Martin De Maat

[Whines]

I would like to hear stories and descriptions of Martin De Maat.

I read this to start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_de_Maat

[Brandon Gardner]

Wow, yeah seconded.

[Bridgemix]

I really dig those quotes.

[coolmite]

I auditioned for the Second City Conservatory in January of 2000. There were three people in my audition group. Me, who had gotten through iO's classes and had been on a team from a year and two others who clearly had very little experience.

The scene turned into three Tibetan monks raking some sort of garden. One of the others clearly didn't know about teamwork and heightening and was off on his own tangent. I decided to help the other girl, whom according to the scene, was looking for innocent help from my character. Our characters ended up flirting in the most Tibetan monk-ey innocent way. I was to show her how to rake the prayer garden and said:

"Put your hand on my rake."

That was the end of the scene and in the background, I heard the most gentlemanly chuckle:

"Put. Your. Hand. On. My. Rake."

I had made Martin de Maat laugh. I didn't know who he was, but now, I treasure that moment. Needless to say, I got in.

[AndrewMendillo]

A good friend of mine studied with Martin De Maat in Chicago. I used to pick his brain and he talked very highly about this guy.
I used to ask a ton of questions about what it was like back then. I mostly wanted to know about Chris Farley.

I asked my friend once more about De Maat and he said this:

I did take some classes with Martin De Maat, here is what I remember; He was always positive, never wanted you to fail. He always said that everyone in the class or troupe was an important cog to every scene and if one actor did not succeed then the whole sketch or scene would fail. He made you feel like you made the right decision coming to Second City. I remember he was very quiet and private, never hung around after class. He hated Del and Del hated him. He referred to Del as the man who knows to much.

Quiet and private! WHAT!

I trust my friend is telling the truth, but I wonder if anyone can confirm, elaborate... or has another take.

I LOVE the cog saying. I got a nice image from it.

[Rob Webber]

I remember rehearsing our Second City level 5/6 sketch revue with him. Due to snafus with SC Chicago organizing rehearsal space for NYC students, we rehearsed in his apartment on more than one occasion. He had a stage in his living room.

"You do not have the right to use this art form to feel bad about yourself" is a good quote of his.

Martin often equated improvising with "walking in Gowhati" (I may be wrong on the spelling). Basically, you and your scene partner have been dropped in a foreign land where you don't speak the language, etc., but you will be okay because you have each other to rely on.

Martin was a huge proponent of scenes beginning and ending in agreement.

[Hawkins]

I took a workshop with him in Los Angeles, he was the first creative director of Second City Conservatory out here.

He was the opposite of every coach/director I had up until that point.

Here was the sense I got-- to him, the improv was secondary to you feeling good about yourself doing the improv, and then by feeling good about yourself, you'll be in a better mindset to do better work, if that makes sense.

Yeah, the same story Rob says about time travelers, you have this "new experience" you and your partner are sharing and exploring, yet you're not new to each other

[ruby sneakers]

awesome. thanks for sharing, you guys.

[Brian]

Martin was one of the kindest and most nurturing people I've ever known. He created an environment in his classes that gave students the freedom to fail that I believe was incredibly helpful for them to grow as improvisers. I really believe that many of those students would've quit early on if they hadn't had someone like Martin telling them things like, "You don't have the right to make yourself feel inadequate."

I was lucky enough to have Martin as a teacher when I was a student at the Second City Training Center years ago. He taught my Level 2 class and he was the teacher/director for our Level 5 class and helped us develop the show we performed at the end of that final level.

Martin was a terrific teacher, but it was his pure love of the teaching process that stays with me the most. On the last night of our Level 5 show, Martin came backstage with tears in his eyes and said, "There's never enough time." He always seemed to want to give his students one more lesson, one more boost of inspiration, one more revelation of what they could do if they got out of their own way.

I was also lucky enough to study for a while with the brilliant Del Close who could be as intimidating as Martin was unintimidating, so I don't think you necessarily have to be as nurturing as Martin to be a great teacher. However, I think it was very healthy to have Martin around as a counterpart to Del and other teachers like him. Del and Martin may have been polar opposites in every way, but they both made a huge impact on their students, obviously.

I think Mick Napier is the flat-out best improv director and teacher I've ever known, but even Mick says he wouldn't have even become a teacher if it weren't for Martin, who actually gave Mick his first teaching job at Second City. Mick once called Martin "the poster boy for process", and I couldn't agree more.

While I wish that students today had the opportunity to know and study with Martin, I know for a fact that, like Del, his ideas and influence live on in all the performers and teachers that he inspired all those years ago. Today's students are obviously benefitting from those lessons as much as Martin's original students did.

