Ep12: Would James Bond Be Good At Improv?

Because James is a huge nerd, in this episode, he brings up the latest James Bond video game. In the game, 'improvisation' is touted as a key skill required for spies, but James isn't convinced that Bond would fare well doing Theatresports. Also, Linda explores what exercises she would use if she held an improv workshop for MI6.

Have a question or Improv related topic you'd like to hear us discuss? Send a short email to LindaTellsJames@gmail.com

A new episode every Tuesday! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hi.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hello. Welcome everyone. Welcome everybody. To a little podcast. Yeah, another week. Another week of Linda tells James he's wrong about it again.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

How are you going, my friend?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Uh I'm pretty well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Today today was good. I had a good sleep. Yeah. What about you? Uh I'm good.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah, excellent.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

You know, I woke up the usual time. You know, which is seven o'clock for me nowadays. It's winter, it's a bit cold.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

No, I love it.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

Okay, of course, the cat wakes me up at 5 30 and then once again a quarter to six. Then at 6 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah, she's punctual.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

She is punctual.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

She's got on her phone, she's got those alarms that look yeah. Um in our podcast, we talk about improv. Um, and often one of us makes a statement or poses a question.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Um, today I've got uh a statement for you. And um I kind of mentioned this briefly to you before uh we we recorded, but yeah, this happened kind of relatively recently, but it's not, but you will find you'll find out. It's very silly. It's very silly, very silly.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

Silly's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I've been watching um a friend uh play a video game at the moment that kind of came out recently. It's a new James Bond game where you play as James Bond, right? And uh called First Light. And he uh and you're starting as James Bond, as in he's not even like part of MI6 yet, you know, he's still just a Navy um whatever crewman. He has no skills yet, and then eventually, you know, you you get the double O status. Um, in that, because they're constantly like evaluating you as a player, and they're like, you know, it's like, oh, we can't make him a double O yet because he's reckless and he's blah blah blah, and he, you know, scored too many points on Pac-Man and all this kind of stuff. There's a point where they mention um the skills of a spy.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

One of them was improvisation. And and for a moment, I was thinking, I don't think Bond would be very good at an improv. But my wider, my wider, my wider or bigger statement is that uh performing improv on stage gives you no skills you could use as a spy. That's my statement.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

That's my statement is that performing improv or that's not true, James.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I don't think it he can't, he can't. Ah, Mr. Bud, welcome. You know, I'm here to uh I should I press this? Uh I'm gonna press this nuclear button. Yes, and crap, right? Like he can't yes in anything.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

Well, maybe not in all circumstances. Mr.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

You're the I've got the Bond girl here. I'm going to shoot her. Yes, and bang, you know, like right. That's not the Bond girl. Don't block me, Mr. Bond. These penguins have lasers on their head. No, they don't. Well, they do.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

They do. We have a long time to put them there, Mr. Bond.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

No, it didn't. It took you three minutes.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Yes, and me, Mr. Bond, or I will destroy you.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Um, yes, you will. Um, wait, crap.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

You know, like And see.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

I would like an offer from the audience.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

Anything, anything that's almost like a nuclear bomb. Anyone. You know, so do I sound like Werner Hutz?

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Werner Hutz are gonna be a great, great, great bond villain.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

Great improviser. Um, Mr.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Bond, the future.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Have you started the scene yet?

SPEAKER_04 3:59

Well no, you just I have started.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

All the madness is well.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

Can I get can I get an offer from the audience? Spero. Oh, the madness of spatulates. Why do we put up with them? I can't do Vernon Hair. But um, he sounded a bit like Gandalf. Um, but anyway, yes, okay. So refresh me again.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

What was the yeah? My my contention is that performing improv gives you no skills that you could use as a spy. Okay. Because yeah, I I don't like it's it's it was interesting because it confronted me on, yeah, what like the word improvisation and its usage, you know, obviously for them in the video game and the spy world, they're thinking of I don't know, quick thinking, you know, it chang things change and you have to adapt quickly. And and I guess that's what I think of when you know sometimes improv troops or improv groups, you get asked to like come in for like corporate workshops and stuff, right? Yeah, but it's like I I can't teach you can't like you're gonna teach them comedy, you know, you're gonna teach them space work.

