We know that failure is the engine of learning, but how do you actually practice it in a safe and productive way?
In this episode, I provide a full workout plan with SIX specific exercises designed to put you in challenging situations.
Learn practical drills for your practice groups or classes that train you to handle wild scenes, distracting environments, and even challenging scene partners. This is your guide to getting your reps in, building a tolerance for chaos, and developing the confidence that you can handle anything on stage.
And you can get these exercises as a handy written PDF. Link for that right below this sentence. Hi!
References in this episode:
Download the Free Post-Show Reflection Guide: Sent to your inbox when you subscribe to either newsletter (and added to the footer to each message if you're already subscribed).
NEW! Comprehensive guides all about getting notes as a student, or giving them as a teacher. Two guides, big discount if you get both! https://yourimprovbrain.com/notes
Get a booklet with six exercises to help you get reps in challenging scenes called "Exercises to Ruin You"
Get more downloadable booklets here: https://yourimprovbrain.com/shop
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It helps out! Thanks!
This podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. Jen has certifications related to healthy communities (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), nervous system regulation and soon teacher training certification on community resilience. She has a BFA in teaching creative arts to adults. You can find her full bio here.
This podcast was written, recorded and edited in British Columbia, Canada by Jen.
WEBVTT
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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In a previous episode, we talked about this idea.
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Getting good at improv is to rack up 10,000 failures
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instead of trying to actively avoid them.
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We talked about why failure is the engine of learning
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and how to reframe it in our brains.
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I also gave you different hacks for what
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to do in the moment when you feel like you're
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failing inside a scene.
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I'll link to that episode in the show notes and the
description.
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So if these kind of challenges are the key to growth,
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how do we get our reps in?
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How do we practice these kind of challenges in a way that
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actually makes us stronger and more adaptable and maybe
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a little bit less nervous?
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Today, we're going to get practical with full exercises
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that you can practice for in-scene recovery, ones
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that you can do safely in a practice session or a class,
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or even on your own.
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I'm going to walk you through six specific exercises
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and include those modifications as well for solo practice
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for some of them.
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This is so you can do sessions with or without others
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to deliberately train your failure muscle, I guess.
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By the end of this episode, you'll
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have that full workout, a full plan
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to put you in those tough spots and teach you
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how to get out of them so you can train yourself
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for these kind of moments when you come across them.
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Hi, I'm Jen deHaan, and this is your improv brain.
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I really like improv.
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I've taught it, I've coached it, and I make improvised
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audio dramas now at my production studio called
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StereoForest.
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So we'll get to today's exercises,
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but if you also want to download a booklet of these exercises
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that I'm about to describe, head to
improvupdate.com/downloads
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to grab it.
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I'm adding some additional examples of setups, coaching
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notes, and more in that booklet.
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So the goal of these exercises is
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to help you safely experience feeling things going wrong
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while you're in that controlled environment.
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You will build up a tolerance, hopefully, for chaos
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and learning that you always have a move to get out of it.
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This is that deliberate practice we talked about
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in the episode on failure, creating real challenges
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so you can work on error correction.
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So the first exercise is all about being thrown
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into a situation that is designed to be difficult
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from the very beginning.
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So exercise one is called wild setup, wild pivot.
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So this is an exercise that a teacher or coach can run for you
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and it comes in two parts.
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The idea is to create a scene that adds the failure,
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like hot injects it into the scene
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and has the improvisers, you, figure it out on the spot.
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So level one of this exercise is to create that wild setup
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that's a failure in itself, like at the top of the scene.
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So you might set up the scene with a base reality
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and a game that totally doesn't work
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or some sort of really challenging character dynamic
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that you want to work on that has always failed.
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You might want to start sort of mid-scene
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within the problem scenario.
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So pick out the kinds of scenarios
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that you've experienced that are tough.
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Part two is a bit more of a real world feel.
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You and your scene partners start a regular scene
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or if you want extra credit, use one of those setups
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that I just described
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that were already really hard and problematic.
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Then the teacher or coach will at some point
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at their discretion pause the scene and throw in that
wrench.
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So this is the problem or failure that you want to work on.
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It might be something that the coach has noticed
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or it's something that they think that will be helpful.
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They'll throw in that change.
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So say they'll say, "Now your characters are completely
different
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in this way that's really hard."
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Or you just learned that player one crashed your car
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because that would be really hard to do in the scene
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for whatever reason.
