Improvoker

On starting my 401 class last Saturday, I thought it was a good time to take a look through my improv notebook and post a recap of some of the lessons learned in my 301. My 301 was taught by Chris Gethard, who changed the way I view improv. Some of the notes are from Chris, some are from practice with Anthony Atamanuik, some I picked up along the way. While I am writing from my notebook and trying diligently to maintain the accuracy of what was said, quotes may be paraphrased.

Playing

• Trust in what’s already been established. It’s all there in the first 3 lines.
• Keep it simple and trust in the details.
• Explore, don’t invent.
• Your characters must be real and truthful. Caricatures and cartoonish characters do not allow an audience to relate, therefore, empathize with you, removing the stakes for a scene.
• It is not steamrolling to be specific in a scene and lay out your ideas. Steamrolling is not allowing your partner to contribute by adding information for them.
• If you start straight and try to go funny, but fail - It’s much easier to go back to straight, than if you had started with funny, fail and try to go to straight. -Chris Gethard
• Get to the action - Make this be the day something happens.
• Your purpose on stage is to support your partner. Always put the weight on your shoulders to protect them from looking bad or taking responsibility. -Chris Gethard
• Make a scene present by acknowledging your scene partner with “I, you, we” at the start.
• React honestly, it’ll make your life easier. -Chris Gethard
• Take your time to respond. Allow what has been said to effect you.
• Don’t feel you always have to talk. Silence is a great stake raiser.
• Have Fun, Have Fun, Have Fun. Stop thinking and play instead.
• You got yourself into this mess and you are the only one who can get yourself out of it Gethard to a scene partner and I after a particularly difficult scene where we felt trapped.
• You cannot have a great show without taking risks. The bigger the risks taken, the bigger the possibility for success. Failure because of taking risks are far more impressive than failure because of the fear of taking risks.
• Play for the stage, not the audience. (Play for yourself, not to satisfy others.)

Group Games

• If we talk 50% of the time in a two person scene, In a 6-8 person group game we should plan to talk 20-13% of the time.
• In a group game agree with the scene’s reality and, most importantly, support you fellow players.
• Group games that focus on the one odd man out, usually become a witch burning.
• Everybody hates hotspot. The purpose is not to love singing goofy songs, but to support your fellow players even if it puts you in the firing lines. -Anthony Atamanuik

The Suggestion

• Concept from Matt Walsh - Put a question mark after the suggestion. You should try to answer that question, for yourself, by the end of your harold.
• Commit completely to your opening. This is when the audience decides if they are with you, or against you. If they feel you don’t believe it, they wont believe it.

Do you have any nuggets you’d like to drop?