SPEAKER_04 5:07

No, but you teach them the skills to um respond quickly uh to adapt to the unexpected. Like what?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Like what? Yeah, well, like what what what skill or what what exercise would you would you use? Because but thinking quickly, I mean there's there's naming like 10 different, I don't know, uh bits of candy.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

Yeah, but you're thinking quickly when you're respond when you're responding to someone. I mean, I could say to you, um uh the first offer that I that I make to you, like wow, it's almost 10 o'clock, we should really get going. You're you immediately have to respond to that. So you have to think quickly.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

But is that I mean, isn't that really an improv skill? I mean, isn't that something that you could I don't know, develop anywhere with anything? Quick, I'll give you a menu at a pub, choose a fit food. You know what I mean? Because I'm talking about improv on stage, right? Like I'm talking about specifically improv performing.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

But the thing is that you're not actually in a pub with a menu. Like it's not life. It is there's a whole, you know, when you're when you're actually thinking quickly in in life, to use your example, if you're in a pub, quick the waiter's here, you order something, um, or respond to that, be it either you order or you say, Can you come back in five minutes? Or you can say, I'm so sorry, my friend has been blabbering on about something about some game he's doing. Could you come back in half an hour? Um, whatever. Um, you're you're responding um that's your circumstance.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:42

When you're improvising, your circumstance isn't that that small necessarily. You have a whole world of shit you can pull from.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Right.

SPEAKER_04 6:51

Right. Doesn't mean you do pull from all the whole world or stuff, but I think part of the training as an improviser is also that you get to fire up the training, means you fire up your your imagination.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Right. But I mean, okay, okay, but to bring it back to that practical thing though, yeah, like if we're doing it, you know, for for you know, as a spy, um, you can't just, you know, just make up whatever based on your imagination, right? You're limited with whatever the circumstances are. Yeah, yeah. If it has to be a menu at a pub. Yeah. So like, I don't know, like being creative, right? There's a whole bunch of obviously exercises about, okay, let's try, you know, use our imagination, let's do something interesting or creative. But I can't, I can't see that working or being helpful in either like a corporate setting or a spy setting.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

So what if um, let's just say we're doing a workshop for MI6. Um it's uh that you're given this circumstance, um, you're you're trapped somewhere, someone's trying to um uh uh uh get some information out of you. So they're about to torture you to get some information out of you. Um uh you've got to think quickly of how of let's say to to get out of this situation. Therefore, you have to assess what's in front of you, um assess your circumstances, and then either let's say an option would be to make some shit up, make some stuff up, and that will uh uh hopefully convince the other person to release you or something, something, I don't know. Um do you know what I mean? Yeah, that means you're using your imagination, but you you you're you're m making it as believable as possible. So it's it's um uh a creative environment, but you're trying to you're but you're approaching things truthfully. I mean that I haven't said that distinctly or well, but it needs to be based in reality. You roughly know what I mean, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Like and and from that reality then the the imaginational creative emerges. Yeah you're saying yeah, yeah, I mean I mean but but is that so and then how again I guess trying to link it to the improv performance, right?

