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An Improvised Life: A Memoir
4 hours, 15 minutes. In this insightful memoir, Oscar-winning actor Alan Arkin reflects back on finding his place as an actor and what theater—specifically the improvisational sort—has taught him about the craft and life.
Alan Arkin knew he was going to be an actor from the age of five. From this early age, he recognized that "every film I saw, every play, every piece of music fed an unquenchable need to turn myself into something other than what I was." An Improvised Life is Arkin's wise and unpretentious recollection of the process, artistic and personal, of becoming an actor and a revealing look into the creative mind of one of the best practitioners on the stage and screen. Arkin, in a manner that is direct, down-to-earth, accessible, and articulate, reveals not just insights about himself but truths for the rest of us about our sense of self, our work, and our relationships with others.
Alan Arkin knew he was going to be an actor from the age of five. From this early age, he recognized that "every film I saw, every play, every piece of music fed an unquenchable need to turn myself into something other than what I was." An Improvised Life is Arkin's wise and unpretentious recollection of the process, artistic and personal, of becoming an actor and a revealing look into the creative mind of one of the best practitioners on the stage and screen. Arkin, in a manner that is direct, down-to-earth, accessible, and articulate, reveals not just insights about himself but truths for the rest of us about our sense of self, our work, and our relationships with others.
Audiobook
First published February 3, 2011
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About the author
Alan Arkin
32 books30 followersAlan Arkin was an American actor, director, author, and screenwriter.
In a career spanning seven decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Emmy Awards.
In a career spanning seven decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Emmy Awards.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
May 24, 2019
This is subtitled “a memoir” but it offers as much of Arkin’s musings about his craft as it provides about the arc of his life. I was very satisfied with the extra dimension provided by listening to the author read his book.
Arkin sets out his thesis very early by means of this excellent anecdote: “Some years ago I did a film with Madeline Kahn. A lot of it was shot on location, and one day we found ourselves at a particularly beautiful spot overlooking a panoramic view of the Hudson Valley. During a lull in the shooting, while the cameras were setting up, we went out onto an extensive lawn and sat there for a while, lost in the scenery. While we were musing and chatting, I found myself thinking about Madeline’s many gifts. She was a fine actress, an excellent pianist; she had an exquisite operatic voice with impeccable technique and she was also a brilliant comedian. I asked her which of her talents she considered to be her primary focus. She thought for a while and couldn’t come up with an answer. I don’t think she’d ever thought about it before. “Well, what did you start out wanting to do?” I asked. “What was your first impulse? Was it acting?” She shook her head “no,” but she didn’t seem sure. “Singing?” “No.” “Playing the piano?” “No.” “Did you want to be a comedian?” “No, not really.” “Well, what was the first thing you thought of doing? There had to be something.” Again she tried to thread her way back to her childhood ambitions. “I used to listen to a lot of music.” She paused, trying to find the words for what she was thinking. “And that’s what I wanted to be,” she finally said. “I don’t know what you mean,” I said. She answered, and it sounded as if she’d never formulated this thought before, as if it was news to herself. “I wanted to be the music,” she said. It was a revelatory and somewhat disturbing moment.
“With that one statement I realized that what she’d said about herself was the impulse behind all of my own interests, all of my needs, all of my studying, compulsions, and passions, and had I been aware of that idea when I was starting out, had I been able to assimilate it, live within it, I would have saved endless years of frustration and work and confusion because that thought was at the very bottom of what I was looking for. So much had been invested in craft, in externalization, in looking for something solid out there that would fill the void, create a sense of flight, of getting out of the oppression of self. We don’t want to do it; we want to be it.
“Only we don’t know it.
“No one tells us.”
Arkin expounds on this observation and much more about his craft with some notable insights into what held him back and what gave him the boost to success. (Yes, it DOES have something to do with improvisation.)
Arkin sets out his thesis very early by means of this excellent anecdote: “Some years ago I did a film with Madeline Kahn. A lot of it was shot on location, and one day we found ourselves at a particularly beautiful spot overlooking a panoramic view of the Hudson Valley. During a lull in the shooting, while the cameras were setting up, we went out onto an extensive lawn and sat there for a while, lost in the scenery. While we were musing and chatting, I found myself thinking about Madeline’s many gifts. She was a fine actress, an excellent pianist; she had an exquisite operatic voice with impeccable technique and she was also a brilliant comedian. I asked her which of her talents she considered to be her primary focus. She thought for a while and couldn’t come up with an answer. I don’t think she’d ever thought about it before. “Well, what did you start out wanting to do?” I asked. “What was your first impulse? Was it acting?” She shook her head “no,” but she didn’t seem sure. “Singing?” “No.” “Playing the piano?” “No.” “Did you want to be a comedian?” “No, not really.” “Well, what was the first thing you thought of doing? There had to be something.” Again she tried to thread her way back to her childhood ambitions. “I used to listen to a lot of music.” She paused, trying to find the words for what she was thinking. “And that’s what I wanted to be,” she finally said. “I don’t know what you mean,” I said. She answered, and it sounded as if she’d never formulated this thought before, as if it was news to herself. “I wanted to be the music,” she said. It was a revelatory and somewhat disturbing moment.
