Comedians dissect jokes all the time. Comedians are beautiful structuralists. But ultimately it's an athletic endeavor. You have to be able to just hit the backhand. You can't think about all the pieces of it. You can't think about your swing. You just have to do it. Reading someone else's deconstruction of what I do, all it does is put me in my head. On nights when the show goes particularly well, I am not aware of its fluidity. A lot of nights I'm just worried that I'm not going to be as good as the script in front of me.
I never work from the script. I get the script more or less.
Any good director creates a playground. That's what they do. They hire the right actor, open the door and let them play because stuff will happen, right then and there. The audience wants to believe that what's going on is happening for the first time, ever. That's what acting is. That's what good scene writing is.
It was a song I wrote for my wife as a present, never intending for it to be a Styx song. 'Babe' was a demo. The demo became the hit record, including all the background vocals, which were done by me.
It's great when improv is encouraged. It's a really fun thing. It depends on who's in the movie and how their process works as well. It takes a director who is open to that because you have a script, but then something funny could happen on set.
I've always been a spontaneous singer. And all the stuff that you hear on the end of the songs, what they call the ad libs - that just comes out of my head. That's not thought out at all. I have the verses and the choruses, and then after that it's total improvisation.
A lot of improvisation and freedom went into 'Pinata.'
When I direct - everything I've directed has had improv in it, because I think there's something special in a performance the first time it's said out loud that's hard to recreate.
Melody is pure intuition. I don't use any thinking brain when I do that. That's totally in the zone.
Whenever I come to Ireland, I end up just bantering with the crowd so the show will just be what it is.
When I play guitar, it's automatic. I don't try to do something; I just do it. And it's already so ingrained in what I do, I don't think about it. I don't try to do something - I just do it. And the more I do it that way, the more I surprise myself. And if I surprise myself, that's the best thing.
The interesting thing about improvisation is you're making something up in front of the audience. Now music helps you out a little bit because you have an instrument that'll separate you from the audience.
Every time I do a talk show or something, I'll be like, 'I'm doing 'Chandelier,' right?' and they're like, 'No, you're doing a skit and three dances.' It's different every time. I never really know what I'm doing until the day before.
I would play all the parts of the song, show them the way it went together. Then I'd basically break down an arrangement - I wouldn't plan endings or beginnings - so they knew everything that was going on. I had the lyrics on a prompter so that I could remember everything I'd written, and I was able to just get into the groove and play with them. I think "Peace Trail" is one of the exceptions, where it's a later take. It just happened really quickly.
I'm always trying out new stuff onstage. That's where I do all my writing.
When I'm performing music, it's like I'm doing a big improv.
One day I had an instinct to put on a kaftan and go out and sing. People liked it out of the blue. An artist should be instinctive.
When I do a take, I very often try things that I haven't planned to try to see if I can pull it off.
I don't know what the hell I'm doing up there half the time. These performers that go on about their technique and craft - oh, puleeze! How boring! I don't know what technique means. But I do know what experience is. I know in my gut when I've done a scene right.
There's something about live players that you cannot get with machines: With live musicians, you can strike a groove, you can feed off each other... And, even though somebody might make a slight mistake, it's all real!
I'd sing with Roberta Flack in a taxi if you called up and said she'd be in it.
One of my favorite things is when people will ask for a song that I hadn't planned to play. It is really fun to see if you can remember something, and you don't always. I mean, sometimes it's just crash and burn.
I never sing a song the same way twice.
I don't like planning what am I gonna say to the crowd. Sometimes the show takes a whole different twist.
It's hard not to be the straight man when Zach Galifianakis is there. He's such a delightfully bizarre creature. Everything he does is so surprising. He's such a live wire. It's just so exciting to watch.
