The Vs. Studio Blog

Love is a burning thing
And it makes a fiery ring
Bound by wild desire
I fell into a ring of fire -song, “Ring Of Fire” by Johnny Cash

Ryan Bingham (played by George Clooney) : Your resume says you minored in French Culinary Arts. Most students work the frier at KFC. You bussed tables at Il Picatorre to support yourself. Then you got out of college and started working here. How much did they pay you to give up on your dreams?

Bob (played by J.K. Simmons) : Twenty seven thousand a year.

Ryan Bingham : At what point were you going to stop and go back to what made you happy?

Bob : That’s a good question. -scene from the film Up In The Air by Jason Reitman

For the parent, coach, teacher, producer, director, etc…anyone in any kind of leadership position…

You can’t ever force someone to care.

THEY must have that inner fire. That love. That burning desire. It must come from THEM. Not you. That’s a prerequisite. 

But if they have that love, that burning desire, then you can work with them and help them get to where they want to be.

One way to do so is to lead by your own personal example. Demonstrate what it means to really give a shit. Put your whole heart and soul into something. 

Some. Thing. Anything. Could be a passion project. Something you care about. Something you’ll sacrifice for. Something you’ll take consistent action towards, even when, and especially when, things aren’t going well. Something you’re not sure will work out. Something that scares you. Something you LOVE. (Some would say this is the definition of being a parent. It’s also the definition of making art.)

By doing so, they might see and think, “Ah, this is what it takes.” And then be inspired to go and do likewise. 

Even if it doesn’t inspire them though, you can hold your head high knowing that you didn’t just talk about it. You were about it. You showed them the way.

P.S. – This Scene.

Gotta get bad before it gets good,
It’s gotta get bad before it gets good,
It’s gotta get bad before it gets good,
I want good now,
But it’s gotta get bad before it gets good,
That’s what you say,
It’s gotta get bad before it gets good -song “Bad Before Good” by Day One

How good you can get at a particular thing directly correlates to how long you’re willing to look bad and be bad at the thing.

Three examples from professionals:

Kyrie Irving, arguably the greatest one on one player in NBA history, developed his sick handles and moves by forcing himself to try crazy things in pickup games, even if he lost the ball or had his shot blocked. He even put a plastic bag around the ball to make it harder on himself to dribble.

Jerry Seinfeld and plenty of other famous comedians, bomb repeatedly when trying out new material in front of audiences. Check out this clip.

The author Issac Asimov (author of over 400 books) writing process was simple: He put his ass in the chair every day for 8 hours and “kept writing crap until it wasn’t crap anymore.” 

To be a master, you have to be a beginner. 

To become comfortable, you have to be uncomfortable.

To be good, you have to be bad.

“We can always do a better job of finding the place where we might thrive. And a better job of living and telling the story that earns us a chance to get to that place.” -Seth Godin

If you’re not getting the results you want, it’s most likely not because you aren’t good enough. (Though you should always be learning new skills and sharpening the ones you have.). More than likely, you’re not telling the right story.

It starts with you. What is the story you’re telling yourself?

Then go outward. What is the story you’re telling others?

Are those stories aligned and do they serve and represent you best? 

If not, get them straight.

P.S. – This excellent blog post from Seth Godin.

Mickey:
Why do you have to wear that stinkin’ sweatsuit?

Rocky Balboa:
It brings me luck, you know?

Mickey:
Brings you luck. I’ll tell you what it brings – it brings FLIES! Now here’s what I want you to do – I want you to chase this little chicken.

Rocky Balboa:
Hey yo, Mick, what do I got to chase a chicken for?

Mickey:
First, because I said so. And second, is because chicken-chasing is how we used to train back in the old days. If you can catch this thing, you can catch greased lighting.

Rocky Balboa:
Well, I’ll do it if you say so, but it ain’t very mature.