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And the improvisers have to take on that change
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and roll with it.
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And that's what you're figuring out.
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That's what you're practicing.
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I did this exercise or some variation of it
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with a great teacher who just goes by Berg
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and is really useful in a practical way.
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Plus those like mid-scene plot twists
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were just gold in that class.
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So I know you can do it.
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I know you can do really interesting pivots
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and comment about them.
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Let us know what they are.
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All right, so that exercise puts the failure on you
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from outside, from that external source.
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Our next exercise is about creating
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that failure feeling on the inside
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by forcing you to act before you think.
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So exercise two is jump without looking.
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So in that last episode, I mentioned this as a hack,
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the last episode on failure.
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As an exercise, it's about intentionally creating
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the condition of acting first and justifying after you act.
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So a coach or a teacher could set this up
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or you can even practice this on your own.
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So I'll describe that too.
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So in a practice group with multiple people,
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the idea here is to be responding
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to something unexpected.
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So a basic justification exercise
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that many of us have done
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is when your seam partner gives you an actual gift,
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they say what it is.
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John says, "Hey, Dan, here, I brought you this party
wrench."
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And then you have to reply to John
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and say what you're gonna use it for or something.
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So like a surprise.
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Or why is Dan giving it to you?
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Just justifies this gift choice.
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Now in a scene, this can be quite similar.
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The key now is to practice a very wild pivot
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kind of move.
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This can be done in different ways,
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different ways to set this up,
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depending on what you wanna work on.
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So here are a couple ideas.
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The coach could give one improviser
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something to do in the scene before it starts.
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So like as a secret,
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the improviser at some point
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has to spontaneously do this action
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or make a statement, whatever it is in the scene.
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Now the seam partner or the other person who is surprised
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has to justify that action for the scene,
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work it into the scene.
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This somewhat mimics you surprising yourself
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with saying something that just popped into your head.
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So that's what you wanna do for real,
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but we're kind of mimicking it in this exercise.
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You could also practice scenes
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where everyone knows the person practicing
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will say something unexpected,
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but you'll have to be very honest with yourself
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to make this work in a controlled space
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to say like actually do something unexpected,
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don't pre-plan it.
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You'll have to honestly do that
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and then everyone else can make it work in the scene after.
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Though forced to be spontaneously knowing
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that you will be doing something kind of scary,
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that on its own might make this kind of an extra challenge.
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All right, if you're on your own,
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write a bunch of monologue or character descriptions
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as the prompt.
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Have an alarm set with the description on your phone
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or a bunch of things in your pocket
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you gotta pull out or whatever
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for a time that you just stop and do it.
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So you don't need, you know, try to forget
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when the alarm's gonna go off,
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don't look at what you cut and paste into your phone
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or what you have in your pocket.
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When the alarm goes off, do that monologue
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or do that character, jump it in
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for like five minutes or something.
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Just verbally describe whatever you're doing in the
moment,
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but be in character, just say it and go.
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What does your character think about what you're doing?
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Whatever it is.
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So that's the challenge.
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Just jump, think after.
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So we've practiced dealing with a wild premise
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and our own unplanned moves.
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The next exercise will train you
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to handle a different kind of challenge,
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external distractions.
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So exercise number three is called F these distractions.
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This exercise is all about learning to focus
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when the environment itself is trying to pull you out
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of the scene, pull your brain out of things.
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So this is a lot about executive function
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and neural pruning and all this kind of stuff.
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So the setup for this will depend heavily
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on you or your team's context, where and what you perform.
00:08:57.920 --> 00:09:01.880
But the goal here is to create a setup
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where there are things happening
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that are very distracting to the performers
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who are actually there practicing this.
00:09:09.020 --> 00:09:10.660
So they should be tailored
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to what the people practicing actually find distracting
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and then practice it in a realistic way.
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What would actually be experienced?
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So don't try to heighten things here, just make it real.
00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:25.460
And just a side note, unless this is something being done
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with a group that has discussed what's going on
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and all agrees, you might wanna work out
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how and what these distractions are in advance
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with the people.
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And if you aren't comfortable sharing
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or this isn't the environment for you,
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you can set up the same kind of scenario on your own.
00:09:41.880 --> 00:09:43.940
So you need to monologue instead,
00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:46.180
but it's all certainly possible
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if you want to practice this alone.
