T HE S ELF -I NVENTORY S ECTION

The self-inventory section of your notebook is where you are going to record your feelings and behaviors. As I said, solid acting comes from being able to portray authentic feelings and behaviors, and the best way to do this is to take an inventory of your own life.

Let me clarify this point. In the acting world, there are two schools of thought about where to find motivation when playing a role. One school believes you need to go outside yourself and use your imagination. The second school believes you need to look inside yourself and use your own feelings and experiences.

Personally, I believe the most powerful inspiration derives from your own life experiences. It’s important to observe other people and imitate how they behave and move, but the most authentic acting you can achieve is, in my view, based on what is inside you.

Being able to bring your feelings and behaviors to a role is what differentiates you from being “just” an improv actor versus a professional comedy actor. If you plan on a career in television or film and you aim to audition for parts in scripted sitcoms or movies, you must be able to work with someone else’s words while also portraying them as your own. I think the best method for doing this comes from being able to go within yourself to know what makes you similar to your character.

So how can you get to know yourself? You can achieve this by working hard to take stock of your own feelings and behaviors so that you can ground your work and become aware of how you feel and behave in whatever situation you may encounter. Then you can extend those feelings and behaviors to the role you are playing.

I often explain this concept to my students by saying, “You can’t mine for the comedy gold until you find out what’s in the mine,” meaning it’s your job to go within and discover

all the gems and jewels inside you so that you can become a comedy millionaire.

In the self-inventory section of your comedy notebook your goal is to recall as many events in your life as you can in order to recapture all the feelings and emotions inside you and associate them with the specific actions you did when you experienced them. To help you organize your feelings, you are going to create what I call Self-Inventory Worksheets.

Making Self-Inventory Worksheets:

1. Look at the list of feelings below:

Aggressive Hurt

Anxious Hysterical

Ambivalent Innocent

Bashful Interested

Bewildered Jealous

Bored Joyous

Cautious Lonely

Cold Lovestruck

Confident Mischievous

Confused Miserable

Crazy Negative

Curious Optimistic

Determined Outgoing Disappointed Pained Disapproving Paranoid Disgusted Peaceful

Excited Proud

Ecstatic Puzzled

Enraged Relieved

Envious Sad

Exhausted Shocked

Fed up Shy

Frightened Sorry

Frustrated Stubborn

Guilty Thoughtful

Happy Undecided

Hot Withdrawn

2. Write each feeling at the top of a page in your comedy notebook.

3. For each feeling, answer the question: When have I been [name of feeling]? When answering, think of an incident in your life, whether recent or past, and write what you did during the event. What actions did you take? What did you do? Be as precise as possible. Write down as many details as you can remember, and the feeling will become stronger.

Here’s an example from my life. My family moved to England when I was fifteen years old. I was sent to a “proper” English grammar school (equivalent to an American high school), where I felt very shy. I had to wear a blazer and tie to school every day.

My classmates seemed to be about two years ahead of me academically. I truly felt like a duck out of water. I became shy and withdrawn, and I actually had to drop out of school after just a few months. I worked in a department store during the day and as a bartender at night. (The legal drinking age in England is sixteen, so a sixteen-year old bartender is not uncommon.) I eventually convinced my parents to let me return to Philadelphia, where I completed my high school education while living with a relative.

What’s important in my recollection is that I can still feel that sense of shyness to this day. I can see it vividly in my mind, and I can describe the movements and body behavior I assumed whenever I felt shy around my English classmates. I can still manifest the feeling completely in my body, which I can then use to portray a shy character.

4. Don’t try to sit down and fill out the fifty-five self-inventory worksheets all at once.

Take your time and do one or two of them per day.

5. Review your worksheets periodically so that you can continually reconnect yourself to your feelings and emotions. I assure you, this is the kind of work that can significantly expand your comedy imagination. The more feelings and incidents you recall and write about, the more you will connect with aspects of your personality that often lie unconscious for decades. You will come alive, and your deeper connection to your feelings will fuel both improvisational and comedy scene work.

T^HE OBSERVATIONS S^ECTION

While I believe that the most powerful motivation for acting comes from inside, there is no doubt that observing the outside world is a very important aspect of nurturing your comedy.

You need to use your senses and observations to bring nuances and creativity to your work.

Many people seem completely oblivious to the world around them. For example, I go to a gym in Hollywood to work out and am amazed by how many up-and-coming actors are on

the Stair Masters listening to their iPods. Very few talk or have friendly conversations with strangers, and as soon as they leave the gym, they immediately get on their cell phones. I find this limiting, as these young actors are missing golden opportunities to learn from people around them and to develop their observational skills.

The golden rule to remember is: You can’t be a well-rounded actor if you don’t participate in life. Spending all day escaping from the world does not feed your creative work. You must begin observing and connecting with other people in order to bring behaviors into your work. You need to move out of your comfort zone and begin to see how other people live.

Using your portable notebook or recording device, your goal is to note as many daily observations of different people and things you see as possible. Use your notebook as a journal to recall anything that might have potential to become a factor in your comedy.

Whenever you go out in public, really look at the people around you. Notice if anything strikes you as funny or interesting about the way they walk, talk, or move, etc. Write as many details as you can in your notebook, such as where you were, who it was, and what was funny. These details will help you recall the incident with greater clarity when you review your notes later.

When you’re observing, I suggest that you immediately imitate whatever it is that intrigues you about a person. If you see someone walking funny, go somewhere private and act out what you just saw so that you can transfer the movement into your own muscles.

Physically moving your own body grounds the movement in your memory, and this sense memory will help you recall the event when you return home.

As I mentioned, don’t embarrass anyone by writing down notes in way that makes them think you are spying on them. Again, there is that fine line between being observant and being nosey. Walk that fine line discreetly.

When you return home, transfer your notes from your portable notebook or recording device to your main comedy notebook in the observations section. Expand your entries as much as you can so that you can review them at a later date with clarity.

For example, here’s a scene I witnessed a few years ago that I wrote in my notebook because I was working on a sketch comedy character. I love this scene, and rereading my notes always brings a smile to my face.

I’m reading poolside on a vacation in Acapulco, Mexico, and a woman comes out from the lobby clearly making a

“grand” entrance. Her very black hair is teased up almost to the 2nd floor of the hotel with a wing on the side that could have easily have had its own zip code. She was wearing backless heels and a black swimsuit cover-up, with bracelets up and down her arm that jangled loud enough that I am sure she woke up anyone having a siesta. Just in case anyone at the pool didn’t hear her entrance, she yelled, “Harry, I’m hungry. Get me a hamburger.” Her voice was a cross between Fran Drescher and Mike Meyers’s “Coffee Talk” character.

I had struck comedy gold, and I was bringing it home!