While it’s important to choose strong characters, I wanted to take a moment to warn you that picking a strong character and picking an outrageous character, are very different things. An outrageous character choice is always a possible way to go in a scene, but if it turns out that character in your head isn’t as funny as you thought it would be on stage, you and your scene partner are going to be stuck with it for the entirety of a scene… possibly for an entire performance.

There’s nothing like a one eyed lisping hunchback with a gimp arm and an audience not laughing, to really bring this point home.

If you do find yourself on stage playing a crazy character and think “Shit! This is a total mistake, no one is laughing,” the last thing you should do is renege on your choice. Completely commit to your character and stay with it. Chances are, the more time you spend in your outrageous character’s shoes, the more material you’ll have to play with. Play it for all it’s worth. If you don’t get huge laughs, at least you can add a solid performance and solid support to the scene.

Now get limping.