“With that one statement I realized that what she’d said about herself was the impulse behind all of my own interests, all of my needs, all of my studying, compulsions, and passions, and had I been aware of that idea when I was starting out, had I been able to assimilate it, live within it, I would have saved endless years of frustration and work and confusion because that thought was at the very bottom of what I was looking for. So much had been invested in craft, in externalization, in looking for something solid out there that would fill the void, create a sense of flight, of getting out of the oppression of self. We don’t want to do it; we want to be it.
“Only we don’t know it.
“No one tells us.”
Arkin expounds on this observation and much more about his craft with some notable insights into what held him back and what gave him the boost to success. (Yes, it DOES have something to do with improvisation.)
October 31, 2018
This focused mostly on Arkin's acting, spending many pages on his preferred improvisational style.
When a book is autobiographical or written by a comedian, I like to hear the author read his work, so I go with the audiobook whenever available. That wasn't the greatest of choices this time around. Arkin's voice is monotone, and for an actor, surprisingly lacking in inflection. But hey, that's the way he delivers his lines. I get it. Still, it made for a dry listen. As for the material itself, he regales the reader with some interesting anecdotes throughout. I even teared up a moment or two. In the end though, I'd say other actors would get the most out of this book, rather than just fans of the man. Maybe his acting insights wouldn't impress actors. They may have heard it all before, but I thought some of it was interesting and would be helpful to at least the novice.
When a book is autobiographical or written by a comedian, I like to hear the author read his work, so I go with the audiobook whenever available. That wasn't the greatest of choices this time around. Arkin's voice is monotone, and for an actor, surprisingly lacking in inflection. But hey, that's the way he delivers his lines. I get it. Still, it made for a dry listen. As for the material itself, he regales the reader with some interesting anecdotes throughout. I even teared up a moment or two. In the end though, I'd say other actors would get the most out of this book, rather than just fans of the man. Maybe his acting insights wouldn't impress actors. They may have heard it all before, but I thought some of it was interesting and would be helpful to at least the novice.
December 17, 2019
This is a memoir about Alan Arkin's life in art. He tells nothing about his personal life unless it is directly related to his growth as an actor, director, writer and teacher. This lack of personal meandering and of casual name dropping brings refreshing intensity into the narrative. I listened to it as an audio book, and Alan Arkin's reading only added to the enjoyment.
February 24, 2020
This is not a typical celebrity memoir with the name dropping and anecdotes that usually fill such efforts. Nor is it a career spanning biography which lists Arkin’s acting roles and achievements. Instead the author takes readers on his life journey as an actor and shares what he has learned about his craft and life along the way. He focuses on how his experiences in the world of theater and film have affected his personal growth.
Arkin always knew he wanted to be an actor. From the age of five he was obsessed with films, role playing and the act of becoming someone else. It was only much later in life he came to realize that turning himself into somebody else was a way to avoid discovering who he was as an individual and a person in the world.
Acting was not a profession he came to easily. He attended acting school, was a member of a folk band called The Tarriers and played lute in an Off-Broadway play for a year. His first real break and steady paycheck came in 1960 when he moved from New York to Chicago and joined the improv comedy troupe Second City, marking the true starting point of his career. He lived life in a tiny apartment but was finally happy. He found improv a challenge. Some sketches worked and were very good. But others failed and when they did, it was not easy to be front and center in the middle of it before an audience. But Arkin saw it as a learning process and those failures became lessons. In the past, he had found taking on a single role in a set piece to be controlling and he always felt inhibited by the rigidity of the form. It stifled his creativity to perform the same role exactly the same way every night. He was much happier working in improv which encouraged spontaneity and he thrived.
To build on his success he began exploring theater acting and took on roles on Broadway. Initially he found it difficult, experiencing little creative excitement delivering a consistent performance every night. He starred in several hits in the sixties and seventies and even won a Tony Award for the 1963 comedy “Enter Laughing”.
He then moved into the medium of film and was surprised he enjoyed it. He could work on a scene and get it right. It took some of the pressure off working in front of an audience and the endless grind of a long stage run. Like other actors there came a time when he had to survive a dip in his career, when he was offered fewer scripts, often with directors he disliked. During this period he had difficulty dealing with people in positions of authority. He could be rude, self-righteous and often lost his temper. At the time, he received help from a respected teacher and learned a way to see the director as a partner he could work with to steer a film in the right direction.
During the process of honing his craft and becoming a character actor, Arkin began to realize that he had no sense of his own identity. He only knew himself as the other people in the roles he took on. Up to that point he had never given any thought to his own internal life. He began to see that he was not just a bystander to his own behavior, that there was a force within him that he could control. He entered analysis and after years of self-scrutiny, made a commitment to live an “examined life”. He confronted his behavior, took responsibility for what he said and did and abandoned the excuses he had used in the past to be antisocial or selfish.
He credits his five years of intensive therapy with helping him through the challenges his life and acting presented him. He then moved on to explore Eastern Philosophy which brought him new levels of awareness that were often frightening and disorienting but gave him an even deeper awareness of the world around him.
Somewhere along the way he became a director. It was not part of his life plan and he did he think he had any talent for it. He had never considered himself a leader nor did he want to become one. However, he directed a play, did well and began to get some Of-Broadway directorial work.
Arkin has been doing his latest work as a teacher, working with his wife running small improvisational workshops. He believes this work is not about learning how to perform but about beginning a process of self-discovery which ultimately helps develop each person’s life and their own unique style of acting.
