It’s New Exercise Day! I didn’t think it was, but it is!

There’s an exercise that I like to run when I’m coaching that is called I Care. It’s really simple: while two people are up, before they say their actual line in the scene they say as an aside “I care about that because…” in response to their partner. The I-care isn’t actually part of a scene. It’s just making some subtext visible and forcing you to react to the last thing said.

A: I ate the last slice of cake.

B: I care about that because I have had a really rough day and wanted some cake. But I put my name on that cake! I cannot believe you.

A: I care about that because I want B to like me. I’m sorry. Can I bake you a new cake?

A good variant on this is that the I-care should be said under your breath - deliberately whispered only to yourself so that you still vocalize it, but nobody else hears it. That helps with the tendency to platform during the aside.

Today I decided to try another twist. There is a concept in Japanese manufacturing called Five Whys. When you have a problem, you shouldn’t just fix the problem. You should ask “Why did this problem happen?”, until you have drilled down five levels. This door won’t close properly. Why? Because the bolts didn’t hold. Why? Because there wasn’t enough time to put them on tightly. Why? Because the assembly line moved too quickly. Why? Because the production schedule is too tight. Why? Because there are a lot of orders and we’re playing catch-up.

The real problem wasn’t that this door was poorly bolted, it’s that the workers don’t have enough time to do their job properly. The real solution is to hire more staff or slow the line down.

So today, I applied the same principle to I Care, and it produced some amazing results.

A: I ate the last slice of cake.

B: I care about that because I have had a really rough day and wanted some cake.

Coach: Why does that matter?

B: I like to eat sweet things when I’m under stress.

Coach: Why does that matter?

B: If I eat my pain I don’t have to confront it.

Coach: There we go. Say a line.

B: It hurts that you didn’t even think of me. I was saving that cake! I put my name on it!

A: I care about that because I want B to like me.

Coach: Why does that matter?

A: B is a new acquaintance and it feels bad seeing I hurt her.

Coach: Why does that matter?

A: I think she’s a very vulnerable person.

Coach: Why does that matter?

A: It makes my protective instincts kick in.

Coach: Say a line.

A: It sounds like you had a bad day. Tell me about it while I get the flour.

Pretty much the same dialogue, right? But now we have some higher stakes than just plain old you-stole-my-cake/I-replace-your-cake, and we have the groundwork for some games to play. B can start shoving cookies in her mouth every time the conversation gets a little too personal. A can get furious whenever B says something bad about a coworker.

Of course you wouldn’t actually do this whole exercise on stage, but I’m hoping that if we exercise this muscle of finding root causes for our actions, we can make more sincere choices from a wider palette. And today, at least, that’s what happened. The deeper motivations moved us away from the clever space to the heartfelt space. The laughs were sparser, but every single one of them was earned and cathartic. Less Kristen Wiig and more Jet Eveleth.

I’m going to be doing more of this.