SPEAKER_04 9:18

Well, why are you differentiating performance and and improv just learning skills, skill learning?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Well, I guess only because um that when that word came up for me, that's when because that's when it it it uh you know kind of the alarm bells in my head rang, where I understood it as having you know different me different meanings and people have different perceptions of the word improvisation. So I guess I'm trying to I'm trying to separate uh improv for performance, like what we do and the skills that are in that, and the way that people would quote unquote improvise talking to the bus driver, you know for personal development. Uh no, maybe not even personal development, but just like I guess the way that you would imagine a spy, like when we when we say, when we say like uh James Bond entered the room, he was encountered by something unexpected, he had to improvise. We don't suddenly think he, you know, he he goes and well, can I get an ask for? You know, like like he's he's gonna be making, he's gonna well yeah, I guess like you were saying, right? Utilizing the reality of the space or wherever he is, observing and then adapting to suit his needs. But I'm I don't think that those skills are necessarily only rooted in like improv for performance. I reckon those skills of the observation using what you can do, I don't know, you could you could learn in like survival class or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 10:48

Yeah, but that's why I I don't like I think that's still improvisation, you're still improvising.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah, but then but that's why I'm saying improv specifically for performance.

SPEAKER_04 10:58

Oh, yeah. See, I don't diff I don't right. I guess because like I don't differentiate necessarily. Uh no, I think I still think you use the same thing. I mean, at the core The only difference is improv for performance is that you know that you're doing it for performance, so all the other elements are in there, be it um uh spacework and space work? Like James Bond using space work? Come on. Like he's not gonna No, no, no. I'm that's what I'm saying. It's not it's not necessarily that. Like like I I wouldn't What am I trying to say here, folks? Um, I'm trying to say that improv in performance is only different because I know I'm performing it in front of an audience who's paid money to come and see me. But the way my brain works to create that improvised scene is the same on stage as it is when I'm in a room just doing an exercise with people. So I could be in that room just doing an exercise for people, but I could be doing improv because I I want some personal development, be it I want to get more confident, I want to get more creative, I want to do whatever, whatever to make me grow as a person. I don't necessarily have to take it to performance. I have to take it on stage. But it's the but my but I'm approaching them the exact same way. The only difference is that when I'm doing it for performance, I know that I'm doing it in front of an audience who've paid money to come and see me, and so I'm going to give them a good show.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

I guess I'm thinking then, uh like, you know, like if like let's there are two ends of the of the um you know the the the the the spectrum, right? There's performing on stage at an improv event or whatever, and you're being paid to improvise, and then there's uh talking to improv. Where is this magical place? Um M I6 apparently. Um, but um and we can't tell you it's classified information. Um and the other end is talking to a bus driver. Like so the conversation isn't planned, you are improvising the conversation, you're just saying hello, and and they're saying hello, and then you're using the reality of the situation, you're on a bus or whatever, and they're like, uh you need to you need to sit down, you can't talk to me while I'm driving, and then you sit down.

SPEAKER_04 13:24

Um this is really this is interesting because I don't know if having a conversation with a bus driver is improvising. Why not?

SPEAKER_01 13:32

It's having a conversation with the bus driver isn't all isn't all conversation improvisation? Hmm James and that's that's tricky.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

Why is it different? How is it different? Um it's improvisation in that you don't have a script, I guess, but also it's not improvisation because unless you're not being you're not you're not in an artificial world.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I don't know, right, right, right. There's this there's something like re the real um You're living your life. Well, like kind of like what you were saying before, actually, about you know you're performing, right? That's not a performance having a conversation with a bus driver. It's an actual conversation. Maybe that's there's something there, I guess. Um because I mean it's interesting. Yeah, I had when I was studying um at Sydney Uni and we did um, you know, a couple of units on performance studies, and we were talking about yeah, the difference between, yeah, what is um performance? Are you performing when you're at a table with your in-laws and you don't like them? You know, is that a performance? Do people have to pay? You know, do people have to is does it have to be an audience? So um there's a great moment in one of the lectures because our lecture was talking about um, you know, they're kind of little P, like little P performance, you know, where you're kind of every day and there's big, the big P, right? Where you're like on stage, capital P, right? And then she's trying to say, you know, what what is it that makes those you know capital P performances big? What is it about their, you know, big P Ness? And I couldn't kind of uh we all cracked up at the time, and I realized, wait, she must be lecturing about this for for so long. How has she not said this already? Maybe she did say it already, and she says it every year as a joke, and to for for us, just for us, just for you, and we think we're like, oh, she said a gaff or whatever, and talked about her big P Ness. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, because I can't believe she's never said those words in sequence before, you know. But but you know, but this right, I think that's that's maybe that's part of the equation here is that improvisation in in the in the sense of performance or yeah, yeah, yeah, that other world, the kind of removed from reality aspect of it, versus when um you know you run out of milk for your coffee and you have to improvise with ice cream. Great idea. Yeah, yes. I've done that many times.