[Gwyn]

I don't have any quotes at the moment...oh, yes I do...but I'm not sure Marty was the first to say this (we all called him Marty, I don't know when this Martin stuff started);
You can walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but don't build a house there.
Marty was my warm blanket at Columbia after being kicked out of the cold and icy Goodman School of Drama. Marty was SO like my first year acting teacher at Goodman, Ric Murphy (who taught us Spolin for a full year), that it was an easy transition for me. I loved Murphy too. Right down to the clearing the throat, and flicking an ash from his cigarette before he quietly dropped some right-to-the-nugget-of-it note on you. But Marty was more neurotic. Or maybe he just let us see his neuroses.
I had him for Improv 2 and 3 at Columbia (that level 2 was an amazing class with an amazing group of people in it), then at SC I had him for level 2 and the second half of 5, thank God. He brought us back together. We'd had Gelman (who was also great but for different reasons) but he left for Detroit midway through. Our level 5 kinda went extra long. There was some sort of transition going on and we got extra time out of it.

What I remember most about Marty were moments. Often they were things he said to me out of class. He lived upstairs from one of the guys in our SC class, and we frequently rehearsed at this guys apt., as well as just hanging out there, so we saw an awful lot of Marty. He once said to a guy in my SC class who I was...well we were pretty flirty but nothing had come of it yet, "why don't you marry her and take care of her for the rest of her life?", which embarrassed me no end, but he could read me like a book. Then later on, he said something else to us that, well, I'll just say that I think he was a little psychic.

Another time, at a party, he read my palm (he read palms) and said, "I hate you, you'll never have to worry about rent."
Another time, in class, he was talking or giving someone notes or something and he caught my eye and just said, "you're such a good listener".
He was the first one to give me credit for silence onstage, which was very empowering to me. So often in this world of ours if you're not "louder, faster, funnier" you're nothing.
And he encouraged the creation of 3 dimentional characters.
Marty was amazing at finding what you were good at and helping you use it.

I remember another time, he was giving us notes after our scene and he said to my scene partner, "you were asking so many questions. Gwyn was answering all of them, but give her a break."

The guys in my SC class (when we had him in 5th level) would make fun of him because of this thing he would do to illustrate how much personal baggage people come onstage with. He would hook his arm around a chair, and his leg around a table...
The boys. They just thought he was too warm and fuzzy, I guess.

He also made a point to tell me about the evaluation session at SC; that he and Sheldon were fighting over taking credit for me (Sheldon had gotten me into the training center. Another fantastic guy.). He felt that everyone had the right to hear the good things people said about them too.
Not that that meant anything in the end, but he was right, that was nice to hear for a change, and it made me very proud. I mean, they were pretty much my mentors, so, Yeah! It was pretty great to hear!

What he taught me in class was everything. But mostly he encouraged taking your time. Exploring every moment, every milisecond. When in doubt, go to your where. There, that's a quote.
With your characters, who is this person? Beyond a funny voice, beyond a tick...what would this person do in any situation? He encouraged you to explore it all.
OH, and it was in his level 2 class at Columbia that I first did time dashes. Later that came in kinda handy at IO.

PS-Mick reminds me of Marty in so many great ways. They work from the same place.
PPS-he did this great exercise...he gave us each a secret before we started our scene. We weren't supposed to talk about it or anything, it was just supposed to be our motivation. We had such phenomenal scenes! It was incredible.
At the end we found out he'd told each of us the same thing: "It's your partners' birthday"

[Holy Toledo]

[Brian]

Thanks for sharing all those memories, Gwyn. I didn't know you had studied at Goodman for a little while. I'm not surprised that you were happier at Columbia, especially with brilliant performers like Scott Adsit and Dino Stamatopoulos around, and great teachers like Martin and Sheldon. Didn't Lili Taylor also get kicked out of Goodman around that same time? She was actually in my very first class with Charna back in the summer of '86. I think she was only 18 or 19 at the time, and I'm fairly certain that Charna said something about her having been at Goodman just before then.

A few other memories of Martin:

He used to fine us a dollar if we were late for our Level 5 class, but then he used all the money to take us out for beers later on.

He once had us get up in class and deliberately do the worst improv we could possibly do. I remember one guy shouting in a scene, "This is a planet where only I can talk!" and another guy responding, "That's not true, asshole! Now stand on your head and speak Latin!" It was a hilarious exercise, and it reminded us all of what good improv choices were even as we made nothing but bad ones.

My wife Miriam (another former student of Martin's) and I went to visit Martin in the hospital in New York shortly before he died, and we brought some flowers. When a nurse brought a vase in and I stuck the flowers in the water without cutting them at the bottom, Martin laughed and said, "Brian, you are hopelessly straight."

