Regarding this Funny Business
There have been some nice reflective posts of late among Lindblog, A Laugh Bra Minute, and A Blast of Silence. I was thinking about posting the following quotes anyway.
It's nice how the group mind is now digitized.
My pal Danny Mora admitted that he's always trying to find parallels between sports and improv, and has written some nice pieces on them. Unfortunately for improvisers, many of them have only been written in emails to Little Room.
I am always looking for similar parallels, but just between Pro Wrestling and Improv. It's easy 'cause it's character-based storytelling...
Anyway, I'm reading "Walking a Golden Mile" by William Regal, a British wrestler. I'm not far into it, but here are two gems that apply universally:
"Make everything you do in there mean something, otherwise don't bother doing it." - Pete Roberts to William Regal
"I've always found that if people can make you laugh, it doesn't matter what else is going on - everything's always a thousand times more bearable." - William Regal.
How 'bout it?
The first one applies to economy on stage, and makes lots of sense, especially on a ComedySportz stage where we constantly wrestle with the choice vs. obstacle bits...
Teh second is a universal truth. My boss is constantly surprised that my counterpart and I don't get at eachother when the going gets tough. In fact, things get funnier; and that's helped dissipate a lot of pressure in the past.
One last thing: I'm one of a very few improvisers who's a wrestling fan, but I can say that there are a few of these books that are fantastic for anybody who has to get in front of people at ant time. The best is probably 'Have a Nice Day' by Mick Foley. He's legendary for total disregard for his health and safety for an audience; be they a VFW of 20 fans, or an arena of 60,000. For no particular reason, here my favorite wrestling books I've read in order:
1) "Have a Nice Day" - A tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley
2) "Pure Dynamite" by Tom Billington, AKA the Dynamite Kid and 1/2 the British Bulldogs
3) "To Be the Man" by Ric Flair, Still The Man
4) "Hooker" by Lou Thesz, NWA champion from the 1930s to the 1970s.
5) "In the Pit with Piper" by Rowdy Roddy Piper
6) "Bobby the Brain - Wrestling's Bad Bot Tells all" By Bobby Heenan.
7) "Dusty: Reflections of an American Dream" by Dusty Rhodes.
Bottom two:
1) Worst - Diamond Dallas Page's book
2) The Rock's Book - written when he was 26. What wisdom!
If you wanted an accurate picture of Pro Wrestling, read Thesz's book, then Flair's, then Dynaite's then Foley's, and you have it all.
It's nice how the group mind is now digitized.
My pal Danny Mora admitted that he's always trying to find parallels between sports and improv, and has written some nice pieces on them. Unfortunately for improvisers, many of them have only been written in emails to Little Room.
I am always looking for similar parallels, but just between Pro Wrestling and Improv. It's easy 'cause it's character-based storytelling...
Anyway, I'm reading "Walking a Golden Mile" by William Regal, a British wrestler. I'm not far into it, but here are two gems that apply universally:
"Make everything you do in there mean something, otherwise don't bother doing it." - Pete Roberts to William Regal
"I've always found that if people can make you laugh, it doesn't matter what else is going on - everything's always a thousand times more bearable." - William Regal.
How 'bout it?
The first one applies to economy on stage, and makes lots of sense, especially on a ComedySportz stage where we constantly wrestle with the choice vs. obstacle bits...
Teh second is a universal truth. My boss is constantly surprised that my counterpart and I don't get at eachother when the going gets tough. In fact, things get funnier; and that's helped dissipate a lot of pressure in the past.
One last thing: I'm one of a very few improvisers who's a wrestling fan, but I can say that there are a few of these books that are fantastic for anybody who has to get in front of people at ant time. The best is probably 'Have a Nice Day' by Mick Foley. He's legendary for total disregard for his health and safety for an audience; be they a VFW of 20 fans, or an arena of 60,000. For no particular reason, here my favorite wrestling books I've read in order:
1) "Have a Nice Day" - A tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley
2) "Pure Dynamite" by Tom Billington, AKA the Dynamite Kid and 1/2 the British Bulldogs
3) "To Be the Man" by Ric Flair, Still The Man
4) "Hooker" by Lou Thesz, NWA champion from the 1930s to the 1970s.
5) "In the Pit with Piper" by Rowdy Roddy Piper
6) "Bobby the Brain - Wrestling's Bad Bot Tells all" By Bobby Heenan.
7) "Dusty: Reflections of an American Dream" by Dusty Rhodes.
Bottom two:
1) Worst - Diamond Dallas Page's book
2) The Rock's Book - written when he was 26. What wisdom!
If you wanted an accurate picture of Pro Wrestling, read Thesz's book, then Flair's, then Dynaite's then Foley's, and you have it all.
posted by Zach at 12:23 PM
2 Comments:
I found about 300 pages of Foley's book to be compelling. The other 300 or so were repetitive.
i wish i could get into this shit. in theory, i like the flair (not ric, though he's good). maybe i'll do it just for you, for kicks.
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