To be te noun, do the verb
Who is someone you want to be like?
I’m a massive fan of Fred Armisen. He’s a prolific writer, a talented musician and an insanely skilled actor.
A few years back I was trying to figure out how I could steal some of what he’s got; to be like Fred! I’d heard this advice:
To be the noun, do the verb.
In short- an actor acts, a director directs, a painter paints and so on and so fourth.
That was a little abstract for me and felt a bit vague and un-actionable. So I dove a bit deeper into this and thought more about all the things that Fred would do on a regular basis that contribute to him being the prolific creator he is.
Here’s some of the things I listed:
What Fred Does
Write scripts. Does stand up. Pitches ideas. Has meetings with like minds. Produces shows. Acts. Creates characters. Tests characters on friends. Observes people and uses it in his work. Listens to a wide range of music. Watches a wide range of film and tv.
This becomes a little guide map for how to be more like someone you admire. You could even put these in a hierarchy of things that are most important to the aspect of the person you aspire to be like.
Try doing those verbs a hundred times or a thousand. See where you end up.
(Definitely don’t just do it ten times and give up, that’s not good science- you need a big sample to make a call like stopping)
The type of person who
When dreaming into the future and setting goals, it’s easy to be seduced by the desire to win awards or competitions.
I think it’s totally fine to desire this; excellence should be rewarded! The tricky thing is, whether we win something or not is really not up to us. There are so many variables and if we hinge all our hopes on some arbitrary award, we could be setting ourselves up for dissapointment.
I’ve heard actors I know talk about wanting to win an Oscar, for instance. Again- there’s nothing wrong with this, give it a go!
I’m suggesting a slight shift in focus that allows us to win no matter what. It’s like with marathons, they say by the time you hit the start line on race day, you’ve actually already got what you came for. It’s the training that led up to that moment. It’s the culminated effort- it’s the distinctions made and learnings along the way that are the real gold medal.
And no, this isn’t ‘loser talk’. The real win is who you become in pursuit of any goal.
Don’t aim to be the person who wins the Oscar, aim to be the type of person who could win the Oscar.
The type of person who could win the gold medal.
The type of person who could write a Pulitzer winner.
Can you see the difference? One is in your control and one isn’t.
The pursuit of being the type of person who could achieve the things you want puts the responsibility and possibility of achieving the thing squarely on your shoulders.
And better still, if you never win an award in your life, you’ll still have the character, identity, beliefs, capabilities and actions of the type of person you want to me. And you’ll have the respect of the only person whose respect you ever need:
You.
What would you need to believe about yourself to be that person?
What would you need to believe about your work to be that person?
What would you need to do on a daily basis?
What skills would you need?
What resources do you already have access to?
All these questions and answers are completely in your control. Cool, aye?
In Praise of full screen
I’ve recently been enjoying things in full screen on my laptop.
I discovered it was a bit of a habit if I was watching an interview or working on a text document- I’d have the window in partial view, meaning I could still see all the other things on the screen.
I found it was distracting me and diluting my experience of what ever it was I was doing. Almost as though I was half committing to what I was doing. Clicking full screen has become a kind of full attentiveness to what I’m doing.
Editing a video? Full screen
Watching a podcast video? Full screen
Writing a blog post? Full screen
Looking through pictures. Full. Screen.
If you’re doing something- do it. You don’t need the other tabs or distractions to be a brigade of colorful badges on the outskirts. Go all in.
Go full screen
“Yes, and” People
You’ve probably heard of that rule for improvising “Yes and…”
Basically, it’s a strategy that helps improvisers build scenes together. Someone says or does something and the other actor will ‘yes and’ them.
Actor 1: This trees are massive!
Actor 2: Yes and there’s someone stuck up the top
Actor 1: Oh my god, that’s my aunt!
Actor 2: The one I dated?
Actor 1: You WHAT!?
And so on. By accepting what your scene parter says and adding to it, you can build a scene easily without friction.
There are people in the world who operate from this frame. I love those people. I call them “Yes and people”.
Being a yes and person, I think, is the most generous way to be. It’s seeing people as they are, it’s listening, really listening. It’s building, not destroying.
It doesn’t mean you just agree with what people say or lose your own sense of opinion. But it is honouring difference in people, catching the ball from where they are throwing it and adding to it with where you are coming from.
