海角大神

In improv, a good rule of thumb is to play each of your characters to the top of their intelligence.

Improvisers are called on to play a variety of roles, and most of the time the characters they take on have occupations the performer has no experience in. I play doctors all the time on stage, yet I鈥檝e never been to medical school.

At some point I was taught by my wise improv elders to 鈥減lay the character smart.鈥� I was instantly apprehensive about this idea. Could I pull off a smart doctor character?

I tried it anyway.

What I found is that as I said things like, 鈥淣urse, hand me the spine removal kit鈥� in my most confident voice I was getting more and more laughs.

This opened up a lot of characters to me. Now that I could talk about any subject I wanted as an authority, even though I didn鈥檛 know what I was actually talking about, I could play a whole new array of characters. I could be a geneticist, a beekeeper, or even a Fox News anchor.

I take this same mentality into my world as a parent. Let鈥檚 face it, I don鈥檛 have the foggiest idea what I鈥檓 really doing. Do any of us?

I鈥檓 just making this all up as I go. But rather than act as if I don鈥檛 know what to do, I put on my best doctor character and play the smartest dad I can.

鈥淗e鈥檚 going to need a pacifier stat. It has to be taken orally.鈥�

It鈥檚 quite effective, really.

鈥淥h, he鈥檚 crying, eh? You鈥檙e going to want to bob him. Never shake the baby. But give him a light bobbing.鈥�
Immediately I save the day. Or at least feel somewhat useful and intelligent in a role that seems made to show you all the things you don鈥檛 know.

Playing your dad character at the top of his intelligence will benefit you in a lot of ways. For instance, when you and all the other dads are sitting in the viewing room during swim class you can spout off information about how babies can naturally float because they are descended from dolphins.

You can do a similar thing when you go to music class. You can tell everyone your child has natural rhythm because his great-great-grandfather on his mother鈥檚 side was a drum.

The key to effective fatherhood is playing it intelligent. You grew up in a world of rules that you had to follow. Now that you are the dad, you get to make the rules. Just make sure you run them by Mom first.

As you can see, I am currently putting this theory into action by writing this article as smartly as I can. OK, now I have to go watch the movie 鈥淵oung Einstein鈥� with my son. If you watch it with your child every day, you know, he will grow up to be a genius.

Nate Smith is a father and comedian. He blogs at .

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