Arkin has acted in over eighty films, been nominated for several academy awards and won an Oscar for his role in the 2006 film ”Little Miss Sunshine”. But he never mentions his accomplishments. What has been important to him is the way that acting has informed his life and he stays true to his intent to use this volume to chart his evolution as an artist and his approach to acting.
Arkin has addressed this work with honesty, modesty and without pretense. Although his dedication to his craft presented issues in his personal life, he gives little account of his marriages or his children who are just mentioned in passing. He tells his story simply, the narrative running just under two hundred pages. He does not include pages describing his days as a penniless actor struggling for work, the names of famous actors and directors he has met or worked with or embarrassing anecdotes and juicy backstage gossip about others. There is no recitation of endless triumphs that often fill the pages of a star’s memoir and no glib pronouncements about acting and the actor’s life. Instead, Arkin, an intelligent, honest and serious man, remains refreshingly modest about his achievements and in plain prose shares what he has learned about acting and himself.
Arkin always knew he wanted to be an actor. From the age of five he was obsessed with films, role playing and the act of becoming someone else. It was only much later in life he came to realize that turning himself into somebody else was a way to avoid discovering who he was as an individual and a person in the world.
Acting was not a profession he came to easily. He attended acting school, was a member of a folk band called The Tarriers and played lute in an Off-Broadway play for a year. His first real break and steady paycheck came in 1960 when he moved from New York to Chicago and joined the improv comedy troupe Second City, marking the true starting point of his career. He lived life in a tiny apartment but was finally happy. He found improv a challenge. Some sketches worked and were very good. But others failed and when they did, it was not easy to be front and center in the middle of it before an audience. But Arkin saw it as a learning process and those failures became lessons. In the past, he had found taking on a single role in a set piece to be controlling and he always felt inhibited by the rigidity of the form. It stifled his creativity to perform the same role exactly the same way every night. He was much happier working in improv which encouraged spontaneity and he thrived.
To build on his success he began exploring theater acting and took on roles on Broadway. Initially he found it difficult, experiencing little creative excitement delivering a consistent performance every night. He starred in several hits in the sixties and seventies and even won a Tony Award for the 1963 comedy “Enter Laughing”.
He then moved into the medium of film and was surprised he enjoyed it. He could work on a scene and get it right. It took some of the pressure off working in front of an audience and the endless grind of a long stage run. Like other actors there came a time when he had to survive a dip in his career, when he was offered fewer scripts, often with directors he disliked. During this period he had difficulty dealing with people in positions of authority. He could be rude, self-righteous and often lost his temper. At the time, he received help from a respected teacher and learned a way to see the director as a partner he could work with to steer a film in the right direction.
During the process of honing his craft and becoming a character actor, Arkin began to realize that he had no sense of his own identity. He only knew himself as the other people in the roles he took on. Up to that point he had never given any thought to his own internal life. He began to see that he was not just a bystander to his own behavior, that there was a force within him that he could control. He entered analysis and after years of self-scrutiny, made a commitment to live an “examined life”. He confronted his behavior, took responsibility for what he said and did and abandoned the excuses he had used in the past to be antisocial or selfish.
He credits his five years of intensive therapy with helping him through the challenges his life and acting presented him. He then moved on to explore Eastern Philosophy which brought him new levels of awareness that were often frightening and disorienting but gave him an even deeper awareness of the world around him.
Somewhere along the way he became a director. It was not part of his life plan and he did he think he had any talent for it. He had never considered himself a leader nor did he want to become one. However, he directed a play, did well and began to get some Of-Broadway directorial work.
Arkin has been doing his latest work as a teacher, working with his wife running small improvisational workshops. He believes this work is not about learning how to perform but about beginning a process of self-discovery which ultimately helps develop each person’s life and their own unique style of acting.
Arkin has acted in over eighty films, been nominated for several academy awards and won an Oscar for his role in the 2006 film ”Little Miss Sunshine”. But he never mentions his accomplishments. What has been important to him is the way that acting has informed his life and he stays true to his intent to use this volume to chart his evolution as an artist and his approach to acting.
Arkin has addressed this work with honesty, modesty and without pretense. Although his dedication to his craft presented issues in his personal life, he gives little account of his marriages or his children who are just mentioned in passing. He tells his story simply, the narrative running just under two hundred pages. He does not include pages describing his days as a penniless actor struggling for work, the names of famous actors and directors he has met or worked with or embarrassing anecdotes and juicy backstage gossip about others. There is no recitation of endless triumphs that often fill the pages of a star’s memoir and no glib pronouncements about acting and the actor’s life. Instead, Arkin, an intelligent, honest and serious man, remains refreshingly modest about his achievements and in plain prose shares what he has learned about acting and himself.
November 25, 2014
I cannot say enough good about this book. The honest and extremely well told account of a man who has grown and learned and changed over an extraordinary lifetime. As an improviser/actor this book is invaluable. But even for a person who has never stepped on a stage, I believe it is an amazing read. So many things to take away from this book. I plan on rereading it very soon. BTW, I listened to the audio book as read by the author and I cannot recommend that version enough.