00:09:48.140 --> 00:09:49.540
But whichever one you do know
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that you never need to force yourself
00:09:51.540 --> 00:09:55.900
into something you don't need or don't want to work on.
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This one is really one where you need to feel
00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:00.940
like it's something you want to opt into working on
00:10:00.940 --> 00:10:03.060
and that it's worth it to you.
00:10:03.060 --> 00:10:05.540
So before you start, think of some ideas
00:10:05.540 --> 00:10:09.580
of what you want to try to use to focus during the scene.
00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:11.500
So this could be anything.
00:10:11.500 --> 00:10:14.460
I'll make sure that I can't see the audience
00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:17.100
or I'll focus on the ticking of the clock instead
00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:19.220
if that's the thing that really distracts
00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:21.940
or will take away the distraction for you.
00:10:21.940 --> 00:10:24.740
So I might visualize things in a certain way
00:10:24.740 --> 00:10:27.820
or I'll focus on staying in character in a very certain way
00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:30.060
or I'll use a fidget toy in my pocket
00:10:30.060 --> 00:10:33.460
or clench my fist when this particular thing happens.
00:10:33.460 --> 00:10:36.540
So you have to find what works for you.
00:10:36.540 --> 00:10:39.700
It'll take a little bit of work to do the setup
00:10:39.700 --> 00:10:41.980
and figure this stuff out in advance.
00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:44.460
It could be like people talking on the back line
00:10:44.460 --> 00:10:47.220
or in the audience or maybe people eating in the audience
00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:51.260
or piano music in the background, a smell, a sticky stage,
00:10:51.260 --> 00:10:53.220
stopping a scene and resuming.
00:10:53.220 --> 00:10:54.460
That might be rough for you.
00:10:54.460 --> 00:10:57.260
Certain types of movements that you see peripherally
00:10:57.260 --> 00:10:58.340
or whatever.
00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:00.420
So then the coach can set up a scene
00:11:00.420 --> 00:11:03.420
that is maybe on the cognitively more difficult side
00:11:03.420 --> 00:11:06.600
for you to work on or progressively so
00:11:06.600 --> 00:11:09.740
and the players will test out their hypothesized
techniques
00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:12.380
at that point, discuss what works,
00:11:12.380 --> 00:11:16.060
discuss what doesn't work for you and what to try next.
00:11:16.060 --> 00:11:19.220
And I imagine that repeating and refining
00:11:19.220 --> 00:11:22.580
as you learn might help your brain.
00:11:22.580 --> 00:11:24.260
So how we deal with distractions
00:11:24.260 --> 00:11:28.900
and executive function is vastly different person to
person.
00:11:28.900 --> 00:11:30.300
So this is a very unique thing,
00:11:30.300 --> 00:11:34.100
but something you can practice as a group or on your own.
00:11:34.100 --> 00:11:35.820
All right, so the next exercise tackles
00:11:35.820 --> 00:11:39.580
some of the most common and frustrating types
00:11:39.580 --> 00:11:42.660
of scene failure when your partner
00:11:42.660 --> 00:11:46.300
isn't giving you anything to work with at all.
00:11:46.300 --> 00:11:50.620
Exercise number four, I'm gonna call the mannequin
00:11:50.620 --> 00:11:52.300
'cause I've improvised with a mannequin.
00:11:52.300 --> 00:11:53.140
It's fun.
00:11:53.140 --> 00:11:56.380
This exercise one improviser or ideally the coach
00:11:56.380 --> 00:12:00.860
is tasked with giving absolutely nothing in the scene.
00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:03.340
So this player can respond,
00:12:03.340 --> 00:12:06.540
but they don't offer any new information,
00:12:06.540 --> 00:12:08.980
any emotion or any ideas.
00:12:08.980 --> 00:12:10.980
They might just give one word answers
00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:13.620
or ask simple questions that make the other improviser
00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:15.580
add to the scene or they just,
00:12:15.580 --> 00:12:19.060
they add absolutely nothing in these questions.
00:12:19.060 --> 00:12:21.580
They might stand there with a blank expression
00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:25.380
or maybe even block some of the things you add into the scene.
00:12:25.380 --> 00:12:29.180
The point here is for forcing the other person
00:12:29.180 --> 00:12:31.780
to just carry the entire scene on their own
00:12:31.780 --> 00:12:33.620
to add all of that information
00:12:33.620 --> 00:12:36.020
and make it make sense from one side.
00:12:36.020 --> 00:12:37.940
So what does that feel like?
