Improv Nonsense

Walk-Ons and Tag-Outs are two ways to support a scene from the backline. As coaches, we often group them together when making adjustments “let’s not have any walk-ons or tag-outs for the first beats.” Or “Hey our second beats need more group support — let’s practice doing more tag-outs and walk-ons.” But they have very different effects. In general, I think you should do walk-ons more and be sparing in your tag-outs, especially if your team is having communication problems on stage.

Tag-outs more easily feel dismissive. They increase the pace of a show so much that it’s very hard to slow down once they’ve started.  They are often snarky comments on what was just happening before. They do not exist outside of improv — non-improv audience members will likely not know what’s going on at first. To be tagged out stings.

Walk-ons feels more warm — you’re joining someone’s scene without removing anyone. They require you to at least agree with the current location of the scene. They are generally logical in terms of the who/what/where. They exist in the standard convention of theater. They make a scene feel more rich. Someone walking on your scene feels like a compliment.

If a team seems like they’re quibbling and bickering and also not committing, I’ll run a montage with “no tag-outs, no sweep edits.” It makes the whole piece feel more rich because you’ve taken out two conventions that do not happen in plays. And you’re allowing walk-ons which lets the ensemble still practice playing together.

My brother Kevin says “A scene needs to breathe and find it’s depth. Walk ons and support might help find that. Tag outs rarely do.” Scenes might need a walk-on but they almost never NEED a tag.

GOOD TAG OUTS

Still, I do like tag-outs! They let scenes have an explosive run of jokes. They are great, especially to end a scene. Last night I saw (UCB NY Harold team) Very Good Kiss do a textbook tag run.

First beat has Jeremy Bent as a guy who felt uncomfortable saying it hurt when he ejaculated so he tells his doctor  “Doc, listen, I’m having a lot of pain in my PANTS, if you know what I mean.” And the doctor, Matt Mayer, doesn’t understand. They have a lot of fun awkward pauses, and nice organic moments of Matt trying to guess what Jeremy might mean. Second beat is Jeremy trying to explain sex to his son using the word pants instead of penis. At the end of that scene we see this tag run:

Laura Wilcox, as a pharmacist: “What do you want to buy? A rubber ballon for your pants? All we have are these condoms.” (Jeremy winces)

Arthur Meyer tags, says: “We don’t have any ‘you know what I means.’ I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.” (Jeremy is flustered, stammers)

Johnny McNulty tags: “You haven’t said a word since you walked in this sex shop.” Laura edits.

They waited until well into the second beat. By then they had a good feel for Jeremy’s character. He’s prudish, he’s vague, he says “you know what I mean” a lot. And each move was a new twist from the previous one — they weren’t simply replacing someone and doing what they were already doing. They let Jeremy react to each one. They were each funny and worded well.

But if they had tried to do that in the middle of the first beat, they would have lost what was a really funny and measured conversation between Matt and Jeremy. They would have thrown off the pace of their show. They waited until they had a strong handle on it, then nailed it!