May 5, 2014
Alan Arkin, if you believe his father, knew he was going to be an actor at the age of five, a fact which would seem to belie the title of his book: despite his claims, there's the distinct sense that his professional life went more or less according to plan. An award-winning actor and director, Arkin is best known today for playing old curmudgeons, such as in Little Miss Sunshine and The Change-Up (he also has a cameo in The Muppets). But he's appeared in over 80 films and has a theatrical track record that most actors would with envy.
No doubt about it, Arkin's life doesn't truly seemed to have been improvised at all: he made a plan when he was five and stuck to it. Or at least that's how it seems in An Improvised Life, which skips over almost all of Arkin's personal struggles and focuses entirely on his philosophies on acting and a life in the arts. It's an enjoyable read if you're an artist; anyone else, I suspect, will find it (amazingly) lacks drama.
Raised in the world of Second City (he was one of its founding members), Arkin has a refreshingly practical approach to the world of acting. He has no patience for the theories of Stanislavski, the father of The Method. For Arkin, acting is a lot more straightforward and he springs from the school of thought associated with acting scholars like Michael Shurtleff. In the book's second half, where Arkin details the improv workshops he has run for several decades, An Improvised Life most takes on an echo of Sanford Meisner's seminal book On Acting, which details the events of Meisner's classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse: Arkin elegantly demonstrates his theories on improvisation, character, and drama through illustrative examples culled from the classes.
Stanislavski? Shurtleff? Meisner? If you're scratching your head, it's because you're not a student of acting theory and probably opened An Improvised Life expecting a book rife with Hollywood anecdotes, all embedded in a rags-to-riches story of a young man's fight for success. But Arkin has no desire to talk about either Hollywood or himself. This is too bad as all evidence suggests Arkin's had a fascinating life, complete with blacklisted parents (they refused to name names in the 1950s) and a pair of failed marriages. A more personal glimpse at the background to his life might have made this book more accessible to the less theatrically inclined. But this may not have been Arkin's intention - in which case, calling this a "memoir" is a little misleading. It's a memoir of a craft rather than a life.
Taken as a book on acting theory, then, Arkin has written a solid companion piece to Audition (by the aforementioned Shurtleff) and On Acting (by the aforementioned Meisner). There isn't much here that's revolutionary, but it has some engaging anecdotes and occasionally enchanting recollections from a man who has spent literally his entire life in pursuit of the wicked stage. It's also written in a simple style as straight forward as Arkin himself, so readers unfamiliar with acting theory may still find it a fascinating glimpse into the art that lies at the heart of theatre, TV and film.
No doubt about it, Arkin's life doesn't truly seemed to have been improvised at all: he made a plan when he was five and stuck to it. Or at least that's how it seems in An Improvised Life, which skips over almost all of Arkin's personal struggles and focuses entirely on his philosophies on acting and a life in the arts. It's an enjoyable read if you're an artist; anyone else, I suspect, will find it (amazingly) lacks drama.
Raised in the world of Second City (he was one of its founding members), Arkin has a refreshingly practical approach to the world of acting. He has no patience for the theories of Stanislavski, the father of The Method. For Arkin, acting is a lot more straightforward and he springs from the school of thought associated with acting scholars like Michael Shurtleff. In the book's second half, where Arkin details the improv workshops he has run for several decades, An Improvised Life most takes on an echo of Sanford Meisner's seminal book On Acting, which details the events of Meisner's classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse: Arkin elegantly demonstrates his theories on improvisation, character, and drama through illustrative examples culled from the classes.
Stanislavski? Shurtleff? Meisner? If you're scratching your head, it's because you're not a student of acting theory and probably opened An Improvised Life expecting a book rife with Hollywood anecdotes, all embedded in a rags-to-riches story of a young man's fight for success. But Arkin has no desire to talk about either Hollywood or himself. This is too bad as all evidence suggests Arkin's had a fascinating life, complete with blacklisted parents (they refused to name names in the 1950s) and a pair of failed marriages. A more personal glimpse at the background to his life might have made this book more accessible to the less theatrically inclined. But this may not have been Arkin's intention - in which case, calling this a "memoir" is a little misleading. It's a memoir of a craft rather than a life.
Taken as a book on acting theory, then, Arkin has written a solid companion piece to Audition (by the aforementioned Shurtleff) and On Acting (by the aforementioned Meisner). There isn't much here that's revolutionary, but it has some engaging anecdotes and occasionally enchanting recollections from a man who has spent literally his entire life in pursuit of the wicked stage. It's also written in a simple style as straight forward as Arkin himself, so readers unfamiliar with acting theory may still find it a fascinating glimpse into the art that lies at the heart of theatre, TV and film.
April 29, 2015
I guess this is actually ★★★ 1\2.
I listened to this book and who could read it better than Alan Arkin himself? No one I'm thinking. Partly memoir, partly teaching platform.
At some point, after undergoing psychoanalysis, Arkin started doing improv/acting seminars. There were several moving tales here. One was at a college on a Native American reservation and no one was cooperating. Finally, he has one of them being a Native who had run away and was now back, with the assistance of a couple of social workers. It was very interesting. Another involved a woman meeting her ex-husband with a request for money. He browbeats her and she shoots him in the middle of the restaurant. They play the scene through to its logical conclusion of spending the rest of her life in jail. Eventually they re-play the first scene and the woman chooses another way.