00:12:37.940 --> 00:12:39.260
What did you do?
00:12:39.260 --> 00:12:42.340
This is a simulation of a flat or a failed scene
00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:45.480
and lets you practice injecting into the scene
00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:47.500
or making bigger swings
00:12:47.500 --> 00:12:51.100
whenever you might need to think for two perhaps, right?
00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:51.940
That happens.
00:12:51.940 --> 00:12:55.420
Or if you want to ever get into solo improv,
00:12:55.420 --> 00:12:57.180
which I love, it's a lot of fun.
00:12:57.180 --> 00:13:00.020
It's a great simulation and preparation for that.
00:13:00.020 --> 00:13:02.660
So this is a really fun exercise
00:13:02.660 --> 00:13:04.620
that I learned from the improviser Jake Regal
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who ran it in a class I took.
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So you have to generate all the interest,
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all the emotion, all the game,
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all the storytelling from your own character
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and your own point of view.
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It's a really intense workout,
00:13:17.380 --> 00:13:19.260
but it teaches you that you have the power
00:13:19.260 --> 00:13:23.180
to make the scene interesting, any scene interesting.
00:13:23.180 --> 00:13:24.980
And if you feel like you're all alone
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or you are all alone or the scene is flat,
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it really helps you out
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and it helps you build that trust in yourself
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which is really important in improv.
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So if you're practicing this solo on your own
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it's totally designed for that.
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Write down a bunch of initiations
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and try doing both sides of the scene on your own.
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You don't need to do two voices if you don't want.
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You can use one voice or even one character
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like they're good and they're dark side.
00:13:52.980 --> 00:13:55.540
If you need help keeping it straight,
00:13:55.540 --> 00:13:58.880
what helps me is to either shift your body
00:13:58.880 --> 00:14:01.980
from side to side for each character
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or use a physical prop.
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You might have a hat, you take your glasses on and off,
00:14:07.540 --> 00:14:08.980
whatever it is.
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So what if your partner is instead giving you way too much?
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That's our next exercise.
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So exercise number five,
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I'm gonna call it "They're the worst."
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So this one's the opposite.
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This exercise is inspired by the one
00:14:23.820 --> 00:14:25.180
and only Sebastian Cannelly.
00:14:25.180 --> 00:14:27.380
It's paraphrasing his exercise
00:14:27.380 --> 00:14:29.140
and I can't recall if he had a name for it
00:14:29.140 --> 00:14:30.980
so this is just one that I made up.
00:14:30.980 --> 00:14:34.800
Anyways, here one player is explicitly instructed
00:14:34.800 --> 00:14:37.480
to try and ruin the scene.
00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:39.620
By being completely over the top
00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:43.980
or doing really whatever they want to do to ruin the scene.
00:14:43.980 --> 00:14:47.760
They are absurd, chaotic, nonsensical.
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They're the wildest character they can possibly imagine.
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They might break the reality of the scene,
00:14:53.920 --> 00:14:57.920
they might introduce wild new ideas every second.
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They just wanna create complete chaos.
00:15:00.520 --> 00:15:04.800
So the other player's job is to fix the scene.
00:15:04.800 --> 00:15:07.880
And by fix, I don't mean like shut down
00:15:07.880 --> 00:15:10.280
and stop the partner doing these things.
00:15:10.280 --> 00:15:12.960
They have to deal with this complete chaos
00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:16.120
the best they can for the audience
00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:18.420
as the scene partner is being
00:15:18.420 --> 00:15:21.660
completely chaotic, uncontrolled the whole time.
00:15:21.660 --> 00:15:24.780
The coach might prompt the wild character
00:15:24.780 --> 00:15:26.900
to make even wilder moves
00:15:26.900 --> 00:15:30.120
or add more chaos in particular ways.
00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:32.500
And so the scene partner doing the work here
00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:35.300
has to find a way to ground the scene,
00:15:35.300 --> 00:15:36.860
to make sense of the wild
00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:40.660
and to create some kind of playable reality,
00:15:40.660 --> 00:15:43.820
whatever they can out of this wild energy
00:15:43.820 --> 00:15:46.900
that the partner is throwing into the scene.
00:15:46.900 --> 00:15:49.340
So this exercise is so good
00:15:49.340 --> 00:15:53.020
for learning how to be the anchor in a storm.
00:15:53.020 --> 00:15:56.820
And it's a great test of spontaneous creativity.
