'The Pleasure of The Wanker'

Today we had to come out on stage without a mask on, and speak to the audience like an intellectual wanker. This was preparation for playing 'Doctore': "a top-level intellectual wanker".

"A wanker enjoys talking but doesn't make any sense."

"Bavard [a chatterbox] loves to speak. Wankers love ideas...shitty theories."

It's a fine line. "Too much artist." "Too much teacher." "We don't see the pleasure of the wanker." I found this british intellectual, blabbering on about Greek Tragedy. Philippe got me to do a little laugh - with just two short 'Ha's'. "Selected." I'm getting better at having a 'fun spirit'. I'm starting to feel freer on stage. When I'm less scared and more "oh well let's give something a go" then I tend to perform better.

~

Later, those who were selected did the same wanker speech but with the Doctore mask on, and then at the beat of Philippe's drum changed the topic of the text from whatever it was to about something medical. And voila! You get a doctor that talks like he knows a lot but doesn't know shit.

"You can't play with the mask as you did without the mask."

You have to change rhythm, scale, shape, volume, to keep us interested. If these are changing then the language the actor is speaking doesn't matter.

"You have to listen to the audience to see if we like you in this fixed point...looking for the life of the mask."

"We don't see you looking for the mask. We see you looking for your character but not for the mask."

"Like a puppeteer who plays with a puppet, you have to play with the mask."

Philippe got me to do the splits (an attempt at least) every time he beat his drum, whilst also speaking text and dancing to music.

"You can do lots of silly things with this mask. It's very physical."

"It's good to see a good movement of your lips."

"You need a good rhythm."

~

I wasn't any good the second time with the mask. Fell in to wanting too much again...wanting to be really good. And the result is I push, I get heavy, I lose all sensitivity and fun.

"You are too sure...you didn't try two or three sounds to see if we love you with this voice."

"If you want to show your humanity you have to play less."

"When I tell you you are bad we see the beautiful humanity of the actor. Because nobody wants to be bad. We want to be good. But this is a big mistake. It's fantastic to be bad."

"You have to remember the beautiful time when we were bad...those who don't are arseholes."

"Ah! It's delicate...but everything is delicate!"

"A flop gives something beautiful."

"If you think you are good without thinking a flop could be coming you will be bad."

"Remember to be bad is fantastic. Otherwise you are academic."

~

Highlight of the Day: Tom as Steven Hawking for the intellectual wanker exercise. Wheeled in on a wheelchair and then telling us about wormholes via his fingers. The pleasure of playing a paraplegic?

"Is it bad taste? Yes. Do we like it? Yes."