YODA: Ahhh! A great warrior. (laughs and shakes his head) Wars not make one great.

A simple one, this one. Avoid arguments in your scenework. You can be the world’s greatest insult comic, but it won’t help your scene.

YODA: (irritated) I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience.

This was Luke’s biggest problem and he shared it with many beginning improvisers. Patience is a trait that many improvisers have trouble with since there’s sometimes so much pressure to be funny NOW.
Take time to formulate your emotional response to an initiation. Take the time to discover what your scene partner REALLY means when s/he says or does something. Our real-life conversations aren’t rapid-fire West Wing exchanges, they’re emotional responses to what is being said and done.

YODA: Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. (to the invisible Ben, indicating Luke) This one a long time have I watched. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. (turning to Luke) You are reckless!

Commit to your scene. Actually be in the moment and space of the given scene.
Any “tell” to the audience, or an out-and-out joke, ruins the drama and comedy of a scene. Take the scene, the show, serious and the comedy will arise from that instead of working overtime to make something funny happen.
Be there for your scene partner. Make eye-contact to keep yourself in the scene. If you begin to lose focus, remember to take the time to come back to the scene. What is the basic relationship between me and my scene partner.
For all it’s special effects and three movies, Star Wars is really about a boy and his unresolved father issues.
Adventure and excitement is fun, but not at the expense of the scene.

YODA: Run! Yes. A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger...fear...aggression. The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.

Anger, fear and aggression are the Dark Side of improv. These emotions tend to obfuscate the actual intention of a scene- the interpersonal relationship between two people. They will blind you to what your scene partner is offering by either limiting your choices of response or actually making it hard to listen.

LUKE: Vader. Is the dark side stronger?
YODA: No...no...no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.
LUKE: But how am I to know the good side from the bad?
YODA: You will know. When you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.

Again, you can “score” points with an audience by yelling and hurling funny insults at your scene partner, but that’s no good for an actual scene.
Using your emotions to guide you to interesting choices lets you become a more complex, intriguing character onstage.
You will know the good and the bad, when you are thinking of such concepts.
The moment you’re not responding to something there already, you’re thinking too much.

YODA: No, no, there is no why. Nothing more will I teach you today. Clear your mind of questions.

There is no why. Stop thinking about “why” and just be in the scene.
Also, don’t do teaching scenes. Stop asking so many questions and just be there with your scene partner!

LUKE: What's in there?
YODA: Only what you take with you. Your weapons...you will not need them.

You don’t need props or a crazy environment in order to have a good scene.
You need only what you take with you- your mind, your body and how you decide to use them.

YODA: No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.

We learn by observing and we have observed a great deal of television. The sit-com set-up of misunderstandings, resolution, and forced conflicts are detrimental to long-form improvisation. Resolve a problem. Solve a conflict.
Let the scene instead be about the two people in the conflict and their emotions toward each other.

YODA: No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.

A great deal of improv runs on faith. The audience believes everything that you believe. If you’re a scientist, they will believe you as long as you portray a scientist confidently. Don’t try to be a scientist. Be a scientist. Don’t try to be a cop. Be a cop. Be confident enough to do.

YODA: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm? Mmmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is.

It doesn’t matter what our hair looks like, how tall we are (or aren’t) or anything else physical. It all depends on our imagination and how we use it. If you want to be black cowboy with five hands, them you can portray it.

YODA: Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.

You should never know where a scene is going. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You shouldn’t know- that’s the joy of it. The future, the outcome, of your show is always in motion.