SPEAKER_04 16:25

Yeah, because you're using something else to yeah. So you're thinking about oh, how else can I approach this problem? How can I approach this problem um without the usual things I have to approach this problem?

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Finding cle finding clever solutions or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

But isn't that James Bond would need? Yeah, yeah, he but but but I mean that's yes, I agree. But for me, that's not. I mean, is so then is finding using ice cream instead of milk for your coffee improvisation for you? Yes. Oh, but there's a but there's no performance there. That's reality, right?

SPEAKER_04 17:02

No, but it's the the way the brain works, is I have to find something else. I have to be creative about how I how I solve this. I have to be creative about how how I solve this.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

That's actually a really great distinction, I think. Because then for me, because then I can I can clearly kind of define relatively clearly kind of defined which conversations I have that I'm not being creative and which conversations I am being creative. And then there definitely is a different aspect of what I'm doing with those quote unquote creative conversations versus the ones that are more yeah, you know, um rudimentary or uh uh transactional.

SPEAKER_04 17:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Even though they're both conversations. So I think that's actually a really helpful distinction for me.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Is the aspect topic. If you haven't already figured it out, folks, so we're trying to, I'm trying to figure it out as we're discussing it. Because it is that thing of when someone asks you, well, what is the actual improv? What signifies improv and what signifies just normal behavior? And it's like, oh yeah, well, that's yeah. But I do think that it is it is that creative um aspect of it. The un the the delving into unknown too, it's it's not yeah, you're you're inventing the solution as you're going through the process. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Do you know what I mean? Oh yeah. Because in a transaction, we know what the exchange is.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

Yeah, if I'm talking to the bus driver, that's not the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Because it's like, well, we we know we know the outcome.

SPEAKER_04 18:33

We know the outcome.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

We know we know we know the expected outcomes. And actually, yeah, we know the expected outcomes. When that doesn't happen, then we're forced to be creative, then we're forced to improvise, then we're forced to change. That's when it becomes improvisation, right? Um and and grappling with that new thing. Um what was I thinking of? It was um, yeah, I think I I think that transactional nature uh and the banality of those conversations. I think we've we've definitely touched on this before, but when that then uh kind of seeps into improv on stage, and then it's like, oh, I'm giving you the setup. Oh, I see your setup, I'm just gonna feed you back, you know, whatever you need, and then oh great, I get to hit it out of the park, and that's the punchline, bang, we're solved it, yeah, and then move on. That's why that doesn't feel like improv, right? Because we're not actually creating anything where we're just running an oper we're running a transaction that we've already we already know the outcome.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

So for example, if you were to have that bus driver scene in on stage or in an improv exercise, I'll get on the bus, woman gets on the bus, I go to the bus driver and I say uh in the old days when bus drivers took money. Yeah, here you are, it's true, whatever. Here's 20 shillings, take me to Zanzibar or whatever. Um not even that, I mean that's improvised. If you were to say, just take me down to the you know, Marrickville Metro.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

Um that what you would the diff the differentiation would be even if it started off as a as a sensible scene, getting on bus saying, Oh yeah, I'm going to Marrickville Metro dollar twenty. Um you would use this the your real life um uh oh god, I can't think of words, are so hard to go. Obviously, I haven't had a quick improvise. Um you'd use a real life experience, but you wouldn't stay there because then you would start to be, and this isn't even necessarily, oh oh my gosh, I'm having I'm talking we're talking about real life experience. Quick, throw something weird in here or whatever. Yeah, it isn't that. It's it's oh we're starting off here, but what would be fun? Or where can we take this? Or let me just this would be it's that it's like okay, then you get creative because it's like oh what would be fun, mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

And then you get to go down a path that you all don't know.

