Window into Chris Morris' Directing

[Bored of Canada]

Huge thanks to Paaaaul for pointing this out in the "Comedy Pod Pod" thread.

In the latest Who Charted podcast with Brian Huskey, he talks about the directing style that "Chris Morrison" used with him in Veep.
It's a really cool insight into how he directs, but then again, I'm always looking into interesting tricks and methods to direct (as I'm rubbish) so maybe not everyone will find it that interesting.

You can listen for yourselves but I'll do a transcript underneath for those of you who can't be arsed scrubbing through the podcast[nb]It's right around the 55 minute mark[/nb]:
http://www.earwolf.com/episode/professional-liar/

Brian Huskey:
"So, there's me and (Matt) Walsh and these other two guys doing a press conference thing, and it's mainly me and Walsh...and (Chris Morris) is like, "Alright, Brian, what you're going to do is bring Matthew's character right to the precipice...and then you're going to present the knife...but don't put the knife into him, just show it from where you are down in the canyon" ...and just...I was like, okay, I love everything you've ever done...and then...and so...he was saying similar things to Matt, and Matt was like "So, uh...(You want me to) Act more angry?" and then that didn't work. He didn't have that kinda response. (Chris Morris) was like, "...No. Let me give you another confusing thing to..." and then afterwards, he'd come and give us notes, and me and Matt would be like, "Does he just...want us to do them faster? I think he means faster."

I don't know. From my (very limited and amateur) experiences with directing, that kind of approach can do wonders with trained actors, and they benefit from emotional goals and working through physical and abstract exercises like this before takes to get them into the space they need to be, whereas with improv comedians like Brian Huskey and Matt Walsh, they prefer to literally hear what the director needs from them by the sounds of it.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Sounds like Brian is not familiar with figures of speech.