Much of the book covers how he got into acting and the parts he played. Totally against the celebrity worship that seems to be going on. He asks the question: why do people care whether he is having a good time acting? If it's a play, he probably isn't because he doesn't like to be locked in and writers kind of insist that he stick to the lines written.
Early in his career, he was asked to come to Chicago. At that point Chicago wasn't well known for theater. The Compass Players/Second City was starting out. He discussed the backstage view of this famed troupe. Amy Poehler did too in her memoir, although she came along much later.
One of his most stressful times was doing a play with his son who went into the project unsure of himself and whether he wanted to continue as an actor. By the end, he saw his son didn't need him anymore. He had become a man before his eyes. Probably a version of best/worst day.
I listened to this book and who could read it better than Alan Arkin himself? No one I'm thinking. Partly memoir, partly teaching platform.
At some point, after undergoing psychoanalysis, Arkin started doing improv/acting seminars. There were several moving tales here. One was at a college on a Native American reservation and no one was cooperating. Finally, he has one of them being a Native who had run away and was now back, with the assistance of a couple of social workers. It was very interesting. Another involved a woman meeting her ex-husband with a request for money. He browbeats her and she shoots him in the middle of the restaurant. They play the scene through to its logical conclusion of spending the rest of her life in jail. Eventually they re-play the first scene and the woman chooses another way.
Much of the book covers how he got into acting and the parts he played. Totally against the celebrity worship that seems to be going on. He asks the question: why do people care whether he is having a good time acting? If it's a play, he probably isn't because he doesn't like to be locked in and writers kind of insist that he stick to the lines written.
Early in his career, he was asked to come to Chicago. At that point Chicago wasn't well known for theater. The Compass Players/Second City was starting out. He discussed the backstage view of this famed troupe. Amy Poehler did too in her memoir, although she came along much later.
One of his most stressful times was doing a play with his son who went into the project unsure of himself and whether he wanted to continue as an actor. By the end, he saw his son didn't need him anymore. He had become a man before his eyes. Probably a version of best/worst day.
November 1, 2020
Excelenta. The Kominsky Method are parti inspirate din biografia lui Alan.
May 6, 2024
This reminded me of Stephen King's On Writing in its structure: the first half a traditional life story, the second half a meditation on Arkin's craft. But it differed greatly from King's autobiography in that it was all kind of dull. I didn't get much more out of this other than Arkin expressing his belief about the value of improv / acting - that it can lead to greater understanding of the self and the world - over and over again.
April 6, 2018
Unlike most well-known actors’ memoirs, Alan Arkin’s isn’t a long list of actors and directors that he’s worked with or movies he’s been in, nor is it full of details about his home life. Instead, he examines his own personal growth within the framework of acting. Acting, he says, is a metaphor for life, “and a pretty transparent one at that.” Both require “getting real” to succeed. And for Arkin acting, being someone else, is the easy part. Knowing himself, being himself, and getting comfortable with himself in everyday life required more work. His work “to be present in every moment” has made him a better actor and director, in addition to giving him personal fulfillment and a sense of fully engaging in life. His voice as a writer is direct, and often ironic and funny.
Arkin knew from age 5 that he wanted to be an actor. Readers are left to draw their own conclusions as to why it was easier for Arkin to act like someone else than to be himself, mainly because Arkin appears to still be pondering that question himself. He shares a bit about psychoanalysis and meditation practice. He discusses particular plays, movies, and relationships that inspired personal and professional growth. One of my favorite stories is about The In-Laws, about which fans always ask the same question: “Was making the movie fun?” They seem to want him to say yes, and he ponders why that is, even as he makes them happy by answering in the affirmative.
The improvisation part of the title shows up throughout the work. Starting with Second City, Arkin’s first introduction to improvisation, he embraces the idea wholeheartedly. His need to be spontaneous in making an emotionally real response to any situation affects both his onstage and offstage life. These days Arkin teaches improvisation classes for actors and anyone else who would like to be more spontaneous and expressive. Stories of his class process and the experiences that students have had are self-expressive, heartwarming, and sometimes funny. In particular, his work with Native Americans produced an allegory that validated their lives and ways of being.
The ideal way to experience An Improvised Life is the audiobook read by Alan Arkin himself. No one else can imitate his timing, intonation, and of course his accent. His own voice, including a little stumble over a word here and there, adds interest and authenticity to the story. He is both funny and deep.
All Alan Arkin fans and aspiring actors and performers in any sort of art will enjoy this book. Anyone who has ever been on a quest to express themselves more authentically will like it too.
Arkin knew from age 5 that he wanted to be an actor. Readers are left to draw their own conclusions as to why it was easier for Arkin to act like someone else than to be himself, mainly because Arkin appears to still be pondering that question himself. He shares a bit about psychoanalysis and meditation practice. He discusses particular plays, movies, and relationships that inspired personal and professional growth. One of my favorite stories is about The In-Laws, about which fans always ask the same question: “Was making the movie fun?” They seem to want him to say yes, and he ponders why that is, even as he makes them happy by answering in the affirmative.
The improvisation part of the title shows up throughout the work. Starting with Second City, Arkin’s first introduction to improvisation, he embraces the idea wholeheartedly. His need to be spontaneous in making an emotionally real response to any situation affects both his onstage and offstage life. These days Arkin teaches improvisation classes for actors and anyone else who would like to be more spontaneous and expressive. Stories of his class process and the experiences that students have had are self-expressive, heartwarming, and sometimes funny. In particular, his work with Native Americans produced an allegory that validated their lives and ways of being.