SPEAKER_04 21:10

That you all don't know. You haven't been down that path before in every in life. You may be inspired by life, that's that's great. Yeah, we want to want that, but that's not where you you have to you're not stuck there in that retelling of that story, and you know that also as a performer because basically no audience member wants to see you reenact how you got to the venue on the bus, you know. Yeah. Um, that's great. Wow. She caught the 423 as well. We caught the 423. She had a very similar experience to us. Yes, she did.

SPEAKER_03 21:46

Wow, she had money on her opal card. She did, so did we? Wow, life is great. I feel validated now.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

No one's gonna walk out and go have that conversation.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

No, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 21:58

I love this show. Okay, next week. Oh, maybe we'll do the busting one more time. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

So then, okay, so with James Bond. So how can he so I guess okay, okay, so he needs to be trained on how to deal with situations where he has to be creative.

SPEAKER_04 22:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Right. So I mean, I guess uh I'm still not fully convinced though that a lot of like the exercises that we do would actually really be helpful in him to actually be creative in an actual scenario. Like so even if they're just exercises that yeah, even if they're just exercises, they're just kind of in general, kind of like just expand your imagination or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 22:40

Well then why do we do them for people who who work in business?

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Why do we do it for people who want because they're paying lots of money and they think they need they need to do something to cycle their site, like oh we need to spend some money and someone who and this is a uh generalization, folks.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

So you're taking someone to say whose everyday experience in in their job would isn't necessarily creative. Um yeah, accounting. They're yeah, accounting or whatever where they're just you know they have to be that they're not paid to be creative. Yes. And so you're putting them into a place where they're they're encouraged to be creative. It doesn't necessarily come naturally. You l you learn how to feed that part of you, that part of your brain. Um you have to un unlock it. Um so who's to say that James Bond or a spy is not this is not that similar in in that maybe the creativity part of them is not does not come naturally. And you put them in the class and you give them some exercises to to basically you're working on, you're doing all these reps to to make their imagination stronger, to make them more um um easier to access that part of their brain and easier to vocalize it and and act and enact on it.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

As it were.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Well, yeah, but it's kind of like, isn't that kind of like going, oh, um, let's make you do some uh uh finger exercises at the gym because we're trying to build up your overall endurance. Like, why not just just just get them to run a marathon all the time?

SPEAKER_04 24:22

You would just get you would get them to train to run into a marathon, you wouldn't just stick them straight into a marathon.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I mean though. But like, you know what I mean? Like, I feel like that little finger exercise is us doing like a game of questions only. And what they really want to do is like diffuse a ball.

SPEAKER_04 24:37

That isn't comparable, James, because you're not gonna go to the gym going, you know what, we're gonna get fit. Great, I've got a series of finger exercises for you to start. That's what it feels like though, with the corporate improv stuff.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

I mean, they're not gonna Okay, okay, what about look? I'm just gonna throw all these allegories and analogies at you, so hopefully we can get confused and lost because I'm losing. But because this is a competition, I need to win. But imagine, okay, so say like a retail person, no, no, no, uh, a cashier at McDonald's.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

They don't need creativity in their job. But if we did a whole corporate six-hour thing of training them to be creative, and the next day they walk in and somebody goes, hi, I can have a Big Mac, here's ten dollars. They're just gonna be like, Here's your change, I will get you a Big Mac. There's nothing they can't use any of the stuff we give them.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

And they wouldn't be doing the workshop for for the that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yeah, but you're putting someone into something that they wouldn't necessarily sure, but they don't, but but but that but would you but I would say their lack of need of creativity in their role.