You can sense a yes and person pretty easily. You feel comfortable, there aren’t awkward pauses, you feel heard and seen, things feel fresh and completely present.
I’m always delighted to meet them out in the wild. Any time I feel self conscious or nervous in a social situation I lean on yes and. Of course its easier to block off in those tricky situations.
After all, tearing something down is easier than building something. It’s easy to gain false status in a situation by blocking someone with various versions of ‘no’. Negativity is easy to bond over with new people we feel self conscious around. But I know how good it feels to be on the receiving end of a yes and person, so when the going gets tough, I’m more than happy to live into yes and.
Anything is possible when yes and is at the beginning.
Playing with no net
I heard a great analogy from the audiobook of Seth Godin’s The Practice.
He said the secret to winning on a game show like Jeopardy is to hit the buzzer before you know the answer. As the host is finishing the question, you hit the buzzer and in the time it takes him to come to you and ask for an answer, that’s when you work it out.
Seth says you don’t need to know the answer to hit the buzzer, you just need to know that you’re the kind of person with the kind of knowledge and tools to work it out.
Sure, you could be wrong, but you gave it your best shot.
I’ve felt this in my daily filming challenge. There will come a point in the morning where I remember I’ll be making something today. I have no idea what it will be, but I know I’ll make something. By committing to the daily task- I’ve hit the buzzer.
So I’m just trusting that I have the skills, knowledge and curiosity to figure it out. It might not be the best thing, but I’ll sure as heck try my best.
I’d much rather hit the buzzer and GIVE IT A GO than miss my chance waiting for certainty.
A helpful reframe I’ve felt is the difference between seeing the daily task as:
“Oh no, I don’t know what to make”
to:
“Oh! I wonder what I’ll make today”
There’s no option of not showing up and doing my job today- I hit the buzzer when I decided to do this daily.
I’ve got no safety net but I am trying my best. And best of all, I get to try again tomorrow.
(and the next day)
Goodnight
It’s time to put the laptop away and go to sleep.
Everything you have done today has been perfect. You don’t need to do any more.
Your subconscious mind will be at work while you sleep, there’s no doubt about it.
There’s nowhere you need to be. Nothing more you need to do.
You are in the perfect place to rest now.
Sometimes you drive 10 hours in a day
I’m currently sitting in the back of a jeep driving from Cleveland, Ohio to Louisville. Yes that is a 5 hour drive.
It’s 11.30 pm.
Crazy? Probably. Why? Well my tour manager Andrew wanted to see a production of Parade up in Cleveland and we had a day off so I thought why not.
It’s going to be a long night zooming through the anonymous darkness of Amercian highways.
Longer still because we have a school matinee tomorrow morning at 10am (yes, a little bit irresponsible).
If I’d have stayed back in Louisville, I probably would have cooked some food, did a bit of work and exercise and then watched a movie. Sure- that’s a great day. But one that I’d easily forget.
I’ll never forget that one time we drove a 10 hour round trip to catch a show.
Sometimes you should be sensible and stay at your accom and forget the day you had…
And sometimes you drive 10 hours in a day and live your adventure.
A Haiku to fuel you
Your passion inside
It’s genius’ genesis
Find it and use it
The problems we want
I’ve been making a small film every day and this morning as I put together today’s work, here’s what my hour was focused on:
-How to pick the right eye line
-Pitching the tone the right way so the jokes landed
-What other line reads I could do to give myself options in the edit
-Where to dip the music track to make the punchline land
-What sections of text audio to boost so the set up was adequately heard
-How tight to make the edit between lines and where to give space for reaction shots
I realised this was the realm I spent my time. These were the problems I was solving while I was doing my work. It dawned on me how wonderful it was that every one of these were things I want to spend my time on. These are things I’ve learned through drama school and as I’ve built my craft since.
These problems were perfectly in line with who I want to be and what I want to be doing.
Yes they were difficult and they stretched me and they required me to make choices I was unsure about.
But that’s the point. I think the quality of your life is the quality of your problems. These are high quality problems to have and the very act of confronting these problems is me living into the exact identity I want as an actor and film maker.
What problems are you facing each day and do they align with the person you want to be?