Improv Nonsense

How about when someone offers something funny? An offer of a game/unusual thing/premise/joke?

• Initiation: Thanks for helping me move. To pay you back, here’s a bag of fish.

I say the offer is paying with fish is what’s gonna be funny about this scene. That at his/her heart, the actor wants that big of fish to be a ridiculous thing. Your character can accept that bag of fish as appropriate or inappropriate but to be supportive, the actor must help keep that idea of paying with fish as a funny thing. We call it a “game move” at UCBT.

• Response: Fish? A bag of fish is not the right kind of payment for me helping you move. (framing it as a weird thing)

Or,

• Response: Wow, a whole bag! So generous! (you’re character is going along with it, but we can tell that the actor knows this is a silly/funny thing we’re playing with).

I think either one shows that you understand that the fish payment is funny and will be central to at least the start of this scene.

That’s what you have to realize: once someone makes a game move, what you have to confirm is that it’s the funny thing. Who/what/where and everything are not as important until we’ve agreed on that offer.

DON’T JUSTIFY AWAY THE SILLINESS

Like if you want to justify it, and you should at some point want to — just make sure you don’t make the fish so normal that it’s no longer a funny idea. Like this would be bad:

• Initiation: Thanks for helping me move. To pay you back, here’s a bag of fish.
• Response: Thank God. You know I love fishing, I can use this as bait.

You took away the silliness.  That was what your scene partner was offering and you took it away.

A good justification gives us a philosophy that we can use to expand this moment into a bigger story, without making the moment un-silly:

• Initiation: Thanks for helping me move. To pay you back, here’s a bag of fish.
• Response: Stop paying me with fish. I’m not a seal trainer anymore, this doesn’t mean anything to me now!

IGNORING / REPLACING

Worst possible answer ignores it completely:

• Initiation: Thanks for helping me move. To pay you back, here’s a bag of fish.
• Response: Thanks. You want a beer?

That’s a blatant example of the character agreeing but the actor dismissing. Actually, there’s one way to make it even worse:

• Initiation: Thanks for helping me move. To pay you back, here’s a bag of fish.
• Response: Thanks. Man, you had a lot of weird furniture.

Because now you’re ignoring your partner’s offer and replacing it with one of your own.

Maybe that mistake seems obvious in the context of this essay, but I see this happen ALL THE TIME. I think it happens when someone is not listening, or someone has gotten too accepting of crazy things. They have forgotten to hold their scenes to a high standard of reality, and so silly things are no longer noticeable.

All I’m really saying is that if someone wants to make something The Funny Thing (the game, the premise, the unusual thing — call it what you want), that you agree to make that thing The Funny Thing.

EASY IN CONVERSATIONS

We do this in conversations with our friends all the time.

• Friend 1: So did I miss anything at the party after I left?
• Friend 2: Yeah! You did! These totally beautiful girls came by and we all slept together.
• Friend 1: Wow, I knew it. I could tell it was going to be that kinda night.

Or maybe this:

• Friend 1: Really? Because it didn’t seem like that was going to happen. When I left you guys were arguing over whether Tom Baker or David Tennant was a better Doctor Who.

And you don’t bother thinking about “unusual thing” or “framing” or “justifying.” You could tell there was a joke, and you kept it alive. It’s like that, do that when someone is making the offer of “X is a funny idea.”

Although, ever trying to make a joke in a conversation with someone who just isn’t on the lookout for jokes in conversations?

• Friend 1: So did I miss anything at the party after I left?
• Friend 2: Yeah! You did! These totally beautiful girls came by and we all slept together.
• Friend 1: Really? Wow, that’s… kind of gross, actually.
• Friend 2: I was kidding. We didn’t meet anyone.

I guess improv requires that you have a sense of humor and presumes that you are on the lookout for funny things to happen. Or else the joke is just that someone never gets a joke?

UNFUNNY PRESENTED AS FUNNY

Speaking of that, how about when someone offers an unfunny thing as if it were funny? What are you supposed to do?

• Improviser 1: My son did bad at science again, so I had to hit him in the face.

This is not that uncommon a thing that happens in lower levels, and contrary to what you might assume — very nice and balanced people will make such a choice. They’re mistaking “outrageous” for “funny.” They don’t have stage experience, they don’t know what’s gonna land with a clunk because it’s so mean.

In the interest of accepting offers — and I am saying the offer is the funny thing is that I hit my son in the face — then you should accept that offer and improve the idea without denying any part of it.

• Improviser 1: My son did bad at science again, so I had to hit him in the face.
• Improviser 2: Right, yeah. I’m telling you, social services is going to be upset with you. (framing it as an unusual thing)

OR

• Improviser 2: Great move. I mean, “spare the rod, spoil the child” right? Might as well go for it and just pop him right in the face. (giving it a philosophy, also restarting the touchy thing in a way that makes it clear it is ridiculous).

I’m not saying you made an unfunny thing funny. But you accepted the offer, and you are edging it closer to a comfortable comedic premise. I’m proposing that’s the order you should do it: accept the offer, then improve as you can.

And then hopefully the coach/teacher notes that a parent hitting a child is not in and of itself a funny thing.

SPOILER 1: It is easier to do improv with people who are funny and know what’s funny.

SPOILER 2: Tom Baker was a better Doctor Who, because he was awesome first.