The ideal way to experience An Improvised Life is the audiobook read by Alan Arkin himself. No one else can imitate his timing, intonation, and of course his accent. His own voice, including a little stumble over a word here and there, adds interest and authenticity to the story. He is both funny and deep.
All Alan Arkin fans and aspiring actors and performers in any sort of art will enjoy this book. Anyone who has ever been on a quest to express themselves more authentically will like it too.
July 22, 2024
“If this present moment is lived whole-heartedly and meticulously, the future will take care of itself.”
I think every actor needs to read this book right now. Probably every human should too.
I think every actor needs to read this book right now. Probably every human should too.
October 22, 2011
Mostly about using improvisational acting exercises as a means of self-discovery, this book may be a useful tool for actors, but it's not likely to endear anyone to Arkin. His voice as author is overbearing and self-congratulatory. The reason for the "I know everything" aspect may be that the book is not really about Arkin, it's about what Arkin does as a vocation. A memoir requires a certain degree of humility to endear the reader to its subject, but Arkin remains aloof - even a little snobbish.
Arkin indicates he is protective and reserved about his personal life, and even appears not to want to share much about his film work. There is no mention of awards he was nominated for or won, and very little about his work with other artists, so I wonder why he chose to wrap this "how to" about acting in the guise of a book about Alan Arkin? In doing so, he kinds shot himself in the foot on both counts because he comes across as too know-it-all and distant to be likeable, but too self-engrossed to be credible as an instructor. I think this would have been more effective with the few crumbs of biography stripped out of the book.
Arkin indicates he is protective and reserved about his personal life, and even appears not to want to share much about his film work. There is no mention of awards he was nominated for or won, and very little about his work with other artists, so I wonder why he chose to wrap this "how to" about acting in the guise of a book about Alan Arkin? In doing so, he kinds shot himself in the foot on both counts because he comes across as too know-it-all and distant to be likeable, but too self-engrossed to be credible as an instructor. I think this would have been more effective with the few crumbs of biography stripped out of the book.
April 6, 2017
I saw Alan Arkin on TCM being interviewed by Robert Osborne and thought it sounded like he led a very interesting life. I had this book on my shelf so I grabbed it and began reading. The beginning of the book was interesting when he talks about his childhood. After that it is all downhill. There is almost no biographical information after his first marriage. He apparently had two marriages after that but each wife is mentioned by name once and you're left thinking "Oh, he must have gotten married again". He mentions a few of the movies he's been in but I was disappointed that my favorite movie" The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" didn't even get a mention. Most of the book is (taken from the back cover) " reflecting on the acting process and the life lessons that can be gleaned from improvisational theater". If this is what you are looking for than it is a very good book. For me it was a yawner. It is a short book and I read it in one day. Otherwise, I don't think I would have finished it.
November 10, 2020
A sort of memoir by actor Alan Arkin that covers in the first third of the book (it is separated in 3 parts Act 1, Intermission, and Act 2) his early life and interest in acting and then mostly cover his being a teacher of acting/improv. His views on Life and Improvisation are co-mingled in the true observation tha Life is an act of improvising. Our reactions to things and circumstances are sudden and reactive and, mostly, we no NOT we are going in this journey or what events will pop up to delight us or send us into despair. There are some great stories here of him interacting with actors that are famous and those that are every day people that he encounters in his classes. It is thoughtful and enjoyable short read. One of his observations is that Life and Improv is like "tap dancing on a rubber raft". Such a great metaphor for our existence and one I'll never forget.
July 17, 2011
This book was not what I expected; maybe I should have read the review or write-up first. This memoir covers Mr. Arkin's professional life of which the most interesting to me was his talking about his experiences at Second City in Chicago. Maybe if I were an actor I would have enjoyed his diatribes about acting. I felt Mr. Arkin was, at times, angry and at best, arrogant. His tone was borderline arrogant. Of course, this is just my opinion and if I were in the acting field might feel differently. I wish there had been more about his family (he does mention them, but more as a matter of fact than anecdotal) and the people with whom he worked rather than their method acting, etc..
March 4, 2011
Fascinating -- made me want to re-watch all his movies, especially The In-Laws. Very introspective, a little more new-age than I would have expected.
April 8, 2025
A big waste of time from an egotistical neurotic blowhard who avoids revealing much about himself by deflecting to fake spiritual/philosophical talk about his career. It is eye-rollingly bad, with Arkin trying to defend his image as being difficult to work with but making himself look much worse.
Instead of giving stories about his projects or the things we know him for, he tells us what he supposedly is feeling inside as he makes a metaphysical journey through life. He also spends a whole lot of time blame-shifting.
His defense of refusing to stick to scripts or stage blocking should infuriate any real actor, while his claim in sensing he had previous lives is laughable since he can barely function in this life. There is some self-awareness where he admits that he blows up too easily, but then the blaming happens where he tries to justify his misdeeds. Never a good look.
Everything is very vague. He often refuses to name names, not just of people but of projects! The few stories contained within would have been much more interesting if he would have given specifics, instead it's just another smoke screen with him blowing hot air.
