Laugh Yoga: Ha Ha Ha!

Laugh Yoga: Ha ha ha! from randolfd on Vimeo.

This exercise focuses on the emotion of happy and is an energizer that brings the energy level up in the room. The concept is for the actors to create a type of fake laughter. To begin however, we begin by discussing the attributes of the face responsible for making a person look like they are smiling, then we have a discussion on the health benefits of laughter. In most animation, the ability to generate laughter in a character is key as the emotion translates to the viewer. Another concept to note for this exercise, is that the body does not know if a laugh is real or fake and so in the exercise, the actors must induce a fake laugh until it becomes a real laugh. One simple way to do this is to take a deep breath and together, as one large group, say “Ha ha ho!” The idea here is to generate the laughter from their diaphragm and that they must open their mouths, show their teeth and use their arms to make a large circle. After this exercise, people are already giggly. After we do this three times, I have the students walk around the class, making eye contact with at least five people. As they see each person, they must point at them, give them a big smile, and say “Ha ha ha!”, as loud and as funny as they can. What usually happens, is that people will start to laugh for real, and in the sessions I’ve conducted, many people end up on the floor from laughing too hard. The assignment is silly at first, but after one does it, the action of laughing can be quite liberating.