SPEAKER_04 25:36

I'm also gonna say I don't I'm I'm actually also not sure about that because I do never know if they they don't need creativity in their role. Well I mean come on. I mean you don't need uh I I don't know. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I don't know. What if sure that you know I can it's some sort of like because also that that improv who's to say that working on those creative skills or your improv skills isn't gonna help you in circumstances where um you have a difficult customer or you have a customer who needs assistance or you have a customer who is um I don't know something, some sort of situation that is not the normal in the normal exchange.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Corporations are great. I love corporations, they're never wrong, and they have their own protocol about things. And that would be just like I'm gonna get the manager. I don't I don't want my employee to like manager isn't there today. They're on lunch break. Then we uh get the whoever is above them. God.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

We've got some God.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

It goes me, James, cashier McDonald's, manager, and then God.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

We don't know. But the point is We kind of do know.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

I mean, like, I mean, like I've worked, I mean haven't worked as a McDonald's cashier, but like I've worked as like, you know, other other cashiers.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

So let's say, let's call this person Sven. So Sven's come to the workshop. He works at McDonald's. Uh firstly, McDonald's probably wouldn't have sent Sven to the workshop. It'd say Sven, if you want to go to do improv workshops, you do it on your own time.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

No, they're a big thing.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

You pay me five dollars an hour.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I can't afford to do improv classes an hour. You know, super.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

Anyway, you I yeah, I'm I'm not going to like you can't give me that example and then say okay, okay. This person's coming to these workshops, but it's point, it's totally pointless for them.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

It's like, well, then why didn't they come?

SPEAKER_04 27:28

Why didn't McDonald's send them? If you think it's totally pointless, again I would argue, and I don't know if it is totally pointless, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Uh hi, how can I help you, sir? Oh, I'll have um can I have a big Mac? Oh, but can you add bacon? I wonder what you would call that. The bacon Mac. No, my improv training paid off. Hi five, me. Wow, wow. Did you hear that, people?

SPEAKER_04 27:55

Did you hear James being condescending just then? Okay. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Let's get away.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

Okay, Mm-6. Okay, Mystic. Here you are, Mystics. Everyone's in the workshop. Okay, I want you all, right? First, I want you all to let's just do uh first uh rhyme and associate. Rhyme and associate, right? Which is basically a game where you some first person says a word. Grenade.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Um handmade uh weapon. Weapon.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

I'm explaining the exercise to the people who are listening, James, who aren't necessarily improvisers. Yes, there is one of them. Hi, Belinda. Um, so rhyme and associate is first person says a word, second person has to rhyme with the word. Wait oh my gosh, I've forgotten.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Yeah, no, no, no, no, I think you're yeah. Oh no, no, do you uh do you associate?

SPEAKER_04 28:50

Yes, no, no, no. First person says a word, second person says a rhyme. A word that's rhymes with that first person's word, and then and then they second person follows it with a word associated with the rhyme they just said. Yeah. So for example, if I said cat, you would say uh bat, then I would say baseball. Okay, great. That's what rhyme and associate is.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Now you think that's not what a boring exercise, a warm-up exercise. It's boring. Yeah. Well, it's it's not.

SPEAKER_04 29:23

It sounds simple, it's simplistic, but the whole purpose of it is to get your brain uh first, you're comfortable by the rhyme, you're comfortable by the rhyme because you know how to rhyme.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Um I can rhyme in all ways.

SPEAKER_04 29:40

Well, you're a poet and you didn't even realize. Um, so you do the rhyme, but then the association means your brain is thinking in a nonlinear way. It's kind of drifting off the path a little bit. And so it's it's it's recalibrate calibrating, I don't know. Or reprogramming your brain so that it can think bro more broadly. Yes. Okay. Um you you cannot tell me that that is not a function that is helpful to pretty much everybody.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yes. So Okay.

SPEAKER_04 30:19

Yeah. So even if MI6 just did that exercise.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

No, no, not just did that exercise. That's what I mean though. Like, but yes, the core underlying thing, sure, yeah, super great. But like they're not gonna actually use any rhyming and associating.

