Improv Nonsense

Part 2 of an interview with Chris Gethard about teaching improv. I asked him for general advice for teachers/coaches. I added the boldface emphasis.

Speak in universals - if you tell two people why their scene is off, two people can get something from it. If you tell those two people how what they’re doing is emblematic of common problems and tendencies, everyone in the room can learn from it. It is on you to make sure the whole room knows that all the notes are for everyone. The people in the scene are at all times the guinea pigs that the rest of us can learn from - so make sure you’re making that easy with how you approach notes.

Sidecoach, and make it clear why. Stopping a scene and giving a note in the middle allows the person getting the note to put it into action on their feet, as opposed to having to wait 30 minutes until the end of a Harold so they can think back and remember that scene they did where they knew something was off. Be concise when sidecoaching. Be direct. And be as gentle as one can be while stopping someone who is already clearly scrambling to get this right.

Point out every time you have to give the same note twice. This serves a dual purpose; it makes sure everyone in the room focuses on what’s happening at all times. It also reiterates to students that there are very few actual rules to break in improv - most notes relate back to listening, commitment, justifying, rushing, etc. Your ability to articulate specific notes into examples of the big overarching notes will be appreciated by your students.

Don’t give your notes in question form. Tell the student what went wrong from your perspective. If they knew the answer to your question, the scene wouldn’t have gotten messed up in the first place.

Failure is a skill everyone has to learn. Get good at it. Encourage your students to get good at it by making your classroom a place where they know failure is ok. That being said, make sure they understand that integrity comes with failing for the right reasons. Don’t fail because you’re being lazy or unfocused. Don’t fail because you’re bailing on your scene to go for the cheap joke. Fail because you are pushing yourself to take chances you haven’t taken before. Take a chance you haven’t taken every time you step foot into a classroom. It’s why classes exist.

Remind your students: Sometimes teachers are wrong. It is ok to ignore them when you know in your heart that is the case. Know that sometimes you will be wrong and your students should be ignoring you. 

Be compassionate, kind, and professional. Your students have taken your class or asked you to coach them because they respect you. Don’t abuse or betray that respect.

Sometimes giving mean notes is the only option. Usually, that is not the case. Look for every other option available before you are a dick. Really, the only reason to give a mean note is when someone’s individual behavior is so egregious that the class will not respect you if you don’t bring the hammer down on it. Nine times out of ten, this behavior is rooted in off stage issues, not on. There are very few times where you need to be mean to someone who is actually trying their hardest.

You will burn out. Do yourself and your students a favor when this happens, and stop teaching. Do not give them a sub-par product, especially when you are in many ways the product itself. Put your students before yourself.

Don’t exploit the community by charging too much for coaching. Just because you can get a lot of money doesn’t mean you have to, or should. Teach this because you are someone with the authority to pass on an oral tradition, a set of skills, an artform that largely lives through us. Don’t teach because you want to feel like a big man on campus or because you know level two students will give you $90 for three hours. Improv is about giving, and it’s sad that coaches have become exploitative. 

Stop talking about relationship. It’s a moot point. Of course if there are two characters in a scene there’s a relationship. It’s like saying “Humans breathe air”. Characters have relationships. But that’s not the funny part. The fact that you’re my dad isn’t funny. It’s the unusual aspects of this particular version of that traditional pairing that we focus on. Our students need to stop thinking about relationship. It puts you in your head as much as thinking about it every time you needed to take a breath would. And our teachers need to stop preaching it. It’s a non-issue and a waste of time.

PS - Anyone who says they like improv but don’t like game sounds as dumb to me as someone who says “I like cars but I don’t like engines.”

Thank you Chris! This is the first in a series of interviews with improv teachers.