Original subtitles

A B C A always B C closing. Always be

closing.

I don't understand what anything means.

You want to learn the first rule you'd

know if you ever spent a day in your

life.

What do you want me to do?

Teach me. I want you to teach me.

What do you mean? Can I talk to him

about this?

Yeah.

Are you just talking about this or were

we just talking about it?

Yeah, we're just speaking about it.

Speaking about an idea.

What I hope I'm doing, and here's where

your English papers got a point, is I'm

responding to the will of the people.

You laughing now.

No, there are people out there. People

who came here to know something they

didn't know. Who came here to be helped.

I've been in this business 15 years.

What's your name?

[ __ ] you. That's my name. I think you're

angry.

Oh, have I got your attention now?

Good.

They say when the student is prepared

that the teacher appears. So, the same

is true of most of the lessons you're

going to learn uh in any I don't know if

any art, but certainly in any craft.

When you're ready to learn it, you will.

if you want to and if you need to and if

and and and if you don't want to and you

don't need to, you ain't ready yet or

maybe maybe you don't want to. I always

say, you know, the arts is my experience

is like running away to the circus. You

know, if you got something to fall back

on, the circus don't need you. The

circus don't want you. You got to run

away say, "Okay,

I'll leave, but you're going to have to

kill me."

And what that's one of the great things

I found in our in this wonderful bis

show business and also in the movies is

is the kid who shows up and says what

can I do and you say nothing get out of

here right the kid keeps coming back a

week later you say for Christ sake

you're going to get me a cup of coffee

and get out of here right by the end of

the third week you're saying where's

that kid right and at the end of the

movie you're saying kid what do you want

to do next it's it's magnificent but I

always thought that being a writer is a

lot like being a beaver

that beavers

their teeth itch, right? And so that's

why they cut down trees,

right?

Because that's the only thing that stops

their their teeth from driving them

crazy. And so I think that I'm kind of

like, it's not the teeth, it's my

consciousness. But it's the same thing.

How can I get it to shut up for a while?

Give it a different give it a problem

that it likes, right? And so once in a

while the problem that likes is

unpleasant.

But what else am I going to do? Well,

I'm not going to play golf.

I think I'm going to talk about kind of

a unified field theory of aesthetics.

And if anyone's still listening after

that, um, you're probably even more

caffeinated than I am. Um, so I've

always been fascinated by the idea that

there's exists a unified field theory of

where we can regularize the way we

perceive with the way that we write and

write because we understand the way the

human beings perceive

and to apply and this theory I try to

apply to

the uh the performing arts. How do human

beings perceive A plus B therefore C? we

perceive in terms of cause and and

effect. That's our survival mechanism.

Therefore, any performing art has to

take into account the way we perceive

cause and effect. The best way that this

describe the how this operates in drama

is a plot. A plot is an exercise in

cause and effect. So, that's what I'm

going to be talking about. That's the

way a plot works. That's the way a scene

works. That's the way a movie script

works. That's the way I talk to actors

in terms of what does the character

want? Why does he want it? What happens

if he doesn't get it? Why now? Those are

the questions I ask of everything.

Over the years, I taught in a lot of

different venues. I founded a couple of

acting schools with my friend William H.

Macy. One of them is is still operating

in New York. It's part of the Atlantic

Theater Company. I taught at all these

hot shot universities uh as an

instructor, guest lecture, blah blah

blah. I taught private classes. And

there was one group that was the only

group I met that was significantly more

intelligent in the universities was the

kids at MIT because they were they

knew how to be analytical

and they were it was kind of like a po

what they used to call like po uh poetry

for physicists. So I was talking to them

about my theories and they were used to

being analytical saying okay let me test

that out. Let me see if it jives with my

experience. Let me see if I can practice

it. If so, it's probably true. So, the

guys at MIT, the guys and the girls at

MIT didn't have any didn't have any

preconceptions about drama. They were

simply physicists. So, it was easy for

them to say, "I get it. This guy's

propounding a theory. Let me see if it

makes sense." And so, I hope that's what

you guys and girls would do, too. Say,

"Okay, he's propounding various

theories. Let me see if I follow them.

Let me see if they jive with my

experience. And if I practice them, let

me see if they work. They say if you

want to really learn something, teach

it. So I I love teaching. I'm a

Sagittarius. All Sagittariuses are

teachers. I was born on November 30th,

same day as Winston Churchill and Mark

Twain, who are two of my idols. And one

day before Woody Ellen, who's who's the

third, and that's why I'm glad to be

here.

teaching a class this way was really

interesting for me. I don't know if you

walk away with anything other than

thinking, oh, you know, he's moderately

charming. You know, that might inspire

me uh to look at his works or it might

inspire me, you know, if that buffoon is

going to waste my time for 6 hours. Let

me see if I can do better. So I I would

hope that you guys would would be

encouraged to say if this class clown

can do so well, you know, and get

through life on just a shoe shine and

smile for 50 years, hell, I'll try it,

too.

I'm David Mamemoth and this is my master

class.