Tips and advice on doing an Armando Diaz anyone???

[FrankandBeans]

Hi, everybody. New to the forum. *wave*

A performing group I'm in (Impromedy, here in Miami) will be doing an Armando Diaz-style show Friday night. There's a lot of relative-newcomers to improv, like myself, in the group.

Anybody got any advice on doing a proper Armando Diaz? Tips, advice, things that have worked for you, personal approaches, and directions to online resources would be greatly appreciated!

In my little online meanderings so far I've at least come across some information on the eponymous Mr. Diaz himself, here: http://magnettheater.com/staff.html

and a great interview with him about him here: http://www.improvinterviews.com/2006...iaz-22706.html

Thanks

[mike short]

Other than the rules of good longform (find your game, make strong relationships, don't forget about your second beats/group games/third beat connections, ect) there's a few note specific to the Armando.

In general, you shouldn't seek to recreate or act out any part of the story or monolog that opens the show. Instead, find small pieces of information that strike you as interesting and use that as a place to start your scene.

Any little thing that strikes your interest can be used. It can be as simple as a location that was mentioned, a relationship, a situation, or an odd turn of phrase.

If at some point you feel the need to inject some extra life into your set, feel free to step forward and deliver another monolog. There's no hard rule, but 3 or 4 scenes should elapse before bringing out a new monolog, just to keep the pace even and non-frenetic. Keep in mind though, if you're approaching the end of your set (like, you only have two minutes left) then that's probably not the time to do a new monolog.

Check out Art by Committee: http://preview.tinyurl.com/dac5bx
and the ASSSSCAT DVD: http://preview.tinyurl.com/d2vq74 to see video of an Armando being performed.

[Tommy Todd]

I love it, I get it...

BUT...has anyone (here) ever created a linear story out of non-linear monologues?

It seems like most of the scenes I've seen based on monologist input have been non-sequiters.

Do you do it differently? How? Why?

[lefty]

The form isn't really about telling a linear story but then you guys might end up with a great way to do just that.

When I do a monolog, I try to remember a couple of things teachers told me to do: 1) feel free to let the stream of conciousness jump from idea to idea; 2) express my opinion and my feelings about what I'm talking about; 3) show a philosophy that was either drving me or the situation; 4) don't tell jokes or give crazy examples of what would be as the facts and the mind/emotions behind them are the best source material.

When listening to it, I was told to have an opinion and react to what is being said. This will help you remember it, and help you find characters and their "deal" or their "game" or their philosophy faster. Rather than replay the idea you heard spoken, swap out the "noun" for other ones-- using the idea of "if this is true, then what else is true", creating similar situations/reactions. That is actually easy and will be a natural extension of your reaction to the monolog. The most interesting thing I heard about this and similar forms is to answer back the monologist. The monologist presents a world where something is either right or wrong and the monologist's view is central to that. Attack or defend some idea in the monolog.

To tie unrelated monologs together, keeping to a linear story might make the whole pattern playing and heightening take a back seat to plot-- which rarely works. But maybe it could be done by playing the same character throughout the whole piece even through multiple monologs. I've never seen that but it might be fun.

[iammattfried]

When I caught The Armando at iO, the monologuist was designated "Armando" for the night, meaning that his/her only job was to just give monologues and watch the set. Towards the end of the set, he/she could jump in if they wanted to, but the primary responsible was to give a monologue every three beats or so. Also, he/she would introduce the show and say "Hi, welcome to The Armando Diaz Experience. Tonight, I am Armando Diaz."

The first monologue was inspired by a question from the audience about the speaker, and all the subsequent monologues were inspired by what the monologuist was watching in the set and what that made him/her think of. In terms of interweaving non-linear stories, it just naturally happened. The assumption was that wherever the set started, it would find its way back to that point.

There's no real definitive way to do The Armando (outside of giving the monologues), but this is a version I really liked and thought was the coolest. Hope it helps!

[Hawkins]

The way I was taught was to deconstruct the monologue, concentrating on what the Armando is saying, but also try and figure out what he's not saying.

