Annoyance Level Three - Week Six

Class tonight started off with Susan uttering the following: "Tonight is the night we Fuck with you."
The entire class was about challenging us as performers and getting us to experiment outside of out comfort zone.

Susan had two of us hop up and stage and asked a simple question to kick things off: "How do you think you play?"
Which lead to some very interesting answers and a lot of insight as to the differences between how people perceive themselves versus what others perceive (this topic alone is undoubtedly the subject of numerous books, blogs, and god knows what else - so I won't belabor it more). Suffice to say there were some very surprising answers from some people considering what we've seen of each other in class.

We then proceeded to do a number of two person scenes where Susan would give each of us a specific challenge based on what she's observed over the past six weeks and our answers to the first question.
My challenge was to try on Bigger more active characters - almost over the top: think Baby Huey. And I have to say it was a complete blast.
Throughout the rest of the class we were challenged in various ways - both in two person scenes and larger group scenes. And in the end it was all about whimsy and figuring out what we all had the most fun doing and allowing ourselves to do just that.

From the class we took a ton of ideas - here are the few that translate coherently:
The day you take a risk is the day something happens
In scenes you are half of it - Create things - Make assumptions (you have all five senses to discover elements of the scene)
When people ask for help you don't have to give it to them (at least in comedy)
You don't need to know what is going to come out of your mouth Every energy is contagious Sometimes just being agreeable equals comedy
Don't be afraid to play a victim (often it's the victim on stage who is going to get off the most)
So much fun to lose in comedy You have to discover what Whimsy is for you