[Gwyn]

Brian, I've heard that about Lili Taylor but it must've been after I left. She was not there, at least ahead of me (I guess she could have been behind me, in 2nd year you had pretty much no interaction with the 1st years) when I was there. I was at Columbia by fall of 85.
Scott was in my SC classes with me, and that's how I came to know he was also at Columbia. Dino was in Comedy Cabaret at Columbia with me all (3?) Semesters I did it, yes, along with some other people.
It's kinda crazy when I look back on it. When I think between my HS, both my Colleges, SC and IO how many folks I knew, some of whom have crossed over and now know each other...it's kinda nuts.

I'm not sure I would've said I was happier at Columbia, but now I can look back and see it was the best thing for me. Got me out of my head. Goodman taught me dicipline and Columbia gave me the freedom to learn to use it.

That was a great game! Yes, he was awesome. I wish I'd been able to keep in touch with him even when I wasn't in his classes. I lost touch with him over time. But he impacted me as a performer and a person.
I just remembered...he sort of warned me off SC. He seemed to think it would "ruin" me. Wow. I'd forgotten that.

[Dave B]

These quotes are amazing! I especially love the one about the Hokey Pokey. Thank you for sharing them.

[ProfessorKirk]

Originally Posted by Gwyn

PPS-he did this great exercise...he gave us each a secret before we started our scene. We weren't supposed to talk about it or anything, it was just supposed to be our motivation. We had such phenomenal scenes! It was incredible.
At the end we found out he'd told each of us the same thing: "It's your partners' birthday"

This is beautiful.

[Rob Webber]

I forgot.

One great thing Marty said was that you should always be looking to play. We already know how to play when we're kids, and over the years, that ability is systematically removed from us by Society. Children already know how to improvise. Re-learn how to play.

[Gwyn]

Originally Posted by Rob Webber

I forgot.

One great thing Marty said was that you should always be looking to play. We already know how to play when we're kids, and over the years, that ability is systematically removed from us by Society. Children already know how to improvise. Re-learn how to play.

This is one of the most important things that made him like Ric Murphy, my first Spolin teacher from Goodman.
I think he must have told us that on the very first day.
And that's how Marty thought too, so it's no wonder I glommed right onto him.
It's a Spolin thing.

But I wanted to add, if any of you can take classes from Mick Napier, you should. Personalities aside, it's as close to Marty as you can get.
Do it.

[g.ruderman]

Brian and Peter did a wonderful job of painting a picture of Marty, I'll just add some of my own colors...

Marty was my first improv teacher at Player's Workshop in 87' and it couldn't have been a better introduction to the positive powers of creating... he taught simple lessons ("you can get the biggest laugh in a scene simply by saying 'ahem' - it's all about context") and in one instance, he taught me something that I ended up using as part of my wedding vows 17 years later - "Sometimes things happen because they happen" - a sentiment and a life philosophy that helps one go a long way to allowing you to focus and not waste time rationalizing...

Marty left a legacy of students, but almost more importantly he left a legacy of teachers... he was an inspiration to us at The Annoyance to experiment with the process and he pushed me into teaching there and at SC...there aren't big enough thank yous out there for having someone like him believe in you.

Quick, funny, Marty-on-his-deathbed story... I flew to NY to visit him in the hospital, he had a rotating roster of visitors as well he should have... and a few of us were sitting around trying to make jokes (not good ones) and then a nurse came in and he started trying to cheer Marty up (or so he thought) and was talking about Rodgers & Hart and Rodgers & Hammerstein and Kander & Ebb...blah blah blah... all of a sudden, Marty lifts his oxygen mask off his face with a fragile hand and says; "can we NOT talk about fucking musical theater" and then puts the mask back on and continues heavy breathing... we all cracked up.

Did you know Martin has his own "quotable card?"... It says YOU ARE PURE POTENTIAL - hell, I think it's a magnet too... when I first saw it, I called up the company and bought a box of 50, I think they thought I was nuts... over the years, I often send that card with baby presents to friends.

YOU ARE PURE POTENTIAL is also on a plaque in the Second City Training Center in Chicago and it's the first thing students see when they walk in.

Marty, you are forever missed.

[mullaney]

If anyone would like to add anything to his wiki entry, it would be most welcome. Martin de Maat

[mike short]

Please do; I wrote the entry strictly off of other people's writings and by what I could verify off the internet. I'd love any first hand information to correct anything I got wrong. I never worked with Martin, he passed away just as I was first getting involved in my college troupe; there was no way for our paths to cross. But so many improvisors and teachers I've known and respect and have influenced me have worked with him.