The Armando then can come in and give reactions to the commentary established by the scenes or go to another monologue once he feels it's been exhausted

[mullaney]

As was said before, pick out details from the monologue to start a scene. One note I like to give when working on monologue deconstructions is to make sure to pick just one detail to start your scene. Generally avoid taking two different interesting things and combining them.

Often when listening to a monologue there will be a few things that many of the performers will notice, maybe 3 or 4 particularly salient details that when you hear, you want to do a scene about. The worst case would be for someone to start a scene and attempt to combine all four ideas into one scene.

There are a couple reasons for this. One is that keeping the ideas separate is better for clarity's sake. But also, when a particular idea is used in one initiation, others may feel inhibited from using that idea to start other scenes. Maybe they shouldn't, but they probably will.

So... one idea per initiation.

[AlanStarzinski]

Take him out to dinner, just treat him nice, and tell him he's pretty.

[DanAbrams]

It posted twice, so I used the second one, which I added a bit too. Ignore this post.

[DanAbrams]

Originally Posted by AlanStarzinski

Take him out to dinner, just treat him nice, and tell him he's pretty.

Be named Jen and be awesome.


Seriously, the most important thing to doing an Armando Diaz is to not get caught up in the story. The audience is there for the improv, not the storytelling.

Therefore, keep the stories short, 30 seconds, a minute at most. Be specific. You'll get more information from place names, street names, schools names, brand names, people's names, etc. How old were you? Etc. Specifics in the storytelling is crucial.

For instance

bad story: My friend and I went to the movies and there was this girl there and I liked her, but I sat in my seat and didn't talk to her.

good story: My best friend Alex Ibrahim, who I met the first day of first grade when we fought over the attention of Hidenori, the coolest kid in school, went with me to the AMC Empire 25 movie theater on 42nd street to see the rerelease of Star Wars, Episode One, because we were both big Star Wars Fans. Bryn Murray, who I had my first crush on from fourth through seventh grade (we were in seventh grade at the time), was there. Everytime I saw her, I got butterflies in my stomach and said something I thought was smart and then ran away. I'm pretty sure she had a crush on me, too. She always called me for the homework even though I never did it. Anyway, we said hi to her and sat with her. I really wanted to hold her hand, but in truth I was afraid to talk to her and in the end, I couldn't pay attention to the movie, although Alex laughed his butt off. We left without talking to her, and to this day, she still doesn't know that she was my first love.

See how many more scenes can be pulled out of the second one. Be specifically descriptive, as much as you can, and use concrete imagery, rather than lines like "best day ever."


And as an amusing Anecdote, I was telling my friend Brennan, who's dabbled in improv outside of NYC, how happy I was that Armando Diaz came out to the Creek last weekend and got to see us. Brennan stared at me and said, "Wait. Armando Diaz is a real person?"

[DanAbrams]

Oh yeah, pay attention to the tone of what's being said. The what is far less important than the how. And listening with your eyes is as important as listening with your ears. Look at body stance, how does this person feel?

And that's a tip giving to me straight by Armando himself.

[HairballofDoom]

This is off topic a bit, but I have to say I do love those rare times when Armando is the Armando. This might also be because I love casual stories about prostitutes.

I remember back in my initial level one at the Magnet with Armando, he had us sit in a circle and tell personal stories based on a suggestion (basically setting us up to do an opening for a monologue deconstruction, but also great for getting into the mindset to do an Armando). The key for me was to just tell the story as relaxed as you could bringing in small details, try not to rush through the story and be funny and also don't let the story digress or become too long winded. Pretty much like what Dan said above.

As for grabbing ideas Armando, if I remember correctly (it was a while back when I was younger and less sucky), asked us to grab onto two or three things from the story that interested us. I would always take something that I identified with the story personally, an aspect of the story that I would like to see fleshed out, and a character trait described in the story.

So from Dan's mini-story I'd have:
The emotional state I was in when I went to a movie with my best friend Amber after getting dumped by my first long term girlfriend and making out with Amber just as the movie ended when we saw that my ex was sitting a few rows in front of us with her new boyfriend (one of my oldest, but not closest friends).

The idea of seeing my scene partner as Bryn Murry and placing us at a moment where I can finally get the chance to tell her how I feel.

And initiating a character who is oblivious to his best friend's love problems.

But anywho, how'd the show go?