You have to read between the lines to see who this guy really is. He condemns an Academy Award-winning actor as "not being genuine" despite the accolades, and you quickly figure out that Arkin is simply jealous that he is unable to do what the screen star did. He slams the lead actress of a stage production for doing scenes the same way night after night, leading to his paranoia that the audience will perceive him as not fresh--so he throws a fit in front of the audience each evening and makes unprofessional changes without telling others. He denounces a movie script involving the death of a bird as being "barbarian" by acting like a barbarian to everyone else on the set. Not a class act and a total hypocrite.
While Alan Arkin badly wants to be taken seriously, and probably wrote this hoping it could become a classic guide to future actors, the reality is that the book, and the actor, are each a big flop.
Instead of giving stories about his projects or the things we know him for, he tells us what he supposedly is feeling inside as he makes a metaphysical journey through life. He also spends a whole lot of time blame-shifting.
His defense of refusing to stick to scripts or stage blocking should infuriate any real actor, while his claim in sensing he had previous lives is laughable since he can barely function in this life. There is some self-awareness where he admits that he blows up too easily, but then the blaming happens where he tries to justify his misdeeds. Never a good look.
Everything is very vague. He often refuses to name names, not just of people but of projects! The few stories contained within would have been much more interesting if he would have given specifics, instead it's just another smoke screen with him blowing hot air.
You have to read between the lines to see who this guy really is. He condemns an Academy Award-winning actor as "not being genuine" despite the accolades, and you quickly figure out that Arkin is simply jealous that he is unable to do what the screen star did. He slams the lead actress of a stage production for doing scenes the same way night after night, leading to his paranoia that the audience will perceive him as not fresh--so he throws a fit in front of the audience each evening and makes unprofessional changes without telling others. He denounces a movie script involving the death of a bird as being "barbarian" by acting like a barbarian to everyone else on the set. Not a class act and a total hypocrite.
While Alan Arkin badly wants to be taken seriously, and probably wrote this hoping it could become a classic guide to future actors, the reality is that the book, and the actor, are each a big flop.
January 13, 2020
This book wasn't at all what I expected. I picked it up because of Arkin's current role with Michael Douglas on Netflix's "Kominsky Method". Arkin shows in it he hasn't lost any of the comic acting he's shown over a long career. Kominsky brought back memories of his roles in "Catch 22" and "The Russians are Coming" in the late 1960's - early 1970's. I expected a reprise of a long and mostly successful career, stories about movie making and co-stars. None of that was included in this book.
After a short history of his acting influences in middle school and high school we jump right into his search for discovery through his acting experiences. Other than the beginning of his career in Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, there are none of the usual show-biz BS I expected. This is a serious book about acting and improvisation theory. In fact, the last disc and a half is about the current improv classes he conducts now and how he tries to get its participants to examine themselves, using acting as a tool.
Does this mean it's not interesting and enjoyable? Not in the least, its a very good book if you're willing to meet Arkin at this level of introspection. I have a son who studied acting in college, and frankly I didn't get the effort he was putting into it. I would love to discuss this book with him. I'm sure I'd learn a lot about him and about acting.
After a short history of his acting influences in middle school and high school we jump right into his search for discovery through his acting experiences. Other than the beginning of his career in Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, there are none of the usual show-biz BS I expected. This is a serious book about acting and improvisation theory. In fact, the last disc and a half is about the current improv classes he conducts now and how he tries to get its participants to examine themselves, using acting as a tool.
Does this mean it's not interesting and enjoyable? Not in the least, its a very good book if you're willing to meet Arkin at this level of introspection. I have a son who studied acting in college, and frankly I didn't get the effort he was putting into it. I would love to discuss this book with him. I'm sure I'd learn a lot about him and about acting.
February 6, 2024
I love Alan Arkin's work (Little Miss Sunshine being my favorite) and so I went into his memoir, An Improvised Life, with excitement. And that was my bad...I really shouldn't have. I still love his work and he doesn't come through as a jerk (and trust me, I've read memoirs that they come across as jerks *cough*Jackie Chan*cough*) but it was just...blah. Arkin goes a lot into his professional career but except for a couple mentions of family and friends, we never get to know the man behind the actor. And I respect that. He had every right to only give out what he wanted but it didn't make for a very intriguing memoir. I did enjoy reading about his time in Second City and all his acting gigs but something felt distant and lackluster about the whole book.
October 30, 2018
This would probably be better off read than listened to in the car, but the self-narration made a huge difference. Arkin's acting workshop experiences make for very entertaining stories, all from a man who cares very much about his craft.
"Emergency! Everybody to get from street!"
"Emergency! Everybody to get from street!"
April 11, 2018
I like Alan Arkin. I thought his narration of the book was great.
This book was mostly about acting, improvisation, methods, etc. I'm sure it would be riveting for aspiring actors but not for me.
This book was mostly about acting, improvisation, methods, etc. I'm sure it would be riveting for aspiring actors but not for me.
January 20, 2013
At the beginning of An Improvised Life, Alan Arkin relates a conversation he once had with Madeline Kahn. As this was an audio book, I'll just paraphrase it:
Having long admired Madeline Kahn and her many talents, Arkin asks her which of these gifts was her primary focus. After thinking for a while, she couldn't really say.
"Well," he asks, "what did you start out wanting to do? Was your first impulse acting?"
"No," she replies.