Mickey:
Yeah, well NEITHER ARE YOU, very mature! -scene from the film Rocky

“Schwartz knew that people loved to suffer, as long as the suffering made sense. Everybody suffered. The key was to choose the form of your suffering. Most people couldn’t do this alone, they needed a coach. A good coach made you suffer in a way that suited you.” –The Art Of Fielding, novel by Chad Harbach

“I don’t think people understood what it was I was doing at Shaffer. I wasn’t there to conduct. Any fucking moron can wave his arms and keep people in tempo. I was there to push people beyond what’s expected of them. I believe that is… an absolute necessity. Otherwise, we’re depriving the world of the next Louis Armstrong. The next Charlie Parker. I told you that story about how Charlie Parker became Charlie Parker, right?…Parker’s a young kid, pretty good on the sax. Gets up to play at a cutting session, and he fucks it up. And Jones nearly decapitates him for it. And he’s laughed off-stage. Cries himself to sleep that night, but the next morning, what does he do? He practices. And he practices and he practices with one goal in mind, never to be laughed at again. And a year later, he goes back to the Reno and he steps up on that stage, and plays the best motherfucking solo the world has ever heard. So imagine if Jones had just said, “Well, that’s okay, Charlie. That was all right. Good job.” And then Charlie thinks to himself, “Well, shit, I did do a pretty good job.” End of story. No Bird. That, to me, is…an absolute tragedy. But that’s just what the world wants now. People wonder why jazz is dying. I’ll tell you man. And every Starbucks “jazz” album just proves my point, really. There are no two words in the English language more harmful than “good job.” -Terence Fletcher (played by JK Simmons) to Andrew Neiman (played by Miles Teller) in the film Whiplash

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” -Muhammad Ali

“When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% in to what your body’s capable of doing. That’s just the limits that we put on ourselves.” -David Goggins, book Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy The Odds

“Just before you break through the sound barrier, the cockpit shakes the most.” -Chuck Yeager

The suffering paradox….

Deep down we all want to be pushed beyond our limits. See how far we can go. How great we truly can be.

Yet at the same time, who wants to go to those places? Suffer like that? Give their pound of flesh? It’s torturous. At times, maniacal. It sucks.

Greatness isn’t for everybody.

But if you’re one of the few who’s striving for it, then there are times when you gotta embrace the suffering paradox. 

And while yes, Terence Fletcher is extreme–abuse is not to be tolerated–if you have a coach or mentor who believes in you and is willing to push you, even if that means you get angry at them, realize their belief, encouragement and the time they invest in you, is a gift.

P.S. – This scene.

“I will laugh at the world.

No living creature can laugh except man. Trees may bleed when they are wounded, and beasts in the field will cry in pain and hunger, yet only I have the gift of laughter and it is mine to use whenever I choose. Henceforth I will cultivate the habit of laughter. I will smile and my digestion will improve; I will chuckle and my burdens will be lightened; I will laugh and my life will be lengthened for this is the great secret of long life and now it is mine.

I will laugh at the world.

And most of all, I will laugh at myself for man is most comical when he takes himself too seriously. Never will I fall into this trap of the mind. For though I be nature’s greatest miracle am I not still a mere grain tossed about by the winds of time? Do I truly know whence I came or whither I am bound? Will my concern for this day not seem foolish ten years hence? Why should I permit the petty happenings of today to disturb me? What can take place before this sun sets which will not seem insignificant in the river of centuries?

I will laugh at the world.” -Og Mandino, book The Greatest Salesman In The World

“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.” -Epictetus

“It is more civilized to make fun of life than to bewail it.” -Seneca

“Humor is just another defense against the universe.” -Mel Brooks

“One would sometimes think actors are trying to reverse the life process by what they do onstage. They take humor out instead of put it in. That’s what makes acting unlifelike. I have trouble believing in the seriousness of a scene in which there is no humor; it is unlike life. And yet actors will say to me, “How can I find humor in this scene? It’s very serious!” For the exact same reason one would be driven to find humor in the same situation in life: because it is deadly serious and human beings cannot bear all that heavy weight, they alleviate the burden by humor.” -Michael Shurtleff, book Audition

Speaking of having fun, I recently heard this statistic…

Children on average laugh over 300 times a day. 

Adults, on average, laugh…

…wait for it…

….

….

3.

3 times a day. 

Sigh. 

That’s pretty sad.

Even the Stoics could do better than that.

Life is hard, no doubt. And it becomes increasingly complicated the older we get. But that doesn’t mean we can’t laugh at it and ourselves. Humor is how we get through the difficult times. It helps us cope and make sense of a seemingly senseless world. It reminds us to be thankful we’re alive.

So, this year, let’s find a way to inject more humor (and fun) into our lives. And certainly into our art. We’ll all benefit.

P.S. – This timeless masterclass in humor.

