improvarama

  You wake up on the floor of a strange basement. You see two doors. Behind one door you hear strange noises. Behind the other door you can see a person or body of a person on the floor. Go.

The trouble with bad improv is that it looks fake. Maybe the actors are having fun -- they're certainly getting bigger and bigger with their broad attempts at humor -- but it makes me squirm when I see someone acting. Obviously, acting in ways that say "isn't this funny?" and "aren't we all cool?" No, it's not funny. And, no, it's not cool. Improv is bigger than that, better than that, much harder than that. Real improv looks real. Characters are developed. Plots evolve instead of becoming fabricated. Dialogue sounds like overheard conversations with built in subtle yet compelling drama. That's asking a lot from improv, which is why it's so rare. But what if you delivered at that level? What if we each took our improv to a level that is even with the best acting available? What if no one could tell that you were improvising? Wouldn't that be amazing? -- doug smith

Improv, while spontaneous, is also a discipline. It takes practice. Going for the obvious jokes is so common because people don't practice enough to get beyond them. It reminds me of a technique one improv company used to do in their warm up - they'd say all the cuss words they could think of just to get it out of their system. It's not an easy laugh, it's a tedious gratuitous string of cuss words unless it is all attached to character. To get to character in improv takes practice. To build trust -- in your own skills and in the skills of your company of actors -- takes practice. Just because we make it up on the spot doesn't mean we don't have to practice. Practice! -- doug smith

The best improv feels more real than a written script, risks more for the sake of discovery, and touches more with a direct path to the heart. -- doug smith

Creativity Generator: Picture Scene Prompt 1. Display the picture 2. Start the scene You can also use this as a Picture This Prompt: 1. Display the picture 2. Write for two minutes inspired by the picture -- doug smith

You can always tell someone who is still new to improv: they try desperately to be funny. They go for the laugh. They do outrageous things. They try to tell jokes. The trouble with doing all that, besides it NOT being funny, is that it's really hard to do that and listen to what your fellow performers are also doing. To build on the work of others you've got to listen, to pay attention, to accept and build on what they're doing. Involving yourself by writing an elaborate script will feel more like a wall between you and the audience, leaving nothing but cheap gags to try to rescue it. Cheap gags will not rescue you. The funniest people are those trying desperately NOT to be funny. They live thru stuff that would aggravate us but on someone else it seems oddly funny. Every act, every nuance, every pause and every word works to avoid the situation that strikes us as funny. Not to be funny, but to escape the humor. And that is funny. The next time you catch yourself t...

A truly great improv actor makes peace with silence. Silence from the character and silence from the audience. It's not about the laugh. -- doug smith