Thanks a lot Zooby, I think your advice is exactly what I needed. I'm going to work on that and after the next few improvs, I'll post the results.
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Try driving around alone commenting out loud to yourself on everything you see. Keep talking, keep the monolog going, however chaotic or rambling, the point being to express the impulses you're having in response to the sights around you as they come up.
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I need to try that. My acting teacher had a similar exercise for us to do where we just verbalize the moment to moment of what we're thinking as we walk around the room. I like yours better.
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I think you are over-thinking this. What you described is a plausible response if you knew beforehand that somebody was going to walk in with a gun and demand money.
If it happened in real life, you probably woudn't do anything in 2 seconds. And if you did try to hand over the money, you would probably drop half of it on the floor.
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I over-think everything, and not in a good way. I wish I could just relax and go with the flow sometimes, but my brain is constantly going over and over every little detail of everything. I wish my brain would do that towards schoolwork instead of towards all the trivial things in life.
But yeah, you're right about the robbery scenario. I didn't even think about that. I get too focused on how something can't work or won't work, and don't think about how it can work.
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A dear friend of mine (died of glioblastoma) was a veteran of a Chicago improv comedy group, and she was a stitch! She hooked up with one my oldest friends, so my wife and I saw her quite often. She was always "on". If she couldn't play off our conversations as well as she wanted, she'd resort to physical humor. My favorite picture of her is one I snapped when she hopped on my John Deere and posed with her teeth clenched as if she wanted to run somebody down with it. She was never too shy or embarrassed to poke fun at herself.
She had such an "out-there" sense of humor that you had to pay attention in order to play along with her, but it was lots of fun. I miss her, and think of her every time I hear Jackson Browne's "For a Dancer". Perfect.
Lots of today's "improv" is scripted for the audience, which is a cop-out. Linda was the real deal. She made her money in Chi-town and "retired" back here to Maine. She made my old friend very happy. A life-long bachelor who found love late in life.
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One reason I decided to take up acting was that I think it can help me build confidence and charisma. Some people seem to be innately charismatic, but I think it's something you can develop too.
I've met people like your friend and just being around them makes me feel good.
But after doing improv, I now have so much respect for people who are good at it. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done.
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