“There are no small parts, only small actors.” -Konstantin Stanislavski

After his second year at Michigan, Tom Brady wanted to transfer. He wasn’t playing in games, and he was so low on the depth chart that he only got 2 reps in practice. Brady met with his coach to express his frustration, “The other quarterbacks get all the reps.” His coach replied, “Brady, I want you to stop worrying about what all the other players on our team are doing. All you do is worry about what the starter is doing, what the second guy is doing, what everyone else is doing. You don’t worry about what you’re doing.” Coach reminded him, “You came here to be the best. If you’re going to be the best, you have to beat out the best.” And then he recommended that Brady start meeting with Greg Harden, a counselor who worked in Michigan’s athletic department. Brady went to Harden’s office and whined, “I’m never going to get my chance. They’re only giving me 2 reps.” Harden simply replied, “Just go out there and focus on doing the best you can with those 2 reps. Make them as perfect as you possibly can.” “So that’s what I did,” Brady said. “They’d put me in for those 2 reps, man, I’d sprint out there like it was Super Bowl 39. ‘Let’s go boys! Here we go! What play we got?’” “And I started to do really well with those 2 reps. Because I brought enthusiasm, I brought energy.” Soon, it went from getting 2 reps to getting 4 reps. Then from 4 to 10, “and before you knew it,” Brady said, “with this new mindset that Greg instilled in me—to focus on what you can control, to focus on what you’re getting, not what anyone else is getting, to treat every rep like it’s the Super Bowl—eventually, I became the starter.” -Excerpt from Tom Brady interview as recounted in Billy Oppenheimer’s “Six At Six” Newsletter

“Be an artist at whatever you do. Even if you are a street sweeper, be the Michelangelo of street sweepers.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

What you do when no one’s looking is what you’ll do when everyone’s looking.

How you do anything is how you do everything.

“This is the practice of cleaning the slate. The ability to create as an artist and experience the work as a first time viewer, dropping baggage from the past of what you thought you wanted the work to be. The mission is to be in the present moment with the work.” -Rick Rubin, The Creative Act

For the director…

Clean the slate. 

What you noted in yesterday’s rehearsal might not be there today. 

Get your head out of your legal pad. Look up and really watch what the actors are doing. Really listen to what they are saying. Do so with an open heart, an open mind and a fresh set of eyes and ears.

P.S. – The chapter “Clean Slate” in Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act should be required reading for any aspiring director. His discussion of the final recording mix is absolute gold. 

Life’s too short to paint a kiss
So sing a picture, paint a song
Take it home and bang your gong
Cause life is an ill cast comedy for fools -lyrics from “Symphony for Group and Orchestra” by Lee Jackson and band The Nice

O gentlemen, the time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely were too long
If life did ride upon a dial’s point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us.
-Hotspur in William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1”

“Ars longa, vita brevis” roughly translated means “Art is long, life is short.” (Another translation taken from the ancient physician Hippocrates, is “Skillfulness takes time and life is short.)

Similar to “Memento Mori”, meditating on “Ars longa, vita brevis” should inspire and motivate us to make our art. 

Why?

Because making art, especially if you’re trying for something great, is worth it. Unlike our “brief candle”, our short time on this earth, our art can last.

So get going.

What are you waiting for?

If not now, when?

“Ars Longa, Vita Brevis.”

Go Make Your Art.

Tell your story.

Be transformed.

We’ll be transformed too.

A new Vs. Studio Writing and Solo Performance Workshop begins this Saturday. 

We’d love to have you. (Only one spot left. Email jclark@vstheatre.org)

Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you’ve got
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot
Wouldn’t you like to get away?

All those nights when you’ve got no lights
The check is in the mail
And your little angel
Hung the cat up by it’s tail
And your third fiance didn’t show

Sometimes you wanna go
Where everybody knows your name
And they’re always glad you came
You wanna be where you can see (ah-ah)
Our troubles are all the same (ah-ah)
You wanna be where everybody knows your name -Theme song to the television show, “Cheers”

For the producer…

Greet every single audience member who walks in to that lobby with a warm and welcoming smile. Introduce yourself.

Thank them for coming. (Besides the money they spent and the time they’re giving up, they also braved traffic, parking and other elements to be here tonight.)

Then, look them in the eye and say…

“I’m really glad you’re here.”

If you do this with sincerity and assuming your production is excellent, they’ll be back for the next one. (Even if they’re not, it’s simply the right thing to do.)