SPEAKER_04 30:38

No, but it's not the actual it's not the exercise itself, it's the tr it's the sk it's the skill it, it's not the um uh the lifting of the weights is the the thing you do, but it's you it's building the muscle consistently over time that means that eventually you get stronger, and so the muscle is there. So if you're doing the Ryman Associate exercise, it's not the oh Ryman Associate isn't going to do anything long term. Yes, it is going to do something long term, because it's the it's building that neural network.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

That neural network. Yeah. Um, yeah, yeah, I suppose so. I'm just gonna play devil's advocate because it's annoying. But um Oh my god, people, I don't know. But it's because when I lift weights because out there, you know, when I go out shopping and all that kind of stuff, people leave dumbbells all over the place, and I need to like move them to get the chicken or I need to move them to get whatever, you know. It's very practical. So um, and that's why this what's that that's why CrossFit exists. Because CrossFit was meant to be practical, I think.

SPEAKER_04 31:46

Because they had anyway, James Bond. You're you're strapped into a chair, right?

SPEAKER_02 31:51

Strepped into a chair, they're saying, James, I'm going to now I'm going to touch you, James. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. No for no reason other than because I don't like you. You're too handsome. What is this Miss Piggy? No, it is not Miss Piggy. Excuse me. Excuse me, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:13

Um, so James Bond, the agent here. James sort of looks around the room. He looks at what can I use to get out of here? Or all I have is uh uh an uh a sachet of uh tomato sauce and and I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

And he goes, sauce. Um force? Um the power of the force, and then he goes, Don't exercise.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

So it's not the exercise itself, it's not the rhyme and associate itself, it's the fact that his brain is now uh able to think outside the box. Laterally, laterally, right? And it's that so it's not gonna go rhyme gonna rhyme and associate with this person who's trying to kill me. It's not that, right?

SPEAKER_01 33:01

That's what it's that he's gonna use a tomato sauce in a way instead of consuming it normally, he's gonna use it laterally and throw it. Or die throw it, throw it at a button. Okay, we're died. Let's later later think, bon, bon, what happened? I just decided to die because I wasn't, I was thinking outside the box.

SPEAKER_04 33:20

He thinks about the circumstances in the room or whatever, whatever. He tries to piece something together, tries to be creative, and he comes up with a uh a scenario where you know this room is surrounded. I've been watching, you know, we've been watching you for for weeks now, and the room's completely surrounded, and you're going to die. It's you the one who you're whatever. He makes up something, but he makes something up to get him out of that situation.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Right, he has to be creative, he has to be. Because it's not a transactional uh conversation.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

Unless, of course, the person who's tied him to that chair is the bus driver who he met on the bus that day when he was going to Merrickville Metro.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Uh if you want if you want to get out, uh it's just 350. Okay. All right, thank you. Well, that's not it, I suppose. Well, thank you, kind of. Please don't talk to me while the bus is in motion. Okay, yeah. You know, yes, and um, well, look, I mean, like so so another thing in in the um video game that they kind of repeat a bit because it's a spy thing, they always talk about, you know, um James Bond uh, you know, the first thing of being a spy is always do the unexpected. So I think that kind of ties into what you're saying about um yeah, thinking laterally and thinking yeah, outside the box or in different ways and configurations. Um and yeah, look, okay, so um yeah, I suppose that probably would be quite helpful in uh many scenarios that Bond gets himself kind of trapped into.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

Yeah, so I think we've proven that you're wrong and I'm right, which is the whole point of this improv this uh improv podcast.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Yeah, I yeah, I do have to yeah, I do think, well now I have to say that I expect now in the next film for Bond to sit down with Q at some point and they do rhyme and associate. I think that would be really helpful for him.

SPEAKER_04 35:27

James Bond. Actually, that's that'd be a great scene, right? In an improv scene. James Bond in an improv class. Yeah, well, well, he would yeah, he'd just pull out a gun and I don't know. No, he wouldn't. Because he doesn't shoot guns anymore. Bon Bond doesn't kill people. Yes, he does.

