Improv Nonsense

I get in trouble for saying that because I deliberately say it in a jerk manner. KNOW EVERYTHING. When someone says “I didn’t know the movie my partner was mentioning” I’ll sometimes say “Well, you don’t HAVE to know it but it would be easier if you knew it.”

And then people are like “Why do I have to like Star Wars?”

And I say “Who said anything about Star Wars?”

“All these improv nerd boys love Star Wars and can’t stop mentioning it. I hate that HAVE to know it.”

I know. It’s annoying.

Here’s movies I’ve never seen but have watched be referenced a million times in improv shows: The Goonies, Dead Poets Society, Home Alone, Robocop. I finally saw Terminator 2 last year. 

TV shows I’ve never seen: Full House, Family Matters, Quantum Leap, Star Trek the Next Generation, Top Chef, The Bachelor, Project Runway, Survivor, Duck Tales, Fresh Prince of Bel Air

Books I’ve never read: any Jane Austen book, barely any Harry Potter, Are You There God It’s Me Margaret?, not to mention Hunger Games and Dragon Tattoo.

Musicals I’ve never seen: West Side Story, Company, Rent

Sports I know nothing about and never watch: Football, Soccer, Hockey, Tennis

I mean, it’s a drag when everyone in the group is all excited to do their movie parody and you don’t know it. You have a right to be weary of nerds pushing their thing. You never have to do anything on an improv stage that you really don’t want to.

BUT it WOULD BE EASIER if you knew it.

And then here’s the part that people get mad at me for: forget the principle of the thing — if you really wanted to be prepared and to know everything that is going to be brought up in an improv scene I think there’s a finite list of things that would cover like 90% of it. A lot of it is male nerd stuff, which is annoying, and you should not be restricted by that — but with maybe one hour of wikipedia reading you could know enough about ALL OF IT.

As a purely practical solution it would be easier if you just knew the basic plot of Star Wars.

And then I start to make this list and people get mad. But I don’t think people should get mad because I’m not saying you HAVE to. However it’s a fact that things come up multiple times and you can put yourself in a position of confidence by knowing about them.

The Stepfathers (my group) has gotten Jersey Shore (a show I’ve never seen) as a suggestion on three different occasions. Back when my improv group took a line from a movie as a suggestion we got “We’re gonna need a bigger boat” (from Jaws, a movie I did not watch until that team broke up) at least five times. I never really knew a Radiohead song until my level 3 class ended a class show with everyone signing Paranoid Android at the end, a song I had never heard and which sounded like the most aimless humming I’d ever known, except that the audience was laughing.

So: I made sure I knew the basic plot of Jaws.

I found out about Jersey Shore.

I listened to OK Computer.

I know a thumbnail sketch of every thing mentioned in this post, enough to fake an improv scene.

I don’t walk out of any improv scene mad at the culture. I look shit up and learn things.

I guess it’s distasteful but there are like probably 50 movies you should know, maybe 50 tv shows, 50 books and plays, 50 bands. That sounds like a lot, but it isn’t since you probably already know a lot of them.

I would be interested to construct a list. If it just offends you to no end then you could ignore it. But they WILL come up, and it WOULD be easier —FOR YOU — if you knew.

I had a student who didn’t know the basic story of Cain and Abel. Another who didn’t recognize what The Godfather was. Another who had zero idea of what Occupy Wall Street was about (thought it was a movie, not an actual protest). I mean — it’s just harder to improvise with people who disavow any responsibility to know shit.

And, it might be a correlation and not a cause: but every single person I know who is really good at improv knows a shit ton of things. Be offended if you wish. It is the truth.

EDITED LATER TO ADD: People who have disagreed with me in the past tend to disagree with:

1. my confrontational defensive tone, which is the tone I use when making this point. Understandable to not like that.
2. the narrow nature of most common things brought up in an improv scene — so much white male nerdiness. Understandable. Although I’m saying that as an improviser it’s just smart practice to spend a tiny amount of time learning it for your own comfort and then don’t feel restricted by it or even beholden to it. So, it is gross how often improvisers bring up the comic book The Watchmen. But you could spend a few minute reading about how The Watchmen is a story of how superheroes, only one of which has real powers, try to solve the real world problem of the US and Russian approaching nuclear war.
3. because reference-prov is gross and some people are wary of any advice which seems to condone it. So my attitude seems to condone it. It seems that way because I DO reference-prov a lot and it’s gross and I shouldn’t
4. the list itself, which I have not included above. I will make the list and post it. Then lots of you will not like this either. I’m ready for that.

MEANING: I get why people argue with me when I say “KNOW EVERYTHING,” especially when I make it quickly and off-handedly and in a hostile manner. In this case, I’ve deliberately stated things above in a way that’s hard to disagree with. Or maybe I’ve just learned how to say it better over time.