BACHELOR: To wed, or not to wed;–that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in a man to suffer
The slings and sorrows of that blind young archer;
Or fly to arms against a host of troubles,

And at the altar end them. To woo–to wed–
No more; and by this step to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand hopes and fears
The single suffer–’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To woo–to wed;–
To wed–perchance repent!–ay, there’s the rub;
For in that wedded state, what woes may come
When we have launched upon that untried sea
Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes celibacy of so long life;
For who would bear the quips and jeers of friends,
The husband’s pity, and the coquette’s scorn,
The vacant hearth, the solitary cell,
The unshared sorrow, and the void within,
When he himself might his redemption gain

With a fair damsel. Who would beauty shun
To toil and plod over a barren heath;
But that the dread of something yet beyond–

The undiscovered country, from whose bourne
No bachelor returns–puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of!
Thus forethought does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And numberless flirtations, long pursued,

With this regard, their currents turn awry
And lose the name of marriage.

The book is a follow-up to the book Truth In Comedy, in which the author explains in detail the Harold method used at the i.O. (formerly Improv Olympic) in Chicago and the i.O. West in Los Angeles where actors such as Tina Fey, Chris Farley, Mike Meyers…etc have all studied. And in all honesty, she refers quite a bit to such method throughout the first half of the book without really explaining it which can be very annoying if you haven’t read it.

Basically the Harold method is a technique to have all actors from a group onstage at the same time in an organized manner to showcase all the personalities and still get the point of your statement across. For that you use “the rules” and several tricks. My personal favorite is the tag-out in which you manage to “flash” a character in a scene in space and time and introduce new character at the same time.

She does give some really good and sound advice in chapters 5 through 7 for both starting improv actors as well as experienced pros. The main idea is always to overcome the barriers you put on yourself. Look at the experts and learn from them. And she explains in detail a lot of scenes that are used to exemplify the techniques.

The book also comes with a DVD of improv scenes performed at the i.O. which is hilarious and very helpful to see what she means.

Is it worth reading? If you are interested  or like in improv, then DEFINITELY. Although I would have to say, you need to buy the first book to understand this one first. I would also say that going over the DVD and seeing some of the pros in action is a great added bonus to the book and an easy fun way to learn some new skills.

Cast: Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Thelma Ritter
Dir: John Rich
Synopsis: American playboy Bernard Lawrence has cleverly designed a system using the airline timetables to keep going three affairs with flight stewardesses. However, his life soon starts to descend into a shambles after the arrival of a friend, Robert Reed, and a dreaded change to the flight order, whereby it becomes increasingly difficult to keep his three fiancées apart

I am a true fan of both Tony Curtis (Houdini anyone?) and Jerry Lewis (The best comedian ever!). So to have them together in this great comedy of tangles and relationships that twist and turn and get mingled was wonderful.

It’s a movie I believe to be timeless, countless times imitated but never even remotely approached. So many try to make comedies like these now a days but just cant. It might be the acting (I mean, few have been able to successfully follow the exaggerated comedy of Jerry Lewis, just Jim Carey, Jack Nicholson…) but maybe it has more to do with the writing. The wit and humor is simple and complex at the same time.

Definitely a must see for all of you who want to learn comedy from the pros and hopefully one day even surpass them! This is a wonderful place to start.