00:15:56.820 --> 00:15:58.520
Really, you have to really kind of try
00:15:58.520 --> 00:16:00.260
to figure it out on the spot.
00:16:00.260 --> 00:16:03.720
So this is really good creative problem solving.
00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:07.520
So this one is really tough to practice solo,
00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:10.140
but one exercise that could help
00:16:10.140 --> 00:16:13.220
is to search, do like do an internet search
00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:15.340
or a Reddit search for strange,
00:16:15.340 --> 00:16:18.740
unexplainable, bizarre stories online.
00:16:18.740 --> 00:16:20.380
So it's like, you're looking for those kind of
00:16:20.380 --> 00:16:22.260
BuzzFeed style lists.
00:16:22.260 --> 00:16:25.100
And again, Reddit is somewhere you can often
00:16:25.100 --> 00:16:27.080
search for these kinds of things.
00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:30.340
So find a source of many of these kind of brief
00:16:30.340 --> 00:16:33.420
overviews for these kinds of stories, read them
00:16:33.420 --> 00:16:36.140
and then improvise a monologue
00:16:36.140 --> 00:16:38.860
to explain what really happened here.
00:16:38.860 --> 00:16:41.220
Make sense of that chaotic story.
00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:45.020
Maybe as a character from the story that you read,
00:16:45.020 --> 00:16:47.620
you could give yourself that extra challenge.
00:16:47.620 --> 00:16:50.860
You could also like pause a show or a movie
00:16:50.860 --> 00:16:53.860
that just is wild and doesn't make sense to you
00:16:53.860 --> 00:16:56.620
at the moment, pause it and do that same kind
00:16:56.620 --> 00:17:00.380
of improv exercise, ways to explain what's going on.
00:17:00.380 --> 00:17:03.780
I think many of us probably already do that
00:17:03.780 --> 00:17:05.100
when a show goes that way.
00:17:05.100 --> 00:17:07.900
Anyways, for our last exercise,
00:17:07.900 --> 00:17:09.900
we're going to get personal.
00:17:09.900 --> 00:17:13.140
This one is about identifying your biggest fear
00:17:13.140 --> 00:17:17.400
or weakness and running directly at it.
00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:21.780
So exercise number six is what I'm calling poop,
00:17:21.780 --> 00:17:26.180
hits the fan for insert your name here.
00:17:26.180 --> 00:17:27.660
This isn't really an exercise.
00:17:27.660 --> 00:17:29.960
It's more of a suggestion of what to work on,
00:17:29.960 --> 00:17:31.940
but I'm giving it a name anyways.
00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:35.600
I want you to think about that one exercise
00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:39.060
or skill and improv that always gives you trouble.
00:17:39.060 --> 00:17:41.100
For me, for a long time,
00:17:41.100 --> 00:17:43.960
it was any variation of the alphabet game,
00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:48.880
which is already designed to kind of have people mess up,
00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:53.880
but pick whichever exercise feels like that to you,
00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:56.000
the exercise of dread.
00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:59.120
The key here is to take that thing that you fear
00:17:59.120 --> 00:18:00.400
and instead of avoiding it,
00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:02.480
you create an exercise where the goal
00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:05.720
is to make the mistake.
00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:09.680
So maybe your issue is blocking offers.
00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.120
You could create an exercise where one person's only job
00:18:13.120 --> 00:18:15.220
is to make strong offers
00:18:15.220 --> 00:18:18.200
and your only job is to block them
00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:20.840
and the most absurd way possible perhaps.
00:18:20.840 --> 00:18:24.680
And then the whole group has to justify your block
00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:29.480
by leaning into your failure, you get stronger, right?
00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:31.960
Or you get more trust in your ability.
00:18:31.960 --> 00:18:33.720
Okay, so if you're doing like the alphabet game,
00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:35.720
that was mine.
00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:37.160
My brain just dislikes it
00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:40.000
for whatever autism reasons I think,
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:42.160
but say in this kind of situation,
00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:44.000
the whole group would then have the goal
00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:45.720
of trying to mess me up.
