This entry, inspired by the musings of a fellow improviser.
If there's one improv game/warmup I despise more than anything it's "Song Spot." Also called "Hot Spot" by people with regional dialects, this group activity starts with one person jumping into the middle of a circle singing a popular song. Usually this song is "All You Need is Love" or something by Meat Loaf or Britney Spears. Others are expected to sing along with you until another person from the circle tags you out and starts singing a new song. Repeat until certifiably insane.
When this game is played, I find ample reason to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or pretend to check my messages. I hate this game. Saying this to a merry band of hot-to-Spot improvisers usually earns you the mark of "not a team player," "bad attitude" or "lame." This warmup often rears its ugly head at mixed-skill improv shows and rarely at Geegster rehearsals. It sucks forty flavors of balls and here's why:
1) It assumes that you are familiar with the last fifty years of American popular song. Those of us who devoted our youth to miraculous independent music discoveries learned about in the back pages of Option and Puncture magazine have NO GAME when it comes to Song Spot. I could barrel into the middle of a circle and start singing "Six Layer Cake" but it is pretty much guaranteed that no one will join me. When no one sings along with you, the energy dies and you are left feeling naked and dorky. No one loves you. You didn't listen to enough shitty Top 40, so fuck you, and you just ruined the whole thing. If the game is supposed to build group mind and support, all it takes is a love of college radio, or jazz, or chamber music (Riatsala would have a nightmare on his hands!) to make you feel completely disconnected from the entire room.
2) It assumes that group mind is cultivated through rote memorization and regurgitation. I think in terms of building group mind that leads to excellent scene work, Song Spot is too lazy an activity to achieve anything. You can Song Spot your twat off in your car, in the shower, with your friends at Karaoke night. I guess it's fun for some people, but in terms of getting warm to do a show, it's like warming up for a race by eating an energy bar.
3) It fucking kills your voice.
4) For those who argue that it forces you to be obvious on stage, I am not entirely convinced that being obvious is the most important ingredient of a good improv performance. Also, Song Spot is not improvising. The only required skill is knowing the words to "I'm a Believer." Bite me.
5) It's a hands-free circle jerk and I'm not interested.
This entry may or may not be used against me in the future to show what a bad sport/stuck-up bitch I am, but I don't care. Forty flavors of balls, people!
Amen.
Posted by: Corey at October 9, 2007 10:32 PMI'm not a huge fan either, but it's interesting that the purpose/way of playing was taught completely differently to me. I was taught that it was totally besides the point whether people joined in or not... that the point was to never leave dead space... if the person in the middle starts floundering, forgets words, or just looks like they don't want to be there, you just jump in to relieve them whether you have anything or not. So the point as I was taught it was to get connected, learn to read your fellow players, and to get used to jumping in and justifying later.
To that end, I've never had any qualms about going in and singing some song no one else knows. Kareem has a rule that he'll only sing songs he's making up on the spot.
I'm not saying you're wrong at all. I still don't like it very much. I just thought it was interesting that the purpose and procedure of the game as you and I know it were totally different.
Posted by: Roy at October 9, 2007 11:28 PMone of the best warm-ups junk ever had was when we started playing song spot but then just ended up singing journey songs.
when played with the right group of people, i have a lot of fun playing song spot bc everyone hams it up.
i get very tired of the same songs that always come up. you would think that there have been more than 40 songs EVER written, but it doesn't appear that we improvisers have heard them.
but i support your right to not play song spot. i have the same reaction to i am a tree. that game can eat my turds.
Posted by: andrea at October 10, 2007 11:42 AMThe justification for it that I learned was similar to Roy's. To the point where some people running it would insist ahead of time that nobody else join in at all. This means anybody in the circle is singing alone and it doesn't matter how obscure the song is. It also means it's all the more uncomfortable when somebody new isn't jumping in. Also some people stipulate not letting the singer get past one line of the song. It was all about the get in there to support whether you had something or not.
Posted by: kristin at October 10, 2007 11:57 PM