SPEAKER_03 35:43

Doesn't that? No, oh yeah, didn't they remove guns from Daniel Gray?

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Oh, once Amazon has bought it now. See, but see, corp big corporations, they never do things wrong, they know how to do things, they go buy the book, they got a protocol, everything's very transactional, it's predictable, it's very nice. It doesn't need there's no need for creativity. They should be they like I they they should be the next villain, really. Yes, like you know, um well that thinking should be, yeah, right, because James Bond is like the antithesis of that, so yeah, it should be I'm trying to find a different way out. Although the for saying that, he does he does do things very predictably. Yeah, he always drinks the exact same drink, right? Like, I mean that that would be kind of funny.

SPEAKER_04 36:25

It's his favorite. Is it I don't know, James? Come on, check it out. What if instead of vodka we put I don't know, Jim?

SPEAKER_03 36:38

A gin martini? Yes. What if we stirred it and didn't shake it? Who sent you? Who sent you? I kid you.

SPEAKER_04 36:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Okay, good. So then yeah, maybe we maybe there are maybe maybe there are a whole bunch of improvisers around the world that could be recruited as secret agents and we'd be all excellent.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

That's a great idea. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_04 37:05

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Yeah, I think I think we could be great secret agents.

SPEAKER_04 37:09

I got a name for the next James Bond film. Yeah, yeah. Um the uh no, I haven't. That's that's actually that's a great no, I haven't. Yes, and um, yeah, sorry folks, I was gonna say something really funny then, but my brain, I'm my brain just did a big brain burp. Fair enough. I can't improvise anymore. I've lost my skill.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Yeah, you've been busted. They caught you, yeah. And that you've had to give her.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

Okay, let's end it there because now we're just raving.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Um cool. Um, well, yeah, thank you everyone for listening to our ramblings and ramblings. Was that okay? I think it was great. I think it was interesting. Yeah, I my mind got changed. I kind of agree now.

SPEAKER_04 37:57

Yeah, I do think that improv skills are helpful. We well, to be honest, we've actually proven that they are. Regardless of whatever you do, be a spy or be a checkout person at McDonald, not that they just do checkout. I think they do revolving things, don't they? They have a little bit sometimes, they're on the fryer.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Well, I do revolver things. I don't know. Anyway, um with my gun, that's a revolver.

SPEAKER_04 38:20

Whatever you do, it's it's yeah, it encourages you know, creative thinking, uh finding solutions, confidence, um, playfulness, playfulness, collaboration.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Thank you. You're welcome. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 38:42

Shit like that.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

Right?

SPEAKER_01 38:44

And it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, and um, I can't remember what I was gonna say. But um, yeah, uh, we'd love to um hear from you. If you'd love to read it uh write a review, um rate us, please, on you know, the different um podcast hosting sites.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

Also, let's do we're gonna do a little agony art thing, which is if you have a question or a problem, um, like not if your marriage is falling apart. I heard you said that, but we're not qualified for that. Nor are we really qualified to talk about improv. But here we are, we've got two microphones. Try and stop us. Um but if you have an improv uh problem, write it in, folks. We will legitimately uh address it and try and find a uh solution for you.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

So you can either email us at lindatellsjames at gmail.com or we've got our Facebook page uh linda tells James. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:49

Um two little smiley faces on it. Well, my smiley face and James's raised eyebrow.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

Oh it's a very good photo.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

You should have a look. Everyone go and have a look at Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

Yeah, you should.

SPEAKER_04 40:00

And then get off Facebook because it's a mind destroyer.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Oh, I thought you were gonna say mind field, and I'm like, oh that's very clever.

SPEAKER_04 40:08

Yeah, oh no, see?

SPEAKER_01 40:11

That's the next James One film. Mindfield. Mindfield Field.

SPEAKER_04 40:17

Anyway. Thank you, everyone. Thanks everyone, and we'll see you again next week. See you next time.