done talking and by the time I’ve taken a quick moment to think of a response it’s too late. Do you have advice on how to improve timidity and find a stronger voice especially in scenes with more dominant players?
This is a common and big problem. There are just a ton of people in improv who won’t shut up.
Eventually you will be with people good enough to tell you’ve got something to say and they will listen.
But before then you’ve got two main options:
One: Speak up, cut them off, and GRAB THE FOCUS. Give it as hard as they are. It’s not polite, but it’s the way it goes. Yes, it’s not your natural way of being. It will change your tone. Do it anyway. Improv in the lower levels is like street basketball and you have to kinda play tough. Throw some elbows and make space for yourself. It’s not elegant but it’s part of getting better.
Two: Be in the moment SO HARD that all eyes fall on you. Be completely in the moment, fully hearing and feeling everything, and letting all of your feelings be on your face and body. The audience — and everyone on stage – will see that you are the only one who is authentically there – and they WILL PAY ATTENTION TO YOU. People will magically give you space. Yep. It happens.
I saw a show a million years ago with a (surprise) bulldogging nervous guy and a quiet confident girl. He started the scene as a husband on a fishing trip with his wife (there’s no way this guy was capable enough to imagine actors could play opposite gender, whatever) and he’s complaining about the weather and demanding a beer and asking her why she picked this day to do fishing, but not giving her time to answer. There was basically no time for her to really answer, except for short phrases like “no” and “yes” and “boy, it shore is rainy!”
In his defense, the guy was more nervous than actually bullying. He was trying to play a character of a jerk husband more than he seemed to truly be a jerk. I felt a bit bad for him. But, still, the effect was that his scene partner couldn’t get a word out.
But she was so much more confident an actor! She did everything physically. Her eyebrows popped up when he revealed that the weather was bad. She looked a bit sad when he sad the fish weren’t gonna bite. When he asked for a beer, she leaned over into a cooler and plucked a beer up in sharp funny movements. I remember she clutched the can just with her fingertips from the top, letting the imaginary can dangle as if it were a gross thing that she didn’t want to touch. And she handed it over to him, which he absent-mindedly took as he rambled, and the audience laughed.
She was in the scene. She was funnier. She was a specific character. She was cool and calm and confident and making decisions and reactions. She was having fun. We were all just watching her.
That girl? MERYL STREEP. No, I’m kidding. I don’t know who she was. But I remember thinking: that’s the way to play with a stagehog: you roll with it and just kinda surf the wave.
But the first way is also important: get in there and get your time.