00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:46.960
They might switch the letters
00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.800
or make me work with a number instead
00:18:49.800 --> 00:18:52.120
or give me the word to start with
00:18:52.120 --> 00:18:55.560
or maybe it's the last letter of the final word
00:18:55.560 --> 00:18:57.120
that your SEAM partner says
00:18:57.120 --> 00:19:00.560
and they could play at me with adding new final words
00:19:00.560 --> 00:19:03.880
and I never know when they're gonna end,
00:19:03.880 --> 00:19:05.480
but you're free to fail
00:19:05.480 --> 00:19:08.540
and you could just see what happens in your brain
00:19:08.540 --> 00:19:12.680
when whatever pressures you is gone, right?
00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:14.840
And that's what letting go
00:19:14.840 --> 00:19:18.120
or getting out of your head might feel like.
00:19:18.120 --> 00:19:19.880
So that's the workout plan,
00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:24.880
six exercise designed to get your reps in on failing
00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:28.720
so you can build strength, you can be adaptable,
00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:30.320
you can be confident
00:19:30.320 --> 00:19:32.880
that you can handle anything on stage,
00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:34.680
that's the trust in yourself.
00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:35.720
If you found this useful,
00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:38.160
I'd love for you to help me get the word out
00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:39.120
that I'm making these things.
00:19:39.120 --> 00:19:42.720
So other improvisers who might have a use for this,
00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:45.960
these videos and podcasts, 'cause that's why I'm here
00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:48.760
and check out my site improvupdate.com
00:19:48.760 --> 00:19:50.680
for a couple different newsletters
00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:53.040
and a bunch of resources that you can download,
00:19:53.040 --> 00:19:56.540
including the PDF of these exercises in this video
00:19:56.540 --> 00:19:59.720
and more, subscribe wherever you're watching this
00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:01.120
or listening to the show.
00:20:01.120 --> 00:20:03.400
I would love that, it would mean a lot to me.
00:20:03.400 --> 00:20:06.080
And again, if you wanna download these exercises
00:20:06.080 --> 00:20:09.300
in a useful format for running them,
00:20:09.300 --> 00:20:10.660
this video probably isn't,
00:20:10.660 --> 00:20:15.660
but the booklet might be at improvupdate.com/downloads.
00:20:15.660 --> 00:20:18.920
So we're back to our big question for today.
00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:21.020
How do you build a practice routine
00:20:21.020 --> 00:20:23.520
that takes on the things that bother you,
00:20:23.520 --> 00:20:27.720
these mistakes and turns them into improv that is stronger?
00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:30.820
So deliberate practice and error-based learning,
00:20:30.820 --> 00:20:35.460
mostly the ones that you make in a regular scene,
00:20:35.460 --> 00:20:37.220
the fails, the mistakes, whatever.
00:20:37.220 --> 00:20:39.380
You can also try mimicking them in practice
00:20:39.380 --> 00:20:42.900
in these exercises, which helps you trust your instincts
00:20:42.900 --> 00:20:45.380
for when these things happen for real.
00:20:45.380 --> 00:20:48.240
So sure, you can just do some improv,
00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:52.460
but I love identifying specific situations and scenarios
00:20:52.460 --> 00:20:54.020
that challenge me the most.
00:20:54.020 --> 00:20:56.440
I love thinking about them, creating exercises
00:20:56.440 --> 00:20:59.360
that simulate those challenges so I can work on them
00:20:59.360 --> 00:21:02.480
and get those reps in because it's fun.
00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:05.980
And you can look at these threats as gifts
00:21:05.980 --> 00:21:07.640
that they're fun to work with.
00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:09.580
And because it's make 'em ups,
00:21:09.580 --> 00:21:12.180
the stakes are usually pretty low.
00:21:12.180 --> 00:21:15.920
So I'll be back on next Monday for the next episode.
00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:16.760
Bye for now.
00:21:16.760 --> 00:21:18.560
(upbeat music)
00:21:18.560 --> 00:21:21.240
You have been listening to Your Improv Brain,
00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:23.260
a StereoForest production.
00:21:23.260 --> 00:21:25.980
This show is created and is written, edited,
00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:30.140
and produced by Jen deHaan of StereoForest.com
00:21:30.140 --> 00:21:33.540
You can find show information, show notes, transcripts,
00:21:33.540 --> 00:21:36.820
and contact information at the show's page
00:21:36.820 --> 00:21:40.580
at stereoforest.com/improvbrain.
00:21:40.580 --> 00:21:41.800
Thanks for listening.
00:21:41.800 --> 00:21:44.380
(upbeat music)
00:21:44.380 --> 00:21:46.380
[MUSIC]
00:21:46.380 --> 00:21:56.380
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