Improv Bestiary: The Empty Baker

The Empty Baker is an initiation pattern that I do all the goddamn time.

Player A's Brain

Uh-oh! Time to initiate a scene!

I don't have any ideas but I need to just go right?

Well fuck, I'm going then.

(Moves waaaaay downstage, to the edge, probably out of light, and begins: Making a cake, mixing bowl in hand / working on a flat tire with a jack / stirring and pouring a drink / typing furiously on a computer, occasionally wiggling a mouse )

Surely this elaborate object work will inform my "deal"!

Player A's Mouth

...

(7 seconds pass, which is forever when mixing batter, then Player B pops out from back line)

Player B

Uh, Is that cake done/ tired changed/ drink ready /report finished?

The Empty Baker makes a strong initial move, and picks and commits to an activity. That's great! 

What The Baker also does is put themselves in a position where all they can do / see / focus on is their activity.  Running and sticking at the edge of the stage, or flying to a corner, and immediately being heads down in an activity tells your team one thing: what your back looks like when you change a tire. 

I don't know why other people do it but I can say why I do The Empty Baker. It was comforting. 

When I had no idea in my head I knew I could just pick an activity and do it really really hard. Then hopefully something would come from that. That uncertainty, or  lack of trust in myself, is also why I always went really far downstage. All I had was a motion, so fuck it, I'm going to shove it in the audience's face. Shutting out my teammates from getting a good handle on what the hell I was really doing and why.

That "why" is what really counts. Without some idea of why someone is invested in doing something, or how the activity is affecting them you're practically begging your teammates to just ask about the activity. And that can lead to a scene about getting something done, which is boring. 

Without seeing or presenting your activity with some other kind of dimension (some emotion, quirk, degree of enthusiasm), it's a shallow offer. And these extra dimensions are all  most efficiently communicated through the faceparts. 

So to improve on The Empty Baker tendencies:

Be courteous with your blocking! Make sure the audience and your team can understand the what  and why of your activity.

Remember that the action is not your only deal, you're doing something for a reason and you're feeling something while you do it. Know it and show it. Make that emotional choice and demonstrate it! Decide what you want and channel it through your activity.  Broadcast assertively! Grumble at the tire! Laugh at the drinks! Cry in that cake!

The only reason we're seeing you do that activity is because it is informative of your character. We have no interest in seeing an invisible oil change.

h/t to the wonderful  Emily Askin who got me thinking about this one