"Singing?"
"No."
"Playing the piano?"
"No."
"Being a comedienne?"
"No."
"What was the first thing you thought of doing?"
"Well," she said, "I used to listen to a lot of music when I was a little girl. And that's what I wanted to be. The music."
For a memoir, this is a short book, but as it's read by Alan Arkin himself, it's entertaining and sometimes thought provoking. I haven't seen that many of his movies, so my mental image is stuck pretty much at Little Miss Sunshine, and as that's about the age he was when he wrote this book, I suppose it's fitting. So, as I walked and listened, this grandfatherly figure shared some stories about how he got into acting, the struggles and sacrifices that entails, some very few stories about fellow celebrities, and quite a bit about his acting process and how he arrived at it.
I'm no actress, let alone an artist of any stripe, but I am interested in how art is created and Arkin lifts the curtain on this mystery somewhat; that strong acting is when you are the character, not just acting like the character; that, like Madeline Kahn, you become the music.
Having long admired Madeline Kahn and her many talents, Arkin asks her which of these gifts was her primary focus. After thinking for a while, she couldn't really say.
"Well," he asks, "what did you start out wanting to do? Was your first impulse acting?"
"No," she replies.
"Singing?"
"No."
"Playing the piano?"
"No."
"Being a comedienne?"
"No."
"What was the first thing you thought of doing?"
"Well," she said, "I used to listen to a lot of music when I was a little girl. And that's what I wanted to be. The music."
For a memoir, this is a short book, but as it's read by Alan Arkin himself, it's entertaining and sometimes thought provoking. I haven't seen that many of his movies, so my mental image is stuck pretty much at Little Miss Sunshine, and as that's about the age he was when he wrote this book, I suppose it's fitting. So, as I walked and listened, this grandfatherly figure shared some stories about how he got into acting, the struggles and sacrifices that entails, some very few stories about fellow celebrities, and quite a bit about his acting process and how he arrived at it.
I'm no actress, let alone an artist of any stripe, but I am interested in how art is created and Arkin lifts the curtain on this mystery somewhat; that strong acting is when you are the character, not just acting like the character; that, like Madeline Kahn, you become the music.
March 13, 2015
This is very much a book about acting and so those who are not interested in that at all might want to stay away. That being said, the main point of the book is that acting is a very transparent metaphor for life and so through acting, Arkin has discovered essential truths about the human condition. I am not an actor. I tried to be in high school, but I am one of the people who like to applaud the people on stage, not be a person on stage. However, I am a human being and I think that the point that I found most intriguing about the book was that it is through my human-ness that I was able to relate to the stories Arkin told. The movies, the plays, the dances that we love the most are often the ones that we can relate to the most and show us something about ourselves. I feel that way very strongly. The movies that are my favorites are the ones that I connect the most with the characters, the story, etc. And the more that we understand why it is we do what we do, the better we can move through life, in a very similar way to how actors work on a stage. All the world is a stage, says Shakespeare. Arkin is demonstrating how he has seen this is a very accurate idea. I really enjoyed this book!
June 8, 2014
Whether you know Alan Arkin from the 1960's and 70's in films like The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming or Wait Until Dark, or more recent films like Argo or Little Miss Sunshine, his performances are always special and original. In this memoir he discusses his arc as an actor, especially in regard to improvisation, which has been central to his method. Like his performances, his writing is full of surprises and takes directions different than one would expect from a standard actor's memoir. My only criticism is that I wanted it to be longer, so I could spend more time in the company of this compellingly original man. - BH.
June 18, 2011
Arkin does a great job narrating his memoir about his acting career. More about how he learned his craft over the years than anecdotes, which I would have preferred. The second part is about the Impov workshops he teaches and stories about special experiences in certain classes. All fine, but I hope he will write a real autobiography about his personal life and career next. I think actors and aspiring actors would get more out of this book than I did.
October 5, 2011
I listened to this book on audioCD.. read by the author. If you enjoy hearing about the craft of acting, you'll enjoy this insight into what it means to Mr. Arkin and how he approaches the job. I enjoyed most of this.. especially read in his rich , warm distinctive voice.. some of the "advice" was a little too "out there" for me personally.. but I enjoyed all the parts about his own insights into his life and the joys and challenges of the acting profession.
April 14, 2013
I have admired Arkin since before he was an actor with the Tarriers. I think he is a brilliant actor. However, he dismisses his musical career and pays faint attention to his acting career in this thin volume. There is little about his roles or films, more about his Broadway experience. Instead he writes mostly about improvisation and his career in rather bland terms. Once again, trust art, not artists.
December 28, 2013
Surprise at how much I liked this book, not only breaking down part of his life as an actor. But dealing with the art in general. An open look at the nuances of his craft. Not just an how to book, not really a self promoting book. But an easy to read, basic text book. Somewhat of an acting awareness class....
Read
July 7, 2011This is one of the very best books on creativity and living as an artist I have ever read. It's funny, moving, interesting and deeply insightful. Mr. Arkin writes with a completely unique style. One of the best books I ever read - and I have read MANY books.
November 22, 2014
I'm pretty sure that I would've given this 5 stars if I were an actor, particularly an improvisational one. But I came wanting more stories of relationships with other actors, directors, and artists, and that is simply not this book. To be clear, it wasn't intended to be that book.
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